When Emperor Chongzhen was reburied, there were still a few days before the annual Spring Festival, and the Ming Dynasty was about to usher in the fifth year of Zhongxing.

In order to rush back to Nanjing City for the New Year, Zhu Cijiao, the Empress Dowager Zhou and the ministers set off immediately.

On December 30, the last day, Zhu Ciji and Empress Dowager Zhou finally returned to Nanjing.

Although when recovering the city of Beijing, Zhu Cijiao had said that he would not move the capital back to Beijing, but still took Nanjing City as the orthodox capital of the Ming Dynasty in the future, but Zhu Cijiao has been living in Beijing for a month, although it is to re-bury the emperor, but in the end it makes some courtiers who support Nanjing as the orthodox capital of the Ming Dynasty in the future feel uneasy.

After all, in their hearts, the current emperor grew up in Beijing, who knows if he will live and change his mind, plus the queen mother also grew up in Beijing, who said that there will be no feelings for decades, if the queen mother personally said to the current emperor, the current emperor is also likely to change his mind, these two uncertain factors are, how can they rest assured.

Not only were the courtiers who supported Nanjing uncertain, but the courtiers who supported Beijing were also uncertain, because Zhu Cijiao did not return to Nanjing City for a day, which gave them hope, and of course they hoped that Zhu Cicheng would change his mind halfway.

At this moment, Zhu Cijiao finally came back, then the matter was completely settled, there was no suspense, and both parties naturally stopped thinking about that aspect of things.

In fact, no one knows that Zhu Cihe's decision to set the future capital of the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing instead of moving back to Beijing was not because of any luck and didn't want trouble, in fact, Zhu Cicheng was carefully considered.

Beijing City and Nanjing City are related to the two main directions of Daming's future development.

If it is set in the city of Beijing, the main direction of the future development of the Ming Dynasty will undoubtedly give priority to the land and the north, and Zhu Ciji will gradually force back the Russians north of the Mongolian steppe, and finally completely occupy the huge Siberia and stabilize the operation, and at the same time expand violently to the west and south, laying a large territory for the Ming Dynasty.

If it is set in Nanjing City, the main direction of the future development of the Ming Dynasty will be given priority, and the most powerful naval force will be built, expanding from the sea to the four directions, and gradually planting the sense of sea power in the hearts of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

In both directions, although in the end it is to expand the territory of the Ming Dynasty, one priority land, the Ming does not need to build a strong navy, and all the costs will be reduced exponentially. And the other priority sea, the cost of building a navy is undoubtedly huge, which can be called a bottomless pit, with advantages and disadvantages.

Zhu Ci is very clear about the future development situation of the world, and sea power will be the mainstream of world development in the next few hundred years.

The Ming Dynasty may already have a powerful navy that can run rampant in the world, but the consciousness of sea power has not entered the hearts of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

As soon as Zhu Ci stumbled into the palace, the figure of a three-year-old girl ran towards Zhu Ci.

"Father!" The crisp shout, with a slightly glutinous tone, was full of excitement, which made Zhu Ci's heart soften instantly.

Zhu Ci smiled and hugged the girl, pinched the girl's delicate little nose and said, "Ouch, my little princess Minmin, I haven't seen you for a few months, and she has grown taller again, father!" ”

Zhu Ci smiled and kissed the girl's little face, which looked a little like Dong Xiaowan.

Yes, this is the eldest princess Zhu Huimin born to Zhu Ci by Dong Xiaowan.

Zhu Ciyu now has two sons and one daughter, of which the eldest prince Zhu Xuanhua was born to the queen and is four years old this year, the second prince Zhu Xuanyu was born to Concubine Huang Ying, who is three years old this year, and the eldest princess Zhu Huimin was born to Concubine Dong Xiaowan, who is also three years old this year.

The five women in Zhu Ci's harem, in addition to the queen, Concubine Xian and Dong Xiaowan, the two little palace maids of Lanxiang and Begonia, who had been serving Zhu Cijiao closely, were also admitted to the room by Zhu Cicheng more than a year ago, and were named Concubine Lan and Concubine Li respectively.

Since the little princess Zhu Huimin is here, the queen and the other five daughters and the two little princes are naturally also here.

"The son of the emperor to meet his father!" The eldest prince led the second prince to salute Zhu Ci respectfully.

"Get up." Zhu Ci said lightly.

The two little princes stood up straight, looking at the little princess Zhu Huimin in Zhu Ci's arms, there was no doubt that there was a strong envy on the two little faces, although the father and the emperor usually cared about them, but they had never been so intimate with the third sister, they were all children, how could the difference be so big, how could they not be envious, sometimes the two little hairy children looked at Zhu Ci and spoiled Zhu Huimin so much, and couldn't help but wonder if the father and emperor liked girls very much.

Zhu Ci had just returned to Nanjing, and there were still a lot of government affairs to deal with, and after a small gathering with his five daughters and three children, he went to deal with government affairs.

In the early morning of January 1, with the ringing of the palace bell, Daming ushered in the fifth year of Zhongxing.

In the past four years of Zhongxing, the most important thing is undoubtedly that Zhu Ciji led his army to the north to conquer the Manchu Qing Dynasty, not only recovering all the lost territories in the north, including Liaodong, but also conquering the Mongolian steppe.

Today's Ming Dynasty, the territory is vast, not only to restore all the territory before the end of Wanli, but also to more Mongolian steppe and South Seas, Malacca and a large area of the Indonesian archipelago, it can be said that the territory of the Ming Dynasty is nearly one-third larger than before the end of Wanli.

After the military victory, the Ming Dynasty also achieved significant economic growth in the four years.

For the first time, the annual revenue of the state treasury in Zhongxing exceeded 80 million taels of silver, and the population of Jiangnan also increased to more than 80 million, plus the population of all parts of the north was recovered, and the Ming Dynasty now has a population of nearly 120 million.

The population of 120 million seems to be about the same as the population in the Wanli period, but because of the war in the north for many years, a large number of people fled to the south of the Yangtze River, so that the population of the entire north including Liaodong and other places together is only more than 30 million, not even half of the population of the south of the Yangtze River, so that in the north today, a large amount of abandoned land is uncultivated.

Therefore, after the Chinese New Year, the first thing Zhu Ci had to do was to restore the economy and people's livelihood in the north, and if he wanted to do this, in addition to clearing out bandits in the mountains and forests in various places, he also had to find ways to make a part of the population in the south of the Yangtze River move to the north.

Zhu Ci was thinking about it, and suddenly, Huang Daozhou, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, asked to see him.

"Xuan!"

In a moment, Zodiac Zhou was brought in.

"Your Majesty, the king of Joseon sent a letter of state, saying that the prince of Joseon will enter the court today to pay homage to congratulate the emperor on expelling the Manchurians!" The news brought by Huang Daozhou made Zhu Ci hesitate for a moment.

"The prince of Joseon?" Zhu Ci frowned.

Today is the Chinese New Year, and the king of Joseon sent the prince to come at this time, which is really a good time to choose.

Since the prince of Joseon came by boat, only one step slower than the letter of the king of Joseon, at this time it was already about to arrive in Nanjing, in order to welcome the prince of Joseon, the Ministry of Rites had to be busy at the beginning of the New Year.

Zhu Cicheng had no choice but to postpone the matter of moving people to the north for a few days, and then make plans after dealing with the affairs of the Korean envoys.