He set out on the 10th of November and entered Beijing on 15 December. Zhu Zhanji's expedition took only one month and five days, but the results he achieved were indeed very gratifying.

Today's Ming rarely cares about the size of his army, forming a habit of bullying the weak, and only cares about the results achieved.

Although the scale of the marriage of the Ming army was large, it did not disturb the people. Most people don't even know that the war is over.

Although the dispatch of the navy requires strong basic capabilities, because there is no need to recruit civilians and do not need to collect additional grain and grass, this mode of war has been praised by the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs for a while.

Whether these naval soldiers go out on the expedition or not, they need to eat and be paid. Going out to kill the enemy is nothing more than spending some rewards and consuming some sails.

In this way, the cost of dispatching the navy is the lowest.

And if it is an army dispatch, the cost of one horse is equivalent to more than ten soldiers. The transportation of grain and grass alone requires countless manpower and material resources.

Anyone can calculate this account.

On December 17, Zhu Di convened a great court meeting, at which Zhu Zhanji officially ascended the main hall of Fengtian Hall for the first time.

In the past, he was at most a grandson, observing the court and not having the right to speak.

But this time, as the naval commander of the imperial court, the governor of the capital, he read to Zhu Di and the various departments of the imperial court the beginning and end of the naval military operation.

This report, written by Huang Yuan, details the cost of the naval sortie, the achievements made, which enemies were killed, and how many supplies were captured.

Before Jeju Island, the sorties of the army were consumed in vain, and the capture did not correspond to the payment.

However, on Tsushima Island, the army captured a lot of goods from the Asahi and Japanese trade, and although it could not fully cover the shortfall of the army, it also filled most of it.

This expedition, counting the rewards, had a total deficit of less than 100,000 taels of silver.

Of course, when reporting on this kind of work, Zhu Zhanji certainly would not report on the massacre on Tsushima Island.

These things can only be done, not said.

Killing the people of the clan and gaining management rights on Tsushima Island is an important part of the whole grand plan. With Jeju Island, Tsushima Island, plus Izumo Province, Sado Island and Hokkaido in the future, the layout of the Ming Dynasty on the eastern front is a complete line.

With this line, not only can Dongying be contained, but more importantly, a safe route to Nuer Gandusi has been established.

At a time when the Ming fleet did not dare to cross the ocean at will, it was also the best route to go to the American continent along the island chain of the Aleutian Islands.

Because the ocean currents of the entire North Pacific Ocean flow in a clockwise direction, from about 5 degrees north latitude to the west, to the east coast of Asia, and then to the north, along the Aleutian Islands to the east, until the west coast of the Americas, and south to the territory of Mexico, forming a complete flow circle.

The extent of this Pacific current is arguably the greatest secret of this era. With this map, the Americas can be easily reached simply by the flow of the Pacific Ocean Current.

Two hundred years later, Spain only mastered the middle route of the ocean current, which was five degrees north latitude, and sent a steady stream of silver from the Americas to Asia, in exchange for countless luxury goods.

They have been controlling this route for hundreds of years, which is equivalent to mastering countless riches.

It was not until the advent of the real steam age, when ships could be freed from the constraints of wind and ocean currents, that the route lost its original monopoly significance.

Zhu Zhanji now has the intention to develop the steam engine, but the steam engine is easy to make, but the pressure gauge is difficult to make.

A steam engine is actually a boiler that uses steam to generate power.

Compared with water power, the steam engine does not have much advantage in power, but there is only one point that water power is not comparable.

That is, the steam engine is not limited by geographical location, and can not only be built anywhere, but also installed on a car or ship.

Therefore, there is no technical difficulty in developing a steam engine, only this layer of window paper needs to be pierced. Because the transmission system of the current hydraulic waterwheel is not much different from the steam engine, the key is the manufacture of the pressure gauge

But Zhu Zhanji has no concept of the manufacture of pressure gauges at all. And without a pressure gauge, the combustion of the boiler does not have a standard scale, and it is prone to explosion.

After Zhu Zhanji's report was completed, Yi Xin, Zhu Zhen, Huang Yuan and other naval generals who had made meritorious contributions were commended by the imperial court.

Zhu Zhen led the Third Fleet to complete the blockade of Dongying and Korea, intercepted two ships of supplies delivered by Dongying to Jeju Island, and during the blockade of Tsushima Island, intercepted seven more ships, and killed more than 3,000 enemies and captured more than 4,000 during the two battles.

Therefore, Zhu Zhen was awarded the title of Yingzhou Bo, obtained a fief of 1,000 hectares in Yingzhou, and focused on the development of Yingzhou.

The current Yingzhou is the Taiwan of later generations, where it is still the world of the indigenous people, and the miasma is rampant, and most of the area is not suitable for human habitation.

It was also for this reason that he was able to obtain a thousand acres of land, far more than the hundreds of acres of tax-exempt land in the interior that were awarded to the earls.

Even so, Zhu Zhen was so excited that he endured it so that he didn't shed tears.

From a white body, he was directly entitled, and from now on, the fate of his family will be completely changed.

And the Second Fleet led by Yi Xin, because the First Fleet led by Zhu Zhanji was on the Western Front, although more people were killed and more people were captured, but when the reward was awarded, the influence of Zhu Zhanji and Zheng He was considered, so it was slightly inferior to Zhu Zhen.

Even so, Yixin was also awarded the title of Zhonglianbo, and the fief was the island that Zhu Di renamed Tsushima Island as Zhonglian Island, and established a naval base for the Second Fleet on the island with Yixin's Second Fleet.

The third to be awarded the title was Tang Jing, who led 13,000 men to blockade the Japanese on Jeju Island.

However, Gao Yide, the star lord of Jeju Island, has not yet completed the transfer of sovereignty with Daming, so his fief can only be put on account for the time being, and he will only be given 300 hectares of land after negotiating with Gao Yide on the conditions of Jeju Island's surrender.

The last person to be awarded the title was Zhu Zhanji's Yu Linwei commander Zhao Yongliang.

Although Yu Linwei had just changed his firearms, he trained well and did not mess up, and achieved good results in Jeju Island and Tsushima Island that exceeded everyone's expectations.

Therefore, Zhao Yongliang was not only awarded the title of Guangchengbo in his hometown, and was awarded 500 acres of land, but also directly replaced the old He Fu, served as the commander of the left and right guards of Yulin, and was ordered to replace the entire Yulin Guard with firearms.

Today, the importance of firearms has been clearly recognized by all the members of the imperial court. In particular, after today's hydraulic machine tools can directly polish the barrel, the explosion of the gun has almost disappeared, and the firearm has become more usable.

Now that the two armies are fighting, they don't need to engage the enemy at all, and they can directly defeat each other with firearms. Especially this time on Jeju Island, except for a few unlucky guys, Yu Linwei smoked his eyes and twisted his ankles, and there were no casualties, which made everyone stunned.

Liu Sheng, who came back from Beiping, is now stationed in the workshop of the Ministry of Industry, and about 500 gun barrels come out every day, all of which are cut off by him, and he wants to redress all of his Shenji battalion.

In addition to the four of them, there were also many other soldiers who were awarded viscounts and barons. Under Zhu Zhanji's persuasion, Zhu Di not only did not cancel the conferment of viscounts and barons, but also prepared to engage in a lifelong knighthood as Zhu Zhanji said, so as to add more fresh blood to this thriving empire.

However, the reward of Zheng He, the deputy commander who led the army this time, has not been determined.

Although Zhu Zhanji wanted to remove him from the ranks of ministers and come directly to the navy, Zhu Di also agreed, but he resolutely refused to knight him, and even did not allow him to take the title of naval governor.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there has been a strict boundary between internal ministers and foreign ministers.

The military generals were in charge of the war, the civil ministers were responsible for the management of the country, and the ministers were responsible for a series of management such as coinage, economy, and customs.

Although the ministers are ministers and have corresponding ranks, because they are retainers of the imperial family, although their status is high, they cannot develop any power themselves.

Zhu Di didn't believe in Zheng He's ability, he was just worried that setting this precedent would lead to a series of contradictions.

Even if Zheng He's meritorious service this time can at least be crowned, and even Zhu Zhanji proposed that he could exchange his title for a position, Zhu Di did not agree.

If the ministers can break free from the constraints of the imperial family, this will have a fundamental impact on the foundation of the entire imperial family.

Zheng He can get rid of the status of ministers, and the hearts of the nearly 100,000 ministers in the Ming Dynasty are not stable.

Although Zhu Di was willing to let the capable Zheng He help in the navy, he was unwilling to let Zheng He change his identity.

Zhu Zhanji also felt that it was a bit risky to carry out such a reform now.

After all, he has vested interests, and if this matter affects his foundation, he must be cautious.

He thought about what the Qing Dynasty did later, and by the time the Qing Dynasty arrived, the royal family no longer used eunuchs to manage the economy and commerce.

They set up an internal affairs office to manage these matters and serve the royal family. For example, the famous Weaving Mansion is actually a subordinate agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

But in today's Ming Dynasty, these things are all in the hands of eunuchs.

This kind of reform involving the system should be promoted slowly.

originally promised Zheng He, Zhu Zhanji thought that he could do it, but now it is such a result, and Zhu Zhanji is also a little guilty.

So he still persuaded Zhu Di to allow him to choose a son and nephew to succeed him, with Zheng as his surname, and pass on the lineage in recognition of Zheng He's achievements.

Although he could not directly assume the post of naval governor, Zhu Zhanji, in the name of naval commander and metropolitan governor, transferred Zheng He to the post of naval governor, and was only under himself, on a par with naval governor Liu Jiang.

After some consideration, Zhu Zhanji had to admit that this is the best result today.

If Zheng He really wants to change his identity all at once, not only will it be difficult for the generals to accept, but the entire internal prison will be unstable.

However, this is what he owes Zheng He, and when the time comes, he still has to complete the reform of the entire internal prison.

In the future, the Ming Dynasty will never need so many eunuchs.

On 19 December, Zhu Zhanji received information from Zhuang Jing from Nagasaki in the east. As soon as they arrived in Dongying, they were shelled by the local garrison.

Zhuang Jing originally came for Liwei, although their number was small, the naval guns were more powerful than the Dongying people.

Therefore, at the first time, Zhuang Jinghe led the guerrilla Zhong Hao to carry out a resolute counterattack. In the port of Nagasaki, they sank dozens of Toei merchant ships.

Then, in the evening, they took advantage of the darkness of the night to carry hundreds of people in small boats, each carrying a jar of oil, and poured all of them into the port of Nagasaki, and then lit the oil.

The fire not only destroyed hundreds of cargo ships in the port of Nagasaki, but also destroyed the docks of the port and even burned a large number of houses in the port.

After lighting the fire, they did not stay where they were, but drove straight to Kyoto, the seat of the Muromachi shogunate.

Although their fleet was too small to attack Kyoto, they still had a shipload of oil and were ready to attack Osaka Prefecture by the same means.

Osaka Prefecture is one of the largest ports in Toei today, and its current economy far exceeds that of the undeveloped Edo, which later became Tokyo.

This is also the gateway to Kyoto, and only when it is attacked and suffered heavy losses can the whole of Toei really panic.

As for Zhuang Jing and Zhong Hao's "madness", Zhu Zhanji is of course happy to see it come true, as long as their fleet does not suffer big losses, the greater the damage they inflict on Dongying, the better.

However, in the order to Zhuang Jing, Zhu Zhanji certainly couldn't say it so bluntly. He asked Zhuang Jing to act cheaply and preserve his strength.

If the momentum is not right, it will immediately withdraw to Tsushima Island, and there will be 30,000 troops led by Zheng He to garrison it, and it will be difficult to form a real threat with Dongying's sea power.

However, if they withdrew to Tsushima Island, of course, they would have to be controlled by Zheng He, and at that time, they would not be able to do whatever they wanted.

Zheng He, a pacifist, would not approve of such a mass murder.

After half a year, when he went to sea, he still let Zheng He continue to go to the West to promote the prestige of the Ming Dynasty, which is the work that really matches his ability.

Zhu Zhanji has never made up his mind whether he will go to the West or not.

Now there is also the emperor and the crown prince above him, so he is still relatively free. This may also be his only chance to go to sea.

really waited for him to ascend to the throne, with today's transportation conditions, he could only wave everywhere in the country at most, and never had the opportunity to go to sea again.

Leaving aside the wind and waves at sea, this kind of long-distance voyage is not very dangerous because it is mostly along the coastline.

But the infectious diseases of this era are really scary.

Whether it was plague, smallpox, or dysentery, this era was a disease that killed people.

The shadow of the Black Death in Europe has not yet fully dissipated, and it is scary to think that 25 million people have died in Europe, almost half of the population of the whole of Europe.

But in this era, if he doesn't go to Europe once, Zhu Zhanji is always unwilling.

In this contradictory psychology, Zhu Zhanji ushered in the New Year of the 14th year of Yongle.