Food is the foundation.

No matter how wealth changes, there must be enough food for people to survive.

If you can't even solve the basic problem of food, money is naturally meaningless.

Zhu Ying has always been very clear about this point.

Sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn, three high-yield crops, are constantly being spread. According to the current situation, basically all provinces across the country have considerable areas for planting them.

On this basis, Zhu Ying did not stop expanding the rice industry.

Among them, water conservancy facilities are constantly expanding, especially in the area of ​​water diversion.

Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty has sufficient military personnel, and criminals no longer have the option of being sent to the army. Instead, they are all imprisoned and reformed, and then serve their sentences with labor.

The number of death row inmates is also decreasing. According to today's sentencing laws and regulations, most death sentences were previously sentenced to a fixed term of fifty years of hard labor.

This suddenly made the entire prison system prosperous.

A large number of prison factories continued to emerge, with skilled craftsmen from the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce providing basic training, and then factories were opened everywhere.

For example, the Nanjing Prison, the largest prison today, has more than 30,000 prisoners.

These more than 30,000 people work in the prison's breweries, garment factories, paper mills, printing factories, etc.

Apart from providing food and clothing, there are no other expenses.

And the costs are also reduced on a large scale.

For example, the Jingshi Dibao, which was previously losing money, is not turning a profit now, but the price difference is not much to make a loss.

This fast labor speed directly saves 50% of the cost.

All the provinces copied the Nanjing Prison model and set up many factories, using all the prisoners to work.

In terms of grain planting, Zhu Ying directly set strict targets for each prison.

There must be a sufficient amount of rice fields to be reclaimed before other factories can be opened to make money.

It has to be said that under the current circumstances, the prison system has indeed begun to generate a lot of income for the Ming Dynasty court.

From another perspective, it seems that the prison itself has become a bigger landlord, but in fact this form of forced labor has been highly recognized by the people.

Because food and accommodation are provided.

In an age when you can't even get enough food to eat, it's better to go to prison. If nothing else, at least you won't starve to death.

In the Ming Dynasty today, at least 80% of the people have felt the taste of hunger. They are so hungry that they want to take a bite of everything they see.

Not to mention, in the current prison system, there are indeed quite a few people who take advantage of the prisons, and many of them commit crimes intentionally just to stay in prison.

The prison basically accepts all such people.

After all, it is the high-yield crops that provide the confidence.

Sweet potatoes are very filling.

You only need a small amount of rice and a few sweet potatoes, and even the porridge made out of it will be extremely thick and very filling.

In the current prison system, there are still two meat meals per year.

They were on New Year's Day and His Majesty's birthday.

With such good conditions, some former wanted criminals simply surrendered themselves, thus saving themselves thirty years of detour.

In the capital, a resolution was unanimously passed on the establishment of a grassland military base.

Even many ministers are very optimistic about this plan.

You must know that in the tribute trade, the Ming Dynasty had to spend a lot of money every year to appease the surrounding border troubles.

The nine borders of the Ming Dynasty are of utmost importance.

With the grassland ban issued by Zhu Ying, border trade was effectively cancelled.

But we can’t just leave the war horses on the grassland alone.

It used to be a pack of teacups and a war horse.

Now that trade is not allowed, the Ming Dynasty will actually gain much less.

The establishment of a grassland military base now can, to a large extent, enable the acquisition of grassland war horses and the raising of many cavalry.

Using grassland cavalry to fight the grassland is absolutely feasible.

The main thing is to look at the specific operation.

However, with the border as a backing, and the recent suppression and defeat of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the initial stage should be very smooth.

With the arrival of deep winter, the grasslands were basically covered with heavy snow, so there was no need to think about fighting.

The absorption of grassland population is an important work direction for the Ming Dynasty border in mid-winter.

Based on the Nine Frontiers, food from the inland was continuously transported to the border, including a lot of warm clothing and coal for heating.

To protect people's livelihood.

…

During the struggle between the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

The Timurid Empire was also not idle.

It was this year, at the end of the 26th year of the Ming Dynasty, that news about the Timurid Empire finally reached the capital.

This year, Timur conquered Persia.

At the same time, Timur had been on a winning streak in his military campaigns against the Golden Horde and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

Timur continued to take over large amounts of land, and his momentum was extremely overwhelming.

The surrounding small countries were all trembling in fear.

Unlike the Ming Dynasty, Timur conquered in the Mongol way, which is similar to Genghis Khan.

Often after a city is captured, a massacre will be carried out.

This left a shadow of fear among the people of many countries, and some cities often surrendered directly when they encountered Timur's army.

Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang did not know much about Timur, because he was the first distant big country to recognize the legitimacy of the Ming Dynasty, and Timur treated Zhu Yuanzhang in a humble manner as a subject.

This point was written extremely clearly in the letter submitted to the Ming Dynasty.

So I have a good impression of it.

At present, Timur's territory has actually been connected with the Western Regions.

However, the situation in the Western Regions was complicated, with many small countries, so when Timur reached the Western Regions, he stopped his eastward advance and turned westward.

Timur felt that he could not make enemies with the Ming Dynasty for the time being.

It’s just that Zhu Ying spent a long time in the Western Regions and covered a large territory, so his intelligence on Timur was more accurate.

In the Huagai Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang summoned the Minister of Rites and asked, "Has Timur paid tribute this year?"

The Minister of Rites quickly replied: "Your Majesty, this year Timur has not paid tribute except for the visit of Prince Pirmahamad."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly.

After seeing the current intelligence about the Timurid Empire, Zhu Yuanzhang felt threatened.

So he called his eldest grandson again.

"Grandson, is the situation of the Timurid Empire really as the intelligence says? Timurid now has a territory that is not much smaller than ours?"

The feeling of being the best in the Central Plains since ancient times is deeply engraved in everyone's heart.

But now Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Timur's territory in U-Tsang, which bordered the Western Regions, was actually almost the same size as the Ming Dynasty's. The situation was completely different.

Zhu Ying nodded and said, "It was much worse before, but this year Timur has conquered Persia, and his territory is indeed much closer to that of the Ming Dynasty."

"The foundation of Timur's current position is the former Western Chagatai Khanate. Timur does not claim to be a Khan because he is not a descendant of Genghis Khan, but his ambition is huge."

"In the Western Regions, merchants who have been to Timur's territory know that the person he admires most is Genghis Khan Temujin. In addition, Timur is now powerful and has a million cavalry under his command. He can be said to be invincible in sweeping across the surrounding countries."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment after hearing this and said, "So, the intelligence says that there are more post stations in their country than in the Ming Dynasty. Is that true?"

This is the position that Zhu Yuanzhang is most worried about.

Who could know the role and understanding of post stations better than Zhu Yuanzhang?

"Earlier, didn't Pirmahema bring the cement recipe to Timur? Is there any feedback now?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked after thinking for a while.

According to what the eldest grandson said before, the cement formula will make Timur's internal conflicts even more acute.

Zhu Ying nodded: "There is indeed news that Timur is now capturing slaves on a large scale and forcing them to build new cement roads."

"I think a lot of cement roads have been built in Timurid territory now."

"Now that Timur has conquered Persia, he has stopped fighting the Golden Horde and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate. A large number of soldiers have been transferred back. According to what my grandson has seen, he is accumulating strength to attack South India."

"South India is a rich country. Genghis Khan almost conquered South India."

"It seems that Timur wants to complete the unfinished mission of Genghis Khan and conquer South India in one fell swoop."

"Timur is extremely ambitious. His continuous victories have led him forward. His wolfish ambitions are obvious. After he conquers South India, he will most likely launch an expedition to the east and invade our Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "He will certainly have the intention of conquering the east in the future. We must guard against him. The grassland military base established by our eldest grandson is the best way to stop him. We have to see if Timur really has the courage to invade our Ming Dynasty."

"We want to send a team of envoys to Timur, and it's also a good opportunity to see the situation there. What do you think, Grandson?"

Historically, the news of the demise of the Persian Empire by Timur was not known to Zhu Yuanzhang until two years later. It was at that time that envoys from the Ming Dynasty were sent to investigate the situation.

The final result was that the Ming Dynasty envoys were detained.

In the 30th year of Hongwu, the Ming envoy sent to Timur for the second time was detained and abused.

Only then did the Ming Dynasty realize Timur's sinister intentions.

By that time, Zhu Yuanzhang had already passed away and had no news about Timur.

After being detained for five years, Timur launched an expedition to the east on the grounds that Zhu Di had come to power illegitimately, and then died on the way.

"My grandson thinks so too. Timur's territory is expanding, and he is constantly provoking wars on the grasslands. I heard that he is expanding westwards and winning all the way."

"Once they become powerful, they will definitely set their sights on our Ming Dynasty. In terms of wealth, our Ming Dynasty is undoubtedly the first in the world."

"It must first swallow up small countries to strengthen itself, and then attack our Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Ying said very directly.

Zhu Yuanzhang once had a good impression of Timur. After all, Timur was extremely submissive to the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, in Zhu Ying's opinion, the main reason why Timur surrendered was because of the Mongols.

The Mongols were once extremely powerful on the grasslands, and Timur was also born during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

At that time, although the grassland was divided into several khanates, the influence of the Mongols covered the entire grassland. For Timur, such a powerful Mongols were finally expelled by the Ming Dynasty.

According to the custom of worshipping the strong on the grassland, Timur was naturally the first to express his submission.

At least a distant military alliance can be formed, and in many aspects it will not be restricted by the Ming Dynasty.

The commander of U-Tsang is connected to Timur.

Even if the Western Regions only submitted to the Ming Dynasty in name, at least on the surface, they would not directly provoke the Ming Dynasty.

The U-Tsang Command Headquarters of the Ming Dynasty in the Western Regions seemed to have only these few people, but in fact, they were able to use the name of unity to drive the indigenous peoples of all parties to submit to the Ming Dynasty on the surface.

All they need to do is give some benefits, or grant discounts during trade, and these indigenous tribes, who usually go hungry, will raise their knives without hesitation and wave them at the enemies of the Ming Dynasty.

Timur's neighboring Delhi Sultanate was also greatly influenced by the U-Tsang Commandery.

If the two joined forces, it would be a huge headache for Timur. At least he would not be able to advance westward with all his strength, and he would have to divide his troops just to defend.

But if Timur surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, then it would not be possible to say that he was attacked.

It is impossible for the entire Western Region to integrate a large amount of force to fight against Timur. As long as Timur does not actively invade, there is no need to worry too much.

Even now, Timur is simultaneously launching military campaigns against the Golden Horde and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, and the U-Tsang Commandery will not take the initiative to confront Timur without receiving orders from the capital.

This was undoubtedly a great scene for Timur.

From this aspect, we can see that Timur's mind was extremely meticulous. In his letter to the Ming Dynasty, he almost completely showed his loyalty and gave the Ming Dynasty a high reputation.

If Zhu Ying had not pointed out Timur's vast territory, extremely strong military power, and ambition to continuously attack other countries, Zhu Yuanzhang would naturally not have said that he regarded Timur as an enemy.

But the Ming Dynasty was different from other countries. Even the weaker Song Dynasty could resist the more powerful army of Genghis Khan for decades, let alone the Ming Dynasty, which was now at the peak of its military power.

Mongke died in the Central Plains. Although Timur was very powerful, if he really wanted to attack the Ming Dynasty, he had to consider the consequences.

Will we be dragged to death by the Ming Dynasty?

The strong cities and powerful defenses of the various regions of the Ming Dynasty are not as strong as those of the small countries of Obalo. It is often more difficult to capture a city than to successively conquer more than a dozen small countries of Obalo.