"Having significant scientific and technological contributions is naturally considered meritorious service, but the imperial principles and national laws are indeed not allowed to be desecrated. Let's just do this. In the future, if a scholar who has performed meritorious service commits a heinous crime and needs to be executed, the emperor can issue a special pardon order and pardon him. The death penalty is not to pardon his crime, but to change his death sentence to life imprisonment, and to make him wear shackles and conduct scientific research under surveillance. However, should we restrict the use of the amnesty order to prevent future generations from abusing the amnesty order? Let the Council of Ministers discuss it. In addition, let the Council of Ministers discuss whether there is an amnesty order."
Zhu Youxiao instructed.
"yes!"
Wen Tiren replied, and then said: "Although the imperial court has been expanding externally, because the territory is very wide and there are too many places to use troops, the expansion speed in some local places cannot keep up with the vassal state established by our noble clan of the Ming Dynasty. King Zhu Yihai of Lu has expanded to the north bank of the Amazon River and is about to dominate South America, while King Xin has completely annexed Borneo!"
Having said this, Wen Tiren asked Zhu Youxiao: "Your Majesty, do you think we should restrict the expansion of the vassal states directly under the Ming Dynasty to avoid threatening the imperial court in the future?"
Zhu Youxiao replied: "No need for now, their military strength and population are limited. Even if they are expanding rapidly, it is only a military conquest. Many native chiefs are only superficially convinced by them. If they want to become big enough to threaten the imperial court, Far from it, not to mention, there are still many foreign countries, and they still need to check and balance them. When the kings of later generations use the method of extending favor to deal with them, the key now is to control the global market in the hands of the imperial court and realize the Han civilization in the world. Global unification also means that politically the world must be unified in name only under the banner of our Ming Dynasty!"
"That's right, but Your Majesty, in my opinion, it is best to enfeoff the newly annexed areas that are inconvenient to be directly controlled by the imperial court, so as not to give these vassal states the opportunity to annex areas that are not clearly enfeoffed by the Ming Dynasty. !”
Zhang Tongchang said.
"I issued an edict to order each vassal state to send their adult descendants to the capital for inspection by me. In addition, the unenfeoffed emperors and nobles from various places must also send their adult descendants to the capital for inspection!"
Zhu Youxiao therefore gave an order.
Naturally, he did this in order to carve out more vassal states.
However, because there are too many places in the world that can be occupied by the Ming Dynasty, there are currently not enough nobles and descendants of the clan.
Of course, this is also related to Zhu Youxiao not wanting to entrust too much territory to the noble children of the clan.
But Zhu Youxiao has no worries about not having enough noble descendants of the clan to be named in the future.
Because the Ming Dynasty now has a meritorious service system, new nobles will be born every year because of their meritorious service.
This has also led to the fact that the younger generation of the Ming Dynasty, including the royal family and clan, are more willing to join the army, because it is easier to achieve meritorious service in the army.
As a result, the Ming Dynasty's army has maintained a strong combat effectiveness.
After all, if you perform meritorious service, you can be knighted and open up territories. Even ordinary soldiers can be rewarded with land from many arable areas such as the Eastern European plains and Indian plains for their meritorious service. Who wouldn't want to actively perform meritorious service in battle?
What's more, even if he died in battle, his family would still receive more rewards and special treatment than his own meritorious service. In particular, his children would not only get extra points in the provincial examinations and joint examinations, but they could even own land rewarded by the court.
Therefore, during the Ming Dynasty's foreign campaigns, everyone from the generals to the soldiers dared to die for the country. Coupled with the powerful weapons and equipment and abundant logistical supplies, the Ming Dynasty army had no way to go in this process. But victorious and invincible.
As a result, Annan died in less than a month.
The Ayutthaya Dynasty even died in half a month.
Johor will be subjugated in ten days.
The powerful Safi Dynasty and Bukhara Khanate were helpless in the face of the Ming Dynasty.
"kill!"
"kill!"
"kill!"
The Ottoman army in Baghdad was also very frightened when they saw the Ming army coming from Isfahan, like a steel jungle, blocking the sky and the sun.
They didn't understand why this army from the east was so powerful that it could allow giant iron monsters to move forward in front of them like mountains and seas without the traction of livestock.
What frightened them even more was the fearless and murderous aura of this Eastern army under the "Ming" battle flag, as if rows of soldiers formed an iron wall, which made people feel depressed when they saw it.
…
"This is truly a terrifying and admirable empire! I am so envious of such a vast territory!"
When Louis XIV looked at the latest world map that his brother Philippe brought back from the Ming Dynasty, he couldn't help but marvel at the vastness of the Ming Dynasty. Then he slapped the desk hard and said:
"This is the territory that the great emperor should have! Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Dynasty should be the only king worthy of worship by Louis XIV. I hate that France is so small compared to it. We should be as great as the people of the Ming Dynasty!"
After Louis XIV said this, he asked Philippe: "You have been in the Ming Dynasty for so long. In your opinion, how can France be as strong as the Ming Dynasty?"
Philip said: "We should take Western learning as the body and Eastern learning as the application, introduce machinery and equipment, introduce technology and talents to the Ming Dynasty, and open our own steel factory. I met many high-ranking officials and the leaders of other vassal states in the Ming Dynasty. , they have become my friends. As long as we are willing to sign a contract with the Ming Dynasty that includes most-favored nation status, a willingness to allocate special funds to establish Sinology, and other commitments, the Ming Dynasty Emperor will issue an edict to allow the sale of some machines and technologies. Give us, even give us expatriate talent.”
"Western learning as a system? Shouldn't it be directly transformed into the same system as the Ming Dynasty?"
asked Louis XIV.
"No, their system is too biased towards the interests of producers and is not fair! Moreover, the nobility is not free enough, at least not legally free enough, and many transactions are not free enough."
Philip replied.
"It seems that you have learned in vain. Although as a king, I cannot go to the Ming Kingdom in person, but through my own understanding, I know better than you. The real reason for the strength of the Ming Kingdom is not just strong ships and cannons! It is you. The care for producers I just mentioned!”
Louis XIV expressed his different opinions.
Philip was quite surprised by this and couldn't help but spread his hands: "Brother Wang! Do you want to completely orientalize my great France?"
"The Ming Empire in the East is God's most favored country, which is why it is prosperous today. Perhaps their culture represents God's will. If we want to be favored by God and follow God's will, then, for the complete surrender of France What’s wrong with Orientalizing?”
asked Louis XIV.
Phillip couldn't help but said: "Brother Wang, you are crazy! If you do this, many people will be dissatisfied!"
"As long as France can be as powerful as the Ming Dynasty, the dissatisfaction of others will not matter."
Louis XIV replied disdainfully.
"I'm not satisfied either!"
After Phillip replied, he yelled: "I don't support you doing this!"
"You can't stop me."
Louis XIV replied, and then ordered his minister Pierre: "Gather all the nobles who have returned from studying in the Ming Dynasty and ask them to come to see the king tomorrow. The king will discuss the reform with them."
"yes!"
Pierre replied.
Louis XIV continued: "From my perspective, the first thing to do is to find ways to further restrict the power of the great nobles, curb their mergers, and provide better protection for farmers and workers! In addition, we must liberate Slaves controlled by nobles.”
After hearing what Louis XIV said, Philip looked at him with cold eyes.
However, France at this time was at the peak of its monarchy, and it was difficult for the great nobles to resist the king's will.
Therefore, Louis XIV's reforms really continued.
He first ordered to protect the rights of noble serfs, believing that these were also French people, and their owners had no right to deprive them of their lives or plunder their property, but the state should protect them.
Then, Louis XIV ordered to increase taxes on the big nobles, reduce taxes on the yeoman farmers who owned less land, and also provide basic living security to urban citizens.
For a time, the great nobles of France complained.
But Louis XIV won the support of many lower-class farmers and citizens.
As a result, the number of riots launched by farmers and citizens at the bottom dropped significantly.
In addition, Louis XIV's own treasury also increased a lot of fiscal revenue, allowing him to expand his army and allocate more funds to support scientific and technological research and development.
He was originally very supportive of natural sciences, but now that he has invested a large amount of money to support scientific research personnel, he has indeed greatly promoted France's scientific and technological progress.
In the third year after Louis XIV began to imitate Zhu Youxiao and carry out corresponding reforms, his Minister of State Pierre reported to him that the rifled gun had been manufactured.
Of course, the rifled guns made in France are also the kind of front-loading primary rifled guns made by the Ming Dynasty for Japan, with less complicated rifling.
Because the French Empire only came into contact with rifled guns during the war with Japan in America, it could only temporarily imitate this kind of gun.
But this is still a very fortunate thing for Louis XIV.
However, although France has the manufacturing technology of rifled guns, it does not have the sophisticated industrial foundation as the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, if France wants to install rifled guns, it will have to pay huge costs.
For this reason, Louis XIV decided to continue to increase taxes, inheritance tax and luxury tax, and said: "The Ming Dynasty did the same, and I should inherit their excellent system without reservation!"
"But Brother Wang, if you do this, you will completely anger the nobles!"
"We are different from the Ming Dynasty!"
"The aristocrats of the Ming Dynasty were suppressed by the bureaucrats who came from common people. They had no ability to subvert the court. They could only cooperate with the emperor to jointly contend with the huge bureaucratic group. Even so, there were often times when they could not compete. It requires the king’s indomitable heart and the courage to not be afraid of the infamy behind his back, but our French aristocracy is very powerful and the monarchy is not mature enough. Abuse of royal power may cause chaos in the country!”
Philip advised.
Louis XIV drew his sword directly and pointed it at Philip: "You want to stop me?"
Seeing this, Phillip had to take a step back and said, "I don't mean to, I just want to persuade you."
Louis XIV took back his sword and said: "You are right, maybe I should promote a large number of people from the common class, just like the Ming Dynasty! Let the royal family cooperate with the common class! Establish an imperial examination system and let people from the common class hold important positions , holds the power. In addition, in terms of royal marriage, I am actually fed up with marrying women who are of noble blood but are not excellent in body and appearance. Research from the Ming Dynasty said that incest will increase many congenital diseases, and You haven’t married yet, so I should first match you with a princess from a commoner background to test people’s reaction.”
After hearing this, Philip wanted to refuse very much, but he did not dare to refuse, but in his heart, he became more and more dissatisfied with the arbitrary Louis XIV.
But Louis XIV was undoubtedly right to do so.
He then began to issue edicts to imitate the Ming Dynasty to implement the imperial examination system, and even established a system of merit and nobility to encourage commoners to become their own nobility through their own efforts, especially since he was going to choose a princess from commoners for his brother, rather than from foreign countries. After the news of the selection among the nobles came out, it was even more appreciated by the majority of civilians who already had national ideas.
You know, historically, even in the 18th century, many French Enlightenment thinkers admired China's imperial examination system.
Because many of them, thinkers from common people, actually need a system that allows them to advance to the aristocracy.
Now that Louis XIV has done this, he has naturally received the support of many civilian class scholars.
After Louis XIV did this, the French army also exploded with strong combat effectiveness.
Following Louis XIV's call for the French to defend their new territories in America, the French army, determined to make great achievements, began to defeat the Japanese shogunate forces several times in America, and even recovered a lot of lost territory.
As a result, the Japanese expansion momentum in America was curbed.
But the good times didn't last long.
On this day, when Louis XIV was celebrating another great victory for France against the Japanese in America, his younger brother Philippe suddenly found him and bowed to him: "Brother King! I was wrong. I was wrong." You should not be stopped, and now it has been proven that you are indeed the great emperor of my France! So, can we go to the ship and have a chat?"
Philip pointed to the boat parked on a lake in the palace.
Louis XIV was very happy to see his brother change his gender, and his attitude towards him changed from doubt to admiration, so he readily agreed.
But just after Louis XIV got on the boat and went to the middle of the lake with Philippe, Philippe suddenly pushed him into the water.
Louis XIV, who was already very drunk, could not react in time at all. He fell into the water with a splash, and then struggled desperately.
Philip sat on the boat calmly and watched all this.
It was winter, and Philip felt a little cold even sitting on the boat, not to mention Louis XIV who had fallen into the water.
By the time Louis XIV was rescued, he was already unconscious.
Not long after, Louis XIV died of lung disease.
Louis XIV's son succeeded to the throne and became Louis XV.
However, Louis XV was still very young, and he had to leave the government to his uncle Philip.
Surprisingly, although everyone knew that Louis XIV fell into the water when he was alone with Philippe, no French nobleman came forward to question the truth of the drowning. They all unanimously believed that Louis XIV accidentally fell into the water because he was overjoyed. .
Many nobles even praised Philip's behavior of not coveting the throne but insisting that Louis XIV's son inherit the throne, thinking that he did not covet power.
