Chapter 642 It’s all about money It was already the evening of the third day when Xia Yuanji received the news. However, when the letter was delivered to the Governor's Mansion, Xia Yuanji was discussing with Lan Yu how to deploy defenses. After a few days of exploration, they found that even though they had uprooted the pirates' lair this time, there was still no leader and the monkeys were the only ones left. There were quite a few small groups of pirates that became more chaotic after losing Chen Zuyi's restraint. Without restraint, they had no rules. Although there had been robberies before, the rule set by Chen Zuyi was not to avoid killing the goose that lays the eggs. The reason why this pirate leader was able to gain such a powerful force was not because of his strong personal fighting power, but because of his good brain. It has to be said that those who had been in the Central Plains Dynasty, even if they were just ordinary people at the bottom, had been exposed to the strategies of the Central Plains culture and knew very well how to develop longer. So when he was there, he was like the leader of a pirate alliance, tying all the pirates together and setting rules for them. Although he did not participate in the profit distribution among them, once this rule was established, he could fully enforce it while his authority remained. Even though the people along the coast were robbed by pirates, they were able to survive because the Three Alls Policy was not implemented and the goose that lays the golden eggs was not killed, and there was not even any resistance from them.

Instead, it made many local people spend money to buy peace, so that pirates and coastal people could live relatively peacefully, similar to paying a protection fee. This is also the reason why the people of Mandala City are willing to cooperate with the pirates, because the pirates do not implement such bad policies and there is a certain buffer space. But now it’s different. Without any constraints, these pirates feel that Chen Zuyi’s previous constraints on them were too strict. They even hope that Chen Zuyi will die. They had thought about how to get rid of Chen Zuyi before, but unfortunately Chen Zuyi was too powerful and they had no such opportunity at all. Even if you get close, you might be threatened by Chen Zuyi's pirate subordinates. In fact, they did not obey Chen Zuyi. Why should we stick to principles even though we are pirates? Why should we give more comfort to the people living along the coast? He was clearly going to rob them but he still pretended to be kind. How could he be so hypocritical? Why did he still want to be a pirate? Why don't you just become a rich man who gives out porridge and medicine every day? These short-sighted pirates at the bottom could not understand Chen Zuyi's approach. In fact, these pirates had no idea why Chen Zuyi did this. The purpose was to make these ordinary people never think of resisting. In fact, during this process, the people along the coast were somewhat grateful to Chen Zuyi and his group of pirates. This idea is paradoxical, but it does exist. The people along the coast even felt that Chen Zuyi and his gang of pirates were doing a great favor by not taking all of their food but only taking half and leaving the other half. Such pirates were more welcome than other pirates. In the minds of the common people, if Chen Zuyi had not restrained these pirates, their own food would have been stolen. With the great god Chen Zuyi suppressing them, half of them were still able to remain. Therefore, the pirates led by Chen Zuyi were very strange. Unlike ordinary pirates, they did not just rob, but also did business. They also settle matters for local government officials and even stand up for ordinary poor people. This made Chen Zuyi very popular in the local area. He served as a general in many countries, and some countries even had to invite him to serve as a general from their own country. Because if he didn't have the title of a general in his own country, other pirates would specifically target that country to rob. But now that the Ming Dynasty had killed Chen Zuyi, some unexpected things had indeed happened. Without Chen Zuyi's restraint, those scattered pirates seemed to have indulged their nature and began to resume their brutality and indiscriminately robbed the common people. As a result, breaking the balance would come with a price, so other countries requested the Ming navy to move in. In fact, this was also a conspiracy of Xia Yuanji and others. Anyway, my Ming Navy is here. If you are threatened and ask us to move in, we will come, but you will have to pay for the military expenses and our military salaries, and you will have to do trade with us in the future. In fact, Chen Han and Xia Yuanji had already thought about it when they were formulating how to balance the interests of all the countries in Southeast Asia. To be able to make such a big success, Chen Zuyi must be more than just a person who burns, kills and robs.

They must have formulated their own rules within the pirate circle, similar to the different classes and various laws that already exist in the pirate kingdom. Once Chen Zuyi is destroyed, those stragglers will surely become rampant, and then what will the other small countries rely on? They once had to rely on the pirate leader Chen Zuyi to help them deal with other pirates, but now the Ming Navy is about to replace Chen Zuyi's position. It is even dozens or hundreds of times stronger than Chen Zuyi. However, the conspiracy is that I have such a powerful navy, but I will not send troops unless you ask me to. Even if innocent civilians will be injured, it is often these unarmed civilians who have to be sacrificed in politics. In fact, Chen Han didn’t understand at first why so many ordinary people who would not celebrate the Spring Festival had to be sacrificed, but after he saw the entire layout, he had to harden his heart. There are always sacrifices in politics. It depends on who is sacrificed. To a certain extent, everyone becomes a pawn. Politics is inherently unreasonable, so it was only after Chen Han came to this place that he finally understood why people say that people involved in politics are cruel. Because these people do not take the lives of ordinary people seriously at all, and they don’t even regard ordinary people as human beings. In their eyes, ordinary people are just chess pieces that can be discarded immediately. It was only after careful consideration that Chen Han mustered up the courage to come up with such a plan. He knew very well that once the fireman Chen Zuyi was defeated, other pirate cities would surely rise up and want to regain the territory that once belonged to Chen Zuyi and his people. This was inevitable. All he could do was to minimize the casualties among the civilians, but this was difficult to achieve. During this process, after careful consideration, he could only come up with this relatively good plan. After dealing with Chen Zuyi and his gang of pirates, they would immediately wait along the coast until the scattered pirates started to cause trouble. Then the other small countries would know who to ask for help. At that time, the Ming navy would have a legitimate reason to attack, and at the same time they would be able to deal with the other small countries. In this way, we can win the battle without bloodshed. The small countries in Southeast Asia can be included in the arms of the Ming Dynasty, not just let them assume the so-called vassal state. The so-called vassal states are a joke. When the Central Plains dynasty is strong, they will bow down and serve as subjects. Once the Central Plains dynasty is no longer strong, they will immediately turn their backs on the Central Plains dynasty. This is human nature and it is simply impossible to change. So after Chen Han came here, he didn't think about asking them to change anything. He just wanted them to know what being powerful meant. The Ming Dynasty first occupied the land for several years, then began to dump goods in large quantities to control the economy of the entire Nanyang region, and then used culture as a supplement to promote the advanced culture of the Ming Dynasty to erode the local culture one by one. Even if these people still have a trace of the desire to restore the country in their hearts, as long as this group of people die, the next generation will naturally sing praises for the Ming Dynasty, and then, just like the expansion of the east and west in history, they will slowly integrate into the embrace of the entire Central Plains Dynasty. Although this process is a bit slow, it is very effective. The reason why Chen Han did this is because the main reason that led to the disintegration of the Ming Dynasty was economic problems. As some people have said, ancient dynasties were actually capitalist countries. When the country is thriving, both capitalists and ordinary people can live a good life. But capital is profit-seeking, and they will surely slowly swallow up the small fish like big fish eat small fish, and they will start by swallowing up ordinary people. After most of the ordinary people had been annexed, they began to annex each other. But once the common people have been devoured by them and have nothing left, they will start to rebel. Therefore, interests are the fundamental core that supports the entire Central Plains dynasty passed down from generation to generation. However, once the benefits are lost, no matter whether they are aristocratic families or officials, they will not obey the emperor's orders. Because the emperor no longer had any way to bring them benefits. And if Chen Han wanted to prolong the life of the Ming Dynasty, the best way was to expand the territory.

Try your best to create more areas for farming in the Ming Dynasty during your lifetime. The Ming Dynasty was a pitiful era in that it was basically in a Little Ice Age for more than 270 years. It's just a matter of severity. Starting from the early Ming Dynasty, the power of the Little Ice Age began to show its power and brought many disasters. By the end, Xiaobing may have reached his peak. Many people say that the demise of the Ming Dynasty was due to corruption in the bureaucracy. In fact, this is just the sum of problems caused by the reduction in grain production due to the Little Ice Age. Just like every dynasty, the Ming Dynasty. After decades of war, a large number of wealthy people's wealth was cleaned up, and the wealth and land were redistributed. After a large number of people had land, they naturally began to prosper. Therefore, as long as there is no big turmoil in the first few stages of the founding of the country, it will generally usher in a prosperous era. By the beginning of the mid-term, this good sign will face a test and a turning point, because at this time, the dangers of land annexation will begin to emerge. Food and wealth were mainly concentrated in the hands of the big landlords. After more than a hundred years of land annexation and the efforts of three generations, these big landlords finally formed their own industries. Their industries do not need to pay taxes through their own operations and collusion with the government. At this time, the court would start to have some problems because it would not be able to collect enough taxes like previous generations, and all kinds of problems would arise. First of all, without so much taxation, border defense will begin to loosen. On the one hand, after one or two hundred years of peace on the border, the soldiers no longer have the sharpness they had at the beginning of the founding of the country. On the other hand, since there were no wars to fight, many officers began to become corrupt. They would embezzle military pay and even falsely report the number of soldiers to collect empty salaries. Once this problem occurs, the combat effectiveness will drop sharply, just like termites eroding the entire dam. When the foreign tribes in the north see this opportunity, they will inevitably move south, and the pressure on border defense will increase suddenly. The commanders will ask the court for more military pay, and the court will then face the problem of not being able to collect taxes. How to do? Then we have to impose additional taxes, but these additional taxes will not fall on the rich, but on ordinary people. Ordinary people will feel that heavy taxes are being levied suddenly. At this time, there may not be too many huge problems, only sporadic riots. Even during this process, if a natural disaster occurs, it will make things even worse for the people. Once a natural disaster occurs, the people can only sell their land to survive the disaster, or even sell their children. Natural disasters are often accompanied by man-made disasters. The rich landlords will not sympathize with the common people. Instead, when the disaster occurs, they will buy land from the common people at a very low price. This is what is called making money from disasters. Most landlords annexed a large number of ordinary people's fields through this method. At this time, the imperial court would face a very difficult problem because of this problem. With the annexation of land, tax revenues became less and less. Because the tax revenues in ancient times were mainly head taxes, land taxes, and commercial taxes, there were very few. After the land was annexed by the powerful and wealthy who did not pay taxes, the basic base became smaller and smaller. In the process of decreasing tax revenue, natural disasters and man-made disasters will occur, which will make them even less. Once tax revenue increases, the pressure from the north will increase sharply. What should the court do in this vicious cycle? The only option is to increase taxes, and officials will take the opportunity to plunder the people. Once these vicious cycles are formed, local people will no longer trust the government, and government officials will use the power in their hands to take advantage of the court's increased taxes to plunder the people, forming the worst link in the vicious cycle - the collapse of the court's credit. Once the imperial court's credibility collapses, local people will see no hope and will revolt.

If there is a rebellion or uprising in one place, it will spread all over the world like a spark that sets the whole world on fire. In this situation, it is difficult to reverse the situation. Therefore, the root of all problems lies in economic issues, or money issues. The reason why Chen Han went south to expand territory was to gain more opportunities for the Ming Dynasty. As long as they ensured that grain production did not drop sharply and suppressed the trend of land annexation, the Ming Dynasty might be able to go further... (End of this chapter)