In the thirty-fifth year of the Apocalypse, when Zhu Cihong was the abbot of the county, a war was also ignited.

As Zhu Youzhen estimated, when the "35-year war" ends, it will naturally be impossible for the standing armies of European countries to be eliminated.

Since the standing army exists, it must have the meaning of existence, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain the standing army all the time with the finances of each country.

Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands were able to transfer some of their standing armies to North Levius to fight Morocco and the Ottomans, but it was difficult for other countries.

As one of the remaining great powers of the post-war period, France was caught in the infighting between Mazarin and the Prince of Condé.

The Holy Roman Empire, under the rule of Ferdinand III, struggled to recuperate from its pre-war situation.

The United Kingdom, on the other hand, has experienced a lot of turmoil in the past few months, with Cromwell, based in Wales, attacking Scotland when the Scottish rebels fought against the Crown.

In June, Scotland was persuaded by Cromwell to pacify, and England formed a situation in which Cromwell, the northern parliamentary army, and Charles I, the king army in the south, formed a situation.

Both sides are preparing for the unification of the British Isles.

While the major powers were busy with their own business, Sweden was highly centralized and had neither anyone to challenge the authority of Gustav II nor any party infighting.

Under such circumstances, Gustav II did not cross the Baltic Sea with his troops to return to Sweden proper, but took his army to rest in Pomerania.

Just when everyone thought that Gustav II was tired of war and would soon return home from the sea, Sweden declared war on Poland on 15 June.

As king, at the age of sixty-one, Gustav II still wore himself into battle, leading an army of 50,000 armed with flintlock muskets to attack Poland.

On 1 July, the Swedish captured the port of Danzig, and the Polish cavalry, still wielding arquebuses, was attacked by a Swedish army armed with 50,000 flintlock muskets and armed with 600 six-pounder guns.

They retreated, soon losing the port of Danzig, and in the following three months Potsnan, Toruń, and other places.

On the fifth day of the winter month, Gustav II captured Dina Burg, which belonged to Livonia, Poland.

For the blitzkrieg of the Swedish troops, the Polish army was deployed along the Nortec River.

On the twenty-fifth day of the winter month, Kalish raised the white flag at noon and took refuge in Sweden, where he was protected by the Swedish king.

After that, the Swedish army, led by Gustav II, entered Warsaw without resistance and occupied all of Greater Poland. King Kazimiah of Poland fled to Silesia.

Gustav II received the news and immediately prepared to advance to Krakow, and after a two-month siege took the city.

At the beginning of the 36th year of the Apocalypse, the Polish king Casimir traveled to southern Poland to reorganize his army there.

It seems that the heavens did not want to destroy Poland, and on the fifth day of the second month, Gustav II, known as the lion of the north and the Great of Sweden, suddenly had a high fever during the march, and the Swedish army stopped the war advancing southward.

Since Gustav II did not die in Lützen and lived twenty-four more years, he did not survive only one daughter, as in history.

He gave birth to seven children in these twenty-four years, but six of them died tragically.

The only child who survived was Alvin, who was now only fourteen years old.

Upon learning of his father's serious illness, he hurried to the south by boat, and Gustav II was sent back to the port of Danzig on 19 February.

At the same time as the father and son met, Gustav II told Alvin that he hoped that he would trust the generals, learn the military and politics of the Ming Dynasty, and always be wary of Poland, Denmark and Tsarist Russia.

On the fifth day of March, Gustav II died on his way back to Stockholm at the age of sixty-one, and was succeeded by Alvin.

When Alvin succeeded to the throne at the age of fourteen, his sister Christina traveled among the nobility because of his young age.

At this time, due to the death of Gustav II, Sweden stopped its advance into southern Poland.

However, in the following weeks, the Swedish troops stationed in Poland were pursued by the partisans, and the voices of the people and the nobility for peace grew louder.

At the same time, because Tsarist Russia did not dare to attack Mongolia and Ming in the south and east, it could only target Sweden.

On April 9, Tsarist Russia provoked a war in Livonia, and 30,000 shooting regiments surrounded Riga, Sweden's second largest city.

However, because Western Europe and Northern Europe had already formed weapons iterations against Eastern Europe at this time, after the arrival of 20,000 Swedish troops in Riga, the 30,000 Russian shooting corps was routed and the siege of Riga was relieved.

It is worth mentioning that Denmark did not join the war because of the Vienna Trade Agreement.

At this moment, everyone knows one thing, only countries close to the Great Ming Sect vassal system can maximize their interests in the next long-term game.

When the Danish king went to war with Poland and Russia, his mind was on establishing diplomacy with Qi.

On the second day of July, Denmark and Qi signed the Tokyo Trade Agreement in Tokyo City, Gyeonggi Province.

Among them, the main trade items are Danish livestock and Qi grain.

At this time, Europe's food self-sufficiency rate was not very high, and Denmark did not achieve as much profit in the Thirty Years' War as it did in history, so stabilizing domestic prices was an urgent need for them.

However, when domestic food and prices are close to stabilizing, it is not surprising that Denmark will enter the war.

Alvin was not as crazy as Karl X in history, and his succession to the throne was mainly focused on consolidating the gains of Gustav II, so the Northern War did not break out.

Compared with the Great Northern War, the wars between the Ottoman Empire and Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and other Western European countries can be said to be inextricably fought.

Under the command of Muhammad IV, 50,000 Ottoman troops arrived in Egypt, and by this time, the coastal territory east of Egypt had been divided among the three kingdoms.

Spain annexed the lands of the city-states closest to Egypt and stationed there an army of three thousand flintlock muskets with fifty six-pounder guns made by the Ming Dynasty.

Although the Ottoman Empire had already introduced and produced flintlock pistols during this period, and the template was still the "stepping gun" of the Ming Dynasty, their iron-smelting technology and production were too low and poor compared to the Ming Dynasty.

So even after ten years, the Ottoman Empire's flintlock pistols were only 40,000 units.

After the end of the "Thirty-five Years' War" in Europe, the power of the Ottoman Empire was very weak in the face of countries that needed to vent.

In September, Felipe IV of Spain gathered 20,000 Spanish troops and launched an attack on Egypt in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and Portugal entered the war, known as the "Southern War".

Europe is going through a change, and so is the Ming Dynasty.

In Fangzhang County, which was governed by Zhu Cihong, Zhu Cihong prescribed the right medicine according to the climate and soil conditions of Fangzhang County.

Considering the problem of transportation, Zhu Cihong increased the number of sheep in captivity while using the local economy and animal husbandry.

Not only that, but he gathered craftsmen to set up a cashmere processing factory in the area.

The emergence of the cashmere factory has made the annual income of Fangzhang County rise from more than 7,000 taels to more than 8,500 taels.

It's just that Zhu Cihong is still not very satisfied, and he began to study according to the problem that Fangzhang County is vast and sparsely populated, and there is too much grain to sell.

During this period, the soft-hearted Zhu Youzhen wrote about vacuum canning in a letter to his family.

Inspired by Zhu Cihong, he took matters into action by taking matters into action what his father said about canned food.

From the first month of the 36th year of the Apocalypse to the 37th month of the Apocalypse, Zhu Cihong spent a lot of energy on continuous research and practice, and finally found a good way.

He put the food into a tin jar made of thin tin iron, plugged the mouth of the bottle with a wooden cork, put it in a steamer to heat, then corked it tightly, sealed it with wax, and finally put it in a pot of boiling water for half an hour.

This method can ensure that the food will not deteriorate for three months, which is a breakthrough research for both the people's livelihood and the military.

After Zhu Cihong researched the vacuum canned food under the guidance of Zhu Youzhen, he replied to Zhu Youzhen as soon as possible, and also opened a corresponding factory in Fangzhang County.

Dairy, vegetables, and fruits, which could not be sold due to the long shipping time, have now become the main source of income for Hojo County.

The abbot's canning factory covers an area of one hundred acres and has fifteen hundred jobs, and behind these jobs are fifteen hundred families.

As of September of the 37th year of the Apocalypse, the "Abbot Canned" operated and constructed by Zhu Cihong was put into production, with an annual output of 9 million cans.

After it was put into production, the "canned abbot" was successfully purchased by the Governor's Office of the Five Armies as a military supply for the garrisons in Hezhong and Lingbei.

On the third day of the lunar month, Li Dingguo, the governor of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, suggested that the issue of wartime military supplies for soldiers be clarified.

On the ninth day of the lunar month, after the deliberation of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, Zhu Ciran, the prince of the supervising state, made a case, and the Ming Dynasty formulated the wartime military standards for Ming soldiers.

The daily military standard for soldiers participating in battles and going out to fight in wartime is canned meat weighing one catty, canned vegetables or fruits weighing half a catty, square biscuits weighing half a catty with a sugar content of not less than one penny, and military rations and rice weighing half a catty.

Two and a half catties of supplies are a soldier's day's food when he fights, and canned biscuits are often the first thing that needs to be eaten.

Only when it is eaten up can the bagged military ration rice be poured into tin cans, which are then mixed with water and boiled, while the canned meat and vegetables are heated with different waters.

The process takes about a quarter of an hour, and the cooking doesn't taste good, but if it's a battle, I don't think anyone will complain about such food.

As for the price of such materials, it is almost around 30 Wen.

In other words, to maintain a soldier's ration for the day, a minimum of 30 wen is required.

For the Ming Dynasty, which only maintains 20,000 to 30,000 foreign combat troops all year round, this expenditure is nothing.

However, for Fangzhang County, the establishment of the canning factory not only benefited the local people, but also increased the tax revenue of the county government from more than 8,000 taels a year to more than 36,000 taels.

The reason why it is so low is mainly because the people of Daming do not know about canned food at present, and canned food has not yet been promoted.

Therefore, although Zhu Cihong has built a canning factory, and the annual output of the factory can reach 9 million cans, the market demand has not yet appeared.

However, what can be seen in the future is that canned food such as fruits, as long as it spreads, will become the favorite of the rural people in the north.

Therefore, after Zhu Cihong's success in Fangzhang County, he took the initiative to relieve Zhu Ciran and suggested that the county with the same conditions as Fangzhang County should build a canning factory.

Zhu Ciran also felt that there was no problem after seeing the music, and immediately built 67 sparsely populated county seats.

After three years of trial and error by Zhu Cihong, coupled with other enthusiastic talents, the number of counties with negative expenditures in the Ming Dynasty was reduced from more than 200 to 142.

When the three-year term ended, Zhu Cihong was rated as a three-year consecutive first-class by the Ministry of Officials, and was promoted to the prefect of Pingxi Prefecture in Nanzhou.

It's just that in the face of this order, Zhu Cihong just smiled lightly, and then resigned from the official and prepared to go to Qi to take up the domain.

In this regard, Zhu Ciran had not made any arrangements, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao, who was hiding in the deep palace, was alarmed.

The fifty-four-year-old emperor Zhu Youxiao ordered Zhu Cihong to return to the capital to handle his resignation, and at the same time returned to Qi with Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Cijiong, who had graduated.

Zhu Cihong did not refuse, but sailed north on the fifth day of the fourth month of the 38th year of the Apocalypse.

On this day, many people in Fangzhang County came to Donggang to cry and send him north, and it was not until many years later that they learned that their own Zhu Zhi County was Zhu Cihong, the eldest son of King Qi, King of Zibo County.

On the ninth day of the first month of May, Zhu Cihong arrived at the port of Tianjin.

He has been away from the capital for three years, and the capital has undergone a lot of changes.

"Woo-"

Sitting on the train to the capital, Zhu Cihong looked out the window alone, not knowing what he was thinking.

Xia Wanchun returned to Qi ahead of schedule and did not go north with him.

Twenty-five-year-old Zhu Cihong looked out the window as he watched the receding scenery, and he could clearly see many people working in the fields using tractors.

Of the thousands of acres of fertile land, only a few hundred people are working.

Not because there are not enough people, but because there are no longer so many people needed to work.

If it is a place where development is not yet mature, then the production team basically has to go from house to house every day, because the forest land needs to be reclaimed.

But for Beizhili, which has been developed for thousands of years, the current Beizhili has been developed to the limit.

From 30 million mu in the tenth year of the Apocalypse to 60 million mu now, Hebei, which has only 7 million people, seems to be vast and sparsely populated.

"Yo! Our Daming cultivated land actually has 1.5 billion mu! ”

"Really?!"

In the carriage, one person exclaimed with a newspaper, and everyone next to him gathered around.

"The "Daming Bao" household department Shangshu Sun Ke is expected to be played on the second day of the first month of May, and the cultivated land of the national dynasty exceeded 1.4 billion mu, and the people were more than 264 million ......."

"The population is 260 million!"

A group of people gathered around to discuss, and then the sound of rattling bells also rang:

"Back in their seats, the train will soon arrive at Beijing East Railway Station!"

The attendant rang the bell to let the people return to their places, and this performance also showed that the train was no longer a luxury means of transportation in Daming.

A dozen years ago, the passengers on the trains were often businessmen, the number of people was sparse, and the trains were mainly freight trains.

However, thirty-eight years after the Apocalypse, trains have become the first choice for many people to go out.

The train that took 120 wen to take the train from Tianjin to Beijing East Railway Station was now overcrowded, which shows that the income of the people has increased.

Zhu Cihong sat in his place like this, listening to the discussion of the people around him.

Some people were chatting about income, and some were chatting about family life, and Zhu Cihong listened carefully to these words.

"I heard that the basic wage price is going to rise again, and this time it will rise to 20 wen."

"Impossible, hasn't it just gone up?"

"I don't know, I also heard from others."

"It shouldn't be ......"

"Not necessarily, after all, prices have risen this year, and labor prices should also rise."

"The beef has risen to twenty-two wen."

"But isn't the pork dropping?"

"It's down, it seems that there are only fifteen wen now."

"So much?"

What the people are discussing is nothing more than things that are closely related to life.

Among them, wages and prices are the most discussed.

Compared with the 23rd year of the Apocalypse when Zhu Youzhen became a vassal domain, in the past 15 years, the price of prices in the Ming Dynasty has increased by less than 20%, while the price of labor has increased by 50%......

used to be 18 wen a pound of beef, but now it is only 22 wen, and the wage has risen from 10 wen to 15 wen.

In this way, it seems that the people of the Ming Dynasty still can't eat meat at will.

However, the price of beef has risen, but the price of pork has fallen.

In the twenty-third year of the Apocalypse, a pound of pork still needed twenty-one wen, but now it only needs fifteen wen.

Behind this price reduction is the result of the continuous breeding of large white pigs and the continuous increase of grain.

When Zhu Cihong was in Fangzhang County, the local people basically had three to five pigs in each household, and slightly wealthier families could raise seven or eight pigs.

Pork was no longer so expensive in the Ming Dynasty, and some spices that were once expensive began to enter people's homes.

"Woo-"

The train's whistle sounded again, and as it slowed down, it entered the platform, and the people on the train got out of the train as it came to a standstill.

Everyone carried their own luggage, but Zhu Cihong had very little luggage, only a rattan suitcase.

Rubber rollers, boxes made of Kato wooden strips, this is the most common luggage of the Ming people.

Dragging the suitcase, Zhu Cihong walked off the train with a hint of curiosity.

He stood on the platform, and hundreds of people walked down from the train that could pull fifteen carriages, and they walked directly out to the exit, and so did Zhu Cihong.

After following everyone out of the hundreds of meters long underground exit, what appeared in front of Zhu Cihong was a huge square where thousands of people gathered.

There are performances in the square, there are also stalls and carriages, and there are horse-drawn carriages waiting in line for customers.

Zhu Cihong had never been to Qi State, but he heard Xia Wanchun say that the square in front of Qi State Railway Station was often clean and tidy, while Daming was chaotic.

However, Xia Wanchun also said that this is a very helpless thing.

At the beginning of the Qi State, the per capita conditions were much better than those of the Ming Dynasty, the population of the Ming Dynasty was huge, and the various resources per capita were very few, so it was difficult to defeat the Qi State on a per capita basis.

Taking the simplest education as an example, there were 200,000 literate officials at the beginning of the Qi state, accounting for nearly 20% of the total population.

Although the Ming Dynasty had been in the state of Qi for five years, the number of literate people was only 20 million, accounting for only 10% of the total population.

Now fifteen years have passed, and the Qi side has completed the compulsory secondary education of the whole people in the 30th year of the Apocalypse, while the Ming side did not start the compulsory secondary education of the whole country until the 36th year of the Apocalypse.

According to the official department, the Ming Dynasty estimated that it would not be until the 45th year of the Apocalypse to complete the compulsory secondary education for all, and the premise was that the investment in education increased year by year.

Fifteen years can't change a generation, and the Qi country has already understood the law and the law because of the popularization of compulsory primary school education, but the Ming side is still struggling because of the huge illiterate population of more than 100 million.

Zhu Cihong grew up in Daming, and he also hoped that Daming and the people of Daming would live better and better.

It's just that he knows that there are too many problems in Daming, especially the ...... he has been exposed to in the past three years

"Brother Hong!"

Suddenly, a voice pulled Zhu Cihong back to reality, and when he heard the sound, he saw a woman who was still charming.

"If it's my sister...... Zhu Cihong smiled, and Yang Rus, who came to greet him, also smiled and stepped forward to look at him.

"You've grown a lot taller, almost as tall as Your Highness."

Yang sighed, and Zhu Cihong smiled, did not answer, but asked:

"Where's Brother Li?"

"He is taking the children in the mansion, are you going to go back to the Qi Palace, or go to our mansion?"

Yang Ru motioned for the two men behind him to step forward and take Zhu Cihong's suitcase, and at the same time asked his opinion.

"I'm going to go to the palace first, and Uncle Huang asked me to enter the palace immediately when I get to the capital."

Zhu Cihong handed over the things and explained where he went.

"Okay......" Hearing that Zhu Youxiao wanted to see Zhu Cihong, Yang Ru, who had not liked Zhu Youxiao since he was a child, frowned.

"Then I'll go first, the people in the palace are here."

Zhu Cihong wanted to say something, but he saw a luxurious carriage parked in the parking lot, and he could only say goodbye to Yang Ru for a short time.

"Go ahead!" Yang Ru nodded helplessly, but reminded again:

"Your imperial uncle has a lot of bad ideas, don't be deceived by him like His Highness."

"Good ......" Hearing this, Zhu Cihong waved goodbye with a smile and turned around and walked to the luxurious carriage in the parking lot.

The coachman of the carriage seemed to know Zhu Cihong, he didn't stop him, and Zhu Cihong got into the car.

It's just that when Zhu Cihong opened the car door, he saw someone he didn't expect......

(End of chapter)