The siege of the Grand Canal began before the Spring Festival, and the specific responsible for this matter were the Nanjing Officials' Department, the Nanjing Household Department, the Nanjing Ministry of Industry, the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Caoyun Governor's Palace.

The division of labor among the various departments is very clear, the Ministry of Officials is mainly responsible for the deployment of government at all levels, the Ministry of Household is responsible for taking out the silver, the Ministry of Industry is responsible for specific rectification matters, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate is responsible for supervising whether there is corruption in the construction process.

Zheng Xunrui made such a big determination, beyond everyone's expectations, you must know that in the past, the imperial court was responsible for nothing more than the Ministry of Industry, plus local governments at all levels, but some people can see that Zheng Xunrui is really thinking about dredging the Grand Canal, over the years, the silting of the Grand Canal has become a well-known problem, and Caoyun has been greatly affected.

On the one hand, the transportation was stopped, and on the other hand, a large-scale management of the Grand Canal began, and a lot of strength was gathered, and two million silver was invested, and it seems that the Grand Canal was completely renovated.

However, the Grand Canal only includes the distance from Zhejiang to Shandong, that is, from Hangzhou in the south to Dezhou in Shandong in the north.

Clear-eyed people can see that most of the places in the south have benefited from the renovation of this section of the Grand Canal, including the northern part, but the northern Zhili has nothing to do with this renovation.

In terms of personnel, all the captured rogues joined them, and in addition, the method of recruiting and paying workers was adopted to ensure that there were enough personnel to work in key river sections.

There is a certain conflict between the river and spring production, and the best time should be after the autumn harvest season, and some people suggest that the Grand Canal should be renovated after the autumn harvest, but Zheng Xunrui disagrees, he thinks that he can't continue to delay time. The more you procrastinate, the more difficulties and problems you will face, and the more money you will spend.

The personnel who renovated the river were mainly prisoners of the rogue, but in some special sections of the project, in order to ensure the progress of the project, it was necessary to recruit some people to participate. This is not very much in conflict with spring ploughing production.

Zheng Xunrui is very concerned about the governance of the Grand Canal, personally inquires, and the person who is fully responsible for the renovation of the Grand Canal is not Cao Chi, the governor of Caoyun, but Zhou Yanru, the secretary of Nanjing, after all, Cao Chi's qualifications are not enough, and he does not have so much appeal.

Even Xu Wanghua and the others were a little incomprehensible, you must know that Zheng Xunrui's focus should be on the upcoming expedition. In any case, there are nearly 200,000 people under the command of Huang Degong, the general soldier of Zhejiang, which is a huge force, and not to mention the Zheng family's army's conquest of Huang Degong, the general soldier of Zhejiang, this matter needs to find sufficient reasons, otherwise it is easy to suffer from the suspicion and doubts of the outside world.

Xu Wanghua and others also saw that Zheng Xunrui's control over Zheng Jiajun was extremely strong, whether it was the six departments in Nanjing. or the governors of various places, they are not allowed to mobilize a single soldier of the Zheng family army at will. Unless authorized, the total strength of the Zheng army has reached 200,000, with 50,000 stationed in Shaanxi, 50,000 in Shandong, 10,000 in Huguang, and 5,000 in Sichuan. More than 80,000 troops are stationed in Nanzhili, and the stationing of troops is not particularly reasonable, but it is also caused by the current actual situation.

According to the strength of the Zheng family, he can already start plotting against the whole world of the Ming Dynasty.

Zheng Xunrui's intention was to first completely stabilize the south, and then plot against the north. This decision is undoubtedly correct, and now the north has become a mess, and there is no need to mix it in.

Regardless of whether Zheng Xunrui's decision is understood or not, Xu Wanghua and others must follow it.

Zhou Yanru and others devoted their main energy to the management of the Grand Canal, and Xu Wanghua and Zheng Jinhong and others devoted their main energy to the preparation of Zheng Jiajun's expedition.

Nan Zhili has caused so many actions, and the fluctuations caused are very large, especially in the measures of abolishing Nanjing Jingying and Jinyiwei, and putting all the eunuchs stationed in Nanjing under house arrest, which can be said to be a breakthrough, but such a big action did not cause the emperor and the court to act excessively, but the court issued an edict reprimanding Zheng Xunrui's practice for violating the ancestral system and not being recognized, and there were no specific measures for the rest.

This can't help but make people feel funny, is it possible that Zheng Xunrui will follow what ancestral system, people don't dare to do anything in Nanzhili, and they don't care about what ancestral system they have long had.

Zheng Xunrui's series of measures also made readers in Nanzhili and Zhejiang and other places gradually see clearly.

The place where the Ming scholars are most concentrated is Nanzhili and Zhejiang and other places, and the scholars in these places are also the most educated in the examination, and more than half of the officials in the imperial court are from Nanzhili and Zhejiang and other places, so the power of the scholars in Nanzhili is the most powerful, which is why the Donglin Party can grow rapidly in Nanzhili.

Zheng Xunrui's thunderous actions in Nanzhili have disgusted many scholars, and even secretly do right, but unfortunately Zheng Xunrui doesn't care at all, people have a way to deal with it, that is, to win over a part, hit a part hard, ignore the part that waits and sees, as a result, there are no huge fluctuations, and there is no breaking thing, the Donglin Party, which has an extraordinary influence in Nanzhili, collapsed in an instant.

The scholars of Nanzhili were obedient, they knew that they were not opponents, and blind resistance brought a tragic end.

With Zheng Xunrui's more and more actions, many scholars began to reflect, although their privileges have been deprived of a lot, especially in the payment of taxes, there is not much difference from ordinary people, but Nanzhili is getting richer and richer, the people are becoming more and more stable, and the officials at all levels are doing their best, and the style of officials has changed dramatically, and a new wind has never been seen before.

Such a new wind is the hope for the complete revitalization of the Ming Dynasty.

Scholars began to slowly lean towards Zheng Xunrui, believing that there were indeed many problems in the imperial court.

But the speed of this change is very slow, many scholars still adhere to orthodox ideas, they don't think that there is anything wrong with the emperor, they just think that there is a big problem with the adults in the court, they don't even think that Zheng Xunrui will really rebel, just trying to improve the situation of the Ming Dynasty and make the Ming Dynasty more prosperous.

Zheng Xunrui is clear about these thoughts of the readers, and the power of the Investigation Department has penetrated into all aspects, and Zheng Xunrui understands the situation of all parties.

It's early March.

The Houjin Tartars led by Abatai are still wreaking havoc in Beizhili, but their actions are different from history, that is, they have not entered the territory of Shandong, you must know that most of Shandong is already under the control of the Zheng family's army, and the governor of Shandong is Ma Zhukui, which is Zheng Xunrui's henchman, of course Abatai knows that it is powerful, and he will never enter the territory of Shandong.

Li Zicheng did not have any movement, after occupying most of Henan and Shanxi, quieted down, and the intelligence collected by the Investigation Bureau many times showed that Li Zicheng did not have any conquest and fighting, and Li Zicheng was stationed in Taiyuan Fucheng, Shanxi, and Liu Zongmin was stationed in Kaifeng Fucheng, Henan.

The key strength of the imperial army is still distributed in Beizhili, and the newly appointed cabinet deputy and Yang Sichang, the secretary of the military department, claims to have an army of more than 300,000 people, focusing on guarding the capital and resisting the invasion of the Houjin Tartars.

Nanjing Military Department.

"It seems that Lord Yang Sichang's focus is clear, that is, to protect the capital, Yongping Mansion and Xuanfu and other places, and wait for the Houjin Tartars to automatically evacuate the Guannei, and it is also said that the Houjin Tatars have no foundation in the Guan, and if they loot enough people and property, they will leave, and at that time, Yang Sichang may do something to Li Zicheng."

"It's a pity, Yang Sichang can think like this, Li Zicheng is afraid that he will think like this, the Investigation Department has carefully investigated, and has not found any action by Li Zicheng, which shows that Li Zicheng began to gather strength and wanted to take advantage of the chaos in the north to obtain enough benefits and capital."

"Another point, I think it is impossible for Yang Sichang to defeat Li Zicheng, and the imperial army no longer has such strength."

"The fiasco of the Battle of Songshan, the emperor and the imperial court lost not only the elite army and the cities of Jinzhou and Ningyuan in Liaodong, but also the hearts of the army and the people.

"The situation in Henan and Shanxi and other places can reflect such changes, there are already a lot of ordinary people who support Li Zicheng, and the people's demand is to live a stable life, even if they don't have enough food and clothing, and they don't starve to death, but unfortunately the imperial court can't do such a low demand."

"The imperial army is gradually losing support in Beizhili and other places, their behavior at some times is more brutal than the Houjin Tartars, the information obtained by the Investigation Bureau, in Baoding Mansion and Zhending Mansion and other places, the imperial army slaughtered the people, looted money, burned and looted, and did all kinds of evil, once they learned the news that the Houjin Tartars were coming, they fled far away, only hated their parents for having two legs, what is the difference between such an army and bandits."

"Lord Yang Sichang thought that he could turn the tide, he was wrong, when the Houjin Tartars evacuated Beizhili, it was the beginning of his tragic moment."

"Li Zicheng didn't sleep, people are gathering strength, once the imperial army decides to encircle and suppress, a fatal blow will come, and it is Yang Sichang and the imperial army who will bear this fatal blow." ……

Everyone looked at Zheng Xunrui, the expression on their faces was calm, of course they believed in Zheng Xunrui's judgment.

"We are still in accordance with the original deployment, the project of renovating the Grand Canal must be carried out quickly, summer is coming, all the works must be completed before the arrival of summer, otherwise the construction will not be possible after the rising water, Zheng Jiajun has been prepared, and in late March, he began to conquer Huang Degong and start the operation of completely controlling the south." (To be continued.) )