The construction of SF City is in full swing.

Zhu Hao also used machine tools to manufacture the first batch of standard weapons in the weapons workshop in the city, which was no longer the previous firecracker, nor was it an arquebus, and it was even more advanced than the original version of the flintlock pistol, and the safety performance of the firing charge used was very high.

A total of 4,000 guns were produced in the first batch, and Zhu Hao was going to go back to Xincheng to bring these firearms with him, while he was going to go to the vicinity of Chang'an City in Central America to sweep around.

This time, he did not plan to take a boat, but planned to take the overland route, all the way north from SF City, through the mountains of northern South America, to Panama City, and then continue north.

He was going to leave 500 officers and soldiers, 1,000 militia and 2,000 Aztec native troops to defend the town, and the rest of the troops were all taken away, the whole army was equipped with new firearms, and carried 60 portable artillery, and at the same time brought 20,000 Inca Empire and Aztec coalition troops.

Zhu Hao also had a purpose in going north, to snatch a group of horses from the European colonizers, according to the current situation, Central America is close to Panama City, on the Atlantic side, and the European colonists built some cities, which are their trade transit points in Central America, and it is said that there are cavalry there.

Zhu Hao was just planning to meet them.

Zhu Hao left Guan Dezhao as the military commander of Xincheng, and Lou Suzhen as the supreme administrator.

Then Zhu Hao led the troops on the road to the north.

From SF City to the north, it is necessary to pass through a number of primeval jungles, after all, not all regions have roads in these years, and the purpose of Zhu Hao leading more than 20,000 people to go on the expedition is to make a road from scratch to prepare for the construction of a railway connecting the north and south in the Americas in the future.

Of course, Zhu Hao also knew that he would cross the mountains and mountains to the north, and it was not easy to build the railway in these places, and Zhu Hao also had the intention of exploring mineral deposits along the way.

There are many minerals that need to be investigated, and Zhu Hao knows that others do not have this ability except for himself.

……

……

Zhu Hao was ready to compete with the European colonizers on land.

At the same time, everything in the Ming Dynasty was calm, and the focus of the court was no longer Zhu Hao, who had been at sea for many years, and even now no one was willing to talk about Zhu Hao.

It's as if this person is a flash in the pan, blooming fast, withering faster, they haven't seen the emperor recently, what is going on in the court, basically the yamen can deal with it themselves, but the emperor has a tight control over the power of the ticket and Zhu Pi, although the emperor has not been in the court for a long time, but it seems to be everywhere.

On this day, Zhu Si took the train to Xishan to relax.

When he arrived at the place, he thought that he would see the scene of large-scale production in full swing like the last time he came, but when he left the station, all industries withered as far as he could see, and it was a bleak scene.

"What's going on? In the past, there were a lot of people here, and the coal was piled up all over the cargo station, but now there is no figure on the street? ”

Zhu Si felt very curious.

The Jinyi guard next to him commanded Wang Zuo to return to the line: "Back to Your Majesty, the holy car arrived today, and in order to ensure safety, the scene was cleared in advance." ”

"Oh."

General Zhu Si was suspicious, and looked ahead, where there were more than a dozen large chimneys that did not smoke, and there was no "clanging" machine knocking sound in the workshop in the distance, and his face sank suddenly...... His senses have always been keen, and the decay in front of him cannot be explained by the fact that the clearing of the scene can be used as a reason to explain the changes.

After he lived in the palace prepared for him by Zhu Hao, this feeling became even stronger, the hot water that was originally supplied for twelve hours was gone, and even the flush toilet needed to have a special person responsible for carrying the water to the water tank on the roof of the building, and the lower side could only be used, and immediately called Huang Jin and others over.

"I feel that something is wrong, could it be that after Jingdao left, the development of Xishan is not as good as before?"

Zhu Si's face was full of anger.

Huang Jin and the others didn't know how to answer, they found that the emperor was really angry this time.

Zhang Zuo said: "Your Majesty, Xishan was originally built by Mr. Zhu, and without Mr. Zhu's care, it is naturally very different from the past. In the past six months, Xungui has reached out to this side, and the taxes in the city are much heavier than before, and the number of residents here is ...... Plummeting. ”

When Zhu Hao was in Xishan, he formulated a perfect policy to ensure that this emerging city could complete the basic accumulation of industrialization.

But when Zhu Hao left, this kind of security disappeared in an instant, when others saw that there was a lot of oil and water to be fished here, and no one was willing to provide shelter, who didn't want to get a piece of the pie?

What's more, even the emperor himself stretched out his hand!

The people are not fools, originally moved to Xishan, just to value the respect for everyone's right to live here, but then the court and nobles do not treat them as people, and always want to get from them, after feeling the heavy pressure, they naturally choose to leave this place and go to other places to develop.

This is also related to the fact that when Zhu Hao left, he took away a large number of skilled craftsmen, these people were originally the great contributors to the industrialization process of Xishan, without their leadership, relying on the existing manpower, the technology is stagnant, the market will be saturated one day, and the coal produced in the absence of large industrial support, after all, the demand is limited.

Many dignitaries and dignitaries burn charcoal at home, and only ordinary people use coal, and the coal output of Xishan was more used by Zhu Hao in steel smelting.

Now that the imperial court has stopped Zhu Hao's construction of the railway, and the railway from Xishan to Xuanfu has died, how can anyone still buy mountains of coal?

Not only Xishan, but also the iron and coal mines in Yongpyeong Province are not as prosperous as before.

"The people's livelihood has withered so far, how can I make money in the future? originally wanted to rely on this city to feed the officers and soldiers of the three armies in the northwest, but as soon as he left, he couldn't even maintain the most basic operations? ”

Zhu Sisi was furious.

The people present felt the tremendous pressure brought to them by Zhu Hao again, which was an invisible but tangible feeling.

Unless Zhu Hao is retrieved, the trouble can be solved, but the question is where is Zhu Hao?

Zhu Sidao: "Did you send someone to sea before?" Hasn't anyone already been to the land of Penglai? Now immediately send a ship to get Zhu Hao back for me! ”

Zhu Si was anxious, he thought that Zhu Hao was dispensable, and the inheritance left by Zhu Hao before he went to sea was enough for Daming to enjoy all kinds of conveniences, but now Zhu Si clearly knew one thing, with Zhu Hao and without Zhu Hao, the effect was very different, and he had to "arrest" Zhu Hao back.

"Yes."

Huang Jin bowed to the leader.

In fact, he has no way at all now, and he has tried various means before, but even if he goes to sea, there are not so many ocean-going ships, and at most he can only find one or two that can be used.

Because all the movable sea ships of the Ming Dynasty were basically taken away by Zhu Hao, at that time, Zhu Hao was ordered by the emperor to go to sea, and no one stopped him.

Originally, there should be a few in Tianjin Port, that is, the batch that came back from the last tribute, but officials at all levels did not pay attention to it, and Zhu Hao placed his own people in the fleet again, one disappeared today, and one will not be seen tomorrow, including the sea ship that took Zhu Niang and them to Ryukyu.

Zhang Zuo said: "Your Majesty, did you send troops to the sea to find it with the right deputy capital Yu Shi Luwan?" This person was recommended by Mr. Zhu and has been doing Jinghai in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. There may be a secret connection between them. ”

"Secretly connected?"

Zhu Si was annoyed.

Zhang Zuo hurriedly changed his words: "Or know Mr. Zhu's whereabouts." ”

Zhu Sidao: "Then let him go and send a ship to the sea." ”

"Your Majesty, there are not many ships on the coast that are suitable for ocean voyages, and the previous shipbuilding has been stopped by the imperial court." Zhang Zuo reminded.

Zhu Si frowned: "Then reopen the shipyard." Jingdao won't take away all the craftsmen who know how to build ships, right? Isn't the cannon casting going on all the time? ”

Zhang Zuowei was puzzled: "Your Majesty, to build a decent ship, you need to invest at least thousands of taels of silver, and if you want to build one that can cross the ocean, the cost will only be higher......"

The implication is that if you want to build a ship without giving silver, how can it be so easy?

Zhu Si fell silent with a dark face.

Huang Jindao: "Maybe Lu Zhongcheng can raise his own shipbuilding on the southeast coast." ”

Zhu Si sneered: "It means that Jing Dao went to sea, took away all the ocean-going ships of the Ming Dynasty, and made the Ming Dynasty unable to build a ship to chase him for a while?" It's equivalent to saying where he went, Da Ming has no strategy to deal with it, so he can only wait patiently for his conscience to find out and come back to find me, right? ”

None of the people present dared to say anything.

This resentment......

It's a bit big.

Zhu Si said coldly: "Is it possible that the people he took away threaten the safety of Daming?" ”

Zhang Zuo said: "Back to Your Majesty, this will not be, Mr. Zhu took not many soldiers and horses, as I said before, in addition to looking for fairy grass for Your Majesty, it is to go overseas to open mines, if everything goes well, there should be news back in the past two years." ”

"Mining ...... Yes, what is the use of him asking for so much gold and silver in the place where he goes overseas to open mines, where Ru Mao drinks blood? Aren't you going to bring Da Ming back? The world is so big, where is there such a rich product as the Ming Dynasty? He'll be back eventually! ”

Zhu Si's face calmed down again.

This is to think that Zhu Hao should not be able to survive for a long time in the place where birds don't overseas, and he still has to go back to Daming to spend money, and even confess his mistakes in front of him.

"Then Your Majesty, are you still going to sea?"

Zhang Zuo asked.

"Out!"

Zhu Si's tone was firm, "Even if there are not enough boats, send people out, and a boat can't get people back?" Now I just want to know whether Jingdao is dead or alive, and if he is alive, what is he doing now? Why haven't you come back to Daming! ”

……

……

Zhu Hao led his troops all the way north.

All the walks are coastal areas, especially in the later Ecuadorian boundaries, the low-lying areas can only take the coastal line, and then go inland for a section is blocked by high mountains, unable to pass through, often through some very undulating areas.

Everywhere the army went, only scattered indigenous inhabitants could be seen.

They were extremely afraid of the arrival of the Ming army, and they often avoided it early, but there were also people who didn't know whether they wanted to come to find trouble, but the result was ......

There is no place to die!

On the west coast of South America, there were obviously no European colonists, and it was not until the narrow coastal area of Ecuador that the terrain became relatively flat, and some tribal villages were seen one after another, but the situation here did not seem to be stable.

The European colonizers had already burned the flames of war here, not because the Westerners came in person, but because they were the agents they supported in Central America, and they were also some indigenous Indians, and the Colombian region became the focus of competition between Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and England.

Zhu Hao arrived with his troops, ostensibly because the natives from the south wanted to expand their territory to the north.

It was no longer under the control of the Inca Empire.

As soon as Zhu Hao walked out of the mountains, there were no less than five people who wanted to put Zhu Hao and the army under his command to death, but every time they didn't need Zhu Hao's Ming army to come forward, just relying on the soldiers of the Inca Empire equipped with iron weapons, they broke the enemy in one fell swoop.

When passing by a city that looked decent, Zhu Hao finally met the European colonists, and it had been twenty days since he set off from SF City.