Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 486: Create a Great Cause with Me
Yingtian City was one of the best cities in the world in terms of both size and population. However, as soon as the King of Tang was taken to the Xiaoling Mausoleum by soldiers, the news had already reached those who should have known it.

Just as Zhu Cilang judged, this matter is not simple.

On the surface, it seems that he was first detained by Hongguang and then met two rebellious kings. It is reasonable that he did not have a good impression of the royal family. However, if we judge that the court has plans to reduce the power of the princes based on these things alone, it would be too much of an underestimation of the royal princes who have survived until now.

After all, Zhu Cilang has been as quiet as a virgin and as agile as a rabbit since he ascended the throne. Even if he wants to take action against someone, he will never reveal his tracks before the dust settles.

If he really wanted to reduce the power of the princes, he should have kept quiet at this time and only launched a thundering attack after everything was arranged. How could he openly reduce the salary and rice of the royal family?

The princes of the royal family who have survived to the present day are all above the average level, and they have varying degrees of understanding of this point.

Moreover, at this time, even the civil servants in the court did not dare to challenge the power of the emperor, while the royal family, which had always been in a weak position, secretly colluded and tried to put pressure on the court. If you say that there is no corruption behind this, I am afraid few people can believe it.

As the political center of the Ming Dynasty, Yingtian City was not short of smart people. After the news of the Tang King being trapped spread, those who looked at it superficially realized that people engaged in maritime trade must be closely related to this matter, while those who looked at it more deeply could not help but feel mixed emotions.

Among these five feelings are contempt, surprise, envy, and jealousy. In the end, all the emotions merge into one, which becomes fear that penetrates deep into the bone marrow.

Driven by this fear, the chief minister of the cabinet of the Jingwu Dynasty bravely came to the Qianqing Palace.

"Mr. Qian, you've come at the right time. I think the matter in Sichuan still needs to be considered carefully."

Qian Qianyi had just finished the ceremony when Zhu Cilang's question came over. After he gathered his thoughts, he told him the entire process of the cabinet's discussion.

While the battle of Hanzhong was going on, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Governor's Office had already begun to recover the lost territories in central Sichuan. After Hauge was defeated and retreated to Guanzhong, the progress of recovering the lost territories was accelerated with the assistance of Liu Wenxiu and other surrendered generals from the Dashi.

By this time, the Land of Abundance had become stable, and the road-building plan that had been set earlier had been implemented.

In Fan Yiheng's memorial, he proposed several plans for the court to choose from, and the cabinet unanimously agreed to widen the Jinniu Road from Sichuan to Hanzhong first.

The advantages of this choice are very obvious. First, this road has been gradually excavated since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the amount of work is much smaller than that of the other places. Second, Hanzhong's saltpeter and other minerals are urgently needed by the court. Once this road is widened, the cost of gunpowder and other materials can be reduced a lot.

It has to be said that this was a very appropriate choice. The ministers in the cabinet had never thought that His Majesty would have different opinions, so after explaining the whole process in detail, Qian Qianyi put his worries aside and waited for His Majesty to speak.

"The cabinet's proposal is mature and prudent, but I still think that we should first expand the ancient road from Yiwu to Chongqing."

Yiwu?

When Qian Qianyi heard the words, he was stunned for a moment, and then he recalled the location of this place in his mind.

Yiwu is a small town under the jurisdiction of the Cheli Xuanweishisi, and theoretically it is still within the borders of the Ming Dynasty.

This place surrendered to the Central Plains Dynasty since the third year of Yuanzhen in the Yuan Dynasty. In the following hundreds of years, it was either in turmoil or flirting with the Toungoo Dynasty of Burma. It was not until the thirteenth year of Wanli that civil strife broke out in Myanmar and Cheli returned to the Ming Dynasty.

However, due to the difficulty of traveling on the southwest roads, the Ming Dynasty's control over this area was extremely weak. In addition, the Tartars in the north continued to make trouble. During the Tianqi period, this area was taken away by Burma.

At this point, this place had been lost for twenty years, and no matter how you think about it, it should not be regarded as the starting point for opening up the road.

After thinking for a while, Qian Qianyi had some guesses in his mind.

just
"Your Majesty, please forgive me for speaking frankly. Burma should be severely punished for its disrespect to our Celestial Empire, but the Northern Expedition is about to begin, and there will be more to come."

Qian Qianyi had only said half of his words when he saw Zhu Cilang waving his hand. When he looked at his own emperor with a puzzled look on his face, he saw that the other party seemed to be thinking about something as well.

Zhu Cilang knew what Qian Qianyi was going to say.

Although the Ming Dynasty had completely taken the initiative in the war with the Qing Dynasty at this time, it still had a large territory to recover in the north, so it had to spend a lot of time to recover the lost territory.

If it were in the past, after doing all this, we might have been able to free up energy to punish the southwestern vassal state, but the benefits of maritime trade have already become apparent. No matter how you look at it, after recovering our homeland, we should focus on the sea, and there is no need to spend a lot of manpower and resources to conquer that small vassal state.

But Zhu Cilang’s vision is different from that of Mr. Qian after all.

He was well aware that although Britain and France had not yet completely established their foothold in Southeast Asia, the bases available for garrisoning troops had already extended from the coast to the interior of the southwestern countries.

If these countries were allowed to become colonies of Britain and France as they were later called, the Ming Dynasty would not be able to guarantee the real safety of this waterway even if it could control the Strait of Malacca.

By then, the neck of foreign trade would be strangled by someone, and even if the first industrial revolution occurred in the Ming Dynasty, it would be just a mirage.

Of course, he had no intention of sending troops to occupy the southwestern countries. Everything was just to ensure the safety of trade routes. However, the officials in the court could not understand such calculations, so he had to find other reasons.

"I understand what you mean. After conquering the north, we still have to control overseas. The court can't spare the energy to take care of that small country, Myanmar."

"Your Majesty is wise, this old minister does think so."

According to common sense, after Qian Qianyi finished speaking, he should either wait for his Majesty's next words or make additional explanations. However, as soon as he finished speaking, he seemed to have thought of something. He looked at the young man opposite him with some surprise, and then asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, are you worried about the maritime merchants?"

Ok?
Maritime merchant?

Aren't we talking about clearing the road? Why are we involving maritime merchants again?

After hearing Qian Qianyi's words, Zhu Cilang couldn't help feeling a little confused, but he always kept his emotions to himself when facing civil servants, so in the end he just looked at the other party indifferently.

"Your Majesty is indeed a wise ruler sent by God to our Ming Dynasty. I really admire you, I really admire you!"

After a strong flattery, Qian Qianyi told Zhu Cilang his thoughts about the King of Tang. At this time, Zhu Cilang's doubts were resolved, and he even felt that this young man was teachable.

In Qian Qianyi's view, it had only been half a year since the imperial court opened up overseas trade routes, but those maritime merchants already had the ability and courage to interfere in imperial affairs. If they were given enough time and space, it would be foreseeable that the imperial court's decision-making would be interfered with.

Will the Ming Dynasty still let merchants run the country? With this understanding, he boldly wanted His Majesty to impose certain restrictions on merchants, but who would have thought that while he only had a general idea, His Majesty had already thought of a specific solution.

Zhu Cilang didn't quite understand how Qian Qianyi's idea of ​​opening up the southwest road became a restriction on maritime merchants, but he was quite pleased that Mr. Qian could think of this.

In essence, with the development of maritime trade, some merchants will inevitably become multinational capital.

These people earn money from their own people, but have no sense of belonging to this country. Once a disaster occurs, the first thing they think of is how to profit from it.

In comparison, although the bureaucracy is also as evil as crows, the source of their wealth comes from the power granted by a powerful country. Even though there are many unscrupulous people in this group, their overall interests are closely tied to the country.

Such things happened frequently during the Warring States Period thousands of years ago. It was not until the birth of a unified dynasty that this force was gradually suppressed, and big businessmen who could influence the fate of a country rarely appeared in history.

However, for Zhu Cilang, throwing the baby out with the bathwater is not a good idea.

Although the bourgeoisie has various problems, its positive impact on the economy cannot be ignored. As long as the imperial court keeps a firm grip on industries related to national economy and people's livelihood, coupled with various restrictive measures, it will take a long time for the Ming regime to be completely controlled by these people.

"Mr. Qian is indeed a pillar of the country. He can see through the dangers of this kind. So I am thinking of expanding the ranks of officials to fight against merchants."

As soon as Qian Qianyi heard the words, a look of doubt immediately appeared on his face. He, the pillar of the country who had been smiling just a moment ago, was once again left behind by the Ming Emperor with his jumping thoughts.

However, this time Zhu Cilang did not keep him in suspense and began to explain with a serious face.

"Although we have tens of millions of officials in the Ming Dynasty, our control over the local areas is too weak. If the merchants develop their businesses, the imperial court will inevitably be at a disadvantage.
So I thought of incorporating all the clerks in the government offices at all levels into the bureaucratic system, and then setting up a low-level institution in the countryside.
If this method can be accomplished, then our Ming Dynasty will be able to reap the benefits of trade while not letting big merchants disrupt the government.
By then, let alone revival, even achieving a feat far surpassing that of the Han and Tang dynasties would be out of the question!"

As his words spread, a heroic spirit gradually emanated from Zhu Cilang, but his eyes kept scanning Qian Qianyi's face at this time, and it was unclear whether it was because of his emotional state or for some other reason.

"Lord Qian, are you willing to assist me in accomplishing this great cause?"

People live their lives either for fame or for profit.

When these words from Zhu Cilang reached Qian Qianyi's ears, this old minister who had been scheming for power all his life immediately prostrated himself on the ground.

"I, your Majesty, am willing to serve you till my death!"

Zhu Cilang did not expect that warning certain people would become an opportunity to drag Qian Qianyi into the pirate ship. After another in-depth discussion, this leader of the literati immediately betrayed his own class.

No one in Yingtian City knew about this incident, after all, the King of Tang was trapped only an hour or two ago.

At this time, everyone in Yingtian was paying attention to His Majesty's next move, and Zhu Cilang did not deliberately hide it in order to achieve the purpose of killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

When dozens of Jinyiwei dressed in Feiyu uniforms marched from various gates of Yingtian to various parts of the Ming Dynasty, everyone understood what the consequences of interfering in state affairs would be.

Honestly speaking, although the incident that happened to the King of Tang was not as serious as the conversation in the Qianqing Palace, its impact on the Ming court was also enormous.

If it were an ordinary time, this news would have been transmitted to Jiangbei through various channels at the fastest speed, and the Tartars would have had to spend some time to comprehend the deep meaning behind this matter.

But then again, Huai'an had just suffered a disastrous defeat, and the Qing court was not paying any attention to the matter.

After the defeat, Hong Chengchou and others in Huai'an had a detailed discussion. Although the changes that night left Lekede confused, the suggestions from the front line were eventually transmitted back to Beijing.

It is not difficult to imagine what Dorgon would look like when he saw the battle report, and what mixed feelings old Daishan would have.

After all, Dorgon paid a huge price to win a victory in Huai'an that seemed to turn the situation around on the surface; and while old Daishan was happy to see the former regent weakened, he was unwilling to see the Qing Dynasty fail.

As for that Jirgalang
Although this person was Hauge's spokesperson in the imperial court, his political skills were too poor and he was somewhat manipulated by the other side.

After Dorgon and Daishan discussed a strategy, they only informed him, and the order stamped with the emperor's seal was passed to Li Benshen as quickly as possible.

Earlier, he had suffered several defeats at the hands of the Ming army, and in the end he could only escape with a light cavalry.

According to what he originally thought, that was just to protect Gao Jie's wife and children, and he didn't think he could still lead the army in battle.

But who would have thought that the generals of the surrendered armies either died or fled, leaving him alone as the admiral. In order to control the surrendered troops, the Qing court had to pull him out again.

Of course, with the lessons learned in Jiangnan, the Qing court had a deeper understanding of the surrendered troops in Lianghuai and would no longer have any illusions about these people.

Therefore, even though Hong Chengchou and Lekedehun gathered 130,000 to 140,000 troops in Lianghuai, these people were still firmly stationed north of the Yellow River and Huai River during the battle in Huai'an. I think they were afraid that they would surrender as soon as the Ming army arrived.

But this time.
"Admiral, what does the court think? Why would they make such an arrangement?"

Looking at the military order in his hand, a sturdy man immediately complained to Li Benshen who was in the commander's seat.

This man's name is Bai Yongfu, and he is under Liu Zeqing's command.

Earlier, when the Qing army marched south, Liu Zeqing abandoned the main army and went directly to the sea, and Bai Yongfu became the actual commander of this town.

To be honest, he put up a lot of resistance before surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, but by then most of the troops had already surrendered, and Yangzhou, which controlled the ferry, did not hold out for more than two days. Under such circumstances, he lost the will to resist and immediately led his troops to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

"We can't care about the affairs of the court. Anyway, the military order has come down, and we just need to follow it. There are people watching in the army, can you still disobey orders?"

Looking at Bai Yongfu who was extremely puzzled, Li Benshen just said something lazily, then he waved to the soldiers outside the tent, and after the general's order was passed down, he retreated into his chair.

(End of this chapter)