When the emperor realized that his courtiers could not be completely controlled, he was replaced by only the "loyalty" constraints brought by the etiquette of the monarch and the minister, hoping that the other party could get along with the monarch and the minister and not let himself down.

Zhu Qiyu, the historical Jingtai Emperor, adhered to the complex mentality of suspicion and trust, and forcibly endured Yu Qian's entire period of supervising the world's soldiers and horses, until he heard the Jingyang bell ring before he died, he released the truest thoughts in his heart, and subconsciously thought that Yu Qian had rebelled against the dynasty and usurped the throne.

Now this mentality of suspicion and trust is intertwined with Shen Yichen, and his words are both warnings and expectations.

Shen Yichen, don't let me down!

"The minister must do everything he has learned all his life, and live up to the Son of Heaven and the people!"

Shen Yichen stood up slowly, didn't care about the rules of the monarch's disgrace, raised his head and looked at Zhu Qiyu, the Jingtai Emperor on the royal platform, and said the idea in his heart.

As long as Zhu Qiyu lives up to the world, then he will live up to the king!

After the two looked at each other for a few seconds, Shen Yichen looked away from his gaze and apologized: "The minister is rude, and I ask Your Majesty to forgive me." ”

"A little bit of a little bit of fineness doesn't hurt."

Zhu Qiyu waved his hand, he found that he couldn't understand Shen Yichen more and more, obviously he was very humble and submissive, but it contained an extremely tough attitude and persistence.

"The Gong of Qianguo and the Yunnan Buzheng Division, I have also paid attention to and thought about it during this time, and the Luchuan thief leader colluded with the Burmese feudal state, and at the same time contacted the Miao people in the southwest to prepare for a joint rebellion."

"Last year, in order to relieve the crisis in Beijing, the Southern Expeditionary Army, as well as ordnance, grain and grass, were all transported from the south, and now they will be transferred to southern Xinjiang again. Not to mention the countless amounts of material money spent, occupying the capacity of the Grand Canal alone will exacerbate the crisis of food shortage in the north. ”

"Have you ever thought about the difficulties of the Southern Expeditionary Army's counterinsurgency?"

Zhu Qiyu is not a slack king, he has read all the pieces of the cabinet vote. It's just that he has seen a lot of things, in addition to urging his ministers to go down to solve it, he is also a king, and it is difficult for a woman to cook without rice.

Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji led the Southern Expeditionary Army to quell the rebellion in Luchuan, which indeed eliminated a major hidden danger in the Beijing Division, but the ensuing question was where did the equipment and military salaries come from?

You must know that in the Fourth Luchuan War, Zhu Qizhen of Ming Yingzong emptied almost the entire treasury, which directly led to the great peasant uprising in the southeast, and indirectly led to the fiasco of Tumubao and almost lost the country.

The Southeast Uprising was quelled by Shen Yichen, but the change in Tumubao could not change history, and now that the Fifth Luchuan War is on the agenda again, what price will the Ming Dynasty pay?

"Your Majesty, the minister has entrusted Jiangnan merchants to raise three million stone rice grains by sea at his own expense. In addition, the military rations stored in the Tongzhou warehouse in Beijing and the previous year are enough to survive the food crisis in Beijing and smash the interest groups behind the food price hike! ”

At this moment, Shen Yichen did not hide it, and 1510 gave all the arrangements about the food war behind him. After all, Jingyuanbo Wang Ji's military expenses still need to be bled from Huichangbo and other Beijing officials and gentry, and sooner or later the emperor will know about it.

Three million stones?

Hearing the figures Shen Yichen said, Zhu Qiyu gasped, the entire Ming Dynasty alone has a grain tax of more than 20 million stones, and the real arrival in the north will not exceed 10 million stones.

With his own strength, Shen Yichen is equivalent to raising half a year's rice grain in the north of the entire Ming Empire, which is really amazing.

"Does Daming Shipping have such capacity?"

After a short period of shock, Emperor Jingtai Zhu Qiyu was keenly aware of the key point, and three million stone rice grains could still be solved by money. With the power of Cheng Guogong behind Shen Yichen, as well as the "dowry" brought by the marriage with Chen Ying, Marquis of Taining, it is still within a reasonable range to have such financial resources.

But the problem is that transportation to Jingshi means that shipping has a capacity that is not inferior to that of the Grand Canal, and as the emperor of the current dynasty, he doesn't know when the Ming Dynasty has such an exaggerated sea ship transportation capacity, how did Shen Yichen do it?

"Your Majesty, the minister was originally ordered to supervise the Fujian soldiers and horses, but in fact, he also received a secret order from the Emperor Taishang to supervise the construction of a fleet."

"At this moment, the sea of rice and grain, plus the previous lead of troops to aid the Beijing Division, are all the treasure ships of the Ming Dynasty!"

The imperial brother sent Shen Yichen to supervise the construction of a fleet?

It can really be said that there are waves of unsettled waves, and Zhu Qiyu never knew that there were such stories behind it.

Shen Yichen controls a fleet of sea ships, and even the existence of the Daming treasure ship in it, which Emperor Jingtai Zhu Qiyu knows. However, the focus of the defense battle of the Beijing division was more on the Tartars, and the follow-up focus was also on how to prevent the emperor from returning to seize power, and he did not really understand in detail what kind of sea fleet it was.

According to the usual practice, Zhu Qiyu believes that this death is the standard of ordinary sailors of the coastal political department, and as for the Daming treasure ship, it has been destroyed for decades, and it is likely that it is called like this in its name.

After all, this kind of claim is not uncommon in the Ming military, and even the number of soldiers and horses can be exaggerated several times, and a larger ship is called a treasure ship, what is it?

The main reason for this kind of thinking is that no one would have thought that Shen Yichen would really supervise the creation of a Western-level sea ship fleet during the suppression of the rebellion in Fujian, which is completely beyond normal logic!

"Is shipping so efficient and convenient?"

Zhu Qiyu muttered to himself, from the moment he was born, the Ming Dynasty had stopped the last feat of going to the Western Ocean, and had never seen the grandeur and glory of the treasure fleet.

In addition, without receiving traditional imperial education, you can't get in touch with some classics exclusive to the emperor, which is equivalent to Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu's mind, there is no concept of shipping.

Hearing Emperor Jingtai say this, Shen Yichen immediately answered: "Your Majesty, the ocean is boundless, and it is not affected by factors such as floods, dry water, river sediment, etc., how big the sea ship can build, how many materials can be transported. ”

"Now as today, it is like a change, the Ming Dynasty is cold for a year, the yield of land cultivation is seriously reduced, and the shortage of grain in the north will become a normal situation. According to the classics handed down by the eunuchs of the Three Treasures, the four seasons in the Western region are like spring, and the rice can be harvested twice to three times a year. ”

Let's try it soon, everyone. 】

"The minister suggests that when the time is ripe, he will start the feat of going to the West again, take the material resources of the vassal states, and solve the troubles of the heavenly kingdom!"

If there is any regret in Shen Yichen's heart that "betrayed" Zhu Qizhen, it is that the built Daming Xia Fan sea fleet can only stop at the port for most of the time, and do some work to transport rice and grain at critical moments.

Killing chickens with knives, this kind of transportation task, should not be limited to the next fleet. The Ming treasure ship was built, and the Age of Discovery should be born for the ocean, or to put it more bluntly, it is destined to be a weapon of killing and conquest.

However, under the internal and external troubles, Shen Yichen clearly wants to restart the grand event of going to the West, and under the current situation, it is tantamount to a fool's dream, and no one in the emperor and the Manchu Dynasty will understand and agree.

But now that Zhu Qiyu has taken the initiative to mention the next fleet, Shen Yichen has not seized the opportunity to recommend, when will he wait?

Zhu Qiyu also didn't expect that this dialogue between monarchs and ministers would be able to discuss the selection of candidates from the meeting to the West. During the Yongle period, he made seven trips to the West to promote the prestige of the Celestial Empire and attract all nations to come to the court, but the economy cost countless amounts of money and did not achieve sustainable benefits.

Losing money is the fundamental factor for the Ming Dynasty to cancel going to the West.

Shen Yichen now mentioned once again that he will open the Western Ocean, even if the southern region can achieve two to three crops of rice and grain a year, can the income offset the expenses of maintaining the next fleet?

Judging from the past royal files and history, there is a high probability that you will not be able to make ends meet.

There is no king who does not want all nations to come to the court, and when Emperor Jingtai lacks qualifications and prestige, he hopes to create a similar prosperous scene.

However, reason told Zhu Qiyu that if he got rid of it, he would work hard and lose money, and he had to be cautious when restarting the West!

"Shen Qing, the matter of going to the West is very costly, and the current emptiness of the treasury is probably not appropriate, and this matter will be discussed later."

"As for the magnates and squires such as Hui Changbo to raise the price of grain, I hope you can pay attention to the influence and scale, after all, he is the biological father of the queen mother, and it should not affect it widely."

Zhu Qiyu drew his attention back to the price of grain in Jingshi, Shen Yichen could still relieve the food crisis, and he also earned a sum of money to subsidize the treasury by dumping, he was naturally extremely supportive.

But this matter can only be controlled within the scope of money, and Shen Yichen cannot expand the questioning.

Nangong Zhong's imperial brother's secret meeting with Zhang Xuan, the governor of Zuodu, and his various actions to win over Wuqing Hou Shiheng made Zhu Qiyu feel a great sense of crisis. If you go to Changbo and Sun Zhong at this time, it is easy for the Queen Mother and her family to make strategic miscalculations, so as to turn around and act in advance.

Now that the Southern Expeditionary Army has not yet withdrawn from Beijing, the situation and time are still under Zhu Qiyu's side, and he only needs to slowly abolish the imperial brother's hole cards one by one, so that he can become the final winner of the battle between the two emperors.

There is no need to mess with the overall situation for the sake of such a trivial matter.

"Yes, I understand."

Shen Yichen nodded, he also knew that the matter of raising grain prices was widely implicated, and if he really wanted to investigate each of them, it would be equivalent to being an enemy of the Manchu Dynasty.

Before he had enough power, Shen Yichen didn't want to put himself in the position of the public enemy of the whole people, otherwise it would be difficult to govern in the court in the future.

"These things are decided for the time being, Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji will be summoned in person, you should retreat first."

Although Shen Yichen was summoned this time with anger and jealousy, on the whole, he gained a lot and temporarily solved several difficult problems. After the stone in his heart fell to the ground, Zhu Qiyu only felt endless exhaustion, and he needed to comb it again by himself.

"Your Majesty, the minister still has something to ask for!"

"Tell me what else."

"The time has not yet come for the treasure fleet to go to the Western Ocean, but it can open the sea ban in advance and test it, and wait until the coastal fishermen find a way to profit from the Western Ocean and the South Sea, then everything will fall into place."

After all, Shen Yichen was still unwilling to let the treasure ship fleet sit in the harbor in vain. Since the biggest obstacle to the Ming Dynasty is the problem of money, it is possible to open the sea ban in advance to make money, so that there is enough convincing power to promote the Great Voyage.

"Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong once explicitly forbade that they were not allowed to go to the sea. As a descendant of future generations, how can I violate the law of my ancestors, and this precedent cannot be set. ”

"Your Majesty, Emperor Taizu's original intention to implement the sea ban was that the coastal areas were plagued by Japanese invaders. Now 50 years have passed, the invasion of the Japanese in the coastal areas has long been rampant at the beginning, the minister has supervised the training of sailors in Fujian, can ensure that the Ming Dynasty is worry-free! ”

I have to say that although Emperor Jingtai Zhu Qiyu is a king who saves time, he is also a king of success, and he is far inferior to his imperial brother Zhu Qizhen in the spirit of adventurism.

Just as Shen Yichen commented before, Zhu Qizhen of Ming Yingzong before Tumubao generally had the ambition to expand the territory. Regardless of whether he could win the war or not, no matter what the price was paid, at least he never coerced the war, and never compromised with the foreign feudal states.

Of course, Tumubao later shattered Zhu Qizhen's backbone and made him a "lost dog".

Changing the law of the ancestors, opening the sea ban, and going to the Western Ocean all require great courage to implement, and Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu just lacks the courage of this kind of hero.

"Your Majesty, Your Minister......"

Shen Yichen still wanted to continue to persuade, but at this moment, Emperor Jingtai Zhu Qiyu obviously had no energy to continue the discussion.

I saw him wave his hand tiredly and said, "Stand down." ”

Seeing Zhu Qiyu's style, Shen Yichen knew that it was no different to talk about it any more, this kind of major event related to national policy, and wanting to change it with just a few words was tantamount to wishful thinking.

So he could only sigh and say, "Minister, retire." ”

Then he turned around and walked out of this Wenhua Palace, preparing to go back to the house to meet Zhu Yi first, and discuss with him the matter of winning over the commander of Jingwei.

At the same time that the "grain war" was in full swing on the side of the Beijing Division, the land of Liaodong in the north had already ignited beacon fires everywhere.

The speed of the army of the Tile Spur was far faster than the previous prediction of Li Da and others, and the forward cavalry had arrived in Monan Mongolia at the end of February, and after a short one-day rest, they launched an attack on the camp of the Tatar Department on March 1.

Tokhtobuhua had long been prepared for the attack of the Varspur army, and the entire Tatar battalion was always in a state of combat readiness. It's just that he never expected that the combat effectiveness of the tribe would show a vertical decline compared to before the attack on the Ming Kingdom Jingshi.

The 5,000 Tatar vanguard troops led by the Mongol governor Agoura were almost in a state of collapse after an encounter with the vanguard troops of the Vaspur Division. In just half a day, 5,000 men were lost, and Agoura fled back to the camp with dozens of cavalry guards.

Looking at Agoura, who had fled back to the camp in embarrassment, Tokhtar greeted him as soon as possible, and asked with a panicked face: "Why did the five thousand Tatar warriors lose so quickly, and what did you do!" ”

Tokh Buhua knew that there was a gap in strength between the Tatar Department and the Tile Spur Department, but he couldn't believe that the gap would be so big, Agula was an experienced veteran at all, and he was basically not at a disadvantage when he fought with the Jurchens, Wuliangha and even the Liaodong Army.

How could they be slaughtered like lambs in the face of the Tile Spurs?

Faced with Tokhtobu's questioning, Agula replied with shame and indignation: "Great Khan, the traitor also said that you insulted the bloodline of the Golden Family, and he changed the name of Tianyuan to declare his allegiance to the Khan of the Timur lineage of Tougusi, and regarded the Mongol Great Khan of the Timur lineage as a hypocrisy!" ”

Not only did the Han dynasty have a legal inheritance, but the bloodline of the Mongolian golden family was also a kind of khanate inheritance in a certain sense.

If he wants to establish himself as the Great Khan first, he must first get rid of the status of a monarch and a minister who does not spend money on getting rid of it, otherwise he will lead an army to recruit and even kill him in the future, which belongs to the category of killing the king.

If you want to get rid of such a crime and not become the leader of the Mongol tribes, you first thought of the most simple and crude way, that is, to unilaterally announce the abolition of the Khan of Tokhan and the Flowers!

This approach is almost ineffective in ordinary times, after all, how can the dignified Mongol Great Khan be established if you say that you are a hypocrisy?

However, Tokhtar did not bow down to the Ming Dynasty, and the prestige of the Taishi had already surpassed that of the Mongol Great Khan, so his announcement was really effective. As a result, the Tatar troops faced the vanguard of 5,000 people, and the army had no will to fight under the disorder, and this was the situation of defeat like a mountain!