Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

Chapter 613: Do you think I can frame your Salt and Iron Bureau?

In addition to Fang Qi Zheng, there was another person in the hall. He was a stranger whom Shen Zheng had never seen before. He must also be an official from the Salt and Iron Bureau.

The newly recruited bailiff poured them tea and quietly withdrew. Shen Zheng spoke first: "I didn't know Lord Fang was coming. I'm sorry for the delay. I hope Lord Fang will forgive me."

Unexpectedly, Fang Qizheng stood up as soon as he finished speaking.

The man's face was still as gloomy as ever. Shen Zheng thought he was going to get up and hit her, so she glared at him.

Fang Qi came straight over with a teacup and stopped in front of Shen Zheng. Shen Zheng was stunned for a moment, then stood up by holding the back of the chair, "You...if you have something to say, please talk to me nicely."

Would they throw hot tea at her? She had lived for more than 20 years and had never "enjoyed" such treatment!

"Sir Shen!" Fang Qizheng's expression remained unchanged, and his voice was loud and clear: "I came here in a hurry and didn't even bring a decent thank you gift. Next time I will definitely come empty-handed. This time I will use tea instead of wine as a token of my gratitude!"

"what?"

Shen Zheng was stunned with shock.

Who would walk up to someone in the hall with tea in their hand and offer it instead of wine to express gratitude?

Shen Zheng had never heard of such etiquette in her two lifetimes.

Fang Qizhen didn't care whether she said "ah" or not, he just poured himself a cup of hot tea, turned it over and looked at Shen Zheng seriously, then sat back in his seat.

Shen Zheng felt as if she had been insulted...

"You..." She also sat back, looked at Fang Qizheng who was sitting upright and asked, "You said so, does this mean that the purification method is effective?"

“Yeah, it’s very effective.”

Fang Qizheng nodded.

"?"

What's wrong with saying a few more words! Who is thanking whom today? Shen Zheng picked up the teacup helplessly and took a sip.

Since she is drinking tea instead of wine, she should not lose her manners.

The official from the Salt and Iron Bureau next to him could no longer sit still, so he stood up with a smile and tried to smooth things over: "Sir Shen, Sir Fang...he is not very sociable, I hope you can forgive me. Sir Fang came here today to express his gratitude to you."

It’s just that Fang Qizhen has never thanked anyone in his entire life, and he is completely clueless about social skills and drinking culture.

Especially in today's situation.

The Lord Shen in front of him might not be clear about this, but he knew it very well in his heart - his boss was not impolite, but was grateful and really admired Lord Shen, which made him particularly nervous. When a person is nervous, his face becomes darker and he looks even more difficult to deal with.

Shen Zheng looked up when she heard the words. The person who spoke looked very different from Fang Qizhen.

With a round head, round face, round eyes and round mouth, he looks like a smiling Maitreya.

"Your head doesn't hurt?" she asked.

"Ah?" Xiao Miroku touched his head and answered hesitantly: "My head... doesn't hurt."

"It doesn't hurt. Have you been covering your head since just now?" Liang Fu asked with a roll of his eyes.

The older ones are rude, and the younger ones learn to be rude too. Now they try to smooth things over. Do they really think Tongan County is some kind of place for fun?

When Xiao Mi Le heard this, his smile froze and he felt wronged in his heart.

He just felt that Fang Qizheng's behavior was too offensive, and he covered his head because he couldn't bear to watch it! How could he be misunderstood by these two as being impolite...

Fang Qizheng glanced at him and said, "Apologize to the two adults."

"......" He stood up bitterly and turned to Shen Zheng: "Deputy Salt and Iron Envoy Wu Zeyi......"

As soon as he started talking, he was interrupted by Shen Zheng: "No need. Lord Fang, Lord Liang and I were just asking casually, let's talk about business."

Instead of offending people here, she might as well ask where the fine iron she wants is.

Wu Zeyi sat back down. Fang Qi was being particularly easy to talk to today. He nodded and said, "Sir Shen, the purification method you gave me is very effective. Yesterday, the company followed this method and purified more than 50% of the iron..."

At this point, his hands trembled a little and he became excited: "30% more than before..."

When the purification results came out, everyone in the Salt and Iron Bureau was shocked and couldn't sleep all night - it turned out that every piece of iron ore could be fully utilized, and the iron inside could really be extracted completely!

What's more, some are still guarding the furnace in the office, saying that they will wait until the fire burns out and then dig out the remaining iron slag to find out what's inside!

"Fifty percent?" Shen Zheng was not happy when she heard that: "Didn't I tell you that the iron content of hematite is as high as 70%?"

Fang Qizheng showed a trace of embarrassment at being taught a lesson, and whispered: "When executing the last step, I was careless for a moment, resulting in insufficient heat. There must be a problem here..."

Yesterday, when we saw that the project was about to be completed, everyone in the company was nervous and happy. This nervousness led to mistakes being made accidentally.

Fang Qizheng took the responsibility directly on himself. He was the highest official of the Salt and Iron Bureau and the decision maker for all matters, so he should take the responsibility.

"Is the heat not enough?" Shen Zheng was thinking about the last step of "cooking the sauce over high heat". It did require blowing air on the fire, but she thought this step was not the most difficult one.

They were able to complete the first few steps perfectly, but made a mistake in the last step?

Shen Zheng thought of a possibility and frowned, "Master Fang, is it possible that it's not the fire that's not hot enough, but the furnace in your company... has a problem?"

She said that day that she had never seen the Salt and Iron Bureau use the furnace, so she did not dare to make a statement about the purification results.

"Is there something wrong with the furnace?" Fang Qizheng was stunned, and he obviously didn't want to accept this result. "Of course it shouldn't be. The furnace in the office is modeled after the furnace in the capital. Except for the difference in size, the materials are all the best."

He would rather believe that there was something wrong with him than accept that there was something wrong with the stove.

If there is a problem with it, just fix it, but if there is a problem with the furnace... then the entire Salt and Iron Administration will have to make some serious adjustments and have a lot of work to do.

Shen Zheng knew what he was thinking and sighed, "I hope so. Why don't you do more experiments and get the results before coming to Tongan County? This time you come..."

You didn't bring anything with you, just a fat Maitreya?

Fang Qi was looking at her and paused. "I came here this time, first, to discuss the results of the preliminary test with you, Lord Shen, and second, the refined iron you wanted..."

As he spoke, he gasped for breath and gave Shen Zheng a meaningful look.

Shen Zheng's heart sank inexplicably at this glance, and his eyes became sharp. He asked unceremoniously: "What do you mean by this? Do you think that I am trying to frame your Salt and Iron Bureau by saying that I can purify 70% of iron?"

The effectiveness of the method is obvious to all. This guy can't trip her up and steal her precious iron, right?

Shen Zheng subconsciously felt that Fang Qizhen was not that kind of person. Wu Zeyi saw Fang Qizhen breathing heavily while speaking, and he was so anxious that he kept scratching the arm of the chair.

"Master Shen, Master Fang didn't mean that!"