Beijing in July is like a furnace, the weather is extremely hot, all over the city, only the imperial palace Haizi located in Taiye Pool is slightly cooler, since the end of June after the end of the summer harvest, the Han Emperor Lin Feng moved the inner court to Fengze Garden, the corresponding office scattered in Yingtai several side halls, and he himself and Empress Wu Ake lived in Xiying.

Compared with the previous dynasty, the palace complex in Zhongnanhai has changed greatly, because the Forbidden City has become a thing of the past, the Lin Han Empire had to start anew, on the basis of the original palace room to expand, although Lin Feng himself did not pay much attention to the residence, but the imperial court still allocated a large amount of silver every year to invest in the construction of the palace, so this building complex from the beginning of the "leisure 'flower' garden" slowly evolved into the "Han Palace", and finally became the imperial palace.

In fact, this area does not belong to the center of gravity of Beijing, and even relatively remote, so many of the supporting facilities are a blank, and because there are several large seas in the building complex, so the security work is a little difficult, at first when Lin Feng just entered, Zhongnanhai was a wasteland, some suburban farmers and poor people in the city opened a large vegetable field here, every day people come to look at it, very complicated, in the early years, Lin Feng in order to show "not to disturb the people", but also let these people grow vegetables in the palace, until after marrying Ake, My wife had a big opinion about the manure trucks that watered the vegetable garden, and she had no choice but to slowly raze the vegetable fields. Subsequently, the fortifications and watchtowers were slowly built, and the guards of the forbidden army were placed, which became the forbidden land in Beijing.

Lin Feng's guards have a total of two brigades, about 5,000 people, this unit is subordinate to the First Guards Infantry Army, and the nominal commander is Yulin General Rick, but in fact, this affiliation is more like an honorary title, and General Rick cannot command this emperor's army.

The troops of these two brigades are self-contained, independent of the staff system of the Guards, controlled by the emperor himself, well-equipped, well-trained, and most of the soldiers are selected from various field units of the 'elite', and are well-known throughout the army for their good treatment and quick promotion, because they are aimed at the emperor's security protection, this unit is 'covered' by the outside world with a mysterious veil, and there are many nicknames alone, some praise and some depreciation, for example, because the official position of the commander Colonel Li Ergou is called "Lang Zhong Ling", so the officials of the imperial court call the officers and soldiers of the Su Guard "Lang Zhong". ”； At the same time, they were under the command of General Rick, and their colleagues in the Guards called them "Feather Forest"; Out of envy or jealousy, the field army outside called them "donkey dung eggs"—meaning a bright mess on the outside and a mess on the inside; And the ordinary people call them "Ouchi 'squires' guards".

In fact, this army is not not a 'flower' shelf unit, Lin Feng himself is a professional soldier, he has been fighting almost every year over the years, and most of them are personally leading the troops to fight, so his Royal Forest Army is naturally impossible to be a shrinking turtle, in fact, this army can also be regarded as experienced in a hundred battles, except for a few special people, most of them are all the way up, several bloody battles, such as fighting Tuhai, attacking Liaodong, breaking Geerdan, etc., almost all of them did not fall, and the casualties were also very heavy, This can be seen only from the popular dialects of the troops: at first, the Hokkien dialect was all the rage in this unit, but after several major battles were fought and the troops were repaired and replenished, everyone could only speak Beijing official dialect.

Of course, this only refers to the majority of people, as the emperor's personal soldiers, in addition to the guards, this army has many political functions, "Enyu ministers" is one of them, there are a lot of special forces in this army, such as General Ma Ying's eldest son is very talented and qualified, although he is only one and a half years old, he is awarded the rank of lieutenant, and he defends the prince under the care of his 'nurse' mother on weekdays, and the sons and nephews of Lord Chen Menglei and Lord Li Guangdi are naturally among them, taking precautions for the construction of the second echelon of the empire.

In the scorching summer, Li Guangdi sat in the sedan chair, sweating like rain, heard the sedan chair man singing, opened the curtains, and saw his son Li Siqi from afar. His son is only thirteen years old this year, thin and childish, but he is wearing a set of red 'color' guard uniforms, and he is on guard duty outside the 'gate' of the palace.

"The palace is forbidden, and people stop!" Li Siqi recognized his father's sedan chair at a glance, and shouted from afar, about fifty steps across the palace 'door', the sedan chair was put down in the shade of the tree, Li Guangdi walked out slowly, Li Siqi had a straight face, and said with a glance, "Captain Li Siqi of the Guards, I have seen Li Xiang!" ”

Li Guangdi is only 44 years old this year, but his temples are gray, his face is wrinkled, the bags under his eyes are hanging loosely, and his brows seem to be locked all the time, forming a "Chuan" shape.

He pursed his lips, the corners of his mouth arced like blades, looking both majestic and resolute. He nodded at his son, "It's been hard work—is Your Majesty up?!" ”

Lin Feng has the habit of taking a nap, Li Guangdi has assisted him for many years, but he is quite familiar with the emperor's daily life, Li Siqi bowed his head and replied, "If you go back to Li Xiang, the next official doesn't know!" ......" he looked up at his father with some timidity in his heart, "...... Please forgive me for my sins! ……”

Li Guangdi waved his hand, ordered him to retreat, took out the sign and handed it to the little yellow 'door' standing on the side, "Please ask your father-in-law to report the internal ban, and the cabinet bachelor Li Guangdi asks to see him!" ”

The eunuch on duty did not dare to slack off, took Li Guangdi's waist card, turned around and trotted towards the 'door', about a meal, and hurried back, singing loudly, "Your Majesty's dictation, announce Li Guangdi's visit!" ”

Li Guangdi was silent, waved his hand and ordered the eunuch to lead the way, stepped into the big 'gate', and only walked out of a 'door' forbidden, a cool breeze blew his official clothes fluttering, and his whole body was refreshed.

The little yellow 'door' who led the way said with a smile, "Your Majesty is in Yingtai right now, and when Xiangye first came, he was still having lunch!" ”

Li Guangdi nodded slightly, glanced at the eunuch with slanted eyes, but did not answer.

"Xiangye, please, this is one of the three pools of Fengze Garden, the former Qing court ......"

"My father-in-law is cautious, it's a 'pseudo-Qing'!" Li Guangdi reprimanded in a deep voice, "Good life leads the way, don't talk too much!" ”

"Yes, yes...... Minions deserve to die...... Slaves damn ......" The eunuch who led the way was startled, his body trembled, he almost knelt down, and secretly glanced at Li Guangdi, only to see that the cabinet scholar's face was cold, and he was very reluctant to 'pump' a mouth, he originally just wanted to put on a colorful head, but he didn't expect to touch a cold board wall.

After turning a few corridors, after crossing the Haizi Bridge, I arrived at a side hall on the side of Yingtai, and the eunuch who led the way changed twice, and made a report outside the 'door', and the hall answered, "Is it Jin Qing?!" Come in! ”

As soon as he entered the big 'gate', Li Guangdi was taken aback, Lin Feng was wearing a yellow silk coat today, but he only wore a ...... An inner nephew, Li Guangdi stayed for a long time, I really don't know how to describe this outfit, it is short 'pants', but it is just up to the knees, it is said to be 'pants', but it 'shows' two smooth little 'legs'. He had never imagined that anyone would wear clothes like this, and this was His Majesty the Emperor.

"Your Majesty! The sages have a cloud, "the king treats the ministers with courtesy, the ministers serve the "kings with loyalty", and the ministers think that ......" Li Guangdi's face was "pale", and he immediately rebelled against his ears.

Lin Feng 'touched' the two mustaches on his lips and grinned, interrupting Li Guangdi's words, "It's nothing, it's nothing, Jin Qing is no one else," he raised his chin outside the hall and explained, "Isn't it hot?!" It's called an NBA suit, you know?! ”

What a 'mess', Li Guangdi frowned slightly, "Although it's hot, the etiquette can't be wasted!" ”

"Alright, alright, I'm scared of you!" Lin Feng was helpless, waved his hand at the 'attendant', and the soldier standing on the side of the 'attendant' immediately put on his long 'pants', and in front of Li Guangdi, Lin Feng generously turned down without caring about it, sat down and said, "Jin Qing came from the ya'men', right?" Come, come, come, sit down first, do you want some 'Coke' to relieve your fatigue?! ”

"Coke" is personally developed by His Majesty the Emperor, by the Imperial Palace Imperial Food Supervisor specially made of the imperial tribute, take brown sugar, Korean ginseng, borneol, licorice and other forages boiled, sweet and astringent, bitter and sweet, identified by the imperial doctor, has the effect of resting fire and calming, nourishing and maintaining health, Lin Feng is very cherished on weekdays, not a close courtier, and will never take out to share.

After Lin Feng's interruption, the prime minister, who originally wanted to persuade the monarch well, was a little distracted, and hurriedly thanked, "Thank you, Your Majesty Longen!" ”

Waiting for Li Guangdi to sit down, Lin Feng asked, "What's the matter over there?!" ”

Different from the Qing court system, the cabinet prime minister of the Lin and Han empires was not a secretary-type advisory prime minister, but a prime minister-type prime minister with a responsibility system, while the cabinet of the Lin and Han courts was composed of one cabinet chief assistant scholar, several scholars and four scholars, who were responsible for administrative affairs and were directly responsible to the emperor. Sexuality gives Lin Feng a twist, and Lin Feng is more like a stamp in many cases, just put a few fingers on a seal. Therefore, Lin Feng is usually not very busy, and he is much lazy compared to Shunzhi and Kangxi, and he rarely holds large-scale court meetings, and his focus is always on the army.

Under this system, Li Guangdi's power is unusually large, it can be regarded as one person under and above ten thousand, and there is a joke among the people, saying that there are no two days, so the emperor Lin Feng is the sun, but Lord Li Guangdi is the moon at night, and he can be half a family.

Of course, this statement must be a bit exaggerated, although the prime minister of the cabinet has great power, but it is not without constraints, at least the imperial history of the Metropolitan Procuratorate does not take him very seriously, and according to the system created by Lin Feng, half of the budget of the Metropolitan Procuratorate comes from the household department, and the other half comes from the emperor's "internal money", which is not very politically suppressed, so although Li Guangdi is strong, he cannot cover the sky with one hand.

If there is a comparison, the current political system of the Lin and Han Empires is a bit similar to the "three publics" separation system of the Western Han Dynasty in the past: among them, the chief of the general staff of the Han Army is a bit like a "Tai Lieutenant", in charge of military affairs; The first assistant scholar of the cabinet is the "prime minister", in charge of civil affairs; The inspection of the imperial history is equivalent to the "imperial history doctor", who is responsible for supervising and correcting the bullets.

This time, Li Guangdi came to see Lin Feng, but it was not just civil affairs, hearing Lin Feng's inquiry, he thought about it, and said to Lin Feng, "Your Majesty, the minister is here this time for military rations!" ”

"Military rations?!" Lin Feng was stunned, he glanced at Li Guangdi, and said suspiciously, "What's wrong with the military rations?" Didn't you tell me three days ago that this year's harvest was a bumper harvest?! ”

"It's a bumper harvest, and the treasury is much more abundant!" Li Guang nodded and said, "Your Majesty knows, since the beginning of our army, the goods have not been very rich, of which the deficit in the first year was nearly 22 million taels; In the second year, His Majesty opened a ban on trade and opened the sea route, which was very effective, and the deficit was only nine million taels; And in the third year, it was flat, and this year, the minister thought that there should be a big surplus! ”

"yes!" Lin Feng looked at him strangely, in fact, although he usually didn't pay much attention to those cumbersome government affairs, as the head of a country, the country's financial situation naturally knew in his heart, "What's the problem with the military ration?!" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister came today, but he didn't complain to His Majesty!" Li Guangdi shrank his hand, 'pulled' out a book from his sleeve, and handed it over with both hands, "Please take a look, Your Majesty!" ”

"Don't be in a hurry," Lin Feng took it casually, "You say, you say!" ”

"Yes," Li Guang said, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty knows where I am in the land where money and grain flourish?!" ”

"Zhili, Liaodong!" Lin Feng thought for a while, "Shandong should be the richest!" ”

"Your Majesty Mingjian," Li Guangdi nodded in agreement, "The minister's visit this time is not actually due to the lack of military rations, but the difficulty of transportation!" ……”

Lin Feng immediately realized, "You mean the garrisons in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan?!" ”

"Your Majesty is wise! According to the local treasury, our army is now stationed in the northwest, Shanxi, and Sichuan, with a total of more than 130,000 troops, plus local soldiers, or 15 or 60,000, and the Jin, Qin, Sichuan, and Lanzhou areas are dry and rainless, the land is barren, and the war has been 'chaotic' for decades, and the feudal treasury is really embarrassed. In the long run, I am afraid that it will not be a blessing for the country! ”

Lin Feng has been 'groaning' for a long time, but in fact, Li Guangdi still said it very politely. In order to seize Sichuan and deal with the threat of the Dzungar Khanate, the empire has now deployed three 'elite' field regiments on the northwest front, with more than 100,000 combat troops alone.

Turned his head to look at Li Guangdi, "What can Jin Qing do?!" ”

"Returning to Your Majesty," Li Guangdi shook his head and smiled bitterly, "It is natural to be a soldier and eat food, and there is no way for a minister to do it!" ”

Lin Feng was stunned and said unhappily, "Didn't Jin Qing tease me?!" ”

Li Guangdi hurriedly explained, "Your Majesty forgives your sins, the minister came today to show Your Majesty, according to the national strength of our dynasty, it can maintain the military strength!" ”

"Oh?! How do you say that?! ”

Li Guangdi fixed his mind and said, "Your Majesty, according to the records of our household book, last year's battle of Sichuan and the westward march of General Yulin, our dynasty dispatched a total of more than 116,000 troops and more than 22,000 militia groups, and then in order to transport grain and straw, Zhili, Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi levied more than 414,000 registered Ding Zhuang, of which several state capitals in southern Shaanxi still recruited Ding during the busy agricultural season; The war dragged on until the end of the year, a total of more than 3.86 million stones of rice and flour, more than 2.2 million catties of hay, alfalfa, oats, and sweet potato vines, and more than 4.6 million taels of silver, and the army passed through, and the treasury of Daotufu County was empty, and in order to avoid labor, the people fled and abandoned countless wastelands, so the relief in the 'spring' was equivalent to more than 2.4 million taels of silver, and the taxes of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces could not be paid, this is ...... sincerely."

Lin Feng listened to it for a long time, and saw that he threw out a lot of numbers, chattering endlessly, and didn't know what he wanted to say, so he said impatiently, "Jin Qing, what do you mean?!" ”

"Your Majesty, what the minister wants to say is that if this situation is delayed, I'm afraid my Han will not be able to afford this northwest war!"

"What?!" Lin Feng was taken aback, although the situation was not good, it was not so serious, right? How can you say that there are only more than 100,000 troops, can the three provinces not afford it?!

"Qi Qi's subordinates, if the army is stationed in place, or barely supports, but if it is like the big battle in Xinzhou the year before last, I'm afraid it will be very difficult!" Li Guangdi thought for a while and added, "Your Majesty doesn't think that my Han situation is okay at the moment, in fact, this is also a blessing to invite the heavens, since Your Majesty took power, Hebei has matured every year, but the so-called 'unforeseen wind and clouds in the sky', what if there is a disaster?" He spread out his hands and said with a wry smile, "The Yellow River bursts, droughts, locusts, as long as it comes, I will lose my ground!" ”

"So......" Lin Feng looked at him, "You mean, the Rick Corps is going south as soon as possible and going to Huguang?!" ”

"Your Majesty is wise!" Li Guangdi arched his hand, "Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Sichuan are not poor, but they haven't eased up, if they wait a few years and the place is calm, don't say that there are more than 100,000 troops, even 200,000 or 300,000 can afford to raise them." Seeing that Lin Feng was a little hesitant, he hurriedly stretched out three fingers, "Three years, Your Majesty, as long as the ministers can make these three provinces like Liaodong, the people return to the countryside, and the local Ding Book is complete, Your Majesty can go west and crusade against Geerdan!" ”

Lin Feng smiled, the development of Liaodong can be said to be the pinnacle achievement of Li Guangdi's land administration, millions of people have nothing to move over, one year to open up wasteland, two years to cultivate land, and in the third year, it has become the granary and military source base of the Lin Han Empire, this kind of thing, there is no such thing in history, this feat should be regarded as the highest achievement in Li Guangdi's life, he has done such a difficult thing, no wonder he has great confidence in the economic recovery of the northwest region.

"There shouldn't be a big war in the northwest in the next few years," Lin Feng nodded in agreement, "Zhao Liangdong's corps is only defending in situ, and there are only two armies, so it shouldn't cost much; And Daniel Zhang's corps also has only two corps, I gave Pei Gong an order the day before yesterday, those two corps in Sichuan should be reorganized and trained, and Shun is ready to reorganize them into mountain corps, and they will not participate in the war for at least a year, so that the auxiliary militia regiments and the requisitioned strong men can be dismissed and returned to their hometowns, only the soldiers are consumed, there should be no major problems, you can rest assured! ”

"As for the Rick Corps, they are hoarding grain in Xunyang right now, and they should be going south soon!" Lin Feng smiled, "Yang Qilong hasn't replied yet, if he goes to Beijing to meet him, I will seal him in Beijing, reorganize his troops, and take the whole province of Hubei; If he refuses to enter Beijing, we will immediately go down the Han River and destroy this fly! ”

"That's great!" Li Guangdi stood up, ready to bow down, and was just about to kneel, when he suddenly remembered something, and said casually, "Your Majesty, today the Ministry of Rites received a document that Dongying Japan sent a messenger to us, and now the person has gone ashore in Shandong!" ”

Lin Feng was stunned for a moment, and suddenly his spirit perked up, "What?!" Japan?! Suddenly, he smiled dumbly, "What are they doing here?" ”

"Returning to Your Majesty, the document is vague, but it is generally said that there are two things, one is that the King of Japan congratulates His Majesty on his accession to the throne; The two are...... They have some great general to negotiate trade with them! ”

"It's the Tokugawa shogun, right?!"

"Oh?! …… This ......" Li Guangdi looked at in surprise and sincere admiration, "Your Majesty really has a lot of knowledge, this is it...... This Tokugawa shogun! ”

"We don't have anything to do with them, do we?!" Lin Feng frowned, thought about it for a long time, and really couldn't think of any 'intersection' between himself and the Japanese side, "What kind of trade are you talking about?" Do we have business with them?! ”

Li Guangdi looked at the emperor in surprise, choked for a while, and was stunned for a long time, before he smiled bitterly, "Back to Your Majesty, our Han Dynasty has very dense contacts with Korea and Japan, doesn't Your Majesty remember?" The year before last, we had a grain shortage in the Han Dynasty, we bought grain in Jiangnan on the one hand, and asked the king of Korea to pay tribute on the other, at that time, our merchant ships sailed to Nagasaki in large numbers to buy grain and return to China. Today, our country has a surplus of grain self-sufficiency, but trade is still unabated, our dynasty still buys a large amount of saltpeter, sulfur, and copper from Japan, and even takes gold and silver, while Japan buys raw silk, grain, 'medicine' materials, paper, books, skins and 'hair', sugar, spices, etc. ”

Lin Feng subconsciously pinched his chin, it seems that the prime minister's impression of Japan is really very good, and he actually said that it is a "union of bone and 'flesh'", it seems that he has to find a time to enlighten him.

He smiled at the moment, waved his hand and said, "I understand, turn around...... When that Japanese friend comes, don't delay, I'm going to meet him in person. ”