The news of the ransacking of the "Wanxingchang" mule and horse shop by the Jiangnan sailors spread throughout Tongzhou in a blink of an eye.

After countless soldiers and civilians were stunned, they couldn't help but applaud loudly for the actions of the Jiangnan Navy Division, and the "Wan Xingchang" who had always relied on officialdom to bully and dominate the market instantly became a laughing stock of heated discussions in the streets and alleys, and the prestige established over the past decades plummeted.

The Jiangnan Navy Division led by Zhu Daolin had already been loaded with horses and sailed south, and the extremely shocked Tongzhou County Yamen, Tongzhou Garrison Mansion and Cangchang Yamen, in order to clear their responsibilities, sent messengers to the capital to complain.

Tongzhou is 42 miles away from the capital, it is said that it is not close, it is said that it is not far away, it usually takes two hours for the fast horse to run, and it is credible that the horse can not gallop after entering the city from Chaoyang Gate or Dongbian Gate, and it is fast to be able to deliver the letter to the competent official within an hour.

By the time the Criminal Department, the Household Department and the Military Department sent their respective patrols to the Jinluan Palace to complain, it was almost noon, and Emperor Chongzhen, who had been grinding with the ministers all morning, almost announced the dissolution of the dynasty.

The three young imperial historians knelt in the center of the main hall, and made a generous statement with great resentment, asking the emperor to severely punish Zhu Daolin, who was lawless and plundering, and then continued to kneel and worship on the ground, as if the emperor did not issue an order to severely punish Zhu Daolin, they would not get up.

The civil servants standing in the east were excited and hated the same enemy, and the nobles and military attaches in the west looked at each other in amazement, and no one believed that Zhu Daolin, who was rich and rivaled the country, had done such a thing.

Emperor Chongzhen hurriedly read the three impeachment recitals with the same content, and looked at the three imperial histories who could not prostrate under His Majesty Dan with a puzzled face:

"Are you Aiqing mistaken?"

"General Zhu Daolin is even richer than me, and I heard that he governs the army strictly, military law is like a mountain, and the army under his command has always been strict in military discipline, and he has not committed any crimes in the autumn, how can he do the act of robbing horses?"

"I watched the impeachment of the three Aiqing. The content is almost identical, is it a rumor, or has it been verified and it is true? ”

When the three young imperial historians heard this, they were dumbfounded.

The ministers of civil and military affairs on both sides also closed their mouths helplessly, regardless of whether Emperor Chongzhen favored Zhu Daolin or not. But the words are just and peaceful, and the reasons are also very sufficient, and the meaning is quite clear: If you want to impeach Zhu Daolin, you have to come up with tangible evidence.

In order to come up with tangible evidence, it is necessary for the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Criminal Affairs to send people to Tongzhou to verify the evidence, and there must be the prosecution and defense of both parties and the corresponding testimony and testimony, but the culprit Zhu Daolin has already led the Jiangnan Navy Division to leave Tongzhou and sail south.

It's the season when the north wind is howling, and the boat is traveling south twice as fast as usual. Even if you ride a thousand miles of horse, you can't catch up.

In the end, it was Zhou Yanru, the first assistant, who stood up and asked the Ministry of War and the Criminal Department to jointly send someone to investigate the matter thoroughly, and the law and discipline must be strictly enforced, and the traitor will never be tolerated, and Emperor Chongzhen immediately agreed.

After the dispersal of the dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen, who returned to the imperial study, couldn't figure out how Zhu Dao was rich and rivaled the country, and he trained his troops well and had strict military laws. With a lot of silver in his hand, how could he rob the horses. Tarnishing the good name that you have built up with great difficulty?

Or Wang Chengen knows Zhu Daolin better, and quietly said to Emperor Chongzhen that I am afraid this matter is true, it is estimated that someone offended Zhu Daolin, this guy doesn't care about money, but he cares about face very much, isn't this the case with a series of major events that have happened in Jiangnan in the past year?

Emperor Chongzhen nodded thoughtfully. instructed Wang Chengen to explain Cao Huachun's Dongchang to investigate, and then ignore the matter.

The rebellion that swept Shanxi was intensifying, and hundreds of thousands of mobs could cross Taihang and pour into the ground of Zhili at any time, if the Manchu Tartars from the north took the opportunity to go south. When you are faced with an enemy on both sides, disaster will come.

At such a critical juncture, it was not a matter for Zhu Daolin to snatch a few hundred horses at all, and Emperor Chongzhen forgot about it in a blink of an eye after giving the order.

After nine days of smooth sailing, Zhu Daolin led the fleet back to the long-lost Jinling City to go north to Yuan Port.

After a meeting with Zhao Xunting, the chief manager, and Feng Shengtai, the chief of commerce and trade, who had rushed to the wharf, Zhu Daolin handed over all military affairs to his deputy, Xu Wentao, and led four guards to enter the C-shaped warehouse in the independent storage area, opened several containers filled with 5,000 square meters of chain mail and more than a dozen sets of special tools, and instructed Guo Zhongjun to lead the guards to transport them to the leather goods workshop, and seize the time to manufacture the chain mail of the infantry cavalry in batches according to the previous design style.

Zhu Daolin then rushed to Ziyangguan, asked the master for peace, agreed that everyone would meet for a meeting three days later, and then hurriedly returned home, and his beloved wife and concubines were tired of being together, and did not go out for two days and two nights, and no one was allowed to disturb him.

On the morning of the third day, Zhu Daolin, who had a cleanly shaved beard and a little fluttering footsteps, finally walked out of the house, and under the farewell of a group of red-faced and delicate wives and concubines, he rode on a big white horse with his head raised high, and brought his beloved dog Mulan, whose coat was shiny and excited, to jump forward and run backwards, and rushed to the Ziyang Temple in the east accompanied by several personal guards, to meet with Master Xuanqing Daoist and several uncles and uncles, to report his experience of entering Beijing and face the saint, and finally to inform him of the plan to go north to quell the rebellion at the end of the year.

After listening to Zhu Daolin's report, the expressions of several Taoist masters quickly became solemn, and Master Bo Xuanyue said worriedly:

"Today is September 25, and you will lead your troops north in late November at the latest, and you will only have two months to prepare for battle......

"At present, the construction of Baoshan Port and Tamsui Port is in full swing, and the construction of Longtan New Area has also reached the most critical moment, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians on Bagua Continent are working day and night, and at the same time you have to train troops, replenish weapons, and prepare grain and grass for expeditions.

"Have you figured out how to deal with it?"

Zhu Daolin replied respectfully: "Basically, I have the bottom in my heart, the construction of Baguazhou can be carried out according to the current scale, the Longtan New Area is on the right track, the military wharf, ordnance factory, carpentry factory, leather goods factory and Beishan Academy for the children of craftsmen to study around the Beishan camp in Longtan have been completed, and several workshops in Hushan Manor will soon be able to move over."

"The only trouble is that although the gunpowder factory in Gushan Tiecheng has been put into operation smoothly, and the output and quality are good, the ammunition factory can't make the copper-bottomed paper shell bullets I urgently need, so I need to buy them from Tianshu Pavilion as soon as possible!"

"Secondly, the 5,200 officers and soldiers of the Longtan Battalion need to take the lead in going north and drive to the Fushan Qianhu Station in Jiaozhou Bay to carry out pre-war adaptation training, which requires me to be personally responsible, so I don't have much time to stay at home."

Several Taoist commanders looked at each other, but they didn't expect that the first army that Zhu Daolin transferred was not the strong Jiangnan New Army, but the Longtan Battalion, which was inconspicuous in equipment and training.

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