When Wednesday Wei and Su Ran were brought to the governor's yamen, they both looked a little nervous. In the previous month, they had not come to the governor's yamen, but every time they came, they didn't feel anything. But today, these two people feel that today's governor's yamen looks particularly majestic.

When a guard came out of the hall and stood on the steps of the cyan stone and called the two of them in, Zhou Wei and Su Ran reflexively flicked the robes on their bodies, as if they wanted to bounce off dirty things such as dust. The actions of the two obviously had no effect, and the snow for a few days had already made the air clean and cold, and there was still some dust there.

Stepping on the stone steps that had been stepped on by many people and became a little sunken, Wednesday Wei stepped into the governor's hall in a pilgrimage-like mood, and Su Ran behind him, the footsteps seemed a little brisk. After the Jin army retreated, Zhou Wei, Su Ran and others knew that they had finally survived the most difficult moment, and the next thing was to see what the emperor would think of their decisions in the siege.

Wednesday had just crossed the threshold of the last step and entered the somewhat dimly lit lobby, and he quickly recognized the emperor sitting on the top and Sun Chengzong sitting on the emperor's left hand seat. He hurriedly lowered his head and bowed to the emperor according to the requirements of etiquette.

The emperor's reaction was better than Wednesday Wei expected, and after seeing the two of them come in, Zhu Youzhen stood up from his seat, and after receiving the salute from the two, he walked down quickly.

Zhu Youzhen helped Zhou Wei up first, and smiled at him and said, "Congratulations on holding Zunhua, Staff Officer Zhou." ”

Wednesday, who has seen the emperor many times in the capital, is actually not very afraid of Chongzhen, but he has suffered too much from the psychological activities of gains and losses before, so he is a little afraid of seeing Chongzhen.

Now that he understands the emperor's intentions, Wednesday's mood has recovered somewhat, and he hurriedly said: "Thanks to Your Majesty's blessing, if it weren't for Your Majesty's personal expedition to deter the Houjin army, it would be almost impossible for the ministers to hold Zunhua City."

Zhu Youzhen nodded approvingly at him, then crossed over to him and helped up Su Ran, who was kneeling behind him, Zhu Youzhen patted Su Ran's shoulder and said: "Good job, I can think of using barricades and houses to fight in the streets, you have not learned military engineering in vain." ”

Su Ran hurriedly replied: "Back to Your Majesty, this is not the student's idea alone, Senior Brother Zhou and several classmates from the military academy have made great efforts, and the sergeants and militiamen who are engaged in street fighting have also given a lot of opinions. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said: "The ancients said: Three stinkers can top one Zhuge Liang, which shows that everything needs to be brainstormed." Only when we work together can we do one thing to the greatest extent.

But you're also very good, and you know how to be humble and courteous. I hope that you will be able to record the experience of this siege in its entirety, and then summarize the lessons learned, so as to provide a textbook for military engineering. ”

Su Ran happily accepted Chongzhen's order, saying that he would complete this material well, and then hand it over to Chongzhen for inspection. Only then did Zhu Youzhen walk back to the calm Wednesday and said: "You don't have to be happy too early, you have made meritorious contributions in defending the city, and I will not hesitate to reward." However, it is also your fault to falsely pass on military orders and issue land granting orders without authorization.

I won't do anything with you, and I'll tell you plainly right now that such a thing as atonement for sins will not appear again in the new army, and I will not allow the new army to become another old army. Therefore, merit is merit, and passing is passing. I will reward you for defending the city, but I will also punish you for your mistakes, will you accept it? ”

Wednesday Wei replied without hesitation: "The minister is willing to be punished, the minister has indeed made a mistake, what punishment His Majesty has for the minister, the minister has nothing to say." ”

Zhu Youzhen stretched out his hand and patted him on the shoulder and said, "What kind of punishment should you receive, Mr. Sun will send someone to investigate and make a punishment, I will not interfere in Mr. Sun's decision, so you have to be mentally prepared first." ”

Wednesday Wei resolutely obeyed the emperor's statement again, and Zhu Youzhen returned to his seat and beckoned the two to sit down, "I came to you, not to talk about your rewards and punishments, those are all matters of the General Staff."

I came to you mainly to ask you a few questions, the first of which is what you thought about when you issued the decree to grant land? The second is, after the end of the war, how do you think you will rebuild the defense system of Jizhou Town..."

Zhu Youzhen's summons to Wednesday Wei and Su Ran lasted for more than an hour, and Sun Chengzong, who was listening on the side, seemed a little absent-minded today, and he was still thinking about what kind of changes Cui Chengxiu's comeback would bring to the court.

Cui Chengxiu is known as the core figure of the eunuch party by the Donglin party, as Wei Zhongxian's right and left hand, and also the most important think tank, Cui Chengxiu is hated by the Donglin party, about second only to Wei Zhongxian.

Although Sun Chengzong has no personal grudges against Cui Chengxiu, as the most respected teacher of the Apocalypse, Sun Chengzong was basically not involved in the party struggle of the Apocalypse Dynasty. Although he is considered a member of the Donglin Party, when the Donglin Party was in charge of the government in the early years of the Apocalypse, he has been marginalizing him.

The reason why those Donglin Party people did this was nothing more than to see that he had too much influence on the Apocalypse, so they didn't want him to get too close to the Apocalypse, and finally became the leader of the Donglin Party in charge of the government. And after the eunuch party led by Wei Zhongxian came to power, they also chose to exclude Sun Chengzong from the capital, so as not to use this emperor teacher to exert influence on the apocalypse.

And Sun Chengzong himself has nothing to do with power, what he wants is to restore Liaodong, so as to get rid of the external troubles on the northeast border of the Ming Dynasty. Because of these reasons, although Sun Chengzong was angry at Wei Zhongxian's interference in the government and framing the ministers, he was still able to remain calm and view the struggles that took place in the court from an outsider's point of view.

Soon after Chongzhen ascended the throne, he forced Cui Chengxiu to return to his hometown to guard filial piety, and sent Wei Zhongxian to Fengyang to guard the tomb, and the so-called eunuchs in the court disappeared in an instant. The disappearance here does not refer to the disappearance of **, but to the disappearance of the political positions that once surrounded Wei Zhongxian.

Among them, the fastest change was Huang Liji and others, who soon re-established their position in front of the emperor. Although some officials are still denouncing Huang Liji and others as remnants of the eunuch party, in fact Huang Liji and others have formed a new political group.

However, even with the separation of Huang Liji and others, after the fall of the former eunuch party, a large number of officials were still left. Although these officials are now divided and none of them can call on others to regroup, their power in the court is still quite amazing.

At this time, Cui Chengxiu came back, and no one could guarantee that these people would gather under his banner, re-condense into a rope, and fight with the Donglin Party and the current Huang Liji forces.

The court officials, who still have the shadow of party strife during the Apocalypse, obviously will not let Cui Chengxiu rise again, thereby changing the power structure of the court. If this continues, the foreseeable new round of party struggle may begin.

Unlike Sun Chengzong's absent-mindedness, Zhu Youzhen listened to Wednesday's idea of granting the land order and Su Ran's idea of the city's defense system with relish, and asked the two of them questions from time to time.

At the end of the summons, Zhu Youzhen first said to Su Ran: "The city defense system you conceived is very interesting, why don't you think about it after you go back, if we build such a new city in the area outside the Guan, such as the area outside the Great Wall of Jizhou, how should we protect the pioneer people in wartime, and not hinder the defense arrangement in wartime." It would be better to be able to make a model that could be studied and discussed by the General Staff. ”

Su Ran suddenly said with some embarrassment: "Your Majesty, there is no topographic map and detailed geological exploration report outside the Guan, I'm afraid it will be difficult to make such a model." ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said, "Of course not, now, I'm afraid it's too time-consuming to rely on you alone." I will give you the manpower, and when the spring comes, I will inform you of the address of where to build the new city, and you can take someone to survey it before designing it. ”

Su Ran breathed a sigh of relief and said, "In that case, the minister can give it a try." ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen turn his head to Wednesday and said, "I think, you should know what this new city is built for, right?" ”

Wednesday replied with a quick response: "Does Your Majesty want to use this new city to protect the people who grant land outside the Guan? ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said: "That's true, but the most important thing is to force the Mongolian tribes in the area outside the Jizhou Pass to submit to me again and clean up the Mongolian tribes that have fallen to Houjin."

We can no longer allow Houjin to cross this area without any scruples, freely choosing the direction of attack. After the Mongolian tribes in this area were controlled by the Houjin, the Houjin army could choose to attack the Great Wall in Jizhou this time, and next time it could also choose to enter Miyun and Xuanfu, while we could only withstand a passive attack.

If we want to strengthen the defense line of the Great Wall for thousands of miles to the point that Houjin cannot breach, the resources consumed will be an unbearable amount. And only a thousand days to be a thief, how can there be a thousand days to prevent thieves.

Therefore, this area of grassland and mountains between Jizhou Pass and Liaodong must be under the control of the Ming Dynasty. In order to control this area, it is obviously not enough to rely on the verbal submission of a few Mongol tribes.

These Mongol tribes would neither completely submit to the Ming nor the Houjin, and whoever could threaten them the most would naturally fall to either side. Of course, if it weren't for that, these tribes wouldn't have survived to this point.

Therefore, if we want to control this area, it is not enough to rely on garrisons and military cantonments, and it is a long-term strategy to increase the Han population in this area. Therefore, the scale of the land grant order will be expanded, and the migration of people in the Zunhua area is only the beginning. Within five years, I hope to settle all the Mongol tribes in this area, and initially establish a cantonment area where Han Chinese gather, and a city that can control the area near the Great Wall.

I know that the militia you built during the siege is doing well, and that it would be too wasteful for a militia that had been through a war to disband. Therefore, I hope that you can rely on these militias and set up a cantonment army. In order to cooperate with the garrison outside the customs in the future, to protect our Han people..."