At the end of March, as the Songhua River completely thawed, five large ships entered the Songhua River from the Jilin dock.
To everyone's expectation, the two warships and three horse boats stayed on the river for three days and three nights without any accident. Except for one of the 800-material warships, which had some water seepage problems and needed to return to the dock for maintenance, the rest Three warships and three horse boats have been qualified for launching.
The successful launch of the warship and the thawing of the Songhua River urged the Bohai Navy to go to Zhaozhou to build a city.
On the tenth day of April, Lin Su took a boat down the river with 200 cavalry, 1,000 people captured from the Ha tribe in Xiyang, 500 shi of grain, 2,000 shi of cement, and 500 draft horses.
Two days later, it was time to transplant the semi-greenhouse rice seedlings cultivated in Jilin City.
After the first spring rain in Jilin City, green plants sprouted and flowers bloomed in the surrounding mountains and forests.
The wild flowers all over the mountains are in bud or blooming in spring, adding a lot of poetry and charm to this place outside the customs.
It's a pity that no one in Jilin City is interested in the flowers all over the mountains. At this moment, they are immersed in the happiness of throwing rice seedlings for spring plowing.
For the first time, the people of Jilin City experienced planting rice directly during spring plowing. For fear of delay, they did not even dare to say anything in the fields. They took advantage of the farming season to open the gates of the canals. As the water flowed into the rice fields, they plowed the rice fields. The fields are leveled with a rake, and then the seedlings are thrown out.
The sight of the seedlings falling into the field made everyone smile, even though the dropped seedlings staggered around like they were drunk.
But everyone knows that as long as they can take root, they will grow straight later. Only when they encounter those that are too crooked will they help them.
"OK……"
Standing on the archery tower in Jilin City, Zhu Gaoxu held the parapet with both hands and could not hide his joy.
He had also participated in the process of throwing rice seedlings just now, but after only throwing about ten handfuls of rice seedlings, he felt soreness in his arms, and he still feels a little sore to this day.
He smiled and said to the guards around him: "Farming work and fighting are really not the same thing. At least my body is not used to it."
"Haha... If His Highness has time, he will definitely be able to throw extremely well after mastering the skills." Several soldiers complimented, but Zhu Gaoxu smiled and waved his hand, indicating that they should stop boasting.
It happened that Yi Shi walked up to the arrow tower with a smile. Seeing his beaming smile, Zhu Gaoxu also knew that the seedlings had achieved results. He couldn't wait to ask: "How? How much did you throw?"
"It hasn't been finished yet, but we still have two thousand acres." Yi Shiha was very happy, because he knew what success meant by throwing out the rice seedlings.
"Okay!" Zhu Gaoxu clapped his hands happily, turned around and looked at most of the Jilin people who were throwing rice seedlings and planting fields, and affirmed: "Now we just need to see whether the seedlings produced in these semi-greenhouses can produce results. That’s it.”
"As long as it works, we will be self-sufficient next year!"
Zhu Gaoxu could not describe his happiness, and the Bohai flag hanging high beside him also sounded, seeming to express his mood.
"A lot of fields have been planted this year..." Yishiha stepped forward, holding the parapet like Zhu Gaoxu, and looked at the tens of thousands of acres of cultivated land outside Jilin City.
"Since the construction of these canals, the ground in spring has no longer accumulated silt. The land is neither muddy nor solid, and has just the right amount of softness."
"Compared to last year when the plowing left a pile of silt on the ground, the soil here is much better this year."
Yishiha praised the land in Jilin City, but more importantly, he praised Zhu Gaoxu's order to vigorously build water conservancy facilities.
There is no such thing as a water shortage in the Songhua River Basin. Instead, there is too much water, which easily floods crops and causes crop diseases.
However, since Zhu Gaoxu ordered to "dig deep ditches and build more canals", the land around Jilin City no longer accumulates water.
Even the land near the river beach has been planted a lot after the snow melted.
"This water canal must continue to be built. Not only Jilin City, but also Zhaozhou City and Andong City will have to vigorously build water canals in the future."
Zhu Gaoxu explained in this way, and Yishiha also solemnly agreed: "Your Highness, don't worry, I will definitely open up a good wasteland for Your Highness!"
"Beep--"
Here Yi Shiha solemnly expressed his attitude, but suddenly the sound of horse hooves and whistles came from outside the city, and everyone subconsciously looked over.
"It's Zhang Liu! They're back!"
On the arrow tower, a Baihu official excitedly pointed at the sentry horse that was galloping towards him. After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu also subconsciously looked at Yi Shiha.
The two looked at each other, and the smile on their faces became brighter in the next second.
The soldiers and horses who went south with Yang Bin came back, which meant that Yang Bin was also back.
"He's finally here. If he doesn't come, the treasury will be almost empty."
Yishiha breathed a sigh of relief. God knows how tight Jilin City's food supply is these days.
If it weren't for fishing and hunting to obtain some meat, I'm afraid the food in the treasury would have been empty long ago.
"Little Flag Officer Zhang Liu, see your Highness! Your Highness is a thousand years old!"
The little flag officer who was speeding up heard the voice of his comrades. When he was about to reach the stone bridge on the moat, he looked up and saw not only his comrades, but also his benefactor.
He quickly bowed and sang, and Zhu Gaoxu also asked: "Has Yang Bin come?"
"Yang Shanren is in Gaizhou to receive grain transported to the north. This time we are here with the team of Zhou Qianhu, the capital of Liaodong!" Zhang Liu shouted loudly. He felt that only in this way could Zhu Gaoxu hear clearly.
"Is the Liaodong Dusi here too?" Yi Shiha's smile grew stronger, but he didn't expect that Zhang Liu said again at this time:
"By the way, Your Highness, Zhou Qianhu said that the princess is here too!"
"My mother?" Zhu Gaoxu responded subconsciously when he heard the word princess, and his mind went blank.
But before he could guess, Zhang Liu shook his head wildly: "No, it's your princess!"
"Nonsense!" Yi Shiha interrupted quickly: "Your Highness has not yet gotten married, where did you get the princess from?"
"Ah?" Zhang Liu's rough face showed a bit of embarrassment, so he had to take off his helmet and scratch his itchy scalp: "But Zhou Qianhu said that she is our princess..."
"It's bad..." Zhu Gaoxu reacted: "It's probably my grandfather who married me a wife."
Those who are close to red are red, those who are close to ink are black. After staying in Jilin City for a long time, Zhu Gaoxu's spoken language gradually began to become rude. Listening to his words, Yishiha next to him was dumbfounded: "Then this...this...this..."
He had been doing this for a long time without saying anything else. Zhu Gaoxu, who was not as calm as himself, asked Zhang Liu at the foot of the city: "What's the name of the princess?"
"I heard that my surname is Guo!" Zhang Liu didn't know why, thinking to himself why His Highness didn't even know his wife's name.
"It can't be from Guo Ying's family..."
As soon as he heard that his surname was Guo, Zhu Gaoxu's mind raced, and he couldn't help but remember that Zhu Gaoxu in history seemed to have indeed married one of Guo Ying's granddaughters.
However, he remembered that Zhu Gaoxu seemed to have married her after he had conquered Nanjing with Zhu Di, and the principal concubine should not be this one.
"Whatever, there are no feelings anyway!"
With a curl of his lips, Zhu Gaoxu calmly accepted the wife who fell from the sky.
For him, marrying a female family member of the Wuding Marquis Mansion is not bad. Even if he can't get any capital, at least it will make Guo Ying a little more merciful when he fights against him in the future.
As for the appearance and figure of this female family member, Zhu Gaoxu didn't care at all.
There are many good-looking women in the world. As long as this female family member is not too ugly, he can choose more beauties to enter the palace in the future.
In this Ming Dynasty, as long as he does not bully the concubine and serves her with good food and drink, that is the greatest 'affectionate'.
Who is a king who does not have a group of wives and concubines, and who dares to say that he is affectionate to each of them, not just keeping the few years of youth, and then replacing them with a group of younger ones.
"If she is really a woman from Wu Dinghou's family, I don't know if Wu Dinghou has prepared a dowry for this woman."
Compared with this princess whom he had never met, Zhu Gaoxu cared more about the dowry she brought from her natal family.
"Come on, let's go out to the city and have a look."
Zhu Gaoxu yelled at Yishu, turned around and started to get off.
However, Yishiha was shocked after hearing this and quickly stopped him: "Your Highness, you should at least change your clothes."
"Change clothes?" Zhu Gaoxu lowered his head and looked at himself. He was wearing short brown clothes made of coarse cloth and stained with mud.
At this moment, I don't seem to be the King of Bohai, but more like a tall farmer.
"Okay, I'll go back to wash up and change clothes. You stay here to greet the princess."
"This slave takes orders..."
Zhu Gaoxu left Yishiha behind and went down to the arrow tower and returned to the palace to wash up and change clothes.
Watching Zhu Gaoxu go downstairs, Yishiha also tidied himself up and urgently called more than ten soldiers to greet him at Chang'an Gate in the east city of Jilin City.
They stood at the starting point of the stone bridge across the moat, waiting uneasily.
As time passed, a team began to appear at the end of the road.
At the front of this team are the soldiers and horses of the Liaodong Dusi. Everyone is walking wearing a breastplate, and in the middle there is a camel cart carrying Mingjia.
Going further back, the team suddenly became disorderly in clothing, and they were obviously military households who had been moved to Liaodong City.
Before Yi Shiha could see the whole team clearly, he saw a group of horse infantry escorting a double-horse carriage speeding towards this direction.
Without thinking too much, Yi Shiha also knew that the person coming was his Highness's future princess, so he turned around to greet the dozen or so soldiers behind him and started waiting.
About half a quarter of an hour later, the carriage and more than ten horse infantry escorted the carriage. The leader, a short-bearded general in his thirties, also came forward and bowed to Yi Shiha: "Zhou Ding, the official of Qianhu, Shenyang Zhongwei, the capital of Liaodong, may I ask? Also palm print?"
"It's me, I don't know who is in this carriage..." Yi Shiha carefully asked who the woman in the carriage was, and Zhou Ding also responded: "This is the eldest granddaughter of Marquis Wu Ding, the princess of Bohai County who was appointed by His Majesty. , this is the certificate from the Ministry of Rites and the Zongren Mansion."
Zhou Ding handed over two red envelopes, and Yi Shiha took them and opened them and took a look at them. Only then did he confirm that the person who came was really his princess.
Although the marriage gift was a bit sudden, Yi Shiha had seen her several times in the palace, so she didn't panic and just bowed to the carriage:
"Since you are the princess, then this servant will lead the way for the princess..." After the words fell, Yi Shiha looked at a soldier:
"Take Zhou Qianhu to the city posthouse to rest, and ask Zhang Qianshi to hand over military supplies and military households. Remember to explain the rules of the city to the military households."
"Yes!" The soldiers stood upright. Seeing this, Yi Shiha also led other soldiers to lead the way for the carriage.
Seeing them moving, the carriage followed, followed by twelve soldiers.
It's not surprising that Yishiha is not surprised. After all, the Wuding Marquis' Mansion is also a marquis' mansion, so it's appropriate to arrange some guards to escort his young lady.
Yi Shiha rushed to the Bohai Palace with the princess who had not yet shown up.
Within a quarter of an hour, they arrived at the Bohai Palace.
Compared with the habits of Yishiha and Bohai soldiers, the guards of Wudinghou Mansion who followed them all frowned, feeling that the Prince's Mansion was too shabby.
Yi Shiha didn't pay attention to them. He just got off his horse and came to the carriage window and bowed:
"My slave, dare I ask the princess, is there three letters issued and six rituals left in the palace?"
When he asked like this, the door of the carriage was opened, and two pretty maids wearing Baizi clothes and horse-faced skirts stepped out.
When the two girls got off the carriage, they saluted Yishiha and said in a soft voice: "Huiyi's palm prints, the three books and six etiquettes have been passed, and now only the wedding ceremony has not been completed."
"All the wedding decorations are in the procession. This is my lady's dowry. Please give it to the county king for inspection."
The two women explained what they needed to explain, and then they had the intention to look at the Bohai Palace.
The expressions of the other guards were similar. They were all stunned by the shabby state of Bohai Palace. However, Yi Shiha took the red list filled with dowry items, and then bowed to the carriage and said:
"If this is the case, then I will first find a courtyard for the princess to stay in."
Having said that, without waiting for a response from the carriage, Yi Shiha led his people to clean out the empty courtyard closest to the palace.
The carriage drove into the empty courtyard, during which Guo's daughter got out of the carriage surrounded by two maids.
She was about twelve or thirteen years old, and her appearance was similar to many of the concubines that Yishiha had seen in the inner court. She had an unopened oval face with a high nose, thick eyebrows, long eyes, and fair complexion.
From Yi Shiha's point of view, although she was not considered to be the most beautiful, she was considered average in the inner court.
After watching her enter the main room with his own eyes, Yi Shiha bowed and sang before leaving. After leaving the yard, he turned around and took the red slip to look for Zhu Gaoxu next door.
Not long after, he saw Zhu Gaoxu in the backyard, who had just finished washing and still had his hair disheveled.
"Your Highness, the princess has received it and lives in the courtyard next to the palace. This is the red list of the dowry."
After entering the study, Yi Shiha hurriedly told Zhu Gaoxu everything and handed over the red slip.
When he heard that he was living with a daughter-in-law he had never met, Zhu Gaoxu didn't care much about her. After all, political marriage does not require much emotion.
He took the red slip and looked at it, and he had to say that Guo Ying knew how to choose the dowry.
[Two hundred taels of platinum, five hundred ingots of banknotes, thousands of meters of stone, three hundred pieces of gold and silver jewelry, one hundred pieces each of silk and satin, and ten kilograms each of pepper and wood...]
"Wu Dinghou is quite generous."
After reading what was written on the red slip, a smile appeared on Zhu Gaoxu's face, and Yi Shiha even calculated: "These things are worth at least three thousand guan in Nanjing City."
Zhu Gaoxu put the red list aside. According to his previous personality, he would definitely sell these things if he could. But now that he has a wife, he has to consider the other person's food, clothing, housing and transportation, so he told Yi Shiha:
"Keep all these things, I won't need them, but my future princess will, especially the gold and silver jewelry and silks and silks."
"Yes..." Yi Shiha agreed, and then got down to business: "Your Highness, although the three letters and six rites have been completed, the wedding has not started yet."
"My servant looked at the almanac on the way here. Guiwei is a good day in three days. Why don't we plan to get married on that day?"
"Keep everything simple, don't delay my trip to Zhaozhou." Zhu Gaoxu didn't care much, but Yi Shiha was worried when he heard this:
"Isn't it bad to travel far away when you get married?"
"It's better to let Lin Su guard the place and send more soldiers."
After all, Zhaozhou is close to the Wuliangha area, and Yishiha is worried that Zhu Gaoxu will encounter the Wuliangha cavalry after passing by, so he doesn't want him to risk his life.
"Don't worry..." Zhu Gaoxu smiled and stretched out his hand to pull up his hair, making a simple bun with the wooden hairpin next to him.
At this moment, he was wearing a black round-neck robe, and combined with his nearly six-foot height and strong figure, he felt very oppressive.
Although the bronze mirror cannot reflect the whole picture, Zhu Gaoxu is still quite satisfied with his appearance.
At the age of seventeen, he already had a rhinoplasty, a broad face, sharp eyebrows and tiger eyes.
Unlike the group of handsome Hanlin Hanlins in the Hanlin Academy of Nanjing City, his appearance is extremely aggressive, and his body and appearance highlight the sexual tension at all times.
Of course, such an appearance easily makes the person look very mature, so many people in Jilin City thought that His Highness was already in his twenties, but in fact Zhu Gaoxu was only seventeen.
"Zhaozhou is certainly important, but the soldiers and horses of Beiping, Liaodong and other three capitals have already started a northern patrol with my father. This time, if nothing goes wrong, they will go three to four hundred miles north from Quanningwei to patrol the border and burn wasteland at the same time."
"With my father's personality, it would be strange for him to make an emergency landing without being killed by the tribes he encountered."
Sitting on a chair, Zhu Gaoxu talked about the history he knew.
If he remembers correctly, Zhu Di encountered Wu Liangha's Hu soldiers during his northern tour, and pursued them to Checher Mountain, where they fought and captured Yuan general Bolin Timur and dozens of others.
Ordinary people would have given up after fighting to this extent. However, after Zhu Di defeated the Wuliangha Hu soldiers, he took advantage of the victory and captured Wuliangha Tu City, forcing Halawu to lead his troops to flee north.
From Daning to Wulianghatu City, it is a journey of more than 1,100 miles. It can be said that Zhu Di forcedly turned the border patrol ordered by Zhu Yuanzhang into the Northern Expedition, and even carried Wuliangha in one go. Lair.
Under such circumstances, Zhu Gaoxu didn't know how the Ulliangha tribes could have the energy to fight against him.
When Zhu Gaoxu was thinking this, the sound of footsteps also came from nearby. Not long after, Zhang Chun walked into the study with a book and bowed to Zhu Gaoxu:
"Your Highness, everything is done. Here is the document."
He held out the document with both hands. Yishiha and Zhu Gaoxu were both a little surprised by his speed, but Zhang Chun's explanation made the whole thing much more reasonable.
In front of Zhu Gaoxu and Yi Shiha, he presented the document to Zhu Gaoxu with both hands and said truthfully:
"The people responsible for transporting this time are the fifth son of General Zhou, Zhou Ding, the thousand-household official of Shenyang Zhongwei, and a thousand soldiers under his command."
"Because there were so many military households coming with the army, more than 3,000 and 16 people, so they didn't bring much."
"The 100,000 kilos of rice, horse beans, fodder, salt cloth, cotton and other things promised by the imperial court were divided into ten batches for transportation."
"In addition to these, your salary has also been arranged to be escorted and settled at the end of April."
"Only 10,000 shi of grain and 500 shi of horse beans were transported this time, which is enough for the people in the city to survive for another twenty days."
"In addition, Yang Shanren divided the grain into fifty batches and transported it ten times a month. It took five months to completely transport it. This time, he followed the army northward and transported 4,000 shi of grain and brought 92 A famous boy."
Zhang Chun explained with a smile, because in his opinion, these things could solve Jilin City's urgent needs. However, facing his smile, Zhu Gaoxu felt worried in his heart.
He was worried not because of the batch delivery of food, but because of Jilin City's expanding population.
Thinking of this, he looked at Yi Shiha: "Have you ever calculated the current monthly expenses of Jilin City and Andong City?"
"More than 1,800 guan of money, more than 12,300 shi of grain, more than 1,900 shi of beans, 240,000 bunches of grass, more than 3,000 kilograms of salt..."
Yishiha was very familiar with Jilin City's expenses. When Zhu Gaoxu asked him, he shook them all out like beans.
Listening to what he said, Zhu Gaoxu breathed a sigh of relief, but Zhang Chun opened his mouth slightly with a surprised expression, obviously not expecting the expense to be so high.
"How can we sustain such a huge expense..." He asked Yi Shiha guiltily, but Yi Shiha said confidently: "Of course!"
He blurted out without thinking: "Although the treasury is almost empty, there are still more than 3,000 shi of grain. This year, the Liaodong Dusi and the Ministry of Household Affairs will allocate 120,000 shi of grain in total, plus the 200,000 shi from Yang Shanren." Even if we include these six hundred military households, we can last for twenty months with stone grain."
"The only problem right now is the bean feed. The bean feed provided by the imperial court can only last for eight months after Caoshu folds the bean feed, leaving a shortage of four months."
Yishiha spoke frankly, and smiled without waiting for the two of them to speak: "Fortunately, five thousand acres of land have been designated as bean fields this year, which can provide a month of bean feed. As for the rest..."
As he spoke, he put his eyes on Zhu Gaoxu's face and said helplessly: "I can only ask Yang Shanren to help buy some before winter."
"That's not a problem." Zhu Gaoxu, like Yishiha, didn't take the bean feed seriously. He was worried about money, so after the response, he also asked Yishiha: "If we want to recruit more Han people, Two thousand soldiers, how much does it cost? Plus two thousand Jurchen retinues?"
"This..." Yishiha slowly took out a palm-sized abacus from his sleeve, and after beating it for a long time, he put it away.
"If you recruit two thousand Han soldiers, you will need to spend an additional 40,000 shi of grain and more than 12,000 guan of money each year. Adding the two thousand retinues, the total is 64,000 shi and more than 12,000 guan of money."
"If it is broken down into months, the total monthly expenditure is more than 17,600 shi, and the money is 3,200 guan."
After Yi Shiha explained everything, Zhang Chun couldn't help but look at Zhu Gaoxu with some shame.
The money and food distributed by the imperial court can at most sustain the current Jilin City for less than half a year. For the remaining half of the year, His Highness has to rely on his own money and food to make a living.
Zhang Chun thought about it for a moment. If he were His Royal Highness, he would probably be thinking about how to dismantle the army or reduce the people's rations.
However, in this regard, Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting on the chair, showed full confidence: "It seems that we have to notify the tribes to come to Jilin City for mutual trade."
"Let Yishiha handle this mutual trade this time. There is land reclamation over there in Zhaozhou, so I have to go there in person."
Zhu Gaoxu brought the topic back again, and Yishiha hesitated after hearing the words, but Zhu Gaoxu raised his hand to interrupt, turning a blind eye to the danger in Yishiha's eyes, and said confidently: "Don't worry."
"No one in this land outside the pass can defeat me."
(End of chapter)
