The crackdown on the male slave trade lasted until the end of December, and a total of as many as 1,000 men were arrested for using male slaves, and tens of thousands of slave traders and people related to the slave traders were arrested, including nearly 100 officials.

Zhu Youxiao first confiscated all the slaves, and then sent the slaves to the East and West Pol Province after compiling them in the blue book, and for the merchants themselves, Zhu Youxiao did not punish them, or even detain them for a day.

Zhu Youxiao not only confiscated all the slaves of the slave traders, but also imposed fines ranging from 10,000 taels to 100 taels depending on the severity of the situation, and if they could not pay the fines, they were all exiled to Siberia.

The punishment for officials was the most severe, and Zhu Youxiao would not only confiscate the illegal gains, but also exile the entire family of the offender to Lengzhou. After so many years of development, the population of Lengzhou finally exceeded 100,000, and there are mainly two types of imperial people in Lengzhou, one is the prisoners who were exiled to Lengzhou, and the other is the soldiers who were sent to Lengzhou.

Compared with Lengzhou, the living conditions in Siberia are much worse, and the mortality rate of slaves sent to Siberia is extremely high, after more than 200,000 slaves were sent here, only thirty percent survived in the end, but it was these three adults who began to make Siberia angry, and also made a very small number of imperial civilians begin to develop here.

What Zhu Youxiao didn't expect was that the punishment for the sale of male slaves was too light, so that the trafficking of male slaves recurred only two years later, and it intensified.

……

In March of the twenty-fifth year of the Apocalypse, Russian envoys arrived in Beijing. The Russian envoys originally wanted to negotiate peace in Siberia and demarcate the borders. However, the Russian envoy received the news of the fall of Yakutsk and other cities only halfway through, which made him decide to go to the Imperial Capital for peace talks, and the things to be discussed on this trip changed dramatically.

Zhu Youxiao was well aware of the greed of the Russians and knew that the peace talks would never come to fruition, so he decided to hand over the matter of the peace talks to the Metropolitan Governor's Office and the Cabinet.

"According to the fact that the east of the Volga River originally belonged to the Golden Horde, not Russia, all this should have been inherited by the empire, that is to say, every grass and tree east of the Volga River belonged to the empire, and I asked the Russians to retreat to the west of the Volga River, which is my bottom line." Zhu Youxiao said.

Hearing Zhu Youxiao's request, everyone was silent. Zhu Youxiao's conditions were too harsh for him to talk about, and they knew that the Russians would never agree.

"If the Russians don't retreat to the west of the Volga, then I'll take it myself." Zhu Youxiao said coldly, "In the territorial negotiations, you can't give up an inch of land, if you give up an inch today, others will ask you for a foot tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow they will ask you for a foot." ”

"No." Seeing Zhu Youxiao's resolute attitude, everyone didn't say much, anyway, looking at Zhu Youxiao's attitude, they also knew that Zhu Youxiao didn't take this peace talk seriously at all.

……

The negotiations between the Ming and Russia broke down completely after almost a day of talks, and the difference between the conditions demanded by the two sides was too great, Russia asked the Ming to restore the territory to before the war between China and Russia, and the Ming demand was not to mention, in short, the gap between the two sides was as high as more than 10 million square kilometers.

Zhu Youxiao didn't care about the breakdown of the negotiations, and no one in the world knew better about the ambitions of the Russians than Zhu Youxiao, and he was already preparing for the westward expedition to Russia at the beginning of this year.

But at this time, the shogunate took the lead in launching an attack on Zheng Zhilong's Ezo. The shogunate's sudden attack caught Zheng Zhilong off guard, and the defense of Ezo was extremely weak, and it took only seven days for the shogunate's army to destroy all of Zheng Zhilong's forces in Ezo. Although the shogunate only seized the wild land of Ezo, it allowed the shogunate to sweep away the gloom of the past and boost morale.

And Zheng Zhilong decided to take revenge on the shogunate and sent troops to attack the shogunate again.

"I recommend taking Edo directly by sea." Zheng Zhiguan said.

"Lord, I don't think it's appropriate, since the Tokugawa shogunate lost the naval battle, the shogunate has transferred most of the heavy artillery to Edo, and now Edo can be said to be a strong city, if our army can take Edo in one fell swoop, if our army can't take Edo quickly, then our army will inevitably fall into the siege of the shogunate army, and then our army will be dangerous." Wang Yingshen said.

"My lord, I think it would be too dangerous for our army to take Edo directly, and I think our army can first capture the Choshu domain and the Aki Hiroshima domain, both of which are strong domains in Honshu. The capture of the Choshu Domain and the Aki Hiroshima Domain would not only weaken the Shogunate's strength, but also force the Shogunate to leave Edo and engage our army in a decisive battle in the field. Shi Daxuan said.

"Big brother, what General Wang and General Shi said is the best policy, and I also think that we should go to the Choshu Domain and the Aki Hiroshima Domain first." Zheng Zhihu also agreed.

"Since everyone agrees, then it's decided." Zheng Zhilong said.

"In this battle, our army can divide into two routes, all the way across the sea to Hagi Castle, all the way across the sea to Hiroshima Castle, once our army takes these two cities, Choshu Domain and Azuki Hiroshima Domain can be at your fingertips." Zheng Zhihu suggested.

"Take Hagi City on the west road, who wants to lead the troops in command?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

"Big brother, I do." Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Zhiguan said together.

"This time, Zheng Zhihu will lead the West Road and lead 50,000 troops." Zheng Zhilong said without hesitation.

After Zheng Zhilong finished speaking, he said to Zheng Zhiguan again: "Fourth brother, I have thought twice, I think the Minister of the Interior is the most suitable for you, and I am ready to let you take the post of Minister of the Interior, what do you think?" ”

"It's all up to the eldest brother." Zheng Zhiguan said helplessly. Becoming the right minister meant that he would rarely have the opportunity to lead troops to fight in the future.

"In the future, I will take over the world, big brother, I will definitely treat you badly." Zheng Zhilong patted his chest and said.

"Thank you, Lord Wang!" The crowd shouted. Now that Zheng Zhilong is the prince, this group of people is still reckless and righteous.

"Take Hiroshima on the east road, who wants to lead the troops in command?" Zheng Zhilong continued.

"Lord Wang, I am willing to lead the troops there." Wang Yingshen said.

"Big brother, I'm willing to lead the troops." Zheng Zhifeng also said.

Zheng Zhilong thought for a while and said: "General Wang is the commander-in-chief, Zheng Zhifeng is the deputy marshal, and he will lead 50,000 troops to take Hiroshima City." ”

……

After the shogunate seized Ezo, it also considered that Zheng Zhilong would send troops, and the shogunate also strengthened the defense of Honshu, but Honshu was surrounded by the sea on all sides, and the shogunate had almost no navy, so the defense of each domain could only rely on each domain itself.

(End of chapter)