As for the candidate in charge of the affairs of the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Palace, Emperor Chongzhen decided to be the new Zuo Shilang from the Ministry of Rites.

He Ruzhong was also an important figure on the periphery of the Donglin Party.

It is precisely because he is a peripheral figure of the Donglin Party that he escaped the political purge of the Donglin Party during the Apocalypse.

is also because he is an important figure on the periphery of the Donglin Party, so when Emperor Chongzhen takes over the Ming Dynasty, He Ruzhong has already sat in the high position of the Beijing official squire.

For such a person, even if you are the emperor, you can't kick him out of the court just because you know that he was an important peripheral figure in the Donglin Party.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen's method was to let people like them stay in the court for the time being, and give them some irrelevant but tricky things to do, so as to observe and test their moral character and ability to do things.

When He Ruzhong was asked to take Wu Weiye and others to Ryukyu, there was the purpose of this investigation.

And this time, He Ruzhong returned from Ryukyu, which can be regarded as withstanding the test of Emperor Chongzhen on him, and also won Emperor Chongzhen's trust in him.

Because He Ruzhong was ordered to go to Shuri, the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and the canonization of the Ryukyu state affairs was not a simple trip to go and return, and there were some twists and turns during the period.

The Shimazu clan of the Satsuma Domain, or the Shimazu clan of the Kagoshima Domain, had been coveting the Ryukyu Kingdom for many years and had begun the process of encroaching on the territory of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Before He Ruchong and others went to the Ryukyus, the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma Domain had not only opened a Wakan in Shuri, the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, but also sent a large number of idle samurai from the Satsuma Domain, which was tantamount to stationing troops in the Ryukyu in disguise.

Therefore, the Shang clan of the Ryukyu Kingdom sent people to Beijing to ask for canonization, and of course, behind them also had the intention of pulling the Ming Dynasty to support themselves, and the purpose was not simple.

During the Apocalypse, their previous old king fell ill and died, and Shang Bong, who was in charge of the Ryukyu State Affairs Agency, sent someone to ask for canonization.

At that time, no envoys were sent to seal the boat, in addition to the reason why Jiangnan could no longer build a sealed boat, I am afraid that there was also a reason to see through the joints.

Of course, the most fundamental reason is that the Emperor of the Apocalypse at that time and the big men in power did not look down on the land of Ryukyu.

However, in this life, the current Emperor Chongzhen is different, he is fully aware of the importance of the Ryukyu Kingdom and the danger of the Japanese Satsuma Domain to the Ryukyus.

It is precisely because of this that Emperor Chongzhen sent He Ruzhong, Wu Weiye, Weng Zhiqi and others to Ryukyu to canonize the king of Ryukyu, which was precisely a big test for them.

Of course, this time Emperor Chongzhen made more adequate preparations, although he did not do anything in the form of sealing the boat, nor did he give the Ryukyu king many rewards for gold and silver artifacts, but he sent a fleet of sailors stationed in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province in advance.

It is precisely because of the Zhoushan Shui Master led by Wujin Shi Weng Zhiqi in the first year of Chongzhen that He Ru Pet was able to complete his errand relatively smoothly.

In front of the sudden arrival of the Great Ming Naval Division led by Weng Zhiqi, and at the same time, under the combination of favor and power of He Ruzhong, the Satsuma Domain, which was already stationed in Shuri Castle at that time and monopolized the trade between Ryukyu and Japan, and its Satsuma Samurai Regiment, which was half army and half civilian or also army and civilian, finally chose to give in after some negotiations.

The original purpose of the Satsuma Domain's forcible occupation of the Ryukyus was simply to use the location of the Ryukyus as a maritime transit point to trade with Chinese merchants who traveled to and from the Ryukyus.

Because the Ming Dynasty had always forbidden trade with the Japanese.

The Japanese were rich in silver but poor, especially in the latter part of their Warring States period, when the feudal lords of various regions were eager to trade with the Ming Dynasty.

The Satsuma Domain, which was not far from the Ryukyu Kingdom, and Kagoshima, its main territory, was scarce and had always made a living from trade, so the desire to trade with the merchants of the Ming Dynasty was particularly strong through the Ryukyus.

Just like that, they came and went, and they aimed at the relatively advantageous geographical location of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and gave birth to the ambition of taking it for themselves.

However, when Emperor Chongzhen sent He Ruzhong and others to Ryukyu, he was just in time for a more favorable opportunity for the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan, had already announced a national closure decree, which did not allow other Japanese feudal lords to trade privately, except for Nagasaki, a port for foreign trade.

Therefore, in this life, whether it is the Tsushima Domain or the Satsuma Domain, they have to face the Ming Dynasty that suddenly changed their sexuality alone.

The Satsuma Domain's coveting and occupation of the Ryukyu Kingdom was of course a favorable matter for the Satsuma Domain or the Japanese archipelago, but when facing the Tokugawa Shogunate, it was a private matter that could not be made public, or even left to the stage alone.

In this way, when He Ruzhong and the others arrived in the Ryukyus with a total of more than 2,000 heavily armed soldiers with 50 large and small warships of the Zhoushan Water Division, they would be unable to compete with the power that the Satsuma Domain had accumulated on the Ryukyu Island.

However, He Ruzhong, an official of the Ministry of Rites, chose to salute first and then soldier, rather than directly resorting to force to solve the problem.

After negotiations with representatives of the Shimazu clan, not only were the Wakan of the Satsuma Domain allowed to continue to operate in Shuri Castle, the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, but the Wakan of the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma Domain was also allowed to obtain a trade concession from the Ming envoys who would be stationed in the Ryukyus in the future, and to trade directly at the port of Shanghai in Matsue Prefecture.

Of course, it was not without conditions that He Ruzhong dared to do this, and the condition he put forward was that the samurai regiment from the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain, which was actually the army of the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain, must withdraw from Shurijo Castle and the northern islands of the Ryukyu Kingdom within a limited period of time.

Because Ryukyu is very far away from Beijing, before leaving, Emperor Chongzhen explained a lot of precautions to He Ruzhong, Wu Weiye and others who went to do business, and gave He Ruzhong, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, full power to decide the affairs of the Ming Dynasty in Ryukyu independently.

Emperor Chongzhen's meaning, of course, is also to see if this famous He Rupet in history can do things and reuse it.

Fortunately, this time He Ruzhong made full use of the full power given by Emperor Chongzhen, although he made a lot of concessions to the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma Domain, which was a bit different from Emperor Chongzhen's idea, but he finally completed the basic tasks assigned by the emperor smoothly.

That is, the samurai regiment of Shuri, the capital of the Satsuma Domain that stretched out to the Ryukyu Kingdom, was expelled from the Satsuma Domain, and at the same time, one of the Zhejiang naval divisions of the Ming Dynasty, the Shushu Landscape Division, was officially stationed in Shuri Port outside Shuri Castle.

Wu Weiye and Weng Zhiqi were left behind in Shuri, the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, as two permanent envoys, one Wen and one Wu.

After officially canonizing the king of the Ryukyus, He Ruzhong insisted on waiting until all the samurai regiments of the Satsuma Domain withdrew from the Ryukyu Kingdom, and then he set off for his return, which lasted for a whole year.

After his return, he not only reported to Emperor Chongzhen, but also presented Emperor Chongzhen with a self-written "Ryukyu Chronicle", which made a comprehensive and detailed record of the geography, mountains, products, trade, population, culture and education of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Emperor Chongzhen saw that this was really different from other Donglin Party bosses, and it was really not the kind of waste that left boastful and unrealistic in addition to moral preaching.

In general, Emperor Chongzhen was quite satisfied with He Ruzhong's performance on this trip, so soon after his return, he gave him the position of Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites, which had been vacant.

Although only a left word is added in front of the waiter, its meaning is very different, not only means that He Ruzhong has become the second-in-command of the Ministry of Rites, but also means that he will be the natural successor of the next Ministry of Rites.

And although He Ruzhong became the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, after all, he still has a background of peripheral figures in the Donglin Party, so it is impossible for Emperor Chongzhen to let him participate in the imperial examination in the fourth year of Chongzhen, and at the same time, the other top priority of the Ministry of Rites, that is, the revision of the calendar, cannot be involved.

In the end, the affairs of the construction of the Zhenwu Martyrs' Shrine, which should belong to the Ministry of Rites, were handed over to He Ruzhong, the new Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites.

If he can do this well, then Xu Guangqi's position as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites can be regarded as having a suitable successor.

In addition to letting He Ruzhong lead this matter, Emperor Chongzhen also appointed Jia Jichun, the left side of the Imperial Palace, to countersign the matter, and also asked Xu Yuqing in the Ministry of Rites and Ceremonies and Niu Juming in the Ministry of War to participate in this matter.

In this way, in the middle of February of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the expansion of the Protector of the Loyal Temple and the construction of the Zhenwu Loyal Martyrs' Shrine quickly entered the stage of site selection and preparation.