"Oh, then what can you do to make the civil strife in the Wa Kingdom worse?" Zhengde himself is not a good person, and even in the words of later generations, he is simply a black-bellied man, otherwise he would not have operated Liu Jin behind the scenes to turn the court upside down after he ascended the throne, so Zhu Houzhao was very interested in Zhou Chong's proposal to exacerbate the civil strife in the Japanese.

"Your Majesty, although the Ashikaga family is weak, but unwilling to be at the mercy of others, the current general Ashikaga Yoshisai has been secretly accumulating strength, but the strength of the two ministers is too strong, and the Ashikaga family is full of prestige, so he does not dare to act rashly, but if we are willing to intervene, we don't need to give the Ashikaga family too much substantive help, as long as they are given a righteous name, so that Ashikaga Yoshisai can use this name to gather a group of powerful forces, Then there will definitely be a wonderful conflict waiting for us to enjoy in the future! Zhou Zhong squinted his eyes and said with a sinister face, what could be more pleasing than this to be able to play with the political situation of the Japanese State in the palm of his hand?

Zhengde pondered for a moment when he heard this, and then he also stroked his palm and smiled: "Yes, yes, this plan is indeed very feasible, although the Japanese State does not have much threat to my Ming Dynasty, but they were disrespectful to Emperor Taizu at the beginning, and the Japanese rebellion also caused a lot of losses to my Ming Dynasty, and now if they disrupt their political situation through my hands, it is also a very way to relieve hatred." ”

When it came to the most sinister face, Zhengde also showed a sinister expression on his face, which looked almost the same as the sinister on Zhou Chong's face. But soon Zhengde showed a smile with ulterior motives, and immediately turned his head to Zhou Chong and said, "Zhou Chong, you want to mess up the Wa Kingdom." So that you smugglers can profit from it. I don't disagree with that. It's just that if it is according to your plan, I must send someone to contact the Ashikaga family, but most of the officials in the court are not familiar with the Wa Kingdom, so I think about it, only one person can do it! ”

When Zhengde talked about the person who could do it, his eyes kept looking Zhou Zhong up and down, and the meaning was self-evident. However, Zhou Zhong still said in disbelief: "Your Majesty, you don't want to hand over this matter to the grass people, do you?" ”

"Ha Lu Ha~. Why don't you do it, Zhou Chong, don't forget, you are still my Ming talent, and you have presented Francophone artillery and binoculars, as well as corn and sweet potatoes, which are beneficial to the country and the people, in my opinion, your credit is even greater than that of most officials in the court, just now I was still thinking about how to reward you, but now I finally figured it out, it is better to simply give you an official position. In this way, it will be regarded as my reward for you, and secondly, you can also rely on this official status. Deal with the Wa Kingdom on behalf of the Imperial Court and carry out your plan to disrupt the Wa Kingdom! Zhengde said with a smug face again.

"This ......" Zhou Chong also hesitated when he heard this, to be able to get the support of the imperial court to intervene in the Japanese country, Zhou Chong naturally couldn't ask for it, but when he heard that Zhengde wanted him to be an official, Zhou Chong couldn't help but hesitate, he already had a lot of understanding of the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, and he knew that if he wanted to gain a foothold in the officialdom, it was far from enough to rely on his talent, and he must also learn to interact with his boss and subordinates. No matter how much the emperor trusts and supports you, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the queen to move an inch in the officialdom.

It was also thinking of these bad habits in the Ming officialdom that Zhou Chong shook his head with a wry smile and said: "Your Majesty, the grass people are lazy, and they are really not the material to be officials. ”

Hearing that Zhou Zhong was unwilling to be an official, Zhengde was not angry, but glanced at him with a smile and said: "You don't want to be an official, I have also heard Wushan and them talk about this, so I don't plan to force it, as for the fact that you want to use the identity of a businessman to represent the imperial court and contact the Japanese state, it is not impossible, but this matter can only be carried out in secret, otherwise if people know that you are a businessman but represent the Ming Dynasty, I don't know how many impeachments of the imperial history will be attracted by Lu Dao." ”

Zhou Zhong was relieved when he heard Zhengde agree, as for the impeachment of the imperial history, he didn't pay attention to it at all, anyway, he didn't plan to be an official, even if others impeached him, what was the use?

Picking up Masanori, he asked about the situation of the Japanese envoy this time, and Zhou Zhong also answered one by one, especially the tripartite power represented by Tayama Naoyoshi, Hatano Hidego and Ashikaga Kazuki, he also made a solemn introduction, and as a result, Masanori listened to Ha Lu Ha Da Lu smiled and said: "It seems that the Ashikaga general is not incompetent, and he has already united two powerful foreign aids, if I show my support for the Ashikaga family this time, then the Tayama clan and the Hatano clan will definitely attach more importance to the alliance with the Ashikaga family, It is not difficult to even encourage them to send troops together, and then I am afraid that the political situation of the Japanese state will be a mess again. ”

Seeing that Emperor Zhengde had already grasped the political situation of the Wa Kingdom so accurately just by listening to his own introductions, Zhou Chong couldn't help but feel a pang in his heart, in fact, he had already noticed it just now, and the absurd emperor in front of him, who was recognized by the Ming Dynasty and the opposition, was probably not as simple as the rumors, at least his political mind and sense of smell were much stronger than ordinary people.

After talking about the affairs of the Japanese Kingdom, Zhou Zhong took the opportunity to talk about the overseas situation again, especially the situation in Nanyang and India, and the fact that Portugal came from Europe with huge ships and cannons, which had opened the door to India, and was also eyeing the entire Nanyang. This is the second time that Zhou Chong has mentioned the Portuguese, and with the shrewdness of Zhengde, he naturally sensed that there was something in Zhou Chong's words.

"Zhou Chong, if you have anything to say, just say it directly, you don't have to go around in circles with me like this!" Zhengde took a sip of the tea ceremony.

"Your Majesty's forgiveness!" Zhou Zhong first made a salute, and then said solemnly, "Your Majesty, my Ming Dynasty has implemented a tributary policy for the surrounding countries, among which many small countries in the Nanyang region are my Ming Dynasty's vassal countries, so in some respects, Nanyang also belongs to the scope of my Ming Dynasty's power." ”

Zhou Zhong paused here when he said this, and then said: "But now Portugal has come from afar, although they have few people, but the ship is strong, the previous Franco machine artillery is from their hands, now they have a firm foothold in India, the next step is to invade the South Seas, after all, the spices produced in the South Seas are the goods they urgently need, last year, they tried to occupy the gateway of the South Seas, Malacca City, but failed, but the Portuguese are not reconciled, the grass people have got the exact news, wait until next year, The Portuguese will attack Malacca again, and with the strength of the locals, it may be difficult to hold the city of Malacca. ”

Hearing these introductions from Zhou Chong, Emperor Zhengde asked a little quietly: "Oh, if the city of Malacca falls into the hands of Portugal, what will be the impact on my Ming Dynasty?" ”

"Your Majesty, if the Portuguese invade the South Seas, then it will have two impacts on my Ming Dynasty, the first is prestige, after all, there are many subjects of my Ming Dynasty all over the South Seas, if they are allowed to be destroyed by Portugal, it will cause a serious blow to the prestige of the Ming Dynasty overseas, and the prestige of my Ming Dynasty that Gonggong Zheng preached in the South Seas seven times will also be lost."

Speaking of this, Zhou Chongchang took a breath, and then said: "On the other hand, it is the economic aspect of my Ming Dynasty, presumably His Majesty also knows that the Ming coastal smuggling is very active, and the grass people are a smuggling businessman, although smuggling does not need to pay taxes to the Ming Dynasty, but the smuggled goods are from the Ming Dynasty, these goods in the production and transportation process, require a lot of labor, and also pay a lot of taxes to the imperial court, but if the Portuguese occupy the South Seas, then the smuggling merchants will inevitably be hit by the grape people, Even how to price the goods in the future, we must obey the orders of those Portuguese, which will inevitably cause fluctuations in the transaction of Ming goods, which is definitely not a good thing for the Ming Dynasty! ”

When Zhengde heard this, he just wanted to say something, but at this time, Zhou Zhong preemptively spoke: "There is another point at the end, the Portuguese from Europe are afraid of power and not virtue, in their hearts, there is no benevolence and morality at all, they advocate interests first, if there are enough interests, they even sell weapons such as Francophone guns to the enemies of the Ming Dynasty." Even in order to facilitate trade, Portugal is likely to be entrenched somewhere along the coast of Daming, with their strength, this is undoubtedly a major threat to the coastal areas of Daming, so the grass people think that no matter what aspect, the Portuguese cannot be allowed to enter the South Seas! ”

After listening to Zhou Chong's words, Zhengde also fell silent all of a sudden, he didn't care much about the government, and his eyes have been on the Ming Dynasty, in his opinion, there are two threats to the Ming Dynasty, the first is the natural and man-made disasters in the Ming Dynasty, and the second is the inexhaustible Yuanmeng remnants in the northern grasslands. But now Zhou Zhong opened another door for him, telling him that above the endless sea, there was also a threat to Daming, which made him a little unable to digest this information for a while.

After a long while, Zhengde woke up from his contemplation, only to see him looking at Zhou Chong with a cautious look in his eyes and said: "Zhou Chong, tell me honestly, what is the strength of Portugal, will they really pose a threat to my Daming?" ”

Zhou Zhong heard that Zhengde was most concerned about the threat of the Portuguese to the Ming Dynasty, and he was shocked at the moment and said: "Your Majesty, the number of Portuguese is actually not very large, and the population in the country is only 10 million, but they are strong ships and guns, and you are also very clear about the power of the Franco's artillery." Now Portugal has twenty or thirty warships in India, as well as thousands of soldiers, with our Ming naval strength, if we want to defeat the Portuguese head-on at sea, I am afraid we will have to pay a lot of price! (To be continued......)