The scorching heat in Beijing in August, coupled with the fact that the air has been dry and dry and may burn at any time, has directly affected the summer grain harvest, which has put the people of the Central Plains, who have just improved their situation, into a predicament. Although the north is already promoting new crops, it can only solve the urgent need of the hungry stomach, and it will take a long time to achieve food and clothing.

After discussions with the cabinet, Zhu Youxiao decided to postpone the laying of a five-vertical and four-horizontal road network to the second five-year plan, and the main work at present is to expand water conservancy facilities, develop lighter and simpler water pumping equipment, and dispatch internal supervisors to various localities to lead the people to fight drought. In addition, droughts and floods have become commonplace, with droughts leading to reduced food yields and floods displacing people and even taking their lives.

Looking at the scorching sun outside the window, Zhu Youxiao knew that he couldn't look at the master and the low, and he had to start with the most basic things. I don't belong to this world in the first place, and I must seize the time to reverse the predicament of the Xiaoice River period, otherwise the Chinese nation will have to experience hundreds of years of catastrophe, and it will be meaningless to cross into this world by myself.

The only consolation is that several nomadic peoples in the north have been defeated, and the Dutch and Portuguese on the sea have also been subjugated, and the Ming Dynasty does not need to be dragged down by huge military spending, and can develop overseas trade on the one hand to increase revenue, on the other hand, continue to reduce the taxes of the peasants, and control the damage of natural disasters through manpower.

With the establishment of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the once arrogant and domineering Europeans changed their arrogant attitude and became the compradors of the Ming Dynasty trade together with the merchants of Persia, Dashi and Tianfang, not only taking the initiative to negotiate the trade between the two sides, but also willing to pay a deposit in advance to solicit business. Zhu Youxiao knew that this group of people was originally a treacherous bandit, and now their performance was only based on the power of the Ming Dynasty's navy, and when the Ming Dynasty declined, it would definitely show its fangs, so he did not hesitate to take out the internal bank to continue to strengthen the construction of the navy, and wanted to cut off the connection between Europe and the Japanese as soon as possible, and include all the sea areas east of the Strait of Malacca into the sphere of influence of the Ming army, and then jointly run India with England and France, and offset the power of Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, the three old colonial powers, in Asia.

Although the robbery of the Western colonizers is hateful, but the internal ghosts like the Donglin Party are even more destructive, after all, the overseas profits of the Ming Dynasty have exceeded one million taels of silver, and human nature must be ugly in the face of money. In order to beware of the Wei Dynasty, these powerful domestic slaves are full of their own pockets, they must be transferred back to the capital from time to time to beat them to feel at ease.

"Wei Dynasty, how is the weather in Nanjing this year?"

Waiting for Wei Chao to bow down, Zhu Youxiao asked politely.

Wei Chao heard that the little emperor was not as straight to the point as before, and knew that this was his own achievements and was affirmed by him, so he hurriedly replied that everything was fine, and said a few irrelevant words.

Zhu Youxiao was overflowing with excitement when he saw him, and knew that this person was still loyal to him, after all, his relationship with Wei Zhongxian had been stiffened, and life and death were full of his preferences. However, the Wei Dynasty did make great contributions to the imperial court, and the necessary rewards still had to be had, so he said:

"In recent years, the profits of overseas trade have steadily increased, which is inseparable from your efforts, which I know in my heart, and naturally your benefits are indispensable."

Wei Chao waited for two years for this sentence, and suddenly burst into tears, crying:

"Shengming is just a master, and the slave is deeply affected by the reinvention of the Long Live Lord, and he does not dare to ask for extravagant rewards, but he only hopes that he can pay attention to everything for the master and do his duty as a slave."

The master and servant asked and answered, and the atmosphere gradually eased, although Zhu Youxiao hated the character of the Wei Dynasty in his heart, but in extraordinary times, he had to use extraordinary people, and in this special stage, eunuchs were more useful than the idiots of the Donglin Party, and the performance of Wei Dynasty and Wei Zhongxian in recent years was beyond Zhu Youxiao's imagination, and he couldn't help but be relieved:

"In order to open up trade routes, you have offended the people of Ying Tianfu, and there are even many ministers in the court, and the excerpts to impeach you are almost piled up. You have carried so much infamy for me, I know very well in my heart, some people can't handle it now, so it takes you to be wronged for a while. ”

These heart-wrenching words instantly struck the grievances and bitter heart of the Wei Dynasty, and immediately burst into tears, and replied in a choked voice:

"The slave is doing things for the master, although others have gossip, they don't dare to stop it, but there are many envoys from the imperial court, and they have to take out a huge amount of silver from the Internal Affairs Office every year, and the slave can't make up for this hole even if he is sick and brainy, and the master is thrifty and frugal, which blames the slave for being incompetent."

Zhu Youxiao's thrift still had a certain effect, at least the palace and the Jingshi did not dare to be extravagant and wasteful, and this alone could save hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Since the Wei Dynasty sat in Yingtianfu, Nanjing's six ministries have basically become decorations, and all taxes and trade are handled by him personally, which makes local officials who are used to kickbacks very uncomfortable. As the saying goes, cutting off people's financial routes is like killing their parents, and the Zhejiang Party and the Donglin Party represented by Qian Qianyi often engage in some black materials of the Wei Dynasty for this reason, hoping that the Wei Dynasty will get out immediately. Now Zhu Youxiao deliberately ordered Cao Huachun and Li Fengxiang to take out these twists and turns, just to remind the Wei Dynasty, you have already offended many people, and it is impossible to turn back now, just go all the way to the dark, and I will cover you in the future.

Both of them are extremely smart politicians, and many words don't have to be broken, let alone go around in circles and play dumb riddles. Seeing his despair, Zhu Youxiao said slowly:

"I know that you are wronged, but there are some things that should be restrained, after all, you are my confidant, and my face is not glorious when I engage in those troubles."

After cleaning up these internal prisons of the Wei Dynasty, it is time to beat the foreigners such as Putsman and Mashigaru. Today, Putsman works at the Ningbo Maritime Academy and is also the chief adviser of the East China Sea Fleet, and is also an official of the Ming Dynasty. In order to let him stay in the Ming Dynasty with peace of mind, Nan Juyi specially took his family to Ningbo and sent a few prostitutes to monitor their every move.

As for Mashigaru, who had just been captured by Jiang Dejing, Zhu Youxiao did not intend to embarrass him, first let him visit an exercise of the Royal Army, and then arranged a mansion for him in Shanghai, so that he could return to China to persuade Portugal and the Ming Dynasty to establish diplomatic relations and jointly manage the shipping routes and colonies along the African coast.

Driven by them, other foreigners are naturally not a problem. In the beginning, pirates were made to earn money, and now that they can receive a salary without risking their lives, a fool would refuse such a good thing. With the help of these traitors, the Ming Dynasty's road to strengthening the army was unusually smooth, on the one hand, learning European science and technology and military technology, and on the other hand, actively courting these maritime powers, and jointly grabbing the profits of overseas trade.

In addition, Xiong Tingbi of the imperial court and Yan Siqi of Taiwan also came with good news one after another, they have gained a firm foothold in the local area, continue to emigrate from the mainland, and appease the local people, so that the Central Plains Dynasty's control over the two places has been strengthened, and the Japanese state has formed a trend of closing the door and beating dogs.

At this time, there were virtuous people in the Ming Dynasty to promote the new policy, and there were foreigners to assist in trade, which can be called the recovery of all industries and prosperity. After the recovery of Korea and the Great and Small Ryukyus, it was like an open bow on the sea, and the warships parked in Ningbo were arrows waiting to be shot, vowing to break the disadvantages of the feudal dynasty in closing off the country and continuing to spread Chinese civilization from the sea to all directions.

Throughout history, the Wa Kingdom has always been a hidden danger for the mainland dynasty, and if it wants to rise completely, it is necessary to solve this worry, and Korea and the Great and Small Ryukyus are the best outposts, just like Sanhuai Tingxiu will form the strategy of the Ming Dynasty into an offensive state. According to Li Dan and Li Guosuke, they had persuaded Tokugawa Ieyasu to establish a trading headquarters in Nagasaki, not only replacing the acting position of the Dutch, but also secretly smuggling with local daimyos, and even financing them to support troops against the shogunate's rule.

In the face of many favorable situations, Zhu Youxiao was eager to immediately launch a war against Japan to help the Chinese nation understand this cancer in advance, but the main problem of the Ming Dynasty at present was to solve the land annexation. In the past, Zhu Youxiao did all the reforms in order to distribute the land peacefully to the peasants, and then the imperial court came forward to subsidize the losses of the landlord class and minimize social contradictions, including the national policy of building roads.

Early the next morning, Zhu Youxiao got up early in the morning and couldn't wait to take the highway network drawn all night to the Imperial Palace. He wanted to take a break and test the reaction of the ministers, and then calculate the specific construction period, cost, and various difficulties that needed to be solved.

Regarding the little emperor's plan, the old fox Han Xi knew better than anyone else that this was a disguised way to find a livelihood for those scholars and doctors who had lost their land, which could be described as killing three birds with one stone.

"My Emperor Shengming, the unified construction of Chidao originated from the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, and the Yang Emperor of the Sui Dynasty also excavated the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Now that our finances are improving day by day, and the people have enough food and clothing, it is the time to vigorously build roads and dredge up the water transportation. ”

Han Xigui is the first assistant of the cabinet, and his words naturally have some weight, and the people below also echoed after listening to his opinion, but Yang Lian, the god of wealth of the Ming Dynasty, did not buy his account, and stepped forward to advise:

"Building roads is indeed a good thing for the present and the future, but such a large-scale construction is afraid that the imperial court cannot afford it. Lao Chen believes that we should start with the traditional two capitals and thirteen provinces, which can not only save the year, but also have an immediate return, and the imperial court can continue to allocate funds in the future. As for the southwest and northeast, one is the mountain and river barrier, and the construction is difficult; Second, in the future, the rebels can drive straight in, which is not conducive to the defense of the border passes.

Yang Lian's consideration is a typical Donglin Party style, on the surface, it is for the sake of the imperial court, and what he said is very reasonable, but in fact, it doesn't make sense. Zhu Youxiao didn't wait for him to finish speaking, and immediately asked:

"It is reasonable for the head of the household department to worry that the funds will not be available, after all, there are many places where the imperial court needs to use silver, and the technical reserves for building bridges over the river are also insufficient, so the craftsmen of Wang Gongchang need to continue to work hard. However, it is debatable whether the surrounding nomads will take the opportunity to attack the border passes after the construction of these galloping roads, but I have a question, how did the disaster of the construction of the captives in the first place cause? ”

Regarding Nurhachi's family history, Zhu Youxiao has discussed it with Fan Jingwen, Sun Chengzong, Lai Zongdao and others many times. First of all, Nurhachi was a genius of war, and the Jurchens were born warriors, and there was indeed no opponent on horseback. The second is that the Ming Dynasty did not have a vassal king in Liaodong, and relied too much on Li Chengliang, the feudal official, and waited until the Ming Dynasty's power in Liaodong was greatly reduced after the Korean resistance to the Japanese, and Jianyu took the opportunity to rise. In the end, the Ming Dynasty did not pay attention to Liaodong, thinking that it was a bitter cold place, and the Han people were too scarce, and there were no people for hundreds of miles.

Based on this understanding, after the establishment of the Liting Court in Jianzhou, the imperial court moved all the other Jurchens to live in the area of the Yalu River, so that they and the North Koreans could consume each other and reduce the pressure on the Telin garrison. At the same time, the continuous relocation of Han Chinese from the interior to the three eastern provinces has fundamentally reversed this situation.

Hearing the little emperor's inquiry, Yang Lian knew that he didn't understand the sound inside, so he quickly kowtowed and asked for guilt. Zhu Youxiao didn't talk nonsense with him, and continued with a straight face:

"You are all my ministers, the pillars of the Ming Dynasty, and I should have seriously considered your suggestions. However, many of you have participated in the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition, so why can't you consider the overall situation? First of all, when I pacified the Jianjiao, I had already ordered people to explore the topography of the three eastern provinces and draw a detailed map, so I decided to build this gallop road, and it was by no means a temporary idea. Secondly, I believe that with convenient transportation, there will be more businessmen coming and going, and they will be able to sell local resources and specialties to the mainland and even overseas, which is conducive to mutual exchange. Third, this gallop road connects Jinzhou, Yingkou, Liaoyang, Shenyang, Tieling, Fushun and other major towns into a line, and once there is a war in Liaodong, it can form a clenched fist. Another thing you should not forget is that our DPRK still has the advantage of the sea, and I have already tried to land across the sea, and I can transport tens of thousands of soldiers to Yingkou and Phi Dao within a month. ”

Zhu Youxiao told the battle of Liaodong lightly, but many generals had lingering palpitations, if it wasn't for the emperor to turn the tide, the current situation is really hard to say. Although Huang Kezhang did not go out of the customs to fight, he was responsible for the construction of the gallop road from Beijing to Shanhaiguan, and he had seen the tragedy of the soldiers going out of the customs and the cumbersome logistics burden, so he could naturally understand Zhu Youxiao's good intentions to clear the road.

"Your Majesty, since ancient times, there has been no way to be rich, and the old minister supports the expansion of galloping roads and bridges. However, to build such a large-scale project, the determination and perseverance of the imperial court must be tested first, and then the finances. As for the complex geographical factors, the old minister is willing to recommend a strange person for His Majesty, this person is determined to visit the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty all his life, and there are detailed records everywhere he goes, which will have a certain effect on the decision-making of the imperial court. ”

The strange person he said was Xu Hongzu, whose ancestral home was Jiangyin. He can be called a person through the ages, who has been determined in all directions all his life, claiming to reach what people have not reached and what people do not know. Everywhere he went, he explored the secluded and mysterious, and recorded a travelogue, recording the various phenomena, humanities, geography, animals and plants and other conditions observed, see "Xu Xiake's Travels" for details.