Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 86: Ming Dynasty Directly Governs Mubang (I)
Zhu Youdong left Beijing on January 16. Because there were too many people watching the ceremony and seeing him off, his small team had to wait until the 18th before they arrived in Tongzhou and boarded the ship.
To say it’s not big is not an understatement.
As the crown prince sent by the Ming Dynasty to garrison Nanjing again after more than a hundred years, Zhu Youdong's team consisted of only one thousand soldiers from three camps, two hundred Jinyiwei, and more than fifty eunuchs and palace maids.
Several of his teachers had already moved south to take up posts, and even his close friend Cao Huachun had moved south in September last year: the Ming Dynasty also had an imperial palace in Nanjing. When His Royal Highness went south, he certainly would not live in the palace city of Nanjing, but it was reasonable for him to find a courtyard in the imperial city to live in. However, the Nanjing Imperial Palace had been idle for more than a hundred years, and it was not possible not to send people to clean and repair it in advance.
His industries in Honghe Village, such as soap, candles, toothpaste and toothbrushes, were all left behind. Most of the local villagers in Honghe Village, except for a few young people who had grown into technical backbones, also stayed. Those who left were the dozens of craftsmen assigned to him by Zhu Changluo, as well as the Korean craftsmen and local craftsmen from Liaodong. There were also more than a thousand orphans caused by the floods of the Yellow River and Huai River that Cao Huachun bought one after another.
Cao Huachun was quite capable. He arrived in Nanjing in late October and took over a large piece of land in Fangshan near Nanjing that month. He also spent a lot of money and quickly built a lot of houses. So the Honghezhuang team had already gone south in December last year. The leader was Li Shizhong and the three hundred servants of the Li family.
Therefore, at this moment, besides the entourage assigned to him by Wanli, there were only three companions, Wang Chengen, Li Chunzhong, and Zhang Shize, as well as Matteo Ricci, the missionary who was almost forced out by him.
Oh, by the way, there is another one: Liu Jing’s adopted son, Liu Zhaosun.
"Recruiting grandchildren."
"What do you want, Your Highness?"
"Come, come, sit down. You've been living in my Xinghua Palace for almost half a year, don't you know what kind of person I am?"
"I dare not. Your Highness is kind to the people below. But the people below should not lose their sense of proportion because of this."
"Hey, you. Come, catch this." As he spoke, a emerald green stone was thrown from Zhu Youdong's hand and accurately into Liu Zhaosun's arms.
"And the rest of you." After another round of throwing, three green stones of similar size came to the sides of Wang Chengen and the other three tutors.
"Ah! Your Highness, what is this green jade? Could it be that this is the Mubang jade that my father mentioned in his letter a few days ago?"
"That's right." Zhu Youdong was also smiling at this moment: "Your father and Sun Kaiyang are really capable. They defeated Burma in late July and found a jade mine in Mubang in October. What I'm giving you is the first batch of jade excavated from Mubang."
Wang Chengen and the other two were fine. They played with the green jade for a while. Zhang Shize even commented on the jade with various quotations from classics. Liu Zhaosun weighed it casually and said, "Your Highness, I don't care whether it is good or not. I am a warrior. Why should I wear it? What I am thinking about now are the more than a thousand brats who have just started training . They went to Nanjing a month in advance. I don't know to what extent Shizhong will indulge these guys."
Hearing this guy talking bad about his brother again, Li Chunzhong pursed his lips slightly, but didn't say anything: Although the surname Liu has a very unpleasant personality, he always goes against his eldest brother after coming to Honghe Village. But this guy's kung fu is really hard! Li Shizhong is already the best fighter among the three generations of the Li family, but he can't last more than ten rounds under Liu Zhaosun!
"Huh! This is just a rough piece!" Zhu Youdong came over from the bow . "You don't need this thing, don't you know to use it to please your wife? Your father named you Liu Zhaosun, don't you understand what that means? You are almost thirty years old, and you don't even have a wife. If Liu Shuai is not anxious, I will be anxious for him!"
"Hehe, didn't my father have a son soon after he adopted me as his son? Let Uncle Yan (Liu Jun, Liu Jing's son) handle the task of carrying on the family line. As for me, I'd better wait until I have accomplished great deeds with the Crown Prince before considering getting married."
"I know what you are thinking. Don't you want to follow your father's example and marry the daughter of the Minister of War? I tell you, your idea is good, but you have to look at me. I am only six years old. It will take at least ten years for me to send you out to make achievements."
"Hehe, I'll only be 38 years old at that time. No rush, no rush."
"Hmph, I don't want to talk to you." Waving his hand towards Liu Zhaosun, Zhu Youdong walked up to Zhang Shize and said, "How is it? Isn't this jade nice?"
"Your Highness, it is more than good. It is simply the best jade! Your Highness, the source of Hetian jade has been reduced by 99% since the fall of Hami Guard. Nanyang Duyu is good, but the color is more mottled. Lantian jade and Yuyan jade have been mined for many years, and the mines are exhausted (only in terms of Ming Dynasty technology)... In short, in the jade industry of our Ming Dynasty in recent years, the more people love it, the less the mines. This new jade from Mubang is crystal clear and hard, which is already very attractive. If it can be put on the market in large quantities... Hehe, Your Highness, I congratulate Your Highness on opening up a new source of income."
"Well, you are so smart. To tell you the truth, Mr. Sun wrote to me that the jade mine in Mubang can produce more than two tons of jade imported into the mainland every year within three years."
"Hiss~~ So many!" Zhang Shize rolled his eyes and said immediately: "Your Highness, please write a letter to Mr. Sun and tell him not to put too much on the market at once. Otherwise, the price of jade in the whole country will be destroyed."
I know this, but there is nothing I can do. Mubang must produce as soon as possible, otherwise we cannot station troops there for a long time, and we cannot also incorporate Mengyang Xuanweisi, northwest of Mubang, into the direct-controlled prefecture.
Last July, Sun Chengzong reached an agreement on behalf of the Ming government and the Burmese king Awanalom:
1. Both parties jointly confirmed that Myanmar was still a vassal of the Ming Dynasty and one of the many Xuanweisi under the jurisdiction of the Yunnan Provincial Administration.
2. Myanmar recognized that Mubang was a directly governed state of the Ming Dynasty and would never invade again.
3. The Ming Dynasty understood that Myanmar was located on the plains and could not rest in peace facing Mubang on the plateau. It agreed to give a small part of Mubang to Myanmar: the area where the plains moved to the plateau.
Fourth, although the entire family of Mubang Tusi Han was massacred, the Ming Dynasty did not pursue the matter because Myanmar did not know that Mubang had surrendered to the country and the ancestors of the Burmese envoys also died at the hands of Han.
After these four agreements were reached, the remaining 230,000 besieged Burmese troops abandoned all their weapons and were able to withdraw to the Irrawaddy River plain.
This is indeed a compromise, but it has to be implemented: the Ming Dynasty is now unable to further develop in the southwest. Moreover, it needs a more powerful Burma to contain the impending outbreak of Siam. Therefore, it is necessary to make Burma feel at ease with the Ming Dynasty and allow Burma to obtain a certain amount of mountainous territory in the northeast, so that Burma can focus on dealing with the threat of Siam in the southeast.
After Sun Chengzong's memorial was submitted to the Ministry of Public Administration, there was some controversy in the court. The main point of controversy was not that the land of Mubang was ceded to Myanmar. The literati of the Ming Dynasty were not pedantic: what loss would it bring to the Ming Dynasty if someone else's land was used to feed a third party?
What everyone is arguing about is that Mubang is such a remote place, why should it be saved? Well, you can save it if you want. But the Mubang Tusi Han family has no descendants! You actually said that Mubang should be made a direct-controlled prefecture? How much money will our Ming Dynasty lose every year?
Haven't you seen that during the Yongle period, the Ming Dynasty took over Jiaozhi. As a result, the unruly people there rebelled all day long, forcing the court to station a large number of troops there. When the annual expenditure was high, it was equivalent to millions of taels of silver. And what about the income of Jiaozhi? The most in a year was only more than 70,000 taels of silver. As a result, the Ming Dynasty persisted there for decades, but finally had to give up completely.
The current Guochao's strength is not as strong as that of Yongle. If we take Mubang in again, how much will we lose this year? Your Majesty, Your Highness, this is absolutely not allowed!
