Facing those round, bright amber eyes, he released his grip on the sword hilt, allowing himself to be taken.
PS: Both Shengli and Shuli are members of the Li people. Shengli refers to the tribes living in the heart of Wuzhi Mountain that maintain autonomy, while Shuli refers to the tribes living in the coastal plains who live mixed with the Han people.
Chapter 306
"Your Majesty, you mustn't, you mustn't!" The nearly sixty-year-old Zhu Yujian felt as though several more of his hairs might turn white.
Why not?" Zhu Ci said without even looking up from behind the imperial desk, "The Zijin Platform says the weather has been excellent lately, the sea waves are not heavy. If we don't go now, when will we go?
Zhu Yujian almost choked upon hearing this, he couldn't help but say, "But Your Majesty, the destination you wish to visit is the New World; it is ten thousand miles away from our country."
Zhu Ci comforted him in a gentle voice, "Don't be nervous, don't be nervous. It's not as if I am going to cross the Pacific Ocean; we will be docking at other prefectures and cities along the way."
What? You want to cross the Pacific Ocean?
Zhu Yujian nearly fainted, for a moment, he even began to wonder whether he should just beg for a grave.
The Emperor became increasingly willful as he grew older, lacking the composure he had in his youth; life for his subjects was extremely difficult.
However, on second thought, although this person before them often behaved capriciously, he was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime brilliant ruler, everyone was exerting all their strength in hopes of leaving their name in the annals of history.
Moreover, the Emperor is sentimental; in recent years, he has rarely resorted to executions on a whim.
Forget it, I'll just endure it.
Zhu Yujian decided not to argue with the Emperor; after all, the Emperor always had his reasons. Once he made up his mind, no one could persuade him, except for His Highness the Prince of Yue.
The Grand Secretary remains the Grand Secretary to this day; as the court and society undergo generational changes, no one feels that the Grand Secretary is too young to command the room anymore.
It was just that every time he saw Fu, Zhu Yujian would wonder if he was truly forty years old?
From his appearance, he doesn't look like it at all; it's as if time has stood still for him.
Heaven had given Fu flaws, but it seemed to have compensated for them elsewhere.
Once Fu knew the purpose of Zhu Yujian's visit, he said, "Rest assured, Left Censor. This Prince will take good care of His Majesty on the journey."
Huh?
Zhu Yujian nearly jumped out of his skin: "You want to go too? What about the imperial court?"
Fu Shixiao gave him a strange look: "Is the court not very stable right now?"
The benefits of the Constitutional Monarchy that Zhu Ci established back then were now becoming apparent.
Over the years, with the cultivation of talent, the Grand Secretariat and the Censorate have both expanded significantly, the corresponding government affairs no longer rely entirely on Zhu Ci and Fu.
The two of them have also begun to gradually delegate power, though they will, of course, still be the ones to decide major matters—to be precise, they will leave the decisions to the Emperor.
However, this was not because Zhu Ci wanted to suppress the Grand Secretariat and the Censorate; it was purely due to his personal charisma. Everyone in the imperial court was willing to listen to him and believed that the Emperor would not make any foolish decisions.
With such a system, if it were a different emperor, the situation might not be what it is now.
Zhu Yujian opened his mouth, but in the end, he could only say weakly, "How can you also join in His Majesty's nonsense?"
Rest assured, His Majesty has his own intentions; it is not mere nonsense.
After hearing this, Zhu Yujian shuddered and asked, "His Majesty.. he doesn't intend to expand his territory again, does he?"
Fu smiled without saying a word, while Zhu Yujian let out a long sigh and said earnestly, "Your Highness should also advise His Majesty. It is one thing to ignore Tsarist Russia or even the West, but those two New Continents are too far from us; we cannot govern lands so distant."
Fu said nonchalantly, "His Majesty said that if we cannot govern them, it is not because they are too far, but because our ships are not fast enough, our airplanes cannot yet fly in the sky."
Zhu Yujian..
Hearing about airplanes, he felt even more frustrated.
I don't know what the Emperor is thinking. Ever since he found the oil mines, he has been talking enthusiastically about building airplanes—essentially, vehicles that can fly in the sky.
Is that even possible? Unless a god descends to the mortal realm, how could it be done?
Seeing that even the Grand Secretary could not persuade him, Zhu Yujian returned to the Censorate in dejection.
Seeing him in this state, Yan Yingyuan knew that his colleagues had returned empty-handed. He sighed and said, "Don't worry. Look on the bright side; His Majesty has been running off on expeditions constantly these past few years anyway, so everyone is used to it."
Their Emperor simply did not have the temperament to stay peacefully in the palace.
In the beginning, he would personally lead expeditions at the slightest provocation, once the empire stabilized later on, he began to go on tours.
In the past, an emperor's imperial tours were bound to be a drain on people and resources, yet this emperor liked to go out with the Grand Secretary, taking no one except for the Jinyi Guard and the guards from the Prince of Yue's Mansion; no one knew where they were going.
What could anyone do? They couldn't even persuade the Emperor to stop causing trouble for everyone and the common people.
How can they be the same?" Zhu Yujian said somewhat mournfully, "His Majesty won't be back from this expedition for at least a year or half a year.
Yan Yingyuan looked up through the glass window and finally sighed, saying, "Look on the bright side, His Majesty still trusts us."
Zhu Yujian couldn't help but roll his eyes.
His Majesty did indeed trust them; even if he didn't, it wouldn't matter. After all, the Military Department was entirely composed of His Majesty's confidants, all the military power in the world was in His Majesty's hands. At most, they only had some hired retainers; even house slaves no longer existed. Did they really have the ability to rebel?
Most importantly, this Emperor was about to gain the world, if he were to rebel.. he might as well just take his whole family and hang themselves to get it over with in one go.
In any case, His Majesty's outing was a settled matter, but this time it was different from previous times; the Emperor directly brought an entire fleet, with nearly a hundred ships of all sizes.
During the send-off, some young officials asked with confused expressions, "Why does it feel like.. this fleet is even larger than the one used when we fought Siam two years ago?"
No one answered him, because everyone knew the truth in their hearts.
How many ships? There are even more people; can't you see the navy on the ships is all on high alert?
On the contrary, His Majesty looked as if he were truly out for a stroll; dressed in casual robes and walking ahead, he lacked all the sense of oppression he usually carried while sitting upon the dragon throne.
After Zhu Ci boarded the boat, he sat on the balcony, eating fruit while nestled in Fu's arms and admiring the seascape.
"There are actually cherries at this time of year? And you arranged for people to cultivate them?" Zhu Ci looked at the small, orange cherries one by one, couldn't help but think of cherries.
Although the name "cherries" is actually a transliteration of the word for cherries, they have essentially become distinct from the local cherries.
Fu Ying responded, "Is it sweet?"
Zhu Ci looked up at him and smiled, "Won't you know if you taste it yourself?"
Fu lowered his head to exchange a cherry-flavored kiss with him, then said with lingering desire, "It's very sweet."
Zhu Ci felt the changes in his body, paused, clicked his tongue. "Getting old? Practice some self-restraint."
Getting old?
Fu paused, instead of putting the cherry in the Emperor's mouth, he hoisted the Emperor onto his shoulders.
Hey, hey, hey?" Zhu Ci laughed and scolded, "Don't do anything reckless in broad daylight.
Fu Shixiao remained unmoved; had they not been reckless in broad daylight many times before?
Anyway, no one disturbed them on the boat.
The only real trouble was that the cherry juice stained easily, leaving Zhu Ci's chest, back, even his clothes covered in much of the difficult-to-remove liquid.
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Author's Note: Zhu Ci: Natural dye, luckily it didn't get on my face. Kitty works hard to wipe its fur. jpg
The extra chapters are starting to update. The next update will be at twelve noon~
Chapter 307
Life at sea was actually quite boring; although encountering storms from time to time was very exciting, all in all, seeing nothing but blue skies, white clouds, the ocean every time you opened your eyes would eventually become tedious, no matter how beautiful it was.
Although he had come out with the intention of having a honeymoon with Fu, the two of them couldn't just stay cooped up in their room fooling around every single day, could they?
Fortunately, they were traveling along the coast of the continent on this journey, occasionally being able to make landfall.
"Why would Your Majesty think of going to that uninhabited continent?" Fu was somewhat curious.
This time, their destination was not any known continent, so everyone else was quite uneasy, except for the Emperor.
Zhu Ci's eyes lit up as he said, "You have no idea, the mineral resources on that land are incredibly abundant. They would be perfect for.. oh, just.. adding the icing on the cake."
Even after all these years, Zhu Ci still remembered that before he traveled through time, netizens jokingly said the "Ao" in the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge should be Australia, because the mineral resources there were exactly what his own country lacked.
However, the Great Ming is not that scarce nowadays; many mineral resources cannot be mined because the technology is insufficient, not because they don't exist. Therefore, strictly speaking, there is no need for complementarity from Oceania.
But then again, who would ever complain about having too many mineral resources?
Zhu Ci wished that every mineral-rich place on the entire planet belonged to the Great Ming.
Fu did not show much excitement upon hearing this, but only said with some worry, "I don't know what the situation is over there; rushing over blindly.."
Zhu Ci raised his hand and placed it on his shoulder, saying, "If it weren't for the sake of safety, I wouldn't have brought so many people out. What is there for you to worry about?"
Fu also felt that his worries were somewhat excessive. Over the years, the nations in the West had indeed considered challenging the Great Ming, yet their technological development had never been able to keep pace with the Great Ming. Even though they had cultivated many talents, it still wasn't enough.
Later, they began sending people to the Great Ming to study.
However, most of those people who were sent over ended up staying in the Great Ming, which instead further strengthened the strength of the Great Ming.
Fu thought about the new weapons he had brought out this time and felt slightly more at ease, but it was impossible to say he wasn't worried at all.
However, once he truly set foot on that land, which was said to be incredibly rich in minerals, he knew he had been completely overthinking it.
The indigenous people here are actually still in a hunter-gatherer stage of existence, the entire continent possesses hundreds of different tribes. Not only are their living habits different, but even their languages are different.
Fu had not seen such primitive scenes for a long time, after seeing them, he felt that bringing so many heavy weapons here was simply a waste of energy.
Even the obsolete bows and arrows of the Great Ming could deal with these tribes.
He was relieved, but Zhu Ci was the one who became worried instead.
Zhu Ci could probably guess that Oceania might be relatively backward during this period, but he never expected it to be this backward.
Never mind city-states, there isn't even a decent settlement!
The first thing that needs to be done if one wants this place is to focus on infrastructure.
If we truly want to mine, we can't just let the miners and managers live like savages under the open sky, can we?
Fu couldn't help but want to laugh at the sight of Zhu Ci frowning.
In recent years, His Majesty has become increasingly adept at handling various official matters, there are rarely any issues that cause him worry.