Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 336: Become King Overseas

Chapter 336: Become King Overseas
Zhu Houzhao did not do the thing of throwing away the running dog after the rabbit was dead, but instead insisted that Zhang Cong be honored after his death.

This also led Xia Yan to continue to adhere to Zhang Cong's line.

For the conservatives of the empire, they seemed to be more certain that the death of Zhang Cong would not change anything, because the one who truly insisted on all this in the Ming Dynasty was still His Majesty the Emperor.

Of course, everyone who understands understands this truth, but the emperor cannot be dismissed just because you want to. Of course, there are also a few bold people who want to kill the emperor.

But it is just a thought, because not to mention the lesson of treason, the supporters behind His Majesty the Emperor are not simple.

The major families that control various industries in the empire are all vassals of the current Emperor.

Even the emperor himself controls the largest capital. Once the emperor abdicates or dies, it means that the capital of the empire will be reshuffled, so the major families are unwilling to let His Majesty the Emperor encounter any danger.

The Royal Guards composed of these family members have been instilled with the idea of ​​being loyal to the emperor since childhood and only being the sword in the hands of His Majesty. Not to mention plotting to murder His Majesty, even if they are a little disrespectful to His Majesty, these people dare to kill first and then report.

Zhu Houzhao was not worried about his own safety, because he knew that he had divided the benefits of the world among a few loyal ministers and slaves, making himself the representative of the bureaucratic capitalists, and these bureaucratic capitalists would have to protect him for their own interests.

However, Zhu Houzhao also knew that with the development of the empire's commodity economy and capitalism, and the rise of a large number of bourgeoisie, these former gentry would awaken and become fighters for the bourgeoisie.

In fact, the idea of ​​limiting the power of the monarch and even the idea of ​​democracy have begun to appear in the Ming Dynasty. This is many years earlier than in history when such ideas did not appear until the late Ming Dynasty. After all, the Ming Dynasty opened its seas relatively early in this era.

Of course, the empire's civil servants, or the middle class, have always tried to use etiquette and laws to limit the royal power, but have not yet explicitly proposed to limit the royal power. But now, as this class grows stronger with the development of the empire, it has begun to explicitly propose to limit the royal power.

For example, Luo Qin from Jiangxi began to make shocking remarks such as since the king was elected by the people, he could also be deposed by the people.

Zhu Houzhao did not take direct action, so the local governor arrested Luo Qinshun and put him in prison. There was no other way. In this era when everyone has just accepted that the king's power is granted by God and is actually granted by the people, why do you, Luo Qinshun, want to put forward the view that the king should be elected and removed by the people? Do you want to provide ideological weapons to the ambitious people in the world?
Therefore, precisely because of this, even the conservatives who were dissatisfied with Zhu Houzhao's governance demanded severe punishment for Luo Qinshun. Needless to say, the bureaucratic capitalists who supported Zhu Houzhao wanted to kill Luo Qinshun, because if the emperor could be dismissed by the people at will, then people like them could also be dismissed by the people at will.

Zhu Houzhao himself was not actually that disgusted with Luo Qinshun's ideas. After all, he was a time traveler, and he knew that according to later generations, Luo Qinshun's ideas were a form of progress.

Therefore, he even wanted to save this thinker, but all the ruling classes were unwilling to do so. They even directly refuted it with the reason that "how can a son dismiss his father?" and demanded that the rebellious Luo Qinshun be killed and severely punished.

The suggestion given by the Ministry of Justice was to directly execute the person by lingchi, and the length of the execution should be 3,600 cuts.

"That's too much! He was sentenced to death and imprisonment. He just proposed an idea, not to really commit treason." Not long after Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, the Minister of Justice Huo Tao came to report: "Your Majesty, Luo the thief has committed suicide today out of fear of punishment. Everyone in the world is pleased to hear this!"

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but stand up in shock. He didn't know whether Luo Qinshun really committed suicide or was killed by someone else, but he knew that people like Luo Qinshun could only be given justice by future generations in the future. In this era, he was not only rebelling against himself, the emperor, but also all the vested interests in the world.

But because of this incident, Zhu Houzhao realized that the reason he was able to sit firmly on the throne of emperor was not because he was so powerful or because he was lucky, but because the ruling class needed to find an emperor for their own interests. Even if his emperor was a tyrant, most people would not dare to really want to overthrow him except to complain about their bad luck.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know whether he should be glad about his discovery, but he admitted that some gentry who demanded restrictions on royal power and democracy were not really speaking for the people.

Because the people have been working and farming silently, saving money to buy houses and women from Jiaozhi and the West, they don't care whether it is the emperor or the prime minister, whoever wants to be the emperor can be the prime minister, and they don't care about it.

Some of the gentry represent the bourgeoisie. After gaining wealth, they want to gain more political power, and this demand is becoming increasingly strong.

Wu Zuqian, the Minister of Commerce of the newly established Ministry of Commerce, suggested that the court abolish the strict eight-hour work system and allow the people to arrange their own working hours, thereby giving them the freedom to make money.

Zhu Houzhao was not stupid. He knew that Wu Zuqian wanted the court to let the people make more money on the surface, but in fact he wanted the capitalists to force the people to work overtime at will, so as to increase the exploitation of the people.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao did not let Xia Yan agree to Wu Zuqian's proposal, and asked local governments to increase severe punishment on factories and workshops that violated regulations and increased people's work costs.

Chen Kan, Shaoqing of the Guanglu Temple, reduced the amount of medical insurance and ordered factories and workshops to increase the wages of workers on their own.

Zhu Houzhao also rejected this. Asking factories and workshops to take the initiative to give workers a pay raise as medical funds would undoubtedly increase the opportunities for factories and workshops to exploit workers, and the purpose of reducing factory and workshop operating costs was because expecting capitalists to increase wages was more difficult than expecting to win the lottery. The latter at least had some hope, but the former had no hope at all.

In order to consider national interests and stability, Zhu Houzhao, Xia Yan and other members of the Loyal Emperor Society naturally could not always follow the wishes of the bourgeoisie.

However, this also made the middle and lower-level civil servants and gentry who represented the bourgeoisie increasingly dissatisfied. As children of imperial merchants, they relied on the wealth accumulated by their families to work hard to pass the imperial examinations and become officials. What was the purpose? It was to better represent their families and earn more political voice for their families.

But now, they are naturally very uncomfortable because they don’t have more political voice.

As a result, there were more and more criticisms of the court from the public, and even representatives of the merchant class had established various associations.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao and other big bureaucrats and capitalists also secretly supported many children of aristocratic families and poor students to establish various groups to safeguard national and ethnic interests for the sake of national interests and the interests of their own rule of the empire. They were equally matched with each other, but there was a trend of intensifying.

In the court, the focus of this phenomenon still involves the determination of the crown prince.

Whether it was external expansion and exploitation of foreign slave laborers, or internal opening up and sacrificing farmers, the ultimate decision maker was the emperor.

There is no way to depose this emperor, so we can only place our hopes on the next emperor.

However, Emperor Zhu Houzhao refused to select the crown prince, so that both the liberal party who advocated external expansion and the conservative party who advocated internal development could not give up.

But no one dared to force Emperor Zhu Houzhao again, because everyone knew that the current emperor would not agree to something just by forcing him.

However, there are still people who do this thing that touches the dragon's scales.

"Bastard!"

Although the momentum of the Ming Dynasty's external expansion was clear, the domestic situation became increasingly complicated. Coupled with Zhu Houzhao's inner confusion, he became more and more irritable. Therefore, this memorial from the third prince Zhu Zaijie directly caused his long-suppressed anger to burst out completely.

Zhu Houzhao threw the memorial to the ground, pointed at Qi Jingtong, and shouted, "Bring the third prince Zhu Zaijie to me!"

Qi Jingtong hadn't seen Emperor Zhu Houzhao lose his temper in a long time. He was so frightened that he hurriedly took people to arrest the third prince Zhu Zaijie. At the same time, he was anxiously thinking, "Why did the third prince anger His Majesty?"

Not long after Qi Jingtong left, Zhu Houzhao calmed down a little. At this time, Xia Yan happened to come in to report something. Zhu Houzhao did not mention what the third prince had reported, but asked Xia Yan: "What's the matter?"

"King Henry VIII of England and Ireland has sent envoys and 20 young people to visit us. They are now staying in Macau. I have already found out that they are here because the Spanish Armada attacked Ceuta, and they also have a feud with Spain. Therefore, their king hopes to cooperate with the Ming Dynasty. He is willing to send troops to help the Ming Dynasty attack Spain, but the Ming Dynasty needs to provide military and technical assistance, and hopes that the Ming Dynasty can allow them to send students to the Ming Dynasty every year to learn the cultural knowledge and science and technology of the Eastern Celestial Empire."

After Xia Yan finished speaking, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ponder, thinking to himself that he had never expected that one day Britain would send people to visit the Ming Dynasty from afar and send students to study in the Ming Dynasty. It seems that after the Ming Dynasty took the initiative to participate in global trade, it has indeed increased the world's attention to the Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Houzhao cannot make a decision now as to whether to cooperate with Britain and allow Britain to send students to Ming Dynasty, that is, whether Ming Dynasty is willing to recruit students, because to be honest, Ming Dynasty does not seem to need to accept students.

But Zhu Houzhao asked Xia Yan: "What do you think about this matter, my dear?"

"Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty is far away from the West. It would be a good idea to have an ally to threaten the Spanish rear. As for whether to allow Britain to send students to the Ming Dynasty, I think it can be allowed.

Because even if we don't allow it, the knowledge and technology we have will inevitably flow into Britain. As far as I know, Britain has hired our people to manufacture flintlock rifles and sailing warships, but many technical problems have not been solved. If our Ming Dynasty can allow them to send students to China, we can also send students to their country, which will allow our Ming Dynasty to understand their country's development in more detail, and can also control their development and make them dependent on our Ming Dynasty!"

Xia Yan expressed his opinion, and Zhu Houzhao also thought it made sense. Rather than letting Britain secretly learn from the Ming Dynasty, it would be better to teach it in person, so that it could be better controlled. However, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but say: "They send students to our Ming Dynasty, but they can't learn in vain."

"The royal families of England and Ireland will provide two million silver dollars to the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Education every year! In addition, the expenses of each international student in the Ming Dynasty will also be borne by the British royal family," Xia Yan replied. "This Henry VIII is a man, he is really willing to spend a lot of money."

Zhu Houzhao complained in his heart.

But Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but think of that a few generations after Henry VIII, his daughter Elizabeth I became the Queen of England. During the reign of this Queen of England, Britain completely reached its peak. She was a very powerful queen. Moreover, this queen never married in her life and was a virgin queen.

In order to prevent Elizabeth from becoming the Queen of England, Zhu Houzhao said:

"Tell them that I can let the British royal family send students to the Ming Dynasty, but the British royal family must marry me. I heard that the king's daughter Elizabeth is quite smart. If the royal family is willing to let her marry to the Ming Dynasty, I will agree to let them send people to study in the Ming Dynasty, and I will first let them study in the Imperial Academy for ten years to learn Chinese and eight-part essays. If they can pass the imperial examination, they will be allowed to enter the university!"

According to Zhu Houzhao's memory, the photos of Queen Elizabeth I when she was young were quite beautiful, so it would not be a disadvantage for him to marry her now.

As for the arrangements for these international students, Zhu Houzhao was deliberately increasing the difficulty for the British to study in China. After all, it was difficult enough for a British to learn Chinese, and they were also required to write eight-legged essays. Not only that, they had to pass the imperial examinations. You must know that it was difficult for even the Han people to pass the imperial examinations, let alone the British. In this way, it would be impossible to achieve academic success without a study abroad career of more than 20 years, and they might even become complete Han Confucians.

"I understand!"

Xia Yan nodded and said, "Your Majesty, the Papal States has also sent envoys, expressing their hope to send students to study military technology in Ming Dynasty, and hope that Ming Dynasty, as the suzerain of the Papal States, can help the Holy See punish the British royal family for breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church."

"Since we have promised the British royal family, then the Vatican should also agree to it. It would be a good thing to let them fight each other."

As Zhu Houzhao was speaking, he accidentally stepped on the memorial of the Third Prince Zhu Houzhao. Zhu Houzhao could not help but think of the Third Prince Zhu Houzhao's request for him to appoint a crown prince early. He could not help but pick up the memorial and threw it to Xia Yan:

"Look, this is from the Third Prince. He actually suggested that I make the eldest son the Crown Prince. He is more worried than the officials of the Ministry of Rites."

Xia Yan smiled slightly, then opened the memorial and took a look.

At this time, Qi Jingtong happened to bring back the third prince Zhu Zaijie.

Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhu Zaijie and asked directly: "You are more anxious than your elder brother, anxious to make him the crown prince!"

"My brother is the eldest son. According to Confucian etiquette, he should be the emperor. Father, I don't understand why you are still dragging it out. The court is in turmoil because of this matter. Not only are everyone harboring ulterior motives, but the whole country is also in turmoil. If you really think my brother has no talent to be an emperor, you can choose a virtuous prince. But you didn't choose. It shows that you have also decided who to make the prince. Instead of this, it is better to follow the etiquette!"

The increasingly complicated situation and the increasingly uneasy people's hearts made Zhu Zaijie truly feel how detrimental the unstable position of the crown prince was to himself, the entire empire, and even his father. Therefore, he finally couldn't help but write a memorial suggesting that Zhu Houzhao make Zhu Zaile the crown prince. This was in accordance with the rules and also in line with the wishes of most people.

However, Zhu Houzhao knew that once a crown prince was appointed, it would mean that he would have to divide power, which meant that someone would use the crown prince's name to oppose him. Moreover, Zhu Houzhao had not yet decided who would be his successor, or whether he should establish some systems to limit the royal power before the successor was determined. Therefore, he had not yet appointed a crown prince.

Now, Zhu Zaijie's actions naturally made Zhu Houzhao very angry: "Don't use your elder brother as a scapegoat. Don't think I don't know that it was you who wanted to be the crown prince!"

"I want to be the crown prince! But I don't care if I can't be the crown prince! I sincerely suggest that you let my elder brother be the crown prince! Otherwise, if this matter is not established, the world will be unstable for a day! Father!"

As he spoke, Zhu Zaijie became emotional for a moment, and then he said, "Besides, your uncle is right. Even if I can't be the crown prince, at most I can go overseas to establish a country and be crowned a king in the future. Who wants to stay here to fight for the position of crown prince? A man's ambition is to go far and wide. If you hadn't delayed in appointing the crown prince and arranging a way out for your sons, your sons would have gone out to make achievements long ago! Why do you have to be confined in this Forbidden City to be a useless bird teaser?"

Zhu Houzhao didn't expect that Zhu Zaijie would dare to contradict him like this. Perhaps this was because he, as a time traveler, had a different way of educating his son since childhood, which made Zhu Zaijie's rebellious character more obvious. However, this also made Zhu Houzhao even more angry, and he couldn't help but say to Xia Yan: "Xia Aiqing, listen to me, according to what the third brother said, it is my fault!"

"Your Majesty, calm down! Although it is not your fault, I think it is not impossible to be crowned king overseas!"

Xia Yan said, "Now, countries like Spain and Portugal started colonization earlier than the Ming Dynasty, and Britain has also begun to actively learn from the Ming Dynasty. According to the intelligence provided by the Jinyiwei, Japan is gradually showing signs of unification. There is also the Principality of Moscow in the north and the Ottoman Empire in the west. I am afraid that the Ming Dynasty will inevitably have strong enemies in the future. Before these strong enemies appear, let the princes go to the fertile and wealthy places on various continents to establish countries. They will undoubtedly become good assistants to the Ming Dynasty in the future. After all, it is difficult for the Ming Dynasty central court to control the world!"

Zhu Houming understood Xia Yan's intention, which was to let these royal family members establish more Han countries around the world, so that they would be able to better resist other civilized countries in the future.

Zhu Houzhao also felt that what Xia Yan said made some sense. Due to geographical isolation and inconvenient communication methods, it would be difficult for the Ming Empire alone to colonize the world. It would be better to establish several more Han national systems to divide global interests and achieve the unification of the world by Chinese civilization.

So, Zhu Houzhao said to Zhu Houjie with a hint of anger: "Very good, you have ambitions. In this case, I will give you a chance now and let you be crowned as a king overseas. Pass the decree to immediately crown the third prince Zhu Houjie as the King of Chang and send him to the vassal state..."

Zhu Houzhao didn't know which area to give the third prince, so he shouted, "Bring the map!"

Soon, the eunuch brought the map to Zhu Houzhao. Zhu Houzhao glanced at it and directly drew the area from the east of the Mississippi River to the west of the Appalachian Mountains today: "This area is your fiefdom now, Changguo, I will give you three million silver dollars, you can purchase arms and recruit soldiers on your own!"

"Your Majesty, we moved a group of Tatars to this area. Now this area is in chaos, with Tatars and Westerners fighting each other. Is it inappropriate to let the Third Prince go here to be a vassal?"

Xia Yan couldn't help but remind.

"What's inappropriate? When I ascended the throne, I faced a much stronger force than this. No matter whether it was a nomadic people or a Western force, it was a challenge to him. If he can't build his ideal Han country there, then get out of here and be a waste!"

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but look at Zhu Zaijie after he finished speaking: "Why, you don't dare to accept the order to thank me? Didn't you say that I wouldn't give you a chance to establish a country overseas? Now that I've given you a chance, why are you backing down again?!"

"Why should I be afraid? I thank you for your grace! Three million silver dollars, please cash it out immediately!"

Zhu Zaijie replied.

Zhu Houzhao waved his sleeves angrily and said, "Call Xu Jing here! Give this rebellious son three million!"

As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao felt that he had not been able to vent his anger, and could not help but ask again: "Who is the emperor's uncle you are talking about?"

Zhu Zaijie secretly regretted that he had let slip and betrayed his uncle Zhu Houcong, but at this moment, he could only bow his head and reply, "Yes, it is Uncle Prince Xing."

"Well, it seems that Zhu Houcong is also an ambitious person. Pass the imperial decree. Zhu Houcong instigated the prince and alienated the royal family. He was demoted to a prince and renamed the Prince of Hanyang. He was ordered to be enfeoffed here. This place is now named New Hanyang," Zhu Houzhao said, pointing to an area in present-day Brazil.

……

"Your Highness, this is the latest intelligence brought back by the Royal Guards. The Tatars' New Chahar tribe has now occupied the entire area between the upper Mississippi River and the Missouri River. They are still mainly nomadic, mainly plundering Indians. In the southern Gulf of Mexico area, it is mainly Spanish colonists. A little further south, the new Indian leader Yu Chen Dexin is now joining forces with Governor Tang Kekuan to occupy the area. If you want to establish your own vassal state here, you must deal with these two forces, the Tatars and the Westerners!"

Minister of War Gui E introduced the latest situation of his fief to Zhu Zaijie in detail, and then Gui E also said to Zhu Houcong: "As for the King of Hanyang, most of your new fief is jungle, a jungle rarely visited by people, and the local natives are mostly savages who eat raw meat and drink blood, so it will be more difficult for you, the King of Hanyang, to establish a vassal state."

Zhu Houcong couldn't help but look embarrassed.

Zhu Zaijie also looked at Zhu Houcong with shame and said, "Uncle, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have acted on impulse and now I've implicated you. Otherwise, why don't you just give up the title of king and come with me to my fiefdom. After all, my place is not a wild and uninhabited place."

"The emperor's order cannot be disobeyed. Besides, the wilderness is the wilderness. There is nothing wrong with it. Since there are many giant trees and ferocious beasts, it is just right to build a Taoist temple and refine spiritual medicine!"

Zhu Houcong said with a wry smile.

After Zhu Houzhao learned about the two people's performance from Gui E, he couldn't help but complain in his heart: "What's there to be dissatisfied about? One of these two places is the home of a superpower in the future, and the other is one of the BRICS countries. If the Pacific Ocean was not too wide, I would not want to seal them off!"

Thanks to the book friend 20180909023622405 for the 100 starting coins reward. Thank you to the book friend Taoshen Who is it for the 100 starting coins reward. Thank you to the book friend Repeated Day for the 500 starting coins reward. Thank you to the book friend Black Water Bank for the 1000 starting coins reward.



(End of this chapter)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like