King Luhuang of the Ming Dynasty: My father, Ming Taizu

Zhu Youtang left Zhu Tan here alone and taught him patiently.

He also asked Zhu Tan to hand over the money that Li Guang had embezzled to Liu Daxia, the governor of Jiangyou.

This money was all Zhu Youtang's private money. Liu Daxia had wanted the money for a long time. After all, this river was related to the livelihood of the people, and he was very concerned about it.

Zhu Youtang asked Luo Yin to bring paper and pen, and quickly wrote two imperial edicts on them.

The first imperial edict was to promote Chu Mu to the position of Governor-General of the Military Governor's Office. Since the Military Governor's Office was renamed Wujun Town, a Left Military Governor's Office was established in each Military Governor's Office.

Under the two generals is the deputy commander, or deputy commander, who assists the two commanders and jointly manages a city.

The second imperial edict ordered the new governor Zhu Tan to assist Ma Wen and cooperate with young people from British criminal law, legal, and aristocratic families.

Zhu Tan was only in his twenties, but he was already a first-class commander-in-chief, and could be considered a promising young man.

When Zhu Tan heard Zhu Youtang repeat the sentence, he was completely stunned.

"Brother-in-law, are you sure? I'm afraid you will be criticized by the ministers when the time comes."

Zhu Youtang laughed and said, "Uncle Huang is right, but it is just an empty title. I will let you and Ma Wensheng go to a British public school to study. You stay with them and don't say anything. The most important thing is to be my ears."

Zhu Tan nodded, knowing that he was the emperor's eyes and ears!

He received the imperial edict with great joy, and even skipped the step of passing it on.

As soon as she left Zhu Youtang's room, she was stopped by Empress Zhang's personal guard and dragged to the Empress's room.

"Sister." "Where's Rongrong?" Zhu Tan put the two edicts in his hands on the table and said casually.

Zhang Huang smiled and said, "Rongrong is well now. She is playing in the Prince's Mansion now. Sister asked you to come over."

Zhang Luan, the father of Empress Zhang's brothers and sisters, had passed away several years ago. Empress Zhang made a prompt decision to bring the widowed Jin back to the palace to raise her.

This was not in accordance with etiquette, but Zhu Youtang did not say much and would come to visit from time to time, which shows how good Zhu Youtang's character was.

Zhu Tan's brain was actually like squeezing toothpaste. The word "search" would only appear when he saw it.

His biological mother, Ms. Jin, was in her fifties and was a kind-looking old lady.

When Jin arrived, it was like a heavy hammer, hitting Zhu Tan hard.

"Are you going to get married? Erlang is already 20 years old, so you can't delay."

Zhu Tan gave a dry laugh. As a member of the royal family, he had been the Earl of Jianchang for more than 20 years, but he had never married or had children.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head, and he finally understood why the emperor wanted to appoint him as a high-ranking official. It turned out that it was to bring them together!

Ma Wensheng, one of Zhu Youtang's most trusted ministers, once served as the Minister of War. In the beginning, he also commanded the affairs of Hami Guard in Turpan and was highly valued by Zhu Youtang.

Duke of Yingguo Zhang Mao was even more powerful. He was the son of Marquis of Yingguo and King of Hejian Zhang Yu, and also a great contributor.

Promotion and business trip are all just to wait for me!
Empress Zhang ignored Zhu Tan's thoughts and continued, "Ma Wensheng has a son named Ma Cong and a daughter who is only 28 years old and is as beautiful as a flower. My mother and I both saw them at the Queen Mother's birthday banquet. The same is true for the granddaughter of Yingguo Wang Zhang Mao. The two are of similar age and are both good husbands. Who do you like?"

Is there any need to ask? Of course I want both.

Zhu Tan did not say that he would be strangled to death by his mother or elder sister, so he said in embarrassment: "This is really hard to choose. I don't even know what they look like. Why don't you let me do it? Anyway, I was commissioned by my brother-in-law! Find a time and go and see for yourself. If it's not suitable, I don't want any of them."

Empress Zhang and Jin were both veterans of the world, young and energetic, and they understood that Zhu Tan wanted to marry a beautiful wife.

However, it is a bit difficult to see the bride.

Mrs. Jin said, "The Queen Mother's birthday is coming soon. How about letting Ma Wensheng and the Duke of Yingguo's granddaughter enter the palace and let her meet the Emperor?"

Empress Zhang said without hesitation: "This is a good idea. It's not just the two of them. There are so many other women who want to enter the palace. You can find a suitable one and let the emperor arrange a marriage for you."

Zhu Tan never thought that after coming to the Ming Dynasty, she would still be forced to get married. She said something hurriedly and left in a hurry, returning to the small hall behind Qingning Palace to visit her nephews and nieces.

Zhu Tan called this a visit. He must observe Zhu Xiurong's situation more closely. If something unexpected happened to a child who was ignorant of the immensity of the world, all his previous efforts would be in vain.

After arriving at Youchunfang, Zhu Tan was so shocked by the scene before him that he almost fell to the ground.

Zhu Xiurong was chasing the bubbles in the air, and her speed was much faster than Zhu Xiurong.

Zhu Houzhao held a small porcelain bottle in one hand and a bamboo utensil in the other, and bubbles kept coming out of his mouth.

He turned around and saw that all eight tigers looked constipated.

Obviously, everyone knew about Princess Taikang Zhu Xiurong's illness, but Zhu Houzhao and his brothers were so excited about fighting that no one could stop them!
When Liu Jin, Zhang Yong and others saw Zhu Tan, they all stepped forward to pay their respects as if they had seen their savior.

Liu Jin's face was full of bitterness: "Master, please go and persuade the two princes to stop making trouble. The princess almost fell down just now!"

Every time Zhu Tan saw Liu Jin, he would curl his lips and think that if he killed Liu Jin, wouldn't the situation of the eight eunuchs ruling the country during the Zhengde period not have occurred?
Liu Jin felt a little uncomfortable with Zhu Tan's gaze. For some reason, he felt a chill down his spine.

Zhu Tan immediately thought that even if he killed Liu Jin now, there would probably be Zhao Jin, Qian Jin, Zhang Yong and others to replace him!

It was impossible for him to capture Zhang Yong and others and let them bleed!

Anyway, they had to distance themselves from Zhu Houzhao, so Liu Jin and the other eight tigers could do the same.

"Second uncle!" she shouted.

As soon as Zhu Xiurong saw Zhu Tan, she stopped chasing, and with a lovely smile on her cute face, she rushed straight towards Zhu Tan.

Zhu Tan reached out his hand, pulled Zhu Xiurong over, and said angrily, "You are still healthy, so don't move too much. Do you understand? Ah Shou, Rongrong is injured, didn't you see it?"

Zhu Houzhao had just spit out a bubble when Zhu Xiurong came. She was startled and handed a small medicine bottle and a bamboo tube to Liu Jin.

"Uncle, I forgot."

Having said that, Zhu Houzhao took Chu Mu into his room.

The table was filled with bottles and bottles, but Tang Zheng still couldn't understand the oxidation-reduction process recorded in the diary.

Zhu Houzhao developed a strong interest in physics and chemistry. Zhu Tanle saw this and made Zhu Xiurong his teacher.

Later, he conducted another experiment with oxygen and sulfur, which made Zhu Hou jump and dance like a happy monkey, completely losing his previous majesty.

Zhu Xiurong accidentally dropped the imperial edict sent by Zhu Tan to the ground.

Zhu Houzhao reached out to take it and asked curiously: "Second uncle is in the Governor's Office now? You want to be a prosecutor? Can I go with you?" Zhu Houzhao had a lot of homework, including Li Dongyang, Yang Tinghe, and Wang Hua, each of whom was a learned person.

Zhu Houzhao was a little tired of so much homework.

Zhu Tan responded casually, "If Ah Shou wants to leave, just go! This way, I can also support my second uncle and make them look at me with new eyes."

This is well said. After all, Zhu Tan is a relative, not a noble.

There is a trend among the nobles to look down on the royal relatives.

With Zhu Houzhao as his backer, he could suppress him and prevent him from being bullied by those powerful people.

Starting from the Ming Dynasty, the equipment of the Ming army gradually declined, the army was tired and the border was lax.

In order to restore military strength, Zhu Youtang, with the help of ministers headed by Ma Shisheng, carried out a series of reforms and defenses on the Beijing army.

This provided relatively stable external conditions for the Hongzhi Restoration, and in a sense improved the weak situation of insufficient border defense forces at the time.

However, due to long-standing problems, the Hongzhi Dynasty still had problems with military defense, and it would be difficult to change the situation of the Ming Dynasty's declining military strength with just this small change.

Zhu Tan was entrusted by Zhu Youtang to assist Ma Wen in military preparations, with the examiners mainly being the troops in the capital.

Among them, there are five major camps, three thousand major camps, and the Shenji camp.

The five major camps, composed of Mongolian troops transferred from all over the country to garrison the capital, now have more than 3,000 people. In name, they are composed of surrendered Mongolian troops, most of them are cavalry, but their numbers are much larger than theirs.

As for the Shenjiying, it is more famous, and it is a firearms unit.

In order to improve the quality and efficiency of weapons, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty even captured a Vietnamese prince to use as a weapon and appointed him as the Minister of Works. At that time, Vietnam's weapons technology even surpassed that of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

How could Zhu Tan not want to do something after receiving the imperial edict from Zhu Youtang?

So at noon, he asked Zhang Wei to take eight gifts and personally deliver them to Ma Wensheng.

During the Hongzhi period, Ma Wensheng single-handedly conquered Turpan, governed Hami, and pacified Liaodong, and was hailed as the civil official who best understood military affairs in the Ming Dynasty.

However, Ma Wensheng has been having some headaches recently. He has been the military commander for so many years and according to regulations he needs to be transferred.

He set his sights on the position of Lisi. Ever since there was no prime minister in the Ming Dynasty, the Lisi had been the head of all officials.

However, Zhu Youtang refused to promote Ma Wensheng to the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Ma Wensheng was very dissatisfied with this and composed a short poem to express his protest.

The time when Zhu Tan arrived here was exactly when he complained the most.

When Ma Wensheng heard that Earl Jianchang was coming to visit, he was stunned at first, and then he remembered what Marquis Jianchang was.

Zhang Yanling was the emperor's youngest brother and a troubled distant relative.

Ma Wensheng always looked down on the nobles, and even more so on his collateral relatives, but as an earl, he still had to maintain due courtesy, so he opened the door and invited Earl Jianchang in.

Zhu Tan asked Zhang Wei to hand over the gift list to the steward of the Ma Mansion.

The manager took it and looked at it, and his hands started shaking with fear.

There are a total of eight items on the gift list this time, but each one is extremely precious and costs at least one thousand taels of silver.

"Mr. Ma, I am honored to be here."

Zhu Tan saw Ma Wensheng coming towards him in the hall and found that the old man looked to be over sixty years old.

His hair was tied up in a square turban and he was dressed in casual clothes, looking quite burly.

Ma Wensheng was a scholar with a certain level of cultivation. Although he looked down on the royal family, he remained calm on the surface.

Weiwei replied, motioning for her to go in and sit down, and asked the steward to bring some tea.

The butler carefully pushed the gift list in front of Ma Wensheng.

Ma Wensheng took a look and immediately frowned.

Although it would be fine if there were too many gifts, this gift was not a good one.

As the Minister of Revenue, Ma Wensheng naturally knew that Li Guang had accepted bribes, and Jianchang Bo was one of them. Could something have gone wrong?
However, even if something happens, it will not be his fault!
Zhu Tan did not give Ma Wensheng a chance to continue guessing. He drank a cup of tea and went straight to the point: "Mr. Ma, His Majesty ordered me to be the chief steward of the Governor's Office to assist Lord Ma in inspecting the military equipment. Lord Ma has the final say on this matter. I want to know the specific process of this matter."

Ma Wensheng was pretending to drink tea nearby, but when he heard the news, he almost choked.

Zhu Tan is only twenty years old at most, how did he become the chief steward of the Governor's Office?

He is a high-ranking official of the third rank and also a royal relative. He is really annoying and despised!

Although he secretly cursed Zhu Tan's good luck, Ma Wensheng did not act too casually.

After all, this was Zhu Youtang's order and also his responsibility, so he had to be well prepared and not slack off for a day.

There are two aspects to inspecting military equipment: manpower and equipment.

Now, there are signs of withholding of military pay in the army, and the situation in the Beijing camp is not much better, with a shortage of manpower.

Then there are weapons, armor, horses, firearms, etc.

Ma Wensheng's words made sense. He felt that the emperor's order came at the right time and would be very helpful to his management.

In the early years of the Hongzhi reign, more than 30 generals were dismissed at one go, offending many hereditary nobles and military generals.

However, the combat capability of the Beijing Camp was greatly improved, laying a good foundation for subsequent wars.

It has been ten years now, and there are signs of corruption in the Beijing camp, so it really needs a thorough investigation.

Zhu Tan listened carefully. If he wanted to clear his name, he not only needed reputation, but also some achievements.

Since Zhu Youtang is his brother-in-law, he must seize the opportunity.

So he still respects Ma Wensheng very much, and he will humbly ask for advice if he has any questions.

Ma Wensheng was slightly stunned. Uncle Zhang did not have a good reputation in the outside world, but after getting along with him for a while, he realized that his uncle was not as useless as the legend said.

These questions were very sharp and made Ma Wensheng even more serious. (End of this chapter)