Chapter 396 It’s the best time to send troops to attack

Author: Potato Sweet Potato Pie

Chapter 396 It’s the best time to send troops to attack

For the Ming Dynasty and even the Chinese dynasties, it was extremely difficult to obtain silver from silver mines, because the silver content of the ores in the silver mines was very low, and it was time-consuming and laborious to mine the ores. After refining, often only

A little bit of silver.

Over time, it became a common understanding that silver mines can indeed produce silver, but very little.

It is so small that all the silver mines in the world combined, using the efforts of tens of thousands of people, can produce as little as tens of thousands taels of silver every year, as many as tens of thousands taels, and at most more than 100,000 taels.

However, the silver mines in Japan can mine millions of taels every year, and the total amount of silver mined is at least hundreds of millions of taels. This is just a silver mine.

Emperor Hongzhi was really frightened by this number. There was such a terrifying silver mine in the world. Is this a silver mine or a silver mountain?

So much so that he shouted loudly: "How much?!"

"I am saying that just this silver mine can produce at least millions of taels of silver every year. If all of it is mined, it will be at least hundreds of millions of taels."

Xia Yuan pointed to the circled position on the map and repeated it again with an extremely firm tone.

Zhu Youtang looked at him deeply and asked after a while: "How do you know about the affairs of Japan?"

"It's hard for me to say this." After saying this, Xia Yuan remained silent, with a look of embarrassment on his face.

How did he know? He tried to make up this lie, but after thinking of several reasons, he felt it was not feasible. It was impossible to say that I dreamed it. I am afraid that Emperor Hongzhi would not believe it, and it was suspected of insulting the emperor's intelligence.

, no matter how big or small it is, it can be considered a crime of deceiving the emperor.

So it would be best to show this embarrassed look and let the emperor think and make up his own mind.

People tend to trust their own judgment.

Seeing that he said something about "it's hard for me to talk", then kept silent, and showed a look of embarrassment, Emperor Hongzhi's eyes narrowed slightly, and he consciously figured out the answer, "Have you ever had contact with Japanese pirates?"

Xia Yuan was stunned, "Japanese pirates?"

"Didn't you learn about it from the Japanese pirates? Oh, if the Japanese pirates hadn't told them, how would you have known about the Japanese affairs?"

Emperor Hongzhi snorted, showing a wise face that already had a pearl of wisdom in hand and had already understood everything.

"Well"

Xia Yuan was a little stuck, colluding with Japanese pirates was a serious crime, but at this point, he could only prostrate himself to the ground in fear, "Your Majesty is clearly wise, I dare not deceive you, I will die."

"There's no need to die. I didn't say I would pursue this matter."

"Thank you for your forgiveness, Your Majesty."

"It's not that I forgive, it's that I don't pursue it. Don't try to deceive me in the future. Although you and I are monarchs and ministers, we are also sons-in-law. It is human nature for children and relatives to have some preferences. You are right

I don’t need to lie, as long as it’s not too much, I will protect you.”

Speaking of this, Emperor Hongzhi had an enigmatic look on his face, "Not to mention, even if you try to hide it, how can you hide it from my eyes?"

Xia Yuan's lips wriggled a few times, but finally chose to remain silent.

Zhu Youtang turned to look at the eunuchs. The shipbuilding plan had been found and was being held in Xiao Jing's hands, but he did not mention it.

"What did my son-in-law say just now? Did you all hear it?"

Xiao Jing lowered his head and said, "I didn't even hear what the emperor said."

The other eunuchs also immediately replied: "My servants didn't hear anything either."

Zhu Youtang hummed, "Put the shipbuilding plans on the table for me, and you can go out later."

"yes."

Although Xiao Jing was quite curious about the Japanese silver mines, he always kept his identity as a slave in mind. After saying yes, he put the shipbuilding plan on the imperial desk, and then led several young eunuchs out of the Nuan Pavilion.

Seeing that the rest of the people in the palace had gone out, and there were fewer people chatting, Emperor Hongzhi paced over, picked up the shipbuilding plan, looked at it, put it down, and then said: "You have had contact with Japanese pirates, that Japanese pirates

And why did I betray my home country to tell you about the situation in the Japanese country?"

As he spoke, Zhu Youtang pointed to the map and said, "You even drew this Japanese map."

Regarding this issue, Xia Yuan thought for a while and basically came up with an idea. While thinking about his words, he asked: "Your Majesty, why do you think the Ming Dynasty has Japanese troubles?"

"Japanese pirates are naturally cruel and indulgent in their aggression."

Xia Yuan grinned, "Your Majesty is absolutely right, but why is it that the Ming Dynasty had the most serious Japanese invasion? Although there were Japanese invasions during the Tang and Song Dynasties, they were not as serious as our Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Youtang frowned. After thinking about it carefully, it seemed that this was indeed the case. He read through the history books and found that among all the dynasties, the Ming Dynasty had the most serious Japanese invasion.

At this moment, his appetite had been whetted, and he didn't have the heart to think about the reason. He just asked: "Why?"

"Because the Japanese country is currently in civil strife, the scale of the civil strife is comparable to that of China's Spring and Autumn Period."

Although there are always people in later generations who scornfully call the so-called Warring States Period of Japan, where dozens or hundreds of villages fought there, in fact, this is really nonsense.

Not only is the Japanese country black, but China is also black.

Because after the Warring States Period of Japan ended, it sent troops to attack Korea. After hundreds of years of war, the remaining soldiers of Japan can definitely be regarded as elites created by the war. How many such elites did Japan send? There are records of more than twenty

Ten thousand, and there are records of more than 100,000.

But no matter which one is accepted, it will never be less than 150,000.

An army of 150,000 is considered a very large-scale war in Chinese history, and in many cases it is a war that determines the survival of a dynasty.

But they were still defeated by the Ming army.

So there is no need to go to the Warring States Period of the Black Japanese Kingdom. The territory was small and you could not stretch your legs to dance, but the population was large, with tens of millions of people.

A daimyo with an army of 100,000 under his command is very capable.

This kind of military strength may not be impressive compared to China's Warring States Period, but it is comparable to some small and medium-sized vassal states in the Spring and Autumn Period.

"Compared to the Spring and Autumn Period, the country is now so turbulent?"

"As far as the degree of war is concerned, it is worse than that. The war in Japan happened to start when the Ming Dynasty was just founded. When war broke out, many people in Japan crossed the sea and fled from the mainland in order to escape the war."

Zhu Youtang nodded slightly, with a look of surprise on his face, and continued: "So he exiled himself to the Ming Dynasty and became a problem for the Japanese pirates?"

"yes."

"Then the Japanese troubles in the Ming Dynasty have subsided a little in recent years. They are far less serious than during the period of Taizu and Emperor Taizong. Is this the Spring and Autumn Civil War of the Japanese country that is about to be over?"

"It's still early. It's a relatively intense period at best, and it will probably take tens to hundreds of years to end.

Your Majesty, who has read the history books well, should know when the number of people escaping from the war was greatest, either at the beginning of the war or during the most intense period of the war."

Once the story begins, the rest is easy to tell. Xia Yuan continued: "Just like the Jin Dynasty's Yiguan crossing to the south, the Hu people just went south to wreak havoc, and a large number of scholars and common people fled to Jiangzuo. Waiting for the Hu people

It has been raging for decades or hundreds of years. At that time, there were still a large number of Han people staying in the north, but not many people fled. There must be many reasons for this, but I think it must be that they are used to wars and participated in them.

middle."

"The same is true for Japan today. From the beginning of the war to now, the war has lasted for decades. It has passed the initial stage of large numbers of people fleeing, but it is not the most intense period of the war. Therefore, although the Japanese invasion in Ming Dynasty has been

, but it has never been able to form a large scale, and at most it is just sporadic riots."
Chapter completed!