The imperial palace of the capital, Qianqing Palace, is in the huge study of Emperor Hongzhi.

The three elders of the cabinet, the British Duke Zhang Mao, the Duke of Chengguo Zhu Fu, plus the six Shangshu, Shilang, etc., more than a dozen important ministers of the DPRK and the Central Committee gathered together to discuss national affairs as usual.

Recently, Guotai Min'an, Haiqing River Banquet, Emperor Hongzhi's mood is quite good, the smile on his face, there are fewer things to worry about, and Emperor Hongzhi is less worried, and the whole person's complexion is also much better, and his face is more ruddy.

However, compared to Emperor Hongzhi's ruddy complexion, the ministers present looked sad and sad, as if they were preoccupied.

"What does you seem to be doing?"

Hongji quickly saw the strangeness of these people, thought for a moment and asked.

It seems that there is nothing to worry about, and the Tusi problem that has not been solved in the southwest region has been quickly calmed down under the land reform and reversion.

The vitality of the Tatars in the northern steppes was greatly damaged, and now they don't even dare to approach the Great Wall for a hundred miles.

This year is smooth and rainy, Daming is thriving, and there is really nothing to worry about.

Hearing Emperor Hongzhi's words, everyone looked at each other, and finally Liu Jian stood up and said.

"Your Majesty, I don't know if you've heard anything about the skyrocketing price of cotton?"

"Well, I've heard about it, and I've seen it in the newspaper."

Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly and said.

In his opinion, the price of cotton will rise, and it is not grain, and now it is summer again, and the price of cotton will not be said to kill the people, it is an irrelevant matter, anyway, as long as the grain does not soar, it will be fine.

So when he saw that the newspaper said that the price of cotton had risen, he didn't care about it, and he didn't ask about it.

"Your Majesty, now the price of cotton has risen several times, it was only 150 Wen at the beginning, and now it has risen to 600 Wen, but the cotton on the market is still very tight, and there is no cotton to buy at all."

Liu Jian thought about it and told the current situation of the cotton market.

"Is there someone hoarding cotton behind their backs and driving up prices?"

Emperor Hongzhi thought for a moment and asked.

"It's not, it's because there's really no cotton in the market anymore, and there are too many people who need it."

"In the entire Beijing-Tianjin area, there are thousands of large and small textile mills, and the amount of cotton consumed every day is very huge.

"So there is also the fact that the price of cotton is soaring now."

At this time, Li Dongyang stood up and added.

"I see~ Rare things are expensive, does it have an impact on the lives of ordinary people?"

"It's summer, so it shouldn't affect the people, right?"

Emperor Hongzhi said as if he had a sudden realization, and then asked rhetorically.

"Your Majesty, there are thousands of large and small textile factories in the Beijing-Tianjin area, the large textile factories employ tens of thousands of people, and the small textile factories employ dozens of people.

"Now that the price of cotton has risen sharply, cotton is in short supply, and the textile mills here in Beijing have to suspend work on a large scale, and the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the textile factories to live have suddenly lost their livelihood."

"The ministers are now worrying about this matter, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, this is not a trivial matter."

Liu Jian said the matter very seriously, with a sad face.

"Hundreds of thousands of people depend on textile mills to survive?"

When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he was immediately shocked.

I didn't think there was any big problem at first, but now when I hear it, I immediately know the seriousness of the matter.

Hundreds of thousands of people depend on the textile factory for their livelihood, and once the textile factory is shut down, they will have nothing to rely on, and this will definitely be a problem.

With hundreds of thousands of people at stake, it's no wonder everyone is worried.

Of course, Emperor Hongzhi didn't know, in fact, everyone was not only worried about this, but also worried about everyone's investment.

The generals and nobles invested in various transactions at the beginning, made money, and had strong capital, and these losses could be afforded.

These civil officials are considered to be late in their knowledge, and their investment is relatively late, so in the textile industry, the civil official groups invest more, and the proportion is relatively large.

They all attach great importance to this investment, and they all have high hopes, counting on these textile factories to lay golden eggs for themselves.

Who knew that there was no cotton now, which made people's eggs hurt.

"Your Majesty, the total population of the entire Beijing-Tianjin region has now exceeded 10 million, cement factories, textile factories, shipyards, fishing industries, ocean-going trading houses, coal factories, etc., any industry, there are hundreds of thousands of people, or even millions of people working, and the population involved is even more huge."

"The textile industry only emerged last year, the scale is not too big, the real scale is the cement plant, there are tens of thousands of large and small cement factories in the Beijing-Tianjin area, employing millions of people, involving millions of people." Sissy

Li Dongyang thought about it and replied.

"There are so many people engaged in these industries~"

When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he immediately nodded slightly.

At this moment, he suddenly realized something, Da Ming seemed to be no longer the previous Da Ming, and there had been a huge change.

In the previous Ming Dynasty, it was impossible for such a large number of people to engage in a certain industry in such a small area, and the most of them were farmers, but they were also distributed all over the Ming Dynasty.

It is impossible to say that such a large crowd can be gathered in such a small place.

"It's a matter of hundreds of thousands of people's livelihoods, but it's a big deal~"

Then Emperor Hongzhi knew the importance of the textile industry, which was related to the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people, which was enough to arouse his high attention.

"Have you come up with any solution to this?"

After thinking about it, Emperor Hongzhi also asked.

"Your Majesty, although I have planted cotton in many places, the area of cotton planting is still very small, and in most places, everyone grows cotton just for their own use, and few people specialize in planting cotton to sell."

"So in a short period of time, my Daming cotton will be in a state of shortage."

Liu Jian glanced at everyone and saw that everyone nodded slightly, and also replied.

"So to solve this problem, we have two ways, one is to get cotton from outside the Ming Dynasty, and the other is to find alternatives to cotton."

"You mean the Western Regions and Wool?"

When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he immediately knew it, and soon remembered what he had seen in the newspaper in the past few days, and they were immediately linked.

"Yes, Your Majesty~"

"The Western Regions has a vast area, the climate is very suitable for cotton planting, and there is a tradition and history of cotton planting, and the yield of cotton is very high, which is enough to meet our demand for cotton in Daming."

"In addition, wool can also be used as a substitute for cotton for spinning and weaving."

Since Emperor Hongzhi saw this from the newspaper, Liu Jian did not hide it and said directly.

"I understand~"

Emperor Hongzhi immediately smiled, and then understood the cause of the incident.

"The Western Regions and the wool are under the control of the steppe people, and it may not be so easy to obtain them."

"Your Majesty, the Western Regions have been an inseparable part of us since ancient times, and during the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, the Western Regions belonged to us."

"Your Majesty is the first emperor of the ages, and my Ming Dynasty is the orthodoxy of the Han family, and I should inherit the style of the Han and Tang dynasties and restore the rule of the Western Regions."

At this time, Li Dongyang stood up and said very solemnly.

The reason is very simple, that is, the Western Regions have been ours since ancient times, there was no way before, and I couldn't beat it, but now that my Ming Dynasty is strong, it is natural to take it back, and by the way, I also patted Emperor Hongzhi's ass.

Your Hongzhi Emperor is an emperor through the ages, a total of three emperors, five emperors of virtue, how can you not renew the Han and Tang dynasties?

"Yes, Your Majesty~"

"Last year, we hit the Tatar tribes hard, the vitality of the Tatar tribes was greatly damaged, and the Warat was ambitious, and the plan was to unify the grassland, if the Warat once unified the steppe departments, it was bound to seriously threaten the northern frontier of our Ming Dynasty again."

"The minister thinks that we should take advantage of the victory to pursue and sweep away the entire northern grassland in one fell swoop, completely bring all the departments of the northern grassland into the jurisdiction and rule of our Ming Dynasty, and completely solve the problem of border troubles in the northern grassland."

Xie Qian also stood up and made a statement.

He is the representative of Jiangnan Shilin, who was originally the most opposed to the use of force, but now that the situation has changed, the Shilin in Jiangnan know that they can't fight, so they simply change their thinking, choose to cater to them, and also set up all kinds of factories.

There are many factories and commercial houses in Beijing and Tianjin, which are funded by these southerners, and Wang Hua and Wang Shouren's families are also representatives of southern Shilin.

"Since the Warat tribe has been scattered since Yexian, it is the Heshute tribe in the north and the Dzungar tribe in the west that intend to unify the Tatar tribes, and their strength is much worse than the original Tatar little prince."

"Our Ming Dynasty is fully capable of defeating them, and we can defeat them individually, and finally completely eliminate the Wara tribes, bring the grassland tribes into our Ming rule, and restore the rule and management of the Western Regions."

"Once it can be realized, from now on, there will be no boundless trouble in the north of my Ming Dynasty."

Liu Daxia, the secretary of the military department, also stood up and said.

"Tsk, it's still a stinky boy who is like a god, he really let him say it, there is no need for us to say it, these ministers have taken the initiative to ask for war one by one, and they are even more active than us."

Zhang Mao and Zhu Fu glanced at each other, they both saw a smile in each other's eyes, and they couldn't help but sigh in their hearts.

In the past, when these civil servants heard about the war, they shook their heads resolutely and resolutely opposed it, but now it's okay, they are the most active in the war, and in the final analysis, it is the same as Liu Jin said, interests determine everything.