Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Fourth Elder Li Shan Announces His Retirement
Facts have proved that when both the enemy and ourselves think that they have won, there will be no surprises in the outcome of the battle.
The scene that Cornell was expecting of six planes crashing directly into the city of Jiayuguan did not appear.
When he led 300,000 exotic beasts to the Jiayuguan Pass and saw six planes flying smoothly over the Jiayuguan Pass, his expression suddenly changed.
In an instant he knew that he was wanted.
"Let's go!" His expression changed drastically, and he wanted to quickly recruit strange beasts to protect him and leave first.
But how could Xu Da, who had already received news about Li Jinglong, give him such an opportunity?
More than twenty elite warriors in the army who had reached the seventh level were lying in ambush nearby. The moment they saw Cornell, they approached him in a flash.
Although he is also a transcendent, even though he can command the movements of 300,000 strange beasts.
But when he was approached by a martial artist, he could only stare.
Without even being able to react, he was hit directly in the back of the head by the leading martial artist, his eyes rolled up and he fainted.
At the same time, the remaining warriors quickly guarded and killed all the guards of the Holy Cross Legion who were guarding the envoy.
"Send a signal to the commander, we have succeeded!" The leading warrior glanced at Cornel, who had fainted.
Smiled and spoke.
Fireworks shot into the sky.
Xu Da and Geng Bingwen, who were standing on the top of Jiayuguan City in the distance, saw the signal and immediately smiled.
"It's not easy!
"The Ming Dynasty has been fighting with the alien beasts for more than ten years, and this is the first time we have caught a living divine envoy."
"Xu Shuai is still very good. He has achieved such feats just after arriving in Jiayuguan!" Geng Bingwen complimented with a smile.
"I don't dare to be greedy for credit. This is the credit of that boy Li Jinglong!"
"I think that guy is starting to gain momentum!" Xu Da sighed.
Among the juniors of these old guys, the most powerful one now is Li Jinglong.
This idiot general, who was famous in history, now really has a bit of a tiger father and no dog son.
"Commander, your troops are swift and powerful!"
"We need to kill as many strange beasts as possible before the other gods around us can react, and destroy the living forces they can control." Geng Bingwen said next to him.
"I see!"
Xu Da reacted, nodded and said: "Let the whole army attack, kill all the nearby strange beasts, and strive to push the battle line outward to the outskirts of the Qilian Mountains..."
Zhu Biao, who used his global vision to see all of this, finally withdrew his gaze when he saw hundreds of thousands of strange beasts fleeing in panic under the roar of artillery fire from the Ming Dynasty's New Army.
He really didn't expect that the battle on the front line of Jiayuguan would end in such a dramatic way.
But no matter what, after more than ten years of strategic defense against the gods, the Ming Dynasty finally won a great victory.
The most important thing is to catch a live angel.
Although this is not one of those guys who came directly from a foreign land, it is better than nothing!
At the very least, the academicians of the Academy of Sciences finally have a research target...
This battle finally ended with the complete victory of the Ming Dynasty's new army.
And this also became the clarion call for the Ming Dynasty's new army to launch a complete counterattack against the surrounding alien beasts.
In the third month after the battle at Jiayuguan, the Ming Royal Navy also showed its fangs and attacked Taiwan first, killing 90% of the alien beasts on it and the three divine envoys who led these alien beasts.
Then go directly eastward and enter Japan again.
In half a year, it swept across Japan and wiped out all the strange beasts and divine messengers in the period.
Neither Zhu Yuanzhang nor Zhu Biao was surprised by such a result.
After all, the Ming Dynasty's new army has been recuperating for more than ten years, and its current weapons and equipment have initially reached the level of World War II.
Of course, there is a more important point, that is, Daming has completely digested and absorbed the dividends that spiritual energy brought to the world after the second revival of spiritual energy, bit by bit, and transformed them into his own nourishment.
The effect of this on the new army of the Ming Dynasty is that now ordinary soldiers in the army have reached Huajin, and an ordinary household of 100 is already a ninth-grade martial artist.
When fighting against those alien beasts, they will first encounter a round of gunfire, and then when they rush closer, thinking that they can start a killing spree, they find the humans on the opposite side, throw away the rifles in their hands and pull out
After the big sword, he is still not weaker than them at all.
This is quite disappointing.
In the blink of an eye, five years have passed by in the blink of an eye. It has been fifty years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
The total population of Nanjing now exceeds 10 million, and the total population of the Ming Dynasty has also grown from less than 10 million in the early Ming Dynasty to more than one billion now.
Skyscrapers are rising one after another in Nanjing, the streets are busy with traffic, and airships fly slowly in the sky from time to time.
If it comes at night, the entire city of Nanjing will become even brighter, with colorful neon lights and street lights lighting up every corner of the city.
This place is not much different from the modern society in Zhu Biao's memory.
Even because of the revival of spiritual energy, it has added a different kind of mysterious atmosphere.
For example, the Wusheng Tower still towers in Nanjing City, and a city protection formation that took ten years to jointly design with the Institute of Psionics of the Academy of Sciences.
If there are older generations who have lived from the early years of the Ming Dynasty to the present, they will definitely feel the rapid development of the Ming Empire. No one would have imagined that the Ming Empire would develop into what it is now. Fifty years ago, no one would have imagined that the Ming Empire would develop into what it is now.
During this year, in fact, the center of power of the Ming Empire also underwent considerable changes.
Zhu Biao, who had been supervising the country for nearly thirty years, finally got Zhu Yuanzhang's approval to gradually hand over government affairs to the emperor's grandson Zhu Xiongying, making him the grandson of the supervising country.
For Zhu Biao, this can be regarded as keeping the clouds clearing and seeing the moonlight.
To be honest, he had this idea ten years ago.
It's a pity that Lao Zhu felt sorry for his grandson at that time and refused to let him go.
There was no other way, so his son had no choice but to work hard without complaint.
Now it's finally time for Lao Zhu to let go, and he can finally get rid of the heavy government affairs and let his son take over.
This is definitely a happy event for Zhu Biao.
Of course, after everyone unanimously decided, the reign name of the Hongwu Year of the Ming Dynasty remains unchanged, and His Majesty the Emperor is still the Hongwu Emperor.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not refuse.
In fact, he knew very well that as the territory of the Ming Dynasty became larger and larger, and the level of spiritual energy recovery became higher and higher, the current Ming Dynasty could no longer be regarded as an ordinary mortal dynasty.
In the future, Daming will definitely encounter more powerful enemies and more powerful alien worlds. He really doesn't feel at ease if he is asked to retire at this time.
It is up to him to grasp the real general direction of the Ming Empire.
In addition, the cabinet has also changed.
Li Shanchang, the chief assistant of the cabinet, also completely retired from old age and returned to his hometown in this year, completely withdrawing from the political stage of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang canonized Li Shanchang as King of Han. In addition to his annual salary, he also granted him 500,000 hectares of land, which was the ultimate honor.
Li Shanchang is also very practical. He has already written a memorial and is preparing to take everyone in his family to his manor in the Jiajing plane to spend his remaining years.
In fact, Li Shanchang was not the first founding father to leave the political stage of the Ming Dynasty.
Previously, Wang Guangyang, Song Lian and others had retired and returned home due to health reasons.
The political stars who are now active in the Ming Dynasty are already Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu, who were all-powerful civil servants in the original Yongle Dynasty.
Of course, what is different from the original history is that now we also need to add Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Xu Jie and other Jiajing Ming ministers.
In the past five years, in addition to commanding his army to attack in all directions, eliminate alien beasts, and expand his territory, another thing Zhu Yuanzhang did was to completely merge the ruling institutions of the two planes into one.
Today's Jiajing plane has completely become a sub-plane of the Ming Empire.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness the Crown Prince, there is no need to send him off. I really have to leave this time!" Before the space passage, Li Shanchang gave a final salute to Zhu Yuanzhang and spoke with emotion.
He has been conquering the world with Zhu Yuanzhang since he was in his thirties. Now he is a hundred years old and has known each other for more than seventy years. Now this road is finally coming to an end.
He knew very well that this meeting might mean goodbye forever.
Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao brought all the civil and military officials from the entire Ming Empire to say goodbye to Li Shanchang in person.
Hearing his words at this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang was also a little emotional.
"Such a good person, we want to thank you!"
"Without your help, we would not have the Ming Empire we have today. You appeared during our most difficult time and were our mentor. Without you, we would not have the Ming Empire we have today!"
Zhu Yuanzhang patted Li Shanchang on the shoulder.
He personally thrust a bottle into Li Shanchang's hand.
"There is a miraculous medicine in this bottle. It is a good thing recently researched by Taiyuan Hospital. It can extend your life by thirty years. Brother, this is the last benefit we can give you!" Zhu Yuanzhang whispered in Li Shanchang's ear.
Li Shanchang's eyes suddenly opened wide when he heard this, and then his eyes became moist.
He knew how valuable this miraculous medicine was.
Because he is old and has no talent for martial arts or immortality, he has been searching for this type of elixir.
In his eyes, the value of this precious medicine that extended his life for thirty years was comparable to the value of the five hundred thousand hectares of land given to him by Zhu Yuanzhang.
"You can just go and enjoy your wealth and wealth. We won't talk about those vain things. In short, as long as I am here, the Li family will be prosperous and wealthy."
"Let me give you another letter. If one day the unfilial descendants of your old Li family really destroy all the family property and titles you have earned, ask them to come to us or our descendants with this letter.
, our descendants will recognize it." Zhu Yuanzhang said again.
Li Shanchang solemnly accepted the letter, but he had no intention of using it.
He had already planned to burn the letter in front of his descendants after he returned.
Having read the history of the Ming Dynasty, he knew very well that if the descendants were unfilial, this letter would only bring disaster. If the descendants were capable, they could still live a good life even without this letter.
He now has a very open mind about future generations.
For example, his son Li Qi will inherit his title in the future, but he and Xu Da made the same choice. The title of King Han will end with him. After his death, Li Qi will only inherit the title of Duke Han.
As for whether his grandchildren can keep the Korean Duke's title, that is not something he should consider.
"Your Majesty, this is my farewell, old minister!"
"To tell you the truth, veteran minister, meeting His Majesty and becoming His Majesty's adviser is the most correct thing I, Li Shanchang, have done in my life."
Li Shanchang saluted Zhu Yuanzhang again, then waved his hand and left with the motorcade without looking back.
The civil and military officials who came with Zhu Yuanzhang to see off Li Shanchang looked at the Li family's motorcade heading towards the sub-plane, and most of them had expressions of admiration in their eyes.
He was a very popular minister and had held the central authority of the imperial court for decades.
And in the end, he was able to escape unscathed and enjoy all the glory and wealth. This may be the greatest honor for a civil servant!
So far, Li Shanchang is the only one in the entire Ming Empire who has received this honor.
But Li Shanchang was the first, but not the last.
The era belonging to Li Shanchang is over, but the next era is also about to begin.
At this moment, Yang Shiqi, Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong and other people who were qualified to compete for the position of the next chief minister of the cabinet could not help but start to look forward to it.
The chief assistant of the Ming Empire!
This location is so tempting.
Now, as the territory of the Ming Dynasty becomes larger and larger, there are more and more affairs, and there are more and more affairs to be dealt with, the authority of the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty cabinet is also growing.
In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang has already revealed to them that the main plane will soon usher in Confucianism and Taoism.
Moreover, the Confucian and Taoist talents that have been sorted out by Jiuding can only be obtained by the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty. As the head of the hundred officials, the chief minister of the cabinet will undoubtedly be the biggest beneficiary.
The scope of this benefit is very wide, including longevity, force, intelligence, and other aspects that will be qualitatively improved, as well as reputation, as well as real interests involving oneself.
No one can turn a blind eye to these things.
Even Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui are the same.
The most important thing is that the Ming Dynasty's official system underwent the second reform fifteen years ago, and the restriction that the chief minister of the cabinet can only serve for ten years has been removed.
In other words, if they become the chief minister of the cabinet and have the support of Confucianism and Taoism, they can even be in power for decades like Li Shanchang.
The temptation is really too great.
"Father, have you confirmed the candidate for the next chief minister of the cabinet?" After bidding farewell to Li Shanchang and following Zhu Yuanjing back to Fengtian Hall, Zhu Biao couldn't help but asked curiously.
"One of Yang Shiqi or Zhang Juzheng!"
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Of course, who to choose as the chief minister of the cabinet still depends on how many of the nine tripods that govern the country in the main world can be recognized by them after they are gathered together. This is the most important thing."
Having said this, he couldn't help but look at his mission again.
[Task: Gather talents as weapons] [Introduction: In the past, Qin Shihuang collected weapons from all over the world to cast twelve bronze figures, defying heaven and defeating the immortals. Nowadays, Confucianism and Taoism are newly established, and talents are scattered. He collects Confucian scholars from all over the world for his own use, and gathers talents from all over the world. Zhenguo Fang is the best choice] [Zhenguo Jiuding: 8/9] [Mission countdown: twenty years] [Task reward: Level 2 Confucianism and Taoism in this world]
"Soon!"
"One more year, it should be enough!" Zhu Yuanzhang said.