Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2375: The Wind Within (Part )
When the news of Tumed's formal submission reached the capital, it was undoubtedly like a bolt from the blue, shocking many people, who were stunned and even suspected that they were hallucinating.

How could a powerful tribe like Tumed so easily express its willingness to submit to the imperial court? Was their situation really so critical? Could they reach a consensus among themselves? Could they just be testing the imperial court's attitude?

Various speculations arose at once. In the court, a large number of people tried to find out more about Gao Youshi's intentions through various means. They hoped to know more about the "inside story" - there must be something wrong when things are abnormal. Maybe there is something I don't know? But it doesn't matter if I don't know. Yuanfu is the "reincarnation of the Third Generation of Mingwang" recognized by Tumed. How could he not know?

God have mercy on me! Ever since the emperor was absent from work and the Imperial Household Department was closed, Gao Youshi has been so busy these past few months that he has no time to care about Tumed, whose political situation has always been stable, and what inside information does he know!
Through these waves of people who came to inquire about the news, he discovered another problem: he originally knew that Zhu Yijun had a certain degree of "Gao Practicality Dependence" and was optimistic about it, but it was not until today that he found out that the entire court had "Gao Practicality Dependence"?
If I were suddenly no longer at the helm, wouldn't the court lose even its basic sense of judgment? Are all of you nobles sleepwalking?
If Gao Youshi was really an ambitious person who intended to overthrow the emperor and plot to usurp the throne, then that would be fine. This situation was a great thing for him. The emperor and the officials could not do without him, so wouldn't he have an amazing chance of doing anything he wanted?
But the problem is that he was not an ambitious person, and he never intended to "seize the throne". He just wanted to cure the root cause of the Ming Dynasty from its mother's womb, and then try to come up with a system that was in line with the productivity level of the times and had a certain degree of forward-looking redundancy, so that the Ming Dynasty could get rid of its deformity and develop normally, and not let Chinese civilization take the detour of two or three hundred years... That's all.

As for what he did in southern Xinjiang, Southeast Asia, and even Japan and India, how do we explain it...

The former was to leave a way out for himself. After all, reformers often did not have a good end, and he did not want such a large family as the Gao family of Xinzheng to be buried with him; the latter was due to the inertia of development. When the power of Jinghua became too great to be reasonably digested internally, it would inevitably be exported. This was not something that he could control subjectively, but could only guide in a certain direction.

In a nutshell, he believed that under the political structure of the Ming Dynasty, changing the emperor would not make much difference. If it really happened, there would be great unrest and many people would die, but these people would die in vain and would not help the development of Chinese civilization.

On the contrary, if he built barriers in southern Xinjiang and Southeast Asia, he could offset the invasion of the European colonial frenzy and enable Chinese civilization to withstand the impact of Europe's strongest period after the Industrial Revolution. When Chinese civilization also transformed from an agricultural country to an industrial country, he, the "ancient man", would not need to consider the rest - as he said, China is the chosen country.

Why? Because of the vast land, great people and unity of purpose. This means abundant resources, sufficient population and unified culture.

This is the standard of a country chosen by God. Later experience tells Gao Youshi that only China has all three conditions.

America is rich in resources, and its population is barely enough, but it needs to be supplemented by immigrants. However, due to the high degree of internal class solidification, it is unwilling to accept too many truly high-quality immigrants. As a result, the quality of immigrants is getting worse and worse, and internal conflicts are becoming increasingly intensified. As for cultural integration... forget it, the left and right sides are fighting each other to the point of wishing that the other side would die on the spot;
Russia is rich in resources, but its population shortage is even more serious than that of the United States, and it is not a country that particularly welcomes immigrants. The fundamental reason is that the proportion of its main ethnic group is a bit dangerous. As for culture, it is also not unified. Although the proportion of self-proclaimed Orthodox Christians in the country exceeds 80%, many people just think that they are "related to the Orthodox Church". In fact, there are not only many sects with a high proportion, but also many atheists. Therefore, Russia can only be the Russian Federation, not the Russian Republic;
Europe... well, Europe has no major powers, and can't even show unity. It can be said that they are a group of upstarts formed by chance during the Industrial Revolution. When the rest of the world develops, they can only return to their rightful place in history. This will not be surprising in the long run.

Gao Gongshi even believes that Europeans' political thinking is only at the level of the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, so their scholars say that China is "politically precocious" after studying a little bit of Chinese history - Oh, you are stunted and you say I am precocious? China solved the problem of theocracy as early as the time of Zhou Gongdan, are you qualified to carry my shoes?
As for some people's concerns that India will be the "next China", forget it! A country whose caste system has only been abolished on paper but is still in force in reality, and whose domestic rule relies on stimulating sectarian conflicts to distinguish between "us and non-us", will always have a population in name only and will never be able to form a united force. Not to mention, India's resources are not actually abundant, and even the vital upstream water sources are controlled by China.

If India really has strategists, they should be very clear that China and India are not on the same level. The reason why India seems to have some voice, in addition to its population, is actually just because India likes to jump, while China is often more willing to show weakness to the enemy.

Many people are quite disdainful of "showing weakness to the enemy", but they probably don't know that "showing weakness to the enemy" is the manifestation of being ready to take action at any time. Just like many people in later generations believed that the Xuanwu Gate Incident was a sudden conflict that Li Shimin had to have with Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, but they didn't know that what they thought was "the two sides were evenly matched" was actually deliberately fabricated by Li Shimin after he became emperor.

From the elite troops across the country to the elite troops in Guanzhong, and then to the garrison in Chang'an City, all were in Li Shimin's hands. All the famous generals in the court were also his, Li Shimin's men. Even before the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Li Yuan and several prime ministers had been "invited" by Yuchi Gong to "boat" in the lake... Do you say that this situation is that Li Shimin's group and the alliance of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji are evenly matched?

Why did Li Shimin want to make the later generations think that he was forced, and that his strength was the same as his brothers? Because Li Shimin was smart! He knew that public opinion always subconsciously favored the weak, subconsciously favored the "innocent party", so he had to make himself look not so strong, and look like he was forced into a corner by the other side... So, is there any need to be more straightforward about the China-India issue?
It is precisely because you are strong that you have to "give in" again and again, because only in this way will your final "intolerance" appear reasonable and will not arouse condemnation from the whole world.

At this time, some people may say: As long as I am strong enough, it doesn't matter if the world blames me. I can defeat ten people with my strength. I will beat anyone who opposes me.

Yes, you can do this, but as a ruler, that means you have to spend a lot of power on meaningless consumption. Just like Napoleon's France, it won all the way in the early stage until it exhausted its national strength and lost everything. At the same time, your opponent Britain has firmly occupied the first place in the wave of the Industrial Revolution, leaving the chaotic European continent far behind.

Of course, in addition to the three basic conditions of "vast territory, great people, and unity", the country's governance capacity is also crucial. The first three are like hardware, and the latter is like software. However, the operation of the latter also depends on the support of the former, just like if you take a 3A masterpiece and run it on the first generation PC, let alone run it, you can't even install it, so what's the point of playing it?

In short, Gao Gongsi's purpose is very simple: Isn't it because China's agricultural era is too advanced and the population is too abundant that there is no need for industrialization? Then I will create a southern Xinjiang to act as a middleman, so that you can connect with the "international" earlier and let the "international demand" stimulate your development and transformation.

As for me, even if I end up in southern Xinjiang in the future, even if I leave my descendants in southern Xinjiang, I will still be a descendant of the Chinese nation, and I will still work hard for the prosperity of China.

In this case, Gao Guoshi could not accept that the court officials were so dependent on him alone, and he had to change it. He first asked Chen Ju to ask the emperor about his attitude, and as expected, the emperor said "you can decide for yourself". So he immediately convened a meeting of the nine ministers, asking for a joint discussion.

The meeting of the Nine Ministers was a regular meeting that could be held in the Ming Dynasty to discuss important matters - although most of the time it was held to recommend cabinet ministers, it was reasonable to hold it now.

At the meeting, Gao Youshi changed his previous style. He was neither the first to speak to "set the tone" nor the last to speak to "summarize". Instead, he constantly guided the ministers present to think about what kind of Mo Nan the Ming Dynasty needed.

In other words, Gao Yousi was guiding them to think about the national situation of the Ming Dynasty in a more rational way.

For example, from a geopolitical perspective, does the Ming Dynasty need to continue to maintain the "autonomy" status of Tumed at this stage? On this issue, Gao Youshi must first guide them to understand why he acquiesced to Tumed's "nominally a barrier, but in fact autonomous" in the past.

Why? To effectively reduce the cost of governance while still obtaining the benefits that the Ming Dynasty wanted.

When he said this, the ministers present were almost confused - huh? Isn't it because the Tumed have always maintained a relatively strong military force, and it is not cost-effective for us to force them to surrender directly?
So Gao Youshi analyzed to them in detail that it would not be difficult for the Ming Dynasty to subdue the Tumed. Even if they were willing to be a little shameless, it would be very easy to set up a trap to force the Tumed to change their flag on the spot.

Gao Youshi made an assumption: when aiding Korea in its fight against the Japanese invaders, because he was personally leading the troops, he had every reason and prestige to ask Tumed to mobilize the country's elite troops to follow him - Tumed had 100,000 troops, with more than 40,000 core elite troops, and he was confident that he could mobilize more than 70,000 Tumed troops to follow him.

This means that he could almost empty Fengzhou Beach at once, leaving at most 10,000 troops to guard the Shunyi King's court. At this time, Datong and Xuanfu Towns, apart from some troops transferred to Korea, had a total of at least more than 150,000 combat-ready soldiers, of which cavalry was still close to 30,000.

So the question is, is it difficult for these 30,000 elite cavalry to take advantage of Tumed's unpreparedness (Tumed has been "unprepared" for many years against the Ming Dynasty) and take down Guihua City in one fell swoop and capture the high-ranking officials of the royal court? It is not difficult, it is almost a piece of cake.

Then the next step would naturally be to force these high-ranking officials to declare their surrender - as long as the court agrees to protect their existing property and power, they would have no choice but to bow their heads since they are under the court's roof.

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The ministers looked at each other, as if they were communicating with their eyes: "Don't say it, don't say it..." So when everyone looked at Gao Youshi again, their eyes became a little interesting, as if asking: Since there was such a good opportunity, why didn't you do it?
Because it's not cost-effective.

Gao Youshi then began to settle accounts with them. Tumed’s internal rule was Mongolian-style, which was considered “free range” to some extent, and the administrative cost was extremely low. But if it were directly governed by the Ming Dynasty, the situation would be completely different - you would have to build government offices, right? Implement household registration, right? Count cattle and sheep, right? Specify tax amounts, right? Determine military service, right? Allocate military pay, right? Provide military equipment, right? ... And even fight against disasters, right?

All these things cost money, and how much tax could the Ming Dynasty collect from the Mongols? Forget it, the Mongols and the Ming Dynasty often traded horses, cattle and sheep directly for goods. Now you want to collect taxes and let them pay with their lives?
OK, you said you can use cattle and sheep to offset the tax, so how do you set the price? We can even make some extreme assumptions: he gives you a sick cow that is already infected but still in the incubation period. As a Mongolian, he can see that the cow is actually sick and cannot be saved, but can your tax collector also see that?

On the other hand, if the tax collector himself is not a good person and points to a healthy cow and says it is a sick cow, and is only willing to give a low price, what will the other party think? If this situation happens more and more, what will the accumulated contradictions eventually lead to? Should we consider it?

In short, if the Mongols manage Tumed themselves, the cost of ruling is much lower than if the Ming Dynasty governs it directly. Moreover, what does the Ming Dynasty need from Mongolia? From a national strategic perspective, it is nothing more than war horses and accompanying troops; and the cattle and sheep trade among the people can allow the people near the border of the Ming Dynasty to get more meat... That's basically it.

Couldn't the Ming Dynasty meet these demands when the Tumed people were autonomous but not annexed? But don't forget that Boshektu and Erdemutu, who are now "expanding territory" for the Ming Dynasty in the Western Regions, are both Mongolians, and their troops are all Mongolian cavalry. The Ming Dynasty promised to reward them later, but almost didn't do anything!
Oh, the last sentence is inaccurate - the Ming Dynasty still equipped them with dozens of cannons, but the operators were still temporarily transferred Ming army artillery, and both the people and the cannons had to return to the Ming army after the battle.

After all this talk, the ministers finally understood what Gao Youshi meant.

I understand! I mean, we won’t hesitate to offer you benefits, but we won’t take on the responsibility… Ah, so now that Tumed wants to submit, we shouldn’t accept it!

However, Gao Youshi had not yet finished speaking.
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感谢书友“云覆月雨”、“doni”、“醉卧青牛1234”、“圆月弯刀杀人”、“书友130311122745499”、“胖胖龙2003”、“milan123”、“没良心的黑狼”、“冰红茶19”、“邵爷”、“艼蘦2022”的月票支持，谢谢！
PS: My friend, where did you find these two rare characters to harm me...