Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 173 The Emperor of the Northern and Southern Dynasties

In order to survive better, this small group of Japanese ronin colluded with the pirates who had failed in their fight with Zhu Yuanzhang for the Central Plains.

According to historians' research, during the Hongwu period, 30% of the pirates who frequently harassed coastal areas were pure Japanese, and the remaining 70% were from the Central Plains.

Only as time went on, the composition of these pirate groups gradually changed.

By the Jiajing period, 80% of the pirates were Japanese. The remaining 20% ​​were mostly Han Chinese from the Central Plains who had committed capital crimes in the Central Plains and fled to the sea to escape the law.

After Wu Zhen saw Zhu Gang off, he began to lead his Ming navy to go out to sea to capture people.

It has to be said that as one of the few naval governors in the Ming Dynasty, Wu Zhen has very strong combat effectiveness. In less than a month, he captured many Japanese pirates in the sea just like catching fish.

According to incomplete statistics, there are about seven or eight hundred male Japanese ronin.

Two or three hundred Japanese women.

Some surrendered to the Ming Dynasty voluntarily, some refused to surrender even in death, and some were knocked unconscious by Ming Dynasty artillery fire and fell into the sea, only to be salvaged later.

In short, as long as the person can breathe and speak, Wu Zhen will not let him go.

After counting, it was found that among these Japanese people, less than twenty could speak fluent Chinese.

After being tortured, coerced and lured by Wu Zhen, many people took the initiative to tell the current news in Japan.

They reported all the information Zhu Yuanzhang wanted about Japan, and Wu Zhen compiled it all into a book.

The general contents can be divided into the current situation in Japan, territorial divisions, local customs, local military strength, social habits, place names and landmarks, etc.

Initially, Wu Zhen just wanted to capture some people and thought that would be enough. Anyway, Zhu Yuanzhang only mentioned it when he asked him to send Zhu Gang away.

He didn't expect these Japanese wandering around the sea to provide much useful information.

Unexpectedly, some of these Japanese were former "aristocrats".

There was quite a lot of information known, so Zhu Yuanzhang directly ordered Wu Zhen to capture as many as possible, and at the same time let the people along the coast see how the Ming Dynasty protected their interests.

He was happy, and those officials who had colluded with pirates suffered. After all, without the support of local officials, these pirates would not be so bold as to frequently harass the people in the sea area.

Upon learning of this, Queen Ma clenched her fists and slammed them hard on the table, saying angrily:

"What bastards! It would be fine if these officials oppressed the people in private. They should have prayed that we didn't find them. But who would have thought that this group of parasites would shamelessly collude with outsiders to destroy their own compatriots!

From ancient times to now, I hate bastards who betray their own people the most!

Chongba, you did a good job in this matter. From now on, you must keep a close eye on these people to prevent similar people from appearing again.

Otherwise, if officials harm the people, the people will think that we are condoning it behind their backs, and won’t that make us lose the support of the people?”

On this point, Zhu Yuanzhang agreed with Queen Ma's opinion.

"Don't worry, sister. We will never be lenient with those corrupt officials and make them regret living in this world."

After receiving this answer, Queen Ma felt relieved.

"By the way, Chongba, what is the current situation in Japan? Will there be any obstacles for our Ming Dynasty to attack Japan?"

This was a war to annihilate a country. If Empress Ma did not know enough about Japan, she would never allow the Ming Dynasty to go on the expedition. This matter was of great importance and could not be taken to heart.

Fortunately, the Japanese ronin currently under the control of the Ming Dynasty are in very special situations. Some of them are village guards who did not participate in the Civil War, and some of them did not dare to return to their sphere of influence after the failure of a war, and finally chose to live far away from their hometown on the sea.

There is no way. The Yamato people are an extremely perverted nation. Once defeated in a war, they will either die on the battlefield or return to their hometown and commit suicide by disembowelment, telling future generations that they must fight to the death for their own power until the last drop of blood is shed.

From these Japanese news, we can learn that the Japanese Civil War has now entered a white-hot stage.

There are currently two emperors in Japan. The northern emperor is Emperor Go-Komatsu, who sits in Kyoto. As an emperor, he has no rights and is not even eligible to participate in parliament.

The third shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, controlled most of Japan with Kyoto as his base.

On the other hand, the Northern Dynasty's emperor was Emperor Chokei, whose ancestor was Emperor Daigo. The territory he controlled today was based on the Southern Dynasty imperial regime formed in Nara and Yoshino. From this place as the center, all the territory to the south was Emperor Chokei's territory.

Unlike Emperor Komatsu, the puppet of the Northern Dynasty, Emperor Chokei had real power of his own. Unfortunately, since Emperor Daigo, the military strength of the Southern Dynasty has always been weak.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be unable to return to Kyoto, which he had controlled for hundreds of years.

"So, Shigehachi, how do you plan to conquer Japan? According to the current situation, the Northern Dynasty is controlled by the Ashikaga Yoshimitsu family represented by the Muromachi shogunate, and their strength is growing stronger. It is only a matter of time before they conquer the Southern Dynasty."

Empress Ma was not just an armchair strategist. When Zhu Yuanzhang was fighting on the front lines, she conducted many sand table exercises in the rear, so she was able to quickly figure out the specific situation in Japan.

Zhu Yuanzhang also agreed with what the other party said.

"Sister, you are right. We have already sent people to investigate Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. It was his father Ashikaga Yoshiakira who killed the envoy we sent out before."

Upon learning that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the descendant of the man who killed the Ming envoy, Empress Ma immediately showed displeasure on her face.

"So he is the son of a criminal. So, we can cultivate the Southern Dynasty and let them cause internal strife. Afterwards, we can reap the benefits. How about that?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately showed a ferocious smile on his face.

"Of course we want to reap the benefits, but I'm worried they won't be able to handle this method."

"Oh? Could it be."

Looking at the cunning look on her husband's face, Queen Ma quickly remembered the advice Yang Chen had given them.

First, they used trade to send items contaminated with smallpox to the Japanese islands, and sent spies to sow discord as much as possible, causing a war to break out between the Northern and Southern Dynasties for no reason, which would not have happened otherwise.

By that time, smallpox naturally liked an environment surrounded by dead bodies. As more and more wars occurred, more and more people died, and smallpox infection became extremely terrifying.

Even in the end, the Ming Dynasty was able to reap the fruits of victory without spending a single soldier.

As for the remaining surviving Japanese, they will all be arrested, their roots destroyed, shackled, and sent to the gold and silver mountains to mine, in order to squeeze out the last of their value.

On this point, Empress Ma had no mercy. These Japanese ronin had caused enough trouble to the people of the Ming Dynasty in the coastal areas alone. If the Ming Dynasty did not squeeze value out of their people to compensate the people of the Ming Dynasty, then it would be too unworthy of the people's trust.

Regarding Japan, Zhu Yuanzhang was just thinking about ending the topic when Empress Ma suddenly asked one last question.

"Zhongba, there is one more thing I want to know. Are you ready?" "What is it?"

"Who are you going to send to Japan?"

"We have already solved this problem"

All of a sudden, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that he had made all kinds of calculations, but the only thing he had not taken into account was who to order to go to Japan.

Two months ago, one day Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to summon all the generals to sit down and discuss this matter together, but he was suddenly interrupted by his third son.

He had no choice but to agree to send the other party to Wanli Shitang immediately to find the guano island. At the same time, he asked Wu Zhen to give him a lot of naval forces to conduct reconnaissance in Luzon. As long as the Southeast Asian region represented by Luzon could prove that rice could be harvested three times a year in this place.

By then, the Ming Dynasty will take over the entire Luzon area as quickly as possible.

The current population of the Ming Dynasty is 40 million, of which refugees account for almost one-third.

In other words, the Ming Dynasty was able to free up nearly 10 million people to carry out colonization and assimilation around the world.

Don't underestimate Lao Zhu's reluctance. Compared to staying alive, being away from home is nothing.

If Yang Chen had not appeared, Mu Ying would have led an army of 150,000, and at the same time, one million disaster victims near Nanjing City would have migrated to Yunnan.

Otherwise, no one would say in the future that in modern society, Nanjing is actually the blood capital of the Yunnan people.

The question of who to send to Japan to conquer really gave Zhu Yuanzhang a headache for a while.

Sapphire?

As one of the military generals left by Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Biao, Lan Yu would certainly have established many military exploits while he was alive. At the same time, as the emperor who was about to abdicate, Zhu Yuanzhang would do his best to suppress Lan Yu's promotion.

When Zhu Biao ascended the throne, the new emperor promoted the ministers who had been trained by the previous emperor. This is called political maneuvering. There have been many similar things over the past thousands of years.

Therefore, Lan Yu is now having a great time killing people in the Jiangnan area and will not leave in the short term.

Once Lan Yu has only a few days left, these merchants will surely make a comeback. Lan Yu will act as a stabilizing force to suppress the Jiangnan merchants for at least half a year, letting them know how determined the court is.

At the same time, let’s take a look at whether the new land reform law is good or bad for the people.

Without Lan Yu, who are the remaining generals of the younger generation?
Muying?

This is even more impossible. Now Mu Ying has become the biggest spy planted by Zhu Yuanzhang next to Yang Chen.

That’s right, it’s a spy. Mu Ying is not only the military general closest to Yang Chen, but also closer than a relative.

It’s not that Yang Chen doesn’t have Zhu Yuanzhang’s trust, but that Yang Chen needs someone who is most familiar with the current military affairs of the Ming Dynasty, so that he can develop the most suitable weapons for the Ming Dynasty in Zhenjiang Prefecture.

Obviously, the candidate is Mu Ying, who is both Yang Chen's father-in-law and Zhu Yuanzhang's own godson.

No one is more suitable to be by Yang Chen's side than Mu Ying.

Apart from these two young men, the other generals really didn't know who to choose for a moment.

"Oh, sister! I really didn't think of this. How about this? I'll go find Biao'er to discuss it tomorrow. You see, it's getting so late now. Shouldn't we also..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's words were not about this, and Empress Ma also knew that it would be impossible to discuss the matter with him now, so she gave up in the end.

next morning.

The Minister of Personnel Teng Yi was busy and exhausted in his office.

As the Minister of Personnel, Teng Yi also served as the Director of Personnel for the entire Ming Dynasty. The selection, appointment, removal, and assessment of officials were ultimately carried out by him and the entire Ministry of Personnel for preliminary calibration. Only then would he have the opportunity to be summoned by Zhu Yuanzhang to discuss the appointment of certain high-level officials.

Teng Yi began to defect to Zhu Yuanzhang in the first year of Hongwu. To be precise, he was still an unsuccessful Confucian scholar in the late Yuan Dynasty.

Just like the Confucian scholars who were looking for public officials in troubled times, Teng Yi finally took a fancy to Zhu Yuanzhang's camp, so he took the initiative to join Zhu's camp.

At first, Zhu Yuanzhang did not think highly of him because there were too many capable people standing in front of him, too many to count, unless they were already famous like Liu Bowen.

Otherwise, ordinary people would not be able to catch his attention at all.

After several setbacks, Teng Yi made his final plan. If he could not be accepted by Zhu Yuanzhang, then he would find another way out. The world is so big, and he didn't believe that no one could accommodate his tolerance.

In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang still did not like Teng Yi. Frustrated and ready to leave, Teng Yi was told by Xu Da that if he did not mind, he could stay and work for him.

In Zhu's camp at that time, apart from himself, several generals including Xu Da, Tang He and Chang Yuchun were all brothers. Apart from Zhu's own staff, the three also had some people under their command to varying degrees.

Teng Yi eventually joined Xu Da's court. It took him less than three years to go from obscurity to fame.

During this period, he provided Xu Da with a lot of help. Whether in dealing with daily life or in deploying battle formations, Teng Yi could always provide pertinent and helpful advice, and was deeply trusted by Xu Da.

When the Ming Dynasty was founded, Zhu Yuanzhang first assigned Teng Yi the post of Huguang Censor. Teng Yi was loyal and conscientious in this post and handled the tasks assigned to him by Zhu Yuanzhang in an orderly manner.

Seeing that the other party was quite capable, Zhu Yuanzhang directly dealt with the former tainted Minister of Personnel and directly promoted Teng Yi from an official of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to an important official in the capital.

As the Minister of Personnel, Zhu Yuanzhang also trusted Teng Yi very much, and for this reason he asked Teng Yi to compile "Qijuzhu" for him, which records Zhu Yuanzhang's daily life and government affairs.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Teng Yi to collect the deeds of ancient unjust and incompetent emperors such as Jie and Zhou and present them to Zhu Yuanzhang himself so that he could learn from history and take it as a warning.

It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang trusted the Minister of Personnel quite a lot.

"Hey! Your Majesty, what happened recently? It's completely different from before. If this continues, the Ming Dynasty will definitely be completely different from the changes in the past ten years!"

It was a rare opportunity to take a break, so Teng Yi temporarily put down his work and took a break to catch his breath.

There's no way, he's been too tired recently.

It can be said that he expended a lot of energy to do the workload of the previous seven days, because Zhu Yuanzhang's purge of Jiangnan was the most severe in history.

This time, I don’t know how many businessmen suffered serious injuries, and how many officials were dismissed.

He is responsible for finding people to replace those officials who have been dismissed.

(End of this chapter)