New Shun 1730

If it is a colony, it is even less so. Whether it is Ryukyu or Korea, the governor is not appointed by the Celestial Empire, but the local royal family is hereditary.

If it is a vassal state, it is somewhat similar. The vassal of the vassal is not my vassal. The King of Ryukyu in Korea is a minister of the emperor, but the minister of Korea is not a minister of the emperor.

If applied to the Westphalian system, what is this?

The reason why Li Gan asked Western envoys to enter Beijing first and the Queen of Ryukyu to enter Beijing was precisely for this purpose.

When the Duke of Qi asked Liu Yu about the translation of Russian state letters, Liu Yu really cheated the missionary.

The map with "regnum sina" written on it did make Li Gan feel an unspeakable discomfort.

In addition to Liu Yu's exaggeration, Li Gan always had a little vigilance in his heart about the Westerners' frequent division of the empire into various legal kingdoms to draw maps.

Today, we are going to use Ryukyu to tell the Western countries what the vassal system really means.

In previous exchanges, we always tried to explain it clearly from the basics, trying to make Westerners understand the problem from the perspective of Chinese culture.

But it is too troublesome to explain it. Since we don’t understand the culture and can’t explain the concept of Tianxia clearly, we should use facts to apply it to foreign exchanges.

Since there is a “ritual government” and a “ministerial ministry”, there is a difference between the inside and the outside.

We need to know the inside and the reason.

As for the outside, we only need the result.

The so-called result is to let the Western countries sign a treaty and recognize that under the vassal system, Dashun has the diplomatic, political and other powers of a vassal state, and the Western countries must not bypass Dashun and contact the vassal of the Celestial Empire.

Sure enough, this is effective.

Several Western envoys probably also saw the meaning of this.

The Swedish envoy thought, this matter has nothing to do with me. At most, Sweden has a group of pirates in Madagascar. We can’t control the affairs of East Asia and Southeast Asia, and we are not qualified to formulate international law. We only want normal trade. Whatever you say is what it is.

The British envoy thought, fortunately, the Netherlands drove them out of Southeast Asia and East Asia. They almost established a trading house in Ryukyu, but they withdrew in the first year of Tianqi and never went there again. The Mughal Empire in India could not be your vassal state no matter what, and this matter has nothing to do with me.

The Portuguese envoy thought, Spain is in trouble, and Sulu is a tributary state of Dashun. As for Southeast Asia, we had some power in the past, but we were driven away by the Dutch, and this matter has nothing to do with me.

The envoys had their own thoughts. Except for the Netherlands and Spain, which was not present, no one reached out to Southeast Asia. Even if Britain and France reached out during the Ming Dynasty, they were driven away by the Dutch. At this time, they naturally had to stay out of it.

No one wanted to provoke Dashun at this time. After opening the trade, competition was fierce. Dashun could decide who to ban sales to, or directly drive away the trading house.

Why should we damage our own interests for something that has nothing to do with us? In order to keep Macau, Portugal still paid tribute when it could have diplomacy. Isn't it stupid to make trouble for Dashun at this time?

Although due to cultural differences, they could not understand the concept of the Celestial Empire or the meaning of vassalage, but they understood what Dashun wanted to express with their own familiar way of thinking.

Westerners are not in the tribute system after all.

For Westerners outside the tribute system, this time Dashun was just declaring ownership.

But for Korea, which is also in the tribute system, it was a bit of killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

This time Dashun also asked Korea to send tribute envoys, and the time was calculated. It is necessary to let Korea know about the war against Japan.

It may not be necessary for Korea to send troops, but the Korean trade after Japan opened the door, the Celestial Empire's lease of two lands for trade and whale sea immigration, all need to be finalized through this matter.

When the Korean envoy saw the Ryukyu King tied himself up and came, he felt very uncomfortable.

If it is really based on Ryukyu, Korea's butt is not clean either.

If Dashun really wanted to find fault, it would not need to find faults in the egg, it could easily find a lot of reasons and have a legitimate reason.

It was not until Li Gan announced the four major crimes of the Ryukyu Kingdom that the Korean envoys breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, they were insiders of the Chinese cultural circle, and they could still understand the profound meaning expressed in such public occasions when the emperor appeared.

Obviously, the emperor reprimanded Ryukyu and downgraded the kingdom to a viscount. It seemed to be talking about Ryukyu, but in fact it was also conveying a message to Korea: Dashun would not pursue those things about Korea.

The Celestial Empire has a heritage.

Shun destroyed the Ming Dynasty and took the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty, but before the establishment of the Xi'an system, the Ming Dynasty was still the orthodoxy, which Dashun would not deny.

Just like Li Shimin announced the five major crimes of Jie Li Khan after he captured Jie Li Khan, the first major crime was: your father Qimin Khan relied on the Great Sui Dynasty to sit on the throne, and when the Sui Dynasty was in trouble, you did not send a single soldier, this is a crime.

But for Dashun, the mentality of the Tang Dynasty in saying this is different. Even though Dashun compares itself to Li Tang all day long, there is a hurdle that cannot be circumvented.

Although Tang also fought for the world, Emperor Yang of Sui was not killed by the Li family. And nominally, Sui abdicated to Tang.

But Dashun is different. Dashun did not even have the opportunity to abdicate, so it could only learn from "Mang Xin".

Wang Mang conferred the title of Ding'an on the prince of Han; Li Zicheng also conferred the title of Ding'an on the prince Zhu San, which was more or less a solution.

As a result, after the Battle of One Stone, Ding'an disappeared.

After all, Chongzhen was not forced to death by the Qing Dynasty. He really died in the people's resistance. Although the tree was not planted by the starving people and the rope was not hung by the starving people, the Qing Dynasty did enter the pass in the name of revenge for Emperor Chongzhen. The Southern Ming Dynasty did recognize the brotherhood of the two emperors in the north and south, but Dashun was the only bandit.

This led to some things that Dashun was actually very awkward to say, and it always avoided some issues.

Today, Li Gan used the fact that Ryukyu did not send a single soldier after Sarhu as an excuse to blow up the title of the kingdom of Ryukyu, which made Korea breathe a sigh of relief.

Knowing that this was a false accusation, the King of Tang could not raise an army to defend the king, let alone Ryukyu.

Although they were worried that this false accusation would be imposed on Korea one day, at this moment, these words were more fortunate than worrying for Korea.

In fact, Korea has always regarded Ming as the orthodox, and did not recognize Dashun. Moreover, after Korea surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, it also sent musketeers to fight with Dashun in Liaodong.

Internally, they have been secretly using a certain year of Chongzhen to date, and even when Chongzhen hanged himself for sixty years thirty years ago, the King of Korea set up an altar to commemorate him.

However, considering that Dashun forced Chongzhen to death, they did not dare to blatantly commemorate Chongzhen, but instead commemorated Wanli to thank him for his grace of rebirth. This is a kind of skirting the line.

Dashun is not a barbarian.

But Korea still doesn't like Dashun.

First, Ming had a great favor to Korea. Ming Taizu gave the country the name, and Wanli assisted Korea to preserve the ancestral temple.

Second, Korea has a caste system of two-class aristocracy, and has a natural aversion to Dashun, a grassroots uprising that won the world: if Dashun's heavenly dynasty is legal, then in the future, will the grassroots uprising to overthrow the Korean Lee family be legal?

Third, there were constant party struggles within Korea, and cliques had already formed. However, gentlemen talk about righteousness rather than profit. Cliques were actually formed for profit, but they had to talk about righteousness on the surface. The debate over whether Dashun had gained the country legitimately was also used by party struggles. In addition, Dashun’s official ideology was not Zhu Xi’s school of thought, but the chaotic Yongjia and Yongkang schools of thought that destroyed but did not establish.

Fourth, Dashun’s large-scale immigration to Liaodong caused extreme tension in Korea; and Dashun was stimulated by Liaodong in the late Ming Dynasty, and this immigration was a paranoia like a stress response. In addition, there were constant frictions between the two sides due to ginseng trade, cross-border ginseng collection, border smuggling and other issues.

If Dashun really wanted to cause trouble for Korea, there were too many reasons, so when the King of Ryukyu tied himself up and apologized, the Korean envoys were terrified.

When Japan changed the reign title to Zhengde, it caused Dashun to be overly nervous, thinking that Japan was borrowing the name of the previous dynasty, and it also led to the fact that there were no Chinese ships in the Nagasaki trade that year, because the trade signboards with the Zhengde reign title were confiscated by Dashun.

If Dashun really made trouble over the reign title, the crime would be almost the same as Ryukyu.

Joseon knew that Dashun knew, and also knew that Dashun pretended not to know. It can be said that until today, Dashun has made its attitude clear, and Joseon's use of the Ming Dynasty's reign title is not a crime.

One is to reprimand Ryukyu for not sending a single soldier after Sarhu, and the other is to say that Ryukyu's acceptance of the "pseudo-Ming" as the legitimate dynasty after Chongzhen hanged himself is nothing, after all, it did not directly surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

This is talking about Ryukyu and Joseon: Joseon surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, but the matter was officially covered up, and the old crime was not brought up again; Joseon secretly accepted the Ming Dynasty as the orthodoxy, which is also excusable, after all, there was a great favor, and if this great favor is forgotten, it will be considered ungrateful.

Some things cannot be said directly. The Emperor of Dashun could not have caught the Joseon envoys and asked: Are you still using the Chongzhen reign title? Once asked, the matter is not over.

Just like today's event, Dashun did not ask Vietnam to participate, because Dashun also knew that Vietnam was calling itself the king of Dashun and the emperor of the country, so Vietnam could not be asked to participate in today's event. Either they kept pretending not to know, or it was an excuse for war.

That is not like North Korea's skirting of the rules: remembering the grace of rebirth and usurping the throne of emperorship, which is not a matter of the same level.

In this roundabout way, it actually tells North Korea two things.

First, this kind of "false accusation" can be found by Dashun. You have seen the end of Ryukyu, right?

Second, let's just forget about your business. But you must agree to my request.

The Korean envoys knew what Dashun wanted in return, that is, to open two ports in Korea, and Dashun would lease two pieces of land, one as a transit point for trade and development of the Whale Sea; the other to monitor the ambitious Japanese country.

The reason is also reasonable.

The purpose of strengthening the Whale Sea is to guard against the Rakshasa in the north, and guarding against the Rakshasa is to protect North Korea.

The purpose of monitoring Japan is to prevent the Japanese invasion of Imjin from happening again. The sages are prepared for a rainy day. The Ming Dynasty saved you, and I, Dashun, will make sure that Japan has no chance to attack you again.

At this time, Korea owed Dashun a favor. It was the upper country that came forward and recognized the legitimacy of King Yi Sun of Korea: the emperor issued an edict, believing that "Yi Sun poisoned his brother with ginseng soup" was a rumor.