Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 294: Ming's New Foreign Policy
On the first day of the first lunar month in the spring of the 19th year of the Zhengde reign, Zhu Houzhao came to the Fengtian Hall to receive New Year congratulations from his civil and military officials.

According to tradition, at this time, as the emperor, he would give money to his ministers to celebrate the festival.

But before the Zhengde Dynasty, this practice of "giving out year-end bonuses" was basically just a formality.

After all, before the Zhengde Dynasty, the empire's finances were not abundant. It was not enough to provide disaster relief and maintain the army, so the spare money was used to give out "year-end bonuses"!
Moreover, in order to save costs, Jiaozhi must not be abandoned.

Therefore, the so-called giving of money for festivals were nothing but worthless treasures, just for the sake of good luck.

Officials are also human beings, so they naturally value these superficial benefits. As the rewards bestowed by the court become increasingly meager, it is natural that they will become alienated from the court, and even engage in corruption, bribery and other benefits in secret.

Now, since the empire's finances have become abundant, Zhu Houzhao no longer allows this New Year's money-giving ceremony to become a mere formality, but instead uses it as a ceremonial system to reward officials.

The money given was naturally all in silver dollars, and the amount was not small, equivalent to three or even five times the monthly salary of many officials.

The court officials now also began to value this reward money. After all, it was three to five times their monthly salary, hundreds or thousands of silver dollars, enough to buy a villa in Xiaoshiyongfang, Xuanwumenli Street.

Some officials who performed well throughout the year were naturally more proud, especially when some local county officials who had outstanding political achievements were placed in the center of the hall for the first time to receive awards and rewards from the emperor. For them, this was enough to give them more confidence to uphold their duty of serving the people.

"Although the law is ruthless, the heaven is kind," this is what Zhang Cong felt at this time.

When Emperor Zhu Houzhao ordered people to carry boxes of silver dollars to the Fengtian Hall and open them, the silver dollars stacked in the boxes made his and the officials present's eyes light up involuntarily. But perhaps because of their status, these officials did not want to show too much and just lowered their heads, but their hands, which had nowhere to put, clearly revealed their excitement.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh to himself when he saw this. He had to admit that although the officials in the court were all wearing exquisite official uniforms embroidered with birds and beasts, and although they were all wealthy, when they saw the silver dollars, the excitement they showed was no different from that of robbers.

Zhu Houzhao didn't believe it. These court officials didn't know that these silver dollars all came from the empire's four major overseas plundering companies, namely the Infrastructure Bureau, the Grain Bureau, the Imperial Maritime Trade Corporation, and the World Investment Bank, which were plundered from overseas colonies.

Even in this magnificent hall, Zhu Houzhao could still smell the blood on the silver dollar.

However, at this time, no official would stand up and say that this money was taking away from the people, and no one would say that it was ill-gotten gains.

"The Emperor has bestowed upon Yan Song, the Minister of Agriculture, a reward of five times his monthly salary, one thousand silver dollars, for his remarkable success in promoting sweet potatoes and potatoes, which has helped to alleviate the famine in Southern Zhili and has enabled three million acres of mountainous land to produce grain."

The eunuchs began to call out the names at this time, and some officials began to listen attentively, all hoping that they would get the best reward in the Ministry of Personnel's year-end evaluation.

When Yan Song heard that he was the first, he prostrated himself on the ground in excitement: "Thank you, Your Majesty! Thank you, Your Majesty! I am so worthy of this honor. All this is thanks to Your Majesty!"

"Stand up, you have been very effective in promoting sweet potatoes, this is what you deserve, there is no need to do such a big gift!"

Zhu Houzhao looked at Yan Song helplessly. He wanted to blame him but couldn't do it with all his heart. After all, it was hard to get angry with a minister like Yan Song who was willing to put aside his dignity and be servile to him.

One after another, the names of other officials with outstanding performance were called. Although not all of them were as excited as Yan Song, they all thanked Zhu Houzhao sincerely.

These officials may not care about the amount of money itself, after all, many of them are wealthy, but the real gold and silver bestowed by the emperor is naturally more decent. After receiving it in their hands, all the officials wish to devote themselves to the Ming Dynasty.

After giving money during the Spring Festival, Zhu Houzhao would also give a banquet.

According to past examples, the banquet would be waived.

Because, according to the Confucian officials, wise rulers should reduce the number of banquets and advocate frugality to avoid increasing palace expenses.

However, Zhu Houzhao's purpose was to promote the consumer market in the Ming Dynasty. He also wanted to use the opportunity of the banquet to cultivate the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, and to give an official who came to Beijing to be commended a chance to contact him, which would also make it easier for him to understand the people's livelihood, so he did not cancel the banquet.

While giving the banquet, Zhu Houzhao would also solemnly extend New Year greetings to all the people of the Ming Empire as the emperor of the empire, in order to enhance the feeling of joy between the monarch and the people.

It’s a pity that there was no radio technology or television media in that era, and Zhu Houzhao’s New Year’s greetings could basically only appear on the front pages of major newspapers and magazines in the capital of the Ming Dynasty the next day.

Despite this, Zhu Houzhao's New Year's message has been an essential ritual for the imperial New Year since the tenth year of Zhengde. The messages are basically written by great talents in the attendant room such as Tang Bohu and Wen Zhengming. They are brilliant and easy to understand.

The literati liked to carefully study Zhu Houzhao's congratulatory messages every New Year, hoping to find out some new developments in the court.

The common people just felt comfortable listening to it. After all, it was the emperor who congratulated them, and there were many so-called New Year goals, which made the entire empire, from the top to the bottom, seem more humane. As a result, the common people's numbness and indifference were reduced a lot, and they began to pay attention to the court.

However, this also caused a phenomenon that Emperor Zhu Houzhao's presence among officials and the people became stronger and stronger, so that Emperor Zhu Houzhao's prestige also became higher and higher. After all, if a person often shows up in front of another person to make his presence felt, the other person will remember this person over time.

This is the case with the Ming Dynasty today. Officials and common people all over the world know that the Ming Dynasty has a great emperor who will lead all the people of the Ming Dynasty to create a prosperous era. The Ming Dynasty has an emperor who is admired by everyone.

Zhu Houzhao did not expect that he would have the glory of a leader in the Ming Dynasty, but he knew that he was not a leader, he was just doing what he should do.

However, Xu Jie, the newly crowned third place scholar sitting on his right, did not look at Zhu Houzhao in this way. In his opinion, the wine, yogurt, even the glass goblets and beef stew with potatoes on his table were all there because of the emperor in front of him.

In his opinion, the emperor in front of him obviously possessed knowledge and experience that people like him did not have.

Of course, what made Xu Jie even more fortunate was that, because he was among the top three in the palace examination, he had the opportunity to dine in the same room with the Emperor with other officials who had performed well in the examination, and he could even see the Emperor's face clearly.

Zhu Houzhao hoped that the Ming Dynasty could become an open and ambitious empire. Toughness was the characteristic of the Ming Dynasty, but if it could surpass the Han and Tang dynasties during its heyday, continue to promote and improve Chinese civilization, and turn the empire into an empire with romantic feelings and splendid splendor, it would naturally be a better thing, and it would also make up for the regret that Chinese civilization was interrupted after the Song Dynasty.

Because of this, Zhu Houzhao did not restrain his ministers during the New Year's banquet, but allowed these civil and military officials to recite poems and compose essays to demonstrate their talents in literature and art, and Zhu Houzhao himself even made a contribution.

New officials such as Xu Jie wanted Emperor Zhu Houzhao to know their talents and appreciate them, so they were quite active. However, they were greatly influenced by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and there were few people who could write poems like Li Bai and Du Fu and lyrics like Su Shi and Xin Qiji, so it was difficult to produce any masterpieces for a while.

Zhu Houzhao was not discouraged by this. He believed that under his leadership as emperor, the empire would not lose the inherent beauty of Chinese civilization while industrializing.

The Kunqu opera, which has recently become popular, came from the stage.

Zhu Houzhao just smiled slightly as he looked at the officials below who were infatuated. He didn't know how these people would feel if they knew that there were movies in this world, but what he knew now was that when Cui Yingying and Zhang Gong on the stage secretly got married without their parents' knowledge, some Confucian officials were still quite annoyed. They just poured wine into their mouths, obviously unable to accept the rebellious behavior of the hero and heroine in The West Chamber.

However, some officials who were loyal to the party kept clapping and cheering. This play, which only appeared in the late Ming Dynasty in history and advocated the spirit of resisting feudal ideas, began to resonate with these officials whose ideas had begun to change after it appeared today.

……

After the New Year of the 19th year of Zhengde, the first thing that happened to the Ming Dynasty was that King Yi Gye of Korea sent his ministers, Cui Chonghong, the Minister of Rites, and others to pay tribute to the court.

of course.

Naturally, it was impossible for the Korean envoys to meet Zhu Houzhao directly at the beginning. They were usually received by the Ministry of Rites and arranged to stay in Huitong Hall.

The Ministry of Rites would then report this to Zhu Houzhao, who would give banquets and gifts as per custom. He would generally not let the envoys to the Ming Dynasty suffer any loss, and would even allow their companions to trade with the people of the Ming Dynasty at designated locations.

The same was true for Choi Chong-hong and other Korean envoys. Once they arrived in the capital, they stayed in Huitong Hall and waited for the court to allow them to trade with nearby people and meet with high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Rites, the cabinet, and even the emperor.

The first person to meet Cui Chonghong was Xi Shu, the Left Vice Minister of Rites, because he was in charge of the Chief Guest Department.

Xi Shu naturally had a headache regarding these tribute envoys, because he knew that none of them were well-behaved and honest people. They were all greedy and wanted to gain some benefits. Some even took advantage of their status as foreign envoys to oppress the people.

As a court official, Xi Shu sometimes could not be too polite to these foreign envoys for fear of being accused of damaging the state, but he did not dare to be too harsh to these foreign envoys for fear of causing disputes between the two countries and being accused of ignoring the overall situation.

Therefore, Xi Shu could only try his best to maintain a neither humble nor arrogant attitude, and said to Cui Chonghong: "I have reported to the cabinet that your envoy has come to pay tribute. You can stay in Huitong Hall for the time being, and you will have corresponding news when the time comes!" Xi Shu was about to leave Huitong Hall after he finished speaking, but at this time, Cui Chonghong stopped Xi Shu: "Wait a minute, sir! I, Cui, have come to pay tribute to the Celestial Empire in accordance with the decree of my king. I am not only coming to pay tribute in exchange for rewards, but also hoping to meet His Majesty the Emperor of the Celestial Empire! This is a little gift from Cui, please accept it!"

Cui Chonghong took out a large-denomination silver dollar bill. Seeing this, Xi Shu angrily threw his sleeves and said, "What do you think of me as an official of the Celestial Empire? I will pretend that this incident never happened. Otherwise, if the people of the East Factory Inspectorate find out, even if you are an envoy of Korea, you will be beheaded and skinned alive!"

The Ming Dynasty had just cracked down on corruption and bribery, so Xi Shu naturally did not dare to accept benefits from the Korean envoy at this time. Moreover, he knew that the emperor had announced that the Ming Dynasty had extraterritoriality. All foreigners who committed crimes in the Ming Dynasty would be punished according to their own laws, and if he accepted bribes from foreigners, he would naturally be punished according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty.

Cui Chonghong had previously inquired about the personalities of the high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty. In his impression, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Xi, liked silver dollars, but he did not expect that Xi would actually refuse to accept his silver dollar bills. He could not help but be very surprised: "How could the administration of the Ming Dynasty become so clean and honest now?"

After Xi Shu left Huitong Hall, he never saw Cui Chonghong again, and Cui Chonghong and other Korean envoys had to continue living in Huitong Hall.

However, Zhu Houzhao did receive a report from Kang Hai on the handling of the tribute from Korean envoys.

According to Kang Hai's idea, it was customary to give these Korean envoys some silk fabrics, etc., and also to give them a banquet to entertain them.

But Zhu Houzhao did not want to implement this tribute system anymore. Sometimes he did not understand why in this era, the Ming Dynasty was obviously a powerful empire, but it was like a weak country and was willing to suffer losses in some interests. Was it just for the sake of good neighborliness?

But friendship is not that friendly. In Zhu Houzhao's view, as a powerful empire, not destroying you is already the greatest friendship. But there is no need to let yourself suffer losses and use money to exchange for harmony in the surrounding environment.

Because in this case, it is the interests of your own people that are lost, and the peace of your own people does not require you to use money to buy it from a weak small country.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao intended to reform the tribute system that emerged under the guidance of Confucianism. He did not need the empty title of having all nations come to pay tribute.

"Your Majesty, are you saying that you want to reform the tribute system?"

When Kang Hai heard Zhu Houzhao's purpose, he was surprised, because the tribute system had been implemented for more than a hundred years, and he had never thought that the tribute system needed to be changed.

Zhu Houzhao nodded.

Kang Hai didn't know whether he should oppose or support. He knew that his Majesty was different from Emperor Xiaozong. He never waited for the civil officials to propose reform suggestions and then decided whether to change them. Instead, the emperor himself proposed reform opinions and the ministers under him then raised objections or support.

Kang Hai was fortunate that His Majesty the Emperor could tolerate different opinions when it came to matters involving government reform, and even had the patience to communicate with his ministers until the most perfect plan was agreed upon.

But this also forced officials to think proactively about why the emperor wanted to reform a certain policy.

Such as now.

Kang Hai had to start thinking about why the emperor wanted to abolish the tribute system. He could not directly ask Emperor Zhu Houzhao why he wanted to reform the tribute system, because doing so would make the emperor look down on him, thinking that he was just sitting in an office doing nothing and not seeing the drawbacks of the tribute system.

Of course, precisely because there was an emperor who always asked his ministers to think about the rationality of the empire's existing system, Kang Hai also had to think about the empire's government-related systems from time to time. He also thought about the pros and cons of this government system, instead of following the convention and completing it step by step.

Now Kang Hai could guess that the Emperor Zhu Houzhao wanted to abolish the tribute system simply because the Ming Dynasty was actually at a disadvantage in this system. Basically, the Ming Dynasty had to spend a lot of money to entertain these delegations and give gifts.

However, after abolishing the tribute system, Kang Hai had no idea how to communicate with these foreign vassal states.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty was the suzerain state and could not ignore these foreign vassal states. Moreover, the safety of these foreign vassal states would also affect the safety of the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty, I would like to ask, after the tribute system is abolished, what should be done with these tribute-paying people? Also, how should the Ministry of Rites be contacted?"

Kang Hai asked.

"There are two types. If they are vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, they are equivalent to our running dogs. They can come to pay tribute, but they must sign a tribute treaty!
For example, the Kingdom of Korea could pay tribute once every three years, calculated based on the population size, with each person paying one silver dollar as tribute. Then, every three years, the Kingdom of Korea should pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty with silver dollars equal to the number of its population. Of course, the tribute silver dollars could be mortgaged with territorial lease rights, mining rights, and the right to collect tariffs!

Of course, Korea will also need to provide the Ming Dynasty with their population statistics every three years! The Ming Dynasty does not need to give gifts to Korea anymore, the Ming Dynasty will only guarantee them three years of peace! "

"If they are not vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, there is no need for them to pay tribute. However, they will also be regarded as enemy states by the Ming Dynasty. I will not allow the existence of an empire equal to the Ming Dynasty! The Ming Dynasty will not be responsible for the security of their countries!"

Zhu Houzhao said.

Kang Hai was shocked when he heard this, and he calculated in his mind: "The tribute is paid once every three years. If the vassal state pays one silver dollar per person, the number of silver dollars paid is equal to the population. It is estimated that Korea alone will have to pay millions of silver dollars as tribute. Millions of silver dollars is a huge sum of money for the Ming Empire, and it is even more of a huge sum for Korea!"

Therefore, Kang Hai could not help but say: "Your Majesty, this will place a huge burden on the vassal states. I am afraid that they will no longer be willing to recognize the Ming Dynasty as their suzerain."

"Then there is no need for the Ming Dynasty to protect them, nor is there any need to respect their territory and sovereignty," Zhu Houzhao said.

Kang Hai had no choice but to ask:

"As your majesty said, if this is the case, how should we deal with matters involving the diplomatic relations between the two countries? Does the Ming Dynasty still need to send envoys to summon them?"

"For those who are willing to establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty or recognize the Ming Dynasty as their suzerain, I can let them rent a house in the imperial capital as an embassy. Before breaking off diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, the country's embassy can continue to exist. They can send officials to the embassy to communicate with the Ming Dynasty! Of course, I will also send an ambassador to establish an embassy in that country!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, Kang Hai fell into confusion and thought again. It was the first time he heard the word "embassy", but he could understand it. He only asked: "May I ask your Majesty, is this embassy provided with protection and money by us?"

"Of course not, it is provided by their own countries," Zhu Houzhao said. He would never let the embassies of various countries in the future be like the Huitongguan now, where the Ming court would take care of the food, drink, and defecation of these envoys from various countries. Although most of the money of the Ministry of Rites came from the earnings of the Jiaofangsi, it could not be wasted.

Kang Hai asked a few more questions and left Xiyuan only after he had thoroughly understood Zhu Houzhao's intentions. At this time, the lights were already on, and students from the Imperial University of Peking began to climb over the walls of the mansions of various dukes and marquises to have secret meetings with certain young ladies. However, Kang Hai did not go home, but went directly to the cabinet, thinking about how to complete the task that the emperor had asked him to do to reform the tribute system.

The next morning, when Kang Hai woke up at his desk, Xi Shu, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Rites, found Kang Hai and reported to him that the Korean envoy Cui Chonghong intended to bribe him. The reason why Xi Shu reported this to Kang Hai was naturally that he was worried that he would be impeached for taking bribes in the future, so he wanted to have a superior to testify for him that he did not take bribes.

"This Cui Chonghong! He actually dared to bribe our imperial officials. He is deliberately corrupting the administration of our Ming Dynasty! However, this also shows that he has other intentions! But we can't control him now. Now, His Majesty intends to reform the tribute system of our Ming Dynasty;
But now, the Minister of Rites Ouyang Dan is recovering from illness, so you and the officials of the Ministry of Guests should immediately draft a new system of tribute and diplomatic relations of the Ming Dynasty. When the time comes, after I and Your Majesty approve it, we will submit it to the Hanlin Academy and record it in the Ming Dynasty Code! "

After Kang Hai finished speaking, he explained in detail the new foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty to Xi Shu, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites.

Xi Shu was very surprised after hearing this: "Prime Minister! This, this, this is too overbearing. I am afraid that the foreign vassal states will no longer be willing to recognize the Ming Dynasty as their suzerain state. Wouldn't your majesty's great cause be ruined in an instant?!"

"Your Majesty, how could you cut short your own great cause? Your Majesty is a great emperor that is hard to come by in the history. His strategies are naturally far more far-reaching than you and me. If these foreign vassals were supported by the Ming Dynasty as they are now, they would only respect the Ming Dynasty on the surface, but would not be afraid in their hearts. They would even devour the territory of the Ming Dynasty if they had the chance. When Korea was previously called Goryeo, didn't it intend to nibble away at the Liaodong area?"

"Now, in order to prevent the foreign vassal states from becoming powerful and threatening our Ming Dynasty in the future, we can only cut off their chances of rising first!"

After Kang Hai finished speaking, he asked Xi Shu to draft a new system of tribute and diplomatic relations.

Xi Shu knew that he was only a third-rank left vice minister of the Ministry of Rites and had no right to question the court's new policies, so he just obediently wrote according to Kang Hai's wishes.

Three days later.

Kang Hai formally submitted the new foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty to the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao was very satisfied after reading it, so he asked the other two cabinet ministers to take a look. But at this time, Zhang Cong said, "Your Majesty, I suggest that if a country recognizes the Ming Dynasty as its suzerain, then when it recognizes another country as its suzerain, it should also increase the tribute to the Ming Dynasty when it recognizes the other country as its suzerain. Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty can regard the vassal state as a betrayal of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Houzhao agreed very much after hearing this, and hurriedly ordered Kang Hai to add it. He thought that if a vassal state such as Korea really surrendered to Japan or other countries, then when granting privileges and treatment to Japan and other countries, the same privileges and treatment must be granted to the Ming Dynasty.

Looking at the newly released foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao believed that this was the beginning of the modern diplomacy of the Ming Dynasty, and the diplomatic history of the Ming Dynasty was destined to open a new chapter. It would no longer be the gentle and benevolent diplomatic style of the agricultural civilization period, but a diplomatic style that put national interests first.

(End of this chapter)