The apocalypse's sword theory seems far-fetched but very reasonable, any satisfactory new thing will bring benefits when it appears, but with these benefits there are often invisible dangers. With the invention of fire, people can eat cooked food, but fires will also burn more people; He invented that a house is safer than living in a tree, but he can't hold on to a tree when he is crushed to the ground by a wall pillar in an earthquake. It's not that these new things are bad, but it's important to see the dangers and try your best to prevent them, and you can't use them lightly without taking precautions.

Apocalypse is reluctant to easily promote these new things such as guns and cannons conceived by Ni Yuanlu, mainly because he is worried that he will not be able to completely control them, and if they are not controlled, they will be spread out and manufactured on a large scale, and every army that obtains these guns is an army with abnormal threat. At that time, even if the Jurchens and Mongols were defeated with these quick and easy muskets and artillery, they would not have more strength to subdue these people, and who would dare to guarantee that the army that could not be subdued would not become a warlord on the separatist side? Rather than nationwide civil strife, it is better to operate on a small scale first, so that the lethal musket artillery units have a deterrent effect but cannot grow quickly, just like people have dogs but not tigers.

Seeing that everyone didn't speak, Tianqi knew that it was still a little unreasonable, especially Ni Yuanlu must have an idea in his heart, Tianqi said: "As the saying goes, take a step back and open the sky, if we take these things to equip the front-line troops, first, it is not easy to control, and secondly, the manufacturing capacity cannot keep up, it is better to spend a small amount of money to do big things, and steel is used on the blade." After Ni Yuanlu's things are created, small-scale equipment of the troops is equivalent to having a small but very sharp steel knife, the steel knife is not used to cut the city wall or to fight the enemy's iron rod, so it will not work and it is easy to break, it is best to give the enemy a fatal blow at a critical moment. ”

Ni Yuanlu nodded and said: "The emperor's consideration is far-reaching, and the minister obeys the order, the minister was still thinking about how to increase the number of people to make large-scale production, but now it seems that there is no need for it, and the minister is now trying to find a way to improve these ideas, and then the emperor will make as many as he wants." ”

Tianqi thought for a while and said: "People still have to look for it, but not for the person who made it, but for the person who uses it, and the number of people is still based on the number of Jinyi guards who use grenades, and the artillery and muskets are each found with two hundred, and you personally train the eunuchs and the imperial historian to jointly supervise it, and nominally directly subordinate to me personally under my command." These three troops should be refined, but not used to fight with the enemy, and only used to turn the tide of the battle at a critical moment, just like the treasure knife mentioned at the beginning, the main thing is to deter. The so-called treasure knife can not be used lightly and abused, even if it is the legendary cadre Mo Ye, if the butcher takes it to kill the pig and the peasant woman to cut vegetables, it can only be called a pig killing knife and a kitchen knife, and it cannot be called a treasure knife. ”

Ni Yuanlu asked: "Those people who used grenades in the past were personally selected by the emperor, and this time the people selected again were selected by the emperor or by the ministers and others by setting a standard?" ”

Apocalypse said: "I'm afraid it's not easy to pick enough people from the previous brocade guards, but it doesn't matter if you haven't completely made it?" Just now, Mr. Sun said that you still have a problem with what kind of grenade you make into a cannonball, and you can find someone while solving the problem. As for the scope of selection, I think that in addition to Jinyiwei, you can also find it in the front-line troops, and the criteria are at least five or more injuries, or people who bravely picked up their lives in battle. These people can't be too good at their heads, it's better not to know how to read or have any friends, and they can't be too rich or impulsive at home, and of course they don't want to be too stupid. ”

Sun Chengzong couldn't help but smile when he heard this: "The emperor's standard is a bit interesting, why should someone who has been injured more than five times or picked up a life to come back?" ”

Apocalypse said: "The first condition for the person I want to choose is loyalty, and the person who has been injured more than five times is still fighting on the front line, which means that this person will not form a gang or be promoted, he is capable and not afraid of death and has no selfish thoughts, such a person is exactly the person we need." Almost dying is equivalent to picking up a life and coming back, a person who does not spare his life, and can be encouraged by an officer to spare his life, which shows that this person is really brave and is not afraid of death after dying once, such a person should be very loyal as long as he gives him a little immediate benefit and long-term benefit. ”

Sun Chengzong nodded and asked, "Then why do you want to be illiterate and have a bad head, and there are still people who can't be too rich?" ”

Tianqi said: "Illiterate is naturally inconvenient to divulge secrets, even if someone wants to buy him with a lot of money, he can't pass on anything in writing, and his brain is not easy to brainwash, let them sing or recite a word loyal to the Ming Dynasty and loyal to me every day, their loyalty is definitely higher than the flexible brain." As for saying that the family can't be too rich, it's better to say, because the poor are less afraid of death than the rich. ”

Ni Yuanlu and Sun Yuanhua took their leave after seeing the apocalypse, and after they left, Sun Chengzong said: "The emperor is really going not to promote these things that Ni Yuanlu envisioned? ”

Apocalypse said: "There are only two conditions for popularization, one is that after better equipment is available, it can restrain the guns and cannons, and the other condition is that when my son grows up and can lead an army, I can rest assured that he will personally command such an army." ”

Sun Chengzong asked: "Does the emperor mean that the future emperor of the Ming Dynasty will only be in charge of military affairs and not government affairs?" ”

Tianqi said: "For a country to be strong, it only needs to understand two things, one is to maintain stability and the other is to develop efficiently, and stability and development are best divided into labor and cannot be grasped together." Maintaining stability requires military strength to ensure this, which is what an emperor should do, and development under the premise of stability needs to concentrate on people with wisdom and talent, rather than the emperor alone having the final say. It can be said that an emperor thinks that he is smart to engage in development, which will limit the development of his subjects' wisdom and talents, even if he can study hard and put forward a little or two good suggestions, it should be regarded as not doing his job, and giving up government affairs and only managing military affairs to ensure stability is what the emperor should do. ”

Sun Chengzong said: "The minister always thought that the emperor threw the government affairs to King Xin and Gao Panlong, they were lazy, and they didn't think that the emperor still had such thoughts. ”

Tianqi smiled: "Laziness is also one of the reasons, who made Mr. not diligent in my sect back then?" To say that it is the fault is also the fault of the gentleman. After several years of observation, I found that managing government affairs is an annoying and tiring job. The steward's stewardship made a long-term plan and came up with specific ideas, and the people in several stalls gave them a hand before letting go, and if they didn't change people, they wouldn't get into trouble. Sir, think about the gang of officials who impeached people in the DPRK and China back then, didn't they just have nothing to do because they were idle and panicked and wanted to be promoted? Now let them go to various places to serve as prison officials, just to give full play to their strengths. ”

Sun Chengzong said: "Yes, for two hundred years, you play me, I play you, and finally let the emperor decide, many emperors are annoyed by the quarrel and don't like to go to the court, the emperor let the speaker supervise people one-on-one so that they have something to say, and use the age limit grade to let them understand that they can't play others and not their turn, so it is naturally much quieter." It's just that the minister has always had an ideal when he is old, which is to lead the army to open up territory for the emperor, Ni Yuanlu's new equipment will definitely expand a lot of land for the Ming Dynasty as long as it is used, and the emperor does not want to use it now, and it seems that the ideal of the minister cannot be realized in this life. ”

Apocalypse said: "I am moved by my thoughts, but without effective and long-term control, expanding the territory can only be a flower in the mirror. Those Tessie people who came from thousands of miles to Daming, do you think their purpose is simple? They are hard, they can't be soft, they want to assimilate my Ming subjects, and when their military capabilities can achieve their goals, they must have a different face. It is said that the Dutch and the Spaniards found a large tract of land in the far east and the south, and they did everything they could to occupy and plunder it, which I consider neither inhumane nor worthless. ”

Sun Chengzong asked: "If occupying that piece of land is equivalent to increasing their territory, why does the emperor think that it is worthless?" ”

The apocalypse said, "How can such a place be called a land from a long distance across the ocean?" Even if those sent now are loyal to their king, will their descendants remain loyal? I dare to conclude that in a few years that land will definitely become a place of rebellion, and it is not impossible to even become a new country on an equal footing with the old empire, isn't this a wedding dress for others? Who would do such a stupid thing, I won't do it anyway, and if you have that energy, it's better to run Daming well. ”

Sun Chengzong thought for a while and sighed and said: "A very large piece of land is indeed very tempting, but I don't think it's interesting to think of going to the country for tens of thousands of miles. ”

Tianqi smiled: "Don't dare to say that if you want to talk about assimilation ability, I think I am the second, but no one in the world dares to recognize the first, because we have practiced the way of Confucius and Mencius for thousands of years." Confucius once said, "It is a pleasure to have friends from afar", which shows that his old man knew thousands of years ago that he knew that someone would come from far away to challenge him with culture, so why did Confucius say that he was happy? Because Confucius knew that these people were not opponents, the outcome was determined in advance, so he was happy. ”

Sun Chengzong blinked his eyes and said: "The emperor is joking about Sage Kong, which means that the emperor is confident that he has seen the flaws of the Taixi people, where are the flaws of the Taixi people?" ”

The apocalypse said: "If nothing else, let's talk about religious beliefs, because they believe in God and reject other religions and say that others are infidels. 'The sea is tolerant of all rivers, and tolerance is great; The wall is thousands of feet, and there is no desire to be rigid. If these people are not inclusive, they cannot respect other people's history and culture, and how can they assimilate others if they only talk about how good they are and how they constantly belittle others? ”

Sun Chengzong nodded and said: "The emperor was relieved when he said this, but when the emperor began to talk about control methods, I don't know what kind of control means the emperor thinks can continue to expand the territory?" It's too far away, not to mention that the territory around it should always expand, right? ”

Tianqi said: "I think that the main thing is the people, and when there are more people, they will naturally continue to expand their living space, and we must first train enough troops who are both loyal and capable, and the army will occupy a piece and the people will follow up with a piece, and we don't need to occupy a lot at a time, but if we occupy it, we will not leave, we must thrive there." The common people are more nostalgic for their homeland, and the only ones who can be used for real life are soldiers, prisoners, and bold and far-sighted people, but the effect is not very good after trying once. Now we must first increase the production of grain and promote the level of medicine, and the people of the Ming Dynasty will have more life and less death, and when the time comes, they will raise their eyes and look outward without the need for me to order. ”