In the strange atmosphere of the court, the old emperor himself did not stay much longer. After issuing the imperial edict, he continued to ask questions to everyone present:
“The scope of the West Sea country is too small, it has no vassal king, and it is not a de facto vassal state.
"The vassals in the southwest of the Persian Gulf are in a special situation. Moreover, small vassals were abolished and merged into large vassals. This is not a de facto withdrawal of vassals.
“So we need another, real example of how to withdraw the vassal state, for all the vassal states and enemies to see.
"Wang Aiqing will find a few more vassal states that should be withdrawn most, talk about their situations and problems, and let everyone help come up with ideas."
Wang Shangshu, who was standing outside, and the ministers sitting around him, all vaguely sensed the emperor's thoughts when they heard this.
This is to proactively and forcefully promote the de facto withdrawal of the feudal vassal as soon as possible, without allowing any delay by the ministers below.
Because most of the courtiers were originally not active in the matter of withdrawing from the vassal state.
They just made a deal with the emperor, using the royal family's ban on opening up several specialized industries in exchange for everyone accepting the withdrawal of the vassal state.
If the withdrawal of the vassal state is delayed and abandoned halfway, wouldn't these industries be gained in vain?
But the other party to the transaction, the old emperor who represented the royal family, certainly did not allow this to happen and did not allow them to delay for a day.
Wang Shangshu had no choice but to organize his thoughts and answer the question according to the previous discussion:
“I and my colleagues in the Household Affairs Bureau believe that the vassal states in Korea, Japan, Ezo, Ryukyu and other places that should be abolished most should be.
“The Korean countries are the second barrier to the hinterland of our Ming capital, and Japan and the Ryukyu countries are our maritime barriers to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, like the Great Wall on the sea.
“The countries in the two places should not have been set up as vassal states because of their large local populations. In the last years of Renwu, the total population of the two places was nearly 40 million, which was more than a quarter of the mainland of the Ming Dynasty at that time.
"Later, the Ming Dynasty recruited men from two places as servants to fight in Nanyang, Dashi, Mozhou, and Yinzhou, and purchased women as slaves to join the Ming clan, nobles, and elites.
"The people of the Ming Dynasty were also moved to the two places, and they followed the vassal kings to the two places to multiply and educate the natives of the two places.
“Today, the native population of Ming Dynasty has exceeded 300 million, while the total population of North Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, Ezo and other places is about 47 million.
“Among them, about 11 million are descendants of Ming people, 23 million are descendants of Ming people and native people, and 13 million are native people.
“The natives admired the Ming Dynasty, and after hundreds of years of intermarriage and education, from nobles, gentry, elites to workers in the capital of Guizhou, they all wore Ming Dynasty clothes and spoke elegant Ming words.
"Nowadays, except for the extremely remote areas in the two places, the people in the mountains and jungles who have no contact with the outside world can no longer hear the native language, and do not know what the emperor and the general are.
“Furthermore, the physical appearance of the vassal people in the country is very different from that of the people of the Ming Dynasty. Now that they have turned into barbarians, they could have considered withdrawing the vassal state as appropriate.
“But in the Ming Dynasty, there were a large number of vassal people as slaves and maidservants, and a large number of vassal people overseas as servant soldiers.
"How to place these slaves and servant soldiers after the vassal withdrawal is a difficult problem for the vassals in Korea and Japan.
“Secondly, there are the West Sea Kingdom, Kyrgyzstan (Djibouti), Ceylon Kingdom (Sri Lanka), Malacca Kingdom (Malay Peninsula and Singapore), Yingzhou Kingdom (Hawaiian Islands), Beiyinya, and Chia Kingdom (Seattle and around Vancouver, as well as California and Nevada).
“The above-mentioned countries are all strategic overseas strategic hubs of the empire, or are convenient places for maritime trade, and it is not suitable to establish vassal states.
“But the road was long and the transportation was inconvenient when it was attached. The people of the Ming Dynasty immigrated very rarely, and the number of natives was relatively large. Their physical appearance was far different from that of the people of the Ming Dynasty, so it was established as a vassal state.
"After the promotion of steam sailing ships, the number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty increased rapidly. Today, the number of Ming people in most countries has exceeded the number of local natives.
“But except for the Xihai Kingdom, the overall number of native people is still quite large, and the time of civilization is much shorter than that of Japan and Korea. Most of the native people are still barbarians who have not been transformed into kings.
"How to resettle the native people after the vassal withdrawal is a difficult problem for the above vassals to withdraw, and the Ministry of Household Affairs has not yet made a final decision."
When Wang Shangshu said this, he bowed to the emperor again and bowed his hands to those around him, indicating that he had finished speaking for the time being and that everyone could ask questions or make suggestions.
The old emperor waved his hand gently, signaling Mr. Wang, who had spoken for a long time, to sit down and rest first, and then asked the ministers around him:
"Wang Aiqing said that the vassal states have to withdraw from the vassal state. If you have any suggestions, please tell me as soon as possible."
The ministers were all whispering below. This was definitely unbecoming of the emperor before the Renwu Dynasty, but now it is a normal behavior allowed.
Most of the ministers muttered and started shaking their heads. Not only did they want to delay this matter, it was not an easy problem to solve.
It was said that it was about abolishing the vassal state, but it actually involved the abolition of slavery.
The abolition of slavery itself is very troublesome. The Renwu Dynasty once abolished slavery, and it was the slaves of the Ming Dynasty who were abolished.
At that time, foreign servants were used to replace him, and it still took many years of hard work to get it right.
Now the situation of these slaves has become more complicated than before.
There are many types of slaves alone.
First, there are the highest-level servants, Korean maids and Japanese girls.
They don't account for a large number of all slaves, but they are all only the princes, nobles and new business elites can afford. How many people who "can speak" will this affect?
What's more, there are overseas servants from the two countries. Can they be turned into regular soldiers of the Ming Dynasty?
This is a huge trouble.
Followed by Burmese and Nanyang servants, some of whom are slave workers in factories, and some are laborers in the yards of wealthy families.
This involves a wider scope, and small businessmen will also have opinions.
Furthermore, there are Yin servants. Although they are not many in number, they are numerous in Yinzhou itself and they are the bottom labor force in the local area.
Should we grant citizenship rights to all Yin people at the same time?
If so, will the middle and upper classes of the Yinzhou vassal state in the north and south be willing to withdraw the vassal?
Finally, there are black slaves. There are black slaves in Kyrgyzstan, and there are also black slaves in the mainland and other vassal countries.
If we want to withdraw from Kyrgyzstan and directly grant citizenship rights to all black slaves at the same time, it is estimated that no official, not even Emperor Shizu, can accept this...
The best result would be to remove the vassal state while only granting citizenship rights to the people of the Ming Dynasty and the middle and upper classes of the vassal state. The natives would continue to be slaves or simply be disposed of.
There are roughly three types of typical treatment solutions.
A gentler method is to drive away other countries.
The more brutal method is to directly massacre.
A more compromise approach is to divide and conquer.
However, no matter which method is used, it is impossible to guarantee safety. If trouble occurs, it will endanger the stability of the vassal country and even the empire.
Finally, there is the arrangement of the feudal king. Maybe all the feudal people are in favor of withdrawing the feudal clan, but only the feudal king may be opposed.
Most of the courtiers did not speak, but a few stood up and expressed their attitude.
Either express it tactfully and say that it is not recommended to withdraw the vassal immediately. The situation in most vassal states is complicated, so it is better to figure it out slowly.
Either he stood on the moral high ground and suggested that the court educate all the natives, or even turn barbarians into summer.
Or just tell the three typical methods and let the emperor make the choice.
After hearing this, the old emperor was noncommittal. When all the ministers present stopped talking, he looked at Zhu Jingyuan who seemed to be lost in thought:
"Jingyuan, you also brought up the matter of withdrawing the feudal vassal. Now no one has a particularly good plan. Do you have any ideas in your mind?"
When all the princes and ministers heard this, they were inexplicably panicked.
Everyone began to subconsciously worry about what simple and crude solution Zhu Jingyuan would give.
Although it may be a good thing to have a method, it would make it impossible to delay the withdrawal of the vassal state. The key is that it may appear that you are incompetent.
So everyone turned their faces at this moment, looking at Zhu Jingyuan who stood up with complicated expressions.
Zhu Jingyuan did have some ideas in his mind, mainly based on the experience of later generations, but he didn't want to put them forward immediately before.
First of all, there are some methods... I always feel that it is not suitable to speak in public, and at the same time, it is impossible to speak clearly in the morning.
Secondly, I had just faced off against the Nine Emperors Uncle because of the lowest labor remuneration, and then stood up to seize the vassal states in the southwest of the Persian Gulf. This was already a bit too showy.
Today we should be more or less low-key, wait until the new battleship design task is completed, and then talk to the people in the household department privately.
Moreover, due to the lessons learned from the minimum labor remuneration bill, people from the Ministry of Household Affairs should take the initiative to come to me for advice, so I can just wait.
So what Zhu Jingyuan is thinking about now, in addition to planning new warships, is to prepare more efficient oil extraction and refining technology, and prepare to become a big player.
The old emperor asked himself directly again, which really surprised Zhu Jingyuan a little, and he had to wake up from the bright future of transforming into a big dog.
