After Japan was out of power, Emperor Yongsheng turned his attention to Nanyang again.

The four realms of the Ming Dynasty, the four directions of the south, south, west, north, and south, are the only ones left.

At this moment, Nanyang is actually only Spain and the Netherlands have relatively strong foreign forces. Other local forces have basically been vassal states of the Ming Dynasty. As long as the Ming Dynasty is strong enough, they will naturally be obedient.

As the founder of the Age of Discovery, Spain was once the maritime overlord. At its heyday, it was really spread all over the world and was very scattered.

Unfortunately, they can't do it now.

At this moment, they were not only suppressed by the emerging Netherlands at sea, but also surrounded and beaten by British and French powers on the continent, and had long lost the prestige of the former overlord.

With the coercion and temptation of Zhu Qizhao, they actually gave up Luzon and withdrew from Nanyang.

Of course, they did not suffer any losses because they did not have much profit in Nanyang, and even the expenses of the garrison had to be maintained by the trade income with the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, they had business dealings with the Ming Dynasty, and they could only get the greatest profit by selling the various minerals in the Americas to the Ming Dynasty.

The conditions offered by the Ming Dynasty were also quite generous. Not only did their fleets allow supplies in Japan, Dongfan, Luzon and Malacca, they also allowed them to purchase all the goods from the Ming Dynasty. This was a huge benefit, so they would naturally choose to give up Luzon in exchange for the trust of the Ming Dynasty.

The Netherlands is different. This emerging maritime overlord is in the most powerful period. They also want to explore the Far Eastern colonies. The Ming Dynasty actually asked them to withdraw from the Southeast Asian country honestly, so they naturally quit.

Zhu Qizhu was too lazy to talk to them, so he led more than 3,000 warships, more than 100,000 naval soldiers and 80,000 elite infantrymen to Nanyang, surrounded Batavia and bombarded them.

To be honest, the Netherlands is indeed a bit overestimated. They are just a small country with a total population of only one million. The total number of troops and navy is less than one hundred thousand. They dare to challenge the Ming Dynasty to a hundred million people. Wouldn’t it be a death!

There has indeed been such a strange thing in history. Jiannu, with a population of less than one million, actually destroyed the Ming Dynasty with a population of billions and dominated the Far East. The Netherlands, with a population of only one million, was invincible all over the world.

However, this strange thing did not happen again at this moment. Zhu Qizhu had already destroyed Jiannu. The Dutch entrenched in Java also obediently raised the white flag under the bombardment of the Ming Dynasty and withdrew from Nanyang in a panic.

At this point, the Ming Dynasty had already subsided the four realms and became the real overlord of the Far East. North Korea, Annan, Donghu, Zhenla, Siam and other countries sent envoys to pay tribute, and the grand scene of the dynasty of all countries was reappeared in Jinling.

However, this is just the beginning.

As the saying goes, "It is easy to conquer the world, but it is difficult to defend the world." At that time, the Ming Dynasty, which was the Hongwu Dynasty and the Yongsheng Dynasty, were both overlords of the Far East, and all countries came to the court. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty took a sharp turn for the worse and declined in less than a hundred years. The reason lies in the economy. Because the Ming Dynasty was unable to bear the military expenditure of more than two million troops, it had to convert most of the Ming army into guards, which made the combat effectiveness of the Ming army plummet.

If the Ming Dynasty had maintained a conventional army of more than two million and had been constantly updating gunpowder weapons and equipment, who in the world could compete with it?

Zhuqiu naturally would not let the Ming Dynasty decline again. After the peace of the world, he began to reorganize the conventional army, develop the economy, and increase the tax revenue of the imperial court.

At this moment, the total number of troops of the Ming Dynasty was actually less than two million, including only 250,000 Qin troops, 250,000 Southwest troops, 150,000 Huguang troops, 150,000 Jianghuai troops, nearly 200,000 New troops and 160,000 elite troops, which combined only exceeded one million, and even fewer navy troops, totaling only about 150,000.

It would be impossible to support more than one million soldiers with the national strength of the Tianqi Dynasty and the Chongzhen Dynasty. However, with the current territory of the Ming Dynasty, if there is no more than one million troops, then something will be impossible.

You should know that the reason why the Ming Dynasty declined from prosperity was because Yingzong personally led the expedition and was defeated and captured by the Oirat Grand Master Yesen. In the future, the enemies of the Ming Dynasty, Rakshasa, the Netherlands, Britain and France, are stronger than the Oirat. If there are no more than one million troops, how can they intimidate the great powers and defend their huge territory?

Zhu Qizhuo naturally would not have been stupid enough to lay off these troops. He also gave up the idea of ​​converting most of the soldiers into guards. He retained all these soldiers and divided them into four armies to guard the four realms of the Ming Dynasty.

Among them, Zhenguo Gongma Qiancheng was in Zhenbei Zhili, leading Zhendong Army, Zhenxi Army, Zhennan Army, Zhenbei Army, 250,000 Southwest Army and 50,000 Beiyang Navy soldiers to guard the northern provinces of Mosnan, Demon North, Liaodong, and Xiyuan.

Dingguo Duke Qin Banghan was in charge of Shaanxi and led the Pingdong Army, Pingxi Army, Pingnan Army, Pingbei Army and 250,000 Qin Army to guard the Western Regions and Bashu.

Zheng Chenggong of Anguo was in charge of the East and led the Andong Army, the Anxi Army, the Annan Army, the Anbei Army, the 150,000 Huguang Army and the 50,000 Dongyang Navy soldiers to guard the East and the East.

Duke Xingguo Qi Jin was in charge of Malujia and led the Imperial Guards, Qi Family Army, Imperial Guards, 150,000 Jianghuai Army and 50,000 Nanyang Navy soldiers to guard the entire Nanyang.

As for the 200,000 new troops, they continued to stay in Jiangbei Camp near Yangzhou City for training in case of emergency.

In order to develop the economy and increase the tax revenue of the imperial court, he also issued an order to expand coastal cities and ports such as Beihai, Tianjin Wei, Songjiang Huating, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou, and built a large number of official shipyards in these coastal cities to produce various commercial ships to increase the water transport capacity of the people.

At the same time, he also vigorously built a railway network, connecting all the inland provinces and major prefectures in the Ming Dynasty to facilitate commercial exchanges.

In order to improve the quality of Ming Dynasty goods and reduce costs, he also ordered the Ministry of Industry to vigorously develop civil steam machinery and gradually transform cloth, porcelain, glassware, etc. into mechanized production.

With this vigorous promotion, the Ming Dynasty's economy suddenly showed explosive growth. The wood, fur, mountain delicacies in the northern provinces, tea, spices, gems, cloth, porcelain, glassware, etc. in the southeastern provinces all became popular goods in the best-selling world, and vendors from all over the Ming Dynasty made a lot of money.

At this time, Emperor Yongsheng Zhuqiu was over fifty years old and was about to become an old man in his sixties.

......

The 12th year of Yongsheng in the Ming Dynasty, which was the fiftieth birthday of Zhuqizhu. The entire Jinling City was decorated with lights and colors, which was even more lively than the New Year Festival.

After some celebration, Zhu Qituo specially summoned a group of confidants and the princes who survived by chance, including the prince Zhu Yuta and the princesses, to the Lord's Hall of the Qianqing Palace.

At this time, his temples were gray and his face was a little tired. After decades, he was really tired. Looking at the old confidants and the princess and princesses who had grown up, he couldn't help but sigh: "I am so lucky to revive the Ming Dynasty. Now that the world has been peaceful, the people have been stable, and the prosperity has come, I have no regrets. I have been tired for decades, so I decided to abdicate and recuperate and let the prince ascend the throne."

ah!

Everyone was stunned when they heard this.

Zhu Qidiao then said earnestly: "Power is really easy to make people addicted, and once you are addicted, you will be a little unexcited. Throughout history, many people have lost their nature and even lost their human nature for power. I believe that everyone knows it. When people get old, they are inevitably confused. Therefore, when they reach age, they must know their destiny, put down their power, and go to retire well. Can you understand?"

Crown Prince Zhu Yuta hurriedly bowed and said, "My son understands, I will come to accompany my father to support me when I am fifty!"

---"The Complete Book"---
Chapter completed!