Zhou Kui said mysteriously: "Do you know that the emperor's fifth son, Zhu Cihuan, has been seriously ill recently, and is often delirious, I am afraid that he will die soon. ”

Xu Yunjue and Zhu Chunchen were stunned at each other, Zhu Cihuan is the only son of Tian Guifei, he is smart and clever, innocent and cute, and he is very popular with the emperor.

Zhou Kui was proud, the emperor favored Tian Guifei, and he could not only keep his family fortune through this incident, but also consolidate the status of his daughter and the crown prince Zhu Cihong, which was really killing two birds with one stone.

"Let's act through the mouth of the prince, I'm afraid it's not appropriate, besides, the palace is strictly forbidden, how can the old emperor implement this plan?"

The prince and the silver are familiar with light and heavy, in the eyes of Xu Yunzhen, the Duke of Dingguo, or silver is slightly better, thinking of giving tens of thousands of taels to the court, Xu Yunzhen's heart seems to have been cut by a knife, and after hesitating again and again, he finally hardened his heart and asked.

"We don't want to harm the five princes, just let him pass on a word, what can happen, the five princes' nurses are heavy on wealth, let's give some silver, let her teach him a word when the prince is ill and delirious, and this matter will be done."

As the emperor's father-in-law, Zhou Kui often goes in and out of the palace, and he still knows something about the situation on his daughter's rival Tian Guifei.

"What the old emperor said is that we are not trying to harm the five princes, but just through his mouth, there are many people in the palace who believe in the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva, plus Wu Qinghou is the cousin of the Empress Dowager Li, the queen mother and his old man use the mouth of the five princes to fight for their brothers' families, isn't it natural?"

Zhu Chunchen was very optimistic about Zhou Kui's suggestion, although they did not have the intention of harming Zhu Cihuan, but they also did not want to think that a five-year-old child would encounter someone pretending to be a ghost when he was delirious, and he couldn't stand it.

The plan of everyone has been decided, and Zhou Kui has not mentioned it since he went to the palace to buy Zhu Cihuan's nurse.

Dengju City

After arranging for Song Guangkun to accompany Liu Kongzhao and Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, to inspect the Ziyang Reservoir and the firearms production base in Zhaoyuan, Li Xingzhi of Laiden, who had returned to Shandong from the southern capital, summoned all the town and town generals and all the civilian officials of the military marshal's office to Penglai Pavilion to take stock of the development and defense situation of Leiden and Jinan in the past six months.

To be honest, Li Xingzhi is still very satisfied with the development of Leiden and Jinan in the past six months.

Under the auspices of Yang Biao, Jinan not only built a complete cement fortress in Luokou, but also built a complete cement fortress in Jinan's Beiqing River, which was only more than 20 miles away from the Zigzag layout of Jinan City, and could rely on each other and support each other.

These two fortresses are made of cement and stone as the main materials, and the skeleton is selected from the bamboo on the mountain, after the skeleton is built, the wooden fence is fixed on both sides, and then only the stone, brick and cement are mixed and poured into the skeleton, and then the wall is solidified and formed.

According to Yang Biao, each fortress is about four miles in circumference, the wall is three zhang high, the width is Xu, and the foundation is also about Zhangxu, but the fortress is not designed according to the square formation plug pattern offered by Sun Chengzong, but according to the five-class city wall suggested by Tang Ruowang and Lu Ruohan, the two Xiyi.

All the walls are equipped with concave horse faces, the walls are sloped about 80 degrees, and from the five corners of the city wall and the city gate, there are also ten and a half miles of pointed cone-shaped small forts and the city wall are closely combined, and the ends are strict and orderly.

Of course, to defend the fortress, you need to have enough arquebuses and artillery, and Yang Biao's first town only has three infantry long-range soldiers and one artillery team, and such a firepower configuration simply cannot meet the requirements of guarding Jinan's defense system.

Therefore, it is imperative to increase the strength of Jinan, after all, Jinan communicates with the north and south, connects Leiden, Gyeonggi and Henan, and is really a battleground for soldiers.

In addition, under the auspices of Qian Tianxi, the prefect of Laizhou, and Lu Liangzhi, the military preparation of Laiden, a cement road through the Jiaodong Peninsula and Jinan is also under renovation.

According to Qian Tianxi, the construction of this road began after the summer harvest was completed, and it is two feet wide and two feet deep, and its main purpose is to connect the Luokou Wharf of the Grand Canal.

With this muddy cement road that is not afraid of rainy days, not only can the caravan of Mei Jiuye and Kong Wenming quickly arrive in Jiaoao, but it can also be convenient for the Jingbei Army to support Jinan at any time.

"Can the people of the Qian Governor's Mansion, the Song Governor's Mansion, and Leiden be self-sufficient this year? Mr. Qian, how much food is still in the Marshal's Mansion? ”

Building fortresses and repairing roads is a task assigned by Li Xingzhi when he went on the expedition, and it is natural that everyone can make proper arrangements, and Li Xingzhi is more concerned about the people's livelihood, if the people's stomachs are not full, then how can they have a stable base.

Qian Anning said hesitantly: "Dashuai, I Leiden had a total population of 280,000 before, and a total of 610,000 mu of land was reclaimed in the Jiaolai Plain, plus the sea fish caught by fishermen, I can basically be self-sufficient, but after you set out on the expedition, Qingzhou and Jinan have nearly 100,000 refugees pouring in, these people either can't eat enough, or they are destroyed by the Dongjiao, and there is no support, the lower officials will settle them in Pingdu and Jimo to settle down, let them reclaim wasteland, and rebuild their homes, This part of the people still needs help from the military marshal's mansion, so the 230,000 grains you brought back last time are already a little insufficient, but it shouldn't be a problem to survive until the summer harvest. ”

"Why can't 610,000 acres of land support 380,000 people? Still need the support of the Marshal's Office? ”

The war in Jinzhou is in full swing, and the Jingbei Army naturally can't sit on the sidelines, and if there is no food, how can it cope with the next war? Li Xingzhi was extremely dissatisfied with Lydon's grain output.

"Dashuai, the land of the Jiaolai Plain has been barren for several years, and it is close to the coast, the base fertilizer is insufficient, and the year is not good, the weather is dry, if it is not for the irrigation of Ziyang Reservoir and Zhaoyuan Reservoir, I am afraid that even the grain that feeds the original people of Leiden will not be able to harvest, but Mr. Tang Ruowang has instructed his friend to provide us with corn and what potatoes and sweet potato seeds, saying that these crops can adapt to the dry weather, and the yield is high, and I think it can be brought from Macao to Jiaoao in the near future."

Qian Anning and Qian Tianxi were full of doubts about Li Xingzhi, you went on an expedition to Huguang and became a shopkeeper, and when you came back, you blamed us for not being able to collect food.

"Well, Ben Shuai knows! The sowing of corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes should be carried out as soon as possible, and stabilizing the livelihood of Leiden is the top priority. ”