Zhu Youxiao came to the edict in person, which still made Li Xianzhong feel a little surprised.

After all, in his impression, this "carpenter emperor" was a little unprofessional, and he favored Yin Yue and Wei Zhongxian too much, resulting in the fall of power.

Coupled with the fact that he is only 15 years old, Li Xianzhong will inevitably have some contempt.

However, His Majesty personally came to the edict to save himself from the sea of suffering, and he still had to show his gratitude!

After Li Xianzhong knelt down to receive the holy decree, he immediately thanked him for a thousand thanks!

But obviously, His Majesty is not very interested in Li Xianzhong's sycophants!

Soon Zhu Youxiao was attracted by a gadget on Li Xianzhong's table.

Li Xianzhong said: "This is a Rubik's cube created by Weichen to the craftsman, which is used to pass the time when he has nothing to do." ”

Zhu Youxiao picked up this Rubik's Cube and began to dial it, and sure enough, it didn't take long to restore all six sides of the Rubik's Cube.

He said, "Uncle Ning Yuan, can this Rubik's Cube be given to me?" ”

These were originally things that Li Xianzhong tailor-made for Zhu Youxiao, and of course His Majesty couldn't ask for it if he wanted it.

He pointed to a small box on the side and said, Wei Chen has prepared a lot of these boring gadgets, if His Majesty likes it, just take them.

This exquisitely crafted Huanghuali box soon made Zhu Youxiao fall in love.

To be precise, this is a trap box, which can also be called a "Luban box", and to unlock it, you need to keep turning the wooden strips on the box until the trigger of the trap is completed. Since the Luban box is three-dimensional, the difficulty is much greater than that of the Rubik's Cube.

Li Xianzhong unlocked this "Luban box" for the first time, but it took two days.

Sure enough, Zhu Youxiao fiddled with it for a while and didn't untie it on the spot, but he still happily accepted the box of gifts.

After all, the gift with a sense of anticipation made him have more reverie.

Then he ordered the cabinet to fully support Li Xianzhong's conquest of Jianzhou.

Wei Zhongxian on the side was also surprised, His Majesty didn't care about him since he was a child, and when he was bored, he liked to go to the craftsman's room to do some carpentry work by himself.

But how did Ning Yuanbo know about this kind of thing?

Even he only thought of hugging Zhu Youxiao's thigh after Emperor Taichang was critically ill.

Ning Yuanbo should have prepared these things a long time ago, and this seemingly unintentional move must have been planned by him for a long time.

Since His Majesty is more interested in carpentry work than in government affairs, this is not a bad thing, and he can just do what he likes.

After Li Xianzhong left the imperial prison, he gave Wei Zhongxian a large mansion.

Originally, Wei Zhongxian didn't want to accept it, after all, Li Xianzhong spent a lot of money to save his life when he didn't know each other.

He is a person with clear grievances, and the care of him in the edict prison can be regarded as repaying the favor, and it is not appropriate to accept Ning Yuanbo's generous gifts.

However, Li Xianzhong said: "Father-in-law Wei restored his original surname and was given the name Zhongxian by His Majesty, which is really gratifying." It's just a house, don't shirk! ”

"Now that the Donglin Party is in power, I am afraid that there will be many constraints in the DPRK and China, and I hope that Gonggong Wei will support the Liaodong generals in the battle situation."

Wei Zhongxian returned the longevity lock given by Wanli to Li Xianzhong, and said: "The people from the East Factory of the wooden box have already checked it, and they did find a silk silk inside. It is recorded that in order to weaken the power of the Li family, the civil and military ministers of the court, including Zhao Zhigao, the first assistant, reported to the Mongols, which led to the death of Li Rusong, the general soldier of Lingzun Liaodong. ”

"Uncle Ning also knew that our family was illiterate, so he just listened to the people below and presented the silk silk to Emperor Taichang. In the end, His Majesty burned the silk silk and gave the relevant eunuchs to death. ”

"So our family can only tell Ning Yuanbo so much."

Li Xianzhong never expected that Zhao Zhigao, the first assistant at that time, would also participate, because Li Rusong's epitaph was drafted by this Zhao Shoufu, and he once complained about Li Jiaming, claiming to investigate this matter thoroughly.

It turned out to be just a drama of "thieves shouting to catch thieves", and sure enough, the first assistants of the Ming Dynasty are all at the level of "actors".

After all, it was an old thing more than 20 years ago, and the original mastermind is now gone.

In any case, Li Xianzhong is still very grateful to Wei Zhongxian for telling him this, it seems that Wanli is indeed not thin on himself, since he dares to tell himself the truth, then it also shows that he is not the mastermind behind the scenes, but passively accepted the situation.

As a reciprocat, he also nodded Wei Zhongxian and said: "Next, the Donglin Party will definitely attack and exclude the people of the 'Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang' parties." Father-in-law Wei could take the opportunity to recruit these people and expand his influence in the court by the way. ”

After that, Li Xianzhong gave 1 and a half of the dividend rights in heaven and earth to Wei Zhongxian.

Originally, these belonged to Zheng Yangxing, but under the persuasion of Li Xianzhong, Zheng Yangxing still recognized the reality and used these dividends in exchange for Wei Zhongxian's protection.

On the other hand, the sky in the capital has changed, and the "heaven and earth" naturally need a new "umbrella".

After Wei Zhongxian entered his mansion, he found that there were 20,000 taels of silver in it, and a huge Dongzhu.

According to the housekeeper, this was what Ning Yuanbo asked him to use to give to Mrs. Fengsheng.

Wei Zhongxian was a little scared at this time, he really couldn't hide any secrets in front of this Ning Yuanbo.

In addition, there are several young carpenters in the precincts.

At this time, Wei Zhongxian had to admire Ning Yuanbo's methods, he actually prepared these for himself, and he recorded this kindness.

No wonder Ning Yuanbo is the first favorite of Emperor Wanli, and this meticulous mind is really beyond the reach of those of them who are slaves and maids all day long.

Since Hazia came to the capital, she has gathered less and separated more with Li Xianzhong.

Although Li Xianzhong is unwilling to be separated from his wife and children for a long time, if he takes his family out of the capital at this time, it will inevitably arouse the suspicion of the court.

After the two of them warmed up for a while, they said goodbye.

From the end of last year to the present, but in just over half a year, Daming has passed away one queen and two emperors.

It has a great impact on the business of heaven and earth.

The number of days it was open was not a few days in total, which made the development of the Intelligence Division somewhat stagnant.

Mao Yuanyi said: "Cui Wensheng has now taken refuge in the Intelligence Department, he spent money to buy Wei Zhongxian, and has already obtained the title of Nanjing Town Guard Eunuch. ”

This surprised Li Xianzhong, and the eunuch guarding Nanjing was almost the third person among the eunuchs.

It can be said that the eunuch who is second only to the capital is the eunuch who holds the seal of the celebrant and the eunuch who holds the East Factory.

Although Nanjing is far away from the political center and has always been known as the "eunuch pension land", it is an important place for money and grain in the Ming Dynasty and the economic lifeline of the empire.

The eunuchs in Nanjing had great power in their hands, and they also held military power.

Although it is difficult for Cui Wensheng to make a big difference in a short period of time as an airborne eunuch, the Intelligence Department can use his relationship to open up the situation in Nanzhili.

Heaven and earth can open a branch in Nanjing, maybe there is still a chance to collect "Qin Huai Bayan".

But the most important thing at the moment is to leave the capital, which is a place of right and wrong, and leave it to Wei Zhongxian to toss with the Donglin Party.

Li Xianzhong spent a whole day rushing from the capital to Tianjinwei, and the ships of the naval division had been waiting in the port for a long time.

Thanks to the copper shipping route in Liaodong, Tianjin Port is also more prosperous than last year.

Daming sits on a long coastline, but it is not good to develop trade, which is really embarrassing.

The fortune boat stationed in the North Korean Navy Division cut the waves all the way, and Li Xianzhong appeared at Yingkou Wharf four days later.

After a year of development, Yingkou Port has changed from a little-known small wharf to the first commercial port in eastern Liaoning.

Before entering the port, a huge lighthouse appeared in Li Xianzhong's field of vision.

The long trestle was littered with dock handlers unloading cargo, as well as cargo ships waiting to enter the port.

The tax collectors of Yingkou City are hurrying to collect taxes in kind on the merchant ships that come and go.

Four miles from the commercial marina is a water village, where you will soon be greeted by huge sails and towering bow and stern, typical of Spanish galleons.

In particular, the top of the mast is surrounded by several square yellow sun, moon and dragon flags, which are particularly eye-catching under the reflection of the sun.

Mao Yuanyi said: "This Spanish galleon was purchased from the Portuguese in Macao, with a full load displacement of 680 tons. The ship is equipped with 48 of the latest 12-pounder Hongyi cannons, which can be fired from both solid and flowering shells! ”

Although this is a second-hand battleship, even the ship with blueprints costs 40,000 taels of silver.

After all, this tonnage is already the capital ship of the Portuguese, in fact, they are not willing to sell, if it weren't for John Tong, this deal would really not be done.

Li Xianzhong pointed to the two smaller Galen ships on the side and said, "Didn't you say that you only bought one warship, why are there still two on the side?" ”

Mao Yuanyi said with a smile: "These 2 are actually merchant ships, with a full load displacement of 480 tons, I think we have our own cannons, the structure of these merchant ships is actually not much different from the warships, but the bow and stern are not so high, and the gun emplacements are less." ”

"But the price is much cheaper than the warship, and the price of the two ships is only 16,000 taels."

Galen merchant ships are actually very easy to modify, but merchant ships suffer more from broadside battles, and it is not a big problem if the ship is used as a gunboat.

Anyway, now its own artillery factory can produce cannons, and it is indeed much faster to transform merchant ships than to build ships.

Now the two modified gunboats are also equipped with 36 rapid-fire 6-pounder Franc guns and 8 12-pounder Hongyi cannons, and they may still suffer some firepower against the armed merchant ships of the Netherlands or Spain.

But if the opponent is a pirate from the south, or a pirate from the east, this firepower is definitely a proper crush.

Now the Liaodong Naval Division has bought and changed and also has 3 main warships.

According to Li Xianzhong's previous proposal, they were named "Kaiyuan", "Tieling" and "Fushun".

The Liaodong Naval Division recruited 50 Portuguese sailors and instructors, while the remaining sailors and gunners were selected from the Ming Army's naval division in Korea, and a new batch of sailors was also recruited as a reserve force.

In addition, there is a large shipyard in Yingkou, where two docks have been built, and the shipwrights include Portuguese recruited from Macao, more craftsmen recruited from various shipyards in the Ming Dynasty, and apprentices recruited locally in Liaodong.

The sail battleship designed by Li Xianzhong was a bit difficult to build, and the Portuguese shipwright said that it could not be built under the current conditions of the Yingkou shipyard.

They currently lay the keel of a modified Spanish galen, similar to the light gallen galleons of England.

The design has a full load displacement of 800 tons.

However, the ship will not be completed until a year from now.

At present, the Liaodong Navy Division still needs to practice, and it should be able to form combat strength in a few months.

Li Xianzhong plans to set up a shipyard in Incheon to build commercial galleons, after all, they are now using the sailors' lucky ships to carry cargo, and the carrying capacity of the ships is still reduced.

In particular, the ocean-going performance of Fuchuan is not good, and it is okay to run a short-distance route from Liaodong to Korea, but it will be difficult to go to Japan or even the Ryukyus.

And it takes a lot of time to build a ship, and free North Korean labor is a huge advantage.

After inspecting the sailors, Li Xianzhong immediately went north from Yingkou to Liaoyang.

After all, the current expedition to Jianzhou is the top priority, and of course he needs the assistance of Yan Mingtai, the governor of Jiliao.

It's just that along the way, he found that the drought in Liaodong is also very serious, and it is now summer, so it stands to reason that the water level of the river should be relatively sufficient.

However, even the water level of a large river like the Liao River has begun to drop, but fortunately it has not yet reached the point of stopping navigation.

Yan Mingtai was also very happy to see Li Xianzhong return to Liaodong gloomily, after all, the two of them were now grasshoppers tied to a rope.

Now that the Donglin Party is in charge, if Li Xianzhong falls, he, the governor of Jiliao and the governor of Liaodong, will come to an end.

Yan Mingtai had previously received instructions from Ye Xianggao, the first assistant of the cabinet, asking him to assist Li Xianzhong in his conquest of Jianzhou, but so far the imperial court has only allocated 200,000 stone grain and grass and more than 2,000 catties of gunpowder.

Moreover, the drought in eastern Liaoning is now very serious, except for some fields near the river that can be irrigated, it is estimated that nearly 70 percent of the land will be lost.

It's really not a good time to go on a campaign to establish a state.

Li Xianzhong was also helpless in this regard, and said: "The Wanli Dynasty launched three major expeditions, successively pacifying the Ningxia Bibai, the Korean Rebellion and the Banzhou Yang Yinglong Rebellion. ”

"The conquest of Jianzhou must not be abandoned halfway, so this fourth expedition "Pingjianzhou" must continue. Although His Majesty has passed away, this year is still the 48th year of Wanli, and Ben Bo must make this wish for His Majesty! ”

Listening to Li Xianzhong's meaning, he wanted to completely pacify Jianzhou in half a year.

Yan Mingtai said: "Ning Yuanbo's loyalty to the first emperor is admired by this governor, but now that there is a great drought in Liaodong, it is really not suitable for large-scale expeditions. ”

Li Xianzhong said: "Governor Yan, don't worry, this expedition to Jianzhou is mainly based on my Kaiyuan Three-Way Ming Army, and there is no need to send too many soldiers and horses. That place in Hetuara has too many soldiers to use. ”

"I just need a team of men and horses to feint and contain the soldiers and horses that have been built in Kuandian!"

At this time, the veteran Liu Wei said: "The old man of the three major expeditions of Wanli personally participated in two of them, and this time he naturally can't miss the pacification of Jianzhou, Ning Yuanbo can rest assured, the task of getting out of the Crow Falcon Pass has been handed over to the old man!" ”

After taking out the feint Ming army, Li Xianzhong finally returned to his own territory.

Previously, when Li Xianzhong was imprisoned in the Imperial Prison, Li Sanshun quietly spread the news.

This move of the imperial court caused great dissatisfaction among the soldiers of Liaodong, especially now that the Ming Dynasty has mourned two emperors in a row, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse is only a 15-year-old doll, which makes them even more optimistic about the imperial court.

The Intelligence Department was also very busy some time ago, because this can almost be regarded as a rehearsal for Liaodong's self-reliance.

They want to keep a record of everyone's reactions.

The Liaodong Army is generally three types of people, one is Li Sanshun, Kong Youde, Li Xianzhong's absolute cronies, or the people of the Li family in Liaodong, they naturally actively stated that they must put pressure on the imperial court, and even did not hesitate to mutiny to rescue Ning Yuanbo.

More sober factions, although they said that the court was unfair and that Ning Yuanbo must be rescued, they did not advocate the immediate adoption of the overly extreme method of mutiny.

In the end, there are a small number of wall-riding factions, these people feel that the Li family is about to fall, and they are ready to find their own way out, and even contact other backers.

Fortunately, there was no third group of people among the main generals who opened the original road, and those who could not withstand the "revolutionary test" would naturally be slowly marginalized and finally eliminated from the Liaodong Army.

and even let them unknowingly "glorious sacrifice" in the future battle!

The so-called soldiers and horses have not moved the grain and grass first, and now Li Xianzhong is most concerned about food.

Because this summer, there was a huge drought in Liaodong and Jianzhou, which occurred once in a century, and it has not rained a drop of rain for almost three months.

It should be said that the drought in Jianzhou is more severe than in Liaodong, because there are not many large rivers in their territory, and many fields are located in mountainous areas, and once there is a drought, irrigation becomes a big problem.

According to the intelligence department, at least more than 90% of the summer grain harvest in Jianzhou this year will be lost, which means that the grain in Jianzhou is very tight now.

Unlike Li Xianzhong, who has been hoarding grain through the "opening of the China and the law" and purchasing grain from Jiangnan, Jianzhou has long stopped purchasing grain because of the large amount of grain plundered from North Korea last year.

When Nurhachi found out that the drought was severe this year and wanted to buy it again, the merchants of Horqin had already stopped supplying grain under Li Xianzhong's orders.

Fan Wencheng said proudly: "Thanks to Ning Yuanbo's foresight, we were able to build hundreds of large reservoirs ahead of schedule. ”

"At present, there are a total of 300,000 mu of fertile land around Pingyubao, of which 100,000 mu are still planted with wheat and corn and other grains near the Fan River, and the other 200,000 mu have all been planted with sweet potatoes provided by the Intelligence Department."

"These sweet potatoes have been planted in March, and now the price is gratifying, and it is estimated that they will be harvested in another month. Pingyubao relies on 300,000 acres of fertile land, in addition to satisfying nearly 70,000 mouths to eat, there should be a lot of wealth! ”

This batch of sweet potatoes is very important, after all, the previous sweet potatoes were bred in Fujian by the Intelligence Department.

If it can be successfully planted in Liaodong, then a considerable part of these 200,000 mu of sweet potatoes will become the seeds of the entire Liaodong.

This year, except for a few areas near the river, other fields will definitely not be able to grow food, so these sweet potatoes are counting on life.

At present, the grain in Liaodong has soared, although the merchants have brought a lot of grain, but at present the corn has risen to 1 tael and 5 yuan a stone, and the rice in the south of the Yangtze River is 2 taels and a stone.

It is said that the grain in Jianzhou has been sold for 6 taels of silver and one stone, but Li Xianzhong is still unwilling to give them grain.

Today, there are 1.3 million stone of grain in the granary of Pingyubao.

In addition to a small part of these grains sold at a high price to earn silver taels, a considerable part of them will be used by Li Xianzhong to collect land.

Now that food prices have skyrocketed, many people simply cannot afford to buy food, and eventually have to sell their land for food.

The land in Liaodong is not as good as that in the south of the Yangtze River, and the best land is only 10 taels of silver per acre.

And now the war is in chaos, and it can't be sold at this price at all.

Now that the war has not started, the grain in Liaodong is already at this price, and once the war in Tongjianzhou starts and the drought continues to be serious, the price of grain will definitely rise, and when the time comes, it will be considered good to rise to three or four taels of silver and a stone.

The saddest thing is that you can't buy food even if you have money.

Then Li Xianzhong can easily exchange 1 stone of grain for 1 mu of fertile land.

You must know that he only purchased these grains from Jiangnan for 5 yuan of silver.

It is equivalent to spending 1 tael of silver to buy two acres of fertile land.

And these landless people will become his tenants, this time he can at least buy hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land, and by the way, enslave hundreds of thousands of people.

In the evil feudal society, every catastrophe is a good time for these big bureaucrats and big landlords to annex land.

However, Li Xianzhong has no choice, in case he is forced to rebel one day. There are 30,000 horses under his command, and according to the monthly salary of 2 taels per person, it is 720,000 taels a year.

The money in his hand couldn't hold on for even a year.

At this time, Fan Wencheng finally remembered what Li Xianzhong said: "Don't worry, it is definitely more cost-effective to save food than silver!" ”

This is not a half-star, it seems that his granary is still less.

Now there is still a lot of silver in Pingyu Fort, but the granary is no longer enough, and the grain cannot be piled up.

In the past few months, due to the increase in labor force and the optimization of the production process, all the Lumi guns of the Liaodong Army have completed the transformation from fire rope to Suifa.

A lot of new flowering shells have also been made, and there is plenty of gunpowder, waiting to show their skills on the battlefield.

After Li Xianzhong returned to Kaiyuan, the morale of the Ming army in Liaodong skyrocketed, and the generals learned that they were going to conquer Jianzhou this time, and they directly attacked Hetuala.

In the end, Li Xianzhong definitely used the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, the assault battalion, and the Pingyuwei three teams of 9,000 men and horses as the main force of this attack.

In addition, 11,000 people from Mao Wenlong, Zhao and other departments were transferred as auxiliaries, and the Ming army of Kaiyuan sent a total of 20,000 troops to conquer Jianzhou.

On the first day of the seventh month of the 48th year of Wanli, Ning Yuanbo Li Xianzhong personally worshiped the Wanli Emperor in the boundary domain city located on Fushun Road!

Then he recited aloud "Asking for the Capture of the Prisoner"!

The 20,000 Ming army shouted in unison: "Conquer Jianzhou, capture the old slave alive, kill its head, destroy its city, and destroy its clan!" ”

Li Xianzhong led the main force of the Kaiyuan Ming army of 20,000, plus 10,000 cavalry of the Haixi Jurchen Yehe Division, 3,000 cavalry of the three divisions of the Mongolian Horqin Left Wing, and 2,000 cavalry of the Mongolian Zaisai Division.

A total of 35,000 paces to ride, starting from the Boundary Domain City, directly opened the fourth expedition of Wanli "Pingjianzhou"!

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(End of chapter)