After Zhu Lin received the order, she only felt that it was difficult. She had already felt it herself, and Jia Ke had never believed her.
Moreover, Jia Ke did not fully believe the ministers he recommended.
Zhu Lin thought about it all night in her room, and finally she could only think of Qin Keqing.
Although Jia Ke already knows Qin Keqing's identity, his favor for her has not diminished, which shows the importance of Qin Keqing in Jia Ke's heart.
And now Qin Keqing has given birth to a child. This child is the eldest son and will most likely inherit Jia Ke's family business in the future.
Now Jia Ke is too powerful to take action. If we can focus all our energy on this child, wait until Jia Ke is gone, rule the world through this child, and then repeat Jia Ke's way of leading the emperor to control the princes, it may be feasible.
.
So Zhu Lin sent his thoughts to the young master again through letters.
The young master received the letter and read it carefully several times, and then thought about it all afternoon alone in the garden. Finally he had to admit that Zhu Lin's method was the best way for him to regain his position in the country.
So the young master immediately wrote back a letter to Zhu Lin, asking him to focus on Jia Ke's son. At the same time, he asked Zhu Lin to find a way to become Jia Ke's son's teacher after he won the Jinshi, so that he could be the teacher of Jia Ke's son all the time.
near.
But Zhu Lin didn't expect that his actions would have been carefully watched by the secret guards on the side.
After Jia Ke got the news about the secret guard, he was furious.
If these people were targeting him, Jia Ke could bear it even though he was angry, but he didn't expect that they would target his son.
Jia Ke glanced in the direction of the harem with a sullen face, and immediately wanted to order someone to catch the Zhu Lin family immediately and cut him into pieces.
But after all, he has been in power for so many years, and he will soon wake up. If he catches the young master of the Zhu Lin family now, he may be out of his sight again.
And although Sun Yan reported that this young master will take part in the imperial examination in a few years, if he is allowed to continue like this in the past few years, I don't know how much trouble will be caused.
Jia Ke finally endured it, and then Jia Ke ordered Li Deshan to strengthen the supervision and interrogation of the Zhu Lin family and send more manpower. It would be best to catch the young master before he can take the imperial examination.
After receiving Jia Ke's order, Li Deshan immediately went to make arrangements and added a few more people to Qin Keqing's side in the harem.
As expected of Zhu Lin who had been engaged in espionage for so many years, she immediately felt that there were strangers around her, so she immediately lurked and stopped making any moves. She just showed her face in front of Qin Keqing every day, and then took care of Jia wholeheartedly.
Ke's son Jia Zhi.
And Qin Keqing, who has been in charge of the Wuyang Marquis Mansion and the Duke of Yan Mansion for so many years, is not a fool. She has already felt that something is wrong around her.
Qin Keqing couldn't ask Jia Ke, so he could only hide it secretly in his heart and observe it carefully in the future.
Not to mention the correspondence between Zhu Lin and the young master, and considering that Jia Ke had received nearly 9 million taels of silver, plus the tens of millions taels hidden in his house, he felt that now was the time to prepare for the Northern Expedition.
Now that Jia Ke had decided to take action, he did not hesitate and immediately summoned his three absolute confidants, Zhang Chaoxin, the Minister of Works, Fan Kang, the Minister of Rites, and Peng Bi, the Minister of War, to the Yangxin Hall.
After the three people arrived at the Yangxin Hall, they each paid tribute to Jia Ke, and then Jia Ke asked the young eunuchs to prepare chairs for them to sit down.
After Jia Ke saw that they had done a good job, he said directly: "I invited you here today because there is a big matter to discuss."
The three people below, after listening to Jia Ke's words, all looked up at Jia Ke, waiting for his next words.
"The Tatars in the north are a serious problem for our government. They were repulsed by me last year. However, Arsleng Khan was determined to persevere and did not settle down like this. Instead, he sent people to constantly harass our border. I watched
They are gathering power in the north, and once they recover, they will definitely move south."
When Jia Ke said this, he looked at the people below, which meant that he wanted them to express their opinions.
As the Secretary of the Ministry of War, Peng Bi was most concerned about these matters, so he spoke first: "What my lord said is true, the Tatars are just white-eyed wolves who have not been raised well. They grassland Tatars take advantage of us in the Central Plains every time."
When the dynasty declined, they went south and caused great harm to us. I think we should focus on eradicating them completely."
Fan Kang nodded after hearing this, "In the past few years, our Central Plains dynasty has been going smoothly under the rule of my lord. This year's tax revenue has been the highest in history. And there has been no unrest in various places. It is the time to use troops.
"
Zhang Chaoxin, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, did not know much about this, but he also expressed his positive attitude, "please rest assured, my lord, as long as your lord orders it, I will fully cooperate with you to complete all the weapons and armor."
Jia Ke nodded after hearing the statements of these three people, knowing that this time he was on the right track.
"In this case, the Northern Expedition mainly focuses on several aspects. The first is food and grass. We have had good weather in the past few years, but food is still a bit tight. Is there any way you can help me collect food for an army of 1 million for two years?"
The three people below heard that Jia Ke wanted 1 million people and two years of food, and they all looked at each other in awe.
They thought that Jia Ke would only need four or five hundred thousand people to go north and fight for a few months, but they didn't expect that it would take so many.
After listening to their words, Fan Kang pondered for a moment, and then said: "My lord, although we have had good weather under your governance in recent years and the people have found peace, after all, the floods and droughts in the past few years have somewhat damaged our vitality.
It has not fully recovered yet, but now we have to raise food for a million-strong army for two years, and I'm afraid the people will suffer again."
After hearing this, Jia Ke nodded and agreed with Fan Kang's words. This was exactly what he was worried about. Now the court is not short of money, but food.
Jia Ke then asked Fan Kang: "If we only work hard for the people for a year or two, don't you think there will be turmoil in the world?"
Fan Kang heard Jia Ke's inquiry and said: "My lord, the food of our court is just enough to ensure peace in the world. If my lord purchases a large amount of food from the people, once there is a drought or flood, there will be big problems."
Yes, and once the lord purchases a large amount of grain, the price of grain will inevitably rise, and the people will suffer in the end."
"Then what do you think we should do?"
"In my humble opinion, we might as well take the money and go to the vassal states in the south to buy it. These places are harvested three times a year, and a lot of their food is wasted. If the lord takes the money to buy it, they will definitely be willing."
Jia Ke's eyes lit up after hearing this. How could he have forgotten this? People in those countries in the south are all lazy men. Just like this, they can still have enough food and clothing, which shows how wealthy the south is.
Jia Ke's eyes lit up when he thought of this. The people in these southern countries are all weak. If he takes all these lands as his own and lets them cultivate them for himself, wouldn't it be killing two birds with one stone?
"Those people in the south who belong to the country are terribly lazy, and they can still have good weather and have no worries about food and drink. What do you think will happen if we take over their place?"
Fan Kang and others felt excited when they heard Jia Ke's words. This had never happened before in the Central Plains Dynasty.
In the past, the rulers of the feudal dynasty believed in being kings within and saints outside. They were very tolerant towards their vassal states. Even if they violated the interests of the Central Plains several times, they would not do anything to them if they apologized afterwards. How could they speak like Jia Ke?
We will destroy people's countries and seize people's land.
This is the difference between Jia Ke and the ancient scholar-bureaucrats. Although Jia Ke has been almost assimilated by the ancient feudal ethics, the ideological spirit cultivated by modern times is still stubbornly not erased from Jia Ke's mind.
Fan Kang thought for a moment, and then said to Jia Ke: "My lord, it is easy to pacify these small countries, but I am afraid that they will never be stable, which will cost people and money over time."
Jia Ke laughed after hearing this. This is all caused by Confucianism. If you occupy someone's land and treat them with benevolence and righteousness, isn't this looking for trouble?
If they occupy their land, they will be executed immediately if they resist, and a high-pressure policy will be implemented. After a period of time, these people will become honest. If they are not honest, it would be better to kill them all, free up the land, and remove these people from the Central Plains.
The poor peasants who had no land left to clear their land immigrated.
"I don't think this is a big deal. These people are enemies of the barbarians. You don't need to talk to them about benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom, and trust. You should treat them like slaves. Let the people of the Central Plains go and become slave owners. I don't believe they won't.
Honestly."
Zhang Chaoxin, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, nodded when he heard this, "My lord is right, these barbarians will be given to us Central Plains people as slaves."
On the side, Peng Bi, the Minister of War, was even more excited, "My lord, if you want to go south, you don't have to worry about all the military arrangements. Our Ministry of War will handle it."
When Fan Kang heard that these people agreed to go south, he shook his head and said: "This war will cost a lot of money. In addition, there will be a Northern Expedition in a few years, and the imperial court does not have so much money."
"You don't have to worry about money. I have already exceeded tens of millions of taels of silver from the emperor's inner treasury. In the past few days, the three major business gangs have sent me millions more. I originally wanted to wait for the Northern Expedition these days.
Buy food. Now it seems that even if we have money, we can’t buy food. It’s better to use the money to go south. Besides, those countries in the south have a lot of wealth. If we win this war, we can make a lot of money if we don’t make trouble.
Woolen cloth."
Fan Kang was now satisfied, "My lord is really thoughtful. Let's use this money to bring peace to several of his small countries. When we have land and food, we can earn back the money."
"Okay, since everyone has agreed, as the Minister of War, Peng Bi, you will be responsible for the early arrangements."
After hearing this, Peng Bi quickly asked: "My lord, I don't know how many men and horses are needed to go south, and how the arms will cooperate. Please tell me, lord, so that I can prepare."
Jia Ke thought for a moment and then said: "This time when I go south, I am thinking of transferring 80,000 cavalry from the Eight Banners as support, and then I will transfer one battalion from our three major battalions in the capital to follow me south, and then I will order the cavalry from Yunnan and Guangxi.
The wolf soldiers will gather 80,000 troops for me, and then the general troops of Guangxi and Yunnan will each send 20,000 troops. What do you think?"