Emperor Chongzhen was too extreme.

Chapter 134 A Mere Hundreds of Thousands of Unruly People

Japan has more than enough respect for the strong.

Just as later five-star general MacArthur could trample all rules and make Emperor Hirohito shake his paw, and the latter was even honored to have his picture taken as a memento.

Now, after personally witnessing the more than one thousand heads of Japanese pirates, Tokugawa Iemitsu...

Without any delay.

They immediately allocated 20 million taels of silver from the Edo treasury and then escorted the Ming envoy onto the ship with great respect.

Although the figure of 20 million taels sounds a bit exaggerated.

It sounds absurd that someone would genuinely respect another person who killed them.

But for Japan, which possesses vast wealth and whose culture is currently deeply ingrained with a distorted version of Bushido, this is a different story.

This is not a very difficult thing.

In recent years.

Japan has always faced a rather awkward dilemma: it has so much money in the country that it simply can't spend it all.

However, its total domestic productivity is insufficient to support the healthy circulation of such a large silver reserve within the country.

This has led to a certain degree of inflation.

Tokugawa Iemitsu, the shogun, also tried to alleviate this seemingly fortunate predicament through foreign trade.

However, due to the closed-door policy pursued by his two predecessors during their tenure in Japan, foreign trade remained very weak.

Therefore, this move did not achieve any results.

However, this problem no longer exists for Japan today.

The actions of the Ming Dynasty in Japan will ultimately lead Japan down the path of external expansion.

Tokugawa Iemitsu could sense it.

Because of the Ming Dynasty's actions yesterday, the mindset of those die-hards in the shogunate who had originally firmly supported the policy of isolationism has now changed.

And this way.

Those useless silver coins that were originally stored in the treasury will become Japan's best tool for external expansion.

Think of this.

As he watched the Ming Dynasty fleet begin to leave the port and sail into the distance, Tokugawa Iemitsu bowed to them once more.

He really has to thank Daming.

As the general bowed, the shogunate samurai who had come to see him off also followed suit in saluting.

After this continued for quite a while, Tokugawa Iemitsu slowly straightened up.

now.

Looking at the group of shogunate samurai with their piercing gazes before him, Tokugawa Iemitsu felt a surge of pride welling up within him.

From this moment on.

For Japan, the era of isolationism and stagnation is completely over.

What Japan will take next is the path of militarism.

Yes, that's the militaristic path!

Tokugawa Iemitsu felt that the word that suddenly flashed into his mind was very apt.

He took a deep breath and said to his trusted advisor Maeda Tomohide, "Send more spies to the Ming Dynasty."

"Have these people carry enough silver, and once they arrive in the Ming Dynasty, they should immediately begin to bribe local officials and people to extract as much information as possible from them."

"If the Ming Dynasty is unwilling to teach us then, we will learn it ourselves."

Maeda Tomohide suddenly straightened up: "Hi!"

Not content with that, Tokugawa Iemitsu continued, "And then there's Korea."

"The Ming Dynasty has just occupied Korea, and the Korean people must be instable. Sending more spies from Korea might be more effective."

Maeda Tomohide: "Hi!"

As for the twenty million taels that were just borrowed by the Ming Dynasty.

Tokugawa Iemitsu hadn't considered whether the Ming Dynasty would repay the principal and interest on schedule two years later.

His ideas in this regard are rather simple.

The Ming emperors had already guaranteed the debt with their own reputations, and the two countries had even signed a formal letter of credence. How could the Ming Dynasty possibly renege on its promise?

Surely they don't have any international credibility at all?
By the time the Ming Dynasty was due to repay the debt, Japan would likely have undergone tremendous changes.

Once they've collected all the money here, including interest, they'll immediately launch an attack on the Ming Dynasty!

Japan will eventually become more powerful than the Ming Dynasty.

the other side.

Chen Jisheng, who had already boarded the ship, didn't pay much attention to the dark mass of Japanese people bending down on the shore.

Sending troops to annihilate Japan two years later was a national policy that His Majesty had already decided on before his departure.

Their task is to help His Majesty keep a close eye on Korea for the next two years.

As for what tricks Japan might pull during this time, let them be.

The Ming Dynasty is now surrounded by enemies; what does Japan amount to?

After the silver-carrying ships had sailed away from the Japanese coastline, Chen Jisheng summoned several of his attendants and said:

"You should first take a fast ship to Korea and inform His Majesty in advance of the silver that has been raised and the possible changes that may occur on the Japanese side."

"Yes!" the subordinate replied and left.

One day later.

Inside the capital of North Korea.

The advance team sent by Chen Jisheng traveled a long way and returned to North Korea around noon the next day.

Once in town.

He quickly shared the good news that he had raised the money with Mao Wenlong and the others.

Upon hearing this news, the generals and officials of Dongjiang Town finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Without any delay, everyone immediately reported the matter to Zhu Youjian.

After listening to the report, Zhu Youjian, who was in the imperial palace, immediately made detailed arrangements on how to use the money.

For North Korea at present, the most pressing issue is the border issue with the Later Kim dynasty.

This was prepared in advance.

Spending a few million taels of silver would naturally allow one to raise an army to guard the pass.

The remaining silver was used to improve people's livelihoods and win over the hearts of the people.

Zhu Youjian had extremely rich experience in this area.

He began to tell everyone his story, which left them all stunned.

Such as using the name of the Ming Dynasty to carry out large-scale infrastructure construction in Korea to stabilize employment.

By massacring the landlord class, they achieved a redistribution of wealth and incidentally shifted the blame for all the previous problems in North Korea onto these people.

They expanded military equipment factories, then took the opportunity to promote war ideology and launch a massive attack on North Korea's several defeats in the past two years in order to incite public anger.
Although everyone has heard of these kinds of operations.

However, when His Majesty recounts it in detail, it always gives them a sense of awe that transcends the times.

Upon hearing these measures, everyone couldn't help but engage in a heated and excited discussion.

Looking at the people in front of him, Zhu Youjian nodded.

Although this ruling team has no real experience governing such a large territory as North Korea.

However, as long as the leaders are proactive enough and have a sufficiently correct governing attitude, governing North Korea is not a difficult task.

And these people have neither of these two things in abundance.

Therefore, it was to be expected.

Even after he leaves North Korea, North Korea will continue to develop steadily as he envisioned.

Until it became an important stronghold against the Later Jin, and another important port for the Ming Dynasty to access the sea.

Mao Wenlong also realized something at this moment.

After a pause, he tentatively asked, "Your Majesty, are you preparing to leave Korea?"

Zhu Youjian nodded: "I cannot stay in Korea for long." "After I leave, Korea will be in your hands. I believe you will make Korea a true part of my Great Ming as soon as possible."

Such a simple sentence brought tears to the eyes of Mao Wenlong and the others.

Mao Wenlong took a deep breath, composed himself, and asked, "Your Majesty, when do you plan to depart, and from where do you intend to return to the capital?"

Zhu Youjian: "After a few days when Korea has initially gotten back on track, I will return to Beijing via the same route from Shandong."

For Zhu Youjian

The longer you stay in North Korea, the more firepower it will attract from powerful families and clans across the country.

This will bring many unnecessary changes to North Korea.

This is something Zhu Youjian did not want to see.

So waiting another week or so will be about the limit.

Mao Wenlong hesitated and said, "Your Majesty, if we return via the same route from Shandong, we will likely encounter many obstacles."

"Should we take a safer route?"

Zhu Youjian: "No need."

He knew, of course, that the powerful families in Shandong were already plotting something and waiting for him.

But he doesn't care.

The current situation is as follows.

No matter which route you choose to return to Beijing, you will encounter obstacles, and the troubles you will likely face will be even more severe.

That being the case.

Then it would be better to choose a province that you are relatively familiar with and that you have weakened several times.

As for what problems he might encounter on his way back to the capital from Shandong, Zhu Youjian had no idea.

He is not a god, after all.

It is impossible to know and predict exactly what will happen next.

But the way to deal with it then is simply to meet force with force and water with water.

We should respond to each move as it comes.

On the road to the empire's advancement, it is inevitable to encounter various stumbling blocks, large and small.

He would grind these stones into powder one by one.

Upon hearing this, Mao Wenlong stopped offering advice and instead nodded solemnly, saying:

"After we finish dealing with the affairs of the Korean border in the next few days, we will escort Your Majesty to Shandong together!"

Everything went exactly as Zhu Youjian had predicted.

Shandong region at this moment.

Kong Yinzhi, Zhang Zhuo, and Tian Hong were secretly plotting together in a coastal border city.

The ultimate goal of the three's conspiracy.

They were still racking their brains trying to figure out how to get rid of Zhu Youjian and the imperial lackeys in the imperial procession so that the Ming Dynasty could be overthrown.

To restore a bright and just world to the Ming Dynasty, where imperial power and aristocratic families jointly governed the country.

Just days after the imperial procession arrived in North Korea, they had already created more than 100,000 disaster victims in Shandong by breaching the dikes.

They attempted to use this to coerce the imperial procession to stop in Shandong, and then seize the opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to the imperial procession.

But now.

The three men felt that the mere hundred thousand or so disaster victims in Shandong were not enough.

Because they had heard that the imperial procession had destroyed the country of Korea in just a few days after arriving there!
Although this involves some despicable fraudulent activities.

But undeniably, the emperor's methods truly terrified them.

If the emperor was capable of eliminating Yi Jong and occupying Korea in just a few days, how could he not handle the plight of hundreds of thousands of disaster victims?!

Tens of thousands of disaster victims sounds like a lot.

But in reality, it was just that a few counties were flooded, resulting in so many people being affected.

The actual number of those who starved to death was only ten or twenty thousand, or even less.

Think of this.

Even Kong Yinzhi, who is usually the most composed and calm, couldn't help but feel his chest heaving violently.

He originally thought that the emperor's trip to Korea would only involve conquering a few cities to intimidate Yi Jong, but he never expected things to develop like this.

If the emperor really returns and finishes dealing with all the disaster victims, will these three families still be able to survive?!

Li Zong was killed simply for outwardly complying but inwardly disobeying, but these people were essentially openly attempting to assassinate the king!

Without even thinking about it, it's definitely going to be a disaster!
Therefore, in order to save his own life and that of his entire family, the emperor had to die.

Or rather, we absolutely cannot let the emperor successfully deal with those disaster victims!
Kong Yinzhi clenched his fists, his gaze turning sinister as he looked at Tian and Zhang.

"These lowly people are definitely not enough to truly stop His Majesty's advance. If he manages to free up his hands again, then our three families will be completely finished!"

"So what do you plan to do?" Tian and Zhang asked in unison, their voices filled with urgency.

This matter concerns the lives and livelihoods of the entire clan, and cannot be taken lightly.

Kong Yinzhi took a deep breath: "Break the river dikes in fifteen more counties, then order the surrounding county governments not to provide any assistance to these disaster victims, and secretly send a group of people disguised as rioters to starve them to death."

"At the same time, we must continue to use psychological warfare tactics, constantly spreading the message among the crowd that the breach of the river dam was caused by the emperor's bloodthirstiness and tyranny, thus shifting all the blame to the emperor."

"Only in this way can we leave the emperor completely helpless after he returns to Shandong!"

Tian Hong and Zhang Zhuo's faces twitched; they couldn't help but feel a little alarmed by Kong Yinzhi's vicious scheme.

The dikes in fifteen more counties were breached.

That means that this will instantly create hundreds of thousands more disaster victims in Shandong, of which the number of those who will die of starvation will reach more than 100,000.

This is a very scary number.

But that wasn't the real reason they were alarmed.

A mere few hundred thousand troublemakers.

All these troublemakers' lives combined.

How can anything compare to a single hair from a family's century-old legacy?

What they were worried about was...

What if bringing so many disaster victims out escalates the situation and becomes difficult to manage?
Kong Yinzhi seemed to have read their minds and continued speaking:
"Once the emperor dies, all the blame can be placed on him."

“They are just commoners. Once we vent our anger, even if another batch of people starve to death, they won’t easily cause trouble. Besides, the powerful families in other provinces will definitely support us then.”

“We only need to spend a little money to gather these refugees together, and we can also take the opportunity to earn a good reputation for our families and leave our mark in history.”

Tian and Zhang narrowed their eyes slightly, pondering the gains and losses in their hearts.

After a moment, Tian Hong asked, "What if the emperor doesn't pass through Shandong on his return? Wouldn't all our efforts have been in vain?"

Kong Yinzhi shook his head: "If the emperor wants to return to the capital, he will simply pass through the provinces of Liaodong, Hebei, and Shandong."

“If you agree to do this, we will immediately send secret messages to the other two provinces.”

"The military strength in Hebei and Liaodong is much greater than that in Shandong. If the emperor chooses to return to the capital from there, as long as we have them prepare in advance, we can join forces to thwart them!"

"Given the prevailing trend, they will inevitably do their best."

"And once the emperor dies, everything will proceed as we predicted!"

After frowning and pondering for a while, Tian Hong and Zhang Zhuo exchanged a glance.

Finally, he nodded slightly.

Debriding the river embankments in fifteen more counties is currently the most feasible and optimal solution for Shandong province.

The only cost of this was the creation of a few hundred thousand more disaster victims.

It's more cost-effective and easier to use than other methods.

As for how miserable those displaced disaster victims will ultimately be, that's no one to blame but these powerful and wealthy families.

Blame the emperor.

It's all because that damned emperor has no sense of benevolence or morality that things have developed to this point.

These powerful and influential families were also victims!
No wonder they did it!
(End of this chapter)