prosperous age

"The restrictions are good, but they still need further consideration."

Shen Shixing spoke up.

After Shen Shixing finished speaking, Wei Guangde simply gave him a deep look.

So far, Shin Si-haeng's performance has actually been quite good. Although he sometimes has his own ideas, he mostly agrees with him, which helps him control the cabinet.

However, with the addition of some people to the cabinet, Shen Shixing's voice also became more controversial.

"Gentlemen, in fact, it is not always a bad thing for our Great Ming to bring in some people from foreign vassal states and issue them household registration certificates."

Wei Guangde spoke up.

"Ok?"

Shen Shixing glanced at Wei Guangde with a puzzled look, but remained silent.

The others looked at him with puzzlement, wondering what Wei Guangde meant by those words.

Wei Guangde certainly wouldn't speak without reason; he must have seen some benefit involved to say such a thing.

"Those from the outer vassal states who are qualified to be registered in the household register of our Great Ming are, to put it bluntly, either rich or noble, or have a special skill."

Such a person, upon acquiring Chinese citizenship, would naturally not be an unknown individual.

Their achievements will naturally be known to the world.

Gentlemen, you should know that the current situation of our Great Ming Dynasty, and why such unbearable things often happen among the people, is related to the collusion between local gentry and officials to exploit them.

Although the imperial court tried every means to improve the system and strive to avoid similar incidents, it was ultimately impossible to completely eliminate them.

The discontent among the people towards the imperial court and the gentry will only accumulate and be difficult to channel, especially when faced with major disasters, it will inevitably erupt like a flood.

Dynastic changes are all like this.

Wei Guangde began speaking subtly, but everyone present understood.

In the final years of a dynasty, corruption is rampant from top to bottom, and the people suffer greatly. In order to survive, they will naturally rise up in rebellion.

This is actually the root cause of the chaos at the end of the dynasty. The people were exploited by the court's exorbitant taxes and levies and oppressed by the gentry, which forced them to rebel.

"If there were an outlet for venting at this time, like what Ran Min did during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, wouldn't that have helped alleviate the sharp conflicts among the people?"

Wei Guangde suddenly changed the subject, shifting the discussion from dynastic change to the issue of registering foreign vassals as citizens.

When he finished speaking, Shen Shixing, Yu Youding, and the others didn't dare to breathe, and all of them lowered their heads in unison.

Ran Min's actions were naturally the "Kill the Hu" order. According to the "Zizhi Tongjian", the order clearly stated that all Hu people carrying weapons should be killed without exception; Hu people who were not in harmony with the government should be expelled immediately; and Han people could be promoted and ennobled for each Hu person they killed.

Many people expressed their support for this incident because they believed it concerned the survival of the nation, while others believed it was a massacre orchestrated by Ran Min to seize power, given that most of the Hu people at the time supported Shi Hu's Later Zhao regime and thus launched a racial cleansing.

However, this event contributed to the survival of the Han people in the north, preventing their extermination.

In reality, at that time, the vast majority of the population in China lived in the north, and the proportion of Han Chinese in the south was very small.

When Wei Guangde said this, he was obviously planning to recruit wealthy merchants, tycoons, and artisans from the foreign territories into the local population. In the future, if there were any changes in the country, he could use them as a sacrificial offering to divert social conflicts and give the rioters an outlet to vent their anger, thus focusing their attacks on this group of people.

"Your Excellency, this... is probably not appropriate."

Finally, after calming down, Shen Shixing spoke up, "There were also foreign tribes at the beginning of the founding of the dynasty, and the founding emperor had already set precedents for dealing with them."

If these people from vassal states are to be allowed to naturalize, then it would be prudent to follow this precedent.

Shen Shixing's words made Wei Guangde frown.

He did overlook one thing: although the Ming Dynasty had been in existence for over two hundred years, many things were still handled by looking back at previous dynasties, that is, by finding similar precedents to deal with, rather than coming up with a new solution.

The Ming Dynasty replaced the Mongol Yuan Dynasty and ruled the Central Plains. In addition to the Mongols, many Semu people and people of their ethnic groups also came to China with the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not massacre these foreigners, nor did he expel them. Instead, he formulated policies to forcibly assimilate them into Han culture.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations, Mongol and Semu people were forbidden from marrying each other; they were only allowed to marry Han people. Violators would be punished with eighty strokes of the cane and their men and women would be enslaved by the government.

As a result of this decree, many people from other ethnic groups who were unwilling to break their ethnic customs migrated and left the Ming Dynasty.

Many people left, but even more stayed.

After all, even though they are the same race, there are still distinctions of high and low status.

Those with money and power choose to leave with their wealth, leaving behind mostly those without money or power.

When Shen Shixing said this, it meant that he already had a policy in mind for these foreign vassal states who had come to citizenship: forced Sinicization, allowing only intermarriage with Han people, and prohibiting intermarriage between Han people.

If such a rule existed, Wei Guangde would find it difficult to overturn it, given the precedent set by his great-grandfather.

Upon hearing this, everyone else's eyes lit up.

After several generations of assimilation, their original barbarian characteristics will become less obvious and will be barely acceptable.

As for Wei Guangde's idea of ​​using other people's houses as flood outlets, it was too cruel, not benevolent, and difficult to implement.

Wei Guangde's idea was merely a spur-of-the-moment thought. After all, there were too many examples in later generations of using ethnic feuds to shift internal conflicts, and many of the victims in these cases were of Chinese descent. That's why he had the idea of ​​"an eye for an eye."

However, it now appears that the resistance is immense, exceptionally great.

In later years, more and more foreigners appeared in China. Regardless of whether they came for different purposes or by some other means, he still felt angry when he saw the dark portraits and the ethnicity of Han on the ID cards.

Are these people Han Chinese? Why not just state the country's name directly? Why resort to this method to smear the Han ethnicity?

"Let's all think about this matter again, and make a decision at the Nine Ministers' meeting tomorrow."

At this point, Wei Guangde knew that he also needed to think carefully about the matter of naturalizing people from other provinces. It was not an easy thing to do, and he had to plan everything out before bringing it up for discussion.

Fortunately, the luxury mirror is not a big deal, and it's not a big deal if it's delayed for a year or two.

At present, the most important tasks for the imperial court are still to provide aid to the Mongols and to wage war against the Japanese.

The reason Zhang Xueyan wasn't summoned was because the Ministry of Revenue had been busy with Mongolian affairs these past few days. One decree after another was issued from the Ministry of Revenue, whether it was for grain allocation or registration, they were already extremely busy.

After seeing everyone off, Wei Guangde said to Lubu at the door of the duty room, "Send someone to the Northern Garrison Command to invite Lord Liu over. I want to hear news from the Mongols."

"Yes, sir."

After bowing slightly, Lu Bu quickly went out to find someone to call for help.

Watching Lu Bu's departing figure, Wei Guangde unconsciously looked eastward, muttering to himself, "I wonder what the situation is like in Japan. Have hundreds of thousands of people started fighting yet?" This season is actually not suitable for large-scale warfare, but Japan has already mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops; they can't possibly wait two months to endure the cold winter before starting a war.

Meanwhile, in Kiyosu Castle, dozens of Japanese daimyo were also troubled by this matter.

"The gunpowder we have left is only enough to launch three major battles at most. If we suffer a defeat in the battle, we will not be able to organize an offensive in the short term."

Although Japan had previously transported some gunpowder to its army, it was dangerous, and more importantly, there were too many restrictions on the storage of gunpowder. Japan did not have much readily available gunpowder that could be delivered quickly, and most of it was destroyed in the massive explosion outside Kyoto.

The Japanese still dare not recall that explosion.

It was terrible. The entire camp was overturned by the shockwave. The repeated powerful explosions sent hundreds of soldiers standing outside the warehouse flying dozens of meters away. Although they were unharmed, they all died bleeding from all seven orifices.

In the words of traditional Chinese medicine, these people's internal organs were shattered and displaced, and they were directly killed by the shock.

Kampo medicine is the Japanese localized term for traditional Chinese medicine, which was first introduced to Japan in the 5th-6th centuries with classics such as the "Huangdi Neijing".

During the Edo period, a medical system centered on the Treatise on Febrile Diseases was formed. During the Meiji Restoration, it was rejected by the government due to insufficient standardization. After the 1970s, Kampo medicine was included in public health insurance through the standardization of its ingredients.

The 236 existing standard prescriptions are derived from classical medical books such as the Treatise on Febrile Diseases, and about 70% of Japanese doctors can prescribe Kampo medicine.

Interestingly, traditional Chinese medicine is more accepted in the island nation's medical system than in China, where doctors who can prescribe traditional Chinese medicine probably make up less than 10% of the total.

"Now that our army is assembled, we can't postpone our attack just because of a shortage of gunpowder. We can't afford to consume food every day. We must launch an attack on the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible, at any cost."

Once war begins, daily food consumption will decrease.

As for the shortage of gunpowder, it can be allocated from within the army now, and all the gunpowder from the rear guard can be concentrated in the front guard.

Furthermore, I know that each of us has some stockpiles and should have a lot of materials in reserve. I hope that everyone will contribute these materials so that we can quickly manufacture gunpowder and transport it to the front lines.

This matter concerns the rise and fall of the Yamato people. If the Ming Dynasty were to actually occupy China, I believe everyone can imagine the consequences.

They will gradually devour us, and your positions of great renown may also be in jeopardy.

Only by driving them into the sea can we live happily here.

This is a matter of life and death; you should not remain silent, but rise up.

Hideyoshi Hashiba had just arrived from Kyoto, and because of the respect Oda Nobunaga showed to the Emperor, Hideyoshi Hashiba was also extremely respectful to the Emperor.

This is also why he was quickly appointed as a high-ranking official after his power grew.

What he heard most often in the Imperial Palace was concern about the Ming Dynasty's entry into Honshu Island.

The Kojiki, Japan's earliest mythological book, states that the Japanese emperor is a descendant of Amaterasu, the creator goddess in Japanese mythology, which serves as the basis for the divine right of kings in Japan.

Traditional Japanese historical records have always claimed that the imperial lineage is unbroken, meaning that all emperors come from the same family, and that there has never been a change of dynasty in Japanese history.

However, this is just Japan's own propaganda; the reality is certainly not that the dynasty could last forever.

The real reason is that in ancient times, Japan had no culture and no written language to record history. Therefore, historical records relied on historians who recited myths orally, and no written historical materials were left behind, making it impossible to verify.

However, the earliest record of Wa (Japan) is found in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, compiled by Chen Shou, a historian of the Western Jin Dynasty, who spent ten years compiling the book and referring to contemporary historical records.

However, since the record only contains about two thousand words, it is difficult to get a full picture.

In fact, during the medieval period, Japan was divided into many small states, which were eventually unified by the Yamato Kingdom located in the central part of Honshu Island. Yamato thus became another name for Japan.

There were several struggles for the throne before the establishment of the Yamato Dynasty, and there may have been several changes of dynasties, but this cannot be verified by historical records.

The use of "Emperor" as the legitimate title for the King of Wa should actually have originated after the Meiji Restoration. In previous Japanese written records, "Emperor," "King of Wa," and "Japan" all appeared, sometimes even simultaneously.

It is evident that at that time, the Japanese upper class did not really respect the Emperor, and rarely referred to him as Emperor, but rather as "King".

As for Japan's use of the term "Emperor" in diplomatic exchanges with the Sui Dynasty, it was immediately rejected, and they were referred to as "King of Wa".

However, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and others still referred to themselves as Emperor in public.

The reason why the King of Wa was so concerned about this matter was that the local daimyo did not know that before the Yamato Kingdom unified Wa, it actually started from Nara, first occupied the western part of Honshu Island, which is Chugoku, and then used this as a basis to complete the unification of the whole country.

Therefore, in the minds of the Japanese kings, China was the so-called "land of the dragon's rise".

If this place were to fall into Ming territory, the Japanese emperor feared that Ming would use it to conquer the entire country.

"However, not only is the army lacking gunpowder, but the weather is also freezing cold. If we force an attack on the Ming army, they will be well-rested and ready, and we will not come out on top."

"Hojo-kun's opinion is very pertinent. If we attack now, it will be difficult to achieve the victory that everyone hopes to see."

In fact, these daimyo were also shocked by the sudden appearance of the Ming army.

According to convention, they assumed that as long as they assembled their troops and went to China, the Ming army would probably be wiped out by the kamikaze attacks without them even having to lift a finger.

Unfortunately, this time they did not receive the protection of the divine wind. The main force of the Ming army continued to land, and before the heavy snow arrived, they seized many towns and fortresses and strengthened their defenses.

And now, the trouble has been dumped on their heads.

The army has been assembled, and there is a huge amount of supplies being consumed every day.

Although the daily consumption of supplies will decrease as soldiers are lost in battle, these are the laborers in the hands of the daimyo, and they do not want to lose them like this.

If we die on the battlefield now, what will happen to the fields next year?
In the agricultural era, young and strong men were the main force in farming.

In the past, when daimyo fought each other, even if some people died, as long as they won, they could gain land and population to replenish their strength.

But what could they gain from fighting the Ming Dynasty?
Without the protection of divine winds, their chances of winning were already slim.

Some daimyo have even privately discussed the possibility of handing China over to the Ming Dynasty, which would only result in losses for the Mori and Oda clans, with little impact on other daimyo.

After a month, it can be said that most of the daimyo have calmed down.

Especially after the gunpowder was destroyed, some people were even less willing to fight.

While it's true that the Ming Dynasty's firearms were formidable, they could still put up a fight against the Ming army with over two hundred cannons, at least gaining a local advantage.

After all, the Ming army did not know where their target was, and a large number of cannons were placed along the entire defensive line.

But the reality is, it's impossible to win.

"We cannot afford not to fight. We must at least capture one town and fortress to break the Ming army's defenses, and then continue the attack after spring."

Hideyoshi Hashiba said. (End of chapter)