Whether it is Yuan Chonghuan's personal military quality or personality charm, he is a general's talent; So, King Xin looked at Yuan Chonghuan and asked, "You have been fighting with the Jin army for a long time, you have rich experience, and you are well versed in the cavalry battle formation of the Jin army, and you must resist the Jin army!" But what's the difficulty? ”

"Your Highness, there are difficulties!"

"Tell me about it?"

"To deal with the Jin army's siege of the city, our army's defensive firearms are particularly important. The medicine is slightly insufficient, and the strength is not enough! Yuan Chonghuan frowned and said solemnly.

When King Xin heard this, he looked at Yuan Chonghuan for a long time, and said leisurely: "Could it be that my Ming can only passively defend and not take the initiative to attack and recapture the lost territory of Liaodong?" ”

Yuan Chonghuan was stunned when he heard this, shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Take the initiative!" At present, there is a shortage of ordnance in the eastern border of Liaodong, the supply of food and salary is insufficient, the morale of the army is scattered, the soldiers have no fighting spirit, and they will have no fighting spirit, not to mention, the Jin army is good at field warfare, and it is difficult for our army to resist. ”

"If it's food, bullets. With enough medicine, how long will it take for you to be able to train a 'Daming Iron Rider'? ”

When Yuan Chonghuan heard this, he thought for a long time and said: "If the supply is continuous, play . . . The medicine is sufficient, and it will take one year to become an army at the earliest, and two years to fight! ’

King Xin's fingers kept tapping on the table, pondered for a long time, and said: "Before you leave the capital, go to Wang Gongchang to find Xue Fengxiang and Ding Sancannon, and select a batch of new firearms in the arsenal, I hope you can form a new army of the Ming Dynasty that can fight well and recover Liaodong!" ”

Yuan Chonghuan stood up solemnly and said, "Your Highness, rest assured, I will live up to my mission!" ”

King Xin didn't want to waste his personal interests because of public and private affairs, so he swept everyone Yaxing, so he changed the conversation and talked with Xu Xiake about mountains, rivers, places of interest and historic sites; Xu Xiake is erudite and talented, and has seen a lot; For a while, the atmosphere in the cabin relaxed again, and Xu Xiake asked with interest: "Your Highness, I don't know what to do next?" ”

"I have nothing to do recently, and I want to follow Mr. to travel!"

"Oh! Ha ha! I wonder where His Highness wants to go? ”

"The preliminary plan is to go to the Shaanxi and Gansu areas!"

"Oh! What a coincidence, I am about to go to Xi'an Mansion to visit an old friend, if it is convenient for His Highness, why not be a companion? Xu Xiake smiled.

King Xin thought for a moment, smiled and nodded: "That is the case, there is also a care for traveling together, then we will see you outside the door of Yongding in three days!" ”

"See you or leave! Haha"

Dongcheng Fengtai Daying, although Ning Shicheng, the king of Ning, is a king with a different surname, but because Fengtai Daying garrisons Kyoto, there is no feudal domain; At the same time, he is also a hereditary prince, the chief military minister of the capital, and can be described as a heavyweight who is so powerful that he will tremble when he stomps on the capital.

At this time, King Ning's father and son sat opposite each other in King Ning's mansion, talking at night, King Ning's face was sinking like water, not angry and arrogant, Ning Liang asked cautiously: "Father, in your opinion, will Yuan Chonghuan be reactivated?" ”

Ning Shicheng's eagle-like eyes narrowed, and he said coldly: "Yuan Chonghuan is known as a general, and he has a high prestige in the hearts of Liaodong soldiers, if there is no one in the court, His Majesty will definitely reuse him to take charge of Liaodong military affairs and resist the Jin army!" ”

"Father, should we contribute to this matter?"

"Confused!" King Ning shouted: "Yuan Chonghuan is loyal to the imperial court, never forms a party with any party for personal gain, and he is in charge of Liaodong's military affairs, the most appropriate, not only do we not refute, but also go to the emperor, highly recommended!" ”

"Why is that?" Ning Liang was puzzled.

"Think about it, if Yuan Chonghuan wasn't in charge of Liaodong military affairs, who would be the most likely to spend it?"

"This?" Ning Liang pondered: "Now that Liaodong is almost lost, the army has shrunk to garrison the Shanhaiguan area, and Shanhaiguan is under the jurisdiction of the Pingxi Palace, so Liaodong is most likely to be incorporated under the command of the Pingxi King!" ”

"Hmmm! Even if you have a little knowledge, you have lived up to your father's teachings for so many years" King Ning nodded with satisfaction, and said coldly: "I heard that Wu Sangui, the son of the king of Pingxi, is very close to you, and the Pingxi Palace's courtesy of my Ning Wangfu is nothing more than for us to support the battle for military affairs in Liaodong, and Zu Dashou's ambition is not small!" ”

"Father, if my Ning Wangfu is close to the Pingxi Palace, wouldn't it have a strong military ally?"

"Confused!" King Ning shouted again: "The reason why I, Ning Wangfu, was able to sit firmly in the capital and guard the capital, and sent important military ministers for the strength of the capital, is because we have been guarding ourselves for so many years and not forming a party for personal gain, so Your Majesty trusts Ning Wangfu and hands over the Fengtai camp to us to be in charge." ”

Ning Liang suddenly realized: "Then, if the Pingxi Royal Mansion takes over the military affairs of Liaodong, it will inevitably be like a tiger with wings, once the balance of military power is broken, it will inevitably be suppressed by other parties, they will definitely not sit back and watch the Pingxi Royal Mansion become bigger and stronger, and the father is far-sighted!" ”

"Although the party struggle in the court is severe now, as long as we sit firmly in Diaoyutai and do not settle down with others, this Fengtai camp will always be firmly controlled in the hands of my Ning Palace, no matter who sits on the dragon chair, the status of Baoning Palace is stable!" King Ning sneered, and then changed his words and asked, "By the way, I asked you to investigate King Xin, what did you find?" ”

"Father, according to my investigation, the king of faith is a profitable person, who befriends the son of the consul in the capital on weekdays, likes to specialize, and makes some opportunistic livelihoods all day long, taking the opportunity to make money!" Ning Liang said disdainfully.

"Hey, there is no successor to the Ming Dynasty! The two brothers were one specializing in woodwork, and their playthings were demoralized, resulting in the abandonment of the government, the party strife in the court, and the factions; A monopoly businessman's way, accumulating money, in the long run, the Ming Dynasty is in danger! King Ning's eyes showed a hint of disappointment.

Ning Liang heard King Ning's words, and cautiously probed: "Father, the Fengtai camp has the responsibility of defending Kyoto, if the form changes in the future, our Ning Wangfu can control the capital in an instant, and it will not be up to us to say it at that time!" ”

Hearing this, King Ning raised his eyebrows, a trace of strangeness flashed in his eyes, and then his face turned pale, and he waved his hand: "I'm tired for my father, go down and rest!" ”

Ning Liang bowed and retreated, closed the door casually, turned around, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Yuan Chonghuan's request to return to Liaodong caused strong pressure from Pingxi Wang Zu Dashou and Chengguo Duke Zhu Chunchen in the court, but was strongly refuted by Wei Zhongxian Dongchang and Zhou Yanru, the second assistant of the cabinet, and strongly recommended Yuan Chonghuan to take charge of Liaodong military affairs and resist the barbarian invasion;

The emperor was forced to have no choice, and in order to balance the court disputes, he ordered Yuan Chonghuan to lead the military affairs of Liaodong, and appointed Wu Sangui, the son of the king of Pingxi, as the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan to assist Yuan Chonghuan.

After raiding the mansion of Shangshu Gaodi of the Ministry of War, Cui Guangcheng quietly came to report to King Xin; 850,000 taels of silver, 30,000 taels of gold, and countless famous paintings of various jewels were confiscated, equivalent to more than 230,000 taels of silver; This time, a total of more than 1.5 million taels were confiscated from the Gaodi Mansion, a huge amount.

King Xin looked at the list of corruption in Gaodi, was very angry, and ordered Cui Guangcheng to hand over all the accounts to Yuan Chonghuan to support the military affairs of Liaodong; Cui Guangcheng saw that King Xin was angry, and hurriedly presented a ruler-long brocade box with both hands, and flattered: "Your Highness, this is a thing confiscated from the Gaodi Mansion, and the subordinates have not registered and made a book, so it is specially presented to Your Highness!" ”

King Xin took the brocade box with great interest, opened it to see, a cool air came to his face, King Xin couldn't help but stare at it, look carefully, only to see a small and delicate short sword stored in the brocade box, the scabbard is in the shape of fish scales, emitting a burst of cold air.

King Xin held the hilt of the sword and pulled it out gently, the cold light appeared, the sword body was in the shape of a black fish, the blade was extremely sharp, and it shook in front of him, only to feel the hairs on his face stand on end; Take a closer look, the sword grid is engraved with the word 'fish intestine', the king of the letter is overjoyed, the more you look at it, the more you like it!

The fish intestine sword, also known as the fish hidden sword, was made by Ou Yezi, the master of sword casting in the Warring States Period, for the king of Yue, collected the tin of Chijin Mountain, the copper of Ruoye River, experienced the rain and lightning strikes, contained the essence of heaven and earth, and cast Zhanlu, Chunjun, Shengxie, fish intestine and Juque, five peerless gods.

I didn't expect such a peerless divine soldier to be collected by Gao Di, seeing that King Xin was happy, Cui Guangcheng said happily: "Your Highness! ”

"Well, this sword king loves it very much!"

"Your Highness, Gaodi extorted my silver taels before, you see?" Choi Kwang-sung pleaded.

King Xin pondered: "I read that you reported that Gao Di was meritorious, and those jewelry paintings that were confiscated from Gao Di will be your compensation!" ”

Cui Guangcheng suddenly smiled, hurriedly bowed down and thanked him, and confiscated Gao Di's jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, which were worth at least 300,000 yuan, and could recover these, Cui Guangcheng was already content, and he had not lost money under Gao Di for so many years.

In the past two days, the letter of the king's mansion has been very busy, and everyone is smiling, because the new product launch conference of Tianxiangge is hot, with on-site sales of 180,000 taels of silver, and 36 merchants have signed a contract to join the association, and a total of 1.25 million taels of agency fees, deposits and advance payments have been paid.

Of course, the on-site sales revenue is all attributed to the Xinwangfu, and the agency fees and advance payments paid by the businessmen are jointly owned by the Department of Commerce and the Xinwangfu, as the start-up capital of the project, and the money in hand is easy to do, Li Changcai fully shows his business genius side, selects the site to build a factory, purchases equipment, and all the work is progressing in an orderly manner.

At the same time, Xinwangfu in Wangfujing Street's 'perfume and toiletries ** shop', officially opened; on the opening day, a sensation in Beijing, due to the limited sales in the new product launch conference, the prince of the capital on the opening day of the crazy rush to buy, the scene is extremely hot, the new products on the market are sold out.

Wang Chengen's tired and happy! 'Commanding the slave yard workers to the side yard to transport the raw materials for the production of toiletries, the product is in short supply, as the rear, of course, we must go all out to produce and supply.

Although it has reached cooperation with the Department of Commerce, under Wang Chengen's repeated insistence, the 'perfume and toiletries ** store' on Wangfujing Street is exclusively operated by Xinwangfu, which is produced and sold by itself, so as to maintain the huge expenditure of the palace.