Bauhinia City, Dongnuan Pavilion, Yang Hongzhang looked at Emperor Zhu Youzhen a little weakly, last night, he was still with the emperor's concubine who was high upside down, and now he asked him for power and money.

"Aiqing, according to Hong Chengchou's report, there are at least 40,000 Mongolian cavalry stranded in the Xuanda area, and there is a chance of victory, how long will it take to completely eliminate the disaster?"

"Your Majesty, the Mongolian cavalry is not as good as Jiannu, it is not so terrible, the minister brought 12,000 people from Tianjin this time, these people are not the refugees that the minister gathered at the beginning, but the soldiers who have been strictly trained by the minister, and they believe that as long as they go to the front line, it will be the Mongols who will be defeated." Yang Hongzhang raised his head confidently and replied.

"Ha, so I can rest assured, so I still have a request for Aiqing?"

"Your Majesty, Tianjin City has poured the efforts of the minister and Mr. Song, and the imperial court has also invested a lot of financial resources, and the minister implores the emperor and the imperial court to let the new governor continue to develop Tianjin according to the previous plan, and must build Tianjin into Shanhaiguan and Suzhou and Hangzhou on the side of the capital. In another two or three years, Tianjin will be second only to Beijing and surpass Baoding and even Suzhou and Hangzhou. ”

"How is Tianjin Tongzhi Song Yingxing?" Zhu Youzhen looked at Yang Hongzhang with a smile and did not answer, but asked a new question.

"Academics, I know that I have wronged him, in fact, in the minister's plan, he is the most suitable candidate for the dean of the Royal Engraving Academy, but unfortunately the emperor has not approved the establishment now. In addition to helping him plan the new city of Tianjin, he also had selfish motives and wanted him to be in charge of firearms research and the development of new types of artillery and gunpowder. Now that the minister has left Tianjin, Mr. Song is afraid that he will be snubbed by the officialdom again because he is obsessed with research, or will be shelved by the new governor, so that he is only a positive eighth grade when he is over fifty. ”

"This is simple, since Song Yingxing can be so respected by you, he will not be a mediocre person, then the position of the Tianjin prefect will give your development plan a chance, let him come up. Xiao Gui Cao Sui, the first prefect should be almost built in Tianjin, I am looking forward to it. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Mr. Song will not disappoint the emperor. ”

"Hmph, I didn't see you kowtow so sincerely when I rescued you from prison and named you Hubu Langzhong."

Yang Hongzhang grinned honestly: "Your Majesty, it's different, it's different." Tianjin City is like a work of art or even a child cultivated by the minister, and the minister is naturally full of joy to see him live for a hundred years or grow up to become a talent. The emperor rewards the ministers naturally and is happy, but the emperor will often reward the ministers according to the ability of the ministers, but the ministers have not had many opportunities in their lives to build a city from scratch into a super giant city, and the ministers are not boasting, in addition to the scale of Beijing City is larger than Tianjin, once there is the emperor and civil and military officials in addition, in other aspects are not as good as Tianjin. The minister simply talked about a public toilet, the emperor still used a toilet in the palace, as well as the laying of rain and sewage pipes, the planning of roads and the separation of commercial areas, settlements and military areas, hehe...... Tianjin's health situation will soon surpass that of Beijing. ”

"Hearing you say this, I really want to take the time to take a look, if it is really as good as you say, I will promote it in Beijing City, how about you come to be the Yin of Shuntian Mansion when the time comes?"

"Your Majesty, Emperor. The emperor still said come back to Datong, although the minister is not afraid of Mongolia in the war, but the minister is afraid that someone will pull back, and the minister does not know which one the court intends to use to be the prefect of Datong. If there is another Wang Lenian, he will be wronged to death. ”

"Okay, Wang Lenian has been exiled to Yunnan, aren't you okay? I don't think the average person is your opponent. Zhu Youzhen waved his hand to stop Yang Hongzhang's performance.

"That's all about the emperor's trust, although the emperor is wise and martial, he can't stand the villain making noise around the emperor all day long. And the minister is not so lucky every time, in case a little mistake is caught by him, the emperor believes it, and the minister will be doomed. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen began to be silent, he was better on the issue of treating Yang Hongzhang, he really made such a mistake in the treatment of Sun Chengzong, so that Sun Chengzong spent ten years in Gaoyang. Now that Sun Chengzong has returned to the court, the atmosphere of the court is new, at least in the event of a war, there is no need to ask the entire cabinet as before, and no one has a way.

Of course, it is precisely because of Sun Chengzong's old spiciness, Zhu Youzhen admires Yang Hongzhang even more, because the recital that Yang Hongzhang wrote in the prison cell was affirmed by Sun Chengzong!

It's not that Yang Hongzhang is not confident, in fact, Zhu Youzhen himself is not confident, the more outstanding Yang Hongzhang's ability will be, the more he will be hated, and the greater the postgraduate entrance examination he will face, followed by the fact that he has been shaken a few times before, and he almost distrusts Yang Hongzhang.

"Your Majesty, the ministers thought that in order to prevent traitors from blinding the saints, the emperor should establish a secret folding system on the basis of the current Inspectorate and the Jinyi Guard Inspectorate Hundred Officials, and the commanders, governors, governors, and reminders from various provinces were sent back and sent directly to the emperor through channels instead of first going through the ministries and cabinets. This also prevents some ministers with interests from concealing or suppressing what is happening below. It also gives restless people like ministers a channel to report the local military and public conditions directly to the emperor in peacetime. If the emperor can keep abreast of the minister's every move, he won't care about the noise of those villains around you. Moreover, you and I can only know about the important matters in the border town, and the leakage of information can be avoided. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen fell into contemplation again, and nodded heavily for a long time: "Today's Jinyiwei exists in name only, and the Inspectorate has also been mixed with sand by the ministers, and the secret folding system you said is good." I'll start with you. Say, are there any others? ”

"Your Majesty, the new army in Tianjin has only been in army for a year, and most of the people have no weapons and equipment, this year the imperial court has not allocated weapons except for military salaries, can you make up for it while the war is about to start? If the military department can't come up with so much at once, it will be converted into silver, and the minister will find a way to find a craftsman to do it. ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at Yang Hongzhang and said with a sly smile: "The household department will definitely lose and take out so much silver, how much can you ask Master Ni specifically, at most I will let you open a mine in Datong." ”

"Your Majesty, it's hard for a good woman to cook without rice." Yang Hongzhang was anxious when he heard it.

"That's it, at most, let Fang Zhenghua give you a little more weapons, but the number won't be much, and he definitely can't give you the cannon."

"The minister asked the emperor to allow the minister to go to war at any time, without being restricted by the military department. The ministers wanted to ask the Mongols to snatch weapons and horses through war. Hearing this, Yang Hongzhang looked at Zhu Youzhen with a wicked smile on his face.

"That's fine, but I want you to take the time and control the scale."

"Emperor Xie, the minister knows in his heart that the minister is guarding Datong, not destroying Mongolia. Of course, if the opportunity comes, the ministers will not miss the suppression of the Mongols, abandoning the Jiannu and switching to the Ming Dynasty. Yang Hongzhang immediately unfolded a chrysanthemum-like smile and saluted Zhu Youzhen, the grassland people, especially the Mongolian bullying and fear of the hard, if they can gain a firm foothold in Datong, they will definitely continue to clash with Mongolia when they become strong, and then suddenly remembered something and said, "Your Majesty, the minister told you last time in the prison, there are many spies among the current Shanxi merchants, and when the minister was in Tianjin, someone once came to Cangzhou to make trouble, trying to speculate on the grain so that the minister could not buy grain, causing Tianjin to run out of grain, In the end, I knew that the new army was disbanded, and the city was built and the people were strong. Whether it is disturbing the Tianjin market or selling grain and pig iron to Jiannu, this is a naked traitorous behavior, and the minister will not tolerate it after he arrives in Datong, which will definitely touch the interests of some ministers in the court, and the minister asks the emperor to block them for the minister no matter what, so that the minister can make Datong peaceful and the border peaceful. ”

"What are you going to do?"

"Hehe, this Shuchen will keep it secret for the time being, anyway, Chen will not do anything that violates the law and discipline, and he will not do anything that hurts heaven and reason. However, I also asked the emperor to order the ministers to rectify the border trade, and the ministers are famous. ”

"Sage Yun, don't compete with the people for profit, won't you be attacked by the heavens and merchants together." Zhu Youzhen said worriedly.

"Your Majesty, the ministers read everything, but they are not saint disciples, so they don't care who says it, and I don't care what they say. Or is it that sentence, if the country lives and dies, can it be avoided because of blessings and misfortunes? As long as it is beneficial to the country and the court, the minister does not care about the infamy behind him. As long as the emperor believes in the ministers, it's fine. ”

"Good, good, good, a profitable country lives and dies, so that it is not because of blessings and misfortunes. What a person who is not afraid of infamy behind him! In this case, I will do it boldly, I will be your backing, I also regret not keeping you in the court, the new tax rate will be implemented in the world, and now other places seem to have encountered resistance, if there are a few more like you around me, why should I worry about the instability of the country, why worry about the Ming Dynasty. Do a good job, and in a few years, when you have enough qualifications, I will transfer you back, and when the time comes, you and Sun Ge will give me advice and experience the world. The young Zhu Youzhen was obviously also emotional, if he was overweight and those ministers were like this, he would not have gray temples before he was thirty.

"Your Majesty, the minister is still young, so let's try to do something that embarrasses the emperor. The minister also has one thing to ask for, now the thirteen guards in Datong Town have been almost destroyed, and the minister wants to command the following must be a lot of shortages, so the minister wants to be able to implement the recruitment system in Datong as well, and maintain the status quo after the rectification of the existing guards, and supplement some low-level officials to maintain the normal operation of the guards. Otherwise, even if the Thirteen Guards are full, the Mongolian latter Jiannu will still be unable to stop it. The combat power of Nanzhili's guards has been tested, and five or six thousand Japanese soldiers can turn Nanzhili's and even Zhejiang's transaction volume upside down. If the imperial court and the Datong Mansion use the grain and grass to support these guards who are like waste, the minister dare not imagine that if Jiannu goes south in winter, what kind of resistance will my Ming Dynasty have? ”

Zhu Youzhen's face finally stopped looking good, because Yang Hongzhang mentioned his sadness, since he ascended the throne, basically Jiannu has to go south every two years, and if it wasn't for Yang Hongzhang who came out of nowhere the year before last, the capital would be in danger.