Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 591 Postscript: Zhengde (2)
"Pattering..."

In February of the sixth year of the Zhengde reign, as the rainy season arrived in Dongzhou, a stalemate ensued between the expeditionary army and the rebels.

The remnants of the Southern Kingdom occupied the inland rainforest areas and constantly harassed the expeditionary force's rear.

Prince Xiang Zhu Houjin defended the city to the death and refused to leave.

King Song Zhu Youji took advantage of the rainy season to continuously produce large quantities of weapons to equip the army.

Qi Jingtong and his two sons were not in a hurry to attack, but were calmly training their troops and constantly integrating their 90,000 soldiers.

The war in Dongzhou has reached a stalemate, but the situation in Zhongzhou, the homeland of the Celestial Empire, is not peaceful.

As 70,000 troops from Bohai and Liaodong in the northeast were transferred to Dongzhou, the meritorious officials in Jilin City also began to make trouble secretly.

They distributed the arable land in their hands among their children according to their household registration in order to avoid taxes.

This is the case in the Northeast, not to mention the south of the Yangtze River and the southwest.

In order to avoid these taxes, capital from all over the world began to exploit legal loopholes.

Politically, in the face of the expanded scope of the Beijing inspection, small-scale civil unrest continued.

For a time, the Ming Dynasty gave people the illusion that it was in turmoil.

"There is only 18 million taels left in the national treasury, and the military expenditure of Dongzhou is at least 500,000 per month."

"The local government will probably spend five or six million to quell the rebellion and reduce the military expenses. The newly recruited troops will also need to change their uniforms."

"The court still has too many things to do. Last year's taxes have not been collected yet, and local tax resistance is serious. These problems all cost money..."

In the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City, Wang Shouren and Zhang Cong were conversing with each other and were about to hold a regular court session.

The ministers of the six ministries were replaced one after another, including Wang Shouren of the Ministry of Personnel, Zhao Zhenji of the Ministry of Revenue, Hu Zongxian of the Ministry of War, Zhang Cong of the Ministry of Justice, Gao Gong of the Ministry of Works, and Xia Yan of the Ministry of Rites.

In the Censorate, the main figures were Hai Rui and Yang Jisheng.

In the palace, Shen Lian, Tang Shunzhi, Xu Jie, Yang Shen, Zeng Xian, Yan Shifan...

Among this group of people, some were the ones Zhu Houzhao wanted to use, some were the ones he had to use, but overall they were the ones he wanted to use.

Under the chairmanship of Wang Shouren and Zhang Cong, officials from the six ministries, palaces, and the Censorate also began to discuss.

"Last year, all places only paid the previous year's taxes, and the taxes under the new law were only paid by Northern Zhili, Shanxi, Liaodong and Bohai."

"At the moment, even Liaodong and Bohai seem unwilling to pay this year's new law."

Zhao Zhenji from the Ministry of Revenue explained the situation and said:
"If we follow the new law, the taxes collected this year will probably be no less than 200 million."

"The reason why tax revenue is not increasing is mainly because people below them pretend to obey but actually disobey."

Zhao Zhenji's remarks pushed the responsibility for the failure to implement the new policy onto the people below him, which is consistent with the current situation and does not count as shirking responsibility.

"The bureaucracy is too big, and the problems have been there for a long time. It is not easy to rectify it."

Xia Yan from the Ministry of Personnel spoke up and bowed to the side hall:

"The implementation of new policies is always counted over ten years. The court has not implemented new policies for many years. It is expected that it will be more difficult to implement them now."

"Having said that, the current situation on all sides is not very good. Among the vassal states, Japan has been hoarding food. I am worried that there may be a war."

As soon as Hu Zongxian from the Ministry of War opened his mouth, everyone looked at him sideways.

Zeng Xin of the Palace echoed Hu Zongxian: "Japan's population has been increasing over the years, and its domestic conflicts are even more serious than those of the Qing Dynasty."

"The reason why there was no outbreak was mainly due to the support of the imperial court and the continuous delivery of food."

"They built farms in Kunlun, and the number of Kunlun natives who died from slavery was no less than ten million."

"With such a character, if the imperial court cuts off their food supply, I'm afraid they will become desperate and do something desperate."

"A desperate dog will jump over the wall?" Gao Gong snorted coldly: "A small country like Japan is also worthy of a desperate dog jumping over the wall?"

Facing Gao Gong's words, Wang Shouren slowly said:

"After all, there has been no war east of Malacca for more than a hundred years, and the tonnage of the Japanese navy has increased year by year, and now it has reached 360,000 tons."

"Although the Imperial Navy fleet has over two million tons, nearly half of it has been in service for more than twenty years."

"Although money has been allocated to build the ship, there are severe strikes in the local area, so the construction speed cannot be fast."

"Currently, four fleets are heading to Dongzhou. East of Malacca, there are only two fleets, the South China Sea and the South China Sea."

"If something does happen, it will be difficult to deal with it."

"I have discussed with your majesty the other day about transferring three fleets from the West to Jiangnan for deterrence."

"After the imperial inspection, it will be much easier to collect taxes in Jiangnan..."

As soon as Wang Shouren finished speaking, footsteps were heard in the side hall.

Seeing Zhu Houzhao appear, everyone bowed and saluted. Zhu Houzhao sat in the main seat and said:

"The little Japanese country is increasingly disregarding the imperial court. We previously allowed them to develop in Kunlun Continent in order to restrict Xizhou from moving southward."

"Now that Xizhou has occupied Northern Kunlun, Japan does not go to war with them, but actually attacks Korea, Siam and other countries. If we don't restrict them, I'm afraid he still thinks that the Celestial Empire is a decoration!"

"Pass on my order to completely cut off all trade with Japan. I want him to recognize his position!"

With Zhu Houzhao's slamming of the table, Japan's national destiny was undoubtedly shrouded in a gloom.

On the seventh day of March, the Ming Dynasty closed its vassal embassy in Japan for failing to change its ways despite repeated warnings, and announced the cessation of normal trade with Japan.

Just one move caused great panic in Japan.

The price of grain, which originally cost four cents per catty, suddenly rose to fourteen cents per catty, and the price of sweet potatoes, potatoes and other grains rose to ten cents per catty.

In addition, prices of all commodities in Japan have increased, the cost of living for Japanese people has risen sharply, and the number of people protesting has continued to increase.

Faced with this situation, Japan banned Ming newspapers and periodicals and then published the "Japan Daily" to win over public opinion.

At the same time, Ashikaga Yoshikazu sent an envoy to the Ming Dynasty to beg for forgiveness, but secretly he continued to launch warships.

In April, Zhu Houzhao met with the Japanese delegation and ordered them to return the lands of Kunlun Continent to Korea, Siam and other countries, and to take back the lands of North Kunlun Continent.

However, in response to this request, Japan simply continued to incite public opinion at home and relocated its own people to Kunlun Island.

The Japanese army began to capture a large number of Kunlun people in Kunlun Continent to open up farms. However, due to the high energy utilization efficiency of the tropical rainforest and the excessive rainfall in the rainforest, the nutrients in the land after reclamation would soon be washed away by the rain. Therefore, a piece of arable land would often have a good yield in the first two years of reclamation, but the yield would decrease as time went on.

Such an environment forced Japan to continuously open up new arable land.

They did not have enough machines, and even had a serious shortage of animal power, so the Kunlun slaves became their "animal power".

A large number of Kunlun slaves were killed, and Kunlun Continent became a mess.

At the same time, after launching a series of warships, Darkia (Britain) began to try to explore the northeastern region of North Continent.

Their actions were ruthlessly blocked by the Ming Dynasty's North Atlantic Fleet.

On the third day of July in the sixth year of the Zhengde reign, the Dark Eleanor Royal Navy sailed to Beizhou with twelve steam cruisers, fifty wooden frigates, and six thousand two hundred naval personnel.

Upon hearing the news, the Ming Dynasty's North Atlantic Fleet intercepted it at sea.

After the two sides met, the Dark Elean Navy negotiated peace on the surface, but actually sent sailors into the water to attack the North Atlantic Fleet with mines.

After the explosion, the watertight compartments of three Ming army cruisers of more than 6,000 tons were damaged, and the fleet retaliated with live ammunition.

One hour after the battle began, the self-reliant Dark Elijah navy sank into the sea, while the Ming army only sustained damage to seven cruisers and twelve frigates, with sixty-four men killed and more than two hundred injured.

On the surface, the North Atlantic Fleet did not seem to have suffered any serious damage.

But in fact, as Dark Eliya dared to attack the North Atlantic Fleet, this meant that the deterrent power of the Ming Dynasty began to decline.

In September, four countries including France and Portugal formed a joint fleet and launched an attack on the North Atlantic Fleet.

Except for the total tonnage and number of artillery of the Four-Nation Fleet which far exceeded the North Atlantic Fleet, the rest of the data was completely crushed by the North Atlantic Fleet.

Although the Allied forces were equipped with armored cruisers, the tonnage of their warships was generally around 2,000 tons, while the North Atlantic Fleet's main battleships were 8,000 tons and the rest were around 5,000 tons.

The total tonnage of the Four-Nation Combined Fleet of 176 ships exceeded that of the North Atlantic Fleet, but the North Atlantic Fleet had only 32 ships.

In this naval battle, the North Atlantic Fleet could often take out several warships of the Allied Fleet with one round of bombardment, while the Allied Fleet needed to concentrate its fire for more than half an hour to sink a 5,000-ton cruiser of the North Atlantic Fleet.

The two sides fought for three hours, and the North Atlantic Fleet suffered heavy damage to 24 cruisers and 56 frigates of the Allied fleet, with 16 damaged armored cruisers.

Just the North Atlantic Fleet was able to defeat the combined fleet of the four nations and set it back more than ten years.

This naval battle allowed many countries to witness the strength of the Ming Dynasty, and the commander of the fleet, Wang Zhi, also got the opportunity to be promoted to the Naval Governor's Office.

At the same time, Qi Jingtong and his two sons, after more than half a year of training, officially launched a counterattack in October.

However, at the same time as they launched the counterattack, rebellions broke out again in the Persian and Qibei regions. Local evil people gathered together to rebel, most of which were religious in nature, but were quickly suppressed.

In the winter, a rebellion broke out in Shannan, and voices hoping to restore the country also emerged in Rakhine and Bangkala regions.

Originally, they joined the Ming Dynasty in order to enjoy the conveniences of the Ming Dynasty. However, with the release of the "New Commercial Tax Law", the environment they needed to face immediately changed, which made some dignitaries eager to return to the previous state. However, their desire was one thing, and whether Zhu Houzhao agreed was another.

As officials in the Central Plains were continuously laid off, the Ming Dynasty, while spending money and grain, confiscated the property of corrupt officials and obtained a large amount of money and grain.

In the seventh year of Zhengde, as the new policies were gradually implemented in the two capitals, Shandong, Liaodong, Bohai, Daning, Shanxi, Henan and other places, the national treasury became more abundant.

In that year, the population of the Ming Dynasty was found to be over 283 million, the amount of arable land was over 2.276 billion, the fiscal revenue was over 178 million, the expenditure was over 153 million, and the surplus was 25 million.

With this money and grain, the new policies of the Ming Dynasty were implemented more smoothly, and the Song Xiang Rebellion in Dongzhou also saw a turning point.

On the sixth day of the fourth month of the seventh year of the Zhengde reign, Taining City was recaptured by the Ming army, and Prince Xiang Zhu Houjin burned himself to death.

After the death of Prince Xiang Zhu Houjin, the only ones left in the Ming army were the remnants of the Southern Kingdom and Prince Song Zhu Youji in the south.

Under the leadership of Qi Jiguang, the Ming army advanced both by land and sea and quickly recaptured most of the coastal towns. Although Zhu Youji's Song army still had more than 70,000 troops, it seemed that it was not far from destruction.

If things could end here, it would seem that the Ming Dynasty would be able to quickly focus on implementing new policies and successfully reform the tax system.

However, the new policy affected the interests of too many people, and Zhu Youji chose to rebel because he saw this.

On the sixth day of the fifth month in the seventh year of the Zhengde reign, Zhu Youcan, the Prince of Xiang in Nanzhou, and Zhang Quan, the envoy of peace, responded to Zhu Youji, the Prince of Song's call to "quell the rebellion in accordance with the will of heaven" and launched a rebellion, claiming to be clearing the court of corrupt officials.

As the place where the largest number of criminals were exiled in the past, Nanzhou was not interested in many policies of the imperial court, but they strongly resisted the new policy.

During the Chenghua and Hongzhi years, the criminals who were exiled to Nanzhou had their own advantages over later immigrants because they arrived in Nanzhou early and made their fortunes.

Relying on this advantage, they basically controlled the local administration and social wealth.

The opinions of the people are not important to them. All they want is to hinder the new policies.

The high taxes imposed by the New Commercial Tax Law were enough to cost them half their lives, but supporting ambitious people in rebellion was nothing to them as long as they could stop the new policy.

Even though they knew the rebellion would not succeed, they still wanted to give it a try. If the emperor couldn't bear the pressure, they would be the winners!
Unfortunately, they underestimated Zhu Houzhao's ability to withstand pressure, and even more underestimated Zhu Houzhao's determination to reform.

Under the current circumstances, only reform can ease the conflict and allow the government to take control of distribution.

Zhu Houzhao sent Chen Min, Duke of Liao and Marquis of Zhaozhou, to lead the twelve guards of Guangdong and Guangxi and the four guards of Nanyang, Xiyang, Xihai and Nanhai to quell the rebellion.

In July, Chen Min led his army to land at Beihai Port in the northern part of Nanzhou. The people welcomed the royal army, while the King of Xiang prepared for war.

Since the soldiers in the army did not want to be dragged into rebellion, the Hunan Army continued to retreat on the battlefield, and soldiers surrendered in an endless stream.

Nanzhou is different from Dongzhou. The ethnic composition of the people in Dongzhou is complex, while that in Nanzhou is very pure. It is extremely difficult to incite the local people to rebel.

The successive victories in Nanzhou have greatly deterred some people who are trying to cause chaos.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that with the initial success of last year's reforms, the imperial court, with more than 20 million taels of money and grain, was powerful enough to suppress everyone.

Because of this, the strike movement in Jiangnan gradually subsided.

At times like this, only the guys in Nanzhou couldn't open their eyes and had no idea what the outside world looked like.

However, the rebellions in Nanzhou and Dongzhou did greatly constrain the local forces of the Ming army, and this also made the isolated Japan choose to take risks...

Japan, regarding this country, apart from Zhu Gaoxu who maintained a high level of tension and constant control, among the other generations of monarchs, only Zhu Qiyue paid attention to it.

Because of this, Japan learned a lot of industrial knowledge from the Ming Dynasty through the vassal tributary system.

Starting from the Xuande period, they began to try industrialization by following the example of the Ming Dynasty. However, it was not until the Jingtai period, when the Ming Dynasty gradually eliminated some low-end industries, that they embarked on the road of industrialization by taking over the Ming Dynasty's low-end industries, and their national strength grew stronger.

At that time, Japan maintained its upward trend by mining in Kunlun Continent and continuing to mine domestic silver mines, but this was not a long-term solution.

As the Iwami silver mines gradually dried up, and the military strength of countries such as Korea and Siam declined, Japan's ambitions could no longer be restrained.

During the Chenghua period, Japan's industrial revolution reached its climax, and there was an urgent need to export goods and capital abroad.

However, as an island country, Japan itself is short of resources and has a small market. In addition, the remnants of feudalism are strong and various contradictions are acute during the social transformation period. Therefore, the Japanese ruling group headed by the emperor is eager to find a way out through external expansion.

In the tenth year of the Hongzhi reign, the Japanese shogunate formulated the so-called "Korean conquest strategy", which gradually evolved into a "continental policy" centered on the occupation of Kunlun Continent.

The first step was to take over the Korean and Siamese lands in Kunlun Continent, the second step was to unite with Xizhou, and the third step was to march into the Korean mainland.

After the three steps are completed, they will wait for the Ming Dynasty to intervene in the war, and they can use the return of the Korean mainland as a condition to obtain the land of Kunlun Continent.

Japan has its own ideas. After all, they are a big country with a population of 40 million. As long as they seize the opportunity and firmly adhere to the principle that Ming is the Celestial Empire, then Ming will have no reason to go to war with them. After all, they are still a vassal state of Ming and will still guard the border for Ming.

The only ones who were hurt were Korea and a few vassal states of Siam.

However, how these small countries feel is not something Japan needs to worry about.

All Japan had to do was to become the first vassal state of the Ming Dynasty and then become a great power in Kunlun Continent, and Korea was the stumbling block standing in their way.

Only by defeating North Korea can they let the Ming Dynasty see their strength and choose to support themselves instead of North Korea.

As the Ming Navy's fleet in the Central Continent area went to Dongzhou and Nanzhou to fight respectively, Ashikaga Yoshiaki felt that the time was ripe.

On August 9, the seventh year of the Zhengde reign, Japan sent a message to the Ming army camp stationed in Japan, claiming that Korea had attacked a Japanese frigate in the North Sea and captured more than a dozen Japanese soldiers, and that it needed to use this as an excuse to declare war on Korea.

In order to realize its vision of becoming the first vassal state of the Ming Dynasty and a great power in Kunlun Continent, Japan had already begun making preparations for the current war since the Hongzhi period.

In the first year of the Zhengde reign, the Korean Navy had seven warships of over 2,000 tons and thirty-four warships of less than 2,000 tons, with a total tonnage of less than 100,000 tons.

Even now, their total naval tonnage does not exceed 200,000 tons, the number of navy personnel is only 30,000, and the army is only 70,000.

In comparison, Japan had established a navy with 40,000 soldiers as early as the Hongzhi period, and already had an army with 200,000 reserve soldiers.

Today, Japan has 50,000 naval forces and 250,000 army forces.

In addition, Japan has also dispatched a large number of spy organizations and personnel to infiltrate North Korea to step up intelligence collection and infiltration in all aspects of North Korea.

They knew clearly that the number of North Korean troops left in North Korea was less than 30,000, and this was a godsend opportunity for Japan.

In August, Ashikaga Yoshiaki personally led a large army across the sea, with 46 warships and an army of 150,000 to attack the Joseon Dynasty!
During this period, Ming Dynasty issued constant warnings, but they were all ignored by Japan.

In their view, as long as they completely defeat North Korea and continue to be respectful to the Chinese Empire, the Chinese Empire will have no reason to attack them.

I have to say that if we look at the situation during the Hongzhi period, there is really nothing wrong with Japan's idea.

But that was during the Hongzhi period, and now it is not the Hongzhi period, but the Zhengde period.

Around August 15, Ashikaga Yoshikazu led an army of 150,000 to land in Busan and marched northward with great momentum.

When King Yi Ha of Joseon learned the news, he immediately ordered the royal troops stationed in the three cities to gather in Seoul to prepare for the enemy, and at the same time asked for help from the Ming Dynasty.

Upon hearing the news of Japan's attack on Korea, most of the Ming Dynasty's officials adopted a wait-and-see attitude. After all, Japan had guarded the Kunlun border for the Ming Dynasty for many years, and Ashikaga Yoshiaki had also promised to take over Korea's industries and continue to serve the Celestial Empire. Now that the Ming Dynasty was fighting on many fronts, it really shouldn't fight another battle on its doorstep.

Of course, there were also people in the court who supported repelling Japan. After all, Japan had repeatedly disobeyed the imperial court's orders since the Hongzhi period, and it was time to teach it a lesson.

However, before the officials in the court could come to a conclusion, new news reached them.

On the second day of September, Ashikaga Yoshikazu led his army to Seoul and successively captured the three cities of Seoul, Kaesong and Pyongyang. The Korean King Yi Hae fled to Donghae City in Donghae Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty for refuge and begged for submission.

When the news came, there was an uproar in the court.

Although it was already known that Korea was no match for Japan, the loss of three capitals within half a month of the war was too unbelievable for the officials in the court.

For a time, most people in the government suggested resuming trade with Japan. After all, the demise of Korea was just a matter of seconds, and if they accepted Japan's surrender now, they could get a lot of land in the northern part of the country.

Moreover, news came from Japan that Ashikaga Yoshikazu had stationed his troops in Pyongyang and had not made any further moves northward.

From this perspective, Ashikaga Yoshiaki did not have the arrogance to fight the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, they would have welcomed the Ming Dynasty getting half of the Korean land for free.

They did not consider that now that Korea is gone, if Japan rises up to challenge the Ming Dynasty, how the currently annexed Korean land will be invaded in the future.

They didn't consider this, but Zhu Houzhao did.

Faced with the offer of getting half of Korea for free, Zhu Houzhao chose to refuse because he wanted the whole of Korea.

"North Korea will be overthrown in no time, and you shameless old beasts are still here indulging the little Japanese!"

In the Fengtian Hall, Zhu Houzhao looked down at the ministers with a sharp gaze, which made many ministers who were still rejoicing over having picked up half of Korea for free lower their heads.

Looking at their appearance, Zhu Houzhao spoke in a majestic voice.

"Our country is benevolent and generous, and will help those who are obedient and submissive. Now the Japanese are rampant in Korea, but now Korea has submitted to us. The land that the Japanese invaded is the land of the Celestial Empire, and the people that the Japanese slaughtered are the people of the Celestial Empire!"

During the conversation, Zhu Houzhao cast his eyes on Wang Shouren and said, "Tell the Ministry of Rites to announce it to the world and make it known to all the barbarians."

"If Korea submits, the Celestial Empire will gladly grant its ruler the title of Marquis of Korea. If it refuses, he will also be the ruler of Korea, a vassal state of the Celestial Empire."

"In the Celestial Empire, there is no such thing as taking advantage of someone's misfortune. The Celestial Empire has no intention of taking advantage of their misfortune... Duke Yue!"

"I'm here!" When he heard Zhu Houzhao calling him, Duke of Yue Yang Sheng took the initiative to stand up and bow.

Zhu Houzhao glanced at him, then slowly scanned the ministers:

"In this battle, I want to tell the world clearly what the attitude of the Celestial Empire is towards its vassal states!"

"Tell Ashikaga Yoshiaki...Yoshitake is in high spirits, and those who jump up and down must be killed no matter how strong they are!"

(End of this chapter)