The good news from the southern ocean arrived at the capital of the Ming Dynasty, it was the beginning of the fifth year of Wude.

This was already a rapid success, thanks to the complete post road from Songtai Guard, Annan Kingdom to the capital; the post stations and official shops along the road provided fast horses for messengers, so that the news could be delivered to the capital so quickly.

At the beginning of the year, Zhu Gaoxu was naturally very happy when he received such news. He immediately asked the Sixth Department Office to copy the memorial and inform the court of various yamen. He also ordered the Jinyiwei to go to the city to make a big fuss and post the copy of the good news at the city gates to inspire people's morale.

Since the implementation of the new policy, many hidden dangers have emerged, which can be maintained for the time being.

However, within the civil servants, because of the power to collect commercial taxes in various places, they were taken to the Maritime Procuratorate, which destroyed the old laws and "bad rules", causing various conflicts between Beijing officials and local officials. When the vassal kings were dissatisfied with their interests, the emperor and civil officials in the court were grasshoppers on the same rope.

At this time, the Navy's victory in the south opened up the channel of ocean trade, and undoubtedly gave the new policy a dose of blood. Zhu Gaoxu's mood improved a lot.

In Rouyi Hall, the eunuch Wang Gui read the good news in public, "... At the 27th day of October 4th, the official army encountered the enemy in Saigon Bay and was defeated. They chased for dozens of miles, sank and burned hundreds of enemy ships, and beheaded and captured. That night, the official army fleet returned to the army and broke into Qianjiang River and Tongnai River. On the 28th, the official army landed on the shore to attack the Zhenla camp, breaking its formation, the enemy collapsed, and corpses were everywhere."

"At that time, the Siam Kingdom did not dare to reject the king's army. Mantaojia sailed north and joined forces with the bandits. The ministers and the princes and the princes were willing to rush their troops south to destroy the country."

There was a lot of discussion in the hall, and Zhu Gaoxu sat behind the table, looking comfortable.

Gao Xianning, the minister of Dali Temple, said: "The local climate is unwell, the jungle is dense, and there are many enemy troops. General Chen can quickly defeat the enemy army within two days, and he must shock the world. First, the officials thought that Xuan was unable to fight, but only the emperor valued it. Now, looking at it, there are no weak generals under the emperor's command."

Before the Navy sent troops, many ministers in the court opposed the candidate for the chief general because Chen Xuan had a bad reputation. At this time, Gao Xianning said jokingly that everyone pretended to forget and no one mentioned the past again.

Zhu Gaoxu also didn't like Chen Xuan, because Chen Xuan surrendered twice, once surrendered to Zhu Gaoxu's father, and once surrendered to Zhu Gaoxu. Can you say that Chen Xuan was wrong in surrendering?

So everyone had to praise one after another: "The wise and wise man."

The ministers talked for a while and then left the Rouyi Hall and returned. At this time, Zhang Sheng, the commander of the Jinyiwei, walked in from outside without saying a word.

Zhang Sheng took out an envelope from his arms and stepped forward and put it in front of Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu picked up the thing and asked, "What is this?"

Zhang Shengsui replied: "There are some brothers from the Jinyiwei in the army, and no one knows their identities. This time, there is a soldier in the messenger team who is ours. He secretly reported some things that were not written in the memorial."

Zhu Gaoxu took out a secret letter to read it, but the writing was very brief.

Zhang Sheng bowed his head and said in a low voice: "I have met that person myself. In early November of the fourth year of Wude, Chen Xuan and Wang Jinghong chose a place in Saigon Bay to build a fortress and envoy city there. After that, Wang Jinghong left Saigon Bay and went to the Tongnai River Camp, but Chen Xuan did not leave.

A few days later, a Mantaoga envoy came to Saigon Bay by boat, as if he wanted to ask for peace. But Chen Xuan didn't ask, and didn't even see anyone, so he drove the Mantaoga envoy away."

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu was stunned for a moment and quickly guessed a rough idea. He had been with the generals in the army for many years, and of course he understood that the generals were greedy for merit. Chen Xuan might have been too far in Zhenla Kingdom, so he was even more reluctant to miss the great merit of attacking and destroying Mantaojia. As for the interests of the Ming court, Chen Xuan had already been put second.

After a while of silence, Zhu Gaoxu suddenly tore up the secret letter in his hand and said, "I'll see the result first."

Zhang Sheng bowed and stood beside him and responded.

Zhu Gaoxu said again: "Don't tell this, just pretend that it has never happened."

"I understand." Zhang Sheng picked up the torn paper on the table, stuffed it into his mouth in front of Zhu Gaoxu, and then swallowed it.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at him in shock and said, "I know the matter, your errand is done well."

Zhang Sheng knelt down and kowtowed, "I thank you for your kindness and leave."

As soon as the commander of the Jinyiwei left, Cao Fu, the young supervisor of the Sili Supervisor, walked in again.

Cao Fu held a memorial in his hand and bent down and said, "The Emperor, the Tongzheng Envoy received the memorial from the Marquis of Ningyuan (He Fu) and hurried to the palace. I was afraid that it would delay the Emperor's affairs, so I took it over."

Zhu Gaoxu, who was a little distracted, immediately came back to his senses when he heard this and opened He Fu's memorial to read. He read it roughly and found that He Fu was not defeated, so he felt a little relieved. The content was not good news.

After He Fu became the general of Ningxia, he brought a group of cavalry in the Beijing camp to the northwest. After that, he mobilized troops from the Shaanxi Provincial Administration and General Office (including most of Gansu) to increase his troops to Ningxia Prefecture. Then he led his troops northward, stationed along the Yellow River, and built fortresses there; now he requested the order to add the "Ningxia Avant-garde".

When they ran to the tribes of Watana in the Hetao area, they gradually found that they could not take advantage of the situation, so they fled north for a while. Unexpectedly, the people of Watana were not idle, and soon they wandered to the west and raided Hami Kingdom in large numbers - Kou.

The Hami Kingdom sent people to Ningxia Prefecture to ask He Fu for help. But He Fu, a general officer, could not have crossed the Hexi Corridor and ran so far to save the Hami Kingdom. So He Fu had to submit a memorial to the court for the situation in the northwest.

Zhu Gaoxu found a picture from a bunch of maps and took a look at the distance between Hami and Ningxia Prefecture on the map. It was indeed very far. The northwest was vast and sparsely populated, and it was thousands of miles away at any time.

In Nahami, there were mainly Mongols, and the king was King Su of the Yuan Dynasty. Later, King Su Anke Timur was loyal to the Ming Dynasty and was named King Zhongshun, and actually ruled the Hami area. The Wasai tribes, who were also Mongols, have always had a grudge against King Zhongshun; at the same time, the Eastern Chaga Khanate, in the Hui and Huishui area of ​​the Western Regions, also became enemies with Hami.

The Ming Dynasty's direct rule-governing area to the west actually only went to the Hexi Corridor and ended at Jiayuguan. As a vassal state that has always been loyal to the Ming Dynasty, Hami was an important wedge in the Western Regions. Therefore, Hami was very important to the Ming Dynasty.

Since the Tatars in the east weakened their strength after the Ming army's northern expedition, the pressure on the eastern part of the Wastu people has been causing trouble in the west. When Zhu Gaoxu saw He Fu's memorial, he couldn't help but reflect again, was it really meaningful when he was in the northern expedition at the beginning of his ascension to the throne?

The situation in Hami is too far away. Zhu Gaoxu had no choice but to put the memorial aside for the time being.

Since last year, the direction of the court's attack was the south, because Zhu Gaoxu believed that the south was beneficial and was the direction of actively pioneering. There was almost no benefit to the north, but he was forced to operate the military...

Because the New Year Festival has not passed and some yamen have not opened seals, Zhu Gaoxu left the court in the afternoon and went to Kunning Palace.

There were guests in Kunning Palace today. It turned out that Princess Baoqing was back to visit relatives. When Princess Baoqing saw the emperor, she made a gesture to give a big gift. Zhu Gaoxu quickly made a gesture to stop her: "Young aunt can't do it."

Princess Baoqing immediately looked embarrassed. She was younger than Guo Wei, but she was the youngest daughter of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, and her seniority in the Zhu family was higher than that of Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu said kindly again: "It's good to come back often. My father and mother are gone, and this is still your mother's home."

Baoqing was a little less nervous and said briskly: "I grew up in the Yan Prince's Mansion. The emperor and his brothers and sisters are like my brothers and sisters."

But Zhu Gaoxu still felt that Baoqing had a gap with him, mostly because of Zhu Gaochi's affairs. Gaochi's legs and feet were inconvenient. He used to stay in the Yan Prince's Mansion and had a closer relationship with Baoqing.

At this time, Guo Wei waved the colorful chain in her hand and said, "A rare thing in the Western Regions, Princess Baoqing gave it to me."

Baoqing turned to look at Guo Wei, and his expression relaxed a lot. She smiled and said, "I have many more places. Ahweng sent someone to Beijing and sent a lot of things back. I picked a good one and gave it to the queen."

When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he asked casually: "Where did the treasures of the Western Regions come from the Ningxia Prefecture?"

Baoqing thought for a while and said, "I heard that there was an envoy going to see Aweng in the Western Regions."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "The envoy of Hami?"

Baoqing shook his head and said, "No, it's a Tatar."

Zhu Gaoxu frowned and said, "How could the Tatars be there in Ningxia Prefecture?"

Guo Wei observed Baoqing's expression, hurriedly pulled Zhu Gaoxu's sleeve gently, and smiled at Baoqing and said, "Is this a bracelet?"

Baoqing said enthusiastically: "Wearing on his ankles, he walked barefoot and jingled."

Guo Wei said: "It's indeed a rare thing in the Western Regions. How could we wear chains on our feet?"

Although Zhu Gaoxu felt it was a little strange, he didn't ask Princess Baoqing much. She was a woman after all. He changed the question and asked, "Are you doing well in the He family?"

Baoqing's cheeks were a little red: "The prince-in-law is very nice to me. He takes me around the mansion every day, and sometimes we go out quietly... Anyway, he is very interesting. When Ah Weng is at home, he is also very polite to me. When the family is having dinner, the grandma always thinks I eat too little and always picks up food for me."

Zhu Gaoxu said with relief: "I did a good thing. When my father and mother were alive, they felt extra pain in my aunt. I feel relieved after you say this."

Guo Wei said: "With the Lord who has the support of you, who dares to treat you badly?"

Seeing that Guo Wei and Bao Qingting were able to talk, Zhu Gaoxu said tactfully: "I'll go to the study first and call me later after dinner."

Guo Wei and Baoqing sent Zhu Gaoxu out of the hall, and Zhu Gaoxu instructed again: "Princess Baoqing is a rare trip, so the queen should accompany her more."

"Don't worry." Guo Wei smiled.
Chapter completed!