Zhu Jishi took the fold in Weng Tongyi's hand and looked at it carefully: "It seems that Yang Xiuqing can't wait for the coming year, and he is going to share your life and death with me this winter, but I don't want him to be happy." Weng Qing, to make a will, tell Miao Peilin to be serious and cautious, and be sure to delay until the autumn of the next year, and I will personally raise the army to sweep the north and dominate the world! ”

The determination of the time of the Northern Expedition was not made by Zhu Jishi alone, but after repeated consultations and studies between the Ming Cabinet Office and the Generalissimo's Office. After all, the scale of the war between Zhu Ming and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom must be unprecedented, and only Zhu Ming's side will have to invest at least ten armies, plus logistics troops, and the total number of troops in the Northern Expedition may be as many as 700,000!

And the reason why so many troops were dispatched was not because the soldiers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom believed in God, so they were powerful. In fact, in the face of the Ming army, which has already achieved modernization, there is no difference between the Taiping army, which is not afraid of death, and the Qing army, which is a little afraid of death, and can be crushed with overwhelming force. However, the Taiping army was a rogue, and the Chinese officers in the General Staff of the Ming Army spent a lot of time studying Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who led to the fall of the former Ming Dynasty, and came to the conclusion that it was easy to defeat them and it was difficult to completely eliminate them. Therefore, there was a grand plan to dispatch 360,000 field troops at one time, and the troops were divided into ten routes and marched together.

However, such a large scale of troops is too demanding for logistics and military spending. In addition, the five provinces of Shandong, Henan, Zhili, Shanxi, and Shaanxi in the north have experienced war and chaos, and they must have been dilapidated, and once they are occupied by the Ming army, they will have to spend a large amount of money on relief and reconstruction. Therefore, the preparation time for this Northern Expedition is also longer than in the previous wars, and the time for sending troops has also been postponed again and again, according to the latest recommendations of the General Staff. It will have to wait until after the autumn harvest of the third year of the liberation. in order to raise enough food and military expenses.

Luo Zenan was a little worried: "Your Majesty." I'm afraid that this Yang Xiuqing will beat Miao Yusan and lead us to send troops, why don't you send an army to reinforce Xuzhou? ”

Zhu Jishi glanced at him and said with a smile: "Then we have to wait for Miao Peilin to scream in pain before sending reinforcements, otherwise we will have to find a way to clean up the people in Huaibei in the future...... If the kindness of the monarch and the minister is broken, it will not be beautiful. ”

Luo Zenan disagreed: "Your Majesty, Miao Yusan is knowledgeable about current affairs, and now the strength of the imperial court is not something he can compete with, and he will not lose his position as a prince as a loyal minister." If there are two hearts, it will inevitably be shattered. ”

Zhu Jishi shook his head: "I know that he won't have two hearts, but Miao Peilin's party is too large, and there are always 200,000 people who train the army and the people together, and they can't afford to support the people in Huaibei, and they also withhold the salt tax...... I can't afford to raise them! ”

Miao Peilin used weak soldiers to operate a defensive line north of the Huai River to block the Taiping Army from Zhu Ming's core territory, this credit is naturally not small, and a duke Zhu Jishi is also willing to give, but what about the 200,000 troops under his command? If you give it too much, the Zhu Ming court can't take it. It's not worth it if you can take it out, and if you give it less, you have to be dissatisfied. It's another mess.

"Your Majesty, if Miao Yusan defeats Yang Xiuqing, won't this Miao Party become even bigger?" Luo Zenan reminded in a low voice.

Zhu Jishi smiled slightly: "This is not enough...... Miao Peilin doesn't have such ability, and Yang Xiuqing won't be so can't help fighting. ”

He turned his head and asked Weng Tongyi: "By the way, is there any news from Shaanxi?" ”

"There is a little news, it was reported by the mission we sent to Luoyang, Feng Yunshan finally defeated Tongguan. There are also rumors that Mianyu and Seng Lingqin are preparing to cede Shaanxi to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in exchange for Daoguang and Yixu. ”

The current Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is still nominally a single country, but in fact it has two regimes that do not govern each other, Yang Xiuqing and the "Beijing regime" and Hong Xiuquan's "Luoyang regime". At present, the war between Zhu Ming and the "Beijing regime" is about to break out, but it is still a friendly country with close contacts with the "Luoyang regime." It can really be regarded as a miracle.

Luo Zenan said: "Your Majesty, your subordinates heard that this Hong Xiuquan is obsessed with women, ignores the government and politics, and is a complete faint monarch...... If Yang Xiuqing is broken by me, is it possible for this Hong Xiuquan to collect all of them? ”

"What does the military advisor mean to help Hong Xiuquan?" Zhu Jishi pondered for a moment and sighed slightly, "The envoy we sent to Luoyang can't see Hong Xiuquan at all, how can I know his intentions?" Unless you let Concubine Hong go again. He glanced at Luo Zenan lightly: "But if you want Concubine Hong to go out of the palace to do business, wouldn't it be a political interference?" ”

Luo Zenan smiled slightly: "Your Majesty, it is impossible for the emperor's wife and concubine to be completely free from political affairs, the key is to measure proportions." Why don't you go and discuss with the queen mother and set a rule? ”

"It's fine." Zhu Jishi thought about it, nodded and said, "It's time to talk to her......

However, Zhu Jishi did not go directly to Kunning Palace, but returned to Qianqing Palace, looking at Maria who was touching her belly that had not yet bulged, and her face was full of happy smiles. Clementina smiled and said, "Luo Zenan wants me to have a good talk with the queen today, and I want the queen to come to the Qianqing Palace to sleep." ”

Maria was already pregnant with a child, because she was an "advanced maternal age", so Zhu Jishi let her live in her own dormitory so that she could take care of it personally - there are imperial doctors in the Forbidden City, both Chinese and Western medicine, but the level is not high, and it cannot be compared with Zhu Da Divine Doctor.

"The emperor should reconcile with the queen, in fact, the queen didn't do anything wrong, it's better to invite her over as a concubine."

Maria didn't have a jealous expression, she is now a Mormon, of course she can accept that her husband has another wife, and there is no need to be jealous, looking at the place where she lives now, she knows that Lu Dao has favored the harem.

Zhu Jishi nodded, he told Maria that he was not worried that she would be jealous, but that he wanted to tell her something.

"The queen has done nothing wrong, it is her responsibility to discipline the harem and raise the prince. But...... I don't want Kunio to become the crown prince of Alexey. ”

Zhu Jishi is talking about the allusion that Peter the Great killed his crown prince Alexei! Peter's reforms were not tolerated by the conservative forces in Russia, but Peter's crown prince Alexei leaned towards conservatives, and he also participated in a coup plot against Peter the Great, and was finally killed by Peter the Great himself!

Hearing this, Maria also frowned: "Your Majesty, are you worried about the education of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?" ”

Zhu Jishi nodded: "Although Xiangmei has been in Europe for a long time, she is still old-fashioned. ”

After establishing an order in the harem that respects the queen, Luo Xiangmei's next goal is to train Zhu Guoxiong to become a generation of heroes in the future Ming Dynasty...... This is also a matter of course. Zhu Guoxiong is the eldest son of the emperor, and the crown prince, and the natural successor of Zhu Jishi, how can he do it without cultivating Cheng Mingjun? must be cultivated well, so the conflict between Zhu Jishi and Luo Xiangmei continues.

According to Luo Xiangmei's vision, in order to cultivate Mingjun, you first need to find a good teacher for the future Mingjun, and the ideal candidate for this good teacher is the military teacher Luo Zenan!

Well, of course Luo Zenan is a good teacher! Luo Xiangmei didn't look down on him because his surname was Luo, Luo Zenan was the most famous private school teacher in Hunan before he became a military teacher, and now half of the backbone of the Xianghu faction are Luo Zenan's students, which shows that Luo Zenan is very good at teaching. And once the crown prince becomes Luo Zenan's student, then the relationship between the Xianghu faction and the prince will be very close, and it will become a strong backing for the prince, plus the Luo family's own Lanfang faction, Zhu Guoxiong's crown prince throne can be regarded as extremely reliable - in the eyes of a queen who has fallen out of favor, the crown prince throne of his own son will never seem so solid.

But the problem is that Zhu Jishi also has his own plan for his son's education, he wants his son to receive a full set of new education, and he is educated in school, from primary school to university, and grows up with other children, so that the heir to the throne is relatively normal in Zhu Jishi's opinion, and he also has a common language, so as to become the heir to the career created by Zhu Jishi.

Otherwise, even if Luo Zenan can teach a British master like Li Shimin, it will be harmful to the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Empire. (To be continued......)