Chapter 1565: The Great Shun Empire of India

Zhu Cixuan, dressed in a crisp wool riding jacket, spurred his horse to follow Zhu Cilang, riding stirrup to stirrup through the snow-covered Old Mountain hunting grounds, though he kept half a horse-length behind His Majesty the Zhu Emperor.

This fortunate Prince of Fu had returned to Yingtian before the New Year, and had even been promoted — from Chancellor of the Jinling Women's University to Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Grand Secretariat Office. This made him a "royal Grand Secretary"! It could be counted as setting a precedent, though it did not stir up much of a stir at court.

For the Prince of Fu, Zhu Cixuan, truly had the qualifications to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He had twice been sent as an envoy to the Western Ocean, and both missions had been highly successful. The first had brought back Princess Nisha for Zhu Cilang; the second had helped bring about the fall of Vienna.

Moreover, Zhu Cixuan was a proper Imperial Academy student, had been in government service for over ten years, and was exceptionally well-liked — he had served for many years as Chancellor of the Women's University, which made him the Great Ming Imperial Household's official matchmaker! Who knows how many fine marriages he had arranged; how could he not be well-liked? So when it came to Zhu Cixuan entering the Grand Secretariat, no one could really object.

It was just this precedent...... heh heh, a royal Grand Secretariat!

Glancing back at this brother of his, Zhu Cilang thought of Zhu Hengli, who had now become Henri de Mancini — that lad was quite capable. Had he not become an Austrian Archduke, he would surely have made Chief Grand Secretary one day!

Zhu Cilang sighed, then pulled his thoughts back to the *Treaty for the Protection of Neutrality and Freedom*. He asked, "Where are the omissions?"

Zhu Cixuan said, "Imperial Brother, the first omission is that we have too few neutral and free states on our side. Having only the Republic of Batavia is not enough! And this Republic of Batavia is a Western nation — those not of our race must surely have different hearts!"

These "neutral and free states" were not actually neutral at all, but rather agents of the great powers, flying the banner of neutrality so that international trade and exchange could continue when the great powers went to war...... In this day and age, wars dragged on endlessly, but life still had to go on, and money still had to be made!

So the Great Ming, Rome, and the Ottomans all needed such neutral states.

"That is true," Zhu Cilang nodded. "Old Six, how many neutral and free states do you think we should add?"

"Let us add two for now," Zhu Cixuan said with a smile. "One is Fifth Brother's Phuket Island...... Phuket's territory is not large, but its position is excellent, out on the Little Western Ocean. And the overland route from Phuket to Nakhon Si Thammarat on the Southern Ocean coast is not far either — only a bit over three hundred li."

Not long before, Phuket Island had been a battlefield where the Great Ming and the Shun had clashed. Now the Shun army had withdrawn, leaving devastation in its wake. But the destruction both sides had inflicted on Phuket was, in a sense, also conducive to subsequent construction.

For the armies of both sides on the island had felled vast quantities of timber and built many fortresses, gun emplacements, and docks.

After the Shun army withdrew, Zhu Cihuan, in a fit of conscience, allocated a large sum of reconstruction funds to Zhu Cizhao — disbursed under the name of military expenditure, on the grounds that Phuket Island was to be built into a major base for the Great Ming's western campaign against Burma and its support of India.

And while receiving this enormous funding, Zhu Cizhao and Shi Lang also used wartime powers to forcibly conscript a large number of natives from Malacca and Sumatra to work on Phuket's great construction projects, thereby greatly advancing Phuket's development. This gave the island, situated in the miasmic southern lands, the conditions to become a neutral and free state.

"Phuket can indeed become a neutral state." Zhu Cilang nodded. "And where is the other one?"

"For our other neutral and free state, let us choose the Kingdom of Luzon!" Zhu Cixuan continued. "Imperial Father has poured his coffin savings into Luzon these past years......"

Zhu Cilang glanced at his brother. "Old Six, what are you saying? Our father is the Retired Emperor — what coffin savings does he need?"

That was true enough. When the Chongzhen Retired Emperor eventually passed away, the state and the Great Ming's foremost filial son, Zhu Cilang, would certainly pay for a grand funeral — according to the *Imperial Code* promulgated by Zhu Cilang, the state was required to pay for the weddings and funerals of the Retired Emperor, Retired Empress, Empress Dowager, Emperor, Empress, Crown Prince, and Crown Princess!

Of course, the state only paid for the "basic grand funeral." If one wanted to go all out, the imperial family had to pay out of its own pocket.

The Chongzhen Retired Emperor was the foremost Retired Emperor of all dynasties — he had said so himself: "Though We are not skilled at governing or waging war, We are skilled at raising princes. Had Our sons not all been so young at the time of the Jiashen crisis, how could the roving bandits and eastern barbarians have run rampant?"

And one had to admit, this Chongzhen Retired Emperor was rather good at summing up experience! If he could have held out in Beijing until the 27th or 37th year of Chongzhen...... until Zhu Cilang, Zhu Cijiong, Zhu Cizhao, and Zhu Cihuan had all grown up, where would Li Zicheng and the eastern barbarians have gotten the chance to swagger?

Those were all ruthless men who opened up ten thousand li of territory and killed without blinking! The first, second, third, and fourth most ruthless men under heaven were all sons of Chongzhen!

With so many filial sons around, did the Chongzhen Retired Emperor still need coffin savings?

"Imperial Brother's lesson is well taken," Zhu Cixuan said with a smile. "But these years Old Eleven and the others have endured great hardship to open up the island, and have finally gotten Luzon into some kind of shape. As their elder brothers, if we can give them a hand, we should!"

The poor-student prince had grown up too!

Though a few had died in the course of that growth, those who had survived had all been completely transformed! So in recent years Luzon had gotten on track, and several relatively livable tracts of land had been opened up around Manila Bay.

In addition, when the armies of the United States and the Qing Kingdom were attacking the coastal provinces of southwestern Mexico, they had finally discovered the legendary cinchona tree — the raw material for producing anti-malarial drugs, and Zhu Cilang had long wanted to obtain cinchona saplings.

But because of the Spanish blockade and everyone's ignorance of the cinchona tree, obtaining them had been extremely difficult. Although they had managed to get some quinine and a few cinchona seedlings, all efforts to transplant the cinchona trees had ended in failure, due either to poor preservation during smuggling or mistakes in the planting process!

But after seizing the parts of Mexico's southwestern coast where cinchona trees grew, the efforts to transplant them finally succeeded.

Although large-scale supply of quinine would still take some time, and quinine could not completely conquer malaria, it could ultimately reduce the difficulty of developing the Southern Ocean.

So within Chongzhen's lifetime, he would probably live to see the Kingdom of Luzon turn its losses into profits......

"Then let us give them a hand!" Zhu Cilang finally nodded. In truth, hanging a "neutral" sign on the Kingdom of Luzon would not do much to boost Luzon's economic development.

For Luzon, after all, was not on any important trade route. Never mind comparing it to Temasek — it was far inferior even to Phuket!

Luzon's "freedom and neutrality" would at most let it skim a little money from ship registration, and perhaps sell off some national identities.

"Imperial Brother," Zhu Cixuan began on the other omission, "there is another trouble...... On today's Little Western Ocean there is still a nation beyond the heavens!"

"A nation beyond the heavens? You mean...... the roving bandits?" Zhu Cilang frowned.

"Beyond the heavens" was relative to "under heaven." A portion of the Great Ming's powerful nobles, officials, and wealthy merchants believed that attacking Burma to utterly annihilate the roving bandits was not worth the cost, and that it would be simpler to place Burma "beyond the world." And Zhu Cixuan evidently thought the same......

"Imperial Brother, Rome, the Ottoman Empire, and the Timurid Empire of India will of course all recognize this *Treaty for the Protection of Neutrality and Freedom*, and most other nations will likely honor it as well." Zhu Cixuan said, "But what of this nation beyond the heavens? They will not recognize this treaty...... they are not a signatory! But if they do not sign, then our ships still cannot reach the Little Western Ocean! Even the ships of the Republic of Batavia would find it very difficult to enter the Little Western Ocean."

In this day and age, plundering at sea was far easier than suppressing bandits at sea!

Otherwise, those maritime powers of the West would not be paying passage money to the Barbary pirates.

Zhu Cilang nodded and smiled. "Leave this matter to the Crown Prince...... Has he not already invaded Yunnan?"