Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 79 Tributary Kingdom

Bai Mingxiu led the fleet to leave Timor Island, headed northward, passed through the Maluku Islands, and stopped at Hele in the Sulu Islands for a temporary rest.The Sulu Islands now belong to the Sulu Kingdom. This country has historical friendship with Ming Dynasty.

During the Yongle period, King Sulu came to China with a large delegation of 340 people and was received by Zhu Di.When King Sulu was about to return home via the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, he died of illness in Dezhou, Shandong. His eldest son finally returned to Sulu to take over as king, while his queens and two sons stayed in China, and finally slowly He was naturalized as a Chinese, with two surnames, Qu'an and Wen.

After the Spanish colonists began to colonize Luzon, they also invaded Sulu many times, but they were finally defeated by the Sulu people.Historically, the Kingdom of Sulu finally came to an end at the end of the 19th century.

This country has long been in awe of the Central Plains dynasty. When it was known that the Crown Prince of Nanming was leading a fleet to return to the country to defeat the Tatars, the king of Sulu even came to Semporna in person to meet with the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty to supervise the country.

Even if it was not because of the historical relationship between the two countries, but because of the huge fleet led by Bai Mingxiu and the [-] elites, King Sulu did not dare to disrespect Bai Mingxiu.

The soldiers and sailors of the Restoration Army of the Ming Dynasty swaggered off the ship to rest. As a small tropical island country, Sulu is small and poor. Its capital, Hele, looks like a small fishing village, and there is nothing decent about it. The fishermen were a little afraid of the black Chinese soldiers, but the military discipline of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army was still very good, and there was no rebellion by soldiers.

On the other hand, some soldiers exchanged various trinkets with the local villagers for pearls, tortoise shells and other ancient jewelry. The officers did not stop them, but they gave orders not to take advantage of them.Everyone knows that His Royal Highness is strict in governing the army, and no one dares to mess around under the nose of His Royal Highness.

The Kingdom of Sulu had three kings, of which the king of Edom was the most powerful.This time, in order to meet Bai Mingxiu, the three kings came together.

After some very stylized greetings, King Su Ludong said to Bai Mingxiu: "...His Royal Highness, Su Lu has paid tribute to Ming Dynasty for generations and respected China. But since decades ago, the Spaniards have repeatedly attacked us and killed us. Many of us have robbed us of many of our belongings. We want to ask the powerful Ming Dynasty to understand the pain of the small country of Sulu, help us defeat the Spaniards, restore the tranquility of this land, and the people's living and working in peace and contentment."

Bai Mingxiu was a little surprised, but he also understood it in his heart.Su Lu's previous understanding of Ming Dynasty was that it was a powerful country on the mainland, but the tribute itself was just to curry favor and take some benefits from the Central Plains Dynasty by the way.King Sulu visited China during the Yongle period. It must be that Sulu saw the powerful Zheng He fleet, so he felt admiration and awe.

In the next 100 years, Sulu did not pay tribute again, so this matter was put down.But now it happened that the prince of Ming Dynasty led a powerful army passing by, so the dead horse was treated as a living horse doctor.

Bai Mingxiu thought for a moment and said: "Everyone, although the Ming Dynasty is at the center of the world, educating the people with its kingly ways and intimidating foreign vassals with its might and virtue, Sulu did pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, but it has not paid tribute again in the past hundred years. Your feudal lord The imperial edict is still from the period of Emperor Yongle of our dynasty. To obtain the protection of our Ming Dynasty, we must first clarify our status. Sulu needs to regain the status of a tributary state of our Ming Dynasty, sign a formal alliance with our country, and obtain the protection of our Ming Dynasty Emperor With the new edict, we have to bear the corresponding responsibilities and obligations, so that we, Ming Dynasty, have corresponding obligations to protect our foreign tributary states."

King Sulu Dong said hurriedly: "Do you want to sign a covenant? We are willing!"

Bai Mingxiu smiled and said: "Don't be busy now. This tribute covenant is relatively complicated. You should read the contents one by one before making a decision. I won't stay in Sulu for too long, but after that Our merchant ships will come to Sulu for trade, and envoys from the Ministry of Rites will discuss it further with you."

When Bai Mingxiu was in Australia, he actually started to design a new diplomatic model for Ming Dynasty.There are many people who are brightly dressed, most of them are killing Tartars and becoming emperors. There are also many people who think of setting up colonies, but Bai Mingxiu has a bigger structure. What he hopes to establish is the Ming Dynasty. The world structure in the center is just like what the United States did after World War II.

He has no reason to establish a world system in which all countries are equal under the United Nations structure similar to later generations, because this simply does not apply to the current situation.There are no states in many places, and the methods of governance are primitive.The conquerors of the West could not understand human language, only gold and cannon.

Therefore, in Bai Mingxiu's view, the tributary system actually still has its own vitality, which can be further developed.

Colonies like Myanmar were directly wiped out if they disliked Ming Dynasty.Bai Mingxiu can directly establish the Department of Propaganda and Consolation for governance. Under the circumstances of good order and good governance, he can also achieve development and slowly integrate into the Ming system.As for a country like Sulu, which is too troublesome to eat, it would be very appropriate to make it a foreign vassal.

The tributary system designed by Bai Mingxiu has many, many regulations, and is almost completely different from the old tributary system:
First of all, the tributary state recognized the Ming Empire as its suzerain state, and the replacement of its head of state and government had to be granted and approved by the Ming Dynasty.Moreover, the suzerain status of Ming Dynasty and the guidance of the government of the tributary state must be included in the constitution.If there is no constitution, Daming can help create one.

Secondly, citizens of the Ming Dynasty can freely enter and leave the tributary country, do business, produce, live, and buy property in the tributary country.For the trade of the Ming business traveler in the tributary country, the customs duties of the tributary country are assisted by the Ming Customs.In the future, if there are a large number of tributary states unified in the Ming Empire, a customs union can be established to implement unified tariffs and form a unified market.

Relatively, residents of tributary countries can also come to Daming for business, production, living and property purchase, and the tariffs for trade are higher than those of ordinary foreign countries.

Thirdly, the Ming army has the right to use the logistics facilities of the tributary countries and conduct operations such as garrisoning and drills.The tributary countries were obliged to cooperate with the Ming Dynasty in military operations, and the Ming Dynasty also assumed the protection of the tributary countries.

It seems that the core process of paying tribute is not important in the entire covenant.Bai Mingxiu would not let Da Ming suffer. When the tributary country pays tribute, Da Ming's gift in return must be equal in value, even if it exceeds, it cannot exceed a lot.

People often think that paying tribute to China is a loser, but in actual practice, the Chinese emperor always prevents tributary countries from coming. He also calls it sympathizing with the long journey and the long journey, but in fact he just wants to give less money.In fact, even if the rebate is given, it actually looks like there are more goods.

People at that time once said: "Today, the tributes from the barbarians are only of their reputation, and most of them are sloppy. And the silks, silks, boots and hats given by the imperial court are especially unsatisfactory." The imperial court gave me some silk and silk fabrics to express my opinion. That's it.

When Bai Mingxiu came here, the tribute was completely turned into a matter of etiquette.

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(End of this chapter)