After the winter, the people of Fengzhou did not have idle, there was no work in the field to go out to work, everyone has become accustomed to living like this, some people also voluntarily immigrated to Baoketu, where there are many factories, workshops, and opportunities to make money. Fengzhou officials are also busy, Li Yu returned from Duolunoer not long after, the Great Commander's Office announced that after the beginning of spring next year, the westward expansion, and warned the officials that the Qing State would not give Fengzhou too much time, and the next target after conquering Korea, whether it was Ming or Khalkha, Fengzhou could not stay out of the matter, and must settle the west as soon as possible, and then turn around and go all out to deal with the Qing State.

There is a plan for the westward expansion, which is nothing more than the allocation of personnel, grain, grass and ordnance, Fengzhou has also saved some money this year, and the officials are not laborious to implement it, but another thing that Li Yu explained made the officials have a headache - how to inherit the great cause of Fengzhou? The people's ideas are simple, Fengzhou was played by Li Yu, the sky is the heaven of the Li family, and the earth is the land of the Li family. The opinions of the businessmen are also very unanimous, the money they invested in Fengzhou is recorded on Li Yu's head, whoever is the commander is not as reliable as the descendants of the Li family, the father's debts are repaid, and the descendants of the Li family must recognize the accounts of their ancestors.

But the problem is that Li Yu asked for the implementation of public affairs, and also listed his son and a large number of righteous sons as candidates, which is troublesome, choosing the heir of the great commander is a fatal errand, and no one wants to offend people, so the two governments of Fengzhou, one court and one law department began to pass the buck to each other - Li Huai first announced his recusal, and the prime minister's office immediately used this as an excuse to no longer ask about the matter, and the big law department said that it only judged right and wrong and did not ask about government affairs, and how to elect the general leader had nothing to do with them, and the council was not stupid, and made it clear that as long as it was the direct descendants of the Li family, they would support it, Which one will inherit the throne or the Grand Commander's Mansion has the final say, Li Yu was furious, things came full circle and came back, how could he still raise a fart and take it back to the council for reconsideration.

Li Yu waited in a hurry, and ran to the council several times to beg and scold, demanding that the succession bill be taken out as soon as possible, otherwise he would leave his hands - Sakhalian's death reminded him that if the authority is too heavy, people will die, and those who should give up must be given up, and they must not take the lives of future generations. The Council was also forced to be in a hurry, and put forward conditions to Li Yu, asking them to nominate the Grand Commander, but the Grand Commander's Office, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Grand Law Department must also be involved, and if there is a risk, no one should want to avoid it. So Li Yu called the main officials of the two governments and one law department to the council, stared at everyone and discussed for more than half a month, and after countless quarrels and fights, he reluctantly passed a "Statute of the Succession of the Great President" that was relatively recognized by all parties.

The "Regulations on the Succession of the Grand President" clarifies the priority order of determining the succession candidates from among the candidates, first the direct descendants, followed by the brothers, nephews, and righteous sons, and the other candidates are ranked last; There shall be no less than three candidates for succession, all of whom shall be nominated by the Prime Minister's Office, and the Grand Law Division shall review the qualifications of the candidates, but all those who have harmed their relatives or abused their subordinates shall be disqualified and returned to the Prime Minister's Office for reconsideration. Before the successor is determined or the successor is too young to govern, the chief officials of the two governments, one court and one legal department shall jointly govern the government. At the same time, it is also stipulated that without the approval of the Senate, the presiding officers of the two governments, one procuratorate and one legal department, as well as the members of the Senate, shall not be arrested or discussed during their term of office or after leaving office, so as to protect everyone from speaking freely and discussing matters impartially.

Li Yu ran to the Heihe River like a treasure, and led the officials and people of Fengzhou to swear an oath of black cattle and white horses, Liu Zhilun disdained this - the court did not approve of it, and it was useless for you to work hard, but he didn't dare to say it, just when the new Xuanda Governor Lu Xiangsheng came to discuss with him, he went to Yanghe with his legs, and it was best to see these bad things in Fengzhou.

A few days later, Liu Zhilun came back with a bitter face and brought Li Yu a letter from the Governor. Lu Xiangsheng praised Li Yu in the letter for being young and promising, supporting the border with the strength of one person, which can be described as a high level of hard work, and he will be the first general of the Ming Dynasty in the future, and at the same time criticized Li Yu for not abiding by the law, resisting the officials, and sheltering bad people to disturb the court. Ma Fang and Bibai of the Wanli Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty are good examples, both of them are also from poor backgrounds, and they are both fierce generals of the Ming Dynasty, but the former is loyal to the court, abides by the law, and eventually becomes a generation of famous generals, and his descendants are rich and noble, and the latter does not change his brutality and ambition, and finally ends up with a dead and annihilated family. He said that he could forgive Li Yu's past actions, and was willing to regard Li Yu as a disciple to teach, and create a pillar of talent for the Ming Dynasty, but asked Li Yu to change his past mistakes, and from then on abide by the laws of the imperial court, and choose what to do.

"Master, what does Master Lu mean by writing so much nonsense?" Li Yu asked puzzled.

"Lord Lu is an honest and capable minister of my dynasty, entrusted by the emperor to the governor Xuanda four towns, every day cloth and vegetarian food, exhaustion, bent on rectifying border affairs, training a strong army for the imperial court to sweep away internal and external troubles, naturalization town has money and grain to fill the army's salary, there are strong soldiers and horses to fight, he values you very much, I hope you follow him to make contributions to the imperial court, and the day of success will leave a name in history......" Liu Zhilun said a bunch of good things for Lu Xiangsheng, quietly glanced at Li Yu, lowered his voice and said, "Lord Lu thinks that the appearance of naturalization is the same as that of separation, This is not a long-term solution, returning to the Ming Dynasty to dominate the world is the way out, therefore, he wants to gradually implement the law of the Ming Dynasty in naturalization, the naturalized official system and military system must conform to the court system, the original civil and military officials are all hired and awarded the official position of the imperial court, the young and strong of the guard are recruited into the camp as soldiers, the military households in the township pay the grains of the tuntian, the horses and camels and mules and donkeys of the people are implemented in the Ming Dynasty, and the silver in the silver treasury is transferred to the governor's office, and the naturalized town in Datong Tunzhitian originally belonged to the imperial court guard, and the people and land should also be transferred to the local government. The unauthorized garrison of Guihua Town is really a disturbing place, and it must be withdrawn as soon as possible, otherwise it will be incorporated into the Datong official army on the spot. ”

"This Lord Lu wants my life, the life of the people of Fengzhou, a good honest and capable minister!" Li Yu replied with a sneer.

Liu Zhilun sighed and said: "I also told Lord Lu that Fengzhou is poor and poor, and the ethnic group is complex, and it is not appropriate to rush to implement the laws of the Ming Dynasty, but it is also difficult for Lord Lu, the three towns in the Guannai are short of food and salary, and the officers and soldiers are already unbearable for a war, and the people can't even take out the money to train the army in the face of famine. Hermes-Epitek, I've thought about it for a long time, the unification of the world is the trend of the times, you can't divide one side for a long time, it's better to hand over the naturalization, and then go through the world to serve the country loyally, and be a generation of good generals, this is also a way out for you and the naturalized officials. ”

"Ridiculous, what that Lu should do is to rectify the rule of officials, get rid of maladministration, first raise the people and then reorganize the army, and the rich land in the customs will make a great difference, my Fengzhou is a barren land, how can I have the spare strength to help him prosper the Ming Dynasty," Li Fugui sneered and shook his head, patted the table and said, "Fengzhou can't save the Ming Dynasty, serve the emperor and ask him to find a way by himself, we will not give one or two silver and a bucket of grain, and we can recover the Tuntian people and land in the Guan, but we have a debt of 200,000 taels, and we have invested countless manpower and material resources, and a lot of them will be returned to me." ”

Zhao Ji also shouted on the side: "What does he think of us, does he want to recruit us?" I'm just like the bear in Mingguo, and I'm almost the same as recruiting them. ”

Na Mu'er and Chang Shu laughed heartily, Li Yu waved his hand to them, stood up and said solemnly: "I said that Fengzhou is not mine, but all Fengzhou people, I have no right to hand over Fengzhou to anyone, whether he is the emperor or the governor, just reply to the governor according to the meaning of Li Xieli." ”

After Li Yu finished speaking, he left, Li Fugui glanced at Liu Zhilun, who was still in a daze, and whispered softly: "Lord Governor, you know the family background of Fengzhou, it is not easy to maintain today's situation, the Governor is eager to serve the country, but he does not understand side affairs, he does not do this except to destroy Fengzhou, it will not do the court any benefit, you should persuade him." ”

Liu Zhilun hesitated for a long time before nodding, and thought about sending letters to Wu Xian, the governor of Shanxi, Ye Tinggui, the governor of Datong, and Chen Xinjia, the governor of Xuanfu, asking for support.

After a heavy snowfall, several people quietly arrived at Xinping Fort, all the people who came were dressed in civilian clothes but rode war horses, and carried weapons, Sun Siwang, the general of Xinping Fort, personally took these people into the general's mansion, and then arranged a strict guard inside and outside Xinping Fort.

The low-key club opened again, the former Shanxi Town General Soldier Wang Guoliang became the initiator as an old-timer, the naturalized General Soldier Li Yu, the Datong General Soldier Wang Pu, the Xuanfu General Soldier Yang Guozhu, the new Shanxi Town Chief Soldier Hu Dawei and his predecessor Wang Zhong arrived together - Wang Zhong hid in Fengzhou and never returned to the office, Hu Dawei went to Gyeonggi for two months instead of him, or Shanxi Governor Wu Xianhui was a man, and reported to the court that Wang Zhong was old and faint and dismissed, and promoted Hu Dawei to the Shanxi General Army, and recommended another fierce general as a tiger to aid Huguang, so as to do so, Hu Dawei and fierce as a tiger were promoted, Wang Zhong made a fortune, and they were happy without delay.

Li Yu and Hu Dawei hugged each other when they met, Hu Dawei has been doing Fengzhou's private salt business, the two have been in constant contact, but it is difficult to meet, and after shouting and cheering for a while, they were shouted by Wang Guoliang and sat down with everyone. Today's food is hot pot shabu mutton, plus the old wine of Xinghua Village in Fenzhou brought by Wang Guoliang, a few bowls of wine, everyone can't help but pour bitter water - after the new governor came, he strictly rectified military discipline in various towns, trained troops and prepared for war, and also sent people to clean up the empty salaries of various departments.

"The whole army must have food, he is a civil servant who is also in charge of food, he does not do serious things but finds trouble for us, the brothers don't want to do it, how can we lead the troops in this way?" Wang Pu said hatefully.

Hu Dawei asked Yang Guozhu: "Brother Yang, you are a person from the Guanning Army, you have entered the customs to suppress the rogues, and you know the details of Lu Xiangsheng better, I heard that this person has a set of wars, and he is skilled in bows and horses, and he is not comparable to literati, and he once defeated 400,000 rogue thieves in Yunyang with less than 10,000 people, but is there such a thing?" ”

"The literati are just boasting, you and I are both people who fight with a knife and a gun, fighting a war is not as simple as reading a few military books and learning some martial arts at home, what is going on with the rogue, do you still not know? It is reasonable for men, women and children to get together and have a million, anyway, there are few people with weapons, and those with armor must be thieves, as long as you are ruthless and not afraid of death, you will definitely be able to beat away the thieves, and he also has Zu Kuan, Li Chongzhen's thousands of Guanning iron horsemen, these guys run away when they see the Dongyu, but they are very good at robbing and killing ordinary people. Yang Guozhu replied contemptuously.

"That's it, I beat Wang Jiayin in Hequ back then, and the overwhelming people were dizzy when they looked at it, and they really couldn't do it, Lu Xiangsheng was ruthless enough, and he killed a lot of people, no wonder he had the nickname of 'King Lu Yan'." Wang Guoliang also remembered his experience of being defeated and dismissed.

Yang Guozhu lowered his head and continued: "Lu Xiangsheng is an honest official, and he prides himself on knowing soldiers, this kind of self-righteous literati is the most terrible, he wants to make meritorious contributions and leave a name in history, he will take us on his back, and if it falls into his hands, we will have to suffer in the future, maybe the Xuanda army will be destroyed in his hands that day, in fact, we know best how to fight the war, the key is to have food." ”

Others nodded yes, in all fairness, Wang Pu and others did business and ate empty salaries not all for themselves, but mainly for their own troops - the imperial court was in arrears for many years, and the life of the soldiers was poor and unwilling to shed blood and sell their lives, and the officers and generals had to rack their brains to make money to subsidize a few elite families such as family members and pro-soldiers, so that they could maintain part of their combat strength. The head of the army lamented for a while and shouted for the former governor Liang Tingdong, this person is familiar with border affairs and has also served as the secretary of the military department, he is clear about the shortcomings of the official army, he usually turns a blind eye, and the Qing army will never seek war, the Ming army can still maintain the undefeated situation of confrontation, the courtiers do not know how to accuse him of cowardice, but everyone knows that with the current situation of the official army to fight hard with the Qing army, there is no doubt that he will be defeated, and once the official army collapses into a chaotic army, its harm to Gyeonggi is definitely far greater than that of the Qing army.

Everyone envied Li Yu again, he had soldiers and territory in his hands, and he had the ability to raise his own military salary, and the separatist side was full of thorns, and the orders of the court could be listened to if they wanted to, and no one dared to care if they didn't want to listen to it.

"The Governor has also made up my mind and wants me to hand over Toyosu to do it with him." Li Yu smiled bitterly and told everyone what Lu Xiangsheng meant, and then waved his hand and said, "I don't want to do it, he still wants to see me, and I have been making excuses to drag it out of Yanghe." ”

"Yes, if you don't give it to him, why should he take advantage of the foundation he has built, and you will become like us when you get on his ship." Wang Pu slapped the table and yelled.

Wang Zhong is now the big proprietor of the Baoketu mud workshop, and he is about to make a big move, but he is most afraid that someone will interfere with his business, so he stood up excitedly and shouted: "You must not give him Fengzhou, our money can be stored with you, he must be going for the silver from the banknote bureau." ”

"Hanmin, my brother is older than all of you, and he knows the things in the officialdom best, the court's ministers have always called martial artists as dogs, and they will kill people if they are in a hurry, Mao Wenlong is a precedent, you must be on guard, you must not go to see him." The scheming Wang Guoliang lowered his voice and reminded, everyone was taken aback, but it makes sense to think about it, Da Ming Wenchen is used to infighting, the routine of the whole person is deep, and the poisoner is more ruthless than the general, so he must be guarded against.

"Some people want to be Yuan Chonghuan, but I am by no means Mao Wenlong, it is not so easy to move Lao Tzu." Li Yu drank a bowl of wine violently, and said with blood-red eyes.

The military leaders scolded while eating, and privately entered into an offensive and defensive alliance - during this time, the wind was too tight, everyone should not meet for the time being, and the business in their hands should be stopped for a while, Wang Guoliang and Wang Zhong did not have official status to facilitate their actions, and they had to take on the task of liaison, and all parties must keep their advances and retreats synchronized. At the end of the negotiations, it was already dark, and the military leaders did not dare to stay for too long, and dispersed in the wind and snow, and Li Yu also rushed to the Tuntian military camp under the escort of the Flying Tiger Battalion under the banner of Datong Officers and Army-Bai Xianzhi and Tuoyangkun must also go to ventilate first.

On the occasion of Li Yu's secret entry, Fengzhou ushered in a guest - Liu Zongzhou, the secretary of Shanxi Tixue Dao, this person is Qidong, alias Niantai, and the people of the time are honored as Mr. Qishan, Shaoxing Mansion Shanyin people, Wanli 29 years Jinshi. His temperament is upright, upright, in the officialdom up and down, Wanli Dynasty because of the unaccustomed to the government and chaos, villains in charge, twice resigned and returned to return to study, the early years of the Apocalypse and then used to serve in the Ministry of Rites, still temperament does not change, in the court first impeached Wei Zhongxian, the Hakka disorderly government, and then went up to Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and other six gentlemen of the Donglin Party to complain about grievances, denounced Wei Zhongxian for misleading the country, angered the emperor was dismissed from the official and cut down.

This person is old and knowledgeable, young and long in science, after middle age, he turned to study mind, famous in the world for "Shen Du", is one of today's giant Confucians, and because of his close contacts with Gu Yanwu, Gao Panlong and other people of the Donglin Party, he was regarded as a leader by Qingliu, the more times he lost his official position, the greater his fame, and it was difficult to think of being an official. At the beginning of this year, he was used as the left waiter of the Ministry of Works, if it weren't for Wen Tiren's gossip, it was likely that he would enter the cabinet, but he and the emperor were always out of tune, the emperor thought he was talking about it, he thought that the emperor was eager to govern, and if he couldn't talk, he would break up, and this was the second time he abandoned the official.

However, Liu Zongzhou is an idle person, on the way back to his hometown, when the Qing army plundered, stranded in Tianjin to avoid the limelight, he once again went to the imperial court, and the spearhead was directly pointed at the first assistant Wen Tiren - "In eight years, who will succeed in the country, and as for it!" The minister can't be the head of the body. The saying is 'who is the strong rank, so far it is the stalk' Wen Tiren is also said". The emperor really can't stand this guy anymore, since you are self-righteous, then go and educate those northern captives, kick Liu Zong to naturalization on Monday, and use Shanxi to learn Taoism and return to the government.