Hearing Emperor Zhengde talk about his reason for appointing Zhou Zhong as the governor of the four seas, Li Dongyang and the others immediately quieted down, wanting to see what reason Emperor Zhengde used to persuade them? I saw Gu Dayong next to Emperor Zhengde Wei, and the other party immediately said loudly: "Xuanjin Yiwei Thousand Households Wu Shan, Hundred Households Ma Liang, and Wu Shi have entered the palace!" ”

With Gu Dayong's words, I saw Wu Shan and the three of them walking in from outside the main hall, first saluting Emperor Zhengde, and then saluting Zhou Chong: "Subordinates see Lord Tongzhi!" ”

"Same ...... Acquaintance? Hearing Wu Shan's name for Zhou Chong, Li Dongyang and the others' minds couldn't turn for a while, in their impression, Zhou Chong was not only a talented man, but also a bold smuggling businessman, but what they didn't expect was that now the three Jinyi Wei officers actually called Zhou Chong Tongzhi, could it be said that Zhou Chong actually had a third identity, that is, the commander of Jinyiwei?

Seeing the shocked expressions on the faces of Li Dongyang and the others, Zhengde almost couldn't hold back his laughter, and said forcefully at the moment: "Ladies and gentlemen, I know that among the reasons why you oppose Zhou Zhong as the governor of the four seas, the most critical one is that he is just a showman, and even runs a business, but you may not know, those are just Zhou Zhong's disguises, his real identity is the commander of Jinyiwei, but he has a secret order and cannot disclose his identity, so he is not known to outsiders!" ”

Although Jinyiwei is not a minister like a eunuch, he is the private army of the Son of Heaven, and the internal promotions are all theoretically in the hands of the Son of Heaven, so it can be said that as long as Zhengde is willing, he can promote anyone to the position of commander. Previously, after guessing that Li Dongyang and they might oppose Zhou Chong's status as an official and oppose him as the governor of the four seas. So Zhengde arranged Zhou Zhong as a brocade guard. Even for the sake of realism. also called Wu Shan and the three of them to act.

Li Dongyang also suspected that Zhou Chong's identity as Jinyiwei was temporarily arranged by Zhengde, and immediately opened his mouth to question: "Your Majesty, although Jinyiwei has its own system, as far as the old minister knows, the commander of Jinyiwei is already a high-ranking official from Sanpin, and he has always been in command in the capital, how can he be sent to other places to do things?" In addition, there are only two commanders in the entire Jinyi Guard, and Liu Jin fell some time ago. made Jinyiwei also purge some eunuchs, and now the positions of the two commanders are vacant, and I haven't heard of anyone promoted to the command of the commander? ”

It can be seen that Li Dongyang is also very familiar with Jinyiwei, and even knows that the two commanders of Jinyiwei are vacant, and he also knows the authority of the commander of Jinyiwei, so he raises two questions, if Zhengde can't give a satisfactory answer, then Li Dongyang and others can be sure that Zhou Chong's official position must be temporarily arranged.

However, Li Dongyang underestimated Zhengde and Zhou Chong. With the shrewdness of the two of them, they naturally would not have made such a simple mistake. Therefore, I saw Zhengde smile and said: "The two questions asked by Li Gong are not difficult to answer, in fact, before Zhou Zhong entered Beijing, he was only a thousand households, in order to assist him in doing things, I sent Wu Shan and others to serve under him, but after entering Beijing, Zhou Zhong made a great contribution, and I decided to promote him to the commander of the Tongzhi." ”

"Oh, the minister dares to ask His Majesty, I don't know what kind of great achievement Zhou Tongzhi has established?" At this time, Liu Zhong, the cabinet minister standing next to Li Dongyang, opened his mouth and asked, he also doubted the identity of Zhou Chongjin Yiwei.

"Zhou Zhong presented me with two treasures, namely the Franc cannon and the telescope, of which the Franc cannon is several times more powerful than my Ming artillery, especially the big problem that the cannon is easy to explode. The telescope can observe the enemy from several miles away, not only can you find the enemy situation in advance, but also allow the generals to use it to observe the battlefield situation, you can have these two treasures, the combat power of my Ming army will be raised by a few grades again, so I have promoted Zhou Zhong to the commander of the same knowledge, maybe because the time is too short, so the news has not yet come out! ”

Zhengde also knew that the truth was mixed with falsehoods, so that the falsehoods he said were more realistic, and after he finished speaking, he immediately asked Gu Dayong to take a few telescopes for Li Dongyang and others to try, but several old ministers were also speechless, and they couldn't figure out why this telescope could bring the distant scenery closer?

After confirming that the telescope is real, then the legendary Franco machine artillery will not be faked, after all, with Li Dongyang's identity, they can go to the military department at any time to verify, and Zhengde has no need to lie to them at all.

"Your Majesty, this telescope is indeed magical, if the Franc machine artillery is indeed better than my Daming artillery, then it is normal to promote Zhou Gongzi to the commander and the same knowledge!" Yang Tinghe opened his mouth at this time, although he did not say it explicitly in his words, but the meaning of the words had already revealed that he believed that Zhou Zhong had the body of a brocade guard.

Hearing Yang Tinghe's words, Zhengde's face was also happy, but before he could speak, he saw Li Dongyang speak: "Your Majesty, even if Zhou Chongshen has an official position, but at his current age, it is really not suitable to take on such a heavy responsibility as the commander of the four seas, and although it is a great achievement to offer artillery and binoculars, it is already a great gift to reward a commander and a fellow knowledge, if he is rashly promoted to the commander of the four seas, it will seem that His Majesty is too partial to Zhou Chong, I am afraid it will cause the dissatisfaction of other ministers!" ”

Seeing that Li Dongyang, who was the first assistant of the cabinet, was still opposed, Zhengde was also a little angry, Zhou Chong was too young, this is an unavoidable fact, but Zhengde also has his own killer feature, I saw him signal to Gu Dayong again, and Gu Dayong immediately ran out of the gang in person, and after a while, a tray was brought in, and there were two things in the tray, which were corn and sweet potatoes offered by Zhou Chong.

Seeing the two strange things on the tray in Gu Dayong's hand, Li Dongyang and the others were also puzzled. At this time, Zhu Houzhao pointed to the corn and sweet potatoes on the tray and asked Li Dongyang and the others, "Do you Aiqing recognize these two things on the tray?" ”

Hearing Zhengde's words, Li Dongyang, Yang Tinghe and others all looked at each other, they have read poetry and books since childhood, and they are all relatively old, their life experience is very rich, and they are also well-informed, but unfortunately no one has seen the two things on the tray, and Li Dongyang said stubbornly: "Your Majesty, the old minister looks at these two things as if they are the rhizomes and fruits of some kind of plant, but the ministers have never seen them!" ”

Zhou Chong laughed secretly in his heart when he heard this, if Li Dongyang and the others could call out the names of corn and sweet potatoes in one mouthful, then they would really be called ghosts, and even Zhou Chong would suspect that the other party was from the next life like himself.

"Ha Lu Ha~, I know that you Aiqing don't know each other!" Zhengde Dalu said with a smile, and after a while, he stopped laughing and walked to Gu Dayong's side, pointing to corn and sweet potatoes and introduced, "Ladies and gentlemen, please see, this golden one is called corn, and the other one with a red skin is called sweet potato, these are two edible crops, which are not from my Central Plains, but are produced on the continent in the far east, and were later brought to India and other places by the Francophile......"

"Franc again?" When they heard this, Li Dongyang, Yang Tinghe and the others all glanced at each other, and then looked up at Zhou Chong, they had already guessed that these two crops must have been brought back by Zhou Chong and given to His Majesty.

After Zhengde briefly introduced the corn and sweet potato, he then said with a mysterious face: "Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why I personally introduce these two crops to you is mainly because in the next few years, we will have a big change in the Ming Dynasty, and this change is caused by these two crops!" ”

Hearing that Zhengde didn't tell the reason for introducing these two crops for a long time, Li Dongyang finally couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, I don't know what is special about these two crops, and they deserve so much attention from Your Majesty?" ”

"Hahaha~, don't worry about Li Gong, corn and sweet potatoes were brought back by Zhou Chong, and he has been trying to plant them in the south for a year, now he will introduce the characteristics and yield of these two crops!" Zhengde said with a smile again, after knowing the yield of corn and sweet potatoes, he has regarded the promotion of these two crops as his greatest political achievement in the future.

Seeing Zhengde let himself be introduced, only Feng Zhou cleared his throat and said for the second time: "Ladies and gentlemen, these two crops are quite different, let's take corn as an example, it is a relatively dry crop, the yield per mu is very high, and some of them were tried in the south, and the yield per mu reached 500 catties, and this is because there is no experience in the first year, and the field is not very good, I believe that when the experience is accumulated, and if it is replaced by a high-quality field, I am afraid that the yield of corn will be higher!" ”

When Li Dongyang and the others heard the yield of 500 catties per mu, they all showed incredible expressions on their faces, and when they heard that the yield per mu of corn in the back could be increased, they couldn't believe it, and even showed suspicion on their faces.

"Zhou Tongzhi, are you sure that the yield per mu of corn can reach 500 catties? You must know that even if it is the best rice field and the best rice seed, it is difficult to achieve a yield of 500 catties per mu! At this time, Li Dongyang was the first to question, but at this time he had already changed his name to Zhou Chong's official position.

"Li Gong, please rest assured, when these corns were harvested, his subordinates specially called Wu Shan and other Jinyi guards to the edge of the field, so that they could watch the corn be weighed with their own eyes, so if Li Gong didn't believe it, he could ask Wu Shan and them in person!" Zhou Chong also said with an affirmative face, but he was secretly smiling in his heart, the yield of five hundred catties of corn had already made Li Dongyang and them so out of shape, and when he introduced the yield of sweet potatoes, he was afraid that he would jump up in shock.

When Li Dongyang heard Zhou Chong's assurance, he still didn't believe it in his heart, and immediately turned his head to Wu Shan and the others standing in the hall and asked, "Wu Qianhu, can you really prove the yield per mu of corn?" ”

"Lord Li rest assured, our brother has indeed seen the corn weighed with his own eyes, so we dare to have a head guarantee that the yield mentioned by Lord Tongzhi will definitely not be fake!" Wu Shan assured categorically. (To be continued......)