What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
During the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ruled China through totalitarian power, but still harbored fear of two enemies. First, the remnants of the Yuan Shun Emperor who had fled to the north of the country continued to harass the border, and had no choice but to send nine sons to be Wang Shubian; second, the Wukou from Eastern Ying Japan, under the pretext of paying tribute and trade, drifted with the wind to the mainland, north to the Liaoyang area, south to Guangdong and the southeast coast, and the economy and people's livelihood of the Ming Dynasty were greatly damaged. Even if a special organization was set up to eliminate and suppress the defense of the Wokou, it was still forbidden and exhausted.
Some friends may ask, although the national strength in the early Ming Dynasty was not the strongest, it should not be difficult to eliminate Japan in the same period, right? Although Japan was in an era of north-south division at this time, the Ming Dynasty was not sure enough to eat Japan.
In fact, at that time, the Ming Dynasty was also facing a woe and also thought of a way, which can be called the three strategies of upper, middle and lower levels. The best strategy is to mobilize the strength of the whole country to fight and swallow up the Japanese island to eliminate the plague. This strategy was simply perfect, if Zhu Yuanzhang had approved and succeeded at that time, Japan would have long ago become a vassal state like Korea and Vietnam, and what would have been the shame of the future? But history does not allow for assumptions, and Zhu Yuanzhang had to give up after thinking about it for a long time, because he did not dare to fight. Why?
He knew that in history, the Sui, Tang, and Yuan dynasties had all fought against Japan, winning fewer and losing more. In addition, the Ming Dynasty had an Achilles heel, as a continental country, without a navy, it was almost impossible to win across the ocean to conquer an island country. Moreover, the land of the Eastern YingWu Kingdom was barren, the people were ignorant, and there was not much benefit in swallowing. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang abandoned this strategy.
There are also middle and bottom strategies. The central policy was to send the envoy Dongdu to negotiate diplomatic relations with the Japanese rulers, and to use the Japanese government to control the Wokou and not to harass the Ming Dynasty again. There was even a regulation that listed Japan as one of the fifteen unincorporated countries. The so-called fifteen-year non-conquest of the country is that Zhu Yuanzhang decided in the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu that if the Four Directions and Zhuyi did not invade China, and the Ming Dynasty would raise troops to fight, it would be regarded as an ominous omen. In order to prevent the descendants of the Zhu clan from relying on China's rich and powerful soldiers and martial arts, fifteen countries were issued with "gold medals for avoiding death". They were: Korea (present-day Korea), Japan (present-day Ben), Ryukyu(大琉), Koryukyu (小琉口国), Annam (present-day Vietnam), Chenla (present-day Cambodia), Siam (present-day Thailand), Champa (present-day southern Vietnam, later destroyed by Annam), Sumatra, Western Ocean, Java, Xiangheng, Baihua, Srivijaya, and Mud.
This road actually does not work, and the funny thing is that the Ming Dynasty found the wrong negotiator. The Ming Dynasty knew almost nothing about the situation in Japan at this time, thinking that Prince Huailiang was also similar to the Hongwu Emperor who was the only king of Japan. Later, after repeated inquiries to verify the Japanese envoys, they learned that at this time, Japan was in an era of division between the north and the south, Prince Huailiang was the political leader of the Southern Dynasty, and the Northern Dynasty also had a general Yuan Yiman. The two factions were pregnant with ghosts and had very different attitudes toward the Ming Dynasty. The Northern Dynasty tended to trade with the Ming Dynasty in exchange for economic benefits and solve financial difficulties; the Southern Dynasty supported the Wokou and used this to blackmail the Ming Dynasty into severing relations with the Northern Dynasty. In fact, the Ming Dynasty did not know that Prince Huailiang did not know that after several years of hard work, the Ming Dynasty felt that it had been tricked by the Japanese and that the negotiations were fruitless, so it took the next policy.
Closed to the outside world.
It is a last resort, and it is also the worst effect. The Ming Dynasty strictly forbade the people to go to sea for smuggling and trade, and kept the Wokou out of the country. However, with a coastline of more than 20,000 miles, if the coastal defense posts are strictly repaired, it will consume a great deal of financial resources and troops, and the world is initially scheduled to recuperate, and the implementation process will be greatly reduced. Closing the country can only limit its own development, so the actual situation is that Enwei is used at the same time, and the middle policy and the lower policy are used at the same time.
But the number of Wokou and the number of offenses have not diminished, justifying the failure of this strategy. Closed to the country, this invisibly self-justified failure, no matter how much face can not be passed. On the surface, he intended to sever Sino-Japanese relations by taking advantage of Hu Weiyong's excuse to talk about Japan, but secretly he still did not give up, continued to extend favors, and hoped to solve the problem diplomatically.
It was not until the death of Prince Huailiang that the Northern Dynasty forces gradually flourished, ending the division between the Northern and Southern Dynasties and unifying Japan, establishing friendly diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, sending tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and suppressing the Wokou, and the Wokou in the early Ming Dynasty gradually became rare.