Zhang Youyu was originally Gao Hongtu's right-hand man, but when Hongguang was first established, Zhang Youyu wanted to ask Gao Hongtu to help him rise to another level and become a scholar in the Ministry of Industry or Xingbu, but he didn't expect Gao Hongtu to reject him, which offended Zhang Youyu. Therefore, after Ruan Dacheng came out of the mountain, Zhang Youyu immediately fell to Ruan Dacheng and became a capable commander to attack Gao Hongtu.

There is a ghost Zhang Youyu's help, Ruan Dacheng has mastered all the lawless things of Gao Hongtu, and the household department has not collected taxes on time, which is a big matter, and the four towns of Jiangbei and Zuo Liangyu's nearly one million troops have no military salaries, but they are going to be in big trouble, so Ruan Dacheng seized this point to kill Gao Hongtu in one fell swoop.

Gao Hongtu sighed, it seems that Ruan Dacheng came prepared today, in addition to smearing himself morally, he was also caught in political affairs, and there was no way Gao Hongtu had to stand up and resign.

This brought down the two generals of the Donglin Party, which made Ruan Dacheng very happy, and then Ruan Dacheng Baoju Zhang Youyu served as the secretary of the household department, and Zhou Kangeng, the former secretary of the Ministry of Industry, took over as the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, and Li Zhan took over the secretary of the Ministry of Industry. These Ruan Dacheng's henchmen occupied high positions one after another, and for a time the eunuch party showed signs of resurrection in the new dynasty.

In the next few months, Ruan Dacheng made persistent efforts, used the ash picking incident to get rid of Jiang Yueguang, and posted anonymous letters in the city to squeeze out Lu Daqi and Liu Zongzhou, but this was not Ruan Dacheng's real purpose. On the first day of the seventh month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Ruan Dacheng finally threw out the long-planned plan that led to the death of the Donglin Party.

After Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, the ministers of the Ming Dynasty did not care at first, and only thought that it was a new owner. Working for the Ming Dynasty is a part-time job, and working for the Dashun Dynasty is also a part-time job, there is no difference.

But the fact is that Li Zicheng was so ridiculous that he was driven away by the Manchus after not staying in Beijing for a few days. And some of these ministers heard the news of the opening of the Southern Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, so they came up with new ideas. First, this group of ministers had the idea of Yixia defense for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and secondly, they were familiar with the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, so a group of scholars and doctors went south to Nanjing, intending to continue to work for the Southern Ming court.

But these scholars think too perfectly, China lacks everything and there is no shortage of officials, and the Nanjing Imperial Court has already filled all the official positions, what do you surrender factions want to do when they come back? So these people are waiting for redistribution in Nanjing, it is these unlucky people who let Ruan Dacheng see the opportunity, these guys have been stained politically, and these people still have an unclear relationship with the Donglin Party, so Ruan Dacheng instigated Emperor Zhu Yousong to issue an edict to announce the investigation of the matter, and these scholars who went south were put in prison in this way. Historically, this incident is called the "Shun Case", and the Shun Case, to a certain extent, intensified the internal strife of Nanming and accelerated the collapse and demise of Nanming.

Of course, this is a historical determination, but in fact, the bigger reason for the Shun case is that Ruan Dacheng's counteroffensive against the Donglin Party is reversed. No matter what the future holds, Ruan Dacheng's success has actually strengthened the authority of Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, and indirect Ma Cheng has also received great benefits.

Since the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry have replaced their own people, these two departments have increased their support for Ma Cheng's new army, and allocated 100,000 taels of silver to Ma Cheng in June.

Taking this opportunity, Ma Cheng arranged his subordinate Xu Zhenye to serve as the director of the Battalion Department of the Ministry of Industry, in charge of the Leather Bureau, the Pigment Bureau, and the Ordnance Bureau. Xu Zhenye and Ma Cheng were used to rectify the Xuanwu Lake Ordnance Bureau from beginning to end, improve the unreasonable production process, and at the same time introduce a more efficient assembly line process, which greatly strengthened the production progress of the firecracker.

Of course, such a big change Ma Cheng would never be able to complete it alone, thanks to Chen Zilong's help, Chen Zilong is very good at arithmetic and institutions, often Ma Cheng puts forward an idea, and Chen Zilong can put this idea into practice.

However, Chen Zilong is not a genuine scientist like Xu Guangqi after all, Chen Zilong can only be regarded as Xu Guangqi's successor, and his understanding of Western studies is still not as strong as Xu Guangqi, so Ma Cheng still can't build that steam turbine.

Although the principle of the steam turbine is very simple, but the requirements for materials are very high, Ma Cheng saw the boiler leaking everywhere and sighed, is it really going to Nanyang to get rubber, and then develop a reciprocating steam engine that is not as effective as a steam turbine?

What Ma Cheng didn't know was that even if he went to Nanyang now, he couldn't get rubber, the origin of rubber was in the Americas, and it had not yet been introduced to Nanyang by the Portuguese for large-scale cultivation.

Everything went smoothly made Ma Cheng very happy, and he felt that according to this progress, he would be able to train 10,000 troops by next year. But the house leak happened to rain overnight, and when Ma Cheng was elated, Chen Zilong sent a message that disappointed Ma Cheng, Chen Zilong was going to resign and return to his hometown.

In the past two months, Ma Cheng and Chen Zilong have intersected and the relationship has become better and better. Ma Cheng found that Chen Zilong did not have the pedantic atmosphere of a literati at all, except for sometimes liking to chant limericks and visit brothels, he was completely like a college student who had just graduated in later generations, full of vitality, vitality, and full of hope for the country.

Chen Zilong's impression of Ma Cheng is also getting better and better, Chen Zilong used to know that Ma Cheng was completely a second ancestor through Ma Luan, but after a month of working and living together, Chen Zilong found that Ma Cheng was completely different from the son of Ma Cheng. Although Ma Cheng doesn't read, he has a wide range of knowledge, and Ma Cheng has a unique opinion no matter what. Although many of these opinions are superficial, this is enough for Chen Zilong to be impressed by Ma Cheng.

However, the life and work of Ma Cheng could not reduce Chen Zilong's disappointment with the government, and in the past two months, Chen Zilong has written more than 50 times and provided more than 60 suggestions for the country, but the attention of the entire court is on the party struggle. Needless to say, Ruan Dacheng and Ma Shiying thought about persecuting the Donglin Party. And the righteous people of the Donglin Party are also fighting back. In this case, naturally no one cares about Chen Zilong, who is in charge of the seven products.

Seeing that the court has become like this, Chen Zilong was very disappointed, and at the end of June, he wanted to resign and return to his hometown.

What makes Chen Zilong unsure is the work of the Ordnance Bureau, now that some of the main workshops have been renovated, Chen Zilong is ready to return to his hometown in a few days, and today he is here to say goodbye to Ma Cheng.

When Ma Cheng heard that Chen Zilong was going to leave him, he immediately said, "Brother Chen, why do you have to leave?" Why don't I talk to my dad and give you a promotion! ”

Listening to what Ma Cheng said, Chen Zilong smiled bitterly and said: "Brother Xian, it doesn't matter to the foolish brother whether he is promoted or not, even if he is promoted to the elder of the pavilion, what can he do?" Now that the government has become like this, several elders attack each other for their own selfish interests, and the foolish brother has been very disappointed in this officialdom, since this is the case, it is better to go home to study and serve the old mother! ”

Ma Cheng heard Chen Zilong say this and knew that this old brother was completely desperate for the country, but what Chen Zilong said was also right, the political situation in Nanming is a pot of gruel, and whoever comes will have a virtue, even if Zhu Yuanzhang climbs out of the filial piety tomb, there is no good way.

Ma Cheng and Chen Zilong have been getting along very well in the past ten days, and they don't want such a right-hand man to go home so disheartened, in order to keep Chen Zilong, Ma Cheng doesn't mind revealing a little bit of the historical process to this good friend.

"Brother Chen, now that Li Zicheng and other rogues in the north have retreated to Guanzhong, and the Manchus occupy several provinces such as Beizhili and Shanxi, what if the Manchus move their troops south? So it's better for Brother Chen not to go home, how about staying here to help the younger brother rearm and fight? ”

Chen Zilong smiled when he heard Ma Cheng say this: "Hehe, virtuous brother, you can rest assured, although the Manchu cavalry is powerful, but Li Zicheng is not a good type, Li Zicheng retreated to Guanzhong Tongguan is guarded, and it is impossible for the Manchu Ken to quickly solve Li Zicheng." If you don't solve your worries, the Manchu Qing will dare to expose the flanks to the eyes of the Liukou? Therefore, the Manchu Qing Dynasty must first solve Li Zicheng's southward movement, as well as hundreds of thousands of troops in the four towns of Jiangbei, occupying the Yellow River and the Huai River, and in addition to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, there is Zuo Liangyu guarding it, and Nanzhili is very safe here! ”

Chen Zilong's understanding is also the understanding of the princes of the court, and it is precisely because everyone thinks that the Manchu Qing and Li Zicheng must be inseparable, so the princes of the court and the central government put down their hearts and play in the nest, and are ready to divide the big and small kings before the Manchu Qing or Li Zicheng go south.

Ma Cheng was very anxious when he heard Chen Zilong say this, but history couldn't reveal too much, so Ma Cheng had no choice but to ask: "Brother Chen, what if Li Zicheng can't beat the Manchus?" What if the Manchus sent two ways to deal with Li Zicheng and us? ”

Historically, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, as Ma Cheng said, divided their troops into two ways to deal with Li Zicheng and Nanming. All the way, under the leadership of Prince Azig, a total of 30,000 Manchurian, Mongolian and Han allied troops entered Shaanxi from Shanxi, followed Li Zicheng's butt to chase and fight, and successively occupied 63 cities in Henan, Huguang, Jiangxi, and Jiangnan, and finally stopped at the city of Nanjing. There is also a way to be the Manchu Qing Dynasty's most capable Yu Prince Duoduo led, through Henan, Shandong, and finally to Yangzhou, one day to capture the world has several strong cities Yangzhou, slaughtered the city ten days after crossing the Yangtze River.

What Ma Cheng said has revealed the historical process, but Chen Zilong is not a traverser, but like most people in this era, he also thinks that the Manchu Qing will definitely fight to the death with Li Zicheng in the north first. Although Li Zicheng was defeated by the Manchus, Li Zicheng's hometown of Guanzhong has not been lost, and Li Zicheng still has hundreds of thousands of troops in the Huguang area of Henan, and the Manchus will not be able to wipe out all the hundreds of thousands of troops within a few months.

Even if the Manchu Eight Banners are all superhumans, and one can fight ten, but in addition to Li Zicheng, the Southern Ming Dynasty still has millions of troops in Jiangbei and Wuchang, and when the Manchu Qing and Li Zicheng are tired, it is the time for the millions of troops in the Southern Ming Dynasty to wait for work. So Chen Zilong didn't believe it when he heard Ma Cheng say this, but shook his head and smiled: "Brother Xian, what you said is too sensational, this war is not as easy as you think!" ”

Ma Cheng heard that Chen Zilong didn't believe it and continued to persuade, so he knew that Chen Zilong's heart had been decided, so he shook his hand and said: "Brother Xian, don't persuade me, in a few days, Brother Fool will return to his hometown after sending the left servant of the military department to the north, and in the future, Brother Xian can come to Songjiang Mansion to find me, you and I will rest when we are drunk!" ”