Chapter 360: The Mystery of the Elder and the Young, the Trust and Trust of the Son of Heaven

Yongle Emperor Zhu Di had a total of four sons, except for the youngest son who died early, the other three sons were all born to Empress Xu, and the rest of the harem concubines were like Quan Xian Concubine Wang Guifei, but they also had nothing. Therefore, the eldest Zhu Gaochi wants to learn the etiquette of the scriptures, and the second Zhu Gaochu wants to go to the battlefield to fight for his life, but as a young son, Zhu Gaosui has been deeply spoiled since he was a child, and only he is a good swim can sit back and enjoy it without doing anything. The only danger was to escape from Nanjing by all means before the Jing disaster, at most counting the long history Gu Sheng, who killed him in a fit of anger many years ago.

But that time it just dropped someone else's head, and he ended up unharmed. Compared with Zhu Gaoxu, the king of the Han Dynasty, who made mistakes again and again but did not repent, he felt that he was too much, and since then, he has gradually converged, at least those big mistakes cannot be caught by others.

Even if he is good at hiding, but at this moment he was holding his breath, Zhu Gaosui was full of unhappiness, and when he caught a glimpse of a rabbit rushing out not far away, he sneered and shot an arrow with a bow, only to hear a whoosh, and the arrow from the string nailed it to the ground. Seeing this arrow, Zhang Hui stepped forward and said with a smile: "If the emperor is here, he will definitely be full of praise when he sees His Royal Highness King Zhao such an archery." Why don't you drive the prey for Your Highness, so that Your Highness can show off your skills? ”

Spring in the Northland came late, and it had just snowed a few days ago, but it was much better than the slaughter in the middle of winter, and many animals that had been hiding for the winter took advantage of the warmer weather to come out to feed. Hearing that Zhang Hui's words meant something else, Zhu Gaosui didn't want Jinyiwei's eyes and ears to follow him all the time, so he opened his mouth and shouted: "Why don't you go quickly?" ”

Meng Jun saw a group of brocade guards scattering helplessly, and saw that there were four attendants behind Zhu Gaosui, plus there was also a Zhang Hui, so he felt that he was in the way here. He was about to find an excuse to sneak away and try his luck hunting, but he didn't want Zhu Gaosui to wave at him. Although he was extremely unhappy in his heart, he still stepped forward with a pinch of the horse's belly, and his face was extremely respectful.

"I think when Lao Meng Shan took you into the palace, you were only a little old, but now you have already married a wife and had children!" Zhu Gaosui looked Meng Jun up and down, and suddenly smiled, "How does it feel to run errands in the Left Army Governor's Mansion?" If you knew this, your father should have sent you to the dormitory, and it was better to mess around with my palace guards than to do paperwork with the dignified little marquis. ”

Without waiting for Meng Jun to open his mouth to defend anything, Zhang Huizi next to him also interjected: "There are many Xun Qi children in the capital, but there are few who have become instruments, Brother Jun is first-class in terms of talent and conduct, if it weren't for the Marquis of Baoding pressing his son, he would have been in charge alone." I think when I entered the palace and was given the title of commander, I was only as old as Brother Jun, where was he still a young five-rank official at his age? He's the hero of the Eight Classics! ”

As the future heir to the title of the Marquis of Baoding, Meng Jun has always been called an honest man. Seeing that Zhu Gaosui, the king of Zhao, and Zhang Hui were in the same gear, he could only spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "His Royal Highness King Zhao and Uncle Zhang, don't promote me, my own family knows my own affairs, I am just a Chinese person, and I can't compare with my grandfather and father, even if I manage some small things in the Governor's Mansion of the Left Army, I often make mistakes, let alone use it?" I don't have much ambition, besides, if I inherit the title in the future, it will be superb, so why care about the current grade? The wife and children accompany the knees, and the wish is enough. ”

Zhu Gaosui himself is a thoughtful person, otherwise this King Zhao should be comfortable, why should he think about anything else? Not to mention Zhang Hui, who has always felt that he has suffered as a second son. In his opinion, although his brother Zhang Fu's title was brought back with a knife and a shot, if it were not for his father Zhang Yu, who died on the battlefield, Zhang Fu would not have been crowned the prince of the country at such a young age. Moreover, Zhang Fu would rather bring his cousins and nephews than pull him along, let alone care about his nephews, he felt more and more unkind.

So at this moment, both of them were quite disdainful of Meng Jun, who had no ambitions, and Zhang Hui even complained in his heart about the marriage that Zhang Fu had matched. A manly husband should have three wives and four concubines, and he should manage his wife obediently, where can he honestly bow down to his wife like Meng Jun? When Meng Jun smiled and said that he wanted to try his luck and bring some game back to his parents to give his wife a taste, the two were no longer too lazy to keep people, and let him pat the horse away.

"Meng Xian begged for a knighthood but couldn't get it, but this Meng Jun kid only thinks about living in peace, God is really blind!"

Hearing the dissatisfied muttering of Zhu Gaosui, the king of Zhao, Zhang Hui took the horse's head and stepped forward: "His Royal Highness the king of Zhao don't need to be annoyed, Meng Ying himself is also an indecisive and fearful person, and so is his son, so there is nothing to be afraid of in the future." ”

"Not to be afraid?" Zhu Gaosui snorted lightly, looked around, and lowered his voice and said, "You probably don't know, when your cousin Zhang You returns from the sea cruise, your Zhang family will have another earl!" ”

"This ...... How is this possible! There is a patrol every few years, how much credit is this? ”

"If my father wants to be knighted, can I take care of these? I wonder how did the earl of Yongxin Bo Xu Cheng come to be? The father asked Tan Shen and Zhao Xi to kill the concubine Mei Yin, and then instructed Xu Cheng to take the lead in sending the two of them, so he gave him the earl, your cousin once followed the British Duke to fight in Jiaozhi for many years, and then fought several tough battles with Li Bin, the Marquis of Fengcheng, and now he goes to sea again, who dares to say that he can't be an uncle? Having said that, if Zhang You is a concubine, Zhang Xin, the eldest son, is still in the nest...... I see that those old immortals in the court are still shouting that the elders and young are the etiquette that cannot be overcome! ”

When the two of them were muttering about their childhood, Meng Jun had already ridden all the way to the edge of the woods. Today, he originally happened to let the emperor catch a bad job, and he didn't want to come out, so he couldn't help but think about Zhang Hui's intention to fan the flames today. Everyone thinks that he is honest, and his performance after joining the office is lackluster, but they don't want to think about it, with such an ambitious uncle, if he is not honest, what will the emperor think?

While he was pondering, he suddenly felt a black shadow rushing in front of him, and before he had time to think about it, he instinctively threw an arrow from his bow and shot it violently, and when he saw what he had shot, he couldn't help but be surprised and delighted, and immediately stepped forward and fished sideways.

"If you look carefully, you should shoot its head, a good fox skin, now you can only give it to Aqing as a cushion!"

He was thinking about how he could show his wife when he turned back with the fox when he heard a loud crackling sound. Startled, he didn't have time to think about what was going on, but the horse beneath him was frightened, and he actually neighed loudly and lifted his feet high. He was caught off guard by this sudden incident, and it took a great deal of effort to calm his mount, discern the direction of the loud noise, and run over at a gallop. Halfway through, he met a few more Jinyi guards, followed by Zhu Gaosui and Zhang Hui, and everyone had to meet together and slowly look for them. When a group of people came out of the woods, they saw the camp guarded by sergeants in the distance.

At the end of the hundred-pace-long clearing was a row of wooden targets covered with solid thick cowhide, but now the smoke cleared, and if you had enough eye to see the scorched black above. An Yuan Hou Liusheng gave an order, and immediately more than a dozen personal soldiers rushed forward and quickly pushed things over. It was still scorched from a distance, but now you can see the scars everywhere on it, and the thick cowhide has almost been broken.

"Good, good!"

Seeing that this new fire gun had such power, Zhu Di couldn't help but have a red light on his face and nodded heavily. And Zhang Yue next to him was staring at the three rows of thirty Shenji Battalion sergeants specially selected by Liu Sheng, or rather, staring at the firecrackers in their hands. Although they have seen the firearms of the Ming army, where are these people worthy of the Shenji Battalion, which is completely firearmed? In this rapid fire just now, he could see clearly, the first row of sergeants was divided into odd and even numbers of two shots, the second row of sergeants was in charge of passing firearms, and the third row of sergeants were in charge of loading gunpowder.

Since the Beijing camp was originally where the Chinese army was located, and the Shenji battalion accompanied Hu on two northern expeditions, although Liu Sheng sent his own personal soldiers to protect the emperor firmly in the middle, he was not worried about any mutiny. Hearing the emperor say two good words in a row, he also felt that there was light on his face, and hurriedly gave a few orders to a confidant soldier, and after a while, the soldier came up with a box.

"Your Majesty, look, this is the newly made firearm of the Ordnance Bureau."

Seeing that Liu Sheng had presented the box together, Zhu Di took it with his hand, and then took out the bronze handcuff inside. After weighing it in his hand and trying it, he checked it again, and then handed it to Zhang Yue, who was full of curiosity on the side, because he said with a smile: "This workmanship is much finer than before, it is lighter and shorter in the hand, and the power is more than before." With such a sharp weapon, if I go north again, I want to see where Arutai is fleeing! ”

Holding this extremely delicate handcuff, Zhang Yueshao had to turn it over and look at it carefully. The body of the gun is more than a foot, but the diameter of the front end is never more than two centimeters, the barrel is conical decreasing from back to front, and the surface is polished quite brightly, without the slightest trace of shoddy work. There was also a cover on the ignition hole to prevent the gunpowder from getting wet from the rain, and he had even caught a glimpse of a medicine spoon in the wooden box, presumably used to weigh gunpowder.

Seeing a line of clear small characters engraved on the gun's body - the first month of the seventeenth year of Yongle, the number one hundred and fourth of the word of heaven, he couldn't help but ask: "Marquis of Anyuan, why is this not the number one of the word of heaven?" ”

Liu Sheng was about to show Zhu Di's determination to go into battle to kill the enemy, and when he heard this question, he was stunned for a moment, and then laughed: "The Ordnance Bureau manufactures more weapons every year, some are new, and some are made according to the old mold. Didn't you ask Tianzi No. 1? This Tianzi No. 1 naturally blew up the ...... Not to mention the first number, even if it is to the five, six, seven, eighty, and the number, almost all of them are failures, and it is not until after the hundred that they gradually take shape. Having said that, this firearm is sharp, but what I am afraid of is the explosion of the ......."

Before he finished speaking, Yuan Fang stepped forward and reported in a low voice: "Your Majesty, King Zhao, they heard the movement here, and they are worried about your safety, and now they are waiting outside the camp gate, do you want to let them in?" ”

Zhu Di didn't answer immediately, nor did he pick up the handcuff presented by Zhang Yue's hands, and suddenly burst out with a sentence: "Zhang Yue, what do you think of this firecracker." ”

Zhang Yue froze down, and then replied loudly: "Your Majesty, these firecrackers are sharp weapons on the battlefield. The minister thought that the Ordnance Bureau had created such a sharp weapon, and it should be rewarded, but the craftsmen who studied and improved it should be rewarded. Since Marquis An Yuanhou said before that in order to improve these firearms, I don't know how many times they have tried it in the training ground, and I don't know how many prototypes have been manufactured, which shows that they have worked hard. ”

"Appreciating craftsmen?" Zhu Di raised his eyebrows, and then said, "The farmers and industrialists perform their duties, the scholars assist me in handling the government affairs, the farmers cultivate and work, and the merchants communicate with each other, and these craftsmen are also doing their own business." If you reward something every time it is made, then who in the world should not reward it? ”

"Your Majesty, if you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools, and the quality of craftsmen is the foundation of the quality of weapons. If the peasants work hard, they will naturally be able to have more surplus grain after paying taxes, and they will have surplus wealth over the years. And if those skilled craftsmen make good things and still treat them with everyone else, how can they be inspired to make better weapons? If they are rewarded by the emperor, they will naturally be grateful to Dade, and they will do their best in the future. As for the other craftsmen, when they see someone stand out because of this, they will inevitably be more attentive. is like military merit, the soldiers fought on the battlefield to serve the court, if there is no military merit, I am afraid that this momentum will be half weaker. ”

"Well, the craftsmen who have made meritorious contributions to the development of handcuffs this time will be reported by the Ordnance Bureau, and each person will be rewarded with ten ingots."

"Your Majesty, with all due respect, it is better to reward money than to be famous."

Although Liu Sheng is the in-law of the Zhang family, he only heard that the emperor trusts Zhang Yue a lot, and at this time, listening to the words of the two monarchs and ministers, it seems that he has raised the bar, and he can't help but sweat in his heart. After all, this high-ranking official in the court has never dared to raise his voice in front of the emperor, how dare Zhang Yue be so fearless? What surprised him even more was that after Zhu Di suddenly lowered his face and was silent for a while, he suddenly burst out with something he didn't expect.

"Well, since you are so concerned about this matter, I have a new office for you. Attached to the rank of Arsenal Division of the Ministry of War, he is responsible for the refitting of the Shenji Battalion. As for how to reward the meritorious craftsmen of this Weapons Bureau, write a note for me to see...... Liu Sheng! ”

Liu Sheng, who was startled, heard this call at first glance, and immediately a spirit woke up, and hurriedly stepped forward and bowed in agreement. Who would have thought that Zhu Di would actually reach out and gently support him on his arm, this rare intimate action immediately made his heart tremble.

"I'm optimistic about Jingying, I'm all behind and over to you!"