Chapter 115 Do You Dare?

"How is this possible?" Zhu Biao could not accept Zhu Chong's thinking.

"What? You don't believe it?" Zhu Chong laughed. "Brother, don't you dare not believe it? A country without vast land, like Dali or Annan, is small and insignificant, with a small territory and limited resources. How can they withstand the Ming Dynasty?"

"Then isn't the Northern Yuan Dynasty any different?" Zhu Biao couldn't help but ask back.

"Brother, you've been to the frontier before, so you should know how vast the North is!" Zhu Chong said bluntly, "You've seen the Northern Expedition feng shui map in our father's palace more than once, right?"

"We always say that the Northern Yuan Dynasty is small, but the Northern Yuan Dynasty now truly has a vast territory. To the east, it's directly connected to the East China Sea, to the west, it leads directly to the Western Regions, and to the south, it borders the northern border of the Ming Dynasty. The span is more than ten thousand miles!"

"If we really want to talk about it, the current size of the Northern Yuan Dynasty has probably already surpassed that of the Ming Dynasty."

"Brother, you are also a learned man. You should know the old saying that a march of a thousand miles will inevitably lead to the loss of a general."

"My Great Ming wants to conquer the Northern Yuan Dynasty now, but it will take more than a thousand-mile march. If the Northern Yuan Dynasty flees all the way north or all the way west, even if we chase them for tens of thousands of miles, can you guarantee that we can catch up with them?"

"Brother, you've been the Crown Prince for so many years, so you've had to deal with the Ministry of Revenue for quite a while, right? Every time we launched a Northern Expedition, when our army was chasing the Northern Yuan army, the money spent on transporting food and fodder alone probably accounted for 60% of the total cost of the Northern Expedition, right?"

"More than 60%!" Zhu Biao's face was extremely grim, but he did not hide the truth from Zhu Chong. "Especially in the second Northern Expedition, the Duke of Wei was defeated by Wang Baobao, and the Duke of Cao was also defeated by the Northern Yuan in the east. Only the Duke of Song and the Duke of Ying in the west won seven battles in a row."

"But at that time, they had penetrated deep into the Northern Yuan territory. Our food supplies, which were shipped from Dadu, were delivered to the troops outside the Great Wall. Of the 100-jin load of food, less than 5 jin remained."

"You're right. If the Northern Yuan court marches westward or northward, they won't have to do anything. They just need to keep us at bay, and we'll be dragged down by our own forces."

At this point, Zhu Biao's eyes suddenly lit up, "Second Brother, since you can see all this, have you already figured out a plan to deal with the Northern Yuan Dynasty?"

"Hahaha..." Zhu Chong laughed dryly and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "Brother, you really think too highly of me. You don't know what I'm capable of. Being a Zhao Kuo is fine when it comes to talking about military strategy on paper, but if you really asked me to be Zhao Kuo, would you dare?"

Zhu Chong's words made Zhu Biao speechless, but his words just now made Zhu Biao understand suddenly that the Northern Yuan Dynasty posed a threat to the Ming Dynasty, and also understood the difficulties that the Ming Dynasty was facing in the northern border.

But he didn't quite believe that Zhu Chong could say so much and could only play a role like Zhao Kuo.

Since he dared to take on such a hot potato as the Baochao Tizhusi, and was able to find ways to find coal mines to relieve his urgent needs, why couldn't he deal with such a big threat as the Northern Yuan Dynasty?

Could it be that he knew but didn't dare to say it, that he was worried about himself? Zhu Biao was puzzled.

But after thinking about it, Zhu Biao was relieved. There was still a long way to go, and the affairs of the Northern Yuan Dynasty were not urgent. So he patted Zhu Chong on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Forget it, if you don't want to talk, I won't force you. Today's visit to my East Palace is just a family dinner, not to discuss state affairs."

"Hahaha..." When Zhu Chong heard what Zhu Biao said, he knew that the other party was insincere and must be thinking about him in his heart.

But he didn't respond, and Zhu Biao had no choice. The two returned to the East Palace, drank and chatted, talking about everything under the sun, but Zhu Chong never changed the topic to the affairs of the northern border.

Until Zhu Biao watched Zhu Chong's back as he left, the smile on his face disappeared completely in an instant, his brows furrowed, and he looked like he was worried about something.

But after hesitating for a long time, Zhu Biao got up, called for his sedan chair, got in it and went straight to the imperial palace.

When Zhu Biao entered the imperial study, he unexpectedly discovered that Zhu was not reviewing memorials alone today. There was another person sitting in the imperial study, and that was Xu Da, Duke of Wei.

"Your Highness, I pay my respects to you, Father, and to the Duke of Wei."

Xiao Zhu first saluted Zhu Yuanzhang, then stood up and bowed to Xu Da.

"Your Highness is polite." Xu Da also bowed slightly when he saw Zhu Biao.

"Hey, Prince, why are you here so often today? Who caused trouble and asked you to clean up the mess?"

Old Zhu seemed to be in high spirits at the moment and was even in the mood to joke with Zhu Biao, but when he noticed that Zhu Biao's face looked wrong, his expression suddenly became serious again.

He knew his son very well. He never hid anything from him and didn't even know how to disguise his expression.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao bowed to Old Zhu and said, "Father, this is what happened..."

Afterwards, he told Zhu Chong in detail what he and Zhu Chong had just said to each other.

Xu Da didn't care much at first, but the more he listened, the more this number one man in the Ming army frowned deeply.

"That's what Lao Er told you?" Lao Zhu's eyes widened, his expression darkening. "Are you sure you heard it with your own ears?"

"How dare I lie in front of your Majesty?" Zhu Biao smiled bitterly. "After parting with the Second Brother, I felt this matter was of grave importance, so I hurried to your presence, fearing I might have forgotten the details I had shared with you."

When Zhu Biao heard what he said, Zhu's face became even uglier.

He was originally bragging to Xu Da about the big gift Zhu Chong gave him today, but he didn't expect that it was his own son who said something to the prince, which put both him and the prince in a bad mood.

But it must be said that every word of Zhu Chong's was reasonable. From ancient times to the present, the threat of the northern Hu people to the Central Plains has never stopped. Even if they hurt them once, ten or twenty years later, new Hu people will march south.

When Lao Zhu thought that all his efforts over the years were in vain and that his idea of leaving a stable country for future generations was a joke, his mood became even worse.

Xu Da just listened quietly from beginning to end. Today, when he was invited into the palace by Zhu Yuanzhang and listened to him bragging about the big gift Zhu Chong gave him, Xu Da didn't think anything of it.

But after listening to the prince and Zhu Chong analyzing the affairs between the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty, especially when he heard the standards for a country's strength, he finally developed a strong interest in Zhu Chong.

"Tian De, what do you think?" Old Zhu thought for a long time, but the more he thought about it, the more headache he got. Although he was also a veteran, when it came to the strategic level, he was somewhat unable to keep up with the advanced thinking that Zhu Chong mentioned.

"Your Majesty, if the Northland is truly as vast as His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin claims, I cannot think of any solution, even if I am incompetent..."