Chapter 1296: Zhu, Zheng, and Shen Share Jiangnan

Zhu Cilang knew that most of what Zheng Sen said was true, because in the original history, the Zheng family had built Taiwan into a base capable of holding out against the entire Qing dynasty for as long as forty years.

If it had been losing money year after year, there would have been no need for Shi Lang to attack Taiwan — it would have bankrupted itself.

Although the Ming-Zheng regime ultimately still fell to the vast Qing dynasty, it made the Qing pay an unimaginable price, a price that even grew into two malignant tumors capable of bringing down the Qing dynasty!

One of those tumors was called the Coastal Evacuation and Sea Ban!

In history, in order to deal with the Zheng family on Taiwan, the Qing dynasty's Kangxi Emperor even resorted to a Coastal Evacuation and Sea Ban that killed a hundred of his own to harm three thousand of the enemy. According to a contemporary account: "The deadline was only three days; those far away did not learn of it in time, and those nearby learned but did not believe it. After two days, the cavalry arrived, and in the ensuing panic, the rich abandoned all their wealth, while the poor — the husband carrying a pot, the wife with an infant on her back — fled with a measure of rice and a bundle of straw, seeking shelter at any door. From Jiangsu and Zhejiang down to Fujian and Guangdong, thousands of li of fertile land were abandoned to weeds, and the native inhabitants all became refugees!"

In this disaster of the Coastal Evacuation and Sea Ban alone, the dead among the southeastern common people numbered in the hundreds of thousands!

Even Li Shuaitai, the second son of the arch-traitor Li Yongfang (in this timeline he has already been executed by slow slicing), wrote in his final memorial: "When this subject was first in Guangdong, the people still had means of livelihood; recently, because of the forced migration, they have been dying off one after another — not one in ten remains."

It is no exaggeration to say that the Kangxi-era policy of Coastal Evacuation and Sea Ban was yet another heavy blow to the southeastern coastal economy, following the massacre policies in the southeast, Fujian, and Guangdong. At the same time, it sealed China off more completely than ever before — far more thoroughly than the Ming dynasty's maritime prohibition. Because no matter how much the Ming closed its doors, it could never have emptied the entire coastal region. Given the administrative capacity of a feudal dynasty, as long as the coast was not emptied, there was no way to truly stop maritime traffic.

Therefore, the Ming's actual sea ban only really lasted from the end of the large-scale voyages to the Western Ocean (as long as the official voyages to the Western Ocean existed, it could not be considered a true sea ban; otherwise Spain, which prohibited private overseas trade, would also have to be counted as a sea-ban country) until the great wokou uprisings of the Jiajing era — altogether just over a hundred years. And even then the blockade was not solid; otherwise, where did those great wokou of the Jiajing era, who exported and then re-imported, come from?

But the Kangxi-era Coastal Evacuation and Sea Ban can be said to have truly severed the channels of exchange between China and the outside world that had been so open in the late Ming, and to have shut one window after another through which the world could be glimpsed.

Later, when the Qing faced the invasion of the Western powers, one important reason why all manner of reform and national salvation progressed so slowly was that the interruption had lasted too long — Guangzhou may have been an exception, but Chinese people elsewhere, especially the ruling class, had been cut off from the world for far too long.

Even a Fujian scholar-official like Lin Zexu did not know whether foreigners' knees could bend — from that one can imagine how closed off the Qing was, and how severe the aftereffects of the Coastal Evacuation and Sea Ban were!

And the other tumor was the Hongmen! Although the Hongmen was not necessarily founded by Zheng Chenggong, its birth was certainly connected to Chen Yonghua and the Ming-Zheng regime.

Later, Mr. Sun Yat-sen, who led the anti-Manchu revolution and overthrew the Qing dynasty, was also a member of the Hongmen! And many of the backbone members of the revolutionary party also had Hongmen backgrounds.

So the Manchu Qing dynasty truly paid an extremely heavy price for destroying the Zheng family, that maritime merchant group!

And the fact that the Zheng family, relying only on Taiwan and small patches of territory along the Fujian coast, could fight the Manchu Qing to such an extent is ample proof of their outstanding ability. It is also ample proof that the Zheng clan was a new-style political-commercial group, distinct from the other bureaucratic, aristocratic, and warlord groups of the late Ming!

One must remember that after Taiwan was captured by the Qing, the population count came to a mere one hundred twenty thousand! Taking into account the Qing army's massacres, the Han population of Taiwan under Zheng family rule was at most a little over two hundred thousand.

If the Zheng family's strength had been a little greater, their territory a little larger, their population a little bigger, and the lifespans of the three generations of Zheng family heads a little longer — there is no certainty that the Zheng family would not have become China's House of Orange!

And the Zheng family of today is a Zheng family with greater strength, more people, more territory, and a longer-lived family head!

And today's Great Ming has not just one great bourgeois family like the Zheng, with industry and commerce as its economic foundation, but many, many similar great bourgeois families. Moreover, they are concentrated in the very core of the present Great Ming dynasty — the eight southeastern provinces of the Four Rivers, Two Lakes, Fujian, and Guangdong.

And the leaders of these industrial and commercial families are, without question, the three houses of Zhu, Zheng, and Shen!

"Zhu and Wu share Jiangnan" does not exist, but "Zhu, Zheng, and Shen share Jiangnan" is plain to see.

"Senior Brother," Zhu Cilang said with a smile, looking at Zheng Sen, who in the original history had died of a tropical infectious disease but was now still in good health (as the Dongning Military Governor he was stationed permanently in Quanzhou and basically never went to Taiwan), "exchanging the Ryukyus for Quanzhou still put your family at a disadvantage. Since the southern migration, your family has contributed effort and money to the nation, and is truly the foremost house of meritorious service in the Restoration. How could We treat meritorious subjects so poorly? How about this — the Ryukyus shall still belong to Dongning.

In addition, We shall enfeoff your family with another state! Senior Brother, where would you like it?"

When Zheng Sen heard that the Zhu Emperor was going to grant his family a fief, his heart gave a thump — a loss!

The profitable fiefs had long since been snapped up by the Zhu clan, and the remaining territories were mostly money-losing ventures that would again require the Zheng family to pour money into filling the holes!

Moreover, the Zheng family was not like the Wu family — they were not feudal warlords. Under them were just a bunch of ship bosses — these were merchants, not warriors who only knew how to kill people and collect rent, so it was very hard to make them go occupy too much unprofitable territory. Taiwan alone was already giving the old Zheng family a splitting headache!

"May I ask which place Your Majesty intends to enfeoff to my father and brother?" Zheng Chagu, who was attending nearby, saw that the atmosphere was a little awkward and immediately interjected.

Zhu Cilang smiled: "We cannot shortchange meritorious subjects. We must find a somewhat wealthier territory. How about the Sultanate of Sulu? The former Sultan of Sulu moved to Aceh, and Sulu Island, along with nearby Palawan Island and the Sabah territory on Borneo, have all been vacated — just right for establishing a ducal fief."

Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Sen both breathed a sigh of relief at the same time — this piece of land would not make money, but it would not lose much either; the Zheng family could still swallow it as a long-term investment.

Father and son exchanged a glance, then both rose and bowed in gratitude.

Zhu Cilang laughed: "Rise. This is what your Zheng family deserves. However, neither the Old Father-in-Law nor Senior Brother may go to Sulu to take up the fief; you must both remain in the capital to assist Us."

Zhu Cilang granted the Sulu fief to the Zheng family precisely to make them lose money, not to send the Zheng father and son abroad — he was using this method to weaken the Zheng family's financial power, so as to maintain the royal consortium's advantage over the Zheng consortium.

The Zhu Emperor paused, then continued: "The Old Father-in-Law is advanced in years; he may choose one of the Three Preceptors or Three Dukes and serve as Our advisory minister. For the Ministry of Revenue, We intend to have Shen Chongming take over, and Shen Chongming's Ministry of Works shall go to Senior Brother!

The Ministry of Works was originally a money-spending office, but under Shen Chongming's management it has now become a money-earning one. Now that We are handing it to Senior Brother, We can rest easy!"

Shen Chongming was none other than Shen Tingyang, the second-richest man in the Great Ming! He had always been a loyal subject, and having found in the Zhu Emperor an enlightened sovereign, he could naturally give full play to his talents. First he took charge of the "Northern Ministry of Revenue" (which was actually the work of the Governor-General of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang), and later, when the Northern Ministry of Revenue was abolished, he became Minister of Works.

Zhu Cilang also placed the canals, official roads, and mining affairs of the directly administered provinces entirely under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Works.

Under Shen Tingyang's operation, the canals and official roads could "collect tolls," and commercial markets could be opened along the routes; mining could be contracted out for tax farming, or operated directly by the court; and in some northern regions, the ports and cities also contained many properties belonging to the Ministry of Works. Thus the Great Ming's Ministry of Works had actually become a money-earning office — within the directly administered provinces, major expenditures on river works, road works, mining works, and urban and port construction could all be covered by the Ministry of Works' income, and there was even a surplus!

Now the Zhu Emperor had given this money-earning Ministry of Works to Zheng Sen, while also having Shen Tingyang take over the Ministry of Revenue, plus Luo Dagong's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ma Shiying's Ministry of Justice, and Zheng Chenggong's Ministry of the Navy. The Southern Party, led by the three men Zheng, Shen, and Luo, now held more than half of the ministerial posts in the Great Ming court!

(End of Chapter)