Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it has come to October of the sixth year of Longwu (1649).

At this time, it has been three full years since the extermination of the thieves, and in the past three years, the Ming Empire has undergone earth-shaking changes, and its changes can only be described in one word, that is, it is a new day! Whether it is political, economic, military or cultural, the current Ming Empire is completely different from the previous Ming Empire.

Politically, the current Ming Empire has formally established the cabinet parliamentary system, the so-called cabinet parliamentary system is actually a constitutional monarchy, since then the emperor is only the nominal supreme head, the real ruling is the cabinet chief assistant, and formulated the first real sense of the constitution in history.

The constitution stipulates the sacred and legal surname of the cabinet parliamentary system in the form of legal provisions, and now even the peddlers and pawns already know that the emperor is only a symbol of this empire, and is no longer the master of this empire, and now the real master of the empire is the head of the cabinet, and this head of the cabinet is still elected by the parliament.

The era of the monarchy, the ninety-five supreme, and the reign of the world is gone!

Of course, limited to the weakness of the domestic bourgeoisie, the current cabinet parliamentary system is still very imperfect, especially the parliament, which is not only small in scale, but also has little real power, and is actually just a puppet in the hands of Wang Pu.

But Wang Pu believed that as the power of the bourgeoisie became stronger, the parliament would play an increasingly important role and eventually become the ruling power of the Ming Empire, and all Wang Pu had to do now was to spare no effort to nurture these national capitalists, help them become stronger, and eventually take over the ruling power from him......

Wang Pu can't live forever, he can't always hold the real power of the empire, one day, he has to hand over the right to rule the country, there is no doubt that if the emperor takes back the right to rule, then the fate of the Wang family will be extremely miserable, no matter how beautiful Wang Pu was during his lifetime, after his death, the emperor who returned to power will definitely settle the score.

Therefore, whether it is for the sake of the individual, for the sake of the Wang family, or for the sake of the entire Han nation, Wang Pu must help the bourgeoisie become strong in his lifetime, fundamentally overwhelm the feudal big landlords, and become the ruling force of the empire.

Economically, with the full support of the political axe and the dual support of a large number of private surplus funds in Jiangnan, the industry and commerce in Jiangnan have ushered in an opportunity for great development, and the silk industry, textile industry, military industry, shipbuilding industry, porcelain industry, salt industry, paper industry, printing industry, tobacco industry, transportation industry and other industries have grown rapidly from scratch, and their output value has almost doubled rapidly at a terrifying rate of two years!

Foreign trade has also developed rapidly, the Ming Empire has opened Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Songjiang, Nanjing and other treaty ports, the Ming Empire's attitude of opening up to the outside world has won the warm welcome of merchants from the Netherlands, Western politics, England, Portugal and other countries, in just three years, the total trade between the Ming Empire and the West has expanded from less than 20 million taels to more than 50 million taels, and almost all the silver plundered by Western countries from the Americas and Africa has flowed into the Ming Dynasty every year!

Militarily, the total strength of the Ming Central Army has expanded to 200,000 people, and all of them have been replaced with new rifles, all of which are breech-loading rifles, which can be filled with four bullets in the chamber, and can be fired again after each firing by pulling the bolt, and the firing speed is not known how many times faster than the breech gun.

What's even more terrifying is that the chamber of the new rifle is all rifled, and the effective firing range has exceeded 400 meters!

At this time in Europe, the Thirty Years' War had just ended, although the European military powers had recognized the power of muskets and increased the proportion of musketeers in the army, but they were equipped with the most primitive flintlock pistols, and they used paper shell bullets, which had lagged behind the Ming Empire for more than a century in musket technology!

In addition to 200,000 infantry, there are also twenty artillery battalions in the Central Army, equipped with 2,000 general guns!

The lethality and range of the general cannon far exceed the Hongyi cannon of the same period in Europe, this kind of general cannon can be called the original howitzer, which can be loaded with grenades, but also loaded with solid iron bullets, when loaded with flower shells is howitzers, when loaded with solid iron bullets is cannons, its maximum range has reached a terrifying ten kilometers!

In the same period, the most advanced artillery in Europe had a firing range of less than five kilometers, and the shooting accuracy was even more incomparable with that of the general's artillery.

If the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty fought an encounter with the French Army, the most powerful army in Europe at that time, compared with the firepower alone, the Central Army only needed two infantry battalions and an artillery battalion to defeat 100,000 French troops! If the Ming Dynasty was adjacent to Europe and the logistics supply was unimpeded, the Central Army would only need four infantry battalions plus two artillery battalions to sweep the whole of Europe.

Culturally, after Yangming University, Wang Pu founded the Imperial University, because Wang Pu introduced a large number of pagans from the Western world as professors, the Renaissance that occurred in the West was also brought to the Ming Dynasty, the ideological circle of the Ming Dynasty is in the intersection and fierce confrontation period of Eastern and Western cultures, but on the whole, the old Confucian culture still occupies an absolute influence, and the impact of modern culture based on the two universities on Confucian culture is still quite limited.

However, the emerging modern culture has an incomparable advantage, that is, the strong support of the political axe!

The cabinet with Wang Pu as the backstage unconditionally and one-sidedly supported the emerging modern culture, and the old Confucian culture was ruthlessly transformed, which was directly reflected in the choice of Confucian students for the future.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that a large number of free primary and senior schools have been established in various provinces, which not only shoulder the responsibility of sending high-quality students to Yangming University and Imperial University, but also shoulder the important task of achieving education for all.

As a person of the future, Wang Pu knows that education is important for a nation!

Thinking about the later generations, you will know how important education is, and the original was just a small semi-civilized country, with hundreds of millions of indemnities from the hands of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it carried out education for all, and as a result, it was out of control, and in less than half a century, it quickly rose to become a world-class power!

There may be many factors for the rise of the book in later generations, but the improvement of its national education level is definitely the factor that determines the surname!

Although education seems to be a "business" with only input and no output, but at the height of the nation and the country, no matter how huge the investment is, the ruling political axe must be beared, this is their unshirkable responsibility, no matter how hard it is, no matter how hard it is, no matter how poor it is, no matter how poor it is, it can't be poor in education!

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Jingnan Palace.

Eight-year-old Wang Fa and six-year-old Sun Chengzu are pestering Wang Pu to tell stories, for the little brothers, Wang Pu seems very tolerant, he did not force the children to recite the Four Books and Five Classics when they were still very young, or get up early every day before dawn to practice calligraphy, more often Wang Pu let the little brothers play to their heart's content, carefree to live their childhood.

In the past few years, Wang Pu can be regarded as a branch of the leaves.

In the year of quelling the thieves, that is, the month after the class teacher returned to Beijing, Wang Pu and Princess Changping got married.

Wang Pu also fulfilled his promise to Chen Yuanyuan, and at the same time as he married Princess Changping in the sixteenth sedan chair, he also used the sixteenth sedan chair to raise his head Chen Yuanyuan in Nanjing City, and the rest like Dong Xiaowan were treated a little worse, and they could only take eight sedan chairs.

Following Chen Yuanyuan and Dong Xiaowan, the rest of Princess Changping, Liu Ruyi, Gu Mei, Kou Baimen, Li Shi Niang, and Nen Niang have successively given birth to sons or daughters for Wang Pu, the most interesting is Aunt Li, this young woman in her early thirties, Wang Pu and her secretly ate a mouth, and as a result, they hit it off and gave birth to twin daughters.

However, most of these children were born after the world was calmed down, and they were several years different from Wang Fa and Sun Chengzu's little brothers.

"Dad, tell me the story of the King Kong gourd baby."

"Dad, I want to listen to the story of the Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf."

One of the little brothers pulled Wang Pu's left arm, and the other pulled his right arm, and when Wang Pu's head was arguing, light footsteps suddenly sounded outside, and the pretty shadow flashed, and State Secretary Li Xiangjun had already walked in vividly, holding two strings of sugar gourds in his hands, and the little brothers immediately shifted their targets.

"Fa'er is good, and the ancestors are good." Li Xiangjun handed the sugar gourd to the little brothers, and said in a coquettish voice, "Aunt Xiang has something to discuss with Daddy, you can go to the yard to play by yourself, okay?" ”

The little brothers agreed, took the sugar gourd and jumped up.

Wang Pu breathed a sigh of relief, shook his head at Li Xiangjun and smiled bitterly: "You still have a way." ”

Li Xiangjun smiled, walked behind Wang Pu and stood still, her jade fingers gently poked into Wang Pu's hair, and she said in a flattering voice while gently rubbing it: "This is only Fa'er and Chengzu, and when Lu'er, Zhi'er, Yu'er, and Zhen'er grow up in the future, they can run and make trouble, and it will be enough for you to bear." ”

"yes." Wang Pu shook his head and smiled bitterly, "It's really difficult for me to be the father of so many children alone." ”

"Hush." Li Xiangjun took a sip and said angrily, "Who let you marry so many wives and concubines, and besides, isn't it a national policy to encourage childbirth?" According to the national policy, giving birth to five children can reward ten taels of silver, giving birth to ten children can reward one hundred taels of silver, and giving birth to twenty children can reward one thousand taels of silver. ”

"yes, yes." Wang Pu salivated and smiled, "Xiangxiang, when you give birth to a son for me, you will be able to make up for twenty." ”

"Scoop." Li Xiangjun's face was full of shyness, and he said angrily, "I won't give you a son, and I'm not your wife and concubine." ”

"Ah, you're not my wife, are you?" Wang Pu was shocked and said, "Then who are you?" ”

Li Xiangjun's slender waist twisted, and her light delicate body had fallen into Wang Pu's arms, and said in a flattering voice: "Xiangfan Shen'er just wants to be the prince's lover for life." ”

Wang Pu hugged Li Xiangjun's buttocks hard, and said with a smile: "Lovers are also going to have children, why don't you sow seeds now?" ”

Li Xiangjun lightly slapped Wang Pu twice, and said coquettishly: "Don't, people still have important state affairs to report to you." ”

"State affairs that matter?" Wang Pu's hands kept kneading Li Xiangjun's buttocks, and he asked in a low breath, "What's the matter?" ”

"Two things." Li Xiangjunjiao gasped and said, "The first thing, the governor of Beizhi, Qu Shiyun, sent an urgent delivery, saying that several pastures in the Erguna River valley were attacked by unknown cavalry a few months ago, and after investigation, I learned that these cavalry were Cossack cavalry from Russia. ”

Wang Pu's finger that had just probed into Li Xiangjun's buttocks suddenly stopped.

The Cossack cavalry attacked the pastures of the Ergun River but reminded Wang Pu of the time, calculating the time, at this time Russia should almost cross the Ural Mountains to expand to the Far East, and the vanguard of its eastward expansion is the Cossack cavalry from Ukraine and Poland, in fact, Russia at this time is far from being a powerful country, at most it can only be regarded as a second-rate country in Europe, and its strength is far inferior to Sweden at that time!

[This can also prove from the side how cowardly and incompetent Kangxi, who was boasted by some historians with ulterior motives as the first emperor of the ages, was cowardly and incompetent to the outside world, and Russia at that time could only be regarded as a second-rate country in Europe at most, not to mention compared with France, the land hegemon of Europe at that time, even Sweden, a Nordic power, could beat Russia without any temper, but it was such a second-rate country, with only a few hundred Cossack cavalry who traveled thousands of miles and worked on expeditions, it was able to make the "great" "Emperor of the Ages" go on a personal expedition, also mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops, fought vigorously, and finally fought a draw, a tie will be a draw, but when the treaty was finally concluded, a large amount of land was ceded, which really carried forward the magnanimity of the Chinese etiquette gang, anyway, our Chinese land area is very large, and it is nothing ......to cede at all.

"Tell Qu Shiyun not to have any scruples."

Wang Pu's right hand began to move again, and the second finger of the middle finger had deftly probed into Li Xiangjun's deep groin, and gently twisted the tender stamen, "Let him immediately organize the local cavalry to destroy these Cossack cavalry, if the conditions are ripe, he can completely cross the Ural Mountains and teach the Russians a hard lesson." ”

Li Xiangjun twisted his waist in embarrassment, and said coquettishly: "There is another thing, the warehouse of the Dahua Trading Company in Osaka was attacked by ronin, and the tens of thousands of cigarettes, thousands of horses of silk and a large number of goods stored in the warehouse were all burned, and more than 20 guards responsible for protecting the warehouse also died. ”

"Haha." Wang Pu was overjoyed when he heard this, "This is good news, but I am worried that I can't find an excuse to do it." ”

Li Xiangjun was stunned for a moment, and said in amazement: "Lord Wang, so many goods have been burned, and you can still laugh?" ”

"Silly girl." Wang Pu couldn't help but scratch Li Xiangjun's pretty nose, and said with a smile, "What is it if you burn some goods, you will get it back ten times and a hundred times in the future, hehe." ”

"Then ......" Li Xiangjun rolled his eyes and asked, "Is the prince going to do something to Yuben?" ”

"Hmm." Wang Pu nodded heavily and said fiercely, "Tokugawa Iemitsu, this free cub is becoming more and more disobedient, and if you don't teach him a good lesson, he doesn't know how high the sky is and how thick it is, hum." ”

Speaking of which, the trade friction between Daming and Yuben has been going on for more than two years.

More than three years ago, when Wang Pu led his army to quell the thieves in Dingshan, Shaanxi, and Sichuan, Zhang Yanlin and Li Ang knocked on the door of their country with 60 warships of two battalions of sailors, and forced the Tokugawa shogunate to sign the Treaty of Nagasaki, which stipulated that Nagasaki and Osaka would be opened to treaty ports, and the Ming Empire could freely set up warehouses in Nagasaki and Osaka and enjoy the right to free trade.

In the following three years, the goods of the Ming Dynasty continued to flow into the Ming Dynasty, especially cigarettes, which swept the entire Dynasty in just two years, and at least a million men were madly obsessed with the cigarettes produced by the Ming Empire.

It is not surprising that this man is crazy about Daming cigarettes, because the domestic and export cigarettes of the Ming Empire are completely different, the domestic cigarettes are pure tobacco, and the exported cigarettes are added, and the tobacco is mixed with opium! What is Opium? Drugs, once this person is addicted to drugs, can he not go crazy?

In the past three years, a large number of Ming cigarettes have been dumped into the Ming Dynasty, and the silver of the Ming Dynasty has flowed into the Ming Dynasty in large quantities, and the Tokugawa shogunate soon realized that the situation is not good. As a result, the Tokugawa shogunate sent several notes to the Ming Empire, asking for restrictions on the import of cigarettes, but without exception was sternly rejected by the Ming Empire.

It is clear that this attack was planned by the Tokugawa shogunate for nothing more than to put pressure on the Ming Empire.

However, it is a pity that Tokugawa Iemitsu obviously miscalculated, he overestimated the national strength of Yuben, and underestimated the ambition and determination of the Ming Empire, in fact, even if the Osaka warehouse arson case was not planned by the Tokugawa shogunate, Wang Pu would also pour this basin of dirty water on the Tokugawa family's bald head, because the Osaka warehouse arson case was the best excuse for the Ming Empire to send troops.

As early as half a year ago, the General Staff had already submitted a detailed battle plan for the conquest of Yuben to Wang Pu's desk.

With the rapid development of industry and commerce in the Ming Dynasty, the gap in labor is becoming bigger and bigger, although the imperial court promulgated the national policy of encouraging childbirth, but the growth of the population can not be achieved at once, a newborn child grows into the labor force It takes at least 18 years, although the construction of the navy has not yet been completed, but the national policy of captivating the population must be put on the agenda.

(To be continued)