Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Negotiations between countries are basically a game between national strength.

Whether you are tough or not in a negotiation has little to do with whether what you say makes sense. As long as your fist is hard enough, your fist is the reason.

Of course, at present, the Ming Dynasty’s fist is obviously not strong enough, otherwise Zhang Shikang would only become more arrogant.

Zhu Cilang and his sister watched the entire negotiation between Zhang Shikang and Da Vinci. As the crown prince, Zhu Cilang certainly understood that negotiation was a skill he should master, so he listened very carefully.

But he was only a twelve-year-old boy after all, so he thought for a moment and replied:

"Master Zhang, I've learned that you can't tell the truth during a negotiation. You have to scare him, scare him, and confuse his mind. This way it will be easier to achieve our goal."

"Hehe, my royal brother is right. He scared the red-haired barbarian so much that he was shaking. Kunyi saw it!" Princess Kunyi said playfully.

Zhang Shikang's performance at the beginning was so funny that Princess Kunyi even laughed.

But no one, whether it was Zhang Shikang or Da Vinci, cared about the expression of a little girl.

"You little girl, your acting skills are so poor. You laugh so easily. You will never achieve anything great in the future!" Zhang Shikang glared at Princess Kunyi and said disdainfully.

"Kunyi doesn't have to inherit the throne, she just needs to find a good prince consort!" Princess Kunyi said unconvinced, but after she said that she blushed in embarrassment.

"Haha, you are a precocious girl, but there are a lot of scumbags in this world!

If you really want to find a prince consort, don't forget to let me check for you." Zhang Shikang said jokingly.

There are many scumbags in later generations, but scumbags are not limited to different eras. There were also many scumbags in ancient times.

Among the princesses of the Ming Dynasty, many ended up marrying scumbags and ended up with miserable lives.

Princess Kunyi had a simple personality. Zhang Shikang felt that as her teacher, he could not teach her the Four Books and Five Classics, but he could make up for it in other aspects.

But who knew that after saying this, Princess Kunyi would be very unhappy.

Princess Kunyi felt extremely aggrieved. The little girl thought that she was massaging Zhang Shikang's legs and Zhang Shikang did not object, which meant he accepted her. But now he wanted to push her to an outsider. She turned her head away in disappointment and ignored Zhang Shikang.

Zhu Cilang continued nonchalantly:

"Master Zhang just said that he wanted to join forces with the Red Haired Barbarians to deal with the Zheng family. Is this true?"

He had heard some things about the Zheng family from Zhang Shikang, but not much. He felt that the Zheng family built warships for the court and sold the court the food it needed most, and had never been disrespectful to the court.

Master Zhang would always attack the Zheng family, which made Zhu Cilang feel that it was a loss of dignity for the Celestial Empire.

"Teacher, I remember what Emperor Taizu of Song said: I will not allow others to sleep soundly beside my bed.

The Zheng family is indeed quite respectful to the Ming Dynasty, but this respect is based on damaging the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

You also heard from Da Vinci that the Zheng family's annual profit from maritime trade is more than 20 million taels.

You should understand how huge this number is, right?

How much tax does the Ming Dynasty collect in a year?"

Zhang Shikang educated Zhu Cilang while drinking tea.

Zhu Cilang was silent. His little head still didn’t quite understand the logic behind this. Confucius said to die for benevolence, Mencius said to pursue righteousness, but he still felt he couldn’t make a choice.

“It’s normal that you don’t understand, you are still too young and don’t know the suffering of the people.

The rise and fall of a family is insignificant compared to the rise and fall of tens of millions of people in our Ming Dynasty.

As a ruler, one should know how to make choices.

Since the Ming Dynasty is going to develop maritime trade in the future, the Zheng family is an indispensable part of it.

They monopolized three shipping routes, which were the three most important routes in the Ming Dynasty.

Now our Ming Dynasty is not strong enough, so I, the master, tried my best to gain more power from the red-haired barbarians and the French.

Don't think they really want to help us, there is no such possibility." Zhang Shikang said very firmly.

Zhu Cilang nodded.

"Master Zhang once said that between countries, there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests.

They came to Master Zhang to discuss business because of profit.”

“To be precise, most of the time, people interact with each other for the sake of interests.

If you are useless and extremely poor, few people will want to be friends with you.

But if you are rich, powerful and influential, you will never lack friends around you.

So, you have to learn to distinguish what kind of people are trustworthy.

In this regard, the higher the status of a person, the easier it is to be deceived, just like your father. "Zhang Shikang taught on the spot and once again named Brother Chongzhen.

In the thirteen years since Brother Chongzhen ascended the throne, he thought he had found several colleagues who could be entrusted with important matters, but unfortunately they were all misplaced and he was badly betrayed.

"Master Zhang, you always talk about father like this. Father will be sad if he knows." Zhu Cilang said in a low voice.

Of course he knew that Zhang Shikang was teaching him the truth, but Zhu Cilang felt guilty for always using his father as a negative example.

In the eyes of his father, Master Zhang was a capable minister and a pillar of the country, and he was rarely criticized.

Oh, of course. His father always said that his Master Zhang was lazy.

But these are all minor problems. At least his father has never said anything wrong about Master Zhang. However, in Master Zhang's eyes, it seems that his father is very unqualified.

"Your father is not that petty.

Xiao Zhu, as your teacher I just hope you can learn from this and have a broader vision.

Your master and your father will build a vast kingdom for you in the future. Whether you can keep it or not depends not on your father but on you. " Zhang Shikang said meaningfully.

He and his brother Chongzhen are still young, and they will definitely expand the territory for the Ming Dynasty in the future.

Of course, Zhang Shikang did not want the empire he and his brother had worked so hard to build to be squandered by the younger generation just like Qin II.

Training an heir is a very important matter. Since his elder brother has given him this task, he will of course do his best to teach.

He couldn't teach Zhu Cilang the Four Books and Five Classics, but he could teach him to broaden his horizons and see the world with open eyes.

After all, this world belongs to him and his brother Chongzhen, as well as Zhu Cilang, but in the final analysis, it still belongs to Zhu Cilang.

"Little princess, come and give your teacher a leg massage, will you?"

After training Zhu Cilang, Zhang Shikang teased her when he saw that the little Princess Kunyi had her back turned and looked sulky.

"Humph, you said something bad about the emperor, Kunyi will tell the emperor when he gets back!

Don't even think about letting Kunyi beat your legs again!" Princess Kunyi snorted.

"Well, girl, your master has been so good to you, but you actually want to betray him. I am so disappointed!" Zhang Shikang pretended to be angry.

But Princess Kunyi remained unmoved. She had been with Zhang Shikang for a long time and knew that her master had the most clever ideas and was the best actor.

"Ah, I really envy you two brothers and sisters. It's so nice to be a child. You don't have to worry about so many things.

Unlike being a teacher, I am busy all day long.

It won’t be long before I go back again.” Zhang Shikang sighed.

"Will it be dangerous to go on the expedition?" Princess Kunyi immediately turned her head upon hearing this and asked before her royal brother.

"Swords have no eyes. Who knows, one day you won't be able to see your master again!"

Zhang Shikang said slowly.

……