The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

When the emperor said this, all the civil and military officials knew his attitude: the matter of the Zhang family ended here and was not to be pursued further.

The emperor did not want the Zhang family's property, but he had already seen the property list and knew that a lot of the money came from illegal sources, so the Zhang family naturally could not spend the money with peace of mind.

Min Xi gave them an idea. They should donate some of the money. Part of it could be used to set up charity halls and help the widowed, the orphaned and the lonely. Part of it could be used to print children's reading materials and the Four Books and Five Classics and donate them to scholars all over the world. This could also be considered an investment. After all, the pens were in the hands of scholars. How could the scholars not speak well of the Zhang family when they had received favors from them?

After discussion, the Zhang brothers donated 70% of their property and entrusted the matter to Min Xi and Yun Ji.

This matter would naturally reach Wanli's ears, and it would be considered a good place for the money. When Wanli thought of the money in the future, he would no longer feel uncomfortable.

It was half a month later that the Prime Minister of the Cabinet was decided.

The busiest people during this period were the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, who were busy impeaching various officials. On the surface, it seemed that it had nothing to do with the bigwigs in the cabinet, but the impeached officials all had inextricable ties with these officials, either direct or collateral, and this was a political game.

Every time Min Xi went to court, he watched those people fighting like cockfights, arguing until their faces turned red and their necks became thick, which was really annoying. Because of this incident, many important matters were put on hold. The situation was not stable, and no one had the energy to solve the real problems. So he had to go to see Wanli alone with Yun Ji to persuade him to decide on the prime minister of the cabinet as soon as possible.

At the next morning court session after Min Xi and Yun Ji entered the palace, Wanli finally announced the new candidate for the chief minister of the cabinet - Zheng Tuo as the new chief minister of the cabinet.

Upon hearing the news, Min Xi and Yun Ji finally breathed a sigh of relief. They looked at each other tacitly, with smiles in their eyes.

The impeachment case of the Censorate also came to an end because the Prime Minister was decided, and Min Xi finally had the energy to care about other things.

Seriously speaking, he did not like the position of Censor and wanted to stay in the Honglu Temple, not only because it was less busy, but also because there were not so many intrigues.

Originally, in Min Xi's impression, the censor was the most honest official. After all, how could he supervise others if he was not upright? But during his time as a censor, his filter was completely shattered. He knew that there were so many censors who could be considered honest and upright that he couldn't count them with his five fingers.

With all the censors crooked, how many good officials can we expect in the Ming Dynasty? It would be strange if such a Ming Dynasty was not corrupt. Min Xi also knew that the building was about to collapse. What he did was just to shake it a little bit, so that the building would collapse more slowly, miss that time node, and change the direction of history a little.

So as soon as the prime minister of the cabinet was decided, Min Xi started to slack off. He no longer reported to the Censorate, but returned to the Honglu Temple.

His colleagues in the Honglu Temple were all surprised that he came back, but of course they were also very happy. After all, Min Xi was a legend and had a lot of new things to say. He was also very generous and often treated everyone to food and drinks and gave everyone gifts.

"Sir Min, isn't the Censorate busy? How come you are willing to come back?" A colleague joked.

"I'm busy, so busy that I'm exhausted. I come back to take a few days off. Life in the Honglu Temple is more comfortable!" Min Xi answered with a smile.

"That's true. The Honglu Temple is indeed much more relaxed than the Censorate. There are only a few busy days in a year, so it's suitable for retirement."

Min Xi did not come back to be lazy, he really had something to do. Before going to Southeast Asia, he talked to Zhang Juzheng about the future threat - the Jurchens. Zhang Juzheng also took Min Xi's words to heart and did not ignore them in the past two years. He made some arrangements.

But the Jurchens were ultimately a matter for the future, and the Ming Dynasty was in deep trouble and cash-strapped. Zhang Juzheng was busy with many affairs, and there was very little he could do.

After Min Xi learned about it, he decided to personally solve the Jurchen problem. As the national strength weakened, the Ming Dynasty's policy towards the Jurchens changed from the initial appeasement and control to the current tribute and appeasement.

The tributes of the Ming Dynasty were all "thin in return for thick in return". Those vassal states that bowed down to the Ming Dynasty were all little brothers who were begging for money. The only benefit they got was that they did not cause trouble on the border. But if the benefits were not given in place, it would be hard to tell what would happen.

Zhang Juzheng's approach to the Jurchens was still in line with his previous policy, which was to strengthen the policy of uniting the three Jurchen tribes, trying to make the three tribes evenly matched and check and balance each other so that they would have no time to take care of other things.

This method is indeed effective and relatively safe. However, Min Xi wanted to use a permanent solution to see if he could send the Jurchens to Japan or Hainan Island.

It is extremely difficult to make a tribe migrate. Not only does it require an opportunity, but it also requires someone with enough influence to do it.

Min Xi and Yun Ji discussed for a long time and planned to arrange for the people of the Yunxiang to have trade contacts with the people of the Jurchen tribe to see if they could take the Jurchens out to sea to Japan or Hainan Island in the name of business, and then cooperate with the Ming Dynasty's policies to persuade the Jurchens to leave the bitter and cold Liaodong and move to the warm islands of Japan or Hainan to settle down.

If necessary, the Ming court could also provide them with ships to move to Hainan Island, or lend them ships to attack Japanese islands.

As for the fertile land in Liaodong, it certainly cannot be given up. In the future, we can encourage people inside the Great Wall to migrate out, just like they did when they went to the Great Wall.

All of this cannot be accomplished overnight. It may take several years, more than ten years or even decades. It is very difficult, but it cannot be avoided. In any case, Min Xi feels that he should try it.