The car of Zhu Jianyan and his son left the palace and drove on an unusually quiet street.

The streets in the capital city are all asphalt roads, and all the alleys have been built into cement roads. The larger streets are equipped with circuit lights on both sides.

The street lights illuminated the surrounding area brightly, but except for the occasional night watchman passing by, no one could be seen walking around on the street.

Occasionally, other vehicles would appear, and they would follow the car of Zhu Jianyan and his son. Apparently, they were also other princes and ministers who had been notified that they were going to the palace for a meeting.

The war situation abroad is at a stalemate, the domestic political situation is turbulent, civil unrest and labor revolts are everywhere. The capital has long implemented a curfew, and only officials can go out at night.

The emperor also returned to the Forbidden City from his estate outside the city, and allowed a group of the most important ministers to drive directly into the palace.

When the cars of the princes and ministers arrived at the Meridian Gate, the palace gate guards who had been notified in advance immediately came over to check carefully, confirming that the people and belongings on the cars were in good condition, saluted and let them go.

The car Zhu Jingyuan was riding in started again, slowly passed through the deep doorway into the Forbidden City, then turned right through the Huiji Gate and stopped in the square in front of the Wenhua Hall.

The princes and ministers in the car came out one after another. They all put their hands in their sleeves and looked at Zhu Jianyan and his son in unison.

The Minister of Honglu Temple is the protagonist of today's meeting and peace talks. He is the protagonist of a destined tragedy. No one is willing to take the blame for losing ground and seeking peace.

What surprised them even more was that the protagonist, who was doomed to tragedy, actually brought a half-year-old child here. Did he think that this kind of thing could help his son's resume!

If it were normal, the dignitaries who could talk to Zhu Jianyan at the scene would definitely not be able to help but ask what Zhu Jianyan thought.

But in today's atmosphere, they could only shake their heads secretly. After nodding their heads to Zhu Jianyan, they quietly queued up the stairs and entered the brightly lit Wenhua Hall.

The Wenhua Hall was originally planned to be used for the prince's office. After Xuande, there were almost no adult princes who needed to work, so it became a place for the emperor and the imperial officials to chat (jingyan).

The Wenhua Palace was destroyed when Li Zicheng entered Beijing, but was rebuilt after Emperor Zhu Cixiang recovered his old capital.

Although the appearance of the rebuilt Wenhua Hall is basically the same as the original building, the internal structure and layout have been completely changed.

The main construction is made of reinforced concrete, and the internal room layout is more suitable for daily office work. Now it is equipped with heating, electric lights, and electric fans.

The functions of the Wenhua Hall and its ancillary buildings have evolved into a place where cabinet members conduct their daily work and hold occasional imperial meetings.

Now, behind the main hall and upstairs, there are divided office areas, and the remaining middle area is the conference room.

In the main hall of the conference room, facing north and south, there is the emperor's throne and royal eucalyptus.

On the left and right sides of the conference room, there are three rows of solid wood high-back chairs, which are the seats of the ministers participating in the meeting.

In the middle of the conference room is a heavy table as big as a ping-pong table. Books and signs are placed on one end of the table, and a situation map is spread on the other end.

There are no chairs around the large table, and the height is standard for people to stand on. It is a platform for small-scale discussions and presentation of plans.

A huge map hangs on each of the three walls surrounding the conference room.

The map hanging on the middle wall is titled "The Complete Map of the Ming Dynasty" and is considered a map of the Ming Dynasty's native area.

The scope covered by the map is generally based on the map of the Qing Dynasty in its heyday in 1820, plus Beihai (Baikal) and the surrounding areas of Nerchinsk.

The mainland of the Ming Dynasty is collectively called Shenzhou, with Xianbei (Siberia) to the north, Nanyang (Southeast Asia) to the south, Anxi (Central Asia) to the west, Tianzhu (South Asia) to the southwest, and Dashi (West Asia) to the west of Tianzhu.

Anxi, Tianzhu, and Dashi are also called Asia (the name of the West), the west of Asia is called the West or Europe (the name of the West), and the south of Asia is called Mozhou, also known as Africa (the name of the West).

The map hanging on the wall on the left is titled "Comprehensive Map of the Imperial Domain of the Ming Dynasty". It is a complete map of all areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty, including the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, vassal states, and royal territories.

The scope covered by the map is based on the mainland, plus Korea, Japan, East Xianbei (Eastern Siberia), Nanyang, Tiannan (islands such as Australia and New Zealand).

The western part of North Yinzhou (west of the Rocky Mountains in North America and north of Mexico), the southern part of Nanyinzhou (south of the Paraguay Basin in South America), and Yingzhou (Hawaiian Islands).

Tianzhu (Bangladesh, Pakistan, northern India), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Persia (coastal areas around the Persian Gulf).

West Sea (Sinai Peninsula), East Mexico (Djibouti, Somalia), South Africa (South Africa), Maryland (Madagascar).

There are also most of the archipelagos and islands in the Great Ocean (Pacific Ocean) and Little Western Ocean (Indian Ocean) such as Samoa and Andaman.

Most of the controlled areas outside the mainland mainly exist in the form of vassal states, and a small number of areas are "imperial villages" directly under the jurisdiction of the royal family.

Now, most of the two ocean regions, the Ming Yang (Pacific Ocean) and the Little Western Ocean (Indian Ocean), are the sphere of influence of the Ming Empire.

Only Britain occupies half of Tianzhu, half of the Arabian Peninsula, most of the Michel (Egypt), and there are several small islands in the Lesser Ocean.

Spain controlled the land of Yinzhou from Mexico to Peru, and there were a few scattered islands in the surrounding areas.

The map hanging on the wall on the right is titled "Complete Map of Kunyu", which is a map of the world.

But this area of ​​the world is actually very similar to the full map of the Ming Dynasty on the left. You can't tell the difference at all if you don't get close.

Because they originally used the same base map, which was a global map centered on the Ming Dynasty, but the emphasis was different.

The annotations on the world map are mainly based on foreign countries, and domestic regions are relatively simple. The annotations on the entire map of the Ming dynasty are mainly domestic, and foreign countries are relatively simple.

The world map with Ming Dynasty as the center will divide the Atlantic Ocean into two parts and place them at the extreme edges of both sides of the map, which makes it look very inconspicuous.

The Atlantic Ocean happens to be the vacuum zone of the Ming Dynasty's influence. As a result, it seems that the Ming Dynasty's sphere of influence has spread all over the world, but in fact it is still far behind.

Bei Yinzhou only encircled a long strip in the west, Nan Yinzhou only encircled a triangle in the south, and Mozhou (Africa) only controlled the two corners of East Mo (Somalia) and South Mo (South Africa).

Tianzhu only accounts for half of it. The Dashi area to the west of Tianzhu only controls the periphery of the Persian Gulf, and there is no stronghold in the western part of the country.

The current Ming Empire wants to turn the whole world into vassal states, that is, de facto colonies, and merge the world map with the entire map of the Ming Dynasty into one.

But in Zhu Jingyuan's view, these territories are now completely sufficient.

In the future, we will have the oil in the Persian Gulf, the iron ore and uranium mines in Australia, and the granaries of South America and Indochina.

As long as the current situation is stabilized and all these lands and resources are truly digested, the Ming Dynasty will truly be invincible, more powerful than the British Empire in history.

If we continue to hold on now, if the situation collapses and the empire disintegrates, it will really be over.

Therefore, the empire's next task should be to end this wasting war as soon as possible and devote its energy to maintaining social stability.

The method to stabilize the internal situation of the empire is actually very simple. As long as the Ming royal family gives out some benefits and no longer wants to live alone, but doing it is another matter.

Based on his two lifetime experiences, Zhu Jingyuan believes that the Ming royal family in this world may be one of the most powerful ruling groups in the world.

The royal consortium controlled by the royal family is the largest capital group in the empire and the contractor for almost all franchised industries in the empire.

Mining, steelmaking, petroleum, highways, railways, docks, large machinery and large ships, finance, stocks, futures, as well as tobacco, alcohol, sugar, tea, salt...

The traditional government-run industries in ancient times were exclusively managed by the royal consortium, and the emerging profiteering industries in modern times were also exclusively managed by the royal consortium.

There are also a large number of high-cost industries. Because of the technology, capital, and first-mover advantages of the royal consortium, they have objectively achieved actual monopoly, and private commercial banks are unable to intervene.

The consortium also has privileges similar to those of the British East India Company. It controls its own armed forces and even fleets, and can directly open up, conquer, and manage "imperial estates" overseas.

Some researchers believe that the wealth held by the royal consortium exceeds at least half of the empire's assets, and they are all key core assets.

At the same time, the clan groups of the new Ming Dynasty were completely different from those of the previous Ming Dynasty. They had been completely modernized.

After Zhu Cixiang secured his position, he completely reshuffled the Zhu Ming clan, gained absolute control, and then established compulsory elite education within the clan.

The new generation of adult Zhu Ming clan, regardless of gender, except those who are really stupid and unteachable, are basically at the level of modern college students.

He can also shoot a gun, fire a cannon, ride a horse, drive a car, and sail a boat. He can go to the battlefield as a grassroots officer, join a government office as a grassroots official, and join a consortium as a department head.

At the end of Chongzhen's reign in the Ming Dynasty, the clan's population reached about 300,000. After the Ming Dynasty was revived, it did not shrink, but the reproduction rate accelerated again.

Since the Renwu Dynasty, the clan population has doubled at a rate of 30 to 40 years, approaching the 5 million mark one hundred and fifty years later.

In other words, it is not impossible that a pure clan population can pull out an army of hundreds of thousands of people and organize a true "imperial army" of one million people.

The nearly 5 million elite Zhu Ming clan united around the emperor. While strengthening the imperial power, they also relied on the imperial power and completely controlled the Ming Empire.

The entire empire has a population of more than 600 million, of which at least 200 million, and possibly even 300 million, work directly or indirectly for the Ming Dynasty Imperial Consortium.
Chapter completed!