Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 287 Talk to me about the ancestral system? I will use the ancestral system to deal with you!
Yang Yiqing's actions did indeed arouse dissatisfaction among the people along the coast.

But Yang Yiqing had no choice.

He came to Fuzhou to open a Naval Academy in accordance with the emperor's order, so naturally he had to build the Naval Academy.

He couldn't let the emperor think that he, a grand secretary, couldn't even establish a naval academy.

Since the land-based civilians along the coast did not support him, he could only recruit the boatmen.

Anyway, he is a cabinet minister, and the emperor has granted him the power of arbitrary decision.

He wanted to allow the boat people to study at the Naval Academy, and even tried to recruit them by offering them exemption from fishing taxes if they entered the Naval Academy.

Even the bureaucrats on the southeast coast couldn't stop it.

As for the gentry and the common people, unless they rebel, they can only express the opinions of the local people, but whether to listen to them or not is up to the court officials.

In addition to the preferential policies to attract children of Tanka households to the Naval Academy, Yang Yiqing also asked the coastal defense officials in the southeast to send troops to nearby islands to rescue the children of Tanka households who had been sold but not transported away in time, and to keep these children in the academy as candidates for future students and their wives.

During this era, although the total amount of fish tax paid by the boat households to the imperial court was not large, because they were untouchables, they were actually severely exploited by local officials and wealthy people.

Many boat families were forced to sell their children to pirates, including Western pirates, in order to pay the miscellaneous taxes imposed on them by local officials.

Because the boatmen and women were used to sailing since childhood, pirates could easily train them to become slaves to perform the functions of sailors.

Therefore, in history, many mixed-race people appeared in Macau after it was rented by the Portuguese.

When Du Qing, Pires and others came to the Fuzhou Naval Academy to observe the enrollment situation of the Naval Academy.

They saw that several Portuguese were taken out of the Naval Academy by the government troops on the charge of being pirates.

Du Qing, Pires and Ferluo were shocked when they saw this.

then.

The three of them hurried towards the gate of the Naval Academy.

Du Qing first bowed to the soldiers escorting the Portuguese pirates and said, "I am Du Qing, the former Minister of Rivers. I wonder whose soldiers you are?"

At this time, Zhang Jin, the captain of the army, replied, "We are soldiers of the coastal defense commander Zhai Bingxian. Following the order of the elder, we behead these pirates and set them on fire!"

Pires on the side was immediately shocked.

Because there are many Portuguese coming from the East now.

There were professional pirates, missionaries, and Portuguese officials.

Therefore, Pires did not recognize these Portuguese people. He only knew their names when he heard them shouting at him. He knew that their leader was called Ansok, who came to Fujian to buy people to bring back to Malacca. However, when he temporarily anchored on a nearby uninhabited island, he was discovered by the Ming army and captured.

It just so happened.

Yang Yiqing also walked out of the school accompanied by a group of bureaucrats.

Seeing this, Du Qing hurried forward, cupped his hands and said loudly, "Master Yang!"

Yang Yiqing looked over and saw that it was Du Qing, whom he had met once before when he came to Fuzhou to meet the gentry. He asked, "What advice do you have, Mr. Du?"

Du Qing asked, "Could you please spare me a moment of your busy schedule?"

After hearing this, Yang Yiqing gave a few instructions to the bureaucrats around him, and then let Du Qing follow him into the school.

The Fuzhou Naval Academy had already begun training the first batch of students.

Instructors represented by Yu Dayou are providing basic warship operation training to these students.

So, when Du Qing accompanied Yang Yiqing into the school, they saw that there were already many people standing in various halls of the school. There were military officers standing next to the models of various warships, explaining the characteristics of various warships to the students.

This made Du Qing feel quite uncomfortable. He had not expected that Yang Yiqing had run the Naval Academy so successfully.

"Lord, how can the imperial court treat foreign people like this?"

"As a country of etiquette, we should be kind to people from far away places."

When Du Qing met with Yang Yiqing alone in a room later, he expressed his own views.

Yang Yiqing said: "It depends on whether they are here to exchange ideas or to commit illegal acts. But these Portuguese bought people from our country and even raped and murdered them! They are bandits and should be arrested and treated as thieves!"

Du Qing asked, "Why do you think so, Lord?"

"It is true that they bought people from the country, but what they bought were just some untouchables, and those people's parents voluntarily sold them to these Portuguese!"

"These Portuguese people can't be said to be robbing or forcibly buying things. As for rape and murder, that can only be regarded as their treatment of the servants they bought."

"But now, the elder wants to behead them as bandits and put them in public. This is not only unfair, but will also easily anger foreign countries and cause unrest in our sea borders!"

"You can't say that."

"According to the Ming Dynasty Law, it is strictly forbidden to sell people out of the country. Even if these Portuguese were bought from their parents, it is still a violation of the law and they should be treated as bandits!"

Yang Yiqing replied.

Du Qing smiled bitterly: "This is too overbearing!"

Yang Yiqing stood up and brushed his sleeves, and said sternly: "They violated the rules and laws first, how can they be called tyrants? Since they came to our country, why didn't they first understand our national system? It is obvious that they are ignoring the majesty of our Celestial Empire, and they should be treated as bandits!"

"Yang Anning!"

"You allow the untouchables to go ashore and study in the Naval Academy, but you treat foreigners so harshly and have no intention of being friendly and kind!"

“It’s a shame to be in power!”

Du Qing therefore also blamed Yang Yiqing.

Although Yang Yiqing was a cabinet minister, he was not afraid of him because they both belonged to the scholar-official class.

He believed that Yang Yiqing would not do anything to him because of his personal arrogance and criticism, but let the world know that scholars and officials would kill each other if they disagreed on anything, even if it did not involve disputes over rites and laws.

Therefore, many local officials and literati are often not afraid of officials.

Because as long as the official still cares about his reputation in the literati circle and is afraid that he will be punished by officials after becoming a local official in the future, he will try to restrain himself from offending local officials while in office.

However, what Du Qing did not know was that as the internal conflicts among the scholar-officials intensified, in addition to ideological disputes that would put the other party to death, power disputes would also put the other party to death.

Moreover, the scholars of this era have always advocated being gentle and benevolent towards foreign countries to demonstrate that the Celestial Empire is a country that values ​​courtesy. On the contrary, they advocate strict discipline for the country's military and civilians, and any resistance must be severely punished to eradicate all evil.

Therefore, it was during the Hongzhi period, when civil officials had the greatest power, that regulations came into being regarding hiring workers to rebel against their ruler and conspire in treason.

When the mutiny occurred, many scholars and officials advocated for strong suppression.

There were even so-called "half-saints" like Zeng Guofan in history who directly advocated in his own notes the view that in order to prevent the Taiping Army from having a place to hide, the people in the areas where the Taiping Army passed should be massacred.

This is also determined by the class nature.

For the landlords, internal stability is everything.

You can be gentle and tolerant towards other countries.

Although Yang Yiqing was also a member of the scholar-officials, he rose to power by accumulating military merits, so he knew that foreigners feared power but not virtue.

In addition, he was a cabinet minister and understood the emperor better. He knew that the emperor's ambition was to explore new resources abroad, which meant that the national policy was destined to shift to a tough stance toward foreign countries.

So, after Du Qing said this, Yang Yiqing just frowned.

Du Qing had been back home for too long and didn't know the emperor very well. He thought the emperor was hostile to the Portuguese because he didn't understand the local situation, so he continued:
"You allow those untouchables to go ashore to study, and even allow them to become officials in the future. This is against the rules! It violates the rule set by our Ming Taizu Gaohuangdi that boat people cannot go ashore!"

"But they are also Han Chinese after all."

Yang Yiqing replied.

"From what you said, these Portuguese are really more valuable than our people. They bought our people as slaves, and we should treat them with courtesy?"

Because Du Qing mentioned Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral system, Yang Yiqing couldn't deny it and directly say that Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral system was wrong, so he had to refute Du Qing by using the difference between Chinese and barbarians.

Du Qingze was dismissive of the distinction between Chinese and foreigners and just laughed:
"Of course!"

"These Portuguese admire our Celestial Empire's culture, so they came from afar to seek the education of rituals and music. It's just that they don't understand our Celestial Empire's system, so they offended us."

"It is impossible that our country, as a great country, does not even have this much magnanimity!"

"Even if they bought our people and made them slaves, they should only deal with our people. They should be killed for being vassals of foreigners and betraying their ancestors, and for the crime of treason against China!"

"How can you be so harsh on the foreigners who have just arrived? Why would you rather break the laws of our ancestors than show mercy to the country's untouchables?"

"This is really against the way of saints!"

Du Qing did the same thing as Yang Yiqing just now. He brushed off his sleeves and put his hands behind his back.

Yang Yiqing then went into his study, wrote a note on the imperial paper Zhu Houcong had given him, and then stamped it with the official seal Zhu Houcong had given him, and then went out and shouted, "Yu Dayou!"

At this time.

Yu Dayou, who was giving a lecture in a hall, immediately ran out after hearing this: "Mr. Prime Minister!"

"You are to take this imperial order and arrest the entire family of Du Qing, the former Prime Minister and Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of River Engineering, and prepare to send him to the border as exiles! And behead him at the market gate!"

Yang Yiqing ordered.

Yu Dayou immediately took the ticket and said yes.

The emperor's imperial letter is like an imperial decree.

Naturally he had no choice but to obey.

Du Qing was horrified and asked, "What crime have I committed that you want to kill me and exile my whole family?"

"Tongyi!"

"Taizu did not say who is superior or inferior between foreigners and our own people, but the Great Ming Code clearly states that those who collude with foreigners will be punished with capital punishment, and their entire family will be sent to the border guards as soldiers!"

"You speak for the barbarians, and just now you appeared with them. If you are not in league with the barbarians, what are you?"

"According to our ancestral system, those who leak military intelligence will be punished by lingchi (death penalty); those who do not leak it will be beheaded!"

"Let's assume you didn't leak the information, so I'll just behead you."

Yang Yiqing replied.

Du Qing hurriedly said in a stern voice: "They are envoys coming to Beijing to pay homage!"

"Who are you? Go see the messenger!"

"You are an official from the Ministry of Rites or the Fu'an government. The local county magistrate is more qualified to see them than you!"

"If you get along with them privately, isn't that treason?!"

Yang Yiqing also questioned harshly.

Du Qing was suddenly speechless.

Then, he knelt down helplessly: "Please spare my life, sir! I was careless for a moment, please show mercy!"

(End of this chapter)