On the seventh day of the first month of the third year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youzhen, who had been away from the capital for more than two months, finally arrived outside the Desheng Gate, Zhu Youzhen looked up and glanced at Cui Yuzhi, who was sitting opposite him upright, but kept playing with the ribbon with his hands on his knees, and couldn't help but say to her gently: "Don't be so nervous, there are no outsiders now, you can relax a little, aren't you tired of sitting so right?" ”

Cui Yuzhi, who is only fourteen years old, has not yet grown up, and with a little childish face, she doesn't even look like a girl, but in front of Chongzhen, she pretended to be mature and said: "In front of the king, how can a concubine be rude?" In fact, it is already a violation of etiquette for a concubine to ride in the same car with His Majesty, and if there is any rude behavior in front of His Majesty, wouldn't it be a shame for the concubine's parents..."

"Stop. I let you sit in the same car with me because the axle of your car was broken, and I wanted to go back to Beijing as soon as possible, but I couldn't leave you halfway, so I let you get up. So you don't have to worry about your rudeness anymore, and you're sitting so nervous, and I'm also nervous, why don't you all relax a little bit? Looking at Cui Yuzhi, who pretended to be mature, but nervously kept wrapping her fingers with silk ribbons, Zhu Youzhen had to comfort her again.

Cui Yuzhi cautiously raised her head, glanced at the gentle smile on Zhu Youzhen's face, and quickly lowered her head with a flushed face.

Regarding Cui Yuzhi's shy appearance, Zhu Youzhen didn't feel much excitement, but felt that his scalp was a little numb. Speaking of which, he is not a decent gentleman, from a young beautiful girl to a mature royal sister, he feels that he is acceptable.

But he still has a bottom line, for a girl like Cui Yuzhi whose body is not fully developed, he has never thought about doing anything. But obviously people in this era don't see it that way, in order to ensure that Cui Yuzhi can be favored by Chongzhen after entering the palace, so as to maintain her status, her family seems to have explained a lot of things to her.

This made Cui Yuzhi almost treat him as an adulterous thief when he met him in the garden for the first time. Although I have been with him in the past few days, the two sides have become a little more familiar. But Zhu Youzhen felt that his image in Cui Yuzhi's eyes had probably been improved from a thief to a beast.

Looking at Cui Yuzhi, who shrunk his neck like a quail, Zhu Youzhen felt a long sigh in his heart. As time passed, the atmosphere in the carriage began to slowly become awkward. Just as Zhu Youzhen was thinking about whether he should order to stop the team and go out first to breathe a sigh of relief, the carriage stopped first.

Zhu Youzhen opened the car window on the left, and heard Lian Shanxiang say to him: "Your Majesty, Huang Ge Lao and hundreds of civil and military officials are waiting on the road ahead. ”

"Didn't you say that it was about ten miles away from the capital? It's really hard for them in such cold weather. Let the team come down, and I'll go down. Zhu Youzhen thought about it and said.

Watching Chongzhen get out of the carriage, Cui Yuzhi raised his head, patted his chest lightly with his hand, and exhaled a long breath, feeling that the big stone pressed on his heart was finally gone.

Although her father Cui Ningxiu is a military attaché, Cui Yuzhi does not have the slightest demeanor of a tiger girl. When she was at home, she occasionally heard her father talk about the history of several wars in Liaodong, and she was similar to the evil ghost in the temple in her heart for the image of Jiannu who could kill the Ming army and the people of Liaodong.

The person who can defeat this group of Jiannu evil ghosts must be more vicious characters than evil ghosts, but when she learned that she was going to be sent to the palace to serve the emperor who defeated the evil ghosts, she was still very worried. Although after meeting, she realized that the emperor was just a young man who looked similar to his brother, and he was not some blue-faced and fanged monster, but she was still so nervous in front of Chongzhen, and she didn't even dare to speed up her heartbeat when she was nervous.

When Cui Yuzhi was still thinking nonsense in the carriage, Zhu Youzhen had already helped Huang Liji and other cabinet ministers, and ordered the officials who came to greet him to get up without courtesy.

After greeting a few words with the officials who came to pick up the driver, Zhu Youzhen motioned for everyone to get in the car and go back to the city together, but after he looked at his carriage, he said to Huang Liji beside him: "Mr. Huang came by carriage, I will disturb you once today, take your car back, and talk about what happened in Beijing when I am not there." ”

Huang Liji suddenly said with some hesitation: "The minister's carriage is a little narrow, I don't know if it will make Your Majesty feel cramped." The minister thought that it might be more appropriate for the minister to take the royal car back with His Majesty. ”

Zhu Youzhen didn't really want to continue to play with the same girl with big eyes and small eyes, and secondly, he looked at the officials around him, but he felt that it was a good time to let off steam.

So he looked forward to Ai Ai and said: "There is still a Cui woman in my carriage, which is not suitable for talking, so I should take Mr. Huang's carriage." ”

Hearing that Chongzhen brought back a woman, Huang Liji and several officials around him were all heartbroken, although they hoped that the emperor could accept a few concubines, but they didn't want others to install people around the emperor.

Huang Liji exchanged glances with several officials around him, and he asked Chongzhen with some hesitation: "Dare to ask Your Majesty, what is the origin of this Cui girl, and what is the relationship between her and Your Majesty, Your Majesty should know that it is not a casual matter to enter the palace." ”

Zhu Youzhen replied disapprerovingly: "I was running around on the front line, and I occasionally contracted a cold, although I was better at the time, but there was a recurrence on the way back to the capital.

Therefore, I recuperated for two days in the mansion of Cui Chengxiu, the former secretary of the Ministry of War, and this Cui girl was sent by Cui Shangshu to serve the sick, and I later learned that this was Cui Shangshu's niece. This woman can be regarded as a cure for me, so I took her back to the capital, intending to give her a name.

Why, do you have any disagreement with what I do? ”

Huang Liji's eyelids jumped, and he forced a smile: "How dare the ministers question Your Majesty's approach, it's just that Your Majesty brought back a woman so suddenly, I'm afraid it's a little incompatible with etiquette, is it better to place the Cui family girl outside the palace first, and then let the officials of the Ministry of Rites handle her entry into the palace." ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his hand and said, "There's no need to be so troublesome, I will take her into the palace first today, and then let the Ministry of Rites make up a ceremony in the future." Mr. Huang, let's get in the car first, and then talk about the aftermath of the war, which is the most important thing before us. ”

Huang Liji looked left and right, and knew that this was not the place to entangle the issue of Cui's daughter entering the palace with the emperor, and Chongzhen's return was in high spirits, and he didn't want to have any disputes with the emperor at this time, so that others thought that there was some rift between him and Chongzhen.

So he suppressed his desire to continue to persuade Chongzhen, beckoned his carriage forward, and asked the emperor to get on the carriage. The faces of the other officials present were different, and Chongzhen's admission to the palace was undoubtedly a signal of Cui Chengxiu's comeback, which was not good news for them.

After all, at the beginning of Chongzhen's ascension to the throne, after expressing his distrust of Wei Zhongxian and Cui Chengxiu, the officials in the court had impeached the two of them, and if Cui Chengxiu returned to power, they would have to worry about whether they would suffer retaliation.

Not to mention the calculations of other officials, Huang Liji, who followed Chongzhen into the carriage, quickly returned to normal, and as if nothing had happened, he first congratulated Chongzhen on the merits of the Jin army after the victory of this pro-expedition.

Zhu Youzhen waved his hand at Huang Liji and said, "Mr. Huang doesn't have to be like this, others don't know, don't you know the truth?" This victory, first, the Zunhua army and civilians fought to the death; second, the officers and men of the New Army resisted the attack of the main force of Houjin; Third, the Cabinet and the General Staff Headquarters are well organized. How can this be considered my merit? ”

Huang Liji replied with a smile: "If there is no personal recruitment by His Majesty to boost the morale of the army, how can our army stop the attack of the rear army?" Your Majesty's sitting on the front line is the greatest merit, but the minister still has to give His Majesty a word of advice, and I hope Your Majesty will agree. ”

Zhu Youzhen replied in a relaxed mood: "Sir, please say, you and I don't have to see each other like this, Mr. can say whatever he wants." If I have it, I will change it, and if I don't, I will encourage it. ”

Huang Liji suddenly straightened his face, put his hands on his knees, and said to Chongzhen who was sitting upright: "Then please ask Your Majesty to think about the country and society, and you must not put yourself in danger again." His Majesty's personal expedition is to urge the army to attack, not to let His Majesty go into battle with a group of defeated soldiers.

After hearing that His Majesty had rushed to Qian'an with a small number of people, he didn't know how anxious he was. His Majesty led the army to block the road of Jiannu's westward advance and kept the safety of Gyeonggi Land already a great success.

However, His Majesty rushed to Qian'an lightly to urge the Liaodong Army, which had just been defeated by Jiannu, to attack, which was inevitably a bit of putting the cart before the horse. Your Majesty knows that if there is a little accident in this, we will lose more than just Jizhou.

The gentleman does not stand under the wall of danger, not because the gentleman is afraid of danger, but because he is not worthy. For the Ming Dynasty and the people of Gyeonggi, His Majesty's safety is much more important than a Liaodong army. ”

Regarding Huang Liji's advice, Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while before replying: "What Mr. said is extremely true, but at that time, he was on the bow and had to make a move." After all, the surname of this world is Zhu, if I am timid, how can I let the soldiers move forward bravely?

But I am willing to answer sir, and I will not do such a risky thing if it is not necessary. However, if I don't want to take risks, I still need to rely on Mr. to work with me to make Daming strong again. If I have the strength to smash the Yellow Dragon, why do I need to take the risk myself? ”

Zhu Youzhen's words made Huang Liji a little speechless, and after a moment of silence in the carriage, Chongzhen shifted the topic to what had changed in the court after he left Beijing.

Almost at the same time, in Vladivostok, thousands of miles north of the capital, a small port city that had just been built by the Ming people, a banquet was also being held.

More than 20 tribal leaders living in the upper reaches of the Ussuri River and the coastal area, persuaded by the leader of the Mokowei tribe, Gilnai, decided to form an alliance with the Ming to resist the invasion of the Later Jin and Koreans.

Ye Yuxuan, on behalf of the Donghai Patrol Office, signed an alliance with the leaders of these tribes, and signed a commercial agreement with these tribes to exchange ginseng and mink skins for iron tools and other daily necessities.

As a result, Gil Nai was appointed as an inspector under the jurisdiction of the East China Sea Patrol Office, and received the Ming Kingdom's weapon support for his clan.

Combined, these tribes have less than 7,000 people, but they already account for half of the population living near Vladivostok. With these allies, the East China Sea Patrol Office has a real foothold in Vladivostok.