Sent to Hue by clippers, in addition to the merchants belonging to the various intelligence systems who reported the earth-shaking changes in the Kingdom of Portugal, González, the former commander of the Restoration Army and now the King of the Kingdom of Portugal, asked His Highness for permission to govern the distant Portuguese people on his behalf.

As for the title, it is a reward according to His Highness's liking.

On Gonzalez's seal, Shouhan was very generous in replying, "Accurate." Can be called the Emperor of the Portuguese Empire. Gonzalez I. ”

Next to this seal is a text in the name of the Kingdom of Portugal, announcing that the colonies and rights and interests of the Americas will be handed over to the Nanyue Army free of charge, in gratitude to the Nanyue Army for its righteous and selfless assistance in the arduous process of the restoration of the Kingdom of Portugal.

Subsequently, however, the representative of the Kingdom of Portugal in Ho Kiang O, Father Alfonso, signed an agreement to lend $5 million to Long Sheng for the purchase of a supply for the Kingdom of Portugal.

As one of the ancillary conditions, the Kingdom of Portugal had the duty and obligation to provide the army of Nanyue with no less than five thousand skilled sailors every year, as well as those technicians and workers who could not live peacefully in Europe and carry out their academic research because of the war, as well as physicists, chemists, mathematicians, astronomers, doctors who were considered heinous by the Holy See, and so on. They will all be sent to the far east by the Portuguese, so that His Royal Highness Ning Yuanbo, a good friend of Christianity, will severely punish them.

Father Alfonso wrote to the top of the Church with great excitement about this additional condition for the punishment of heresy, hoping to receive the support and help of the Holy See in the process of implementation.

With this epistle was transported by the fleet in the direction of the Mediterranean. There were also hundreds of artillery pieces for the Ottoman Empire, and enough weapons and equipment to arm the Ottoman Sultan's 10,000 guards.

"Let's go to the west! The more lively and ruthless they fight, the more time we have to complete the occupation of space in the east. ”

Putting down these few contracts related to the distant neighbors to the west, Shouhan let out a long breath, and his strategy of long-distance and close attack had initially paid off. Taking advantage of the 30 years of war in Europe to gain a rare window of time for China, we have time to complete the strategic deployment.

"My lord, this is a briefing on the situation in the mainland."

When comparing the news from the mainland with the news from the west, one is happy and the other is worried.

However, Shouhan is no longer worried. It is not as painful as Emperor Chongzhen, who directly faced this messy situation.

The seventh day of August in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen. Just after the morning, several cabinet ministers, the Ministry of Rites and the left and right attendants, and the Ministry of War. Several people from the two departments of etiquette and soldiers are in the matter. The imperial history of Henan Province and the imperial history of Huguang Province, etc. There is also an old concubine Ran Xingrang, who is old, white-haired and down-chested, and dignified, and was called into the palace. They first met outside the Jinshui Bridge inside the Huangji Gate, and passed through the Hongzheng Gate and the Zhongzuo Gate. Got to the right back door. Inside the door is the place where the emperor often summons his ministers, commonly known as the platform. Last night it was said that the right person was summoned here today, but it was deserted, and only one eunuch was waiting here. He told the officials that because the royal body was unwell, he was summoned in the Qianqing Palace instead. So this group of courtiers continued to walk forward, bypassing the back of the Jianji Hall and entering the Qianqing Gate. Outside the door, there are two tall gilded lions, one on the left and one on the left, shining golden in the sun. On weekdays, if the courtiers have the opportunity to be summoned to the Qianqing Palace, if they are not too nervous, they can't help but glance at the two lions a few times and admire their beautiful demeanor. But today none of them had the leisure to admire the lion and continued to move forward under the leadership of the eunuch.

The current situation can be described as treacherous, the emperor's mood is extremely difficult to guess, so the ministers' hearts are very uneasy, afraid of being severely reprimanded, and the irresponsible section and Taoist officials also half-truthfully bring out a worried look, and at the same time in their hearts are ready to carry out indiscriminate attacks on the generals and supervisors they don't like at every opportunity, even if there is constantly good news coming from Hong Chengchou, there are constantly people on the table to impeach him for being afraid of the enemy like a tiger, cowardly and not fighting, in order to win "dare to speak" Good name.

A month ago, Jiannu Rao Yu Belle Abatai and the puppet Minister of the Interior Turge led the army and horses into the pass from Miyun Qiangziling, and quickly conquered Jizhou after entering the pass, and then parted ways and waved the prancing horse, running through Zhili and ravaging the Gyeonggi region. If it weren't for the Jingying military horses guarding Nancao in Tianjin, they were also the troops who fought a tough battle with Jiannu back then, I am afraid that this group of dog thieves would burn down the more than 100,000 stone grain and rice hoarded there.

In Henan, since the thief Li Zicheng joined forces with Luo Rucai, the thief leader of Cao Ying, the two groups of men and horses have been constantly attacking cities and towns in the hinterland of Henan, plundering places, and harassing prefectures and counties. Everyone can see very clearly that the goal of these two groups of people is to go to Kaifeng in eastern Henan, and now the states and counties outside Kaifeng have gradually fallen into the hands of thieves.

"Two governors were built inside and outside the border, and two governors were set up in Changping and Baoding. There are also six governors of Ningyuan, Yongping, Shuntian, Baoding, Miyun and Tianjin. Ningyuan, Shanhai, Zhongxi, Xixi, Changping, Tongzhou, Tianjin, Baoding eight general soldiers. There are many dots, there is no place to defend, and the power of affairs is different. The alarm is coming, and the towns are urgently recruited to help, and Dongnu has broken Jizhou and parted ways to the south. Several officials of the province discussed in a low voice, in their opinion, today's prelude to the king is right, it is necessary to impeach a few people, for this reason, they have been connected in series, each of them has written a seal, to impeach the Jiliao Governor Hong Chengchou and his governors, governors, and soldiers.

Entering the Qianqing Gate is the royal road, which is protected on both sides by white jade railings and railings with delicate carvings, thick and soft lines. The retainers walked north from both sides of the royal road until they reached the Chongjie, which is the Dan Majesty in the south. In the middle is a huge stone slab, carved with a double dragon to protect the sun, full of auspicious clouds, and there is a tide below. The structure is tight, complete, and the image is vivid. The ministers lowered their heads and went up from the stone steps on both sides to the platform in front of the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, the so-called Danqi. There are gilded copper dragons, copper turtles, and copper cranes on the Danqi, all of which are more than five feet high, paired in pairs, sandwiched by the royal road, and the east and west face each other; In addition, there are Baoding incense burners, and other furnishings. As soon as the ministers entered the Qianqing Gate, they were surrounded by a very solemn and solemn atmosphere, and the more they walked forward, the more reverence and fear they became, and their hearts were clear. As soon as I arrived in front of the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, I didn't even dare to come out.

The eunuch did not lead them into the main hall, but led them from the eaves of the main hall to the east to the east corner gate. A few people were bold, and when they looked up, they saw a faded yellow paper post posted on the wall, which read: "Madame Chastity has sent a holy message: No noise is allowed in the East Corner Gate." "Because of the secret affairs of the deep palace, it is almost isolated from the outer court, and people who read this post don't know who this is called Mrs. Zhen. But everyone knew in their hearts that the emperor must be in an upset mood on weekdays, and he had to read the documents. Therefore, eunuchs and palace maids are not allowed to speak loudly in this corner gate. There is a small building next to the corner gate. Hanging a yellow brocade curtain, a small plaque hangs on the forehead of the door, on which is written Zhaoren Palace. The eunuch lifted two brocade curtains in a row, and everyone bowed in. East. Two more curtains were lifted. The ministers went to the innermost room. Only then did they arrive at the place where the emperor summoned them. Chongzhen's face was haggard, and he sat on the royal couch covered with yellow satin mattresses. A small table of rosewood is placed on the couch, and a few documents are placed on it. There is also a tea bowl with a lid on a lotus leaf-shaped silver tea tray. A small plaque hangs on the left, which is the four words of "self-denial and revenge" written by Chongzhen's imperial pen.

After the ministers kowtowed, Chongzhen called them up, then sighed and said with a sad expression: "Now that the Dongnu thieves are becoming more and more intense, and the army of our court is confronting the slave chief Huang Taiji on the front line of Jinzhou and Guangning, you can't move lightly, what do you think?" ”

These people, when it comes to impeaching ministers, accepting Bing Jing and Tan Jing, and accepting protégés, are all experts, and if there are really major national and military affairs, there are two kinds of expressions, one is still somewhat self-aware, and people are as speechless as a gourd with a saw. And the other is to bring disaster to the country and the people, such as making a lot of nonsense, saying that he can level Liao in five years or something.

Everyone is still quite self-aware today, they can guess the intentions, listen to Chongzhen's words, and they don't plan to mobilize the troops on the Jinzhou front line to defend themselves, and those who plan to impeach Hong Chengchou put their minds away.

Under the nomination of several cabinet bigwigs, the military department reluctantly raised his head to Chongzhen.

The advice given by the military department in the matter is to transfer the elite of the Beijing battalion to the south to the front line of the Daimyo and Zhangde Mansions, first, to prevent Jiannu from going south to plunder, and secondly, to attack Henan at any time and aid Kaifeng. It is necessary to ensure that this important land of the eastern Henan feudal domain does not fall into the hands of thieves.

The so-called elite of the Beijing camp in his mouth is the elite of the Beijing camp selected and trained on the basis of those troops who accompanied the prince to the south to announce the decree and fought side by side with the Nanyue Army in Jinan against Jiannu, which can be regarded as a real sword and real gun. In order to make this army stronger, Chongzhen was very rare to have a complete agreement with the ministers and eunuchs, and transferred more than 200 officers and soldiers from Wu Biao's department, each of whom was promoted to one level, and served as officers at all levels in the Beijing camp, in order to achieve the goal of strengthening the muscles and bones.

This team, which is currently less than 8,000 people, can be said to be the heart and soul of Chongzhen and the celebrant supervisor, how can they move south at will? However, if it is not mobilized, the court will have no troops available at present.

Just as he was hesitating and hurting, a few little eunuchs outside hurriedly walked in with a stack of paperwork and didn't dare to raise their heads. You don't need to look at those documents, just by looking at the looks of the little eunuchs, people will know that the contents of these documents are probably more than lucky.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became tense, people seemed to be in an ice cellar, and the timid eunuch and palace maid had already trembled slightly, lest once the emperor read these urgent documents, he would find a fork in himself, and it would be possible to drag him out and die with a cane.

And Chongzhen himself, who was gathered by everyone's attention, looked at those documents and his face was pale. From the above official ranks, he can probably guess seven or eight percent. It is nothing more than where the troops of Dongnu Abatai and Turg have now hit, which cities have been captured and looted, how many Ding Zhuang people, property, cattle and horses have been plundered, and so on. And then there is the emergency document from Henan, and it is the same when I think about it, Chuang and Cao are two Liukou hundreds of thousands of elite thieves, all of whom have tasted the sweetness in Luoyang and Xiangyang, how can they let go of Kaifeng Mansion, which is full of children and jade silks, Tokyo Bianliang?

Now Chongzhen is worried about one point, if Li Zicheng beats Kaifeng, what if he is called the emperor here?

After taking two deep breaths and trying to calm down, Emperor Chongzhen slowly regained his composure, and took the courage to first disassemble the secret music of the Henan Patrol Gao Mingheng, and hurriedly read the two sentences of "Reason", and a miserable smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, "As expected!" ”

Chongzhen's fingers trembled even more fiercely due to the excitement in his heart, although he forced a smile on his face. But his muscles twitched. A palace maid bowed her head and came forward to add incense to the Xuande incense burner, not daring to look up at his face, only to see his fingers trembling terribly, for fear that the emperor would use her to vent his anger in his heart, and would kick her violently, so frightened that her heart tightened, her face turned pale, her calves trembled, and cold sweat broke out on her back.

Chongzhen didn't look at her, and quickly opened King Zhou's notebook. I watched it again. The smile on his face was a little sunny. Only then did he notice that the fourteen-year-old palace maid Fei Zhen'e had finished adding incense, and was retracting her white and tender little hand from the incense burner, turning around silently, and was about to leave. Only then did I find that this palace maid was as tall as a sixteen-year-old girl. Slim physique. Wearing a light red robe, a velvet rose is inserted on the sideburns, and the clouds are thick and black. The neck is pink.

If he changed his ancestor Ming Wuzong or other emperors, even if it was his father and grandfather, he would probably use this little man to vent the anger in his heart, and dilute the pressure in his heart with a little red and a burst of coquettish crying, but as an emperor who wants to be the king of Zhongxing, and in front of many ministers, he naturally has no interest in this beautiful little Lori. Just waved her hand, irritating her to hurry down.

"Now that the two thieves have conquered Qixian, Changge, Tongxu, Zhuxian Town, Weishi, Fengqiu, Lankao and other places, if it were not for the Yellow River at its back, Kaifeng City's Chinese armed forces have prepared ships to and fro, but I am afraid that Kaifeng is already a lonely city at this time, surrounded by thieves!"

"How can you retreat from the enemy?"

Emperor Chongzhen's cold tone fell on the heads of the ministers present.

Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet, Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department, Wei Zaode, Chen Yan, etc., looked at each other, but the old horse Ran Xingrang on the side adhered to the ancestral system, and the horse was not allowed to interfere in the government affairs, just look at the nose, nose and mouth, staring at his gray beard and counting the white beard on it.

He can stay out of the matter like this, but Zhou Yanru and others cannot, especially Chen Xinjia, as the secretary of the military department, it is his duty to mobilize the national army.

Moreover, Chen Xinjia, as the emperor's confidant, constantly dispatched food and weapons to support Hong Chengchou's battle in Jinzhou, but secretly arranged for his confidant to quietly consult with the Jiannu envoy to discuss the matter of striking the army and making peace. The envoy of Jiannu was very humble in his words, and only asked to refer to the Mongol Altan Khan and the affairs of Korea and the Ryukyus, give him a king's name, reward some old coins and silk, and then allow trade and open a few border markets. Such a requirement is indeed not too high. However, these must be built on the basis of Inspector Hong's victory, otherwise, the group of Kedao Yanguan in the court, the Hanlin Academy, the Guozijian, and the Fushe in Jiangnan, these guys who can only play with their mouths and play with the pen, are in a raging mood, and will lead the anger of the people of the world to him Chen Xinjia!

Chen Xinjia glanced fiercely at Zhou Yanru's back, "Hao's first horseman is a bearded rat, what kind of virtue can he have?" It's just relying on Donglin's momentum, but it has taken my first and auxiliary thrones! ”

He glanced at his colleagues on the left and right with the corner of his eye, Li Rixuan and the others were expressionless, and Wei Zaode and Chen Yan had gloomy expressions. Wei Zaode was a protégé of Xue Guoguan, because Zhou Yanru's henchman Wu Chang played a role in Xue Guoguan's death, so Wei Zaode hated Wu Chang very much, and was always looking for an opportunity to avenge the master, and he even hated Zhou Yanru together.

And Zhou Yanru usually despised Chen Yan, and Chen Yan hated him, but Zhou Yanru was in the limelight, and the two wisely chose to avoid the edge for the time being. These two people were immediately labeled in Chen Xinjia's heart as being able to deal with Zhou Yanru as allies.

"Your Majesty don't worry, in the opinion of the minister, Dongnu Bei sent a part into the pass to loot, it is at the juncture when the oil runs out, and he intends to use this to lure me to divide the troops to rescue, so as to relieve their pressure on the front line in Liaodong. Now I have more than 100,000 elite soldiers in the Ming Dynasty, gathered in Liaodong Shifeng Ma Teng, and are eradicating the Eastern captives who have been plagued by Liaodong for decades. At this time, it is absolutely impossible to divide the troops, once the men and horses from the front line are transferred to the customs to rescue, it will inevitably give Dongnu an opportunity. Which is more important and which is more important, you adults naturally know. And Ning Yuanbo is loyal to the country, and his troops are strong and strong, and he can also bring tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to the north to support at any time. Now that Dongnu Abatai has entered the customs and plundered, I have lost some states and counties, lost some property and people, and have not lost it at all. When the eastern captives are defeated, Ning Yuanbo and Hong Du's division and soldiers are united, and the thieves in the south of the banner are just clowns who jump off the beam, how can they compete with the army of our court? It's nothing more than a mantis arm as a car, and naturally the sea is too peaceful. The key today lies in the battle situation in Liaodong, and if Inspector Hong breaks the thief one day earlier, the Ming Dynasty will be peaceful one day sooner. ”

Chen Xinjia said nothing, and the ministers echoed one after another. Seeing that the emperor's face softened, one person said: "Inspector Hong sent troops to Liaodong, originally to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, and now the siege of Jinzhou to solve, if you let Inspector Hong return to the pass to crusade against the Li thief, if the Li thief is determined, then join forces with Ning Yuanbo, the Liao thief will definitely be in trouble." ”

"No way!" Emperor Chongzhen and Chen Xinjia almost simultaneously scolded the imperial historian, and Zhou Yanru also glanced at the official from Donglin Academy with hatred. The war in Liaodong has reached this point, once the army and horses of Hong Chengchou are withdrawn from the front line, it is bound to be wasted, and the Jiannu Society will once again rush a large number of iron cavalry to the city of Jinzhou, at that time, Hong Chengchou and the thieves are chasing the north in the hinterland of the Central Plains, Li Shouhan is far away in the south, where to find these hundreds of thousands of horses? How to supply and dispatch food and salary weapons?

Edict: "The general Henan Governor Li Xianfeng immediately arrested Beijing and questioned the guilt, patrolled according to the imperial history of the high name Heng to defend the city, promoted to governor, deputy general Chen Yongfu was promoted to the general soldier, his son garrison Chen De was promoted to guerrilla, Xiangfu Zhixian Wang Xie was promoted to the imperial history, and the rest of the meritorious personnel were identified separately, and the meritorious service was rewarded. Kaifeng civil and military ministers and military and civilian soldiers, loyal and commendable. There is a division to report, and each has a reward for encouragement. ”

As the celebrant sent out the edict, a secret decree was held by the two great eunuchs of the celebrant eunuch, and he hurried to Ning Yuanbo's mansion in the capital, and contacted the Titang official who stayed here, and then the group of people rushed out of Chaoyang Gate to Tianjin.

A few days later, the 5,000 elites of Jingying also left Yongding Gate, crossed Wanping City, crossed the Lugou Bridge and went all the way south to the Daimyo's Mansion and Zhangde Mansion.

Another special message written by Emperor Chongzhen's personal soldiers was carried by Wu Liangfu, a popular man beside the new emperor, who arrived in Tianjin on a fast horse and took the fast boat of the Dragon and Tiger Sailor to Jinzhou.

"Grandpa Wu, what are you doing?"

Wu Biao and Wu Liangfu, who were training troops in Songshan Fort, were also acquaintances, and when they saw Wu Liangfu coming, they felt a little confused.

"The emperor has a special decree to come, and he ordered our family to read it out in front of the army." Seeing that there were all Wu Biao's Guangdong compatriots on the left and right, Wu Liangfu stepped forward with confidence and whispered in Wu Biao's ear: "In the emperor's will, Jiamian Inspector Hong and the generals in front of the army, order our army in Liaodong to make persistent efforts to destroy this will to sweep away Jiannu!" (To be continued......)

PS: Thanks to the members of the board university and the five-star out of the East, a discussion group has been established, everyone who is interested can join the following, the group number is 428399767, for the future development of the plot to make suggestions, contribute characters and plots! Thanks a lot!