The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 457: Returning from a Voyage and Received a Surprise
When Japan was first conquered, the Japanese pirates would certainly not surrender willingly.

Wanli was very clear about this.

Therefore, he deliberately released the captured daimyo and generals and killed them in order to establish his authority and to serve as a warning to others.

Anyone who dares to take part in the rebellion will be killed without mercy, and those who lead the rebellion will have their entire clan exterminated!
He was just waiting for these Japanese pirates to rebel.

Konishi Yukinaga and Shimazu Yoshihiro were indeed fooled.

The first wave of rebels must be killed mercilessly. If they still refuse to submit, then another wave will come. No matter how many Japanese pirates participate in the rebellion, they will all be killed without mercy.

He wanted to see how fearless the Japanese pirates were of death.

Of course, he couldn't just catch and kill people.

After all, fighting such a big war is very costly, and sufficient benefits must be obtained to make up for it.

He spent more than 50 million taels of silver just on military merit awards, which was equivalent to all the profits from overseas trade in the previous two years.

If we ignore our own interests and just fight like crazy, sooner or later we will not be able to pay out military rewards or even food and wages.

This is quite dangerous. If the military rewards cannot be paid, the morale will be lost. If the food and wages cannot be paid, the soldiers may even mutiny.

Therefore, after taking over Japan, he still had to let the Japanese create enough benefits.

If we want to create enough profits for the Japanese slaves, we must first feed them. If they don’t have enough food to eat, they will not have the energy to do anything, whether it is mining or even burning charcoal, and there will be no profits at all.

At this moment, the only thing that can generate profits in Japan is the gold and silver mines. Originally, the Iwami Silver Mine and the Sado Gold and Silver Mine could dig out real gold and silver worth seven or eight million taels a year.

Now they have pulled tens of thousands of young and strong Japanese slaves to engage in crazy mining. Even if the ore dug out by each young and strong Japanese slave can be refined into real gold and silver worth one or two taels of silver every day, that would be tens of thousands of taels a day, and tens of millions of taels a year.

Of course, this is not enough, far from enough.

Next, he will develop the charcoal industry, smoked fish industry, and even the timber industry and dried seafood industry in Japan, turning the trees in the mountains and the fish and shrimp in the sea into profits as much as possible.

However, all of this will take a long time.

For example, to smoke fish, there must be enough fish, and to have enough fish, there must be fishing boats. He had just sent back a rough idea of ​​the large fishing boats for deep-sea fishing. It would take at least a year to build them in batches.

This year, we also happened to help the Japanese build roads, cities, ports and docks, etc., to improve the infrastructure first.

A port terminal is being built near Edo Castle, and even the city itself is being demolished and rebuilt.

Due to security considerations, only princes, nobles, Ming army soldiers and their families could live inside the city, and the Japanese could only live outside the city.

Naturally, they had to tear down all the Japanese-style buildings in the city and rebuild them in the Ming Dynasty style.

At this moment, more than 100,000 Japanese slaves were brought into the entire Edo City, including soldiers from the Beijing Camp, soldiers from the Garrison Camp, and transferred craftsmen. Hundreds of thousands of people were busy, and the city and its surroundings were densely packed with black spots.

Fortunately, the walls and moats of Edo Castle are still in good condition and do not need to be demolished and rebuilt. Otherwise, such a large project would not be completed this year.

He also planned to make this place the capital of Japan, and it would be called Dongwang City in the future, and the eldest son Zhu Changluo would be stationed here.

The main city in the center of the original Edo Castle was rebuilt according to the regulations of the royal palace.

Now that he is here, the materials and supplies transferred from the Ming Dynasty will definitely be sent to Dongwang City first.

In addition, there was no need to build city walls and there were plenty of manpower, so the construction of Dongwang City was extremely fast.

In about a month, the main structure of the East Palace was completed.

Early in the morning at about noon that day, Wanli brought his excited eldest son Zhu Changluo to the newly built East Palace.

The princely palaces of the Ming Dynasty were all well-regulated, and their basic structure was somewhat similar to that of the imperial palace, with front halls and rear palaces.

However, the front hall only has two main halls, Chengyun and Cunxin, and they do not need to be built as tall as the Huangji Hall and Zhongji Hall.

The prince lives in the Cunxin Hall in the front palace, while the harem is the residence of the princess, the prince's son, etc.

At this moment, the main buildings have been completed. The Japanese prisoners, soldiers from the garrison camp and soldiers from the Beijing camp have all been cleared out. Only the Jinyiwei, the imperial guards and the craftsmen responsible for the later decoration are left inside.

The eldest prince looked at the rather majestic Chengyun Hall, then took a tour of the Cunxin Hall. He could not help but nod repeatedly and said, "Father, this palace is really well built. It's almost as good as the Imperial Palace."

The materials you use are better than those in the imperial palace.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty had little money and could not get much sandalwood or nanmu. But you used a lot of golden nanmu.

They were wandering around the newly built East Prince's Palace when a dark-skinned man wearing the dragon robe of a Jinyiwei thousand-householder suddenly walked in quickly.

Who is this?
Wanli was stunned when he saw this. He didn't remember bringing such a corrupt Jinyiwei captain this time.

The problem is, if he was not an acquaintance, the imperial guards would not have allowed him to come alone to see the emperor.

He took a closer look and then recognized it.

It turns out this guy is Li Guozhu!
What a coincidence.

He hurried over and supported Li Guozhu, who was about to salute. His face was filled with surprise and joy as he said, "Guozhu, you're finally back. I was worried something had happened to you." Li Guozhu was deeply moved when he heard this and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me for coming back late and causing you to worry."

Wanli shook his head slightly, then asked, "How is it going? Have you found all the seeds I asked you to look for?"

Li Guozhu nodded repeatedly and said, "I have found them all and learned how to plant them. This is why I was delayed there for over a year.

I was afraid that the crops wouldn't grow well, so I wanted to invite some people over there. Unexpectedly, the indigenous countries or tribes over there were vying to send envoys to pay tribute. They all wanted to be affiliated with the Ming Dynasty and become its vassal state.

Your Majesty, I have brought back dozens of tribute envoys, totaling hundreds of people. This is the list of their tribute items."

After saying that, he took out a thick stack of lists from his pocket.

Is this what they call the tribute from all nations?
Upon hearing this, Wanli took the list and looked at it, and he immediately understood.

The main tributes from these tribes were the seeds he needed, as well as cowhide, cow horns, deerhide, deer horns and other wild harvests.

It is obvious that these tribes are very backward. The handmade items they make are not worth showing off, so they can only offer these natural products as tribute.

This is also one of the reasons why these tribes competed to pay tribute.

Because they saw how good the things made by the Ming Dynasty were, and those things were enough to prove that the Ming Dynasty was much stronger than them.

They admire the strong, or need the help of the strong, so they will naturally choose to pay tribute.

There is also a more crucial point: the Ming Dynasty was truly a country of etiquette towards non-hostile forces.

The large number of gifts brought by Li Guozhu showed them the friendliness of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, the appearance of the people in the Ming Dynasty is very similar to that of the people over there, so they naturally feel a sense of closeness.

When Zheng He sailed to the West, most of the countries in Southeast Asia came to pay tribute, while only a few countries in the West came to pay tribute. This was also the reason.

Western countries could actually see the strength and friendliness of the Ming Dynasty.

There is no need to think about this. Just looking at the huge ocean-going warships, you can know how powerful the Ming Dynasty was. Even though it was so powerful, it did not fight against them. Instead, it communicated with them in a friendly manner and even gave them gifts. This proves how friendly the Ming Dynasty was.

However, few of them came to pay tribute.

The key factor is probably the difference in appearance, and there is no natural sense of closeness.

The American Indians look very similar to the people of the Ming Dynasty. After Li Guozhu got tanned, there was no difference when he was placed among the Indians. Therefore, the American Indians had a natural affinity for the powerful and friendly Ming Dynasty.

As for why so many backward tribes knew about paying tribute, it was naturally Li Guozhu's credit.

The coming of all nations to pay tribute was a rare event for the Ming Dynasty.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and even the emperors of China in all dynasties liked the power and glory brought by the tribute from all nations. Therefore, the person in charge of ocean voyages would try every means to bring back a bunch of tribute envoys to satisfy the power and glory of the current emperor.

This was true for Zheng He and Li Guozhu.

This is a huge achievement for them, even comparable to expanding their territory.

This is indeed the case. For any vassal state that is dependent on the Ming Dynasty, regardless of what kind of help they want from the Ming Dynasty, at least their kings must accept the Ming Dynasty's enthronement to be considered orthodox. Their officials and even their armies must obey the Ming Dynasty to some extent. There is no problem for Ming Dynasty people to go there to do business.

This is actually similar to the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.

It is truly a great achievement that Li Guozhu was able to bring back so many tribute delegations from Indian tribes.

At this time, America was not yet the world of colonial bandits, especially North America, most of which was still the territory of Indian tribes.

They only need to help others establish a country, and then they will become vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, and the abundant resources there can be used by the Ming Dynasty.

This kind of vassal state is even better than a colony because they are willing to submit to the Ming Dynasty and there is no problem of resistance.

As for why these Indian tribes were willing to submit to the Ming Dynasty, it was naturally because they were frightened by the colonial bandits. They knew very well that they could not protect their homes with their own strength.

The most powerful Inca Empire in the Americas was destroyed by colonial bandits. They were even weaker than the Inca Empire, so they were naturally afraid that the colonial bandits would destroy them one day.

Therefore, when they saw the powerful fleet of the Ming Dynasty and felt the friendliness of the Ming Dynasty, and more importantly, they felt a natural sense of closeness in appearance, they would naturally listen to Li Guozhu and send envoys to submit to the Ming Dynasty and seek its protection.

This is such a huge surprise.

Wanli kept looking through the list of tribute items, and was already thinking in his mind how to drive the colonial bandits out of America and make America a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

As he was flipping through the pages, he was stunned.

Apache Division!

What a familiar name.

Cherokee Tribe, Miami Tribe, Ottawa Tribe, Quebec Tribe!
It turns out that these are the names of Indian tribes.

(End of this chapter)