Chapter 673 Southwest Jingwei - Slaves and Buddhism
After asking the Ahong envoys to retreat, Zhu Chu left them behind. For him, the two countries on the other side of the mountain and the sea were not worth caring about. He might as well discuss it with his men.
Policy towards Bago State.
Of course, the most important thing is the affairs within the domain. Real Chinese people have always known that having a father and a mother is not as good as having a mother. As long as the domestic affairs are done well, China will naturally become a powerful country, instead of being like some people wearing Zhang Huaxia
A banana with human skin will only recognize foreign dads all day long.
Although Zhu Chu is ruling a small country now, who made him the prince of a big country? He still has this kind of thinking of a big country.
So after the envoys from the two countries retreated, he immediately said to Zhuo Jing and He Fu: "I won't take you two to the capital. You stay in Ava and take charge of the land allocated to the soldiers. You must do it."
If there is no impartiality, all the soldiers will receive the same amount of land; if the land is insufficient, the generals will be slightly aggrieved, but each will be rewarded with a house in the city and a few slaves."
"This slave?" Zhuo Jing said with some doubts: "Your Highness, the Ming Law prohibits keeping slaves. Although it is difficult to completely ban it, Your Highness still shouldn't reward them."
"From today on, this article is abolished in Min Fan!" Zhu Zhen said categorically: "Although Min Fan is a vassal vassal of the Ming Dynasty, His Majesty has given most of the power to Gu He and you two, and has not prohibited the use of laws and regulations.
The actual situation is to modify the "Da Ming Code", so I want to abolish this article."
"How does Your Highness want to revise it?" Zhuo Jing did not argue about whether it could be revised, but asked for more constructive opinions.
"It is strictly forbidden to keep Han slaves. You can keep local people as slaves, but it is strictly forbidden to go against your will. It must be the person herself or her parents are willing to let her be a slave."
"And a death contract must be signed. From then on, this person and his original family will be strangers without the permission of the owner."
"However, the provisions on slave crimes in the "Da Ming Code" are basically still used."
According to the provisions of the "Da Ming Law", slaves are not equivalent to goods, but a low-level person. Only the master's family does not break the law if they kill the slaves. It is also a crime for others to kill the slaves of another family, but it is more common.
The crime of a person is reduced by one degree: those who are punishable by beheading are reduced to hanging, and those who are punishable by hanging are reduced to exile.
If slaves beat each other to death, the slave himself shall bear criminal responsibility and should be beheaded or hanged. Of course, under normal circumstances, if the slaves of a large family fight and kill each other, they will handle it internally.
"At the same time, following the example of the Han Dynasty, a slave tax was levied. If the family kept slaves, they would need to pay taxes on a per capita basis."
"Encourage large families to hire servants in a way similar to the Song Dynasty, instead of using all slaves. The hired servants do not have to pay the slave tax."
"Yes, Your Highness." Zhuo Jing and He Fu said. They didn't think there was anything unreasonable about Zhu Chu's order. If these measures could be resolutely implemented, it would actually be better than the provisions of the "Da Ming Code".
"But Your Highness, where do the slaves given to civil and military officials come from?" Zhuo Jing asked.
"Didn't I capture many children from Bago this time? These children were rewarded to them. They were also rewarded with a few women."
"As for most of the women who came back from being captured, aren't there still many unmarried soldiers in the army? As long as the unmarried soldiers are willing to marry a barbarian woman, they can be rewarded with one," Zhu Zhen said.
"Yes, Your Highness. However, it would be best for Your Highness to personally announce this matter to the soldiers," He Fu said.
"Then get ready, call all the three guards, and talk to them in the afternoon," Zhu Zhen said.
After lunch in the afternoon, the soldiers of the three guards were all driven to the open space outside the city, and some soldiers of the Yongchang guards also came to join in the fun. Standing on the high platform where Mingjis attacked and surrendered a few days ago, Zhu Zhen greeted them An exchange of land and a reward for women were announced.
The soldiers of the three guards were all excited. They were worried about the land in Yongchang, so Zhu Chu announced that the exchange of land near Ava City would relieve them of their worries; not to mention that bachelors can still divide women.
Suddenly, people from the high platform were cheering for "thousand years old"; some people took the initiative to increase Zhu Zhen's age and shouted "nine thousand years old". However, they were immediately stopped by the Baihu and Qianhu who led them.
But those Yongchang guards who came to join in the fun were not happy. Since the separation of the army and the people, even in the late Tang Dynasty when military generals had high status during the feudal rebellion, most families were unwilling to marry their daughters to ordinary soldiers. Yunnan was once again an exile. In the prisoner's place, there are also many soldiers in the Yongchang guards who have no wives.
They also shouted loudly, saying: "Your Highness cannot be partial. We are all His Highness's soldiers and we have to divide the women!" Hundreds or thousands of households could not suppress them. Zhu Chu could only announce that all soldiers who had not yet married a wife could sign up to receive the prize. Barbarian woman.
But after returning to the palace, they found that there were not enough barbarian women captured this time, and everyone hurriedly tried to think of a way. Finally, Li Guan said: "Your Highness, you can send someone to buy women from the King of Bago. They will definitely have many Burmese people after they put down the rebellion of the Burmese people." When women are captured, buy them from them and distribute them to the soldiers.”
"Isn't this bad?" Zhuo Jing said.
"What's wrong with this? Even according to Confucian theory, it would be better for these women to belong to us Han people. The Pegu people are still very barbaric, and the lives of Burmese women in their hands would be worse than death. Let's take them from the Pegu people. I bought them to rescue them from the barbaric Bago people." Chu Jie, who participated in the war to eliminate the Burmese in Bago territory, said without changing his expression.
Of course Zhuo Jing would not agree. Although he felt that it was indeed better for these women to be wives of Han soldiers than in the hands of barbarians, he would not support what Li Guan and Chu Jie said.
But He Fu supported the matter. Although Zhu Chu did not express his position clearly, Zhuo Jing understood that Zhu Chu was just caring about his reputation and did not say anything. In fact, he supported it, so his objection was invalid. The meeting in front of the palace approved the purchase of women from Bago. decision.
Afterwards, Zhu Chun met with the original officials in Ava who had been retained. It was impossible for Han officials to take over such a city of fifty or sixty thousand people right away. The insufficient number of people and unfamiliarity with the situation would cause the city to be in chaos. Zhu Chun retained about Sixty percent of the officials were among them. Among the lower-level officials, only a few who were hated by the people in the city were fired, and the rest were retained.
Zhu Chu lectured these people, mainly to let them serve Min Fan with peace of mind and not to have any ideological worries. At the same time, he also warned them that they must not continue their previous bad habits, and if they violated the laws, they would be punished, etc.
Of course, these retained officials immediately said: "Your Highness, I will serve your Highness loyally without any worries... I will definitely abide by the laws of Min Fan..."
Zhu Ming then comforted some of the retained officials with the highest positions and allowed them to go down.
The next step was to summon the eminent monks from the local temple. The eminent monks, headed by the abbot of Ava Temple, Master Viradhu, walked into the palace to pay homage to Zhu Zhen.
The treatment of these people was completely different from the treatment of the officials just now. Most of them were targets of wooing, and Zhu Zhen used Chinese Buddhist etiquette to return gifts to them in a very approachable manner.
Viradoo frowned. He had sent disciples to the Ming Dynasty, so while other eminent monks were still puzzled by Zhu Chu's actions, he had already figured out that this was the etiquette of Chinese Buddhism.
But their Ava is Theravada Buddhism, which is different from Chinese Buddhism. Since Zhu Zhen can think of using the etiquette of Chinese Buddhism to perform rituals, of course he will also know that the etiquette of Chinese Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism are different.
So, ‘Is he going to promote Chinese Buddhism in Ava?’ Villadu thought.
Of course, Zhu Chu didn't know that his few actions would allow Viradoo to guess his future actions, so he enthusiastically invited them to sit down and chat.
Zhu Chu had studied Buddhist classics. At this time, he picked up the Buddhist scriptures "Forty-Two Chapter Sutra", "The Sutra of Ten Grounds Breaking Knots", "Fa Hai Zang Sutra", "Buddha Sutra", which were said to be passed from India rather than produced in China.
Chatting with Virattu and others.
Therefore, Viradoo was even more sure that Zhu Chu wanted to promote Chinese Buddhism in Ava. Although Zhu Chu only knew a little bit about these classics, and they were basically giving lessons to Zhu Chu, it can be seen that he paid great attention to Buddhism, so he just said
The use of Chinese Buddhist etiquette is even more unlikely to be done haphazardly.
Therefore, the preoccupied Viradoo didn't say much, and spent most of his time lowering his head in deep thought; however, the other monks would not let go of such an opportunity to face Zhu Zhen, and kept "discussing the meaning of the scriptures" with him, and Zhu Zhen did not pay attention.
to the silence of Viradoos.
Soon it was evening time, and Zhu Zhen said with a smile: "As you know, I am going to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to have an audience, and the time is very urgent, so I won't leave all the eminent monks to talk at night."
These eminent monks immediately got up, exchanged a few words of humility with Zhu Ming, and left the palace.
As soon as they walked out of the palace, Viradhu said to his junior brother Bala: "If you are asked to convert to other lineages of Buddhism in the future, will you be willing?"
"What's going on, senior brother, why do you ask this question?" His junior brother Bala asked inexplicably.
Viradoo didn't speak any more, but Bala was not stupid either, and immediately asked: "Is it possible that the new king wants to promote Chinese Buddhism in Ava?"
"Keep your voice down!" Viradoo said to him. Then he said softly: "I only guessed it from some of his details. I can't guarantee it." He told the details he saw.
"Brother, this doesn't mean anything." Bala felt that this was not evidence.
"Because I'm not sure, I'm just talking to you, not everyone else. But I think we'd better think about what we would do if the monarch really wants to promote Chinese Buddhism." Villadu said.
"This," Bala couldn't figure out what to do for a moment.
"Alas," Villadu sighed, "Why didn't the Ming Dynasty just live in the Central Plains like the previous dynasties?"