The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 405: Manipulating Public Opinion
In the past, Chen Jingke would not have dared to take the initiative to provoke conflicts between conservatives and radicals.

The main reason is that public opinion is difficult to control.

But Zhu Biao's lesson made him suddenly realize that no matter how the two factions argued, they could not change the court's decision.

Letting them fight it out can actually help many problems surface.

This is the situation now. Under the nitpicking of conservatives, the problems that were covered up are being exposed one by one.

The radicals have also become somewhat silent and can only try to find ways to remedy the situation.

Chen Jingke would naturally not stand by and watch the radicals being suppressed, so many neutral articles appeared in the new issue of "Da Ming Weekly".

The one written by Fang Xiaoru caused a huge sensation and was regarded as a guiding principle by radicals.

He was even brought to the court to debate with conservatives.

This article agrees with the conservative approach, arguing that the open sea policy has indeed caused many problems.

The radicals chose to conceal the truth for their own benefit.

If conservatives hadn't found and filled the gaps, the country would have been in big trouble long ago.

It also lists the main problems one by one and points out the harm caused.

There were also some problems that were hidden very deeply and had not yet been discovered, which were also pointed out by him.

Seeing this, the conservatives were delighted.

As expected, he is the founder of materialism, and his actions are extraordinary.

But the more they looked down, the more they felt something was wrong.

After praising the conservatives, Fang Xiaoru changed the subject and began to make excuses for the radicals.

Opening up the sea does cause problems, but it also brings benefits.

Then he talked about the national finance, food, people's livelihood and other aspects.

In order to prove his point, he also made comparisons with previous dynasties.

The difficulties encountered by previous dynasties were well alleviated in the Ming Dynasty, and it must be said that the opening of the sea was a great success.

Therefore, we cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater.

There is nothing perfect in the world, and many policies are improved step by step during their implementation.

He also took the tax law as an example, from the ancient well-field system, to the two-tax system, and then to the current one-whip system of equalizing the land tax.

It took thousands of years to develop into what it is today.

If the ancients had not enacted tax laws because of various loopholes, there would never have been the people-friendly policies of the Ming Dynasty.

The same goes for opening the sea, its advantages are obvious, and we cannot think it is bad just because it has defects.

Isn't it the responsibility and obligation of all the officials in the court to find out the gaps, fill them and improve the system?

Otherwise, what do the court and the people want you to do?
If it were just these, this article would not be taken seriously enough. The real essence lies in the following.

After summarizing the matter and expressing his own views, he proposed solutions to some of the problems.

The issue of education was emphasized.

Since the people who go out to sea become bad because of lack of education and because of a bad environment, we should change the environment.

Establish Ming people settlements in every place where Ming people exist.

In this settlement, Chinese culture is practiced and Chinese education is promoted.

Of course, establishing such a settlement would encounter many problems, which would need to be solved by the imperial court.

I am just an idle person in the opposition, and I am speaking casually. As for what to do, it is up to the officials in the court to decide.
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After writing the article, Fang Xiaoru continued to study his own subjects.

However, the outside world became even more noisy because of this article.

But after all the arguing, it's still just those few things, there's nothing to elaborate on.

The real purpose of this article is to help radicals find a solution to the problem.

The suggestion of establishing Han Chinese communities overseas does not seem to be a very smart idea in modern times.

Isn't it just Chinatown? What's there to say?

But this was a first in the Ming Dynasty.

This suggestion was like a flame that illuminated the fog in the hearts of the radicals.

The unique residential area for the Ming people could not only solve problems such as customs and education, but also solve many other problems at the same time.

For example, it is convenient to manage overseas celebrities and ensure everyone's safety as much as possible.

With this prompt, the radicals quickly came up with a relatively complete plan.

and submitted to the Cabinet.

After reading it, Zhu Biao did not comment, and then made it public.

Conservatives were immediately delighted when they saw the plan.

It’s not that the plan is poorly written, it’s that it’s too good.

"Let me ask, how much manpower and material resources does the court need to invest to build such a settlement?"

“Who will manage this settlement after it is built?”

"If the locals are allowed to govern themselves, then wouldn't the government be making things easier for them?"

"If the imperial court sends officials, then why do we need to establish settlements? Can't we just establish a county system?"

"You don't know why the imperial court didn't establish a county system overseas, right?"

The radicals were speechless after hearing this.

They only thought about establishing settlements, but did not consider who would build them or who would manage them.

Let the court pay for and contribute manpower to build it?
Stop joking, no one would agree to that.

At this moment, another person stood up and asked a decisive question:
"If there is an overseas country that wants to contribute money and manpower to build a settlement for their people on Ming territory."

"Can we agree to this request?"

"It makes sense. Would other countries allow the Ming Dynasty to pay to build a Ming settlement in their country?
"Even if they agree under pressure, they will still feel uncomfortable because the Nanyang incident might happen again someday."

This questioning directly declared the radical solution a failure.

However, they were not discouraged. Being rejected was actually something they expected.

How could such a big thing be passed in one go?

During the internal meeting, a doctor from the Ministry of Industry named Xie Yun encouraged everyone like this:
"Even many of Chen's policies had to be improved over and over again before they could be passed, let alone us."

"Failure is not terrible. At least we have a direction to solve the problem, right?"

This cheered up some of the discouraged people, and everyone put their heads together and started to discuss solutions.

Since the imperial court will not provide money and grain, let the local people pay for it themselves.

"Contact the local big families, and then raise some donations from sea merchants and common people..."

"Don't set the standard for the settlement area too high. Gather people together first and open the academy first."

"What the Ming Dynasty lacks the least is poor scholars. Hire some of them."

"If that doesn't work, find some literate people to read from the book. It's always good to get your ears warmed up."

"Let's put up the scaffolding first, and then think about other things."

“As for management, we must certainly abide by local laws, but we must exercise a certain degree of autonomy without violating local laws.”

"Everyone elects some people to manage the settlement."

"At the same time, we also represent the settlement area and negotiate with the local imperial court to safeguard the interests of the Ming people."

After everyone's discussion, a new and more feasible plan gradually took shape.

However, just as they were busy perfecting their own plans, Ming Weekly published another article.

The author of this article is none other than Temasek Governor, Mr. Fu An.

In his article, he gave a detailed introduction to the current situation in Nanyang.

After this tragedy, there were less than 200,000 Han Chinese left in Southeast Asia, and the large tribes were almost completely wiped out by the natives.

Of course, not all of them were killed by the natives.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows. Some of the big Nanyang families have industries in other places, and some of their people escaped the disaster.

But later it was discovered that he had participated in deceiving mainland Chinese people and was cracked down by the Temasek Governor's Office.

In short, there are not many Han Chinese left in Southeast Asia.

The situation of the natives was not much better. After the cleansing by the Ming navy, there were no native forces in Nanyang. The Ming army continued to strike at the various native forces to prevent them from forming a new group.

But this kind of continuous attack consumes too much energy and cannot last long.

The key point is that this high-pressure and chaotic state seriously affected commercial trade and was not conducive to the long-term rule of the Ming Dynasty.

The court must find a way to solve this problem.

Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty’s years of operation in Southeast Asia would be ruined.

As the Governor of Temasek, he naturally has the right to make recommendations.

His opinion was that since the situation in Southeast Asia had already become like this, there was no reason to return power to those barbaric natives.

The Nanyang Navy will not agree, the Han people who were massacred in Nanyang will not agree, and the native people of the Ming Dynasty who care about Nanyang will not agree.

Therefore, he suggested that the court follow the example of the Chu State and enfeoff kings in Southeast Asia.
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With the publication of his article, the issue of how to deal with the issues left over from Southeast Asia was brought to the table for discussion.

The opinions among the people were surprisingly unanimous: no matter how the imperial court dealt with the situation, it would never return power to the natives.

The barbarians slaughtered my brothers and sisters.

Not exterminating their clan would be considered merciful, but how could we possibly return power to them?

Anyone who dares to do this is a traitor and a traitor to the country.

Even if we take a step back, what if we return power to them and they massacre the Han people again?
Who can bear this responsibility?
Do you support returning power to the natives?
If you support it, please sign and seal your name. If something similar happens again in the future, your household registration book will be destroyed.

Chen Jingke, who had been monitoring public opinion through the Jinyiwei, was delighted when he learned of this trend.

"The traitors and traitors have all come out, and ethnic consciousness has finally awakened."

Zhu Xiongying also said happily: "Our efforts over the years have paid off, and we have finally reaped the rewards."

“We must continue to work hard to make the concept of Greater China deeply rooted in people’s hearts.”

Chen Jingke nodded and said, "The most important thing now is the south and southwest. Do you have any plans?"

Zhu Xiongying said seriously: "After the grand division is confirmed, I plan to go there in person. I must take this opportunity to implement this matter."

Chen Jingke thought for a moment and had to admit that this was the best way.

Zhu Xiongying's status is high enough, and his presence represents the court's attention.

Secondly, he enjoys extremely high prestige among the natives in the south and southwest, and those people all obey him.

Many things are easier to handle if he personally comes forward.

"The root of solving the problem of the natives is to solve the problem of the native leaders."

"As long as they nod, it will be a simple matter."

"What they are worried about is the loss of benefits after the new policy is implemented. You can start from this aspect."

Zhu Xiongying nodded and said, "I know. This time we are only going there to promote the Xuanzheng plan. We are not going to implement the policy of land reform, so it is not that difficult."

"If they don't even agree to this, don't blame me for being rude."

Reforming the native system is also an established plan, but the current conditions are indeed not suitable.

Firstly, the natives do not trust the Ming Dynasty enough, and many of them still live a closed life.

Secondly, the Han people there were not strong enough to support the court in establishing a stable rule.

Chen Jingke said: "When you go there, you can just enclose some areas to build villages and move Han people there to live."

"Coordinate the relationship between the Han people and the natives, and don't let them have any rifts."

"Once this is accomplished, we can expect the return of the aboriginals to the Han Chinese in 20 years."
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The influence of Fu An's article goes far beyond this.

The adult prince was so excited when he saw this. After so many years, there was finally a suitable piece of land to be granted to me.

My eyes are filled with tears.

The conservatives were also very happy when they saw it.

Now several princes have come of age, but have been delayed because there is no suitable land to be allocated.

Moreover, the older King of Lu, King of Shu, and King of Xiang served as governors in Northeast China, Jiaozhi and other places respectively.

Although his power is not as great as that of a vassal king, he still holds military and political power in a region.

As time goes on, who knows if it will become too big to be eliminated.

Nanyang is now free, so let’s get rid of them quickly.

This way everyone will feel at ease.

What? You said that doing this would put the people in a different place and it is not in accordance with etiquette?

Haha, do you want to listen to the voice of the people?

Do you want to be a traitor and sell out your country? Do you want to use your household registration book as collateral to support the restoration of the natives?
If you don’t dare, just shut up.

The radicals were also very excited. They suddenly realized that there was a better way than establishing Han settlements.

The prince's fiefdom naturally had to promote Chinese culture and laws, and management problems were also easily solved.

Moreover, the feudal states can slowly erode the power of the indigenous people and ultimately achieve civilization.

It can be said that once the feudal plan is implemented, Nanyang will be officially Sinicized and will no longer be a barbarian land.

Currently, the main place where Han Chinese live overseas is in Southeast Asia.

Once the problems in Nanyang are solved, other places will be easier to solve.

More than 90% of the hidden dangers of opening the sea have been resolved, and the remaining ones are insignificant.

The key is that they found a new excuse to support the open sea policy.

explore.

There is a lot of land overseas, but it is too wild and unsuitable for division.

After the sea is opened, a certain degree of development will be carried out using private forces.

When the time is ripe, the imperial court will carry out the enfeoffment.

From now on, the Ming Dynasty will never be troubled by the issue of royal family.

Moreover, the feudal system could relocate the excess population, reduce population density, and thus reduce land pressure.

Anyway, there are so many benefits.

As a result, the princes, conservatives, and radicals submitted petitions at the same time, hoping to be able to divide the land in Southeast Asia.

It’s just that the princes were more reserved. Under the guise of paying respects and asking how they were, they wrote letters one after another to Zhu Yuanzhang, Empress Ma, Zhu Biao, and Zhu Xiongying.

Even Chen Jingke received many letters, and the letters were as humble as possible.

Those who don’t know would think that Chen Jingke is a prince and they are his subjects.

The concubines in the harem were also busy. They couldn't find Zhu Yuanzhang, and it was inconvenient to look for Zhu Biao, so they started looking for Empress Ma.

In short, the division of Nanyang became the mainstream voice for a time, and all that was left was for the emperor to make the final decision.

However, there was one group that had a different opinion, and that was the nobles.

Didn't they say that the Great Separation would be announced this year? Now it's almost the end of the year, so let's talk about it.

Moreover, there is so much land in Southeast Asia, which is a good place to divide it into fiefdoms.

You can't give it all to the princes, right? Leave some for us too.

However, they also know that the more times like this happen, the more they need to remain calm.

If something went wrong at this critical juncture, causing the plan of enfeoffment to fail, I'm afraid the other nobles would eat them alive.

Zhu Biao naturally knew that they were anxious, but this matter really could not be rushed.

Although the policy of large-scale feudalization can be implemented with tough measures, it is still necessary to reduce some pressure through public opinion as much as possible.

After all, life must go on.

If you use force this time, the officials will develop a rebellious mentality next time.

Moreover, if one wants to implement the large-scale enfeoffment system, one has to wait for someone to return to Beijing.

That person was naturally Zhu Yuanzhang.

His prestige is high enough to suppress everyone and he is not afraid of any accidents.

Secondly, this is his promise, and he needs to finish it and make it a good start and a good end.

So where is Zhu Yuanzhang?

He had just cleaned up dozens of household registration books in Shu and was rushing back.

(End of this chapter)