Human beings in the 14th year of Wanli experienced various things depending on the region they lived in. For people near the equator, the hot climate did not allow them to work hard, and the gifts of nature were so great.
There are so many people that they can make ends meet without having to work too hard. Therefore, they have inherited a lazy character from generation to generation, and in the age of great strife, they will inevitably be eaten by mermaids.
In the cold northern polar regions, there live a group of "raw meat lovers" who live in igloos and tents and feed on seals and polar bears. Their ability to survive puts every so-called "survival expert" to shame.
But at the same time, extremely harsh natural conditions prevent them from expanding their scale and power.
Only people in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere have a climate suitable for farming or grazing, and have the ability to domesticate large herbivores such as horses, cattle, etc., all of which have become the most beneficial support for people in the process of expanding their living space. Suitable conditions allow
They need to work hard to survive, but they are not so bad that reproduction is restricted.
Therefore, since the history of civilization, most of the joys and sorrows have occurred between the Tropic of Cancer and the Polar Circle. People here were driven by the climate and biosphere to build countries, give birth to monarchs, produce weapons and poisons, and finally decorate the world with intrigues.
all of these.
In this year, the cannon designed and built by Andrei Chokhov of Russia was completed. The cannon weighed 40 tons, the muzzle diameter was 0.92 meters, and each shell weighed one ton. This luxurious cannon was engraved with the image of Fyodor III.
"The King of Guns" not only showed the insecurity of Tsarist Russia, but also revealed its ambition.
In this year, the former Queen of Scotland and the French widow Queen Mary Stuart, who had been imprisoned by Elizabeth I for eighteen years, was beheaded and executed. Felipe II's conspiracy to use Mary to disrupt Britain was completely shattered. In anger, he
He vowed to avenge the former Queen of Scotland - the war between the two countries was about to break out. And Drake and other naval generals who accepted the "battle line" idea were desperately refitting his pirate ship. The British Empire's nascent steel casting industry
I also underwent some tests because of this.
In this year, the Spanish colonial governor of the Philippines, Santiago de Bella, received an order from the Spanish mainland. Felipe II informed him that negotiations with Xu Guangqi had broken down and asked him to be careful of attacks from the Ming Dynasty.
The Governor of Santiago is related to Miguel Lopez, the first Governor who conquered Luzon twenty years ago. Miguel once formulated an attack plan with a total of 11 chapters and 79 chapters and thousands of charts.
The plan of the Ming Dynasty was that it was possible to conquer the Ming Dynasty with twelve Fragada-class warships and 25,000 men, and a memorandum signed by himself, the bishop, and senior officers was reported to the King of Spain. Among them, the plan to attack the Ming Dynasty was
The reason was very bare - "By the will of God, this is a sufficient reason for us to enter this country." This memorandum was not implemented in the original time and space due to the destruction of the Armada.
Although history does not allow assumptions, if there had been no destruction of the Armada in the original time and space, where China's history would have headed is an interesting question - how the Ming Dynasty managed to save the nation in the face of powerful ships and cannons can only exist in the imagination.
.This memorandum at least shows that Zhu Yijun’s rhetoric of insulting the officials during the reform is tenable.
After Zhu Yijun came to the throne in this time and space, the Ming Dynasty reorganized its military and rapidly recovered its strength. In the Battle of Burma, all forces from North Korea to Goa were shocked by the Ming Dynasty's clean victory. Then the Ming Dynasty defeated Japan in the first battle and captured Annan with overwhelming force.
, the illustrious martial arts leader. Bella's eyes were red with jealousy but she didn't dare to make a mistake.
After the successful visit of Luo Mingjian's mission, the colonists in Luzon, Goa and Manchuria completely gave up the idea of attacking the Ming Dynasty. The information obtained by the mission was that although the Ming Dynasty was a closed country before, its mobilization ability is now limited.
The sophistication of weapons and firearms was on par with Spain's, if not more so. If it weren't for the fact that the navy was still weak, the colonies would only have to worry about an attack from the Ming Dynasty.
What I heard later was that the Ming Dynasty was expanding its territory in the north. His Majesty the Emperor seemed to have turned all his energy to the northwest, and business exchanges with various colonies were all normal. In the view of Governor Santiago, these Chinese people are particularly fascinated by history, as if
Not restoring the old territory would be a disgrace to their ancestors during the "Han and Tang" periods.
It was certainly a good thing for Governor Santiago that the Ming Dynasty changed the direction of expansion. In fact, even if there was no order from Spain to remind him, the colonial governor had no intention of becoming hostile to the Ming Dynasty at this time.
The Chinese settlement in Manila has expanded rapidly in recent years. The princes of the Ming Dynasty have set up offices here. The "maintains" of these families have gathered together, and their military strength and firepower are several times more than the armed forces of the colonial authorities.
These so-called servants are the "mercenaries" used by the imperial court to implement the spirit of the clan meeting. Most of them are composed of retired officers and soldiers from Burma and Annan. They are under the unified command and dispatch of the Military Intelligence Bureau and receive a basic salary. At the same time, they also receive
The "commission" of the princes who were interested in making colonial profits was so rich that they left their homes and careers to do this bloody business.
In the past two years, their footprints have spread all over Little Luzon (note: Luzon Island) and between Sayao and Nabiji (note: Mindanao Island), constantly discovering new islands that have not been marked by colonizers, and exploring where the Spanish colonial authorities still exist.
Mineral deposits that have not been found - of course, in the eyes of the princes and princes, the occupation and naming of the Spanish colonists does not mean that this place belongs to them. According to the rule of "the whole world is not the king's land", these beautiful islands
This is the "new expansion land" promised by His Majesty the Emperor in the seventh year of Wanli.
What's more, the Spaniards had only been here for a few days. Manila was occupied by the Spanish in the fifth year of Longqing - and the Chinese pirate Lin Feng almost captured Manila once in the second year of Wanli. This shows that Manila's "status is undetermined"
.
Of course, Lin Feng was a rebel, and the Ming Dynasty did not support him. At that time, the Fujian local officials colluded with the Spanish colonists and wiped out this group of pirates - this was also what Zhu Yijun pointed out when he scolded the officials during the Great Reform.
In recent years, the princes of the Ming Dynasty have begun to unabashedly covet Greater Luzon (note: generally refers to the Philippine Islands, referred to as Luzon). Governor Santiago has also heard of the disturbing public opinions, but what he can do is extremely limited: he can
Maintaining the current situation was already exhausting him.
The Chinese who have taken root here have gradually changed their timid image due to the strong martial arts of the Ming Dynasty, and no longer grovel when negotiating with the colonial authorities. These Zhangquan survivors have been struggling to survive on these islands two hundred years ago, and now rely on
Hard work has basically monopolized various industries in Luzon, and the number of people has exceeded 30,000.
In addition to service industries such as hairdressing, tailoring, repair services, hotels and taverns, etc., most of Luzon's food and animal husbandry industries are also in the hands of the Chinese - the local natives have no experience in farming and animal husbandry, and are too lazy to learn.
Although some land has been allocated to the Spaniards, these so-called "colonial manor owners" also need to hire Chinese to manage it. These landowners are not good at guiding native serfs to farm and herd - and these skills are exactly the innate skills of the Chinese .
Therefore, in addition to the profits earned by the Spanish colonial authorities from trade with the Ming Dynasty, 80% of the colonial local tax revenue came from the contributions of the Zhangquan survivors. However, after these people straightened their waists and the Spanish colonial authorities could not get anything they wanted, the contradiction between the two sides gradually deepened.
In September of the 14th year of Wanli, an expedition hired by King Zhou discovered large-scale open-pit gold and copper mines on Masbate Island, a large V-shaped island between Little Luzon and Panay Island. The news spread very quickly The extremely secretive news came back to King Zhou and King Lu, who immediately secretly reported to Zhu Yijun and asked the court to allow them to occupy the island for mining and smelting.
In the sixty years since the first Philippine Governor Miguel occupied Cebu, the Spanish colonists expanded southward and northward, and have occupied major islands such as Luzon, Mindanao, and Palawan. The V-shaped large island discovered by the Zhou Dynasty expedition Although there is no Spanish garrison on the island, the colonial authorities have mapped it and marked it on the map as the Viceroyalty of "New Spain" - if the Ming Dynasty dispatched the navy to occupy this island, it would mean that the Ming Dynasty took the initiative to open the island. War with the Spanish colonies.