As the commander of the Ming Dynasty Navy, Zhang Huai was surrounded by a group of generals, his face full of anticipation.
The emperor personally came to inspect the Navy. What an honor it was. It also showed how much the imperial court valued the Navy.
Although Zhang Huai and others also knew that the imperial court attached great importance to the navy. After all, the strength of the navy was related to the safety of the Ming Dynasty's maritime territory, and even more to the issue of opening the sea. But even if they knew it in their hearts, they still couldn't compare.
The Son of Heaven himself came to inspect the navy.
Just looking at the high morale of the navy's generals and soldiers at this time, one can see how much impact the emperor's personal inspection of Tianjin Guard had on the navy.
Just when Zhang Huai and others were looking forward to it, Emperor Luanjia had slowly approached.
Zhang Huai saw Li Huan who was accompanying Emperor Luanjia at a glance. At this moment, Emperor Luanjia also stopped. Seeing this situation, Zhang Huai immediately stepped forward and led a group of navy generals in front of Emperor Luanjia.
He bowed respectfully and said: "Your Majesty, Zhang Huai, leads the navy generals to greet your Majesty. Long live your Majesty! Long live your Majesty!"
The emperor slowly walked out from the Luanjia, looked down at the navy generals who had prostrated themselves on the ground, waved his hand and said: "You nobles, please get up without courtesy!"
After Zhang Huai and others paid homage to the emperor and stood up, Zhu Houzhao's eyes naturally fell on the port in the distance.
To be precise, it should fall on the newly built ships docked in the port. At this time, there are hundreds of large and small ships parked in the port, and the most eye-catching one is the
There are dozens of Ming Dynasty treasure ships.
These Ming Dynasty treasure ships can be said to be extremely eye-catching in the port. They are docked there one by one like a hill. It doesn't matter when you look at it from a distance, but when you really get up close, the visual impact is really great.
It's unusual.
When he saw the large ships in the distance, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help flashing a bit of excitement in his eyes. Although he also knew from the memorial that the Ming Navy had hundreds of ships, including some that were extremely huge.
The Ming Dynasty treasure ship, but no matter how you put it, it is just the cold words on the memorial, which is not as big as the visual impact now.
Just like Zhu Houzhao is looking at the big ships now, even without boarding these big ships himself, Zhu Houzhao can see that these big ships are absolutely invincible on the sea.
At this moment, Li Huan, who was following Zhu Houzhao, seemed to notice Zhu Houzhao's gaze and a smile appeared on his lips: "Your Majesty, this is one of our navy in the Ming Dynasty, with more than 400 ships. Looking at it,
It can be said that the sea has few rivals."
He had heard Li Huan talk about Portugal and Spain's powerful maritime power before. Now looking at the scale of his own navy, Zhu Houzhao felt proud and said to Li Huan: "My Ming Dynasty has such a powerful navy, so why should we be afraid of those mere barbarians?"
!”
Li Huan naturally knew that the barbarians Zhu Houzhao referred to were the Portuguese. To be honest, Li Huan also looked down upon those barbarians who came from Western pirates.
Although it is said that the power of the Spanish and Portuguese is at its peak now and they are almost invincible in the world, but that is without considering the Eastern Ming Dynasty.
If the Ming Dynasty really developed its maritime strength, the Spanish and Portuguese were really far behind.
Not to mention other things, the population alone is not Portuguese. What the Spaniards can compare with, the Ming Dynasty has a population of hundreds of millions, while the Portuguese and Spaniards combined probably do not exceed tens of millions of people. Such a population
It seems like a lot, but in this era, population is part of national strength. Especially when a country can exert its national strength, the more population, the better.
Under the leadership of Zhang Huai, Zhu Houzhao and several cabinet ministers inspected these large and small ships in the harbor. It was obvious that Zhang Huai was very familiar with these ships.
The navy knows everything.
At this time, everyone was walking in front of a treasure ship. Because they were very close to the treasure ship, they had to raise their heads if they wanted to get a full view of the treasure ship. In fact, the treasure ship was several feet high, like a hill.
Zhu Houzhao looked at the treasure ship in front of him at close range, and suddenly the idea of boarding the ship came up in his mind. Zhu Houzhao, who had always done it as soon as he thought of it, immediately said to Zhang Huai: "The Qing family will lead the way, I want to board the ship and take a look!"
There was no such arrangement in advance. The emperor suddenly proposed to board the ship for a look, which really made Zhang Huai stunned. Just when Zhang Huai was stunned, Wang Yangming, Yang Ting and others couldn't help but frown.
.
Although it seems that there is no danger, there is still some risk for the emperor to board the ship. Therefore, from Wang Yangming's point of view, they naturally do not want the emperor to board the ship. After all, if they are not afraid of ten thousand, they are afraid of the worst.
Just looking at the emperor's appearance, Wang Yangming turned his attention to Li Huan who was standing aside. Naturally, he hoped that Li Huan could persuade the emperor to give up the idea of boarding the ship.
It's a pity that Li Huan didn't seem to see Wang Yangming's gaze. Instead, he said to Zhang Huai, who was in a daze: "Zhang Huai, what are you doing standing still? Your Majesty asked you to lead the way, why don't you please board the ship!"
Zhang Huai, who was still hesitant at first, immediately reacted after hearing Li Huan's words. He saluted the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, please come with me!"
While talking, Zhang Huai walked at the front to lead the way, leading the emperor to board the treasure ship in front of him.
Compared with watching from the port, when you actually board such a big ship and look down at the large and small ships in the port, you will naturally have a different feeling.
Especially the emperor stood on the side of the ship, looking at the cannons on the ship, his eyes full of excitement.
For a moment, Zhu Houzhao even had the urge to ask Zhang Huai to order the ship to sail out of the port and sail on the sea. However, Zhu Houzhao also knew in his heart that it was everyone's best to allow Wang Yangming and others who were following him to agree to let him board the ship.
This is the limit of endurance. If the order is really given to sail the ship, I am afraid that these people will stand up and oppose it immediately.
Knowing that it was impossible to really give the order to go to sea, Zhu Houzhao still looked at the treasure ship carefully on the boat. For half an hour, he almost looked at the treasure ship. Only then did Zhu Houzhao look like he was still unsatisfied. Accompanied by everyone,
Got off the boat.
When Zhu Houzhao got off the boat, it could be seen that Wang Yangming, Liu Yu and others were obviously relieved.
In the port, Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhang Huai and other navy generals and said: "Now the Portuguese occupy the Xuanwei Division of our old port and attack our Ming caravan, which has seriously affected our Ming sea trade. I and the imperial court
The princes have discussed that we will definitely send the navy to Nanyang to annihilate the Portuguese and recapture the old port of Xuanwei Division. I wonder what you think?"
It is said that it takes a thousand days to raise an army but only a short time to use it. The imperial court spent so much money on the navy. Now it was time to use the navy. Naturally, everyone was extremely excited after hearing the emperor's words.
What's more, as soldiers, if they want to make achievements, they can only achieve it through war. Now, isn't the expedition to Southeast Asia a great opportunity for them to gain military merit?
Zhang Huai stood up without hesitation and said categorically to the Emperor: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, the general will definitely annihilate those barbarians and regain the Xuanwei Division of Old Port for our Ming Dynasty."
When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he couldn't help showing a barbarian look. He looked at Li Huan beside him and said, "Does Li Qing have anything else to say?"
The imperial court had already made a decision on sending the navy south, but now it was just issuing an order to implement it.
In response to the emperor's inquiry, Li Huan just pondered for a moment and then said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, please personally lead the army to Nanyang Province!"
Before Li Huan could finish his words, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but change his expression slightly, and looked at Li Huan with some surprise: "Li Qing, what are you talking about? You actually want to lead the army yourself?"
Not only Zhu Houzhao, but also Wang Yangming and others looked at Li Huan in surprise, as if they did not expect that Li Huan would make such a request.
After all, in everyone's opinion, even if the Portuguese were occupying the land in Nanyang, and there were local indigenous kingdoms, there was no resistance at all compared to the Great Tomorrow Soldiers.
As long as the Ming Dynasty navy arrives, it will definitely be able to annihilate all the Portuguese and retake the Xuanwei Division of the old port like thunder and lightning.
Li Huan smiled slightly and said: "If we only conquer Nanyang, we can only rely on the strength of our Ming Dynasty Navy. However, if we want to establish Nanyang Province and completely control it, it is not that easy. I would like to ask for your help."
Going to Nanyang is to clear the way for Ming Dynasty to establish Nanyang Province."
Although Li Huan had an indifferent smile on his face, everyone present was not a fool. They immediately heard the profound meaning contained in Li Huan's words.
Some people even thought of something, and looked at Li Huan with a hint of fear.
Li Huan's intention was very clear, that is, he would personally go to Nanyang to clear the obstacles for the Ming Dynasty to set up a Nanyang province. He said he was clearing the obstacles, but in fact he was going to Nanyang to kill people.
After all, even local indigenous forces cannot be suppressed casually. If the Ming Dynasty wants to set up provinces to completely control Nanyang and does not brutally kill the local indigenous forces, it can only
I'm afraid it will leave endless hidden dangers.
Looking at the court, with such qualifications, prestige and means to completely sweep Nanyang, there really is no more suitable candidate besides Li Huan.
So after listening to Li Huan's words, Zhu Houzhao didn't know how to persuade Li Huan, no matter how reluctant he was to let Li Huan go to Nanyang.
After all, Zhu Houzhao also knew that Li Huan was definitely the best candidate for the Ming Dynasty to pacify Nanyang. Apart from Li Huan, neither Zhang Huai nor Xu Ying, the new generation of nobles, were obviously suitable.
Seeing the emperor's brooding look, Li Huan bowed and said: "Your Majesty, please accept your invitation!"
Zhu Houzhao took a deep breath, looked at Li Huan, and finally nodded slowly and said: "I agreed, but Li Qing has to promise me that he must go early and come back early."
In June of the seventh year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Luanjia returned to the capital after inspecting the Tianjin Guard Navy. However, as the mighty general of the Ming Dynasty, Li Huan, Duke of Qin, stayed in Tianjin Guard and personally led the navy southward.
Nanyang Manlajia plundered Count Xivensi, who had gained a lot from the Ming royal caravan. Scarlett and others made such a big noise in the old port. Fortunately, they did not stop and took the opportunity to directly gather troops to occupy
The Strait of Malacca was completely controlled.
In a castle with an obvious Western style in the port of Malacca, Count Sivans and others were gathering together to drink red wine, smiling at several people wearing Portuguese navy uniforms.
In addition to Count Sivens and others, there were also several Portuguese present. These people were none other than the reinforcements that Count Sivens had previously requested from the Portuguese Governor in India.
As the reinforcement general sent by the Governor-General of India, Colonel Soro brought a total of more than fifty warships and more than a hundred auxiliary ships. This force was already more than half of the navy that the Governor-General of India could control.
The other party was able to send so many men to Malacca at once. It was obvious that they knew the importance of Malacca to the Portuguese sea lanes. Therefore, they did not hesitate to know that Count Xivensi and others intended to completely occupy Malacca.
choose to send troops to help.
Colonel Solo was smiling at Count Xivens and others at this moment and said: "Everyone, I really didn't expect that you all acted so quickly and occupied Manalajia just like that. You didn't even do anything to help me here!"
"
Count Xivensi smiled and said: "Colonel Solo came just in time. If Colonel Solo hadn't brought his people here, although we could occupy Manlajia based on our strength alone, we wouldn't be able to eradicate the indigenous people.
It’s easy, now that we have the troops brought by Colonel Soro, as long as we kill all the indigenous people who dare to resist us, then the Strait of Malacca will be under the control of Portugal from now on.”
Hearing this, Solo waved his hand and said: "Isn't it just to strangulate a group of indigenous people? I am the best at this. Over the years, I have helped the Governor-General in India to strangle the local indigenous people. I have killed at least tens of thousands of people. Now those people are one
Not to mention how honest he is."
As he spoke, Solo told Sivens and others about his glorious past, and with a hint of showing off, he said that he had killed hundreds of native Indians with his own hands.
Count Xivens listened to Solo's bragging and praised Solo one by one. In their opinion, those natives were just killed if they were killed. They were just a group of slave pigs anyway. No matter how many they killed, they would not kill them.
Keep it in mind.
Count Xivensi raised his wine glass and said to Colonel Solo: "The natives of Managa who dare to resist will be handed over to Colonel Solo!"
Thoreau clinked glasses with Count Sivens and laughed, "Just leave everything to me."
While he was talking, someone suddenly rushed in from outside and shouted: "Your Majesty, it's not good, it's not good, the Ming Dynasty's fleet is coming!"