"Crackling—"

"Peng Peng Peng—"

On the fifth day of September in the sixteenth year of the Apocalypse, when the sound of firecrackers and fireworks sounded in the land of northern Liaobei, the first railway of more than 1,000 miles in the Ming Dynasty was officially completed.

It took six years and three months to open the Beijing-Liaoning Railway from Beijing North Railway Station through Duoyan Mansion in Modong Province to Shenyang Mansion in Liaodong Province.

The route chosen by Da Ming is not good, if you choose the route from the capital through Shanhaiguan and take the route from western Liaoning to Shenyang, then the Beijing-Liao Railway will not take so long at all.

However, for the Ming Dynasty in this era, taking the route outside the customs can realize the series of customs inside and outside the customs for the Ming Dynasty.

The opening of the Beijing-Liao Railway means that it only takes 20 hours to travel from Shenyang to the capital, and in less than two days, the Ming army can mobilize the resources of Beizhili to support the southern part of the northeast.

Not only that, with the continuous advancement of various railways, the provinces that can directly reach the capital now have Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Nanzhili, Huguang, Sichuan, Hexi, Donghai and other provinces in Beijing.

This means that the capital has become the material transit center of the provinces, and the control of the capital over various places has been strengthened.

The 16th Guards stationed in Suncheonfu could be ready in as little as ten days and arrive in any of the provinces mentioned above in five days.

This is just the beginning, as other railways continue to be built, the actual control of the center will continue to expand, and the power of the center will continue to be strengthened.

In every place where the railway is repaired, there will be a lot of increase in the number of household registration statistics in that year.

Especially in Nanzhili, half a month after the opening of the Beijing-Liao Railway, the first Yangtze River Bridge in the Ming Dynasty was completed, and the Beijing train can reach the suburbs of Nanjing.

The distance of 2,100 miles only takes twenty-six and a half hours to reach, which makes the city of Nanjing and the Jiangnan area, which were originally far away from the emperor, become an area at the "foot" of Beijing.

As long as the emperor wants, he can reach Jiangnan in three days and then rush back in three days.

If this is just the emperor's personal behavior, then if the emperor is replaced by an official of the Chengdu Procuratorate, the gentry officials in the entire Jiangnan region should tremble.

The "Jingcha" operation of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, which used to be only available once a year, can now be carried out once a month and every 10 days.

For Jiangnan officials, who are accustomed to being busy for only a few days a year, it is like a knife hanging over their heads, and they don't know when the knife will fall.

I used to be able to dodge with experience, but now I can only stare at it.

Not to the surprise of Jiangnan officials, when the Yangtze River Bridge was built the day after the opening, the king of Qi issued a new administration.

The fixed Jingcha was abolished, and the Shuntianfu Metropolitan Procuratorate was replaced by the Shuntianfu Metropolitan Procuratorate to inspect all parts of the world from time to time.

Such an arrangement means that Zhu Youzhen fixed and normalized Jingcha.

His move made the officials of the world more uncomfortable than the death of his own mother......

It's just that only the officials are uncomfortable, and the people who are comfortable are the people.

"There really is a dish!"

"It's still fresh!"

On the ninth day of October, when there was a noise in the imperial shop in Andingfang, Dongcheng District, Jilin County, Jilin Prefecture, the people living here saw fresh vegetables for the first time in winter on the sub-zero Northeast Plain.

After two days of transportation, the Chinese cabbage pulled out of the ground in Beizhili was successfully delivered to the Huangdian in Jilin County.

Although it is only Chinese cabbage, and the price is more expensive than the other three seasons, for the people of Jilin County, who have hardly too many vegetables to eat in winter, these cabbages can be said to be the few vegetables they can eat in winter.

The 20 tons of cabbage transported from the capital to Jilin County were sold out in just one hour.

Not only cabbage, but also many products that do not belong to this season have appeared on the shelves of the imperial store.

Dressed in cotton clothes and cotton clothes, the people of Jilin County went home with the vegetables they bought, and more than 60,000 Han immigrants have now lived in this place that was once set up as Xingjing by Nurhachi.

The fields that were once reclaimed by Nurhachi are now being distributed by the government.

Relying on the coal in the northeast and the well-planned urban layout in the future, the migrants can basically enjoy the comfort of central heating in winter.

Of course, this type of central heating is essentially the 19th century heating method, and the indoor temperature is not up to modern standards, but even so, it is much more comfortable than many immigrants used to live in their hometown.

This can be the case in Jilin County, not to mention Liaodong in the south.

For example, now, Huang Long, who has been at home for several years, is lying on a rocking chair in the study, holding a bowl of "Crispy Mountain" in his hand to eat.

Compared with a few years ago, he looks a lot younger and fairer, but from a general to a noble, he has still experienced a lot, such as the once flat belly, which is now full of fat.

In the slightly hot study, eating Sushan made people feel happy, and even Huanglong couldn't help but hum a few times.

"It's a comfortable day, and no one wants to move their nests."

After eating a bowl of crispy mountains, Huang Long put the empty bowl on the wooden plate held by the maidservant next to him, and Li Dan, who was sitting opposite him and had just returned from Port Arthur, bowed slightly, but then said:

"Your Highness, it seems that you are starting to be busy strengthening the control of the imperial court in the local area, look at this posture, I'm afraid it's not far from the domain."

"Just the ......" Hearing the word "domain", Huang Long's face instinctively turned ugly.

Seeing Huang Long's ugly face, Li Dan couldn't help but comfort:

"Xia Guan asked the naval brothers in Yingzhou, and the current situation in Qi is even better than we imagined."

"In just five years, the Qi country has been able to be self-sufficient, and everyone can eat meat, eat meat every day, and the speed of cultivated land reclamation is also rapidly reclaiming at a rate of hundreds of thousands of acres every year."

When Li Dan said these words, some handmaidens and the head of the Hou Mansion couldn't help but look at him.

Eat meat every day, everyone eats meat...... Not to mention the Liaodong Hou Mansion, even the imperial palace can't do it.

When such words come out of his mouth, one can't help but think that he is not lying.

Not only the maidservants, but even Huang Long himself was skeptical: "Eat meat every day? How can there be such a good place. ”

"Xia Guan didn't believe it at first, but now, it's really ......" Li Dan sighed, and then briefly introduced some of the reasons why Qi can eat meat every day.

To put it bluntly, there are too many bison in the area.

In Daming, even if you add the entire grassland, you can't find a million bison, but in Qi country, the number of bison is tens of millions.

Not only are they numerous, but they are also heavier than the bison and cultivated cattle of the Ming Dynasty.

With just 100 people, you can easily harvest enough beef to eat more than 100,000 people.

"Is there such a place?" Huang Long touched the beard on his chin, still a little incredulous.

He had heard of the situation in India, Nanzhou, Nanyang, and even Levia, and in his opinion that Levia was a place of abundant resources, but there was not much land to cultivate, and there were only a few hundred thousand head of cattle that looked like horses.

Now it's okay to suddenly pop up a place with tens of millions of bison on it?

For a while, while Huang Long didn't believe it, he also had some curiosity about Qi Guo in his heart.

"According to the news from Yingzhou, I'm afraid that by the twenty years or so of the Apocalypse, the Qi Kingdom will be able to support three million people."

"This year, Yingzhou will first relocate more than 100,000 labor reform workers to Qi country, and will also move in the next four years until the labor reform workers are relocated."

"From this point of view, it should not be a lie that Qi can support millions of people."

Li Dan said that he deduced, and he also spoke: "Although the Ming Dynasty is big, the Qi country is not small, and the only gap is the population. ”

"I heard that the gold, silver and iron mines of Qi are everywhere, and His Royal Highness the King of Qi chose to be a vassal here, so he should have made all the preparations."

"According to the steamships I see in Port Arthur these days, if they are used to transport migrants, a hundred ships can transport more than 100,000 people in one trip."

"Maybe, more than ten years later, Qi can really compete with Jiangnan."

In the end, Li Dan glanced at Huang Long, and after finding that Huang Long was pondering, he didn't continue to speak.

It was Huang Long, he still said after thinking about it: "Qi Guo is going, but you have to watch and watch before going." ”

"It's not that Benhou is reluctant to leave Daming, it's that His Royal Highness didn't go to the front of the domain, and I don't feel at ease to leave."

"Not sure?" Li Dan was stunned, he wanted to ask, but after thinking about it, he was still not abrupt.

"Those boys in Yanshan are so bad-eyed, can you guess what they will do?"

Huang Long guessed Li Dan's thoughts, and asked Li Dan a rhetorical question, Li Dan also opened his mouth when he heard this, but he couldn't say anything in the end.

Not only Huang Long, but even he felt that the Yanshan officials would not let Zhu Youzhen leave so easily.

"Not only are they unwilling, but I'm afraid Banzai is not either."

Huang Long grabbed his short beard, but Li Dan frowned and said, "Shouldn't Banzai be the person who most wants His Highness to become a vassal?" ”

"That's because you don't know Your Highness and Banzai." Huang Long shook his head.

Although his political vision is not good, his eyes are not blind, Zhu Youxiao's reluctance to his own King Qi, he can see it even if he is coarse, let alone others?

As soon as he thought of these bad things, Huang Long sat up, and he couldn't help but complain a little about Lin Dan Khan and the group of people who betrayed the news.

Why couldn't they cooperate better at the beginning, Lin Dan Khan couldn't be faster.

If they had solved Zhu Youxiao, there wouldn't have been so many bad things now.

"Master Hou!"

When Huang Long complained about Lin Dan Khan, one of the generals in the palace trotted all the way into the house.

He pushed open the door of the house, and the cold wind blew into the house, making Li Dan and Huang Long and even a group of people shiver.

"You!" Huang Long saw that the person who came was the hundred households of the Hou Mansion under his command, and he almost lost his temper and smashed something at it.

It's just that his idea has not yet been implemented, and a sentence from the Hou Mansion Baihu made his brain blank.

"Master Hou! Chungju Hou ...... It's dead! ”

"What did you say?!"

When the word "killed" appeared, everyone's hearts tightened.

"Chungju Hou...... It's dead! The Hou Mansion bowed, and one sentence made Huang Long's mind empty, and he fell back and sat on the rocking chair......

——————

[On the ninth day of October in the sixteenth year of the Apocalypse, the Marquis of Chungju died in Chungju at the age of sixty-eight, and His Majesty posthumously crowned him as the king of Chungju in the Midsummer Palace, and was buried with the rites of the prince. 】

[On October 12, the sixteenth year of the Apocalypse, Qin Banghan, the Marquis of Youyang, died of excessive grief at the age of sixty-six, and His Majesty posthumously crowned him as the King of Youyang in the Midsummer Palace, nicknamed Wushun, and was buried with the rites of the prince. 】

"This ......"

On 14 October, when Zhu Ciran from Guangzhou got the weekly newspaper "Daming Bao" and saw that there was an extra section on its homepage, he only felt dizzy, but he could no longer read anything else.

When he passed through Sichuan, he was going to Chengdu Mansion to meet Qin Bangping and Qin Banghan, but he learned that the two had gone back to Zhongzhou to recuperate, so he had no choice but to miss it.

I never thought that missing this time is missing it for a lifetime.

The most critical point is that he should have tried his best to win over the Qin and Qi families for his father during this trip, but the result was unsatisfactory.

The Qin family killed the two marquis at once, and the only ones left to support the scene were Wulongbo Qin Minping and Shizhu Bo Qin Liangyu.

Thinking of this, Zhu Ciran just wanted to call Liu Shun and them to discuss the matter, but the sound of a stomach suddenly sounded outside the courtyard where they lived.

"Your Highness!"

The neat sound of the stomach made Liu Shun and the others feel nervous, and they hurriedly ran to the hall, but Zhu Ciran calmly raised his hand to signal them not to panic.

"Open the door!"

He walked out of the hall and came to the courtyard to signal the Jinyi guards to open the door, and when Liu Shun saw this, he immediately arranged some Jinyi guards to be on guard.

They reloaded their rifles one after another, and the two brocade guards at the door saw that everyone was ready, looked at each other and opened the door.

The moment they opened the door, a twenty-something general was about to knock on the door, so this opening made him knock on the void.

The door was opened, and what appeared in front of the Ming army in Guangzhou was a group of people holding rifles and wearing civilian clothes, they didn't know that this was the Jinyi guard, so they raised their guns one after another.

The Jinyi guards inside saw Ming Jun raising his gun, and nervously put his fingers in front of the trigger.

"Don't move! Put the guns down for me! ”

When the young general's eyes swept to Zhu Ciran, whose skin was black, he immediately turned around and scolded, signaling all the Ming troops to put down their guns.

Seeing this, Zhu Ciran also turned his head and ordered: "Put the gun down." ”

"Yes!" Liu Shun's scalp was numb, and he hurriedly asked people to put the gun down, for fear of wiping the gun and passing by.

Don't blame Liu Shun for being vigilant, after all, he was put by Zhu Ciran by Zhu Youxiao to protect Zhu Ciran, as Zhu Youxiao's cronies, of course he experienced Lin Dan Khan's entry into the Kou back then.

He admired the Ming army very much, but he didn't dare to trust it easily because of politics.

Now that the Southern Army has taken the initiative to show favor and put down the gun, it is naturally impossible for him to let people aim at the Southern Army.

"Stand outside and wait for me to come out!"

The young general cursed, then unloaded the ordnance from his waist and walked into the courtyard wearing only a stomach.

Liu Shun motioned for the Jinyi guard to close the door, and the Jinyi guard at the door immediately closed the courtyard door.

"Qi Wulong, the general of the Guangzhou battalion of the Southern Military Governor's Mansion, see His Royal Highness, His Royal Highness is a thousand years old!"

Qi Wulong saluted, Zhu Ciran also bowed slightly when he saw this, he knew everyone, this person was Qi Yuangong's eldest son, Qi Yuangong's left and right hands:

"I was just about to go and see Feng Guogong, but I didn't think that Feng Guogong would send someone."

Duke Fengguo was canonized by Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youzhen before Qi Jin's death, and Qi Yuangong, as the eldest son, plus military merits, he deserved this title hereditary.

The reason why Zhu Ciran mentioned Qi Yuangong was actually to know whether Qi Wulong's arrival was sent by Qi Yuangong or by himself.

"My father didn't know that His Royal Highness had come down, it was His Royal Highness the King of Qi who issued an order to let my father send the last general to defend His Highness." Qi Wulong explained why he appeared here.

"Sent by Uncle Wang?" Zhu Ciran was slightly stunned, and Qi Wulong also replied:

"Long live the decree, please Your Highness rush to Chungju with the holy decree to mourn, and declare the decree to crown Wu Longbo and Shizhu Bo as marquis."

Zhu Ciran's plan has changed, and due to the death of Qin Bangping and Qin Banghan, the situation in the southwest will be reshuffled.

The two have deep feelings for Daming, so they naturally stand on Zhu Youxiao's side, but their heirs are not necessarily.

Zhu Ciran was sent over to determine the attitude of the two marquis' heirs.

Qin Bangping and Qin Banghan's death was so sudden that even Zhu Youzhen couldn't react, so they had one step less, and the eldest son of the two could only rely on military merits to be a hereditary marquis without descending the title.

In this case, Zhu Youzhen can naturally be crowned the prince of the country after the two of them take the title, but no matter what he does, he has to determine the attitude of Qin Gongming and Qin Zhongming.

Sending Zhu Ciran, who is the crown prince, is the best way to see the attitude of the Qin family.

Zhu Ciran understood in his heart, so he looked at Qi Wulong: "Is there a holy purpose?" ”

"Yes!" Hearing Zhu Ciran ask about the holy decree, Qi Wulong untied the knot on his chest, and then Zhu Ciran noticed that Qi Wulong was carrying a long box on his back.

The box was untied, Qi Wulong held it with both hands, and Zhu Ciran also took the lead when he saw this, and then carefully opened the box.

Not surprisingly, the box was filled with a holy decree made of jade shafts.

After confirming the authenticity of the holy decree, Zhu Ciran closed the box, then took the box and handed it to Zhang Xiu next to him, and then he asked Qi Wulong, "When will you leave?" ”

"If it's convenient for Your Highness, how is it now?"

Qi Wulong looked at Zhu Ciran's complexion, and felt that with such a complexion, he didn't dare to say anything else, and it should be okay to endure hardships, so he proposed to set off now.

"Good!" Hearing Qi Wulong's words, Zhu Ciran turned his head and instructed Liu Shun: "Pack up, let's leave now." ”

"Yes!" Liu Shunzuo responded, glanced at Qi Wulong, and didn't say anything, but arranged for Jinyiwei to pack up his things and prepare to leave.

When Jinyiwei was cleaning up, Zhu Ciran also smiled kindly: "Xiao Guogong is younger than I thought. ”

"My father's marriage is a little late, so the last general is a little younger." Qi Wulong is neither humble nor arrogant, but he is somewhat similar to Zhu Ciran's impression of Qi Jin's temper as his uncle said.

"It's a pity that I couldn't meet Feng Guogong when I came to Guangzhou this time, and when the condolences are over, I must go back to Guangzhou to visit Feng Guogong."

Zhu Ciran deliberately said some intimate words, but Qi Wulong only nodded after hearing it, and echoed: "Let Your Highness be tired." ”

His attitude was a little cold, which made Zhu Ciran have some bad premonitions in his heart.

He suddenly felt that his own lineage seemed to have no impact on the third generation of the Qi family.

If the Qi family is like this, what about the Qin family?

For a while, Zhu Ciran felt how difficult his family's situation was.

Military generals don't love it, and civilian officials don't like it...... can sit on this throne, it really depends on his uncle.

Thinking of this, Zhu Ciran became more and more troubled by his uncle's vassal affairs.

"Your Highness, pack up."

At the same time as he had a headache, Liu Shun and the others quickly packed up their things, and Zhu Ciran, who heard the words, could only return to reality: "Since this is the case, let's go." ”

As he spoke, Zhu Ciran glanced at Qi Wulong, Qi Wulong also bowed slightly, and walked out of this small courtyard with Zhu Ciran.

When he came to the courtyard, Zhu Ciran found that the originally empty alley was already crowded with soldiers of the Southern Army dressed in armor.

】

They looked at Zhu Ciran curiously, but they didn't know Zhu Ciran's identity.

After Qi Wulong let the soldiers and horses withdraw from the alley, he took Zhu Ciran and them to a side road in Guangzhou City.

A carriage had been prepared here, but when Zhu Ciran saw it, he hurriedly waved his hand and said:

"I have a car, so I won't ride in a carriage."

"Got a car?" Qi Wulong was puzzled, but he soon saw the four-wheeled rickshaw that was pushed out of the alley by Jin Yiwei.

"This car is somewhat similar to a bicycle."

Qi Wulong didn't know about Zhu Ciran's riding of the Ming Dynasty, he only knew that the prince Weifu had a private visit, but he didn't expect that the prince actually came by bicycle.

"How many miles can this car go in a day? Can you keep up with the horse infantry? ”

Qi Wulong was afraid that riding this car would be too slow, so that it would slow down the march, but Zhu Ciran smiled and said, "Walking a hundred miles a day is not a problem." ”

"A hundred miles?" Qi Wulong was a little surprised, this speed was faster than their usual hurry, and no matter how fast it was, it could compare to the speed of their forced march.

"In that case, then please put Your Highness and the last general in the middle military position."

Qi Wulong made arrangements, and Zhu Ciran, who had studied the book of war, also nodded with a smile when he heard this, and then got on a four-wheeled car with Liu Shun and two thin brocade guards.

They rode to the position of the Chinese army in the army, so that the southern soldiers of the Chinese army kept looking at it curiously.

Facing their gaze, Zhu Ciran was still smiling brightly, while Liu Shun and the two brocade guards shook their heads.

"Curious...... You won't be curious in a few days. ”

"But there are so many people, it is estimated that it will be enough for a long time......"

When Liu Shun and the others were thinking like this, Qi Wulong also glanced at the four-wheeled vehicle, and then turned over and got on the horse.

With a sound of departure, 3,000 horse infantry opened the way and escorted Zhu Ciran towards Chungju......