Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

In the large and solemn hall, the gold bricks are paved, the palace lamps are overhanged, and the gilded incense burner is spitting out curling green smoke.

Emperor Tianwu stood in front of the dragon case with a brush in his hand, his left hand behind his back, and his right hand hung the pen.

Wu Zhong, the head of the inner house, praised with a smile: "The emperor has gone down with one stroke, and the view is like a loose horse taking off the air and leaving the dust, and it is like a dragon flying in the sky, coming from nothingness, and returning to the void, the thickness and dew are all variable, and the weather is thousands!" ”

Zhu Cihong smiled and waved his hand: "Okay, okay, it's been thirty years since I learned calligraphy with Master Jiang when I was a child. ”

Wu Zhong said with a smile: "The emperor's words, the writing is good, the pen walks the dragon and snake, the iron draws the silver hook, chic, smooth and steady, perseverance, and atmosphere, both the thickness of the face and the clumsiness of Dong Shu, the most imperial atmosphere!" ”

Zhu Cihong leaned on the cushion of the throne, pointed to the work just now, and said, "Take it if you want!" ”

"Old slave thanks to the emperor's grace!"

Wu Zhong was overjoyed, held this calligraphy and blew it gently, and carefully handed it to the little eunuch behind him and asked him to put it away.

Zhu Cixi is thirty-seven years old Chinese New Year's Eve, with a rich small beard, and there is no Chongzhen-style crow's feet at the corner of his eyes when he smiles, and he still looks very young, and he looks like a long life.

He took a sip of tea and said, "Wu Daban, is there any news from Europa?" ”

Wu Zhong put away his smile and replied: "I just got the news from Portugal in the morning, Spain invaded Portugal on a large scale, and the Portuguese army lost, which made the whole country extremely dissatisfied with the queen mother of the regent, according to the news obtained by Jinyiwei, Susa, Count of Melloel, tried to launch a coup d'état, overthrow the regency group and return the government to the Portuguese king, as well as France, Louis XIV is also planning a marriage with the king of Portugal, ready to take advantage of the weakness to enter the ....."

Zhu Cihong smiled: "All the forces in Europa regard Portugal as fat, it seems that I have to help this brother-in-law." ”

In the thirteenth year of Tianwu, King João IV of Portugal died, and the third son Alfonso succeeded to the Portuguese throne, called Alfonso VI (the first two brothers both died young.

However, the brother-in-law of Emperor Tianwu has been paralyzed since he was three years old, and he has mental problems, and state affairs have always been regent by the Queen Mother.

Women are not incompetent, but women are not capable, and within a few years of the Queen Mother's regency, some conservative aristocrats took advantage of this to expand their power, and Portugal, which João IV had painstakingly managed, was in decline and suffered a series of military defeats.

First, in the fourteenth year of Tianwu, the Netherlands attacked Portugal mainland and blockaded Lisbon for three months, and then because the Ming warships sailed to Lisbon to deter, the Dutch Navy patted its ass and left.

Nowadays, there is a coup crisis in Portugal, there are strong enemies outside, and the new European hegemon France is playing conspiracy, life is very difficult, if there is no fleet of the Ming Navy stationed in the Atlantic Ocean for a long time, I am afraid that Portugal will have been carved up by European powers.

Wu Zhong said: "These white pigs, suppressing Portugal like this, is nothing more than trying to contain my Ming power in the Atlantic!" ”

Zhu Cihong nodded and said, "To deal with these miscellaneous hairs, you have to be hard, Wu Daban, I plan to let you go to the West again next year to escort Concubine Jing and the Six Princes to Portugal!" ”

Wu Zhong's eyebrows moved: "Emperor, are you going to start that plan?" ”

Zhu Cihong nodded silently.

Concubine Jing, that is, the Portuguese princess Catherine, and the sixth prince is Zhu Heyuan, the son of Emperor Zhu and Little Yanma.

Ten years ago, Emperor Zhu planned to soak a large Yanma of the European royal family, get a son or daughter out, and let his children inherit the throne of a European country through a series of means.

When Wu Zhong first went to the West, Portugal, which was beleaguered at home and abroad, came uninvited, and the two countries began to form an alliance after negotiating, and the Portuguese princess married into the Ming royal family and took the Asian colony of Mumbai as a dowry.

Under Emperor Zhu's unremitting efforts day and night, Catherine finally became pregnant with the dragon seed and gave birth to a prince.

Now the situation in Portugal is very bad, it is the best period for the Ming Dynasty to make a move, and only by gradually controlling Portugal can the situation in Europe be completely opened.

In the thirteenth year of Tianwu, Wu Zhong met with the monarchs of several major European powers on behalf of Zhu Cihong to jointly establish a new world order.

In a fit of rage, on his second return trip to the West, Wu Zhong swept through the overseas bases of Britain, France, and the Netherlands off the coast of Africa, and returned to China after a wave.

Lan Haoran, who was stationed in the Atlantic, played the role of a pirate, taking the fleet to the white colonies in Africa at every turn.

Several European countries were in a hurry, and because of the experience of the Spanish Armada, they did not dare to take the initiative to provoke a war with the Ming Dynasty, and finally agreed to the proposal of the Ming Dynasty, acquiescing that the Ming Dynasty had colonial rights in Africa and the Americas.

Zhu Cihong leaned slightly, and said with a longing on his face: "In a few years, the Grand Canal on the North African side will be navigable, and I plan to go to Europe to take a walk and see new things." ”

Wu Zhong said with a smile: "Europa is more than 100,000 miles away from my Ming Dynasty, even if this sea passage between Asia Minor and Europa is opened, it will take a year and a half to go back and forth, the emperor wants to see new things, why go to Luopa, my Ming Dynasty is vast, and there is no shortage of new things......."

"Oh? Then tell me a few things. ”

has nothing to do, Zhu Cihong likes to listen to the strange things that Dongchang inquired about the most.

Wu Zhongdao: "There is a woman in Beizhili, it is rumored that she looks very ugly, and she has not married for many years. ”

"There is a man in the neighboring village, paralyzed for more than ten years, and he went away happily after hearing about it, who knew that the two had just met, and the paralyzed man looked at the woman's true face, and suddenly flew off the wall in shock, and his whereabouts are still unknown!"

"Hehehe! Absolutely! ”

Zhu Cihong laughed heartily: "Is there anything new?" Let's talk about it with me! ”

Wu Zhong said: "There is another thing, which is ridiculous and not ridiculous, about the Hou family in Pingyang. ”

"Oh? Pingyang Hou Xu Qingshan's family? Let's talk about it. ”

Wu Zhong said: "The day before yesterday, the people from the sixth place of Dongchang saw a suspicious figure with strange behavior on Shence Street, so they arrested him, who knew that the first interrogation turned out to be Xu Mingwu, the second son of the Pingyang Hou family!" ”

Dongchang is crazy, there is nothing to report.

But this crazy guy is the son of the Pingyang Marquis Xu Qingshan's family, which can be said, so the head of the East Factory reported the matter to the overseer Wu Zhong on the same day.

It was a matter of the Xungui family, and Wu Zhong felt that it was necessary to report it to the emperor.

Wu Zhong continued: "After the interrogation of Dongchang, I found that Xu Ergongzi was crazy and always talked nonsense. ”

What kind of crossing, goldfinger, Shenzhou manned spacecraft those interrogation words, because it was too bizarre, the head of the East Factory did not dare to submit it, Wu Zhong did not know, only knew that the old Chinese medicine doctor of the East Factory made an authoritative brain disease appraisal for Xu Ergongzi.

Zhu Cihong asked, "Why is this child like this?" Born? ”

Wu Zhong shook his head and said: "Xu Mingwu is the concubine of the Marquis of Pingyang after the Northern Expedition, so he is seventeen years old this year, the concubine's life is thin, and he left early, this child has been rebellious since he was a child, and I heard that two days ago, when he married the Dingyuan uncle's family, it became abnormal to run away from home." ”

"Seventeen years old, the same age as the prince......"

Zhu Cihong muttered to himself and asked quietly, "What has the prince been doing lately?" ”

Wu Zhong replied: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is still studying at the Huangming Military Academy, studying every day, and his Royal Highness performed very well in the big competition last month!" ”

Zhu Cihong nodded with satisfaction and said, "The prince has grown up, and it is time to take charge of himself." ”

Then, he said: "Pingyang Hou has contributed to the country, you go to find a doctor and send him to see his stupid son, don't give up treatment." ”