Chapter 1485: The Hard Life of Zhu Cizhao

The "Constitutional Convention" of the Western Chu Republic was still in progress — this was the birth of a republic! Everything had to be properly discussed, and of course it could not all be settled in a single meeting.

So from late March to the end of April in the 26th year of Hongxing, in the city of Yining, which belonged to the Ming homeland, the republican greats and republican pioneers who founded the Western Chu Republic held meetings continuously for over a month. They not only decided the Western Chu Republic's form of government, formulated the republic's constitution, and delineated the borders of the republic's 7 Myriad-Household Prefectures and 70 Chiliarch Counties — each of the 70 Chiliarch Counties could elect one elder to the Republic's Council of Elders! And the Council of Elders naturally held the highest power in the republic.

Apart from these political arrangements, this Constitutional Convention also passed the "Land Distribution Order" that later generations would remember.

This was truly an extraordinary law!

This law caused a sensation at the time, and many years later it was praised to the skies by historians and political scholars, who unanimously held that this "Land Distribution Order" was the fundamental law of the Western Chu Republic, its importance even exceeding the Western Chu Republic's "Republican Code," that is, the so-called constitution.

Because Western Chu's "Republican Code" only guaranteed Western Chu's republican system on the surface. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, many similar constitutions appeared, but very few were actually obeyed.

Yet the Western Chu Republic, situated deep in the heart of Central Asia and extremely backward in economy, culture, science and technology, and every other respect, strictly observed the "Republican Code" throughout its later history. Over a history lasting several hundred years, its republican system was never once challenged!

If one investigates the reason, it was undoubtedly this "Land Distribution Order" that for a very long period gave the citizens of the Western Chu Republic the greatest equality — economic equality!

At the same time, this "Land Distribution Order" also ensured that the gun-bearing citizens of Western Chu possessed sufficient economic strength to support themselves and their families, and also to serve the state.

Because for a considerably long period, the gun-bearing citizens of the Western Chu Republic all possessed land of roughly equal amount and by no means small absolute quantity — each household averaged 1,000 mu, and each person about 200 mu! Therefore within the Western Chu Republic, there were no especially wealthy citizens, nor especially poor citizens.

Almost all gun-bearing citizens of Western Chu had guns, had land, and were free from want of food and clothing, but could not become enormously rich. Of course, the inability to become enormously rich was not because of the "Land Distribution Order," but was caused by the Western Chu Republic's unique geographical position.

In the Age of Discovery, Central Asia was no longer a necessary route for East-West exchange, and its commercial value was almost zero. The high cost of overland transport also made Central Asia a relatively closed space. No matter how much the land produced, it could not be shipped out, so citizens who received 1,000 mu of land could not accumulate wealth by selling agricultural products.

Although this enclosed terrain limited the Western Chu Republic's economic progress, it also, together with the "Land Distribution Order," beneficially guaranteed the country's economic fairness — at least until the Western Chu Republic's population swelled to a certain number, Western Chu citizens could enjoy economic comfort and equality. One could say they were in an ideal state pursued by the sages of antiquity.

And in this state of general comfort and equality, even the Overlord of Western Chu found it very difficult to use his position to accumulate any considerable wealth. Because the trouble was not small (the surrounding countries were all strong, and the gun-bearing citizens below were hard to serve), and at the same time the profits were insufficient, the imposing-sounding post of Western Chu Overlord became a position of little attraction after Zhu Cijiong's ten-year term ended — the unlucky Zhu Cijiong, after his first term as "Overlord" ended, did not seek a crown as originally planned, but resolutely returned to Datong Prefecture, and afterwards returned to Beijing, the city of his birth, where he spent a considerably long remainder of his life.

His successor in the post, Zhu Cixuan, likewise did not seek a second term after his ten-year term ended, but went with his wife Li Yue'e to an estate by the shore of the Jehol Sea to live in seclusion, and there they spent the rest of their lives.

Although in the several hundred years that followed, the descendants of Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cixuan (the descendants of their female offspring) almost monopolized the post of "Overlord," this still did not harm Western Chu's republican system.

Moreover, beginning with Zhu Cixuan, every Western Chu Overlord was elected by vote of the Chiliarch Assembly.

While the Ming Prince of Dai, Zhu Cijiong, was transforming into the Father of the Western Chu Republic, more than ten thousand li away in the Bay of Bengal, on the island of New Ryukyu, which lay right next to the jurisdiction of the Ming Western Ocean Military Commission, the vexing season of daily rain had once again arrived.

The so-called New Ryukyu Island was Phuket Island. Because the Sho dynasty of the Ryukyu Kingdom had been transferred enfeoffed there by Zhu Cilang, the island's name was changed to New Ryukyu.

And at the end of the 25th year of Hongxing, this island of enchanting scenery once again changed masters — because Sho Tei of the Sho dynasty repeatedly pleaded, Zhu Cilang finally agreed to move the Sho dynasty back to their old home, Ryukyu Island. However, Sho Shitsu was no longer the ruler of a state, but became the hereditary and perpetually inheritable Commandery Prince of Ryukyu. The title Commandery Prince of Ryukyu was merely a title, and did not mean that Sho Tei could rule Ryukyu.

In other words, the Ryukyu Sho clan exchanged the "destruction of their state" for permission to return to their homeland. And such an enormous price, in the eyes of the Sho family, was completely worth it!

The reason was simple: over the past dozen or so years, although the Sho family had done their utmost to develop and transform Phuket Island, they still had no way to change the island's state of rampant miasma and dysentery. Of the Ryukyu people who had followed the Sho family and migrated there, over the past dozen or so years, as many as 80% had successively died of illness! And Sho Tei's father and mother also died one after another within three years of the transfer to Phuket Island. Of the Sho clan's sons who had migrated to Phuket Island, more than 60% had also died over the past dozen or so years.

Because too many people had died, the island's development was also in a terrible state. By the time the Ming Empire prepared to use New Ryukyu Island as a base for advancing into the Lesser Western Ocean, the Ming Marshal's Office discovered that the island's infrastructure was very poor and almost unusable.

So Zhu Cilang had no choice but to agree to the Sho clan's withdrawal of their fief. However, he did not turn New Ryukyu into Ming homeland either, but instead transferred it as a fief to his fifth younger brother, Zhu Cizhao, making it his duchy — Zhu Cizhao would concurrently hold the title Duke of Phuket.

Zhu Cizhao, now a monarch, had become a dark-skinned, tall and thin middle-aged widower whose face always bore a trace of sorrow.

Yes, he was widowed — he had lost Zuo Mengmei!

Zuo Mengmei had died of malaria three years earlier. Besides losing his wife, Zhu Cizhao had also lost his son! One year before Zuo Mengmei died of illness, the son born to Zhu Cizhao and Zuo Mengmei had also died of malaria!

Unlike Zhu Cilang and Zhu Cijiong, who had many descendants, Zhu Cizhao, because he was devoted to Zuo Mengmei alone, had very few children, and only one son and two daughters had managed to grow to adulthood.

Zhu Cizhao, who had suffered the successive pains of losing his son and his wife, had become somewhat taciturn and despondent. But he still pulled himself together and continued to work hard at the tasks his eldest brother Zhu Cilang gave him.

Because he still had a grandson, named Zhu Yijin, who was just four years old this year, and who at this moment was playing on the clean white sand under the care of a Yamato wet nurse.

And Zhu Cizhao was watching his grandson from not far away, a rare trace of a smile appearing on his face.

"Boom, boom—"

A sound like rolling thunder rang in Zhu Cizhao's ears. Perhaps a thunderstorm was approaching. He looked up at the sky, which for once was a cloudless day.

"Father King, it's the fort on the hill," a dark-faced burly man beside Zhu Cizhao, with an Embroidered Spring Saber at his waist but wearing a Siamese-style short silk jacket, loudly warned. "It must be that seagoing ships are approaching. Perhaps it's the roving bandits' fleet or a Western fleet!"

This man who called Zhu Cizhao "Father King" was of course not his biological son, but Zhang Yong's second son, named Zhu Yunyi (Zhang Yunyi). After Zhu Cizhao's own son died, he had acknowledged Zhu Cizhao as his adoptive father.

(End of Chapter)