Zhou Cheng was in the back hall, so he could naturally hear the noise in the main hall.

But unfortunately, Zhou Cheng did not understand the language here. If he could hear it, he might lead the army to kill these fence-sitters first.

"I need to see your commander, Karamo."

Zhou Cheng asked the officer next to him to translate.

There were already beads of sweat on the translator's forehead. He was really afraid that Zhou Cheng would ask him to translate what was said in the hall.

If translated, it will definitely cause huge contradictions.

After hearing the translation, the guard on duty thought about it for a moment and did not refuse.

After all, these outsiders are protecting their capital.

Soon, Karamo came over.

"General Zhou, I wonder what you want to talk to me about." Karamo looked at Zhou Cheng with a bit of guilt in his eyes.

As the commander of the Royal Guards, he certainly knew the current situation in the hall.

Zhou Cheng didn't say anything, just looked around.

Karamo understood what he meant and told the surrounding soldiers to retreat in Pashto. He understood Chinese, and although his tone of voice was a little awkward, he was able to communicate with Zhou Cheng alone.

Zhou Cheng was also very direct: "The fall of the capital is imminent, and no one can change it. Under such circumstances, these noble ministers in the capital are still arguing for their own interests."

"Perhaps in these few days, the city will be broken, and Timur will lead his army into the capital. By then, the entire capital will become a living hell. I don't think I need to say too much about Timur's cruelty."

"Karamo, you are different from these corrupt nobles in the capital. You are a true warrior. So the general and I hope you can lead the Royal Guards and retreat with us."

Karamo didn't expect Zhou Cheng to tell him so directly.

But in the current situation, there really aren't many choices.

"Your Majesty, can you retreat with us?" Karamo asked after a slight hesitation.

Zhou Cheng shook his head and refused: "That's impossible. If you want to bring His Majesty, then he will definitely bring many members of the royal family with him."

"Even if you can really leave, Timur will never let you go and will keep chasing you."

Karamo had no loyalty to the Tughlaq dynasty, but he was loyal to King Mahmud.

He was the commander of the Janissaries promoted by Mahmud himself.

"If I can't take His Majesty with me, then I hope to at least take a prince with me. I don't think it will have much of an impact."

Karamo said in a deep voice.

In fact, Mahmud had already met him alone in the past few days, wanting him to take the prince and follow Wang Jinyi and others to retreat away from the Delhi Sultanate.

Timur would not let go of the Tughlaq dynasty, and at this time, preserving the bloodline became the only option.

So when Karamo heard Zhou Cheng's invitation to withdraw, there was naturally no reason for him to refuse.

Perhaps this can be considered a two-way journey.

Zhou Cheng frowned. In fact, he didn't want to take a prince with him, because what he discussed with Wang Jinyi was to subdue Karamo and join the Ming army.

If there was a prince, that prince would certainly be the one Karamo pledged allegiance to.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Cheng asked, "Can I know which prince it is?"

Karamo did not hide it: "Sir, it is His Royal Highness Hachioji."

Zhou Cheng was slightly stunned.

Because this Hachijouji is less than ten years old now.

Karamo saw Zhou Cheng's doubts and explained, "Your Majesty said that the fall of the Tughlaq Dynasty is irreversible. Even if the Delhi Sultanate is restored, it will have nothing to do with the Tughlaq Dynasty. It will only be a new dynasty."

After hearing this, Zhou Cheng also understood Mahmud's sorrow and plans.

"There is still a lot of wealth in the palace. After the city is captured, it will be a good thing for Timur. Perhaps we should take it away." At this point, there was no need for Zhou Cheng to hide it.

Karamo looked at Zhou Cheng deeply, and then said: "Your Majesty has already arranged it."

Zhou Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps we can also take away some treasures of other nobles."

Karamo refused, "There are already enough. It's not that I want to protect these nobles, but if there are more, it will affect the speed of our retreat, which will bring greater crisis."

Zhou Cheng shrugged, obviously Mahmud had arranged everything.

"Okay, then take me to see how many there are."

"good."

…

The Tughlaq dynasty surrendered.

Before surrendering, Mahmud sent envoys out of the city for negotiations.

There were no extra conditions attached, only the hope that Timur would withdraw the order to massacre the city.

Timur agreed.

But after entering the city, all the nobles, including the royal family, were put on trial.

Not surprisingly, most of them were sentenced to death.

And all their property was taken away by Timur.

There was certainly bullying of ordinary people, but there was no large-scale massacre to vent anger.

This was not out of Timur's kindness, but because he now needed a large number of slaves to build his territory.

The remaining soldiers were incorporated into Timur's slave army.

At this point, the entire territory of Delhi Sultanate was controlled by Timur, and the Tughlaq Dynasty was completely destroyed.

Next, Timur turned his attention to the East again.

…

Zhu Ying did not care too much about what happened between Zhu Yunwen and Song Zhong.

He now needs to think carefully about Ming Dynasty's colonization plan.

At present, the standing army of the Ming Dynasty, together with all the military households and soldiers, has exceeded two million.

This is absolutely the first in the whole world, and no country can compare to it.

But at the same time, the vast territory of the Ming Dynasty also needs to be guarded.

The number of troops that can be mobilized at will is about 800,000.

If too many people are withdrawn, it will have an impact on the Ming Dynasty's rule.

And now, among the four major feudal lords of Japan, there are 200,000 permanent troops stationed.

There are 150,000 troops in Annan.

This means that 350,000 troops have been eliminated.

Here in Champa, including Zhu Yunwen's 50,000 elite troops, there are a total of nearly 250,000 troops.

Of the two million troops in the Ming Dynasty, 600,000 are now in the various vassal states and dependent countries.

By this calculation, there are still 1.4 million troops in the Ming Dynasty, which seems to be more than enough.

In fact, this is not the case.

Because this involves the ratio of combat troops to auxiliary troops.

The two million soldiers include auxiliary troops.

In fact, the number of actual combat troops would never exceed 500,000.

When Zhu Yuanzhang's southern tour army left Champa, the remaining Ming troops in Champa were Zhu Yunwen's 50,000 elite soldiers and nearly 30,000 Ming navy.

A total of 80,000 troops.

Although Champa was not a large country, it was rich in resources because it was located in the Southeast Asian region.

The current population is around one million.

The standing force is nearly 200,000.

Eighty thousand versus two hundred thousand, it seems that there is a big difference in the number of people, but in fact, the Ming Dynasty's armaments can easily crush Champa.

Zhu Ying was not worried about the military strength issue, but mainly about management issues.

Although the Ming Dynasty is now constantly strengthening popular education.

But as the saying goes, it takes a hundred years to grow a tree, but ten years to cultivate a person.

Based on the previous foundation, universal education is now being extended to lower-level counties, but this also requires time to settle.

The war had only been going on for less than three years, so how could there be such a large reserve of talent?

Japan has attracted a large number of talents due to the gold and silver fever.

Yunnan also currently needs a continuous flow of migrants.

At the same time, there is also a large area like Annan, which also needs to be filled with talents from the Ming Dynasty.

Now here comes Champa.

Even though Goryeo was already a cooked meat in the pot, Zhu Ying had no energy to make any arrangements.

In fact, Lee Seong-gye is not a good person either.

He also had huge ambitions and often tried to encroach on the territory of the Central Plains.

Historically, the Ming Dynasty was a big country surrounded by small countries. Although it had no deterrent power, ants, though small, could break the dam. The reason why the Ming Dynasty's territory was reduced was the attacks of small countries. The reduction of Yunnan's land was due to the invasion of Myanmar, and the reduction of the Ming Dynasty's northeastern territory was also due to the attack of North Korea.

After the war between the Tang Dynasty and Silla, the boundary of the Taedong River remained there. After the war between Wang's Goryeo and Khitan, the border line moved to the three passes of Dingzhou, Xuande and Yuanxing south of Hamhung.

Only during the Jin and Yuan dynasties did this border line remain there without any crossing. However, during the Ming Dynasty, the Joseon Dynasty of Korea began to launch a large-scale attack on the Central Plains territory and occupied parts of the northeastern Central Plains.

During Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition, Goryeo took advantage of the gap between the war between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia to invade and occupy the area south of the Yalu River.

After the Ming Dynasty defeated Mongolia, Korea knew what it was going to face, so they colluded with the remaining forces of the Yuan Dynasty to deal with the Ming Dynasty.

A centipede is still alive even after death. Although the Mongols were destroyed, their remaining forces should not be underestimated.

From the 15th to the 17th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang actually attacked Goryeo twice, but both ended in failure.

However, in history, after Lee Seong-gye seized the throne of Goryeo, he chose to reconcile with the Ming Dynasty due to internal problems, and asked Zhu Yuanzhang to bestow the name "Korea".

In fact, the Yalu River in later generations was not a boundary river. It was just that the Ming Dynasty was too corrupt in the late period, and this territory was taken away by Lee Seong-gye and was never returned to later generations.

The most crucial reason why Zhu Ying never fully incorporated Goryeo into the rule of the Ming Dynasty was because of the disasters brought by Japan and the Little Ice Age.

Of course, in fact, Lee Seong-gye's desire to seize the throne has basically become a bubble by now.

Goryeo is currently equivalent to the royal family, with Yao Guangxio and Li Chenggui in power.

Since there was no surplus population in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Ying did not plan to migrate a large number of people there.

There is more to Southeast Asia than just Champa.

There are many kingdoms behind.

It is unrealistic to expand territory simply by relying on military force.

"Sometimes I envy Timur."

Zhu Ying sighed.

At least in terms of expansion, Timur did not care about the subsequent impact at all and simply conquered with force.

In fact, Zhu Ying could easily do such a thing and even easily occupy a large amount of territory.

But for the entire Ming system, it was dragged into another abyss.

The Timurid Empire fell apart after Timur's death, not because of the succession of heirs, but because of a destined inevitability.

Genghis Khan had the most vast territory, but in the end he left nothing behind.

"Maybe I could have been more direct and not so cautious."

Thinking of the current situation in Champa, Zhu Ying began to think about the current situation in Ming Dynasty.

After eliminating the threat from the northern grasslands, the Ming Dynasty temporarily did not need to stockpile a large number of troops on the border, so naturally a lot of them could be freed up.

Although the Beiyuan Employment Association still needs subsidies from the national treasury, the calculation is much easier than before.

Less than three years after the opening of the sea, the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade tariffs have begun to rise sharply.

In fact, Zhu Ying could have solved the population trade and absorbed a large number of laborers.

However, a large influx of foreign population can easily cause domestic chaos.

He didn't want the Ming Dynasty to become as evil as France in later generations.

"The construction of the industrial infrastructure of the Ming Dynasty cannot stop, but I can draw out some resources to make constructive investments in the Nanyang region."

"The Royal Chamber of Commerce will guide the families involved in maritime trade and start the process of colonization."

"After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month here, the nobles of Champa will vacate a large area of ​​territory under the impact of Song Zhong and Zhu Yunwen. This is an opportunity."

"There is still a lot of vacant land around the Strait of Malacca. I don't need to bring people to Ming, but I can develop that area."

The Ayutthaya Kingdom was connected to the Malacca Kingdom by land.

In other words, if the sea trade route wants to cross the South Seas, it can only pass through the Strait of Malacca in the current Malacca Kingdom.

At present, the ocean-going fleet led by Li Jinglong is sailing towards India through the Strait of Malacca.

The Straits of Malacca are now ruled by both the Majapahit Dynasty and the Malacca Kingdom.

Zhu Ying had already made up his mind that after returning to the capital, he would start arranging the navy to take control of Malacca first.

…

After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the last stop of the southern tour army came to an end.

It is also the time when the ocean monsoon starts.

This means that the Ming treasure ship can start sailing with the help of wind power.

Zhu Ying has made up his mind to build a steam-powered ironclad ship within two years at most.

Especially the use of steam engines.

Even if it means gathering a large number of blacksmiths to make the gears by hand, they would do it.

In fact, as long as the steam engine can be made, making gears is not difficult. It is just a matter of molds.

Although Zhu Ying has never actually made such a simple mechanical structure himself, he still has a clear understanding of the general principle.

If steam-powered ironclad ships could be invented, the Ming treasure ships would be able to break free from the restrictions of ocean monsoons and sail to any sea area at will.

This would be the best start for Zhu Ying's secret overseas colonization plan.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Ying have left, thousands of Jinyiwei led by Song Zhong are still here.

They will oppress the Champa nobles in the name of opening Chinese schools and break up the existing aristocratic ruling system.

Such behavior may cause chaos in the now peaceful Champa Kingdom.

But for Zhu Ying, if Champa was not in chaos, the Ming Dynasty would have no chance.

No matter what era it is, the weak will never have any rights.