Compared with the frozen Peiping, which is thousands of miles away, the winter in Yingtianfu in the south is very graceful and complicated.
It is said to be graceful because it is unpleasantly cold, like a shy and half-hidden woman, which makes people anxious.
It's complicated because it's just cold, not cold and not biting. But the wind is always there and there like a shadow.
Zhu Di followed Deng Ping and walked through the Forbidden City, which was both unfamiliar and familiar. Passing through the Imperial Garden was the Lezhizhai where Zhu Yunxi received his ministers and handled government affairs.
For a moment, Zhu Di was in a trance while standing outside.
Before letting go, everything here made him very resistant. But now, he can only face it calmly.
At this moment, Wang Bashi, the eunuch who was the foreman next to the emperor, came out and said with a low smile, "King Yan is a thousand years old. Your Majesty allows you to go in directly."
Zhu Di nodded as a response, and then walked in from the outside with big steps.
He originally thought that this would be a very formal meeting between the emperor and his ministers, but the scene in front of him made him speechless.
On the first floor of Lezhizhai, there was a small iron stove near the back window. The emperor, wearing a dragon robe, squatted in front of the stove, filling it with coal while watching the fire inside.
The chimney of the iron stove stretched out of the window, gurgling black smoke. The emperor's cheeks could not help but get some black marks.
Zhu Di suddenly became angry and thought to himself, "You are the emperor, why do you...?"
Just as he was thinking about it, Zhu Yunxi stood up, put a few things on the iron stove and said with a smile, "Here you come?"
The emperor's tone was very relaxed and casual, as if he was greeting a familiar person without any dignity of the king.
But Zhu Di immediately saluted respectfully, "Your Majesty, Zhu Di, come to the emperor!" As the words fell, Zhu Di knelt on the ground, and his head without the golden crown was knocked on the gold brick that could reflect the human figure.
Zhu Yunxi still smiled faintly. He didn't say until the other person's forehead touched the ground, "Get up!" As he said that, he turned over the things on the stove and hissed cold air from his mouth.
There is an alluring sweet aroma in the air, like the smell of sitting around the stove waiting for meals when I was a kid.
Zhu Di took a few steps forward and asked, "Your Majesty, what are you doing?"
"I suddenly want to eat roasted potatoes today!" Zhu Yunxi picked up one with a burnt skin, kept blowing air conditioning on his hands, and then peeled it with a grin on his face, "Have you ever eaten roasted potatoes?"
The sweetness in the air is getting stronger!
"I have eaten steamed ones." Zhu Di twitched his nose. After the old man planted so many sweet potatoes and had a good harvest, except for the ones reserved for grain seeds. With the old man's protective temperament, of course he would leave some for his sons.
Have a taste.
They were quickly sent to various places so that his sons could have a taste of it and at the same time enjoy the blessing and joy of being a father.
Zhu Di got angry when he mentioned this. He was rewarded with dozens of kilograms, and after only one meal, the crown prince Zhu Gaochi cooked it all in private. He even remembered the taste.
"Hiss!" Zhu Yunxi waved his hands and suddenly broke a roasted potato into two halves and sent half to Zhu Di.
"Take it! It's hot to the touch, hurry up!" Seeing that the other party was stunned, Zhu Yunxi said repeatedly.
The latter reacted and quickly took it in his hand.
"Wow! It smells good!" Zhu Yunxi held half a piece of sweet potato and sat casually on the window sill, "Eat it!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zhu Di opened his mouth and felt a sweetness and softness that he had never experienced before filled his mouth.
This feeling...
This feeling is not new, just like when they were children, the brothers squatted by the stove, waiting to eat the taro cooked by their mother.
Suddenly, Zhu Di didn't know what happened, and felt his nose was a little sore.
"After returning to Beijing for so many years, I never thought of visiting my mother's mausoleum."
Zhu Yunxi still sat on the window sill without any imperial image, one foot kept dangling, half a piece of sweet potato in his hand disappeared after three bites, and he casually wiped his hands on his dragon robe.
"Is King Yan busy with military affairs?"
Upon hearing this, Zhu Di knew that this was the beginning of a formal interrogation between the emperor and his ministers. The emperor was asking about the military affairs of King Yan, but he was actually asking about the military affairs of Peiping and Liaodong.
"Thanks to the emperor, the Tatars have not dared to invade in the past two years..."
"When did King Yan learn this trick?" Zhu Yunxi said with a smile, "The stability of the border is due to the generals leading the troops well, and the soldiers are not afraid of death and fight bloody battles. What does it have to do with me, the emperor in the palace?"
As he said that, he put his hands into his sleeves in an indistinct manner and said with a smile, "There has been a bad habit throughout the ages, that is, everything that is good is the emperor's credit, and all the achievements in the world are the emperor's credit. What about the bad things?
It’s all done by those traitorous ministers, nonsense!”
Speaking of this, Zhu Yunxi looked at Zhu Di with some solemnity, "The Ming Dynasty is my Ming Dynasty, and it is also your Ming Dynasty. It is also the Ming Dynasty where your officers and soldiers rule the people. In my heart, one of the things King Yan is saying is to speak quickly.
There is no need to say anything like this in the future if you ask me for my blessing!"
"I obey the decree!" Zhu Di didn't want to reply like this at first, it was too damn tiring.
It was the wife of the family who warned me many times that today is different from the past, and we must be more respectful and courteous.
However, what the Emperor said just now, the world is also your Ming Dynasty, is so good and makes my heart so warm.
"Since the border is stable, why have I seen two capitals in Peking and Liaodong in the past two years? Oh, and the military expenditures in Daning are not less but more?" Zhu Yunxi continued to ask, "In the autumn,
I also ask the Ministry of War to allocate 300,000 pieces of cotton cloth. Where will they be used?"
"Back to the emperor, it's the cost of building the city and storing grain, grass, etc.!" Zhu Di said in detail, "Although the Tatars are stable now, it does not mean that they will always be stable. We are building the city, outposts, and beacon towers step by step...
"
As he said this, he could no longer say anything, "Actually, I feel that this method is of little use."
This strategy of encroaching step by step was originally planned by the old man. He always wanted to build the guard station deep into the border. In this way, not only would he be able to give an early warning when the enemy came, but also when the army went out to compete, there would be one person each.
It can be used as a fortress or as a transfer station for material transfer.
"It's a bit of a waste of money and people, right?" Zhu Yunxi said with a smile.
On this point of view, their uncle and nephew somewhat coincided with each other.
Zhu Di smiled and said, "When the Tatars come, they come in a surprise attack. Either they don't give the cities a chance to give early warning, or when our army gathers after the early warning, the Tatars have already fled."
"The Tatars are as high as the Tatars. Over the years, the Tatars have also figured out our tactics, and they are no longer so deadly when fighting!"
Zhu Yunxi changed his posture and leaned against the window with his arms folded.
"What do you think?"
Zhu Di pondered for a moment and said, "In war, you use your own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses, taking them by surprise and attacking them unprepared. There are many men on horseback from Yan and Zhao in our Ming Dynasty, and they are extremely brave."
"I think that instead of spending a lot of money to build a city, it is better to train elite cavalry and take turns to attack the fortress and fight out, so that the enemy can be kept out of the country."
"And if our army sends cavalry out of the fortress, the Tatars will not be able to figure out where we are sending troops from. In places such as Liaodong, Daning, and Shanxi, cavalry arrives at dawn and at night, which is much faster and more elusive than massed infantry."
Zhu Yunxi said nothing and listened to Zhu Di's talk.
He used military expenditure as an introduction. In fact, both his uncle and nephew knew that Zhu Yunxi was not talking about military expenditure at all, but the strategic oppression of the Hu people in the north.
The Ming Empire had too many soldiers and horses on the long northern border. After the illustrious military front, it became increasingly bloated and procrastinated, even raising too many idle people and wasting too many resources.
If this continues, it will become even more difficult to manage in the future if it becomes a routine.
Just like the Ming Dynasty in later generations, among the nine sides, there were not many who could fight, but when it came to money, each one was more fierce than the other.
"I understand what you mean, that is to say, there is no need to keep so many useless soldiers in the north. The most important thing is the quality, not the number. The main thing is to attack, and the defense is the supplement." Zhu Yunxi concluded.
"Yes!" As he said that, Zhu Di suddenly felt something was wrong and thought in his mind, "I didn't mean not to have so many soldiers?"
I heard Zhu Yunxi continue to say, "I understand what King Yan means. The more troops the better. The front line is mainly the fighting army, and the second line in the rear should be the auxiliary army. Take your Yan Fan as an example. If the Beiping Dusi cannot stop the Tatars,
The guards and infantrymen on the side of the King of Zydu behind you are even more unable to stop them, right?"
Suddenly, Zhu Di woke up in his heart, "Lao Wu is going to be in trouble!"
This chapter has been completed!