August, the thirty-sixth year of Hongwu.

Zhu Su, who had been studying rice in the Huguang region, returned to Beijing.

Although most of the Ming Dynasty's territory was used as a granary, the cultivation of high-quality rice has never been outdated, and it is also the basic basis for the survival of people all over the world.

When Zhu Su returned to Beijing, he would be summoned into the palace as soon as possible.

Zhu Ying naturally attaches great importance to such agricultural talents.

"Uncle Fifth has been gone for several years. I miss him very much."

Zhu Ying smiled and said to Zhu Su, asking him to follow her into the study.

The palace maid also immediately brought hot tea.

"Thank you for your concern, Grandson. This time I went to Huguang and harvested a lot. According to the rice hybridization method provided by Grandson, many high-quality rices have been developed. The yield is steadily increasing every year. However, we have not found a suitable way to deal with insect pests."

"The locust plague is particularly large, and it can only be alleviated by killing it with human power."

"If we can find a way to kill the insects, the rice yield will definitely increase. Unfortunately, there is no idea in this regard at present."

"The locusts are only eaten by toads and some birds, so in the Huguang region, I asked many farmers to raise more of them, which can help reduce some pests."

When he saw Zhu Ying, Zhu Su couldn't help but start telling him about some of his experiences in Huguang.

Although Zhu Su was now dressed in silk and satin, his complexion was dark and his skin was rough, and he did not look like a pampered person at all.

This is the real him going to the fields, immersed in research all day long, which won Zhu Ying's deep admiration.

"The locust plague is indeed difficult to deal with. It is almost impossible to completely eradicate it. Being able to mitigate the damage is already very good."

"I'm in the capital, and I heard that Uncle Wu's rice research has made a breakthrough, and the yield of the experimental fields is rising every year. This is really a great thing. Uncle Wu has made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty."

"It's just that I have limited ability in this area, so I can only rely on Uncle Wu to explore on my own."

Zhu Ying offered tea instead of wine to Zhu Su.

"We cannot allow our great-grandson to behave like this." Zhu Su said hastily.

The main reason why he returned to Beijing this time was because Zhu Ying was about to ascend the throne, and now the research has reached a certain bottleneck, and it is not possible to gain anything by just staying there.

Zhu Ying said, "One person's plan is short, and two people's plan is long. It's rare for Fifth Uncle to come back this time, so you can go to the Agricultural School more often. There are already many outstanding students there, and they are familiar with agriculture."

A long time ago, Zhu Ying opened an agricultural school, which was then taken charge by Zhu Su.

Obviously, Zhu Su was only a research talent. He was much more rigid in teaching, which made Zhu Ying helpless.

There is no other way, so we can only let Zhu Su hold this title, which is equivalent to the concept of honorary principal, and then train other teachers and students.

"This time when I come back, I plan to write down some of my thoughts, and it would be best if I could turn them into a book."

"There are so few books on agronomy that there is nothing to study. As the saying goes, those who came before us plant trees so that those who come after us can enjoy the shade. Now I can only plant trees first."

Zhu Su said somewhat helplessly that with the development of agriculture till now, there are very few classic books, and many people who understand agronomy may not be able to read, so they rely entirely on word of mouth.

It is extremely difficult to form a complete set of guidelines.

Zhu Ying said: "Recently, a scientific academy was established in the palace. It is about various disciplines, including agronomy, and it is recruiting people from all over the country."

"I am also planning to create a book that will summarize all the knowledge in the world. This will make it much easier for future generations to search and study, and it will also allow some precious knowledge to be preserved."

"Currently, this work is being led by Liu Sanwu from the Ministry of Education. He is gathering scholars from all over the world to complete it together."

It was impossible for Zhu Di to quell the rebellion, but the Yongle Encyclopedia still had to be compiled.

In fact, Zhu Ying has been preparing for this work for a long time, but considering that the territory of the Ming Dynasty is constantly expanding and the knowledge of other civilizations is being integrated, the recruitment of talents is now the mainstream.

Now, we can basically start.

This is not a series of books but a classified book. A classified book is a book that classifies, concentrates and compiles some fragmentary materials from various books, including heaven, earth, people, objects and events.

It collects almost all the books that can be collected from ancient times to the present, and copies the valuable fragments from these books, including some literature, art, history, geography, philosophy, natural sciences since ancient times, and even some religions. Rich information in all aspects is included.

In other words, it's an encyclopedia.

Zhu Su was naturally very interested in such things, because many passages in the books also involved agronomy, which was much more convenient than looking up information himself.

…

Under the city of Nanjing.

More than a dozen Jinyiwei rode into Zhengyang Avenue on horseback.

Seeing the brocade clothes they were wearing, the people around them immediately moved away.

Even now, the reputation of Jinyiwei is terrifying enough. Although Jinyiwei rarely handles cases concerning civilians, it does not mean that they have no law enforcement power over civilians.

No matter how vicious a criminal is, he will become an honest man in front of the Jinyiwei.

If you kill someone, only you will die. Once the Jinyiwei interrogate you, your entire family may be executed and all nine generations of your clan may be exterminated.

However, these Jinyiwei had various injuries on their bodies, their cloaks were stained with blood and even had many holes.

The leader was Song Zhong.

After entering Nanjing city with a dozen Jinyiwei, Song Zhong finally breathed a sigh of relief and immediately fell off his horse.

"Mr. Pacification Envoy!!!"

The Jinyiwei next to him immediately emitted a terrified voice.

…

Jinyiwei Yamen.

Zhu Ying looked at Song Zhong lying unconscious on the bed, and waited for the imperial physician to change the medicine for his wound before asking, "How long will it take for him to wake up?"

The imperial physician replied respectfully, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince, Song Zhenfu suffered multiple sword and knife wounds, and an arrow pierced his chest. Fortunately, it avoided his internal organs, but he lost too much blood, which led to his coma."

"Just wait and recuperate for a day or two, and you should be able to wake up."

Zhu Ying nodded, as long as it was nothing serious.

More than an hour ago, Zhu Ying received news about Song Zhong, saying that he had fainted on Zhengyang Avenue.

This made Zhu Ying suddenly angry.

More than half a year ago, Zhu Ying sent Song Zhong to investigate the corruption and abuse of power of the Jinyiwei in various places, and their interference in military power. Originally, Zhu Ying believed that this was just the result of corruption among the Jinyiwei in some places.

But Song Zhong was like this, so it was obvious that there were more people behind this than he imagined.

Without being noticed, an interest group has already been formed.

Song Zhong was the pacification envoy of the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty, a fourth-rank official, and also his own personal bodyguard.

With such an identity, it can be said that he can walk sideways in the entire Ming Dynasty. Even though Song Zhong is usually timid in front of Zhu Ying, anyone who can serve as Zhu Ying's guard is a big shot to others.

However, with this identity, he encountered assassinations and attacks while investigating the case, which even extended to outside the city of Nanjing.

How could Zhu Ying not be angry?

"What's going on? Tell me."

After Zhu Ying left the room, he asked the dozen Jinyiwei who returned with Song Zhong.

One of them stood up and kowtowed respectfully, saying, "Your Highness, we didn't know about Governor Song's situation. We just received a secret order from Governor Song and rushed to Chaohu to provide support."

"Then we were chased by hundreds of men in black. They were well-trained and must have been soldiers. There were dozens of brothers, and in the end, only we were left to protect Song Zhenfu and escape."

"After leaving Chaohu, we were pursued by the enemy. We did not dare to stop and headed all the way to the capital until we reached Zhengyang Avenue."

Zhu Ying nodded slightly without asking too many questions. It was impossible for these Jinyiwei to hide anything from him.

The key now still lies with Song Zhong.

He was not in a hurry, because Song Zhong would eventually wake up, and the truth of everything would eventually come to light.

At that time, those who should be killed will be killed.

…

In a house somewhere in Shanxi.

"Are you crazy, Chen Dahu? How dare you! How dare you!"

"That's the Jinyiwei Zhenfushi, the personal guard beside the current Crown Prince. Compared to him, we are like ants."

"How dare you send hundreds of people to hunt him down!!!"

"Once this matter is exposed, not to mention the nine clans, even the ten clans will be annihilated!"

"Chen Dahu, do you want all of us to die here?"

A middle-aged man suppressed his voice and asked hysterically.

Although he was very angry inside, he did not dare to say it out loud, for fear that it would be accidentally spread.

"What can I do? Should I let him find out everything?"

"Nine clans! Ten clans! If I die, I don't care if there is a flood after I die. If that day comes, I will let those old stubborn people be buried with me. Hey, it's really nice."

"Zhang Baidong, I tell you, you'd better pray that Song Zhong will die in my hands. Otherwise, if he really escapes into Nanjing, then everything will be over for us."

"Since we're all going to die, why don't we all die? Otherwise, how can you expect them to support us?"

Chen Dahu said this with a ferocious look on his face. After he finished speaking, he picked up the wine bowl on the table and drank it all in one gulp with an arrogant look on his face.

Zhang Baidong was shocked when he heard this: "Nanjing City! You contacted them? Do you really want to kill everyone?"

Chen Dahu said indifferently: "So what? We are all adopted sons. Why should we brothers be punished to come to this godforsaken place?"

"When we followed our foster father, everyone did some dirty things. It's just that we were unlucky. We ran into our foster father who wanted to surrender to the crown prince and took the blame for us."

"They are the ones who get paid the most, but when something goes wrong they want us to take the brunt of the consequences. There is no such thing as a good thing in the world."

"It's been ten years. Think about it yourself. How have we survived these ten years? All the glory and wealth we once had have vanished into thin air. Can I accept this? Are you willing?"

"Hey, I've already passed on the message. If they don't cover us and let Mr. Song enter Nanjing City, everyone will be dead, even these Shanxi merchants who are lingering on will be killed."

After hearing these words, Zhang Baidong, who was originally full of anger, gradually calmed down, and the fierce light in his eyes that had not flashed for many years began to reappear.

They, including some people from all over the country and even in the capital, once had the same identity, that is, Lan Yu's adopted son.

Back then, Lan Yu claimed to control half of the Ming army, and this was no exaggeration.

Even if Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to kill Lan Yu, he would have to make many plans before killing him, and he would kill all of them at once.

In the Lan Yu case, more than 10,000 middle-level military officers died almost all because of Lan Yu.

Lan Yu's power can be simply divided into three parts.

The first part came from the generals under his brother-in-law Chang Yuchun, who was also Lan Yu’s biggest asset back then. These old soldiers who had followed Chang Yuchun to conquer the world, all held important positions after the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with them are Xu Da's generals.

As Zhu Yuanzhang's right-hand man in conquering the world, almost 80% of the generals and soldiers in the Ming army had close ties with Xu Da and Chang Yuchun.

The second part comes from Lan Yu’s own generals.

After the Battle of Buir Lake, Lan Yu's reputation reached its peak, and his generals were given promotions and titles, and were given more military power, forming a huge force. In addition, he became the leader of the Huaixi noble group.

Lan Yu would naturally use his power to get his people to power. It can be said that at that time, Lan Yu had almost complete control over the Five Military Commanderies.

Therefore, if Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to kill Lan Yu, it had to be for treason, nothing else would work.

The third part is these adopted sons.

Lan Yu's adopted sons, some of whom were even a few years older than Lan Yu, were all brave and skilled in martial arts in the army, and their families also had considerable power.

Recognizing Lan Yu as his adoptive father was also for the purpose of having better channels for promotion, which was considered a strong alliance.

At that time, Zhu Ying proposed that Lan Yu sever his relationship with these adopted sons. This also caused a group of people who originally had a bright future to step down one after another, or be dismissed from their posts, or be transferred.

Except for a very small number who had other support and continued to stay in the capital, most of the adopted sons were scattered.

In fact, Lan Yu himself had no feelings for these adopted sons. It was nothing more than a union of interests, and now it was over.

Chen Dahu and Zhang Baidong are among these adopted sons.

They were transferred from the capital to Shanxi.

As Zhu Ying took action against Shanxi merchants, the original local power in Shanxi declined rapidly. By chance, the two men joined forces with some remaining Shanxi merchants.

Shanxi merchants do have unique talents in doing business, although they prefer to do business that brings huge profits.

Obviously, highly profitable businesses are often accompanied by illegal activities.

In recent years, the wealth of the country has been rising rapidly due to the lifting of maritime bans, the development of maritime trade, and some other commercial policies.

This also allowed the former Shanxi merchants to begin to revive. They established contact with Chen Dahu, Zhang Baidong, and some other adopted sons of Lan Yu, using their former influence to obtain money.