Chapter 299

Zhu Youjian hurriedly nodded and said

"I am willing!"

"Even if Your Majesty loses the Son of Heaven's authority?"

Zhu Youjian was stunned where he stood.

He looked at Su Qiao with a bewildered expression.

"Give up authority?"

"Mr., believe me, I am wholeheartedly for the people. Give me twenty years—uh, no, ten years, and I will surely govern a peaceful and prosperous age!"

Su Qiao gazed at Zhu Youjian in silence for a long time.

After a long while.

"Your Majesty, I know your intentions are good."

Hearing this, Zhu Youjian was deeply moved.

"Mr., do you believe me?"

"But I advise you not to set out."

Zhu Youjian:...

"Even you, Mr., do not believe me..."

Su Qiao let out a long sigh and said

"If Your Majesty had been born a hundred or two hundred years earlier, perhaps you could have been a ruler who preserved the legacy."

"But Your Majesty needs to know."

"The times have changed."

Zhu Youjian gritted his teeth and said

"So what if they have changed? I am changing too!"

"I have opened the seas. I know that the immortal seeds exist overseas. Not to hide it from you, Mr., I have already gathered vast quantities of potatoes and corn in the southeastern half, and they have already been sown."

"By this summer, Great Ming will have enough seed grain. At most by next year, the people of Great Ming will be able to fill their bellies."

"A peaceful and prosperous age is right before our eyes. I do not understand why Mr. belittles me so!"

Zhu Youjian felt aggrieved in his heart.

He had already been doing his utmost to be a good Emperor.

Zhu Youjian might not be as wise as Jiajing, nor as ambitious and strategic as Zhu Yuanzhang or Zhu Di.

But Zhu Youjian was at least several times stronger than Zhu Qizhen.

Su Qiao looked at Zhu Youjian and could not help but smile.

"Yes, Your Majesty has found enough seed grain, but has Your Majesty considered a question?"

Zhu Youjian was stunned.

"A question?"

"Yes. Has Your Majesty not considered why so many potatoes and corn can be found in the southeastern half?"

Su Qiao quietly sized up Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian immediately asked in confusion

"I have heard it was the Western Franji people who brought them?"

"It seems Tang Ruowang and others also mentioned to me that it was their sailors who brought them over."

Su Qiao looked at Zhu Youjian and said

"Has Your Majesty not yet realized something is amiss?"

"Those barbarians ten thousand li away obtained these seed grains before Great Ming did!"

Su Qiao's tone suddenly turned sharp.

Then he stared fiercely at Zhu Youjian and asked

"Has Your Majesty not considered whether those Franji people are fools?"

"With such high-yield seed grains, they do not plant them themselves, but transport them thousands of li to Great Ming, so that the people of Great Ming may have food and clothing without worry?"

"The most formidable firearms Great Ming possesses now are the Red Barbarian Cannons."

"Why?"

"Why are the Red Barbarian Cannons more formidable than the firearms of the Ministry of War?"

Zhu Youjian stood frozen where he was.

He looked at Su Qiao in disbelief and asked

"Does Mr. mean... the Westerners?"

Su Qiao nodded slightly.

"Why does Your Majesty think the Westerners have not yet come to Great Ming to cause chaos?"

Zhu Youjian snorted coldly

"It is not that they have not caused chaos. The battle at Humen repelled the Western barbarians beyond the sea; the battle at Luoluo Bay repelled the enemy beyond the sea once again."

"Does Mr. truly believe these Westerners can stir up waves in the future?"

Hearing Zhu Youjian's naive words, Su Qiao could not help but shake his head.

"Your Majesty, the Western barbarians are defeated now because the naval forces are exhausted..."

"Beyond the ten thousand li of ocean lies Great Ming's last barrier. In one or two hundred years, does Your Majesty think this barrier will still exist?"

"Your Majesty can indeed rely on potatoes and corn to be a ruler of restoration. I can guarantee that at that time, Your Majesty will surely extend Great Ming's national fate by another hundred years. But what about after a hundred years?"

Zhu Youjian looked at Su Qiao in some disbelief, forcing a smile onto his face that was uglier than crying.

"Mr., isn't this statement somewhat alarmist?"

Su Qiao couldn't help but sneer.

"Your Majesty, during the Hongwu reign, we of the Great Ming, both ruler and ministers, had never heard of any 'Frankish' people."

"But does Your Majesty still consider the Frankish people a rare curiosity nowadays?"

"During the Hongwu reign, how could the Taizu Emperor have imagined that Westerners from ten thousand li away could sail warships and engage our Great Ming navy in Lingnan?"

"Doesn't the change over these three hundred years prove something?"

"During the Hongwu reign, fortune ships and treasure ships blocked out the sky and sun; what kind of ships does Your Majesty use for maritime transport now?"

Su Qiao's words echoed in Zhu Youjian's mind.

Beads of sweat inevitably seeped onto Zhu Youjian's forehead.

Three hundred years of history books are enough to prove it.

The footsteps of the Westerners are drawing ever closer!

There is no need even to ask Zhu Yuanzhang.

Within Zhu Youjian's own palace.

are kept Western foreign ministers like Tang Ruowang and Adam Schall!

Zhu Youjian looked at Su Qiao and asked through gritted teeth,

"Even if a massive army presses at the border, so what?! We Great Ming still have a million brave soldiers. If they can defeat the navy, can they defeat the Coastal Defense Army? If they defeat the Coastal Defense Army, can they possibly defeat our Great Ming's Nine Frontier Elites?"

Deep down, Zhu Youjian simply did not believe those navies could achieve any heaven-defying, fate-changing effect.

Ships are ultimately just ships; they cannot go ashore.

On this land, only by occupying the shore can one truly gain the world.

Ships without a foothold are merely rootless grass, destroyable with a snap of the fingers.

Su Qiao pointed to the Red Barbarian Cannons mounted on Xingshan in the distance and smiled,

"I can confirm that during the Taizu reign, the Westerners certainly did not possess such Red Barbarian Cannons."

"Nowadays, the Ministry of War can barely manage to replicate such Red Barbarian Cannons."

"Two hundred years from now, the Westerners will have changed to new cannons."

"The Ministry of War won't even be able to replicate them."

"By then, the Westerners' cannons will reach fifty li, while our Great Ming's cannons can only reach five li; does Your Majesty still think those Nine Frontier Elites can descend like divine soldiers?"

"What will that be called at that time?"

"A great transformation unseen in three thousand years!"

"By that time, even if the Zhu family can still control the power of the world, so what?"

"Have another Battle of Xingshan, let the Zhu family members who have multiplied over a hundred or two hundred years die once more, and then summon righteous men from across the land to strive to catch up?!"