"Feng, Tian Carrier, the emperor's edict said: The crown prince is Ci Burn, great filial piety, born with virtue, this year is 15 years old, when tired of supervision, familiar with the machine."

"Today, I feel a little cold, and I have ordered a hundred ministers and ministers, six cabinet departments, and all matters between the DPRK and China will be sent to the East Palace, and it will not violate my will ......to supervise the country."

In the early morning, when Zhu Ci was woken up from the bed in the East Palace, he was still in the misty lake, and he was stuffed with a holy decree.

"Prison country, from today onwards, the Wenhua Palace, the six cabinet departments, and the five military governor's mansions will be sent to the East Palace, please wait for the concert to arrive after the prison country washes up, and deal with the affairs of the country."

"Huh?!" When he heard that his title changed from His Royal Highness to Prison Country, Zhu Ciran, who was in the misty lake, also reflected.

He looked out the door, and the gray sky was enough to show how early it was.

"Prison Country? I? Zhu Ciran pointed to himself, and Wang Tiqian, who came to deliver the decree, also nodded kindly: "Yes, the prison country......"

"I'm only fourteen years old, how can I be in charge of the country? When did my dad get sick again? Wasn't it okay yesterday? ”

Zhu Ciran's mouth was like a machine gun, and he spit out a few crosses in a few seconds, but Wang Tiqian said unhurriedly:

"Last night's wind and rain, Banzai accidentally contracted the wind cold, so let His Highness supervise the country to deal with it."

"As for the age...... Wang Tiqian smiled: "Long live said that His Royal Highness has been studying in the Qi Palace's Mansion for so long, and he has toured the world in the south, so he naturally understands the sufferings of the people, so His Royal Highness is in charge of the country, and Long Live is very relieved." ”

Wang Tiqian's smile had never been so hateful in Zhu Ciran's eyes, listening to the words that popped out of his mouth, Zhu Ciran felt a slight toothache, and could only ask: "When will my father be able to get better from the cold?" ”

"I'm afraid it will take more than half a month to ......" Wang Tiqian's face was not red and his heart was not beating, and Zhu Ciran asked again:

"When will Uncle Qi come back?"

"His Royal Highness the King of Qi ordered someone to send an order for 800 miles last night, and according to its contents, I am afraid that it will have to be postponed until August before returning to Beijing."

"I understand......" Zhu Ciran listened to the operation of the above two people, where could he not understand in his heart?

What kind of wind and cold, what is half a month...... It's strange that his father didn't drag him to prison until his uncle came back.

It's only June 21, and there's still a month and a half to go until August.

"One and a half months ......"

Zhu Ci was so angry that his teeth were itching, and Wang Tiqian was also afraid that he would be implicated when he saw this, so he said: "The slave and maid are ...... to retire."

After that, without waiting for Zhu Ciran's reaction, he hurriedly left the East Palace with the other eunuchs.

By the time Zhu Ciran reacted, there was no one in the entire hall who could be driven except for a few eunuchs and palace maids who served.

"Let me be in charge of the country, then it's better to keep a few people for me!"

Looking at everything around him, Zhu Ci was so angry that he wanted to scold the street.

Just before he could scold the street, six or seven eunuchs walked in outside the door, and they put the four or five hundred copies of the recital on the table where Zhu Ciran did his homework on weekdays, piling them up.

"So much?!" Looking at these recitals, Zhu Ciran felt that his day had been arranged.

Several eunuchs just nodded, and then left with a panic.

Looking at the pile of songs, Zhu Ciran had the heart to resist but no one was powerless, so he could only instruct Li Yongzhen, the eunuch of the East Palace:

"You go to the Qi Palace, see if Li Dingguo has come back, and then call Zhang Xiu and Liu Shun to me."

"Your Highness, Li Dingguo has already graduated from the army, and now he is working as a generation of thousands of households in Yanran City, Anbei Prefecture, in the province."

"What did you say?!"

If Wang Tiqian's arrival made Zhu Ciran feel cheated, then Li Yongzhen's departure from Li Dingguo made him feel that he was cheated by a big pit.

Anyway, leave him two auxiliary politicians!

At this moment, Zhu Ciran realized the importance of having an East Palace team, everyone has a pit, but he doesn't!

"Straight thief! Straight thief! ”

Zhu Ciran scolded and washed in the palace, and did not stop until he sat in his position, and honestly dealt with the slack.

On the second day of his imprisonment, "Daming Daily" reported on the affairs of the crown prince's imprisonment, and the matter of choosing a concubine was also published.

Regarding his imminent selection of concubines, Zhu Ciran also cried with a sad face like eating Coptis chinensis, and couldn't help but miss his Uncle Qi Wang.

However, the Uncle Qi Wang he missed was arriving at the railway station in Xi'an City, Xi'an Prefecture, Shaanxi Province by train at the moment.

"Woo-"

With the last whistle disappearing, Zhu Youzhen took the four little ones and Zhou Sujie and others off the train.

As soon as he got off the train, he saw a familiar figure.

"Northwest through the Sun Chuanting, I have seen His Royal Highness King Qi, His Royal Highness is a thousand years old, ......"

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

When Sun Chuanting's voice sounded, hundreds of officials from Shaanxi and Xi'an sang and saluted.

When Sun Chuanting finished his work and withdrew his hand, all Zhu Youzhen saw was a dark face and a thin figure.

His complexion and figure were particularly conspicuous among the white and chubby Shaanxi officials, and this was the first time that Zhu Youzhen and Sun Chuanting had met since the Battle of Fuliao.

Thirteen years ago, in the battle of recovering Liao, Sun Chuanting was only a year old, but now he is forty years old, and he has entered the age of no confusion.

"Great work......"

There are no whitewashed words, Zhu Youzhen sighed very bluntly.

"Compared to His Royal Highness, the suffering of the lower officials is nothing ......"

After returning to Xi'an from Wusizang, Sun Chuanting realized how serious the drought was this year, and at the same time, he also realized how difficult it was for Zhu Youzhen, who was in charge of the center.

In his opinion, Zhu Youzhen's half-year holiday this year is deserved, because he has been tired for too long.

"Let's go, take me around Xi'an City, and stay in King Qin's Mansion tonight."

In a word, the first half of the sentence Zhu Youzhen said to Sun Chuanting, and the second half of the sentence was explained to Zhou Sujie.

Obviously, he had something to say to Sun Chuanting, and it was not convenient to take Zhou Sujie and the four little ones with him.

Zhou Sujie nodded very knowingly, and Sun Chuanting also realized that Zhu Youzhen had something to say to him, so after making the gesture of "show please", he and Zhu Youzhen walked out of Xi'an Railway Station.

The two got into a carriage alone, and even Lu Yuangao couldn't get on it, which is enough to show the importance of the matter.

However, even if Lu Yuangao didn't get into the carriage, he guessed what King Qi was going to say to Sun Chuanting.

Thinking about it, it is nothing more than a matter of cabinet auxiliaries.

Lu Yuangao turned over and got on his horse, ready to follow the carriage, waiting for the summons of the King of Qi at any time, while Zhou Sujie and the others went to the Qin Wangfu in Xi'an City under the escort of soldiers and horses.

Sitting in the carriage, Zhu Youzhen did not say anything at the beginning, but chatted with Sun Chuanting about family life, and looked outside Xi'an from time to time outside the glass window of the carriage.

As the business card of Guanzhong, Xi'an City is a famous city in history, and its long history and majestic culture are fascinating.

The history of Xi'an is very long, but the history of Xi'an is not very long.

After the Yuan Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the rulers once demolished the city walls in various parts of the Jianghuai River on a large scale, because it was not conducive to the rule of the Mongols, which is also the reason why there were very few city walls in the Yuan Dynasty.

Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, many cities in the early Ming Dynasty rebuilt the walls demolished by the Yuan Dynasty.

Nanjing City Wall and Pingyao City Wall are the representative works left over from that era.

Fortunately, Xi'an is located in the northwest and has not been demolished.

During the Hongwu period, in order to strengthen the defense of Xi'an City, an important town in the northwest, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to expand Xi'an City on the basis of the imperial city of Chang'an City in Tang Dynasty, and began an eight-year restoration.

Due to the huge project, the city wall of Xi'an City in the Ming Dynasty has always been a structure of yellow rammed earth, and this style is out of place in the Ming Dynasty, which used a large number of blue bricks to build the city.

Therefore, it was not until the Longqing period that Zhang Zhi, the governor of Shaanxi, went to the Longqing Emperor to wrap the thousand-year-old earthen city wall of Xi'an with city bricks, which was also the first bricklaying in the history of the Xi'an city wall.

Zhang Zhi believes that although the rammed earth city wall is relatively strong, it cannot withstand the invasion of rain, and there are often records of rammed earth city walls collapsing and collapsing due to heavy rains or floods.

The city wall is covered with bricks, which can not only improve waterproofing, but also play a defensive role in battle.

Such a proposal was approved by the Longqing Emperor Zhu Zaikun, so the reinforcement of the Xi'an city wall was also carried out in the same year.

After gaining the approval of the Longqing Emperor, Zhang Zhi used a large number of special blue bricks in Xi'an City.

This kind of brick is larger than the general building bricks, weighing up to dozens of catties, and the volume is close to the eight red bricks of later generations.

Because the circumference of the Xi'an city wall in the Ming Dynasty was nearly 14 kilometers, the amount of bricks used was huge, so more than 26 million bricks were used for such city bricks.

In order to make the bricks of the Xi'an city wall tightly and firmly bonded together, Zhang Zhi used lime and glutinous rice juice as binders to bond the city bricks, which is why it can be preserved to future generations.

In addition to the city bricks, Zhang Zhi also dug deep into the moat of Xi'an, so that Xi'an no longer experienced the pain of heavy rain and water accumulation.

】

After Zhang Zhi, the governors of Shaanxi Province also continued to improve the defense of Xi'an City, and by the end of Wanli, the local defense projects tended to be perfect.

When Sun Chuanting took office as the Northwest Economic Strategy and served as the political envoy of Shaanxi at the same time, he continued to strengthen the original Xi'an City and added 200 Yanshan five-pound cannons.

Moreover, for the market towns outside Xi'an, Sun Chuanting also used the method of building rammed earth walls to encircle them.

In peacetime, this high, rammed-earth wall was conducive to collecting taxes and tracking down fugitives.

In times of war, these rammed-earth walls protected the market town from invasion.

Although in this way, when passing outside Xi'an, Zhu Youzhen could not see the style and style of the market town, but he had to praise:

"There is a lack of timber in Guanzhong, and it is not easy to find wood to attack the city to protect the market town, which is a good way, but it is ......"

Zhu Youzhen praised and said: "But in the future, it will definitely be the era of firearms." ”

"At present, the frequency of firearms can reach more than ten rounds per minute, and in case the frequency of artillery can also reach more than ten rounds per minute in the future, the defensive role of the city wall will inevitably be greatly reduced."

"As for the city wall, it is enough to repair and preserve the city wall in the interior on the original basis, and there is no need to expand it."

Zhu Youzhen was not ready to build the city wall on a large scale, and Sun Chuanting also shook his head when he heard the words and said that he knew.

The carriage that the two of them rode quickly entered the Anyuan Gate of Xi'an, and the people entering and exiting the city gate were a little sparse, which also showed the population of Xi'an City.

"How many people live in Xi'an?"

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but ask when he looked at the sparse flow of people, and at the same time, the carriage also drove directly onto the road of the city wall.

"There are more than 30,000 people in the outer city, more than 140,000 in the main city, and less than 20,000 in the market towns outside the city, totaling about 200,000."

The two got off after the carriage went up the city wall, and Sun Chuanting also roughly stated the population of Xi'an City.

"When the drought passes, the people of Shaanxi should be much more comfortable."

The two walked on the road of the city wall of Anyuan Gate and looked at the neighborhoods in the city, Sun Chuanting looked at the sparse population in the city and couldn't help but speak, and Zhu Youzhen bowed his head slightly in approval.

At present, although Shaanxi's cultivated land has been sharply reduced due to the severe drought and many dry lands have been abandoned, paddy fields and irrigated land still reach more than 19 million mu, with a population of less than 4.4 million.

When the drought passes, the more than 20 million mu of dry land will be recultivated, and the people of Shaanxi will be able to live a daily meat diet like Yunnan, Guichuan and Sichuan.

The population of more than 4 million is already a lot, and Zhu Youzhen is not prepared to let it be lowered further, otherwise it will affect the rule of the Western Regions and Central Asia in the future.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen also spoke: "I am ready to launch a western expedition in the summer of the nineteenth year of the Apocalypse to recover the Western Regions. ”

"I still have to rely on you in this battle, and after this battle, I also hope that you will return to the capital and serve as the deputy assistant of the cabinet."

Zhu Youzhen's words were in his ears, and Sun Chuanting could only respond after hearing it.

He didn't wonder why he was only a cabinet assistant, because he understood that this was Zhu Youzhen's means to protect him.

If he becomes the first assistant of the cabinet, with his character, he will definitely not die well.

He is the second assistant, Hong Chengchou is the first assistant, Yang Wenyue, Wu Aheng, Shen Tingyang, Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru and others are the assistants, this lineup is the best, at least to ensure the peace of the Ming Dynasty for 20 years.

Sun Chuanting, who knew everything, had already been prepared, but he still needed to discuss it with Zhu Youzhen about sending troops to recover the Western Regions.

"If the army is sent in the summer of the nineteenth year, then the situation in the Western Regions will require at least ten cavalry battalions from the north and south."

"In the case of Hexi, if you want to send out seven cavalry battalions, you must provide at least 100,000 people, no less than 100,000 horses, and no less than 2 million stone of rice and wheat."

"But in the case of the province alone, it is a little difficult to send out three battalions of cavalry."

Sun Chuanting talked about the issue of Hexi, and Zhu Youzhen had been preparing for this for a long time.

Since Qianlong's recovery of the Western Regions can be used as a reference, he has been developing Hexi to avoid the situation that Hexi could not even raise 20,000 soldiers and horses in history.

But even so, in the case of Hexi, it will be much easier to deal with because of the blessing of the train.

At present, Sichuan has a surplus of more than 30 million stone rice and wheat every year, and as long as Sichuan does not experience drought in the 19th year of the Apocalypse, it will not be difficult to rely on trains to transport 2 million rice and wheat to Hexi.

Zhu Youzhen and Sun Chuanting are both worried about the same, that is, the situation in the province alone.

Historically, the Northern Route Army that wiped out Dzungaria was better than the Southern Route Army, mainly because there were three major Khalkha departments to supply the Qing army with nomadic supplies.

The Qing army could supply nomadically, and the Ming army could naturally do it.

"The problem of the province alone is not big, it can be like the nomadic supply of the Mongols, and the three battalions of cavalry only need to bring more than 1,000 herdsmen, more than 10,000 cattle and sheep and 60,000 or 70,000 stone rice and wheat to reach Hami."

"The northern captives of the Western Regions have a lot of cultivated land in the local area, and the amount is not less than one million mu."

"As long as the 100,000 people of the Southern Route Army carry 4,000 tractors with the army, they can take care of millions of acres of land, and it is not difficult to raise 30,000 soldiers and horses for a long time."

"The difficulty now lies in whether the province alone can produce those 60,000 or 70,000 stone rice and wheat."

Zhu Youzhen said the key point of the matter, sixty or seventy thousand stone rice and wheat does not seem to be much, but if they want to start the Western Regions in the year after tomorrow, then they will have to start transporting grain to the local area this year and next year.

Even if Modong transports grain to Shan Yu, and Beizhili transports grain to Modong, it will take more than half a year.

Transporting 60,000 stone rice and wheat from Kaiping Mansion in Modong Province to Yanran City, the westernmost part of Shan Yu Province, is a full 3,000 miles.

And in order to prevent 60,000 stones from being enough, the war may be scorched, and the Ming army must at least hoard 120,000 stones of grain in Yanran City.

If there are still 120,000 stone of rice and wheat when it arrives again, the amount of rice and wheat that can be shipped cannot be less than 400,000 stone.

400,000 stone is not a small amount for Modong, and the number of people who go out to transport grain cannot be less than 20,000, and 40,000 horses are needed, and they need to be transported twice before and after.

This process was too cumbersome, and Zhu Youzhen preferred to directly transport the tractor over and reclaim the fields in the local area to meet the needs of the expedition to the west, so his plan needed to change.

Thinking so, he looked at Lu Yuangao, who was on the horse road, and instructed him:

"This year, more than 20,000 tractors were shipped to Jiugang and the four provinces outside the Guanwai Province, all of which were shipped to Yanran County, Shanyu Prefecture."

"Tell Cao Bianjiao and Li Dingguo that I will see Yanran County hoarding 60,000 stone of grain in the spring of the nineteenth year, and no less than 120,000 stone in the autumn harvest."

"Yes!" Lu Yuangao instinctively responded.

Seeing this, Zhu Youzhen also looked back at Sun Chuanting: "Taking the Western Regions is only the first step, and the migration of the population is the top priority." ”

"There are more than 600,000 Mongols in the Western Regions, and it is impossible to slaughter them blindly, I want to send troops when Hutudun is about to unify the Western Regions, and then let him move west with hundreds of thousands of Mongols."

"For the Mongols who remained, I am going to move them to Qinghai, and as for Hexi, I want to move no less than a million people to the Western Regions."

"Do you think with the power of Hexi, can you do this?"

Zhu Youzhen looked at Sun Chuanting and waited for his response.

Faced with his question, Sun Chuanting also replied after a short thought:

"The migration of millions of people will do great harm to Hexi, which has developed with great difficulty, and it will take at least two or three years to restore the output before the migration."

"If the Western Regions don't need Hexi to transfer grain, it won't be a problem."

"Xia Guan's suggestion is to divide it into five years and move 200,000 people to the Western Regions every year, so that it will do the least harm to Hexi."

"Moreover, judging from the millions of acres of arable land and large pastures in the Western Regions, it can only feed five or six hundred thousand people, and the advantage of slowly relocating is that if the situation is not right, it can be stopped immediately."

"......" Hearing Sun Chuanting's words, Zhu Youzhen was slightly silent.

Sun Chuanting can understand why Zhu Youzhen is silent, because his proposal conflicts with Zhu Youzhen's affairs.

The reason Zhu Youzhen's insistence on moving the population as soon as possible was that he would be a vassal at around the twenty-third year of the Apocalypse, so he had to take the Western Regions in the nineteenth year, and then take Western Siberia and the Transoxiana region before the twenty-third year.

If you want to take these places, you need at least a million people to support them.

According to Sun Chuanting's five-year migration, it would take at least twenty-three years of the Apocalypse to make the Western Regions have a million people.

Although this did not cause much harm to Hexi and the Western Regions, it also meant that Zhu Youzhen could not leave the Ming Dynasty in 23 years, because it would take at least one year to take Western Siberia and the Hezhong region, and it would take two or three years to consolidate the rule of the Ming Dynasty there.

It will take at least nine or even ten years before and after, but Zhu Youzhen only has five years after 19 years and beyond.

He had to do ten years in five years, which meant he couldn't think too much about it.

He didn't know that moving too many people in one go would hurt Hexi's economic situation, but he couldn't keep it going.

"Let's talk about the migration, starting this year, I will ask Sichuan to transport 2 million stone rice wheat to Jiayuguan after the autumn harvest every year."

Zhu Youzhen was ready to put this matter on hold and solve the grain problem first.

After all, whether it is a war or a migration of people, the grain in Hexi is far from enough to consume, and it must be supplied by Sichuan.

Fortunately, the railway in Sichuan has been repaired to the Deyang area of Chengdu Prefecture, and it should be able to be repaired to the north of Chengdu by the time of the autumn harvest.

As a result, the starting point is closer and the cost will be lower.

"The Western Regions, Hezhong, and Lingbei must be well controlled, and don't follow the example of Xuande who abandoned Annan."

Zhu Youzhen explained to Sun Chuanting, after all, he was the second assistant to the cabinet he chose for Daming in the future.

As long as Sun Chuanting insists, then Hong Chengchou will most likely not give up these places.

More than 20 years is enough time for trains to be repaired to these places, and it is even more impossible for Daming to give up these places.

"Xia Guan understands ......"

Sun Chuanting saluted and said that he should go, and Zhu Youzhen was very satisfied when he saw this, and he didn't talk about any state affairs, but talked about family affairs.

He asked Sun Chuanting how his two sons were, and Sun Chuanting only returned to study at the official school in Shanxi, and it could be seen that he didn't want his sons to take any shortcuts, otherwise in his situation, he could have sent his two sons to Beijing to study at the official school.

"It's not a good thing to be pedantic, let's train them well, the worst is to bring them to Xi'an, you take care of them personally."

Zhu Youzhen didn't recognize Sun Chuanting's stubbornness, but he also knew that if Sun Chuanting wasn't so stubborn, then he wouldn't be Sun Chuanting.

"Your Highness has heard about the prince's imprisonment?"

"Haha...... Naturally, I know. Hearing about the eldest nephew's prison country, Zhu Youzhen couldn't hold back his laughter.

He could already think of his eldest nephew's appearance of crying and dealing with Song Shu with a sad face now, especially when he learned that Li Dingguo was transferred to Yanran City, it was estimated that his mood was more uncomfortable than his four-wheeled car being smashed.

"How is the prince compared to Banzai?"

Sun Chuanting asked about Zhu Ciran's personality and style of doing things, obviously he didn't like Zhu Youxiao's character of throwing the government to the cabinet and the six ministries.

After all, he is a stubborn person, so what he likes is the emperor who handles government affairs diligently every day, and he has a headache for an emperor like Zhu Youxiao.

"Don't worry, the prince has more responsibilities than Banzai."

Zhu Youxiao knew that Sun Chuanting had a headache, so he comforted him and said Zhu Ciran's general character.

"That's really a blessing for the country......" Sun Chuanting breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but be speechless in his heart.

His eldest nephew is a little responsible, but the content is not high......