Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 145 Let them cause trouble overseas! Da Ming Bai picked up thousands of miles of territory!
Zhu Yunhuan was also filled with emotion.

He originally thought that drawing a world map should be easy.

When I actually started to draw it, I realized that I had not specifically memorized it before, and I had no foundation in art. It was quite difficult to draw a world map accurately based on just a rough impression!

To this end, Zhu Yunhuan revised the map many times before finally getting a relatively satisfactory map.

He didn't tell Lao Zhu that the earth is round.

Although this concept already existed in China in ancient times.

But most Chinese people at this time still prefer to believe that "the sky is round like a canopy, and the earth is like a chessboard."

The same is true for Lao Zhu.

There is no need to spend time and energy telling Lao Zhu that the earth is round and arguing with him about it.

There are plenty of opportunities in the future.

Anyway, what he presented now was a flat map that was commonly seen in later generations.

Old Zhu stared at the map for a long time and asked, "Where did this map come from?"

"This is what I compiled after reading through many classics." This was the only explanation Zhu Yunhuan could give.

In order for the Ming Dynasty to enter the Age of Discovery early, it certainly needed the support of maps.

This map is not only presented to Lao Zhu, but also a crucial basis for guiding the seagoing fleet in the future.

It was for this reason that Zhu Yunhuan painted over and over again, carefully recalling the remaining memories in his mind, and revising it over and over again, in order to achieve accuracy and precision.

In the future, this simple map will become the basis for Ming Dynasty to conquer the Blue Star.

Don’t underestimate this as a very simple thing in later generations.

But with the level of technology at that time, if you want to survey and draw such a map by manpower, it will not only cost a lot of money and resources, but also take decades.

It is probably still impossible to draw so accurately.

Within the Ming Dynasty, the vast majority of people were opposed to overseas expansion.

For the common people, they were worried that the imperial court's expansion of territory would increase taxes, and their sons and husbands would have to join the army and die on the battlefield.

The military households also did not like to go on expeditions to distant places, as it was too much suffering.

For the literati, they felt that doing so would be a waste of money and manpower.

I'm afraid the only ones who support him are a small number of military generals who only want to achieve great things.

Fundamentally speaking, given current productivity, conquering distant frontier areas can bring no real benefits other than satisfying the emperor's vanity.

Naturally, no one wants to do a business that loses money.

Only Zhu Yunhuan, as a time traveler, clearly understood the benefits of doing so and was determined to start the Age of Discovery.

The first thing he needed to do was to convince the internal opposition.

The first thing is to convince Lao Zhu.

If Zhu Yunhuan proposed that the imperial court send a large army to expedition to various countries, Zhu would definitely be the first to stand up and oppose it.

He sent troops on an expedition far away, exhausted the people, was ambitious and had no regard for the country and the people!

This is definitely the behavior of a tyrant.

There is no way that Lao Zhu would support this!

If he really insisted on doing so, Zhu Yuanzhang would rather depose him from the position of crown prince than allow him to do so.

But what if we change the approach and let the princes and royal family members take small groups of people to expand overseas territory?

In fact, in the early days of the Age of Exploration in history, this was the model adopted by the West when it went overseas to establish colonies.

Expedition teams from various non-governmental organizations and countless explorers went overseas to seek wealth and develop colonies.

The state power only plays a supporting role in the background and then waits to reap the fruits.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty was different.

The civilian forces of the Ming Dynasty had no tradition of taking risks overseas.

The feudal landlords simply disdain to do so.

No matter how much the court encourages them, they will most likely remain indifferent.

I'm afraid he would feel that the court is setting himself up for failure.

Whoever goes there is a fool!

But it is different for princes and royal family members.

First of all, they have military power themselves.

The troops directly under the vassal kings were far from enough to fight against a huge dynasty like the Northern Yuan Dynasty, and the imperial army had to be deployed.

But it is enough to develop colonies in wild places overseas.

Even any member of the royal family could spend some money to recruit a few hundred people and form a private army.

The Western robbers and various expeditions in the early Age of Exploration in history were all of this scale.

With the princes and royal family members taking the lead, the soldiers and civilians were more willing to believe that there were indeed treasures and profits to be made overseas.

Otherwise, why would the imperial court allow princes and royal family members to go to sea?
In this way, princes and royal family members can also make achievements and strive to obtain the hereditary iron hat title, or have their own title upgraded.

This has a strong appeal to them.

As for harming ordinary people...

If they were allowed to stay in Ming Dynasty to work, it would naturally be a huge hidden danger.

But if we let them go out to sea and establish their own overseas colonies and overseas kingdoms, that would not be a problem.

If there is any harm, it will be to outsiders. What does it have to do with the people of the Ming Dynasty?

What's more, given the backwardness of those wild lands, as long as they go there, they will bring civilization and order there, which will benefit the local people and the people of the world.

Furthermore, if the princes and royal family members take the lead in going out to sea and gain benefits, they will drive the entire Ming society to follow suit.

The wealthy landlords, the gentry, and even the common people will follow closely behind.

The resources needed for industrialization can also be continuously imported through overseas colonies.

With deep interests tied together, maritime bans and closing the country to the outside world will be opposed by everyone.

The imperial court did not need to spend huge military expenditures to send a large army on an expedition.

Just follow behind and reap the fruits of victory.

On the contrary, if the imperial court sent troops directly to conquer, there would be many restrictions, high risks, and it would not be cost-effective.

The best way is to hand it over to the princes and royal family members and let them show their talents.

Zhu Yunhuan had thought about these plans repeatedly before, and now was the perfect opportunity to bring them forward.

Old Zhu did not doubt his words. He looked at the map and sighed, "The world is really big. Our Ming Dynasty has such a vast territory, and this is just a small part of it."

Immediately, Lao Zhu's tone suddenly changed.

"Huer, do you want to expand your territory?"

"Want to expand the territory of Ming Dynasty?"

"To make yourself famous in history?"

"You're willing to spare no manpower, financial resources, and material resources for this?"

"Let me tell you, no!"

Old Zhu's face was as dark as ink.

"War is a matter of life and death for a country. If you are not careful, defeat will be irreparable." "In war, you are not sure of victory just because you have good soldiers and sufficient food."

"Sometimes, if you are unlucky, you will suffer a great loss."

"When our army was at its peak, Xu Da led an army of more than 100,000 to attack the Northern Yuan Dynasty. However, we were ambushed by Wang Baobao, and tens of thousands of soldiers were buried in a foreign land."

"The national strength of our Ming Dynasty has also been greatly damaged because of this."

"Fortunately, the old foundation is still there, and the root has not been damaged."

"But the lessons learned are extremely painful."

"Emperor Wu of Han successively appointed Wei Qing and Huo Qubing to fight against the Xiongnu many times, which really tore the Xiongnu into pieces and made them miserable."

"But the little national strength that the Han Dynasty had accumulated with great difficulty since the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing was also consumed by this, wasn't it?"

"Later, the Witchcraft Rebellion broke out, Li Guangli was defeated, and the Western Han Dynasty quickly declined after Emperor Wu of Han."

"Emperor Yang of Sui was also ambitious and he launched three expeditions to Korea, which cost the national treasury countless money and grain. The people could not bear the heavy burden and rose up in rebellion, which led to the demise of the Sui Dynasty."

"Even a good general like Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, suffered a great loss when he conquered Goryeo."

“These are painful lessons!”

"Sending troops on a long expedition will do no good to the country. This is not what a wise emperor should do."

"As an emperor, you must govern the country well, treat the people well, and ensure that the people of the country live and work in peace and contentment, and have enough food to eat and clothes to wear."

"Instead of sending the people to fight in order to satisfy your desire for immortality and gain a little military merit, leaving the sons of the elderly, the fathers of the children, and the husbands of the women to die in a foreign land, how could you bear it?"

"Conscripting them to do corvée labor and serve the expeditionary army is also a misuse of the people's power and will inevitably cause resentment among the people."

"Although the territory on your map is vast, it is separated from our Ming Dynasty by mountains and seas."

"What good would it do to the court and the country if we could acquire a large expanse of wild land but could not provide it to the Ming Dynasty?"

"The people there are not educated, and if we conquer them by force, they will be difficult to use for the Ming Dynasty."

"Instead, we have to send troops to garrison, which is a waste of national strength."

"If the Northern Yuan Dynasty had not continuously invaded the border of the Ming Dynasty, we would not have wanted to send troops to the Northern Yuan Dynasty."

"It is enough for us to guard the vast territory of Ming Dynasty and live a good life."

As soon as Lao Zhu caught him, he started to scold him in a very serious tone.

Then he stood up and paced, saying, "No, we have to list all the neighboring countries as countries that we will not conquer, write it into our ancestral teachings, and warn future generations that as long as they don't invade our Ming Dynasty, we must not conquer them at will."

It was the first time that Zhu Yunhuan saw Zhu Yuanzhang so serious.

It was also the first time that he was taught such a severe lesson.

Even when interrogating Nie Huan'er before, there was more pressure, anger and rage.

From this we can see that Zhu really cares about the people.

Perhaps many of them have the mentality of small farmers, who just want to live a good life with their own piece of land.

I just want all the people in the world to live a peaceful and stable life.

"Grandfather Emperor!" Zhu Yunhuan waited until Old Zhu had finished venting his anger before explaining, "You misunderstood. I, your grandson, do not intend to send a large army to fight overseas."

Old Zhu was stunned for a moment and asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhu Yunhuan pointed to the Central Plains region on the map and said, "In fact, the area where the Zhou royal family first came to power was only this small piece."

"It's just a thousand miles of land around the capital."

"Anywhere further away, it's all wilderness."

"Later, the Zhou royal family granted those wild lands to various kings through continuous fiefdoms, allowing them to conquer and develop them..."

"Generation after generation worked hard to build our vast territory."

"The inheritance of the country has been passed down through the ages and has finally reached the hands of our Ming Dynasty."

"If the Zhou royal family had not been open and enterprising, I'm afraid that Jinling City would still be a wild place today."

As he spoke, he pointed to the New World on the map, which later became America.

"This place is tens of thousands of miles away from our Ming Dynasty."

"It is totally unnecessary for the imperial court to send a large army on a long expedition, and it will waste people's money and time."

"But what if we don't send troops, but just appoint a prince, give him a title, and let him run the country?"

"As far as I know, the area is still very desolate, with only a few barbarian tribes. There is no need to send a large army to conquer it."

"The prince's own guards are enough."

Old Zhu was stunned.

What Zhu Yunhuan said were all historical facts that Zhu Yunhuan was also well aware of.

The nine provinces of the Central Plains were all slowly developed from wild and barbaric lands.

This is even more true in Jinling City.

The method that was developed at the beginning was feudalization.

Just take a piece of desolate land and reward it to the meritorious officials.

The rest is his own business.

Relying on this method, the Zhou Dynasty gradually gained a very vast territory.

If it is true as Zhu Yunhuan said, the wild lands overseas are still undeveloped.

Is it possible to enfeoff the kings, let them make a living there, and have them become part of the Ming Dynasty's territory in the future?

It’s not that Zhu Yuanzhang really didn’t want to expand his territory, but he felt that the cost was too high, the effort was too much, and the return was too low.

Not cost-effective, not worth it.

But what if all it takes is an empty title and the court doesn’t have to pay anything?
Getting thousands of miles of territory for free?

Old Zhu began to feel moved.

There was already a precedent for enfeoffment like the Zhou royal family did.

Moreover, there is an example right before our eyes, which is the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

It was through the process of enfeoffment that the Northern Yuan Dynasty acquired an extremely vast territory.

Each of the four Khanates should not be underestimated.

Although it fell apart due to excessive taxation and infighting, it may still have its merits.

Zhu Yunhuan observed Zhu's expression and saw the change in his demeanor, so he immediately struck him with another blow.

"Grandpa Emperor, after those places are developed, it is not impossible to return benefits to the Ming Dynasty."

He pointed to South America and said, "As far as I know, there are two crops in this area, one is potatoes and the other is sweet potatoes."

"Both of these can be called divine objects."

"Not only is it delicious, but the yield per mu can reach thousands of kilograms."

“And the fertility requirements for the land are extremely low.”

"Even the most barren land, barren mountains and wasteland can be planted at will."

"If we can send a ship here to bring back potato and sweet potato seeds and promote their cultivation in Ming, then Ming will no longer have to worry about food problems for hundreds of years to come."

As soon as these words came out, Lao Zhu's face suddenly changed, and he asked anxiously: "Are you serious?"

……

(End of this chapter)