Chapter 950: A Conversation That Determines the Future of Ming Dynasty
After reviewing the Huben Zuowei, Jiang Qingzhi went to the palace to meet Emperor Jiajing.
"The soldiers are full of enthusiasm, just waiting for your Majesty's order..."
What's the point of giving an order?
Jiang Qingzhi didn't say anything, and Emperor Jiajing didn't say anything either. Huang Jin lowered his head, thinking about Lu Bing's report yesterday.
On the afternoon of the day when he was knocked unconscious, Lu Song went to the Ministry of Revenue with a cloth wrapped around his head.
He urged the officials who returned for the New Year to set off before the fifteenth day of the lunar year... Normally, they should have set off on the third day of the lunar year, but Lu Song still gave them some extra vacation time.
"Your Majesty, Minister Lu of the Ministry of Revenue requests to see you."
Lu Song still had a cloth wrapped around his head. After he came in, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the news gathered from all over the country is not optimistic."
"Tell me." The Taoist pointed to the chair next to him.
This was an extremely rare treatment. Even Yan Song had to stand when he met the emperor.
Too old to stand? Then retire!
In the eyes of the Taoist priest, the officials were just a bunch of monkeys, and they were monkey trainers! Naturally, the most interesting thing was to watch the monkeys standing there at a loss.
Lu Song sat down and nodded to Jiang Qingzhi, "Chang Wei Bo."
"How serious is the injury?" Jiang Qingzhi asked.
The official who took action that day was immediately arrested, and the Taoist priest ordered the East Factory to torture him. Just before Lu Song woke up, the official's fate was decided.
——Exiled to Hainan.
Hainan is really a wild area at the moment. Once you go there, everyone knows that person will never come back.
This move by Emperor Jiajing was brilliant, and it led to speculation from the outside world that Lu Song had privately pledged allegiance to the emperor and joined the New Deal group, and might further join the Mohist school.
Lu Song looked at Jiang Qingzhi a little longer because of these rumors.
Mohist school, don’t even think about it.
As for loyalty, Lu Song was loyal to the Ming Dynasty, not to anyone else.
New Deal Group…this is debatable.
Jiang Qingzhi looked at him calmly. This time, the Taoist master used a strategy of sowing discord and successfully made Lu Song be regarded as a rebel by Confucianists.
When Tang Shunzhi learned that Lü Song was considered a rebel by Confucianists, he could not help but sigh and said, "Why is it either this or that, either black or white?"
"Because of interests!" Jiang Qingzhi replied, "The interests of Confucianism are the same: to control the world and enjoy privileges. The purpose of Mohism is to pull them down from the altar, and the new policy is the same."
The conflict between the two sides cannot be reconciled, and eventually one of them will fall.
"In various places...especially in the south, when the officials of the Ministry of Revenue arrived in the south, from Nanjing to the local areas, they pretended to obey but secretly disobeyed, made all kinds of excuses, or misled people. The gentry and powerful people in various places were either absent or sick and unable to receive them..."
"This is a soft rejection!" Emperor Jiajing said, "It is within my expectations. Does the Ministry of Revenue have any countermeasures?"
Lu Song said: "I think if we don't take real action, it will not work."
To be serious means to take action.
"Is the garrison reliable?" The Taoist looked at Jiang Qingzhi.
Jiang Qingzhi said: "To be honest, there are not many reliable guards in the south. The Taizhou Haimen Guard is relatively reliable."
"You went to Taizhou to suppress the Japanese invaders, but now you have left a foreshadowing." Emperor Jiajing narrowed his eyes. "The south is the root of Confucianism and is rich. Taizhou alone is not enough."
"It's not enough." Taizhou was not considered a wealthy place in Zhejiang. Jiang Qingzhi said, "Your Majesty, there are not many officers and soldiers in Zhejiang who can fight."
"You mean..." Emperor Jiajing stroked his beard, "clean it up as it goes?"
Jiang Qingzhi nodded, "The Confucian forces in the south are deeply rooted and cannot hold the army. Your Majesty's will cannot be carried out in the south."
Emperor Jiajing sneered, "Those people keep saying they are loyal, but in fact they have a lot of little plans. They don't take me seriously at all."
It will be even more excessive in the future… Jiang Qingzhi looked at the Taoist priest with sympathy. By the time his children and grandchildren came of age, the southern literati would almost regard the emperor as a mere decoration.
No, it's a bondage.
Why should we pay taxes?
The dog emperor is greedy for money!
But you have to ask him: If he doesn't pay taxes, where will the money come from to support the army and the officials?
Without an army, who will resist the Japanese pirates?
Without officials, who will govern the world?
This is a group that only knows how to enjoy and gain, but not how to give.
"For many years, we have indulged scholars in their privileges, which has made them greedy. The more kind and tolerant we are to them, the more they will go further and further."
Jiang Qingzhi spoke slowly. Someone handed him a cup of tea. He took a sip. He looked up and found it was Lu Song. He smiled and said, "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Lu Song took the second cup of tea from Huang Jin and pondered over Jiang Qingzhi's words.
"The Confucian forces in the south are now too powerful to be eliminated. If we want to change all this, we must break the original interest structure." Jiang Qingzhi spoke slowly, which was rare. "This group is stubborn. Their foundation, the interests they rely on to hold together, are land and population. Only by breaking this foundation and uprooting it can we divide and rule."
"Your Majesty, this is what you mean by getting money and grain first." Jiang Qingzhi smiled. He thought that Emperor Jiajing was too radical at first, but now it seems that he was foresighted.
Emperor Jiajing said calmly: "If it is just a superficial act, it will bring disaster to our children and grandchildren."
Lu Song nodded, "Once those people recover, they will become even crazier."
By that time, the force of the counterattack was so great that Zhu Laosan and Emperor Wanli had no choice but to kneel.
"So, we must forcefully push forward the clearing of the farmland. But this is only one hand. The other hand is to clear out the southern army. In addition, it is time to mobilize the navy as well."
Emperor Jiajing nodded and said, "I heard that the navy is in a very bad condition."
"Your Majesty, the navy is now even inferior to the Japanese pirates." Jiang Qingzhi smiled bitterly, "Fortunately, the Portuguese believed that the Ming navy was still the same navy as before, otherwise..."
"Do they dare to come again?" Lu Song asked, "It's thousands of miles away, and the cost is so high. Aren't the Portuguese king and his ministers afraid that something might go wrong and the navy would be wiped out?"
"Old Lu, do you know what the greatest success of Western countries is?" Jiang Qingzhi said, "It's not the wise emperors or the capable ministers, but greed."
"greedy?"
"Yes. They are afraid of poverty, so they will take action without hesitation if they have the chance. At the moment, they are searching for new continents all over the world, and they conquer them when they discover them. And this process is called exploration. From a small ship to a country, the king, his subjects and the people are all proud of taking risks."
And the Ming Dynasty... Jiang Qingzhi sighed, "But our Ming Dynasty is complacent. Not to mention taking risks, it's so difficult to lift the maritime ban."
Lu Song smiled bitterly, "Over the years... I've gotten used to it."
"It was not like this in the Central Plains during the Han and Tang dynasties." Jiang Qingzhi said softly, "Old Lu, Confucianism really can't continue like this. If it continues like this, they will not only drag Confucianism into the abyss, but also bring down the Ming Dynasty."
"I know." Lu Song shook his head slightly. He had been under attack from public opinion recently, and even his family had suffered misfortune. His children and grandchildren were sensible. When they were excluded and alienated outside, they would not tell anyone when they got home.
But who is Lu Song? How could he not know?
"This world is big and small. Today, Western countries have discovered and conquered many rich places. There is not much time left for the Ming Dynasty." Jiang Qingzhi's words were both a hint and a warning to Emperor Jiajing.
"New World..." Emperor Jiajing pondered. Lu Song said, "Discovery is conquest, but what comes next?"
"It's difficult to supply the enclave if we have troops stationed there." Emperor Jiajing also discovered the problem. "How can the Ming Dynasty control the enclave thousands of miles away?"
"Simple." Jiang Qingzhi said: "First, immigration."
"I'm afraid those people don't want to go." Lu Song shook his head, "It's hard to leave our hometown, and it's hard to leave our ancestors' graves."
"Old Lu, you should go to the southeastern coastal area." Jiang Qingzhi felt that the vision of Ming officials was really... too narrow. "The southeastern coastal area is mostly mountainous and has little land, and most of the good land is in the hands of the powerful and the outsiders. The common people have no food or clothing, and in order to survive, they can only risk going to sea. Most of the people in Malacca and other places are from the southeastern coastal area."
Lu Song frowned, "You mean... let the refugees migrate to overseas enclaves?"
It’s Lu Song indeed!
Jiang Qingzhi nodded. "At present, the population of the Ming Dynasty is large and the land is small. Clearing the fields may seem to be able to free up a lot of land, but you and I both know that this is just a drop in the bucket and is far from enough to change the current crisis. If we want to change the population crisis, we have to look outward!"
"The north defeated Altan Khan, but the grasslands..."
"The grasslands are suitable for grazing, and there are large areas of fertile black soil in the north. A handful of the black mud can produce oil."
If the Beida Granary in later generations and the black soil on that latitude had been developed earlier, the food crisis could have been largely resolved.
"Really?" Lu Song's eyes sparkled.
"This is in front of the emperor." Jiang Qingzhi smiled, "In addition, the land in those places in the southeast and overseas is even more fertile, with two or even three crops a year. Now those natives are attacking each other."
Jiang Qingzhi looked at the Taoist priest and said, "Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty should make the decision for them."
Emperor Jiajing said calmly: "If you can make the decision, then you should make the decision. You haven't said how to control the enclave yet."
Jiang Qingzhi smiled and said, "Your Majesty, are you worried that those enclaves will be out of the control of the court after many years?"
Emperor Jiajing nodded and said, "People's hearts are hard to predict. Not to mention the enclaves, the people in the south have rebellious intentions."
"Why should we worry?" Jiang Qingzhi smiled and said, "Even if those enclaves escaped the control of the Ming Dynasty, wouldn't those people be Han people, wouldn't they be Central Plains people? Wouldn't they be descendants of Yan and Huang?"
"Descendants of Yan and Huang?"
"This is their root. It's where their souls are. After death, they also hope that their souls can return to the Central Plains." Jiang Qingzhi has the experience of future generations, and he hopes that the Ming Dynasty can open its mind and embrace those enclaves with culture.
"The meat is all rotten in the pot, isn't it?" Jiang Qingzhi said meaningfully.
"Rather than letting those good places be occupied by foreign races, it is better for us Han people to occupy them." Lu Song understood Jiang Qingzhi's meaning, "Even if those enclaves are out of control many years later, or even become independent countries, they are still Han people, and are still... descendants of Yan and Huang."
"Yes." Jiang Qingzhi said: "Culture is the foundation for China to be passed down for thousands of years!"
Even though it has been knocked down many times and regarded as a sick man by the outside world, this nation has always stood up in the face of the outside world's incredulous gaze.
"This is an opportunity!" Jiang Qingzhi said softly, "Your Majesty, if you miss this opportunity..."
"Then..." Emperor Jiajing took a deep breath, "Rebuild the navy!"
(End of this chapter)
