The Ming Palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows were deeply furrowed, and the eunuchs below were trembling with fear.

Even Liu He held his breath and dared not make any sound.

As the saying goes, to serve the emperor is like serving a tiger. Although Liu He and Jiang Li had always been serving Zhu Yuanzhang, they never dared to overstep the mark. They also did not dare to think that they had some weight in the emperor's heart just because they were with him day and night.

Perhaps the kings of other dynasties had this possibility, but it would never happen to Zhu Yuanzhang. Anyone who had such an idea would already have more than three feet of grass on his grave.

Not to mention the eunuchs in the palace, even those founding heroes who made great contributions, how many of them had an easy life? Weren't they all buried in the ground?

Of the original group of people who followed Your Majesty, not a single one is left since the death of King Tang He of Dong'ou.

This is because the return of the eldest grandson of the Ming Emperor has calmed Zhu Yuanzhang's once violent murderous intent. Otherwise, in the current palace and court, countless people have been beheaded.

Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang was in a very bad mood today.

The wind was howling outside, and there was a charcoal fire inside the Huagai Hall for heating, but Zhu Yuanzhang's expression still made people feel so cold.

"These evildoers, once they left the capital, they were lawless and unscrupulous. Now that they have fled overseas, they think they don't take us seriously at all."

"You are so bold that you dare to intercept our things."

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and threw the memorial to the ground.

The eunuchs and guards in the hall immediately fell to their knees on the ground.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up in a rage, unable to vent his anger, and kicked over the cabinet next to him.

The top-quality blue and white porcelain loaded on it shattered into pieces.

Fragments flew everywhere, but Zhu Yuanzhang's anger was not reduced at all.

At this time, the door opened and the cold wind rushed in.

The only one who dared to open the door without reporting was Zhu Ying.

Zhu Ying looked at the situation inside and ordered, "Everyone get out."

Everyone in the hall felt relieved and hurriedly bowed their heads and left, especially Liu and Jiang Lin, who were even more grateful that the Crown Prince came to the rescue.

After the door closed, Zhu Yuanzhang was still angry.

Zhu Ying walked forward, picked up the scattered reports from the ground, and quickly read through them.

In fact, he probably already knew what had made the old man so angry.

This report describes how the King of Qin, the King of Jin, the King of Yan, and the King of Qi secretly intercepted mineral deposits.

According to the current laws set by the Ming Dynasty, 30% of the mineral deposits on the Japanese island of Kyushu must be paid into the national treasury as taxes for overseas vassal kings.

Money is a powerful thing. The princes certainly would not care about a little money, but hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are not a small amount.

The wealth contained in one month of mining may exceed the total wealth of a small country.

In fact, the ability to achieve such a large amount of mining is inseparable from the strong support of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty provided a large amount of gunpowder for blasting the mountain, and also sent a large number of craftsmen with exploration experience.

Almost all the initial costs of establishing processing plants were supported by the Ming Dynasty treasury.

Otherwise, it would be just a few feudal lords capturing some Japanese people as slaves, and the efficiency would be extremely low, how could the efficiency be so high?

At present, high-yield crops in Japan have not yet been popularized, and the Ming Dynasty still has a large amount of grain exports and supplies. This is the reason why many vassal kings can be stationed in Japan steadily and still cause trouble.

In fact, although the current silver mining is very large, the silver actually transported to the Ming Dynasty does not yet cover the previous expenditure.

After all, whether it is the stationing of a large army or support from all aspects, it will incur huge expenses.

Although sea transportation is cheap, it also involves huge costs.

The wear and tear of shipping vessels, labor expenses, and officials' salaries all add up to a considerable amount.

In other words, Japan's silver is valuable now, otherwise stationing troops in Japan might completely drag the Ming Dynasty's finances into a quagmire.

Throughout history, many dynasties did not want to expand their territory, mostly for this reason.

War is already a huge blow to the national treasury, and we also have to support local construction. Occasionally there will be an uprising or something like that. Who wouldn't have a headache when encountering that?

Throughout history, there were very few emperors who did not want to expand their territory, such as conquering the Wolf's Lair.

Only when you are in charge of a household do you know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are. Only after you became emperor did you realize how big the mess the country was in. It was completely different from when you were a prince.

It was with such support from the Japanese feudal lords that several feudal lords secretly united to conceal the amount of mining and embezzle a large amount of silver.

Not only that, other mineral deposits were also embezzled.

Then they sell it to other merchants and make huge profits.

Moreover, it also avoids paying 30% of taxes.

"Grandson, you were right before. Your uncles are not suitable to stay in one place for a long time."

"Once they have mastered the territory, they will become a nuisance like they are now."

"We didn't ask for much of their mineral deposits, only 30%. We have already spent tens of millions of dollars on building the factory."

"Human greed is like a snake swallowing an elephant. Even after we have treated them like this, they still want to do these little tricks in secret."

"They are relying on their overseas presence to become powerful. We can't control them anymore."

Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he laughed, but there was a hint of helplessness in his tone.

After all, they are all our own people. They are far away overseas and difficult to govern. The most important thing is that the Japanese garrison cannot be replaced.

After all, he is his own son, so the meat has been rotten in the pot.

If it were any other general, Zhu Yuanzhang would have executed all nine generations of his clan.

Zhu Ying walked over the broken porcelain pieces on the ground.

The porcelain vases that can be placed in the Huagai Hall are of course the best blue and white porcelain, and the one that was kicked to pieces is a pair with the one next to it.

In today's market, it would cost at least tens of thousands of coins. If it were overseas, it would be a priceless treasure that could even trigger a national war, and it was broken just like that.

Of course, the remaining porcelain vase became even more valuable under Zhu Yuanzhang's feet.

"Grandpa, don't be angry. This kind of thing happens to everyone. Money is flowing in front of you. Who can resist not taking a chance? No one is a saint. It's inevitable to have seven emotions and six desires."

Zhu Ying gently massaged Zhu Yuanzhang's shoulders and spoke comfortingly.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang now just needs a way out.

"It's really outrageous that they are like this. We must punish them this time. Otherwise, they will get even worse in a few years. Will they embezzle all the mineral resources they have mined?"

"We can't let this trend continue. We have huge expenditures on Japan in our national treasury, and we are losing money all the time."

"We have mobilized 500,000 troops before, and now we have 150,000 troops stationed. The reward for the soldiers is a considerable sum."

"It is because you, my great grandson, have filled the treasury in recent years. Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty would have been dragged to death."

"If we don't treat it now, we will definitely not be able to treat it in the future. Our Ming Dynasty will suffer a great loss in the future."

"Grandson, you have to think of a way to punish them severely."

"We are the worst offenders against corrupt officials. I never thought that these useless guys would embezzle money from our own family."

Zhu Yuanzhang said somewhat unsatisfied.

Zhu Ying burst out laughing when he heard this.

In fact, he had already heard that the old man was afraid that after he left, he would take action to deal with these uncles, so he said that.

If he had been like before, he would have issued an imperial decree to recall the four princes to the capital and reprimand them, but now he said that Zhu Ying would be the one to punish them.

They were afraid that after Zhu Ying inherited the throne, he would be angry with his uncles who were enfeoffed overseas.

Zhu Yuanzhang actually knew Zhu Ying's character very well. This eldest grandson looked kind on weekdays, but in fact, once something did not go his way, he would never hesitate to take action.

Besides, he had lost his memory and had not grown up in the palace. He felt no different from strangers to these uncles.

Zhu Yuanzhang actually didn't want to take ruthless action.

He still hoped that his descendants could live in harmony and avoid fighting among themselves.

"First, mobilize the entire inspection team and transfer some people who know arithmetic from the Ministry of Revenue to conduct a thorough investigation to see how much money these evil sons have embezzled." Zhu Yuanzhang added with a cold snort.

Zhu Ying said, "There's no need to go to all that trouble. Recently, the Japanese envoys have been trying to find ways to protest every day, saying that the emperor's uncles have abused the Japanese people, not using them as human beings, and forcing the young and strong to work as laborers."

"In my grandson's opinion, Japan is very wary of the emperor's uncles, and the conflicts between them are quite sharp. It's hard to say when they will start fighting again."

"I want to take advantage of this opportunity to withdraw 10,000 soldiers from each of the uncles. This is a warning. I think the uncles should know the reason and will not dare to extend their hands too far in the future."

"The Japanese side also gave them an explanation, which made Ashikaga Yoshimitsu feel less fearful."

Zhu Ying's move was like hitting the snake at its most vulnerable part.

Troops and horses are the reliance of overseas vassal kings, and these troops and horses currently obey the orders of the Ming Dynasty court first.

Moreover, for now, they have no ability to disobey the decree.

"Okay, let's do as Da Sun says."

Zhu Yuanzhang actually didn't care that much about the princes' embezzlement of money. He was just worried that such behavior would cause irreconcilable conflicts between the uncle and nephew.

This is just like when Zhu Yuanzhang asked Zhu Yunwen how he would treat his uncles before Zhu Ying appeared.

"I have something else to report to Grandpa today. It's about Timur."

After talking about this, Zhu Ying turned and said.

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but ask: "Could it be that the grassland alliance has stimulated Timur?"

Zhu Ying sighed slightly: "I guess so. Not only the mobilization of troops on the grassland, but also our ocean-going fleet, made Timur even more brutal."

"According to the latest intelligence, Timur has assembled an army of 300,000 to attack the Delhi Sultanate directly. I think this time he wants to capture the Delhi Sultanate in one fell swoop, thus forming a deterrent to the grassland and our Ming Dynasty."

"Since he couldn't defeat the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, he took out his anger on the Delhi Sultanate. This is more in line with Timur's temperament of not wanting to suffer any loss."

The Delhi Sultanate borders Tibet and is close to the Ming Dynasty. It is not the name of a certain dynasty, but a name similar to the Central Plains.

The present Delhi Sultanate is the Tughlaq dynasty.

The Tughlaq dynasty reached its peak during the reign of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

During his reign, he launched four southern expeditions and occupied almost the entire South India region.

However, due to excessive local power and administrative misconduct, the Tughlaq dynasty began to decline after Muhammad.

The current Tughlaq Sultan is Nahirddin Mahmud Shah.

In fact, Sultan Shah did have some ability, but the problems left over from the Tughlaq Dynasty were too huge, and the local governors had already formed a state of separatist rule. Under internal and external troubles, the country's strength naturally declined.

Moreover, even during the heyday of the Tughluq Dynasty during the time of Muhammad, it was not as powerful as the current Timurid Empire.

"I think Tugruluk has suffered a terrible defeat now." Zhu Yuanzhang asked after hearing this.

Zhu Ying nodded. "It's really tragic. Timur wanted to demonstrate this time, so he directly cleared out the mountain people along the way, forcing a large number of people to live in the mountains. The villages and towns were used as supply stations."

"The news that came this time is that Timur's army has rushed through the Khyber Pass and is following the footsteps of Alexander and Genghis Khan."

"The former city of Peshawar was destroyed by the Mongols two hundred years ago and turned into ruins. Now Timur's army is marching quickly, hoping to capture the Indus River Basin, which has sufficient supplies. Otherwise, in the deep winter, the logistics of 300,000 troops will be a hassle."

"Although the local governors near the Indus River have already submitted to the Tughlaq Dynasty, in my grandson's opinion, they probably won't put up any decent resistance and will just surrender."

"The Delhi Sultanate is no longer the dynasty that dared to resist the Mongols in history. I guess it will not be able to resist this time. It is time for a change of dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "My eldest grandson has understood it so clearly. I believe he has already made arrangements and is determined to go to Delhi Sultan to get a share of the pie."

Zhu Ying did not hide it and smiled, "I can't hide it from Grandpa. The fall of the Tughluk Dynasty is a foregone conclusion, but it will not be easy for Timur to take it down quickly."

"For Timur, the time before the New Year is to occupy the Indus River region for a short rest and spend this cold winter. The attack on the capital of the Tughluq Dynasty will definitely take place in the early spring of next year."

"During this period, my grandson is planning to recruit some elite Tibetan cavalry in the name of our Ming Dynasty, and hire a certain number of Mongolians from the U-Tsang Command to support the Tughluk Dynasty."

"We can't let Timur proceed so smoothly. This can be considered a confrontation between our Ming Dynasty and Timur."