The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 638

In the seventh month of Meng Ji's mission to the Yarkand Khanate, the rest of the delegation fled back to the Ming Dynasty and reported Meng Ji's death to the court and to the Jiajing Emperor.

"Your Majesty, the Yarkand Khanate simply doesn't respect our Great Ming Dynasty. Our Great Ming Dynasty is a superior nation with glorious imperial power. They actually killed Lord Meng. This action is undoubtedly a declaration of war against the Great Ming Dynasty."

Upon hearing this news, Wang Xian was the first to step forward and deliver a passionate speech in the imperial court.

Everyone knew that Meng Ji would definitely die in the Yarkand Khanate. As for why he was killed, that was none of your business, and no one would be so tactless as to ask that question.

The answer is that the Yarkand Khanate is ungrateful and killed our Ming Dynasty envoy, intending to declare war on our Ming Dynasty.

In fact, during the six months that Meng Ji spent in the Yarkand Khanate, he didn't do anything too outrageous. He was a gentleman in his daily life and couldn't do many things. In order to achieve his goal, Meng Ji asked the Khan of the Yarkand Khanate for fine wine and beautiful women every day. After getting drunk, he would start to spout nonsense and curse anyone he could find.

If it had only been this, the Khan of the Yarkand Khanate would have tolerated it. But when Meng Ji saw that he could not achieve his goal, he began to fabricate stories about the Yarkand Khanate, and even fabricated stories about the Queen Mother. In short, he said some very unpleasant things. When these words reached the Khan's ears, how could he tolerate them?

If the Yarkand Khanate had been able to accurately assess the strength of the Ming Dynasty at this time, they would have had no choice but to endure it. However, the problem was that the Ming Dynasty's strength had risen too suddenly, in just a few years. The Yarkand Khanate did know that the Ming Dynasty had driven some of the Mongols from their east to their territory and conquered others.

However, the Khan of the Yarkand Khanate felt that the Mongols were not on the same level as the Mongols in his country. Moreover, he felt that his country was so far away from the Ming Dynasty that the Ming Dynasty would not waste its national strength to attack him.

It should be understood that the Ming Dynasty's deployment of troops to Wuhai alone, with its long supply lines, would be enough to deplete the Ming Dynasty's resources.

At least that's what the Khan of the Yarkand Khanate thought.

Therefore, he simply thought that Meng Ji's constant provocations were insane, daring to be so arrogant on his own territory.

In the imperial court, everyone looked at Wang Xian. No one was surprised that Wang Xian was the first to step forward. Wang Xian had been waiting for this day for a long time. The railway on the grassland had been completed for nearly two months, and the trains had been running for a long time. He was just waiting for the news of Meng Ji's death to reach the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, it wasn't just Wang Xian; many people couldn't wait any longer. After all, most people in high positions are around sixty years old, and Yang Yiqing is already seventy-four.

If it weren't for the news about the train a year and a half ago, which made Yang Yiqing realize that the Ming Dynasty was about to undergo tremendous changes, he probably would have applied to the Jiajing Emperor for retirement by then. After all, he was too old. Although he was still in good health, it wouldn't be good to refuse to retire when he was over seventy.

However, when Yang Yiqing learned about the train, he changed his mind. He originally planned to wait until the train was running before making a decision. After the train officially started running, not only were the Ministry of War officials like Wang Xian excited, but also high-ranking officials like Yang Yiqing who were quite old.

They were very happy, very happy that they had lived long enough, otherwise they would never have lived to see this situation.

When the train officially started operating, they felt like they had never seen anything like it before. The train was so shocking that it made them realize that the future territorial expansion of the Ming Dynasty would no longer be limited by food and supply lines, and would be greatly enhanced, far surpassing the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Furthermore, with the Ming Dynasty's treasury now overflowing with money, so much so that it doesn't know what to do with it, and the people living in prosperity, the Ming Dynasty is about to enter an unprecedented peak in its history.