Li Zicheng walked back and forth in the room several times, and finally made up his mind and stopped, he put his hands on the unpainted tabletop, leaned down to look at Gao Guiying and said: "Do you think that if you dismantle the gang, you can find a way to live with the people of Gaojiazhai?"

The imperial court may let go of those ordinary homeless, but it will never let go of the leaders of the rebels who led the homeless people to rebel. Gao Chuang Wang raised his arms that day, and he eroded half of Shaanxi, and now although he was murdered by the official army, the name of King Chuang has already shocked Shaanxi.

If it weren't for the government to start tracking down the people of King Chuang, how could you take the risk of taking all the people from Gaojiazhai out? Now the government is encouraging the displaced people to return to their hometowns, or calling on the young and strong to go out of the fortress and reclaim the famine, and we are now so many strong and old and weak mixed together, and they are neither willing to return to their hometowns nor go out of the fortress, even fools know that there is something wrong with us people.

The government deliberately let one Zhao Jiadu go unchecked, and then let the regimental training officers and soldiers in various places clean up the place, and drove the idle people from all over the country and those like us who dare not settle down in the local area to here, which must be playing some kind of conspiracy. By the end of the spring and summer caravan recruitment season, how many more young people do you think will be able to stay here? When the government sends people to clean up the camp and register everyone's place of origin, how long do you think we can hide here? ”

Being able to take the old and young of Gaojiazhai and the government around until now, Li Zicheng has not allowed Li Zicheng to annex the power of Gaojiazhai, and Gao Guiying is naturally not an uninformed woman. She knew in her heart that what Li Zicheng said was right, even if the government could open up to them, the gentry and landlords who were killed by the righteous army would not let go of the clansmen who broke into the king, and if they were not found out, it was estimated that these gentry would not even be able to sleep well in the future.

But Gao Guiying was unwilling to give in to Li Zicheng, without these old and weak clansmen to bind their hands and feet, the young and strong people who followed Li Zicheng out of the fortress could naturally live, but the remaining clansmen may not be able to live, and the remaining strength of Gaojiazhai became Li Zicheng's people.

The longer she gets along with Li Zicheng, the more Gao Guiying understands that this is a person who is unwilling to be lonely like her uncle, and she naturally does not want to let the people of Gaojiazhai become a stepping stone on the road to Li Zicheng's success.

Gao Guiying gritted her teeth and said: "Even if we die, our people in Gaojiazhai will die in one place, even if we fight hard with the officials and soldiers here, I will not leave them to survive by myself." ”

Li Zicheng frowned, looking at Gao Guiying with a gloomy face, what he didn't like the most was Gao Guiying's stubborn character, which reminded him of the ex-aunt who made him lose face every time, which is why he finally gave up the idea of marrying Gao Guiying.

After pondering for a moment, Li Zicheng finally threw out the last solution, "Okay, since you must not give up the old and young of Gaojiazhai, then I have one last idea."

I have already negotiated with Liu Zongbao, a large family in Weinan, and his own family, Liu Zhao, and Tian Changhao, a Hanzhong tea merchant, have decided to form a large caravan and go to explore the more westerly parts of Moxi Mongolia and find a trade route to Moscow. Not only was the journey long, but it was also extremely risky, so they needed some outlaws who had seen blood, but the reward was also good.

We still divide the team into two parts, I will take the young and strong to join the caravan, and you will take those old and weak to settle on Liu Zongbao's Zhuangzi first. With your family members in hand, Liu Zongbao will definitely be more at ease with us. And with Liu Zongbao's protection, the government will not be able to track you down in a short time. As long as we come back, Liu Zongbao promised to settle in Weinan for us. ”

Gao Guiying looked at him suspiciously and asked, "Since you have such an idea, why didn't you bring it up just now?" ”

Li Zicheng replied helplessly: "If something happens on the road, you are in the hands of Liu Zongbao, and everyone may not be able to retreat if they have scruples." ”

Gao Guiying was silent for a long time before asking, "Does the Xing family stay?" ”

Li Zicheng said categorically: "Naturally, we want to stay, how can a woman's family go away with us." ”

Gao Guiying finally stopped hesitating, she said word by word: "I have to meet Liu Zongbao first before I can make a final decision." ”

Li Zicheng looked at Gao Guiying for a long time before he nodded and said, "Okay." ”

On the third day of the fourth month, in the emperor's duty room in the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Youzhen was talking to Xu Guangqi, and during the conversation, he asked Xu Guangqi quite unexpectedly: "Mr. wants to resign from the post of secretary of the ministry?" ”

Xu Guangqi looked at the emperor and nodded again and repeated: "Yes, since the beginning of autumn last year, the minister has felt that his energy is running out every day, and he often loses his work.

For example, the work of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the work of Yenching University, the revision of the "Chongzhen Almanac", and some of the words written by the minister on weekdays, I also want to take advantage of the present to compile them. These tasks must be done by the ministers themselves, but this official secretary is not a minister, so the minister hopes to resign from the position of the minister and concentrate on arranging other things, and hopes that His Majesty will approve it. ”

After listening to Xu Guangqi's reason, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but feel unconvinced, but compared to three years ago, today's court situation does not have to require Xu Guangqi to occupy this position.

He thought about it for a long time before he said: "The official department is in charge of personnel, and it is also the only key position in the cabinet that can check and balance with the first assistant, if an unreliable person is allowed to sit in this position, it is not a good thing for the imperial court, for me, and for the Ming Dynasty."

Since Mr. took over the position of secretary of the ministry, he has indeed worked hard for the stability of the government in the past three years. Since Mr. Today has made this request, I think it is indeed impossible to support it, how can I bear it and continue to force Mr. to sit in this position? Naturally, I agreed.

However, I hope that Mr. will retain the title of State Councilor for the time being, so that he can still maintain the power to supervise the work of the Ministry of Officials, so that the current work of the Ministry of Officials will not change direction because of Mr. Wang's departure. ”

Xu Guangqi, who was thinking of completely withdrawing from the ministry, listened to Chongzhen's words, thought for a while, and finally reluctantly agreed.

Only then did Zhu Youzhen continue to ask: "Then Mr. Xu thinks that after you, who is the most suitable person to take over the work of the secretary of the ministry?" ”

Xu Guangqi just wanted to say that the discussion of the candidates for the secretary of the ministry should be submitted to the court, but he suddenly stopped talking again. Since the accession of the little emperor in front of him, the court and the central government began to propose reforms.

Today, at first it seemed to be only a slight reform to rectify the imperial village, the guard house and the etiquette of the imperial court, but now it has developed into a change in all aspects of the entire country, and it can be said that the movement is no less than the Wanli New Deal implemented by Zhang Juzheng at that time.

His friends, relatives and protégés are now deeply entangled in this change. He personally has no pity for the position of secretary of the ministry, but those who support reform still need this position.

Without the protection of power, any reform risks becoming a gallows for those who support it. After Xu Guangqi's mind turned around a few times in his mind, he finally changed his words and said: "Your Majesty wants to ask the minister about the right candidate, and the minister thinks that Wen Tiren can take over." ”

Zhu Youzhen was slightly surprised, and he couldn't help but ask curiously: "Why did Mr. choose Wen Tiren instead of Cheng Jiming or Sun Yuanhua?" ”

Xu Guangqi replied frankly: "Sun Yuanhua is not qualified enough, and he is obsessed with the study of new machinery, so it is more appropriate for him to continue to be in charge of the weapons superintendent."

As for Cheng Jiming, although he has deep qualifications, is quite popular, and acts steadily, this person is too benevolent and always can't bear to punish officials who make mistakes. The secretary of the ministry holds the power of personnel, and the first task is to offend people for His Majesty and the court.

If the official is a good man, how can His Majesty control the ministers? Although Wen Tiren's qualifications are worse and his fame and fortune are heavier, judging from his handling of the Nanjing scientific expedition case, he is a person who dares to do things and is willing to obey His Majesty.

Therefore, the minister thought that Wen Tiren could take over the post of secretary of the ministry. Of course, this is just a little superficial opinion of the minister, and it is better to decide who to use in the end. ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled, then diverted the topic and said, "Okay, let me think about this matter again." However, I do have something I would like to ask him for, and it is said that someone has sent a set of equations to the Royal Academy of Sciences to describe the relative motion between the earth, the sun, and the moon. ”

Hearing the emperor mention this, Xu Guangqi suddenly became energetic, and he immediately said: "It was not sent by one person, but two people submitted articles to the journal "Nature" founded by the Academy of Sciences, and they adopted the infinitesimal analysis method proposed by the Academy of Sciences a year ago to study tangents and integral problems, that is, the calculus named by His Majesty is used to calculate the relative motion between the earth, the sun and the moon..."

When Xu Guangqi began to turn the topic to boring mathematical equations, Chongzhen, who didn't want to be ruined by Xu Guangqi for a pleasant afternoon, quickly stopped him and asked, "So, Mr. and the academicians of the Academy of Sciences think that the equations sent by these two people can be correct?" ”

Xu Guangqi glanced at Chongzhen with some disdain and said: "How can Your Majesty measure the value of these two sets of equations by whether they are correct or not, for the Academy of Sciences, this undoubtedly provides two new ways of thinking..."

Regarding Xu Guangqi's education, Zhu Youzhen was only silent, and after educating the emperor, Xu Guangqi said with some regret: "... Until now, the academicians of the Academy of Sciences have not been able to understand how the two sets of equations are verified, and we need to continue to study them, but for now, the two sets of equations are very close to the right path. ”

Hearing that Xu Guangqi stopped sighing, Zhu Youzhen finally couldn't help but speak: "Why don't you invite those two authors to the capital and explain their equations to the academicians of the Academy of Sciences?" ”

Xu Guangqi paused slightly, and then clapped his hands, but he quickly became embarrassed and said: "There is an one from Tongcheng in Anqing that has an address, but the other one from the capital does not have an address written on it, I'm afraid it will be difficult to find." ”

Zhu Youzhen said disapprerovingly: "This is easy to do, in the new issue of "Nature", these two equations will be published, and the people of insight in the world will verify them. In addition, the invitation was made public, inviting two authors to give a lecture at the Beijing Academy of Sciences on a certain day, and I would personally participate in this explanation, so I might not be able to sit still if I thought that the two original authors would come. Tongcheng can also ask the local officials to invite them on their behalf, and order the officials to take them to the capital by bus..."