After having this idea, Li Qin went to the map and drew a circle on the Japanese island outside the map.
This set the first goal for the great voyage that followed.
The next day, his first grand court assembly in the Forbidden City began as scheduled.
What followed was the announcement and discussion of various matters.
Li Qin watched the court assembly and felt a wave of annoyance.
After accepting the abdication, he copied all the systems and etiquette of his new dynasty from those of the Great Wu.
This court assembly is far too tedious; it's practically torture.
During this grand court assembly, many officials actually just stood outside for half a day.
They probably couldn't hear what was being discussed inside the hall.
It means getting up early and standing outside for several hours.
This grand assembly is essentially a large-scale meeting.
His attendance at court and meetings was almost the same each time.
Many issues are not actually resolved in court meetings.
Because the more people involved, the smaller the problem can be solved.
There's bickering everywhere.
He also understood why so many emperors disliked attending court.
This is similar to disliking meetings.
After the court assembly ended, Li Qin summoned all his confidants to his palace.
Because he has a lot to do now.
At this moment, on his desk were issues concerning the war in Fujian.
During his return journey north, he learned from intelligence that Hong Chengchou had already led his army to Fujian and begun his attack.
According to intelligence, the Fujian region has many mountains, making his attacks very difficult.
Li Qin attached great importance to the war in Fujian.
After all, this was the last piece of territory in the direct control of the Great Wu Emperor that had not yet submitted to the emperor.
Once they are captured, nominally all the territories of the former Great Wu will have completely changed hands.
Moreover, although Fujian has always been an uncontested territory in the past, it is now a place where I am about to embark on a great sea voyage.
We must take over Fujian, because we must control its excellent ports.
Therefore, Li Qin issued another edict to Hong Chengchou, ordering him not to relax his attack.
Looking at the map in front of him, Li Qin knew that he had to tackle the problem step by step.
The first priority is to deal with the enemies in Fujian who are openly and directly opposing us.
Then deal with those regional princes of different surnames, those guys who don't really obey my orders in secret.
After resolving these two issues, centralization was achieved, and further expansion overseas was undertaken to enlarge the pie and propel the country into a golden age of prosperity.
This is a three-step plan.
Now, the first step—to completely pacify Fujian and eliminate the enemies who openly oppose us—is only a matter of time.
What I need to do next is prepare for the second step and lay the groundwork for the third step.
Although my plan is to proceed in three steps, the second and third steps can actually be carried out simultaneously without conflict.
He had allowed the people along the coast to fish at sea on a large scale shortly after he came to power.
When he issued this order, it was met with considerable opposition.
He used his power to forcibly suppress it.
Even now, there are still quite a few people who oppose the order he issued back then.
The reason is simple: ever since he issued that order.
A large number of people living in extreme poverty went into business.
Subsequently, the number of Japanese pirates along the coast increased dramatically, while coastal tax revenue began to decline.
After all, they are confined to land, so it's easy for you to collect taxes from them.
But once they start drifting around at sea, where are you going to collect their taxes?
In the past, the Great Exploration of the West gave rise to a large number of pirates, and even pirates who were legally allowed to plunder by the state.
However, we must not forget that the national conditions of the East and the West are different; the West comprises numerous countries.
After a large number of pirates emerged, they could have easily enriched their own countries by plundering ships from other nations.
However, in the East, there was only one vast territory directly under the emperor's control, along with surrounding vassal states that submitted to him.
It can be said that there is only one head in the entire East, and the rest are his subjects, some of whom live in his directly controlled territories, and some of whom are subjects under the administration of the vassal kings he has appointed.
Moreover, those kings of Goryeo, Annam, and so on, were all subjects of the emperor.
Who could those pirates plunder? Looking around, there were no other countries, only the emperor's territory.
In the end, all they could do was plunder the emperor's territory.
That is, they began to plunder along the way.
They not only refused to pay taxes, but also plundered the people who stayed along the coast to pay taxes to the emperor, thus undermining the imperial tax base in the localities.
Shortly after the seas were opened, Li Qin understood why the Great Wu had imposed such a strict ban on the seas in the first place.
The losses are too great.
However, Li Qin still insisted on opening the sea, because he knew that the consequence of continuing the sea ban would be handing over those overseas benefits to others.
We must quickly develop the benefits of overseas markets and let people see the enormous wealth overseas.
Otherwise, in the end, he would only die and his policies would cease.
His successors would ban the seas again after his death.
As for the pirates flying the Japanese flag, Li Qin could only order officials along the way to organize the people to defend against them.
At the same time, he continued to allocate funds to his navy, though of course he did not do so to eliminate the pirates.
Rather, it was to deal with those foreigners at sea, and at the same time, to prepare for the future expansion of overseas territories and large-scale migrations.
He knew perfectly well that the conflict between people and land was an unsolvable problem.
Population can grow rapidly, but land and food production will not.
Problems were bound to erupt eventually, but the exploration and immigration that followed the Age of Exploration greatly alleviated this.
However, these are all things for later, since building a navy is a very long process.
What he needs to do now is to lay the groundwork for this.
At the same time, we should complete the first and second steps. Li Qin believes that the first step, eliminating the Zheng regime in Fujian, which is still clinging to life, is only a matter of time.
They have now summoned their close advisors and confidants to discuss these issues.
Looking at his close advisors who had all arrived.
Li Qin also ordered the eunuchs to bring out the memorials concerning the vassal kings.
Li Qin pointed to the pile of memorials concerning the various vassal kings and said:
"You have seen many of these memorials, but not some. Today you will all take a look at them."
After Li Qin finished speaking from his seat on the dragon throne, he stood up and said:
"Today, I have gathered you here for a very clear purpose: I, well, I hope you can come up with some useful strategies."
His ministers, upon hearing Li Qin's words, also understood his meaning.
Li Qin wanted them to come up with a plan for dealing with the various vassal kings.
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