What is the position of the two senior military officials?

What is certain is to stand on the side of the military, just as the civilian government will stand on the side of the civilian government, the ass determines the head, and the class determines the tendency.

Why does the military support a military settlement, and what are the underlying reasons?

Military merit!

Only war brings military merit.

And military merit is undoubtedly more tempting for military generals, especially those town commanders who are only one foot away from being knighted.

Five years ago, the military system of the Ming Dynasty was adjusted, changing the system of using battalions as standing combat units, and changing to larger towns as standing units. Hope to be knighted through military exploits. And some of them are often just a little bit behind.

And there is obviously a consensus within the military that in the past three years, that is, from the day when Zhu Mingzhong instructed the Western Expeditionary Army to wait for an opportunity to seize Xingxing Gorge at any time and master the passage into the Western Regions, a group of town commanders have been transferred to the northwest, and they are all just one foot away from being knighted.

But all groups have their own selfish motives, and classes have their own tendencies. In this regard, Zhu Mingzhong, as the emperor, can only remain silent, even as an emperor, as a dictator and dictator, he can only turn a blind eye to this deliberate arrangement.

Each group has to give them a certain benefit, and the emperor is the distributor of the benefit.

In the past ten years, Zhu Mingzhong, who has been cautiously maintaining the balance between civil and military, although he is quite helpless, sometimes he can only chase the tide.

"Your Majesty, the reason why you can't negotiate with Jiannu is not just for the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty, but to let the surrounding barbarians know that those who offend my Hanwei will be punished even if they are far away, and those who harm my people will never let go even if they are at the ends of the world!"

Seeing that His Majesty was silent, Zhang Jinsheng emphasized another point of view.

"In this way, I can make Fanman never dare to offend me from now on!"

In fact, initially, this point of view came from His Majesty's, but time will change everything, in Zhang Jinsheng's view, eighteen years is enough to make up for the trauma of the people, so that they forget the painful lessons of the alien invasion, eighteen years ago, no one dared to openly discuss peace talks, but now, there are people in the newspaper unscrupulously discussed, the march into the Western Regions is not in the interests of the Ming Dynasty, and even blames the army's march, more because of the drive of military merits.

Why is this sound happening?

Because the whole society is changing, in the past eighteen years, the Ming Dynasty has become richer and richer at the same time, the expansion of overseas has never stopped, compared with the expansion of the land, the expansion of overseas is far faster than the imagination of the world, the overseas colonies of the Ming Dynasty, its area is even no less than the Ming Dynasty, many colonies can be further expanded, the reason why it does not expand, is subject to the population.

"It takes more than 30,000 taels of silver to enter the Western Regions, and only a fraction of it needs to be taken out, that is, 50 million taels, and the fleet of the Ming Dynasty can conquer the entire world!"

Well, this is also inseparable from the military, but ...... That's just the Navy, and the basis of the military is the Army. The deeper reason for the emergence of this trend of thought is that overseas expansion is more in line with the interests of the people, or the capital community, and overseas expansion means the market and land, and all of this is what the people need.

As far as Zhang Jinsheng knows, many of the criticisms against the army that are circulating in the world today are to a large extent instigated by the "sea power faction." What is ironic is that the core of the "sea power faction" is not the navy, but the Honglu Temple, the colonial department established five years ago, the private capital circle, and of course, the civilian officials.

That's probably the biggest joke yet.

It stands to reason that the civilian government has been opposed to expansion for millennia, but now they are advocating overseas expansion. Even though they knew that many colonies would eventually be divided, they, at least some of the civilian officials, were still motivated by their interests to support overseas expansion.

Because overseas expansion costs are low and returns are high. What's more, over the past 18 years, many civilian officials have been tied to overseas interests through factories, trade, and many other reasons.

It is the nature of merchants to seek profit, and the thirst for markets and raw materials has made them always inclined to expand overseas, rather than wasting their strength in the Western Regions, where "there is only a pile of sand and can only raise a few more sheep".

"What are you doing in the Western Regions? Is it just to add an extra piece of pasture to His Majesty? ”

With this in mind, who knows if one day they will make something more drastic. And this is exactly what Zhang Jinsheng has been worried about.

"Besides, Your Majesty, many of the accusations against the military now come from the Hai Power faction, and the expansion advocated by the Sea Power faction is not in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty, at least for the time being, whether it is competing with Spain for Luzon and Mexico, or marching into Tianzhu and Japan, the reason for their propositions is for commercial interests, not the interests of the Ming Dynasty, and the seizure of the Western Regions may not bring rich commercial benefits, but it can make the frontier of the Ming Dynasty stable for a long time, and let the Ming Dynasty avoid the trouble of confidants, so the minister thinks that the use of troops in the Western Regions, The original intention of not destroying the Manchu Qing clan and never collecting troops cannot be changed! ”

After listening to Zhang Jinsheng's meaningful admonition, Zhu Mingzhong did not speak. He naturally has a certain understanding of the dispute between the so-called "sea power" and "land power" within the Ming Dynasty. In the final analysis, the so-called disputes are all about interests.

While the "land power faction" is for its own interests, it is more for the security of the frontier, and of course, driven by hatred. The reasons for the "sea power" are too complex, but the core is "commercial interests", Mexico, India, Japan, and North Korea, all for the market, for the silver. The interests of the country are secondary, Mexico can indeed bring precious metals, but attacking Mexico now is undoubtedly hitting a stone with an egg. After all, the Spaniards have been operating in the Americas for a hundred years, with more than one million immigrants and native-born whites, and they are also initially tame to the natives. The chances of winning this war are not high now, and it is precisely because of this that Zhu Mingzhong is inclined to cooperate and coordinate with Spain, accumulate strength step by step, and wait until the balance of power in North America changes.

As for Tianzhu, their proposition is also based on the market - it is a huge market with a population of 100 million.

"Tens of millions of acres of cotton on the Deccan Plateau, a market for hundreds of millions of people, every time I think of such a huge market and raw material production area, it is actually occupied by barbaric Tianfang cultists, and the nameless heartache will always keep me awake at night......"

Naked words, directly tell the world what they want.

O my fellow citizens!

It's so adaptable!

Thinking of the disgust of later generations of Chinese people for the imperialist powers, and at the same time full of yearning for them, Zhu Mingzhong's complicated mood also seemed quite complicated.

On the one hand, he is happy to see this desire for expansion, but on the other hand, he is not unaware of the loss of national strength regardless of the overwhelming expansion of powerful soldiers.

After bowing his head and muttering for a while, Zhu Mingzhong nodded and said:

"I'm going to have a sense of proportion. They advocated the postponement of the issue of the Western Regions, which was nothing more than the hope of transferring troops from the Western Regions to various places in order to compete for more colonies, but they did not take into account another point, in the past ten years, the overseas expansion of the place has achieved quite a high effect, because of encroachment, not swallowing, the former only needs to invest a small amount of strength, gradually expanding, while the latter, but also needs to invest a lot of manpower and financial resources, and it is easy to provoke the resistance of the other party, and the soft knife cuts the flesh, and the heart does not hurt. Sometimes they put the cart before the horse. Now the money is less because the power invested is less, and the power invested is more, and the money will naturally be spent more, and in the end, it may even outweigh the losses. Let's talk about the war in the northwest first. ”

In the end, Zhu Mingzhong decided to put the issue aside for the time being, and instead asked about the war in the Western Regions, after all, he has never slackened off on the Manchu Qing Dynasty, even if he waited for eighteen years, it was because of another purpose.

"In other words, it will take three to four years at the earliest to conquer the Western Regions, right?"

"Your Majesty, the use of troops in the Western Regions is subject to transportation, even if Hami has been recovered now, but from Hami to Shengjing, there are still no less than 1,300 miles, and when operating the Western Regions, the Manchu Qing Dynasty deliberately abandoned the towns along the way from Hami to Shengjing, 1,300 miles of uninhabited land, when the army crosses, not just the supply of grain and grass along the way, or the water source is a problem, so it can only be carried out step by step, that is, with the field railway as the forerunner, the railway is paved there, and the troops advance to that ......"

Such a steady and steady battle is also expected by Zhu Mingzhong, just like the use of troops against Hami, they can use three years to plan, they would rather be stable than risk the victory or defeat of the war. It was conservative, but it ensured the victory as much as possible.

"But this is not a problem, the real problem is that even if you hit Shengjing, all the way west, except for a few cultivated lands along the way, most of them are vast grasslands, where the enemy army is, what position, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack, it is difficult to master, unless Jiannu and our army have a decisive battle, if they avoid the decisive battle, or even break into pieces, then, the war will continue for a long time......"

"It can't last!"

Compared with Zhang Jinsheng's view, Zhu Mingzhong has a completely different view.

"Over the years, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has actually been a frightened bird for a long time, why would they send people to sue for peace, and even willing to give up the Western Regions, even if the Western Regions they refer to are east of Lake Balkha, according to them, they are willing to give up these places to show their sincerity. But what's behind the sincerity? ”

Is this Manchu land cut by his ancestors, thinking of this, Zhu Mingzhong smiled coldly.

"It's panic, it's sleeplessness. Therefore, they would rather cut the land in exchange for a living and steal their lives, but I can't agree! They have to pay the price! ”

With a slight gaze, Zhu Mingzhong said with extreme confidence.

"I believe that as long as they slam through with a heavy punch, they will inevitably become lost dogs!"