A pot of water and wine, a few plates of meat and vegetarian side dishes.

This is the simplest wine and food, but for Zhu Mingzhong, now he prefers this simplicity. This kind of simplicity, on the contrary, seems free.

However, this freedom and ease also varies from person to person.

But in the Gu family, in front of Gu Yanwu, Zhu Mingzhong was happy to enjoy this kind of freedom. He did not return to Zhongdu directly from Shanghai, but came to Gu Yanwu as planned.

"Ning Ren, you and I have not seen you for two years!"

"Back to Your Majesty, I haven't seen you for two years."

Gu Yanwu had a smile on his face, he had just returned from Nanyang, and he was in a very comfortable mood. He spent his entire winter in the South Seas.

"In recent years, the minister has been to a lot of places, last year in Gui and Qin is not so much a lecture, but there is a place to avoid the cold, even in Jiangnan, this winter is too cold, wet and cold."

Gu Yanwu's answer made Zhu Mingzhong say with a smile.

"Ning Ren, that is, you, can have this leisure."

For the "migratory bird-style" life in Gu Yanwu's mouth, he only has envy.

"Actually, if Your Majesty is willing, you can also go to the feudal countries in winter, and the Son of Heaven will inspect the feudal kingdoms, and the monarchs and ministers who want to come to the feudal kingdoms will definitely be greatly encouraged, and it is also an encouragement for the naturalized people."

Gu Yanwu said with a smile.

"Besides, the transportation is very convenient now, railways, mail ships, just a few days."

Nodding, Zhu Mingzhong did not refute, but said softly.

"It's not needed now, wait for a few decades, when I'm old, it's not too late to go, and when the time comes, maybe even ordinary people can go to Nanyang countries for vacation, the times are developing."

Thinking of another time and space, in at least half a century, countless Europeans took cruise ships to the Mediterranean and other places for vacation, Zhu Mingzhong couldn't help but look forward to the future, perhaps, a few decades later, the people of Daming can also live like that.

"In the summer, people can take a cruise to Beihai, to the coast, to Sakhalin Island to escape the heat, and in the winter, they can go to Hainan and Nanyang to escape the cold, and that day is very fast, and I think that in another 20 years at most, it may become a new trend. By that time, the speed of the cruise ship will exceed twenty-five knots, and even ordinary citizens can afford to travel on a cruise......"

Referring to the many possibilities of the future, Zhu Mingzhong's face showed a smile, for the future, he was full of confidence, after all, in the past twenty-four years, he has been working hard, for the future development, he is not very clear, but it is certain that the future of the Ming Dynasty is bright, and civilization can no longer be conquered by barbarism.

"The people can live and work in peace and contentment, all thanks to Your Majesty."

Gu Yanwu complimented.

"When the minister was lecturing in Nanyang, he saw that the people of the feudal country were all grateful for His Majesty's kindness, and they all said that if it were not for His Majesty, they would definitely not be able to live a good life now, and the people in the country are probably the same."

Regarding Gu Yanwu's compliment, Zhu Mingzhong didn't speak, just smiled and nodded.

"They went overseas to expand their business, spread Chinese civilization, and appease the barbarians, which is really hard work! In a few hundred years, when all the Yiyi belong to China, who will remember the hard work of the ancestors? ”

"What His Majesty said is very true, the Nanyang Zhuxia Road is blue, and the difficulty of starting a business in the mountains and forests is really beyond the imagination of the mainlanders, and today the mainland princes only see the prosperity of Nanyang rice, and they all say that it is the land of fish and rice, but they don't know that the local people have repeatedly violated the border, and the people can not leave the sword when they plough the land, and the difficulties and dangers are really not known to outsiders."

After sighing, Gu Yanwu looked at His Majesty and said.

"Therefore, the minister has a sentence, I don't know whether to say it or not."

Zhu Mingzhong looked at Gu Yanwu with a smile.

"Oh? What's the word? Although bluntly stated. ”

"Your Majesty, when the ministers were in Gui and Qin, there were always officials and ministers who complained about their grievances, although the countries were Zhuxia, but the court was still very guarded against them, so that there were always many inconveniences in doing things."

Gu Yanwu's complaint made Zhu Mingzhong surprised.

"Could there be such a thing? How so? How come I don't know? ”

"Your Majesty, when the minister was lecturing at Guiguo Taixue, some students applied to study in the academy of the Ming Dynasty, but only 60 percent were approved, and in contrast, the proportion of students from the colony who applied for the academy was as high as 90 percent, and the reason was because the imperial court regarded the colony as its own country and Zhuxia as a foreign country."

"Your Majesty, although Zhuxia is a feudal country, it is also a descendant of Chinese Miao, and it is really my Ming dynasty's pro-domain, and it must not be regarded as a foreign domain because it is a feudal country. Moreover, in Yu Chen's view, the more students of Zhuxia are, the more we should welcome them, and as time goes by Zhuxia and the royal bloodline, they can deepen the connection between Zhuxia and the Ming Dynasty through this educational influence, rather than treating it as a foreign country and eventually making it centrifuge. ”

"What Ning people say is very true."

Nodding, Zhu Mingzhong said.

"This matter, after I return to Beijing, will be handled, and the proportion of Zhuxia in this royal grant should also be further increased. This is an oversight on my part. ”

It was indeed an oversight, and I really didn't think about it that much at the beginning.

"Your Majesty, in fact, the Qin State, the Gui State, the Zhou State, although their people call themselves "Qin people", "Gui people", "Zhou people", but in front of outsiders, they still call themselves "Ming people", although Zhuxia is a country, but it is a Chinese country, it is a matter of course, as long as the young people of Zhuxia continue to come to the Ming Dynasty to study, then the connection between Zhuxia and the Ming Dynasty will not be severed, after all, the inheritance of civilization is impossible for anyone to cut off, even a thousand years later, the people of Zhuxia, they still speak Chinese, writing Chinese characters, They are still Ming people in their bones......"

When Gu Yanwu spoke, Zhu Mingzhong nodded silently, and he even thought of how the Chinese in Malaysia struggled to maintain the only complete Chinese education system in the world except China in another time and space, "Our culture is the soul of our nation, and our educational institutions are the cultural fortress of our nation." What a repression made them cry like this.

The culture is gone, everything is gone. If the cultural connection between Zhuxia and the Ming Dynasty is severed, then there is not much connection between the two, and culture is the fundamental link between the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.

"Zhuxia soothes the barbarians, but also uses Chinese culture to educate them, so, in the opinion of the ministers, the imperial court should not only not relax the education of Zhuxia, but should increase its support, we should take the initiative to send domestic scholars to Zhuxia to give lectures, encourage their students to study in the Ming Dynasty......"

In the past few years, Gu Yanwu's footprints have traveled all over Nanyang Zhuxia, and he was surprised by the vitality shown by Zhuxia, and hoped that Zhuxia could be further developed, so he made such a suggestion. And his suggestion made Zhu Mingzhong agree with it deeply, and then said.

"It should be so, Ning Ren, any other aspects, do you have any suggestions?"

Zhu Mingzhong's tone was very sincere, and at the same time, he was also reflecting on his attitude towards Zhuxia in his heart, which seemed to be a matter of fact, completely ignoring the follow-up work.

"Also, there's the machine ban."

"Machine ban?"

Zhu Mingzhong said puzzled.

"Doesn't the machine ban not include Zhuxia?"

In the tenth year of Xingqian, based on the requirements of secrecy and other aspects, the imperial court issued a ban on the export of machinery, but the ban did not include Zhuxia.

"It is true that Zhuxia is not included, because there is a clause in the ban - with the approval of the Ministry of Industry, the machine can be exported to Zhuxia and the colonies. However, Your Majesty, every time a machine is imported by the merchants of Zhuxia, they need to obtain an export license from the Ministry of Industry, which makes many merchants in Zhuxia quite complaining, and sometimes, they even think that this is the deliberate difficulty of the imperial court to make things difficult for Zhuxia, of course, the ban on the export of machines is to keep secrets, but the question is, how long can the machines be kept secret? ”

Looking at His Majesty thoughtfully, Gu Yanwu said.

"As far as the minister knows, there have been many three countries in Europe that have built steam engines, and we can ban the export of machines, but they can easily transport some materials out of the Ming Dynasty, and they can use those materials to make steam engines, spinning machines and other machines."

Then Gu Yanwu said earnestly.

"Machines can be banned from export, but the spread of technology is inevitable. The minister thought that instead of being like now, because of the ban on machines, the merchants of Zhuxia were dissatisfied with the court, it was better to let them buy it directly. ”

"There's no problem with this!"

Nodding his head, Zhu Mingzhong did not object, in fact, from the very beginning, he was not optimistic about the future of the ban on machines, after all, in another time and space, the British also did this. They have also blocked their own technology. They issued a decree prohibiting the export of steam engines and machines, which was punishable by death. But the Germans invited the technician who invented the steam engine to come and set up a factory. Machines can prohibit transmission, but technology can't prohibit transmission, and Britain can't do it, so the countries behind have also carried out industrial revolutions one after another.

"We can open the export of steam engines and machines, but the imperial court still has to make some rules, and some things still cannot be exported."

Technological monopoly will hinder technological innovation, although Zhu Mingzhong knows that he can still promote some of the technologies of the Ming Dynasty to a higher level, but it is only limited to this, the scientific development of the Ming Dynasty has long embarked on a path of independent development, and even attracted more and more Western scholars to come to the Ming Dynasty, in this case, this kind of secrecy itself does not have the slightest possibility of secrecy.

"Your Majesty."

After complimenting, the two monarchs and ministers continued to talk about wine, and talked freely there, the more they drank, the more they drank, and after feeling a little drunk, Zhu Mingzhong held the wine glass, looked at Gu Yanwu and said.

"Ning Ren, this year is the twenty-first year of Xingqian, how about it, are you willing to come back to help me?"

Faced with His Majesty's invitation, Gu Yanwu did not answer immediately, and was silent for a moment before shaking his head and saying.

"Your Majesty, since it is now a peaceful and prosperous era of peace and peace in the four seas, is there an old minister, and what difference does it make to the imperial court?"