On the tenth day of October in the 40th year of the Apocalypse, Qin Minping, the governor of the Western Army of the Ming Dynasty and the Marquis of Wulong, died at the age of eighty-two.

Qin Minping's death announced the fall of the first generation of the Qin family.

Among the generals who participated in the aid of Liao, only Qi Yuanbi, the governor of the Southern Army, is still alive.

In this regard, Emperor Zhu Youxiao posthumously named Qin Minping Wu Yi, and posthumously awarded Qin Banghan of the Qin family as the Duke of Zhongguo.

Soon after the news spread, the feudal lords watched the Ming Dynasty.

Everyone knows that the three families of Qin, Qi and Ma are the cornerstone of Zhu Youxiao's ability to sit on the throne.

Now the generation has all fallen except for Qi Yuanbi, and Qi Yuanbi is already sixty and eight, maybe he will leave when he will be.

In this situation, how Zhu Ciran arranges the Qin and Ma families is very important.

However, although Zhu Ciran is more arrogant, he still respects the three families of Qin Ma and Qi.

Therefore, soon after the news spread, he issued an order to canonize Ma Xianglin as the new governor of the Western Army.

It's just that Ma Xianglin is now in his sixties, and the second generation of the Qin family and the third generation of the Ma family have no great talent, so once Ma Xianglin leaves, the position of the governor of the Western Army may have to be replaced.

Compared with the Qin and Ma families, the only thing that the Qi family is fortunate for is that they have cultivated a Qi Wulong.

Qi Wulong and Li Dingguo were praised by the Governor's Office of the Five Armies as Northern Li and Southern Qi, but this means not that Qi Wulong can compare with Li Dingguo, but that Qi Wulong and Li Dingguo are Zhu Ciran's two major supporters in the Northern and Southern Army.

The Northern Army, the Southern Army, and the Shangzhi Army, these three armies were the three armies that Zhu Ciran best controlled.

In comparison, the Western Army, the Eastern Army, and the Navy are relatively lacking.

In order to avoid unrest within the Western Army after Ma Xianglin's death, Zhu Ciran issued an order on the 12th of the winter month, ordering Mu Tianbo, the chief soldier of Annan and the Duke of Qianguo, to concurrently serve as the governor of the Western Army.

Mu Tianbo's ability is average, but at the moment, Zhu Ciran can only be short and tall.

Not only that, in order to avoid the situation of He Shixian, the seventy-six-year-old governor of the Eastern Army, Zhu Ciran transferred Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Nanzhou, back to the Central Plains and appointed him as the governor of the Eastern Army.

At this point, Wu Sangui, who was already fifty-two years old, finally returned to the Central Plains.

Hearing the news, Zhu Youzhen, who was on the other side of the ocean, didn't say anything, just smiled.

However, when the time entered the wax moon, Daming once again came with bad news.

On the thirtieth day of winter, Yang Lian, the head of Taihe County Government College in Dali Prefecture, died at the age of 88.

When the news came, Zhu Youzhen was on his way to Jinshan Province (Alaska) in the north.

It is recorded by the official that "the king was silent, he tossed and turned at night and did not sleep, and he followed the throne of the prince of Zibo County, and sent a thousand taels of silver to the prince of Zibo County."

Time passed little by little, and soon it was the forty-first year of the Apocalypse.

In this year, the population of Daming successfully reached 280 million, and the cultivated land exceeded 1.5 billion mu.

During the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Emperor Zhu Youxiao had a hard time leaving the palace, and together with Zhu Ciran, the prince of the prison state, and the cabinet ministers, he saw the internal combustion engine tricycle and steam engine tricycle sent by the Armament Institute in Nanyuan.

This internal combustion engine, which took nearly 30 years and more than a million taels of research expenses, finally appeared.

Song Yingxing, a waiter of the Ministry of Engineering of the Armaments Institute, successfully created the first reciprocating piston, single-cylinder, horizontal, five-horsepower four-stroke internal combustion engine according to the principle left by Zhu Youzhen, the king of Qi.

He raced the internal combustion engine and the most advanced steam engine of the Ming Dynasty on a tricycle, the steam engine was still fueled by coal, while the internal combustion engine was fueled by ethanol.

After the start of the race, the steam engine tricycle traveled at a speed of fourteen miles per hour, while the internal combustion engine traveled at a speed of ten miles per hour.

It seems that the steam engine will win easily, but the bad thing is that the steam engine has to stop every fifteen minutes to fill the boiler with coal, and the internal combustion engine three-wheeled car, although it is slow, only needs to be refueled once.

As a result, the race ended with a triumph for a tricycle with an internal combustion engine.

Although the speed of the three-wheeled car is very slow, not even as fast as walking alone, it has won the love of bicycle enthusiast Zhu Ciran, the prince of the prison state.

Although the internal combustion engine could not be applied to the military and people's livelihood, after the competition, Emperor Zhu Youxiao still invested 500,000 taels of research expenses in the Internal Combustion Engine Research Institute, just because Zhu Youzhen told him every year to maintain the existence of research.

Soon after this incident, Yongwang Zhu Ciyan led an escort of 3,000 soldiers and horses, and 60,000 immigrants set off from Tianjin Port to conquer Yongguo.

In the same month, Zhu You, the king of Qi, made the "Law of Qi Zong", and formulated strict hereditary regulations for the county kings and county lords of the Qi domain.

Among them, the county lord receives 3,000 taels of money every year, and the heir of the county lord is demoted to the county lord when he dies.

The county lord receives 1,000 taels a year, and when the county lord dies, his son is demoted to a lieutenant, and the lieutenant receives 500 taels a year, and if the lieutenant dies, the lord is removed as a citizen and no longer receives a salary.

As soon as the news of "Qi Zonglu" came out, all the Ming clans were in an uproar.

Before the appearance of the "Qi Sect Law", although all the feudal domains had already taken up vassals overseas, the feudal domains still adhered to the hereditary system of the "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" and the "Ming Huidian".

Although it is also a hereditary demotion title, it is at least in accordance with Zhu Yuanzhang's formulation of the county king, Zhenguo general, auxiliary general, Fengguo general, Zhenguo lieutenant, auxiliary lieutenant, Fengguo lieutenant...... and so on.

As a result, when it came to Zhu Youzhen, it was directly carried out at the three levels of county king, county lord, and lieutenant.

In this era of early birth and early childbearing, it is not difficult to experience five generations living together.

Counting the prince himself, even if he is a lieutenant, it is only four generations.

In other words, many princes were still alive, and their great-great-grandchildren were already demoted to nationals.

As a result, many vassal kings who liked to emulate Qi did not follow suit for the first time, and among the more than 200 vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, only more than ten vassal states led by Tang chose to follow suit......

"Uncle Qi did this, Brother Xuan, they didn't react?"

In March, when Zhu Ciran got the information, his first reaction was to ask Du Yinxi.

In this regard, Du Yinxi, who has become the secretary of the Ming Dynasty, shook his head:

"I haven't heard any reaction from the county kings, I think His Royal Highness the King of Qi has already talked to the county kings about this matter in advance."

"......" Hearing what Yin Xi said, Zhu Ciran couldn't help frowning.

He was thinking, but then footsteps came from outside the temple.

Before he could raise his head, a young figure walked into the hall and beckoned at him:

"Father, the household department is playing, Jiangnan Huai, Yang, Feng, Xu, and the prefectures and counties to which they belong have been flooded, and they beg to be exempted from agricultural taxes this summer."

A father, coupled with his early twenties, speaks of this person's identity.

Zhu Heyin, the grandson of the emperor, as the eldest grandson of Emperor Zhu Youxiao, he is very popular with Zhu Youxiao.

However, Zhu Ciran was not satisfied with Zhu Heyin, because he thought that Zhu Heyin was too "weak" at some times.

Fathers always like children like themselves, and they don't like children like themselves.

Although Zhu Heyin looks a little similar to Zhu Ciran, his personality is too different from Zhu Ciran.

Perhaps seeing the cruelty of war on the battlefield of the Ganges, Zhu Heyin did not agree with Zhu Ciran's idea of fighting abroad.

In his opinion, what Daming needs is to recuperate, let the resources of the provinces be utilized, and digest all the resources.

Such a proposition naturally does not please Zhu Ciran.

Zhu Ciran wants to reform on the basis of Zhu Youzhen, so that his name can be praised by the people for hundreds of years.

However, Zhu Youzhen used the national strength of the Ming Dynasty to the limit, even if Zhu Ciran had let the Ming Dynasty recuperate for eighteen years, but the foundation laid by Zhu Youzhen was too thick, and it was not a generational effort to consolidate the existing territory.

As he grew older, Zhu Ciran didn't want to follow the arrangement of his own Uncle Qi in everything.

He can listen to advice and he can do it, but he doesn't want others to think that he has no merit other than being obedient.

"I'll let the household department be exempted, you can step down, and by the way, let someone go to the Wenhua Palace to inform Li Gechen and Hong Ge Lao, and let them come to the East Palace to discuss matters after their lunch break."

Li Gechen and Hong Ge Lao in Zhu Ciran's mouth are naturally Li Dingguo and Hong Chengchou.

What was the role of these two in the Ming Dynasty? Zhu Heyin, who has been studying government affairs for several years, knows it very well, so he can't help but feel nervous.

Obviously, his father is about to start a foreign war again.

"Erchen receives the order......" Zhu Heyin responded and withdrew from the East Palace worriedly.

At the same time as he withdrew, Zhu Ciran also turned his head to look at Gu Yinxi:

"What do you think, what about the grandson?"

"......" As soon as Zhu Ciran opened his mouth, Du Yinxi fell silent.

Throughout the ages, many people have made mistakes in the matter of Lichu, and Plug Yinxi understands this truth.

Such a question, if it were someone else, they might answer it with a speculative mentality, but Du Yinxi didn't, because he never forgot Zhu Ciran's feelings for his "promotion", so after thinking about it again, he replied from the heart:

"Good grandson......"

"That's all?" Zhu Ciran asked, obviously he had heard too many of these three words.

Because Zhu Zhanji's reputation as a good saint is there, and Zhu Zhanji's things are not very popular, Zhu Ciran is not satisfied with this title.

It is difficult to say Zhu Zhanji's fault, so he can only cover up:

"Although the grandson is benevolent, he is not cowardly and pedantic, and his relationship with Qi Shizi, Chengshan, and Langya County is good, and he wants to be kind to the country and Qi for another generation."

"The prison should know better than the minister, what this represents......"

Du Yinxi mentioned cowardice and pedantry, these two words seem to have nothing to do with Zhu Zhanji, who was the emperor immediately, but they are actually the biggest mistake of Zhu Zhanji's reign.

On the eve of Zhu Di's death, the forces on the Mongolian Plateau, in addition to the Guanxi Eight Guards who were more clearly bound to the Ming Dynasty, and the first Tugan and other departments, the rest were divided into five parts.

The Uliangha, the Tatar headquarters, and the Vulat tribes, the Taiping tribes, and the Dehuan tribes.

Among them, the leader of the change of the civil fort, and the father of the first master, is Tuhuan.

By the time of Zhu Di's death, the Dehuan Department was still stationed in the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains to the western foothills of Hangai Mountain, and in the face of the situation after Zhu Di's death, the first thing to solve was to solve the two tribes of the Bald Polo and Taiping on the Mongolian Plateau who were restrained by the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, in the two years after Zhu Di's death, Tuhuan successively assassinated King Anle and King Bald Polo and King Xianyi Taiping in banquets and hunting.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty coincided with the death of Ming Renzong Zhu Gaochi less than a year after succeeding to the throne, and Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji first dealt with his uncle Zhu Gaochu after ascending the throne, and carried out a major purge in the army.

For the eldest son of the virtuous king Taiping, who came all the way to ask for help, Zhu Zhanji just perfunctory, sent an envoy to the grassland to feast and reward, and then turned back to clean up the remnants of his uncle's party.

Because Zhu Zhanji refused to fulfill his obligations as suzerain, less than a year later, Taiping's eldest son was also killed by Tuhuan, and Tuhuan finally unified the three major tribes of Wara.

The unified three major tribes of Warat actually did not have enough strength to immediately challenge the Ming Dynasty at this time, so they chose to continue to attack the Tatar headquarters.

At the same time, Zhu Zhanji also continued to attack the Tatar headquarters economically, insisted on strangling the golden family, and did not pay any attention to cracking down on the liberation of the unification of Warat.

As a result, in such a flanking situation, Arutai, Adai Khan and other strongmen in the Tatar headquarters were frustrated under the joint attack of the Ming Dynasty and Warat.

Many of the Arutai tribes have died, the tribes are scattered, and the 10th Yongxiebu Battalion, which once dominated Mobei, has begun to collapse.

At this time, the time for the Ming Dynasty to conquer Arutai had come, and Zhang Fu and others joined forces to go on Zhu Zhanji's Northern Expedition.

However, in the face of this opportunity, Zhu Zhanji gave up the Northern Expedition with the words of "not taking advantage of the danger of others", and sat back and watched Dehuan annex and integrate Arutai.

You must know that this is an opportunity for Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di to work hard for half a century to conquer the Mongolian Plateau.

As a result, this opportunity was given up by Zhu Zhanji, and he also gave himself a name of benevolence and righteousness.

If Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di knew, I am afraid they would come back to life angrily.

It is precisely because people like Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di will be treated as "people who die and respend" after death, and Zhu Ciran is naturally uneasy about this.

However, Zhu Heyin was contrary to himself in some political opinions, and it happened that Zhu Zhanji was called a "good saint grandson" by hundreds of officials, and now Zhu Heyin is also called a "good grandson".

In the face of such "historical similarities", it is not an exaggeration for Zhu Ciran to say that it is difficult to sleep.

Therefore, even though Du Yinxi explained, he still did not stretch his brows......

"Sigh the law ......"

When Zhu Ciran frowned, Zhu Heyin had already asked people to pass on Hong Chengchou and the others, and got into a carriage out of the palace by himself.

Listening to the sound of wheels and horses in his ears, Zhu Heyin raised his hand to put away the curtains and quietly looked at the scene outside the window in a daze.

Compared with more than ten years ago, the inner city of Beijing in the 41st year of the Apocalypse seems more prosperous.

This prosperity is not only limited to the surrounding buildings, but also reflected in the people.

The silk that was once worn only by dignitaries and nobles is now worn by every citizen who walks in the inner city.

There are sanitation workers on the streets, most of them in their forties.

Compared to twenty years ago, when they could sit down and rest while cleaning, in the forty-first year of the Apocalypse, they could only walk around with a broom and dustpan.

With the increasing requirements of the Environmental Sanitation Bureau, even a piece of fruit peel and a scrap of paper are not allowed on the ground in Beijing's inner city.

Such strict requirements make many sanitation workers tired, after all, people who throw garbage can be seen everywhere.

Although Zhu Ciran, the superintendent, ordered the officials to fine the people who littered, the officials at this time were no longer the same as they were back then.

Sitting in the carriage, Zhu Heyin could see some escorts sitting in the patrol carriage talking and laughing, not caring about the things around them at all.

The sanitation workers are relatively disadvantaged people, and they naturally dare not argue with the officials, so they can only clean up the garbage back and forth with their heads down.

In the laughter of the officials, passers-by casually threw some garbage on the ground, and the sign "No Random Littering" standing on the sidewalk behind them was particularly dazzling.

"Alas......"

Before Zhu Heyin could finish his breath, the carriage drove out of the inner city.

Its target was Dongcheng, so after driving out of the long road, what appeared in front of Zhu Heyin's eyes was the clean and tidy Dongwaicheng.

In the streets here, the people do not have the boastful sights of the Kira as in the inner city.

What appeared in front of Zhu Heyin's eyes were a large number of people wearing clothes made of ordinary white cloth.

They were in a hurry, mostly on bicycles, on the roadways, rushing to find work in various parts of the city.

Indeed, it is now the forty-first year of the Apocalypse, the economy of the Ming Dynasty is good, and the peasants have obtained many fields.

However, the people living in the city are inevitably facing a "labor shortage".

The reason for all this can be traced back to the beginning, when Zhu Youzhen left, Huangdian had already occupied more than 60% of the economic market share of the Ming Dynasty.

This is still the result of Zhu Youzhen's suppression in those years, and the market share that appeared.

Since Zhu Youzhen left, the imperial court needed to pay taxes, so the containment of the imperial store was very limited.

As of the 40th year of the Apocalypse, Huangdian's economic share in the market has reached about eighty percent.

Ready-to-wear, toys, flowers, and other goods that were not available in the Imperial Store began to be chained.

Huangdian is seizing the existing market, which makes the situation of private individual merchants very difficult.

In addition, Zhu Ciran is more concerned about the research of military industry, agriculture and other science and technology, so the research progress of the Armaments Institute on people's livelihood science and technology is very slow.

Without the influx of new products into the market, the cake will naturally not be able to expand, and if the cake cannot be expanded, the number of workers it can maintain will naturally not increase.

The merchant went bankrupt, the shop was bought by the emperor, and the workers were merged into the emperor's system.

If this were the case, the people of the city would not be living well.

However, the problem is that since the establishment of the production team and the tractor system in the countryside, some people who do not like farming have rented their land to the production team and moved to the city to live.

The expenses in the city were high, and the rent alone could not feed an entire family.

In this situation, some peasants returned to the countryside, but many more sold their physical strength in exchange for payment.

The already saturated labor market began to become crowded, and many workers viciously rolled up in order to work, quoting low wages.

This situation has led to the fact that in the context of the whole market, it will be difficult for individuals to find a permanent job in the city if they do not quote low wages.

Even though the capital has a large population and a huge market, the people living in this city still ushered in a very bad involution.

In the past, there was a lot of work in Beijing, and even in the Wanli period, the wages ranged from 15 to 120 wen.

However, with the increasing population, the labor problem in the capital has exceeded the demand.

In the entire capital, except for a small number of skilled jobs, the wages of many jobs that sell their physical strength have begun to fall.

Almost all the employment places stepped on the lowest wage quoted by the imperial court to recruit workers, and during the time of Zhu Youzhen, the laborers who had a daily wage of 30 wen could only get 20 wen now.

This phenomenon has been maintained for four or five years, and Zhu Cihong also reminded Zhu Ciran when he left the capital.

However, it seems that because government affairs are too busy, Zhu Ciran handed over the matter to the hundred officials and then focused on other things.

Therefore, in Zhu Heyin's eyes, the living environment of ordinary workers in Beijing is even worse at this moment.

"Recently...... Are prices rising......"

Zhu Heyin spoke softly, and the driver who was driving heard the inquiry and replied without thinking: "It's gone up a bit." ”

"You say, can a hired man still support his family?"

Zhu Heyin asked the coachman, but this time the coachman did not dare to answer.

His actions told Zhu Heyin the answer, and at this time, the carriage also drove out of Dongcheng and headed out of the city, gradually moving away......