When it comes to being an emperor, Old Zhu, who started with nothing but a bowl, could definitely be considered the ceiling among emperors. Let alone those insignificant minor figures like Kang Ma Zi and Qian Long, even the famous Li Er Feng would have to express his admiration to Old Zhu.
Compulsory education is awesome, right? Old Zhu did it, and even implemented school uniforms, leave policies, and credit systems.
The fifty-five VIP system is awesome, right? Old Zhu not only did it, but he did it in reverse—for example, those who know, know, and cannot walk in the middle of the road, and are only allowed to wear pigskin boots, and also, for example, prohibitions on intermarriage among different ethnic groups.
"For all Mongols and Semu people, if they wish to marry Chinese people, it is imperative that both parties are willing. Members of their own kind are not allowed to marry each other. Violators will be beaten with eighty sticks, and both men and women will be enslaved by the government."
This kind of operation is true integration, not just adding a few VIPs to a minority.
But, perhaps the petty officials in the Ministry of Punishments were distracted while copying the Great Ming Code, or perhaps the Great Ming Code that Zhu Jinsong obtained was altered and revised by that old dog Qian Long. In any case, the last sentence, "among them... are not restricted," is missing.
What could Zhu Jinsong do in this situation? Of course, he chose to let it slide. Was he going to revise the Great Ming Code?
However, many people were dissatisfied with the Great Ming Code.
As everyone knows, Zhu Jinsong has always been a very democratic emperor, respecting the opinions of the common people before taking action—for example, in the first year of Zhu Jinsong's enthronement, which is popularly known as the "Year of the Sacred Emperor," the Ming court conducted a census and registration.
According to Zhu Jinsong's requirements, local governments in the Ming Dynasty asked for the opinions of the people during registration: "Do you acknowledge yourself as a subject of the Great Ming? Do you wish to change your ethnicity to Han?"
Everything was voluntary, and there was absolutely no coercion. Those who were unwilling to acknowledge themselves as subjects of the Great Ming could be given a deadline to leave, while those who were willing to acknowledge themselves as subjects of the Great Ming were also willing to change their ethnicity to Han, as it involved issues such as studying, joining the army, entering officialdom, and tax rates.
Very democratic, right?
But what would you expect the people of Gansu, Tian Wu, to think? What about the blue-capped Muslims of Tiaojin Hutong, that is, the Icy Le Yuan people?
You, Emperor Zhu, are going too far!
As for the fact that some Icy Le Yuan people served in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and were even bestowed the surname "Zhao" by Emperor Chengzu for their meritorious service in reporting Prince Zhu Xu of Zhou for rebellion, the Icy Le Yuan people in Tiaojin Hutong claim to know nothing about it and that it's impossible.
Furthermore, they wanted to enjoy all the benefits except for joining the army, such as land allocation, homestead allocation, free enrollment of their children in community schools, the same tax rates as Ming merchants, and the same qualifications for becoming officials, and they were also unwilling to leave Tiaojin Hutong, with the reason being "ancestral land."
Of course, if they insisted on leaving, then Zhu Jinsong or the Ming court would have to arrange ships to send them back to their true ancestral land.
In this situation, Zhu Jinsong, the emperor of the Great Ming, was also very helpless.
Since they were unwilling, Zhu Jinsong couldn't force them. Moreover, the Ming treasury was extremely empty, and Liu Huaiwen, the pillar of the financial system, was constantly blocking the palace gates demanding money to buy cats. Where would the money come from to arrange ships to send them back to Icy Le Yuan?
In desperation, Zhu Jinsong had to hand over this matter to the Central Military Command and the Right Military Command to speed up the construction of roads in the Great Ming.
(This part will not be detailed, understanding is worth a thousand.)
...
There were so many messy and chaotic affairs in the Great Ming that Zhu Jinsong, the emperor of the Great Ming, felt annoyed. He even felt like pressing one gourd and the other popped up.
Just as the problems with those foolish scholars were resolved, issues arose with the prohibition of intermarriage. By the time the intermarriage issues were resolved, and Gansu was also recovered, new problems emerged in Jiaozhi.
First, Bai Ziqi entered Annan with troops under the banner of "restoring Li Weiqi to the court." Then, Zhu Jinsong sent people to conspire with Bai Ziqi, stating that as long as Bai Ziqi could pacify Jiaozhi and arrange for Li Weiqi's timely death at an opportune moment, thereby legally abolishing the state of Annan, Zhu Jinsong would enfeoff Bai Ziqi as the Marquis of Anle.
Bai Ziqi thought that although the title of Marquis of Anle was one level lower than Duke of Anle, the title of Marquis of Anle was safer. At least he wouldn't have to worry about things like poison, so Bai Ziqi agreed.
However, after Bai Ziqi led his troops into Annan, he discovered that the situation in Annan was vastly different from that in Guangxi. The language barrier was a minor issue, as the aristocratic families in Annan could speak Chinese and write Chinese characters. But the climate here was truly terrible!
As a result, just after killing several Annan rebels, Li Weiqi, the King of Annan, suddenly died of illness, and coincidentally, Li Weiqi's son also died of illness, as did his brothers and nephews.
Whether the Annan people believed it or not, Bai Ziqi certainly did.
Then, Bai Ziqi impatiently sent a letter to Zhu Jinsong, claiming that the time was right, Li Weiqi had died of illness, and he, the Marquis of Anle, after much effort, had persuaded the aristocratic families of Jiaozhi to surrender to the Ming.
To prove that everything he said was true, Bai Ziqi also provided a letter of surrender with the fingerprints of the heads of the aristocratic families of Jiaozhi.
Bai Ziqi could even swear with a clear conscience that the fingerprints on the letter of surrender were absolutely genuine.
Bai Ziqi stated that as long as Emperor Zhu Jinsong of the Great Ming agreed, he would immediately declare himself King of Annan, and then wait for the Ming army to arrive in Jiaozhi, at which point he would immediately surrender. Whether it was presenting himself in plain clothes with a rope around his neck or any other form of submission, he was willing to cooperate unconditionally.
Zhu Jinsong did not doubt Bai Ziqi's sincerity, nor did he doubt the authenticity of the letter of surrender provided by Bai Ziqi, because Bai Ziqi personally used the fingers of the heads of the aristocratic families of Jiaozhi to press their fingerprints onto the letter of surrender, and later spent half an hour digging pits to bury them.
To put it bluntly, that scoundrel Bai Ziqi was driven mad by the thought of returning to Guangxi or becoming a wealthy gentleman in Jinan, so he simply waged a bloody campaign in Jiaozhi, killing almost everyone, regardless of whether they deserved it or not. As a result, Zhu Jinsong not only had to consider the issue of dispatching officials to Jiaozhi, but also the issue of immigration and border consolidation.
But how many people were there in the entire Great Ming?
Three hundred million people, a seemingly large number, but when averaged per province and per prefecture, it was truly not many.
At the very least, there was no problem of insufficient land.
On the contrary, what the Great Ming lacked most now was not land, but sufficient population—especially as industrialization progressed, the demand for population showed a straight-line upward trend.
And the rise in population demand meant that those workshop owners had to provide better treatment to retain people, and better treatment meant an improvement in the quality of life for the common people.
With the improvement in quality of life, who would be willing to immigrate to a malarial region like Jiaozhi?
Land allocation?
What was so special about land allocation? Did not every household of the Ming people already own their own land?
Giving concubines?
This was not something that could not be considered, as the Great Ming had a surplus of men and a shortage of women, and Jiaozhi was almost turned into a kingdom of women by Bai Ziqi. The young and middle-aged immigrants would not have to worry about marrying wives and taking concubines.
However, what made Zhu Jinsong's head ache was that just as the Great Ming was preparing for immigration, and Zhu Jinsong had also made all preparations to enfeoff Bai Ziqi, Nguyen Phuc Anh, who had been exiled in Siam, suddenly became active.
This matter was mainly due to Bai Ziqi's excessive haste.
If it were any normal person, even if they thought about it with their backside, they would realize that Li Weiqi's death was definitely not normal. Even if Li Weiqi's death was normal, why did Li Weiqi's old mother, his wife, children, and family all die at once?
What about those aristocratic families in Jiaozhi? They were, after all, local powers in Jiaozhi. How many did Bai Ziqi publicly kill? How many escaped?
When those escaped aristocratic families saw that Li Weiqi was finished and all the rebel forces were also finished, and only Nguyen Phuc Anh remained, the aristocratic families of Jiaozhi naturally chose to support Nguyen Phuc Anh.