The Ming army met around Mount Kent, and the sons of the little Tatar prince gathered their last strength to defend their last homeland, seeing that a great battle that would determine the fate of the Tatars was about to begin.

However, this great battle that decided the fate of the Tatars did not actually happen, when the sons of the little Tatar prince had just gathered their troops and discussed how to deal with the attack of the Ming in the big tent, but unexpectedly, several Tatar tribal leaders suddenly rebelled, and the rebels rushed into the sweat tent, killed all the sons of the little Tatar prince, and then announced their surrender to the Ming, and a few tribes that were unwilling to surrender with them were all slaughtered.

When the rebellious tribes came to the Ming army with the heads of the sons of the little Tatar prince, they were personally received by Zhengde, and then there was a series of rewards, but these tribal leaders received the rewards at the same time, the Ming will also send people into their tribes, on the one hand, the population and livestock, on the other hand, they will also be included in the rule and management of the Ming.

After the fall of the Tatars, the core area of the entire Mongolian steppe has fallen under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, leaving only some tribes in some remote places in the west, who have not yet accepted the rule of the Ming Dynasty, but this is only a matter of time, and when the Ming stabilizes the rule in the steppe, it will begin to advance to the west until it completely controls the entire steppe.

The demise of the Tatars marked the complete solution of the northern border troubles that plagued the Central Plains Dynasty for thousands of years, especially with the extension of the cement road on the grassland, the army of the Ming Dynasty could reach any place in the grassland at the fastest speed, coupled with the binding of economic interests, so that the entire Mongolian steppe could no longer break away from the rule of the Ming Dynasty, of course, it was impossible to rely on military force and economic rule for a long time, and it must also cooperate with another way of governance, that is, education and integration.

Originally, Zhou Zhong wanted to learn from the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty over Mongolia in later generations, such as divide and rule, let the children of Mongolian nobles study in the capital, corrupt their upper class, and even paralyze ordinary Mongols with religion, especially to encourage Mongolian men to become lamas, it is said that one-third of the total population of Mongolia at that time were lamas, which shows the terrible nature of this policy.

However, after careful consideration, Zhou Zhong found that the set used by the Manchu Qing Dynasty can only be partially borrowed, and must not be copied in full, such as encouraging Mongolian men to become lamas, although it can weaken the number of Mongols, and even make Mongolia a poor and ignorant land, but in the future, with the development of the Ming economy and culture, Mongolia will be more and more unable to catch up with the footsteps of the Ming Dynasty, and when this gap is getting bigger and bigger, Mongolia and the Central Plains will have a rift again, and even a war may occur in the end, So instead of leaving this problem to future generations, it is better to solve it directly in his generation.

So in this case, Zhou Zhong decided to completely tie Mongolia to the chariot of the Ming Dynasty, both economic and cultural synchronization, and now the caravan of the Ming Dynasty has begun to drive the economic development of Mongolia, so the cultural aspect naturally has to follow up.

First of all, Zhou Zhong also divided the Mongolian steppe into six provinces, each province is divided into a number of state capitals, each herdsman has his own household registration, and at least one school is set up in each state capital, the school provides room and board, so that the herdsmen can send their children to school to study, but these schools do not learn poetry and songs, but learn the most basic Chinese, after all, the first step of communication must be language communication, only when most of the herdsmen on the steppe know Chinese, The grassland will be connected with the land of the Central Plains.

In addition to learning Chinese, the school will also learn some simple arithmetic and medical skills, which are the most commonly used knowledge by herdsmen, among which arithmetic can make them not suffer losses when trading with Han merchants, as for medical skills can not only cure people, but more importantly, can treat livestock, natural disasters on the grassland are not only snow disasters, fires, plagues are also the most feared disasters by herdsmen, sometimes a big plague, can make several tribes starve to death because of no food.

In addition to the above measures for ordinary herdsmen, Zhou Zhong also borrowed from the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty over the Mongolian aristocracy, that is, let those Mongolian nobles send their children to the capital, and he will open a school for these Mongolian nobles to study, on the one hand, let these noble children become hostages, on the other hand, also transform these Mongolian nobles ideologically, when the new generation of Mongolian nobles grew up under the education of the Ming Dynasty, they had a natural sense of closeness to the Ming Dynasty, and they were less prone to rebellion.

At the same time that Zhou Zhong was busy bringing the Mongolian steppe into the rule of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming water conservancy officials who had been to Egypt for nearly two years finally came to the news, and now the entire Suez Canal excavation route has been determined, this canal passes through the original four lakes in the Suez region, and the whole process is almost a straight line, which greatly reduces the excavation route, and the Ottoman Empire also promised that they will be responsible for capturing slaves for digging canals, these slaves do not need to spend money, only need to ensure their most basic diet, In this way, the cost of excavation was greatly reduced, but even so, the final estimate of the cost of canal excavation was as high as 21 million taels, such a huge cost, for the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire, it was a huge expense.

However, for the Ottoman Empire, the Suez Canal is in their territory, and as long as the canal is successfully dug, then they will have an additional golden waterway, which can bring them huge benefits every year, I believe that it will not take a few years to recover the cost of the canal, not to mention that there is a Ming Dynasty to help them bear half of the cost, this kind of good opportunity they will never miss, so the Ottoman Sultan Selim has begun to raise this fund.

Zhou Zhong didn't expect that digging the Suez Canal would require such a huge cost, although Daming only needs to bear half, but it also needs 10 million taels of silver, fortunately, this does not need to be taken out by Daming at once, but divided into several years, in this way, it may only need more than one million taels of silver per year, this money can still be borne for the current Daming.

However, the cabinet disagreed about the huge cost, mainly because it would take too long to dig the canal, and according to the estimates of the water officials, it would take at least seven to nine years, and no one knew what would happen in the meantime, and if something went wrong with either the Ming Dynasty or the Ottoman Empire, it would likely lead to a disruption in the canal.

For the cabinet's worries, although Zhou Zhong can understand, but he is not worried at all, because he knows that although Selim will not live for a few years, Suleiman, who took over as sultan, is the greatest sultan in the history of the Ottoman Empire, under his leadership, the Ottoman Empire has reached its peak, not only reproducing the huge territory of the Arab Empire, but also overwhelming European countries, and even to a certain extent, the reason why Europe opened the Age of Discovery, in addition to the pursuit of wealth, Moreover, they were constantly threatened by the Ottoman Empire, which forced them to go to sea in search of a new place to live.

Thinking of the future history of the Ottoman Empire, so Zhou Zhong is not worried that the other party will have no money to build the canal, as for the Ming side, he is even less worried, now he is not yet thirty years old, is in the prime of life, and after his rectification, all aspects are showing a thriving scene, it can be said that even if he does nothing from now on, the entire Ming will still rely on inertia to move forward, and this development may not stop for hundreds of years.

However, Zhou Chong was not completely reassured about the Suez Canal, especially as the Ottoman Empire was about to usher in its most glorious period, so as the Ottoman Empire became stronger, they were likely to burst into greater ambitions, and even likely to want to tear up the previous Suez contract and impose heavy taxes on the ships of the Ming Dynasty.

So in this case, Zhou Zhong should also prepare in advance, although the Ming Dynasty is very far away from the Suez Canal, it is impossible to send the army over, but the Ming Navy can reach the distant Red Sea, especially when the contract was signed before, the Ming Dynasty obtained the right to garrison the Gulf of Aden in the Red Sea, this contract should naturally be used well, as long as it can maintain a strong navy there, control the entry and exit of ships in the Red Sea, and then you can divide the interests of the Suez Canal.

It was under these circumstances that Zhou Zhong decided to separate a fleet from the South Sea Fleet and establish a port in Aden, the southernmost part of the Arabian Peninsula, which would be the westernmost enclave of the Ming Dynasty overseas, of course, this was only temporary, maybe in a few years, the Ming would establish its own port in a more distant place.

In fact, the navy of the Ming Dynasty is also facing a huge reorganization, when Zhou Zhong took the South Seas as the most important place of immigration, so in the establishment of the three fleets, the East China Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet are both inland sea fleets, the main role is to inspect and defend, only the South Sea Fleet is really used for overseas operations of the fleet, when the Ming Dynasty was able to rule the South Seas in such a short period of time, the most important thing is to have this powerful fleet as a backing.

But now with the stability of the rule of the South Seas, the original South Seas have also become the inland sea of the Ming Dynasty, and the open sea of the Ming Dynasty has become a broader Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, although the Pacific Ocean has not been truly explored, but the Indian Ocean has become the playground of the Ming Navy, whether it is the Portuguese or the Arabs, they have to abide by the rules of the Ming Dynasty to live.

It is precisely in this situation that the original establishment of the Ming Navy can no longer adapt to the current development, so the reorganization of the Navy is also imperative, but before the reorganization of the Navy, there is another major matter related to the sea to be dealt with carefully. rs

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