Although they still felt that the number of five hundred ships was a bit too much, Chu Yi finally agreed to cut it by half, if they bargained again, in case Chu Yi was unhappy, they would really have nothing to do.

Yang Yiqing glanced at each other with Jiao Fang's elders, only to hear Jiao Fang salute Chu Yi and say: "Please also ask the chief manager to pay attention to the overall situation, we don't disagree with the chief manager's move to build a navy, but there should be a limit, otherwise I am afraid that the treasury will be difficult to support, so I will dissuade the chief manager." ”

Hearing Jiao Fang's explanation, Chu Yi smiled and said: "You are all the pillars of the country, and this king can also understand your thoughts, but the great prosperity of the navy is the general trend of the future, and anyone who stands in the way will be scolded by future generations after all!" ”

Chu Yi can say this, as long as he is not a fool, he can realize Chu Yi's determination to open the sea and vigorously develop the navy.

After all, the construction of another 500 ships involves all aspects, and it requires the full cooperation of the yamen of all ministries, otherwise, the construction of another 500 ships is just an empty word, and if you want to implement it, you will naturally have to cooperate with the officials of several ministries.

Zhu Houzhao looked at Chu Yi with a smile on his face, arguing with the cabinet elders there, but he was on the sidelines and being a bystander.

Anyway, he is not good at these things, it is better to wait until Chu Yi discusses a result with several pavilion elders, and then he will make a decision.

Gu Dayong stood beside Zhu Houzhao and poured tea for Zhu Houzhao, and said with a soft smile: "The chief manager really knows astronomy and geography, even if it is the way of a hundred crafts, if it really talks about erudition, I am afraid that it is the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, and no one can surpass the chief manager!" ”

Zhu Houzhao nodded thoughtfully, others don't know, but he knows Chu Yi's talent very well, otherwise he would not have been able to appoint Chu Yi as the prince's concubine, it is precisely because of Chu Yi's talent that few people in the court can learn.

If an ordinary official said that he would be stunned for a long time in the face of a few cabinet elders, but Chu Yi was the leader of the dispute with several cabinet elders, but he was speechless to refute several cabinet elders.

I only heard Chu Yi say to Yang Yiqing: "Lord Yang, this king is willing to recruit another 50,000 navy!" ”

Since more sea ships are to be built, these ships must be operated by someone, so the expansion of the navy is obviously an inevitability.

It's just that Chu Yi has already planned to expand the navy and recruit 100,000 navy, if you add the sailors and soldiers recruited by Cheng Xiangwu before, this is as much as 1230,000.

If Chu Yi recruits another 50,000 now, the navy will reach nearly 200,000 by then, which is definitely an astonishing number.

Although the Ming Dynasty claims to have millions of soldiers, fools know that the so-called millions actually refer to the guards who are no longer much different from ordinary farmers in various places.

I'm afraid that the millions of guards in the world can add up, and it would be good if the number of soldiers in battle could reach 100,000.

What Daming can get his hands on is actually more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in the land of the Nine Sides, as well as nearly 200,000 horses such as the Beijing camp and the Tengxiang Siwei battalion, both of which add up to only more than 300,000.

Compared with the population of more than 100 million in the Ming Dynasty, according to the ratio of military and civilian in the feudal era, it is not a problem for the Ming Dynasty to support millions of troops, of course, how long it can last is another matter, but if it is really a reckless army, it can easily arm an army of two or three million.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the guard system did provide a steady stream of soldiers for the Ming Dynasty, as many as two or three million people, especially these soldiers were still self-sufficient, which made Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang complacent.

By the time of Zhengde, the system of guards had already collapsed, and millions of guards were completely abandoned, as if they were fictitious, not only could not play the role of protecting the family and the country, but became a major hidden danger to the country.

In fact, the real combatable soldiers of the entire Ming Dynasty are only the men and horses of the border towns and the Beijing camp, adding up to almost 300,000 people, and now Chu Yi is expanding the army again, compared to the huge size of the Ming Dynasty, 50,000 people are really nothing.

What is particularly important is that Chu Yi put forward a proposal to reorganize the guard not long ago, although it has not yet been implemented, but the people present can be said to be people who hold the real power of the Ming Dynasty, so it is naturally very clear.

Yang Yiqing, who is the secretary of the Ministry of War, also knows one thing in his heart, once the guard is reorganized, when the entire guard is reorganized, in addition to the soldiers who can fight a war, the rest of the old, weak, sick and disabled will all be distributed to the fields, except for their military households, so that they will be returned to the people, and there will be more than 300,000 soldiers left in the Ming Dynasty, even if Chu Yi does not mention the expansion of the army, Yang Yiqing will also submit.

So now that Chu Yi opened his mouth to ask for another 50,000 expansion of the navy, Yang Yiqing did not object at all, but said with a look of approval: "Chief, how about expanding the army by another 100,000?" ”

Chu Yi couldn't help laughing when he heard this, Chu Yi was not surprised by Yang Yiqing's reaction, Yang Yiqing's concerns, Chu Yi couldn't be clearer in his heart.

In the final analysis, even if Yang Yiqing is not bad at military level, his vision is still stuck in the past, and he treats the navy as the sailors of the past, and does not separate the sailors from the infantry at all.

In Yang Yiqing's view, the sailor soldiers are foot soldiers, so Chu Yi's expansion of the so-called navy is to expand the number of foot soldiers.

Chu Yi shook his head slightly and said to Yang Yiqing: "Lord Yang, it is enough to expand the navy by another 50,000. ”

Yang Yiqing couldn't help but show a little disappointment on his face when he heard this, he thought that he could follow the opportunity of Chu Yi's proposal to expand the army so that the number of troops under the control of the imperial court could be increased, but he never thought that Chu Yi did not insist on expanding the army on a large scale.

Not only Yang Yiqing's face was surprised, but even Zhu Houzhao, the Son of Heaven, looked at Chu Yi with some doubts, everyone was ready for Chu Yi to open his mouth, but Chu Yi's request was beyond their expectations.

However, Chu Yi's expression was straight, and he looked at Zhu Houzhao who was sitting there with a bit of solemnity in his eyes, and bowed his hand and said, "Your Majesty, I beg Your Majesty to give an order to expand the army by another 200,000!" ”

Burst!

Chu Yi's voice fell, and several important ministers sitting there couldn't help but squirt out the tea they had just drunk in their mouths, their eyes widened one by one, and they looked at Chu Yi with disbelief on their faces.

Just now they also said that Chu Yi had changed his sex, and there was no lion to open his mouth, but the result was good, in the blink of an eye, Chu Yi actually asked Zhu Houzhao to expand the army by 200,000.

That's an army of 200,000 from scratch, from recruitment to formation, if the imperial court wants to get a combatable army, I'm afraid it is impossible to achieve it without a silver tattoo of three or five million taels.

Several cabinet elders frowned one by one, most of these people were from civil servants, and naturally had a kind of resistance and vigilance against the army.

The military forces represented by Xungui themselves have already shown signs of turning over with Chu Yi's strength, and now Chu Yi is actually going to expand his army by 200,000 people, how can this not be shocking.

Yang Yiqing opened his mouth, his face showed a little stunned and inexplicable, even if it was Yang Yiqing, all he wanted in his heart was to implore the Son of Heaven to increase his troops by 100,000, but Chu Yike was good, as soon as he opened his mouth, it was 200,000, which almost shocked Yang Yiqing stupidly.

Zhu Hou looked at Chu Yi and said solemnly: "Big companion, do you really want to expand the army by 200,000?" ”

Chu Yi nodded slowly and said, "When the 200,000 army is formed, it will be the time for the ministers to reform the guard system!" ”

Zhu Houzhao's eyes flashed when he heard this, Chu Yi had already told him that he would inevitably reform the guard system in the future, but at that time, Chu Yi had never said when he would wait.

Now Chu Yi has given an approximate time, that is, the day when the 200,000 army will be formed, if there is no accident, it will be almost a year or two.

The foundation of the Ming military system lies in the system of guards, since it is necessary to reform the system of guards, when the time comes, it will suffer from the counterattack of the vested interests of the entire system of guards.

Chu Yi is indeed famous all over the world, even the king of Pingning, and the Tatar Khan, but if Chu Yi really wants to move the interests of some people, someone will go crazy against Chu Yi.

Just like those maritime merchants, don't they know what will happen once the matter is leaked, but there is still a steady stream of people who come out to deal with Chu Yi.

It's not that they're stupid, it's not that they're not afraid of death, in the final analysis, everything is driven by profit.

Even Chu Yi did not dare to guarantee that once the reform of the health system was carried out, there would not be a group of people with vested interests who would jump out to oppose it.

The guard is different from others, no matter how erosive the guard is, but after all, it is a violent institution, and if something goes wrong, the destructive power caused is not small at all.

Although Chu Yi has absolute confidence and certainty that he can quell all the turmoil with the soldiers and horses at the disposal of the imperial court, sooner or later he will have to expand the army, so it is better to prepare in advance, and when the army is in hand, it can be more relaxed.

Yang Yiqing took a step forward and bowed to Zhu Houzhao for a week: "The minister seconded the proposal!" ”

As for the few civil ministers, they were silent, as civil ministers, they naturally resisted the expansion of the power of the Xungui group, and the power of the Xungui group was rooted in the army, and the expansion of the army also meant that the power of the Xungui had risen sharply.

However, now in the face of Chu Yi and Yang Yiqing, these cabinet elders have no reason to stand up and oppose it.

Chu Yi has made it clear that he wants to take action against the guard system, and the expansion of the army is to prevent trouble before it happens, if they stand up against it, I am afraid that they will be regarded by the Son of Heaven as having other intentions.

Zhu Houzhao's gaze swept over the crowd, and finally said: "If the secretaries don't have any other opinions, the expansion of the army will be 250,000 in total, and it will be decided!" ”

Jiao Fang and Chen Ding glanced at each other and smiled bitterly.

Yang Yiqing is face is happy, as the secretary of the military department, although it is said that with the rise of the noble power, the governor's office of the five armies has gradually become tougher, and it has a tendency to keep pace with the military department, but Yang Yiqing is just as happy.

Although he was born in a civil servant, he was awarded the title of Duke of Jin for his military merits, and he was promoted to the ranks of nobles, even if he did not admit it, but in the eyes of civil and military officials, he was a member of the honors.

However, a few days later, the imperial court issued a decree that the household department would allocate 10 million taels of silver, build another 500 ships, and recruit 250,000 soldiers at the same time.

The case of the fire in Huating City was solved, and under the order of Huating County, more than a dozen large and small families such as the Wang family, the Liu family, and the Zhou family colluded with the Japanese to murder the court officials, which can be called a heinous crime, and it is unforgivable, and the nine clans are punished.

On the blue sea, seabirds skim the surface of the water from time to time to pick up fish from the water, and gradually you can see several large boats appearing at the end of the sight.

These big ships are flying the Ming Dragon flag, and they are several big ships in a caravan funded by the royal family.

Chu Yi is naturally very clear about the amazing interests of Haimao, and specially arranged for the palace attendants to form a caravan, which is directly controlled by the eunuch in charge of the imperial eunuch.

Originally, the imperial eunuch was just an ordinary department responsible for the jewelry, screens, beds and other utensils used in the imperial palace, far from being comparable to the celebrant and the imperial horse eunuch, but since Chu Yi handed over the responsibility and power to run the royal caravan to the imperial eunuch, the status of the imperial eunuch has soared among the twenty-four eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty. Even only under the celebrant and the royal horse.

The caravan subordinate of the imperial eunuch went to sea for the first time, but Zheng Wen, the eunuch of the imperial eunuch's palm seal, was very careful and sent a large number of men to accompany him.

These large ships were the merchant ships belonging to the imperial superintendent, and the merchant ships carried to sea were naturally silk, porcelain, and tea, which were the most common and best-selling commodities in the maritime trade.

The caravan was going to Dongying, and this time it was from Dongying that more than a dozen merchant ships carried a large number of goods, and as soon as they arrived in Dongying, they won the crazy robbery of local merchants.

These four large ships were the fleets that returned with the gold and silver they had earned, as well as the spices they had purchased.

Dongying is only a few days away from Daming, and if the wind and water are smooth, it is easy to reach the seaport in Fujian.

Responsible for leading these four big ships is the imperial prison of the general Lu Kang, Lu Kang's face is full of joy, you must know that this time he asked for orders to go to sea, it can be said that it is a move to fight, if you are lucky, can earn a lot of gold and silver wealth for the Son of Heaven, then the imperial prison will inevitably enter the sight of the Son of Heaven, valued by the Son of Heaven, and he will inevitably be promoted.

Obviously, the huge profits of sea trade are too amazing, it is beyond Lu Kang's imagination, Lu Kang himself did not expect that it was just tens of thousands of taels of silver goods, and he actually earned more than five times the profit when he changed hands.

Lu Kangna was so excited that he couldn't even wait for a dozen or so large ships to load the rice purchased from Dongying, and returned with four large ships loaded with gold, silver, spices and other valuable goods.

Facing the sea breeze, Lu Kang's face was filled with a happy color, and several little eunuchs behind him were also happy.

However, Lu Kang didn't know that since more than a dozen of his merchant ships arrived in Dongying, they were targeted by a group of Japanese bandits, and this group of Japanese bandits had been secretly staring at the actions of Lu Kang and his party.

At this moment, more than a dozen large and small ships are coming from all directions, and they have the posture of surrounding the four big ships of Lu Kang.

There are hundreds of people in this group, and there is a big name in Dongying behind them, which can be said to be strong ships, and even several ships are equipped with several small cannons, so that even among the many pirates and pirates, they can be regarded as powerful.

On board the merchant ship, a sailor was looking around with the help of a clairvoyant mirror in his hand, when suddenly he spotted a ship coming towards them miles away with full sails.