In the study room of the Qianqing Palace, just like in the past, after the morning court, Emperor Hongzhi called the main ministers over for a small meeting.
Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Liu Jin, Ji Zhong, Han Wen, Liu Daxia, Yang Yiqing and Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu.
Because Zhang Mao's health was getting worse and worse, he could no longer handle the military affairs of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion, so the affairs of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion fell to Zhu Fu, Duke of Cheng, and Yang Yun, Duke of Australia.
Zhu Fu is also very old, but in good health. Yang Yun, the Duke of Australia, is in the prime of life, and he is also a new type of noble name. He has established his own reputation through a series of foreign wars and expansion. Those who were granted the title of Duke for their military exploits.
Moreover, because of his military merits, he was still an iron-hatted Duke, who could be hereditary and replaceable. The same was true for Liu Jin, the Duke of Liao.
It's just that Liu Jin is a civil servant, but he relies on military merit to gain titles, so according to the rules, Liu Jin can no longer enter the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion.
After all, Yang Yun, the Duke of Australia, can be regarded as the pillar of the Ming Dynasty army. He is young and powerful, and he fought step by step on his own. He has a high prestige, and has been in charge of the Western Regions and Nanyun Province for many years, frightening the Ottoman Empire and the tribes in the Western Regions. It is also very famous.
The year before last, he was transferred back to the capital to take charge of the affairs of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and to assist the emperor in taking charge of the millions of soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty.
It is estimated that in a few years, when Zhu Fu is too old to handle things, it will be Yang Yun's turn to attend small meetings.
Zhong Zhong is the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and he succeeded Liu Jin after Liu Jin entered the cabinet. Han Wen is the Shangshu of the Ministry of Hubu. He used to be the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu, and he can be regarded as taking over the position of Zhong Zhong.
Liu Daxia and Yang Yiqing, one is the Minister of the Ministry of War and the other is the Minister of the Ministry of Industry. The power of the Minister of the Ministry of War is now very small, and it is the lowest status among the six ministries, even worse than the Ministry of Rites.
The Ministry of Industry did not have much status in the past. It was mainly responsible for the construction of the emperor's mausoleum, palaces, etc., but now because of the Ming Dynasty's infrastructure construction in full swing, roads and railways are being overhauled, and a large number of bridges are being built.
The Ming Empire's financial revenue of more than one billion taels a year, most of which is used for Ming infrastructure. As the highest institution in infrastructure construction, the Ministry of Industry holds such huge funds and projects in its hands, and its status is gradually becoming more prominent. .
"Your Majesty, the Governor of Hong Kong, Tang Yin, called. In the war between Spain and France, Spain is becoming more and more powerless. For the interests of our Ming Empire in Europe and to recover the principal and interest of the loan to Spain, it is recommended to provide Spain with more military aid and loan."
Liu Jin told the latest telegram sent from Hong Kong.
"How much does Spain lend to our Ming Dynasty now?"
When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he thought about it and asked.
"There are already 50 million taels of silver, and almost all the loans have been used to purchase arms, weapons and warships."
Liu Jin quickly replied: "Spain is really under great pressure right now. They are fighting fiercely with Persia and North Korea in West Africa. The two sides have been fighting around the West African colonies for several years."
"In addition, we are competing with Egypt for hegemony over Alexandria and the Southern Mediterranean. This is considered too much war."
"My dear friends, how do you think this matter should be handled?"
Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly, thought for a while and asked everyone.
"Your Majesty, if Spain loses the war, I am afraid that it will no longer be able to repay our Ming Dynasty's loan. I believe that we should continue to support Spain. When necessary, we must even directly send troops to help Spain win the Spanish-French War."
Liu Jin naturally expressed his attitude very clearly.
If Spain were defeated, wouldn't the 50 million taels of silver it had loaned out be in vain?
You must know that this money was loaned by the First Bank of the Ming Dynasty. This is absolutely unacceptable, and the Spaniards must be allowed to pay back both the principal and interest.
"Your Majesty, I think what Liu Jin said is reasonable. Spain has always had a very good relationship with our Ming Dynasty. It is an important friendly country of our Ming Dynasty in Europe."
"Besides, Spain has a very deep interest relationship with us, and we must not lose to the French."
Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu also stood up to express his support. He and Liu Jin wore the same pants, and his family also had shares in the First Bank of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, the most important thing was that the major shareholders of the First Bank of the Ming Dynasty were the emperor and the prince.
This money must be paid back by Spain no matter what, so he absolutely cannot be defeated.
"Your Majesty, I thought that when I came to the country in the Ming Dynasty, I should conquer the world with my virtue and spread my benevolence and righteousness to the world. How could I continue to support the war?"
"I thought that I, the Ming Dynasty, could step in and mediate, so that the two countries in West Africa could cease the war. At the same time, I could step in and mediate the war between Spain and Persia and Korea."
"When there is war and chaos, it is the people of the world who suffer after all. It would be better for the world to have less war and chaos."
Liu Daxia, the Minister of War, stood up and expressed different views and opinions.
He actually asked Daming to mediate, which made Liu Jin look at him with a high regard.
Sure enough, the scholars of the Ming Dynasty and the Confucian disciples have become stupid in reading. These things they believe in are benevolence, righteousness, virtue, filial piety and so on.
This country actually talks about conquering the world with virtue and spreading benevolence and righteousness to the world. If one can conquer the world with benevolence, then why does the Ming Dynasty need millions of troops?
Why didn’t you conquer the world with benevolence and virtue in the past?
The reason why everyone is willing to listen to Daming now, do you think it is because of Daming's benevolence?
That was achieved through the wars fought by the Ming Dynasty. It relied on the millions of lions of the Ming Dynasty. It relied on the Ming Dynasty's garrisons and warships all over the world. Without these things and without beating up all directions, who would listen to you?
Benevolence and morality.
"Liu Gong, what if I, the Ming Dynasty, fail to mediate?"
Liu Jin thought for a while and asked.
"In order for both sides of the Ming Dynasty to live in harmony and for the sake of the people on both sides to avoid the suffering of war, how can the two sides not be willing to mediate?"
When Liu Daxia heard this, he immediately asked.
"Your Majesty, I think there is some truth in what Mr. Liu said. You might as well ask Mr. Liu to go to Europe in person and mediate on behalf of the Ming Dynasty."
Liu Jin was speechless to him, and after thinking about it, he suggested to Emperor Hongzhi.
If a war was so easy to mediate, it wouldn't be called a war. War is a continuation of politics and a last resort. Both sides have already reached the point of going to war, so why mediate?
Moreover, Spain and France have been fighting for several years. Both sides have almost lost their wealth for this war. Do you think mediation can bring them to a ceasefire?
I thought it was too simple.
"No, no~"
"I am too old to withstand this trouble, so I thought it would be more appropriate to send young and capable officials to Europe."
Hearing Liu Jin's proposal, Liu Daxia immediately shook his head. He was already about to be buried. If he went to Europe, he might die on the way.
"I also think it is appropriate for Mr. Liu to go to mediate. Mr. Liu is highly respected and advocates mediation. I believe that both parties will definitely be willing to listen to Mr. Liu."
Zhu Fu also said quickly.
Mediate, adjust the hammer.
If they don’t fight anymore, who will sell Ming’s arms and weapons to?
Just relying on the Ming Dynasty's own military needs, the profits are very low. How can these military industrial enterprises of the Ming Dynasty still make money?
How to maintain the booming trend?
Also, if they stop fighting, they will focus on development. When they become stronger, Ming's interests in Europe will be damaged.
When they stopped fighting, they could devote more energy to exterminating the Japanese pirates that were ravaging Europe.
When the time comes, where will Ming’s slaves come from?
Without a large number of cheap slaves, how could the land of Golden Continent be developed? How could the population of Ming Dynasty grow?
There are also Ming Dynasty's overseas colonies, how should the vassal state develop?
You want to mediate, right? Then go there yourself and see how many people's interests will be harmed. It will be strange if everyone doesn't scold you to death.
Liu Jian and Li Dongyang looked at Liu Daxia slightly. You are still stupid about benevolence, justice and morality. Don't you know that the emperor and the prince are the major shareholders of the First Bank of the Ming Dynasty?
And in Ming Dynasty’s arms companies, shipyards, etc., are the emperor and the prince both major shareholders?
After mediation, how can banks and factories still do business?
Don't think that everyone doesn't know your little calculations.
You are the Minister of the Ministry of War. Now you have no power in your hands. You only have to recruit soldiers and arrange for retired soldiers to change jobs. Now you just want to play around and see if you can expand the power of the Minister of the Ministry of War.
But this is something that the emperor cannot tolerate.
The military power has finally returned to the hands of the emperor. How can it be put into the hands of your Minister of War again?
What's more, the nobles of the world, the military will not agree. They don't want to look at the faces of civil servants, and they don't want you civil servants to be called stinky Qiuba.
I don’t want the army’s armaments, logistics, salaries, etc. to be destroyed by you civilian officials. I will never allow you civilian officials to interfere.
Han Wen, Zhong Zhong and Yang Yiqing also looked at Liu Daxia. This man is old and always gets confused. Do you think it was more than ten years ago? Times have changed a long time ago.
"I also thought it would be more appropriate for Liu Daxia and Duke Liu to go and mediate."
Everyone thought about it and said in unison.
You want to mediate, right? Then I'll send you to Europe to try it out. By the way, you can also experience the situation abroad, so that you can clearly understand what principles the barbarians from all over the world believe in.
Benevolence, justice and morality are all bullshit, and the truth that everyone believes in is only within the range of a cannon.
Without the Ming Dynasty beating up the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire would not have committed any crimes against the Ming Dynasty.
Without warships bombarding London and Paris, European countries would not be respectful to the Ming Dynasty. Do you think that just by talking about benevolence, justice and morality, the other side will listen to you?
The reason why they are afraid of the Ming Dynasty is because the Ming Dynasty has garrisons in Hong Kong, in China, in the Golden Continent, and in West Africa. It has a powerful fleet that can be dispatched anytime and anywhere to beat them up and beat them everywhere.
tooth.
That's why they didn't dare to do anything to Ming, nor did they dare to infringe on Ming's interests.
So they knew clearly that the Ming Dynasty was behind the Japanese pirates, but they still did not dare to do anything to Hong Kong and could only continue to exterminate the Japanese pirates.
They knew that all the people captured by the Japanese pirates were sold to the Ming Dynasty, but they didn't even dare to let go of them, because the Ming Dynasty couldn't afford to offend them at all.
If the morality of benevolence and righteousness were effective, the Japanese pirates and Tatars in the past would not have caused great trouble to the Ming Dynasty. Now the grassland people are herding cattle and sheep for the Ming Dynasty. The Japanese pirates are the valued subordinates of the Ming Dynasty and help the Ming Dynasty plunder slaves in Europe.
These are all won by Ming Dynasty's fists. If you don't beat up the Japanese pirates, can they be obedient and become your little brothers?
"Since everyone thinks it would be more appropriate for Liu Daxia to go to Europe to mediate, then it would behoove Liu Aiqing to go to Europe to mediate in person."
Emperor Hongzhi looked at Liu Daxia and also ordered.
"I accept the decree!"
Liu Daxia looked at Emperor Hongzhi, then at the crowd, and thought in his heart that he was still going to Europe at his age, so he would not die on the way.
"I just advocated lower reconciliation, but in the end, I got into such trouble and had to go to Europe."
But now, it seems like it’s impossible not to go.
"Your Majesty, Egypt and the Persian Empire have won several victories over the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. Now they are actually threatening to take back the Egyptian Canal. They believe that the Egyptian Canal was built on their Egyptian land, and when it was first built, it was mainly for the purpose of taking back the Egyptian Canal.
It was also built by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians.”
"It is extremely inappropriate to say that we, the Ming Dynasty people, only have to invest some funds to occupy half of the ownership of the Egyptian canal. We also say that over the years, we have already recovered our investment, and they, Egypt, should take ownership of all the Egyptian canals.
Take it back."
After talking about the Spanish-French war, Liu Jin talked about things in Egypt.
The Egyptians are a little drifting now. They teamed up with the Persian Empire to defeat the Ottoman Empire several times, and they also won successive victories in the war with the Spanish. They actually started to drift.
He even threatened to take back the half of the Egyptian canal that belonged to the Ming Dynasty.
"Hmph~"
"It's unreasonable. We, the Ming Dynasty, hired the Egyptians to build the canal with money and technology. Now we are jealous of the canal's profits and want to take it back. We are too quick to demolish the bridges across the river."
When Zhu Fu heard this, he was immediately furious. He had a lot of shares in the Egyptian Canal.
"Your Majesty, I think we should give the Egyptians a proper beating to let them know the interests of our Ming Empire. Having a good relationship with them does not mean that they can push their limits."
"If they dare to demolish the bridge against our Ming Dynasty, they must pay a certain price. If we are offended, they will directly snatch the other half of the canal."
"Your Majesty, I also think that the Egyptians should be beaten appropriately to keep them awake at all times."
Zhong Zhong also followed suit and said, he also owns a lot of stocks in the Egyptian Canal, which is a huge fortune.
"If the Egyptians want to take back the canal, our Ming Dynasty can directly send troops to knock down the entire Egypt and make the entire canal belong to our Ming Dynasty."
Han Wen also expressed his position. Well, there are also many Egyptian Canal stocks.
Moreover, Han Wen, a civil servant, is now more warlike than military generals. The Ming Dynasty has not fought a war for several years and is worried about having no place to train its troops and no new colonies.
If the Egyptian is ignorant, he will simply take the canal into his own hands. The stock price of the Egyptian canal will definitely rise sharply.
"Liu Jian, what do you think of this matter?"
Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly, then looked at Liu Jian, wanting to ask his opinion.
However, Liu Jian didn't seem to hear it at all. He actually closed his eyes and looked as if he was asleep.
"Liu Jian~Liu Jian~"
Emperor Hongzhi shouted twice, but he did not recover.
Emperor Hongzhi looked at Xiao Jing beside him. Xiao Jing was also older. He didn't react for a moment and didn't know what happened.
"Mr. Liu~"
Liu Jin reacted the fastest and quickly gave Liu Jian a gentle push.
But who knew that Liu Jian fell directly to the ground, which frightened Liu Jin and quickly grabbed him.
"what happened?"
After being pulled by Liu Jin like this, he woke up and didn't even know what had just happened.
"Is this Alzheimer's disease?"
"It's still an intermittent coma that belongs to the elderly. When we were talking about the Spanish-French War, he didn't seem to be unconscious. Just a few minutes later, he fell asleep."
Liu Jin looked at Liu Jian and was speechless.
This old man in his 80s is really too old. Look at everyone here, they are all in their 60s or 70s.
"Your Majesty~"
"I'm sorry!"
"I must have been suffering from my old problem just now. It has become worse and worse recently. I always feel sleepy, drowsy, and unconscious for no reason. Please forgive me."
After waiting for several minutes, Liu Jian came over slowly, then stood up and said to Emperor Hongzhi.
"It's okay, it's okay. You should pay more attention to your rest."
"I'll ask the doctors and professors from Imperial Hospital and Daming Medical College to take a look at it later."
When Emperor Hongzhi saw that Liu Jian was fine, he took a breath.
This is not the first time that something like this has happened. Since this year, Liu Jian and Li Dongyang's health has been getting worse and worse. Liu Jian's eyesight has become blurry, he has fallen into a coma, and sometimes he is confused. He does everything.
Not sure.
Li Dongyang was in poor health. He was often ill and could not come to court. He could only recuperate at home. Liu Jin was mostly responsible for handling the affairs of the cabinet.
Although he came today, it seems that his mental state is very poor, listless, and sick. He might as well just recuperate at home like Zhang Mao.
"Your Majesty, I am too old. I have no energy at all. My eyesight is also dim and confused. I can no longer assist you in handling national affairs."
"Your Majesty, I am asking you to resign again today. I hope that your Majesty will allow me to return to my hometown for retirement for the sake of the Ming Dynasty!"
Liu Jian smiled, and then very solemnly submitted his application for retirement to Emperor Hongzhi again.
"Teacher~"
Emperor Hongzhi looked at Liu Jian, then at Li Dongyang, and thought of Zhang Mao, Xie Qian, Ma Wensheng, Zhou Jing and others. He wanted to retain Liu Jian again, but thinking about his situation, he didn't know how to do it.
Retained.
"Your Majesty, you are kind and merciful. You have taken great care of me and tried every means to persuade me to stay. I am grateful to you."
"I also hope that I can always share your worries for Your Majesty, but I am really too old and my health is really failing. However, our Ming Dynasty is prosperous, and Your Majesty is a powerful and powerful man. He is an eternal sage. What he wants to do is to create a new beginning for the ages.
An unprecedented prosperous age."
"You must not delay the important affairs of the country or delay your majesty's grand cause for the sake of one person."
"I also ask for your majesty's permission to allow my ministers to return to their hometown to take care of themselves, and to select young and promising pillars of the country to assist your majesty in creating the eternal prosperous age of our Ming Dynasty!"
Liu Jian kept persuading him while he was still awake.
"Okay~"
"I'm sure!"
Emperor Hongzhi thought for a long time, looked at Liu Jian and Li Dongyang, then looked at Liu Jin, thought about it and nodded in agreement.
Now it seems that it is a foregone conclusion that Liu Jian and Li Dongyang will return to their hometown to take care of themselves. Even if they can be saved for a while, it may be really harmful to the Ming Dynasty.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"
When Liu Jian heard this, he immediately knelt down and thanked him.
A few days later, Emperor Hongzhi rewarded Liu Jian greatly and formally accepted Liu Jian's resignation in the morning. At the same time, he appointed Liu Jin as the new chief assistant of the cabinet, and added Ji Zhong as the new cabinet minister.
PS: Today is just one big chapter with over 5,000 words, I’m too lazy to divide it into two chapters.