From November of the 10th year of Chongzhen to May of the 11th year of Chongzhen, the first division of the Huang Dequan royal army stationed in Huguang swept through Huguang and wiped out all the bandits in the territory.

Huang Degong trained troops in Huguang and suppressed bandits at the same time, and also suppressed the guards in various parts of Huguang who could not raise their heads, and cooperated with Fang Kongzhao, the governor of Huguang, to complete the tuntian, which will complete the first harvest at the time of this summer's harvest, and the tuntian households will also get rid of Zhu Cihong's relief, and the soldiers and civilians can support themselves.

Zhu Cihong was very satisfied with Huang Degong's achievements, and specially commended him and Fang Kongzhao, and asked the imperial court to reward them.

In recent months, Li Tingbiao led the Jinyi Guard patrol team with the sword of Shang Fang to carry out a large-scale purge of corrupt officials in various prefectures in Nanzhili and Huguang, killing more than 500 corrupt officials of all sizes and confiscating more than 20 million taels of family property, which greatly eased the financial tension of the Zhu Cihong group.

Zhu Cihong took out two million taels of silver to reward all departments, and almost everyone had a reward, and everyone was happy.

On 1 May, Zhu Cihong summoned all his civil and military henchmen to gather in Fengtian Hall to carry out a military and political adjustment and administrative improvement.

In the Fengtian Palace, nearly 100 civil and military officials were talking loudly, very lively, all waiting for the arrival of the crown prince.

Zhu Dadian, who was idle at home, also came, he had long wanted to join the crown prince's group, but he had been excluded from the crown prince's confidant circle, which made him entangled for a long time.

Zhu Dadian entered the crown prince's inner circle for the first time, and he was somewhat apprehensive, after all, he was now being swept to the end, and he didn't have any identity, he looked around, and saw that the main generals of the Tianwu Army were talking there with pride, Yang Tinglin and several other civil officials were quite reserved, and they got together and whispered and laughed something.

Zhu Dadian walked to Cheng Guoxiang, who was also standing alone, and said hello to him, this new former Hubu Shangshu is the same as himself, not only the same rank as before, but also has no official position now, which can be described as sympathy, which makes Zhu Dadian's heart balance a lot.

Cheng Guoxiang is also an old acquaintance of Zhu Dadian, although the two have only met a few times before, but the relationship between the household department and Caoyun is very close, and there are often official correspondence, the two are of similar age and have no generation gap, and they can barely chat.

In the entire Fengtian Palace, another more entangled is Qiu Zhizhong, who was the first to follow His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, because after being taught a lesson for greed for money last time, he was marginalized by everyone.

At first, some people didn't know about this, and when they were curious about the half-foot-long scar on Qiu Zhizhong's face, some people would secretly tell them that it was caused by the whipping of the crown prince when Qiu Gonggong received a gift from a local official when he drove south.

After such a spread, almost everyone knew about Qiu Zhizhong, and everyone would think of it as soon as they saw the long scar on his face, and they didn't want to associate with him.

Seeing that Wu Zhong, who was originally together, was talking happily with everyone, Qiu Zhi felt very uncomfortable in his heart now.

Wu Zhong's eyes occasionally caught a glimpse of Qiu Zhizhong who was there alone, and after apologizing to a few people around him, he came to Qiu Zhizhong's side and chatted with him.

Wu Zhong's enthusiasm made Qiu Zhi feel a lot better, and he still came out of the Zhongcui Palace together to take care of himself.

While everyone was chatting and laughing, they suddenly heard a large number of footsteps beside the hall, and a team of brave guards stood straight on both sides of the Fengtian Hall with neat steps, and then a loud voice sounded: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrived!" ”

Zhu Cihong walked slowly in a red dragon robe, followed by Xu Sheng, Li Hu and other eight guards of the Yongwei Battalion.

There was an instant silence in the Fengtian Temple, followed by the sound of salutation.

"Everyone's excuses!" Zhu Cihong said with a smile after sitting down, there is no shelf to speak of.

However, the more Zhu Cihong is like this, the more the generals dare not be presumptuous, and they are more in awe and support him, everyone knows very well in their hearts, don't look at the young people in front of them, whether they admit it or are scheming, they are no worse than anyone else, if anyone only despises him on the outside, then he doesn't know how to die.

Zhu Cihong glanced at the crowd and saw Qiu Zhizhong in the crowd, and he smiled: "Qiu Daban, how are you doing recently?" ”

Qiu Zhizhong's eyes were red, the crown prince still had his own in his heart, and he choked up: "The slave is very good, thank you for your concern." ”

Zhu Cihong said with a smile: "After the affairs of the Fengyang Weapons Bureau are done, let's go back to the palace, I am not with you Wu Companion, just relying on the four palace maids to take care of it, the palace is still a little unaccustomed!" ”

Qiu Zhizhong's eyes were already moist, and he bowed and saluted: "Yes, the slave must carefully manage the Fengyang Weapons Bureau and not let His Highness worry." ”

Zhu Cihong nodded, looked at Wu Zhong again, and said, "Wu Daban, how is the Jiangnan Ordnance General Bureau and the newly built artillery factory working?" ”

Wu Zhong Shili said: "Back to the master, the Jiangnan Ordnance General Bureau has a stock of 30,000 self-generated Lumi guns, 2,000 Hongyi cannons, Furang machine guns, tiger squat cannons and other types of artillery, and the production speed of the gun factory has greatly increased after using the iron mold method, and has produced 50 Hongyi cannons of more than 18 pounds, and the quality is of the highest quality!" ”

Zhu Cihong was pleasantly surprised: "Okay! Continue to increase the production of artillery, and strive to build thousands of heavy artillery pieces within 10 years! ”

Production of thousands of heavy guns of more than 18 pounds? Wu Zhong gasped, others don't know what will happen to this heavy artillery, but Wu Zhong has seen it with his own eyes, it is simply earth-shattering! Who is this going to beat, master? Even if you hit the tartars, you can crush them all the way, right?

Wu Zhong was a little puzzled: "Your Highness, according to our current production rate, the number of various artillery pieces is enough, and the Tartar artillery is definitely not as many as ours, why do you still need to produce vigorously?" ”

"Tartar? The Tartars are just a stumbling block for us, and in five years, this palace will lead you to crush them! ”

Zhu Cihong said again: "Our ultimate enemy is not a Tartar, but an enemy from the sea!" These heavy artillery will be equipped on warships against them in the future! ”

In Zhu Cihong's plan, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng were eliminated this year, and after repairing for a year or two to integrate the Tuntian soldiers into the regular army and expand the army, he directly led more than 100,000 troops to the north to pacify the Manchu Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop, and drove them to the Arctic Ocean for the winter.

To solve the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it is also necessary to solve the six or seven regimes in the west and northwest of the Ming Dynasty, such as the Zangba Khan and the Dzungar Khanate, so as to realize the unification of the Emperor and the Ming.

On the journey of Annei, Zhu Cihong was most worried about harassment from the outside, and now that the Dutch, British, and Portuguese forces have been divided into the Ming Dynasty's Taiwan and the South China Sea, their East India Company has been ready to move, looking for opportunities, and Zhu Cihong has to guard against them.

Now the naval strength of the Netherlands and Britain is far greater than imagined, and if they bring the main warships now, with the current combat strength of the Daming Naval Division, they will be vulnerable at all.

However, Zhu Cihong firmly believes that only his own strength is sufficient, no matter what the future holds, I, Zhu Cihong, will not be afraid of any challenges!