The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 307 The Ming Dynasty begins to change
Zhu Jianxuan let the Cabinet and the Privy Council take the lead, and let the Honglu Temple and the Ministry of Rites cooperate, to conduct statistical surveys on the intentions of senior officials who were about to retire or had already retired.

The scope of course includes Zhu Jianxuan’s own ministers, mainly former ministers of the Wu Kingdom and the United States.

It is now the fourteenth year of Tiangong, 1807 in the Western calendar, and the Ming Emperor Zhu Jianxuan is already thirty-seven years old.

Zhu Jianxuan became the king of Wu at the age of five and had his own nominal subjects. When he was twelve, he basically became the de facto king.

At that time, the old emperor arranged for senior officials from the United States and Wu State, as well as American immigrant leaders who participated in the American War of Independence. Many of them were already over 40 years old.

Up to now, they have followed Zhu Jianxuan for twenty-five or even thirty years. Their ages are generally over sixty, and many are approaching seventy.

Fei Chun and Liu Quanzhi were both sixty-eight years old, Duan Yucai was seventy-two years old, Yao Nai was seventy-five years old, and Peng Yuanrui was seventy-six years old.

Shen Chu, a former Grand Secretary from the Wu Kingdom, and Washington, a founding father of the United States, are now dead.

The first generation of senior officials under Zhu Jianxuan has entered a state of decline.

The new generation of grand secretaries, privy councilors, vice ministers and generals have begun to become the main force of the court.

But looking at it from another perspective, as a de facto founding monarch, Zhu Jianxuan's founding ministers would most likely have a good end.

One reason is that Zhu Jianxuan’s reputation is too great, and the key reason is that his reputation related to wisdom is too high.

Everyone knows that Zhu Jianxuan is a genius. He has been a skilled craftsman since he was a child. He has also participated in the political affairs of the United States and Australia since he was young and presided over the armistice negotiations of the North American War.

These ministers were always very cautious when working under Zhu Jianxuan.

Secondly, Zhu Jianxuan was young enough when he rose to power, and he did not feel any psychological pressure facing the senior generals and officials under him, knowing that he could get rid of them all.

On the other hand, the generals and officials themselves were the same. They all knew that they would not be able to survive the emperor, so they did not worry too much.

The remaining second-generation bureaucrats and generals grew up under Zhu Jianxuan's prestige since they took office, and were more cautious and fearful of Zhu Jianxuan.

Zhu Jianxuan has always been generous to his old subordinates.

Zhu Jianxuan also specifically considered the retirement benefits of these old officials who are about to retire or have already retired, as well as the benefits for their descendants.

Now that he had the opportunity to become the monarch of a vassal state, Zhu Jianxuan thought directly of them.

These old ministers of Zhu Jianxuan also rose along with Zhu Jianxuan along with the revolutionary trend, and now have become the richest family in the world.

Sending a young man to Europe to serve as a vassal monarch is also a way to continue to benefit the Ming Dynasty.

After all, in today's world, the richest and most prosperous place is still the Ming Dynasty itself, especially the current Bohai Rim region.

Under the direct guidance of Emperor Gong of Ming Dynasty, the Bohai Rim region has become the most developed industrial center in the world and naturally the most convenient place to live.

Now there are asphalt roads and railways extending in all directions outdoors, and there are more and more airports.

In Shuntian Prefecture and other major cities, the mansions of wealthy families such as senior officials, craftsmen, and merchants were equipped with all kinds of modern living facilities.

Basically, they have modern facilities such as heating, air conditioning, electric lights, telephones, refrigerators, washing machines, phonographs, radios, cars, broadcasting, movies, etc.

Leaving the Ming Dynasty and going to Europe means not only going to a wild land in the traditional sense, but also returning from the industrial age to the agricultural age.

Not only will you have to live among a group of barbarians for a long time, but the key is that your living standards will drop significantly.

The lack of basic infrastructure such as water, electricity and heating alone can make people feel the pain.

It may take several years or even more than ten years of active guided construction to build living facilities similar to those in the Ming Dynasty where you live.

If officials really just want to enjoy a peaceful and comfortable old age, they will not be willing to go.

Only when I am old and want to go further and experience the authority of a king, will I be willing to go to Europe to be a lord.

This kind of person happens to be a little dangerous, so we can take this opportunity to send him overseas.

Or if there are naughty children at home who cannot be disciplined, in order to prevent them from causing great trouble in the Ming Dynasty, they can be sent to Europe to become feudal lords.

In a place like Europe, except for directly declaring oneself emperor and rebelling, no matter how you act, it will not be a serious crime.

So certainly not everyone will be happy to go, but eventually someone will go.
After Zhu Jianxuan made arrangements for the French brothers, he asked them to go back and pack their luggage and wait for the rule of the Honglu Temple.

Then he called all his sons over the age of fifteen.

Zhu Jianxuan has been working hard to implement his plan over the years and has never favored any one woman over another. Instead, he arranges his sleeping schedule entirely according to the menstrual periods of the women in the harem.

At the same time, for the sake of his own health, Zhu Jianxuan would not have unlimited children and had always arranged it at a frequency of four times a month.

Plus, it’s certainly not possible for every sowing to be directly effective, so the end result is an average of eight children per year.

When the number of children born is relatively large, the ratio of boys to girls tends to the theoretical ratio, which is roughly the same but with slightly more boys.

Zhu Jianxuan's eldest child just turned eighteen this year, and he has exactly sixteen boys over fifteen years old.

Just as the old emperor Zhu Zhonglin worried back then, his grandsons, that is, his sons like Zhu Jianxuan, can be regarded as the hardest-working princes in the Ming Dynasty.

According to regulations, the princes before Zhu Jianxuan should start studying at the age of eight.

But if the emperor particularly favored the child, or if he was particularly unfavored or even disliked him, he might have to start studying in his teens.

Before that, I was taken care of by a group of people, including eating, drinking, defecating, urinating and sleeping. I didn't have to do anything, and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even walk fast.

Only a few of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's early sons were asked by Zhu Yuanzhang to work in the countryside, where they suffered a little physical hardship.

And it's only for a short period of time, just let them experience life and that's it.

Zhu Jianxuan's children have to endure both physical and mental hardships, and they are not experiencing life; they just want to live that way.

They have to start learning to read since they were five years old.

Every year, all the boys are taught five types of knowledge by five teachers respectively: literature, politics, natural history, science, and mathematics.

The content actually includes most typical modern school courses such as literature, politics, history, biology, geography, astronomy, business, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and philosophy.

When he was seven years old, he began to receive the most basic military training. He would get up at six o'clock every morning, eat, run, and then go to the shooting range to practice shooting.

When they were ten years old, they began to learn swimming and riding bicycles, and at the same time, they began to receive military theory lessons from retired generals.

At the age of twelve, he began to learn to ride horses, drive motor vehicles and motor boats, and operate machine guns and artillery.

When they were fifteen years old, their emperor father Zhu Jianxuan began to give them lessons in person from time to time, teaching them knowledge of modern and contemporary political economics.

At the same time, we will conduct on-site spot checks on their actual learning results in other subjects.

If it is confirmed that their grades are very bad, their brains are not very good, and they really cannot learn these things, then they will be free in the future.

From now on, he will only have to attend an ordinary royal family school, and naturally he will have no chance to inherit the throne.

However, the elimination criteria set by Zhu Jianxuan were rather special. He did not require his sons to get the highest possible scores in their studies like children in ordinary schools.

Instead, they are required to understand what they have learned and remember the basic knowledge and concepts in the course.

The key is whether other people's statements about the relevant knowledge are right or wrong. If you can find out the problems in common sense and logic, you will not be eliminated.

In other words, logical judgment ability is more important, while specific numerical values, allusions, and rhyme series are not important, but of course, the mistakes cannot be too outrageous.

Zhu Jianxuan himself was quite intelligent, and his concubines were all naturally intelligent women, so none of his children were truly born stupid.

That morning, the sixteen older princes received the notice and immediately took a car from school to Wenhua Palace to pay homage to their father, the emperor:

"Your son pays homage to His Majesty the Emperor."

Zhu Jianxuan stood up from behind the imperial desk, walked to the front of the desk, looked at his children, and asked a question:
"Now, the Ming Dynasty has completely conquered Africa and America, and the Australian continent has long been under its control.

"The only countries in the world that have not yet paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty are parts of Europe and Asia.

“Central Asia and North Asia are sparsely populated and can be directly brought under local jurisdiction in the future without causing any major problems.

“But Europe, and the Ottoman regions of Asia, had relatively large populations and relatively mature barbarian kingdoms.

"Now that the war on the European continent has come to an end, the Ming Dynasty has officially begun to intervene in European affairs.

"Tell us your ideas on how to control and manage Europe in the future."

In the world's geographical divisions, Asia refers only to the land west of the current Ming Dynasty territory, and the Ming Dynasty mainland is separately named Shenzhou.

The group of princes heard the way Zhu Jianxuan spoke and knew that they were going to be tested with new questions, so they started thinking before Zhu Jianxuan finished speaking.

When Zhu Jianxuan finished speaking, several people had already raised their hands.

Zhu Jianxuan glanced at the people who raised their hands and pointed to Zhu Jingjian, the youngest person present:
"Jingjian, you speak first."

Zhu Jianxuan often teaches his sons and often takes them out for meals and chats, so he can tell who is who.

Zhu Jingjian immediately said, "Your Majesty, I think that since Europe's biggest problem is its large population, we should just reduce the local population a little bit."

Zhu Jianxuan was quite speechless:
“How should we reduce it specifically?”

Zhu Jingjian thought his father's question was a bit strange:
“Before the Tiangong Dynasty, we could only use ordinary soldiers with swords and spears to kill people, which was very inefficient.

"But things are different now. With the various new technologies invented by my father, there are more and more ways to deal with the large number of barbarians and bandits.

"We can use machine guns and artillery shells to target specific groups of people, and we can use airplanes to drop bombs and incendiary bombs.

"To treat a small area, you can use poison gas. To eliminate a large area, you can release bacteria and viruses to create an infectious epidemic."

Zhu Jianxuan was even more speechless. He had never noticed that this child had such a vicious temper before. He quickly reminded him:

"You can't do this. You can't just kill people. God has a merciful heart...

“In other words, it could lead to a large-scale rebellion, with locals engaging in collective evil-doing confrontation.

“At least they will learn from the refugees of ancient times and flee to the mountains to fight.

"We need to allow them to reduce their population naturally and gradually under controllable conditions."

After being reminded, Zhu Jingjian gave in:
"Then organize a large-scale militia, station and control various regions in Europe, kill European men, and take women as slaves.

“With aircraft and motor vehicles, our main forces can easily control the plains and, in turn, control food and daily supplies as well as military equipment.

“Guns, artillery and ammunition will not grow in the forest. Europeans who flee to the mountains will lose most of their production capacity and can only rely on cold weapons to fight, or even become savages.

“We can build a fortress near the mountains and arrange for militiamen to go hunting in the mountains regularly, and take the savages who escape into the mountains as prey.

"As long as we keep doing this, we should be able to kill all these people in 30 to 50 years at most."

Zhu Jianxuan couldn't help but wave his hands:

“This is still too violent, there is no need for our people and militia to do these things specifically.

"There should be a more labor-saving and safer method with less pitting."

Zhu Jingjian immediately continued:

"So will all men be killed and castrated as slaves? And in the future, if boys are born out of slavery in Europe, they will be castrated directly, and the girls will be given to other immigrants as concubines."

Zhu Jianxuan raised his hand:
"Just shut up and let the others speak. What do you think, Boss?"

The eldest prince Zhu Jingkun thought for a moment and said:

"Your Majesty, I am considering whether we can refer to the Enfeoffment Order?

"We ask all European countries to implement a system of divided inheritance so that all children can share their parents' property equally.

"In order to avoid a decline in their family status, families with a certain amount of assets and status should take the initiative to reduce the number of children.

"At the same time, illegitimate children are granted the same inheritance rights as legitimate children, so that even the rich will not dare to give birth to illegitimate children at will."

“But this requires the Ming Dynasty to have a certain degree of ruling ability in Europe.

"The main thing is to at least turn all European countries into vassal states, and require the local kings to comply with the imperial edict of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Jianxuan was quite satisfied after listening to this. The historical slowdown in France's population growth was based on a similar logic.

After the French Revolution, the French land inheritance system was to divide the land equally among the heirs.

In order to prevent the land from being divided too small, farmers are reluctant to have more children.

At the same time, after the late eighteenth century, the situation in France continued to be turbulent.

Over a period of approximately eighty years, it experienced seven different types of dynasties.

1789年前的波旁王朝、1793年的法兰西第一共和国、1805年法兰西第一帝国、1815年波旁王朝复辟、1830年奥尔良王朝、1848年法兰西第二共和国、1852年法兰西第二帝国、1870年法兰西第三共和国。

Coupled with the ideological influence of the Great Revolution era and the contraceptive measures that matured at the same time, the French began to actively use contraception.

So after the Revolution, France's population growth rate began to decline, and at some point in the mid-to-late nineteenth century it dropped to zero.

In the mid-eighteenth century, the average French couple had five children, but by the mid-nineteenth century, the average French couple had only two children.

This has resulted in France's population advantage on the European continent shrinking significantly, and it has even been overtaken by other regions.

But what Zhu Jianxuan wanted was to reduce the population. In such a realistic historical environment, France's population did not decrease significantly and was still growing very slowly.

In other words, these solutions alone are not enough.

At that time, the French were still willing to have two children, at least a boy and a girl, so that the family property would not be divided multiple times and would not change overall.

Only when they are willing to have only one child, or even not to raise any child at all, will the population begin to decrease on a large scale after a generation.

Apart from direct violent intervention through administrative and military forces, it seems that only modern experience can be used as a reference.

In the era that Zhu Jianxuan experienced, the fertility rates in most countries in the world were declining, except for a few areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The more developed a country is, the more it will fall. But it is impossible for me to turn Europe into a developed country just to control the population.

However, there are also many small and medium-sized countries that are not so developed and have no industry, and the fertility rate is also declining rapidly. In the future, we can find a few European vassal states and regions to serve as pilot projects.

However, the logic behind this is quite complicated. It cannot be explained in a few words, nor can it be confirmed to be correct. My sons have not experienced that era, so they probably cannot explain similar reasons. Even if I explain it to them, it will be difficult for them to understand.

So Zhu Jianxuan did not directly express his opinion on his eldest son's point of view, but continued to listen to the opinions of other children.

After everyone had expressed their opinions and ideas, Zhu Jianxuan gave a summary:
“Basically, what you said makes sense, at least it makes sense, but your ideas and tendencies differ, which is normal.

“It is difficult to find a definite and completely correct answer to this kind of social problem, and we have no way to verify right or wrong through short-term experiments.

"It just so happens that the Ming Dynasty will take the initiative to interfere in European affairs. The imperial court will arrange a group of officials to go to Europe to establish vassal states there.

“You guys should also go over there and see for yourself the state of the most populous barbarian tribe in the world and how these vassal states were established.

“However, you are not allowed to interfere in local affairs, and you are not allowed to make any suggestions on government affairs to any officials. For the time being, you are only going there to learn and gain experience.

"Unless you also want to be the king, you can tell me directly as soon as possible. Then you can do whatever you want when you have your own kingdom."

The princes present were all obviously stunned. They didn't expect that their father would send them to Europe, such a remote and wild place.

At the same time, I was also surprised that this time I actually had the opportunity to leave the school in the imperial city and go to such a faraway place to broaden my horizons.

As for becoming king, most of the princes have some interest in it, but they are more interested in the throne.

Zhu Jianxuan had already made it clear to the harem and princes that he would no longer appoint a queen or a crown prince.

An heir will be chosen from among all his sons and a secret will will be made.

This means that all princes have a chance.

Since there is a chance to be an emperor, I definitely wouldn't want to be a king.

Although the prince's life was hard, his living conditions and treatment were the best in the world.

If I were to go to a place like Europe and mingle with savages, I don’t know if I could stand it.

My father's experience of becoming an emperor from a king is now completely impossible to replicate.

So at this moment all the princes immediately bowed and agreed:

"Follow the teachings of the emperor."

Most of the princes felt that today's business should be over and it was time to go back and pack up and prepare to go to Europe.

But at this time, a discordant voice appeared at the scene.

The sixteenth prince Zhu Jingjian spoke:

"Father, I want to be the King of Europe."

Zhu Jianxuan directly rejected it:

"You are too murderous. If you become king in a place like Europe where there are many natives, you will probably cause trouble.

“Whether you killed too many people or you met with an accident, it is not a good thing for Ming Dynasty.

"Besides, you haven't learned about the local situation in Europe yet. Wait until you visit Europe first."

(End of this chapter)