Zhu Yijun sent this minister to the cabinet.
He wanted to see the reaction of other ministers in the cabinet.
Nowadays, the composition of the cabinet has changed to Shen Shixing as the first assistant, Wang Xijue as the second assistant, Shen Li as the third assistant, Zheng Luo and Yu Shenxing as the fourth and fifth assistants.
The person in charge of internal affairs was the second assistant Wang Xijue.
Wang Xijue, the Second Assistant to the Cabinet, frowned after seeing this memorial. He walked to Shen Shixing's direct room and said to Shen Shixing:
"Shenyin County was too cautious and did not dare to drastically change the system of the inner court. Instead, it only wanted to fill the vacancies in the palace in the name of selecting more concubines. Although this satisfied the emperor and the nobles in the harem, it did not know how many good girls would be harmed. Is it benevolent to have a false reputation and be locked in a deep palace for the rest of your life?"
After hearing this, Shen Shixing took the memorial, put on his tortoiseshell hat, and looked at it intently.
Then, Shen Shixing smiled and said: "The implementation of the new etiquette has reached the point where the system around Your Majesty has to be reformed. How can we be careless? It's okay to wrong you and me, but we must be cautious about wronging Your Majesty and the Queen Mother of the two palaces. !”
"So, there is no problem with Shen Yin County's proposal and should be approved. As for the problem that caused many palace people to be locked up in the palace after being promoted to nobles, there will be a way to solve it."
Shen Shixing then replied.
Wang Xijue asked: "How to solve it?"
Shen Shixing said: "It takes time. The best time to treat a sore is when it is about to rot and become suppurative."
Wang Xijue thought that when the number of slaves in his family decreased, his tribe had to agree to buy a large number of Japanese slaves and Korean slaves, and when it was indeed getting more and more expensive to buy Han slaves, he nodded and said: "I just don't know when."
Because Shen Shixing agreed, when Zhu Yijun saw the ink copy of the memorial again, he saw that the draft was approved for execution.
Zhu Yijun summoned Shen Shixing for this purpose.
In the bright and clean conservatory, the emperor and his ministers sat and stood, the sun shining on their robes, and Zhu Yijun finally spoke first.
"Do you know the disadvantages of this?"
"I can increase the number of people who maintain the palace by constantly increasing the number of positions in the harem. But as the number of nobles in the harem increases, more and more palace people are needed, and more and more palace people need to be selected. , it will be necessary to add more and more positions in the harem. If this continues, won’t I have thousands of concubines?”
"And shouldn't the power of the relatives far exceed that of the clan nobles and even the nobles?"
After Zhu Yijun said that, he looked at Shen Shixing.
He has known Shen Shixing for nineteen years, and they are considered familiar with each other.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun doesn't think Shen Shixing doesn't know that what he wants to see is a new inner court system, rather than deceiving women from all over the world to enter the palace again and again by increasing the number of positions in the harem.
This is like recruiting thousands of women of the right age to work as interns in the palace for three years even though only thirty-six positions have been added. In the end, most women will waste three years of their youth.
But Shen Shixing chose to stick to the old ways like Shen Yiguan, and would rather sacrifice the three years of youth of thousands of girls than build a new system.
This made Zhu Yijun, who came from later generations and was influenced by the idea of reforming and daring to innovate when things go wrong, very disapproving and very surprised.
He thought that ministers like Shen Shixing, who knew him well, would try their best to come up with a new policy.
That's why Zhu Yijun asked Shen Shixing like this.
Shen Shixing was very calm and composed, as if he expected that the emperor would be disappointed, and his face was calm and he said: "Your Majesty, I am not aware of this disadvantage, but I think that although I should not be afraid of the reform, I cannot rush it. "
"If you are too hasty, it will be easy to make people dare not change. In recent years, this dynasty has vigorously changed many systems, and the world has the tendency of burning oil."
"What goes above and below is what works. Everyone proposes restructuring, opposing the old and reforming the old. However, restructuring has always been a knife that has both advantages and disadvantages. Once you swing it, you will get blood. But if you swing it too fast, you may kill yourself and even be in pain." I will be afraid of restructuring in the future.”
"Especially since this restructuring involves the inner court and His Majesty's safety. If we are not careful, except for major mistakes, no king will dare to reform the system again in the future, and he may even negate all the previous reforms."
"I understand what Your Majesty means!"
"I just want to increase the number of official positions instead of increasing the position of concubines, so that good women who serve His Majesty and the nobles in the harem can have the opportunity to become officials and enjoy the same glory and wealth."
"However, Your Majesty is aware that the people in the world are not yet enlightened, and even many seven-foot-tall men do not know how to behave in the world. Once they succeed, they do not know how to be reverent, let alone the majority of women who are only locked in empty boudoirs?"
"The education they originally received is to depend on men and conquer men. If they are suddenly allowed to serve as officials, they will only be more clique-like than men. If they are even allowed to take power again, they will be more easily used as pawns by villains. Therefore, it is still It is better to let them continue to serve only as assistants in the inner house until most of the women of our tribe have become more knowledgeable, wiser, and aware of taking the world as their own responsibility without relying on men."
Shen Shixing expressed his opinion seriously at this time.
After hearing this, Zhu Yijun thought of his own experiences in later generations, and then nodded cooperatively.
But Zhu Yijun didn't follow others' opinions. He understood Shen Shixing. Unless Shen Shixing had his own purpose and motivation, he would not reason with others sincerely.
Even if this person is the emperor.
As long as his interests were not involved, Shen Shixing would say as little as he could, and he would say nothing if he could. At most, he would just quickly think about how to deal with the aftermath.
Unlike Zhang Juzheng, even if it does not involve his own interests, it only concerns the interests of the other party and whether the other party can grow and become wiser. As long as the other party is someone he cares about, he will educate him.
Therefore, after Zhu Yijun nodded, he pondered for a while, then stared at Shen Shixing, who was not so easy to teach, and said:
"Master, do you also think that women are talented in conquering men, and the emperor, as a man, is naturally difficult to resist. As the saying goes, beauties bring disaster, but if she has hundreds of thousands of beauties, they can check and balance each other. Can I easily resist all kinds of flattery?"
Shen Shixing raised his eyes and glanced at Zhu Yijun, then solemnly raised his hands: "Your Majesty, you are wise!"
"I understand what you mean. It's just that the people's wisdom is not yet enlightened. Even many men are insensitive, servile and have been too deeply poisoned by the old etiquette. What's more, there are only a few good people in the boudoir."
As Zhu Yijun spoke, he knocked on the imperial case, looked at Shen Shixing and said:
"It's accurate this time. After selecting people to enter the palace in this name, we will focus on educating them with new gifts and then see if there are any who can be of great use."
"Anyway, I have tried to explore the strengths of the nobles in the harem, so that they can have their own careers, and I have also trained a group of palace people with new education. There will be no shortage of people to train them after they are selected into the harem in the future."
Shen Shixing handed over his hand and said yes.
Then, Zhu Yijun said again: "I heard that the slave trade has been booming recently. Is this true?"
"Your Majesty, yes, because there are few good families in our country who do not want to be slaves, more people go to North Korea and Japan to buy people. Now the cabinet is preparing to ask the court to discuss whether to allow this kind of trade to exist."
"It has always been the case that only parents can buy and sell their children, but it is strictly prohibited for Ren Yazi to sell non-biological children. After all, parents selling their children is in line with the filial piety in human relations, that is, children sacrifice for their parents, and Ren Yazi's kind of It’s purely for profit, so it’s not allowed.”
"So, this kind of behavior is illegal. The governor has killed many yazi who sold Dongyi slaves because of this, and even major cases occurred. Just because these yazi had the support of powerful people behind them and were directly related to the governor's camp. Bloody conflicts arose, but even though some governors strictly prohibited it, they continued to prohibit it. Some governors were even bribed by powerful right-wing officials to take the initiative to let go of the ban, tacitly admitting that these Dongyi slaves were trafficked into the country."
"Nowadays, Ke Dao is also quarreling fiercely about this matter. Some people think that the governor who strictly prohibits slave smuggling is a loyal and honest minister who is not afraid of local tyrants; while the governor who ignores slave smuggling and even condones and actively participates in it is a treacherous minister who hides his secrets and is in conflict with local tyrants. You are guilty of committing adultery and should be dealt with severely."
"The Cabinet Policy Department has formulated a response policy and believes that blocking is better than sparing. Since the imperial court has implemented new etiquette, it is better to treat them according to the new etiquette. The ones who educate their children are parents, and the people of the tribe with a high degree of royal culture should do it themselves. They are the parents of Hu Yi who have a low degree of royal status. Therefore, it is not against etiquette for people of the same tribe to buy and sell Hu Yi. However, the laws and regulations should be changed to allow people of the same tribe to buy and sell Hu Yi."
Shen Shixing replied.
Zhu Yijun nodded after hearing this: "How can you think of such a reason? The people of the Ming Dynasty should indeed be the parents of the people of other barbarian countries!"
"However, there are differences in the degree of king-like transformation among all the barbarians in the world. Not everyone can enter the Middle-earth and become the children of the common people in the Middle-earth. First, only Mongols, Jurchens, Koreans and the same color natives from various enlightened areas with high levels of king-like transformation are allowed to enter. Middle-earth is bought and sold.”
Shen Shixing raised his hand and said yes, and said: "The Cabinet Policy Department also means the same thing. Those with the same culture and color will naturally be given priority as common people, and then those with the same color but different culture. Those with different colors and different culture will not be allowed to enter the Central Plains for the time being."
"The recapture of Luzon this time has liberated many enslaved soldiers and people of our country. We need to publicize more about how they were lured and kidnapped to Luzon! Those who want to go home should help them go home, so as to make it easier for the soldiers and people of our country who want to go to sea. I only believe in overseas migration organized by the government.”
"In addition, those who are found to have seduced and kidnapped our country's soldiers and people to go to sea as slaves must be dealt with strictly. If a family is found, they will be banned from taking the exam for three generations, and both the master and the accomplice will be killed!"
"Although I know that this phenomenon will continue to be banned, there are always bold people who pursue greater interests and would rather enslave their own people to produce more wealth for themselves than train uncivilized barbarians. This kind of Those who do not treat their compatriots well and do not show friendship with their compatriots will naturally not be patriotic and love their own people, and they will not even have benevolence towards their relatives and friends. They can be said to be the most self-interested people in the world. The more people they kill, the less they will be. !”
Zhu Yijun continued to talk about the Han people who were deceived and taken captive overseas to be enslaved by the local Chinese natives.
He knew that the cultural environment of this land determined that civil organizations could not undertake the task of immigration expansion.
Because the most valuable thing in this land is not the gold, silver and copper mines, but the human mines!
That is to say, there are a large number of Han people with their own advanced farming, weaving and other technologies. Therefore, non-governmental organizations mainly pursue their own interests. If they organize immigration and expansion, they will only turn the Han people into slaves in the new expansion areas, and even fight with the local natives or colonists. Collude and enslave the Han people to achieve the purpose of maximizing the value of exploitation.
The imperial government is different. Although the imperial government expands immigration for the sake of profit, it will consider the long-term interests of the ruler, that is, the interests of the country and the nation. It will directly use state power to move immigrants to the country for the long-term interests of the entire country and nation. The level of local civilization is forcibly updated and upgraded, thereby maximizing the value of exploitation.
Such as Luzon now.
Zhu Yijun and his ruling ministers have taken advantage of the Xiyi massacre of Chinese people to kill all the Xiyi natives in Luzon. They also used this to enrich Botian, and then prepared to immigrate there on a large scale to reclaim wasteland and mines. The agricultural taxes and mineral income obtained are both greater than the value of a few powerful people in the private sector colluding with the Western Yi natives to squeeze some Han people.
There was no need for the Ming Dynasty to collude with the Western Yi and the local natives, and then immigrate there as slaves, and then share part of the benefits with the Western Yi and the local natives.
With the Ming Dynasty's national power, the Ming Dynasty could go it alone, and by the way, it could reduce the degree of exploitation of the Han people who immigrated to the past because it would not have to be divided by the Western colonists and local chiefs, and even let some of the profits go to the Ming Dynasty. domestic people to ensure the stability of the entire country.
After all, only the more stable the country is internally, the more large-scale national power can be organized.
Only local tycoons need to cooperate with Western barbarians and native chiefs when expanding overseas interests because of their limited strength.
After Zhu Yijun said this, Shen Shixing repeatedly said that he complied with the decree and said: "Your Majesty, I believe that we can continue to issue an edict to strictly prohibit the smuggling and trafficking of our own people."
"It is directly charged with treason and treason with the enemy. Those who have no friendship with compatriots are like having no country and no clan! Therefore, the principal and accomplices are all Ling Chi, and the nine tribes are implicated! And there are foreign participants, and they declare war with Huang Ming, and Huang Ming We must conquer and educate him!"
Zhu Yijun replied.
Shen Shixing raised his hand and said yes, and echoed: "In this way, the border ministers will have reason to request an order to expand the border."
…
Hot Spring Town, Dengzhou, Shandong.
The Han Chinese who were deceived and robbed into slavery in Luzon were willing to return home because the emperor had decreed that the court would provide money and manpower to assist them.
Therefore, when he was fifty years old, villager Ma Dongliang finally returned to his hometown - Hot Spring Town, where he had been away for more than 20 years.
It's just that when Ma Dongliang arrived at the entrance of the town, he was a little afraid to enter, because he suddenly felt that the town was so strange. Not only the roads were wide, but the key was that there were more pavilions and pavilions, the trees and flowers were greener, and there were more people. There are a lot of clothes, a lot more gorgeous clothes, and there are many more four-wheeled carriages.
"Master Bing, this doesn't seem to be a hot spring town, right?"
Ma Dongliang had to ask Zhang Yuan, the soldier who sent him back.
Zhang Yuan replied: "How can this not be true? I am also from Hot Spring Town, and I also know about the Ma family. Your child has long been selected for the imperial examination, and now he has gone to Dongpeng to serve as an official. Come with me, and I will take you back." Home."
"Why!"
Ma Dongliang agreed, and followed Zhang Yuan into the town with his eyes shining and his smile uncontrollable.
Soon, Ma Dongliang saw the old archway at the gate of the town. After seeing the three characters "Hot Spring Town", he opened his mouth from ear to ear with excitement, and suddenly tears filled his eyes, stroking the stone pillar:
"It is indeed the hot spring town in my dream! I secretly peed here when I was a child."
"Look at this flagpole again."
"The town established it for your son Chengwu after he passed the Xiaolian exam."
Zhang Yuan then pulled him to the flagpole next to the archway.
(End of chapter)
