In fact, for the people of the Ming Empire, the war in the northwest did not even set off any storms, although the result was gratifying. Although in less than a month, Xingxingxia and Hami were captured, forcing the Qing army of 100,000 troops to retreat north.

Aside from any dynasty, it was a brilliant victory.

However, in the eighteenth year of Xingqian, Yu Daming did not make many waves, and as for the details of how to deal with prisoners, not many people cared.

It seems that people have forgotten the pain caused to them by the Manchus, and many times, like nightmarish experiences, people will selectively forget, and the painful memories of foreign invasions are not something that anyone wants to recall, after all, everything means suffering.

Of course, it's not just because of forgetting, but also because, in the eyes of almost everyone, they believe that the Ming is now invincible. In the Western Regions, there have been great victories one after another, this is a matter of course, it is not at all surprising to them, those people were originally defeated under the Celestial Empire, and now they are defeated again, what is new.

As a result, although the major newspapers have successively published the news of the war in the Western Regions, the people's attention to the news of the soldiers is far less than that of the Western Expedition back then, because at that time, it was the land that was recovered, and now it is ...... The Western Regions are just a desolate desert.

There are even people who question it there, and some people even openly declare that it is not worth losing by attacking the Western Regions, and there is nothing but sand and sand, which is not worth the imperial court to fight at all.

Especially when people knew that it would cost 7,500 taels of silver to build every mile of railroad in the northwest, and that no less than 6,000 miles of railroad would need to be built, everyone was stunned by the huge expenditure. Not to mention the military expenditure of hundreds of millions of taels in the next few years, the railways built with tens of millions of taels of silver are lying on the desert like that, and such a "waste" is naturally not liked by the people, after all, there are no railways in many places in the interior, and at such a large cost, is it worth attacking the Western Regions?

Under such a situation, the sound of the great victory from the Western Regions will naturally not be as eye-catching as before. All kinds of related doubts have also come and gone with the victory.

In the face of the aggressive attitude of the people, the Governor's Office of the Five Armed Forces certainly felt unprecedented pressure. In the early morning of this day, the carriage of the military department Shangshu stopped in front of the palace gate of the imperial city as usual. As the door was opened, Zhang Xiaowen, dressed in military uniform, slowly stepped out of the carriage. Obviously, the invisible pressure from the people at present has made this general, who had just been promoted to the secretary of the military department, a lot more haggard.

As soon as he got out of the car, he happened to meet Zhang Jinsheng, the right governor of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, who had also just arrived at the palace gate. Although Zhang Jinsheng's expression has never changed, the tightly knit brows show that he is also very annoyed.

"See the right governor."

Zhang Xiaowen greeted politely as usual.

"Zhang Shangshu."

Zhang Jinsheng responded casually. Although the two of them seem to be calm, in fact, there are all kinds of contradictions between the two of them, and the reason is that Zhang Xiaowen has always felt that Zhang Jinsheng's corpse has been a vegetarian meal for many years, and when the two were in the Governor's Mansion, there were many conflicts due to personnel and other issues, and in the end, even Zhang Xiaowen was "kicked" out of the military department.

However, the common problem has now eased the relationship between the two. After all, they knew that the military was facing a very difficult problem that required them to work together to get through it, but they didn't know how to take it over for a while.

In this way, the two of them entered the imperial city together in silence. It wasn't until he was about to approach Wu Chengge that Zhang Xiaowen spoke.

"How is the march of the Western Expeditionary Army now? Will you continue the offensive, or will you stop Hami for the time being? This time the affairs in the mainland will not affect the westward expedition. ”

"The Western Expedition is a national policy formulated by His Majesty back then, we have a deep enmity with Jiannu, a sea of blood, there is no other with me, we will not kill Jiannu, and we will never return to the teacher."

Zhang Jinsheng replied in an official manner.

"Ahem, that being said. But who knows, now the eyes of the common people are only staring at how much it will cost to go west, and they always feel that so many railways should be built in the interior first, instead of the Western Regions where birds don't, completely ignoring the overall situation. Zhang Xiaowen shook his head with a wry smile and said.

"Recently, I have received a lot of letters accusing us of picking on the side and wasting money on food and salary......

"How the people view the war is not something that the Governor's Office of the Five Armies has to consider. We only need to ensure that His Majesty's wishes are finally realized, the Ming official army is a royal army, what do the people have to do with me? We wait for the border guards, the people are not grateful, but so complaining, when the Jiannu is completely annihilated, when I wait for the triumph, the people only need to know that the Ming Dynasty is victorious. ”

Zhang Jinsheng said coldly. His answer made Zhang Xiaowen say immediately.

"That being said, the emotions of the people always need to be considered......

I wanted to continue, but I didn't want the female official of the inner palace outside Wucheng Pavilion to come forward and give an order.

"Your Majesty has a decree to announce that the two generals, Zhang Jinsheng and Zhang Xiaowen, will meet you."

"Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live, long live."

In the warm pavilion, Zhang Jinsheng and Zhang Xiaowen both held the wat and saluted. But the corners of their eyes swept to Xiong Cixu who was standing in the pavilion with their heads down, and their brows were all furrowed.

Xiong Cixu is the Honglu Qing of Honglu Temple, specializing in diplomacy, could it be said that His Majesty wants to solve the Western Regions through diplomacy?

This thought made them immediately realize the seriousness of the problem, but no one said anything to ask. Just when the two of them were secretly wondering in their hearts, and even secretly vigilant, thinking about how to refute His Majesty for a while and dispel the idea of a diplomatic solution from His Majesty's mind, Xiong Cilu first saluted His Majesty on the dragon chair.

"Your Majesty, the minister will go back first."

"Well, the relevant matters will depend on the situation."

Zhu Mingzhong instructed with his head instructed.

Seeing that Xiong Cilu had withdrawn from Wucheng Pavilion, Zhang Xiaowen asked His Majesty directly.

"Your Majesty, could it be that Honglu Temple is accurate in solving the problem of the Western Regions through diplomatic channels?"

Because they did not recognize the Manchu Qing, they naturally did not say anything about the "Great Qing" or "Manchu Qing", as for the contemptuous "slaves"

I don't bother to use it, so I often use "Western Regions" as a pronoun.

"You're pretty well informed."

Zhu Mingzhong laughed.

"Honglu Temple has received a message that the Nu Chief has sent a secret envoy to negotiate with us, saying that they can let go of the Western Regions for the sake of friendship between the two countries."

"I didn't expect that the chief to be decisive, as soon as our side attacked, he already saw that he was not our opponent. However, this time they were able to catch the line of Honglu Temple, which was beyond the minister's expectations. ”

Zhang Xiaowen frowned and said jokingly.

In his opinion, this time, Honglu Temple was able to bypass the military and directly get in touch with the Manchus, which was completely beyond the control of the military, which was definitely not a good thing. Although it is true that Honglu Temple is an institution in charge of foreign affairs, and Honglu Temple has set up a number of consulates.

However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was not a state, and the Honglu Temple should not have direct contact with them, and even if it did, it should be under the leadership of the military, so he was very unhappy. He was unhappy, and Zhang Jinsheng was even more unhappy, after all, someone had stretched out his hand across the line.

"Your Majesty, Honglu Temple, as my Ming diplomatic institution, actually disregarded the rights and responsibilities of the imperial court, and contacted the traitorous slaves without authorization, it is really bold, please ask Your Majesty to hold Honglu Temple responsible!"

As soon as he opened his mouth, Zhang Jinsheng bit the overstepping authority of Honglu Temple, which was in charge of diplomacy, but the Manchu Qing Dynasty ...... It's a traitor, and it's not the turn of Honglu Temple to ask these questions.

"This time, you can't blame Honglu Temple."

Zhu Mingzhong shook his head and said.

"The reason why Honglu Temple intervened in this matter this time was not because the Manchu Qing sent a secret envoy, but because the Manchu secret envoy came to Zhongdu through other channels and entered Honglu Temple!"

"Other channels?"

The two looked at His Majesty puzzled, it was nothing to have a secret envoy come to Zhongzhong, but it was a little rare to enter Honglu Temple through other channels.

"The secret envoy of Jiannu is mixed in with the Safavid Mission!"

casually solved their doubts, and Zhu Mingzhong explained again.

"The reason why the Safavid agreed to Jiannu and facilitate the dispatch of its envoy was because Jiannu's occupation of Brahan had lifted the threat to their north, so when Jiannu proposed to send a mission to Zhongdu in the name of Safavid, Suleiman I of Safavid immediately agreed."

Safavid is Persia, that is, Iran, although the Manchu Qing Dynasty fought all the way to Persia, it was indeed a bit unexpected, but it was also expected, after all, according to Zhu Mingzhong's vision, he hoped that this knife would go all the way to the south, kill the hometown of the Tianfang Sect, and finally solve the problem of the Tianfang Sect.

It's just that the secret envoys of the Manchu Qing are mixed in the Safavid mission, which is really not expected. Moreover, the "sincerity" shown by the Manchus was almost unexpected.

"Therefore, their secret envoy has the opportunity to contact Honglu Temple, and when they find out, Honglu Temple will have to take their secret letter."

"Your Majesty, in the opinion of the minister, even if the Manchu Qing want to negotiate peace, it is just a delaying tactic, and now our army is marching smoothly in the Western Regions, and the problem of the Western Regions can be solved in three to five years at most."

Zhang Jinsheng immediately expressed his attitude, he did not say that he was against a diplomatic solution, but he did not say that he was in favor of it, but only emphasized a military solution.

"Your Majesty, since the minister, you can solve the problem in four years at most, and you don't need to let the tiger go back to the mountain!"

No matter how many conflicts there are, in the face of common problems, the interests of the military are the same, and Zhang Xiaowen naturally stands on the military's standpoint.

"Your Majesty, even if we get the Western Regions without spending a single soldier, it is equivalent to admitting Jiannu, and there will be endless troubles after letting the tiger return to the mountain."

Zhang Xiaowen reminded again.

"Therefore, the minister thinks that it is in the long-term interests of the Ming Dynasty to fundamentally solve the problem of the Western Regions!"