There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 481 Ryukyu
Sometimes Nie Yu really didn't want to kill people, but the thought of their disgusting behavior made it hard for him to control the knife in his hand.

Even Kangxi, the "greatest emperor of all time" in our Qing Dynasty, looked down on him, yet he became a great hero.

I was so angry I laughed.

To give another example, consider the relationship between Emperor Yongle and Emperor Jiajing. Emperor Yongle spent his entire life conquering the Mongolian steppes and ultimately died on horseback.

The purpose was to promote his legitimacy, to ensure that his reign as Emperor Taizong would stand firm in the historical records, to emulate Li Erfeng's actions, to make future generations value his achievements, to prove that he was forced to raise an army to quell the rebellion, rather than deliberately usurping the throne, and that he was a better emperor than Zhu Yunwen.

As a result, the good grandson Jiajing made a great argument, saying to the Yongle Emperor: "Ancestor, even if you usurped the throne, even if you compile the Yongle Encyclopedia into the greatest book of all time, it will not change the fact that you are now the Yongle Emperor!"

Nie Yu's decision not to implicate and kill those involved was indeed very merciful.

Will killing too many people have any negative impact? What impact could it have? Which founding emperor didn't kill a lot of people? Besides, he wasn't killing people, but rather Han women.

You should know that all the territory we conquered in the previous sieges was completely wiped out whenever we encountered any enemy.

Nie Yu is now the founding emperor. His base of support comes from the common people and scholars from humble backgrounds who were won over by distributing land, so he can act with impunity.

After all, he dared to touch even the high and mighty Duke Yansheng. Compared to the Duke Yansheng's status, what is this?
……

Half a month later, a fleet of official ships flying the Great Han Dragon Flag set off from Xiamen Port on the coast of Fujian and stopped at Keelung in northern Taiwan Prefecture for supplies.

They then headed north along the nautical chart, passing Pengjiashan, Haoxu (DYD), Huangweiyu, and Chiweiyu, and arrived at Kume Island in the southwest of the Ryukyu main island in just a few days.

Xu Mingyu, the envoy in charge of this mission, personally led his accompanying officers and soldiers to Kume Island.

"Kume Village Chief (this Chief is not the same as the Prime Minister, but rather a general manager), Tang Rongji, respectfully welcomes the great angel of Han to Kume Village!"

Tang Rongji, who was not very old, also brought several prominent families from Kume Village to the dock to welcome Xu Mingyu.

Xu Mingyu wasn't too surprised that the other person could speak Mandarin.

On the one hand, they had contacted Kume Village through merchants before the new year, and on the other hand, the big man also knew the details of the islanders of Kume Village.

Kume Village is located on Kume Island, which is a directly administered territory of the Ryukyu King. However, the villagers are mostly descendants of Han Chinese, or more specifically, descendants of Fujianese people.

This stemmed from the early days of the Ryukyu Kingdom. In order to seek the protection of a major power, it took the initiative to submit to the Ming Dynasty and pay tribute. The Ming Dynasty then conferred the title of King of Zhongshan upon the Ryukyu King and sent thirty-six craftsmen from Fujian to Ryukyu to assist in its reconstruction.

After the aid project ended, the thirty-six craftsmen, who brought their families with them, settled on Kume Island. They lived and multiplied thereafter, becoming a special force that successive Ryukyu kings relied on and cultivated.

However, all of the above is in the past. Kume Island, as a reliance and support for the Ryukyu kings, is now part of the history of the First Sho Dynasty.

Now we are in the second Sho Dynasty of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The establishment of the second Sho Dynasty of Ryukyu is quite absurd, because its founding king, Sho En, was not actually a descendant of the Sho Dynasty.

The two are not related by blood at all. Shang Yuan's real name is Jin Wan, and he was a lock-wielding official in the service of King Shang Taijiu of the First Dynasty.

The position of "Suo no Sei-kan" was an official in charge of education and foreign trade. However, because Ryukyu was a weak and impoverished nation, the "Suo no Sei-kan" could actually be seen as a combination of the Ryukyu Kingdom's Ministry of Rites and Ministry of Revenue. Things got a bit more absurd later on. First, the last king of the first dynasty, King Shōtoku, launched a war, which depleted the nation's strength, and he was subsequently killed by disgruntled ministers.

Kinmaru, who happened to be the official in charge of the lock, was very good at business and often secretly gave money to the ministers to help them out.

Therefore, the ministers decided to kill King Shōtoku's queen and children and install Kinmaru, who was good at making money, as the king of Ryukyu.

There is no explicit record of this history in Ryukyu historical books, but Japanese materials vaguely mention that when Kanemaru was king, a divine decree came down from the Ryukyu temple: "Whoever brings us wealth is our master."

They've really stopped acting altogether!

To prevent the Ming Dynasty from discovering this, they even changed Kanemaru's surname to Shang and claimed that he was the orphaned son of King Shangde. In this absurd way, they completed the change of dynasty in Ryukyu.

This was also the starting point for the Han Dynasty's mission to Ryukyu. Xu Mingyu patiently had the scribes record the Ryukyu royal secrets that Tang Rongji explained to them.

That's right, the Han Chinese on Kume Island had already secretly switched sides to Han Chinese last year. There's nothing shameful about that. They are originally descendants of Han Chinese from Fujian, and they are simply returning to their motherland.

Of course, the real core reason is that the Han Chinese in Kume Village and the King of Ryukyu had reached an irreconcilable political conflict of interest.

First, during the previous invasion by the Satsuma Domain, the Ryukyu king swiftly knelt down, while the Kume Han people refused to surrender. Instead, they prepared to defeat the Satsuma samurai and then land at Shuri Castle to defend the king, but were stopped by the cowardly Ryukyu king.

After the war, Kume Village was purged, creating a rift between the Han Chinese of Kume and the Ryukyu royal family.

This was just an old grudge. The new grievance stemmed from three years ago when King Shangwen, with the help of the Grand Preceptor Cai Shichang, announced the abolition of Kume Village's monopoly on official student quotas.

The term "official students" refers to Ryukyu students studying in China. Because Ryukyu was too poor to have its own schools, it could only send students to China to study.

Previously, these places were monopolized by the Kume Han Chinese, because the Kume Han Chinese monopolized the right to education, which in turn controlled the political lifeline of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Therefore, when the Kume Han people clashed with the Ryukyu king, King Shō On's measure was to brutally suppress them, crack down on all opponents, and insist on abolishing the Kume Han people's monopoly privileges.

So, to put it bluntly, it's still a matter of interests; the Ryukyu king and the Kume Han people didn't share the spoils equally.

In the past, the Kume Han people couldn't defeat the king and had to admit defeat, but now that the Han people have arrived, the Kume Han people have a chance.

With the abolition of official privileges, the Kume Han Chinese have essentially lost their political foundation, and their situation in Okinawa will only become more and more difficult in the future.

Why not take advantage of this opportunity to become a guide for the Han Dynasty and exchange your resources for a bright future?

Moreover, this matter is not their fault. It's because the Ryukyu royal family themselves are not clean, yet they dared to deceive the Chinese emperor. It is simply outrageous, and it is only right that the Han dynasty comes to set things right.

The Han official ship stayed on Kume Island for three days, and Xu Mingyu also stayed at the Minglun Hall in Kume Village for three days. The two sides had a very pleasant conversation and both got what the other wanted.

When the news arrived at Shuri Castle (the capital of Ryukyu), King Shōon coughed and exclaimed in surprise, "The Great Han Angel? What Great Han Angel?"

(End of this chapter)