Wu Pu said that the court had at least two major benefits in doing so. First, setting up more protectorates in the sea areas under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty could strengthen the Ming Dynasty's defenses and resist foreign invasions.

Secondly, it could open up a wide range of tax sources, gain huge trade income, and turn the sea route into a money-making route. The Maritime Silk Road could attract the Portuguese to come from 60,000 miles away. The Ming Dynasty was in financial difficulties, so why would it turn a blind eye to this trade route that brought huge profits?

If we say that what Zheng Ruozeng proposed was "sea control" - the control of one of the warring parties over a certain sea area.

What Wu Pu proposed was the unadulterated idea of ​​"sea power" - a country's ability and influence in the ocean space!

The combination of the two people's ideas became the essence of Mahan's "The Theory of Sea Power" more than 300 years later. It was far ahead of other countries in the world and was enough to support the rise of a maritime power.

Zhao Hao used the viewpoints of these two people to instill his own ideas of sea power and grand plans into the Jiangnan Group and his generals!

Moreover, Wu Pu was still alive, and Zhao Hao had already sent people to Fujian, hoping to invite him to come out of retirement to teach at the Jeonra Island Navigation School. But unfortunately, the old man was too old to go out...

But no matter whether Wu Pu can see that day or not, his proposition of using institutionalized Protectorate and Maritime Customs to thoroughly solidify the Celestial Empire's legitimate right to rule over vassal waters and the results of Zheng He's voyages to the West in military and trade will become the guiding ideology of Zhao Hao, Jiangnan Group, and Ming Royal Shipping Corporation, guiding them to advance into the depths of the ocean!

~~

Looking through the twenty-one histories, whenever describing a prosperous era, there is always the phrase "tributes came from all directions, and nations came to pay homage."

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, for two thousand years till now, successive dynasties in the Central Plains of China have, through enfeoffment, tributary system, brought the countries in the surrounding known world into their sphere of influence, and built a vast political order system in East Asia, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia.

In this system, the emperor of the Central Plains dynasty was the common ruler of the homeland and the outer vassal states. The emperor directly administered the central region of the country, and the rulers of the outer vassal states appointed by the emperor ruled the areas outside the homeland. The homeland and the outer vassal states defended each other, forming the concept of "all under heaven is the king's land; all the people are the king's subjects" of the world's common ruler.

Even the kings of fallen states liked to make a big fuss about this. For example, during the reign of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, tribute trade was carried out vigorously. Every first month of the year, he would perform a variety of operas in Luoyang to entertain envoys from various countries.

This "world system" reached its peak in this dynasty. As soon as Emperor Taizu established his rule in the Central Plains, he quickly sent envoys to Goryeo, Champa, Annan and other vassal states of the Yuan Dynasty to inform them that the Ming Dynasty would succeed the Yuan Dynasty and ask them to submit to the Ming Dynasty. So Goryeo and other countries sent envoys to present congratulatory letters to show their submission. For a time, there was a situation where "the Ming Dynasty unified the world, the emperor was a saint and god, and he taught millions of people with benevolence, righteousness, rites and music. Therefore, all Chinese and barbarians respected their relatives. The world was full of tributes. Since the beginning of human history, there has never been such a prosperous situation as today."

This is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang hated the Yuan Dynasty but still regarded the Mongols as the legitimate dynasty, because in addition to the country he personally conquered, he also had to inherit the world system passed down by the Qin, Han, Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties.

During the Yongle period, with Zheng He's invincible fleet cruising the Indian Ocean and Emperor Chengzu's sweeping sweep of the Mongol forces in the north, this "suzerain state - vassal state" system of the Ming Dynasty reached its peak.

Under the "coercion" of the Ming Dynasty's invincible army and navy, and the "inducement" of its tribute policy of "giving more and taking less", the number of countries and tribes that paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty and expressed their submission reached as many as sixty-five at one point!

But this tribute system had a big flaw, which was that it was a loss-making system. When the tributary states came to pay tribute, they brought local products, but took away a large number of treasures from the Central Plains, which put great financial pressure on the Central Plains dynasty. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty limited the number of times the tributary states came to pay tribute, usually once every three years, once every five years, or even once every ten years.

The reason is simple: the landlords have no surplus food and cannot afford to reward these guys who are trying to fleece them.

Of course, there is no such thing as money spent in vain. The Ming Dynasty built an unprecedentedly large world system through two hundred years of mutual exchange. In addition to the widespread spread of Chinese civilization in vassal states and the general peace in the surrounding areas, its greatest wealth was the creation of the golden signboard of "the Celestial Empire"!

Although this signboard was a money-loser in China, except for satisfying the vanity of the emperor and his ministers, the Ming Dynasty itself was extremely poor, and when the emperor and his ministers were troubled by the beggar-like vassal states, they would not care about this little bit of vanity.

Otherwise, Liu Daxia would not have dared to burn the priceless Zheng He's nautical charts, and would have made up excuses such as it was a waste of money and time and it would only burn the peace, and in the end no one punished him.

In Zhao Hao's opinion, the Ming emperor and his ministers were just begging for food with a golden bowl in hand. Although the "Celestial Empire" was just a gimmick in China, it was an absolute golden signboard when taken abroad!

How to turn this golden signboard into a rolling source of wealth? Wu Pu has already said it very clearly - don't wait for tributary states to come to you, but set sail and go out! Let the fleet follow the overseas trade, set up a protectorate at the strategic points of the route, set up a Maritime Customs Office in important trading cities, and extend the sea power to the Persian Gulf!

In that way, wealth will come rolling in, and all the chronic diseases that have plagued the Ming Dynasty will no longer be a problem!

Because they had already paid a deposit of 200 years in advance, Daming thought that the cost of doing all this would not be too high. At least it would make the Portuguese, and later the Spanish, Dutch, and British, so envious that they would want to cry and go home to their mothers.

~~

You know, how difficult it was for Europeans to set foot in this Ming Dynasty.

Take the Portuguese invasion of Malacca for example. In 1511, the sixth year of the Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese, who had previously made great strides in Africa and India, assembled a powerful fleet including 11 caravels and approached Malacca, a key point of maritime trade between the East and the West.

They thought that this time it would be like the battle in India, where dozens of soldiers would be able to defeat thousands of Indian princely state troops. However, they were met with stubborn resistance from the King of Malacca. It took a month of hard fighting before they captured the city of Malacca with the help of their superior navy.

However, the remnants of the Malacca Kingdom continued to harass the Portuguese-ruled areas. In 1551, the Johor Kingdom, founded by the Malacca royal family, joined forces with Java to attack Malacca City in an attempt to recapture the old capital, but was defeated by the powerful Malacca Fleet of Portugal.

In addition, the surrounding countries were also very hostile to the Portuguese colonists. Aceh attacked Malacca several times in an attempt to drive the Portuguese away. The most recent attack took place in 1568, which was last year. But it still could not do anything to the Portuguese fleet.

During this period, the King of Malacca sent envoys to the suzerain Ming Dynasty several times to ask for help, and even personally came to pay tribute with the golden seal and documents bestowed by the Ming Dynasty, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would support the vassal state again like Zheng He did when he persuaded Siam to stop invading Malacca.

The imperial court did negotiate with the Portuguese to demand the return of Malacca.

But Zheng He's invincible fleet was no longer in the Indian Ocean. How could the pale and powerless imperial edicts be used to subdue the barbarians from afar? The Portuguese ignored them, and the negotiations naturally ended in failure...

But this negotiation also shocked the Portuguese, as they only then realized that most Southeast Asian countries were subservient to the Ming Dynasty.

The Portuguese were so envious of the Ming Dynasty. If these countries were willing to serve them as their masters, why would they have to go through so much hardship to fight and kill wherever they went?

Therefore, the Portuguese came up with the idea of ​​conquering the Ming Dynasty so that they could replace it once and for all. However, they were taught a lesson in the subsequent Battle of Tuen Mun and Battle of Sai Cao Wan. Although our Ming Dynasty is already a big country, we are not small Portuguese barbarians that can run wild on our homeland.

In short, in the eyes of the Portuguese, the Ming Dynasty was incredibly stupid. They actually left the golden mountain untouched and let them make fortunes for nothing. They only hoped that this sleeping dragon could sleep longer so that they could steal more treasures from the dragon's lair.

~~

Although Master Zhao cannot wake up this sleeping dragon for the time being, he has taken great pains to make a handprint with the dragon's paw. Now he can use the name of the Ming Dynasty as a pretext to protect the treasures of the Celestial Empire!

Looking at Mr. Zhao standing proudly on the deck, full of vigor and red lips, Zheng Ruozeng couldn't help but feel a little sad. These things should have been done by the court. This is also the most precious wealth that history has given to the Ming Dynasty, enough to allow the Ming Dynasty to easily get out of the crisis and be glorious and great for another two hundred years!

Unfortunately, the court founded by this old farmer not only did not cherish it, but also feared it like a tiger or a wolf, and avoided it like a snake or a scorpion. Not only did it stop going out to sea, but it also did not allow the people to develop towards the ocean.

Then we can't blame Mr. Zhao for interfering in other people's affairs.

Zheng Ruozeng, who was already in his twilight years, was very open-minded. Deep in his heart, he even had this thought: Even if Master Zhao established another court overseas in the future, it would be better than letting the Europeans encroach on the Ming sea for nothing!

Zheng Ruozeng was startled by his own thoughts and couldn't help coughing violently.

"Let's go in." Zhao Hao also quickly supported Zheng Ruozeng.

"It's not a big deal, it's not a big deal." Zheng Ruozeng shook his head, but still walked towards the cabin door obediently and said, "Since you have lofty ambitions and want to compete with the Portuguese, the current maritime security team is far from enough."

"Yes, Mr. Kaiyang is right." Zhao Hao nodded and said, "So we must continue to strengthen our strength."

He smiled and said, "By the way, the Coast Guard has been renamed the 'Ming Dynasty Royal Maritime Tamra Garrison'. Doesn't it sound more impressive?"

"Be more confident, remove the words 'maritime transport' and call it 'Da Ming Royal Tamra Garrison Area', which is more impressive." Zheng Ruozeng said with a smile: "Since we have spent money, we must maximize its effect."

ps. Write another chapter... Ask for monthly votes...