My father is Jiajing

Chapter 333: The Ming Dynasty’s Demeanor
The reason why Emperor Jiajing became interested in the Annan Military Commissioner's Office was not only because of Hai Rui's essays describing the scenery and products of his hometown, but also because the emperor had an inherent desire for both civil and military affairs.

The reason why this thought was aroused was because of what Zhu Zaigui said afterwards.

After Hai Rui wrote this essay about his hometown, Zhu Zaigui also laughed and said, "Hai Rui, Hai Rui, your hometown is really a treasure land! In addition to the rich products, the climate there is like summer all year round, which is also very suitable for the experiment and cultivation of fine varieties. If possible, I would like to ask Your Majesty to find a piece of land in Qiongzhou to experiment with some new grain seeds."

This sentence was recorded by the secret agent in the palace and then submitted to Huang Jin. Huang Jin took a rough look at it and felt that there were no sensitive sentences, so he submitted it to Emperor Jiajing as a secret report from the palace that day.

Emperor Jiajing originally thought it was nothing, but after seeing this sentence, his sensitive reaction was much stronger than that of ordinary people.

As an emperor, Emperor Jiajing knew too well the importance of food.

The current court is not so much short of money as it is short of food.

Especially in the northern region, where the population is already dense, it has been difficult to make a major breakthrough in grain production.

Then there is the capital city, with a permanent population of 700,000 to 800,000. These people need to eat as soon as they open their eyes, and they rely on the Grand Canal from Beijing to transport a steady stream of grain from the south every day. The balance is extremely fragile.

Once the Yellow River floods and the canal is shut down for a period of time, the price of grain in the capital will rise accordingly.

If the climate in Qiongzhou is really suitable for testing some potentially high-yield grain seeds and achieving three-crop rotation in a year, then isn't it the same for the Annan Dutongshisi?
After thinking about it this way, Emperor Jiajing felt that there was a way forward for this matter.

Therefore, last year, Emperor Jiajing asked Huang Jin to find someone to go to Qiongzhou to check out the local agricultural conditions. Now, a year has passed, and there is very accurate feedback on the situation there.

It is true that the Qiongzhou region has four seasons of summer, and rice, a common staple food in the south, can indeed be harvested three times a year.

Although the output is just so-so, it at least shows that the climate there is suitable for growing three crops a year.

Therefore, after receiving this accurate and actual information, it was hard for Emperor Jiajing not to be excited.

But unfortunately, Qiongzhou was too far away. Even if the Jinyiwei of the Eastern Depot traveled at an expedited speed of 600 miles, it still took twenty-six or seven days, almost a month, to get from the capital to Qiongzhou.

If we consider other normal ways of traveling, which would allow one to travel fifty to sixty miles a day, then it would take more than half a year to travel from the capital to Qiongzhou and back.

Therefore, the passion in Emperor Jiajing's heart was extinguished by the distance as soon as it was ignited.

It's really too far away. Even if the grain there can be harvested three times a year, the consumption and cost of transporting the grain from there to the north would be more than enough to cover the expenses.

Therefore, even if Qiongzhou was a treasure island and Annan Dutongsi was a treasure land, it was a treasure land far away and had no benefit to the court's major policies.

Of course, if Emperor Jiajing could think out of the box and look at the problem from the perspective of sea transportation, he might have discovered a new world.

But this is just wishful thinking.

The Ming Dynasty did not attach importance to the sea borders. In addition, the Japanese pirates and robbers on the sea were so rampant. Even if Emperor Jiajing could think of ten thousand ways, he would not think of sea transportation.

After all, land transportation and canal transportation are the old ways that the Ming Dynasty has relied on for hundreds of years. If Emperor Jiajing really had to switch to sea transportation with unknown risks and costs, he would have been unsure.

Because in order to realize sea transportation, in addition to groundbreaking new ideas, it also requires huge investments. First of all, large ships capable of long-distance voyages are indispensable, and secondly, there must be a powerful navy to guard the vast sea.

Otherwise, everything is just an illusion.

However, whether it is a large ship capable of long-distance voyages or a powerful navy capable of protecting the vast seas, it requires an astronomical amount of capital investment. And what the Ming Dynasty lacked was silver, that is, money.

So, this road was a dead end from the beginning.

Of course, this path is a dead end for the imperial court, but it is a different story for the people.

When people today look at the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, their first reaction is always that the Ming and Qing dynasties were a corrupt era of isolationism.

In fact, this is also a historical illusion.

Especially in the last few decades of the Ming Dynasty after the Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty was not an era of isolation from the outside world.

After the Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty's contact with European civilization from the sea could be said to be the most unrestrained.

Merchants from Europe could land in Macau to do business, and religious missionaries from Europe could also move freely within the Ming Dynasty.

For example, the famous missionary Matteo Ricci in later generations was not only able to make friends with cabinet ministers such as Xu Guangqi and Ye Xianggao, but also able to baptize Xu Guangqi as a Christian.

Moreover, the cultural exchanges between the two sides are not limited to religion, but also involve natural sciences.

Matteo Ricci not only brought a world map, but also translated "The Elements of Geometry" with Xu Guangqi.

During the reign of Emperor Wanli, when Matteo Ricci and other European missionaries came to meet him, Emperor Wanli did not regard them as a scourge. After Ricci's death, he generously rewarded these missionaries in China with a dedicated cemetery, allowing them to bury the deceased missionaries in China in Tenggongzhalan in the western suburbs of Beijing according to their own customs and rituals.

Therefore, it is an inaccurate historical conclusion for later generations to say that the Ming Dynasty was a closed country.

The Ming Dynasty simply lasted a long time, and its internal problems were so deep that it was impossible to carry out effective reforms, so it looked like a backward and corrupt era.

But in terms of the culture and social atmosphere at the time, the Ming Dynasty was still a positive, tolerant and magnanimous country. It still absorbed and integrated foreign cultural characteristics with great pride in its cultural confidence.

It is not the case that some eras shout about self-confidence but actually call for the suppression of other people's culture. However, we should follow other people's festivals and not wear their clothes.

Little did people know that after the New Culture Movement, both the changes in daily etiquette and daily clothing were actually a new form of change to welcome the new era.

Moreover, some of the countries that we call for war against do not mind setting our festivals as legal holidays to celebrate.

From this we can see that the cultural confidence of some of us is actually false confidence and real inferiority!

There is not even a hint of positive, tolerant and broad-minded cultural atmosphere.

You must know that the reason why Chinese civilization has a long history and strong vitality is that it is constantly inclusive, constantly learning and evolving, which led to the subsequent Han and Tang dynasties.

Otherwise, if we really stayed conservative, we might not even have a chair to sit on now.

Therefore, for the development of civilization and culture, we must, like in the eras since the Han and Tang Dynasties, adopt a positive attitude, a broad mind, and be as tolerant as the sea that can accommodate all rivers. Only then can we make our civilization more vibrant and have more unlimited potential!

(End of this chapter)