Wanli Xinming

Chapter 393

The fall of Manila City has been the subject of endless study by later historians.Because from the fall of this city, the Western civilization, which had grown savagely since the Age of Navigation, was hit head-on for the first time.This bashing is not the small setback the Native Americans gave them in the colonization process, but a real fiasco.

The city of Manila, which is well-defended, has a lot of troops, but it was captured by the Ming navy with strong ships and cannons.

On the third day of August in the 15th year of Wanli, at the Grand Court Meeting of the Huangji Hall, Lubu, the imperial envoy of Sulu and Xie, entered the Forbidden City.

This time Lubufeijie is the first good news delivered by Daming across the sea.Good News set off by fast boat three days after winning Manila City, and arrived in Guangzhou in six days and nights.It was transmitted directly to Nanjing from Guangzhou Guangbao, and then passed to Jingshi Guangbao Station via Nanjing. After transcribing it, it was reported to the Forbidden City.

Due to the heavy military affairs, all urgent documents of [-] miles had to go directly to the imperial front, and the good news was no exception.All the ministers who were going to the court saw the good news coming from thousands of miles away, and they all rejoiced and praised the saint in unison.

Some say that His Majesty’s reforms were accomplished, and that his majesty was thousands of miles away, and a few ships could expand the territory; some say that when the Son of Heaven was in power, Xiao and Xie were both able to obtain the merits of heaven, and they were captives of thousands of miles; It is said that my emperor has foresight and foresight, and the political affairs hall has clear achievements, so that all the people can be deterred, and they are not afraid of shocks.
As the saying goes, before the imperial gate, the great music played the glory of the song of triumph; under the emperor, the flattery was like a surging tide.Although Zhu Yijun was secretly alert, the good news came at a good time, and it really boosted his morale, so Long Yan was very happy and laughed at the flattery.

Who would have known that among the crowd of people who were shaking their heads and tails, there were also people with unpleasant views, and the cabinet minister Luo Wanhua waited for the voice of the eulogy to drop a little, and the more people made his debut: "I don't know if Xiao and Xie conquered Manila City, is it His Majesty's intention? Or the political affairs hall? What's your life?"

As soon as he shouted it out, the buzzing voice of Sacred Song in the Hall of Huangji dropped sharply, and everyone was embarrassed.Zhu Yijun looked at Luo Wanhua, who was over [-] years old, and his face darkened.

Although it is slightly unpleasant, but for many years as an emperor, the performance of humbly accepting remonstrance has been transformed into a realm.At this moment, his eyes were bright and he looked at Luo Wanhua and said, "Mr. Kangzhou continues."

Luo Wanhua said sternly: "Your Majesty, at this time Spain has the trade route between the east and the west, and both sides of Hezhou (press: Africa in later generations) are its colonies. Merchant ships must rely on them for supplies. And I, Daming, want to use tea, silk, and porcelain for supplies. This trade route is very important in order to obtain the benefits of gold and silver from Europa and the North and South Xuanzhou (press: Xuanzhou is the Americas of the later generations, now called New Spain).”

Zhu Yijun heard the words, knew what Luo Wanhua was referring to, and nodded slowly.Luo Wanhua was not unhappy when he saw Longyan, so he gathered up his courage and continued: "In the past, when the temple was counted, Your Majesty wanted to encourage England and Spain to compete in Europa. Shared with the English two."

"Now that the city of Manila is in a war, the trade routes between the East and the West will be cut off. It used to be a situation in which England took the chestnut out of the fire for me, and it became a situation in which I competed with Spain, and the British took advantage - and every year, millions of taels of gold and silver are traded on the trade routes. Loss counts."

"In addition, at this time, there is still a closed fleet going to Europa, waiting for it to pick up Xu Guangqi and others to return to the country. After the battle of Manila, thousands of miles of dangerous places may be deprived of supplies or besieged. May I ask you gentlemen, what should I do?"

Luo Wanhua made some analysis, and some of the officials in Huangji Hall heard this kind of military strategy for the first time.

The ministers bowed their heads, not daring to look at the face of the emperor on the throne.Luo Wanhua fired the cannon and returned to work with a low brow and eyes. The needles could be heard in the hall, and only some officials below the fourth rank outside Yumen were still talking in a low voice.

The ministers in the hall waited for a long time, but no one came out as the king to relieve his worries.Zhu Yijun was embarrassed on the throne for a while, then got up and left his seat.All the ministers could only hear the sound of footsteps, and Wei Chao shouted, "Retreat!"

Due to the sudden arrival of the "good news" from Manila, the chapel on the third day of the eighth lunar month ended halfway through.Shortly after the emperor returned to the palace, the internal supervisor came out to spread a message, and summoned the ministers of the Political Affairs Hall and the ministers of the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to discuss matters in the Wuying Hall.

Today the cabinet is still headed by Zhang Siwei.Since the 15th year of Wanli, he has experienced the death of his father, his stepmother Mrs. Hu, and his two younger brothers. He went back and forth for funerals, and his body gradually became difficult to support.

Although after Zhang Juzheng, the court has abolished the Dingyou system.But it is precisely because of this that Zhang Siwei has been running back and forth between the capital and Puzhou in the past six months, and has become more and more broken.

When Zhang Juzheng was seriously ill and was unable to serve as a director the year before, in order to keep the reform progress and the court stable, Zhu Yijun expanded the cabinet and formed three factions—one was headed by Zhang Siwei, the other was Pan Sheng, Luo Wanhua, Liang Menglong, the backbone of the reform. Shen Shixing and Xu Guo of the other faction split Zhang Dang headed by Pan Sheng, and their stance was conservative, and the three parties stood on the same footing.

As a result, Zhang Siwei, as the first assistant, could not achieve the same authority as Zhang Juzheng, just like a powerful minister, but developed a ruling style of "the cabinet and the ministers do not interfere, and the affairs belong to the ministries, and the words return to the Taiwan remonstrance", but it is relatively more. normal conservative system.

However, it is not what Zhu Yijun wants to keep.The great reform began in the second year of Wanli, and was fully rolled out in the seventh year of Wanli. By the 13th year, it was in full swing.New situations and new problems arising from the political reform keep breaking the shackles and making innovations—this ability Zhang Siwei does not have.

After working with him for half a year, Zhu Yijun understood why Zhang Siwei's reign was short, but he laid a political foundation for the liquidation of Zhang Juzheng.The fundamental reason is that the two have different views, which leads to different political views and different governance styles.

Zhang Juzheng was a statesman who cherished the ideals of Jun Yao and Shun.Its governance is result-oriented, acting regardless of means, only seeking to achieve goals.He was ruthless towards political enemies, or used severe punishment to force him to pass the exam.As a result, the officialdom has a lot of grievances.In addition, he carried countless black cauldrons for the emperor, and then he really did his best, and even put everything behind him to nothing.

Not so with Zhang Siwei.He does not have lofty political ambitions in his heart, so he regards the position of prime minister as the glory of a supreme minister rather than a means to achieve some political end.He doesn't hold grudges for the sake of implementing his political views - and he doesn't have any outstanding political views.

After he confirmed Zhang Juzheng's posthumous title, the first thing he did was to activate Xu Yuanchun, sending a political signal to the world that he would work leniently.At that time, Zhu Yijun also believed that Zhang Juzheng was very intimidating in the officialdom, and the so-called civil and military methods were relaxed one by one, so he also agreed with Zhang Siwei's lenient use of affairs.

However, reform is a cause called rolling stones up the mountain in later generations, and there is no room for those in power to breathe a sigh of relief.Since then, Zhu Yijun has successively proposed three major tasks, namely, the reform of the imperial government, financial reform and tax law reform.In the two years in power, apart from doing some research and pilot work, there are not many bright spots.

Because the reform progress has not been significantly disturbed in the past two years, Zhang Siwei has handled major events such as the Shanxi catastrophe fairly well. Although Zhu Yijun is dissatisfied with Zhang Siwei's ability level, he has never made up his mind to change.

When Zhu Yijun felt that Zhang Siwei was getting more and more anxious, his family experienced great changes again and again. Since the 15th year of Wanli, Pan Sheng has been acting as the prime minister in the Zhengshitang—and the behavior of Xiao and Xie in Manila by Meng Lang shows that Pan Sheng didn't have the ability and carefulness to control important military affairs.

(End of this chapter)