Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 421: Undercurrents of the Universe
The emperor's actions in the eleventh year of Taichang made the court officials deeply realize one thing: the emperor was truly patient and tolerant.

Otherwise, with his restless temperament, how could he make the ministers do things step by step?

My biological mother had been seriously ill once before, and from the perspective of filial piety, it was not appropriate for her to travel far away just after she had recovered - even though Chengde was not far away.

Now no one knows whether the emperor is feeling remorseful.

By early September, the Queen Mother was dying.

In this life, her life has been very different, so her last words were "no regrets in death" rather than "what regrets do I have in dying".

If Zhu Changluo was still the original Zhu Changluo, then after he was indeed named the crown prince, he would not be allowed to see her for ten years. Wang was imprisoned in Jingyang Palace, and although she was eventually promoted to Imperial Noble Consort because Zhu Changluo gave birth to a son, her treatment did not change.

It was not until about this time that Wang was critically ill and Zhu Changluo asked for permission to see his mother, and Emperor Wanli agreed. When the prince rushed to Jingyang Palace, the palace gate was locked and he had to ask the eunuch to bring the key to open the door. At this time, Wang was already blind. She reached out and touched her son's clothes and cried, "My son has grown up like this, why should I die?"

Of course there was hatred in that life, but his son eventually grew up and was named crown prince.

But now, she has been honored as the Queen Mother during her lifetime, so her death this time can indeed be described as "without regrets".

After the Queen Mother passed away, the whole palace and outside the palace entered into the mourning rhythm.

Although Zhu Changluo was the Queen Mother's biological son, he was also the emperor, so there were some things he did not need to do in person.

The one who came forward on his behalf was his fifth brother Zhu Changhao, along with his sixth brother, seventh brother and the crown prince.

Eleven years have passed in a flash, and now Zhu Changluo's fifth brother Zhu Changhao is twenty-one years old.

When he arrived at the Qianqing Palace, he looked at his elder brother in mourning clothes and said, "It's my turn to keep watch. Please accept my condolences, my brother. The emperor's health is the most important."

Zhu Changluo looked at him and nodded: "Thank you for your hard work. Please sit with me for a while."

Zhu Changhao's biological mother was the first of the nine concubines selected in the tenth year of Wanli. Now she is called Concubine Duan, and she is still in good health.

Although she was ranked first among the nine concubines in her early years because of her outstanding appearance, since the most favored Concubine Zheng was there, Zhu Changhao and his mother were not favored at all. Except for the farce of the three kings being brought up, they were actually very neglected. Specifically, Zhu Changhao did not choose a marriage until he was 25 years old.

But the situation is no less severe now: to this day, Zhu Changluo has not conferred the title of prince on his younger brothers, and has also not chosen any marriages for them.

The sixth and seventh are fine. The sixth is just eighteen years old, and the seventh is only fifteen, which is not too outrageous.

But after sitting down, the 21-year-old Zhu Changhao felt very reserved.

Zhu Changluo looked at him and said, "In the past two years, there was a national war and a tour of the north and south, and your affairs have been delayed. When this is done, you should be granted a title and choose a marriage."

"Your Majesty, I..."

Zhu Changluo waved his hand and said, "Sit down. The Empress Dowager is also very sad. Even if it is just for the sake of getting married, it doesn't matter. Besides, you are already twenty years old now. I originally planned to confer titles on you when you are older and know how to do things better. Since you are my brothers, I also hope that you can help me do something."

There was no deep affection between them, after all, Zhu Changluo's focus for the past eleven years had been on state affairs.

However, a clan school was set up for the royal family, which was managed by Zhang Juzheng's son. The emperor, princes, and sons of noble families could not escape and had to receive corresponding education.

At the age of twenty-one, it is not a big deal among ordinary people, and many people are just beginning to strive for the fame of students or candidates.

Zhu Changluo asked him to sit down again and said, "I have always remembered your story. The princess I chose for you is a young lady from the Duke of Qian. I was strict with you in the past because I wanted you to learn some skills. Otherwise, how can you rule a country like your uncle in the future?"

Zhu Changhao's heart was shocked and he couldn't help but look up at his elder brother.

"I have already agreed with the Duke of Qian during the southern tour last year." Zhu Changluo nodded affirmatively. "After the funeral, you will be conferred the title of Prince, and you will be married at the end of the year. When the Mu family sends people to Beijing, they will bring your princess. You can go to Yunnan in the spring of next year. There is no need to build a palace now. After you go there, spend two or three years to give birth to a son, and then take the daughters of local chieftains or even the chieftains of the three Xuans and six Weis as concubines. In a few years, the Ming Dynasty will take over Burma. You will be in Burma, and the Duke of Qian will be there to help you manage Burma well."

"How could my brother have deserved the title of Prince? I..." When he heard the word "Prince", his heart trembled.

"Don't worry, I have my own arrangements. The most important thing is to calm down and not demand yourself to live a life of luxury and idleness." Zhu Changluo sighed, "My father and mother are gone. Now among the four brothers, I will naturally manage the great cause of the country. You should set an example for your brothers. First, make him a prince, and serve in the local area to gain experience. Only when you have made contributions can you be made a prince. I am afraid that the children of the Zhu family will be content with luxury in the future. If they are only content with luxury, the prince is enough. This is not only true for you three, but also for my son in the future."

What else can Zhu Changhao say?
This was something Zhu Changluo had thought of long ago. Before his younger brother and son, he could make the same arrangement for the existing vassal kings. What to do later was also very important.

The children of the royal family must study hard in the clan school and pass the course, which is the basis for being granted a title or a position in the future. Of course, there are differences in closeness, and Zhu Changluo cannot be too harsh on his brothers now, so the starting point for granting a title is the prince.

But this has already started a new beginning, and can the treatment of a duke and a prince be the same?
As Zhu Changluo said, if you learn some skills first and do some work, you will naturally be promoted to a prince. But if you just want to be a comfortable old man, then just be a county prince.

Of course, Zhu Changluo has now given him the opportunity to understand and has personally taught him many tricks.

Zhu Changhao, on behalf of the emperor, arranged the funeral for the empress dowager and thanked the ministers who came to pay their respects, but he never expected to hear such "good news" at this moment.

But it can be heard that the emperor was not suddenly overwhelmed by affection for his mother after her death.

In other words, if the emperor had not appointed him to represent him in funeral affairs, he probably would not have been granted the title of a prince based on his "hard work".

For Zhu Changluo, after returning from Chengde, he really couldn't move around easily outside for the next few years.

There is nothing else: first, Empress Dowager Li is also not young anymore, and it is hard to say when this will happen; second, the prince is about to enter puberty, and he still needs to pay attention to his education; third, the new policy is about to enter the deep water period of local reform, so he still needs to keep a close eye on it; fourth, the promotion of key scientific research projects will also require more of his energy.

So make arrangements first for what you are going to do.

The Nanyang strategy has already begun. After the Duke of Qian and his son returned from Guangzhou last year, they also needed time to change their mindset and start making active preparations.

Zhu Changluo wanted to achieve his strategic goal at the lowest possible cost, rather than spending huge amounts of money and food on wars in outer Yunnan.

The most effective way, of course, is to mobilize local forces.

Yunnan already has the foundation for the overall transformation of the native system, after all, it has been governed for so many years. And the experience of the Duke of Qian in recent decades actually represents the contradiction between the civil service system appointed by the court and the local traditional native power.

Since the lineage of the Duke of Qian had permanently ruled Yunnan, over the years, although they had suppressed the rebellious chieftains on the one hand, they were actually also the representatives who helped the chieftains and the imperial officials to coordinate conflicts.

Now Zhu Changluo only promised him a piece of land in Outer Yunnan, asking him to mobilize as many chieftain forces as possible, or simply move away in the future, using the interests of Outer Yunnan in exchange for non-resistance to Yunnan's reform.

Under this design, a "tool man" is needed in that direction.

But Zhu Changluo's expectation for Zhu Changhao was not just to have him as a tool that the Duke of Qian and the chieftains of Yunnan and Guizhou could follow with confidence.

Joseon chose Prince Lu based on a combination of factors, and Zhu Changhao was young.

As long as he was in that position and had a lifetime to build his foundation, Zhu Changluo hoped that he could do better. "You believe in Buddhism. I know you want to tell me that you are not interested in worldly affairs, but this is a good thing to go there." Zhu Changluo continued to introduce the local customs and practices there. "That area is not like the Ming Dynasty. There must be another way to control the tribes..."

The court officials outside the palace were guessing the emperor's current state, but they had no idea that the emperor was not only sad at this time, but also planning and arranging the strategy for the Ming Dynasty.

The emperor's mourning period was from day to month, so Zhu Changluo could not indulge in the sorrow of losing his mother for a long time. He did have some emotions, after all, it had been so many years, and it was the source of his blood. But he was more willing to show some new "state of mind" in front of foreign officials from now on.

After all, the power of the prime ministers has greatly increased, and they are required to focus more on government affairs rather than on how to consolidate their power or even fight against the power of the emperor.

There was no need to follow the example of his father and his great-grandfather in not attending court, being mysterious or neglecting government affairs. But when Empress Dowager Li passed away and the crown prince grew up, Zhu Changluo needed to make sure that both the court and the public were sure that the relationship between the emperor and his ministers in the Ming Dynasty had indeed entered a new era, and it should be clear what the emperor should do and what his ministers should do.

By then, there will be a new round of achievements to prove his foresight and to prove that this distribution of power is more efficient.

At this moment, the news of the Empress Dowager's death spread throughout the Ming Dynasty, and the Duke of Qian in Yunnan was indeed preparing to send people to Beijing to express condolences, led by the Crown Prince Mu Qiyuan and his sister.

The King of Korea, who had just completed the formal enthronement ceremony under the auspices of the Ming envoys, would of course also send an envoy to express condolences.

Lindan Batur, who returned to Chahar, also sent people. He decided to lower his posture a little, hoping that the emperor would give Chahar more help in view of his humble attitude and response to building the city.

We decided when we passed the four tribes of Lingnan on the way back that we would go to the area where the four tribes of Lingnan are now grazing.

Now he believed in Dai Qing. Although the four tribes of Lingnan would become stronger because of this city, they would be able to more resolutely block the ambitions of Tumed and the Ming Dynasty, and would not ignore the Chahar Khanate in the north which still focused on migration.

To this day, there is no city there, but Lindan Batur and Daiqing have already chosen a name for it: Xilinhot.

The so-called Xilin means hill, and Xilinhot means the city on the hill.

Everything has its own destiny.

In the eleventh year of Taichang, the most concerned issue in the local areas of the Ming Dynasty was local reform, which was now being carried out first in the northern regions such as Northern Zhili, Shandong, and Henan.

But in Nanzhili, everyone actually knows it clearly.

Songjiang Prefecture was the first to express both joy and worry: Is this Eastern Capital good or bad for Songjiang Prefecture?
do not know.

Therefore, some families took advantage of this time to send people to Guangdong to investigate: the Nandu City was being built there.

A year later, a delegation finally set out from Lisbon, Portugal, under the guise of a caravan. The caravan was so large that it was equipped with two large carracks.

Just as Zhu Changluo expected, no matter how weak they were, how could they be willing to hand over Malacca to others?

But we still have to talk.

Of course, they didn't know that the Eastern Emperor's biological mother had just passed away. When they arrived in Ming Dynasty after several months of sailing, the news would naturally give Ming Dynasty another excuse when it reached the imperial capital.

Northeast of Lisbon, Tsarist Russia is still a small country and is in its "darkest hour".

Because the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had now conquered Moscow and Tsarist Russia. The Tsar was actually a Polish prince, and Russia had become a puppet of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

But Tsarist Russia outside Moscow did not surrender, and now a larger-scale rebellion was brewing.

Although Tsarist Russia was not considered a big deal in the eyes of the "great powers" in Western and Central Europe, under the management of Ivan IV, Tsarist Russia already had a very vast territory. Since the first Cossack cavalry crossed the Ob River thirty years ago, the Siberian Khanate had completely disappeared thirteen years ago.

If Ivan IV's son had not died suddenly thirteen years ago without leaving any son, Tsarist Russia would not have fallen into its current situation.

But as long as the Poles were driven out, Tsarist Russia would not stop. Even if it was difficult to completely wipe out Poland in the west, couldn't it go east?
The Tsarist nobles who were now organizing a resistance army were convinced of this: first, make sure there were no Poles on Tsarist Russian soil, and then continue the pace of the Cossack cavalry!
The Romanov dynasty had not yet come on stage, but the Edo Shogunate had already opened.

However, the Toyotomi family was not extinct, and the Toyotomi army still occupied Osaka and other places.

Although Tokugawa Ieyasu had abdicated the throne to his third son, known as Ogosho, who lived in seclusion in Sunpu Castle, he still held power.

Now he also has "barbarians" in front of him, that is, the newly arrived British and Dutch. They came from the south of the ocean, so they are naturally barbarians. And Luzon, Annan, Siam and other places are also barbarians compared to Japan.

At least that's what they call themselves.

Now, there was a man in front of Tokugawa Ieyasu named Adams, and he was also named Miura Yashin. Because he was Tokugawa Ieyasu's trade advisor, he was granted a salary of 250 stones in the Miura Peninsula and became one of the hatamoto of the Edo Shogunate.

"Since the Ming Dynasty has never restored relations with the Ogosho, trade with the Ming Dynasty can only be carried out indirectly. Ogosho, the Kingdom of England has defeated the Spanish Invincible Armada. The red seal ship and the English fleet will definitely strengthen the power of the shogunate."

Tokugawa Ieyasu frowned and looked at him. After a long while, he said, "Because of you, I did not reiterate Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ban on your preaching. But now, I heard that Date Masamune was baptized! Now many people tell me that you are contacting daimyo everywhere. What do you want to do?"

Adams was stunned and quickly prepared to rebut.

But Tokugawa Ieyasu just snorted coldly: "Since the eighth year of Keicho, the Emperor appointed me as the Shogun, and the Edo Shogunate has been in operation for eight years! The daimyo from all over the country are restless, and you are also the one who tempted them! Regarding trade, they should only bring muskets and various goods to the shogunate, but now how many daimyo have obtained a large amount of supplies and firearms through you?"

He glared at Adams fiercely: "Behave yourself while I can still tolerate you!"

Adams quickly agreed, but he didn't know that Tokugawa Ieyasu already had an idea in his mind and was just waiting for an opportunity.

He was the founder of the Edo Shogunate, but the "Warring States Period" lasted so long that the foundation of the Edo Shogunate was not solid enough.

In the last years of his life, of course he had to completely eliminate some hidden dangers for his son!
Although Europeans were "importantly employed" by Tokugawa Ieyasu during this special period, they did not really understand the country.

For Tokugawa Ieyasu, "banning religion and closing the country" was bound to happen.

He was just waiting for that trigger.

After Adams left, he found other retainers, some of whom brought nobles who had escaped from Korea.

"So, you did hear the Ming ministers talking about Tsushima Island and the Eastern Expedition?"

"Indeed! I dare not deceive His Excellency the General!"

Tokugawa Ieyasu looked angry, but not too worried.

The situation today is no longer as chaotic as it was during the Warring States Period.

Of course, nothing is more important than the Edo Shogunate's ability to truly control every place!

(End of this chapter)