In the city of Nanjing, in the Xingning Palace of the Forbidden City.

Xu Xiake held a notebook in his hand, standing below, quickly browsing the contents, his expression always remained calm, while Li Zicheng sat on the dragon chair and said slowly: "Mr. Xu, what do you think about this matter?" ”

At this moment, Xu Xiake's face was solemn, and he gently closed the fold, and then responded earnestly: "Your Majesty, Weichen agrees with Marshal Tian's opinion, in order to maintain the stability of the southeast coast, protect the coastal people from pirates, and prevent foreigners from colluding with Zhu Yulu, the Tang King of Guangdong, Zheng Zhilong and these people still have to be entrusted with important tasks. ”

"That's what I think, too."

Li Zicheng nodded lightly, echoed a sentence, and then changed the conversation, and said in a deep voice: "However, Zheng Zhilong can't let him continue to lead the water division, even those people of the Zheng family who have entrusted them with important tasks, on the basis of the proposal of Lord Xiong and Marshal Tian, there is one more article, and all their children must go to Beijing to study." ”

At this time, Xu Xiake's expression was strange, and he was about to interject to say something, but was stopped by Li Zicheng waving his hand.

"Don't worry, Mr. Xu, I won't break my word, since I promised Zheng Zhilong, I will definitely crown him the king of Annan, and there is also a title of Marshal of the Southeast Water Division, but I don't have any real power."

Hearing this, Xu Xiake's heart suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, but he still said: "Isn't the emperor really going to use Zheng Zhilong?" In any case, he is also a rare sailor general. ”

"With... Of course... And entrust it to reuse! ”

Xu Xiake was confused by Li Zicheng's answer, with a confused look, and wondered in his heart, isn't this sentence just the opposite of what he just said?

However, with Li Zicheng's next words, Xu Xiake's doubts suddenly disappeared, and he suddenly became enlightened, and he was very admirable.

"Mr. Xu, the Royal Military Academy of the Dashun Dynasty is about to be completed, and I am going to set up a branch academy in it, specifically for the imperial court to train sailor generals, and Zheng Zhilong is the first sailor dean, who will contribute all his naval combat experience and military strategy, cultivate more naval generals, and reserve a large number of talents for the future powerful sailors."

Hearing these words, Xu Xiake couldn't help but admire anymore.

"Wonderful... It's really wonderful, this move can be described as killing two birds with one stone, one is to find the most suitable candidate for the dean of the Sailor Academy, and second, Zheng Zhilong is equivalent to the hostages held by the imperial court in the imperial court, plus the children of those generals, it is even more impossible to easily betray the imperial court. ”

Li Zicheng smiled and nodded lightly in response, his expression was constricted, and he changed the topic again.

"Having said that, without Zheng Zhilong sitting on the southeast coast, there is still a little less deterrence for those foreigners and Japanese criminals, but fortunately, the Zheng family's naval division has been completely preserved, and the combat effectiveness of the naval division has not suffered much loss, as long as it is properly commanded, it can completely defeat the naval fleet of those Westerners."

Hearing these words, Xu Xiake was really relieved, knowing that Li Zicheng was not acting rashly, when he took Zheng Zhilong, he had already considered it, and he had already thought of the threat from the sea, otherwise, he would not have agreed to the proposal of Tian Jianxiu and others so happily.

At this moment, as if he had thought of something, Xu Xiake's heart moved, and he proposed: "Your Majesty, although the old minister doesn't know anything about military affairs, those ways of marching soldiers, but he also knows that if he wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his weapons, and Weichen thinks that he can replace the sailor with our firearms and equipment, and his combat effectiveness will be greatly improved!" ”

"Hey, hey... Mr. Xu, even if you don't say it, I have already thought of this. ”

Li Zichang smiled and responded to this, and said further: "Mr. Xu, let me tell you the truth, just before the army crossed the Yangtze River, I had already issued a holy decree to the arsenals in various base areas, not to mention the manufacture of a batch of firearms and equipment for sailors as soon as possible, not to mention bird guns, new artillery, etc., and also added several firearms specially used for naval warfare, such as fire dragon out of the water, mines, underwater dragon king cannons, ......."

When he said these words, Li Zicheng's thoughts flew, and he couldn't help but have some emotion in his heart, whether it is the present or the real history, the death of the Ming Dynasty is his own death, not the so-called Tartar, the latter is just picking up a ready-made cheap!

Don't say anything else, just talk about two points, the demise of Ming, you can't blame others.

First, the firearms of the Ming Dynasty are the most advanced and extremely powerful today, with the most primitive mines, mines, and powerful bombs of 10,000 enemies, as well as various single and multiple firearms and cannons.

Even if the field battle is defeated by the Tartars, it is more than enough to defend the city!

Second, although the treasury of the Ming Dynasty has been empty and cannot make ends meet, but the various vassal kings are rich in the world, so rich that they are so rich, as long as each vassal king takes out a little money and food, enough for the imperial court to spend on military spending, why should it be endowed to the world? For the benefit of the people?

Otherwise, there would not have been a large-scale rebellion of the people later, one after another, causing chaos in the world and an unstable situation.

As the person at the helm of the Dashun Dynasty, Li Zicheng knew deeply that he knew better than everyone that the reason why the Dashun Army was able to maintain unparalleled combat effectiveness and why the Dashun Dynasty was able to stabilize all parts of the country so quickly was, of course, inseparable from the many years of reserves in various base areas.

However, here, Li Zicheng has to say that for these military expenditures, appeasing the people of the world, and so on, the family property and grain of those vassal kings played a pivotal role.

Therefore, at this moment, Li Zicheng came to a conclusion that the demise of the Ming Dynasty was not due to the fact that the army was not good at fighting, nor was it because the treasury was empty, and all kinds of natural disasters were not the main reason, but because of the politicians!

As long as the rulers made up their minds to reduce the feudal domains and confiscate the property of each feudal king, they would be able to reduce the burden on each region, ease the finances of the imperial court, and replenish the national treasury.

As soon as he thought of this, Li Zichang exhaled, and in Xu Xiake's strange gaze, he couldn't understand why the emperor suddenly stopped, was in a daze there, and asked softly: "By the way, Mr. Xu, Emperor Zhu Yujian and his wife should go to Fuzhou, right?" ”

Obviously, Xu Xiake didn't expect Li Zicheng's thinking to jump so much, and he would suddenly ask like this, and he couldn't help but be slightly stunned, but he sobered up in an instant, and seemed to think of something, and then his face hesitated, hesitated, but finally replied: "Your Majesty, Lieutenant Colonel Niu Yan sent someone to report that when they marched to Jiuxi to rest, Queen Zeng suddenly jumped out of the carriage and committed suicide by throwing herself into the river." ”

"What about Emperor Longwu Zhu Yujian?"

When he asked this sentence, although Li Zicheng's face was still calm, he couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, and said secretly: "Can't you still change some history?" It's a pity that Zhu Yujian was born at the wrong time, if he is placed in the position of Emperor Wanli, I am afraid that today's Ming Dynasty will be a different scene. ”