"Bell ......"

In the early morning, as the morning bell rang, hundreds of Buddhism in Nanjing began their morning classes, and the content was to pray for Empress Xu, who was seriously ill at the moment.

They closed their eyes and recited scriptures, not knowing whether they were sincere or not, but at least they could make Zhu Di feel at ease in the palace.

Since the last time Empress Xu explained many things to Zhu Di, she has often been groggy, occasionally sleeping for seven or eight hours, and her waking time is getting less and less.

In her situation, even little dolls like Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Zhanqi, and Zhu Zhanqi can see that something is wrong, not to mention Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu.

In the following days, Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaosui took the Zhang family and the Xu family to live in the Fengxian Palace, which is uninhabited at the moment, separated by a wall from the Qianqing Palace.

Every day before dawn, Zhu Gaochi called Zhu Gaosui to go to the Qianqing Palace, and Zhu Gaochu lived in the Jinshen Palace, one of the three major halls.

This palace is very close to the Qianqing Palace, and if you take the foot court, you can reach it at most in one word.

With such an arrangement, it can be seen that Empress Xu's situation is bad, and what is worse is that Zhu Gaoxu still has to endure his emotions and deal with the complicated music in the Jinshen Palace.

Fortunately, today's Zhu Gaoxu welcomed several old friends, which relieved his anxiety.

"Annan's situation, you see when it's best to do it."

In the hall, Zhu Gaoxu sat on the main seat, and a tall figure sat beside him.

In the face of the inquiry, the figure also slowly spoke: "That Chen Yao can live better than I thought, but fortunately, his head is really not bright, and now he is sixty out of seventy, and it is estimated that he will only be able to live for a few more years." ”

"Now regardless of the north and south, the remnants of the Chen State who are trying to divide have been dealt with, but there is still a force in Changshan that has not been cleared, which gives me a bit of a headache."

"Is there anything else that can give us a headache for Ying Guogong?" Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth in surprise, and also revealed the identity of this figure.

Fu Rang, who inherited the Duke of Yingguo after the defeat of Annan, may be one of the few people who can speak to Zhu Gaoxu.

Looking at Fu Rang, who was already thirty-five or sixteen, Zhu Gaoxu, who had been depressed during this time, finally had a smile on his face.

Fu Rang also bowed his head when he heard this: "That person's name is Li Li, and he has been rebelling since the seventh year of Yongle. ”

"Originally, his power was still relatively small, but with the elimination of the remnants of Chen Guo and the rebel forces of our team, he hid in Changshan and subdued many Changshan barbarians and Chen Guo remnants, so he gradually grew."

"Judging from the information I have at the moment, he should have run more than a dozen walled forts in the long mountains, and reclaimed slopes that can maintain basic survival, and the number of soldiers and horses under his command is not much, but seven or eight thousand, but from time to time he goes down the mountains to harass the states and counties, so that the local area is exhausted and unable to resume production."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't expect that he would still hear the name Li Li, and in terms of the time when he started the army, it was nearly eleven years earlier than in history.

At the moment, he should still be very young, but I don't know how long he can survive under Fu Rang.

"How long will it take to clean him up?" Zhu Gaoxu took a sip of the teacup and asked subconsciously.

"The situation in Changshan is complicated, I am going to ask the Marquis of Jianchang Qu Neng to lead his troops to the mountains to suppress the guerrillas in the mountains after the Tusi of the Great Snow Mountain is cleaned up, and only the Xichuan soldiers of the Marquis of Jianchang and the soldiers of Western Yunnan in the hands of Wang Xuan can do it."

"Wang Xuan heard that the rebellion in the Zhenkang area has not been suppressed, and he also wrote to me asking people to send some Changshan barbarians to build roads, thinking that the war could not be advanced because of inconvenient transportation."

Fu Rang talked about the white-clothed rebellion in the Zhenkang area of southern Yunnan, and Zhu Gaoxu reacted when he heard this, it seemed that the rebellion in Zhenkang had been going on for a long time, so he couldn't help but ask Yisha, who was standing aside:

"Zhenkang's white-clothed rebellion, didn't you say that the scale was not very large before, why has it been so long now?"

Hearing this, Yisha hurriedly explained: "Originally, it was not big, but in the area of Lin'an Mansion, with the construction of the post road to the south by Bo Fu Mao in Guangnan, the Baiyi Tai gradually became dissatisfied and joined the rebellion of Zhenkang Baiyi. ”

"At present, the rebellion of the white-clothed people has developed from Zhenkang to Mengmian, Menglian and other places, with tens of thousands of rebels."

"However, they can only cause chaos in these places, and once they go to Lin'an, Mengding and other plains, they will be repelled by Wang Xuan and Fu Mao."

After Yisha explained, Fu Rang also spoke: "The main thing is the road problem, otherwise our army would have already gone deep into it, and in addition to destroying these toasts, we would be able to change the local land and return it to the river." ”

Fu Rang's words made sense, and Zhu Gaoxu also asked: "How many toasts in Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou have not been destroyed at the moment?" ”

"There are still more than 100 in Guizhou and more than 200 in Yunnan, and Guangxi is almost the same as Yunnan, especially the Yao Miao people in Datengxia."

"In the past, they could only rely on the terrain, but now the imperial court has field artillery and siege artillery, so as long as the road is completed, it is only a matter of time before their fort is captured."

Fu Rang knew the situation in the southwest very well, and in his opinion, the southwest Tusi was not the opponent of the Ming army at all, and he just relied on the terrain to delay death.

His view is the same as that of Zhu Gaoxu, for Zhu Gaoxu, when the Ming army mastered the arquebus and cannon, whether it was the nomads in the north or the Tusi in the southwest, they were actually no match for the Ming army.

The reason why they can still entangle with the Ming army is nothing more than relying on the terrain.

The northern nomads rely on the Great Gobi Desert between the south and the north, and the Tusi in the southwest rely on the deep mountains and dense forests, and the roads are rugged.

They want to fight a protracted war with the Ming Dynasty, but fortunately, the Ming Dynasty's national strength is still on the rise, and there is enough time for them to fight.

Zhu Gaoxu is confident that he can still bring at least 30 years of national strength to the Ming Dynasty.

In 30 years, even if it is impossible to eliminate the southwest toast, there is no problem in eliminating more than eighty percent of the toast, because Sichuan's agriculture is recovering, and the Ming Dynasty still has the big granary of Jiaozhi.

"As soon as Chen Yao dies, Annan will be changed to Jiaozhi with the heir of the Chen family."

Zhu Gaoxu expressed his thoughts and asked Fu Rang: "How much tax can Jiaozhi bring to the imperial court this year?" ”

Regarding this problem, Fu Rang, who was familiar with Zhu Gaoxu, had done his homework before going north, so he looked at Yizhaha, and Yizhan Ha also handed Zhu Gaochu the document brought by Fu Rang.

"I've come to see that I have a headache, you just tell me directly."

Zhu Gaoxu refused to look through the book by himself, because he had really been uncomfortable watching the music recently, so he could only discuss the government and politics with Fu Rang in a chat, which could make him a little more comfortable.

"Okay" Fu Rang nodded, and then spoke: "Over there, I asked Zhang Fu, Zhang Chun, Chen Mao, and Meng Ying to guard their respective places, and I personally led the troops to recruit and capture Changshanman." ”

"I handed over the captured Changshan barbarians to the local people to enslave them, so as to reclaim the wasteland, and exempt the wasteland from paying taxes for two years."

"As for the animal power such as ploughing cattle and pulling horses, I gave them to the Han people who immigrated to us."

"Nowadays, the contradictions between the local people and the Changshan barbarians are getting deeper and deeper, and in many cases, there are even internal fights between the local people and the Changshan barbarians, with countless casualties."

"Now in the territory of Annan, few people are targeting the people of my Han family, and the area of the Red River Delta you mentioned is basically cultivated by our Han people."

"From the winter of the second year of Yongle to the present, in six and a half years, the imperial court has successively migrated people from Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong into Annam, and now there are more than 724,000 people in Hankou in Annam, and it is estimated that it can reach 770,000 this year."

"These 770,000 Han people are now basically divided equally with more than 15 million mu of cultivated land, while the people of Annam hold more than 8 million mu of cultivated land."

"The local taxes have been adjusted, and now they are all ten taxes, and the amount of land taxes that can be paid this year is about 4.6 million stones."

After Fu Rang said, Zhu Gaoxu nodded with satisfaction, and continued to ask: "How many people are in Annan and Changshanman?" ”

"There are more than 2.2 million people in Annam, who were captured by us, and more than 400,000 Changshan barbarians enslaved by them, but they are basically in the Thanh Hoa area in the south."

After Fu Rang explained, he also mentioned the situation in Changshan: "In Changshan, there are probably no less than two million barbarians, and as long as the battle between the two of them is balanced, we can slowly develop southward until we firmly grasp the entire Jiaozhi." ”

"That being said, it's not a good chance." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head, he didn't think that Daming could completely control the entire Jiaozhi, after all, there were too many local Annan people and Changshan barbarians.

In addition, the mountains and hills south of Thanh Hoa are mostly mountainous, and if you want to exterminate them, you must maintain a relatively high military expenditure.

Although Annan can now receive 4.6 million stone fields, if the military salaries of the local garrison are deducted, then only 2 million stone can be handed over to Nanjing.

These 2 million stones basically flowed to Yunnan and Guangxi, and were used to maintain Li Jinglong and Mu Chun's counterinsurgency work of changing the land in the southwest and returning it to the river.

Even so, for the nearly 200,000 troops of the two legions, these two million stone money and grain were very insufficient, so the Sichuan side not only had to support Guizhou, but also had to maintain military salaries together with Jiaozhi.

"At present, there are 370,000 troops in the four southwestern provinces, this number is still too complicated, I am ready to organize the local troops into the people after Guizhou is reclaimed and returned, and only six guards will be retained."

"In addition, I am hesitating whether the next direction to start is Guangxi or Yunnan, what do you think?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Fu Rang, to which Fu Rang frowned slightly, and then said: "If you want me to choose, it will naturally be Guangxi." ”

"In terms of topography, Yunnan is more complex than Guangxi, and Guangxi is close to Huguang and Guangdong, so after the suppression of Tusi, it is easier to migrate Han people to consolidate local achievements."

"At present, the toast in Guangxi is basically the most fierce in Datengxia."

"They live in the mountains near the Xunjiang River, more than 300 miles from north to south, among which Tusi is mainly the Yao people with the surnames Lan, Hu, Hou and Pan, as well as the Gu people who live in the Lishan Mountains and are good at making poison crossbow arrows...... Its number is in the hundreds of thousands. ”

"When I was fighting in Annan, I asked Yang Zhan, and even he said that he and Yang Wen were afraid of the terrain of Datengxia at the beginning, and did not lead troops to encircle and suppress it."

"If you want to encircle and suppress the Tusi of Datengxia, you can't completely eradicate it without an army of more than 100,000."

Datengxia, this word has repeatedly appeared on Zhu Gaoxu's desk, and it is indeed one of the biggest Tusi turmoil that endangered the Ming Dynasty after the Tumubao Incident.

Zhu Gaoxu remembered that in history, the Ming Dynasty used troops against Datengxia three times, and the time range was from the Chenghua period to the Jiajing period, which continued.

Later, it was not that the local land had been changed and returned, but that the Ming Dynasty fell into many wars such as the War to Resist Japanese Aid Korea and the Southwest Donghu War, the Northwest Huangzhong Sanjie, and the Battle of Ningxia.

If he can solve the matter of Datengxia in one fell swoop, then in the future, Daming only needs to mobilize troops against Yunnan and Sanxuan Liuwei, and many wars that drag down Daming's national strength will be solved in his generation.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu nodded with satisfaction and said, "When the war in southern Qiannan is over, I will summon Qianguogong, Cao Guogong and others to Beijing and discuss them in detail in Wuying Palace." ”

"Today, we will ......"

Before Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, he heard footsteps outside the hall.

He frowned and looked, but saw a eunuch on duty coming over and said, "Your Highness, there is news from Taixue, saying that there have been breakthroughs in many things, I hope you can go there in person and give you some guidance." ”

"Got a breakthrough?" Zhu Gaoxu stood up when he heard this, and subconsciously looked at Fu Rang: "You go with me, just to let you know what Taixue does." ”

"Yes!" Fu Rang was also curious about what this eight-year-old Taixue did, so he followed Zhu Gaoxu out of the Jinshen Palace.

However, just when Yishiha also wanted to follow, Zhu Gaoxu turned around and explained to him: "You stay in the Jinshen Palace for the time being, if there is something in the Qianqing Palace, notify me immediately." ”

"The slave and maid receive the order......" also lost Ha in response, and then watched Zhu Gaoxu and Fu Rang gradually leave.

An hour later, they appeared outside the city of Taixue, which was now surrounded by a concrete wall with a circumference of twelve miles, and was not inferior in scale to some county seats.

Fu Rang and Zhu Gaoxu shared a carriage into Taixue, and the scene surprised him very much.

There are a large number of students in Taixue, there are tens of thousands of people, and many people are curious when they see the carriage, and Zhu Gaoxu also explained:

"There are all the things you want in Taixue City, but students need to stay here until they graduate before they can get out."

"In addition, the Taixue City is also divided into the inner and outer cities, the outer city is these students, and the inner city is the bachelors left behind after graduation, as well as the doctors who have made certain contributions."

"The place we're going to is the inner city."

Zhu Gaoxu said, and the carriage gradually drove towards the inner city, which was isolated by the city wall.

Compared with the outer city, which is no different from the county seat, the inner city is relatively empty, and there is even a lot of cultivated land.

The difference is that the inner city is more heavily guarded than the outer city, and basically every battlement has a soldier standing guard, which is heavily guarded.

When the carriage arrived at the five-story laboratory building where wrought iron and concrete were poured, Zhu Gaoxu and Fu Rang got off the bus one after another, and saw more than 300 bachelors gathered early in front of the laboratory building, as well as 12 doctors who led them to wait.

"Your Highness......"

The doctor who spoke first was a man in his thirties, and Zhu Gaoxu also introduced Fu Rang when he saw him: "This is Dr. Wang Fuwang, who developed a chemical fertilizer and solved the problem of struvite stone fungus. ”

"This is Ying Guogong, you don't have to hide it from him about your research, what do you have to say."

Zhu Gaoxu introduced the identities of the two, and the two exchanged politeness.

After the politeness, Zhu Gaoxu asked if there was any research breakthrough that was worth leaving his official duties behind.

Hearing this, Wang Fu also hurriedly said: "The steam engine has been made, in addition, the glass mirror, the grain seed machine, the mercury thermometer, the threshing machine, the cotton tie machine and other materials have also been made and put into use. ”

Wang Fu's words surprised Zhu Gaoxu, but it was mainly the progress of the steam engine.

"Let's go, take us to see!"

Zhu Gaoxu hurriedly signaled, and Wang Fu also took many scholars to guide Zhu Gaoxu to a well.

Next to the well, an egg-shaped mechanical device that was four feet tall sat quietly.

Under Zhu's watchful eye, Wang Fu led the young scholars to fill the device with coal as fuel, then waited for it to fill with steam and close the inlet valve.

After waiting for a while, Wang Fu turned on a switch with his own hands, and then the machine sounded running, and a yellowish plastic-like water pipe connected to the well began to pump water into the steam engine and discharge the water to the ground.

"Your Highness, this steam engine can rely on the suction power of a vacuum to draw water, and the depth of water can reach two zhang."

"If it is placed in a mine, it can safely draw water from a mine six feet deep without any danger."

"This tube is made of eucommia glue, which is very easy to use, but it is not heat-resistant, and I don't know where the gap is compared with the rubber of Dongzhou."

Wang Fu said excitedly, but Zhu Gaoxu was a little disappointed.

He also thought that Wang Fu and the others had already made a steam engine that could be put on the car to operate, but he never thought that it could reach the pumping version of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

Although he didn't know how Wang Fu's steam pump was better than in the West, he still praised after the loss: "Yes, with this thing, there will be no need for workers to pump buckets of water from the mine outside the mine in the future." ”

"Let's go, take me to another study." Zhu Gaoxu was very satisfied, and Wang Fu took Zhu Gaochu to visit the glass mirror, grain seed drill, mercury thermometer, threshing machine, cotton tie machine and other things.

The glass mirror is basically not much different from the mirrors of later generations, which can clearly reflect a person's appearance, as long as the price is down, Zhu Gaoxu believes that it can replace the copper mirror on the market.

The mercury thermometer was the same as in later generations, but it was much larger, and it needed to be placed under the armpit to measure the exact temperature, which was helpful for future medical treatment.

As for other research on grain seed drills, threshing machines, cotton tieing machines, etc., they are basically modifications on existing agricultural tools, but they have become labor-saving and have been slightly improved.

The reason why it is subtle is mainly for skilled hands, and the improvement in efficiency is just an extra quarter or two of overtime in the original working hours.

Although the promotion was not large, Zhu Gaoxu still gave Wang Fu and others the rewards and encouragement they deserved, and promoted more than ten university scholars who mainly studied these things as doctors.

At the end of the visit, Zhu pointed out the direction of these things, but the main research direction was how to install the steam engine on the car, so that the carriage could move on its own and pull more goods.

Zhu Gaoxu personally drew the drawings of the appearance of the steam car and the steam train, but for these drawings, Wang Fu was embarrassed:

"Your Highness, if you can't solve the sealing problem, then I'm afraid you won't be able to study these things."

Eucommia ulmoides gum is not heat-resistant, so it cannot stably seal the steam engine, and if it cannot be sealed, it will be deflated, and the power will drop, Zhu Gaoxu also knows this, but he knows that in a few years, Zheng He will bring back rubber from Dongzhou.

Rubber trees can be planted slowly, but rubber can be obtained directly in Dongzhou and transported back in batches.

When the steam engine studies and consumes this batch of rubber, it is estimated that the rubber trees brought back can also be harvested.

After appeasing Wang Fu and the others, Zhu Gaoxu left Taixue City with Fu Rang, and Taixuecheng's performance also made Zhu Gaoxu a little embarrassed.

"I thought there would be a particularly noticeable improvement, I didn't want you to see a joke."

On the carriage, Zhu Gaoxu was a little embarrassed, but Fu Rang shook his head and said: "No, for the minister, what he has seen and heard today is enough." ”

"The kind of thing that can pump water from two feet below the well and make a sound, the minister has never seen it in his life."

"But what the minister is more concerned about is, why hasn't His Highness equipped the army with flintlock pistols?"

The flintlock pistol was the product of Zhu Gaoxu during the Hongwu period, but it was not equipped with the army for a long time.

Fu Rang had also used a flintlock pistol, although he knew that the flintlock pistol was not as stable as the arquebus in the south, but in the north, the flintlock pistol should be very good, but judging from the appearance of the visit just now, Zhu Gaoxu still did not have a flintlock pistol.

"In fact, it is already in production, but the quality of our flint is not too good, so this time I went to the West, I asked Zheng He to bring back a batch of flint of better quality."

"As long as he returns, the more than 70,000 flintlock pistols in the inventory of the Ordnance Bureau in Liaodong can be loaded with flint and put into the ranks of the northern border army to fight."

Zhu Gaoxu explained to Fu Rang and continued: "If the flintlock pistol with the new flintlock installed has a considerable firing rate in the south, then I will order the production of arquebuses to be stopped and start arming the whole army with flintlock pistols. ”

The quality of the flint in the Ming Dynasty is not very good, and in the humid areas of the south, the ignition rate will drop significantly.

If the quality of the flintlock brought back by Zheng He this time can ensure the firing rate of the flintlock pistol, then Da Ming can also change his weapons in advance.

Although there was not much difference in the power and rate of fire from arquebuses to flintlock pistols, after this round of improvement, the Ming army's advantage over the enemy in the north and southwest would be more obvious.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but have a smile on his face, and thought of Zhu Di's joy when he saw the army equipped with flintlock pistols.

It just seemed that God didn't want him to be happy, so while he was smiling on his face, the sound of horses' hooves came from outside the carriage, which made him nervous.

"Your Highness, Your Majesty has sent you to enter the Qianqing Palace as soon as possible!"

When the singing sound sounded outside the carriage, Zhu Gaoxu's mood also fell to the bottom, and the whole person was like falling into an ice cave.

What he had been worried about finally happened......

(End of chapter)