The debate over which was better between the vassal state and the direct province has been a lingering issue since the Ming Dynasty was revived, and it is also a problem that has never been completely resolved.
In the first few decades after the revival of the Ming Dynasty, the court's attitude towards vassal states was negative. Almost all ministers believed that vassal states should not be established and that provinces should be used as directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty as much as possible.
This is the continuation of the ancient dynasty's ideas of "cutting down vassals" and "strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches".
The vassal king at that time hoped to retain the vassal state. Wouldn't it be more comfortable to be a local emperor than to be an empty prince in the capital?
This was also the typical mentality of ancient feudal kings. As for the people at that time, small farmers had no time to care about this.
Due to various practical reasons, mainly the high cost of governing distant places, the vassal states were eventually retained.
But in recent decades, the situation has changed dramatically.
The Ming Empire gradually completed basic industrialization and transformed from a traditional feudal dynasty into a semi-modern industrial country.
The efficiency of communication and transportation has increased significantly. The barriers between various parts of the empire have been broken down, and the connections between them have become closer and closer.
The educational level of the people has also improved, and there are more and more people in the entire society who can think and pursue a better life.
The most important thing is that modern capital interest groups have truly taken shape and have begun to interfere and influence politics.
At the same time, the Ming Empire is the most powerful, richest, and most civilized country in the world today. It is extremely attractive to the whole world, and the vassal countries are the first to bear the brunt.
The dignitaries, emerging capital elites, and even ordinary people in the Ming vassal states all hoped to withdraw from the vassal state and establish provinces, so that they could truly become a member of the Ming Dynasty.
So why did the vassal country want independence again?
Because the imperial court always refused to withdraw the vassal and establish provinces, and almost all ministers opposed the withdrawal of the vassal and establish provinces, the vassal country never saw hope.
Why did the Ming Dynasty not allow vassal states to become provinces?
In the final analysis, it is a matter of division of interests, and the root cause is Emperor Shizu's new system of benevolence and military power.
According to the new system of Renwu, residents within the Ming Empire were divided into eight levels from top to bottom.
Imperial citizen, imperial national, domain citizen, domain national, empire residence, domain residence, empire servant, domain servant.
Only the highest-ranking Imperial citizens have full political power throughout the Empire.
You can invest, do business, participate in politics, join the military, and work in any legal industry, similar to citizens of modern countries.
The rights of subordinate imperial citizens are obviously limited.
They are not allowed to participate in politics or join the military in the empire, nor are they allowed to invest and operate across regions, are not allowed to participate in financial investments, and are not allowed to buy or sell tradable stocks.
Citizens of a vassal state only have complete political rights within their own vassal state.
When citizens of the vassal state arrive in the empire, their rights are equal to those of empire citizens, and empire citizens have priority in everything, and so on for other levels.
At the same time, when the residents of the empire arrived within the domain of the vassal state, their rights level had to be upgraded by one level by default.
When citizens of the Empire arrive within the territory of the feudal state, they directly have civil rights. Needless to say, citizens of the Empire have higher priority in everything.
This resulted in the unimpeded movement of Imperial citizens within the domain.
You can operate and engage in any industry, you can directly obtain any honors, and you can hold any military and political positions.
However, citizens of the vassal state were restricted everywhere in the empire.
Not only could they not join the army, they could not hold even the smallest official position. The key was that even the scope and amount of investment were restricted.
The result was that imperial citizens unilaterally occupied military and political positions in the vassal state, and imperial capital unilaterally squeezed the living space of vassal state capital.
This is a typical colonial-style dual political and economic oppression.
When the elite group of the vassal state was small and the capital power of the vassal state was weak, the impact of these oppressions was not obvious.
But when the size of the elite group in the vassal state continues to grow and the capital power of the vassal state becomes the main force in the political arena of the vassal state, separatism will inevitably breed.
When the empire fell into passivity on the battlefield, the Western forces exerted slight pressure and temptation on them, and most of the vassal states showed a so-called self-reliance tendency.
Their idea is simple. Since they cannot profit from the empire, it is better to become independent.
After independence, expel the Imperial people from the vassal state and get back the interests occupied by the Imperial people, so that you can at least get more.
The most critical change involved in the policy of abolishing vassal states and establishing provinces was to upgrade the citizens of the vassal state to imperial citizens.
As a result, the world's largest market in the empire was completely open to vassal capital.
The large number of military and political positions in the empire were also opened to the elite groups of the vassal state.
The vast number of jobs in the empire were also opened to ordinary people in the vassal state.
Coupled with the cultural centripetal force of the empire itself, the abolition of vassals and the establishment of provinces became the common ideal of all classes and groups in the vassal state.
Once the policy is implemented, most of the vassal states should quickly change their stance and side with the empire again.
However, abolishing vassals and establishing provinces would harm the interests of the empire’s local capital, the empire’s local elites, and the empire’s local people.
The capital of the vassal state came to compete for the market, the elites of the vassal state came to compete for military and political positions, and the people of the vassal state came to compete for jobs.
Therefore, this policy was unanimously opposed by the entire empire.
This is also the main reason why there has been no substantial progress in changing the feudal vassal to a province after decades of preparation.
All strata of the empire did not accept the abolition of vassals and the establishment of provinces. In the final analysis, they did not want to allow the capital and people of the vassal country to come in to compete with them while abolishing vassals and establishing provinces.
This even includes the clan group that controls the royal family.
Therefore, if personal interests were simply considered, no one present, including the emperor, would support Zhu Jingyuan's proposal to withdraw the feudal vassal and establish a province.
Zhu Jingyuan actually understood this, but he still said it directly, and then fell into the natural siege.
The inexperienced Zhu Jingyuan could not parry the barrage of attacks from the princes and ministers. In fact, he did not need to parry.
According to the practice of the Imperial Council of the Ming Empire, if someone puts forward a proposal that is unanimously opposed by the ministers, then there is no need to discuss it and it will be rejected directly.
Unless the emperor himself wants to enforce it, there will be room for continued discussion, but that means the royal family will have to cede its interests.
So after the scene was noisy for a while, the princes and ministers stopped arguing one after another, and looked up at the emperor above with a tacit understanding.
The old emperor Zhu Zhongliang looked at the situation at the scene, coughed slightly, raised his finger and pointed at the ministers sitting on both sides, and said to Zhu Jingyuan in a serious voice:
"See, kid, you are now on the opposite side of everyone.
"Even if I directly agree to your suggestion, there is still no way it can be implemented smoothly.
"Do you understand why?"
Zhu Jingyuan replied in a calm and solemn tone:
"I understand, so the second support I hope the court and the consortium will give is the economic adjustment to coordinate with the withdrawal of feudal vassals and the establishment of provinces.
"I hope that the imperial court and the consortium will lift the ban on alcohol, sugar, tea, steel, large ships, and large motorcycles to the private sector!"
Before Zhu Jingyuan finished speaking, the expression of the old emperor Zhu Zhongliang froze.
The meeting site fell into a deathly silence, and then there were a lot of exclamations immediately, and the Wenhua Hall became lively again.
