When the confused Ida retreated, Xu Xinsu, who had poured a lot of resources into Ada, was still a little reluctant to let her go like this. After all, the sea voyage to and from Europe in this era was similar to a journey to death, and he didn't want to lose her just like that.

"Your Majesty, wouldn't it be too risky to let Xu Yue follow Andre to the UK like this? God knows what kind of person this Englishman was after leaving the Ming Dynasty? Xu Xinsu thought about it again and again, but still cautiously persuaded Chongzhen, hoping to dispel the emperor's inexplicable thoughts.

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and smiled and said, "What, I can't bear to let your daughter suffer from the wind and waves at sea?" Even if Andre is not a good person, he will not risk losing the benefits of trade with my Daming to rob your daughter.

Besides, Edmond Dantès will also be on his way to Europe with him, so if you are not sure, you can send more men. Letting Xu Yue go to the UK is not just to better understand the real situation of British society.

The most important thing is that when we have a conflict with the Dutch, it is better for the British to be on our side, and at least to remain neutral. ”

Xu Xinsu suddenly said with some surprise: "Xu Yue is just an orphan girl who has never been to the UK, what ability does she have to make the British stand on our side?" And according to Your Majesty's previous plan, are we not going to maintain friendly relations with the Dutch for the time being? ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "That's true, I said so last year, and I really think so." But that was before it became known that the Dutch wanted to get their hands on the city of Malacca.

From Daming to Europe and the Indian Ocean, there are two choke points. One is the Sunda Strait and the other is the Malacca Strait, with the former being subject to Batavia and the latter being subject to the city of Malacca.

Batavia was in the hands of the Dutch, and the city of Malacca was in the hands of the Portuguese. Although none of them are in the hands of the Great Ming, as long as they do not fall into the hands of the same force, I can still bear it.

But when the Dutch were not satisfied with occupying the Sunda Strait and tried to occupy the Strait of Malacca, then the contradiction between them and the Ming could not be resolved.

To be honest, whether there are any spice islands or not, it has little impact on the Ming Dynasty. We are not Europeans and there is not such a big demand for spices. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty has raw silk, tea, and porcelain, even if there is one less spice, it will not hinder the overseas trade of my Ming Dynasty.

However, if the Sunda Strait and the Strait of Malacca were to fall into the hands of the Dutch, the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty would be subject to others, which the Ming Dynasty could not tolerate at all.

The city of Malacca has been transformed into a fortified fortress under the management of the Portuguese for nearly a hundred years, and if such a fortress falls into the hands of the Dutch, we are afraid that the price will be unbearable.

Therefore, it is better for us to fight the Dutch before they take the city of Malacca. Since there was to be a conflict with the Dutch in advance, it was important to find out the strengths, friends, and opponents of the Dutch.

Sending people to Europe is naturally necessary, and as for how to get the British on our side, it depends on how much your adopted daughter can be loved by the British. The more the British accepted Xu Yue, the more they remembered the Ambon massacre.

Perhaps the upper classes of England will side with the Dutch because of their national interests, but the lower classes will be glad to see us at war with the Dutch because of their national feelings, and they will even hope that we will teach them a good lesson.

In addition, we also need an emissary to promote the goods of the Ming Dynasty and understand the preferences of the Europeans in order to produce products that are more acceptable to the Europeans. ”

Chongzhen explained in such detail, Xu Xinsu naturally didn't dare to think about it anymore. He had been a procurer for the Dutch East India Company, and as a result had always had a good relationship with the Dutch. When he heard that the emperor wanted to prepare for a conflict with the Dutch, he also thought that he would say that he would be one and the other.

However, it is obvious that Chongzhen is not a whim, and the struggle for control of the Strait of Malacca has made him keep his mouth shut. After all, what was involved was the overall interests of the entire Ming maritime merchants, and Xu Xinsu felt that his friendship with the Dutch had not yet reached this level.

After talking about this matter, Chongzhen chatted with Xu Xinsu about how he assisted the affairs of the Prime Minister's Yamen. Xu Xinsu quickly understood that what the emperor asked him to do was indeed only to help.

Just a few days ago, Feng Quan, who had drawn up the organizational framework of the Prime Minister's Yamen according to Chongzhen's instructions, went to see Chongzhen with the prepared documents. When Chongzhen reviewed the organization of the Prime Minister's Yamen, Feng Quan tentatively proposed to Chongzhen, asking the emperor to propose a specific policy for the specific affairs of the Prime Minister's Yamen.

After returning to Beijing that day, he was summoned by Chongzhen and instructed him to set up a new department, the Prime Minister's Yamen, to manage customs and foreign affairs. For the organization and specific affairs of the customs, Chongzhen spoke in detail, and Feng Quan drew up the whole plan without difficulty.

But for these foreign affairs, Feng Quan is a little at a loss. If it is according to the past, this foreign affairs are the tributary trade of overseas vassal states, and as for the internal affairs of vassal states, as long as the vassal states do not take the initiative to bring it up, the Ming court will not bother to pay attention to it.

The only vassal state that the Ming Dynasty cared about a little bit was probably the Kingdom of Korea. After all, because of the appearance of the Later Jin, the land transportation between the Ming Dynasty and the Korean Kingdom was cut off. However, the geographical location of the Joseon Kingdom was important, not only against the back of Houjin, but also the main supply place for Donggang Town.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's remarks that he hoped to use North Korea's geographical location to contain Houjin in order to reduce the pressure on the Ming Dynasty's border defense have always been very marketable.

It's just that the Korean kingdom is too weak, and the Ming army lost in the Battle of Sarhu, and the Korean army that assisted the Ming army in the battle immediately surrendered. Therefore, after that, there were fewer voices about letting the Kingdom of Korea send troops to contain Houjin.

Therefore, although it seems that the countries of East and Southeast Asia were all vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, these vassal states basically did not bear other political obligations to the Ming Dynasty except for tributary trade for an indefinite period of time.

When Feng Quan straightened out the customs affairs, he was a little at a loss as to what to do about foreign affairs. As for the three patrol palaces of the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and Nanyang under the Prime Minister's Yamen, and the three town guard offices of Wansheng Shitang, Saigon, and Wangxiang (that is, Palawan Island), how to restrain them in the future, Feng Quan also had to find out the emperor's intentions.

After all, the Ming Dynasty has never set up such a yamen as the patrol house and the town guard house, and it is also a local government with independent armed and administrative institutions. In fact, if you really want to use it as a metaphor, only the Xuanwei Division and the Tusi Yamen can be similar.

However, it is clear that the emperor did not really want to get a few unregulated overseas toasts out, otherwise he would not have established the Prime Minister's Yamen to manage these new yamen. But how to manage these units next is a headache for Feng Quan.

In addition, when these new yamen clashed with the Ming vassal states overseas, or had conflicts with those Western merchants, and were reported to the prime minister's yamen, what should he do? Therefore, Feng Quan hoped to get more clear instructions from Chongzhen.

Regarding Feng Quan's request, Zhu Youzhen made the following reply after thinking about it. First of all, for the Patrol Mansion and the Town Guard Mansion, the Prime Minister's Yamen must strengthen supervision. Although these patrol mansions and town guard mansions are now small independent kingdoms, it is difficult for the personnel appointed by the imperial court to gain their trust.

However, Feng Quan can set up a school and regularly select personnel from various patrol offices and town guard offices for training and learning. These former pirates and former maritime merchants had no experience in handling political affairs, so they must rely on the imperial court to train administrators for them.

As long as the Prime Minister's Yamen determines a reasonable training system and promotion system, then no matter how much prestige the leaders of those maritime merchants or pirates are, they will not be able to stop the imperial court from infiltrating the personnel of the patrol and town guard offices. As long as the Prime Minister's Yamen has the personnel and financial powers of the Patrol Offices and the Town Guard Offices, then even if they still have a certain amount of force, they will not pose any threat to the imperial court.

What is the attitude of the Prime Minister's Yamen towards the conflict between the Patrol Offices and the Castle Guard Offices and foreign countries in the course of their daily activities? Zhu Youzhen's attitude was very clear: First of all, it was necessary to determine whether the officers and men of the Patrol Mansion and the Town Guard Mansion were safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ming Dynasty and whether they were safeguarding the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

If they are only sparking a conflict for their own selfish interests, then it depends on who the other person is. If the other party is the Ryukyus, Bo Ni, Siam, or Joseon Kingdom, then it is natural to deal with it fairly and reasonably.

If it is other countries, then the priority is to calm the incident. However, no matter how it is handled, two basic principles need to be observed, one is to put aside the relationship between the behavior of the parties and the imperial court, the inspection office, and the town guard office, and not allow the other party to raise the attack surface to the level of defamation of the Ming government.

Second, if the responsibility for the conflict really lies on the Ming side, it can pay compensation and apologize, but the other party will never be allowed to extradite and try the personnel on the Ming side.

In addition, Zhu Youzhen also mentioned by the way that he hoped that after the establishment of the premier yamen, he would first send several ambassadors to Korea, Ryukyu, Boni, Siam, Japan, the Philippines, Batavia, Banten, and other places to learn about the local customs and customs, and to be responsible for the cultural and political exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and these countries, and by the way to protect the Ming merchants who went to trade there.

The reason why Chongzhen came to see Xu Xinsu, in addition to wanting to meet Ida, was that he hoped that Xu Xinsu could assist the personnel sent by the Prime Minister's Yamen to establish embassies in Korea, Japan, and the Ryukyus to complete their mission.

Zhu Youzhen finally said to Xu Xinsu: "The problem of establishing embassies in Korea and Japan should not be big, but what I am more worried about is the affairs of the embassy in the Ryukyus.

According to the information I have received, it seems that the Ryukyu Kingdom has been conquered by the Japanese Satsuma. Therefore, when the Ming envoys went to the Ryukyus to establish an embassy, they may be hindered by the Japanese.

In the short term, we need to maintain good trade relations with Japan. Therefore, I need you to send someone to protect the personnel who sent the Ryukyus, as long as it does not expand into a war between the Ming and Japan, in the Ryukyus you can respond to any Japanese provocation, and in any case, we must establish a foothold in the Ryukyus within this year..."