Chapter 743: Loyalty that is not very logical but consistent with reality
“Your Majesty, the Marquis of Surabaya beheaded two coastal defense inspectors, one of whom was a member of the Haiphong Qianhu.” Why did Zhang Juzheng keep saying this again and again? When the emperor talked about the reason why Yin Zhengmao's anti-drug methods were too harsh, his main consideration was the stable rule of the Ming Dynasty in Luzon.
Yin Zhengmao deliberately expanded hostility through orders from the Ming Dynasty. After all, because of such a small matter as anti-narcotics, Yin Zhengmao killed nearly 5,000 people, arrested more than 30,000 people, and beat seven Thousands of whips; secondly, on Yin Zhengmao’s execution list this time, there was also a coastal defense Qianhu and a coastal defense patrol inspector.
Coastal defense inspections are generally regarded as the minions of the Ming Emperor, the emperor's tentacles in Luzon, and Yin Zhengmao killed thousands of households in coastal defenses. No matter from which angle you look at it, the coastal defense inspections should not be embarrassed.
But Yin Zhengmao did this.
What was more important was the Ming Dynasty's absolute rule over Luzon, or drug control. Zhang Juzheng believed that the absolute rule over Luzon was more important, while the emperor believed that drug control was more important.
The reason why Zhu Yijun’s father-in-law, Yin Zhengmao, launched a brazen anti-drug war was actually because he discovered that there were people on coastal defense patrols inspecting the cultivation, production, trafficking and smoking of opium.
“This is why the anti-drug war cannot take one step back. How heavy is the hydrofoil sailboat for coastal defense patrols? Every time the coastal defense patrols go to sea, it is a huge adventure.”
“Can Who can ride the wind and waves and fly on the water to conduct coastal defense inspections? Who is not a person who is loyal to the emperor and the country? Li Yizheng, a thousand households in coastal defense, He has a wife and three children, and two concubines in Luzon. His wealth cannot be said to be huge, but he is an absolutely luxurious household in Luzon."
"What makes someone so loyal to the emperor and the country? A person who is willing to trust me, the court, and the people of the Ming Dynasty has become a drug dealer?”
"Ever since Li Yizheng started taking opium, his wife had quarreled with him many times and even started to fight against him. What a good girl, if you follow Li Yizheng across the ocean to Luzon, do you want to watch her husband turn into a poisonous insect? Obviously not, but stop it. No.”
“The Jiejiyuan said that if opioid drugs are used for a long time, an inner demon will be created, and this inner demon will gradually take over and become the master of some behaviors. I think The description of the great medical officials is correct. Opium can indeed turn people into monsters and monsters.”
“So, we must be extra vigilant.”
Zhu Yijun is very cautious. He solemnly answered Zhang Juzheng's doubts. His Majesty was really kind to the Ming Dynasty soldiers. However, this time, His Majesty did not favor the elite among the elite, the Haiphong Qianhu in the coastal defense inspection. Instead, he agreed with the beheading decision reported by Yin Zhengmao.
This is a lesson, a profound lesson.
Li Yizheng was able to climb to the position of thousands of households in Haiphong. He made contributions to the Ming Dynasty, shed blood for the Ming Dynasty, and sacrificed a lot for the Ming Dynasty. But when he started selling, he betrayed the people of the Ming Dynasty, betrayed the court, and betrayed The Emperor, too, betrayed his past self.
Because trafficking is uncontrollable. Once it starts, it will not be sold unless Li Yizheng orders not to sell to Ming Dynasty. Those crazy drug addicts will not obey his orders because of Ming Dynasty's strict anti-drug policy. , making Ming Dynasty the price of opium balls, with a pound of opium balls costing as much as three thousand taels of silver!
Poisonous insects will do anything for profit.
Zhu Yijun continued: "How was Li Yizheng discovered?"
"In the past, Li Yizheng was six feet tall (192CM), a big man of more than 190 kilograms, with big shoulders and a round waist. He could do it alone He is extremely powerful when operating a hydrofoil sailboat. He once sailed from Davao City to Songjiang Province and arrived successfully in only six days. To this day, no one has broken the record he set. "
"And Shi Longbo and Deng Zilong recently discovered that Li Yizheng has become thinner. He only weighs more than 140 kilograms. He is too thin and out of shape. His cheeks are fleshless, his eyes are hollow and lifeless, and he can't even wear armor. If he walks a little, He was out of breath, let alone maneuvering the hydrofoil. At the age of thirty, his physical strength was not even as good as that of the Marquis of Surabaya."
"Deng Zilong discovered something unusual about Li Yizheng, and the Governor's Mansion. Start investigating."
"I am very sad, but I have to kill him."
Zhu Yijun was a little nagging. In fact, he could not tell Zhang Juzheng these words to make decisions as the emperor. Yes, but Zhu Yijun had no one to say these words. When Zhu Yijun approved Li Yizheng's beheading, he couldn't bear it. It was a pity to see a hero like this.
He also thought about forgiveness, but in the end he ordered execution.
In the past, Li Yizheng might have really hated the way he looked now. A man who was upright and upright had turned into a dog that could lie on the ground and wag its tail to beg for a sip.
Li Yizheng, who was tied to the bed, said the most when he was awake was to kill me.
In the side hall of the Wenhua Palace, the emperor and Zhang Juzheng fell silent. After a long time, Zhang Juzheng bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, I thought that the matter of Li Yizheng should be written in the residence newspaper so that people can It's better to know the harm."
"Pseudonym, don't write your name." Zhu Yijun took a deep breath and gave Li Yizheng his last dignity.
Zhang Juzheng thought that His Majesty would be disappointed and disappointed with Li Yizheng's betrayal. This kind of disappointment will become strange if it accumulates too much, but His Majesty's mood is very clear. It is a pity, a pity for Li Yizheng, and Not disappointed.
Your Majesty still knows very well that people's hearts are fickle.
Zhu Yijun stood in front of two huge screens. Both screens were more than one foot high. They were two maps of Kanyu. One was the general map of Kanyu and the world map, and the other was a map of the world. The current map of the Ming Dynasty.
He looked at the Kanyu map in front of him. This map was not very precise. Because the Ming Dynasty’s observation methods were limited, the observation of some longitudes and latitudes was not very accurate. In addition, long-distance sea travel made it difficult to judge the direction, location, and distance. Due to errors and other reasons, this "General Map of Kanyu and Ten Thousand Kingdoms" still has shortcomings such as imbalanced proportions and inaccurate labeling of place names.
But this map is already the most accurate map in the world.
The other one is the "General Map of Kanyu in the Ming Dynasty". This picture is very, very accurate. It is an accurate drawing of the trigonometric geodetic method. If you look at this picture from the side, you can see The densely packed longitude and latitude lines and grid drawing are currently the most accurate drawing methods of the Ming Dynasty. They are very close to the real scale, and almost all mountains, rivers and rivers are marked.
This is the general map of Kanyu. The Ming Dynasty also has sub-maps of various regions. There are two capitals, sixteen provinces and four governor's offices. Each one is very detailed, because it is your own territory and can be measured openly and carefully.
Starting from Heilongjiang in the north, to Jiugang Xuanwei Division in the south, from Nagasaki Governor's Palace in the east, to Hami Kingdom in the west, all are grid-based drawings.
This general map of Kanyu of the Ming Dynasty is one of the top secrets of the Ming Dynasty. Even the frugality and pride of the Ming emperor are not secrets. Many places in the map of Kanyu made the Ming Dynasty's Confucian scholars It is unacceptable. For example, the Ming Dynasty is not very big, it is not in the center of the world, and the Ming Dynasty is even relatively backward in some places, such as arithmetic.
This is probably the disillusionment of the heavenly kingdom.
Zhu Yijun clicked on the New World of North and South America and said: "Sir, from the perspective of the World Map, the current pattern of the world is actually very simple."
"The colonists of Spain, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands in the West used cruel methods to squeeze the people in the colonies, making them slaves, producing goods and mining minerals for them, and then all these harvests were shipped back to the West. Here is There is quite a lot of silver.”
“Because of the influx of large amounts of silver, there are also some problems in Taixi. Too much silver and too few goods have caused problems. People’s lives are very difficult because the prices of various items are too expensive.”
What Zhu Yijun described is an objective fact. Since the great geographical discovery and the beginning of colonization in the 15th century, there have been 10.24 million taels of gold. , 224 million taels of silver flowed into the West. This was only the wealth obtained from the colonies, not counting local mining in the West. The West itself had many high-quality silver mines.
The massive amounts of silver and gold are like a pair of invisible big hands sweeping over. A common phenomenon appears wherever these big hands pass by.
Goods prices are rising rapidly, currencies are depreciating rapidly, various counterfeit currencies appear, and speculation is very active.
With the end of the Black Death in the Middle Ages, the population of Western Europe was recovering rapidly. The most terrible thing finally came. The price of food began to skyrocket. It was fine for other things to rise. At worst, it was unnecessary. But the skyrocketing price of food was the reason why people Unacceptable, disputes begin.
During this period, later generations of Thais called it the price revolution.
Zhu Yijun continued: "With the opening of the sea in the Ming Dynasty, the merchants who traveled around the four oceans finally found the source of the goods. Countless silver and raw materials poured into the Ming Dynasty. These The large sailing ship took away a large amount of goods from the Ming Dynasty."
"And the silver was chasing. The money shortage of the Ming Dynasty was gradually resolved, with more than billions of copper coins and tens of millions of silver coins every year, making the Ming Dynasty full of vitality."
"In short, the colonists of Europe and the West plundered the colonies. And we used goods to plunder the colonists of the West, at least in their eyes.”
From the standpoint of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty provided goods of high quality and value, but these Westerners never mentioned it. In their view, the silver they had worked so hard to obtain was taken away by the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty was very weird. Gold has caused many people who hoard gold to lose money every day.
It is also correct to look at this issue from the perspective of the Westerners, because Ming Dynasty also wants to make money. Many products are unique to Ming Dynasty, and the premiums are very high. Ming Dynasty feels that they are of high quality and low price, but The Westerners felt that Ming Dynasty made too much money.
Relying on its powerful ability to generate goods, Ming Dynasty continued to plunder the wealth they had finally obtained.
Since the beginning of the great voyage, it has always been the Westerners who have robbed others, so how can anyone be robbed themselves?
"To be precise, Felipe II was willing to maintain good business relations with the Ming Dynasty entirely because he needed the Ming Dynasty. He needed the Ming Dynasty to absorb the unwanted silver from the West to curb the risk of rising commodity prices. As a large amount of silver pours into the Ming Dynasty and the price of European and Western goods stabilizes, they should refuse to trade with the Ming Dynasty." Zhu Yijun expressed his worries.
The inflow of silver was related to the transformation of the Ming Dynasty from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy. Zhu Yijun was determined not to allow this process to be interrupted.
No one can stop Ming Dynasty from becoming great again, including Ming Dynasty itself.
"Your Majesty, how about Ming Dynasty try to accept gold?" Zhang Juzheng tentatively put forward his suggestion. He felt that part of the reason for the spread of this resistance was that Ming Dynasty did not accept gold. Silver has caused losses to the interests of many people who hoard gold in Europe and the West.
Maybe accepting gold is also a good idea.
Zhu Yijun shook his head and said: "Gold is acceptable, but it can only quench temporary thirst."
"Furthermore, the Ministry of Revenue believes that silver should not be accepted in large quantities. The Ming Dynasty itself is already a copper-silver bimetallic system. If gold is added to the monetary policy, it will appear even more messy."
The Ming Dynasty accepted gold. Will the Thai people maintain their friendship with Ming Dynasty? Zhu Yijun thinks not.
Moreover, it is difficult for the Ming Dynasty to accept gold. Copper and silver are already complex enough, and adding gold will affect the Ming Dynasty's monetary policy.
The trade between the Ming Dynasty and Taixi was like a huge water pump, constantly pumping out large amounts of silver from Taixi and the colonies affiliated to Taixi. As the Ming Dynasty fully opened up the sea, the scale of handicraft workshops continued Expanding, the pump sucks harder and harder.
Only by dumping millions of pieces of cotton cloth a year, they completely monopolized the cotton textile industry, and the woolen cloth and textiles of Europe and the West suffered a fatal blow. The Ming Dynasty said that the Ming Dynasty wanted to develop, but in the eyes of the Westerners, the Ming Dynasty was like a monster, sucking their flesh and blood and destroying their vitality. In the past fourteen years, the Ming Dynasty's appetite has become bigger and bigger, and the trade surplus has increased. The Thai people gnashed their teeth in hatred, but there was no good way.
Many of the handicraft workshops in the Netherlands have closed down due to the impact of the Ming Dynasty’s commodities, the threat of war, and Portugal’s more stable environment, and have moved to Portugal. However, the originally prosperous and high-spirited Netherlands has Even fell into depression.
Workshops are constantly closing, insurance merchants are going bankrupt, ships are moored quietly in ports, and sailors have nowhere to go and are starting to misbehave. The wife who lives a stable life can only sell her body for bread.
The Ming Dynasty is currently the largest producer and consumer country in the world. The colonies bear the ecological niche of the raw material country, while the West is the consumer country. The raw material country provides raw materials to the Ming and silver to the West, and the West consumes the Ming. Commodities, and finally all the silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty.
"So, we need colonies, many, many colonies." Zhu Yijun pointed the long pole in his hand at the location of Peru, and he said with great certainty: "The New World is not the exclusive land of the Westerners. Taixi can rob it, and so can Ming Dynasty.”
"The Ming Dynasty's war costs are rapidly decreasing with the widespread popularization of firearms, and ocean deployment is becoming possible."
On the Korean battlefield, the Ming Dynasty estimated that it would need 30 million silver to complete the major event of pacifying Japan, and the protracted war, It's always such a huge drain.
But as the war progressed, Daming discovered that the burden of tens of millions of silver a year, which was originally expected to be a burden, only consumed less than 900,000 silver in a few months. Moreover, according to Qi Jiguang's strategic plan, The total consumption this year is only two million silver.
Three years to quell the Japanese pirates in Korea and regain the lost territory, only six million silver is enough. With enough redundancy, ten million silver is more than enough. The consumption of the war has been reduced several times. This is still the emperor Giving too many artillery pieces resulted in stress and waste for logistics.
"This is a good place, Pengju Port." Zhu Yijun pointed at Peru.
There is a city here, which was founded by Spain in the 14th year of Jiajing. Its name is Guayaquil. The main part of the city is built on the foothills between Santa Ana Mountain and San Carmen Mountain. A bird that soars into the sky and spreads its wings.
When Liu Ji of the Ming Dynasty's ocean caravan arrived with his fleet, he silently marked this place as Pengju Port. The reason why Liu Ji named it this way was because of the similarity in appearance, and on the other hand, Pengju was named after Yue Fei. The Ming Dynasty had an extremely extensive Yue Wang Temple. The martial sage of this era was not Guan Yu, but Yue Fei.
Zhang Juzheng understood the emperor's plan and removed the middleman of Taixi. The Ming Dynasty would obtain wealth directly from the New World and would not let the Taixi people be second-rate dealers. Both the Ming Dynasty and the New World would make money, but Taixi would definitely hold on. own money bag.
“The place is a good place, but it is too far away. If something happens, the Ming Dynasty will not be able to act in time and will not be able to cross the ocean in time to provide support. Moreover, there is a strong castle here that has been built for fifty-one years. ." Zhang Juzheng said solemnly.
It’s too far and it’s too difficult to attack.
This is what Zhang Juzheng is very worried about. The navy sent from the Ming Dynasty will take four months just to travel by water. This is without a storm. Even if they arrive successfully, they want to seize the castle from the Taixi people. It is also extremely difficult.
The natives of the New World are still resisting, so the castle is extremely strong, and there are about a thousand fully armed and experienced red-haired soldiers in Pengju Port City. Daming needs to bring heavy artillery, and , we must quickly repair the castle and resist the enemy's counterattack before the surrounding colonists react. Even if we win it with difficulty, we still need to bear the price of turning against Taixi.
Currently, the commercial exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and Taixi are extremely stable, and silver is still flowing in in large quantities. There is no need for the Ming Dynasty to be so anxious to lay out the new world.
The New World is Felipe's core interest, and he is determined not to give it up as easily as he gave up the Philippine Governor's Palace.
In Zhang Juzheng's view, this risky move was not worth the gain.
Zhu Yijun took out a Tongbao from his sleeve and handed it to Zhang Juzheng and said: "This year's large sailing ship has arrived in Davao City. According to the Tongbao from the coastal defense inspection, the Thai-Western large sailing ship carries silver, ranging from six million taels , reduced to two million taels, and more importantly, the size of their fleet increased from ten to five The number of ships crossing the ocean has been reduced to five, and the cargo carried has been reduced accordingly."
"I can understand Felipe's decision, which he made based on the interests of his country."
Spain and Portugal were called traitors to Spain by the Spanish and were tributary countries of the Ming Dynasty!
It doesn’t matter to Portugal. Antonio relied on the support of the Ming Emperor to secure his throne. This is a well-known thing. Portugal will correct Taixi’s view. Portugal is clearly a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty!
There are fundamental differences between vassal states and those wild dogs running around.
But this kind of accusation is very fatal to Spain. Portugal has Ming Dynasty goods to collect and distribute. The Spanish people are drooling with envy. No matter how loud they shout, their bodies still have to do business with the Portuguese honestly, but Spain has no such advantage.
This kind of accusation caused great resistance to Spain's recovery of the Netherlands, and the prestige of Spain, the overlord of the West, plummeted. Even the Ottoman Sultan mocked Felipe, the hero of the empire on which the sun never sets. Lord, became Ming Dynasty's lackey.
Besides diplomacy, the biggest reason is that Spain does not want too many goods from the Ming Dynasty to flood the West, which will damage the interests of its hegemon. Spain has also been impacted by the goods from the Ming Dynasty, and the excess silver has been A lot of people have been squeezed out, and prices have stabilized.
In short, the honeymoon period between Ming Dynasty and Spain finally ended after fourteen years.
The long pole in Zhu Yijun's hand pointed at Spain and said: "There are only interests between countries, and it is impossible to remain close forever."
"Even if one day Antonio robs the Ming Dynasty's ocean-going merchant ships, or does not allow the Ming Dynasty's goods to enter the port, I will not be surprised. The king of a country must first consider the interests of his own country. This is natural, and I am such a person."
There is no unbreakable alliance, and there is no iron-clad national relationship. It is all an exchange of interests.
“But this Pengju Port is not so easy to fight.” Zhang Juzheng said solemnly: “We have to think about it in the long term. Your Majesty, I actually think that we can negotiate with the governors of Peru, Chile, and Mexico. Let’s talk privately. After all, the interests of the Governor’s Palace and Felipe II are not completely consistent.”
Zhang Juzheng didn’t like war. He proposed another way to get rid of the Spanish mainland, Ming Dynasty and several countries. establish trade relations with the Governor-General's Palace.
In this way, wars and outright hostility can be avoided, while a stable inflow of silver can be maintained. The Ming Dynasty and Spain are similar at present. They do not have strong ocean-going deployment capabilities. The current colonization is mainly from indigenous people. If you want to grab territory, it belongs to whomever you grab.
Port cities were the easiest to develop during the Age of Discovery. As long as they grabbed land and built castles, they would naturally gather popularity and eventually become a nail stuck in the colony, a nail that was very difficult to pull out.
The natives are easy to fight. Many of the natives are in the Bronze Age or even the Stone Age. Facing firearms, these natives have no power to fight back. But if the Ming Dynasty wants to rashly start a war with a country that also has ocean-going capabilities, no Very wise approach.
“Liu Ji, the commander of Yuanyang Pandu, also had contact with them, but they showed their loyalty to Felipe II.” Zhu Yijun said very clearly: “These governor’s offices need the support of Spain. To maintain the existence of the Governor's Palace, firearms, fire Medicine, trade, faith, etc."
"There is no bargaining, just polite contact."
"I don't like war, but sometimes, for the benefit of Ming Dynasty. Have to.”
These governors showed loyalty that was not logical but consistent with reality. These governors did not bargain with Liu Ji, the commander of Ming Dynasty Bandu, on the basis of tariffs and quantity of goods. They all rejected this issue outright.
Indeed, there are of course various conflicts between the Governor's Mansion and the native land, but the colonists are also an absolute minority in the New World. The price of abandoning the native land is even more expensive, and the silver that unscrupulous merchants can provide is extremely limited.
This is the dilemma encountered by the Ming Kaihai. Spain, which has the first-mover advantage, is adjusting its policies to make its advantage sustainable.
The Philippine Governor-General's Palace is not Spain's core interest. It is too close to the Ming Dynasty. As long as the Ming Dynasty wants it, the Philippine Governor-General's Palace cannot resist.
"How to fight here?" Zhang Juzheng looked at the Kanyu map, sighed and shook his head.
Zhu Yijun smiled and said: "Sneak attacks, unscrupulous sneak attacks, sneak attacks that work inside and outside, aren't wars like this? Of course, I will give Felipe II a letter of credence, accuse him of destroying free trade, and require him to continue to provide sufficient quantities every year of silver, so if he refuses to give it, we have to do it ourselves Take it.”
“And capturing Pengju City also requires a long time to prepare.”
You must go through the process, and you must not lose your honor. Freedom. Trade is a banner. When Ming Dynasty has an absolute advantage in commodities, it must carry this banner.
"I obey the order." Zhang Juzheng thought for a moment and obeyed the order.
His Majesty, like him, does not want to start a war, but Kaihai is the carriage that will make the Ming Dynasty great again, and it is the strongest horse. When you have to take action, in order to develop, you must take action. , this has nothing to do with morality, only with development.
The Ming Dynasty needs to maintain its status as the Celestial Kingdom. All the people of the Ming Dynasty are the subjects of the Celestial Kingdom, so that they can obtain a more stable living environment.
Pengju Port City is surrounded by mountains and rivers, backed by mountains, and close to the ocean. In addition, what makes the attack even more difficult is that there is a Puna on the sea of this port. The island serves as a natural barrier. The colonists built small castles and military ports on Puna Island. Enemies on the sea need to conquer Puna Island before they can continue their attack.
The castle on Puna Island itself is difficult to attack, and at the same time, the colonists in Pengju Port City will definitely find out.
Even in a sneak attack, it is difficult to achieve the goal. Most of Taixi's ports in the New World are in a similar situation, easy to defend but difficult to attack.
The Ming Dynasty and the Governor's Mansion of Guo'a fought for two and a half years, and the battle for Malacca City and Castle took more than a year. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty also had the advantage of shipping and supply, but if it were not for Malacca The rulers in the city are fighting among themselves, and it will take at least more than half a year to uproot the sporadic forts outside the city one by one.
There is only one way to remove it, which is to blast it with heavy artillery.
The landing operation itself is very difficult, let alone the Pengju port city tens of thousands of miles away.
In the imperial study room of Tonghe Palace, Zhu Yijun held a memorial and said with a frown: "Mirr Mahima, the commander-in-chief of Hami Guard, hopes that the Ming Dynasty will help him restore his country, and that the Ming Dynasty will give him enough support to help him get back his own territory, I hope the Ming Dynasty will give him the power to sell cotton cloth so that he can make more money."
"In the eyes of Mir, is our Ming Dynasty just a scapegoat?"
"Your Majesty, in the past. That's true." Feng Bao bowed his head and said.
In the past, Ming Dynasty's foreign policy was based on Rouyuan people. To put it simply, they were taken advantage of.
(End of this chapter)