Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 250: The new transformation of the literati, showing weakness to Jiajing!
Yang Yiqing was suddenly shocked after hearing this.

then.

Yang Yiqing said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, my opinion is definitely not the same as Zhang Fujing's, because what I said just now is not to oppose Your Majesty's establishment of various official schools, but to worry that the country will be short of financial resources because of this!"

"I know you are worried about the problem of insufficient financial resources. I will find a way."

"But you, Lord Yang, must have an opinion on how to reform and eliminate corruption."

Zhu Houcong replied.

Yang Yiqing thought about it and understood. He suddenly bowed to Zhu Houcong with sincere admiration and said, "Your Majesty is wise! I understand!"

"As long as you know!"

"Although Wang Hong and Fan Jizu are in charge of the Naval Academy, you, as the Grand Secretary in charge of the Ministry of Finance, must also keep a close eye on it for me."

Zhu Houcong instructed.

"The minister obeys the order!"

Yang Yiqing returned to the cabinet happily and informed Mao Ji of the meeting with the emperor.

After hearing this, Mao Ji put down his pen and the memorial he was preparing to write, took off the brow of his nose, and asked with a smile:

"So, the reason why His Majesty is setting up new-style schools is because he is more willing to support the reform of the education system, and is not very active in supporting the tax reform proposed by Zhang Fujing?"

"You can say that."

Yang Yiqing nodded, picked up a memorial and started reading it, saying:
"Your Majesty is a prudent and virtuous monarch. He will not rashly change the great system of the world, but he cannot but turn a blind eye to the great evils of the world! And as a ruler who works hard to govern the country, Your Majesty can only choose between the education policy and the tax policy. If the education policy cannot be reformed, then naturally he will give up further changes to the tax system!"

“How rare!”

Mao Ji sighed for a moment and said, "I am afraid that Your Majesty will be too dedicated to governing the country and forget everything else, and will want to drastically change the laws of our ancestors! Although the laws of our ancestors may not be good, changing them may not necessarily make them better!"

"However, although His Majesty is cautious, he does have great ambitions. He seems to think that the benefits from overseas can make his country rich and his army strong. Otherwise, he would not be focusing on the sea. Unlike the Xianmiao and even Taizu and Taizong in the past, he is more concerned about the external enemy in the north!"

"But are the benefits from overseas really enough for Your Majesty to realize his ambitions?"

Yang Yiqing spoke thoughtfully.

Mao Ji laughed and said, “Who can know what’s happening overseas?”

"In order to know both ourselves and the enemy, His Majesty has issued an order to allow ministers to visit the Western Barbarians imprisoned in the Imperial Prison. If you are interested, you can go and ask the Western Barbarians from the sea!"

Mao Ji continued speaking.

Yang Yiqing said: "I should go and ask."

……

……

"I'm not complimenting your country. Your country is the only place with vast land and abundant resources that I have ever seen!"

"Compared to the worst places in your country's Kyushu, all the overseas places can only be regarded as barbaric lands. Eating raw meat and drinking blood is even a common phenomenon overseas."

"Although my country is much better than the country that eats raw meat and drinks blood, it is still not as good as your country. Otherwise, I would not have built so many warships and risked the sea wind to come to your country to seek wealth and population, because your country is truly the richest place in the world today!"

"So, for your country, it is not worth wasting manpower and financial resources to mine overseas products."

"Only countries like ours that are short of resources would find it worthwhile to risk going to sea."

In the imperial prison, Coelho told the Grand Secretary Yang Yiqing who came to see him about his understanding of the situation overseas.

Yang Yiqing just sneered after hearing this: "From what you said, it sounds like you don't want us to be interested in the world outside the four seas."

"Absolutely not!"

"That's absolutely not what I meant!"

"I am just telling the truth, Lord, you should be confident!"

"After all, you are the ruler of the Celestial Empire. You know best how wealthy the Celestial Empire is."

"Moreover, a smart person like you should also understand that if the facts were not like this, who would come all the way to your country to do business?"

Coelho denied it with an evasive look.

Yang Yiqing didn't say anything else. He only said to Mao Ji after returning to the cabinet: "After I asked the Western barbarians in the imperial prison, I realized that these Western barbarians seemed to be afraid that we knew a lot of the truth!" "The truth?"

"What truth?"

Mao Ji asked hurriedly.

Yang Yiqing looked at Mao Ji and said, "The truth is that there is a lot of gold, silver and fertile land outside!"

"No way!"

Mao Ji replied with some surprise.

Yang Yiqing looked at the red wall outside the cabinet, with a serious look on his face, and said: "It should be. Otherwise, if it is really as the Western Barbarians said, that our land is vast and rich in resources, and they are so poor that they can only take risks to do business, then why don't they start to harass our sea borders directly like the Mongols, but if the invasion by force fails, they will trade with us? It shows that they are not short of gold and silver, nor are they short of slaves to farm for them in the manor!"

"Makes sense!"

"Didn't Guangdong say that their ships are more powerful than our warships, and their firearms are also very powerful!"

"If you think about it carefully, the fact that they can build such powerful warships and firearms means that they, like us, have craftsmen who can make a living without farming and specialize in building ships and firearms. And there should be a lot of craftsmen, otherwise they wouldn't be able to build such good ships and firearms! And if there are so many craftsmen, there must be more farmers, and more fertile land."

Because the emperor had been paying close attention to the Portuguese these days, Mao Ji had looked up a lot of information about the Portuguese, so he started talking about it as well.

Yang Yiqing said: "Not only will there be many craftsmen and farmers, but there will also be a lot of iron ore, bamboo and wood resources."

"So, this Western barbarian said that our land is vast and rich in resources, and that all the lands overseas are barbaric. It is obvious that they are afraid that we will know the true situation overseas."

Yang Yiqing continued.

Mao Jize sighed and said, "It would be great if the documents of Master Sanbao were still there. Then we can know the truth overseas and know that maybe the voyage to the West was not a loss-making venture!"

"Yes!"

"But fortunately, your majesty is now truly wise and intelligent! He has long realized that these Western barbarians are not good people, let alone ordinary pirates, and knows that things overseas are not that simple."

Yang Yiqing said.

Mao Ji smiled and said: "Your Majesty not only realized that the Western barbarians are not good people, but even the Chinese thieves in formal attire could not deceive him, which made him always be vigilant against our scholars and officials."

"Yuan Fu is right!"

"But your majesty's strategy for governing the country is indeed a cautious and prudent one! If you want to stop the thieves in disguise in the country, you are really disloyal and unkind!"

"After all, it is better to seek knowledge overseas than to let people like Zhang Fujing intensify the party-faction struggle, or to have another Huang Chao appear and destroy the etiquette of the world!"

Yang Yiqing followed suit.

Mao Ji nodded.

……

……

When Zhu Houcong decided to build a large number of warships and navy and began to shift the strategic development direction of the Ming Empire to the sea, the Portuguese and the Ming Dynasty's thieves in disguise became very panicked.

First, the Portuguese.

When Governor Godingho returned from Pires and reported that the Ming Emperor had declared war and was really going to build a large number of warships, he said with great concern:
"If the Ming Kingdom really starts to focus on maritime development, our development in the East will suffer huge losses!"

"After all, they can be defeated many times at sea, but if we lose once, it will be a serious blow to our lives!"

"Now, just for Tuen Mun and Sai Cao Wan, we have to start preparing to give up military action against them and can only seek other ways. Now if they really want to forbid us from trading and take away our trade lines between India, Japan and them, then we will completely lose our wealth in the East!"

"Then what should we do?"

Pires asked.

Godinghuo said: "We can only show weakness! Show goodwill to their emperor, bribe the dignitaries, and show our friendship to their common people."

"But their emperor has already firmly stated that he wants to be our enemy! For this reason, he has also imprisoned another of our envoys, and he has no intention of releasing the captured Bedulu and others!"

Pires said.

Godinghuo said: "The tougher they are, the more we should show weakness; this is the way people get along with each other, and it is also the way countries get along with each other!"

(End of this chapter)