I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 416 Wang Chonggu's Bitter Advice
The Western Garden of the capital.

Zhu Yijun, accompanied by six representatives of the Qinglong Navy headed by Lu Tong and Li Chao, all heroes of the naval battle that annihilated the Spanish fleet, walked into a row of rooms behind the Wanshou Palace.

"This used to be a separate warehouse for confiscated property and fines. Now I've converted it into a storage room, where I keep some maps and models." Zhu Yijun, wearing a vermilion robe with a dragon pattern and a footless hat, enthusiastically led the way and introduced the way.

Li Chao and his six companions, dressed in green sayi robes and folded-foot hats, followed behind him respectfully, listening to Zhu Yijun's words with great curiosity.

Liu Yi brought sixteen military students from the Fengchensi and sixteen military officers from the Jingjun army to guard nearby, and not far away, Fang Liang followed with more than twenty military students from the Yongweiying.

“This one is a model room.”

When Zhu Yijun was still a senior civil servant, his biggest hobby was not being a fisherman who would never come back empty-handed, but making models.

From the Shenzhou VII to the J-20 to the Shandong Fujian, I have worked on them all myself, and for several years I was particularly obsessed with sailing boats.

He made models of Columbus's ship, the classic carrick sailing ship Santa Maria, the chubby Spanish treasure galleon, the "Trinity" and "Victory" in the Battle of Trafalgar, the "Marseille" seventy-four gunboat, and the "Short Shirt" clipper ship.

Now these ship models made according to a certain proportion are placed on wooden shelves, immediately attracting the attention of Li Chao and six other people who came in.

They stood beside the model, looking at it carefully from top to bottom, and clicking their tongues as they watched.

"Isn't this our prince's sailboat?"

A captain pointed at the Victory and said in surprise.

Li Chao and five others immediately surrounded the scene upon hearing the sound, their gazes filled with burning heat.

Some people looked at the "Trinity" and drooled with envy.

"This is great. The ship is huge. One, two, three, four. Oh my goodness, it has four gun decks and at least 120 guns. Such a large ship must have at least 12,300 tons of fuel, more than 4,000 tons."

Someone immediately objected: "No, it's too heavy, slow, and difficult to turn. It's just a target on the sea."

“It has a lot of artillery!”

"What's the point of having more cannons? Everyone knows the accuracy of cannon fire on the sea. The bigger the ship, the greater the chance of being hit. I turn quickly and surround you. No matter how many cannons you have, they can't hit my balls!"

Another person pointed at the model of the "Marseille" and shook his head.

"That's right. A large ship with many guns has a limit. If you exceed it, it will backfire. I think this ship is great. The shape is really beautiful, and there are so many gun positions, which are very evenly arranged."

Another person pointed at the "Short Shirt" and said in surprise: "This ship is so strange. The hull is like a long knife, the bow is like a pair of scissors, and the sails on it are densely packed. Oh, there are only three masts, the main mast has six cross sails, the fore and aft masts have five cross sails each, and there are so many triangular sails and oblique sails.

If the wind is favorable, it will surely fly.”

Li Chao turned around, bowed and asked, "Your Highness, were these ship models made by you?"

"I only provide the brains, and the carpenters of the Shaofujian provide the craftsmanship. I draw the blueprints, separate the components, and the carpenters polish them one by one and then assemble them carefully.

I don’t have the time and energy to do this kind of delicate work.”

Zhu Yijun's right hand gently stroked the hull and mast of the ship models, his eyes shining.

Li Chao and others saw the light in Zhu Yijun's eyes, and felt the love from the heart in that light, and felt excited and shocked.

They were excited because they could see that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince loved ships and attached great importance to the navy.

What was shocking was that they couldn't imagine how His Royal Highness the Crown Prince designed these ships.

Is it possible that His Royal Highness is gifted by God? How did he know about these sailboats?
But no one dared to ask out loud.

Zhu Yijun, Li Chao and six other people looked at the ship model for a full half hour before they reluctantly left and moved to another room.

There are maps hanging here.

Zhu Yijun led everyone straight to a map.

"This map is the 'Map of Overseas Regions' by Li Fu of the Song Dynasty."

Pointing to a map next to it, he said, "This is the 'Overseas Geographical Map of Various Tribes' drawn by Ling Ce of the former Song Dynasty. These two maps cover the countries in the South China Sea, but they are not nautical maps drawn specifically for sailing. There are no route markings and so they cannot meet the needs of long-distance sailing."

Zhu Yijun led everyone to an unrolled long scroll map, pointed at it and said to everyone: "This is a map album of the eunuch Sanbao's many voyages to the West, drawn by his assistants Wang Jinghong, Hou Xian, Fei Xin and others. The original name is "Map of the Ships Sailing from the Treasure Shipyard and Longjiang Pass to Foreign Countries", which sounds bad, so I gave it a name, "Map of Zheng He's Voyages to the West"."

Li Chao and six other people rushed over, looking at the map with eyes of great reverence, looking for familiar places.

"Chongming Island, this is Zhoushan Island."

"Dongfan Island is here, and here, Shixing Shitang."

"Malaga is here, and Longkou Port should be here."

The six people shouted in surprise.

Zhu Yijun watched from the side with a smile on his face.

Thinking back on Zheng He's voyages to the West, it is admirable, proud, but also sad.

"Your Highness!" Li Chun walked over and said softly.

"What's the matter?"

"The Supervisory Office received an urgent report from Datong and did not dare to make a decision on its own, so it was sent in quickly."

Zhu Yijun gestured to Lu Tong, then he bowed and walked over to Li Chao and the others, and asked loudly, "Have you found Annan and Siam?"

"Mr. Lu, I found it. It's here."

Zhu Yijun walked out of the room quietly and took the urgent music from Li Chun.

It was another urgent memorial from Wang Chonggu impeaching Huo Ji. The words were even more intense and directly pointed at Huo Ji.

"Now the border situation is urgent, Huo neglected state affairs for his own selfish reasons, he can be called a traitor to the country. Power is the tool for the monarch to rule the world, it cannot be transferred to others for a day, and the ministers cannot overstep their authority in the slightest.

Now Huo Ji is the governor of Shaanxi, stealing the power of prestige and authority, surpassing the responsibility of maintaining border security. I beg Your Highness to act decisively and get rid of the deception of treacherous officials. "

Wang Chonggu was anxious now, and he attacked Huo Ji desperately, just asking for his own order, asking Huo Ji to hand over Qiejin and Ba Hannaji.

"Your Highness is wise enough to accept advice. You should severely punish those who have misled the country's military affairs, so as not to lose the support of the people. I beg you again and again, Your Highness, please do not be so reluctant as to abandon the surrendered ministers, but rather let millions of people suffer and make the people of the world feel alienated."

Seeing this, Zhu Yijun became furious!
In the last sentence, Wang Chonggu quoted a sentence from Yang Jisheng's impeachment memorial against Yan Song, which turned into a sharp blade and struck Zhu Yijun's heart.

"Bastard!"

Zhu Yijun threw the memorial to the ground fiercely. "The implication is that I have inherited my ancestors' legacy and am just as stubborn and self-willed as my grandfather, and I trust treacherous people!"

The eunuchs around were so frightened that they lowered their heads, shrank their necks, and held their breath.

Li Chun swallowed, waited for a while, mustered up the courage, and said softly: "Your Highness, why don't you talk to Wang Chonggu clearly?"

Zhu Yijun shook his head: "Have you explained it clearly? My decision is just a choice between guessing and the future. How can I explain it? I still have to convince them.

It only adds to the trouble."

He saw the memorial that he had thrown far away, took a few quick steps, bent down, picked up the memorial, and gently brushed away the stains and dust on the cover.

"I have my duties, and Wang Chonggu has his duties. Although his words are harsh, he is doing his best." After Zhu Yijun wiped the cover of Wang Chonggu's memorial clean, he handed it to Qi Yan and asked Li Chun.

"Where is Xue Yi?"

"Your Highness, Xue Yi led the Divine Might Army to support the vanguard, and they should have arrived in Datong now."

"Okay." Zhu Yijun was silent for a while, with his hands in his sleeves, looking towards the northwest, and said leisurely: "There is no perfect plan in this world. This time, we are fighting with Altan Khan. We are fighting with our will, the strength of our Ming Dynasty, and the military prestige accumulated by our Ming Dynasty over the years.

I hope that this time, God will bless our Ming Dynasty."

Li Chun and Qi Yan quickly echoed: "Our Great Ming is as bright as the sun and the moon, and God will surely bless us."

Zhu Yijun looked at the two of them, smiled, and waved his hand, saying, "Go inside."

(End of this chapter)