"Brother Imperial, I am not afraid of the high mountains and long roads in the Western Region. A good man has his ambitions in all directions. Traveling thousands of miles is better than reading ten thousand books. Moreover, I have the king's mandate to do things for the country and the emperor, no matter how dangerous it is. I'm not afraid, I'm just afraid that things won't go well! Brother Emperor, Third Brother is used to being king and hegemony outside. Can he listen to me, a powerless little prince? If he doesn't listen to my brother's advice, What should I do, brother?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, the third child has a hot temper. He became a prince at the age of sixteen. His military career of more than twenty years is no better than your brothers who study behind closed doors in Yingtian Mansion..."
"Isn't that right... The third child has often complained in his letters over the past few years that you, my elder brother, were granted a good title in the Western Regions, and you didn't get any good territory!"
"Brother Imperial, if Lao Jiu's errand cannot be done well, you can't convict him!"
"Yes, you can't blame him, and you can't refund the money..."
"Your Majesty, how long has it been, and you are still asking for money... wu wu... you are a miserable boy!"
Now is the day to send Zhu Cixiu, the "King of Houses", on a journey of thousands of miles. He is accompanied by Jin Boguo and Jin Xuanye, as well as officials sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zongren Mansion, Yan Shenggong Mansion, as well as bodyguards and honor guards. The officers and soldiers of the army have all lined up outside Laoshan Palace, leaving only the "King of the House" himself still saying goodbye to his family in the Huangji Palace.
Farewell to the "King of the House" were Emperor Zhu Cixiang, Emperor Chongzhen, Queen Zhou Shang, the concubine Hu, the chartered king Zhu Cibing, and a large group of princes who had graduated from elementary school and were "for sale". Watching a group of adults performing there, the older and more sensible ones among these princes all had doubts about their own path in life - they originally thought they would be charter kings in the future, but now they find out They don't seem that valuable...
Zhu Cixiang also had doubts. He suspected that his bid was too high - the "King of the House" didn't seem to be worth 350,000 taels, but at most 350,000... and he was actually killed by Chongzhen. Be sure to pay attention in the future!
Another thing that made him suspicious was the enfeoffment system that he designed himself.
The enfeoffment system is also a double-edged sword! The upside is that low-cost expansion is possible. Without the enfeoffment system, it would have been very difficult for Zhu Cixi to restore the territory of the Ming Dynasty before Nurhachi's rebellion. In fact, even the territory of the Ming Dynasty at that time was not completely ruled by floating officials, such as the Xingdu Division, the Military and Civilian Command Division, and the Xuanwei Division. There are countless princes on one side, such as pacifying envoys, recruiting envoys, etc. As for the vast territory of the Qing Dynasty in history, there were actually a large number of feudal separatist regimes. However, these feudal separatist regimes pale into insignificance compared with the enfeoffment system designed and promoted by Zhu Cixiang.
Zhu Cixi's enfeoffment not only enfeoffed large, far-reaching, and powerful enfeoffments, but also achieved institutional innovation, enfeoffing a variety of new vassal states such as the United States, the Confederacy, and the City-State.
It was only through the joint efforts of these vassal states that the Ming Dynasty expanded to its current size.
But enfeoffment also has a downside! It’s like the water thrown out by a sealed country. It’s hard to collect the water! To get rid of a governor or governor, a decree is enough. If you want to remove the boss of a feudal town, you have to act according to the situation. And to replace the king of a vassal country... Haha, unless he doesn't want to do it anymore, otherwise he will have to fight with swords!
Of course, Zhu Cixiang had no choice...the people below needed to eat!
The population has exceeded 200 million and is still rising. Instead of going overseas to visit more places, why not stay at home and play the peasant uprising? Don’t think that equal distribution of land can solve any problems. The Dashunliu bandits have already done it. When the per capita land occupation rate is too low, equal distribution can only solve temporary problems. In the long run, it is not only ineffective, but also intensifies conflicts. —Equal division of land will accelerate population growth, because under a certain level of equalization, the threshold for marriage and children is greatly lowered. This caused the already very tense conflict between man and land to deteriorate sharply after one or two decades...and to a certain extent, it was equally divided (feudal society could not be completely divided equally, and the heroes and generals who conquered the world had to get a large share) , otherwise the emperor would have to be replaced) and must cooperate with the policy of suppressing private industry and commerce in order to maintain the results of equal division for a longer period of time.
If, like the Ming Dynasty, policies are implemented to encourage the development of private industry and commerce, it will inevitably intensify land annexation - because agriculture and animal husbandry can also become a business and a part of industry and commerce. Moreover, in the primary stage of capitalism, manual workshops mainly relied on agriculture to provide raw materials.
So encouraging private industry and commerce and not suppressing mergers and acquisitions are basically the same thing... In this case, the only reliable way to reduce pressure on the local area is to occupy rich overseas lands.
The enfeoffment system is the only way to quickly enclose land, because enfeoffment can pass on management costs and development costs, while attracting nobles and capital to participate. When establishing a directly affiliated overseas territory, the court must be responsible for all investment and management...and the court must cover any losses incurred.
Don’t think that you will definitely make money by enclosing a colony. Colonization is risky, and you need to be careful when building a country!
Today's acting king Zhu Cijiong is an unlucky man who has to bear the management and development costs of the vassal state!
His business in the trading city suffered miserably... The story of reopening the Silk Road sounds pretty good to tell, but it turns out it's not that easy to do it.
When wars are going on every day in Central Asia, who still buys silk, porcelain, and tea?
The Rakshasa Kingdom is now involved in the Central Asian War. It has formed an alliance with the Kazakhs, Khwarezmians, and Uzbeks, and together they have started a war with the Ming Dynasty's three vassals in the Western Regions, and the fight has been extremely enjoyable.
Moreover, through its alliance with the Tianfang Sect in Central Asia, the Rakshasa Kingdom opened up the Volga River-Persia trade route. The cost of transporting goods to Persia by sea, then by land to the Caspian Sea, and then through the Caspian Sea and the Volga River into the hinterland of the Rakshasa Kingdom was far lower than the cost of the overland Silk Road.
Therefore, the money invested by the acting king Zhu Cijiong on the Silk Road may not be recovered for a while.
These days, Zhu Cijiong is worried every day in the palace of the Trading City. Seeing that the castle he invested a lot of money to build is empty, Zhu Cijiong's heart is broken... He not only invested in a Trading City, but also invested in the Beiting City. Yining City and Luntai City were invested in the Hufu territory, and Khovd City was invested in the territory of the Tumut Khanate. Now they have become "ghost cities". Not only are they not making money, but they also have to pay a lot of maintenance costs. I'm almost losing my blood!
The Dai Kingdom, which was always losing money, could not survive. In order to recoup its losses and save his vassal state, Dai King Zhu Cijiong began to misbehave and regarded the Jungar Kingdom as his prey...
