I'm really not doing business

Chapter 800: Han Township is the Nanyang Dream, and the Nanyang Dream is Han Township

The Mountain of Light, a huge diamond, was later inlaid as a pearl in the British crown.

There are some not-so-good legends about this pearl. It is associated with a mysterious curse, which states: whoever owns it owns the world; whoever owns it will have to endure the disaster it brings.

Zhu Yijun never thought that the rise and fall of the dynasty had any strong connection with a diamond. The Mughal Empire held it for more than two hundred years, and Britain held it for two hundred years. If there really was a curse, it would take too long for it to come true.

The rise and fall of dynasties are both historical inevitability and historical accident. Throughout history, both in China and abroad, just like people pursue immortality, politicians seem to be looking for a method that will never change.

For example, the philosopher king mentioned by Salim is also a kind of this eternal law.

Plato proposed the rule of philosopher kings, believing that in the ideal country, only those with the highest wisdom and noble morals can become philosopher kings. Philosopher kings transcend personal interests, put the well-being of the country and the people first, and establish a just, orderly and harmonious world.

In Plato's view, philosopher kings can be educated and trained.

The concept of the philosopher king is a morally noble political idea in the West. It is somewhat similar to the sage king above the three generations mentioned by the literati of the Ming Dynasty, and is also somewhat similar to the incarnation of wisdom advocated by the Great Light Religion.

For example, the prophet of the Great Light Church is the embodiment of wisdom, and the eight virtues of Your Majesty are the manifestation of wisdom, and are also the moral sublimity evolved from similar supreme wisdom.

Zhu Yijun has never advocated noble morality, and the reason is quite simple: philosophers, sage kings, incarnations of wisdom, prophets, virtues, this set of narratives are actually all based on morality, and morality is closely related to good and evil.

Good and evil are abstract concepts in themselves. They are people's moral evaluations of all things. Their standards are constantly changing. The changes in the standards of good and evil are caused by three factors: history, culture, and society.

People are always like this, they will doubt the standards of good and evil in the past; just like people in the future will doubt the standards of good and evil in the present.

Governing a country by morality is unreliable and cannot stand the test of time and practice.

Because culture and society are changing, and the world situation is changing, if we still use past morality as the basic logic to guide current political logic, all kinds of weird, absurd, bizarre and incomprehensible decisions will emerge.

For example, the retro-style Confucian scholars in the Ming Dynasty can almost be equated with the word "lowly Confucian".

But Zhu Yijun never opposed those who practiced lofty morals, and even admired them very much.

For example, Hai Rui, Zhu Yijun respected his morality very much. He was a truly upright person with a strong character, great courage, great perseverance, great integrity, and noble morals.

But Hai Rui himself did not think that he could manage the country well by getting a bunch of clean officials to govern the country, because he had tried it. When Xu Jie came to power, he also became the prime minister as a clean official. Later, Xu Jie became even more corrupt than Yan Song.

After becoming a wise official, Hai Rui also learned ways of adapting from Zhang Juzheng and Wang Chonggu, such as the anti-corruption efforts of Dagong Dingjian and the pardons of some corrupt officials. There were really some corrupt officials who could use 80 silver coins to do the work of 100 silver coins, and then put 20 silver coins into their own pockets.

There is a typical example of such an honest official. Liu Hanru of Sandu'ao ran the private market in Sandu'ao more prosperously than the official Maritime Customs Office.

However, Liu Hanru was still executed by the Emperor for selling opium privately, and His Majesty felt sorry for it for a long time.

Zhu Yijun denied the statement of King Salim, saying that he had no interest in these gems. It was not that he had no interest in wealth, but he liked silver very much.

"Do you like silver?" Salim was a little confused when he got the emperor's answer.

This preference is a bit vulgar and does not conform to the elegance of the Celestial Empire.

His Majesty acted like a philosopher king, but the philosopher king himself denied that he was a philosopher king and even told Salim that the emperor was extremely greedy, which made Salim's logic unavoidable.

Salim, who has not read the theory of contradictions, still uses a binary narrative in his narrative: a good person is a good person and everything they do is good; a bad person is a bad person and everything they do is bad. This kind of confusion arises from this binary narrative.

"You'd better read more books." Zhu Yijun encouraged with a smile. After all, the man had spent a lot of money to study abroad and was a client of Ming Dynasty Study Abroad.

Zhu Yijun and Shah Mamtim discussed this year's cotton and cotton cloth trade.

This year, the cotton cloth production in the Mughal Empire increased again, but the demand for cotton cloth dropped by 30%, mainly because the stockpiled goods last year were not sold out, and this year they really could not consume that much.

The demand decreased, not because it was not needed, but because the Ottoman Empire launched a war again, causing panic among the people and cutting off trade routes, which made the middleman Akbar very uncomfortable.

I can't do business properly and I can't make any money, which makes me feel very upset.

Zhu Yijun expressed his understanding. There was no problem selling cotton cloth in the Ming Dynasty. The demand in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty was increasing, and the demand in Southeast Asia was also increasing. The Han town in Luzon alone consumed millions of pieces of cotton cloth, and there were more than a dozen similar gathering areas in Southeast Asia.

Shah Mamtim confessed his crime again and left Tonghe Palace with the undisciplined Salim.

Zhu Yijun went to the Beida camp without stopping to review the troops and horses, and returned to Tonghe Palace at dusk. After washing, he began to deal with today's official documents.

"The Xianbei envoy has finally left." Zhu Yijun approved a memorial from the Ministry of Rites.

In June, the Xianbei envoys from the Xianbei Plain finally left the capital with regret. They did not get the opportunity to meet the emperor.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is such a noble person that you can't just meet him casually.

In legends, the image of the Ming Dynasty court was a bit distorted. To put it nicely, it was lenient with distant people, generous in return and lenient in return, and it could exchange all kinds of cheap goods for generous rewards. To put it bluntly, it was a sucker.

But the Xianbei envoy miscalculated.

They planned to exchange rye seeds for more rewards, but only got a slap in the face from the Ministry of Rites. The Ministry of Rites' attitude towards the foreign envoys had changed a long time ago. There was a strange smell of the barbarians with wolves and beasts' hearts, and they were on guard against them everywhere.

If the Xianbei envoys refuse to provide sufficient rye seeds, then don't blame the Ming Dynasty for free trade.

The Xianbei envoy was somewhat arrogant and felt that the Ming Dynasty wanted to build an official road and post road because it wanted a favor from him.

However, the Ministry of Rites told them that the Ming Dynasty's road construction had nothing to do with them and that the Ming Dynasty would build the road whether they agreed or not. If they dared to cause trouble, the Ming Dynasty's firearms would not be at all harmful.

However, when the Xianbei envoys left, they still bought some weapons, including swords, spears, halberds, three hundred good bows, two hundred bird guns, and three hundred kilograms of gunpowder.

The Ming Dynasty's main principle in doing business was to be fair and honest. The furs and grain seeds brought by these Xianbei envoys were still valuable. The Russian Empire crossed the Ural Mountains and attacked the Xianbei Plains just for furs, which were also the main commodities brought by the Xianbei envoys.

Trade is fine, but don’t even think about blackmailing the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty and the Xianbei people in the Xianbei Plains need more adjustments before they can reach a balance that satisfies both sides amidst the successive conflicts.

Everyone in the Ministry of Rites had no idea where these envoys from the Xianbei city got the courage to threaten the Ming court and demand that it pay a higher price to obtain these goods.

He can sell it or not. If he doesn’t, he can just wait for the Russians and Cossacks to snatch it away!

Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial in his hand and said to Feng Bao: "Submit a memorial to the Ministry of Personnel to have these censors, Gao Weisong, Zhao Shiqing, Zhang Minggang, Zuo Zhiyi, etc., go to Korea, specifically to the Namsangol Mountain City in Chungju. He may not understand why I am doing this."

"If there was even one righteous person living in this mountain city, the Xianzhen Camp would not wear the three-inch round dragon flag sticker."

"Noisy!"

The righteous is a concept of the Western Church. It says that when the city of Sodom lost its last righteous man, God sent down fire from the sky.

Abraham, the ancestor of the ancient Hebrews, bargained with God.

Ask God why he burned the entire city of Sodom with fire from heaven without distinguishing between good and evil. If there were fifty righteous people in the city, the city should not be burned by fire from heaven for the sake of these fifty righteous people.

God told Abraham that there were not fifty righteous men.

Abraham lowered the number step by step, forty, thirty, twenty, and ten. God told Abraham that there were not ten righteous people in the city of Sodom.

Abraham stopped asking and went home. It would have been impolite to ask again.

Censor Gao Weisong and others noticed something unusual in the battle report. The report mentioned Tuanlongtie, but did not mention the final outcome of these mountain cities. There were only three words: razed to the ground.

There are very few words. How was it annihilated? Did they defeat the enemy or capture them? There were only Ming casualties, no enemy casualties, and no prisoners.

This battle report was very strange, so Gao Weisong chose to ask, and the emperor gave an answer.

If you want to know, why not just go and see for yourself?

The Japanese pirates entrenched in these mountain cities enjoyed killing and torturing people. They not only killed Koreans, but even the Japanese were not spared. The Japanese pirates inside were no longer human, because they had no humanity, only animality. This is the reason why the three-inch round dragon flag sticker appeared.

The only thing Zhu Yijun could do was to erase them; their very existence was painful.

In his letter to the emperor, Qi Jiguang told the emperor a story. The captured Japanese pirates were castrated and sent to Womagang to grow potatoes. A curious soldier asked a Japanese who could speak Chinese why they were still alive.

The Japanese replied: I don’t know, I see others are alive too.

People need a goal, hope, or an afterlife to live, but the Japanese have no goal. To be exact, they themselves don’t even know why they are alive.

When we are alive, we must figure out who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. Only by figuring out these three questions can we settle ourselves.

When fighting is going on at the front, the rear should not cause too much chaos. If you are ignorant of military affairs and still talk nonsense, that is nonsense.

"Han town." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial in his hand, which came from Yin Zhengmao, the Governor of Luzon. Yin Zhengmao mentioned a very interesting point. In recent years, the growth rate of the Han people in Southeast Asia has been terrifying.

And the number of people is increasing. From the initial 450 to people, the number of Han people within the Strait of Malacca has now expanded to million.

In terms of place of origin, Fujian has the largest number, followed by Guangdong and Guangxi, and then Henan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Jiangyou, Shandong, Northern Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, etc.

Among the many Han towns in Nanyang, 13,000 people came from Shaanxi.

"There are actually 360,000 people from Henan going out to sea, ranking third." Zhu Yijun said in great surprise.

Feng Bao sighed and said, "The Yellow River flows into the sea from the Huai River and has flooded many times. Henan is a saline land with many people from Henan. Most of the people who migrated to Liaodong came from Shandong, Northern Zhili, and Henan. There are many people and little land, and little food. We can only find a way out on our own."

Life is always finding its own way.

The number of people from Henan going out to sea surprised the emperor, because Henan is not on the sea and is an inland province, but it could have such a large proportion of people going out to sea.

Of course, the Han Chinese in Southeast Asia are mainly from Fujian and Guangdong, and these two places are the main sources.

After discussing in detail the horrors of the seafaring population, Yin Zhengmao changed the subject and talked about why people should go to sea and what the Ming people were pursuing when they went to sea.

Making Ming Dynasty great again, turning the vast seawall in Nanyang into Ming Dynasty's back garden, producing a large amount of grain, ensuring that Ming Dynasty survives the small glacier climate, etc., these are too grand and too broad, and are not the primary things that ordinary people should think about. We must have clear and specific goals.

In short, it can be summed up in six words: Nanyang Dream and Han Town.

Han Township is the Nanyang dream, and the Nanyang dream is Han Township. As a Han Chinese, after arriving in Nanyang, because the Governor's Office needs more people and needs to keep warm together, the identity of Han Chinese in Nanyang is very precious. As long as you are not too lazy, you can get a house of your own and own your own property within three years.

The Han town has broad roads, golden sandy beaches, the Huimin Pharmacy not far from the door, the night watchmen who tell the time at fixed points, the fireman in the watchtower, the clean, tidy and safe living environment, the school which is a ten-minute walk away, the palm trees in front of the door, the loquat trees in the yard, the servants who are not too expensive but very durable, the barbarians who are willing to live and die on the plantations, and the affluent life with people following closely behind.

The Central Plains call these people "good family sons", and these good family sons are the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's Overseas Governor's Office.

Twelve Han Townships were established in Luzon with twelve copper towns, and the Governor-General's Office of the Old Port established four Han Townships in Java and the Strait of Malacca with plantations as the core.

These sixteen Han townships accommodate more than four million Han people.

Reclaiming wasteland in Southeast Asia is much more comfortable than reclaiming wasteland in the Western Regions. At least there is sufficient water resources. Logging is hard work, but wood is very expensive because of the demand for shipyards, house construction, furniture, etc.

Moreover, after reclaiming the wasteland, the plantations did not have to distribute too much to the lower levels, and the profits from the plantation economy were very lucrative. When the Han people arrived in Southeast Asia, they became true rentiers.

This is the Nanyang dream, the Han town.

Zhu Yijun held Yin Zhengmao's memorial and said, "Right now, there are several difficulties in developing Nanyang."

"The first and biggest problem is that we don't have enough people. The two Governor-General's Offices in Luzon and Old Port are going to build 16 Han townships in the next five years. Even at the current rate of growth in going out to sea, there is still a shortage of more than one million Han people."

Without the Han people, there would be no Han towns, no plantations, and no plantation economy. The gap of one million Han people cannot be given to the barbarians to be prey.

This is not the fault of the Governor's Office, but the fault of the Ming Dynasty's hinterland. There are not enough people to arrange for voyages.

One reason why the Zhejiang land return order could be implemented was that the poor laborers had a new choice: to worship Mazu and take a ship to Southeast Asia. There were 240,000 people in Zhejiang who could go to sea. Zhejiang suddenly lost 240,000 able-bodied laborers, which was a disaster for the local gentry.

The tenants who could be bullied at will in the past can only be coaxed now, and some New Year's money must be given during festivals, otherwise the tenants will just leave.

This was also one of the reasons why there was widespread opposition to opening up the sea in the Ming Dynasty. If the Ming Dynasty allowed going out to sea, life would find a way out on its own. Tenants and servants would have a way out, and local gentry and powerful people would not be able to take what they wanted. At the same time, the income from land rent would inevitably decline.

This is the reason for opposing the opening of the sea, and it is one of the main reasons.

In five years, Zhu Yijun was powerless to fill the gap of one million people, and what made Zhu Yijun most frustrated was that the gap would become bigger and bigger.

The Ming Dynasty abolished slavery in the ninth year of the Wanli reign, and the Zhejiang land return order was implemented in the thirteenth year of the Wanli reign. The people of the Ming Dynasty really began to enjoy the dividends of the Wanli Reform, but it was only five years later that people's lives had not improved and population growth had not yet seen an explosion.

There is a shortage of people. There is a shortage of people in the workshops of the Nan Ya, in the fields of the local gentry, and in the Han towns in Nanyang.

"The second dilemma is the intensifying conflict between Han and Yi people." Zhu Yijun looked at the second dilemma.

Yin Zhengmao has spoken frankly about this contradiction. The plan to reduce the population has already begun. Although it has not been posted on the bulletin board, it has already been implemented.

Yin Zhengmao played the role of savior for fourteen years, but the attack in Tongxiang Town last year completely angered Yin Zhengmao and made him wake up from his busy life. Wan Shihe's remark that the barbarians have the faces of wolves and the hearts of beasts is definitely a historical experience and lesson.

This is the wisdom of our ancestors. You never know when it will slap you on the head to wake you up!
Don't have any grand dream of educating the barbarians. It is impossible to educate them. If the barbarians could be educated, they would have created a glorious civilization long ago. Why would they still need the Ming Dynasty court to educate them?

The bloody bodies of the three children lay in front of Yin Zhengmao. Yin Zhengmao had failed to live up to their expectations.

This contradiction requires the Han people to become the majority population in Southeast Asia. They can naturally have children, but it takes at least sixteen years for a child to grow up to adulthood, so there is still a shortage of people.

Zhu Yijun frowned and said, "The third dilemma is actually religion, or more specifically, the lack of culture and education."

Culture and education, reading to gain knowledge and open the mind, are the best means to resist religion. However, there is a lack of scholars in Luzon and the Governor's Office in Old Port. In Luzon, the only people who can get ahead of the Governor are the Luzon scholars.

Religions in Southeast Asia are a hodgepodge. Buddhism, Islam, and Catholicism have always been inseparable. The Pure Land Sect and the Great Light Sect have recently joined the battlefield.

The Paradise Cult was spread by Sister Nanyang. This evil spirit originated from Japan and spread among the barbarians in Nanyang at an incredible speed.

The barbarians need this kind of self-consistent explanation to indulge themselves and let themselves degenerate. Degeneration is much more comfortable than struggle.

The followers of the Great Light Sect were mainly meat-eaters in Luzon, such as plantation owners, workshop owners, merchants, etc. These meat-eaters were very opposed to the Pure Land Sect, and most of the believers were Han people.

The people of the Ming Dynasty were more able to accept the narrative of the Great Light Sect. They traveled so far to Southeast Asia, suffered so much, and regarded their families as a burden and cut them off. That was to deny all their efforts and achievements.

However, these Han people were poor laborers and had never received any education in the heartland of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the Han people generally opposed the Pure Land Sect and embraced the Great Light Sect.

The Great Light Sect is brighter than the Paradise Sect in any way. In addition, temple fairs, gatherings, and operas are held regularly around the House of Wise Men. It becomes lively during festivals and is one of the few entertainments for the Han people after they went to sea.

The Great Light Church has many supporters because there is no God in its teachings.

Wisdom comes from heaven and earth. People can gain wisdom from the nature, delve into the infinite principles of all things, use the eight virtues to restrain their own behavior, make themselves wise, and settle their lives. This whole day is a bit like the Confucian self-cultivation, family management, and settling down.

The bureaucrats of the Governor-General's Office were mainly Confucian scholars.

Yin Zhengmao was a little anxious and confused. He didn't know what to do with Luzon. He was not sure whether Luzon would be completely torn apart in his hands due to the intensification of conflicts, and eventually the Governor's Mansion would be reduced to ruins.

These contradictions are more difficult than each other. Yin Zhengmao is at a loss and has to use his unique skills to call for support!
One person's plan may be short, but everyone else's plan may be long. Let's explain the situation clearly and ask the officials of the Ming Dynasty if they have any good ideas.

If the Governor-General's Office of Luzon disappeared in the tearing apart of internal conflicts, it would mean that the Ming Dynasty's opening up of the sea had completely failed and the Wanli Reform had completely failed.

"I don't have any good ideas." Zhu Yijun looked at it for a long time, shook his head and said, "How about this, send all the bird guns that were eliminated this year to Luzon. I remember there are 240,000 of them."

"We can produce 100,000 bird guns every year, and we can sell them to Southeast Asia, which is just right for replacing the Ming army with flintlock guns."

Plan passes.

Providing firearms can ease two of the three major contradictions. The second is the conflict between Han and Yi people. If someone wants to rob the Han people's wealth, he can ask the muskets in his hands whether they agree or not. The second is the religious conflict, which can ensure that the Great Light Sect, which is more supported by the Han people, can win in the chaos.

In addition to being able to ensure that military force is under control, there is another biggest benefit, which is that the Ming Dynasty can generate income.

The goods from the Ming Dynasty and those from Southeast Asia were flowing. The more goods the Ming Dynasty sold, the more silver would return to the hinterland, which could effectively alleviate the money shortage. Otherwise, the additional one million silver treasure notes would become a major headache for the Nanyang Governor's Office and would cause the credibility of the treasure notes to decline.

The same amount of goods must be provided as the currency is provided to ensure that the currency is used and to ensure the credit of the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes circulating overseas.

Selling guns was the solution that Zhu Yijun found, killing two birds with one stone.

The first is the narrative of gratitude. Zhang Juzheng was committed to creating a narrative of gratitude, a narrative of imperial power based on the emperor’s grace.

Selling various bird guns and flintlock guns is to provide the Han people who go out to sea with military force to protect themselves, which is part of the favor.

The second is the influx of more silver and red copper to alleviate the money shortage caused by the reduction of silver in the sailing ship trade in the Ming Dynasty.

The third is to resolve the conflicts in the Governor's Office in the Old Port of Luzon and maintain the stability and scale of the Governor's Office's basic base. With firearms that can directly take lives, one will have military power.

There is no need to worry, because with just a few guns, the Ming Overseas Governor's Office will be overthrown.

It is politically naive to expect that a few guns can overthrow the country.

There is only one reason for the overthrow of the dynasty: it has lost the support of the people. Even the most basic base is opposed to the continuation of the dynasty, so it will naturally be destroyed.

As for the first problem of shortage of manpower mentioned by Yin Zhengmao, Zhu Yijun was really powerless to solve it. Not only was there a shortage of manpower in Luzon, but there was also a shortage of manpower in the heartland of the Ming Dynasty.

Korea, Liaodong, the seven guards of Guanxi, workshops, farmlands, people are needed everywhere. Zhu Yijun really has no one to replace Yin Zhengmao.

This is not an imperial decree that will allow the people of the Ming Dynasty to have as many children as they want. The people of the Ming Dynasty are not so obedient, and sometimes, the more administrative orders the court issues, the more counterproductive they become.

Only when the largest number of people can truly benefit from the Wanli Reform and have hope in life will they give birth.

The people are working like slaves, and they are very clear about their situation. It is really difficult for them to have children and continue to work like slaves.

Only if the order to return land or the second best method of building villages can be widely implemented, so that people have land in their hands, hope in their hearts, and hope in life, will the population of the Ming Dynasty usher in a period of rapid growth.

"Philippe II is about to launch an ocean-going expedition. After so much preparation, the war is finally about to begin, but his direction..." Zhu Yijun frowned as he looked at the letters from Spain and Portugal, as well as the memorials written by Xu Fan, and the news that the Ming Dynasty heard from the sailors. After verification from multiple sources, he came to a conclusion.

Felipe had been clenching his fist for several years and was finally about to punch out.

The only difference was that the direction was not the actual alliance between the Netherlands and England, but the Araya Peninsula in Venezuela, South America, in the New World. The Dutch found salt lakes and salt mines on this peninsula and got rid of their dependence on Spanish salt.

Conquering by force would create too much blood feud. Even if the ruling power was regained, there would be constant resistance. This time Felipe chose to force surrender.

As long as Felipe could capture the tiny Araya Peninsula, the Dutch would have to return to his rule. England's Cheshire salt mines could not even meet England's own needs, and the Hanseatic League did not have enough salt to supply the Dutch.

Judging from Felipe's letter, he intended to treat the Dutch better this time, giving the Netherlands region the power of autonomy, not collecting such heavy taxes, and allowing them to freely dock at the port of the Governor's Office, in order to deepen economic ties and achieve economic unification.

In time, the lowlands will become part of Spain.

Felipe really intends to be kind.

Zhu Yijun looked at Felipe's letter, tapping his fingers on the table and saying, "Felipe's idea is fine, but for the Ming Dynasty, a tyrannical Spain and a united Western world with highly consistent interests are not in the interests of the Ming Dynasty."

"It's better if they continue to fight like this in such a mess."

The Ming Dynasty needs to make up for the lesson of opening the sea a hundred years late. A united West would make not only England tremble with fear, but also Zhu Yijun.

Felipe once proposed the idea of ​​a major business alliance.

The large amount of silver from the rich silver mines, the gold from the New World, the raw materials from Mexico, Peru, Chile and Brazil, the huge handicraft workshops in the Netherlands, and the grain from the black soil of Kiev, this great Western commercial alliance could not be achieved due to various obstacles.

However, once Felipe really regains control of the Netherlands without bloodshed, this alliance may really be achieved.

This is a commercial alliance, not a sovereign alliance, and its purpose is to counter the goods that are tilted towards the ancient Eastern civilization.

"Isn't Spain a friendly country?" Feng Bao whispered.

"It is a friendly country only when its existence is in the interests of the Ming Dynasty." Zhu Yijun once again emphasized the definition of a friendly country.

A friendly country is a country that is friendly and beneficial to the Ming Dynasty. This definition was clearly given when Wan Shihe was in power. When its existence is not in the interests of the Ming Dynasty, it is no longer a friendly country.

In international relations, it is normal for relations to change faster than turning the pages of a book.

(End of this chapter)