On the third day of the winter month of the 24th year of the Apocalypse, Sun Chengzong, the former chief assistant of the cabinet, died at the age of 81.

As the emperor's teacher, after cabinet deliberation, Zhu Youxiao issued an order to posthumously call him Wenzhong.

Sun Chengzong's death disrupted Zhu Ciran's plans.

He didn't believe that Sun Chengzong and Hong Chengchou would do anything to overturn the case for the corrupt officials in the four major cases, but Sun Chengzong's death made him have to increase his suspicion of Hong Chengchou.

Hong Chengchou was well aware of these suspicions, so in the middle of the Chang Dynasty on the tenth day of the first month of winter, Hong Chengchou, as the first assistant to the cabinet, ordered provincial officials to recount the list of officials and their families who committed the four major crimes.

Hong Chengchou used actions to express his position, and Zhu Youxiao, who got the news, also sent someone to the East Palace to ask Zhu Ciran to suspend the investigation of the "burning of the four major cases", and the matter was handed over to the cabinet for disposal.

Zhu Ciran was unwilling, but he was only the prince after all, so he could only reluctantly hand over the matter to the cabinet.

On the 17th of the twelfth lunar month, the provincial political envoys recounted the number of officials and their families who had committed the four major crimes, but some officials of the criminal department played a recital, saying that the number of people in the new list was less than 90% of the original.

It's just that one percent of the omission doesn't seem to be much, but for the more than two million people involved in these four major cases, even if it's just one percent, it represents the escape of more than 200,000 people.

It's not that this group of people can't find out, but they don't want to find good people.

The convicts did not escape, but it is not known whether their children were able to escape......

Zhu Ciran had the heart to put his mind on this, but he didn't have Zhu Youzhen's mental strength after all.

At the tail of the wax moon, Lin Dan Khan sent his envoys to play the heavenly hearing, the army training was completed, and the second western expedition against the Crimean Khanate would be launched on the second day of the first month of March.

The first expedition to the west was already in April, and although the war lasted only a month before it was interrupted by reinforcements from the Ottoman Empire, Lin Dan Khan still plundered more than 300,000 taels worth of cattle, sheep, horses, gold, silver and precious stones, as well as more than 100,000 people from the Crimean Khanate.

However, due to the timely reinforcements of the Ottomans and the lack of gunpowder, Lin Dan Khan did not get too many cities and land, and the main grazing areas of the herdsmen under his command were still sold to the pastoral areas of Taixi Province of the Ming Dynasty.

Lin Dan Khan complained about the difficulties, and Zhu Youxiao did not embarrass him, after all, Mongolia is now the northwest Ping Domain of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youxiao allowed the herdsmen under Lin Dan Khan to graze in Taixi Province, but only until the end of the Second Western Expedition.

Zhu Youxiao was not worried that Lin Dan Khan would occupy the magpie's nest, after all, only Da Ming would provide them with gunpowder.

Without gunpowder, Lin Dan Khan's newly trained 50,000 flintlock lancers were useless.

Lin Dan Khan is not stupid, he understands his situation.

Since he chose to be a dog, at least before he is strong, he has to be obedient and obedient.

This time he sent someone to play, just to show that he did not have the intention of occupying the magpie's nest.

At the same time, he also offered the last seized cattle, horses, sheep, and gold, silver and jewelry worth 300,000 taels as tributary gifts.

Zhu Youxiao was quite satisfied with his gift, and Zhu Ciran also knew what Lin Danhan wanted when he saw this, so he asked the Anxi Gunpowder Bureau to transfer 300 tons of customized black powder as a return gift.

Three hundred tons of black powder sounds like a lot, but the cost is only 36,000 taels, which is not worth mentioning compared to the value of Lin Dan Khan's tributary gifts.

But even with so much gunpowder, for the war, I am afraid it is only the consumption of a Mongolian expedition to the west.

In order to make Mongolia no longer like the first expedition to the west, because of logistics and dare not go deeper, Zhu Ciran also allocated 10,000 stone of rice from Taixi Province to Lin Dan Khan.

The price of gunpowder and grain is only more than 40,000 taels, and Lin Dan Khan gave more than 300,000 taels, it seems that he has lost a lot, but he is also helpless.

The Ming Dynasty is the suzerain, and has the pricing power of trade in the suzerainty system, even if Lin Dan Khan knows that he is at a loss, he can't do anything.

At present, nearly three-thirds of the saltpeter consumed by gunpowder in the Western European war was provided by the Ming Dynasty, and the cost of gunpowder in European countries that can make gunpowder is basically not less than four coins of silver.

If it was sold to a Mongol like Lin Dan Khan, they might raise the price to eight pieces of silver.

This is still a situation where it can be bought, and the reality is that there is a shortage of gunpowder in the whole of Europe, and Lin Dan Khan has no place to buy it.

In this comparison, buying gunpowder from Daming is already a more affordable choice, and it can also show loyalty.

The Mongol envoy left the capital satisfied, and then arrived at the city of Anxi by train within half a month.

He chose to change to a horse-drawn carriage, and used the holy decree to ask for 300 tons of black powder from the Anxi Gunpowder Bureau, and took the gunpowder to Taixi Province.

On the third day of the second month of the 25th year of the Apocalypse, he arrived in Taixi Province, asked for 10,000 stone of rice with a holy decree, and then crossed the Volga River with a full load, completing his mission.

With gunpowder and food, Lin Dan Khan began to order his troops to prepare for war.

On the second day of the third month, Lin Dan Khan led 40,000 cavalry to launch the second western expedition, and the Crimean Khanate asked the Ottoman Empire for help.

On March 15, the Ottomans sent 25,000 reinforcements to support the Crimean Khanate.

During the same period, Zhu Fuju, the chief soldier of Anxi, led 6,000 cavalry to attack the Khyber Pass, and Ma Xianglin, the general soldier of Yunnan, led 6,000 cavalry out of the Bishui Pass of Zhou, and two cavalry units swept the east and west sides of the Mughals.

When Shah Jahan heard the news, he ordered his eldest son, Shuko, and his third son, Aurangzeb, to each lead 50,000 troops against the enemy.

This time, however, the Ming army's goal was to destroy the villages and towns that served as small and medium-sized supply points, and to frustrate Mughal production.

So when Shuko and Aurangzeb arrived at the front on March 24 and March 27 respectively, they were left with nothing but scorched earth and messy horseshoe prints, as well as displaced untouchables.

In April, Zhu Fuju and Ma Xianglin led their troops back to Hezhong and Demasa, respectively.

In this battle, the two divisions captured more than 18,000 cattle and horses, and grain, gold and silver worth about 160,000 taels.

In terms of capture, this war is a small profit compared to the expenditure, but from a strategic point of view, it will take at least a year or two for the Mughals to restore local production if they want to send troops from the east and west.

And that's just the time it takes to restore local production, and it's the Mughals who are responsible for appeasing displaced people.

Although there are not many troops, but for a year or two in the southwest Taiping, this deal is undoubtedly made by the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that compared with the way when King Qi was in power, Zhu Ciran and Li Dingguo's small-scale way of sending troops made many generals in the army who could not share the merits complain.

On 26 April, Hong Chengchou, the first assistant to the cabinet, and Sun Chuanting, the second assistant to the cabinet, proposed that the 142 generals in the Governor's Office of the Five Armies be commended.

On 28 April, Zhu Youxiao issued an order to reward 142 general soldiers and staff generals of the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army with money, including 300 soldiers and 100 staff generals.

The money is modeled after one or two silver coins of the Apocalypse Tongbao, minted in gold.

After receiving the reward, the grievances in the governor's palace of the five armies subsided.

From this incident, many officials also saw clues.

Compared with the emperor, the crown prince is still too young, even if he has been in charge of the country for many years, he looks rather frizzy.

In addition, the emperor was just over forty years old and in good health, so many officials still chose not to express their support for the crown prince for the time being, but chose neutrality.

Although this did not bring difficulties to Zhu Ciran's career as a prisoner, it also made Zhu Ciran realize that government was not so easy, and he and Li Dingguo and others were still too young.

Therefore, in some major matters, Zhu Ciran is still mainly based on the opinions of his teacher Jin Xuan and his second assistant Sun Chuanting.

Such a choice made Zhu Ciran not go too far in the next six months, and after the incident, Donggong's position in the army was still stable.

In July of the same year, Gustav II led his army to besiege Vienna, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Battle of Vienna broke out.

At the beginning of the campaign, Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, advocated peace negotiations to end the war in Europe as soon as possible, which had been chaotic for twenty-seven years.

He played some role in bringing about a rapprochement between the imperial government and the German Protestant princes, especially Saxony, but France, Sweden, and Spain did not agree to the peace talks, which failed.

In July, 15,000 reinforcements from the Spanish Empire arrived in Vienna, bringing the Catholic League to 40,000 troops, while they faced a Protestant League of only 20,000.

In terms of numbers, the Catholic League forces had the upper hand, and with their backs to Vienna, the strategic goal of the coalition forces changed from "breaking the siege" to "counteroffensive".

But before they could be happy, the Prince of Condé of France arrived on the battlefield with 20,000 new French troops, and the battlefield again became 40,000 against 40,000.

In this situation, the Battle of Vienna, which was originally just a battle, escalated into the focus of the entire European theater.

Both sides wanted to gain an advantage on the battlefield and did not want their own side to play refueling tactics, so in the situation of maintaining a stalemate on the Western Front, various countries sent troops to support.

By the second day of September, the Protestant army, led by France and Sweden, had reached 64,000, and the Catholic army, led by Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, had reached 62,000.

In such a situation, the two sides still resisted the idea of firing the first shot first, and instead sought a fighter in their favor.

Prince Condé believed that the domestic economies of Spain and Austria and the Habsburg Empire could not sustain such a large army for a long time to fight a war of attrition against his own side.

However, after a month of continued stalemate, a piece of news broke the story of Prince Condé's plan.

On the 10th day of October, grain from Gyeonggi Province landed at the port of Adela on the Iberian Peninsula.

The first batch of grain was 200 tons of dried meat with a tonnage of Ming system, and they corresponded to a grain with a price of 100,000 taels.

These salted and sun-dried dried meat became the best supplies for Spain at the Battle of Vienna, and they were not the only ones.

October 11, October 13, October 15...... Qi State delivered 300 tons, 200 tons, and 300 tons of dried meat to the port of Adela respectively, totaling 800 tons.

The jerky worth 400,000 taels was transferred by the Spanish fleet to the Balkans, and then to the battlefield of Vienna.

When they arrived on the battlefield, Gruber, who received the quartermaster at the front, recorded in his diary what the soldiers looked like when they received the dried meat supplies on that day:

"They didn't think they would be able to eat such a delicious meal on a muddy battlefield, and everyone jumped with excitement."

"Even though I told them to eat it directly, it turned out that the soldiers had more ideas than I did."

"They threw the jerky cuts into the water, and soon a pot of broth appeared in front of us."

"The dried meat of Qi is rich in salt, pepper and a spicy spice that enriches the diet of the soldiers, which is perhaps the best thing we have eaten in the twenty-seven years since the outbreak of the war."

"There is no objection, it made the greatest contribution to our victory in the war!"

Gruber's diary is not wrong, the 1,000 tons of jerky transported by Qi before and after the Qi Kingdom enriched the diet of the Catholic League army, and these jerky alone kept Spain from worrying about food for the next month.

Not only that, in the follow-up trade materials, Qi kept its promise to transport the remaining 1.2 million stone wheat in the treaty this year to Adra.

When the news reached the front, the Protestant Union army was like a frosted eggplant, and it was in a state of collapse.

Sensing that something was wrong, Gustav II did not wait any longer, but fired the first shot of the battle in the early morning of November 24.

The Swedish army had a lot of experience in besieging the city, and within two days they had set up tents and camps outside Vienna.

A large number of coolies dug long trenches, completely severing the connection between the city and the outside of the city.

The hundred cannons brought by Gustav II, under the operation of the gunners of various armies, began to bombard the walls of Vienna continuously, but the rugged terrain of the Balkan mountains limited the transportation of Swedish siege guns.

In the absence of waterway facilities, the twelve-pounder guns of the Swedish army lagged far behind the main forces.

Due to the continuous implementation and upgrading of the fortress defense system in Europe since the 16th century, this system also greatly reduced the effectiveness of artillery fire.

On 25 November 1645 the Swedish army began to attack the city, but was quickly repulsed.

As a result, Gustav began to attack the city walls by means of tunnel blasting.

He adopted the parallel trench tactics that were popular in Europe at the time, using artillery to cover the sappers digging a trench near the corner, and then using the army to station the newly dug trench to cover the sweaty sappers to dig again.

When they advanced close enough, Swedish sappers dug tunnels, planted explosives, and detonated the foundations of the entire wall.

However, Spanish and Holy Roman Empire soldiers would also dig-for-tat tunnels and destroy tunnels or positions with explosives and other means.

In just ten days, the two sides joined forces to detonate more than 1,300 times.

The defenders of the Holy Roman Empire fought back with 200 guns of various types while trying to find a way to deal with the enemy's siege tunnels.

They continued to dig tunnels for counter-attacks against enemy sappers, and built new temporary barriers by inserting huge tree stumps into the earth.

After more than a month of stalemate, the Protestant Confederate army finally blew a huge gap in the walls of Vienna for thirty men to pass side by side.

A large number of religious cannon fodder from the destitute strata began to launch a desperate charge, and the flags of Sweden and France were even planted on the head of Vienna for a time, but these positions were quickly lost.

Both armies were using Ming rifles, loaded with plug-in bayonets produced in the Ming Dynasty, and fierce battles broke out on the city walls.

The soldiers and civilians of Vienna will stab out the overwhelming "infidels" all over the world.

Then, the sappers in the city built a temporary retreat wall behind the gap, and erected a five-pound cannon of Daming Yanshan on it.

Fearful of the strong firepower of the defenders, Gustav II refused to send his entire army to attack, and he did not want his army to be shot down in pieces under the city, which had almost no shooting spots.

The fighting again reached a stalemate, and this stalemate lasted until December.

In December, due to the lack of supplies, Prince Condé and Gustav II decided to withdraw their troops.

On 12 December, the Protestant Confederate forces retreated, and the Confederate Catholic Army won the Battle of Vienna.

All this came from the life-saving grain in October, and Felipe IV, who learned of the victory at the front, also wrote a personal letter to Zhu Youzhen, thanking him for his "covenant" behavior.

At the same time, in February of the twenty-sixth year of the Apocalypse, the direction of the capital also received news from the European Jinyi Wei Qianhu Institute.

"My brother's control of the war situation is still so strong, and it is estimated that Europe will have a few more years to fight."

In the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youxiao, who was already forty-one years old, held the Jinyiwei's recital, and the smile on his face was not hidden at all.

Compared with three years ago, his figure has become a little thinner, and all because after Zhu Youzhen left, Zhu Youxiao finally put his younger brother's reminder into action.

Exercise and food have become Zhu Youxiao's main concerns, and every week he will insist on making a piece of furniture and teaching riding skills at the same time.

In terms of diet, he also began to eat less and more meals, more vegetarian and less meat.

It's just that the behavior of Dundun seafood finally led to disease, and gout found the emperor of the apocalypse without accident.

"Long live or drink more water, only drinking water and drinking medicine on time can relieve gout."

Li Zhongzi, the envoy of the Tai Hospital, wrote the prescription while explaining some taboos to Zhu Youxiao, who was excited next to him.

Wang Kentang did not live past the age of 100 and died at the age of 93 last spring.

However, despite Wang Kentang's death, Zhu Youzhen still left many famous doctors to his brother.

Li Zhongzi, Wu Youxing and others are not surprised, and they may be able to survive until Zhu Youxiao's great-grandson is born.

"Got it, Li Yuan made it rest assured!"

For the imperial doctor, Zhu Youxiao, who is old and cherishes his life, is still more respectful, forty-one years old is very young in the eyes of later generations, but in the Ming Dynasty, the era when the average life expectancy of the emperor was only more than forty, Zhu Youxiao can already call himself an old man.

"The minister retired ......"

Li Zhongzi finished writing the medicine and handed it to Wang Tiqian, and then left.

As the envoy of the Tai Hospital, he not only wants to help the emperor treat his illness, but also needs to pay attention to the Huimin Pharmacy and Medical College in the world, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is busy with government affairs.

Watching him leave, Zhu Youxiao smiled, looked down at the news in his hand again, and the smile on his face was even worse.

He walked to the window with his hands behind his back, looked at the rare clear sky outside the window, and couldn't help laughing:

"I don't know how my brother is doing, whether he is healthy or not, he should be doing well......"

(End of chapter)