Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1081 Self-esteem
On this day, the military academy was on holiday, and Crown Prince Zhu Minlan returned to the palace. He first went to the East Palace to visit the Crown Princess who was pregnant, and then went to pay respects to his father, the emperor, and his mother. Afterwards, he did not return to the East Palace, but went directly to the residence of Prince Song Zhu Mincheng.

Underage princes usually lived in the six palaces in the east and west. When they reached adulthood, they would move out of the palace and live in the Ten Princes' Palace area outside Donghua Gate. However, although Zhu Mincheng had been crowned a prince a long time ago, he still lived in the palace, and his residence was very close to the East Palace.

"Have you really thought about it?"

"I've thought about it!" In response to the prince's question, Zhu Mincheng nodded seriously.

The prince only found out about Zhu Mincheng's plan to conquer the New World afterwards. Although both of them were in the military academy, the rules of the academy were very strict. They were not in the same grade, and even their dormitories were separate. Without the instructor's permission, cadets were not allowed to privately communicate on campus. Even though one of them was the prince and the other was a prince, the possibility of them meeting in the academy on a daily basis was extremely small.

Therefore, the two of them could only meet on weekends in the palace, and the prince was about to graduate and start internship, so they would have even less time to meet. When he returned to the palace today, the prince had long wanted to talk to his younger brother, so he came here directly after paying his respects to his father, the emperor, and his mother.

"You are stupid!" Seeing Zhu Mincheng's determined look, the prince could not help but persuade him: "Didn't the emperor have a plan long ago? Even if you are given a fiefdom in the future, you can be given a fiefdom in the South China Sea. The South China Sea is only half a month away from the mainland of our Ming Dynasty by boat. Even if you return to Beijing from your fiefdom, it will take at most a month. But it is more than ten thousand miles from our Ming Dynasty to the New World. There are many risks involved. The local customs and landscapes there are completely different from our Ming Dynasty. If you go there, how easy will it be to return to the Ming Dynasty? Do you plan to stay there for the rest of your life?"

Zhu Mincheng smiled and said, "Brother, there is no need to persuade me. I have already told you this. Although the South China Sea is good, it is not what I want. I will go to the New World and my father has already agreed to it. I will start preparing for it when the fleet that explores the route returns. Don't worry, brother. Just wait and see when I get there. I will definitely make some achievements there and live up to the name of the descendants of the Zhu family!"

"You..." The prince felt helpless when he saw him like this. Although he had expected that his persuasion might have no effect before he came, the two brothers grew up together. Doesn't he know his younger brother's personality and temper?
Although Zhu Mincheng has a lively personality, once he makes a decision, nothing can stop him. Moreover, Zhu Mincheng did not make the decision to go to the New World on a whim. He had been thinking about it for a long time and had made many preparations in private.

In addition, the prince also understood why Zhu Mincheng made such a choice. Apart from several younger brothers and sisters who were still babies, his father had only four adult sons. The oldest of the four was naturally Tengger, and the prince Zhu Minlan was slightly younger than Tengger, with only a difference of a few months. After the two of them, it was Agudamu, and then Zhu Mincheng.

Two of the four brothers were in Mongolia and two were in the Ming Dynasty. They had only met when Tenger came to Beijing. Over the years, they were separated by distance and had almost no chance to meet again.

But even so, let's not talk about the crown prince Zhu Minlan among the four brothers. He is the eldest son and the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty. If nothing unexpected happens, the future of the Ming Dynasty will belong to him. The eldest son Tengger is in charge of the Mongolian Tumed tribe, and the third son Agudamu has basically controlled the Chahar tribe. The two of them, one in the west and one in the east, have almost unified the entire Mongolian south of the desert in recent years. That's not all. With the cooperation of the two, one is expanding to the north of the desert, and the other continues to infiltrate the east. Once the eastern part of Chahar is taken, they will attack Khorchin, and then cooperate with the Ming Dynasty in the war in Liaodong. From all aspects, they have a great foundation and future.

According to the plan that Zhu Shenzui had discussed with the prince before, the Tengger brothers would be the future rulers of Mongolia, and their existence would completely change the state of hostile war between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia for more than two hundred years since the Northern Yuan Dynasty fled back to Mongolia.

Moreover, Zhu Shenzhui also planned to continue to support their continuous external expansion in Mongolia, gradually extending their sphere of influence from Mongolia to the north and west, and reaching out to further places. In the future, whether it is their own tribe or the Mongolian tribes enfeoffed by their descendants, they will no longer be the enemy of the Ming Dynasty, but will become the outer barrier of the Ming Dynasty. This plan is extremely far-reaching. Once it is accomplished, the Ming Dynasty will no longer have to worry about threats from the north.

Not from the perspective of the country, but from the perspective of being a prince, Zhu Shenzhui can be said to have made proper arrangements for his three sons. And the brothers Tenger and Agudamu did not disappoint Zhu Shenzhui's expectations. There have been news from Mongolia over the years. Every time Zhu Shenzhui saw the good news from the two brothers, he would smile very happily and look very pleased.

As a result, the identity and status of Prince Song Zhu Mincheng became somewhat embarrassing. Compared with his three brothers, he had nothing but the identities of a prince and a prince, and it would be impossible for him to achieve success in his career in the future like his three brothers.

But Zhu Mincheng has been a stubborn and opinionated person since he was young. Seeing that his three brothers have their own businesses, while he is just a nominal prince, how can he be willing to accept this?

In his opinion, where is the better place to develop in the New World than in the closed South China Sea? Although the South China Sea is close to the Ming Dynasty, it can ask for help from the Ming Dynasty if something happens, but it is precisely because of this that the South China Sea is more affected by the Ming Dynasty. In addition, most of the South China Sea are islands. Even if these islands are large, they are ultimately confined to the sea. But the New World is different. This is a place that is no less than the entire Ming Dynasty, and it is even much larger than the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Located overseas, with vast land and sparse population, it is the best place for him to start a business. Even though there may be some dangers, and even the possibility of conflicts with European countries in the New World, Zhu Mincheng feels that these will not make him retreat, but are powerful challenges, so he chose to go to the New World unswervingly.

"Brother, don't worry. Although your brother's ability is not as good as your father's, it is not bad. Moreover, I have already found out that the Europeans currently only occupy the eastern part of the New World, and the New World from Ming Dynasty is in the west. The distance between the two is far, and we will not encounter them in a short time after we go there."

"Once we are in the New World, we may encounter natural disasters and some troubles with the local natives. Let's not talk about natural disasters for now. As long as we are well prepared, we can prevent them. As for the natives, didn't Dad say that these natives are the descendants of the Chinese people? I can use some means to subdue them and use them for my own benefit. I am not afraid even if we have to fight. Europeans can conquer millions of natives in the New World with just a few hundred people. Can't my Ming Dynasty be compared with those Europeans?"

"Okay, since you have made up your mind, I will not persuade you anymore. But this is no trivial matter, and the necessary preparations must be made. You are my brother, not a vassal prince like Prince Yong. You must be careful with everything, plan before you act, and never be reckless." The prince sighed helplessly, thought for a moment, took out something from his arms and handed it over. Zhu Mincheng looked at the prince in confusion, not understanding what he meant.

"Why are you standing there? As your brother, I can't just stand there and not help you, right? Take this. You're going to go there, so you have to be fully prepared. Although your father will give you guards and subordinates as a prince, you know the rules of the court. Even if your father gives you a title, the number of additional people he can send is limited."

"The New World is too far from Ming. I'm worried about you going there with so few people. In addition, the more supplies you prepare, the better. You are just a nominal prince with a small salary. You will have to spend money in many places in the future. This is a gift from your brother."

Reaching out to take it and opening it, Zhu Mincheng immediately smiled. He didn't expect that it was actually a thick stack of banknotes, and in addition there was also a note from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The silver note was a full 100,000 taels, which was a huge sum of money. Zhu Mincheng, the King of Song, only received an annual salary of 12,000 taels, which was only 1,000 taels per month. This salary was set after Zhu Shenzhu readjusted the royal family's salary in recent years. Compared with the salary when Taizu founded the country, this number was not high, but you have to know that in the more than 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the court has reduced the royal family's salary many times, and the salary that was reduced due to national financial reasons would be deducted from time to time. This was the case when Zhu Shenzhu was a royal family member. Those poor salaries could not even feed themselves, so they had to find other ways to get silver. This is why Zhu Shenzhu took Wang Jinwu and others to risk smuggling private salt.

At that time, the salary of the prince was only 10,000 shi, which was about 5,000 taels of silver. But you have to know that the princes all had real fiefs, and the salary from the court was nothing to them, but ordinary royal family members did not have such property, and most of them had a very difficult life.

In order to change this phenomenon, Zhu Shenzhui redefined the salary distribution of each clan member, and the clan government and the Royal Bank directly allocated funds for the clan members' salaries. He also changed the rice salary into silver. This made the lives of the Ming royal family much better, and he also won the support of many clan members.

As a prince, Zhu Mincheng's salary was naturally the highest, and according to the new salary regulations, his annual salary was 12,000 taels. This number seems to be a lot, but you have to know that Zhu Mincheng did not have any fiefdoms, and even because he lived in the palace, he did not even have a royal palace or a remote fiefdom, so his salary seemed to be a lot, but his expenses were also high. The eunuchs and palace servants in the prince's residence, including daily rewards, had to be borne by himself. After deducting these expenses, the silver that could be saved each month was not much. To be honest, since he had the plan to go to the New World, Zhu Mincheng began to secretly save silver, but the money he had saved up to now was only less than 10,000 taels.

Now the prince gave him 100,000 taels at once, which solved his urgent need. With this money, he could make more preparations. Just as the prince said, although Zhu Shenzhu would give him guards, subordinates, etc. according to the system, he would also give him a sum of money as "start-up capital", but these were still not enough. If he wanted to go to the New World, he had to have manpower first. These alone were not enough. Zhu Mincheng had to recruit the necessary manpower to go there, and after he had established a firm foothold there, he had to consider the possibility of immigration from the Ming Dynasty.

Just like the Ming Dynasty's current immigration from Henan to Taiwan, only by continuously immigrating from the Ming Dynasty to the New World can it strengthen its foundation there and have enough manpower to carry out exploration and development.

All of these required silver, and the prince gave him this large sum of silver, which was like timely help.

(End of this chapter)