Then Lao Zhu picked up the memorial of "Huating County Inspection Department Reports North Korea's Tribute" and said to Yunxi: "It is very important for the vassal state to pay tribute, especially because it is the first time that the North Korea has paid tribute since the founding of the country.
However, except for the request for help when being invaded by other vassal states, such matters are easy to deal with. They only need to be transferred to the Ministry of Rites and the Court of Lifan for reception. This is the first time that Korea has paid tribute, so the Ministry of Rites can slightly improve the reception.
Just meet the specifications and no other processing is required.”
However, even though Lao Zhu said this, he still read it himself, then asked Yunxi to take a look, and said: "Just take a look, you don't need to pay special attention."
But when Yunxi picked up the book and took a look, he found that one thing he thought was very important had been ignored by Lao Zhu.
Yunxi didn't look at it seriously at first, just glanced at it casually. But he inadvertently saw the words above: '...Please ask His Majesty the Ming Emperor to grant our country the island of Jeju...' and he immediately became energetic.
Jeju Island was once an independent country in history, with the country name Tamna. In 1105 AD, it was officially annexed by Goryeo and established Tamna County, which was later changed to Tamna County. After the rise of the Mongols in 1206 AD, they conquered it in 1211 AD
Northeastern, and then conquered Goryeo without much effort and made him surrender. However, some of the Goryeo people who were dissatisfied with the Mongols fled to Jeju Island. The Mongols did not send troops to conquer this place until 1273 AD.
Then the Mongols took advantage of the situation and took direct control of Jeju Island. It was not until 1380 AD that the people who defended the island surrendered to Goryeo. However, Goryeo did not classify it as a mainland this time, but established a puppet to rule. But the Ming Dynasty
It was not recognized at the time. After the founding of North Korea, it took over Jeju Island, and now it has come to formally request the Ming Dynasty for its grant.
Yunxi really didn't know that Jeju Island was still considered the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but now that he knew it, he would not let it fall under the control of North Korea. He said to Lao Zhu: "Grandpa, have you noticed that North Korea has asked to grant Jeju Island
Did you request it?”
Lao Zhu said: "Grandpa saw it, what's wrong? Is there any problem?"
Yunxi knew as soon as he heard that Lao Zhu didn't care about this kind of thing. In Lao Zhu's view (and the emperors after the Ming Dynasty were similar), it was just a small island, so what's the big deal. But after Lao Zhu officially established the country, he transferred Zhili to
, all the islands off the coast of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces except Zhoushan Islands have been given up, so now he doesn’t care if an island is given to North Korea; not to mention that in his opinion, there is no difference between North Korea’s control and Ming’s control.
But Yunhe didn't think so. It's useless to worry about the islands that have been abandoned, but Jeju Island has not given up. And if Jeju Island is given to North Korea now, and if his strategy of 'integrating' North Korea fails in the future, he may never give up again.
Can't take it back.
So now he had to find a way to persuade Lao Zhu. Yunxi knew that his ideas were different from Lao Zhu's, so he had to find other reasons. He thought for a while and said: "Grandpa, my grandson heard that Jeju Island is a good place to raise horses.
The best land for raising horses in the Ming Dynasty is all on the side of the Great Wall, which is extremely vulnerable to intrusion from Beidi. Having Jeju Island as a horse breeding place can alleviate this situation."
Lao Zhu said: "You can also leave the horses to North Korea to raise them. If necessary, you can get them from North Korea."
Yunxi replied: "Grandpa, how is the direct jurisdiction of the country the same as the agency administration of the vassal state? If it was the direct administration of the Ming Dynasty, it would be enough to directly deploy horses when needed; how can it be so convenient to be an agent of a vassal state?"
Lao Zhu didn't care whether to give Jeju Island to North Korea or not. Now seeing that Yunxi was so insistent and that horses were indeed very important, he said: "Then it's your wish not to give Jeju Island to North Korea. Let Tai
Pusa established the Jeju Pastoral Supervisor there, established a chief registrar's office, and appointed a chief registrar of the sixth rank to take charge of civil affairs."
Yunxi achieved his goal, felt comfortable in his heart, and his expression naturally changed from cloudy to clear. Of course, Lao Zhu saw this. He asked: "Yunxi, Jeju Island is a small overseas island with a small land and few people. If it is not suitable for raising horses, how can it be better?"
It’s just a useless place that is tasteless to eat and a pity to abandon, so why should you care so much?”
Yunxi knew that issues of values could not be communicated, so he could only say: "My grandson thinks that our Ming Dynasty needs a completely safe place to raise horses. Otherwise, we will pay more unnecessary casualties in dealing with Mongolia in northern Saibei."
Lao Zhu mistakenly thought that Yunxi was still thinking about Qu Neng's excessive casualties in the battle, and said: "Yunxi, when a general uses troops to fight, the most important thing is victory or defeat, not casualties. If the battle is lost, we will think about it later."
The price to win back is much greater than the casualties at the time." Yunxi could only try his best to show his sincerity and accept it.
Lao Zhu also approved some words and put the memorial in the box with the words "Ministry of Rites". Then he picked up the memorial "Fengyang Mansion Reports on Flood Control in the Huaihe River" and said to Yunxi: "Of course the flood control in the Huaihe River is
This is a very important matter, especially since Fengyang Prefecture has the imperial mausoleum of your great-grandfather, and the Sizhou under its jurisdiction also contains the ancestral mausoleum of my ancestor of the Ming Dynasty (Note 1). It is even more important. However, the Huaihe River floods in spring.
It’s summer, it’s already late autumn and almost winter, so this is something that we must deal with but we don’t have to worry about it.”
Then I read the contents of the memorial myself first, and then let Yunxi read it again.
In modern times, Yunxi likes to read maps in conjunction with history. He can do nothing but eat and just look at maps all day long. Now in the Ming Dynasty, he also likes to look at maps when he knows something happened in a certain place to find the place where it happened.
Of course, Sizhou Ancestral Tombs and Fengyang Imperial Tombs are also one of the things that we pay special attention to. Fortunately, Yunxi is the grandson of the emperor, otherwise there will be problems if he loves to read maps.
So when Yunxi read the location of the memorial, a map there emerged in his mind, and he knew that the focus of flood control and embankment construction was near the ancestral mausoleum. Then he read the memorial carefully several times and thought about it for a while.
After a while, he said: "Grandpa, judging from this information, there should be no problems with Fengyang Mansion's dams when the floods raged this summer, so the government's request to repair the dams near Sizhou this time should be just to prepare for trouble."
Lao Zhu praised: "You are right this time! The floods in Fengyang Prefecture did not rage in the summer, and there were even no problems with the dams in the entire Huaihe River Basin. So how do you think you should deal with this discount?"
Yunxi had already thought about it and said: "Grandpa, my grandson thinks that although there is no problem with the dam this summer, the first generation dam in Sizhou is extremely important and can be allowed to repair the embankment. However, my grandson knows that the reason why the dam was built in the late Meng Yuan Dynasty
There are wars all over the place because of flood control. Will frequent flood control have a bad impact on the Ming Dynasty?"
Lao Zhu said: "How can the former Yuan Dynasty be compared with our Ming Dynasty? Even if there are one or two borers, they will be found and removed. This time, we agreed to the flood control strategy." Although Lao Zhu originally cared about the ancestral mausoleum, he was also concerned about this.
It doesn't matter if we repair the dike or not, but after what Yunxi said, it must be repaired.
Then Lao Zhu wrote a few lines on the paper and said: "Although this flood control report is submitted to the Huai'an Prefecture, it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Works, so the memorial should be sent to the Ministry of Works for processing; a copy should be copied and sent back to Huai'an Prefecture.
"As he said that, he threw the memorial into the box with the words 'Ministry of Industry' written on it.
Note 1: Zhu Yuanzhang’s grandfather and great-grandfather were buried in Sizhou, so the Zhu family’s ancestral mausoleum is in Sizhou. Fengyang is where Zhu Yuanzhang’s father and uncle, three brothers and two nephews are buried.