Chapter 623, the real vassal state of Ming Dynasty
"That's right~"
"We, the Ming Dynasty, should change it. As Liu Jin said, in terms of external affairs, the interests of the Ming Dynasty should be the core and fundamental, and everything must be done around this point."
Emperor Hongzhi praised happily.
People who don't do it for themselves will be punished by heaven and earth.
The same is true for a country. Everything should be based on the interests of the country.
The old Ming Dynasty was a really good man, a model of self-sacrifice for others.
Of course, this is actually a good example of trying to make someone look fat.
As long as someone comes to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty will feel very proud of itself, so the tribute paid by the other party is worth ten thousand taels of silver, and the Ming Dynasty will pay back several times, typically cutting off its own flesh to feed people.
After the news spread, sometimes some businessmen in the Nanyang region would pretend to be envoys from some unknown small country and come to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
You can easily defraud the Ming Dynasty to get generous rewards, and make a lot of money when you return to Nanyang.
The result of this was that later on, with the Tumubao Incident, the Ming Dynasty's national power declined rapidly, and the national treasury was empty, making it difficult for the Ming Dynasty to embarrass itself.
There were too many missions coming to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty every year, which put huge pressure on the Ming Dynasty's finances.
what to do?
There was no other choice but to order the envoys from various Southeast Asian countries not to frequently come to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
In the past, you came once or twice a year, but from now on, it will be more like once every three or four years.
At the same time, this was one of the reasons that prompted the Ming Dynasty to implement a sea ban, but of course it was only a small reason.
Because at that time, some ministers reported that the burden of paying tribute was too heavy, so the key to the sea ban was to forget it, so that few people would pay tribute in the future.
This is a typical example of the Ming Dynasty, who pretended to be fat.
After all, the foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty in the past was not a strategy of sustainable development at all. This is why Zheng He could only make seven voyages to the West, and there was no way to say eight, nine, year after year, month after month.
.
Because for the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He's next expedition to the West was a heavy burden.
Shipbuilding, materials, personnel, carried goods, etc., these are all heavy burdens for Ming Dynasty.
In addition, after having contacts with the Nanyang region, Nanyang countries rushed to pay tribute, which further increased the burden on the Ming Dynasty, and naturally it could not last long.
On the other hand, it was different when Taiping Hou Du Mingen went to Nanyang.
From the very beginning, the purpose was to make money, seek benefits, and open up wealth routes in the South Seas.
Because it was profitable to go to Nanyang, major commercial houses in Tianjin rushed to leave.
Now there is no need for official power at all. Just the Ming Dynasty private trading houses in Tianjin have a large number of merchant ships going to and from Nanyang every day.
Sell the goods from the Ming Dynasty to Nanyang, and then transport the goods from Nanyang back to the Ming Dynasty. Every time you go back to the Ming Dynasty, you can easily make profits ranging from hundreds of thousands of silver to millions of taels of silver.
Driven by huge profits, businessmen ran much faster and more diligently than the imperial ships.
At the same time, Ming Dynasty also became rich quickly in this process, unlike before, it was all a loss-making business.
Only in this way is the long-term way to continue to develop.
Profit is the root that drives everything.
However, these civil servants above the Ming Dynasty often shouted benevolence, justice and morality, seemingly for the sake of the reputation of the Ming Dynasty and the image of the great Ming Dynasty, but they were often at the expense of the interests of the Ming Dynasty, which could not last long at all.
"Liu Jin, how do you think our Ming Dynasty should treat these vassal states?"
Emperor Hongzhi thought for a while and asked.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen~"
"First of all, we have to figure out what kind of relationship these countries have with our Ming Dynasty."
"I believe that the relationship of vassal states cannot be easily given to these countries."
Liu Jin thought for a while and replied.
"There are hundreds of countries, large and small, in the Southeast Asian region. The big ones include Siam, Annan, and Myanmar, and the small ones include Sulu, Java, and Champa."
"In the past, because our Ming Dynasty would pay tribute many times to the countries that came to pay tribute, so all the countries in Southeast Asia came to pay tribute one after another, but how many of them really admire our style of the Ming Dynasty?"
"I'm afraid, most of them are actually coming to pay tribute to my Ming Dynasty for the generous rewards from my Ming Dynasty. Some of them are simply fake by some businessmen."
"Secondly, even if a country comes to pay tribute to our Ming Dynasty, to be honest, any tribute can only be regarded as for the friendly exchanges between the two countries."
"Essentially, this is just a friendly exchange and cannot be regarded as a true vassal state of our Ming Dynasty."
"For our Ming Dynasty, if we want to talk about the real vassal state, North Korea was the only one in the past, because North Korea not only attacked our Ming Dynasty every year, but more importantly, North Korea never opposed our Ming Dynasty and harmed our Ming Dynasty's interests."
"Another very important point is that North Korea truly admires our Chinese civilization, learns Chinese characters, values Sinology, respects Confucianism, changes Chinese surnames, and shares the same cultural values as our Ming Dynasty."
"This kind of country can be regarded as the true vassal state of our Ming Dynasty."
Liu Jin was actually a vassal state that the ministers of the Ming Dynasty talked about. Can these countries in Nanyang be regarded as vassal states?
That's just the people of Ming Dynasty trying to put money on their faces. People like Nanyang will not admit this.
When it comes to vassal states, it is still North Korea. This is the real vassal state. Everything is learned from the Ming Dynasty. Even in the bones, it is almost the same as the Ming Dynasty.
"Do you share the same cultural values as our Ming Dynasty?"
Hearing the new words popping out of Liu Jin's mouth again, Emperor Hongzhi and the ministers couldn't help but savor the words carefully.
Then they all nodded, saying this was a good thing.
Thinking about it carefully, it seems that this is really the case, that is, North Korea and Ming Dynasty have always had the strongest relationship, and they have the same culture and language. This can be regarded as a true vassal state.
Shared cultural values were not proposed by Liu Jin. This is a very important thing in later generations. The most critical point in measuring whether the relationship between two countries is good or not is this.
Many countries in the Western world have very close relations with each other. Why, because they share common values. In the final analysis, they all have the same ancestors and are all English-speaking countries.
If Ming Dynasty wants to accept a younger brother, then naturally it should be the same.
It doesn’t mean that if you pay tribute to me, I will accept you as my younger brother.
You must also be like me, learn my Chinese civilization and system, and share the same values as me, only then can you be considered my true younger brother.
"North Korea can be regarded as a true vassal state of our Ming Dynasty~"
"Annan and Japan, although these two countries also imitated our Chinese civilization, they were not thorough and ambitious. Annan has always coveted our land of Ming and Guangxi, and has repeatedly gone north to invade our Chinese land many times in history."
"The ambitions of the Japanese country are also very great. The Japanese pirates are rampant along the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty, but the Japanese king and the shogunate of the Japanese country do not restrain or control them. This is enough to show that they are not sincere towards the Ming Dynasty."
"As for the countries in Southeast Asia, they are far away from our Ming Dynasty, and it has always been inconvenient to travel. Although they admire our Chinese civilization, it is only because of our Ming Dynasty's beautiful porcelain, silky silk, and fragrant tea."
"Essentially, they don't have an in-depth understanding of our Chinese civilization, so naturally they can't talk about learning from our Chinese civilization."
"So these countries in the Nanyang region are not considered vassal states of the Ming Dynasty at all. We are just trying to flatter ourselves."
"When the other party comes to pay tribute, we will be happy to say that they are our vassal state."
"I don't know, but in their eyes, we, the Ming Dynasty, are just stupid people who are easy to deceive."
Without being polite, Liu Jin also directly pointed out that Ming Dynasty was so proud of its external achievements that it wanted to save face and suffer the consequences.
After hearing Liu Jin's words, Fu Han, the Minister of Rites, looked hot and felt as if he had been slapped.
As for the other ministers, they were lost in thought. After thinking about it carefully, they found that it was exactly what Liu Jin said.
The so-called vassal states are just self-deception. Countries in Nanyang often come to you to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty for their own benefit. It does not mean that they truly admire your Chinese civilization and want to learn from your Chinese civilization.
"One word reveals the essence~"
Liu Jian, the chief assistant of the cabinet, couldn't help but nodded and said.
"That's right. Now, the only real vassal state of our Ming Dynasty is Korea, and Japan and Annan are not included."
Li Dongyang also sighed and said.
"That's very good. Unfortunately, we used to always deceive ourselves and immerse ourselves in the world of our own imagination."
Emperor Hongzhi also nodded slightly.
Vassal states, vassal states, did they really surrender to the Ming Dynasty?
If we surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, there would be no Annan people who repeatedly went north to invade Guangxi, and there would be no Japanese pirates rampaging along the southeast coast, let alone the killing of our people of the Ming Dynasty in Crescent City in the Luzon Kingdom.
If you really admire our Chinese civilization, you should be like North Korea, learn Chinese characters, respect Confucianism and Taoism, change your surname to Chinese, and learn everything from the Ming Dynasty, instead of just for the exquisite porcelain, silky silk and mellow fragrance of the Ming Dynasty.
Tea leaves and other things.
If it were really a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, it should be like North Korea. From generation to generation, it would not dare to offend the Ming Dynasty. When the king changes, it should ask for the canonization of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
If it were really a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, it should be like North Korea, willing to go through fire and water for its elder brother anytime, anywhere, without hesitation.
If you really let the countries in these areas of Nanyang, the so-called vassal states, harm their own interests to fulfill the Ming Dynasty, do you think they would agree?
If you asked them to learn Chinese characters from the Ming Dynasty, speak Chinese, respect Confucianism and Taoism, and change their surnames to Chinese, do you think they would be willing?
I'm afraid that when the time comes, they will reveal their true faces.
Afraid of power but not moral, they were just afraid of Ming's power, so they sent people to please Ming.