The news that Ben Ya Shi Li had been captured alive soon spread to the capital.
In order to let his father, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, know the news as soon as possible, Zhu Gang took the military-only channel.
That is to start a single train.
Of course, a lot of materials will also be used for transportation, but the profits are not as high as normal.
In the palace, Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy when he received the news.
"Very good, it seems that this kid still makes us trust him. We originally thought it would take some time, but we didn't expect it to be so fast."
"Ben Ya Shi Li was a key figure of the remnant Yuan Dynasty. His capture by us must be a huge blow to the entire Mongolia. Many Mongolians will consider whether the former Yuan Dynasty has been completely defeated."
"Those Mongolian tribes that are not living a happy life should know that the only way out now is to join the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Ying also smiled and said, "Uncle San is really good at leading troops in battle. I heard that the main reason why Bayanchur was captured this time was because of the people left behind by Timur."
"They betrayed the remnant Yuan Dynasty, which was equivalent to betraying the Mongols. If they want to extend their influence to the grasslands in the future, it will not be so easy to use the name of Genghis Khan's descendants. It's a pity that they failed to capture Alutai."
Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand: "It doesn't matter. Alutai is now just a stray dog. They ran into the big forest. It seems to be a good protection, but it is also a huge cage."
"After all, there is no lush grass in the forest for their horses to enjoy. After this winter, their horses will lose weight, while our horses will become stronger. By then, they will be even less likely to leave the forest."
"Perhaps there is some food they can get in the forest, but it can't feed hundreds of thousands of grassland people. The lack of food will cause Alutai's prestige to fall. At that time, whether he surrenders to us or plans to fight to the death, it won't matter much."
Can the grassland people who live in the forest still be grassland people?
The strength of the grassland lies in their countless war horses. In today's era, scarce materials such as war horses have an extremely important impact on any country.
Almost all wars involve cavalry. Even since the invention of the matchlock and even the flintlock, good horses have been a strategic material for at least a few hundred years.
The Ming Dynasty, which has seized the grassland, will have even stronger expedition capabilities.
"Goryeo is a big problem for us right now. Whether it's providing food to Alutai or connecting with Japan, it has greatly affected the dignity of the Ming Dynasty."
"Since Alutai has already gone into the forest, there is no need to rush to chase him. Just leave some people to guard him and prevent him from escaping again. The forest is so big that it will take more time and energy to catch him."
"The next step is to deal with Goryeo. If we pacify Goryeo as soon as possible, before Japan can seize Kyushu Island, we will be able to draw out enough troops to deal with Japan next."
"Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's plan is going to fail."
Zhu Ying smiled happily.
Bayanchur was the crown prince of the Northern Yuan Dynasty and the current leader of the remnant Yuan Dynasty. He enjoyed a high prestige among the Mongolian lineage.
Now many Mongols still hold on to a glimmer of hope, thinking that as long as they can temporarily escape the pursuit of the Ming Dynasty, the grassland will still be their world.
It has to be said that it is normal to have such thoughts. After all, there have been many times in history when the Central Plains invaded the grassland, but the final result was not good. This is also the inherent cognition of the grassland nobles.
However, they were cut off from the news and had no idea that the times were undergoing tremendous changes.
When the train appeared, it meant the arrival of a new era, which would greatly shorten the distance of communication between people. It also meant that power would be further extended along the train.
There are many powerful dynasties in history that tried to control more territory, but their final failure was not due to their own mistakes. A bigger factor was the speed at which the troops moved, which resulted in places far away from the political center not being able to be effectively controlled.
It cost a huge price, and in the end not only did the imperial court have to pay money and grain to make up for the loss, but greedy officials could easily avoid scrutiny from above, giving rise to local tyrants.
But now it will be completely different.
"Grandpa, I plan to build a coal supply station from the East China Sea along the northern border, all the way to the northernmost place."
"Now we have this capability, and the land on the other side of the ocean may be even richer than we imagined."
Zhu Ying spoke up.
Zhu Yuanzhang was somewhat surprised: "Have those people from the expeditionary army sent back any news?"
It has been four years since the ten-year expedition plan was launched. If Zhu Ying had not mentioned it, Zhu Yuanzhang would have almost forgotten about it.
Of course, this also concerns Lan Yu’s eldest son.
When Lan Yu returned to Beijing, he was very angry about this. However, it was not the court's intention to let Lan Yu's eldest son Lan Taiping participate in the expedition. It was entirely his own desire to participate. Therefore, it is impossible for Lan Yu to be involved with the court.
In the end, he just got angry and called the son an unfilial person, and there was nothing else he could do.
After all, the person has already left and we don’t know if he can come back, so no matter how angry we are, we have nowhere to vent.
"Of course they didn't come back, but my grandson got some information from the West. It seems that someone has been to that place. Of course, the information is not very accurate, but now the expeditionary force has been there for four years and has not returned. It is precisely because they have not returned that it shows that the land is indeed very large, larger than we can imagine."
Zhu Ying expressed his thoughts.
Of course this is complete bullshit and is just an attempt to find a better excuse and reason.
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a while and felt that what his eldest grandson said made some sense.
Fifty thousand people went there that year, and all of them were excellent. Even if they were placed in the army, they would become elite soldiers after some training.
Four years is enough time to go a long way, and they set out on a boat that year.
You have to know that this was enough for Li Jinglong to make a round trip from the West, and Li Jinglong also stopped along the way.
If you think about it carefully, you will find that the place where the expeditionary force has arrived must be very far away.
Even though the risks of nature were great, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it was impossible for all 50,000 soldiers to be killed on the road. This was not a sea march, and natural disasters could not wipe out the entire army. He could not imagine any danger on land.
No matter how big the beast was, it would only become food in front of the muskets and 50,000 soldiers.
As for human intervention, it is even more impossible.
For some small countries, 50,000 elite soldiers are a crisis that can destroy the country. Even if they are defeated, it is impossible for all of them to be annihilated. Moreover, the Central Plains is such a large territory, and there has never been any news of any danger in the north.
Those principalities living in the north have a population of less than 50,000 people per country, and they don't have the courage to provoke the Ming Dynasty.
The reason why we don't deal with these small countries living in the northern part of the grassland is simply because that place, where it is cold all year round, is too barren.
Compared to these places, the Western Regions can be considered wealthy.
"Although I don't understand why you, my great grandson, are so obsessed with the Dongsheng Shenzhou, but now that we in the Ming Dynasty have ironclad ships, building some supply stations is not a big deal." Zhu Yuanzhang replied.
He himself was not very willing to go on an expedition. In his opinion, whether it was the current Ming Dynasty, the grassland that was about to be acquired, or even the Annan, Champa, Zhenla, and Siam that had already been acquired, they all required a lot of effort to govern.
What's more, it won't be long before Japan is incorporated into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
The population of the Ming Dynasty is indeed increasing, but the territory of the Ming Dynasty is expanding too fast. As a result, although the immigration situation is good, it is still somewhat stretched when facing a larger area.
Governing these places alone is already enough of a headache for the current court. Now the number of official positions in the court is constantly increasing. In order to better govern the new territories, Zhu Yuanzhang is also preparing to add a separate department recently.
And now the eldest grandson wants to develop to a more distant place.
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't really care about the issue of the weeping tree. It was still unclear whether the tree existed or not. Zhu Yuanzhang naturally knew what his eldest grandson meant. Perhaps he wanted to use the search for the weeping tree to develop more distant territories.
But this territory seemed too far away to Zhu Yuanzhang.
According to the latest intelligence, Majapahit, which was previously neglected by the imperial court, seems to have a population of millions and a territory much larger than that of Japan.
According to the eldest grandson's idea, it must be incorporated into the rule of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang wondered many times whether the current Ming Dynasty was becoming too warlike and whether it was really a good idea to start such a large-scale war.
However, after looking at the financial statistics, Zhu Yuanzhang gave up the idea.
According to the current court's investigation and speculation, Annan, Champa, Zhenla, and Siam alone will provide the Ming Dynasty with over 100 million dan of grain taxes every year.
And this is just the taxes, not their output.
Moreover, these former South Sea countries still have great potential to be tapped.
Before, these places were controlled by nobles, and their water conservancy measures and development of fertile farmland were not very efficient. Now that the Ming Dynasty has taken over, it means that in the next few years, the grain output of these places will show a certain degree of surge.
Perhaps in the future we will be able to provide the Ming Dynasty with hundreds of millions of shi of grain in taxes every year.
The huge supply of grain will cause the grain prices in the Ming Dynasty to continue to fall, and more people will be able to have enough food to eat. The stability of people's lives also means the solidity and strengthening of the Ming Dynasty's imperial power.
A prosperous life will allow more families to have more children, which will also lead to a continuous increase in the population of the Ming Dynasty.
When these new generations grow up, they will also provide more reinforcements to the Ming army, and everything will form an excellent closed loop.
The intensifying war did not weaken the Ming Dynasty, but made it stronger.
It seems that the eldest grandson always finds a way to get better benefits from those small places that he once looked down upon.
This is also why Zhu Yuanzhang supported Zhu Ying in doing things that he thought were unreliable.
The king is also a human being. No one is perfect.
Besides, these failures did not have much impact on the Ming Dynasty.
So if Da Sun wants to do it, then just do it.
"Thank you, Grandpa."
Zhu Ying responded with a smile.
In fact, in the eyes of many kings, his behavior was considered to be a waste of time.
In fact, from the perspective of the current court, if he insists, even if the old man is a little angry, he will be helpless.
But it would be best if we could get the old man's consent.
After thinking about it, Zhu Ying explained a few words: "My grandson thinks that what is said in the ancient books is not groundless, and some intelligence also proves such things."
"The Central Plains has a history of thousands of years since ancient times. Many powerful dynasties were born on this land, but few dynasties could continue to prosper. The so-called eternal foundation is just a beautiful dream."
"The Ming Dynasty is a new dynasty. It has only been established for more than 30 years. In many aspects, it is still newly established."
“Throughout history, a dynasty is often at its most prosperous when it first begins, and as time goes by, it will gradually become bloated, corrupt, and even perish.”
"Before the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, there was an old saying that there were only aristocratic families that lasted a thousand years, but no dynasties that lasted a thousand years."
"Before my Ming Dynasty, the longest-lasting dynasty was the Zhou Dynasty, which lasted for more than 800 years. Naturally, my grandson would like the Ming Dynasty to last for thousands of years, but this is a very difficult thing to do, and no dynasty has ever done it."
"So when I was studying the history of these dynasties, I kept wondering why the founding emperors were the strongest, but their descendants often could not surpass them. Why is that? Is it because the descendants of the dynasties could not compare to the founding emperors?"
"Is it true that in every dynasty, only the founding emperor is the most intelligent person, the so-called man of destiny?"
"My grandson thinks not."
Speaking of this, it actually involves the foundation of imperial power, and Zhu Yuanzhang's expression became serious.
He had already sensed some inspiration from the words just now.
Zhu Ying continued, "If the royal family is compared to a large ship, then the officials and the people are the sailors on the ship. The reason why they were able to move forward quickly in the beginning was because they knew that they could get greater benefits ahead."
“When these benefits become fixed, it means that the ship will slowly slow down, and the final result will be destruction.”
"But what if they knew that there are greater benefits further afield?"
"The reason why Dou Wu's excessive military campaigns led to the demise of the dynasty was that such behavior did not bring more benefits to the dynasty, but instead placed a greater burden on the dynasty."
"If the place my grandson is on an expedition contains unimaginable wealth, and every expedition can bring huge profits to the Ming Dynasty, then my grandson only hopes that the place will be as big as possible."