In the northwest corner of the Imperial Castle, to the west of the inner teaching ground, there is a stable, where the nobles of the palace were kept riding horses. Chifeng was a two-year-old pony with a red body and black hooves, but a long tuft of white hair on his forehead.

At the moment, it is standing comfortably in the stable, and the Ming Emperor brushes it with a brush. It didn't seem to know that its life was in the hands of the person who brushed it, and from time to time it flicked its ponytail and teased Chongzhen.

"Don't make trouble with Chifeng, you have to be well-behaved, otherwise you won't have sugar to eat in a while." Zhu Youzhen was dressed in civilian clothes, carefully avoiding the attack of the ponytail, and kept chattering to the red wind, but his hands were still carefully brushing it.

The faces of several eunuchs standing outside the Chifeng Horse Shed turned a little pale, and Wang Chengen turned his head from time to time, looking at Wu Huai who was standing aside to guide Chongzhen to brush his hair and clean his hooves.

Although Zhu Youzhen's mount in King Xin's mansion was docile, it was evaluated by Wu Huai as a horse that could only be used for driving on behalf of the car.

In Zhu Youzhen's view, it is really inevitable that he will go to the battlefield. Since you want to go to the battlefield, you naturally need a mount that can go to the battlefield.

As a veteran who survived several battles with Jiannu, Wu Huai naturally did not hesitate to give up all the experience he had gained on the battlefield.

In his opinion, there is no more reliable companion on the battlefield than a close mount. A companion may abandon you and run away, but a mount that has developed a bond with the rider will not.

Chongzhen accepted Wu Huai's suggestion with kindness, picked out this young horse Chifeng from the upper pastoral prison, and under Wu Huai's teaching, began to learn to ride horses again.

Starting from brushing the horses, feeding, cleaning hooves, and disposing of horse manure, Chongzhen accepted these tasks that were originally done by the people in the stable.

The emperor's humble learning performance made even Wu Huai a little surprised. Now, even some generals are rarely able to take care of their own life-threatening mounts. This made Wu Huai more strict and serious when teaching riding.

Judging from the emperor's serious attitude towards learning horsemanship, Wu Huai finally believed that what Chongzhen often talked about, and what he always had to say on the battlefield was not a joke. In order for the emperor to save his life when he goes to the battlefield in the future, Wu Huai dared to relax when he taught riding.

For Zhu Youzhen, learning riding from scratch and taking care of all the life of the mount is a completely novel experience.

Chifeng is a river meandering horse, with a body height of about 135 cm and a body length of nearly 1.5 meters. The horse's neck does not look as long as the Arabian horse in Su Changqing's memory, but the head is quite long, and the limbs are much thicker than the Arabian horse.

Although Chifeng is a horse, he has a very docile temperament, and he became close to Zhu Youzhen within a few days. Of course, in Zhu Youzhen's view, the sugar he brings every time is also indispensable.

Although the reserve sugar in the palace was used up because of the Lantern Festival, in order to get close to Chifeng, Zhu Youzhen asked Wu Huai to buy some for himself. Now it seems that horses are indeed creatures with a sweet tooth.

What Zhu Youzhen wants to learn today is how to put on a horse chew and put on a saddle for a horse, any creature is the same, the belly is a soft part, and it is also the best place to be protected.

When a horse is willing to let you put it in the saddle, it means that a sense of trust has been established with you. Of course, the training of most war horses does not end there, but continues to deepen the bond between them and people.

However, as the emperor's mount, Chifeng had to avoid cultivating intimate relationships with others other than Chongzhen. Therefore, the work of putting on the horse chew and putting on the saddle can only be done by Chongzhen himself.

Wu Huai even asked Chongzhen to order that until the emperor and Chifeng had developed a relationship, no one else was strictly forbidden to approach Chifeng, except for the necessary work of feeding and cleaning the stable.

Chifeng was obviously not used to having some extra burdens on his body, but under Chongzhen's reassurance, he still let Chongzhen put on the saddle for him. However, when Chongzhen continued to try to put a horse chew on it, it did not cooperate.

Just as Zhu Youzhen and Chifeng were constantly entangled, Lian Shanxiang hurried over. Zhu Youjian stopped his movements with a horse chew in his hand, he turned his head sideways and looked at Lian Shanxiang and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

Lian Shanxiang lowered his head and replied: "There is an urgent report over there in Shunyi, and Weichen thinks that His Majesty should know as soon as possible." ”

Zhu Youzhen's originally relaxed expression suddenly became cautious, he put down the horse chew in his hand, unloaded the saddle on Chifeng's body again, and handed it to the eunuch in the stable.

instructed the eunuchs around him to add some essence to Chifeng, and Zhu Youzhen wanted to leave the stable and find a place to listen to Lian Shanxiang's report.

But Zhu Youzhen only took a step and found that he couldn't walk. He turned his head to look and saw Chifeng's huge horse's mouth, gently biting his clothes, and looking at him innocently with a pair of eyes, as if he didn't want to let himself go.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Chifeng and thought about it, and seemed to understand something. He took a leather bag from his waist and poured out some sugar in the palm of his hand.

Sure enough, Chifeng immediately let go of his mouth, lowered his head and licked the white sugar in Chongzhen's palm. Looking at Chifeng's unfinished look, Zhu Youzhen patted its head and said, "Okay, today's amount has been eaten, children will get tooth decay if they eat too much sugar, you have to be restrained and know no..."

As if he understood that Chongzhen would no longer feed it candy today, Chifeng immediately sneezed, quickly reversed direction, and went back to eat its hay.

Seeing such a realistic red wind, Zhu Youzhen also had to shake his head and smile bitterly for a while, but his mood strangely became more relaxed.

After listening to Lian Shanxiang's report and the information transmitted back from Shunyi, Zhu Youzhen smiled and whispered to himself: "Isn't this the Ming Dynasty version of fighting local tyrants and dividing the fields." ”

"Your Majesty, do you have any orders?" Wang Chengen, who didn't hear what Chongzhen said clearly, hurriedly asked carefully.

"What the hell is Zhang Daojun doing in Shunyi? Ye Qi did these things, couldn't he receive any rumors? Zhu Youzhen glanced up at Wang Chengen, raised his voice and said.

Wang Chengen naturally couldn't answer, and Lian Shanxiang hurriedly relieved the siege and said: "Zhang Baishi is sitting in Shunyi County, and His Majesty has given Ye Qi the right to act cheaply, so Zhang Baishi does not dare to interfere too much with Ye Qi's actions."

And the places where Ye Qi started to act were far away from the county seat and official roads, and blocked the news. If it weren't for a few reporters from the Daming Times, I'm afraid we would have received the news a few days later. ”

Zhu Youzhen walked back and forth in the Five Dragons Pavilion, thinking about the development of the Shunyi situation. When he walked to the third turnaround, he finally stopped and asked, "What do those local big families who were captured by Ye Qi say?" Do Xu Congzhi and the local county officials have any claims on this matter? ”

Lian Shanxiang hurriedly replied: "Ye Qi arrested a total of 27 clansmen from 12 large local households, 17 of whom were killed, and Ye Qi killed 15 people by standing in a flail.

Since the Xiangxiang Rebellion in Shunyi has just subsided, there are still more than 500 soldiers stationed in Shunyi. Therefore, these gentry did not dare to resist Ye Qi's order to forcibly repossess the land by force, but they began to contact relatives and friends everywhere, dotted the joints of the court, and tried to set off a wave of criticism of Jinyiwei in the court.

According to the information received by the ministers, they first hoped to move the officials of the DPRK and China and ask them to impeach Jinyiwei who went to the countryside to disturb the people; The second is to contact the scholars who went to Beijing to take the exam, and preach the injustice of Jinyiwei to kill the people in Shunyi in the capital.

As for Xu Congzhi and Shunyi County, it is said that they met with these local gentry in succession and promised to seek justice for them. Zhang Yishi's emergency report said that Ye Qi's reckless behavior not only angered the local gentry in Shunyi, but also the gentry in the neighboring counties were greatly dissatisfied with this after hearing about what had happened, and they formed a group to oppose the imperial decree.

Now that Ye Qi has become the target of public criticism, in order to ensure that His Majesty's cultivators have a strategy for their fields and will not give up halfway, he suggested that Ye Qi should be punished slightly, and then transferred out of Shunyi first, in order to appease the hearts of the gentry. ”

Zhu Youzhen, who had been silent for a long time, finally popped out a word after a long time: "." ”

Wang Chengen, Lian Shanxiang and others in the pavilion all lowered their heads tightly, as if they hadn't heard anything.

Zhu Youzhen didn't think that Ye Qi had done anything wrong, and that he was able to carry out such a specious land reform, it should be said that he was already a very capable and thoughtful person.

Just as Hai Rui forced the big households in Jiangnan to return their land to the people, it also has the meaning of preliminary land reform.

It's just that whether it is Hai Rui or Ye Qi, if they want to rely on the power of the gentry to oppose the gentry, it is obviously impossible to succeed. Now even Zhang Daojun in the Jinyi Guard wants to transfer Ye Qi, which is enough to prove it.

After Zhu Youzhen calmed down his emotions, he asked, "So how many communes have been established in Shunyi County?" ”

Lian Shanxiang was a little surprised and asked Chongzhen, but he still replied quickly: "According to the secret report, there are now 49 communes in Shunyi. In fact, Zhang also reported that the biggest dispute between Ye Qi and the gentry is the establishment of this commune.

Most of the gentry were able to accept His Majesty's policy of having their own land for the cultivators, and withdrew some of the fields from the land. But they were all opposed to allowing a group of mud-legged people to form a commune to govern themselves, which not only undermined the law of the local clans, but also destroyed the etiquette of respect and civility in the local villages. ”

Zhu Youzhen pursed his lips and said: "Joke, don't establish a commune, own these lands in the name of the collective. Who would dare to use the fields from which these local gentry withdrew? How dare a thin mud leg take the powerful land of these places for nothing? Who is Zhang Daojun trying to fool? ”

Zhu Youzhen's rhetorical question suddenly made Lian Shanxiang speechless. He really hadn't thought about it so far-reaching, and he was worried now that these gentry instigated the scholars who took the entrance examination in Beijing to make some big things out of control.