ATPnovel Chapter 52 I have never had the habit of killing only one person!
Chapter 52 I have never had the habit of killing only one person!
Zheng He's nautical charts!
Upon hearing the name, Liu Daxia was visibly stunned for a moment, and then a deep sense of horror appeared in his eyes.
He suddenly pressed his head to the ground, and his whole body began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Your Majesty, the eunuch Zheng He has made seven voyages to the Western Ocean, costing hundreds of thousands in money and grain, and causing countless deaths and injuries to soldiers and civilians. What use are the treasures he has obtained?!"
"The Great Ming Dynasty is a celestial empire, and all we need is for the surrounding vassal states to pay tribute to us annually. Sending voyages to the Western Ocean is truly harmful in every way!"
"Such files, even if they exist, should be destroyed. Why is Your Majesty inquiring about them now?!"
Zheng He's nautical charts contain all the data Zheng He explored during his voyages to the Western Ocean, including ocean currents, reef distribution, information on vassal states, ship technology, and more.
These technologies were still in use by the Portuguese two hundred years later.
Liu Daxia's attitude towards such valuable nautical data was very clear: Zheng He's nautical charts were gone, so Zhu Houzhao should forget about ever getting his hands on them again.
Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean were indeed very expensive, but the benefits he brought to the Ming Dynasty each time he returned were hundreds or even thousands of times greater!
Otherwise, Zhu Di would not have sent Zheng He on seven voyages to the Western Ocean.
Furthermore, all the expensive projects in the Ming Dynasty were completed during the Yongle era.
Building the Forbidden City, building the Great Wall, moving the capital, recovering Jiaozhi (Vietnam), five expeditions against the Mongolian steppes, compiling the Yongle Encyclopedia...
If Zheng He hadn't been constantly bringing in money for Zhu Di all over the world, how could Zhu Di have accomplished all these extravagant projects in just twenty years?
Those gentry from Jiangnan kept saying that the voyages to the West were neither profitable nor costly.
Who believes it?
The number of civil officials who tried to prevent the Ming Dynasty from opening up the seas and sending voyages to the Western Ocean continued to increase after Zhu Di's death.
From the three Yangs of Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji's cabinet to Liu Daxia now, they have all tried their best to prevent the Ming Dynasty from launching another voyage to the Western Ocean.
During Zhu Zhanji's reign, Jiaozhi, which had already been recovered by the Ming Dynasty, rebelled again and became Annam.
With Annam in turmoil, the Ming Dynasty lost control over the Western world.
Furthermore, these officials who prevented the Ming Dynasty from opening up the seas and sending voyages to the Western Ocean all had one thing in common: they were all from the south.
To be precise, they are from the southeastern coastal region.
Yang Shiqi was from Ji'an Prefecture, Ganzhou; Yang Rong was from Jiangning Prefecture, Minzhou; and Yang Pu was from Jingzhou Prefecture, Huguang.
As for Liu Daxia, his ancestral home was Luzhou, but he was born in Jiujiang Prefecture, Ganzhou, and was related to Yang Pu by marriage.
So why did these civil officials try to stop the Ming Dynasty from opening up the seas and sending voyages to the Western Ocean?
Is it because they are so foolish as to not know the enormous benefits that opening up the seas and sailing to the West would bring?
This is impossible!
It should be understood that those who can leave their mark in history books and become high-ranking officials in the imperial court are all extraordinary individuals.
They're not stupid, they're very smart, they're just plain bad!
No one knew better than them how much benefit opening up the seas and sailing to the Western Ocean could bring to the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, they were determined to stop the Ming emperor from embarking on voyages to the Western Ocean. Any emperor who wanted to embark on voyages to the Western Ocean would have to die!
In June of the ninth year of the Xuande reign, Zhu Zhanji issued an edict to launch another voyage to the Western Ocean, ordering Wang Jinghong's fleet to await orders to set sail from Nanjing.
In October of the ninth year of the Xuande reign, Zhu Zhanji led troops to patrol the border in Jizhou, Zunhua, Shanhaiguan and other places.
In the first month of the tenth year of the Xuande reign, Zhu Zhanji died suddenly.
In the first year of the Longqing reign, Emperor Muzong Zhu Zaiji announced the lifting of the maritime ban. In the six years that followed, more than 100 million taels of silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty.
In the sixth year of the Longqing reign, Zhu Zaiji died, and the maritime ban was reinstated.
Behind these emperors was a massive interest group that spanned more than two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty: the Jiangnan smuggling group!
This is a vast group that brings together all the gentry, landlords, officials, military officers, and other rentier classes from the southeastern coastal area.
In the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, they also had a prominent political party in the officialdom: the Donglin Party!
The old story that Zhu Houzhao mentioned at this moment took place during the Chenghua era.
Because the national treasury was empty, Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen intended to have Wang Zhi, the director of the Western Depot, reopen the sea ban and send voyages to the Western Ocean again, so that he could make some money to spend.
As a result, Xiang Zhong, the Minister of War at the time, couldn't find where Zheng He's nautical charts had gone.
Xiang Zhong then asked Liu Daxia, the Ministry of War's Carriage and Transportation Officer who was in charge of maps and archives at the time, where Zheng He's nautical charts had gone.
Liu Daxia clapped his hands and said that the file was gone, he had burned it.
Seeing that the resistance was too great, Zhu Jianshen had no choice but to abandon his idea of sailing to the West.
Now that Zhu Houzhao has brought up the old matter again, Liu Daxia feels a deep sense of fear.
What he feared was not that he might die, but that Zhu Houzhao would want to resume the voyages once he learned the truth about them.
If that's the case, the entire southeast will descend into chaos!
At that time, he couldn't even imagine how many people would die in the Ming Dynasty!
Standing beneath the Fengtian Gate, Zhu Houzhao stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze as cold as ice: "I only ask you, where are Zheng He's nautical charts?!"
Liu Daxia gritted his teeth, his mind already filled with the resolve to die!
"Your Majesty, for the sake of the Ming Dynasty's stability and the well-being of its people, Zheng He's nautical charts have been burned by me!"
"Burned?"
Zhu Houzhao sneered, his gaze towards Liu Daxia now as if he were looking at a dead man.
Zheng He's nautical charts could never have been destroyed. For so many years, the routes used by the Jiangnan smuggling group to go to sea have still been the routes taken during Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean.
What's most despicable is that these shipping routes were not only used by smuggling groups in Jiangnan, but also by Portuguese and foreigners!
These gentry and powerful families along the southeastern coast preferred to give Zheng He's navigational data to foreigners rather than to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Damn it, they all deserve to die!
All these gentry and powerful families in the southeast should be slaughtered one by one!
"Very good!" Zhu Houzhao's lips curled into a cold smile: "Cao Zhengchun!"
"This old servant is here!"
"Immediately arrest all of Liu Daxia's family members in the capital and bring them here!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"Yuhuatian!"
"Your subject is here."
"Go to Jiujiang Prefecture immediately, arrest all nine generations of Liu Daxia's family, confiscate their property, and exterminate the entire clan!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"Shen Lian!"
"Your humble servant is here."
"Set up a bonfire in Fengtianmen Square; I will use it as a form of execution by burning!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Zhu Houzhao issued three orders in one breath, each one causing Liu Daxia to tremble with fear and his heart to break.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
"This old minister is seventy years old, and I really can't remember those old stories clearly."
"This old minister takes full responsibility for his actions. If Your Majesty wishes to kill me, then let me be torn to pieces!"
"But these matters have nothing to do with my wife, children, or elderly parents!"
"Please, Your Majesty, spare them!"
Liu Daxia wept bitterly, kowtowing repeatedly to Zhu Houzhao, begging for mercy. His forehead was already slightly red.
Zhu Houzhao waved his hand, and two Imperial Guards immediately seized Liu Daxia, preventing him from making any rash moves.
Zhu Houzhao chuckled lightly: "I have never had the habit of killing only one person."
"I understand the principle of eliminating problems at their root."
"I will not be able to eat or sleep peacefully until I have slaughtered you all to extinction."