"Zitong, why are you here so late?" Zhu Youzhen greeted him with some surprise.

Zhou Yufeng's red cloak was bulging, and he seemed to be holding something. Zhou Yufeng's face was red, and there were still a few drops of sweat on his forehead.

She said with some difficulty: "The concubine looked at the cold weather, and specially boiled some Poria porridge to present to His Majesty." ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen know that what was bulging under Zhou Yufeng's cloak was actually a food box for heat preservation.

"How can you let the queen run so far with her own things?" Zhu Youzhen was a little blamed, and said to the palace maid who was serving behind Zhou Yufeng.

Zhou Yufeng immediately stopped Zhu Youzhen and said, "Don't blame them, it's the concubine herself who insisted on doing this." ”

Zhu Youzhen was quite moved in his heart, he took the food box from Zhou Yufeng's hand, and refused Wang Chengen's request to take it.

"It's so cold outside, let's go into the study, and Zitong will also accompany me to have some hot porridge." Zhu Youzhen held the food box in one hand, took Zhou Yufeng's hand with the other, and walked towards the upper study.

Zhou Yufeng's face was slightly red, she was not used to Zhu Youzhen's intimate expression.

The poria cocos in the Poria porridge are very broken and small, and the red dates are also carefully pitted, light and sweet, which is very suitable for Zhu Youzhen's appetite. After a short while, he drank the small bowl of porridge in front of him.

Zhou Yufeng looked at Zhu Youzhen, who had a big appetite, couldn't help but smile with his mouth covered, and pushed the porridge in front of him that had not been touched, "The concubine's bowl hasn't been used yet, if Your Majesty doesn't mind, please..."

A small bowl of porridge made Zhu Youzhen feel a little up, he took Zhou Yufeng's porridge embarrassedly and said: "How can I mind, Zitong's craftsmanship is really good, I can't stop it." ”

After running out of porridge, the two continued to chat for a while, and Zhou Yufeng saw that the time was not early, so he thought about saying goodbye and leaving.

Zhu Youzhen did not say anything to stay, which made Zhou Yufeng feel a little lost. When Zhu Youzhen got up to send her out, smelling the fragrance on Zhou Yufeng's body, his heart couldn't help but flutter, and he stretched out his hand and gently grabbed her.

"Don't leave tonight, okay?" Zhu Youzhen took Zhou Yufeng in his arms and whispered in her ear.

Although Zhou Yufeng was a little shy in his heart, he still buried himself in Zhu Youzhen's arms and nodded.

In the early morning of the next day, Zhu Youzhen slowly woke up from his deep sleep, feeling that this was the best night of rest in these days.

On the morning of this day, a convoy of three ships approached the port of Tianjin from the open sea. The flotilla was led by a large Tongansuo, followed by two medium-sized Tongansuo.

At the mouth of the Haihe River, at the mouth of the Dagu River, on a small beacon tower made of earthen ramparts, several sergeants were gathering in front of a small fire to keep warm.

"The weather is really choking, the wax moon has not yet arrived, and it is so cold." A sergeant in his 20s squeezed as far as he could around the fire, complaining.

"Be content, this year's snow is later than usual, otherwise our winter will be even more difficult. However, Wen Xiaoqi, it's not a matter for us to stay like this. There is a fixed amount of firewood for this official stockpile, and it is okay for us to draw some out to keep warm, but it burns like this every day, I am afraid that when the time comes, the officials will come down to check it, and everyone will have to eat the top one. A 40-year-old soldier was worried, and said to a 30-year-old bearded officer sitting in the corner of the leeward wall closest to the fire with a gloomy face.

"Then Li Zongqi will remember our firewood here, and it is estimated that he will be drinking and gambling in the barracks. I don't know what madness he has, in previous years, each small flag took turns to guard for 10 days, but this year we were asked to keep a winter alone. In this hellish winter, there is not even a single merchant ship in sight, so are those pirates coming to grab the air? A short sergeant said indignantly.

"What kind of Japanese are not Japanese criminals, after Grandpa Wanli went to North Korea and killed the corpses of the Japanese people all over the field, this Jinmen has never seen the shadow of the Japanese invaders. If you want me to say, sooner or later, our coastal defense battalion will have to withdraw. A sergeant who was dressed more neatly than the other sergeants and sat in a position one level worse than Xiaoqi surnamed Wen pouted and retorted,

"Is it possible, Brother Li, do you have any inside information?" The short sergeant asked him with some flattery.

* Pretended to glance at Xiaoqi Wen Daolin casually, seeing that he didn't notice what he said, just biting a piece of dry grass and not knowing what he was thinking.

* Hiding his disappointment, he said, "Didn't I have a distant cousin who was in charge of the secretary's office?" According to him, the people of the East and East Lin Party in the DPRK are very powerful, and when the eunuch party was in power, the governor built a shrine in Hejian and Tianjin, led the civil and military officials to bow five times and kowtow three times, and also ordered the guerrillas to guard the shrine, and the people of the East and East China Lin Party were jealous of this.

Now that Gonggong Wei is gone, this governor has naturally become the target of public criticism, and with the news that my cousin has received, the day when this governor will leave his post is approaching. This Gegu coastal defense battalion, thanks to the painstaking support of Governor Huang, after Lord Huang leaves, I think our useless coastal defense battalion should also be withdrawn. ”

* After saying that, the four or five sergeants fell silent. The treatment of the sergeants in the Tianjin Guard Station is far lower than that in other places, and the recruits in other places are paid more than one tael of silver per month, while the Tianjin sergeants are paid seven months a year, one stone of rice per month, five months of color, and a monthly military salary of 4 yuan and silver.

Although this amount of money was not enough for these sergeants to support their families, Tianjin, as a key point of sea and land transportation, was also the throat of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal into Beijing.

Merchants from the north and south gather here, and the sergeants of the three guards can still make some extra money, so they can barely make a living.

But if the coastal defense battalion is abolished, they really don't know how to feed themselves and their families.

Wen Daolin suddenly spit out the grass roots chewing in his mouth, looked at the fire in front of him and said: "It's not a way to go on like this, Lao Liu and Xiao Wu will go to the neighborhood to chop some firewood and come back, and at noon I will go back to Zhao Baihu to walk around the door, see if I can reduce the number of days I am stationed, and no matter how bad it is, I will transfer some firewood." ”

Lao Liu agreed, and called the young sergeant Xiao Wu who was shrunk to the side, and prepared to go down to the beacon tower to chop some firewood and come back.

But when he stood up and saw the big gu mouth outside the battlement, he couldn't help but be stunned. Xiao Wu stood up and walked a few steps, and found that Lao Liu hadn't followed, so he turned around and followed his gaze.

"Brother Wen, three big boats have come to the sea." Xiao Wu suddenly exclaimed.

"At this time, how can there be a ship coming? Could it be that a ship is coming from Phi Island? * patted the dust off his body and stood up slowly.

Wen Daolin scurried up, and walked a few steps to the east battlement, completely lacking the decadent appearance he had just had.

Lao Liu only exhaled at this time, put his heart at ease and said: "The sun and moon flag of the Ming Dynasty is hung on the bow of the ship, and it is our own ship. ”

The sea was windy, and the flags on the ship were full of wind drums, and the overlapping patterns of the red sun and yellow moon and the flags composed of blue backgrounds were clearly displayed in front of these sergeants.

After the opening of Longqing, due to the rapid development of overseas trade, the ships of the Ming Dynasty hoisted the sun and moon flags in accordance with the customs of Western merchants to distinguish them from the ships of Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries.

The blue background on the flag represents the blue sky, and the overlapping pattern of the sun and moon means the word "Ming", which is a metaphor for the Ming Dynasty. The sun and moon pattern is located in the center of the flag, which is impartial, which means that China is located in the four directions.

The yellow color in the center represents the moon and also represents the meaning of the emperor and queen earth. The red light represents the sun, which also shows that the Ming Dynasty belongs to the fire virtue and also represents the royal family of the Ming Dynasty.

The red light is divided into 12 paths, which means that there are 12 hours in a day, 12 months in a year, and the light is located above the blue sky, indicating that the glory of the Ming Dynasty is shining in all directions.

There are four sharp big horns in the light, which refer to the four directions of up, down, left and right, which means "the sky and the polar earth, no concubines", and also means the four dimensions of courtesy, righteousness and shame, and the country.

"What a big ship, what kind of merchant will sail at this time, don't they know that soon the sea will start to freeze?" * While admiring, he said with some skepticism.

Wen Daolin's eyesight was very good, and he could already see the clothes of several people standing on the deck of the front ship.

"The officers and soldiers above are the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, it's strange, when did the Daming Navy Division have such a big ship. Lao Liu and I went down to take a look, and the others prepared firewood and grass, and if anything was wrong, they would light a beacon fire to call the police. ”

Wen Daolin seemed to have quite a prestige among the others, and after the order was given, several sergeants agreed yes.

On the bow of the leading of the three ships, Zheng Zhilong and several of his subordinates were surrounding Lu Jiude with courtesy.

Not far behind a few people, standing were Lian Shanxiang, Yu Zhigao, and Li Chenfang. If it weren't for Lu Jiude, an angel, on this ship, Yu Zhigao would not have been on Zheng Zhilong's ship at all.

The Eight Fujian Sailors were made a disgraced by Zheng Zhilong, and the people in the coastal counties and cities were devastated. Yu Zhigao hated Zheng Zhilong and other pirates.

Although Yu Zhigao's father is as famous as Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou in "Yu Long Qi Hu", Yu Dayou, as a famous anti-Japanese general, is the first soldier in every battle.

However, Yu Zhigao did not inherit Yu Dayou's courage and combat talent, and he never dared to personally go to sea to lead the troops against the enemy for the Zheng family pirate group that was brave and good at fighting.

He successively sent Du Si Hong Xianchun, guerrilla Lu Yuying, Qianhu Ma Sheng, Baihu Yang Shijue, and deputy chief soldier Chen Xifan to lead the troops, but his own chief general did not dare to go into battle, and his soldiers still had the will to fight.

After the successive failures of encircling and suppressing Zheng Zhilong's pirate group, he followed Xu Xinsu's suggestion and tried to unite with the fleet of the Dutch East India Company to encircle and suppress Zheng Zhilong's pirate group. However, this Shangshu was beaten back by the newly enthroned Emperor Chongzhen, and the emperor also ordered the Zheng Zhilong pirate group to be re-recruited.

Although Yu Zhigao was dissatisfied on the surface, he was relieved in his heart. In fact, he doesn't want to fight with Zheng Zhilong anymore, but he and Xu Xinsu are too deeply related to An Haishang, and these are already inseparable from An Haishang and Zheng Zhilong, so he has to continue to fight.