Jiajing Chengming

Tao Qingxian became even more angry when he learned that he was going to be executed by slow slicing and his head would be displayed to the public.

"You Ming people are interfering in the affairs of the Japanese, so you should be cut into pieces!"

"We are raising an army to fight against the unworthy family leader in order to protect our country from being destroyed by other countries. This is a just act, not an act of disloyalty!"

Tao Qingxian even yelled at Xu Jie because of this.

Xu Jie simply said: "There is no king or father who is not right in the world, and there is no parent who is not right! As long as you, the rulers of the country, recognize who is your master, you cannot rebel against the head of the family, otherwise it would be unfilial!"

"Even if the head of the family is unjust and cruel, you can resign and seek refuge. As the saying goes, you can accept a small beating and walk away if you are beaten hard. But you absolutely cannot commit crimes without permission!"

"Otherwise where is the dignity of etiquette and where is the order of respect and inferiority?"

After hearing what Xu Jie said, Tao Qingxian gritted her teeth but was unable to answer.

He never imagined that the Ming Kingdom would actually use force to enforce the ethical order they advocated.

Not long after this, Tao Qingxian was executed by slow slicing, and his head was soon delivered to the Otomo family.

Otomo's retainers, Tsukumi Misaku and Taguchi Kanichika, were both very upset about this and clenched their fists.

Because if they cannot "overthrow the superiors with the inferiors", how can they realize their ambition to increase their power?
Therefore, these retainers of Otomo Yoshiaki were naturally unhappy.

Otomo Yoshiaki himself was not happy either.

After all, the Ming Dynasty not only strongly demanded that the retainers of the daimyo not rebel against their superiors, but also required that the daimyo not invade other countries without authorization.

This also suppressed the ambitions of the daimyo to expand their territories and prevented them from accumulating wealth through war.

"Can it be that I, Otomo Yoshiaki, can only develop civil governance like Ouchi Yoshitaka, offend the powerful families of my country, suppress annexation, and no longer dream of unifying the world and other military hegemony?"

Otomo Yoshiaki also spoke sadly about this in front of his retainers.

Misaku Tsukumi said: "Now it seems that, yes, the Ming Dynasty wants to bring peace to the world and no more wars."

Snapped!
"Who wants such peace and prosperity?!"

"Only people without great ambitions would pursue world peace at this time!"

"Even if we want peace and prosperity for the whole world, it should be after I unify the world!"

Otomo Yoshiaki slammed his palm on the table and said angrily.

Taguchi Kanichika advised: "But we cannot fight against the Ming Kingdom. If we do not obey its will, we will be forced to cede territory and pay compensation. This is what happened to the Ouchi clan, who ceded Itsukushima because of their invasion of Aki Province."

After hearing what Taguchi Kanichika said, Otomo Yoshiaki also lost his temper and said, "In that case, I will retire early. There is no point in being a head of the family who cannot bring greater glory to the family!"

Many ambitious Japanese daimyo were very angry about the Ming Dynasty's forceful intervention in the battle for supremacy among the Japanese daimyo.

Not only the Japanese daimyo, but also the military officials around them were very angry.

Because these military officials also need to follow their family leaders to gain greater benefits in the war.

But due to the strong intervention of the Ming Dynasty, they can only stop fighting and focus on culture.

Although Ming's actions greatly hindered Japan's unification process, they did greatly reduce the severity of war in Japan, which was naturally a very good thing for the middle and lower class civilians in Japan.

After all, ordinary Japanese no longer have to wander around because of war, and can produce with peace of mind. Of course, this is also good for Ming itself. First of all, economically, the Japanese can produce with peace of mind, which will help Japan recover its economy and increase its consumption of Ming goods.

Secondly, the Japanese no longer became ronin and pirates in large numbers because of the war, which made the Ming Dynasty's coastal areas much more peaceful.

In this way, Ming Dynasty's efforts to stop the war with Japan were generally more beneficial than harmful, as the benefits outweighed the costs of stationing troops and officials in Japan and conducting military activities.

According to Zhu Houcong's plan, he would do his utmost to suppress the ambitious people in Japan and bring peace to Japan.

Although the actions of the Ming Dynasty made the ambitious people in Japan extremely dissatisfied, for Ouchi Yoshitaka, a daimyo who had already given up his ambition for hegemony, he was very grateful to "Ming Dad".

Because "Dad Daming" had only three or four thousand close confidants around him, and when he was about to commit suicide at Hosenji Temple by his retainers such as Tao Qingxian who were "overthrowing their superiors", he suddenly appeared, allowing him to continue to rule the Ouchi clan and be the head of the Ouchi clan.

Therefore, Ouchi Yoshitaka was very grateful to "Ming Dad". After returning to his castle, he took the initiative to send an envoy to express his gratitude to Xu Jie and expressed his willingness to cooperate with Ming to maintain peace in the entire Japan.

Xu Jie highly praised this and asked Ouchi Yoshitaka to completely open the country's doors and allow the imperial merchants of the Ming Dynasty to do business in his territory.

Ouchi Yoshitaka also agreed to this and asked the counties not to make things difficult for the imperial merchants of the Ming Dynasty and to treat the imperial merchants of the superior country with courtesy.

This allowed Ming Dynasty's commercial goods to further penetrate into the areas ruled by the Ouchi clan.

The Ming Dynasty basically eliminated the Japanese threat along the coast of the country by stopping the war in Japan, but this also made many wealthy and powerful people along the coast even more depressed.

Because their opportunities to annex people's land were greatly reduced.

After all, if there were no Japanese pirates appearing from time to time along the coast to plunder the people, they could only hope to annex large amounts of land from civilians after natural disasters occurred.

Because when the weather is good and life is peaceful, people will not sell their fields and land easily, and they value land very much.

In addition, the imperial court is now directly stepping in to stop the war in Japan, which has greatly increased the Ming Dynasty's income in Japan, and a large amount of it has become national treasury. This has made the imperial court more capable of assisting the people after natural disasters, making it much more difficult for the gentry to annex the land of civilians even if natural disasters occur.

"I, Xue Zhang, am incompetent!"

"Although he had accumulated 100,000 taels of silver throughout his life, he had only acquired 50 mu of land when he was about to die. This is far less than what my father did, who was only selected as a filial and honest official but was able to acquire 800 mu of land in his lifetime!"

Xue Zhang, who retired as the Right Governor of Shanxi, expressed his regrets in front of his family on his deathbed.

Xue Zhang's family members also looked sad because of this.

Because the Xue family's expenses increased much faster than the expansion of their industry, everyone in the Xue family, from top to bottom, felt embarrassed.

After seeing his father off, Xue Zhang's son Xue Jie told this matter to his father's friend Cao Cheng, who had served as an imperial censor.

Cao Cheng sighed and said, "This is the consequence of the court competing with the people for profit!"

"Sima Wenzhenggong is right. The benefits of the world are either in the hands of the officials or the people. Although the Japanese threat has been eliminated, the benefits to the people have also been greatly reduced. It is not because your father is incompetent, but because of the corrupt officials in the court who are in power and have robbed the people of their benefits!"

“Will there ever be a day when the imperial court no longer competes with the people for profit?”

Xue Jie couldn't help but ask at this time.

Cao Cheng stood up and looked at the paddy field outside his house with regret. It was still being cultivated by the common people next door, Old Man Ni and his son Ni. There was no farmhand from his Cao family to supervise the cultivation. He said:

"It should be possible, but it is probably difficult at the moment. After all, the emperor of this dynasty is truly good at governing the country! Unless the rebels in Jiangxi can win, but can they win?"

Xue Jie nodded, sighed, and said, "I really don't want to call them rebels, I want to call them righteous army!" (End of this chapter)