"Tatar Taishi Alitai, pray to His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to be a minister, willing to be a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and to be a border of the Ming Dynasty!"

In mid-August, when Zheng He's fleet had just sailed out of Chadi Port, Zhu Di, who was in Mobei, also met with the envoys sent by Alitai before leaving.

In more than a month, the foundation of the city of Hailar Thousand Households has been excavated.

Not far from the foundation of the city, there is a camp that stretches for more than ten miles, and on the side of the camp is thousands of acres of land and hundreds of ravines that have been cleared.

On thousands of acres of land, more than 50,000 people were driving horses to plow the fertile black soil, while Zhu Di stood on a rammed earth road compacted with stone grinders, with his back to a Mongolian dressed as 10,000 households.

To the left and right of the Mongols stood the generals of the Ming army in armor, which made him sweat on his forehead and stressed.

Zhu Di held melon seeds in his hand, and while snorting melon seeds, he said:

"I sent someone to look for Alitai for more than a month but didn't find Alitai, you tell me, where is he running now?"

He turned his back to the inquiry, and the Tatar Wanhu also said with shame: "The Taishi led many of his troops to Hulan and lost his temperature. ”

"No wonder I ran so far." Zhu Di turned his head back and said with interest:

"My meaning is the same as in the letter, he can still graze the pastures of the Kuoluan Haizi and the fishing sea, and he can also send a delegation of 500 people every year to Kaipingwei in the south to pay tribute."

"From then on, he was the king of Changning in the imperial court, and his younger brother Arutai was also canonized as the king of Hening."

"It's a pity, if it weren't for the fact that they had already gone south, I really wanted Arutai to bring you a word and let you bring it back to Alitai."

As Zhu Di guessed, Alitai was dissatisfied with Arutai's rule very early, so when he successfully broke through, he immediately led the tribes on both sides of the Yuma River to migrate towards Hulan and Huwen, and proclaimed himself the Tatar Taishi.

Soon after he arrived in Hulan, some tribes that migrated from the rear brought Zhu Di's letters.

After determining that Zhu Di would not conquer him, Alitai cautiously sent this Wanhu to test Zhu Di's style.

At the moment, after getting Zhu Di's promise, Tatar Wanhu breathed a sigh of relief, but he looked at the cultivated land in front of him with an embarrassed face.

"Your Majesty, what are you ......?"

Tatar Wanhu asked very embarrassedly, but Zhu Di smiled and said: "It's all your own family, you will be bullied by Wara in the future, so I can help you find a place." ”

"I'm not used to living in tents, so I'll just build a city here, and I'll have a place to rest in the future."

"Don't worry, this place is four or five hundred miles away from Kuluan Haizi, and I won't be able to build a city here to affect you, so you can graze with peace of mind."

Zhu Di really didn't take Tatar in his eyes, after all, now that Tatar has been hit hard by him, almost half of the people have been coerced south by himself, and he can't turn the storm at all.

If the Ming army did not attack, the Tatars would not necessarily be able to resist the invasion of Warat.

"By the way, I'll leave in a few days, and you can continue to put this pasture in the future, as long as you don't cross the stone monument I erected on the west side."

Zhu Di erected a stone tablet of the Yinma River fifty miles away from the Thousand Households of Hailaer, which can be regarded as determining the nomadic range of the Tatar Department and the grazing and cultivation range of the Ming army.

This stele has been seen by Tatar Wanhu on the way here, but he doesn't want to be this role.

In the past, he would definitely not agree to erect such a stone monument on the grassland, but now the situation is stronger than people, and they can't do it without bowing their heads.

"Yes, follow Your Majesty's teachings......"

The Tatar Wanhu stubbornly agreed to the humiliating conditions of the stone tablet, and Zhu Di also smiled heartily when he saw this:

"Arutai will suffer this calamity if he doesn't listen to my teachings, and now I look at Alitai well, and he understands my teachings."

"In this case, I won't take away the more than 30,000 sets of armor I captured this time, and let Alitai return to Kuoluan Haizi after I go back, and then exchange horses and cattle for armor, three horses for a set of armor, or two cows."

"If you want to exchange food but armor, I can give it to you."

"Every year when you go to Kaiping to pay tribute, I allow you to change iron pots, tea, cloth and grain."

"This iron pot is exchanged for a horse, a cloth for a horse, three stones of grain for a cow, a load of 100 catties of tea for a cow, and a pound of sugar for a sheep."

Zhu Di wants to support the Tatar Ministry, which does not mean that he has to give money and food, but he wants to use the captured Tatar armor to make a deal.

In the same way, the iron pots and grain trade made to support the Tatars were to be exchanged for more horses and ploughing cattle.

He didn't say what kind of horse to trade, that is, any horse could be used.

For the Mongols, exchanging horses, ploughing oxen and lambs for iron pots, tea, and grain was undoubtedly a good deal.

Zhu Di's method of Tatar is undoubtedly to give a stick and a candy to eat, but Tatar is still very happy.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The Tatar households were happy, although they were captured by Zhu Di with millions of cattle and sheep, but the number of cattle and sheep in their hands was still quite large.

According to Zhu Di's grace, the Tatars could get a lot of things every year through the mutual trade of Kaipingwei, which greatly alleviated the plight of the Tatar Ministry, and even made the Tatar Ministry's life better.

In this way, Alitai's position as the Grand Master will undoubtedly become very stable, and he must also rely on Daming.

If he felt that his wings were stiff one day, then Zhu Di would immediately be able to cut off the inter-market trade of the tributaries, and at the same time release the mad dog Arutai and hand over the inter-market qualification to Arutai.

With this mutual market qualification alone, Arutai was able to gather many old ministries and Alitai to fight against each other.

This is a conspiracy, and it is also a conspiracy that Alitai has to accept.

Without these 30,000 sets of armor and the iron pots, grain, and tea that are traded every year, the Tatar department would not be able to quickly restore its combat strength.

News of the defeat of the Tatars had already begun to spread to Moxi, and once the Warat tribes knew that Arutai had been defeated and captured, they would certainly carry out a tentative attack on the Tatars.

Once they could not resist it, they would have to move forward and swallow up the Tatar headquarters little by little.

"Okay, go back early and tell King Changning the news."

Zhu Di bowed his head and signaled, and when the Tatar Wanhu saw this, they also knelt on the ground and kowtowed, and only then got up and left the place under the supervision of the Ming army.

After he left, Qiu Fu immediately came up: "Your Majesty, give them the armor, what if they pull up the army and fight the court again?" ”

Qiu Fu was obviously worried, and Zhu Di didn't need to open his mouth to this question, and Zhu Neng on the side explained:

"The armor is there, but how many more sturdy men can the Tartars pull out to arm them now?"

"Even if they still have 300,000 people, I'm afraid they can't even pull out 50,000 men over the age of fifteen, right?"

"Remove the old men, it would be good if they could take over these more than 30,000 sets of armor and arm them."

"It will take at least a dozen years to restore a generation."

"That's long enough time for us to clean him up two or three more times."

Zhu Neng is only thirty-seven years old now, so he is not worried about what will happen in more than ten years.

Qiu Fu is different, he is already sixty-four, and he does not dare to conclude that he will survive until the next northern expedition, so he is in a hurry to show himself.

His eagerness was very abrupt in this Northern Expedition team with an average general age of about forty, so Zhu Di patted him on the shoulder:

"Qiu Fu, you take good care of your body, more important than anything else."

Zhu Di vaguely told Qiu Fu that he still had a chance for the next northern expedition, and Qiu Fu could only nod helplessly when he saw this.

Seeing him nodding, Zhu Di also instructed everyone: "I will lead the direct soldiers and horses south tomorrow, and the matter here will be handed over to Meng Zhang, Wang Yi, and Zhu Neng." ”

"The cattle and horses that were exchanged were sent to Daning, Bohai, Liaodong and other places to go to the Taifu Temple, and after domestication, they were transferred by the political envoys."

"Ministers!" Hearing Zhu Di say this, Wang Yi and the three of them gave up.

After finishing the arrangement, Zhu Di looked at the fertile land that had been dug up the meadow: "This place is good, but there are too few people in the north......"

He was a little embarrassed, and finally reluctantly got up and returned to the big tent in the camp not far away to rest.

Early the next morning, he took more than 26,000 people, including the left and right second guards of Zhaozhou and the third guard of Yulin, to the south, leaving only 30,000 soldiers and horses and 50,000 people of Zhu Neng and others.

Compared with the cumbersome and detour when setting out, the route back to the south is relatively simple.

Zhu Di did not return to Zhenyuwei, but directly led the army with a month's rations from Hailaer Qianhusuo all the way south along the west side of the Haravin Mountains.

Without the drag of the people, it only took them half a month to arrive in Kaiping, and then it took another half a month to arrive in Beijing.

When I arrived in Beijing, it was already September 17, and in late autumn, Xiao Se went all the way south from the Yanshan Mountains, and when he arrived in Beijing, there was no green.

As a famous craftsman in Jiangdong, Kuaixiang came to greet Zhu Di again, and Zhu Di did not talk nonsense, and directly led the team to the Forbidden City that was being built.

The Forbidden City of Beijing was built according to the Forbidden City of Nanjing as a model, so it was built in strict accordance with the principle of "the former dynasty and the latter city, the left ancestor and the right society" in the "Zhou Li".

The difference is that due to the advent of concrete and the fact that Zhu Gaoxu banned many materials from participating in the construction, the Forbidden City in Beijing was not only larger than it was historically, but even the palace was taller and more expansive.

The walls of the palace city of the Forbidden City in Beijing are made of blue bricks and concrete, and are five zhang high and four zhang thick, which is taller, thicker and more majestic than in history.

Standing on the Fengtian Temple Square, which is close to 700 acres, Zhu Di can see the Fengtian Temple that has been built and operated.

Fengtian Hall is 15 rooms wide, 8 rooms deep, covers an area of 9 acres, 12 zhang high, together with the base pass 15 zhang high, is the largest temple in the Forbidden City, and eighteen beasts are placed in the eaves corner.

In terms of scale alone, it is not only taller than the Taihe Hall in later generations, but also taller than the Fengtian Temple in Nanjing.

Walking into it, even Zhu Di couldn't help but sigh: "This concrete is a good thing, not only can the palace be built so tall, but it is also convenient to use it to build a city." ”

Standing in the Fengtian Palace, which is taller and larger than Nanjing, Zhu Di has already imagined the magnificent scene when he went to court here.

"Why are the colors so monotonous?"

Zhu Di said that the only thing that made him dissatisfied with Fengtian Temple was that the color was not as good as Nanjing's flowers.

"Back to Your Majesty......" Kuai Xiang stepped forward and said: "Taixue has studied many things, and many of the things used in the construction of palaces in the past contain trace amounts of toxins. ”

"If you just take a walk and see that there is nothing, but if Your Majesty and the palace people live for a long time, I am afraid that they will be infected with toxins, so His Highness specially explained that the construction of the Forbidden City must not use those ores containing toxins as pigments."

"But please rest assured, Your Majesty, the minister has found a lot of pigments extracted from plants, and it has also been confirmed that they are non-toxic and can be used soon."

"Well, that's it." When Zhu Di heard that it was Zhu Gaoxu's order, he didn't have any opinions, he knew that his second child would not harm him.

"This palace city is bigger than I thought in advance, Kuaixiang, you did a good job, but can this construction period be a little faster?"

Perhaps it was Empress Xu's serious illness in bed that made Zhu Di afraid of life and death, and he was very worried that he would not be able to govern and live in Beijing before his death.

"Back to Your Majesty......" Kuaixiang cautiously acted:

"Fourteen years is already the fastest speed, and now there are seven more years to complete......

"Seven years ......" Zhu Di muttered about this time limit, but his mind was full of his own sister-in-law.

Even if he can live for seven years, what about his own sister......

"Okay, you step down, I'll have a simple night's rest in the Qianqing Palace tonight, and I'll go south to the capital tomorrow."

"The minister retired ......"

Kuaixiang cautiously withdrew from the Fengtian Temple, and after he left, Zhu Di also walked up to the golden platform and sat on the simple dragon chair.

Since it has not yet been completely completed, many of the hand-waving hands inside are just simple materials used to indicate the position of various things, but even so, Zhu Di still sits comfortably.

"Except for Yuan Shizu, who else can compare with me?"

Thinking that he had captured more than 200,000 Tatars in the First War, Zhu Di proudly brushed his beard.

He has been holding back all the way, and when he arrived at the Beijing Forbidden City, which looks similar to the Forbidden City in Nanjing, he finally couldn't help it.

However, after a simple boast, Zhu Di still resisted the excitement and prepared to bring this excitement back to Nanjing to share with his sister-in-law.

Thinking of this, he reluctantly got up and left the Fengtian Palace, which was simple in interior but full of home.

The next day, he took the lead in abandoning the army and led more than 1,000 light horsemen to gallop south.

Due to the delay of several days in welcoming Alitai's envoys, he could not return to Nanjing before the frost fell, but delayed until the first day of October before arriving at the Jiangdongmen Wharf by boat.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ”

With the sound of twelve gun salutes, Zhu Di on the dragon boat at Jiangdongmen Wharf stepped off the dragon boat.

On the dock, Zhu Gaoxu stepped forward to make a move, and in front of the ministers, he returned the treasure seal representing the prison country to Zhu Di.

At the same time that Zhu Di took it, Zhu Gaoxu also looked at him.

I have to say that the wind and sun in the past six months have made him look a little darker, but the happiness on his face is also visible to the naked eye.

"You haven't changed much, but your beard has grown a little."

Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu, who was still tall and vigorous, and straightened his waist after a few sighs: "This time I cleaned up Arutai, you should see him, right?" ”

Alutai was escorted south by Zhu Di for half a month, and only arrived in Nanjing a few days ago, Zhu Gaoxu naturally saw him, and naturally knew that this was the old man's invitation.

"Except for my father, my sons can't think of anyone else who can fight this battle so beautifully."

guessed the old man's thoughts, and Zhu Gaoxu patted his ass appropriately.

"I don't need to shoot sycophants, I can't level the Tatars in one fell swoop this time, it's really a pity in my heart."

got the sense of worship he wanted, Zhu Di immediately became proud, and said that his results were too small, but the smile on his face couldn't hide it.

Seeing him say this, Zhu Gaoxu didn't bother to expose him, and said directly:

"Erchen asked people to sort out the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion in advance, and let Arutai move in and live."

"Huh?" Zhu Di didn't expect Zhu Gaoxu, this kid to have such a bad heart, Dingyuan Marquis Wang Bi was the first merit in the battle of Yuerhai, and it was also because of him that the Northern Yuan Dynasty was completely split into two major divisions, Tatar and Warat.

If Arutai only stayed in the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion after hitting Nanjing, it would naturally be a supreme glory, but he was arrested, which would be a bit humiliating.

After reacting, Zhu Dile smiled and patted him on the shoulder: "You are good, like me." ”

"Daddy......"

After Zhu Di finished praising Zhu Gaoxu, he heard a weak voice beside him.

He looked sideways, only to find that he didn't know when Zhu Gaosui's figure appeared next to him.

"When did you come, third?" Zhu Di looked surprised, but Zhu Gaosui's face turned green: "Erchen has been ......"

"I didn't pay attention, haha......" Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaosui with a smile, nodded with satisfaction:

"Well, yes, I've faded a little immature, but I look like an adult."

"Greetings to Your Majesty......"

Before Zhu Di finished speaking, he saw Xia Yuanji and others from the Sixth Department come forward to salute.

When Zhu Di saw them looking around, he knew that they were looking for the head servant to reconcile with them, so he said calmly:

"Don't look for it, they are estimated to have only arrived in Quanningwei now, and it will take a few months to go south."

In order to pursue speed, Zhu Di asked people to escort Xie Jin and Yang Shiqi in advance and they went southeast, but without Zhu Di's supervision, the speed of their southward movement was simply touching.

Obviously, Zhu Di set off ten days in advance, but Zhu Di had already walked more than 4,000 miles, but they had only walked less than 2,000 miles.

At this moment, Zhu Di can only be glad that he didn't go south with them, otherwise it is estimated that he will return to Beijing at most now, and Nanjing is still far away.

"Okay, let's all go back to duty on duty, I'll go back to the inner court to rest first, and then give a banquet in the Huagai Hall tomorrow, you can take the time."

Zhu Di was too lazy to talk nonsense with everyone, after all, as long as the second superintendent of the country was in order, he would not worry about any problems.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui: "Go, take me to see your mother." ”

After he spoke, he took the initiative to walk to the big chariot, took Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui to sit on the chariot of the Son of Heaven, and rushed towards the Forbidden City.

Seeing this, the ministers looked at each other with a hint of helplessness, as if to say that the relationship between father and son was a bit good.

"Second child, have you read all the decrees I wrote to you?"

Sitting on the big wheel, Zhu Di completely ignored Zhu Gaosui and only focused on Zhu Gaoxu, and whenever he had this kind of behavior, Zhu Gaoxu knew that nothing good would happen.

"Don't tell me, you just came back, and you were thinking about how to clean up the Wara......"

Zhu Gaoxu said a word, and Zhu Di's old black face instantly turned red.

Fortunately, because it was too dark, it was difficult to see the blush, so he pretended to be angry and said, "How can you miss your father so much?" Is Daddy like that? ”

"Alas......" he sighed and said: "I went south this time, and I saw that many people in Beizhili and Henan did not plough cattle, and could only use people as livestock to carry plows and plough the land, which was really painful. ”

"I was thinking at the time, if I could capture more livestock, then after it was domesticated by Xingtaifu Temple, the people would be able to profit from it."

Zhu Di did not mention the Third Northern Expedition in a single sentence, but he was vaguely mentioning the Third Northern Expedition.

Zhu Gaoxu listened helplessly, so he could only say: "Although my mother's condition is under control, her body is getting thinner and weaker, and she needs to be taken care of." ”

"It's not that Erchen doesn't want you to go north, it's just that I'm worried that you will go north again, and it's hard for my mother to say ......"

As soon as he said this, Zhu Di's face changed, and he nodded solemnly: "Don't worry, I will definitely take good care of your mother when I come back." ”

The Northern Expedition can certainly make Zhu Di feel at ease and happy, but Sister Xu is also equally important to him.

He felt that his health was not bad, and he should take a few years to take care of his sister Xu.

Beizheng or something was placed in front of Xu Meizi, and he was not attractive to him.

"By the way, Zheng He went to the West this time and collected four tributary states for the imperial court, namely Banggara, Nuanna Puer, Alisha, and Casedaro."

"These four countries were all tributary to the Central Plains for the first time, and three countries were located on the important shipping lanes of the Lesser Western Ocean, so the imperial court set up an official factory in the port of Chadi in the state of Banggara."

Zhu Gaoxu talked about Zhu Di's exploits in supervising the country when he went north, but Zhu Di said cheekily after hearing it:

"Well, it's not in vain that I'm cleaning up the Tatars in the north, but I didn't expect my prestige to even be heard by these countries thousands of miles away."

"Huh?" Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui looked at each other suspiciously, they didn't mention Tatar at all, how could they become famous because they beat Tatar.

"Next time I clean up the warat, I guess my prestige can spread farther."

Zhu Di knew that it didn't matter, but it didn't matter, he mainly wanted to show off.

"You'd better take care of your mother first......"

Seeing that Zhu Di's three sentences were inseparable from the Northern Expedition, Zhu Gaoxu could only shake his head and sigh, thinking that the old man was not at home and didn't know that firewood, rice, oil and salt were expensive.

After he finished this battle, it would take at least two or three years to raise millions of stone of grain to hoard thousands of households in Hailaer.

"Second brother, it's up to you to go on the Northern Expedition."

Zhu Di didn't want to do any logistics-related work, in order to let Zhu Gaochu work hard, he also took Zhu Gaoxu's hand and said numbly:

"I have cleaned up the Tatars and Warat, and then you can be a peaceful prince comfortably."

"......" Zhu Gaochu didn't say anything, just looked at Zhu Di directly, Zhu Di also felt that his pie was a bit big, in order not to make the atmosphere embarrassing, he put his eyes on Zhu Gaosui, and scolded with a face:

"Look at your second brother, look at you again, you haven't even given birth to a prince for so many years, go back and reflect on yourself!"

(End of chapter)

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