Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 174: Peace-loving people of Taiwan! Controversy between the government and the opposition!

In the following days, Ma He deeply realized the true meaning of "convincing people with reason" and also witnessed the heartwarming scene of the people of Taiwan welcoming the royal army with "food and drink".

The roar of the Ming Navy's cannons, like the sound of nature, shook every corner of the island.

This made the people of Taiwan feel unprecedented goodwill and awe towards this army that came from afar.

Zhu Yunhuan led the Ming Dynasty naval fleet, slowly moving south along the coastline, like a giant dragon cruising on the blue waves.

Ma He led the elite Marines and marched southward on land. With a two-pronged approach, he was invincible.

Whenever encountering suspicious or resistant tribes or forces, Ma He would send a signal to the sea, and the Ming navy would then fire with tremendous force, demonstrating what it meant to rain artillery fire, giving the other side an unforgettable "courtesy."

This move of "convincing people with reason" unexpectedly produced miraculous results.

The tribal leaders and people on the treasure island welcomed the arrival of the Ming army with the most sincere enthusiasm.

Wherever we passed along the way, singing and dancing intertwined into a sea of joy, and laughter echoed in every inch of land, as if the whole world was embraced by this peace and joy.

As for fighting with the Ming army?
Of course that doesn't exist.

The tribal leaders and people on the treasure island are all peace-loving. Why would they fight against the Ming army?

Ma He was well aware of this, so while demonstrating the shocking power of the Ming Dynasty's artillery, he also arranged spectacular musket shooting performances from time to time.

Rows of Ming soldiers in armor stood like a pine forest, raising their muskets in unison and aiming at the bull's eye in the distance. With an order, the gunshots were deafening and the targets fell.

What's worse, the targets were changed to lively pigs, cows and sheep, and they all fell to the ground and died when the gunshots rang out.

The accurate shooting and terrifying power left everyone present dumbfounded.

After witnessing the shooting skills of the Ming soldiers and the power of their muskets, the people of Taiwan welcomed the arrival of the Ming army even more enthusiastically.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything.

The forces on Dongyi Island can be roughly divided into several groups.

One is the original indigenous aborigines.

Their ancestors moved from the mainland to Dongyi thousands of years ago, thus forming unique customs and culture.

The second group is people who crossed the strait from Fujian and other places and came to Dongyi since the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

These people went overseas to survive and came to Dongyi mainly to avoid war and heavy taxes.

The third group includes all kinds of illegal businessmen, pirates, and even scattered Japanese pirates.

The people who most welcomed the Ming army from the bottom of their hearts were the indigenous people.

These indigenous people still live in tribes.

In their view, as long as the people sent by the Ming Dynasty did not enter their villages to rob property, it would be fine.

The rest has nothing to do with me.

Especially after knowing that the Ming army also had magical guns and cannons.

They had nothing but respect and admiration for the Ming army.

After all, people in primitive tribes believe in the law of survival that the strong are king.

Since the Ming army is stronger than their own tribe, it is natural and reasonable to submit to the other side.

However, those who fled to Dongyi from Fujian and other places had complicated feelings about the Ming army.

Many of them did not want to accept the rule of the court and the government.

In their memories, the imperial court and government meant endless oppression, endless taxes and levies, and endless corvee labor.

Fortunately, Zhu Yunhuan had already issued an order that all taxes except commercial taxes would be exempted for the next ten years, and no corvée labor would be required, which made them feel a little more at ease.

In addition, after witnessing the Ming Navy's strong ships and powerful guns, they knew that resistance was futile and quickly accepted the reality.

The only exceptions are illegal businessmen, pirates and Japanese pirates.

These people used to occupy many strongholds in various parts of the island and engage in illegal business.

Their business even included slaughtering indigenous tribes, capturing able-bodied men among the indigenous people as slaves, and selling them overseas.

They became the main targets of the Ming army.

The indigenous tribes have long hated these people.

The actions of the Ming army were immediately warmly welcomed by the indigenous tribes.

At the beginning, many indigenous tribes were a little scared, worried that the Ming army would do something wrong.

They were only forced to surrender due to the power of guns and cannons.

But later, as time went on, they found that the Ming army really did not harm them at all and only attacked pirates and Japanese pirates, so they gradually changed their attitude completely.

Even before the Marines led by Ma He arrived, after hearing the news, they had already taken the initiative to send people to greet them.

Many tribes also informed them of the locations of bandits and pirates' strongholds.

With the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty Marine Corps, it would be effortless to deal with these bandits and Japanese pirates.

Not to mention the support and cooperation of indigenous tribes.

In this way they circled the treasure island, and all the enemies along the way surrendered as soon as they saw the enemy and conquered the place as soon as they received the order.

After arriving in the south, the navy went to the Penghu Islands to wipe out the Japanese pirates entrenched on the islands.

……

Jinling City.

Huang Zicheng still boarded the ship to Japan.

After all, the order to appoint him as an envoy had already been issued, and he had no way out and had to go.

Secondly, Huang Zicheng still did not give up.

Small groups of Japanese pirates might be wiped out by the navy led by Zhu Yunhuan, but what if Japan sent a large army?

Maybe a comeback is possible!

Not many people noticed his departure.

At this time in the court, people were arguing fiercely over several orders that Zhu Yunhuan had sent from the front line.

The first order was that the garrisons near the coast were no longer allowed to defend the coast, but had to take the initiative to patrol the sea and arrest thieves.

The second order was to lift the ban on sea trade and allow the people to engage in maritime trade. You should know that these two bans were issued by Zhu Yuanzhang himself.

Now that it has been released, it is naturally no trivial matter.

There were many people who opposed it in the court.

The administration of officials in the early Ming Dynasty was generally clean.

Under Zhu's high-pressure rule, ordinary officials did not dare to engage in corruption or accept bribes.

But the garrison troops were an exception.

Before Zhu Biao's death, he rarely used the butcher knife against generals in the army.

At this time, many generals in the army were fearless and acted recklessly.

In their view, when the Emperor punishes corrupt officials, he targets civil servants.

It has nothing to do with their generals.

Why did Zhu Yuanzhang order the garrison troops not to send ships out to sea for patrols, crackdowns on smuggling and theft?

Didn't Zhu Yuanzhang know that doing so would put the Ming army in an extremely passive position, tantamount to tying its own hands and feet to fight the Japanese pirates?
As a man who has fought in wars all his life, how could Lao Zhu not know such simple common sense?
But as the saying goes, choose the lesser of two evils.

Old Zhu was very clear about the nature of the garrison troops.

If they were really asked to patrol the sea and crack down on smuggling and theft, I'm afraid the garrison troops themselves would become the biggest smugglers and the most terrible robbers!

They are responsible for supervising and patrolling the coastal defense, so who can supervise their smuggling?

The sky is high and the emperor is far away.

No one can supervise it.

It would be better to just ban them from going out to sea.

In this way, even if they want to smuggle for profit, they are unable to do so.

The troops stationed on land will wait for the Japanese pirates to come ashore and then destroy them, which can also serve as a deterrent.

If we let them patrol the sea now, what should we do if the garrison troops take this opportunity to engage in large-scale smuggling or even become pirates at sea in the name of anti-smuggling and anti-theft?
Can the officials of the imperial court go to the sea to supervise them?
If there is no supervision, corruption and degeneration are inevitable.

As for the second order to lift the maritime ban, the ministers opposed it mainly for two reasons.

First, most of the people engaged in maritime trade in the past were desperate criminals and lawless elements.

Letting go now means letting these people go.

This is actually true.

Under the strict maritime ban, those who still dare to risk defying the imperial order and engage in smuggling secretly are definitely not law-abiding citizens.

Moreover, even if this point is ignored, the risks of maritime trade are still very high. The power of typhoons and waves is enough to deter ordinary people.

Anyone who dares to do this is either too poor to survive or is extremely bold.

No matter which type of person they are, in the eyes of court officials, they are all unstable factors.

We cannot allow these people to become powerful.

The second reason is that opening up overseas trade, although it can bring tax revenue to the court, it will also cause many people to do business and engage in maritime trade instead of farming honestly.

If this continues, people's hearts will become unstable, society will be unstable, and the Ming Dynasty will also be unstable.

In the eyes of people in later generations, this reason is simply nonsense and absurd.

But in this era, many Neo-Confucian scholars and feudal regions believed that this was something that must be taken seriously and prevented.

Zhu Yunhuan's previous relaxation of business restrictions had already caused dissatisfaction among many people.

It's just that they are forced by the general trend and dare not stand up and openly oppose.

Now I can't hold it back any longer.

With the third order, the voices of opposition were even louder.

Because the order is - immigration!
Zhu Yunhuan ordered the court to immigrate hundreds of thousands of people, develop the Dongyi people, and strengthen the coastal defense border.

As for the source of the immigrants, they were refugees from Fujian and other places, landless people, or simply people who broke the law and were sentenced to exile.

Fujian is not as good as Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

There are poor mountains and bad water everywhere.

Eight mountains, one river, and one piece of land.

The living environment is extremely harsh.

Therefore, people in Fujian and other places have always had the habit of going overseas to make a living.

If they can't survive, they will go overseas.

Zhu Yunhuan's order was to open up and encourage people from Fujian and other places to voluntarily go to Dongyi and develop Dongyi.

After the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, many places in the Central Plains were uninhabited for thousands of miles.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, immigration has never stopped.

For example, the population of Huguang was replaced by that of Sichuan, and that of Jiangxi was replaced by that of Huguang, all of which took place during this period.

However, the idea of migrating Fujian people overseas aroused fierce opposition from court ministers.

They submitted petitions one after another with strong words expressing their concerns that immigration overseas would lead to many unpredictable risks and consequences.

Unfortunately, Crown Prince Zhu Yunhuan was not in the court and could not see their memorials.

The old emperor Zhu Yuanzhang adopted a rare silent attitude towards this matter.

It seemed as if everything was within his expectations, or he intended to test the Crown Prince's ability to govern.

At this critical moment, the "Da Ming Daily" under the leadership of Yao Guangxiao once again stepped forward and published the Crown Prince's immigration order directly in the newspaper.

At the same time, he also used vivid and vivid brushstrokes to portray Dongyi as a paradise full of opportunities and hope.

The words are filled with yearning and longing for the land of Dongyi.

After the article was published, public opinion was immediately in an uproar!
……

(End of this chapter)