Bringing the Railway to Daming

After the third day of the eighth lunar month, Zhu Yuanzhang did not return to Fengyang, but stayed in the capital to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with Zhu Biao's family.

However, two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Prince Zhu Gang of Jin sent a telegram from Jinyang (Cairo) indicating that the Jin Kingdom was preparing to join forces with the Western Sea Commandery to attack the Kingdom of France after the autumn harvest.

Previously, the Jin Kingdom and the Western Sea Commandery had sent envoys to France, hoping that France would, like the Kingdom of Aragon, accept the Ming Dynasty and its subordinate vassal states such as the Jin Kingdom's requests to establish embassies, academies, spread Confucianism, and engage in free trade.

But King Charles VI of France refused them all, not even to discuss it, and even detained the Jin envoys at one point.

Therefore, Zhu Gang and the commander of the Western Sea region both hoped to attack France after the autumn harvest, teach them a lesson, and let those small European countries know the strength of the Ming Dynasty in the Mediterranean region.

The Prince of Dai, Zhu Gui; the Prince of Su, Zhu Yan; the Prince of Liao, Zhu Zhi; and the Prince of Ning, Zhu Quan, who are currently in the Xihai Commandery, also seconded the telegram.

After receiving the telegram, Zhu Biao discussed it briefly with Zhu Xiong Ying, and immediately sent someone to inform Zhu Yuanzhang of the matter. He also sent someone out of the palace to find Liu Kuan.

When Liu Kuan arrived at Fengxian Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang was already there.

After Liu Kuan bowed, Zhu Biao said, "Xiong Ying, show your teacher the telegram sent by the Prince of Jin."

Zhu Xiong Ying nodded and handed the telegram to Liu Kuan.

Although the telegram contained a lot of information, Liu Kuan read it quickly because the language was simple. He finished reading it in no time and then couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, should we convene a military council meeting or a cabinet meeting at this time?"

Zhu Biao said, "Let's discuss this together first—what does my brother-in-law think about this?"

Liu Kuan, now serving as a Grand Councilor, or even the First Grand Councilor, is well-informed about many foreign powers.

He paused for a moment and said, "King Charles VI of France is known as the 'Mad King' and is actually mentally ill. As a result, the French lords and nobles are now acting independently and even fighting each other for the sake of ruling France, which is equivalent to being in a state of civil war."

"Besides, France and England should still be in the midst of the Hundred Years' War—has the Bright Guard discovered any intelligence on the current state of Anglo-French relations?"

Zhu Xiong Ying smiled and said, "This matter is common knowledge in Europe, so the Bright Guard naturally found out about it."

After speaking, Zhu Xiong Ying handed Liu Kuan a file of intelligence gathered by the Guangming Guard.

After reading it, Liu Kuan, combined with the limited information he had about the Hundred Years' War between England and France in the original history, finally understood the current situation between England and France.

The Hundred Years' War between England and France in history was not fought continuously for a century, but rather intermittently.

We are currently in the later stages of the second phase of the Hundred Years' War between England and France.

Around 1364, King Charles V of France ascended the throne and was considered a wise ruler for his time. He reorganized the army, reformed the tax system, actively prepared for war, and replaced some of the knightly orders with mercenaries.

After that, it launched a series of battles over the next ten years, and reclaimed most of the territory that had been occupied by England.

Unfortunately, Charles V did not live long. Just as he was about to drive the English back into the sea and recover all lost territory, he died.

When his son Charles VI ascended the throne, the French army's fighting strength began to decline visibly.

Of course, England also had various domestic problems, and its military was not very effective.

If I had to describe it, it would be roughly the same situation between the Liao and Song dynasties after Emperor Shenzong of Song – constant friction and small-scale battles, but no major wars.

If there were a major war, the French lords and nobles would not fight each other for the power of regency.

After learning about these circumstances, Liu Kuan pondered and said, "Your Majesty, if we are to attack France, now is indeed a good time, but we need to be careful about the method."

Zhu Biao asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Xiong Ying also looked over.

Liu Kuan said, "Perhaps we should first select a suitable target among the French lords as a puppet, and let our Xihai Commandery and the Jin army enter under the guise of mercenaries."

"Because if we enter in the name of the Ming army, it is very likely that the French lords will put aside their past grievances and unite to resist together, and may even ask other countries for help."

“On the contrary, mercenaries are quite popular in European countries nowadays. If we can enter France as mercenaries, and once we gain a foothold and establish ourselves, it will be too late for the French lords to realize something is wrong and try to unite to drive us out.” After Liu Kuan finished speaking, Lao Zhu and the others fell into deep thought.

Soon, Zhu Xiong Ying said, "Teacher, wouldn't this make things too complicated? According to the report from the Bright Guard, the French army is still using cold weapons and the rate of armor equipment is not high."

"In addition to its internal strife and the need to guard against England, with the military forces of Jin, Xihai Commandery, and the four kings of Dai, Su, Liao, and Ning, they could completely sweep away all the lords' forces in France!"

Liu Kuan said, “What His Highness said makes some sense—but if the lords of France unite and ask neighboring countries for help, even if we are capable of fighting, I am afraid we will also get bogged down in the quagmire of war.”

"Moreover, I only said that we should enter as mercenaries first, not that the Ming army should always be the mercenaries of the French lords."

Zhu Biao then spoke up, “Xiong Ying, I think Liu Kuan’s words make sense—we are already at a disadvantage in terms of prestige when we send troops to France. If we go there and reveal our intention to destroy the country, I’m afraid we will be surrounded by enemies and get bogged down in war.”

Zhu Xiong Ying looked at Zhu Yuan Zhang with slight reluctance, clearly hoping that Zhu Yuan Zhang would support his idea.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Xiongying, listen to your father and teacher—war is a matter of great importance to the country. Even though our army is powerful, we still need to plan and strategize to win."

"If we rely solely on the strength of our army and make it a habit, we will inevitably capsize sooner or later, do you understand?"

Although Zhu Xiong Ying was unwilling, he reluctantly listened to these words and nodded, saying, "Grandson understands."

The decision to send troops to France by the Ming Dynasty was thus made. Of course, there would be subsequent military and cabinet meetings, but these would only establish the general rules and procedures for the matter, and the overall structure would remain largely unchanged.

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After the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The seat of the Western Sea Commandery was Western Sea City (Haifa).

This is a Chinese-style harbor city built by recruiting local people from Xihaiwei and using a large number of prisoners of war. Of course, it is not purely Chinese, as it also incorporates some advantages of local architecture.

On this day, Prince Zhu Gui of Dai, Prince Zhu Yan of Su, Prince Zhu Zhi of Liao, and Prince Zhu Quan of Ning all gathered here to discuss sending troops to France.

Zhu Gui had arrived at the Xihai Commandery a year earlier and had already accumulated military merits in several battles, soon meeting the requirements for establishing his own residence. In addition, he was relatively older (22 years old) and was the strongest among the four princes.

In addition to his 3,000 guards, he also had 5,000 local recruits as his personal guards.

As for Zhu Yan, Zhu Zhi, and Zhu Quan, since they have been in the Xihai Commandery for less than a year and their financial resources are limited, they currently only have three thousand princes as guards.

Although the four were meeting at the headquarters of the Western Sea Commandery, the commander of the Western Sea Commandery was not present. Although the Ming Dynasty had decided to send troops to France under the guise of mercenaries, it did not want the Western Sea Commandery to participate. Instead, it assigned the Western Sea Commandery to be responsible for garrisoning and logistical support.

After all, the Xihai Commandery was a garrison directly under the imperial court. Its involvement in such matters would violate the imperial laws and regulations and would be detrimental to the imperial court's control over the Xihai Commandery.

In the hall, Zhu Gui, the Prince of Dai, who was seated at the head of the left, considered himself the eldest and spoke first: "My three younger brothers, please speak up. Should we all choose a lord to support this time, or should we each choose one?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Quan (18 years old), the youngest, frowned and said, "France is not a large country, and there are only a handful of lords that can be 'supported'. If we each choose one, won't we end up fighting each other in the future?"

Prince Su, Zhu Yan, then said, "Thirteenth Brother, Third Brother should have already suggested what to do, right?"

Zhu Gui snorted with considerable dissatisfaction: "Third Brother did make a suggestion, but it was to have the four of us support a lord who is allied with the Jin army."

Zhu Quan said, "That's a good idea."

"What a load of rubbish!" Zhu Gui downed a large cup of wine. "With so many troops, going to support a lord of a small country? Isn't that ridiculous? Putting aside everything else, how are we going to divide the spoils?!"

"I heard that the suggestion to send mercenaries into France was made by our teacher. In our opinion, our teacher is not good at fighting, so why would he make such a suggestion? With our strength, we can easily enter France together, destroy its royal family, and divide its territory!"

Zhu Yan said sarcastically, "Thirteenth Brother, it's not good for you to criticize the teacher like that."

Zhu Gui snorted, "We don't have classes in the main hall anymore, so what if there's criticism? Can the teacher control us?"

"In my opinion, we should simply adopt a strategy of 'a general in the field may disobey orders'—first, we should enter France as mercenaries, and once there, we should eliminate the lord we are supporting, and then eliminate any other lords who dare to oppose us."

"We refuse to believe that we can't crush France into kneeling and submitting!" (End of Chapter)