Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 252 News about Zheng He, going to sea!

Beijing.

East Palace.

While drinking tea, Zhu Yunhuan flipped through the "Daily Brief", which compiled memorials from ministers across the country, and the "Brief Compilation of Domestic and Foreign Intelligence" submitted by the Intelligence Department of the Investigation Department.

After reading it, he picked up a copy of the "Military Intelligence Brief" and took a look at it.

"Military Intelligence Briefing" was compiled by the Ming Military Academy.

In the early Ming Dynasty, military power was basically in the hands of the Five Military Commanderies.

Although the Ministry of War nominally has the power to evaluate generals, in reality, because it cannot inquire about specific military intelligence, its power is very small. Its greater role is to ensure the logistical supply of the army.

Most of the generals at this time were Huaixi nobles who had followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world. They were very powerful and did not take the Ministry of War, which was dominated by civilians, seriously.

There was a case where the Minister of War asked the general in charge for the specific number of personnel in his army, but the general refused.
The two sides argued about this in front of the emperor, and Zhu Yuanzhang scolded the Minister of War and warned him not to cross the line.

From this we can also see the low status of the Ministry of War in the early Ming Dynasty.

The powerful generals in the military, such as Lan Yu, Fu Youde and others, were ranked as dukes and had outstanding military achievements. Who would take a mere Minister of War seriously?
After Zhu Yunhuan started the military reform, he always felt that this was not a solution and intended to make major changes to it.

But he currently has too few generals he can use. Although those Huaixi nobles are naturally his supporters, they have too many problems.

To put it bluntly, after conquering the world with Zhu Yuanzhang, the mission of the Huaixi nobles had basically been completed.

The only purpose of keeping them is to maintain the stability of the army and people's hearts.

Of course, if they can really adapt to the construction needs of the new type of army and can successfully transform, Zhu Yunhuan will be happy to continue using them to lead troops in battle.

After all, although hot weapons and cold weapons are completely different forms of warfare, some of the qualities required to command wars are always the same.

Generals who once performed well will still have good levels and abilities.

That’s all.

Zhu Yunhuan still did not want those people to interfere in the central power of military command.

The merits they have accomplished are too great to be managed.

The idea of establishing a new central military organization was temporarily suppressed.

After the Ministry of Posts and Communications developed, Zhu Yunhu discovered that 90% of the letters sent by generals to Nanjing went to the Ming Military Academy.

Those who were assigned to various armies of the new army all had experience studying at the Ming Military Academy.

The original veterans also came in and left in batches.

They had classmates and teachers at the Ming Military Academy, so they exchanged a lot of letters.

Seeing this, Zhu Yunhuan simply set up a temporary military research institution in the Ming Military Academy.

In name, it is an academic study on issues such as military transformation, the dual military chief system, new army construction, and the replacement of cold weapons with hot weapons.

Military generals will report to it the problems they encounter, and the agency will then conduct research and provide help and advice.

The benefit of doing this is, first, to clarify and understand the problems and difficulties encountered in the transformation and restructuring.

The generals would not necessarily report every detail to the court, but they would usually tell the "research institutes" that could give them advice everything they knew.

The second is to take this opportunity to strengthen the control and understanding of the military.

Furthermore, the personnel of the military institutions were not high-ranking officials of the court, but "researchers" who could be arranged at will by Zhu Yunhuan.

Not restricted by military titles, military merits, seniority, etc.

Although on the surface it seemed that they were only conducting "academic research" and providing help and advice, not giving orders, the generals could completely ignore them.

However, the ideas they put forward are often very useful, and the generals will actively adopt their suggestions.

As time went by, word gradually spread that this "research institute" would be headed and personally managed by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

As a result, these "help and suggestions" that were not formal orders suddenly became extremely important, and the generals had to carefully consider every suggestion they made.

In a sense, this military research institution has become the de facto new military command center of the Ming Dynasty.

The former "researcher" has transformed himself into a "military strategist" who has a significant influence on the army.

Although I still have no rank or grade, with this qualification, it will be very convenient to arrange a position in the future.

He had been helping generals at all levels to make plans at the central level, and later he entrusted them with important tasks, and the generals could not say anything against it.

Of course, actually leading troops is different from just talking about it on paper.

It is extremely foolish to let someone who has no experience in leading troops to command thousands of troops on the front line.

To this end, Zhu Yunhuan arranged for some middle and low-level military officers with experience in leading troops to enter the research institute.

These people are the ones who are going to be sent out in the future.

The rest of the "researchers" just need to do their research well.

They have no rank and are all his trusted aides appointed by the emperor. They can only give suggestions and it is impossible for them to hold military power. However, they can actually control the movements of the national army and lead the various arrangements in the military reform.

They were responsible for compiling the "Military Intelligence Briefing" so that Zhu Yunhuan could understand the situation of the army in a timely manner.

Of course, this method is good, but it can only be temporary.

The main purpose was to make it easier for Zhu Yunhuan to seize power from the hands of meritorious military generals without having to hand it over to the group of upright civil officials.

Over time, these "researchers" will gradually become the new "military cabinet" and actually control the military power of the Ming Dynasty.

These are inevitable things, but at least for the next two or three years, there is no need to worry at all.

After this special period, the agency will definitely be closed down.

You can continue your academic research, but you are not allowed to communicate with military generals.

"The construction of the new army is going very smoothly. The scale of the Daming Military Academy has been continuously expanding, and the number of students in each training session is increasing."

"We must send out several new brigades of troops to various places. After the disarmament, the defenses of various places are too weak. Although the Ministry of Justice is under pressure, the army does not need to be deployed normally. But it is better not to deploy. Only by stationing the army can it play a deterrent role."

"In the past two months, more than 1,300 gangs of all sizes have been destroyed across the country, and the Censorate has investigated and prosecuted a total of 321 officials at all levels. I'm afraid that the Censorate is now operating at its limit, and it's not easy to rectify the officialdom!"

"After the grassland tribes were conquered and divided, the Jurchen tribes were eyeing the grasslands covetously and provoked frictions on the border several times. The court had to be on guard."

……

As Zhu Yunhuan read the reports, his expression kept changing.

The Ming Dynasty is undergoing rapid transformation, and there are more and more affairs that need to be dealt with.

If he had not been prepared in advance and used briefings instead of directly reading the memorials, he would probably have been exhausted to death by now and would have been too busy.

"Has there been no news from Zheng He's fleet yet?"

After reading the three briefings, Zhu Yunhuan asked about Zheng He's voyage.

Calculating the time, if everything went well, the fleet led by Zheng He should have landed on the continent of South America, and should even have started the return voyage.

"No!" Yang Rong shook his head and said, "Since the last time a carrier pigeon brought back Zheng He's fleet that found the southern continent mentioned in His Royal Highness's map, there has been no news since then."

Zhu Yunhuan nodded, but there was not much worry on his face.

The Pacific Ocean is too vast.

Even for homing pigeons, it is very difficult to fly across the Pacific Ocean.

Although there were news reports of carrier pigeons flying across the Pacific Ocean in later generations, the fact that such an event became news itself shows that it was not the norm but extremely rare.

To put it bluntly, under normal circumstances, homing pigeons are very likely to not be able to fly over.

The southern continent is what later generations called Australia. After passing it, it is really too far away from the Ming Dynasty.

It's so far away that even birds can hardly convey any message, all we can do is wait.

"After the lifting of the maritime ban, many people from the public went to Southeast Asia, and news kept coming in." Yang Rong had worked for Zhu Yunhuan for a long time, and gradually knew what he was thinking. Without waiting for Zhu Yunhuan to ask, he began to report.

"According to His Royal Highness's request, private merchants tried to exchange as much food as possible from Southeast Asia, and the harvest was quite rich."

"Nowadays, there are ships returning from Southeast Asia almost every day in the Ming Dynasty, bringing back ships full of food."

"Besides that, there are gold, silver and medicinal herbs."

"The main commodities exported by our Ming Dynasty are silk, porcelain and tea."

"There are also Ming Dynasty treasure notes, which are also very popular in Southeast Asia."

"The natives of Nanyang thought that the pictures on the treasure notes were exquisite, the paper quality was good, and it was easy to preserve and collect, so they were very popular with the treasure notes."

"Especially small-denomination banknotes, which can often be sold at a premium of dozens of times in Nanyang."

"Many merchants simply exported only banknotes to make a profit. Some government officials thought this might bring hidden dangers and asked the court several times whether it should be banned. However, banknotes were easy to carry and difficult for the tax department to check, so it was difficult to ban them."

The corner of Zhu Yunhuan's mouth twitched slightly.

He had seen related news about this matter several times in the "Brief Compilation of Domestic and Foreign Intelligence" submitted by Yao Guangxiao.

But every time I think about it, I always find it a bit funny and ridiculous.

I used to think that promoting the Ming Dynasty's currency, making Ming Baochao an internationally accepted currency, and collecting printing tax without doing anything was not an easy task.

Unexpectedly, first it was Japan that rushed to grab the treasure banknotes, and now even the Southeast Asian countries and some primitive tribes have begun to scramble for them.

This situation was really beyond his expectations.

I originally thought that it would take both a stick and a carrot, coercion and inducement, to get them to accept the Ming treasure notes.

But the reality was that they were scrambling to take over the Ming navy before it even set out.

On second thought, it seems reasonable.

Although the Ming Treasure Note is a printed product, the pictures on it are extremely exquisite and it is no exaggeration to say that it is magnificent.

Language can create a deep barrier. People from different countries and places do not recognize each other's language.

But the paintings are different.

The natives of Southeast Asia didn’t know what printed materials were. They just thought that this thing was beautiful, the paper quality was good, and it was a rare item.

Those nobles and tribal leaders naturally began to support it enthusiastically.

This can be said to be a dimensionality reduction attack by advanced science and technology on backward countries.

Industrial products that can be seen everywhere in the world of advanced science and technology are like miracles in backward countries.

"Instead of prohibiting them, they should be encouraged to do so."

Zhu Yunhuan smiled and said: "The Ming Treasure Note should not only become the currency of the Ming Dynasty, but also the currency of the whole world."

Yang Rong was stunned for a moment, then quickly bowed and said, "Yes."

With the order from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the government offices below felt reassured.

Don't worry about being held accountable for negligence in this matter.

"Also, order the Ming Bank to speed up the development of a new version of the Ming Treasure Note and further strengthen anti-counterfeiting technology." Zhu Yunhuan continued to instruct.

Once Ming Dynasty treasure notes appear in large quantities overseas, the importance of technical anti-counterfeiting will rise to a new level.

It would be fine if it spread to the South Seas, but if it spread all the way to the West... the West is now on the eve of the Age of Discovery, and its technology is much more advanced than that of the South Seas.

Moreover, that group of robber merchants are not profit-driven. Once they find that they can make a profit by printing counterfeit money, they will never let it go.

The difficulty of regulating currency abroad is far greater than that in the Ming Dynasty.

It is necessary to ensure technological advancement so that others cannot imitate it.

If you take this lightly, you will suffer great losses.

Therefore, Zhu Yunhuan gave careful instructions.

Fortunately, after the establishment of the Daming Academy of Sciences, technology has advanced rapidly and is changing with each passing day. The next version of anti-counterfeiting will definitely be stronger and more difficult to imitate.

"Yes!" Yang Rong responded quickly, and then said, "After merchants went to Southeast Asia, many of them had conflicts with the local natives. Many of them hoped that the court would send troops south as soon as possible."

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has been training the navy and undoubtedly has the intention of going on overseas expeditions.

But since returning from Japan, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has never mentioned it again.

At present, both the government and the opposition are paying close attention to this matter.

In the war with Japan, the Ming Dynasty made a huge profit and suffered almost no losses.

As a result, the scholars and officials who had previously opposed overseas expansion suddenly became supporters of declaring war overseas.

Who could object to the huge amounts of silver and countless grains that continued to flow into the Ming treasury?
"Not urgent!"

Zhu Yunhuan shook his head and asked, "Has Grandpa Emperor returned from Shencheng?"

Yang Rong was a little unable to keep up with Zhu Yunhuan's thoughts. He did not expect that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince suddenly changed the subject.

"Your Majesty has lived in Shencheng for a few months and has now set off to return to Beijing. He should be back to celebrate the New Year."

Zhu Yunhuan nodded and said with a smile: "The grassland has been pacified. When Grandpa Huang returns, the withdrawal of the feudal system should be put on the agenda."

"Before that, I want to go see my third uncle."

Since the last grassland incident, King Jin Zhu Gang chose to plead guilty.

He was then "escorted" to Beijing.

To the outside world, Zhu Yunhuan did not officially announce his crimes to the court and the public.

Instead, he was placed under house arrest in his mansion in Jinling.

However, the incident on the grassland was such a big deal, witnessed by more than 100,000 people, and after the establishment of the Postal and Communications Bureau, correspondence became convenient, so the news naturally could not be concealed.

Zhu Gang's matter would make Old Zhu very embarrassed.

Zhu Yunhuan must settle it before Old Zhu returns.

In his plan, the role of the Ming navy was only military support, and the main force that would actually go out to sea to conquer the various countries would be the princes who were about to withdraw from their fiefdoms.

This is the Westerners imitating the Age of Discovery.

Conquering lands and ruling them is a very complicated matter.

It is not a simple military victory.

In order to conquer and develop wild lands, they must be given the right to make independent decisions.

The military is clearly not a good fit.

The most appropriate approach is to enfeoff the princes overseas and let them govern their fiefdoms as if they were their own countries.

Afterwards, Zhu Yunhuan ordered his men to prepare horses, left the Eastern Palace, and headed towards the mansion where Zhu Gang was under house arrest.

……

(End of this chapter)