Chapter 3: Institutional Change (II)

Since the governor was a temporary official selected by the imperial court in the past, some more important military cities also sent governors' positions. Due to the re-dividing of identities, the stay and departure of these people became a problem. After an emergency consultation with the cabinet, the court, who was over 65 years old, was forced to no longer hold any position and was seriously ill and unable to handle the affairs of his duties, ordered him to retire. Zhu Yinglong brought the term "retirement" out of the historical stage for the first time, and the court gave pensions every year.

Although this expenditure increased the burden on the treasury, its advantage was that it obviously mobilized the enthusiasm of officials, from the original one-time penalties to giving them every year. Wouldn't it give these officials a support for their lives after leaving the officialdom when they grow old? Especially honest officials. Although these officials are rare in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom, this policy did solve his worries. In addition to shouting in his heart that the emperor's wiseness, he was working steadily for the court.

In this way, some old and stupid officials in the officialdom will make the officials younger, more vigor and more innovative. There are also new Jinshi. In addition to a few who are more suitable for academic research, Zhu Yinglong plans to send them all out after some training for local parents. These training involves a wide range of training. In conjunction with the implementation of the first series of new policies of the court, they need to spend three months in the Jing Tai School that they will never forget. Not only six ministers and many professional talents are taught to them. Although these people are well-read, they are still unfamiliar with how to be good officials. After a brief study and understanding the strengths of each person, the Ministry of Personnel will assign them corresponding official positions. Zhu Yinglong even repeatedly emphasized at the court meeting that it is best to be both talent and moral, and under appropriate circumstances, the standards of morality can be relaxed. After all, there are too few people in the world with both talent and morality. After this, the Tai School gradually became a state institution for training officials.

As Liu Hongxun returned to Beijing successfully with the peace agreement, Zhu Yinglong praised a group of officials in public, and took this opportunity to issue an edict to establish a Lifan Academy, responsible for the country's diplomacy and vassal state affairs, trade and dispute negotiations will be completed by the Lifan Academy. With Liu Hongxun as the Secretary of the Court and Liu Zongzhou as the Minister of the Court, Liu Zongzhou went to Mongolia and some officials who participated in the negotiations were all assigned to the Lifan Academy. At the same time, in order to enhance mutual trust between the two sides, Zhu Yinglong specially ordered the Lifan Academy to prepare to send permanent ambassadors to the vassal states to establish embassies, enjoy some privileges, and those who do not belong to the vassal state will not be considered for the time being. This is also a matter that cannot be done urgently, otherwise a vassal state would think that the Ming Dynasty, the Celestial Kingdom, intends to interfere in their internal affairs. Since this is a two-sided area, I believe that the problem is not a big deal, but it takes a certain amount of time.

Everything needs money to do. The Customs Department was established on the basis of the Maritime Tuition Department, which was responsible for the trade between the sea. Due to the rampant piracy in the sea, and the need for an elite navy to recover half of the southern part of the Yangtze River. Therefore, Zhu Yinglong had to issue an edict to form a navy under the tight financial situation, officially for the Navy of the Ming Empire, and built large docks and shipyards in Penglai and Qingdao, Shandong, to build warships and various civilian maritime transport ships using the Dutch warship model.

After leaving, Wang Zaijin, the governor of Huguang, finally got news. He actually traveled from Guangxi and Guangzhou to Fujian. Then, with the help of Ye Xianggao, he arrived in Tianjin on a sea boat where Zheng Zhilong purchased land and grain for the imperial court, and returned to Beijing to report without stopping.

After Wang Zaijin returned to Beijing, Zhu Yinglong summoned him in the Yangxin Palace. After half a year of going there, no matter what the achievements Wang Zaijin achieved in Yunnan, it was because of his loyalty to the court. When he left the ground, he specially gave a farewell to the Minister of War, the Liaodong Economic and Military Affairs Minister who was criticized by later historians for not understanding military affairs and being blindly commanded. At that time, there was almost no deep wrinkles on his forehead. His hair was a little white. Now what he saw was a wrinkled face and darkened by the ground. Shou's eye sockets collapsed and he almost didn't dare to recognize him. He took off his official hat and his gray hair was printed into Zhu Yinglong's eyes. Fortunately, he was much more energetic, with bright eyes. He couldn't help but feel sore and moved, saying, "Wang Aiqing, I'm the one who made you suffer!"

"Thank you for your favor, the old minister should do this." Wang Zaijin bowed his head and responded.

"Come here, those two chairs are here. I want to sit face to face with Wang Aiqing!" Zhu Yinglong shouted outside the hall.

"No, no, my master, this is impossible, it's impossible!" Wang Zaijin knelt down and said in a hurry.

"I don't have to do this. Just calm down. I'm waiting for the story of you along the way. I've read your memorials, but I'm not careful enough. I want to hear you carefully tell me about the past." Zhu Yinglong hurriedly bent down and helped the person up and said.

"Thank you for your kindness," Wang Zaijin sat opposite Zhu Yinglong with gratitude and began to talk endlessly about his hardships, how he lost contact with the court, how he arrived in Yunnan, how he met the Duke of Qian, how he persuaded Mu Qiyuan to remain neutral, how he passed by Guangxi and Guangzhou to Fujian, how he learned that Fujian had been controlled by the court, and how he took Zheng Zhilong's sea boat back to Tianjin with the help of Fujian Governor Ye Xianggao.

It turned out that dozens of people from Sichuan to Guizhou. They were ambushed by Dongchang and Jinyiwei sent by Wei Zhongxian. They were seriously injured and only five people escaped. They were recovering from Miaojia Village for more than two months. During this period, one of the five people was seriously injured and died. There were very few local doctors and their medical skills were not very famous. Four people dressed up as Miao people and came to Dali. Fortunately, their identity document and some important documents were not lost. Then they met the Duke of Qian, the Duke of Qian, who was known as the King of Dian, and met the envoy sent by Wei Zhongxian to Yunnan. Because they were too weak, they had to go into the tiger's den. With the heart of Chengren, they lived in the villa of Duke of Qian, which made it difficult for the people sent by Wei Zhongxian to harm them. At the same time, they also handed over their life and death. If Mu Qiyuan turned to Wei Zhongxian, then their heads would be

It became a generous gift for Mu Qiyuan to surrender to Wei Zhongxian. Fortunately, although Mu Qiyuan was a little confused, he had a son Mu Tianbo who was not confused. Although the conditions of the court were really generous, Mu Qiyuan still did not accept the title of King of Yunnan and Guizhou under Mu Tianbo's persuasion. And before finding out the truth, Yunnan was willing to maintain neutrality between the two courts, which was considered to have achieved considerable results. However, this neutral attitude had little impact on Zhu Yinglong now. Originally, he wanted to use Mu Qiyuan to restrain Wei Zhongxian, but now Fujian was in his hands. Unless Mu Qiyuan bastard joined forces with Wei Zhongxian, Wei Zhongxian could achieve only the few forces in half of the Jiangnan region, and Sichuan, the Tianfu country, was in hand. The food shortage in the north was greatly alleviated. It can be said that Zhu Yinglong's Beijing regime had been stabilized.

Zhu Yinglong issued an order to reward Wang Zaijin and others, and asked Wang Zaijin to retire as the position of Taifu, and gave him a house in Beijing, stayed at Peking University to teach, and retired from the position of Taifu, one of the three dukes. What a great grace, Wang Zaijin cried with joy and left with gratitude.

Wang Zaijin also brought some memorials from Ye Xiang, a Fujian official of Fujian, to Zhu Yinglong, among which there was a letter from Zheng Zhilong to pass it over to him, saying that he was willing to accept the amnesty of the Beijing court. The reason for this was that Zhu Yinglong saw a clue from Ye Xianglong's memorial to him.

Four years after the Dutch invaded Taiwan, from the beginning of this year, Dutch colonialists sent a large number of trained missionaries to various parts of Taiwan to preach. They ordered missionaries to set up primary schools in various places to teach Dutch and Christian New and Old Testament (i.e., the Bible). Children who refused to enroll in school were either lured with materials such as clothes and school supplies, or forced by fines on parent classes. Dutch missionaries were on the surface to preach and run schools, but secretly engaged in espionage activities to collect political and economic intelligence. They were often called to attend meetings discussing the rule of law and to issue them to the colonial authorities.

They also operated business, issued usury, purchased deer skin, etc. In fact, they were a ranger team of Dutch colonialists who ruled the people of all ethnic groups in Taiwan. Zheng Zhilong built a city in northern Taiwan and immigrated a large number of land from southern Fujian. His power is now severely challenged by the Dutch colonists. One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. The Dutch did not allow him to exist, and he did not allow the Dutch to exist. There is a country behind the Dutch, and he was a pirate. He was rooted in Fujian. His family and tribe are all in Fujian, so he must also find a powerful force that can help him deal with the Dutch.

Another way of plundering in the Dutch colonialists was to conduct monopoly trade. They used flour that could only make one meal, or cotton cloth that could only make one piece of clothing, sometimes even with only one bag of cigarettes, to exchange for a sack of rice, a bag of sugar, or a pair of antlers and a deer skin from the mountain people. Then they exchanged the goods that were not equal to the price and sold to mainland China or Japan. They then exchanged raw silk, silk, tea, porcelain, medicinal materials from China, and exchanged silver from Japan. They then transported the Chinese goods to Indonesia, Japan or the Netherlands for sale. Then they sold the spices, pepper, linen, kapok, tin, lead, etc. purchased from Indonesia at low prices to China. In this way, they bought them at low prices and made huge profits. What's even more hateful is that they also planted opium in Indonesia and other places, transported them to China, and poisoned the Chinese people. According to the Dutch colonial agency Dongyin

The accounts of Du Company Land show that they have to plunder seven or eight thousand dan of sugar, one or two hundred thousand deer skins, tens of thousands of dans of rice and many other local specialties from Taiwan every year, and their commercial profits are as high as 100%-300%. This means of trade has caused Zheng Zhilong, who is doing maritime operations, to suffer a great loss, especially the Dutch gradually took the initiative to contact the Japanese government, which gradually lost his political advantages in Japan and his profits were gradually embezzled by the Dutch. Although it can be barely maintained now, it is difficult to guarantee what will become in a few years. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong wants to find a strong backer. It doesn’t matter who this backer is. As long as he can give him the official identity of the Ming Dynasty, get the support of the state, and make a fortune for him, this may be Zheng Zhilong’s current thought. If it is not as expected, a letter similar to that of Wei Zhongxiandi in Nanjing has been placed on his desk soon!

According to historical records, Zheng Zhilong was not very interested in Taiwan at that time, otherwise he would not have moved to his hometown in Fujian after surrendering to the Ming Dynasty. Why would his ideas be very different from Zheng Zhilong in history? Zhu Yinglong himself couldn't figure out this problem for a while, but there would be no reason for this, he believed it.

Although Zheng Zhilong’s selfish thoughts are a bit uncomfortable, this cannot be said. At least he is still a Chinese and knows to fight against enemies who invade his country. Although his motives are impure and he can be said to be unhappy and may become ambitions and separatist by taking over Taiwan. However, at this time, since he wants to fight the Dutch, it is imperative to accept Zheng Zhilong’s envoy from the height of the Chinese nation. The difficulty lies in not letting Zheng Zhilong become another Mao Wenlong. For this matter, Zhu Yinglong remembered a person, who is Chen Zihua, a new Jinshi.
Chapter completed!