"Sigh the law ......"

At the beginning of July, there is no doubt that this season is the most beautiful time for the grassland, and this time is also the most beautiful time for the Western Regions.

Autumn in Xinjiang is later than in the Central Plains, so the grassland north of Broken Leaf City in early July is still like a colorful and beautiful carpet stretching out into the distance, full of green.

In the 17th century, the grasslands in the northern part of Shattered Leaf City were full of wildflowers and abundant water and grass, ushering in the most beautiful time of the year.

The scenery here is picturesque, the temperature is cool and comfortable, and the air is fresh and natural.

A team of more than 100 Ming cavalry under the banner of "Li", accompanied by broken leaves and water, inspected the Ming border defense line.

On both sides of the water are lush mountain steppes and river valley grasslands, from the foot of the mountain to the mountainside spruce dense forest, green and straight, herds of cattle and sheep, horses and white Kazakh yurts scattered on the grassland, and the snow-capped mountains in the distance are faintly visible, moving easy to see.

Riding the horse up a small hill, I saw the Tianshan Mountains in the south, surrounded by mountains, high mountains and flowing water, surrounded by vast natural grasslands, and dotted with yurt houses on it.

The white clouds of sheep and the young shepherds made people feel quiet.

This beautiful scenery is in full view, so that the soldiers patrolling the border can fully appreciate the artistic conception of "being at the top of the mountain, and seeing the mountains at a glance".

The snow-capped mountains, the lush spruce, the green grasslands, and the leisurely cattle and sheep are all in the same frame, which makes people can't help but sigh at the beauty of Anxi.

A young soldier dismounted and washed his face with cool broken leaf water, and when he returned to the horse, another slightly older soldier rode over and stretched out his hand to pull him on.

"You two brothers, don't relax too much, after all, this is a frontier, and there will still be northern captives from time to time."

Seeing the leisurely appearance of these two people, a young general in the distance shouted to the two, and the two hurriedly laughed and rode over.

"Don't worry, we are vigilant."

Under the helmet, the young man, whose skin was slightly reddened and blackened, raised his head, revealing his familiar face.

】

"How? Can you still adapt to the military just now? Do you want to go home crying? ”

Facing these two people, Li Dingguo, who was under the word "Li" in Zhuma, looked at the two in front of him and smiled slightly.

"Nope!" The two boys were categorical and complained to Li Dingguo:

"You don't know what my eldest brother asks us to do every day, he can travel south by himself, and my brothers have only left Beizhili so far."

The conversation between the two boys revealed their identities, and if you look closely, aren't they Zhu Cijiong, who is the eternal king, and Zhu Cijiong, who is the king of Ding.

"This Anxi is vast, and it makes people happier than in the capital, except for missing my mother, I don't want to go back at other times."

Zhu Ciyan was dressed in cloth armor and smiled extremely happily.

Zhu Cijiong next to him is less talkative and more thoughtful, so he often nods and smiles in agreement, indicating that his thoughts are the same.

"You two are much better off than he is."

Li Dingguo said that the two of them couldn't help but think of the cheap little black fat man in his memory, and a smile appeared on his face.

He was about to say something when a team of ponds rode horses in the distance, which immediately attracted everyone's attention.

The Tang who arrived rode on horseback to salute, and then handed out a bamboo tube to pass the military order:

"General soldier, news from the Fusi Division of Beizhen, Hudun Rabbit in the north took advantage of the summer to attack Kazakhstan and annex the two divisions of Da and Zhongyuzi."

"Got it......" Hearing the news, Li Dingguo quickly took it and took a look, and then just replied with a good word.

Zhu Ciyan, who didn't understand, couldn't help asking: "Don't we respond?" ”

"The order of the Governor's Office is not to respond for the time being." Li Dingguo replied, and then said to Zhu Cijian and Zhu Cijiong, two "recruit eggs" who only have a theoretical understanding of military affairs:

"In the future, whether you are a king or a general, you must remember that the military order is like a mountain."

"Yes!" Hearing this, the two hurriedly responded, and this scene did not have any impact on the soldiers and generals around them.

The enlistment of the vassal kings and the children of the clan into the army has been a thing since the fifth year of the Apocalypse.

For the generals and soldiers of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, what is this king and that king, when they enter the barracks, they only look at their military positions, and nothing else is useless.

"Back to Broken Leaf City."

After reading the military report, Li Dingguo turned his horse's head and prepared to stop the inspection and return to Broken Leaf City.

Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cijiong, as their personal guards, also immediately blew the wooden whistle to inform the cavalry resting in place to assemble.

After a while, the scattered cavalry regrouped, and they also began to make their way back to Shattered Leaf City to the south.

After driving all the way from the grassland in the north to the south, after driving for more than ten miles in a row, people who were cultivating fields began to appear in the distance.

They operate tractors in groups of three, trying to clear more fields before winter arrives.

As an important town for the westward expansion, Broken Leaf City was the top priority of the Anxi and Northern Army's arrangement.

As a result, concrete roads and city walls have been built, and canals to irrigate fields have been dredged one by one with the cooperation of the military and the people.

So far, this place, which has only been regained for more than 20 months, has now been revitalized.

Tens of thousands of people using tractors worked in the fields, with Broken Leaf City as the center, and reclaimed the land in all directions.

"According to this posture, before planting in the spring of next year, the cultivated land in Broken Leaf City should be able to exceed 200,000 mu."

Li Dingguo looked at the grand situation of the peasants in the fields, and sighed in his heart.

In the face of his exclamation, Zhu Ciyan, who has been a personal soldier for a month, also said where he heard the news in the Yamen of Broken Leaf City:

"I heard from Governor Chen that there are already 160,000 mu of cultivated land in Broken Leaf County, and for the 20,000 people in Broken Leaf City, 60,000 mu of land can feed them, and the remaining 100,000 mu can support the army's westward expedition."

"It's just Brother Li, do you think Uncle Ming will really order the recovery of the Hanzhong region?"

"Yes!" Li Dingguo responded without thinking, because he knew that Zhu Youzhen had already made a decision.

"Recently, many people in the army are worried that if my uncle is gone, the national policy of the imperial court will change."

Zhu Cijiong, who had not spoken, spoke amazingly, but such a thing did not make Li Dingguo feel strange.

Since the "Daming Daily" published that the King of Qi may be a vassal in the 23rd or 24th year of the Apocalypse, there has been a lot of controversy among the people and the army about this matter.

Especially since last year, after the drought that swept nearly sixty percent of the cultivated land and nearly seventy percent of the population of the Ming Dynasty came, many people felt that the King of Qi would not leave the Ming Dynasty at this juncture.

The damage caused by the drought to Daming is very great, and the abandonment of the fields in the Central Plains alone is enough to be busy for a long time.

Therefore, in the eyes of many people, there is a high probability that the King of Qi will not be a vassal for the time being, and he should re-push the Ming Dynasty to the prosperous era, and then think about the matter of becoming a vassal.

But Li Dingguo knows very well that no one can change what Zhu Youzhen decides.

Moreover, the work of tackling the problem after many years of severe drought will also be a great achievement.

Give this merit to Zhu Ciran and stabilize Zhu Ciran's position as the crown prince, and the Ming Dynasty can prosper for several more decades.

As a child of a farmer, Li Dingguo actually felt at this moment that if the drought could last for a few more years, it would be a good choice.

At least there is a drought, and Zhu Youzhen will not leave for the time being.

But he also knows that Zhu Youzhen's understanding of astronomy is much higher than that of the world, and since Zhu Youzhen has decided to leave, it means that the drought will also end.

After the drought ended, what he wanted to do in Daming had already been done......

"Woohoo!"

Entering the gate of Broken Leaf City, a few children with kites were running and releasing them, they were not afraid of the soldiers guarding the city at all, which was in stark contrast to the Ming army's style in the Wanli period.

Entering Broken Leaf City, because it is a border military city, and there is no industry of its own, there are not many merchants doing business in Broken Leaf City, and they are basically ordinary people and soldiers living here.

All the buildings in the city have been bulldozed, and most of the newly built houses are made of concrete, which makes the houses in Broken Leaf City very different from those in the Central Plains.

The houses in Shattered Leaf City are biased towards the courtyard houses of later generations, and although there are also wood paint and white paint whitewash, when you get closer, you can still see that the whole house is made of cement.

It does not have the simplicity and elegance of traditional Ming Dynasty architecture, but for the people of the northwest, such houses can be preserved for a longer time.

The military camp of the Ming army was placed in the northwest corner of Broken Leaf City by Li Dingguo, so that the army could climb to the top of the city in time to defend against the enemy when encountering foreign enemies.

The military camp, which covers an area of more than 600 acres, occupies almost a quarter of the area of Broken Leaf City, and there are more than 9,000 soldiers in three battalions stationed in it.

The barracks has two gates, the east gate and the south gate, and the north and west sides are next to the city wall, so you can quickly access the city wall through the horse road.

Walking into the barracks, everyone was asked to hand over their bullets, even Li Dingguo.

After entering the barracks, what catches your eye is naturally the school field for exercising endurance, and the four-story concrete duplex building in the distance, which resembles the teaching buildings of later generations, is the dormitory of the soldiers of Broken Leaf City.

Such a building is five zhang high, the height of each floor is one zhang and one foot, the area is one acre per building, and each floor has twenty dormitories, each dormitory lives four soldiers.

The dormitory has toilets and washstands, and the area is about 30 square meters in later generations, and such a dormitory building can accommodate 320 people, and there are 30 such buildings in the barracks.

"You guys go back to the dormitory to unload your armor first, and I'll see you in the big cafeteria later."

Li Dingguo turned to speak to more than 100 cavalrymen, then turned over and dismounted, leaving the horses to Zhu Ciyan and them.

Zhu Ciyun and his enlistment official position was the chief flag officer, so after they arranged for someone to bring the horses back to the stable, they took their respective brothers and returned to the dormitory building with a smile.

Zhu Ciyan lived with the three captains in his banner, and the four of them found their dormitory building.

The four of them lived on the fourth floor to observe the situation in the barracks.

While talking and laughing, the four floors climbed up, and since it was afternoon, the soldiers were patrolling outside the city, so there was no one in the dormitory.

When you open the dormitory door, you will see four neatly arranged beds, four desks and chairs, and corresponding wardrobes, armor and stomach shelves.

After entering the dormitory, the four of them took off their armor and stomachs.

The armor stomach of the Ming army actually began to be restructured after the rifle equipment in the thirteenth year of the Apocalypse, and it was divided into two sets: summer and winter.

In winter, it is cloth armor, and in summer, it is paper armor.

After the winter cloth armor has been improved, most of the nail pieces have been removed, and the weight of the armor stomach has been reduced to fifteen catties, making it easier to wear than before.

As for the summer paper armor that Zhu Ciyan and they are wearing now, it is made of hard cloth bones, and then prevaricated with paper tendons and iron sheets, and the overall weight is also controlled within 15 catties.

Because of its light weight, it can be easily worn by oneself.

No, after the four of them took off their stomachs and hung them on the stomach racks, they simply walked towards the toilet next to the balcony one by one.

"In this weather, you have to take a cool shower."

"I knew I would have taken a shower outside the city and come back."

"It's too late to say anything now, hurry up and wash up and go to the big canteen to get ready for dinner."

The three teams were talking and laughing into the toilet, and Zhu Ciyan also walked in shirtless after taking off his armor and mandarin duck jacket.

The four faucets are what they use for bathing, which can produce hot water or cold water, and the key depends on how to adjust it.

However, hot water is only available when the sun is out, and the main source is the iron water towers on the top of the dormitory buildings.

When the tower is heated by the sun, the water inside boils, and the residual heat usually lasts until midnight.

Therefore, normally speaking, the soldiers have hot baths to take during the sun-out season.

Soon after the four of them walked into the toilet, they took a shower.

During this period, Zhu Ciyan ran out, hugged his mandarin duck jacket inside, and washed his clothes while taking a bath.

Seeing him like a chicken thief, other teams are also following suit.

They knew that Zhu Ciyan was a clan, but they didn't know that Zhu Ciyan was the emperor's lineage.

After all, there are many clans with the word "Ci", and the team members only think that Zhu Ciyan has a good background, but they don't think in the direction of the emperor's son, so everyone is quite fun.

"Cool!"

After two quarters of an hour, after washing, the four of them also walked out with the washed clothes, wrung out the clothes on the balcony in pairs, and hung them on the balcony to dry.

"I guess I'll be able to do it in the evening." Feeling the "heat wave" blowing, Zhu Ciyan and the four of them lay down on their respective beds, some of them were reading, and some of them were already snoring.

Zhu Ciyan didn't sleep, but wiped his paper armor clean.

After all this, his hair was almost dry, so without thinking he walked to the mirror in the closet and tied his long hair up.

Zhu Youzhen did not copy the things of later generations, for the problem of tying hair in the army, he adopted that soldiers need to trim their hair, and it is best not to exceed the position of the chest.

Hair in this position can be tied up, but the amount of hair after bunching will not be as large and will not affect the wearing of the helmet.

People in this era don't think there is anything about hair trimming, although it is said that "the body hair and skin are the parents", but normal trimming is okay.

After tying up his hair, Zhu Ciyan changed into a cleaned mandarin duck battle jacket, and then picked up the military books written by his Uncle Qi Wang and flipped through them.

Time passed little by little, and I don't know how long it was, until the bell rang in the barracks, and some sleeping soldiers got up one after another.

"Starving! It's finally time to eat. ”

A team that had slept like dead pigs a second ago was screaming to get up, and their hair was messy.

But as long as you tie up your hair, your image will instantly improve a lot.

After changing into mandarin duck jackets, Zhu Ciyan took them down the dormitory building and rushed towards the big canteen collectively.

It is now unitary hour (5 p.m.), and the large canteen will be open from now until midnight, until the soldiers of the night vigil have eaten, and they will rest until midnight the next day.

The time when the soldiers and horses returned to the camp was different, so the meal time was also staggered.

The big cafeteria is not too far from the dormitory building, only a hundred steps away, so the smell of the food has long been wafting out.

On the way to the canteen, Zhu Cijiong also met Zhu Cijiong who took his brother to the canteen.

The two groups of people gathered together, and then walked into the large canteen covering an area of nearly two acres.

There was already a queue at the windows, and the large cafeteria, which could accommodate 2,000 people at the same time, was divided into two floors, but the dishes were all the same.

The people in line also met Li Dingguo, as the chief soldier, he didn't have too many shelves, mingled with the soldiers, and talked and laughed.

Zhu Ciyan and the others lined up for a few minutes, and when they arrived at the window, there were not many types of dishes in the window.

Fried fish with broken leaf water, stir-fried cabbage, fried potatoes, fried chicken with tomatoes, plus ordinary fried pork and fried chicken, this is the food of the soldiers of Broken Leaf Town.

Although Shattered Leaf City is completely self-sufficient, it does not eat badly.

160,000 acres of cultivated land can raise the more than 30,000 soldiers and civilians in the city for nothing, after all, if there is more grain, there is no need to transport it to other cities, but to stay to make fodder and feed livestock.

Of course, not every army can eat the same as the soldiers of Shattered Leaf City, and the key depends on the local situation.

Their kind of food, placed in the frontier soldiers, is already considered to be excellent.

"That's all you need today?"

Seeing that his younger brother Zhu Cijiong only ate half a bowl of food, Zhu Cijiong was a little surprised.

Of course, this so-called bowl is a three-catty bowl, and people who don't work normally eat the bottom of the bowl, even if the people who work are just half a bowl.

However, for the soldiers in the army, it is the norm to eat one catty of rice and two catties of vegetables for one meal.

After all, as soon as you get out of the barracks, you will have to go out with more than ten catties of armor and more than ten catties of weapons, and you will have to patrol dozens of miles before you can return, and you will generally eat two breads at noon, so eating three catties of food for dinner is already considered convergent.

"I ate three at noon, and I accumulated food, so I will eat less at this time."

Zhu Cijiong was also helpless to his brother, so he could only answer honestly.

Zhu Cijun also had a smile on his face when he saw that he was joking with his younger brother, and then found Li Dingguo with Zhu Ciyan.

Li Dingguo was sitting with more than a dozen chief flag officers for dinner at the moment, and everyone was talking about some things they encountered during the border patrol.

"The northern captives have been using troops against Kazakhstan recently, and they are more honest, and there are no sentry horses to patrol the border."

"Whatever he has, get close and raise his gun and shoot."

The commander-in-chief flag officers in the army are relatively young, after all, they also belong to the category of junior officers, and most of them are twenty-seven or eighteen years old.

Although they look relatively young, most of them are veterans who joined the army after graduating from official school at the age of seventeen or eighteen and have been in the army for more than ten years.

Zhu Ciji and Zhu Cijiong still have to learn from them many times, after all, military affairs are not only theoretical.

"There may be a war next year, so you can prepare for it yourself after eating, and from this month onwards, you will add two shooting drills every month."

Li Dingguo listened to the words of the garrison and the chief flag officer, and also told them about the additional training.

"Yes!" Hearing this, many generals were gearing up, obviously eager for military exploits.

For them, shooting training is one of the training that can be "lazy".

Compared with wearing more than a dozen catties of armor and stomach and hanging more than a dozen catties of weapons on his body for long-distance running and horseback riding, lying on the ground or sitting on a horse and raising a gun to shoot is relatively easy training.

What's more, due to the problem of military production capacity, each shooting training is only a hundred rounds of ammunition per person, except for the time it takes to clean the gun chamber after shooting, normal training does not take up too much time.

"Okay, I'm done, you can eat it yourself."

Li Dingguo stood up, said hello, and then turned to leave.

After he left, everyone's conversation began to change to daily life, basically talking about vacations and some things at home, or some interesting things in the patrol.

Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cijiong listened with relish, and after hearing that everyone had eaten about the same, the two of them picked up the bowl and washed it and put it away, and then walked side by side in the barracks to prepare to eliminate food.

"This place is much more fun than the Forbidden City."

Zhu Cijiong, who was alone with Zhu Cijiong, relaxed a lot, and Zhu Cijiong nodded when he heard this: "At most, I am physically tired every day, but I am not very mentally tired." ”

"It's when I'm dealing with the big brother that it's tiring and uncomfortable."

"Yes......" Zhu Ciyan couldn't help nodding in approval:

"I kind of know why Uncle Qi is always smiling, it's not that he likes to keep his face, but after that music is dealt with too much, people are tense."

"In my opinion, the eldest brother is not as comfortable as you and me, at least you and I can have our own time to read books and play in addition to training every day."

"On the other hand, eldest brother, since the end of the southern tour, he has been trapped in the Forbidden City, where can he come to Broken Leaf City thousands of miles away."

Zhu Cijiong said complacently, but Zhu Cijiong suddenly remembered something when he heard this, and frowned:

"Second brother, I'm still worried about my uncle's affairs."

"You and I have been in the army for so long, and sixty percent of the generals in this army who have been on the top of the garrison are basically related to the Yanshan faction."

"If my uncle really leaves Beijing, he will ...... the domain"

Zhu Cijiong didn't continue, but Zhu Cijiong could guess what he meant.

He couldn't help frowning, and then rubbed his brow with his hand: "That's what I'm worried about now. ”

"But there's nothing I can do about it at the moment."

"However, I believe that Brother Li must have a way, no, there are still the southern army and the western army to support us, and there should be no chaos."

"And ......" said and said, Zhu Ciyan showed a little helplessness:

"You have to write a letter with me, so that my father can go back to Beijing as soon as possible and take over some of the power from my uncle, otherwise my uncle will suddenly hand over power, and I'm afraid the whole Ming Dynasty will be a mess."

"Alas...... Actually, I hope my uncle doesn't give up. ”

Zhu Cijiong's words made Zhu Cijiong silent, after all, compared to Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youzhen taught them more truths and thought more about them.

Thinking of this, even Zhu Cijiong's meticulous temperament couldn't help but sigh:

"Let's see what my uncle is going to do first......"