Wang Chengen's view was the same as that of Emperor Chongzhen, believing that Zhu Daolin was a loyal and trustworthy military general.

Zhu Daolin unexpectedly gave the painstakingly developed Yingzhou Island to the emperor as a royal fief, which moved Wang Chengen and saw Zhu Daolin's loyalty to the emperor and the Ming Dynasty, so he quietly signaled Cao Huachun and Zhao Huaizhong to take Zhu Daolin out when the emperor was about to be angry.

At this time, the emperor's mood calmed down, and Wang Chengen seized the opportunity to say some happy words, and secretly said a few words for Zhu Daolin: "Saint, the tributes sent by Zhu Daolin are quite valuable, in addition to the territory map of the Ming Dynasty, there are three boxes of gemstones and jewelry worth 10,000 gold, and a box of 10 rare pure gold pocket watches, all of which are in the study right now." ”

"The previous 3 lifelike models of large sea ships, 5 intricate foot-operated sewing machines, 5 mahogany gilt pendulum clocks and 10 large polished mirrors have been sent to the queen's palace, where do you think the rest is appropriate?"

Emperor Chongzhen stopped: "Let's send it to the queen together, how about the model of the big sea ship you mentioned just now?" Is it comparable to the big sea ships in the Yongle period? ”

"How so? It looks beautiful, the hull is much longer than the ordinary treasure ship and the Daifuku ship, the mast is quite high, the sails are not the same, it looks very majestic, the minion guesses, the slender hull is probably to run faster at sea, but the hull is narrowed and I am afraid that it will be unstable to dangle around. ”

Wang Chengen didn't know anything about shipbuilding, but that didn't prevent him from saying his true opinion.

Emperor Chongzhen thought for a while: "Tomorrow, send the model of the sea ship to the imperial study, I want to see what kind of warship he Zhu Daolin is going to build, and I don't know what this guy's naval combat skills are." ”

Wang Chengen bent down to support the emperor and continued: "The slave heard that he is deeply rooted in the true inheritance of the Qing sect, and his martial arts are quite good, and the sword of King Qin hangs on his waist. If you don't come out of the sword, you can't do it, and once you get out of the sword, you will definitely see the blood......"

"Oh yes, the slave almost forgot something, Zhao Huaizhong, who drove two warships into Beijing with Zhu Daolin, told the slave privately that not long after the warship entered the Bohai Sea, it encountered a storm, and the officers and soldiers of the sailors on board were all novices. was so frightened that he was dizzy, and it all relied on Zhu Daolin's calm command to save the day. ”

"Because it was a night voyage, no one expected to be blown to the coast of Dengzhou by the wind and waves, and it didn't take long for the sky to be bright, and no one on board knew where they were, but they were first discovered by Kong Youde's rebels on the shore."

Without saying a word, the rebels roared out more than a dozen cannons, and then sent five warships in pursuit, and hundreds of pursuers' crossbow arrows kept firing. The three officers and men of the sailor division on board were shot down in a blink of an eye, and all of them lay on the board of the ship and did not dare to raise their heads. ”

"At the critical moment, Zhu Daolin and his four personal guards picked up the muskets on the ship's board, rushed to the stern of the ship fearlessly and fired in unison, killing and wounding more than a dozen rebels who were chasing closer and closer, which frightened the rebels to retreat."

"Zhu Daolin saw that he couldn't defeat the rebels with hundreds of large and small warships, so he had to order his officers and soldiers to speed up and flee to Tianjin Port."

Emperor Chongzhen was stunned: "Why didn't you hear him talk about such a big thing just now?" ”

Wang Chengen reluctantly explained: "It is estimated that Zhu Daolin is worried about causing the saint to worry." The minions had only seen him for the first time today, and they didn't have time to ask why. ”

Emperor Chongzhen stopped again. After pondering for a moment, he shook his head helplessly, and started slowly in silence, until he entered the palace gate of Queen Zhou, only to find that the lights in the side hall were bright, and the virtuous queen actually led a few palace maids to discuss in front of a strange machine.

Empress Zhou saw the emperor come in. Hurriedly Yin Yin stood up to salute and greet, and several palace maids were silent on the ground, very worried that the emperor would scold them for not serving the queen to sleep so late.

After Empress Zhou finished giving the salute, she stepped forward with a smile and explained to the emperor with frowning eyebrows: "Don't be angry, Your Majesty. It was the slave family who insisted that they tinker with this sewing machine together, but the slave family was too stupid, and they didn't even know how to use it from the end of dinner to now. ”

"Huh? Just one machine, how can it be my queen? ”

Chongzhen was deeply surprised, slowly walked to the sewing machine and took a closer look, turned the silver flywheel of the machine head a few times, and found that the gums in the middle of the panel and the central axis of the machine head were moving.

Curious, Chongzhen began to fiddle, but after more than ten minutes, he didn't know where to start, and he couldn't figure out how to use this thing.

The virtuous and beautiful queen bent down to play with him, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her smooth forehead.

Wang Chengen secretly complained, and hurriedly stepped forward to explain: "Don't worry about the saint and Niangniang, early tomorrow morning, the slaves will let a few smart little cubs transport one to Guanglu Temple, and ask that Zhu Daolin to load it with his own hands, and let him teach a few little cubs how to use it hand in hand." ”

Emperor Chongzhen nodded: "I didn't seem to have instructed Zhu Dao to go to court tomorrow morning just now, right?" ”

"Looks like no."

Wang Chengen thought to himself that the two of you were fighting just now, where do you remember the events of the last dynasty? Zhu Daolin didn't have an edict or a notice from the Ministry of War, and he couldn't go to the court if he wanted to.

Emperor Chongzhen pondered for a moment: "In this way, you will send someone to inform Lao Cao tomorrow morning and bring Zhu Daolin into the palace, remember to carry a machine to the imperial study and let him install it, and then find a few good hands of Shangyi Supervisor to learn from him. ”

Wang Chengen hurriedly said that this arrangement was the best, and he left obediently when he saw that it was okay, and several palace maids also silently retired under the kind orders of Queen Zhou.

Emperor Chongzhen lovingly shook the empress's hand and walked to the inner bedroom together.

Empress Zhou did not have the habit of letting the palace maids serve in the bedroom, so she personally put down the curtain and gently served the emperor to take off her robe:

"Your Majesty, the tribute sent by General Zhu today is too extravagant, a full 500 horses of high-grade silk, whether it is a weaver or a color, it is much better than the tribute in Suzhou, of which 200 pieces of silk are all dragon and phoenix patterns and cloud dragon pattern wide colored silk used by the royal family, the slave family guesses, the cheapest is a hundred taels of silver!"

"In addition, there are 50,000 catties of snowflake-like white frost candy, the slave family dips two of them with their fingertips to taste, the sweet honey melts in the mouth, and there is no peculiar smell at all, which is really too valuable!"

"Alas! Although Zhu Aiqing is well-managed and rich enough to rival the country, I still feel very sorry not to go, since last year, he has sent me generous gifts again and again, adding up to no less than 2 million silver, which makes me embarrassed to be angry with him. Emperor Chongzhen sighed and walked to the edge of the dragon couch and sat down.

Empress Zhou was very curious, and went over to sit next to the emperor and asked if Zhu Daolin had made the emperor angry?

Emperor Chongzhen, who was full of discomfort, was trying to find someone to tell him about his sadness, so he told his beloved wife about the time he summoned Zhu Daolin.

Empress Zhou never dreamed that today, when the land is constantly declining due to internal and external troubles, there is such a young military general from Taoism who opened up the territory for the Ming Dynasty and gave the rich Yingzhou that he invested millions of taels of silver to the royal family.

Emperor Chongzhen patted his beloved wife's hand: "Don't scare you, this Zhu Daolin does have the ability and is loyal enough, just like the Taoist Shangqing faction who has been assisting me for generations in the Ming Dynasty, he can be regarded as brave and loyal!" ”

"It's just that this guy is too wild, I don't even know how to use him, alas!"

"Does the emperor want to transfer General Zhu to the north to lead the troops?" Queen Zhou, who was Lan Xinhui, immediately guessed her husband's thoughts.

Emperor Chongzhen nodded: "At the beginning of the year, when he entrusted Wu Jingxian to send two batches of copper materials and thousands of treasure knives, I didn't care too much, and then I continued to receive Jinyiwei and Dongchang secret protection, plus Nanjing Wei Guogong, Longping Hou and Xin Chengbo and other people praised and recommended him, I paid attention to him, but in less than half a year, he poured all his wealth to recruit tens of thousands of soldiers for the Jiangnan land division and sailor division to train strictly, and purchased tens of thousands of new muskets and hundreds of high-quality copper cannons from overseas to equip the new army. He also sent me more than 200 general cannons twice, which is enough to see that he has me in his heart and cares about the safety of the Ming Dynasty. ”

"What's even more rare is that according to the secret reports of Jinyiwei, Dongchang, Wei Guogong, Longpinghou, etc., Zhu Daolin not only has extraordinary martial arts, but also extraordinary piano skills, and several famous songs that are now circulating all over the world are passed on by him, and he is also proficient in firearms, shipbuilding, and land and water training and combat, and the current training regulations of the Jiangnan Navy Division and the Jiangnan New Army are compiled by him, which is amazing!"

"After weighing it repeatedly, I found that this person was a rare leader, so I had the idea of transferring him to the front line of Xuanda, but I haven't thought it through yet, and then I think that he is good at business and has a good business, and I want to keep him in Jiangnan, make more money for me, and send more copper guns to replenish the military needs, it's really tangled!"

Empress Zhou was shocked in her heart, and just about to ask a few more words, Emperor Chongzhen, who was physically and mentally exhausted, had already lay down weakly. (To be continued.) )