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Last night, the air suddenly turned cold, and in the middle of the night, a goose feather snow quietly fell, and when I got up in the morning, the whole Beijing division was covered in snow, the snowflakes in the sky, the snow piled up on the roof, and the ice cubes born under the eaves, all showed the early arrival of the winter of the fifteenth year of Hongji.

When it snows, everything seems sluggish, the bare trees are bored, only on the galloping road, there is an endless stream of horse-drawn carriages walking back and forth, and as for the city, it is much less crowded.

On the side of the Yamen of the Ministry of Households, a new charter was sent to the Cabinet.

The cabinet is still warm because of the fire, but the charcoal fire in this room is too strong, and the air is not very circulating, so it gives people a very dull feeling.

Today, the three cabinet ministers are here, and even the crown prince Zhu Houzhao is here as usual, Zhu Houzhao will come here the rest of the time except for going to serve the emperor on the sickbed in the Zhengxin Palace, although he is a little reluctant to come here, Zhu Houzhao is a surname who can't sit still, and it is really a torture to let him follow these ministers to watch all kinds of books every time.

But now his father is seriously ill, he really doesn't dare to provoke right and wrong, so he has to go to his father early in the morning on time to greet him, and then hurried over.

It stands to reason that the celebrant is responsible for approving the red, and has great power, if people are not allowed, the votes proposed by the cabinet will be in vain, but this is the Hongzhi Dynasty, the celebrant is just a rubber stamp, and almost the cabinet minister's proposed votes are sent in, and the celebrant has no reason not to approve.

In this regard, the three cabinet ministers encouraged Zhu Houzhao to inquire about the proposed vote, and it is very beneficial for the prince to ask if there is something he doesn't understand, but Zhu Houzhao just pretended to look at it, but never asked, which makes people a little frustrated, everyone knows that the prince is a little absent-minded.

However, in private, the three ministers can still be considerate, and they will always find many reasons to comfort themselves, after all, the emperor is seriously ill, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is worried about the emperor, so he is naturally absent-minded, and his feelings are pitiful, so naturally there is nothing to say.

The ministers think like this, just to comfort themselves, the prince is not a person like his father, sometimes he is really annoyed, so he asks for a nap in this pavilion, in this case, Liu Jian often coughs very hard, or knocks on the table, and waits until Zhu Houzhao wakes up groggy, but it is not easy to say anything, and then pretend to go to the ticket, and Zhu Houzhao was awakened, naturally he did not dare to make a mistake, and he could only pretend to pick up the proposed ticket on the case to pretend.

The atmosphere in the attic room is very weird, and Zhu Houzhao's words are also quite depressing, I really don't know when it will be the head of this way, although this time my father asked him to come to watch the government, the East Palace is very excited, and several companions are headed by Liu Jin, all of them are full of interest, just like after His Royal Highness the Crown Prince watched the government, they are also rising.

At this time, it was close to noon, there was goose feather snow outside, but there was enough charcoal fire inside, Zhu Houzhao was a little unbearable, and he was groggy and wanted to fall asleep again.

Suddenly, at this time, a rapid knocking sound sounded, Zhu Houzhao woke up, and hurriedly cheered up, there was still a crystal clear unknown liquid left at the corner of his mouth, and immediately sat up straight, and picked up the ticket on his case casually.

But this time the sound of knocking on the case was obviously not to remind him to pay attention, it was Xie Qian who knocked on the case, Xie Qian's face was very ugly, and his knock attracted the attention of Liu Jian and Li Dongyang.

Xie Qian said: "Sure enough, as Liu Gong expected, you can come and see, it's really shocking, shocking......"

used two shocking ones in a row, which shows Xie Qian's mood at this time.

Liu Jian said to Xie Qian: "Yu Qiao, what the hell is going on." ”

Xie Qian said: "It's not a matter of the new army, the new army said a few days ago that it would train artillery, that is, the five hundred artillery pieces we sent, you see, it was on the book again, saying that it was going to settle the bill, hehe...... What did Liu Chengfeng say, saying that 500 artillery pieces were definitely delivered, but the artillery of the new army was insufficient, so the strong men of each battalion were selected to fill it, and a total of more than 2,000 people were selected, and he also said that the salaries of these people should be allocated according to the standards of the new army. In addition, this Liu Chengfeng also said that although the artillery is barely enough, but the artillery is not easy to carry, although it is full of power, but it needs enough guards to guard it, and it is required to fill 3,000 firecrackers, and the imperial court needs to fill this number, and it is necessary to buy 5,000 new firecrackers in case of shortage. ”

Liu Jian actually expected that Liu Chengfeng would play this trick, but at this time, he couldn't help frowning, Liu Chengfeng's guy was best at using the topic to play, he had long expected that this guy would definitely not just want artillery, and now it is really here again, and it is to recruit artillery, and to expand the firecrackers, this time and again, the amount of 5,000 people to be recruited, plus the cost of purchasing ordnance, I think it is a lot of money.

Xie Qian sneered: "What's even more outrageous, if it's just these, it's just that, after all, it's excusable, this Liu Chengfeng also said, now that the new army is in battle formation, although it has won many battles, but there are also many drawbacks, the biggest drawback is in close combat, so I want to select 10,000 warriors, train like the new army, and distribute war horses, including 2,000 cavalry and 8,000 foot soldiers, so that there are both infantry and cavalry, and then cooperate with the firecrackers and artillery to fight invincibility." ”

Liu Jian's face was very ugly: "Ten thousand people again?" I have a lot of foot soldiers, even a lot of cavalry, why do you need his new army to come to practice? It's ridiculous. ”

Xie Qian said: "This Liu Chengfeng is cunning, just saying that all branches of the army need to cooperate in combat, so it is better for all the new army to carry out training, and also said that the other departments are useless, and these cavalry and foot soldiers to be recruited will fight jointly with the firecrackers and cavalry in the future, so we must maintain a tacit understanding, so please do not follow the cabinet." ”

Liu Jian didn't even think about it, so he said: "No, this precedent must not be opened, if everything depends on him, our cabinet is the money bag of his new army, he now wants to take advantage of this opportunity to counterbalance the rebellion, wantonly expand the new army, what is good about the new army, raising a battalion of the new army is enough to feed ten times the number of soldiers, and the imperial court is not rare for it." ”

"That's not right!"

A discordant voice sounded, but it was Zhu Houzhao, who woke up in a dream and finally understood what was going on, this new army is the lifeblood of Zhu Houzhao, as soon as he heard someone slander, he immediately mustered up his courage and retorted: "Liu Qingjia, the combat strength of the new army is ten times that of ordinary officers and soldiers, you don't see the situation of the battalions, they are all a group of rabble, what is the use of the imperial court to support them with so much military salary?" The new army is different, the new army is an elite army, whether it is to counter the rebellion or fight the Mongols in the future, if there is no backbone of the strong, a group of rabble, what use can it be? ”

"It is not unreasonable for Master Liu to write in the book, since there is artillery, there should always be someone to fight, so it is natural to need artillery, and with artillery there needs to be someone to guard, in case there is a battle formation of the enemy flank outflanking the artillery when the two armies are fighting, so there must also be an elite garrison, and it is also very reasonable to recruit 5,000 musketeers. As for the 8,000 foot soldiers and 2,000 cavalry, it must have been Master Liu's idea after careful consideration and careful consideration, how could the cabinet veto it without asking? ”

"This palace thinks that what Master Liu said is not wrong, the three elders serve the court in the cabinet, and they are naturally dedicated to the good of the court, but Master Liu is also serving the court in Jiangxi, and it is also for the good of the court, everyone is thinking about the court, how can they veto Master Liu's opinion? After all, he has more military affairs than the cabinet, so it is better to listen to his opinions more on this matter. ”

Zhu Houzhao said a lot of words, he thought that what he said was quite reasonable, and he also took care of the face of the cabinet, Zhu Houzhao even felt complacent that he could say such a big truth, who knew that these three pavilion elders actually looked at each other, they couldn't imagine that the prince's 'poisoning' was so deep, it really made people feel a little sad.

"Your Highness!" Liu Jian said with a solemn face: "Your Highness, what is this, what military affairs does he Liu Chengfeng know, it is nothing more than a waste of silver, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince knows, this Liu Chengfeng wants to train artillery, how much money is wasted in the training expenses?" Hmph, the account he reported to the household department was 23,000 taels of silver, saying that for every time he practiced, the gunpowder and shells consumed by 700 artillery pieces were 1,000 catties and 17,000 yuan, plus other expenses, and the amount of silver that was wasted was this number, and the prince knew that how many river embankments could be built with 23,000 taels of silver, how many schools could be built, and how many people could be saved in the year of famine? ”

Liu Jian's generous statement made Zhu Houzhao dumbfounded, after all, he was still very tender, where was the opponent of a person like Liu Jian, and suddenly Zhu Houzhao was speechless for a while, Zhu Houzhao had to reluctantly say: "Disaster relief is needed, the school is not to say that it will not be built, Heti is also building, but the new army also needs to be trained." ”

(To be continued)