"It's the officers and soldiers of the Guards!"

Ouyang Rui was stunned and said to Tu Guobao.

At this time, the bluestone slabs of the streets of Jizhen in Baisha Township, Huating County, were tapping and trampling the footsteps of a large number of guards stationed in Songjiang Mansion, and Ouyang Rui's heartbeat also beat rapidly with the footsteps.

He couldn't help but not panic, Li Kui and Hua Gu'er and other pirates were going to make trouble in Songjiang Mansion, and he was also involved, and now that the imperial court has sent a large number of guards officers and soldiers to Songjiang Mansion, you can guess that there must be something about pirates who are going to make trouble in Songjiang Mansion.

"How did this news leak, or did Chongzhen already plan to send heavy troops in Songjiang Mansion?"

Tu Guobao also asked at this time, he was only thinking about how to instigate the Jiangnan gentry to collude with pirates to make a big incident in Songjiang Mansion, so that he could also complete the task assigned by Abatai, so that Liu Kongzhao's department of the Ming Navy would be tired of dealing with the affairs of Songjiang Mansion, and ignore the control of the anchored islands on the sea route.

But now that a large number of officers and soldiers of the Guards have appeared, he has begun to feel that this matter is tricky, if there are so many officers and soldiers of the Guards stationed in Songjiang Mansion, it is obvious that Songjiang Mansion will not be messed up by pirates.

"It's also possible that it's not a leak, it's true that the emperor has long intended to station heavy troops in Songjiang Mansion, otherwise, how could Dongchang pretend to be pirates and slaughter the gentry's house a few days ago, I'm afraid that now it's also on the grounds that pirates are looting the gentry's wealth to send additional officers and soldiers to Songjiang in advance to prepare for the unexpected!"

Ouyang Rui said, and his cronies Qingke came over: "Master, there is a message from Futai, there are instructions from the ministry to not act rashly, cut off all contact with Li Kui and others, and wait for the opportunity to wait for him to change." ”

"Got it!"

Ouyang Rui nodded, and then looked back at Tu Guobao: "Now it depends on whether the county king can eat Liu Kongzhao's navy." ”

"Don't worry, our Jin merchants and all the squires in the north and the Oriental pirates are all dissatisfied with Liu Kongzhao's blocking of the northern sea route and charging protection fees, this time it is a gathering of many forces, he Liu Kongzhao is just a hundred ships, and he will definitely be defeated!"

Tu Guobao said fiercely.

"That's fine, now the northern goods are very expensive, it has nothing to do with this, and when Liu Kongzhao is defeated, there will be no way to collect protection fees, and the price of northern goods will definitely fall, which is also beneficial to the people."

Ouyang Rui lost his body when he was young, and now he needs a lot of ginseng every day to recuperate, so he has a deep feeling about the high price of goods in the north.

"It's just that I wonder if Zheng Daguan will participate in assisting the imperial court?"

Tu Guobao asked.

"Don't worry about this, my brother said that the Zheng family has sent news, and he will not do his duty as a courtier and will not do the unrighteous act of framing his friends, and the implication is that no one will help."

Ouyang Rui replied.

"Old fox! Since King Yu was chopped off, King Ying returned to Beijing after his defeat, and Zhu Youzhen promised him tax-free privileges, now he Zheng Zhilong doesn't give me the face of the Qing Dynasty, I think he wants to be the king of the south! Just wait for the time when the Zhu Ming court is gone, so that I can occupy half of the southern country and fight against my Qing Dynasty! ”

When Tu Guobao said this, Ouyang Rui just smiled, although he supported the Qing Dynasty in political positions, he also cooperated with Zheng's firm in business, so naturally it was not easy to say anything.

……

It is now March of the twentieth year of Chongzhen, and the poplar flowers in Jinling City have already fallen, and the green Forbidden City has become purple and red.

When Gu Yu was approaching, Zhu Youzhen learned the news that Yuan Guifei was pregnant, which made him quite happy.

In a sense, this is actually his first child in the real sense, and it also lets Zhu Youzhen know that he can still have children.

Since moving south to Jinling City, Zhu Youzhen has also had skin-to-skin relations with many women, and there has never been a day when he has not worked hard, but he has not seen anyone pregnant.

This made Zhu Youzhen begin to wonder if he no longer had the ability to reproduce.

But now that Yuan Guifei's successful conception has made Zhu Youzhen believe that he still has the ability to reproduce, and even Zhu Youzhen began to think that it may be because the queen and the concubine are a little older, which makes the success rate of conception decline.

Coupled with the thought of the current prince's qualifications and the potential threat to himself, Zhu Youzhen felt that he could indeed start choosing a concubine.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen agreed to the recital of Fan Jingwen, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Liu Zongzhou, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and for the sake of Guangyan's heirs, he began to select concubines in April of the twentieth year of Chongzhen to fill the harem.

Zhu Youzhen, as a man with seven emotions and six desires, naturally does not care about the number of women he has, but he also hopes to be around him with feelings that he likes, although he does not have to be stunning, but he also has to match his eyes.

From a certain point of view, as a modern person, even if Zhu Youzhen becomes the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he thinks that the woman he takes the initiative to pursue is more interesting.

But he is also the emperor, and everything is complicated, and today, most of the daughters of good families are raised in the deep boudoir, so it is impossible to take the initiative to find out, and they can only follow this concubine selection system.

But the current Daming concubine is a woman between the ages of thirteen and sixteen.

It is true that women were precocious in ancient times, but let Zhu Youzhen go to perform the gift of Dunlun with a girl under the age of sixteen and do the act of procreation.

Zhu Youzhen really couldn't accept it.

Although he is not a saint and gentleman, he also has the most basic moral bottom line as a normal modern person.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen decreed that the age limit for the selection of concubines was extended to twenty-five years old.

Zhu Youzhen doesn't know if there are unmarried older leftover women in the Ming Dynasty now, but as long as there are, Zhu Youzhen feels that he can be regarded as a way to rescue some older leftover women in the Ming Dynasty.

Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen also hoped that this would change the ancient custom of marrying too early.

As long as you want to enter the harem and be the most noble woman in the world, you need to delay the age of marriage.

According to the scientific theories of genetics and reproduction, the true age of childbearing is 21 to 24.

And now the Ming Dynasty is about to start becoming a mother at the age of fourteen or fifteen, so the premature mortality rate and dystocia rate are very high, which is a harm to the child and the mother.

Zhu Youzhen hoped to use his emperor's encouragement of "late marriage and late childbearing" to promote the change of customs.

At the same time, Zhu Youzhen also changed the number of years that the palace maids were out of the palace except for the selection of concubines, changed to a period of three years, and signed a contract, with relevant economic and administrative treatment.

And after three years, the palace maid is allowed to decide to stay at her own discretion.

In addition, Zhu Youzhen decided not to recruit eunuchs as eunuchs.

Although from the perspective of imperial power, from the perspective of the needs of the harem, the role of eunuchs is still necessary.

But after all, this kind of behavior of castrating people's genitals to obtain a certain kind of professional group of people who can be used in special use is too inhumane, and it will also breed many perverted phenomena.

Although Zhu Youzhen has not yet found out who instructed Xia Yongde, he also learned from Wang Chengen of Dongchang that Xia Yongde has always wanted to have a son, and recently he has even become infatuated with a cult Baiyi theory that is rumored to allow eunuchs to resume childbearing.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen guessed that he was afraid that the white-clothed sect would take advantage of this point and begin to win over and use the eunuchs of the inner court.

This made Zhu Youzhen more strongly aware of the impact of the social problems brought about by the deformed people like eunuchs on the government and politics, and he was also eager to end the eunuch element that had existed for thousands of years as soon as possible.

(End of chapter)