Three days ago, the Beiyang Military Government had just completed its first joint training exercise of five soldiers in units of 1,000 households, and the results were not good, and 3,000 households were deducted from their salaries.

At the end of the six-month exercise, only 230 of the 5,600 posts of the Beiyang Army were able to receive all the rewards, and nearly half of the banner troops did not even receive their basic salaries despite failing to meet the standards in many assessments.

The goal of forming an army in June was not achieved, and the instructors of each army gave a new training plan, reformulated the training duration, and designed a three-month more targeted and intensified training so that all flag troops could meet the assessment standards.

"What is the plan of the high prince in this matter?"

Chen Lan looked around the furnishings in the conference hall of the Beiyang Military Mansion with his hands behind his back, and when he heard Chen Mu ask, he turned his head and took out a letter with a smile, and said: "I knew you would ask like this, the letter from Gao Gong to you is here, he didn't let me say it, he just said let me see if the two of you have thought of going together." ”

Chen Muleng paused for a moment, took the letter and looked at it slowly, just after reading two lines, his eyes narrowed with a smile, and said, "Gao Gong is also interesting!" ”

In fact, this is not a letter written by Gao Gong to Chen Mu, but a letter that Gao Gong was going to hand over to Goa, Mughal, Arakane and other coastal countries in India.

The letter is concise and to the point, in the end, he has been an important minister of the emperor and the head of the empire, and there is a great country atmosphere between the words, but the meaning of the letter is actually three main points.

First, the Ming Dynasty has a strict customs defense, whether it is the Ming merchant ship or the merchant ship of the Ming vassal state, the west out of Malacca must go through multiple customs inspections, the owners of the merchant ships are serious and legal merchants, any port prohibits the docking of merchant ships with the seal of the Ming Dynasty is very rude.

Second, in view of the fact that the pirates who attacked various places were indeed involved in it, the Ming Western Fleet sailed along the coast with this letter from now on, and then there would be a large number of merchant ships to transport porcelain, tiles, gluing and other materials and craftsmen, and the coastal ports could purchase and hire craftsmen to repair the ports on demand, and the Western military government would set a reasonable price, and build Ming chambers of commerce in various places to strengthen the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and other countries.

Third, in addition to sailing to eliminate pirates, the Western fleet of the Ming army was willing to sell a batch of Francophone cannons and arquebus guns to the Western countries at the same price as the vassal states, so as to help the countries suppress bandits; In order to prevent pirates from attacking the ports of various countries again, we are willing to send garrisons of 11 to 337 people along the way, depending on the size of the ports of each country, to assist in the defense of the ports and protect the Tang people and merchants.

"Brother, tell your brother the truth." Chen Mu flipped the letter under his hand, raised his head and said to Chen Lan: "Was Lin Afeng assigned by Gao Gong to attack the port?" ”

"You didn't send him?"

Chen Lan was stunned by Chen Mu's question, sat on the chair and pondered for a while before scratching his face and said: "This, this is not what I thought, I and Gao Gong, Yin Yangshi, Zhang Shichen, and Bai Jingchen all thought that Lin Afeng was assigned by you to attack the countries, and you were not surprised to hear the accusation of Portugal, how could you say this?" ”

Co-author: Everyone thinks it's you who does this kind of bad thing?

Chen Mu opened and closed his mouth several times, and finally hugged his arms to his chest with a little indignation, and finally spread out a hand to Chen Lan angrily: "Lin Feng is a pirate, but the two of us have an appointment first, he can go to Haojing to replenish without attacking the Ming ship, and then he has always cooperated, but he has never been given an official position, pirates raided several ports, looted passing merchant ships, how surprised do you want me to be?" ”

"At most, I just went north and gave him a map of the world, but I was afraid that after the debriefing, I would be transferred elsewhere, and a heroic man at sea would be killed by his successor in the South Seas, so that he would know that there are many good places in this world, and my Chinese heroes don't have to fight to the death in the nest." As he spoke, Chen Mu let go of the wristbands of his arms and put them on the table, shook off the big sleeves of his crimson official robe and said, "This king is a leader, I have always advocated it, and you all know it." ”

"But if you want to assign Lin Feng to attack, and then explain to Nanyang and the West to clean up the mess - in my opinion, it is not necessary, so I didn't think about that direction, presumably Yin Gong can clean up the west with just a dignified array."

Chen Mu raised the hand covering the letter slightly, pointed to the letter, and said: "It's Gao Gong's trick of not leaking, I think Lin Feng was sent by him, the fleet sailed, exported building materials, the vassal country parity arms, and the garrisons sent by various ports, and the words were reasonable and hard, and Lin Feng was not mentioned from beginning to end." ”

"Does Gao Gong think Lin Feng has done a good job in this matter?"

"It's not good, this is a bad thing that violates the law and discipline, but all the ministers of Nanyang think that having Lin Feng overseas is not a bad thing. Pirates have existed since ancient times, and they are inexhaustible, even if they are exterminated by a large army now, there will be Liu Feng and Yang Feng without Lin Feng in the future. ”

Chen Lan sat in the second seat of the council hall with a golden sword, holding his knees with one hand and the other on the edge of the table, and said: "On the contrary, it is better to have Lin Feng on the sea now, who can restrain the largest group of pirates in the world, not to attack the Ming ships, and when necessary, they can also be used to annex the pirates of other countries that disrupt the trade routes, how you control the pirates, the whole Nanyang is obvious to all, so Gao Gong intends to continue to implement your policy towards the pirates until——"

Chen Mu has been listening carefully, and then answered: "Until Lin Fengwei is too big to fall?" ”

"Yes."

"You can rest assured, if one day Lin Feng is an enemy of the country, Gao Gong has planted eyeliner by his side, last year from the Nanyang Lecture Martial Arts Hall of the middle-level generals transferred three people, four graduates, they don't know each other, in various capacities among the pirates, Lin Feng rebels today, tomorrow will be the head of the head, the pirates will naturally fall apart."

Chen Mu frowned, Gao Gong's infernal affairs were a little ruthless, he said: "The students of the martial arts hall are all proud sons of the sky, let them go into the pirates to make a living, there will be grudges in their hearts, in terms of knowledge and ability, they are much older than Lin Feng, in time, they can easily become the ministers of the humerus under Lin Feng, even if they can stab Lin Feng to death, there will be a second Lin Feng, and they are even more powerful than Lin Feng." ”

"I'm used to making waves, how can I recall it?"

Chen Lan shook his head slowly, and said: "They are dead, Gao Gong did not intend to recall them from the beginning, and the order given to them was not to inform Lin Feng of the situation at any time, only to say that one day there will be changes at sea, they can replace them, as long as they do not carry Da Ming, Da Ming will always be their backing - Gao Gong found a few sea merchants from Haojing and Yuegang, and planned to let them follow the fleet to find Lin Feng's location, buy the goods he looted at a low price and sell them again, alas! ”

As he spoke, Chen Lan sighed heavily, looked at the righteous brother with incomprehensible eyes, and said, "No matter how upright a person sits in the position of Minister of Nanyang, he will become like this!" ”

Chen Luan, who was in Nanyang, could feel that many ministers wanted to make the overseas policy of the Ming Dynasty turn back to the dignified array of the Zheng He era, and there were fewer of these fancy intestines, but helplessly the tone of the entire Nanyang Military Government had been set by one of his own brothers and could not be changed.

Chen Mu ignored his ridicule, closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, and asked, "Those seven people, what are their names, do they have parents and children?" ”

Chen Lan paused for a moment, so an adult, his head shook like a rattle, and said: "It's not that I don't tell you, it's really that no one knows, and the only people in the entire Nanyang who know about this are Gao Gong, me, and Bai Jingchen, as for the names of those seven people, only Gao Gong himself knows, but if you want to check, it's not that you can't find out - Gao Wuguan has accepted sixteen adopted sons." ”

"The old Gao family is thriving!"

Chen Mu raised his hand and was stunned for a long time, smiled dumbly, and said, "Forget it, don't check." ”