On the second day, Yunzhen got up early and led his entourage on the road, arriving at the capital before noon.

After entering the city, Yunzhen smiled at his entourage and said, "Qin Sen, those of you who have come out of the capital should go home now. You don't need your protection even when you arrive in the capital. Today happens to be the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, so you can give me some protection when you go home."

It’s a surprise for the family.”

While talking, he also took out a package from the carriage, took out a few things from it, and asked the guards who were born in Yongfan to distribute them to them: "You have also worked very hard for Gu'an in the Northeast, so I will give you some rewards."

Qin Sen took the small bag and opened it. He was surprised when he saw ten pearls of the same size inside. He raised his head and said to Yun Sui: "Your Highness, this reward is too generous. I dare not accept it."

Although such round pearls are not big in size, ten of them would be enough to sell for thousands of taels in the capital, and they are still very valuable.

"It's just a few pearls, what's they worth?" Yunzhen said: "Yongfan's specialties are leather goods, ginseng and pearls. Each of you has a lot of leather goods in your hands and brought them to the capital. The ones in your hands are not as good as yours."

The ginseng is strong; ginseng is not easy to pick, so I can’t give each one one. After thinking about it, I can only divide a few pearls.”

"Although pearls are very valuable in the capital, they are nothing in our Yongfan. You also have sisters or aunts and nephews. These are much better gifts than anything else, so just accept them."

"But," Qin Sen still wanted to refuse.

"Why," Yun Zhen said with a straight face: "You dare not give up your reward!"

Seeing that His Highness was angry, although everyone knew that he was just pretending to be angry, they did not dare to reject it anymore and hurriedly accepted it.

Yunzhen immediately turned from anger to joy, and asked them to disperse with a few words.

But after Qin Sen left, he whispered to a man who was from the same guard station as Qin Sen: "After you go back, find a time to see Qin Sen's father Qin Shoushan and tell him what Qin Sen wants to do in the war with Samarkand next year.

Go to the northwest to fight, and there is no need to say anything else. Remember not to let Qin Sen know about it."

"Yes, Your Highness." The man agreed, mounted his horse and left.

After giving orders to everyone, Yunzhen took the rest of his entourage to Prince Yong's Mansion.

The palace had been cleaned a long time ago. When the servants who guarded the palace in the capital learned that the prince would definitely return to the capital this year, they immediately cleaned up the entire palace, without even a fallen leaf.

After seeing it, Yunzhen felt quite satisfied. He ordered the eunuchs who had followed him back to Beijing to put their luggage in each room, and said to his eldest wife, Wu, "Is there anything else you want? If not, come with me to the palace to pay respects to the emperor."

"

"Even if I have something to do, I have to go and see the emperor first." Wu said with a smile, "There is nothing more important than seeing the emperor."

"That's right." Yunzhen also smiled and said to his wife Yang, "You also go to the palace to pay homage to the emperor."

"Your Highness, I," she was very surprised. This concubine was a local he accepted in Yongfan. It is said that his ancestors were descendants of the royal family of the Jin Kingdom. After the Mongols destroyed the Jin Dynasty, the Mongols did not give any preferential treatment to the Jin people and were third-class northerners.

Like Han, the surname Yang was changed to Han for convenience. Her family was the leader of a large local tribe, but she soon believed in Taoism after the Taoist priest from Wudang Mountain went to Yongfan to preach, and she was very respectful to Yun Xin.

Yunzhen adopted the leader's daughter as his concubine.

She has been with Yunzhen for more than two years, and has learned a lot of Han people's etiquette. She knows that she is just a little wife and may not have the right to meet the emperor.

"It doesn't matter. According to the etiquette, all those who have entered Yudie must be canonized by the Queen. You are in Yongfan and you are in a hurry to obey the authority. Naturally, you will have to pay homage to the Queen when you come to the capital for the first time." Yunzhen said.

When she heard this, she quickly agreed.

Seeing that she agreed, Yunzhen ordered the eunuch to pack up the gifts he had brought back from Yongfan all the way, changed his clothes, got on the carriage, and headed to the palace with his wife and concubines.

The carriage soon arrived outside the palace and drove into the imperial city from the right gate of Chang'an. It did not stop until outside the Qianqing Gate. Yunzhen and his wife and concubines got off the carriage and walked towards the Qianqing Gate.

But before he reached the Qianqing Gate, he saw a figure flash at the door. A man in the emperor's uniform stood at the door, smiled at him and said, "Fourth Brother!"

"Brother Emperor!" Yunxun shouted, walked quickly to him, knelt down and saluted.

Yunxi pulled him up and said with a smile: "Why have we become so different after not seeing each other for two years?"

"I haven't seen your royal brother for two years, so I can't help myself." Yun Chen said with a smile.

The two brothers joked for a while, and Mrs. Wu led Ms. Yang forward and bowed and saluted: "I have met the emperor."

"Hello, brothers and sisters. This is," Yunxi looked at Yang and said.

"This is the concubine that my brother married in Yongfan." Yunzhen said hurriedly.

"Okay, okay." Yunxi looked at her for a few times, said a few good words with unclear meaning, and ordered the eunuch beside him: "You take Prince Yong's concubine and the concubine to see the queen, and ask the queen to reward the concubine more. After all, it is See you for the first time."

The eunuch took the order and led them to Kunning Palace.

Yunzhen took out another box made of rosewood, and several eunuchs behind him also raised some things, knelt down on one knee and said: "I came from Yongfan to pay tribute to the emperor's brother ten pearls from Yongminghai (Fusohai)." , five ginseng branches, five tiger skins, and one white bear skin.”

"Why pay tribute to such a precious thing?" Yunxi saw that the ten pearls were the size of pigeon eggs, and they looked very round and identical. He also saw that the five ginseng branches had already formed. They were at least thousand-year-old ginseng. Even if You may not be able to buy it in Qizhou Medicine Market. Even a few bear skins and tiger skins, although not rare here, are still very treasured. He felt happy in his heart, but he said this.

"Brother Emperor, Brother Emperor is the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the most noble person in the world. I got these things in Yongfan. I feel that only Brother Emperor in the world is worthy of these precious things, so I brought them to the capital to present to the Emperor. Brother." Yunzhen said.

"Since it is your kind intention, brother will accept it this time. But you must not instruct the people under your rule to go into the mountains and seas to search for these things." Yunxi ordered Wang Xi to lead people to accept it.

"And you must have left a few ginseng sticks in the fief. The pearls are just for decoration. Although bear skins and tiger skins are warm, sheepskins and wolf skins can also be used, but ginseng can save lives!" He added said.

"To be honest with the emperor, I left a few ginseng branches in the fiefdom, but they are not as good as the five ginseng branches presented to the emperor."

"How many of them have you not given to your uncles or brothers? Especially your second brother, who is also your biological brother."

"Ginseng is a very rare thing. I was lucky enough to get a few ginseng sticks from the local Jurchen people. I gave them to the emperor and then lost them." Yun Xun said. The ginseng in his hand was not enough to give one to each person. It’s not good to send some to others, so I decided to just send it to Yunxi and not to anyone else. Everyone had nothing to say.

He originally planned to secretly give Yunwen a ginseng. After all, Yunwen was his half-brother, and his relationship with Yunwen was deeper than his relationship with Yunxi. But because he was afraid of being known by Yunxi, he finally decided

I can only give up.

Yunxi felt very happy after receiving his gift and said with a smile: "Let me count the things on hand and give you some good things in return."

"I don't ask for extravagant things. I only ask that the emperor can reward me with more people." Yun Xin said.

"This." Yunxi hesitated: "You also know that the population of Ming Dynasty is not large to begin with, and there are too many places that need people, which is difficult to handle. How many do you want?"

"In the past few years, the Central Plains has only transferred more than 2,000 people to Yongfan. It is too few. It must be at least tens of thousands a year."

"No!" Yunxi flatly refused: "The total population of the Ming Dynasty is only more than 60 million. You have tens of thousands of people a year. Where can I find so many people for you, brother?"

The two of them bargained for a while and finally decided to transfer 2,000 people to Yongfan every year. Yunxi also said: "Don't worry about pulling people from the Central Plains all day long. Although the Koreans don't understand the language, they are still respectful to the people.

Being so close to Yongming City is not better than traveling thousands of miles from the Central Plains?"

"But my brother has made an appointment with Zhu Fangyuan of Korea."

"Why do you care about this? Brother, I'm not asking you to violate the agreement. It's not okay to blatantly go to North Korea to recruit people even if there is no agreement. But the land there is fertile and sparsely populated, while North Korea is not only crowded but also barren. Let's go down first.

There are North Korean prisoners working in your place. If you let these prisoners see the fertile land, they will naturally tell the villagers when they go back, and they are not afraid that no one will be interested."

Yunzhen still felt that doing so was a breach of contract; but Yongfan's lack of personnel had to be resolved, so he could only think to himself: 'At the worst, I can just compensate Zhu Fangyuan a few dollars more.'

After discussing the matter, Yunxi was about to say something else when Yunxi smiled and said: "Brother, I feel a little cold. In order to take care of my brother, I'd better go to a warm room to talk."

Hearing what he said, Yunxi also realized that he was indeed a little cold, and hurriedly said: "I have forgotten what I said, I should go to Qianqing Palace."

The two of them walked into the Qianqing Palace side by side, and walked to a pavilion outside Yunxi's dormitory that was specially designed to entertain the royal family. As Yunxi walked, he asked: "You have been in Yongfan for the past two years, and there are fewer excuses to come to the court.

, Brother Huang doesn’t know how you are doing there. How many people are there now? Can you feed yourself? Let’s talk to Brother Huang.”

"Brother Imperial, I have been in the Northeast for the past two years and I think my business has been pretty good." Yunzhen boasted first, and then said: "In the past few years, Yongfan has only taken over 2,000 people from the Central Plains. With such a small population,

Of course it was not enough, so I sent people to conquer or contact the Jurchen tribe to expand the population. Before I left Yongfan, there were more than 107,000 naturalized Jurchens and Mongolians." He took the defeated ones as slaves.

The Jurchens used are also included.

"Taoism has played a big role. The local people are very ignorant, and my use of Confucianism to educate them has had little effect. Instead, Taoist priests who have learned some superficial medical skills are very popular in various tribes. Often as long as one person is cured, the whole family

All the people in the village will believe in Taoism. Although most people only believe in it superficially, their resistance to the government will be much smaller after they believe in Taoism."

"Zhenren Zhang also brought hawkers to various villages to do business, which greatly changed their impression of the Han people. Several real people also took in several young children as Taoists. Over the past few years, they have become devout believers.

The masters preached together in the villages."

"Haha, the emperor was right when he ordered you to support Taoism," Yunxi said with a smile.

"Brother Huang is really far-sighted. At first, I didn't believe that the Taoist Church could play such a big role. If Brother Huang hadn't insisted, I would have just left them to fend for themselves. In this case, there would never have been such a big situation.

" Yunzhen said.

Yunxi smiled and told him again: "Even so, we can't rely entirely on Taoism. Taoism only prevents them from being hostile to the Ming Dynasty, but if you open a government office in the local area, you will inevitably collect taxes from them.

Even if they become Taoists, they will not be willing to pay taxes and send missions."

"We also need to destroy the big local tribes so that the rest of the people will be afraid and dare not listen to you. The ultimate goal is to break up their tribes and divide them into villages. You can't be like Liu Guan, who has been defeated for one term and just ignores the immediate situation.

In the long run, the eternal kings in the future will all be your descendants."

"How could I not know about such a thing? Brother Emperor, don't worry, I will definitely do as you are told." Yunzhen said.

Then he went on to introduce: "The climate in the Northeast is cold. My brother calculated the latitude and found that Yongming City is further north than Twenty Uncle's Kaiyuan City, and the food can only be harvested once a year."

"But the local land is very fertile. The old farmers said that the soil is so fertile that even if no fertilizer is used, the crops will grow just as well. Later, when seeds of sorghum, wheat, barley and other crops were planted, it turned out that

The crops grew very well, and there happened to be no disasters in the past two years. All the farmland had a bumper harvest. Not only did the people have food in their hands, but the yamen's granaries were also full after the autumn harvest. If the weather can be so good every year, Yongfan will be

There is no need for food from the Central Plains."

"This is the best. But I'm afraid you won't be so lucky every year. For now, you should transport some grain from the Central Plains every year and store it. You will stop transporting grain from the Central Plains when you have almost enough food to govern the people for a year." Yunxi.

said.

Food is the first priority for the people, and they will not panic when they have food in hand. Yongfan is at the forefront of exploring the Northeast. Safety is the first priority in everything, and it is necessary to ensure a stable food supply.

"Thank you very much, Brother Huang." Yunzhen said with a smile.

While they were talking, they had already arrived at the pavilion. Wang Xi brought a pot of hot tea, poured two cups of it, and brought a map, paper and pen.
To be continued...