In the golden autumn of September, the sky is high and cool. The joy of the harvest also made the Nanjing court energetic from top to bottom, and full of confidence in the fortune of the Ming Dynasty.

The bad days are finally over, and the future should get better and better.

In the Forbidden City, after a year of repairs, the palace left by Zhu Yuanzhang back then has also been repaired with several more palaces, which is high-spirited.

For example, when the enthronement ceremony last year, only a few palaces such as Qianqing Palace could be used in the harem, and when the Yuan was changed at the beginning of this year, Kunning Palace was also repaired, and now in September, even Chunhe Palace has been repaired.

The princess Zhu Yuchan, who has been pregnant for six months, is also accompanied by her husband Zhu Shuren, who occasionally returns to Nanjing, from the princess's mansion where she lives every day, to visit the newly renovated Chunhe Palace garden.

After the princess of the Ming Dynasty got married, of course, she would no longer live in the palace, so Zhu Yuchan's original residence in Nanjing was a mansion located outside the east wall of the palace, and it was not far from the originally abandoned Chunhe Palace.

And Chunhe Palace was abandoned more than 200 years ago, because only Zhu Biao and Zhu Yunwen lived here, and Zhu Yunwen also set a fire when he died, and died with his wife and eldest son.

After Zhu Di usurped the throne, he was going to move the capital to the north, how could it be possible to rebuild the place where Zhu Yunwen had lived and burned, Zhu Gaochi lived in Nanjing for a few years, and he also felt that this place was unlucky, and he would rather live in a different position. So until the time of Chongzhen, Chunhe Palace still retained a pile of charred ashes, and nothing changed.

】

But now, the Spring and Palace has been rebuilt under special circumstances. Zhu Yuchan knew in her heart that this was when she was waiting to give birth, and she might have to use it, so that it would be convenient for the imperial doctor in the palace to see her.

If she is born as a son, she may have to live back in the palace to take care of the baby after completing the procedures for adoption. In ancient times, there was no chemical paint, formaldehyde or anything, and the walls were painted with natural spices, and it was no problem to live in it after half a year.

Early this morning, Zhu Shuren accompanied his wife to walk around the Chunhe Palace, Zhu Yuchan also sweated slightly, and sat in the imperial garden under the service of the palace maid, and the palace maid sent a lunch for the prince and the princess to enjoy.

While eating, Zhu Shuren mentioned that he had to be busy with some major national affairs in the past two days, and he was going to Jiangning Town outside the city to convene a meeting of his henchmen and generals.

Zhu Yuchan has been accustomed to her husband running around in the past few months, but she didn't stop it, but said with a little anger: "Since I didn't go to inspect the factories and mines, I just convened the generals to discuss and summon them to the city to discuss, so why go out." ”

Zhu Shuren patiently explained: "The content to be discussed this time is more complicated, perhaps including how to change the land of Yungui in the next few years, and also include the recovery of the people who were invaded by Hongmaoyi.

These are all hot and smoky places in the extreme south, and only in the cold winter months are relatively cool and can be used with soldiers. And you have to see if the generals' bodies are adapted to the scorching heat in the south and whether they will have fever.

It just so happened that in the past few months, Lone set up several research institutes in Jiangning Town, at first he only studied magnetism, and later because the world's miracle skills were attracted by the heavy reward of the Celebrity, talents gathered, and gradually mechanical and material resources, agriculture, animal husbandry and medicine, have dabbled, Lone Lian has paid for several research institutes.

In order to facilitate research, Jiangning Town also built a garden, with rare beasts, exotic flowers and plants collected overseas from the north, south, east and west, and a greenhouse was built with mica crystal for study. Going there for a meeting is also convenient to see if any of the generals are adapted to the hot environment of the South Seas and are not afraid of the insects and flowers of the South Seas. ”

Zhu Shuren wasted a lot of effort before he explained to his wife what he had done with the resources he had spent on the pile of new research institutes in Jiangning Town in the past few months.

But if there are future generations of officials, they will definitely be able to understand in seconds: isn't it just for the sake of scientific research and the opening of naturalism, so it is necessary to build the first systematic zoo and botanical garden on the earth?

The benefits of species calling in the Age of Discovery, people of insight in the Ming Dynasty have long understood, after all, Zhu Shuren has been promoting corn and potatoes for five or six years, and tomato and pepper are also strongly introduced.

In terms of animal resources, the tilapia that is commonly bred in the southern water towns and is easy to grow with fewer spines and more flesh, as well as the white-feathered chickens bred by crossbreeding from India, and the big white pigs from foreign countries, are all the existence of countless living people.

After finishing the Institute of Magnetism in Jiangning Town in the summer, Zhu Shuren did not stop doing two things, and matched the naturalism and breeding bases needed for agriculture, animal husbandry and medicine, and smashed hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and finally set up a preliminary team.

It's just that many people don't understand his collection of exotic flowers and plants in the South Sea, East and West Regions, especially many beasts have to consume considerable meat every day. In such a year of famine, meat is extremely precious.

So there was once a book in the imperial history admonishing him, saying that in the autumn of the national disaster, he should be thrifty and not engage in absurd and extravagant acts similar to Emperor Zhengde's "leopard room".

These rotten Confucians, how do you know that these are all samples raised in small quantities for scientific research and cultivation of good seeds, and not for fun.

In the end, there was still a division to clarify: This matter did not cost the treasury a penny, it was the Shen family who donated private property out of their own pockets, and it was only open to scientific researchers, so those imperial histories had to shut up.

After all, how do people spend their own money, and how do you pay for the history of birds?

Historically, it was not until 1826 and 1828 that the West was established in England by Stanford. Before his death, Raffles City donated his private collection to establish the "London Naturalist Society" and the "London Zoo". Since then, Darwin's scientific research has also benefited from Stanford. Raffles' donation.

In China, two years before the death of Cixi in the late Qing Dynasty, the "Agricultural Experimental Field" was established in 1906 and the "Ten Thousand Animal Garden" in 1907, which was the earliest animal and plant breeding scientific research institution and botanical and botanical garden in China. It is exactly eighty years later than in the West.

Of course, hundreds of years before that, as a private garden of rare birds and animals, flowers and plants raised by nobles, must have existed since ancient times, but it was not used for scientific research purposes, nor was it open to the public, it was purely for private pleasure, like a leopard's room.

Zhu Shuren ran various research institutes in Jiangning this time, and he picked up grass and beat rabbits, which can be regarded as allowing the East to refresh this record by 260 years, surpassing the West by 180 years-

If this development is not affected by the butterfly effect. In fact, it is more likely that in another seventy or eighty years, the great European powers of Britain, France and the Netherlands will imitate this "civilized kindness" back to Europe.

……

Zhu Yuchan heard that her husband had to go outside the city to convene a meeting of the generals because there were rare birds, animals, flowers and plants to see, and she had been depressed for a few months, so of course she was eager to try, so she asked to take her with her.

When Zhu Shuren heard this, he subconsciously felt that his wife was messing around: "How can this work?" Mrs. is pregnant for six months, and she should recuperate. ”

Zhu Yuchan was angry: "Still recuperate!" I've gained almost twenty pounds in the past six months! Before, the heat was hot, and I couldn't bear to go out, but now it's finally cool in late autumn, of course, I have to take the opportunity to walk more, and soon the winter is cold, and I can't go out again.

Besides, the doctor has long said that the first three or four months of pregnancy should be rested and the fetus must be raised, and after eight months, it must be raised, and it is good to walk around slowly in the middle of six or seven months! ”

Zhu Shuren was speechless, and said in his heart, can it be counted like this? weighs more than ten pounds, at least half of it is the weight of the amniotic fluid placenta in the stomach, in fact, he is at most seven or eight pounds fat, and he doesn't dislike his wife.

But when you think about it, after six months, you can take a breath and go out to change your mood, maybe it will be conducive to growth. So he made an appointment with his wife in three chapters:

"It's okay to go out with you, but the wheels have to be wrapped around with the gum sap that the Hongyi people get, and it's more than 70 miles to Jiangning Town, so you can't bump it."

Also, when you arrive at a place where there are strange flowers and plants in the South Sea, you are not allowed to look closely, only through the crystal mica window, and you are not allowed to get close to rare birds and beasts, and you can just take a telescope to see it when the time comes. ”

Zhu Shuren is worried that untouched species will cause allergies or spread bacteria.

For these two requests, Zhu Yuchan readily agreed, as for Zhu Shuren said that she would use rubber juice to transform the wheels, she directly ignored it, saying that it would not be enough to sit in a large sedan chair carried by sixteen people.

Zhu Shuren had no choice but to endure his wife's "arrogance and lasciviousness", after all, no matter how good the shock absorption of the early rubber-wrapped wheels was, it was not as good as the shock absorption of human legs.

The sedan chair is carried by more people, the better the shock absorption effect, and the footsteps of any single sedan chair driver will not cause the sedan chair to rise and fall. This kind of thing may exist for a few more decades before it can be slowly phased out.

After the couple agreed, Zhu Shuren also gave orders to the subordinates to be gathered, and two days later, the Zhu family went out of the city and went straight to Jiangning Town.

Zhu Shuren himself rode a horse in light armor, and he looked very close to the people, only the pregnant princess sat in a sedan chair of sixteen people. Considering that there is no child today, this is the only one girl, and naturally no one will say anything.

The sedan chair drivers were afraid that the bumps would reach the princess, and there were two groups of people who took turns to carry them, only carrying forty miles a day, so they stayed and rested, and went to Jiangning Town for two days.

……

On September 24, a sunny autumn day, Zhu Shuren and his entourage arrived in Jiangning Town.

Several of the generals he had gathered, as well as one or two governors, had already arrived early, ready to attend this meeting involving this winter, as well as the next year or two, and the internal purge plan of the Ming Dynasty.

Present at the meeting were Zhang Huangyan, who came from the front line of Nanyang and Xinyang. He can be regarded as the governor and important minister of the Ming Dynasty who is best at guarding and controlling a provincial-level battlefield except for Zhu Shuren.

The reason why Zhang Huangyan was brought in was not because he was overwhelmed to preside over the future southwest land reform and return, but because he led Li Dingguo and other former Western thief generals to actually fight with rich experience, and he was able to suppress the field, and he also had a better understanding of Li Dingguo's grandson and Liu Wenxiu's recent performance, and could help Zhu Shuren know people well.

On the one hand, after taking over, he needed to report on his work and listen to new tasks, and secondly, because Fang Yizhi was one of the few talents in the arts and sciences with a good theoretical foundation in science and engineering in this era, and a series of factories and mines and research institutes in Ma'anshan and Jiangning Town have also accumulated some problems.

Fang Yizhi personally came over to supervise it, which also facilitated the follow-up work. By the way, Fang Yizhi, who originally had another time and space, would not write until after the death of the Ming Dynasty, and now he also took the time to write it in advance.

This series of research institutes run by Zhu Shuren is also quite helpful for the other party to write books and make speeches.

Wuchang is still convenient from Nanjing waterway, and in the future, you can also go to Beijing every year to report on work and live for a while, and the daily work of the governor of Huguang can also be set aside for one or two months every year to let the staff subordinate officials help him, and he can't miss a big event.

In addition to the governors, the participating generals were mainly Zhang Mingzhen, Zheng Chenggong, Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang, Jin Shenghuan, Zhu Wenzhen, Jiang Shoude and others.

Everyone gathered, and the generals first paid full salutes to Zhu Shuren, and then met Her Royal Highness the princess.

Then Zhu Yuchan took the palace maids to visit the botanical and botanical garden first. Zhu Shuren and the generals also found a newly built conference hall in the newly built botanical garden and started a meeting.

This is also a waste of resources, the botanical garden has always been a beautiful place, it is very suitable for the garden to set aside a place to build a sanatorium or a "conference hotel", Zhu Shuren is just the advanced experience of later generations at hand.

In a courtyard surrounded by several glass, crystal, and mica skylights, a group of people spread out a conference table, set up fragrant tea and fruit spots, and discussed national plans.

In the skylight greenhouse next to it, there are coconut trees from the South Seas, oil palms from palm oil, valley palms from sago, and camphor trees from Oyuan Island.

There are also a very small number of South American cinchona trees (whose bark is quinine) and rubber trees that Zheng Chenggong has just obtained from Hongyi merchants and Spanish merchants in the last year or two.

These trees, among the people present, except for Zhu Shuren and Zheng Chenggong, everyone else has seen them for the first time.

Seeing that these trees are so tall, some of them are three or five feet high, but they still have to be planted in a greenhouse with a large number of skylights, and they are insulated and protected by expensive glass or mica sheets.

They didn't know that every kind of tree selected and bred by the Zhu Shuren either had important industrial raw material value, or could provide a richer source of oil and food for the people of the Central Plains in the future.

Or it can be used to produce precious medicines and dressings that fight tropical diseases and facilitate the Chinese people's conquest of the South Seas. For the sake of better breed cultivation, the money thrown is definitely worth it.

……

After the meeting began, Zhu Shuren took the lead in setting a tone for his subordinates:

"Lone predicts that in the next year or two, the self-conspiracy within the Tartars will not stop. With Dolgon's current internal contradictions, it would take at least two years to regain enough confidence for him to invade the south again.

So, during this time, I can get enough respite. Even if the war resumes in the future, we will be able to carry the first shot of Dolgon's attack, and when the time comes, after the imperial army has withstood another round of attacks by the dog Tartars, and the Tartars have been consumed again to the point of being damaged and greatly damaged, we will have a good opportunity for a complete and all-out northern expedition.

Because as long as it drags on for time, the first thing to hold back in the end must be the Tartar. We sit in the south, and now the fiscal surplus is more than enough every year, but the Qinggou is constantly losing blood every year, and the longer it drags on, the weaker their national strength becomes. Dolgon is not fighting now because his two white flags have not yet been rebuilt into combat effectiveness, and the Green Battalion is not yet able to fight. When he feels that he can fight, he will definitely not be able to hold back. ”

Before mentioning how to use the winter offensive in the past two years, Zhu Shuren first analyzed the situation clearly. He can first look far away, look at the general direction, and then focus on the small movements in front of him.

He predicted that the future war against the Qing State would definitely start with the Ming blocking another round of Qing army's active attack and then pushing back.

This kind of model is also what Zhu Shuren is willing to see, because it is definitely easier to fight a defensive battle than an offensive battle, and it can consume the enemy's vital strength more.

The next time Dolgon is forced to take a desperate risk, thinking that he may be able to do it again, it is a good opportunity to give him another blow to the head, and then take advantage of the situation to fight back and annihilate!

Some of the participating governors actually understood this truth, and more ordinary generals did not have such political wisdom, but after such an inventory, everyone also unified their thoughts in their hearts.

Zhu Shuren did a good job of paving the way and began to cut to the chase: "However, since ancient times, we have stubbornly insisted on counterattacking and accumulating money and food and national strength, and we cannot neglect our armaments. Otherwise, the former Song Dynasty set up a seal money from Taizu and wanted to be a reward for recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun, but what would the result?

Over the past few hundred years, more and more money and food have been saved, but the army and civilians have lost their will to fight! Lost the blood and motivation of Yanyun of the Northern Expedition! Even later I didn't even bother to think about recovering Bianzhou!

Therefore, I must also learn a lesson from the Ming Dynasty, since ancient times, warlike will perish, and forgetting war will be dangerous. In the past two years, when I had a truce between the Ming Dynasty and the Tartars, the soldiers could not forget the battle, and they had to let the newly reorganized old army take turns to get the baptism of actual combat.

The general idea is that you can't spend too much money and food, and the annual expenditure on military operations can't exceed the order of millions of taels - when the first emperor was here, the total amount of three salaries was about 20 million taels, and now half of the country has been lost, and the three salaries have been abolished and re-levied in the past, and the southern commercial tax is only more than 10 million taels a year.

We must also save enough money and food for the relief of the people in the north and prevent the recurrence of thieves after the restoration of the ruined north in the future, and strive to save millions of taels of silver and millions of stone grain every year, so the annual military operation expenditure should be controlled within 5 million taels, preferably within 3 million taels.

The number of soldiers and horses used should correspondingly be controlled within the total number of 50,000 people and the length of time spent each year within half a year, so that the expenditure can be controlled. ”

The generals first looked at each other and calculated that if the total number of troops dispatched including logistics troops was suppressed within 50,000, then the number of front-line soldiers would be at most 20,000 or 30,000 -- in fact, there would be an error of less than double depending on the form of war.

For example, if the Yungui is changed to return to the stream, because of the rugged terrain and the difficulty in raising military food, there will be fewer soldiers and more logistics troops.

And if you deal with the big guys, because there is shipping, the cost is cheap, and the proportion of soldiers can be higher, and the logistics will be transported with the help of Zheng Chenggong's family.

In addition to Zhu Shuren, Zhang Huangyan has the highest status, so he should help everyone ask questions:

"With this military expenditure and the scale of troops, it is impossible to use troops on two fronts at the same time. Could it be that he plans to plan it slowly and act in a few years? For example, this winter, first fight the big people controlled by the Hongyi people, and next winter, go to Yungui to change the land and return to the stream?

But with only a few months of combat opportunities in each place, will it be shorter? The Hongyi people ran away, maybe they won't come back, and changing the land and returning to the river is the work of delaying the sun and the moon, after all, the rebels are all strong among the local people, and the time is not short. ”

Zhu Shuren smiled and nodded with satisfaction, and pointed to his cousin: "In a word!" It's really not so fast, and if you fight the Hongyi people, you may be able to fight a quick battle within half a year, and change the land and return to the stream, which must be a protracted war.

Therefore, Gu plans to focus on changing the land and returning to the river this winter, let the imperial court send more officials to Yungui, protect the officials with the army, and kill them by force if they dare to resist.

The first wave of resistance was the most fierce and the most unsparing, and it must be thundered and deterred. As the weather became hotter in the spring, it was necessary to reduce the number of garrisons and expenses in order to avoid the recurrence of diseases in the southern garrison, and then to use only a few thousand or at most 10,000 men to eliminate the revolt that recurred from time to time.

Next year's military expenditure in Yunnan-Guizhou will definitely be much smaller than this year's, and the vast majority of the year's operational budget will be allocated for the recovery of large numbers in one go. To deal with the Hongmaoyi people who are big people, they must be expelled purely by force, and they can plow the court and sweep the holes, and completely wipe them out, without worrying about long-term repeated problems. ”

When Zhang Huang heard this, he touched his beard and thought about it: "The estimation of the problem of the big man should be no problem, not an underestimation of the difficulty." The estimation of the first wave of resistance against Yungui's transformation of the land and return to the river is not a light enemy, and at the beginning, the army will definitely be able to suppress it with the officials.

However, is the follow-up relapse and rebellion against the subsequent repetition of land reform and reversion, is it a little less enemy? Only a few thousand elite garrisons were left to maintain suppression in the local area, and I was afraid that the gourd would be lifted by pressing the scoop. ”

He speaks more directly, and he is completely right about things and people, mainly because he is too familiar with Zhu Shuren, and he has played with his cousins since he was a child, so he is not too constrained in the etiquette of the prince. He is also familiar with Zhu Shuren's temper and knows that Zhu Shuren likes to listen to him efficiently and directly.

Zhu Shuren really wasn't angry, but still showed a satisfied smile: "Cousin, you are so cautious, but you think of it with Gu, indeed, if you expect to rely purely on force to suppress the confrontation of the Yungui Turen against the change of land and return to the stream, this point of strength is a little less." But what if after the first wave of thunder was subdued, we immediately changed to grace and power, and Huai and Rou at the same time? ”

Zhang Huang was puzzled and thought for a while: "What do you mean?" ”

Zhu Shuren beckoned, and then took the lead in getting up, Zhang Huangyan and the generals hurriedly followed, and everyone walked around the sunroom of the botanical garden in this circle of mica skylights.

The environment of the meeting is indeed very beautiful.

But Zhu Shuren was obviously not interested in watching the scenery, he purposefully walked to a few bushes of South American crops that Zheng Chenggong got back, played with the wide green leaves, and nodded Zhang Huangyan:

"Do you recognize this? This is the Lone of the Baba Gu, the fresh leaves are like this, Wanli more than 30 years, the first snuff bottle introduced into the Central Plains by the Hongmaoyi people, is made of this kind of leaves after drying and roasting into mud.

After sending the Liuguan to Yungui and killing the first wave of rebels, the wind was released, and the Tusi tribes cooperated with the imperial court and recognized the liuguan, and the imperial court distributed seeds to them, allowing them to grow tobacco, which was purchased by the imperial court at a pre-agreed high official price, and then processed, and monopolized by the imperial court, which was also considered to benefit the people. ”

Of course, Zhu Shuren will never touch anything that harms the country and the people, but the special purchase, sale, and state control of tobacco have been serious and legal business in all dynasties.

In the Ming Dynasty, about 30 years ago, there were imported Spanish snuff bottles from the high-rise, and in the year of the Apocalypse, the direct Xiangba solitary leaf roll, that is, something similar to cigars, was also available in China.

Now that the Ming Dynasty lacks military spending to recover the Central Plains, it will not take care of the harm to health for the time being, but fortunately, this thing is very expensive in ancient times, and the poor can't afford to smoke.

Moreover, the local climate and geographical conditions are suitable for large-scale tobacco cultivation, and this kind of thing is light and has a high value density, and it is transported from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, which is difficult to travel in the rugged area, and the freight is much cheaper than planting other things.

This thing has also contributed to Yungui's integration into the ruling order of the Central Plains, and it can be relied on for a short time in special periods and special circumstances.

When the Ming Dynasty raised enough military funds to complete the recovery of the Central Plains and rebuild China, Zhu Shuren would definitely vigorously publicize the harmful effects of smoking on health.