The clans were forced to stay in the capital by Zhu Houzhao, and they were naturally not as free as in the royal palace of the domain, and the environment in which they lived every day was naturally not as good as that of their own palace, and they had to be monitored by the guards.

However, these nearly 10,000 clans can't afford to make waves, and they don't even have the courage to rebel.

But in any case, the reform of the clan is still in progress, and the detailed rules for the reform of the clan issued by Zhu Taihan have been passed by the cabinet resolution and issued to the world.

However, in this reform, Zhu Houzhao and the officials of the imperial court found that although the vassal kings could not resist the imperial court's clan reforms, they could carry out soft violent resistance.

The most obvious is simply degenerate to the end, living in the fireworks and wine alley is considered light, some simply gamble all night, lose the money on their bodies, and then owe their ten years of money on credit, and some gambling hall owners even ask for the account to the Zongren Mansion.

As for stealing things, eating overlord meals is even more commonplace, and I am not afraid of being caught in prison by the people of Shuntianfu, in short, I completely show myself as a mud that can't support the wall, and I look like Lao Tzu is going to be depraved and shameless to the end, and your court can't ignore me!

"Your Majesty, these clans don't dare to commit big things now, small things don't stop committing, and the Yamen of the Si doesn't dare to punish them too harshly, and now they have made the whole capital restless, and Zhu Rangxu, the king of Shu, will restrict the acceptance of concubines from next month, and these days he has taken five concubines in the capital, and the money has to be spent, so that he has no money to buy rice, and he actually sits directly in front of the household department to support next year's New Year's salary!"

Zhang Xuan, the first assistant to the cabinet, couldn't help but explain to Zhu Houzhao some of the current situation of the clan after staying in Beijing.

Zhu Houzhao didn't expect these clans to play like this, and they could not care about their identities to such a point, but as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he couldn't ignore the life and death of these nearly 10,000 clans, after all, these clans were human beings no matter how they said it, and they were still their own clansmen in this world.

"You have to let them have something to do, didn't I ask your cabinet to issue a ban on opening the four peoples, and none of these vassal kings will do anything serious?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

Zhang Xuan shook his head: "The clans are used to being pampered, and they are not willing to do it whether it is farming or business, and they will only ask their subordinates to do it, but now that the imperial court has replaced their subordinate guards with people from the imperial court, they naturally can't move, and they can't do anything." ”

"It seems that the imperial court still has to solve the employment problem of these clans", Zhu Houzhao said helplessly, he knew that these clans were using soft violence against themselves, and one by one they forced themselves, the emperor, to let them go back to the domain to be the princes of leisure.

Zhu Houzhao summoned Zhu Taihan and others from the Zongren Mansion, and in the past few days, the Zongren Mansion composed of Zhu Taihan, Zhu Houxi, and Zhu Zailei has been the leading institution in the reform of the clan, and has been specifically responsible for the statistical work of the heirs, concubines, and specialties of each clan, and has even eliminated many fake clans.

In this process, it is inevitable that the grumpy vassal kings do not support the work of the three, and there are even court officials who fan the flames, and although Zhu Taihan is good at making suggestions, he can't be decisive when encountering problems, but Zhu Houxi's strategy of using both soft and hard makes these clans dare not embarrass the Zongren Mansion, and even with the help of the identity of the emperor's eldest son Zhu Zailei, he hit a few clan boards and set up the majesty of the Zongren Mansion.

Zhu Houzhao saw all this in his eyes, and also confirmed that Zhu Taihan was an idealistic and insightful person, and Zhu Houxi was obviously usually stupid and clumsy, but he could still see the tricks when he really encountered something, and he was worthy of his reputation of repeatedly defeating the civil official group in history, and his eldest son seemed to have both, but sometimes it was more like a signboard, because the eldest son of the eldest son in Confucian etiquette had a special status, so that both the clan and the courtiers gave him some face because he was the eldest son.

Now, since the problems of the clans have not been dealt with well, Zhu Houzhao still thinks of letting them deal with it, in Zhu Houzhao's opinion, maybe the Zongren Mansion can also play more functions, not only to manage the clan's Yudie's edict and treatment, but also to manage the clan's moral behavior norms, education and employment.

Zhu Houzhao expressed this idea to Zhu Taihan and others, and Zhu Taihan and others couldn't help but think deeply after hearing this.

Zhu Houxi had the idea first, but he was reluctant to say it first, he preferred that someone would stand up and take the risk of offending people.

Zhu Zailei's mind has been on the study of cylinder boring of the two-rise steam engine, he is not very interested in the government and politics, especially the clansmen who manage the family, he even feels that it is not necessary, these clansmen themselves do not fight hard and do not work hard, why should the court care about their life and death.

Only Zhu Taihan was only the king of the county, but he was really thinking about it seriously, and after thinking for a while, he said: "Back to Your Majesty, the clans are idle, and there is still a lack of discipline, since they are not good at politics, agriculture and business, it is better to let them learn, please be strict with their teachers, make them successful, and then distribute them everywhere by the imperial court according to their academic merits." ”

Zhu Houzhao nodded: "It can only be so, Congxue may be the most suitable for these vassal kings, your Zongren Mansion and the School Department jointly set up a royal academy, from sacrificial wine to discipline, it must be the most strict person, like Gongxue, manage these clans in the strictest way!" Graduates are directly assigned by the ministry! ”

Thereupon.

As a result, a new school of higher learning appeared.

The so-called Royal Academy is obviously also the so-called aristocratic university, however, Zhu Houzhao does not intend to let the Royal Academy be all the children of the clan, and the circle needs to communicate with each other, otherwise these children of the clan will never know people from all walks of life.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao asked the Royal Academy to be mainly responsible for training the children of the clan, and at the same time, there should not be less than 10 percent of the students from poor families and no less than 10 percent of the disciples of the family, so that the children of the clan can understand the diligent and intelligent students of the poor family and the children of the talented family.

Acting King Zhu Juntsui complained about this at this time, he had never even been afraid of being in the prison of the Criminal Department before, but now being locked up in the Royal Academy made him live like a year, and when he thought that he was beaten by an old-fashioned old scholar because he was not familiar with the ninety-nine multiplication table, his palms were swollen like a bear's paw, and he cried and shouted to return to the fiefdom.

Zhu Houzhao also came to the Royal Academy to take a look this day, and when he heard the children of the clan crying wolf one by one inside, he was in a good mood, in his opinion, even if he could not cultivate a few pillars of talent, it would be good as long as they did not all become waste.

It was only at this time that the reform of the clans was almost over, and it was a fact that the vassal kings were confined in the capital, and as for how these vassal kings would use them in the future, it was naturally a matter of the future.

Zhu Houzhao felt that it was best for these feudal kings to always take the academic route, after all, these clansmen, as royal relatives, naturally had no worries about food and clothing, and whether they were engaged in business or politics, they would inevitably receive special care because of their status, and if they engaged in academic research, the special treatment brought by their special status would be conducive to allowing them to abandon their utilitarian intentions and engage in research with peace of mind.

Moreover, for some people who still value the ancestral system in their hearts, they are also more willing to see the clans engaged in academic research rather than farming and business.

In order to cultivate the interest of the children of the clan in academic research, Zhu Houzhao also specially prepared to take these clan disciples to the Ming Dynasty's scientific research base in the capital to observe, of course, now the recovery of Jiaozhi is imminent, coupled with the information provided by Jinyiwei, with the Ming Dynasty has been in a position of trade surplus for a long time and some unfriendly behaviors towards Portugal and other countries before, so that these Western forces and even Japan and other countries have begun to resist the trade of the Ming Dynasty, and even have the intention of retaliating against the Ming Dynasty, therefore, Zhu Houzhao really needs to have a good understanding of Daming's scientific and technological and industrial progress, and see how much confidence Daming has added to the global hegemony.

The Ming Dynasty started modern education from the establishment of Beijing Normal University, but the Ming Dynasty started natural science research from the establishment of the Royal Industrial Experimental Base, which was the personal behavior of Zhu Houzhao, the emperor, and has now become a strategic base that the whole country needs to pay attention to.

Today, the western part of the Imperial City is now the political and technological center of the empire.

In terms of science and technology, there are both comprehensive Beijing Normal University and the Imperial University of Defense Science and Technology undertaken by Yang Yiqing, as well as the Daming Industrial School focusing on engineering, as well as the newly established Royal Academy and Gongxue, as well as the Daming Academy of Sciences and Engineering Academy and Ordnance Bureau and other research institutions, as well as manufacturing companies such as the Royal Industrial Corporation, which can be described as an industrial base integrating production, education and research.

If it weren't for the relocation of the iron factory and some chemical factories to Tongzhou due to environmental considerations, the industrial system here would have been more complete.

Of course, if we add the shipbuilding and naval weapons research institutes in Nanjing and Quanzhou, it will be more complete.

Daming has now entered the stage of steam smelting and mining in heavy industry.

In the machinery industry, the improvement of steel smelting technology has made it possible to manufacture hydraulically driven boring machines, otherwise it would not have made good steam engines, and because of the emergence of boring machines, steam cylinders can be bored.

The boring steam cylinder has better air tightness, and even the development of the two-rise steam engine has begun, once the multi-rise steam engine is successfully developed, it means that it is possible to manufacture a steam ship.

However, it is now feasible to build a steam locomotive.

Even, in the experimental base of the Daming Academy of Engineering, simple rails and simple locomotives have begun to be used to transport large-scale experimental equipment and equipment.

However, Zhu Houzhao's main concern now is the manufacture of firearms, artillery, gunpowder and other weapons.

After all, war may occur at any time, and if the Ming Dynasty can raise the level of weapon manufacturing technology to a higher level, it will undoubtedly be more certain to win the battle for world hegemony.

Zhu Houzhao changed into a Ming version of the blue military uniform, and took a group of people into the production workshop strictly controlled by the Ordnance Bureau.

The rumbling sound of hydraulic impact sounded like a huge thunder next to the boring machine, and the standard barrels and barrels were bored one by one, and directly entered the workbench of the inspection workers through the assembly line, which were inspected by the inspection workers, and then loaded into the car and transferred to the outer platform through the pulley for test firing.

The whole process is very orderly and efficient, Zhu Houzhao also specially checked a cannon barrel personally, it is obvious that the barrel of the Ming Dynasty has begun to be boring out of rifling, and the rifling thread is gradually becoming finer, and the material for manufacturing the barrel has gradually changed from simple and separable copper and iron metal to an alloy barrel doped with various heavy metals.

"At present, the Ordnance Bureau has eliminated the smoothbore barrel and barrel, all of which use rifled tubes, we have a special boring master, a high salary of 1,000 silver dollars a month, these boring masters can basically ensure the same speed as the manufacture of smoothbore barrel barrels, Your Majesty came today just right, the minister and a few boring masters and Academician Cheng of Beijing Normal University made a gun that can be fired continuously without pulling the bolt, this gun should be the machine gun mentioned by His Majesty, but it is relatively large, the pipe is a little more, and there is a water tank, Even if there were wheels to push it, it would have to have four or five people waiting for it. ”

Academician Tong told Zhu Houzhao about his latest research and development results at this time, and Zhu Houzhao was also very curious after hearing it, and was busy with Academician Tong taking him to have a look.

So, Zhu Houzhao followed Academician Tong to the experimental school field of the Ordnance Bureau, and not long after, a technician from the Ordnance Bureau pushed a large iron lump that was no different from an artillery cart came out.

The officials and clan disciples who followed Zhu Houzhao all started talking about this.

While these clan disciples and officials were still discussing, Zhu Houzhao couldn't wait for Academician Tong to immediately start the test firing, and he was able to decide that this machine gun was very similar to the later Gatling, but it was slightly larger in size, and the water tank for cooling was also larger.

Bang Bang Bang!

It didn't take long for the Ming version of the large Gatling to start firing, and bursts of white smoke overflowed from the barrels of many guns, and the manipulator kept turning the barrels of the guns and fired bullets one after another, hitting the wooden target on the opposite side with thousands of holes.

Except for Zhu Houzhao, the officials and clan disciples present all opened their mouths wide, and they all couldn't believe that there could be such a firearm, and they didn't know whether to call this a cannon or a gun for a while.

Gui Cao, the secretary of the military department, immediately turned around and suggested: "Your Majesty, the minister suggests that this kind of guns be mass-produced immediately, if there are such guns, the cavalry will be dispensable!" ”

"Gui Butang, don't worry, this gun can't be mass-produced yet, now this is just an experimental product, when it can be standardized and mass-produced, we have to wait for a while", Academician Tong couldn't help coughing as he said.

Zhu Houzhao nodded: "I'm not in a hurry, but I hope that it can accompany my Ming soldiers to the southwest to fight monkeys in the future!" ”

Monkey fighting?

None of the people present understood what His Majesty the Emperor was talking about as a monkey, but Gui Cao suddenly realized: "Your Majesty gave the name of the indigenous people of Jiaozhi as monkeys, and the meaning is appropriate!" If you hit a monkey with this object, if you think about it, it is not a bad thing for the monkey to jump up and down! ”

……

Turning back, Zhu Houzhao now has to admit that the current Ming Dynasty is no longer comparable to any country in the world in terms of science and technology and industry.

Europe at the same time was still in the early stages of the rise of capitalism.

Portugal's international status was greatly reduced because of the Ming Dynasty's loss of shipping routes and trade markets, and only Spain still dominated the Western Hemisphere by relying on trade in the Atlantic and plundering in North America.

Not to mention the Americas, the tragic fate of the Indians has just begun, and the Inca Empire in South America has been defeated under the northward expansion strategy of the Ming Jianchang Marquis, and it has perished in less than half a month because of the disparity in strength between the two sides.

In addition to the Ottoman Empire, which straddles Europe and Asia, the Ming Dynasty has nothing to fear.

The real threat to Daming is still inside.

The accumulation of wealth can make a person degenerate, and it can also make an empire lose its enterprising mentality.

The strong small-scale peasant economy still made Confucianism stubborn in this land, and there were still many scholars who valued agriculture over commerce and tended to be conservative, and there were still voices hoping that the empire would stop conquering, cultivate the royal road internally, and be friendly and neighborly outside.

But now, Zhu Houzhao can see that the industrialization of the empire has become an irreversible trend.

The steam industry made the townization of the empire more and more obvious, and there were already a considerable number of bourgeoisie, craftsmen and working class in the Jiangnan and Liangguang regions and the Gyeonggi region, and in the eastern region, tens of millions of people were already living on labor and business, and no one dared to leave tens of millions of people unemployed in order to restore the ancestral system.

There are even quite a few such people involved in court politics.

Moreover, the present rapid progress of industry is not facilitated by the demand for profit of such people, and there is already a large number of professionals in scientific and industrial research and teaching alone, who are not inferior in political status, nor in economic life, and whose devotion to the natural sciences is not inferior to that of some of the masters of the European Renaissance period.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao believes that even after a hundred years, it will be difficult for the newly enthroned emperor and the new ruling group of the Ming Dynasty to turn the Ming Dynasty back to the conservative and rigid empire that is absolutely controlled by Confucian society, and only knows how to close off the country, emphasize agriculture and suppress commerce, and tend to be conservative and rigid.

The landlord class, the scholarly class, could not ignore the declining number of its tenant peasants, nor could they change it, and the huge profits of industry and commerce forced them to transform from traditional landlords to industrial and commercial capitalists, and the tenant peasants gradually changed from landless peasants to workers.

However, both the traditional scholars and the new bourgeoisie that have been transformed have a certain degree of selfishness, and they try not to pay taxes if they can, and they can evade taxes if they can, and they evade taxes if they can, which forced Zhu Houzhao to first engage in the new tax administration in Jiangnan and then to carry out the recollection of mining taxes in the Guannai, and finally the empire has now become an empire that can be reasonably controlled by the central court.

The Ming Empire has now become a capital industrial empire of absolute monarchy, and what is most needed is raw materials, and agricultural products are also one of the raw materials, so the Ming Dynasty came up with the idea of recovering Jiaozhi for food.

Many of the more conservative-minded scholars and doctors watched this phenomenon helplessly, looking at the newly built cement road, and the detachments of Guards officers and soldiers who were being transferred to the south.

At this time, Wang Yi, the chief judge of Shandong, saw these guards holding steel guns, pushing gun carts, or riding large carriages galloping on the wide cement road:

"I didn't expect it, I didn't expect that the imperial court allocated a huge amount of money to build this cement official road directly to Liangguang, and recruited nearly 200,000 Shandong refugees to open the road, which was originally to facilitate the transportation of troops to the south today! It is really where this cement road is built, where the army of the Ming Dynasty will go, but this reckless act of military force may not be the blessing of the community! ”

Although the traditional scholars were worried about the imperial court's foreign expansion, the officers and soldiers who participated in the Guards were now full of smiles.

"You don't see it, the final army of the Han Dynasty, the weak crown is the captive, please Changying, you don't see it, Ban Dingyuan, the peerless light cavalry urges the battle clouds! The boy should be in serious danger, how can he let the Confucian crown miss this life? ……”

At this time, an adapted version of the military song that was passed from Ouchi to the military academy and then to the Guards was being sung loudly by the officers and soldiers of the Guards among the rape flowers on the cement road.

Their spirit is full, and they are also enthusiastic about war, and the generous reward system and the military merit system, as well as the class that can directly turn into a soldier after retiring from the army, and serve as a grassroots official or even be promoted to a high-ranking official, naturally make them highly motivated to fight.

Even if they are not afraid of death, the Empire's insurance system and pension system can allow their children to receive special care because they are orphans of martyrs, and it is precisely because they are really on the battlefield that low-level soldiers dare to die generously.

The political department of the army has also done sufficient ideological work for them, so that they now not only understand who they are fighting for but also know why they are fighting, unlike the officers and men of the army in the past, even when they are on the battlefield, they do not know why they are participating in this war.

At this time, the officers and soldiers of the Guards already knew from the mouths of the officers and officers of the political system that they were doing a righteous thing, which was to recover their homeland for the Ming Dynasty, rescue the compatriots who were enslaved in Jiaozhi, and fight for enough food for their families, so they did not have any psychological burden on the upcoming war, nor did they feel that they were invading, that they were committing a crime, and even really regarded this war as their own career.

Yu Dayou, a young officer who graduated from the Military Command College of the Ming Army, was studying the materials borrowed from the Royal Library about the conquest of Jiaozhi during the Yongle period, although he was only temporarily stationed in Baoqing Mansion at this time, but he often deduced the sand table with several grassroots officers in his peers, and regarded the war to recover Jiaozhi as a cause he was passionate about.

This kind of army, like the later generations who fought for idealism and doctrine, once they accept war spiritually, and even hope to realize their own values through war, their combat effectiveness is undoubtedly terrifying, even if they do not have advanced weapons.

The unfounded gentlemen could not stop the officers and men of the Guards, who had been armed with ideological weapons.

Even because a large number of grass-roots officials are filled by retired officers and soldiers of the Guards, coupled with the idea of a family between the military and the people laid down from the very beginning, the people at the bottom have special respect for the officers and men of the Guards, and the relationship between the military and the people is particularly close, thus changing the concept that the people at the grassroots regard soldiers as bandits.

The literati's pot pulp has even become a reality because of this.

At this time, Yu Dayou had just entered a village and was about to look for the Li Zheng here to discuss the matter of stationing and staying overnight, when a group of people pointed to the Daming version of Gatling carried by a few people and asked: "Master Jun, where are you going to fight, how are you going to the south, what are you carrying, so many pipes?" ”

"Fellow, you don't know, we're going to the south, it's called a machine gun, and it's a monkey!"

Yu Dayou said.

The phrase "take a machine gun to fight monkeys" spread from the military headquarters to the Guards, and it became popular all of a sudden, and now even basic commanders like Yu Dayou habitually say it.

。 m.