Prodigal Son of the Ming Dynasty

  Chapter 512 You are all prodigal sons

  Zhu Houzhao was happy, and dragged Fang Jifan into the palace!

  Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived at the Meridian Gate, an **** hurried out from the door: "So Uncle Xinjian is here, come quickly, come quickly, His Majesty is in the Nuan Pavilion, and is about to summon him."

  Fang Jifan and Zhu Houzhao looked at each other, and Zhu Houzhao said in shock: "You go to see the father, I'm going to see my sister, see you next time."

   After finishing speaking, he ran away in a hurry.

  Fang Jifan shook his head, so he had to rush to the Nuan Pavilion obediently, but here, Liu Jian, Minister of the Ministry of War Ma Wensheng and others all came.

  Ma Wensheng seemed to be in a good mood. The voyage to the West was going smoothly. He met Xu Jing and had a long talk with him. He actually felt that Xu Jing was much more reliable than Fang Jifan!

   Now, I finally have a bottom line in my heart. Xu Jing will lead the fleet to continue to go to sea as the envoy.

the most important is.

  The map of the world left by the **** Sanbao.

   This map has been printed by the inner court under the order of Emperor Hongzhi and distributed everywhere.

  At least everyone has a head start and knows where the legendary Golden Seed Country is located.

   Right now, Daming's fleet has reached Mugudushu, that is, the east coast of Kunlun Continent. The next step is to bypass the entire Kunlun Continent and reach the west of Kunlun Continent.

  Analysed from the information inquired by the No. 1 Scumbag Wang Bushi, the accuracy of the map of the world is extremely high, and it is almost the same as the countries explored by the No. 1 Scumbag Wang Bushi.

   Once you reach the west coast, you will have to cross a vast ocean, and then you will arrive at the huge island.

  Everything in the Western Ocean is preparing for landing on that island.

   Of course, there are difficulties.

  In Kunlun Continent, there are many ships of Francobots and big cannibals, and many ships are on the route in that area. Without their help, it is impossible to get supplies!

The plan formulated by the Ministry of War is that there are only two ways to solve the supply problem. One is to reduce the fleet to the smallest size. The consequences of the attack are unimaginable. To be on the safe side, a large enough fleet is needed to go away with a full load and try to be adequately supplied. With this huge fleet, after arriving at some settlements of Francois, in fact, There is no need to worry about the other party's refusal to provide supplies, because in Xu Jing's plan, the settlements and ports of the Franji people in Kunlun Island are not strong, at most a hundred people, which is enough for them in Kunlun Island.

   Their firearms are relatively sophisticated, and their combat effectiveness is also very strong.

  However... if there is a group of 1,500 elite soldiers equipped with bird guns accompanying them, it seems that the Franc Robot will not choose to take any drastic measures.

This is not a big problem for the Ministry of War. You must know that when the Sanbao **** went to the West, it maintained a fleet of 20,000 to 30,000 people. Next, the Ministry of War will try its best to create a fleet that can supply thousands of people. .

   Regarding this point, Ma Wensheng is very troubled now.

   To be more precise, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian are actually very troubled.

  Seeing Fang Jifan coming, and waiting for Fang Jifan to salute the emperor, Ma Wensheng took the lead and said: "Uncle Xinjian, the flying ball... How much food will it cost to manufacture it?"

   Well, money again!

   Sure enough, money and food are the core of everything in this world.

  Fang Jifan said: "Whale skin is more expensive, ahem, this flying ball, covered with skin, may cost hundreds of taels of silver, plus other things, probably, three hundred taels of silver is enough for a boat."

  His Majesty hopes to create a batch of flying **** for use in various border towns.

   One ship is three hundred taels, isn't this one hundred ships worth thirty thousand?

   This number is actually acceptable.

But Li Dongyang's heart hurts a lot, because he knows that there must be more than a hundred ships, and he said with a serious face: "How much is the usual maintenance? Besides, I'm afraid that a flying ball needs at least three or five people. After all, it’s a lot of expenses.”

Fang Jifan thought for a while, he is an upright person, he is unwilling to fool Li Dongyang, so he said: "Not only that, but the fuel is the most expensive, and the fuel right now is refined whale oil. It takes two catties of refined whale oil, and if it needs to be maintained for ten hours or even twenty hours, then more whale oil is needed. But in the future, we may find a way to replace whale oil with other oils.”

  Fang Jifan's words, for Li Dongyang, are almost like reaching out to say two words to Li Dongyang, and sending money.

Li Dongyang said expressionlessly: "Based on this calculation, there is indeed a lot of extravagance. Nine sides are so big... If there are fewer flying balls, it will not help the matter, but if there are too many, to be honest, the Ministry of War has spent a lot of extravagance these years. There is really nothing left to cook. Although His Majesty can spend some internal money, but to raise so many flying balls... eh..."

   He shook his head.

  The Ministry of Households is very budget-conscious, so it is understandable for Li Dongyang to complain.

  Ma Wensheng didn't dare to make a sound. He was really ashamed to ask for money and food. In fact, he also knew that the cost was too high.

  The ministers of other ministries are also here, and everyone has a lot of resentment towards Ma Wensheng.

  Ninety-nine out of ten of the imperial court’s money and food went to the Ministry of War, and the other ministries are eating dirt, so there is no way to live.

   "Xin Bo."

   At this moment, someone stepped forward, but it was Wang Ao, Minister of the Ministry of Officials!

  Wang Ao's temper is not very good. After all, he is the Minister of the Ministry of Officials. The Minister of the Ministry of Officials is called a heavenly official, and his status is not lower than that of a cabinet bachelor, because he is in charge of the imperial court's merit examination and determines the promotion and promotion of countless officials.

  Wang Ao was very upset.

  In these years, other ministries have stood aside. Every year, when the Ministry of Households calculates the annual revenue and expenditure for a year, it almost always moves the money and food to the Ministry of War. To be honest, it hurts to see it.

  Wang Ao was the teacher of Emperor Hongzhi. He taught Emperor Hongzhi to study in Zhan Shifu, so even Emperor Hongzhi needed to call him Master Wang.

  Wang Ao said: "Uncle Xinjian thinks that this flying ball can kill the enemy?"

  Fang Jifan said: "I never said that the enemy can be killed, what I mean is that it can be investigated."

Wang Ao smiled slightly and said: "If you can't kill the enemy, it's useless. The imperial court has set up so many fortresses outside the pass, and built so many beacon towers. The pass is continuous and echoes each other. Why use flying **** to warn? I think this thing looks scary, but in fact it is useless. It is just a tricky thing. It still works in the old way. Over the years, the court has had many difficulties. The money and food are all taken from the people's fat and spent on this useless thing. In terms of things, it is a waste of people's wealth, what do your majesty and the princes think?"

  The more court meetings, the more rules there are, and the most high-level meetings in such temples are often closed behind closed doors, where everyone can express their opinions.

  Wang Ao's words won the approval of many people.

  Especially Li Dongyang, Li Dongyang said with a smile: "Of course, it can't be said that it is completely useless, but it depends on whether the usefulness is that great. Uncle Xinjian's flying ball is certainly good..."

Li Dongyang was smiling. He was not as straightforward as Wang Ao, and he knew how to turn his words: "But, compared to the expenditure of so much money and food, what needs to be asked is, is the money and food worth it? The prince said Fei The ball can't kill the enemy, yes, it can't kill the enemy, so what's the use of it? Instead of this, it's better to have more firecrackers and iron cannons in the pass, this... is the sharp weapon when the Tatars attack."

  Everyone nodded, feeling reasonable.

  Li Dongyang looked at Ma Wensheng and said with a smile, "What do you think?"

  Ma Wensheng smiled awkwardly, not knowing what to say, so he pinched his beard: "Uncle Xinjian thinks so."

   Dealing with these old guys is really tiring.

  Everything is money, food and people's anointing, but it seems that if you spend a penny, you will become a sinner through the ages.

  They are all old ministers, and Confucianism has been passed down to this day, and the thinking of revering the ancients is extremely serious. It is generally believed that when a new thing comes out, the ancestors don’t have this thing, isn’t it still awesome? It can be seen from this that even if there is no such thing, there is no hindrance.

  As for the old ministers like Li Dongyang, this is even more so. As a group, they are naturally conservative.

Fang Jifan thought for a while and said, "You have to try everything. If you don't dare to try, how will you know the result? When Emperor Taizu was here, my Ming Dynasty swept across the desert, but a hundred years later, Daming is still the same. These officers and soldiers also use the exact same firecrackers, iron cannons, swords, guns, swords and halberds, but why are they just shrunk now and controlled by others everywhere?"

"It can be seen from this that the biggest disadvantage in the current horse administration lies in the passage of time and the change of circumstances. The previous methods are no longer useful. The great martial arts of Emperor Gao and Emperor Wen of Taizu have now made us stick to the old ways. It is debatable whether the flying ball is very useful or not, but today, Daming must change, find a way, and sum up a new set of combat methods against the Tatars. Try it, otherwise, you will only think about this waste of money and food every day, and that waste of money and food. But the imperial court has spent countless money and food, but still can't eliminate the hidden dangers in the border town. Isn't this a huge waste? It is allocated to border towns every year The money and food are all astronomical figures."

   Ma Wensheng's old face twitched involuntarily.

  The worst result came out.

   Sure enough, as I expected, it's not good for both sides. Li Dongyang and others think that they are squandering money and food. As for Fang Jifan, he also pointed out the problem of Ma Zheng, pointing out that it is a huge waste to just blindly use the old method to distribute money and food.

  Anyway, in the eyes of both sides, it is the fault of the Ministry of War.

   This is tantamount to Li Dongyang and Wang Ao scolding the Ministry of War for being prodigal, and trying to cheat money with balloons.

   And Fang Jifan slapped Ma Wensheng backhandedly, refuting Li Dongyang and Wang Ao, these scumbags, even if they don't use balloons, they are also cheating prodigals.

  (end of this chapter)