"This battle expanded the territory for thousands of miles, and I should remember my brother's greatest contribution. In addition to the silver rewards and pensions, the Northern Expedition soldiers also received three taels per person according to the rules above, two taels per person in the outer gong guard camp, one tael per auxiliary soldier, and five taels per civilian. Silver reward!"

In the Qianqing Palace, when Zhu Youxiao excitedly issued the decree, he walked into the palace with Wei Zhongxian, Wang Tiqian, and Liu Ruoyu, holding the good news in hand, reluctant to put it down, and talking non-stop.

For Wei Zhongxian, every word he spoke and every tael of silver he sent out was like cutting flesh and bleeding.

However, in order to keep the emperor's trust in him, Wei Zhongxian still bit the bullet and said with a smile:

"There are still more than 4.1 million taels of silver in the internal funds. According to the number of heads above the victory, it is more than enough."

"Long live the reward to the three armies is an act of the Holy Emperor..."

Wei Zhongxian was flattering, and Zhu Youxiao also handed the good news to Wang Tiqian after hearing this:

"Let the people from the Ministry of Revenue immediately calculate the amount of silver reward, pension money, and pension fields, and then reward the three armies as I said before."

"Slave, take your orders..." Wang Tiqian glanced at Wei Zhongxian who was still laughing beside him when he heard this, and then asked someone to send the good news to the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Zhu Youxiao was very happy during this period and did not deal with the memorial. Instead, he walked left and right in the Yangxin Hall:

"My brother, this battle has enhanced the prestige of our Ming Dynasty. I'm afraid he doesn't care about the rewards of some rare treasures, and he has no shortage of money..."

Zhu Youxiao was in a dilemma, but Wei Zhongxian followed him and stepped forward to flatter him:

"Long live, for His Highness King Qi, ten thousand taels of silver is not as good as long live buying an extra set of furniture for His Highness."

"Yes, yes..." After hearing Wei Zhongxian's words, Zhu Youxiao also smiled on his face, then turned around and ordered:

"Ruoyu, let me find some golden nanmu from the warehouse. I want to get some furniture for my brother."

"My slave, take your orders..." Liu Ruoyu agreed, and then went down to do his errands.

When Zhu Youxiao happily sat down and reached for the tea cup, Wei Zhongxian quickly picked up a cup of sour plum soup from the table beside him and said:

"Long live, the weather is hot, it would be better to drink some iced drinks."

"Yeah" Zhu Youxiao took a drink and then said happily:

"Zhongxian, please send someone to ask my brother to quickly deliver the list of generals who need to be promoted in this battle. In addition, let him lead the army in victory. I will personally hold a state banquet for my brother to celebrate!"

"Long live, how can His Highness's achievements be shown in this way?" Wei Zhongxian not only wanted to please Zhu Youxiao, but also wanted to please Zhu Youjian.

Moreover, he knew very well that on the surface he was trying to please Zhu Youjian, but in fact he was trying to please Zhu Youxiao. The relationship between the two was almost the same.

As long as you explicitly propose to please either party, the other party will be very happy.

"Do you have any good ideas?" Zhu Youxiao put down the sour plum soup in his hand and asked enthusiastically, while Wei Zhongxian said flatteringly:

"Halawen Mountain is only more than 800 miles away from Yuu'erhai. How about asking His Highness the King of Qi to go to Yuuerhai to offer sacrifices to heaven and to sue Taizu Emperor Gao and Emperor Chengzuwen on your behalf?"

"Sealing the wolf as a surrogate? That's good, but with my younger brother's martial arts, it's not as good as fishing in the sea." Zhu Youxiao first smiled, then frowned:

"Huo Qubing, Dou Xian and other military generals can seize the wolf to live in Xu, but it is better to seize Shi Yanran and fish in the sea than the wolf living in Xushan to the north..."

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao frowned, then smiled the next second:

"It's not good in the north, but it's okay in the south." After saying that, Zhu Youxiao said quickly:

"I ordered Huang Long to carve a stone tablet in the extreme south to express my brother's achievements in recovering the old port."

"Long live, not many people go to this far south. Although the inscription is good, it still cannot express His Highness's martial arts." Wei Zhongxian said quickly:

"Why don't we let all the countries pay tribute and gather their iron to build an iron monument at the foot of Yanshan Mountain?"

"Not bad! This is a good idea!" Wei Zhongxian's words made Zhu Youxiao's eyes light up, but he added:

"But what does Yanshan mean? We will use one hundred thousand taels of silver from internal funds to build a stone staircase at the highest point of the Harawen Mountains, build a stone tablet on the top of the mountain, and erect a golden bell!"

Zhu Youxiao's eyes grew brighter as he spoke: "Build a bell tower, collect copper from various countries and provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and build a bell bigger than the Yongle bell!"

As soon as Zhu Youxiao opened his mouth, Wei Zhongxian immediately felt guilty.

The Yongle Bell is the largest bronze bell in the Central Plains Dynasty. It is two feet, two feet, two inches tall and weighs more than 76,000 kilograms. It is almost one-third of the annual output of the Luzon Prefecture copper mine.

Used to make money, at least more than 10 million copper coins can be issued, and this is only its material value.

The difficulty of the Yongle Bell is that when it was cast, scriptures were cast all over the inside and outside of the bell, totaling 227,000 words.

If you want to cast such a bell, you will probably need to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver and gather the most skilled bell-casting craftsmen from all over the world.

However, in order to please the emperor and King Qi, Wei Zhongxian spoke righteously:

"What Long Live said is absolutely true. I think this big bell must not only be cast, but it must also be cast big enough. How about three feet, three feet and three inches?"

"Not bad!" Zhu Youxiao nodded unconsciously, but as a carpenter, he also knew how much it would cost to cast such a mountaintop bell tower, so he quickly said:

"Pass an order to send all the prisoners in the world to Kaiping Mansion. After casting the Halawen Mountain Bell Tower, they will be moved to Taining Mansion."

"My servant obeys the order..." Wei Zhongxian knelt down quickly to receive the order, and his respectful manner greatly benefited Zhu Youxiao.

While he was using it, Wang Tiqian quickly walked into the Nourishing Heart Hall with a prepared brochure in his hands and said:

"Long live the war. After calculation by the Ministry of Household Affairs, the reward for this battle will be 926,420 taels of silver. In addition, 12,400 acres of land will be distributed."

In this battle, the Ming army beheaded more than 8,000 northern captives, built captives, and fake captives, and suffered 1,240 casualties.

In terms of such a battle loss ratio, it was already one of the pinnacles of the Ming Army itself.

Although more than 900,000 taels plus more than 10,000 acres of farmland is a lot, Zhu Youxiao can't afford it.

"Come on, my brother said not to let the soldiers down. For such a great victory, 920,000 taels of silver is not much."

Zhu Youxiao waved his hand and basically decided on the silver reward. Although Wei Zhongxian's heart was bleeding, he still agreed flatteringly:

"Banzai loves his soldiers like his own son. I think the three armies will definitely be grateful to Banzai."

"Okay, stop flattering and take care of the bell tower." After Zhu Youxiao said that, he stretched out his hand and started to deal with the memorials on the dragon's eucalyptus, and Wei Zhongxian also left the Yangxin Hall after saying "Slave, please leave"

.

After he left, Wang Tiqian also left the Yangxin Hall, while Zhu Youxiao's expression quickly relaxed, showing a trace of calmness.

He lowered his head to deal with the memorial, but when Liu Ruoyu returned, he suddenly said:

"How is the West Factory..."

"Long live the return, the servants have gathered more than a thousand people in the East Factory, inside the Jinyi Guards." Liu Ruoyu bowed his head in response, while Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly in agreement when he heard this.

Seeing that the emperor was silent, Liu Ruoyu continued:

"Lin Yanguan in the middle of the court was suppressed and killed by Wei Bingbi. If Yuan Keli and the other eighteen people are transferred away now, only Sun Chengzong, Han Xu and more than 20 Donglins will be left in the court."

"Long live this, I'm afraid the government will be uneasy..."

Liu Ruoyu is involved in a political issue, which can also be said to be a mathematical issue.

Mathematically, triangles are the most stable planar structures, bar none.

This stable structure is the same when it comes to politics.

It seems that there is a certain number in the world, and three is the minimum number that is necessary to maintain an organization, a country, and a world.

The so-called exclusive rule and multi-state alliance are often superficial. After digging deeper and summarizing, the deep-seated reason that can maintain the existence of this world, this country, and the imperial court must be the tripartite alliance.

Generally speaking, unless a force comes from heaven, the three-party dispute will often last for a long time.

Looking at the Ming Dynasty, in the early Ming Dynasty, the four imperial powers in Huaixi, eastern Zhejiang, and Jiangnan were an important link in the maintenance of stability in the Ming Dynasty.

However, this political situation, which Zhu Yuanzhang thought would last for a long time, would often lead to many turmoils.

On the contrary, after the fall of Huaixi, a long-term and stable balance appeared in the imperial power in eastern Zhejiang and Jiangnan.

Even if eastern Zhejiang and Jiangnan merged over a long period of time and developed into a pan-Jiangnan civil service group, the emperor also knew how to support eunuchs to provide checks and balances.

Such support can also make the political situation a little more stable and keep the general direction unchanged.

However, after Jiajing destroyed the Pan-Jiangnan Civil Service Group and disintegrated them, the Ming Dynasty seemed to have entered into endless party struggles.

Zhang Party, Gao Party, Zhejiang Party, Qi Party, Chu Party, Xuan Party, Donglin Party, Qin Party, Sichuan Party, Fujian Party, Donglin Party...

These parties come to the fore when one party wants to win or not, and in many cases they even develop into a political situation in which multiple forces appear together, followed by constant party disputes.

This situation lasted until Zhu Youjian used various methods to remove a group of veterans of the Zhejiang Party from power and forced the five parties to unite to protect themselves.

Donglin, King Qi Party, Five Party Alliance...

The balance between the three parties made the Ming Dynasty stable for two years. After that, the five parties were weak, and Zhu Youxiao added Wei Zhongxian.

But now it seems that Wei Zhongxian is obviously a self-interested person. As long as he can accomplish what he wants to accomplish, he doesn't care what means he uses.

Framed and framed, tortured to extract confessions...

Less than two years after taking power, there are only dozens of big cats and kittens left in Donglin. On the other hand, the eunuchs...

If Zhu Youjian had not been using the momentum of military exploits and great victories to promote the Qi Wang Party, the Eunuch Party might have overwhelmed the Qi Wang Party.

Now that Donglin is weak and difficult to support, the political situation among the three parties has become turbulent. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that if this situation is not handled well, a situation similar to the fierce party struggle in the first year of Tianqi will break out again.

How to stabilize the situation is a problem that Zhu Youxiao needs to solve urgently.

As Zhu Youxiao's confidant, Liu Ruoyu naturally reminded him.

In response to his reminder, Zhu Youxiao was silent for a long time, and then stood up and walked back and forth, but he couldn't think of a good solution for a while.

It was impossible for him to help Donglin, because most of the Donglin who were removed from office were rhetorical officials. Returning to the court would only make the conflicts between the parties more acute.
To be continued...