Zhu Ying suddenly discovered that the grassland soldiers were really useful.

Using them to interfere in the situation in the Middle East will not have any impact on the Ming Dynasty.

In this way, the Ming Dynasty did not need to directly participate in the war and be affected.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied with this plan.

"Can these 50,000 soldiers withstand Timur's attack?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked with a smile.

Zhu Ying replied: "Of course not, but we can put a lot of pressure on Timur's army in the early stages. From the current intelligence, Timur's army is not only powerful in combat, but also has very powerful firearms."

"Their crossbows and artillery are beyond the reach of the Delhi Sultan. Although the Mongolian soldiers are not bad, they will naturally be defeated by firearms."

Zhu Ying's tone was relaxed. This wave consumed a lot of Mongolian soldiers.

The Mongolian soldiers died, and the Tughluq Dynasty just had to pay more pensions, and everyone would be happy.

As long as the money is paid, there will naturally be many tribes on the Northern Yuan side willing to participate in the war.

Others don't like dealing with the Mongols, but there are fewer concerns when dealing with the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Ying is not worried at all that his business will be done alone by the Mongols.

If we encounter any Mongols who bypass the Northern Yuan mercenary guild to work on their own, we will impose sanctions directly, not only to remove them from the guild, but also to sanction all their tribes.

How can we let others easily destroy a well-built platform?

Zhu Yuanzhang hesitated for a moment and said, "Thirty thousand taels of gold may seem like a lot, but in reality it is only three hundred thousand strings of banknotes. This is not like your personality, my grandson."

Zhu Ying gave a thumbs up and said, "The one who understands me best is my grandfather."

"This is a low price for Tugruk. In fact, my grandson didn't intend to make too much money from the soldiers. This will affect the reputation of our Ming Dynasty, and it will be difficult to do business elsewhere in the future."

"Now my grandson has prepared many firearms that were once obsolete, and they are on their way to the Delhi Sultan."

"Firearms are consumables. At this time, the Sultan of Delhi will accept any price. This is where the real money is made."

"This deal is not only for Sultan Mahmud, but also for those local governors. They will definitely be willing to pay a lot of money to buy it and protect their own territories."

"I have also prepared a number of students who graduated from the Daming Military Academy to go with me to help the Delhi Sultan train new soldiers and better control firearms."

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang clearly understood what his eldest grandson was thinking.

"You are trying to drag Timur into the quagmire of war, using the Delhi Sultan to force Timur to continuously invest troops."

Zhu Yuanzhang had to admit that this was a genius idea.

This is equivalent to the Ming Dynasty and Timur fighting each other from a distance.

The reason why Timur sent an army of 300,000 was that he wanted to take over the entire Delhi Sultanate in one fell swoop.

The location of the Delhi Sultanate is very critical. It borders the Tibetan area that is indirectly controlled by the Ming Dynasty, and is sandwiched between the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

Once the Delhi Sultanate is completely taken down, Timur will be able to threaten the Ming Dynasty and the grassland area.

At the same time, the 300,000-strong army also demonstrated its military strength.

Timur wanted to launch a blitzkrieg, but Zhu Ying certainly would not let him do so.

They gave him people and firearms, and in any case, they tried to drag Timur into the quagmire of the Delhi Sultanate.

Want to take down the Delhi Sultan in the early spring of next year?

Dream on.

Zhu Ying wanted to let Timur know what the consequences would be if he did not give face to the Ming Dynasty.

Especially firearms.

In the past two years, Zhu Ying has vigorously developed the Gunpowder Bureau, especially the firearms manufacturing workshops under it, and more than 200 new ones have been added.

A school was even set up specifically to train firearms craftsmen.

The status of today's firearms craftsmen is not low. Not only can they eat official food like officials, but they also have many welfare benefits.

For example, as long as you work for a certain number of years and complete the assessment tasks arranged by the Gunpowder Bureau, you can obtain the deed to the house.

In each gunpowder workshop, there is a school for children and a clinic providing free treatment.

This means that as long as you enter the gunpowder workshop, you will never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of your life.

In this day and age, having enough food and drink is the beautiful wish of almost all the lower-class people.

This wish can be realized as long as you can enter the gunpowder workshop.

Almost all the people are very enthusiastic about this.

As long as the Firearms School has an enrollment announcement, there will be a constant stream of people signing up, forming long queues, so there is no need to worry about not being able to enroll.

The Ming Dynasty itself was very short of copper and iron minerals, and its ability to support the manufacture of today's firearms was inseparable from Japan.

Even though the feudal lords in Japan evaded taxes and sold minerals privately, in today's market, the biggest buyer is naturally the Ming Dynasty.

Even though some money was spent, these mineral resources still flowed into the Ming Dynasty.

Just as the year was coming to an end, Zhu Yuanzhang's edict reached the hands of the feudal lords of Japan.

Zhu Ying's move can be said to be a real way to cut off the source of the problem.

This immediately made several princes panic.

The four feudal lords, who originally had conflicts, had to gather together to discuss countermeasures.

"My brothers, do we really need to mobilize 10,000 elite soldiers to return to Ming?"

The first to speak was Prince of Qi Zhu Yu.

As the youngest brother and the one with the weakest generals and military force, King Zhu Gui of Qi really did not want to reduce his 50,000 soldiers by 10,000.

This is on someone else's territory, and there is a threat of war at any time, so the role of 10,000 elite soldiers is very important.

Zhu Gang snorted coldly: "Seventh Brother, do you want to disobey your father's order?"

Prince Zhu Yu of Qi felt a little aggrieved: "Third brother, if this is what we are going to do, then why are we still gathering together? We can just mobilize the troops directly."

Zhu Di came out and said, "The troops must be recalled. Father's decree has been issued, so no one can disobey it."

"But how to mobilize and which troops to mobilize is another matter. The imperial edict did not specify which troops to mobilize, so there is naturally room for more reservations."

Upon hearing this, Prince Zhu Yu of Qi could not help but say, "This will not anger my father, will it?"

Zhu Gang immediately scolded: "Stupid."

"According to the Ming Dynasty's system of mobilizing troops, the Ministry of War has always issued a document detailing the specific garrisons and their commanders' movements. However, this time, along with my father's decree, there was no detailed document from the Ministry of War."

"This is equivalent to letting us make our own decisions. Are you going to send your most capable soldiers back to Ming?"

This time, Zhu Gang did not confront Zhu Di, because the direction of today's discussion was to take into account the overall interests of the four major vassal kings.

Although the four major vassal kings now have conflicts among themselves, especially some issues involving the ownership of the vassal states, even if they do not cause military conflicts, there are constant verbal battles.

But on the whole, the four great princes can now be said to prosper together and suffer together.

They are all princes and princes of the Ming Dynasty, and they all live in Japan.

It’s unclear what will happen in the future, but at least the current inheritance is all here.

Not only oneself, but also descendants and hereditary inheritance must be considered.

Zhu Chong coughed lightly, and the others fell silent, waiting for Zhu Chong, the second brother, to speak.

Since the eldest brother Zhu Biao passed away, the second brother Zhu Chong has been the oldest.

The Ming Dynasty emphasized dignity and order, so Zhu Chong was the one who had the most say in public, and everyone had to give him some face, whether it was Zhu Gang, Zhu Di, or Zhu Gui.

"Regarding the matter of mobilizing troops, everyone can figure it out on their own. Since the fourth brother has already pointed out the reason, I won't say more."

"The main business we are discussing this time is still about the mineral deposits. When the emperor withdrew our troops, we all knew that this was a warning from the emperor."

"Recently, everyone, including me, has been a little over the top."

"We have opened a dozen more mines, but the taxes paid are not much different from before. This will certainly arouse the wrath of my father."

"Then we should try to be more restrained in terms of taxation."

Prince Zhu Yu of Qi said helplessly: "Second brother, the sea merchants who ship goods to us now used to work for the Crown Prince. Now the business of mineral deposits has basically been monopolized by the Crown Prince."

"Last time I contacted other merchants about this business, they immediately shut up after hearing the news."

"How can we possibly hide the amount of our shipments from the Crown Prince and Father? I'm afraid they know the account books better than we do."

Zhu Ying controlled a large amount of business intelligence, which was a very shocking thing in any dynasty in history.

The transaction of mineral resources could not be concealed from the intelligence channels in Zhu Ying's hands, because they could only be sold to Ming Dynasty in the end.

In the world today, the only country that can purchase mineral deposits on a large scale is the Ming Dynasty.

Even if other countries need it, they cannot consume so much goods.

In the past, products could be sold to the grasslands through the trade routes of Goryeo, but now the grasslands' business has basically been covered by the Ming Dynasty.

Besides, the princes could not do such treasonous behavior.

If one of the princes behaved in this way, he would certainly not be able to hide it from the other three princes.

Once reported to the Emperor in the capital, he would be stripped of his fiefdom and demoted to a commoner, which would be a loss.

These bottom-line issues cannot be touched by the princes.

"Have you ever thought about why our business has been going so smoothly even though it cannot be hidden from the Crown Prince?"

"This shows that the Crown Prince doesn't control this matter too much, or he acquiesces. It's just that everyone has gone too far recently, so this is why they are being punished."

"It looks like an imperial decree from my father, but it is actually the will of my grandson. Now that the Ming Dynasty has become so strong and prosperous, my father has long been obedient to my grandson's orders."

Zhu Di made the point directly.

In fact, these words were meant for King Zhu Yu of Qi to hear.

Compared with his brothers, Prince of Qi Zhu Yu obviously lacked political acumen.

Zhu Yu is still a little confused now.

He felt that his brothers had been talking for a long time, but it seemed as if they had said nothing.

In the end, the troops still need to be deployed, and the amount of embezzlement of mineral resources must also be reduced.

It doesn't seem very complicated, but why does it feel so complicated when it comes out of the mouths of the brothers?

At this time, Zhu Yu simply kept his mouth shut and listened to his brothers chatting.

Anyway, among the current vassal states, ours is the smallest in scale, and even though they are fighting fiercely, it has nothing to do with us.

"Fourth brother, how is the communication with the Big and Small Ryukyu Kingdom going? There must be no problems now, right?" Zhu Chong suddenly asked.

Zhu Di replied: "Things are not going very smoothly. Apart from Zhongshan, which is willing to cooperate with us, the other two countries, Shannan and Shanbei, do not agree."

"It is said that such a thing must be approved by the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Gang sneered and said, "It seems that they still haven't figured out their own position. Since they don't want to cooperate with us, there is no need to keep them."

"Let's prepare as soon as possible and help Zhongshan Kingdom annex the other two countries. This will also make it easier for us to act."

"I said it at the beginning. There are too many conflicts among three countries, which makes it easier for things to go wrong. It would be much simpler if we had one country."

Zhu Chong nodded slightly: "Then let's settle it this way."

Then he turned to look at Zhu Yu and said, "Seventh Brother, you have been free recently, so you can take charge of this matter."

Zhu Gui turned his head to look at Zhu Di and Zhu Gang, and could only nod helplessly.

The reason why he was said to be idle was that he did not participate in the competition for mineral deposits, and basically all the mineral deposits discovered on the border of the vassal state were given away.

There was no way he wouldn't give in. Zhu Yu didn't have the courage to fight with any of his brothers.

In terms of status and identity since childhood, we have not been on the same level.

In the 23rd year of Hongwu, when Zhu Di made great achievements, Zhu Gui still followed his fourth brother and obeyed his orders.

There is no need to mention the second and third brothers, they were bullied a lot when they were young. This belongs to the series of childhood traumas.

So Zhu Yuanzhang simply lay down in Japan, guarding his own piece of land, and remained neutral without helping anyone.

Life is pretty happy and carefree.

"Okay, I will send my trusted aides to handle this matter. As for the troops and ships, I'll trouble you brothers to help."

Zhu Chong nodded and said, "Two thousand soldiers per person, three ships, eight thousand soldiers is more than enough to deal with the two small countries."

Naturally, the princes had no objections.

The matter of developing overseas military forces was decided two months ago.

Mining made several princes rich, and a large amount of money was suddenly left idle, and the palaces were almost full.

Because of the special nature of Japan's current mineral resources, they are restricted from developing their military forces recklessly, which would easily cause conflicts with Japan and lead to greater conflicts.

Therefore, several princes began to think about developing overseas power.

This idea also came from Zhu Ying's method. After Zhu Di proposed it, it was unanimously agreed by everyone.

His attention quickly turned to the Ryukyu Kingdoms.

The Ryukyu Kingdom has a special geographical location. They can invest money in its development and then use it as a springboard to participate in trade in the West and South Asia.