Xu Xinsu, Ye Yuxuan, Zhao Chengdong and other 27 civil and military officials who went to Jeju Prefecture were summoned by Chongzhen at the Wuying Hall in the afternoon of this day. Five days later, they will set off with Xu Xinsu and others to Jeju Prefecture to open the Donghae Patrol Mansion and Jeju Prefecture.

After Zhu Youzhen talked with these personnel one by one, he called Xu Xinsu, Ye Yuxuan, and Zhao Chengdong to come forward and say alone: "You go to Jeju Island to open a mansion this time, first, you want to completely bring Jeju Island under the rule of my Ming Dynasty; The second is to use Jeju Island as a base to monitor the movements of North Korea and Japan.

Although Wang Huazhen served as the governor of the Dongjiang River and was responsible for some of the negotiations with Korea, he was a civil servant after all, and he had to be distracted from the affairs of the Dongjiang River, so I would soon send a special envoy with full powers to take charge of the negotiations with the Korean Kingdom.

Although the Kingdom of Korea has always been submissive to our Ming Dynasty, this vassal state is lax in its armament, and the king's bones are relatively soft. If the Jurchen soldiers are approaching the city, they will surrender again if they can't keep it.

The Korean kingdom was different from the Ming system, and their two classes were hereditary aristocratic landlords, while the common people were two classes of landlords who were dependent on various places. Once the king of Joseon surrendered with two classes of Korean nobles, Houjin would be able to obtain the manpower and material resources of Korea without any obstacles.

Therefore, I want you to monitor the movements of the Korean Kingdom, and once there is a change in Korea, you will be responsible for receiving my special envoy to Korea, and getting the Joseon king out of the capital, or to Jeju Island, or to bring back the Ming Dynasty, and you must not let the Joseon king fall into the hands of Houjin. ”

For Chongzhen's special advice, the three of them did not feel any discomfort, after all, they were not serious scholars, although the kidnapping of the king of Joseon seemed a little immoral, but the three of them did not have any psychological burden.

Ye Yuxuan asked a lot, "Your Majesty, how should the ministers contact that envoy when the time comes?" ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said, "You set up a base on Ganghwa Island and arrange a permanent ship on the island. In the future, communication will be carried out through the stronghold on Ganghwa Island, and if Houjin really invades Korea, the special envoy to North Korea will first persuade the Joseon king to retreat to Ganghwa Island, and then see if the situation will transfer the Joseon king to leave Ganghwa Island.

As for monitoring Japan's movements, the main thing is to pay attention to Japan's domestic trade and political situation, and to report it back to Japan in a timely manner, so that we can respond in a timely manner and avoid suffering losses due to Japan's internal affairs. ”

The three of them roughly understood what the emperor meant, and when the summons was about to end, Zhu Youzhen seemed to remember something, and finally ordered: "In addition, you are going to explore Vladivostok, the coastal area of the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, Sakhalin Island and Fusang Island, and I want to give you one final sentence that it will cost at least 150 yuan to transport a soldier from the Ming Dynasty to the above areas for a year."

Therefore, I hope that you can make the most of the local manpower, and every time you recruit a local soldier to assist the Ming Dynasty, it not only increases the strength of the Ming in the local area, but also reduces the potential enemy of the local Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, I hope that when you arrive in these areas, you will try not to use force against the local population unless you have to. Unless the other party is bent on being the enemy of my Ming Dynasty.

Didn't we say that there was a lack of iron, cotton and salt in the area when we went to the local exploration boat last year? I will prepare you with all these things, as long as you can solve the problem with these materials, it is better than consuming our soldiers. I think you should understand, right? ”

Xu Xinsu was the first to speak up and said: "The ministers must follow Your Majesty's orders, and they will not ruin my reputation in the local area." ”

Ye Yuxuan and Zhao Chengdong also followed him, echoing him. When the three of them were about to retreat, Zhu Youzhen suddenly stopped Zhao Chengdong and said: "Guanghaijun's newborn son happened to be full moon today, and he will handle the full moon wine in the house tonight." You can be a congratulatory envoy for me, and send me the gifts I have prepared. Wang Chengen, take him to get the gifts. ”

Zhao Chengdong was in a trance for a moment, and then he suppressed his excitement and saluted Chongzhen with his fists and said, "The minister obeys the order." ”

When these people left, the meeting room of the Wuying Hall finally became deserted. After Wang Chengen left, only Lu Qi was the only one who followed Chongzhen.

After Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while, he suddenly asked Lu Qi in the corner, "Have all the gentry from all provinces arrived?" ”

Lu Qi immediately stepped forward from the corner and replied to Chongzhen: "Except for the gentry from Yunnan and Guizhou, the gentry from other provinces have already arrived in the capital, and the ministers have settled all of them in the Huitong Pavilion. As for the remaining gentry of the two provinces, they will be able to arrive in the capital in about 3 days. ”

"Are these gentry chosen according to my requirements? After they arrived in the capital, what were they all discussing? After the business at hand came to an end, Zhu Youzhen finally remembered the meeting of the gentry of the provinces that he had summoned.

Regarding Chongzhen's concerns, Lu Qi honestly reported it. Although there were gentry in all provinces, the power of the Ming gentry was never balanced.

The six prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, and Shanxi, the above six places are the most powerful because of the continuous entry of the gentry, and the gentry in other provinces are relatively scattered, basically not into any climate, and can only rely on the snort of the gentry in the above places.

However, because there are Fujian officials close to Chongzhen such as Shi Fenglai in Beijing, and in the process of recruiting Zheng Zhilong before, Fujian's coastal ports have also been directly governed by the imperial court, so the Fujian gentry who went to Beijing basically belonged to the Kaihai faction that supported Chongzhen.

Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi were all under the complete control of the imperial court, and the selected gentry were naturally not candidates who liked to oppose the policies of the imperial court.

Shandong and Beizhili are both Gyeonggi regions in a broad sense, and have always been greatly influenced by the political winds of the imperial court. That is to say, it is typical that whoever is in power in the DPRK and China will support whomever they support.

Therefore, what really worries Chongzhen is that the gentry in Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and Huguang will take advantage of this meeting to jump out and make trouble.

However, in view of the fear of the worst-case scenario, Chongzhen did something about the qualifications of the gentry to be selected. He demanded that when recommending candidates for the gentry, the family should have no less than 100 acres of land, that there had been no evasion of national taxes for five years, that there was no innocent property, and that there were no ongoing lawsuits. Candidates specially designated by the imperial court can skip the above conditions.

Chongzhen even specifically stated in the order that the imperial court would check the assets and other qualifications of each gentry representative, and if any discovery was discovered, the qualifications of the gentry would be cancelled immediately, and the recommenders would also be examined to find out whether they had accepted bribes from the elected gentry.

Because of the emperor's additional requirements, the recommendation of the gentry representatives from all over the country was relatively slow, and many large landowners dismissed taking advantage of this opportunity to get a representative to go to Beijing to meet the emperor.

It was the small landlords whose land was just over 100 acres, or some gentry families that were beginning to decline, who obtained the qualifications of the majority of gentry representatives.

There are two themes in this National Gentry Congress, one is about the abolition of the slave system; The second is the issue of how the gentry should cooperate with the promotion of the 12 industrial city plans.

With regard to the issue of the Henan gentry's boycott of the imperial court's policy and the civil unrest in Henan, a conclusion will also be made at this meeting to confirm how the local gentry should resist the policy promulgated by the imperial court in the future, and how it should be punished and handled.

For the two themes of this meeting, the gentry who had already arrived in the capital had clearly expressed several mainstream attitudes when they met in private.

For the abolition of the slave and maid system, the prohibition of lynching of slaves and maids, and the idea of liberating slaves and maids as good people, except for some gentry representatives in Beizhili and Henan, the gentry representatives of other provinces are opposed to the abolition of the slave and maid system, but some gentry representatives agree to improve the current situation of slaves and slaves and prohibit the abuse of slaves by the master's family.

As for the promotion of the establishment of 12 industrial cities, most of the representatives of the northern gentry expressed support, while the representatives of the southern gentry opposed or hesitated to wait and see.

As for the imperial court's handling of the Henan gentry who provoked civil unrest, the gentry representatives of the northern and southern provinces did not clearly express their attitude, and everyone was waiting and watching.

After listening to Lu Qi's report, Zhu Youzhen thought silently for a long time before he spoke: "The gentry conference is scheduled to be officially convened in seven days, and you will continue to send people to contact the representatives of the gentry from various provinces in the next few days. I hope that when the time comes for the meeting, each province will have at least one of its own people. ”

Lu Qi quickly agreed, and as soon as the conversation between the two stopped, he heard Wang Chengen's footsteps ringing outside the room. Chongzhen made a gesture, and Lu Qi retreated to the corner and stood back quietly.

With Wang Chengen's return, Mao Yuanyi and Sun Yuanhua also came to report to Chongzhen with a stack of documents.

On behalf of the General Staff, Mao Yuanyi submitted to the emperor a plan for the march exercise in one month, as well as this year's conscription plan.

Zhu Youjian flipped through the plan submitted to him, and then asked Mao Yuanyi: "With this year's conscription plan, how many troops are under the name of the Gyeonggi Governor's Office?" ”

Mao Yuanyi replied casually: "If you don't count the imperial army in the palace, after June this year, the new army will be 13,800, and the rest of the Mabu army under the Beijing camp will be about 29,000 people, and the total number can reach 42,000 people. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a moment and then said: "The battalion with the worst performance in this marching exercise was transferred to Shanghai as a local garrison.

In addition, some officers who were too old to accept the new tactics were also transferred to the Jiangnan area and transferred to police posts to take charge of local law and order. An officer who is transferred to a police post is equivalent to retiring from the army, and without a conscription order from the imperial court, he is no longer required to perform his military duties. ”

Mao Yuanyi raised his head slightly and glanced at Chongzhen's expression, before he replied cautiously: "The minister will report this matter to Chief Sun in a while." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded at him, and then approved the other documents he submitted. After reviewing the documents sent by Wan Mao Yuanyi, Zhu Youzhen turned to Sun Yuanhua and asked, "Director Sun has something to report to me today." ”

Sun Yuanhua immediately replied: "The minister has drawn up a few names to name the cannons of various calibers, so I want to ask Your Majesty to review them." ”

Zhu Youzhen lowered his head and opened the document handed over by Sun Yuanhua, and saw that the 3-pound* cannon was named General Xuanwei, and he was immediately disdainful. This artillery is not a ham, and it is too tacky to take the name of a general at every turn.

He glanced at the contents of the document, then raised his head and said to Sun Yuanhua: "What kind of general is a weapon, it is too much to look down on my military position."

I think it's better to change it, and the name of the cannon is still simpler. For example, the * cannon is called the Truth 1, 2, and 3 types according to the size of the caliber; As for the cannon, just use the Justice 1, 2, and 3 models..."