When the time entered the fourth day of the first lunar month, the auditorium at the end of East Chang'an Avenue began to be full of people early.

Yang Shiqi, the first assistant of the cabinet, led several cabinet ministers, including Zhu Di, into the venue in high spirits, and Yang Rong was responsible for receiving every official from Beijing who participated in the group meeting at the main entrance.

The prefects of the various ministries, Dali Siqing, Zuodu Yushi, and Nanzhili Prefectures, followed by Yan Zhenzhi, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, and even Grianchi, an Italian foreign devil, wore a serious second-grade official uniform to attend the meeting.

The imperial court arrived first, followed by the General Staff and the military attachés of the five armies, two governments and three grades, and there were dozens of people in total.

There was still nearly half an hour before the veterans entered the venue, and these civil and military officials in the venue chatted with each other, and the civil and military clique naturally gathered around Yang Shiqi, chatting about some planning policies related to the Second Five-Year Plan.

The military attachés surrounded Zhu Di and analyzed the specific marching plans after launching a full-scale attack on the Timurid Khanate in the future.

In general, there are no idlers, and there is no idle time.

In the circle of civil officials, although the big guys are surrounded by Yang Shiqi like stars and moons, they still depart part part of their energy and always pay attention to a special colleague.

Fengyang prefect Zhu Wenkui.

"The matter of returning farmland to Shaanxi and Gansu is about to come to an end, and it is estimated that by the third and fifth five-year periods, the next step will be Shanxi and Yunnan-Guizhou, and Liaodong and Hebei will not move."

Yang Shiqi was talking about the national policy, and Zhu Wenkui stood nearby and listened quietly, with a faint smile on his young face, and he rarely spoke from beginning to end, let alone expressed some personal opinions.

Zhu Wenkui put his position very clearly, he is a small Fengyang prefect here today, and he has no qualifications to intervene in the cabinet at all.

Standing next to Zhu Wenkui is Yin Wang Yusen of Yingtianfu, the standard-bearer who can be called the vanguard of reform in the current Ming political arena, and from time to time he will exchange experiences with Zhu Wenkui on local development.

"Yingtianfu is larger than Fengyang Mansion, and the population is several times larger, two or three million people."

There are more than 70 million Dingkou in the Ming Dynasty, and there are 13 million in Zhili in Nan alone, and Yingtianfu, where Nanjing is located, is undoubtedly the most populous and densely populated prefecture.

Wang Yusen was promoted from Suzhou Mansion to Yingtianfu, and in just a few years, he has aged a lot at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Millions of people are pressed on their shoulders, saying bad words, eating, drinking, and sleeping have to worry about it, and it is not so easy for parents to do it."

Zhu Wenkui felt empathy for Wang Yusen's feelings, nodded and sighed lightly: "Yes, the people of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces are getting more and more nourished, if the people's livelihood in Nanzhili is not progressing, then where will we, the chief officials of the ruling party, have the face to explain to the imperial court."

Fengyang is too poor, and Huaisi's trunk flow will cause me a little trouble, although there is a court appropriation to build fortifications, but a large part of the local finance has to be subsidized to repair the embankment, I want to build a road to Xuzhou in Zhongdu and Suzhou, around this piece to build a hub of the intersection of the four provinces, it is really impossible to come up with money. ”

There is a way that it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and the lack of money in the place is the most difficult difficulty.

Regarding Zhu Wenkui's complaints, Wang Yusen understands very well, although Yingtianfu is much richer than Fengyang Mansion, there are many places to spend money.

However, it is fortunate that the overall development momentum of Ying Tianfu under Wang Yusen is still rapid, so Wang Yusen is confident and dares to reach out to the bank to lend money.

This is the support that Fengyang could not dream of, and in Fengyang's place, Zhu Wenkui personally found the Bank of Nanjing to borrow money, but he was almost swept away.

"Even if you lend it to Fengyang, Fengyang's current development can't rely on loans, otherwise just repaying the interest will crush Fengyang's finances."

Zhu Wenkui smiled bitterly: "No way, the bank won't give money, so I have to think of it myself, reach out and ask the people to borrow money." ”

This made Wang Yusen stunned: "Ask the people to borrow?" ”

"Everyone raises funds to build roads, does the work of the people, and allows them to participate in road repairs, but in fact, even the wages are owed first, and they will be slowly repaid in the future."

Zhu Wenkui explained: "The road is not passable, the Huaisi tributaries are not connected to the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, and the Cao Yun is not passable, the things produced cannot be sold, and the closed inner circle will only get poorer and poorer, so I have to do it hard, and now I, the prefect of Fengyang, have long been in debt, and I owe millions of dollars, if I don't have any results in the next two years, I will have to find my father to reach out and borrow money to pay off the debt." ”

Wang Yusen couldn't help laughing when he said this.

The two chatted for a while, and a chime sounded, and the venue suddenly fell silent, and everyone quickly returned to their positions according to their respective official positions.

There were two military bands in the remote part of the venue, and after everyone quieted down, they began to move their instruments, and suddenly, the passionate and majestic sound of military music resounded.

Outside the main hall gate, rickety figures began to appear, staggering in.

Today, the central part of this National Day group meeting began.

One by one, the veterans, supported by the two teenagers on the left and right, walked through the middle of the two columns of civil and military officials and entered the venue, and from Yang Shiqi and Zhu Di down, everyone gave warm applause to the arrival of this group of veterans, and at the same time, followed the movements of the veterans with respectful eyes at all times.

At this time, Zhu Wenkui's face was slightly stunned.

He actually saw his younger brother Zhu Wenqi.

"These teenagers are all student representatives in Nanjing, long before this group meeting, they have already taken the first step to the veterans' residence, and the original task of supporting the veterans to enter the camp is the Beijing soldiers, but they were replaced by this group of student representatives."

This was only after the end of the group meeting that Zhu Wenkui learned the news from Yang Rong's mouth.

However, at that time, Zhu Wenkui was still happy to be able to meet Zhu Wenqi.

This younger brother of mine is indeed very smart.

The process of the group meeting was not complicated, and after all the veterans entered the venue and sat down, Yang Shiqi left his position and walked to the stage facing the veterans.

On the back wall of the ceremonial platform, a huge portrait of Zhu Yunwen hung high, Yang Shiqi bowed first, then turned around, faced everyone, took out a copy of the speech prepared by the General Secretary, and read it aloud.

"Today is the day of my Ming National Day, forty-six years ago today, also in Nanjing, His Majesty Emperor Taizu Gao sent an edict to the world and to all countries, since the second year of Xiangxing Song Emperor Zhao Yu met with misfortune, the Northern Yuan Dynasty was a murderer, and after 89 years of Shenzhou Lu Shen, the children of the Han family who were unwilling to give in and resolutely did not want to be slaves of the country used their blood and lives to drive away the tyrannical barbarians and reopen the sun, moon and sky in Shenzhou.

From the first year of Hongwu to the twenty-first year of Hongwu, the emperors and ministers, generals, soldiers, soldiers and people of the Ming Dynasty were united in one mind, and after ten expeditions, they finally recovered the land of Yanyun, the land of Liaodong and the land of Yunnan that had fallen into the hands of foreign races for nearly 500 years since the end of the Tang Dynasty, and realized the substantive unification of the whole country.

We will not forget everyone who made great contributions under the command of Emperor Taizu Gao, will not forget the Northern Expedition of Xu Da, King of Zhongshan, and Chang Yuchun, King of Kaiping, and will not forget the achievements of Feng Sheng, King of Ningling, and Fu Youde, King of Lijiang, in recovering Liaodong.

I will never forget that every man who fought bravely in the Northern Expedition, the Battle of Jinshan, and the Battle of Dali, these exploits will not be forgotten by the imperial court, the people will not forget, and future generations and history will be forever remembered! ”

After saying a large number of splendid articles, Yang Shiqi announced that the Han general, who was carefully selected by the Imperial Front Division, raised his head with his chest up, and issued a certificate of honor to each veteran with a solemn expression.

It was the prerogative of the emperor to confer the medal, and the emperor was no longer able to confer the Founding Medal of Honor, so the cabinet took a different approach and replaced the medal with a certificate full of praise.

The honor was first affirmed, and then the cabinet condoled and rewarded a hundred taels of silver.

It's useless to just give some vanity, and it is a serious thing to let these veterans who have made great contributions to the country live a good life in their old age.

These veterans who participated in the founding of the country 46 years ago are only seventy or eighty years old, and the youngest ones are not even 60.

"No veterans, no Daming!"

In the sound of salute music, Yang Shiqi and everyone extended New Year's greetings to the veterans, and wished every veteran a happy New Year, and every day and every year in the future, they can always keep Kangtai and peaceful.

At this point, the solemn and festive reunion came to an end, and Zhu Wenqi and other Nanjing student representatives helped these veterans to leave the venue and turn to the banquet hall where sumptuous food had been prepared.

Before leaving, Zhu Wenqi looked back, and the eyes of Zhu Wenkui in the crowd intertwined.

Both brothers laughed.