Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 381: He doesn't need to understand, he just needs to believe.

Hong Chengchou's question was like a cold winter wind, instantly dispelling the warm glow of the charcoal fire inside the room.

This question is not a challenge, but a quest for answers.

Zhu Youjian gazed at Hong Chengchou for a long time. His deep eyes did not show any anger at being offended. Instead, a complex emotion welled up in them, a mixture of relief and loneliness.

All the civil and military officials believed that ceasing hostilities and allowing the people to rest was the best course of action, and viewed launching a full-scale attack on the Jin dynasty as a crazy act.

Only Hong Chengchou so openly and frankly laid out this doubt.

Zhu Youjian did not answer immediately.

The bowl of pigeon soup, which was still warm, had gone completely cold.

Zhu Youjian slowly put down the jade chopsticks in his hand. The chopsticks struck the porcelain bowl, producing a crisp and lonely sound that echoed in the quiet warm pavilion.

He turned around and pushed open the lattice door leading from the warm pavilion to the outside of the hall.

"Squeak-"

A gust of cold wind, carrying the scent of ice and snow, suddenly rushed in, causing the candlelight in the hall to flicker wildly and casting the shadows of the emperor and his minister on the wall, making them appear longer and shorter.

"Come out for a walk with me."

The emperor was the first to step out, venturing into the bitter cold of the night.

Hong Chengchou's heart skipped a beat. He dared not be negligent in the slightest. He quickly put down his chopsticks, straightened his official robe, and hurried after him.

The moonlight was like frost, reflecting a cold and desolate silvery white.

The night sky was clear and filled with stars, like a cold jade chessboard overlooking the human world.

Zhu Youjian did not go far, but stood in the open space in front of the house, letting the cold wind, as sharp as a knife, blow against his thin dragon robe.

He gazed up at the boundless starry sky, as if conversing with the eternal and unchanging heaven and earth.

Hong Chengchou stood quietly behind him, head bowed in obeisance. He knew that every word the emperor spoke next would be the answer to his doubts and the decisive factor in his future path.

After a long silence, Zhu Youjian finally spoke, his voice swaying in the cold wind.

"Hengjiu, do you think that waiting for Huang Taiji to perish due to natural disasters and man-made calamities, and then dealing with him after our Great Ming has recovered some strength, is not a foolproof plan?"

Upon hearing this, Hong Chengchou's heart skipped a beat!
This is probably the mature and pragmatic view on governing the country held by the vast majority of senior officials in the court.

Although Huang Taiji was ruthless, his country was small and his population was small. Now he was surrounded on three sides, suffering from natural disasters and lacking food aid from the outside. He was like a turtle in a jar or a fish swimming at the bottom of a pot.

The Ming Dynasty only needed to fortify its defenses and maintain a strict defensive posture to wear them down.

When the domestic people's livelihood is somewhat stabilized and the government treasury is somewhat full, then with a mighty army and a benevolent force, we can sweep away the enemy's strongholds and win without any risk.
The emperor had revealed the unspoken thoughts in his mind in a single sentence!
Before he could answer, Zhu Youjian shook his head and let out a very soft sneer, a laugh full of desolation and disdain.

"A foolproof plan? There is never a foolproof plan in this world. Because of the secure future you envision..."

The emperor suddenly turned around, his eyes shining frighteningly bright in the moonlight.

"It doesn't exist at all!"

"What?" Hong Chengchou was startled and suddenly raised his head, meeting the emperor's eyes that seemed to see through people's hearts and see the future.

"Hengjiu, remember this," Zhu Youjian's voice was extremely low, "These past two years have only been the beginning!"

"It's not just a year of scorching sun, but ten years of parched earth! It's not just a local drought, but the whole country suffering!"

"For the next four, five, ten years... or even longer! This great drought that has swept across the entire land of China, this divine punishment, will not stop, it will only intensify! The respite you think you have is nothing but wishful thinking on my part!"

"what?!"

Hong Chengchou's head buzzed loudly, as if struck by lightning, and he froze on the spot.

Even with his long military experience and unwavering will, he was still chilled to the bone by the emperor's words!

Predicting natural disasters in the next decade or so!

What an astonishing statement!
Hong Chengchou was a devout follower of gods and Buddhas, but deep down he was a thorough pragmatist. He only trusted his own eyes, the knife in his hand, and the land beneath his feet.

These words were beyond his comprehension, bordering on superstition and prophetic pronouncements.

If anyone else dared to spread such alarmist and misleading rumors in front of him, Hong Chengchou would probably have already drawn his sword, shouted "How dare you curse my Great Ming?", and then settled the score with one stroke!

but……

The one who said these words was the current emperor!
He is an emperor who, since ascending the throne, has demonstrated wisdom and ruthlessness beyond his years in every single matter, and has not made a single wrong move so far!
Hong Chengchou frantically reviewed all the changes in the political situation since the emperor ascended the throne.

He was horrified to discover that this young emperor seemed to truly possess eyes that could cut through the fog of history, stepping at the most crucial junctures with every step, and every decision proved to be remarkably accurate in retrospect.

Could it be that... the emperor truly possesses the ability to sense the secrets of heaven?
In an instant, Hong Chengchou felt a chill permeate every strand of his hair, colder and more piercing than the north wind of the dead of night.

He dared not think any further; the secrets hidden behind them were beyond the comprehension of a subject.

But he finally understood the source of the emperor's deep-seated sense of urgency and anxiety.

If what the Emperor said is true, then the Ming Dynasty, this dilapidated ship, will not have had any time to dock in the harbor and slowly repair itself.

It is sailing on a sea of ​​death destined to be stormy; even a moment's pause means being completely overturned and swallowed by the next, even bigger wave!

"Rest in peace?" Zhu Youjian looked at Hong Chengchou's ever-changing expression and sneered, "How can someone who is poisoned and whose poison is still getting worse rest in peace? That's not rest in peace, that's waiting to die!"

Having figured this out, Hong Chengchou felt that all his previous shrewd schemes had become a joke.

He took a deep breath of the cold air, forcing his chaotic thoughts to regroup. Following the direction the emperor pointed, he saw another, even crueler reality.

His Adam's apple bobbed, and he said in a dry voice, "I seem to have realized something. If the timing of events is truly as Your Majesty says, then our Great Ming will have no more peaceful years. And the defense line of the nine borders, seemingly impregnable, is in reality..."

Hong Chengchou didn't finish his sentence, but his eyes said it all.

Zhu Youjian smiled approvingly and continued, picking up where he left off: "In reality, it is a huge wound that is constantly bleeding!"

"Speaking with a wise man saves a thousand words." The emperor's tone finally softened. "Hengjiu, you are a man of military knowledge, you should be able to calculate this."

"To guard against a surprise attack by the Later Jin, our Great Ming has deployed hundreds of thousands of troops at Shanhaiguan, Xuanfu, Datong, and even the entire Nine Garrisons. These are all battle-hardened elites, the armor of the nation. However, such a mighty army consumes the nation's resources, and the daily cost of food and supplies is far more than ten thousand taels of silver. The national treasury is already like rotten wood hollowed out by termites. How can it sustain this for long?"

He paused, then his tone suddenly turned stern:
"What's even more frightening is our passive position! We are as solid as a rock, while they are as swift as the wind. They come like lightning and go like mist, suddenly heading south and suddenly heading north. In the past, these Jurchens broke through Jizhou today and knocked on the gates of Datong tomorrow. Our army dared not move lightly, for if we did, the whole situation would be affected, and pulling one thread would damage the whole body! We could only watch helplessly as they, like a malignant tumor clinging to our bones, came and went freely, wantonly plundering and repeatedly torturing our weakest body!"

"This long and desperate erosion has depleted more than just money and provisions. Hengjiu has depleted the last morale and fighting spirit of our Great Ming army, and the last vestiges of the empire's courage and dignity!"

Zhu Youjian spoke each word deliberately, his voice as clear and resonant as metal and stone.

"Rather than being slowly boiled like a frog in lukewarm water, slowly tortured to death, I would rather use the power of the entire nation to deliver a thunderous blow! The excruciating pain of breaking bones and tearing out the heart is far better than a chronic, life-sucking disease!"

Hong Chengchou felt his blood boil with excitement as he listened; he knew all too well the pain of being on the defensive!

The emperor's words struck him hard.

That kind of courage and determination to actively seek a decisive battle at all costs is exactly what generals like him crave most!
"Your Majesty is wise! To break the deadlock is to attack as a form of defense and achieve victory in one battle!" Hong Chengchou bowed and clasped his hands in admiration.

Zhu Youjian waved his hand, indicating that there was no need for such formalities. "This is only one aspect."

The emperor walked back into the room and returned to the huge map. The cold air outside the palace and the warmth inside the palace mingled here, creating a white mist that made the mountains and rivers on the map look both real and unreal.

Zhu Youjian ran his finger lightly across the withered yellow area representing the land within the Great Wall. His finger did not stop, but resolutely moved northeast, crossing Shanhaiguan and landing heavily on that area that appeared particularly deep and vast on the geomantic map: Liaodong, and even further away, the Nurgan Regional Military Commission.

"Heng Jiu, look here again."

"Do you think that what I am fighting with Huang Taiji for is the title of the supreme ruler? The right to rule the world?" Zhu Youjian shook his head, his eyes flashing with a hunger like that of a starving wolf that Hong Chengchou had never seen before.

"wrong!"

"What I want is not just Huang Taiji's head. What I want is that vast, fertile land beneath his feet!"

These words were like a thunderclap from a clear sky, leaving Hong Chengchou, who had just calmed down, speechless once again!
Seize territory?

The purpose of fighting the Jurchens was not to repel foreign aggression, not to seek revenge, not to pacify the borders, but rather to... seize their land?
The idea was so outlandish that Hong Chengchou was momentarily stunned.

The land of the Jianzhou Jurchens was seen by the world as a harsh and desolate place, what use was it except for producing ginseng and sable fur?
The Ming Dynasty possesses the wealth of the entire world; why should it covet such remote and desolate lands?
As if reading his mind, Zhu Youjian tapped heavily on the black earth with his knuckles.

"Heng Jiu, you've been fooled by the geographical treatises written by those pedantic scholars! What Changbai Mountains and Heilongjiang River, what barren wasteland—it's all nonsense!"

"Do you know that while my people within the Great Wall can only look at the cracked yellow earth and sigh in despair, this land is fertile and as black as ink! Do you know that while even drought-resistant sweet potatoes on the banks of my Wuding River need to be irrigated by military wells, this land is crisscrossed by rivers and receives abundant rainfall! Do you know that here, trees can truly form forests and grain can be stored as granaries!"

The emperor's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement; he seemed to already see the bountiful harvest on that land.

"This is black soil! It is the most abundant and precious gift that heaven has bestowed upon this continent! It is a world unto itself!"

"Taking this place will be like finding a brand new granary destined for our Great Ming Dynasty!"

"So, Hyung-gu, do you understand now?"

The emperor turned his head and stared intently at Hong Chengchou.

"This war against the Jurchens was essentially a war of revenge, a war to pacify the borders, and even more so, a war for the fate of the nation!"

"Destroying Huang Taiji and overthrowing the so-called Qing Dynasty was merely the first step in opening the door to heaven. What I truly desire is the vast land beyond that door, a land sufficient to extend the bloodline of my Ming Dynasty for hundreds more years!"

Black soil? Fertile soil flowing with oil?

This...how is this possible?

He spent his life on the military and had an excellent grasp of the geography of the nine border regions.

In his mind, and indeed in the minds of all the officials and generals in the land, Liaodong was nothing more than a land teeming with fierce Eastern barbarians and bitterly cold ice and snow, and a barren land rarely visited by people, as described by scouts.

This is military reports accumulated over decades, a consensus reached by countless scouts with their blood, common sense etched into his bones!

Can common sense be so easily overturned?
however……

He raised his head and looked into the emperor's unfathomable eyes, which seemed to contain another starry sky.

He suddenly realized that he might not need to distinguish whether the claim of "oil-rich black soil" was true or false.

Since Your Majesty ascended the throne, every single incident, at the beginning of its occurrence, was shocking and considered absurd by the entire court.
But the result?

Subsequent events proved that His Majesty's every decree was like a divine move, precisely landing on the only path to survival!

And so, an absurd yet incredibly firm idea took shape in his mind:
Perhaps, the world appears completely different in His Majesty's eyes than it does in the eyes of ordinary people like them.

Hong Chengchou didn't need to understand; he only needed to believe!
If His Majesty says that land is black, then it is black! If His Majesty says that grain can be grown there, then granaries will surely be filled with gold!
In the face of an emperor who has created too many impossibilities, what is my pitiful common sense worth?
He forcibly suppressed all his doubts and confusion, transforming them into an almost blind trust in the emperor.

Hong Chengchou thought he had done everything in his power to reach the pinnacle of His Majesty's thoughts and glimpse the full extent of his ambition.

He believed that seizing the black soil of Liaodong was the limit of the emperor's ambitions.

However, he was wrong.

He was totally wrong.

The emperor's gaze slowly shifted from the two characters "Liaodong" on the map, drifting further afield, towards the boundless ocean.

His tone became distant and profound, as if a wise man standing on the river of time was revealing a picture of the future to a younger generation.

"Heng Jiu, do you know? This world is undergoing a transformation unlike any it has seen in thousands of years."

"What?" Hong Chengchou was already stunned by the "land seizure theory" and was completely dumbfounded by this even grander statement.

A major upheaval unprecedented in thousands of years? What does this mean?
"Do you think those Westerners who came all the way from across the ocean are just here to sell a few Western trinkets in exchange for some silk and porcelain?"

Zhu Youjian's voice carried a cold sarcasm.

"They brought more than just sweet potatoes and corn. They brought brand-new warships, more powerful cannons, and an insatiable greed for land and wealth! They are using their sailing ships and swords to redraw the boundaries and set the rules on the other side of the world!"

"And my Great Ming, possessing the title of the Celestial Empire, is like a giant bound by chains, unable to move. And that thickest and most deadly chain is the Jurchen!"

"As long as this poisonous thorn remains stuck in the back of the empire, all my thoughts and energy, and all the strength of my Great Ming, will be firmly held by it! If I want to strengthen the coastal defenses, the nine border regions will be in danger; if I want to open up maritime trade, Liaodong will be engulfed in flames! I... cannot spare the time!"

Zhu Youjian suddenly turned around, spreading his arms as if to embrace the whole world.

"Only by completely removing this thorn and severing this shackle can I truly unleash my power!"

"I can assemble a true ocean-going fleet, sail south, and reclaim the Dongfan region occupied by the red-haired barbarians, turning it into a dragon's head for my Great Ming's conquest of the South Seas!"

"I can use both kindness and force to either bring those rich and prosperous Southeast Asian countries under my control as vassals or directly into my territory! Their spices, rice, timber, and minerals will inject a continuous stream of fresh blood into my Great Ming Dynasty!"

"I can even use the power of a unified and powerful central empire, free from internal constraints, to challenge the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English who have come from afar, on the vast ocean, and let them understand who is truly in charge of setting the rules on this sea!"

"And all of this..."

Zhu Youjian's voice returned to calm, yet it was as heavy as Mount Tai.

"The starting point of all these grand plans, the key to all these dreams, all point to the same premise—"

"We must, and can only, eliminate the Jurchens at all costs right now!"

Hong Chengchou was completely speechless.

His body was trembling slightly, not from the cold, but from an indescribable excitement!
If the theory of natural disasters in the previous decade terrified him, the theory of prolonging life through war made him feel resolute, and the theory of seizing black soil shocked him.

At this moment, this magnificent panorama that spans the universe filled him with an almost sacred sense of mission!
The emperor before us has a vision that has long surpassed the "Central Plains" and "Four Barbarians" that have been limited to all monarchs of past dynasties!
This may truly be the emperor with the broadest vision and the most magnanimous mind in the history of China!

Cut the mess with a sharp knife.

It wasn't because of recklessness after all.

Rather, it is the most profound foresight after understanding the whole situation. This tangled mess itself carries a deadly poison. The longer it gets entangled, the deeper the poisoning becomes. When the poison seeps into the bone marrow, even a god cannot save you!
This is an ultimate strategy interwoven with the blood and tears of the past life, the madness of this life, and a clear insight into the future world order.

The emperor has no way out.

The Ming Dynasty also lacked this!

(End of this chapter)