Zhou Zhong was shocked when he heard the news, from this incident he finally realized the cruelty of the struggle in the palace, but then he smiled happily, from Gu Dayong and Zhang Yong's attitude towards himself, it can be proved that Emperor Zhengde really values himself very much, and even the two powerful eunuchs have to scold themselves, which makes him look forward to meeting Emperor Zhengde tomorrow.

Originally, Zhou Chong wanted to leave the little eunuch Wang Gui to eat at home, but Wang Gui was in a hurry to return to the palace, and Zhou Chong was not good at keeping him, so he personally sent him out of the mansion at the moment, but when the other party got into the carriage, Zhou Chong quietly stuffed a silver ticket to the other party, and when Wang Gui saw that it said one thousand taels, he was shocked at first, and then stuffed the silver ticket into his arms, and the smile on his face was even brighter, and he also promised that he would help Zhou Chong greet Zhang Rui in the palace, which made Zhou Chong even more happy.

For a big eunuch of Gu Dayong's level, maybe a thousand taels of silver is nothing, but for a little eunuch like Wang Gui who runs errands, it is a big windfall, so Wang Gui has secretly made up his mind in his heart that if there is anything related to Zhou Gongzi in the future, he must rush to come, and he will not be short of money to spend at that time.

After sending Wang Gui away, when Zhou Chong returned to the restaurant, he found that Jinxuan and the others had already had dinner, among which Bang'er was asking people to put a few dishes in the food box, ready to send Bai Mengwan to the room, Zhou Chong thought that it was really inconvenient for him to see Bai Mengwan now, so he told Bang'er the news that Zhang Rui was demoted and swept the floor, and asked her to help him tell him, but Zhou Zhong estimated that when Bai Mengwan heard the good news, she would definitely be happy to sleep tonight.

Really. The next morning, when Zhou Chong saw Bai Mengwan. Although the other party's spirit seemed to be very excited. But there were still a few bloodshots in his eyes that were not well rested. Compared with yesterday's embarrassment, Bai Mengwan at this time was much better, at least at breakfast, she had dared to come out to eat with everyone, and after eating, she found Zhou Chong to thank him, but Zhou Chong told Bai Mengwan with a smile that everyone would be a family in the future, and he didn't have to be so polite. As a result, Bai Mengwan blushed again when she heard it.

When it was almost noon, Gu Dayong rushed to Zhou Chong from the palace again, originally Zhou Chong thought that he was going to leave in advance, but Gu Dayong told him that he was not in a hurry, they could go after dinner. This next week finally understood, it turned out that Gu Dayong came to him in advance just to have a meal.

Being able to drink and have fun with a celebrity in the palace like Gu Dayong is also something that Zhou Chong can't ask for, after all, he can get a lot of useful information from Gu Dayong. For example, Emperor Zhengde's preferences, the situation in the court, and some secrets, etc. These are all things that Zhou Zhong is very interested in.

After lunch, Zhou Zhong and Gu Dayong rode in the same car, and there was a car behind him pulling the gift he wanted to give to Emperor Zhengde, and then drove to the western suburbs of Beijing, where Emperor Zhengde had been staying in the barracks these days.

Since Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing, because Beijing is very close to the northern grassland, a little war may be involved, so the city of Beijing has maintained a huge number of troops all the year round, collectively known as the Beijing camp, and the Beijing camp is mainly divided into three parts, namely the five military battalions, the three thousand battalions and the Shenji battalion.

Among them, the five military battalions were mixed with infantry and cavalry, with the largest number of people, and at the same time they were the main force of the battle, while the 3,000 battalions were all cavalry, responsible for patrolling and battlefield assaults, and the Shenji battalion studied firearms for attacking fortifications and arming defenses. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the five army battalions, the three thousand battalions and the firearms battalion were all experienced in a hundred battles and were the main forces of the Ming Dynasty.

For these three battalions in the capital, Zhou Chong was naturally most interested in the Shenji Battalion that used firearms, and this time Gu Dayong also took him to the camp of the Shenji Battalion. Speaking of which, the Shenji Battalion is the first firearms unit in the world, and after the strength of the early Ming Dynasty, the combat effectiveness of the Shenji Battalion is extremely strong, and they are also very trusted by the Ming Emperor, and they are usually stationed near the Sanhai in the imperial city, responsible for guarding the Forbidden City.

However, although the Shenji Battalion is stationed in the Imperial City, they are a firearms unit after all, and they often need to practice, and with the huge sound of firearms, it is naturally impossible for them to practice in the Imperial City, so in addition to the station in the Imperial City, the Shenji Battalion also has its own special training camp in the western suburbs outside the city.

After two days of getting along, Zhou Zhong found that the eunuch was not as good as he imagined, at least Gu Dayong beside him was very familiar with many things in Beijing, such as going to the camp of the Shenji Camp today, Gu Dayong introduced him to the history and current situation of the Shenji Camp.

According to Gu Dayong, when the Shenji Battalion was first established, the entire battalion was full of 5,000 people, including 3,600 musketeers, 400 gunners, and 1,000 mobile cavalry. However, after so many years of development, the number of soldiers in the Shenji Battalion has already far exceeded 5,000, and the long-term peaceful life has also reduced the combat effectiveness of the Shenji Battalion.

In fact, not only the Shenji battalion, the five military battalions and the three thousand battalions also have the same problem, the number of soldiers in the entire Beijing battalion has been increasing, but the combat effectiveness is declining, in order to solve this problem, the imperial court and the three major battalions selected 120,000 people, organized into 12 battalions for regimental training, called the 12th regiment battalion, but these 12 regiments and battalions are also from the three major battalions, so the internal is still divided according to the three parts of the Shenji, the five armies, and the three thousand.

Now the camp they are going to can be called the Shenji Battalion, and it can also be called one of the twelve regimental battalions. According to Gu Dayong, the elite of the Shenji Battalion is still 5,000 people selected now, independent as a battalion, the battalion is exactly the same as when Chengzu was established, every 1,000 people are a team, in addition to one team guarding in the palace, the remaining four teams are in the camp to practice tactics every day, five days for a round, although it has not been tested in actual combat, but at least the current Shenji Battalion is much more neat in terms of military appearance.

Zhou Chong's carriage went out of the city from Xizhi Gate, and then traveled several miles to the southwest, and soon came to a military camp outside, just when he arrived, Zhou Zhong heard the rumbling of cannons in the military camp, just from the sound of artillery Zhou Chong could tell that this was the Franc machine gun he sent to shoot.

Hearing the sound of artillery outside, Zhou Chong opened the window and looked out, and saw a military camp with a huge area entrenched in front of him, the walls around the barracks were tall and strong, not only were sergeants standing guard in front of the camp gate, but there were also soldiers with muskets on their backs patrolling, it seemed to be murderous and heavily guarded, although he had not yet entered the camp, but Zhou Chong had already felt a solemn aura coming to his face, so that he couldn't help but sit up straight.

When the carriage arrived at the gate of the camp, it was immediately stopped by the guards and guards, and it was only after Gu Dayong showed the pass token that he was released, and even after entering the camp, Zhou Zhong and they encountered several checkpoints, and even if they showed the token, the soldiers on guard still opened the carriage and inspected it, and only then did they enter the camp after the last.

After entering the camp, Zhou Zhong saw some of the internal conditions of the Shenji Battalion, and saw that the buildings in the entire camp were built extremely solidly and had a certain defensive effect, and it seemed that this camp was not only used to train soldiers, but also a strong military fortress, such as the buildings in the barracks There is a certain interval between the buildings, and the use of firearms is very useful.

After passing through some barracks that they didn't know what the role of the road was, they soon came to the training ground in the rear, only to see that thousands of soldiers on the field were divided into several teams and were practicing, and each team was practicing different items, either practicing musket shooting, or practicing hand-to-hand combat ability, and even a cavalry in a corner of the field was practicing horse skills.

Coming to the training ground, Zhou Zhong and they can no longer take the carriage, at the moment he and Gu Dayong got out of the carriage, while walking to watch the drills of the soldiers, although it is already early winter, the weather is already very cold, but the soldiers on the field are all dressed in single clothes, and all of them are sweating profusely, coupled with the flying dust, making these soldiers look like natives. But even so, no one dared to relax in any way, because if they were not careful, they might be punched and kicked by the head of the sect next to them.

In this era, there is no such thing as human rights, and even more so in the army, if you want to train a qualified army, you must rely on the fists of these leaders, otherwise those illiterate soldiers will not be obedient.

After passing through this hot training ground, Zhou Zhong and they soon came to a checkpoint, according to Gu Dayong, behind the checkpoint is the training ground for the artillerymen of the Shenji Battalion. In fact, there is no need for Gu Dayong to introduce, just the rumbling sound of artillery came from the front, and Zhou Zhong guessed what place it was.

After being inspected by the soldiers again, Zhou Chong and Gu Dayong finally passed through the last checkpoint, but before Zhou Zhong could look at the artillery test range, they found that on a small training ground next to the road, several young Jinyi Guard officers, as well as several officers of the Shenji Battalion, gathered there, these people were lined up, holding bows and arrows in their hands and shooting arrows at distant targets, apparently testing archery.

Originally, Zhou Chong didn't pay much attention to the competition of those officers, but when Gu Dayong saw the situation over there, he walked over with a smile, and Zhou Chong had to follow.

"Good!" Zhou Chong They just approached, they heard a burst of applause on the small drill field, Zhou Chong looked up, but found that a Jinyi guard officer standing in the middle was opening the bow left and right, and the arrows were shot at the bull's-eye, although Zhou Chong did not know how to shoot arrows, but he also knew that the archery skills of the left and right bows were very superb, and it was even more rare that there was such an accurate shooting, it seemed that if nothing else, this person should be able to win this archery competition.

"Gongzi Zhou, let's not be busy going there first, I'll introduce you to an important person around Your Majesty!" At this time, Gu Dayong suddenly smiled and said, and his eyes were looking at the young Jinyi guard officer with outstanding archery skills. (To be continued......)