The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 484: The Limit of Shamelessness
If a person is out of touch with reality for a long time and lives in an environment where he thinks he is rich but is completely ignorant of the ways of the world, he will be very easy to be fooled and deceived.

For example, now that the 71st Duke Yansheng, Kong Zhaohuan, is seriously ill and unable to manage affairs, the Kong family is encouraging Kong Zhaohuan's eldest son, Kong Xianpei, to step forward.

Kong Xianpei, who was completely unaware that the Kong family's ecological niche had changed, was not only fooled, but also took the initiative to say that he would lead the Kong family to fight against Emperor Guangzhong.

Of course, Kong Xianpei is so active not entirely because he is fooled, he also has practical reasons to stand out.

The reason is that Kong Xianpei is 24 years old this year, has three or four wives and concubines, but no sons or daughters.

This was a very big flaw and hidden danger at that time. Kong Xianpei was very worried that others would seize this flaw and prevent him from succeeding as the 72nd Duke Yansheng.

Therefore, Kong Xianpei needed the support of the Kong family very much, and he needed to raise his own reputation by resisting Emperor Guangzhong, or even directly obtain the concession of Emperor Guangzhong and inherit the title of Yanshenggong.

Well, you really don’t know whether to live or die!
Kong Xianpei still thought that Mo Zibu was an emperor like Qianlong who needed the name of the Kong family to stabilize the scholars in the world, and he even had the delusion of building his reputation through Mo Guangzhong.

At the same time, Kong Xianpei is really a filial son. His father Kong Zhaohuan is just seriously ill and about to die, not already dead.

Kong Xianpei was not worried about his father's illness, but he had already dreamed of inheriting the title of Duke Yansheng.

Kong Zhaohuan was too weak to get out of bed, and too frail to even speak loudly. He lay straight in the room filled with the smell of medicine, watching in pain as his eldest son was tricked by his clansmen into taking the blame for the bomb.

All this was just like twenty years ago when these people instigated him to ask Emperor Qianlong for the rights of civilians, which almost resulted in Qianlong depriving him of his title of Duke Yansheng.

Of course, Kong Xianpei was not stupid enough to confront the emperor with drastic measures.

He thought of two strategies. The first was to write a letter to the emperor in person in the name of Confucius' descendant to explain the importance of Duke Yansheng and persuade the emperor not to regard this as an ordinary title.

On the other hand, in the name of his father, Kong Zhaohuan, the 71st Duke of Yansheng, he wrote letters to the leaders of the literati in Shandong and even in Jiangnan and Lingnan, calling on them to write letters to persuade the emperor and defend the orthodox teachings.

However, they encountered problems at the first step. The Jinyiwei Palace Front Department and the Criminal Law Department's Tiqi, led by an ambassador of the inner court's tax supervision, blocked the main road out of Duke Yansheng's mansion and intercepted his letter.

This made Kong Xianpei very angry. Twenty or thirty of you dare to act wildly in Qufu. Isn't that a bit too arrogant?
The enraged Kong Xianpei secretly asked the chief guard of the Yanshenggong Mansion to mobilize manpower, preparing to have these people armed to escort his next petition. If anyone dared to stop him, they would all be tied up.

However, his second step went smoothly. The letter was quickly circulated and received responses from a large number of powerful Shandong gentry who were unwilling to hand over part of their property.

Even the Jiaoqiao Yuan family, who had originally organized them to hand over their property and join Dayu, expressed their support for Kong Xianpei.

Yuan Xu, the eldest son of the second branch of the Yuan family, even came in person to express his respect for the descendants of the saint, and said that the Yanshenggong Mansion was a banner of the land of Qi and Lu.

This made Kong Xianpei extremely excited. For the first time, he felt the giddy feeling of power.

Afterwards, Kong Xianpei seemed to have forgotten about writing to Mo Zibu. He excitedly received one group of gentry and celebrities from all walks of life after another in the Yanshenggong Mansion, and had a great time.

Then, Ambassador Wu, the tax supervisor of the Internal Court Transportation Department who had never been to the Yanshenggong Mansion, saw that the time was ripe, so he said to his colleagues around him:
"The Emperor sent us here to dampen the arrogance of Duke Yansheng's Mansion and expose their traitorous stance towards the Qing Dynasty.

Let's go now while there are many people around and give the Kong family a good slap in the face. If the Kong family harms us, it will be a great achievement, and our descendants will have a good life!"

"Yes, that's what you do. If you survive, you'll be promoted to a higher position, and if you die, your descendants will benefit."

Those who can join the Jinyiwei are naturally not honest people. When they heard what Ambassador Wu said, they all became excited.

On this side, Kong Xianpei was still receiving the gentry from Jiaodong in the main hall, and many gentry from other places also came to accompany him.

Just when the room was full of guests, the Embroidered Uniform Guards came and asked the 71st Duke Yansheng, Kong Zhaohuan, to come out to receive the imperial edict.

Kong Xianpei was extremely angry. These people had come a long time ago but never showed up. They chose today instead. It was obviously a carefully planned event.

"The Duke of Yansheng is seriously ill. These regular factory guards are not unaware of this. They deliberately named him now. It is obvious that they had planned this long ago. They simply do not take the Duke of Yansheng's Mansion and us Shandong scholars seriously!"

Someone in the crowd was loudly fanning the flames. If it were an experienced person, he would definitely not be fooled. This is the Kong Mansion. No matter what happens, the Kong family will bear the main responsibility.

But Kong Xianpei didn't. He thought everyone was supporting him, so he walked out angrily.

Then, he saw a scene that made his pupils blood fill. The Jinyiwei who came were holding two portraits.

One is dressed in Ming Dynasty clothes, wearing a bright red bullfighting suit, and the other is dressed in the Qing Dynasty's nine-dragon four-claw robe.

This wouldn't be a big deal, but the people in these two paintings look very similar.

"How dare you, you thief! How dare you, you thief!" Kong Xianpei felt as if he had been slapped several times on the face, and his whole face quickly turned red.

Because the person in these two paintings is indeed the same person, the 65th Duke Yansheng Kong Yinzhi.

When he was in power at the turn of the Ming and Qing dynasties, he was granted the title of Yansheng Duke in the second year of the Tianqi reign. However, as soon as the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, he immediately fell to his knees.

How fast was this? Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself in Coal Hill on March 19th, Li Zicheng retreated to Beijing on April 29th, and then on September 1st, Kong Yinzhi submitted an "Initial Memorial" to Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, expressing his willingness to submit to the Qing Dynasty.

It was not until October of the following year that the Qing Dynasty captured Taiyuan, and it was still a year before Li Zicheng died in Jiugong Mountain.

Just look at how shameless this beast is and how quick he is. He truly has no integrity or conscience at all.

And that was not the end. In July 1645, the Qing Dynasty issued an order to shave the hair and change clothes. Kong Yinzhi did not even wait until August to complete the shaving of the hair and changing clothes for the Kong family. He shamelessly submitted a "Head-Shaving Memorial" to express his loyalty to the Qing Dynasty and ask for credit.

Because these actions were so shameless and worse than pigs and dogs, even the Kong family looked down on Kong Yinzhi. So when Ambassador Wu and others brought out the portraits of Kong Yinzhi wearing the clothes bestowed by the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was like riding on the heads of the Kong family and shitting on them.

The Shandong gentry around looked at each other in confusion and felt a little ashamed, while most of the Kong family members were broken down. Kong Xianpei used his last bit of rationality to prevent his guards from rushing forward.

Then Ambassador Wu and others looked at him and said, Wow, you can still hold on, right? So he took out a roll of paper and began to read it with his head shaking and intonation.

"All nations admire the reign of the Reformist, the upright and just government of the Emperor, and the benevolence of the Emperor's reform. All the lands return home, and the whole world rejoices. Respectfully, Your Majesty, may you ascend the throne of Heaven."

The memorial that Ambassador Wu read was none other than the "Initial Memorial" written by Kong Yinzhi to the Qing Dynasty.

Back then, when the Qing Dynasty only had the city of Beijing, Kong Yinzhi had the disgusting idea of writing "The whole world is celebrating, and the heaven is ruling the country." This shamelessness is unparalleled.

"Beasts! You've insulted me too much. Left and right, capture them, capture them!" Kong Xianpei finally broke down and howled for the guards of the Kong Mansion to take action.

Everything finally went in the direction Mo Zibu had expected, and he finally had an excuse to deal with the Kong family.

. . . .

While the Jinyiwei sent by Mo Zibu completed their mission in the style of a Han envoy, Mo Zibu was still in Kaifeng Prefecture dealing with some matters that seemed unimportant to outsiders.

That is the promotion of high-yield grain.

Because the legendary set of corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes, which seemed to be able to solve the problem of food and clothing as soon as they appeared, had been introduced to China more than a hundred years ago, but in fact the planting area was very small.

It was not until about twenty years later, around 1800, that sweet potatoes began to become the main side dish for the poor and the main alternative for surviving famine.

It was not until the Republic period that corn gradually became one of the main coarse grains.

At that time, the cultivated area did not exceed 5%, and the main coarse grains for the people, besides rice and wheat, were sorghum and other grains.

The promotion of potatoes was also very slow. It was not until around 1710 that they were planted on a relatively large scale. By the time they were widely promoted, the Qing Dynasty was about to fall.

The reason why not many people in the Qing Dynasty planted these three crops when the West had already started planting them, especially potatoes, which became the most critical driver of Europe's population explosion, was because there was a lack of official promotion.

Without official promotion, it would be difficult for ordinary people to take the initiative to grow this new crop.

Because of the backward productivity at that time, the risk of rashly changing crops was not just losing money as in later generations, but facing the situation of the whole family starving to death.

This is not as simple as getting tired of rice and switching to corn in later generations. Planting new crops at this time is like gambling with the lives of the whole family.

This results in few people daring to gamble, and those who win will not spread the news. They make their fortunes secretly and don’t want to show off.

Moreover, the increase in per-acre yield from these three crops is not as great as imagined.

Corn can increase yield by about 30%. Sweet potatoes have high yield, but they are not filling at all.

Potatoes have the advantages of both, but they are not suitable for growing in all places, and they are also very toxic. If not handled properly, they can cause poisoning.

So looking at the history of planting, it is difficult to really have enough food by relying on corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes. What we can really rely on are the chemical fertilizers brought about by technological progress.

However, even if there are shortcomings of one kind or another, the benefits are also obvious. Even if it is only increased by 30%, it can still feed a lot of people.

At this stage when it is unrealistic for people from Henan to go to Shaanxi or to the Northeast, introducing new crops and increasing per-mu yields are almost the only options.

"I vaguely remember that corn cultivation requires using human and animal manure to make nutrient packs, potatoes are cut into pieces and then sown, and sweet potato vines can also be used for planting."

Mo Zibu summoned a large number of officials from the Ministry of Revenue in charge of agriculture and students from the agricultural colleges of Yingtian and Chengtian prefectures to discuss planting methods.

Because at that time not only was the planting area not expanded, there were not even many people who could plant it north of the Yangtze River.

Emperor Mo was so anxious trying to recall the planting techniques of later generations that he almost burned his brain.

And the little bit of technology he described based on his memory was actually quite advanced at that time.

Of course, the corn, sweet potato, and potato planting techniques he saw as a child were the result of hundreds of years of summary.

While recalling and discussing, Mo Zibu even planted a few acres himself in the suburbs of Kaifeng to see the results.

"First, distribute equal land to the people in the suburbs of Kaifeng. Then, have all the people who receive the equal land plant these three crops. Let them master the planting techniques for the people of Henan."

Mo Zibu ordered that a certain scale of experiment be started this year. He knew that these three crops had high yields, but he was not sure whether the current seeds could produce high yields.

Chen Taili, Grand Secretary of the Wuying Palace, asked hesitantly, "Most people have never grown these crops before. If we rashly ask them to plant them, they will definitely complain, and some may even dare to pretend to obey but secretly disobey."

"Then let the officials of Kaifeng Prefecture explain that if they plant good crops, the imperial court will reward them handsomely, and even exempt them from paying land tax for half a year. Those who pretend to obey but actually disobey will be arrested and put in shackles at the government office and put on display.

If, despite careful cultivation, the yield is still lower than that of wheat and sorghum, I will compensate them. I will pay them the difference."

Mo Zibu made up his mind to take advantage of this war and use tough wartime orders to push this matter forward.

(End of this chapter)