In the six months from November of the 10th year of Chongzhen's reign to May of the 11th year of Chongzhen's reign, Huang De, who was stationed in Huguang, led the Royal First Division to sweep across Huguang and wipe out all the numerous bandits in the territory.

Huang Degong was training troops and suppressing bandits in Huguang. He also suppressed the various military stations in Huguang so that they could not hold their heads up. He cooperated with Huguang Governor Fang Kongzhao to complete the farming. The farming in Huguang will complete the first harvest during this summer harvest, and the villagers will also be free.

With Zhu Cihong's relief, the soldiers and civilians can support themselves.

Zhu Cixiang was very satisfied with Huang Degong's achievements, and specially commended him and Fang Kongzhao, and asked the court to award them.

In recent months, Li Tingbiao, holding Shang Fang's sword, led the Jinyiwei patrol team to carry out a large-scale purge of corrupt officials in various prefectures in Southern Zhili and Huguang. A total of more than 500 corrupt officials, large and small, were killed and more than 20 million taels of property were confiscated.

, which greatly eased the financial strain of Zhu Cihong Group.

Zhu Cihong used two million taels of silver to reward each department. Almost everyone received a reward, and everyone was very happy.

On May 1st, Zhu Cixiang summoned all his civil and military confidants to gather at Fengtian Hall to carry out a military and political adjustment and administrative improvement.

The Fengtian Hall was packed with nearly a hundred civil and military officials chatting loudly, and it was very lively, all waiting for the arrival of the Crown Prince.

Zhu Dadian, who was idle at home, also came. He had long wanted to join the crown prince's group, but he had been excluded from the crown prince's circle of confidants, which made him struggle for a long time. When he was summoned to participate in the discussion, Zhu Dadian's mood was:

I was very excited, His Royal Highness finally truly accepted myself.

Zhu Dadian entered the inner circle of the Crown Prince for the first time, and he was somewhat uneasy. After all, he had been beaten to the end and had no identity. He looked around and saw the main generals of the Tianwu Army talking with pride.

, Yang Tinglin and other civil servants were quite reserved, and they gathered together and talked and laughed in low voices.

Zhu Dadian walked to Cheng Guoxiang, who was also standing alone, and said hello to him. This new former Hubu Shangshu was the same as himself. Not only did he have the same rank before, but he also had no official position now. It could be said that he was in the same boat.

, this made Zhu Dadian feel a lot more balanced.

Cheng Guoxiang is also an old acquaintance of Zhu Dadian. Although the two have only met a few times before, the relationship between the Ministry of Revenue and Water Transport is very close. There are often official correspondence. The two are similar in age and there is no generation gap, so they can barely talk.

.

In the entire Fengtian Palace, another one who is more troubled is Qiu Zhizhong. He is the first person to follow His Royal Highness. He was marginalized by everyone after being taught a lesson for being greedy for money.

Some people didn't know about this at first. When they were curious about the half-foot-long scar on Qiu Zhizhong's face, someone would secretly tell him that it was caused by Eunuch Qiu's being whipped by the crown prince after he accepted ceremonial money from local officials when he went south.

After such spread, almost everyone knew about Qiu Zhizhong. As soon as everyone saw the long scar on his face, they would think of that incident and would not want to associate with him.

Seeing Wu Zhong, who was originally together, chatting happily with everyone, Qiu Zhi felt very uncomfortable in his heart.

Wu Zhong's eyes accidentally caught a glimpse of Qiu Zhizhong there. After apologizing to several people around him, he came to Qiu Zhizhong and started chatting with him.

Wu Zhong's enthusiasm made Qiu Zhizhong feel a lot better, so he came out of Zhongcui Palace together to take care of himself.

While everyone was chatting and laughing, they suddenly heard the sound of a large number of footsteps beside the palace. A group of Yongweiying guards stood upright on both sides of the Fengtian Palace with neat steps. Then a loud voice sounded: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrived.

!”

Zhu Cixiang walked slowly in his red uniform and dragon robe, followed by Xu Sheng, Li Hu and other eight personal guards of the Yongwei Battalion.

The Fengtian Hall fell silent for an instant, followed by the sound of salutes.

"No courtesy for all!" Zhu Cixiang said with a smile after sitting down, without any airs at all.

However, the more Zhu Cixiang acted like this, the less the generals dared to be presumptuous, and the more they respected him and supported him. Everyone knew very well that regardless of the young age of the person in front of them, whether it was recognition, knowledge or scheming, he was by no means worse than anyone else. If anyone

If you only despise him based on his appearance, you will die without knowing how.

Zhu Cixiang glanced around the crowd and saw Qiu Zhizhong in the crowd. He smiled and said, "Qiu Daban, how have you been recently?"

Qiu Zhizhong's eyes turned red. The Crown Prince still had his own heart in his heart. He choked and said, "I'm very good. Thank you very much for your concern."

Zhu Cixiang said with a smile: "After finishing the affairs of Fengyang Arms Bureau, go back to me. I am not used to being taken care of by four maids without you, Wu Ban, by my side!"

Qiu Zhizhong's eyes were wet. He bowed and said, "Yes, I will manage the Fengyang Arms Bureau carefully and not let His Highness worry."

Zhu Cixiang nodded, looked at Wu Zhong and said, "Wu Daban, how are the Jiangnan Ordnance General Administration and the newly built artillery factory operating?"

Wu Zhong saluted and said: "Go back to me, the Jiangnan Ordnance General Administration has in stock 30,000 self-produced Rumi guns, 2,000 Hongyi cannons, Fran cannons, tiger crouching cannons and other types of artillery. The artillery factory uses iron

After the molding process, the production speed has been greatly improved, and fifty Hongyi cannons weighing more than 18 pounds have been produced, all of which are of top quality!"

Zhu Cixiang said in surprise: "Okay! Continue to increase artillery production and strive to build thousands of heavy artillery pieces within ten years!"

Producing thousands of heavy artillery pieces weighing more than 18 pounds? Wu Zhong took a breath. Others didn't know what would happen if this heavy artillery was fired. But Wu Zhong had seen it with his own eyes. It was simply earth-shattering! Who was he going to hit?

What? Even if you fight the Tatars, you can crush them all the way, right?

Wu Zhong was a little confused and said: "Your Highness, according to our current production speed, the number of various artillery pieces is already sufficient. The Tatars' artillery pieces are definitely not as many as ours, so why do we need to vigorously produce them?"

"Tatars? Tatars are just a stumbling block for us. Within five years, I will lead you to crush them!"

Zhu Cixiang added: "Our ultimate enemy is not the Tatars, but the enemies from the sea! These heavy artillery will be equipped on warships to deal with them in the future!"

In Zhu Cixiang's plan, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng were eliminated this year, and after a year or two of repairs to integrate the field soldiers into the regular army and expand the army, he directly led hundreds of thousands of troops north to defeat the Manchu Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop, and drove them to the Arctic Ocean to spend the winter.

After solving the Manchu Qing Dynasty, we must also solve the six or seven Ming Dynasty's western and northwest regimes such as the Zangba Khan and the Junggar Khanate to realize the unification of the Ming Dynasty.

During the An Nei journey, Zhu Cixiang was most worried about harassment from the outside. Now the forces of the Netherlands, Britain, and Portugal have been divided into Taiwan and the South China Sea in the Ming Dynasty. Their East India Company has been ready to move and look for opportunities. Zhu Cixiang is facing them.

Have to guard against it.

The maritime strength of the Netherlands and Britain is now far greater than imagined. If they send their main warships now, the Ming Dynasty Navy will be vulnerable to a single blow with the current combat power of the Ming Dynasty.
Chapter completed!