The various groups sent by Zhu Hao to conquer the Inca Empire achieved initial results.
At least some sizable cities within the territory have been included in the new empire's territory in recent months, and tribute envoys from various places have gathered in Shunfeng City.
At the same time, large-scale construction in SF City and surrounding areas is in full swing.
In order to ensure the stability of the new capital, Zhu Hao built many stone fortresses around it and equipped them with artillery, machine guns and other large-scale weapons. Soldiers recruited from the Aztecs and Incas began to receive formal military training.
From standing in military posture to organizing housekeeping, to walking in formation and practicing bayonet fighting and shooting, it covers all aspects of recruit training in later generations.
At the same time, the recruits have to accept the idea every day that the Ming Dynasty and the Indians are descendants of the Shang Dynasty. They have the same origin, and Zhu Hao represents the will of the gods. He came to save America from the white invasion and was in a state of crisis.
The tribesmen born of water are in the heat of fire, so whether they are the Aztecs or the Incas, they must allegiance to Zhu Hao.
"Aren't you afraid of teaching them a real threat to us?"
Lou Suzhen visited the training of soldiers with Zhu Hao that day. Standing on the high platform next to the school field, Lou Suzhen was curious about Zhu Hao's trust in this group of indigenous soldiers.
Zhu Haodao: "Teach them how to use and maintain weapons and equipment correctly without letting them participate in the specific production. This is the only thing I can do at the moment. In comparison, they are indeed not as trustworthy as the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers we brought, but the people
Trust between people is more based on mutual benefit. Could it be that I, a soldier of the Ming Dynasty, will not mutiny?"
"Um."
Lou Suzhen nodded, "People's hearts are separated from each other. Who can explain this kind of thing clearly?"
It is obvious that Lou Suzhen has a thorough understanding of people's bad nature.
Just like when her husband Zhu Chenhao went to war, it was impossible to prevent the rebellion of his subordinates. The more trustworthy a certain subordinate was, the more powerful his betrayal would be.
Zhu Haodao: "Compared to the Aztecs, the aboriginal people in the north, I have a higher degree of trust in them. They can be regarded as a real country that was destroyed and their family was destroyed. They have experienced real hardships."
Misery, they are more conscious and harder in training. They know that if we had not appeared, the tragic end of genocide waiting for them would have been, so now they have the opportunity to firmly control their destiny in their own hands, and they cherish it more than anyone else.
"
Zhu Hao pointed at the Aztec soldiers who were concentrating on training, with a look of emotion on his face.
Lou Suzhen asked: "How many northern aborigines are there under our command now?"
"Between 400,000 and 500,000, most of them are located in Xincheng, Chang'an City and the three cities on the east coast controlled by Su Dongzhu. Among them, there are about 300,000 strong men. The development of their ethnic group has been seriously unbalanced. Although it has begun to let people
They intermarried with the aboriginal people in the south, but judging from the current results, it is not ideal."
The Aztec Empire, once the largest country in Central America, was almost destroyed after the Europeans invaded the Americas.
In addition to women in the conquered areas, only a few strong men were left to work as coolies. The old and weak women and children among the Aztec people currently included under Zhu Hao's command are mostly from the tribes that surrendered in the coastal areas around the new city. Many people are strictly speaking
It cannot be said that they are people from the Aztec Empire, they can only be regarded as indigenous people from a small Indian tribe.
Lou Suzhen asked again: "How many indigenous people are there in the south now?"
Zhu Hao smiled at this: "The current statistics are about eight million, and there may be another two to three million people living in the border areas of the empire. This is probably our entire population."
"More than 10 million people..."
Only then did Lou Suzhen understand why Zhu Hao came to conquer this continent that was still in the barbaric era.
Although Lou Suzhen did not know the current population of the Ming Dynasty, it was expected that it would not exceed 50 to 60 million people. Zhu Hao, with less than 40,000 Ming people under his command, had brought tens of millions of people into his territory after two or three years of hard work.
More importantly, the technology of these aborigines is very backward, and all aspects of life such as food, clothing, housing and transportation are completely controlled by Zhu Hao. Before, Zhu Hao said that he would train an army of 100,000 people. Lou Suzhen thought it was an exaggeration, but now it seems
, it’s not difficult at all to complete.
Even if Zhu Hao said that he would train a million-strong army, it would not be impossible.
After all, the tactics used by Zhu Hao are not face-to-face combat with ordinary cold weapons, but firearms that shoot at long distances. The advantage is that soldiers do not have to be young and middle-aged, or have good physical strength to become soldiers, even ordinary people can
He is so competent that even a trained woman can go to the battlefield and kill the enemy.
Zhu Hao said: "Now I really want to get a group of horses from somewhere else, but unfortunately we don't have many ideas for animal husbandry."
Lou Suzhen asked: "Do you want to continue doing business with those...Europeans?"
"No need, we can just send the fleet to get it ourselves!"
…
…
Zhu Hao is about to start ocean trade.
It is not difficult to open a route across the Atlantic Ocean. The difficulty lies in finding a foothold on the European continent and obtaining the supplies you need.
In short, we cannot just limit our sights to the American continent. It has already established a firm foothold here and needs to continue to forge ahead. The foundation of this goal is to continuously train qualified recruits and forge new weapons.
At this time, in the Ming Dynasty, a discussion about whether to find Zhu Hao also moved from secret to the open, and even the cabinet got involved.
The first assistant, Fei Hong, feels physically and mentally exhausted recently.
He had been preparing for Zhang Cong to enter the cabinet, but as the pressure from Yang Yiqing increased, the structure of the cabinet changed. Liu Chun could provide less and less help to Fei Hong, and Shi Yun and Jia Yong left the cabinet one after another.
, the cabinet currently has a troika structure of Fei Hong, Liu Chun and Yang Yiqing.
On this day, the three cabinet members were summoned by Zhu Si to visit the Qianqing Palace. They had not seen the emperor for more than a month before.
"I want to increase the number of cabinet ministers. According to the previously established strategy, Zhang Cong and Gui E will be appointed to the cabinet. What do you think?"
The emperor made the topic clear as soon as he came up.
The emperor is very dissatisfied with the current structure of the cabinet.
Fei Hong has submitted his resignation many times in the past year. Almost everyone can see that Fei Hong will not be the chief minister for long. During his time as chief minister, it seems that the power of the cabinet is increasing day by day.
But correspondingly, the emperor rarely directly intervened in court affairs, and the lack of court meetings caused the court to fall into a state of chaos and disorder.
Many people think that disaster will happen in the Ming Dynasty soon.
The emperor has made his attitude clear, and the three cabinet members will naturally have no objections. Originally, who should join the cabinet should be recommended by the court, but now that the emperor does not hold court meetings, it is difficult to proceed in a normal way.
Since the emperor said that Zhang Cong and Gui E should join the cabinet, it almost means that they did not run away.
"In addition, I want to build a large number of large ships and go to sea to find Zhu Jingdao."
This time the emperor no longer discussed with the three cabinet members, but directly issued an order.
Liu Chundao said: "Your Majesty, Academician Zhu has left the Ming Dynasty for more than two years. It may be difficult to find him now. We don't even know where he is now. There is really no need for the imperial court to waste people and money on this."
Zhu Si said coldly: "When the Ming Navy went to sea for the first time, a guide came back with it, and then Zhu Jingdao went to sea. In other words, someone in the Ming Dynasty now knows where they are. If a fleet is sent out,
, it should be possible to find out their whereabouts in more than half a year."
Yang Yiqing asked: "What if the fleet out to sea encounters a storm and all of them are buried in the sea?"
This question is very inappropriate.
But it is also a true reflection of Yang Yiqing's upright character. He will not completely follow the emperor's wishes. In dealing with court affairs, Yang Yiqing is much stronger than Fei Hong.
Zhang Zuo stood up from behind the emperor and said loudly: "Mr. Yang Ge, Mr. Zhu took hundreds of ships out to sea at that time. There were not a few large ships. Such a large fleet was comparable to the three treasure eunuchs who sailed to the West. Even if
It’s impossible for the whole army to be wiped out in a storm, right?”
Zhu Sidao: "It is precisely because Zhu Jingdao may have encountered a storm at sea and wandered overseas without being able to return, that I have to send people to look for him. Zhu Jingdao mentioned to me before that his trip was to find fairy grass for me and at the same time for the court.
Searching overseas silver mines and gold mines is commendable for his loyalty... The cost of building the ship this time will be based on the gold and silver he brought back from his first sea voyage."
Yang Yiqing and others didn't think so.
The gold and silver sent back by Zhu Hao had been squandered by Zhu Si a long time ago. Now he wants to build a ship. To put it nicely, the emperor has to pay for it himself, but in the end it is not the Ministry of Revenue that will provide the money... Now the little emperor has a lot of responsibility for the treasury.
Control became increasingly arbitrary, and Ming court officials had never felt such great pressure from imperial power.
In their opinion, the little emperor was simply greedy and excessive, and they even believed that this was a bad habit that Zhu Hao had developed in the little emperor.
"Building ten large ships may require more than ten or two hundred thousand taels of silver. The ships do not need to be too big, as long as they can meet the needs for going to sea." Zhu Si gave the plan.
Ten boats will do!
Yang Yiqing said: "If we only build ten ships, we shouldn't need so much money, right?"
"There are also artillery pieces."
Zhu Si said coldly, "Including the cost of training soldiers, it should be about the same! I will issue an edict later, and you just obey it!"
The emperor was too lazy to discuss it with the three people in front of him. Since he had already decided, speaking out was just a matter of routine.
The three cabinet members felt that the emperor was not only thinking about Zhu Hao's promise to find him an elixir of immortality, but also about Zhu Hao's mining overseas. Now that the emperor was short of money, he felt that the ministers in the DPRK had no ability to make money, so he planned to
Find Zhu Hao and help him manage the small treasury.
…
…
"Is there any drama?"
Coming out of Qianqing Palace, Liu Chun asked in a strange tone.
Yang Yiqing was too lazy to answer such boring questions, and he didn't even want to get Zhu Hao back.
Zhu Hao's status in the emperor's heart was too high. He had left the Ming Dynasty for more than two years, but the emperor still couldn't forget him. What's the benefit of bringing back such a barb that the emperor had placed among the civil servants?
Let Zhu Hao join the cabinet as the first assistant?
Or let Zhu Hao be the official minister?
With Zhu Hao here, what's going on with these guys?
Fei Hong said: "Your Majesty's obsession with Zhu Jingdao is too deep. Now you should be worried that your Majesty will use this to allocate more money and food from the Ministry of Household Affairs. In the past two years of the Ming Dynasty, the treasury has been empty, and the northwest has been in a state of endless war. We must be careful
It’s too difficult to be a good family in the imperial court! Alas, I should retire.”
What he meant was that with Zhang Cong and Gui E entering the cabinet, he no longer needed to stick to the cabinet.
Simply give up your position to "young people".
Liu Chun smiled and said: "If you want to retire, wouldn't I want to retreat even more? From now on, the Ming Dynasty will be handed over to heroes like Ying Ning. That's all. I no longer think about Jingdao, the more I think about it.