The eight large ships built in the dock have been launched and are undergoing sea trials. They will be ready to go to sea when they are ready. Dozens of ships have been dispatched to carry soldiers to coastal islands in order to deal with the resurrection of bandits at any time.
It is better to say that it is to prevent pirates and Japanese pirates, but it is better to say that Zhu Hao has made two preparations. The training of giant ships and islands is in full swing.
However, the weapons used for training are still the fire blunderbuss equipped by the Daming Shenji Battalion.
When Zhu Hao appeared on one of the islands, the trainees had just finished training and went to the kitchen in groups to eat.
There are 200 soldiers in each battalion. There are 25 battalions with a total of 5,000 people training on this island at the same time. There are six similar islands.
"Master Zhu."
The person in charge of this island is Wang Zhou, the commanding officer transferred from Jinghaiwei by Lu Wan. He is waiting at the gate of the camp. This man has the character "zhou" in his name and is very good at training sailors, but in recent years, Jinghaiwei has no more
Ships can go out to sea, and in the past, they were used for shore defense.
"Talking inside."
Zhu Hao was followed by Su Xigui and more than a dozen guards as they entered the temporary headquarters.
Wang Zhou was very excited: "Sir, those fire blunderbuss you gave us are very effective. They can shoot a hundred steps away, and their accuracy is excellent. The reloading speed is also fast. The brothers below think that with this weapon, we can fight the Tatars."
There is no problem, let alone a small Japanese from Haihaixiao!"
Although those who served as soldiers in the Ming Dynasty, especially hereditary military households, were wary of the harsh environment in the northwest, they also knew that living on the coast would prevent their ancestors and grandchildren from having any prospects for generations, and they only hoped to go to the northwest to make contributions.
.
"If the navy goes to fight overseas, do you dare to go with it?" Zhu Hao asked.
Wang Zhou said: "Why don't you dare? My lord, just give your orders. There will be mountains of swords and seas of fire. Brothers, there is nothing to be afraid of."
Zhu Hao nodded.
He doesn't have many regular troops at his disposal. He doesn't want the frontier troops who have fought against the Tatars. He can only mobilize less than 5,000 soldiers from the guard posts along the coast. But what he needs to do now is
The purpose is to conquer wild overseas lands. At critical times, the more armed personnel the better.
But a problem arose. He was very worried that the soldiers would mutiny. Once these people followed him overseas and shouted to go back to the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Hao must have enough strength to frighten these people.
It is to give some weapons to the regular officers and soldiers, but they can only give ordinary firecrackers. Instead, the more advanced flintlock rifles should be reserved for those rural warriors who are undergoing training and have weak combat effectiveness, or who are temporarily deployed as soldiers.
People used by soldiers, such as craftsmen, farmers and fishermen.
"The training will continue tomorrow. Let's not rush back to the land first. Let's practice the artillery firing technique later. Each large ship is equipped with sixteen artillery pieces, so the gunners can practice more!"
Zhu Hao is currently waiting for Lu Bing, Guan Jing and others to return from overseas, so he can only train these people first.
…
…
In late June, the fleet Zhu Hao sent to the New World finally returned.
There were twenty-four large ships, not counting small ones. This group of troops could be said to be the best among the elites that Zhu Hao could mobilize before. Many of them were dispatched from Bohai Guards. The twenty-four large ships brought back a lot of goods.
The navy of the Ming Dynasty became like a colonizer in a foreign country. In addition to bringing back goods, it also brought back overseas people, that is, Indians.
The fleet is divided into two batches, one batch docks at Tianjin Port, and the other batch enters Ningbo Port, and the tasks of the two batches of fleets are completely different.
The group in the north was to pay tribute to the emperor, and at the same time, the sailors and soldiers recruited from the Bohai Peripheral Guards were sent back to their hometowns to rest. After all, they had not seen their wives, children, and children for more than half a year. Zhu Hao had nothing to do with these soldiers.
To directly dispatch, he must first calm down the criticism of him from people in the court.
To the south are the ships that were damaged during this voyage. After the fleet was brought back to East Asia along the north equatorial warm current and the northeast trade wind, the ships were basically intact and headed north. The damaged ones could not be sustained and could only be transported to the nearby Ningbo Port.
While undergoing repairs, the sailors and soldiers of this fleet are basically officers and soldiers of the Southern Zhili and Zhejiang and Fujian Guards and civilians.
When the news that Zhu Hao had sent a fleet to return reached the capital, it caused great shock in the court.
This is equivalent to the fact that after Zheng He's voyages to the West, the imperial court once again sent people to sea and achieved fruitful "results". There were many kinds of exotic overseas commodities, which were transported to the capital in horse-drawn carriages. There were a total of 200 horse-drawn carriages. This
Only the part was given to the emperor, and the rest was directly placed in the Tianjin Shipyard.
The third day of July.
In the morning, an endless stream of motorcades were already carrying tributes into the city under the morning light.
When Zhu Si met with the ministers in Fengtian Hall, he was full of excitement and boasted to the ministers about Zhu Hao's great achievements.
"...Have you all seen it? They always say that it is unwise for Zhu Hao to send troops to the south to destroy pirates and Japanese pirates. Now you should know his good intentions, right? There are many overseas things that the Ming Dynasty does not have.
Especially when it comes to food crops, it can greatly increase the grain output of the Ming Dynasty..."
Zhu Si has been brainwashed by Zhu Hao since he was a child. He is very yearning for overseas customs and customs. He was once a young man with a broad mind.
However, after becoming the emperor, his mentality gradually became more conservative, and he often unknowingly magnified the dark side of his heart, which was also caused by his inherent inferiority and self-danger.
The ministers just listened to Zhu Si showing off there, and no one took his words seriously. This was because they didn't think anything valuable could be brought back from the wilderness.
…
…
The meeting ended.
Zhu Si summoned six ministers, cabinet elders, and Hanlin bachelors in the Qianqing Palace alone. It was not enough to brag in front of all the civil and military officials before, and he had to endorse Zhu Hao again in front of these top civil servants.
Liu Chun asked for an order: "Your Majesty, since the southeastern coastal defense has been basically stabilized, why not recall Academician Zhu to the capital as early as possible and keep it in the Hanlin Academy for discussion?"
The person who hopes most for Zhu Hao's return, or who cares most about Zhu Hao's career, is Liu Chun.
It's a pity that his words did not receive much recognition.
More people want Zhu Hao to stay where he can to cool off. If Zhu Hao comes back, the power structure of the court will definitely be broken.
Zhu Sidao: "Jingdao is stranded in the south, preparing to go to sea again. I have agreed to let him go, so you don't need to persuade him. As for the follow-up, when he comes back from the sea, I will rush him back to Beijing eight hundred miles away. As for the time to enter
The Hanlin Academy should be in charge of the six departments, or it could be assigned to the northwest... Let’s talk about it later.”
According to the emperor's intention, he not only had plans to transfer Zhu Hao back, but he even had multiple preparations.
Among them, probably only the transfer to the northwest is one that the ministers are more willing to accept.
But it's better to stay in the south.
Yang Yiqing came out and asked: "Your Majesty, I would like to ask, where do those tributes come from? Ryukyu? Or is it Japan? Or Nanyang?"
Zhu Si smiled and said: "Are these the only places overseas? Haven't you heard of Penglai Wonderland?"
This kind of rhetoric made the ministers present want to hit someone.
Why don't you just come to the fairyland? Wouldn't it be better to just become a god?
What about dreaming in broad daylight?
"Dear gentlemen, I want you to know that Jingdao has the ability to help the country. Don't have any prejudice against him. As for when to bring him back, I will consider it at my discretion. Please don't have any thoughts of fighting with him. He This person regards fame, fortune and wealth as nothing but dirt, and only wants to protect the eternal existence of the Ming Dynasty. He is actually setting an example for others."
Zhu Si probably understood that Zhu Hao's return would make the courtiers nervous, thinking that powerful officials like Qian Ning and Jiang Bin would make a comeback, so he tried his best to inoculate these people.
…
…
The inner court meeting went on for a long time, but apart from talking about Zhu Hao's achievements in going to sea, nothing nutritious was said.
After coming out of Qianqing Palace, several ministers gathered together in twos and threes and whispered to each other as they walked towards the palace gate.
Zhang Zuo followed him out for a while and asked others to do it for him. Then he went back to report to Zhu Sitong.
"Your Majesty...the list of tributes has been sent over."
Zhang Zuo smiled and presented the brochure to Zhu Si.
Zhu Si took it over and looked at it, and said happily: "It's all dazzling, but what are they specifically?"
"This slave doesn't know."
Zhang Zuo smiled and pointed to one of the items on the list, "But it is mentioned here that the fleet brought some barbarians, but most of them were sent to Jiangsu and Zhejiang for reclamation of coastal wasteland, but sixty people were sent to the capital. Already."
"Overseas people? Monkeys?"
Zhu Si asked with wide eyes.
Zhang Zuo smiled and said: "Huang Jingang went to see them and said that there were some women wearing strange clothes. They also had yellow skin and black hair. They were not much different from the people of the Ming Dynasty. They just didn't understand my Ming Dynasty language. Do you want to send them to your majesty... ?”
Zhu Si suddenly became interested and asked: "Is this... not safe? What if they..."
Zhang Zuo looked embarrassed.
It's said that women are being sent to you. Just look at one or two to experience the exotic customs. From what you mean, a group of women are being sent to you at once? Then if you want to face it alone, the risk is still quite high. of.
"Your Majesty, why don't you let Huang Jin choose one or two people to come over and take a look at them?" Zhang Zuo asked.
"Um."
Zhu Si smiled and said, "But logically speaking, they should be similar to Tatar women, right? You may not have even seen them, how can you compare with the beauties of my Ming Dynasty?"
He said this, but the curiosity in his heart was very great. He didn't care whether the tributes sent were valuable goods. It seemed that only this kind of thing could arouse his interest.
…
…
Cabinet value.
When several cabinet ministers came back, Jia Yong seemed to lose his temper and said: "Zhu Jingdao went to Jinghai in name, but he sent people to the sea to Nanyang. This is an act of deceiving the world and stealing reputation, and it is not good for our Ming Dynasty!"
In recent decades, the Ming Dynasty has made it clear that it no longer has plans to go overseas.
It is said that the charts of Zheng He's voyages to the West have been burned by court officials. As for whether Liu Daxia did it, no one knows.
The attitude of the civil servants was surprisingly consistent. They should not do things that waste people and money, and should not provoke people from foreign countries overseas. It is better to govern the Ming Dynasty with peace of mind. Anything that goes against this purpose is unacceptable.
Several people looked at him.
Fei Hong frowned and asked, "Do you want to impeach Zhu Jingdao?"
Jia Yong frowned and said: "Your Majesty did not punish or stop him, but instead praised him and allowed Zhu Jingdao to continue to go to sea. This sets a bad precedent. How can he not participate in the impeachment?"
Liu Chun smiled and said: "Your Majesty has already said it. Our Ming fleet has sailed overseas and traveled all over the world, and we have brought back so many tributes. We really shouldn't be too demanding."
Jia Yong looked at Liu Chun and said, "It's understandable that you can speak for him, but I can't! I will go to the Hanlin Academy and the Sixth Section to find someone to jointly impeach Zhu Jingdao, the person who deceives the world and steals his reputation!"