The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 228 The Brothers' Fiefdom Arrangements
In the Forbidden City of Shuntian Prefecture in the capital, Zhu Jianxuan invited his elder brother, the former Crown Prince Liang Zhu Jiancan, to the Wenhua Hall alone.

Zhu Jiancan walked in and bowed to Zhu Jianxuan:
"My dear brother, you have called me here. What advice do you have for me?"

The person who came was the eldest brother. Zhu Jianxuan bowed to him at the same time:

"Please take a seat, my royal brother. I would like to discuss the affairs of the Ming vassal state with you."

Liang Wang Zhu Jiancan thought to himself: Finally here, he said indifferently:
"It's up to you, brother."

King Liang bowed again and sat down on the left side of the front row at the conference table.

Zhu Jianxuan sat in the main seat and explained his idea very simply and directly:
"Brother, you should know that my attitude towards the vassal state has always been the same.

"Throughout the dynasties, enfeoffment of vassal states in the core areas of Shenzhou was always a way to cause chaos.

"Only by establishing vassal states outside the homeland can we expand the territory and protect the royal family in accordance with the Zhou Li.

“The original meaning of feudalism is to establish a country by enfeoffment, which means development and construction.

“The fiefdom contains wasteland, which requires a long time to be reclaimed and cultivated. However, the population and products can be increased through reclamation and cultivation, and the power of the vassal state can be increased.

"Under such circumstances, there is no need for the feudal states to fight with each other, or between the feudal states and the royal family. They can just cultivate and colonize their own land.

"During the Western Zhou Dynasty, most of the land outside the Central Plains was wasteland. Most of the current northern Zhili was swamps, which were the places where Dayu released floodwaters after he controlled the floods.

"The son of Duke Zhao crossed the swamp and became a vassal of Yan. The nine generations after Duke Zhao had no name, no posthumous title, and no year. The generations after Marquis Hui had posthumous titles and years but no name.

"The Zhou clan and the other lords in the Central Plains don't even know where they are. They have had no communication for hundreds of years. How can they fight each other?

"After 800 years of reclamation and colonization during the Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States periods, the Central Plains and surrounding areas have been fully developed, leaving no large areas to be reclaimed and colonized.

"During the Han and Jin dynasties, the feudal system was once again established, and the feudal system was already established on the land.

"The king has nothing to do when he is a vassal, and the vassal states have nothing to do but fight each other, wasting the existing population and resources, and even affecting the stability of the royal family."

King Liang understood what Zhu Jianxuan said, but when he heard about the situation in Yan State, he couldn't help but feel frightened.

Is this living saint brother of mine going to throw myself or my eldest son to a place where we can’t get out for hundreds of years?

For example, deep in the Great Plains of North America, or in the middle and upper reaches of the Mississippi River?
But now the level of technology is different. It is not necessary to be unable to leave that kind of place for hundreds of years. As long as there are ships, we can enter the sea at any time.

King Liang hesitated for a moment, then said very simply:
"I understand your painstaking efforts..."

Zhu Jianxuan waved his hand, and the two guards waiting behind him took out a large map and spread it between Zhu Jianxuan and King Liang.

King Liang quickly glanced at the map. It was an outline map of Africa's coastline. Most of the area within the coastline was blurry, but there were already some things.

Africa, not America.

King Liang had mixed feelings. Africa was much closer than America, but there were also more savages in Africa, and they were more difficult to deal with than the North American natives.

Zhu Jianxuan looked up and placed it in the east-central part of the African continent:

“Three years ago, the Wu expeditionary force defeated Oman, occupied the coastline of eastern Africa, and then began to explore inland.

“Then I found a place with a very nice environment.

"We know that the temperature is related to the altitude of the ground. Normally, the higher the altitude, the lower the overall temperature.

“For example, Yunnan is close to the tropics, but because of its high terrain, it is warm in winter and cool in summer.

"However, Yunnan has a rugged terrain and there are no large areas of flat land.

"With inconvenient transportation and difficult development, our Ming Dynasty has been developing for more than 300 years since the Hongwu period, and has barely achieved direct administration by officials.

“This part of Africa is right on both sides of the equator, and it should be as hot all year round as the South Pacific.

“But the altitude here is about 1,100 meters, so the maximum temperature every day throughout the year is between 25 and 27 degrees.

“There is neither scorching heat nor freezing winter, no chilly spring nor bleak autumn wind, the whole year is just like the transition between spring and summer.

“The key point is that this is not a mountainous area, but a large plateau.

“It covers an area of ​​500,000 to 600,000 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the entire plain area of ​​the Central Plains.

“There is a large lake with an area of ​​70,000 square kilometers, which is the source of the Nile River.

“Every year there are two rainy seasons, spring and autumn, with sufficient water and heat conditions.

“There are also unusually large canyons and large lakes formed by water stored in the canyons.

“If we can clear out the savages here and develop it, it can be considered a new paradise and the natural core of the African continent.

“The only drawback is the same as in Yunnan, where the sun is stronger because the terrain is higher.

“I plan to move the Ming Dynasty’s native vassal states to the African continent and make this the ruling center of the Ming Dynasty in Africa.

"I would like to ask my brother to be the leader and lead the descendants of the Ming Dynasty's royal family to develop and guard this core area of ​​Africa and clamp down on other foreign vassal states."

The place Zhu Jianxuan was talking about is the platform in the middle of the branch of the East African Great Rift Valley, which is a hard independent plate fragment.

The large lake in the middle is Lake Victoria, and there are several more lakes in the Rift Valley.

This is a good place in the eyes of the Ming people.

King Liang was a little confused after hearing this. He originally thought that his brother, who was regarded as a living saint, would throw him into some remote place.

Unexpectedly, I chose a place that looked like heaven.

If such a good place can really be developed, it can serve as the foundation for a great country.

King Liang couldn't believe it:

"Is there really such a place on the African continent?"

Zhu Jianxuan immediately said:

“It is absolutely true. I can guarantee that everything I said is true. Your Majesty, you can arrange for your children to go to the local area for actual investigation.

“If my royal brother is willing to do this, he can go there himself or arrange for his offspring to go there.

“The court will first organize five guard corps for my brother.

“In the future, we can continue to recruit immigrants from the Ming mainland. As long as the immigrants are willing to go, there will be no limit on the number.

"At the same time, the taxes that Henan Provincial Administration Office should pay to the court were used as financial support for the early development of Liang State and used to purchase materials needed for development.

“From the day the capital of Liang was built, tax support will be reduced by 10 percent every three years, ending in thirty years.

"If my brother doesn't want to do this, he can continue to stay in the capital as a prince without a fiefdom, with an annual salary of 200,000 Ming silver dollars."

King Liang agreed without hesitation:

"I am willing to help you and open up the African plateau."

Of course Prince Liang wanted to go overseas, as his identity as the former crown prince was too special.

Staying and living in the capital is as good as having countless money and living a very comfortable and easy life.

But psychologically it is impossible to relax forever.

I went to the interior of Africa. Although it was definitely very hard during the period of land reclamation, in such a remote place, I could truly feel free and relaxed.

And the conditions he offered were really good enough, much better than the conditions his father offered him to go to Australia.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has steam engines and steam sailboats, the development of overseas wastelands is much faster than before, and a city of sufficient size can be built in just a dozen years.

I just hope that my brother, who is a living saint, won’t arrange too many people to monitor me.

Zhu Jianxuan happily bowed:

"Then I'll have to trouble you, my brother, with the affairs of East Africa."

After Zhu Jianxuan reached an agreement with his eldest brother, Prince of Liang Zhu Jiancan, he called all his other brothers in front of him.

Circle and dot on that imperfect map of Africa, assigning their future fiefdoms.

Because the local area is still inhabited by savages and there is no Ming Dynasty stronghold, we can only roughly circle the direction for now.

In order to encourage their descendants to work hard to explore, they now simply mark a starting point instead of directly circling off an area.

How big their fiefdom will be in the future depends on how much they actually expand it, and it cannot be determined now.

However, they should leave enough distance between each other so that they can first develop the wilderness around their strongholds instead of crowding together and fighting each other.

With the African Great Lake (Lake Victoria) as its center, the starting point of King Liang’s fiefdom was north of the lake.

The starting points of the fiefs of King Liang's two brothers from the same mother were in the northwest and northeast directions of the lake, that is, on the east and west sides of King Liang's fiefdom.

Both of them were granted the title of prince and formed two guard corps each, with tax revenue from the Jianghuai Provincial Administration supporting their construction.

The starting points of the fiefs of Zhu Jianxuan's two brothers from the same mother were located in the southeast and southwest of the lake, allowing them to develop in their respective directions.

Both of them were granted the title of prince and each formed three guard corps, with the construction supported by tax revenue from the Jiangxi Provincial Administration.

These five brothers are all the legitimate sons of Zhu Jianxuan’s father.

The fiefs of the other ten half-brothers were chosen around the Great Lakes Plateau, mainly in the north, south and east directions, with sufficient distance between the starting points.

To the west of the Great Lakes Highlands is the tropical rainforest of the Congo River basin, which is not included in the development scope for the time being.

His half-brothers were also granted the title of prince, but they only had one guard corps, which was supported by the tax revenues from the Hunan and Shandong provincial governments.

However, all these vassal guard corps can only be regarded as the initial investment given by the imperial court.

After they have established themselves in the local area, the imperial court will continue to send ordinary immigrants to their fiefdoms based on the situation in the interior.

Zhu Jianxuan’s ideal goal is to completely occupy the African continent with the Ming people.

At the same time, Zhu Jianxuan said that if he did not want to go to open up wasteland, he could stay in the capital and receive an annual salary of 100,000 silver dollars.

At this time, most princes did not want to go overseas to open up new land.

If they wanted to open up new land, they might have gone overseas before Zhu Jianxuan was born.

There is no need to wait until now for Zhu Jianxuan, his younger brother, to arrange it.

But the crown prince Zhu Jianxuan is the younger brother.

According to the traditional patriarchal system, the five elder brothers who were ahead of Zhu Jianxuan in the order of succession did not dare to stay now, even if they did not want to leave.

However, among the remaining ten half-brothers, four directly expressed that they did not want to go to open up wasteland and were willing to stay in the capital.

This is the result of Zhu Jianxuan's arrangement for them being much better than before.

The conditions around the Great Lakes of East Africa are indeed good overseas.

Zhu Jianxuan arranged the future of his brothers and asked them to go back and wait for further notice. Zhu Jianxuan took the results of his arrangements to Xiyuan to report to the old emperor.

The old emperor was quite satisfied after hearing this:
"It's OK, but aren't you worried that a hegemon will emerge from that place a hundred years later and fight against the central government?"

Zhu Jianxuan expressed his feelings with deep emotion:

"If they develop in East Africa for one or two hundred years and their strength can obviously surpass that of the Ming mainland, then the descendants of these brothers will be the masters of the world.

“If they can develop on par with local countries, they can also communicate with each other and promote the further development of technology and ideas.

"If it ends up like the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, with wars among the princes, it is also a matter of time and fate.

"According to historical experience, we cannot expect a truth that will never change, nor can we expect a country that will be stable and peaceful forever.

"As long as the area where our people live and control is large enough, the great struggle for supremacy in the entire world in the future will take place among our people.

"Then all my efforts now will not be in vain."

The old emperor shook his head after hearing this:

"You are really a freak..."

But in the end, the old emperor did not object to Zhu Jianxuan's arrangement and let him handle it himself.

Zhu Jianxuan returned to Wenhua Hall and continued to handle official business.

Time slowly came to the end of June, and the Duke of Min and his son rushed directly to Shuntian Prefecture before the Duke of Shu set out.

The two settled down in the reception of the Honglu Temple, and then immediately went to meet Zhu Jianxuan.

Zhu Jianxuan met the two people in Wenhua Hall where he worked as usual.

After the greetings, Zhu Jianxuan asked the two of them to sit down and chatted with them briefly.

He mainly inquired about the situation in Jeju Island, Fujian, Dongfan and Ryukyu.

Duke of Min Zheng Haikang and his son answered truthfully one by one.

At the end of the conversation, Zheng Ruian took the initiative to talk about what happened in California:
“Your Highness, we have arranged personnel to explore the northwest of the Spanish territory in America in recent years.

“And recently…we discovered what appears to be a large gold mine in a valley in California.

"The Spanish probably haven't discovered it yet, so I think we can seize or buy this land."

Zhu Jianxuan was obviously a little surprised when he heard this:
"California? You investigated California? And discovered gold mines there?"

Zhu Jianxuan really didn't expect that the Zheng family would actually go to investigate California.

But if you think about it carefully, this makes sense.

The Zheng family had many sea vessels, and their fiefdom of Ryukyu was right next to Japan. Taking the North Pacific route from Japan was the best route to North America during the Fengfan era.

However, the reason why Zhu Jianxuan was surprised was that they went to California by themselves and discovered the gold mine.

Instead of being surprised by the news that there is a gold mine in the local area.

However, Zheng Ruian and his son could not taste it, they just found that Zhu Jianxuan was really surprised.

When Zheng Ruian and his son learned that the Ming Dynasty court had shipped back California cedar trees from California, they knew that the affairs in California could no longer be hidden.

The two discussed and thought about it all the way and felt that the best approach was to report it directly.

If the Zheng family kept this news secret and continued to develop it secretly, it would be almost impossible to completely conceal it from the court.

Even if the imperial court was just for the California cedar trees, it would definitely survey and record the local situation, and would sooner or later discover the Zheng family's activities there.

If the Zheng family continues to conceal the truth, it may become a crime of deceiving the emperor in the future and become an excuse for the court to forcibly abolish the feudal system.

Now it is impossible for the vassal states to be enemies of the imperial court, even in North America.

If you report it now, you might still get some benefits.

Although Zheng Haikang was very reluctant, he had no choice but to do so under the current circumstances.

Zheng Haikang looked at Zhu Jianxuan's reaction and was sure that the court really didn't know about the gold mine, so he said with great heartache:
“Yes, I found natural gold nuggets in the forests of California, which means there are gold mines in the area.

"I was originally interested in that valley in the mountains, and I wanted to ask the court to move my fiefdom there.

"Now that gold has been discovered in the area, it seems that it is no longer suitable to be a vassal state..."

Zhu Jianxuan was silent for a few seconds after listening to this:
“Thanks to the Qing Dynasty’s archives, my father discovered the tallest tree in the world in the local area, and this tree is very suitable for use as a building material.

“So I have arranged for someone to negotiate with Spain to buy all of California and the Great Basin on the east side.

“The plan is to use this land as a royal forest for the exclusive use of the royal family and the court to build palaces.

“So this piece of land…cannot really be used as a fiefdom.

“Moreover, after the land transaction is completed, the imperial court will definitely conduct a thorough investigation and register the conditions of these trees. Sooner or later, the gold mines will be discovered.

“However… you have indeed made contributions by discovering this gold mine in advance, and especially by reporting the discovery truthfully.

“In general, it was the imperial court that provided money, manpower and land for the transaction and obtained the full ownership of the land, while the Duke of Min discovered the gold mine.

“So the imperial court and the Duke of Min’s Mansion should set up a company to jointly develop this gold mine.

“After deducting costs and taxes, the profits will be split 50-50 between the two parties.

“However, the gold obtained by the Duke of Min’s Mansion cannot be taken directly overseas for use. It must be sent to the capital as a gold reserve and exchanged for Ming gold notes of the same value.

"Gold notes can be used to pay taxes, purchase materials produced by Wangyou's factories, and supply the Minguo Mansion's relocation and development."

Zhu Jianxuan knew that there were actually many gold mines in California and the valley behind it.

What the Zheng family discovered was just one of them.

So what Zhu Jianxuan was talking about was the gold mine they discovered, not the gold mines in the entire California.

This is not a deception. The original ownership of the land here was obtained by the imperial court in exchange for Nicaragua, and the Zheng family has not discovered any other gold mines.

Zhu Jianxuan could also imagine that they had probably discovered this gold mine long ago.

It was Zheng Ruian who decided to report the gold mine after he saw the timber shipped back from North America and realized that it was impossible for the imperial court to grant them this land.

But we cannot dwell on such details. As long as they finally decide to report it, they should be given basic encouragement.

If the imperial court directly took it for itself without giving them any benefits.

If similar things happen in the future and local officials discover mineral deposits that they cannot develop at the time, they will not take the initiative to report them to the court.

Credibility is a very important thing.

After hearing Zhu Jianxuan's arrangements, Duke of Min Zheng Haikang and his son felt as if they had been saved from a desperate situation.

The two men originally thought that the imperial court would directly take it for themselves. After all, it was stipulated during the Chongzhen period that the ownership of all underground mineral deposits belonged to the emperor.

As a result, the prince was willing to split the profits 50-50 with him, which was not much different from his original psychological expectation.

The Duke of Min and his son also knew that if they wanted to obtain this land, they would need the intervention of the imperial court, which would definitely take a share.

This result is really great.

Both of them bowed and thanked him excitedly:

"Thank you for your grace, Your Highness..."

Zhu Jianxuan smiled and waved his hand:
"Let's leave it at that. Next, let's discuss something more important, about the local vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.

"Rui An should know my views on the vassal states, and should have introduced them to the Duke of Min, right?"

Zheng Ruian and his son quickly agreed:

"I understand."

Zhu Jianxuan continued:

“So the Duke of Min now has two choices: one is to become a traditional court noble and a landless duke who receives a salary; the other is to move overseas and rebuild his fiefdom.

“If he becomes a noble of the imperial court, the title of Duke of Min can continue to be passed down, and Rui’an can also obtain an additional title of Earl of a State, which can be inherited by his children.

"The annual salary of a duke is 15,000 silver dollars, and the annual salary of a state earl is 4,000 silver dollars.

"Rui An can continue to serve in the court navy as the commander of a fleet, with another salary of three hundred silver dollars per month.

"If we want to rebuild a closed country overseas, we can only choose from land that is currently unoccupied, and the only place we can choose is Africa."

When Zhu Jianxuan said this, he asked the guard to bring the map of Africa again and spread it on the large table in front of him:
“The areas circled on the map belong to the Ming Dynasty, the royal vassal states, areas that the court plans to develop in the future, and a small number of European colonies.

“Apart from these, the Duke of Min can choose any other place to develop.

“If you choose to relocate, the existing fief of the Duke of Min will provide immigration and financial support for the new fief.

“Before the first city in a new fiefdom is established, all taxes paid by the existing fiefdom to the imperial court should be used to support the development of the new fiefdom.

"Starting from the 44th year of Xianning, the rate will be reduced by 10% every three years, for a total of 30 years.

"All the people in the existing fiefdoms, as long as they are willing and there is a place to settle them locally, can move to the new fiefdom with the Duke of Min's Mansion.
"The court will also provide the Duke of Min with a bolt-action rifle division to help him build a powerful main force division."

Zhu Jianxuan clearly explained the two main options to Zheng Ruian and his son.

In their opinion, this condition was quite good.

With the tax support from the original fiefdoms in the mainland and completely unrestricted immigration from the original fiefdoms, a new base can be established overseas soon.

But the two were still a little hesitant.

After a few seconds of silence, Zheng Ruian couldn't help but ask:
"May I ask Your Highness, if we choose to move to another fiefdom, will Rui'an still be able to serve in the court?"

Zhu Jianxuan glanced at Zheng Ruian and saw the hope and expectation in his eyes.

The idea of ​​having it all is certainly not a good one.

However, the Zheng family can be said to be the first among all the vassal states to take sides, and needs some special encouragement.

Zheng Ruian himself was a "progressive youth" and did have good talent and foundation in naval warfare, making him a naval general with great potential.

So Zhu Jianxuan said:

“According to the basic system of itinerant officials, if Rui’an wants to serve in the imperial court, then the actions you directly participate in in the future will need to be staggered with the fiefdom of the new Duke of Min.

"At the same time, you cannot interfere in the affairs of the Min Kingdom's fiefdom while you are serving in the court. You can only participate after you officially decide to retire."

Zheng Haikang was a little hesitant, but Zheng Ruian readily gave his hand:
"Thank you, Your Highness!"

(End of this chapter)