Chapter 694: Small-Scale Colonization, Great-Power Diplomacy

"Your Majesty, His Excellency Cavallero, envoy of New Spain, holds that the Great Ming's aggressive expansion against the Kingdom of Champa and the Kingdom of Chenla seriously threatens the peace and stability of the region, and also harms the interests of all nations with trade routes in the Southern Ocean, including the Spanish Empire..."

The speaker was Johann Adam Schall von Bell of the Directorate of Astronomy, now back at his post there, once again observing the heavens by night for the Great Ming. Besides watching the stars, Schall was also responsible for managing the Academy of Practical Learning for the Zhu Emperor — that is, the former Practical Learning Hall, which had now developed further into a new-style academy imparting Western scientific knowledge.

Spreading Western learning in the Great Ming was far easier than spreading it in the historical Great Qing. The Great Qing was the domain of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, and in defending the "foundation of Chinese learning," the Qing was far more resolute than the Ming.

The Ming, especially after the rise of the School of the Mind in the mid-to-late dynasty, concerned itself only with innate moral knowledge and the original mind, not with heavenly principle and human desire... so not only was it powerless to stop the spread of Western learning, but quite a few Confucians of considerable desire were themselves delving into Western curiosities and ingenious devices.

That Western missionaries like Schall could do so well in the Ming was also connected to the School of the Mind.

And Zhu Cilang, this emperor, actually did not wish for Western learning to spread without restraint — Western learning included not only natural philosophy, but theology as well!

If Catholicism were allowed to spread unchecked, then before long it might well challenge the ruling position of Confucianism.

So what the Zhu Emperor needed to do now was not to sweep away Confucianism, but to find ways to reform and strengthen it — do not imagine that the Zhu Emperor could conjure out of thin air a school of thought capable of confronting the three revealed religions; he did not have that ability, nor did he dare belittle the three revealed religions.

Therefore, after Zhu Cilang took power, he did not make any particular effort to promote Western learning.

To date, there were only three government-run new-style academies: the Military Academy, the Naval Academy, and the Academy of Practical Learning.

And another purpose of his "slow promotion" of Western learning was to train a cohort of teachers versed in both Chinese and Western learning — do not imagine that nowadays one could pay to bring in enough scholars who dealt only with natural philosophy and knew nothing of religious philosophy to spread knowledge in China.

In this age, natural philosophy and religious philosophy were not separated at all! And besides... apart from Jesuit missionaries, merchants, and adventurers, no Western intellectuals wanted to come to China to spread knowledge and truth.

And today, the Jesuit missionary Schall was serving as interpreter between Zhu Cilang and Sebastián Cavallero.

That Manila magistrate was now seated in the Hall of Venerating Heaven, speaking face to face with the Zhu Emperor!

Cavallero had evidently been deceived by that Dutch-made smiling tiger, Van Diemen, and was preparing to play the bird that sticks its neck out to block the expansion of the Ming Empire.

That Dutch profiteer ambassador Van Diemen, however, was far shrewder — to Zhu Cilang's face he could not have been more friendly, a true old friend of the Ming people!

Yet the moment he turned around he was up to every sort of mischief, and the Zhu Emperor was kept completely in the dark, knowing nothing at all.

In fact, all the mischief Van Diemen did was his own personal conduct; the East India Company, the Dutch States-General, and the Dutch parliament knew nothing of it whatsoever.

After all, the Netherlands and the Ming had no serious conflicts of interest — even if the Ming expanded to the New World, it would be Spain that suffered.

"Envoy Cavallero," Zhu Cilang said, appearing perfectly calm, neither angered by the Spaniard's protest nor deigning to address it, "when We previously sent men to visit Manila, We raised the demand of sending five sailing ships a year to trade with New Spain. You have delayed your answer for a long time. Can you now tell Us what your answer is?"

Cavallero was deeply shocked, because Zhu Cilang showed not the slightest sign of being provoked, nor any trace of fear of the Spanish world empire.

"Your Imperial Majesty," Cavallero answered slowly, after Schall had translated Zhu Cilang's demand into Spanish, "the Governorate of New Spain is still considering your request... because New Spain is not open to non-Spaniards, your request has placed the Governorate in a most difficult position."

"Is that so... We understand."

Zhu Cilang was somewhat disappointed; he knew that his plan to open a Pacific sea route had suffered another setback!

"It seems We can only put Our demand directly to Madrid!" Zhu Cilang's expression remained unchanged. "We hope that King Philip IV can regard the Ming Empire as a friend of Spain, rather than a rival."

The Zhu Emperor felt that the King of Hell is easy to meet, but his little devils are hard to deal with... perhaps Philip IV would prove easier to talk to?

Cavallero asked, "Your Imperial Majesty wishes to send envoys to the Kingdom of Spain?"

"Indeed," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "We shall send envoys to Europe. The first batch will go to Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, France, England, the German states, Sweden, and Russia."

The Zhu Emperor paused, then added, "We hope His Majesty Philip IV can understand that the Great Ming has no designs whatsoever on Spain's Philippine colony!

However, We have heard that recently the Ming people in the Philippines and the Spaniards have had some discord. If you are willing, We hope to evacuate Our subjects from the Philippines, so as to avoid unnecessary conflict."

The idea of evacuation had been proposed by Zheng Zhilong. The overseas Chinese in the Philippines all came from Fujian and Guangdong, with Fujianese in the majority, and their ties to the Zheng family were naturally very close.

Zheng Zhilong also knew that some among them harbored the idea of driving out the Spaniards — before the Spanish conquered Luzon, that island had been a paradise for the pirates and sea merchants from Fujian and Guangdong.

Who would be happy to see their paradise seized by Western colonizers?

Now that they saw the Great Ming beginning to move out onto the seas, and the Zheng family had become high officials of the Ming court, they naturally wanted to use the Zheng family's connections to drag the Ming into the matter, using Ming power to expel the Spaniards from Luzon and restore the island to what it had been before.

But Zhu Cilang had no wish to go to war with the Spanish world empire over Luzon... because he knew the Spanish world empire did not have many years left. When the time came, would not the Philippines be "unclaimed land"?

So there was no need to rush now. First digest the Kingdom of Champa, then swallow the Nine Dragons River and the Ca Mau Peninsula of Chenla, then devour the half-dead Chenla, and after that see whether there was a chance to lay hands on Siam — after the death of King Naresuan, Siam's Ayutthaya dynasty had begun its "renaissance": culture and the arts flourished, while military strength collapsed utterly.

However, because neighboring Water Chenla and Burma's Toungoo dynasty were equally devoid of any thought of external expansion, Siam could rely on the lingering prestige of Naresuan to keep itself in peace.

"What? You want to evacuate your subjects?" Cavallero had never imagined that Zhu Cilang would make such a demand — the Spaniards of Manila did not like the Chinese sojourners, but they could not do without them either.

Because the natives of the Philippines were far too indolent and had no head for business; the local economy was entirely sustained by the Ming sojourners.

Without the Chinese sojourners, Fort Santiago would not be finished even in another hundred years, and the economy of the Philippine colony would very likely collapse... and once the economy collapsed, the colony could not be maintained!

And he still says he has no designs! Cavallero thought to himself: the Ming Emperor is far too cunning — he actually wants to take the Philippines without a fight!

"Your Imperial Majesty," Cavallero said loudly, "the Philippine colony is a paradise under God's protection. So long as one obeys the law, everyone can find happiness there. Therefore evacuation is unnecessary, and unfriendly as well!"

He would not agree?

Zhu Cilang was also somewhat troubled. Every so often the Spaniards would suppress the Chinese sojourners. Before, when Zhu Cilang was not emperor, he could of course pretend not to know.

But what if such a thing happened again in the future?

So after much deliberation, the Zhu Emperor still felt it would be better to evacuate the sojourners — withdraw all the sojourners in the Philippines to the territories of the Jinghai Command and the Jin'ou Command!

Whether one wanted to farm or to trade, conditions in the Jinghai and Jin'ou Commands were no worse than in the Philippines. The Jinghai Command's territory in particular had been well developed as far back as the Han dynasty — agriculture was there if you wanted agriculture, trade routes were there if you wanted trade routes. It was a transit point on the East-West trade routes, far better than the Philippines by who knows how much!

Seeing Cavallero protest loudly, Zhu Cilang knew this matter could not be forced, so he yielded a little and said with a smile, "Envoy Cavallero, if you truly need Ming sojourners to go to Manila for labor and trade, then our two nations may sign a treaty on the matter of sojourners. The treaty should fully guarantee the personal and property safety of Ming sojourners in the Philippines, and should agree to the Ming court establishing a legation in Manila... Of course, We also welcome New Spain or the Kingdom of Spain to establish legations in Nanjing and Shanghai."