Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 319 Your Majesty is the Heaven of the Ming Dynasty

In any case, under the influence of the court's policies, no matter how attached the miners inside the Great Wall were to their native land, they would eventually have to move far outside the Great Wall.

Unlike Zhang Cong who levied heavy mining taxes within the Great Wall and was criticized, Xia Yan's tax reduction and exemption policies outside the Great Wall were naturally praised.

Influenced by Village Chief Huang, Jiang Nan from Cangzhou also came to Mobei. At this time, he had successfully borrowed 100,000 silver dollars and contracted a large open-pit coal mine in Mobei.

However, Jiang Nan discovered that many government-run coal mines outside the Great Wall were already using steam engines for mining. For this reason, he could not help but express his idea of ​​using steam engines for production to Governor Fan Da of Mo Nan at a business meeting chaired by the Governor. After all, steam engines have high production efficiency and do not require too much manpower, which can solve the problem of difficulty in recruiting workers due to the low population density outside the Great Wall.

Governor Fan Da of Mo Nan directly conveyed the imperial decree issued by Xia Yan from the cabinet, expressing his willingness to once again provide low-interest loans to merchants such as Jiang Nan who came to open mines outside the Great Wall to purchase steam engines.

Merchants like Jiang Nan who came to open mines outside the Great Wall were naturally even happier, and their enthusiasm for doing business and opening mines outside the Great Wall was much higher.

In short, under the influence of the court's policy of tightening inside and loosening outside, more and more people from inside the Great Wall migrated to outside the Great Wall, the land utilization value outside the Great Wall also increased, and the people who came to outside the Great Wall also earned a considerable income under the preferential policies of the court. The wealth of these people outside the Great Wall also stimulated more and more people from inside the Great Wall to flock to outside the Great Wall.

Although many places outside the Great Wall have become bitterly cold due to the cooling temperature, more and more Han people have begun to settle outside the Great Wall under the temptation of money, and gradually gathered into towns. And because of the bitter cold outside the Great Wall, the Han people's living and lifestyles are also quietly changing.

The people inside the Great Wall brought more new elements from inside the Great Wall to the outside.

The brick and tile houses, which were more warm, became the most popular residential buildings for the people outside the Great Wall. The richer families would even install glass to keep out the cold. The honeycomb coal and clay stoves that had emerged in the capital also began to become popular outside the Great Wall.

After commerce led to the emergence of market towns, the nomadic lifestyle was gradually replaced. Many people began to sit around the fire and look for work in the market towns in their spare time, just like the people in the towns in the south of the Yangtze River.

Only active and prosperous production activities can allow the dynasty to rule this region for a long time; otherwise, the dynasty will have no foundation to rule this region.

Today, in order to effectively and long-term rule over the areas outside the Great Wall, such as the southern and northern deserts, the Ming Dynasty used the administrative capabilities of the state apparatus to transform many areas outside the Great Wall into areas of prosperous commercial and production activities, which naturally enabled the Ming Dynasty to effectively rule these areas.

Even though the imperial court gave up a lot of benefits and lowered the tax rate to a very low level in order to prosper the mining market outside the Great Wall, the annual tax revenue outside the Great Wall was enough to support a powerful army that could intimidate the Western Oirat and the Northeastern Jurchen tribes.

Moreover, it provided a foundation for people's livelihood outside the Great Wall, and the troops stationed outside the Great Wall and their affiliated families also had a basis for survival outside the Great Wall.

Because the area outside the Great Wall was virgin land, the political system established there was the most progressive, reasonable and comprehensive. After all, there was no need to reform the old things, only to copy them directly.

However, the increasingly cold weather not only affected agricultural production outside the Great Wall, but also commercial trade, making the transportation of goods more difficult. Fortunately, with the emergence of the cement industry, the impact of the drop in temperature on commercial trade was reduced to a minimum. In winter, officials who already had certain scientific management knowledge also began to organize workers to use industrial salt to melt snow and clear roads.

"This is really unimaginable. In previous years, this place was still a vast grassland. In winter, heavy snow covered the entire field. The cattle and sheep had to be slaughtered to prevent them from losing weight, and people could only hide in the sheds and dared not come out. Now, even in such a heavy snowy day, there are still the roar of machines in the mining area, and many workers are pulling coal on the cement road while breathing hot air. With more people, there are more fat cattle and sheep to eat, and there is no need to worry about not being able to sell the slaughtered cattle and sheep!"

Yan Song, the Minister of Agriculture who came to the northern border to promote the planting of potatoes, a more cold-resistant crop, couldn't help but say something when he saw the people still entering and leaving Guihua City (Hohhot) in the snow and ice. As a high-ranking official of the court, he was naturally willing to see this scene. After all, this was a symbol of long-term stability.

At this time in the court, the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao and the cabinet officials no longer paid attention to the affairs outside the Great Wall.

For Zhu Houzhao and the top officials of the empire, revitalizing the economy outside the Great Wall and freeing the court from having to pay huge costs to support the army was already a declaration of success for the entire strategy. How the area outside the Great Wall would develop next was no longer the focus of the empire.

The focus of the empire is still the south and the ocean.

In the next two to three hundred years, the ocean will be the focus of competition for interests among countries and the cradle of the rise of various countries.

The Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao understood this truth.

The enlightened ministers who followed Zhu Houzhao had also realized this problem because they had tasted the sweetness of maritime trade.

Zhu Houzhao did not know what kind of suffering the officials he sent overseas to colonize had brought to the local natives, but he knew that if he wanted to get rid of the suffering of the Ming Dynasty, the suffering of being plundered and exploited had to be passed on to these natives.

"Outside the Great Wall, we can only develop mining and animal husbandry. Apart from that, we can build roads and factories. There is little point in continuing to advance northwards. I think the focus of the empire should still be in the south. Jiaozhi, Champa, Srivijaya, Zhenla, Siam, Lusong, Java and other places should be occupied as soon as possible. These areas all have a lot of arable land and can produce a lot of food!"

At this time, Xia Yan took the initiative to propose to Emperor Zhu Houzhao that the Ming Dynasty should start to attack the south. Zhu Houzhao nodded. He naturally knew that the development of the empire should indeed be in the south, but the problem was how to develop to the south, should they just grab raw materials, or directly turn Southeast Asia, South Asia and even Oceania into industrial raw material processing areas, or turn it into an agricultural civilization and be responsible for food production.

"These places must naturally be occupied, but after occupying them, how should these areas be ruled? Should we continue to mine or turn them into agricultural areas to supply food to the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Houzhao asked this question. He already had an idea in his mind, but he still wanted to see the opinions of the ministers present.

"Your Majesty, I believe that what the empire needs most now is food, and what it will need even more in the future is food. Food is the primary need of the people. However, according to the investigation report of the Audit Office, areas such as Jiangnan and the areas outside the Great Wall are now completely dependent on imported food from other places, and the food production in the original grain-producing areas such as the capital, Huguang, and Sichuan is also declining. This shows that the rich grain-producing areas within the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty are gradually changing from rice to mulberry. In the future, we will need to cultivate more fields in other areas."

Zhang Cong also said something at this time. Zhu Houzhao was more convinced of his point of view after hearing it, so he asked Wang Shouren: "Let the chief of the Imperial Guards participate in the meeting with the Minister of War Gui E to discuss the strategy of recovering Jiaozhi! Let the Jinyiwei strengthen the intelligence reconnaissance of Jiaozhi."

Wang Shouren and others all nodded in agreement. They all understood that His Majesty was obviously determined to recover Jiaozhi, and they did not stop him, because they all knew now that the recovery of Jiaozhi was not because His Majesty was ambitious, but because the empire had to recover Jiaozhi.

There was no other way. Due to the rapid industrial development in the Ming Dynasty, agricultural civilization was extremely reduced. More than half of the grain was imported. Among the sources of imported grain, Jiaozhi, Siam, Champa and other places accounted for the largest proportion. If you want to occupy Siam and Champa, you must first occupy Jiaozhi. If the Ming Dynasty wants to occupy the grain-producing areas in Southeast Asia, it can only occupy Jiaozhi first.

Of course, if the Ming Dynasty wanted to obtain food from Jiaozhi, it could do so without going to war. However, as the empire's demand for food increased, trade was obviously no longer sufficient for the empire to obtain more food. It would naturally be more beneficial to occupy Jiaozhi, destroy the Kingdom of Jiaozhi, eliminate the ruling class that sucked the people of Jiaozhi, and supply all the food produced in Jiaozhi to the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, only by turning Jiaozhi into Ming's own territory can we carry out research on more advanced agricultural production technologies.

But for the Ming Dynasty, using war to conquer Jiaozhi was just a means; the key was how to turn Jiaozhi into an agricultural production base of the Ming Dynasty.

Due to historical reasons, many scholars and officials in the court and the public would rather restore the "county system" management model for Jiaozhi, that is, to incorporate Jiaozhi into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

After all, during the reign of Emperor Yongle, the Ming Dynasty had incorporated Jiaozhi into its territory and implemented a "county system" to manage it.

Now, Emperor Zhu Houzhao has recovered Jiaozhi and managed it with a "county system", which can naturally be regarded as a restoration of the glory of the Yongle period.

But what Zhu Houzhao is struggling with now is whether he should give the people of Jiaozhi the same treatment as the citizens of the Ming Dynasty. After occupying Jiaozhi and incorporating Jiaozhi into the mainland, it means that many cruel policies will not be implemented. Therefore, based on the purpose of maximizing the interests of the Ming Dynasty's own people, it is obviously wrong to treat the people of Jiaozhi the same as the citizens of the Ming Dynasty.

How the Ming Dynasty will rule the occupied areas in the future is an issue that needs to be clarified. At present, the Ming Dynasty has two main ways to rule the occupied areas, namely colonies. One is the Malacca form, in which the Ming Dynasty appoints an administrative head to rule Malacca. The real power lies in the hands of the administrative head, and the king of Malacca is only a figurehead.

One is the Goa model, which combines the traditional caste system of India, places the people of the Ming Dynasty at the first level of the caste system, and then uses caste hierarchy management.

"The corrupt scholars believe that all people in the world should be treated equally and educated with virtue, but your majesty's holy teachings have made me understand that the wealth of the world is limited. If you do not want to impoverish our people, you must harm other countries. If you want to favor other countries, you must harm the interests of our people!"

When Zhang Cong analyzed the current discussion about how to treat ethnic minorities to Zhu Houzhao, he expressed his own views and said, "Therefore, I think that even if Jiaozhi is recovered in the future, the ethnic minorities in Jiaozhi should not be treated the same as the people of the Ming Dynasty. The ethnic minorities should be divided into different levels and according to the degree of sinicization!"

"I disagree with what the Prime Minister said. Buddha said that the laws of the world are equal. Since we are all human beings, why are we distinguished by our ethnicity? If so, how are we different from the previous Yuan Dynasty? Moreover, the Constitution also stipulates that human rights are innate, and only the emperor can abolish the basic rights of people on behalf of heaven. Now the Prime Minister wants to not tolerate people of different ethnicities. Isn't this not respecting their human rights?"

At this time, the newly appointed Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Wang Tingcong, opposed Zhang Cong's point of view.

Zhang Cong quickly replied, "It is true that human rights are innate, but what human rights are innate means is that your Majesty grants human rights, because your Majesty is the heaven of our Ming Dynasty! As long as your Majesty says that these foreign people are not human beings, but slaves, then they do not deserve human rights! The existence of human rights is naturally controlled by the emperor!"

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help laughing when he heard what Zhang Cong said. He found that what Zhang Cong said was quite right. The innate human rights that were regarded as truth by later generations seemed to be as Zhang Cong said. Whether a person has human rights depends on what rights are given to him by the person who rules him. If he wants to fight for more human rights, he still has to rely on his stronger power to fight for them.

"That's exactly what the Prime Minister said. Whether it's Jiaozhi or Champa, whether the indigenous people in these places can have human rights cannot be granted by me, but depends on their own efforts. If they can force me to recognize their human rights, I can naturally treat them as citizens of the Ming Dynasty, but they obviously don't have the strength to do so now!"

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, Zhang Cong also took over the conversation: "As your majesty said, the Ming Dynasty has no need to show favor to people of other races. Moreover, the lessons of the Han, Tang and Song dynasties are not far away. If you are tough on other races, the world will be safe. If you are soft on other races, the world will be in chaos. In my opinion, the people of Jiaozhi should be classified as the second class, and they should not be allowed to have the opportunity to learn literacy, enter the Central Plains, do business, practice martial arts and become soldiers, or take the imperial examinations to become officials!"

After Zhang Cong said the "Five Prohibitions", Zhu Houzhao nodded. He knew that once Zhang Cong's five prohibitions were implemented, it would mean that the people of Jiaozhi could only be serfs, farming and supplying food for the Ming Dynasty. This would undoubtedly be beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, and it would also effectively hinder the civilization and progress of the indigenous people of Jiaozhi.

"Approved. From now on, all barbarians shall follow this rule. The imperial decree shall be passed to the whole world, and all people in the world shall regard the people of the Ming Dynasty as the most superior people!"

After Zhu Houzhao's words, Zhang Cong and others all nodded in agreement. No one raised any serious objection. After all, the Ming Dynasty really needed a group that could be exploited. Since the country's own people were not enough, the only option was to exploit people of other races.

The matter of recovering Jiaozhi was officially put on the agenda, and the Guards began to prepare the corresponding military rations, military pay, ordnance, and troop deployment and training. Although Jiaozhi was a mountainous jungle, which required relatively high jungle warfare capabilities for the army, fortunately, the Ming Dynasty had vast territory and abundant resources, with all types of terrain and all kinds of talents, so it was not difficult to deploy several mountain divisions.

While the Ming Empire was preparing to retake Jiaozhi, the royal clan meeting also arrived as scheduled.

The princes and royal family members began to come to Beijing one after another.

As for the current Zhengde Dynasty, most of the domestic problems have been solved. The system of slaves and craftsmen has been abolished, the military household system is also being gradually reformed, the areas outside the Great Wall have begun to develop, the tax policy in Jiangnan has been reformed, the control at the grassroots level has been strengthened, the performance evaluation system has long been in place for civil servants, the economy has been the main capital controlled by the state, the military has a standing army in the form of a conscription system, and there is also a supporting education and training system, and there are also specialized research institutions in industry and technology.

But the only problem at the moment is that the issue of the vassal kings has not been dealt with. The increasing arrogance of these royal family members poses a great challenge to the legal system and stability of the empire, and the speed at which they reproduce also puts considerable pressure on the empire's future fiscal expenditures.

Sorry, I spent a whole day today to find a technician to install broadband, fix light bulbs, clean the house, and buy various daily necessities. I was also stuck in a writer's block, so I can only post 100 words. I will sort out the outline tonight and will definitely resume updating more than words a day in the future. Many thanks to my book friend for the reward of one pound of sugar and Qidian coins.

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(End of this chapter)