Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 547

The time has entered the 27th year of the Ming Dynasty.

Calculated by the Western calendar, that is, AD [-].

In the original history, the Ming Dynasty had perished for three years, and the Hongguang Dynasty in the Nanming Dynasty had also collapsed.

But in this time and space, not only did the Ming Dynasty not perish, but it had jumped out of the shackles of being dragged down by civil servants and gentry.

In terms of military affairs, at this time, the Ming Dynasty no longer has the guard system, and the military registration and craftsman registration system has also been abolished, and since the 21st year of the apocalypse, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty promulgated the compulsory military system.

Any adult man of the Ming Dynasty is obliged to serve in the Ming army for more than three years. Of course, because of the large population of the Ming Dynasty, it is not strictly required that everyone must perform military service in peacetime.

That is to say, on the surface, it is almost equivalent to the recruitment system, that is, to obey individual volunteers to serve in the military.

However, unlike the traditional recruitment system, once you join the army, you are not always a soldier. Grassroots officers and soldiers have a number of years of service, which can effectively ensure that there will be no phenomenon of self-respect or becoming an officer tenant farmer.

And because once they serve in the military, they will leave production and conduct full-time military training, so it can ensure that they will always have combat effectiveness.

Constantly recruiting new recruits into the military system, and continuously retiring veterans, can keep the number of the standing army at a constant value, so that there will be no financial difficulties due to the increasing number of troops and the need to implement the guard system. Raising soldiers in the fields will only turn soldiers into farmers who can cultivate the land.

At the same time, although the number of the standing army is a constant value, basically the officers and soldiers who have served can still maintain basic combat effectiveness after being discharged from the army, at least they can operate basic military operations such as guns and grenades.

In this way, the potential military power of Ming Dynasty will become a power that cannot be underestimated, which can be described as the whole people are soldiers.

Because in the event of a large-scale war, these people can go back to the battlefield after short-term training.

To use an analogy, that is to say, Ming can turn a 100 million regular army into 1000 million in a short period of time.

In short, under the new combat method and new military system, Ming's military strength is no longer comparable to any country in the world.

According to the calculations of the Ministry of War, the Ming Dynasty can support local wars with more than 50 troops for three years, and after the roads and railways are fully rolled out, the Ming Dynasty can deploy a total force of more than 100 million troops outside the customs within a month.

That is to say, Ming Dynasty can continue to expand the occupied area.

Of course, in order to make the most effective use of fiscal revenue, it is naturally unnecessary to maintain a large number of conventional troops in today's peace period.

Therefore, the standing army listed in the Ming Dynasty is only about 60 people, and there are only more than [-] non-frontline combatants in the military system, such as military academies, field hospitals, and cultural troupes of the Propaganda Department.

In this way, Ming can invest a large amount of funds in the research and development of military weapons and the training of military personnel.

However, during peacetime, not only the number of conventional troops was in a state of shrinkage, but also a large number of military enterprises under the Ordnance Division began to convert to civilian enterprises, and began to focus on transferring productivity to the production of civilian machines or locomotives.

Even in order to pursue profits, turn losses into profits, and turn directly into pure locomotive factories or shipbuilding factories before there are large orders.

But once a large-scale military war breaks out, all kinds of civilian machine factories will spring up like mushrooms after rain, and as long as Zhu Youxiao orders, they will turn into chariot manufacturers and gun manufacturers in a blink of an eye.

Even as long as the imperial court allows, workers can directly manufacture chariots in civilian machine factories and then drive them out to defend against the enemy.

What fights is national power, and Daming's national power is not weak, and now it can directly turn all the strongest national power into military power, that is to say, there is no country in the world that dares to challenge Daming.

Of course, Daming not only enriched his fangs, but also extended his claws and laid his own blood transfusion official road (traffic artery).

In terms of colonial plunder and traffic control line construction, except for the farthest colonies that have reached Hongkong Island in Europa (Da Ming has renamed Wight Island as Hongkong Island), in the Suez River Basin in Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, the east side of the Indian Peninsula, Colonies were established in places such as Java, Luzon, and Hawaii in the Southeast Asia.

According to the statistics of the newly established Colonial Department of the Ministry of War, the Ming Dynasty now has [-] non-Ming native colonies, the largest of which is about as large as the Chief Secretary of Zhejiang, and the smallest is less than the size of a Shanghai county, and this number is still growing.

Because His Majesty the Ming Emperor stipulated that the merits of the navy should be evaluated by the number of colonies occupied and the value of plundered wealth, and companies mainly engaged in overseas trade, such as Meisheng Company, can also use the number of colonies occupied to mortgage tax ratios, and even the Ming Dynasty The imperial court will also give it the qualification to share dividends in the output value of the colonies.

In this way, the enthusiasm of the navy, military and private businessmen to expand overseas colonies has been greatly promoted, and because the wealth value of colonial plunder is also an important assessment index and is also linked to one's own income, so you can't just find a piece of land to colonize, you have to consider various values.

The construction of roads and railways is not only the domestic progress mentioned in the previous chapter. In Monan and Mobei, as well as in Siberia, more control lines are being built to pass through the big cities in the customs. Overseas colonies such as Java Island and Fusang are also Paving the bridge.

However, the construction of roads and bridges in China is basically done by hired Ming people as laborers. Because of the high welfare benefits and legal protection of the imperial court, the people of Ming Dynasty naturally cannot be treated like slaves. From the 24th year of the Apocalypse, His Majesty the Emperor of Ming Dynasty promulgated the Civil Law From now on, it is determined that as long as they are natives of the Ming Dynasty, they will enjoy all the rights and obligations of Ming citizens. No matter whether they are officials, scholars, merchants or civilians, and no matter what occupation they are engaged in, or what their political status is, their life and property will be guaranteed. The protection of His Majesty the Ming Emperor (not the law).

That is to say, these people have engaged in different occupations and lived different lives because of their different personal interests and abilities, but they are all the subjects of His Majesty the Ming Emperor. Except for the father, His Majesty the Ming Emperor, who has the right to kill them, no one else have this right.

Therefore, these citizens of Ming Dynasty must enjoy eight-hour working conditions. If they want to work longer hours, they must pay double the remuneration according to the corresponding regulations. If they are injured due to work, they must also be compensated. When employing these people, they must also provide matching benefits for themselves and their families. .

And the Ming government will also give them a lot of welfare subsidies, coupled with the improvement of the quality of life in the country, the citizens of Ming Dynasty naturally have high requirements for wages and various welfare benefits, which makes the construction cost in the country very high.

But in the colonial areas, all the people employed are natives or various non-Ming people plundered from other areas (trafficking Ming citizens is a crime, no one dares to do this), so there is no need to care about treatment or treatment, just treat them as animals use.

In this way, the cost of colonial construction and resource plundering is much lower and faster than domestic construction. Basically, those who go abroad make money, while in China, except for the royal capital that is doing loss-making business in order to ensure that the core productivity is controlled in the country, Few people are willing to open a production base in the country.

However, in recent years, even major domestic companies have begun to use colonial slaves to complete the hardest grassroots work, after all, this can make the cost very low.

In this way, the human trafficking trade to foreigners was also promoted. Many Ming enterprises that used to only trade in opium are now also engaged in human trade.

For example, the Yang Company of the Yang Sichang family established a white human trafficking base on Hong Kong Island (the Isle of Wight, the Ming colony in the United Kingdom) relying on the relationship of Yang Sichang, an insider of the family.

And these white people who were sold to Ming Dynasty to work as coolies will be called "white pigs!" by Daming people habitually.

Many "white pigs" collected from various countries in Europe will basically be gathered here, and then numbered and sent to uniforms to be shipped to Daming and its colonies to work.

However, these non-citizens of Ming Dynasty cannot enjoy educational support in Ming Dynasty, so important positions must be citizens of Ming Dynasty, so there is no big impact on the employment of citizens of their own country.

Because of the increasingly generous welfare benefits and wealth subsidies from the imperial court, as well as the easy high income and low-cost living without worrying about food and clothing, many people in their country have chosen to retire early and are unwilling to be producers, and many have directly become parasites. , sit back and enjoy the success.

It can be summed up in this way, the current Daming is the most tired of the power center of the imperial helm and the bottom of the foreign slaves, but the middle-level people are the most carefree.

But ordinary citizens of Daming who have become the exploiting class cursed the officials who drank the blood of their taxpayers, and at the same time hated these foreign slaves who drank the blood of their taxpayers.

Many shops opened by local citizens of the Ming Dynasty will write "white pigs and dogs are not allowed."

However, many foreigners who came to Daming to do business or study Han culture were not angry because their own kind suffered such humiliation. As rulers in the country, they hated these people in Daming just like the citizens of Daming. Even the citizens of Ming Dynasty were a little crueler.

After all, the citizens of this country are people who have been deeply cultivated by China's 5000-year civilization. They have no instinct for brutality and killing. These people are happy.

However, no matter whether they are white pigs or white people, foreigners of all walks of life look forward to Daming, and those who praise Daming hope that they can become Han people of Ming, because in their opinion, only those who have become Ming Mark yourself as a civilized person, a quality person, and an elegant person.

The clothes of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty can become the fashion trend among some nobles in Europe, and the phenomenon of learning Chinese as a shame and learning their own English is becoming more and more serious in Britain.

There are even a lot of people from foreign countries, especially people from Europe, who don't hesitate to spend a lot of money and give up their lofty political status in their own country, and want to become ordinary people in Ming Dynasty.

But Daming is very strict with immigration cards. Unless you are a genius like Galileo who can immigrate with skills, ordinary Europeans who want to immigrate must either have a high political status or be able to invest millions of silver dollars in Daming at one time.

But this does not prevent them from becoming the common people of Ming Dynasty. In the next few decades, many aristocratic ladies of Europa will actively want to marry ordinary men of Ming Dynasty, and are even willing to be concubines, or more often they will dye their hair black, wear The purpose of wearing Hanfu is to become a member of the Ming Dynasty, at least like a member of the Ming Dynasty.

After the Ming Dynasty’s Opium War against Britain, it began to change its attitude towards Britain, and then supported the Stuart Dynasty to suppress its domestic bourgeoisie. The relationship with Britain gradually eased, and they were dissatisfied with the Stuart Dynasty or eager to The middle class who wanted to gain more political voice also expressed their eagerness to associate with the Ming Dynasty, yearn for the care of the merchants, and yearn for the common people to receive a fair education and pass a fair selection examination to enter the court and take charge of the government.

As a result, many British bourgeoisie did not realize that their suppression was the result of the suppression of the Ming Dynasty they yearned for, and instead worshiped the Ming Dynasty more and more.

And Daming naturally accepted the friendship of these people very calmly. While selling weapons to the Stuart dynasty to support it in suppressing domestic rebellions, while secretly instigating these British farmers, handicraftsmen and low-level businessmen not to be content with the status quo, in short, let the British It's best to be in chaos all the time, no one has time to care about political reform.

What's more, Daming sent some cultural figures from time to time to promote the profound Chinese culture of Ming Dynasty, as well as theories of cherishing peace, respecting ethics, and advocating civilian politics, which made foreigners feel that Ming Dynasty is like an ideal country.

However, what they don't know is that Da Ming is now desperately using their blind worship to earn their money and divide their country.

In terms of economy, Daming's treasury income has indeed shown a geometric increase. In the Southern Song Dynasty, it was able to occupy most of the world's income by relying on the development of commerce and trade. Now, after more than ten years of comprehensive overseas trade, Daming's income is naturally not high. will be less.

Zhu Youxiao didn't know how much money he had now. Anyway, the investment plans of various departments in Ming Dynasty had been written to the 50th year of the apocalypse, and even directly stated that all taxes on farmers would be abolished and free compulsory education would be extended for nine years.

And all of this has not yet consumed the financial balance of Daming. Of course, Ming can't follow the example of the Southern Song Dynasty and lose some of this wealth every year. Now it can only be used for military expansion.

Coincidentally, Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang are the two military chiefs in power in the current cabinet. Naturally, they hope that Ming Dynasty will continue to expand its territory, so that they, members of the military system, can get more benefits.

Li Mingrui is now over sixty years old and tired of officialdom, and Cheng Jiming is the same, and as the reformers and hawks are making more and more profits overseas, many traditional squires in Cheng Jiming's conservative faction have long been envious And eager to join the commodity activities.

Therefore, the two factions did not oppose the political purpose of the newly emerging hawks to expand their territory, not to mention that both force expansion and peaceful expansion are equally beneficial to them.

Therefore, a memorial to rebirth and the establishment of the Chief Secretary of Cochin was placed in Zhu Youxiao's copy.

(End of this chapter)