The establishment of an autonomous city in Beimingzhou finally took a step forward, and Kong Yu went to negotiate with the big merchants of Jiangdu Commercial City. However, the establishment of a model division of the army was opposed by the Ministry of War Shangshu Lu Hu and the chief of staff Wang Lufei.

Both felt that the army was already invincible and did not need any major reforms. Although the army armed with flintlock muskets must have been more effective than the current Ming army. But what is the point of such progress for an already invincible army?

And this view was also supported by most officials in the navy and cabinet, all of whom agreed that the Ming Army was strong enough and did not need any reforms.

"It's just a matter of resting on our laurels, and it seems that there is no motivation to progress without pressure......

In the apse of the Qianqing Palace in Daming Palace, Chen Dexing leaned on the soft couch, his tone was leisurely, and he was talking to himself.

The formation of the army model division was not blocked by Land Rover and Wang Lufei. Chen Dexing appointed Lieutenant General Zhang Xizai, a squire of the General Staff, as commander of the army model division, to take overall responsibility for the formation of the army model division. He also explained the principle of forming model divisions by employing conscripts with a term of service.

Unlike the previous Ming Army departments with non-commissioned soldiers and military household soldiers as the main force, the soldiers of the army model division will use mercenaries - that is, spend money to recruit soldiers, an infantry is paid 8 times a month, and 13 months a year is paid, that is, 104 times, and the service period is 5 years, which can be extended to 10 years at most. Soldiers are decoupled from the land, and they do not receive land when they serve and when they are discharged. The relationship with the army is pure mercenary!

The mercenaries who fought for money seemed to be a little backward in the 19th and 20th centuries in history. But that's for a state of citizens or a state that thinks it is a state of citizens.

For the Ming Empire, which is still semi-feudal and semi-bureaucratic, it is either a feudal soldier linked to land. Either mercenaries who take money to fight. There is absolutely no condition for compulsory military service, and the 16 countries of the Northern Ming Dynasty, where everyone will carry a gun, may have citizen compulsory soldiers. But that's for the future.

104 guan a year, plus a 20 guan (the price of Meng Ji firm) flintlock smoothbore gun. A helmet worth 20 yuan, a pair of half-body cuirasses worth 100 yuan, plus a full set of equipment with a total value of no more than 20 yuan, such as military uniforms, combat jackets, blankets, kettles, lunch boxes, etc., plus a maximum of 50 yuan of food expenses a year. It's the cost of an infantryman...... If this infantry is killed in battle, then the Ming court will have to pay a pension 6 times the annual salary, which is less than 1,000 yuan when added to the previous expenses.

Equating a soldier with 1,000 pieces of silver seems like an extremely inhumane thing. However, for the rulers of the Ming Empire, and for the senior officers of the Ming War Department and the General Staff, the lives of soldiers are actually cold numbers. There is no such hard-heartedness. You can't get to this position.

And even if a war consumes 100,000 such flintlock pikemen, it is only 100 million for the Ming court.

In the past 6 years of Heavenly Dao, the estimated revenue of the Ming Dynasty (referring to the central finance) has exceeded 300 million! The budget for expenditure was 285 million, and the fiscal surplus was 15 million.

Of course, the Ming court would not rely on this meagre fifteen million guan financial surplus to fight. The Ming Empire had such a thing as a national debt, and the empire's financial market was also very developed by the standards of the 13th century. Even one billion yuan of treasury bonds can be issued.

In terms of financial resources and population alone, once the war entered the era of hot weapons with a large number of flintlock muskets. The military superiority of the Ming Empire seems to be unshakable.

And with an unshakable advantage, is it necessary to continue to improve?

Chen Dexing was a little irritable in his heart, so he wanted to go out for a walk, but as soon as he came out. The eyes are full of red walls, green tiles and green bricks, which looks like a feudal mansion. It made him a little depressed. I thought that this world would not be slow down in the end because there was nothing to do in the world, right? Where are we now? The Army is starting to rest on its laurels, and I really don't know what will happen in the future......

Thoughts are diverging. The little manager of the Qianqing Palace, Merica (is the Aztec girl who can make chocolate, because the chocolate is delicious. Now he has been promoted) report: "Congratulations to the saint, Baoyin Niangniang has been born." It's a prince......"

"Already raw? It's so fast! ”

Bao Yin finally got her wish and had a son! The irritable thoughts in Chen Dexing's mind were suddenly washed away by this good news.

Like most harems throughout the ages, Chen Dexing's harem certainly has struggles. And Baoyin undoubtedly belongs to the side that has the advantage in the palace fight. She has always been the hardcore of Queen Li Cuixian, and she looks graceful, which happens to be the type that Chen Dexing likes, and she is also open, and she will please Chen Dexing. Now she can definitely be regarded as a favorite concubine, and her production is naturally a major event in the palace. Even Li Cuixian, who was pregnant with a child, personally sat in Baoyin's palace.

When Chen Dexing walked into the Mingyue Pavilion where Baoyin lived, Li Cuixian, whose lower abdomen was already bulging, was talking to Yang Po'er with a big fat boy. Seeing Chen Dexing, he hurriedly stepped forward and didn't salute, but just smiled and said, "Sage, Sister Baoyin gave birth to a little king for you." ”

Chen Dexing raised his eyes and looked, sure enough, he was a big fat boy, looking around with his eyes open? Looking at this little guy's thick eyebrows, big eyes and high nose bridge, he must be a beautiful man in the future. I don't know what it will be like in Beimingzhou in the future?

"Is Bao Yin good?" Chen Dexing asked with concern.

It's not easy to give birth to a doll this year, and it's life-threatening! Although Bao Yin's body is solid and skinny, who can guarantee that there will be no accidents?

"Saints? But here comes the saint? Suddenly, help me up......"

Bao Yin's voice had already come out of the inner hall, full of energy, not at all like a broken muscle.

Li Cuixian smiled, looked at Chen Dexing and said: "My sister is strong, she gave birth to the baby in less than half an hour, and there is no situation, even Wen Po said that it is easy to be born, it is too rare." ”

"That's because she's active and in good health, aren't you the same?" Chen Dexing was calm on the surface, but he was relieved in his heart.

"Let's go. Go see Bao Yin. ”

As he spoke, Chen Dexing walked quickly into Baoyin's dormitory. The inside of the dormitory is covered with a thick woolen carpet. This was brought back by Zhu Sijiu from the Western Regions, saying that it was a special product of the Western Regions in Khotan.

Khotan was still a major Buddhist country in the Western Regions during the Five Dynasties. Later, it was conquered by the Qarakhanid Dynasty of the Heavenly Sect, and it has been more than 200 years. Buddhism has completely perished and has become the world of the Heavenly Sect. At the time of the Mongol conquest, Khotan was under the rule of the Buddhist Western Liao, and because it surrendered relatively quickly, it was not slaughtered by the Mongols. However, this time it was attacked by Zhu Sijiu's Western Expeditionary Army. The city was burned, the people were plundered, and the once prosperous land was reduced to ruins. The carpet weavers in Khotan City did not die in the war, but were all captured by Zhu Sijiu and became slaves. The carpet that is now laid out in the Baoyin Palace. It was these slaves who weaved it.

In addition to the finely crafted Khotanese carpets, the windows of Baoyin's dormitory are also inlaid with carved glass from the Ming capital, the first capital of the Ming Dynasty, which now has a faint sign of becoming an industrial center, producing not only high-quality weapons and gunpowder, but also winemaking, cement, glass, shipbuilding and other industries.

Among them, the glass industry originated from the semu slaves who were captured in the Ming and Mongolian wars, and at the beginning it was not very well made, and there was not much market, and there was even a glass workshop that was not well managed, and was jointly purchased by the telescope factory founded by Qu Shuijing and the Tiandao envoy Mo Dingtian. And it is this workshop that has now grown into the largest glassware workshop in the entire Ming Dynasty. His name is Qu Mo Ji.

Installed in the Baoyin Palace, it is the best carved flat glass produced by Qu Moji, and each piece is very valuable. There is not even the Qianqing Palace where Chen Dexing lives, but Baoyin has been installed here. It can be seen how much this woman eats in the palace.

However, the most striking thing in Baoyin's dormitory is not the precious glass and soft carpet, but a golden full-body armor. The process of steel armor gilding is made of the best Nanfen soft steel. After molding, the surface is carburized and quenched. Then gilt it with gold. It is a fine product produced by the Mingdu armor line directly under Nanfen Iron Fang, and only three pairs of this style of full-body armor have been made. The other two are owned by Chan Tak Hing and Lee Tsui Sin.

However, only Baoyin was often worn on the body, and there were signs of wear and tear on the joints of the armor -- the Zhongmingzhou Governor's Mansion and the Atlantic Fleet had brought many Andalusian horses to Chen Dexing in the past two years, and they were all kept in the Guards horse farms in Jiangdu and Beijing. Before Bao Yin became pregnant, Chen Dexing often asked her to put on armor and ride a tall Andalusian horse to perform cavalry tactical maneuvers for him.

In addition to the gilded full-body armor, Baoyin's palace also has an eight-bucket horse bow, a one-stone step bow, two boxes of feather arrows, a scimitar, a large horizontal knife, and a horse lance. It's all the guys she plays with every day, and her good figure is all trained.

When Chen Dexing walked into Baoyin's dormitory, Baoyin had already gotten out of bed and got up, supported by a teenage girl in Tsing Yi who had already shown a tall figure, standing by the bed. After giving birth, I can already get out of bed and stand, this body is really not ordinarily good!

"Sage, the slave's thigh heel is sore, and I can't give you a big salute." Baoyin's face was full of joy, and he glanced at the little Dao Gu beside him, "Suddenly Bald Lun, the King of Ming that you have been thinking about for a long time is right in front of you, don't go to worship yet, I can stand by myself, I don't need your support." ”

The tall girl named Hu Ballun hummed, walked quickly to Chen Dexing, blinked a pair of big round eyes, and stared at Chen Dexing.

Chen Dexing also looked at the little Dao girl, with a round face, round eyes, the bridge of the nose is quite straight, and the skin is white and delicate. It's not pretty, but it's cute, it's just a little tall. Estimate the age, this girl is twelve or thirteen years old, but she is more than five feet tall, equivalent to more than one meter and six in later generations, and it is not the kind of slender body type, it is a model similar to Baoyin. Listening to Baoyin call her "Kubalun", she should be a Mongolian girl.

"Omnipotent, only Taiyi, the king of heaven, saves the common people. The disciple suddenly knocked on the king of the Ming Dynasty! ”

Xiao Daogu suddenly knelt down, not on one knee, but on both knees, and her mouth was catchy, and she said the prayer of the Heavenly Taoism. Listening to her tone, it was extremely pious and respectful.

"This is ......" Chen Dexing pointed at her and looked at Baoyin.

Baoyin smiled and replied: "She is the daughter of Haidu Khan, Kubalun, and the Da Ming who returned with her concubine, she was only eleven years old after the New Year, but she has already become a big girl. She is now a fourth-grade student at the Jiangdu Tiandao Palace Chuan Court Primary School, and she will be promoted to the Chuan Court Middle School next year. ”

"Oh, you're only eleven years old!" Chen Dexing thought to himself, if this girl is raised to seventeen or eighteen, she must not be one meter eight? It's a bit difficult to find your in-laws.

"Get up." Chen Dexing smiled and said to Ku Ballun, "You are Baoyin's niece, that is, my niece, seeing that the New Year is approaching, I should give you a New Year's gift, what do you want, say it yourself." ”

Xiao Daogu straightened up, but did not stand up, continued to kneel on the ground, looked at Chen Dexing fixedly, and said after a while: "Your Majesty King Ming, the disciple wants to ask you a question." ”

"Just ask."

The girl's face was happy, and there was a faint excitement in her tone: "Your Majesty King Ming, are you a demigod from the sky?" ”

Chen Dexing was stunned, this question was really unexpected.

"Am I a god, I have already said it in the "Taiyi Light Sutra", you haven't read it?" Chen Dexing said with a frown.

Of course, Chen Dexing will not say that he is an immortal in "Taiyi Guangming Sutra". On the one hand, Tiandaoism is a monotheistic religion, not a pentotheistic religion; On the other hand, it is too easy to say that he is an immortal, even if he is a demigod.

Xiao Dao Gu had a serious expression on her face, and asked rhetorically: "But the scriptures say that your soul comes from the Bright Heaven Kingdom, and you are ordered by the Taiyi God to descend to earth to lead the world. Your soul is from heaven, but your body is mortal, isn't this a demigod? ”

"I'm not a demigod!" Chen Dexing emphasized again.

"So...... Is Your Majesty an angel? Xiao Daogu didn't give up, and asked again.

Angel? The unidentified creature with wings on its back? Chen Dexing looked at Xiao Daogu helplessly and nodded: "I am ordered by the Taiyi God, and I can also be regarded as the envoy of the Taiyi God." He paused, then added, "I am the only messenger, and there will be no second one in the future." ”

"The only divine envoy ......" Xiao Daogu had a look of adoration on her face, and bowed down again, "The disciple wants to worship under the Ming King and become the personal disciple of His Majesty the Ming King, please fulfill His Majesty the Ming King." ”

Bao Yin also followed suit, and said with a smile on his face: "Sage, it's better to be a little bald man." ”

Chen Dexing looked at the concubine who had just given birth to a son, and nodded reluctantly. (To be continued......)