A few months have passed, and Concubine Zhuang's belly has been revealed.

Wang Yuan said: "Congratulations to Your Majesty, congratulations to Niangniang." ”

Zhu Houzhao took Wang Yuan's hand and sat down, and said with a smile: "Speaking of which, Erlang is still an old man, and Pan'er and I should be thankful." ”

Seeing that the emperor was not in good shape, Wang Yuan also began to lose his shape, and said jokingly: "Your Majesty really wants to thank the minister, then you shouldn't reward Sanying, didn't you push the minister into the fire pit?" And this time when I returned to Beijing, I had to ride a horse and go to Chengtianmen alone, I don't know how many people would be jealous. ”

"A bunch of wine bags and rice bags, I just want to make them red!" Zhu Houzhao was angry when he talked about this.

Since the defeat in the north, although Zhu Houzhao did not go to the border town in person, he sent several imperial historians to strictly investigate. What is the imperial history, the imperial history of patrolling, and the imperial history of tea...... There are all kinds of things, and it is not a typo to patrol the history of tea and horses, and it is specialized in inspecting the tea and horse trade.

Seeing that the emperor was really angry, the imperial historians did not dare to slack off, and soon found out the big problem.

For example, the horse pasture of Yuanma Temple in Shaanxi Province has disappeared without a trace, and all of them have become the private fields of hereditary military generals and local heroes. That's the largest official ranch in the northwest, and it was swallowed up cleanly, and even the state and county civil officials helped cover it up, no wonder they cry every year that there are not enough war horses.

Zhu Houzhao was bent on opening a scoop with the little Mongolian prince, and the cavalry was the top priority. After learning the news, Zhu Houzhao was so angry that his whole body trembled, and a bunch of civil officials, military generals, eunuchs and nobles were severely punished.

At the end of last year, the household department spent nearly 300,000 taels of silver to restore the border towns in the north. Now that I have come to ask for silver again, the stone steps of the household department are extremely painful, and after discussing and discussing, I have to allocate another 60,000 taels of silver to make do, and it is estimated that I will continue to allocate more than 100,000 taels in the next two months.

If you don't give money, you can't do it, many border areas have been destroyed, and the border defense must be rectified as soon as possible - after the beginning of spring, some Mongolian tribes swaggered into the country, directly choosing pastures to graze there. The Daming border army did not dare to send troops to drive it away, because the loss of troops last year was too serious.

All this prompted Zhu Houzhao to make up his mind, and after Concubine Zhuang gave birth to an heir, he would immediately go to the border to rectify it in person.

"Erlang," Zhu Houzhao said with emotion, "You said those bastards, why are they so bold as to encroach on the ranch of Yuanma Temple in Shaanxi?" Far from stopping it, the eunuchs of the town guard participated in it. Don't the governors and imperial histories of the past years know about it? They all turned a blind eye to it! ”

Wang Yuan replied: "If you are greedy, you will be punished less." The profits from the encroachment on the pasture will not be eaten for several lifetimes, and even if the matter is revealed and investigated, only a few scapegoats will be executed, and most of the embezzlers will only lose their positions. You don't even have to lose your official position, just demote your position, isn't this the imperial court luring officials to embezzle? ”

"Then kill a few more!" Zhu Houzhao gritted his teeth and said.

Wang Yuan pursed his lips.

It's useless to kill a few more, and if you don't completely reform the system, the ranch will definitely be gone again in a few years.

Liu Liu Liu and Liu Qi were able to grow rapidly because of problems with Ma Zheng in the frontier. At that time, the border town ranch often took out more than 100,000 war horses, and now hundreds of horses have to be made up slowly, and the people of Shandong and Zhili have to raise horses.

Zhu Houzhao said: "Erlang, you go home and rest for a few days, and then quickly go to the south to open the sea." Get me more silver to come back, I want to have a fight with the little Mongolian prince, and now I am very short of silver! ”

"Yes." Wang Yuan waited for this sentence.

Zhu Houzhao said again: "Don't go to Guangdong to open the sea, go directly to Nanzhili." Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou...... Merchants are everywhere, if you open the sea in Nanzhili, you will definitely get more silver than Guangdong. ”

"Then I'd better go to Zhejiang," Wang Yuan said with a headache, "The water in Nanzhili is too deep, and the minister is afraid that he will drown if he goes." ”

Zhu Houzhao was stunned, nodded and said, "It's okay." ”

Wang Yuan asked to go to Guangdong to open the sea before, but he also felt that the sky was high and the emperor was far away, so he could toss around as much as he wanted. If it is replaced by Nanzhili, the difficulty of opening the sea will increase geometrically, and there is a set of six teams over there, and the vested interest groups are intricately intertwined.

Since the emperor wants to get quick results, it is best to go to Zhejiang.

With Hangzhou as the base camp to open the sea, it is close to Susong and other places with developed handicraft industries. As long as you are bold enough and your wrists are hard enough, you will definitely be able to open up the situation quickly.

Wang Yuan said: "If the minister supervises Zhejiang, please also ask Your Majesty to grant the right to open the government, and there must be pacesetters on the left and right." ”

Zhu Houzhao thought for a while and said: "Then you will be transferred to the right attendant of the military department, and only with the rank of military department can you have a pacesetter!" ”

Wang Yangming was the governor of Jiangxi, so when he suppressed bandits, the local generals were often disobedient, and they had to invite the royal order banner (temporary military power) from the imperial court.

Wang Yuan was the governor of Zhejiang, and he had the right to hold the Zhejiang army hostage. But it's just a coercion, if Zhejiang's military leaders disobey the yin, Wang Yuan's only way is to be impeached. The same is true for the officials of the three divisions, in principle, Wang Yuan can order them, but in fact, whether they are obedient or not depends on face. There's a for this!

Therefore, Wang Yuan asked for the right to open the government and the convenience of the pacesetter. This kind of power, which marked the birth of the feudal officials, began in history in the Jiajing Dynasty in order to facilitate the conquest of the Japanese invaders.

Zhu Houzhao also completely gave up his way to raise money to fight, and he gave Wang Yuan whatever he wanted.

That is to say, after Wang Yuan went to Zhejiang, he could openly set up a shogunate and recruit temporary officials on his own. You can also recruit and train troops on the spot, or take a force south from the capital, or even temporarily recruit the local guard to listen to orders.

Such appointments were able to pass when the pirates were rampant. Now that the south is peaceful, I'm afraid that the officials will jump up and say some nonsense about beware of feudal towns and the like.

There are too many lice and it is not itchy, whether it is Zhu Houzhao or Wang Yuan, they don't bother to pay attention to those guys who play tricks.

Zhu Houzhao said: "Erlang wants to open the sea as soon as possible to make money, and I will only give you a year and a half." ”

"Why is it so rushed?" Wang Yuan asked.

Zhu Houzhao said: "A year and a half later, I will drive the expedition in person, and you will be indispensable as a general of the unified army at that time!" ”

Wang Yuan said: "The minister tried to rush back as much as possible. ”

Zhu Houzhao smiled and asked, "Don't you dissuade you from taking the royal conquest?" ”

Wang Yuan asked rhetorically: "Is it useful to persuade you?" ”

"Hahahaha!"

Zhu Houzhao laughed heartily, swept away the boredom of many days, and said with relief: "Erlang still understands me." It's like other big turbans, who only know how to risk death to admonish, but they don't know how to worry about me. ”

Only relying on Wang Yuan's shallow historical knowledge, he also knew that Zhu Houzhao would come back with a big victory. Otherwise, Wang Yuan will also persuade, the ghost knows if the emperor is really reliable, what if there is another change in the civil fort?

In the battle of Yingzhou, Zhu Houzhao personally deployed the defense, although it is not very exquisite, but it is definitely clear-eyed. In the case that the generals did not dare to fight, Zhu Houzhao overrode the public opinion, personally led the army to support, and pursued the Mongolian army from Yingzhou to Shuozhou, but stopped the pursuit because of a sandstorm on the way. Otherwise, the record in that battle will be even more impressive.

Wang Yuan is looking forward to what kind of effect he will have when he joins the battlefield.