Today's Lion City is a highly prosperous industrial and commercial city.
The total local population has exceeded two million, which is twice as large as Singapore during World War II.
Because the Lion City's status in the Ming Dynasty system far exceeds its status in the British colonial system.
It is located at the southernmost tip of the Shenou Continent and is the extreme end of the radiation range of the Ming Dynasty's native land power.
It is the communication throat between the Ming Dynasty and the Little Western Ocean, and is the most important fulcrum for the Ming Dynasty to control these two oceans.
It is an important intersection of the southernmost land and sea transportation lines of the Ming Dynasty, and is the southernmost naval base that can be directly connected to the core of the mainland on land.
It is the ruling center and economic center of the Ming Dynasty in Nanyang.
When Zhu Jingyuan's fleet was still far away from Shicheng Port, he could see various ships coming and going around him.
When you get to the waters off the Lion City Port, you can even see the largest fleet of ships in the world coming in and out.
Currently, the largest ship in the world is an 80,000-ton super passenger ship. There are currently only three ships in the world, and there is one parked at the Lion City Port.
The Lion City is also a very pure oriental city.
When the boat approached the dock, Zhu Jingyuan looked around and saw that the scene he could directly see was no different from the ports and cities in the south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty.
In the process of great development and expansion of industry and commerce, the traces left by the Thai people have long since completely disappeared.
The traces of the more ancient Johor people are also diluted to the point where they are completely invisible.
The passenger ship Zhu Jingyuan and Zhu Zhongliang took did not enter the busy civilian terminal, but docked directly at the military terminal.
Zhu Jingyuan and Zhu Zhongliang took their families ashore, briefly greeted the officials from all walks of life in Nanyang who came to greet them, and then went to rest under the guidance of the service staff.
The location of the Lion City is special enough. The royal consortium has many properties here. The royal family also has its own garden here, and Zhu Jingyuan can live in it directly.
Zhu Jingyuan settled his family down, sent Zhu Zhongliang back to his homeland, and then started his own work.
The main officials from various places in Nanyang also made an appointment to come together to formally meet the governor.
After accepting the worship of the officials, Zhu Jingyuan asked straight to the point:
"Everyone, if there are any complicated problems or difficult things in Nanyang that are difficult to deal with locally, you can report them to me to find a solution."
Zhu Jingyuan was so direct that the officials at the scene were a little stunned.
Finally, Malacca Chief Minister Xiao Jinan stood up and said:
"Your Highness, the situation in our Nanyang region is currently stable, the market is prosperous, and the people live and work in peace and contentment without any difficulties."
Zhu Jingyuan smiled and waved his hand and said:
"You don't have to just say nice things to me. I'm here to solve everyone's problems, not to raise an army to accuse you.
“Whether you have problems or difficulties, don’t hide them, speak out directly.
"If there are any matters or decisions that are not convenient for you ordinary officials to come forward and make decisions, leave them to me."
Xiao Jinan continued helplessly:
“We really don’t have any difficulties here now.
"A few years ago, we did have a lot of troubles here, but you have solved them all.
“The opening up of the six major industries has once again revitalized the market, and the removal of vassals and the establishment of provinces has realized the long-cherished wish of all officials and people.
“The minimum wage, the maximum working hours, the military and the social welfare system enable the people of Nanyang to live and work in peace and contentment.
“The issue of indigenous people also has the guidance plan you gave.
"Now, both officials and common people are deeply grateful for your kindness."
Zhu Jingyuan's expression was a little strange.
He came to Nanyang from Yinzhou and came to a place close to the mainland of Ming Dynasty.
It is also close to the place where the reform will have the most direct impact.
Malacca was one of the first vassal states to withdraw from the vassal state.
The current Chief Minister of Malacca, Xiao Jinan, was the original Chief Left Officer of Malacca.
He was transferred from the feudal state to Malacca to participate in politics. After his three-year term expired, he passed the assessment and was directly promoted to the chief envoy.
After all, there is a shortage of officials in the Ming Dynasty, and these officials from vassal states basically do not suffer any discrimination.
As long as you are qualified in terms of ability, you will be directly promoted upon expiration.
The starting point of all this is the reforms that Zhu Jingyuan first proposed and promoted.
Therefore, local and vassal officials were more impressed by Zhu Jingyuan than the shopkeepers of Xintianfu.
At the same time, under the influence of these reform measures, various regions in the Ming Dynasty also entered a stage of great development.
When the tide goes out, you can see who is swimming naked.
On the other hand, when the tide rises, it is difficult to see what is under the water.
The current Ming Dynasty is in the rising tide stage. Even if there are some minor problems, they will be covered up by the dividends of development.
Zhu Jingyuan continued to ask helplessly:
"Is there really no problem found? Is there really no need for my special help?
“Let’s just treat today as a casual chat, don’t worry about big or small things, you can talk to me about anything.
"I just came here, and I want to have an entry point to understand the situation here."
A group of officials looked at each other again, and finally Xiao Jinan said uncertainly:
“If there is a problem, it is indeed a problem.
“There are still not enough officials, so progress in all aspects is always slow, from top to bottom.
"We know that we can't rush this kind of thing. Now the schools are expanding their enrollment. It should be fine after a few years.
"If Your Highness can help, please bring us more college students from Nanyang."
Zhu Jingyuan nodded lightly after hearing this:
“This is indeed a problem, but it is not Nanyang’s own problem.
“If I want more students for Nanyang, won’t there be fewer students elsewhere?
"Didn't Xiao Buzheng just say that we can't rush this kind of thing, we just need to get through it in a few years.
“Everyone should take on more responsibilities in the past few years.
“There are advantages to not having enough officials. Wouldn’t everyone’s promotion be faster?
"So now everyone is not working extra hard for nothing..."
When Zhu Jingyuan said this, a relatively restrained laughter suddenly erupted on the scene.
Zhu Jingyuan waited for everyone to finish laughing before continuing to talk to himself:
“It seems that everyone really doesn’t want to ask me questions, so I have to find my own problems.
"After I find the problem, everyone can no longer cover it up."
The officials immediately laughed very restrainedly.
The atmosphere at today's meeting was quite harmonious.
Zhu Jingyuan briefly chatted with the officials for a while and then let them go to work.
Then I really started to find problems on my own.
In the following days, Zhu Jingyuan was active in various government offices in the Lion City.
Look through files and files and check various data in recent years.
From a statistical point of view, the Nanyang region can really be said to be in a prosperous situation at present.
Factories, businesses, commodities, taxes, the number of newlyweds, newborns, and other data are all growing rapidly.
At the same time, the local crime rate has also shown a downward trend.
Ordinary people can make money more easily, so the most common small-scale crimes will naturally be reduced.
The Malacca area, which has the best location conditions, is of course developing very rapidly.
But even in the inland areas of Siam and Myanmar, locals have better ways out.
It really looks like a prosperous scene of burning oil.
And it is a prosperous and prosperous age with growing wealth, not just a prosperous age with more people starving to death.
Of course the problem does exist.
The first is the ethnic issue.
Taking the Chief Minister of Malacca as an example, the total local population exceeds 7 million, of which more than 3 million are pure Ming people, and there are still more than 2 million pure indigenous people, with 4 million mixed-race people sandwiched in between.
The situation is similar in other places such as South Vietnam, Siam, Myanmar, Borneo, Java, Old Port, Luzon and other places.
Aboriginality and mestizos are not the problem, the problem is the perception of Aboriginality.
The social culture of the indigenous people of Yinzhou and the Pacific Islands is infinitely close to primitive society.
Although Yinzhou's civilization level is slightly higher, it was once exterminated by the Taixi people and has basically lost its self-awareness.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Jingyuan regarded them as former mountain people, and their policy towards them was mainly assimilation and absorption.
But most of the indigenous people on the Nanyang Peninsula and some islands have the most basic civilization system.
There have even been dynasties that have been passed down for hundreds of years, and many have accepted the Tianfang Sect from the Dashi area.
Although these dynasties no longer exist, the countries have been replaced by Ming clan vassals.
However, the situation in the era of Emperor Sejo was very complicated. Except for Japan, which had the most special situation, the other surrounding vassal states were not completely wiped out by force.
It was also because given the technological level at the time, it was difficult to implement a complete military conquest of tropical areas such as Southeast Asia.
Emperor Shizu basically used both soft and hard tactics, gradually abolishing the original monarch and changing it to the Ming Dynasty vassal king.
Therefore, many descendants of the original monarchs of the foreign countries, as well as subjects loyal to the original monarchs, were not completely exterminated.
So far, there are still many indigenous people in the feudal country who still retain this part of their memory.
They did not resist joining the Ming Dynasty because their original countries were basically vassal states and tributary states of the Ming Dynasty.
But they still hope that their original national name and ethnic heritage can continue to exist.
There are still many indigenous people who continue to believe in Tianfang religion.
They currently only maintain this expectation and do not have the ability or actions to rebel.
After the Ming Dynasty had actually annexed these vassal states, it was difficult for the Ming Dynasty court to continue to make the decision to exterminate them.
But it was hard for Zhu Jingyuan to believe that once the situation in the Ming Dynasty collapsed, they would continue to stay honest.
Therefore, around the Ming Dynasty, facing the Nanyang indigenous people whose culture was close to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming court's policy was not all about assimilation.
The plans proposed by Zhu Jingyuan to vacate cages for birds and reserve areas are now being implemented.
Zhu Jingyuan initially gave Mindanao, Sulawesi and Solomon Islands three candidates.
In the end, the Ming court chose the most remote Solomon Islands.
Officials throughout the Nanyang region are selectively sending some indigenous people to reserved areas.
The problem lies in this "having a choice".
Different officials have different judgments about what kind of people should be sent away and what kind of people can be kept.
In addition to sending away the real old people and the young, most officials are accustomed to sending away the real savages as well.
There will be people left who have a basic level of education and can work under the management of Ming officials.
But in Zhu Jingyuan's opinion, this operation is not appropriate.
The reservation area is to set aside an area for people who are inconvenient to manage, allowing them to live independently in their own way.
At the same time, prevent it from continuing to affect the population in other areas.
Therefore, after Zhu Jingyuan learned about the implementation of the cage-replacing bird and reserve area plans, he directly issued a new order in the name of the governor to uniformly adjust and standardize the existing relocation rules.
All Tianfang believers were moved to the reservation area, but they were all concentrated on two or three islands.
The old people and children from all the original countries were all moved to the reservation area, but they were all concentrated on two or three islands.
All kinds of illegal criminals who refused to change despite repeated punishments, and criminals who were bad in nature but not guilty enough to die, were all sent to the reservation area and concentrated on two or three islands.
The three types of people are completely separated and managed in isolation, and the priority of the three identities decreases in order.
If a person has multiple identities, choose the identity arrangement with greater priority in order.
For example, if a person is both an old man and a young man, and he is also a vicious criminal, then he should be dealt with according to his identity.
Real savages do not need to be sent to reservations.
They have been forcibly captured from the mountains, so why not continue to work hard and transform them into farmers?
Establish an offshore patrol fleet in the reservation area to completely isolate all communication inside and outside the reservation area, and isolate communication between reservation areas.
No one inside the reservation is allowed to leave, and no official is allowed to set foot on the reservation island.
There is no need to proactively build any infrastructure on the reservation.
There is no need to send any management personnel to the reservation area or interfere with the social order in the reservation area.
All matters on the reservation are decided by the residents of the reservation.
After Zhu Jingyuan's order was issued, officials in the Nanyang region were extremely shocked.
The chief envoy Xiao Jinan, who was stationed in the Lion City, simply came to visit Zhu Jingyuan in person.
After the two parties met and said hello, Xiao Jinan explained his intention:
“Your Highness… I saw your latest order requiring all officials not to set foot on the reservation islands.
"If the government does not interfere in the affairs of the island at all, the Tianfang believers and the old and young people might be able to establish their own order.
"But if all the vicious criminals are put together, it will turn it into a completely lawless place, right?"
Zhu Jingyuan smiled and nodded and said:
"That's not necessarily true. As the saying goes, where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.
“If we don’t take the initiative to establish order, the local people will establish local order themselves.
“The original intention of the reservation area was to give a space to people who could not integrate into the Ming Dynasty, so that they could live according to their own habits.
“So allowing it complete freedom and absolutely not interfering in any way is the most appropriate choice.
“At the same time, we allow it absolute freedom, and we will never allow it to interfere with other people in the Ming Dynasty.
“So we must completely isolate the inside and outside, prohibit outsiders from going to the island, and completely prohibit people from the island from coming down.
“As for a place outside the Dharma, it may not be a bad thing to have such a place.
“Some people are really born evil, and education may be just a joke to them.
"Leaving them to fend for themselves is the best option for everyone."
Xiao Jinan understood what Zhu Jingyuan meant, but he still had other worries:
“But Your Highness, the original decree issued by the imperial court stated that a country was to be established in the area and officials were to be sent to educate them.
"If we completely leave it alone and let them live on the island, will they eventually form pirates and criminal gangs, or even form an independent country, and then confront the government?"
Zhu Jingyuan shook his head and said:
"Of course the imperial court's will is high-sounding, but the actual operation cannot be so rigid.
"Although the imperial court's decree said that it should be done, it did not specify the details, nor did it arrange the responsible officials?
“Now that there are not enough normal officials, how can we arrange extra bureaucrats to educate the savages in the reservation area?
“If you look at the reserved areas we have chosen, they are places where the environment is definitely not excellent and the products are not rich.
“It’s actually very difficult for people to survive on the island.
“The point is, there is no technology, no infrastructure, no tools and machinery, and no factories.
"Even if the people on an island can really stick together tightly, it is impossible for them to create cannons and battleships out of thin air.
“Our patrol fleet does not need to be too big, it only needs speedboats and machine guns, coupled with some simple aircraft.
"It should be relatively easy to deal with people trying to escape."
(End of chapter)
