Zhu Yuanzhang stared at the Dragon Tooth Gate pointed out by Liu Bowen with his eyes widened.
On the chart in front of him, there was no help around Longyamen, drifting alone in the waters of Fujian not far away.
Moreover, the Dragon Tooth Gate was only the size of a sesame on the chart, and even the label was too small to be seen clearly. This made Zhu Yuanzhang simply couldn't believe his eyes.
Because in the Shanghu County military base, what Zhu Yuanzhang saw was the Dragon Tooth Gate marked with big red letters, which clearly showed the strategic location of the Dragon Tooth Gate.
As a link between the past and the future, the Dragon Tooth Gate is not only the gateway between Nanyang and the Ming Dynasty, but also the only place for traffic between the east and west seas.
Now Zhu Yuanzhang did not see the importance of Dragon Tooth Gate at all on this chart.
It was so alone, with no islands around it, let alone a strait, that it looked ridiculous.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but began to wonder whether Li Jin sent troops to garrison all over the sea in order to allow him to open the sea, and ended up drawing such a fake map by directing and acting on his own.
But Zhu Yuanzhang immediately rejected this idea, because not only Li Jin himself had been to the Dragon Tooth Gate, but even Xu Da had personally attacked the Dragon Tooth Gate.
If the location of Dragon Tooth Gate was not so important, Xu Da would not have written that memorial to himself, hoping that he could send troops to garrison at sea.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Liu Bowen again and asked in a deep voice:
"Bowen, do you think there will be any problems with this chart?"
Liu Bowen frowned slightly, what should he say? Although he knows a lot about astronomy and geography, the exploration of the ocean is really his blind spot.
Regarding overseas islands, he knew at most some island countries, but when it came to the specific island locations and names, Liu Bowen had only a partial understanding.
"Your Majesty, I don't know about this."
"However, the ocean is boundless and it is even more difficult to draw a nautical chart. Mistakes in nautical drawings are inevitable."
"Has the Emperor ever seen another version of the nautical chart?"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly, and then began to talk about the nautical charts he saw in Shanghu County and his plan to open the sea.
As Zhu Yuanzhang's former think tank, Liu Bowen had a deep understanding of Zhu Yuanzhang's strategic direction.
The national policy of the Ming Dynasty has always been based on agriculture. During his southern tour last year, after Zhu Yuanzhang inspected the tragic situation in Yangzhou, he had already made up his mind to recuperate, restore people's strength, and actively encourage people to farm.
For this reason, Liu Bowen also arranged for his favorite disciple Yang Xian to live in Yangzhou, hoping that Yang Xian could make a difference in Yangzhou.
But now that he heard that Zhu Yuanzhang planned to open the sea, Liu Bowen couldn't help but be shocked.
You must know that opening up the sea is contrary to farming, because opening up the sea means developing maritime trade.
Maritime trade belongs to the commercial scope and is mutually exclusive with agriculture. Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang had always had an extremely disgusted attitude towards overseas trade, but now his attitude has undergone a 180-degree turn.
Uncle Liu couldn't help but asked:
"May I ask Your Majesty, why do you suddenly want to open the sea?"
"The sea ban has just been issued for no more than two years. If it is suddenly changed, will it cause complaints from the people?"
"Bowen. You don't know something."
Zhu Yuanzhang's expression remained unchanged, a slight smile curled up at the corner of his mouth, and he said:
"Previously, we were forced by the situation. We had no choice but to issue a sea ban to prevent the people along the coast from being killed by Japanese pirates and pirates."
"But now, the situation has completely changed, and the current sea area is no longer dominated by Japanese pirates."
Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's proud smile, Liu Bowen knew that Zhu Yuanzhang must have done something big these days.
Thinking of Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards opening the sea, could it be that Zhu Yuanzhang had managed to wipe out all the Japanese pirates on the sea?
Thinking of this, Liu Bowen couldn't help being shocked. You must know that Japanese pirates have been ravaging Zhejiang and Fujian since the previous dynasty.
When the Ming Dynasty was first established, Japanese pirates were extremely rampant, and the Ming army often had nothing to do with these pirates.
For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang had to issue a sea ban to avoid further losses to the Ming Dynasty.
But I didn't expect that in just half a year, Zhu Yuanzhang would clear the sea area. This is really incredible.
Although he doesn't want to believe it, Zhu Yuanzhang's performance has already illustrated this fact.
Thinking of the young man with strange behavior in Shanghu County, Liu Bowen felt overwhelmed.
Liu Bowen always thought that the young man had the talent to govern the country, but now it seemed that he had the ability to lead the army.
In such a short period of time, all the Japanese pirates and pirates along the coast were eliminated. Liu Bowen had to give Li Jin a thumbs up in his heart.
"Congratulations, Your Majesty, for acquiring this talent. This is a great talent sent from heaven to our Ming Dynasty to help our Ming Dynasty exterminate the Japanese pirates."
Liu Bowen bowed and congratulated Zhu Yuanzhang. After all, the elimination of the Japanese pirates was indeed a gratifying event.
Seeing that Liu Bowen had guessed what Li Jin had done, Zhu Yuanzhang no longer pretended to be serious, and laughed and said:
"Bowen is still so smart, he can guess right."
"That bastard Li Jin had some shitty luck and basically wiped out all the Japanese pirates and pirates on the southeast coast."
"Even the Jiangyang thief Chen Zuyi was shot to death by this kid."
"Now that the sea area has been cleared, it is naturally different."
"We intend to reopen the sea, but that boy Li Jin is more radical and wants to take the opportunity to conquer the Japanese islands, so I call you to ask for your opinion."
"Bowen, do you think we should give a small punishment to the Japanese monarchs and ministers?"
Liu Bowen felt that his scalp was numb. What kind of ecstasy soup did Li Jin give Zhu Yuanzhang to make Zhu Yuanzhang so swollen now?
You must know that the Japanese pirates are just some warriors wandering on the Japanese island, and they are already so difficult to deal with.
There were even millions of such warriors on the Japanese islands. Zhu Yuanzhang actually wanted to conquer the Japanese islands. This was really too crazy.
"Your Majesty, is it too early to discuss attacking Japanese islands?"
"Although the Japanese threat has been temporarily relieved, there are still millions of Japanese on the Japanese islands."
"If we really send troops to attack the Japanese island, I think it will be a waste of troops for the expedition, and there may even be an accident in the end."
"Compared with Japanese islands, they are isolated overseas and thousands of miles away from our country. If we really want to attack Japanese islands, just transportation and logistics will be a very difficult problem."
"I think it is enough to send an envoy to the Wadao Palace to reprimand. There is no need to mobilize troops and mobilize people and waste money."
Liu Bowen tried his best to keep his tone calm. After all, with such an arrogant idea, Liu Bowen only felt that Li Jin and Zhu Yuanzhang were too arrogant.
Before Zhu Yuanzhang could speak, Zhu Biao next to him spoke first:
"Master Liu, you don't understand Japan's national conditions, that's why you think this matter is ridiculous."
"If you understand the current situation of Japan Island, you won't be so surprised."
Liu Bowen's eyes instantly became confused. Could it be that something happened to Japan Island now?
But in the past few years, didn’t Japan Island send several waves of envoys to pay homage to the suzerain country of Ming Dynasty?
Before he could figure it out, Zhu Biao had already begun to explain:
"The current Japanese island is actually in chaos, similar to the Spring and Autumn Period in China, when hundreds of princes fought against each other."
"The lord of the Japanese island is just like the Emperor Zhou, who has lost the ability to dominate the Japanese island."
"As long as our army arrives, we will definitely defeat Japan."
"Without unified command, Japan Island is simply a mess."
Only then did Liu Bowen realize that the current Japanese island was just an empty shelf, of no use.
However, the Japanese island is so far away from the Ming Dynasty. Even if part of the territory of the Japanese island is captured and punished slightly, the Ming army will withdraw later.
After all, the cost of maintaining the Ming Dynasty stationed on the Japanese island is very huge. What good does this do to the Ming Dynasty?
Liu Bowen's doubts kept swirling in his mind. It wasn't until Zhu Yuanzhang spoke again that Liu Bowen realized that Zhu Yuanzhang had undergone earth-shaking changes.
