At the Pearl River Port, Zheng He led his team to dock, looking at the busy port with novel eyes.
In the early morning at Pearl River Port, fishing boats returned to the port and merchant ships went out to sea. It was a prosperous scene. Three steam warships parked in the port majesticly. Of course, Zheng He's own ship was even more majestic.
The large fleet was still outside, and a treasure ship came over.
Zhu Zhanzhen rushed over as soon as he got the news, and it was already noon when he arrived.
A pitch-black warship sailed past the Pearl River. Zhu Zhanzhen's second-generation warship was painted in pitch-black according to his wishes. It was very conspicuous. It had a dragon's head tattooed on the bow, making it majestic.
When the warship sailed into the port, Zhu Zhanyi saw Zheng He's treasure ship. Every time he saw the huge ship, Zhu Zhanyi could not help but be surprised. The craftsmanship of ancient craftsmen was indeed unparalleled. Such a treasure ship can be placed in modern times.
Doing it with tools is extremely expensive.
However, judging from the appearance, this treasure ship does not have a steam engine.
After getting off the warship, Zhu Zhanzhen walked quickly, and Zheng He also quickly greeted him.
"My minister Zheng He has met His Royal Highness the Prince of Zhujiang County."
"There is no need for these false courtesy between you and me." Zhu Zhanzhen smiled.
"Your Highness, although it is a false courtesy, it is still a courtesy."
"Okay, okay, let's go and I'll take you to see the Pearl River Port."
"Your Highness, Chen Youshan, just took me on a tour. Before coming, I also stopped at Ningbo Port. To be honest, it is far inferior to His Highness's Xiangjiang Port."
Zhu Zhanzhen laughed: "By the way, didn't my second uncle say before that he would privately sponsor a treasure ship for you? Did he do it?"
"The Prince of Han may be a noble man and forget things a lot."
Men, sometimes you have to forget quickly when you talk.
"Why isn't the treasure ship equipped with a steam engine?"
Zhu Zhanchen asked a question.
Zheng He sighed: "Hey, I tried, but the treasure ship was too big and I couldn't find a matching paddle wheel. I had no choice but to give up and continue to sail to the West in the original way. But this time, two treasure ships were dispatched, and the others
Warships are all steamships."
The most important task this time was to send back the envoys from various countries who were brought back last time, and to lead troops from the sea to work with General Zhang Fu to pacify Jiaozhi, so we did not plan to go very far.
Zhu Zhanzhen had sent a letter before, and this time he was going with Zheng He. He was going to visit the Southeast Asian countries, and he wanted to stabilize Cochin.
Because he had the imperial order, Zheng He could not refuse it. Even though he felt that Zhu Zhanzhen's visit to the Southeast Asian countries was fake, he just wanted to pacify Jiaozhi.
Jiaozhi is also a very important item in Zhu Zhanhang's first five-year plan for the Pearl River Delta. There was no plan for agricultural development in the original plan because Zhu Zhanhang planned to make Jiaozhi a large granary.
The climate there is suitable, and rice is harvested once more a year than in the Ming Dynasty, and the yield is good. As long as Jiaozhi's food import channels can be stabilized, there will be no problem with food.
Once the food problem is solved, development will go more smoothly.
The two of them did not exchange much greetings. Zheng He led Zhu Zhanchen to board the treasure ship and took out the maritime map.
Jiaozhi is very close to Guangzhou, and it can be reached quickly by warships heading south.
Zheng He pointed to the location of Jiaozhi Hanoi on the map and said: "General Zhang Fu has led his army to regain the location of Hanoi. Now that the north of Jiaozhi has been pacified, the rebellion of the Li Dynasty in the south is still continuing. This time I plan to go to the north first.
He met with General Zhang Fu once, and after reorganizing the troops, he led the fleet to land directly from the southern port of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, forming a pincer attack from the north to the south and annihilating the Jiaochin Rebellion."
The overall territory of Jiaozhi is long and narrow, and there are many mountains. It is difficult for cavalry to move and launch large-scale battles. This is one of the reasons why Jiaozhi has been in rebellion for so many years. The rebels are endless and difficult to catch.
And even though Jiaozhi is such a small place, its ambitions are never small. If you look at the exaggerated historical maps of Korea and Jiaozhi together, you will find that.
North of the Yellow River is North Korea, south of the Yangtze River is Jiaozhi, and the Chinese people swim in the middle of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.
In fact, the two have similar characteristics, and they have no less ambitions for China in modern times. The two Volunteer Army counterattacks after the founding of the People's Republic of China were fought in these two places.
And until modern times, they still say that the Spring Festival is theirs, fuck it, it’s called the Chinese Spring Festival.
Watching Zheng He analyze the war situation, Zhu Zhanzhen believed that defeating them was not the key, but stability. There were many reasons for Jiaozhi's long-term chaos, and historical reasons accounted for most. After all, Jiaozhi separated from our dynasty after the Tang Dynasty and formed a
Our own customs and cultural traditions, of course, are all formed on the basis of our country’s culture.
There are similarities and differences. To stabilize Jiaozhi, we must grasp these similarities.
After hearing Zheng He's war policy, Zhu Zhanzhen agreed very much. Zheng He was an expert in leading wars, especially maritime wars, so he would just follow their plan.
"Does Your Majesty have any instructions regarding the recovery after the war in Cochin?" Zhu Zhanzhen asked.
"Your Majesty has said that it is entirely up to Your Highness, Prince of Pearl River County, to control the strength of Jiaozhi's troops."
Zhu Zhanyi thought for a moment: "Please give me some advice. I plan to let the people of Jiaozhi govern Jiaozhi, but Jiaozhi cannot support troops."
"The people of Cochin govern Cochin?"
"Yes, select a talented person from the people of Jiaozhi to be the spokesperson of the Ming Dynasty in Jiaozhi, let him govern Jiaozhi on behalf of the Ming Dynasty, promote agriculture, and transport food to various ports."
The previous emperors never dared to let Cochin people take the throne. They sent supervisory troops and built vassal offices, but the results were obviously not good, otherwise there would not have been so many rebellions.
One of the reasons is that most of the officials sent there felt that what our ancestors said was reasonable. People in places like Cochin and North Korea were barbarians from the frontier tribes and could not be treated with courtesy.
Now that Zhu Zhanyi needed this granary, Zhu Zhanyi thought of a very bad idea, but if he thought about it carefully, it would be of huge benefit to the Ming Dynasty.
After weighing the balance, Zhu Zhanchen pointed to the area in the middle of Jiaozhi: "This place is called Tuohuang, and the maritime merchants in Guangdong call it Da Nang. It is still within the scope of the Le Dynasty, but I plan to build a port here.
It is located in an excellent port and it is quick to go inland to Siam. This place will become an enclave of the Guangdong vassal in the future."
"enclave."
"It doesn't border but is under the direct jurisdiction of the Guangdong vassal, only the port and a small part of the surrounding area."
Zheng He now couldn't understand what Zhu Zhanzhen wanted to do.
"Also during this trip to the Southeast Asian countries, I will bring business representatives from all walks of life. We will also conduct trade negotiations. Are there any important people in Cochin who are close to our country?"
"I am not very clear about the internal situation in Jiaozhi. General Zhang Fu should know a lot about the specific situation when we get there."
"Okay, let's prepare to leave soon. This is the first battle of the establishment of the Guangdong Navy. I will send ten steam warships to accompany the army. This is more than half of the current strength of the Guangdong vassal navy, because the shipyards and steam engine plants have just
Even if it’s not established yet, we’ve been working hard day and night.”
"His Highness's warships are more powerful than those of my fleet. This time the fleet has fifteen steam warships plus three treasure ships. A total of twenty-five steam warships will definitely be enough."
Zhu Zhanzhen touched his chin: "Well, let's set out in two days and try to capture the Li Chao rebels before the year."
It was less than two months before the Chinese New Year, but the army was approaching and the Jiaozhi area was small. As long as the key cities were taken down, there would basically be only a small-scale rebellion left.
After getting off the treasure ship, Chen Youshan asked Zhu Zhanyi alone: "Why did Your Highness bring the merchants?"
"If we don't do business with them and don't let them know that farming can make money, how can they develop agriculture honestly? If they keep rebelling, they will waste fertile land."
Chen Youshan seemed to understand a little bit, but not completely.
"By the way, I remember that in the information that the Nan family gave me before, part of their smuggling business was in Jiaozhi, and it was quite large. Xiaosheng sent someone to inform Nan Zhizhi, and asked him to take the boss of the ship that originally smuggled in Jiaozhi, and also
A responsible shopkeeper came to see me."
There is still some use in keeping the Nan family.
I don’t know people in the south are on Xiangjiang Island. Now many famous families in Guangzhou are starting to build houses on Xiangjiang Island. This is a big development direction. Xiangjiang Island is becoming more and more popular.
After receiving the news, he rushed to Zhu Zhanzhen's location.
Nan Zhizhi had no arrogance in front of Zhu Zhanzhen. His position as head of the family was promoted by Zhu Zhanzhen and others. Everyone knew that he was a puppet.
"Previous information from the Nan family said that your family's original smuggling business in Jiaozhi was mainly divided into two parts, the import of grain and the export of tea and ceramics. There were three main contact firms."
Nanzhidao nodded immediately: "Yes, one of them has been destroyed due to the rebellion of the Li Dynasty, and there are two others, one is the Nandao Tea Trading Company, and the other is the civilian food store."
"The owner of this civilian food store is named Le Min You. I checked the information and it seems that he is cousin to Le Li Wei, the leader of the Le Dynasty rebellion. But is it true?"
Nan Zhizhi brought out a shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper Li was in charge of this back then."
Shopkeeper Li knelt down with a plop. He knew that Zhu Zhanzhen had cracked down on smuggling since he arrived. Now that it was on his head, he might not be able to escape death.
"Your Highness, please forgive me, Your Highness, please forgive me." Shopkeeper Li said tremblingly.
"I didn't say I wanted to kill you. I don't plan to continue investigating the past matters. You just need to cooperate." If the previous smuggling was investigated to the end, these big business houses would basically have to arrest and behead people, so they only arrested a few.
A typical example of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.
"Yes, yes, thank you, Your Highness."
"Let me ask you, is this Li Min really Li Li's cousin?"
"Yes, yes, the grassroots people have traveled to Cochin many times and are familiar with the local customs of Cochin. The two are indeed cousins. Le Li's family is a wealthy family in Lanshan Township, Liangjiang, Thanh Hoa Province, Cochin. For many years, they have relied on smuggling with the Ming Dynasty.
If you want to make a fortune in business, you should not be seduced by official titles or intimidated by power."
Zhu Zhanchen touched his chin. This Li Li was really a difficult opponent. This kind of person put the great cause of his family and country first. When he was unemployed, the Ming Dynasty knew about him and offered him an official position, but he didn't want it.
After all, this man was the figure in later history who defeated the Ming Dynasty army and forced Zhu Zhanji to abandon Jiaozhi.
"What about this Li Youmin?"
"He is a greedy and sneaky villain. It is said that Li Youmin is the orthodox descendant of the Li family, but his ability is far inferior to Li Li. He also likes to play small tricks with our trading center to ask for a commission."
Zhu Zhanzhen grinned, is this right? The comprador class has to let people like this do it.