Time flies quickly, and in a blink of an eye, it is the New Year season again, and Zhu Youxiao is more comfortable this year. Taking stock of this year's affairs, the southwest Sichuan-Guizhou region successfully quelled the rebellion, and did not let this rebellion continue until the Chongzhen period as in history, under the blow of Sun Chengzong, Qi Jin's elite Ming army, the rebellious power of luxury Chongming and An Bangyan collapsed. Although Zhu Xieyuan did not become a hero of the southwest counterinsurgency as in history, he still showed his very problem-solving ability in the subsequent resettlement work, and Zhu Youxiao also decided to transfer him to the capital at the right time and give him a more important position.

Yuan Chonghuan, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Yuanhua, Yuan Yingtai and others also carried out surprisingly smooth warfare in the northwest, not only expelling the Mongolian Bu Shi Tu Taiji tribe from the Hetao area, but also forcing Bu Shi Tu Taiji to plunder the entire Ningxia and bring other ethnic minorities in this area to the Qinghai region under duress. In cooperation with the Sun Chuanting Department of Liaodong, Lin Dan Khan of Chahar Mongolia was driven to the north of the desert, and through a benign relocation movement, the entire northern region was completely integrated into the realm of the Ming Dynasty, temporarily eliminating the unstable factors on the northern border of the Ming Dynasty.

The situation in Liaodong this year did not start a large-scale war except for the partial encroachment on the territory of Nurhachi's forces. First, the counterinsurgency war in the southwest involved Zhu Youxiao's great energy, and it was necessary to put down the rebellion thoroughly, so as not to blow the wildfire and blow the spring breeze to blow again, and to avoid the unfavorable situation of fighting on three fronts as in history. Second, this year's war funds should not be spent too much, so as not to affect economic development. Therefore, Zhu Youxiao's task for Xiong Tingbi is to train the troops, train each unit into an elite, and make it an iron-blooded force that can fight and win in battle. Zhu Youxiao plans to completely expel the existence of the Jianzhou Jurchens in this area in the next year or two, as for expelling them there, Zhu Youxiao has not yet considered it, in short, it can avoid their demise, and give them a space to survive, but they can't let them add chaos to the Ming Dynasty.

Mao Wenlong's mountain infantry cavalry battalion can now be said to be the elite soldiers among the elite of the Ming army, according to the training manual with modern special forces training knowledge for hard training, this mountain infantry cavalry battalion looks extremely strong, whether it is individual combat skills, or the tactics of small detachments to cooperate with the operation, they are very strong. Mao Wenlong once invited Xiong Tingbi to conduct a small-scale live exercise, during the march of the competition, the same path, the soldiers of the mountain foot cavalry battalion only took half the time of ordinary soldiers to reach the destination, in the combat exercise, Mao Wenlong's 100 households scale soldiers easily defeated an ordinary 1000 households soldiers.

Xiong Tingbi was greatly surprised by Mao Wenlong's training ability, but Mao Wenlong quietly told him that his training method was taught by His Majesty the Emperor, and all the standard special weapons were designed and manufactured by His Majesty the Emperor, and His Majesty the Emperor also had vague hints about the use of these weapons, and Mao Wenlong himself was just trained according to these materials. Xiong Tingbi naturally would not ask His Majesty the Emperor about such a thing, and Sun Chengzong also vaguely mentioned His Majesty's genius ability in his later letters. Zhu Youxiao's god-like behavior had a powerful deterrent effect at that time, which made countless border generals with bad ideas feel scared, lost their attempts to rebel, and made countless heartfelt generals more confident.

Sun Chuanting's army had now grown to more than 50,000 people, and the Chahar region after the expulsion of Lin Dan Khan had become the home of 30,000 Mongol families on the left and right flanks of Chahar, who had reintegrated with the Horqin Mongol tribe and accepted Oba as the leader of their tribe. Sun Chuanting selected elite soldiers from this fused large tribe and cooperated with his original soldiers to form a new Mongolian cavalry, they used new steel sabers, received new training methods, and paid more attention to the cooperation between comrades-in-arms rather than the original individual combat. Zhu Youxiao pinned great hopes on this army, and their future goal would be to advance north into Mobei Mongolia, to expel the central khanate represented by Lin Dan Khan's "Golden Family" to the area farther west of Siberia, and eventually help the Mongols occupy the vast territory there, stop the eastward advance of Russia, and become a steel barrier for China's future west.

Qi Jin's navy has been completed, three new steam-powered third-class ships have been built, each warship can carry 120 naval soldiers, but Qi Jin allocated 360 soldiers to each warship, according to Qi Jin's statement, it is competition to get on the ship, only the best soldiers can have the qualifications to participate in the battle, in fact, this not only increases the enthusiasm of the fighters for training, but also reserves talents for more warships in the future. Soldiers who could not get on the steam-engine warship were trained on the second-class Fukubun battleship, and they also had the opportunity to enter the new warship training, but they had to wait until the new warship had a vacancy before they could participate in the battle. By eliminating soldiers who were not suitable to join the navy and recruiting young and able-bodied soldiers from the coastal areas, Qi Jin's navy had grown to more than 30,000 personnel, of which 20,000 belonged to logistics and reserve personnel, and only 10,000 troops could directly participate in the battle. In addition to more than 1,000 people prepared for steam-powered warships, the rest of these fighters are second-class ships as warships, these ships are not equipped with cannons, the main equipment is new mortars, their main combat mode is to cover the mortar fire and destroy the enemy soldiers for the purpose, to assist the three steam-powered warships in the destruction attack, this kind of ships are equipped with a total of nearly 30 ships, Qi Jin's flagship is not a steam-powered warship, Zhu Youxiao is afraid that he will rush into the enemy formation with soldiers in excitement, In case there is any unexpected loss, it is troublesome.

Qi Jin's navy was named the Ming East China Sea Fleet by Zhu Youxiao, and its home port was located in Qingdao Bend, which was a good ice-free port that could be trained in any season. It has been nearly two months since the warship was equipped, Qi Jin has hardly returned home in the past two months, he is also afraid of any accidents, but he hopes that the navy can be formed as soon as possible, because the emperor personally told him that once the navy has the ability to fight, the Ming Dynasty will open the sea ban and expand overseas trade, and the navy will be the biggest backing for the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty, and any pirates who dare to harass the Ming caravan will be hunted down by the Ming Navy to the ends of the earth.

The struggle in the court became more and more intense, Ye Xianggao, as the first assistant, now felt very helpless, and Han Yi, Zhao Nanxing and others, who had originally tried their best to promote him as the first assistant, were now against him, because in the "Suzhou City Strike" incident, Han Yi was extremely dissatisfied with him, Han Yi, Zhao Nanxing, and other Donglin Party members were opposed to any issue proposed by Ye Xianggao, but almost any issue proposed by Sun Chengzong could be passed smoothly. Ye Xianggao saw that he was being set aside by the same party again, and everything was restricted, so he was quite disappointed in his heart, and then proposed to Zhu Youxiao. Zhu Youxiao also saw Ye Xianggao's difficulties, but he also admired Ye Xianggao's talent, and he couldn't keep it again and again, so he had to let him go home to recuperate. As for Han Yi and Zhao Nanxing, Zhu Youxiao decided that he couldn't let them continue to stay in the capital, and Zhao Nanxing was over seventy years old, so Zhu Youxiao also allowed Zhao Nanxing to go home to recuperate, Sun Chengzong became the first assistant, and Han Yi became the second assistant. However, in order to let Sun Chengzong control the cabinet, Zhu Youxiao still privately warned Han Yi not to form a party for personal gain in the future, and must act as Sun Chengzong's assistant to assist Sun Chengzong in handling cabinet affairs.