Fifteen years in China, Wuchang.

An elegant middle-aged man led a teenage child, followed by a group of guards, to the Yellow Crane Tower and entered a private room on the top floor.

"Grandpa, the scenery here is so beautiful, I heard grandma say that you almost planted it here, what's going on?"

While the men were serving up the food and drinks, the child came to the window, looked down at the busy boats in the river not far away, and smiled at the middle-aged man sitting there, looking very interested.

"When grandpa and your grandmother came to Wuchang to participate in the township test, they provoked the children of the powerful and almost died in Wuchangwei's prison, fortunately your grandma Wanting rescued her, otherwise grandpa's life would be gone."

The middle-aged man who was drinking herbal tea smiled when he heard the words and said to the child.

"Grandpa, grandma was a stunning beauty back then, why can't anyone else see it except you? Unexpectedly, he was able to live in the right Chunfang University Scholar. Hearing this, the child suddenly became interested, and came to the middle-aged man's side and asked with great interest.

Obviously, the grandmother in this child's mouth is Zhao Xin, the empress of the current Chinese Empire, and Zhao Xin disguised herself as a man to gain fame and was promoted to a scholar of Youchunfang University has already spread all over the world and has become a legend.

In this way, the middle-aged man is Li Hongyu, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, although he is close to the age of sixties, Li Hongyu's face does not look old, and he looks like he is thirty or forty years old.

Therefore, no one would associate the elegant middle-aged man in front of him with the emperor, which undoubtedly facilitated Li Hongyu's private visit to Weifu.

After Dolgon led the surrender of the Manchu Shunzhi Emperor that year, Li Hongyu decided to make the capital Xiangyang after careful consideration.

Xiangyang has convenient land and water transportation, and since ancient times, it has been known as "the thoroughfare of the seven provinces", and relying on the Han River can ensure sufficient water sources and facilitate construction.

Secondly, Xiangyang is located in the Jianghan Plain, rich in resources, fertile land, known as the "granary of Zhongzhou", with superior natural environment.

What is particularly important is that Xiangyang is located between the Central Plains and the south of the Yangtze River, and the distance from all parts of the country is relatively close, so sitting in Xiangyang can control the whole country from afar, and it is also conducive to the development of the western region.

If left to the future, the capital of Xiangyang can save the imperial capital from the danger of the sea and have a vast strategic depth, while Beijing and Nanjing are too close to the sea to be easily lost once the enemy army comes from the sea.

In order to deal with the complicated official business, Li Hongyu began to reorganize the yamen of the imperial court after establishing the capital of Xiangyang, abolished the yamen of the central ministries including the six ministries, and set up new government institutions following the example of later generations, and then handed them over to the cabinet for governance.

The cabinet here is naturally different from the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, but the cabinet of the West in later generations, composed of ministers in charge of important government agencies, responsible to the emperor, and has decision-making power over daily state affairs, which makes Li Hongyu easy and improves the efficiency of government agencies.

It is worth mentioning that after Li Hongyu established the capital in Xiangyang, he announced the implementation of new schools to replace the old school education, mainly by introducing Western disciplines and paying equal attention to Confucianism.

Not only that, Li Hongyu also set up a professional school to train professionals, which is more conducive to promoting the development of society.

Considering that many scholars in China have been familiar with the books of sages since childhood, and they are too old to study new disciplines, Li Hongyu deliberately relaxed the restrictions on the old school, and prepared to open two sessions of the imperial examination for those scholars who studied the old school, and then abolish the imperial examination system.

In addition, Li Hongyu also specially ordered that all students who have reached the age of 25 must give up their examinations and devote themselves to social affairs if they cannot be admitted to a new-style school of a higher level, so as to avoid the phenomenon of still taking exams in their seventies and eighties.

Although Li Hongyu did this somewhat unreasonable, it undoubtedly liberated the productive forces of the Ming Dynasty, so that those students who were taught could engage in the construction of all walks of life when they were young and strong, instead of studying there all the time.

In addition, Li Hongyu also reformed the title system, abolished the part that indicated the region or title before the title, and abolished the rank of county king.

In the case of King Xiang and King Chu, they were collectively referred to as "princes" from then on, and Li Hongyu strictly controlled the title of prince, and only the son born to the queen could be crowned prince.

The eldest son of the remaining concubines was made a duke, the second son was a marquis, the third son was made an earl, the fourth son was a baron, and the fifth son was a viscount, and the succession was reduced from generation to generation.

For example, Qin Yue's eldest son Li Yunsong, Naren Toya's eldest son Li Yunfeng, Zhu Wanting's son Li Yunhao, Yang Li'er's Li Yunhai and Chen Ting's son Li Yuntao were named "dukes", and words that were no longer modified before the title.

According to Li Hongyu's customization, the title is just a title, representing status and social status, and has no real power.

Li Hongyu came to Xiangyang this time to participate in the 70th birthday of Zhu Shengchang, the former king of Chu in the Ming Dynasty and the prince of the current Chinese Empire.

Zhu Shengchang and King Xiang supported Li Hongyu to ascend the throne that year, and they were the two biggest contributors to Li Hongyu's establishment of the Chinese Empire, so Li Hongyu took good care of the two of them, and he was worthy of the Ming royal family.

The child next to Li Hongyu is Li Xuanfeng, the second son of the crown prince Li Yunxuan, although Li Yunxuan is the crown prince, he did not stay in the palace in Xiangyang, but was sent by Li Hongyu to various places early to hone and accumulate experience for his future accession to the throne.

As a matter of fact, Li Hongyu's trip south this time not only gave Zhu Shengchang his 70th birthday, but also inspected the southern provinces, and then arrived in Guangzhou and led the Chinese sailors to visit European countries, which was not only to promote national prestige but also to promote exchanges between the two sides.

Although Li Hongyu looks like he is only thirty or forty years old, he has reached the age of the sixtieth year after all, and he is the emperor of the Chinese Empire, including Zhao Xin, who opposes him leading the army to visit European countries this time.

However, Li Hongyu has his own plans, and he feels that he can go everywhere he can while he is young and establish a connection with the Chinese Empire, and if he wants to go in another ten years, he will be powerless.

"Your Majesty, you actually came here in person, you really killed the minister." When Li Hongyu was telling Li Xuanfeng about the old past, an old man walked into the private room quickly, bowed to Li Hongyu with a smile and said, he is Zhu Shengchang, and he came to meet Li Hongyu after learning that he came to Wuchang.

"Brother Shengchang, don't be polite, today is a gathering of our old friends, regardless of monarchs and ministers."

Li Hongyu smiled and stretched out his hand to signal Zhu Shengchang to sit down, and then talked and recalled the past years with a smile, more than forty years have passed in a blink of an eye, who would have thought that Li Hongyu, who almost died in Wuchangwei Prison, could become the emperor.

In August of the fifteenth year of China, Li Hongyu led a fleet to visit Europe and sailed out of Guangzhou Port and embarked on a westward journey, accompanied by Sakurako Yamashita as a noble concubine.

The reason why Li Hongyu chose Yamashita Sakurako was naturally because Yamashita Sakurako was his youngest concubine, and he didn't want Zhao Xin, Qin Yue and others to suffer from this kind of bumps anymore.

This time Hongyu is not only a simple visit, but also to promote trade with Western countries, so there are many merchants and goods with him.

With the vigorous development of overseas trade and industry, Europe learned more and more about the Oriental countries, and the kings of various countries did not dare to slack off when they heard that the Chinese emperor of the East had personally visited.

At this time, the Chinese Empire not only incorporated Korea, the Wa Kingdom and Mongolia, but also absorbed the South Seas into the territory, and half of Central Asia also belonged to the Chinese Empire, making the Chinese Empire a huge empire with a vast territory.

During this visit, Li Hongyu not only visited European countries, but also went to the Americas, Australia, and Africa, which lasted two years, not only opening up the overseas territories of the Chinese Empire in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, but also taking Australia into the bag, becoming the largest overseas territory of the Chinese Empire.

In fact, this is the real purpose of Li Hongyu's trip, he wants to take advantage of the time when European countries have no time to take care of it, and vigorously explore overseas territories.

Twenty years of China, Qingming Festival, western Liaoning, Shimen Mountain Cemetery.

Because today is the day to pay tribute to the dead, so many local people come to the cemetery to pay respects to the soldiers who died here in the war, the battle of Shimen Mountain can be said to be the most dangerous battle in Li Hongyu's life, so it is famous all over the world.

In the crowd, Li Hongyu, who was dressed in civilian clothes, put the flowers in his hand in front of the martyr's monument and stood there silently in deep thought, recalling the bloody battle of Shimen Mountain in the past, if it were not for the soldiers fighting hard, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"You...... You're a Lee! ”

Just when Li Hongyu was wandering outside the world, a voice suddenly sounded in his ears, and he saw an old man with gray hair standing in front of him, looking at him with a surprised expression.

Now that the Chinese Empire has been founded for 20 years, the people who can call Li Hongyu "Li Daxue" are naturally not ordinary people, and ordinary people must respectfully call Li Hongyu "Your Majesty." ”

"You're a second tiger, right?"

Li Hongyu took a closer look at the old man, and said with a smile, he vaguely remembered that this old man was a soldier of the forbidden army who was injured and disabled after the Battle of Shimen Mountain, named Erhu, and later became a mausoleum guard.

In fact, Li Hongyu has a deep impression of each of the mausoleum keepers, and still remembers their names.

Lee University...... The villain knocks on the emperor, long live the emperor, long live long live! The old man never expected that Li Hongyu would remember him, so he suddenly became excited, and hurriedly pushed away the young man who was supporting him on the side, knelt on the ground and shouted.

"Your Majesty?" The family-like men and women who followed the old man were stunned for a moment, and looked at each other, could it be that this elegant and extraordinary middle-aged man in front of him was the current emperor? Will the Emperor come here?

"Get up, now we don't kneel and prostrate, don't kneel in the future." Just when those family members were stunned, Li Hongyu stepped forward with a smile and helped the old man up.

This time when he came to the Shimen Mountain Martyrs Cemetery, Li Hongyu naturally wanted to meet the mausoleum keepers, especially the mausoleum keepers who died one after another, and there was not much left.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty is here!" Seeing this, the surrounding crowd suddenly stirred, and they all rushed over excitedly to get a closer look at the legendary Chinese emperor.

Seeing this, the guards who were secretly protecting behind immediately rushed forward and quickly escorted Li Hongyu away, Li Hongyu smiled and waved to the excited people around him as he walked, which made the people at the scene even more excited, and the sound of long live was endless.

In the evening, Li Hongyu set up a banquet to invite the mausoleum keepers and the family members of the mausoleum keepers to enjoy with them.

Those surviving old mausoleum guards were invited by Li Hongyu to sit at the same table, don't look at Li Hongyu as the emperor now, but back then, they were brothers in life and death who lived and died together on the battlefield, and there was no distinction between monarchs and ministers here.

Seeing that Li Hongyu was chatting and laughing with those old mausoleum guards, and he also poured wine for the elderly in person, the family members of those mausoleum guards at the scene couldn't believe their eyes, who would have thought that His Majesty the dignified emperor would call those old mausoleum guards brothers, they couldn't imagine it.

In fact, Li Hongyu has never forgotten the soldiers who followed him in the southern and northern wars and finally died on the battlefield, and has always given their families and descendants a lot of care.

It is precisely because of Li Hongyu's generous pension policy that both the new army of the year and the current Chinese army have no worries and are willing to live and die for him on the battlefield.

After returning from the Shimen Mountain Cemetery, Li Hongyu made a major decision, Zen concession to the prince Li Yunxuan, the prince is almost to the age of not being confused, it is the prime of life and strength should also contribute to the Chinese Empire, so that it is more conducive to the inheritance of the empire, and Li Yunxuan can't be allowed to ascend the throne at the age of fifty or sixty!

Li Hongyu lived a leisurely life as the emperor, leading Zhao Xin and others to enjoy the mountains and rivers, they can be said to have struggled all their lives, and they should live the comfortable life they want when they are old.

As for the future and future of the empire, Li Hongyu is not worried, the so-called children and grandchildren have their own children and grandchildren, he has done everything he can, and the rest is to watch the creation of his children and grandchildren.

Although Li Hongyu has abdicated, his prestige in the government and the opposition is still undiminished, and he is a great legend in the minds of the people.

(End of chapter)