When the public opinion outside the palace about the controversy between filial piety and women's morality was further fermented, the palace seemed extremely peaceful. Zhu Youzhen went to visit his newborn daughter and son twice a day in the morning and evening, completely ignoring the old practice of not seeing each other and not holding a son with his father left in the palace.

After the emperor's love for the little princess and the little prince spread, naturally some people were happy and some were sad. After all, this prince is not from the queen, and many old people are worried that when the queen gives birth to a prince in the future, there will be another battle for the throne in the palace.

For the undercurrents under these peaceful atmospheres, Zhu Youzhen was suddenly unaware of it, and still kept his daily itinerary unchanged. After Wang Chengen discussed with Lu Qi, he decided that it would be better to warn the eunuchs and palace maids who talked in private. Under the suppression of the two of them, the private rumors between the eunuchs and palace maids finally began to slowly subside.

However, some of the old forces in the palace who had been marginalized began to frequently show favor to Tian Guifei, intending to put their future on this little prince. It stands to reason that in fact, they shouldn't have been so impatient, after all, Chongzhen and several concubines are very young, as long as there are no accidents, there is no need to consider the issue of heirs for at least 3 or 40 years. However, these old forces in the palace were worried that they would be swept out of the palace by the emperor before the situation of the heir to the throne became clear.

Although Wang Chengen and others knew something about their actions, they did not inform the emperor. First, their actions were very gentle, but they were only friendly behaviors out of self-preservation, so for the sake of the old friendship, they did not stab them in front of the emperor.

Second, in the face of the increasingly noisy controversy outside the palace, Wang Chengen and others did not want anything to happen in the palace during this time period, so that the clear streams outside the palace could take advantage of it.

Although Chongzhen has not left the palace these days, most of his energy has been restrained by the cabinet, the wartime base camp back in Beijing, the meetings of the maritime business association, and the trend of public opinion outside the palace, so he naturally will not be distracted to care about what changes have occurred in the palace.

In this peaceful atmosphere, Zhu Youzhen finally lived a few days of peace. It wasn't until Xu Xingsheng entered the palace to report to him that Chongzhen's orderly life was broken.

Xu Xingsheng came to report to the emperor mainly three things, the first was to submit several places to find burial cemeteries for the martyrs who died in this battle for the emperor to decide;

The second is the diagram of the steam water lifting machine sent back by the emperor before, and the craftsmen of the Wensi Academy and several academicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences have copied a finished product, waiting for the emperor to review it;

The third is that the front boring flintlock musket has been finalized, after many tests, this musket is slightly more powerful than the light arquebus, but smaller than the heavy arquebus, although it can not be used in rain, snow and windy weather, but the flintlock musketers can be lined up in a tight formation, not necessarily like the arquebus, there must be a vacant space between the two gunners. In this case, with a bayonet attached, it can be used as a spearman.

Therefore, Xu Xingsheng wanted to ask Chongzhen to make a decision, what kind of adjustment should be made to the production ratio of light and heavy arquebuses and flintlock muskets. How these three weapons should be equipped with troops.

After listening to Xu Xingsheng's report, Zhu Youzhen looked at the map he handed over and studied it for a long time, before pointing to a place in the west of the capital and saying: "Most of the martyrs sent back from Liaodong are buried in Babao Mountain, so I don't have to choose other places, and they are also placed here." After the cemetery is expanded, I will go with you to take a look. ”

Xu Xingsheng hurriedly agreed and said: "Yes, Your Majesty, after the minister returns, he will urge the craftsmen to build the cemetery here, and then ask His Majesty to move and inspect." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded, then folded the drawings and handed them to Wang Chengen for collection, and he continued: "The matter of the steam engine, we should wait until this time has passed, you can continue to study and improve, and you must also keep in touch with the Tangshan Iron Works to exchange the results of machine improvement."

As for the production of the three types of firearms and the proportion of troops equipped, I thought that if the flintlock musket was reliable, it should be made in a large proportion to replace the arquebus. If the performance of the flintlock musket is not reliable enough, then I hope you will continue to study it, and as for the number of production and equipment, wait for the General Staff to return to Beijing, and then send a document to the logistics department after they have completed their calculations..."

Zhu Youzhen once thought that when public opinion outside the palace continued to ferment, the students of Yenching University would still not be able to stop the old-fashioned bureaucrats and scholars who held high the banner of Lunchang. Therefore, after throwing out two articles, he was wondering whether to incite some female workers to march in the streets, so as to create an excuse for himself to intervene in the debate.

However, he soon realized that he had underestimated the fighting power of the noble gentry who had invested in textile workshops and cotton cultivation on a large scale. Although these noble gentry did not directly ask Lun Changgang for haircuts, as local or sitting tigers near Gyeonggi, the resources they could mobilize in the capital were not much worse than those of Qingliu.

Thanks to the development of the printing industry and the liberalization of the ban on newspapers, the way in which the Elites propagated their ideas progressed from inefficient posting to the advanced methods of using newspapers and periodicals to distribute pamphlets to the people on the streets.

Since Chongzhen ascended the throne and published the first Daming Times, the newspapers in the capital have grown from scratch, and in the beginning of Chongzhen's third year, they have grown to more than 700 copies, and there are about 30 types of legal newspapers and periodicals that have been approved. In other words, most of the tabloids are illegal, and the circulation of these tabloids is not large, ranging from dozens to thousands.

The reason for this illegal tabloid situation is that after the imperial court implemented primary education, literacy campaigns, vernacular writing, and punctuation, the number of middle- and lower-class people in the capital who could understand the content of the tabloids began to grow rapidly.

As the capital of the first good district of the Ming Dynasty, because of the migration of foreign merchants and officials, the literacy rate was much higher than that in the northern region, but slightly lower than that of several wealthy cities in the south of the Yangtze River.

According to Chongzhen's first year's survey of the city's population, 60% of men were able to write their own names, and 43% of women were able to write their own names. The number of people who know a few hundred words and can read and write simple letters is about 35%. The population who is coarse in writing and ink, can understand the imperial edicts, and can keep accounts is about 20%.

By the beginning of Chongzhen's third year, the number of people who knew 800 words and could read and write vernacular articles had risen to 47%. In the capital of nearly one million people, the literate population has reached a staggering 400,000.

The rise of the literate population in the capital, coupled with Chongzhen's continuous blows to the entertainment industry in the capital, made the people of the capital suddenly lose their favorite gambling and erotic entertainment, and they had to find new entertainment items for themselves.

Due to the construction of a large number of paper workshops, coupled with the development of the printing industry, the cost of lighting tools has been decreasing. Vernacular literature, newspapers and periodicals and other written spiritual food have become the most widespread entertainment pastime for the people of Beijing in the evening.

The construction of a large number of workshops in the capital also made the income of the people in the capital begin to increase, which made them begin to consume cheap reading materials, kerosene, candles and other goods. It is precisely because of this demand of the people in the capital that the imperial court's ban on newspapers and periodicals has never been able to achieve any results.

Especially after the Ming Times launched the profit model of advertising, the operating costs of tabloids in the market were lower, and the types of tabloids developed more. Whether it was the literati who ran these tabloids or some officials of the imperial court, they all believed that the people had the right to speak freely, and the imperial court should not forcibly ban the operation of these tabloids.

The attitude of these officials also caused some of the founders of the tabloids to be released quickly, even if they were caught by the government, only to have some unsold newspapers confiscated. Since law enforcement is not strict, and the operation of tabloids is very expensive, it is a matter of course that repeated bans will continue.

When Yenching University clashed with scholars who defended the concept of ethics, it was not the bystanders who were most elated, but the owners of these tabloids in Beijing. Whether it was reporting on the conflict between the two sides, or receiving money from the old gentry, and helping the gentry to speak, it brought them a lot of profits. Many tabloids have even expanded their influence, from hundreds of anonymous tabloids to thousands of street newspapers.

However, when the lords and the landlords of Gyeonggi began to intervene in this public opinion war, the originally good situation of the old gentry suddenly turned around.

Li Chengzuo, the Marquis of Fengcheng, asked many nobles and gentry to come forward and sue some tabloids in the capital for their filthy content, either describing pornography or propagating superstition, and even openly preaching the teachings of the White Lotus Sect.

Liu Chongqing, the mayor of Beijing, naturally did not dare to slack off on the pressure exerted by these noble gentry, so he could only order the officials of the city hall to seal down all kinds of tabloids and punish those who repeatedly committed recidivism to re-education through labor.

After forcing the government to take control of all kinds of tabloids in the capital, the Marquis of Fengcheng and others jointly raised a sum of money to buy some influential tabloids and ordered them to publish articles attacking the old guards.

Moreover, Fengcheng Hou and others also bought many printing houses and a large amount of printing paper in the capital, forcing the tabloids that supported the old scholars to discontinue or raise the cost, so that the people of the capital chose other cheaper tabloids, of course, these tabloids were all in favor of the students.

Under this kind of serial suppression, in just 3 or 4 days, the voices of the old-fashioned scholars who had the upper hand quickly disappeared from the ears of the people in the capital.

In addition, some of the owners of the textile workshop took the initiative to open the door of the workshop and invited some respected villagers to visit it, so as to prove that the workshop was not a place for prostitution and theft, but a place for some female workers to gather and work.

The uneasiness of the people in the capital because of the controversy of public opinion was finally slowly relieved. The public opinion war caused by the old scholars among the people of the capital finally declared a complete failure. They could only turn their attention to the imperial court, hoping to win support in the court.

Looking at the nobles and gentry who have gained the upper hand in public opinion, although Zhu Youzhen is very happy, he can't help but feel a little vigilant.

Although he wanted the new industrial and commercial powers to develop, he did not intend to let them grow unrestricted.