After the tributary process concluded, Tokugawa Ienari privately submitted a memorial of vassalage on behalf of Kanenari. The reason it was done privately rather than at the grand court assembly was that Tokugawa Ienari was presenting himself as the Shunyi County Prince of the Great Ming.
The Shunyi County Prince of the Great Ming held a rank equivalent to the King of Wa, enfeoffed by the Emperor of the Great Ming.
After completing the vassalage process, Tokugawa Ienari presented a new request to Zhu Jinsong: "Although I have resided in Wa for a long time, my heart truly yearns for the culture of the Great Ming. I humbly request His Majesty to select a learned and virtuous scholar to be my teacher. I would be immeasurably grateful."
Zhu Jinsong readily agreed.
Speaking of Confucianism during the Qing Dynasty, it was undoubtedly the perverted Confucianism that had been castrated and altered by the "Confucian masters" of the Qing. In theory, it was pure dregs, and the Great Ming would absolutely not allow its populace to study this perverted Confucianism.
However, as Stephen Chow once said, even a roll of toilet paper has its uses. The perverted Confucianism that the Great Qing had concocted naturally had its uses.
For example, it could be used to teach the barbarians of Europe like Pierre, d'Holbach, Diderot, Howard, Piano, and it could be spread to Wa to civilize the Wa savages.
As for whether the Great Ming still had perverted Confucians proficient in this perverted Confucianism... The second Great Qing still had a lot of such trash. How many days had it been since the Great Qing fell?
Not to mention that Wa was currently regarding Neo-Confucianism as its guiding principle.
As it happened, just as Zhu Jinsong was pondering how to vigorously promote perverted Confucianism to Wa, Tokugawa Ienari provided a timely assist: "I report to His Majesty that since the Sui and Tang dynasties, Wa has already dispatched students to study in the Upper Kingdom. Now that Wa is once again an outer vassal of the Great Ming, I request to dispatch envoys to the Great Ming to study. I hope His Majesty will grant permission?"
Zhu Jinsong grunted and said, "Granted."
After Tokugawa Ienari withdrew, Zhu Jinsong hurried to summon Kong Xianzong, the head of the department of pedantry, to the "palace."
In all honesty, Kong Xianzong felt quite vexed and was utterly bewildered by Zhu Jinsong's summons.
As a member of the Southern Sect of the Kong family, the Northern Sect had directly faced extinction without an heir. Moreover, the Southern Sect had not inherited the title of Duke Yansheng. If Kong Xianzong had no thoughts on this matter, it would be utter nonsense.
But the problem was that Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming, had never spoken ill of Confucius. Instead, he had directly changed private sacrifices to public sacrifices, assigning the duties of the Duke Yansheng to the Ministry of Rites, and raising the sacrificial specifications by another level.
This meant that Confucius was still to be sacrificed to, and the title of Great Accomplishment Supreme Sage Teacher had not changed at all.
Although he had to accept public sacrifices alongside many other sages such as Mencius, Xunzi, and Han Feizi.
The only unfortunate ones were the fellows from the Northern Sect.
From this perspective, Kong Xianzong was endlessly grateful to Zhu Jinsong. Since ancient times, it was a Confucian tenet that if the sovereign wished for his minister to die, the minister had no choice but to die. Now that a portion of the Southern Sect's incense had been preserved, what more could he be dissatisfied with?
Therefore, the very vexed Kong Xianzong no longer dwelled on pointless matters and decided to focus on managing the department of pedantry well for the Emperor.
What bewildered Kong Xianzong was why the Emperor of the Great Ming, Zhu Jinsong, had suddenly summoned him.
Under normal circumstances, the department of pedantry had no shortage of trivial matters, but apart from things like building schools at various levels, it had virtually no connection with other departments in the court.
Therefore, Zhu Jinsong rarely summoned Kong Xianzong individually.
When the bewildered Kong Xianzong arrived at the "palace," Zhu Jinsong got straight to the point: "I have summoned you today, my lord, regarding the matter of the envoys to the Great Ming from those short, swarthy fellows."
Upon hearing Zhu Jinsong's words, Kong Xianzong suddenly remembered that His Majesty had always looked unfavorably upon those short, swarthy fellows. Now, he had actually agreed to allow those short, swarthy fellows to dispatch envoys to the Great Ming to study?
There must be something fishy about this!
As it turned out, when the Emperor of the Great Ming, Zhu Jinsong, urgently called people to a meeting, it was usually to set a trap for someone.
Zhu Jinsong, who had always had a poor impression of those short, swarthy fellows, pondered for a moment before speaking: "Wa is a country outside civilization; the Great Ming is the central, superior nation. As the saying goes, we welcome those who come and do not pursue those who leave. Since Wa has a desire to learn, our Great Ming will naturally open its doors wide."
After uttering these grandiloquent words, Zhu Jinsong was almost moved by himself.
Look, I'm even willing to use my own nation's knowledge to civilize you barbarians who have just emerged from the ranks of monkeys. What kind of spirit is this?
Selflessness, benefiting others—this is the magnanimity and bearing of a great nation!
After a moment of self-感动, Zhu Jinsong continued: "As the saying goes, it's the same whether you drive one sheep or two. Since we have already accepted foreign students from France and England, let's simply include those short, swarthy fellows."
Kong Xianzong immediately understood.
To resolve the issue of foreign students from France and England, the department of pedantry had previously established a separate school in Jinan Prefecture to specifically teach those foreign students from France and England.
In this school, the first subject taught was Qieyun, which was learning phonetics. After completing the Qieyun portion of the curriculum, they would begin the second stage of courses, such as the Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Classic. Following that, they would study the Four Books, the Five Classics, Laozi, Zhuangzi, as well as history and governance.
As for the Legalists, physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, mathematics, and other miscellaneous subjects, there were none at all.
Of course, it wasn't that there were absolutely none, because as long as these individuals performed well, they had the opportunity to study some relatively elementary military treatises, at which point knowledge of geography, astronomy, and other fields would be involved.
To put it bluntly, the Great Ming was intending to cultivate all the foreign students sent by countries like France into a bunch of bookish, perverted Confucians!
Zhu Jinsong, without any sense of shame, continued: "Furthermore, I will have the Five Army Commanderies select several military supervisors to also teach these foreign students, telling them how to be loyal to the monarch and serve the Great Ming."
Zhu Jinsong recalled that in later generations, in Xikunlun or somewhere else, there was a small country called Suden, which had begun fighting amongst itself over some trivial matter.
Among the warring factions, many mid-level and senior generals in South Sudan had studied at the Shijiazhuang Infantry Academy, while those in North Sudan had studied at the National Defense University.
In other words, the internal conflict between North and South Sudan could be understood as fellow disciples fighting each other.
It was akin to the dispute between the Qi Sect and the Sword Sect.
Zhu Jinsong stated that he didn't remember who won in the end.
However, the competition between these two higher military institutions of the Great Xia, the Shijiazhuang Infantry Academy and the National Defense University, was deeply etched in Zhu Jinsong's memory.
This was precisely the objective Zhu Jinsong was pursuing now: first, turn all these foreign students into perverted Confucians, then send a group of supervisors to brainwash them, and then select some of the well-indoctrinated to teach them some basic war theories or the art of leading troops in battle.
Imagine, these foreign students would become accustomed to the Great Ming. Wouldn't they feel that the moon in the Great Ming was rounder? After they returned and lived in the wilderness for a while...
Tsk tsk.
Judging by himself, if even three or five of these foreign students who had spent a long time in the Great Ming learned well, they could turn Europe and Wa into a complete mess.
And at this time, wouldn't it be necessary for the Great Ming to intervene as a father?
Intervention required manpower. If you sought the mediation of your father, the Great Ming, wouldn't you have to offer some benefits?
What if the Great Ming father chose not to intervene? Then the consequence would likely be that these foreign students would emerge victorious.
And after these foreign students, who yearned for the Great Ming, achieved victory, the benefits the Great Ming would gain would probably be several times greater than they are now.
Even if not—in any case, after experiencing turmoil, their countries would certainly be severely weakened. At this time, it would be much easier for the Great Ming father to launch punitive expeditions against the unrighteous or to pacify the suffering people than under normal circumstances.
As for whether these foreign students would suddenly achieve enlightenment and even turn around to harm the Great Ming...
It was evident that only the Central Plains hall could manage to fight amongst itself for five thousand years. This five-thousand-year accumulated instinct for warfare was something that those barbarians could not achieve by studying military treatises for a day or two.
To give a simple example: how did the children of the Central Plains hall play war games? How did children in foreign countries play war games?
Besides, they weren't teaching everything; they had to hold something back.
...
Upon returning to the inn arranged by the Court of State Ceremonial, Tokugawa Ienari excitedly found Zheng Jiangfu and said, "Good news! His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming has accepted Wa's vassalage and also the proposal to dispatch envoys to the Great Ming!"
Zheng Jiangfu nodded, voluntarily poured a cup of tea for Tokugawa Ienari, and handed it to him, then asked, "Then, how does the Shogun intend to arrange these envoys to the Great Ming?"
Tokugawa Ienari was taken aback and retorted, "How to arrange them? Aren't they to be sent over, and then the Great Ming will arrange them?"
Being questioned by Tokugawa Ienari, Zheng Jiangfu was instead left speechless.
After careful consideration, Zheng Jiangfu smiled and asked, "The matter of the envoys to the Great Ming can be decided by the Shogun's word? The Emperor of Wa, oh, he is now called the Heavenly King, the Emperor of Wa, the various feudal lords, and the daimyo—do they not need to be considered?"
Tokugawa Ienari frowned and asked, "Does Mr. Zheng have any advice for me?"
Zheng Jiangfu chuckled and then asked, "May I ask the Shogun, which is more important: the immediate benefit or the future of Wa?"
Tokugawa Ienari bowed slightly and replied, "Naturally, the future of Wa is more important."
Zheng Jiangfu grunted and asked again, "May I ask the Shogun, which is more important: the Seii Taishogun of Wa, or the Shunyi County Prince of the Great Ming?"
Tokugawa Ienari frowned and pondered for a long time before replying, "The two are in essence one and two, two and one. If I were not the Seii Taishogun of Wa, the Emperor of the Great Ming would not have enfeoffed me as the Shunyi County Prince of the Great Ming. If I did not accept the enfeoffment as the Shunyi County Prince of the Great Ming, then naturally I would not be able to be the Seii Taishogun of Wa."
Zheng Jiangfu's heart grew solemn. He grunted again and said, "Since the Shogun decided to accept the 'Seven Articles for Tomorrow's Friendship' proposed by the Emperor of the Great Ming, I knew that the Shogun would prioritize Wa's interests."
Seeing a smile appear on Tokugawa Ienari's face, Zheng Jiangfu continued, "If the Shogun allocates some of the quotas for the envoys to the Great Ming, it is a loss of immediate benefit, but a gain for Wa's future."
Tokugawa Ienari nodded in agreement: "Hai, Ienari understands. However, what if more are dispatched? After all, the more talented individuals who come to study, the more they will contribute to the Tokugawa family upon their return, will they not?"
Zheng Jiangfu retorted, "On the surface, it appears so. However, once they come to the Great Ming, there will inevitably be various expenses. Can the Shogunate, at present, afford them?"
Upon hearing Zheng Jiangfu's words, Tokugawa Ienari's expression changed: "Indeed, since the Great Famine of Tenmei, the finances of the Shogunate and the imperial court have become increasingly strained, and we are utterly unable to bear excessive expenses."
Zheng Jiangfu nodded and said, "Therefore, I am advising the Shogun to allocate some of the quotas to the Heavenly King and those daimyo, allowing them to contribute funds as well. This way, it will be a sustainable approach."