On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, the yamen of the imperial court began to resume their work, and the first great court meeting after the new year was officially held.

At the court meeting, Emperor Chongzhen first made a plan for the new year, and then he issued a holy decree: the crown prince Zhu Cihong patrolled Nanzhili on behalf of the sky, gave the Dragon Festival Shangfang, and the prime minister Nanjing, Zhejiang, Fujian, Sichuan, and Huguang military affairs, led the Yongwei battalion to garrison Fengyang to fight the thieves, and collected the taxes owed by Nanzhili.

The ministers surprisingly did not object, and Xue Guoguan, the first assistant to the cabinet, was secretly relieved, and on the surface, he still smiled at Zhu Cihong.

The date of the southward journey was set on the day when the second dragon raised its head in early February, and it was only half a month before the time of the expedition, and Zhu Cihong began to make busy preparations.

For the crown prince's expedition, all the yamen of the Beijing division worked together, and the grain, grass, weapons and other materials were given as much as they wanted, and their efficiency was simply amazing.

Chongzhen looked at the various pieces of music in the newspaper, and wondered in his heart, he had been the emperor for ten years, and it was the first time he found that the courtiers were so neat, and it seemed that he still had to change the cabinet frequently!

Zhu Cihong knew very well that these ministers couldn't wait to go by themselves, so that they could continue to fool Chongzhen, so he was not polite, asking for money, food, guns, and cannons, as long as they needed them, they all reached out and asked for them!

Under normal circumstances, the guest army only needs to prepare three days of grain and grass for three days, and the rest is provided by the government of the place where it passes, but Zhu Cihong asked for food and grass for ten days for an army of 20,000.

For the crown prince's lion mouth, the new household secretary Cheng Guoxiang angrily reprimanded in public, and said: Natural disasters have been frequent in the past few years, and this summer's drought is very good.

Zhu Cihong was very surprised by Cheng Guoxiang's boldness, isn't he afraid of a violent death?

Zhu Cihong sent someone to investigate him and found that he was a famous Qing official, although he was a household secretary in charge of money and grain, but his family was poor and very pitiful.

Zhu Cihong didn't clean him up, it didn't mean that no one would do it, Shoufu Xue Guoguan immediately scolded him after hearing the news, and asked him to squeeze out ten days of grain and grass!

Cheng Guoxiang felt that he had done nothing wrong, but he was scolded by the first assistant, and was attacked by the ministers, his face turned purple with anger, and he called the traitorous ministers to be the way, and then directly wrote to ask for resignation, and took his wife to drive the donkey cart back to his hometown in Anhui.

After the new head of the household department, Li was asked to take the position, without saying a word, he prepared ten days' worth of military rations within a few days and sent them to the Yongwei battalion.

A few days before departure, the imperial court held a grand practice banquet, at the banquet, a lot of laughter, in the staggered planning, everyone turned their heads to ear, whispered.

Xue Guoguan, Yang Sichang and other civil officials sat at a table, although the two fought to the death in secret, they were still a harmonious group on the surface, and they were all smiling and hiding knives.

Zhu Cihong sat with Sun Yingyuan, Huang Degong and other generals of the Yongwei Battalion, everyone talked and laughed, and they all felt very relaxed.

It can be seen from the reward given by the imperial court that killing a Tartar head can be upgraded by one level, and killing six rogue heads can be upgraded by one level, and the reward is also several times worse, and the gap between the two sides is self-evident.

Wang Wannian and Zhang Shize and other generals of the Beijing camp were also there, and they hooked up with the generals of the Yongwei battalion, and they were very familiar.

Wang Wannian toasted Zhu Cihong with a wine glass, and he said heartily: "The last general wishes His Royal Highness a successful opening of the southern expedition and success!" ”

He took a sip of the wine in the cup, and said: "It's a pity that my old Wang didn't have the opportunity to go south with His Highness to make meritorious contributions, it's really a pity in life!" ”

Zhu Cihong took a sip of tea lightly and said with a smile: "Who said you don't have a chance?" Wouldn't it be better if you went pick up some artillery from the Shenji Battalion and a hundred Hongyi cannons, and let them go south with me?" ”

The smile on Wang Wannian's face suddenly froze, and gradually became more ugly than crying, and the crown prince was still thinking about the Hongyi cannon of his Shenji Battalion before leaving.......

Zhu Cihong looked at his bitter gourd face and grinned: "Don't worry, even if you borrow your artillery, the artillery and self-generated firearms produced after the War Bureau will give you the equipment of the Shenji Battalion, and you don't want any of the Yongwei Battalion, how about it?" ”

Hearing Zhu Cihong say this, Wang Wannian felt better, he was extremely envious of the self-generated Lu Mi guns produced by the War Bureau, those fire guns were not only well-made, fast reloading, plus the paper tube fixed gunpowder, the range and power were much stronger than the ignition Lu Mi guns.

Wang Wannian also dreamed of having an elite army similar to the Yongwei Battalion, so that he could stand up in the court, and any civil official who dared to beep himself could bury it alive........

Wang Wannian agreed with good wishes, but what he didn't know was that more than half of the outstanding craftsmen in the War Bureau had been led by Zhu Cihong and his family to pack ships along the Grand Canal to the south.

Zhang Shize also came over to toast a glass of wine, but he was worried that the crown prince was optimistic about the cavalry of his Shenshu camp and was afraid that he would also be tricked, so he just said some congratulations and didn't say anything more.

After the banquet, the civil and military officials left one after another, and everyone was smiling.

On the same day, Zhu Cihong held a military meeting and made arrangements for the various units of the Yongwei Battalion to go south, and he appointed Zhou Yuji as the commander of the forward battalion, and led 5,000 men and horses to escort grain and grass to set off five days in advance.

All the heavy artillery of the Yongwei battalion was pulled to Tongzhou, all of them were loaded on ships and went south to the Grand Canal, and Sun Yingyuan was responsible for escorting the waterway; The main force of 10,000 horses and horses of Huangde drove by land, passing through Shandong into Nanzhili.

In addition to the Yongwei battalion, Zhu Cihong also brought Yang Tinglin and Li Tingbiao, Yang Tinglin has a gap in his heart, he is a person who can do things, Zhu Cihong can't bear to be harmed in Beijing, and specially asked him to accompany him to the south.

Chongzhen didn't say much, he approved it on the spot, and appointed Li Tingbiao as the commander of the Nanjing Jinyi Guard, and went south with the crown prince, as for the commander of the Jinyi Guard of the Beijing Division, it was served by Wu Mengming, and the two sides were win-win.

Zhu Cihong almost emptied several firearms factories under the Military War Bureau, and all the stocks were equipped with the Yongwei Battalion, which was already equipped with the most advanced flintlock guns, and the artillery battalion had also expanded several times, with enough artillery for 2,000 people, and it was about to catch up with the Shenji Battalion.

Zhu Cihong not only took away more than half of the craftsmen, but also moved the entire research institute, this time to the south, he has no intention of coming back in a few years, as long as he can take away all the things he can take away, what he can't take away must be redeveloped in the south.

As for the court, party fighting, etc., you can play by yourself! Lao Tzu started to work alone, so he won't accompany him!

On the second day of the second month of February, the imperial court held a grand farewell ceremony, and the cabinet, the six ministries, the five military governors' offices and other important ministers of the court and the central government saw off here.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Xincheng and Liangxiang came spontaneously, and the heads of the black pressure gathered in front of Yongding, and the people of Liangxiang watched this heroic division that had saved their lives, and the people of Xincheng came to bid farewell to the men who served in the army at home.

Tens of thousands of brave guards put on armor, slowly stepped out of Yongding Gate, and embarked on the journey south.

The ministers smiled and shook their hands to the crown prince, after seeing the Yongwei battalion army out of sight, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the stiff face of the smile gradually recovered, this killing star is finally gone, tonight, destined not to get drunk and not return!

As the Yongwei Battalion went farther and farther, someone in the crowd suddenly shouted: "God bless the Grace Gong!" God bless loyalty! ”

"God bless the Father! God bless loyalty! ”

The words gradually dispersed in the crowd, and many people shouted along, and then the voices changed from small to loud, and finally the cries of hundreds of thousands of people converged into one, covering a radius of several miles.

"The hearts of the people are available!" Emperor Chongzhen, who was on the tower of the Forbidden City's noon gate, muttered, he looked at the clouds from afar, and secretly swore in his heart: "The ancestors and the ancestors are on top, and the descendants will be examined, and they will definitely reform politics and prosper the Ming Dynasty!" ”