Maritime trade must be developed, but we cannot open up the coast uncontrollably. Otherwise, with the backward and primitive governance capabilities of the Tang Dynasty, chaos will easily occur. Li Xuan is preparing to open more coastal ports in the future.
, but this is later, not now!
The development of maritime trade and industry and commerce was the established national policy of the Tang Dynasty, or Li Xuan, but how to develop it is a question worth considering. First, after opening up trade, you will face a very real problem, that is, there will be many contacts with foreigners.
Afterwards, frictions, contradictions, and even colonial behaviors like those of later generations will occur.
And now, Li Xuan must put an end to this from the beginning!
As for the fact that the Portuguese are unwilling to leave and still want to fight, just fight, what the heck are you afraid of!
The Ming Dynasty was able to drive away Portugal decades ago, so there is no reason why the Tang Dynasty could not. As for the Portuguese, they had strong ships and powerful guns and could not defeat them at sea!
This is also a problem that is not worth mentioning. Our Datang Navy can't even defeat any medium-sized pirates now. It is normal for us to be unable to defeat the Portuguese. Once the Portuguese come, our Datang Navy will not weaken it.
to fight with them.
Besides, the Navy of the Tang Dynasty did not control the coast of Guangdong to begin with, while the Navy of the Ming Army always controlled the coast of the Pearl River Estuary. There were already one or more enemies that could not be defeated. It would not hurt to have another Portuguese.
But as long as they dare to land, the big brother of the Datang Navy, the Datang Army, will teach them how to behave in minutes!
As for the naval blockade, the Ming navy was so powerful that it could not block the maritime trade between the Tang Dynasty and the Nanyang region. Besides, it blocked the maritime trade between the Tang Dynasty and the Nanyang region. Who would these Portuguese do business with?
If the Portuguese dare to do something that will hurt both sides, Li Xuan will accompany them. Anyway, sea trade is just the icing on the cake these days. The Tang Dynasty today does not rely on sea trade to make a living.
When the industrialization of the Tang Dynasty reaches a large scale and it is necessary to obtain a large number of dumping markets for industrial products and sources of raw materials from overseas, sea trade will be indispensable at that time.
And this day is probably not available for more than ten years or even longer!
After the day's cabinet meeting, Li Xuan's aggressive and even thunderous handling of the matter surprised a group of cabinet ministers. At the same time, they felt deeply that dealing with foreigners was not a good job.
If you are not good, you will be punished by His Majesty, just like the great scholar Wang Wenhua.
But these things have nothing to do with them, because they are no longer responsible for these affairs, and the person responsible for these affairs will be the newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs today, so let the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs have a headache!
Today's imperial cabinet meeting has just ended. Deng Chongqing, the former right minister of the Ministry of Rites and in charge of feudal affairs, was promoted inexplicably and was appointed by Li Xuan as the left minister of the newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, in this newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Li Xuan was
The minister was not appointed immediately, so now all affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs fall on the shoulders of his left minister.
Nowadays, the affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are in a mess, which makes him a little overwhelmed!
When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was first established, all the manpower was transferred from the feudal affairs department of the previous Ministry of Rites. However, it has just been established, and even the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not yet known. It just needs to start dealing with the Folangji.
Someone illegally occupied Haojing.
At today's cabinet meeting, it was decided that the Hao Jing incident was illegal. A group of local officials in Guangzhou Prefecture secretly colluded with the Folangji people. Now they have all been dismissed from their posts and investigated. However, the subsequent handling of this matter has not
This needs to be handled by the new department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Therefore, after taking office in a hurry, Deng Chongqing immediately asked for an interview. The reason was to discuss with His Majesty how to deal with the subsequent affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After meeting Li Xuan, Deng Chongqing politely requested His Majesty's instructions and directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out its work.
Li Xuan was not polite about this, and immediately said: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' future work will have two focuses, one is vassal affairs, and the other is Western affairs!"
"As for the vassal affairs, you have done well before, you can continue as usual!" Li Xuan said this, and Deng Chongqing also listened with his ears pricked up!
Li Xuan said that their vassal affairs were done well, but in fact Deng Chongqing knew that there was no such thing as vassal affairs at all. The so-called vassal affairs did not refer to the affairs of the vassal kings in the dynasty, but the affairs of the foreign ministers and vassal state.
For example, the vassal states in Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other places were all traditional vassal states of the Chinese Dynasty, and most of them would request canonization and tribute from the Central Chinese Dynasty.
But now there are no vassal states that have officially attacked the Tang Dynasty. The suzerain state that people recognize is still the Ming Dynasty, not this rebel dynasty that has only risen for a year or two: the Tang Dynasty!
So feudal affairs don’t exist at all!
Chieftain affairs were originally handled by the feudal affairs department, but soon Li Xuan believed that chieftain affairs were internal affairs, not feudal affairs, so he removed this right from the feudal affairs department and assigned it to the subordinates of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
, because the Ministry of Household Affairs is the agency that handles civil affairs.
But in terms of foreign affairs, the feudal affairs department has never had contact with it before. The limited exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and foreigners were mostly led by the Ministry of Commerce, with the army and navy also participating, and even local governments such as Guangzhou and Lianzhou were also involved.
, only the former Domain Affairs Department and the current Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not participated.
So Deng Chongqing is still a little unclear on how to carry out the work!
Li Xuan also saw the doubts in Deng Chongqing's eyes, so he said: "In the matter of foreign affairs, the first priority is communication, and then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can set up several departments to be responsible for communicating with foreigners from various countries, and at the same time, lead and be responsible for various negotiations with various countries.
In the future, we can also set up foreign consulates in various countries and send personnel to be stationed in the country to be responsible for communication!"
"In addition, you all need to stick to a bottom line, which is to put national interests first and strive for all kinds of interests for Datang as much as possible!"
"For example, didn't some foreigners submit a letter to Lianzhou Prefecture some time ago, requesting a reduction in tariffs on some goods? These are things that you need to communicate and negotiate with!"
The conversation between Li Xuan and Deng Chongqing lasted for nearly half an hour. Li Xuan almost took out what little knowledge he had about foreign affairs and taught Deng Chongqing step by step how to carry out foreign affairs work.
Then, Deng Chongqing said: "If we reach some agreements with these foreigners, what will we do if these agreements are not good for the Tang Dynasty in the future?"
Li Xuan did not answer his question directly, but said: "Treaties are meant to be torn up!"
After hearing this, Deng Chongqing was silent for a while, and then said: "I understand!"
Li Xuan nodded slightly. He was quite optimistic about Deng Chongqing. Although this person did not have any real power before and was not one of the core ministers of the Tang Dynasty, he was able to climb up to the Ministry of Rites in the Tang Dynasty.
The honorable position of Right Minister is full of talents and abilities.
Just like the Ming Dynasty, in the Tang Dynasty, the Ministry of Rites, which was responsible for etiquette and educational affairs, was a truly noble position, especially since the Hanlin Academy had not become a place to raise hopes, but a
Li Xuan's private secretary agency was established. In this case, the Ministry of Rites, which was responsible for the imperial examinations and education, became even more noble.
Although Li Xuan himself didn't think so, he couldn't stand the people below him, even a group of cabinet bosses, so many middle-level officials hoped to enter the Ministry of Rites to support themselves, and then work elsewhere.
For example, for the same minister, if the right minister of the household department is transferred to the right minister of the rites department, that is a promotion, but vice versa, it is a demotion.
Regarding these default rules in officialdom, Li Xuan has no intention of changing anything!
This Deng Chongqing did not serve in the Ministry of Rites before. He was previously the Right Minister of the Ministry of Commerce. He was transferred to the Right Minister of the Ministry of Rites in the second half of last year. According to convention, after he has transitioned to the position of Right Minister of the Ministry of Rites for a period of time, he will serve in other departments in the future.
Zuo Shilang.
And this is indeed the case, he is now promoted to the rank of Minister Zuo of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After Deng Chongqing left, Li Xuan continued to be busy meeting people, but this time he was not meeting civilian officials, but military generals. He first called Bao Yifen from the navy and Zeng Ziwen from the army.
He said that a war may break out with the Francois recently, and asked the navy and army what they thought!
When Bao Yifen heard that there was going to be a war with the Folangji people, and it was because the Folangji people illegally occupied Haojing, he naturally expressed his anger about this matter without hesitation, and then firmly stated that if a war started,
The navy must fight to the death!
But just after saying this, Bao Yifen tactfully suggested that not a single regular warship of the navy has been built yet, and the earliest third-class frigates will not be commissioned until the second half of this year. Now, they rely on the second-class frigates.
There are more than a dozen modified armed merchant ships such as Cantonese ships, sand ships, and Fuzhou ships supporting the scene. They can't even control the sea control of the Pearl River Estuary. If they want to start a war with the Fo Langji people, they may not be able to do it!
Because Bao Yifen knew that although the Folangji people did not have many warships in Nanyang, they still had a few ships, and there were also many armed merchant ships. If this really happened, I won’t say how many ships there were, but both sides
The difference in artillery is definitely more than ten times.
Moreover, Bao Yifen tactfully suggested that both the army and the navy are currently purchasing artillery from the Francois. If a war breaks out, the artillery trade may not be able to continue.
But after Bao Yifen expressed these concerns, he said in a very firm tone: If a war really breaks out, the navy will definitely fight to the death, and will never back down even if all the warships are sunk.
Bao Yifen said so, and Li Xuan was also quite speechless!