The Most Powerful Man in the World

By the time of Zhengde, the guard system had already collapsed, and millions of guard soldiers were completely abandoned, as if they were fake. Instead of playing the role of defending the country, they became a major hidden danger to the country.

In fact, the only really battleable troops in the entire Daming are the two parts of the border town and the Beijing camp, which add up to about [-]. Now that Chu Yi is expanding his army, compared to the size of the Daming, the mere [-] people are really. of nothing.

The most important thing is that Chu Yi proposed to reorganize the guard not long ago. Although it has not been implemented yet, the people present can be said to be the people who hold the real power of Ming Dynasty, so they can't be more clear.

Yang Yiqing, who is the minister of the Ministry of War, also knew that once the guards were reorganized, the whole guards, except for the soldiers worthy of the first battle, would distribute the fields to all the old, weak, sick and disabled. Returning to the civilian households, there were only more than [-] soldiers left in the Ming Dynasty at the time of Jieshi. Even if Chu Yi didn't mention the expansion of the army, Yang Yiqing would have to.

So now that Chu Yi asked the navy to expand its army by another [-], Yang Yiqing didn't mean to object at all, but instead said with a face of approval: "General Manager, how about expanding the army by another [-]?"

Chu Yi couldn't help laughing when he heard the words. Chu Yi was not surprised by Yang Yiqing's reaction. Chu Yi knew Yang Yiqing's concerns very well.

In the final analysis, even if Yang Yiqing's military strategy is not bad, his vision is still in the past, and he treats the navy like the navy of the past, and does not separate the navy from the infantry at all.

In Yang Yiqing's view, navy soldiers are infantry, so Chu Yi's expansion of the so-called navy is to expand the number of infantry.

Chu Yi shook his head slightly and said to Yang Yiqing: "Master Yang, it is enough to expand another [-] navy."

Hearing this, Yang Yiqing couldn't help showing a bit of disappointment on his face. He thought that he could follow Chu Yi's proposal to expand the army so that the number of troops under the imperial court's control could be increased, but he never thought that Chu Yi would not insist on expanding the army.

Not only Yang Yiqing was surprised, but even the emperor Zhu Houzhao looked at Chu Yi with some doubts. Everyone was ready for Chu Yi to speak like a lion, but Chu Yi's request was beyond their expectations.

However, Chu Yi's expression turned serious, and he looked at Zhu Houzhao who was sitting there with a bit of dignity in his eyes, and bowed his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I beg your Majesty to issue an order to expand the army by another [-]!"

puff!

After Chu Yi's words fell, several important ministers sitting there couldn't help but spit out the tea they had just drank in their mouths. They all opened their eyes wide and looked at Chu Yi with disbelief.

Just now, they also said that Chu Yi had changed his sex, and there was no lion's opening, but the result was good. In the blink of an eye, Chu Yi asked Zhu Houzhao to expand his army by [-].

That is a [-] army from scratch. From recruiting to forming an army, if the court wants to get a battleable soldier, it is impossible to achieve it without three to five million taels of silver.

Several cabinet elders frowned one by one. Most of these people were from civil servants, and they naturally had a kind of resistance and vigilance against the army.

With Chu Yi's strength, the military power represented by Xungui has shown signs of turning around. Now Chu Yi is going to expand the army to [-] people. How can this not be shocking.

Yang Yiqing opened his mouth, and his face showed a bit of shock and inexplicable expression. Even Yang Yiqing, what he thought in his heart was just pleading with the emperor to increase his troops by one hundred thousand, but it turned out that Chu Yi was lucky. Yang Yiqing was stunned.

Zhu Houzhao looked at Chu Yi and said solemnly, "My partner, do you really want to expand the army by [-]?"

Chu Yi nodded slowly and said, "When the [-] army is formed, it will be time for the ministers to reform the guard system!"

A bright light flashed in Zhu Houzhao's eyes when he heard the words. Chu Yi had told him earlier that the guard system must be reformed in the future, but at that time Chu Yi never said when.

Now Chu Yi gave an approximate time, that is, the day when the army of [-] people will form an army. If there is no accident, it will be almost a year or two.

The foundation of Daming's military system lies in the guards system. Since the guards system is to be reformed, it will be counterattacked by the vested interests of the whole guards system if the time comes.

It is true that Chu Yi is famous all over the world, even King Pingning, who captured the Tatar Khan, but if Chu Yi really wants to touch the interests of some people, the custodian will go crazy and deal with Chu Yi.

Just like those sea merchants, don't they know what will happen once the matter is leaked, but there are still a steady stream of people coming out to deal with Chu Yi.

It's not that they are stupid, and it's not that they are not afraid of death. In the final analysis, everything is driven by interests.

Even Chu Yi can't guarantee that once the reform of the guard system is carried out, there will be no group of vested interests jumping out to oppose it.

The Weisuo is different from others. No matter how rotten the Weisuo is, it is still a violent institution. Once something goes wrong, the destructive power caused by it is not small at all.

Although Chu Yi has absolute confidence and certainty that he can quell all turmoil by relying on the soldiers and horses in the hands of the imperial court, sooner or later he will expand the army. It is better to prepare in advance. When the army is in hand, it will be easier.

Yang Yiqing took a step forward and said to Zhu Houzhao for a week, "This minister agrees!"

As for the few civil servants, they were silent. As civil ministers, they naturally resisted the expansion of the Xungui Group's power, and the power of the Xungui Group was rooted in the army, and the expansion of the army meant that the power of the Xungui group rose sharply.

However, facing Chu Yi and Yang Yiqing now, these cabinet elders have no reason to stand up against it.

Chu Yi had already made it clear that he wanted to take action against the guard system, and the expansion of the army was to prevent problems before they happened. If they stood up to oppose them, they might be regarded by the emperor as having ulterior motives.

Zhu Houzhao glanced over the group of people, and finally said: "If you don't have any other opinions, the total expansion of the army is [-], so it's decided!"

Jiao Fang and Chen Ding looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

Yang Yiqing had a look of joy on his face. As the minister of the Ministry of War, although it was said that with the rise of noble powers, the military governor's mansion had gradually become tougher, and it was already on par with the Ministry of War, but Yang Yiqing was equally happy about it.

Although he was born as a civil servant, he was named the Duke of Jin with his military merits, and he was promoted to the ranks of nobles. Even if he himself did not admit it, in the eyes of all civil and military officials, he was one of the nobles.

However, within a few days, the imperial court issued a decree that the Ministry of Housing should allocate [-] million taels of silver to build another [-] ships and recruit [-] soldiers.

The Huating City Ship Division fire case was solved. Below the Huating county magistrate, more than a dozen large and small families including Wang, Liu, and Zhou colluded with Japanese pirates to murder the court officials.

Above the blue sea, seabirds swept across the water from time to time to pick up fishes from the water, and gradually you could see several large boats appearing at the end of the line of sight.

These few big ships were flying the Minglong flag, and they were a few big ships in a caravan funded by the royal family.

How amazing the interests of Haimao are, it is more intuitive to say that it is naturally not directly involved in it. Chu Yi is naturally very clear about the astonishing interests of Haimao. He specially arranged for the servants in the palace to form a caravan. A caravan is directly under the control of the eunuch, the imperial supervisor.

Originally, the Imperial Supervisor was just an ordinary department in charge of the jewelry, screens, beds and other utensils used by the imperial family. It was far from being comparable to the Silijian and the Imperial Majian. However, since Chu Yi handed over the responsibility and power of operating the royal caravan to the Imperial Imperial Supervisor. After the prison, the status of the imperial prisoner has skyrocketed among the twenty-four prisons in the Ming Dynasty.Even only under the supervisor of Sili and the supervisor of the imperial horse.

It was the first time that the caravan under the imperial supervisor went to sea, but Zheng Wen, the eunuch of the imperial supervisor, could not be more careful and sent a large number of people to accompany him.

These large ships were the merchant ships belonging to the imperial prison, and the merchant ships carried silk, porcelain, and tea as the most common and best-selling commodities in sea trade.

The caravan went to Dongying, and this time it was returning from Dongying. More than a dozen merchant ships carried a large amount of goods. Once they arrived in Dongying, they won the mad rush of local merchants.

These four large ships were the fleets that returned first, loaded with the gold and silver they had earned and the spices they had purchased.

Dongying is only a few days away from Daming. If the wind is smooth, it is easy to reach the seaport in Fujian.

The one who was in charge of leading these four large ships was the foreign supervisor of the imperial prison, Lu Kang. Lu Kang was full of joy. You must know that he asked for orders to go out to sea this time. It can be said to be a fight. If the emperor earns a lot of gold and silver wealth, then the imperial supervisor will definitely enter the emperor's sight, be valued by the emperor, and he will inevitably rise.

Obviously, the profiteering of sea trade is too astonishing, it is simply beyond Lu Kang's imagination, Lu Kang himself did not expect that the goods, which are only tens of thousands of taels of silver, would earn more than five times as much after changing hands. profit.

Lu Kang was so excited that he couldn't even wait for the other dozen large ships to load the rice purchased from Japan, and returned with the four large ships loaded with gold, silver, spices and other valuable goods.

Facing the sea breeze, Lu Kang's face was filled with joy, and the little eunuchs behind him were also happy.

However, Lu Kang didn't know that since his dozen or so merchant ships arrived in Dongpu, they were targeted by a group of Japanese pirates, and this group of Japanese pirates had been secretly watching the actions of Lu Kang and his party.

At this moment, more than a dozen large and small ships are coming from all directions, and they seem to surround Lu Kang's four big ships.

This group of Japanese pirates has as many as several hundred people, and they rely on a famous name from Dongying. All of them are considered powerful.

Above the merchant ship, a sailor was looking around with the help of a telescopic mirror. Suddenly, he found a ship from a few miles away that was heading towards them with full sails.

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Although it was said that Lu Kang and the courtiers from the capital did not know very much about the situation at sea, the sailors and subordinates recruited by Lu Kang were all veterans who walked on the sea all the year round.

These people have very rich experience at sea, so when the sailor observed the ships coming towards them through the binoculars, he almost immediately judged that the coming was not good.

Only the sailor shouted: "No, everyone stay alert, a ship is approaching rapidly."

Soon the news reached Lu Kang's ears, and Lu Kang, who was thinking of offering the proceeds after returning to Beijing, suddenly learned that their fleet might be being targeted by someone, couldn't help but change his expression.

Taking a telescopic mirror from his hand, Lu Kang looked around and found that there were more than a dozen large and small ships approaching them at a high speed.

Lu Kang frowned suddenly. Although he had heard that the sea was not safe, Lu Kang stayed in the palace all year round. Although the palace is not the safest place in the world, there are not many people there. Dare to provoke them, who serve the emperor's servants.

Therefore, even if Lu Kang knew that there might be pirates at sea, he never thought that one day he would be targeted by pirates.

He represents the Daming royal family, with the support of the entire Daming behind him, how could anyone dare to attack them.

An old sailor said to Lu Kang with an ugly expression: "Lord Lu, what should we do, these pirates are vicious and vicious, if we let them approach, I'm afraid I will be doomed."

Although Lu Kang said that his expression was a little nervous, he was not too flustered. From Lu Kang's point of view, no matter how daring these pirates were, if he played his signs, he would definitely be able to calm them down.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Kang glanced at the old sailor and said, "Order someone to play a banner and tell the other party that we are the Royal Caravan of Daming, representing the son of tomorrow, let them retreat quickly."

As the upper kingdom of the Celestial Empire, Daming's prestige can be said to deter the Quartet, so Lu Kang is very confident, he does not believe that these pirates dare to attack them.

However, the old sailor's face was still worried, but he was well-informed and had a good understanding of the temperament of many pirates at sea.

They also knew the identity of Lu Kang and his party, otherwise, they would not have left their old club to follow Lu Kang and his party.

After all, the identities of Lu Kang and his party are really advantageous. At least a considerable number of pirates at sea would definitely be afraid if they knew about Lu Kang and his identities.

But that is only relative to some pirates, but for some pirates, the identity of Lu Kang and his party may not have any effect, such as those vicious Japanese pirates.

The pirates in this sea area can be roughly divided into three types, one is the pirates composed of pure Ming people, the other is pirates composed of pure Japanese pirates, and the third is the common people of the Ming Dynasty. Pirates mixed with Japanese pirates.

Among them, the most dangerous ones are the pirates composed of pure Japanese pirates. These Japanese pirates not only attack Daming's past caravans without any scruples, even some Japanese merchant ships will not let them go.

It can be said that any maritime merchants targeted by these pirates, no matter what their status is, will not stop them, unless they can rely on sufficient strength to repel them.

Now that Lu Kang is trying to deter these pirates with his identity, the old sailors can only pray silently, hoping that what they encounter this time is not those vicious Japanese pirates.Otherwise, with the manpower on their ships alone, I am afraid that they will not be the opponents of these pirates.

Lu Kang was in a hurry to return to Daming with this harvest, so he only brought a very small number of guards on these big ships, but left a large number of guards on the remaining dozen large ships. .

If not, there would be hundreds of guards alone in more than a dozen large ships. If there were hundreds of well-equipped guards, even in the face of those vicious Japanese pirates, they would not be powerless. But now, the total number of guards on several large ships is less than a hundred, and I'm afraid they are not opponents of pirates who are several times their size.

Of course, no matter how worried he was, the old sailor still ordered the flag bearers on several large ships to show their identity to the pirate ships that were running towards them.

On the vast sea, it is naturally not so easy to pass on news, so some banners appeared.

Taro Kumamoto is the leader of this pirate. He has a braid on his head and a mustache. A wound like an earthworm crawled across his face. Just looking at the wound, Taro Kumamoto set off very well. terrifying.

Kumamoto Taro squinted his eyes and sneered at one of his subordinates, "What do the flags displayed by those Mingren ships in front mean?"

I heard that subordinate show a bit of solemnity and said to Kumamoto Taro: "My lord, we are lucky to have encountered a big fish. This fleet turned out to be a fleet formed by the Ming Dynasty royal family. Let's identify ourselves!"

Taro Kumamoto was stunned for a moment, with a look of surprise on his face: "It turned out to be the imperial fleet of Mingren, no wonder it is such a big hand, it is a dozen large merchant ships at a time, it seems that we really caught this time. A big fish lives there!"

While speaking, Kumamoto Taro's face showed a bit of surprise and excitement.

This made the subordinate say to Kumamoto Taro: "My lord, the Ming people are ordering us to retreat immediately, otherwise we will face the wrath of the Ming royal family."

"Hahaha, the anger of the Daming royal family? We are pirates, when do we need to be afraid of Daming! Besides, on this vast sea, as long as we kill all these people, who will know what we did? !"

While speaking, a murderous intent flashed in Kumamoto Taro's eyes and said: "Show the flag and let the Mingren fleet stop, otherwise, don't blame us for being rude."

On the big ship, when Chen Wu, an old sailor, informed Lu Kang of the flag that the pirates had used, Lu Kang couldn't help but scolded angrily: "What a big bastard, even the imperial fleet of Daming dared to loot, do they? Did you eat a bear heart and leopard gall?"

Lu Kang scolded him again and again, and Chen Wu said to Lu Kang with a bitter look on his face: "Sir, these pirates are only Japanese pirates. Japanese pirates have always been brutal and act recklessly, so they have no scruples at all."

With a twitch of his brows, Lu Kang showed a bit of surprise on his face and said, "Japanese pirates?"

Chen Wu nodded and said, "Only Japanese pirates can be so crazy. Otherwise, these pirates would never reply to us so quickly."

Lu Kang, who has realized that it is difficult to deter these pirates with his identity, also became a little nervous, and looked at Chen Wudao with a worried face: "Chen Wu, you are an old hand at sea. Faced with this situation, what should we do?" How to deal with it?"

Chen Wu gritted his teeth and said to Lu Kang: "My lord, these Japanese pirates don't know what to say. With the temperament of these people, as long as they fall into their hands, I am afraid that none of the people on board will survive."

Lu Kang looked worried, and only listened to Chen Wudao: "So the villain dared to ask the adults to order, and several large ships fled for their lives. While these pirates have not completely surrounded us, one can escape. "

Lu Kang was slightly taken aback when he heard the words, but he soon made a decision. Although Chen Wu's proposal was a bit pessimistic, he had to admit that this was the only way at the moment.

Because most of the guards they carried were left in Dongpu, even if they stopped to fight these Japanese pirates, they could not be the opponents of these experienced Japanese pirates, so it is said that one person who can escape is one person.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Kang flashed a chill in his eyes, and immediately conveyed the order to escape.