Bright Spring

Zhang He quickly replied: "The king of Han wants too many people. For the family members of Ping'an or Shengyong, we can only choose one family. This matter can still be discussed."

Zhu Gaoxu looked back and forth on Zhang He's face several times when he heard this.He suddenly felt some kind of malice!Zhang He's main matter is definitely not counted. He raised this condition, which may be because someone in the court has gone out.Zhu Gaoxu said to the confused people: "A few days ago, a servant in charge of the princess's natal family fled to Kunming. He met the princess and reported that Guo's house was framed and sent to prison. One thing was mentioned, Guo Ming had received After passing the silver ring snake, the snake gall was used as medicine and sent to the palace to treat the convulsions of children in Zhankai. Soon after, my father died, and the silver ring snake was very poisonous. My wife Xu was afraid of being implicated. Guo Ming fled. Guo Ming did not obey, so this matter should not have anything to do with him."

Zhu Gaoxu took a breath, and then said: "From this, I speculate that the father may have collapsed from poisoning. Such an association is indeed far-fetched, so I have not been sure. But today I thought again: Father is in his prime, with a strong body, suddenly Unexplained death, poisoning seems very likely. So I decided to cheat the false emperor for a while!

During the Jianwen Dynasty, Guo Zi assisted my eldest brother in guarding Beiping, and we had very close contacts for several years.When Emperor Taizong was in power, Guo Zi must have been a partisan of the Eastern Palace, and he spoke for my elder brother many times in the court.Last year when I was in the palace, Guo Zi planned to harm me!This person participated in the entire conspiracy of the East Palace and knew many things.

If the guess is correct, my elder brother will believe it, thinking that Guo Zi has leaked the secret; in order to prevent Guo Zi from saying more, my elder brother will definitely be willing to pay a certain price.If my guess is wrong, then we will send someone to continue the discussion with the imperial court.

We are not afraid of procrastinating, the biggest secret of the Han Palace is that it once hid the generals.Now everyone in the world knows, what can Qian Xun confess? "

Mr. Li nodded and said: "So that's the case! The prince sees the little knowledge, and the officials admire it."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "There is someone in the imperial court who wants to separate our brothers! It's not rude to come here, but I won't beat him up?"

Sheng Yong said: "My lord, can't Mu Sheng from Sichuan let Guo Zi confess first?"

Zhu Gaoxu frowned and said: "It's very difficult, unless torture is used to extract a confession. I have also weighed it. Guo Zi is very prestigious in the scholarly forest. If he is tortured to death, I am afraid that those landlords and scholars will be afraid of me, which will not be good for me. Occupy territory. What's more, the fact that Guo Zi's testimony is coerced | cannot win the trust of the world. It's just that the two sides find someone to write articles and scold each other. In the end, we have to see the truth on the battlefield!"

4Chapter 17 Mountain Gun

Several people in the study room in the front hall left, but Zhu Gaoxu called Mr. Li, pointed to the official documents and performances piled up on the case and reported: "From now on, let the Changshi Mansion take a look at these things first, pick out the important ones, mark them out and sort them out. , and then sent here."

Mr. Li made a bow and said, "Follow the king's order."

In the past, it was very easy for Zhu Gaoxu to be a prince. He could do nothing and it would not affect the operation of anything.But it's different now. The King's Mansion of Han actually controls three provinces and is at war again. There are so many official documents that Zhu Gaoxu can't read them at all.

This is probably why, those emperors had to decentralize power to bureaucrats, right?Of course, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was an exception. It is said that when he was 70 or [-] years old, he personally read every memorial every day.

Mr. Li pondered for a moment, and then asked: "The next step of the army, does the prince have a plan?"

Zhu Gaoxu's eyes flicked to a map on the desktop, looked at the area of ​​Huguang, and said, "Let me think about it again, and you can tell me what you think."

After hearing this, Mr. Li bowed his hands and walked out of the study.

At this moment, Zhu Gaoxu opened a dossier presented by Xu Tao. When he saw it, it was filled with petty characters.Fortunately, the dossier is written in square lowercase, which is easy to read.Zhu Gaoxu flipped through a few pages first, and found that there were some confessions written in it, records about the assassin case of the Shu Palace.He took a deep breath and read page after page.

After all, Mu Sheng sent people all the way from Chengdu to Yunnan, and this file is probably something more important.The more Zhu Gaoxu looked down, the more interesting he felt.Interrogating the confessions of various people pointed the messenger behind the scenes to the King of Shu!

This result is very strange.

It makes sense, that is, in the city of Chengdu, the King of Shu is the most capable person who can successfully send assassins to the banquet of the King of Shu's mansion, and make the assassins commit suicide when they fail.There is also something inappropriate. If the King of Shu really wanted to assassinate Zhu Gaoxu, he could poison the food, or even let the assassin pretend to be a servant who delivered the food, which would make it easier to succeed.

Based on this dossier, Zhu Gaoxu had to infer that the assassin belonged to the king of Shu, but the king of Shu didn't want to assassinate anyone.

Such contradictory inference results made Zhu Gaoxu feel that the assassination incident was just a drama!The assassin acted as an actor, which is quite appropriate.It's a pity that just to perform a play for the powerful, you have to pay the price of your life. The actor is really pitiful.

Who is the show for?Although Zhu Gaoxu and Mu Sheng were both in front of the stage at the time, the show was not for them... The audience was Zhu Gaochi who was far away in the capital.

If the King of Han's rebellion fails in the future, this play will be the time to see the light of day again.The king of Shu may jump out and prove his innocence to the court: this king not only guarded Chengdu, but also wanted to assassinate the king of Han after the defeat of the city, so as to prevent the world from being ruined!

If the King of Han's army had succeeded, there would be no audience for the behind-the-scenes performance of the play.

Zhu Gaoxu was still sitting on the chair, staring at the file in front of him, unable to say a word for a long time.His mood is a bit complicated.

After figuring out the relationship, Zhu Gaoxu was a little angry at first, but also a little helpless: because he didn't dare to touch the king of Shu, otherwise he would make enemies for himself and make other vassals feel a sense of crisis.

But gradually, Zhu Gaoxu finally came to his senses, and began to understand the King of Shu a little bit...

Assuming that the king of Shu is a person who owns five ways: "Ask the treasury of the king's mansion to allocate two hundred guan, reward it to Mao Kaishan, and promote Mao Kaishan to become a hundred households of the Military Academy. And record the patent right of this firing mechanism, and use it to' Named Kaishan Gun', in the future, every time anyone makes a Kaishan Gun and uses the technology of this mechanism, he will have to pay Mao Kaishan one penny; it will stop after 15 years."

He pointed to the official in charge of the matter and said: "You have meritorious service, and you will be rewarded with a hundred guan."

Mao Kaishan was taken aback, and stood there in a daze, as if he couldn't believe that wealth came from heaven.After a while, he hurriedly knelt down on the ground and said loudly: "My villain, thank you King of Han for your kindness!"

Zhu Gaoxu pointed to the eunuch next to him and said, "His name is Wang Gui. You can tell Wang Gui if you have anything to do in the future, and walk around in the palace."

It is useless to say more, the key is to give tangible benefits.Zhu Gaoxu ignored Mao Kaishan, and ordered: "Fill the ammunition and try it out, try it again and again, and record the number of uses; if something is broken, continue to improve it. Then put it into the workshop for mass production."

"The next officer waits for orders."

The two sergeants picked up the "mountain blunderbuss" and began to load the gun|powder lead bullets, the method was not much different from the copper fire blunderbuss.The only difference is that the copper fire blunderbuss needs to put the fuse, while the kaishan blunderbuss is poured with gunpowder in the priming pot.

After a while, Zhu Gaoxu saw two puffs of white smoke rise, and there were two loud "bang bang", the firecracker was fired successfully!

Chapter 448 I'm Not Here

Zhu Gaoxu seems to have returned to the days when he was just entrusted to Yunnan Mansion: when the weather is good, he will go out for a walk, and then return to the palace. Most of his life is like this.But it seems very different, probably because of a different mood.

Back then, he couldn't control many things, depending on the attitude of his father and the court, but there were not so many troubles.Now it's just the opposite.

Zhu Gaoxu left the school grounds and returned to the study in the front hall. He is used to working here, and many things are placed in a convenient place.

Walking in through the carved wooden door, there is a mahogany rectangular desk in the middle, and a chair covered with a futon behind it.There are some round stools of different heights and a round table in front of the desk.

On the east side, there is a row of wooden windows hung with light gray gauze curtains, facing the courtyard of the gallery over there, and you can see the flowers, plants and trees planted in the small yard.There is also a door in the west, and there is a windowless storage room inside.

In addition, there are several large bookshelves against the wall, on which are various books, files, and antique porcelain.However, Zhu Gaoxu didn't read most of the books on it, and only read the books on it when he had nothing to do.Almost a decoration.

In the afternoon, Mr. Li came in with a stack of official documents, and he piled them on the desk.Zhu Gaoxu made a signal gesture with his head, and Mr. Li cupped his fists and bowed, then sat down on the stool in front of the desk.

Mr. Li, who was wearing an iron mask, looked a little weird.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at him, and then said: "I went to see the firecracker 'Kaishangun' reported by Nansi in the morning. The lethality of the Kaishangun is no different from that of the military bronze firecracker, but thanks to the fact that both hands can hold the gun Aiming and accuracy should be improved. Over time, let the bureaus manufacture more mountain guns, and after the firearms soldiers are familiar with using them, it will definitely be of great benefit to the chances of winning the next battle."

Mr. Li wore a mask, and other than his eyes and other expressions could not be seen. He mused, "I estimate that the number of the King of Han's army exceeds 30. When marching and fighting, sergeants are paid a fixed amount of property every month. The current situation is tense, and the soldiers cannot be allowed to farm the fields; we need a maximum of 30 guan every month to pay the army!

Based on the income of the treasuries of the three southwestern provinces, the gap between income and expenditure is huge, and it may not be sustainable for a long time.It was originally expected to last for a year or two, but now it is definitely not going to work. "

Zhu Gaoxu asked: "How long can it last?"

Mr. Li said: "The Changshi Mansion will not be able to calculate the results until the reports from the Sichuan Chief Envoy and the Guizhou Capital are gathered. But as long as we estimate, I think it can last for a few months at most. In less than half a year, we will definitely not even have a penny." The military pay will not come out!"

Zhu Gaoxu fell silent.He can't blame Mr. Li, Mr. Li reminded him at the beginning.At that time, Mr. Li proposed a solution: when the situation cannot be sustained, the only option is to turn your face and refuse to admit it.

But now the war is far from over, and Zhu Gaoxu has not grasped the advantage on the battlefield. He dare not do that, fearing that it will shake the morale of the army.

The military salary decree undoubtedly played a big role when the army was first raised.The decree is very simple and effective, the combat effectiveness and loyalty of the King of Han army have greatly increased, and it is quite easy to reorganize and surrender troops; many soldiers and Han are illiterate, but they know whether it is beneficial or not.At that time, the King of Han's army was weak and the chances of winning were very small. Zhu Gaoxu didn't care about the long-term, so he had to do everything possible to avoid immediate collapse.

This method is undoubtedly drinking poison to quench thirst.Just in response to an old saying: If there is no long-term concern, there must be near-term worries.

One year's military salary requires three things: "I have one thing, I want to ask Qianrui to do it for me."

Du Qianrui turned around, pursed her lips and smiled, "Your Majesty, tell me."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "Didn't King Ning make up a play for Qianrui? You find time to transcribe a script by yourself, and write a few words of thanks to King Ning. I'll find someone to send it to Jiangxi as a gift."

Du Qianrui thought for a while, as if wondering how many words there were in the playbook, she said: "The morning after tomorrow, my concubine will ask my servant to send it to the study in the front hall."