The Ming Dynasty relied on the imperial examination to select scholars, while the Jiangnan area, which had developed culture, monopolized the recruitment quota for a long time.
In the 30th year of Hongwu (1397), the famous "Nanbei List Case" was the concentrated embodiment of this phenomenon.
Most of the officials in the Ming Dynasty were controlled by officials from the Jiangnan area.
These officials were more or less related to overseas trade.
Even civil officials who were not involved in overseas trade would receive a large sum of money from their subordinates every year.
He had no choice but to speak up for the interest groups.
Moreover, it was also the political right of the civil officials to attack the eunuch forces.
Therefore, a large group of civil officials collectively remonstrated and requested to abolish the voyage to the West. They naturally could not say that it would affect their own private interests and had to make an aboveboard slogan.
In other words, the expenditure was huge, and the treasury was empty.
However, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di was a very assertive emperor and basically disdained civil officials.
Therefore, it was not until 1424, when Zhu Gaochi, the Ming Renzong, who believed in civil officials, ascended the throne that he stopped going to the West.
In 1430, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji, ordered Zheng He to go to the Western Ocean for the seventh time.
Unfortunately, Zheng He was already old and had wasted many years in the middle. Many of the personnel and facilities for the Western Expedition had been abandoned. The magnificent feat of the Ming Dynasty's Western Expedition was no longer possible.
Whether Zheng He's voyage to the West was profitable or not, one only needed to look at what Ming Chengzu Zhu Di did to know.
Zheng He's first six expeditions to the West had lasted from the third year of Yongle to the twenty-second year of Yongle.
During this period of time, Zhu Di had personally conquered the Mongol Empire five times, and each time, he had dispatched more than 100,000 troops.
He sent Duke of Cheng Zhu Neng and Duke of England Zhang Pu to the south four times, which cost him more than 100,000 troops.
Millions of craftsmen and civilian workers were recruited to expand Beiping City, build the Forbidden City, and move the capital to Beijing.
A lot of the money came from the emperor's palace treasury, and the emperor's money was earned for him by Zheng He and the other eunuchs.
To put it bluntly, all the money earned from the voyage went into Zhu Di's own small treasury.
Seeing this, everyone understood, right?
Why was Zhu Di so awesome?
Not only was he bold and open-minded, but more importantly…he was rich.
He was constantly earning money from overseas.
If you have money, you can go to war and build the Forbidden City.
Being rich was willful!
If the officials of the Ming Dynasty had no selfishness and did not want to not pay taxes and monopolize overseas trade, they should not have pushed for the abolition of the voyage.
On the contrary, they should push for the abolition of the sea ban and promote the expansion of foreign trade.
Unfortunately, this group of civil officials was too greedy.
There were two main reasons for the Ming Dynasty's demise:
First, the country's finances collapsed, and they could not take out enough money to pacify Liaodong and suppress Li Zicheng and the other peasant uprisings.
If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could get money from the sea trade, the so-called "three salaries" would not be a problem at all. How could he be short of money?
The second was the Little Ice Age. During the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters continued, crop failures continued year after year, and famine continued.
Southeast Asia's Champa, Siam, Annam, Zhenla and other countries were all big grain producing countries, with two or three crops a year.
As long as the ships sailing to the West continued to exist, these grain-producing areas would always respect the leadership of the Ming Dynasty.
Whether it was collecting grain, borrowing grain, or buying grain, they could all solve the problem of grain shortage in the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, there were no ifs in history.
Therefore, the benefits of opening the sea ban were great, and the losses of not opening the sea ban were great. Whoever dared to block the way would be killed.
Lu Ya said,"
"Chongba, I've said what I needed to say. The final decision is still yours.”
Pausing for a moment, Lu Ya continued,
"The aristocrats in the Jiangnan area are the people you have to deal with next. My suggestion is…to cooperate with them first!”
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, somewhat puzzled.
"Cooperation? This group of people were unproductive and forsaken for profit. How could they cooperate with them?”
Lu Ya pulled a long face and said unhappily,"
"Chongba, you're doing it again. How many times have I told you not to discriminate and look down on businessmen? If Big Ming wants to develop in the future, we still have to rely on those businessmen.”
"Oh! Alright then." Zhu Yuanzhang pursed his lips.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang hated businessmen the most.
This had something to do with the profiteers who had harmed him when he was young.
In his previous life, Shen Wansan, a wealthy businessman in the third year of Hongwu, had become a victim of his policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce.
If it weren't for Empress Ma's repeated persuasion, Zhu Yuanzhang would have killed Shen Wansan long ago. Although he didn't do it in the end, he still confiscated Shen Wansan's property and sent him to Yunnan.
At that time, Shen Wansan took the initiative to join Zhu Yuanzhang and paid for the construction of one-third of the Nanjing city wall.
These city walls were very sturdy. They were built with high-quality granite, glutinous rice as pulp, and coated with lime.
It could be called an iron wall.
Although it was said that this matter was fabricated by the merchants of the Ming Dynasty in order to smear Zhu Yuanzhang, it could also be seen how much Zhu Yuanzhang hated merchants.
Under Lu Ya's persuasion, although Zhu Yuanzhang no longer hated the merchant so much, he still felt a little disgusted.
Lu Ya also knew that it was unrealistic for Zhu Yuanzhang to accept merchants in a short period of time. However, it was already not easy to stop him from emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce.
Lu Ya was about to continue speaking when he suddenly heard footsteps coming from outside. Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly and turned around to look.
It was actually his five Zhu cubs.
PS: You are the flower, I am the ticket, entangled, forever!!!
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