"Woo-woo-"

At the end of the winter month, when the people of the Ming Dynasty were ready to welcome the wax moon, on the sea border tens of thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He and Yang Zhan also led the Western fleet to Kunlun Point, which was once barren.

In the telescope, the once barren Kunlun Point has now built a large wharf, and on the hills not far from the shore, several rammed earth and stone cities, as well as the green crops next to it are very eye-catching.

When the sound of Daming's horn sounded on the sea, Zheng He saw in the telescope a group of soldiers who ran out of the city and came to the dock to wave excitedly.

"It's hard for a thousand people to stay in such a place for two and a half years."

"Indeed, we are late......"

Standing on the deck, Yang Zhan, who was already thirty-eight years old, looked ahead, and Zheng He was also very emotional.

The two led some of the soldiers to change their ships, because the wharf at Kunlun Point was obviously not as large as expected, and it could not berth the 6,000 treasure ships that had been replaced.

More than 3,000 treasure ships and horse ships were moored at sea, and the soldiers replaced the 3,000 Dafu ships and went to South Kunlun Port.

"Daming Wansheng!!"

"Daming Wansheng!!"

Looking at the Ming warships that were getting closer and closer to him, the Ming troops on the shore carnivaled.

Two and a half years have passed, and the once brand-new Mandarin Duck Jacket has become worn out and patched.

The number of 1,000 troops stationed in the Ming Dynasty has decreased significantly, I don't know if it was because of illness or because of something else.

These twenty-three or four-year-old young men now look like they are in their thirties.

With the warship docking, Zheng He and Yang Zhan went ashore one after another and warmly hugged the soldiers on the shore.

Not only them, but all the Ming soldiers who came ashore warmly embraced them.

Among them, there are many robes, friends, and brothers who stayed in the soldiers.

Originally, this group of people thought that the friends and brothers who stayed behind would be in tears, but they didn't want this group of guys to directly focus on the boxes of goods on the ship.

"Wang Mazi, give me your new clothes to wear!"

"Give me my shoes, I've been wearing straw sandals for two years!"

"My knives are broken, give me a new one!"

"Give me ......"

Although it was laughter and scolding, it made people's nose sour to hear it.

Zheng He and Yang Zhan were moved, and waved their hands: "Change, change the latest and best!" ”

"Daming Wansheng!!"

After receiving the military order from the two, everyone applauded, and then the scene of changing clothes and shoes began on the dock.

More and more soldiers went ashore, from more than 1,000 at the beginning to thousands later.

This time, after the Western Fleet changed its guards for thousands of households such as Persian Guard, Mugu Dushu, and Banggara, only more than 8,000 soldiers and horses successfully arrived at Kunlun Point.

Although the number of people has decreased, the size of the fleet has not decreased much, after all, Zheng He and they have to go to Dongzhou this time to transport enough goods back to Daming.

"Okay, you can change your guard and be ready to return to Daming at any time!"

Yang Zhan summoned the officials of the thousand households stationed in Kunlunjiao, and after communicating with him, announced the good news that their brothers from the thousand households could return to Daming and rest for three years.

When Qianhu officials heard this, they also made a summary of what had happened in the past two and a half years with Zheng He.

Liu Tuan, the eldest son of Liu Rong, the Qianhu official of Kunlun Corner, spent the past two and a half years communicating with the indigenous people of Kunlun Point and establishing long-term trade.

They used the iron materials left to them by Zheng He to build weapons and make long knives for these natives in exchange for a large number of livestock and fruits.

Because of this, they were able to endure the most difficult first year, and used this year to open up hundreds of acres of arable land around Kunlun City.

During this period, they also needed to go to the hemp forest to buy food, but the long-term life of being full and hungry still left one hundred and sixty-two lives in this land.

Now the Kunlun Thousand Households have passed the most difficult period, the city is enough to accommodate 5,000 people, and there are more than 3,200 acres of cultivated land outside the city.

The cultivated land is mainly grown with wheat, followed by potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes and other crops obtained from the returning advance ships.

The local land is barren, and the yield per mu is only five buckets of real grain.

Although fruits are abundant, the long-term lack of grain still makes the soldiers stationed here skinny.

When Zheng He heard this, he was not in a hurry to go to Dongzhou, but led more than 5,000 soldiers ashore to help reclaim the wasteland, and at the same time discussed with Yang Zhan, and Yang Zhan led the sea fleet to the southwest coast of Kunlun Continent to confirm whether the tribes they had experienced at the beginning still existed.

Time passed little by little, and when Yang Zhan returned to Kunlunjiao, it was already the last two days of the lunar month.

Yang Zhan had already determined that there were tribes on the west coast that could replenish them with enough fresh water, fruits and vegetables, and Zheng He also used nearly a month to open up more than 700 acres of arable land for Kunlun City.

After doing all this, everyone replenished enough fresh water, and then left one thousand households to stay in Kunlunjiao, and the remaining seven thousand people braved the wind and waves and continued to march towards their destination Dongzhou.

When they set off for Dongzhou, the Ming Dynasty also ushered in the New Year's Day that they were looking forward to for a year.

"Crackling ......"

As in previous years, as a result of the rectification of the administration of officials, although there is no guarantee that there will be no corruption among officials in any place where the new policy has been implemented, the lower limit is always much better than that in places where it has not been implemented.

The policy of ten taxes and one tax, coupled with the increase in the inspection of the imperial history of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the officials who were transferred abroad still need to care about their jobs after all, and the ordinary people are also because these officials are rogue officials and are not worried about retribution from the local area in the future, so they boldly impeach.

During the Hongwu period, the Imperial Court set up the imperial history of the left and right capitals, the imperial history of the left and right vice-capitals, the imperial history of the left and right capitals, and the supervision of the imperial history of the thirteen provinces in the local area of 110 people.

After the beginning of the Yongle New Deal, 15 supervisors were set up in the two capitals, and 10 supervisors were set up in each province.

Under the supervision of the imperial history, there are eight products to inspect the imperial history, the daily duty is to inspect the local counties, towns and villages, each supervising the imperial history has 20 to 30 people under the inspection of the imperial history.

In other words, the current Metropolitan Procuratorate has become a huge institution, especially the more than 2,000 inspectors of the imperial history, which are almost like sharp blades hanging over the heads of corrupt officials everywhere, and they will fall from time to time.

You must know that the current Ming Dynasty has expanded its territory several times, but it is only more than 1,600 counties under its rule.

For more than 2,000 inspectors of the imperial history, these more than 1,600 counties are not enough at all, either they are divided into groups of people to investigate the government governance, or they are scattered to inspect the market towns and villages below.

Inspecting the imperial history has its own tasks, and if there are no achievements in two years, he will be transferred to the local government.

Because of this, the more than 2,000 inspectors had to go back and forth in the local area in order to complete their tasks, and local officials also called them mad dogs.

"This group of people has been impeaching the patrol system, do you think the patrol system is bad, or are they afraid?"

In the Chunhe Palace, Zhu Gaoxu sat in his position and picked up the teacup and asked Xia Yuanji in front of him.

Xia Yuanji, who is the secretary of the ministry, shook his head when he heard this: "The inspection system is good, but if you give them tasks, they must meet the standards every two years, which is easy to cause unjust, false and wrongful cases." ”

"Such an atmosphere makes everyone in the local government endanger themselves, so they are cautious and conservative."

"But ......" Xia Yuanji paused, and added: "This kind of atmosphere is a good thing for the people, but I don't know how long it can last." ”

He felt that there were pros and cons to the patrol system, and Zhu Gaoxu also felt so, so he took a sip of tea and put down the teacup and said:

"Any policy is not implemented well is a double-edged sword, so I will set up a Beijing review system after the impeachment of the imperial history."

"Although it is troublesome and cumbersome, it can always reduce some unjust, false and wrongful cases."

The Beijing trial system is to send officials from the capital to the local area, interrogate the officials for a certain period of time, and determine whether the "Da Ming Law" has been violated after investigation.

If not, it is an unjust, false and wrongful case, then the impeached inspector will be punished, generally demoted to one level.

Of course, if the impeached person has a large background and can buy the people sent by the capital, then the inspector of the imperial history will suffer grievances, so the officials sent in the Beijing trial system are usually officials who are relatively upright and have no connection with any party.

"In the past few years, there have been many impeachments of officials in Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and most of them have been arrested, and their vacant positions have also been replaced by new policy officials."

"You help me calculate, how many officials in Zhejiang and Jiangxi are now in support of the new policy, and how many are against it?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Xia Yuanji, and Xia Yuanji responded without thinking:

"In fact, the officials all support the new policy of the imperial court, but they cannot support it openly."

"The imperial court wants to sweep away the officials in the world, and the original intention is to sweep away the local powerful gentry."

"For the liuguan, the biggest obstacle to their governance of the local area is actually this group of people."

"But if the court fails to clean up, the officials who are caught will inevitably be afraid."

Xia Yuanji's meaning is quite simple, that is, local officials and local powerful gentry collude, and it is normal for each other to have handles.

Now the implementation of the new policy of the imperial court is to beat the local officials and the powerful gentry to death with one stroke, so the resistance is relatively large.

But if you change direction and only kill the local powerful gentry, so that the imperial power can go down to the township, and at the same time keep everything of the local officials, then the local officials will naturally choose to support the imperial court.

If this had been done from the beginning, the New Deal would have been fully implemented in Daming long ago.

Zhu Gaoxu naturally knows this, but he is not prepared to compromise with this group of local officials.

As far as several major cases during the Hongwu period are concerned, Zhu Gaoxu found that the more he compromised with officials, the more they would kick their noses in the face.

Lao Zhu's North and South List case was originally intended to not make a big fuss, but this group of people thought that Lao Zhu was not good.

Facts have proved that Lao Zhu was really not good at that time, but the reason why this group of people dared to jump off the beam was not because Lao Zhu had not attacked them for many years, and had been sorting out the affairs of Huaixi Xungui.

But as long as Lao Zhu is ruthless enough to this group of people, Zhu Gaoxu doesn't believe that this group of people will be bold enough to keep jumping off the beam.

The amount of "Yellow Book" and "Fish Scale Atlas" has not changed for many years, or it has hardly changed, which is a temptation for Lao Zhu.

As an emperor, population, army, and finance are the three elements that must be mastered.

If you want to know this, you must rectify the rule of officials, so Zhu Gaoxu will be the first person to send officials on a large scale.

Even if he is impeached by the people, he can rely on his local strength to retaliate against the people.

But the rogues can't, and the power of the rogues is all on the skin on his body.

As long as this layer of skin is peeled off, all kinds of connections that he was once proud of will collapse.

Others will not retaliate against another peacekeeper for the sake of one of his flat-headed people, unless he pays a higher price.

"I won't change the things of the New Deal, I won't do five cities today, ten cities tomorrow, and then I have to sleep overnight."

Zhu Gaoxu gave Xia Yuanji an answer, and Xia Yuanji stopped when he heard what he said.

In the eyes of others, he is just a pawn in Zhu Gaoxu's hands, but he knows very well that others see it this way because Zhu Gaoxu protects himself very well.

Not only him, but even Huang Fu and Yishiha are the same.

Among the ministers under Zhu Gaoxu, the only one who showed a slight edge was Sun Cheng, who led the New Deal faction to stand in the temple.

"Half a month ago, Qian Guogong and Cao Guogong had already begun to reform the Tusi of Guangxi and return to the stream."

"There are no less than 100,000 rebels in Datengxia and the local area at one time, but with the means of the two of them, it is not difficult to subdue here."

"The only thing I care about now is money and food."

Zhu Gaoxu has never despised Li Jinglong, although he can't beat Zhu Di, and even was pressed and beaten by Zhu Di, but he just can't beat Zhu Di and a few of them.

The four commanders left by Zhu Yuanzhang before his death were Zhu Di, Song Sheng, Mu Chun, and Li Jinglong.

Li Jinglong can't beat the first three, but beating the others is to pinch with a handle, which can be seen from his achievements in pacifying the toast in Guangxi in the past ten years.

The strength of Guangxi Tusi is not weaker than that of Guizhou Tusi, after all, since the Southern Song Dynasty, Annan has been supporting Tusi in Guangxi, so the strength of local Tusi is also deep.

The main reason why 100,000 soldiers and horses can be pulled out now is the multiple blows of Yang Wen, Li Jinglong, and Sheng Yong.

In Zhu Gaoxu's opinion, at the current speed, the rebellion can be ended in three months at most, but the Yaomiao rebellion in Datengxia is more difficult to contain.

This place has been in trouble for more than 250 years in history, and it was not until the Apocalypse that it was completely suppressed and sinicized.

For this place, Zhu Gaoxu was ready to fight a protracted war, but he didn't need many troops.

Only need to let Sheng Yong lead the two guards and horses to conduct daily inspections and crack down on local bandits, and it will take less than ten years to completely suppress the local Miao Yao, and he will not dare to make another mistake.

It's just that in this way, Daming needs to fix a fixed expenditure in the local area every year.

Zhu Gaoxu discussed with Xia Yuanji in advance, meaning that he should go back and discuss with Guo Zi.

"Don't worry about money and food, the spices brought back by the fleet from the two voyages to the West have not yet been completely processed."

"Based on the annual processing of 500 tons, it will take at least three years to clean up, and 2 million tons can be harvested every year."

Xia Yuanji reported on the matter of spices, and Zhu Gaoxu also bowed his head when he heard this, and he was very relieved that Xia Yuanji was in charge of the Ministry of Officials and the results of the Ministry of Households.

He was about to say something, but he saw the eunuch on duty at the temple gate suddenly walk out, and walked back a moment later, his face a little hesitant.

He came to his side, and when he saw himself looking at him, he went into the side hall and knelt down.

"Your Highness, there is news from the Jingguo Mansion that the Jingguo Duke has passed away just now......"

As soon as the words were spoken, Zhu Gaoxu suddenly got up, and Chen Heng's face flashed in his mind.

After the martyrdom, Chen Heng was closed all the year round, and only his eldest son Chen Gong, second son Chen Zhong, and youngest son Chen Mao still appeared on Zhu Gaoxu's desk from time to time.

At present, one of these three brothers is in the northwest, one in the north, and one in the southwest, and only the heirs are filial piety under Chen Heng's knees.

In a trance, Zhu Gaoxu reacted, but he also calmed down very quickly: "Summoning the Governor Chen Gong, the Commander Chen Zhong, and the Governor Chen Mao to return to Beijing to guard filial piety." ”

"This ......" Hearing Zhu Gaoxu's words, Yishiha, who was also shocked by the sidelines, reacted quickly and hurriedly said: "Your Highness, Chen Zhong is still on the battlefield in Guangxi. ”

"There are Qianguo Gong in the southwest, nothing will happen, transfer Chen Zhong to the north, and when the news of Chen Heng is transmitted to Beiping to Chen Mao, he will also send news to his father."

After Zhu Gaoxu explained, Yisha didn't say anything more, but just did what he said.

Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, Xia Yuanji also got up and said, "The minister will retire." ”

"Well, you can go back first." Zhu Gaoxu's mind is now full of the little old man who used to act in Daning City.

Although he and Chen Heng didn't get along for a long time, if he hadn't handed over the Daning soldiers and horses, he wouldn't have been so smooth.

It's a pity that Chen Heng didn't want to choose between his father and son, so he chose to return to the Fuzhong after the martyrdom.

"Your Highness, you don't have to be too sad, Jing Guogong is already eighty years old after all."

Seeing that Zhu Gaochu was still a little sad, he couldn't help but comfort him, and Zhu Gaochu was a little more uplifted when he heard this.

Indeed, if it weren't for him, Chen Heng would probably have died of illness in the second year of Jingnan, just like in history.

His own appearance allowed him to live twelve years longer than in history, but ......

Zhu Gaoxu sighed, not only sighing for Chen Heng, but sighing that the veterans of the Hongwu Dynasty had begun to gradually retire.

From Guo Ying to Song Sheng, and now to Chen Heng, these veterans are withering one by one, who will be next?

Zhu Gaoxu has been a human being for two lifetimes, and when it comes to psychological age, he is almost fifty.

At this mental age, there is nothing else that can scare him except lifespan.

He still had so much to do that he feared death.

Thinking of this, he looked at Yishiha beside him, and saw that Yishiha's temples didn't know when it started, and it had actually begun to whiten.

"You're only forty-four, why are you starting to get old?"

Zhu Gaoxu looked at Yi Chuan and couldn't help but say this.

Yisha also noticed the gaze of His Royal Highness, touched his sideburns, and couldn't help laughing: "It's just that the hair is gray, how can you be called old?" ”

"If one day His Highness also recruits in person, the slave and maid will still be the same as back then, and he will go on the horse with His Highness to kill the enemy."

He also refused to accept old age, or he didn't feel old in the first place.

Seeing him like this, Zhu Gaoxu was also a little relieved, and then sighed: "Jing Guogong's matter, let's see what kind of attitude my father has." ”

"Yes ......" Yizha did not refute, after all, Chen Heng is more special in the Yan Mansion and Bohai factions, he chose to help Zhu Gaoxu because of Zhu Di, but at the same time he is very close to the Bohai generals, so Yan Mansion and Bohai have no opinions on his return.

The dialogue between the master and servant ended, and the news of the death of Chen Heng, the Duke of Jingguo, began to spread.

In the north, when Zhu Di got this news, it was already the ninth day of the first lunar month.

Chen Heng...... Are you gone too......"

Standing on the palace road of the Forbidden City in Beijing, Zhu Di held the letter written by the southern side of the Forbidden City, and lost his mind.

Wang Yan, who was standing beside him, was also a little uncomfortable, his nose was sore, and he wiped the corners of his eyes before turning around and cheering up:

"Your Highness's meaning is to ask Your Majesty how you plan to deal with the arrangements after the death of the Duke of Jingguo."

"......" Zhu Di was silent for a moment, and then sighed: "Posthumously named Chen Heng, the Duke of Jingguo, as the king of Quanning, and gave him the nickname Xiangmin, and his eldest son Chen Gong was the lord, and the court dropped out of the court for a day. ”

Zhu Di told all his arrangements, and Wang Yan hurriedly wrote it down with others and sent the will back to Nanjing.

Seeing Wang Yan finish all this, Zhu Di walked around the empty Forbidden City in Beijing in silence.

Since the capital has not yet been moved, Beijing is still in the line, so in addition to the 800 slaves and maids transferred before, there are only more than 400 people around Zhu Di.

1,200 people in Beijing's Forbidden City, which is even bigger than history, looks empty no matter how you look at it.

Such emptiness made Zhu Di's silence a little worse.

Wang Yan knew Zhu Di's personality and knew that he was sad, so he didn't bother, just followed behind him silently.

It wasn't until the day it was getting westward that Wang Yan spoke: "Your Majesty, Ji Gang has escorted Xie Jin to Dezhou, and he will be able to arrive in the capital in ten days, you can see ......."

He wanted to ask Zhu Di if he wanted to interrogate him personally, but Zhu Di shook his head and said: "The three divisions will interrogate, and then take him to prison, or ......."

Zhu Di paused, and then said after a while: "Or you ask the second child, he has wanted to relieve his life for a long time." ”

Obviously, Zhu Di doesn't care about Xie Jin's life.

Seeing this, Wang Yan responded, and Zhu Di also asked him: "How are Zhang Yu, Meng Shan, Qiu Fu, and Huo Zhen doing?" ”

Different from Zhu Gaoxu's Bohai generals, the Yanfu faction under Zhu Di and the old ministers in the Hongwu period were about the same age, with an average age of more than 50.

Among the young Zhuang faction of Yanfu, only Zhang Fu and Meng Ying can pick up the main beams, the former is thirty-seven, and the latter is twenty-nine.

In addition to these two people, the other second generation of Yanfu is basically at the level of thousands of household officials and commanders, and they can't even find a few generals with tens of thousands of soldiers.

Maybe he thought of this, so Zhu Di asked how his old body was.

It's just that for his inquiry, Wang Yan was a little hesitant, and finally said: "Zhang Yu and Meng Shan have been in poor health in the past few years, and Qiu Fu and Huo Zhen have also begun to get sick after they returned from the northern expedition, and it seems that they will not be able to go to the battlefield again." ”

"It's all old...... Zhu Di sighed, touched his beard at the same time, and couldn't help but ask Wang Yan: "Do I have white hair?" ”

"Your Majesty doesn't have any white hair, at least less than a slave."

Wang Yan truthfully explained that Zhu Di did not have any white hair, although he was fifty-three years old, he looked like forty-five or sixteen at most.

"I'm getting old, too."

Zhu Di's words meant something, Wang Yan didn't dare to answer, and Zhu Di didn't ask, but walked towards the Qianqing Palace with his hands behind his back, his back getting smaller and smaller......

(End of chapter)