Zhu Youzhen explained the benefits of continuing to wage foreign wars to the Ming Empire to the generals of the Generalissimo's Mansion present.

Li Mingrui, Li Banghua and others did not realize that the Ming Dynasty was inseparable from war.

The same is true for Zhou Yuji and Huang Degong, there are some things that they don't want to tell Zhu Youjian, they actually used their political privileges to speculate on the Northern Expedition coupons behind their backs, and even now there is hardly a single officer who does not have a large number of Northern Expedition coupons in their hands.

"As Your Majesty said, once the war stops, not only will they no longer be able to make contributions, but even the Northern Expedition tickets in their hands will become a pile of waste paper, and they will lose more than half of their wealth."

As soon as the generals of the Generalissimo's Mansion realized this problem, they all began to feel afraid.

Li Mingrui stood up first: "Your Majesty, Weichen has decided to run for the next cabinet chief assistant, support the generalissimo's palace to continue to expand, exterminate the remnants of Jianyu, and pacify the Northern Barbarians!" ”

As soon as Li Mingrui's words came out, Li Banghua couldn't help but raise his eyes first, and glanced at Li Mingrui meaningfully.

In the eyes of the Ming bureaucracy, the first assistant of the cabinet still represents the highest status of officials, and it is still the official position that officials admire the most.

What's more, now the Ming Emperor Zhu Youzhen has also clearly stipulated the prime minister's status as the first assistant of the cabinet.

Not to mention Li Mingrui, Li Banghua also wants to become the first assistant of the cabinet.

Li Banghua did not expect that Li Mingrui would directly propose at the meeting of the Generalissimo's Office that he would run for the first assistant of the cabinet, and even proposed that the reason why he wanted to become the first assistant of the cabinet was to support the Ming Dynasty to continue to expand abroad.

"The same is true for Wechen!"

Now everyone knows that if the Ming Dynasty does not continue to expand abroad, the Northern Expedition coupons held by the bureaucratic capitalist class will become waste paper, and the empire will inevitably fall into chaos.

Li Banghua naturally understood what Zhu Youzhen meant, and knew that the Ming Dynasty was no longer the same as before, in the past, a war would damage the national strength, and now if it does not fight, it will harm the country.

Therefore, Li Banghua was not willing to lag behind Li Mingrui by half a step, and he was also busy expressing his meaning.

Wang Yingxiong, the deputy envoy of the privy council, was quite shocked, he was the elder of the cabinet of Zhishi before the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, but he never thought that one day, the officials of the Ming Dynasty would take the initiative to propose to the emperor: "I want to be the first assistant of the cabinet, you can choose me." ”

"Even if you really want to be the first assistant of the cabinet, don't you pretend not to care first, and even go to the resignation of the official and say that you only think about the pastoral life, when did the officials of the Ming Dynasty be so straightforward, and there is no humility and moderation."

Wang Yingxiong looked at Zhu Youzhen, he saw that Zhu Youzhen just smiled and nodded, and couldn't help but say proudly: "Your Majesty is broad-minded, such a rebellious minister, if this is replaced by other emperors, he would have been sent out to the wilderness." ”

Zhu Youzhen is indeed very satisfied that Li Mingrui and Li Banghua will propose in front of him that they will compete for next year's cabinet premiership.

At present, Zhu Youzhen is most worried that the cabinet does not support foreign expansion.

Confucian-educated civil officials fundamentally believed that war was a reckless use of force, and they often preferred to lose their own interests rather than start a war lightly.

Although the military power is in the hands of the Generalissimo's Office, the money and food are in the hands of these cabinet officials.

If the cabinet does not support it, it will be difficult to coordinate the money and food to cooperate with the war of the empire.

The only way to solve this problem is to have a person who supports foreign expansion as the head of the cabinet.

Therefore, when Li Mingrui and Li Banghua proposed to be the first assistant of the cabinet, he was also very happy.

However, there are too few capable ministers in the Guards system who are familiar with political and ideological work and army management, and Zhu Youzhen does not want people like Li Mingrui and Li Banghua who are politically experienced in managing the large corps to leave the Generalissimo's Mansion.

Therefore, what he thought was that he could change someone else to be the head of the cabinet, and among the officials who did not have too much experience in army management in the Generalissimo's Office, but supported the Generalissimo's Office to continue its external expansion, Wang Yingxiong, an old minister with rich experience as an official and who had been in the Generalissimo's Mansion for several years, was naturally the most suitable.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Yingxiong, the deputy privy envoy: "Wang Aiqing, what about you, have you ever thought about the next cabinet first assistant?" ”

Wang Yingxiong thought that Zhu Youzhen was deliberately testing him, and thought that Zhu Youzhen was dissatisfied with Li Mingrui and Li Banghua being so sharp, so he arched his hand and said:

"Weichen is old and dull, and he doesn't dare to covet the position of the first assistant, if it is decided today, and the minister has no ability to expand the territory, he is about to ask His Majesty's quasi-ministers to return to their hometowns."

Zhu Youzhen glanced at Wang Yingxiong, and saw that the outside was like a crystal world, and couldn't help but say: "Shuzhong should still be as warm as spring at this time, I allow you to return to your hometown, remember to run a few more schools when you go back, don't spend money only on collecting ancient books, it is better to keep one book than to educate one." ”

Wang Yingxiong was quite surprised.

I was demoted like this?

Wang Yingxiong's brain circuit was a little unable to turn at this time, but now he could only crawl on the ground: "Your Majesty Xie is complete", and at the same time said with a lot of loss in his heart: "I just brought my concubine to Beijing, and now I have to bring it back, the key is that I obviously want to be the first assistant." ”

"Continue to discuss the matter, Li Yan, you start, you are the chief of staff, tell me about the current military situation of my Daming."

As soon as Zhu Youzhen said this, Li Yan, who had been transferred back to Beijing from the post of governor of Sichuan, came to the front of the map first:

"The Guannei region from Suzhou Wei to the south of Shanhaiguan has all returned to my Ming Dynasty, and the land of Liaodong and Liaoxi has also returned to my Ming Dynasty, and the cabinet has decided to make it Liaoning Province, but there are still powerful Mongolian tribes and remnants of Jianyu around us;

According to the Jinyi Guardian News, the Manchu Emperor Shunzhi and his auxiliary prince Zierharang withdrew from the direction of Gubeikou and crossed the desert along the Luanhe River into the Mongolian Karaqin Department, and now went to the Horqin Department. ”

"The main task now is to completely annihilate the remnants of the Manchu Dynasty, and the former slave Gandusi can't let it exist, and wants to completely turn it into a province of my Ming Dynasty."

As soon as Li Yan said this, Zhou Yuji also stood up and said:

"Now the only help for the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty is the Horqin Department, the Horqin Department has a close relationship with the Jianyu royal family, and we must completely exterminate the remnants of the Manchu Dynasty, and we can't let go of the Horqin Department, so Weichen thinks that we can send two large armies, one to suppress the Horqin Department, and the other to suppress the Nuer Gandu Division."

"Weichen thinks, as His Majesty said, since only external expansion can prevent the Ming Dynasty from chaos due to the devaluation of the Northern Expedition, then the way we fight the war should be changed, not only to suppress its thieves, but also to occupy its land, serve its people, build a city every time you enter and occupy a place, reclaim a wasteland, and immigrate to a place, the imperial court should send administrative officials and encourage the merchant group to expand with the guards, the guards are responsible for military occupation, the imperial court is responsible for opening the teeth and building a government, and the merchant group is reclaiming the land and prospering, so that the capture of a city is for my Ming territory, It is not a previous expedition, only to smash its royal court and return to the division. ”

(End of chapter)