Chapter 337 Establishing vassal states overseas
Before leaving the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zaibin first recruited a group of civil servants and military generals, and appointed them all as subordinate officials of his palace. There were talents from official administration to finance to military and culture, and even talents in science and technology and medicine.
In addition, there are a group of civilians composed of farmers and craftsmen.
In short, Zhu Zaibin was really serious about preparing to go to northern America to establish his own vassal state.
After a long journey and a long journey across the ocean, Zhu Zaijun finally arrived at today's Florida Peninsula. Under the blowing of the sea breeze, he did not feel tired, only excited, because he could build his own on this land. country.
But if Zhu Zaibin wanted to establish his own Dachang Kingdom here at this time, he had to first remove a Spanish stronghold here, which was also a trading port in Texas.
Unlike the hospitable Indians that the Spanish colonists encountered when they first came here, the Spanish colonists that Zhu Zaijun and his fellow immigrants encountered were naturally not hospitable or enthusiastic.
Texas is a transliteration of the word "tejas" pronounced by the Indians when they saw the Spanish colonists. The original meaning was "friends", but obviously, for the Indians, the Spanish colonists were not visiting friends.
Nowadays, this is the territory given to Zhu Zaibin by Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, Zhu Zaibin is not willing to use this name anymore, but changed its name to Xindezhou to commemorate the China where he grew up. Naturally, this shows that this Dezhou is not the Dezhou of Shandong.
When the Spanish galleon in New Texas had just set sail to carry gold and silver back to Western Europe, the Spanish colonists discovered the Ming Dynasty King Zhu Zaiyi and his party.
As a result, the Spanish warships stationed here went directly into battle and attacked Zhu Zaijun through waves.
Zhu Zaibin issued an order for the navy following him to attack. The Ming Dynasty's rifled cannon shelled the Spanish warship and shattered it into a pile of scattered wood on the spot.
The officers and soldiers of the Spanish colony were dead and injured, and many of them fell into the sea like dumplings in soup.
The Spanish warships were completely defeated and could not get any advantage in front of the Ming warships.
At this time, Zhu Zaijun was not in a hurry to let the Ming army land. Instead, he ordered the Ming army to capture some Spanish colonial officers and soldiers floating on the sea.
As a result, these Spanish colonial officers and soldiers became prisoners in Zhu Zaijun's hands.
The whole process did not take long, and all the Spanish merchant ships had not yet had time to return to the New Texas Port. The Spanish Governor Odok stationed in New Texas looked at all this and was a little surprised:
"How did the Orientals come here? Their artillery has become so sharp! They just used the Indians to capture Saint-Doming, what do they want to do now!"
No one answered Odok's question. At this time, he could only order his well-trained soldiers to rely on the forts and city defenses to defend the city.
At this time, Zhu Zaibin and his fleet had stopped in the shallow sea area not far from the Xinde Port. Then, the Ming army opened the gun window and fired directly at the Spanish defenders on the shore.
The intensive artillery fire caused the Spanish colonial army to lose most of its troops on the spot, and the entire army retreated within a quarter of an hour.
Odok had to lead some of his remaining soldiers to flee New Texas in a hurry.
Zhu Zaibin also landed, and he brought thousands of Han immigrants.
The other Spanish colonists in New Texas had not had time to escape. These were merchants or craftsmen who immigrated from Spain, as well as many Indian slaves and black slaves.
These people looked at Zhu Zaijun and his party with a look of fear and curiosity.
Zhu Zaibin took a deep breath of the air from the land and walked towards Xindezhou. Soon, he entered the city hall of Xindezhou, sat on the leather chair left by Spanish Governor Odok, and looked at Odok The oil paintings, sculptures and mistress that had not yet been taken away, he only ordered: "This woman stays, and the others are moved away!"
Zhu Zaibian unceremoniously took possession of Odok's mistress, named her Xin Mi, which means "bride" in homophone, and appointed her as his chosen attendant.
Before that, Zhu Zaijun also issued a royal decree, which was to arrest all the women in Xindezhou City, except old children, and also asked his long history Song Zu to select the ten most stunning girls. For concubines.
In fact, Zhu Zaibin already had twelve concubines in the country, and before leaving the capital, he spent a lot of money to acquire three more. Now that he came to New Texas, he not only occupied the mistress of Spanish Governor Odok, but also Taking in ten more girls, it seems that the king is undoubtedly a fool.
But in fact, Zhu Zaibin wanted to use this to extend his heirs, because he knew that if he wanted to build his own empire, what he needed most was people, especially people with his own blood. Naturally, he couldn't wait for the Dona women to multiply. .
What Zhu Zaibin wants now is to increase the population, especially the number of Han people. After all, there are still relatively few Han people willing to immigrate here with him.
Therefore, not only did he take the women to have sex with him, he also ordered that except for the ten most beautiful women, he would keep them for himself, and the rest would be distributed to his officers and soldiers, in different quantities according to different levels, and These Spanish women in New Texas were numbered and then drawn, so it was fair. However, Zhu Zaijun also asked them to have sex immediately, and ordered the old nuns he brought with him to form an inspection team to randomly check whether these women had been raped by the Ming army. Lose your virginity.
Therefore, at Zhu Zaiyi's request, the Ming troops who occupied Xindezhou all raped and raped the women of Xindezhou, whether they were literati or warriors, as long as they were Han men.
This does look cruel, and it is undoubtedly a nightmare for these Hispanic women in New Texas.
However, in order to increase his population, Zhu Zaiyi could only do this. He could not violate the laws and emotions and capture the Han women of the Ming Dynasty. He could only ensure that half of the new generation of Changguo people were of Han descent. bloodline.
The Spanish men in New Texas naturally became the first people, including the Indian slaves and black slaves here.
The first job Zhu Zaibin asked these people to do was to move the equipment and firearms he brought from Daming to New Dezhou City.
At the same time, Zhu Zaibin also began to order his civil servants to formulate the "Da Ming Lv Chang Guo Lv" as the law of his vassal state. In addition, he also ordered his civil servants to prepare for his enthronement ceremony.
Zhu Zaibin admired Confucianism in governing the country, so he advocated mitigating penalties, and also made it clear that etiquette was more important than law. At the same time, all the Han people who immigrated with him were granted the status of scholars, and according to different classes, they were granted the title of doctor or Lang and other officials, even if they immigrated with him The peasants who came were also given the title of Wenlin Lang, and then these people were all classified as scholars, and it was directly stated that except for treason, they would not easily kill scholars!
Others are all classified as people. Now the people can naturally only be the Spanish immigrants and native Indians who have been captured or have been managed by him. The punishment for the people is not harsh. Except for heinous crimes, the most severe It's nothing more than palace punishment.
After all, Zhu Zailei himself knew that what he lacked most now was people. Instead of easily killing these aliens, it would be better to cut off their descendants, so that they could continue to serve as the empire's labor force.
In line with the principle of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business and considering that he was the prince of the Ming Empire, Zhu Zaijun also ordered his civil servants to compile the "Dachang Kingdom Huidian", which clearly stipulated that the status of Indians, that is, local farmers, was higher than that of Spanish immigrant merchants.
This was also influenced by the popular idea in Central America that Indians were domestic slaves of the Ming and Han people for generations. It happened to coincide with the Confucianism that Zhu Zaijun believed in, so it was stipulated accordingly.
In addition, Zhu Zaibin adopted a closed-door strategy for business, stipulating that the Chang Kingdom would only trade with the central empire of the Ming Dynasty. All other foreign countries would be regarded as pirates and could accept tribute.
Zhu Zaibin also had his own purpose in doing this. The purpose was naturally to prevent his young Dachang Kingdom from being invaded by external forces by implementing a sea ban policy.
The governor of Spain, Octor, was eventually captured by the Ming army, now a regular army.
However, Zhu Zaijun castrated him and planned to reuse him, asking the eunuchs he brought to teach him Chinese characters, and preparing to use him as his guide to unify the Chang Kingdom in the future.
Okdo didn't expect that he would also become an eunuch, but what troubled him even more were the complicated Chinese characters. He didn't want to learn them, but the cruel whipping forced him to learn them. He naturally hated Zhu Zaijun and other oriental characters. He is a human being, but he does not have any conditions or qualifications for revenge. He has to always be careful about the chance of being killed by similar eunuchs. In the end, he has to get used to the lifestyle of having to flatter Zhu Zaibin in order to obtain more survival rights.
Zhu Zaiyi did not immediately occupy other territories and establish other cities at the beginning. Instead, he started his own country-building and farming in New Dezhou.
On the first day of the first lunar month in the forty-seventh year of Zhengde, he officially ascended the throne and proclaimed himself king, and established the reign name Chengguang. The forty-seventh year of Zhengde was the first year of Chengguang in the Chang Kingdom, and Xindezhou was temporarily established as the capital.
Soon after Zhu Zaijun ascended the throne, he began to build ordnance processing plants, cement plants, textile workshops, and other types of factories in New Dezhou. He also cultivated farmland and stocked up food. In addition, among the generals and soldiers, That is, the good family members among the Han people were selected to train new soldiers and expand the army.
Finally, three years later, Zhu Zaibin already had 20,000 elite soldiers, three cities, and more than 30,000 hectares of fertile land.
Twenty years later, the first batch of newborns in Zhu Zaibin's Dachang Kingdom began to grow up one after another, and Zhu Zaibin also began to establish the imperial examination system, but only the children of farmers and scholars were allowed to participate in the imperial examination. That is, the children of Indians and Han people participated in the imperial examination.
From this time on, Zhu Zaibin's Dachang Kingdom began to enter a period of expansion. The increasingly powerful army completely drove the Spanish colonists out of the North American continent, and the Tatars and other nomadic peoples also drove further north to the cold areas, completely They unified the entire area south of the Great Lakes and north of Florida and established a very powerful farming empire. However, due to the overexpansion of the population, the intensification of land annexation, and the excessive number of royal members, the kingdom's financial system collapsed, and eventually a peasant uprising occurred.
Although the uprising was suppressed with the help of the Ming Central Empire, the situation in the kingdom did not improve. In the end, it fell into a state of division due to rebellion within the ruling class. After a long period of division, it reunited.
Of course, this is something for later. The Chang Kingdom has just been established now, and no one knows his fate hundreds of years from now.
Back to the topic.
Zhu Houcong also brought his people to New Hanyang, located in today's Brazil, and prepared to establish his Han Dynasty here.
Zhu Houcong likes to read "Book of Han" recently because he really wants to turn his Hanyang County into the Han Empire.
Looking at the row of small thatched huts and stone houses and the poor simple port in front of him, Zhu Houcong did not feel so desperate. Instead, he felt a sense of joyful excitement. He couldn't help but tell his hair boy Lu Bing:
"Lu Bing, go and see if there are any people living here. If there are any, arrest them all. Except for infants and young children, all others will be executed. We have brought the entire people of Prince Xing's Mansion this time. We don't need these savages. Infants and young children don't have any need." Memory can teach them Chinese characters and Ming Dynasty Mandarin to become our own people, so we will first establish this place as the royal city of New Hanyang.”
After Lu Bing got the order, he led the Ming and New Han troops ashore first.
At this time, Huang Jin, the eunuch who had been with Zhu Houcong since childhood, couldn't help but said: "Outsiders only know that your highness is good at alchemy, but they don't know that your highness is also an extraordinary person. Your highness is a noble person from Tianhuang, with the blood of Taizu flowing in your body. How could it be possible?" He will fall into mediocrity. Now that he has come to build a country in this barbaric land, His Highness should be happy, and it is a good opportunity to turn this place into our Xingwang Palace.”
Zhu Houcong smiled: "I not only want to turn this place into Prince Xing's Mansion, I also want to be a real emperor! China is not the only country in the world that is so big. It's a pity that after all, I am just your majesty's cousin, not as good as his biological son." , a more livable place in North America! ”
……
Zhu Houzhao made the whole overseas a little chaotic. For a while, vassal kings were everywhere to establish their kingdoms. In the end, even the nobles were granted the title of Zhu Houzhao to these places to establish their kingdoms.
For a time, various kingdoms, principalities, princes, etc. established by the Han people were established one after another.
Zhu Houzhao also implemented the enfeoffment system, which doubled the number of Han countries every once in a while.
But Zhu Houzhao is not worried that there are not enough Han countries, but that there are not enough Han people, or even not enough population.
Because, as far as he knew, these Ming emperors and nobles all implemented the most primitive extermination policy against the local indigenous people in the early days of the founding of the country, because this was the most effective policy to establish a ruling order, even if the population was reduced to the lowest level. The killing will only stop when the area is reasonable.
This has also led to a decrease in the global population, the disappearance of a large number of primitive tribes, and the disappearance of a large number of primitive civilizations. They are no different from Western colonists, and even more cruel, because the weapons in their hands are more advanced, and because these civilizations sent by the Ming Dynasty are more advanced.
The disappearance of the populations of other ethnic groups around the world has led to a large number of Han Chinese immigrants in the country to become local rulers.
These Han countries provide particularly high treatment to Ming Han immigrants. Basically, as long as you are willing to go, you can directly become an official, even if you are a farmer at home.
Technicians or officials are more popular and can be given land directly.
The central court of the Ming Dynasty had to improve the treatment of the Han people in the country on the one hand, and on the other hand find ways to formulate some policies to encourage childbirth to stimulate the increase in the Han population.
In particular, it was particularly important to increase the number of Han people. The imperial court not only provided child subsidies for those who gave birth to children, but also strictly prohibited the cases of abandoned babies. It even began to ban Han women from selling silver to improve the status of Han women. It no longer issued chastity memorials, but gave birth certificates. Mothers with more than five children, regardless of gender, will be awarded a Virtuous Memorial Arch, with corresponding tax exemptions and welfare subsidies provided.
Why women who have more children are called virtuous, the Ming Dynasty naturally does not have to worry about it, and the official media will explain it.
then.
The Han people entered a period of population explosion.
But along with this, even if the population of other ethnic groups decreases or is assimilated, in order to increase subsidies and income, the richer men of Han families are marrying wives and taking concubines. This has also caused the price of foreign female slaves to increase sharply, and more and more foreign women are She was trafficked into the Ming Dynasty and became concubines of various Han families.
This has also caused a serious imbalance in the male-to-female ratio of other ethnic groups, a serious decline in fertility rates, and an even greater reduction in numbers.
The bride Zhang was originally the daughter of a French duke, but due to the evil slave trade, she was abducted by human traffickers and brought to the Ming Dynasty to become the third wife of locksmith Zhou Jun.
Zhou Jun's waist has not been in good condition since he married Zhang, and Zhang has to go out every day to buy medicine for him. After all, she has no children yet, and she is not as good as the first and second wives, so she does all the household chores. Qian, on this day, Zhang, the white man who had just been killed by Zhou Jun, was woken up by Zhou Jun not long after:
"Smelly bitch, I spent so much money to buy you so that you Hu girls can have big breasts and good breasts for children. However, my waist is so bad that you still can't get pregnant with our Zhou family's seed! Buy me some medicine. Don’t even think about taking some time off tonight!”
Zhang had no choice but to go out in anger. As soon as she went out, she saw that the entire Damingmen Qipan Street area was full of people, but she followed them curiously. Suddenly, she saw a young and beautiful Hu girl sitting in a carriage. When I wanted to ask someone, I heard someone on the side already talking: "So this is the British princess that your Majesty is going to marry. She looks quite pretty!"
"British princess? Was she also bought?" Zhang was asking secretly suspiciously when she felt sick, then vomited, and couldn't help but go to the hospital. Finally, she learned that she was pregnant, and couldn't help but faint with joy. passed.
The so-called British princess is of course Elizabeth, but she was not bought by Zhu Houzhao, but was sent to her by King Henry VIII of England who agreed to Zhu Houzhao's request.
This is actually not difficult for the British king, because in fact, Western European countries already have a tradition of marriage, and even the royal families in Western European countries can be related to each other.
Looking at Elizabeth's shy girlish appearance...
Sleeping with Elizabeth was just a political benefit for Zhu Houzhao as the Ming emperor. In this era, no one could say that this was a wrong way.
But after Zhu Houzhao slept with Elizabeth, he just kept her in the palace. From then on, he still focused on government affairs. In this era, she, Elizabeth, was just an ordinary British royal noblewoman, not the British Queen in history. Naturally, it won't attract too many people's attention.
At the cost of millions of silver dollars each year and the body of his daughter, Henry VIII finally won the opportunity to send overseas students to the Ming Dynasty. Because of this, the UK and the Ming Dynasty were temporarily in a state of cooperation, and the UK also dispatched a fleet as promised The attack on Spain was nominally to help the Ming Dynasty, but in fact it was also an attempt to challenge Spain's dominance in Western Europe.
Of course, Zhu Houzhao believed that with the current strength of Britain, it was impossible to be of much help to the Ming Dynasty's defenders in Ceuta. He still had to hope that the Ming army in Ceuta could use their weapon advantages and rich military struggle experience to resist Attack of the Spanish Armada.
Zhu Houzhao admitted that even though the Ming Empire already had the most powerful army and navy in the world, it was still difficult to form an absolutely overwhelming strength in all regions of the world, because it was difficult for him to quickly drop weapons tens of thousands of miles away. Ten thousand or even one hundred thousand troops.
Otherwise, he would not have agreed to Xia Yan's suggestion. The purpose of conferring kings overseas was not only to decentralize power again, but also to promote the Han people to rely on these places through the decentralization of land interests and ruling power, thereby strengthening the Ming Dynasty or the Han people's control of these places. Control.
Affected by the Ming Dynasty's harsh attack on Portugal, Portugal and Spain have now merged. Therefore, in today's world, the Ming Dynasty and Spain are mainly competing for hegemony. Although Spain aggressively led an invincible fleet to attack the Ceuta area, the Ming Dynasty's closest colony to the Mediterranean, But the Ming Dynasty also gradually encroached on Spanish colonies in the Americas.
The plundering of the Tatar nomadic cavalry made it difficult for the Spanish colonists to gain a foothold in northern North America. The Indians helped the Ming army set fire to all over Central America, which also caused the Spanish colonists to abandon their cities and lands. Now Zhu Zaibin is ordered to land in southern North America. , naturally the trend was to completely drive away the Spanish colonists.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao believed that even though Ming Dynasty might suffer losses in some places, on the whole, Spain could not be Ming Dynasty's opponent because Ming Dynasty's civilization was more advanced.
The issue that Zhu Houzhao still can't escape is the issue of determining the successor. The third prince's memorial also reminded him that some princes who are not interested in being the emperor of the central court have been expelled, while the few princes who remain in the country are all If he wanted to be emperor, Zhu Houzhao thought about how to choose the most suitable successor for a long time.
In the end, Zhu Houzhao decided to let these princes go to the grassroots level to gain experience and experience, starting from county magistrates or government officials. In short, just like the new Jinshi or the Jinshi who just graduated from the Capital University, they have to start from the grassroots, and then slowly consider.
What Zhu Houzhao didn't expect was that these princes performed well after being sent to the local areas as officials close to the people. Because they were emperor's heirs, they were particularly active and fair in governing the administration of a county. They were not promoted for the sake of getting rich, but for gaining popularity and popularity. The emperor favored him, so he was purer, more honest and more pragmatic, but it was very uncomfortable for civil servants and generals, because such subordinate officials often did not dare to use the power of superiors to overwhelm others.
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(End of chapter)