It was early June.

The weather is getting hotter.

As soon as he left the boundary of Shandong, the Ming Emperor Zhu Youzhen felt the heat from Jianghuai.

Although it is very hot.

But whether it is the emperor Zhu Youzhen or the ministers or the palace maids.

The long-tense heartstrings have eased a lot.

Gao Jie, the chief military officer of Xuzhou, did not disappoint Zhu Youzhen.

Not long after seeing Li Banghua and Liu Fangliang's troops, Gao Jie immediately raised troops to encircle and suppress Liu Liangzuo's troops in Shouzhou.

In other words, there will be no longer threats from the two directions of Xuzhou and Shouzhou in the Huaiyang area.

Since leaving Shandong and entering the Jianghuai territory, Zhu Youzhen's southward retreat has not been in any crisis.

For now, all you have to do is wait for a smooth arrival in Nanjing.

Shi Kefa, the eunuch of the court, and Chen Chunde, the imperial historian of the left deputy capital, had been ordered to rush to Nanjing in advance, and ordered the six Jiuqing and the officials above the second rank in Beijing to prepare to take over.

Li Mingrui, the governor of Huaiyang, began to issue an order on the orders of Zhu Youzhen to convene the prefects and Taoist officials of Huai'an and Yangzhou to discuss the defense of Huaiyang.

Zhu Youzhen also sent a message to Li Mingrui that every time the southward retreat team arrived in Huaiyang County, they would post a notice on the recruitment of the Son of Heaven.

Jianghuai, that is, Huaiyang, because it is located in the middle of the north and south, has always been a fierce people, and most of the world's elite soldiers and generals come from here.

The founding of the Ming Dynasty was also mostly built by the children of Jianghuai.

Moreover, it is precisely because of this that the people in this area have a deeper affection for the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youzhen wanted to recruit the Son of Heaven here, and it was naturally necessary.

Although he now controls more than 200,000 troops, most of them are a motley of Beijing camps and Chuang troops.

If Zhu Youzhen wants to train a million tigers and wolves, he has to re-recruit troops.

Naturally, there are no restrictions on the recruitment of the Son of Heaven, and Zhu Youzhen not only asked the children of the common people to enlist in the army, but also asked the soldiers to enlist in the army, and put pen to paper to save the country from danger.

And Zhu Youzhen also made it clear to the world, from then on, there is no distinction between civil and military, and scholars can also enter the army and enter the prime minister.

Although the whole world was in an uproar, there were many complaints about His Majesty Zhu Youzhen, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Youzhen is now a dragon megatron, and the cadres are arbitrary, and the officials naturally dare not disobey it, and the will is thus transmitted to the ears of the ordinary people in the Huaiyang realm.

Regarding the reaction of southern officials, Zhu Youzhen didn't bother to pay attention.

At present, we have not yet arrived in Nanjing, and if we do not hurry up to announce a few wills that touch the interests of the gentry in Jiangnan, it will naturally be even more difficult to implement them after Jiangnan.

The boundary of Huaiyang is still alive in the two prefectures of Huai'an and Yangzhou, and the rest of the prefectures and counties have already been miserable by Liu Zeqing's people.

Therefore, Li Mingrui, as the governor of Huaiyang, only had to recruit troops and collect commercial taxes in the two cities of Huai'an and Yangzhou.

Jin Yiwei commanded the envoy Li Ruolian to assist Li Mingrui on the order of Zhu Youzhen to deal with the tax resistance of the merchants in these two places.

All the way south, Jinyiwei and Dongchang have expanded a lot of young men with excellent martial arts, and there are 3,000 captains under Li Ruolian alone, so it is naturally not difficult to assist Li Mingrui in dealing with Huaiyang.

Zhu Youzhen and others boarded a ship in Yangzhou and went south to the south under the escort of the 80,000 guards and the Second Army of the Imperial Horse Supervisor He Xin.

Along with Zhu Youzhen and other troops who retreated south, there were naturally 8 million taels of silver and tens of thousands of copper coins, as well as gold and jade antiques and gold and silver jewelry worth tens of millions of taels.

At this time, the transportation from Yangzhou to Zhenjiang can be said to be a hundred boats competing for the current, and thousands of sails are competing.

Zhu Youzhen stood alone from the bow of the ship, looking out the window at the blue sky, the green willows and pavilions on the shore.

He kind of entered a world full of flowers.

It is said that Jiangnan is a gentle and wealthy township, and the flowers and willows are prosperous.

Zhu Youzhen feels the same way now.

This is the richest area in Daming, and the commercial economy is highly developed.

Ever since he passed through Yangzhou, he could smell the refreshing smell of fat powder in the humid air.

From north to south, it is difficult to associate the chaos and desolation of the Central Plains with the tranquility and prosperity here.

It is also difficult for Zhu Youzhen to imagine that in the future, once Jiannu's iron hooves go south, this picturesque Jiangnan territory will be ravaged.

Jin Xuan, the secretary of Dali Temple, is a native of Wujin in Nanzhili, a native of Jiangnan.

In the past few days, he has been around Zhu Youzhen and explained to Zhu Youzhen the customs and humanities of various places in the south of the Yangtze River.

Jin Xuan was also radiant at this time, and he was very happy to be able to follow the emperor back to his hometown and escape from the north where there were many wars.

Although he had to be by the king's side now, he had to be careful to deal with Zhu Youzhen's thunderous anger at any time.

However, the smoke and rain in Jiangnan also made him forget the danger, and naturally acted as a docent for Zhu Youzhen.

For example, the yuppie customs of officials from all walks of life in the south of the Yangtze River, as well as the items often played by scholars and doctors, whose painting is good, whose calligraphy is good, whose piano is good, etc., as well as famous specialties in various places.

However, most of the officials who accompanied him were from the north.

Therefore, after seeing the splendid mountains and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, I was more or less sad and parted, and then I thought about my hometown, which should be as beautiful as this, but it was suffering from the poison of thieves and tartars, and even my relatives didn't know how life and death were, and one by one I couldn't help but show a sad look.

Most of the civil and military officials who withdrew south with Zhu Youzhen, such as Dang Chongya, the Imperial Horse Supervisor He Xin, the Taifu Temple Cheng Shen Jiayun, and the Imperial Shi Chengde, all handed Zhu Youzhen a joint excerpt, begging His Majesty the Ming Emperor to revitalize the mountains and rivers as soon as possible, restore the Central Plains in the north, return the capital to Beijing, and calm the world.

Zhu Youzhen knew that these northern officials who followed him were worried that they were only obsessed with being Song Gaozong, and as soon as they arrived in Jiangnan, they forgot about the great cause of the Northern Expedition and wanted to steal peace.

Zhu Youzhen did not refuse the request of this group of northern officials who had left their hometowns, and immediately approved it, still taking Nanjing as their residence and not changing to Beijing, so as to show that he did not have the heart to settle in the south.

At the same time, Zhu Youzhen immediately sealed these northern officials in the name of the merit of evacuating from the south, so as to improve their status in the court and prepare for the future confrontation with the southern officials, especially the Donglin Party.

Zhu Youzhen could even predict that in the future, once the threat of slaves and thieves was lifted, it was very likely that there would be a main battle faction and a main peace faction.

Undoubtedly.

Most of the officials of southern origin will certainly not be willing to use their own interests to realize the dream of returning to their homeland for the officials in the north, and become the main peace faction.

In other words, in the future, this group of northern officials will become the backbone of the emperor's Northern Expedition.

Chen Chunde, the left deputy capital imperial history, was crowned as the left capital imperial history and took charge of the Imperial Procuratorate.

Taifu Temple Cheng Shen Jiayun was promoted to the left waiter of the Ministry of Rites, preparing for the future opening of the department to collect the northern and southern scholars.

Yushi Chengde was promoted to Ying Tianfu Yin to control the capital.

Jin Xuan, the secretary of Dali Temple, was promoted as the head of the Hanlin Academy and the left attendant of the Ministry of Officials, preparing for entering the cabinet in the future to win over southern officials.

He Xinjia, the eunuch of the imperial horse, added the title of prince and chief of the Nanjing Jingying.

Before arriving in Nanjing, Zhu Youzhen directly bypassed the southern officials and inserted the officials of his entourage into key departments such as Yingtianfu, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Most of the six departments and nine secretaries who remained in Nanjing still had to face the fate of continuing to sit on the cold bench or being transferred to the local government as magistrates.