At noon the next day, Zhu Youxiao was playing with two beauties cutting window flowers, and Wang Anlai reported that Sun Chengzong and Xiong Tingbi asked to see him. At this time, it was still within the Spring Festival holiday, and Zhu Youxiao planned to be idle for a few days, but when the teacher and Taiguozhang visited, this face must be given, not to mention that they also have nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace.

After the greetings, Sun Chengzong said straight to the point:

"Shengshang, all the Eight Banners under the command of Emperor Taiji in the First World War of Yizhou have been annihilated, and the Jianzhou Jurchens have become like rats crossing the street, and they can no longer cause trouble in Liaodong. It's just that Huang Taiji and the others have not been traced, and the old minister recently learned that they had fled to the territory of Rakshasa, and asked for instructions on how to deal with them. ”

During the conversation, a maid had already brought the meal to the table, and the two saw that it was still four dishes and one soup, and they looked at each other silently. Although Kou Yue is usually obedient, she still restrained herself in front of her grandfather, and took the opportunity to say:

"Lord Shangshu and Grandpa don't have to feel strange, it's always been like this in the palace, and it's not intentional."

Four dishes and one soup is the standard of Zhu Youxiao's daily diet, compared to the pomp and circumstance of hundreds of dishes at a meal of the Empress Dowager Cixi, it is indeed much shabby, but he was born a hard life, and he does not care about these material pleasures. At present, the new policy still needs to invest a huge amount of money, and it is necessary to save every penny for people's livelihood and science and technology as much as possible.

After a burst of emotion, Xiong Tingbi sighed:

"Your Majesty's strict thrift makes the ministers ashamed of themselves, it turns out that the appropriations of the Internal Affairs Office in the past few years have been squeezed out of the harem from between the teeth."

Zhu Youxiao didn't care about this, after all, he was used to simplicity, and said instead:

In order to prevent their resurgence, the policy of ploughing the court cannot be stopped, and anyone who sympathizes with them is a traitor to the nation, and they will be punished with the same crime.

As for Huang Taiji's escape to the north, it is not surprising, after all, he is also a generation of heroes, how can he be willing to hide in the deep mountains and old forests to survive. It's just that he knows too much about the situation outside the gates, and once he makes a comeback, he will inevitably be devastated. In view of this, I decided to release a group of captured Rakshasa generals, and at the same time send an envoy to Moscow, first, to persuade them to join forces to destroy the Junggar tribe in the northern frontier, and second, to find out the whereabouts of Huang Taiji. ”

Sun Chengzong heard that the emperor had the intention of continuing to fight, and said cautiously:

"The Holy Lord has a long-term vision, and the old minister is full of admiration, and I heard that the leader of the Dzungar Khanate, Zhuros, took advantage of the Khalkha tribe's eastern crusade to annex their territory, and his strength should not be underestimated, and the Western Regions have formed a three-legged situation of the Eastern Chakhatai Khanate, the Dzungar Khanate, and the Yarkand Khanate.

However, the northern Xinjiang is more than 3,000 miles away from the hinterland of our dynasty, and the Zungar Khanate has repeatedly sent envoys to Beijing to pay tribute. Lao Chen suggested that Emperor Chengzu's strategy of dividing the Mongol tribes should be adopted to maintain a relatively stable situation in the Western Regions. ”

In "Confucius's Family Sayings", it is said that "good medicine is good for disease, and good words are good for deeds", although Sun Chengzong's words are contrary to Zhu Youxiao's intentions, but they are still very reasonable, so he did not feel uncomfortable, but said with a smile:

"The master's insights have always benefited me a lot, and having a famous teacher to help me is like a mirror. I have deduced the course of the western expedition, if the Luros do not fight with our army, but use the vast Gobi and desert to maneuver, then our army will be in a dilemma, and if the morale is low for a long time, the morale of the army will change, and it is very likely that it will be a rout. In this way, not only will the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty be damaged, but my plan to set up a capital protectorate in the Western Regions will also be shelved. ”

This was supposed to be a family banquet, but the three of them discussed military and political affairs, and Zhang Yan and Kou Yue, who were sitting on the side, felt very embarrassed. The Ming Dynasty Taizu's posthumous training was that the harem was not allowed to interfere in politics, and the two were stopped by Zhu Youxiao several times when they left under the pretext of excuses, so they had to be busy pouring wine and food for the emperor.

Zhang Yan knew Zhu Youxiao too well, and knew that this was to use the mouths of the two adults to lobby him, once he formed an alliance with the Rakshasa in the future, he would inevitably drive the expedition in person, and he couldn't help but feel sad when he thought of this.

Xiong Tingbi, as the governor of Liao and Shen, was well aware of the threat of the northern nomads, and the Tatars, Warats, and Jianlu were all great enemies of the Ming Dynasty. Today, the Zhurus of Dzungar not only annexed the territory of the Khalkha tribe, but also allied with other khanates and tribes in Oirat, and formulated the "Mongol Oirat Code" to jointly resist the invasion and assimilation of the Rakshasas and Cossacks, and its threat was not inferior to that of Goguryeo in the Sui and Tang dynasties.

"Saint, although the Celestial Ross has the ambition to swallow the sky, it is still a small tribe after all, and even if it wants to control the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, it will take decades. What's more, their goal was to guard against the Rakshasas and Ottomans in the west, and the minister also believed that they should not take the initiative to start a war for the time being, but on the one hand, they would reconcile with them, and on the other hand, they would move the attached Mongol tribes such as Chahar, Jihan, and Duoyan back to the steppe with the Han people, so as to serve as a barrier on the steppe to resist the expansion of the Junggar tribe. ”

Zhu Youxiao thought to himself that Xiong Manzi's plan was not confused, and it had taken a lot of effort for the herdsmen to move inward, but now they want to let the tiger return to the mountain, isn't this hanging a knife above his head! Because of the old man's face, he couldn't refute it directly, so he could only change the topic and say:

"I have decided to set up a new political envoy and a new capital secretary outside the Guanguan, and Governor Xiong should pay more attention to the virtuous people, no matter what their origins, as long as they are willing to serve this nation, I will not care about the past suspicions. In addition, the imperial court has named Buyangu as the general of the dragon and tiger, and migrated 30,000 Jurchens from Zhusheli and Neyin to the area of the Yalu River, so that there are only Han people outside the border, and you can let go of your hands and feet to reclaim the fertile black land.

As for the Mobei grassland, I decided to let Lu Xiangsheng go to Xuanfu after the war to assist Dong Hanru, the governor of Xuanda, to recruit Guanzhong righteous soldiers to form Qin soldiers, and at the same time relocate 100,000 young people from the southwest to the Hetao area, set up prefectures and counties, and jointly develop the southern part of the Yangtze River with the Khalkha Ministry. ”

Hearing this, Xiong Tingbi knew that the little emperor was one foot taller, and the Jurchens had a feud with the Koreans, so letting them go to the Yalu River area was killing two birds with one stone, which was even more spicy than the previous differentiation strategy of helping the weak and hoeing the strong.

Zhu Youxiao had been planning this move for a long time, and just after the Spring Festival, he ordered Qi Changguo to go to Liaodong to count the number of Jurchen tribes, and at the same time ordered Zuo Guangdou and Zhao Yan to implement the relocation of villages in Gansu and Shandong respectively. Lu Xiangsheng went to Xuanfu as a messenger and began to recruit local warriors with Dong Hanru.

Regarding Sun Chengzong's worries, Zhu Youxiao is also in his throat, after all, Huang Taiji's destructive power is too great. In order to prevent this rat feces from ruining the pot of porridge he had worked so hard to make, as soon as Sun and Xiong left, he went to the edict prison to interrogate several Rakshasa leaders. After these old Maozi became prisoners, Zhu Youxiao first beheaded those who were arrogant and violent on the spot, and then entertained well-behaved people with good wine and food, and later distributed them to courtesans of the Wa Kingdom, gradually corroding their will to resist.

At first, these people had some scruples, and soon fell under the pomegranate skirts of the prostitutes. According to their confessions, foreign expansion was an established state policy of the Romanov dynasty, and the same thing was being done for generations. After Tsar Mikhail ascended the throne, he fought with Poland and Sweden and annexed a vast area east of the Dnieper River.

At the same time, under the guise of buying furs, the Strogonov family made a map of Eastern Siberia, used private armies to conquer the nomadic tribes of the steppe, and built Yakusk as a fortress to invade the Far East. This musketeer army of more than 10,000 people was assembled there, and under the leadership of Huang Taiji, they entered the Guanwai, intending to plunder the rich eastern towns and expand the territory of the empire.

With such ambition, Zhu Youxiao hated these invaders, and he admired the spirit of expansion in the bones of the Normans, which was similar to the Qin state, and good things should be carried forward and inherited. Although the Ming Dynasty repeatedly defeated the invasions of foreign enemies, it never thought of controlling more territory, which in itself was a kind of backwardness. On the surface, it is because the Central Plains region is rich and there is no need to occupy the wild land, but its essence is the selfishness of the imperial power, in order to protect its own interests, the entire nation is tied to the land, and the Cheng Zhu science is used to imprison people's thoughts, so that the dragon will always give birth to a dragon, and the snake will always give birth to a snake.

From this point alone, the Qing Dynasty did a better job, and through the conquest of the Kang, Yong, and Qian, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet were included in China's territory. Now it seems that these original barbaric places have become strategic points, which is the greatest contribution of the Manchu Qing to the Chinese nation.

In the face of the emperor's arraignment, Strogonov has long since lost his original violence, but still maintains the pride of defeat and glory. Although he was wiped out in the Battle of Yizhou and became a prisoner of the Ming Dynasty, he was still able to command calmly in the face of the Ming army several times his own, and almost did not let Sun Chuanting take advantage, which is enough to show that he has the capital to be proud.

"Emperor Ming, although the generals of the defeated army dare not speak bravely, but your army is not suspected of victory?"

Regarding his question, Zhu Youxiao was noncommittal, first ordered Yu Dingbian to pour him a full cup of burning knives, and then said slowly:

"The general fought all the way from Moscow to Uiju, and the nomadic tribes along the way were deeply affected, and they sent envoys to ask for your heads to be displayed to the public. Although I have the heart to wait for a way to live, what is the probability of going to Guanshan Wanli General to consciously survive? ”

At the beginning, Stroganov burned and looted all the way under the bewitchment of Huang Taiji, causing complaints on the grassland, and seeing that these Rakshasas were defeated and captured, they sent envoys to ask for the enemy.

Of course, Strogonov understood that Zhu Youxiao intended to let him live, and he was overjoyed in his heart. However, he knew that it would be impossible for him to return to Moscow safely with the defeat of more than 700 remnants alone, and when he thought of spending the rest of his life in prison, he was unwilling, and said dejectedly:

"I originally wanted to trade with your country, but the momentum along the way made me start to swell, and Huang Taiji's bewitchment offended the Tianwei of the Ming Empire. We besieged Uiju with 60,000 horses, but we were unable to climb the city wall for several months, and it was reasonable that we were defeated and besieged.

However, in the battle of Wonder Mountain, I could see that the commander of your country was training the new army in the way of wheel warfare, which gave me time to build fortifications to resist. However, although your army is well-equipped, the specific tactics are still rusty, and if the emperor does not give up, I am willing to stay and help train this team. ”

Zhu Youxiao knew that he was making a deal with himself, just to take advantage of the opportunity to make some benefits, and then persuade himself to send troops to escort them back to China. In the past, he might have considered hiring a group of Tsarist instructors, but at this time he already had the help of Dutchmen such as Putmans, and the bargaining chips were naturally higher.

"The general is very relieved to have this intention, and I am very grateful for your sincerity. I heard that you have built a fort in the Lena River, but I don't know what your purpose is. ”

This debunked Stroganov's petty calculations, and he originally wanted to rest and recuperate after returning to China, and then continue to use Yakusk to expand eastward, while going south to trade with the Ming Dynasty. Hearing that the emperor had already known about his actions, he couldn't help but reply in order to protect himself:

"The Lena River is located in the far north, and the winters are long and cold, which is not suitable for the growth of crops, but the emperor can give it if he likes it."

Zhu Youxiao saw that his face was cloudy, and knew that this person could be used, so he said demagoguously:

"I know that you have spent a lot of money building the city of Yakusk, and you will be compensated in full when you return home, and I will order a team of 1,000 people to escort you back from the Western Regions, so that you can bypass the enemies of Mobei. In addition, I have heard that your Tsar has been sick, and I hope that you will bring my greetings, so as to open the door of friendship between the two countries, and if necessary, jointly send troops to protect the interests of the Western Regions. ”

In recent years, the Strogonov family has expanded eastward across the Ural Mountains, and at the same time used its friendship with the Eastern Chakhatai Khanate to get involved in the Western Regions. Of course, there is no love for no reason in this world, Zhu Youxiao was willing to let him return to China, first, he wanted him to assist in the capture of Huang Taiji, and second, the Ming Dynasty needed to use the strong aid of Tsarist Russia to open up the land Silk Road.