"Crackling—"

With the sound of firecrackers, the pungent smell appeared in the streets and alleys of the capital, and the drumming and bells of the Bell and Drum Tower were also officially announced, the first year of the Apocalypse officially passed, and the second year of the Apocalypse officially arrived.

In the past year, the Ming Dynasty has experienced the Great Fire of Hangzhou in March, and also experienced the Battle of Liaoshen of Ming and Jin from March to June.

I thought that the first half of the year was turbulent enough, but in the second half of the year, the Yellow River burst its banks, the rebellion in the southwest and other events made people feel that last year was a very chaotic year.

The new year is coming, and everyone expects this year to be a peaceful year, but perhaps only Zhu Youzhen knows that the first year of the Apocalypse that has passed will be the best year in the next few years.

"Wave...... Syllable! ”

"Singing ......"

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live......"

Wenhua Palace, when the Han general waved the whip, the Honglu Temple Qing struck the bell and sang, and the hundreds of officials in court clothes made a bow and bowed.

In the hall, sitting on the dragon chair was Zhu Youxiao, who was dressed in a crown robe, sitting on the dragon chair, unable to lift his spirits, obviously not sleeping well.

Behind the twelve crowns, there were all Zhu Youxiao's tired eyes.

Under the stage, Zhu Youzhen, who wore the crown of the prince nine times, wore five chapters of green clothes, and four chapters of silk clothes, and painted dragons, mountains, Chinese insects, fire, Zong Yi, embroidered algae, pink rice, yellow, and yellow Zhu Youzhen was an old god.

Beside Zhu Youzhen, it is rare that Zhu Changhao, the king of Rui, Zhu Changrun, the king of Hui, and Zhu Changying, the king of Gui, all came to the court dressed the same as Zhu Youzhen.

It's just that judging from the position of the four people and the appearance of looking at Zhu Youzhen next to them from time to time, those who don't know still think that Zhu Youzhen is the emperor's uncle, and the other three are the emperor's nephews.

Their intention to come to the Great Dynasty Meeting, the nobles and officials all know the reason, to put it bluntly, they want to go to the domain.

In the past few days when Zhu Youzhen was in prison, they didn't go to see Zhu Youzhen, but Zhu Youzhen deliberately avoided them so that they couldn't find them.

He is not only hiding from these three imperial uncles, but also hiding from civil officials.

In this way, I hid for four days, and finally waited for Zhu Youxiao to return to the palace at dusk yesterday.

It is estimated that he was also afraid that Zhu Youzhen would talk to him, so Zhu Youxiao asked people to tell him that he had rested and blocked Zhu Youzhen.

But today, Zhu Youzhen knew as soon as he looked at his brother's appearance, and after finishing last night, he probably had fun again.

Okay, if you like to play, I'll be an ostrich today.

Thinking about it, Zhu Youzhen closed his eyes and continued to think about what he should eat at noon today.

This kind of thing is only three times a year when the emperor's birthday is counted, unless someone has a brain, who will talk about this kind of court meeting......

"Your Majesty, the minister Shi Feng Sanyuan has something to do."

"......" heard that someone was impeached, and in an instant, everyone's expressions were as if they had eaten.

It's a good court.,I'm idle and have nothing to do with impeachment......

"Quasi-......" Zhu Youxiao, who was sleepy, responded with a dark face, and Feng Sanyuan immediately stepped forward and said:

"The minister impeached Zhao Nanxing, the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, nepotism!"

"Ridiculous!"

"The world's ridiculous!"

"Does Feng Yushi have any evidence?"

As soon as Feng Sanyuan spoke, it was like stabbing a hornet's nest in an instant, attracting Donglin Wenchen's group to attack.

However, because the impeachment system of speech officials in the Ming Dynasty was a rumor, even if there was no evidence, it could be impeached arbitrarily, so the cost of framing was extremely low.

Rao is many Donglin Wenchen scolded and scolded, but they couldn't stop Feng Sanyuan's impeachment at all.

Moreover, when they questioned Feng Sanyuan, Yao Zongwen in the matter of the household branch also immediately went to the court:

"Your Majesty and the ministers impeached Zou Yuanbiao, the right capital of the Imperial Palace, Zhang Wenda, the left imperial history, and the left imperial history and Zuo Guangdou bent the law for personal gain, and the Cholera Imperial Court."

Good guys, Da Ming are all three of them are in the imperial history at the moment, and they were all impeached by Yao Zongwen, which makes people have to admire their courage.

"Your Majesty! Minister Zhu Guozuo, impeached Liu Yixiu, a scholar of Dongge University, for forming a party for personal gain, causing chaos to the dynasty! ”

"Your Majesty......"

Almost without any warning, there was a sudden tear between the civil officials, and this scene made Zhu Youzhen lift his spirits.

It's just a pity that he can't turn his head to look, otherwise he must look at this group of dog-eat-dog civil officials.

Not only him, but even Zhu Youxiao and the three good imperial uncles of their two brothers gossiped and listened attentively.

The Zhejiang Party took the lead, and the retinue of the four parties of Qi, Chu, Xuankun and Kun began to impeach the officials of the Donglin faction.

At the same time, the officials of Donglin were not to be outdone, refuted one after another, and framed the officials of the other five parties in vain.

Anyway, there is almost no cost to frame him, and in this case, it is better to fight back first, and then talk about whether it succeeds or not.

"Your Majesty! The minister impeached Zhu Xieyuan, the governor of the five provinces, and it was not good to suppress the thieves! ”

Thou shalt be thy maid too!

Hearing that someone was impeaching Zhu Xieyuan, Zhu Youzhen almost scolded.

Don't a group of mentally retarded people know who can be impeached and who cannot?

Addicted to wind and news? Zhu Xieyuan did a good job in the southwest, and he was killed, who will go to quell the rebellion?

"Silence!"

Zhu Youzhen held the wat board, turned around and roared, which instantly made many Wenchen stunned and looked at him.

"Today is the Great Dynasty, this is the day of the Pilgrimage, what kind of system are you waiting for here to make a lot of noise?"

After that, Zhu Youzhen looked at Honglu Siqing, who had not struck the bell, frowned and reprimanded:

"As the Honglu Temple, shouldn't you maintain the order of the court?"

Zhu Youzhen didn't wait for the other party to respond, and looked at his imperial brother again, and then held the wat board and said:

"Your Majesty, the ministers asked Shi Feng Sanyuan to govern the imperial history, and the Hu Ke Du gave Yao Zongwen in the matter, Jing Yangqiao, the head of the Ministry of Rites, and Zheng Zheng, the secretary of the Hanlin Academy, for the crime of disturbing the court."

Zhu Youzhen shouted out the names of the officials who were the first to provoke and scold just now, and signaled punishment to his imperial brother.

Of course, this punishment is not a real punishment, it is to let his own royal brother sing his white face and end the court meeting as soon as possible.

Zhu Youxiao also knew it, so he pretended to be a good person and said with a smile:

"Hehe, why is Brother Qi angry? Several ministers also messed up for the sake of the court. ”

As he spoke, Zhu Youxiao looked at the courtiers, and then said:

"The court has ended, since this is the case, let's disperse the court, and the matter of worshipping the imperial tomb of Tianshou Mountain will be handed over to the king of Qi."

"Your Majesty......"

Looking at the appearance of Zhu Youzhen and Zhu Youxiao singing and harmonizing, the faces of the ministers darkened.

Who hasn't played this red-faced and white-faced trick? The emperor and the king of Qi obviously just wanted to end the court meeting quickly.

They wanted to stop it, but they saw Zhu Youxiao get up directly, and under the escort of Wei Zhongxian and Wang Tiqian, he walked directly off the high platform and walked out of the Wenhua Hall from the side hall.

Seeing this, Zhu Changying and the others could only follow hard.

As for Zhu Youzhen, his expression was indifferent, and he turned around with a wat board and walked out of the Wenhua Hall from the middle of the courtiers.

Looking at the eyes of the courtiers looking at him, not to mention how comfortable it was.

During the four days of prison time, he was almost annoyed to death by this group of people, and now he can finally go back to the Yanshan camp.

As soon as he thought of this, Zhu Youzhen, who had just walked out of the Wenhua Palace, walked up with some brisk steps.

Those scattered officials, looking at Zhu Youzhen, who was "behaving dissolutely", except for sneering "rude" with a black face, there was nothing they could do about him.

It was Zhu Youzhen, and after returning to the East Palace, he immediately met Wang Tiqian, who came with Song Shu in his arms.

This scene made his face darken, and he said directly: "Brother Huang is back, why are you holding me here?" ”

"Forehead ......" Wang Tiqian said a little:

"Long live said, today is in physical condition, please Your Highness will be in charge of the country for another day."

"......" Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen almost didn't come up in one breath, and he was even thinking about how to escape from the capital.

"Your Highness, you can do me a favor, long live only slept for two hours last night......"

Wang Tiqian figured out Zhu Youzhen's soft-heartedness, so he immediately began to sell miserably for Zhu Youxiao.

"Okay......"

Sure enough, as soon as Zhu Youzhen heard this, he could only helplessly hold his forehead with his hand to express his helplessness, and then turned around and walked into the East Palace, walking towards the Qingong Palace.

On the way, he asked Wang Tiqian how his three good imperial uncles were.

Wang Tiqian responded that Zhu Youxiao rejected the three on the grounds that he was unwell and that there was no good fief suitable for canonization.

Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen was a little happy, after all, it was too troublesome for these vassal kings to stay in the country, not only wasting national strength, but also wasting manpower.

While he was thinking this, he also returned to the Qinqin Palace, and Wang Tiqian also asked the two celebrant eunuchs to put down the song, and then bowed and left.

Zhu Youzhen asked people to take off their heavy clothes, change into light regular clothes, and move their bodies.

But at this moment, Lu Wenzhao came with a military report.

"The latest news from Your Highness, Jianyu, and the Southwest has arrived." Lu Wenzhao hurriedly walked in, and after making a fuss, he took out two military reports.

Zhu Youzhen took the military report, then sat down in the main seat, and after signaling Lu Wenzhao to sit down, he opened his mouth to let people prepare breakfast, and then unhurriedly opened the letter.

The first letter is the latest information in the southwest, extravagant Chongming killed himself, after Fan Long died in the rebellion, Zhu Xieyuan asked people to extinguish the flames of Yongning Xuanfu Si Yamen, and prepared to go to Linzhou City to make peace with Hong Chengchou after resting.

The content of the letter was the situation on the 27th of the lunar month, and after that, it was rushed for 800 miles, and after three days and four nights, it was delivered to Zhu Youzhen.

In other words, according to the content of the letter, Zhu Xieyuan should join forces with Hong Chengchou at this moment, and he is attacking Fan Hu in Linzhou City.

After Fan Hu was defeated by Hong Chengchou, only more than 4,000 remnants of the army were left to retreat into the city, and with the artillery of the Ming army, it would not take long to capture the city of Linzhou.

But......

"It's just an appetizer......"

Zhu Youzhen put down the letter and sighed, and Lu Wenzhao also said:

"Your Highness and Yongning are about to be pacified, so that more than 30,000 troops including Zhu Xieyuan can enter Guizhou, shouldn't this be a harbinger of successful counterinsurgency?"

"Yu Chongming has been pacified, but look at our dead and wounded."

Zhu Youzhen picked up the letter and said to the dead and wounded at the end:

"Before the war, Yang Wenyue's department had 6,000 people, Wu Aheng had 4,000 people, Sun Chuanting had 8,000 people, Du Wenhuan had 12,000 people, Cao Wenzhao Duoganying 2,006, Hong Chengchou 6,000, Zhu Xieyuan 2,000, a total of 40,600, plus 14,000 auxiliaries."

"It has been less than three months since the start of the war, and there are only more than 3,900 people left in Yang Wenyue, 2,050 in Wu Aheng, 4,03 in Sun Chuanting, 1,400 in Cao Wenzhao, 4,01 in Hong Chengchou, 1,08 in Zhu Xieyuan, and only more than 9,000 auxiliary soldiers."

"Old Madam Qin's side is not good-looking, 20,000 white-pole soldiers have lost 2,78, and 6,000 auxiliary soldiers have lost more than half."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youzhen let out a breath and said:

"In three months, more than 34,000 people have been lost by the main and auxiliary troops, and nearly 40 percent of the 80,000 troops who were able to fight the rebels in the wilderness have been lost."

"On the other hand, An Bangyan, Song Wanhua and other Tusi have more than 30,000 Yi soldiers and more than 60,000 or 70,000 other native soldiers, with a total strength of more than 100,000."

"Although Hu Yingtai, the governor of Liangguang, and Mu Zengdu led troops to support, judging from the current situation, I am afraid that it will become a tug-of-war."

"The 110,000 troops inside and outside will cost more than 200,000 taels of money and food for every month they drag, and such a tug-of-war will make the situation of the treasury more difficult."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youzhen was a little hesitant to transfer the army to Guizhou.

To be honest, at present, in addition to Teng Xiang and Wu Xiangwei going to the southwest, the Sixteenth Guards also have eleven guards on land.

In addition to guarding against the northern captives, two or three, or even four or five guards can be transferred.

The rebellion of Lu'an is not so easy to quell, and it would be good if you could take advantage of this time to train your troops.

The only concern may be the pressure from Houjin and Liaozhen.

Liaozhen is uneven, and he has never been able to completely rest assured of the safety of Beizhili.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen suddenly felt a little upset, so he could only say to Lu Wenzhao:

"The affairs of the southwest, continue to pay attention, I estimate that when the news of the attack on Linzhou City spreads, An Bangyan and Song Wanhua will change their minds."

"If nothing else, they will let An Xiaoliang and A Minong return to defend Zhijin, and after Hu Yingtai leads the troops into Guangxi, the rebels who invaded Guangxi will also retreat to Guizhou and hold the area of Guinan."

"Why don't you invade Guangxi?" Lu Wenzhao was puzzled, but Zhu Youzhen sneered:

"The land of Guangxi and the junction with Yunnan are easy to say, but the central part is quite miasma, unbearably hot, and the climate is very different from Guizhou."

"In addition, Guangxi Tusi and An Bangyan and others are not right, once they encroach on the land of Guangxi Tusi, they will inevitably suffer a counterattack, so they will not enter Guangxi."

"Before, they thought that after invading Guangxi, it would cause a large-scale rebellion of Guangxi Tusi, but except for An Long and Shanglin, the other Tusi did not respond, so An Bangyan quickly dispelled this idea."

Zhu Youzhen made it clear that An Bangyan's goal was always Huguang, followed by Sichuan, and finally Yunnan.

Guangxi was not in the scope of his plan at all, because the ethnic groups in Guangxi did not deal with the Yi people.

Different from the migration places of ethnic groups believed in later generations, the Miao people were originally in the southeastern part of Huguang, the Yi people were also in the western part of Guizhou, and the Zhuang and Yao people in later generations were in Guangxi.

These ethnic groups are constantly changing their land and returning to the stream, gradually migrating, sinicization, and finally forming the situation known to later generations.

At present, the population of Guangxi is half of the Zhuang people, followed by the Yao people, and finally the Han people.

After several changes to the land, Guangxi was internally stable, and did not bother to associate with the Yi people they considered "vulgar".

Therefore, Guangxi is the place where Zhu Youzhen is least worried, and what he is worried about is that An Bangyan and others are hiding in the mountains of Guinan and fighting a tug-of-war with the imperial army.

It's not that he didn't think about tempting Guizhou Tusi to enter Huguang and Sichuan and settle each other in the plains.

But this trick has long been used by the Ming army in the southwest, unless the 110,000 Ming army is wiped out, otherwise they will not be able to go to the plains.

In history, Gao Chongming would go to the plains because the soldiers and horses of Sichuan were transferred to aid Liao, and under the internal emptiness, coupled with his sneak attack and defeat of Chongqing, he would be so swaggering.

Later, after discovering that the Ming army had mobilized troops and horses to encircle and suppress, he immediately abandoned his baggage and fled back to Chongqing and Yongning to fight mountain warfare.

It's a pity that even if it is a mountain battle, Yu Chongming is not the opponent of the Ming army.

If it weren't for the Ming court's allocation of silver taels to the southwest soldiers and horses in the early stage, the Lu'an Rebellion would not have dragged on for more than ten years.

What Zhu Youzhen has to do now is to give Zhu Xieyuan enough support.

In history, Zhu Xieyuan used the remaining soldiers and horses after he had already dispatched elite troops to aid Liao, and he was able to successfully quell the rebellion, so at present, this group of elite soldiers and strong generals will only be faster.

Thinking of this, he asked the celebrant eunuch left by Wang Tiqian:

"From the beginning of the matter in the southwest to the present, how much grain has the imperial court allocated to the southwest?"

When the eunuch heard this, he was stunned for a moment, as if he was recalling, and only after a moment did he respond:

"In October and November, no money and grain were allocated, and the government of Sichuan and Huguang has always raised funds."

"The only sum is still on the 28th day of the lunar month, Your Highness allocated 200,000 taels of silver, and 30 10-kilogram cannons, 200 5-kilogram cannons, and 6,000 infantry guns and 100,000 catties of gunpowder from the Yanshan Artillery Factory."

The eunuch's words directly illustrate Zhu Youzhen's generosity.

One pound of the Ming Dynasty is equal to 1.2-1.3 pounds of Europe, a five-pound cannon is a six-pound cannon, and a ten-pound cannon is a twelve-pound cannon.

In this era, on the East Asian battlefield, Zhu Youzhen was the one who could take out 300 six-pounder guns and 30 twelve-pounder cannons in one go.

The artillery production capacity of Yanshan Institute far exceeds that of major European countries.

At the same time, there were only about 20 six-pounder guns in British ordnance stockpiles, 50 7 to 12 pounder, and 100 to 12 to 48 pounders.

However, such a number of artillery, for the Ming Dynasty who is proficient in using the iron cannon casting method, as long as there are enough clay molds, enough silver, and enough craftsmen, thousands of cannons can be cast in a year.

This is simply inconceivable for Europeans, and the reason why the Ming Dynasty in history did not realize this potential is entirely because of the fixed thinking of the rulers.

If Chongzhen had been able to transfer all the cast Hongyi cannons to Hong Chengchou during the Battle of Songjin in history, Hong Chengchou would have already known Huangtai Kedah's wild boar skin.

In the second year of Chongzhen, Wang Zunde borrowed Portuguese artillery, like 200 Hongyi cannons, and a total of 175 were released into Beijing from the north.

By the time of the Battle of Songjin, there were more than 900 Hongyi cannons scattered in the north.

If all these artillery pieces were transported to Liaodong, what city would not be able to be defeated?

Even if it was transported to the ship, it was enough to defeat the Spanish governor of Luzon and take Luzon, and in the Battle of Songjin, Huang Taiji only had a pitiful sixty Hongyi cannons, but even more pitiful than him was Hong Chengchou, because of the deployment problem, the whole army only had twenty Hongyi cannons.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen paid special attention to the artillery factory, and last year he had already prepared more than 4,800 clay molds to dry in the Yanshan camp, and began casting cannons in November this year.

Although there are more than 4,800 clay molds, and less than 2,000 clay molds can be used to cast cannons, such a scale is also unprecedented.

Not only these four thousand eight hundred clay molds, but almost every month the artillery factories make more than a thousand clay molds, ranging from six pounds to thirty pounds.

As for the cost of the artillery, it was not as expensive as that Xu Guangqi and the Portuguese bought.

The Ming Dynasty is a cast iron cannon, the price is very low, the cost of a six-pounder cannon is only forty-five taels of silver, a twelve-pounder cannon is ninety-six taels of silver, a twenty-four-pounder cannon costs one hundred and eighty-five taels, and a thirty-pounder cannon costs more than two hundred and sixty taels.

If more than 2,000 clay molds were used to cast artillery, the total would be no more than 108,000 taels of silver.

The firepower represented by these more than 108,000 taels of silver is enough to recover Tieling, Kaiyuan, and Fushun!

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen took a deep breath and asked Lu Wenzhao:

"The clay molds made by the artillery factory every month allow Liu Fan to double the output, and after replenishing the artillery gap of the 16th Guards, he can stop by ensuring that 30,000 clay molds that can cast cannons at any time."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao responded, and Zhu Youzhen also picked up another military report.

The opening of the military newspaper made Zhu Youzhen see another piece of bad news.

[On the fifteenth day of the first month of the Apocalypse, Weng Guodai of the Horqin Department and the envoys sent by the old slave Shuo and Endegel formally formed an alliance with the white horse and black cow in Yin Ketang Kali Slope, and the two sides exchanged markets, and Jianyu led tens of thousands of cattle and sheep to return to Kaiyuan]

"Formed an alliance ahead of ......"

Looking at this letter, Zhu Youzhen was not surprised.

Nurhachi is not a fool and is not a dead man.

After knowing that Liaodong couldn't gnaw down, he was bound to seek the direction of a breakthrough.

Zhu Youzhen had already estimated that if Nurhachi did not attack North Korea, it could only mean that Li Hui of North Korea had private trade contacts with Houjin, so he would go to fight the Jurchens in Beishan and befriend the Horqin Department.

Now it seems that his estimate was not wrong, and the second and fifth boys of North Korea really had private trade contacts with Jianyu, so it is no wonder that Nurhachi did not have a conflict with North Korea during Li Hui's reign.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen hated a toothache, so he turned his head to look at Lu Wenzhao and said:

"Has Yang Ho set off?"

"Back to Your Highness, not yet, the departure schedule is set for the twenty-eighth day of the first month." Lu Wenzhao responded, and Zhu Youzhen also looked at the military newspaper in his hand and felt a little tricky.

He was thinking about whether to wait for the artillery of the artillery factory to be cast, and then lead people to stage a "plough court sweeping".

But he is a little uncertain, because at the moment the Ming Dynasty has not surrounded the northeast, if Nurhachi is deflated and even suffers heavy casualties, it cannot be ruled out that Houjin will run away from the grassland.

After all, if the population of Houjin drops sharply at the moment, with the size of their cattle and sheep, they can really be nomadic herders.

If you really run to the grassland, it will be difficult for Jin to encircle and suppress it, and every expedition will be a huge challenge to the Ming Dynasty's finances.

A soldier, a man, a mule and a horse.

With such a configuration, a combat radius of 150 miles can barely be maintained, and once on the grassland, this distance needs to be stretched ten times or even twenty times.

In other words, a regular soldier needs at least ten men and ten mules and horses to maintain the campaign.

Only by mobilizing 500,000 people, mules and horses can we maintain 50,000 people in the grassland to fight in the east and west, and pursue Houjin.

This man eats horses and chews, transports grain and grass, if it is really more than 2,000 miles, ten stones to the front line, at most only two stones.

In this way, an army of 50,000 will consume more than 300,000 stone grains and grass and more than 100,000 stone beans in a month.

If this is good to say in the peaceful years, the people have a good harvest, and no one will die of hunger, Zhu Youzhen can fight with Houjin for more than ten years without fear.

But the problem is, there's nothing going for him......

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen only felt that today was very uncomfortable, so he could only say with a headache:

"It is necessary to speed up the abolition of the Liaodong Guard, and then recover Tieling and other places, and cut off the old slave's arm......"