Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

The secret room next door.

The crazy Zhang Tianshi had already been gagged and thrust out.

Only the eldest prince Zhu Gaochi, the Minister of Household Affairs Xia Yuanji, and the two clerks Guo Jing and Chai Che who were responsible for recording "Mr. Jiang's Lecture Notes" were left in the room.

Well, I don’t know if they will become the authors of "The Analects of Jiang Sheng" in the future.

Socrates didn't leave any words, Confucius didn't like to leave words, and Jiang Xinghuo didn't bother to write it himself.

Xia Yuanji sighed softly: "This is indeed a good idea, but unfortunately, as Cao Guogong said, there is a risk in the middle. This risk is not sending a fleet to explore the road, nor is it a small-scale immigration in the early stage, but if it really There has been a large-scale immigration, and when the immigration is halfway through, it has not yet developed there, but it is abolished due to changes in the court, and all the previous efforts have been wasted, causing the country's vitality to be greatly damaged. This is the real risk."

"What Xia Shangshu said is indeed reasonable."

Zhu Gaochi used his arm on the armrest to rest his double chin and remained silent.

He pondered and thought.

Crossing the sea to immigrate to the New World is a plan that seems relatively easy to implement, but it is not that difficult to implement it.

Because the sea route is not a land route, the ocean is an endless ocean. When sailing on the sea, even if the shipbuilding level of the Ming Dynasty is not low, there are no charts, and there are still no rules to follow for a stable route, or it is just a blind cat who relies on good luck. To kill the rat, either send a large number of fleets to exhaustively explore the route.

The latter means huge financial expenditure and many human lives that are likely to be sacrificed in vain.

The most important thing is that from ancient times to the present, nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Chinese civilization. This is the first time that someone has proposed a large-scale overseas colonization plan.

Although Jiang Xinghuo has pointed out the way, the risk of this matter itself is too great, so great that absolutely 90% of people feel that it is not worth the risk.

Zhu Gaochi said: "Xia Shangshu's concerns are not entirely groundless."

"However." Zhu Gaochi changed the subject and said, "I think it's not impossible to try."

"Your Highness, please speak." Xia Yuanji listened carefully.

"Because this matter actually does not conflict with the voyage to the West."

"First of all, since Mr. Jiang said to go south first and then east, it is natural to collect nautical charts from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, ask the Fan people in the Ming Dynasty about the situation outside, and make adequate preparations for sailing."

"Then the traditional Chinese tribute trade area in the south can naturally be understood. When the time comes, the fleet can be divided into two at a suitable island in the south."

"The big ones go west, the small ones go east."

Although Zhu Gaochi was not physically strong, his thinking was far more agile than ordinary people. As his words continued, his ideas became more and more complete.

"Needless to say, there is no need to say much about heading west. The main purpose of the voyages to the West is to obtain wealth through trade with overseas countries and the special products of the Ming Dynasty. There are mature routes for the Mongols, Semu people, and Daqi people along the coastline. Sail to, arrive"

Xia Yuanji added: "Mamluks, the country that defeated the Mongols who conquered the west."

The Ming Dynasty inherited almost all the classics and books of the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, although it did not personally conquer the west like the Mongols, the deeds of the Mongols' western expedition, the routes they took, and the countries they encountered, especially the countries that defeated them, are still slightly unknown. Those who know something about it include the Mamluks who are said to live in deserts and oases.

According to the description of the Mongols, they have extremely elite heavy cavalry and camel cavalry, which are somewhat similar to the Xixia people's "Iron Kites" and "Poxi Army (Camel Throwing Cannon)", and these cavalry have been engaged in very strict training since childhood. In military training, you have to ride on a horse every day and wield a machete weighing 20 kilograms hundreds of times. With a Damascus knife or a large axe, you can often directly chop the Mongolian half-armored cavalry into pieces with one blow. Two paragraphs.

After receiving the prompt, Zhu Gaochi nodded slightly and continued: "The fleet heading east can follow the direction and explore island by island. Draw a chart and store supplies on each island. Even if When you reach a certain location, you feel that if you continue to explore further, you will not have enough supplies for the return journey. You can also stay in place or return backwards. And each island can play a role like a beacon on the Great Wall, as long as the communication ships are equipped , the subsequent supplies can continuously depart from the southern port of the Ming Dynasty and be transported up via relay."

Zhu Gaochi's thinking is very clear. In fact, it is just to fight against the enemy and explore island by island. There will always be islands in the ocean. If you slowly touch them, you can always touch the new continent.

Xia Yuanji also felt that the eldest prince's method was very safe. He followed Zhu Gaochi's thinking and said: "There is another method, which is like the 'Eight Hundred Miles Expedited'. The fleet exploring forward can be partly composed of prisoners." , and you only need to explore an island to be pardoned or receive a reward, which can also effectively reduce the navy's consumption."

Well, I can only say that he is worthy of being the Minister of the Ministry of Finance.

The little abacus made Vanaha Na hear it thousands of years later.

As long as they are not in the regular navy of our Ming Dynasty, not a single soldier of our Ming Dynasty will die!

If no one died, there would be no need to pay pensions. Naturally, the princes in the court would have nothing to talk about and make trouble.

As for a prisoner who is unlucky, what kind of prisoner is that? That is called the heroes of the Ming Dynasty who voluntarily accepted their crimes and performed meritorious service and sacrificed their lives for the country.

There is no way, Ming's deterrent power at sea is now limited to the coast.

In areas far away from the coast, the influence of the Ming Navy will be greatly weakened, especially those remote islands in the sea to the south, which are basically uninhabited. Even if the Ming Navy chases pirates, they rarely visit them, so there is no way to control them. Sea routes.

"Of course, there is another link in this, that is, if people cross tens of thousands of miles across the sea and immigrate there, it will be difficult for the Ming Dynasty to manage it."

Zhu Gaochi pondered and said: "Although the best way is to treat the symptoms and root causes, if the new continent that Mr. Jiang mentioned that is easy to farm exists, the distance is indeed too far."

Xia Yuanji looked at the eldest prince who was half-sentence, and wanted to take over the words, but suddenly swallowed them.

These words have profound meaning!

The eldest prince first gave reliable implementation steps for exploring new routes, but then changed the topic and talked about the difficulty of managing immigrants to the new continent.

What does it mean?

Xia Yuanji speculated that if it was for personal gain, the eldest prince Zhu Gaochi would probably hope that the second prince Zhu Gaoxu would do this.

Why? The first one is the throne.

According to the patriarchal system and the ancestral precepts of the Ming Dynasty, it was natural that Zhu Gaochi, formerly the crown prince of King Yan, would become the crown prince and inherit Zhu Di's throne.

But this is what we are fighting for now.

Why are we calling the eldest prince and second prince instead of the prince or a certain king?

Isn't it because there is no crown prince?

There is no crown prince, and Zhu Di's attitude as emperor is ambiguous, or he obviously prefers the second prince Zhu Gaoxu, who is not only "father and son" but also a "comrade-in-arms", then doesn't this matter hang in the balance?

Moreover, Zhu Di's throne was not conventional. If it were another Ming emperor who succeeded to the throne in a conventional way, even if they prefer the second son in their hearts, the ministers can still use the saying that "to establish a prince, he must establish a elder" since ancient times. Come and fight back (for example, Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty, who was hated by ministers for decades in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life).

But if you tell Zhu Di that "to establish a prince, we must establish a leader", then there are two ways to say it.

First, Zhu Di was worried and did not want another Jing disaster to happen in future generations, so he readily adopted it.

Second, Zhu Di breaks his guard and asks you if I am the eldest son? If your head is moved, your family tree may also be wiped out.

After Xia Yuanji finished thinking about the issue of the throne, he felt that there was a second reason.

That is, if Zhu Di wants to do this, it is impossible to let Zhu Gaochi do it in the first place.

Let’s not talk about who will approve Zhu Gaochi’s memorial when he goes to sea, and who will do this position that actually performs the duties of the Ming Emperor. Let’s talk about Zhu Gaochi himself. Does it look like he can go to sea?

Therefore, if Zhu Di had the idea of ​​establishing an overseas vassal, either the second eldest brother Zhu Gaoxu would go, or the third eldest brother Zhu Gaosui would go. In short, it was impossible to let the eldest brother Zhu Gaochi, who had poor legs and feet, go.

And no matter who, the second, and the third, went to establish vassal status overseas, or all of them went, the one who benefited in the end was Zhu Gaochi himself.

Zhu Gaochi may have thought about these thoughts deliberately, or he may have thought about them accidentally without thinking deeply.

But no matter what, the words had been spoken, and Xia Yuanji noticed a different atmosphere on such a sensitive issue.

And just as their minds were spinning and they were having a brief conversation, the three people separated by a wall also began to discuss other countermeasures.

Is it better to check 2,000 words in Chapter 3 a little later? The conflict between work schedule and updates is really difficult to adjust now. I will have more free time in March, and I will try to be able to code around 20,000 words a day.