Chongzhen Chat Group

For these desperadoes, as long as there are enough benefits, who cares who they work for!

Emperor Chongzhen knew this very well. Therefore, after he heard that Wang Chengen, the admiral of Dongchang, came back to report, he nodded and said: "When they have learned half of the lesson, you can let them wander around the capital and let them know about the Ming Dynasty." Prosperity, but also know that only with money can you live a better life!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" After hearing this, Wang Chengen nodded repeatedly and respectfully echoed.

Regarding his flattery, Emperor Chongzhen didn't say much, and just explained: "While they were studying, people stared at their every word and deed. I believe that Dongchang should have a discerning eye and be able to spot these people." What do you think? When the time comes, if I want to use them, I will only use those who perform well, do you understand?"

"This slave obeys the order!" Wang Cheng'en heard this and quickly said, "This slave must send elite soldiers to secretly watch their every move."

Then, seeing that Emperor Chongzhen had no more instructions, he retreated to arrange things.

Emperor Chongzhen also summoned Liu Xingzuo, the commander of the Jinyiwei, and gave him the information confessed by the Spanish, including the basic situation of the Spanish, the Pacific and Atlantic routes, and the situation in North and South America, and asked him to study it carefully.

In addition, according to the impressions of later generations, Emperor Chongzhen told Liu Xingzuo his initial thoughts. He planned to send a fleet of about fifty warships at once under the leadership of these Spaniards to establish strongholds on the coastline of North America, and then Contact Mexico again.

"Your Majesty, are these Spaniards trustworthy?" Liu Xingzuo did not agree, but put forward his own opinion.

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen explained with a smile: "It should be almost done. When we turn around, let them go to the naval base to have a look and let them understand how powerful our Ming Navy is. That will be enough!"

Not to mention the number of warships that the Ming Dynasty already had at this time, Emperor Chongzhen decided to send fifty warships just for the first time across the Pacific. Such a scale was rare among the fleets of Europeans leaving their homeland. . Only an empire as huge as the Ming Dynasty could have this strength. Seduced by interests and shocked by strength, if those Spaniards are still rebellious, they will really be the conscience of Europe.

After arranging this matter, Emperor Chongzhen entered the chat group and asked about money and wealth.

On the Japanese side, the coalition forces headed by the remnants of the Japanese captives were already engaged in a vigorous war with the Tokugawa shogunate.

After the remnants of the Japanese invaders attacked Honshu, they have been using lightning speed to expand their results and strive to attack Iwami Ginzan. When they reached a place not far from Iwami Ginzan, the Tokugawa shogunate understood the intention of the remnants of the captives, and quickly gave up on the enemies of the four countries, and mobilized troops to surround them.

However, at the beginning, the Tokugawa shogunate's army was still defeated in consecutive battles and could not withstand the attacks of the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. According to Qian Fugui's report, combined with what Emperor Chongzhen himself learned about the situation, there are several reasons why the battle situation is like this.

First, these remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are elites who are accustomed to fighting with the Ming Dynasty. Their brave fighting style and physical advantages give them a great advantage against the Japanese dwarfs.

Second, the main force of Japan was actually infantry equipped with matchlock guns. However, the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had already figured out how to deal with firearms during the war with the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the inefficiency of the matchlock gun did not cause much harm to the remaining Qing Dynasty soldiers.

Third, because the Tokugawa shogunate usurped the throne and seized power, they were afraid that other daimyo would follow suit, so starting from the first generation Tokugawa Ieyasu, they tried their best to suppress other daimyo. Those powerful daimyo in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's era had been almost weakened by the Tokugawa Shogunate by this time. We can know from the original history of the Shimabara Rebellion that the Tokugawa shogunate sent over 100,000 troops to suppress the Catholic rebellion for the first time, but ended up being defeated. The second time it entangled the army, it was unable to surround the Catholic army. Only with food can the suppression be considered successful. Its combat power is evident from this.

Fourth, the army of the Tokugawa Shogunate was composed of troops sent by daimyo from various places. If the war goes smoothly, there won't be any problem. However, once they faced the might of the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the daimyo from all over the country became cautious. No one wanted to fight to the death on their own and sacrifice their own strength for the Tokugawa shogunate.

Therefore, when the allied forces of the remnants of the Manchu Qing fought until near Iwami Ginzan, the Tokugawa shogunate's army finally withstood its offensive and stood firm. The fight was able to be like this thanks to the fact that the Tokugawa shogunate had not yet decayed and had adjusted its focus of operations. First, the navy was sent to re-block the strait, preventing subsequent enemies from Kyushu from entering Honshu Island. In addition, Tokugawa Iemitsu was also determined. Instead of losing Iwami Ginzan, it would be better to use some of it to challenge the daimyo from all over the world and work hard!

Of course, at this time, the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had reached the vicinity of Ishijian Yinshan in one fell swoop. They were also a little tired and needed to rest. The first reason for fighting so hard before was to take advantage of the situation before the Tokugawa shogunate reacted. Another reason is that Dorgon wants to save Dodo on Shikoku Island. Only if he fights hard in Honshu, the Tokugawa shogunate will not be able to take care of Dodo in Shikoku, so that Dodo can be safe.

In the current situation in Japan, the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are indeed accustomed to fighting and have already occupied a certain advantage.

However, something was beyond Emperor Chongzhen's expectation. When he asked Qian Fugui in private about his situation, he heard Qian Fugui reply: "Your Majesty, the Tokugawa shogunate has changed its tactics in recent days, which has given Dorgon a little headache. ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he asked curiously: "How to change the tactics?"

"The Tokugawa shogunate accumulated heavy troops on the front, but did not actively fight." Qian Fugui may have experienced it, and he was able to talk eloquently about the military aspect, "But it mobilized troops to strengthen the flanks and rear of the Qing Dynasty. The offensive seems to be specifically aimed at attacking the Catholic army, and some results have been achieved."

Having said this, he thought for a moment and added: "Those Catholic armies are actually just farmers. They can defend the city, but once they reach the wild, they are basically no match for the Tokugawa shogunate army. Dorgon is discussing, I want Hauge to come back and protect the flanks!"

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but smile, "Very good, I want this effect."

No matter how powerful the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are, their numbers are limited. Although this war was victorious, there was still a loss of personnel. Without the help of the Catholic army, the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty would be nothing more than rootless duckweeds. Even if the Japanese were defeated, they would not be able to rule.

With this in mind, he told Qian Fugui: "Just use Iwami Yinshan as bait to tell Hauge not to compromise until the Catholic army in the rear suffers heavy losses."

"Your Majesty, you don't need to persuade me to do this. Hauge himself doesn't want to leave." Qian Fugui quickly replied, "Hauge's eyes have also been set on Shi Jian Yinshan. When Dorgon asked him to come back for reinforcements, he I’ve already started scolding you, saying that I want to get rid of him if there are benefits, but he won’t do it!”

"Haha, that's good, let him do it!" Emperor Chongzhen ordered with a smile after hearing this. This Hauge is just a pig teammate, and he hasn't learned a single bit of Huang Taiji's shrewdness. It's okay to charge in battle, but when it comes to decision-making, it's just haha. If he hadn't helped him secretly, he would have been swallowed up by Dorgon long ago.

But for now, on the Japanese side, everything is going as planned, which is great!

Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen shifted his attention again and turned his attention to the Tang Dynasty. Nowadays, the only temporary enemies of Ming Dynasty are these two places.

He clicked on the Tang King's icon, chatted with him privately and asked, "Is there any movement over there in the Mughal Empire?"

"Back to Your Majesty, it's the same as before. He just said that I have a bad heart, and gave him a sky-high compensation amount, saying that he wanted to make me look good." The king of Tang replied with a smile, "But I sent him to the Mughal Empire. In detail, the main force of the Mughals is competing with the Persian Empire in the north for Kandahar, and it seems that there is a stalemate."

Emperor Chongzhen smiled after hearing this, "This is the best." After thinking about it, he explained to the King of Tang: "Bengal Province, we must take this opportunity to put more effort into management, and provide benefits to the poor and slaves. As for those who enjoyed the benefits during the Mughal Empire, we Ming Dynasty can’t give any more benefits, these people don’t have enough sincerity, so they will solve it as soon as possible.”

"Your Majesty is wise, I think so too." King Tang was overjoyed after hearing this.

In fact, he did have this idea before, because there were already ministers giving him suggestions. However, he was a little unsure and was afraid that the Bengal Province would be in chaos. But now that Emperor Chongzhen was backing him, he naturally became more courageous, no longer worried, and agreed immediately.

Emperor Chongzhen closed the private chat with Prince Tang, looked at Yang Sichang, but did not contact him.

On the other side of the Tianshan Mountains, the army that had previously pursued the remnants of Mobei had returned. Now the entire Tianshan area belongs to the Ming Dynasty. Guarded by Yang Sichang, Mangui led the army, reorganizing the Oirat tribes and building the city. There will be no war for the time being.

Calculating this, the next focus should be to govern the country well! When Ming's comprehensive strength reaches a higher level, it can expand again.

Emperor Chongzhen thought to himself, so he opened the chat group space and looked at the situation of editing household registrations in various places.

Under the household registration folder, there are multiple folders by province. Under the province, there are also sub-folders for prefectures, counties, townships, etc. Within each folder, there are specific subdivisions and a summary report document.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen clicked on it to read these summarized documents.

Before doing this, the registered population of Ming Dynasty had been around 50 million. Now, Emperor Chongzhen saw that there were more than 110 million registered, which was about doubled.

However, judging from the assessment, there should be more than 50 million that have not yet been registered. Most of these unregistered people fled into the mountains and forests, and a small number were hiding in foreign countries.

Emperor Chongzhen thought for a while, and then issued an order to go to the Wenhua Palace to recruit the ministers of the cabinet to discuss matters.

Not long after, all the assistant ministers of the cabinet in Beijing arrived at the Wenhua Hall.

Generally speaking, only important matters will be discussed in this way. Therefore, Wen Tiren and others were a little curious, wondering what was going on?

After seeing the ceremony, Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said to them: "My dear friends, I have thought about it, and now taking advantage of the implementation of the new household registration system in the Ming Dynasty, I plan to regulate marriages. From now on, the marital status of people in the Ming Dynasty will also be registered in Under the new household registration. Any marriage must be reported to the government and certified by a marriage certificate. Only in this way can it be protected by Ming law. Private contracts will not be recognized!"

These cabinet ministers never imagined that the emperor would say such words.

"Da Ming Law" stipulates that when a man and a woman are engaged to get married, they need to "accord with their wishes, write a marriage contract, and betrothal in accordance with etiquette."

The "Ming Huidian" also stipulates: "All marriages shall be officiated by the grandparents and parents. If there are no grandparents or parents, the marriage shall be officiated by the remaining relatives."

These are actually decided by the families of both men and women, and they are considered official. Corresponding to this, there is another type called private contract, which means that the woman's family is willing to enter into a marriage despite knowing that the man is old, young, disabled, dependent, or a concubine. Men and women make a marriage agreement on their own without the orders of their parents. This kind of private contract is not allowed by the government.

However, no matter which one it is, it has not been certified by the government, which means it has nothing to do with the government. In the original history, the earliest marriage certificate issued by the government in China was the Dragon and Phoenix Tie during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.

That is, within seven to ten days after the engagement, both parties should go to the local county government to receive the dragon and phoenix official title and pay taxes. The content on the post includes: the name and age of the betrothed, the names of the parents of both parties, the officiant and the matchmaker, and they all need to be signed and stamped to show solemnity. It is approved by the government and stamped with a big seal to prove that the marriage has been legalized.

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen did not bring up this matter to collect taxes.

Wen Tiren, the first assistant, was a little puzzled and reported to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, is it because you are escaping from marriage?"

There were drawbacks to the kind of marriage that happened in the past. Because after signing the marriage contract, you still have to welcome the bride, and this is the entire process. If the man runs away before the wedding, the woman will have to wait. Things like this are not uncommon. For this reason, during the Yuan Dynasty, there were regulations like this that if the marriage was not consummated for five years, it would become invalid. But in this way, the woman's five years of youth will be wasted.

In fact, not only Wen Tiren was puzzled, but other ministers were also puzzled.

The emperor is the most powerful person in the world. There are so many things in the world. Suddenly, just for such a trivial matter, he summoned the cabinet ministers to talk about it. They felt that this was too big a trivial matter. If you have this time, you might as well do more business at hand!

Your Majesty is good. He did not work diligently in the first two years after he ascended the throne, and became a hand-off shopkeeper. But we are busy! We are even busier!

Emperor Chongzhen saw their expressions and knew that they had misunderstood him just like Wen Tiren, so he smiled slightly.