"If the teacher is appointed as the Chief Minister of Siam, then our future will be bright. We defied all odds and followed the teacher to this desolate place. Sure enough, our hard work was not in vain."
"This must be because the grandson saw the teacher's talent, so he entrusted the important task to the teacher. Now there are many vacancies in Siam. When the opportunity comes, I will follow the teacher to educate the Siamese barbarians."
"Nowadays, there seem to be many classmates in Wucheng, but the city is only a small area compared to Siam. We still need to write letters back to China and call on some classmates to come over and work together to help them."
"It makes sense. Although the Ming Dynasty was good, since Taisun opened schools in various places, there have been more and more scholars. I heard that last year there were hundreds of thousands of talented people, and they were like ministers across the river. Even if the number of official positions in the imperial court is constantly increasing, how can so many students
All settled.”
"As the saying goes, it's better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix. The deserted land here is full of vacancies. Why is it not a place for us to display our ambitions, enjoy the pleasures of the capital, and waste our great life in vain."
As soon as the news spread that Huang Zicheng was serving as Sizuo Bu, the envoy to Siam, his disciples and grandsons in Wucheng were extremely excited.
Everyone with some channels has heard that Taisun took the power of appointing local officials away from the Ministry of Personnel and gave it to his own teacher. This means that the teacher now has countless official positions waiting for them.
.
The small city of Wucheng can accommodate so many students, let alone the wider Siam area.
Today's scholars are not as blind as they used to be. They not only assess the Four Books and Five Classics, but the geography of the world is also within the scope of assessment, so everyone knows how big the entire Siam region is.
Moreover, after arriving in Wucheng, many students also discovered that the Nanyang region was not as barren as they imagined. In addition to the hotter weather, the food production here was still very sufficient.
Not every student has a strong background. Those who followed Huang Zicheng to Wucheng generally have poor family backgrounds. If their family relationships were really strong, they would not go all the way to Wucheng to seek an official position.
Nowadays, great wealth is beckoning to them.
The backyard of Wucheng Palace.
Zhu Yunwen said to his mother Lu with an ugly face: "Brother, what do you mean? He didn't even ask me. He just issued an order and took away my most powerful minister. Doesn't he want to see Wu Cheng at all?"
Development?"
"When I was in the capital, several imperial uncles were transferred to the grasslands by the Japanese state. I also thought that some of the imperial uncles went too far. They collected too much money from the Japanese state and raised private soldiers. This
Only then will I be attacked by Big Brother.”
"However, I do my duty here in Wucheng. I neither take away the people's wealth nor secretly support private soldiers. Why does the eldest brother still treat me like this? Do you really not care about any flesh and blood?"
Speaking of this, Zhu Yunwen gritted his teeth and said bitterly: "Grandpa Huang is still alive."
Looking at her son with a ferocious face, Mrs. Lu sighed: "Perhaps the grandson has his own ideas. Now that Siam has just been broken, it is the time when talents are needed. Looking at the imperial court, there are many talented people, but there is no choice.
But there are only so many people.”
"Mr. Huang is knowledgeable and has managed Wucheng in an orderly manner. Today's Wucheng should be 80% attributed to Mr. Huang. In addition, Mr. Huang understands the languages of various Southeast Asian countries. It is natural for my grandson to choose Mr. Huang."
"Now that Wucheng has stabilized and all laws are in place, even if Mr. Huang leaves, it will not have much impact."
"On the contrary, Yunwen, please don't behave like this again. For Mr. Huang, it is a happy event for him to be recognized by the court. You and Mr. Huang have a master-disciple relationship. Now that he has gone to Siam, he has to take care of his love.
By then, I, Wu Cheng, will also be able to get some help from him."
"The grandson's decree cannot be violated. It was sent directly to Wucheng. There is no room for change. Don't think too much about the matter now, lest bad words get spread."
Lu is already very satisfied with her current life. Wucheng is not big, but there is no shortage of anything here. You can even buy some goods from the capital, but they are just a bit more expensive. This little money is not worth it to Lu.
It's nothing to say.
She was worried that Yun Wen's troubles would go too far and eventually spread to the capital, making her grandson in the capital uncomfortable.
If the grandson is not happy, then the two of them are more happy.
In fact, in Lu's view, the advantages of transferring Huang Zicheng outweigh the disadvantages for Yun Wen. Huang Zicheng indeed made a great contribution to the construction of Wucheng, but at the same time, the power of the entire Wucheng was also concentrated in Huang Zicheng's hands.
.
Yunwen imitated Taisun's rule of thumb and delegated power to Huang Zicheng. However, could the situation in Wucheng be compared with that of the Ming Dynasty?
In addition, almost 80% of the officials in Wucheng are descendants of Huang Zicheng. All matters in Wucheng are decided by Huang Zicheng.
Lu said it several times, but Zhu Yunwen didn't take it seriously. Fortunately, Wucheng had the Ming Dynasty as his backing, so some things were not serious, so he didn't take it seriously.
Now that Huang Zicheng is gone, power will naturally return to his son.
Zhu Yunwen's anger gradually calmed down after listening to his mother's words.
After all, he was incompetent and furious, meaningless, so he said aggrievedly: "If Mr. Huang leaves Wucheng, his students will most likely resign and follow him, and the palace will probably become deserted all of a sudden."
Lu shook his head and said: "You are thinking too much. Wucheng itself does not need too many officials to govern properly. Previously, because of Mr. Huang's relationship, many positions were created to accommodate his students, but Wu was
The official positions in the city are bloated, making it difficult to implement government orders."
"Now that Mr. Huang has left, it will be a good time to streamline the bureaucracy and leave a lot of salary. And you don't have to worry too much. Although some official positions are here, many will leave, but many will remain."
"The city of Siam has just been defeated. Although the various places have surrendered, it is not difficult to go there rashly. It is not easy to do things. Those who are smarter can naturally figure it out."
When Lu said this, Zhu Yunwen felt relieved a lot.
But there was a bit of hesitation on his face.
Mrs. Lu looked at Yun Wen's expression and asked, "But what else is there to worry about?"
Zhu Yunwen was silent for a while, then raised his head and asked: "Mother, although I am the king of Wucheng, this feudal king is really useless. He has no soldiers and no power outside. Last year, the imperial court issued an order and transferred 30,000 of my elite soldiers.
, a decree came today, and I, the minister of the State of Wu, was also transferred."
"It is said to be a vassal state, but it is so different from the Ming Dynasty. Maybe the eldest brother has never taken me to heart."
"Now the Ming Dynasty is conquering the Southeast Asian countries under the order of the eldest brother. In addition to Lan Yu's group, there is also Yunxi's group to go to Majapayi."
"I want to use the wealth from the national treasury to carry out maritime trade and transportation, and to stockpile soldiers at sea to strengthen the power of my country of Wu. What do you think of my mother's wishes?"
Lu's eyes were filled with surprise.
Previously, Yun Wen had been disdainful of business matters, considering it a low-level industry, but now he suddenly raised this matter, obviously because he was deeply affected by Huang Zicheng's departure.
"My mother will definitely support you. It just so happens that your grandfather has always been interested in this matter and can take on this important task."
Lu's father, Lu Ben, was also a merchant at first. Later, because of Lu's relationship, he entered an official career and rose to great heights.
Daughters are more important than fathers. The reason why Lu Ben was willing to give up his position as minister of Taichang Temple and come to Wucheng was because he understood that his official position came from being the daughter of the crown prince.
Now that his daughter and grandson have gone to the vassal state, he is like a rootless duck in the capital, and he is easy to offend others.
Besides, I'm old and there's not many people here, so I might as well help my own family.
When he came to Wu, Lu Ben proposed the strategy of enriching the country through sea trade.
At that time, Huang Zicheng believed that sea trade should not be carried out and dealing with those merchants would cause him to lose face as a scholar.
Now that the situation has reversed, it is time to restart the matter.
"According to what my mother said, my grandfather will be responsible for the maritime trade." Zhu Yunwen nodded in agreement.
In fact, by now, Zhu Yunwen has also discovered the huge profits of sea trade, but he has been reluctant to participate because he is deeply influenced by Confucianism.
In fact, most of Wucheng's tax revenue comes from maritime trade.
After Lan Yu captured Siam, he gathered 120,000 Siamese soldiers and then hoarded them on the Siam Peninsula.
According to Zhu Ying's order, he wanted to take a boat from the Siam Peninsula to the Tianzhu area on the other side of the ocean.
According to the information provided by Li Jinglong, he crossed the Andaman Sea from the Siam Peninsula, then arrived at the Baigu Dynasty in Motama Bay, and then departed from the Baigu Dynasty, crossed the Rampreparis Strait, and crossed the Bay of Bengal to the East Ganga in India.
dynasty.
The Eastern Ganga Dynasty was the first step in conquering the Tianzhu region.
Tianzhu is not a specific country, but the Ming Dynasty's collective name for the current Indian region, similar to the name of the Central Plains.
However, unlike the Central Plains, the Tianzhu region rarely experienced great unification in history.
Throughout world history, division is the norm and unity is the anomaly.
The reason why Qin Shihuang was great was that he left the concept of great unification to later generations of kings, which led to the division and reunification of China, and eventually moved towards great unification.
Ancient India had a brief period of basic unity during the Asoka era. In fact, there were still some places that were not ruled, and the Mauryan Empire fell apart.
In today's ancient India region, there are still eight classified forces coexisting, which is similar to the concept of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in the Central Plains period.
Likewise, they have dozens of languages. Even within the same dynasty, several languages exist at the same time.
When comparing Tianzhu, we can understand how great the significance of Qin Shihuang's books and texts are in the same track.
While Zhu Ying asked Lan Yu to lead his army to attack the Tianzhu area, he also conquered Tubo and recovered the Delhi Sultanate.
Ancient India has always been known for being weak. The only Sultanate of Delhi that was relatively strong, although it belonged to India in later generations, it was actually Central Asia.
Historically, after the death of Timur, the empire split and collapsed. His sixth grandson, Babur, established the Mughal Empire and unified India. The territory of India in later generations came from the Mughal Empire.
Therefore, in Zhu Ying's opinion, Lan Yu's own 80,000 Ming soldiers, plus the more than 200,000 troops collected from Zhenla and Siam to attack Tianzhu, was not a big problem.
Maybe Blue Jade can help the entire Tianzhu region realize its dream of reunification in advance.
It can even help them unify their writing and language.
This is a matter of great merit.
Tianzhu is rich, has a vast territory and a large population, which is not bad compared to the Ming Dynasty. You must know that in later generations, the overall population of Tianzhu has surpassed that of the Central Plains.
If Lan Yu can control Tianzhu, he can accumulate enough troops to fight Timur here.
I think that under the leadership of Ming Dynasty, Tianzhu might be able to get rid of the reputation of weak soldiers.
However, just when Lan Yu was reorganizing his troops on the Siam Peninsula, things began to happen in Japan.
Since the four kings of the Japanese kingdom were transferred back to the Ming Dynasty to conquer the grasslands by Zhu Ying, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu could still hold back at first. After all, he didn't know when the four kings would come back.
However, after more than a year, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu sent to the Ming dynasty to find out that the four kings were exploring the grasslands in the north.
The Northern Expedition is not a secret, there are always news about it in Di newspapers.
Even in this situation, when many Ming dynasties in Japan called for the recapture of Kyushu Island, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu still did not send troops.
Until the Ming Dynasty started a war with Chenla and Siam.
The news reached the Japanese country, which made Ashikaga Yoshimitsu a little impatient.
Because according to the intelligence, the Ming Dynasty is now fighting with the grasslands, Chenla, and Siam. It is even said that it has sent troops to Tibet and a navy to Majapahit.
As Lan Yu garrisoned troops on the Siam Peninsula, it was clear that the war had no intention of ending.
This means that Ming Dynasty is at war with almost all neighboring countries.
Under such circumstances, it is naturally the best opportunity for Japan to regain Kyushu Island.
Even if Ashikaga Yoshimitsu can bear it now, the daimyo under his command really can't.
Kyushu Island is not a small place that the Japanese country can abandon casually. In fact, as the head of the Japanese country, Kyushu Island has the most developed external sea trade, occupying an important economic position in the Japanese country.
As the island closest to the Central Plains, Kyushu Island is also the place where the entire Japanese civilization arose. The first emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu, came from the Hyuga Kingdom on Kyushu Island.
After the Ming Dynasty occupied Kyushu Island, all the high-ranking nobles including Ashikaga Yoshimitsu were thinking about taking back Kyushu Island all the time.
But the power of the Ming Dynasty, especially the military capabilities of the four kings of the Ming Dynasty, made them feel afraid.
Unless a national war begins, it is basically impossible for the Japanese country to recapture Kyushu Island.
Even if a national war begins, the possibility of Japan being unified by the Ming Dynasty is much greater than that of recapturing Kyushu Island.
Also because the Ming Dynasty successfully landed on Kyushu Island and laid down its foundation, there are rumors everywhere in Japan today that Kamikaze has abandoned Japan. This made the Japanese people unstable, but there was nothing they could do.
Until now.
"General, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Ming Dynasty no longer cares about us. As long as the general gives the order, we will mobilize the army to take back Kyushu Island in one fell swoop."
"We also have powerful firearms now, and there are many Ming troops, Ming craftsmen, and firearms manufacturing workshops on Kyushu Island. If we can regain Kyushu Island, these will all belong to the great Japanese country."
"With these, Ming Dynasty will no longer think of occupying our Kyushu Island."