All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 181 Going to Japan

"Your Highness, how many memorials do you read every day?"

"I'm not sure, but there are always several hundred copies."

Chen Ran smiled and said, "Aren't you tired?"

"Of course I'm tired." Zhu Biao stretched his body. "But there's nothing I can do. I have to take care of the people's affairs."

Chen Ran's next words were very impolite. "Your Highness, if you stay up until midnight every day like you do, not only will your hair fall out, but it will also drain your blood and lower your body's resistance. Once you get sick, you will easily die."

"You are such a person." Zhu Biao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Can't you expect me to order something good?"

"I'm saying this because it's for your own good." Chen Ran knocked on the table. "This is called honest advice that hurts the ear."

"Well then." Zhu Biao simply put down his red brush and said, "Do you have any good ideas?"

"There are two ways." Chen Ran raised two fingers. "The first way is to hand everything back. This is your Majesty's job. Let your Majesty do it yourself."

Zhu Biao looked up at the sky in silence. He was the executive vice emperor and if he wanted to become emperor, it would only take a word for him.

He volunteered to share the work with his old father, so how could he take it back?

"It seems that he is unwilling."

Chen Ran responded sternly, "That's the second way, find someone to help share the tedious, unnecessary work."

Without waiting for Zhu Biao to ask, he simply explained, "The current Ming Dynasty seems to have a system where the prime minister leads all officials. But since the Hu Weiyong case, the emperor has been thinking about abolishing the prime minister system."

Zhu Biao's heart moved slightly. His father had indeed mentioned this matter to him. He never thought that Chen Zihou also knew about it.

"Whether Li Shanchang was involved in this incident or not, the emperor will not let him go."

Chen Ran added, "Without Li Shanchang, it would be like the emperor himself serving as prime minister."

"Your Majesty has all the power, but the workload has increased significantly. The Ming Dynasty is so large, with hundreds or even thousands of memorials to the emperor every day, bringing countless things from all over the country. Your Majesty is the only one who has to review and sort out the arrangements. I don't think you will live past the age of forty."

Zhu Biao was speechless. His words and actions implied that he would die early. Couldn't he say something nice?
"My suggestion is to set up an agency to be responsible for the six ministries and even local government affairs."

"Ordinary work will be handed over to this agency. Only important work will be sent to His Highness for his review and decision. In this way, the workload can be reduced to about one-tenth."

Zhu Biao was obviously very interested.

After all, he was exhausted from working late every day all year round.

However, there is also great resistance to doing so. "I'm afraid it will be difficult to convince the emperor."

Zhu Yuanzhang’s thinking was very standard. What belongs to me is mine. I have finally gotten back power, so how could I give it up?

"Your Highness can pretend to be sick." Chen Ran gave a straightforward suggestion, "Just say that you are overworked and that too much work has affected your health."

"No, no." Zhu Biao waved his hands repeatedly. "Just be frank. How can I lie to my father? But if the agency that assists in handling government affairs does something wrong, it will be very difficult to deal with it."

"This is easy." Chen Ran's idea came up casually. "Set up another agency in the palace to supervise and review."

"The stakes are high."

Zhu Biao thought about it and said, "Please write a report, just like the one I wrote before about the compromise method."

"Oh, by the way, make another report and use it as a model. All future reports on government affairs from all over the country should be written according to this."

"I'm afraid that the scholars of the Ming Dynasty who only know how to read books won't be able to learn mathematics well." Chen Ran sighed, "Then I'll just do it reluctantly."

It's just making a report. This kind of thing is not difficult at all for him.

While they were busy working here, Zhu Yuanzhang had already raised his butcher knife.

All officials from prefectures, cities and counties who came to the capital to pay autumn taxes and grain, as long as they had documents with empty seals on them, were sentenced to death.

This killing amounted to hundreds of extremely terrifying people!
The civil officials in the court were all terrified. They really didn't expect the emperor to be so cruel. Those who were killed were all scholars and civil officials, not those peasants!

Li Shanchang appeared calm on the surface, but he was equally anxious in his heart.

He could guess most of Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions.

It's obvious that this is aimed at me!

Li Shanchang was good at analysis. He first analyzed the strength in his hands to see if it was enough to fight against the emperor.

The result was very disappointing. The civil service power in his hands seemed to be spread all over the world, but if he really went head-to-head with the emperor who held military power, he would be seeking death.

However, none of his old brothers in Huaixi, who also had military power, would support him.

There is no way. The King of Wu has given everyone wealth and glory, and now everyone is enjoying it. Who would risk the lives and property of their entire family to rebel with me?

In this case, there is no chance of winning if you try to resist head-on.

If you can't resist, then you can only surrender.

Surrender is not an easy thing, and others may not be willing to accept it.

There was no other choice but to ask for help from Empress Ma and Crown Prince Zhu Biao.

In this Ming Dynasty, there are only these two people who can persuade Zhu Yuanzhang.

There is no doubt that the first person Li Shanchang looked for was Empress Ma.

After all, they were all subordinates of Chuyang King Guo Zixing, and they were also subordinates of the eldest lady.

What is this? This is the love of incense.

In the past, Empress Ma would definitely help. After all, they were old brothers who had fought together for decades.

But this time is different.

This bunch of civil servants first harmed their eldest grandson and then themselves. Who knows, they will probably harm Chongba and Biaoer in the future!

Once it involves one's closest relatives, no matter how virtuous and generous a woman is, she cannot tolerate it.

As expected, Li Shanchang's request for an audience was rejected.

The palace ladies-in-waiting said that the Queen had just recovered from an illness and was not suitable to see guests.

After hearing this, Li Shanchang knew that this matter was serious.

He did not care about his age and hurried to the East Palace.

Zhu Biao was the most supported prince in history. This support came not only from Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, but also from his brothers, the military merit group, and civil officials.

The civil servants all support the Crown Prince. Your Highness the Crown Prince cannot just watch countless civil servants being slaughtered and say nothing, right?
But when he arrived at the East Palace, he only saw eunuchs.

The eunuch said, "Your Highness has gone to Songjiang Prefecture and will not be back soon."

Li Shanchang was confused. "What are you doing in Songjiang Prefecture?"

"I heard that he was going to inspect some shipyard to build a large ocean vessel."

"Hai, sea ship?!"

During the Yuan Dynasty, this was Huating Prefecture, with its seat in Huating County.

Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty and changed Huating to Songjiang, which belonged to Nanzhili.

The origin of the name is said to be "named after the Wusong River."

It is a rare occasion for the Ming Crown Prince Zhu Biao to leave Yingtian Prefecture and come here for inspection.

In the past, Zhu Yuanzhang would rarely allow Zhu Biao to leave Yingtian Prefecture, because someone who wants to be in charge of the world must always stay at the center of power in case of emergency.

But this time it was different. Zhu Yuanzhang was busy playing the good guy, so he let Zhu Biao hide away for a while, and then play the bad guy to win the hearts of the people when he came back.

"Is this the shipyard you were talking about?"

Zhu Biao looked at the river bank not far away. There were only a few sheds, a few fishing boats turned upside down on the ground, and a few strings of fishing nets full of holes on the wooden racks. It was a so-called shipyard. He was really disappointed. "Can this place build large ships that can go to sea? In my opinion, they can't even build slightly larger fishing boats."

The entire entourage chuckled in agreement, being very perceptive.

"Your Highness, you don't know." Chen Ran smiled and said with his hands behind his back, "The geographical environment here is very good. Not only is it close to the sea outlet, but there are also islands in the distance to block the wind and waves."

"The channel is deep enough and the water is smooth. It is convenient for transporting various shipbuilding materials by water."

"Another point is that there is not much farmland nearby, so there is no need to occupy farmland."

In the agricultural era, agriculture was everything.

Occupying farmland for industry is unacceptable in this era.

This may seem insignificant, but it is actually very important.

Zhu Biao frowned and asked seriously, "How much money and grain would it take to turn a place that can only build fishing boats into a place that can build large sea ships?"

"Not too much." Chen Ran raised a finger.

"Ten thousand taels?" Zhu Biao frowned immediately. "Isn't that too much?"

"What are you thinking about? It's 100,000 taels!" Chen Ran waved his hand. "Expand it into a large shipyard and build a batch of large sea vessels that can go to Japan. 100,000 taels is enough."

Zhu Biao was stunned. "One hundred thousand taels?!"

During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, not as much silver flowed in on a large scale as it would two hundred years later.

Silver is really valuable.

The price of goods during this period was only a few dozen coins for a dou of rice.

Even cutting a pound of meat only costs a few cents.

Chen Ran asked for one hundred thousand taels right away, and even Zhu Biao couldn't remain calm.

He simply pulled Chen Ran's sleeve and walked towards the shore. "Zihou, tell me honestly, does Japan really have so much rice, gold, silver, copper, sulfur and other things?"

"It's useless for me to say anything fancy about this kind of thing."

Chen Ran spread his hands and said, "We must see it with our own eyes to believe it."

"There are also people engaged in maritime trade in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas. The imperial court can first recruit some of them to form a fleet and go to Japan for trade to find out."

Hearing this, Zhu Biao was even more puzzled. "If that's the case, then why build large sea ships? Just requisition civilian ships directly."

Chen Ran turned his head and looked at him, his eyes as if he was looking at a sand sculpture.

"Your Highness, let's look at this problem from a different angle."

"If a foreign power sent a few civilian ships to take away all the gold, silver, copper, grain, etc. from the Ming Dynasty, would you be willing?"

"Who dares?!"

Zhu Biao suddenly became furious and said, "Who dares to threaten the Ming Dynasty? I will destroy their country and end their ancestral worship!"

It is true that the Ming Dynasty had the toughest diplomacy among all dynasties.

"Same reason. If we send civilian ships to Japan, we can only do some ordinary trade at best. How much money can we make?"

Chen Ran spread his hands. "If you want to make Japan surrender, use their own lives to fill the mines to dig gold, silver and copper for the Ming Dynasty, let their own people starve, and hand over the food to the Ming Dynasty, then you have to shoot a fleet composed of real sea ships to show military force!"

"I heard that." Zhu Biao still expressed his objection. "The Japanese country has a large territory, a large population, and is quite powerful. It is unacceptable for the Ming Dynasty to send troops to a long expedition across the sea to fight a war."

"I really am..." Chen Ran sighed repeatedly, "Your Highness! What books have you read all these years? Have you never read any military books?"

"Who told you that the Ming Dynasty would personally intervene? After showing its strength, of course it would sow discord and incite the local lords of Japan to fight each other, and even specifically oppose their imperial court."

"We sell our supplies in exchange for their gold, silver, copper and rice."

"Right, right." Zhu Biao suddenly realized, "A plot to sow discord."

"And it's not just Japan." Chen Ran pointed to the south. "There are many overseas countries. The Ming Dynasty has a fleet of large sea vessels, so it can spread its national prestige abroad. Establish tribute relations, and all nations will come to pay tribute~~~"

That being said, Chen Ran paid more attention to economic benefits and cultural penetration, until the final transformation of the local area into "Since ancient times~~~"

He doesn't care about the nations coming to pay tribute to him.

The original intention was to advance the voyage to the West.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao should forget about it. Let's see if there is a chance to teach Zhu Xiongying well, make him keen on expanding the territory, and then enfeoff generations of princes overseas.
He was still imagining the future in his mind, when the Ming Dynasty would become the Empire on which the sun never sets.

Zhu Biao simply said, "This matter is too big, I can't make a decision on my own. If you want to convince your father, you have to let him see the actual benefits."

"How about this." He simply instructed Chen Ran, "Zihou, take a few civilian ships and go to Japan."

Chen Ran'(°ー°〃)'

(End of this chapter)