The western suburbs of the capital, thirty miles away from Fuchengmen, here was originally an imperial village, but if an old man comes to see, he will be stunned to find that it is just a year or two away, and this place has changed greatly.

The five or six meters high wall towers, flat gray and white, smooth and strange wall, all of which make people curious about this place. Directly east of the tall wall, a large gate towers, and the huge iron gate is swarthy and gives people a solemn feeling. There is a huge plaque on the gate, on which the word "Heavenly Palace" is written.

This is the famous Tiangong workshop.

It is said that the Tiangong workshop has also risen in recent years, and the production here is extraordinary, and everything is sold well in the entire Daming. After several years of circulation and fermentation, even ordinary old farmers in mountain villages know that there is such a workshop, which has immortal means and makes exquisite things.

Directly opposite the gate of the Tiangong workshop, the dense flow of people formed a bustling bazaar, and the only liquor store in the bazaar was very lively, all of which were merchants from all over the world who dared to come here to buy goods.

"Two objective, please inside!" Suddenly, Xiao Er shouted loudly and welcomed two middle-aged businessmen who came together. I ordered a few dishes at random, and after asking for a pot of wine, the two of them made it.

"Brother Zhao, this Tiangong workshop is really magnificent, all the houses here are made of cement, look at the tiles on this wall, there is nothing to paste on except cement." One of the merchants, dressed in silk robes, took a sip of his tea and looked around in amazement.

"And this glass window, it's really bright enough, I don't know if we can buy some this time." Brother Zhao answered, and his tone was a little emotional.

"Brother Zhao, are there any joints in between? We have white silver, can we still buy goods? The silk robe merchant asked with some curiosity. He was here for the first time, and he didn't know anything about it.

"Hey!" Brother Yu smiled bitterly and stretched out his hand to look around, "Look, they are all here to buy goods, do you think you can easily buy it with money?" ”

The silk robe merchant looked around, and suddenly found that the guests sitting in this wine shop were all extraordinary, whether it was their manners or words, they all had a common demeanor.

"That's?" Suddenly, the silk robe merchant seemed to see something, and his eyes shrank suddenly, "Songjiang Mansion Xu family?" ”

The Xu family is the first gentry family in Songjiang Mansion, the most famous of which is the first assistant Xu Jie, whose protégés are all over the world, and their influence can be described as great.

"And that's not all. Oh, the table over there, the Zhangjiakou Wang's family, and the table, Liaodong Jiangmen, and ......." Brother Zhao pointed out one by one, each of them was a behemoth in their respective places, the existence of the earth overlord, but now they are all gathered here, drinking bland tea, waiting boredly.

The more the silk robe merchant looked, the more shocked he became, what he had in his heart before suddenly disappeared at this moment, compared to these people, he was just a little grasshopper.

"It's coming, it's coming!" A loud and noisy shout sounded, so that the merchant could not be discouraged, and hurriedly looked at it curiously. A man in his mid-thirties, sweating profusely and soaking wet in a strange short-sleeved suit, approached.

Walking to the platform in the center of the hall, he wiped his sweat and said loudly: "Ladies and gentlemen, today's Tiangong workshop has a total of 50 jars of palace wine, 40 round mirrors, 30 square mirrors, and 80 bottles of various perfumes. Now, the auction for the palace wine has begun, and the reserve price is 1,000 taels. ”

After the visitor finished speaking, the merchants below hurriedly raised their hands to bid.

"I'll give one thousand one hundred two hundred taels!" The people of the Xu family in Songjiang Mansion stood up and shouted.

"One thousand two hundred taels!" The people of the Wang family stood up, they were doing business outside the mouth, and on the grassland, soju was hard currency, and everything could be exchanged.

"One thousand three hundred taels." The Li family in Liaodong stood up, he swept his eyes, and said in a fierce tone, "I hope everyone can give our Li family some face." ”

"Oh, after Li Liaodong dies, I don't know what face your Li family can have." The people of the Wang family stood up and said in a light tone, the reason why he is so confident is because not only the Wang family is behind him, but also the entire Jin businessmen who do business outside the mouth are supporting him, and these are not his family's, everyone has a share.

"Fifteen hundred taels."

"One thousand eight hundred taels!" The people of the Li family did not hesitate to speak, looking at their attitude, they were bound to get this batch of soju.

"Two thousand ......." The people of the Wang family still shouted lightly, but before they could finish bidding, the people of the Xu family in Songjiang Mansion stood up and interrupted them.

"In my opinion, since the three of us all want this batch of wine, it is better to just 1,800 taels, and the three of us will divide it equally, so as not to compete with each other, so as not to let irrelevant people get cheap." The Xu family made a suggestion, and as he spoke, his eyes swept to the side, as if he was implicitly implicit.

"That's very good."

"I agree."

The Wang and Li families agreed in unison, and Zhu Youxiao's bidding for the goods here gave the top forces between the great and the world a place for foreign exchanges, and if it was not very necessary, these forces did not want to offend each other.

"One thousand eight hundred taels, deal." The short-sleeved man who presided over the auction spoke in a flat tone, and he couldn't see the slightest abnormality, but the heavy disappointment in his eyes still couldn't hide the businessman he was doing, and while they sneered in their hearts, they also strengthened the unspoken rule of joint discussion in private.

"It's time for me to suggest that the owner change the way of selling." Looking at the contemptuous eyes of the businessman, the short-sleeved man was very helpless in his heart, a year or two after coming out, the auction could still be auctioned at a high price, and the next year was not as good as a year, these people from the top forces in Daming didn't know if they had reached any agreement, whenever there were several forces that wanted it, they stopped at a price, and several companies divided it equally, so the profits of the auction became less and less.

"Looking for my brother, what's going on ....... this?" The silk robe merchant asked in surprise, the method of bidding has arisen in recent years, and there are also such bidders on his side, but there has never been such a bidder, and he has reached an agreement directly in front of the proprietor.

"This? That's the key to our success in bidding for goods. Brother Zhao nodded, and also joined the auction below.

The Forbidden City, the garrison of the Yulin Army.

On the colonel's field, Zhu Youxiao stood on the rostrum, looking at the phalanx practicing below with a serious expression, next to him were Qi Jin and Yu Zhigao in new-style military uniforms, and of course, Liu Ruoyu, the personal secretary, was also indispensable. Behind them were a few capable eunuchs, holding some paperwork in their hands.

These people were some of the twenty eunuchs in Tsing Yi at the beginning, and they were better at literary affairs, so they were assigned to Liu Ruoyu's subordinates to help Zhu Youxiao deal with various official correspondence. Half of the rest are under Wang Chengen, responsible for the details of accounts, money exchanges, auditing account books, etc., and the rest are under Wei Zhongxian, responsible for running outside and managing the affairs of the Tiangong workshop.

On the other side of the rostrum, there were some gongs, drums, suona and flags of different colors, and at the moment some royal sergeants with armbands on their hands were fiddling with these instruments according to a certain rhythm.

With the sound of different voices and the change of flags, the huge phalanx below also kept changing back and forth, the formation changed quickly, the soldiers' movements were sensitive and powerful, their minds were concentrated, and between their body movements, the momentum was full of murderous energy. If outsiders see it, they will exclaim, what a group of family members.

"Two, how is the Yulin Army?" Zhu Youxiao asked calmly, although his tone was light, the smile on the corner of his mouth betrayed him, obviously he was very proud in his heart.

"His Royal Highness's training is not much better than Qi Shaobao!" Yu Zhigao sighed, and there was a bit of depression in his tone. The same was true for Qi Jin next to him, and a gloomy look could obviously be seen on his face.

"However, does Your Highness really want to use firearms and give up archers completely?" Cheering up, Yu Zhigao asked again, he had asked this question several times, but he still did not give up, and continued to persuade, in Yu Zhigao's opinion, the spear phalanx practiced by His Royal Highness Taisun was sharp, but it lacked archers, and was seriously restrained, as for firearms, he was noncommittal, obviously not very trusting.

Without waiting for Zhu Youxiao to answer, Qi Jin took the words, "Old Yu, why are you so dead-eyed." Let me tell you, firearms are the general trend of the future, and it is the most correct choice for His Highness not to train archers, but to prepare to train musketeers. ”

"What can muskets do, look at those muskets made by the Ministry of Industry, can they be used? If you blow up the chamber as soon as you shoot, who would dare to use it? Yu Zhigao retorted unconvinced, he was on the beach all the year round, so naturally he didn't think that the musket was of any use.

"That's the fault of the moths in the Ministry of Works, how can you say that the muskets are useless?" Qi Jin also retorted loudly, "Only firearms are well-made, strictly supervised, quality controlled, and managed in an orderly manner, and the firearms produced are absolutely easy to use." ”

The two quarreled again, but it was not strange for the people next to them to see it, such a repertoire, as long as Zhu Youxiao performed a drill, it would be staged, Liu Ruoyu and Sergeant Yulin were not uncommon.

"Your Royal Highness......" Suddenly, Luo Yangxing hurriedly walked over, and reported, "The Tianjin shipyard has been burned down again, and all the buildings have been burned down. ”

Zhu Youxiao's face changed, and it was gloomy and terrible in an instant, and Qi Jin and Yu Zhigao next to him also stopped arguing, as long as they were not blind at this moment, they knew that His Royal Highness Taisun was angry in his heart.

Rumble!

There was a dull sound, and the whole rostrum seemed to tremble. The violent momentum made the hearts of the people standing on the rostrum tremble, and only they knew how angry Zhu Youxiao was in his heart at this moment.

"Here comes the gun." Zhu Youxiao didn't seem to be aware of it, and walked towards the martial arts arena with a faint order. After he left, there was a deep footprint on the spot, and the momentum just now was actually generated by him stomping his foot.

This is already the fifth time, a full five.

Whenever the shipyard in Tianjin was about to be completed, there would always be a group of pirates rushing ashore and burning the shipyard to the ground, making Zhu Youxiao's hard work in vain.

Even if he arranged for the Yulin Army to guard, it was useless, the other party would not engage in the battle at all, and when he saw the Yulin Army, he immediately retreated and used other means to set fire. Zhu Youxiao's Yulin Army had a total of 900 people, and he had to assign people to garrison the Tiangong workshop and escort the silver taels, so he couldn't guard the shipyard all the time.

This group of guys is still ghostly, just waiting for Zhu Youxiao to be less guarded, it is a thunderous blow, and he will leave after burning the shipyard, and the Yulin soldiers will be dragged by the other party, and they can't be guarded against at all.

The group of pirates is not mysterious, although the other party has never raised a flag, but in the forty-third year of Wanli, when the battle was fighting, Zhu Youxiao found a flag with the word Xu written on it. With a clear clue, it is easy to find out that it is the Fujian pirate Xu Xinsu's subordinates.

After that, although there was no sign, Zhu Youxiao determined that the other party was still Xu Xinsu's subordinate through clues. From the beginning of the construction of the shipyard in the 43rd year of Wanli to the 48th year of Wanli to the 48th year of Wanli, the Tianjin shipyard has been burned down five times.

How can this not make Zhu Youxiao hate in his heart!