prosperous age

Chapter 1167 No Report
As Wei Guangde reached out to take the document, he asked Fang Fengshi, "Did the Ministry of Rites receive a letter from Siam ten years ago?"

"No, after receiving the news, I asked someone to check. In the past ten years, Siam has nothing but documents for trade."

When Fang Fengshi heard Wei Guangde's question, he answered immediately.

"hehe."

Upon hearing this, Wei Guangde laughed immediately.

Not even interested in reading the so-called letter from the empire, Wei Guangde shook it in his hand and said with a smile: "It can be seen that the influence of the Ming Dynasty in Southeast Asia is waning. Siam has been defeated and destroyed, but it has not asked for help from the Ming Dynasty, the suzerain state.

So is it now a vassal state of Myanmar or a vassal state of our Ming Dynasty?

Minister Fang, can you tell me more? "

Seeing Fang Fengshi speechless, Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng and said with a smile: "Brother Uncle, do you also approve of this so-called letter from Siam?"

Hearing Wei Guangde's words, Zhang Juzheng said with a serious face: "Siam has no king and no father, so it really shouldn't be recognized."

Seeing that the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister had the same words for the letter from Siam, Fang Fengshi didn't know what to say for a moment.

"My Lord Prime Minister and my Lord Deputy Prime Minister, you are all vassal kings who have been granted the Golden Book by the imperial court. I'm afraid this is not a good idea."

Seeing this, Zhang Siwei had no choice but to speak out.

At least we can change the situation a little to avoid an awkward atmosphere.

Moreover, although Siam has rarely shown respect to the Ming Dynasty over the years, a superior country should have the demeanor of a superior country. Whether to recognize Siam's status as a vassal state is no trivial matter. At the very least, it has to be decided by the inner court.

Although the Cabinet temporarily holds power, it is always just an office that assists the emperor in governing the country and cannot make decisions directly on behalf of the emperor.

"I've already said that everything was looted by Myanmar. Even if there were any imperial gifts, they are probably in Yu Dayou's hands."

Wei Guangde did shake his head and said with a smile, then he said seriously: "If the country is really destroyed, anyone who wants to be the suzerain will ask for help from the Ming Dynasty, and will never issue a letter asking for help."

At this point, Wei Guangde suddenly remembered some documents he had seen in the Hanlin Academy before, and couldn't help but continue: "I remember when I was reading the old things of the previous dynasty in the library, in the 15th year of Zhengde, our dynasty did receive a letter from a vassal state asking for help. "

After hearing what Wei Guangde said, Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Siwei and others became interested.

They had never experienced the events of the Zhengde reign, so naturally they didn't know about them.

Although they have all been in the Hanlin Academy, they may not have read as many books as Wei Guangde.

Seeing that the three of them were interested, Wei Guangde smiled and said, "It was in the 36th year of Jiajing, when I was still working as an editor in the Hanlin Academy. I saw that in the 15th year of Zhengde, the Portuguese invaded Mancijia, and the King of Mancijia sent a letter to our dynasty asking for help."

"What then?"

Wei Guangde paused for a moment, and Zhang Siwei asked.

"At that time, Emperor Wuzong was still in Jiangnan, and he only said 'no report' to Manci's request for additional envoys."

Wei Guangde spoke calmly.

"Not reporting" actually means not caring, not asking, and not dealing with it.

The capital of Mancijia was Malacca, a coastal city located in the middle of the Strait of Malacca.

In the early 18th century, it was captured by Albuquerque, the second Governor-General of Portuguese India, who led a fleet of 1200 ships, 200 Portuguese soldiers, and more than Malbara reinforcements.

To be precise, this happened in the sixth year of Zhengde. Not only did the country be destroyed, but the territory of Mancijia was also completely occupied.

King Mancijia was unable to defeat the enemy and had to flee to the sea.

Afterwards, I thought of the Ming Dynasty, our former suzerain state.

After all, there had been no contact for many years, so it was more than eight years later that Man Cijia's letter was delivered to Emperor Zhengde.

After the Portuguese captured Malacca, Albuquerque ordered looting, which lasted all day.

Tens of thousands of treasures were seized, almost two-thirds of the wealth of the Malacca Kingdom, and a brutal massacre was also carried out.

The people of the Ming Dynasty had heard about the tragic situation when Malacca was destroyed, and they were not completely ignorant of it.

Huang Zhong, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War in the Ming Dynasty, once compiled a book called "Hai Yu" to introduce the Western style, in which he mentioned the situation of Mancijia's defeat of the country:
"(The Portuguese) prepared eight large ships and 10,000 elite soldiers, and they arrived suddenly with the wind. It had been more than a year, and the country was not well prepared, so they were killed and looted."

Except for the slight exaggeration in the number of troops, everything else is basically true, especially the record of the massacre.

A slightly later work, Dongxiyang Kao, also states:
"The Portuguese defeated Manciga and occupied his country. The former king's shrine was destroyed, and the subjects bowed their heads and had no way to take revenge."

Manciga was not only conquered by the colonists but also occupied, and the country was in ruins.

After that, Emperor Zhengde remained on his sickbed until his death.

Originally, the matter seemed to have ended here. Mancijia had already been destroyed and there was no point in saying more.

It was only in the first year of the Jiajing reign that the Portuguese used the looted Mancijia Golden Seal to deceive the Ming Dynasty and ran to Guangzhou for trade.

Not only did they want to trade with the Ming Dynasty, they even wanted to deceive the Ming Dynasty, hoping to obtain the Ming Dynasty's enthronement so that they could obtain the orthodox status of Mancijia.

"The Emperor Suzong did not agree."

Zhang Siwei asked.

Wei Guangde smiled and said, "It is recorded in the Veritable Records that 'the Haiyi Portuguese drove out the King of Malacca, Suduanmamo, and occupied his land. They sent envoys such as Jiabitanmu to pay tribute and request a title, but were not granted.'

Emperor Suzong rejected the Portuguese's request for a title and trade. Unlike Emperor Wuzong, Emperor Suzong ordered the Ministry of Rites to mediate the matter and strive to restore Mancijia to the throne.

The three people on duty had never known about this kind of thing. After all, as far as they could remember, they had never seen such records.

"Failed?"

Zhang Siwei once again took the initiative to act as a supporting actor and asked in a low voice.

This was a good thing for Malacca because Emperor Jiajing was not interested in the Portuguese, unlike Emperor Zhengde who ignored them.

Moreover, he had only ascended the throne for a few months, so he did not have much say in state affairs, so in the end the matter was handled entirely by the Ministry of Rites.

The Ministry of Rites also faithfully carried out the orders given by Emperor Jiajing.

They convened a three-party meeting between the Portuguese and the King of Malacca. The result of the three-party meeting was that they fully sided with Malacca and expelled the Portuguese.
"The Ministry of Rites has already discussed cutting off the Portuguese ties and returning their tribute envoys."

And questioned the crime of usurping the vassal state:

"The Portuguese were not a tributary state, and they invaded and seized neighboring territories, and were brutal and lawless."

The key point is that the Portuguese were harassing Guangdong and showing off their muscles at every turn, which made the Ming Dynasty's taboos even worse:
"They drove a large ship and rushed into Guangping Province. The sound of guns and cannons shook the city walls."

But the Ministry of Rites was only responsible for handling diplomatic affairs, and at most it could expel the Portuguese from the country and cut off trade with them.

As for helping Malacca to restore its country, it would require a major military operation. They had no control over it and could not make the decision, so it was handed over to the Ministry of War.

Just as the three were waiting for Wei Guangde to reveal the final attitude of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde did not keep them in suspense and said directly: "After that, the Ministry of War discussed and requested that the Portuguese be punished and ordered to return the land of Malacca, and to punish the Siamese barbarians, in order to save the suffering and care for the neighbors."

When Zhang Juzheng heard Wei Guangde recite the records in the Veritable Records, he opened his mouth slightly with an incredible look.

This plan is really not a good one. Asking Siam and other neighboring countries to send troops is a joke.

The whole thing was a scheme of killing someone with a borrowed knife, shedding the blood of Siamese people, and the Ming Dynasty just accepted the favor. It was a pretty good calculation.

But the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of War has made a lot of calculations and is not contributing anything. Will Siam be the scapegoat?
What Zhang Juzheng was thinking at this time was that if he was in the cabinet at that time, he would not have approved the resolution of the Ministry of War.

At the very least, the Ming Dynasty should send a small number of troops and then call on the surrounding vassal states to join forces to attack the Portuguese.

If the Ming Dynasty was still in the heyday of the Yongle era, perhaps such an edict would be useful to vassal states such as Siam.

After all, he knew the strength of the Ming Dynasty behind him. At that time, the Ming Dynasty navy was still rampant on the ocean.

With a backer and confidence, they might negotiate with Siam for benefits, and then send troops to rescue. At worst, there is the Ming Dynasty to back them up. These are decisions that will only be made when sending troops can gain benefits, and it is absolutely impossible to achieve them with just an imperial edict.

"Siam did not respond to the imperial decree?"

Fang Fengshi asked.

"Haha, Lord Fang, why do you have to ask when you already know the answer?"

Wei Guangde smiled and said, "Although the Ministry of War did something unkind, you still have to make a decision whether you do it or not."

Wei Guangde's words were actually somewhat far-fetched.

In that case, if Siam reported back to the Ming Dynasty, their king would be crazy.

However, it also shows that during the Jiajing period, Siam's attitude towards the Ming Dynasty was already very negative, and apart from maritime trade, there was almost no other contact.

This is in stark contrast to the attitudes of Korea, Ryukyu and other countries towards the Ming Dynasty.

However, because of this incident, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese took a sharp turn for the worse.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Of course, even if this didn't happen, the relationship between the two sides wouldn't be very good, after all, they were wary of the Portuguese foreigners.

Because the Ming Dynasty completely cut off trade with the Portuguese, the Battle of Xicaowan broke out between the two sides.

This battle was not actually the tragic victory of the Ming Dynasty as people thought.

When the Portuguese invaded Xicaowan, the commander of the Japanese invasion, Ke Rong, and the centurion Wang Ying'en led the army to resist.

During the fierce battle, Pan Dinggou was the first to board the Portuguese warship. The Ming army advanced together and captured 42 people including Bei Dulu alive, beheaded 35 people, captured a total of 10 men and women who were abducted by the Portuguese army, and captured two Portuguese ships.

However, the three remaining ships of the Portuguese army launched a counterattack and burned the warships captured by the Ming army. Wang Ying'en was killed in the battle, and the remnants of the Portuguese army escaped.

Afterwards, the Ming court executed the captured Portuguese and displayed their heads to the public.

It can be seen that although the Ming Dynasty seemed to suffer less losses than the Portuguese in this battle, and the Portuguese's plan to gain a stronghold and erode the Ming Dynasty was prevented, it actually suffered a great tactical loss.

Of course, the most important achievement of this battle was that the Ming army seized a large number of Portuguese cannons and Western matchlock rifles, and because of the great role they played in the war, they were recognized by the Ming army.

Afterwards, the Portuguese cannon was mass-produced and quickly armed the Ming army, becoming a winning weapon in the army.

However, the matchlock gun was not taken seriously by the army at that time. It was not until the Japanese invasion in Jiajing that the Ming army surrounded and suppressed the Japanese pirates in Shuangyu and seized the Japanese matchlock gun, also known as the iron cannon.

The Ming Dynasty's Armament Bureau began to pay attention to imitating the matchlock gun and made the bird gun because many Ming soldiers were injured by iron cannons.

"Then what should be done with this document?"

Fang Fengshi asked.

The Cabinet drafted it and the Imperial Household Department approved it, but the Ministry of Rites couldn't wait, they had to express their attitude first.

Although judging from what Wei Guangde revealed, the result would not be very good, there must still be a clear answer.

"No."

"No."

At this moment, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng spoke almost at the same time.

"Well, I'll send the document to the cabinet. You can draft it and send it to the palace. I'll go back to the Ministry of Rites now."

Fang Fengshi spoke.

"Wait a moment, Minister Fang, don't you know that the Cabinet sent a note to the Ministry of Rites?"

Wei Guangde stopped Fang Fengshi who was about to leave and said.

"What's the note?"

Fang Fengshi had obviously come out early and had no idea that the cabinet had summoned people from the Ministry of Rites.

"Sir, Minister Tan from the Ministry of War has arrived."

Just then, the clerk outside reported.

"Please."

Zhang Siwei shouted to the outside world, and then smiled at Fang Fengshi, "Master Fang, you don't know. I just gave the Ministry of Rites a note and asked them to come and discuss important matters.

I was wondering why Lord Fang came so quickly, I guess we missed each other."

When Fang Fengshi heard that the cabinet had something to discuss, he decided not to leave.

Soon, Tan Lun entered Zhang Juzheng's office, and after greeting each other, he sat down and asked, "I wonder why the cabinet summoned me?"

Although he guessed that it might be related to the war in the southwest, Tan Lun still asked.

After all, seeing that there were people from the Ministry of Rites in the room, Li Chengliang had won the battle, so he should have asked the Ministry of Revenue for reward money.

The imperial court is not financially well-off right now, and the Ministry of War naturally knows that.

Therefore, the Ministry of Revenue should make early plans for rewarding meritorious soldiers, otherwise it would be a joke if the rewards are not collected enough before the army returns.

"This time, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War were summoned here to discuss matters mainly at the order of the Empress Dowager Rensheng and Empress Dowager Cisheng. It concerns matters related to the arrangements for Burma after the war in Burma ends."

Wei Guangde said.

Upon hearing that it was the two Empress Dowagers who spoke, Tan Lun and Fang Fengshi perked up, wanting to hear what important matters the Cabinet and the inner court were discussing.

Next, Wei Guangde recounted the cabinet’s considerations on post-war Burma.

Fang Fengshi and Tan Lun were both shocked to hear that the cabinet planned to directly set up a province in Myanmar.

If it weren't for the unusual case of Wei Guangde, the officials of the Ming Dynasty would never have considered this.

Yunnan is poor enough, and yet they want to bring back an even more remote and poor area. Are they afraid that the court cannot afford it?

Before Fang Fengshi could speak, Tan Lun asked, "Has this matter been concluded?"

Zhang Juzheng nodded slightly and said, "The cabinet has already reported this matter to the Ciqing Palace. We invited you two here today to make some preliminary preparations."

After hearing what Zhang Juzheng said, Fang Fengshi knew that it would be useless for him to stop it. It had already been decided, and he didn't have the ability to convince the cabinet and the inner court.

'What should the Ministry of Rites do?'

Fang Fengshi was also quite tactful. Since he couldn't object, he just had to follow orders.

"The Ministry of Rites will prepare the relevant ceremonies, and the Ministry of War will consider this matter and properly handle the relocation of the various garrisons."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Tan Lun glanced at Wei Guangde and saw him nod slightly, so he immediately said: "After returning, I will ask each department to make a good plan."

Fang Fengshi hesitated for a moment before saying, "This seems to have no precedent before."

"Look through the classics and you will always find it."

Wei Guangde smiled, and Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Siwei both nodded slightly.

The Ming Dynasty's rituals all referred to ancient books in an attempt to restore the old systems of the Tang and Song dynasties.

"Is this matter urgent? The Ministry of Rites has been busy with the selection of the empress recently."

Fang Fengshi spoke.