The western suburbs of Beijing.

There are continuous beautiful peaks in the western mountains, artesian springs are everywhere, and in the low-lying places they merge into lakes and ponds of all sizes. The Yuquan landscape flows into Kunming Lake from west to east, becoming the largest water surface in the western suburbs. A large area of rice fields has been cultivated here, and the scenery is unique.

As early as the Liao Dynasty, here is the construction of the Yuquan Mountain Palace, to the Ming Dynasty, here is to attract many dignitaries and nobles to occupy the countryside here to build villas, especially the Wanli period of the favored Wuqing Hou Li Wei is here to build a lot of construction, first built a large scale known as the first garden of the Beijing Tsinghua Garden, and then Mi Wanzhong in the east wall of the Tsinghua Garden outside the lake to guide the lake, set aside the elegant and beautiful "spoon garden", take the meaning of "a spoon of Haidian". In the empty suburbs, there are pavilions and pavilions and lakes and mountains, and it has become a famous place for gardens in the suburbs of Beijing.

After Liu Jun became emperor, although he did not overhaul the palace, he did not like the Forbidden City with high walls and deep palaces too much. Therefore, he also took a fancy to this excellent landscape and pastoral in the western suburbs, and built a beautiful royal garden here in a few years, which became Liu Jun's summer palace every summer.

The summer palace is composed of several gardens, with an area of more than 5,000 acres, not only the palace of the diligent administration, the imperial study, but also the cabinet, the privy council, the imperial history platform, the parliament, the prime minister's office and the military aircraft office and other government offices. The garden is very beautiful, but the flowers are the emperor's inner treasury, not using the treasury a penny, and there is no free requisition of the people, etc., whether it is materials or labor, the garden palace is truthfully paid. Even during the construction of this luxurious and huge royal garden, many jobs were created, and even a lot of taxes were paid to the government.

May is approaching, and midsummer has not yet arrived, but Liu Jun has come to the summer palace in advance this year to avoid the noise and listen to politics.

Liu Chenggong, the right military colonel, stepped on shiny riding boots and came to the imperial study.

"I want to meet the Holy One."

The guard officer on duty is also a right military academy, and he and Liu Chenggong can be regarded as old colleagues who have known each other for a long time. It's a little strange to see him look so serious.

"What, Lord Viscount has something urgent to see Your Majesty?" He laughed and said, Liu Chenggong is not ordinary in the guards, although his wife is a Japanese woman, but his father is the famous governor of Central and South China Zheng Zhilong, the Zheng family is not only a top family in the court. In particular, their family has a great influence in the navy, and their Zheng family is also the most famous maritime group in the Han Dynasty, it is said that the Zheng family's industry is worth more than 100 million yuan, but because of the Zheng family's status in the court, it is not on the list of the rich of the Han Dynasty.

And Liu Chenggong is not only Zheng Zhilong's eldest son, but he is also the emperor's righteous son, and he was given his surname when he was adopted as a righteous son. At that time, the emperor was still Chongzhen's righteous son, so Zheng Sen followed the surname Zhu and gave the name successfully. People call the surname of the small country. Later, when the emperor founded the country, Zhu Chenggong naturally changed his name to Liu Chenggong.

From the age of sixteen to follow the Son of Heaven, from a young talent to today's founding viscount of the Right Military Academy full of military demeanor, Liu Chenggong has won the trust of the emperor.

Therefore, in the eyes of the major high-ranking families in the capital today, the best handsome man is none other than this Viscount Liu Chenggong. Nearly twenty years old. Good background, long and handsome. is so trusted by the emperor, who doesn't want to snatch such a young man back as a son-in-law.

Although Liu Chenggong is only a right military academy in the guards and pro-army, everyone understands that people's influence on the emperor is not weaker than that of those generals, and even ordinary generals don't have so many opportunities to meet the emperor every day. Speaking of which. This right military academy has the influence of a general.

What's more, the father of this national surname has just won another big victory in Myanmar recently.

Not long ago, before the rainy season in Burma, the Southern Expeditionary Army led by Zheng Zhilong confronted the Donoo Army in Malay City for a long time. Zheng Zhilong continued to bluff around the Malay City with a small part, attracting the main force of the Donghu army and its reinforcements, and then led the main force to leave secretly, went around in a circle, and directly killed the rear of the Donggu capital Ava.

In the previous months of stalemate, Zheng Zhilong succeeded in making the king of Donghu mistakenly think that his army had successfully blocked the Han army. didn't know that it was just Zheng Zhilong fishing, who kept acting for the Donghu Army and conveyed the wrong message to them. The purpose was only to divert the troops and horses of the Taungoo army and its allies from the mountains as much as possible, and to attract Ava to the city of Malay.

As a result, Zheng Zhilong succeeded in the end, and the Donghu people also increased their troops to Malai City little by little under the Han army's 'continuous increase in troops and desperate attack', and finally concentrated all the elites of the country in Malay, and Ava in the rear gradually became an empty city.

When the time was ripe, especially when the rainy season was approaching, Zheng Zhilong continued to spread false news, making it seem that he would collect his troops and retreat before the rainy season arrived, so as to wait for the rainy season to end in November and fight again, as a result, the defenders of Malay City and the King of Donghu in Ava City became more and more relaxed.

No one expected that when they all thought that Zheng Zhilong was really preparing to withdraw the army, Zheng Zhilong had already formulated a sneak attack plan. He used the night time to secretly withdraw the main force day by day, and finally came to an empty city plan.

When Zheng Zhilong led 20,000 elites to suddenly appear under the city of Ava, the king of Donghu was stupid, and the ministers in the city were also confused, and no one understood what was going on. Aren't the Han people going to withdraw, aren't the Malays impregnable, where did these damn Han people come from, did they come from the southern sea? But aren't the English already helping them defend Rangoon and other coastal areas, and are still preparing to bring them artillery and guns?

Zheng Zhilong has carefully planned a big move for several months, of course, not just to scare the Donghu people. Facing the city of Ava, the capital of Donghu State, which was empty of air defense, Zheng Zhilong did not waste half of his time, and immediately launched the siege as soon as he appeared, and all kinds of artillery of all sizes concentrated on the city wall, and the infantry even unfolded the line array in one go to the city along the gap opened by the artillery.

The Donghu people guarded the Malay city for half a year, and did not let the Han army cross the Lei Chi step, really thinking that their elephant array, the artillery and muskets they bought from the English and Dutch, were very powerful, and they were not weaker than the Han army. But when the Han army launched an attack on Ava City, they realized that something was wrong.

Why could the artillery of the Han army start bombarding the city walls at such a distance, and why did they have so many artillery. Hit so far, and there are cannonballs that can directly hit the heads of the defenders on the city wall and then explode suddenly, why is there such a short-bodied cannon that can blast hundreds of pounds of stones into the city?

There are so many whys for the people of Donghu.

Why did the Han army's muskets shoot so far and so fast, and why were they not affected by the drizzle and wind under their guns?

No one answered their why, Zheng Zhilong's 20,000 horses attacked Ava. It took only half a day to storm the city. Then it took half a day to clear the resistance in the city, and King Ava couldn't escape, and was directly blocked in the palace, and then arrested.

Zheng Zhilong's attack launched from Layue a few years ago was blocked in Malay City, and he did not make a single blow to fulfill his slogan that he wanted to enter Awa City for Chinese New Year's Eve Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, although it is now nearly half a year late. But he still got in.

After the raid took Ava, Zheng Zhilong took advantage of the situation to attack Malay City in front and back, surrounding it in all directions.

The Taungoo army in Malay refused to believe the news that Ava had been defeated and the king had been captured, but when they saw that a part of the Han army, which had been waiting for them all along, suddenly appeared behind them, they finally understood that they had been tricked.

At this time, the Donghu people in Malai City were anxious to fight a decisive battle and wanted to break through to the south, but Zheng Zhilong was not in a hurry.

They are now besieging the city of Malay one after the other. Caught here, he's in a hurry. There are many soldiers and horses in Malay City. All kinds of people and horses, elephants, and allied troops cobbled together more than 100,000 horses, but the money and food consumed every day was also quite amazing, and there was a way for the king of Donghu to raise grain and grass for them. But now, the city of Ava in the back has been occupied by the Han army.

Their north, west, east, and south were all Han troops, and the water and land routes were also blocked. and lost supplies, Zheng Zhilong didn't need to fight them at all, as long as they were trapped, it wouldn't be long before they ran out of food, and as long as the troops held the barracks, cities, and rivers, these people couldn't break out at all.

Zheng Zhilong is now in control of the victory, and is already pursuing the maximum result with the least loss.

The good news was transmitted to Beijing and presented to the emperor in the summer palace, and it was soon known to the whole summer palace.

Zheng Zhilong achieved such a result in Zhongnan, and then as long as he forced the Donghu army that was besieged in Malay City to collapse and surrender after running out of ammunition and food, it would be difficult for the entire Donghu to have a resistance force at that time, and Zheng Zhilong's destruction of the entire Donghu country was already a matter of course.

Now there is news in the palace, I heard that the emperor is going to give Liu Chenggong the title of earl, and he will also promote him to the left military academy, and promote him to the standard commander of the guard.

Everyone thinks that Liu Chenggong was promoted to the rank of knight with his father's military exploits.

"Congratulations brother, Ling Zun Zhongnan has a great victory, and Brother Tai is going to be promoted to earl, and he will be promoted to the commander of the Left Military Academy before he is twenty, Brother Tai will definitely be the youngest and shining general in my Han military circle, before the age of thirty, he will definitely be promoted to a general, maybe he can become a theater commander at the age of forty, and he can become a privy envoy at fifty."

The compliments of his colleagues did not make Liu Chenggong happy, but made him feel a churning in his heart.

"Please let the right military academy enter and let me know."

Liu Chenggong sometimes hates these colleagues, and no matter how hard he tries, they will only see his promotion as a good thing as his background. He has also been on the battlefield many times, even slashing enemy troops, but these colleagues never seem to be able to see it. Slowly, he had become accustomed to these discussions, but he couldn't approve of them.

Therefore, when he heard that the emperor was going to make him an earl and give him a promotion, he was not happy, but only angry for no reason.

As the emperor's guards, the guards were the best soldiers selected from the whole army. Moreover, the officers in the Guards, especially those in the middle and lower ranks, are basically from those noble families. Everyone has some background, either the nephew of a certain general, or the nephew of a scholar or governor.

They have good backgrounds, and they are all relatively good, but they are from good backgrounds, and they can't enter the guards without ability. But when a large group of such outstanding noble children are together, there is always a comparative competition. Among these outstanding people, Liu Chenggong, who is also extremely good, is undoubtedly a little difficult to fit in.

After a few moments, the young officer walked back.

"Your Majesty let you in."

Liu Chenggong raised his left wrist and glanced at the watch, at this time the emperor was usually reading a book. He lowered his wrist and lifted his foot to walk inside.

After passing a few posts, Liu Chenggong saw the young emperor sitting there drinking tea and reading the newspaper. The pomegranate trees were blooming with fiery red flowers, and the bright sunlight blocked most of the pomegranate flowers and branches, leaving only the golden sunlight on the emperor.

The Emperor reclined on a wicker chair with a pair of feet resting on a footstool in front of him, he was not wearing a crown, revealing his short hair that reached only behind his ears. The emperor's hair has become shorter and shorter in recent years, and it used to be a shawl to the shoulder, but now it only reaches behind the ears. He would not be surprised if one day the emperor cut his hair the same as the plank.

In fact, he himself has been following the emperor's footsteps, and now he has even gone in front of the emperor, leaving the general board size in the army on his head.

The Emperor heard his footsteps, and even with his familiarity with him, he must have heard that it was him just by listening to the footsteps. However, the emperor still looked at the newspaper in his hand with relish, and did not even raise his head.

Liu Chenggong took off the big cap and put it in his hand, then gave a military salute to the emperor and reported loudly.

Liu Jun finished reading a page at this time, glanced at the newspaper after flipping through it, and found that there was nothing that interested him, so he put the newspaper on the coffee table, and then unhurriedly picked up the tea that was not hot or cold and just warm and took two sips.

"I knew you would definitely come, and now that you are really here, I really don't know whether to sigh that I guessed accurately, or admire your stubbornness."

Liu Chenggong, who is just nineteen years old this year, is very tall, and he has been honed in the army for several years, so that his talented and Confucian temperament has been exhausted, and a heroic atmosphere is manifested in his gestures.

"Your Majesty, I request to be transferred from the guards."

"Hmph." Liu Jun chuckled.

"You've been with me for several years, shouldn't you be so naïve, if you only care about other people's opinions in everything, don't you feel very tired of living?"

"Your Majesty, I can not care about other people's eyes and discussions, but I want to go to the front line of the troops, to the front line of the battle, I want to go to the battlefield, I want to fight vigorously, I want to be able to command the army to fight and win fame with my own hands!"

"You're still too young, but it's not bad for you to think like this, and you have the drive and persistence of young people. It seems that you don't want to follow me all day, so good. Liu Jun nodded. I think that when I was in Macheng, didn't I always think about looking for a marquis, even if I started from the township group, I was very willing, from Liu Chenggong's body, Liu Jun saw his shadow in the past.

"Please ask Your Majesty to allow the minister to restore his original surname and reuse his real name."

Liu Jun could only shake his head and say, "Do you still want to start from scratch, starting from a small soldier?" ”

"If Your Majesty can give permission, the minister hopes to start with the lowest-ranking officer, the right sergeant major."

"I thought you wanted to start as a creep, hahaha." Liu Jun couldn't help but smile and said, "It's okay, from today on, you can restore your surname to Zheng Sen, and of course, you can also be called Liu Chenggong." Even if you change back to your real name, you are still my righteous son. If you want to go to the grassroots level to experience it, it's no problem, and you don't have to start as a right sergeant major, so let's start as an army company commander, and the rank is right captain. However, your current military rank and position have been retained, by the way, I have already signed the will for you to be promoted and promoted, and you are now the infantry commander of the Left Military Academy of the Founding Earl's Guard. ”

"From now on, the minister is the commander of the infantry company of the right captain." Zheng Sen replied.

Liu Jun got up, stretched out his hand and patted Zheng Sen on the shoulder a few times, "You can choose each military town, which town do you want to go to?" ”

"The minister asked to go to Annam, where the Nanban rebels are fighting, and I hope to be able to go to the front line and take the lead."

"Don't you go to Donghu, it's your father's troops."

"No, no." Zheng Sen replied without hesitation.

"It's okay to go to Annam if you want to, but now Annam's army is not a regular army of the Empire, since you want to go, then go to the Royal Navy's Seventh Fleet to report, join the Marine Corps, and become a Marine Company Commander!"

"Yes!" (To be continued.) )