Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 656 Extra Story ([-]) Flourishing
"Crackling..."

In March of the 26th year of Apocalypse, when the sound of firecrackers sounded, a warship made of steel was successfully launched from Tianjin Shipyard.

The name of this ship was named Yanshan Ship by Emperor Zhu Youxiao, and it was the Navy's first armored cruiser.

The captain is 24 feet long, [-] feet [-] feet wide, [-] foot [-] feet in draft, and [-] tons in displacement.

The normal coal load of the ship is 720 tons, and the maximum coal load is 92 tons. The power is two steam engines, four round coal-fired boilers, two-shaft propulsion, the power of the main engine is [-] horsepower, and the speed is [-] miles per hour.

As the first armored cruiser successfully tested in the Ming Dynasty, its deck is composed of 25mm steel and 45mm iron armor layers, which can resist the bombardment of large-caliber artillery.

The armor of the ship's main gun exposed turret is 220 mm thick, and the armor of the gun cover and conning tower is 35 mm thick. It has two 150 mm guns and six 45 mm guns.

The establishment of the entire ship is 160-195 people, commanded by the garrison commander.

It is worth mentioning that the fleet artillery adopted the latest breech-loading artillery technology from the Military Armament Academy. The shells of the main artillery weighed [-] kilograms, the rate of fire was three rounds per minute, and the range reached an astonishing ten miles.

Such range and shell weight are enough to destroy most of the city walls in the world with one shot.

It is no exaggeration to say that when the Yanshan warship is successfully launched, the coastal defense lines all over the world will become its back garden and be left to be ravaged by it.

On March 24th, Huang Fei, the captain of the navy, went to the public and said that the Yanshan ship had been launched for more than half a month without any problems. He asked the Ministry of Households to allocate 600 million taels of military expenditure to rebuild twelve cruisers of the same level.

On March 28, the Emperor Zhu Youxiao approved the approval, the Ministry of Households allocated funds, and Tianjin, Lushun, Denglai, Longjiang and other shipyards received orders.

On the ninth day of April, after discussions between the Navy and various shipyards, it is expected that all cruisers will be launched before the 33rd year of Apocalypse.

On the third day of May, the Academy of Armaments delivered the "Type [-] breech-loading artillery" to the Army.

Type 120 breech-loading artillery is divided into two types: 75mm field gun and [-]mm battalion gun. The ranges are six miles and four miles respectively, and the rate of fire is three rounds per minute.

On the fourth day of May, Li Dingguo, the governor of Shangzhi, requested the appropriation of 260 million taels of military expenditure to replace [-] field artillery pieces and [-] camp artillery pieces for the army.

On the sixth day of May, Emperor Zhu Youxiao approved the redemption, the cabinet passed the decree, the household department allocated money, and the Ordnance Bureau received the order.

The Bureau of Ordnance estimated that it would take five years to complete the refit due to the sheer volume required.

On June 100th, news came from the Thousand Households of the Royal Guards in Europe that the British army was retreating steadily. In order to win, King Charles I of England wrote a letter to Daming to borrow [-] million taels to purchase Ming weapons.

On June [-], [-] Mongolian fusiliers led by Lin Dan Khan invaded Bakhchisarai, the capital of the Crimean Khanate, and Gelai III led the remnant army to flee to the south.

On June 26, the Spanish army launched a counterattack. Prince Condé of France, King Gustav II of Sweden and the Spanish army launched the second battle of Lutzen in Lutzen.

On June 100, Emperor Zhu Youxiao agreed to lend [-] million taels to Charles I to buy firearms.

The munitions for sale this time include 50 flintlock guns, [-] cannons, and [-] catties of gunpowder in a fixed pack. They are expected to arrive in London in August next year.

On August 23th, the Qi Wangdian cargo ship transported the last batch of [-] shi of rice to Xianyang Port of Tang State, which announced the end of the first grain trade between Qi State and Tang Jihuai San Francisco.

It is not difficult to see from here that Qi's shipping strength is still developing, otherwise the orders that should have belonged to Tianqi's 25th year would not be postponed until Tianqi's 26th year.

But in any case, the grain trade between the Qi State and the Tang, Ji, and Huai countries is on the right track, and the Tang, Ji, and Huai countries do not need to spend a lot of energy on food.

Such a change also changed the national policy of the Three Kingdoms of Tang, Ji, and Huaihe from the original internal security to the external.

On the ninth day of October, King Zhu Qiqi of the Tang Dynasty issued a proclamation, uniting the eight Kunlun states including Ji, Huai, Rui, Gui, and Yi to conquer the Kunlun slaves in the interior of Kunlun.

When the news reached India, Zhu Changxun, the king of fortune, thought it was an opportunity, and at the same time issued a call to arms, inviting all the vassals of Indian servants to jointly crusade against the Mughal Empire in the north.

However, compared with Tang Guoqun's response to the call for slavery, Fuguo's call for slavery is a bit embarrassing.

Except for some small counties and states that responded, the other feudal clans all refused because of the difficult state affairs, which made Zhu Changxun blush for a while.

In the end, the first crusade against the Mughals by the Indian vassals came to an end without a problem.

On the second day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Ciran, the prince of Jian Guo, went to Shu, requesting to send troops to the Mughals as usual to weaken the Mughals' national power.

On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, Emperor Zhu Youxiao issued an order to order You Shigong, the governor of the Northern Army, and Qin Minping, the governor of the Western Army, to send troops to attack the Mughals, leaving the problem to the two.

On the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month, the Northern Army and the Western Army each dispatched four battalions of soldiers and horses. It is expected to attack the Mughals from the Khyber Pass and Sishui Pass in the State of Zhou in February of the following year. Emperor Zhu Youxiao approved the red flag.

"Crackling..."

The same sound of firecrackers, but this time the firecrackers sounded not from Daming, but from Qi, which celebrated the 27th year of the Apocalypse.

"He..."

"His Royal Highness, Chitose... Chitose... Chitose..."

It was another new year, when the sound of singing in the Chengyun Hall of the Qi Palace, a picture completely different from the Zhengdan court meeting of the Ming Dynasty appeared in front of everyone.

On the throne, the 36-year-old Zhu Youjian was wearing a crown suit. His once white temples were now black. It can be seen that he had a good life in Qi.

In front of him, on the hall of Chengyun Hall, different from the scene where there are many officials of the Ming Dynasty, there are many tables and chairs in the Hall of Chengyun, and all the ministers got up from their chairs and saluted.

When Zhu Youjian said "Pingshen", all the officials sat down one after another, but the restraint of the Ming Dynasty was a little less.

"Minister Shi Xia Yunyi, Your Highness, what I obtained from Qi State last year..."

Xia Yunyi, who was in the front row, held the wat board and got up to salute. Zhu Youjian nodded slightly to signal him to open his mouth.

"Last year, more than 120 new nationals were added to the country, of which 56 were immigrants from the country."

"As of the fifteenth day of the winter month, there are more than 620 people in Qi State, and more than 340 common people."

"The number of mu of state-owned land has increased by more than 840 million mu, bringing the total to 270 million mu."

"The total number of state-owned pastures and grasslands is more than 20 million mu, and [-] billion mu are to be developed."

"The annual income of the household department is more than 620 million taels, an increase of 12.9% compared with the previous year. It is expected that Tianqi will break through 30 million taels in 2000 years."

"also……"

As the chief steward of the Qi State, Xia Yunyi managed the Qi State in an orderly manner, and everything about the Qi State was very precious.

From his mouth, everyone felt that Qi was in a thriving stage.

After he finished speaking, without waiting for the ministers to sing, Zhu Youjian reminded everyone:
"Although our country of Qi is thriving, we must not forget our worries."

"Many of you are from poor families, so you need to understand the difficulties of the people better."

"Currently, the per capita arable land of the people has not even reached three mu, so what can we be complacent about?"

"The things promised to the people have not been completed, and Qi's third five-year plan is coming to an end, but we have not even achieved the goals of the third five-year plan. In this case, we should feel ashamed. "

Zhu Youjian mentioned the goal of the third five-year plan, which made the officials bow their heads unconsciously.

In fact, the goal of the third five-year plan of Qi State is very low, that is, the per capita arable land will reach three mu, the pasture land will reach ten mu, the annual per capita ration will reach four shi, and the annual weight of meat, eggs and milk will reach sixty catties.

For other countries, the most difficult part of this goal is the last one.

The per capita meat, egg and milk is sixty catties, which is the standard that later generations only reached in the 90s.

It's just that for Qi, which has tens of millions of bison, this goal is very low.

However, even with such a low goal, Qi still hasn't achieved it.

The reason for not completing it is very simple. First of all, Qi's grain needs to be exported, and this cannot be prohibited.

Once the Qi State bans the export of grain, the national policies of Spain, the British Royal Army, Tang Jihuai and the Three Kingdoms will all be changed.

The Spanish and British royal armies were involved in the situation in Europe, and the San Francisco of Tangjihuai was involved in the situation in Levia.

Regardless of these, Qi State can take care of itself, but Qi State's reputation is also rotten.

Qi's annual output of finished grain is close to 8000 million shi. In the case of exports of 600 to [-] million shi, the per capita is a little more than three shi.

As for meat, eggs and milk, the main meat in Qi is bison, but in order to protect the number of bison, the number of slaughtered bison is 60 every year.

These 60 cows guaranteed the average annual protein intake of [-] catties for the people of Qi State, but the problem of Qi State was that the remaining [-] catties could not be made up.

"Your Highness, last year the per capita rations of the common people reached 540 catties, and meat, egg and milk also reached 56 catties."

"Actually, the gap is only one year. I believe that with the unity of Qi, we will be able to complete the third five-year plan this year."

"As for the fourth five-year plan, we will work harder and complete it in the 32nd year of Apocalypse!"

"Your Majesty, please rest assured—"

Xia Yunyi's words aroused the support of the officials. After all, in their view, it was only a matter of time before they could complete these tasks, and one year was enough.

"In that case, the solitary and the common people will wait and see!"

Zhu Youjian nodded, and then signaled the ministers to continue the report.

However, the Qi State's Grand Court Meeting was still mainly about congratulatory gifts, so after Xia Yunyi's report was over, the main ministries talked about their goals, and then no one spoke up.

This year, Huang Long, Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan and others all took Li Zicheng and the others to the south to suppress the rebels who refused to accept Wang Hua, so the court will be relatively quiet.

If that group of people came back, it is estimated that a big court would have to be held until noon.

So after learning most of the news and the attitude of the ministers, Zhu Youjian announced the disbandment of the dynasty.

After the dynasty was over, Zhu Youjian naturally returned to the Palace of Cunxin, and Yuan Xibing also arranged a family banquet to celebrate the New Year.

But looking at the family banquet, Zhu Youjian could only show a wry smile.

It was obviously a family banquet, but except for the three county kings who were under seven years old, the others were all princesses.

"I don't know how Brother Lang is doing in the capital..."

With a sigh, Zhu Youjian still sat in his seat.

However, at the same time as he sat down, the Prince Qi's Mansion in the capital tens of thousands of miles away also received congratulatory gifts one after another.

"Long live the oral decree, to give the king of Zibo County in Qi State two hundred Dongzhu and a box of gems to celebrate Zhengdan..."

"My minister Zhu Cihong thank you Long Live Long En..."

At the gate of Prince Qi's Mansion, Zhu Cihong, who had reached the age of fourteen, dressed in ordinary clothes, saluted Li Yongzhen who came from the palace. Seeing this, Li Yongzhen turned sideways to avoid half of it, obviously not daring to accept the ceremony.

When Zhu Cihong straightened up, his facial features were also exposed to the eyes of those around him.

He has handsome facial features, fair skin, ten fingers like green onions, and with his five feet four inches height far exceeding his peers, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is the second king of Qi.

"Long live, His Royal Highness was tired yesterday, so let's have a good rest today, and don't need to go to the palace to thank you."

After Li Yongzhen finished explaining, he bowed in return, turned and left the gate of Prince Qi's Mansion.

Zhu Cihong bowed in return, then glanced at the Dongzhu stone worth thousands of taels, and couldn't help but smile.

He turned around and went back to the mansion, and saw Xia Wanchun inside the door.

Xia Wanchun heard everything outside the door, and couldn't help laughing:

"You, the king of the county, have done a good job. The palace sends out 3000 taels of silver every year, and the inner court also rewards rare treasures, gold, silver and jade articles every day. Calculated, there are 4 to [-] taels of silver a year, which is cheaper than some princes. There is silver."

"Although you say that, the expenses in the mansion are also high." Zhu Cihong smiled undisguisedly, and revealed the expenses in the mansion.

King Qi's nine sons, except for the three youngest, the other six sons are all studying in Daming, and the expenses are mainly borne by the money allocated by Qi Wang's palace.

Normally, 3000 taels of silver is enough for six people to spend to maintain the expenses of Prince Qi's Mansion, but Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Ciran always reward them in different ways, so the mansion has accumulated a lot of money over the years.

It is true that Zhu Cihong said that the expenses are high, but no matter how big it is, it cannot compare with the income of Prince Qi's Mansion.

Although many officials and generals who had been favored by the Qi Palace were reluctant to leave Daming, they still took good care of Zhu Cihong and others in the Palace.

"A gift of more than 8000 taels of silver was received on Zhengdan Festival. I don't know if the Ming Dynasty is rich or they are rich..."

Looking at the boxes of gold and silver gifts brought in, Xia Wanchun couldn't help shaking his head.

It is true that the salaries of officials in the Tianqi dynasty were very high, but no matter how rich they are, there must be a limit.

In a situation like today, Qi Wangfu can go through more than ten days every year, and there are 10,000+ taels of silver.

10,000+ taels of silver per year. If Zhu Cihong has the heart, he can accumulate wealth comparable to that of a prince after staying in Daming for more than ten years.

Not to mention that as he grew up, Zhu Youxiao still had the heart to let him hold some official positions in the imperial city.

It can be said that Zhu Cihong is tested by money and power every day.

One thing that made Xia Wanchun fortunate was that Zhu Cihong was not keen on money and power. Compared to these, he preferred to read some travel notes.

Since Zhu Ciran's "Journey to the South" and Xu Xiake's "Travel to the World" were promoted by the imperial court, many novelists who liked to write travel notes emerged in Ming Dynasty.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty is vast, and one household registration can go to any place at will, which leads to many travel notes without repeating the same.

The aurora in Lingbei, the coral reefs in Nanzhou, the islands in the Daming Ocean, the grasslands in Levia...

All kinds of human geography travel notes emerge in endlessly, and these are some of Zhu Cihong's favorite things to read.

As for his five younger brothers, they each have their own hobbies, emerging in endlessly.

Zhu Cixuan likes to ride a bicycle because Zhu Ciran often asks him to ride a bicycle in the Forbidden City together.
Zhu Cijiong likes to ride a horse. In the summer vacation of Tianqi 25, when he was 11 years old, he rode a horse and returned to his hometown in Yanshan County with Li Dingguo.

Zhu Cizhao liked alchemy, and after being informed by Zhu Youjian, he wrote a letter and scolded him. Later, he was forced to transfer to another class, majoring in chemistry.

Zhu Cihuan and Zhu Cican are considered normal, mainly because they like to dance knives and sticks, and they often go to the mountains to hunt birds during winter and summer vacations.

The brothers have their own hobbies, Zhu Cihong himself is not righteous, and he is too embarrassed to say that they are, so the Qi Palace has inherited the free-range education of the old Zhu family.

In short, as long as you go to school, don't do anything that violates discipline or law, and Zhu Youjian won't say anything about them if he knows about it.

"Big brother!"

Zhu Cihong was thinking about his younger brothers, but he didn't want Zhu Cijiong's voice to suddenly sound.

Zhu Cihong and Xia Wanchun turned around, just in time to see Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cijiong.

"Third brother, it's the beginning of the Chinese New Year..."

Zhu Cihong bowed to Zhu Cijiong, and Zhu Cijiong, who was already a member of the Daxing Camp of the Shangzhi Dudu Mansion, smiled when he saw this: "Zhengdan New Year..."

After all, Zhu Cijiong turned his head and said to Zhu Cijiong who got off his horse:

"Tomorrow, I will take you to Changping to see how the people there are doing. Chenshi, you go to Andingmen and wait for me."

"Okay!" Zhu Cijiong nodded in response, Zhu Cijiong turned his horse's head and rode away from the gate of Prince Qi's Mansion.

"Where did you go today?" Seeing Zhu Cijiong leaving, Zhu Cihong asked Zhu Cijiong curiously.

"I went to the Military Armament Institute today and looked at the motorcycles produced by the Military Armament Institute, but that thing is stupid, and the speed is so slow that it can't even run ten miles in an hour."

Zhu Cijiong took off his thick clothes, and happily reported the results to Zhu Cihong. After hearing this, Zhu Cihong nodded and reminded:

"You can't underestimate these things. The speed of the train back then was only twenty miles per hour."

"Okay~" Hearing that Zhu Cihong was about to nag again, Zhu Cijiong hurriedly bowed: "I'm going to take a bath!"

"Go." Zhu Cihong waved his hand, Zhu Cijiong also ran to his palace in a hurry after hearing the words.

Looking at his back, Xia Wanchun breathed out:

"From this point of view, Guochao's research on internal combustion engines is estimated to have begun to be used in cars. Next, as long as the efficiency is improved, it should be able to achieve the effect of hundreds of miles a day."

"How is the study in Qi State?" Zhu Cihong asked curiously, but Xia Wanchun shook his head:
"It's a bit slower than that of Guochao. Although Qiguo has His Highness, Daming has 10,000+ Confucianism students who graduated from universities, which is unmatched by Qiguo."

"That's true..." Zhu Cihong nodded.

Compared with Qi State, or even any other country in the world, Daming's national size is beyond the reach of other countries in the world.

If Qi State can now have 10,000+ science college students, I am afraid that the whole country will be able to read and write.

I knew that even Daming, who started compulsory education in advance, has an illiteracy rate of 58%, let alone Qi.

But Zhu Cihong is the same as Xia Wanchun, they all believe that Qi will get better and better...

(End of this chapter)