September of the fourth year of Jingtai.

In the past few months, the situation between the DPRK and China has been agitated.

Emperor Jingtai constantly mobilized the Jiubian and Gyeonggi garrisons, not only tossed Yu Qian, the secretary of the military department, but also spent almost several months patrolling all parts of the north, and the time spent in the capital was not ten days and half a month.

Moreover, this series of actions also very well deterred Shi Heng, the governor of the right capital, Xu Youzhen and others, in the past few months, Shi Heng, Xu Youzhen and their party almost did not move, and they all died down, as if they had been frightened by Emperor Jingtai's actions.

Even Chen Xun, the first assistant of the cabinet, was silent, turning a blind eye to Emperor Jingtai's various actions, and just doing routine business every day, and rarely expressed his opinion on the vacancy of the crown prince.

At this time, since even Chen Xun, the first assistant of the cabinet, Shi Heng, the governor of the right capital, and Xu Youzhen, the imperial history of the left capital, no longer mentioned the matter of establishing another prince, the rest of the ministers of the court and the central government would not be bored at this time.

For a while, the dispute between the princes, which almost overturned the court, had completely subsided in a blink of an eye.

Emperor Jingtai also breathed a sigh of relief, and his hanging heart was finally let go.

However, in the past few months, he has fought wits and courage with the courtiers, which made Emperor Jingtai feel deeply tired, and he fell ill just after breathing a sigh of relief.

Although Emperor Jingtai recovered within a few days after the intense treatment of the imperial doctor, his spirit was never lifted, and his physical condition was very different from before.

This situation made Emperor Jingtai secretly worried, and he became more and more interested in his heirs, and he had to summon concubines almost every night, eager to give birth to a prince immediately.

But the more this happened, the more Emperor Jingtai felt that his body was not as good as before, and the whole person quickly lost weight.

At the same time, Zhu Jianshen, who had been demoted to the king of Yi, was also uneasy, and he was very clear about the battle between the court and the middle, and at this time, the argument that the court and the middle supported him suddenly came to an abrupt end, which made the young prince panic, and even had a feeling that a catastrophe was about to come.

In this way, Zhu Jianshen didn't dare to go out, he just hid in the palace every day, and asked the guards of the palace and the people with knives in the palace to strengthen their vigilance, for fear that he would be accidentally poisoned.

Thinking of his father, the Orthodox Emperor, who was still imprisoned in the palace, Zhu Jianshen was even more longing, and under the urgency of his emotions, Zhu Jianshen stayed awake all night.

In contrast to the anxieties of all parties in the DPRK and China, Liu Juntao, the chief military officer of Shandong Town, has been smiling happily in recent days.

After several months of development, it can be said that the Dongping Island Navy, which has just been formed, has made a qualitative leap in strength.

In the past few months, Feng Xiang, the commander of the commander, led the Dongping Island Navy to attack everywhere, experienced 28 large and small naval battles, and faced the enemies of the Japanese, the Dutch, and several surrounding pirates, and won every battle!

Moreover, Feng Xiang also refurbished the sea ships captured in the previous wars, expanding the navy from eight sea ships to twelve!

This is just a warship, Feng Xiang also reorganized some sea ships that were not suitable as warships, and formed a transport fleet of ten sea ships, which was specially used to transport supplies, baggage, and formed armies!

Liu Juntao also ordered the military headquarters to support the Dongping Island Navy several times, and artillery, bird guns, and earth-shaking thunderbolts were all transported in batches, and a lot of men and horses were also transferred from various departments to enrich the Dongping Island Navy.

At this time, the Dongping Island Navy developed and expanded, and Feng Xiang also made some adjustments to the formation of the navy.

The left and right detachments have been expanded from four ships to six ships per detachment, and with the full support of the Military Department's Armament Division, the entire Dongping Island Navy is now equipped with artillery pieces, with 10 ships each, thus increasing the combat strength of the entire Dongping Island Navy to more than 400 people.

Among them, there were about 160 sailors, 252 sailors, and 20 gunners, not counting the ship's miscellaneous men.

As for the newly formed transport fleet, according to Feng Xiang's plan, each transport ship was equipped with twelve sailors and one captain.

Of course, in order to allow these transport ships to have a certain ability to protect themselves, Feng Xiang equipped all these sailors with bird guns, and the artillery was not equipped for the time being, after all, the transport ships were also guaranteed to have enough space.

When Feng Xiang's reorganization plan was reported to Liu Juntao, Liu Juntao also affirmed it immediately.

At this time, the warships in the navy of Dongping Island were basically four or five hundred fortune ships, as well as a Dutch merchant ship after transformation. These ships can't hold many guns either, and ten guns are already the limit.

Liu Juntao also had the intention of building some "giant ships" and forming a "battleship" navy in a structured manner, completely opening the era of cannon giant ships, but it was too early at this time.

After all, such a fleet, not to mention a series of practical problems such as cost, personnel, and training have not yet been solved, just sailing on the sea is enough to attract attention, and at this time, Liu Juntao did not want to let the imperial court notice him too early, so this intention was temporarily shelved.

Soon, the reorganization plan agreed by Liu Juntao went smoothly, and after a short period of adjustment, the Dongping Island Navy began to attack again.

At this time, in the waters around Qingzhou Mansion and Dengzhou Mansion, there was basically no force that could compete with the Dongping Island Navy.

If you go further south, maybe the navy of Dongping Island is not a big force, after all, it is inevitable that there are many Ming army sailors, many maritime giants, and the forces of Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries.

But just in Shandong, Feng Xiang can already run rampant!

During this time, Feng Xiang led his troops to run rampant in the waters off Qingzhou Mansion in Shandong, specializing in plundering foreign merchant ships, especially Japanese merchant ships, which Liu Juntao also took special care of, and also ordered Feng Xiang to never leave a living mouth once he encountered a Japanese merchant ship!

This also made Feng Xiang a little surprised, at this time, although the coastal areas had been invaded by the Japanese invaders, but the people of the Ming Dynasty did not have any deep hatred for Japan, after all, Japan at this time was still very deferential to the Ming Dynasty on the surface.

However, it was different for Liu Juntao, as soon as Liu Juntao heard about Japan, he couldn't wait to kill the whole army across the sea, so he gave Feng Xiang such an order.

It didn't take long for the merchant ships coming and going by sea to be robbed repeatedly, although these things were not under the jurisdiction of the Shandong magistrate, but such a thing was transmitted to the imperial court, and it would also make Gu Yi, the political envoy of Shandong, Li Chengming, the governor of Shandong, and Zhu Qiaozuo, the envoy of Shandong, gloomy.

So, the three of them discussed it, and then they jointly sent an official letter to Liu Juntao, the chief military officer of Shandong Town, asking Liu Juntao to mobilize troops and horses, and inform the sailors stationed in Nanzhili to "attack" the sea giants together!

After receiving the official document, Liu Juntao scoffed at it, and simply ignored the proposals of Gu Yi, the political envoy of Shandong, Li Chengming, the governor of Shandong, and Zhu Qiaozuo, the envoy of Shandong.

This annoyed the three of them, but there was nothing they could do.

At this moment, Gu Yi, the political envoy of Shandong, Li Chengming, the governor of Shandong, and Zhu Qiaozuo, the envoy of Shandong, heard the news that Liu Juntao seemed to have some connection with the sea giant who was plundering everywhere, and it was said that the sea giant often sent people to Anton Wei in Qingzhou Mansion to hoard supplies!

This news immediately made the three of them ecstatic, and the three of them had even seen the scene of themselves overthrowing Liu Juntao.

As a result, Gu Yi, the political envoy of Shandong, Li Chengming, the governor of Shandong, and Zhu Qiaozuo, the envoy of Shandong, prepared to jointly go to the imperial court to impeach Liu Juntao on the charge of "raising self-respect and causing trouble in the locality".

However, as soon as the joint memo written by Gu Yi, the political envoy of Shandong, Li Chengming, the governor of Shandong, and Zhu Qiaozuo, the envoy of Shandong, had just been sent out of the capital of Jinan, Liu Juntao, who had already received the news, ordered the inspection department to dispatch.

Under the careful planning of Huang Wu, the head of the inspection department, Xu Zhaohui, the secretary of the Jianfeng Division, personally led a team of his men to ambush the only way north of Jinan Mansion.

When the post guard fled back to Jinan in a panic, Gu Yi, the political envoy of Shandong, Li Chengming, the governor of Shandong, and Zhu Qiaozuo, the envoy of Shandong, were furious.

The three of them naturally didn't believe that there would be thieves who dared to rob the post guards around the city of Jinan, which was obviously something else, and the three of them thought of Liu Juntao almost at the same time!

However, there is no evidence in this matter, and Gu Yi, the political envoy of Shandong, Li Chengming, the governor of Shandong, and Zhu Qiaozuo, the envoy of Shandong, can only die down.

After all, if it was really Liu Juntao who did it, since he dared to rob the guard, he would dare to do it to the three of them!

Thinking of this, Gu Yi, the political envoy of Shandong, Li Chengming, the governor of Shandong, and Zhu Qiaozuo, the envoy of Shandong, were all afraid, and they were more and more afraid of Liu Juntao.