Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Sun Yuanhua's introduction to India aroused great interest among the nobles.

With the emperor's attitude becoming increasingly clear, many nobles who felt they could not resist him began to consider establishing their own fiefdoms.

However, many nobles were unwilling to settle and develop a wasteland as the emperor suggested; they preferred to have subjects and collect taxes to generate revenue.

After learning from Sun Yuanhua that India had a large population and many Western colonial settlements, these people were immediately intrigued and thought it was worthwhile to go there.
"Taixi is thousands of miles away from India, and it would take at least six months to get there."

"This is much farther than the Ming Dynasty. It only takes three or four months to get from the Ming Dynasty to India."

The distance was being discussed, and many nobles felt it was acceptable.

There's no reason why Westerners could get through but they couldn't.

Once you gain ten thousand or one hundred thousand households in India, you can generate a continuous stream of revenue.

But would those people listen? They still had doubts.

Sun Yuanhua had long planned to establish a vassal state in India, and after carefully studying the region, he explained:
"India has frequently been invaded by foreign powers, and its culture and religion have been subject to foreign rule."

"The Emperor said that there are four castes in India: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. There are also untouchables called Dalits."

"These castes were created after the Aryans migrated south and entered India. Among them, Brahmins were priests and scholars, equivalent to the literati in the Ming Dynasty, especially clergy."

“Kshatriyas were rulers, primarily military nobles. The nobles who conquered India were able to integrate into the caste system as Kshatriyas.”

"Therefore, Indian culture is inherently accepting of foreign rule. For thousands of years, India has been ruled by foreign tribes that have migrated south many times."

"The most powerful Mughal Empire in India today was established by the descendants of Timur who migrated south to India."

"The emperor of this empire, who called himself the protector king of Hinduism, was regarded by Brahmin priests as the future Chakravartin king, and was the Brahmin among Brahmins."

Such a bizarre culture left everyone feeling astonished.

Compared to the continuous resistance of the Han people after the Mongol conquest of the Central Plains, and their eventual expulsion of the barbarians under the leadership of Emperor Taizu, they felt that India and China were very different.

At the same time, they also realized that the caste system was indeed suitable for rulers from other ethnic groups, and that they could integrate into this system to rule India without being rejected by the indigenous people.

This place is naturally suited for establishing a fiefdom, and everyone is very interested in it.

The sheer size of the Mughal Empire's territory and population made them hesitate.

Could they conquer India with their strength? How should we deal with the Mughal Empire?
Sun Yuanhua didn't elaborate on the strength of the Mughal Empire; instead, he recounted to everyone the history of the Mughal Empire that he had gathered and that he had heard from the emperor:

"The Timurid Empire was founded by Timur, whose ancestors were of the same clan as Genghis Khan."

"After marrying a woman from the royal family of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, Timur believed he had acquired the legitimacy of the khanate and declared himself the successor to Genghis Khan and the ruler of the Chagatai Khanate."

"During the Hongwu reign, Emperor Taizu ordered his troops to pursue and expel the fleeing enemy. Timur was just rising to power at that time and submitted to the Ming Dynasty, paying tribute."

"By the time of the death of the Taizu Emperor, the Timurid Empire had become quite powerful. He detained the Ming envoy Fu An and others, intending to launch an eastern expedition against the Ming."

"However, because he died on the way, no war broke out. His descendants released Fu An and others and resumed paying tribute to the Ming Dynasty. After that, they remained a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty."

"During the Chenghua era, an envoy from Samarkand, under the rule of the Timurid Empire, once presented lions as tribute overland from Gansu and wanted to return by sea, and later pay tribute via Malacca, but the court did not grant his request."

"By the Hongzhi era, the Timurid Empire had fallen. Timur's sixth-generation descendant, Babur, went south to India and established the Mughal Empire during the Jiajing era."

"From this perspective, the Mughal Empire should be a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, but it never paid tribute."

Pointing to the world map hanging in the Court of Colonial Affairs, Sun Yuanhua roughly drew out the boundaries of the Timurid Empire and the Mughal Empire.

And added:

"Do not underestimate the Mughal Empire; it is an extremely powerful nation."

"Not only is the population close to that of the Ming Dynasty, but the wealth is also similar."

"Moreover, its finances are more abundant than those of the Ming Dynasty. In the years when it was at its peak, its annual land tax revenue could reach 40 million taels."

Upon hearing this figure, the nobles of the Ming Dynasty immediately became green with envy—

A descendant of a fallen Ming dynasty vassal state was able to establish such a large empire in India, possessing such a large population and wealth.

They, nobles of the Ming Dynasty, could only own a maximum of 20,000 mu of farmland, and even after exploiting them to the bone, they could only obtain less than 10,000 taels of rent.

The gap was so vast that these nobles were tempted when they saw India:

With such a large piece of land, even if we don't take half, or even just one-tenth or one-fortieth, we can still earn a million taels of silver every year.

This is the wealth they accumulated over two hundred years, which they can acquire by collecting taxes in India for a year.

The old nobles who attended the meeting were all tempted by the idea of ​​establishing a new vassal state in India, not to mention the new nobles.

Compared to the old nobility, they had far less wealth. Journeying to India to establish vassal states would significantly narrow this gap.

So much so that they started arguing and all wanted to establish fiefdoms in India.

They unanimously agreed to the one-tenth bill proposed by the imperial court.

India is such a wonderful place, it shouldn't be monopolized by a few vassal states. Everyone should benefit from it and share the spoils.

The Tithing Act was excellent, as it allowed more nobles to establish fiefdoms in India.

Many former nobles even expressed their willingness to offer up their extra estates if the court helped them establish vassal states in India.

The requirement that hereditary nobles must have fiefdoms began to gain their consent.
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Zhu Youjian was very pleased with their sensible understanding when he learned of this development.

He didn't care how much these nobles profited overseas, as long as they gave up their land.

Only by resolving the conflict between people and land can the Ming Dynasty survive for a longer period of time.

After learning from Huang Lijie the reason for the change in these people's attitudes, Zhu Youjian specially summoned Sun Yuanhua and praised him, saying:
"Minister Sun has done a great job; he has solved a major problem for me."

"But what is your opinion, Sun Qing, on whether establishing a vassal state in India is feasible?"

Sun Yuanhua had already considered this, and replied:

"Although the Mughal Empire was large, its control over the coast was very weak, and it controlled the southern part of India."

"I believe we should first send people to Ceylon to establish a vassal state there."

"Then they would plot to establish a foothold in southern India, set up a base along the coast, and gradually penetrate inland."

This strategy was approved by Zhu Youjian. Considering the small investment and the possibility of failure, he immediately gave the order:

"This matter will be overseen by Minister Sun. You will serve as the Vice Minister of the Navy, dispatch ships to Ceylon to establish a base, and explore stable shipping routes."

“Any noble family that is willing to go to India to establish a vassal state can contribute their efforts.”

Sun Yuanhua immediately accepted the order, and was very pleased.

He knew his strategy had succeeded; the emperor had granted him permission to establish a fiefdom in India with the help of the court. Many nobles accompanied him, and they were united in this effort.
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After watching him leave, Zhu Youjian began to reflect on the gains and lessons learned from this incident.

Encouraging nobles to establish their own fiefdoms was a consistent strategy of his, but the results were not significant.

Apart from the British dukes and others he specifically named, the other nobles were unwilling to go out at all.

Even hereditary officials who would not receive titles without establishing their own fiefdoms were unwilling to go overseas.

Why are the results so obvious that they are willing to go there?

"It's a profit!"

"What impressed these nobles was the taxation of the Mughal Empire."

"They wanted to gain immediate benefits after establishing vassal states."

Even he was envious of the fiscal revenue of forty million taels.

If he hadn't known that the imperial court would have difficulty ruling directly, he would have wanted to take over the Indian region.

The same is true for the nobles. Even if their fiefdoms are small, they can still earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year without any problem.

This made Zhu Youjian realize that establishing fiefdoms was also a business transaction. His previous policies on this matter had obvious flaws:

“In the past, in order to settle immigrants, the direction of opening up the domain was mostly in places with vast land and sparse population that could be cultivated.”

"However, since these places are sparsely populated, even if they are developed into farmland in later generations, there will inevitably be various difficulties under the existing conditions."

“A truly good place must be densely populated, like the Indian region.”

"To create a trend of overseas expansion, we need to conquer these regions first and let the pioneers profit."

Upon reflection, Zhu Youjian quickly understood why the Americas and India had so quickly become colonies: because both places were easy to profit from.

Conversely, encouraging nobles to cultivate land in Borneo, Malacca, and the Lancang River Delta, as he had done before, simply wouldn't attract many people.

These areas were developed on a large scale after the Industrial Revolution, and it would require tremendous effort to reclaim them now.

Instead of wasting time on that, it would be better to conquer India and collect taxes directly from the developed land.

"But such places are already well-developed, making it difficult to resettle many immigrants."

“They may be driven out in the future when national consciousness rises.”

This is why Zhu Youjian focused on developing wasteland; he wanted to use these places to settle immigrants from the Ming Dynasty and establish a stable rule.

However, the slow progress of opening up new territories forced him to change course and emulate Western colonialism:

"Colonialism means that a powerful country migrates people to the regions it conquers and plunders the interests of the original local people."

“I was only thinking about immigration before, and I neglected the looting.”

"But now that I think about it, the Western colonizers started the wave of colonization because of the huge gains they made in the Americas."

"If I want to create this trend in the Ming Dynasty, I need to first use plunder to let people see the benefits."

"Once the trend takes hold, more people will be willing to immigrate and explore overseas lands."

“They don’t even need the imperial court to arrange it; they will go overseas on their own.”

Thinking about this, he recalled his argument with Liu Zongzhou some time ago.

He originally planned to conquer Annam and eliminate the threats from the surrounding areas, and then use a gentler approach.

Now it seems impossible; in this age of exploration pioneered by the West, we must emulate their actions—

Whatever the West did, the Ming Dynasty had to do. Only in this way could the Ming Dynasty enter the Age of Exploration.
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Having made this decision, Zhu Youjian quickly ordered the Court of Colonial Affairs to have Huang Lijie negotiate with the nobles and finalize a law requiring hereditary nobles to have fiefdoms.

The fiefdom law should clearly state that, apart from the fact that citizens of the Ming Dynasty should be tried according to the laws and etiquette of the Ming Dynasty, the indigenous people within the fiefdoms should be left to their own discretion in how they are governed and taxed.

In other words, they were given the freedom to act as they pleased; even if they looted and killed within their fiefdoms, the Ming Dynasty would not interfere. Even if a morally upright ruler impeached them, the court would not punish them.

However, immigrants from the Ming Dynasty must be accepted and given Ming citizens no less privileges than those of Ming citizens, including corresponding seats in parliament.

Furthermore, their fiscal revenue was to be paid as tribute to the emperor at a rate of elevenths. This revenue did not go to the imperial court; it was primarily used for the construction of the navy and overseas protectorates, the maintenance of sea lanes, and overseas bases.

Zhu Youjian did not want overseas expansion to become a burden on the court, nor did he want the court to become dependent on overseas revenue. He hoped that these people would govern the Ming Dynasty well and obtain more taxes from trade.

The purpose of the Ming Dynasty's overseas expansion was also to settle the surplus population and obtain places of origin for raw materials and places of sale for goods.

To achieve this goal, Zhu Youjian required all vassal states to plant various crops according to the plans of the Planning Commission. The prices of these crops were also determined by the futures exchange of the Ming Dynasty, and they were given priority to be sold to the Ming Dynasty.

They must also accept goods from the Ming Dynasty and cannot set any barriers.

The bill explicitly implemented an imperial preferential system, requiring vassal states to offer special privileges to goods from the Ming Empire and restricting the import of goods from third-party countries.

The nobles of the Ming Dynasty naturally accepted this, and even after learning of India's wealth, they were prepared for the emperor to increase the proportion of tribute they paid.

However, the emperor insisted on the elevenths tax rate and made no mention of this point. This made them realize that the current emperor was truly trustworthy and that the laws he enacted would not be overturned.

Once this law is finalized, they can confidently establish vassal states in India without worrying about them being seized by the emperor or the court after completion.

"These conditions are too good to be true. Is India really that rich?"

Some nobles had reservations and demanded that the court help them establish their own fiefdoms, and that the income of their fiefdoms exceed the income from their estates, before they would offer up any extra estates.

The newly rich nobles, eager to acquire estates in the capital, naturally objected.

Ultimately, after much debate, the more daring nobles, such as the Earl of Pengcheng and the Earl of Huian, were the first to sell their estates to the court in exchange for ships, thus gaining the right to choose their fiefdoms in India first.

They began to organize a fleet, together with naval vessels dispatched by Sun Yuanhua, to explore the Indian region and establish a foothold in Ceylon.

Marquis Li of Wuqing, who was expelled from the capital, was also required to send someone to go with him, because the island where Ceylon was located was named Xihai Island, which was the Xihai sacred site of the Nine Lotus Guanyin Bodhisattva.

They wanted to spread Buddhism from the Ming Dynasty to India.

Brahmanism in India, according to traditional views, is also regarded as a special form of Buddhism, as a branch of Lamaism.

Zhu Youjian hoped to use Buddhism to resist the encroachment of Brahmanism and prevent this religion and caste system from spreading to the Ming Dynasty.

Buddhism is naturally delighted that it can return to its place of origin.

Master Zhixu selected many capable monks to accompany the fleet.

The fleet also carried a lot of goods and traded with local Indians and Westerners who had established colonial settlements in India.

The Ming Dynasty's expansion into India began from this point, marking a new stage in its overseas development and trade. (End of Chapter)