Li Shanchang was still reeling, yet he could not help laughing.
"Qipa was once a word of praise. Who would have thought later generations would use it to tease people?"
Li Wenzhong slapped his thigh.
"If that is true, then in the entire Mongol Yuan, ordinary men could be counted on one hand."
"Toghto was a loyal minister to the Yuan court. Yet was he not demoted and killed by Emperor Shun of Yuan?"
"Even so, among the Hu Yuan emperors, Emperor Shun could at least be looked at without wincing. Still not even one ten thousandth of His Majesty."
Li Shanchang clicked his tongue inwardly. Li Wenzhong, who exactly are you shouting that for?
Sure enough, from the main seat, Zhu Yuanzhang burst out laughing.
"Bao'er, I accept your fine words. But the matter of the naval forces and the plan to pacify the wokou must be presented with a concrete proposal."
Li Shanchang then saw Li Wenzhong's face fall as he replied loudly.
"As it should be!"
Then he muttered under his breath.
"The Hu Yuan had a vast army, yet when they sailed they did not even know to observe the heavens. Hundreds of thousands of troops were handed over to the Sea Dragon King for nothing."
"And now Ming has to suffer these wokou raids, and I must sit here drafting proposals."
Grumble as he might, everyone present understood the weight of the Emperor's words.
During the struggle for the realm, the navy had been vital. But after the Mongol Yuan was shattered, naval achievements dwindled. At this point, General Xu Da was stationed in Beiping and only required part of the fleet to transport grain. The rest was largely idle.
After all, the Northern Yuan court now sat deep in Karakorum in the northern steppe. The nearest coastline lay a thousand li away.
His Majesty's demand for a concrete plan made his intention obvious. He wished to reorganize the navy.
"That Li Bao'er." Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and cursed lightly at his nephew for feigning grievance after gaining favor.
Then he sighed.
"When I first read the History of Yuan and heard of these matters, I could scarcely believe them true."
"To govern thus, and yet Yuan endured nearly a hundred years. That alone shows how deep its foundations ran."
Empress Ma lowered her head to hide her smile.
She still remembered those early founding days. Chongba had been anxious, fearing he would fail and disgrace the ancestors of Huaxia.
At that time, the official History of Yuan had not yet been compiled. So she studied the Veritable Records of the Yuan and explained them to him night after night, breaking down each policy and event in detail.
In the end, her husband's confidence greatly increased.
No matter how poorly we govern, surely it cannot be worse than the Hu Yuan.
And now, judging by the assessments of later generations, her husband had far exceeded those early expectations.
---
[Lightscreen]
[Toghto, having righteously eliminated even his own kin, naturally rose to become the powerful chancellor.
With his uncle's fate as warning, and being deeply versed in Han culture, he implemented three major policies after taking power. Once finished, he immediately pleaded illness.
"I am unwell and must recuperate. Your Majesty should seek another capable man."
These three policies came to be known as Toghto's Reform.
The first priority was restoring the imperial examinations abolished by his uncle. This sent a clear message to the scholars.
Stop stirring trouble. Yes, you suffer discrimination. But the path to officialdom has been reopened.
The second was redressing wrongful convictions and reducing taxes. If someone owed excessive taxes, the debt was simply wiped clean.
As long as you farm peacefully, that is enough.
Naturally, this aimed at calming peasant uprisings.
The third was compiling histories. The histories of Song, Liao, and Jin were completed in two and a half years. A curious span of time.
Later generations like to joke that the Yuan only remembered to compile the previous dynasties' histories when it realized it was about to collapse, rushing them out in a panic.
This is not quite accurate.
If a dynasty were truly on the brink of destruction, who would have leisure to compile histories?
And if you had told Toghto that Great Yuan was about to fall, he would likely have had you fall first.
His purpose was simple.
Among Yuan emperors and chancellors, he was the most Sinicized. Compiling histories was about completing the final piece of Yuan's legitimacy.
That is why it was done so swiftly. The political meaning mattered more than literary polish.
Of course, the speed was not due to Toghto's personal scholarship. He was merely the overseer. Yet on the question of orthodoxy, he personally decided that Song, Liao, and Jin all possessed legitimate succession.
That decision carried weight.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang would likely draw from Toghto's example. That is why the History of Yuan was compiled in such haste.
In essence, Zhu Yuanzhang intended to use that book as the coffin lid for Great Yuan. Once sealed, the verdict was final.
Some argue that Yuan truly perished in the twenty first year of Hongwu, when General Lan Yu led one hundred fifty thousand Ming troops in a crushing campaign at Buir Lake, annihilating the Northern Yuan court.
By that reckoning, a single History of Yuan pushed Yuan's fall twenty years earlier.
Its political meaning is clear.
Yet Zhu Yuanzhang and Toghto, though similar in urgency, stood in entirely different circumstances.
When Toghto compiled the three histories, Liao and Jin had long turned to dust, and Southern Song had fallen sixty years earlier. The historians he summoned were genuine Yuan literati proclaiming the glory of Great Yuan.
He could choose freely.
But by Zhu Yuanzhang's time, Northern Yuan still bared its teeth at Ming. Some scholars who defected from Yuan to Ming had privately called him bandit not long before.
They were hardly reliable.
Thus he abandoned official historians and instead selected Song Lian, Wang Yi, and others. He also summoned reclusive scholars from the mountains and forests.
In truth, these were Jiangnan literati who had failed to secure office under Yuan.
They had never served in Yuan officialdom, nor did they know the various languages once in use.
At best, they acted as paste and glue, copying and compiling.
For example, in Toghto's biography in History of Yuan, it records that in the fourteenth year of Zhizheng, Toghto besieged Gaoyou and fought successive victories, causing the bandits' power to shrink.
Bandits?
The Veritable Records of Ming Taizu clearly note that this was the year Zhu Yuanzhang, under Guo Zixing's orders, led troops to relieve Liuhe. He failed to defeat the Yuan forces and withdrew strategically.
An interesting contrast indeed.
Because the compilation was rushed, and because those paste and glue scholars were diligent, the History of Yuan holds high value among the Twenty Four Histories.
Copying and pasting preserved much first hand material. A rare virtue.
After completing his three reforms, Toghto intended to withdraw and observe from afar, avoiding his uncle's fate.
But five years passed. Emperor Shun replaced three chancellors in succession. Governance could not even be called half dead. It was a heap of mud.
As if that were not enough, the Yellow River flooded and severed the Grand Canal, the lifeline of Great Yuan.
With no options left, Emperor Shun could only invite Toghto back.
"If you do not devise a solution, Great Yuan is finished."]