On the first day of the first month of the spring of the nineteenth year of Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao came to Fengtian Hall to receive the New Year congratulations from the civil and military ministers.

According to the usual rules, at this time, as the emperor, he had to give money to his ministers for the festival.

However, before the Zhengde Dynasty, this kind of behavior of "issuing year-end bonuses" was basically just a formality.

After all, before the Zhengde Dynasty, the empire's finances were not abundant, and it was not enough to provide disaster relief and support the army, so the spare money was given a "year-end bonus"!

Moreover, in order to save money, it is not necessary to give up cochin.

Therefore, the so-called giving money for the festival is just giving some worthless treasure money, just for an auspicious purpose.

Hundreds of officials are also human beings, and naturally they also value these superficial benefits, and the rewards given by the court are getting thinner and thinner, so it is inevitable that they will deviate from the court, so that they will secretly embezzle and take bribes to get benefits.

And now, since the empire's finances were abundant, Zhu Houzhao no longer let this New Year's money ceremony be a mere formality, but as a ritual system for rewarding officials.

Naturally, the money given was all silver dollars, and even the amount was not small, equivalent to three or even five times the monthly salary of many officials.

The courtiers are now also beginning to value this reward, after all, it is three or five times the monthly salary, hundreds of thousands of silver dollars, enough to buy a villa in Xiaoyongfang, Xuanwumen Street.

Naturally, some officials who have performed actively in the year are more bright-faced, especially when some local state and county officials who have made outstanding achievements are arranged in the center of the main hall for the first time to receive awards and rewards from the emperor, for them, it is enough for them to have more confidence to adhere to their duty of being the master of the people.

"Although the law is ruthless, there is love in heaven", this is Zhang Zhang's feeling at this time.

When Emperor Zhu Hou ordered someone to carry the whole box of silver dollars to the Fengtian Temple and opened it, the silver dollars in the box made him and the officials present involuntarily light up, but perhaps because of their own identity, these officials were not good at behaving too much, so they only lowered their heads, but the hands that had nowhere to place clearly revealed the excitement in their hearts.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh secretly when he saw this, he had to admit that although the officials in the court were all wearing exquisite official uniforms embroidered with birds and animals, and although they were all wealthy, when they saw the silver dollar, the excitement they showed was still no different from that of the robbers who robbed the house.

Zhu Houzhao didn't believe it, and these court officials didn't know that these silver dollars were all plundered by the four major overseas plundering companies of the empire, namely the Infrastructure Construction Bureau, the Grain Industry Bureau, the Imperial Maritime Trade Corporation, and the World Investment Bank, in overseas colonies.

Even, even in this splendid hall, Zhu Houzhao could feel the smell of blood on the silver dollar.

However, at this time, no official will stand up and say that the money is a profit from the people, and no one will say that it is ill-gotten gains.

"Heaven rewards, the Ministry of Agriculture Shangshu Yan Song has achieved remarkable results in promoting sweet potatoes and potatoes, solving the famine in Nanzhili, so that three million acres of mountainous land can have grain to be produced, and five times the monthly salary of silver, one thousand silver dollars!"

At this time, the eunuch began to roll call, and some officials began to listen attentively, hoping that they could get the best reward in the year-end evaluation of the officials.

For a while, after Yan Song heard that he was the first, he was excited and prostrated directly on the ground: "Thank you, Your Majesty Longen!" Thank you, Your Majesty, how can you be a minister, you have won this honor, all of this is Your Majesty's work! ”

"Get up, Qing is very effective in promoting sweet potatoes, this is what you deserve, you don't have to make such a big gift!"

Zhu Houzhao glanced at Yan Song helplessly, he had the intention to blame but he was also careless, after all, it is difficult for a subordinate like Yan Song who is willing to put down his dignity and be subservient to himself in every way.

One after another, other outstanding officials were read by name, although they were not as excited as Yan Song, but they all sincerely thanked Zhu Houzhao.

These officials may not care about the amount of money itself, after all, many of their officials are also rich and noble, but the real money and silver given by the emperor are naturally more decent, so that after the officials hold it in their hands, they are eager to do their best for the Ming Dynasty.

After giving money during the Spring Festival, Zhu Houzhao will also give a banquet.

According to the example of the past, the feast would also be exempted.

Because, according to the meaning of the Confucian ministers, the Ming monarch should reduce the banquets and advocate frugality to avoid increasing the expenses in the palace.

However, Zhu Houzhao was in line with the purpose of promoting the consumer market of the Ming Dynasty, and also wanted to take the opportunity of the banquet to cultivate the relationship between the monarch and the minister, and give an official who entered Beijing to be commended the opportunity to contact him, so that it was also convenient for him to understand the people's livelihood, and he did not avoid the banquet.

At the same time as the banquet, Zhu Houzhao will also solemnly congratulate all the people of the Ming Empire as the emperor of the Ming Empire, so as to enhance the feelings of the monarch and the people.

It's just a pity that there is no radio technology and television media in this era, and Zhu Houzhao's New Year's greetings can basically only appear on the front pages of major newspapers and magazines in Daming Capital the next day.

Despite this, Zhu Houzhao's New Year's message has been a necessary ritual for the imperial New Year since the beginning of the tenth year of Zhengde, and the congratulatory message is basically written by the great talents of the chamberlain, such as Tang Bohu and Wen Zhengming, etc., which is brilliant and easy to understand.

Scholars and doctors like to seriously study Zhu Houzhao's congratulatory message every New Year, hoping to find out some new trends in the imperial court.

And the people only felt comfortable to listen to, after all, it was the emperor who congratulated him, and there were many so-called New Year's goals, which made the entire empire from the top to the bottom seem more humane, and the people felt a lot less numb and indifferent, and began to pay attention to the court.

But this also caused a phenomenon, Emperor Zhu Houzhao's sense of presence among officials and the people is getting stronger and stronger, so that Emperor Zhu Houzhao's prestige is getting higher and higher, after all, a person often shows his face in front of a person to brush his sense of existence, and another person will remember this person over time.

This is the case with the current Ming Dynasty, the officials and people all over the world know that the Ming Dynasty has a great emperor who wants to lead all the people of the Ming Dynasty to create a prosperous era, and there is a Ming Dynasty that is admired by 10,000 people.

Zhu Houzhao didn't expect that he would have the brilliance of a leader in Daming, but he knew that he was not a leader, he was just doing what he had to do.

Xu Jie, the new science detective who was sitting on his right, didn't look at Zhu Houzhao like this, in his opinion, the wine, yogurt, and even glass goblets and potato stewed beef on his table all appeared because of the emperor in front of him.

In his opinion, His Majesty the Emperor in front of him obviously has knowledge and knowledge that his own people do not have.

Of course, what made Xu Jie even more fortunate was that because he was the top three in the palace examination, he had the opportunity to dine in the same room with His Majesty the Emperor with other officials who were excellent in the assessment, and he could even see His Majesty's face clearly.

Zhu Houzhao very much hopes that the Ming Dynasty can become an open and proud empire, and rigidity is the characteristic of the Ming Dynasty, but if it can be in the heyday, the Han and Tang dynasties, continue to promote and improve the Chinese civilization, and make the empire into an empire with romantic feelings and brilliant brilliance, it is naturally better, and it can be regarded as making up for the regret that Chinese civilization has been interrupted since the Two Song Dynasty.

Because of this, during the Spring Festival banquet, Zhu Houzhao did not let the ministers restrain him, and allowed these civil and military officials to recite poems and deduce their talents in literature and art, and even Zhu Houzhao himself was brilliant.

Xu Jie and other new officials very much wanted Emperor Zhu Houzhao to know his talent and appreciate himself, so they were also quite positive, but they were greatly influenced by Cheng Zhu Lixue, and there were very few people who could write Li Du's poems and Su Xin's words, and it was difficult to produce any good works for a while.

Zhu Houzhao was not discouraged by this, he believed that under the leadership of his emperor, the empire would not lose the inherent beauty of Chinese civilization after industrialization.

Recently, Kunqu opera has begun to emerge from the stage.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the fascinated appearance of these officials below and just smiled slightly, he didn't know how these people would feel if they knew that there were movies in this world, but what he could know now was that when Cui Yingying and Zhang Gong on the stage secretly tied the knot behind their parents' backs, some Confucian ministers were still quite annoyed, and only poured wine into their mouths, obviously unable to accept the rebellious behavior of the heroes and heroines in the West Chamber.

However, there are also officials who are interested in learning from the party who keep clapping their hands, and this drama that only appeared in the late Ming Dynasty in history and preached the spirit of rebellion against feudal ideology has now appeared, and it has also made these officials whose thinking has begun to change begin to resonate with it.

……

After the end of the New Year in the nineteenth year of Zhengde, the first thing the Ming Dynasty encountered was that the Joseon King Li Yi sent his courtiers Li Cao to judge Choi Chonghong and others to congratulate him.

Of course.

Naturally, it was impossible for the North Korean envoys to meet Zhu Houzhao directly at first, and they were generally received by the host and guest department of the Ministry of Rites first, and arranged to stay in the same hall.

Then the Ministry of Rites reported to Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Houzhao gave a banquet and gifts according to the custom, that is, he would generally not let the envoy of the Ming Dynasty suffer, and even allowed his fellow members of the mission to trade with the people of the Ming Dynasty in the specified place.

Choi Chonghong and other Korean envoys were naturally the same, as soon as they came to Jingshi, they stayed in the Huitong Pavilion, and then waited for the imperial court to allow them to trade with the nearby people and meet with the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Rites, the cabinet and even the emperor.

The first person to meet Cui Chonghong was the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, Lang Xishu, because he was in charge of the host and guest division.

For these tributary envoys, Xi Shu naturally had a headache, because he knew that none of these envoys were honest and honest, they were all insatiable and wanted to get some benefits, and some even relied on themselves to be foreign envoys to oppress the people.

As an official of the imperial court, Xi Shu sometimes can't be too polite to these foreign envoys so as not to be scolded and damage the national body, but he doesn't dare to be too strict with these foreign envoys, so as to avoid causing disputes between the two countries, and he will be scolded for ignoring the overall situation.

Therefore, Xi Shu could only try to maintain an attitude of neither humility nor arrogance, and said to Cui Chonghong: "The matter of your envoy's order to pay tribute, this official has reported to the cabinet, you can stay in the Huitong Pavilion for the time being, and there will be corresponding news at that time!" ”

After Xi Shu finished speaking, he was about to leave the hall, but at this time, Cui Chonghong stopped Xi Shu: "Slow down, adult!" Cui Mou sealed the decree of my king, and came to the Heavenly Dynasty to pay tribute, not only to come to the tribute in exchange for rewards, but to see His Majesty the Emperor of the Heavenly Dynasty! This is a little bit of Cui's heart, please smile! ”

Cui Chonghong took out a large-denomination silver dollar bill as he spoke, and Xi Shu threw his sleeves angrily on the spot when he saw this: "What do you think of my Celestial Empire officials!" This incident should have not happened, otherwise, once the people of the Dongchang Inspectorate know, even if you are an envoy of North Korea, you will not be able to escape the crime of being decapitated and skinned! ”

Daming has just cracked down on corruption and bribery, Xi Shu naturally did not dare to accept the benefits of the Korean envoys at this time, not to mention, he also knew that the emperor had announced that Daming had extraterritoriality, and all foreign crimes in Daming would be punished according to the laws of their own country, and the bribes they received from foreign fans would naturally be punished according to the laws of Daming's own country.

Cui Chonghong had inquired about the character of the high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty before, and in his impression, this Lord Xi of the Left Attendant of the Ministry of Rites liked silver dollars, but he didn't expect that this Lord Xi would refuse to accept his silver dollar bills, and he couldn't help but be shocked: "What's the matter, this Ming Dynasty's current rule will become so clear?" ”

After Xi Shu left the Huitong Pavilion, he didn't see Cui Chonghong again, and Choi Chonghong and other North Korean envoys could only continue to live in the Huitong Pavilion.

However, Zhu Houzhao received a report from Kang Hai on the handling of the tribute of the Korean envoys.

According to Kang Hai's meaning, it is customary to give these Korean envoys some silk cloth, etc., and by the way, give them a banquet and entertainment.

But Zhu Houzhao didn't want to implement this kind of tributary system anymore, and sometimes he didn't understand why, in this era, it was clear that the Ming Dynasty was a strong empire, but on the contrary, like a weak country, was it willing to suffer losses in some interests, was it just for the sake of good-neighborliness and friendship?

But friendship is not so friendly, in Zhu Houzhao's view, as a strong empire, it is already the greatest friendship if you don't destroy you, but there is no need to let yourself suffer and exchange money for the harmony of the surrounding environment.

Because in this case, it is the interests of the people who are at stake, and the peace of the people does not require you to buy from a small and weak country with money.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao intends to reform this tributary system under the guidance of Confucianism, and he does not need the false name of these countries to come to the court.

"Your Majesty, are you saying that you want to reform the tributary system?"

When Kang Hai heard Zhu Houzhao's purpose, he was taken aback, because the tributary system had been implemented for more than a hundred years, and he had never thought that this tributary system needed to be changed.

Zhu Houzhao nodded.

Kang Hai didn't know whether he should oppose or support, he knew that his majesty the emperor was different from Emperor Xiaozong, and he never waited for the ministers to put forward reform proposals and then decided whether to change them or not, but the emperor himself put forward reform opinions, and the ministers under him put forward opinions against or supported.

Although Kang Hai was fortunate that His Majesty the Emperor could tolerate different opinions in such matters involving the reform of the imperial government, and even had the patience to communicate with his ministers until the most perfect plan was discussed.

But this also led to the fact that the officials had to take the initiative to think about why the emperor wanted to reform a certain government.

Like now.

Kang Hai had to start thinking about why the emperor wanted to ban the tributary system, he couldn't directly ask the emperor why Zhu Houzhao wanted to reform the tributary system, that would be despised by the emperor, despise his own corpse vegetarian meal, and he couldn't see the disadvantages of the tributary system.

Of course, it is precisely because there is an emperor who constantly asks his ministers to think about the rationality of the existing system of the empire, Kang Hai also has to think about the relevant systems of the empire from time to time, and he has also thought about the quality of this imperial system, rather than completing it step by step according to the convention.

Now Kang Hai can also guess that His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao wants to ban the tributary system because the Ming Dynasty actually suffers in this system, and basically, the Ming Dynasty has to spend a lot of money to entertain these envoys and give gifts.

However, after the tributary system was abolished, Kang Hai did not think of a solution to how to communicate with these foreign vassal countries.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty is the suzerain, and the Ming Dynasty cannot ignore these foreign domains, not to mention that the safety of these foreign domains will also affect the safety of the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty, the minister dares to ask, after the tributary system is abolished, what should be done with these tribute people? Also, how should the Ministry of Rites get in touch? ”

Kang Hai asked.

"There are two kinds of this, if it is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, they are equivalent to our lackeys, they can come to pay tribute, but they must sign a tributary treaty!

For example, the Korean state can pay tribute once every three years, based on the number of people, each person pays a tribute of one silver dollar, then the Korean state should pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty every three years equivalent to the number of silver dollars, of course, the tribute silver dollars can be mortgaged by the right to lease the territory, the right to mine and the right to collect customs duties!

Of course, North Korea also needs to provide the Ming with a census of the population of their Hucao every three years! And the Ming don't need to give any more gifts to the Korean state, the Ming will only promise to give them three years of peace! ”

"If it weren't for the vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, there would naturally be no need to come to pay tribute, but they would also be regarded as enemy countries by my Ming Dynasty, and I would not allow the existence of an empire equal to the Ming Dynasty! Da Ming will not be responsible for the security of their country either! ”

Zhu Houzhao said.

Kang Hai couldn't help but be shocked when he heard this, and said in his heart: "Once in three years, the tribute is calculated based on one silver dollar per person in the vassal state, the number of tribute silver dollars is equal to the number of people, and Korea alone is estimated to have to pay tribute of millions of silver dollars, millions of silver dollars is still a huge amount of money for the Ming Empire, and it is a huge amount of money for North Korea!" ”

Therefore, Kang Hai couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, this will make the vassal states bear a huge burden, but I am afraid that they will no longer be willing to recognize the Ming Dynasty as their suzerain." ”

"Then there is no need for the Ming Dynasty to protect them, and there is no need to respect their territory and some sovereignty," Zhu Houzhao said.

Kang Hai was irrefutable when he heard this, so he only asked again:

"As Your Majesty said, in that case, how should matters involving diplomatic relations between the two countries be handled? Does the Ming still need to send envoys to summon them? ”

"Those who are willing to establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty or recognize the Ming Dynasty as their suzerain, I can let them rent a house in the capital of the empire as an embassy, and before breaking off diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, the country's embassy can always exist, and they can send officials to the embassy to communicate with the Ming Dynasty! Of course, I will also send an ambassador to the country to establish an embassy! ”

After Zhu Houzhao said, Kang Hai fell into doubts and thoughts again, it was the first time he heard the word "embassy", but he could understand it, and only asked: "Dare to ask Your Majesty, is this embassy protected and paid by us?" ”

"Naturally not, it is provided by their own country", Zhu Houzhao said, he will not let the embassies of various countries in the future be like the current Huitong Pavilion, and the Ming court will take care of the food, drink and Lazar of the envoys of these countries, although most of the money of the Ministry of Rites is the money earned by the Ministry of Teaching, but it cannot be spent in vain.

Kang Hai asked a few more questions, and left Xiyuan after thoroughly understanding Zhu Houzhao's intentions, and at this time, it was already the beginning of the lanterns, and the students of Jingshi University began to climb the courtyard walls of the major princes' mansions to have private meetings with some young ladies, but Kang Hai did not go home, but went directly to the cabinet, thinking about how to complete the task of His Majesty the Emperor to reform the tributary system by himself.

At dawn the next day, after Kang Hai woke up on the desk, Xi Shu, the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, found Kang Hai and told Kang Hai that the North Korean envoy Choi Chonghong intended to bribe him.

"This Cui Chonghong! Dare to buy my officials of the Celestial Empire, this is deliberately corrupting my Ming Dynasty! However, it also shows that he has other intentions! But now I can't control him, and now, His Majesty intends to reform the tributary system of my Ming Dynasty;

But now, Ouyang Dan, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, is recuperating from his illness, so you and the officials of the host and guest department will immediately draft a new system of tribute and diplomatic relations in the Ming Dynasty. ”

After Kang Hai said that, he explained the new foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty in detail to the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites.

Xi Shu was very shocked when he heard this: "Shou Yu! This, this, is this too domineering, I am afraid that the foreign vassal countries will no longer be willing to recognize the Ming Dynasty as the suzerain, so will your majesty's imperial cause not be destroyed in one fell swoop?! ”

"How can Your Majesty judge his own imperial cause, Your Majesty is a rare emperor, and his strategy is naturally farther than you and me, if these foreign vassals are raised by my Ming Dynasty as they are now, they only respect my Ming Dynasty on the surface, and they will not be afraid in their hearts, and even if they have the opportunity, they will devour my Ming territory, and when he was Goryeo before, he did not intend to encroach on my Liaodong land!"

"Now, in order to prevent the foreign vassal countries from becoming bigger and threatening my Ming Dynasty in the future, we can only cut off the opportunity for their rise first!"

After Kang Hai said this, he asked Xi Shu to draft a new system of tributary and diplomatic relations.

Xi Shu knew that he was just a left-hand servant of the Zhengsanpin Rite Department, and he was not qualified to question the new policies of the imperial court, so he honestly wrote according to Kang Hai's meaning.

Three days later.

Kang Hai officially handed over the new foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty to the hands of the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Hou was very satisfied after taking care of it, so he asked the other two cabinet ministers to take a look, but at this time, Zhang Xuan on the side said: "Your Majesty, the minister suggests that if a country recognizes my Ming as the suzerain, then when recognizing other countries as the suzerain, it should pay the same tribute to my Ming when giving corresponding tributes to other countries, otherwise, my Ming can be regarded as the vassal country betraying the Ming Dynasty!" ”

After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao agreed very much, and hurriedly ordered Kang Hai to add, thinking that if a vassal state such as Korea really claimed to be subordinate to Japan or other countries, then when giving Japan and other countries privileges and treatment, it must also give the same privileges and treatment to the Ming Dynasty.

Looking at the newly released foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao believes that this is the beginning of the modern diplomacy of the Ming Dynasty, and the diplomatic history of the Ming Dynasty is destined to open a new chapter, no longer the gentle and benevolent diplomacy of the agricultural civilization period, but the diplomatic method of the supremacy of national interests.