My father is Jiajing

The forty-fourth year of Jiajing.

In the blink of an eye, another three years passed.

A lot has happened in these three years.

The first and foremost priority is the successful operation of the Beijing-Tianjin hardened toll road.

It not only brought new changes to the transportation development model after the Ming Dynasty, but also created a new source of financial resources and taxation for the Ming Dynasty.

Today, the hardened toll roads in Beijing and Tianjin are not only important benchmarks for roads around the world.

It is also a super land artery between Beijing and Tianjin.

The goods and grain transported from the south to the capital via the canal were benefited by this road.

They can be transported from Tianjin Port to various important places in the capital and to the hands of thousands of households in a very short time.

But this is not the most exciting thing for Zhu Zaigui!
What makes Zhu Zaigui most excited now is that Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou have finally built the naval wharf in Taiwan Wo, as well as the supporting military town and transit supply station.

Moreover, after three years of unremitting efforts and the unremitting efforts of Chinese and foreign shipbuilders, Longjiang Shipyard finally launched a large ship recently, which is almost as large as the treasure ship used by Zheng He when he sailed to the West.

This large ship will not only be equipped with new cannons modified from the Thai-Spanish Portuguese cannons by the Xishan Divine Weapon Battalion, but will also be armed with a new hull and deck using creative iron armor covering, making it an invincible steel behemoth that can sail on the vast ocean!
Therefore, in order to make this big ship live up to its name, this ship will soon set out from the Longjiang Shipyard, then go out to sea along the Yangtze River, and then go north by sea to the dock of Tianjin, waiting for the skilled craftsmen of Xishan to work together with the craftsmen who created this big ship to prepare to install new cannons from the Xishan Divine Artifact Camp on it.

So far, this new cannon has not yet received an imperial title from Emperor Jiajing.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that Emperor Jiajing wanted to wait for a perfect opportunity to name these new cannons.

For this reason, whether it was Emperor Jiajing who continued to practice in seclusion in Xiyuan, or the street vendors in Beijing, their minds were all seduced by this super ship.

Emperor Jiajing was especially excited and couldn't sleep.

Everyone knows that Emperor Jiajing was unwilling to be ordinary. When he was building his mausoleum, he repeatedly told the supervising officials that his mausoleum could not surpass Chengzu's Changling Mausoleum.

It can be seen that in the heart of Emperor Jiajing, although he often compared himself to Emperor Wen of Han, he also knew that it would be better to compare himself with Emperor Wen of Han who was only good at civil governance but not at military affairs.

The Yongle Emperor, who was also born as a vassal king, is the real role model!

Unfortunately, in the first twenty years after he ascended the throne, no matter how hard he tried and how much effort he put in, he could not make any progress in martial arts, and he could not even hold on to his basic base.

So he had no choice but to begin to imitate the essence of Emperor Wen of Han's "ruling by doing nothing", preparing to achieve his own achievement of becoming a "sage king" along this path.

However, this seems to be obviously wishful thinking.

Although Emperor Wen of Han was facing a great political crisis at that time, the country was in a peaceful state for more than 20 years during which Liu Bang and Empress Lu had time to recuperate, and there was still great potential and room for growth.

As long as Emperor Wen of Han did not make unnecessary troubles, as long as he could streamline administration and delegate power, giving the people time to recuperate, and then make some other additions, such as abolishing the harsh laws and punishments that had been in place since the Qin Dynasty, he would have been known as a wise ruler for all ages.

However, the situation faced by Emperor Jiajing was completely opposite to that faced by Emperor Wen of Han.

Although there were political crises, no matter how powerful Yang Tinghe and his men were, they could not be more powerful than Chen Ping and Zhou Bo, the founding ministers. Therefore, the political crisis faced by Emperor Jiajing was almost not worth mentioning.

It was just that the matter of recognizing him as his father made him unhappy.

But there is no other way. If I acknowledge him as my father as Yang Ting and the others wish, how will the emperor establish his authority in the future?

Therefore, this is at most a political event, not a political crisis.

However, at the governance level of the empire, Emperor Wen of Han was able to reduce taxes and levies, and abolish all the harsh laws and punishments that had been in place since the tyrannical Qin Dynasty, thus enabling the Han Empire to achieve long-term stable and positive development.

But at this time, the Ming Dynasty was already an ancient dynasty that had been established for nearly two hundred years, and including Emperor Jiajing, it had experienced 11 emperors.

During this period of nearly two hundred years, the country's internal conflicts have accumulated to an unknown extent, and there are also various "ancestral rules" set by the past ten ancestors that need to be followed.

In such an environment, Emperor Jiajing was able to investigate the estates and lands seized by the nobles and return them to the people. He was able to reform the system of hereditary titles for relatives of the emperor's wife and to carry out a series of reforms to correct the current malpractices.

It is already a remarkable thing.

If you want him to achieve more based on what he has done, he will have to copy homework that is beyond his time.

Otherwise, it would be simply asking too much to use the political experience accumulated by ancient dynasties over thousands of years to deal with current crises and national problems.

Therefore, we should not be too harsh on the feudal emperor Jiajing when looking at history.

If he had died in his thirties like his predecessors, how would history evaluate him?

That is definitely the "reincarnation of Emperor Xuan of Han".

But there is no way, who made Emperor Jiajing live a long life?

Not only did he live to be sixty years old, but he also ruled for forty-five years.

These forty-five years may not sound like a very long time, but if you really experience it from beginning to end, many people may not even have forty-five years in their lifetime.

Therefore, during such a long period of time, the emperor's thinking was still based on the thinking of the previous era. Even if he still had ambitions to manage domestic affairs, it was not certain that he would have a better approach than he had in the previous twenty years.

Therefore, for such emperors who have been in power for a long time, unless they are born in an era when the overall national strength is rising, whoever stays in power for a long time will become Tang Lao San or Qian Xiao Si!

These two emperors can be said to be a group of strange people who echo each other.

Both of them pushed their empires to the peak, but in the later years of their rule, the national strength showed irreversible weakening to varying degrees, so that later historical evaluations were not very good.

But to be honest, Qian Xiaosi's luck is much better than Tang Laosan's.

The political and military systems during the Qianlong period were close to being in perfect feudal dynasty condition, so there was no chance for local forces to grow bigger and stronger.

But during Tang Lao San's time, the political system was still constantly exploring and changing.

If the emperor is powerful enough, he can keep the situation under control and transfer the generals from various places who have the potential to become powerful back and forth to their posts to suppress the arrogance of the subordinates.

But as luck would have it, after Tang Lao San’s brilliant performance in the first half, he spent the second half lying down and enjoying himself. Whether it was his control over the government or the local vassal states, his control was declining at a visible speed. If he had died a few years before the An-Shi Rebellion, he might have been a great emperor who was “unparalleled in the history”.

Unfortunately, his life was too long.

He occupied the position but did nothing, causing irreversible harm to the country.

Therefore, when history talks about him, it always talks about his romantic affair with his daughter-in-law, and never mentions how wise and intelligent he was during the Kaiyuan period.

Moreover, after the end of the imperial era, as ordinary people no longer had superstitious faith in the emperor's authority, there were more political errors and shortcomings that were previously difficult for the ancient literati to point out.

Therefore, the standards and requirements for being a good emperor are really too high.

It is not something that can be fooled by simply saying "diligent in work".

After all, ordinary people’s life experiences will not lie. If they don’t live well, they will curse.

Of course, this situation was much less common in the feudal era. If the ancient people were unhappy with their lives, they would tend to accept it and only rebel when they could no longer bear it.

So in terms of overall governance and management, the common people in ancient times were easier to manage.

Now Zhu Zaigui has been regent in the Wenhua Palace for several years. He has not only provided new governance ideas for the Ming Dynasty, but also opened up financial and tax sources for the Ming Dynasty that it had never dared to think of before.

This has eased the internal conflicts to a certain extent.

As a result, Emperor Jiajing's desire to cultivate immortality and seek the truth was no longer as pious as before.

He also began to dream of becoming the "eternal sage king".

If the large ship coming to the Longjiang Shipyard this time is indeed far superior to the previous dynasty and far exceeds the treasure ship that Zheng He used when he sailed to the West, and after being equipped with new cannons from the Xishan Divine Artifact Camp, it will really reach an unprecedented level.

So no matter whether it is the present or the future history, as long as Chengzu is mentioned, Jiajing will inevitably be mentioned!

It is even possible that in future historical evaluations, he and Emperor Chengzu will be mentioned on par with each other.

So after thinking about these infinite possibilities, Emperor Jiajing's heart was filled with excitement.

"Huang Jin, is there any news from San'er?"

Emperor Jiajing had just finished meditating today, and he tilted his head to ask Huang Jin, who was busy outside doing something unknown.

Huang Jin stopped what he was doing when he heard what Emperor Jiajing said, turned around and said with a smile, "Your Majesty, it's only morning now. Unless there is something urgent going on with the prince, his affairs will not be compiled into a book and sent to us until the afternoon."

Emperor Jiajing tilted his head and looked at the water clock beside him, and said with emotion: "I thought it was already afternoon. This time of meditation feels a bit too long."

Huang Jin brought over a cup of ginseng tea at just the right temperature, "Your Majesty must be worried about something. Otherwise, with your cultivation and concentration, you could have meditated for a whole day."

Emperor Jiajing took a sip of ginseng tea and stood up to move around. "Yes, I have been thinking about the Longjiang Shipyard. I didn't even name the new cannon that the Xishan Divine Artifact Camp imitated from the Portuguese. It shows that I have high hopes for this big ship!"

"It's fine if those red-haired barbarians are doing some business, but now they have built castles and barriers right under the nose of the Ming Dynasty? What do they want to do? If San'er hadn't suggested forming a Japanese navy to prepare for coastal defense, I and the civil and military officials in the court would still be in the dark."

Although Zhu Zaigui had not yet gained any real benefits or gains from the sea, the red-haired barbarians were an "enemy" right before his eyes, and both the Jiajing Emperor and the officials in the court and the country became nervous.

Originally, they thought that these red-haired barbarians who came from afar would at most come to do some small business and buy luxury goods such as silk and porcelain.

However, the reports sent by Hu Zongxian, Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou, and Yu Huatian now said that some red-haired barbarians, relying on the advantages of firearms and fast ships, built fortresses in the southern part of Taiwan, and also controlled the Luzon Islands by means of armed intimidation.

When the news was sent to the capital, it immediately caused an uproar.

Although the Ming Dynasty never paid much attention to foreign waters, this does not mean that it could tolerate having such an uncontrollable force right next to its bed.

Therefore, there was no resistance to strengthening the construction of the Oriental Navy.

Zhu Zaigui didn't have to rack his brains to find excuses, nor did he have to take military risks by sending the yet-to-be-powerful Japanese navy to Luzon to look for high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes and potatoes that the red-haired barbarians might have introduced from the American continent.

If the red-haired barbarians had not yet introduced sweet potatoes and potatoes, these two high-yield artifacts, Zhu Zaigui would have spent a lot of money to fight the colonists in Luzon.

It would be fine if I win, but if I lose, it will be no joke.

Once it loses, not to mention the political impact on the Ming Dynasty itself, the power that the Ming Dynasty has accumulated in the southeastern countries for hundreds of years may collapse in an instant.

Especially the Annan countries that are now ready to make moves. They will seize the opportunity to stir up trouble in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions and the Yunnan and Guizhou regions of the Ming Dynasty.

By then, the Ming Dynasty would not only face unknown enemies from the open sea, but would also have to devote more energy and manpower and material resources to deal with the invasion and infiltration of the Annan countries into Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou regions.

After all, the Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou regions at that time were not as developed as they would be hundreds of years later.

At this time, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou regions were still ruled by local chieftains who refused to submit to the king. They felt that the risk of rebellion was too great, so they exchanged submission for a comfortable life.

But if they think that rebellion is profitable, that would be bad news.

These chieftains will definitely stand up without hesitation, dominate their own territories and become the real local emperors!
Therefore, even Zhu Zaigui would not dare to easily provoke a war unless he could be sure that there were sufficiently compelling benefits involved.

Otherwise, the best strategy is to take it step by step, and finally achieve actual control and management of the southeastern waters by defeating the enemy without fighting!

And the kind of people who are full of militarism, who do not look at the actual situation and think that they can govern a big country and rule the huge and vast overseas territories by burning, killing and looting, are simply nonsense.

I have no idea what the sky is high and the earth is thick!
You have to know that the world made up of living people is always complicated.

It is impossible to be as simple as a stand-alone game, where power will be gathered wherever you click the mouse.

In the real world, if you want to gain benefits, you have to pay for them or pay a price. This is an irrefutable truth!

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There have been a lot of things to do recently during the New Year holidays, and my old father at home is not feeling well and has to run back and forth to the hospital.

Sometimes there is no update, please forgive me. . . (End of this chapter)