The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 342: To deal with India, we also need to rely on the vassal states.

Zhu Jianxuan was helpless. Now the assessment of these two events was completely useless, and he could only evaluate through other events.

Zhu Jianxuan looked through the other answers again, and based on his thinking tendencies in evaluating events, he screened out two that were more in line with his preferences.

First came the third son of Prince Liang, Zhu Jingcheng, and then came the sixteenth son of Prince Liang, Zhu Jingqi, who had just turned twelve years old.

Zhu Jingqi's performance is not actually very good, but considering that he is only twelve years old, he has reached a level above that of an adult, which shows that his talent is far beyond that of his other brothers.

Zhu Jianxuan held the four answer sheets and thought for a while, then asked the other nephews to go out first, leaving Prince Liang, Zhu Jingcheng and Zhu Jingqi behind.

When Zhu Jianxuan issued this order, everyone at the scene was stunned, and their moods varied.

King Liang himself was a little surprised, and also a little surprised, because deep down in his heart, he really liked these two children more.

The third son, Zhu Jingcheng, is the most capable among the older sons. He has contributed greatly to the development and construction of Africa in the past twenty years, doing more than his eldest brother.

The sixteenth son, Zhu Jingqi, was the smartest among his young sons and the one that made Prince Liang happiest among all the sons he had in his old age.

The emperor will eventually choose the crown prince of Liang from these two children, which is of course the best outcome for the prince of Liang.

The key point is that the emperor did not deliberately choose a stupider child, nor did he consider how to check and control the Liang State. He was seriously choosing the most capable prince for him.

King Liang sighed in his heart, his younger brother is still the same and doesn't like to engage in conspiracies.

Except for Zhu Jingcheng and Zhu Jingqi, the other descendants of King Liang knew that they had been eliminated when they heard this arrangement. They were all very regretful and disappointed.

After the other nephews left the hall with regret, the remaining two brothers, who were thirty years apart in age, were extremely nervous.

Now is the final battle. Who will become the Crown Prince of Liang depends on it now.

Zhu Jianxuan looked at the two brothers' nervous state, and after a moment's hesitation, he asked them a rather scary question:

"You are the third son of the King of Liang, Jingcheng, right? You should know that your brother Jingqi is smarter than you, right?"

Prince Liang himself and his two sons were visibly stunned again.

There was no way to respond to this kind of rhetorical question, but this was asked to Zhu Jingcheng himself, so his father Prince Liang and his younger brother Jingqi looked at him together.

Zhu Jingcheng wondered in his heart, if he said yes directly, would the emperor directly choose his younger brother as the crown prince?

If I say no, won't the emperor think that I am not honest enough, that I have no self-awareness, and then choose my younger brother to be the crown prince?

My biggest advantage now is that I’m older. My son is older than this little brother.

Although my younger brother is smart, he is only twelve years old. My father is already seventy years old and may die at any time.

If we choose a twelve-year-old crown prince now, it will bring trouble to the future of the feudal state.

But then again, for the emperor, the older heir of a vassal king may not necessarily be an advantage, as it would not be conducive to the emperor's direct control over the vassal state.

It would be beneficial for the court if the youngest son succeeded to the throne.

From this perspective, it seemed that he had no chance in the first place, and the emperor might have already made the decision in his mind.

When Zhu Jingcheng thought of this, he couldn't help but feel sad.

But he immediately thought, why did the emperor keep him, his father and his brother together when he was eliminated?
Does the emperor have separate arrangements? Does it depend on your performance?

Zhu Jingcheng thought about it and decided to be as honest and friendly as possible:

"Your Majesty declares that my father and brothers all know that my sixteenth brother is indeed the smartest child in our family."

Zhu Jianxuan nodded slightly, seeming to be quite satisfied with this answer, but then changed the subject:
"Brother, my two nephews, you should all know that Shun State was not a normal vassal state. In fact, it has long been claiming to be the emperor.

“Shun Prince Li Celing received my notice but still did not come to Shuntian Prefecture.

"I know that he is in good health. At least he can still pull the bolt and shoot the gun. He is not in a situation where he cannot come by boat.

"He dares to deceive the emperor in this situation. Shunguo cannot be kept no matter what.

“In the future, I plan to let all the vassal states take joint responsibility for the war against Shun State, especially the occupation of India.

“The imperial army only served as the leading attacking force.

“So after my brother and two nephews returned to Liang State, they immediately began to prepare for war with all their strength.

“In the next three years, we will train at least 50,000 troops capable of fighting tough battles.

"If the Liang army performs well in India, I can allocate another piece of land in the occupied area of ​​India and establish a county kingdom for the Liang Palace."

When Zhu Jianxuan said this, Prince Liang and his sons had already understood the emperor's intention and why he wanted to leave three people behind.

The three of them couldn't help but feel surprised. This might be the best arrangement for them.

As expected, Zhu Jianxuan finally said:

“So now, I appoint the sixteenth son of King Liang, Jingqi, as the Crown Prince of Liang. In the next few years, he will follow his father and concentrate on learning how to handle government affairs and prepare logistics and military supplies.

"The third son of King Liang, Jingcheng, is the Prince of Anling. Upon receiving the notice, he immediately led his army to India to fight."

After hearing this, the Liang Wang and his sons immediately bowed and accepted the order:
"The minister obeys the order."

Zhu Jianxuan asked the King of Liang and his two sons to go back and rest, waiting for the Ministry of Clan Affairs and the Ministry of Honors to prepare the procedures for the enthronement, and then return home after the enthronement ceremony was completed.

In the next few days, Zhu Jianxuan summoned the monarchs of vassal states of different directions and types to attack in several batches and arranged subsequent combat plans.

Zhu Jianxuan's other brothers, Zheng Haikang and other important vassal states belonging to the new system all received private reminders from the emperor.

They were asked to reorganize their troops and prepare for war after returning to the country, in order to deal with Li Celing of Shun State.

Joseph of Austria and Napoleon of Poland were subsequently recruited, along with a new batch of European vassal monarchs.

It also asked them to prepare for war against the Ottoman Empire and Russia.

Zhu Jianxuan made the same promise to the two groups of vassal monarchs: the vassal state that performed better on the battlefield could be given a new fiefdom in India or Russia.

You can arrange for another offspring to inherit the land and become a new vassal monarch.

For these monarchs, this is the best motivation. After receiving the notice, they are all full of fighting spirit and ready to participate in the final war of world unification.

In fact, Zhu Jianxuan was not only prepared to let the vassal states be responsible for fighting Russia, but also prepared to let the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty contribute a large part of the forces in the war against Shun State.

In the war in the Indian region, the feudal states were allowed to fight as the main force, and most of the spoils were distributed to the participating feudal states afterwards.

The court only wanted the land in Central Asia up to the Black Sea coast.

At the beginning of March in the seventeenth year of Tiangong, the monarchs of vassal states from all over the country began to return home one after another to prepare for war.

Li Celing, who was far away in India, also reached the most difficult time.

Now the shipping routes from Ming Dynasty to India are mature. Before Zhu Jianxuan officially implemented trade sanctions, steamships traveled between the two places all year round.

Prime Minister Shun, who was driven away by Wang Tingzhen years ago, rushed back to Delhi just after the New Year.

The real official title of this so-called prime minister was Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple of Dashun. When he set out for the Ming Dynasty, Li Celing gave him an additional empty title of prime minister.

It was used to elevate his status and to fool the Honglu Temple and the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty as much as possible.

Li Celing and the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple both knew that this kind of cover-up would probably be useless, so they did it in a crude way.

After the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple came back, he reported his experience of the trip as usual.

After listening to this, Li Celing was silent for a long time, and then he muttered to himself and analyzed:
"No matter if they were internal or external vassal states, or relatives or vassal states of different surnames, except for my Great Shun, all the monarchs of the vassal states went to Shuntian Prefecture.

"The 70-year-old Prince of Liang, the 69-year-old King of Austria, and Napoleon all went, only I didn't go." Even if the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not want to punish me, it was impossible. He had no way to explain to his other vassal states.

“He is going to launch at least a punitive war against Shun, and he may already be planning it now.

“Even if I really go and plead guilty now, I will definitely receive the most severe punishment, and it will be a punishment that is justified and based on facts.

"The current situation is like going down this path..."

When the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple of Shunguo heard this, he couldn't help but remind him:
"Your Majesty, the Ming court wants to cut off our tribute. It is estimated that this will take effect after the Ming government office opens this year, which is at the latest at the end of January.

"By then, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty will not be able to enter, and we will not be able to buy any products from the Ming Dynasty."

Li Celing frowned and walked back and forth in the room twice:
“This incident does have an impact on us, but it may not be entirely a bad impact.

“The real good stuff was never sold to the outside world by the Ming Dynasty.

"If Ming is willing to sell their steam engines, steel, artillery, rifles, fertilizers, and explosives production lines, I will pay them whatever they want.

“Even if the Ming Dynasty was willing to sell artillery, rifles, fertilizers, and explosives, I could buy them freely, but they refused to sell them.

"The Ming Dynasty only allowed us to sell conventional goods such as iron pots, farm tools, swords, and cloth.

“Even muskets had to be smuggled.

“We can actually produce the things that Ming Dynasty sells openly.

“It’s just that the price of machinery produced by Daming is lower, and we didn’t take the initiative to develop these industries before.

"If the Ming Dynasty stops selling to us, we will just use our own craftsmen to make these things.

“Once our own industry is developed, it will not be so easy for Daming to come back and sell their products.

"When that time comes, we will have to impose a sea ban. No boats are allowed to go out to sea, and no one is allowed to be on the beach.

"The Ming Dynasty lost this money, and it is the Ming Dynasty that suffered the loss, not us.

"How many Ming merchant ships travel back and forth on the trade route from Shenzhou to India? How many people make a living by trading with India?
"If the Ming Dynasty cuts off tribute, it will destroy the jobs of these people. They will try every possible way to continue trading."

Li Celing is smart, but his understanding of economic issues is obviously not as profound as that of Zhu Jianxuan, the time traveler.

The means of trade sanctions include not only embargoes, but also the corresponding dumping.

If the opponent has no industry, then an embargo can be imposed.

If the opponent wants to develop its corresponding industry independently after being embargoed by you, then you will have to open up to him and dump your mature products.

The early products that competitors have just produced will definitely be of poor quality and very high cost, and will definitely not be able to compete with mature products.

Even at the same price, new products will be difficult to sell, and then all the money will be lost.

It will make the opponent's investment in independent industrial development go to waste and once again destroy the opponent's production capacity that has been barely organized.

However, Li Celing naturally knew the solution to deal with this kind of tactic, which was "sea ban".

That is, the government officially manages and restricts the scale and area of ​​import and export trade, which naturally has the function of trade protection.

But Zhu Jianxuan also has a way to deal with this situation, which is to use force to forcibly open the other party's door.

The Honglu Temple saw clearly and felt that what Li Celing said made sense, so he did not say anything more on this issue and asked about other things:
"Then your majesty, how should we respond to the Ming Emperor's request? Should we ignore it directly or reject it openly?"

Li Celing thought for a moment and said:
“Let’s just say what I said before, that I’m really too sick to walk, and I really can’t travel far.

“But don’t respond now, wait until May.

"This time you have gone deep into the tiger's den and turned back. From today on, you will directly join the cabinet and become the de facto prime minister of Dashun."

The Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple quickly agreed:

"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty."

Shaoqing's guess was correct. After the beginning of the 17th year of Tiangong, the trade route between Ming Dynasty and Shun Kingdom was really cut off.

The Ming Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet directly blockaded the Indian coastline with Ceylon as its center.

A large number of low-level cruisers and destroyers cruised in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, and four aircraft carriers came to provide reconnaissance and support.

As for the merchant ships of Ming Dynasty and other vassal states, they were first reminded again that they were not allowed to go to India, and then they were driven away.

If any merchant ship still insists on going there, or is actively engaged in smuggling, it would be considered as blatant disobedience to the emperor's order and can be sunk directly now.

For the few merchant ships that are not vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, they can be directly fired upon and sunk.

After the Chinese New Year, the Ming Dynasty's state-owned companies and businesses received direct notifications from their superiors that an imperial decree prohibited them from going to India for trade.

Merchants in state-owned industries naturally did not dare to disobey the order and all of them simply cancelled their routes to India.

Then a unified re-planning was carried out to redirect the transport ships and personnel originally heading to India to operate in directions such as Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, and America.

After the end of the European war, a large number of new vassal states were added to Europe. Now is the time to establish and develop trade routes, and manpower and resources are needed.

Although the American War ended relatively early, the Ming Dynasty court's demand for immigration capacity to America was almost unlimited.

The current plan is to gradually increase it to 10 million passengers per year!

Combined with the transportation capacity to Africa, the population growth rate of Ming Dynasty should be completely eliminated at least, so that the native population of Ming Dynasty can be kept below 600 million as much as possible.

While increasing transport capacity, construction capacity in the Americas and Africa must also be increased simultaneously.

Otherwise, if we send people there, there will be no place to accommodate them in America and Africa. We cannot just leave them to fend for themselves, and it will be difficult to organize immigration in the future.

The Ming Dynasty's official overseas immigration always maintained a relatively good reputation.

The route is safe, and there is a place to settle when they arrive, with temporary housing and work tools, which can control the mortality rate of immigrants and ensure the rate of return on land reclamation.

This made the common people generally believe that there was no risk in going to sea with the court.

Although they suffered a bit in the early days, as long as they could survive those years, they would be able to obtain at least 100 acres of land and estate. In the eyes of local people, this was a business that was sure to make money.

Only in this way can we ensure that immigrants are constantly being recruited and that there are always immigrants willing to leave.

In the past decade or so, in the densely populated areas of Ming Dynasty, there are more families with more children.

They would make preparations when the second or third child came of age. They would first find a partner in their hometown who they knew well to marry, and then follow the court to open up new land overseas.

Private merchants in the Ming Dynasty were also notified through the court's newspapers and broadcasts that they were not allowed to go to India to trade after the new year.

However, businessmen are reluctant to easily change their familiar routes, so some people still want to try going to India with a fluke mentality.

I always feel that with such a long coastline in India, there must be places that the imperial court cannot monitor.

Moreover, there were already some people engaged in smuggling, and they felt that since the imperial court had banned trade with India, the risk of smuggling would increase, but the profits would definitely be higher as well.

So in the end, a group of civilian merchant ships still gathered towards India.

By mid-February, the naval patrol fleet that was enforcing the maritime blockade began playing hide-and-seek with smuggling merchant ships at sea.

Merchant ships were constantly driven back, and occasionally some stubborn smuggling ships were directly sunk.

The number of merchant ships reaching mainland India has been reduced to a minimum.

(End of this chapter)