Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 673 Extra Story (21) Turmoil
"Beep-"

"Bang bang bang!"

On May 41th in the [-]st year of the Apocalypse, accompanied by the sound of whistles and gunshots on the banks of the Qishui River, the Qi State Metropolitan Procuratorate conducted a three-month Beijing inspection under the order of Qi Wang Zhu Youjian, which was called "Xin Chou Jingcha" in history. .

This time, the Jingcha is the most stringent in the history of the Qi State. Among them, no less than 7000 officials were arrested and killed for accepting bribes and corrupting the state treasury, accounting for one-twentieth of the total number of Qi State officials. .

In other words, almost one out of every twenty Qi officials was sent to the Qishui River for execution.

In addition, the number of officials who were dismissed due to poor supervision reached one-tenth of the total number of officials in Qi, totaling more than [-].

One-fifth of the officials were demoted, a total of more than [-] people.

In this Beijing inspection, no less than 20 family members were implicated in the three capitals, down to the villages, and from temples to Wangdian.

For them, Dali Temple in Qi State tried labor reform for 20 years according to law.

As of August 28, the "Xin Chou Jingcha" was over, and more than 570 million taels of illegal income were seized, and more than 630 million mu of hidden land...

It needs to be known that the Qi State at this moment has only been 12 years since the founding of the country in the 29th year of Tianqi.

In just 29 years, less than 1% of Qi's total population, corrupt officials, concealed one-twentieth of the country's total land from Qi through the means of mutual protection by officials.

If they indulge them for another few decades, I'm afraid they will be able to conceal most of the means of production in Qi and turn them into personal property.

At that time, the new king of Qi may feel suspicious of the tax reduction year by year.

After this battle, Qi State investigated more than [-] mu of cultivated land that had been concealed by corrupt officials, which also represented an increase of Qi State's agricultural tax by one-twentieth.

The entire "Xin Chou Jingcha" process was personally experienced by Zhu Cihong and others, and even participated in part of the investigation.

It is worth mentioning that Zhu Heyin, the grandson of the emperor who did not participate in the political power in Daming, also participated in it and gained valuable experience.

It was not until the sixth day of September that Zhu Heyin left Xijing City by boat and embarked on the road back to Beijing.

In the past time, Qi State was busy with its internal affairs, but the countries of the world were fighting for local hegemony all over the world.

In February, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV in the northern part of the Kunlun Prefecture assembled troops for Egypt.

As of May 6, the Ottomans had assembled another [-] people in Egypt, and on May [-] launched a surprise attack on the Spanish troops stationed in Benghazi town.

The [-] Spanish standing troops stationed in Benghazi Town were wiped out, [-] residents of Benghazi were massacred, and [-] Ottoman troops marched westward. This is known as the Benghazi Massacre in history.

After the "Benghazi Massacre" broke out, the news was sent back to Spain on May 25.

Regarding Ottoman's practice of provoking war again, Spain quickly made adjustments. King Felipe IV stated firmly at the meeting: "Spain cannot give up North Africa!"

As soon as these words came out, the [-] Spanish standing army stationed in Gibraltar was ready to march towards Tunisia on July [-].

On July [-]th, the Ottoman army surrounded the city of Tunis, and [-] Spanish troops in the city stood by for help.

On the sixth day of August, 1 Spanish troops arrived in the town of Annaba in the west of Tunisia. The Ottoman army learned the news and left [-] troops to besiege the city, while [-] troops went straight to Annaba.

In the early morning of the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, the sentry cavalry of the two armies came into contact near a village, and immediately launched a battle.

The battle broke out at noon, with [-] Spanish troops equipped with big Ming fuzzlocks attacking in line tactics, and [-] six-pound guns in the rear continued to shell.

Such equipment frustrated the morale of the Ottoman army at the beginning of the fight, and the army withdrew to Tunisia after leaving more than 800 corpses.

It is worth mentioning that because the feudal vassals in the East and West Kunlun were squeezed inland, a large number of indigenous people migrated to the north.

These aborigines flooded into the Egyptian region, stole and robbed locally, which caused the internal instability of Egypt and affected the taxation of Ottoman's southern city-states in Egypt.

Muhammad IV, who heard the news, had no choice but to lead the army back to Benghazi Town, and mobilized the army to help the southern city-states suppress the aborigines.

When the [-] pioneers returned to Egypt first, they learned of the fall of Aswan in the south.

According to reports from merchants who escaped from Aswan, after the fall of Aswan, the aborigines plundered the rich, robbed food, massacred civilians, and raped women.

Upon hearing the news, the Ottoman general Shaka led an army of 27 non-stop down the Nile River and arrived near Aswan on August [-].

When he arrived in Aswan, the population of Aswan had been slaughtered, and the city, which paid a large amount of taxes to the Ottoman Empire every year, was turned into ruins.

Sharjah sent the news back to Cairo, and Mohammed IV, who had just led the army back to Cairo, heard the news and immediately led the army south to suppress the rebellion.

On September [-]th, Muhammad IV created the "Red River Valley Incident" near the Red River Valley in the south of Aswan.

In this incident, the aborigines who participated or not participated in the "Aswan Incident" were massacred.

Corpses filled the Red River Valley, and one after another was washed by the Nile to the Mediterranean, causing several blockages during the process.

Not only that, after Muhammad IV led the army to counter the rebellion and retreat, a large-scale plague broke out near Aswan.

The plague caused the aborigines who continued to flee north to die of illness. According to the dictation of some businessmen, no less than one million aborigines died in this plague.

In addition, the region suffered from food shortages for several years afterward, as wars and plagues devastated local agriculture.

Not only the local Beys in Egypt were unable to send troops and relocate the population to restore local agriculture, even the Ottomans were unable to restore it.

Therefore, after arriving in the Aswan area, a large number of South Kunlun aborigines who migrated to the north died of starvation or plague.

At the same time, Tang Wang Zhu Yujian also issued an appeal, advocating that the Kunlun vassals once again send troops to Kunlun, and this move accelerated the speed of the northward migration of the aborigines.

The war between Spain and the Ottomans continued, but at the same time the countries of Western Europe did not stop.

In February, French Prime Minister Mazarin died of illness. Before his death, he closely watched King Louis XIV take power in person, and Louis XIV deeply believed it.

On the ninth day of February, Louis XIV announced that he would no longer appoint a new prime minister.

On the tenth day of February, the 24-year-old young king announced his pro-government, and in less than three days, he used the charge of accepting bribes to dismiss Nicolas Fouquet, a minister who considered himself the heir of Mazarin.

Because Richelieu obtained a lot of political capital for France from Ming, when Louis XIV announced his pro-government, France was already a highly centralized country.

In just five months, Louis XIV dismissed a group of old-fashioned nobles who did not obey his orders, and ordered the construction of Versailles.

On July [-]th, Louis XIV learned from Ming Dynasty again, built the University of Paris in Paris, conducted special research and improvement on firearms, and attempted to manufacture Ming Dynasty's rapid-fire guns (rifles).

On August [-]th, at the instigation of the old-fashioned aristocracy, an armed uprising broke out in Paris.

In just one night, the insurgents built more than a thousand barricades using houses and old-fashioned matchlock guns.

Although these street forts were quickly suppressed by the French army in the next ten days, an uprising against Louis XIV broke out in most areas outside Paris at the same time.

Faced with the rebellion of the old-style nobles, Louis XIV did not give in, but reused generals and used the army to collapse the rebellions one by one.

Like him, there is Charles II of England.

As the new monarch, Charles II launched a northern expedition against the parliamentary army in May.

Since both Qi and Ming were focusing their energy on cleaning up the interior, Charles II took down the last castle of the parliamentary army on the fifth day of September.

At this point, the 29-year British Civil War finally came to an end.

This great struggle between the new bourgeois nobility and the feudal autocratic monarchy finally came to an end through war.

The power of the bourgeoisie suffered a heavy blow, and the autocratic monarchy was not only not overthrown, but even more consolidated.

However, according to the memorandum of Zhang Kaiming, the owner of the Daming London Imperial Store, the 28-year British Civil War caused the British population to drop by more than one-fifth, nearly one million mu of land was abandoned, and the national fiscal revenue dropped by [-]%.

Zhang Kaiming said in the memorial: "The next thing the new king of Anelia needs to face is how to restore the domestic situation to the state before the war. This process may take at least ten years."

At the same time, Sweden in the north is also very busy.

On July [-], the Netherlands and Poland declared war on Sweden.

So far, Sweden is almost surrounded by enemies, and it needs to face the pressure of Tsarist Russia, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Poland at the same time.

Under such circumstances, King Alvin followed his sister Christina's suggestion and negotiated with Li Ji, the head of Daming's Royal Store in Stockholm, hoping that Daming would send troops to Tsarist Russia.

The news was sent to Taixi Province by pigeons from the Stockholm Huangdian. After hearing the news, Sun Bingwen, the chief minister of Taixi, quickly sent a fast horse to send the news to Hezhong, and then sent it back to Daming by the Hezhong Prefecture train.

On the twelfth day of the winter moon, when Zhu Heyin returned to the capital, he just got this news.

It's just that when he heard the news, Daming had already agreed to Alvin's proposal.

However, Zhu Heyin was fortunate that his royal grandfather and father did not allow Ming soldiers to directly interfere in the Northern War.

The reason is very simple. On May [-]th, the Mongolian Shunning King Borjijin Lindan Batur passed away, and his son Ezhe succeeded to the throne and became the Shunning King.

Er Zhe once came to Daming, he took the train, and saw the power of Daming's rifles, grenades, and artillery.

In addition, Abu Nai, the second son of Lin Dan Khan, has been studying in Daming since the 30th year of Tianqi, so as long as he dares to rebel against Daming, Daming can use Abu Nai as an excuse to attack Mongolia immediately.

Therefore, E Zhe was very obedient to Daming, and never rejected the imperial stores and official schools arranged by Daming to enter Mongolia.

He may know that the Mongols will be assimilated by the Han if this continues, but he has no choice.

The only thing in front of him is to be obediently boiled by a frog, or to be exterminated by a thunderbolt from the Ming army.

The former still has a chance, but the latter has no chance at all.

From Zhu Heyin's point of view, E Zhe was obviously the latter. He knew in his heart that the Mongols would be assimilated by Daming, but facing Daming, he had no choice.

However, this does not mean that he and Mongolia can only wait to die.

On the contrary, after stabilizing the nobles in Mongolia, E Zhe saw the opportunity of the northern war and asked Ming Dynasty to send troops to Poland.

Normally, Daming would reject this request, but Ezhe heard the news of Ming's internal controversy about sending troops to Tsarist Russia.

Therefore, it seemed that he wanted to test the combat power of the Eastern European armies by himself, so that Daming could better understand the current situation of the Eastern European armies, E Zhe decisively chose to send troops to Shangshu.

Daming had considered this request for a long time.

Although Poland did not pose any threat to Ming's interests, in the situation where Ming was in urgent need of exporting products, Poland's original sin was the market with a population of more than 500 million.

If Mongolia can occupy Poland, the increased population of Mongolia will create market demand for Ming commodities.

The temple discussed this matter for a long time, and it was not until Taixi Province sent a request from Sweden that Zhu Youxiao made up his mind to intervene in the Northern War.

Sweden's opening represents that Sweden is now facing the siege of the four countries and is unable to support itself.

In this situation, if Sweden loses the war, then Tsarist Russia will benefit, and if Tsarist Russia benefits, there will inevitably be troubles on the border of Ming Dynasty.

However, Ming cannot allow Sweden to win, because that will make Northern Europe a powerful country, which is not in the interests of Ming.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Zhu Youxiao resolutely approved the alliance between Mongolia and Sweden to intervene in the Northern War.

Although Mongolia currently has a population of less than 200 million, its financial revenue is not bad because its main economy is grazing for Ming to trade livestock.

Since the 35th year of the Apocalypse, its country has maintained a standing army of 8 people, all equipped with Ming Dynasty rifles (flintlocks) and Yanshan five-jin guns.

At present, although the number of countries participating in the Northern War has reached five, in fact, the total standing army of each country is only 20.

At this time, once Mongolia, which has [-] soldiers, joins the war, its impact is self-evident.

In the winter month, when Emperor Zhu Youxiao’s imperial decree arrived at Harahelin (Donetsk), the capital of Mongolia, King Ezhe of Shunning knelt down to receive the decree, and sent his envoy to Sweden the next day. The whole army prepares for war.

On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Mongolian envoy Sachutu arrived in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

After five days of negotiations, under the witness of Li Ji, the owner of the Stockholm Royal Store in Daming, the two countries signed the "Ruimeng Treaty of Equality and Mutual Assistance".

In addition to some economic exchanges, the rest of the treaty is about how to cooperate in the military and how to target the other four countries.

Among them, Sweden and Mongolia made specific terms on how to carve up Poland.

According to the terms, Sweden occupies a vast coastal area, accounting for about one-third of Poland's territory and one-half of its population.

Mongolia occupies all the areas south of Sweden's specified area, accounting for about two-thirds of Poland's territory and one-third of its population.

On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Sachutu returned to Mongolia, and King Alvin of Sweden led [-] remaining troops to Gdansk in northern Poland.

Such news naturally cannot be hidden from the four countries, and the respective kings and parliaments of the four countries probably guessed the discussion between Sweden and Mongolia.

Tsarist Russia in northern Mongolia was the first to respond. Alexei I ordered the [-] shooting corps left behind in Moscow to go to Voronezh in northern Mongolia for defense.

At the same time, the Polish King Kazimierz also ordered his generals to lead [-] cavalry to Kiev in the east to prepare for the Eastern Front.

Denmark has switched from offense to defense, while the Netherlands is still selling supplies to earn currency.

In the tense situation of the various countries, time passed little by little, and the 42nd year of the apocalypse followed.

On the fifth day of February, King Ezhe of Shunning led [-] Mongolian cavalry across the Dnieper River and raided the Zaporozhye region. Mongolia declared war on Poland...

In early March, the Zaporozhye region fell, and Ezhe led his army to besiege Kiev. At the same time, he sent envoys to Tsarist Russia, saying that the peace treaty between the former Shunning King Lindan Khan and Tsarist Russia was still valid.

On the second day of April, Emperor Zhu Youxiao ordered the emperor's grandson Zhu Heyin to patrol the sky and organize a fleet to sail to the West.

On the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, Hong Chengchou, the chief assistant of the cabinet, said that Tianjin would be the starting point and end point of the voyage.

This voyage was escorted by twelve Class C cruisers with a tonnage of 200 tons, and a Class B cruiser with a tonnage of 2 tons was the main ship, accompanied by [-] sailors, [-] commercial ships, and [-] civilian husbands. .

On the way, you will visit five foreign domains including North Korea, Sulu, Boni, Gan Bozhi, and Siam.

And 27 vassal states including Zhou State, Shu State, Fu State, South Korea, Zhao State, Chu State, Jin State, Dai State, and Qin State.

In addition, the vassal kings and county kings of Xiaoxiyang, Kunlunzhou and other places need to go to the capitals of neighboring coastal vassal states to accept Zhu Heyin's summons.

In short, except for Qi, which Zhu Heyin has already toured, most of the vassal states need to meet Zhu Heyin during this voyage.

Although Zhu Heyin is their nephew, this is the power Zhu Youxiao gave him.

After the news spread, it seemed that he didn't want to be humiliated by the great-grandchildren of Zhu Changluo, who he didn't like.

This news was sent back to the capital by Xiaoxiyang Supervisor. When the news reached the palace, Zhu Youjiao was studying how to build the "Tiange" in Harawen Mountain.

Knowing that Zhu Changxun passed away, even though the other party had humiliated him, Zhu Youxiao still gave Zhu Changxun a better posthumous title.

On the second day of May, the Ministry of Rites sent people to arrive at Ganges City by train, and then took a boat to Luoyi, the capital of King Fu.

After proposals from hundreds of officials, the emperor finalized that the old Fu Wang Zhu Changxun was posthumously named "Fu Ding Wang", and the 54-year-old Fu Wang Shizi Zhu Yousong was the Fu King.

On the fifth day of June, Emperor Taisun Zhu Heyin boarded a ship in Tianjin Port, marking the beginning of the fourth voyage to the West during the Ming Dynasty...

"Woooo-"

"gone……"

Looking at the fleet sailing out of the port, Zhu Ciran standing by the pier was a little dazed.

He didn't meet Zhu Heyin, and it may take a year for Zhu Heyin to come back.

Although Zhu Ciran dislikes Zhu Heyin's character, he is a father after all.

Watching the fleet gradually disappear on the sea level, Zhu Ciran turned and walked towards the carriage by the pier.

He calmly got into the carriage, but when the carriage was about to return to the Forbidden City, he still couldn't help but opened the curtains, looked at the direction where the fleet had disappeared and sighed.

After the carriage started, he slowly withdrew his gaze, and then put his gaze on the table inside the carriage.

At this moment, there is a memorial there, with the four characters "Disarmament Proceedings" written on it.

Zhu Ciran opened it, stared at the contents in it for a long time without saying a word, and then slowly opened his mouth after a while, murmuring as if talking to himself:
"It's been too long, it's time to relax..."

(End of this chapter)