As the Great Ming saw the emergence of Yang Tinghe's faction, Korea also witnessed the rise of the "Sasaekdang," or Four-Color Party. The Sasaekdang emerged from a split within the Sarim faction, mirroring the situation in the Great Ming almost exactly. Yang Tinghe advocated for the Grand Secretariat to take over all affairs, while Korea directly established a "Council of State" to manage all government matters.
The ensuing factional strife was identical. Just as the Ming dynasty had Neo-Confucianism and the School of Mind, Joseon had the distinction between prioritizing *gi* (vital force) and *ri* (principle). Disputes always arose from minor matters of etiquette, escalating until they became irresolvable. The current Chief State Councilor, Yun Won-hyeong, belonged to the faction prioritizing *ri*, almost a carbon copy of Yan Song. Those who prioritized *gi*, on the other hand, were more concerned with the people's suffering, akin to the Ming's School of Mind.
This further validated Zhu Mo's assessment:
Yun Won-hyeong was Korea's Yan Song!
Vietnam also experienced a collapse.
More than twenty years prior, the Le dynasty had been usurped by the powerful official Mac Phuc Hai, who founded the Mac Dynasty. The old officials fled south and established the Later Le Dynasty. This Later Le Dynasty was, in turn, controlled by the powerful official Trịnh Kiểm. Trịnh Kiểm, in alliance with the Vu Van Mat family, actively embraced Portuguese merchants and firearms, growing considerably strong. In recent years, they had repeatedly launched northern expeditions, and the northern Mac Dynasty was quickly faltering.
The root cause was the Portuguese introduction of new ideas, models, and technologies—the civilization of violence supremacy that Zhu Mo had witnessed in Li Gang. Once the northern Mac clan, which was close to the Great Ming, was eliminated by the southern court's powerful official faction, the Great Ming would once again face a formidable war.
To the west, Burma
had also undergone a similar transition in recent decades.
The Burmese Myint family, utilizing firearms and the civilization model brought by the Portuguese, quickly unified more than half of the country. With their sharp firearms, Mang Yinglong devastatingly attacked the northern chieftaincies, reaching western Yunnan several times. The northern chieftains had always been loyal to the Great Ming and thus sought help from the Mu clan, who governed Yunnan. However, the imperial court offered no response. Just last year, the Governor of Yunnan again petitioned for aid, only to be rejected.
It was clear that the rejection came from Yan Shifan.
However, what would be the consequence of this rejection? It would inevitably lead to the emergence of a powerful state in Burma supported by the Westerners, making a Ming-Burma war unavoidable. Mang Yinglong could be considered the leader of the country that most thoroughly embraced the principle of violence supremacy and Western civilization in all of Asia, and his danger was unimaginable.
And Ryukyu,
the same was happening.
Currently, the Prime Minister Mao Longxuan held all power. Together with the Xiang, Weng, and Ma clans of the country's gentry, they were known as the Five Great Clans, essentially controlling everything in the Ryukyu Kingdom. Ryukyu, originally a tributary state of the Great Ming, was also one of the earliest countries to lease ports to the Portuguese.
Returning to the Tatars in the north,
Zhu Mo had witnessed it firsthand. The grasslands were a land of extreme poverty; even iron pots had become treasures. Without the stabilization provided by figures like Altan Khan, immediate collapse would ensue.
And the Great Ming,
perhaps the most typical. For it possessed all the crises that other countries faced, and even crises that they did not.
Fortunately, there was one aspect that was unparalleled by other countries:
As Emperor Jiajing, he was still one step ahead. The Yan Song father and son remained within his grasp. During this extremely critical window, the Great Ming faced perilous situations yet continued to revolve around the Yuxi Palace...
After reading these records,
Zhu Mo remained silent for a long time, feeling a chill run through his body—
The situation was far beyond his expectations, and no great master had ever spoken of it. He had only seen a corner of the iceberg before, but now he saw the full picture.
Walking alone by the West Lake on a chilly spring evening, one thought continually circled in his mind—
The Realm!
The true meaning of the word "Realm" was now fully revealed. It was no wonder they said that the fall of the Great Ming meant the fall of the Realm! This was because the Great Ming was the pillar of the entire Eastern world, a defender of an alternative civilization. If the Great Ming fell, the entire East would fall.
"And if my reforms succeed, that means the success of the East..."
"Therefore, reforms must be viewed from the perspective of the Realm, not confined to a single issue or policy, nor limited to one country or region, but must be considered in the context of the entire Realm..."
"If there had been no interference from me, this Eastern world would have been passively drawn in... In the future, the Tatars would split into several large blocs, Japan would enter a period of seclusion under the Old Turtle, the Great Ming would fall into abyss after the Three Great Campaigns, and later the Manchus would take over, also entering a period of seclusion... Burma, Thailand, Southeast Asia, all would be lost..."
Scenes flashed before his eyes,
The process, though slow and not without resistance, ultimately led to more thorough defeat for those who offered complete, exclusive resistance...
In the final analysis, it all came down to the divergence of meaning in the word "Realm."
If one were to casually ask an ordinary person on the street at this moment, they would only care about how to live and under what order they would live. Would it be a gentle and rational environment, or a world of absolute hierarchy and supremacy of violence?
This was the crux of the matter.
After several days of profound contemplation, Zhu Mo became increasingly aware of his predicament—
The entire transnational network was interconnected, having spread to surrounding countries. And now, led by the Portuguese fleet commander Souza, with Otomo Sorin of Japan as the enforcer, and the Yan family as insiders, an unprecedented counterattack was gradually emerging.
It was evident that
the attack on the Joseon diplomatic mission was not the end; new reports would soon arrive.
And following the Yan family's modus operandi, external forces would not be the primary means; a more terrifying storm would also brew internally.
...
This day,
Zhang Juzheng returned from Quanzhou, finally bringing good news—
The Franks, Hui, and Southern Ocean merchants had agreed to ship from Guangzhou Port. Yu Dayou had also replied, stating that a fleet of twenty ships could be dispatched and held in readiness at Leizhou, escorting the goods all the way to Jiading (Saigon) in Annan. However, there was one less-than-ideal condition: the foreign merchants would only pay the full amount for the goods when the third batch arrived.
At this time,
Zhang Han and Liu Yingjie had also recruited the first batch of three thousand carts, dividing the goods into three shipments southward, with all expected to be loaded onto ships at Guangzhou Port in forty days.
After three full days of work, the first batch of over 300,000 bolts of silk was finally sent south, followed by the second and third batches within ten days.
Zhang Juzheng, personally overseeing every detail, implemented another system of performance review, rewarding merit and punishing faults, which galvanized everyone into action. The work proceeded in an orderly fashion. That evening,
a swift rider brought news from the city—
The first batch of the land donation account books was ready!
Zhu Mo was overjoyed and returned to Hangzhou late at night. Outside the Ancestral Shrine for Poets, however, a different scene unfolded—
More than two hundred people were kneeling on the ground, with long white silk banners either hung nearby or spread on the ground, all conveying the same message:
"Please, Scholar Zhu, give merchants a way to live."
"Robbing the rich to help the poor is not sanctioned by sages."
"Qinu burned my workshop, please, Scholar Zhu, give us an explanation."
"If the government does not pay for goods, merchants will naturally not pay wages."
"Zhu Mo's reforms have impoverished merchants."
"Merchants are immoral, please, Scholar Zhu, deal with us!"