I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 629 Torgut Tribe

cabinet.

The five cabinet ministers looked at each other with big eyes and small eyes, but none of them said a word.

At the beginning of summer this year, an urgent memorial was sent from Fujian Province, saying that Lu Ge, who had been retired at home for more than two years, died of old illness.

Since Lu Youlong resigned from office and returned home two years ago, he has been ill for many years and has been bedridden for more than half of the year.

After struggling for a year or two, I survived last winter, but died of illness at the beginning of spring and summer this year, the warmest time.

In ancient times, many high-ranking officials and dignitaries, including emperors, suddenly stepped down from their original positions. Although life should have been easier, their health began to deteriorate, and they became ill and bedridden, often dying of illness within a few years.

Even Gan Xiaosi, who was killed a few years ago, and who abdicated as the regent in history, only lived for three years, from being in good health to suddenly dying of illness.

Lu Youlong died of illness in his hometown in Fujian. Zhu Yijiong followed the usual practice and ordered him to be given an additional honorary title, an imperial inscription, and all the treatment he deserved.

As for the posthumous title, it was drafted by the Ministry of Rites, reviewed by the emperor, and finally decided as "Wen Xiang".

In this way, it can be regarded as a final conclusion.

To the scholars of the world, this means that the emperor can still respect them as scholars.

Lu Youlong's death seems to have sent a signal.

The first assistant, Wang Li, presented to the court, stating that he was old and frail, and asked for permission to resign and return home to take care of himself. The second assistant, Liang Wenxuan, was more decisive and suddenly fell ill.

The cabinet sent two important cabinet ministers, the first assistant and the second assistant, at once.

However, Liang Wenxuan really fell ill. He was the oldest in the cabinet, and his health has not been very good over the years.

This time, I just took advantage of the opportunity and prepared to retreat bravely to make room for the emperor and the young people.

Wang Li and Liang Wenxuan were very open-minded. They were the rubber stamps in the cabinet. Their biggest role was to unconditionally support the emperor and to balance the relationship between the emperor and the civil and military officials so as not to cause too much tension between the two. .

Nowadays, the cabinet of the new Ming Dynasty has been customized. The original number of cabinet ministers has increased from six to seven (one resigned). Although the two newly promoted people are young, their qualifications are very old. They both belong to the level of Conglong Yuanlao. Prestige is completely sufficient.

Their role became smaller and smaller. Wang Li originally planned to wait for the emperor to stop fighting and then retire immediately.

However, judging from the past few years, it is unlikely that the emperor will stop the war for ten or twenty years. Even if he recovers the Mobei grassland in the next few years, pacifies Junggar in the Western Region, there is still the vast Lingbei frozen soil, coupled with the vastness of the Southern Ocean Overseas lands such as vassal states, Japan, and Yinzhou.

The first and second assistants reported illness and returned home, and began to prepare a memorial for the resignation process.

According to the cabinet order, it is Zhu Chengxun's turn to make the decision.

Zhu Chengxun had just turned forty this year and had only a short beard. At this moment, he saw the other four people's eyes turning to him. He then cleared his throat and said: "The two elders, Wang Gong and Liang Gong, said they were sick and went home to recuperate. Not Talent, if there is anything I do inappropriately in the future, please feel free to enlighten me."

"Where." Everyone held their hands.

Zhu Chengxun glanced at it again and calmed down a little.

The current cabinet has changed from the original seven to a five-member cabinet, but its weight has not decreased at all.

Including himself, among the remaining four cabinet ministers, Wu Sidao and Wang Yuan were promoted to the cabinet by the emperor, which in itself represented the holy family and trust.

There are two other people, the "newcomers" Chen Ji and Lin Jingyu, who have only been in the cabinet for a year.

Different from others who were arranged by the emperor or directly promoted to the cabinet, these two people followed a completely formal process. They first served as ministers of the six departments and endured several years of "qualifications" before joining the two important departments of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Households. The ministry was promoted to the cabinet.

Although it is still the emperor's decree, according to the usual practice, it does meet the standards for cabinet membership. And if there is no new decree in the future, the standards for cabinet membership in the future will definitely continue to follow this example.

Fortunately, Zhu Chengxun was both a Conglong veteran in the cabinet and a close minister of the emperor. He had previously been in charge of the Privy Council, an important military and political department of the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, he would really be unable to control the current cabinet.

Of course, if Zhu Yijiong completely delegates power to the cabinet and returns it to the pre-Ming Dynasty, it is hard to say whether Zhu Chengxun can still suppress it.

Zhu Chengxun thought for a moment and said: "Last year, the fiscal surplus of the imperial treasury was only 300 million taels of silver, and prices in many places along the coast fluctuated. This year, in order to control prices in coastal areas, the imperial court will set up a mint in the opening port city, and Gradually promote silver yuan, exchange the original silver coins and recover the original silver ingots, and stabilize prices."

Chen Ji then said: "Introducing silver coins along the coast and setting up mints will increase the amount of silver in the hands of the court, but in fact there will not be much improvement in the short term. On the contrary, we need to be careful and careful , we must not let the court have too much money, otherwise if problems arise, it will directly affect local finances and people's livelihood."

Lin Jingyu sighed: "There is still too much silver in Japan and Yinzhou, and merchants are chasing profits without considering the consequences of too much silver on the court and the country."

Wang Yuan said: "It is inevitable that the imperial court will open sea trade. As the number of sea trade merchants increases, even if they intend to control it, there will be more and more silver. Unless the benefits of sea trade are given up, but if so, the national treasury will The finances will be greatly affected, and even the people will be dissatisfied."

Wu Sidao stroked his beard and nodded: "Although the treasury surplus was not much last year, only 300 million taels, the proportion of commercial taxes and customs in the treasury increased again. And even the agricultural taxes and land taxes, part of it was spent on this agricultural product market. The so-called emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business is to support the people, and now business can also make the people rich and powerful, so why not do it?"

Emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce is the foundation of the feudal dynasty. This is mainly due to the lack of productivity and secondly to rule.

To Zhu Yijiong's encouragement to open ports along the coast and engage in large-scale maritime trade with foreign vassal countries, there are still courtiers who are opposed to Zhu Yijiong's encouragement, and even admonished him for his national policy of "emphasis on agriculture and suppression of commerce".

But basically all of them were rejected by the cabinet. These ministers were not fools. They could not see the benefits of sea trade.

If it were not for the huge profits flowing in every year from maritime trade, the Ming Dynasty's expansion speed and frequency of wars would have collapsed long ago.

Zhu Chengxun said: "Sea trade is a national policy decreed by His Majesty, and it cannot be abandoned easily. As for the national treasury of silver, there was not much surplus last year, and I am afraid it will be difficult to have much money left in the next few years. Although Your Majesty said it was to control the flow of silver along the coast, It was a large amount of money to stabilize price fluctuations, but it also set a strategy to conquer Mobei and the Western Regions. This is another large amount of military expenditure, and last year’s expedition to Burma and the post-war resettlement money expenditure were also not small."

Chen Ji got out of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and now he can see things more clearly: "Wars will always have to be fought. If money is saved and never used, it will only sour and eat ashes in the treasury. Moreover, if the fight is over early, it can be managed as soon as possible, which will save money in the future." The amount of money can also be less. Once Mobei and the Western Regions are completely recovered, we can take our time later."

After saying this, everyone felt a little helpless.

Not to mention how much money it will cost to conquer Mobei and the Western Regions, even if these two pieces of land are conquered, the amount of money spent to manage the immigration after the war is definitely not a small amount.

Moreover, after conquering Mobei and the Western Regions, there will still be the vast Lingbei Prefecture, north of Tianzhu, Yinzhou Colony, Japan, and the Nanyang Island Chain, which must all be conquered. The only thing to be thankful for is that they are still young and can still stay with the emperor.

Wang Li and Liang Wenxuan, who had already claimed to be ill, obviously felt that they were afraid that they would not be able to survive the emperor, so they planned to retreat and pave the way for future generations.

Lin Jingyu said: "After all, Your Majesty is a wise king and a holy master who is rarely seen in the ages. He opened up territories and territories, sealed wolves as his vassals, and all nations came to court. This is the prosperous age that the ancient holy kings should have. If I and my ministers can accompany you, It should also leave a strong mark in history."

Qing Shi left his name, which official wouldn't want to do this?

Although they were often worried about the emperor's love for war, at least these civil servants were very happy every time they won a foreign war and expanded their territory.

Just after you are happy, and then think about the money that will be spent on the follow-up treatment, you will immediately feel a pain in your head.

Pain and happiness, nothing more than that!
"By the way." Wang Yuan suddenly remembered something, "Speaking of the expedition to the Western Regions, the governor's office in Xi'an and the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu jointly signed a memorial, saying that a group of envoys from foreign vassals came from Hamiwei for pilgrimage. "

This Hami Guard was established at the beginning of last year. Following the example of the Hami Guard of the previous Ming Dynasty, a guard commander was directly appointed. The commander was also the leader of the local Mongolian tribe in Hami.

The impact of the split of the Junggar Khanate was more serious than imagined. Not only did Yarkand return to the country, Zhasak Tuhan and King Tangnu Ulianghai in Mobei separated and established themselves, and now even the Hui people of Hami (not The real Hui people) also rebelled.

In fact, Junggar's excessive control and exploitation of Hami, and its constant war with the Heshuote Mongols in Qinghai, made the local Hui and Han people intolerable.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Junggars were busy fighting the war with the Yarkands and had too much time to take care of themselves, the leader of the Hami Hui people actually defected and became independent, and quickly sent an envoy to Jiayuguan to request the Ming Dynasty to grant him a title.

Naturally, the Ming court would not refuse such a request for canonization, and directly followed the practice of the previous Ming Dynasty and conferred the title of Hami Guard Commander.

The entire Hami region was still under the rule of Jisu, and the imperial court did not set up floating officials here. It only expanded the general city from Jiayuguan to the outside, and ordered the Hami guards to release the Han slaves in all areas under their jurisdiction, but not the Mongolian and other ethnic slaves.

Of course, there is a high probability that the leader of the Hami Guard will not listen, and even if he listens, it is impossible to let them all go. Not only is it his own little thoughts, but he also can't control so many tribes under his command.

This is the reason for sending troops in the future. The imperial court asked you to free the slaves, but how dare you disobey the order?
Lin Jingyu was a little confused: "Could it be that the foreign envoys from the Hami Guard are from Junggar and Yarkant? Are they not going to fight?"

Wang Yuan shook his head: "It's not Junggar and Yarkand. It is said that there is a Mongol Khanate called Torgut further west in the Western Region."

When they heard the name Turgut, everyone here was confused. Where did this Mongolian come from?
However, Zhu Chengxun reacted quickly and quickly remembered to look for the latest world map sent from the Privy Council.

Following the map and looking all the way west, it didn't take long to find it further west of Junggar, west of the Kazakh Khanate, and east of the Ottoman Empire. There was the Torgut Khanate just in the middle.

The information about Turgut in this map comes from the Tulishen envoy sent by Emperor Kangxi more than 20 years ago, which crossed Siberia and took two years to reach the lower reaches of the Volga River, where they found the west coast a hundred years ago. The Turgut tribe moved here.

The Torgut tribe on the world map is somewhat different from the real Torgut, both in terms of territory and specific location, but it still surprised the rest of the cabinet.

Lin Jingyu sighed: "Torghut is so far away from our Ming Dynasty and China, and there are several countries in between, but we can still know about our Ming Dynasty and send envoys to perform Hajj. The majesty of the Ming Dynasty has already frightened us. It’s unique all over the world.”

Wang Yuan added: "Not only that, the other envoy also produced a Han seal jade seal granted by Emperor Taizong of the former Ming Dynasty."

"what?"

At this time, not only Lin Jingyu was surprised, but the others were all in disbelief.

The so-called Yongle gifted the Han seal jade seal is indeed the real Han seal jade seal.

In another time and space, although the seals were presented at different times, and there are different opinions on this, whether it is Professor Mao Peiqi's statement that "a Han seal jade seal was made in the eighth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty before Izu received it", or "Manchu Tu'er" According to "Compilation of Hute Archives": "There are two lines of words engraved on the side of the seal: On March 3, the 22nd year of Yongle, the Lama was given a secret room."

Although there are differences between the two, they only differ in the year and content. It is actually confirmed that Turgut did have the Chinese seal of Yongle of the Ming Dynasty in his hand.

As the most honorable Qian Xiaosi, he would definitely not lie to Emperor Yongle on this matter when he was full.

Wu Sidao's mind turned quickly and he nodded immediately and said: "No wonder even the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu and the governor's office in Xi'an were alarmed. There is the Han seal jade seal of Mao Peiqi bestowed by Emperor Taizong of the former Ming Dynasty. This Turgut is indeed our Ming Dynasty China." Territorial.”

The other cabinet ministers quickly understood the meaning and nodded again and again.

No matter what the purpose of Turgut's pilgrimage was for traveling thousands of miles and bringing the jade seal of canonization from hundreds of years ago, he could only come to request the Chinese emperor for canonization.

With Torgut's righteous status in hand, China will be able to more easily expand its power into Central Asia in the future.

Zhu Yijiong's "brainwashing" of the cabinet was very successful. Although everyone said they were worried about the emperor's bellicosity, when it came to external expansion, everyone's minds were racing and full of "bad ideas."

Zhu Chengxun said: "You can write to the governors of Shaanxi and Gansu, asking them to properly receive and entertain the Turghut envoys, and then submit the matter of the Torghut envoys' pilgrimage to Ming China to His Majesty for approval."

At this moment, the Torgut envoy who was thousands of miles away did not know that they had been clearly plotted by the Ming Dynasty's cabinet.

But it doesn’t matter if you know, because these people are here to hug you.

Historically, these Turgut people were so miserable. First, they fled the war a hundred years ago and moved west to the Volga River to avoid trouble.

But then, Tsarist Russia came, and for a hundred years they exploited the Turghut people crazily. In the later period of Emperor Ye, they even forced the Turghuts to fight for Tsarist Russia, and they had to drain the Turghut people. The last drop of blood.

As early as decades ago, there was already a group of Torgut people who tried their best to escape back to China. After being taken in by Kangxi, they learned that there was a Mongolian tribe in Central Asia.

Then Kangxi sent envoys to investigate where Turgut was and what the situation was.

Nowadays, the great khan of the Torgut tribe is named Dundok Omuba. This guy has just defeated his uncle and succeeded to the throne not long ago.

As for the current situation in China, he already knew from Russian businessmen that in China it was no longer the Manchu emperor who reigned supreme, but the Ming emperor who had enthroned his ancestors hundreds of years ago had been restored.

　It’s so tiring to go to work!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)