"Back to Your Majesty, when I sent someone to invite a few adults, I had already made plans and the time to enter the capital!"
Li Ruolian paused slightly, seeming to be recalling.
"Song Yingxing and Chen Zhenlong were arranged by His Majesty on the sixth day of October. I immediately sent someone to arrive in Fuzhou on the fifteenth day of October.
The return journey stipulated by the minister is an average of seventy miles per day. Today is November 22nd. After calculation, Chen Zhenlong will arrive in Beijing tomorrow night at the latest and Song Yingxing three days at the latest. "
"Xu Guangqi is in Shanghai County, and Sun Yuanhua is in Jiading. My arrangement is that Sun Yuanhua will go to Shanghai County first to meet Xu Guangqi and go to Beijing together! It will take almost five days."
"Bi Maokang is in She County. It will take about seven days."
"good!"
Chongzhen responded.
Traveling seventy miles a day is relatively fast. Among the five people he summoned, the youngest Song Yingxing was 40 years old, and the eldest Xu Guangqi was 65 years old.
On this kind of road now, let alone riding a horse, riding in a sedan or carriage is enough for these people.
"After Song Yingxing and Chen Zhenlong arrive in Beijing, they will be served with delicious food and drinks. When they both arrive, they will be brought into the palace to see me!"
"The same goes for Bi Maokang and the other three!"
"I obey the decree!"
Li Ruolian responded, bowed and left.
These five people are related to Ming's internal stability and external deterrence. Starting from the first year of Chongzhen, there was a severe drought not only in Shaanxi but also in other places.
Henan was plagued by locust plagues and droughts. Large-scale locust plagues occurred continuously in the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth years of Chongzhen.
Jiangnan and other places suffered floods in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, drought in the fourteenth year, and plague in the fifteenth year.
All these required Song Yingxing and Chen Zhenlong to promote potatoes and sweet potatoes to maintain the rations of the people of the Ming Dynasty.
Not to mention reaching the five thousand catties in later generations, as long as it can reach two thousand catties, that is enough.
As for buying food in Vietnam and Champa, Siam and Luzon, Java, South India and Ceylon, it is also possible.
But how much food can you buy to meet the needs of tens of millions of people, so you still have to rely on yourself.
The three of them, Bi Maokang, studied firearms to improve the Ming Dynasty's combat power and solve external crises. Otherwise, internal stability would be a joke.
After thinking about it, Chongzhen sat down and began to review the memorial. But before he could finish reading the first memorial, Gao Shiming, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, came.
"Your Majesty, Mr. Sun Ge, the cabinet minister, has drafted an imperial edict on how to deal with Prince Qin's palace. Your Majesty, please take a look at it!"
Chongzhen took it and read it over, secretly calling him a good guy, and listed nine crimes, each of which could have led to the Qin Prince's house being raided ten times.
Such as resisting the decree, treason, contempt for the ancestral system, stealing official land, stealing and selling public land, corruption, boiling salt privately, smelting iron privately, bullying, etc.
Chongzhen took up his pen and wrote the word "accurate" on the draft of the imperial edict and handed it to Wang Chengen: "According to Sun Chengzong's plan, after writing, it was immediately sent to Xi'an Prefecture at a speed of five hundred miles. The Ming Dynasty imperial edict began to be delivered to the two capitals and thirteen provinces three days later. .”
"My slave obeys the order!"
Gao Shiming took the draft handed over by Wang Chengen and bowed before leaving.
Chongzhen pondered for a moment, picked up a pen and wrote a few words on the letterhead, and then handed it to Wang Chengen: "After sealing, give it to Yuan Keli along with the imperial edict, and then destroy it after opening it and reading it!"
"yes!"
Wang Chengen took the imperial edict handed over by Chongzhen and glanced at it. He was confused for a moment, then his pupils tightened, he immediately folded the letter and left in a hurry.
After sitting in Dongnuan Pavilion for a while, Chongzhen suddenly thought of the Warrior Camp on a whim, and then took Fang Yong and other eight people, as well as a group of Jin Yiwei, to the Warrior Camp's location.
Fang Yong and eight others also joined the warrior camp, but they did not participate in training and were personally responsible for Chongzhen's safety.
As soon as we arrived outside the camp, we heard the familiar and neat chants of one, two, three, four, and faint roars came from the camp.
"Jump down, jump quickly... Ahead is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire. The order is given, you all have to jump, hurry up..."
"No. 7, are you not full? Did the big bowls you had for lunch end up in your stomach?"
"Lie down, use your arms and abdomen to exert force, not lift your butt!"
"Sixty, sixty-one...Okay, one more...if you make it to eighty, you will be rewarded with a bowl of wine for dinner."
…
If he hadn't looked at the waving flags and the soldiers in armor at the camp gate, he would have thought he had returned to modern times.
After entering the camp, it was cold weather. On each training ground, the sergeants were all wearing single clothes and doing various trainings.
After a few days of training, the sergeant's energy and spirit have changed significantly.
After Chongzhen asked the hurried Cao Bianjiao to do what he should do, he and his people slowly watched in the camp. The future was promising.
For two days in a row, Chongzhen went to inspect the 26th Guards Camp after going to court, and occasionally said a few words to give blood.
On this day, as soon as Chongzhen returned to Dongnuan Pavilion from Jinwu Guard, Li Ruolian came: "Your Majesty, Song Yingxing has arrived, Chen Zhenlong has passed away!"
Just when he heard that Song Yingxing had arrived, Chongzhen was in a good mood. Suddenly he heard that Chen Zhenlong had passed away, and his heart suddenly sank to the bottom.
"What's going on? Tell me in detail!"
"Your Majesty, when the Jin Yiwei rushed to Changle County, they inquired and found out that Chen Zhenlong passed away in the forty-seventh year of Wanli calendar at the age of 76!"
Listening to Li Ruolian's explanation, Chongzhen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
If this old man who risked his life to bring sweet potatoes back to Ming Dynasty died due to his own reasons, he would really be sorry.
Now that Chen Zhenlong has passed away, the important task of promoting potatoes and sweet potatoes can only be left to Song Yingxing. Although Xu Guangqi also understands agriculture and is the author of "The Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs", his focus should be on the research of firearms.
"Your Majesty, because Chen Zhenlong passed away, Jin Yiwei invited his son Chen Jinglun and grandson Chen Chuangui back without authorization. Please punish them!"
"Hurry up!"
Li Ruolian's words made Chongzhen overjoyed.
After a while, the three of them entered Dongnuan Pavilion and all knelt down to salute Chongzhen.
"Get up and talk, hold your head up!"
The three of them stood up tremblingly and slowly raised their heads, but their faces were all serious.
"Song Yingxing, I remember that you were the third-ranked person in the province in the 43rd year of Wanli. Your brother was the sixth. In the 44th year of Wanli, you failed the Bingchen Science Examination. , failed in the rankings for five years, right?"
Listening to Chongzhen's words, Song Yingxing was angry at first, thinking that the emperor was mocking him, but then he thought about it, who was he that the emperor was mocking him?
Then, with a look of shame on his face, he whispered: "The student is ashamed, ashamed of his teacher's teachings, and brought shame to his ancestors!"
The corner of Chongzhen's mouth twitched unconsciously. Scholars are all the same. Those who have famous ancestors all regard themselves as the descendants of scholarly families and famous families. They always feel that they have failed to do a good job and let their ancestors down.
Song Yingxing's great-grandfather, Song Jing, served as Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Minister of the Ministry of War, and Yushi of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate in Nanjing. He was a well-known minister in the mid-Ming Dynasty.
"Then do you still want to take part in the imperial examination and become an official?"
Facing Chongzhen's questions, Song Yingxing's face was filled with confusion, longing, confusion and fear.
Looking at the look in Song Yingxing's eyes, Chongzhen knew that losing his reputation four times had greatly affected his confidence.
"Don't worry. Even if you want to take the imperial examination now, I won't let you go."
