Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 368 "International Competition"

"In North Korea, people treat their superiors as their fathers and rulers, and never dare to be disrespectful! I congratulate you on your ascension to the throne, and I am sincere!" Li Hui was very angry, "How can you be so mean to me? You forced me to do this!"

"Now isn't that disrespectful?"

Zhu Changluo's expression was calm, but Li Hui's chest was heaving with anger.

"The Ming Dynasty has been fair to Korea. It is true that Ming envoys have occasionally been overbearing and extorting. But for more than two hundred years, tribute and trade have been very generous. Since the reign of Yeonsangun, Korea has been plagued by constant troubles and factional struggles. If your Korean monarchs and ministers had been able to constantly strive for self-improvement and maintain a stable public opinion, how could you have come to this point today? This is because your family only coveted power, wealth, and pleasure, and cut themselves off from the people! Otherwise, how could you have suffered such a crushing defeat when the Japanese pirates crossed the sea to attack? The Ming Dynasty has spent countless money and food, and sacrificed countless soldiers to help your family regain the throne!"

Zhu Changluo looked down at him and said, "What? I look down on you and refuse to waste money and food to aid Korea. I refuse to recognize your title as the crown prince. Does that mean I am being unfair to Korea? Am I forcing you? Let's be pragmatic. The Ming Dynasty has no obligation to do anything to Korea. On the contrary, it has a great favor to you. After you seized the throne, you were plagued by internal and external troubles, and finally rebelled against the Ming Dynasty. You are really a wolf that can't be tamed."

As he spoke, Li Hui gradually calmed down, and finally said, "The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. Now that I am a prisoner, Your Majesty wants to reminisce with me, it should not be just to ridicule me. If you have any orders or what you want me to do, please tell me directly."

"This is a pragmatic attitude. If you show me your displeasure, I will not bother to ask you to do anything. I will just kill you at the Tongliao League Meeting. The Ming Dynasty is strong but not violent. In the future, the foreign vassals will know this and the Ming Dynasty will not be afraid of anyone causing chaos out of fear and dread." Zhu Changluo nodded. "There is only one thing I want you to do, register as a citizen of the Ming Dynasty and be an ordinary citizen who is honest and self-reliant. Lee Seong-gye has laid the foundation for your family's wealth and prosperity for more than 200 years, but now it's over. Rebelling against the Ming Dynasty but being spared death is the greatest mercy I can give you."

Li Hui looked at him in disbelief: "Ordinary people? Self-reliant?"

"What? Do you think there will be a Duke of Anle who can do this?" Zhu Changluo smiled, then said grimly, "You are a traitor!"

"You took North Korea from me..." He became excited again.

"The rulers of Korea all received imperial decrees from the Ming Dynasty, so the Ming Dynasty recognized their legitimacy and did not attack them!" Zhu Changluo interrupted him, "I can grant, and I can also take!"

"I……"

"You can support your family with your own efforts, so I think highly of you!" Zhu Changluo looked at him indignantly, "For you, you have already survived, what else is there to be dissatisfied with?"

Li Hui gritted his teeth and calmed down for a long time before asking, "Your Majesty, do you want to let the leaders of all tribes see that I would rather give up the throne and be a citizen of the Ming Dynasty during the Tongliao meeting?"

"That's not the case." Zhu Changluo waved his hand. "I will lend you 100 taels of silver so that you can buy some land in Tongliao. I want them to see not that you are willing to be a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, but that you suffer from being a citizen. I want the whole world to know that I understand the suffering of the common people the most. Whether it's the internal officials or the foreign dignitaries, if they make the people live in misery, cause civil unrest in the Ming Dynasty, and cause chaos in the foreign vassal states that bring disaster to the Ming Dynasty, I will not hesitate to arrest them all and send them to Tongliao to be ordinary people and support themselves!"

Li Hui looked at him blankly.

But aren't you what the nobles of all races fear the most? Why don't they do everything they can to guard against you and get rid of such brutal "comrades" as you?
We are all superior people. If you force a once rich person to suffer, you might as well kill him!

Zhu Changluo seemed to understand his thoughts and said nonchalantly: "If you want to die, go ahead. At least you will know what it means to live a miserable life rather than a good death. So that my subjects will all know that although the world is peaceful, the people of the world are not complaining. It does not necessarily mean that they are not suffering, but they have not reached the point where there is no way out. Of course, if you can make a new start in Tongliao, you can be my subject and serve me in the future."

Li Hui clenched his fists and muttered to himself: "Why do you humiliate me like this..."

"The Korean people will only applaud." Zhu Changluo smiled, "Do you think I can tolerate the behavior of your Korean noble family? We must let the Korean people know what true good governance is. Being a citizen of the Ming Dynasty and being a citizen of a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty are two completely different things. Don't worry, you won't be alone. In the future, you will have many neighbors, including Koreans, Ming people, and people of other ethnic groups."

He built his "Tongliao Farm" in this way, and let them all experience life. In fact, it was the same as "exile to cultivate the border", but this was indeed the message that Zhu Changluo wanted to convey to the various tribes in Tongliao.

This is an unsolvable conspiracy. Zhu Changluo wants to drag all tribes into a competition to win the hearts of the people by implementing benevolent policies that love the people. This concept will be implemented through every future expedition and anti-corruption campaign, and will be conveyed to the outside world through more open border trade in the future.

Including the ministers of the Ming Dynasty, they must also strive to ensure that the Ming Dynasty always remains a symbol of greater civilization and prosperity, and they need to face the threats posed by the emperor's greater "openness" to foreigners and his willingness to strengthen their power.

Tatars, Jurchens, Korea... They still have many slaves among them, and their power structures and systems are even more backward. How can they compete?

Even if more supplies, including military supplies, can be obtained from more open border trade, if one only harbors a confrontational spirit in one's heart, one will inevitably exploit the people and lean towards military means; if one follows the path of the Ming Dynasty and learns from the Ming Dynasty, one will ultimately become a part of the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, the various ministries did not know that the Ming Dynasty would do this.

They are now submissive or surrendering, and the focus of the powerful is temporarily on what gifts to present and which heroes to select to participate in the competition, so as to obtain more border trade agreements from the Ming Dynasty and bring greater benefits to themselves.

Some of them seek their own wealth and enjoyment, while others are working hard to strengthen the power of their tribe.

In their concept, the so-called "international competition" refers to the population, food, and military force that can be controlled.

They have done too little research on real international competition, while Zhu Changluo has the understanding of dimensionality reduction attack.

In terms of both soft and hard tactics, the Ming Dynasty was overwhelmingly strong. For someone like him to still pay attention to "international appearance" was already very civilized.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be better to just use the Nine Thunder Gun to push forward?

But the era was still in its barbaric stage, and Zhu Changluo had to face the problem of governing a vast territory.

As powerful as the Mongols were, they simply divided the country into khanates and each of them was independent of their own rule.

And centripetal force is crucial.

There are still many things to do in Shenyang these days, including the transformation of Liaoning Province, the development of Liaohetao, the planning and layout of Northeast China's granary and industry, and the integration of Han people and people of all ethnic groups...

For many of his ideas, Zhu Changluo had to actually go out and talk to local officials face to face and make his demands in person.

Having said it and mentioned it, it will be easier to evaluate it in the future.

(End of this chapter)