Since Zhou Zhong decided to give up his position as governor to go to the capital, and Zhengde took the initiative to propose it, so when Zhou Zhong left, he took the whole family to the capital, after all, after he went to the capital this time, it is likely that he will not come back in the future, so the family naturally has to go to the capital with him, for which Zhou Chong also specially prepared a big ship, and several other ships to escort him.

Originally, Jinxuan did not agree with Zhou Chong to go to the capital, but when Zhou Chong explained to her in detail the reason for going to the capital, and he also promised Jinxuan that he would never let his son live in the palace in the future, which made Jinxuan finally agree.

In the spring of the eleventh year of Zhengde, Zhou Zhong sailed north with his family, and several large ships set off from the newly built Shanghai Port and went all the way north. With the development of Daming sea trade, the ports along the coast of Daming slowly began to recover, although the ports in the north are not as many as the ports in the south, and the scale is not as good as the south, but in several important places, there are ports to connect, such as Tianjin Wei near Beijing, a new port was opened, called Tianjin Port, and now it has become one of the few large ports in the north, Zhou Zhong is to arrive in Tianjin by boat this time, and then go to the capital.

Zhou Chong's big ship went all the way north, speaking of which is the third time Zhou Chong took this northbound route, the first time was when he went to the capital to see Zhengde for the first time, and the second time was to Weihaiwei to secretly manipulate the situation in North Korea, compared with the first two times, the third voyage made Zhou Chong find that the whole route was busier than before, and the merchant ships along the way flowed endlessly, and the draft of each ship was very deep, and at a glance he knew that the ship was full of goods.

When passing through Weihaiwei on the way, Zhou Chong's order fleet deliberately stayed there for two days, and now Weihaiwei is no longer the guard post that secretly opened the sea ban before, but has developed into one of the largest ports in the north, and there is also a very famous specialty here, that is, Zhou Chong found the sea intestine powder, which can make the food delicious and delicious, is now monopolized by Zhou Zhong and Hengwang Zhu Youyi, the two are responsible for the internal and overseas sales of the Ming Dynasty. Not affected by each other, in the past few years, the sea rice noodles alone have brought them hundreds of thousands of taels of income.

For Zhou Chong, the income of sea rice noodles is not a big deal, after all, it is the annual income of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce. It's not a small sea intestine powder can be compared, not to mention that Zhou Chong's men have more businesses, such as soap, shipyards, etc., but in comparison, His Majesty King Heng, who is Zhou Chong's uncle, is much more shabby, at least for him, sea intestine powder has become one of the most important financial revenues of his Heng Wangfu, and even two years ago, he also wrote Zhengde and moved the palace from Jinan to Weihai, personally guarding the most important source of wealth.

Zhou Zhong and Hengwang are business partners. And in terms of family affection, King Heng is still his own uncle, although King Heng himself doesn't know, but Zhou Zhong knows, so he has to visit the mansion anyway. As a result, King Heng, who liked to play fun, was also very welcoming to Zhou Chong, pulled him to inquire about the customs in the Nanyang area, and even said that if the Son of Heaven allowed it, he would also go to the Nanyang area for a tour.

After visiting Queen Heng, Zhou Chong visited Weihai Port again, speaking of which was originally the guard of the Ming Dynasty, but because of the benefits of the harbor. So now it has been promoted to the palace, and the governance office is in Weihai, but because they are used to it, most people like to call this place Weihaiwei.

A few days later, Zhou Chong's fleet left Weihai and entered the Bohai Sea. Soon came to the port of Tianjin, which, like Weihaiwei, also promoted the guard to a mansion, and Tianjin is no longer the dilapidated appearance of the past, and the whole port is extremely prosperous. In particular, the merchant ships in the south and other places are weaving back and forth, and the goods on these merchant ships are all transported to the capital, which used to need to take the land route, which is very inconvenient, but now they are all directly by sea to Tianjin, and then transferred from Tianjin to Beijing.

For the city of Tianjin, Zhou Chong is not the first time to come, the last time he left from the capital, the convoy passed through Tianjin Wei, but at that time Tianjin has not yet built a port, and because Tianjin is too close to the capital, so the sea ban here is also very strict, it is impossible to take a boat from here, and finally Zhou Zhong can only bypass most of Shandong, and take a sea ship from Weihaiwei again.

After landing from Tianjin, the men sent by Zhengde to escort him quickly contacted the local officials, prepared the carriage and horses for him within a day, and after spending another day or two unloading the things on the ship onto the carriage, Zhou Zhong set off again, and it took less than two days to finally reach the city of Beijing again.

Zhou Chong's entry into Beijing this time was not too publicized, and even except for the people from Songjiang and King Heng he visited in Weihaiwei, the others did not know that Zhou Chong had left his governor's palace and came to the capital. However, Zhengde has long been prepared, and even Zhou Chong's mansion has been prepared, that is, Liu Jin built a nine-thousand-year-old mansion in the palace before, this mansion is next to the palace, the location is not to say, and it occupies a huge area, the carved beams and paintings in the mansion are beautiful, and there is no second mansion that can be compared with it in the capital, and then Liu Jin was raided, this mansion was taken into public ownership, this time Zhengde gave this mansion to Zhou Chong after a new repair, and his identity will be made public in the future, and this will be Zhou Chong's palace.

After Zhou Chong's family entered Beijing, they immediately lived in this nine-thousand-year-old mansion, but now there is no plaque on the door of the mansion, although some well-informed people know that there are people living in this mansion, but they don't know who lives in it, and even if they inquire hard, they can't find the slightest news.

After Zhou Zhong settled his family in the house, he immediately took Jinxuan and his children into the palace, Empress Dowager Zhang only saw Xia Xia such a granddaughter last time, and she didn't see her for a few years, Zhou Chong added two big fat grandsons to him, which made Empress Dowager Zhang, who wanted to hold her grandson, also excited, so as soon as Zhou Chong entered the capital, she saw the henchmen sent by Empress Dowager Zhang, and asked them to enter the palace quickly, and she wanted to hug her grandson with her own hands.

For his biological mother's request, Zhou Chong naturally will not refuse, although he has no feelings for the Empress Dowager Zhang, but for an old man who has lost his children several times, he can still understand the other party's feelings, so even if Zhou Chong is not close to the Empress Dowager Zhang from the bottom of his heart, as long as he can make the Empress Dowager Zhang happy, he is also very willing to do something.

Zhou Zhong accompanied his wife and children into the palace, although he also entered the palace last time he came to the capital, but at that time he only went to the leopard room where Zhengde was located, and did not enter the real palace, but he was not the first time to come to the palace, in later generations, he had been to the Forbidden City to visit, but at that time the Forbidden City was rebuilt by the Manchu Dynasty, and the Ming Palace has been very different, so when Zhou Chong entered the palace, he saw that the scenery and the Forbidden City in the memory of later generations could not coincide.

The Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty in the middle of the Ming Dynasty generally lived in the Cining Palace, but the Cining Palace was built by the later Jiajing Emperor, and now there is no palace in the palace, the palace where the Empress Dowager Zhang lives is called Renshou Palace, just behind the Kunning Palace where the queen lives, although the whole palace is not as magnificent as the Kunning Palace, but it is also very luxurious.

When Zhou Zhong came to Cining Palace with his family, he saw that Empress Dowager Zhang and Zhengde were here, and beside Empress Dowager Zhang, there was also a young woman who looked beautiful but looked very serious.

Seeing his granddaughter and grandson enter the hall, the Empress Dowager Zhang hurriedly greeted her, holding Xia Xia and the two little hearts and minds of the baby and screaming, speaking of which the Empress Dowager Zhang is really pitiful, although the status is noble, but every day can only stay in this deep palace, Zhengde can not add a few grandchildren to him, and even the palace is unwilling to live, as a result, the Empress Dowager Zhang lives in this cold palace every day, and there is no one around her to speak, and now she sees her grandchildren, naturally she is very close.

Zhengde saw his mother's appearance, his heart was bitter and gratified, although he usually messed around, and it seemed that the relationship with the Empress Dowager Zhang was not very good, but the other party was his biological mother after all, and he also knew that his mother usually lived a very lonely life, and he wanted to have a grandchild by his side, but he had no way to meet his mother's requirements, which was why he usually did not dare to see the Empress Dowager Zhang, because he always felt very guilty when facing his mother, and now he has his own nieces and nephews. Presumably, my mother's life will be much better in the future.

In contrast, Queen Xia behind Empress Dowager Zhang was full of unhappiness, after all, she was the master of the harem, and the children of her and Zhengde should be the heart and soul of Empress Dowager Zhang, but because Zhengde could not have children, the entire palace not only had no children, but the other concubines also had no children, and now they were robbed of the limelight by the royal brother in front of her who didn't know where to come out, and even the other party's children might inherit the throne of the Ming Dynasty in the future, which made Queen Xia feel very uncomfortable.

Finally waited until the Empress Dowager Zhang and the three children were intimatable, Zhou Zhong and Jinxuan stepped forward to salute the Empress Dowager Zhang and Zhengde and his wife, for this capable younger brother, Zhengde also attached great importance to him, and he personally helped Zhou Zhong up, and then Xia Xia and his two younger brothers also stepped forward to salute.

After the ceremony, the Empress Dowager Zhang asked Zhou Chong about their itinerary along the way, and Zhou Chong also answered them one by one, and then Jinxuan and the three children chatted with the Empress Dowager Zhang, and Zhou Chong was pulled aside and began to ask him about the situation in the Nanyang area, although Zhou Chong often wrote to him, but after all, he did not listen to Zhou Chong's own details.