Zhu Ying's training was certainly not designed to match the military parades of later generations. To reach that level, even the current elite troops of the Ming Dynasty would have to persist in continuous hard training for at least half a year.

It only needs to reach the level of military training that Zhu Ying once received. For today, it is completely enough to intimidate the tributary foreign countries.

Besides, there are still more than three months until Zhu Yuanzhang's birthday, so it is entirely possible to organize a grand military parade.

After Zhu Ying's first training in the palace, a rumor began to spread in the palace, which Zhu Yuanzhang had never expected.

"That's my eldest brother. Am I seeing things? That's my eldest brother."

"Is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince resurrected, or is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's death actually a hoax? Why is this happening?"

"That's His Royal Highness. After yesterday's training, although I was very tired, I still went to the Renzhi Hall. What is now in the Renzhi Hall must be fake."

"Maybe he just looks like the Crown Prince?"

"Silly, I am ashamed to be with you. Those who were training yesterday were all imperial guards. Several centurions I know were among them. Apart from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who else is qualified to train the imperial guards?"

"Yes, it must be His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Father would never hand over the training of the Royal Guards to a stranger. I was very close to the training yesterday and saw it clearly."

At dawn the next day, many princes and grandchildren gathered together to discuss the matter.

I have to sigh that the power of gossip is infinite. Everyone was exhausted yesterday, but today everyone is still in high spirits.

The reason for this is entirely because of the gossip about His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. They have lived in the deep palace for a long time and have relatively few channels for information.

So when I first saw Zhu Ying, I directly defined it as the resurrection of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

"But I feel that my elder brother seems to be much younger." A prince said with some confusion.

"Nonsense, we have already been able to come back to life, so how difficult is it to return to youth?" said another prince disdainfully.

After hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.

"What do you think? Will the eldest brother come here today?" a prince asked.

"Of course we will come. Father asked us to follow the training. If it weren't for my eldest brother, who would have the courage to do so? But speaking of it, this training is very novel. It seems that there is great power when walking."

One of the princes affirmed first, and then sighed, as if he understood the inner meaning of his father's words.

Many princes nodded.

They were very resistant at first, but yesterday evening, all the teams began integrated training. That scene was something that everyone will never forget.

That shocking feeling is especially clear when they participate in it.

Just simply walking and lining up, the majesty of the soldiers and the deterrence of the army were fully demonstrated. This was simply unimaginable for them.

"I think what Father wants is for us to experience it firsthand. When we are enfeoffed, we should use this method to train our soldiers."

"If I have such a large army at my disposal, when I become a vassal, I can suppress anyone who dares to disobey my king. It would be so comfortable."

The princes began to chat excitedly. Their greatest hope was to be crowned as princes after they came of age.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's current regulations, a prince can have three guards and can control an army of 16,800 people.

The number of soldiers training together today is not much different.

After yesterday's shock, all that remains is excitement.

Of course, this is the treatment only for the princes. Among these thirty people, there are only about ten princes, and the rest are illegitimate grandchildren of the emperor, who look at them with envy.

Even though they all belong to the royal family, there are clear differences between them, and the levels of the princes are certainly different.

"Brother Quan, why don't you say anything? Your father values ​​you so much, I'm afraid it won't be long before you can become a fiefdom." A prince asked Zhu Quan.

Among these princes and grandchildren, the one with the highest rank was Zhu Quan.

Although Zhu Quan, as the seventeenth prince, was fourteen years old this year, about the same age as the other princes, he was already named Prince of Ning and given the fiefdom of Daning last year, in the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu.

It was close to Mongolia, so many princes naturally understood the favor their father showed them and were extremely envious. Even the older princes spoke very politely.

"Nothing, stop chatting. It's almost dawn, so we should hurry back to the formation. Father must take this very seriously. If the coach finds out and reports it, I'm afraid we won't all be happy."

Zhu Quan felt somewhat embarrassed and could only say a few words and let everyone disperse.

He was embarrassed not because of other periods, but because of everyone's speculation about the commander. As one of the few people who knew about Zhu Ying's existence, Zhu Quan couldn't directly reveal Zhu Ying's background.

Perhaps the emperor had some ideas about this, but when he heard everyone speculating that his eldest brother Zhu Biao had come back to life and regained his youth, he didn't know how to respond.

Like Zhu Quan, there are also Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Yunhuan.

Zhu Yunwen remained silent. The princes and grandchildren standing around him all avoided him. Who in the palace didn't know about the enthronement of the crown prince?

Zhu Yunhuan's face turned red. He wanted to tell everyone about his elder brother many times, but he held it back.

If he hadn't practiced too hard yesterday, he would have wanted to go play with his elder brother in the evening.

After hearing Zhu Quan's words, many princes dispersed.

We haven't been crowned kings yet, and we don't have a fiefdom yet. If we leave a bad impression on our father, the emperor will give us a shabby fiefdom, and we probably won't even be able to afford guards.

The salaries of the princes' guards all come from the fiefdoms. If the money and taxes are not enough, even if there are three places for the guards, they cannot be supported.

In fact, except for the King of Sai, most vassal kings rarely have three guards fully staffed. Generally, having one guard post is considered good.

If it is really a poor village, out of the 16,800 places, the actual number of people is only 1,800, which is just for show.

This is not the Ming Dynasty after Zhu Di's rebellion. According to the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang, in addition to the princes, the princes of the counties can also command the troops. Although there are not many, they are basically the same as the organization of a garrison, that is, a full staff of 5,600 people.

However, it is difficult for a vassal king to maintain an army, let alone a prince as the heir of a vassal king. Most of them are just in name only.

Except for a small number of people who can achieve it, in the current Ming Dynasty, being able to maintain the expenses of the mansion is considered good, and 90% of it is a face.

Moreover, if a prince has many sons and brothers, even if he is a prince of a county, it would be considered good if he had a county or kingdom with a small county as his fiefdom.

Of course, those who can live in the palace, even if they are the emperor's grandsons, are the legitimate sons of princes. Illegitimate sons are not qualified.

The illegitimate sons of princes were granted the title of General Guarding the Country, and all the sons of the General Guarding the Country, regardless of whether they were legitimate or illegitimate, would no longer inherit the title, but would all be demoted to General Auxiliary Country.

You are also given military power, but whether you can afford it depends on yourself.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang treated all his descendants very well. At least all of them could get a salary in the court.

In other words, no matter how many children are born, the imperial palace will be responsible for paying for it, and all the descendants of the Zhu family will not starve to death.

The millions of royal families in the late Ming Dynasty were called the Zhu Ming Dynasty, which came from this.

It’s just that Zhu Di himself was a vassal king, so he was worried.

This cut off the retreat of these descendants and forbade them to do anything, causing the royal family to lose their direction. They had been living a life of idleness and waiting to die since they were born, and had no other options except to have children.

Obviously, Zhu Yuanzhang did not think so. In Zhu Yuanzhang's opinion, whether it was military power or internal affairs, he would try his best to let the descendants of the royal family take charge, because his own talents were the most reliable.

This is also why Zhu Yuanzhang proposed that Zhu Ying be responsible for training all the princes and grandchildren.

These princes and grandchildren of the emperor would become the backbone of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

Soon, the drill began.

However, to the surprise of all the soldiers, after the formation was arranged, the first thing they did was not to stand at attention, but to eat breakfast.

This is very unexpected.

Even the emperor's personal guards had two meals a day, with breakfast usually at 11 o'clock and dinner at four or five in the afternoon.

It’s only early morning, how come we already have breakfast?

The big white buns with meat filling, paired with white rice porridge, are so delicious.

Each soldier had three big buns and a bowl of porridge.

The food was brought by the logistics soldiers, so the soldiers were not polite at all. They were already starving after a night of eating and finished it all in one go.

There is also a time limit for breakfast, and the dishes will be collected after a quarter of an hour.

Afterwards, the coaches knelt on one knee and began to shout: "Thank you for the reward, Commander! Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

Seeing that the coach had taken the lead, many soldiers knew that this was the commander's arrangement. They did not hesitate and shouted excitedly:

"Thank you for the reward, Commander! Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

"Thank you for the reward, Commander! Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

"Thank you for the reward, Commander! Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

There were three consecutive shouts, and the sound spread throughout the entire palace. Whether it was the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang who was reading in the Jinshen Hall, or the civil and military officials who were queuing in front of the Fengtian Gate, they could all hear it very clearly.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt the excitement in the voice, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly. He took a bite of the big white meat bun and drank a sip of the vegetable and lean meat porridge.

His steamed buns and meat porridge were carefully prepared by the chef sent by his eldest grandson. The aroma alone made Liu He, who was standing next to him, swallow his saliva secretly many times.

Needless to say, the other eunuchs who were serving had already begun to secretly wipe the saliva that kept overflowing with their sleeves.

Outside the Fengtian Gate, Lan Yu was standing at the head of the five senses. When he heard the voice, his face was filled with joy.

Of course Lan Yu knew about the training of the Imperial Guards, including that of the Black Armor Guards.

But until now, Lan Yu has never seen it.

What made him happy was not the result of the training, but the fact that Zhu Ying began to control the military power, which meant that the day when Zhu Ying would be enthroned as the Crown Prince was not far away.

In recent days, after the morning court session, Lan Yu would go out for a drink with the Huaixi nobles who were still in the capital. He basically informed the leading officials about Zhu Ying's situation.

Everyone was also very excited, as this meant they had someone to pledge their loyalty to again.

In fact, all the military generals were not very friendly to Zhu Yunwen. The main reason was that Zhu Yunwen's contempt for military men was too obvious.

This also led to the lack of familiarity and closeness between the generals and Zhu Yunwen.

But when it came to Zhu Ying, it was a completely different situation. With Lan Yu, a relative by marriage, as a bridge, many generals felt that he was one of their own.

At that time, under the rule of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty still valued military power over civil officials, and most military generals treated civil officials in a mediocre manner.

That's why he had a very bad impression of Zhu Yunwen, who was close to the civil officials.

Zhu Yuanzhang certainly understood these aspects. If it had been before Zhu Yunwen came to power, he would have slaughtered military generals on a large scale. Otherwise, the Lan Yu case alone would not have implicated 15,000 people.

Even a famous general like Feng Sheng, who had difficulty finding an excuse, was eventually executed by Zhu Yuanzhang.

This is also to ensure that the grandson can concentrate all power in his own hands.

…

After standing at attention, Zhu Ying left.

The rest can be left to the coach transferred from Xuanjiawei.

Of course, the loud shouting from the coaches today was secretly done by him, but he did not say it explicitly. He just hinted at the two chief coaches transferred from the Xuanjia Guard.

Anyone who can make it to the rank of a thousand households is generally not too bad when it comes to social skills. A few hints will suffice, but saying it directly would be too embarrassing.

If the two captains didn't understand Zhu Ying's meaning, that didn't matter, it would be fine if they could be replaced with two who could understand it.

After leaving the palace, Zhu Ying first went to the sweet potato plantation.

Sweet potatoes are still very important. In fact, Zhu Ying herself didn't really want to come. After all, there was no need to worry too much about crops like sweet potatoes. It's just that the old man was quite nervous and urged Zhu Ying to go and check on them every day.

They were afraid that something unexpected would happen, as it would affect the lives of millions of people in the future of the Ming Dynasty.

After the inspection, it was the Gunpowder Department that Zhu Ying was most concerned about.

The matchlock gun occupies an extremely important position in Zhu Ying's heart. It is the magic weapon for the Ming Dynasty to expand outward in the near future.

Because in Zhu Ying's mind, in the next five years, it would be impossible to launch a large-scale invasion into other places except Japan. Even in Japan, the number of soldiers would be controlled at around 300,000.

Instead of an army of 500,000 or 600,000.

The entire Ming Dynasty, including the soldiers stationed in farmlands, had only about 1.2 million soldiers, and the 600,000-man army was half of the Ming Dynasty's national strength.

Even if we win a battle, it will be a huge loss, not worth the gain, and will deplete the Ming's national strength.

In Zhu Ying's mind, war is the continuation of politics, and there is no need to fight a meaningless war.

In history, Zhu Di led an army of 600,000 and personally led five expeditions to Mongolia. He almost wiped out Zhu Yuanzhang's wealth, but still failed to conquer the country.

It took nearly 400,000 troops to conquer Annan.

The people of the entire Ming Dynasty were in a state of despair. It was only later that Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji gave the people a chance to recuperate, otherwise the Ming Dynasty would have been plagued by peasant uprisings everywhere.

But with the matchlock gun, things were different. Zhu Ying could completely develop small-scale operations.

For example, a scale of tens of thousands of people was still very easy for the Ming Dynasty and there was no pressure at all.

And with the cooperation of muskets, there are 3,000 musketeers among 10,000 people, which is too easy for many small countries.

Moreover, with the support of musketeers, overseas trade can also be developed very effectively.

Zhu Ying was prepared to curb the later colonization and the emergence of capitalism, not in the form of civilian activities, but in the form of royal chambers of commerce and fiefdoms among kings.

Finally it was introduced into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, the territories once ruled by the Mongol Empire were theoretically all inherited by the Ming Dynasty, and it had a legitimate reason to do so, so it could confer titles on many of the emperor's sons and grandsons.

It can also be used to export Han culture to the whole world and educate the barbarians in the four corners of the world.