At the end of the Ming Dynasty, this was destined to be an extraordinary period in the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years, the Jurchen tribe outside the Shanhaiguan Pass in Liaodong sprung up, and the leader Nurhachi not only unified the Jurchen tribes, founded the country and called Khan, but also swore to defeat the Ming in the name of the seven hatreds. The Wanli Emperor Long Yan, who hid in the deep palace all day long, was furious: the little slave chief was not only grateful to the imperial court for indoctrination, but also offended Tianyan, which was unbearable, after several months of preparation, in March of the following year, he ordered Yang Hao as a strategy to mobilize the elite army to go out of the Guandong Expedition, not wanting to be defeated by Nurhachi, the whole army was almost wiped out, and the elite of the Ming border army lost most of it, and it was no longer able to launch a large-scale conquest against Liaodong. The Jurchens did not retreat but advanced, taking advantage of the situation to capture more than ten towns in eastern Liaodong, and their strength was further strengthened.

The wind outside the gate was surging, and the Ming court was also angry, and there was a hustle and bustle. However, this has not affected the lives of ordinary people, especially the land south of the Yangtze River has always been an important tax place of the country, far away from the war, it is still singing and dancing, and it is extremely prosperous.

Yangzhou city is close to the canal, since ancient times it is the distribution center of merchants in the south of the Yangtze River and the Central Plains, compared with the development model of the ocean in later generations, Yangzhou has been reduced to a second-class city, but in this Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou can be called the first important town in Huaizuo, Jiangbei.

In the forty-fourth year of Wanli, in the middle of August, it was the golden autumn season. In a big mansion in the west of Yangzhou Prefecture, a wing room is brightly lit, several maids and girls are constantly going in and out, their faces are full of anxiety, and a middle-aged man about forty years old outside the house is pacing back and forth, while rubbing his hands nervously, listening to the screams of the women in the house, his face is even more nervous and anxious.

This man's name is Zhu Shouyi, he is a descendant of the Ming royal family, the ninth grandson of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the descendant of Zhu Tan, the king of Lu, and the same generation as the Wanli Emperor, but the line of King Lu has always been not valued by the emperors of all generations, but Zhu Shouyi's line is mostly a concubine, and the luck is really bad.

However, as the saying goes, if you lose the east corner, you will reap the mulberry elm, although the status of Zhu Shouyi's department is getting lower and lower, but God has endowed him with the talent to do business. Although the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, members of the clan were not allowed to engage in Shinong industry and commerce, but that was the system at the beginning of the founding of the country, after more than 200 years, many ancestral systems have existed in name only, and many declining families in the clan are trying their best to find a livelihood, and even many people participated in the imperial examination as officials.

Zhu Shouyi was in the line to his grandfather when it was difficult to maintain a wealthy life, his father had no choice but to leave the Shandong family at a young age, go south to do business, after two generations and decades, involving silk, iron, salt and many other industries, relying on the name of his royal family, no one dared to bully, accumulated a lot of family business, with hundreds of hectares of fertile land, hundreds of servants. In Yangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou and other places, a number of farm houses have been placed.

Zhu Shouyi inherited the family business for more than ten years, with his mind to make the business steady and rising, living a rich and idler's life, but in this heir is quite unsatisfactory, thinking that he is nearly forty years old, gave birth to five daughters, only one son, and this son indulges in the four books and five classics, thinking about the imperial examination, so that his great family business is almost no one to inherit. He also won fame when he was young, but he was not a pedantic person, after the failure of the first scientific examination, he concentrated on business, in his opinion, the officialdom is too chaotic, only money is the last word in this world, seeing that the eldest son is addicted to the imperial examination, it is difficult to dissuade, it happens that tonight his favorite third lady is in labor, so he pins his hope on this unborn child.

An hour passed, Zhu Shouyi became more and more anxious, and suddenly a purple gas went straight down from the sky, straight to the delivery room, this color gas had no warning, but in the blink of an eye, it did not enter the delivery room, and the surroundings instantly returned to tranquility. Zhu Shouyi was stunned, thinking that he was dazzled, and looked at the attendants around him with a look of surprise, understanding that this was not an illusion, but he didn't know what this purple qi meant. Suddenly, I heard a scream in the room, and then a loud baby cry came into my ears, and my child was born!

A maid hurriedly walked out, with a look of joy on her face, and said to Zhu Shouyi: "Congratulations to the master, the lady has given birth to a little master, and the mother and son are safe." The great joy instantly washed away the doubts, Zhu Shouyi rushed into the delivery room in three steps and two steps, a young woman about thirty years old was lying on the bed, with a beautiful appearance, but her face was pale and weak due to the lack of force, but she couldn't hide the happiness of being a mother, it was Zhu Shouyi's third lady. In a small swaddling cloth next to it, a pink baby was squirming gently.

Zhu Shouyi stepped forward to hold Madame's hand, and said softly, "Madam, you have suffered." "Zhu Shouyi's first two ladies died early due to illness, and he was very fond of this third lady who was a lot younger than herself.

"Master, don't say that, it is a blessing for a concubine to give birth to Lin'er for you, look at our son, how handsome."

The third lady's maiden name is Zhang Jinyu, and she is also from a famous family, her father Zhang Fuyuan is from the position of governor of Nanzhili, and her mother is the daughter of the famous general Qi Jiguang.

Originally, the military system of the Ming Dynasty was hereditary, but after Jiajing, the military household system existed in name only, and the imperial court began to implement the recruitment system on a small scale, and even acquiesced to the local armed regimental training in order to deal with the peasant uprising and the increasingly rampant banditry.

Zhang Jinyu is the youngest daughter of Zhang Fuyuan, since she was a child, she was spoiled by her father and brother, influenced by her mother, she learned piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, the art of war, and was quite knowledgeable. It's just that the two have been married for more than ten years, and they only have two daughters, which is a fly in the ointment. gave birth to a son today, and the couple couldn't help but be overjoyed.

The husband and wife warmed up for a while, and then talked about naming their son, Zhu Shouyi pondered for a moment, and said: "I went to Master Wuming the day before yesterday to divinate the hexagram and got a Haotian Hao character, I think this word can't be used lightly, it's better to use Haoran Hao, just call it Zhu Hao." As soon as he finished speaking, the infant baby suddenly convulsed. Zhang Jinyu hurriedly comforted his son and said, "Look, sir, our son seems to like this name very much, hehe." ”

At this time, Zhu Shouyi suddenly remembered the vision just now, walked out of the house, and said to the group: "Today, the third lady gave birth to a son, and you have worked hard, the two stable women will each be rewarded with fifty taels of silver, and the rest will be rewarded with ten taels of silver each, but tonight's vision needs to be strictly spoken, and it must not be revealed to the outside world. At the end, his tone suddenly changed to harshness.

The purchasing power of silver in the Ming Dynasty was quite large, and ten taels of silver was enough for a family of three for half a year. All the attendants were overjoyed to get the reward, and the Zhu family's family rules have always been strict, how dare they say nothing, and they dispersed after receiving the reward. Zhu Shouyi called the housekeeper Li Fu again, instructed the banquet guests, and went back to accompany his wife and children.

Time flies, and twenty years have passed, the Zhu family's industry is getting bigger and bigger, and Zhu Shouyi's eldest son Zhu Yuan was admitted to the Jinshi as he wished, and he was released as an official. The youngest son Zhu Hao will soon turn 20 years old, since the age of seven Zhu and his wife began to enlighten their son, although Zhang Jinyu is a beautiful girl, but both civil and military, has been personally teaching his son to study, and taught his son to practice martial arts since childhood, Zhu Hao is smart and clever, so he learns very quickly, so that the Zhu couple is very pleased.

In these 20 years, the Ming Dynasty will meet, there has been a series of major events that shook the country, first the Wanli Emperor died, the enthroned Taichang Emperor died in less than a month, his son Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, changed the Yuan Tianqi, and changed two generations of emperors in less than a year, which is also an outlier in the entire history.

The death of Emperor Taichang triggered a series of struggles of political forces, the most influential of which was the dispute between the eunuch party led by Wei Zhongxian and the Donglin party led by Yang Lian and others. In addition, the Later Jin regime outside the Guanxi grew stronger and stronger, almost occupying the entire Liaodong, and constantly attacking Ningjin, the Ming Dynasty was troubled internally and externally, and the whole country was very chaotic.

In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the emperor died of illness, and Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, which is the famous Chongzhen Emperor in history, Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne at the beginning, he exiled Wei Zhongxian, smashed the eunuch group in one fell swoop, and reused the Donglin Party, quite a bit of the Ming Dynasty, but as everyone knows, the Ming Dynasty has been sick and difficult to return, the Confucian group of the Donglin Party only knows the fighting, empty talk and miscountry, indirectly forced to kill a large number of famous ministers and generals, coupled with natural disasters rampant, the north has been in drought for many years, and a greater storm is inevitably coming.

In the first year of Chongzhen, a peasant rebellion led by Gao Yingxiang and others first broke out in Shaanxi, which was like a fire, which instantly swept through most of China and directly dragged the Ming Dynasty into the abyss of destruction.