Chapter 20 The forerunner of imperialism
It’s hard to say who was right and who was wrong between the King of Qin and the Crown Prince. Although times have changed. You shouldn’t pursue it too closely. But many things will not exist if they are not investigated.
Even if Zhu Xiongying showed mercy. I have never thought about giving these feudal kings a good place.
The situation in the Western Region is that southern Xinjiang is not as good as northern Xinjiang. This is true regardless of geographical location, natural endowment, or even development potential.
It can be said that if the King of Qin's line was sealed in southern Xinjiang and still existed hundreds of years later, the King of Qin's line would only be able to sit in a city with a population of one or two million people. Maybe we can get a share of future oil resources, but that's it. It is simply impossible to join the world tide of great navigation.
As for the Jin Wang lineage, the same is true.
How did King Jin end up? It’s only been a few years. Who could forget? They were fighting each other at first.
Now it is settled that there is no punishment, and he will be given a fiefdom to live in peace. Just have a bite to eat from now on. As for the rest, there is no need to think about it.
The same is true for King Lu. To be honest, Prince Lu looks good. But King Lu gave people a very bad impression. The lineage of King Lu was also settled in southern Xinjiang.
After removing the three meridians.
And King Jingjiang. Prince Jingjiang, don’t ask for a fiefdom anymore. But let him inherit the title of Prince Jingjiang, and then he will be demoted in the imperial court to inherit. After all, it is said that King Jingjiang is not a descendant of Taizu. There is a difference between intimacy and distance.
After King Jingjiang. They are King Ning, King Min, King Gu, King Han, King Shen, King An, King Tang, and the prince's three sons. There are a total of ten princes who want to be sealed out.
Of course, this does not need to be sealed off at once, but at least it must be determined first, and the court must develop various places in advance.
After thinking about it, He Xi decided that it was probably these places. The first one was the outer northeast.
Since He Xi opened up the Northeast, the population of the Northeast has been in a state of inflow, with a large number of Koreans and Japanese being allocated to the outer Northeast.
Moreover, Outer Northeast has different meanings at different times. At least the definition of Hexi's outer northeast is not the place occupied by Russia in later generations, but Heilongjiang in later generations, and the place north of Heilongjiang.
He Xi knew that the Northeast was fertile, but after years of operation, he also understood one thing, that is, operating in the Northeast was not easy.
Even if we already have the ability to build railways now, in the future only the Northeast will have railways. It will be more convenient to immigrate. But wait a minute, if the people of Ming Dynasty want to immigrate in the future, they can actually go to Nanyang. Why are they going to the outer northeast? It's really too cold. Half of the year is winter. After all, the thermal insulation capacity of this era has improved a lot compared to before. However, there are still great shortcomings compared to later generations.
Even in later generations, Northeastern natives are actually not very willing to live in the Northeast. Not to mention, people of this era.
He Xi had a premonition. That is to say, as far as the Northeast is concerned, in this era, it will probably never be able to develop better than history. Because Ming has more choices. There is no need to build up the Northeast.
In the future, the Northeast may develop due to the development of the times, but it may never be possible to have the kind of time when the national importance is determined and whoever wins the Northeast wins the world.
This made He Xi feel a little sad.
But how should Northeast China develop?
He Xi thought about it, but he still wanted to make a few vassal kings. Let these feudal kings worry about it. Liaodong will probably be able to develop greatly in the future, while the other regions in Northeast China will probably be the origin and food base.
Most of the northeastern plains are under the jurisdiction of Liaodong Province, but the area north of the Songhua River is still enough to seal two or three kings.
There are also Luzon and other islands in Southeast Asia.
The only problem is that most of these places are unclaimed.
There are indigenous people in Nanyang. Now the territories of the kings of Zhou, Chu, and Qi are essentially conquered. Confessing other princes requires the use of swords and guns. Of course, He Xi didn't think he would fail.
This was even a way for the Ming Dynasty to announce its return to Nanyang.
However, this requires
Let’s see what the local forces in Nanyang think.
For example, the Three Kings, such as the Lu family.
In addition, there is another place, and that is Annan.
History has inertia.
Historically, there were many reasons why Zhu Di attacked Annan. But no matter what the reason, Annan gave Ming an excellent excuse. That is Annan killing the Ming envoy.
Of course, this may not be such a good thing now.
However, the internal situation in Annan also leaves room for Ming to take action. After all, the original Annan royal family has been taken down by powerful ministers and is nothing more than a puppet. The conflict between the two parties is life-and-death. Ming Dynasty only needs to support the lineage of King Annan to regain power. Then the powerful officials will definitely take action and kill the royal family completely.
That situation was as if Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty suddenly had alien technology and could do whatever he wanted. The first thing he did was to destroy the entire Cao family.
There will be no second outcome.
From Annan to Champa and even Siam, they are all places that can be conquered. It is also a good place to grow food.
In addition, there is also the outer Yunnan region.
There are some problems here. But it can still be settled.
However, this is not only an internal problem within Ming Dynasty, but also the beginning of a new round of multi-external expansion. This made He Xi feel helpless.
He Xi also knew that since he set the new vassal policy, he should understand one thing. From now on, the Ming Dynasty will be an endless war machine. Without him, no emperor will have a son.
In order to make his son king, the emperor must go to war abroad. Foreign conquests were an important link between the Ming royal family and the vassal kings below.
The power of the royal family will inevitably be usurped by the cabinet in the future, and the vassal king is a sword used by the emperor to check and balance the ministers. The more this happens, the more we need to fight externally.
Secondly, it is the issue of production relations.
He Xi is facing a huge fiscal deficit and overproduction of weapons.
He Xi not only had the weapons inventory of the Northern Army, but also the weapons inventory of the Southern Army. There is no problem in rearming one or two hundred troops in total. However, the war is over.
Even if they change their equipment and expand their army, they still won't be able to consume so many weapons. What's more, there are factories in production. It's not that He Xi doesn't want to stop, but switching production is a very complicated matter.
Before we get it done, we might as well let them produce some weapons first.
After all, weapons are considered a special commodity.
As a result, He Xi will have to face a surplus of weapons.
The surplus of weapons is just one type of structural surplus produced by Beijing. After all, during the war, many factories in Beijing could concentrate on production and did not need to look at the market at all. The army is all covered. Otherwise, what is the use of such a high deficit in the imperial court?
But things are different now. No one can pay for what they produce.
If He Xi doesn't intervene, big problems are likely to arise. For example, some factories collapsed.
He Xi is naturally not afraid that some factories will collapse, but He Xi also knows that this may cause a chain reaction. After all, in order to win this battle, He Xi's certain fiscal policies cannot be said to be healthy.
This has left sequelae. What's more, the south was so devastated by Nanjing's new banknotes that it was even more frightening. Once something goes wrong. The scope of the impact is too large. But that’s not easy to do.
After thinking about it, He Xi could only pass on the risk.
It means attacking other countries and using their wealth to fill their own holes. Such as Annan. As a small power in Southeast Asia, its strength is quite good. Naturally, a lot of wealth has been accumulated within the country.
Moreover, after these vassal kings established a foothold, the court would no longer allocate funds. For the sake of their vassal state, they will definitely want to borrow money and arm themselves.
It was equivalent to the vassal king lending money to the court to take over.
After all, the weapons that the feudal king borrowed money to buy had to be purchased from the imperial court. The court will also collect taxes on the transaction money. Not to mention it will affect the development of more enterprises.
Convert the imperial court's deficit into the feudal king's own deficit.
This was a good thing for the Ming court.
Of course, He Xi couldn't just count on how much deficit these vassal kings could convert. But for things like this, the more, the better.
But He Xi still felt a little ashamed and uneasy in her heart.
Because he knew that he actually set a very bad example for many people in future generations.
Standing on the long river of history, it is obvious that the history of this time and space will be divided into two completely different eras from the two eras of Hongwu and Longwu.
As the founder of the new era, many of He Xi's things will actually be observed, studied, and imitated by future generations.
This is his method of transforming domestic internal contradictions into external contradictions. Many people will naturally see it in the future. He Xi can even predict that the future Ming capitalism will definitely be imperialism.
It's a wild beast.
He will continue to expand and exploit, filling the gluttonous mouth of Ming Dynasty's industrialization with the flesh and blood of other countries around the world. Until this glutton eats the entire world and rules the entire world.
He started eating himself.
At that time, perhaps the time for revolution has arrived.
It was when he saw this that He Xi felt uneasy and ashamed. This is not what he wants. But it's something he can't avoid. The development of history has its own laws.
There are many things that cannot be skipped.
Although history has changed, imperialism has also come back. It just changed from the Western powers to the evil Ming imperialism. The people who died under imperialism were no one except Western Europe. Evolved into other people except the Ming Empire.
Although He Xi was a little happy with this change. But he must also consider that the stronger imperialism is, the more difficult it will be to overthrow it. Will what he is doing now become an insurmountable mountain for future revolutionaries?
This is also where He Xi's deepest worries lie.
It’s just that he can’t travel back a hundred or two hundred years to see it.
