"Put!"

"Bang bang bang-"

The seventeenth month of the fifth year of the Apocalypse......

Accompanied by the familiar official words and the sound of artillery, along the coast of Dongshan Mansion in the east of the old port province of Nanyang, the Ming navy was shelling the natives who refused to submit to the king.

The Kunlun Nu, who was no more than four feet tall, fled in all directions, but when the Ming army began to land on the beach, they turned back and tried to block it.

It's just that when the stone spear that fought the sea beast in the past pierced the armor of the Ming army, not only did it not pierce, but also directly broke the vine used to fix the stone spear.

"Poof!"

The silver-white steel knife took away the lives one by one, and then a large number of natives began to surrender.

In less than half an hour, this princely state with thousands of natives was destroyed, and the surrendered princely state was tied up and locked up in a wooden earth city, and the Ming army began to clean up the battlefield.

The carcasses were all thrown into the sea to feed the fish, and then some of the craftsmen who accompanied the army began to disembark and plan a new city for the army.

"Governor! The place of Dongshan Mansion is not very good, the island is full of dense forests, there are many poisonous insects, and the cost of reclamation is too great, it seems that you can only get some strongholds in coastal places. ”

On the deck of the Kunlun ship, when a commander came with a complaint, he closed his mouth the moment he saw Huang Long's expression.

At this moment, Huang Long's face was very ugly, holding a letter in his hand, and he didn't know what the content could make this mighty Twelve Naval Governors of the South Seas lose his temper like this.

"Just build a stronghold, you can help ......"

Huang Long gave a military order with an ugly face, and the commander saw this and hurriedly retreated.

As he stepped back, Huang Long looked at the letter in his hand.

This is a handwritten letter written by Man Gui, and after two and a half months, it was finally delivered to him.

It's just that the content of this letter made Huang Long's mood fall to the bottom.

In the letter, Man Gui mentioned that the king of Qi wanted to go to Leviya, and this incident was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Huanglong.

He never thought of being self-reliant, nor did he think of tearing the flag and rebelling.

His idea was very simple, that is, to let King Qi stay in Daming, because besides King Qi, there would be no other person who attached so much importance to their group of martial artists.

Will the emperor pay attention? No!

Since Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, few emperors have attached importance to military generals, and the Qi family army with outstanding military achievements has also been killed at will, and it is even more normal for soldiers to be owed salaries.

More important is Wenchen's attitude towards military generals.

What the Ming Dynasty lacked was never a civil official who spoke for the people, but a lack of people who spoke for their military generals.

A group of civil officials in the court pretended to speak for the people, and then worked for their own benefit.

In contrast, in addition to being useful when war comes, military generals are just tools driven by civil servants at other times.

Now the appearance of King Qi makes people like Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan, Lu Wenzhao, as well as He Shixian and You Shigong, who have seen the case of the Ming Dynasty's failure to control military force with literature and the military general being pulled out to take the blame.

Therefore, what Man Gui wrote in his letter was not something to tear the flag and rebel.

There was only one thing he said, and that was to ask Huang Long not to send a fleet to Levia, and finally lied that he could not reach Levia with the current supplies from the Ming Dynasty.

However, after all, Man Gui was fighting on land and did not understand sea transportation.

Huang Long was sure that if he really dared to say that, then His Highness would definitely be suspicious of him.

It's very simple, why can Zheng He go? The Europeans can come, but the Ming fleet can't go?

This is a problem that needs to be solved, but this problem is not difficult for Huanglong.

All he had to do was send only one ship to Levia for the sake of insufficient supplies, and then have the sailors collude to present Levia as an unsuitable place to be cultivated.

Anyway, His Highness had never been to Leviia, and the people of Europa had an impression of Levia as wild and barbaric.

At that time, even if His Highness asked someone to ask, he would only get the same answer.

Thinking like this, Huang Long made a decision in his heart, and at this time, the commander who had retreated earlier also returned to the deck and said to Huang Long:

"Dudu, another tribe of Nanyang barbarians has been found in the east."

"Then continue to march ......" Huang Long returned to reality, hid the handbook in his hand, and then issued a military order to continue the encirclement and suppression.

Soon, the fleet headed for the sea area to the east, and at the same time, in the palace of the King of Qi, Zhu Youzhen was also irritable to deal with the military report.

While he was irritable, Lu Wenzhao also walked into the study and said to Zhu Youzhen, who was dealing with the military report:

"Your Highness, there are some new developments in the Armaments Research Institute, Bi Shilang invites you to go to ......"

"Got it." Hearing Lu Wenzhao's words, Zhu Youzhen got up, and at this time, a young girl standing behind him also began to dress him.

The big fur and the fox fur were put on one after another, and the girl said in a tone that was not unusual for ordinary maids:

"Ai'er, go get the hand warmer."

"Yes......" Hearing the girl's words, a seven-year-old girl hurriedly walked out, and the girl said to Zhu Youzhen with concern:

"Your Highness, it's cold outside, don't walk around in the snow again."

"Hehe, Yuan Ai, you are now starting to look like a female official in the Qi Palace." Zhu Youzhen chuckled, looking at the Jiangnan girl in front of him, whose eyes were full of autumn waves, and sighed a little in his heart.

I think that when Yang Lu sent this aunt and nephew to the Miaoqin Palace, these two were still very shy, but now they have grown up......

"Your Highness, Hand Warmer ......"

Yang Ai's voice sounded, Zhu Youzhen looked down, and then saw Yang Ai, who was high to his abdomen, handing out the hand warmer with both hands, looking at him with crystal clear eyes.

Zhu Youzhen is no longer entangled in whether Yang Ai is Liu Ruis or not, for him, the love between men and women can only be regarded as a condiment, and now he needs to focus his time and energy on how to solve the problem of Daming and drought.

"Thank you......"

Zhu Youzhen stretched out his hand and pinched Yang Ai's face, then took the hand warmer and walked out of the study in a big fur.

Yang Yuanai took Yang Ai to follow behind him, while Lu Wenzhao held an umbrella in front.

The snowflakes of Layue kept falling from the sky, and for Zhu Youzhen, who had been in the snow scene for the first half of the year, he couldn't help but think of the people of Shaanxi when he saw this heavy snow.

I don't know if the people will be able to eat and clothe themselves with just that little relief food......

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but be silent, and unconsciously walked out of the palace and boarded the four-wheeled carriage.

"Your Highness, remember not to play in the snow—"

Seeing that Zhu Youzhen was leaving, Yang Ai also commanded in hindsight.

It's just that Zhu Youzhen didn't seem to have the heart to respond to her, and Yang Ai didn't get a response from him until Zhu Youzhen left, so he couldn't help but show grievances on his face, and his mood was depressed.

"Let's go, Your Highness is busy with business, and you should also do morning class."

"Hmm!"

Yang Yuan's love sentence pulled Yang Ai out of her depressed mood again.

It's just that when she turned to leave, she couldn't help but look at the back of the carriage that was about to disappear.

The door of the Qi Palace's mansion was closed, and Zhu Youzhen also picked up the military newspaper on the table and began to read it.

Fortunately, this military report was mainly a report on the whereabouts of the Western fleet, and nothing major happened.

A month and a half has passed since the beginning of the winter month when the Western fleet and the envoys of the feudal clans went south from the port of Tianjin, and the fleet that went to the west has also arrived at the southern port of Ryukyu Prefecture for replenishment.

If nothing else, they will arrive in the Old Port Province and Palembang Province in February of the following year, and then wait for the fleet arranged by Huang Long to escort them and patrol along Tianzhu.

As for the kings, they each left their heirs and returned to their respective domains after studying at the Yanshan Military Academy.

During this period, Zhu Changxun, the king of fortune, made many small moves, but they were all told to Lu Wenzhao by Cui Wensheng, and Lu Wenzhao told Zhu Youzhen the news.

In general, Zhu Changxun's methods make Zhu Youzhen look down on him.

He wanted to hook up with the Wenchen Group again, and felt that the Wenchen Group hindered him from ascending to the throne back then, so his attitude towards the Wenchen Group was tepid.

In addition, he also hooked up with generals at all levels, but for Zhu Changxun's hookup, Zhu Youzhen told the generals at all levels to take the money and not do it.

Therefore, Zhu Changxun spent tens of thousands of taels of silver in vain, and finally could only return to Luoyang in disgrace.

However, before leaving, he threw Zhu Youxiang to the Yanshan Military Academy, and Zhu Youxiang's learning ability can only be said to be average.

Among the Yanshan Military Academy, he belongs to the children of thousands of sects, and he has the ability to be lower in the middle.

However, the brothers Zhu Yujian of the Tang Domain, as well as the brothers Zhu Changqing of the Huai Domain, and the Zhu Yihai brothers of the Lu Domain performed well.

However, Zhu Youzhen didn't pay too much attention to them, because in terms of their abilities, they really didn't deserve his attention.

Compared with them, Zhu Youzhen's eyes are mainly on the Armaments Research Institute and Yanshan Academy, especially Li Zicheng and Cao Bianjiao.

The learning ability and talent they showed were really good, and the major they chose did not disappoint Zhu Youzhen.

All chose the military ......

"In this way, there is no shortage of generals in the Ming Dynasty, and what is lacking now is the first assistant to govern the country......"

Looking at Yanshan's military report, Zhu Youzhen sighed, and then frowned and recalled the farce of the past two months.

In general, after Gu Bingqian took office, the officials delegated by the Qi Palace's palace could take office safely, and Cui Chengxiu of the Ministry of Officials did not dare to offend him.

However, after the officials of the Qi King faction were decentralized, they were still targeted by the local officials.

Although they don't have military power, they don't do less things like wearing small shoes to disgust people.

But they didn't dare to go too far, after all, the soldiers and horses and the officials were all members of the Qi Wang Party.

It was Cui Chengxiu's gang, after Zhao Nanxing retreated, this guy began to vigorously retaliate against the Donglin Party.

Although under Zhu Youzhen's instructions, Gu Bingqian would protect Zuo Guangdou, Yuan Huazhong, and other Donglin officials, most of the Donglin officials were still dismissed and exiled by Cui Chengxiu and Wei Zhongxian by various means such as framing them.

The situation changed from Donglin and the eunuch dog-eat-dog that Zhu Youzhen originally thought, to the situation in which the eunuch party defeated Donglin.

If this continues, I am afraid that the Qi Wang Party will collide with the Eunuch Party......

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen began to think about how to use the accounts left by the third lady to bring down the officials of the five parties of Qichu, Zhejiang, Xuankun and Kun who were hidden in the eunuch party after sweeping the north.

But just as he was thinking, Lu Wenzhao looked embarrassed, and knelt directly on the carriage and said:

"Your Highness, there is one thing that I have hidden from you......"

"Huh? What? Zhu Youzhen was made to frown by Lu Wenzhao's behavior, and Lu Wenzhao also said:

"Banzai left the palace a month ago, and now I've been at the Armaments Research Institute for a month......"

Lu Wenzhao was a little embarrassed to say this, and Zhu Youzhen was speechless when he heard it.

The current situation is so complicated, and this brother of his own family is still running out at will......

"Alas, forget it, when I go later, I'll persuade my brother to go back."

Zhu Youzhen shook his head, and did not blame Lu Wenzhao for not reporting it, but looked down at the military newspaper.

Seeing this, Lu Wenzhao also cautiously got up and sat back in his position.

The carriage was bumpy, and the distance from the capital to the Armaments Research Institute was thirty miles, a distance of nearly two hours, and it was impossible to get up fast if he wanted to, so Lu Wenzhao could only take a book from the bookshelf and read it uneasily.

Time passed little by little, and Zhu Youzhen was also reading the military newspaper little by little.

Compared with the traditional two capitals and sixteen provinces, the current five military governors have more affairs.

After destroying the Hetao and recovering Duogan, the number of idle military horses of the Ming army reached more than 174,000, and the number of horses and horses reached more than 400,000.

At present, the military governors are very aggressive in their demands for horses, with Mangui's Northern Army Governor's Mansion and Sun Yingyuan's Eastern Army Governor's Mansion mainly competing for military horses, while the Western Army and Southern Army Governor's Mansion mainly compete for horses.

However, horses and horses, the northern army and the western army, all need to go up.

Not to mention anything else, according to the expedition, a foot soldier must have at least one horse, and a team of soldiers must have at least twelve men and thirty-six horses.

Therefore, the competition for horses was fierce in the military newspapers.

In this regard, Zhu Youzhen still chose to supplement the straight.

Although for so many years, the number of horses and horses in Shangzhi has been in full, but after the battle of Hetao, the Ming army lost a lot of horses, horses, and military horses.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen waved his pen and supplemented more than 30,000 kinds of horses of all kinds needed by Shangzhi.

After that, he still met the needs of more than 120,000 horses of all kinds in the Eastern Army Governor's Mansion, because if he could, he would start to destroy Jianyu after two years of cultivation.

After the distribution, Zhu Youzhen transferred the remaining more than 50,000 military horses to the Northern Army Governor's Office, and then supplemented 80,000 horses and horses.

The remaining 170,000 horses and horses were transferred to the Governor's Mansion of the Southern Army and the Northern Army.

Similarly, Zhu Youzhen wrote to Qi Jin, the governor of the Southern Military Governor's Office, that he was ready to send ten battalions of soldiers and horses south to the old port, and from now on, the old port will belong to the defensive area of the Southern Military Governor's Office.

After Ye Xianggao's reminder, Zhu Youzhen trusted Qi Jin, Qin Bangping and other generals at this moment, and was a little suspicious of Man Gui.

He was going to see if Huang Long could give him a satisfactory answer after going to the West this time, if not......

"......" The brush in Zhu Youzhen's hand paused, did not fall, but hung in mid-air.

"Your Highness, you're on your way to the Armaments Institute!"

Suddenly, Sun Shoufa, who was driving, shouted, and Zhu Youzhen and Lu Wenzhao heard the sound and immediately put away the paper, pen and ink on the table.

When they were in good hands, the carriage began to jolt as well.

Although it is said that the impact on the ride is not very large, it is obviously not possible to handle official business.

This bumpy feeling made Zhu Youzhen glance out the window, only to see that the dirt road outside the window was constantly undulating, which greatly affected the comfort.

"How is Shen Tingyang's operation in the cement yard in the old port?"

Zhu Youzhen opened his mouth to ask, and when Lu Wenzhao heard this, he immediately took out the thick notes about the provinces from the bookshelf next to him, and after finding the old port, he immediately flipped through it.

After a few breaths, Lu Wenzhao spoke:

"Shen Bu's political envoy has arranged 216 cement yards in various parts of the old port, which can produce about 70,000 stones of cement per month, and employ 220,000 workers, which can almost meet the needs of the old port."

"As for the iron field, according to your Royal Highness, Political Envoy Shen Bu roughly found seventeen gold mines, forty-nine silver mines, one hundred and twenty-one copper mines, and more than 300 large and small iron mines."

"Since April this year, cement from the cement yard has been used on the road between the various iron ore mines and the wharf."

"Shen Buzheng used the railroad tracks that Your Highness asked you to send, and ordered the blacksmith to manually hammer out a two-way carriage track that was enough to lay fifty miles."

"According to the news of Nanzhen Fusi, the gold produced in Jiugang this year will not be less than 30,000 taels, silver will not be less than 370,000 taels, copper will not be less than 270,000 catties, and iron will not be less than 4 million catties."

Lu Wenzhao said a long list of words, but at the end he hesitated for a moment and said:

"However, the expenditure of the old port is also very large, and more than 4 million catties of gunpowder are consumed in the local gunpowder field this year, and the Kunlun slaves below are also exhausted to death no less than 30,000 ......."

"I know, I don't need to say much about this kind of thing in the future." Hearing Lu Wenzhao's words, Zhu Youzhen commanded like a nobody.

The industrial system of the old port was told by Shen Tingyang, a book written by Zhu You, to tell him how to do it.

At the moment, Shen Tingyang seems to be doing a good job, and the millions of Kunlun slaves in the old port are enough to deal with it.

Zhu Youzhen is not worried that the old port will become independent overseas after it flourishes, because all he wants is local resources.

The cement was built in the old port, the first is for the local mining industry, and the second is to use the old port to let the scribe try his hand first, and then return to Daming to build a cement yard after he is familiar with the process.

Gold, silver, copper, iron, ......

These are all things that the Ming Dynasty needs, silver, gold, and copper can be kept for use in the future currency system innovation, and the resources of Nanyang are enough for the Ming Dynasty to use for hundreds of years.

"How many captives are there in the Southwest? Has Hong Chengchou started the construction of cement yards and mines? ”

Zhu Youzhen leaned on the carriage with his eyes closed, and the old god was there.

When Lu Wenzhao heard this, he also took out the documents of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guangxi and looked at them, and then nodded and said:

"There are more than 190,000 prisoners of war and their families, and in addition to the female dependents, who were rewarded with soldiers, the remaining more than 70,000 men have been filled into the cement and mine built by the scribes of the old port."

"At present, there are 121 cement yards, which were only put into operation in the middle of last month, and the report of a few days ago showed that these yards produce more than 5,000 stones of cement every day, and there should be about 150,000 stones a month."

"It's a little missing......" Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but interrupt when he heard this, and then thought about the distance and time of the sea route from Luzon to Guangxi, and then said:

"Luzon's cement yard has increased investment, and there should be hundreds of thousands of Kunlun slaves on the big island in the south, and it will not be a problem to build hundreds of cement yards."

"The cement that Luzon couldn't digest was sent to Guangxi, and Hong Chengchou used it to build roads from Guangzhou to Guilin, Lianzhou to Guilin, Lin'an, and Kunming."

"Then order and grant Hong Chengchou the five southwestern provinces to manage the strategy, and coordinate the five provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao responded, and at this time, Sun Shoufa, who was driving, also spoke:

"Your Highness, the Armaments Institute has arrived!"

Soon after he finished speaking, the carriage stopped, and Lu Wenzhao opened the door when he saw this, and the hundreds of heavenly guards on both sides were vigilant, and Zhu Youzhen also stepped out of the carriage.

The Armaments Research Institute, because of the importance of the place and the fact that it could not be too far away from the capital, Zhu Youzhen placed it in the mentougou on the west side of the capital.

This place covers an area of more than 20,000 acres, the city is two zhang high, four miles long, in addition to welcoming the students who graduate every year, the city gate is not opened all the year round.

The Daxing camp in the capital was transferred here by Zhu Youzhen to be responsible for the town guard, and the entire city was impregnable.

"Wow......"

With the pull of the jack gate, the city gate gradually opened, and Zhu Youzhen also walked into the city under the escort of Xiao Cavalry.

In addition to the city wall, the armament research institute in the city can be said to be a blank field, and only the center of the central axis has a mansion covering an area of more than 100 acres.

This mansion is the current General Armaments Research Institute, and in the future, as the number of personnel in the Armaments Research Institute increases, the number of buildings in the castle will gradually increase.

"His Highness Chitose!"

When he saw Zhu Youzhen coming, the two teams of soldiers and horses guarding the gate of the main courtyard sang loudly, and Zhu Youzhen bowed slightly, and then walked into the main courtyard.

"Your Highness......" The scribe of the Armaments Institute who had been waiting for a long time came to meet Zhu Youzhen, and Lu Wenzhao saw that Bi Maokang did not come in person, so he couldn't help frowning and said:

"Where's Bi Shilang?"

"Bi Shilang, Song Yuanwailang, and Sun Shilang are correcting the car, so they can't come to greet His Highness, please forgive Your Highness......"

The scribe hurriedly confessed, and when Zhu Youzhen heard the car, he hurriedly frowned and said, "The car? ”

"Yes, it's a car!" Speaking of the car, the scribe's eyes also lit up, and then he took Zhu Youzhen towards the interior of the main courtyard.

Bypassing the corridor and the courtyards used for research, Zhu Youzhen saw many Yanshan students during the period, they were all studying some theories left by Zhu Youzhen, and even knocked on them by themselves.

Their treatment is very good, Zhu Youzhen gave them the official position of Doctor of the Eight Grades and Five Classics, 50 taels per year, conquer a theory, and reward 10,000 taels for each team.

Therefore, they were very grateful to Zhu Youzhen, so when they saw Zhu Youzhen passing by, they all put down the things in their hands and made a fuss.

"Study well, don't be too polite." After opening his mouth to care about everyone, Zhu Youzhen continued to walk towards the place where the scribe led the way.

As they walked, about a tea time had passed, and they finally came to an empty courtyard, and in the courtyard, a dozen people of different ages dressed in regular clothes were fiddling with an object......

Zhu Youzhen looked at this thing, a bit like a wooden broaching machine, there was a steel pull rod slightly thinner than the diameter of the gun barrel on the pull rod, and there was a hook-like cutter on the pull rod.

"His Royal Highness Chitose ......"

Zhu Youzhen hadn't come back to his senses, and at this time, his temples were white, and a fifty-year-old man with a mediocre appearance said to Zhu Youzhen:

"Your Highness, this is the bed that can be rifled in batches......"

The second shift around four o'clock

(End of chapter)