"Brother Imperial, I am not afraid of the high mountains and long roads in the Western Region. A good man has his ambitions in all directions. Traveling thousands of miles is better than reading ten thousand books. Moreover, I have the king's mandate to do things for the country and the emperor, no matter how dangerous it is.

I'm not afraid, I'm just afraid that things won't go well! Brother Imperial, Third Brother is used to being king and hegemony outside. How can he listen to me, a powerless little prince? If he doesn't listen to my brother's advice,

What should I do, brother?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, the third child has a bad temper. He became a prince at the age of sixteen. His military career of more than twenty years is no better than your brothers who study behind closed doors in Yingtian Mansion."

"Isn't it true? In the past few years, the third brother has often complained in his letters that you, my elder brother, were granted a good title in the Western Regions, and you didn't get any good territory!"

"Brother Imperial, if Lao Jiu's errand cannot be done well, you can't convict him!"

"Yes, you can't blame him, and you can't refund the money."

"Your Majesty, what time has it been? You are still asking for money and you are miserable!"

Now is the day to send off the "King of Houses" Zhu Cixiu on a journey of thousands of miles. He is accompanied by Jin Boguo and Jin Xuanye, as well as officials sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zongren Mansion, Yan Shenggong Mansion, and the bodyguards who serve as guards and honor guards.

The officers and soldiers of the army have all lined up outside Laoshan Palace, leaving only the "King of the House" himself still saying goodbye to his family in the Huangji Palace.

Farewell to the "King of the House" were Emperor Zhu Cixiang, Emperor Chongzhen, Queen Zhou Shang, Princess Hu, the concubine of the emperor, Zhu Cibing, the chartered king, and a large group of princes who had graduated from elementary school and were "for sale". Looking at a group of adults

Performing there, the older and more knowledgeable among the group of princes all had doubts about their own path in life. They originally thought they would be charter kings in the future, but now they find that they don't seem to be that valuable.

Zhu Cixiang also had doubts. He suspected that his bid was too high. It seemed that the "King of the House" was not worth 350,000 taels. It was worth 350,000 taels at most, but Chongzhen killed him with a knife. He must pay attention to it in the future!

Another thing that made him suspicious was the enfeoffment system that he designed himself.

The enfeoffment system is also a double-edged sword! The advantage is that it can achieve low-cost expansion. Without the enfeoffment system, it would be very difficult for Zhu Cixi to restore the territory of the Ming Dynasty before Nurhachi's rebellion. In fact, even the territory of the Ming Dynasty at that time was not completely

There are countless princes who are ruled by floating officials, such as the Xingdu Division, the Military and Civilian Command Division, the Xuanwei Division, the Appeasement Division, the Recruiting Division, etc. As for the vast territory of the Qing Dynasty in history, there are actually a large number of them.

Feudal separatism. However, compared with the feudal system designed and promoted by Zhu Cixiang, these feudal separatist regimes pale into insignificance.

Zhu Cixi's enfeoffment not only entrusted large, far-reaching and powerful enfeoffments, but also achieved institutional innovation, enfeoffing a variety of new vassal states such as the United States, the Confederation State, and the City-State.

It was only through the joint efforts of these vassal states that the Ming Dynasty expanded to its current size.

But enfeoffment also has a negative side! It is the water thrown out by the enfeoffed country, and it is difficult to recover it! If you want to remove a governor or governor, a decree will be enough. If you want to remove the boss of a feudal town, you have to act according to the situation.

.And if you want to replace the king of a vassal country, unless he doesn't want to do it anymore, otherwise you have to fight with swords!

Of course, Zhu Cixiang didn’t have to choose who to eat with!

The population has exceeded 200 million, and it is still rising. Instead of going overseas to encircle more land, why not stay at home and have peasant uprisings? Don’t think that evenly distributing land can solve any problem. The Dashunliu bandits have already done it.

When the land share is too low, equal sharing can only solve temporary problems. In the long run, it is not only ineffective, but also intensifies conflicts. Equally dividing land will accelerate population growth, because under a certain degree of equalization, the threshold for marriage and having children is reduced.

Greatly reduced. This caused the originally very tense conflict between man and land to deteriorate sharply and be equally divided to a certain extent after ten or twenty years (feudal society could not be completely divided equally, and the heroes and generals who conquered the world had to get a large share.

Otherwise the emperor will have to be replaced) and must cooperate with the policy of suppressing private industry and commerce in order to maintain the results of equal sharing for a longer period of time.

If, like the Ming Dynasty now, policies are implemented to encourage the development of private industry and commerce, it will inevitably intensify land annexation because agriculture and animal husbandry can also become a business and a part of industry and commerce. Moreover, in the primary stage of capitalism, handicraft factories mainly rely on raw materials

Agriculture provides.

Therefore, encouraging private industry and commerce and not suppressing mergers and acquisitions are basically the same thing. In this case, the only reliable way to reduce pressure on the local area is to occupy rich overseas lands.

The enfeoffment system is the only way to quickly enclose land, because enfeoffment can transfer management costs and development costs, and at the same time attract nobles and capital to participate. When establishing directly affiliated overseas territories, all investments and management must be generated by the court.

Even the losses must be borne by the court.

Don’t think that you will definitely make money by enclosing a colony. Colonization is risky, so you need to be careful when building a country!

Today's acting king Zhu Cijiong is an unlucky man who has to bear the management and development costs of the vassal state!

His story of re-opening the Silk Road after suffering a huge loss in his business in the Trading City sounds pretty good to tell, but when you put it into practice, you realize that it is not that easy.

There are wars in Central Asia every day, so who still buys silk, porcelain, and tea?

The Rakshasa Kingdom is now involved in the Central Asian War. It has formed an alliance with the Kazakhs, the Khwarazmians, and the Uzbeks, and together they have started a war with the Ming Dynasty's three vassals in the Western Regions, and the fight has been very enjoyable.

Moreover, through its alliance with the Tianfang Sect in Central Asia, the Rakshasa Kingdom has opened up the trade route between Persia and the Volga River. The goods are transported to Persia by sea, then by land to the Caspian Sea, and then through the Caspian Sea and the Volga River to enter the hinterland of the Rakshasa Kingdom. The cost is far

Lower than the cost of the overland Silk Road.

Therefore, the money invested by the acting king Zhu Cijiong on the Silk Road may not be recovered for a while.

These days, Zhu Cijiong is worried every day in the palace of the Trading City. Seeing that the castle he invested a lot of money to build is empty, Zhu Cijiong's heart is broken. He not only invested in a Trading City, but also invested in Yining in the Beiting Protectorate.

City, Luntai City, and Khovd City were invested in the territory of the Tumut Khanate. Now they have become "ghost cities". Not only are they not making money, but they also have to pay a lot of maintenance costs. They are almost losing money.

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Chapter completed!