The laboratory continued, but his assistants continued to do it while Zhu Mingzhong was busy with political affairs, and in a way, in the middle of the 17th century, Zhu Mingzhong had already established the world's first industrial research laboratory.

This industrial research laboratory may seem a little primitive, but it has opened a door, and as the door opener, Zhu Mingzhong only needs to grasp the direction and provide enough funds and inspiration to the laboratory, and finally let those who are interested in invention and innovation complete their inventions in it.

More often, Zhu Mingzhong, as the Jianghuai Economic and Strategic Envoy, still needs to devote his energy to military and political affairs, and even with the assistance of others, many affairs still need to be handled by him personally.

At noon that day, when he was disposing of the military and political documents submitted from various places in the public house, Li Henian, a scholar from Qinghe College, came in with a delicate wooden box in his hand and reported.

"A hundred sabers have been made, and this is one of them, please take a look."

took the knife from Li Henian's hand, but just a little look, Zhu Mingzhong liked this knife, only to see that the scabbard of this knife is extremely exquisite, on the scabbard made of shark skin, with copper pieces to make auspicious cloud patterns, gilded copper pieces shiny, like gold. The handle of the knife is inlaid with shark skin, which can withstand the sweat of the palm.

Zhu Mingzhong pulled out the knife, and immediately felt a cold light rushing towards his face, the blade was sharp, even if he had not tried the blade, he could know how sharp this knife was. In the middle of the knife face is engraved with eight big characters of "taking righteousness and becoming benevolent, serving the country with loyalty", and next to it is a line of small block "Zhu Chengren gift".

This knife is a saber made by the arsenal for officers according to Zhu Mingzhong's instructions, and of course, to a certain extent, it is also a reward.

Unlike other armies, the officers and soldiers of the Loyal and Righteous Army have made meritorious contributions in battles, and they will not be promoted according to the regulations of the imperial court, not to mention that they do not know their whereabouts in the current imperial court, even if they are reported, Zheng Chenggong will reward them on behalf of heaven, so that the officers and soldiers will be promoted and promoted, and this will be from the "grace of heaven", or from the hands of Zheng Chenggong.

What does it have to do with him Zhu Mingzhong?

Therefore, from the very beginning, Zhu Mingzhong deliberately "privateized" the loyal and righteous army step by step, from using medals to commend the bravery of officers and soldiers, and then setting up a military rank system, through which the sequence of the loyal and righteous army was excluded from the rank, this kind of "grace from above" ensured that the rewards came from Zhu Mingzhong, not the emperor's "heavenly grace" or Zheng Chenggong's "grant on behalf of heaven". This ensures the reality that the loyal and righteous army is the "Zhu family's army".

The medal is an honor, and the military rank is practical, but in addition to both, there must be a way to express his personal reward and appreciation for his subordinates. In what way?

Giving out bounties?

From the very beginning, when the Loyal and Righteous Army was founded, although it adopted "generous salaries to raise soldiers", on the other hand, Zhu Mingzhong advocated the declaration of "not afraid of death, no money", as for worshipping the brothers, that was the behavior of the king of the mountain, and he despised it, not to mention, it was also common for the brothers to stab each other. The army should be disciplined, and this small group of sworn brothers is excluded by a disciplined part.

In this way, after thinking about it for a long time, Zhu Mingzhong finally came up with the idea of giving away a saber, whether in China or in the West, this is a good thing that attracts people's hearts. There is no need to talk about the officers in the army, even if they are civilians, since they are serving in the army, they must have a martial spirit. Giving a saber or sword in the name of an individual can not only express the special feelings between oneself and the other party, but also encourage the martial spirit of the loyal and righteous army.

The first batch of swordsmen must not be large in number, but must be small, and the ceremony must be arranged with great pomp, so that they can feel the supreme honor. This saber gifted by himself will become the highest reward that everyone can hope for in the future.

And this saber is not an ordinary sword, but made by a famous craftsman - thanks to the Tokugawa shogunate's "sealing order" more than ten years ago, after opening a route to Nagasaki, the merchant ships returning from Japan not only brought back a ship full of copper, but also dozens of smuggled swordsmiths with them, those swordsmiths because of the "sealing order" made their livelihood unsustainable, their arrival greatly improved the level of knife making in Jiangbei, although the arsenal of the Loyal Army was better at large-scale production with the help of hydraulic forging hammers, But when it comes to the sophistication of knife making, it is still far inferior to Japan, just like Zheng Chenggong often rewarded his subordinates with oriental swords to attract people's hearts, just like Zhu Mingzhong received the same reward.

It's just that this knife is not the shape of the Japanese knife, but the shape of the Tang knife and the Miao knife, and the decoration is more gorgeous and exquisite.

More often than not, these swords serve as ritual knives, which naturally need to be more ornate and exquisite, and of course, even ritual knives do not prevent them from being extremely sharp.

In the afternoon of the next day, the sun was extremely bright in the spring, and in front of the wide archway of the Yuanmen in front of the Yamen, there were nearly 2,000 officers above the platoon commander, and according to the battalion system of the Loyal and Righteous Army, the whole army was divided into 30 battalions, each battalion had 2,500 people, each battalion had four infantry brigades, a baggage brigade, and an artillery brigade, and each infantry brigade had six squadrons, each squadron had two platoons, and each platoon had jurisdiction over two squads of 14 people. These nearly 2,000 officers above the platoon commander level can be said to be equivalent to gathering all the officers of the Loyal and Righteous Army here, of course, not all of them, after all, there are troops on duty with combat readiness, and there are also deputy officers.

At this time, these officers all wore red tweed uniforms according to the military system of the loyal army, which was sewn with red tweed and navy blue tweed fabric, and just a few months ago, Qinghe also set up a woolen factory for the production of woolen fabrics, after all, compared to cotton cloth, this fabric is thicker and warmer, more suitable as a fabric for military uniforms, of course, the most important thing is that in this era of the Xiaoice River, the army needs thick military uniforms more.

Under the unique posture of the soldiers, dressed in modern military uniforms, these officers standing tall on the field all look very tall, coupled with the dazzling shoulders, gold and silver embroidery on the sleeves, all of them look mighty. These officers of the Loyal and Righteous Army have very complicated backgrounds, among them are scholars, there are also unemployed vagrants and farmers, and naturally there are also salters.

But most of them, last year, they were just poor people with no reputation, but now, they are the officers and captains of the Loyal and Righteous Army, wearing this military uniform, and their faces are all very proud, especially when they see thousands of people watching, they even puff up their chests, so as not to fall into the military prestige of the Loyal and Righteous Army.

This is the real loyal army!

Standing on the side of the street, looking at the loyal and righteous officers in the field, looking at these officials who stood on the pines and cypresses, and felt the momentum revealed in them, Chen Yonghua immediately understood that this was the momentum that only the elite soldiers of the rest of their lives had in a hundred battles.

At this time, Chen Yonghua, who was watching from the sidelines, like many people, never knew what kind of grand event they were going to witness, not to mention them, even those loyal and righteous military cadets and officers who were in the field, and they didn't understand that today was not a festive holiday, so why should they be treated so grandly?

More importantly, they didn't understand why they had come here from a barracks outside the city.

Just when everyone was puzzled, they only heard the guards at the gate shouting.

"It's here!"

There was a sudden silence on the field, although there were still people talking outside the field, but the field was very quiet, and all the officers straightened their backs and stood solemnly in the field. I saw Zhu Mingzhong walking out of the government office with steady steps and majestic. Like these officers, Zhu Mingzhong also wore a red military uniform, his expression was solemn, and after walking out of the gate, he stood at the gate, and with those steps, everyone could see him clearly.

"Is it going to be the Northern Expedition!"

The officers in the field guessed in their hearts that there must be something big today, otherwise, how could Jinglu gather everyone here?

Could it be the Northern Expedition?

Not to mention the officers in the field, it was Chen Yonghua, who was an onlooker, although he was isolated from the field by the guards standing outside the field with guns, he couldn't help but have such a thought in his heart.

In addition to the Northern Expedition, why do you need such a big formation?

"It's a pity, it's a pity, if this scene can be left, hundreds of years later, won't future generations be able to record such a spectacular scene?"

Zhou Boqi, who was on the sidelines, said that it was a pity, but his heart was full of expectations for leaving "light and shadow", how could such a spectacular scene be described by pen and ink?

Almost everyone, when looking at the official Zuo in the square in front of them, all kinds of thoughts emerged, but almost all of them will agree with a point of view in their hearts, this must be a preparation for the Northern Expedition, such a fanfare event, is unheard of by them, and for those ordinary people, just witnessing all this in front of them is enough for them to remember for life, and in the future continue to pay attention to their children and grandchildren, for many ordinary people, he has never experienced any big scene in his life, And this grand scene in front of them will make them keep repeating "I want to ...... back then" in front of their children and grandchildren.

For ordinary people, this is a grand event, and for the officials of the loyal army, it is also a grand event, and for civil officials such as Zhu Daxian, Qian Lei, Gu Yanwu and other civil officials in the government office, wearing a red official uniform, they also feel that there is an emotion gathering in their chests, although compared to the nearly 2,000 loyal officers and righteous officers, these teams are not large, but it does not prevent them from being affected by this solemn and solemn atmosphere, and then immersed in it, and even they are inadvertently, Following the example of the officers of the Loyal Army, they lined up in a neat square.

And they, everyone's eyes are on Zhu Mingzhong.