"Brother Zhu, there is a certain sentence that I don't know whether to say or not."

"Oh, Brother Liu, but it doesn't hurt to say it."

Zhu Cihong put away his sword and smiled slightly.

"Brother Zhu should be a general, right?"

Liu Quzhi kept his voice so low that only he and Zhu Cihong could hear it.

Zhu Cihong was slightly stunned, and immediately understood what the other party meant.

Yes, if you weren't a general, you wouldn't be able to explain why you have so many firearms and crossbows.

"You know this matter, I know it, and you must not tell anyone else."

"I know."

Knowing that his judgment was correct, Liu Quzhi was very happy.

"With a loyal minister like General Zhu, I believe that the imperial court will one day exterminate Jiannu and recover Liaodong!"

Liu Quzhi clenched his fists tightly: "All for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, for the sake of the Holy One!" ”

Zhu Cihong's expression froze, and his lips opened and said: "All for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, for the sake of the Holy One!" ”

......

......

After leaving Liujiazhuang, Zhu Cihong and his entourage went well, and arrived outside Huai'an Mansion two days later.

Huai'an Prefecture is subordinate to Nanzhili, and has jurisdiction over nine counties of Shanyang, Qinghe, Yancheng, Andong, Taoyuan, Muyang, Ganyu, Suining and Suqian, and Haizhou and Pizhou. There are 109,205 households and 906,333 households.

Of course, this is the statistical data of the sixth year of Wanli, and it has increased or decreased in the Chongzhen period, which is generally accurate.

Its government is in Shanyang County, and the residence of the governor of Caoyun is also in this county. Huai'an City is located between Shenjing and Nanjing, is an important hub on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, so the Ming court set up a governor of Caoyun here, the prime minister of Caoyun matters.

Zhu Cihong knew that the current governor of Caoyun was Lu Zhenfei, and at this time Lu Zhenfei also held the title of governor of Huai'an, which can be described as a well-deserved leader in this region.

Zhu Cihong had a high opinion of Lu Zhenfei, in the original history, after the fall of the Hongguang court, this person was able to follow the Longwu Emperor Zhu Yujian and insist on resisting the Qing Dynasty, and he was also one of the few civil servants in the Ming Dynasty.

This is also the reason why Zhu Cihong chose to come straight to Huai'an. At this time, the four towns had not yet been formed, and Huai'an had loyal people like Lu Zhenfei in charge, and the general situation was still good.

To say that the geographical location of this Huai'an Fucheng is extremely important, its north is the Huai River, the southwest is the Yongji River, the southeast has Sheyang Lake, the northeast has Maluo Township, Miaowan Town, Yangzhai Township three inspection divisions, can be said to rush.

Different from the ordinary quadrangular city, Huai'an is a pattern of three cities: the new city, the old city, and the joint city.

The circumference of the old city was eleven miles, the height of the city was thirty feet, and there were four gates. The east gate is said to be watching the wind, the south gate is said to be far away, the west gate is said to be looking at the clouds, and the north gate is called Chaozong. There are four buildings in the city, three corner towers, fifty-three nests, and two thousand nine hundred and sixty pheasants.

The circumference of the new city is seven miles and twenty zhang, two zhang and eight feet high, and there are five city gates. The east gate is said to look at the ocean, the west gate is said to be far away, the south gate is said to welcome Xun, and the north gate is said to be Hongji. There is a small north gate in the west of the big north gate, called Dai Chen gate, and there are four corner towers, 48 nests, 1,200 pheasants.

Liancheng is between the old and new two cities, the east is 256 zhang 3 feet, the west is 225 zhang 5 feet, the city height is one zhang 45 feet, the height of the city is 6 or 7 feet, the thickness is 45 feet, the size of the city tower is four, the southeast city gate is called Tianqu Gate, the northeast city gate is called Fucheng Gate, the southwest city gate is called Chengchengmen, the northwest city gate is also called Tianqu Gate, and the pheasant is 620 stacks.

Together, the three cities have a circumference of seventeen li and an area of about four square kilometers.

The old city was built in the Tang Dynasty, and the new city was built north of the old city by Zhang Shicheng and Shi Wenbing at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

As for Liancheng, it was built in the 39th year of Jiajing.

At that time, the southeast Japanese were raging and invaded Huai'an several times. In order to prevent the troubles, the imperial history of Caoyun Zhanghuan played the imperial court, from the northeast corner of the original old city to the southeast corner of the new city, and built a joint city, connecting the old and new cities, also known as the clamp city.

So far, the basic pattern of the three cities of Huai'an City has been formed.

Zhu Cihong couldn't help but be amazed when he saw such a majestic city.

Most of the yamen offices in Huai'an Mansion were concentrated in the old city, and Zhu Cihong and his entourage came from the north, and if they wanted to enter the old city, they had to pass through the new city and the city first.

They entered the city from the Hongji Gate, the north gate of the new city, all the way through the new city, Liancheng, and then through the north gate of the old city towards the Zongmen into the old city, and went straight to the governor's office.

The governor's office is located in the north of the old city of Huai'an City, slightly south of the government office.

To say that there are a lot of yamen in this Huai'an city, there are not only Shanyang County Yamen, Huai'an Mansion Yamen, but also the governor's yamen, Caoyun Governor's Department, and the Standing Procuratorate.

Now Lu Zhenfei is also the governor of Caoyun and the governor of Huai'an, but it is said that he lives in the governor's yamen.

This is understandable, after all, the canal has been interrupted several times at this time, and there is very little energy to be spent on transportation, and most of Lu Zhenfei's energy must still be spent on supervising the military administration of Huai'an.

Zhu Cihong knew that in the original historical time and space, the south was the first to get the news of the fall of Shenjing in Huai'an. On the eighth day of the first month of April, Lu Zhenfei announced the news to the gentry under his rule according to the Tang newspaper.

Later, the officials in the capital of Nanjing also learned of this news, and they all started to think crookedly, hoping to obtain the merit of making decisions by supporting the vassal king.

Now that Zhu Cihong has broken through from Beijing, it is naturally impossible to let these political opportunists do anything wrong, as long as he, the legitimate prince, is here, he is the Taoist and the undoubted successor to the throne.

Zhu Cihong's better understanding of Lu Zhenfei comes from history books. In this life, he had only read Lu Zhenfei's name a few times from the newspaper, but he had never seen him himself. Of course, before he crossed over in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, whether the prince of the East Palace had seen Lu Zhenfei or not, Zhu Cihong didn't know.

However, it doesn't matter if you have seen it or not, Zhu Cihong carries the treasure seal of the East Palace with him, which is enough to prove his identity. That Lu Zhenfei is absolutely loyal to the imperial family, and with his support, Zhu Cihong can arrive in Nanjing safe and sound.

"Master, there is the governor's yamen in front."

The chamberlain Liu Chuanzong said cautiously.

Zhao Xin, the head of the guard of the East Palace, also said: "Childe, let's go in with you." ”

This title was specially emphasized by Zhu Cihong. At first, Zhao Xin often called His Royal Highness, which was too dangerous, so Zhu Cihong ordered him to only call Gongzi.

Zhu Cihong let out a long breath, calmed down and said, "When the opportunity comes, those guards may not be easy to deal with." ”

Liu Chuanzong and Zhao Xin nodded in unison.

The group walked to the governor's office, and sure enough, several guards came forward.

When they saw that Zhu Cihong was dressed luxuriously and had a good temperament, they didn't dare to scold rashly, and said cautiously: "What is this prince doing when he comes to the governor's office?" ”

Zhu Cihong smiled slightly: "I am the nephew of Lord Futai, and I was ordered by my father to come to visit Lord Futai. ”

When the two soldiers heard that Zhu Cihong was the nephew of Governor Lu, their attitude became more and more respectful.

"Wait a minute, this son, I'll go and say goodbye."

One of the soldiers hugged Zhu Cihong with a fist, then turned around and entered the governor's yamen.

After a short time, a man in a navy blue moire silk robe paced towards Zhu Cihong. Behind him was the soldier who had gone to make the report.

The man was not too tall, slightly chubby, and his face was very rich.

Zhu Cihong was wondering if this person would be the governor of Lu, but the man took the lead in speaking: "The contemptible person is Lu An, the disciple of this mansion, dare to ask what the son is called?" ”

He was very respectful, with a smile on his lips.

Zhu Cihong was stunned for a moment, the door official? Is this guy just a doorman? The door officials are all wearing silk clothes, what a big style!

He cleared his throat and said, "The late birth is surnamed Zhu, and he came from Beijing, and he bothered the old man. ”

The officer bowed slightly, and turned away.

Zhu Cihong was not in a hurry, and stood there quietly waiting.

After about a cup of tea, the official ran out panting, with a smile on his face: "Childe, please come in, please come in quickly." ”

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