Chapter 111                                                             

Just as Emperor Jiajing was discussing the great event of immortality with Zhou Mengchen, Xia Yan was talking to Zeng Xian to enter the alley.

Xia Yan simply took a table and brought some pens, ink, paper and inkstones, all kinds of fragments, and placed them on it. First lay a large piece of paper, and then drew the most basic appearance of the Great Wall, the Yellow River, the city, etc. on the paper. Then he placed some fragments of small things, jade pendants, etc. on it to symbolize the army of each unit.

Even what Xia Yan and Zeng Xian said was not satisfying enough, and they even used a brush to draw bits on it, leaving many traces.

Especially in the location of Dongshengwei on the map, that is, the area near Guihua City in later generations, there are circles and dots, all with different ink colors of old and new.

Xia Yan sat on the chair of the Grand Master on the side and said, "Zi Chong, I understand what you mean. But it is important. Look, this movement will at least be three troops, Datong, Yulin, Shanxi, and all towns must be dispatched, and the rest of the towns must also cooperate in defense. The entire nine borders must be moved. If you go out to the frontier, there will be at least 60,000 or 70,000 troops to fight. If you use these people, the entire nine border will need to arrange the cameras of more than 100,000 troops. Hundreds of thousands of stones of food and grass, millions of taels of silver, and even if things are inconsistent, you will need more than 100,000 troops to arrange them.

Xia Yan said nothing wrong.

It is a bit exaggerated to say that there are more than 100,000 bows and cavalrymen in Altan's headquarters, but it is certain that there are tens of thousands of soldiers to fight.

If you want to reconnaissance, there are fewer tens of thousands of troops going out of the frontier.

But even so, after orthodox, the Ming Dynasty rarely took the initiative to go out of the block. It moved the whole body with one move.

Tens of thousands of war soldiers are already all the soldiers available in several towns. In order to avoid gaps in the defense of the Nine Borders, other towns must cooperate in defense. Therefore, Zeng Mian used tens of thousands of troops, but in fact, the entire Nine Borders had to move, which cost countless.

Even though Xia Yan now gives an estimate, it is hard to say if the war really starts.

Once it fails, the military strike on the Ming Dynasty will be second, but the financial strike on the Ming Dynasty will be the first to be affected.

The Ming Dynasty had Jiajing, the emperor who loved to spend money, and it was already a heavy burden. Xia Yan worked hard to maintain the situation so that he could barely maintain it. It was really difficult to spend so much money.

Zeng Xian said: "Mr. Xia, this is the best way. If not, I, the Ming Dynasty, is always passive on the nine sides, and it is not a matter of the same situation."

Xia Yan smiled slightly and said, "I didn't say no. But I can't mention it now. I'll save you, the governor of the three sides. After you take office, you will fight a few battles to let the Tatars know that my Ming Dynasty's military is not dull, and let the whole Ming Dynasty see that my Ming Dynasty has not only the Great Wall, but also the famous generals in the iron wall. Then talk about this."

"I'm waiting for your good news in the capital. As long as you can report a few great victories to the court, I will fight for this matter and make His Majesty nod."

Zeng Xian said: "The officials will definitely not let down the high expectations of the cabinet."

Xia Yan said: "It's not my high hopes, but the high hopes of the people in the world. I'm not afraid to tell you, but now the expenses of Jiubian are getting bigger and bigger. The court's annual funding for Jiubian has long exceeded one million. If you build a new town in Dongshengwei, reduce the burden on Xuanda and Shaanxi, let the people of Jiubian breathe a sigh of relief and the court breathe a sigh of relief, is it better."

"Otherwise, this situation can still be maintained when I am here. When my generation kicks my legs, how can the people below maintain it? You can't let the disaster for the future generations?"

Because of the special status of Dongshengwei, once the Ming Dynasty established a military town here, the entire Yellow River shape would become the mainland, which could reduce the fiscal expenditure of several military towns. It not only made the military situation more conducive to the Ming Dynasty, but also greatly reduced military expenditures.

Or the latter is why Xia Yan is determined to promote this matter.

Faced with the increasing military expenditure of the Jiubian, it was almost a long-term loss of blood for the Ming Dynasty's finances. Therefore, Xia Yan would rather spend a lot of money at one time to shrink the bleeding wound. He gave the Ming Dynasty the energy to use its financial resources in other aspects.

Zeng Xian said: "Zeng understands that my life is probably going to be trapped again. If I don't defeat the Tartars, I won't go back to the capital to see the elders."

Xia Yan said, "Zi Chong is commendable."

After a while of greeting, Xia Yan personally sent Zeng Xian out of the mansion.

After returning, Xia Yan leaned on the chair and asked the maid to rub her temples.

After all, Xia Yan is a 60-year-old man. It is indeed difficult to keep up with Zeng Xian’s ideas in the face of such military and national affairs. Although Zeng Xian is Xia Yan’s subordinate, Xia Yan does not want to show weakness in front of Zeng Xian. After all, many things are not only the boss who sees his subordinates, but also the subordinates who see his superiors?

Zeng Xian did have expertise in military affairs. Xia Yan did not experience much military affairs. Although he had been a military officer in the Ministry of War, it happened many years ago.

As strong as Xia Yan, he will never show such difficulty.

Just when Zeng Mian left, Xia Yan felt that he used his brain too much.

Xia Yan sat for a while, got up and greeted the servant, and said, "Prepare a sedan chair, I want to enter the palace."

Seeing this, the old servant said, "Master, do you want to rest for a while? There is no hurry."

Xia Yan said: "Don't worry about other things, but it's better to have faster things about human life. Even if you don't look at Zhou Mengchen's face, you still have to look at Liu Tianhe's face. Liu Tianhe is a meritorious minister, so I naturally have to take care of his descendants. Although----"

Xia Yan shook his head gently, obviously not very approving of Zhou Mengchen's things.

Xia Yan insisted on doing this, and the people below had no choice.

Xia Yan arrived and got off the sedan chair at the gate of the palace.

Although he was arrogant, he did not dare to cross this regulation. He could only walk in the Forbidden City, but not long after entering the palace, he saw a very dazzling situation, which was that several small eunuchs were carrying a soft sedan chair and walked out.

The reason why it is dazzling is that the palace has the most rules.

There are regulations for whoever rides in what kind of sedan chair. For example, the sedan chairs of concubines in the harem and the emperor's sedan chairs are all different.

This soft sedan is clearly the official's sedan, but he, Xia, as the leader of all officials, did not have such treatment, but found that one of his subordinates already had it. It is easy to imagine what kind of reaction Xia Yan would have. He snorted coldly, suppressed his anger, and said to the people around him: "Go and ask, who is in the sedan?"

"Yes." Xia Yan agreed and immediately asked. He came back in a while and said, "It's Zhou Mengchen, deputy of the Imperial Heaven Supervision."

Xia Yan repeated the meaning: "Zhou Mengchen, Deputy of the Imperial Heaven Supervision?"

"That's right." The people around Xia Yan didn't know Xia Yan's psychology and said, "I heard that Lord Zhou was originally imprisoned by His Majesty, but he summoned him again today. I don't know what he said? His Majesty specially gave him a chasing. It's really-------" Although he had not finished speaking, his envy had already expressed his meaning.

Xia Yan suddenly became angry and his face turned a little red. OK. He was about to plead for him here, but now Zhou Mengchen looks like he needs to plead for mercy? Is he using him as a monkey? Xia Yan turned around suddenly and said, "Don't go to Xiyuan, go to Wenyuan Pavilion."

He originally wanted to go to Xiyuan to meet Emperor Jiajing and plead for Zhou Mengchen. He didn't want to go there after seeing this situation. But now he is not right to leave the palace directly. He simply changed his route and went to Wenyuan Pavilion, which is the cabinet to take a look.

Xia Yan also posted the label on Zhou Mengchen's head again in his heart: "The evil villain is to meet the king's evil." Xia Yan knew Jiajing too well. If Zhou Mengchen had not been to please Jiajing for immortality, he would have never imagined why Jiajing would treat Zhou Mengchen so well.

Those who flatter Your Majesty for immortality are all evil villains. This logic seems to be without any problem.

At this moment, Zhou Mengchen was just asleep in the swaying sedan chair.

After all, he has been working hard since last night. He first spent a lot of effort to deduce the three laws of planets, and then performed in front of Jiajing. It seemed relaxed, but it was actually very laborious. After this struggle, he was exhausted physically and mentally. The swaying sedan chair seemed to have a hypnotic attribute.

So, Zhou Mengchen fell asleep in a flash.
Chapter completed!