My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 247 This is the Celestial Empire!
Su Ze was good at never being a spoilsport; he agreed to Zhu Yijun's request and they did a war game simulation together.

As a result, the Portuguese side, represented by Suze, used their land-based fortifications and the mobility of their naval fleet to defeat the Spanish, who had a larger fleet.

Little Fatty Jun lost so badly that he began to doubt his own existence, so he handed over command to the little eunuch Chen Ju.

This young eunuch was only about thirteen or fourteen years old, but his demeanor was much more steady and reliable than that of the chubby young man.

He changed Xiao Pangjun's strategy of relentless attacks and instead skipped the islands occupied by the Portuguese, clearing and sweeping them one by one, and forcibly created a breakout route.

Su Ze looked at Chen Ju; this little eunuch was truly a talent for naval warfare.

Of course, the war game simulation that Su Ze improved was not a truly rigorous war game simulation. It could only be described as a kind of war game board game, which was half teaching and half entertainment. It was a game that Su Ze gave to his disciples to relieve boredom.

Given the limited freshwater and supply conditions of the islands near Malacca, it is actually impossible to carry out this island-hopping tactic.

However, finding a way to break the deadlock within the rules demonstrates good strategic vision.

Su Ze's eyes darted around as he said:
"Your Highness, I believe that Eunuch Chen is suitable for the position of Military Supervisor."

"?"

Even Chen Ju was dumbfounded.

Su Ze said:

"Your Highness, I believe that Eunuch Chen has a natural talent in military affairs. In the past, Zheng Sanbao made seven voyages to Southeast Asia. Wise rulers also have close attendants who are well-versed in military matters by their side, which makes it convenient for Your Highness to consult on military and political matters."

“Eunuch Chen is at the perfect age. If he goes to the Martial Arts Academy to study, he can serve His Highness in the future.”

Chen Ju's whole body trembled.

Chen Ju was able to be placed by Feng Bao's side as a favorite of the Crown Prince.

However, he was simply not cut out for studying and failed the preliminary examinations for both the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture.

According to the current rules of the palace, eunuchs without formal education are not even qualified to become mid-level eunuchs in the inner court, let alone enter the Directorate of Ceremonial.

The management of eunuchs during the Longqing and Wanli periods was very strict. The situation of Wei Zhongxian, who rose to a high position despite not being properly educated, would absolutely not happen today.

Even if someone is favored by the emperor, they have no official position in the inner court and are just a lowly eunuch.

Moreover, the emperor's favor is inherently unpredictable, and those who are closest to the emperor are often the target of jealousy. Relying solely on personal relationships is bound to be short-lived.

Although Chen Ju wasn't good at studying, he was definitely a smart man, and he understood this principle.

Both are academic qualifications, even military academy degrees are academic qualifications!

Moreover, the academic qualifications of the Martial Arts Supervisor are even rarer!

In the history of the Ming Dynasty, there were eunuchs who led troops, such as Zheng He.
Chen Ju knew that the Crown Prince had ambitions to explore the South Seas. He should go to the Military Academy to study hard. Even if he couldn't personally lead a fleet to the South Seas like Zheng He, he could still be consulted on military matters as a military-savvy eunuch by the future emperor's side.

The cabinet has a Grand Secretary in charge of military affairs, and the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs also needs a scribe in charge of military affairs!
Zhu Yijun looked at Chen Ju kneeling on the ground and felt a pang of reluctance.

Su Ze understood his disciple's thoughts and comforted him, saying:

"Your Highness, it's possible to have Chen Ju not stay at the Military Advisory Bureau, but traveling back and forth to the Eastern Palace Military Advisory Bureau will be tough. Can Eunuch Chen endure that kind of hardship?"

Facing the most crucial decision of his life, Chen Ju disregarded etiquette and said:
"Your Highness, this servant is capable of enduring hardship!"

Upon hearing the person in question's statement, Zhu Yijun said:

"Then let Chen Ju go to the Military Academy to study."
-
The chief envoy of the Korean delegation this time was Heo Hyeok, the scribe from the previous mission.

Xu Zi also made some connections in the capital, and his profound knowledge of Chinese also made a good impression on Ming officials, including Shen Yiguan.

On his second day in the capital, Xu Zi requested an audience with Su Ze and to visit the "Yuefu Xinbao" newspaper.

The Joseon National Gazette, edited by Xu Zhen, was actually the Joseon branch of the Yuefu New Gazette. Su Ze and Luo Wanhua naturally received the Joseon envoy in person.

With a pilgrimage-like mindset, Xu Zi visited the newspaper office and then went to the printing workshop next door.

Upon seeing the rotary printing press, Xu Yi felt every pore on her body tremble.

Watching the newspapers being printed automatically like this, what incredible power that is!

Compared to this, the woodblock printing that North Korea still uses is simply like eating raw meat and drinking blood!
When Xu Yu heard Zhang Bi's report on the number of newspapers printed by the printing house in a single day, his jaw dropped in astonishment.

The number of people who read newspapers in the capital alone is probably greater than the entire literate population of the entire Korean kingdom!
After the visit, Xu Zi treated Su Ze as if he were a teacher.

He then discussed with Su Ze the difficulties they encountered in running the newspaper, saying:
"The biggest problem for students running a newspaper in North Korea is that there are too few people who can read Chinese characters."

Su Ze nodded. Modern newspapers emerged alongside mass education; without a sufficient literate population, it would be impossible to support a newspaper.

The mid-Ming Dynasty was precisely the period of such a surge in popular literature. At this time, the literacy rate of the Ming Dynasty was far ahead of the rest of the world, and the two capitals, the north and south, had a large number of literate citizens.

Su Ze started his newspaper business in the capital, where the literate population was the largest, before expanding it to other regions.

Even so, it can only cover provincial capitals and economically developed towns; many cities lose money when delivering newspapers there.

The enormous circulation that Xu Zi saw was simply a result of the Ming Dynasty's massive population.

Xu Zi complained:
"To be honest, this whole thing is a consequence of the Hunminjeongeum!"

Xu Zi suddenly remembered that both of them were scholar-officials of the Ming Dynasty, and he explained:

"Your Excellencies may not know, but we Koreans originally spoke Chinese and wrote Chinese characters."

"However, during the reign of King Sejong, he created the Hunminjeongeum and forcibly promoted it with his own decree. The Confucian scholars at the time opposed it, saying that 'removing Chinese characters would make us like barbarians,' but it was still forcibly pushed through in the end."

Xu Fan said angrily, "Nowadays, among the ministers of the yangban class, there are actually those who don't know Chinese characters and writing, yet they still dare to shamelessly enter the court. A few days ago, an official even wrote to Your Majesty, requesting that the Korean civil service examination be held using the Hunminjeongeum. It was only because the Confucian scholars strongly opposed it that the request was dropped."

Xu Zi said to Su Ze:

"Lord Su, please write to His Majesty to ban the Hangunminjeongeum (the Korean alphabet), so that the people of Joseon may once again be bathed in the king's grace!"

Su Ze looked at Xu Zi speechlessly.

Su Ze then remembered that Hunminjeongeum was the origin of modern Korean.

The creation of one's own language is, in fact, a product of the awakening of national consciousness.

Of course, North Korea is not a nationalist country in the modern sense, but rather a cultural counterattack by the North Korean upper class, which is aware of its unwillingness to be assimilated by the powerful Han culture.

In the timeline before Su Ze's travels, this seemed to have been successful. Both the North and South had achieved de-Sinicization, and the name of Hancheng, which had been used for thousands of years, was changed to Seoul. This was the last step in Korea's efforts to de-Sinicize since the 15th century.

However, during this era, the rulers of Korea were still pushing forward cautiously. This was not due to the overbearing interference of the Ming Dynasty, but rather because there was internal opposition within Korea.

The intellectual class in Korea, such as the scholar-officials like Heo Jeong, were quite thoroughly Sinicized.

They studied the Four Books and Five Classics from a young age. The Korean civil service examinations were conducted in Chinese, and official documents were also in Chinese. Although Hunminjeongeum had been established for over a hundred years, in the eyes of Korean scholars, it was the language of rustic, uncouth farmers. If used in a formal setting, it would definitely be ridiculed.

However, Xu Zi's method really didn't work.

Because Classical Chinese, as the official language, was difficult for not only Koreans to learn, but also ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty.

Even ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty might not be able to understand the memorials and letters of officials.

The scriptures used in the imperial examinations were like celestial texts.

In linguistics, this is called the separation of written and spoken language. In other words, the written language is too ancient and has become separated from the ever-evolving spoken language. The classical Chinese that has been passed down from the pre-Qin period to the present day and the spoken language spoken by ordinary people are actually two different languages.

Almost all modern countries have carried out official language reforms, and most of these reforms started with the vernacular language movement, or the oral language movement. Modern China was no exception.

In fact, this process began in the Ming Dynasty. Popular vernacular novels today, including novels like "Journey to the West," also use colloquial language.

The Hunminjeongeum of North Korea was actually a vernacular language movement that arose by chance in an attempt to oppose classical Chinese education.

Even Su Ze's newspapers were actually promoting this vernacular language movement.

Starting last month, Su Ze and Luo Wanhua discussed publishing news and policies related to people's livelihoods in plain language that ordinary people could understand.

In addition, Su Ze had already started writing in vernacular Chinese in sections such as "investigating things to acquire knowledge" and "geography of mountains and rivers," and now almost half of the pages of "Yuefu Xinbao" are in vernacular Chinese.

This is a historical trend.

However, as Heo Jeong said, Joseon's promotion of Hunminjeongeum was also an attempt to escape the cultural rule of the Ming Dynasty.

Su Ze thought for a moment and said:
"Xu Hongwen, even in the Ming Dynasty, speaking vernacular Chinese is an inevitable trend. Your country's 'elegant language for instructing the people' is also derived from vernacular language, isn't it?"

Xu Zi nodded reluctantly.

King Sejong could not possibly create a language out of thin air; if he did, it would be easier to promote Chinese.

Hunmin Gakgon is essentially a standardized form of Hangul used by ordinary Koreans.

More accurately, it involved phonetic transcription and grammatical standardization of the spoken Korean language, making it a readable and writable language.

Su Ze said:

“Actually, Xu Hongwen could try a different approach. The fact that Koreans use Hangul is irreversible. We can’t expect Koreans to stop speaking Hangul and start speaking Chinese, can we?”

Xu Zi said:

“What’s so difficult about that? We scholars all speak Chinese.”

Su Ze was speechless. How come you're even more extreme than me?
These people from the Ming Dynasty are just too terrifying.

However, Su Ze patiently explained:

"Are there more scholars and officials, or more common people? Is it easier for you scholars and officials to get millions of common people to speak Chinese, or for millions of common people to get you scholars and officials to speak Hangul?"

Xu Zi fell silent.

Su Ze said:

“Since King Sejong could turn Hangul into the Jungmun (a script for the people), then Heo Hongmun could also turn Hangul into Classical Chinese.”

Su Ze wasn't trying to fool Xu Zi.

The Korean language contains many Chinese words, and even the pronunciations are the same.

The Korean alphabet created by Hunminjeongeon was ugly and difficult to write. In this era, Korean could be completely represented by Chinese characters.

This is how Su Ze lived before he traveled through time.

As a dominant language, English borrows the Roman alphabet from many other countries for its phonetic alphabet.

Why can't the mighty Ming Dynasty create a phonetic alphabet for Chinese characters?
This is entirely feasible from a linguistic perspective.

Moreover, imagine if Chinese characters were used to represent sounds, then officials and common people of the Ming Dynasty could simply recite other languages ​​by following the phonetic symbols, which would greatly reduce the difficulty of learning other languages.

Countries like North Korea, after receiving training in the phonetic representation of Chinese characters, can also seamlessly learn Chinese.

This is hegemony in a linguistic sense.

Xu Zi was very pleased to have found a way to counter Hunminjeongeum from Su Ze. He planned to go back and gather the scholars who opposed the use of Hunminjeongeum to study how to use Chinese characters to represent the pronunciation of Hangul.

When that time comes, we can then propose to the king that we use the Celestial Empire to suppress opposition, and that would actually make this popular.

Then, this method of phonetic representation of Chinese could also be spread to other countries and regions along with the influence of the Ming Dynasty.

The upper echelons used Chinese characters, while the lower echelons used phonetic scripts of Chinese, thus creating a stable Sinosphere.

After seeing Xu Zi off, Su Ze then focused on the opening of the expo.

On April 29th, the temporary viewing platform was completed. Emperor Longqing couldn't wait to send the three heads of the Directorate of Ceremonial to inspect the opening ceremony. After confirming that there were no problems, he announced that he would be attending the opening ceremony.

On April 30th, martial law was declared in the capital. Under the protection of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Beijing Garrison soldiers, the Longqing Emperor left the palace and rode in a sedan chair to the outskirts of the city.

Although the local residents were driven away for security reasons, many still climbed onto rooftops to watch the emperor's procession.

When the Longqing Emperor arrived outside the city, his smile widened as he looked at the Crystal Palace gleaming in the sunlight.

Immediately afterwards, led by the five cabinet ministers, officials, envoys from vassal states, and students of the Imperial Academy paid their respects to the emperor.

Meritorious officials and military generals, led by Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi, saluted.

What impressed Emperor Longqing even more was that after a month of simple military training, the students of the Imperial Military Academy, arranged in neat square formations, held a simple military review ceremony for him.

Although the first batch of martial arts instructors only numbered a little over three hundred, they were arranged in a square formation.

However, the disciplined and obedient demeanor of the trained martial arts students left a deep impression on the emperor and the envoys from vassal states.

The officials congratulated the emperor on his military achievements, which pleased the Longqing Emperor even more. He then issued an edict to commend the military supervisor and awarded silver coins to the students of the military supervisor.

After the opening ceremony, the Longqing Emperor led his officials on a tour of the exposition. Standing inside this glass palace with its steel frame, the envoys from tributary states, including Xu Yu, had only one thought in their minds:
The Ming Dynasty was truly too powerful!
The steel that could be used to forge cannons was used as the framework of houses. How many divine weapons could be forged from this single pillar!?
How much wealth can this roof of glass be exchanged for?

This is the Celestial Empire!
(End of this chapter)