The footsteps of the changing of the guard sounded outside the Qinzheng Palace. They all wore leather boots, and iron palms were nailed to prolong the life of the soles. When you step on it hard, you almost knock the bluestone pavement in front of the temple out of sparks. Tall, strong, fully armored soldiers saluted each other, changed guards, and then saluted and left.

Chen Dexing raised his head from the official document and rubbed his eyes. The sound of the changing of the guard reminded him that another two hours had passed.

When the New Year of the third year of Tiandao came, Chen Dexing, the emperor, suddenly had more things to do. The Ming Empire implemented a cabinet system, and ordinary government affairs were handled by the free cabinet prime minister and the council. The emperor only grasps the general direction, and does not need to ask everything one by one.

Excessive diligence is not an imperial virtue in Chen Dexing's view, but a stubborn self-use, and he is not at ease with anyone. But Chen Dexing knows very well that an emperor sitting in the deep palace will not know what is going on outside. Later generations Mingjun Daoguang didn't know the joke that eggs were sold for a few taels of silver, but he had heard of it. How useful can such an emperor be no matter how diligent he is?

Although Chen Dexing knows the approximate price of eggs - after all, he started from the people - but there are many things in the world, and it is not just the problem of eggs. Therefore, as a king, he must be good at employing people and dare to delegate power. In civil affairs, it is necessary to trust the prime minister, and in military affairs, it is even more necessary to delegate power to the military department and the generals at the front.

The emperor himself only needs to grasp the general direction of the country and the key personnel.

And Chen Dexing's busyness during this period is because the Ming Empire is now at an important turning point.

The first is, of course, war. China itself is basically unified, with 25 provinces and two capitals. It has a population of more than 10,000 people. But this is only the beginning, it is the Chinese civilization out of the East Asian continent. The beginning of expansion to the whole world.

And the Chinese expansion war has been in full swing in the second year of the Heavenly Dao!

Li Yanguo's Tang army landed in Zhancheng. With the support of the Ming navy and maritime merchants, it took less than a month to occupy the Champa state. Next, the Tang army will also invade Khmer and take this ancient civilization as its own.

The combined forces of Song Xiafu under the command of Chen Huaiqing and Xia Bao invaded Java on a large scale. Successfully landed two months ago! Barring any surprises, the country should have been completely occupied by now. The next step should be to use the Strait of Java and Malacca as a base. Invaded Tianzhu.

The founding of the Tang, Xia, Song, and Fu feudal domains in Nanfan and Tianzhu is obviously of exemplary significance. If these four feudal domains can succeed in founding the country, then the rest of the feudal domains in the Ming Dynasty will have more confidence and grasp of the overseas founding of the country -- getting these feudal towns out of the country is actually a kind of "cutting down the feudal domains", and from a certain point of view, it is a method of attracting disasters from outside. Therefore, the value of the four good examples cannot be overestimated.

For the support of these four feudatories, Chen Dexing must personally inquire about it.

Compared with the southern expedition of the four feudatories, the western expedition was a major event related to the life and death of the Ming Dynasty. If there is a mistake in the southern expedition, Chen Ming's life will not be killed. If the Western Expedition was defeated by Kublai Khan, it would be a big trouble.

Moreover, the western expedition must use the feudal army. Not only because the West was also a good place to settle the feudal towns, but also because too many feudal army troops were left on the mainland. And letting the six armies and eight banners of the Ming dynasty go out to fight is not a very reassuring thing.

And the matter of arranging the westward expedition of the feudal army must also be personally inquired about by Chen Dexing. Sometimes, they even had to exchange letters and discuss the western expedition with the lords of the various feudal towns.

Chen Dexing put down the brush. Stand up from the study room of the Qinzheng Hall (located on the left side of the main hall), which is connected to the Qinzheng Hall by a small corridor. Hearing Chen Dexing's footsteps, the secretary who had been guarding outside took the first step to open the door.

This secretary's surname is Cai, Mingming, and has the same name as a certain film and television female star in later generations, but he is a man, the son of Cai's in Xinghua, Fujian. It is the traitorous Cai Jing family of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Xinghua Cai family was originally a big family, but unfortunately there was a Cai Jing, and when he arrived in the Southern Song Dynasty, he didn't mix well, and he didn't have the prosperity of the past. Therefore, the focus of the development of the Cai family shifted to sea trade, and there were several giant merchants with a net worth of millions in the late Song Dynasty. However, while the Cai family was engaged in business, they did not leave behind poetry and books, and they were a family of business and literature. After Chen Ming took control of Quanzhou, many children of the Cai family threw themselves on the side of Daming. This Cai Ming is one of them, he was admitted to the Tiandao Department of the Mingdu Tiandao Academy, but after graduation, he did not become a god, but was taken to Yanjing by Kong Yu, who was the principal of the Army Military Academy, and recommended it to Chen Dexing to become a secretary.

Chen Dexing didn't talk to him either, but walked into the Qinzheng Hall and paced in the empty hall, obviously thinking about the matter of the Western Expedition.

Before the Western Expedition, he had to go to Kaiping and Haidu Alliance, and he could return the more than 20,000 Mongolian prisoners of war held by the Ming Dynasty to Haidu to increase his strength, and he could also exchange weapons for Mongolian war horses......

At this time, the footsteps behind him sounded softly, and Chen Dexing looked back, and it turned out to be Cai Ming walking briskly with a red envelope - this is an encrypted emergency!

Chen Dexing was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly took it into his hand, tore open the seal, and took out the letter raft inside to take a look. It turned out to be an urgent dispatch from the Secret Agent Bureau, and Brother Bei'er, the Great Khan of the Golden Horde, is dead! Kublai Khan will canonize the nephew of Berge and rule the Nahai Sea of Western Rus' as the new Great Khan of the Golden Horde!

At the end of the urgent mail, there is also the word "secret" in the handwritten handwriting of Liu Yang, the director of the secret agent, which indicates that the source of information on this urgent letter is Liu Xiaoyuan.

Chen Dexing handed the letter back to Cai Ming and said in a low voice: "Quickly summon Huang Zhishen, Land Rover, Zhang Xizai, and Baoyin." ”

……

"Brother Don't die, the sea is attached, and Brother Timur is done. If you are lucky, you can still take refuge in Haidu, and if your fate is not good, you may be able to follow Ali Buge's back road. At this time, Kublai Khan, a poisonous snake, can be regarded as alive. ”

Chen Dexing knocked on the desk, and his tone was a little solemn.

Kublai Khan is indeed the "son of the plane"! As soon as he went to the Western Regions, he killed Hülegü and Brother Bei'er. The Ilkhanate and the Golden Horde were easily subdued by him. It seems that the battle of the Ming Dynasty's westward expansion is not easy to fight.

Hearing Chen Dexing's solemn tone. Zhang Xizai, who had previously advocated letting Kublai Khan go west, frowned deeply, "Sage, this is the fault of the minister...... However, the minister still felt that Kublai Khan could be used. Kublai Khan was a tiger, and the European countries to the west and the Mamluks of the Celestial Sect were all wolves. We don't have to kill the tiger, we just need to wound the tiger and drive it west. ”

Land Rover sighed and nodded: "It can only be like this, these Mongols will run away, they have not been wiped out in the Central Plains, and it is not easy to deal with them in the west." ”

Chen Dexing nodded silently. There are actually pros and cons to this. Let Kublai Khan, the tiger, go to Europe and wreak havoc. It is better to sweep all the countries on the European continent, so that it will be convenient for the Ming to conquer Europe -- the Ming Empire will appear in Europe as a liberator, not a conqueror, and this will be extremely beneficial to the Ming Dynasty in arranging the future political pattern of Europe.

In addition, Land Rover is not bad. Since Kublai Khan has already run away, it is not so easy to catch! Unless he is taken all the way west to the Atlantic.

"Sage, in fact, the Ming Dynasty is still out of reach of Kublai Khan." Bao Yin reminded on the side, "Now blocking the way of the Ming Dynasty to the west is the Hetao and the four Mongolian hosts of Hexi, although their vitality is greatly damaged, but there are still tens of thousands of elite soldiers and more than 300,000 people. In addition, there are 130,000 households under the command of King Ba Sipafa of Uszang, and it should be able to dispatch more than 130,000 elite soldiers. ”

The four kings of the host and the 130,000 households of Wusizang were the first enemies that Chen Ming had to deal with on his way to the west.

Land Rover said: "The four kings of the host road should not be difficult to deal with, and the Eight Banners will be dispatched to sweep the Hetao grassland and the Hexi Corridor and drive them away." ”

Huang Zhishen also said: "Maybe you can also recruit them...... However, Uszang is not easy to deal with. Wusizang is too high, the air is thin, and the people of the plains are said to be unable to even breathe when they go to Wusizang. He paused and looked at Chen Dexing, "Sage, it's better to let those lamas go and appease them." ”

Zhang Xizai shook his head and said: "Yi Di is afraid of power but not virtue, and it is not a matter of buying it to appease others without fighting, even if you want to soothe, you have to fight fiercely first." ”

Chen Dexing nodded slowly, and the words of the two of them made sense. It is unlikely that a large military force will be used against Uszang. Where is too high and desolate, it will be a problem for the 100,000 army to drive in to eat and breathe!

However, a small elite force was sent to take the land of Qingtang and return the lama to the plateau. Moreover, the lamas of Daming and Wusizang are not without room for cooperation. Chen Huaiqing will enter Tianzhu in the near future and promote Buddhism in Tianzhu. The lamas of Phags-pa have just come into play. This Tianzhu is much richer than Qingtang.

Zhang Xizai thought about it and said, "Since we can't reach Kublai Khan for the time being...... Sage, are we not thinking about a temporary relief with Kublai Khan? ”

"Relief?" Everyone was amazed.

"Or it can be the West and the East, and divide the world equally." Zhang Xizai said, "If this is the case, Kublai Khan can go west with peace of mind." We can also clean up the Western Regions and Tianzhu with peace of mind. ”

"Western Yuan and Eastern Ming...... Deceived Kublai Khan? Chen Dexing set his sights on Baoyin. Bao Yin smiled: "Sage, the general trend is not Kublai Khan now...... It was the four kings of the host and the Phags-pa who were half-hearted about him. If I am willing to share the world with him equally, he will agree knowing that there is fraud. ”

Chen Dexing nodded, what Baoyin said is right, now the four kings of the Mongolian host and the 130,000 households in Wusizang already have a second heart. Kublai Khan would not treat them as confidants, and it is not unlikely that they will be abandoned. And the West Yuan and the East Ming, the peace conditions of the equal division of the world are taken out, even if Kublai Khan knows that the peace negotiations will not last long, but in order to reassure his followers, he will probably still nod and agree. (To be continued......)