As soon as Song Li spoke, everyone looked over, their eyes burning, as if they were going to eat the two.

What the Four Highnesses have done overseas, although they all know it today, they only know a general information, specific details, such as how big Australia is, where is Sumatra, few people know.

Xia Yuanji and Song Li, the two powerful ministers, knew.

Xia Yuanji scolded in his heart, Song Li is worthy of being in charge of the Ministry of Industry, his brain is simply an iron pimple, doesn't he know what subtlety and secrecy are?

"I wonder what happened to Lord Song?" Xia Yuanji was very polite, as if he had just discovered that Song Li was chasing him, so he hurriedly bowed humbly and asked.

Song Li scolded Xia Yuanji in his heart as an "old fox", of course he knew that his colleagues were paying attention to him, and he also regretted that he was a little anxious, but didn't he see that he was so busy now that he took off three layers of skin?

"Go, go, go!" Song Li pulled Xia Yuanji onto the right side of Chongli Street, walked for a while, found a teahouse on Tongjimen Street, asked for a private room, and sat down.

"Lord Xia, don't blame me for being in such a hurry. I don't want you to say that for more than a year, I haven't slept more than two hours every night, look at my dark circles. ”

Song Li didn't wait for Xia Yuanji to speak, and then said at length, "I know, you are definitely not much better than me." I knew that His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince was back, and he would definitely be even busier, and several heads of the family were still waiting for me at the gate of the Ministry of Works, and the mining people, machines, equipment, and ships transporting goods had to be arranged. ”

All these are for silver.

Xia Yuanji waved his hand, "How much silver do you want, you ask people to draw up a statement, submit it to the emperor, approve it, and receive the silver directly!" ”

Song Li breathed a sigh of relief, at the door, the little maid knocked on the door, the two of them tacitly agreed not to speak, and when the owner of the teahouse brought the prepared wine and food, the two chatted while eating again.

This teahouse has Song Li's shares, because of his identity, he is not good at drinking with his colleagues in broad daylight, so he usually comes to the teahouse to hide people's eyes.

Song Li expected that there was a lot of silver in the treasury, but he didn't know how much it was, so he asked tentatively, "It seems that Lord Xia's life is much better than mine." ”

Xia Yuanji smiled, where could he not hear this kind of temptation?

"In the past two years, we have to invest in more projects." Xia Yuanji said this, and didn't say more, the meaning is obvious, the treasury does have a lot of silver.

"The imperial court has done so many big things, building roads, building warships, and expanding overseas, and the treasury can still come up with a lot of money, Lord Xia is worthy of being my Ming Dynasty's money bag!" Song Li was tempted again.

Xia Yuanji smiled, he sandwiched a chopstick dish in the bowl, "Lord Song, the imperial court repairs roads, except for my Ming Dynasty's labor money, all the heavy use is machines, and the labor is all slavery from other countries, just one mouth, how much can it cost?" ”

The materials used to build roads were obtained from other countries for a small amount of silver; As for the warships, it cost a lot of silver, but it was not in vain for the imperial court to fight once or twice from the Wa Kingdom, and the four highnesses brought back a boatload of supplies, all of which were exchanged for silver.

Since last year, when the land was returned from the hands of those gentry, it was distributed to the common people, and the grain income of the last year alone has increased by 30%.

In the past, these gentry did not need to pay food.

There are also industrial taxes, customs taxes.

It can be said that Daming is not short of money.

His Royal Highness said these words at the court meeting today, and the meaning of them, Xia Yuanji somewhat understood, that is, to release a signal, there is so much land overseas, land to be mined, and ore veins, who wants to go?

Whoever is willing to go, he will take out the land, and if he does not take the land, he will not be able to get out of the customs.

After the two finished eating, they moved to the window and sat down, let tea be served, closed the door, and began to discuss the rest of the matter.

At this time, Zhu Gaoxian didn't give much information, but Song Li and Xia Yuanji knew very well that they had to think about several directions for the information they were getting now, and when they were summoned by the palace, they could improvise.

"It's getting harder and harder." Song Li sighed and said, "Although the Ministry of Industry has been focusing on cultivating people, there is still not enough manpower, and the Ming Imperial Academy should be able to provide a batch, but there are still not enough manpower." ”

Xia Yuanji turned the teacup in his hand and complained that it was useless, for

It's useless to be difficult, everyone knows the current situation, but it is still necessary to solve the problem.

"In the matter of manpower, we still have to recruit people from the people. Use the recruitment method given by His Highness before, and employ people in an eclectic manner. Xia Yuan Ji said, "This matter should be mentioned to the emperor and strive for the support of Lord Zhao and Lord Jian." ”

Song Li hurriedly said, "No, the most difficult thing at the moment is the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households." ”

Originally, there was a shortage of people in the Ming Dynasty, but now it has become a matter of the Ming Imperial Academy, and the students of the Guozijian have run out, and the officials don't know what's going on, as if they can't see the lack of manpower.

Soon, Song Li and Xia Yuanji's entourage knocked on the door and came in, "My lord, there is a decree from the palace, please enter the palace immediately." ”

By the time Xia Yuanji and Song Li arrived, the Fengtian Hall was full of people.

The two of them swept their eyes and found that not only the military aircraft department, but also the officials of the six departments, as well as many royal relatives and relatives came.

Xia Yuanji and Song Li's hearts were counted, and their hearts were a little lighter.

On the west wall is a map of the world, and everyone is standing facing the map.

Zhu Gaoxian was standing in front of the map, and Zhu Di was on the other side, smiling and waiting patiently.

A thin wenge wooden stick about one meter long was handed to Zhu Gaoxian, who held the stick and glanced at the people present, including his fourth uncle Xu Zengshou.

"You're all there, right?" Zhu Gaoxian asked, his eyes fell on Xia Yuanji and Song Li, who arrived last, and saw that the two of them were running out of breath, and their official uniforms were soaked with sweat, so he said, "Old Xia, old Song, it's hard work!" ”

"It's not hard to wait!" Xia Yuanji and Song Li calmed down their rough breathing, their faces were already radiant, and all their hard work was smoothed out at this moment.

Zhu Gaoxian's gaze turned around on Zhao Qian, and then moved away quietly, which made Zhao Li very uneasy.

Fortunately, His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince didn't say anything, he knocked on the map with a wenge stick, and said, "Ministers, Uncle Wang, brothers, my father asked me to tell you about overseas affairs, and I will mainly talk about the countries I visited this time, and these islands. ”

"I have to say that I was full of ambition before I went, I thought that once I went, I would be able to bring me a lot of wealth, and after I went, I realized that things were not as simple as I imagined. Because, I don't want to be a blatant raider, this way of gathering wealth is very fast, and at the same time, decaying is also very fast. ”

"I don't want people from all corners of the world to either hide or unite against us in the future when they see the Ming people. I think there are a lot of gentle ways to achieve our goals through tactful means. ”

It's also knocking.

Mei Yin also came this time, he was forced to come, if he didn't come again, he and the Princess Mansion of Ningguo would be forgotten by the Ming Dynasty.

He glanced at Zhu Gaoxian deeply, and his gaze slowly fell on the map, the blue is the sea, and only a quarter of the territory is the continent, it turns out that this is the world.

In just a few years, Daming is no longer the Daming of the past, but everyone, including himself, likes this Daming very much.

Mei Yin also regretted his words and deeds towards Zhu Di at the beginning, of course, he must have lived up to his father-in-law's expectations, but as Princess Ning Guo said, this is the choice of the times, and he is not the only one who can reverse the will of history.

"Annam, Champang, Chenla and Siam, here is Manchuria, these four lands, my personal opinion, become my colony of the Ming Dynasty. Here, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Australia can become the territory of my Ming Dynasty, and of course, our main goal is the wealth there. For the sake of perpetual wealth, domination is inevitable. ”

After Zhu Gaoxian finished speaking, he looked at Zhu Di.

Zhu Di took the stick from his son's hand and asked, "What do you think about how to rule?" ”

Annam, Champang, Chenla and Siam, these are all adjacent to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has a very clear purpose for these countries, land resources and labor can be continuously transported to the Ming Dynasty, and rubber is planted on their land.

At present, Daming's goal is being achieved little by little, and it is progressing very well.

And Manraka, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Australia are not the same, far from the Ming Dynasty

The country is far away and the area is very large, and it is really not easy to manage it well.

"What about here? What about Irian Island? Zhu Jixuan stared at the island and couldn't help asking.

Zhu Jixuan is the fourth son of Zhu Li, the king of Jin, in history, the county king who gave birth to a hundred children, is the grandson of Emperor Taizu Gao, the only county king who does not take the title of the place, but the name of the palace.

When Zhu Jixuan was born, the good news came that Emperor Taizu Gao was feasting guests in Qingcheng Palace, and he was so happy that he casually named him King Qingcheng.

Twenty-one-year-old Zhu Jixuan still has no fiefdom.

Zhu Gaoxian's actions gave him an idea, and he was smart enough to quickly set his sights on an area that was relatively close to Daming, but had not been explored by Zhu Gaoxian.

Zhu Gaoxian glanced at Zhu Jixuan deeply and smiled, "There are still these small islands on Irian Island, which seem to be just a point on the map, but in fact, the area is not small. ”

The heat in Zhu Jixuan's eyes was even worse, his hands drooped, and he clenched and loosened in a place that others could not see, repeating this action to restrain the impulse in his heart.

Zhu Di saw it in his eyes and said, "Ji Xuan, I allow you to choose someone to take your escort to that island." What the fourth brother can do, I believe that those of you who are brothers are no worse than him. If you can gain a foothold on that island, I will divide that island into your respective fiefdoms. ”

Chapter 320: The Territory of the Ming Dynasty