For Zhu Di, although he was able to implement some policies and actions strongly, this was a far cry from when the civil servants voluntarily supported him.

Quite simply, any policy, any plan, needs people to implement it.

Who will execute it?

Only these ministers!

Even if it is a march to fight, without the support of Wenchen, what to eat and drink on the way to the army? When the weapons and supplies arrived on the battlefield were all controlled by the civil servants.

When they are willing, the work is carried out quickly, and when they are unwilling, even if it is to carry out orders, there are many times to grind foreign workers.

The results of such different attitudes are also very different.

In the past, because of the non-cooperation of Wenchen, in the past three years, the grain, grass, horses, and chariots of the westward expedition were slowly transported to the northwest through the transfer of the people, and it was not enough until now.

It's not that his money hasn't been paid, but that the local governments have such and such difficulties to reasonably delay.

What can he do if he is the emperor? Kill them all? I'm afraid that a new group of people is not as good as they do!

Any action that cannot be adjusted according to the actual situation, communicated and compromised, recklessness and coercion will only make things worse.

Now, this problem seems to be solved.

It took him three years to get the ministers to change their minds, and Jungi only used a plausible sentence to make them understand the meaning.

After figuring out this link, he couldn't help but laugh. "Go and see what the grandson is doing, let him come...... Forget it, I'd better go to Xingqing Palace. ”

The main hall of the harem concubine Zhu Zhanji is inconvenient to go, although the halls where he lives are large, but because they are too big, they are not only cold, but also uncomfortable.

Although Xingqing Palace is the first palace to be rebuilt in the palace, and the hardware conditions are similar to those of other palaces, Zhu Zhanji's preferences are naturally biased towards later generations, and how to be comfortable and how to come.

Every time he arrived at Xingqing Palace, Zhu Di also felt very comfortable.

But other palaces are not so free, and they can change as much as they want. Like the three major halls, the regulations inside can hardly be changed.

The honor guard arrived at Xingqing Palace, and Zhu Zhanji hurriedly greeted him from the toy room built for the children, with a few duck feathers stuck on the top of his head.

Looking at him like this, Zhu Di wanted to scold him a few words, but when he saw a group of children in the toy room staring at him with wide eyes, he couldn't scold.

"Children can be petted, and don't spoil too much, I don't want you to raise a bunch of gentlemen in the future."

Zhu Zhanji smiled: "Grandson knows." After three years away from home, the children didn't know me anymore, so I cultivated a relationship with them. ”

"I heard that you stopped the children's homework and didn't let them learn to read?"

Today's children learn to read and write, but there is no pinyin of later generations. At the beginning, Mengxue was directly three hundred thousand.

What do children who are only three years old and less than four years old understand? Because I have to memorize words, my mind is rigid.

Therefore, after Zhu Zhanji came back, he stopped teaching literacy and only taught children to learn counting.

He plans to use a year or two to figure out Hanyu Pinyin, and then the child will be five or six years old, just enough to learn to read and write.

Before there was no Hanyu Pinyin, learning to recognize words did not rely on sounds, but only on the meaning of words. If you don't memorize the meaning, this word is equivalent to knowing it and it is useless, unless you can really master it after several years of systematic study.

This is also an important reason why Mongolian learning was more difficult in ancient times and it was difficult to popularize education.

Zhu Zhanji nodded and said, "The children are too young, and it is still a little early to learn literacy. When they are five or six years old, I will arrange for them all to study at Xiamaqiao Farm. ”

Zhu Di shook his head and said, "It's not appropriate." Although there are very few orphans recruited by your Xiamaqiao Farm, you have arranged for the children of those soldiers who died in battle to study there, how can the royal children intersect with the civilians? ”

Zhu Zhanji does not have too deep a class hierarchy, and wants to debate with Zhu Di. "Why not?"

"Too close, too far away, so that those people have less dignity."

One sentence made Zhu Zhanji speechless.

Indeed, it doesn't make much difference who you are. But now is not the society of the information explosion in the future, and the aristocracy, especially the royal family, is more noble than God in the hearts of the common people.

The emperor's sons are fighting with the sons of the soldiers, and many times they are not even as good as the sons of the soldiers, so what will they think when they grow up?

It's not as high as mine, it's just because it's a good birth, and it's not worthy of respect.

What if they take power? Will it directly overthrow this oppressive class?

It's a big possibility.

Therefore, Zhu Zhanji immediately knew that he was wrong.

He can be kind to the children of the martyrs and help them, but he can't put his own children in the same environment as them.

He corrected his mistake when he knew it, and said to Zhu Dichang: "Grandpa Xie Huang reminded that his grandson almost made a big mistake. ”

Zhu Di nodded and said, "Come with me, I have something to ask you." ”

Zhu Zhanji did not follow him directly, but returned to the toy room and took turns touching each child's head. "Daddy is going to run errands, you guys play by yourself."

There were a few soft-hearted people who were reluctant and wanted to be coquettish, but they were quickly persuaded by their respective little palace maids.

Zhu Zhanji turned around to appease them just to show that he had a beginning and an end, and he began to teach by word and deed, not to give them a chance to be coquettish.

Seeing that they didn't make trouble, he was very satisfied, so he left with charity.

When he came to the lounge behind his study, because there was only one Li Qian in the room, Zhu Di had already come to lie down again, and his legs were still high.

Since he didn't look like an emperor, Zhu Zhanji leaned comfortably on the sofa opposite him and put his legs on a brocade stool in front of him.

As soon as he sat down, Zhu Di's voice came. "This fire is lit, and you are confident to extinguish it?"

Zhu Zhanji knew very well what Zhu Di meant, and opened a head to release power, and when these ministers digested this part of the power, they would be able to get Longwangshu again.

He said with a smile: "Although my father treats Wenchen preferentially, there is also a limit, and it is impossible to let them be presumptuous. As long as the power of the Wenchen does not deviate from the ruling of the royal family, the grandson has confidence.

What's more, they themselves didn't realize that the establishment of a new court law was actually dividing their forces.

is not a monolithic Wenchen, but in fact it is not terrible. Suppress a group, win over a group, and support a group. Then divide them, divide and conquer.

In the end, they will find that the estrangement between them is difficult to integrate, and they have no strength to compete with the imperial power, so they can only rely on the imperial power honestly. ”

Zhu Di was particularly appreciative of Zhu Zhanji's self-confidence, and smiled happily: "It was originally a very simple matter, but you have to make it so complicated, why?" ”

"It's very simple, my grandson is lazy! In order to enjoy more happiness in the future, do more now. Half of what they said to Yang Shiqi today was also the sincere words of their grandson.

It is not the grandson who wants to be the emperor like Gaozu, and it is not the grandson who wants to be the emperor like the emperor's grandfather.

Moreover, the descendants of the Zhu family, who can guarantee that they will be able to be like Gao Zu and be as capable as the imperial grandfather? If there are a few faint monarchs, won't the Zhu family's country be finished? Therefore, it is also necessary to take precautions.

If the grandson's plan is fully realized, the future small pilgrimage meetings can be revoked, and only two large pilgrimage meetings per month are sufficient.

The emperor can be easily served, and the ministers have no possibility of covering the sky with one hand, isn't that good? ”

After reading some of the imperial court reform plans written by Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Di was not surprised by Zhu Zhanji's words.

Because although that plan is a bit shocking, if it is really fully realized, it is really easy to become an emperor.

Neither worried about the loss of power, nor worried that the powerful ministers could cover the sky with one hand, let alone worried that the emperor's ability was not enough.

The imperial court is no longer a single imperial court, but four imperial courts with their own duties, each party cannot be dominant, even if it is a very popular minister, it can only manage a share of things within its own authority, and cannot interfere in other departments.

The four families restrain each other, and after a long time, they will naturally split, and it will be difficult to restore the hearts of the people after the split.

Moreover, when the selection of talents in the imperial court was changed from generalists to specialists, anyone could be a supreme minister on their own side, so why bother to merge with other departments?

Even if a person wants to, and no one supports him, he is helpless.

Zhu Di shook his head and smiled and said, "You, you are a rebel, you don't take your ancestors and the legal system in your eyes at all. ”

Zhu Zhanji also shook his head and said: "Grandpa Huang, literati can talk about Confucianism, but the emperor cannot, because Confucianism is to let the common people listen to the emperor." Literati can talk about the legal system, but neither can the emperor, because the legal system is to restrict the civil and military ministers and the common people. It doesn't make sense that I'm the biggest in the world, but I have to limit myself. ”

Zhu Di slapped his thigh and sat up. "Well said, that's how it should be!"

After being excited, he sighed again: "You should talk to your father about this, so that he can understand the truth of being an emperor." ”

Zhu Zhanji smiled and said: "This is your business, where in the world is there a son to teach Lao Tzu!" ”

Zhu Di originally had some worries in his heart, afraid that Zhu Zhanji would play too much, and he would not be able to hold back the play, and it would be difficult to clean up the stall. Now that I see him full of confidence, my heart is also a little more steady.

His heart was also more determined to send Zhu Gaochi out, and he couldn't let this son stay in the capital to hinder his grandson.

The purpose of his coming to Zhu Zhanji was not for this matter, anyway, after this set of rules of procedure began to be implemented, it was like a noose, slowly tightening Wenchen's neck, and the more they struggled, the tighter they would find it.

Knowing the signs of the change in the attitude of the ministers, he wanted to discuss the affairs of the Western Expedition with Zhu Zhanji, which was what he was most concerned about now.

Zhu Zhanji went north with him and personally went into battle to kill the enemy. Later, he personally presided over the affairs of the Eastern Crusade, and handled it very properly.

As a manager, you can't do everything that a general does, it makes them not know what they have to do. You can't just leave nothing and let those soldiers get out of control.

It is precisely because Zhu Zhanji is a very good coach that Zhu Di can see his talent in military affairs.

Therefore, he is willing to discuss it with Zhu Zhanji when the matter has not yet been decided.

"Zhanji, I still remember the intention of the western expedition, and you provoked it for me. It's been three years, and now I'm almost ready, and I'll be going out next year by March at the latest. You have been to the country of Timur, what advice do you have? ”

Zhu Di's leg was not good, and after studying the geographical location of Timur's country, he decided to personally lead the army of the southern route from the sea. But who the commander of the Northern Route Army is, he has not yet announced, and Liu Sheng, who is second only to Zhang Fu, is currently the most popular.

Since you have to go from the sea, you have to catch the monsoon, so you can save time.

Otherwise, after March, the north wind stops and changes to the south wind, and the army will have to travel twice as long at sea, and the consumption will increase a lot.

Zhu Zhanji also sat up straight, took a few seconds to turn his mind, and muttered for a while before saying: "At present, I have more than 200,000 Daming muskets and more than 10,000 artillery pieces, and the ...... of Timur, which mainly relies on cold weapons."

"What is a cold weapon?"

Zhu Zhanji smiled, and inadvertently popped up the terms of the future generations, but this was a small section, and he didn't care at all.

"After gunpowder was used in weapons, the grandson classified the weapons, the previous broadswords and spears, which did not use gunpowder, were all cold weapons. And those who use gunpowder are hot weapons. ”

Zhu Di nodded. "You go on ......"

"Although Timur had muskets, their muskets were similar to those of Europa brought back by his grandson, not only did they have poor firepower, they had a short range, and they were scarce in number. Because for them, the musket did not have as long a range as their hard bows.

Therefore, I will win this battle! But what kind of goal you want to achieve and to what extent you want to end this war depends on the emperor's grandfather. ”

Zhu Di said: "I have no intention of destroying the country, as long as they surrender, they can collect troops." ”

Zhu Zhanji nodded and said: "Then the strategic significance is to conquer, not to occupy, so we don't need to care how much hatred there is and how big the loss is." ”

But Zhu Di hesitated for a moment and said, "If we can occupy it, we can still garrison the army......"

Zhu Zhanji was a little speechless.

He supported the fight of this costly war, not because it was possible to recover countless treasures from the country of Timur. Even if it is to empty Samarkand, it is not as big as the Ming Dynasty.

In the past three years, the Ming Dynasty has invested more than 10 million taels of silver in preparation for this war, and more than 5 million taels of silver has been invested specifically for the Western Expedition.

This does not include the loss of hundreds of thousands of people who have taken training out of work, nor the indirect losses of those who have delayed their farming.

Since it is unprofitable, why fight? The main reason is to play the national momentum of the Ming Dynasty and create an invincible image of the Ming Dynasty all over the world.

The backbone of a nation is not something that can be earned by words, nor by earning countless amounts of silver.

Although the Ming Dynasty is now invincible, it is still limited to East Asia, South Asia, and its influence on the entire world civilization is still very limited.

In later generations, the history textbooks of many countries did not recognize the spread of oriental civilization, or even the influence of the Han nation in the world.

They expelled seven empires that influenced the course of world history, except for the Mengyuan Empire, which they admitted, in the entire 5,000-year history of civilization, they did not recognize other dynasties.

And some of the countries of projectiles, which ruled a little bigger, were all lined up by them.

Because there are two important factors in this, one is the cultural transmission and the other is the history of conquest.

In terms of cultural transmission, except for Dongying and North Korea, as well as northern Vietnam, our writing has not even spread to the Philippines and Cambodia, which are close at hand.

Our inventions are said to have benefited the world, but they have been spread through other peoples. For example, some countries in the Western Regions, such as Mengyuan.

And the Arabs, who had long been occupied by foreign races, were excluded because they spread their writing, their inventions to the rest of the world.

Let's talk about the history of conquest. Qinghai-Tibet in Central Asia and the plateau, desert in the northwest, separating the East from the world. Except for the Mongol and Yuan dynasties, the armies of other dynasties never went abroad, let alone conquered other regions.

Therefore, no matter how large the population of the Han people is, no matter how large the territory of the Han people is, many people believe that Han culture is only a regional culture, not a world culture.

Of course, Zhu Zhanji does not agree with this ranking, but there are some places where there is really nothing to say.

So when it came to this era, he was going to Europe.

Not only that, but he wanted the Ming army to occupy more places, so that most of the world belonged to the Han people, and the Han people became the main body of the world.

What is it to spend a little silver for this purpose!

Zhu Zhanji sighed and said, "Grandpa Huang, you are the commander in the army, if you don't even have a firm goal, the generals will be at a loss." ”

He nodded and said, "That's what I said at the beginning, as for the garrison, that's later." ”

Zhu Zhanji shook his head and said, "Different ends will use different means. If only for the sake of conquest, the army can kill and burn with impunity, not caring about the little treasure captured. But if we want to extend the rule of the Ming Dynasty, then some areas of interest must be protected, and they must not cause irreparable hatred. ”

He hummed and said to Li Qian, "Go get a map of Central Continent." ”

Middle-earth is Asia, but now it has been renamed Middle-earth.

World maps and globes are still only being disseminated on a small scale, because South America is still in the world, and North America is not known.

However, some regional maps have begun to spread, such as the huge map of the Ming Dynasty, although the selling price is as high as 300 wen a piece, there are still countless people who save money to buy a copy and put it at home.

When many large families are separated, they have to look at the map and determine where they want to move to the clan.

Today's map of the Ming Dynasty extends to the Arctic Ocean and Bering Strait in the north and Antarctica in the south, including Australia, New Zealand, and many small islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The western part of the country went all the way to Moscow, which was still the territory of the Golden Horde, so it was marked by color as the "area to be subdued".

The southwest encloses half of Africa and Madagascar, but it is printed in a small map in a separate corner of the map.

It's not because I'm afraid that the map is out of proportion, it's just that I don't want people to know the whole chart.

Even the Arabs, who now trade with Europe only through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, do not know how big Africa is, what shape it is, and how far it will go.

Their ships had only reached Tanzania as far as the future, and had not yet traveled further south.

Before the Ming Dynasty became absolutely dominant in each region, the overall world map was the biggest secret.

Only after the Ming has maintained their advantage in each area will the world map appear.

Since the news of Nanzhou came back the year before last, there was also a letter brought back by Zhu Zhanji.

In the letter, Zhu Zhanji persuaded Zhu Di to loosen control over immigration while maintaining strict household registration.

Since the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, Daming has been immigrating, but it is an official immigration, which is mandatory, making the people miserable.

During the Zhu Di period, because of the huge disparity between the number of people in the north and the south, several forced immigrants were carried out and land was distributed free of charge.

But the effect is still not good, because in some areas of the north, the land is barren, and now there are no potatoes and corn, there is no food to grow there, and what is the use of more land?

The purpose of Zhu Zhanji's letter was to ask Zhu Di to open the map of the Ming Dynasty to a limited extent, and then let the government print various brochures to introduce the characteristics and products of each place, the climatic characteristics, as well as the proportion of the population, the preferential treatment of immigrants, and so on.

Every landless poor person, including the concubines of large families, can freely choose where they want to go when they go to the government to register.

The government gave him a way out, and he could stay at a post station along the way, and when he arrived at his destination, he could receive quilts, tools, and seeds.

At the beginning of the second year, the repayment begins, and from the third year, the tax is paid according to the minimum share.

As long as you are not lazy, you can survive well and feed a large family.

Of course, Zhu Di will not do everything according to the rules, but he also implemented the free immigration plan according to this idea.

Not to mention, in the past, forced immigration brought disaster to the country and people, and people were reluctant to leave their homeland after being killed.

However, this freely chosen immigration policy was very popular, and the number of spontaneous immigrants from the private sector was greater than the number of people during the period of coercion.

Of course, the credit for this incident was placed on his own body by Zhu Di, and when he heard the people shouting for the emperor's sage, he was extremely satisfied.

The regional map of some places near the Timurid country of Zhongzhou was taken, and the grandfather and grandson looked at the map around the map for a while, and Zhu Di still said reluctantly: "The northwest is over the desert, and the area around Samarkand is also a good place." ”

Of course, Zhu Zhanji is also very familiar with the five Central Asian countries, where although there are many Turkic people, there are more Mongol races.

Moreover, by controlling there, the Ming Dynasty will be able to radiate its influence to Europe. The Russians are still honestly nesting around Moscow, don't think about developing eastward, otherwise, the army will be able to reach Moscow at any time.

However, with such a long distance, in today's environment of inconvenient transportation and communication, it takes countless manpower and material resources to stabilize the rule.

The best way is to support the power of the Mengyuan people, establish a stable vassal state, and let them guard the country for the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing that Zhu Di was interested there, Zhu Zhanji said his thoughts. The lobby was so strong at that time that it fought all the way to the Caspian Sea, but in the end it was lost.

The main factor is self-rule, which consumes too much manpower and material resources, and the strength is not enough. If the Mengyuan people were to rule there, the Ming would only need to support the locals with some weapons to extend their influence.

Later, when the time is ripe, troops can also be sent to occupy it directly.

As for Afghanistan and the Iranian plateau in the south, neither Zhu Di nor Zhu Zhanji is interested. Apart from a few small gold mines, there is little to be produced.

And that side is close to the sea, as long as the Ming fleet can control the ocean, it is not afraid of them turning the sky.

Therefore, the grandfather and grandson quickly reached a consensus that the southern conquest would be the main thing, and the northern occupation would be the main one.

"When my grandson went to sea this time, he got a lot of local books and information on the local tribal forces in Kurumus. Since the Timurid state had the same means of rule as the Mongol Yuan, their rule in the region was not monolithic. So how to conquer, how to occupy, the grandson still has to make a tidy up. ”

Zhu Di nodded and said, "I've been waiting for three years, and I don't care about these twenty days." …… But it's better to sort it out as soon as possible, as long as the civil officials don't drag their feet, they will immediately determine the generals of all parties and start formulating detailed tactics and strategies, your grandfather, I can't wait. ”

What do you say...... It's speechless!

Zhu Zhanji responded, and Zhu Di left satisfied.

And Zhu Zhanji came out and sat in front of the desk, feeling a little dazed for a moment that he didn't know where to start.

This time, the army went out, and the Southern Route Army was easy to handle, and it went by boat directly, and there was no need to worry too much about logistics and supplies.

However, the Northern Route Army had to travel thousands of miles, and it had to pass through several countries in the middle. This marching route, logistics and supply, is a great test of human ability.

And which country is wooed, which country is occupied, and which tribe is subdued, also needs to be screened one by one according to the actual situation and treated differently.

Moreover, he doesn't know who the commander of the Northern Route Army is, and I'm afraid Zhu Di himself has not decided. Different generals have different styles, and different tactics should be developed according to different people.

More importantly, for the Varat and Tatars in the north, whether to take them with them on the expedition this time, who to take with them, and at what cost.

Because it was impossible for Zhu Zhanji to lead the army, thinking of the complicated situation and relationship, he still couldn't help but worry about the choice of the commander of the Northern Route Army.

Although Zhu Di is in the name of the royal driver, this time he went to make soy sauce.

If the current Ming Dynasty wants him to lead the army in person, those generals will not live.

He thought for a while, but he didn't have a clue, and ordered Li Liang, who was guarding beside him, to say, "You go and help me ask Grandpa Huang, has the plan of the various armies come out?" Who are the leading generals? ”

Li Liang went, and he instructed Liu Wan again. "You asked me to bring over all the information I have collected about the country of Timur tomorrow morning, and in the next few days, we will sort out this information first. Well, go and call Sun Lin over first, and I'll ask him about the information in the northwest. ”

As soon as Liu Wan went out, he met a palace maid who was whispering to the attendant on duty, and hurriedly saluted when he saw Liu Wan.

"I've seen Young Eunuch Liu."

It was the first time Liu Wan saw this palace maid, and frowned, a little unhappy that those chamberlains easily let her in. But when he saw her face clearly, his heart moved, and he asked, "What's the matter?" ”

This palace maid is the right-hand man in front of Zhuang Fengyi, because the identity of the host who serves is not high, and she does not have much sense of presence in the palace. When he saw Liu Shaojian, a popular man in Xingqing Palace, he naturally didn't dare to slack off.

"Young Eunuch Liu, His Royal Highness is going to rest at Zhuang Fengyi's place tonight, and it hasn't passed at this time, Fengyi asked me to ask about the situation."

"You go and talk back, and I'll be over right away." Zhu Zhanji's figure walked out, and after explaining, he said to Liu Wan: "You ask Sun Lin to go to Yongfu Palace to see me, and then ask him to send someone to Jinyiwei and Tongzheng to contact the two divisions and send all the information about the northwest." ”