New Shun 1730

When facing external enemies, consider internal fighting first, weaken subordinates before going to war, and consider how to prevent subordinates from becoming powerful before negotiating, and then win the foreign war, which requires very high skills.

Tokugawa Yoshimune was just a lord who maintained the status quo, and did not have such superb skills. At this time, he was thinking about Liu Yu's advice: the enemy is in Honnoji, not in the emperor's teacher.

…………

"Honnoji? What's going on with this Honnoji?"

In the capital of Dashun, the emperor looked at Liu Yu's memorial and asked the ministers who knew something about Japan.

There were also some core figures of Dashun nearby, and everyone in Tianyou Hall and the Privy Council was there, and they were just discussing the Ryukyu issue. When Liu Yu's memorial was delivered, the emperor directly unfolded it in front of all the ministers.

Since the New Year, there have been signs of war with Japan. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the emperor is preparing to fight a war and looking for reasons.

The ministers who are qualified to participate must naturally fill in some information about Japan so that they can have questions and answers when the emperor asks.

One minister thought for a moment and replied: "... probably similar to before Sima Zhao killed the emperor, Jia Chong suddenly became a loyal minister of Wei and helped the emperor Cao Mao to kill Sima Zhao?"

"Or... the first emperor was about to rule the world, but was assassinated by Wang Jian?"

These two similarities don't seem to be quite correct, but after thinking about it, I really can't find a better analogy. The key is that I really can't figure out what it is, so I roughly explained it again.

Emperor Li Gan shook Liu Yu's memorial and smiled: "This is not reading, and the allusion is not very appropriate. Tokugawa Yoshimune is worried about the feudal lords, not his important officials in the shogunate."

The memorial naturally has to be attached with Liu Yu's letter to Tokugawa Yoshimune, and when writing the letter, he did not avoid the emperor's ears and eyes to prove his innocence.

Jiang Chen, who was in charge of the military strategy of the Privy Council, was convinced after listening to Liu Yu's memorial and praised: "Your Majesty, I think Ying Suobo is not uneducated. He has read the military strategy very well and has a deep understanding of it. Sun Tzu said: The victory of a good warrior is not due to his wisdom or bravery, so his victory is infallible."

"He only relied on 500 people and a letter to prevent the Japanese army from gathering and forced them to split into several teams. This is better than an army of 50,000."

This evaluation, whether close to Liu Yu or against Liu Yu, the other ministers present had to admit that it was true.

They may not understand tactics very well, but they have read military books on strategy, and they still have the ability to talk about war on paper, and talking about war on paper is not necessarily derogatory.

Li Gan agreed with Jiang Chen's statement, but said: "Do you think he only has 500 soldiers? But you forgot that Weihai cost millions of national treasury warships. If there is no fleet, what worries the Japanese?"

Li Gan supported the shipbuilding at the beginning, and he was against all odds. Now that he said it, he was waiting for the ministers to say something.

Sure enough, he waited.

"Your Majesty is far-sighted and wise, which is beyond the reach of our ministers. As your Majesty said, if your Majesty had not supported the navy at the beginning, how could Ying Suo Bo have made the Japanese Tosa Castle look like this even if he had many times more soldiers? Why would the Japanese worry so much?"

Li Gan hummed, threw away Liu Yu's memorial, and habitually took Liu Yu's ideas on himself, just like that day in the bitter cold land of Northeast China.

"You are all important officials of the country. I have something to say today. The reason why I went against all odds and built a navy was that I was worried that foreign enemies would do what Ying Suo Bo did in Tosa."

"If the navy is not developed and the enemy has large ships, they can land everywhere from Guangdong to Tianjin. Even if the army is good at fighting, it can be deployed everywhere like Japan at this time, with insufficient troops and easy to be defeated one by one."

"If you don't deploy defenses everywhere, gather a large army, and gather food and supplies, how can you run as fast as warships? Today we are in Guangdong, tomorrow the enemy will be in Songjiang, and the day after tomorrow in Shandong. How can we defend like this?"

This is almost a replica of what Liu Yu said to scare Li Gan. Anyway, Li Gan knew that the eunuchs who knew about this matter at the time had "died accidentally", and Liu Yu would never publicize this matter to the outside world.

Speaking in this way, he showed that he was far-sighted and a wise emperor.

He was not just doing it for this prestige, but today the navy has made some progress, Liu Yu also guaranteed that Weihai's navy has become a system that can protect itself, and the French envoys arrived and sent the shipbuilding engineers that Liu Yu had always wanted.

Shipbuilding costs money, and the money for shipbuilding is not enough from the emperor's treasury, it is simply a drop in the bucket - if Liu Yu said, to build a large ship that can compete with the first-class ships of the Westerners, it would cost at least 120,000 to 130,000 pounds, which is equivalent to 300,000 or 400,000 taels of silver, plus the supply and training of officers and sailors, the money in the emperor's treasury is just to fill the gap.

Considering that Dali is still in Nanyang, Nanyang is the border of the Celestial Empire in Li Gan's heart, and it will cost money to build ships in the future, and it will also require the support of ministers, so it is better to take advantage of it now.

"Du Mu lamented Qin and said: If the six countries loved their people, they would be able to resist Qin; if Qin loved the people of the six countries again, they could rule for three generations or even ten thousand generations; who could destroy their clan? The Qin people had no time to mourn themselves, but later generations mourned them. If later generations mourned but did not learn from them, they would also make later generations mourn again!"

"The affairs of Tosa, you should take it as a lesson. If you do not promote benevolent governance, the world will be in turmoil. Once an external force attacks, it will surely lead to chaos. Benevolent governance, benevolent governance, there are benevolent governance of scholars and officials, and there are benevolent governance of the people."

"Isn't the Japanese governance benevolent to the samurai? Isn't the previous dynasty's governance benevolent to the feudal lords and gentry? As for the people... If he was benevolent to the people, why would Emperor Taizu raise an uprising army and sweep the world?"

"During the Fujian religious incident, the Catholics were indeed worthy of death, but since they had no clothes in autumn and winter and no food in times of famine, many people converted to Christianity. It is necessary to ban religion, but it should also be a lesson."

"If there is no navy, if Westerners lead tens of thousands of people to Fujian and other places with few people and poverty, pretending to promote benevolence and fair trade, wouldn't the people follow them?"

"Now I can only watch the jokes of Japan, and I really feel sad for the rabbit's death."

"Whether it is to treat the symptoms or the root cause, you should carefully examine it."

Several ministers were shocked and thought to themselves, Your Majesty, Your Majesty, why are you doing this again? When we were in diplomacy with Luosha, you used this trick. First, you said you were going to do something scary, then you said something that everyone could accept, and asked everyone to choose one of the two, and they had to accept the condition that didn't look so scary.

Isn't it the same now?

If you want to build a ship, just say it directly, but what do you say to treat the symptoms or the root cause?

How to treat the root cause?

Could it be that they really want to implement equal land distribution and land restriction as the great northern Confucian scholars Yan Xizhai and Li Gangzhu said? For a period of 30 years, the land rent will be 50% perpetually rented, and the land will be returned to the tenants after 30 years?

Whether it is Yan Xizhai or Li Gangzhu, they have a heart of benevolence and righteousness, and they should also implement equal land distribution and land restriction, but won’t this cause chaos in the world?

Who has the ability to preside over such a big change? There are more than 20 provinces in the world, with a population of more than 200 million, and they rely on these bureaucrats? Moreover, the imperial power does not extend below the county level, and the villages are all managed by the gentry. Asking the gentry to preside over this matter is to cut the gentry's flesh?

The important ministers who can enter the Tianyou Palace to speak may not necessarily have the talent of assisting the king, but they are not nerds.

Even if they do not consider their own interests and only consider feasibility, they know that the land rent redemption policy of Yan Xizhai, Li Gangzhu and others can only be a fantasy.

The Tosa incident happened in Japan, but in some places in Dashun, the slogan can also be used. It's nothing more than that one is the shogunate, the five dukes and the five commoners, while the Dashun is the tenants and gentry who share the profits 40-60.

The emperor is not stupid. Since it is impossible to cure the root cause, he has to cure the symptoms.

How to cure the symptoms?

Of course, build ships, build ships, and build ships!

If the peasants rebel, they will be killed. The only thing to worry about is that external forces will come and unite with the peasants to make trouble. As for how to do it, Liu Yu has set an example in Tosa.

It was too difficult for the Dashun to establish a country. It compromised in the south. If it still carried the banner of equal land and exemption of grain after Jingxiang, I am afraid that the Dashun can only be found in the history books compiled by the Qing Dynasty.

The Fujian Church Incident certainly had the factor of religious conflict, among which the clans ate the extinct households, the extinct households used religion as an organization to resist, the rich households oppressed too much, and the people had no one to rely on.

Those sitting here are all thousand-year-old foxes. Every one of them knows that the Dashun is sick and congenitally deficient, but no one can cure it.

The emperor's implication was a direct slap in everyone's face: Either you cure Dashun's innate illness, or spend money to build ships to prevent external forces and internal troubles from merging.

Curing innate illness is not unique to Dashun, it can be said that it existed in the Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. No one can cure it.

Li Gan looked at the important ministers and stopped talking. It is best to wait until others take the initiative to say what they want to do.

In silence, Li Gan simply spoke.

"My lords, if the country is like a person, it has both internal and external diseases."

"Since the Qin Dynasty conquered the Xiongnu, the country has been suffering from major diseases, all in the north. Fortunately, Emperor Taizong had a far-sighted vision and left instructions for the Liao Dynasty; thanks to the soldiers' dedication, the north made peace with the Russians and pacified the Mongols. Since the Qin Dynasty, the northern disease has been pacified for two thousand years."

"However, although the old disease has been cured, a new disease has arisen. Xu Guangqi of the previous dynasty said that the Eastern Tartars were nothing more than scabies, and the real disaster was in the southeastern sea. I originally thought it was just alarmist talk, but now it seems that it may be foresight."

"The disease in the north is gone, and the disease in the south is born. For the disease in the north, the medicine is war horses and firearms; for the disease in the south, what should the medicine be?"

The ministers said one after another: "As your majesty said, the medicine for the disease in the north is firearms; for the disease in the south, the medicine should be warships and navy."

Li Gan laughed and said, "That's right! In the past, Bian Que and Duke Huan of Cai said: You have The disease is in the skin, if it is not treated, it will be serious. Huan Hou said: I have no disease. Bian Que came out, Huan Hou said: Doctors are good at curing diseases and consider it a merit. "

"This sentence [Doctors are good at curing diseases and consider it a merit], you should think carefully. In the past, when Ying Suo Bo explained the navy, do you also think that Ying Suo Bo 'likes to cure diseases and consider it a merit'?"

"You should think carefully, if Japan has ten warships today, even if Ying Suo Bo is as bold as a lion, would he dare to go to Japan? If the Japanese had a visionary person and built a navy at the beginning, seeing Ying Suo Bo did not go, would they also think that building a navy is 'treating diseases and considering it a merit'? "

"Now that the navy of our dynasty is just completed and there is no more disaster in the southeast, a hundred years later, I am afraid that some people will think that I am just 'treating diseases and considering it a merit'. I think it will not take a hundred years, even in the court today, there are people who can't help thinking so, right? "