The cabinet of the Ming Dynasty is receiving a report from Li Zhixiang, the commander of the expedition to the Mughal Empire, and it is said that this kind of report only needs to be reported to Cheng Shijie alone.

But the problem is that when the troops were sent to attack the Mughals, the cabinet also had different voices, and Cheng Shijie did not engage in Yiyantang, because the consequences of Yiyantang were very serious, allowing different voices to obey the majority with the minority, of course, the most important thing is that Cheng Shijie has a veto power.

The biggest difference between Cheng Shijie and Emperor Chongzhen is that Cheng Shijie doesn't care about everything, just like Chongzhen has to deal with dozens or hundreds of folds every year, some of which are actually pure nonsense, and those local officials really have nothing to report, so they report folk gossip or lace news.

Just like Lu Xiangsheng, he even accepted a concubine named Yao Yao by Huang Liji, the former cabinet assistant, and some relied on outstanding Wencai to directly write thousands of words of long nonsense, of course, this is not a special case of the Chongzhen Dynasty, in order to play a sense of existence in front of the emperor, this situation has always existed.

The way the emperors of the Ming Dynasty dealt with it was not the same, Zhu Yuanzhang encountered this kind of minister who had nothing to do, and he beat him up and said, Chengzu Zhu Di was a strange thing, and he went back directly, and what was even more absolutely Emperor Wanli of Mingshenzong was directly foul when he encountered this kind of minister.

This is not the author's blind compilation, there is a record in the "Ming Shilu" that Emperor Wanli has exploded foul language at three people in his life, namely Zou Yuanbiao, the servant of the Criminal Department, Yu Yuren in the matter, and Shi Xingxin, the secretary of the Ministry of War, of course, the Emperor of the Apocalypse directly ignored it, only Chongzhen had a good temper, no matter how big or small, he replied seriously.

This is precisely because of this, which has fueled the atmosphere of those ministers brushing their sense of existence, Cheng Shijie is even more absolute, Quanzhou prefect Yang Yigui to Cheng Shijie on the fold, Quanzhou has a woman Yang, her husband jumped into the lake to be martyred, please set up the archway of chastity, Cheng Shijie replied directly, Yang Yigui, the prefect of Quanzhou, support the Yang clan, must not be treated harshly, and the offender will be severely punished.

Cheng Shijie doesn't believe this kind of at all, Daming's marriage system is marriage first and love later, a widow who has just married and doesn't even have time to live in a cave house will commit suicide for martyrdom? Obviously, this is some rotten Confucianism wants to use this to promote education, Cheng Shijie not only let Yang Yigui be responsible for supporting the Yang clan, but at the same time, Yang Yigui also gave Yang Yigui a label that he will not be reused for the rest of his life.

There are also officials who reported to Cheng Shijie about the adultery of uncles and sisters-in-law, the cheating of civilian women, and the officials who collected money, all of which were thrown in the northwest to exert their residual heat, so that these officials have learned to be obedient.

If it is not a major matter, do not make a mistake in a disorderly manner, and if there is a major matter, it is also necessary to be held accountable, and the five systems of the Supervision and Military Highway Administration, the Jinyi Guard, the Military Intelligence Bureau, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Letters and Visits Bureau must report to the accident or natural disaster, natural and man-made disasters in various places, and if any link conceals the report, and the other links report it, it is dereliction of duty.

In this way, it is almost impossible for local officials to want to cover the sky with one hand, and now in the Ming Dynasty, the Military Supervision and Highway Administration is responsible for supervising the fairness of rewards and punishments for officers in the army, of course, the members of the Soldiers' Committee are also responsible for supervising the Supervision of the Military Highway Administration, Jinyiwei is responsible for supervising officials, the Anti-Corruption Bureau is responsible for staring at Jinyiwei, the Letters and Visits Bureau is responsible for staring at the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Military Intelligence Bureau is independent of the five-way system.

Cheng Shijie doesn't need to do much work, mainly the cabinet is responsible for overseeing the overall situation, and each department has its own duties, Li Zhixiang's report is very detailed, in fact, Cheng Shijie already knows all these situations.

Li Zhixiang continued: "Three hundred and sixty-two tons of gold were seized......"

Shen Boyun raised his hand and asked, "How many taels are these three hundred and sixty-two tons?" ”

Cheng Shijie explained: "There are not many, only a few million taels!" ”

"What?"

Sun Zhilan asked in surprise: "A few million taels of gold?" How could there be so much gold in the Mughals? ”

Cheng Shijie said: "Their favorite is gold, and Delhi City is the largest city in the whole of India. ”

"A few million taels of gold, you can't control it for decades!"

Zhou Yandong's eyes flashed with green light: "This Mughal is so rich? Sending troops to attack the Mughal is the most correct thing Your Majesty has done! ”

Cheng Shijie continued: "In fact, the biggest harvest is not how much gold is grabbed, but the Ganges Delta, which is tens of millions of acres of fields, with extremely abundant rain and sunshine, and it can be turned into a good field rich in grain with a little tidying up!" A thousand years ago, it was by seizing this fertile land that Tubo increased its strength and became a lifelong enemy of the Tang Dynasty! Now that Daming has obtained this fertile soil, there will be no food crisis for at least two hundred years! ”

Sun Zhilan rubbed his hands excitedly and said continuously: "Great, well done, well done!" This land is worth more than ten million taels of gold! General Li, you have made a great contribution again! ”

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "It's not a general, but a marshal, this marshal officially canonized Li Zhixiang as a marshal~"

"As it should be!"

Although the scale of the battle fought by Li Zhixiang was not large, and the casualties paid were very few, with more than 3,000 casualties before and after, in fact, more than 2,800 people were not accustomed to the water and soil, and if it were not for the repeated strict orders, they were not allowed to drink raw water or eat local food, otherwise the consequences would have been more serious.

It can be said that the losses caused by the Mughal army to the Ming expeditionary force were not as good as their Ganges water and poor environmental sanitation.

Li Zhixiang has now officially become the first marshal of the Ming Dynasty, which is also well deserved, if anyone can get back millions of taels of gold, Cheng Shijie can also make him a marshal.

The cabinet is also short of money now, Daming's construction of the railway is a bottomless pit, although Cheng Shijie is not going to take the steam engine train now, but in fact, Daming now has a lot of railways, the earliest railway is the railway from Maoshan to Changshenggang, which is responsible for transporting iron ore.

Now in operation for more than two years, the railway has increased the transportation capacity of the original cement road by dozens of times, but many people who work for a living by transporting iron ore have lost their jobs.

Then, Li Zhixiang reported to the cabinet other seized materials and property, which was Cheng Shijie's intention to let Li Zhixiang report to the cabinet, because Cheng Shijie just wanted to prove that foreign wars were necessary, and the original set of the Ming Dynasty was somewhat outdated.

Under the influence of Cheng Shijie, Daming has become radical, after all, from the reports of Zhan Zhou and Xinming, the cabinet already knows that Daming now has at least three times more arable land, and there will be no food shortage in the next few hundred years.

No one will think that they have more money, and of course no one will think that they have more food, and with Li Zhixiang's continuous report, the atmosphere of the entire cabinet has become warm.

Xie Jinglin, who was in charge of foreign affairs, said: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister, ministers, there is still a more important matter, how should it be resolved?" ”

"What's the matter?"

Xie Jinglin said: "The Ottoman Empire sent an envoy to Beijing to lodge a serious protest against our Ming Dynasty!" ”

Cheng Shijie said: "What are they protesting for? ”

"Protest against our support for Venice, they say that Venice is the greatest enemy of the Ottoman Empire, and that we are disrespectful to the Ottoman Empire by helping Venice, and they demand that we stop supporting Venice immediately!"

Sun Zhili subconsciously asked: "Is the Ottoman Empire rich?" ”

The cabinet ministers also looked at Li Zhixiang, the meaning was very obvious, should this Ottoman Empire be bullied, can it be robbed? Now the Ming Dynasty doesn't want to grab the last thing is actually a small book, there is no way, several times before and after sending troops, there are fewer and fewer things that can be grabbed, and there are many others, let's just say Kyushu Island, now more than two-thirds of the area has become a no-man's land.

As for where the little book on Kyushu Island went, ninety percent of the little books were thrown into the arms of Aunt Amaterasu, after all, in Cheng Shijie's view, only the dead little book is a good little book.

Li Zhixiang shook his head and said, "I don't know much about this Ottoman Empire!" ”

Cheng Shijie sighed and said: "I know a little bit about this country, the religious atmosphere is extremely strong, and they even regard religion more seriously than the country!" ”

Sun Zhilan asked puzzledly, "Why are they all fanatical cultists?" Is there no normal point in the country? ”

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "We should be grateful to Di Xin, in the Shang Dynasty, our Huaxia, like other countries in the world, was higher than the divine power and higher than the political power!" ”

In both the Eastern and Western worlds, in the early days of state power, due to the extreme worship of gods, the influence of divine revelation on political life permeated all aspects, and those who claimed to be able to communicate with the gods held the power to influence politics, which was theocracy.

With the deepening of human understanding of natural phenomena and the improvement of productivity, the worship of gods and spirits has gradually decreased, and secular political power has begun to try to get rid of the control of theocracy, and conflicts and even wars have broken out between the two powers.

In the end, secular power triumphs over theocracy, state power becomes the strongest force to dominate the individual, and theocracy retreats to the spiritual world and life of the individual, and the basic principle is voluntary choice.

In ancient China, it is not that the dominant religion has not been formed, but the source of everything controlled by the gods in this period was stifled by Di Xin, and the reason why the Shang Dynasty perished was because of the struggle between divine power and royal power.

As a result, Zhou Gong was not a fool, he naturally couldn't find a father for himself, so he casually killed the leading party of the Shang Dynasty, deleted the written records, and disappeared in the long river of history.

Sun Zhili said: "Venice is now a vassal state of our Ming Empire, which onion are they?" ”

"What kind of thing is the Ottoman Empire, and what qualifications does it have to protest to the Ming Dynasty!"

"Does the Ming need the Ottoman Empire to teach us how to do things?"

"yes, don't bother!"

"Let them reason with the cannon!"

"Da Ming's affairs, why should they interfere!"

The cabinet is now almost one-sided, and the opinions are almost unanimous, just ignore it and it's over!

Cheng Shijie nodded slightly. Two thousand years ago, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in order to establish the national prestige of the Han Dynasty in the Western Regions, pulled the countries of the Western Regions into the alliance against the Xiongnu, and did not hesitate to make two expeditions to Dawan, losing tens of thousands of soldiers, and the cost was extremely high.

But the benefits were amazing, and in the following hundreds of years, all the countries in the Western Regions became servants of the Han Dynasty, and under the orders of the Han Dynasty, they frantically besieged every grassland regime hostile to the Han Dynasty, and the Xiongnu were beaten to death in this way.

It is not difficult to imagine that if it were not for those two tragic expeditions, no matter how much money the Han spent on diplomacy, it would not have such an effect, and the prestige of the country is so expensive, and like life, it is difficult to get it back once it is lost.

Cheng Shijie understands this truth.

Sun Zhixi, the prime minister of the cabinet, also understands, and other cabinet ministers naturally understand, they used to say that they didn't understand, but the strength does not allow it, but the problem is that now Daming has enough strength to crush the opponent, and if he wants to fight, he will fight, who is afraid of whom?

Cheng Shijie said: "Batches of Europeans set sail to the sea, stirring the seven seas with their endless energy, colonizing everywhere, coincidentally, the Ming Dynasty also intends to colonize everywhere, conflicts are inevitable, in this area the Ming Dynasty actually does not have a spokesperson for interests, that is unreasonable." ”

"What about Spain?"

"Spain is a big country, and it is a superpower, as a superpower, it is naturally impossible to be a pawn, let alone a spokesperson for the interests of our Ming Dynasty!"

Cheng Shijie said: "Now Venice is the spokesperson of our Ming interests, and now the Europeans plan to kill this spokesperson of interests, if the Ming Dynasty sits idly by, I am afraid that no European country will dare to develop such a close relationship with the Ming Dynasty." ”

"Then get ready for a big fight!"

Sun Zhili said: "The military department can prepare for battle, and the cabinet will do its best to do a good job in logistics!" ”

Cheng Shijie nodded and said: "Yes, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expelled the Ottoman envoys and issued them an ultimatum to war, because they were unreasonable first, and Da Ming decided to let them know why the flowers are so red!" ”

Zhou Ning bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the General Staff will come up with a combat plan as soon as possible!" ”

"First of all, we must ensure that the Ottoman Empire strikes first!"

Cheng Shijie said: "Inform us that all the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty should try not to scatter their actions, and the merchant ships should be escorted by the navy, and at the same time, speed up the construction of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean fleets, and strive to become an army as soon as possible!" ”

……

Francesco Erizzo looked at the Ottoman mission and stayed in the protocol, and he said to Catherine worriedly: "The Ottomans are coming, they must be trying to prevent the Ming from accepting us through diplomatic means......"

Catherine thought that the city-state of Venice was in danger, and immediately said worriedly: "The Ming is not a small country, and it will not care about the threat of the Ottomans, Your Excellency, I am afraid you don't know that the ancestors of the Ottomans were defeated by the Tang Dynasty more than eight hundred years ago, and they had to retreat to the Red Sea!" ”

"That's a bunch of crazy people!"

"Your Excellency, calm down first, this matter is not so bad!"

Catherine continued: "With the arrogance of the Ottomans, I am afraid that they will be self-defeating, and they will offend the Ming Dynasty!" Venice was the first to submit its credentials to formally establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the Ming Dynasty and Venice are like brothers! ”

At this moment, a group of soldiers of the Ming army came to the protocol courtyard.

Li Xin, the official at the head, looked at the Ottoman envoy and said: "Contemptible Li Xin, the current Ming Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the order of the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, officially informs you that the Ming Dynasty has not established diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire, and will not establish diplomatic relations, and the Ottoman Empire has no right to interfere in the Ming ......" (end of this chapter)