Chapter 1613: Civilization Must Persuade by Reason

Let's Discuss a Grand Charter! Old Mountain Palace, Gate of Imperial Supremacy.

Once again it was the day when all the officials gathered!

Before dawn had broken, the Gate of Heavenly Succession, the main gate of Old Mountain Palace, was thrown wide open, and carriages and horses came through in file after file. The white lanterns guiding the way glowed in scattered points of light, and the civil and military officials in hempen mourning robes, along with the rulers of the tributary states or the high ministers representing them, had all assembled, waiting to attend the morning court.

When the sky was just beginning to brighten, the crack of the "silence whip" that reminded everyone court was about to begin rang out... and this great crowd surged through the Gate of Heavenly Succession in a rush, then formed up in ranks on the broad plaza outside the Gate of Imperial Supremacy.

Because there were so many people, and quite a few princes and dukes of tributary states who had never attended a grand court before, the palace had also assigned guards to lead the way, guiding each person to the place where he was supposed to stand.

Once nearly everyone was in place, there came several more cracks of the silence whip, and then a loud, resonant voice called out: "His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming arrives!"

Emperor Zhu came — not alone, but leading three brothers; the four of them came together... Though all were getting on in years, they were still in good health, needing no one to support them, and all came striding out on their own with an air of confidence.

The loud-voiced proclamation officer, seeing Emperor Zhu arrive, hurriedly shouted out another call: "All officials, bow in salutation and welcome!"

Better bow quickly!

Kowtowing was not required, but the bowing salute could not be omitted — three bows in all, and while bowing they cried: "Long live, long live, long live Our Emperor!"

The four Zhu brothers paid them no mind, each finding his own seat and sitting down — Zhu Cilang had the imperial throne, while Zhu Cijiong, Zhu Cizhao, and Zhu Cihuan had chairs placed on either side of the throne. All four brothers sat down, smiling as they looked out at the ministers and princes below.

A grand scene like this — not only had there been nothing like it before the Great Ming's restoration, but even for the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty after the restoration, this was the first time!

This was no ordinary grand court assembly of civil and military officials, but a Celestial Alliance Assembly gathering the rulers of most of the Ming's tributary states — commonly known as the Celestial Alliance Assembly!

It truly was a gathering of heroes from all quarters... and more than half of them bore the surname Zhu!

Setting everything else aside, the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty, whose branches had spread and multiplied until its descendant states covered half the world, could at least endure for ten thousand generations... Although the lifespan of the Ming state in the homeland was finite, how could all those surrounding descendant states perish?

So long as a single state remained, the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty could not be considered utterly extinguished, could it?

Zhu Cilang, the emperor who had restored the Great Ming, sat high upon the imperial throne beneath the Gate of Imperial Supremacy, looking down at the crowd of princes and dukes from the tributary states of the old Zhu family — some were his own sons and grandsons, some his brothers or nephews, and one was his granddaughter... who knew whether she would one day be Archduchess of Austria or Queen of Hungary? Given that her name was Maria Theresa, there was no doubt about it!

Oh, and many distant-branch imperial princes of the old Zhu family had also come — founding states and building cities had already become an industrial chain! The beneficiaries were of course not limited to Zhu Cilang's close kin; the several dozen distant-branch Princes and Commandery Princes gathered in Yingtian had basically all banded together to invest in tributary city-states! Though they had not produced any great powers or strong states, there were still a fair number of modestly prosperous states and wealthy city-states. These Zhu rulers and city lords, all who had been able to make it back to Yingtian Prefecture, now stood on the plaza outside the Gate of Imperial Supremacy. Every one of them in hempen mourning robes, all looking like good sons and grandsons of the Great Ming!

Zhu Cilang's gaze moved away from his granddaughter Maria Theresa, then swept one by one over this group of distant-branch imperial princes... all juniors and younger generations; it seemed none of them had participated in the Great Ming Restoration campaigns.

Just as Zhu Cilang was feeling somewhat disappointed, he suddenly caught sight of a white-haired old man, and said to the guard beside him: "Go and bring that old fellow over... the one swaying about as if he hasn't woken up!"

The guard beside him received the order and immediately went to escort that old imperial prince up onto the white marble platform beneath the Gate of Imperial Supremacy.

When the old man arrived, he performed the grand ceremonial salute: "Your subject Zhu Qirui, Marquis of Riau in the State of Palembang, respectfully wishes His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming ten thousand blessings and golden peace!"

This was a city lord.

As soon as Zhu Cilang heard the old man announce his name, he knew his background... The State of Palembang was one of Zhu Cilang's "son states," and Riau City was a commercial city under Palembang, situated on the edge of the Strait of Malacca. It was not especially wealthy — it could not compare with Temasek, Malacca, or Palembang — but it was still decent enough, a profitable city-state.

There was of course a reason this old man had been able to obtain such a fine city-state. He was of the "Qi" generation of the Prince of Min's line, and Zhu Cilang had always taken particular care of the descendants of the Prince of Min's line. And this Zhu Qirui, thanks to Zhu Cilang's patronage, had first enlisted as a soldier in the Xiaoling Guard's palace guard. Later he entered the Army Military Academy, and after graduating became a career officer. Starting from the bottom, he had climbed step by step to the rank of Guard Commander, and had also been enfeoffed as Count of Overcoming Difficulties.

But this old gentleman, at forty-five or forty-six, had been unwilling to retire and go home to live out his old age, so he had managed to get himself a post as chancellor of one of the twelve duchies, and had gone off to the island of Sumatra.

Later, after several reorganizations of the duchies on Sumatra and the island of Malacca, Zhu Qirui went from being a ducal chancellor to becoming the lord of Riau City... his title was also raised to marquis, and he himself became a high minister of the State of Palembang. This time he had returned to Yingtian Prefecture together with the King of Palembang.

"Grant him a seat!" Zhu Cilang ordered with a smile.

Someone immediately brought over an embroidered stool and let Zhu Qirui sit down.

Zhu Qirui did not dare sit at ease, but placed both hands on his knees, sitting like a schoolboy.

Zhu Cilang asked with a smile: "Marquis of Riau, how goes it? Still making money?"

"In reply to Your Majesty," Zhu Qirui said, "my Riau happens to lie right on the edge of the Strait of Malacca, and it also produces kerosene and pepper. It is a prosperous place, so it does make money."

"That is good!" Zhu Cilang nodded. "Profitable tributary city-states are few indeed... Marquis of Riau, how is your family?"

At these words, Zhu Qirui let out a sigh: "For those who go south to the Southern Seas to make their fortune, how could it ever be that the whole family, young and old, all fare well? Ten members of my family went south, and over twenty-odd years six have passed away one after another, leaving four... But over these twenty-odd years quite a few have also been born, and of those eight have survived, so it cannot be counted a loss."

Whether going south to the Southern Seas was a loss or not depended not only on money, but also on people!

In twenty-odd years, six out of ten had died, yet eight had been born and raised — truly no loss!

To have such a "survival rate" was of course inseparable from the introduction of cinchona bark and the gradual increase in its production.

By the fifty-second year of Hongxing, the survival rate of immigrants to the settled lands of the Southern Seas was no longer much worse than that of the New World — it could reach roughly fifty percent. The New World was not without epidemics either! Syphilis originated in the Americas, yellow fever was also widespread there, and there were also various inexplicable plagues that would break out in colonial settlements in the Americas, each time causing a certain amount of loss. So the ten-year survival rate for immigrants there was only around sixty percent! Otherwise, with wave after wave of immigration driven over these decades by the gold, silver, copper, and sable fur of the New World, the population there would long since have reached ten million...

It sounded cruel, but what was the average human lifespan in this age? Who knew if it even reached forty!

"I have heard that the Southern Seas have been rather chaotic these past few years?" Zhu Cilang changed the subject, asking about the security situation in the Southern Seas.

"There is indeed some chaos..." Zhu Qirui sighed. "There are too many states, and quite a few that are losing money and have no way out, so they resort to desperate measures!"

There are no good people among those who emigrate to the Southern Seas, after all!

If you are making money, fine — but if you cannot make money, would you not grow desperate?

Moreover, the Southern Seas are full of independent states; if you commit a crime in one state, you only need to move somewhere else and no one will arrest you. And many of the bad actors were originally rulers and ministers of states — how could anyone arrest them?

And a wealthy city-state lord like Zhu Qirui could hardly avoid being harassed by them.

Zhu Cilang smiled and said: "We have heard of this as well... Something must be done so that the Celestial Dynasty states in the Southern Seas, the Southern Continent, and elsewhere all have a common set of rules. Every state and every city must abide by them, and any that do not shall be jointly punished by all under heaven! Marquis of Riau, what do you think of this?"

"Excellent — but who will set these rules, and who will enforce them?"

Zhu Cilang said: "These rules shall be called the Grand Charter of the Celestial Alliance, and they shall be settled by everyone discussing them together!"