After leaving Guilin, Tang King Zhu Yuqi and his entourage, took a boat along the Li River to the north, changed the land route in a section of the Xianggui Canal, and then changed the waterway after arriving in Huguang, and resisted Hengyang along the lì.

Unlike Emperor Longwu, who is becoming more and more mature, Zhu Yulu has always been an idle prince, with a relatively simple life experience, so his personality is very simple, although he is also in his forties, sometimes he is as impulsive as a young man, he will not turn around when considering problems, and his ears are still soft, so in the turmoil at the beginning of the year, he was confused by Lu Daqi as a gunman and caused a commotion.

Forty-year-old body, twenty-year-old heart, Zhu Yulu and Wang Kefan are just the opposite.

Like a bird out of the cage, Zhu Yulu has been in a good mood since leaving Guilin, and what he saw and heard along the way made him feel novel and interesting, because he rarely went far away, and things that seemed commonplace to others were a new experience for him.

The beautiful scenery of the Li River fascinated him, and the new changes of the Ming Dynasty excited him. When passing by the construction site of the Xianggui Canal, Zhu Yulu even rolled up his sleeves and personally went down to the river beach to work with the people......

The Xianggui Canal is being rebuilt.

In the past two years, Wang Kefan's power has developed rapidly, and his financial revenue has risen gradually, but as the stalls have become bigger and bigger, there are more places to spend money, and his hands have been tight, and some important projects have been dragged out without starting, such as the Xianggui Canal is one of them.

The Xianggui Canal, also known as the Ling Canal, is a waterway hub connecting Guangxi and Hunan, as well as the entire Pearl River and Yangtze River systems. It has very important strategic and economic value...... The Lingqu was built in the Qin Dynasty and has been abandoned because of disrepair. However, the main structure of the canal is basically intact, as long as the river channel is dredged. Reinforcing the embankment would restore the navigable capacity, and it was estimated that about 23,000 taels of silver would be required.

Twenty-three thousand taels? It's really not much. As long as the navigation capacity of the Ling Canal is restored, a banknote gate is set up on the canal to collect cents from passing merchant ships, and the entire investment can be recovered within half a year or at most a year, and then it will be a net profit.

Twenty-three thousand taels? Wang Kefan really couldn't take it out at first. The speed of the Chu army's expansion is too fast, and the two arsenals are bottomless pit gold monsters, the most tense time. He was even forced to the point of robbing the imperial treasury, how could he have "spare money" to repair the spiritual canal.

But as the saying goes, as soon as the cannon goes off, there are ten thousand taels of gold, and when the Eastern Crusade begins, Wang Kefan's financial situation has improved significantly. The imperial court continued to give food and wages, and the local gentry and merchants donated money to fund the war, and the Chu army continued to be captured at the front, collecting money and grain on the spot in the enemy-occupied areas. The arsenal's weapons and ammunition were also booming in production and sales, making a lot of money......

After Wang Kefan became rich, he immediately gave back to the imperial court, and Huguang independently funded the repair of the Xianggui Canal. The only condition is that after the canal is repaired, a banknote will be built, and the collected gold will be divided with the Longwu court in a ratio of seventy-three. After all, Lingqu is in Guangxi, and you can be satisfied if you can intervene in it. It would be too greedy to eat alone again.

Zhu Yulu didn't understand the twists and turns in this. He doesn't care, he just likes this kind of waste. The vigorous atmosphere, seeing that the people were full of enthusiasm under his encouragement, Zhu Yulu felt very happy and felt that he was not a useless waste.

After entering Hunan, this feeling and atmosphere will be even stronger, if the vicinity of Guilin in Guangxi is in ruins, Hunan is thriving, more energetic and vigorous, and the mental state of the people, the military and the people is also more positive, more optimistic, and more confident...... Although Zhu Yulu has been kept in captivity, he has fled from the north to the south, from Fuzhou to Guangzhou and then to Guilin in recent years, and has had brief contact with the outside world. At that time, wherever the Qing army went, the Ming army was about to collapse at the first touch, and the people were ruined and left their homes, and the whole country was shrouded in a pessimistic atmosphere, and there was no such self-confidence as it is now.

"King Lone used to study, watching the affairs of Qu Yuan, Wang Anshi, and Zhang Juzheng, thinking that the law of the ancestors must not be changed lightly, but now it seems that the new deal is not useless!" Zhu Yulu couldn't find a suitable object, and sighed at Ma Jixiang: "Hey! The ancients read thousands of books and traveled thousands of miles, and I was not deceiving, but I was indeed short-sighted at the beginning......"

This topic is too sensitive! Just one more sentence "Lu Daqi misunderstood me", the political struggle within the imperial family is often like the emperor's new clothes, and everyone knows that it can't be broken. Ma Jixiang didn't dare to answer at all, knelt down and kowtowed, presenting a copy of the edict he had just received.

"There is an order from the saint, Jiao Lian is ordered to lead the army first, His Royal Highness and Weichen will go to Xiangyang, and there will be another business trip."

Shen Yongzhong, the chief general of the Qing army in Xiangyang, intended to surrender, and after some heated discussions, the Longwu court finally decided to accept his conditions and grant him the title of duke.

Since the rise of the Manchu Qing Dynasty during the Wanli period, the Ming and Qing armies have been at war for many years, and the high-ranking officials and generals of the Manchu Dynasty have almost not surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, although Shen Yongzhong's weight is lighter, but there are still thousands of elite Qing troops in Xiangyang City, all of whom have been veterans who have fought for more than ten years since Liaodong.

Tang Wang and Ma Jixiang deliberately abducted Xiangyang in order to appease Shen Yongzhong and his troops, coax Shen Yongzhong to hand over his military power, and obediently go to Guilin to retire. This is also to learn from the experience of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, send the surrendered generals back to the imperial court for captivity, and reuse his subordinate generals, which will form a demonstration effect in the future, and more enemy troops will take the initiative to surrender.

As a result, the envoy group of Tang King Zhu Yulu temporarily changed the itinerary and continued to take a boat north from Hengyang, while Jiao Lian took 5,000 Yangshuo soldiers to escort grain and baggage to continue to Jiangxi. Because the baggage troops were walking slowly, after Zhu Yulu, the king of the Tang Dynasty, turned back from Xiangyang, he was able to catch up with Jiao Lian before reaching Nanjing.

On the way to Xiangyang, Zhu Yulu, Ma Jixiang and others repeatedly discussed with Emperor Longwu's edict how to appease Shen Yongzhong and his subordinates, how to coordinate with Guan Yinxi and Li Guo, and try to complete this errand as successfully as possible. In addition to taking Xiangyang without blood, in addition to treating Shen Yongzhong as an example, Emperor Longwu also hoped to capture this surrendered Qing army in his hands.

After discussing and discussing, Zhu Yulu felt that there was no perfect plan. It is not difficult to take Xiangyang, and it is not difficult to treat Shen Yongzhong well, but the difficulty lies in how to obtain the consent of Du Yinxi and Li Guo and transfer this surrendered Qing army along the way. You must know that this kind of behavior is no longer about competing for the fruits of victory, but about picking out the meat that others have already eaten in their mouths.

Although no result was discussed, the trip was not delayed at all, and they soon arrived in Xiangyang. Unexpectedly, Shen Yongzhong had surrendered, and Xiangyang City had also been occupied by the Chu army.

"Plug Yinxi, Li Chixin, you are pretentious!"

Zhu Yulu was very angry and furious at Gu Yinxi and Li Guo. (As mentioned earlier, Emperor Longwu has a hobby of changing people's names, such as Zheng Sen being changed to Zhu Chenggong, and Li Guo being changed to Li Chixin.) ）

Plug Yinxi was embarrassed and aggrieved, but he couldn't defend himself. In order to stabilize Shen Yongzhong and his subordinates, Du Yinxi had to stare at him and talk nonsense, and swore to cooperate with Li Guo, but now that he was scolded by Zhu Yulu, he had nothing to say.

Li Guo is a real person, knelt down and repeatedly pleaded guilty to Zhu Yuyi, claiming that he had no choice but to do so in a hurry, and took all the responsibility on himself, but did not mention Wang Kefan.

"There is three points of truth in this statement."

Zhu Yu's ears are originally soft, and he will not put on the prince's shelf when he has just stepped on the political stage, and he has lost his anger when Li Guo said it, of course he can't stick to the rules when he fights, the so-called long night dreams are many, if it is delayed until the imperial court's will is sent, in case there is a change in Xiangyang City, it will miss the opportunity.

Immediately afterwards, Li Guo's last sentence made him completely turn his anger into joy, surprised and happy, and overjoyed.

"This matter is indeed the fault of the general, and how to deal with the aftermath is all up to His Highness."

"Really? That's what you said! Zhu Yulu took two steps forward, squatted down, and was exactly as tall as Li Guo who was kneeling on the ground, and looked at him in the eyes: "I'm going to take Shen Yongzhong and his soldiers and horses away, okay?" ”

Li Guogang nodded, and before he could say anything, Zhu Yulu laughed, stretched out his hand to help him up, but suddenly his face changed, turned his head to look at Plug Yinxi, and said sternly: "Mr. Mu You (Plug Yin Tin No. Mu You), the Marquis of Xingguo has promised King Gu, you can't get in the way anymore ...... you."

Although Xiangyang City was besieged for several months, there was no fierce offensive and defensive battle, and the Qing army under Shen Yongzhong was basically complete, with more than 4,000 troops, one-third of which were veterans who followed Shen Zhixiang during the Liaodong Phidao period, which can be regarded as an elite army.

Therefore, Longwu treats them as treasures.

However, Wang Kefan treats them as grass.

Veterans are not necessarily good soldiers, these veterans under Shen Yongzhong are all veterans who rebelled from the Ming army to the Qing army, and then from the Qing army to the Ming army.

In addition to this reason, the key is that they can't afford to support them, and a troop of more than 4,000 people costs tens of thousands of taels of silver a year, and Wang Kefan doesn't have this budget. Instead of absorbing the 4,000 Qing troops who had just surrendered, it is better to expand the loyal battalion, you must know that the loyal battalion still has more than 30,000 affiliated troops, and the establishment of the Chu army has not been solved. (Want to know more exciting news about "Remnant Ming"?) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner, select Add Friends to add an official account, search for "Qidianzhongwenwang", follow the official account, and never miss every update! (To be continued......)