Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1385: The World is at Peace
After listening to Zhu Zhen's words, Zhu Yuanzhang finally realized his previous mistake, which was that he did not consider the consequences of collective punishment.

Zhu Zhen's words were by no means alarmist. In the previous Guo Huan case, the criminal justice department kept arresting people and forcing them to confess. After they confessed, they arrested more people and forced them to confess again. This cycle continued, and the scope continued to expand, almost sweeping away all the government offices in the capital.

If such a "melon vine raiding" happened in the army, the Ming army would definitely suffer heavy losses and its combat effectiveness would be greatly reduced.

But Zhu Yuanzhang still didn't want to let the "thought criminals" go so easily, so he said in a low voice:

"Anyway, the world has been settled, the Northern Yuan Dynasty is finished, and the Ming Dynasty no longer needs such a strong army. It's a good time to reorganize it and cure the poison."

"That's such a pity, isn't it?" Zhu Zhen said with real emotion, "This army was established by my father. It took a full thirty-four years for the army to grow from only twenty-four brothers to the invincible level it is today! How many hardships and difficulties did they go through? How many life-and-death situations did they face?"

"Yingtianfu, Poyang Lake, Pingjiang City... after one fierce battle after another, we unified the north and the south, recovered Youyan, restored China, and finally destroyed the remnant Yuan Dynasty in Mobei, sealed the Wolf's Lair, and drank from the vast sea! What a glorious journey it has been! Looking at China's thousands of years, it is unprecedented! How can we let them be destroyed by their own people?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was overwhelmed by what Zhu Zhen said, because these were all his life's achievements. It turned out that they were closely related to this army.

It took him a while to suppress his surging emotions, and he sighed and said:

"There is no other way. Why did Zhao Kuangyin give up his military power over a toast? Because the stage of conquering the world on horseback is over, and it is time to rule the world from horseback. Those soldiers who can only fight on horseback have become a burden or even a threat to the country."

"Father, haven't you heard that 'Even if the world is at peace, forgetting war will lead to danger?'" Zhu Zhen retorted in a deep voice: "After the Western Jin Dynasty destroyed the Wu Kingdom, Emperor Wu of Jin, Sima Yan, believed that there would be no more major wars, so he ordered the disbanding of the troops in the states and counties and let the generals become civil officials."

"However, Du Yu quoted this sentence from Sima Fa to warn Emperor Wu of Jin that he could not think that he could rest easy after destroying Wu and unifying the world. He himself set an example by returning to Xiangyang immediately after destroying Wu, defending the key points, stationing troops in different places, making his troops on high alert, and 'treating peace as if peace was in the air', thus maintaining a stable situation for quite a long time." Zhu Zhen continued:
"But Emperor Wu of Jin did not take Du Yu's words to heart. After Du Yu's death, the Jin army's military preparations were neglected, weapons were put into storage, and horses were released into the mountains. This gave internal and external enemies an opportunity to take advantage, and soon the country was in chaos."

"No matter what, abandoning one's own military power is an extremely stupid and short-sighted act! This is especially true for our dynasty! Why did the Han people sink for hundreds of years under the iron cavalry of the Hu people? Wasn't it because the Song Dynasty foolishly emphasized culture over military power and neglected military preparations? It has only been a few years since we, with this invincible army, expelled the Tartars, restored China, and re-established the Han Dynasty?" Then he made an impassioned speech:
"The future generations must not forget the teachers of the past generations and must not follow the old path of the Song Dynasty. Therefore, we must always be enterprising and maintain a strong army!"

"But the sentence you just said, I remember there is a first half, which is 'A country may be big, but it will perish if it loves war'?" After listening to Zhu Zhen's long speech, Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly: "What do you think of it?"

"Father, a warlike nation does not necessarily lead to destruction. Problems will arise when too many unprofitable wars are fought, and the country becomes poorer and poorer." Zhu Zhen said confidently:
"For example, the Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties all became stronger in the early stages of their dynasties because the benefits they gained from wars outweighed the losses! So as long as we don't fight wars that cost us money, how can we possibly bring the country down?"

"For this reason, the war must never be carried out on the homeland. It is best to stay away from the core areas. This way, the people in the country will not be affected by the war, the country can benefit from the war, and the national strength will naturally be strong. And the soldiers can also gain merit and fiefdoms through wars of expanding territory, and their fighting spirit will naturally be strong." "Why don't you just say that you want to continue expanding the border in the southwest?" Zhu Yuanzhang sneered.

"I didn't say that we must expand to the southwest, but it seems that only the southwest meets the requirements at present." Zhu Zhen smiled awkwardly and said, "The success of the Maritime Customs has eloquently proved that expanding to the south will bring huge profits. As for the other directions, whether to the north or northwest, it seems to be a loss at present. At least it will not be like the south, where there is only profit and no loss."

"Hmm..." The 20 million taels of silver that the Prime Minister's Navy Office handed over every year were piled there like a mountain, making it impossible for Boss Zhu to refute.

"Moreover, the strongest country in Indochina, Luchuan, has been destroyed by us with a small number of troops. This is enough to prove that the enemies in the southwest are far from comparable to the threats from the grassland. Therefore, we can use a small number of troops and pay limited costs to gain huge benefits. I dare to guarantee that as long as we plan before taking action and act carefully, we will become richer and stronger as we fight more!" Zhu Zhen said again.

"But if we keep fighting, the problem of arrogant soldiers and generals will become more prominent, which will easily make the military more powerful and threaten the rule of the court." Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "How can this be solved?"

"This problem hardly exists when expanding the border in the southwest," Zhu Zhen replied without hesitation:

"Because the Southwest Peninsula is separated from the core area of ​​the Ming Dynasty by mountains and seas, it is not as threatening to the Central Plains as the northern grasslands, so there is no need to worry about backlash. And there is no need to deploy too many troops in the southwest, which means that the military power of the southwest will never be able to compete with the central government.

Zhu Zhen added: "In this way, the Holy Son of Heaven will rule over China, with billions of people and millions of soldiers, making it as solid as a rock. The princes will lead their troops outside China to expand the territory for the Ming Dynasty and maintain the combat effectiveness of the army. Not only will they not spend money and grain from the court, but they can also pay money and grain to the court. Usually, they cannot cross the line without the emperor's order, but if there is trouble in the world, the emperor can order them to return to Beijing to defend the Ming Dynasty for eternity!"

Zhu Zhen finally chuckled, revealing his true colors: "So why doesn't Father send all the redundant troops and those problematic generals in the country to Yunnan to make use of their remaining energy? It is much better than just killing them directly."

"What you said is really tempting." Zhu Yuanzhang also smiled. He was tempted.

In fact, he had heard these words from Zhu Zhen many times, and Zhu Zhen even wrote a feasibility report for him, so he was already familiar with them. However, the Northern Yuan Dynasty had not yet been destroyed, and the world had not yet been settled, so he had no time to think about those trivial things.

Now is indeed the time to consider this issue.

(End of this chapter)