Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 593 Postscript: Zhengde (Jiajing)
"Crackling..."

With the sound of firecrackers a year old, the spring breeze sent warmth to Tusu.

Amid the smoke of firecrackers and fireworks, the eleventh year of Zhengde passed as scheduled.

The great earthquake in Hua County, Shaanxi cast a shadow over the Ming Dynasty that year, but fortunately Zhu Houzhao's timely disaster relief efforts minimized the impact of the disaster.

Due to the deficit in the local granary, Zhu Houzhao ordered Hai Rui to investigate the case. Zhu Zhishan's son Zhu Xu was implicated and exiled to Kunlun Island.

In the same year, the news that the Ming Dynasty destroyed Japan and annexed Japan and Korea spread, shocking Western countries.

Vassal states such as India and the Arab Peninsula became more submissive, and countries such as Sweden and Lithuania successively paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty.

The following year, as the earthquake relief gradually came to an end, Zhu Houzhao, who had seized more than 60 million taels of silver through the New Deal reforms, began to implement a relocation policy towards Korea and Japan.

The imperial court organized the migration as a welfare organization by giving each household in Beizhou, Nanzhou and Kunlunzhou 20 taels of silver to migrate to the two countries and the Jiangnan region.

In the first year alone, North Korea relocated more than 300,000 people, while Japan relocated as many as 1.72 million, and the Gangnam region relocated 840,000.

The Ming Dynasty moved many classics from Japan to the Ming Dynasty and destroyed a large number of stone tablets and older buildings.

Four years later, Zhu Houzhao also invested the annual fiscal revenue into the migration of people from the Central Plains and Japan and Korea.

In the 15th year of the Zhengde reign, civilian technologies such as radios and phonographs were put into production.

In August of the fifteenth year of the Zhengde reign, King Song Zhu Youji died of illness in the army due to years of fighting. He was fifty years old.

After Zhu Youji died, his son Zhu Houyu led his army to surrender.

Considering that Zhu Houyu still had 60,000 soldiers and horses under the command of three prefectures, Zhu Houzhao did not kill him, but abolished his title of King of Song and demoted him to Prince of Gaoqiu, retaining only 600 guards.

At this point, the ten-year Song Xiang Rebellion came to an end, and Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou and others were transferred back to Beijing to serve in the Six Army Commandery.

In September, Qi Jingtong was promoted to Marquis of Xihai, Qi Jiguang was promoted to Marquis of Dingyuan, Qi Jimei to Marquis of Changping, and Yu Dayou to Marquis of Zhending...

In October, Qi Jiguang was appointed General Zhenxi, in charge of the two military governorates of Qibei and Xihai.

Yu Dayou was appointed as the commander-in-chief of Persia, Qi Jimei as the commander-in-chief of Beizhou, Qi Jingtong as the commander-in-chief of the central army, and Chen Lin as the commander-in-chief of the navy.

In April of the 16th year of Zhengde, the 53-year-old Zhu Houzhao abdicated to the 23-year-old Crown Prince Zhu Zaigui.

Although he had abdicated, Zhu Houzhao was still the dominant figure in the court, and Zhu Zaigui was just a puppet with the title of emperor.

In August, after research, the Imperial Academy increased the speed of cars to 60 miles per hour.

In the same month, Emperor Retired Zhu Houzhao began to travel around the Ming Dynasty by car.

During his travels throughout the Ming Dynasty, most memorials had to be sent to him via telegram for his review and approval.

The following year, Zhu Zaigui changed the reign title to Jiajing and appointed the three-year-old Zhu Yihuan as the crown prince. The Ming Dynasty entered a period of "stability" and "harmony".

In the fifth year of Jiajing, the population of the Ming Dynasty reached 350 million, and the cultivated land area exceeded 2.5 billion mu.

As internal combustion engine technology advanced, oil-powered internal combustion tractors came onto the historical stage, and the economies of Persia, Central Asia and other regions were strengthened.

In the seventh year of Jiajing, the price of an internal combustion tractor dropped to 120 taels, and it only required an ordinary person's five years' income to buy one.

Zhu Houzhao ordered banks to issue 300 million guan of low-interest loans to help people purchase agricultural equipment and reclaim wasteland.

During this period, a large number of people went to North Continent, South Continent and Southwest Continent to reclaim the land.

In the 12th year of Jiajing, the cultivated land area of ​​Ming Dynasty reached 3 billion square kilometers. In the same year, the naval tonnage of Western European countries such as Britain and France reached 400,000 tons, while the naval tonnage of Ming Dynasty reached 2.7 million tons, with 16 fleets.

In March of the 16th year of the Jiajing reign, the Black Sheep Kingdom annexed the White Sheep Kingdom. Upon hearing the news, the 69-year-old Zhu Houzhao took the Zhongzhou Railway to the Persian region and mobilized troops to attack the Black Sheep Kingdom.

In April, Zhu Houzhao led six armies and eighteen guards, with a total of 54,000 soldiers and horses to invade the Black Sheep area.

At that time, the Ming army was already highly equipped with armored vehicles. It took Zhu Houzhao only a hundred days to destroy the Black Sheep Dynasty and recover Iraq, Syria and most of the Arabian Peninsula.

Zhu Houzhao set up the Three Departments of the Arab Empire here, which were under the control of Yu Dayou.

In this battle, Li Chengliang and his son Li Rusong fought bravely and were awarded the titles of Marquis of Da Shi and Earl of Pinglu.

In August, the remnants of the Southern Kingdom of Dongzhou rebelled and more than 100,000 people besieged Suining Prefecture, but were repelled by Qi Jin, the son of Qi Jimei.

In September, Zhu Houzhao returned to Beijing. According to the research of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, the Ming Dynasty was entering a warming period, with the world temperature increasing by an average of 0.1°C every ten years.

If the temperature continues to rise at this rate, the world is expected to return to the temperature of the heyday of the Tang Dynasty in 200 years. Zhu Houzhao was very happy to hear the news.

In May of the 17th year of the Jiajing reign, the population of the Ming Dynasty exceeded 400 million, and the population of countries around the world also increased steadily.

In the same year, the population of Western Europe was 130 million. Including the Central Continent and Kunlun Continent regions occupied by the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and other countries, the population of Western countries should have reached 180 million, and the southern region of Indies was 80 million.

According to Zheng Wang Zhu Zaiyu's judgment, the world population during this period should be around 700 million.

In the same year, Zheng Wang Zhu Zaiyu believed that the calendar at that time was not very accurate in calculating the length of each year. After careful observation and calculation, he found the formula for calculating the length of the tropical year and wrote a memorial to Zhu Zaigui to inform him of his research results.

After reading the memorial, Zhu Zaigui was very happy. After asking for instructions, he approved Zhu Zaiyu to enter the Imperial College to participate in research. Zhu Zaiyu became the first member of the Ming royal family to enter the Imperial College as a vassal king.

On April 24, the 20th year of the Jiajing reign, the retired emperor Zhu Houzhao felt unwell and summoned Zhu Zaigui, Zhao Zhenji, Gao Gong, Hai Rui, Zhang Juzheng and others to the Daming Palace.

On April 26, Zhu Houzhao died in the Changshou Hall of the Daming Palace at the age of 73.

Most common people were saddened by Zhu Houzhao's death, while many powerful people were celebrating.

After 54 days of mourning, Zhu Houzhao was buried in Kangling Mausoleum on Tianshou Mountain.

After Zhu Houzhao's death, the court began to evaluate Zhu Houzhao's temple name and posthumous title based on his achievements.

Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong believed that Wuzong should be promoted, while Xu Jie and others believed that Dezong should be promoted.

After much deliberation, Zhu Zaigui finally gave Zhu Houzhao the temple name Wuzong and the posthumous title "Chengtian Dadao Yingsu Ruiming Zhaode Xiangong Wuyi Xiaochun Emperor."

After the matter was settled, Zhu Zaigui finally gained complete control of power 20 years after he ascended the throne.

He was 43 years old at that time, and the civil and military officials that Zhu Houzhao left him were luxurious.

The civil officials included Zhao Zhenji, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian, Zhang Juzheng, Tan Lun, Xu Jie, Yan Shifan, Hai Rui, Li Hualong...

The military generals include Qi Jiguang, Qi Jimei, Yu Dayou, Li Chengliang, Li Rusong, Qi Jin, Chen Lin, etc.

This group of people ranged from thirty to seventy years old, and were capable of assisting Zhu Zaigui.

Perhaps even Zhu Zaigui thought so, so in the second year after he completely grasped power, he ordered the abolition of the crimes of officials exiled to Kunlun Province, and Zhu Xu was released as a result.

In addition, Zhu Zaigui changed the regular court session from once every ten days to once a month, and delegated part of the power to the six ministries and palaces.

Under his generosity, the Ming Dynasty entered a strange period of peace.

In the 24th year of Jiajing, Zhu Zaiyu proposed the photon hypothesis and successfully explained the photoelectric effect, for which he was rewarded by Zhu Zaixie.

The following year, Zhu Zaiyu established the special theory of relativity, and three years later he established the general theory of relativity.

During the long conversation, Crown Prince Zhu Yixuan and Zhu Zaiyu had a very pleasant conversation. In addition to theoretically researching alternating current, they also invented an alternating current generator in the 26th year of Jiajing, and invented the tungsten filament lamp.

In the 28th year of Jiajing, the two discovered during astronomical observations that the temperature growth rate in the Ming Dynasty had slowed down, and there was even a possibility of a drop in temperature.

The two men reported the matter to Zhu Zaigui, but there was no good solution.

In the 30th year of the Jiajing reign, the temperature increase had indeed reached its limit, and the world's temperature began to enter a stable period.

In the 34th year of the Jiajing reign, the Imperial Academy invented urea, potash fertilizer and antibiotics, which increased grain production and provided cures for many diseases.

In the 36th year of Jiajing, the world population grew to 900 million, and the population of the Ming Dynasty grew to 600 million.

However, as temperatures began to drop, natural disasters around the world began to increase and the world's population growth rate began to slow.

In addition, Zhao Zhenji, Hu Zongxian, Gao Gong, Xu Jie, Yan Shifan, Yu Dayou, Hai Rui and others died one after another, and only Zhang Juzheng and others supported the country politically.

As the temperature continued to drop, floods in the Northeast became increasingly serious. In addition, the former Bohai officials gradually lost power, and the topic of moving the Northeast's light industry southward began to emerge, but was rejected by Zhang Juzheng.

In the 40th year of the Jiajing reign, Zhang Juzheng died of illness while in office at the age of 76. He was posthumously named Wenzheng.

After Zhang Juzheng passed away, his successor Zhang Siwei retired on the grounds of old age. Shen Yikuan became the Minister of Revenue and Zhao Nanxing became the Minister of Personnel.

After Shen Yikuan took office, he immediately submitted a memorial on "Northern Industry", requesting that light industries north of Beijing be relocated to the south of the Yangtze River where the climate is more pleasant.

Zhu Zaigui was caught in a dilemma, but seeing that the northern light industry was running at a loss, he gritted his teeth and agreed to Shen Yikuan's memorial.

At one time, more than 1,700 light industrial factories in the north of Beijing began to move south to Jiangnan. The move of these factories to the south provided more employment opportunities for the Jiangnan region, so the Jiangnan region ushered in a period of prosperity.

Compared with the prosperity of the south of the Yangtze River, many people in the north could only engage in heavy industry to ensure their lives.

In the 46th year of the Jiajing reign, after losing its light industry, the north began to move towards a farm economy, but the continuously cooling climate caused agricultural output to continue to decline.

In order to solve the problem, Zhu Zaigui ordered Zhu Yixin to supervise the Imperial College and solve the problem of grain production.

Compared with the vast Ming Dynasty, the countries in Western Continent do not have such a good environment.

As agriculture and animal husbandry suffered from the drop in temperature, and without the Americas to solve the problem, Western Europe inevitably fell into a war for resources.

This war was the product of conflicts among Western European countries over interests and the establishment of hegemony, as well as the intensification of religious disputes.

With the continuous contacts between the Ming Dynasty and Xizhou, the western coastal countries and the eastern countries were able to gain new scientific thinking and concepts from the exchanges with the Ming Dynasty, while the Holy Roman Empire in the center was stuck in a stalemate.

As time went by, the Holy Roman Empire gradually declined, and internal warlords continued to fight against each other. After the Reformation, a sharp confrontation between Catholicism and Protestantism developed. In addition, as neighboring countries rose one after another, a large-scale Spanish War broke out to divide the Holy Roman Empire and inland countries.

The war was basically fought on the side of Ming vassal states such as Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Lithuania.

The Holy Roman Empire, the German Catholic princes and Spain were on the other side.

The Ottoman Empire was on one side, while Britain, France and Portugal remained neutral.

The war broke out in the 1610th year of Jiajing (). Due to fear of the Ming Dynasty, the Holy Roman Empire mainly adopted a defensive strategy in the north, while attacking the Ottoman Empire.

The Ming Dynasty did not care about what happened in Xizhou because it had its own internal problems to solve.

After Zhang Juzheng's death and Shen Yiguan's ascension to power, Shen Yiguan made extensive use of Zhejiang officials who were from the same hometown as him, and they were also criticized as the Zhejiang Party.

In the 49th year of Jiajing, Shen Yikuan requested to increase the number of seats for the imperial examination on the grounds of a dramatic increase in population.

This memorial was supported by many overseas officials. They suggested dividing it into four volumes, "North, South, China and Foreign Countries", with 300 Jinshi seats in each volume, totaling 1,200. However, this was rejected by Shen Yikuan.

Shen Yiquan believed that the number should be determined by population: the Southern Volume should have 400 people, the Northern Volume 300 people, and the Central Volume 400 people.

This practice made many overseas officials dissatisfied. They gathered around Zhao Nanxing and often communicated in the guild hall in Yanshan, so they were also called the Yan Party.

In April of the 50th year of the Jiajing reign, Qi Jiguang died at the age of 83. He was posthumously named Duke of Huai, Prince's Guardian, and given the posthumous title of Wu Mu. His son Qi Zuoguo inherited the title.

Qi Zuoguo knew that he did not have the ability to lead the western front, so he resigned from the post of general.

Upon hearing the memorial, Zhu Zaigui approved it and ordered the 63-year-old Li Rusong to replace Qi Jiguang and continue to guard the western frontier.

In the fifty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign, due to merchants driving up grain prices and the fact that the granaries in the Arab and Persian regions had been in deficit for many years, rebellions broke out in the Arab and Persian regions.

Li Rusong led his army to suppress the local rebels, but due to the terrain and food price issues, the rebellion was as difficult to extinguish as wildfire.

The world was caught in an environment of reduced grain production. In April of the same year, Yuan Keli, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue, submitted a memorial to the emperor, requesting to stop making wine to put more grain into the market, but Shen Yiquan kept the memorial in his hands and did not send it out.

In July, Shen Yikuan proposed restrictions on grain trade among countries in order to solve the domestic food problem.

This practice caused a large number of refugees from various Indian countries to pour into the Shannan area. The commander-in-chief Li Rubai ordered the killing of the refugees who crossed the border, resulting in the death toll reaching hundreds of thousands.

Even so, it is still impossible to stop the refugees from crossing the border and disrupting the lives of the people in Shannan.

For a time, public security in Shannan was in chaos, and thousands of people were attacked by refugees.

Zhao Nanxing and others seized this opportunity to impeach Shen Yikuan for condoning grain merchants to raise grain prices, which led to continuous rebellion.

Yang Lian, the Imperial Censor of the Ministry of Revenue, submitted a memorial to the emperor, in which he made a calculation for Zhu Zaigui. According to the per-acre grain yield reported by local governments last year, multiplied by the current number of acres of farmland in the Ming Dynasty, the total output should be 7.6 billion shi.

Based on three shi per person per year, the people of the Ming Dynasty could only consume 2.4 billion shi.

Even if 3 billion shi of grain were consumed every year for making wine and meat and feed, there should still be a surplus of 2.2 billion. Not only was there no shortage of grain within the Ming Dynasty, but large quantities of grain could also be sold abroad.

Therefore, the skyrocketing local grain prices were actually due to Shen Yikuan's connivance with grain merchants, not due to a shortage of grain in the Ming Dynasty.

After reading the memorial, Zhu Zaigui became furious and ordered Yang Lian and others to thoroughly investigate Shen Yikuan.

After two years of thorough investigation by Yang Lian and others, it was found that Shen Yikuan and others supported grain merchants in Jiangnan to smuggle grain in Xizhou and India, driving up grain prices in the western Arab world, Persia, and Shannan, and illegally obtaining more than 46.4 million taels of silver. More than 3,700 officials including Shen Yikuan received bribes totaling more than 15.4 million taels of silver.

When the truth came to light, Zhu Zaigui was furious and exiled Shen Yikuan and others to Kunlun Island. All the merchants involved in the incident had their properties confiscated and beheaded, and their families were exiled to Kunlun Island.

After a case, the Zhejiang Party declined and the Yan Party rose.

The national treasury thus obtained more than 60 million taels of seized revenue, but 30 million taels of it were used by Zhu Zaigui to stabilize grain prices in Persia, Daqin and other places.

In addition, Zhu Zaigui liberalized the grain trade, which eased the conflict between Xizhou and India.

His actions led to the Western Continent countries sending envoys to the Ming Dynasty one after another while they were fighting, and they all elected Zhu Zaigui as the "Holy Son of Heaven."

The 78-year-old Zhu Zaigui never expected that he would get such an unexpected surprise just by wanting to make some money.

Taking this opportunity, Zhu Zaigui had in-depth exchanges with delegations from various countries and established a trade alliance led by the Ming Dynasty.

Although politically they regarded Zhu Zaigui as the common ruler of the world, they could not break away from the Ming Dynasty in terms of trade.

The world's first global trade organization emerged under the leadership of Zhu Zaigui, and relying on its strong industrial strength, the Ming Dynasty enabled all countries in the world during this period to benefit from this organization.

The rebellion in the west was quickly put down thanks to the military achievements of Li Rusong and the civil governance of Zhu Zaigui, and the refugees in Shannan returned to their hometowns because of the stable food prices in the country.

Xizhou temporarily stopped the war because of Ming Dynasty's trade development, but the price was to be responsible for Ming Dynasty's low-end industries.

These low-end industries are industries that various countries already have.

What they have to do now is to become Daming's downstream factory and provide Daming with sufficiently cheap labor.

Xizhou and India were both doing this kind of thing, and although the people of the Ming Dynasty were numerous, they were in a relatively stable environment because of their technological leadership.

During this period, although most of the Ming people were still farmers, even small peasant families had dozens of acres of arable land for sowing.

Even if you cannot become rich, you will not lack food and meat.

Such days have lasted for more than a hundred years. Since the Hongxi period, the lives of the people of the Ming Dynasty have been getting better and better.

In the 60th year of Jiajing's reign, Prince Zheng Zhu Zaiyu died at the age of 85, and his son inherited the title.

After Zhu Zaiyu's death, the Imperial College was managed by Doctor Zhao Shizhen. Machine guns, armored vehicles, tanks, propeller planes... were all the result of his research.

In the 62nd year of the Jiajing reign, Zhao Shizhen developed a fighter plane equipped with machine guns. The plane was called the "Jiajing Type 62" and was equipped with two machine guns. It could travel at a speed of 350 miles per hour and 900 miles with a full tank of fuel. It could carry four people, two pilots and two machine gunners.

In the 63rd year of the Jiajing reign, Zhao Shizhen developed bombers for bombing and attack aircraft for ground attacks.

In the 65th year of Jiajing, he presided over and developed a semi-automatic rifle, while Xizhou at that time was still mainly using single-shot rear-loading rifles.

In the same year, Zhu Yizhen, through astronomical observations and field investigations, finally determined that the Little Ice Age was about to enter its active period.

In the mountainous areas and northern regions of Xizhou, glacier expansion and advance of ice tongues were common, damaging farmland and destroying mountain villages.

Glacier-fed rivers often experience catastrophic flooding, accompanied by landslides and collapse.

Some mountain areas were still covered with snow until May, and the expansion of glaciers in the Western Alps caused ice tongues to extend near the meadows below the mountains.

According to Zhu Yizhen's observations and research, floods in the northeast and snow disasters in the south and north of the desert will enter a period of frequent activity, while rainfall in the Central Plains may fall into a situation of drought in the north and floods in the south.

Faced with this situation, Zhu Yizhen suggested building a large number of Changping warehouses in advance to deal with possible disasters.

However, faced with such words, officials in the court and even Zhu Yihuan's father Zhu Zaigui were skeptical.

The Ming Dynasty wasted its most precious two years in wrangling, and Zhu Zaigui, who had been in power for more than sixty years, ended his long reign in the sixty-seventh year of Jiajing.

On the seventh day of the fifth month of the sixty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign, Zhu Zaigui passed away in the Qianqing Palace. After forty-seven days of rest, he was buried in Deling. His temple name was Renzong and his posthumous title was Fatianqinwencongshengwudeshenmingxiaodezhen emperor. He died at the age of ninety.

During the period of Zhu Zaigui's death and burial, countries around the world sent envoys to express their condolences, and many envoys cried for days and refused to leave.

During this process, envoys from various countries also paid homage to the new emperor Zhu Yizhen.

Zhu Yixuan was already seventy years old at that time, and years of scientific research had made him very thin. Everyone was worried about the future emperor who was more of a scholar than a crown prince.

Zhu Yizhen didn't care about what others thought. What he was worried about at the moment was the Little Ice Age that was entering its active period.

His years of research told him that this was not just his own imagination, but a fact that was about to happen.

In such anxiety, Zhu Yixuan announced that the next year would be changed to Longqing, which was the first year of Longqing...

(End of this chapter)