I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 463 Disagreement
In Zhu Houxuan's vision, during this period of peace, there would be no major wars around the Ming Dynasty, only low-intensity wars, which would not consume much military expenditure.
Most of the huge frontier troops will be disbanded, and the Imperial Guards will remain at a size of 150,000. A large amount of military expenditure will be saved and then invested in the industrial revolution. The industry of the Ming Dynasty will develop more rapidly during this period. Zhu Houxuan also plans to use this period of peace to let Zhu Houzhao take the lead, and then he will carry out some political reforms in the Ming Dynasty. Too radical reforms cannot be done, but reforms such as clearing the fields and allocating the land tax can still be done.
But now all these plans have been ruined by Zhu Houzhao's words.
"It was the little Mongolian prince who fought against the Oirat Mongols, not me. It is precisely because Taizu and Taizong failed to conquer the Western Regions that I have to go on a western expedition to recover the homeland of the Han and Tang dynasties and make up for the regrets of Taizu and Taizong." Zhu Houzhao's eyes were shining with a bright light.

"Wala" was the general name for the various tribes of the Oirat Mongols in Chinese historical records of the Ming Dynasty. In the fourth year of Zhengtong, the Oala entered its heyday. Its leader, Yesen, established the largest Mongol empire after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty. In the fourteenth year of Zhengtong, they launched a large-scale invasion of the Ming Dynasty and captured Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty in Tumu Fortress.

Then the Oirat began to decline. During the Chenghua period, the Oirat was attacked by Dayan Khan of Eastern Mongolia and was forced to abandon the eastern part of Mobei and move westward.

Therefore, in Zhu Houxun's view, there is not much point in fighting the Oirat now. The area that the Oirat now occupies is quite bad. It is not cost-effective to spend such a large amount of military expenditure to occupy that area at this time. It is better to let the Mongolian naturalized army slowly erode the area.

As for Zhu Houxuan in the Western Regions, he didn't want to touch them at this time. They were too far away, and the transportation conditions were poor. Wouldn't it be better for him to use the time and resources to occupy more overseas territories? There was no need to attack the Western Regions at this time!
But after seeing Zhu Houzhao's expression, Zhu Houzhao began to understand his thoughts. Zhu Houzhao was a child who never grew up. His heart had become wild because of the wars in the past few years. Now he had the mindset of a military commander.
Zhu Houxuan saw the peace period as a rare opportunity for development, but Zhu Houzhao saw it as a torture, so he couldn't wait to start a new war.
Zhu Houxuan pondered for a moment and said: "The war in the north has been going on for four or five years, and the Ming Dynasty also needs to rest and recuperate for a while."

"Brother, don't lie to me. When I returned to Beijing, I took a special tour around the capital, but I didn't find any impact of the war in recent years on the people. The people don't suffer from the war." Zhu Houzhao said.

Zhu Houxuan did not expect Zhu Houzhao to have this trick, and quickly explained: "The situation you saw is because..."

Zhu Houxuan got stuck in the middle of his speech because he found that explaining this situation was a rather complicated matter and it really couldn't be explained in a few words.
"I know, I know, it's all because of your good governance, brother," Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.

Zhu Houxuan looked at Zhu Houzhao with a helpless look, and said earnestly: "Brother, the Western Expedition is not a trivial matter. It will cost a lot of money."

The military expenditure required to attack the Western Regions would definitely be two or three times that of attacking the Tatars.

To attack the Tatars, we can use the relatively complete railway network in northern Zhili, but there are no such convenient conditions when attacking the Western Regions. With current technical conditions, railways can only be built to the Guanzhong Plain. It is more difficult to build railways from the Guanzhong Plain to the west, and there are not many available waterways further west, so the transportation of various materials can only use the original method, and the consumption along the way will definitely be greater.

Later, the Qing Dynasty spent decades fighting to conquer the Western Regions. Qianlong alone spent 33 million taels of silver. Adding the expenses of Kangxi and Yongzheng, the cost must have been around 50 to 60 million taels of silver.
Even though silver has not depreciated as much as it did in the Qing Dynasty, and even though Zhu Houxuan has now established a primary industrial system, the prices of various military supplies are relatively low.
Even so, Zhu Houxuan had to prepare 100 million or 200 million taels of silver as military expenses.
With these 10 or 20 million taels of silver, what can't you do with it?
This is also the reason why Zhu Houxuan did not want Zhu Houzhao to attack the Western Regions.
"I know it will cost a lot of money, but don't we have your brother, the God of Wealth?" Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhu Houxuan with a flattering look.

Zhu Houxuan was speechless.
"Even if I am the God of Wealth, I can't conjure up so much silver and money. Besides, I'm not the real God of Wealth." Zhu Houxuan said helplessly.

"What should we do? What if there is no war to fight? The capital is too boring." Zhu Houzhao said in great frustration.

Zhu Houxuan looked at Zhu Houzhao's depressed face and suddenly felt a little soft-hearted.
He quickly sorted out various information and plans in his mind, and suddenly felt that it was not unacceptable to explore the Western Regions at this time. From another perspective, this was also a good time to explore the Western Regions.
Zhu Houxuan suddenly realized that with the rapid increase in the production capacity of the Royal Group's shipyards, the number of steamships installed from a small number to a large number, the pace of Ming's overseas immigration would gradually accelerate and slowly reach its peak.
From any perspective, the Western Regions cannot attract many immigrants - the journey is long, the climate is harsh, and people have to walk step by step.
But Zhu Houxuan also knew the importance of the Western Regions. This place was located in the central area of ​​the World Island. Its geographical location was very important to the future world empire of Ming Dynasty. The future Ming Dynasty needed to firmly control this place to establish a buffer for the heartland of Ming Dynasty, and once again to resist the eastward spread of the Protoss religion.
If you want to completely control the Western Regions, you need a large number of Ming immigrants. At this point in time, you can still attract some Ming immigrants to the Western Regions through various means, but as the speed of overseas immigration increases, the number of immigrants that can be attracted will be even smaller. After all, going overseas requires taking a boat, which is much less difficult than immigrating to the Western Regions.
Therefore, it is better to completely control and conquer the Western Regions now. The longer this matter is delayed, the fewer immigrants the Ming Dynasty can send to the Western Regions, and the more difficult it will be for the Ming Dynasty to control and conquer the Western Regions.
So from this perspective, conquering and controlling the Western Regions is the sooner the better.
Thinking this way, Zhu Houxuan felt much better. He continued to think and began to seriously consider the matter of conquering the Western Regions. As a result, he found that the military expenditure for conquering the Western Regions could definitely be reduced a lot, and most of the money was spent in the areas where the economy was controlled by the Royal Group. It was like the meat was rotten in the pot, which could also generate a lot of positive cycles.
So the balance in Zhu Houxuan's heart was shifting
Originally, I was supposed to work 2 or 3 extra days during these three-day holidays, but in the end, I didn’t have to work any extra days. I’m so happy.
Tonight’s update will be made up tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)