Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1172 Xuanwei Division

Apart from the problems in Yunnan, there are also problems in the surrounding areas of Yunnan.

The reason why the issues concerning chieftains and ethnic minorities in Yunnan are difficult to resolve is not only due to the particularity of the local ethnic structure and the Mu family's private indulgence over the years, but also due to the presence of several vassal states in the surrounding areas.

In terms of ethnic structure alone, the ethnic structures of the four vassal states of Burma, Siam, Laos and Annan are basically the same as those of Yunnan and the southwestern part of Guangxi. This is especially true for Burma, where the main ethnic group of the Burmese is the same as that of the ethnic minorities in Yunnan, but they are just called differently. Moreover, the chieftains and ethnic minorities in Yunnan have rebelled from time to time over the years, and many of these incidents have the shadow of the Burmese behind them. In other words, Burma is ostensibly a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact it has always been secretly trying to occupy Yunnan.

Over the years, Myanmar secretly supported the chieftains of Yunnan, instigating them to confront and even rebel against the Ming Dynasty court. In some cases, Myanmar even personally led troops to invade Yunnan, occupy Ming Dynasty's territory and plunder Ming Dynasty's people.

As for Siam, Laos and Annan, similar situations also occurred from time to time. Although the Ming Dynasty was nominally the suzerain state, this suzerain state was privately tricked by its own vassal states. How could this be tolerated?
Moreover, these countries are often extremely shameless. On the surface, they are respectful to the Ming Dynasty, but in fact they are constantly making small moves. Although they cannot cause much damage to the Ming Dynasty due to their national strength, they will pop up from time to time to cause trouble, instigating the chieftains in Yunnan, Guangxi and other places to rebel, and taking advantage of the Ming Dynasty's weakness to gain some benefits.

Once the Ming Dynasty became furious and made a stand to severely reprimand these countries, the rulers of these countries would immediately state that these things were not done by them at all, but were done privately by their ministers or local officials. Then they would find a few scapegoats to eliminate the Ming Dynasty's anger, and then send envoys to the Ming Dynasty to confess their crimes and say a few good words. In this way, the Ming Dynasty would save face and lightly cover the matter, and these countries would be safe and sound. After a few days of peace, they would repeat the same trick again when they had the chance.

The Ming Dynasty was founded nearly three hundred years ago, and such situations were everywhere, but the Ming Dynasty had no way to deal with these countries.

After all, these countries were nominally vassal states of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, due to the climate and topography in the southwest, even if the Ming Dynasty sent troops to attack these countries, the cost would outweigh the gain from a military, economic and other perspectives.

As early as the early years of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di successively set up Xuanweisi in Myanmar and Laos, actually incorporating the two countries into the ruling system of the Ming Dynasty. But this approach did not have any effect. Although the Ming Dynasty wanted to rule Yunnan at that time, the rulers of the two countries determined the ruling power in the name of Tusi and effectively ruled their territories, after all, the two countries were located too marginal. In addition, the court at that time even had a hard time ruling Yunnan, let alone the more distant Myanmar and Laos?

In this way, the so-called Burma Xuanwei Office and Laos Xuanwei Office were just a name. In fact, the Ming Dynasty had never really ruled these two countries effectively. Moreover, the position of Xuanwei envoys was changed from officials sent by the Ming Dynasty to the leaders of local chieftain regimes. As time went by, the so-called Xuanwei Office had long been in name only. Except for being nominally vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, the two countries had complete independence.

Not to mention Annan. As early as the Yongle period, the Ming Dynasty had occupied Annan and directly changed Annan to Jiaozhi, setting up three offices, fifteen prefectures, and governing thirty-six states and 181 counties, making this area completely under the control of the Ming Dynasty and making it an actual province.

But during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, due to the negligence and policy problems of the Jiaozhi Provincial Administration, a rebellion broke out in the area. The situation of the Ming Dynasty in Jiaozhi was not good at that time, and the imperial court was fighting the Mongols in the north, and could not mobilize enough troops to suppress the rebellion in the south. After several battles, not only did they fail to win, but they were defeated one after another. Xuanzong felt that it was too difficult to rule Jiaozhi effectively, and decided to make a strategic contraction. In addition, Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and others took the opportunity to make suggestions, which finally moved Xuanzong and decided to withdraw troops from Jiaozhi. As a result, the Jiaozhi Provincial Administration was abolished, Jiaozhi broke away from the actual rule of the Ming Dynasty, became independent again, and was renamed Annan.

The problems of these countries have always existed, and the Ming Dynasty had no way to solve them. Especially when Yunnan itself was unstable and the court did not really control all parts of Yunnan, there was no question of taking any action against these countries.

After gradually solving the problems of Jiannu in Liaodong and Mongolia, Zhu Shenzhui turned his attention to the south. When the Ming Dynasty was at its most prosperous, it not only set up Xuanweisi in Myanmar and Laos, but also turned Annan into a province of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the Ming Dynasty also set up Jiugang Xuanweisi in the Nanyang region, directly controlling the important sea route Malacca. Unfortunately, this administrative agency was taken over by Majapahit in the fifth year of Zhengtong, and Jiugang Xuanweisi existed in name only. In the eighth year of Zhengtong, Yingzong intended to restore the practice of sailing to the West during the Yongle period, preparing to build sea vessels and then send troops to control Jiugang and Malacca. Unfortunately, it was strongly opposed by the ministers in the court, and the matter was eventually left unresolved.

Now the Old Port Xuanwei Office has long disappeared. Initially, this area was occupied by the Portuguese who came to the Far East from Europe. However, more than ten years ago, due to the decline of Portugal's national strength and the fact that it was ruled by Spain at the time, the Dutch took advantage of the situation and a war broke out.

The Dutch and the Kingdom of Johor formed a coalition to attack Malacca, where the Portuguese were stationed. In the end, the Portuguese were defeated by the Dutch and the Kingdom of Johor and lost this important place. From then on, the Dutch became the masters of this important sea route. The Ming Dynasty has changed now. Under the control of Zhu Shenzhui, the Ming Dynasty began to develop outwards and focused on the development of the ocean.

As a great empire in the East, the Far East has always been the traditional sphere of influence of the Ming Dynasty. However, due to previous reasons, the Ming Dynasty lost the opportunity to enter the Age of Discovery early. Coupled with the contraction policy in the following hundred years, it gradually lost control of the South China Sea and the surrounding South Asian countries.

On the contrary, European countries crossed the ocean to the Far East, gradually conquered and occupied large tracts of territory in the South China Sea through the use of powerful ships and guns. They also set up the so-called East India Company to carry out effective management. They even set their sights on the Ming Dynasty, intending to conquer it by force and gain huge benefits.

These included the so-called military plan of the Spanish colonists to send troops to conquer the Ming Dynasty, the Fujian naval battle that broke out between the Ming Dynasty and the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Tianqi year, and the Battle of Xiaoliuqiu that just ended not long ago.

Although the Ming Dynasty won two wars with the Dutch, it did not actually really hurt the other side. Judging from the losses in the war, the losses of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in this war were not large, and were far from being a serious blow.

Moreover, the enemy's strength in Batavia is still strong, and they have occupied sea routes such as Malacca, blocking the important routes between the East and the West, which is equivalent to controlling the lifeline of the Asia and Europe routes.

The same is true for Spain. In terms of national strength, Spain is stronger than the Netherlands. The Netherlands and Spain have joined forces to divide Southeast Asia, and the two countries have reached a tacit understanding. On the contrary, the Portuguese, who came here first, have been devastated after losing Malacca. If it were not for Macau as a base and the Ming Dynasty as a backing, coupled with the political advantages gained after the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Ming Dynasty not long ago, I am afraid that the Portuguese would be driven out of East Asia by the Netherlands and Spain.

Zhu Shenzhu could not tolerate such a situation. How could the powerful Ming Dynasty allow the European countries to restrict themselves at their doorstep? Especially when these countries unscrupulously occupied the territories that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty and ruled them?

In Zhu Shenzhu's view, the South China Sea can only belong to the Ming Dynasty. All Southeast Asian countries are the traditional sphere of influence of the Ming Dynasty, and no one else is allowed to interfere. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty has been shrinking since Zheng He's voyages to the West, and has not set foot on the ocean for two hundred years. Although the Ming Dynasty still has a certain influence in Southeast Asia, this influence is no longer as strong as before. Even if some vassal states bow to the Ming Dynasty on the surface, their purpose is not pure. They just want to get some benefits from the Ming Dynasty under the guise of tribute, or use the Ming Dynasty to fight against European countries such as the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal.

Zhu Shenzhui had the intention to gradually restore the Ming Dynasty's ruling position in Southeast Asia, including the idea of ​​rebuilding the Jiugang Xuanwei Office, and even the re-establishment of the Burma Xuanwei Office and the Laos Xuanwei Office, as well as the plan to bring Annan back under the rule of the Ming Dynasty province.

But it is extremely difficult to achieve this. The re-establishment of the Jiugang Xuanwei Office is relatively better. After all, after integrating the Fujian Navy of the Zheng Group, the Ming Dynasty has established the Nanyang Navy on its basis. In addition, the Ming Dynasty has been building sea ships in recent years. The shipbuilding technology brought back from Europe by Wang Fuzhi and Zheng Hongkui, including Western craftsmen, played a lot of roles. However, the construction of ships and the composition of the fleet, including the formation of combat effectiveness and naval training, cannot be done immediately. This takes time. Zhu Shenzhui wants to use ten years or even longer to solve this problem, and then restore the Ming Dynasty's ruling position in Southeast Asia in one fell swoop and rebuild the Jiugang Xuanwei Office.

In addition, there are countries such as Myanmar and Laos, but it is more difficult to solve this problem. The most critical point is to solve the problem of Yunnan first. If the rear is not stable and even the Yunnan problem is not solved, the Ming Dynasty has no ability and no confidence to rebuild the Xuanwei Office of Myanmar and Laos. This is why Zhu Shenzhu summoned Mu Tianbo to the capital to meet this time, to deal with the Yunnan and Mu family problems first, and then deal with these countries.

Now, it seems that Mu Tianbo is still loyal to the court. If this is the case, it is possible to solve the Yunnan problem. The key to solving the Yunnan problem is to solve the local Tusi problem and find a way to change Tusi to officialdom. Only by doing this can Yunnan truly belong to the Ming Dynasty. Now, Zhu Shenzhu is doing this. This cannot be done directly, and can only be done step by step by other means. As for the follow-up, it depends on the situation in Yunnan.

(End of this chapter)