Rule over Ming Dynasty

Chapter 476 The true intention of five million taels

road?
Not to mention the envoys present, even the civil and military officials in the palace were immediately stunned. They all raised their heads and looked at the wise and heroic emperor in the palace in confusion.

It is said that the road to Shu is difficult, but the Central Plains and Shu roads are connected after all.

On the other hand, the southwest is mountainous, swampy, and full of virgin forests. Wanting to open a road between the Central Plains and the southwest is like spending money like mining Luzon gold mines, so that a new connection can be opened between the two places.

With the current financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, this can naturally be accomplished.

Just what is there in Myanmar? The cost is far higher than the cost of mining the Luzon gold mine. Let alone a gold mine comparable in size to Luzon, there is no decent property.

Just like this, when they heard Zhu Youtang's plan, many officials immediately doubted themselves and did not believe that the emperor with great talent and strategy would develop the southwest regardless of the cost.

"I don't know which way it is?" The envoy from the Ava Kingdom was stunned at first, and then asked curiously.

Zhu Youtang's eyes suddenly became sharp, and he threw out his latest big plan: "A road connecting the entire Myanmar region from Yunnan. I want the Ming Dynasty to be closely connected with your kingdom!"

This……

When they heard Zhu Youtang's big plan, all the civil and military officials present couldn't help but turned dumb.

The worst outcome still occurred. It was understandable to go east and south, but I didn't understand why they chose to develop toward the southwest.

Even if it doesn't work out, wouldn't it be nice to go back to the Silk Road and head towards the desert sands to Tianzhu?
Now the emperor suddenly took aim at Burma, a country full of poisonous insects in the mountains and forests, and they were also a bunch of barbarians who were difficult to civilize, which left everyone, Monk Zhanger, confused.

Zhu Youtang ignored the shock of his ministers and threw out bait to the envoys present: "As long as you take the initiative to help the Ming Dynasty build this road, then I can be canonized as king, and the Ming Dynasty will protect you forever!"

Since you want to use the other party to help you build this Ming-Myanmar Highway, then naturally you have to give them enough sweetness.

Myanmar is now in chaos, and the Baigu Kingdom, the most powerful country in the Ming Dynasty, only gave it to Myanmar and did not recognize their status as a foreign vassal.

But now, as long as they cooperate with the Ming Dynasty to build a Ming-Burma highway, then he doesn't mind granting them the status of vassal kings, and will also give them military protection.

Although unified Myanmar once caused difficulties for the powerful Yuan Dynasty, now faced with a scattered Myanmar, it does not take too much effort to clean up.

Facing the bait thrown by Zhu Youtang, some small kingdoms suddenly became excited.

Their situation is not optimistic. Even if they are independent individuals, facing the powerful countries around them, they have to worry about whether they will be destroyed the next day.

The Toungoo envoy Nakhon Ying noticed the reactions of the surrounding envoys, and then stood up very decisively and said: "Emperor Ming Dynasty, the disputes in Myanmar have been going on for a long time, and it is not necessary for the Celestial Empire to intervene in this matter!"

"How dare you, a small country, be so rude!" Zhao Chengqing, the Duke of Jingguo, said angrily when he saw that this little envoy was obviously trying to exclude the Ming Dynasty from intervening.

Now the Wuxun Group is full of bloody men, and now they all look at each other angrily, and they look down at this little messenger by taking advantage of their height advantage.

In their consistent understanding, there are only two big countries in Myanmar today, Ava and Baigu, and small kingdoms like Toungoo are simply out of the ordinary.

Na Kong Ying, the envoy from Toungoo, felt the pressure around him, but the corner of his mouth raised slightly and said: "The envoy is just talking about the matter! The envoy does not think it is necessary at all to build a road connection!"

Although he is an envoy, he is also the current top counselor of Toungoo Kingdom.

The Ming Emperor suddenly wanted to build a direct road to Myanmar, which can be said to be "Sima Zhao's intention - everyone on the road knows it." Once this road is built, it is very likely that he will direct his troops towards Myanmar.

Although Myanmar does not need to be afraid of a small Ming Dynasty, you must know that the powerful Yuan Dynasty was also able to win, but in the end they were defeated.

But if the Ming Dynasty really comes in, it will affect the progress of their Toungoo country.

After so many years of development, both Ava and Baigu have fallen. Especially the king of Baigu, although he is an eminent monk, does not know how to govern a country and build an army.

They Toungoo have stabilized the two countries of Ava and Baigu through alliances and marriages. Next, they can only annex the surrounding small countries. Then Toungoo will become the third big country in Myanmar.

That's why, whether it was to prevent the Ming Dynasty from invading, or to prevent the Ming Dynasty from providing asylum to those small countries, as the Toungoo envoy, he had reason to stand up and stop it.

"If what I have recorded is correct, Burma is now operating independently! If Toungoo thinks this plan is inappropriate, wait until you Toungoo unifies Burma. Now you can only represent yourselves!" Zhang Sheng, the Minister of Rites, also stood up, But he pointed the finger directly at the envoy from Toungu.

After hearing the remarks of Zhang Sheng, the Minister of Rites, the other envoys nodded.

Although they felt that Ming Dynasty had built such a road out of good intentions. It's just that Toungoo is just a small country in Myanmar. If we really want to stop it, it will have to be with their consent, not because Toungoo represents their attitude.

Some envoys believed this deeply and echoed: "If you are unaware, you would really think that we are already a vassal state of Taungoo!"

Na Kongying, the envoy from Toungoo, gritted his teeth and realized that he was surrounded by a bunch of idiots. Could it be that he couldn't even be taught the truth that there is no free lunch in the world?

Zhu Youtang, however, did not hold out much hope. Instead, he turned his attention to the envoy from Ava and said, "Envoy from Ava, what do you say about Ava?"

Now directly bordering Yunnan is the Ava State. Once the Ava State agrees to the plan he proposed, the pressure on Ming Dynasty will be greatly reduced.

Once the road between Yunnan and Ava is completed, the Ming-Myanmar Highway will already run through less than half of Myanmar. This will be an excellent start.

"Your Majesty the Emperor of Ming Dynasty, this matter is of great importance. Please go back and report to us before we make a decision!" The envoy from the Ava Kingdom was a young old man who seemed very safe and authentic.

In fact, he was very moved by Ming's conditions, but he was just a messenger, so such a big matter naturally required his own king to decide.

Zhu Youtang knew that he would not be able to eat hot tofu, so he waved his hand: "Okay, I will give you all three months to respond! It's just that the ugly words are ahead. They are not our Ming Dynasty's barriers, but our Ming Dynasty's enemies."

The Ming Dynasty has its own will, and if these people want to be on good terms with the Ming Dynasty forever, they naturally need to show enough sincerity.

As for the Myanmar-Burma Highway that I just mentioned, even if all the kingdoms in Myanmar unite, they cannot stop their determination to build the road.

The civil and military officials in the palace had not seen Zhu Youtang show such a strong will for a long time, and they immediately cheered up and looked at the envoys with eager eyes. "Please keep this in mind!" Dongxu envoy Nakong Ying and others also bowed politely when facing such a powerful emperor.

The rest of the ceremony was just a simple reward process. After receiving the gifts that Ming had clearly earned, the Burmese envoys left happily.

As for whether to agree to the Ming Emperor's conditions, since there was still enough time to think, they did not need to dwell on the matter. What's more, the real decision-making power is actually not in their hands.

After the ceremony of summoning foreign envoys to Fengtian Palace was over, the dynasty was dismissed.

In fact, those who left were middle and lower-level officials from outside or unimportant officials in the palace, while officials who were qualified to participate in the Supreme Council had already left behind.

Now the Ming Dynasty is not limited to economic reforms, but has also begun to carry out political reforms.

After Liu Ji's incident, the status of the cabinet has actually declined, at least it no longer has the prestige to lead the six ministries. Today's cabinet is more like a secretariat.

On the contrary, the newly established Military Intelligence Pavilion has shown some prestige. Wang Yue is in charge. Now all the military intelligence in the country is gathered here.

The functions of the six ministries have lasted for thousands of years, but they were ultimately unable to meet the complexity of the current national situation, so the Ministry of Propaganda and the Ministry of Agriculture were added.

It is worth mentioning that Wu Xun's status has also been improved, and Zhao Chengqing, who is now promoted to Duke of Jingguo, is also included in the list of people participating in the Supreme Meeting.

But at this moment, no matter how powerful they were, they all looked up to the emperor on the dragon throne with respect.

Facing the confidants present, Zhu Youtang also took the initiative to raise the topic: "I have decided to develop the southwest and build a highway that can connect Yunnan and Myanmar. Do you think this strategy is feasible?"

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this road will consume a lot of money, right?" Liu Zhong, the new Minister of Agriculture, hesitated for a moment and asked very seriously.

In order to exploit the Luzon gold mines, the Ming Dynasty had to issue national bonds to raise funds. Now this road must be more difficult and the cost will be higher, so people have to worry about this cost.

In fact, with Hongzhi's current prestige, even if he wastes millions of taels, everyone can turn a blind eye. But given the size of the Ming-Myanmar Highway, this is obviously not a matter of one million taels.

Jia Jun, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, had already known about this, and he took out the engineering drawings very seriously: "After repeated calculations by our Ministry of Industry! If the Ming Dynasty builds the Burma Highway by our Ming Dynasty, it is estimated that at least five million taels will be invested!"

When I heard this number, I couldn't help but take a breath.

Although they had already guessed that it would not be cheap, they still couldn't help but swallow hard when they heard this astronomical figure.

You must know that the tax contribution of the entire province of Yunnan is at most several hundred thousand taels a year, and it also supports a garrison of 200,000 people.

Now we keep investing five million taels. The land in Myanmar is even more barren than Yunnan, but it will take until the Year of the Monkey to recover the investment cost?
Liu Xuan, the Minister of the Ministry of War, reached out and touched his nose, but looked tentatively at He Cong, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue next to him: "He Minister, this money..."

"If we really want to take it now, our Ministry of Revenue can actually take it!" He Cong, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, knew that Liu Xuan wanted him to stop it because he had no money, but he had his own principles.

After these years of economic reform, Ming Dynasty's finances have not only made savings, but the situation has also gotten better and better.

In addition, in order to allow Hongzhi's new coins to circulate smoothly in Jiangnan, the Ming Dynasty also issued two national bonds to Jiangnan on the grounds of road construction and other reasons.

Although investing five million taels all at once is indeed a strain, with the current financial situation of Ming Dynasty, it still needs to be done gritting one's teeth.

If the funds are indeed unable to be settled by then, the remaining balance can be settled through the issuance of treasury bonds.

Liu Zhong, the Minister of Agriculture, felt a slight movement in his heart and said very seriously: "I dare to ask Your Majesty, why are you investing so much in developing the southwest, but Taizu dreamed that there would be gold or silver mines in the southwest!"

Huh?
As soon as these words came out, many important ministers present looked at Zhu Youtang expectantly.

Although there is no news about Baozhong, the gold mines in Luzon have been confirmed, many silver mines in Japan have also been confirmed, and there are even echoes of the iron mines in the south of Nanyang.

Now the emperor is determined to build the Ming-Myanmar Highway. Once there are shining gold mines in the Ming-Myanmar area, it will be considered a cost-effective investment.

"There are neither gold mines nor silver mines in Myanmar!" Zhu Youtang saw the joy of the ministers present, but ruthlessly poured cold water on it.

In fact, anyone who knows the real situation in Myanmar understands that when it comes to minerals in Myanmar, jade ore still contains a certain economic value.

It's just that the current social atmosphere values ​​nephrite as valuable, and regardless of whether the value of jadeite can be publicized, this is not Zhu Youtang's goal.

Spending five million taels not to research aircraft and cannons, but to look for jade that cannot promote social development. This kind of thinking is not their style, nor is it what a mature emperor thinks.

This……

After receiving the denial, the important ministers present couldn't help but look at each other.

The emperor, who has always been wise and wise, why did he want to spend five million taels to build a road when facing a place full of poisonous insects?

Wang Yue saw the reactions of others in his eyes, but he suddenly stood up and said loudly: "Please forgive me for being stupid! I don't know what your majesty intends to do. Please give me instructions!"

Huh?
As soon as these words came out, Minister of War Liu Xuan and other important ministers reacted and looked at Emperor Hongzhi one after another.

Rather than guessing and testing here, it would be better to admit that you are stupid and listen to the true thoughts of this talented and strategic emperor on building roads.

It is true that Jianzhou was a place outside the Great Wall back then, but after so many years of development, it has now become the northern granary of the Ming Dynasty. Not only did it solve the food demand in the north, but it also eased the transportation pressure on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, thus greatly reducing financial expenses.

Liu Jin was already prepared. After receiving Zhu Youtang's look, he took two young eunuchs to show the map to the important ministers in the palace: "Ministers, please take a look at this map!"

At first glance, this is a map of the South China Sea, but the center position is the Indochina Peninsula.

"From the east of Nanyang, through the Strait of Malacca, to the west of Malacca is the Western Ocean. Entering the Western Ocean and going up along the east coastline is Siam. Further up, do you know where it is?" Liu Jin turned into a commentator and pointed to that place. A sea chart is explained.

(End of this chapter)