After having dinner at Prince Zhongshan's Mansion, Zhu Ying and Xu Miaojin returned to the palace together.

"Your Highness, my two brothers have a close relationship with my eldest sister, especially when they were young. It was always my eldest sister who took care of them."

"Ever since my eldest sister married the King of Yan, my two brothers have been helping the King of Yan."

"They asked me to come here this time, probably because they want His Highness to agree to Prince Yan's going to Dongsheng Shenzhou."

In the carriage, Xu Miaojin spoke.

In fact, she was very clear about her two brothers' thoughts. Even though she disliked them a little, they were still her biological brothers after all.

Both her parents are gone, so this is her mother's home.

In the imperial palace, Xu Miaojing was not the Crown Princess, but only a concubine. Perhaps after Zhu Ying ascended the throne, she would be able to obtain the status of a noble concubine.

However, his son Zhu Wenqing will eventually grow up, and since there is no possibility that he will inherit the throne of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Miaojin has to make some plans for his son in advance.

After helping his brother, the little intellectual will also be able to get help from his uncles when he grows up.

Xu Miaojin is very smart. Even though she didn't understand something before, she naturally learned some tricks over the years.

The reason why I said all this was that I didn't want Zhu Ying to dislike his two brothers because of me.

Zhu Ying touched Xu Miaojin's head and said with a smile: "Miaojin, I know what you think. I also support this matter very much."

"In the eyes of others, you are taking advantage of my power, but this is what I can do for you."

"I am not a petty person. The past of the King of Yan is all in the past. Originally, Fourth Uncle wanted to go to Dongsheng Shenzhou, so let him go. For me and for Daming, there is nothing wrong with this."

"Of course, it would be even better if you could gain some favors in this matter."

"So, don't think too much about it."

Having too many sons is actually a problem, which means Zhu Ying cannot take care of every child.

To a large extent, these concubines of his are the support of his future sons.

Therefore, Zhu Ying was not only not disgusted by Xu Miaojin's help to her mother's family, but was also quite supportive.

"Your Highness, you are so kind to me."

"Tonight...can I serve His Highness?"

In the carriage, Xu Miaojin couldn't help but lean on Zhu Ying's arms and said.

She originally thought that His Highness would be a little unhappy and that she was being exploited, but she didn't expect His Highness to be so reasonable.

"Okay, girl, you're taking advantage of me and still acting like a good kid." Zhu Ying said with a smile while hugging Xu Miaojin's slender waist.

Xu Miaojin's face suddenly turned red and she buried her head in Zhu Ying's chest.

…

After Zhu Ying left, Xu Zengshou personally went to convey the news from Prince Zhongshan's Palace.

"Thank you for your hard work, fourth brother." Zhu Di felt quite emotional, but his mood was still very good.

According to Xu Zengshou, there are basically no problems with the Crown Prince.

"Brother-in-law, what are you talking about? We are a family, so it is natural for us to help each other."

"It's just...I just feel a little wronged."

Speaking of this, Xu Zengshou couldn't help but sigh.

This is not the first time they have asked my little sister for help, they have done it once before.

In Xu Zengshou's opinion, his younger sister's behavior would definitely make the Crown Prince uncomfortable, and might even seem like she was spoiling him.

"I am indeed sorry to trouble you, but you are now the Crown Prince's Consort, and there is not much we can do to help you."

"She was able to help me with this matter, so I will naturally always keep it in mind."

"As for my little sister's favor, perhaps I can only repay it to the young man."

Zhu Di responded by saying that he was being helped both times, all because of his wife.

Xu Zengshou nodded: "It's good that my brother-in-law remembers it, but I don't know how long it will take for the court to make arrangements for Dongsheng Shenzhou."

"This morning, the Crown Prince went to the shipyard in the capital. According to the news, the first batch of ships bound for Dongsheng Shenzhou may not be far from departure."

"I just don't know what arrangements the Crown Prince will make."

Zhu Di shook his head slightly: "Generally speaking, we will not let the princes go. Firstly, we have not investigated it clearly yet, and secondly, it will be difficult for the court to allocate places in the future."

He had discussed the matter of Dongsheng Shenzhou with Yao Guangxiao before, and guessed that the Crown Prince would not allow his vassal kings to go.

The key here involves the division of vassal states, including the issue of future reservations for princes.

Although Dongsheng Shenzhou has been confirmed, its exact size and appearance are still unclear.

Obviously, the imperial court would not allow several princes to fight for territory on their own, so there would at least be a rough division.

Here Xu Zengshou also gave an explanation to his eldest sister.

"Don't worry, your brother-in-law will definitely let you go to Dongsheng Shenzhou together." Xu Yihua's words also made Xu Zengshou feel at ease.

Now that the Ming Dynasty is prosperous, all military generals can see that the crown prince has ambitions to rule the world, and this is the best time for him to accomplish his mission.

Even when it comes to recruiting new soldiers, there is no longer any concept of compulsion, and there is always a shortage of people signing up every time.

There are too many places in the Ming Dynasty that need military forces now.

…

India.

Even though the war was going very smoothly, even beyond Lan Yu's imagination, he still had a lot of worries.

The area of ​​Orissa alone is enough to feed the 300,000 troops brought by Lan Yu.

The word "support" is a bit modest, and it is completely possible to say "wealthy".

Now Lan Yu doesn't even need supplies from Nanyang, as there is more food here than he can finish eating.

Just killing a few Indian nobles would yield a huge amount of grain.

The only problem was that because Orissa was too large in territory and had a large population, it was difficult for Lan Yu to expand further.

Because it is no longer manageable.

"Jinglong, have you received a letter from the court? What does it say?"

Li Jinglong was responsible for contact with the imperial court. Recently, Lan Yu would ask about it every three to five days.

Li Jinglong smiled bitterly and said, "There is indeed news from the imperial court, but if you want reinforcements, I guess it will be impossible for at least the near future."

Lan Yu couldn't help but frown and said, "How could this be? Didn't you tell the court about the difficulties we are facing?"

Li Jinglong said: "Of course I did, but the court is also short of people now."

"I wonder if Duke Liang has read the latest imperial gazette of the capital."

Lan Yu shook his head: "No, I'm too busy here and haven't paid much attention to the news in the court bulletin. What's going on? Could there be some changes in the court?"

Li Jinglong sighed and said, "The incident... is about the same. Duke Liang, do you still remember that the Crown Prince sent 50,000 expeditionary forces to search for the Dongsheng Shenzhou?"

Hearing this, Lan Yu felt bad.

How could he not remember? You know, the commander of this expeditionary force is his eldest son.

Li Jinglong saw Lan Yu's face change, then he reacted and said quickly: "Don't worry, Duke Liang, it's not a bad thing, but a good thing."

"At the end of last year, when we set out from Siam, some members of the expeditionary force returned and brought back news that they had really found Dongsheng Shenzhou. The eldest son of the Duke of Liang is now doing well."

In fact, the imperial court should have informed Lan Yu of the news about his eldest son long ago, but because of the relationship with Dongsheng Shenzhou, the matter was forgotten.

It happened that Lan Yu had set out for India to fight, so even after two months, Lan Yu did not receive any news.

The Lan family thought that the court must have conveyed the news, and the court also thought that the Lan family would say it themselves, which led to Lan Yu learning about the matter of his eldest son from Li Jinglong.

Although Lan Yu was somewhat concerned about his eldest son, he still said, "I don't know what's wrong with this bastard. You don't want to enjoy your wealth and glory, but you insist on joining an expedition. It really makes me angry."

Li Jinglong smiled and said, "Now your son has made a great contribution. Dongsheng Shenzhou has been discovered, and it is said that it is not far from Ming Dynasty. The territory there is very large, not smaller than Ming Dynasty today. This makes many people, especially the princes, want to go there."

"Dongsheng Shenzhou is full of fertile soil. The high-yield crops that the Crown Prince brought back all came from Dongsheng Shenzhou. No wonder the Crown Prince sent an expeditionary force to search for them. It turns out that they already had a source."

"So... originally our place was considered a popular place, but Dongsheng Shenzhou is deeper, which is why no one comes here."

Lan Yu nodded. He felt much better after hearing the news that his eldest son was safe.

"I see. No wonder."

"It seems that we can only rely on ourselves."

"It's a pity that although there are many people in the Tianzhu region, there are too few people available. The common people are lazy by nature and are not worth using. Even the soldiers from Zhenla and Siam are much stronger than them."

"If we want to add more troops now, we can only put some effort into Cambodia and Siam."

Lan Yu was at a loss as he was a little afraid to use the Indian soldiers. These soldiers were of poor quality and could only do odd jobs in logistics at best. If they were on the front line, they might scatter and flee at the slightest noise, which would affect the morale of the army.

In comparison, it would be more useful to recruit soldiers from Zhenla and Siam.

Li Jinglong also agreed and said, "What the Duke of Liang said makes sense. I will immediately write a letter to the court to request the right to recruit soldiers from Zhenla and Siam."

Apart from this, Lan Yu had no other choice.

No matter what we do, we cannot use the Indian soldiers, even those noble guards who look good.

Historically, the Tang Dynasty and the Harsha Empire of India had once clashed with each other.

He was an envoy under Li Shimin named Wang Xuance.

Because when he went there, the king of Central India, Silāhyāta, had died, and the country was in chaos. His minister, Navotī Arahāsun, usurped the throne, so he mobilized all his troops to resist King Xuance.

The thirty cavalrymen following Wang Xuance fought against the enemy, but were defeated and captured. The enemy took the opportunity to plunder the property contributed by various countries.

Wang Xuance fled and arrived in Tubo.

Wang Xuance became more and more angry as he thought about it, so he issued a proclamation to recruit troops and obtained 12,000 Tibetan soldiers and 7,000 Nepalese cavalry.

Wang Xuance and his deputy envoy Jiang Shiren led the Tibetan and Nepalese armies to attack Chabei and Luocheng in Central India. After three days of fighting, they captured Chabei and Luocheng, beheaded more than 3,000 enemies, and drowned about 10,000 enemies.

Alonashun fled and gathered the scattered soldiers to fight again. Jiang Shiren captured Alonashun and captured and killed thousands of enemies.

The rest of the people followed the king's wife to resist at the Gandhara River, but Jiang Shiren defeated them, captured his concubine and prince, as well as 12,000 men and women, 30,000 livestock of all kinds, and 580 cities surrendered.

The King of East India, Shi Jiumo, sent 30,000 cattle and horses as food for the army, and also sent bows, swords, and precious tassels.

The Kingdom of Kamaru presented foreign objects and maps, requesting a statue of Laozi.

Tianzhu was shocked.

In May of the 22nd year of Zhenguan, Wang Xuance sent the captured Alona Shun, his queen, his sons, 12,000 captured men and women, and more than 20,000 cattle and horses to Chang'an to present them as captives.

Because he felt that Tianzhu was too useless, Li Shimin conferred the title of Chao San Da Fu on Wang Xuance, an official position below the fifth rank.

The history books summarized this battle in just one sentence: We defeated them greatly, defeated them again, attacked them, and destroyed them!

This explains why it was so easy for Lan Yu to conquer Orissa so smoothly.

You should know that the Harsha Empire at that time was even stronger during the Tang Dynasty than the current Donghengjia Dynasty.

Wang Xuance still borrowed more than 10,000 soldiers. He himself was not a military general, but just an envoy.

Lan Yu was a founding hero of the Ming Dynasty and was ranked Duke. He now led 100,000 elite Ming troops and 200,000 subordinate soldiers.

This is completely one heaven and one earth.

If it weren't for the problem of lagging management, Lan Yu would have swept the entire Tianzhu region by now.

After all, Wang Xuance is just fighting, while Lan Yu still wants to develop here, and the concepts are different in nature.

As for the current reaction of the Indian region to Lan Yu's occupation of Orissa, to put it simply, there is no reaction. Even the city lords in the surrounding areas of Orissa are probably ready to surrender.

As long as Lan Yu dared to send troops, they would surrender.

This is why Lan Yu did not dare to recruit the Indian soldiers under his command. He was really afraid that these Indian soldiers would lead his army astray.

Soon, Li Jinglong's request reached Zhu Ying.

Zhu Ying took into consideration that it was indeed difficult for the Ming Dynasty to assign appropriate officials to manage India. The main reason was that India had too large a population, and even a few hundred people would not be of much use.

So they agreed to Li Jinglong's request and allowed them to recruit soldiers in Zhenla and Siam, and they could also recruit officials.

Anyone from the Ming Dynasty who was willing to go could be promoted to an Indian official as an exception.

Now that the fleet bound for Dongsheng Shenzhou is about to set off, most people are staring at that place and their minds are no longer on India.

We can only deal with special matters in special ways.

There was no need to hide this news, and Siam and Cambodia soon knew about it.

When Li Youwei learned the news, he immediately thought of his godson Long Dongqiang.

He quickly called Long Dongqiang and asked him to take his men and go to India immediately to join the Ming army.

This is a godsend, especially for gang members like Long Dongqiang.

According to the current situation in India, even gaining a position as a city official is not a difficult task.