History often bears striking parallels, with the thriving Great Britain plunged into a national civil war after Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself from a crooked neck tree in a coal mountain, and three years later, Charles I was guillotined, the first king of Great Britain to be beheaded and executed.

Although Cheng Shijie has never made a mistake, and Sun Zhili also has a natural trust in Cheng Shijie, the problem is that there are not no wise monarchs in the first half of his life and mediocre and incompetent in the second half of his life.

And there are a lot, just like the Duke of Qi Huan in history, as well as Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Duke of Qi Huan does not say first, no one can deny the merits of Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but the problem is that the two of them also made a lot of ridiculous moves in their later years, if Prince Wei succeeded to the throne smoothly, it is absolutely impossible for Huo Guangxing to be abolished.

Although Huo Guang found a relatively outstanding emperor Liu Xun from the people, the harm of that turmoil and exhaustion to the Han Dynasty was also huge.

Sun Zhili has reservations about Cheng Shijie's desire to meddle in European affairs, and there is a veil of mystery for the current Europe and the Ming Dynasty, China has known for a long time that such a continent exists, but no one has ever been there.

"Our ancestors peeked into Europe from the mouths of European merchants who crossed the deserts of the Middle East, crossed the Pamir Plateau to the Western Regions, and then arrived in Chang'an through the Western Regions, watched the Roman Empire turn from prosperity to decline, and watched the Byzantine empire that lasted for thousands of years finally disappear with the wind under the cold blade of the full moon scimitar!"

"We watched the Vikings wreak havoc on Europe, the Germans and Gauls fought against each other, and the Anglo-Saxons turned from weak to strong...... But the distance is too far, all this seems to be another planet for Daming, we can learn a thing or two from the words and the traveler's narration, but we can't touch it. ”

Sun Zhili actually has another concern, this is not the same as the garrison in Venice, the Venetian garrison is only more than 6,000 people, this point of men, for Venice, enough, for Europe, this is also a force to be reckoned with.

But more than 6,000 people and horses are not a fart for Daming, if the restrictions are relaxed, an army of 6,000 can be pulled up in any township in Daming.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has come out for the Republic of Venice and is at odds with the mighty Ottoman Empire, it is time not to meddle in the affairs of Great Britain.

Cheng Shijie said: "This is really a good opportunity! ”

"Da Ming's steps are too fast, you need to be steady!"

Sun Zhili smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, we are now entangled with Bolo in the Ural Mountains, that side is too far away from our Daming, the material consumption is very large, and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Anbei Army are also very tired, and they also need to rest!" ”

"This problem is easy to solve, and the military department and the general planning department already have a perfect plan!"

Cheng Shijie said: "At the latest, three months later, the two brigades of the Andong Army will be transferred to the Anbei Army, and they will take over the Anbei Army and be stationed on the Urals side. ”

"The same problem is the Indochina Peninsula!"

Sun Zhili said: "Governor Shen asked for help from the cabinet and the General Staff, a large number of medicinal materials are needed, and the sergeants must be rotated, only the Anxi Legion is currently normal, but the Anxi Legion has been out for nearly two years, we must be stable, at least wait for the Indochina Peninsula or the Anxi Legion to stabilize!" ”

"There is only so much land that can be developed, and we are not the only ones who will develop it, the Europeans are already one step ahead of us. If you have time, you might as well go to the southern coastal cities, or go to the northeast border, the Europeans have expanded to our borders! Now that we are strong, they dare not do anything to us, and once we are weakened, they will immediately pounce on us like a pack of hungry wolves and tear us fiercely, trampling us into the mud! ”

Cheng Shijie said: "You have all understood in the past few years, they have huge potential, they are only stronger than us in many places, they are only worse than us in size, such a dangerous opponent let them continue to develop, can you sleep?" ”

"Your Majesty, you're thinking too much!"

Sun Zhilan said: "You want to believe in the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, the subjects of the Ming Dynasty, once the European countries dare to reach out to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty will break out a powerful force, we are currently in Jinzhou, Lushun, Haizhou, Dengzhou, Binzhou, Quanzhou, Shanghai, Changshan and other places, from south to north, a total of 16 large shipyards have been established, once fully opened, we can build at least one hundred and eight whale shark-class warships at the same time, we can build a Spanish invincible fleet in half a year, as long as Your Majesty gives an order, the Ming Dynasty five capitals and twenty-six provinces, At least three million troops can be conscripted! ”

Cheng Shijie first explained the necessity of using troops against Europe in terms of potential threats, in his view, Europe is the only region capable of invading the Ming Dynasty, rather than waiting for them to invade, it is better to strike first to attack them.

Cheng Shijie said: "Now the benefits that can be obtained by attacking Europe are surrounded by a bunch of poor ghosts around Asia, and India is worth grabbing, and there is nothing to play elsewhere." But Europe is different, they have plundered countless gold and silver in the more than 200 years of colonizing the Americas, as long as they can defeat Europe, the war reparations alone are enough for the Ming Dynasty to squander for decades! ”

Sun Zhili said: "Your Majesty, the minister means, not not not to fight, not to fight now, this year the north of the country is seriously affected, although the principle of overseas blood transfusion is adopted, we avoid famine everywhere, but the problem still exists, now is not the time to go to war, you are still young, have a chance to conquer Europe!" ”

Cheng Shijie saw that he couldn't convince the prime minister, and he didn't force Sun Zhili to carry out his orders, if the cabinet didn't have its own consciousness, it was just an echo worm, which was not necessarily a good thing for Daming.

Cheng Shijie actually understands that he is indeed a little anxious.

After watching Cheng Shijie leave, Sun Zhixi looked at Song Xiance and said, "Our Majesty, seems to have been a little angry recently?" ”

Song Xiance said: "Your Majesty's harem has not entered the newcomers for a while, is it a draft for Your Majesty?" ”

"You'd better not spread this to the ears of the queen!"

Sun Zhili knows very well that Cheng Shijie has a serious fear of guilt, and he really can't figure out what Xiang Hui is afraid of, but the problem is that Cheng Shijie can't describe Xiang Hui in words.

Song Xiance smiled: "You have a headache about this matter, I'll go home first!" ”

Song Xiance has just gotten married, and his wife is Fan Huifei, who gave birth to a son and a daughter to the Emperor of the Apocalypse, Fan Huifei, because of the birth of Zhu Shu'e, the eldest daughter of Xizong, Princess Yongning, was named Concubine Hui, and in the third year of the Apocalypse, he gave birth to the prince Zhu Ciyan, and was named the imperial concubine. But a son and a daughter both died young, and Fan fell out of favor by the Hakka (zèn).

Later, Concubine Fan Hui stayed in the palace to live, and it was an existence that no one usually paid attention to, until Cheng Shijie entered Beijing, and these former imperial concubines gave them a sum of money to let them be dismissed from the palace.

Song Xiance served as a cabinet member and Shuntianfu Yin, and accidentally met Fan Huifei who was washing clothes for others for a living, it was also a coincidence, Fan Huifei splashed a basin of water on the ground, Song Xiance poured a soup chicken, Song Xiance's entourage was furious and wanted to deal with Fan Huifei, but after asking Fan Huifei, he found that it was actually the imperial concubine of the previous dynasty.

Song Xiance saw that Concubine Fan Hui was pitiful, and took her back to the mansion for placement, and after coming and going, the two became husband and wife, and Song Xiance did not hold a big wedding, but just invited Sun Zhixi, Cheng Shijie and others to set up a few tables.

Don't look at Concubine Fan Hui who has been in the palace for many years, in fact, her age is not very old, she entered the palace at the age of fourteen, and now she is only twenty-nine years old, after getting married, Concubine Fan Hui is pregnant again.

Now she is pregnant, but Fan Huifei is a virtuous woman, she usually washes her own clothes and sews her own clothes, and even the garden in the mansion is sorted out into farmland by Fan Huifei, planting more than one acre of corn, two acres of sweet potatoes, and one acre of potatoes.

For an older and unmarried general like Song Xiance, Cheng Shijie specially asked the Ministry of Rites to arrange the marriage and recruit matchmakers from all over the city to match. Now the Ming soldiers are no longer the kind of era when good men are not soldiers, and good iron is not nailed, not to mention officers, even ordinary soldiers are very sought-after.

As for those disabled soldiers who lack arms and legs, as long as they are still in business, they are even more sought-after, because they eat imperial food, regardless of drought or flood, they can receive it until they die of old age, and if they are sick, the court will send people to treat them, and they can receive seventy and a half percent of the original military salary every month, this kind of treatment is too attractive to those big girls and little daughters-in-law.

Song Xiance's neighbor is a disabled veteran of the Ning Navy named Wu Er, when he fought with Jiannu in Fengtai, his thigh was trampled by a war horse, causing a crushing fracture, in later generations, this injury can be surgically cured, in Daming, there is really no way, he became lame.

However, it does not prevent him from having children.

Seeing Song Xiance come back, Wu Er stepped forward and said, "Lord Song, you came back early today!" ”

"Nothing to do left or right!"

Song Xiance also has no shelf, being an official in the Dingxin Dynasty is different from the Chongzhen Dynasty, officials at any level, don't think about sounding the gong to open the way, even if Sun Zhili is the prime minister, he only has one groom and two guards. Song Xiance, the Yin of the Shuntian Mansion, is also two guards.

These two guards are subordinate to the Department of Guards, but as officials, the surrounding neighbors must be reviewed, and there are not so many fights and brawls in Daming now, because as long as there is a fight, if it is serious, it will be assigned to Xinming or Zhanzhou, and at least it will be assigned to Terin or Hanhai, Tianshan, or Xijiang Province.

Wu Er is a chatterbox, and he is also the surrounding Bai Xiaosheng, who usually chats with Song Xiance when he has nothing to do.

"Lord Song, have you heard?"

"What?"

Wu Er said: "Something happened over there in Nanyang!" ”

"What's going on?"

Song Xiance asked suspiciously: "There is no major event happening in the imperial court?" ”

Wu Er said: "Don't you know, the natives over there in Nanyang attacked a village on our side, and I heard that more than 20 people died, and the women were all ruined, and even the children were spared!" ”

Song Xiance was about to enter the door when there was a rush of footsteps behind him.

"Lord Song, Your Majesty has convened a temporary cabinet meeting, please participate!"

"Got it!"

Song Xiance hurriedly boarded the carriage.

Cheng Shijie thought that he could be idle, but he didn't expect that things would still appear, this time the place where the accident happened was the country of Boni, which is currently nominally the vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and this vassal country has been colonized by the Dutch.

It happened three and a half months ago on the small island of Sinatu in the country of Boni, which is small in size and has a permanent population of only four or five hundred people.

Among them, there are less than 50 Chinese as a minority, and these Chinese are actually the families of pirates, and with the large-scale extermination of pirates in Nanyang by the Ming Dynasty, these pirates have no choice but to be good.

After the massacre, the surviving Chinese fled the island of Sinatu and went to Luzon, they did not know what the attitude of the Ming Dynasty was, and they did not make a statement, but only asked the Luzon side to accept it. It was only after the surviving Chinese settled in Luzon that they began to speak out about the matter.

As a result, the people spread it in an uproar, and the official news was actually half a beat slower.

Cheng Shijie looked at the map for a long time, and he didn't figure out what island this Sinatu was in the future, but he probably knew that this was in the south of Mindanao, and now the Philippines is not a country, the north belongs to the Kingdom of Luzon, and the south belongs to the country of Boni.

Cheng Shijie pushed and said: "No matter, since this is a colony of the Dutch, let the Dutch be responsible!" ”

Sun Zhili said: "What is Your Majesty going to do?" ”

"First, since ancient times, the country of Boni has been the vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch bullied the vassal state of the Ming Dynasty and instructed the Dutch to massacre the Ming people, it must be strictly investigated, the murderer is found, and the punishment is executed!"

Cheng Shijie continued: "Second, the country of Bo Ni must send an envoy to the Ming Dynasty to be a minister, and pay 200,000 taels of coins!" ”

Sun Zhilan smiled bitterly: "The small people of the country of Bo Ni are widows, and I am afraid that they will not be able to collect 200,000 taels of silver in a year, and they may not agree!" ”

Cheng Shijie said: "What I want is that they don't agree!" If they agree, I don't have any excuses, the General Staff ordered the Luzon Fleet and the Coconut City Fleet to replenish two bases of ammunition and organize joint exercises! Within half a month from the time the Dutch received the note, if the Dutch could not satisfy us and attack Batavia, we would talk after the battle. ”

Cheng Shijie is now more and more in love with this era, because his fists are big and he can be unscrupulous, he can bully whoever he wants, and he will be subdued if he is not convinced.

Song Xiance can see that Cheng Shijie is now using the topic to play, but the cabinet has rejected Cheng Shijie's proposal to directly interfere with Great Britain, and there is really no way to refuse this proposal.

The Ming protects all the Ming people in the world, whether they are nobles or commoners, whether they are freemen or criminals, and it is not the turn of others to call and kill.

Sun Zhili said: "The strength of the Dutch is not weak, is the ammunition supply of two bases a little less?" ”

"What about your opinion?"

"At least five cardinal!"

Sun Zhili said: "It is the fief of King Zheng, and it should be separated from the Dutch and solved it together!" ”

"That's great!"

Cheng Shijie reluctantly agreed. (End of chapter)