Early the next morning, Mu Sheng came to find Li Jie to enter the palace together, and tomorrow he will lead the Iron Book Army to leave Beijing, so today he will also go to Lao Zhu to say goodbye, speaking of which he was originally a hostage, but because of his special relationship with Lao Zhu, their Mu family is still very trusted by Lao Zhu.

Li Jie happened to have something to report to Lao Zhu, so after entering the palace, he and Mu Sheng came to Dongnuan Pavilion together, but today they came early, Lao Zhu and some ministers were discussing inside, and the two had to wait outside, and it took nearly half an hour for the officials inside to come out.

Li Jie is in the court, and he also knows a lot of officials in the court, speaking of the fact that after Lao Zhu abolished the prime minister, the six ministries were directly under his control, and generally there was anything to do, Lao Zhu directly ordered the six ministries to do it, and there was no need to go through the prime minister at all, as for the so-called scholars, it is still just a secretarial organization around Lao Zhu, and there is no real power at all.

After the officials left, Li Jie and Mu Sheng stepped into the warm pavilion, only to see Lao Zhu Zheng writing something on the desk, and he didn't look up when he heard them come in, but said directly: "You wait a minute, I'll finish writing this!" ”

Li Jie and Mu Sheng agreed, and then obediently stood aside and waited, and finally waited for Lao Zhu to finish writing, then looked up at Mu Sheng and asked, "Are you ready?" ”

"Grandpa Qiqi, everything is ready, the Iron Book Army can set off at any time!" Mu Sheng immediately stepped forward and replied.

"Yes, have you remembered what Li Jie said?" Lao Zhu asked again.

"Remember!" Mu Sheng nodded, then hesitated for a moment and finally asked, "Grandpa Huang, there is one thing I don't understand, and Brother Li won't tell me, so I want to ask you for advice!" ”

Lao Zhu Wenyan smiled slightly and said, "Do you want to ask, why did the imperial court spend so much effort to pass through Goryeo and the Wa Kingdom?" ”

"Grandpa Huang is wise, my grandson just wants to ask this!" Mu Sheng immediately replied, he didn't understand this question after thinking about it all night, and now only Lao Zhu can answer it.

I saw Lao Zhu pondering for a moment, and then he raised his head and said to Li Jie: "You come and tell Mu Sheng, after all, it's time for some necessary people to know about this matter!" ”

"Yes!" Li Jie also agreed when he heard this, and then explained to Mu Sheng about the silver mine in the Wa Kingdom, which only he and Lao Zhu's father and son knew, and even Zhu Di didn't know about it now.

When he heard that there was a silver mine with an annual output of several million taels of silver, Mu Sheng also opened his mouth in shock, and at the same time, he finally understood why the imperial court spent so much effort to pass through Goryeo and the Japanese State, and there were so many benefits, even if it was worth directly sending troops to destroy the Japanese State.

"I see! I see! After Li Jie finished speaking, Mu Sheng also slapped excitedly, originally he thought that he was just being sent to Goryeo, but now he finally understood that the ultimate goal of the imperial court was the Wa Kingdom, and maybe their Iron Book Army would one day land on the land of the Wa Kingdom.

"It's good to know, except for me, the prince and Li Jie, this matter is only known now, but when you go to Goryeo, you can find an opportunity to tell the fourth child about this matter, so that he can also know it!" Lao Zhu looked at the excited Mu Sheng and couldn't help laughing, when he first learned the news, he was similar to Mu Sheng.

"Yes! Grandson understands! Mu Sheng immediately saluted, and at the same time, he also knew that His Majesty told him about this matter, mainly to let himself tell King Yan, after all, this kind of thing is inconvenient to write in the letter, and it is not safe to let others tell it, in contrast, it is better to tell it on his behalf.

Li Jie saw this but smiled slightly, in fact, in addition to the Iwami silver mine, there is also a huge gold mine in the Wa Kingdom, called Sado Gold Mountain, located on Sado Island, and it is also a gold and silver associated mine, which is said to have reached the world's largest output in the 17th century.

Sado Island is said to be a small isolated island that is more likely to be occupied by the Ming Dynasty, but Sado Island is located in the northwest of Honshu, far from Goryeo, and not as close as the Iwami Silver Mine.

In addition, if the Ming Dynasty only focuses on such a small island as Sado Island, and even lets go of the Wa Kingdom, then Li Jie's future plan will not be able to be implemented, so for a more long-term plan, Li Jie temporarily concealed the situation of Sado Gold Mountain, and waited until the Ming Dynasty controlled the entire Wa Kingdom, and it was not too late to mine Sado Gold Mountain.

Lao Zhu told Mu Sheng some things that needed attention, and then asked him to go back and prepare, after all, Mu Sheng will leave tomorrow, although it is prepared in advance, there will definitely be some things, especially the thousands of people in the Iron Book Army, and the promotion of these people is not a trivial matter.

Mu Sheng said goodbye and left, but Li Jie didn't go with him, but stayed, which made Lao Zhu also look at him curiously and asked, "What, do you have other things?" ”

"Your Majesty, I do have something I want to report." Li Jie replied with a dry cough.

"If you have something to say, don't beat around the bush!" Lao Zhu waved his hand, he paid more and more attention to Li Jie, but Li Jie had a problem that he hated very much, that is, he liked to talk around the corner, which was exactly the same as the ministers in the court.

"Yes!" Li Jie agreed, and then organized the language before saying, "Yesterday, when I passed by Sanshan Pass, I encountered another prisoner who was executed, and it is said that all of them are capital crimes of murder, and they are indeed all deserving people, but at that time, I suddenly felt sorry for these people!" ”

"Pity? What's the pity of a bunch of death row inmates? Lao Zhu also asked with wide eyes when he heard this.

"Of course the death row prisoners deserve to die, but just kill them with a knife, it's too cheap for them, now the Yan King's side will soon be able to pacify Goryeo, and then he will find a way to control Iwami, then mining, smelting, etc. will require a lot of manpower and material resources, although you can hire Japanese people, but after all, it is not my race, so I think you can use these death row prisoners' waste!" Li Jie said that in the end, he also deliberately looked at Lao Zhu's face.

Lao Zhu is a ruthless person who kills people without blinking, which is also related to his experience, as a person who kills all the way to the palace from the bottom of the society to win the throne, Lao Zhu has long not put human life in his eyes, so many times he likes to use the most brutal methods to solve problems, such as killing people is the most commonly used method, so Lao Zhu can kill a lot of people when he is in power, just a Hu Weiyong case has implicated tens of thousands of people, which shows how ruthless Lao Zhu's heart is.

"You mean to convert those death row inmates to exile?" After hearing this, Lao Zhu pondered for a moment before speaking.

Seeing that Lao Zhu was not angry, Li Jie also secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately nodded and said: "Your Majesty is wise, this is what the minister means, instead of killing the prisoners with a knife, it is better to exile them to the side of the Wa Kingdom, which is overseas, without the permission of the imperial court, it is impossible for them to come back for the rest of their lives, and if they want to live, they can only rely on the imperial court, help the imperial court work and forgive their sins, and then even if they are tired to death, they will not feel distressed!" ”

In fact, this method is not Li Jie's originality, the British Empire, known as the sun never sets, is to exile domestic prisoners overseas, of which Australia is the penal colony of British prisoners, what murder, rape, robbery and other prisoners are all sent to Australia, so the later generations of Australia is actually a group of vicious prisoner descendants, most of these prisoners have various defects in their brains, and it is normal for their descendants to often do some inexplicable things.

I saw Lao Zhu show a contemplative expression again at this time, as if he was considering the pros and cons of this matter, in fact, the exile of prisoners in the Central Plains Dynasty was also very common, especially in the Song Dynasty, ordinary officials who broke the law would be exiled, and the Ming Dynasty also had the crime of exile, but most of them were for some specific crimes, and those who committed capital crimes must be beheaded.

"I need to discuss this matter with the Criminal Department and Dali Temple, but it shouldn't be a big problem!" Finally, Zhu Yuanzhang finally nodded.

Li Jie was also relieved when he heard this, as long as Lao Zhu nodded, then this matter would be more than half successful, and the Criminal Department and Dali Temple should not object.

The reason why Li Jie suggested that the death row prisoners be changed to exile is of course not the Bodhisattva's heart attack, but considering the actual situation, now the Ming Dynasty has only been established for more than 20 years, although the domestic recuperation population is increasing, but at most there are only tens of millions of people, in the future generations, it is only the total population of a first-tier city, relying on this point people want to open the age of discovery, it is really a little difficult.

Therefore, in Li Jie's view, every human life is precious, even if it is a death row prisoner, he must give the last light and heat to the Ming Dynasty, contribute to the Ming Dynasty's maritime hegemony, and must not let them die easily.

"It's a coincidence to say that, recently the Criminal Department sent a notebook, and also talked about the matter of death row prisoners, I originally planned to adopt their opinions, in addition to the heinous capital crimes, other death row prisoners can be exempted from capital crimes as long as they can raise a batch of food to send to the northern border gates, and now you propose to exile overseas, I think it is better than the proposal of the Criminal Department." Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly spoke again at this time.

What Lao Zhu said is actually the early Ming Dynasty's "capital crime of self-redemption", this is a special decree, the so-called ten evils, refers to rebellion, rebellion, rebellion, rebellion, immorality, disrespect, filial piety, disharmony, injustice and civil strife, the ten major crimes, the specific situation needs to be subdivided.

For example, if two strangers have a dispute, and then one party kills the other party, this does not belong to the ten evils, but if one party kills the other party, and then kills the other party's entire family, this belongs to the "undo" of the ten evils, and if the deceased is the immediate family of the prisoner, it belongs to the "evil rebellion" of the ten evils, which were clearly stipulated in the law during the Sui Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty also used them.

Li Jie didn't know about the "self-redemption of capital crimes", but he heard a question from Lao Zhu's words, so he immediately asked: "Is there a shortage of food in the north now?" ”

If it weren't for the lack of food, Lao Zhu would not have hit the death row prisoner with his idea.