Chapter 679: The Beginning of the Overseas Common Prosperity Plan
Zhou Cheng was in the back hall, so he could naturally hear the noise in the main hall.
But it is a pity that Zhou Cheng does not understand the language here. If he could hear it, he might directly lead his army to kill these wallflowers first.
"I need to see your commander, Karamo."
Zhou Cheng asked the officer next to him to translate.
The translator officer's forehead was already beaded with sweat. He was really afraid that Zhou Cheng would ask him to translate what was said in the hall.
If translated, it would definitely cause huge contradictions.
After hearing the translation, the guard on duty thought for a moment and did not refuse.
After all, these outsiders are protecting their royal capital.
Not long after, Karamo came over.
"General Zhou, I don't know what you want from me." Karamo looked at Zhou Cheng with a bit of guilt in his eyes.
As the commander of the Imperial Guards, he certainly knows the current situation in the hall.
Zhou Cheng didn't say anything, just looked around.
Karamo understood what he meant and asked the surrounding soldiers to retreat in Pashto. He knew Chinese, and although his tone of voice was a bit awkward, he was able to communicate with Zhou Cheng alone.
Zhou Cheng was also very direct: "The destruction of the royal capital is imminent, and no one can make changes. Under such circumstances, these noble ministers of the royal capital are still arguing for their own interests."
"Perhaps in just a few days, the city will be shattered, Timur will lead his army into the royal capital, and then the entire kingdom will become a purgatory on earth. Regarding Timur's cruelty, I don't think I need to be too
Tell more.”
"Karamo, you are different from these decadent nobles in the royal capital. You are a real warrior, so the general and I hope that you can lead the guards and retreat with us."
Karamo did not expect that Zhou Cheng would tell him so directly.
But in the current situation, there really aren't many options.
"Can your Majesty follow us to retreat?" Karamo asked after a slight hesitation.
Zhou Cheng shook his head and refused: "This is impossible. If you want to take His Majesty with you, then he will definitely bring many members of the royal family with you."
"Even if he can really leave, Timur will never let him go and will keep pursuing him."
Karamo had no loyalty to the Tughluq dynasty, but he was loyal to King Mahmud.
He was the commander of the Janissaries promoted by Mahmud himself.
"If I can't take His Majesty with me, I hope I can at least take a prince with me. I think this won't have much impact."
Karamo said in a deep voice.
In fact, in the past few days, Mahmud had approached him alone, hoping that he would take the prince and follow Wang Jinyi and others to retreat and leave Delhi Sultan.
Timur would not let go of the Tughluq dynasty. At this time, leaving the bloodline became the only option.
So when Karamo heard Zhou Cheng's invitation to retreat, there was no reason to refuse.
Perhaps this can be considered a two-way journey.
Zhou Cheng frowned. In fact, he did not want to bring a certain prince with him, because his discussion with Wang Jinyi was to conquer Karamo and join the Ming Dynasty military household.
If there is a prince, then this prince will definitely become the object of allegiance to Karamo.
After thinking for a while, Zhou Cheng asked, "Can I know which prince it is?"
Karamo did not hide anything: "Your Excellency, this is His Highness the Eighth Prince."
Zhou Cheng was slightly startled.
Because this eighth prince is less than ten years old now.
Karamo saw Zhou Cheng's doubts and explained: "His Majesty said that the destruction of the Tughluq Dynasty is irreversible. Even if the Delhi Sultanate is restored again, it will have nothing to do with the Tughluq Dynasty.
It will be a new dynasty."
Hearing this, Zhou Cheng also understood Mahmud's sorrow and plan.
"There is still a lot of wealth in the palace. After the city was destroyed, Tamerlane became more advantageous. Maybe he should be taken away by us." Now that he has this, there is no need for Zhou Cheng to hide it.
Karamo looked at Zhou Cheng deeply, and then said: "Your Majesty has already made arrangements."
Zhou Cheng thought for a while and said, "Maybe we can also take away some of the treasures of other nobles."
Karamo refused: "There are enough. It's not that I want to protect these nobles, but if there are more, it will affect the speed of our retreat, which will bring about a greater crisis."
Zhou Cheng shrugged, obviously Mahmoud had arranged everything.
"Okay, then take me to see how many there are."
"good."
The Tughluq dynasty surrendered.
Before surrendering, Mahmud sent envoys out of the city to negotiate.
There are no extra conditions, I just hope that Timur can take back the order to massacre the city.
Timur agreed.
But after entering the city, all the nobles, including the royal family, were tried.
There is no accident, most of them are death sentences.
And all their property was taken away by Timur.
For ordinary people, there was definitely bullying, but there was no mass killing to vent their anger.
This is not because Timur is benevolent, but because he now needs a large number of slaves to build his territory.
The remaining soldiers were incorporated into Timur's slave army.
At this point, the entire Delhi Sultanate was controlled by Timur, and the Tughluq dynasty was completely destroyed.
Next, Timur turned his eyes to the east again.
Zhu Ying didn't care too much about Zhu Yunwen's relationship with Song Zhong.
He now needs to think carefully about Ming's colonial plan.
At present, the Ming Dynasty's standing army, including all military household soldiers, already exceeds two million.
This is an absolute first for the entire world, and no country can compare with it.
But at the same time, the vast territory of the Ming Dynasty also needed to be guarded.
The number of troops that can be mobilized at will is about 800,000.
If too many are transferred, it will have an impact on the rule of the Ming Dynasty.
Now, among the four major feudal lords of Japan, there are 200,000 troops stationed permanently.
There are 150,000 troops in Annan.
This means that 350,000 troops have been removed.
Here in the city, including Zhu Yunwen's 50,000 elite troops, there are nearly 250,000 troops in total.
Now, out of the two million troops in the Ming Dynasty, there are already 600,000 troops in various vassal states and vassal states.
After this calculation, the Ming Dynasty still has 1.4 million troops, which seems to be very sufficient.
This is not actually the case.
Because this involves the ratio of combat soldiers to auxiliary soldiers.
The total number of two million soldiers includes auxiliary soldiers.
In fact, the number of real soldiers will never exceed 500,000.
After Zhu Yuanzhang's southern patrol army left Champa City, the remaining Ming forces in Champa City were Zhu Yunwen's 50,000 elite soldiers and nearly 30,000 Ming Dynasty naval forces.
A total of 80,000 troops.
Although the Champa Kingdom was not big, it was rich in products because it was in the Southeast Asian region.
The current population is around one million.
The standing force is nearly 200,000.
80,000 vs. 200,000, which seems like a big difference in the number of people, but in fact the Ming Dynasty’s military equipment can easily crush the Champa state.
Zhu Ying was not worried about the issue of military strength, but mainly about management issues.
Although the Ming Dynasty continues to strengthen popularization of education.
But as the saying goes, it takes a hundred years to cultivate trees and ten years to cultivate people.
Universal education is being extended to lower-level counties on the basis of the previous one, but this will also take time to settle.
It's been less than three years since the start of the war. How could we have such a large talent reserve?
The Japanese country has attracted a large number of talents because of the gold and silver craze.
Yunnan currently also needs constant migration of people.
At the same time, there is a large area like Annan that also needs people and talents from the Ming Dynasty.
Now comes another Champa.
Even if Goryeo is already cooked in the pot, Zhu Ying doesn't have the energy to make arrangements.
In fact, Li Chenggui is not a good person.
He also had huge ambitions and often attempted to annex the territory of the Central Plains.
Historically, the Ming Dynasty was a big country, surrounded by small countries. Although it had no deterrent effect, ants, although small, could break the embankment. The reason why the Ming Dynasty's territory shrank was due to the attacks of small countries, and the reason why the Ming Dynasty's territory shrank was due to the invasion of Myanmar.
The reduction of the Ming Dynasty's northeastern territory was also due to North Korea's attacks.
After the war between the Tang Dynasty and Silla, the boundary of the Datong River has always been there. After the war between Wang's Korea and Khitan, the boundary line moved to the three passes of Dingzhou, Xuande and Yuanxing south of Hamhung.
Only during the Jin Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, this boundary line was always there without any crossing. However, by the Ming Dynasty, the North Korean Li Dynasty began to aggressively attack the territory of the Central Plains and occupied parts of the northeastern part of the Central Plains.
During Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition, Goryeo took advantage of the gap between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia to march in and occupy the area south of the Yalu River.
After the Ming Dynasty defeated Mongolia, North Korea knew what they were going to face, so they colluded with the remaining forces of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty to deal with the Ming Dynasty.
The Centipede Insect is dead but not stiff. Although Meng Yuan was destroyed, their remaining power cannot be underestimated.
From the fifteenth to the seventeenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang actually attacked Goryeo twice, but both ended in failure.
It's just that in history, after Li Chenggui seized the throne of Goryeo, he chose to reconcile with the Ming Dynasty due to internal problems, and asked Zhu Yuanzhang to give it the name "North Korea".
In fact, the Yalu River in later generations was not a boundary river. It was just that the late Ming Dynasty was too corrupt and this territory was taken away by Li Chenggui, and later generations could not return it.
The most critical reason why Zhu Ying never fully incorporated Goryeo into the rule of the Ming Dynasty was because of the disasters that came to Japan and the Little Ice Age.
Of course, the fact that Li Chenggui wants to seize the throne is basically a bubble now.
Goryeo is currently the equivalent of a royal family, with Yao Guangxiao and Li Chenggui working hard.
Since there was no surplus population in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Ying had no intention of migrating a large number of people there.
There is more than just Champa in Nanyang.
There are many kingdoms standing behind.
It is unrealistic to expand territory purely by relying on military force.
"Sometimes I quite envy Timur."
Zhu Ying sighed a little.
At least in terms of expansion, Timur didn't care about the subsequent impact at all, and just conquered with force.
In fact, Zhu Ying can easily accomplish such behavior, and can even easily occupy a large amount of territory.
But for the entire Ming Dynasty system, it was dragged into another abyss.
Timur's empire fell apart after Timur's death, not because of the relationship between successors, but because it was destined to be inevitable.
Genghis Khan had the vastest territory, but in the end he left nothing behind.
"Maybe I can be more direct and don't need to be so cautious."
Thinking of the current situation in the Champa Kingdom, Zhu Ying began to think about the current situation in the Ming Dynasty.
After removing the threat from the northern grasslands, Ming Dynasty did not need to accumulate a large number of troops on the border for the time being, and naturally it could free up a lot of troops.
Although the Beiyuan Employment Association still needs subsidies from the state treasury, the accounting is much easier than before.
Less than three years after the opening of the sea, Ming's sea trade tariffs have already risen sharply.
In fact, Zhu Ying could have unlocked the human trade and absorbed more labor force.
But a large foreign population can easily cause domestic chaos.
He didn't want Ming Dynasty to become as dark as France in later generations.
"The industrial infrastructure construction of Ming Dynasty cannot stop, but I can allocate some resources to make constructive investment in the Nanyang region."
"The Royal Chamber of Commerce will guide and lead the families involved in maritime trade to open up the colonial process."
"After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month here, the nobles of the Champa Kingdom will vacate a large area of territory due to the impact of Song Zhong and Zhu Yunwen. This is an opportunity."
"There are still a lot of vacant places around the Strait of Malacca. I don't need to introduce people to the Ming Dynasty, but I can develop it there."
The Ayutthaya Dynasty and the land of Manchuria were connected together.
In other words, if sea trade routes want to cross the Southeast Asia, they can only pass through the Strait of Malacca, which is currently in Manchuria and Canada.
Currently, the ocean-going fleet led by Li Jinglong is sailing towards India through the Strait of Malacca.
The Strait of Malacca is now ruled by the Majapahit Dynasty and the Manchurian Kingdom.
Zhu Ying had already decided that after returning to the capital, he would start arranging the navy to take control of Malacca in his own hands first.
After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the last stop of the Southern Patrol Army came to an end.
It also happens to be when the ocean monsoon starts.
This means that the Ming Dynasty treasure ships can start sailing with the help of wind power.
Zhu Ying has made up his mind to build a steam ironclad ship within at most two years.
Especially the use of steam engines.
Even if a large number of blacksmiths are summoned to rub the gears by hand, they will not hesitate to do so.
In fact, as long as a steam engine can be built, making gears is not difficult, it is just a matter of grinding tools.
Although Zhu Ying has never actually done such a simple mechanical structure, the general principle is still clear.
If steam ironclad ships can be invented, then the Ming Dynasty treasure ships can get rid of the restrictions of the ocean monsoon and sail to any sea area at will.
This will be the best start for Zhu Ying's secretly planned ocean colonization plan.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Ying left, the Qianjin Yiwei led by Song Zhong are still here.
In the name of opening Chinese schools, they would oppress the aristocrats of the Champa State and break up the inherent aristocratic rule system.
Such behavior may cause chaos in the Champa Kingdom, which has now become peaceful.
But for Zhu Ying, if the Champa Kingdom was not in chaos, there would be no chance for the Ming Dynasty.
No matter in any era, the weak have no rights at all.