"Bell... Clang... Bell ......"

With the bells and drums in Beijing ringing in unison during the day, officials and people inside and outside the capital turned pale with fright.

The bells and drums rang out tens of thousands of times, and the entire capital learned of the collapse of Queen Xu.

Hundreds of officials rushed into Fengtian Temple Square and waited for Zhu Di for three days before Zhu Di came out of his grief.

Although Empress Xu said not to make a big deal before her death, Zhu Di still arranged Empress Xu's funeral with the highest standard.

Hundreds of officials wore linen mourning clothes for 27 days, plain clothes for 100 days, and did not ring bells and drums for 5 days after dropping out of the dynasty.

From now on, even as the emperor, he will have to wear plain clothes for one year, and the princes will mourn for three years, during which they will have to wear plain clothes and are not allowed to play and play.

He will not enter the Wuying Hall within a year, but will discuss with the hundred officials at the West Corner Gate.

In Beijing, the women all wore clothes and cried at Sishanmen for three days to mourn Queen Xu.

In the Jingtaixue, Guanxue, Guozijian and other material supervisors, wardens, monks, and the elders in the workshop are all dressed in plain clothes and mourn for three days.

Soldiers, civilians and women were dressed in plain clothes, gold and silver jewelry were banned for three days, music and sacrifices were stopped for 100 days, and slaughter was forbidden for 49 days.

Even the marriage of the people needs to stop for a hundred days......

It can be said that compared with the simple funeral when Zhu Yuanzhang died, Queen Xu's funeral regulations were very high, so high that it affected the normal life of the people.

But even so, no one dared to stand up and say anything no, because no one would want to touch Zhu Di's brows now.

Since the death of Empress Xu, Zhu Di's temperament has changed greatly, he is more irritable and suspicious than before, the palace people and concubines are all uneasy, and he doesn't even see Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaosui, only Zhang and Guo Yan can see Zhu Di by helping Empress Xu arrange Zi Palace.

Even the Ministry of Rites was trembling when it chose the nickname, and finally according to Zhu Di's meaning, he chose the almost perfect nickname of "Benevolence, Filial Piety, Kindness, Cheng Mingzhuang, and Queen Tianqi Shengwen".

"If you and Your Majesty continue like this, you won't be able to hold on......"

In the Chunhe Palace, Guo Yan looked at Zhu Gaoxu, who had not been able to eat properly for several days, and his heart was like a knife.

In just a few days, Zhu Gaoxu's whole person was smaller, he got up at midnight every day, fell asleep at the end of the day, and spent the rest of the time either busy with funerals or dealing with government affairs.

Many things that can be handed over to the people below, he does it himself, as if he wants to express his guilt for his mother in this way.

Under the weight of sleeping for only three hours a day, his emaciation is visible to the naked eye, and Zhu Di is the same.

Queen Xu questioned Zhu Gaoxu's words if she hadn't seen her for so many years, which made Zhu Gaoxu feel guilty, it was the current hard work, and he also felt that he deserved it.

"I didn't fulfill my filial piety when my mother was alive, if I carry it after death, then what else can I do......"

Zhu Gaoxu was dressed in linen and filial piety, sitting on a chair in plain clothes, his face was a little pale, but the red pen in his hand never stopped.

"You have to eat something, right?"

Guo Yan couldn't bear it, and stepped forward with a bowl of soup and rice, but Zhu Gaoxu shook his head lightly and said, "I don't have an appetite, you and your sister-in-law will go to take care of your mother's Zigong first." ”

"Then I'll put it here, and remember to eat it when you're hungry."

Guo Yan looked at Zhu Gaoxu's haggard appearance, and felt uncomfortable, but there was nothing he could do.

She left the Chunhe Palace, and was busy with the funeral of Queen Xu for the next half month, but in the face of Queen Xu's funeral, Zhu Di stubbornly demanded that Queen Xu be buried in the Changling Tomb of Tianshou Mountain in Shuntianfu.

Due to the appearance of Zhu Gaoxu, the Changling Tomb of Tianshou Mountain was not selected to be built after the death of Empress Xu as in history, but was set as auspicious soil at the beginning of the construction of Beijing, and has now been built for more than nine years.

Its scale is larger than in history, with an expected construction period of 11 years and more than 5 million yuan of money and grain.

After Empress Xu became seriously ill, Zhu Di had already urged Kuaixiang built by Beijing to start the construction of the Changling Tomb first, so the current Changling Tomb has entered the finishing touches.

But even so, Zhu Di was still reluctant to bury Queen Xu, but had been accompanying Queen Xu's Zigong in several banquets these days, even if Zhu Gaochi and they took turns to persuade Zhu Di, Zhu Di did not listen.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't persuade Zhu Di, he knew that Zhu Di would think about it himself, and what he had to do now was to handle the affairs of the imperial court well, and not let Zhu Di be distracted.

"Boom, boom—"

Just as Zhu Gaoxu was handling government affairs, rounds of shelling sounded outside the city of Kirden, which was tens of thousands of miles away from Nanjing.

The difference is that this time the artillery is not used to attack and defend, but to show muscles......

"This is the foundation of my Heavenly Empire!"

Outside the city of Kölden, Zheng He came here from Basra at some point, and showed the force of the Ming Dynasty lightly.

Standing beside him were Shahru, who had just finished the chaos in the river, and a group of Timurid generals.

Their faces were not good-looking at the moment, because in their eyes, the pile of earthen walls a mile and a half away had almost been beaten into ruins, and such accuracy and artillery distance were beyond the reach of the stone cannon in their hands.

"What's their name?"

Shaharu calmly walked to a cannon and stretched out his hand to touch it, but he was so hot that he immediately let go of his hand.

"Field artillery." Zheng He responded confidently and arrogantly, and added: "There are nearly seven thousand such artillery pieces in the Celestial Empire. ”

......Hearing Zheng He's words, Shaharu's courtiers gasped, and they didn't have the slightest suspicion, because the number of field guns that appeared in front of them alone was as high as two hundred.

You must know that Zheng He and they are just a fleet, and if a fleet wants to sail to the sea, there is a limit to all the materials it can carry.

Shaharu could not have imagined the existence of a country capable of building an ocean-going fleet of 20,000 and armed with 200 guns.

At this moment, he has a deeper understanding of Da Ming.

Zheng He was able to sweep the Persian Gulf with 20,000 troops and penetrate hundreds of miles into the Persian hinterland, which means that the Ming Dynasty actually had the strength to start a war with Timur.

Therefore, as far as the current situation is concerned, as long as Zheng He continues to fight in Persia with Yusuf of the Black Sheep Kingdom, the entire Persian region will not be at peace.

As long as the Ming Dynasty still has the strength to transport more troops to come, it is really difficult to say what will happen to the Timurid country.

"In your hands you have more than thirty of our cities, with a population of more than a million."

"You can even become a king here if you want."

"Under such circumstances, I don't think you're willing to give me such a large piece of territory."

Looking at Zheng He, Shaharu spoke his thoughts, while Hu Ji and Liu Mian, who were standing on him, acted as his translators for Zheng He.

"Hehe......"

Faced with Shaharu's thoughts, Zheng He smiled, he knew that this was Shaharu's temptation, but he didn't care.

"I know very well your current strength, Sultan, and I also know what you are afraid of."

"But if I'm not sincere, then I won't have to go to great lengths to meet you here, and withdraw most of Kirden's troops."

"If you don't trust me, you won't dare to come and meet me with more than a thousand cavalry."

Zheng He got straight to the point, and without waiting for Shahru's reaction, he continued: "We are not prepared to occupy any inch of the territory of Timur. ”

"It's too far away, and it's too expensive to govern it, so instead of taking Timur, it's better to think about how to deal with the Tatars and Varat in the steppe."

"What's more, not all of these thirty cities, more than a million people, will be handed over to you, and the port of Kurumus is a city that we must keep."

"The other thirty-two cities can be handed over to you, but we need an apology and a compensation."

"Of course!" Hearing Zheng He's words, Shaharu let down his guard instead.

He didn't care about the port of Hurumus, because Timur itself was not a maritime state, and it was a good deal to exchange one Hurum for thirty-two cities.

Therefore, the compensation in Zheng He's mouth is, in his opinion, the price of buying these thirty-two cities.

"I can give out 100,000 gold coins, and 3,000,000 silver coins."

Timur quoted a price, but for Zheng He, who was familiar with the difference between Timur's currency and Ming currency, he knew very well that it was only worth less than 700,000 guan when converted into Ming currency.

"Do you think your people are not even worth the price of ten gold coins per person?"

Zheng He was not prepared to ask for too much, because that would plunge the Timurid Empire into chaos, which was not in line with the Ming policy of stabilizing Central Asia.

But he wasn't prepared to ask for too little, even though he had already made a fortune from the entire Persian Gulf region.

"A million gold coins, that's more than my strength."

Shaharu was blunt and made himself honest about the situation he was facing: "Now that I have taken the thirty-three cities in your hands, I still need to invest in wealth to restore their prosperity. ”

"Besides, I have a few enemies to the west, and my army needs pay."

"Of these thirty-two cities, I can only produce a maximum of 200,000 gold coins and 6 million silver coins, and I can't do more."

Shaharu basically handed over most of the wealth in his hands, and the price reached nearly 1.4 million yuan.

Seeing this, Zheng He was not ready to continue persecuting Shaharu, but opened his hands as if to hug him.

"Congratulations, you have successfully recovered these thirty-two cities and become the greatest king of Persia."

"I should congratulate you too." Shaharu gritted his teeth and said this sentence with a hard shard as he hugged Zheng He.

However, Zheng He was not an ordinary eunuch, he was also a man who walked out of the sea of swords and fire with Zhu Di, so when he exerted his strength, Shaharu felt the pain, and then let go of his hand.

"We will retreat in a warship when your army arrives."

The two let go of their hands, and Zheng He stood under the canopy umbrella and talked to Shaharu about the handover of the city, and talked about the matter of Kurumus:

"We have no intention of making enemies against you, so the defenders of the port of Kurumus will remain less than six thousand men."

"If your children and grandchildren encounter any problems that cannot be solved in the future, you can also invite our army to help you solve some small problems through the vassal pavilion we set up in your country's capital, but the benefits brought by the war, you should be clear."

Zheng He spoke words that had not changed for thousands of years, and Shaharu had already learned from Liu Mian about the subject country pavilion, garrison, pension and other issues from Liu Mian long before he came here.

In his opinion, the Ming army in the port of Kurumus was the same as his vassals, but the pension was relatively high.

For Shaharu, who has seen the strength of the Ming army, if the Ming army can achieve the same result this time, then it is not a problem to pay hundreds of thousands of silver coins.

You know, his father spent millions of silver coins in order to take the Azerbaijan region, and if he sent this Ming army of less than 6,000 men, and they could maintain the level of the Persian Gulf battle, then he would be able to solve the problem of the Azerbaijani region by spending at most one million silver coins.

However, this is obviously not the best time to mobilize this Ming army, so as not to let Zheng He see his weakness.

Thinking of this, Shaharu chatted with Zheng He about many things, and asked about Daming's information.

In this regard, Zheng He was not ready to hide it at all, but told Shaharu everything about Daming, without exaggeration and adulteration, because there was no need.

As far as Zheng He's experience of going to the West is concerned, he can already conclude that the Ming Dynasty is the most powerful country in the world today.

Not to mention anything else, just their fleet of more than 20,000 can run rampant in most of the Persian region, if Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu ruthlessly develop the old port and Ceylon, then the number of the Western fleet can even increase to 30,000, even 40,000, 50,000.

Zheng He himself didn't dare to think about how far he could go if he had 50,000 ocean-going troops in his hands.

"Sure enough, power swells people, no wonder His Highness wants to save himself three times a day."

Zheng He sighed, and said goodbye to Shaharu, who had discussed all the matters.

He watched Shaharu retreat with more than a thousand cavalry, and then returned to the city of Kirden with Hu Ji.

At the gate of the city, Chen Xuan, who had been waiting here for a long time, saw them returning, and when he asked people to withdraw the field artillery, he walked off the road and asked Zheng He.

"How's it going, are things all settled?"

"If we don't talk well, it's a big deal to fight with them again, and let them see how powerful we are!"

Chen Xuan's mind was full of thinking about fighting and reaping merits, but Zheng He smiled and said: "Let's talk about it, after all, Shaharu is not a fool, Ursa has been beaten by us like a tiger, and it is impossible for him to make the same mistake as Ursa." ”

"In the middle of next month, he will send an army to take over the other thirty-two cities, and deliver two hundred thousand gold coins and six million silver coins to us."

Zheng He said, Chen Xuan was not interested: "It's not much." ”

"Yes, we could have asked for more." Hu Ji was also very puzzled, but Zheng He explained:

"We want too much, although he can take it out, but how can he suppress the other rebels after that?"

"We want a Timurid state that can maintain peace in the Transoxiana region, not a divided Timurid state."

"The war in the north has caused many tribes to migrate eastward, and you are not unaware of this news, and it will not be good for us to continue fighting."

"What's more, the amount of gunpowder in our hands is running out, although we have been collecting, there are too few craftsmen who can make gunpowder here, solve the matter of Kurumus as soon as possible, continue to go to the West as soon as possible, and then go home early."

After Zheng He explained everything, he looked at Chen Xuan and asked, "Have the seizures of the thirty-two cities been counted?" ”

"It's all counted, that's why I said that Shaharu didn't give much." Speaking of the seizure, Chen Xuan couldn't stop smiling on his face.

"Five hundred and seventy-seven thousand gold coins, more than nine million silver coins, more than three hundred boxes of copper coins, and more than two hundred boxes of jewels......"

"In addition, there are more than 100,000 head of livestock, as well as millions of sheep, and more than 4 million stone grain."

"But where are we going to ship these things, Ceylon?"

Chen Xuan had a headache, but the gold, silver and jewelry were lucky, but it was more difficult to transport live animals such as livestock.

"The cattle can be left in the area to cultivate the land, and the people of Kurumus, except for the artisans, will be handed over to Shahru as appropriate."

Zheng He gave an arrangement after a little thought, he was not going to leave all the people of Kurumus, but only prepared to leave a certain population to cooperate with animal farming, and the rest of the population would be handed over to Shaharu.

A small number of people and a large amount of animal power can make the hundreds of thousands of acres of cultivated land reclaimed north of Hurumus meet the rations of the garrison and the people of the city, and at the same time store a certain amount of grain, so as to cope with the fleet's next voyage and the situation of being surrounded and short of food in the future.

"After these things are folded, I am afraid that they will be worth no less than five or six million yuan."

Zheng He estimated the approximate value before continuing: "The remaining livestock, the sheep, can be sold to Shahru, and the cattle are transported by sea to see if they can be transported to Ceylon. ”

"If it can't be shipped, then it will be sold in the ports of coastal countries, and there is no shortage of buyers for cattle anyway."

"It's hard to handle only the grain, so let's just build a big granary here."

"I estimate that the price of grain in Timur will not be able to drop in a short time, and when the time comes, we can sell this grain to merchants everywhere, and then buy grain reserves after the price of grain stabilizes."

Zheng He arranged these things in an approximate manner, and then spoke: "Prepare to prepare, after Shaharu takes over the city, we receive all the compensation, and get his letter of apology, we can continue to go to the West." ”

After a delay of nearly a year, Zheng He finally mentioned the matter of going to the West.

Chen Xuan's face showed loss, but the naval officers around him were very happy.

How could they not be happy that they had been away from home for almost three years, and that they were finally able to continue their voyage and return home on the following voyage.

"What about the maritime merchants, and what about the navy stationed here?"

Chen Xuan asked a question, and Zheng He did not answer immediately for the former, but arranged for the latter:

"I am going to set up a Persian Guard, which is subordinate to the Naval Governor's Office, and is temporarily under the jurisdiction of the Navy, if His Highness wants to change it, it will not be too much to change it when the time comes."

"If we don't have enough troops stationed in Kurumus, we won't dare to continue to the West."

"In addition, Your Highness said before that it is very difficult to buy a large amount of grain south of Mugudushu, so let's be prepared not to bring too many people into the waterway of Kunlun Continent."

"Therefore, I am going to leave two guards to station, and we will lead Donghaiwei and Dongyangwei to continue south."

"As for the affairs of maritime merchants...... Zheng He paused, not because he felt that it was difficult to deal with, but because the number of maritime merchants was too small.

Merchants were profit-seeking, and Zheng and they anchored in Kurumus for almost a year, and the expenses of this year were beyond the reach of many merchants, so after coming to Kurumus and doing business with the Mamluks and other merchants in the west, most of the merchants returned to Nanyang in groups.

Because the pirates on the return route were all cleaned up by Zheng He, they didn't have to worry about being looted.

Moreover, after more than two years of training, many merchant sailors armed with merchant ships can skillfully use Hongwu iron cannons, and they are not to mention pirates, even ordinary small countries dare not provoke.

Therefore, at present, there are only government-run merchant ships from various countries, as well as seven larger merchant gangs in Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang.

Although they had finished their business, Zheng He kept telling them not to leave in a hurry, although Kunlun Continent had no trade to do, there was business to do.

Trade and business, the words sound similar, but those who know Zheng He know that the former means that Kunlun has no business, and the latter means that Kunlun is profitable.

Although they did not know what to do, they remained in Khurumus.

It is precisely because of their stay that Zheng He's second half of his voyage to the West can continue.

"Tell them that in three months at most, they'll know why I'm keeping them."

Zheng He squinted his eyes and explained a rough idea, Chen Xuan was a little confused when he heard this, but he still asked people to go to the notice.

After receiving Zheng He's notice, the merchant gangs of various countries and the seven major merchant gangs in Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang also settled down.

The merchant gangs of various countries have enough funds to support them, and the seven major merchant gangs in Jiangnan and Fujian and Zhejiang are strong in their own right.

In their opinion, since Zheng He knew that there were not many countries in the south, there must be a reason for him to continue to move south.

It was profitable to unite with Zheng He, although they didn't know what medicine Zheng He's gourd was selling, but this did not prevent them from continuing to go south.

Anyway, if it is delayed, it will only be a delay of a few months, but if the south side is really profitable, then they will be the first to grasp the opportunity, which is an opportunity that can be encountered but not sought.

Under their greed, Zheng He began to prepare for the next trip to the West, and Shaharu, who returned to the north, also began his journey to raise money......

(End of chapter)