Riding in the same car, it is naturally a four-wheeled carriage.

But sitting in the carriage, Zhu Mingzhong had a feeling of sitting on pins and needles, from the time he was on the boat to seeing such a big formation on the dock, he regretted it, perhaps, he should have rushed over by night, but even this made no sense, after all, when he was on the shogunate mountain, someone had already boarded the boat and told him that the general would meet him at the pier.

"Chengren, this king sees that your multi-oared boat is good, it is suitable for the Yangtze River water war, if you don't mind, can you ask someone to send a copy of the pattern when you go back, after all, this Jiangnan is all based on the Yangtze River natural insurance, and the sailors under the command of this king are probably sea ships, and they are not suitable for the Yangtze River."

Zheng Chenggong seemed to be in a very good mood.

Since the success of the Northern Expedition to Nanjing, he has washed away the adversity in Xiamen in the past, and the situation can be described as extremely smooth. Not to mention Zhang Huangyan and Zhu Mingzhong, one of them conquered Jiangxi, and the other took Jiangbei, that is, his generals also successively captured Hangzhou and other famous cities in Zhejiang, and then took the whole province of Zhejiang, so that Zhejiang and Jiangnan were united, if Jiangxi and Jiangbei were added, it was equivalent to a small half of the Ming Dynasty had been completely recovered, and more importantly, these places were all tax-bearing places, and it was with sufficient food and salary that in just a few months, he had expanded his command to 250,000. If you add the troops in Jiangxi and Jiangbei, he has nearly 500,000 horses under his command.

Zheng Chenggong knew very well that the army was important to him, and it was precisely for this reason that in view of the situation that Zheng Jiajun was good at water warfare but not good at land warfare, he would train the newly recruited soldiers, so as to change the shortcomings of Zheng's army in land warfare. When Zhu Ming was loyal to the Jiangbei captives and used them as hard labor, he dismissed the prisoners of the Manchu Green Battalion except for the old, weak, sick and disabled, and the others were not moved into the Zheng Army, and secretly instructed the officers of each battalion to collect the captured but fierce and capable officers in the Green Battalion Army, and even did not hesitate to quote the Eight Banners of the Han Army. In this way, the power of the Zheng family army has become stronger and stronger. But despite this, he still admires Zhu Mingzhong very much, precisely because he is good at training.

"Look at what the general said, the last general turned around and sent someone to present the drawings to the general, and the general, at present, Jiangbei has been cast into a new cannon, although the range of the new cannon is slightly inferior to the old cannon, but its cannon body is light, but the shells are heavier, if the general needs, the last general will also send it."

Zhu Mingzhong's answer made Zheng Chenggong nod slightly.

"Chengren, I heard that you are making firearms in Jiangbei now, although the Tartars are afraid of Chinese firearms, but if firearms are used in the army, what if it is raining heavily? Although this firearm is a weapon to defeat the enemy, it is not biased towards firearms, I heard that during the Suqian War, it was the spear team under your command that made a miraculous feat in the end, and the combination of firearms and spears is the king's way. ”

For Zhu Mingzhong, although he was a little unhappy, Zheng Chenggong was basically satisfied. Even in Jiangbei, the situation of actually wandering away from the Yanping Palace, in his opinion, is inevitable, after all, there is always a little gap between the two that needs to be bridged, and this time, Zhu Mingzhong's move to remove the reputation of the scholar is undoubtedly to show his loyalty.

First, this move can severely damage Zhang Huangyan's prestige in Jiangnan Shilin, because he is powerless to stop this discussion, and secondly, Zhu Mingzhong's reputation will also be severely damaged, which proves that he has no ambition. Everything you think is for the sake of the Ming Dynasty.

Even now Zheng Chenggong is deeply pleased with his original decision, after all, he could have been punished for the crime of taking troops without authorization, but he didn't, even when Zhu Mingzhong captured Jiangbei, he could have sent officials to seize Jiangbei, but he didn't either. Now he faintly pins seventy percent of his hopes on Zhu Mingzhong and three percent of his dependence.

"What the general said is very true, but the self-generated fire gun is the sharpest, especially suitable for the infirm, if it is equipped with a bayonet, it can be used barely in heavy rain."

As for what the future is, Zhu Mingzhong is naturally clear, it is not that he does not really oppose it, but just expresses his views.

"Well, your self-generated firecracker, I've seen it, it's really sharp, but the cost is quite high, how can these hundreds of thousands of troops use firearms? After all......"

The cost is not that high!

Zhu Mingzhong secretly thought in his heart, if the process was improved, it would be even cheaper than the bird's gun. The reason why the price of the official fire gun in Nanjing is higher is not just a matter of technology.

Originally, I wanted to say that not everyone can sit in a Lianghuai salt field, but he still took it back, after all, the tax of the Lianghuai field has now been tacitly given to Zhu Mingzhong, which can be regarded as a reward for letting him guard Jiangbei, so he didn't want to argue about this matter, so he changed the topic to a lighter one.

"There are a lot of delicious things in Jiangzuo, you are originally a person from Jiangzuo, this time you came to Nanjing, this king specially ordered someone to invite a few famous chefs from Suzhou and Changzhou, and asked them to change their tricks and make all the good dishes of Jiangzuo for you to taste, especially to cook the most prestigious dishes of Jiangzuo's three dishes."

Zheng Chenggong said quite complacently.

"The most prestigious? Oh? What are the three dishes? ”

Although it seems that he is not very particular about eating on the surface, in fact, Zhu Mingzhong is very interested in eating, and the reason why he is not particular is because for him, who is accustomed to various chemical condiments in later generations, he has never eaten any strange dishes since he crossed over. Even the chili peppers of this era are not too spicy, and they are not eaten as soon as they want.

Compared with those meals made in different ways, Zhu Mingzhong prefers the home-cooked food of later generations, or the so-called local dishes of farmers in later generations, so that he has a frugal life, because it is not much different from ordinary people, he himself eats with everyone every day, although the staff have some opinions, but they are embarrassed to mention it.

Although there are meat such as chicken and fish in the pot every day, these "pot dishes" are still a symbol of frugality in the eyes of outsiders. But this does not mean that he is not interested in the cuisine of this era, and when he heard that there are famous dishes cooked by famous chefs in Suzhou, Changzhou and other places, Zhu Mingzhong certainly showed a look of great interest.

"I heard that you are in Jiangbei, and you read a subset of scriptures and poems every day, why can't you remember the allusions!"

Zheng Chenggong, who was in a good mood, deliberately sold Guan Zi.

"General, didn't you mean to make it difficult for me!"

After thinking for a while, Zhu Ziyang asked tentatively.

"Is it mushroom, ulva soup, sea bass?"

"Exactly, exactly! It seems that Chengren, you have not read a lot of books in the past few months! ”

Zheng Chenggong immediately burst out laughing, and in the midst of the laughter, he said with a smile again.

"But, Chengren, don't get me wrong, this king didn't want to let you go back to your hometown when he brought out these dishes!"

Although Zhu Mingzhong is not a well-educated person, but he is now aware of some of the allusions, and Zhang Han of Wujun was recruited by Sima Jian, the king of Qi, as the great Sima Dong Cao Rafter in the Jin Dynasty. Seeing that the political situation was chaotic, in order to avoid trouble, he excused himself from the autumn wind, and homesick his hometown of wild vegetables, ulva soup, and sea bass, so he resigned and returned to Wu. Since then, these three foods have become famous dishes that Wu people are proud of.

And Zheng Chenggong's words are obviously a joke.

"When Han saw the autumn wind rising, he thought of Wuzhong mushrooms, ulva soup, and sea bass, and said: Life is expensive in the right ambition, how can you detain the eunuch for thousands of miles to be famous! And he drove his life......"

Reading the allusions in the Book of Jin and thinking of the "hometown" in another time and space, Zhu Mingzhong couldn't help but reveal a kind of nostalgia for his hometown, and even sighed.

"If one day, the last general hopes to be able to disarm and return to the field, like him, and return to his hometown, but where are the relatives in this family......"

Zhu Mingzhong's sadness made Zheng Chenggong stunned, and looked at the tears that emerged in his eyes, just as Zheng Chenggong reminded him of the sad old things, and said.

"Chengren, now that Jiangnan has been returned to me, if you don't become Ren, you will send someone to find your old relatives at home, and you may ......."

Deceased relatives at home?

In this day and age? Can you find it?

Seeing that Zhu Mingzhong did not speak, Zheng Chenggong changed the topic and said.

"Chengren, have you heard that Songjiang perch is famous for its four gills?"

"Oh? I don't know if the fish still have four gills?"

"It's true that there are four gills."

Zheng Chenggong replied in the tone of an expert. Although he was born in a pirate family, as a child of a rich family, he is like other rich sons, far more than Zhu Mingzhong knows how to enjoy, of course, this is also a luxury for the superiors.

"It's just that there are two gill dots and two gill dots. The king of tomorrow ordered someone to send a few tails to your house, and you can see it with your own eyes when the time comes. ”

"In this way, the last general will thank the general!"

Happily accepting Zheng Chenggong's gift, Zhu Mingzhong said again,

"This time I came to Nanjing, and the last general didn't bring any gifts, but recently made a three-foot glass mirror in Jiangbei, and asked the prince not to dislike it."

Zheng Chenggong is naturally no stranger to glass mirrors, after all, the Zheng family itself is a maritime businessman, and glass mirrors are also its business commodities, but Rao is so, when he heard the three-foot glass mirror, he looked at Zhu Mingzhong in surprise, and said after a while.

"Three-foot glass mirror! Is there such a big glass mirror in the world? ”

Before this, there was really no such a large glass mirror, and even the manual blowpipe spreading method could not make such a large mirror, and in order to make a large mirror, Zhu Mingzhong finally chose the time-consuming and labor-intensive pouring method to produce large pieces of glass, after all, large transparent glass is needed in many places, and the size of the glass produced by the manual blowpipe spreading method is very limited, and the yield is more often dependent on the blowing level of workers. In this way, the seemingly labor-intensive and time-consuming pouring method is actually easier to produce.

And the reason why he gave the big mirror to Zheng Chenggong couldn't be simpler, because Zhu Mingzhong wanted to open the market in Jiangnan and sell the glass mirror.

"It was also the glass factory that accidentally made several large mirrors, and I ask the prince not to dislike it."

Zheng Chenggong looked at Zhu Mingzhong in surprise, which was completely beyond his imagination.

"You actually know how to make Western glass?"