Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

After experiencing the setbacks in trying the three cases, Kong Zhenyun has become much more stable and he also knows that the affairs of the royal family and nobles are not easy to manage.

If these people rely on their status and insist on causing trouble, even the most high-ranking officials may be humiliated by them.

So before he used Zhu Hengjia, he had already thought of a countermeasure.

After meeting Zhu Hengjia, he immediately told him what he had prepared:

"I haven't congratulated your highness yet!"

"His Majesty has appointed you as the Minister of the Lifanyuan, and sent you to Southeast Asia with the grandson of the Tang king."

"From now on, the Tang king's grandson will be stationed in Malacca and preside over the establishment of a fiefdom on Sumatra."

"Your Highness is stationed in Champa and has rented a piece of land there to build a supply station for the journey south."

Zhu Hengjia was shocked when he heard this. He didn't expect the emperor to let him go to Champa to establish a vassal state.

Obviously he had already thought about it and knew that the so-called establishment of supply stations in the leased areas was to prepare for the establishment of a fiefdom in the future.

So he quickly put aside the idea of ​​beating Kong Zhenyun and asked excitedly:
"Your Majesty, do you want Jingjiang to go to Champa?"

"Didn't you say before that you would not establish a vassal state?"

Kong Zhenyun heard this and said loudly:
"How can you call it opening a vassal state if you rent a supply station from a vassal state?"

"Your Highness, please do not misunderstand me. Do not let the feudal state misunderstand me."

He pulled Zhu Hengjia aside and whispered:
"Your Majesty intends to grant the Jingjiang vassal state a fiefdom in the delta area at the mouth of the Lancang River."

“I think the name Jingjiang is very suitable for pacifying the Lancang River.”

"Champa is now weak and cannot resist the invasion of Annan. If the Ming Dynasty does not intervene, it will be destroyed soon."

"His Majesty wants Your Highness to rent a piece of land during the war and build a supply station first. Then he can move the guards there and plan to establish a fiefdom."

"The Lancang River Delta is all plains. If it is well developed, it will be no less than the delta at the mouth of the Yangtze River."

"Your Highness should know what this concept is."

What is the concept of a plain equivalent to the Yangtze River Delta? How could Zhu Hengjia not know it?
The five most prosperous prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Lake Tai in the Ming Dynasty were all located in the Yangtze River Delta.

Although Zhu Hengjia did not believe that the Lancang River Delta could reach this level, the fact that the emperor said so meant that the area would definitely not be bad.

This place is further south than the areas in the south of Guangxi and the north of Annan that he had previously planned to occupy, but it is not far away.

After thinking about it, Zhu Hengjia felt that it was acceptable.

After the emperor repeatedly rejected his ideas, he realized that his plan for Annan Mo clan would not work.

The emperor did not want any new unrest to occur around the Ming Dynasty.

But it was different with Champa. Even if it became chaotic again, it would not affect the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty helped Champa resist the invasion of Annan for a righteous reason.

Zhu Hengjia, who understood this, quickly smiled and said:

"Why didn't you say so earlier, Mr. Kong?"

"Thank you for your mediation in this matter, sir!"

"After Xiao Wang returns, he will start preparing for this matter."

"I hope the court will issue an order to provide convenience to the Jingjiang Palace."

His attitude towards Kong Zhenyun changed completely from being rude at first to being respectful later.

She even took off a few accessories from her body and forced them on Kong Zhenyun.

Obviously he knew that Kong Zhenyun would understand why he brought people here, and he wanted to apologize to Kong Zhenyun in this way.

Kong Zhenyun accepted his gift and felt relieved. He knew that although Zhu Hengjia did not follow the rules, he was not stupid.

The promise of establishing a vassal state in Champa has already attracted this person.

So he smiled and said:
"Your Highness, please prepare, but be careful in your actions."

"The Ming Dynasty will not only lease ports in Champa, but also in Annan and other countries."

"Don't reveal your intentions as soon as you go there, or you'll be ostracized by the Nanyang countries."

Zhu Hengjia didn't care about the Nanyang countries at all, and said arrogantly:

"The Mo clan of Annan now relies on the Ming dynasty, and the Le clan has been usurped by the Zheng and Nguyen clans, and now the country is divided into north and south."

"If the young king can establish a vassal state in Champa, he will certainly pacify the Nguyen clan and recover the old territory of Champa."

The implication of his words was that he didn't take Annan seriously at all.

Kong Zhenyun frowned and warned Zhu Hengjia:

"How to deal with Annan will be decided by your majesty and the ministers of the court."

"Your Majesty has allocated the fiefdom of Jingjiang to Champa. It is not Champa's territory and cannot be crossed at will."

"Your Highness should first think about how to replace Champa."

"If the means are too brutal and cause hostility from the Nanyang countries, Your Majesty would not mind punishing the Jingjiang clan and giving an explanation to the other countries."

This made Zhu Hengjia feel a chill in his heart, and he knew that even if he went overseas to establish a fiefdom, he still needed to obey the court's strategy.

If he dared to act recklessly in Southeast Asia, the imperial court might impose punishment on him.

No matter what Zhu Hengjia thought, he had to accept this constraint.

This made him even more respectful to Kong Zhenyun.

Kong Zhenyun didn't care about Zhu Hengjia's superficial respect, but was more worried about the ambition Zhu Hengjia showed when he established the fiefdom.

This was the case even before the establishment of the feudal system, and it was even more difficult for the imperial court to control it after the establishment of the feudal system. After some feudal states became powerful, they might not obey the imperial court's orders and even threaten the Ming Dynasty.

If the imperial court did not have effective methods to restrain the vassal states, war might break out in dozens or hundreds of years.

So he decided to find a way to prevent the expansion of the vassal state.

Soon, he thought of the clan representative conference established by the emperor in the clan affairs office.

If it can be established, each feudal domain will be required to abide by a certain order and not invade other feudal domains.

These vassal states with limited areas will never be able to challenge the Ming Dynasty or threaten its surrounding areas.

This made him sigh:
"Your Majesty is still thinking far ahead!"

"The Imperial Clan Representative Conference is to determine and maintain the order of the Imperial Clan and its vassal states."

"This kind of order needs not only the Ming Dynasty to maintain, but also the efforts of each feudal domain."

"Only when all the feudal domains reach a consensus can we suppress the ambitions of certain feudal states and prevent them from expanding."

"It would be too difficult for the Ming Dynasty to do this alone!"

At this time, Kong Zhenyun has realized that relying on the power of the Ming Dynasty to suppress the ambitions of the various vassal states is not a question of whether it can be done. Moreover, doing so will put the Ming Dynasty on the opposite side of all the vassal states.

But relying on the consensus of the various feudal states to suppress the ambitions of certain feudal states is different. A feudal state seeking stability will take the initiative to suppress the ambitious people in the feudal state.

At this time, Kong Zhenyun realized the advantage of the emperor's allowing the royal family and vassal states to send representatives and form a royal family representative conference. This would allow all the royal family and vassal states to participate in the order and actively suppress ambitious people.

Otherwise, the order would be disrupted. It was hard to say when the Ming Dynasty would be threatened by the rising vassal states. The neighboring vassal states would be threatened first. Therefore, Kong Zhenyun had an idea at this time, which was to let all the vassal states send representatives to the capital to form a vassal state representative conference.

He wrote a memorial in response to this and requested the emperor to allow the Shuntian nobles to send representatives to Beijing to strengthen exchanges between the two sides.

Zhu Youjian was quite impressed with this memorial and asked Kong Zhenyun to try to implement it by first asking the Shuntian nobles on the grassland to send representatives to Beijing for a meeting.

Kong Zhenyun was busy. In addition to sending personnel to the grassland, he also had to find officials at all levels for the newly formed inner vassal state.

Under his leadership, the Neifan Department gradually improved.

The emperor appointed Zhang Nai and Zhou Yongchun to head the Outer Branch, whose main responsibilities were to monitor Korea and assist in the Liaodong war. In addition, according to the emperor's request, they tried their best to turn Korea into an inner branch.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent envoys to various countries and interacted with Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries in accordance with the strategy set by the emperor.

After the diplomatic strategy was determined, the Portuguese merchants in Xiangshan'ao also received a response from the Ming court.

The Portuguese merchants who wanted to turn Malacca into a free trade zone were very happy when they learned that the Ming Dynasty was willing to accept Malacca's submission. They believed that with the protection of the Ming Dynasty, their interests could be safeguarded.

However, the Ming Emperor's request made them very embarrassed.

Two hundred thousand people would need about one million shi of grain to eat for a year.

These grains cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, which was not difficult for wealthy sea merchants like them.

The difficulty is that the gathering of so much grain requires the cooperation of the entire Malacca. However, the transformation of Malacca into a free trade zone is just the plan of some businessmen.

This made them feel awkward, realizing that things had evolved to this point and they were no longer able to control it.

"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty required that food for 200,000 people be prepared for one year, which means he planned to relocate 200,000 people there."

"There will be at least 10,000 troops among them, which can easily help us defend Malacca."

"But do you think that after the Ming Dynasty occupies Malacca, they will still retain our garrison?"

A Portuguese merchant who was wary of the Ming Dynasty said that bringing the Ming Dynasty into Southeast Asia was like inviting a wolf into the house.

The Portuguese garrison in Malacca had only 260 people, and was completely unable to resist the Ming army of at least .

He was worried that the Ming would disband the Portuguese garrison and take over Malacca.

After losing their protection, these Portuguese merchants could only be exploited by the Ming Dynasty.

So his suggestion was to ask the Ming Dynasty to reduce the number of troops sent over to only one thousand people.

But this is obviously wishful thinking, another Portuguese businessman said:
"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty has a word of his own and will never change it."

"When he says 200,000, it means 200,000."

"These people may already be preparing to migrate. We can only accept this and cannot change the numbers."

“But it’s not a bad thing that so many people are going to Malacca. It will be more prosperous in the future and there is no need to worry about the Netherlands and other countries invading.”

Obviously he was an optimist and also the driving force behind Malacca's submission.

But not many people were as optimistic as he was. Many Portuguese merchants had doubts about whether the Ming Dynasty would abide by the agreement after it gained absolute advantage in Malacca.

After all, this kind of thing is very common in the West. After the Ming Dynasty becomes stronger in Malacca, it will have more demands.

So after discussion, they decided to ask the Ming Dynasty to make a guarantee that the establishment of the Malacca Free Trade Zone would not change in the future.

Regarding this, Feng Quan, who came from Xiangjiang Island and was responsible for negotiating with the Portuguese merchants in Xiangshanao, said:
"The Malacca Free Trade Zone was decided by His Majesty and will never be changed."

"If you are worried, Your Majesty can concurrently serve as the lord of the Free Trade Zone and authorize the Free Trade Zone Council to manage it."

This request surprised the Portuguese merchants. One Portuguese merchant said:
"In this case, people living in the free trade zone are the direct subjects of the Ming Emperor?"

“Can the same be true for the Xiangshan Bay and Xiangjiang Island Free Trade Zones?”

Apparently, in their opinion, such a setting is more useful than a treaty.

After all, the treaty can be modified by Ming officials at any time, but how the emperor's territory is governed is not something that ordinary officials can interfere with.

These Portuguese merchants knew the status of the Ming emperor and believed in his credibility. Especially since the current Ming emperor allowed the free trade zone to establish a parliament and authorized them to govern themselves, they felt that the current emperor was a good emperor.

What these people are worried about is that some Ming officials will not keep their promises and may exclude them after gaining an advantage in power.

The statement about the emperor's territory made them feel more at ease.

After alleviating this concern, they bargained for the price of food for 200,000 people per year.

Many people don't want to pay this money, thinking that the price is too high.

Feng Quan thought it was not expensive and shook his head:
"It's just one million dan of grain and a few hundred thousand taels of silver."

"The amount of silver needed to donate to become a public official is one thousand taels, and we only need a few hundred people to donate."

"Aren't there hundreds of people in Malacca willing to donate to the government?"

Hearing his questions, these Portuguese merchants were immediately overjoyed.

Before, they thought that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty asked them to pay money.

Now I realize that I don’t need to spend any money at all. I just need to encourage the merchants in Malacca to donate to the public.

Some people were still unwilling to believe it and asked Feng Quan:

"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty allows the use of the money donated by the officials to purchase grain?"

Feng Quan said affirmatively:

"Your Majesty has already designated this money for immigration."

"But if it's not enough, you guys need to make up for it."

These people nodded repeatedly and didn't take the additional words to heart.

Even if Malacca is not enough, won’t they go to Goa to find someone?

Those who frequently travel via the Goa and Xiangshan-Ao routes will definitely not mind donating a small amount of money to become a Ming Dynasty official so that they can live in the free trade zone.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty and these Portuguese merchants quickly reached an agreement on the terms, and they pushed hard for Malacca to submit to the Ming Dynasty.

These people knew the importance of time. While it was still winter and there were few typhoons at sea, they suggested that the Ming court send people as soon as possible and take this opportunity to move people to Southeast Asia.

Feng Quan also asked them to find a route to Malacca as soon as possible so that the victims of the Ming Dynasty could be quickly relocated.

Many people were concerned about the actions taken by these people, because the signals they represented indicated that the Ming Dynasty would return to Southeast Asia.

Western countries such as Spain and the Netherlands have become nervous.

Countries such as Annan and Champa had even more different attitudes.

Champa, which was eroded by Annan, naturally welcomed the arrival of the Ming Dynasty's power.

They had no objection to leasing ports and stationing troops.

They even hoped that the Ming Dynasty would station more and more troops to help them resist the invasion of Annan.

Annan did not want the Ming Dynasty to participate in the affairs of Southeast Asia, and made every possible excuse to lease ports.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty did not rely entirely on Annan. The supply stations established by Champa were sufficient.

Following the route of Zheng He's fleet heading south, as well as the route explored by Portuguese merchants over the past century, the route was quickly determined. After several replenishments, they were able to successfully reach Malacca. (End of this chapter)