Hong Chengchou was still a little stunned, he didn't know what Zhang Ge Lao was in his Qing Dynasty.

Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, knew that he fled back to Beijing from Henan in October, but because the regent Dolgon and the auxiliary king Dolgon needed the support of the Han gentry in Liaodong, they did not take advantage of this to strip him of his princehood, but only fined him for half a month.

Hong Chengchou is not easy to slack off, after all, Wu Sangui is also the prince of the Qing Dynasty, so he hurriedly ordered someone to invite Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, and an old Zhang Ge in.

Zhang Ge Lao is Zhang Shenyan, because he was added to the cabinet by Zhu Youzhen last year as a scholar of Dongge University, so his current name to the outside world is still Ge Lao.

Zhang Shenyan took the opportunity to escape when he failed to go south with Duoduo, and happened to meet Wu Sangui in Henan, and became Wu Sangui's current staff.

Therefore, when Wu Sangui entered Hong Chengchou's mansion and introduced Zhang Shenyan to Hong Chengchou, Hong Chengchou suddenly understood why he was called Zhang Gelao.

Now Hong Chengchou is most concerned about the matter of Fa Ming, and even his enthusiasm for destroying Daming is no worse than that of Dorgon.

Therefore, the current Hong Chengchou is particularly concerned about the affairs of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and Zhang Shenyan is a once famous Nanjing Ming court official, and he should know Jiangnan under the rule of the Ming court very well, so Hong Chengchou is very excited about Zhang Shenyan's appearance.

"Pavilion Elder, please sit down, I didn't expect that Pavilion Elder would also belong to my Qing Dynasty, if my Emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the regent know, I will be very happy, with the reputation of the Pavilion Elder to help, why worry about my great Qing Dynasty in the future!"

Hong Chengchou could guess that Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, had introduced Zhang Shenyan to see him, and it must have been to let him help recommend Zhang Shenyan.

Hong Chengchou is still very happy about this kind of recommendation of Ming court officials, after all, now the Ming and Qing dynasties are competing for the hearts of the people in the world, and the regent Dolgon is very willing to recommend a few more Han officials below.

Zhang Shenyan really wanted to help him ask the regent Dolgon for an official through Hong Chengchou, so he said with a smile: "Da Sima, you don't have to call Xiaomin Pavilion old, Xiaomin has decided to have nothing to do with the tyrant Ming again, and intends to vote for my Da Qingming Lord, and I hope Da Sima you can help." ”

"It's easy to say, you and I still have the king of Pingxi, we have all been on the list of Han 0 traitors in the Nanjing Ming Court, what Guanghua Daily, and have been cast into white iron kneeling statues in Nanjing, Hangzhou and other places, what is this, this is simply a great shame for you and me, now if you don't destroy the Ming Court and destroy the white iron kneeling statue, you and I will lose face!"

Hong Chengchou slapped the table excitedly as he spoke, and now when he saw Zhang Shenyan, he really remembered that Zhu Youzhen had made a list of traitors, and then he thought of Geng Zhongming's head who had appeared in his mansion, and he was even more indignant.

Zhang Shenyan was also very resentful of Zhu Youzhen for humiliating them so much at this time: "Da Sima is angry, the Ming court is really hateful, but the destruction of such a declining dynasty will not happen overnight, only I, the Qing Dynasty, will shine with the sun and the moon, illuminating the past and the present!" ”

Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, was silent on the side, and he also gritted his teeth against Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen for robbing Chen Yuanyuan and even killing dozens of members of his Wu family, but he also gritted his teeth for reading people like Hong Chengchou and Zhang Shenyan who boasted about the Qing Dynasty and belittled their former loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, and even scolded the Ming Dynasty as worthless, and he was a little ashamed of these civil officials in his heart.

……

At the same time that the Qing court began to restore the economy in the north and prepare for another southern expedition to the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong of Sichuan at this time also began to prepare for the war of going south to conquer Yunnan and Guizhou.

Last year was mainly a battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Zhang Xianzhong Chongzhen in November of the 17th year of Sichuan Chengdu called the emperor has been a strong army, taking advantage of the wealth of Tianfu to expand the army to hundreds of thousands, and now it is a force that cannot be ignored in the whole world.

Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong has also begun to prepare to take away the territory of Yungui from the hands of Daming.

"Father, the son thinks that it is not appropriate to conflict with the Ming Dynasty at this time, now the world is a three-legged stand, Zhu Ming occupies the south of the Yangtze River, the Manchu Qing occupies the north, and my Daxi occupies Sichuan, now if we rashly attack Yungui, it is bound to make the Manchus suddenly attack my Sichuan and take away the foundation of my Daxi, so for the matter of the southern expedition to Yungui, I hope that my father will think twice."

However, Li Dingguo still put forward his different opinions to Zhang Xianzhong at a court meeting.

"Father, Ercheng thinks, the second brother is inevitably worried, now Zhu Ming and the Manchu Qing have just experienced two wars, each other has lost a lot, it is the time when both defeats hurt our fishermen to profit, not at this time the southern expedition to the Ming Dynasty, to seize the land of Yunnan and Guizhou, and wait until Zhu Ming eases up, we have no chance, the Yunnan-Guizhou region, especially Yunnan, is now under the governance of the Mu family has long been extraordinary, grain production and minerals are not low, if we take this opportunity to occupy Yunnan and Guizhou, we can make our Daxi further grow, At that time, it will be enough to confront the Ming and Qing dynasties, and then dominate the world! ”

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong's righteous descendants can hope to also stand up at this time.

When Zhang Xianzhong heard this, he did not listen to Li Dingguo's opinion, but continued to decide to raise troops to conquer the Yunnan-Guizhou region and strengthen the power of his Daxi regime, and in Zhang Xianzhong's view, the Sichuan he occupied was surrounded by high mountains, and it was difficult for both the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty to attack him, so he naturally did not have to worry too much about anyone who dared to attack him easily.

……

Zhu Youzhen was holding a drawing, and Song Yingxing and Tang Ruowang were watching the craftsmen burn the first steam engine experiment site in the Ming Dynasty, and the huge boiler and huge steam engine equipment had begun to be placed by the craftsmen.

The whole steam engine from the boiler to the intake valve and the control wheel and the water pump are used to use the latest wooden machine tool processing bearing connection, and the cylinder of the steam engine also uses the latest mold technology of Daming, with molten iron casting mold, instead of multi-layer steel plate welding, in order to achieve better air tightness and increase steam power efficiency.

The workers had begun to burn the coals, and kept adding them, the fire was getting bigger and bigger, and the water in the boilers began to boil violently, and the whole equipment of the steam engine began to work rapidly, and the pumps began to pump the water out of the river without stopping, and the gurgling water began to flow down the pre-intact ditches into the fields.

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but laugh happily, Daming had his first steam engine, and this technological revolution was more than a hundred years earlier than the original history of Europe.

But Song Yingxing and Western Fantang John also didn't understand the use of His Majesty personally supervising the construction of such a machine at this time, using so much coal to burn, and then driving the pump to pump out such a little water, the price was inevitably greater, and the cost was not as low as the water wheel at all.

And it costs countless good steel and good iron, and some parts even need to be filed by skilled craftsmen with files little by little.

However, only Zhu Youzhen knows what kind of revolution will be set off by this seemingly large and power-rich machine, although it is still in the experimental stage and has no application value, it has already marked a step closer to mechanization in the Ming Dynasty.

(End of chapter)