Chen Zilong stood up at this time and expressed his opinion to Zhu Youzhen.

When Li Mingrui and Li Banghua were vying to express their desire to be the first assistant.

He was still thinking about why His Majesty said that only continuous external expansion could make the empire stronger, and he was also thinking about how it became a favorable war to go out of the customs to conquer and burn money, not to mention that the areas of the expedition were still bitter cold lands.

But Chen Zilong immediately figured it out, he had close contacts with Song Yingxing and others of the Daming Ordnance Institute in Nanjing, and knew that the demand for coal and oil mines and iron ore in the Ming Dynasty was rising sharply, and even the Ministry of Industry had to pay millions of silver dollars every year to find new ore sources.

Most of the mineral sources are in the north, even outside the Guan, Chen Zilong realized that the demand for territorial functions in the Ming Dynasty is no longer just simple farming and animal husbandry, but also the demand for mining, and even the need for land to build large-scale factories that drain waste and detoxify gas.

The Guannai is densely populated, and the excessive mining of minerals will more or less affect the dragon vein feng shui and the life of the people, but it is different outside the pass, it is the territory of the former Tatars, and the random mining of the Ming Dynasty will not affect the leylines and the lives of the people.

Therefore, as soon as Chen Zilong thought of the key point, he expressed his thoughts on how to expand to Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu Youzhen was very pleased that Chen Zilong could think of this, because this could at least prove that there were still people in the Ming Dynasty who were progressive in thinking.

"That's right, we are still using the way of the Northern Expedition, but this time we want to involve the private merchant group, and the future foreign war will be a road of gold nuggets with the participation of all the people of the Ming Dynasty, not only military, political and economic expansion but also cultural expansion, only by domesticating those barbarians outside the border into Han people like us can we completely eliminate the invasion of the Tatars in the north."

Zhu Youzhen affirmed Chen Zilong and determined the next battle plan of the Guards with Li Yan and others on the spot.

First of all.

Zhu Youzhen issued a decree to express the intention that the remaining Yong should chase the poor and not sell the name of the overlord, and that the remnants of the Jianyu should be cut down and eradicated, and officially ordered the Generalissimo's Office to organize the East Route Army to go out of the customs and exterminate the prisoners.

At the same time, the cabinet was ordered to raise money and food.

Then.

Zhu Youzhen officially confirmed the appointment of Qin Zuoming as the general of the conquest and commanded the battle of exterminating the captives, Li Dingguo's Pingyu Army was the vanguard, and the Second Army of the Second Army of the Guards Army was the main force, of which Jiao Lian's army conquered the Horqin Department, and Yan Yingyuan was transferred to the First Corps of the Second Army as the deputy marshal to conquer the Hetuala Department.

And then.

Not long after, the household department announced that it would stop selling the Northern Expedition coupons and began to sell extermination coupons, and the people who held the Northern Expedition coupons could exchange the Northern Expedition coupons for extermination coupons, which were exchanged for the value of the Northern Expedition coupons on February 25, the 24th year of Chongzhen.

At the beginning, the people did not believe in the extermination coupons, and felt that it was more reassuring to get the cash, and most of them exchanged the Northern Expedition coupons for cash.

Later, the extermination coupons continued to rise under the manipulation of the household department, and the Northern Expedition coupons continued to decline, making the Northern Expedition coupons less and less exchanged for cash, and gradually became less and less cost-effective, but the exchange of extermination coupons could increase in value on the basis of maintaining the original value.

As a result, the people began to exchange a large number of extermination vouchers.

The household was able to divert the funds raised from the sale of the Northern Expedition vouchers to the war to exterminate the captives, and at the same time, by recovering a lot of wealth from the Jin merchants, the northern gentry, and the Manchu nobles, the empire's finances were still able to maintain a sufficient surplus.

On February 15, the 24th year of Chongzhen, the Second Corps of the Second Army of the Guards Army joined forces with Li Dingguo's division in Jizhou, and then left Kaipingwei and marched in the direction of Horqin.

The first assistant of the cabinet, Gao Hongtu, was still very dedicated to this war.

The election of the first assistant to the new cabinet in March has begun.

Gao Hongtu, who is the first assistant to the cabinet, is also one of the candidates, and in order to be re-elected, he does not dare to disappoint Zhu Youzhen now, and he is also very conscientious in preparing for war money and food.

At this time, the officials of various ministries, provincial governors, and even governors and other officials did not have any objections to this war or even expressed their support, so as to show Zhu Youzhen that they were in line with His Majesty, but mainly to leave a good impression on Emperor Zhu Youzhen before becoming the next cabinet chief assistant.

Zhu Youzhen also found many ministers' comments about their hope that he would become the next head of the cabinet.

A soldier who does not want to be a marshal is not a good soldier, and an officer who does not want to be a chief assistant will naturally not be an official who wants to do great things.

In order to understand how these ministers expressed their suitability for the next cabinet chief, Zhu Youzhen did not let these ministers take away the cabinet and the celebrant supervisor, but asked the secretary of general affairs to directly submit them to him.

Zhu Youzhen very much hopes that the officials of the Ming Dynasty can have their own independent political thinking and clear political thoughts, instead of blindly following the self-cultivation provided by Cheng Zhu Lixue to govern the country.

Therefore, he particularly expects these officials to actively express their political concepts, even if they are absurd or even empty talk, it does not matter, as long as they do not follow the rules, Zhu Youzhen can accept it.

However, it was about mid-March, and Zhu Youzhen had not received a self-recommendation from the Department of Communications and Political Affairs for the election of officials to the first assistant of the cabinet.

"Xu Zhaohua, you go to the Department of General Affairs and ask, are there any officials who have run for the first assistant of the cabinet to recommend themselves?"

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but wonder if he had a misunderstanding of the Ming officialdom, could it be that the officials of the Ming Dynasty are all Buddhist officials, and they have no desire for official positions, they just want to stay in their original posts and work hard, and then wait for the Jingcha plan to rise step by step, and don't want to be the first assistant directly, and be the first person in the foreign dynasty above 10,000 people under one person?

Xu Zhaohua returned with the receipt of the General Administration: "Your Majesty, the General Administration Department has not received a letter from the official who is running for the first assistant of the cabinet. ”

"How is this possible! Continue to wait, after all, the Ming Dynasty is vast, and the officials are sparse and not urgent, wait and see", Zhu Youzhen waited for another half a month, and by April, there was still no official self-recommendation.

Zhu Youzhen once wondered if Gao Hongtu was obstructing him and used various means to prevent officials from running for election.

But Zhu Youzhen quickly denied his suspicions, after all, no matter how Gao Hongtu was the first assistant of the dynasty, it was impossible to cover the sky with one hand, so that all high-ranking officials would listen to him and not participate in the election.

Zhu Youzhen had to go to the General Administration Department to see it in person, and when he saw a book that read "Jiangxi Governor Ding Chukui Shangbai Crane Xiangrui is now Ganjiang Shu", he couldn't help but be furious:

"Gao Hongtu said that this person is quite shrewd and has a talent for hard work, and now when the first assistant of the cabinet is running, he does not recommend himself, but he is on this kind of grandstanding, what kind of practical talent!"

Wu Zhenyu, the secretary of general administration, is also the first auxiliary candidate of the cabinet, and naturally he can't forget to stab Gao Hongtu at this time:

"After the elder Gao Ge presided over the cabinet, there were many incompetent ministers who were elected, and they only blindly sang the praises of merit, Your Majesty, please see, these are all the governors of the provinces who have been flocked to send recently, all of them are white deer appearing, one-foot-long ears of wheat appearing, and so on."

Zhu Youzhen heard Wu Zhenyu's words, but he didn't say anything, but opened Ding Chukui's recital and looked at it carefully.

Looking at this, Zhu Youzhen understands everything!

(End of chapter)