The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

"Lord Earl," Richard and Joanna both stood up and greeted Zhang Fan when they saw Zhang Fan approaching.

"You don't need to be too polite," Zhang Fan said, "It's already late at night, why don't you go back to your room to rest?"

"It's a long night and I don't want to sleep, so I come here to be quiet and quiet," Richard replied. After coming to Daming, a strange country, he has learned a lot of Chinese and has become proficient. He still spoke with a very strong European accent, but he spoke these two sentences very proficiently, and there was a standard Beijing movie in his voice.

Hearing his words, Zhang Fan showed a smile on his face, and said, "It seems that the two of you are also very depressed."

"This..." Richard didn't know what to say. He was naturally worried that a war would break out here, and his life was in danger. But when Joanna proposed to stay and watch the battle, he After all, he agreed, and now that he wanted to leave, firstly, he would lose face, and secondly, he also felt that this would make Zhang Fan look down on them, which would have a bad impact on his motherland.

"My lord, Richard misses his relatives a little bit," Joanna said. She naturally knew what Richard was worrying about, but after all, the two came from the same country, so they naturally wanted to help fight in front of outsiders. As a cover, even if she has a good impression of Zhang Fan in her heart, this incident will not affect her patriotism.

"Oh, that's it. It's been half a year since you left your own country. It's natural to be homesick." Zhang Fan nodded with a very understanding expression, and then asked doubtfully, "In that case Why did you refuse when I asked you to go to the capital with my uncle and the others a few days ago? You know, if you see my Emperor of Ming Dynasty as soon as possible, your mission can be completed as soon as possible, so you can go back as soon as possible. Did you?" Zhang Fan asked in such a tactful way to express his doubts, he still didn't understand why these two people stayed.

"My lord, it was my request to stay and watch the battle," Joanna said. "Although I am a woman, my colleague is also a soldier. Please forgive me for the Eastern War that I have told you, this is my idea as a soldier, if your lord thinks there is anything wrong, my companion and I can leave here now," Joanna said for the sake of Ask Zhang Fan for Richard if he can leave. After all, Richard is a literati, not a soldier. It is understandable to be worried about going to war in person. Secondly, she really wants to stay and have a look, but She was afraid of seeing something that Zhang Fan thought needed to be hidden, so now she really asked Zhang Fan.

"I've said it a long time ago," Zhang Fan said, "Although the two of you are on the land of my Ming Dynasty, you are not from my Ming Dynasty, and they are also my honored guests. I will definitely not restrict your actions. Whether you want to leave or stay, it all depends on your own wishes, and absolutely no one will force you,"

After listening to Zhang Fan's words, both of them were very happy in their hearts. Richard was naturally happy to be able to leave this place of right and wrong without losing face, although he knew that if he really left, Zhang Fan would probably be in his heart He despises him a bit, but he doesn't care about it anymore. If someone mentions it in the future, he can say that he is in a hurry to go to the capital to meet the Emperor of Ming. This is not unreasonable.

And Joanna is naturally happy that she can stay and watch the battle in a legitimate way. For her, after visiting this mysterious oriental country, many things make her feel novel and mysterious, but she has not yet experienced the oriental war. Having seen it, she wanted to stay and see what happened.

Richard looked at Joanna with eager eyes, hoping that she could ask her to leave here, but Joanna seemed to be unable to see it at all, and only cared about talking to Zhang Fan, which made Richard's heart ache. The face is very uncomfortable. Although he has received Zhang Fan's words now and knows that his behavior will not be regarded as a coward, as a foreign minister who must always take etiquette into consideration, he still has no way to make this statement by himself. Mouth.

Since I'm embarrassed to speak, let's stay and have a look. This is the choice made by Richard. Anyway, they are only staying as spectators, and they don't need to go to the battlefield. The risk factor is naturally much smaller, and they After all, their identities are envoys from foreign countries, and Zhang Fan will definitely send someone to protect their safety.

"By the way, my lord, there is one thing I can't understand all the time, it's about this... Japanese... Kou... attack this time," Richard, who let go of his thoughts, also asked about the doubts in his heart, "I heard that these Japanese pirates came from Fusang Island. There were businessmen from our country who went there and did a few business deals with them. But I mentioned from those businessmen in our country that the island is now at war. Many people brought Seeing that their subordinates are vying for the dominance of that island, it seems that they should have no energy to attack your country, and I heard that the people there are very short, and they are not as strong as the returning soldiers.

"But why they dare to attack and return to the country in such a large scale now is really unreasonable. In Europe, only those countries with unified countries dare to attack other countries, and the countries they choose are also similar in strength to their own. This Fusang country is now Wouldn't it be suicide to do so?"

After Zhang Fan listened to his words, he was about to say something, but he stopped suddenly. He suddenly thought of a question. Since thousands of years ago, Fusang had existed as a kingdom belonging to the Celestial Dynasty. First of all, after many times of wars and regime changes, the relationship between that side and this side has never changed, and it is still a master-subordinate relationship, but why do people over there dare to attack a country that is stronger than them? It seems that no one has ever thought about this issue. It was the same with the harassment of Japanese pirates in the past, and it is also the case with the large-scale attacks from behind.

And what surprised Zhang Fan the most was that, in the face of foreign attacks, compared with the dangers of the imperial court from the north, the invasion of Japanese pirates could be regarded as ignoring. If not for the previous decades, The trouble of Japanese pirates is getting worse and worse, and the imperial court will not bother, but now, it seems to have returned to the previous state. In fact, Zhang Fan knows in his heart that the main credit for this is due to Qi Jiguang, precisely because of his existence, It has been so stable here for so many years, and it is precisely because Qi Jiguang is so capable that the imperial court seems to be a little unguarded against Japanese pirates again.

Zhang Fan couldn't help thinking in his heart, could it be that those people standing in the court hall were all stupid with their studies, couldn't they think of a reason, no matter how powerful a person is, no matter how good he is at fighting, but people will always grow old and will eventually die It is a piece of loess, Qi Jiguang is now in his prime, not to mention marching in formation, even if he is sent to battle to kill the enemy, he is definitely more brave than those soldiers in their 20s, but he is now 43 years old, no doubts In the year of Qi Jiguang, he will not be as good as 50 years old in another year. This is the so-called time passing by. When Qi Jiguang dies, who else can support the defense of the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty Nuo University? responsibility.

Of course, if Zhang Fan spoke out about the worries in his heart, someone would definitely stand up and say something about it. The Celestial Dynasty has a vast territory. Isn’t it hard to find a mere general? Or is it some two-legged toad? It's hard to find, there are so many people who are right, someone will naturally take on this important task.

But they never thought that Qi Jiguang's current prestige is not innate, but accumulated through decades of accumulation through his resistance to Japanese pirates time and time again. Qi Jiguang's ability is very good, even better than Qi Jiguang, but the Japanese pirates don't know this. At that time, they will only know that Qi Jiguang, who is the biggest threat to them and scares them the most, is no longer there, and the Japanese pirates will inevitably become rampant again. , In that case, it will take another few decades to make that person's prestige so that the Japanese pirates will feel afraid again, but by that time, it is estimated that the person will not be too young again.

We must find a way to eradicate this scourge, or let Fusang fully realize the authority of Ming Dynasty, so that whether they are rulers or ordinary people, when they talk about Ming Dynasty, they must have a sense of awe in their hearts, but Zhang Fan knows, This method is really difficult, very difficult, so there is another method left.

"There is actually a reason for this," Zhang Fan said to Richard, "Firstly, Fusang is still on good terms with me, Daming, and every year they will send envoys to me to pay tribute to His Majesty. Secondly, those Japanese pirates They are all Fusang people who have died or fled. To put it bluntly, they are people who have been expelled from their own country. Therefore, although I have warned Fusang about this matter, the answer is that those people are not under their jurisdiction. among,"

"This...is this simply a rascal?" Joanna said in surprise after hearing Zhang Fan's words, "My lord, I must know that this is just an excuse for them to dare to rob other countries. There can still be such a large number of people today, and they must have the support of the country behind them." What Joanna said is exactly the trend of piracy that is rising in Europe today. Many pirates have the tacit approval of their countries behind them, and even blatantly support.

"People like this, this country, have done such things, there is no need to be kind to them," Richard said, "Especially for a country as powerful as your country, you should not condone their behavior. Just go to war with them."

Richard said it was impassioned, but Zhang Fan knew in his heart that it would be very difficult to do so, but Zhang Fan agreed with Richard's words very much in his heart,