The characteristics of the Central Plains nation doom it to not be a nation that expands arbitrarily.
This dynasty is no exception. After the territory has stabilized, the national policy has changed from offense to defense. There is no longer the enterprising vigor at the beginning of the founding of the country. Instead, it is replaced by a mature and stable defending king. It became more and more obvious that even frontier generals had to be jinshi to be more convincing.
The Shaoxing Rebellion caused a lot of shock, but the follow-up discussions on countermeasures were not smooth. The mainstream voices in the DPRK and China all believed that the trade of merging and cooperating was unnecessary. It would not bring much profit to the court, and would also To attract Japanese pirates to invade and harass, it would be better to directly stop the trade and completely close the communication channel between the Celestial Dynasty and the outside world.
However, although such voices account for the majority, they are not without objections.
One of them is the main battle faction headed by Tang Fan and others.
Tang Fan believes that although Dangtangtian and Chaochao are not warlike, they should not be timid. You must know that there is no room for others to snore and sleep on the side of the couch. To put it bluntly, now everyone is bullying the door, there is no reason to be a tortoise.
In addition, there are vassal states such as Annan, vassal Korea, etc. around Daming. If there is a problem, they will retreat. How will these vassal states view Daming? Where is Daming Guowei
Tai and Zu recovered the rivers and mountains of the Han family, the emperor of Yongle moved the capital to Beijing, and the emperor guarded the gate of the country. How long has it been since the Ming Dynasty swept thousands of troops and drove Mengyuan back to the grassland
Closing the gates of the country now, of course, can be a temporary comfort, but if the disaster of Japanese pirates is severe in the future, will it be impossible to hide forever? Even if you don't care about the present, should you think about the future generations? You must know that during the Song Dynasty, maritime trade spread all over the country and brought huge profits to the Song Dynasty government. Why is my Ming Dynasty far superior to the Song Dynasty in force, but my ambition is far less than that? Could it be that the more than 100 years of Mengyuan's rule have weakened the courage of my Chinese people
Although these remarks are impassioned, there are not a few people who oppose it.
Many people are accustomed to living a comfortable life, and they feel that more things are worse than less things. They scoff at Tang Fan's so-called boldness, and think that the celestial dynasty is rich in products. profit
What's more, the cost of shipbuilding is huge. The seven voyages of the eunuch Sanbao in the past are enough to prove everything: not only did these seven voyages bring no benefit to Daming, but they lost a lot of money. Some people even think that the reason why the national treasury has been shrinking after Yongle , has a lot to do with the emperor's insistence on going to the West.
Also, if you spend manpower and material resources to fight the Japanese pirates, you won't be so embarrassed if you win. If you lose, it will be a big shame. As the emperor stipulated: Slabs are not allowed to go into the sea, this is the safest policy, and it is always right for the ancestors to form the law.
Some people are even afraid to speculate with the greatest malice, thinking that Tang Fan's main battle has a lot to do with the fact that he is currently in charge of the Ministry of War, because when a war is fought, the Ministry of War can profit from it and get more funds, not to mention his status. This is greatly improved.
Tang Fan refuted these views one by one.
First of all, you must pay for a war. If you don’t pay, there will be no reward. You can’t just think about the pie falling from the sky. Although a country is big, it will perish if it is warlike, but although the world is safe, if you forget to fight, you will be in danger.
Daming is not taking the initiative to fight a ruthless battle. On the contrary, someone else came to the door, kidnapped my people, and robbed my money. If he stopped fighting back in self-defense, he would only be regarded as a soft persimmon and can be bullied. Things will still happen frequently. Once the gate of the country is closed, everyone thinks that they will be at ease and forget about the crisis. Over time, they will inevitably forget how to fight, and they will still be bullied. Besides, this time, many people will be kidnapped by Japanese pirates. Go to sea, don't those people just ignore it
Secondly, instead of being completely closed, the trade of kanning and co-operation should be more open. In view of the huge profits brought by the maritime trade of the former Song Dynasty, the more powerful Ming Dynasty is fully capable of doing this.
Although the Emperor Tai and Zu had a rule that plates were not allowed to go into the sea, it was only for civilian ships. You must know that after that, the eunuchs of the Three Treasures also went to the West seven times, and the official trade did not stop. There is, strictly speaking, no absolute prohibition.
And even if the government bans private trade now, there are still many private ships going to sea without permission to make profits. It is precisely because of the sea ban that the government does not get a cent of these private profits, which is a huge loss. Instead of letting these illegal private trade continue to continue, it is better for the government to organize, rationalize it, and let it pay taxes. This is the long-term way to kill two birds with one stone.
Tang Fan is not fighting alone.
There are many people who oppose him, and there are also many people who support him.
These people include Yang Yiqing, Shaoqing of Taichang Temple in Nanjing, Li Dongyang, Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, Xie Qian, a lecturer and a scholar.
If Xie Qian is purely a friendship and support of friends, then Yang Yiqing, Li Dongyang and others are based on practical strategic significance.
Their views are generally the same as those of Tang Fan. They believe that defense is not as good as offense. Although the cost of building ships and forming navies is huge, the profits in the later period can be fully recovered. There is no need to worry that the national treasury cannot allocate money and grain every year, and the emperor does not have to worry about the lack of money in the inner treasury.
Although these people have little official positions and do not even have a cabinet minister, but without exception, they are all young and strong officials who are trusted by today's children. After that, the center of the Great Ming Dynasty will be dominated by them.
The dispute between the two parties was extremely fierce. It lasted from the third year of Hongzhi to the fourth year of Hongzhi. From the beginning, whether to send troops to suppress the bandits, whether to stop the exploration and cooperation trade, and then to discuss how to send troops, how to fight, and how much to open the sea ban. , it can be regarded as gradually opening up a little situation.
Until the end of the fourth year of Hongzhi, the Japanese pirates, who had tasted the sweetness, saw that the Ming court was silent, and swept in again, landing on the shore and looting, prompting the emperor to finally make a decision: to order Admiral Wang Zhi to go to Ningbo to form a naval division.
In general, Emperor Hongzhi was a relatively cautious and conservative person, and his childhood experience prompted him not to make decisions easily, especially important ones.
If the people around him are as conservative and cautious as him, then this court is a cautious court, which can perfectly accomplish the task of defense, but cannot be as aggressive as it was at the beginning of the country.
This is also normal, because any dynasty develops to a certain stage, if there are no external factors, it will only continue to be conservative until its demise.
But history takes a turn here.
Tang Fan and the others naturally didn't know that in the third year of Hongzhi, more than ten thousand miles away from Daming, a Portuguese navigator named Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.
And a continent called Europa, where the Mongolian cavalry led by Genghis Khan once visited, is sweeping the entire continent by a wave called "Renaissance" by later generations.
A small country across the sea from that continent was preparing for the coming Reformation.
Daming knew nothing of these things.
Even Tang Fan didn't know what kind of changes he was fighting for would bring about the empire.
Wang Zhi finally waited for the day he dreamed of.
After returning from Datong, he once thought his political career was over.
For the eunuch, his achievements may be brilliant, but Wang Zhi is not satisfied. He naturally likes the feeling of commanding thousands of troops and horses to gallop on the battlefield, and God seems to have given him such a talent. The garrison and the military victory over the Tartars are enough to explain all this.
But this kind of good life did not last long. The court at that time accepted it as soon as it was good, and was unwilling to completely annihilate the Tartars. In order to prevent others from saying that they were arrogant and domineering, no one would take credit for them. After some persuasion to himself, Wang Zhi had to follow the teacher back to the court, and never returned to the front line since then.
Tang Fan had persuaded him to look farther and not just stare at the grassland. Daming also has a vast sea and the equally unsettled southwest.
When he said these words, perhaps even Tang Fan himself did not expect that these words, which were purely for comfort, would become a reality in the future.
The person Wang Zhi admired most in his life was the eunuch Three Treasures.
Now that he can do things like the three treasures eunuchs, how can he not be excited
And for the court, he is indeed a good candidate.
There are still many opposition voices in the DPRK. Although the emperor reached this conclusion, although it has the support of Tang Fan and others, he also encountered a lot of opposition, including the cabinet's chief assistant Liu Jian, etc., but the opposition is loud or small. , Under the operation and efforts of Tang Fan, the opposition of the cabinet was not very firm. The court finally agreed to form a naval division to fight a small-scale campaign against Japanese pirates, provided that the funds were strictly limited and the budget could not be exceeded.
In this case, whether it is to send civil officials or military generals, it is easy to be impeached.
But Wang Zhi had no such concerns.
First of all, he is an eunuch, and his original weakness has become an advantage here. There is a precedent for eunuchs in the state to lead soldiers.
Secondly, Wang Zhi also has military exploits, and no one can ignore his achievements at the same time.
When today's son was still the prince, Wang Zhi had already secretly voted for him, and made a lot of efforts for the prince's ascension to the throne, and now it's finally time to reap the fruits. For a person like Emperor Hongzhi, when others treat him one point, he will only double his goodness to others, so when Wang Zhi took the initiative to ask Ying, the emperor agreed without hesitation, and even set aside some extra from the inner treasury. Money, to show their support for the attitude and position.
Wang Zhi is indeed the most suitable candidate.
He was smug and passionate about what he was about to build.
However, there are still difficulties ahead.