If there is a Ming man who is happy about Hayada Saemon's assassination of Zhu Zhanji, it is Zhuang Jing.

Hayada Saemon led the Wako Tsumei, and although Shokei was in charge of managing them, most of them were only Hayada Saemon.

In the past six months, Zhuang Jing has worked hard to encompass him, but he has only attracted two or three hundred people to stand beside him, and I don't know how many of them are wall grass or moles.

The origin of the Ming Dynasty is a great temptation for ordinary Dongying nobles or ordinary people, but for these Japanese who are desperately trying their best with their heads on their belts, it is more important to stay together to save their lives.

Therefore, when Hayada Saemon assassinated Taisun, the mentality of the more than 1,000 Japanese who were still alive also collapsed when they witnessed the self-destruction of their leader.

Of course, Zhuang Jing will not let go of this opportunity, whether it is intimidation or co-optation, he wants to control this force in his own hands.

Without the existence of Hayatazaemon, there is no core that can unite all the Japanese invaders.

Even if there are still a few Hayada Saemon left and right men in it, they are now busy trying to clarify that they did not participate in the assassination of Taisun, and they still dare to oppose Zhuang Jing.

Therefore, within a few days, Zhuang Jing finally controlled this not too bad force in his own hands.

Fifteen hundred vicious widows, which also gave Zhuang Jing the foundation to stand on his own, and even ...... It is more powerful than the power that Ji Gang can directly control.

Ji Gang avoided Dongying, and the people who were willing to come to Dongying with him were all subordinates who had done a lot of bad things with him in the past and were afraid of being liquidated, and there were only two or three hundred people.

These people are his direct forces, but what makes him stronger than Zhuang Jing is that he is still the commander of Jinyiwei, and the entire Ming spy system in Dongying is still under his control.

Moreover, Ji Gang's level is now higher than Zhuang Jing's, and he has already departed from the stage of fighting and killing, let alone talking about politics.

Iwami was ceded, and Ji Gang has been coordinating with the internal supervisor during this time to adjust a batch of materials for the construction of the city.

Moreover, he had already chosen the address for the construction of the castle, not in the location of Iwami Ginzan, nor in Ota, which is now controlled by the Yamana family, but in a bay not far from the southern part of Ota, close to the coastline.

Iwamiyama has a lot of land and little land, and there is not enough food self-sufficiency, and even if the new city is built in Daejeon, it will not be able to feed more than 10,000 people.

There are more than 10,000 people in Iwami Province today, and they can barely feed these people by making weapons and making iron tools.

In Iwami Country, the Ming Dynasty reserve garrison reached about 10,000 people, and relying on the local area alone could not feed so many people.

However, Iwami Province happened to radiate the southwestern region of Toei, and it was a treasure land for the development of trade, and in addition to developing Ginzan, Kitsuna planned to develop the local area into a trade center in the southwestern part of Toei.

And this plan was also supported by Zhu Zhanji, if the Ming wanted to control Dongying for a long time, it could not just plunder, but also develop the local economy. Let everyone know that cooperating with Daming will have a better life than closing the door on their own.

In terms of geographical location, Iwami is certainly not as good as Nagasaki and Osaka, and Zhu Zhanji has not thought about developing formal trade, but it can become a "legal" smuggling window.

Some weapons that cannot be sold to Dongying on the surface can be traded with them by means of smuggling.

And for a person like Ji Gang, it is not difficult for him to establish a set of "underground order".

From Iwami Province to Osaka, Yamana Clan Toshi started like the end of the world. He never thought that Daming would actually fall in love with his Iwami country, and the shogunate would really cede his Iwami country to Daming.

As a minor lord, if he loses his fiefdom, he can only be reduced to the samurai class.

But he didn't dare to say no, whether it was the Ming Dynasty or the shogunate, they were all existences he looked up to.

One side is the guardian of a country, and the other side is a small landlord in the countryside, how can they fight.

But what surprised him was that although Ji Gang took Iwami Province from him, he helped him get Nagato Province from the Kyogoku family as his fiefdom.

Nagato is located in the north of Iwami, and there are more fields and areas than Iwami, and the population there is more than twice as large as Iwami.

In other words, Yamana Clan was a blessing in disguise.

In his opinion, it was all because he gave his daughter to Ji Gang to have such a good result.

Ji Gang looked at his grateful appearance, and couldn't help but laugh secretly, I don't know what kind of feeling he would feel when he knew that Iwami Mountain was a silver mountain.

However, his power is too small, even if he gives him Iwami Ginshan, he will not be able to keep it.

During his time in Osaka, Ji Gang has been busy with Zhou Bei's construction of the city, recruiting Dongying samurai for daily management in the future.

Although Taisun said that he would give him five hundred Jurchens, those people could only be used to manage the mines, and if they wanted to develop their own power and develop underground trade, it was best to use them as Japanese warriors.

Counting on the uncivilized Jurchens to do trade, engage in smuggling, and conduct underground transactions will only make a mess.

What's more, Taisun also needs him to set up a channel for population smuggling, transport the Japanese to Daming, and transport them to Nanyang to work or serve as cannon fodder.

All of this required him to establish a samurai group.

On the contrary, he did not put much effort into the development of the mine, because the mine was destined to belong to the imperial court, and he was already satisfied with the little leakage from the gap between his fingers.

The development of the mine is mainly led by the internal supervisor, assisted by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households, and the Navy is responsible for protecting the safety of the mine.

If you want to make money and gain a firm foothold, you still have to rely on your own efforts.

In the inner city of Osaka, Zhu Zhanji was looking at the third letter sent by Zhu Di urging him to go back.

In the letter, Zhu Di was obviously in a very happy mood, because he was already a great-grandfather, that is, Zhu Zhanji had become a father.

On July 28, Hu Liangdi left his first child for Zhu Zhanji, a daughter.

It's a girl, and that's probably the best outcome.

Hu Liangdi gave birth to a child before the princess, if it was a boy, it would be a big problem.

As the second highest status woman in Zhu Zhanji's harem after Concubine Taisun, her children are no different from their sons-in-law even if they are not concubines, and they also occupy the name of the eldest son.

If the princess also gives birth to a son, there will be a struggle in the harem for many years around the status of these two children.

At this time, Zhu Zhanji can only hope that Sun Xian must give birth to a son this time, his mind is only outside the harem, or even outside the Ming Dynasty, so he doesn't want to worry about these bullshit things.

In addition to the happy event of giving birth to a child, there are also several small troubles, one is to set up a bank, and the household department and the internal supervisor do not give in.

The Ministry of Household Affairs believed that they were in charge of the world's property, and that they should be in charge of the banks.

However, the internal supervisor believed that as the royal governor, he controlled the world's commerce, and they should be responsible for the bank.

The two ministries do not give in to each other, and Zhu Zhanji, as the initiator, wants to be the arbitrator.

This matter is easy to solve, because Zhu Zhanji has long been preparing to open two banks at once, so that on the one hand, they can compete with each other and have a comparison, and on the other hand, they will not allow either party to monopolize finance.

But there is another small thing that has to worry Zhu Zhanji.

That is, there are not many reserves of gunpowder......

This time, the army went out, except for leaving a batch of gunpowder for Zheng Heng in the north, and taking away most of the gunpowder that had been made.

Although the battle went smoothly, it was based on the large consumption of gunpowder. Without gunpowder, the Shenji Battalion would not be as effective as ordinary soldiers.

The three raw materials of gunpowder, sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal. Sulfur and charcoal are everywhere, especially now Daming owns Sado Island and Hokkaido, which are both sources of sulfur, and there is a large amount of sulfur with extremely high purity.

As for charcoal, it's more, don't worry about it at all.

There is only saltpeter, which is very small in nature.

In Zhu Zhanji's impression, it seems that only Russia, India, China, and Chile have saltpeter mines in the world.

He had been to the saltpeter mines in Chile and knew the exact location. However, it is far away from there, and it is impossible to get saltpeter from there at present.

India's saltpeter mine was discovered in the 18th century, and by the 19th century, it had been dug up by the British, so Zhu Zhanji did not know the specific origin at all.

It was also because of the fact that the saltpeter in India was dug up, and when high-purity saltpeter mines were discovered in Chile, a saltpeter war broke out.

As for Russia and China, Zhu Zhanji did not know the specific location, because after entering the 20th century, saltpeter could already be chemically synthesized, and people did not need saltpeter ore at all.

Later, he once saw the news that a saltpeter mine with amazing reserves had been discovered in the northwest, but he didn't care at all.

What's more, the current northwest does not belong to the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

As for chemical synthesis, for Zhu Zhanji, a scumbag, don't mention it at all.

"Li Liang, go and find me the map of Xichuan, especially the map of the Jiangyou area."

Although he didn't know what Zhu Zhanji was going to do, Li Liang hurriedly went to the ship's museum to look for a map.

Zhu Zhanji asked for a map of Jiangyou because he had the impression that Jiangyou once had several large saltpeter mines. During the Qing Dynasty, it was also the largest producer of gunpowder in China.

Of course, he didn't understand this because he was interested in gunpowder, but because he was interested in martial arts, and when he read the information of Master Hai Deng, he was introduced as a Chinese born in Chonghua Town, the hometown of Chinese gunpowder.

But this memory is not enough for him to find this place at all, because the Sea Lantern Mage will not be born until five hundred years later, and as for Chonghua Town, I am afraid it will not be called this name now.

He could only look at the map now to see if there was anything that matched his memory.

Liu Wan came to the door and said in a low voice: "Your Highness, the gold and silver antiques have been loaded into the ship and sealed the cabin. ”

"Got it." Zhu Zhanji glanced up at him, this month, Liu Wan sent a batch of gold and silver in response to Tianfu, and then came over to Dongying to be busy celebrating his belongings, he was already thin, but now his face is sunken.

However, this war is finally coming to an end, and when he goes back, he naturally has a time to be free. "You go to the various departments of the army to check if there are any soldiers from Jiangyou, and gather them all, I have something to ask."

"Yes......"

Liu Wan didn't even know where Jiangyou was, and after he came out, he asked a few people before he was sure that it was somewhere in Xichuan.

Immediately, he sent an official letter to all ministries, asking the generals to report the soldiers from Jiangyou.

Yu Linwei is mainly from Jianghuai, and the naval officers are mainly from the coastal zone, and it is really a little difficult to find soldiers from Sichuan.

On the second day, a total of three Jiangyou soldiers were found in the Shenji Battalion.

They were a little nervous to see His Royal Highness the adoring Taisun, and they were all extremely excited.

But to Zhu Zhanji's disappointment, none of them knew where saltpeter was.

Just as Zhu Zhanji was a little disappointed and ready to send them away, a soldier named Shao Sanjiang boldly said: "Your Highness, although there is saltpeter in the Beixia arrangement, there is an Laojun Mountain not far from Beixia's house, which is rumored to be the place where Taishang Laojun alchemy. If there is saltpeter, I am afraid it is in this mountain. ”

Zhu Zhanji couldn't help laughing, but then he restrained his smile. Taishang Laojun alchemy is a legend, but since it is called Laojun Mountain, maybe there is really saltpeter!

He commanded, "Give a reward of two taels of silver to one person, and let them go down." ”

I have already made up my mind, and when I go back, I will send someone there to find out the situation.

After sending these soldiers away, Li Liang reported outside: "Your Highness, the Navy Huang Yuanhuang is on guard to see you." ”

"Let him in."

Huang Yuan was not wearing a general's robe, but a scholarly robe, looking more like a scholar. After saluting, he said aloud: "Your Highness." Today, Wechen heard that the internal supervisor wanted to arrange for Ma Qi to serve as the guard of Osaka City, and Wechen thought that Ma Qi was greedy for money and unrighteousness, and as the chief official, he was prone to make waves. ”

Zhu Zhanji still admired Huang Yuan, and was not angry at his actions, and asked after a deep sigh: "This is an internal prison matter, why would Qian Jiu rather take the risk of interfering in this matter?" Or do you still remember that Ma Qi once reported Huang Shangshu for rebellion. ”

Huang Yuan had already figured out Zhu Zhanji's temper, and said without hesitation: "If it is false to say that there is no complaint, but Yuan will not abolish the public because of personal gain." Ma Qi has a violent personality, and in Jiaozhi, he caused several riots because of the abuse and killing of civilians, and regardless of the people's feelings, he was violently levied and forced, and everyone in Jiaozhi knew about it. If he is appointed as the envoy of Osaka Town, I am afraid that it will ruin His Highness's plan. ”

Zhu Zhanji laughed and asked, "What are my plans?" ”

This time Huang Yuan hesitated, but still said: "Although His Royal Highness seems to only punish the chief evil, but now he has detained the King of Wei back to Ming, and has vigorously encircled the famous master of General Dongying, and he will not even pursue his own assassination, of course, for the sake of a bigger plan." Yuan Bucai, arranging His Highness's deep meaning, but he can't bear to see the villain spoil His Highness's big things. ”

Zhu Zhanji knew very well in his heart that Huang Yuan might have seen through his plan, but he didn't dare to say it, and followed in Yang Xiu's footsteps.

He smiled and said, "When loneliness has not yet reached the point where you don't know people, you can rest assured......"

What kind of person Ma Qi is, of course Zhu Zhanji knows that this is an old pervert with a distorted psychology. In addition to being loyal to the royal family, he was greedy for money, cruel and tyrannical.

Such a person should not be used cautiously in Dongying, which needs stability at the moment, even in the land of barbarians.

Zhu Zhanji just used him, and he wasn't here. Now he is not sure whether he wants to establish the East Factory, otherwise, he will not be bothered at all.

Seeing that Zhu Zhanji was confident, Huang Yuan stopped talking nonsense and bowed down to leave.

Zhu Zhanji stopped him and asked, "Did Yixin and Zhu Zhen finish the quarrel?" How is the army left behind? ”

Huang Yuan said with some embarrassment: "Even Director Zheng can't suppress this matter, and the two still don't give in. If you want them to settle down, I'm afraid you still have to come forward. ”

Zhu Zhanji said with a smile: "The Second Fleet and the Third Fleet both want to stay in Dongying, and their hearts are available, so how can they pour cold water on them." However, if you send me a military order, it will be opened in three days, and if the two of them still quarrel, I will let the First Fleet garrison Dongying. ”

Dongying is closer to the Second Fleet in terms of territory, so he regards Dongying as a cash cow for the Second Fleet and refuses to let go.

However, of course, the Third Fleet refused to give up easily, and it wanted to get a piece of the pie here, so for the sake of the garrison, the two general forces were arguing.

In fact, the appetite of the Second Fleet is not very big, and now Tsushima Island, Izumo Province, and Sado Island on the west side of Toei are all on the cruising line of the Second Fleet, so they only want to ask for a garrison on the Izu Peninsula.

However, it is close to Osaka, the largest distribution center in Toei, and the eastern part is the most populous and economically important area in Toei, so the Second Fleet will not let go.

Zhu Zhanji did not help each other, but he also demanded that the two fleets must be jointly garrisoned, and no one should be allowed to monopolize it.

When Huang Yuan conveyed Zhu Zhanji's words to the two general soldiers, the two could only stop fighting.

Although Zhu Zhanji said that the transfer would be made in three days, the transfer of more than 100,000 troops, even if they were all by boat, still had many hands to solve, and the time was pressing.

Yi Xin angrily drew a circle on the Izu Peninsula, threw it to Zhu Zhen and said: "Cheap you bastard, be careful not to let me grab the handle of your Third Fleet in the future, otherwise, I will still have to come back here." ”

Zhu Zhen smiled without showing weakness: "Don't let me grab your handle, and then take a base from you." ”

In fact, both sides are psychologically clear that this is the best result, and it is also in line with Zhu Zhanji's thoughts.

Although the military cannot meddle in civil affairs and cannot get involved in tariffs, since the army is stationed here, some benefits are indispensable.

In particular, the Ming army has the responsibility of assisting in the stability of the situation in Dongying, and it mainly sends troops, so there is a quick catch!

But if you have a fleet stationed and there is no competition for personnel, it will be easy to corrupt. Although His Royal Highness said that the army should be mobile every three years, but three years is not a short time for an army, and everything that should be fished will be fished.

Therefore, having a fleet to compete and supervise each other, coupled with the supervision of the internal supervisor and the brocade guard, can ensure that the army will not quickly corrupt.

In the backyard of the former General's Mansion in Osaka, Liu Chenghui personally carried four glasses of black water and put them on the table.

In front of her, there were four Dongying girls with a somewhat dazed expression, two were princesses of the royal family, and two were the daughters of the famous lord.

Although they have a noble status in Dongying, at this time, they are as helpless as frightened lambs.

Liu Chenghui sighed before he spoke: "I have already told you the truth that should be explained, and now it is time for you to make a choice." Drink the water, go back to Daming with us, if you don't want to drink, the two princesses I will send you to the side yard, and the two noble girls I will send you home. ”

The two sisters, Princess Wako and Princess Sadako, glanced at each other, stepped forward resignedly, and one of them picked up a glass of water, but couldn't drink it.

Although I know that this is my life, but I think that I can't have my own children from now on, what girl can do it neatly?

Although Liu Chenghui said it nicely and gave them a choice, since they came to this courtyard, their fate has never had a chance to choose.

Kazuko and Sadako may not die yet, but they will also be imprisoned along with the other royal families.

And the daughters of the two generals, if they are sent home, I am afraid that they will only be forced by their families to end their lives with a white silk.

After hesitating for a long time, they finally drank the medicine specially prepared for them by Liu Chenghui.

Liu Chenghui showed a smile and said, "Then we can be called sisters from now on." ”

In the front yard, Zhu Zhanji and the admirals had a long military meeting, and they all looked a little tired.

It was difficult for the army to go out and join together, and it was not easy to evacuate. With an army of more than 100,000 troops, where each fleet will be withdrawn, and the distribution of various rewards and rewards will all require meticulous overall arrangements.

There will also be a large number of officers who will go to Beijing with Zhu Zhanji, and these people will be personally received and rewarded by the emperor, and those who should be promoted will be promoted, and those who should be awarded medals will be awarded.

Almost all the generals were beaming, this expedition, more than 100,000 troops, not counting those Japanese robbers, the total casualties were less than 2,000, and the death toll was less than 1,000.

However, their achievements were not even comparable to the Northern Expedition, not only killing more than 30,000 enemies, but also capturing the emperor's family alive, and making the entire Dongying surrender at the feet of the Ming Dynasty.

Not to mention, they also plundered so much wealth, according to the Ming military merit regulations, thirty percent of the battlefield harvest belongs to the soldiers, which is also a huge wealth of more than one million taels of silver.

Even if the total number of people is calculated, each person can get a reward of five taels of silver.

Liu Sheng seemed reserved at this time, this expedition, there is no doubt that his military merits are the first, and a duke is indispensable.

Now that he has run out of the limelight, he must of course keep a low profile at this time, so as not to be unanimously hated by others.

But in his heart, he couldn't suppress his excitement.

Where is An Guogong in Anyuanhou, it sounds good!

What's more, this time he broke through the capital of the enemy country and captured the king alive, this time he was facing the British duke, and he didn't think that he was inferior to the other party.

But he also knows that all thanks to the application of firearms. In the future, when all armies of the Ming Dynasty can be replaced with firearms, it is no longer difficult to make meritorious contributions.

But if you want to earn a prince like yourself, I'm afraid it's not so easy.