prosperous age

The Latin spelling of Goa, "Goa", comes from the Portuguese colonists, but the actual origin is unknown, and the name was inherited by the British colonists.

The Goa region in the Indian epic Mahabharata is called "Goparashtra" and "Govarashtra", which means the country of cattle herders.

In ancient Sanskrit texts like the Puranas and the Harivansa, this place is also known as Gopakapuri and Japakapatna.

Other names used in the Puranas include "Gova", "Govapuri", "Gopakpatan", "Gomant" etc.

In addition, Goa is sometimes also called "Gomanchala" and "Apalante".

The Portuguese Vasco da Gama began his first voyage of exploration to the East in 1503 and arrived in India. Because he helped the King of Cochin stabilize his regime, he was allowed to build a Portuguese fort there.

This is Kozhikode, which later became the "Old Goa" area.

In 1510, the Portuguese fleet commander Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the Bijapur Sultan, who had sovereignty over the local native chieftain Timaya, in the Battle of Goa and occupied the old city of Goa. He then resisted the counterattack of the Bijapur Sultan in the Second Battle of Goa from 1511 to 1512.

Unlike other occupied enclaves of Portugal along the Indian coast, Portugal not only stationed troops in Goa, but also hoped to build Goa into a colony and naval base.

After decades of development, Goa has now become Portugal's headquarters in the East, directing the Portuguese colonial activities in the East.

Within a few years, the Portuguese should have figured out the details of the Bijapur Sultanate and launched a war.

However, when it comes to the Ming Dynasty, it is obvious that its strength is not comparable to that of the Bijapur Sultanate.

However, it was not bad that Yu Dayou saw the abnormality of Haojing through the process of Goa falling into the hands of the Portuguese.

Yin Zhengmao didn’t say anything, but thought for a moment before saying, “However, in the short term, the imperial court probably won’t want to recapture Haojing.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for our craftsmen to learn some of the skills from the Portuguese.”

Yin Zhengmao knew that the cannons with the longest range currently equipped on Ming warships were developed from the Haojing Cannon Factory.

Although the Ming Dynasty was already able to cast cannons, its craftsmen had not yet fully mastered how the Portuguese did it. They simply made them according to the cannon's size using the Ming Dynasty's casting method.

Overall, it seems to be slightly inferior to the cannons cast by the Portuguese.

However, at least it can be used, otherwise Nanjing would not have made such great efforts to cast the General Cannon.

There is also shipbuilding, but the Haojing Shipyard can only repair but not build. However, being able to come into contact with Portuguese ships did allow the Ming Dynasty to gain a preliminary understanding of the structure of the foreign ships.

"I have informed Xiangshan County and have sent people to inspect regularly. At the same time, they are strictly prohibited from building military facilities like the Zhuzaishi Battery."

Yu Dayou said in a low voice.

"Well, when they built the fort, did they report it to Xiangshan County?"

Yin Zhengmao asked.

"Xiangshan County was not aware of the incident. When questioned about it later, the Portuguese evaded the question by saying they were on guard against the Japanese invaders."

Yu Dayou replied somewhat helplessly.

Although he was the one who arranged this matter, the magistrate of Xiangshan County, although only a seventh-rank official, was not afraid of him, a first-rank military general.

There is no relationship between them. As for the difference in rank, the civil officials actually don't take the military generals seriously.

The reasons of guarding against and preparing for the Japanese invasion were indeed very useful in those years.

Yin Zhengmao understood it after just a little thought. He guessed that the magistrate of Xiangshan was so confident because the fort was not built during his tenure.

Moreover, I am afraid that the magistrate has also received benefits from the Portuguese, which is why he protects him everywhere.

“It’s just a fort, it’s not a big deal.

If the government troops were determined to deal with them, with only a thousand of them in the trenches, how could they possibly turn the tables? "

Yin Zhengmao was not worried at all that Yu Dayou's previous words would become a reality. The troops from Guangdong alone were enough to completely dismantle the trench.

"If it's the Portuguese overseas reinforcements."

Yu Dayou hesitated.

"That's perfect. Let's just take Malacca and then send troops to Goa."

Yin Zhengmao was different from ordinary civil servants. He was not at all vague about military matters and directly announced the start of the fight.

Upon hearing this, Yu Dayou knew there was no need to continue talking, as Lord Yin didn't care about the Portuguese's strength at all.

Come to think of it, the Portuguese seemed to be good only in ships, but they had few people around the Ming Dynasty and could not organize any large army at all.

Even if Goa could mobilize a large number of Portuguese, as soon as they left the Strait of Malacca, they would be discovered by the patrol ships of the Old Port Navy and could be warned in advance.

"We will arrive at Pegu in a few days, rest for two more days, and then sail west to reach the Ming Dynasty."

Yin Zhengmao turned to Yu Dayou and said, "You should comfort the soldiers. I have no experience in leading troops to sea."

"This is what I should do, and I will live up to your expectations."

Yu Dayou replied.

"Ah."

Yin Zhengmao nodded, then went into the cabin to rest. Yu Dayou glanced back at the fleet behind him, gave a few orders, and then also went into the cabin.

In the capital, the cabinet duty room.

"Master, this is absolutely true. Both memorials have been approved and sent to the Prime Minister."

Wei Guangde was sitting behind the desk, while Lu Bu was standing in front of the desk reporting the news he had just heard.

"Go and ask if there is a copy of the memorial left behind. If there is, bring it to me so I can take a look."

Wei Guangde frowned and instructed Lu Bu.

Only after Lu Bu left did Wei Guangde let out a long sigh.

Beforehand, Wei Guangde knew that people on Zhang Juzheng's side were opposed to the memorial on rectifying the style of study. Their reasons were similar to Wei Guangde's, and the main focus was still on banning academies.

But Wei Guangde thought that Zhang Juzheng would find ways to convince these people and perhaps make some modifications to this article. However, he did not expect that Zhang Juzheng would use Shen Shixing's memorial to directly submit the "Memorial on Reinforcing the Old Regulations and Instructing on the Academic Style to Save Talents" to the palace.

Well, Wei Guangde was careless and Zhang Juzheng got the job done without any noise in the inner court.

Obviously, Feng Bao should have contributed to this matter.

Come to think of it, Zhang Juzheng is Feng Bao's biggest helper in the outer court. Now many people outside are slandering Zhang Juzheng. Perhaps in Feng Bao's eyes, that means they are dissatisfied with him and are using Zhang Juzheng as an excuse to target himself.

You know, the eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department all came from the Inner Academy, and of course they knew the influence of the academy in the literati community.

Not long after, Lu Bu came back quickly with a memorial and handed it to Wei Guangde with both hands.

Wei Guangde took it and quickly looked through it. Sure enough, it was very similar to the draft that Zhang Juzheng had shown him before. There were some minor revisions, but the content remained basically unchanged.

The revisions were probably the result of Zhang Juzheng's repeated polishing, because not a single bit of it had changed. "Go out and tell the people outside to contact those who are close to the mansion and not to act rashly."

Wei Guangde gave the order and then handed the memorial back to Lu Bu.

"Yes, sir, I'll go right away."

Lu Bu took the memorial, quickly left the duty room and went to deliver the message.

"How will the Ministry of Rites, the Imperial Academy, and the Censorate react?"

Wei Guangde murmured to himself, he couldn't guess the final attitude of these important government offices.

Although Wei Guangde was certain that the public would be outraged and the voices of opposition would continue, one wave higher than the other, Zhang Juzheng should have been able to think of this.

But he still submitted it stubbornly without changing a word. What confidence did he have?

Wei Guangde couldn't figure it out, but Zhang Juzheng, who was not far away from him, had already deduced it countless times in his mind.

Now these officials in the capital are receiving salaries from the court anyway. Perhaps they will oppose this decree from the bottom of their hearts, but when it comes to their careers, Zhang Juzheng judges that they will make their own choices.

Although there may be many opposing voices at the beginning, as long as he suppresses them forcefully and pushes them forward vigorously, there will not be much resistance in the capital.

As for areas outside the capital, they can be roughly divided into two parts, north and south.

His target this time was actually quite precise, which was the academy represented by the School of Mind.

Because there are fewer academies in the north and the development of the School of Mind in the north is slow, there will be little opposition to this decree in the north.

On the contrary, the situation was quite different in the southern literati circles, where the School of Mind developed very rapidly and its disciples were spread all over the place.

Moreover, the south is where academies are concentrated, especially in the provinces with strong imperial examination systems such as Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Nanzhili. There are many academies in the province, and scholars regard academies as a symbol of academic freedom, so they are very willing to study in academies in order to gain advanced ideas of learning.

In this regard, Zhang Juzheng's attitude is still to suppress it with force. He will directly dismiss any official who is unwilling to cooperate with this decree.

Using "domineering" methods to intimidate Ming officials, they either cooperate or resign.

For this, Zhang Juzheng was prepared to accept criticism from court officials in the short term, but he thought it was necessary to do so.

If these people were allowed to lecture everywhere and incite scholars, when the land survey was carried out on a full scale, I am afraid that the gentry class would collude with them and cause even greater damage.

Although the gentry remained vigilant for the time being, they were not sure whether he had the intention to investigate the land throughout the country and destroy it one by one to ensure the execution of this decree that was related to the fate of the court.

It can be said that in Zhang Juzheng's view, restoring the court's financial resources is the top priority, and everything else can be put aside.

Only when the court has a stable source of financial resources can other things be done.

Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty government would fail financially sooner or later.

Later generations said that Zhang Juzheng saved the Ming Dynasty and extended its life. In fact, it was because of the increased fiscal revenue during his administration that the Ming Dynasty was no longer troubled by financial difficulties for more than ten years, and it was not just because of Zhang Juzheng's reform measures.

After all, those reform measures were basically abolished within one or two years after his death, and not many were retained.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng was no longer willing to inform Wei Guangde later. He took the memorial that had been approved and stamped with a red seal, issued several orders in succession, and sent people to deliver them to various government offices.

Throughout the afternoon, in a very short period of time, the news that the court was going to strictly ban academies spread to all major government offices in Beijing, and almost all officials were stunned by this order.

Zhang Juzheng did a very good job of keeping this memorial secret. Only a few people on his side and a few people in Wei Guangde's faction knew the inside story. There were only about ten people in the entire capital who knew about it.

After being sent to the inner court, the news was leaked, but it was too late for them to spread it.

Feng Bao directly reported the matter to the Imperial Household Department and personally brought the memorial to see the empress dowager.

Feng Bao took it, naturally, to speak for Zhang Juzheng.

The academy was filled with opposition to Zhang Juzheng's observance of mourning, and there were many voices of dissatisfaction with the government. The dispute had escalated from a dispute over rites and laws to the level of opposing the emperor and the empress dowager.

Under the urging of Zhang Juzheng, the cabinet quickly drafted more than ten edicts, which were urgently reviewed by the Imperial Household Department and then personally brought to the six departments by Zhang Juzheng.

These are all important steps in issuing an imperial edict.

The six departments, which were always outspoken, almost all chose to remain silent when facing their direct supervisor Zhang Juzheng.

No one had the courage to confront Zhang Juzheng, the prime minister of the cabinet, in person. His attitude here was very clear.

With Wang Guoguang in the Ministry of Personnel, anyone who dares to oppose the imperial edict in person will probably receive a transfer document from the Ministry of Personnel before the office is over.

Therefore, the Ming court completed all the steps of the imperial edict at the highest speed, and more than ten officials who conveyed the edict immediately ran to the two capitals and thirteen provinces with the edict.

Banning academies and lectures, these measures will ultimately fall into the hands of local governors and provincial governors, who will supervise their implementation.

When Zhang Juzheng returned to the duty room, he had actually made preparations in his heart, which was to capture the three governors and implement the order in this way.

Under such punishment, who would dare not take his own future seriously and insist on opposing this matter?

Zhang Juzheng was determined to push through the policy, but he knew that as time went on, more and more people would question and oppose him. If he didn't deal with these inciters and misleaders right from the start, it would be even more difficult to implement subsequent policies.

This is the difference between a statesman and a politician. A politician only knows how to calculate and use his own gains and losses as the basis for influencing his decision-making.

As for the family, they have a clear goal and are willing to take whatever actions they deem appropriate to achieve it.

Zhang Juzheng had already passed the performance evaluation system to restrain officials. Although this did not directly lead to the capture of many corrupt officials, at least they did not dare to delay the court's orders.

The next step was to improve the court’s finances, which was the top priority of his reform.

When Zhang Juzheng went to the six departments in person to supervise, Wei Guangde also heard the news in the duty room. He was shocked.

"He almost confirmed that he replaced Confucianism with power and wanted to destroy public opinion. No wonder the Zhang family was so miserable after his death. Almost no one spoke for him."

After Wei Guangde waved his hand to drive away the reed cloth, he sat alone behind the desk and muttered to himself.

"It's true that empty words can harm the country, it's true that we should rectify the administration of officials, and it's true that we should concentrate the imperial power, but the means are too drastic."

At this time, in the lobby of the Ministry of Rites, there was a copy in front of Ma Ziqiang, which was the full text of Zhang Juzheng's "Memorial on Reinforcing Old Regulations, Instructing Academic Style and Saving Talents".

At this time, Ma Ziqiang had actually changed completely. If he still had hope of entering the cabinet before, after Zhang Juzheng returned to the court, his appointment was not given. He knew that there was no hope for him to join the cabinet.

"Someone, grind the ink."

Ma Ziqiang shouted loudly.

The clerk outside the door came in and immediately started grinding ink according to his instructions.

After thinking for a while in his mind, Ma Ziqiang picked up the pen and started writing quickly on a piece of paper.

In the Censorate, two gangs were arguing fiercely.

On one side were the censors who supported the Prime Minister's memorial, and on the other side were those who opposed it. Not far away, there were some people who just watched coldly. (End of this chapter)