Chapter 516 The Ming-Portuguese Naval Battle Breaks Out
Chapter 516 The Ming-Portuguese naval war breaks out
Author: seven fleas
Chapter 516 The Ming-Portuguese naval war breaks out
With Li Huan appointing the chief officials of the Sansi Yamen of Nanyang Province, with the assistance of hundreds of officials and thousands of staff sent by the imperial court, in a short period of time, the Sansi Yamen of Nanyang Province in the Ming Dynasty
Then the structure was completed, and at least to a certain extent, it began to perform its own responsibilities and exercise preliminary rule and control over the Nanyang Province.
Old Port is one of the major gathering places for Han people in Southeast Asia. It can be said that the Ming Dynasty opened the sea. Now more and more Han people gather in Old Port. To be precise, with the arrival of many merchants from the Ming Dynasty, Old Port becomes more and more prosperous.
The location of the old port was also transformed into the location of the old port city of Nanyang Province in the Ming Dynasty.
It was one of the several guard posts that came with the fleet, and the soldiers of one of the guard posts were placed in the old port house.
The former governor of Hong Kong and other officials had just completed the placement of the soldiers of that guard station not long ago. After all, it involved the placement of nearly 10,000 soldiers of the guard station. This was definitely not an easy task.
Fortunately, the most important thing in Nanyang is a large area of fertile land, and for these Ming Guard soldiers, as long as there is land, it is not difficult to resettle these people.
Especially when all the officials of this guard station were eliminated, these guards soldiers who had been enslaved by the guards officials for decades seemed to have been given a new life.
When these guardsmen learned that the imperial court would distribute ten acres of prime farmland to each of them, these guardsmen felt as if they were in a dream.
You must know that many of them have several or even more than a dozen people in their families, and the imperial court distributes acres of land according to population. Regardless of male or female, everyone has ten acres of fertile land, which means that they
One family may be allocated hundreds of acres of prime farmland.
Such things seemed like a dream to these guardsmen. If they hadn't held the land deeds distributed to them one by one, they would never have dared to believe that such a good thing could happen.
When they really saw the fertile land allocated to them, these soldiers of the Ming Guard who had been moved to Nanyang Province thousands of miles away finally put aside all their distracting thoughts. Even if they were driven away at this time,
None of them will leave.
Because except here, they will have nothing when they return to the Ming Dynasty. But here, each of them can get ten acres of high-quality fertile land. Only a fool would think of going back to the inhuman life in the past.
Accompanied by officials from the old Hong Kong government, Li Huan inspected the placement of soldiers from the original guard station, which was divided into more than a dozen villages.
There are almost a thousand people in each village, which is just suitable for a village. And this time Li Huan took advantage of the establishment of villages to directly completely disrupt and distribute these guard soldiers, so as to prevent the clan from becoming bigger and reduce the imperial power.
Rule was directly implemented in every village.
At this time, the people who had been allocated their own fields were using the farm tools and seeds distributed to them by the court one by one, and were racing against time to plow the land for cultivation. The Chinese people's infatuation with the land was fully demonstrated.
Although he was supervised by Jin Yiwei, Li Huan had always been suspicious of many officials in the Ming Dynasty. Although Li Huan also believed that many of the officials sent to Nanyang were fools, they would not do anything like this.
At times, top and bottom hands may undermine the overall situation, but proper supervision is still necessary.
Fortunately, these officials were indeed no fools, and nothing happened that made Li Huan unhappy.
Looking at Li Qing, the former prefect of Hong Kong who was accompanying him, Li Huan said slowly: "As a newly established province of the Ming Dynasty, Nanyang Province has many systems that are different from those in the inland areas of the Ming Dynasty. Others are different.
It is just a matter of officials going down to every village and the imperial court controlling every village. In addition, the most important issue is the issue of state-owned land. After the land distributed to many people is registered,
It is under the jurisdiction of the government. The ownership of the land belongs to the government, while the people only have permanent use rights. Land transactions are prohibited and land annexation is avoided..."
All the officials listened to Li Huan's story and nodded repeatedly.
It has to be said that the Nanyang Province is a blank piece of paper. Many policies that cannot be implemented in the Ming Dynasty can be implemented in the Nanyang Province. Many of these policies are an experiment by Li Huan in the Nanyang Province. Regardless of success or failure, even if it is again
Even if it’s bad, it won’t be worse than the current situation in the Ming Dynasty, right?
In the distance of the village is the endless primitive jungle. Many local indigenous people live in these jungles. Dozens of young men in the village are cutting down huge and huge trees. These giant trees
However, there are excellent shipbuilding materials, and many of them are even precious wood.
Li Huan looked around and saw that the entire village was a lively scene.
Just when Li Huan was about to leave, he suddenly saw a burst of fast horses galloping towards him. A messenger got off his horse, walked quickly to Li Huan, bowed and said: "General, urgent report from the Malacca Strait."
Li Huan couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard this. He reached out to take the military newspaper and opened it. Soon, a strange look appeared on Li Huan's face. He chuckled and said to Chen Ang and the others who were following him: "Get ready."
, let’s return to Malacca immediately.”
In March of the ninth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, Afonso, the Portuguese Governor of India, finally waited for the reinforcements sent from the country, a reinforcement team consisting of more than a hundred ships.
Among them, there are dozens of warships, plus auxiliary ships, the size of hundreds of ships is not small. In addition, Afonso has been preparing for a long time during this period.
Directly deploying dozens of warships and more than a hundred auxiliary ships, it gathered hundreds of warships and hundreds of auxiliary ships into what can be called a huge expedition fleet.
Afonso, on the other hand, led such an amazingly powerful maritime fleet towards the Strait of Malacca.
You must know that during this period of time, Afonso was preparing for war while inquiring about information in the direction of Malacca.
Thanks to the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade, a large number of ships entered and exited the Strait of Malacca, including many Portuguese, Indian, and Arab merchant ships.
Li Huan, who occupied the Strait of Malacca, naturally had no intention of blocking these merchant ships. After all, the Ming Dynasty wanted to develop maritime trade and naturally hoped to connect other countries.
As long as they did not come to cause trouble for the Ming Dynasty, Li Huan would welcome these merchant ships.
As for whether these merchant ships would bring any danger to the Ming Dynasty, to be honest, Li Huan really didn't care about it. Even though he knew that some of these merchant ships might bring the situation in the Strait of Malacca out, Li Huan didn't
Have cared about it.
If Ming Dynasty was even afraid of this, it might as well have given up on the Strait of Malacca.
After all, occupying such a maritime traffic artery will inevitably attract the prying eyes of many people with ulterior motives.
The Portuguese are just the first peepers. In the future, there will be Spanish, Dutch and other Western maritime powers that will rise one after another.
Therefore, if the Ming Dynasty wants to occupy the Strait of Malacca, it must be prepared to face all challengers. Only with sufficient strength can it take the Strait of Malacca into its hands.
And precisely in this era, Ming Dynasty had this strength.
You must know that in addition to a dozen warships that need to escort the caravans returning to the Ming Dynasty full of various supplies from the Nanyang Province, the Ming Dynasty has hundreds of warships in the Nanyang Province, among which the most powerful
There are dozens of Ming Dynasty treasure ships, which can definitely be called an invincible fleet in this era.
When Afonso's huge fleet approached the Strait of Malacca, news about Afonso's huge fleet naturally came into the sight of the Nanyang Provincial Government of the Ming Dynasty through many merchant ships at sea.
The merchants at sea were definitely the most well-informed group of people. These people brought news of the large-scale invasion by the Portuguese. When Li Huan returned to the Strait of Malacca, it was already a few days later.
In the naval yamen, which Li Huan named the Ming Dynasty Nanyang Fleet, a group of generals headed by Zhang Huai were gathered together at this moment.
Walking into the Navy Yamen, all the generals in the hall stood up and saluted Li Huan.
Li Huan turned around and sat down, waved his hands, and his eyes fell on a figure. This person was Jiang Bin, but now he has been appointed by Li Huan as the commander of the navy of Nanyang Province in Ming Dynasty. He succeeded Zhang Huai and directly commanded the navy of Nanyang Province in Ming Dynasty.
The division fleet is under the jurisdiction of Si Yamen, the commander-in-chief of the capital.
Looking at Jiang Bin, Li Huan said: "Commander Jiang, tell me, what is the situation of the Portuguese fleet?"
Jiang Bin's promotion is no longer as simple as being promoted to three levels in a row. From a mere thousand-household official to a commander of an army, this is a rapid promotion speed. Therefore, after Jiang Bin became a fleet commander, his whole life
He worked hard to do everything well, just because he wanted to gain Li Huan's recognition through his own efforts.
I think Jiang Bin knows very well that if he fails to show his ability and value, Li Huan will definitely beat him back to his original form without hesitation.
At this moment, he suddenly heard Li Huan asking. Jiang Bin stood up without hesitation and said solemnly to Li Huan: "Back to the general, ever since he received the intelligence about the Portuguese invasion, the general has already sent out a reconnaissance ship to investigate the news. Now,
It has been determined that the Portuguese fleet came from the direction of Tianzhu. According to those businessmen, the commander of this fleet is Afonso, the Portuguese Governor in India. This man has gathered nearly a hundred warships and hundreds of auxiliary ships.
, intending to retake the Strait of Malacca to avenge the defeat in the original naval battle."
Zhang Huai, who was sitting there, couldn't help but said with a bit of disdain: "Since I, the Ming Dynasty, can defeat a mere barbarian once, I can defeat him countless times."
Li Huan ignored Zhang Huai, but looked at Jiang Bin and said: "If it is left to you to face the enemy this time, are you sure of defeating the enemy?"
Hearing this, Jiang Bin almost hesitated and said to Li Huan: "The general is willing to issue a military order. If the Portuguese are not defeated, the general is willing to come and see you!"
Li Huan nodded slightly and said: "In that case, this battle will be handed over to you to take command. The entire naval fleet will be dispatched by you."
Jiang Bin suppressed the excitement in his heart and bowed respectfully to Li Huan: "The general will never let you down."
On March 19, the ninth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, the sea surface in Malacca was calm, but it was filled with a sense of tension.
On the blue sea, two huge maritime fleets, several miles apart, were approaching at extremely fast speeds.
The sun and moon flag of the Great Ming Dynasty was fluttering in the wind. On a huge treasure ship, many officials from the Third Division Yamen of Nanyang Province, headed by Li Huan, were gathered together at this moment, looking at the situation in the distance.
At this time, Zhang Huai, as the commander-in-chief of Nanyang Province, could definitely be said to be the highest-ranking official on the ship besides Li Huan.
Looking at the fleets of both sides approaching at an extremely fast speed in the distance, Zhang Huai showed a rare look of solemnity on his face and said to Li Huan: "Isn't it a little bit that the general entrusted such an important battle to Jiang Bin to command?"
It’s a bit of a risk, if this happens…”
It’s no wonder Zhang Huai is so worried. After all, Jiang Bin was just a slightly capable Qianhu official before. In Zhang Huai’s opinion, his ability is not much better than that of many of his guerrillas and counselors.
go.
If Li Huan had not personally appointed Jiang Bin as the commander of the naval fleet, he would never have agreed.
The other important officials of the Sansi Yamen couldn't help but look at Li Huan.
It's just that Li Huan was standing on the bow of the ship, with his hands behind his back, looking at the fleets of both sides that had begun to fire tentatively in the distance. After listening to Zhang Huai's words, he didn't look back and just said lightly: "This person has quite a few tricks.
, his ability to command troops is not too bad, and if he can get some experience, he will be a good general."
To be honest, Li Huan is not too worried about Jiang Bin's ability. After all, he has become the emperor's favorite by virtue of his ability in history. If he doesn't have any ability at all, he may not be able to join Zhu Houzhao, the emperor of martial arts.
The emperor's discernment.
But it was said that Afonso personally led the army. At this moment, Afonso looked at the densely packed Ming ships opposite, and couldn't help but show a solemn look on his face.
Although he had previously learned from Colonel Solo that the strength of the Ming fleet was not weak, how could Afonso, who was always proud, take the Ming fleet to heart.
After all, Portugal today is absolutely invincible on the sea. Except for Spain, which can compete with it, there is no rival on the vast sea.
Therefore, Afonso was very annoyed when he learned that the Strait of Malacca had fallen into the hands of the Ming Dynasty, and that Count Sivens, Colonel Solo and others had joined forces and were defeated by the Ming Navy.
No matter how much Afonso looked down on the Ming Dynasty before, when he saw the size of the Ming Navy fleet and the huge ships, Afonso instantly put aside his prejudice and paid attention to the Ming Dynasty.
The naval fleet's vigilance was heightened to the extreme.
As the saying goes, hearing is false and seeing is believing. No matter how Colonel Solo described the power of the Ming Navy fleet to him before, Afonso was always skeptical and subconsciously believed that Colonel Solo was looking for reasons for his defeat.
Excuse.
; Only when he saw the size of the Ming Navy fleet with his own eyes, did Afonso know that the Ming Navy fleet in Colonel Soro's description was not exaggerated, and that the real size of the Ming Navy fleet was even larger than what Colonel Soro said.
A bit more powerful.
Taking a deep breath to suppress the turbulence in his heart, Afonso suppressed all the thoughts in his heart at this moment. In any case, this battle was inevitable, and even if he wanted to retreat, it was too late.
"Tell everyone to attack for the supreme glory of my Kingdom of Portugal!"
Following Afonso's order, the Portuguese fleet suddenly started the war after conducting a simple test.
Suddenly hundreds of warships opened fire in unison, the rumbling sound of the cannons was like thunder, projectiles fell like rain, and columns of water splashed up on the sea surface.
Jiang Bin, who was sitting on the flagship of the naval fleet, also looked at the opposite side with a solemn face. He slowly put down the telescope and ordered in a deep voice: "Tell everyone that the Duke of Guo is watching from behind and ordered all warships to lock down."
