Chapter 646: Zhu Yuanzhang: If you listen to corrupt scholars in everything, you will not be able to accomplish anything Generally speaking, the idea of ​​"keeping bandits to protect oneself" is usually said by warlords, because they need these bandits to ensure that they have wars to fight and to ensure that the imperial court does not dare to withhold their military pay. This is a must. But as far as the navy is concerned, there is actually no need to do so, because the navy now actually has the support of Chen Han and the entire court. But as Lan Yu said, it now seems that the court supports Chen Han and Lan Yu. But one day, when the court's entire reform is successful, there will no longer be a need to invest too much in Southeast Asia. After all, the pirates are already too weak. The sea breeze, carrying a salty and fishy smell, blew into the White Tiger Hall. Lan Yu's fingers unconsciously stroked the shark skin wrapped around the handle of the knife. "Report—" the scout rushed into the tent amid the sound of waves, "We found a foreign supply ship thirty miles east of Changyu Island!" Xia Yuanji's teacup stopped in mid-air, and the tea stems slowly stood up in the brown tea soup. Pan Wenxing had already pulled out a secret letter from the Siamese Chamber of Commerce from his sleeve: "Last month, the Sultan of Johor bought 20 cannons on credit from the red-haired foreigners."

"Fire flares." Lan Yu suddenly grabbed the command flag, and the scales on his armor shone bloody under the candlelight. "Let Xu Biao lead three Fu ships to feint. Remember—" He poked a certain spot on the sea chart with his fingertips, "Wait until they light the sulfur barrels before retreating!" The night was as dark as ink. Wang Bi stood at the bow of the warship, looking at the flickering fire in the distance. The bloody battle in Poyang Lake thirty years ago seemed to overlap before their eyes across time and space, except that this time the rockets they shot at the pirate ship deliberately avoided the vital points. "General!" The deputy general suddenly grabbed his cloak, "Those two Ceylon spies are recording our formation!" Wang Bi raised a sneer at the corner of his mouth and deliberately moved the command flag three points to the left. When the red-haired ship's mast was ablaze with flames, he clearly saw a small boat behind the reef frantically recording this "tragic" naval battle. At dawn, Xu Biao threw a half-burnt red-haired foreign flag on the commander's desk and said, "According to your instructions, I left seven speedboats to escape in the direction of Malacca." Xia Yuanji paused while copying the battle report with his wolf-hair brush, and a drop of ink was accurately smudged on the word "two" in "annihilate two hundred enemies". Pan Wenxing handed over the Johor envoy's request for assistance at the right time: "The Sultan is willing to provide 20 ships of rice in exchange for escort." "Not enough." Lan Yu suddenly thrust the dagger into the Strait of Malacca on the sand table, "Tell those spice merchants that if they want to pass through the Sunda Strait safely, they have to pay an additional 30% escort fee." Lan Yu, who was keeping accounts, looked up at him after hearing Lan Yu's words. Lan Yu held his head high and chest out, as if he didn't think there was anything wrong with the way Lan Yu looked at him at this time. Instead, I feel it is very normal. What I mean is that I am that kind of person in the comments, and you don’t have to look at me like that. Lan Yu was still very pleased at this moment. At least at this time Lan Yu had begun to get on the right track according to his own requirements. Even though he might be somewhat unhappy in his heart, he was now squeezing those spice merchants in his own way. Those people would probably pay more for escort fees in the future, which was a necessity for the Ming Navy in the South Seas. With this batch of spices as tribute, every soldier could make a fortune by selling them. Chen Han once said that a general should not be subject to certain restrictions when he is away from home, but how can this be implemented? The Jinyiwei brought by Lan Yu could report the situation here to Chen Han at any time, but why did Chen Han allow himself to do such a thing? The reason is that Chen Han knows very well that if the Ming Navy really can't get anything outside, then there will be no motivation.

How will I rely on to feed the Ming Navy in the future? Will it be faith? Is it by faith? It's impossible. Chen Han would never extend his feelings for the Ming Dynasty to other countries. If you let me protect you, you must pay protection fees. This is a normal transaction. Now Lan Yu has finally changed his straightforward nature. Pan Wenxing was even happier at this time, and he no longer had to hide his feelings. The main reason was that during this period he discovered that generals like Lan Yu were very reluctant to carry out the orders of Duke Chen Han at the beginning. But later on, it was discovered that the city lords along the coast, the spice merchants, and the gold, silver, and jewelry that came as tribute from various Southeast Asian countries had arrived. The attitudes of naval soldiers have also quietly changed. Who can resist money? "Marshal, please look at this." Pan Wenxing unfolded the list of tributes from the Southeast Asian countries amid the sound of the tide. "Since we deliberately let the Srivijaya pirates escape, the Malacca royal family has doubled the amount of gold tribute." Lan Yu stroked the bill and smiled. …… On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, Xia Yuanji discovered something strange in the military tent. The list of casualties that should have been sent to the Ministry of War was mixed with the names of old soldiers who retired half a year ago. When he opened the curtain, he saw Xu Biao stuffing a silver bag full of stones into the pension box for the fallen soldiers. "This is the seventh false quota." Pan Wenxing's calculations were particularly clear in the waves. "Without these false salaries, what would we get..." Pan Wenxing looked up and saw Lan Yu and Lan Yu walking in. Seeing Lan Yu, Xu Biao immediately hid the money bag behind him, and then covered the box. Then, hesitatingly, he said, "I am... I am... I mainly want to save some money for my brothers' retirement... "Many brothers have been exposed to the sea breeze for too long and have aged a lot. They are afraid..." Lan Yu also felt a little sour after hearing Xu Biao's words. To be honest, although the brothers have gained a lot of benefits in the more than one year since they came to Nanyang, they have also seen Xu aging, which makes Lan Yu feel guilty. The opportunity to return to the court to visit family once every six months, which had been promised for more than a year, was delayed due to various plans. So Xu Biao is now preparing a gift for his brothers before the New Year, which is also a last resort. The brothers had no way to relieve their homesickness and longing for their families, so they could only use cold silver chopsticks to soothe their hearts. How could they get more silver? They could only falsely report the military pay and retain part of the spoils. They actually didn't want this to happen, but as the Ming navy became more and more dispersed, there was now a group of navy stationed in Srivijaya, another group in Annan, and another group in Champa. Since everyone was so scattered, there had to be some way to communicate, and that had to be paved with money. "Marshal, I... I was wrong..." Xu Biao took the silver bag out of the box and placed it on the table. Pan Wenxing took all the responsibility on himself, "Commander-in-chief, Marshal, I came up with the idea and I did the accounting. General Xu was just cooperating with me. If you want to blame someone, blame me." There was some bitterness in Lan Yu's eyes. At first, he looked down on poor people like Pan Wenxing. I always wonder how these corrupt scholars can mix with people like us who are fighting? But no one would have thought that today this corrupt scholar was actually planning with the generals under him how to collect empty salaries and then give benefits to his brothers.

Originally he didn't know how to celebrate the New Year. This was his first year since going to sea. Although the South Seas was not as cold as the Central Plains, people's hearts had already grown a little cold. It was a great test for many soldiers to not be able to go home during the Chinese New Year. It was already the 29th year of Hongwu. Lan Yu suddenly smashed his sword on the table, and the blade split the gold-plated invitation sent by the King of Malacca: "Tomorrow, let Zhao Hong lead the people to wipe out the Champa pirates - remember to leave a fish that slips through the net!" Then he also left the tent, as if he had not discovered anything. Pan Wenxing and Xu Biao were surprised that Lan Yu did not blame themselves when they saw him leave. Just as he was about to ask Lan Yu, Lan Yu shook her head and left: "I didn't see anything, I didn't see anything..." Pan Wenxing and Xu Biao looked at each other, then burst into laughter. As fireworks illuminated the sea on New Year's Eve, eighteen warships were performing a carefully choreographed "Great Victory". The pirate leader who was deliberately let go had a blood-stained fake defense map in his arms. In the Qianqing Palace of Yingtian City, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled at the joint memorial from the Southeast Asian countries requesting an increase in the navy. Zhu Yuanzhang was such a shrewd man that he knew what was going on after reading this memorial. The Ming Navy has now gained a reputation in Southeast Asia, and this matter has long reached Zhu's ears. But it is very surprising that these Southeast Asian countries are now jointly requesting to increase the number of their naval forces. You have to know that according to Chen Han's plan, the Ming navy had to eat and drink wherever they went. Those small countries in Southeast Asia were so poor that they couldn't even get enough food, so how could they have the ability to feed so many Ming navy? This must be because that little bastard Chen Han had done something fishy. It is not an easy task to give the Ming Navy a chance to show off its power and gain great benefits at the same time. So Zhu Yuanzhang invited Crown Prince Zhu Biao to come. In the warm room of the Qianqing Palace, Crown Prince Zhu Biao was very moved when he saw that his father was still very strong in the 29th year of Hongwu. According to what Chen Han said when he first came, he should have died in May of the twenty-fifth year of the Ming Dynasty. Then, because of the blow of this incident, the old man's health soon deteriorated, and he passed away in the thirty-first year of Hongwu. But now it is the 29th year of Hongwu and he is still alive. Not to mention that the old man is still in very strong health, it seems that he will have no problem living another ten or twenty years. This makes Crown Prince Zhu Biao very pleased. Zhu Biao came in and hurriedly greeted Zhu Yuanzhang, "Your son..." Before he finished his greetings, Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, "Why do you still call me that at home?" Zhu Biao finally reacted, "Dad!" Zhu Yuanzhang chuckled, "New Year is coming soon, how are you going to celebrate? Should we call that monkey kid and our grandchildren over to have some fun?" If Zhu Yuanzhang hadn't said this, Zhu Biao would not have known that the New Year was approaching. Like Zhu Yuanzhang, he was a workaholic and was busy with official duties every day, sometimes even forgetting the date. If you calculate this way, it’s almost the New Year. If you count carefully, Chen Han has been in Ming Dynasty for almost four years. Over the past four years, through the reforms of Chen Han and others, the Ming Dynasty has become more prosperous and its national strength has become stronger. From the Japanese pirates' lair, the Wo Nu, silver was shipped over in shiploads. The situation in the colonies was getting better and better. Mu Ying repeatedly brought good news saying that after the management of the Ming Colonial Committee, a large number of Japanese people began to accept sinicization.

This incident made Zhu Biao and others happy for a long time. Sixty to seventy percent of the entire Japanese territory has already fallen into the pocket of the Ming Dynasty. The remaining northeast and areas further north are said to be a barren land, totally unsuitable for human survival, and the weather is even colder than in Liaodong. In other words, the entire territory suitable for survival of the Japanese has become the territory of the Ming Dynasty. "Dad, you asked me to come here today, maybe there is something else?" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and handed over the memorial submitted by the Jinyiwei from Nanyang and the memorial from the Nanyang countries requesting additional naval garrisons. After seeing this, Zhu Biao was happy but immediately became serious, "How dare Chen Han be so lawless!" Zhu Yuanzhang saw the fake anger on Zhu Biao's face and snorted, "Do you still want to fool your father? I don't believe you can't guess what he is doing?" Zhu Biao was stunned for a moment. "What do you mean, father? The Ming navy is now completely controlled by Chen Han. I trust him, but the court has already complained about it. "Over the past year, I have repeatedly heard that the Ming Navy has a tendency to nurture the enemy for its own benefit. Chen Han himself has also told me many times that if the Ming Navy wants to survive in the Nanyang region, it must rely on this method. "But the words 'nurturing the enemy and keeping oneself in check' are too strong. There are still many objections to reforming the law. Now is the time to calm things down. If someone impeaches us again, it will probably not be a good thing." Zhu Biao's worries were justified. Although the reforms and changes had achieved many results over the past four years, they had also offended many people. That group of people did not all die out. Chen Han killed many people, including himself, but until now there is no way to completely eliminate it. This is the big problem. Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, "If you want to do what we want, then do it the way the monkey does. If you insist on having a legitimate reason for everything, you won't be able to accomplish anything. "The Ming navy is thousands of miles away and can only deliver news once every three months. The fact that they can do such a good job is entirely due to the efforts of the monkey boy, Xia Yuanji, Lan Yu and others. "These heroes braved the wind and rain overseas, fought against the wind and sea breeze, and won several great victories in such difficult times without relying on the court for food. They also consolidated Sanfuqi and controlled Annan and Champa. How great is their ability? "What's the point of doing anything if you have to listen to a few sour people gossiping all day long? "You have to learn from that monkey boy. He is your son-in-law. You need to give him advice, but you also need to encourage him. He has done a good job in the past four years and has governed our Ming Dynasty very well. "Even if you two are here to guard our place a hundred years from now, we can go there without any worries." Zhu Biao came forward in a hurry, "Dad, don't say such things. Chen Han has said that your physical condition is good. As long as you rest well, you can live a long life." …… (End of this chapter)