kingnovel Chapter 1014 The Ryukyu royal family's scheme could be heard clearly even in the capital!
Chapter 1014 The Ryukyu royal family's scheme could be heard clearly even in the capital!
Yang Shaofeng, along with Lao Deng, Xiao Deng, Li Shanchang, Xu Da, and others, unanimously agreed that the Ming Dynasty was currently in a difficult and arduous stage of development, and the people's living standards were still too poor.
To change this situation of "no meat to eat and no new clothes," one must first greatly increase the development speed of the Ming Dynasty, and the other is to first make the many vassal states of the Ming Dynasty suffer.
As the saying goes, "King Chu loved slender waists, and many starved to death in the palace," and the saying also goes, "What the superiors do, the inferiors follow."
From the emperor to the Grand Secretary and then to the Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies, everyone held the same view, so the officials in the Court of State Ceremonies naturally didn't care about those vassal states.
As the saying goes, the most important thing in officialdom is not how strong your abilities are, but to earnestly study and deeply understand the spirit of the leader's instructions and follow the leader's footsteps. A county official can never compare to the one in charge.
For example, Sha Ruijin failed to properly understand the instructions from his superiors, and as a result, Gao Yuliang was arrested after Tian Guofu informed him of it, so his fate was bound to be bad.
The officials of the Court of State Ceremonial would not make such a basic mistake.
Shen Zhenjiang, the Left Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, bowed to Yang Shaofeng and said, "Your Highness, I have already instructed the various vassal states to establish embassies in the capital and consulates in Dengzhou Prefecture."
At this point, Shen Zhenjiang took out a memorial from his sleeve, stood up, and presented it to Yang Shaofeng.
Yang Shaofeng took the memorial and glanced at it.
Consulates and embassies.
consulate.
These were pretty much what I had imagined.
With the existence of consulates, apart from some important matters, if the Ming Dynasty wanted to curse someone or inform a vassal state about something, it would no longer need to send messengers thousands of miles away; it could simply go to the consulate to inform them.
Consulates were envoys sent by various countries to important cities in the Ming Dynasty, such as Dengzhou. They were only responsible for the affairs of the various vassal states in Dengzhou Prefecture and the border markets. In effect, they turned envoys such as Park Seong-sung and Do Soon-chin into consuls who worked specifically in Dengzhou, saving them from having to take care of other affairs of the various vassal states in the Ming Dynasty.
Hu Wenxi, the Right Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, also stepped forward and bowed to Yang Shaofeng, saying, "Your Highness, the various vassal states have already been notified regarding the laborers."
"Among them, Korea promised 420,000 laborers plus 80,000 Korean women, and Japan promised 200,000 laborers plus 300,000 Japanese women."
"The other vassal states are roughly the same, ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 to 50,000 to 100,000."
“The Ryukyu Islands, including the northern, central, and southern parts, each promised 20,000 laborers, for a total of 60,000.”
The Ming Dynasty now has twenty-seven vassal states.
Korea and Japan alone contributed 620,000 laborers, and with the addition of Ryukyu, the total reached 680,000.
The remaining twenty-odd companies, even if each only sends 30,000 to 50,000 laborers, would still add up to more than a million.
The Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Railways, and various provincial administrations had been crying out about the labor shortage every day, and this directly solved a large part of the problem.
As for the workers' wages and pay?
That's a matter for the Ministry of Revenue to consider. What does it have to do with the Court of State Ceremonies?
Yang Shaofeng was somewhat bewildered.
Goryeo promised 420,000 laborers and 80,000 Goryeo women; this was a condition that had been agreed upon long ago.
The key question is, what's wrong with that short guy?
Two hundred thousand laborers, plus three hundred thousand Japanese women?
Is this another attempt to transfer a seed?
And there's Ryukyu.
The total population of the entire Ryukyu Islands is only around one million.
Assuming a 50/50 male-to-female ratio, that means there are only about 500,000 men in the entire Ryukyu Kingdom.
They had already sent 20,000 laborers to the Ming Dynasty, and this time they sent another 60,000...
Almost half of all able-bodied men in Ryukyu were sent to the Ming Dynasty to work as laborers.
No.
Are Ryukyu no longer content with their own lives?
To put it bluntly, Ryukyu's loyalty to the Ming Dynasty was based on its geographical relationship with Japan, but even more so on the reality of Ryukyu's own tripartite division.
Yang Shaofeng never believed that any foreign vassal state would truly regard the Ming Dynasty as their own father, let alone that any foreign vassal state could go to the point of "sacrificing their family to relieve the nation's difficulties."
Pay attention:
During the Hongwu era, Ryukyu was not a unified entity, but rather divided into three vassal states: North Mountain, Central Mountain, and South Mountain. Each of these states paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty and frequently engaged in combat with each other.
The fact that all three countries allowed 20,000 laborers this time is mostly because they wanted to take advantage of the Ming Dynasty's need for laborers to curry favor with the Ming Dynasty, and incidentally use the Ming Dynasty's influence to attack the other two countries.
Just as Yang Shaofeng was pondering the Ryukyu royal family's intentions, Hu Wenxi, the Right Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies, continued, "Your Highness, Taiki, the younger brother of Chadu, the ruler of the Ryukyu Kingdom of Chuzan, says that Chadu intends to request a hereditary title and is willing to abolish the Ryukyu Kingdom and allow it to be governed by imperial decree. In return, the Ryukyu royal family will reside permanently in the Ming Dynasty and never return to Ryukyu."
As Hu Wenxi finished speaking, the Honglu Temple fell silent, followed by a burst of laughter.
Shen Zhenjiang, the Left Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, was the first to snort coldly and said sarcastically, "Chadu has certainly played a good game. I heard it all clearly in the capital."
The registrar of the Court of State Ceremonial stroked his beard and said, "It is normal for people from remote and impoverished areas to have thoughts of pledging allegiance when they first see the sights and sounds of the Celestial Empire."
Yang Shaofeng immediately realized what was going on.
The issue wasn't about Ryukyu's loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, nor was it simply about trying to infiltrate the Ming's name. Rather, after witnessing the prosperity and wealth of the Ming Dynasty, Chadu and Taiki intended to sell Ryukyu in exchange for the opportunity to settle in the Ming.
Because if the Ming Dynasty accepted Ryukyu's annexation, the ruler of Ryukyu's Chuzan Kingdom, Chadu, would be officially recognized.
As for how the Ming Dynasty ruled Ryukyu and how it treated the Ryukyu people afterward...
What does this have to do with the Zhongshan royal family, who had hereditary titles in the Ming Dynasty?
Tsk.
Xu Da's position as King of Zhongshan was unstable.
As Yang Shaofeng pondered, he looked at Hu Xiwen and asked, "Since Chadu has this intention, why didn't Taiqi submit a memorial directly?"
Hu Xiwen cupped his hands and replied, "According to Taiqi, firstly, he is worried that the superiors will not allow it, and secondly, he is worried that if the news leaks out, the northern and southern parts of the mountain will also submit memorials requesting to be incorporated into the interior."
Yang Shaofeng nodded and said, "Let's put this matter aside for now and talk about it later."
Whether Xu Da can retain his throne as the King of Zhongshan depends on what Deng Xiaoping thinks.
If Lao Deng were willing to accept Ryukyu's annexation, Xu Da's future titles of nobility would most likely have to be changed.
If Lao Deng is unwilling to accept Ryukyu's submission, Xu Da can still retain his title of King of Zhongshan.
……
There are no secrets in the Ming Dynasty's imperial court.
Because Emperor Zhu did not specifically request secrecy, the news that the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission, Beiping Provincial Administration Commission, and Liaodong Provincial Administration Commission were about to undergo restructuring spread like wildfire.
The scale of this reform far exceeded the expectations of all the officials.
The provincial judicial commissioners and military commanders in Shandong, Beiping, and Liaodong underwent significant changes.
The Provincial Judicial Commissioner's Office was nominally merged into the Provincial Administration Commission, but in reality, it was managed by both the Provincial Administration Commission and the Censorate.
The Commandery was no longer under the control of the Ministry of War, but was directly under the jurisdiction of the Grand Commandery, and the subordinate guard posts also began to be reorganized.