The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 429 Economic War
“Economic lifeline?”

Zhu Houzhao nodded as if understanding.

"Let's take a simple example. If one day they establish a country, their citizens will need salt, clothes, pots and pans, and other daily necessities, right? Overseas production technology is generally backward and of low quality."

"What can they make of these things themselves? They can't make them. Not to mention the distant countries, such as Japan, which we enslaved. Most of the Japanese people can't make them, so they need to trade with the Ming Dynasty to meet their daily needs. They need the Ming Dynasty to supply them."

"This gives us the opportunity to impose economic sanctions. If they want Ming's products, they have to listen to Ming, otherwise Ming will not supply them with goods. This is called economic sanctions. Unless they want to be monkeys in the trees, they can't leave Ming!"

hiss……

Zhu Houzhao took a breath of cold air after hearing this.

He had never heard of such a statement before!

You can control other countries through trade alone without starting a war!
"No, Savage, what if they learn to make these things?"

"By the time they have learned our existing technology, our Ming Dynasty's new technology will have already been popularized. Unless the Ming Dynasty holds back, even if they don't know anything, they can still be independent."

Tang Hao smiled and said, "For example, firearms and artillery. The reason why our Ming Dynasty can now sweep away all foreign enemies is because we have more advanced firearms and artillery than them, so we can crush them."

"But think about it the other way around. If another powerful country has more advanced armaments and more powerful firearms and artillery than our Ming Dynasty, can our Ming Dynasty still defeat them?"

"No!" Zhu Houzhao blurted out.

"That's right, you can't!"

"So the Ming Dynasty needs to keep improving in order to stand tall in this world. The world outside is so big. If we don't strengthen ourselves, one day we will be attacked by others."

Tang Hao finally brought the topic back to the right track.

The biggest problem of the Ming Dynasty and even of China as a whole is the slow progress, or rather the lack of demand for progress.

Under the influence of the concept of "Middle-earth monarch", the Ming emperor and his ministers looked around and saw only barbarians who had just learned how to eat and dress, at most less than a monkey with a tail. China is the top existence in the surrounding areas even now, so why bother to develop it? Isn't it better to just lie down and enjoy it?
The problem is that the Ming Dynasty only saw its surroundings. Even when Zheng He sailed to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, he still saw poor and backward indigenous barbarians. He did not see the vigorous Renaissance taking place on the other side of the earth. During the Renaissance, secular power gradually overwhelmed theocracy, and the long-term threat of war made them pay great attention to the development and inheritance of technology. In just over a hundred years, at least in the research and development of weapons and equipment, the Ming Dynasty had fallen behind the world's advanced level.

It was not until the Jiajing period that the Westerners began their great voyages and officially embarked on the era of great maritime competition, while the Ming Dynasty of China was gradually collapsing under the incompetent rule of Emperor Jiajing.

When Western weapons began to be introduced to the East, the Ming Dynasty seized the Japanese pirates' bird guns, only to find that their own firearms were outdated. The bird guns were no longer the most advanced weapons of the Western powers. Flint-fired muskets were already under development, and even prototypes had appeared!
The Ming Dynasty, on the other hand, treated it as a treasure and imitated it in large quantities to equip its army. However, the Rumi gun imitated by Zhao Shizhen was not equipped in large quantities due to its high cost. The main reason was that the Ming Dynasty was already on the brink of financial collapse at that time, and they no longer considered the quality of a weapon, but only the price.

The final result was that one step slow led to another, not to mention that after the Ming Dynasty, the Manchu slaves took a series of measures to keep the people ignorant in order to maintain their rule and suppress the people's thoughts. They even closed the country off from the outside and lived a life of peace and prosperity behind closed doors, which resulted in a century of humiliation for the Chinese nation.

"Your Majesty, you should know that the world is round. There are many countries in the West that are rising strongly. If our Ming Dynasty hesitates, their military technology will surpass ours sooner or later. By then, they will not come from land because it is too far away, but from the sea, and they will use their powerful ships and cannons to knock on the door of our Ming Dynasty!"

Hearing this, Zhu Houzhao's originally lazy expression began to become serious. If there really came a day when the gates of the Ming Dynasty were forcibly opened, wouldn't it mean that everything in the Ming Dynasty would be left to these damned Western barbarians to take as they please?

Do not!
This cannot be done!
"Savage, what should we do?"

"Develop industry and commerce!" Tang Hao stated his ultimate goal.

"Without agriculture there is no stability, without industry there is no wealth, without commerce there is no life. Your Majesty should still remember this sentence, right?"

"Of course I remember!" Zhu Houzhao replied immediately, "I still remember Long Jimi's example. Scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans should all make progress together!"

"That's right, but now the craftsmen are living in dire straits because of the household registration system. They are even worse than beggars and cannot see any hope. Even supporting their families and solving their food and clothing problems are difficult. Naturally, they have no spare energy to develop military inventions and innovations. This is the real problem!"

"The development of technology is inseparable from the efforts of craftsmen. Any craftsman has the potential to advance technology to a higher level. Therefore, when we migrate people overseas, we must identify whether they are skilled craftsmen. Some craftsmen with special skills must not leave the scope of Daming."

"Now that Your Majesty has gathered the power of the emperor, and with my military force suppressing us, why not take this opportunity to reform the craftsman system and open up a path for advancement for craftsmen all over the world, thereby encouraging them to continuously develop military inventions and innovations, and ensure that the technology of our Ming Dynasty will not stagnate!"

Zhu Houzhao frowned when he heard this.

"But this household registration system was established by Emperor Taizu Gao. If we change it without authorization..."

"Hahaha..." Tang Hao laughed, "Why? Your Majesty still cares about your reputation as an emperor?"

Zhu Houzhao was stunned for a moment, then he laughed and scolded unhappily: "You are waiting for me here!"

"I don't care. At most I'll be called a tyrant by those gentry!"

"Then change it, make it an order, and no one in the future generations can change it!"

Zhu Houzhao was also a decisive person. Once he made up his mind, he would not hesitate.

Seeing this, Tang Hao nodded with satisfaction.

"Actually, any technology can emerge as long as the conditions are ripe. The most important thing is to create conditions for the development of technology. For example, under the Ming Dynasty's craftsman household system, craftsmen lived a life worse than death. Under such a system, would craftsmen still have the desire to develop new technologies?"

"Another more important point is how the technology will be passed down. Will it still be passed down orally as in the past? Once the person who mastered the technology suddenly passed away, it is very likely that the technology will be lost."

“Therefore, reforming the craftsman system and opening technical schools are what we will do next and what we must do!”

(End of this chapter)