For Gao Pragmatic, the only effect of the direction of the world situation is to increase his sense of urgency. However, the plan he made at the beginning of the time travel was based on these situations, so he did not worry too much. At most, he would review it again. Check your plan to see if there are any mistakes.
He has never been as optimistic as other time-traveling predecessors about the Ming Dynasty going to the ocean. It seems that as long as there is a leader who insists on opening up sea colonization, the huge transformation to the ocean can be easily completed.
China's territory is too vast, and the Chinese people's "mainland policy" is too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. What's more, the vast majority of Chinese people in this era will never see the sea in their lives. It is impossible for them to just abandon the habits of thousands of years. , gave up the ancestral thought of falling leaves returning to their roots, and went to the "other side of the sea" to engage in colonial development.
The fox dies on the first hill, and the fallen leaves return to their roots. This is the thinking passed down by the Chinese people for thousands of years. Unless it is absolutely necessary, who is willing to die thousands of miles away overseas, without being able to enter the ancestral graves?
Not to mention China, most of the early Western colonists could not survive in their own countries, so they had to go to the ocean. And those countries that engaged in colonial expansion from the beginning had no choice but to do so because there was no hope for land expansion.
For example, Portugal, the earliest country to carry out colonial expansion, has only one large country semi-surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Castile (the predecessor of Spain), which is not something it can afford to offend. Portugal has no choice but to consider passing the The ocean expands again.
Castile, on the other hand, saw the gains made by Portugal's maritime expansion, so it followed the trend and embarked on the road of colonial empire. Later, England, France, the Netherlands, etc. were all stimulated by the huge benefits gained from the Spanish Empire's maritime expansion, and they followed this trend step by step.
Why have the Chinese had no interest in overseas expansion for thousands of years?
This issue is actually very complicated. Some people say that the vastness of China’s land territory has reached the limit of its governance ability at that time; some say that northern China has been threatened by nomads and has no spare capacity for overseas expansion; some say that the poison of Confucianism has caused China’s Lost interest in external expansion; some even say that the Chinese have been peace-loving since ancient times...
Except for the fact that Chinese people have been peace-loving since ancient times, Gao Pragmatic agreed with some of the above opinions, but he also believed that these opinions were not complete.
At least one thing that Gao Pragmatic thinks is very important has not been mentioned above: whether the benefits of overseas expansion can exceed the cost of ruling overseas territories.
To put it more simply: Do you make money or lose money by expanding overseas? Even if you make money, are you making enough? Is it worthy of the manpower, material and financial resources expended by the imperial court to rule these overseas territories?
Not to mention it’s too far away, but it’s not like the Ming Dynasty didn’t have any territory in Nanyang in its early years – would you like to know about the Xuanwei Department of Jiugang?
According to the records of "Yingya Shenglan", in the Java Kingdom (Indonesia, Java Island) in Southeast Asia at that time, the country was divided into three classes of people. The first class was the Tang people, that is, the Chinese; the second class was the Arabs, and the third class was They are the locals. The people of Tang Dynasty have the highest level of food and clothing, while the native people are the most vulgar.
At the same time, in the old port country of Nanyang (Malaysia Old Port), there were already many Chinese at that time. Most of the rich people there were Ming people who came to Nanyang from the coast of Guangdong. They controlled most of the local land and property and brought many benefits to the local area. It has provided advanced means of production and living and is deeply respected by the local people.
It was here that Zheng He eliminated the pirate king Chen Zuyi, and later Emperor Yongle established the Jiugang Xuanwei Department here. At that time, Manchuria did not have a king, it was just a territory of Siam, managed by a governor sent by the king of Siam. Later, when Zheng He went to the West for the third time, he brought an edict from the Emperor of the Celestial Dynasty, conferring the governor the title of King of Manchuria. As a result, Manchuria was founded as a country. After Siam learned the news, no one dared not disobey it, and even did not Dare to send troops to recover, this was the national prestige of the Chinese dynasty at that time!
But even so, the Ming court still paid little attention to Nanyang, and later generations had two completely different views on this situation.
One of the most mainstream views is that the voyage to the West cost a lot of money, produced no profit, and was a complete loss-making business. Therefore, as soon as Chengzu died, the court stopped this waste of national power.
Another view is that a lot of historical data have been found to prove that the voyage to Nanyang was actually a profitable thing. However, because the voyage to Nanyang was controlled by the emperor and eunuchs from beginning to end, the civil servant group had no profit from it, so it was deceived. He told successive emperors after Chengzu that going to Southeast Asia was a ridiculous waste of people's money and money.
With Chengzu's great talent and broad strategy, would he send Zheng He to seven voyages to the West just to demonstrate his national prestige? Or did he act like this just to find Zhu Yunwen?
What a joke! When Zhu Yunwen controlled the whole world, he had millions of soldiers, and Chengzu dared to raise an army to quell Jingnan with only 800 guards. But after he himself controlled the world, would he be afraid of Zhu Yunwen, a hairless phoenix?
Don't be ridiculous. Man said it was Zhu Di, but he wouldn't be afraid even if he were replaced by someone who was highly pragmatic! This situation can also allow you, Zhu Yunwen, to make a comeback. I might as well find a piece of tofu and hit him to death!
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic is more willing to believe that the main reason why the Ming Dynasty refused to focus on Nanyang was precisely because the civil servant group was unable to exert influence and gain benefits in the major event of exploring Nanyang. "A parallel land and sea strategy.
The emperors after Chengzu misunderstood Chengzu's true intention of going to the West because most of his assistants were civil servants.
In the final analysis, the civil servants could not benefit, and the emperor was deceived by the civil servants, thinking that there was really no benefit. The Ming Dynasty's parallel land and sea strategy thus died.
But this does not mean that Gao pragmatism only needs to explain the truth to Zhu Zaihe or Zhu Yijun, so that the Ming Dynasty can return to the right path. Before the Little Ice Age shows its power, it can quickly move the remaining population in the north to the south, and even Just migrate to Nanyang and start pioneering - it's not that easy!
If the civil service group was so easy to deal with, would Ming Dynasty be so stupid?
Long Qing had Gao Gong, a gold-medal thug who needed seniority, prestige, finesse, and power. Only now did he carefully open a small opening and throw out a small moon. Hong Kong came to test the trend.
If Gao Pragmatic had the guts to say that we should fully open the sea now and go to Southeast Asia, he would probably be criticized by mountains and seas of impeachment until even his mother would not be able to recognize him.
How about a game of chess in the world? When playing chess, you have to proceed step by step. If you haven’t made a good layout at the beginning, you just want to surrender. Do you really think that you have become a time traveler and the son of destiny? Even Liu Xiu, the son of the plane, is dissatisfied.
