Chapter 1587: The Heavenly Alliance — Grand Alliance Master, Junior Alliance Master

In the autumn of the fifty-second year of Great Ming Hongxing, half the world pretended to grieve and weep for the Chongzhen Retired Emperor. The Great Ming Celestial Dynasty and all its vassal states below began holding the state funeral on a grand scale. All public entertainment was banned, and white hemp cloth became the best-selling fabric.

And the monarchs belonging to the Zhu Ming dynasty were all arranging their own affairs after death — the journey was no easy matter, tens of thousands of li each way, and it meant crossing the seas. Heaven only knew whether they would return alive. So a crowd of filial sons and worthy grandsons were all drawing up wills, designating heirs or regents.

Of course, they could also choose not to return for the funeral, and could designate a close kin or a senior minister to serve as proxy filial son or proxy worthy grandson.

But no one dared!

The one who had died this time was the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, not that Hongxing Great Emperor, the Emperor of Ten Thousand Kings. If anyone refused to be a filial son or worthy grandson, what would Zhu Cilang think? If the Hongxing Great Emperor was displeased, the consequences would be extremely severe!

So as long as they were not too ill to travel, or about to go to war, the monarchs of the overseas Zhu Ming petty dynasties, upon receiving word of the Chongzhen Retired Emperor's passing, were all preparing to return home for the funeral.

The United States, Washington City.

Zhu Hehao, Zhu Hekun, Zhu Hezhen, and the other "three worthy grandsons" had already gathered together, preparing to return home to mourn Grandfather Chongzhen.

The three brothers had already put on mourning hemp and mourning garments. Gathered together, they did not drink, nor did they dare prepare too much fine food, and there was no song or dance to enliven the occasion. They casually made a dozen or so dishes, and made do with simple fare.

Looking at a table of simple fare, Prince Huai, Zhu Hekun, who was used to eating rich food, frowned slightly and had little appetite, so he began to discuss serious matters.

"Eldest Brother, Fifth Brother, our father sent me a letter saying he wants to set up some kind of Heavenly Kingdom Alliance. Do you know what this is about?"

"What Heavenly Kingdom Alliance!" Zhu Hezhen, who was using his chopsticks to pick up a large piece of plainly cooked lobster meat and about to put it in his mouth, shook his head and said, "It's our grandfather who needs the Heavenly Kingdom Alliance. We're not going to the Heavenly Kingdom just yet. Our father wants to set up a Celestial Dynasty Grand Alliance before he abdicates — that is, our old Zhu family plus the Xu family of Japan, the Na family of Siam, the Choros family of Dzungaria, and the other families that have opened fiefs and founded states, all together forming some Celestial Dynasty Alliance. After he steps down, he'll let Third Brother, the Ming Emperor, serve as the Grand Alliance Master."

"Eldest Brother, is that what Father means?"

Zhu Hehao nodded and said, "What our father means is to stop playing the suzerain-vassal game, and instead turn the Celestial Dynasty into a Heavenly Alliance. Third Brother will just be the Alliance Master, no longer our sovereign and father."

"Then from now on Great Ming will no longer be the suzerain, and our United States will no longer be a vassal of Great Ming?" Zhu Hekun still found it somewhat hard to believe.

Zhu Hehao nodded, and said with some emotion: "That is what our father means. The old man is wise after all; he knows Third Brother cannot manage so much, and as time goes on, the various families and states will only become harder to restrain!

Since he cannot manage them, he might as well let go early, and gain a bit more in real benefits. Only our father could be so open-minded. If it were anyone else, they certainly would not agree, and would not dare do such a thing. If the old man did not settle this matter, after his passing, how would Third Brother dare strip away the skin of the suzerain world?"

If not for the four powerful and wealthy vassal states — the United States, the Qing State, the Western Chu State, and the Dzungar State — perhaps Zhu Hexing could still barely maintain a relatively normal suzerain-vassal system.

But with these four nations of armed commoners, where every man bore a gun, it was very difficult for Zhu Hexing to truly maintain the suzerain-vassal system. Even if he could maintain a surface appearance, it would inevitably come at the cost of sacrificing the economic interests of the Ming homeland.

In the long run, such a suzerain-vassal system maintained by slapping one's face to look fat was extremely disadvantageous to Great Ming.

As for strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches, and restraining the four great vassal states, that was both impossible to achieve and an act of self-mutilation against one's own kin. Because the places where the four great vassal states were located could not stand as states unless they were strong. To restrain them, then the United States, the Qing State, and the Western Chu State would not exist at all!

As for using the method of strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches to deal with the Dzungar Kingdom, the results were truly hard to predict.

And using garrisons and direct control of certain cities and ports to control the four great powers would actually fall into the same pit of strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches. If the four great vassal states were truly strong enough and rich enough, the small garrisons of the Great Ming court could not control them at all!

In fact, the Great Ming Empire had always stationed troops in the United States of the New Continent — not only naval fleets, but also large numbers of army troops. At its peak, the garrison had reached twenty to thirty thousand men.

But the Ming troops stationed in this "tycoon nation" could not restrain the United States at all. On the contrary, they accelerated the United States' military rise.

Because every year, large numbers of officers and soldiers of the Ming garrisons were attracted by the wealth of the United States. They would find all sorts of excuses to retire from the Ming army, then join the better-paid army and navy of the United States. Many would also bring their families from far-off Great Ming to the United States.

In this way, the more troops Great Ming stationed in the United States, the faster the United States' military strength grew!

So the Marshal's Office of Great Ming, having discovered the problem, could only gradually reduce the garrisons. By the fiftieth year of Hongxing, they simply stopped sending troops to the United States.

And the effect of the Great Ming court directly controlling cities was even worse — not only because of the great distance and unclear conditions, but even more because the Great Ming court was simply unwilling to invest in building a city full of armed commoners on the other side of the Pacific. If they insisted on pouring money into construction, they would certainly end up losing everything, and the city they built would most likely end up joining the United States anyway.

So Zhu Cilang had always strictly controlled court fiscal investment in vassal states. Private individuals, even the Ming imperial family, could invest, but court finances were not permitted to!

Zhu Hehao gently turned his teacup, his gaze sweeping over the faces of his two brothers, and said in a low voice: "In the future, the Grand Alliance Master of the Heavenly Alliance will certainly be Third Brother. But the New Continent is so far from the Ming homeland, and he does not understand the situation here. He cannot possibly take care of everything in every respect. What is to be done?"

Indeed, such a large Heavenly Alliance, with only one Alliance Master, and he staying in the distant Ming homeland — that would not be appropriate, would it? Should there not be a New Continent Junior Alliance Master?

"Eldest Brother is right!" Zhu Hezhen was quick-witted and understood immediately. "The Heavenly Alliance cannot have only one Grand Alliance Master. We must also arrange several Junior Alliance Masters, each managing their own area."

Zhu Hekun also understood what the eldest meant, and immediately chimed in: "The Junior Alliance Master here in the New Continent must be Eldest Brother! Mencius once said: the eldest brother is like a father! Here on the New Continent, Eldest Brother is the leading brother of us brothers. The position of Junior Alliance Master belongs to no one but Eldest Brother!"

Zhu Hehao nodded. "The only question is whether our Fifth Uncle is willing to recognize me as this Junior Alliance Master!"

Zhu Hehao's Fifth Uncle, Zhu Cihuan, was in no mood at the moment to ponder Grand Alliance Masters or Junior Alliance Masters. At this very moment, he was watching chest after chest of gold being loaded onto a Pacific sailing ship, tears streaming down his face!

This silver was for repaying the Chongzhen Retired Emperor's retirement money!

This money — he should have repaid it long ago! Because after the gold mines of Suozhou were discovered, he had money. The 250,000 taels of silver owed to the Chongzhen Retired Emperor was no problem at all. Even adding another 250,000 — no, adding 500,000 in interest — would not be a problem.

The reserves of the Suozhou gold mines were not small. Every year they yielded three to four hundred thousand taels of gold in mining taxes! Taking out tens of thousands of taels of gold to repay Chongzhen was no problem at all.

Yet Zhu Cihuan had simply never thought of this matter. Now that his father was gone, he finally remembered to repay the retirement money. How utterly unfilial.

He was the number one unfilial son of Great Ming!

Such an unfilial son — how could he have the face to contend for any Junior Alliance Master?

The gold had finished being loaded. A mixed-blood beauty in an archery-practice outfit walked briskly to Zhu Cihuan's side, knelt on one knee, and said: "Your Highness the Prince, all the gold has been loaded aboard, 150,000 taels in total."

"Aji," Zhu Cihuan looked dotingly at the girl — this was his newly taken consort, Shimazu Yoshi. "The wind is favorable today. Let us board and set sail. If the wind is with us all the way, in two months we shall reach the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty. And when we return from Great Ming, we can stop by Kyushu on the way. That is the homeland of your Shimazu family!"

(End of Chapter)