Chapter 941: A War Between Ming and the West Is Inevitable (Subscription Requested)

So the Zhu Emperor's intent was not merely to raise a bit of silver for infrastructure construction in the north — he also meant to use the opportunity to push land consolidation and the development of capitalist farms in the north!

The benefits of infrastructure construction were plain to see! Especially when infrastructure was desperately lacking, the rate of return on such projects was bound to be satisfying.

And the Great Ming was now in just such a period of desperately lacking infrastructure. The prosperous southeast was somewhat better off, for the Zhu Emperor had poured no small amount of silver into infrastructure over the years. Apart from the great Yellow River–Huai River canal works, over the past dozen-odd years the Ming court had also repaired the dikes of every flood-prone river in the south, and had built large numbers of irrigation channels along both banks of the Huai, turning much land of uncertain flood and drought into stable, high-yield paddy fields.

The official roads, canals, and harbors across the southeast had likewise received considerable infrastructure investment over the past dozen-odd years — as for grand railways and steam locomotives, the Zhu Emperor did not dare even dream of them. What he could do was honestly and properly refurbish the official-road and water-transport networks. Official roads were paved with stone slabs wherever possible, and waterways great and small were dredged and linked wherever possible, so as to increase the coverage density of the water-transport network... Before railways became widespread, inland water transport was of extremely high economic value, second only to sea transport.

Of course, the water-transport network and bluestone roads the Zhu Emperor built in the southeast were mostly toll-charging! So these projects were handled not by the Ministry of Works, but by the Ministry of Revenue, and were sometimes contracted out to merchant builders.

Toll roads, toll canals, and toll bridges of this sort were hated, but they were still better than having none at all!

At present, however, the northern economy was too destitute, and there were really not many roads or canals on which tolls could be charged. Yet infrastructure still had to be built; otherwise the northern economy simply could not get off the ground, and the gap with the southeast would only grow wider. If this went on, it would be bad for the internal stability of the Great Ming.

So the Zhu Emperor had spent an afternoon discussing matters with Zheng Zhilong and Shen Tingyang, and they planned first to invest one hundred million in the construction of cities, harbors, roads, and canals in the north!

And this one hundred million did not necessarily have to be raised by issuing bonds... Zhu Cilang, Zheng Zhilong, and Shen Tingyang still had ways to raise the sum. They were the richest, the second richest, and the third richest men in the Great Ming, after all! Could a little target like that stump them?

But pairing bonds together with land deeds could help some of the northern military dependents or loyalist settlers who were good at management to develop capitalist farms.

Capitalist farms, ah!

What a hated thing... Yet this capitalist flood-and-fierce-beast had already appeared in Sichuan, Huguang, Fujian, and Guangdong!

Could the Zhu Emperor stop it from spreading north? The thing probably could not be stopped! The planters of the southern United States had wanted to stop it — and what did that end up looking like?

So the peasant uncles up north could only suffer this ordeal as well — let us all go capitalist together! As for whether one ended up a great plantation owner or went bankrupt and finished, each would have to take his chances.

The Zhu Emperor could disregard the lives of the good subjects under Qing rule, but he could not disregard the lives of the northern troops and loyalist settlers who followed him. He could not let them blindly head north — how fine it was to stay in the southeast! Serve as Ming soldiers, eat imperial grain, and lord it over the laboring masses of the southeast together with the Zhu Emperor — what a happy thing that was!

Going north to run a farm was no easy way to make money. Unless one was a northerner who had already built up a good family estate here in the southeast, heading north meant becoming cannon fodder for capitalism!

This was now free capitalism — ruthless competition, survival of the fittest!

So the Zhu Emperor had come up with this scheme: pair the bonds with land deeds. Those who had already amassed a family estate in the south could buy up others' land deeds at low prices, then return north to claim a great stretch of land and become agricultural capitalists — according to the Zhu Emperor's design, these land deeds specified only the size of the land, not its specific location. Thus investors holding land deeds could claim large contiguous estates, which would be conducive to developing horse-drawn tillage and crop rotation.

And those northern troops and loyalist settlers who had not managed to build up a family estate in the booming southeast should not go flailing about. In the southeast these past few years one could get rich doing almost anything; if one still had not succeeded in starting a business here, then going to farm in the Little Ice Age north would surely mean losing everything!

Better to sell the land deeds for bonds, live off the bond interest, and then settle down obediently as officers and soldiers for the Zhu Emperor!

Truly, the Zhu Emperor treated his own people very well! He genuinely had their interests at heart! And that included that muddle-headed Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode, who had very nearly turned himself in.

As soon as the joint session of the two courts ended on the third day of the fourth month, the Zhu Emperor kept the renowned minister Wei behind.

"Your Majesty, this subject, this subject, this subject was momentarily confused..."

Wei Zaode knew things were about to go badly. Not daring to sit, not daring to stand, he dropped to his knees with a thud.

Zhu Cilang shook his head repeatedly. "Wei of Tongzhou, how can you call it momentary confusion? You have clearly been confused all along!"

If he had not been confused, could he have been "the Rival of Zhuge" for so many years?

Now the "Rival of Zhuge" had reached his end. Who could replace him? Zhu Cilang began to ponder. Who else at court was rather muddle-headed? Not only muddle-headed, but also obedient, and a northerner to boot! The "deputy chancellor" Zheng Zhilong was already a southerner, and what was more, the imperial father-in-law. If another southerner became chancellor, the northern faction would decline.

And if the northern faction's power weakened, the family of Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Sen, and Zheng Jiangong would surely start preening...

So there had to be a northern chancellor to keep old Zheng in check. But who could be found for the job? The Prince of Fu was actually not bad, but the Ming had no precedent of letting an imperial clansman serve as chancellor. Ah, what a bother!

"What Your Majesty says is absolutely right. This subject is muddled, truly muddled..." Wei Zaode's voice sounded again. "This subject is guilty, and only begs..."

"Stop, stop. Are you drunk?" Zhu Cilang raised a hand, again cutting Wei Zaode off. "Did We say you were guilty? Did We have anyone investigate you?"

"No..."

Zhu Cilang glared. "Then what guilt do you have? Even if you truly were guilty, We would have to cover for you! You are the first chancellor We ever employed, and you served for thirteen years straight — how could you be guilty?"

Wei Zaode was so moved that tears came to his eyes. This emperor was too good. How had he failed to resist the impulse and become a corrupt official?

Seeing Wei Zaode weep, Zhu Cilang quickly spoke. "Don't cry, don't cry... Better to think about how to handle the aftermath! You can no longer serve as Chief Grand Secretary, and it would not do for you to become a Governor or Governor-General either. Wei of Tongzhou, We must find you a place to lie low for a while."

Wei Zaode thought to himself: Not Governor-General, not Governor... Could it be Prefect, then?

Zhu Cilang was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "How about you go abroad on Our behalf?"

"Go abroad? Where to?" Wei Zaode looked pitifully at the Zhu Emperor, thinking: So it is exile after all... only, where to?

Zhu Cilang thought for a moment. "First to Japan. Japan has sent Tokugawa Mitsukuni on a visit this time... and has lodged another protest with us! They have even threatened to revoke our ships' right to call at the port of Uraga. We must send someone of sufficient standing to explain."

It did need a proper explanation — perhaps even an apology. Even a Celestial Empire could not be unreasonable! Right now the Ming navy was fighting naval battles every day under the Japanese flag in the waters around Japan against Spaniards flying the Mongol naval ensign. What sort of business was that?

"Rest assured, Your Majesty, this subject will certainly explain matters properly to the Japanese." Wei Zaode breathed a sigh of relief — Japan was not far; a quick trip and he would be back.

But Zhu Cilang added to the price. "After Japan, go on a tour of the New World... Find a place in the northwest of the New World to establish a foothold, and then lie low there!"

That meant going to the other side of the Pacific!

Wei Zaode was stunned.

Seeing that he said nothing, the Zhu Emperor knew he had already agreed, and went on, "You shall bear the cost of establishing the foothold in the northwest of the New World!

The foothold you establish shall be an internal fief We grant you, with the title of fief lord hereditary in your family for three generations. You need no longer be Duke of Tongguo... The Westerners call the New World 'America,' so you shall be the Duke of Hardscrabble America!"

Henceforth Wei Zaode would be Governor-General of Ming America and Duke of Hardscrabble America! A fine post that would earn him a place in history!

Yet in the ninth year of Hongxing, this arrangement looked like disguised exile no matter how one viewed it!