"Oh, then what can you do to intensify civil strife in Japan?" Zhengde himself is not a good person. In the words of later generations, he is simply a black-hearted man, otherwise he would not have operated Liu Jin behind the scenes after he ascended the throne.

The court was upside down, so Zhu Houzhao was very interested in Zhou Chong's proposal to intensify the civil unrest in Japan.

"Report to Your Majesty, although the Ashikaga family is weak now, they are unwilling to be merciless. The current general Ashikaga Yoshikaga has been secretly accumulating strength, but the strength of the two ministers is too strong, and the Ashikaga family has lost all its prestige, so

He did not dare to act rashly, but if our Ming Dynasty was willing to intervene, he would not need to give too much substantial help to the Ashikaga family. He just gave them a great title, so that Ashikaga Yoshikaga could use this title to win over a group of forces.

Then there will definitely be a wonderful conflict waiting for us to appreciate in the future!" Zhou Chong said with a sinister look on his face. What else can be more happy than this?

Zhengde heard this and pondered for a moment, and finally laughed: "No, good, this plan is indeed very feasible. Although Japan did not have much threat to our Ming Dynasty, they were disrespectful to Emperor Taizu at the beginning, and the Japanese riots were also given to him.

My Ming Dynasty caused considerable losses. If we disrupt their political situation through my hands, it would be a very good way to relieve our hatred."

At the end, Zhengde also showed a sinister expression on his face, which looked exactly the same as the sinister one on Zhou Chong's face. However, Zhengde soon showed an ulterior motive smile, and turned his head to Zhou Chong and said, "Zhou

Heavy. You want to mess up Japan so that you can profit from it. I don’t object to this, but if you follow your plan, I must send someone to contact the Ashikaga family, but most of the officials in the court are

I am not familiar with Japan, so after thinking about it, there is only one person who can do it!"

When Zhengde talked about the competent person, his eyes kept looking at Zhou Chong up and down, and his meaning was self-evident. However, Zhou Chong still said in disbelief: "Your Majesty. You don't want to hand this over to the Caomin, right?

?”

"Haha~, why can't it work? Zhou Chong, don't forget, you are still a scholar in the Ming Dynasty, and you also presented the Folang machine cannons and telescopes, as well as corn and sweet potatoes and other things that benefit the country and the people. In my opinion, you

The credit is even greater than that of most officials in the court. I was thinking about how to reward you just now, but now I finally figured it out. It would be better to just give you an official position. This is my reward to you.

You can also rely on this official position to deal with Japan on behalf of the court and implement your plan to disrupt Japan!" Zhengde said proudly again.

"This..." Zhou Chong was hesitant when he heard this. Zhou Chong naturally wanted to get the support of the court and intervened in Japan. However, when he heard that Zhengde wanted him to be an official, Zhou Chong couldn't help but hesitate. He was about the Ming Dynasty's officialdom.

I have already learned a lot. I know that if you want to gain a foothold in the officialdom, it is far from enough to rely on talents alone. You must also learn to interact with your superiors and subordinates. Simply put, it is to give gifts, eat and flatter, etc.

A series of official survival skills. Otherwise, no matter how talented you are, no matter how the emperor trusts and supports you, I am afraid that it will be difficult to move forward in the officialdom in the end.

It was also thought of these bad habits in the Ming Dynasty officialdom that Zhou Chong finally smiled bitterly and shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, the people are lazy in life, and they are really not the material for being an official. Do you think this is OK? I am still a businessman, but

But it represents the contact between the imperial court and the Japanese, and Wushan and other Jinyiwei assist, so that the people of Cao can communicate with His Majesty at any time."

When Zhengde heard that Zhou Chong was unwilling to be an official, he was not angry, but instead looked at him with a smile and said, "You don't want to be an official. I have heard Wu Shan and the others talk about this, so I don't plan to force it.

It is not impossible for you to use the identity of a businessman to represent the court and contact with Japan, but this matter can only be carried out in secret. Otherwise, if someone knows that you, a businessman, represent the Ming Dynasty, you will not know that you will be

How many impeachments have been attracted by the censors."

Zhou Chong was relieved when he heard Zhengde's agreement. As for the impeachment of the censor, he didn't care at all. He didn't plan to be an official anyway, so what's the use of impeachment by others?

Next, Masato asked about the situation of the Japanese mission again, and Zhou Chong also answered one by one, especially the three forces represented by Tayyama Naoyi, Hatano Hidego and Ashikaga Ikki. He also made a solemn introduction.

, As a result, Zhengde laughed after hearing this, and said, "It seems that General Ashikaga is not an incompetent person. He has actually joined forces with two powerful foreign players. If I express my support for the Ashikaga family this time, then Tashan

The clan and Hatano will definitely pay more attention to the alliance with the Ashikaga family, and it will not be difficult to even encourage them to send troops together. At that time, the political situation in Japan may be in chaos again."

Seeing that Emperor Zhengde had grasped the political situation of Japan so accurately after listening to these introductions, Zhou Chong couldn't help but feel shocked. In fact, he had already noticed it just now. The ridiculous emperor recognized by the Ming Dynasty and the opposition in front of him may be

It's not as simple as the rumors. At least his political mind and sense of smell are much better than ordinary people.

After talking about the incident in Japan, Zhou Chong took the opportunity to tell the situation overseas again, especially in the situation in Southeast Asia and India, and Portugal came from Europe with giant ships and cannons, which had opened the door to India, for the entire Southeast Asia.

It was also eyeing him. This was the second time that Zhou Chong mentioned the Portuguese. With Zhengde's shrewdness, he naturally realized that there was something in Zhou Chong's words.

"Zhou Chong, just say whatever you have. There is no need to go around in circles with me like this!" Zhengde savored the tea ceremony.

"Your Majesty, forgive me!" Zhou Chong first repaid a gift, and then said solemnly, "Your Majesty, our Ming Dynasty has implemented a tribute policy to the surrounding countries, among which many small countries in the Nanyang area are vassal states of our Ming Dynasty, so

In some ways, Nanyang also belongs to our Ming Dynasty.”

Zhou Chong paused at this point, and then said, "But now Portugal is coming from afar. Although they have few people, their ships are strong and cannons are sharp. The previous Flang machine cannons were made by them, and now they are already in

India has a firm foothold, and the next step is to invade the South Ocean. After all, the spices produced in Southeast Asia are the goods they urgently need. Last year, they tried to occupy the portal of Southeast Asia, Malacca City, but failed. However, the Portuguese were not willing to accept it.

The exact news has been obtained. By next year, the Portuguese will launch a large-scale attack on Malacca again. With the strength of the locals, it will be difficult to defend Malacca City again."

Hearing Zhou Chong's introduction, Emperor Zhengde asked calmly: "Oh, if Malacca City falls into the hands of Portugal, what impact will it have on my Ming Dynasty?"

"Report to Your Majesty, if the Portuguese invade South China Sea, it will have two impacts on our Ming Dynasty. The first is the reputation. After all, many of the various parts of the Southeast Asia are vassal states of our Ming Dynasty. If they are allowed to be destroyed by Portugal,

It will cause a serious blow to the Ming Dynasty's reputation overseas. The prestige of our Ming Dynasty that Eunuch Zheng went to Southeast Asia to promote seven times will also be destroyed in one go."

Speaking of this, Zhou Chong took a long breath and then said: "On the other hand, it is about the economic aspects of our Ming Dynasty. I believe that your Majesty also knows that the smuggling along the Ming coast is very active. Caomin is a smuggling merchant, although smuggling does not require taxes to the Ming Dynasty.

, However, the smuggled goods all came from the Ming Dynasty. These goods required a lot of labor during production and transportation, and also paid considerable taxes to the court. However, if the Portuguese occupied Nanyang, then the smuggling merchants would inevitably be subject to the grape people.

The blow, even how to price goods in the future, must obey the orders of the Portuguese. In this way, it will inevitably cause fluctuations in the transaction of Ming goods, which is definitely not a good thing for the Ming Dynasty!”

Zhengde was about to say something when he heard this, but Zhou Chong started speaking first: "There is one point in the end, the Portuguese who came from Europe feared power but did not lose his destiny. In their hearts, there was nothing at all.

Benevolence, righteousness and morality, they advocate interests first. If there is enough interests, they will even sell weapons such as the Florian artillery to the enemies of the Ming Dynasty. In order to facilitate transactions, Portugal is likely to be entrenched somewhere along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, with their strength

, This is undoubtedly a major threat to the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, so the grass-roots believe that no matter from any aspect, the Portuguese cannot enter the South China Sea!"

After hearing Zhou Chong's words, Zhengde suddenly became silent. He was not very concerned about the government and his eyes were always on the Ming Dynasty. In his opinion, there were two threats to the Ming Dynasty, the first one.

It was a natural disaster in the Ming Dynasty. The second was the endless remnants of Yuan Meng in the northern grasslands. But now Zhou Chong opened another door for him and told him that he was also threatening to the Ming Dynasty on the endless sea.

Existence made him unable to digest this information for a while.

After a while, Zhengde woke up from his thoughts. He looked at Zhou Chong with caution in his eyes and said, "Zhou Chong, tell me honestly, what is Portugal's strength? They will really pose a threat to me, Daming.

Is it?"

Zhou Chong heard that Zhengde was most concerned about the Portuguese threat to the Ming Dynasty. He was shocked and said, "Your Majesty, the number of Portuguese is actually not large, and the country is only tens of millions of people, but their ships are strong and cannons are profitable.

Your Majesty, you are also very clear about the power of the Flanger artillery. Now Portugal has twenty or thirty warships and thousands of soldiers in India. With the naval power of our Ming Dynasty, if we want to defeat the Portuguese head-on at sea, we may not have to pay.
Chapter completed!