Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

As soon as Zhang Shikang and his two companions arrived outside the Qianqing Palace, they heard an arguing coming from the hall.

"Your Majesty, I have no objection to letting Cilang follow Marquis Guanjun to see the world outside the palace.

But why did you let Meichu come with you? It's not good for her to be a girl."

Zhang Shikang recognized that this was the voice of Queen Zhou.

"What's wrong with that? You don't understand, but you will understand later." Emperor Chongzhen obviously did not accept Queen Zhou's advice.

At this time, Wang Chengen had already seen Zhang Shikang and the other two, and hurriedly reported:

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the Marquis of Guanjun, the Crown Prince, and the Princess have returned."

Zhang Shikang rubbed his nose, thinking it was a knife anyway, and strode in.

"Your Majesty, Her Royal Highness the Queen." Zhang Shikang bowed.

"Wuji, why did you come back so early today?" Emperor Chongzhen said with a smile.

"Oh, what bad luck." Zhang Shikang shook his head.

He then told Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou what had happened today, including the death of the little beggar and the assassination attempt.

Upon hearing this, Queen Zhou immediately went forward to check on Zhu Cilang and Princess Kunyi. Only after seeing that neither of them were injured did she begin to speak out of fear.

But Emperor Chongzhen never gave her a chance.

“Wuji suffered more than a hundred assassination attempts last year. This is the price I paid for the revival of the Ming Dynasty.

He shouldn't have to bear this price. If you dare to speak nonsense, Queen, don't blame me for being merciless."

Emperor Chongzhen said to Queen Zhou with a serious face.

Queen Zhou opened her mouth but said nothing in the end, but her eyes were filled with tears.

"If jade is not polished, it cannot be made into a useful tool. If you just read some dead books in the deep palace, how can you rule the Ming Dynasty well?

Prince, tell me, are you scared today?" Emperor Chongzhen looked at Zhu Cilang and said.

"Your Majesty, I was afraid at first, but not now." Zhu Cilang replied honestly.

Zhu Cilang had always been honest and never dared to tell lies to him. This answer surprised Emperor Chongzhen a little.

If he said he was afraid, Emperor Chongzhen would always be a little disappointed, but after all, he was only a twelve-year-old child, so he didn't intend to blame him.

But what Zhu Cilang said made Emperor Chongzhen somewhat confused.

"why?"

“My father, the death of that little beggar was caused by my excessive kindness. The fault lies with me.

Master Zhang said that now his son failed and only harmed one person.

But if I grow up and still don't know the suffering of the people, a random decree will kill millions of people.

A cowardly person will never achieve great things. Master Zhang also said that when he first saw corpses everywhere, he was also scared, but as long as he saw it more often, he was no longer afraid.

I still don't quite understand, so I will follow Master Zhang to find the answer." Zhu Cilang replied honestly.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this answer, he immediately smiled gently. He touched Zhu Cilang's head and said:

"Yes, this is why I asked you to follow Wuji.

Find the answers yourself, don’t just look at the theories in books, and don’t just listen to the one-sided words of the court officials. "

It was because Emperor Chongzhen himself trusted his courtiers too much that the Ming Dynasty was in such a predicament.

He was very pleased that his child had such insight after only following Zhang Shikang three or four times.

"Kunyi, what about you?" Emperor Chongzhen asked again.

Princess Kunyi's face turned red again.

"Father, I am... afraid... but Master Zhang will protect me. He... he runs very fast." Princess Kunyi was so panicked that she plagiarized her brother's words.

Zhang Shikang rubbed his nose speechlessly. Is it okay if he doesn't run fast?

If he hadn't run fast, he would have died countless times!

"So, you two, do you still want to follow Wuji out of the palace in the future?"

As soon as Emperor Chongzhen finished asking the question, the brother and sister nodded vigorously in unison.

"Your Majesty, it's still too dangerous and unnecessary." Zhang Shikang shook his head and refused.

Assassination was nothing new to him, and of course he was afraid of death, but not as much.

He even often thought that perhaps if he was stabbed to death here, he would wake up in the afterlife and finally find that everything was just a dream.

But it would be unnecessary for the brother and sister to die with him. There is really no need for that.

"This is all the Jinyiwei's fault, I will punish the two brothers.

You don't have to feel guilty. If you have to feel guilty, it should be me. I really want to dig up the graves of those Donglin Party members!"

Emperor Chongzhen said angrily.

He couldn't imagine whether he could accomplish the great cause of reviving the Ming Dynasty if Zhang Shikang was gone, but he knew in his heart that it would be extremely difficult.

Children are important, but if the children are incompetent and letting a weak and incompetent person inherit the throne is a misfortune for the Ming Dynasty and the people of the world.

He was lucky that Zhang Shikang came to help him, but what about the prince?

He must make himself as powerful as possible while he and Zhang Shikang are still around, so taking some risks is nothing.

"Your Majesty, the Liu Wenbing brothers have done their best. Last year, thanks to them, the seizure of property was carried out steadily. All the silver and valuables in the national treasury are due to their efforts.

The main reason is that there are too many people who want to kill me, and I can’t blame them all.” Zhang Shikang interceded for the two brothers.

"I may not dismiss them from their posts, but if I don't teach them to suffer some physical pain, it will be difficult to dispel the anger in my heart. You don't need to persuade them anymore.

I heard from Fang Daban that the fleet you bought has arrived at the coast of Tianjin and brought a lot of seeds for new crops?" Emperor Chongzhen asked.

"Well, there are indeed quite a few. I have already given an order to the Ministry of Revenue to send someone to store the seeds in the Ministry first. After the spring comes, we will try to plant them in the court's private plot in Shuntian Prefecture." Zhang Shikang replied.

Even though he had tried his best to have the factory guards collect them, those new crops had never been promoted and most of them only existed in the backyards of large households.

As a result, after three or four months of collecting, the seeds collected were not enough for large-scale promotion in Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Shikang planned to hand over the first batch of collected seeds to Song Yingxing, a big boss in agriculture and handicrafts.

When the imperial court distributed land, he specially allocated 50 hectares of land in Shuntian Prefecture to Song Yingxing. These 5,000 acres of fertile land were used as Song Yingxing's experimental field, specifically for trial planting and cultivating new and old crops.

At this time, it was still too cold in the north, and only the Ministry of Revenue had the conditions to preserve seeds such as potatoes that were easily frozen.

"Wuji, this matter must be arranged properly. In time, it may benefit the people of our Ming Dynasty." Emperor Chongzhen warned.

Zhang Shikang had told him long ago that potatoes and sweet potatoes, in particular, would have a high yield as the north is subject to perennial drought and is mountainous. Zhang Shikang also said that the yield was not low, so Emperor Chongzhen still had high hopes for the new crops.

The emperor and his minister chatted for a while, and then Zhang Shikang planned to leave.

He originally thought that after the assassination, Brother Chongzhen would be unwilling to let the brother and sister leave the palace again, which would be a relief for him.

But he didn't expect that Brother Chongzhen was so tough that he couldn't do anything.

When he just walked outside the hall, he saw Zhu Cilang and Princess Kunyi lying at the door of the hall looking at him. Princess Kunyi said with concern:

"Master Zhang, you have to be careful outside, don't get killed by bad guys!"

……