Chapter nine hundred and eighty second annex, annex, refuse to accept you bite me
Regarding how to deal with the Ryukyu issue, the Navy's idea is straightforward, that is, to directly annex the Ryukyus, and not to engage in other messy colonization, puppets, etc.
But regarding the idea of the Navy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a different opinion. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that although both Ryukyu and overseas areas are undisputed territories of the Tang Empire, these territories have been borrowed by local indigenous people.
It has been many years, and most of the local natives are uncivilized barbarians. If the empire directly regains these territories, how should it deal with these uncivilized natives?
Treat them directly as subjects of the empire?
What a nonsense. You are just a barbarian, but you actually want to become a subject of the Tang Dynasty. It’s a beautiful idea. So far, under the entire Tang Dynasty, only one barbarian in the true sense has become a subject of the empire, and that is
Apart from Gerdes, there is currently no other person who has become a subject of the empire.
But it is not good to kill them directly. After all, the empire is a country of benevolence and righteousness. Even if you want to kill them, you have to do it quietly. Doing such a thing with a big fanfare is not a big deal in reality, but it does not look good.
Therefore, regarding the Ryukyu issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' initial idea is to first actually control the area, and then influence the area in all aspects of culture, politics, economy, military, diplomacy, etc., educate the local people, implement the policy of sinicization, and then convert the area
The taxation, military and other powers were completely consolidated, and finally the nominal king was abolished and a state capital was established.
And this policy is actually an upgraded version of the policy of reforming the land and returning it to local people!
It is roughly divided into two steps. The first step is the Ryukyu Kingdom or the Ryukyu Kingdom. However, the Tang Dynasty actually controls the place and conducts enlightenment at the same time. When the enlightenment is almost complete, it is logical to set up a state capital in the place and turn it into an empire.
Directly administered territory.
Although the suggestions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are completely unnecessary in the view of the military, in Li Xuan's view, they have certain merits, but they only have certain merits. Li Xuan did not say that he fully agreed with this.
plan.
First of all, Li Xuan felt the same as the military generals. Regarding the Ryukyu issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was too cautious and took the issue of face too seriously. It was worried that directly annexing Ryukyu would destroy the benevolence and justice of the Tang Empire.
Imagery.
But the problem is? For the Tang Empire, which aims to establish an empire on which the sun never sets, it needs an image of Mao Renyi!
Without annexation or colonization, how can we build an empire on which the sun never sets?
If you want to achieve Li Xuan's ideals and the goals of the Tang Dynasty in the next hundred years, you should have such an attitude: I am awesome, I want to expand, I want to annex, you bite me when I have something to do?
This is the attitude that an empire on which the sun never sets should have!
If you talk about benevolence, righteousness and morality, even if you are secretive about establishing a colony, don't expect the sun to never set in this life.
Regarding the current situation, Li Xuan still feels that many officials in the Tang Dynasty are too deeply influenced by the concept of traditional hypocrites. When dealing with some small foreign countries, they talk about benevolence and righteousness every day and pretend to be like a heavenly king.
He obviously wanted to swallow him whole, but he still endured it with all his strength.
When someone comes to pay a tribute of a few cents, you dare to directly reward them with a hundred yuan, just to show the generosity of the heaven, without knowing that they are treating you as a fool behind your back!
What use does this kind of attitude have in foreign exchanges, especially in dealing with small neighboring countries? Apart from looking good on face and gaining the name of a heavenly country, what use is it? It’s useless!
According to Li Xuan's idea, when dealing with the surrounding small foreign countries, annex them if they can, and colonize if they can't. If the local indigenous people are really hard-core and unwilling to be annexed and colonized, and will resist and revolt in various ways, then
Kill until no one objects!
Of course, although Li Xuan believed that annexation should be done, he still agreed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' approach on one point, which was to control the influence. There were still many political powers in East Asia, and the current Tang Dynasty did not have the energy to focus on comprehensive expansion.
At present, we are just trying to expand overseas, so there is nothing wrong with being cautious.
But this caution should not include Ryukyu!
In Li Xuan's view, the only three places that the empire needs to handle with caution are North Korea, Japan, and Annan.
Why do we need to be cautious in these three places? Because the indigenous people in these three places are all stones in the latrine, which are smelly and hard. In addition, the geographical environment is quite special, so they need to be handled with caution.
But Ryukyu?
Does the Tang Empire need to handle it carefully?
Be cautious!
After Li Xuan saw the details reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Navy, he directly gave instructions to grant the former King of Ryukyu the title of Viscount Shangqing Tang Dynasty and a house in Jinling City!
Didn't you, the King of Ryukyu, ask for the title, so I, Li Xuan, canonized it for you. However, this title was not that of King of Ryukyu, but Viscount of the Tang Dynasty.
And being given a house basically means that you don’t expect to go back to Ryukyu in this life, and live peacefully in Jinling City, the most prosperous and greatest city in contemporary times!
In addition, this title is not hereditary. In other words, after the death of the former King of Ryukyu and Viscount Ryukyu of the Tang Dynasty, the family of the King of Ryukyu will completely become ordinary civilians.
What's interesting is that this King Shang Qing was already quite old. He fell ill after traveling on the sea and arriving at Shanghai Port. Basically no one expected him to live for more than a year!
The Ryukyu Islands have the Ryukyu Prefecture, which is directly managed by the cabinet. All internal affairs are the same as other state prefectures in the empire.
This decision basically means running the Ryukyu Islands as if they were the mainland of the empire!
At the same time, considering that the Ryukyu Prefecture was overseas, the army was instructed to send troops to garrison.
The establishment of a government in Ryukyu was not actually a groundbreaking open territory for the Tang Dynasty, because before that, the Tang Dynasty had already done this once on Damuan Island. The previous Damuan Island was actually
Although it is a deserted island, there are also indigenous people and Han people living there. But to be honest, before this, all dynasties did not include Daiyuan Island under their jurisdiction. Before that, they just set up an inspection department in Penghu.
The Tang Dynasty, however, included Da Yuan Island within its jurisdiction for the first time. It established Da Yuan Mansion, established official offices, and garrisoned troops. It also continued to exile various criminals to Da Yuan Island in an attempt to enrich the
local population and develop.
However, the environment of Taiyuan Island is too harsh, and it is too difficult to develop. Even if the Immigration and Reclamation Division opens an initiative for domestic landless farmers, as long as they go to Taiyuan Island to settle land, every adult male can be free of charge.
Twenty acres of land were obtained, but even then few people were willing to go there, because if they did, how long they could survive depended on God's will.
Regardless of whether they were immigrants who took the initiative or were exiled criminals, the mortality rate was quite high. In the four years of Xuanping, a total of 2,400 people immigrated and 2,400 people were exiled. After one year, one fifth of them had already died.
.
By today, the seventh year of Xuan Ping's reign, out of these 2,400 people there were only less than 1,500 left!
The others all died in the land reclamation!
Of course, this does not mean that the environment in all places on Da Yuan Island is very harsh, but that the environment for land reclamation is very harsh!
At present, there are several major population gathering places on Taiyuan Island, such as Penghu Islands, Jilong Port in the north of Taiyuan Island, and Dagougang in the south of Taiyuan Island. Many people used to live there. In recent years,
After development, it has become a suitable place to live.
But if you leave these three places and go to other places, it will be more difficult to survive in the wasteland.
The Tang Dynasty did not dislike the poor place of Damuan Island. Instead, it established the Damuan Mansion and immigrated to develop it. For islands like the Ryukyu Islands, which have been inhabited by local indigenous people for many years and are relatively suitable for human habitation, they are naturally more interested.
I won’t dislike it anymore.
However, no matter what, the Ryukyu Islands are isolated overseas after all. For the people of China, they are too far away, and the distance will make people feel a sense of rejection and even fear.
No, although the Ryukyu Prefecture was established, in order to select the prefect, tongzhi and several magistrates and other officials of the Ryukyu Prefecture, the officials were worried and their hair turned gray!
There are not many people in Ryukyu, a remote and miserable place, who are willing to take the initiative to serve. They can live well in the prosperous Central Plains, so why should they go to that miserable place and suffer.
What's more, everyone knows that Ryukyu is a very far away place. Whether you can come back alive is unknown!
The officials saw that no one was willing to go for a short meeting, and they didn't pay attention to the principle of voluntariness. Numb, if you are an official in the Tang Dynasty, you have to pick and choose!
Therefore, the official in charge of this matter in the Ministry of Civil Affairs selected a group of candidates from among many officials. The candidates were basically people with no background, and they were prepared to forcibly select from them.
The people in the bureaucracy are not stupid either. They know that no one is willing to go to that damn place in Ryukyu. If you bring over some talented people with backgrounds or outstanding abilities that the higher-ups plan to focus on cultivating, you will offend the people.
There are too many!
But for these people who have no backing and are not exceptionally talented, it is not so troublesome to arrange them.
Don't worry about who it is, just close your eyes and circle a few names at random. Well, it's been decided happily. They are the first prefect of Ryukyu Prefecture and officials at all levels!
If you want to say that the selected person is unwilling, the Ministry of Officials will say that you have to go if you want to, or if you don't want to go, you have to go. If you don't apply for transfer, you are not allowed. If you claim to be sick, you have to go if you are not dead.
What, you said you would not go there dead or alive, well, if you are cruel, take off your official hat and leave it on the ground, and then you can get out!
The senior officials in the civil service department who were annoyed by the candidate officials were also angry, so they made a quick move to cut off the trouble!
After the list was announced, all the selected officials were wailing!