Not long after Zhu Youzhen and Miyamoto Musashi sat down in the pavilion, a young man in his early 30s walked up with a young man in his early 20s holding tea and a fruit plate. This young man was Terao Sun no Cheng Katsunobu, who had just practiced with Zhu Yuzhen, and he was followed by his younger brother Nobuyuki Tsuma, both of whom were disciples of Miyamoto Musashi and a feudal priest of his hometown of Kumamoto Domain.

When the two of them put the things in their hands in front of the emperor and the master, and were about to retreat, Zhu Youzhen suddenly stopped them and said, "You guys are waiting on the side, and the next thing is also related to you." ”

Katsushin agreed, and sat down on the wooden floor with his younger brother on one side, waiting for the emperor's next orders. Zhu Youzhen first took the tea on the small table in front of him, and after taking two sips, he said: "This tea is not bad, Miyamoto Teacher, I heard that the mission sent by the Osaka Shogunate this time wants to invite Tomoya back to preside over the shogunate, so do you plan to let those people go back with him?" ”

Miyamoto Musashi pondered for a while, and then replied to Chongzhen: "The minister was invited by His Royal Highness Taiko, and only then did he bring these disciples to escort His Royal Highness Yuya to Daming, and then he was favored by His Majesty, so he was fortunate to open this kendo hall in the capital.

It stands to reason that since His Royal Highness Tomoya is preparing to return to China, then the minister should also return with his disciples. It's just that at the moment, Lord Taiko and His Royal Highness Tomomatsu will continue to stay in the capital, and they still need to be used by manpower, and the minister is not willing to leave this dojo, so the minister plans to take Nobuyuki and some disciples back and let Katsushin and them stay in the capital.

Your Majesty also said just now that Shengxin's swordsmanship is almost ready to be a teacher, so keeping him in the capital is enough to take care of this dojo, and Your Majesty has no shortage of people practicing swordsmanship. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said, "This arrangement is not good enough, it is better for you to return to China with Shengxin and other capable disciples and leave Xinxing behind." This time you go back to Japan, you should be very busy. ”

Zhu Youzhen clapped his hands suddenly, and soon the two guards came up with two Japanese swords and a letter. Zhu Youzhen looked at the things in the hands of the two guards and said, "The one on the left was given to Miyamoto Shishi, and the one on the right was given to Katsunobu..."

As Miyamoto and Katsunobu received the sword from the emperor's reward from the two guards, Nobuyuki, who was sitting on the side and watching with envy, couldn't help but say, "Didn't Your Majesty prepare one for me, and my martial arts are not much worse than my brother." ”

Shengxin, who didn't dare to draw his sword in front of the emperor, immediately reprimanded his younger brother unhappily: "Xinxing, don't be rude to Your Majesty..."

Zhu Youzhen waved his hand to stop Shengxin and said, "It's nothing important, it seems that I made a mistake." Okay, Nobuyuki, I'll give you a handful when you have your birthday next year. ”

After reassuring Nobuyuki, he turned to Miyamoto Musashi and continued: "As for this letter, it was written by me to the former emperor who has abdicated, and I hope that you will go to Kyoto after returning to Japan and pass the letter to him. There's really nothing important in the letter, but I hope that this person will be able to hire you as the Emperor's swordsmanship. ”

Miyamoto Musashi, who received the letter, looked at the emperor in some surprise and said, "Your Majesty wants the minister to serve as the emperor's swordsmanship?" So here in the shogunate..."

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and said, "The shogunate will let Katsunobu serve as Yuya's swordsmanship, and of course there may be some other affairs that you need to handle." But for the specifics, when you arrive in Osaka, you can receive them from the Osaka Governor's Palace. Does Miyamoto have any other questions? ”

Miyamoto Musashi naturally didn't have any other objections, but his heart moved, and he couldn't help but ask Chongzhen: "Has Your Majesty decided to let His Highness Tomoya go?" ”

Zhu Youzhen put down the tea bowl in his hand, and said as he got up: "You can first reveal something to the shogunate's envoys and tell them that it will not be more than September at the earliest, and no later than November at the latest, and they can return to China with Tomoya." Well, that's all for today, I'll go back first. ”

When Zhu Youzhen returned to Xiyuan from the Kendo Hall, Cui Chengxiu was also waiting in the palace, and honestly explained to the emperor the situation of the meeting with Zhang Pu last night, but he only hid some words about himself.

After Zhu Youzhen finished listening, he looked at Cui Chengxiu and said mockingly: "This Zhang Tianru is really bold, and he has begun to arrange personnel for me." Mr. Cui, you say, do I see it or not? ”

Cui Chengxiu didn't dare to make eye contact with the emperor, his eyes kept looking at the tip of his nose, and he said calmly: "The minister thinks that whether you see it or not, it all depends on Your Majesty." Your Majesty, as a great emperor, has a noble status, and you don't need to fight with the same arrogant person. If Your Majesty doesn't want to see him, the minister will find someone to drive him out of the capital, so that he won't make trouble in the capital and make some trouble for Your Majesty. ”

Zhu Youzhen walked back and forth in the room for a few steps, stopped in front of the balcony, looked at the scenery outside and thought for a while before he said, "Trouble?" Hehe, I want to see what trouble he can get out of for me. The day after tomorrow, I want to send Imperial Physician Wu and them out of Beijing, so let him wait at Fuchengmen in the morning, send them away, and listen to what he wants to say to me by the way..."

Cui Chengxiu paused for a moment, and then reacted. He knew that it was said that the plague of "pimple disease" appeared one after another in Daimyo, Guangping, Shunde and other places. As for the doctors who participated in the placement of plague in Hetao, Shaanxi and other places, they understood as soon as they heard that this kind of plague was called pimple plague after a few moments, and it was called a plague with pimple plague, which was the symptom of plague that had appeared in the northwest region before.

After a long period of research, doctors, including Wu Youxing, have an understanding of how the plague is transmitted. The plague was initially transmitted by fleas on rats, but when seriously ill patients began to appear in the population, the spread of the plague began to change to the transmission of close breathing, talking, coughing, etc., and the spread of the plague accelerated.

Although Wu Youxing and others have still not found a specific drug to treat the plague, they have at least learned that the initial isolation and prevention is actually the most effective way to deal with the spread of the plague. Therefore, as soon as he heard that there was an epidemic in these places not far from the capital, Wu Youxing quickly met with Chongzhen and asked for the support of the army and local officials to draw and seal off the epidemic area to prevent the plague from continuing to spread.

Hearing that such a terrible plague had appeared so close to the capital, the cabinet and the officials of the six ministries immediately became frightened, and they completed the procedures with unprecedented efficiency, met the needs of manpower and materials allocated to Wu Youxing, and asked him to set off as soon as possible with the epidemic prevention team.

Thinking of this, Cui Chengxiu was a little worried about Zhang Pu, the emperor sent Wu Youxing out of Beijing to prevent the epidemic, and his heart must not be very happy, and he still has to meet Zhang Pu at this time, I'm afraid this meeting is not very optimistic. But now that Chongzhen has decided, Cui Chengxiu can't do anything to change the time of meeting, so he can only agree to quit Xiyuan.

After Cui Chengxiu left, Zhu Youzhen sat back at his desk and began to review the music in front of him. The case of Wang Qi, which was in a uproar last year, was quickly closed after Qian Qianyi made his position clear. Wang Qi was dismissed from the post of governor of Henan because of mishandling, but he was called to serve in the Ministry of Officials in the capital, which was a blessing in disguise.

However, a large number of local officials and gentry, because they were involved in the case of embezzlement of disaster relief materials, are now jumping up and down to find someone to intercede, resulting in the case that should have been closed in May was not finalized until June.

Jiang Dejing, who presided over the case, was indeed put on the fire pit this time, and Qian Qianyi and his cabinet colleagues here pressured him to close the case quickly, and there were party comrades, relatives and friends who hoped that he could delay the case, so that the officials and gentry below could fill in the loopholes, so as to reduce the amount and number of people involved in the case, so that he could be dealt with lightly.

Although Jiang Dejing had a reputation for being honest and upright in the past, when he encountered this kind of big case involving thousands of officials and gentry, the pleants were almost overwhelming, and he couldn't bear it for a while. had no choice but to learn from Qian Qianyi, and he had been sick four times in just a few months.

As for Qian Qianyi's side, since he listened to Chongzhen's hint and released the winner of the disaster relief case with red eyes, the officials and gentry who had put pressure on Wang Qi's case before have long since taken care of this case, and they are rushing to the disaster relief case one by one.

Qian Qianyi, who was sick for three days, suddenly became healthy, and in addition to putting pressure on Jiang Dejing, he began to focus on his preparations after stepping down as the first assistant. The cronies who should be promoted will be promoted, and those who don't like it will be thrown away from other places. Relying on the smooth sailing of Daming's overseas development career, it is no difficulty to throw people away now.

What makes Qian Qian even more refreshed is that because they are all newly developed places, some of these places are located to accommodate people, and there is no need to worry about any opposition from the local government. At the beginning of the year alone, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou and the overseers of southern Xinjiang came to report separately, and they were all asking the imperial court to fill in the place.

Especially on the side of the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Hong Chengchou, together with Thailand and other Southeast Asian princely states and Europeans, almost knocked down Burma, and now the passage from Kunming to the Indian Ocean is no longer obstructed. The governor divided the kingdom of Burma into three small states and intended to build a railway from Yunnan to the Indian Ocean, thus reversing the problem of difficult travel for people and goods in Yunnan.

The construction of the Burma Railway and the establishment of the Burmese Governorate in the Lower Burma region alone would have placed at least 100 officials. Like before the apocalypse, the scene of hundreds of alternate officials waiting at the entrance of the official department all day long is no longer seen after the ninth year of Chongzhen.

It is precisely because the vacancies of officials have increased too much, and some remote overseas colonies have few scholars and people who are willing to go, so the imperial court's relaxed policy on the promotion of officials is now resisted by few officials. At least these people are just used to fill the overseas colonies where officials with serious careers refuse to go.

However, Chongzhen, who was watching from the sidelines, was unwilling to wait any longer after the situation in the court changed, and decided to deal with the disaster relief case as soon as possible, so as to crack down on the gentry and wealthy forces entrenched in the local area.