Chapter 796: Zhou is an Old State, but its Mandate is Renewed

In a closed system that cannot continue to expand and has no new interests entering, the vested interests within this system always tend to infinitely expand their own share of interests.

Zhang Juzheng called this annexation and hit the nail on the head by summarizing it as the world being trapped by annexation;

Wang Chonggu called it bloating and rigidity. Bloating and rigidity interact with each other, eventually leading to the organization losing its vitality and its ability to metabolize.

Later generations called it the dynastic cycle.

Zhu Yijun did not have such great ability to change the world. His power was great, but his power was imperial power. He could write the fourth volume of the Theory of Classes, but in the end, it only stated that the imperial system must perish, yet he could not gain widespread recognition.

Even the people around Zhu Yijun were opposing him, including the Empress. She was the Empress, and her son was also going to be the Emperor.

Even the third volume of the Theory of Classes, the Struggle Volume on the inevitable demise of the Ming Dynasty, was still widely opposed.

The wise officials in the Ming court all used it critically. Since they had clearly known the path to demise, they would prevent the process of demise, decline, and decay, at the very least making the collapse of heaven and earth come a little later.

Essentially, Zhu Yijun sold out the attributes of absolute imperial rule, actively opened the seas, ended the strong personal attachment of the feudal rule, and even untied the attachment of ministers to imperial power, bringing enough incremental interests to the Ming Dynasty.

While developing and expanding, he used the distribution of incremental interests to exchange for the mitigation of internal contradictions.

This was what Zhu Yijun had been doing before the 15th year of Wanli. Zhu Yijun sold out too many attributes of absolute imperial rule, including establishing four overseas Viceroyalties and conferring various pioneering noble titles. These were not simple decentralizations of power; they were dismembering the sanctity of imperial power.

Zhu Yijun had already stirred up a discussion on the trend of freedom, just like opening Pandora's box, which could never be stopped.

Zhu Yijun was already the gravedigger of the imperial system. Perhaps because of his wisdom and martial prowess and his original intention, he could allow the imperial system to continue for a period of time, but what should come would eventually come.

Zhang Juzheng perceived the danger in it and tried to use the narrative of kindness to compensate for the loss of absolute imperial rule. The effect was extremely significant. The narrative of kindness was currently acceptable both inside and outside the court and throughout the Ming Dynasty.

Because the Ming Emperor could truly use various means to bring back massive amounts of silver.

"Then do we need to borrow money? Falanxi has no such colonies, and overseas returns are really too low. Is the pressure of paying off five million silver in three years very high? I can provide a huge loan to the generous Duke of Montmorency, with a very low interest rate, only 4%, and it can be paid off in forty years, just like Portugal," Zhu Yijun said with glowing eyes and great interest.

Making money was the most important thing. As long as Zhu Yijun could still earn large amounts of silver, all classes in the Ming Dynasty would firmly support His Majesty's rule, and even shout that he was invincible!

Debt could turn a person into a slave, and similarly, it could turn a country into a slave.

The 30% deposit for five million silver was 1.5 million silver. The internal selling price of twenty five-masted ocean-crossing ships was one million silver. Even if Ma Minister Liang's father failed, the Ming Dynasty had already made money!

Zhu Yijun's goal was very simple: continuous output of debt. And even if Ma Minister Liang's father succeeded, he wouldn't dare to easily breach the contract, because that represented an absolute break with the Ming Dynasty and the inability to continue friendly trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Ma Minister Liang took a deep breath. The Emperor's current face was completely indistinguishable from those profit-seeking merchants in Venice!

The halo of the holy prophet immediately shattered into slag, which gave Ma Minister Liang a sense of frustration that her idol had fallen.

She had heard too many rumors and knew clearly that as long as it involved silver, the Emperor would lose his wise demeanor and become strange!

But when this moment came, it was still hard for her to accept.

"Your Majesty, Falanxi still has some silver. It's not Antonio; he has no way left!" Ma Minister Liang emphasized the difference between Falanxi and Portugal.

No matter how many colonies Portugal had, they didn't belong to Antonio in the past or present. In fact, no one was optimistic about Antonio.

After Antonio ascended the throne, it was still the Ming envoys Xu Fan and others who went to Falanxi and England to exchange for the two countries' recognition of King Antonio.

Of course, Zhu Yijun was not optimistic about Antonio either; it was Antonio himself who was capable.

Zhu Yijun frowned. He actually refused to borrow money. Thinking about it, Falanxi was politically chaotic, and they hadn't lost much territory. These great dukes were still very rich.

He thought for a moment and said, "Is that so? Then is training needed?"

"You know no one is born a sailor, and all sailors need to learn. And driving a ship requires some skills. It just so happens that the Ming Dynasty has the most five-masted ocean-crossing ships. We can help Falanxi train enough sailors to cope with Spain's maritime dominant position!"

"Falanxi lacks sailors, and the Ming Dynasty can train them for you. Otherwise, even if we help you sail these ships back, you won't know how to use them."

Ma Minister Liang's eyes lit up and she asked, "Can you train naval experts?"

"That's probably not possible," Zhu Yijun answered immediately. "This is not something that can be solved by paying money. Just like the fast sailing ships, Philip intended to pay 500,000 per ship to purchase them, but the Ming Dynasty only builds twelve a year, and they still need to be equipped for the Ming navy."

"Then forget it." Ma Minister Liang was deeply disappointed. The naval experts trained by the Ming Dynasty were famous throughout the world, and the Ming Dynasty was the only place that could systematically train navigators.

Falanxi also had some sailors, although they didn't have a formed navy, finding enough sailors was not a problem.

An excellent naval expert could reduce the voyage

time by one-third or more, and getting lost at sea was even more dangerous. It could be said that a captain having a naval expert to assist would make navigation much smoother.

Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty could sell many things for silver.

But there were some things that the Ming Dynasty liked to close its doors and refuse anyone's peeking, such as steam engines, fast sailing ships, and the manufacturing of high-jin naval guns, all of which were tightly closed to the barbarians.

Let alone the barbarians, even if the Ming people wanted to understand these, they had to check their ancestors back five generations. They carried out confidentiality to the maximum extent. Trying to peek into the secrets was really too difficult.

After Ma Minister Liang finished talking business with the Emperor, she requested very solemnly, "I heard that the prophet gave a piece of advice to the envoy of the Northern Alliance and gave a blessing to Aenmaren. I implore Your Majesty to give my father some advice."

Zhu Yijun was still not used to Ma Minister Liang's religious narrative as a Grand Shepherd. He shook his head and said, "That was not a blessing. It was just discussing the Oath of Abjuration, and based on their struggle, I talked about my views. They need to fight for themselves, fight for the freedom of the Netherlands."

"Just as the doctrine of the Great Brightness Sect says: there is no savior, only self-salvation."

This sentence was indeed the doctrine of the Great Brightness Sect, and it was one of the core doctrines.

There is no God in the doctrine of the Great Brightness Sect. This was the reason Zhu Yijun was willing to chat with these believers, because there is no God, so there is no savior; everything must rely on one's own hands to create one's own future.

Ma Minister Liang requested solemnly again, "Lost lambs need to find a direction in the fog."

"Then I wish him success," Zhu Yijun pondered. He didn't have any sharp views to evaluate Falanxi's situation, which was not clear. Zhu Yijun could only wish this desperate Duke success.

"Thank you for Your Majesty's blessing." Ma Minister Liang was somewhat helpless. The Ming Emperor didn't seem to be very optimistic about her father and didn't intend to give more guidance.

Ma Minister Liang frowned and said, "I read the court reports of the Ming Dynasty for the past year at the Four Barbarian Halls. It seems that two rebellions of different scales occurred in Zhejiang and Jiangxi of the Ming Dynasty."

"The Ming people seem to have less patience than the Westerners. They use their own actions to express their dissatisfaction. What makes me hard to understand is that Your Majesty does not stop all this from happening, and is even indulging it."

Ma Minister Liang could not understand. The Ming people were already so happy, able to become the upper people of the Heavenly Dynasty, yet they opposed the empire's rule because of some tax problems!

Whether in the city or the countryside, the Ming people were happier than the Westerners.

In the cities of the West, one needed to endure the excrement everywhere, be careful not to step on excrement, and be careful of excrement falling from the sky. The poor sanitary environment led to more diseases. Hospitals were a privilege that only a few could enjoy, while the Ming Dynasty had

institutionalized public welfare pharmacies;

And in the countryside, the Ming people could own their own land, and even tie up their employers to sign alliances, while the West was undergoing the enclosure movement, and even the Russian state was establishing serfdom. The Ming farmers could unite several counties and prefectures to resist the imperial court's taxes.

The imperial court's decisions were even stranger.

Zhu Yijun seriously pondered this question, shook his head, and said, "This question is very complex, but what I want to say is: the Ming people are very hardworking and can endure hardship. In my view, most of the Ming people are the best subjects in the world, none better."

"It is my luck to be their monarch. This dragon chair was inherited from the late Emperor, passed down by blood, not my achievement."

"When I first ascended the throne, I often said to the attendants around me: I am young and inexperienced, who runs around for the ten thousand people, who is the king of the ten thousand people. To this day, I, this Emperor, can barely be worthy of the admiration and expectations of the world."

"In fact, the poor laborers who occupy the majority, give them a little warmth, and they will be grateful, feeling that the local gentry are great good people, feeling that I am a good person."

"In my view, the Ming people are extremely docile. If they weren't driven to a dead end and really had no other way, they wouldn't do this. So I think they are reasonable in doing so, so I want to support them."

"The Ming Dynasty is a country with a vast territory and a large population. Managing 130 million people is a very complex matter. If I don't support the poor laborers, after the poor laborers kill the local gentry, kill the powerful and wealthy, they will kill me, kill the Ming Dynasty."

"This kind of thing has happened many times in China."

In this land of the Central Plains, dynasties cycle. If you force the common people to a dead end, then you really can't blame the common people for no longer recognizing the Ming Dynasty.

Ma Minister Liang could not understand this logic of the Emperor at all, just as the Ming Emperor could not understand the cruelty of religious wars in the West.

She shook her head and said, "Rich and wise prophet, I dare not agree with your statement. The Ming people are not docile. The beggars on the streets of London, the endless serfs in Kiev seem to be more docile. They seem to have never thought of resisting, but hope for the illusory God who is not in the human world to save them."

"Respected Majesty, I do not mean to preach in the Ming Dynasty. Even the Great Brightness Sect, the Great Brightness Sect is an alienation of the Ming narrative."

Are the Ming people docile? The blood of the Westerners is almost drained!

Except for the Dutch who chose to resist, even then, the Dutch were divided into two factions, and even the surrender faction had the upper hand.

Ma Minister Liang did not think the Ming people were docile. She even felt that the resistance of the Ming people was too intense. Breaking into the county seat, hanging the local gentry, and forcing the imperial court to sign an alliance to reduce taxes.

It was truly too terrifying.

She had also heard a name, Huang Chao, who actually wiped out those families with a thousand-year heritage, as if they had never existed.

Some tax officials under her father were very, very excessive for generations. If they were in the Ming Dynasty, they would have been beheaded by the Emperor to appease the public anger.

These words of hers were not to seduce His Majesty into allowing Western sects to preach in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was more interested in rice, flour, grain, and oil, and not particularly interested in God and God's words.

She came to the Ming Dynasty with the purpose of pilgrimage. Seeing that the prophet was still as wise as ever, she would feel at ease. Returning to the West, she could say to the believers that she had witnessed wisdom itself.

Zhu Yijun pondered and shook his head, saying, "Religion is indeed a relatively cheap means of maintaining stability, but I am the monarch of the human world, the Emperor of ten thousand people, not a servant of God."

"God doesn't even have a battalion, why should I be his servant? This is unreasonable. God doesn't even have a battalion, yet wants me to submit. This is too ridiculous."

"I have the third volume of the Theory of Classes here. Legazpi has already translated it into Latin. You can take it and look at it."

Zhu Yijun signaled for someone to bring the third volume, the Struggle Volume. Since she had come to the Ming Dynasty from thousands of miles away, she should take the Struggle Volume back. She couldn't go back empty-handed.

"Generous prophet, forgive my greed. Is there a Chinese version? I want to read it. I think the Latin translation will eventually lose its original meaning in the process, and I can barely understand Chinese." Ma Minister Liang didn't like the Latin version of the Theory of Classes; she liked the original version.

Some words, the process of translation will lose their original true meaning, and for the Grand Shepherd, the true meaning is the foundation.

"Seeking liberation is never greed. This is a book published on a large scale by the Ming Dynasty. When you leave, you can take one." Zhu Yijun agreed.

For the sake of the five million silver deal.

Although over three years, it was only 1.7 million silver a year, it was by no means a small business. It was approximately equal to the construction cost of three late Emperor mausoleums. If this was a small business, then what were the late Emperor mausoleums!

"I look forward to our next meeting, but the sea route is long, the environment in the West is complex, and the situation of the Great Brightness Sect is also somewhat difficult. Please remember me, even if we can never meet again."

"I am the pious Ma Minister Liang." Ma Minister Liang was somewhat emotional. Life is so fragile; every pilgrimage might be the last one.

She knew the Ming Dynasty was very good, and she also wanted to stay here like Legazpi, but she knew clearly that the Great Brightness Sect in the West was still waiting for her to return.

"May wisdom always be with everyone." Zhu Yijun said with a smile.

"Thank you for the prophet's blessing." Ma Minister Liang bowed again and left the Tonghe Palace Imperial Study.

This was the main reason Ma Minister Liang came to the Ming Dynasty. She needed an encouragement, an encouragement for her and all the believers of the Great Brightness Sect to continue walking, no matter

how rugged and difficult the road was, but as long as they walked, they could reach the other shore, because Ma Minister Liang had seen the appearance of the other shore with her own eyes.

Even if it wasn't that perfect, and even less of a kingdom of God on earth, this imperfection made it seem real and made it easier to approach.

The confusion in Ma Minister Liang's heart dissipated completely. She didn't disturb the Emperor too much because the Emperor was busy with ten thousand affairs and still had to meet envoys.

The Russian state also sent an envoy, but it wasn't the Legion Commander Ivan Petersen whom the Emperor met last time, but a young man. He brought various crop seeds promised by Ivan.

Several kinds of pasture grass, and also sugar beets.

The reason the Ming Dynasty needed these pasture seeds was that the Ming Dynasty, led by the Agricultural Academy, was actively promoting the replacement of grain with grass in the captive animal husbandry industry.

Using grass to replace the bean dregs widely used in the animal husbandry industry. Bean dregs were the residue left after squeezing oil from various cotton seeds, rapeseed, soybeans, etc.

Bean dregs were also food and were the main raw material for making soy sauce. But if livestock were not fed bean dregs, they wouldn't grow meat. Even dodo birds were like this; using feed fermented with bean dregs made them grow meat faster and grow better.

But the Ming Dynasty's soybean planting was all supplementary planting during crop rotation, and the yield was far less than the demand, so they could only plant more pasture grass.

In order to make pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, ducks, and dodos grow meat, cultivating higher quality pasture grass became the responsibility of the Agricultural Academy. The Agricultural Academy was cultivating various crops and animal husbandry to enrich the Ming Dynasty's dining table.

The people regard food as heaven. Attaching importance to food is attaching importance to the ten thousand people themselves.

Zhu Yijun stretched and continued to read the memorials that were piled into a small mountain but were in good order.

News from Korea: since the Ming Dynasty broke through Zhongzhou, the Japanese military had completely lost the courage to attack and began to occupy various mountain cities to defend, never taking the initiative to attack. No matter how the Ming army provoked, they shrank in the mountain roads and mountain cities they built, holding firm and not coming out.

And the Ming Dynasty changed its strategy, starting to attack the Japanese pirates' supplies, forcing the Japanese pirates to fight.

The Korean battlefield had entered garbage time. These turtle shells could be pried open one by one. The fact that the Japanese pirates were driven into the sea was already inevitable. The Ming Dynasty had already converted its advantage into a winning situation.

Because the Korean people actively supported the Ming heavenly troops who protected them, they were willing to leave some food for the Ming army even if they were hungry themselves.

Although Ling Yunyi was a bit cruel, he was not tyrannical. He did not rob the people's food but actively carried out royal transformation. The situation in Korea was very stable.

The Nagasaki Viceroyalty, with the support of Japanese buyers, had taken down some more silver mines. For example, the Hojo family accepted the Nagasaki Viceroyalty's request for garrisoning, and the condition was that they could receive equivalent Ming treasure notes every year, allowing the Ming people to hire Japanese people to work in the mines.

And the Hojo family hoped to exchange more Japanese slaves for silver.

In the first half of

this year, the Nagasaki Viceroyalty accepted another 500 Koreans. These people were all experts at castration. In half a year, they transported more than 40,000 Japanese slaves into the construction sites of the Zhedong Canal and the Nanyang plantations. These were all young men aged sixteen to twenty-five.

There were also more than 30,000 Japanese women who entered the Ming Dynasty.

The Jile Sect was even more rampant in Japan, and more and more people knew that the Ming Dynasty prohibited people with tattoos and brands from entering the Ming Dynasty, making the screening of Jile Sect believers more difficult.

But the Nagasaki Viceroyalty tried its best to ensure that extreme Jile Sect believers would not mix into the Ming Dynasty on a large scale.

Actually, it was relatively easy to distinguish, because some evil spirits could be seen at a glance. After asking twenty labeled questions, extreme Jile Sect believers could be screened out.

Zhu Yijun was slightly puzzled and said to Feng Bao, "These are all geniuses who are good at learning. I used the Li Kaifang formula conditional probability to check taxes, and Nagasaki used countless questions as a question bank for random questioning, screening, right? They are all talents who are good at learning!"

"Your Majesty is admired by ten thousand people, and the world takes it as a rule. This method is good, so it is naturally used everywhere. Governor Xu is also for the imperial order," Feng Bao said happily.

They all learned from His Majesty.

Since the degree of penetration, the Ming Dynasty has found that this arithmetic is really easy to use and can really solve many problems.

"Feng Bao, bring the backup of this memorial and cross out the part about Japanese slaves at the back," Zhu Yijun picked up the pen on the table and blackened the part about Japanese slaves.

Crossing out means there is no clear record, which means Xu Wei and Sun Keyi have never done these Japanese slave businesses. If someone asks in the future, where did the Japanese slaves go? The blame will be attributed to the Emperor.

Just like the vanguard soldiers wearing three-inch dragon flag stickers, the ministers were all acting on orders.

Feng Bao said in a low voice, "Except for the copy in front of Your Majesty, the backup copy did not record the parts about Japanese slaves and Japanese women."

"To build the New Sun Canal, these Japanese slaves are the main force. If they are seen by those cheap scholars who are far away, it will be endless chatter, which cannot delay the main business."

The memorials presented to the Emperor were all originals, with fire lacquer, seals, and signatures, but the backups were all filed, so they could be written with a curved pen.

This was very common; not everything had to be recorded so clearly.

For example, whether Jianwen Jun Zhu Yunwen ran away or died in that fire in the Nanjing Imperial Palace, it didn't have to be said so clearly. It was more important that Jianwen Jun lost the throne.

Zhu Yijun picked up the black pen and blackened all the Japanese slave parts, ensuring they couldn't be seen.

These sins were written off in one stroke.

"Next chapter cabinet, commend their merits." The Ming Emperor was very satisfied with his behavior. How many Japanese slaves there were every year, later generations could only guess.

Zhu Yi

Jun picked up the next memorial, looked at it for a moment, and said, "Interesting."

Songjiang Governor Shen Shixing submitted another series of memorials, discussing the Ming Dynasty's decree on the illegal crimes of local gentry and powerful and wealthy families being punished three times.

Decrees are usually divided into two attributes: celebration and punishment; encouragement and prohibition.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty had too much celebration and encouragement for powerful and wealthy families and local gentry, but too little punishment and prohibition.

This approach led to a very terrible phenomenon: one could only continuously increase the intensity of celebration, but could not impose any punishment. Encouragement was ineffective, and greed was insatiable; prohibition was difficult to succeed, and discipline could not constrain anyone.

All institutional designs would go against the initial vision.

"The heavier the kindness, the deeper the greed; the pit is hard to fill. The more difficult the prohibition, the worse the law; discipline is not constrained. The noble treats the lowly, the lowly serves the noble. The constant principles collapse, rituals and music cease, and the country is in chaos without governance. The fundamental system is neglected, and all leaves wither," Zhu Yijun read the summary of the first volume of Shen Shixing.

Regarding the encouragement and prohibition of rituals in decrees, celebration and punishment.

Shen Shixing gave an example, which was: tobacco and opium. At that fork in the road, the Emperor chose to allow tobacco to be managed by the government, while imposing the strictest ban on opium.

If all institutional designs go against the initial vision, the first dilemma will appear, which is that the core value system of the Ming Dynasty will appear to be declining and decaying, that is, cultural degeneration.

This was the feeling Shen Shixing got from observing the rampant spread of the Jile Sect recently, and he believed that before the Wanli Reform, the Ming Dynasty was already on the verge of this decline of core values.

Once the core value system of a country declines, the entire country will fall into extreme tearing. This tearing will amplify all contradictions.

Even a very small matter will brew a disaster that the imperial court cannot predict at all, and then spread rapidly.

If the core value system has decayed, it means absolute chaos and moral crisis, and all contradictions and tearing cannot be bridged.

In addition to the crisis of the decline of the value system due to foreign aggression, reform and change will also fall into this terrible crisis.

The Ming Dynasty had already passed the first dilemma and was moving toward the second dilemma.

This second dilemma is: if the Ming Dynasty wants to develop, wants to change production relations, wants to change productivity, and wants to change the small-scale peasant economy, then a new value system will be continuously established in development, and the Ming Dynasty's old core value system will definitely suffer a huge impact.

If the new value system is allowed to grow wildly and develop unscrupulously, it will be difficult for the traditional, old value system to be preserved. This is the trend of development, always eliminating the past in development.

But the complete collapse of the old value system will cause moral crisis and chaos.

"Zhou is an old state, but its mandate is renewed." Zhu Yijun muttered the last sentence of the two dilemmas. This was a sentence quoted from the "Book of Songs," the wisdom of the ancestors always appearing suddenly, lighting up the road ahead.

Confused? The ancestors are here!

Shen Shixing quoted this sentence to describe the general principle of the replacement of new and old value systems.

Zhou, although an old state, was already brand new. The old value system cannot be completely abandoned, and the new value system cannot be absorbed without distinguishing good from bad.

Which old rituals need to be abandoned, and which new rituals need to be absorbed and established, these are all specific problems to be analyzed specifically.

And Shen Shixing believed it was not very important, just as the standard of good and evil is always changing, and the standard of the value system is also changing.

In Shen Shixing's view, the most critical question is: who does it, who bears this responsibility, and who fulfills this mission, the replacement of the new and old of Zhou being an old state but its mandate renewed.

Zhu Yijun continued to read with a solemn expression: "Since ancient times, few have been diligent, and many have followed the old ways; those who are diligent neglect practical practice and worship empty talk; those who follow the old ways ignore practice and hope for eternal laws; however, do scholars not know the truth that ignoring reality leads to confusion, and following the old ways will surely perish?"

"When the time comes, heaven and earth all exert their strength; when the luck is gone, the hero is not free. In the end, there is no strength, and everything declines."

Both the diligent and those who follow the old ways actually do not have that power to bear the responsibility and burden of reform. ===== CHAPTER 797 =====

In truth, neither the progressives nor the conservatives possess the strength to shoulder the responsibilities and heavy burdens of reform.