After ten years of silence, today's Ming Dynasty is really strong and strong, and the treasury is overflowing.2

In the twenty-third year of Zhongxing, the total population of the Ming Dynasty exceeded 400 million, of which, the Central Plains and the immigrant population from the Central Plains accounted for nearly ninety percent, but the Ming assimilation has been so far, all unified language, unified writing, unified clothing and customs and festivals, and the aborigines of other places seem to be no different from the Han people in every move.

In order to avoid future divisions, the Ming population is collectively referred to as the Chinese nation in their household registrations, representing a unified identity with the Chinese civilization.

In addition to the population, the Ming Dynasty also made great strides in the economy and military.

Economically, the annual income of the Ming Dynasty exceeded 100 billion silver dollars last year, which is equivalent to 1 billion taels of silver before the monetary reform. If it was before the monetary reform, it was not certain whether the entire people of the Ming Dynasty had a billion taels of cash, let alone be able to collect it into the treasury.

However, with the popularization of paper money, silver and gold have gradually been reduced to ornamental consumer goods, or storage of value, although the value is still the same, but very few have been circulated as coins in the market.

In addition to all aspects of tax revenue, nearly half of it comes from the profits of state-owned banks, railways, electricity, cement, and other livelihood enterprises controlled by the imperial court.

In terms of military affairs, after ten years of exhibition, Daming's rifles, machine guns and field cannons have been exhibited for another generation, and the rifle has increased a magazine that can hold five bullets, and the weight of the machine gun has been reduced to less than 30 catties.

The field artillery was reduced to 400 catties, the caliber was reduced to 80 millimeters, and the ultimate firing range of 3,000 meters remained unchanged.

Daming can actually exhibit a longer range, more powerful, more advanced artillery, and even mortars are not impossible to produce, but the current Daming 6th Army is invincible enough, whether the weapons are more advanced or not, there is no difference, it must always be kept for future progress.

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Radios have been developed and applied to warships, the technology is not complicated, and the steam boilers of ironclads have long been modified to provide the required electricity.

By mid-April, the first warship of the Ming Dynasty to use radio technology was communicating with the shore in the sea area hundreds of miles from the coast.

"It's amazing, it's just amazing!" Admiral Shen Jing of the East China Sea Fleet laughed.

"With the installation of radios, the fleet no longer has to travel thousands of miles to and from the Central Plains, and it is time for the imperial court to fulfill its original plan and continue to use troops overseas! I haven't fought for ten years, and my body is almost rusty! Shen Jing said half-jokingly.

Since the Ming Dynasty won the Battle of Malacca and defeated the incoming European eight-nation combined fleet, the Ming fleet has become invincible, and there is no opponent around, so that the two major naval fleets have not sunk an enemy ship for ten years.

There is no battle, no matter how many ironclad warships are exhibited, there is no use.

In the past ten years, not only the equipment of the regular army of the 6th Army, but also the equipment of the Navy has also had a major exhibition.

Because of the use of electricity, hydropower stations provide a large amount of electricity, and welding technology also appears.

With welding technology, the Daming battleship got rid of the wooden main body and the structure covered with steel armor, and completely replaced it with an all-steel structure, and the level of the battleship also expanded to 5,000 tons, with a main gun of 320 mm.

A total of 10 such 5,000-ton all-steel warships were built by the Ming Dynasty. Counting the original ironclad ships, as well as many test ships built to open new warships, the two major naval fleets of the Ming Dynasty have a total of fifty-eight ironclad warships, and they continue to increase until they have enough of them to retire all the all-wooden Shenwei-class warships.

Although Daming already has a strong battleship like a steel battleship, after all, the number of warships is still small, and the Shenwei-class battleship is also the most advanced all-wooden battleship in the world, and its combat effectiveness is not weak, and Daming's maritime territory is huge, so it has not been decommissioned.

In September, the Ming Dynasty completed the installation of radios on all ironclad ships, and the navy and the regular army of the 6th Army were stepping up their training and preparing something in an orderly manner.

In the Imperial Palace of Nanjing City, Zhu Ci convened all the ministers of the cabinet to discuss the launch of another plan to expand the territory

Over the years, there have also been reforms in the cabinet, from the original six books, only six, to the current twelve, many of whom are young faces, and the cabinet has more voices.

"If the emperor wants to expand the territory, the minister thinks that he should send troops to destroy the Manchu Qing Dynasty to eradicate the troubles of many years!" One of the ministers stood up first.

As soon as this remark came out, it was immediately endorsed by all cabinet ministers.

It has been 18 years since the Ming Dynasty completely defeated the Manchu Qing in the fifth year of Zhongxing and forced the Manchu people to move westward to the Middle East. Looking at the map of the world, the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty today is not small, including a large part of the Middle East and all the territories of the former Mughal Empire.

Although it is not as big as the Ming Dynasty, it is really one-sixth the size of the Ming Dynasty, with a size of 7 million square kilometers and a population of 60 million under its rule. Although it still can't pose any threat to today's Ming Dynasty, the Manchu Qing Dynasty fought with the Ming Dynasty for decades at the beginning, and once occupied half of the Ming Dynasty, causing deep disasters to the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Eighteen years later, these cabinet ministers still have a fresh memory of the Manchu Qing and hope that the imperial court will destroy them once and for all.

Zhu Ci stumbled and disagreed: "No, I have no intention of destroying the Dolgon Manchu Qing now, keep them, I still have some use, but I can assure you that one day I will completely destroy them." Now I have a goal, the Americas on the other side of the Pacific Ocean! I call this the 'Pacific Inland Lakes Project.'" ”

Zhu Ci continued: "Now, the Americas 6 is divided by the five major sea powers in Europe, ten years ago, they dared to send a combined fleet to fight against the Ming Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty defeated them, but has not taken the initiative to respond to their provocations, now the Ming radio technology is successfully used, it is time to fight back against them." ”

The so-called Pacific Inland Lake Plan, just listening to the name, should be understandable, undoubtedly to turn the Haohan Pacific Ocean into the Ming Dynasty's inner lake, and to do this, naturally can only make all the territories along the Pacific coast into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

This goal is ambitious and domineering.

"The Emperor Shengming!" As soon as Zhu Ci finished speaking, Li Yan was the first to stand up and agree.

When a cabinet minister said that he was going to attack the Manchu Qing just now, Li Yan was silent, and now he immediately stood up and agreed, it seems that he already knew Zhu Cijiao's plan in advance, or that he and Zhu Cijiao secretly formulated it one step ahead.

Seeing that Li Yan had already agreed, and it was a plan that Zhu Cicheng said personally, a cabinet assistant and an emperor, it was difficult to change what the two of them decided together. The other cabinet ministers glanced at each other, and several of them sighed helplessly, and they all expressed their positions.

"The Emperor Shengming!"

With the unanimous approval of the cabinet, the Daming Pacific Inland Lake plan was confirmed.

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