Ming Dynasty: What's wrong with being a leisurely crown prince?

Chapter 8 Everything has two sides: the aftermath of moving the capital

Zhu Di was very happy; he was extremely pleased at that moment.

If Zhu Gaochi had always been of one mind with him as he is now, instead of jumping out to oppose whatever he did along with those others, he wouldn't dislike Zhu Gaochi so much.

Now that Zhu Gaochi had completely struck a chord with him, how could he not be happy?

"Boss, I'm so glad you could say these things."

Those people, wouldn't you say they were pedantic scholars?

I only mentioned the idea of ​​building Beiping, and I haven't even mentioned moving the capital yet, but those people put on an ugly face and came up with all sorts of reasons to oppose me.

These people only think about their own selfish desires.

"Boss, tell me, do these people still deserve to be important officials in the imperial court?"

As Zhu Di spoke, venting his anger, he glanced at Zhu Gaochi out of the corner of his eye, wanting to see how Zhu Gaochi would react.

Zhu Gaochi knew Zhu Di's thoughts; these words were merely a test to gauge his attitude.

"Father, among those people, there are indeed pedantic scholars, but there are also those who truly care about the Ming Dynasty. We cannot generalize."

In fact, many people who are unwilling to relocate the capital are simply familiar with and adapted to their current environment, and they do not want to make any changes.

These people are the real pedants, unwilling to face the problems directly, unwilling to solve them, only knowing how to stick to the old ways and blindly cling to the past.

There was also a group of people who were afraid that moving the capital would harm their interests, and they put their own interests above those of the country.

Both types of people are a burden on the court and should be dealt with seriously.

Zhu Di felt exceptionally pleased as he listened to what Zhu Gaochi said.

In his view, these words were exceptionally insightful; weren't they exactly what those who mainly opposed moving the capital were thinking?

What Zhu Gaochi said was exactly what he wanted to do.

At the same time, Zhu Di's mind was in turmoil. Zhu Gaochi clearly had a perfect idea and had thought it through thoroughly, but he was unwilling to take the initiative to tell him.

If he hadn't asked, Zhu Gaochi probably still wouldn't have said it.

At this moment, Zhu Di even wondered if he had been too harsh on Zhu Gaochi in the past, which had led to this situation.

Looking at Zhu Gaochi, the current Zhu Gaochi was so pleasing to the eye.

It turns out that what he disliked all along was not just Zhu Gaochi's obesity and inability to ride a horse.

This time, when Zhu Gaochi was being tested, Zhu Gaochi did not offer his usual advice or tell him not to take action against those people.

Instead, he took the initiative to say that he would deal with those people seriously, which was completely different from usual.

Previously, Zhu Gaochi sided with those ministers.

Now, Zhu Gaochi has finally sided with him.

This is what made Zhu Di feel gratified.

Zhu Gaochi paused for a moment, giving Zhu Di time to process the information.

He knew that everything he said now was, without exception, a demonstration of his own change, and he wanted to show it to Zhu Di so that he would know about it.

Only in this way could he downplay his own identity and avoid arousing Zhu Di's suspicion.

Only in this way can we explain his many changes later on.

What he is doing now is all to make Zhu Di adapt to his changes.

After a moment, Zhu Gaochi continued, "Father, moving the capital to Beiping is a good thing, but everything has two sides, and naturally there will be a bad side as well."

The premise of moving the capital is to resolve these problems, rather than using imperial power to suppress them, which is not the fundamental solution.

The construction of Beiping required a large number of laborers and craftsmen, as well as substantial financial and material support.

Finances are already tight, the country is still in a period of rest and recuperation, and the compilation of the Yongle Encyclopedia is nearing completion. These are all major expenditures.

At the same time, an emergency fund must be prepared so that the imperial court can provide timely disaster relief should any place suffer from natural disasters, such as drought or floods.

These are just special expenses; regular expenses were not included.

So, how much money and grain would be needed to build Beiping? Was there an estimate? Could the finances support it? Could the allocation of resources be optimized?

How can we ensure that the large-scale conscription of corvée labor does not further increase the burden on the people? How much corvée labor is required and is there a plan?

If corvée labor is widely conscripted, what should be the treatment of these laborers? Is there a basic guarantee of food for them? From which areas will they be mainly conscripted?

The relocation of the capital was originally intended to benefit the Ming Dynasty, and it should have been a good thing. However, if these preliminary issues were not properly addressed, it would inevitably cause public resentment.

In addition, to balance the excessive number of officials and gentry in the south, could there be special support for the north? How can more scholars from the north be cultivated, and can the construction of schools be improved?

As for further population replenishment in the north, how many people need to be relocated northwards? Is there a plan? And from where should they be relocated? How should their food and lodging be handled along the way? Is there a plan?

The south is prosperous. Once the capital is moved, the court's taxes will inevitably be mainly collected in the south. So how should the taxes in the south be collected? After the court moves the capital, will the officials, gentry, landlords and others in the south continue to levy exorbitant taxes as they did in the previous Yuan dynasty?

And how to transport taxes to Beiping as quickly as possible, the dredging of the canal, and the opening of sea routes to form a canal transport system—are there any contingency plans?

The establishment of the canal transport system would require a large amount of labor and would again lead to the conscription of laborers. Would this place too much burden on the people and cause them to suffer? How could this problem be solved without causing public resentment?

After the capital was moved, how could a balance be achieved between the aristocratic officials and the common people in the south? How could they be suppressed subtly?

As for the northward shift of national defense forces, coupled with the frequent raids on the coast by Japanese pirates, how can we ensure the loyalty and combat effectiveness of the army while resolving the Japanese pirate threat?

In fact, there are many other issues, and these are all major matters that need to be considered when relocating.

I believe the current issue isn't about persuading people to relocate the capital, but rather about having preliminary solutions and contingency plans for these problems before we can truly begin working on the relocation.

Zhu Gaochi spoke at length, a very long discourse.

These are his own thoughts, as well as some viewpoints he saw in his previous life.

In short, these are indeed problems that must be faced and solved when relocating the capital.

Even if the capital isn't moved, there are still some problems that need to be solved.

The Ming Dynasty had many problems, and these were just the more important ones, stemming from the relocation of the capital.

If these problems are not resolved, the final fate of the Ming Dynasty will remain unchanged.

It is said that the Ming Dynasty perished during the Wanli era, but in Zhu Gaochi's view, it was not the Wanli era that caused the seeds to be sown long ago.

The Ming Dynasty's system had significant problems; this is a harsh reality.

The Ming Dynasty was indeed excellent. Among the Han Chinese dynasties, it could be compared with the Han and Tang dynasties, and it was also the last peak dynasty of the Han Chinese.

At its peak, the Ming Dynasty's influence far surpassed that of the Han and Tang Dynasties.

How influential were the Han and Tang dynasties? And how influential were they during the Ming dynasty?

Even after the Age of Exploration, Europe still had to obediently pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and regard it as the Celestial Empire.

The Qing dynasty suffered complete defeats against European countries, but the Ming dynasty was undefeated against European countries, winning every single one of their matches, and always with fewer troops.

The Ming Dynasty's victory over European countries was as insignificant as the Tang Dynasty's annihilation of a small country during its heyday.

It should be noted that this was based on the fact that, for a brief period of time, European countries possessed firearms superior to those of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Ming Dynasty later overtook them again, and at one point it was far ahead of European countries.

Even the Qing dynasty enjoyed the legacy of the Ming dynasty.

That is because the European countries had been paying tribute to this place and regarded it as the Celestial Empire.

Until it was completely torn apart.

In fact, Zhu Gaochi also regretted these things.

Unfortunately, there's nothing he can do now; he's just a prince.

That's why he wanted to enjoy half a lifetime, rather than a whole lifetime.

Because after he ascended the throne, he wanted to make changes.

If the Ming Dynasty wanted to defy fate, it could only reshape itself and make drastic changes.

Zhang Juzheng's reforms were only partial; they could only prolong the life of the Ming Dynasty, but were still insufficient to change its fate.

Only a radical change can bring about a complete transformation of the Ming Dynasty.

This was also his goal for the second half of his life, a goal that even Zhu Gaochi himself didn't know if he could achieve.

In fact, the most suitable people to do this job were Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di in the present day.

Because the changes were too drastic, the resistance was bound to be enormous. However, these two individuals encountered the least resistance in implementing them.

Now, when he speaks to Zhu Di, he doesn't expect anything else; he only hopes that Zhu Di can truly take some of it to heart.

Historically, the relocation of the capital was often done without much preparation, and could be described as somewhat hasty.

Now, Zhu Gaochi only hopes that things can change.