People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 490 The generals were puzzled by Xia Yuanji’s actions!
Xia Yuanji's words made many soldiers feel a little bit fresh.

In fact, in their eyes, now that the Ming Dynasty has conquered this country by force, they can immediately reap benefits from the common people here indiscriminately.

These people are now frightened by the Ming Dynasty. What resistance can they possibly offer under such powerful military might?
You can only be treated as fish on a chopping board and be manipulated by others.

Even though their army was destroyed in a short time, they were unable to defeat Majapahit.

Even though the navy sent out by the Ming Dynasty now only had about 5,000 people, it had already taken down the entire Majapahit Kingdom.

From then on, there were no longer two countries on this island, only one country merged together. What kind of resistance could they make?
Even Lan Yu was thinking the same thing at this time.

After all, this country was not friendly to me at the beginning.

After we conquer them by force, we should work hard to gather more resources, so that we can be worthy of ourselves and others who have conquered this country with great difficulty.

Otherwise, some policies are introduced that are beneficial to the people here. Why? On what basis? Are these people qualified?

They were like our prisoners.

After seeing the generals headed by Lan Yu had the same expression, Xia Yuanji said earnestly, "I know that you generals must be dissatisfied in your hearts. Why do we have to waste so many resources in this place? Why can't we just send all these resources back to Ming Dynasty and let the people of Ming Dynasty live better.

You are right to think so.”

As soon as he said this, the others immediately said, "Sir, we all understand what you mean by taking your time, but this place is different from Annan.

We have only set up a trade transit station in Annan. There is nothing we can do there. We can only take it slow with them, otherwise we will anger them.

But this place is different. This is a territory we have conquered, and everything here will be ours in the future.

We should transport all these things to Ming as soon as possible, so that the people of Ming can benefit from the war."

The person who spoke was Wang Bi.

Wang Bi actually understood very well that the people of the Ming Dynasty might not really want to see the Ming navy attack and go to other places to fight.

Because once a war breaks out, taxes will have to be increased.

Of course, he has no idea now that the Ming Dynasty today is no longer the same as before.

Chen Han looked down upon the taxes paid by the common people of the Ming Dynasty.

He placed the bulk of taxes on merchants and vested interests, and the vested interests are now treated more fairly.

Even though they were levied such high taxes and were under great pressure, they could still gain a lot of profits from doing business. As a result, they made more money. This was what Chen Han called "shifting".

In fact, it is the same as the king here shifting the focus of taxation to the wealthy classes, but the method used by this king may be different from that used by the Ming Dynasty, and it will definitely fail.

It was very wrong for him to want to reform when he did not have such powerful capabilities at hand.

Facing the soldiers' misunderstanding, Xia Yuanji explained to them directly, "I know you must be thinking that the people of our Ming Dynasty have paid so much tax, which has been converted into food and fodder for your Ming Dynasty navy to go out to fight, and you must be complaining in your heart.

But you have been fighting in Southeast Asia for a year, almost two years, and you have no idea how much our Ming Dynasty has changed.

Do you think the people of Ming still need to pay such high taxes to support our war?"

Even Lan Yu was very surprised when these words were spoken.

Before Lan Yu set out, the common people of the Ming Dynasty still had to pay very high taxes, and the taxes were not completely passed on to the businessmen.

Lan Yu asked, "We really don't know how you did it. We only know that most of the food we eat now is provided by the common people.

If we cannot immediately send our war profits back to Ming, how can the common people support us when they cannot see the benefits we gain from the war?
When the time comes, the common people will open their mouths and drown everyone."

Lan Yu had fought for so many years and knew it very well.

Every time there is a war, the common people suffer the most, especially those living in border areas, who bear a very heavy burden because of the transportation of food and fodder.

These generals were credited for their contributions after fighting the war, but what did the common people get?

The common people have worked extremely hard, but they have never enjoyed the benefits of the war.

Now that they have finally conquered this country, they are immediately preparing to plunder the wealth here and transport it back to Ming Dynasty.

Let the people see that the food and fodder you provide are very useful, so that we can also save face, right?

This is what Lan Yu actually thought.

Now the people don’t understand why we are fighting everywhere.

Then we will use practical actions to tell the people that the fruits of victory after the war are these spoils of war.

All of you can get one.

All of you can share in this glory.

All of you can stand at the top like our Ming Navy.

Those small overseas countries are scared to death when they hear the reputation of our Ming Dynasty. That's why we have to fight.

Wang Bi and his men were military generals after all. Although not all of them were reckless, they still wanted to gain the benefits of doing so.

At first they wanted to plunder the wealth here, but when they heard that a governor was coming soon, they restrained themselves.

Now that Xia Yuanji has arrived, they feel that Xia Yuanji will definitely be able to understand them.

After all, Xia Yuanji followed the Duke to carry out reforms, and we were sent by the Duke, so you should stand on our side.

But why do we need to introduce some good policies to benefit these people?
Wang Bi was a little angry when he mentioned the people of Sanfuqi: "My lord, you don't know that the reason why Chen Zuyi and his gang of pirates are so successful is not unrelated to the people of Sanfuqi.

Every grain of food that Chen Zuyi and his men ate and every piece of clothing they wore came from the people of Sanfuqi.

There may be some kind of ambiguity between them and the pirates. We have defeated the pirates now, but we have cut off their way of survival. Maybe every one of them is resentful of us."

When this was mentioned, many generals immediately stood up and said, "That's right. When we were fighting with Chen Zuyi and his gang of pirates, we saw many people from Sanfuqi personally delivering food and fodder to those pirates.

The fact that those pirates were able to survive had a lot to do with the common people of Srivijaya.

Now that we have defeated the pirates, their business has been completely destroyed. The local people here must hate us to death, right?

Even the local officials and dignitaries are all related to the pirates. They are in league with the pirates. We have defeated the pirates now. They already regard us as their enemies. Now we still have to introduce good policies for them and make their lives better. Why? "

Another general said: "Without pirates, the people of our Ming Dynasty would not have died so many times. Without them, Chen Zuyi would not have been able to run rampant on the sea.

Even though our navy is so powerful now, it still cost us a huge price to finally destroy them.

I feel very dissatisfied that you suddenly gave them these good policies.

I feel sorry for my brothers who died.

Sir, we are not satisfied with your behavior."

Seeing that all the generals under Lan Yu were dissatisfied, Xia Yuanji could actually understand.

These pirates were all very ferocious and caused a lot of casualties along the coast of the Ming Dynasty.

In particular, many people here come from coastal areas, and they have a deep understanding of pirates and Japanese pirates.

So not everyone can understand what Xia Yuanji said.

They originally thought that after Xia Yuanji arrived, they could begin to divide up Sanfuqi's wealth in an all-round way, so that they could offer it to the Ming Dynasty and make their own reputation even more prominent.

But what was unexpected was that after Xia Yuanji arrived, not only did he not agree to such a condition, he even wanted them to watch Xia Yuanji implement some benevolent policies in this place to make the people here live a better life. Why?
What they thought was that it would be enough to move all the good things here back to Ming Dynasty so that the people of Ming Dynasty could live a better life.

Let the common people here fend for themselves. After all, they are quite comfortable hanging out with the pirates, right? Then let them die with the pirates.

After seeing their expressions, Xia Yuanji looked at Lan Yu and said, "Marshal, do you think so too?"

Lan Yu said: "You have not fought here, so you have no idea how these people treat us.

Even though we led a large army to fight Majapahit, the people did not show much gratitude.

Maybe they have become accustomed to pirates escorting them, and they are used to using pirates to bully other countries, so when the pirates are gone, they feel like they have lost their soul.

You may not know the situation here, and if you do this, it is probably wishful thinking.

It not only damaged the morale of our navy, but also encouraged their arrogance.

There are some places that are not worth exercising benevolence over.”

After hearing Lan Yu's words, the other generals all expressed their agreement.

Xia Yuanji knew very well that if he wanted to start his colonial rule here, he must get the approval of Lan Yu and others and must cooperate with them. Otherwise, how could he suppress the rebellion here?

After expressing his understanding of Lan Yu's people, Xia Yuanji began to speak earnestly, "Do you know why the Duke must let the navy conquer a piece of territory around Nanyang?

And they also emphasized that Sanfuqi must be captured.

Because we didn’t give up after getting this opportunity, we have achieved what we have today.

Do you know how much the Duke and I paid for this day? "

After Xia Yuanji said this, Lan Yu and the others immediately raised their heads and looked at Xia Yuanji.

Xia Yuanji walked in front and looked at the beautiful scenery in the back garden, pointing to the flowers in the garden: "You only saw the common people here cooperating with the pirates, and only saw the common people here doing evil things here, but have you seen how valuable this land is to us?
You want to take all the gold and silver treasures here back to Ming Dynasty, but do you know what the truly valuable things here are?"

When Xia Yuanji asked this, Lan Yu and the others were stunned.

They really didn't know these things, and they didn't even know why Xia Yuanji insisted on sending the Ming navy so far to conquer such an island country.

Even though the resources here are abundant, what’s the use of them?
The common people here do not cooperate with the Ming Dynasty, and they may not necessarily do things for the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, we will have to send troops to suppress them, and then we will have to do this and that for them, wasting a lot of time.

Xia Yuanji's words made them all fall into deep thought.

Xia Yuanji said again: "We want more than just their gold, silver and jewelry, and we want more than just an empty shell.

After we conquered this land, we took all their money and wealth, which was very satisfying.

Ordinary people can also get such good news at the first time, which is exciting.

But what did we get after taking all these gold, silver and jewelry?

What we get is the hatred of the countries in Southeast Asia."

Xia Yuanji said in a decisive tone.

After hearing what Xia Yuanji said, Lan Yu and the others were even more confused.

Xia Yuanji said again: "I know that each of you wants to bring honor to your family and wants to report this achievement as soon as possible. You even want to divide up the wealth here."

After Xia Yuanji said this, many soldiers lowered their heads.

They felt that this was as they should. After conquering such a place, couldn't they even take the spoils?
Xia Yuanji looked at them and said again, "The most valuable thing here is not the gold, silver, or jewelry, but the land that you look down upon.

Let me tell you this, the reason why the Duke sent the Ming Navy to Southeast Asia to dominate the world is not to show off our military power, nor to occupy their land by force.

Instead, we want to tell them that our Ming Dynasty is very powerful and ask them to cooperate with us.

We took down Srivijaya because we had the right to do so, because there were pirates here. Srivijaya had never gotten along well with other South Sea countries. After we took them down, other countries would only applaud and praise us, and would not blame us, or even be afraid of us.

But if after we capture Sanfuqi, we only think about plundering the wealth here and turning this place into a scorched earth

Other countries in Southeast Asia will be wary of us, which goes against our current national policy.

The Duke and I both want to take over this land, not a scorched earth or hatred. Do you understand, generals?"

……

(End of this chapter)