"Do you really think that you can understand Japan in just a few words? You have been fighting for so many years, and you still don't know the words "knowing yourself and knowing your enemy"? The emperor frowned displeasedly, "Although Japan is not a country with diplomatic relations with our country, and there are not many contacts with the former Ming Dynasty, do you think you really don't need to deal with Japan?" Besides, aren't you going to mobilize the wealthy clans everywhere to rise up against the shogunate? Are you going to do it on your own? ”

The emperor's interrogation made Zhao Song a little cold sweat appear on his forehead.

"The minister is guilty, and the emperor blames him."

"What are your sins? You're just afraid of trouble! The emperor shook his head, "You think that leading troops to fight is your own business, and you don't want to have anything to do with people outside the army, right?" ”

"Your Majesty...... What the emperor said is true. Zhao Song was a little ashamed, and lowered his head even lower, "The minister is a big old man, and he hasn't read many books, so he doesn't know how to deal with Wenchen, and I'm afraid that I will make a mistake because of this......"

"You don't want to be controlled by the Cabinet?" The emperor directly interrupted him.

Zhao Song became more and more nervous, and the beads of sweat on his forehead became bigger and bigger.

Although he knew that he was deeply favored and trusted by the emperor, there were some things that he couldn't say, and he never dared to say more. However, today is at stake, and he can't keep his mouth shut, so he can only keep talking.

"Your Majesty, the minister has no selfishness, the cabinet undertakes the important affairs of the world, supports the country for the emperor, the minister has no opinion on the cabinet, and he is also full of respect for the prime minister. What the minister said was not for himself, but for ...... It's to ensure the success of this expedition! Zhao Song left the table, stood and bowed down, "The minister also knows that the military resources needed for this expedition need to be raised and maintained by the cabinet, and he also knows that the help of the cabinet is needed to attack Japan, but the politics can only make the upper and lower levels chaotic, and the order cannot be stopped, so the minister wants the emperor to clarify the boundary between the two parties and not let the cabinet interfere in the command of our army!" ”

"You don't want the cabinet to control you?" The emperor also stared at Zhao Song very seriously, "You mean, let the cabinet people give you a hand?" ”

"The minister was appointed by the emperor as the commander-in-chief of this expedition, and the minister thought that he was the chief in charge of the war against Japan, and should also be the chief in charge of negotiations with Japan, and that other people who communicated with Japan should be restrained by the minister and do things that were beneficial to our army. This is the minister's personal understanding...... "Zhao Song was bold and forcibly said his request, "The emperor said that the battlefield is changing rapidly, and the most important thing is to respond to the situation, and the minister thinks so." The most important thing in the army is to adapt to the situation and then go up and down, if the minister can't be arbitrary, then how can he guarantee to win the war? If this is the case, the minister would rather not accept this important task, so as not to delay the military aircraft and harm the soldiers of the army! ”

He was very excited when he said this, obviously from the bottom of his heart.

He also came from the previous dynasty, and he had already seen the suppression and prevention of military generals by the former Ming court at that time, and also saw how the army was restrained and unbearable to fight under the control of the Wenchen and eunuch supervising the army, so he must not tolerate this kind of thing happening to him. Therefore, today, when he heard that the emperor said that there were cabinet people to participate in the war, he decided to take a risk, and let him set the level of the two sides with the emperor's high interest today, so that he could prepare for the war with peace of mind.

"Okay, don't think about it so much, how could I, like Qian Ming, send you a few overseers at every turn?" As if to reassure him, the emperor also put the baton on the table, "You don't have to question the above arrangements, in short, you can rest assured, you are responsible for the war alone, and the cabinet is to help you!" ”

Although the emperor did not explicitly say that this time it was the person from the Foreign Affairs Department of the Cabinet as his subordinate, but after receiving such assurances from the emperor, Zhao Song was still overjoyed.

"Emperor Xie!" He knelt down directly.

Under his leadership, several other senators also left their seats one after another, and at the same time knelt down to the emperor.

"Rest early, the meeting will start in two days, Ma Tongji, Li Huanghe will almost arrive in the capital by then, I will transfer them directly to you." You can communicate with them well before the meeting, and then you can behave better in the conference. After the opening, everyone went home and had a good New Year's Day! The emperor waved his hand and motioned to the secretary next to him to show him the minutes of the meeting, "Okay, you go back and rest first, thank you for your hard work!" ”

Then, when he picked up the record and read it slowly, as if he remembered something, the emperor added, "By the way, you will also prepare a plan for the prince at that time, you don't need to write it in too detail, it is easy to understand, and the prince will also attend the meeting at that time." ”

Will the prince also attend the meeting then?

These people looked at each other for a while. Soon, they regained their composure, then thanked them again and left the room one after another.

They really need to be prepared.

It's snowing again.

Since entering the wax moon, this cold winter seems to be getting worse day by day, and the heavy snow comes almost every day or two, and the capital is poured white by this heavy snow.

In such weather, every house in the capital is confined to the door, and the once prosperous town now looks like a white desert.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the weather was very cold, and heavy snow fell several times a year in various parts of Gyeonggi. Not only did the cold weather make heating a problem, but the poor flow of goods also caused food prices to rise, so many people in Gyeonggi died of hunger and cold every year in winter.

However, since the establishment of the new Han dynasty, the recent years have been much better, every time the weather begins to turn cold in the late autumn, the imperial court will transport a large amount of grain from the south by sea, and then dig some coal from Shanxi and other places to transport to the capital, and then resell it to the residents of the capital at a very low price, so that they can be slightly free from hunger and cold, and also let the Gyeonggi area get a peaceful scene that has been rare for many years, the market is orderly and chaotic, not at all like a start-up new dynasty.

However, unlike the calm in the capital, in the garrison camp outside the city, today is a scene of busy traffic, from all over the capital to the snow of carriages, gathered at the gate of the barracks. The patrolling soldiers patrolled nervously from place to place, searching the wagons from afar, and the goose-feather snow that had not stopped seemed to have any effect on them.

After the carriages stopped in the special area designated at the entrance of the barracks, the people in the carriages also walked out one by one and stood outside the door.

The guards quickly gathered around them, separated the coachman and his entourage according to the procedure they were already familiar with, and then took them to another designated rest area. The rest of the group gathered together in twos and threes, and stepped into the gate of the barracks while greeting each other.

These people have different appearances, some are magnificent, some are not good-looking, although they are not very conspicuous and luxurious, but they have a faint bearing in their actions, although the guards around them have cold expressions, but they are all very respectful, much more restrained than those who treated them before.

They were all civil and military officials of the imperial court, that is, the group of people who made up the center of this nascent empire, and they were specially summoned by the emperor today to discuss a major matter.

As a petty official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhou Pu is also among these people this time.

In the former Ming Dynasty, unless they were top cabinet ministers, it was difficult for ordinary ministers to see the emperor, and they generally did not receive so many ministers except for the court meeting. It is even more unheard of for a group of people to be summoned to the barracks, and there are so many institutional reforms in the new dynasty.

At the beginning, because there was no precedent, there would always be some confusion when the civil and military ministers met, and there were some jokes and conflicts, so that the old residents of the capital who thought they were used to seeing the world secretly laughed many times, and joked that these upstarts of the Han Dynasty were really from small families, and they couldn't get on the stage if they didn't know the rules.

However, after many visits in the past few years, these ministers have slowly become accustomed to it, and slowly formed a set of unwritten rules for the audience, which also made the audience of the ministers orderly.

These ministers were divided into two rows according to the distinction between civil and military, and each walked on a different path, and then arranged them back and forth according to the order of official rank and title, and at the same time, those who might speak in front of the emperor could also get together first to discuss the next summons, so as to avoid being caught off guard when they came to the emperor.

The ministers who came today were naturally arranged according to this tacit rule, the civil and military attaches were lined up left and right, and the leader was the prime minister Yongguo Wang Zhaojing, and the person walking next to him was the finance minister Pingyuan Hou Chen Hong.

Both of them are old courtiers who have followed the emperor when he started his career, and they have been staying in the capital all these years, so they have the most opportunities to meet and act the most unrestrained.

Although these two important ministers looked relaxed, they still had their own characteristics in their manners, and the prince of Yongguo, Zhaojing, did not squint and held his head high, his eyes were blazing, and he fully interpreted the demeanor of the chief minister of a country, while Chen Hong, the minister of finance, looked left and right, as if he was thinking about something.

When he walked into the barracks, the prime minister was in a good mood, so he came to Chen Hong's side, and then said hello with a smile.

"What do you think? I'm shaking my head here. ”

"It's so shabby, here." Chen Hong shook his head lightly again, and then looked at the ground exposed from the dirt under his feet, "It has been several years since the founding of the country, and the place where the emperor lives is not as good as ours, and we ministers are ashamed in our hearts......"

"The emperor likes simplicity." Because it was mentioned as a saint, the prime minister's smile disappeared immediately, but his tone was still very relaxed, "You don't know, we told him several times to invite him to live back in the palace, but he refused." ”

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