Chapter 1497: Great Unification vs. Diversified Investment

Several dozen li northwest of Old Mountain Palace, right next to the Wolong Mountain imperial mausoleum, there stood a splendid temple called the Wolong Mountain Huangjue Temple. Since this temple guarded the imperial mausoleum, it naturally could not enjoy thriving incense offerings. After all, the area around an imperial mausoleum could hardly be a bustling, lively place. There were only some mausoleum-guarding households (not a hereditary status, but tied to the agricultural estates — whoever contracted an estate had to assume the duty of guarding the imperial mausoleum) and merchants contracted to build the imperial mausoleum, along with the craftsmen they hired for the construction, living near Huangjue Temple.

Moreover, this Wolong Mountain imperial mausoleum was meant for Chongzhen, Hongxing, and the Ming emperors after them to use once they ascended to heaven on dragonback. But the Chongzhen Retired Emperor had no intention of coming to Wolong Mountain for a long stay yet, and the Hongxing Emperor was in even less of a hurry — he still wanted to devote several more decades to the people of the Great Ming!

Though the Great Ming Empire's national fortunes had now turned around — no longer merely restored, but glorious and at their zenith — Emperor Zhu was still deeply uneasy. For he knew that this feudal dynasty was not many years from the end of its road! Even if he could get his wish and disrupt the French Revolution, that would not necessarily delay the revolutionary storm by many years.

For had there not been many great unified dynasties in Chinese history, and had they not all collapsed one after another? Could the Bourbon dynasty of New Rome truly be an exception? If New Rome truly came into being, this state would be a great unified empire that had only appeared after Europe had been divided for over a thousand years — and like the Qin Empire of history, it would not know how to maintain a state governed by a unified bureaucracy.

Although New Rome could copy the Great Ming's homework, New Rome's national conditions were after all different from the Great Ming's, and Louis XIV was hardly likely to use military force to smash through the states of Western and Southern Europe and achieve unification by swallowing them with arms.

New Rome would very likely become a "unified state" in the manner of the Holy Roman Empire — and such a New Rome might well be unable to resist the great revolution!

Therefore Zhu Cilang still wanted to use the remainder of his life to patch the Great Ming dynasty as much as possible, so that the Great Ming's national fortunes could be maintained for as long as possible.

So he had no desire at all to come to the Wolong Mountain imperial mausoleum.

But today he had come to Wolong Mountain after all, and together with the Chongzhen Retired Emperor at that. Although the father and son, Chongzhen and Hongxing, had come to Wolong Mountain, they had pointedly not entered the mausoleum grounds to look around, but instead entered Huangjue Temple outside the mausoleum grounds. Yet they had not come to Huangjue Temple to offer incense either — they had come to see someone off.

On the official road not far outside Huangjue Temple, a long train of carriages and horses stood halted, along with guards and ceremonial escorts of the Palace Guard in bright armor. These Palace Guard officers and men, the carters, and even the accompanying servants were at this moment being provided with vegetarian fare by Huangjue Temple, and sat on the ground in groups of three or five on both sides of the official road, eating and drinking with juices dripping.

The person who could make the Emperor and the Retired Emperor together see him off for several dozen li was certainly no ordinary person.

Inside a clean, bright meditation room in Huangjue Temple, a small group of people were at this moment seated around a square Eight Immortals table. While eating the vegetarian fare prepared by the monks of Huangjue Temple, they were discussing some matter.

Among them were three older ones: the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, the Hongxing Emperor, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Wei Zhongcheng. There were also two younger ones: the Rent-Collecting Prince Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Hengli.

So today was the day the mission led by Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Hengli set out from the capital on a long journey — once the two of them left, who knew when they would return?

Because the Strait of Malacca had been blockaded by the joint French-Dutch-Shun-Portuguese fleet (ships of neutral countries could still pass through), Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Hengli had no way to travel by sea, and could only go by land, traveling ten thousand li to India — the specific route being first to the Western Chu Republic, then south through the Dzungar Kingdom, and into the Tajik Province of India.

If possible, they would meet with Aurangzeb at Lahore in the Timurid Empire of India. After obtaining Aurangzeb's support, the mission would go out to sea via the Indus River, then board Ottoman Empire ships to Basra, and from Basra proceed to Istanbul.

If everything went smoothly, by next spring Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Hengli would be able to reach the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

Father and son, grandfather and grandson, on the point of parting, did not say things like "take care on the journey" — such words had already been said countless times when leaving Old Mountain Palace.

What they were discussing at this moment was a particularly large topic: was it better to put all one's eggs in one basket, or to diversify one's investments?

This topic had been raised by the Chongzhen Retired Emperor while waiting for the meal to be served. Although the old gentleman had retired, his heart was still up there, and he remained deeply concerned about the future of the Great Ming dynasty. Moreover, he had the spirit of learning until old age, and had spent these years learning skills from his son.

After so many years of studying under his son, his level of statecraft and governance had improved markedly — if the current him could travel back to the first year of Chongzhen, the Great Ming would not have needed Zhu Cilang to come to the rescue.

The Chongzhen Retired Emperor, who had already learned how to be an emperor, could of course see that Zhu Cilang was abandoning the great-unification line that had been followed by the vast majority of dynasties since the Qin unified the realm.

Even more, Zhu Cilang had not implemented the Zhou system either, establishing a great feudal empire in which the feudal lords guarded the Son of Heaven, with clear ranks above and below and strict rites and laws.

Instead, he had established a pile of so-called vassal states with systems that differed from one another and relations with the Great Ming Celestial Court that were varied and multifarious — in effect, he had established a loose Greater China Alliance.

The "Treaty of Clan and Vassal," which had been taken quite seriously in the early years, had also become dispensable because of the appearance of the United States of the New Continent, the United Kingdom of the Southern Continent, the Western Chu Republic, and the Dzungar Kingdom — these "fatherless and lordless" states. Or rather, the "Treaty of Clan and Vassal" was now only effective for a portion of the Great Ming's vassal states.

For example, Joseon, Japan, Annam, Chahar, Tumed, Siam, Laos, Luzon, Jeju, Sulu (Zheng-family Sulu), Jiaqing, Makassar (located on Sulawesi Island, a kingdom established through investment by some Great Ming imperial princes), Zamboanga (located on Mindanao Island, also an imperial-prince vassal state), Aceh, Brunei, New Ryukyu, and the Twelve Principalities of Malacca — all these had signed the "Treaty of Clan and Vassal" and still abided by it, and were called "rites-observing states" by some Great Ming scholars. In a certain sense, these states were the true vassal states of the Great Ming.

But the United States of the New Continent, the United Kingdom of the Southern Continent, the Western Chu Republic, and the Dzungar Kingdom — these four "fatherless and lordless" states — as well as the Khoshut Kingdom controlled by the Dzungars, the Nepal Kingdom controlled by Liu Wenxiu, and that Ladakh Kingdom which considered itself a vassal subject of the Great Ming but which Zhu Cilang had never bothered to acknowledge, were not true vassal states of the Great Ming. A group of Great Ming scholars with too much time on their hands had even given these states a name that made people not know whether to laugh or cry — the "rites-violating states"!

As long as Zhu Cilang, that mighty sovereign, was still around, those powerful "rites-violating states" would of course have to behave obediently. But what about when Zhu Cilang was gone?

Would these "rites-violating states" still listen to Zhu Hexing? Don't even think about it!

Yet such a situation seemed to have been deliberately allowed to develop by Zhu Cilang. In particular, among the "rites-violating states," the United States of the New Continent, the United Kingdom of the Southern Continent, and the Western Chu Republic — these three — were simply all "kin-states."

As for Zhu Cilang's approach of letting the kin-vassals run out of control, not only did Chongzhen not understand it, even the "Rent-Collecting Prince" and Zhu Hengli did not quite understand it.

Now Western Europe, which had been divided for who knew how many years, had the possibility of unification — so how had the great and glorious China, unified for so many years, produced these "rites-violating kin-states"? What was this supposed to accomplish?

Faced with the doubts of Chongzhen, the Rent-Collecting Prince, Zhu Hengli, and the others, Zhu Cilang had no choice but to patiently explain — this truly was a problem!

"These rites-violating states simply cannot observe our Great Ming's rites from the start. What are our rites? Ruler ruler, subject subject; father father, son son.

And the United States of the New Continent, the United Kingdom of the Southern Continent, the Western Chu Republic, and the Dzungar Kingdom — although they have investment from our imperial family, these four states were fundamentally not established through investment by the Great Ming court, nor could the court's troops protect them.

These four states are not states of sovereign and father at all, but states of armed mobs!"

(End of Chapter)