"Oh~, it's too much of a deception!" Jiang Bin grabbed the teapot on the table, slammed it on the ground and scolded angrily, he thought that he had always avoided conflict with Zhou Chong, and the other party should not take the initiative to provoke him, but he didn't expect that this time Zhou Chong took advantage of the opportunity of the graduation of the cadets of the military academy to arrange those cadets into his own four armies, which was like a salary draw from the bottom of the kettle for him, and cut off Jiang Bin's control over the four foreign families at once.

"Brother Jiang, now the gang of people in the military academy have replaced the original old brothers, and one by one they only recognize military orders and do not recognize people, although our brothers still nominally control this army, but judging from the current situation, I am afraid that it will not be long before our brothers will not be able to command the four armies." The thin-faced man Li Cong also said very anxiously, he was Jiang Bin's old brother in Xuanfu, and after entering Beijing, he became Jiang Bin's most important assistant by virtue of his ability far beyond others, and he was also the second person in the four foreign armies.

"I know all this, but what can I do, the cadets taught by the military academy were originally to replace the generals in the current army, this time the first batch of graduated cadets replaced the generals of the four other families, King Zhao said that it was the importance of the four foreign families, and even His Majesty was full of praise for this, I didn't dare to say anything at all!" Jiang Bin sat down angrily and said, Zhou Chong's trick is above board, even if Jiang Bin knew it in advance, he couldn't think of any way to deal with it.

"Brother Jiang, in fact, there is no way, as long as you can say that Your Majesty can go to Xuanfu, then the four armies will definitely accompany you, as long as you arrive at Xuanfu, then it will be the world of our brothers, as for those students who are inserted by King Zhao, they can be cleared out by finding a reason." Li Cong's brain turned quickly, and he came up with a usable solution at once.

Jiang Bin's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he pondered for a moment and said, "This is a good way, but although Your Majesty wants to go to Xuanfu now, he is worried about opposition from the court." So I've been very hesitant now, but I'll work harder during this time, maybe I can get His Majesty to agree to go to Xuanfu, as long as I go to Xuanfu. Leaving the court and the inner court, as well as the annoying King Zhao, then our brother's words will have more weight in front of His Majesty. ”

Although Zhou Zhong didn't see Jiang Bin's angry appearance with his own eyes, he could guess the other party's performance, after all, Jiang Bin's biggest reliance was not only the 40,000 foreign four armies, and now he cut off one of Jiang Bin's hands as soon as he made a move, and he also made the other party have no way, presumably Jiang Bin should also know how to restrain himself in the future.

However, before Zhou Zhong was happy about breaking one of Jiang Bin's arms for too long, there was very bad news from Nanyang. After several years of recuperation and continuous reinforcement of troops from Europe to the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese finally felt that they had the strength to repay the defeat of Malacca that year, and were now gathering forces to attack the city of Malacca again. Moreover, the person who led the troops was Da Gama, who had visited Zhengde in Beijing before.

Speaking of the Portuguese, since the last time Vasco da Gama personally came to Daming to visit Zhengde, and compensated Daming with millions of taels of silver, he has been honestly doing business with Daming, among which Daming's silk, porcelain, tea, and spices from the South Seas are the favorite commodities of the Portuguese. And they were the only ones who could transport goods to Europe, so with these goods, Portugal made a lot of profits in Europe, making it the richest and most powerful country in Europe.

As the saying goes, the scars forget the pain, as the Portuguese regain their strength on the other side of the Indian Ocean. They are slowly no longer satisfied with only transshipment goods from Malacca in Daming, and they have been haunted by the battle of Malacca for several years, and have always wanted to find an opportunity to retaliate, so after accumulating strength for a few years, Da Gama finally couldn't help it. It was decided to attack Malacca again, if this battle could be won, then they would have choked the throat of the Ming Dynasty to the west, and they would also be able to peep into the South Seas, after all, the spices of the South Seas were the big brown commodities they shipped to Europe, which could be said to be counted in one fell swoop.

For the changes of the Portuguese, Wang Shouren, who got the news, immediately flew to the imperial court, but he, the governor, has the right to arbitrarily decide on the matter, and can deal with it accordingly according to the situation, after all, Songjiang is too far away from Beijing, if you ask the imperial court for advice on everything, it is too late in time, so when Zhou Zhong and they received the news, maybe the Malacca side has already started fighting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Portuguese are not dead-hearted, and they have treacherously attacked again, I don't know what countermeasures you have?" In the leopard room, Zhengde asked a little lazily. Today, not only Li Dongyang and other cabinet ministers are there, but also Zhou Chong, the king of Zhao, has also been summoned, after all, Nanyang has always been Zhou Chong's jurisdiction, although it is now taken over by Wang Shouren, but he still has an absolute say in Nanyang affairs.

"Your Majesty...... Ahem...... Your Majesty, the Portuguese are afraid of power but not virtue, since this time it is attacked again, then I will definitely beat the other party hard until they dare not attack again! Li Dongyang, who had just had a serious illness, said tremblingly, his health was very bad during this time, the previous serious illness almost killed him, and now the illness is not completely well, just because the Portuguese came to do something too urgent, so he dragged the sick body to discuss the matter.

"Gong Li has worked hard, come here, give Gong Li a seat!" Without waiting for others to speak, Zhengde saw Li Dongyang's pale face, and immediately ordered, although since he ascended the throne, Li Dongyang has always persuaded him to pay attention to government affairs, and Zhengde is very disgusted, but Zhengde also knows that Li Dongyang, as a cabinet minister of the two dynasties, has an irreplaceable role in the Ming Dynasty.

Li Dongyang also felt that he couldn't support it anymore at this time, so he was not polite, and after thanking Zhengde, he sat down. After all, in their opinion, Portugal is just a small overseas country, and they have provoked the majesty of the Ming Dynasty several times, so they naturally want to give the other party a little color, and even Liu Zhong also proposed to send troops overseas to directly destroy the Kingdom of Portugal, so as not to disturb people's leisure again in the future.

Zhou Zhong agreed with Li Dongyang's words, but when he heard Liu Zhong's words later, he couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly, and stood up at the moment and said: "Liu Ge doesn't know, the Kingdom of Portugal is tens of thousands of miles away from my Ming Dynasty, and it is estimated that it will take two or three years to go back and forth, if you want to attack such a country, you can only be like the Portuguese now, first find a place to settle at the other party's doorstep, and then send troops a little bit, and wait until you have the strength to attack the Kingdom of Portugal." ”

"Huh?" Liu Zhong was also stunned when he heard Zhou Chong's words, he only knew that the Kingdom of Portugal was overseas, and it was a little far away from Daming, but he never thought that it would take more than a year to go from Daming to the Kingdom of Portugal, such a long distance, even with the national strength in Daming, it was impossible to start a war directly. Thinking of this, Liu Zhong couldn't help but show a little embarrassed look on his face.

In fact, Liu Zhong can't be blamed for being ignorant, almost all the Ming scholars in this era are the same, they only care about the land of Daming, but as for the small overseas countries, they don't care much at all, at most, they feel that some overseas goods are relatively rare, and the others are not worth mentioning at all.

Zhengde had personally met Vasco da Gama before, so he knew a lot about the affairs of the Kingdom of Portugal, and he also knew that the Ming Dynasty lacked enough understanding of the Kingdom of Portugal, so he didn't blame Liu Zhong much, but turned his head to Zhou Zhong and asked: "Second brother, you have fought with the Portuguese before, and you arranged it in Malacca, for Portugal to attack again, do you think the other party has a chance to take Malacca City?" ”

Zhengde can't help but be nervous about the safety of Malacca, now with the progress of the sea trade, Zhengde has also joined in through Zhouzhong, now nearly half of the income of the inner court is related to the sea trade, and even the inner court has an island in the South Seas that grows spices, and the annual income is tens of thousands, in case Malacca is occupied by the Portuguese, then the income in the palace will be greatly reduced.

Regarding Zhengde's worries, Zhou Zhong smiled and said: "Brother Huang doesn't have to worry, Malacca is no longer the Malacca of a few years ago, and now there are thirty of the most elite warships of the South Sea Fleet stationed there, such a force, even if Portugal exerts all its military strength in the Indian Ocean, it will not be able to take advantage in the end, not to mention that the old port is not far from Malacca, if the Portuguese attack Malacca, the fleet stationed in the old port will also go to the rescue, so the Portuguese are humiliating themselves this time!" ”

Hearing Zhou Chong's words with such confidence, Zhengde, Li Dongyang and the others were all relieved, but after Li Dongyang took a few breaths, he suddenly spoke again: "Although...... Although the Portuguese could not defeat Malacca this time, but I, as the superior country of the Celestial Empire, have been provoked by this small country several times, which is really hateful, and I feel that I should give the Portuguese a little color, such as sending troops to the Indian Ocean, and completely destroy the power of the Portuguese there! ”

"Haha, Li Gong is right, the Portuguese are not ambitious, even if they are repulsed this time, they will still come next time, I Daming can't just rely on being defended, but to find an opportunity to take the initiative, now that the South Ocean Fleet has been reorganized, this king also feels that it is time to send troops to the Indian Ocean, but this needs to be approved by the imperial brother and the cabinet." Zhou Zhong laughed twice and said that he felt that the Portuguese entering Malacca this time was not a bad thing, at least it gave him an excuse to meddle in the affairs of the Indian Ocean.