Chapter 1974
Late Ming Dynasty 10
Liu Dong met the strong and powerful Nurhaci and saw that Nurhaci was unstoppable and would unify the Northeast.
Zhu Youjian frowned. Nurhaci was extremely ambitious. He had unified the area outside the Great Wall, and he was afraid that he would covet the area inside the Great Wall.
The Later Jin army was brave and skilled in battle, while the Ming army was corrupt and incompetent, with the upper echelons being greedy and the lower echelons being cowards. How could they possibly fight against the Later Jin army?
Zhu Youjian harbored murderous intent towards Nurhaci.
He shared this idea with Liu Dong and Liu Yinxia.
Liu Tong gave Zhu Youjian a thumbs up, saying that he was indeed worthy of being the future emperor and knew how to solve problems at their root.
That night, Zhu Youjian sneaked into Nurhaci's tent and easily dealt with him.
After Nurhaci's death, the Later Jin dynasty fell into chaos.
The tribes he had previously subdued had not all rebelled, but most of them no longer obeyed the Later Jin's orders.
At this time, Huang Taiji was still a boy, and Dorgon was even younger; neither of them had the ability to seize the position of Khan.
Ultimately, Chu Ying succeeded Nurhaci as ruler.
However, his methods and abilities were far inferior to those of Huang Taiji, and he was simply unable to subdue the various tribes.
The area outside the pass became a disorganized mess.
Unification would not be possible for at least several decades, thus reducing the threat to the Ming Dynasty.
The three wanted to stay in the area beyond the Great Wall for a while longer when they suddenly received a letter that Zhu Youxiao was dying and that Zhu Youjian should return to the capital immediately.
Zhu Youjian was greatly alarmed and immediately took Liu Yinxia and the other person back to the capital.
They even abandoned their comfortable carriage and hurried back to the capital.
Finally, before Zhu Youxiao breathed his last, Zhu Youjian entered the palace.
Half a day later, the sound of a death knell echoed from the palace.
Zhu Youxiao died, and Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne.
After Zhu Youjian ascended the throne, he bestowed the title of Empress Liu Yin Xiawei upon her and refused to allow other women to enter the palace.
Just kidding, he can't beat the Empress.
What if he finds another woman and the Empress gets so angry that she beats him up?
Officials, of course, would not give up the idea of sending their daughters into the palace to gain wealth and status, and they all submitted memorials to impeach the empress for being unvirtuous.
Zhu Youjian summoned the Imperial Guards to the court, loudly proclaimed the crimes committed by the ministers who had forced the emperor to choose women for the palace, and presented the evidence.
The emperor immediately issued an order to arrest these officials and throw them into the Jinyiwei prison.
Everyone knows that once someone enters the Eastern Depot or the Embroidered Uniform Guard's prison, they can forget about ever getting out.
After that, no one dared to let the emperor choose women anymore.
The empress had given birth to five sons and two daughters for the emperor, which was quite a lot. There would be plenty of heirs in the future, so the court officials could no longer use the issue of offspring to pressure the emperor to find other women.
But that's a story for later; at this point, Liu Yinxia is only newly pregnant.
Although she was pregnant, Liu Yinxia wouldn't stay obediently in the palace; she had things to do.
Zhu Youjian told him about the Carol wool sweater, and Liu Yinxia took on the job, building a wool products factory on the border.
The factory bought wool from the grassland people in large quantities, and in order to earn more money, the people on the grassland all started raising sheep in large numbers and abandoned raising horses.
Without horses, the number of cavalry is reduced, so how can they fight?
Of all the people on the grassland, only Bumbutai understood the consequences of this matter.
She confided her concerns to her father, Borjigit Zaisang.
Zaisang ordered his tribe not to raise sheep in large numbers, stipulating that each family could only raise three or four sheep.
The people of other tribes all raised sheep, which they could earn a lot of money each year, and then used to buy many things brought from the Central Plains at the border trade market.
The people of those tribes were living better and better lives, which made the people of Khorchin extremely envious.
The money they earn from exchanging wool each year is so little that it's not enough to buy many good things from the Central Plains.
Seeing the people of other tribes wearing the brocade of the Central Plains, drinking the fine wine and tea of the Central Plains, and eating the rice and wheat flour of the Central Plains... the people of Khorchin became dissatisfied with their tribal leaders.
This resentment deepened as other tribes prospered, eventually erupting. Zaisang was ousted from his position as chief, and Bumbutai's family blamed him for everything, subjecting him to various forms of abuse and beatings.
Unable to bear it any longer, Bumbutai one day rode his pony away from Horqin and began wandering the grasslands.
She was lucky enough to meet Dorgon, who was also a wanderer who had left home.
The two traveled together and became a couple.
Without a third party, they supported each other and walked hand in hand through life.
Borjigit Zhe Zhe did not marry Huang Taiji, but instead became Chu Ying's concubine.
She remained childless throughout her life and died quietly in Chu Ying's backyard.
The advent of sweaters and long johns has saved many people from freezing to death in winter.
Sweaters are very warm and inexpensive, so ordinary people can afford to buy several.
Some families with very poor financial conditions cannot afford to buy sweaters and can only buy some low-quality yarn to knit their own sweaters.
We have now entered the Little Ice Age, and the winters are very cold.
In previous years, many people would freeze to death every winter, but this winter, the total number of people who froze to death across the country was only a little over a hundred.
As soon as Zhu Youjian ascended the throne, Liu Qin presented him with sweet potatoes.
The yield per acre of sweet potatoes was astonishing.
Zhu Youjian was overjoyed and bestowed a marquisate upon his brother-in-law, also appointing him to oversee the promotion of sweet potatoes so that people throughout the land could enjoy them.
Liu Yinxia gave birth when the sweet potatoes were harvested.
She gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.
This is an auspicious sign!
Zhu Youjian was overjoyed and granted a special imperial examination.
After five rounds of examinations, the successful candidates entered the Hall of Preserving Harmony to begin the final palace examination.
Zhu Youjian sat in the head seat, and his internal energy made his five senses extremely sharp, so he could clearly see the appearances of all the Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations).
One of the familiar faces: Xia Xueyi!
After returning home, Xia Xueyi took the county examination and topped the list.
He then participated in the prefectural and provincial examinations and became a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial examinations).
But he failed the imperial examination.
He returned home and studied diligently, determined to pass the imperial examination in three years and live up to his teacher's expectations.
As a result, the emperor held a special imperial examination only a year and a half later.
Xia Xueyi bid farewell to her parents, sister, and brother-in-law and headed to the capital.
His older sister is married and has a loving marriage with a lovely little daughter.
Whenever Xia Xueyi saw this scene, a complex emotion would well up in her heart, as if everything before her eyes was a dream.
Xia Xueyi passed the provincial examination smoothly and entered the palace to participate in the palace examination.
He didn't even look at what the emperor on the throne looked like; his mind was entirely focused on the exam questions.
Zhu Youjian originally wanted to go over and see how Xia Xueyi answered the questions, but he was afraid of scaring Xia Xueyi and affecting his answering, so he could only endure it until the exam was over.
Xia Xueyi did well this time and made it into the top twenty.
Zhu Youjian, out of personal interest, gave the third-place title of scholar to Xia Xueyi.
The candidates stood in the square outside the Hall of Preserving Harmony, listening to the announcer read out their rankings.
"Third place in the first-class ranking, and third place goes to Xia Xueyi from Jiangnan!"
Hearing her name called, Xia Xueyi happily clenched her fist.
He lived up to his master's teachings. (End of Chapter)