Early that morning, a black four-wheeled carriage quietly drove along Suzaku Avenue towards the city center. The carriage passed through the wide avenue and headed straight in the direction of the Royal Palace.

In the car sat the fifty-year-old passenger, staring dejectedly at the Imperial Avenue passing in front of him.

At this moment, he is in a reverie about the past: once upon a time, the Liang family was also one of the most prominent families in the city, and the Liang family also followed the emperor and made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty.

If the uncle was not so greedy and did not fund Guiguo, maybe the Liang family is still one of the most prominent wealthy families in Zhongdu now, even if he arrives in Guiguo, if he is not blinded by the flyy little Li in front of him, how can the Liang family end up in this step?

Thinking about the past of the Liang family, Liang Tong once again turned his eyes out of the car, to this spacious street, which has witnessed the victory of the Ming Dynasty again and again, just four years ago, the Ming Dynasty celebrated its most glorious victory here - the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

On that day, when the elite of the Western Expeditionary Army returned in triumph, it also marked the true heyday of the Ming Dynasty, and His Majesty the Emperor crossed the avenue in a splendid four-wheeled carriage to participate in the grand ceremony to celebrate the victory.

At that time, the Zhuxia countries from the South Seas, Korea, Siam and other countries, and even Spain, the Netherlands, France and other countries from Europe came to the pilgrimage to congratulate one after another, and they were all shocked by the national strength of the Celestial Empire. The former is infinitely proud of being a member of the empire, and as for the latter, they feel the power of the Ming Dynasty even more.

What kind of power does the Ming have?

When James II of England went to great lengths to build a fleet and an army of tens of thousands of people, the Ming Dynasty casually took over a huge army equal to the combined land power of European countries, as well as a sea force that surpassed the navies of European countries.

But that's not all, what's even more terrifying is that the technological leadership in the past many years has made Daming far ahead of European countries in science and technology.

Railways, ships, steam engines......

All of this symbolizes the strength of the Ming Dynasty.

However, is the Ming Dynasty, who is now so powerful, willing to show his power to the people who defend them?

This time, the reason why Liang Tong came to Zhongdu again was to appeal to the cabinet and ask the Ming Dynasty to send troops to protect him.

But is this possible?

If it is because the citizens of the Ming Dynasty have been violated in a foreign land, then the Ming Dynasty is likely to send troops to protect it, and Liang Tong will never have the slightest doubt about this, after all, he has also served in the Honglu Temple, and he also knows that most of the time, the function of the Honglu Temple is to protect the expatriate.

This time, however, what he was fighting for was different from what he had done in the past.

Once upon a time, Liang Tong and the Liang family have always been an outlier existence, he did not try to rely on the influence of the Liang family to seek an official position, and even after graduating from the academy, he chose Honglu Temple, and also went overseas to serve, of course, the reason why he went overseas was not for official promotion, but to understand overseas, out of curiosity about foreign countries.

Over the years, he has served in Honglu Temple, and even to some extent the relationship with the Liang family has become more and more distant, until a few years ago, after the Liang family collapsed overnight, in the face of the reality that his father and brother were exiled and the Liang family declined, he was also extremely depressed, although everything had nothing to do with him, he was still a member of the three grades of the Celestial Empire, but he finally made a decision - to help the Liang family rise again.

For Liang Tong, who is over fifty years old, he clearly knows that the future of the Liang family is not in him, nor in his daughters, so he can only set his sights on a few sons and nephews who escaped from Guiguo.

The position of captain of the Civil Defense Team does not seem to be very prominent, but it allows Liang Huaming to have access to military power, why did the Liang family fall? Relying on royal power with wealth, it is inevitable that it will eventually be destroyed. However, the power of the military is different, especially the current situation of the pseudo-Zhou......

With his eyes half-closed, Liang Tong thought of the situation in the Pseudo-Zhou, and now the Mughals want to send troops to annex the Pseudo-Zhou, which is an extremely rare opportunity for the Liang family, and it is precisely because of this that he will go to the Pseudo-Zhou to meet the Prime Minister, and then meet with Liang Huaming, and now he has returned to the Central Capital to seek external help for the Pseudo-Zhou.

Because of the relationship between having served in Honglu Temple for many years, Liang Tong has many acquaintances in the court, and even has a personal relationship with him even with the first assistant Fang Yizhi, and before going to Honglu Temple to submit a petition, he must meet Fang Yizhi first.

"A petition from an expatriate?"

Fang Yizhi looked at Liang Tong in surprise, and then asked rhetorically.

"Ru Tao, you should know what kind of place it is! You have been in Honglu Temple for so many years, don't you know the attitude of the imperial court towards them? ”

Of course, they in Fang Yizhi's mouth do not refer to the diaspora, but to the "pseudo-Zhou".

"Don't contact, don't recognize, but conniv, because the imperial court does not want the Mughal Empire to unify Tianzhu, but hopes that the local area will fall into division and chaos, whether it is the southern princely states or the pseudo-Zhou, their existence is in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty, at least to some extent, and on the other hand, the indoctrination of the pseudo-Zhou in the local area is also conducive to the Ming Dynasty, a chaotic Tianzhu, not only the division of the place, but also the cultural and religious division, the re-entry of Buddhism and the indoctrination of Bengal, will tear the local ...... even further"

As a former high-ranking official of Honglu Temple, Liang Tong naturally knows very well that Daming's attitude towards Tianzhu, and even because of this, he will choose Liang Huaming, because he knows that in the future of Tianzhu, he knows that in a few decades, Daming will enter the fragmented Tianzhu, and in that fragmented Tianzhu, if the Liang family can seize the opportunity, maybe they will have an unexpected opportunity.

Who knows?

Although it is impossible to predict the future, one thing is for sure that in the future, the Liang family will at least have the opportunity to become the military meritorious minister of the new dynasty, and such a lord is the real lord, not like Gui Guo, who became a noble by virtue of his wealth and in-laws, and finally got carried away, which directly led to the demise of the Liang family.

The Liang family will not make the same mistake again.

But the Liang family still needs a chance, and this opportunity can only be given by the prime minister in front of them.

"Since you know, you should understand that it is impossible for the imperial court to send troops there, after all, not to have contact with them, this is the tone that has been set a long time ago, this is a matter of principle!"

Fang Yizhi shook his head, then looked at Liang Tong and said.

"A few years ago, when you resigned, everyone knew that you must have your own ideas, Liang Jia......"

After pondering for a moment, Fang Yizhi said.

"The affairs of the Liang family have all passed, as for the future, isn't the Liang family still Huai'anjun, there are some things, it's always good to put them down."

"Shoufu, the reason why the Liang family has today is that they all deserve it, and the reason why I will ask the Celestial Empire to send troops is because it is related to the interests of the Ming Dynasty!"

Liang Tong shook his head and denied the relationship between this incident and the Liang family.

"A chaotic and divided Tianzhu is what the Ming Dynasty needs, but once the Delhi side defeats the pseudo-Zhou, when the time comes, it may be a unified Tianzhu that appears next to the Ming Dynasty, which is definitely not in line with the long-term interests of the Ming Dynasty, perhaps, to help the pseudo-Zhou tide over the difficulties, it is not in line with the basic principles of the Ming Dynasty to treat the pseudo-Zhou, but in terms of future interests, it is in the long-term interests of the Ming Dynasty to make concessions on some issues."

Liang Tong's tone was unhurried, just directly telling the most straightforward truth - a unified Tianzhu is not in the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

"They're traitors!"

Fang Yizhi replied directly.

"It's a matter of principle!"

"Wu Sangui has long been dead!"

"But it still can't be changed, Pseudo Zhou's background is not correct."

"Bad birth? It's not to recognize them, it's just to send troops to protect the diaspora, what does it have to do with the pseudo-Zhou? ”

Faced with Fang Yizhi's answer, Liang Tong played a word game.

"That's what you're going to do?"

Staring at Liang Tong, Fang Yizhi asked rhetorically.

"It's for Daming."

Liang Tong still adhered to his original attitude, he looked at Fang Yizhi, and then said.

"For the long-term interests of the Ming Dynasty!"

What are the long-term interests of the Ming Dynasty?

A Tianzhu without unity, Fang Yizhi is of course very clear about this, but he is also very clear about what kind of uproar may be caused by sending troops to protect the pseudo-Zhou for the Ming Dynasty. Especially for him, the first assistant, this may even lead directly to his resignation.

"No,"

Shaking his head, Fang Yizhi said.

"The long-term interests of the Ming Dynasty? The long-term interests of the Ming Dynasty, even if there is no pseudo-Zhou, can be maintained, in the south, there are still many princely states, they will choose to stand on the opposite side of Delhi, choose to stand on the side of the Ming Dynasty. ”

Fang Yizhi said quite confidently.

"After all, the strong will never have a shortage of followers, and those people are more willing to be the pawns of the Ming Dynasty."

"So what?"

Facing the confident Fang Yizhi, Liang Tong retorted directly.

"Those princely states may follow us, or they may be willing to become pawns of the Ming Dynasty, but they are Tianzhu people, no matter what religion they believe, they are Tianzhu people, their purpose is not just to maintain their rule, in addition to maintaining their rule, they have more and more lofty goals, such as, to become a strong country, maybe there is no such idea now, but in the future, who knows? If there is a Zhongxing Mingjun, who knows if they will have such an idea? ”

Looking at Fang Yizhi with a smile, Liang Tong said again.

"But for the pseudo-Zhou, with less service and more service, they who are foreign servants, the problem they think about is always a problem - to maintain the rule, for them, all the problems, not as important as this problem, they don't care whether the "country" is strong or not, because it doesn't matter whether it is strong or not, what matters is their own rule, the important thing is that maintaining the rule can maintain their privileges, as for the strong, on the road to the pursuit of power, it is inevitable to give a lot of power to the natives, It will even lead to a large number of natives entering the power structure, which will inevitably directly threaten their rule, threaten their privileges, for them, this is obviously unacceptable, so between the strong and the rule, they prefer to maintain the latter at any cost, if the Ming can help them maintain their rule, they will be willing to give the Ming privileges, cede the land to the Ming, as long as it is beneficial to their rule, then there is nothing that can not be sacrificed, "measure the material resources of Tianzhu, tie the favor of the Ming", Over the years, isn't the reason why they are willing to take the initiative to give so many privileges to the Ming diaspora? If it were someone else, would they be willing to give so many privileges? ”

Liang Tong's answer made Fang Yizhi's gaze change a little, his brows furrowed, and then the whole person fell into deep thought. Just after a little thought, he understood that Liang Tong's words did have his truth, for the pseudo-Zhou country with an improper background, they entered Tianzhu as outsiders, "with less service and more", they will definitely not pursue any Zhongxing, what they think and think, is basically to maintain the rule and maintain their own privileges, if befriending the Ming can help them obtain these, they will be willing to befriend the Ming and be willing to defend the rights of the Ming Dynasty enough privileges.

But......

This matter is not as simple as he said, after all, up and down the Ming Dynasty, who doesn't know Wu Sangui, and the pseudo-Zhou will never be able to bypass Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui led the Qing army into the customs back then, and he did commit a heinous crime.

"Wu Sangui ......"

Without waiting for Fang Yizhi to finish speaking, Liang Tong said.

"It's been dead for so many years, what's the point of caring about this person now, and this time the troops are not to help the pseudo-Zhou, in fact, with the strength of the pseudo-Zhou, the Delhi attack can be completely resisted, after all, for so many years, the Delhi side has not taken advantage of them, this time the Delhi army is coming, it seems to be menacing, but in fact, the war is difficult to last, not to mention others, once it enters the rainy season, even the disease can make them hurt greatly, but if so, What are the benefits for Daming? ”

Looking at Fang Yizhi, Liang Tong continued.

"What does Da Ming need? is a fragmented Tianzhu, this is what the Ming Dynasty needs, as for Wu Sangui...... It's just a dead man. ”

A dead man who has been dead for many years!

Although Fang Yizhi knew that he was telling the truth, Fang Yizhi also knew very well that Wu Sangui would not be able to get around it no matter what.

Sending troops to rescue the expatriates is tantamount to directly supporting the pseudo-Zhou, this matter will definitely cause an uproar in the country, thinking of the turmoil that may be caused later, Fang Yizhi's whole person fell into silence, some things are difficult to choose, especially in the face of certain interests.

When he hesitated, Liang Tong took out a piece of paper and said.

"Actually, it's easy to ...... this matter if you want to solve it."

Looking at the map that Liang Tong took out, Fang Yizhi was stunned for a moment, and after thinking for a moment, he said.

"This thing...... It's definitely not something that someone can decide! ”