People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 478 Xia Yuanji's Debate with Scholars

When the civil officials saw that their king was so easily moved by Xia Yuanji's few words, they knew that Xia Yuanji had achieved his goal.

In fact, Xia Yuanji just wanted to tell the current king, the reason why you are living a good life now, isn’t it because we are supporting you behind the scenes?

When those pirates bullied you, who supported you?
When those pirates asked you to send them beautiful women, silver and food, how many of you dared to say no? I guess you didn't dare to say no at all.

But after we came, there is no need to say more about what kind of life you are living now.

Xia Yuanji looked at the civil and military officials present and said, "Even the small Chen Zuyi pirate gang was able to bully you like that. Then I want to ask you, if my Ming navy really wants to annex your territory, how many of you have the courage to stop us from joining the navy? King, tell me yourself."

The king came to power through a military coup, so he was particularly aware of the gap in strength between his country's army and the Ming navy.

He didn't need to watch how the Ming Navy trained, nor did he need to listen to how the Ming Navy reported their battle records.

Just by seeing that Chen Zuyi's pirate gang was defeated on the sea, they could clearly realize that if their own army went against such an army, it would be like hitting a rock with an egg.

This problem can be understood without breaking it down.

His Majesty the King was speechless, and neither were the civil or military officials below.

After a long time, some civil servants still said unconvincedly: "The reason why the pirates cannot annex our Annan country is because they have no army. They are strong on the sea, but not necessarily on land.

However, the Ming Dynasty was different. It not only had a powerful navy, but also a powerful army.

If you really want to annex our Annan, with the business you are doing in Annan now, you can completely treat these businessmen as intelligence dealers who spy on you.

After they enter Annan, they will immediately report everything they know to you. If the Ming army wants to swallow us up, wouldn't that be easy?"

After hearing this, Xia Yuanji immediately retorted, "As you said, if the merchants of our Ming Dynasty enter Annan to gather intelligence, they can destroy you. Then I want to ask, if this is true, why have we never done this in the past two or three years?
Is it just to let you know the strength of our Ming Dynasty? To let you be on guard?

Or was the Ming Dynasty just so merciful in the past few years? Or would you say that the Ming Dynasty did not have such a strong military force at the beginning, and now that it is strong enough, it can annex the Kingdom of Annan?
If you think so, you should ask the neighboring country Japan. They have witnessed the power of our Ming Dynasty, and most of their land has fallen into the hands of our Ming Dynasty.

They once sent Japanese pirates to burn and kill people along the coast of our Ming Dynasty, so we sent troops to occupy them.

At that time, it seemed that our Ming Dynasty still did not have such a strong navy, but it was still able to fight across the ocean.

Is it because the Ming Dynasty is too good to your Annan country? Or is it because your Annan country is stronger than Japan? "

As soon as these words were spoken, all the officials present were speechless.

In fact, they were particularly aware that the Japanese pirates were quite powerful and had once fought to the death with Chen Zuyi's naval gang on the sea.

To a certain extent, they are even more powerful and ferocious than Chen Zuyi's pirates.

After all, those were real people who had fought on the battlefield and failed, and then became pirates.

Even though Chen Zuyi's pirate gangs were rampant on the sea, their actual combat capabilities were still inferior to those of the Japanese pirates.

Although the Kingdom of Annan was located in the south of the Ming Dynasty, it still suffered from the invasion of the Japanese pirates, and they also knew very well how powerful the Japanese pirates were.

At that time, these Japanese pirates had already made a great name for themselves on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, which shows that they were quite powerful.

However, within a few years, due to the Ming Dynasty's reforms, these Japanese pirates were not only driven back to their hometown, but the Ming Dynasty's warships could even sail directly to their hometown and wage war with them in Japan.

They also recovered most of the territory, even the silver mines they were proud of were occupied. Now a large amount of silver is slowly being transported to the Ming Dynasty.

They even heard that Japan had fought a war with the Yuan Dynasty, a powerful country, and had narrowly won.

This shows that Japan's combat power is many times stronger than that of Annan.

But isn’t Japan now lying at the feet of the Ming Dynasty?
This was a few years ago.

So they think that the Ming Dynasty was very powerful in the past and now has a strong navy, so they have such a threat theory. This logic is wrong.

Because the Ming Dynasty was also very powerful a few years ago, which could be seen in the early stages of the reform.

Seeing that everyone was speechless, Xia Yuanji looked at the king again and said, "Your Majesty, from what we just said, it can be seen that the Ming Dynasty is not so hostile to Annan now.

It’s not that the Ming Dynasty doesn’t want to expand its territory, but we understand very clearly that between war and peaceful development, we should choose peaceful development, which is the safest.

To be honest, the northwest of Ming Dynasty is indeed suffering from drought and food shortage, so we need a lot of countries to provide us with food.

Now the weather in Indochina is warm and grain is abundant, but you have no way to sell the grain at a high price. My Ming Dynasty is short of food. If the two countries can cooperate, it will benefit the people of both countries.

On the contrary, if the two countries go to war, not only will your country suffer from the disaster of war, but we in the Ming Dynasty will also have to bear the risk of increased taxation. The people of both countries do not want war.

So again, peaceful development is our most important goal now.

Your country needs the technology of our Ming Dynasty, and our Ming Dynasty needs you countries in Indochina to produce food for us. It's that simple.

This is a good deal for both of us, but I don’t know why some people want to start a war and exclude Ming from it.”

When Xia Yuanji said this, he looked at the civil and military officials over there. In fact, his meaning was very clear.

That is why you people do not want Ming Dynasty and Annan to cooperate well, because if Annan cooperates with Ming Dynasty, the interests of you people will suffer the greatest losses.

What do you want? Actually, we don't need to say more.

As mentioned before, for someone like Xia Yuanji who came from the Ming Dynasty, there were so many people with conflicting interests in a land as vast as the Ming Dynasty that there was no need to elaborate.

He even understood what these people were thinking. They just wanted to give us all the benefits, and didn't need to care about the interests of others.

For example, the interests of the common people, the common people know nothing about them, they have to tell us everything, and we are the ones who really have the say.

You are bypassing us now, connecting directly with the people, buying food directly from the people, and letting those small vendors get so much benefit. What are you trying to do? You are trying to go our way and go against us.

Although your Ming Dynasty is powerful, it is not so easy for us local tyrants to be suppressed by you.

So please consider this for yourselves; our opinions are very important.

He didn't say this aloud, but how could Xia Yuanji not know it?

So Xia Yuanji said to the king, "Your Majesty, this is actually very obvious. Now the Ming Dynasty does business directly with the common people and small vendors. They can gather all the grain at the trade transit station, and then trade directly with the merchants in the Ming Dynasty. There is no need to make profits through second hands. These profits are very real, and there are not so many middlemen in the way.

But some people do not agree to such a good deal. Why is that?

This is because it is such a good deal that if they are not involved, they will not make much profit.

So in order to reap these profits, they try every possible way to prevent ordinary people from participating in these transactions.

Make you feel that the Ming Dynasty is indeed a threat, and let you introduce laws to restrict the Ming Dynasty from trading with the people of Annan.

In this case, all transactions must go through them, and through them they have the means to raise domestic grain prices and make money on both ends: one is to make money from the common people, and the other is to make money from Ming Dynasty merchants.

This is also the purpose of their propaganda of the so-called Ming threat theory.”

After hearing Xia Yuanji's words at this time, many civil servants thought, is Xia Yuanji a god?

How does he know what we are thinking?

Everything he said seemed to be what he had heard us discuss with his own ears.

This is what we think and this is what we discussed. We just want the king to introduce policies that will prevent you, the Ming merchants, from doing business directly with the common people. If they do business with us, we will have the opportunity to raise domestic grain prices.

Then we will let you buy our food at a high price, and we will make a lot of money. The common people will become our slaves and just need to shed blood for us.

How come you know everything now? We didn't discuss this with you.

Does this actually need to be discussed?

As the saying goes, there is nothing new in the world.

The Central Plains dynasty where the Ming Dynasty was located has lasted for three or four thousand years, and the events that happened in the past three or four thousand years have been written in history books.

All you have to do is read the history books and you can fit everything into them.

How could Xia Yuanji, a well-read man who had passed scientific examinations, not understand this truth?
These rote things are really too childish.

But for the Kingdom of Annan, they really didn't understand the routine, so they really thought this was a good idea.

In fact, in the eyes of the talents of the Ming Dynasty, aren't these ideas just tricks that their ancestors had already mastered very skillfully?
The king was also very angry. If he really did that, needless to say, he would definitely be the most unlucky one.

If the common people cannot buy cheap food, the first thing they will do is curse their mothers, and then they will definitely rebel.

As a person who came from a rebel background, he knew very well that he was able to incite the people to join him in the rebellion and overthrow the Chen Dynasty.

The people can also follow others to overthrow themselves.

This is all because the common people cannot afford to eat. Why was the Chen Dynasty able to be instigated by themselves and overthrown by the people? Wasn't it because the Chen Dynasty was at war with the surrounding countries, making the people's lives miserable, and imposing additional taxes on the country, and then civil unrest occurred frequently, and finally the quantitative change turned into qualitative change, and the Chen Dynasty was overthrown.

His own personal experience was right in front of him, how could he let it happen again?

So he slammed the dragon desk and yelled, "Shut up, you mediocre officials. The great ruler of the Celestial Empire has seen through your nature at a glance. To be honest, do you think I don't know what you are thinking? Which of you is clean? Don't you just want me to break with the Ming Dynasty, so that you can make all the profits?

The common people have become your slaves for blood transfusions, and I have become your tool for exploiting the people.

Now that the great Ming Dynasty's superiors have seen through your evil plot at a glance, why are you still talking nonsense here? "

After being reprimanded like this, the officials dared not say anything else.

Because they knew that if they said anything else, the king would definitely not believe them.

Now the king has been brainwashed by Xia Yuanji. Whatever Xia Yuanji says is the truth. No matter how much they say, the king will not believe it. He can only stand aside and dare not say anything.

Seeing that these people dared not speak, the king turned to Xia Yuanji again and said, "Thank you, Governor, for answering my doubts. I was wondering why these people kept promoting these things here, but I didn't expect that they had such a deep plan.

If I really believed what they said and issued such a law, some people would definitely make a fortune, but the common people would suffer, and even the cooperation with the Ming Dynasty would no longer be able to continue.

Today, my country Annan is in such a good state, all thanks to the strong support of the Ming Dynasty. Annan is not an ignorant country, and I am not an ignorant person. So I decided to do as you said, and resolutely not let some chaebols get involved. Even if they want to participate, they will never be able to completely monopolize the interests of the people.

The common people must become the biggest beneficiaries of the cooperation between Ming and Annan. Only in this way can the morale of the common people be boosted and they can grow more food, rather than becoming a blood transfusion tool for those tycoons and landlords. "

Xia Yuanji was very pleased after hearing this. "If your Majesty can think so, then I would like to thank you for the people of Annan and the people of Ming Dynasty."

……

(End of this chapter)