"What? What did you say? ”

On this night, the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen continued to work hard in the imperial study and struggled hard against those state affairs that seemed to never be finished.

Chongzhen's six-year state affairs have not improved compared with previous years, but it has not declined much, except for Shanxi, Henan's civil unrest is more rampant, the most headache for the Ming court of the Houjin Jurchen side is quite stable. And the short-haired army after the Dengzhou rebellion, which was supposed to cause heavy damage to the empire, was quickly quelled, making the Ming state in this time and space much better than in history - of course, Chongzhen himself did not know this.

But he could at least feel the other benefit of those shorthairs—the Qiongzhou region, which had been considered remote and barbaric and had never brought any benefit to the Ming Dynasty, and Luzon, which had never even been heard of before, had now begun to be able to provide taxes to the center of the imperial court—according to the Zhao'an agreement between the imperial court and the shorthairs, the latter was required to pay a certain amount of goods and materials to the imperial court every year as the price for the shorthaired people to gain de facto rule there. This amount is not high, because according to the past experience of the Ming Dynasty, a powerful armed group like Zhao'an costs a lot of real money. And Qian Qianyi didn't spend a penny from the court, but squeezed out a sum from the other party, which was already a very successful negotiation.

And then the strong strength of the short-haired army on the battlefield made the court even more celebratory - to get such a strong army to serve the court, it didn't cost much money, but it was a big profit. Qian Qianyi was promoted to the rank of Shangshu for this reason, and he was promoted to the elder, which can be regarded as a slight reward for his merits.

However, the surprise brought by the short hair to the imperial court did not stop there, according to the reports of those officials sent to Qiongzhou and Luzon: the local climate was warm, densely populated, and there was transportation between the east and the west. Under the governance of the shorthairs, the local affluence is soaring at an incredible rate. If you can provide food and materials to the Central Plains, the help for the Ming Dynasty will not be inferior to Jiangnan!

This is extremely exciting news, the only obstacle being that it was not mentioned in the original contract with Shorthair. But the Ming Dynasty, including Chongzhen, did not take this issue very seriously--in the eyes of the emperors and officials of this era, the spirit of contract was simply a dispensable thing-no, the imperial court only threatened a little, and it was about to get a big boat, and there must be more things to come......

However, none of this was as shocking as the news he had just heard tonight:

"What, you say it again?"

"Oh, hey, my long live lord! Great joy - the short-haired army is going to war with the Jianzhou Tartars! ”

The kneeling on the ground was none other than Cao Huachun, who had just ascended to the position of chief celebrant and supervisor, and there was no one else in the imperial study except him, and the original two eunuchs who were serving pen and ink were also sent out of the door by him - at such a critical moment, there must be no second person to share the joy and excitement of the emperor. Even Zhou Yanru, Qian Qianyi and others who brought him this wonderful news could only wait obediently outside the palace gate at this time - hehe, who let you have an extra part on your body.

"Say it again, tell me more!"

At Chongzhen's request, Cao Huachun told the news he heard from Qian Qianyi and others in detail, and after a few people's relays, it was inevitable that it was a little out of shape, but it was still about the same. And Chongzhen kept walking around the house during the process—this was his expression of great excitement.

"Shandong's short-haired army commander has changed? The original surnamed Xie went back to Qiongzhou? Haha, it's good to change! The one who openly claimed that the Qiongzhen army was not under the jurisdiction of the imperial court was the one who solved someone, right? This person is arrogant, even if he has courage, he can't give up his power, and the head of the people summoned him back, he must have seen this person's wolf ambition and beware of him. ”

"It's the newcomer who wants to send troops to Lushun? What's his name...... Xiao Lang? Good! O man of loyalty, man of righteousness! ”

Chongzhen picked up the imperial pen and wrote the name "Xiao Lang" on a white gauze screen next to him, and after thinking about it, it was not enough, and wrote it again on his sleeve - according to convention, those who can enjoy this treatment belong to the generation of "Jane in the emperor's heart", and they will soon be of great use.

"I want to reward him, a heavy reward! Originally, the surname Xie was a general, right? I think this Xiao Yishi can be a deputy general...... No, General Soldier! Give him a real commander directly! ”

Emperor Chongzhen excitedly circled around the room more than a dozen times, and it was easy to remember that there was still Cao Huachun beside him - you must know that Zhu Youzhen has always attached the most importance to the so-called "unpredictable power of heaven", and sometimes even if he made some inexplicable decisions, he didn't want his courtiers to see through him. Although Cao Huachun is just a house slave, he refuses to let the other party see that his love is out of control - but he doesn't know that his temperament has already been figured out by the people below. Cao Huachun kept his head close to the ground just now, and he didn't raise his head at all.

So Zhu Youzhen felt that he had not lost his temper in front of this minion, coughed quite satisfied, and began to ask him some specific things. When he knew that the short-haired envoy who brought the news, his three Shangshu, and an intelligence leader were still waiting outside the palace gate, he first wanted to summon him immediately, but after thinking about it, he felt that this seemed to be a bit embarrassing, making the court seem to be impatient.

So in the end, the news from the palace gate was: Zhou, Qian, Zhang and Commander Luo could be interviewed, but the official Chen of Qintianjian was too low, and he had never learned the etiquette of seeing a driver, so he was afraid that the monarch would lose his manners, so he could only go to the side hall to wait, and what could be conveyed to others.

It's also a shame that Chen Tao belongs to the category with a better temper in the traversal, and he can be regarded as honed after mixing in the capital for so long. In addition, Cao Huachun, who was responsible for negotiating with him, had an excellent attitude, and it can be said that he divided a small half of the enthusiasm that he usually used to serve the emperor, so Chen Tao was not particularly dissatisfied with this rather awkward way of communication, and relied on the explanations of Cao Gonggong and several other ministers, and finally conveyed the meaning he wanted to express to Emperor Chongzhen.

It is absolutely impossible for the imperial court to directly order the Ming army to obey the orders of the Qiong navy. However, Chinese culture is broad and profound, and the same meaning, in other words, gives people a very different feeling. And all the people who can hold high positions in the imperial court are language masters, not to mention those Shangshu Pavilion elders who have a foundation of two ranks, even Luo Yanghe and Cao Huachun are also proficient in this way. By the time Chen Tao's request reached Chongzhen's side, it was already very pleasant and completely acceptable.

In fact, if it weren't for the fear of being caught by others in the future, Qian Qianyi would have been able to solve this matter himself. The reason why there is such a big fuss and I have to register in front of the emperor is mainly because of the mentality of bureaucratic self-preservation. And once Emperor Chongzhen nodded, this matter was very simple to deal with...... Officialdom matters, it's always like this.

-- Soon after, Huang Long, the commander-in-chief of Dongjiang Town, found that the letters he had sent frantically asking for help some time ago seemed to have been answered overnight -- he had received a large number of letters from Shangguan, but there were no official documents in them, and all of them were sent in his private capacity. However, the sender of the letter is not trivial: when the first assistant of the court, Master Zhou, the secretary of the military department, Master Zhang, and even the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Mr. Qian, who can't beat him, sent letters over. However, what frightened him even more was the letter from Master Luo, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, and the head of the East Factory, the great eunuch Cao Gonggong - in the last letter, it was even vaguely revealed that this was the emperor's meaning!

The demands were quite unanimous -- he had to devote all his strength to the reinforcements from Qiongzhen from the south. It is not clear what kind of cooperation method is, and those bureaucrats will not leave a flaw in the text. But the meaning revealed between the lines is very clear: you must try to get Qiong Haijun to stay, if Qiong Haijun's gang of uncles don't run away for a while, then the court will definitely make you unhappy for a lifetime!

For these letters, Huang Long could only smile bitterly, and said in his heart, all the old men can rest assured, and I can't cooperate anymore - even the land personnel have almost all been given to them, how can I cooperate?

Of course, that's an afterthought. With the efficiency of the officials of the Ming Dynasty, no matter how urgent it was, these documents would not have to cross the sea to reach Liaodong without more than ten days of effort. And on the second day of Chen Tao's night visit to the Forbidden City, Xiao Lang had already issued an order for the troops to board the ship and go to sea......

In the port of Weihaiwei, more than a dozen large Fu ships that have been modified are docked one after another on the side of the wooden trestle bridge that goes deep into the sea. On each pier stood heavily armed Joan sailors, carrying their gear, rifles, and personal belongings in a neat line, ascending to the deck in turn, and entering the cabins in order under the orders of the officers.

"It's still a bit tight...... No galleon is trouble. ”

Wu Nanhai, who was in charge of logistics and transportation, stood on the dock, comparing the transportation form in his hand with the actual progress, and complained to Xiao Lang standing next to him:

"If we are transported according to full equipment, we can only transport half a battalion at a time with the modified Fu Ship and the Guangzhou Ship. Even if you only transport light infantry according to your requirements, you can only send one battalion at a time, and Xu Lei's second battalion has to be placed in the next batch. And without artillery, it's probably a bit dangerous for you to go up with the infantry alone......"

"It doesn't matter, it's not a war zone on the other side now, and a battalion of light infantry is enough to deal with a frightened Yellow Dragon. What's more, Hainan's northbound fleet has already set off, and in a month at most, we have enough big ships available. ”

Xiao Lang said confidently, he didn't even remember an ancient sentence out of nowhere, waved his arm, pointed to the sea, and laughed loudly:

"My brigade throws its whip into the sea, and its flow is broken!" RS