Beiping, the ninth day of the seventh month.

It was a sunny day, the sky was blue and cloudless, but there was a huge sphere floating in the air, already tens of meters high, and it was still trembling and rising.

The courtiers on the ground, such as Tie Xuan, Guo Key, Wang Du and others, let out exclamations from time to time, Bai Fangrui and other concubines were happy like little girls, and Zhu Yunwen looked at the hot air balloon in the sky with a smile, holding his second son Zhu Wengui, who was more than four years old, in his arms.

Zhu Wengui saw a hot air balloon for the first time, he flashed his big eyes, kept pointing at the hot air balloon in the sky, and kept saying, "Father, what is that?" What is that? ”

"Moon Gyu, that's called a hot air balloon."

"Hot air balloons? How do you fly so high? ”

"Hehe, Wengui, when the air is hot, the density becomes smaller, so it flies under the buoyancy of the air."

"What is air?"

"Air is ......"

......

Zhu Wengui is the age when he is curious about everything, so he keeps asking questions, and Zhu Yunwen can explain at first, but in the end he finds that it is not easy to explain the principle of hot air balloons in a language that children understand.

But fortunately, Bai Fangrui came over in time, took Zhu Wengui away, and relieved Zhu Yunwen's siege. Zhu Wengui was still a little reluctant to leave his father, and sniffed a few times, but after only a while, he jumped up and went to play again, and the cheerful laughter made everyone's mood brighter.

After about a quarter of an hour, after asking Zhu Yunwen's permission, the craftsmen pulled the hot air balloon down and examined it. After the inspection, the chief engineer (this is a new term created by Zhu Yunwen) Zhou Tong rushed over and said with a deep salute: "Your Majesty, it has been inspected, the hot air balloon is intact, and this test is very successful." ”

"The fat pig put on this time is quite normal, and next time the minister plans to go up and try it himself."

"This won't work, Zhou Tong, you can't go up, I will send someone for you."

"This," Zhou Tong hesitated for a moment, and said in a low voice: "Actually, actually, the emperor and the minister have already gone up once." ”

"What?" Zhu Yunwen was shocked, and then smiled bitterly: "Zhou Tong, don't do such a dangerous thing in the future, you have more important things to do." ”

"However, if the minister doesn't test it himself, how can he let others go up, and what if there is danger?"

Zhu Yunwen shook his head, called Guo Jian beside him and said: "The hot air balloon test base must be kept strictly secret, you deploy a thousand people to be responsible for guarding, and these engineers are prohibited from going on the hot air balloon, and the test candidates are recruited from soldiers and civilians, so pay more attention to safety." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Looking at the puzzlement on Guo Key's face, and then at the expressions of the ministers around him, Zhu Yunwen chuckled and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, do you think that I am losing my mind by plaything?" ”

"Don't dare!" "Don't dare!"

"Tie Qing's family, why don't you speak?"

"The minister doesn't think that the emperor is playing with a plaything, but he doesn't know the emperor's intentions, and he hopes that the emperor will make it clear!"

"Hehe, this hot air balloon is very useful, for example, when the two armies face each other, our army raises the hot air balloon, and then observes the enemy's situation through the telescope, then it is impossible for the enemy to sneak attack us."

"Also, during a siege, hot air balloons can fly over the city and throw grenades or explosives packs down, what do you think?"

Yes? Tie Xuan was shocked, and immediately arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, this thing is a heavy weapon of the military state, and it must not be spread out, once someone harbors evil intentions, makes a homemade hot air balloon, and watches every move of the palace in the sky, then the emperor will be in danger." ”

"This," Zhu Yunwen was suddenly startled, as if there was a problem, he couldn't kill himself, and hurriedly said: "Tie Qing's family is right, this must be strictly restricted, and anyone is prohibited from making hot air balloons privately." ”

"Obey the order!"

"No, no," Zhu Yunwen thought for a moment and said, "In this way, the manufacture of hot air balloons must have the permission of the local government, and the use of each hot air balloon must be registered. ”

"Yes."

......

The hot air balloon has not yet reached the practical stage, Tie Xuan thought of the problem in the later stage, and Zhu Yunwen, who was afraid of death, immediately convicted the private hot air balloon as a crime of treason, and then carefully observed the expressions of the ministers, but found that everyone sincerely agreed, and couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

The knowledge of later generations actually has side effects, Zhu Yunwen is difficult to understand the sworn allegiance of Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru and others, so he has an instinctive suspicion of anyone's allegiance, suspecting that he has other plans, so Zhu Yunwen has always been very cautious, calmly observing the ministers, he does not believe that there is loyalty for no reason.

At this moment, Liu Tie, who was in charge of guarding the periphery, came in to report: "Your Majesty, General Sheng Yong has an urgent military report of 600 miles." ”

"Sheng Yong? Get it! Zhu Yunwen hurriedly said.

When he opened the military newspaper and looked at it, Zhu Yunwen laughed and said: "Okay, Sheng Yong is good, at the cost of more than 3,000 people, he broke through the city of Shaliyuan and defeated Li Fangyuan's pro-army, it is really an unprecedented victory!" ”

Looking at everyone's puzzled eyes, General Zhu Yunwen handed it over to Wang Du: "Go back to the palace!" Discuss it now! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

On the way back, the news of Sheng Yong's victory in the Shali Courtyard spread, and the Wenchen generals were very excited. Although everyone didn't say it, they all complained about the emperor's forced rebellion against Korea. North Korea is not a good place to fight, when Emperor Yang of Sui conquered Goryeo three times and led to the destruction of the country, Tang Taizong conquered Goryeo, Gojong took advantage of the Goryeo civil strife to destroy Goryeo and Baekje, but finally left the hidden danger of Silla; Even the mighty Mong Yuan took nearly fifty years and nine expeditions to bring Goryeo to its knees. Emperor Hongwu is such a strong person, there is nothing he can do about North Korea.

It's just that now Li Fangyuan is called the emperor, which is beyond the bottom line of the ministers' tolerance, and it can't be tolerated anyway, so the conquest of Korea has won the full support of the courtiers, but everyone has no bottom in their hearts. Moreover, Sheng Yong's army is only 100,000, while North Korea has 200,000, and it also has a geographical advantage, and the ministers, especially the civil ministers, are not optimistic about it.

However, Sheng Yong was like a god, and conquered the city of Shali in half a day, capturing 20,000 enemies and killing 30,000 enemies, but his own casualties were only more than 200; Later, Sheng Yong ordered Qu Neng to take care of the prisoners, and ordered Zhang Fu and Zhang Hantian to lead the cavalry to meet Li Fangyuan, and he led the infantry army as backup.

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhang Fu and Zhang Hantian encountered Li Fangyuan's 30,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry near Xinchuan. In the middle of the battle, Sheng Yong's army arrived, the infantry was like a forest, the artillery roared, and the Korean army was defeated. The puppet emperor Li Fangyuan only led more than 10,000 remnants of the army to flee in a hurry, and more than ten people including generals Anton Xun and Ding Gaofeng were beheaded, and nearly 20,000 enemies were captured. Zhang Fu and Zhang Hantian led the army to chase to Haizhou. Li Fangyuan did not dare to enter the city, and withdrew to Kaesong along the coast.

Zhang Fu and others took advantage of the situation to surround Haizhou and prepare to attack the city.

The situation is very good.

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhu Yunwen issued a holy decree to commend all the officers and men of Sheng Yong's army, and ordered them to make persistent efforts to conquer Kaesong and Seoul as soon as possible.

At the same time, he praised Sheng Yong's use of the practice of surrendering the army, and enshrined Xu Bao, who was the first to surrender, as the viscount, and appointed him as the commander of the first guard of the Korean Guiyi Army, and the rest of the generals also agreed to Sheng Yong's appointment, but strictly forbade him to possess firearms, and secretly ordered Sheng Yong to consume some appropriately to prevent him from becoming bigger, but he should also reward him for his military exploits to inspire his loyalty. In Zhu Yunwen's view, every Ming citizen is precious, and as for the North Koreans, if they die, they will die.

As for the salary of the Guiyi Army, it was about one-third of that of the Ming soldiers.

When Zhu Yunwen's holy decree arrived at the Eastern Army, Sheng Yong had already supervised the army to conquer Haizhou and Hukou Pass, control Tieling and Cibei Ridge, and left the city less than fifty miles. After the surrendering army heard that Xu Bao was made a viscount and he was given the name "Guiyi Army", he also settled down to serve the Ming army.

However, at this time, the Eastern Army had also reached its limit, and its grain and grass transportation had to be changed to land transportation after it arrived at Shaliyuan. In order to wait for the replenishment of food, grass, ordnance and ammunition, the Eastern Expeditionary Army stopped at Hukou Pass and Haizhou and formed a confrontation with the Korean army in Kaesong.

At this time, Sheng Yong was still waiting for news from the sailor, because if the sailor could open up the Hanjiang River channel, then the transportation of grain and ordnance would no longer be a problem.