eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 845 What the Emperor really cares about

Zhu Houzhao was already very good at using some means to control the people below him in the court.

In fact, his energy is not mainly here.

The smuggling of official silver is indeed a big deal, but with a little handling, Zhang Cong can be forced to solve it himself.

The governor of Sichuan was also considered an important official, but after Zhu Houzhao was confirmed, he wanted to avoid the trouble of letting him come to the capital to stir up trouble.

Regarding the Shandong matter, Liu Jian didn't just change his mind in the past two days. It would be no problem to delay him for a few months.

Xinjiang Yang Yiqing is also seeking support from the court. Zhu Houzhao can adopt his suggestions and further explain the future layout to him.

The vassal restructuring will not pose much of a challenge.

In fact, above all these things, there are more macroscopic and decisive events, which Zhu Houzhao is really concerned about.

There are several.

One of them is that he wants to gradually deconstruct some kind of 'disdain' for borderlands and deserted areas in traditional Confucian culture.

Different from our modern thinking, for a long time in ancient times, our ancestors refused to include Xinjiang in their territory. The reasons were very straightforward: the distance was far away, the land was barren, and the cost of garrisoning was too high.

If you think about it carefully, this is not completely wrong. After all, with the technical conditions and social development level at that time, it was impossible to forcibly expand the territory and maintain military garrison in a particularly large area. Secondly, it would be a drag on the central government's finances. .

It needs to be understood that the road to disorderly expansion of an empire is also the road to destruction.

The reason why modern China has a vast territory is that the foundation was laid by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Zhu Houzhao had to think about how to solve the territorial issue if there was no Manchu Qing Dynasty.

In fact, it was the Ming Dynasty, the last Han dynasty. Even the Hetao Plain was not part of its territory for a long time. Where is that place? This is today's Baotou City. That's okay.

If that's not straightforward enough, is it conceivable that parts of the Yellow River are outside the country?

Even for the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, it was because the Junggar tribe was too powerful and threatened it that the three generations of emperors from Kangxi, Yongzong and Qianlong launched a century-long war with them.

It just so happened that Emperor Qianlong was an emperor who enjoyed great achievements. When not talking about the Manchu and Han ethnic issues, this guy was more imperial than Han. Therefore, he tried his best to conquer the northern Xinjiang and then the southern Xinjiang under the pressure of the courtiers.

Especially when it came to pacifying southern Xinjiang, most of the ministers were opposed to it.

However, even he was limited by the times. For example, the Kazakh Khanate proposed to submit to the Qing Dynasty, but he refused.

Of course there are other factors to consider.

But more importantly, the Celestial Kingdom in the center of the world looks down upon the barren land outside the Central Plains.

This is a value that is deeply rooted in our bones.

How can this value be changed? Isn't thinking about and solving this problem more important than arresting two corrupt officials and handling a case? And he has already come to some conclusions.

Fundamentally, the solution lies in three words: 'industrialization'.

Because of industrialization, the production level could be greatly improved, and the large amount of material output forced Ming Dynasty to quickly expand the market.

At that time, invasion was not called aggression, but bringing modern civilization to backward areas.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao attached great importance to every factory established in the Ming Dynasty, and he has been encouraging geniuses to lift the veil of industrialization as soon as possible.

But this won't happen overnight. He really doesn't know how to build a steam engine.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there are no other options besides this.

For example, Zhu Houzhao has emphasized many times among officials that the world has entered an era of great strife. On the basis of constructing the concept of nation, he also proposed that the nation should strive for better conditions for its own nation in this era of great strife. Lots of living space.

This is the Ming Dynasty version of opening your eyes to see the world. It needs to be done over a long period of time and has to be done all the time. But it was not enough, because it lacked the urgency and urgency of the late Qing Dynasty.

A more realistic approach is that although Ming Dynasty was not industrialized, it had a market logic brought about by commercial development.

It is driven by the interests of sea trade, but this trick works well at sea because the scale of sea trade is very large, while the scale of land trade has not been large due to the continuous war in Central Asia.

At present, Yang Yiqing still supports the imperial court's use of troops abroad. This is because he has always been strong, and at the same time, some interests in Xinjiang have been affected.

But when those benefits are brought to the court and viewed from the perspective of the entire country, they cannot be used.

If we really want to fight west again, it's not impossible, but in a war, you can't guarantee that you will always win.

For the distant Central Asia region, according to the current concept of officials, once the war is blocked or simply costs too much, problems will arise.

——At the end of the day, their bottom line for giving up there would be very low.

That's why Zhu Houzhao racked his brains and used a low-cost method of proxy war.

There are two completely different methods in the southeast and northwest directions. There are reasons for this, and they are logical reasons that meet our own needs.

In addition to the commercial aspect, profit-driven development also has an agricultural aspect.

Central Asia is deserted, but what about other good places? Can Daming really refuse?

The Philippines is a rice-growing country in modern times, and the central plain of Luzon Island has always been somewhat attractive to the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao will continue to follow this path.

If a piece of barren land is taken away, they will be indifferent. If a piece of fertile land with millions of acres is taken away, they will not respond. Then Zhu Houzhao can only spread his hands: I tried my best.

In the Nanyang region, in addition to Luzon, which is a good place, there is an even richer island of Java not far away.

It was the island where the city of Jakarta was later located.

The area of ​​Java Island is not ranked among the islands at all. It is only 13 square kilometers, but such a large place has the top four cities in Indonesia concentrated, and half of the country's population lives there.

You know, Indonesia has a total of 191 million square kilometers of land. The neighboring island of Kalimantan covers an area of ​​74 square kilometers and the island of Sumatra covers an area of ​​47 square kilometers, but the combined population of both is not as large as that of Java.

Why?

Because the land is barren and the natural conditions are not good. These two large islands are tropical rainforests. Even the tropical rainforests are large plains, and they are parallel plains. A large amount of rain has washed away the soil, resulting in no fertility at all. It is very difficult to develop even modern technology, and the most you can do is to do some sightseeing and tourism.

The Brazilian Amazon rainforest is inaccessible even in modern times. The La Plata Plain to the south is a good place, and it is as big as five North China Plains.

But now I can only be greedy.

The natural conditions of the accessible Java Island are also very good. There are a large number of active volcanoes on this island. The volcanic ash periodically fertilizes the land, making the land very fertile. You can grow rice, corn, tea, peanuts, cane sugar, kapok, coffee, tea, tobacco, rubber, sugar cane, coconut... the list can go on as long as you can think of it.

This is a tangible concept of territory. In fact, within the invisible economic space, there is another way for the central dynasty to raise the bottom line of abandoning a certain area.

It's currency.

The four words "currency reform" have been lingering in Zhu Houzhao's mind for more than 20 years.

This is the real big problem.

On the third day after arriving at the palace, after some chores were taken care of, Zhu Houzhao began to cook small stoves for his ministers.

The currency issue was brought back to the forefront.

Before formally adopting any policy, he must first reach a consensus with his close ministers, and by the 20th year of Zhengde, many knowledgeable people could give more profound suggestions. Zhu Houzhao has learned this many times. .

Therefore, he does not have the arrogance of modern people, which may also be related to the fact that he is not an expert in a certain field.

The ministers were used to it. Emperor Zhengde often summoned ministers, and even if it was not for a specific government matter, he would often discuss it, probably today.

Including the three elders of the cabinet, Zhang Cong, Gu Renyi, and Wang Tingxiang.

As well as Jiang Yong, the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu, Gui E, the Minister of the Ministry of War, Jin Gui, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Wang Qiong, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Zhang Zilin, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Zhou Zheng, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment.

Yan Song, the Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Officer, Fan Yuchang, the Shaofu Ling, and Xing Guan, the Minister of Industry.

In addition to these people, there are three attendants in the attendant's room.

It can be said that the lineup is huge.

As for the ministers of Dali Temple and general political envoys, they were all left in the capital by the emperor.

The palace can be relatively casual, including some words Zhu Houzhao can directly say. These important ministers of the country sit in the pavilion along the long curved wooden chairs set up along the railings.

The emperor himself was much freer, "We have gotten along with each other for many years and have gotten to know each other. Looking at the movements of this group of ministers, I can tell that it is not for any specific court affairs. There is nothing major now, and the country's situation is good. Yes, but I don’t want to be Tang Xuanzong.”

"The emperor is diligent in political affairs, which is indeed a blessing to the clan and the people." Gu Renyi still admires the emperor very much on this point.

In his view, the emperor was a ruthless political puppet, and he was not interested in many other things.

For example, some emperors liked alchemy, Buddha worship, calligraphy and painting, etc., but the emperor resisted them all. The happiest thing was to win another battle.

"This is not a palace. Let's relax and speak freely. As for today's topic, it is the word currency. I will start by offering some suggestions, but I have to say in advance that what I, including each of you, say today does not represent the policy of the imperial court. Although the golden words are true, national affairs cannot be decided by just talking and patting your head. With this premise, you should feel relieved, right?"

After hearing this, everyone became relaxed and said, "Please give me your Majesty's permission."

"In fact, many years ago, I have always said that it was probably time to sail under the sea ban. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was short of silver, so I advocated opening up trade and allowing the people of the Ming Dynasty to exchange porcelain and silk for the silver they lacked. However, from a higher perspective, items have their uses and values. But silver and gold can neither be eaten nor worn, so what are they used for? To put it more extreme, when a natural disaster occurs, food is Is it useful, or is gold and silver useful? When a war breaks out, are weapons and their raw materials useful, or are gold and silver useful? How should gold and silver, or currency, be understood?"

This question is actually somewhat convoluted.

But this corner must be rounded. It has been 20 years of Zhengde. The silver brought by trade in the past 20 years has poured into the Ming Dynasty crazily, and Japan, the treasure island, is in its hands.

If we don't try to take measures and wait until the price of silver depreciates and people's living costs increase, if something goes wrong, it will be not only more difficult but also more expensive to go back and try to remedy the situation.

(End of this chapter)