When the prince asked, the emperor didn't speak, just listened quietly.

"Erchen's questions are just questions under his own thinking, obviously a blind eye to Mount Tai, the reason why Erchen asked his father, is just to explore the deep meaning of his father...... Since my father did this, it must have a deep meaning. ”

"You're actually right, if I spend all my energy in the south, I can't actually open up more land." After a moment of silence, the emperor nodded, "But have you ever thought that although the north is mostly a bitter place, it pierces the heart, so it is even more necessary to settle it first?" Mongolia and the Beijing division are close at hand, if the Mongolian elite cavalry is full of energy, it will not take long to hit the city of the Beijing division! Therefore, in order to defend the heart, it is necessary to take advantage of the current time when the various parts of Mongolia are divided and fighting each other to occupy Mongolia in one go, and occupy it at a great cost, and push the territory of the north of the Ming Dynasty all the way to the north until the Jingshi is no longer in danger of the heart. Qianming said that the Son of Heaven guarded the country, but in the end, it was not untenable, and there was no way to push the country out? ”

After saying the main idea first, the emperor changed his tone and became much softer, "Besides, at this time, my dynasty has just opened the country, and it is the time when the soldiers and soldiers are the most sharp, and it is also the most enterprising time for my family. Of course, the father knows that some things are easy to do and some things are difficult to do, but because he knows, the father first tries his best to take advantage of the right time and place to do the difficult things first! As long as you and my father and son are ambitious, open up thousands of miles of northern Xinjiang, and turn these places into the territory of our Han Dynasty, even if the descendants are mediocre, at least they still know how to defend the territory and will not give up easily. ”

It turned out that the father was planning for his children and grandchildren...... The crown prince finally understood his father's intentions.

After a while, he was a little happy in his heart, because his father regarded him and himself as a pioneer, and entrusted him with the important task of "laying a foundation for future generations to be defended". Since my father had such high hopes, he should do everything he could to achieve them.

"In addition, it's not that we don't plan to open up the south, it's just that the time hasn't come yet." The emperor suddenly smiled strangely, "I slowed down the attack on the remnants of the Ming in Guangxi and Yunnan, just to let those remnants of the Ming flee to the south, and when they really escape, won't we have the mouth to send troops to continue south?" Miasma and malaria are very bad in the south, and most of our soldiers are northerners, and they are not accustomed to the water and soil, so I don't expect to go south to destroy those countries now, but ...... You still have to beat a dozen sticks, let them know the majesty first. ”

"Erchen understands! Thank you for your advice! After the emperor's secret explanation, the prince finally understood all the emperor's plans, so his worship of the emperor increased a little.

"Thank you, thank you, I told you that it wasn't supposed to be? You've asked, am I still confusing you? The emperor still smiled kindly, and then patted him on the shoulder, "Okay, wait for dinner with me, starting tomorrow, you can take your attendants to have fun!" ”

"The emperor has given us another problem this time!"

After dealing with the business in hand, the current prime minister of the Han Dynasty and the prince of Yongguo, Zhaojing, looked at the meeting record in his hand and sighed softly.

In the past few days, he has examined the record in his hand several times, and each time he feels very stressed and confused.

The emperor said simply, sending a brigade to expedition to Japan is just a short sentence, but how can it be easy to raise and supply a fleet and an expeditionary force to cross the sea for thousands of miles to conquer a foreign country? If you are not careful, I am afraid that it will cause unimaginable consequences.

What's more, the purpose of the expedition issued by the emperor this time is also very complicated, he does not want to defeat the Japanese, but wants the Japanese to bow down to him and agree to the conditions he proposed. In other words, instead of defeating Japan, it is necessary for Japan to maintain a functioning system that can only be used to its advantage.

If you want to hurt and don't let it fall, you have to take care of the scale, and you really can't let a group of rough soldiers kill people and set fire to make a mess!

As soon as he thought of this, the prime minister's brain hurt slightly, he had been hurting for a long time in the past few days.

It's been a few days, and I guess there's an eyebrow over there.

With this hope, the prime minister beckoned to the entourage next to him.

"Call Director Kong, now I have time to summon him."

"Yes." The retinue, dressed in the gray uniform of the Cabinet Office, bowed respectfully and turned away from the palace hall.

That's right, the current office of the prime minister is a palace in the palace of the former Ming Emperor's palace.

After the establishment of the new dynasty, although the Forbidden City has become the private property of the new royal family, the emperor is a person who does not like luxury, and he feels that it is meaningless to occupy such a large palace as a residence (and even basically does not live in the palace), so he decided to use the area from Donghua Gate to Huiji Gate in the Forbidden City as the office of important government agencies.

The cabinet and the prime minister's office are located in the Wenhua Hall not far west of Donghua Gate to show the importance of the prime minister and the cabinet (of course, the residence of the prime minister and the ministers is still outside the palace, but only here). Then, because the cabinet is now actually the center of the government, the establishment is very large, and the offices of each deployment, those directly belonging to the prime minister, are also placed in the palace city, which is convenient for the prime minister to command, and the other ministries have found office locations in other parts of the Beijing Division, and some directly use the government offices of the six ministries of the Ming Dynasty at that time.

Although some omissions and sloppiness will inevitably affect efficiency at the time of its establishment, and communication between various ministries is still a little poor, a few years after the establishment of the new dynasty, after a long period of running-in, the current cabinet organs have become mature, or in other words, they have established their own consciousness of becoming organs of state power, and there is no longer the hasty and panicked messy sense of the grass platform team at the beginning.

Foreign affairs are now the direct affairs of the Prime Minister, so the Foreign Affairs Department, as a subordinate organ of the Cabinet Office, is naturally also arranged to work in Miyagi, so after the Prime Minister finishes his official business, he can naturally summon the chief of the Foreign Affairs Department at will.

And now, the head of the Foreign Affairs Department is Kong Zhang. This is a middle-aged man with a gentle face, gentle movements, and it can be seen that he has been well educated. At the same time, because he has been in a high position for several years, he has taken on the momentum of some courtiers in his anticipation, so that people will not look down on him because of his modest demeanor.

This person was born in Confucius, but because he was not treated well by his family, he took refuge in Xuzhou very early, and made a lot of efforts for Xuzhou, so he can be regarded as a hero from the dragon. Therefore, after the new dynasty is strong, the imperial court will of course give him back and make him the viscount of Keqin. In addition, the emperor saw that he was often in charge of foreign reception when he was in the Confucian Mansion, and deliberately handed over the position of director of the Foreign Affairs Department to him, so that he could be fully responsible for the diplomatic affairs of the new dynasty, and Kong Zhang seemed to be very satisfied with this position, so as soon as he got this affairs, he devoted himself wholeheartedly.

did not let the prime minister wait, after hearing the report of the entourage, Kong Zhang put down the affairs in his hand, followed the entourage through the palace walls in the palace city, and soon rushed to the Wenhua Palace.

In the pre-Ming era, the Wenhua Palace was the emperor's palace at the beginning, and the two dynasties of Shun and Chenghua were the first to take charge of the Wenhua Palace. Later, because most of the princes were young and could not participate in political affairs, Jiajing was changed to the emperor's palace in the fifteenth year, and then it was the place of the Ming scripture feast, and the building was then changed to a yellow glazed tile roof. In the seventeenth year of Jiajing, the Shengji Temple was also built behind the palace. This spacious hall was positioned by the emperor and the cabinet office hall and the meeting place also complemented each other, which can greatly reflect the difference between the new dynasty and the former Ming dynasty.

The former Ming Taizu guarded the ministers like thieves, did everything possible to weaken the power of the minister, and even abolished the post of prime minister, but in the end, the descendants passed down from generation to generation, and finally the power had to be delegated, and finally fell into the hands of Wenchen and eunuchs, and there were some things that made people laugh and cry. In comparison, after the emperor established a new dynasty, he directly re-established the prime minister, and then strengthened the authority of the cabinet, and even placed the cabinet in the palace city, which is indeed much more courageous.

As the main person in charge of foreign affairs, the prime minister learned of his idea from the emperor, and as soon as he returned, he summoned him and handed him this top-secret information, asking him to sort out a strategy against Japan as soon as possible, so as to help the army achieve the desired goal.

However, although this matter is quite tricky, unlike the prime minister, Kong Zhang did not regard this matter as a distraction and a sad matter, but as a major event related to his future, so although he was busy with this matter, he was happy to do it.

Because, after becoming an official of the imperial court, he naturally had the same idea as other officials - he wanted to be promoted, and by the way, expand the specifications and powers of his department.

It has to be said that in the past few years, the main affairs of the imperial court were still placed on the civil war and the conquest of Mongolia, and foreign affairs were not put at the forefront of consideration, so although Kong Zhang tried his best to expand the influence of the new dynasty in diplomacy, there was always a feeling of not being valued and supported.

After receiving this important task, his mind finally came alive. He wanted to use the conquest of Japan to increase the influence of the Foreign Affairs Department.