As the eighth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune was by no means incompetent, on the contrary, he was better than previous generations of governors, and this excellence was not only reflected in the internal reform measures, but more importantly, his grasp of the situation in East Asia was also very sophisticated.

The cooperation with Ninchu is precisely because Tokugawa Yoshimune saw the potential and rising momentum of Ninchu, if he can use this momentum, he can make the Tokugawa family's rule in Japan more stable, and he can also take this opportunity to teach the Daimyo next to him a lesson, so that they can respect the shogunate more in the future.

The problem is that although Tokugawa Yoshimune has overestimated Ning Chu's strength, he still hasn't seen Ning Chu's true face, but he will only make such a mistake once - he will definitely treat Ning Chu with a different attitude.

Old Nakamino Tadayuki can see it very clearly now, and he also understands Tokugawa Yoshimune's thoughts, "Now that the treaty has just been signed, if the treaty is broken, the biggest loss will be our shogunate ......."

"It's impossible to break the contract...... After all, the money has not yet arrived, but General Ben thinks that if Ning Chu completes the reunification in the future, the East Asian pattern will be completely gone, and we will have to return to the era of Tian Khan...... Shall we send Tang envoys then? ”

Tokugawa Yoshimune had a little coldness on his face, it was obvious that Ning Chu's meddling in the affairs of the Satsuma Domain was by no means just an end, if the future domain could continue to be maintained, then it would naturally be fine, but what if Ning Chu wanted to change the domain system? How will the Tokugawa family deal with themselves at that time?

Although this is very unlikely from the current point of view, it has to be prevented.

Mizuno Tadayuki sighed softly, "But right now, we can only rely on the strength of all of Japan, and the northern dynasty basically only has the strength to survive......."

Tokugawa Yoshimune's expression was a little gloomy, the struggle between behemoths like this was definitely not something that a small shogunate could interfere with, so he could only sigh in a low voice, "In this case, we still have to stabilize the interior of Japan first, especially this time the time of the Satsuma Domain, which cannot be an excuse for the public to make trouble." ”

The so-called public family, that is, the five or more bureaucrats who lived in Gyeonggi who served the emperor and the imperial court, and they were different from the "samurai" opposite to the shogunate, and they were usually ancient ancestors who have been handed down to this day, such as the regents, the Qinghua family, the minister's family, the Habayashi family, the famous family, the half-family, and so on.

If it is placed in normal times, the public will naturally not make any sound, but with the change of the current situation, the public family has also begun to be dissatisfied with the current way of distributing benefits, and in the previous matter of sending envoys to Dachu, the relevant envoys were also dispatched, although this move achieved nothing, but also let the world know the emperor's inner unwillingness.

Now, due to the fact that the Tokugawa family did have a bad influence on the matter of the Satsuma Domain, at least there is a suspicion of collusion with Ning Chuxin, so the public family will definitely not give up this opportunity to attack the shogunate, at least to weaken the influence of the shogunate on other Ming dynasties.

"Shogun, the minister has already sent envoys to other daimyos, and will give an explanation for this matter, and as for His Majesty the Emperor, perhaps the general himself will have to come forward......"

Mizuno Tadayuki also has a bit of a headache, once the matter is involved with the emperor, it is easy to be used by people with intentions, although the current emperor is just a puppet, but any puppet has the idea of wanting to make his own decisions.

Tokugawa Yoshimune nodded slowly, "With General Ben here, there won't be any problems on the Emperor's side." ”

In mid-April, Tokugawa Yoshimune and his wife, King Riko Shinmiya, visited Emperor Keihito of Nakagomon, and brought the scholar Yamada Masaasa to give a lecture to the emperor.

Quan Dai Nayan belongs to the second rank of the imperial government, mainly to provide assistance to the three princes and participate in political affairs, but also as the emperor's close attendant, the government affairs to the emperor, and at the same time the emperor's edict to the edict downward, in addition to the great Nayan is also the secretary, but also responsible for the festival etiquette, belongs to the important position of the imperial court, and at this time the Tokugawa family is only thirteen years old, obviously just a false position to appease Tokugawa Yoshimune.

Tokugawa Yoshimune naturally understood this truth, on the one hand, he expressed his gratitude to His Majesty the Emperor, on the other hand, he tested the emperor's attitude towards the Satsuma Domain in his words, and Emperor Keihito had been in power for more than ten years, so he was naturally very clear about some things, and he did not directly express his attitude towards this matter, but said from the side that this was a feudal government, not something that the emperor should ask about.

That's right, although Emperor Keihito said so aggrieved, but the diplomatic affairs are indeed the domain of the shogunate, and the emperor has no power to interfere at all, even the letter of state between him and Ning Chu this time was signed by the shogun, and the imperial court and the daimyo were not allowed to interrogate, and even the information and information related to diplomacy were monopolized by the shogunate and kept secret.

When Tokugawa Yoshimune heard this, he finally put his mind at ease, no matter how the emperor expressed his position, it was likely to trigger his inner dissatisfaction, and Emperor Keihito's current statement was to directly use the system to euphemistically tell Tokugawa Yoshimune that the emperor would not ask about anything in diplomacy, let alone the imperial court.

Seeing that Emperor Keihito was so knowledgeable, some of Tokugawa Yoshimune's later moves were useless, and he muttered silently in his heart, "It seems that there is no need to depose Keihito in such a hurry........"

...........

Jingshi, the sky is a little gloomy, a scene of wind and rain is coming, but it makes everyone's hearts a little unstable, plus during this time, people continue to go to Shengjing, so that the huge Jingshi, there are some signs of empty city, it seems inexplicably a little depressed.

From the beginning of spring, many people in the Zhili area, under the purposeful organization of the government, went in the direction of Shengjing, some of them were voluntary, and some were forced to move to Shengjing, because everyone knew that when the Northern Expedition began, the Beijing division was afraid that it would be difficult to keep it, and Shengjing would be the only place they could go at that time.

The pessimistic mood of the Jingshi is naturally not groundless, the posture of sharpening the sword in the south has already been transmitted, once the Fu Han army breaks through the defense line north of Shandong and Henan, then Zhili will be close at hand.

In the Forbidden City's Heart Cultivation Palace, at this time also fell into an extremely inexplicable atmosphere, Emperor Yongzheng's current state has become worse and worse, although he did not vomit blood again, but his face was as pale as paper, which made many ministers worried, not to mention the enemy, even the emperor was sick, no matter how you look at it, it looks like a posture of wanting to die in the country.

"Narsu, to what extent has the training of the 100,000 new troops been? Can we fight now?! Emperor Yongzheng looked at Narsu, who was kneeling below, and a trace of anger appeared on his face.

Narsu was also embarrassed, although he was already very busy with military affairs, but there were some things that he could not do if he wanted to....... It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, how can it be so easy to train the new army?

"If you go back to the emperor, there are enough personnel of the 100,000 new army, all of them are filled with good talents selected by the Manchurian, Mongolian and Han Eight Banners, and the training is extremely hard, and the method of battle formation is now extremely familiar, but only the musket and artillery are insufficient, and it is still lacking in 30%, and it is difficult to achieve the maximum combat power."

"Insufficient musket artillery? What do firearms factories do for food? ”

Yongzheng's eyes widened, and he looked at Dai Jing, the director of the firearms factory, who was kneeling on the ground trembling, and was furious.

Dai Jing, the director of the firearms factory, was the eldest son of Dai Zi, a firearms expert in the original Qing Dynasty, who once invented the "Lianzhu Fire Gun" and the "Mother and Child Cannon", which were deeply valued by Kangxi, but later Dai Zi was hated by Nan Huairen and was slandered for Dai Zi's secret communication with the East (that is, Japan), which made Dai Zi exiled to Shengjing for more than 30 years.

After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he knew that firearms were powerful, so he sent someone to Shengjing to bring Dai Zi back, but at this time Dai Zi was old and had passed away during the journey, and then his eldest son Dai Jing was valued by Yongzheng, and several Westerners worked together to prepare a firearms factory, specializing in the development and manufacture of muskets and artillery.

Dai Jing didn't dare to raise his head, and said in a low voice: "If you go back to the emperor, the slow production of the firearms factory is not due to the slackness of the ministers, but because of the shortage of iron and fuel...... It was not possible to produce sufficient musket artillery. ”

Yongzheng's face was slightly gloomy, "Why is there a shortage of iron and fuel?" I must have enough money to put it down...... Even if there are occasional failures in the manufacturing process, it is enough to produce the required number. ”

Hearing what Yongzheng said, Narsu, Dai Jing and the others bowed their heads and remained silent, looking unwilling to argue.

The reason is very simple, because this matter can't be said at all, and as soon as it is said, it will involve the earth-shattering relationship, and the iron and fuel and other materials are all procured by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but what kind of virtue is in the Ministry of Internal Affairs? For the 10 million taels that go in, there can be 7 million taels to be used in practice, and that is all blessed by the Bodhisattva.

Therefore, although Yongzheng has sent important personnel to be in charge of this matter, he still can't stop the greed of the gang of slaves under the Internal Affairs Office, more than forty percent of the iron, fuel, etc., have turned into silver and flowed into the pockets of those slaves themselves, as for the people below, they dare not report this matter to Yongzheng at all, for fear of offending the slaves of the Internal Affairs Office.

"Yunlu, you are in charge of the affairs of the Internal Affairs Office, you come to tell me the reason for this!"

Yongzheng saw that no one was willing to answer, so he immediately began to name him, and the first of them was naturally Prince Zhuang Yunlu, who was in charge of the Internal Affairs Office.

Yunlu knelt on the ground with a little heaviness on his face, "If you go back to the emperor, the slaves are incompetent, although they are in charge of the Internal Affairs Office, but there are all the big and small things here, and the minions below are all doing their own thing, and they have not informed the minions. ”

Good guy, Yun Lu pushed it clean all at once, and even led the suspicion to Prince Lian Yun Xu, who was studying behind closed doors, because the prince who was in charge of the Internal Affairs Office before was Yun Xu, and Yun Lu was faintly implying that the other party was still in the Internal Affairs Office and had a lot of influence.

This time it completely poked Yongzheng's lung tube, he thought that since he succeeded to the throne, he was already quite polite to Yun Xi, the last time the old fourteen did not have the shadow of his eighth child, and even Hongshi's incident revealed the weirdness of the old eight, but now it is even more terrible, the other party has reached out to the internal affairs office!

What is the Interior Office? It was an institution specifically responsible for managing the life of the royal family, and even the pills that Emperor Yongzheng ate were procured by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but now someone told him that Lao Ba still has influence in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which naturally has a great impact on Yongzheng.

"The Criminal Department, Dali Temple, and the Three Law Divisions of the Metropolitan Procuratorate will investigate this matter, and send Haiwang, the head of the Internal Affairs Office, and everyone involved to prison, and we must give me a clear investigation, no matter who is involved, it will be investigated!"

Yongzheng gritted his teeth, he seemed to have seen the smug smile of the old eight, but it was a series of orders that went down, smashing the government and the opposition into an uproar.

When Yongzheng finished saying this, Xu Yuanmeng, Zhang Tingyu and other ministers' expressions had become solemn, of course they understood that the current situation was not only about the iron and fuel of the firearms factory, but also a new round of purging of the Eight Masters Party, and this time it was different from the previous time, it will be directed to the core - Prince Lian Yunxi, and even the old nine and ten.

No one underestimated the anger in Yongzheng's heart at this time, and no one dared to intercede at this time, because the fact that Haiwang, the head of the Internal Affairs Office, was directly imprisoned can show the seriousness of this case, who is Haiwang? He is not only the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also the head of the Tai Hospital, and even the pills that Yongzheng took were personally handled by Haiwang.

It can be said that the person who really controls the life and death of Yongzheng in this world is not the emperor Ning Yu in the south, but the inconspicuous head of the Internal Affairs Office.

From the fact that Haiwang was imprisoned, it can be shown how strong Yongzheng's jealousy of the people around him is, or that he is already doubting everyone around him.

Zhang Tingyu stood up at this time, and said softly under Yongzheng's eyes that he was almost about to eat people: "Your Majesty, the Haiwang matter involves the secrets of the Great Interior, and it is really not something that the foreign ministers can listen to, and this case may be personally reviewed by the Great Interior to avoid the wind and rain in the outside world." ”

Hearing Zhang Tingyu's words, Yongzheng's mind cleared up a little, and he quickly understood what a big mistake he had made, once this kind of thing was investigated by the Three Law Divisions, the matter of the emperor's pill would be completely revealed to the world, in this way, how should the people and ministers of the world view this emperor?

"What Hengchen said is extremely true, this matter really should not be tried by the three law divisions, and Ouchi will personally review it, and this matter will be taken care of by Prince Zhuang Yunlu, and I must find out!"

Prince Zhuang Yunlu immediately replied yes, but his heart was not easy at all, it was obvious that this time the emperor was afraid that he was running for the life of the eighth child, and it was really not easy for him to deal with it in the middle, but the matter had come to this point, and it was not something he could shirk and refuse.

When this matter was over, Yongzheng was endlessly tired in his heart, and he waved his hand, which meant to announce his retirement from the dynasty, but because of this corruption case inside and outside the capital, he fell into turmoil again.