The twelfth year of Chongzhen, June.

Henan, Nanyang Province, Nanyang County.

Tang Wangfu.

In the past two or three months, the Tang Wangfu can be described as extremely lively, and some news that has aroused heated discussions among the local people will come out every day, and it has become the focus of countless people's attention in Nanyang Mansion.

Hiring.

Tang Wangfu, despite the ban of the imperial court, has recently been recruiting troops and horses, emptying the money and grain in the treasury, recruiting thousands of young people, and planning to do a big job.

Just a few days ago, Zhu Yujian, the 37-year-old king of the Tang Dynasty, ignored the persuasion and obstruction of local officials, took more than 200 young people, insisted on leaving the fiefdom, and regardless of the consequences of being severely punished by the imperial court, he personally went to Xujiazhuang Harbor City, and purchased a large number of weapons and armor in the arms market.

There are 300 sets of half-body plate armor.

There were 150 steel crossbows, and 20,000 crossbows were lost.

There are 500 handles of alloy knives.

1000 multi-functional short knives.

100 thunderbolts and some ammunition.

and 500 Golden Dragon bicycles and 100 portable unicycles.

Canned food, compressed biscuits, jerky and other foods.

A total of 250,000 silver dollars were spent, of which 100,000 were still mortgaged by the Tang Wangfu Mansion and borrowed from the Tianxiatong Bank.

Lose your marbles.

Many people think that Tang Wang Zhu Yujian is crazy.

Obviously, there are good days of great wealth and nobility, but if you can't think about it, you have to do so many rebellious things, which has provoked the impeachment of the magistrate many times, maybe the punishment order of the court is on the way, and blatantly disobey Zhu Yujian, the Tang King of the court, don't think about any good fruits to eat.

Even Tang King Zhu Yujian's wife, Zeng, and several children tried hard to persuade him, hoping that he would not think about it and do stupid things that were not cost-effective.

"Husband, we have 30,000 acres of fiefdom in Tang Wangfu, in recent years, we have relied on planting cotton and underwriting it to Xujiazhuang, and we can earn more than 200,000 silver dollars a year, not only can maintain the dignity of Tang Wangfu, but also have 350,000 silver dollars left every year, which is much better than in previous years, why can't I think about it suddenly, recruiting troops and horses without scruples, and making a fuss, this is a taboo that the court cannot tolerate, stop it, if we anger the court and His Majesty the Emperor, we will be in a big disaster."

"Husband, King Tang, I beg you, you don't think about me, you have to think about our children, in case the court takes us down for the crime of attempting rebellion, the family may have to fall to the ground, you are despising the court, you want to find death, His Majesty the Emperor is no matter how lenient he is, it is impossible to tolerate it."

"King Tang, don't make any more trouble, okay? You can sit on the throne of the Tang Dynasty, I don't know how much torture and suffering you have experienced, you were imprisoned by your grandfather for 16 years, and your biological father was also poisoned, if it weren't for Chen Qiyu and Chen Zhizhou's help, you wouldn't have survived until now, let alone inherit the throne of the Tang Dynasty, this is also the court, it is the grace of Your Majesty to you, but what are you thinking about now, can't you think about it, don't you want to live a good life? ”

Zeng kept crying and pulled Zhu Yujian to persuade.

The children also wept as if a great calamity was coming.

"You know that crying and crying, the big husband acts, he has my own considerations, you don't understand anything, you only know crying and crying, the big thing I want to do is related to the great wealth of the Tang Mansion in the next few hundred years, how can it be a small thing that can be explained clearly in a few words?"

Zhu Yujian felt very irritable, waved his hand again and again, and scolded his wife Zeng and others for being short-sighted and unable to understand his intentions.

"So what do you think you want to do? Can't you talk to us about it, so that we can rest assured, instead of worrying about it all day? Even if the big thing you're going to do will make our family lose their heads, you have to make us a ghost, right? Zeng asked.

"Oh, you woman, don't help big things!"

Zhu Yujian had a cold face and didn't want to talk to her more, but in the face of Zeng's reluctance, he could only spend some time and say his plan.

Pioneer team.

He plans to form a Western Regions Pioneer Team.

The number of people is about 1,000, and they are young and strong, and if they want to carry out short-term military training, they must have a certain combat effectiveness.

When the development team is completed, he Zhu Yujian will personally take this development team to set off in advance along the 'Western Regions Railway' that is under construction and is expected to be built within two years from Luoyang to Xi'an, and then to the Western Regions, to find a way to lay a solid foothold, and then occupy a large range of land, establish a second Tang Wangfu in the Western Regions, and even establish a small independent kingdom, and at the same time obtain a lot of resources and wealth.

Because the "Oriental Times" has long reported that the land of the Western Regions, the area is huge, wider than the land of the Ming Dynasty, the population is sparse, the climate is arid, but the mineral resources are abundant, as long as the heavy-haul railway is opened in the future, it is a super treasure land, with infinitely bright development prospects.

Zhu Yujian set a small goal for himself, he must make a name for himself in the Western Regions, occupy more than 10 million acres of high-value land, have 100,000 people, 10,000 elite troops, and earn more than one million silver dollars a year, live a life of wealth and power, and lay a great foundation for future generations.

and listened to Zhu Yujian's plan.

Zeng first breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately, fortunately it was not a rebellion, with the current strength of the imperial court, although it is far inferior to Xujiazhuang, but due to the obvious improvement of the financial situation, the control of the imperial court over the local area has been significantly improved in recent years, and the number of new imperial troops that imitate the training method of the Xu family army has also increased to as much as 300,000, and it is fully fed and paid, equipped with a large number of advanced equipment purchased from Xujiazhuang, and the strength is not the same, such as several small rebellions in Yungui and other places, the new army of the imperial court is with thunderous efficiency, Quickly eliminate the rebels, their own losses are very small, if the Tang Wangfu dares to raise the flag to rebel, I am afraid that it will be wiped out in minutes.

Fortunately, Zhu Yujian didn't have a mess in his head, he couldn't think of rebelling, he really dared to have such a plan, not to mention that the magistrate would take action, even his wife Zeng's family might kill his relatives in righteousness and take the initiative to find a way to stop it, otherwise the whole family's head would fall to the ground.

It's just that Zhu Yujian, the king of Tang, wants to establish an armed development team, and then go to the Western Regions to toss, Zeng is actually not very optimistic, thinking that there are at least three difficulties in front of him:

First, the land of the Western Regions is too far away, drought and little rain, not to mention making money and making a fortune, it is not easy to survive by taking root, the previous Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty have won the Western Regions, rooted for hundreds of years, but have not been able to achieve long-term rule, or had to retreat, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, has not moved the mind of taking the Western Regions, because this is purely a face project, once the national strength is weakened, it is impossible to keep the Western Regions, the cost of ruling is too high, and it is very difficult to make a profit.

Of course, after the construction of the heavy-haul railway in Xujiazhuang, the cost of entering the Western Regions has become lower, and the resources of the Western Regions can be developed, which is indeed a good thing, but no matter how good the land of the Western Regions is, is it comparable to the 30,000 acres of fiefdom of the Tang Dynasty Mansion in Nanyang County? You must know that the textile industry of Daming is booming, cotton is profitable, Tang Wangfu has just come into contact, these two years of lack of experience, cotton production is not high, reluctant to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but if you start to increase investment, fertilizers, pesticides are all used, and then ask the agricultural experts of Xujiazhuang, good help and guidance, an acre of cotton land, to achieve a net profit of ten silver dollars, it is entirely possible, 30,000 acres is 300,000 silver dollars.

This is no worse than going to the Western Regions to develop.

Secondly, it is the behavior of Tang King Zhu Yujian's recruitment, will the court investigate it, and can it tolerate it? If the imperial court can't tolerate it, the emperor will issue an edict to condemn the crime, but he is afraid that the fief of the Tang King may be deprived away, and the whole family will be imprisoned, as the first bird to be beaten, so the so-called '(armed) pioneer team' brings too much risk, and the gains outweigh the losses.

Finally, the land of the Western Regions, with a huge area and rich resources, can indeed bring a lot of wealth in the future, but don't forget that the Western Regions is not a terra nullius, what local kingdoms, tribes and the like, are also very numerous, and the people are fierce, the combat effectiveness is not weak, and the Tang King Zhu Yu has more than 1,000 young and strong, and he wants to open up the situation, gain a firm foothold, and have his own piece of the world, difficult, very difficult, and the Zeng family is not very optimistic.

What's more, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the Qin army in Shaanxi, has trained a full 50,000 elite Qin troops in recent years, equipped with more plate armor and firearms, and is more powerful, planning to swallow the entire territory of the Western Regions, and the pioneer team led by Zhu Yujian cannot be compared with Hong Chengchou's Qin army at all, so they can only follow behind the Qin army, pick up some leftovers, drink some broth, the fattest and best territory, it is impossible to fall into Zhu Yujian's hands, that is, there is no strong capital to compete with Hong Chengchou.

Combine the above factors.

Zeng believes that Zhu Yujian still gave up the plan of establishing a pioneering team and personally taking people to the Western Regions, it is better to save resources and avoid waste, and then wait until he has a little spare money at hand, and then invest in that Hong Chengchou, after all, more than three years ago, Hong Chengchou absorbed more than 50 million money and grain from dozens of vassal kings, of which Tang Wangfu provided more than 100,000, that is to say, the Qin army in Shaanxi, Tang Wangfu also has a certain share, and in the future, sitting at home, you can get dividends, why go to the Western Regions in person to toss and suffer, Isn't it nice to be an investor who sits back and enjoys it?

Listened to these analyses and exhortations of Tsang.

Zhu Yujian admits that what Zeng said does have some truth, out of concern for the imperial court, among the many vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty today, there is only one who dares to blatantly recruit troops and buy horses, and the rest are all choosing the investment model, sponsoring Hong Chengchou A large amount of money and grain, in order to obtain dividends, at most, send a few housekeepers and concubines, enter the Qin army system, play a role of supervision, and avoid being picked by Hong Chengchou, all the peaches.

But Zhu Yujian was not at ease, and he did not trust Hong Chengchou, the governor of the Qin army.

Although this man is extremely shrewd, skillful, and courageous, he still has the means to unite all the vassal kings and willingly provide him with money and food resources.

But......

Hong Chengchou is by no means a good match, and he is notoriously unscrupulous, ruthless, and his character is questionable.

In case the land of the Western Regions is really defeated by the Qin army, all the resources of the Western Regions are under the control and management of Hong Chengchou, bringing tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of profits every year, and can also rule over millions of people in the Western Regions, without the control of the imperial court, becoming an existence like an emperor of the soil.

Will Hong Chengchou's mentality gradually change at that time? Will ambitions swell? The promise of dividends to dozens of vassal kings, can it be fulfilled, or simply tear his face, break the promise, or give a little dividend casually, and the big head is firmly in his own hands.

And the feudal kings' restraint on Hong Chengchou is very limited, once something really goes wrong, they can't do anything with Hong Chengchou, at most they curse a few more words behind their backs, even if they make trouble in the court and are known to the emperor, they may not be able to get support, because in the eyes of the court and the emperor, the local vassal kings are better to become pigs, and they must not have any ideas and pursuits, let alone ambitions, they will only be suspicious and suppressed.

Therefore, once Hong Chengchou betrayed the vassal kings, the vassal kings had no good way, most likely to break their teeth and swallow it in their stomachs, or find a way to continue to curry favor with Hong Chengchou and be subject to this person forever.

No, it doesn't.

Zhu Yujian thinks this is absolutely not possible.

In the land of the Western Regions, not only must there be the investment of the vassal kings, but also the military force belonging to the vassal kings, even if it is relatively weak and impossible to compete with the Qin army, but with this force, it can defend the interests of the vassal kings, and it can have a restrictive effect on the Qin army, so that Hong Chengchou does not dare to act too recklessly, but has to be careful.

Therefore, he thought that the armed pioneer team he formed would definitely have the support of all the vassal kings, because they needed such a force to represent their interests.

As for the imperial court and the emperor's side, Zhu Yujian also has a way to deal with it, that is, he took the initiative to give up 30,000 acres of fertile fiefdom and hand it over to the local government or the royal family, just to get a chance to allow him to go to the Western Regions to open up, that is, for this opportunity, he is willing to give up everything he originally owned, even if he has nothing after failure.

Zhu Yujian believes that for the sake of this firm determination, the imperial court will definitely agree to his request and give him a chance to go to the Western Regions to develop, after all, once he gives up his fiefdom, the benefit will be the imperial court or the emperor, 30,000 acres of fertile land, worth at least one million silver dollars, if the imperial court has any reason to oppose it, it is the emperor, for the sake of him being so ruined, he will no longer care about his recruitment behavior.

It's just that as soon as she heard this, his wife Zeng immediately became anxious, and her eyes fell: "King Tang, how can you be like this, this is the inheritance of more than 200 years passed down by your ancestors, how can you say that you will abandon it?" In case you fail to explore the Western Regions, what will you do, what will I do with my children? Will they all become commoners and go to work to support themselves? ”

"If I lose and lose nothing, I will go and find a job, that is, to sell coolies, and I will find a way to support you."

Zhu Yujian said to her: "I have no way back, and the court will not tolerate me having a way back, this is inevitable, I have already written the twists, maybe I have sent them to the emperor, it is impossible to regret it, you and the child, except to support my success, there is no other choice." ”

"You-"

Zeng Shi saw him so resolute, tears fell even more, so angry that he wanted to take the child back to his parents' house, but there was no turning back when he opened the bow, after all, the world is dominated by men, and she was angry and sad, and she could only do nothing.