Chapter 252 The shameless explanation of Jiangnan civil servants!
Emperor Xianzong put it nicely, he knew how to assess the situation, had superb political skills, and knew how to advance and retreat.
So he didn't fall out with the Jiangnan civil servants. If he couldn't find the navigation chart, he wouldn't look for it, and he would just live his life.
But to put it bluntly, Emperor Xianzong was relatively weak and not as strong as Emperor Yingzong.
Emperor Yingzong's character was the same as that of Taizu Taizong. He would never compromise or give in. If anyone stopped him from doing what he wanted to do, he would fight to the end and fight to the death.
The civil servants who stopped him would either be demoted and deposed, or go to hell. There was no third way.
Whether it was the Zhengtong period or the Tianshun period, countless officials were executed by Emperor Yingzong.
If we make a statistics on killing officials, Zhu Yuanzhang ranks first. For the second position, even Zhu Di has to compete with Zhu Qizhen.
Maybe Zhu Qi killed more officials than Zhu Di did.
But Emperor Yingzong was impulsive, reckless, reckless, and extremely stubborn.
Just after the so-called easy break, the civil servants and generals worked together to give him a tumultuous change, and he suddenly became honest.
However, after the restoration of Emperor Yingzong, his nature did not change, his tactics were still so tough, and he was not willing to compromise at all.
So eight years later, the civil servants replaced Emperor Xianzong who knew how to compromise.
Politics is the art of compromise.
Emperor Xianzong was a political master and knew this well.
Because of Emperor Xianzong's compromise on the voyage to the West.
The Ming Emperor's voyages to the West were once again successfully stopped by Jiangnan civil servants.
Three times in a row, the civil servants in Jiangnan successfully defeated the Ming Emperor's idea of returning to the West.
And now, Zhu Youtang has ascended the throne.
Faced with Zhu Youtang's question, Jiangnan civil servants, after panicking, could only bite the bullet and answer in an attempt to fool him.
"Back to Your Majesty, Your Majesty doesn't know something. The imperial court's voyages to the West are completely different in nature from their private smuggling expeditions."
Zhang Ning quickly thought of excuses in his mind and slowly told Zhu Youtang.
"Zheng He's voyages to the West represent the Ming Dynasty. They want to enhance the prestige of the Ming Dynasty, frighten the barbarians, and attract all nations to come to the DPRK."
"So at that time, Zheng He promoted tribute trade. The various countries in the barbarians only had to pay tribute to some local specialties, and they could receive gifts ten times or a hundred times in return."
"And these Jiangnan civil servants only represent themselves and use equal transactions, so they can make less but not lose money..."
"Oh? Is that so?"
A sneer appeared at the corner of Zhu Youtang's mouth: "Since Zheng He's fleet suffered losses again and again and the losses were huge, why did Emperor Taizong send Zheng He to the Western Ocean six times?"
"Even Emperor Xuanzong sent Zheng He on a voyage to the West?"
"Do you think that Emperor Taizong and Emperor Xuanzong were both foolish emperors who were greedy for great achievements and greedy for greatness and seeking perfection?"
When Zhu Youtang took off his big hat, Zhang Ning immediately broke into a cold sweat and quickly knelt down on the ground, denying it with all his strength.
"It's unfair, Your Majesty. I never meant this."
"It's just...it's just Emperor Taizong's voyages to the West, and he has other secrets!"
Zhang Ning knelt on the ground, kowtowing and complaining, while making up words and excuses in his mind.
Zhu Youtang sat on the dragon chair, watching Zhang Ning's performance, feeling both absurd and ridiculous in his heart.
"Oh? What else is there to hide?"
"Emperor Taizong...Emperor Taizong..."
Zhang Ning's heart was pounding, and in just a moment, he had already thought of his words.
"In the thirty-fifth year of Hongwu, after Emperor Taizong successfully launched an army to quell the crisis, Lord Jianwen was caught in a fire and disappeared."
"It happened that rumors were circulating in the city again, saying that Lord Jianwen took advantage of the chaos to escape from Nanjing City after the fire and went southward."
"That's why Emperor Taizong ordered the three eunuchs to form a fleet and sail to the West six times in order to secretly find the whereabouts of Lord Jianwen!"
The thirty-fifth year of Hongwu was the fourth year of Jianwen.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he abolished Zhu Yunwen's reign title.
After that, Ming officials merged these four years into the Hongwu period, and Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor for four more years.
Jianwenjun was also called Zhu Yunwen after the Hongxi Dynasty, at the suggestion of Yang Shiqi and other Sanyang cabinets.
During the Yongle period, everyone could call Zhu Yunwen by his first name without any avoidance.
Zhu Di wanted to use this method to directly erase any trace of Zhu Yunwen's being emperor from a legal perspective.
After Zhu Youtang heard Zhang Ning's explanation, he was silent for a while and suddenly laughed out loud.
"Hehe, hehe, hahaha..."
Zhu Youtang was overjoyed and was amused by the shamelessness of these Jiangnan civil servants.
Zhu Youtang sighed in his heart, in terms of shamelessness and shamelessness, these Jiangnan civil servants are undoubtedly the best in the world.
This rhetoric is quite different from the version circulated in later generations.
In the past, Zhu Youtang did not believe in such deceptive rhetoric, but now he has personally experienced the overt and covert struggles between the Ming Emperor and Ming officials, and the struggle for interests.
I don’t even believe a single punctuation mark of this false statement.
Let’s not talk about whether Zhu Yunwen, a weak character raised by civil servants, can escape from Nanjing.
What if Zhu Yunwen really quietly ran out of Nanjing, which was heavily guarded and full of officers and soldiers, and successfully boarded a ship to Nanyang.
From a time perspective, it doesn't match up at all.
Zhu Yunwen disappeared in the 35th year of Hongwu, and Zheng He's first voyage to the West was in the 3rd year of Yongle.
If we really wanted to find the previous emperor in secret, would we need to prepare for such a long time in a big way and then make it known to the whole world?
Could it be that Zhu Di wanted to spread his glorious deeds of raising an army to pacify the country and seizing the throne of his nephew as emperor to all countries in the world?
Moreover, Zheng He made many voyages to the West and lasted for a long time, from the third year of Yongle to the eighth year of Xuande, which spanned nearly thirty years.
Zhu Di's throne is already as secure as Mount Tai, so what else can he do with the deposed monarch?
Zhu Di led his troops and with the overt and covert support of a group of noble generals, he knocked Zhu Yunwen off the throne with real swords and guns.
It is the common wish of all generals in the world that Zhu Di can successfully ascend the throne.
Zhu Yunwen vigorously promoted civil servants and suppressed military generals. These generals were eager to strangle Zhu Yunwen early.
Even if Zhu Yunwen comes back, will any generals or soldiers sacrifice their lives for him?
Can Zhu Yunwen's existence pose any threat to Zhu Di's throne?
Zhu Di was not the guilty-minded Kang Mazi. When he heard the name of Prince Zhu, he was so frightened that he couldn't sleep.
Ninety-nine percent of Zhu Yunwen died in the Nanjing Imperial Palace. The fire was just to deceive others, because Zhu Di did not want to bear the infamy of killing his nephew to seize the throne.
Zhu Di's voyage to the West had only one purpose, which was to make money.
Promoting the country's prestige, intimidating the barbarians, expanding the territory, and attracting all nations to come to court are just a matter of convenience. All the civil and military officials in the dynasty were shocked by Zhu Youtang's sudden laughter.
They looked at Zhu Youtang quietly, their bodies dripping with cold sweat, and the sweat dripped slowly.
Zhang Ning, who was kneeling on the ground, was shaking like chaff and terrified.
Cold sweat had soaked his back, and he regretted deeply why he was the one to take the lead.
But things have reached this point, and he can only bite the bullet and continue to hold on.
"Hahaha, what an interesting statement. I haven't been so happy for a long time."
"This kind of rhetoric is really new, and it's hard for you to come up with such an excuse to fool me."
Zhu Youtang gradually stopped smiling, and looked at Zhang Ning with cold eyes.
"Your Majesty, I am a humble minister...I dare not..."
Zhang Ning stammered, his heart filled with fear.
It seemed that Zhu Youtang would execute him in the next moment.
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But surprisingly, Zhu Youtang seemed not prepared to embarrass him.
"That's enough, let's end the joke."
When the atmosphere reached this point, Zhu Youtang stopped talking in circles and directly stated his purpose.
"Since going to sea is profitable, I decided to go to sea, reorganize manpower, build treasure ships, and sail to the Western Ocean eight times!"
As soon as Zhu Youtang said these words, the Jiangnan civil servants in the court were all in darkness, and they felt that their innocence collapsed!
Zhu Youtang still discovered the secret of the voyage to the West. The good life of their Jiangnan smuggling group for fifty or sixty years was about to end!
The fact that Emperor Yingzong ordered Jiao Hong to supervise the construction of sea ships in Minzhou was not recorded at all in the Ming Dynasty records.
He was just afraid that the emperor behind him would know about the voyage to the West.
But now Zhu Youtang wants to go to the West again, which has proved that their strict defense against the emperor has completely failed!
The next moment, a group of Jiangnan civil servants, risking their lives, rushed out of the team one after another and knelt in front of Zhu Youtang.
"Your Majesty, you must not do this, Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty, the money you can earn from opening the sea is just a small profit, but the consequences will be endless troubles!"
Li Ke kowtowed to Huang Yun during the incident and said with tears: "The voyage to the West cost a lot of money. The construction of the treasure ship and the crew expenses alone are a huge sum of money."
"In addition, the Western Ocean is far away and the sea is extremely dangerous, with huge waves, violent storms, dark islands and reefs, all of which pose a risk of shipwreck and cargo damage."
"Every time we sail to the West, many, many people die!"
"In addition, the countries along the route are very backward and have no money to buy our Ming Dynasty goods."
"Even if it is normal trade, if there is a slight natural disaster or man-made disaster, all the money will be lost. It is really not worth the gain!"
After Huang Yun finished speaking, another official knelt in front of Zhu Youtang and continued to cry.
"And along the coast, Japanese pirates are very rampant."
"They may gather as thieves, gather in the sea, and rob ships along the way."
"Or they plunder towns and cities along the coast, not only robbing homes and houses, but also killing people and raping, bringing heavy disasters to the people along the coast!"
"Since the Hongwu period, our Ming Dynasty has been committed to strengthening coastal defense."
"It was not until the Xuande period that the maritime ban policy was vigorously implemented, which greatly prevented the wreaking havoc of Japanese pirates and ensured that the people along the coast were safe."
"If Your Majesty insists on opening the sea, Japanese pirates will surely wreak havoc along the coast of Ming Dynasty again, bringing serious disasters to the residents along the coast!"
"For the safety of the people along the coast of Ming Dynasty, your Majesty, please think twice and never open the sea!"
The speaker's name is Xu Lai, his official position is the deputy of the Zuo Temple of Dali Temple, and he is from Wu County, Suzhou Prefecture, South Zhili.
What he mentioned about the raging Japanese pirates was true.
But now the impact of Japanese pirates on the coastal residents of Ming Dynasty is not as great as he said.
In order to attract Zhu Youtang's attention, he exaggerated.
The Japanese pirates really became a serious concern of the Ming Dynasty only during the Jiajing period.
At that time, the Japanese Kingdom officially entered the Warring States Period.
The three dwarfs, Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, rode Japanese horses as tall as wild dogs and led thousands of domestic slaves. They almost knocked their dog brains out.
A large number of warriors lost their land and became rogues. They followed smuggling merchant ships to the Ming Dynasty and plundered for a living.
Now, the Japanese country has just entered the Warring States Period, and there are far fewer ronin who have lost their land.
After Zhu Youtang listened, he nodded approvingly: "What the two dear friends said makes sense."
Huang Yun and Xu Lai looked happy, but before they could be happy for a long time, Zhu Youtang suddenly changed the subject.
"I'm just curious, why do you know so much about going into the sea?"
This sentence immediately made the two of them pale again.
Why do they know these things?
That's not because their family is engaged in smuggling!
When asked by Zhu Youtang at this time, they suddenly felt panicked and quickly tried their best to find excuses to make up for it.
"Back to Your Majesty...this...this is because...because..."
"Because Wei Chen... When Wei Chen was studying in his hometown, he heard an old sailor mention this matter."
"Your Majesty, Wei Chen...Wei Chen also heard what the old people in his hometown said."
Huang Yun and Xu Lai returned tremblingly and stuttering.
From this tone, it was clear that the two of them were extremely guilty, and even they themselves could not believe their own words.
But they had to stand up and stop Zhu Youtang's idea of opening the sea.
Otherwise, wait until Zhu Youtang really reopens the sea.
They, including the family behind them, and the entire Jiangnan smuggling group, must be finished!
Zhu Youtang nodded, looking like he suddenly realized something.
"It turns out that you all heard what the old people in the village said. It seems that smuggling in Jiangnan is not just a day or two, but has been going on for a long time."
"In this case, I really should conduct a thorough inventory of Jiangnan to see how many people are involved in smuggling."
Huang Yun and Xu Lai felt despair in their hearts, and felt extremely annoyed, wishing they could give themselves a slap in the face.
Originally they wanted to help, but now they are becoming more and more helpful?
But now, these Jiangnan officials really can't care anymore, and Zhu Youtang wants to investigate the smuggling matter.
The investigation of smuggling is about the past. At most, Jiangnan will only die a few more people and officials, so it's not a big deal.
Jiangnan has been prosperous for thousands of years, and the most indispensable thing is people, officials.
But Zhu Youtang opened the sea and ruined the future of all the Jiangnan gentry!
Once the sea opened and the imperial court intervened in the trade to the West, the money bag they had been making rich for decades would be taken away by Zhu Youtang!
Now, all the officials in Jiangnan are in chaos. They can no longer sit back and wait for death!
Even at the risk of being beheaded, they must take action!
(End of chapter)