The king of a country, to deal with a huge number of complicated affairs every day, it is impossible to read all the central and local chapters, the former Ming Dynasty by setting up a celebrant to help the monarch deal with state affairs, finally able to deal with it, but the new dynasty abolished the eunuchs, greatly reducing the size of the court, the emperor's side of the confidential office can only sign the seal, can not be on behalf of the emperor to approve. In order to reduce the consumption of energy, after several years of running-in, the center of the new dynasty also formed a practice, ordinary official documents are directly approved and issued by the cabinet, and important affairs are written by the cabinet as brief official documents and delivered to the emperor, and the cabinet recommendations are generally attached to speed up the process of handling affairs.

The Dutchman's proposal to borrow troops involved military affairs, which was a matter for the emperor to decide, so the cabinet had to report it as well, and in order to speed up the process and make a proposal as soon as possible, the prime minister had to gather the two ministers to discuss it.

After clicking on the question, the prime minister didn't waste any more time, and looked directly at Kong Zhang. "Director Kong, in the final analysis, this matter of the Dutch is a foreign affair, and you should be in charge, have you discussed with the officials of the Foreign Affairs Department what results have you reached?"

"Back to Prime Minister, we only received the report the day before yesterday, and we reported it immediately on the same day, so the time left for us is relatively hasty, and I am afraid it will be difficult to make a perfect judgment for a while." After laying the groundwork for himself, Kong Zhang expressed the opinions of several foreign affairs officials he consulted, "However, according to our country, the fight between the Spaniards and the Dutch is nothing more than a Westerner dog eats dog, and whoever wins or loses will not have a bearing on the interests of our dynasty, after all, no matter who it is, they will seek trade ...... with our country."

While speaking, Kong Zhang carefully paid attention to the attitude of the prime minister.

The prime minister was noncommittal, his face was very calm, he just picked up the teacup next to him and took a sip of tea, but Kong Zhang knew that judging from this habitual action, the prime minister was not very satisfied with his answer, so he strengthened his previous determination, and immediately changed the conversation, "But...... The South China Sea is close to our seaside and is also the main traffic artery of the trade route, so if I have been standing idly by, it will not be reasonable. We feel that this is not an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the civil strife among the Westerners to support one faction and suppress the other, which can not only strengthen our control over the maritime frontier, but even ...... It is not even known whether to acquire some territorial strongholds in the open sea...... All in all, this is a good opportunity that should not be passed up lightly. ”

"So the director means to agree to the Dutch's proposal and get involved?" The prime minister remained silent.

"After the discussion within our company, we can indeed do this." Kong Zhang nodded, but in order to leave some leeway for himself, he added another explanation, "But...... Participating in it does not necessarily mean actually fighting with the Dutch against the Spaniards, this degree can be decided later, either explicitly or covertly, in short...... We feel that we should not sit idly by. ”

He is now a direct official of the Prime Minister, and he is bent on seeking to turn the Foreign Affairs Department into a foreign ministry and become a real cabinet minister, so there are two things to consider when acting - one is to please the Prime Minister and follow his wishes; The second is to reflect the importance of the Department of Foreign Affairs, so that the upgrading of the Department of Foreign Affairs is justified.

It is true that the struggle between the Spaniards and the Dutch would not have affected the interests of the Great Han, but now that the Dutch have come to the door, if they continue to do nothing when the opportunity arises, it will be contrary to the purpose, and it will certainly not be favored by the Prime Minister and His Majesty.

Therefore, after discussing with the officials of the Foreign Affairs Department who are in charge of Western affairs, they finally came to the conclusion that they needed to intervene.

"I see what you mean." The prime minister put down the teacup, and then looked at Zhou Xuezhi, the prime minister next to him, who had not spoken, "Prime Minister Shang, what do you think?" ”

"Back to the prime minister, I think it's better to be safe." Zhou Xuezhi said his opinion unhurriedly, "Now that Westerners are fighting each other, they are constantly fighting, and they have not yet divided the winner or loser, since the victory and defeat are not divided, then why should I participate in it?" Their fundamental importance is in the West, not here, if I help the Dutch, then if Spain wins in the West, won't we waste all the work we have done? Besides, compared to Luzon, which was occupied by the Spaniards, trade with the Westerners was much more important to our dynasty, especially the gold and silver in the hands of the Spaniards, which were of great importance to our dynasty. If we are not partial, no matter how hard the Westerners fight with each other, they will trade with us and trade gold and silver, and if we are involved, no matter whether the Dutch in the East China Sea and the South China Sea win or lose, the flow of silver from the Americas will definitely be cut off for a while...... Maybe the Dutch will give us some compensation after the war, but how can this compare with the loss of silver? Besides, if I help the Dutch win this battle, I am afraid that it will not be a good thing for the Dutch to dominate the trade route to the West in the future......

Zhou Xuezhi is a business minister, and he has always been committed to developing commerce and expanding the country's sources of income on weekdays, so he also attaches the most importance to the stability of business. In his view, the infighting among Westerners is nothing more than dog-eat-dog, and it has nothing to do with China's interests, and if they participate in the infighting among Westerners, it will greatly affect China's commercial interests, and it is more likely to turn the Netherlands into the only maritime merchant that monopolizes the trade between the East and the West.

Seeing that his opinion was directly overturned, Kong Zhang twitched uneasily, but the prime minister was still noncommittal, just drinking tea, it seemed that he was planning to let himself and Shang Xiang argue before making up his mind.

"Every sentence starts from business, and Shang Xiang can really be described as pragmatic and competent......" He smiled first, intending to be close to Shang Xiang.

"Since I am a business minister, I naturally have to talk about business and think about the business of the country." Zhou Xuezhi looked solemn, as if he didn't buy it. "As far as the matter is concerned, from the perspective of the commercial interests of the dynasty, there is really no need to be involved, and the proposal of the Dutch can be rejected in one go. Besides, the Dutch did not have a consensus within themselves, but instead passed the word through Nagasaki first, so why should we get involved? ”

Kong Zhang is the director, he is the minister, in his opinion, the status is high, besides, he is an old subordinate who started with the emperor, and he doesn't need to be too intimate with this director who defected to Zhao Ziying halfway.

Because he felt the faint sense of rejection of the other party, Kong Zhang was also a little unhappy. "The director thinks about the country's business, but Kong Zhang's foreign affairs department should also consider the foreign affairs interests of the country. The Dutch are now the biggest patrons of our foreign trade with the DPRK, and they have always had no direct conflict with our DPRK, and they have come to ask us for help because they believe in the strength and sincerity of our DPRK. ”

"As a merchant and a merchant who presides over trade between the two sides, I have never heard of any tacit understanding between us and the Dutch." Zhou Xuezhi still didn't give Kong Zhang face, "That's right, now the Dutch sell us spices, wood, and help us transport Western craftsmen and machinery, but these things can be done by others, and it doesn't have to be Dutch, and the Dutch don't trade with us because they like us, not for wealth, why do we have to obey the orders of the Dutch?" It doesn't make sense. ”

"Prime Minister Shang, I didn't say that I would obey the orders of the Dutch." Kong Zhang's heart became more and more unhappy, and his face sank, "As a foreign affairs official of the Han Dynasty, all I naturally think about is how to expand the influence of the Han Dynasty and expand the territory!" ”

"Director Kong's fist is loyal, naturally no one doubts it, but there are priorities, and there is no need to be busy setting fires to Westerners now, right?" Zhou Xuezhi was still calm, "Besides, I still help Westerners fight Westerners." ”

"Although it is said that they are Westerners, but after all, there is still a difference, the Dutch are treacherous and cunning, but they only seek to trade and make money, and the Spaniards are fierce and vicious wolves. Shang ministers should not forget, several massacres in Luzon people, it was the Spaniards entrenched there, tens of thousands of people were killed, the former Ming court was dumbfounded, ignore it, can our dynasty ignore it? ”

"You ......" Zhou Xuezhi didn't expect Kong Zhang to use this kind of topic to block himself, so his brows furrowed. Master Kong, one thing is one thing, the Spaniards slaughtered the people of the Han Dynasty back then, it must have been a great crime, but after all, it was many years ago, and if you want to blame it, you will blame the former Ming for being weak, so that the Spaniards were unscrupulous. Now it is different, our country is thriving, and we are so frightened that we can suppress the Spaniards, and we threaten them with trade, and they have promised several times that they will never do anything like this again, so we should not keep talking about the past. Director Kong, don't use the great name of the people of the Han Dynasty to oppress people, forcing everyone to only listen to your wishes! It's easy to avenge the people of the Han Dynasty, anyway, they are invincible, but how can things be so simple in the world? If you only think about revenge, you have to take revenge here, you have to take revenge there, is there any peace in this world? ”

Because of Kong Zhang's words, the more he spoke, the more he said, there was also a faint sense of accusation.

"The words of the business minister are a bit heavy!" Kong Zhang didn't flinch, "I didn't say that in order to take revenge, I have to fight the Spaniards, I just mean that the Spaniards are wolf ambitions, jackals, and the average Westerners are much more ruthless than the average Westerners, although the Portuguese and the Dutch are also treacherous, but at least they still have some respect for our dynasty, these Spaniards really can't teach a few lessons, I am very much in favor of helping the Dutch deal with the Spaniards, if you can expel all these Spaniards from Luzon and even the entire open sea, Not to mention avenging the victims of the previous deaths, it also has a lot of benefits for our dynasty. ”

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"Heaven, court" is actually a shielding word, which is really an inexplicable kneeling posture