Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1374 The Reason for the Nancha Disturbance (卌[-])
The incident happened suddenly, but it was not urgent. Gao Yushi thought about it for a while, and felt that there was no need to rush to reply.

The main reason is that he was not sure what Huang Zhiting was thinking now, and he always felt that it was a little weird.It is understandable to say that the generals want to fight, because the generals can make military exploits to improve their status and get rewards, but Huang Zhiting does not have this need. She is his wife, and she sits in Dingnan on her behalf and handles daily affairs.

To some extent, Huang Zhiting's power in southern Xinjiang is already close to that of Hatun, who gained the regency power when the Mongolian Khan was away.Of course, although high-minded people are not around, their influence is everywhere, so Huang Zhiting's "Regent" is more like Wu Meiniang when Gaozong Li Zhi was still alive.

Some people may have doubts here, and the doubts are mostly due to misunderstandings about Li Zhi, thinking that Li Zhi has no opinion and is always controlled by the unlucky emperor.

In fact, it is not the case. Except that he does not have the exaggerated personal military achievements of his father Li Shimin in his early years, he may not be inferior to his father in all other means, especially the strategy.However, due to space limitations, it is inconvenient to expand on it here. For the time being, I will only talk about Wu Meiniang's "powerful and disorderly administration" issue.

The so-called issue of Li Zhi being controlled by Empress Wu in his later years is actually completely opposite to the imaginary scene where Tang Gaozong obeyed Empress Wu's words. It can be seen everywhere in history books that Empress Wu was trying to please Tang Gaozong and carefully figured out Tang Gaozong's mind.

Knowing that Gaozong wanted to carry forward the silkworm ceremony of his mother, the eldest grandson, Empress Wu, the number of silkworm kisses was the most in the Tang Dynasty; knowing that her husband advocated frugality, Empress Wu took the initiative to change the thirteen pleats on the queen's skirt to seven Knowing that her husband hated foreign relatives sitting on the throne, Empress Wu specially wrote an "Internal Training" when she was Zhaoyi. When he was alive, the Wu family was completely invisible in the court. It was not until the death of Emperor Gaozong that Empress Wu had the opportunity to place all members of the Wu family in important positions in the court.

Even looking through the history books, not only can you not see which prime minister was appointed by Empress Wu, but what you can see is those who supported Empress Wu back then. Except for Xu Jingzong, none of them ended well. Empress Wu regarded him as a thorn in the flesh, and was favored by Emperor Gaozong.

For example, Empress Wu hated Queen Wang and Concubine Xiao Shu so much that she had to kill them one by one to finish. Needless to say, she humiliated her children's family after her death. Only Wang Fangyi, the elder brother of Queen Wang, could not do anything about it. .

Is Empress Wu magnanimous?However, the history books clearly record her experience of "wanting to get rid of Wang Fangyi because of her crimes, but she didn't get it".However, when Wang Fangyi was in the Qing Dynasty of Gaozong, and his official career was prosperous, Empress Wu, who was boasted as "life and death", could do nothing but watch helplessly.
For another example, Changsun Wuji obstructed Empress Wu's establishment of a queen, and Empress Wu also secretly hated this.Although Changsun Wuji lost power in the end, less than four years later, Changsun Wuji's grandson, Changsun Yan, returned to Beijing to become a fifth-rank official.

What's more ironic is that, less than a month after Empress Wu called "Tianhou", Gaozong issued an edict to restore the official title of Changsun Wuji, buried him in Zhaoling, and ordered his great-grandson Changsun Yi to inherit the title Zhao Guogong.And where is Empress Wu who "controls the government" at this time?

For another example, when Li Yifu, Yuan Gongyu, Cui Yixuan and others who made great contributions to supporting Empress Wu ascended to the post were exiled by Gaozong, what did Empress Wu do who was "in power"?Why did we only have to wait until after Emperor Gaozong passed away to remember that these people "had the merits of praise in Yonghui", and then they wanted to chase after them?
If Empress Wu really had such a great influence on Gaozong, if it was really a matter of life and death, and power in her hands, then it would be no problem to deal with people like Wang Fangyi and Changsun Yan, and it would be even more difficult to promote Li Yifu, Yuan Gongyu and others. Little effort.

However, looking at the history books, when Gaozong spoke, he couldn't see the figure of Empress Wu. Only when Gaozong was gone, did Empress Wu dare to come forward to clean up these people who once hated to the bone, and chase after those who were kind to him at the beginning.Therefore, Empress Wu could only wait until seven years after Tang Gaozong's death, using her status as empress dowager, to take painstaking efforts step by step, and then she took the position of empress.

It is worth noting that Empress Wu was actually 67 years old at that time, and it had been 40 years since the first year of Yonghui when Emperor Gaozong succeeded to the throne.

In other words, when Emperor Gaozong died, Empress Wu was already in her early sixties, and ordinary people at this age have basically entered the stage of old age, and the desire to fight has long since dissipated.Gaozong made a real mistake at this time. He believed that Empress Wu at this age would not pose any threat, so he made a will: Prince Li Xian ascended the throne in front of the coffin, and those who could not decide on military and state affairs should be ruled by Tianhou (Empress Wu) Decide.

Normally speaking, there is no big problem with this edict, because Li Xian's level is indeed not very good. Gaozong worried that he might not be able to handle the government affairs for granted, but how could Gaozong know that Empress Wu actually lived to be 82 years old and the desire for power is actually old and fading. firm?It can only be said that people are not as good as heaven.

Thinking of this, Gao Wushi couldn't help but come up with a thought: Could it be that Zhiting has the intention of being Wu Yan's second?
He was taken aback by his own thoughts, but when he thought about it again, he realized that he was just subconsciously paranoid.

First of all, the social ethos of the Ming Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty have long been different. Even in the Tang Dynasty, where women had a higher status, Empress Wu faced huge social opposition when she ascended the throne. His power comes almost entirely from his own orders.

Secondly, in terms of the crucial army, Jinghua's major garrison forces in southern Xinjiang are directly under the orders of Gao Yushi, and they have only recently authorized Huang Zhiting to take charge of them. Huang Zhiting's direct troops have always been her wolf soldiers—and this wolf Now it is divided into two parts, one is in Annan to guard Huang Zhiting's Annan fief, and the other is in Dingnan City as Huang Zhiting's accompanying army.

Dingnan City and even the central and western regions of Siam have the first and second divisions of the Dingnan Garrison and Huang Zhiting's own wolf soldiers. The strength of the garrison is seven times that of the wolf soldiers.If you look at the entire southern Xinjiang, this power gap is even more disparate.

In terms of military strength, the Jinghua garrison in southern Xinjiang is nearly [-] times that of the entire Huang clan wolf army; in terms of military power, [-]% of the garrison officers are from high-level servants, and the remaining half are surrendered generals such as Ruan Huang; However, the special feature of the garrison is that it cannot maintain its combat power without breaking away from the Jinghua system, but Huang Zhiting never intervenes in the Jinghua system.

In the end, Huang Zhiting's personal attitude has always been clear. From the time Gao Yushi first met her, her attitude towards the Huang clan was not that friendly.This may have something to do with her mother's loss when she was young (referring to her mother's early death, which is opposite to losing her husband), or it may be related to the traitor among Huang's clan, which caused her father to become an alcoholic.Coupled with the fact that her younger brother did not live up to expectations, she seemed quite lonely among Huang's clan.

The Huang clan regarded her as a backer, and that was after Gao Yushi regained Annan and moved the Cen and Huang families and other Guangxi chieftains into Annan.At that time, the relationship between Huang Zhiting and Gao Yushi was almost clear. The Huang clan was not so much hugging Huang Zhiting's thigh as they were hugging Gao Yushi's thigh.

Huang Zhiting should also be very clear about this, so not only did they not give them any privileges, but she also actively persuaded Gao Yushi to disperse them and resettle them, so that if they gather too much, it will be difficult to deal with problems if they arise.

From every point of view, Huang Zhiting did not take any action to strengthen her own power. Instead, she was extremely accommodating and reused the Gao family's clan members. Siam is in charge of the important town.

Besides, Jinghua is the capital of Ming Dynasty, and most of the people are born and bred in Ming Dynasty. They can accept the "young master", but they certainly can't accept the "female master".

And judging from what Liu Xin mentioned just now, because Liu Xin and Gao Yushi are old acquaintances, and Gao Yushi has a very unique view of her, Huang Zhiting deliberately made friends with her.Even from Liu Xin's tone, she seemed to still hope that Liu Xin could enter Gao's house, which showed that she had no other intentions, otherwise why would she think of finding a dangerous opponent for herself?

Since she didn't have the intention of becoming an Empress Dowager, there is only one explanation for Huang Zhiting's actions: she thinks this matter is good for Gao Yushi.

But precisely this is where Gao Pragmatism finds it difficult to understand. Taking Malacca and even the Malay Peninsula is naturally strategic for Jinghua, but the southern border has not been established for a long time, and the construction of Dingnan City is very costly. After cooling her down once, why did she make such a move after waiting for less than a year?
Unless there are major changes in the situation in southern Xinjiang or the Shennanyang region, Huang Zhiting believes that winning the Malay Peninsula will not affect the stability of southern Xinjiang and the construction of Dingnan City.

This point still needs to be corroborated by other intelligence, so Gao Yushi can only put this matter aside for now, planning to find Gao Mo for details later.

When he came back to his senses, Gao Wushi realized that Liu Xin had sat on the side at some point, tilting his head and looking at himself.

"What's so interesting about me?" Gao Wushi gave her a false look and said.

"It's not ugly." Liu Xin giggled, turned the conversation around naturally, and said, "I'm just curious. It's up to you whether to hit Malacca or not, but why do you think so much about it? Long?"

Gao Wushi rolled his eyes and said, "I think you guys went too well on the battlefield, thinking that the fighting power of the Spanish Portuguese Empire is as good as that of the natives in southern Xinjiang."

"That's not the case." Liu Xin shook her head and said, "But you also said that the so-called Western-Portuguese Empire cannot be reconciled at all. They are just a Commonwealth of Monarchs with a lot of internal problems. Besides, Spain is busy Europe is vying for hegemony, and with Portugal alone, they cannot be Jinghua's opponent."

Gao Wushi was silent for a while, and said: "If only in terms of Portugal's ability to mobilize the strength of Nanyang, this is not wrong, but have you considered the consequences? I mean... such as trade consequences."

"Are you worried that after the war with Portugal, Jinghua will not be able to do business with Europe without the turnover of the Portuguese?" Liu Xin shook her head and said, "There were no Portuguese before, and there were also Arabs?"

"It's not as good as it used to be today." Gao Pragmatically said: "Portugal has built a series of chain trade bases in East Africa, Arabia, and India, and its maritime power has also surpassed the locals. Now the European routes to the east are in the hands of Portugal. If Portugal cut off its trade with Daming or Jinghua because of the war, so I have no choice but to go to India to sell goods in a short time."

"Isn't there still a place to sell this?" Liu Xin said, and then said: "Huh, in a short time? It means that even if the Portuguese lost the battle and lost Malacca, they still want to do business with you in the end?"

"That's natural." Gao Wushi sneered: "Europeans' demand for Ming and Nanyang specialties is far greater than Ming's demand for their products. Give in to me and admit my control over the Malay Peninsula."

"Since this is the case, why are you worried? Now we are the real powers."

Gao Wushi smiled wryly and said: "I need to build Dingnan City as soon as possible so that I can better control southern Xinjiang and radiate the entire Nanyang region. You are a student of geography. Even if you are not very good at history, you should have heard of it." The Spice Islands, right? I need to fully grasp the Spice Islands after controlling Nanyang, and take advantage of the fact that the price of spices in Europe is still high... I need precious metals, a lot of precious metals, gold or silver are fine, you understand ?"

"Of course I know about the Spice Islands, but what do you want so much gold and silver for? Build a golden palace?"

"I don't have such a hobby." Gao Wushi shook his head resolutely: "It's not that I need gold and silver, it's that Ming needs gold and silver. China has been short of precious metals since ancient times, and Ming's money shortage is extremely serious. Not only gold and silver, but even Copper is very scarce, especially the current level of steel guns is still flawed, and there are too many places where copper is used."

"Copper is easy to deal with. There are a lot of copper in the Philippines." Liu Xin said very relaxedly: "The Spaniards are very busy. Go and take down the Philippines. I'll just point you to a few large copper mines."

"What about gold and silver? Especially the silver that Daming desperately needs. I beat the Spaniards away. Do I still want this American silver? Yes, the Spaniards are the same as the Portuguese. Even if I beat him, he will Sooner or later, you will have to find me for business, but it will take a while, maybe five years, maybe ten years... During this period, I will need a lot of money."

Liu Xin wondered: "Why? You said that Daming is short of money now, why didn't I see it?"

Gao Wushi couldn't help sighing: "The whip method has been practiced for so many years, even when my third uncle was in power, it has been vigorously promoted, but so far, not even half of the provinces, states and counties in the world have actually implemented it. Why? It’s largely because of lack of money—lack of currency.”

Gao Wushi was afraid that she would not understand, so he further explained: "Daming is currently in a state of severe deflation because of the lack of currency. Four taels of silver can buy a cow. If a commoner in a barren area is required to enforce a whip, where will he get the money?

But suppose that inflation starts in Ming Dynasty, and when the value of a cow reaches 20 taels or 30 taels, other prices will of course rise accordingly. Silver or copper coins, at this time, can't one whip be enforced? "

Liu Xin frowned and said, "But this is just to make it easier for the common people to pay taxes, and it doesn't relieve them of stress. What's the point?"

Gao Wushi explained: "The real and most significant significance of the one-whip method is that the tax and service are collected in silver at the same time. In the past, the tax and service were calculated separately in all dynasties in China. Administratively, it greatly simplifies and improves efficiency.

And this is only a temporary benefit. The greater benefit is that on this basis, I can further innovate the financial system of Ming Dynasty-do you know that every single person is equal to the mu? "
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(End of this chapter)