After receiving the British envoy Andre, learning from him about the current situation of the British East India Company, and finalizing a trade agreement with him, Zhu Youzhen got up and left the Siyi Pavilion.

As for the content of the trade agreement between the East India Company's Pattani Merchant House and the Four Seas Trading House, it is natural that someone will discuss it in detail with Andre and hand it over to him for review after the agreement is reached.

On the carriage back to the palace, Chongzhen looked sideways at the dark street outside, and occasionally saw a carriage with a glass windproof lampshade passing by the window, illuminating a short section of the street for him.

After looking at it for a while, Zhu Youzhen suddenly turned around and said to Wang Chengen diagonally opposite: "This street is too dark, since the income of the Beijing City Hall is good now, let them take out some of the money, and then collect part of the money from the shops on the street, and the palace will subsidize some of it, and add street lights to the sixteen main streets of the capital."

Didn't this Englishman bring in a lot of cheap black water oil? Let the Academy of Sciences study whether it can refine these black water oils and then use them for outdoor lighting. As for the lack of oil..."

Seeing that Chongzhen was still thinking about what to use as fuel for street lighting, Wang Chengen suddenly cautiously suggested: "I heard that the academicians of the Academy of Sciences have made great progress in the study of surplus products when refining coke, especially after purifying the gas produced during the dry distillation of bituminous coal, a combustion gas can be obtained, which is bright and has no smell.

The minister wondered if he was trying to use this gas as fuel for street lamps. The price of coal is much cheaper than oil, and there is no need to fear that someone will steal it if it is left outside. ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said: "The academician of the Academy of Sciences has been able to stably produce and extract gas, last time I also specially told Li Ciyu that there are too many impurities in the waste gas extracted from dry distillation coal, and it is necessary to go through several processes such as water washing, lime water filtration, etc., to obtain usable pure gas."

It seems that Li Zhizao, the second son, is really quite a father's legacy, and he used the gas generated in the coke refining process so quickly, is he quite talented in scientific research?

Okay, you can arrange it, I will visit the Academy of Sciences tomorrow, the latest research and development achievements of the Academy of Sciences..."

In the sound of wheels, Chongzhen's carriage was escorted by two teams of attendant knights in civilian clothes, and guided by the wind lanterns hanging in front of the carriage, towards the Donghua Gate in the northwest.

Zhu Youzhen, who returned to the palace, went to take a hot bath first, and when he just changed into comfortable home clothes and walked out of the bathroom, he saw Wang Chengen holding a wooden plate guarding the door.

Looking at the three wooden cards placed on the wooden plate, Zhu Youzhen hesitated. Although he finally began to get used to life as Chongzhen, and the three women in the harem were all rare beauties, but once the novelty at the beginning passed, he was now a little afraid of being alone with these three women.

Because he is not really Chongzhen after all, many small habits are different from the past, especially this man who was called Emperor Zhuang Lie, although he is lacking in governance, but he is still quite considerable in personal cultivation. His level of music, calligraphy and painting is above ordinary people, but Su Changqing is below the level in both aspects.

Zhou Hou is good at reading, Concubine Yuan is good at reading, and Concubine Tian is good at music, calligraphy and painting. When he was with them, Zhu Youzhen always felt like an idiot, and he had to cover up the flaws that he didn't know when he was exposed, so he slowly became a little tired.

Coupled with the sudden outbreak of war with the Chahar tribes, the need to promote political, economic, and military reforms, as well as the relief of the victims and the partisan struggle between the DPRK and China, he has not returned to his harem to rest for a long time.

In fact, he is somewhat accustomed to the current rhythm of life, reviewing documents in the morning or going to the Wenhua Hall and Wuying Hall to inspect things, going out of the palace in the afternoon to inspect various official offices, workshops and schools in the capital, reviewing urgent documents and listening to some reports in the evening, and then resting in the study.

Although he is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youzhen feels that he is not much different from the life of later generations. The only regret is that there is no Internet access and no bathing equipment for future generations.

When Zhu Youzhen's outstretched hand was about to grab the wooden card, he suddenly retracted again, and his eyes shifted to Lu Qi behind Wang Chengen and said, "Forget it today, I still have a lot of things to deal with." Lu Qi, I asked you to send someone to ask Dongjiang Town, did they have any returns? After that, did anyone in the Jin army defect to them..."

Seeing Chongzhen walking towards the upper study by himself, Wang Chengen was also a little helpless. Now whether it is inside the palace or outside the palace, I hope that the three ladies in the palace can spread the good news, so that Chongzhen's throne will be stable.

However, it is obvious that Chongzhen himself, who has become more and more detached after ascending the throne, does not see it that way, and he does not seem to have any intention of following the wishes of those ministers and concentrating on creating people in the harem. Instead, he single-mindedly regarded governing the country as his top priority, although Chongzhen's diligence was limited, but his time in dealing with state affairs far exceeded that of the previous three emperors.

The emperor's diligence may be a good thing, but perhaps for some people, it is not a good thing. For eunuchs like Wang Chengen, who are not very keen on power, Chongzhen's restructuring and rectification of the 24 eunuchs in the palace and the dismissal of most of the palace maids left less than 8,000 people, which reduced the annual expenditure of the inner court personnel from 500,000 stone to 100,000 stone, which can be said to greatly reduce the financial pressure on him, the chief housekeeper of the inner court.

However, for the original eunuchs with the status of 24 supervisors in the palace, the drastic reduction of the palace manpower not only reduced the power in their hands, but also reduced their opportunities to get on and off their hands, which is obviously not a good thing.

However, as the reorganized governors who were selected from the bottom of the chamberlain began to get on the right track, although the reorganized department had only 355 people, with the support of the emperor, it monitored the palace and all the workshops under the name of the palace, and its status became more and more powerful.

When those eunuchs who were dissatisfied with the reform of the yamen system or were passive and slacking off, they were forced to retire from the palace under the order of a document from the governor. The eunuchs who originally complained about the restructuring suddenly shut up, and the atmosphere in the palace was also completely renovated.

However, in Wang Chengen's view, although the 24 supervisors in the palace have been abolished a lot after the restructuring, most of the layoffs are old, weak, mediocre and unscrupulous, after these people were driven out of the palace, many bad habits in the palace handed down from the Jiajing Dynasty were suddenly eliminated. At least now there will be no strange events in the palace like the Wanli Dynasty.

Now the various yamen in the palace have at least achieved it: the rights and responsibilities are clear, and the rules are neat. Eight words. There are many fewer things to bully the upper and lower, form a party for personal gain, and oppress the bottom. Most of the chamberlains don't have to worry about it, and they live the life of changing walls day and night. With the exception of a very small number of people, who would not be happy to live their current life.

However, Wang Chengen also knows very well that although it seems that Chongzhen has grasped the power in the palace and the capital very tightly, there is no heir to the throne under his knees, so there are always some people in the world who are not divided.

For example, out of love, the emperor let King Fu enter Beijing to reunite with Concubine Zheng's mother and son, so that they could enjoy the joy of family, what a benevolent thing it was. But there are people who want to make trouble out of it and spread rumors among the people, saying that Emperor Taichang's two successive emperors of father and son are both untimely deaths, and it is difficult to guarantee that there will not be a third time.

And there is a Taoist in the Jingzhong Road to meet the Fuwang father and son, who traveled and played, stepped forward to look at the two fathers and sons, saying that both the father and son are both blessed and longevity, and the prince Zhu Yousong has an extraordinary complexion, the white gas on his head is like wisps, and the wealth in the future is unlimited.

King Fu didn't care at first, thinking that this Taoist complimented his father and son so much, probably because he wanted to ask for some money, so he ordered someone to reward the Taoist, and left by himself.

When King Fu returned to the mansion and talked about it with his own guests, he was reminded by this guest and suddenly realized. This person said that there is white gas on the head of the prince, and the son Zhu Yousong will be the king of blessing in the future, and the king will add white, not just an imperial word, and the wealth is unlimited, which is to slander his father and son for having the heart to seize the throne.

King Fu was immediately shocked, and while hurriedly sending someone out to find this inexplicable Taoist, he wrote to Chongzhen to ask for guilt and defend himself. King Fu even forbade Zhu Yousong to continue his studies at Yenching University, and he was ready to be kicked out of the capital by Chongzhen.

Wang Chengen also received a heavy gift from King Fu, who hoped that he could say a few good words in front of the emperor, and by the way, let Dongchang and Jinyiwei find the Taoist to see who wanted to frame him.

Wang Chengen naturally didn't dare to accept such silver, he honestly told Chongzhen what King Fu said to him, but Chongzhen was completely disdainful of this matter. Not only did he not order someone to track down the Taoist, but he ordered King Fu to be rewarded with great fanfare, rewarding him for once again contributing 3,000 acres of land to resettle the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi, and instructing King Fu to continue to let Zhu Yousong go to school.

A turmoil that may lead to a big case was suppressed by the emperor as if nothing happened, and it seems that Beijing is still calm after that. But Wang Chengen knows that there are probably people in the capital who can't bear loneliness. And all these things are because there is no good news in the harem, so the outside world is uncertain.

But in the face of Chongzhen, who did not have this consciousness, Wang Chengen also felt a little powerless, after all, the current emperor is the highest master in the palace, and no one can reluctantly come to what he is not happy about. Wang Chengen thought with some annoyance, "Do you really want to listen to the opinions of those foreign ministers and choose a show for Your Majesty to enrich the harem?" ”

When Wang Chengen was still walking behind in annoyance, Zhu Youzhen, who had entered the upper study, had already walked to his seat and sat down, and began to look through the report from Dongjiang Town.

Mao Wenlong, who stayed in his hometown of Hangzhou for three months, finally returned to Dongjiang Town. As soon as he returned, he encountered a good thing, Liu Xingzuo, the Han general of the Later Jin, led several Liu brothers and hundreds of soldiers to surrender because he was excluded by the Jurchen relatives.

Mao Wenlong immediately counted Liu Xingzuo's voluntary surrender on his head, saying that he led his troops to surround the Jurchen troops that came to attack, and then forced Liu Xingzuo's troops to surrender.

Seeing this, Zhu Youzhen subconsciously frowned, obviously this was not Dongjiang Town's reply after his order was issued, but Mao Wenlong's initiative to ask for merit.

In early November, Huang Taiji sent an envoy to Jinzhou to accuse the Ming of going back on their word and sending people to capture a Jurchen army near Kuandian, just after the peace treaty had been signed. Huang Taiji demanded that the Ming severely punish the generals who broke the peace treaty and return the captives.

Zhu Youzhen thought that the other party wanted to find trouble, so he asked Lu Qi to send a message to Dongjiang Town to inquire about this matter, and now it seems that this is really the case, but there seems to be some discrepancies in the course of the matter.