Chapter 978 Today: Are there still vassal states in the South China Sea?
Chapter 978 Today: Are there still vassal states in the South China Sea?
Yes, during the Nanming Dynasty in the world of Red Mansions, there was also a Japanese rebellion that was quite powerful.
In fact, whether it is Japanese rebellion in normal history or in the world of Red Mansions, it is actually a means of fighting between the imperial court and local forces.
For their own benefit, local forces proactively colluded with overseas Japanese pirates, harassed local areas, created chaos, and weakened the court's control over local areas.
As for the nonsense about traitors in the court and the chaos and chaos in the court, it is just a cover to cover up the actual situation.
The court in the Southern Ming Dynasty was indeed chaotic, with many people fighting for their own interests.
Corruption was serious, officials at all levels exploited the people, and the government's fiscal revenue was unable to make ends meet, reaching an unsustainable level.
But the court must be maintained. There is only so much oil and water in the people, even if it is squeezed dry, it will not be enough.
What to do?
Almost all dynasties would resort to raising taxes when encountering such a thing.
The key point is that the Nanming court focused on the wealthy maritime merchants as the targets of money, hoping to scrape off a few more layers of oil.
But the Haishang family did not agree, so they could only disrupt the local order and force the court to make concessions, so there was a Japanese rebellion that lasted for many years.
The Japanese rebellion encountered by the Nanming Dynasty started in the middle period and slowly disappeared until the fall of the Nanming court.
In fact, the powerful Nanming bosses knew exactly what the Japanese rebellion was about.
There are only a few real Japanese pirates, and the vast majority of Japanese pirates are pirates supported by maritime merchants and disguised as private armed forces.
When the Southern Ming Dynasty was overthrown and the Southeast maritime merchants lost the threat from the government, they naturally no longer needed to continue to struggle, and the Japanese pirate rebellion gradually subsided.
This is the world of Red Mansions. Things that have happened before have been recorded in the history books of the Daqian Dynasty, and they are quite detailed.
Not to mention the audience's reaction, in short, Pig's Foot is experiencing such a ridiculous thing and feels quite angry but helpless.
All he could do was organize his troops to spend a lot of money to kill all the so-called 'Japanese pirates' who dared to invade the area under his jurisdiction. He didn't bother to distinguish how many real Japanese pirates there were and how many fake Japanese pirates there were.
Regardless of whether the several maritime merchants in the city were involved or not, as a government official, they could legitimately take heavy action, and no one else could say anything bad about it.
However, without the strong support of the proprietor behind it, Pig's Trotter's life is not easy, and many policies cannot be implemented at all.
Even with the order to clean up the gangsters on the street, the lower-level officials in the yamen still resisted the order, showing a reluctant attitude.
Although he was in a very unhappy mood, Pig Knuckle still tried his best to give full play to his own advantages and gave ordinary people under his jurisdiction a chance to breathe while in office.
That's right, the Nanming court couldn't collect taxes from the gentry and wealthy merchants, so couldn't it just squeeze ordinary people as hard as they could?
Even for the people in the coastal cities, life has become visibly difficult.
There really isn't much that Pig's Feet can do, which is to try every means to give ordinary people a chance to survive and breathe.
The plot of the novel focuses on the efforts of Pig's Feet and the resistance from all sides, which makes the audience feel inexplicably uncomfortable for a while and feel panicked.
At the end of the dynasty, good officials were unable to display their talents.
The strife in the court, the ill-intentions of the local powerful, the uncooperativeness of the lower-level officials, the pushback of the proprietors behind the scenes, as well as natural and man-made disasters.
It's too difficult, it's really too difficult!
Pig's Feet had only served as a prefect in a coastal city for five years. When he reached thirty, his health and energy were at their peak. Unfortunately, he had already grown hair on his head.
Not to mention how Pigfoot's wife, children, parents, and relatives in the novel felt, in short, the audience's mood was quite heavy.
Of course, there are also people with keen minds who can vaguely guess the subsequent development.
The halls and places of the Southern Ming Dynasty were like a huge spider web, containing everything within it within certain rules that ordinary people could not tolerate.
At that time, the north was in constant war. If you wanted to make a difference and protect the safety of the people there, you obviously had to go to sea.
Even now, I am asking myself, if we were in the situation of Emperor Nanming, I am afraid the situation would not be much better.
Unless you can risk your life to break and then stand up.
As for going overseas for development, I have never even thought about it. Once I leave, I will lose my legitimacy.
The Emperor of Nanming could claim to be the legitimate heir of the Ming Dynasty, but once he went to sea, he would be nothing.
When I come back, I'm afraid I will be called the lord of a foreign country.
As for what happened to the pig's trotters, I don't have any trouble in my heart right now, and I don't have the slightest sense of empathy.
Even if the pig's trotters cannot withstand the pressure and go to sea, he will think that the pig's trotters are nothing more than that, and it is definitely a stupid behavior that will destroy their future.
Being completely out of control of his ministers going to sea, being an emperor usually doesn't feel very good, and he thinks the same way today.
But the rest of the audience didn't think so. I don't want to leave you here, I have my own place to leave you.
It’s not that the audience’s awareness and knowledge have reached this level, maybe they didn’t even have such thoughts in the past.
What overseas, what place is that?
When barbarians enter China, they become Chinese; when Chinese barbarians enter, they become barbarians!
This is the inherent thinking that has lasted for two thousand years throughout the Central Plains. It cannot be easily broken if you want to.
Once he goes to sea, the impression in the audience's mind is that of a barbarian.
Of course, the situation of pig's feet is quite special, and the audience has been well prepared before, but it did not cause much resentment.
When Pigfoot was the prefect of the coastal city, he often encountered people who could not survive and planned to go to the South China Sea with the ships.
The decay of the Southern Ming Dynasty and the severe exploitation by local powerful people made it impossible for the people to survive.
At least there is no way to support a family just by farming.
You must have a supplementary skill in eating, otherwise it will be difficult to survive.
But that's the case, if a slight change occurs, the family may be ruined.
What's even more difficult is that families often have a large number of people, and most families have more than three children, which is really difficult to feed.
It can only be said that there are many benefits to the development of maritime trade. At least the ordinary people of Nanming are not ignorant of the situation in the open sea.
Pig's Foot has also learned about it through many maritime merchants. He is no stranger to the situation in the South China Sea. It can even be said that he has a deep understanding of it.
The South China Sea is vast and has countless islands.
These islands vary in size. The large ones may be as large as half of the Central Plains, while the small ones are just a piece of reef exposed out of the sea.
Many islands are large in size but are deserted, and some islands have a large population and even the existence of fanbang kingdoms.
It can be said that many of the many islands in the South China Sea can accommodate the people of Nanming who are struggling to survive.
Of course, the problem is not without it, and it is quite serious.
Environmental adaptation problems, as well as various tropical diseases, can cause great suffering to the people of Nanming who come to the island, and even kill them all.
From Zhu's point of view, if you want to go to these South China Sea islands to survive, it is best to go there in an organized and planned way, and you must be as prepared as possible.
Of course, it would be best if it could be organized through the government, but that is impossible.
The court of the Southern Ming Dynasty showed no mercy to the people who went to sea and directly defined them as fugitives.
Because Pig's Foot was born in a poor family, he didn't have such thoughts.
He actually felt that since the people in the Nanming area could no longer survive, it would not be an unacceptable thing to organize the people to go overseas to open up wasteland.
Especially when he heard that many of the islands in the South China Sea where indigenous people lived were occupied by foreign tribesmen and became the supreme queen there, his thoughts and ideas became even more intense.
You know, since the opening of the Maritime Silk Road, many island kingdoms in the South China Sea have been greatly influenced by the civilization of the Central Plains.
In other words, that was the sweet potato power area of the Central Plains Dynasty.
But now that place has been occupied by foreign barbarians from overseas, and the influence of the Central Plains Dynasty will definitely be greatly affected.
Really, the idea of Pig's Knuckle is that instead of allowing the foreigners to take advantage, it would be better to benefit the people of Nanming who can no longer live.
You don’t have to go to islands with indigenous kingdoms, you can also go to desert islands with harsh environments but where you can open up wasteland for farming.
Not to mention anything else, the few desert islands he knew were quite large in size.
The large ones cover more than half of the provinces of the Central Plains, and the medium-sized ones also have mansions. As long as they are developed properly and millions or even tens of millions of people can live on the islands, there will be no problem at all.
The total population of the Nanming region at that time was probably only about 50 to 70 million.
If millions or even ten million people could be arranged to immigrate to the islands in the South China Sea, how much trouble could the Nanming court save?
Although this was just a pig's trotter's delusion, he still sent his confidants and even his relatives and family members to follow the merchants on several trips to the South China Sea, and even visited a few uninhabited islands.
Although the description of the exotic scenery on the island is not very detailed, it can still give the audience a general and vague idea.
In short, the environment is very different from that of the Central Plains. The kingdoms there are also various, with all kinds of strange and weird patterns.
What's even more exaggerated is that there are even women who serve as kings, and this is a local tradition.
These are very eye-opening for the audience, and at the same time they can't help but comment on them, thinking that barbarians are just barbarians and have no idea of ethics or morals at all.
Again, ordinary listeners just listen to it for fun, but some listeners hear amazing benefits.
The scenery of the South China Sea islands described in the novel, and some of the specialties on the islands, are all top-notch luxury goods here in Daqian.
For example, spices, gems, precious woods, etc., all of which are expensive in Daqian.
And these are actually very abundant on the islands where they are produced. They are not considered rare things. They are just as abundant as the specialties of a certain place in the Central Plains.
seriously?
The minds of some powerful and statusful beings come to life.
If the plot of the novel is not fiction but reality, then the South China Sea is definitely a huge treasure.
It's a novel, but the description is very clear. The indigenous kingdoms there have a pitiful population.
There are only a handful of so-called big countries with a population of tens of millions, usually in the millions or millions. There are even many island kingdoms with a population of only a few hundred thousand or even just over a hundred thousand.
With such a small population, it occupies such a good place. It's really a waste. If they can reach out, why not make a lot of money?
However, what makes them hesitate is that they have never heard of such news before?
In addition, these descriptions of the South China Sea island scenery are, after all, just plots in novels. No one knows whether they are true or false?
Therefore, some concerned people could only calm down their excitement and quietly send out their trusted men to the southeastern coast to inquire about the specific situation.
Of course, they are not without suspicion. Such news has been blocked by the big families on the southeast coast, so it is not impossible.
If you think about it from another perspective, if they had mastered such information and channels, they would immediately block the information completely and monopolize the huge benefits.
This is how everyone plays. I didn't think anything of it before, but now I feel the urge to kill.
In the past, they were the ones who blocked the news, but now they are the ones whose news is blocked, which is really unacceptable.
If the news is true, the wealthy families on the southeast coast don't know how much money they have made privately. Is it probably higher than the national treasury income of the entire country in one year?
Damn, this is a country that is really rich and incomparable.
As soon as they think of this possibility, a kind of crazy restlessness surges into the hearts of the dignitaries in the capital.
They are the top beings of the Daqian Dynasty. When did such a big piece of fat lose their share?
Those courtiers from the southeast suddenly felt inexplicable pressure and felt that their colleagues looked at them inappropriately.
He soon knew what was going on, and while secretly scolding Jia Rong of Ning Mansion for being a bastard, he quickly sent the news back to the southeast, asking certain beings to prepare.
But they didn't know that they were already being watched by many people. Such actions confirmed something and made the powerful people in the capital even more agitated.
Today's thoughts are different from those of the powerful.
His way of thinking and vision are naturally quite different from those of the powerful.
In the recent plot of the novel "Overseas Founding", the most concerning thing today is the fact that many island kingdoms in the South China Sea were captured by overseas barbarians.
As mentioned in the novel, most of the many island kingdoms in the South China Sea are vassal states of the Central Plains Dynasty and belong to the traditional sphere of influence.
Otherwise, the Qibao eunuchs from the Chengzu period of the former Ming Dynasty would not have gone so smoothly.
If it weren't for the many island kingdoms in the South China Sea belonging to the former Ming Dynasty, the huge fleet led by Qibao Eunuch would have fought them all the way.
Even if we can win, it would be a dream to do business with the other party and exchange specialties from the Central Plains for local gold, silver and jewelry.
The problem is that since the founding of Daqian, it seems that many island kingdoms in the South China Sea have not taken the initiative to pay tribute. Is it because they are controlled by foreign barbarians?
If this is the case, it is absolutely intolerable...