Chapter 154: Knock? Warning?
After Yang Chen explained the theory, the atmosphere in the room suddenly fell silent. He could see that no one understood it.

There was no other way, so he could only say it in another way:
“Take traditional coking as an example. The gas discharged from the boiler can resist the cold weather caused by the Little Iceberg. As long as the entire Ming Dynasty and even the whole world implements such an industry, it will be able to produce enough greenhouse effect to resist the cold.

One cools down, the other heats up, and they neutralize each other, it’s that simple.”

Explained in such a straightforward way, Zhu Gang and others were finally able to understand the meaning behind it.

“I understand. It’s like I was bitten by a poisonous snake. If I want to survive, I must suck out the poisonous blood, or prevent the poisonous blood from flowing into my eight extraordinary meridians, heart, liver, spleen, and lungs, so I have to cut a wound on my arm.”

“That’s what I mean. Now, I have told you all the three strategies. It’s up to your majesty to decide what to choose next.”

Yang Chen cupped his hands and said, which completely indicated that his task for today was completed. He would not say anything more about the future decisions.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes.

His eyes met Yang Chen’s in mid-air.

Yang Chen had already prepared himself mentally for what happened today. The Little Ice Age was completely different from the Jurchens.

The Jurchens were dogs kept in captivity by the Ming Dynasty. They were used by the Ming Dynasty to deal with Korea and Japan. However, the Liao army on the border went too far in raising bandits for their own benefit, and accidentally allowed this dog to eat its fill and then turn against its owner.

How to deal with it? Just devote a little of your attention to it.

However, the Little Ice River is different. If it is not stopped in advance, it will inevitably bring disaster to the Ming Dynasty.

To this end, Yang Chen came up with these three interlocking and progressive strategies.

Historically, the British Empire took advantage of the technological development during the Renaissance to wildly expand its territory, colonize America and Asia, and became the first empire in the world whose flag could live forever under the sun, known as the ‘Empire on which the Sun Never Sets’!
It’s a pity that he made the same mistake as the Qing Dynasty and ended up in failure, otherwise he would still be the most powerful country on earth.

If Ming Dynasty wants to quickly become the only empire in the world, it must follow the industrial steps.

He hoped that Ming would become a great power, a country that could rely on plundering other countries to support its own technological development.

This world is cruel. If you are not one of the people who eat at the table, then there will only be one ending left, which is to become the food on the seat!
As long as the Ming Dynasty can be the first to open up the sea route and discover the continent, the next step will be to use grassroots productivity to affect the stability of ordinary people. Once people have free time, they will have many active thoughts.

For example, the Renaissance and the Hundred Schools of Thought and other ideological enlightenment, followed by acceptance of reform and participation in reform, Yang Chen knew that it would not be possible to do it alone.

For this reason, he is willing to believe that the people and the working people can create miracles. This is what the great man said. We must believe in the people. The people are the creators of history! Any behavior or person that disobeys the people and violates the people will only bring about their own destruction!
After the reform is completed, the next step is industrial transformation, establishing the great goal of transformation under bourgeois-based conditions.

By taking this step, the dawn of the Chinese nation leading the world will be visible. This is a historical inevitability and no one can stop it!
The economic base determines the superstructure, that’s all.

Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes, opened them again, looked at Zhu Gang in a very calm tone and said:

“Third brother, father wants to give you a task.”

He did not ask Zhu Gang’s wishes, but spoke in the form of an order. For all of Zhu Yuanzhang’s sons, this was their normal life.

There seems to be no father-son relationship, only monarch and subject relationship.

This is true for everyone except Zhu Biao.

“Father, please give your orders! I will do my best to complete them!”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly, expressing his great satisfaction with his son’s reaction, and said:

“Third brother, as a prince of the Ming Dynasty, the Prince of Jin, although you have just entered your fiefdom for a short time, I, as your father and the emperor of the world, have long been aware of your actions in your fiefdom. You are a good child, and I know that your ability is no worse than that of the second brother, and I also know that you want to make a difference.

You all know what Yang Chen said today. The Ming Dynasty is about to face an unknown natural disaster. If we don’t prepare in advance, the people will have no way to survive, and the Ming Dynasty will be filled with starving people and the people will suffer!

Your eldest brother has already sent people to the American continent. If all goes well, they may be on their way back now. But as for Luzon, India, and Wanli Shitang Guano Islands, it seems that we are not confident in handing this task to other people.

So we decided to send a thousand elite naval forces, with you as the admiral of the naval forces, to lead the local people and the Chamber of Commerce ships to the South Seas to find everything that the Ming Dynasty needs.”

A naval fleet of one thousand people is not a small number at present. Even if the Ming navy is weak, it still has at least 50,000 people.

The fact that he was able to mobilize a thousand elite troops was enough to show how much Zhu Yuanzhang valued his determination to find the guano island in Wanli Shitang.

With almost no hesitation, Zhu Gang immediately knelt down and kowtowed to accept the task.

“I thought that the Ming Dynasty was exploring this unknown sea route. If I cannot complete the task assigned by my father, I will not be able to return to the Ming Dynasty!”

At this point, he can only become a sharp sword for the Ming Dynasty!
Seeing that his brother was about to leave, Zhu Biao stood up and said reluctantly:
“Father! Isn’t this too hasty? My third brother has just returned to Daming and hasn’t had a chance to have a good chat with mother. It’s almost Mid-Autumn Festival in our family. It wouldn’t be too late if we could at least have a reunion dinner before leaving!”

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Zhu Biao and quickly knew what his son was thinking.

After considering for a moment, he nodded in agreement.

“Okay, in that case, Third Brother, you should start preparing from today. I will ask Wu Zhen to find you soon.”

“Wu Zhen?” Yang Chen was a little stunned when he heard this name for the first time. He thought, shouldn’t the person in charge of the navy be Xu Da, the top leader in the Governor’s Office?
He soon remembered who this guy was.

He was one of the twenty-four generals of Huaixi.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang granted him the title of Marquis of Jinghai. He was proficient in naval warfare, supervised maritime transportation, and led troops to the Ryukyu area to wipe out the Japanese pirates.

At the beginning of the founding of the country, most of the people who were slightly capable in naval warfare were trained by him.

“My son obeys the order!”

Having said that, all Zhu Gang could do was accept it. He had no other choice.

After explaining his son’s affairs, Zhu Yuanzhang slowly looked at Yang Chen, his eyes clear and calm.

Immediately he said with appreciation:

“Boy, you have solved the problem of the Little Ice River for us, which has never happened before, so we have decided that you will prepare to go to Ningming County in a few days.

In order to give you some power, I will give you a token. With this token, you can mobilize 300 guards in the capital and enter and leave the capital freely.

We have agreed in advance that you can only use this token yourself and cannot let others use it. If we see you doing anything wrong with the token, don’t blame us for being rude to you!”

Zhu Yuanzhang’s eyes were stern and contained a hint of warning, but he soon regained his composure.

Yang Chen waved his hands, his face looking very relaxed:

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I know this. Without your permission, I dare not do anything wrong. I am going to Ningming County. I wonder when Your Majesty will hand over the King of Qin to me? With him, I will have a strong force around me. If someone does not recognize this token and wants to attack me when I go there, won’t I just suffer in vain?”

The two parties had already agreed last time that he could use Zhu Chong at will.

He mentioned it now because he was worried that Lao Zhu would forget about it. Lao Zhu glanced at him and said casually:

“Go find that little bastard yourself.”

He wanted to curse a few more times, but Zhu Yuanzhang reacted instantly and realized that if Zhu Chong was a little beast, then wouldn’t he be an old beast?

The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became, so he simply expelled Yang Chen.

“Okay, I’ll give you the things. Just give back the prince token that Biaoer gave you before.”

As he spoke, he muttered a few words with a look of unhappiness on his face.

“Biao’er, you are such a fool. The prince’s token is a symbol of your status as the prince. How can you easily hand over such a valuable thing to him? Don’t allow it next time.”

Zhu Biao’s expression was very rich, and he knew very well why his father said that.

He was simply worried that Yang Chen would use the prince’s token to do something that would damage his image. However, it was different with the emperor’s token. Old Zhu was thick-skinned and was not at all bothered by Yang Chen using these things to do anything wrong.

“I understand, Yang Chen, please return my things to me.”

Yang Chen took off the gold and jade token that Zhu Biao had given him.

There was nothing else to do, so he and Zhu Biao and Zhu Gang left Old Zhu’s study, leaving Old Zhu and Yang Siyi alone in the study.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him and said softly:

“Okay, you’ve been fidgeting since we were halfway through the story. Minister Yang, if you have anything you want to know, just ask. I’m in a good mood today, so I can tell you.”

“Your Majesty! I dare not. Your Majesty does not want to say it. If I ask, it will violate the taboo. It is absolutely forbidden.”

“Alright, alright, don’t I know you well? You have worked under me for so many years, and we can be considered good brothers who share life and death. Now there is no emperor or minister, so just ask whatever you want to ask, otherwise I won’t allow you to talk too much afterwards.”

Old Zhu dispelled all of Yang Siyi’s concerns, and then he dared to speak slowly.

Ever since Yang Chen talked about how to solve the problem of Little Ice River, and the last time about the Daming Public Service Center, Yang Siyi had been asking about his identity in many roundabout ways.

Unfortunately, Old Zhu was very skilled, and Yang Chen had already become a local of the Ming Dynasty, so there was almost no room for error.

So Yang Siyi had no choice but to believe whatever His Majesty said.

But today, Yang Chen repeatedly mentioned a lot of news outside the Ming Dynasty, which made him feel frightened.

You know, the imperial court may not be able to fully grasp the situation of many islands in the South China Sea, but Yang Chen can know it clearly, which is really weird.

At least that’s how it seemed to him.

It is not an exaggeration to describe it as weird.

After thinking for a long time, Yang Siyi finally spoke:
“Your Majesty, Yang Chen has a clean background and no foreign features. He is definitely not a spy sent to the Ming Dynasty by others. However, there is one thing that confuses me.

He has two special ones.

First of all, as an imperial censor, doesn’t it seem like he knows too much?
Since the grand court meeting some time ago, Yang Chen was able to put forward suggestions and dare to agree with the prince in front of everyone, and he was also able to speak out against the prime minister. This courage alone was something that even old ministers did not dare to do. I will not say much about how powerful Hu Weiyong was, relying on the favor of Your Majesty.

Afterwards, he was not harmed at all by Hu Weiyong. When officials heard about it, Hu Weiyong tried his best to win him over.

This is a special identity.

The second is that he is knowledgeable. Your Majesty, although I am a latecomer, I have read and studied a lot in order to better manage the affairs of the country. Even so, I don’t know more than a young man like you.

Take the last time he brought imperial power to the countryside as an example. After returning, the old minister repeatedly deduced with his subordinates and found that his method was very meticulous and could almost prevent all accidents.

His talent surpasses all the talents I have seen in my life. If he can work sincerely for the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty will surely move towards becoming a powerful country in the next few decades!”

There is no exaggeration at all; this is Yang Siyi’s true judgment of Yang Chen.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn’t know what to say for a moment when he saw his subordinates admired the young man so much.

When Yang Siyi calmed down and prepared himself mentally, Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly:

“Old Yang, in a sense, Yang Chen is indeed not a Ming person.”

In an instant, Yang Siyi’s mind was shocked like a bolt from the blue! It was so deafening that he couldn’t recover for a long time.

“Your Majesty, what do you mean?”

Zhu Yuanzhang raised the corners of his mouth slightly and smiled:
“As I said, Yang Chen is not from the Ming Dynasty, but I can tell you that the knowledge in his mind can help the Ming Dynasty become the only powerful country in the world!”

As he spoke, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly exuded an aura that could defend the heavens and the earth, and Yang Siyi, feeling oppressed, subconsciously took a step back.

Zhu Yuanzhang’s eyes were full of brilliance, and he said in a firm tone:
“You don’t think that we can let others manipulate us just because we are old, do you? You don’t think that Yang Chen is talented and we should allow him to do whatever he wants?
Hahaha! You are wrong, Lao Yang. We stepped on countless bones to get to where we are today. No matter how stupid we are, we will not be scared by a young man.

The reason why he dared to be so presumptuous a few days ago was because we only allowed him to do so.”

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up, put his hands behind his back, looked up at the light coming through the door, his eyes full of desolation:

“Old Yang, the dynasty is a century-old family, the emperor takes turns, and it is inevitable that your family will be the emperor this year. The Ming Dynasty is powerful, but it is so difficult to stabilize the country and let the people live a good life!
Yang Chen is talented, but I cannot tell you his identity. If you really want to know the truth, you can regard him as the reincarnation of a god sent by God to save the Ming Dynasty and the Han people.

Just like Huo Qubing, he appeared in times of crisis for the Han Dynasty and passed away after completing his mission.

“I have finally lived this half of my life, and I want to see how big this world is before I die. Do you think I am wrong?”

“Your Majesty cares about the people and is worthy of the emperor’s name. There is no one in the world who can do more right than Your Majesty.”

Yang Siyi already understood that the reason why His Majesty said this today was because he wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to ask about the next thing and should just do it.

Faced with such a reminder, how could he not understand?
(End of this chapter)