New Shun 1730

Two and a half months after Batavia was renamed Coconut City, the guests invited by Liu Yu finally arrived.

The Dashun fleet made a round in Nanyang and announced the end of Dutch rule to various local small countries in a friendly manner.

So each country sent high-ranking nobles to Batavia, which was renamed Coconut City, to attend the banquet.

Most of those who came were real confidants such as kings, sultans, and rajas.

With colonists ruling next to them, unity is impossible, and internal fighting is the top priority. Now that Dashun has replaced the Netherlands, these kings, sultans, and rajas must first consider getting in touch with the new rulers.

This is forced by internal involution. If you don't make friends, those who are willing to overthrow you by a coup will make friends, and they will offer more conditions than you who sell out your country.

It is very common in Nanyang to be friendly with foreign countries rather than domestic slaves.

Seventy years ago, when the anti-Dutch uprising broke out, the Sultan of the Sultanate of Matalan borrowed troops to help suppress it, and immediately signed a tax-free treaty with the Dutch, ceding Semarang, Burangan and other places. He only wanted to completely wipe out the uprising army that was mobilized by the grassroots. The nobles are still nobles by relying on the Dutch, but if the peasants win, they will have nothing.

Now there is a new foreign force, and this new force is much stronger than the Dutch. In this case, it is quite similar to the prisoner's dilemma. If you don't sell your country, what if someone else sells it first?

Things have happened so many times that they have already formed a habit. Besides, although the people of various countries are oppressed by the Dutch colonial monopoly trade, the nobles' daily lives are actually okay.

Not to mention the exchange of spices for money, the nobles made a lot of money; let's say that many of the Dutch's brutal systems also made many nobles rich.

For example, the system of stealing people. The native princes and nobles sent people to capture children aged twelve or thirteen, and after catching them, they were raised in Sulawesi like pigs. When they were able to work at the age of fifteen or sixteen, and all the people who raised pigs were numb, learned absolute obedience and dared not resist, they were sold as slaves.

As for why they did not capture adults directly, it was because adults could run away, and they were not foreign slaves from Africa who were unfamiliar with the local area in America, and they could not be caught if they ran away.

The Chinese were mainly slave laborers, mainly with the help of residence permits and hard labor system, and tacitly allowed Chinese human traffickers to sell people. There were not many Chinese slaves, and the vast majority of Chinese slaves were debt slaves.

After reading Valkenir's introduction to the mess left by the Dutch, Liu Yu was always thinking about killing them all.

These people came here, on the one hand, to establish good relations with the new "colonizers" first; on the other hand, they also asked and tested the policies of Dashun to see if they would affect their continued wealth.

The Dutch left, and the Dutch system collapsed.

The Dutch have been here for more than a hundred years, and the entire Southeast Asian system revolves around the East India Company. Slave trade, spice trade, normal trade, tribute system, protectorate, surrender, whoever the Dutch support will succeed to the throne... all these things need to be solved by Dashun after the Dutch leave.

However, Liu Yu can't solve these problems at this time. Temporarily call these people here, mainly to let them go to Malacca, which is called "holding a pole and dancing, and having Miao to serve".

Suppress them first, and talk about the future later.

But if Dashun wants to rule Nanyang, we have to consider the political correctness of Dashun. There are some things that Dashun really can't do the same as the Dutch.

The Dutch don't care. They are neither an empire nor a republic. Everything is based on interests. They support whoever they want to support and whoever they want to support to rebel. There is no problem.

But Dashun can't do this.

Nanyang still has to maintain the form of tribute. Even if this tribute is different from the past tribute, some basic things cannot be changed.

Just like the classic scene where Wang Situ scolded Wu Hou.

Later generations felt that what Wang Situ said seemed to make sense, and Wu Hou was clearly going against the will of heaven.

However, at this time, and in the generations before this time, Wu Hou's words were fatal.

These words can be said by Li Yuanzhang and Zhu Zicheng, but you, Wang Situ, cannot say them. You were selected as a filial and honest official, and as a Han minister, no matter how reasonable your words are, your background determines that everything you do is wrong under the ideology and political correctness of the time.

Dashun has its own ideological system. This ideological system is related to the concept of the entire "world".

The emperor knew that there were many benefits, but he could not support the rebels of a vassal. Because the etiquette itself is the most important benefit for the royal family.

Although Dashun compares itself to Li Tang all day long and has the same surname Li, it is really different from Li Tang. At the very least, in the eight words of brotherly friendship and respectful younger brother, fatherly kindness and filial son, Dashun is far from Li Tang.

Moreover, the so-called "Zhu Wen destroyed Li Tang, and the Li family came to avenge the Zhu family" and other rhetoric were just rumors in the market, not official stuff. The official just tacitly allowed these rumors to spread, but no official said that this was the case.

The legitimate reason for obtaining the country is that the emperor does not cultivate virtue and protect the world's orthodoxy.

In this case, the problems of many small countries in Southeast Asia are difficult to deal with.

The Dashun would not openly support matters such as sons rebelling against their fathers, younger brothers killing their older brothers to become caliphs, and the law of succession by strong monarchs.

Just like the Korean issue back then, the Korean king was said to have died from his brother's ginseng soup, so some nobles started a coup, and Dashun could only support the Korean king, even if supporting the mutinous person seemed to have more benefits for Dashun, it was not possible.

One of the reasons why the Netherlands could not become a hegemon is that the Netherlands did not have its own consistent ideology and a complete concept of the Celestial Empire.

Even if the Netherlands insisted on free trade from the beginning and vowed to change the world's trade system, it would have the qualifications to be the Celestial Empire. But the Netherlands is profit-driven. If free trade is beneficial today, they will talk about free trade; if monopoly makes a lot of money tomorrow, they will talk about monopoly.

It is destined that the Netherlands can only be a powerful country for a while, not the Celestial Empire.

Dashun went to Southeast Asia, not Liu Yu went to Southeast Asia, nor Li Li went to Southeast Asia, but Dashun went to Southeast Asia. There is a whole set of ideology and political correctness in it, all of which are at least acceptable on the surface.

It is indeed difficult for Dashun to deal with the son opposing his father and the younger brother rebelling against his elder brother.

If you don't care about anything, is that called going to Southeast Asia? Are you kidding yourself?

No matter what, even if the son sells out the country more and the younger brother sells out the country better, you can only support your father and elder brother.

The Li family does not represent the interests of all Chinese, and the interests of all Chinese are also nonsense. The tax farmers in Batavia and the slave workers in the sugar factory in Batavia are all Chinese. Do they have the same interests?

The Li family represents the interests of the Li family after all. Etiquette and law are just tools to maintain their family rule. But this tool is still very useful at this time, and it is impossible for the emperor to oppose etiquette and law himself.

In this regard, the emperor has been tolerant enough to Nanyang. Just like the "Three Articles of the Law" in Batavia, many things are adapted to local conditions. There is a very common thing here, which is the issue of inheritance rights.

The inheritance law of Dashun must conform to the ideology of Dashun.

The order of succession in Batavia is based on the will first.

To give a simple example, a wealthy businessman in Batavia died, and he made a will, saying that all his property would be given to his concubine and the son born by the concubine. This was valid in Batavia. But in Dashun, whoever dared to judge this will valid would have his career end.

Nowadays, many of Batavia's policies continue from the past, which is already considered as the emperor's extrajudicial grace. If there really are a bunch of tributary countries in the Nanyang region, a coup today, a son rebelling against his father tomorrow, and a younger brother killing his older brother the day after tomorrow, this kind of thing will definitely not be supported by the Dashun court.

However, just like the Sultanate of Matalan, as the closest political entity to Coconut City in Java. Now the two sons of Sultan Amangulat IX of the Sultanate of Matalan have found Liu Yu and privately said, "My father is dying, I hope the Celestial Empire can support me to be the Sultan, and it would be best to do it in one step and let me be the Caliph of Southeast Asia directly. If we look for bloodline, our family can find the branch of the saint."

According to Liu Yu's thinking, he should be the bear who divides the meat, support both sides, and then say "don't fight, don't fight, half for each family", and divide the Mataram Sultanate into two.

But the Mataram Sultanate is too close to China, and it knows the Dashun way very well. It has seen pigs run even if it has not eaten pork, and has experienced tribute before. Although it was a long time ago, there is still experience.

The old Sultan Amangulat IX directly wrote to Liu Yu and Li Xi, and took this opportunity to present to the emperor that his eldest son was smart and wise, and hoped that the emperor could enthrone his eldest son as the crown prince.

This made it very difficult for Liu Yu to deal with it.

For such a matter, it is impossible not to pass this request to the emperor. And according to the political correctness of Dashun, this request is not a problem. Isn't it natural for the eldest son to inherit?

If the old sultan didn't know much about the Celestial Empire, or if he petitioned the emperor, hoping that the Celestial Empire would support his youngest son to inherit, the Celestial Empire would have a reason to interfere: You don't let the eldest son inherit, aren't you looking for trouble?

But now, based on the experience of dealing with the Celestial Empire hundreds of years ago and the understanding of the Celestial Empire culture by many Chinese tax farmers in China, they directly made such a scene: the eldest son, hoping that the Celestial Empire can confer a title, which makes the Celestial Empire speechless.

Or, you can confer a title, pretending to be the Celestial Empire, and do nothing if a rebellion breaks out in the future. Just like Ryukyu in the past, it was controlled by the Japanese for so long, but they didn't say a word and pretended not to know.

Or, if you confer a title, and there is a rebellion in the country in the future, will the Celestial Empire be responsible for your original title? If you don't care, the whole of Nanyang will see it, so the Celestial Empire's title is shit, who can take it seriously?

Dashun went to Nanyang, but Dashun didn't have Nanyang under the "Nanyang Monopoly Company" first. There is no political correctness in a company, as long as it makes money.

But Dashun first used the power of the imperial court to conquer Nanyang, and Nanyang, as the back garden of the Celestial Empire, must be subject to many controls.

The problem is that the tribute system is outdated.

This does not mean that the tribute system is not good, but that before the Portuguese entered Nanyang, the Celestial Empire was the largest consumer market, without a doubt.

But with the influx of Western Europeans, the Celestial Empire is no longer the largest consumer market, which has caused the entire Southeast Asian tribute system to collapse.

Southeast Asia is not Korea, not Vietnam.

The kings of Southeast Asia, whether called Sultan, Caliph, or Raja, are not in the Confucian system.

The ideology and religious beliefs are different. If the Celestial Empire cannot even be the largest consumer market, it is really not qualified to be the Celestial Empire.

Now that Dashun has come to Nanyang, the issue of force is really simple. As for the Dutch, in Liu Yu's words, if they were given eight battleships, or even a thousand soldiers, they would have taken over everything in two years after they had divided the sea control.

But military issues are not a problem at all in Nanyang.

Take the "stealing system" for example. Do the indigenous princes who captured children as slaves support the rule of the Dutch?

Of course they do.

They captured children and beat them for two years, so that they dared not resist and learned to obey. They could be sold for silver coins.

Now it's Dashun's turn. It's very simple and not difficult to defeat the Dutch.

However, does Dashun want slaves?

Let's not talk about Dashun. Slavery is an absolute political mistake. Dashun and even Ming can laugh at the world for this.

Let's say that there are a lot of landless peasants in Dashun's own country. They have nothing to do, so they might as well come to Nanyang as hired workers.

If Dashun doesn't want slavery, do the princes and nobles who benefit from the stealing system support Dashun?

Dashun doesn't want slaves, so I'll be a native prince, and my main income will be to capture children of my own ethnic group and raise them as slaves. Now that you've driven away the Dutch and don't want slaves, what will we who sell children do? Why can we support you?