"Thirty million!" As soon as the emperor said this, almost everyone was stunned.

Although they are already in power in a large country, and have already experienced various major battles over the years, this astronomical figure still leaves them speechless all at once. 30 million taels, which is double what the ministers wanted at the beginning.

Even the prime minister was a little nervous by the emperor's ambitious words.

Truth be told, in his heart, he was not opposed to squeezing as much money out of Japan as he could, if he could get that much out of Japan.

However, he also knew very well that he could not loot as much money as he wanted from other countries, so he decided to do his duty as a minister and advise the emperor.

"The emperor's courage, the ministers are impressed. But...... But...... Thirty million taels of silver, will it be too demanding for the Japanese? Although the ministers heard that Japan was rich in gold and silver, after all, the country was small and the people were poor, and the money they could come up with was not too much, so they might not be able to raise such a huge amount of money in 20 years. If the conditions we put forward are too harsh, the shogunate may delay the intention of suing for peace because it cannot accept the conditions, and in the end, it will delay the war and cause unnecessary losses......"

The prime minister's doubts were not that he was afraid of squeezing Japan too much, but that he was afraid that the conditions would be too harsh and that no one in Japan would agree, which would cause the war to be artificially prolonged for a long time and consume the country's resources in vain. This concern is indeed very reasonable, but the emperor does not intend to change his mind about it.

"You, obviously the minister of the Han Dynasty, what are you worried about Japan?" The emperor first made a joke, and then laughed, "The Japanese can afford this money!" Besides, as long as the shogunate is defeated by us, the enemies of the Quartet will run out against them, and in a precarious situation, even if they drink to quench their thirst, they will make peace with us, and they will agree to the harsh conditions! ”

Although the emperor's words sound reasonable, the prime minister is still skeptical, and obviously still has reservations.

"But...... Even if the shogunate believed that they could take out 1.5 million taels of silver a year for 20 years, would they really be able to do it? If we can't do it, do we still have to fight against it? If we don't crusade, then we have lowered the price ourselves, won't we give the Japanese a sense of luck and let them deliberately rely on more reparations? Besides...... After all, our dynasty is fighting for the sake of justice, and if we loot too much, I am afraid that it will damage its reputation......"

"The big Han tiger is in China, and the status of the small countries on the four sides is lower than that of the big Han, and the looting is looting, what's wrong? Why do you need to care about so much fame with them? The emperor frowned and said casually. But perhaps because he felt that this was too explicit, he quickly changed his words slightly, "However, what you are worried about, Prime Minister, is not unreasonable, the Japanese shogunate is rude, and even if it agrees to pay compensation, it may not be given." Therefore, after defeating them, in order to ensure that they could give money, the Han Dynasty had to send personnel to stay in the station, supervise the mine supervisor and commercial customs, monitor the flow of wealth in Japan, and hold the mining tax and the commercial tax of the customs in his hands. In addition, in order to ensure the implementation of the treaty, a part of the army was to be stationed in Japan -- of course, the cost of garrisoning the troops was also borne by Japan. ”

In other words, the emperor intended to stay in Japan after the war with a civilian and military institution to rule indirectly, and the prime minister came to his senses in an instant.

In fact, he did not object to the emperor's idea, "What the emperor said is very true, in order to ensure that the Japanese pay the indemnity and to ensure that Japan will obey our country after the war, it is inevitable to stay in some stationed offices, and the minister also feels that he should take advantage of this war to include Japan in the management of our dynasty's vassal state, and everything imitates the example of Goryeo." But...... Since the imperial court wants to control the Japanese fetters in its hands, if it is squeezed too much, it will inevitably make the Japanese resentful, and it will be difficult for them to obey and act according to the will of our dynasty, which will affect our country's control over them in the future. ”

The prime minister's idea was that after the war, he would treat Japan as an external vassal state under the control of the Han court, so he would not be in a hurry to squeeze them in a few years or so, but would instead make a banner of upholding justice and maintaining peace for the Japanese.

In general terms, he was right, because he was a self-confident Chinese scholar, and Chinese civilization still had an overwhelming advantage over the smaller neighboring countries in this era. Having grown up under the influence of this kind of self-confidence, he could not understand what kind of views and desire for revenge against Japan would remain in the hearts of people who had traveled from the 21 st century, nor could he understand that the emperor regarded Japan not as an ordinary small country, but as a very serious wary of it.

"Are you afraid that they will hate us? Love and hate, hate them, let them go! What I wanted, they gave me a lot of money. The emperor waved his hand, signaling that he didn't want to make concessions on this issue at all, "All in all, 30 million taels of silver is the bottom line, and it must be squeezed out of them." You said that this will make them wither for a long time, okay, then let them wither, what does Japan have to do with me being a poor country? I am the emperor of the Han Dynasty, not the emperor of Japan! ”

Seeing that the emperor said this, the prime minister sighed secretly and was no longer ready to continue to advise. Although he still didn't understand the emperor's motive for insisting like this, he knew that the emperor seemed to have made up his mind, and if he said more, not only would it not work, but it would make the ministers misunderstand that there was a gap between the emperor and the prime minister.

Since it can no longer be questioned, what it is time to consider now is how to achieve the emperor's seemingly difficult requirements as much as possible.

He froze, then turned his gaze and looked at Zhou Pu. He was not particularly familiar with the situation in Japan, so he still had to ask this subordinate who knew the situation in Japan to give advice to the imperial court.

When he was looked at by the prime minister like this, Zhou Pu understood in his heart that his statement in the hall just now had established an irreplaceable image in the prime minister's heart as a specialized official dealing with Japanese affairs, and what the prime minister wanted him to do, he certainly understood it after several years of experience in the court of the Han Dynasty.

In all fairness, he also felt that the emperor's request was a bit too high, but since the emperor insisted on squeezing out such a large sum of money from Japan, he had to find a way to achieve the emperor's wish, instead of complaining. Only in this way can he live up to the emperor's kindness and continue to be appreciated by the emperor.

He understood that the emperor had set him a task in advance and set him minimum conditions for peace talks.

After the war of the army, thousands of miles of mountains and seas between the two countries, and there is no means of instant communication, the emperor cannot be remote in Beijing, and he must delegate power to the officials of the military and political sides to act cheaply, so he will definitely want to stipulate a bottom line for negotiations with Japan in advance, and demand that the peace talks must be reached, so as not to make trouble for the officials below for their own selfish interests, the emperor has set this bottom line, then he can't go back in Japan with something lower than this bottom line, otherwise he will have a negative emperor's grace, No matter how much he said that he had made great contributions, the court would not admit it.

This line of thinking cannot be said to be wrong, Zhou Pu also knows that a few decades ago, the Ming court in the early years of Wanli and the Japan under the control of Toyotomi Hideyoshi fought a fierce war in Goryeo, and the negotiators of the two countries took advantage of the information isolation between the two parties to make a lot of trouble in private, which also added more difficulties to the already difficult negotiations.

But...... Since the emperor wants to squeeze out the wealth of tens of millions of taels of silver from Japan, he must get the cooperation of the Japanese, otherwise relying on a few thousand soldiers alone, just suppressing the resistance in various parts of Japan will already make people anxious, where can they squeeze out the money in peace and stability?

It's a dilemma.

However, since the prime minister has already ordered the general, Zhou Pu can't choose to be silent.

"What the emperor said is very true, Japan is indeed rich in gold and silver, when the minister was doing business in Japan, he heard a lot, I heard that Japan's wealthy families have the tradition of cellaring gold and silver, how many years the gold in the family has been incalculable, if you can take all this gold and silver, it will indeed be of great benefit to our dynasty, the minister will go to Japan this time, and he will definitely squeeze out as much reparation money from Japan as possible, which goes without saying." Zhou Pu first carefully made a foreshadowing in front of the emperor, and then said what was in his heart, "It's just that Japan's national conditions are special, and the folk customs are very different from China's, its people are cunning and cunning, and they are full of scheming, and it may be difficult for them to completely obey just by defeating the shogunate...... Even if the shogunate reluctantly agreed to us, if the others didn't cooperate, it would probably not be easy to get that much compensation......"

Although his words were very tactful, the true meaning was revealed.

"It's hard, it's hard, that's right." The emperor's gaze was on Zhou Pu's body, which made the young man stand a little unsteady all of a sudden, "However, as a minister of the Han Dynasty, how can you do it without doing something difficult?" Things are man-made, as long as you have heart and diligence, no matter how difficult things are, you can do them! Everyone is here today, you can work together, you can also think of a way to see how to make the Japanese bow down, as long as you can give ideas, anyway, we can give you carte blanche to deal with it. ”

Discretionary ...... The emperor's casual words represent immeasurable value...... Zhou Pu thought to himself. Although it is unlikely that he will have full authority to dispose of military and political affairs, he feels that as long as he satisfies the emperor today, then at least from now on, the full authority to dispose of foreign affairs with Japan will be handed over to him.

He couldn't accept this temptation.

He racked his brains and tried to conceive a plan so that he could satisfy the emperor.