Capital.
Zhu Yunwen fell into deep pain when he looked at the documents stating that Song Sheng died of illness.
Because of the existence of the Four Major Hongwu Cases, Zhu Yuanzhang did not leave many famous generals for himself. Among the few generals, Song Sheng was considered a very special person. He was both civil and military and had the talent of a general. Compared with Geng Bingwen, he was better at attacking and more capable. Guo Ying is better at defense.
Song Sheng's military life was filled with countless achievements, including attacking Jiqing, conquering Huining, conquering Guanshan, subduing Liangzhou, defeating Hami, shocking the Western Regions, capturing Karachi, fighting Milan Shah, and defeating Timur...
Zhu Yunwen felt a little distressed. He wondered if it was because of the earth-shattering battle in the Western Region that consumed Song Sheng's last vitality and caused him to leave two years earlier than in history.
This respectable old man left, disrupting his arrangements and deployment of the Western Regions. It is difficult to find another suitable candidate to control the Western Region.
Yuan Yue is a good candidate, but he is more of a military general and lacks the experience and ability to handle government affairs. It will take time to train.
Zhu Di's opinion was to arrange for Qu Neng to succeed Song Sheng. Qu Neng was indeed a good candidate. He was not only good at riding and shooting, but also had a good command of strategies and was considered a versatile man in both civil and military affairs. The fly in the ointment is that Qu Neng's prestige in the Western Regions is limited. He is not as good as Song Sheng, and it is difficult for him to intimidate a place with just one name.
But Zhu Yunwen had no other choice, so he could only choose Qu Neng to become the commander of the Western Regions, and seize the time to train a group of new people such as Yuan Yue, Liu Qixia, and Zhou Dazhi.
The cabinet drafted a document proposing that Zhu Yunwen should title Song Sheng the Marquis of Xining. Zhu Yunwen cautiously rejected the title of Marquis of Xining and changed Song Sheng to the title Duke of Ning.
This was the first Duke of the Jianwen Dynasty. Although it was given to a deceased person, it undoubtedly proved Zhu Yunwen's respect for Song Sheng, his remembrance of him, and his grief at his passing.
The title of Ning Guogong is very important, but Song Sheng is well-deserved.
Because Song Sheng left, the person who succeeded him naturally became Song Sheng's second son Song Xuan (the eldest son Song Mao died early).
Zhu Yunwen was waiting for the army to return to the court, but before Zhu Di could bring anyone back, he caused a lot of trouble. One after another "evil deeds" were introduced into the court, arousing countless public indignation.
Even the newly appointed Minister of Rites, Chen Xingshan, could not stop impeaching Zhu Di, calling him "lawless and domineering."
Lian Zining, the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, even wrote a letter of ten thousand words, demanding that Zhu Di be punished for "indiscriminate killing of innocent people" and "heaps of culpable crimes". He also supervised the censor and acted on the matter. He even took action upon hearing the news and issued one impeachment memorial after another. One letter.
The matter got serious. Among the six ministries, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Personnel were all trying to impeach Zhu Di. Yu Xin in the cabinet seized the opportunity and advocated taking this opportunity to punish Zhu Di severely to set an example.
Xia Yuanji, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, did not make any move. How Zhu Di ordered, beat and killed a few people actually had little to do with the Ministry of Revenue. There was a spring drought this year. In many places in Shandong and Henan, the water did not fall after the beginning of spring. The Ministry of Revenue came up with Three hundred thousand taels were used to support the construction of water conservancy projects and the digging of water wells in the two places to ensure the growth of spring seedlings.
Xia Yuanji is worried that the disaster in the two places is serious. If it is not alleviated, the summer grain production in the two places will be reduced, which will not only affect the livelihood of the two places, but also affect the construction of the new capital.
Zheng Ci, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, did not care about such a trivial matter. Although the war in the Western Region was over, the construction of concrete projects in the northwest did not stop, nor did the construction of the new capital, nor did the supervision of minerals in various places. The Ministry of Industry was busy It's so nice that if you can take the time to check in at Fengtian Palace, it's a favor to the emperor. If you're too busy the next day, you won't even come to Fengtian Palace.
The most intriguing thing is the Ministry of War. Tie Xuan leads the Ministry of War and Zhu Di behaves recklessly. The Ministry of War should be the first to jump out. But who knows that Tie Xuan seems to be blind and deaf. Faced with the Manchurian voice to impeach Zhu Di, he does not express support. , did not express any objection, and seemed not to hear anything. Even the Minister of War, Gu Pu, remained silent.
In Tie Xuan's view, although Zhu Di acted a little recklessly, he was not unreasonable.
Now that the Ming Dynasty controls the Western Region, why is King Hami still alive? The Western Region will be a province of the Ming Dynasty. Whose province can put a local king in it and still have real power and control the local area?
How can we not deal with the local kings who have divided the country and divided the regions in this way?
It’s just that Tie Xuan is more inclined to bring Tuo Tuo back to the capital and control him, but who knows that Zhu
In order to "defile himself", Di directly killed the puppet Tuotuo.
Yes, just kill him. The court doesn't need to hold a memorial service for him.
As for Zhu Di's other evil deeds, including killing a few corrupt officials, beating up a few civil servants, and beating up a group of bandits, it was up to him to do as he pleased. Now he was digging a hole for himself and jumping into it.
You can't do it without jumping. Zhu Di is a vassal king and he has made such extraordinary achievements. How do you want the emperor to reward him?
Zhu Di knew that the emperor was in trouble, and that the court was in trouble, so he simply refused to accept any reward. He began to desecrate himself and did something extraordinary. As long as he didn't get dragged to Caishikou when he got to the capital, he could do a little bit of anything.
Tie Xuan understood Zhu Di, so he did not impeach him.
Many people in the court could see it clearly, such as Xie Jin, Yang Shiqi, Xia Yuanji, etc. It wasn't that they didn't want to get involved, but that what Zhu Di was doing now was in the interest of the court and made it feasible for him to have no reward. As for chilling the hearts of the soldiers.
Zhu Yunwen looked at the memorials and threw them all aside.
The ancients liked to play this trick, using self-defilement to resolve crises. Zhu Yunwen didn't know whether Lan Yu had committed suicide or was really stupid, but what Zhu Di did couldn't be considered smart.
Zhu Yunwen didn't mind Zhu Di's supreme achievements. The so-called great achievements shocked the master was just a false proposition.
When Zhu Di returned to the capital and the military power returned to his own hands, Zhu Di was still a general without soldiers. Under the new army policy and the governor system, Zhu Di could not take anyone away with just a shout, let alone Among the middle and lower-level officers in the Beijing army, countless people were die-hard Zhu Yunwen.
No matter how high his merits are, as long as Zhu Yunwen is not cruel, does not lose the support of the people, and does not oppose the civil and military forces, Zhu Di cannot shake the emperor even if he wants to. How could the prestige accumulated during six years of rule be comparable to that of Zhu Di who pioneered the Western Regions?
Zhu Yunwen wrote a secret letter and ordered Liu Changge to send someone to send it to Zhu Di as soon as possible. The content was just one sentence: Don't imitate others' self-destruction and return to the capital as soon as possible.
The start of the seventh year of Jianwen was generally smooth, and there were not many major events in the local area.
Although there was some spring drought in a few places, it was only localized and the scope of its impact was limited. Coupled with immigrants reclaiming wasteland and black households registering to allocate land, the number of acres in various places increased significantly, which was good for the summer harvest.
Steam engines were improved into deep water areas, and great progress was made in both miniaturization and large-scale development. Driven by three large steam engines, the vacant treasure ship achieved its first voyage, sailing upstream in the Yangtze River, which shocked the world.
Although this voyage did not achieve the expected results and the speed was as slow as a turtle crawling, considering the size of the treasure ship and the difficulty of going upstream, this voyage still verified the feasibility of steam engine technology.
The waves surged in, slapping against the side of the treasure ship and being shattered by the hard protection.
The sun and moon flags flutter, pointing directly at the blue.
Yu Zhen took an oval black stone and scraped Zhang Yu who was lying on the deck. Looking at the purple-red scrapes, he said with a smile: "Look, the voyage is too damp, so scraping therapy is very effective." .”
Zhang Yu chuckled: "This method is not bad. It is simple and easy to implement and easy to promote."
Yu Zhen dipped a stone in water and continued to scrape: "It's true. Many sergeants feel much better after scraping. But let's restrain the sergeants and go ashore. Some people in the forest here seem to be unfriendly. I heard that a few people yesterday A sergeant went in and found only half of the bones."
Zhang Yu grinned: "Don't listen to their nonsense, it's just a trick to scare people. The sergeants all know the importance of this mission. No one makes any mistakes. Even when they go ashore, they are fully armed and move forward carefully, otherwise they can be eaten by others. Now, hey, it’s time to load the gunpowder bombs.”
Yu Zhen nodded repeatedly, just saying, how could the main force of the Ming Dynasty Navy be eaten by black Africans? It turned out to be a rumor.
Zheng He came over, looked at Zhang Yu, who was shirtless, and said majestically: "The wind has risen. Our days on the west coast of Africa are running out. It's time to fully prepare for the voyage."
Zhang Yu sat up, got dressed, looked up at the sun and moon flag flying to the west, and said to Zheng He, "Is this the equatorial warm current that the emperor called?"
Zheng He nodded solemnly: "In winter, we rode the Benguela Cold Current and reached the west coast of Africa. According to the date, the westerly wind blowing now is warm, and the ocean current is also heading west. It must be the equatorial warm current."
Zhang Yu stretched his muscles and suggested: "It's time to summon the captains and make final arrangements. In front of us is a vast sea of five thousand miles. We may lose contact at any time. We must let every ship and every sergeant... Be prepared to move forward alone.”
"That's right!"
Zheng He gritted his teeth.
Yu Zhen understood the importance of this line of work. After more than a year of sailing, the naval fleet finally came to the most difficult and dangerous test. Everything was as Zhu Yunwen said, the ocean currents he mentioned appeared, the maps and islands he drew appeared, and the black people he mentioned also appeared...
He also said that starting from here is the most difficult test, a narrow escape by sea.
Yu Zhen looked at the sea to the west. There were no islands in sight in the vast sea. It seemed that if he plunged into it, he would be completely lost here.
But no matter how difficult it is, how difficult it is, how many sacrifices there are, someone must reach South America, and someone must bring back crops!
For the sake of no more famine in the world, for the sake of all people in the world, and for the eternal stability of the Ming Dynasty!
So what about sacrifice!
Everyone has to die, and it is better to die in the sea for a lofty goal than to die on the bed exhausted and exhausted.
Zhu Neng's fleet slowly docked. Captains such as Luo Guanying, Wang Jinghong, Zhao Shiyu, and Yuan Yichen received the signal, began to assemble, and boarded Zheng He's flagship, the Daming.
The sea is at your feet, the trade wind is blowing, and the tragic voyage begins, endless and glorious...
