Chapter 87 Two Opinions
After the kings arrived, this meeting was held.
Lu Zhongheng was naturally also in the meeting. Although he was not a prince, his status in Nanyang was not lower than that of the princes and kings. The Nanyang Governor's Mansion was almost a private soldier of the Lu family. If we only count force, Lu Zhongheng is the most powerful. ap.
However, Lu Zhongheng could not support so many troops. He relied on the taxes raised by various countries. After all, all countries in Southeast Asia need this force. Most feudal states have shallow foundations and weak military force.
Although Zhou State is the richest. However, he may not be stronger than the Chu State in terms of force, and he is also willing to have a deeper alliance with the Lu family.
Let the Lu family stand with him.
Lu Zhongheng naturally has a place here.
It's just that Lu Zhongheng didn't say anything about this matter.
The reason is very simple. Lu Zhongheng is not a prince after all. Although the kings are outside, they are all sons of Zhu Yuanzhang. Together, they are almost equal to the Zhu family. So for the conflict between Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Yunwen. They have the right to speak.
But who is Lawrence Lu? He is an outsider, or to a greater extent, a minister.
There was no room for him to speak out about such matters.
Saying it will only cause trouble.
And Lu Zhongheng also understood one thing very well, that is, the foundations of the Nanyang kings were already very deep. And there is a tendency to connect together. Especially when dealing with the Central Plains court.
No matter who ascends to the throne in the future, it will be difficult for them to attack these uncles in Nanyang. But it's different for the Lu family.
Lu Zhongheng was just the governor of Nanyang, but the governor of Nanyang was not a hereditary official position. It is okay for the imperial court to allow hereditary inheritance. It’s okay if the court doesn’t allow it. It should be noted that even the Mu family, which is known as the world town in Yunnan, has actually been captured several times. In the end, it was found that there was no more suitable person than the Mu family, so a routine was formed.
Lawrence Lu didn’t dare to offend anyone.
Lu Zhongheng didn't speak, but the kings below had different opinions.
The King of Chu said: "We are far away in Nanyang and do not know the situation of the court. Now the two sides are at war. It is too late for us to say anything now. It is best not to do anything. And no matter who comes to power in the future, if they hate us, then there will be no alright."
The reason why the King of Chu said this was because the King of Chu had the strongest military force, but he was the most difficult to interfere with the Central Plains. On the one hand, it is the farthest distance, and on the other hand, there are enemies between the couches. That is the two kings of the East and West. Unless they are killed, the King of Chu cannot mobilize his troops.
If you don't have actual military strength and you don't have strong words, then why bother getting involved.
More importantly, the King of Chu did not see any benefit in getting involved.
But King Zhou said: "Otherwise, the golden list of vassal kings drawn up by my father has the right to defend the royal family. Today's world is in chaos and the battle has been unresolved for a long time. This is when we uncles and kings intervene. Let's not talk about the role. , just saying that if we do nothing, who will care about us if something like this happens again?"
"Will our words still have weight in the court?"
As soon as this statement came out, many people started talking about it.
King Zhou’s statement also sounds very similar.
Power is only power when used. If power is only on paper and never used, it is not power.
Although He Xi changed the vassal policy. However, Zhu Yuanzhang still formulated the vassal king's responsibilities, and the vassal king's power to defend the royal family still existed. Even strengthened. For no other reason than Zhu Yuanzhang was actually worried that the future power of the Ming royal family would be violated.
Therefore, the vassal king's defense of the royal family was a measure to strengthen the power of the royal family. If the Ming Dynasty expanded in the future and had many new colonies, these colonies would all be vassal kings. Even though the court was very powerful, it made the royal power insignificant. But the relationship between the royal family and the local royal family, this patriarchal relationship, will also become a weapon for the Ming Dynasty to rule the world.
A thing must be useful in order not to be abolished.
The same goes for the emperor. Let’s just talk about the British royal family. When the Commonwealth was still important, the royal family was very important. Because the Queen of England is the common monarch of the Commonwealth, and now the Commonwealth
After this concept became irrelevant, the royal family had no status.
Zhu Yuanzhang can be regarded as having far-reaching plans for his descendants.
It’s just that future generations may not be able to understand Zhu Yuanzhang.
At least, King Zhou and King Chu did not think of these people. They just think of their own power.
The biggest lesson the North-South War taught these princes was that they would be in a lot of trouble if they left their homeland.
Many people have the idea that they must have enough influence in their own country, that is, in the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, if the Central Plains court wants to deal with them, it will be difficult for them to deal with it.
Of course, King Zhou's thoughts on this matter were not just to intervene, he actually already had a side. He stands in Beijing.
Because he has been kidnapped by interests.
Only Beijing purchases and buys so much grain. Beijing's goods are transported to Nanyang and the grain is purchased in Xingang. This is the most frequent trade in recent years. If Beijing loses the war, will there still be food procurement in the north?
There may not be.
There is no other way, although from an economic point of view, it is most convenient to purchase grain from Nanyang, especially Xingang.
The reason is very simple, they are all growing food, and the situations are also different.
The king of Zhou planted grain and did not think about selling the grain at first, but it turned out that the grain planting model of the king of Zhou was that of cash crops. The king of Zhou had an obvious surplus of food. It is the lowest in terms of various costs. Only by selling can you make money.
The grain in the hands of King Zhou was destined to become a commodity from the beginning.
The food in the south is not that pure. Grain production in various parts of the south is not low. Don't look at the Ming Dynasty's annual tax of 30 million dan, if you really count the Ming Dynasty's grain output. It should be in the hundreds of millions of stones. It should be noted that the tax in the Ming Dynasty was five liters per mu. Five liters is 0.05 shi, and the yield per mu in various places is between two and three shi. The total grain production can be seen.
It can be said that even by the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was still no shortage of food simply based on the grain output of the Ming Dynasty.
But these grains are mostly used to feed the local population. Rarely for sale.
The king of Zhou could sell millions of stones every year. It was not that the Zhou king produced a lot of grain, which exceeded many provinces in the southern part of the Ming Dynasty, but that he ate less and consumed less.
In this case, King Zhou had to think about a question. If Nanjing pacified the north, would Nanjing purchase so much grain? It must be impossible.
Without him, the large-scale entry of Nanyang grain into the market would affect the grain price of the entire Ming Dynasty. After all, as far as Ming Dynasty grain is concerned, the output is large. But there is actually not much food as a commodity. More food goes into people's mouths. After all, the Ming Dynasty now has a population of 100 million. A population of 100 million people will eat three kilos of food every year, and repairs will require 300 million kilo. And if you add in the food as feed, hundreds of millions of kilo of food will be nothing at all.
The right to price food is very important to many people. For example, scholar-bureaucrats and landowners.
They exploited tenant farmers amid rising food prices.
Manipulating grain prices and hoarding goods, he disliked the King of Zhou's large-scale sales of grain to the Central Plains.
Even the Nanjing court may not like to use money to sell the Zhou king's grain.
Moreover, apart from Beijing, there is probably no other buyer for King Zhou’s grain. Even if there were, other buyers combined would probably not be able to consume so much food.
The king of Zhou was nominally unrelated to the two, but his intention was to support Beijing.
There are many people with such thoughts as King Zhou.
Without him, Nanyang has a very close relationship with the daimyo, but this closeness, to be more precise, is with Beijing. Although many countries are not Zhou Dynasty, they will be in crisis if they leave Beijing. But with goods from Beijing, their finances will be easier.
Otherwise, things will be more troublesome.
Even the King of Chu was like this.
The two sides discussed for a long time, and finally approved the King of Zhou's idea. They decided to send envoys to Beijing and Nanjing respectively for no other reason. Just to persuade.
Everyone knows that this kind of persuasion is unlikely to have any effect.
But for different people, there are different ideas.
For the King of Chu, he felt that this was just a ritual, and even a certain
In a sense, it is to seek benefits. Without him, the kings would still be politically influential. There are even tens of thousands of troops at hand that can be called upon.
No matter who they are, shouldn't they be reassured that they have the value of united front?
