Although he had not yet been crowned a prince, the status of the emperor's younger brother was so noble that it was enough to see that the Ming Dynasty was determined to win Malacca. Because Europe was still mired in the "Thirty Years' War", the contradictions between the old and new sects were irreconcilable, and the British, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese were alone, so they could only temporarily rely on the Huayuan Trading Company and carry out trade activities through Ming Dynasty merchants.

As for those small countries that were friendly with the Ottoman Empire, Zhu Youzhen took advantage of his relationship with the Siamese princess Ganya to constantly secretly help Siam expand its territory, and it took less than two years to expel foreign forces from the Malay Peninsula. After the war, the two countries signed the Treaty of New Port with Penang and the Pattani River as the boundary, recognizing each other's sovereignty in the Malay Peninsula, and the Ming Dynasty finally took the most solid step in the struggle for hegemony in the ocean.

At this time, Japan, Korea, Luzon, Annam, Champong, Siam, Java and other countries all had the shadow of Ming diplomatic envoys and merchants, and the influence of the Chinese cultural circle had penetrated into their daily lives. However, behind the scenery, the Central Plains region has endured natural disasters year after year.

According to the record of "Hannan Xujun Chronicle": "In the first year of Chongzhen, the whole Shaanxi sky was as red as blood. Five years of great famine, six years of great floods, seven years of autumn locusts and great famine, eight years of drought in Xixiang in September, slightly sunny and waterlogged, all the houses are gone. Nine years of drought locusts, ten years of autumn crops are completely gone, eleven years of summer locusts cover the sky, thirteen years of great drought, fourteen years of drought. ”

To put it simply, under the influence of the Xiaoice climate, the ravages of drought and floods have led to a significant reduction in arable land and food production, coupled with locust plagues and plagues, and people in some hard-hit areas have been displaced and become homeless refugees.

At the beginning of Zhu Youxiao's ascension to the throne, in order to deal with the encroachment of the Xiaoice River, he began to make arrangements, first organizing the people in various localities to build a large number of water conservancy facilities through the implementation of work-for-relief, and then implementing a whip law and spreading the land into mu throughout the country, so as to increase the peasants' enthusiasm for production and reduce their tax pressure. In the fourth year of the Apocalypse, the imperial court officially promoted foreign crops such as corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, which not only increased the yield of the land, but also reduced the impact of natural disasters on agriculture.

Zhu Youxiao thought that his deployment would allow Da Ming to survive this disaster smoothly, but he underestimated the destructiveness of the plague. Since the first outbreak of pneumonic plague in Gansu, the virus has been difficult to control, and under the medical conditions of the time, it is a terminal disease that can be transmitted indefinitely, and many villages have experienced the tragic situation of household extinction.

In feudal society, natural disasters were considered to be punishment or warning from heaven, and emperors often fasted and prayed, indicating that they would do their best to obey the mandate of heaven. In order to appease the panic situation in the government and the opposition, Zhu Youxiao ordered people to set up a mourning platform at Xiannongtan during the day and personally prayed to God Haotian; At night, Chinese and Western meteorological experts from Qintianjian were hired to carefully compare the climate fluctuation data in the Central Plains. After everything became clear, he summoned Chen Sicheng and Wu Youxing from the Tai Hospital, Li Zubai and Lu Zhongyu from Qin Tianjian, and geographer Xu Xiake to the Huangji Palace to participate in this unprecedented disaster relief mobilization meeting.

In the morning, when the ministers of the dynasty saw that the emperor's palace was limited to wearing, they thought that something big had happened, and they knew that it was because of a plague in Gansu, and they were immediately disappointed. Looking at the group of disapproving Ming elites below, Zhu Youxiao is also a stomach full of grievances, since he came to this era, he has been tossing day and night, and finally eliminated the surrounding threats and reshaped a prosperous situation. However, he had to summon the criticism of the Imperial Historian at every step, and although the final result proved that he was right, this process was really uncomfortable. For example, this time he wanted to use the pneumonic plague to introduce modern Western medicine, combined with traditional Chinese medicine to benefit the people of the world, but the people below either sighed or rolled their eyes, which made him very angry, and his tone couldn't help but ask bluntly:

"Since I ascended the throne, I have been diligent in government and worked day and night, but natural disasters have erupted, is it not virtuous?"

These words involved the question of celestial phenomena, and it should have been answered by the supervisor of Qin Tianjian, but Tang Ruowang was invited to drink tea by Jinyiwei because of his illegal preaching in Beijing, and his subordinate official Li Zubai took the opportunity to kneel down beside Danqi and replied:

"Shengshang Yao Shunyu and, Wen Taowu strategy, in today's prosperous era, only the first emperor unified the six kingdoms and Genghis Khan stepped on the Quartet in history can be compared......"

Zhu Youxiao couldn't hear such useless words, so he coughed and said:

"Li Aiqing said the point!"

Li Zubai wanted to take this opportunity to ascend to the throne, but when he heard the emperor's words, he was terrified. The emperor in front of him likes people who work hard, and he is gradually reused because of this, and now he is too eager for quick success and quick profit to commit a taboo, so he hurriedly kowtows first to ask for sin, and then said:

In recent years, Qin Tianjian has absorbed a group of European astronomers, and their knowledge of the stars has given great inspiration to the ministers. Weichen and others found that the sun is a large fireball in flames, and its own activities are extremely disordered, and the earth resonates with it to cause natural disasters.

In recent years, solar activity has been weakening, and the temperature of the northern half of the planet has continued to drop, which is the reason for the alternation of droughts and floods and the sharp fall of heavy snowfall. Combined with the records of astronomy in the past dynasties, Weichen believes that this time has a wide range of impact, a long period, and great destruction, and asks the saint to deal with it as soon as possible. ”

This Li Zubai is a school of study abroad in the movement of Western learning to the East, integrating the astronomical knowledge of the East and the West, and under the guidance of Zhu Youxiao, he has become a pioneer in solving the mysteries of celestial bodies. Although the subordinate official of Qintian Prison is only a six-rank official, he often goes in and out of the emperor's left and right because of his mastery of the calendar, and it is easy to become the emperor's confidant.

After listening to it, Zhu Youxiao felt that he was more pragmatic, but unfortunately he didn't know how to figure out the holy will, and the last paragraph was too general, so he followed his meaning and asked:

"What Li Aiqing said has a wide range, a long duration, and great destructive power, can you be more specific?"

Li Zubai gave birth to a calf and said without thinking:

"If you return to the saint, according to Weichen's calculations, this disaster will affect the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, as well as Mobei and Liaodong, lasting no less than 20 years, and the destructive power is so great that the ministers dare not speak falsely."

Zhu Youxiao had long been mentally prepared for this Xiaoice River period, but he still felt a chill down his spine when he heard Li Zubai's words. In the era of believing in the divine right of kings, only the monarch will be punished by heaven. As soon as Li Zubai's words came out, the courtiers under him had already whispered, pointing the finger at the emperor's strategy of fighting for hegemony in the ocean.

In order to appease everyone, Zhu Youxiao said reluctantly:

"I have been using troops abroad for many years, which is a warning from heaven to me. I am willing to accept God's arrangement, temporarily stop using foreign troops, and from now on, I will bathe and wake up, and sacrifice to heaven and earth and Taimiao, in order to bless China. ”