Chen Youliang worriedly told the Ming army about its recent great achievements.

To tell the truth, Chen Youliang still admires Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Hanzhu brothers very much in his heart, and his disgust and hatred for the Mongols is the basis for him to have this kind of sympathy.

It's just that everyone understands that when the Mongol threat is lifted, the next target of the Ming army must be to occupy the Chen Han regime in Yunnan, Sichuan.

"Now that the Ming army is at its peak, arrogant and fierce, invincible, the minister feels that he should build a fortress on the border, train soldiers, and use the mountains to prevent the invasion of the Ming army."

As soon as Chen Youliang's words fell, Zou Pusheng, the prime minister next to him, immediately said his suggestion.

But what Zou Pusheng said is all clichés, and it is of little use to the Chen Han regime, which is now separating Sichuan.

If it only relied on the Great Law of Turtle Shrinkage, then the Ming army would use ten times the national strength to crush Chen Han's defenses.

What Chen Youliang needs now is how to improve his national strength, instead of building a turtle formation and separating Sichuan for a lifetime, as Zou Pusheng said.

"Brother Huang, we don't have many people in Sichuan now, even if we eat Yunnan, this population is far less than Huguang, if we want to strengthen the national strength, we must make the people prosperous." Chen Youliang's younger brother Chen Youren said.

As the most capable of Chen's younger brothers, Chen has always been able to provide very useful strategies for governing the country.

"Youren, tell me quickly, is there any good way to increase the national strength?" Chen Youliang hurriedly asked.

Population is related to national strength, and this has been an unchanging norm since ancient times.

Because more than 100 years ago, the Song and Jin Dynasty fought continuously in Sichuan, which was originally the country of abundance, lost more than eighty percent of the population.

Today, the population of Sichuan is less than half of what it was during the Song Dynasty.

"If you want me to say, Zhu Chongba, that guy, there are only three places that are stronger than us, one is a large territory, the second is rich, and the third is a lot of people." Chen Youren said slowly, "This territory is big because there are many people, you can recruit soldiers, and if you have money, you can train the army to be more elite, since this is the case, then we will follow Zhu Chongba's example, first make the people prosperous, and give light to the people of Sichuan, and call back the people who hide in the deep mountains and old forests, at least we can get nearly one million more people." ”

The people who are hiding in the deep mountains and old forests that Chen Youren said are not in the household registration statistics of the imperial court at all, and these people hiding in the deep mountains and old forests do not have to pay taxes or serve in the military.

Of course, as long as there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

These people who fled into the deep mountains and old forests did not survive in the peach blossom spring.

In Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, there are a large number of Tusi who occupy the mountains as kings, and the population under the rule of Tusi basically belongs to the private property of Tusi.

The various administrative orders of the government and the collection of grain and grass taxes are often only specific to a certain toast head.

As a result of this situation, Tusi, which has a large population, only needs to pay very few taxes, and even many Tusi have their own armed forces, and they are not birds for the government's conscription.

"Youren, what you said is indeed a good way." Chen Youliang touched his short beard with his hand, nodded and said, "However, these populations are controlled by various toasts, and if we want to take the population back, we must meet these toast swordsmen." ”

These hereditary Tusi who are entrenched in various mountains, whether they are from Han or Yi people, all regard their territory and population as important as life.

The Mongols, who were famous for their murderous time, never took away their land and population.

Now if Chen Youliang dares to touch their life, then these hereditary toasts will definitely rebel.

Chen Youren smiled coldly, "What about the swords and soldiers, these toasts bully the soft and fear the weekdays, they just rely on their own mountains and roads, Zhu Chongba sent people to exterminate so many toasts in Guizhou, which shows that the geographical advantages they rely on are not invincible, as long as we learn the method of Zhu Chongba's attack on the toast in Guizhou, we can clean up these toasts in Sichuan and Yunnan." ”

Listening to Chen Youren's words, Chen Youliang's eyes suddenly lit up with joy.

The Ming army's crusade against all kinds of Tusi in Guizhou has not stopped.

The first unlucky was the hereditary Tusi Yang of Banzhou in eastern Guizhou, and in the winter of last year, the Shuixi Tusi in western Guizhou surrendered to the Ming Guizhou Xingdu Division.

The entire Tusi of Guizhou was wiped out by the Ming army, and millions of people and land were controlled by the Ming military government, and the strength of the Ming army in the southwest increased dramatically.

Chen Youliang naturally knew that the Ming army was able to make such rapid progress in Guizhou because of the adoption of the most rapid and effective administrative and military means.

Based on the information he heard, Chen Youren also put forward feasible suggestions to Chen Youliang.

"Brother Huang, the Ming army in Guizhou is nothing more than fighting Tusi to divide the land, this trick, we can also learn it."

"Again, I found that even if the toasts in these mountains in Sichuan and Yunnan can cultivate grain, weave and cloth, there is one thing that they absolutely cannot lack."

Chen Youliang immediately guessed what the necessities his brother was talking about.

"Youren, you mean table salt?" Chen Youliang asked in a low voice.

Chen Youren nodded, "Brother Huang is right, I mean table salt, most of these toasts live in cottages, and there is no way to get table salt, in addition to table salt, there are many other necessities such as medicines that they lack, as long as we take appropriate measures, we can pinch these toasts and knead them round." ”

The Chen Youliang brothers quickly set a strategy and prepared to attack the toast on the various hills in the southwest.

After some calculations, as long as they ate half of the strength of these toasts, they could increase the number of soldiers under their command by another 100,000.

It can be seen that since the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, many people in the southwest have been hiding in the deep mountains and old forests.

The Chen Youliang brothers had just decided on a strategy to clean up the toasts of each family, and were ready to take out the last bit of gold, silver, grain and grass to supply the army, but suddenly received an urgent military information from Yunnan.

After driving away Duan Gong, Chen Youliang returned to Chengdu and set up the Marshal's Mansion in Yunnan, leaving his fifth brother Chen Yougui in Yunnan to guard.

"Duan Gong is thousands of miles away, and he dares to think about Yunnan, it's really bearable, it's unbearable!"

Chen Youliang looked at the information coming from Yunnan and was immediately very annoyed.

It turned out that after Chen Youliang drove Duan Gong to the Tianzhu people in Bangladesh, he opened a killing spree to the Burmese who surrendered him, and although he subdued these barbarians in a short time, soon after Chen Youliang left, Duan Gong sent people to contact various tribes in Myanmar and provided them with a large amount of military food support, so that these Burmese tribes colluded in rebellion.

Several camps in the Marshal's Mansion have been captured by Burmese rebels, and the raging rebels have even threatened several important copper mining areas in Yunnan for a time.

Chen Youliang is now able to support hundreds of thousands of troops, half of which is due to the abundant products of the Chengdu Plain, the land of abundance, and the other half by relying on a few super-large copper mines in Yunnan.

Now the Burmese rebels, under Duan Gong's flickering, threatened Chen Youliang's money bag, which naturally made him intolerable.

"Immediately send troops to reinforce the Marshal's Mansion of the Yunnan Marching Army, we must wipe out these Burmese rebels and capture them all in the mines to dig stones!" Chen Youliang said angrily.

Yunnan has a vast land and many mountains and rivers, and the little force in the hands of the fifth brother Chen Yougui cannot be fully attacked and defended, so soldiers and horses must be sent to support.

Chen Youliang has one place, but he is very confused.

That is, when Duan Gong was driven away by them, he was obviously very embarrassed, and only took one or two thousand remnants of the army and fled, not only did he not take much baggage grain and grass, but he was also betrayed by the natives of Burma.

How is it that less than a year has passed, and Duan Gong has such a strong capital to support those Burmese natives?

According to the information from the Marshal's Office of the Yunnan Marching Army, the total number of rebels in Burma is nearly 100,000.

Although these Burmese rebels have 100,000 people, they may not be able to catch up with the 10,000 combat effectiveness of the Red Turban Army.

But to support 100,000 mouths to eat, that's a huge amount of food.

Chen Youliang couldn't figure out how Duan Gong could get so much food.

"Could it be that the Tianzhu that Duan Gong fled to is really full of gold, silver and jewelry, and grows grain all year round?" Chen Youliang couldn't help but ask confusedly.

When Chen Youliang led the army in Yunnan, he once heard the introduction of the indigenous savages of Myanmar that Tianzhu in Bangladesh is rich in gemstones, gold and silver, and has abundant rain and a warm climate all year round, which is very suitable for the growth of rice.

Now that Duan Gong has only been in use for a year, there is a surplus of food support funds for the savage natives of Myanmar, and it seems that the rumors about Tianzhu's wealth are indeed true.

"Brother Huang, fight snakes and seven inches, the mountains and forests where these Burmese savages live are all full of poisonous insects, rats and ants, even if they are repelled, it is difficult to exterminate them in the mountains and dense forests, and they will go and return if they don't cut the grass and roots." Younger brother Chen Youren said next to him.

"Youren, what do you say?" Chen Youliang asked.

"Since these indigenous savages in Myanmar are behind Duan Gong, then we will find a way to solve Duan Gong, so that without Duan Gong to provide food and grass support, those Burmese people in the dense forests and mountains will not have to worry." Chen Youren said.

His suggestion can be said to be to the heart of the Burmese people.

Although ancient Myanmar was located in the tropics, the agricultural production level of the local population was backward, and there was not much development for the swamp and rainforest that was everywhere.

Burma, as a loose alliance of city-states, could hardly scrape together rations for a months' expedition of 10,000 troops.

Therefore, once there is no food and grass support provided by Duan Gong, only relying on the little family background of the Burmese people, they can only walk birds and play monkeys in their respective tribes.

"It's a good solution, but Duan Gong is thousands of miles away, and he has to cross the miasma-filled jungle in Myanmar in the middle, so how to solve Duan Gong?"

"Imperial brother, I once heard the Tubo people say that after crossing the holy mountain in the south of Tubo, it belongs to the territory of the King of Tianzhu Delhi, and now the place occupied by Duan Gong also belongs to the King of Tianzhu Delhi, he must have hated Duan Gong to the core, after all, he has robbed his territory, if we can send someone to unite with the King of Tianzhu Delhi, we can let him eliminate Duan Gong together, so as to solve our worries in Yunnan."

In the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, August 16.

Jiangnan, Zhenjiang.

The sassy autumn wind has swept away the hot weather, and the southward monsoon has already appeared on the sea east of Zhenjiang.

At this time, it was the moment when Zhu Han's plan to go to the West to set off.

The elder brother Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Han came to Zhenjiang Port together to witness the first trip to the West of the Ming Dynasty.

"Seventy-five, do you say that if we go to the West this time, will it really benefit the descendants of the Ming Dynasty?" The elder brother Zhu Yuanzhang still asked a little uneasily.

The scale of Zhu Han's planned trip to the West is unprecedentedly huge.

There are only five light sailing ships that are used as a precursor to exploration.

These light sailing ships are all the latest sailing ships produced by Zhenjiang Shipyard, all of which are made of yellow rosewood with hulls and rudders made of rosewood.

Fortunately, the various timber resources of the Ming Dynasty are relatively abundant, and the cost of making these sturdy hulls is still acceptable.

In addition to the five Explorer sailships, there will be ten Tier 4 to 6 sail warships to follow.

These sail warships, based on the lessons provided by Hu Dahai's previous drifting thousands of miles, have made many adaptable adjustments in structure and layout.

As the latest batch of sail warships, these ten battleships are the main force in the operation to the West, each battleship is equipped with three types of guns, short and heavy guns can directly destroy the enemy's hull structure at close range, cannons can bombard the enemy's hull and sails at medium distance, and light small guns on the deck can fire scattered shells to kill enemy sailors and crews.

The investment in the construction and renovation of these ten warships is even more costly.

When the mast and keel needed to be strong and suitable wood, Zhu Han directly ordered the main palace of the Goryeo Kingdom to be demolished, and the beams and pillars on it were taken as materials for shipbuilding.

The maintenance cost of each warship is almost equivalent to the salary and supply cost of all the soldiers of a guard.

Behind the ten sailboats, there were six galleys.

These six galleys can be used as logistics supply ships, and can also use oars to sail quickly when offshore, and can also be unimpeded in ordinary rivers.

Each galley was staffed with dozens to hundreds of oarsmen, and generally speaking, the oars on the galleys belonged to the hardest and most tiring jobs, and almost all the oars sailors from Europe to West Asia were held by slaves.

Zhu Han's rowing sailors on these boats are not slaves, but most of them are recruited from Goryeo and the Wa Kingdom, the Goryeo and the Wa people are thin and short, but they are also hard-working, and they are the most suitable in the narrow paddling position, and the Ming only need to provide them with a military salary of ten taels of silver per year, and it is completely enough to give them a Ming naturalized person status at the end of the five-year period.

Gaoli and Wa belong to the sphere of influence of the Ming Dynasty, and after these coolie sailors have the status of naturalized people of the Ming Dynasty, they can see officials in Goryeo and the Wa Kingdom without kneeling, they can have their own fixed property, and they are protected by the Ming garrison, and their status is almost equivalent to the samurai class.

For the Koreans and the Japanese people, these conditions were already generous enough, and they could even lose their lives when necessary.