Chapter 367: The Southern Expedition and the Northern War 32 Attempts
The typhoon hit the Taiwan Strait for three consecutive days, and the stormy waves caused all human activities on the sea to stop.
Human power cannot resist the power of nature. In this era of sailing warships, this is the truth that sailors believe deeply. Pigeons are also products of nature. In such a violent and violent weather, the small pigeons released by the Macau Intelligence Department of China Company Failed to complete his mission, when Yin Feng received the information brought by the communication ship Sea Urchin from Macau, the typhoon had passed.
Among the two major intelligence departments under Yin Feng, Zeng Rui, the head of the Military Intelligence Department, personally went to the Northeast. In order to find out the situation of the Ming Dynasty's training of the new army, Lin Xiao, the head of the Commercial Information Department of the company responsible for domestic intelligence, went to Jiangnan in person. The information sent by the government about the purchase of Western cannons in Macau caused Yin Feng to immediately connect it with the situation where Xu Guangqi, Xiong Tingbi and others began to train the new army in Nanjing.
Yin Feng immediately wrote a letter, asking Li Lihua, who was familiar with many languages to translate it into Dutch, and sent the Sea Urchin to Macau immediately: He clearly ordered Li Jin to continue negotiations with the Portuguese in Macau, and at the same time, he figured out with Yu Anfu that the government bought cannons. Details.
He recalled that in the original historical time and space, Xu Guangqi advocated buying Western cannons, in order to fight against the Eight Banners of the Northeastern Later Jin. This operation of the Ming Dynasty's government to buy cannons was also very likely led by Xu Guangqi.
Yin Feng actually did not intend to restrict the development and popularization of firearm technology in the Ming Dynasty's official control areas. The technical level of the Chinese army is much stronger than that of the surrounding countries, and even compared with the European powers, its firearm technology level has at least been at least For decades, he was optimistic about the Ming government who was also Chinese to introduce advanced firearm technology; the problem is that he now represents the Chinese company and emerging maritime forces such as Taiwan, Luzon, and Nanyang in this armed sea In the hearts of the backbone members of the Shang Group, the ultimate goal is to defeat the Ming Dynasty and replace it. Yin Feng is no longer a time traveler with no worries, but a large group of emerging maritime merchants behind him, and the Chinese army that tasted the sweetness in the war. The maritime overlord supported by the officers' regiment, so he must have a deep understanding of any military attempt by the Ming Dynasty and control it.
In fact, he did not believe that Xu Guangqi would achieve any great results in training the new army. The original historical facts in time and space can prove that Sun Yuanhua's firearms troops were not defeated because of backward weapons technology, but because of lack of food and salary and being subjected to civil servants. Insults led to a mutiny, which easily disrupted Xu Guangqi's efforts to train the new army for more than ten years. In the end, Xu Guangqi spent many years to cultivate the main force of the firearms troops, all surrendered to the Later Jin side and became the "Eight Banners of Han" Wu Zhen Chaoha (heavy firearms) troops, overall, the reason why this firearm military innovation died was due to the cultural traditions and its own political system issues of the Ming Dynasty.
However, since Xu Guangqi trained the new army this time to deal with the Chinese army, Yin Feng, as the president of the Chinese army, the ruler of Taiwan, Ryukyu, Luzon, and Southeast Asia, must understand the situation of this new army. After obtaining information from Macau, Yin Feng immediately sent Mai Xiaoliu, who had just been transferred from Nanyang, to Jiangnan to cooperate with Lin Xiao inquire about Xu Guangqi's new army.
Mai Xiaoliu has been busy in Nanyang for ten years. Now the overall situation in Nanyang has been decided and he can finally return to Taiwan. He was rewarded with 50,000 taels of silver for his special merits, became a shareholder of the company, and was promoted to colonel and served as the Ministry of Military Information. Deputy Director.
He married the daughter of the Lin family in Java in Nanyang, and followed him to return to Taiwan with Yin Feng. Yin Feng bought a mansion for him and let him rest for several months, but he almost got sick after he was idle. Come, and finally Yin Feng sent him an order to set out for Jiangnan. Mai Xiaoliu excitedly left Taiwan Port City and arrived at the General Base of the Chinese Navy: Originally named Wanggang, it is now called Taiwan Military Port.
Since the only shipyards that the Chinese company can build giant battleships are Taiwan's military port and Krabi land on Luzon Island, after the end of the South China Sea War, many large warships of the three major fleets came to the military port for maintenance, and most of the maintenance tasks were settled. The Taiwan Military Port Shipyard in the north of Taiwan Port is undertaken. This shipyard is very large and has extended to the north shore of Taiwan Port. There are dry docks for shipbuilding and maintenance here, and piles of wood placed in open sheds for drying. There are large logs that are cut down from the mountainous areas of Taiwan and are sent by river water for ship masts and sails. They are all stored in ponds, as well as sawmills, iron workshops, sail sheds and a mile long There is also a small bronze cannon foundry.
Around the military port, workers kept hand-cranking ropes of various specifications on machinery every day. There were also shipwrecks from the coastal areas of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong, including all kinds of skilled sailing technicians. Many people know everything about the ship. The person in charge of all matters in this shipyard is Mai Dahai, the chief manager of the navy. The chief manager of the technical manager is Lin, the old ship craftsman in Quanzhou. The deputy chief manager is a Dutch engineer. He is located north of the military port. At the Seaman Technical School and the Chinese Military Academy's Naval Branch, a large number of young students attend classes here and often intern in the shipyard.
In this temporary peace period, the construction of new ships has taken a back seat, and teams of technicians are serving the Feizi and Yuanzi battleships. Their number may reach more than 1,000, and each warship has its own The carpenters, cable workers and sail makers, each sailor knew how to handle ropes, plates and crimp seams in the water leakage. On the battleships anchored in the anchors, the black crowds of people climbing like ants were constantly up and down. The new mast was replaced under the hanger on the ship, and a group of people climbed up and reinstalled the rigging on the mast. There were countless people raising new hair-pulling guns, disassembling old cannons, and some The boy was also in the busy crowd, with more than a dozen people led by the master, teaching on the spot. From time to time, a few high-nosed and eye-absorbing eyes flashed across the crowd. The blonde and blue-eyed Westerners were talking in great harmony with the Chinese craftsmen around them. Let's work together.
In the rope making walkway on the shore, machinery whipped, and a winch pulled by a yellow cow made a few miles long rope. In the sail shed, many Pingpu native women even sat cross-legged with patience, using brown The most powerful sound of canvas in ropes and needles is the thrust of carpenters, crimpers and blacksmiths.
Mai Xiaoliu, a son of a sect, is familiar with and unfamiliar with the busy scenes of such shipyards: he has learned shipbuilding skills since he was a child, but he has never seen such a large-scale shipyard.
Under the leadership of a small officer of the Military Intelligence Department, Mai Xiaoliu passed through the busy factory area and arrived at the dock dock area. The small officer was also a child of Hainanese gangsters. He pointed to a freshly released fly-scissor ship and said in Hainan Dialect: "It's this ship. The king has named it the Sea Breeze. Today, the final inspection has been completed. Tonight, Brother Mai, you can sit out to sea."
Mai Xiaoliu nodded and said excitedly: "Great, I have never made such a communication ship. I heard that this is the fastest ship on the sea."
The little officer laughed: "Of course, this is the ship owner, oh, the ship designed and manufactured by the king himself is the best material. In the past ten years, only five have been built. This is the fifth ship, you Where is this to go,"
Mai Xiaoliu's tanned face in Nanyang showed a laugh: "Little guy, this is something you shouldn't ask. Have you forgotten the rules of the Military Intelligence Department?"
The little officer blushed and stood attentively saluted: "Your sailors are already on the boat, my mission has been completed, I wish Brother Mai a good journey,"
...
The weather is approaching autumn, and a wave of refugees emerged in the Jiangnan controlled area of China Company: a large number of Daming people outside the controlled area fled to the controlled area of China Company with their families.
The reasons are nothing more than the resumption of taxes in Jiangnan by the governments of the Ming Dynasty, the revenge of officials, gentry and landlords returning to their hometowns, the corruption of the Ming army's discipline, etc. The main reason is that the government collects heavy taxes: the Chinese army occupied Jiangnan. During the period of the Ministry, it was announced that it would be exempted from the tax after three years; after the peace talks, the Chinese army gave up half of the occupied areas, but the government, despite the fierce public sentiment, announced that it would reimburse the taxes not collected during the Chinese army's occupation in the previous year among the local people. All kinds of corrupt officials began to rampant in the countryside again. The landlords and gentry collected less rent for one year due to the war, and now they have become more and more intensively expropriated.
The general tax bearers of the Ming Dynasty rarely had the ability to pay taxes with large pieces of silver ingots. Most of the silver when people paid taxes were scattered silver. As we all know, silver as currency has its own quality, tide, fragmented, and low-quality silver. This brought a lot of inconvenience to tax collection of silver. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, tax collection of silver gradually formed a relatively complete system collection procedure. This procedure generally includes weighing, collecting cabinets, identifying colors, and frying. and sheathing, etc., and in each link, negative problems such as corruption and deduction will arise.
The Chinese silver dollar that China Company had just started to promote was a standard currency, so there would not be any of the above problems. However, the Ming Dynasty government did not allow the people to pay taxes with Chinese silver dollars, and they must be melted into silver dollars, which led to People in Jiangnan are full of grievances: Although most people in Jiangnan may not be unable to survive because they pay twice the taxes in previous years, the blatant plundering of the government has formed a distinctive picture of the slight tax burden in the controlled areas of the Chinese company and the fair transactions. In contrast, the Chinese in this era did not have any concept of democratic voting, but now the people of Jiangnan voted with their feet very clearly: they fled to the Chinese military-controlled area in order to pursue a life that was not robbed by the government.
When Lin Xiao and Mai Xiaoliu arrived in Jiangnan, Xu Hongji, the General Manager of Government Affairs of Jiangnan, Chen Zhongji, and others were busy hosting refugees from all over the country.
When Zeng Shan was working in the temporary garrison office of Jiangnan, he organized manpower to dig up water conservancy projects and support industry and commerce, which doubled the favorability of the people in Jiangnan for the Chinese company. When Xu Hongji took over, he followed Zeng Shan's policy, and while conducting protracted negotiations with the government, he also He was busy opening money shops to promote Chinese silver dollars, and opened many silk weaving workshops, which attracted a large number of refugees who were abandoned in various places.
Xu Guangqi is only responsible for negotiating and retrieving new military affairs, and has no jurisdiction over local government affairs. He can only watch the people of Jiangnan continue to defect to the "pirates". He sent several memorials to Beijing, demanding a suspension. The taxes were imposed in the year, requiring the purging of officials in Jiangnan, etc., most of them were like mud cows entering the sea without reaction.
However, his attempt to go to Macau to buy Western cannons was reacted.
Just four months ago when Lin Xiao and Mai Xiaoliu arrived in Jiangnan, Hu Ke sent a large sum of silver to the clerk Yao Zongwen, saying that it was a special money used by the court to train the new army, and the cabinet chief Fang Congzhe also convinced him. After Emperor Wanli, he agreed to his suggestion to buy Western cannons.
However, Yao Zongwen conveyed Fang Congzhe's instructions: the new army must be trained in Zhejiang, and after training, it was first used to expel the pirates occupying Zhoushan, Zhejiang.
Xu Guangqi was overjoyed and felt strange. In Yingtian Prefecture, Xu Guangqi hesitated for a moment and asked Yao Zongwen: "The court is now the time when Liaodong is using troops, and the military pay is tight everywhere. Is it the salary for the new army? The Emperor's treasury,"
Yao Zongwen laughed: "Mr. Xu doesn't have to worry. The first 500,000 taels of silver military pay will be directly sent to the Nanjing Strategic Xiong Tingbi, and the two of you will call it. There will be another sum in two months. For purchasing Macau Florence cannons, we have to ask the Western parishioners around us for help in purchasing cannons…”
Xu Guangqi is a person who likes to be serious, so he is always unable to develop in the officialdom. He still asked relentlessly: "The Chinese pirates occupy Jiangnan, which is the heart of Jiangnan. Why do they have to go to Zhejiang to train troops? Besides, Zhejiang Sea Kou occupied Zhoushan, and that could only be recovered by the navy..."
Yao Zongwen was a little impatient, but Xu Guangqi was higher than his official rank, and he was still an imperial envoy, so he had to deal with it: "Mr. Xu, this is what the court means, and the officials don't know the clues," he said.
Xu Guangqi sighed inwardly and nodded, "Okay, I'll write a training note these days. Please tell me that Lord Yao will hand it over to the court. I will go to Zhejiang to practice troops as soon as possible. However, after I leave here, what should I do about the peace talks in Nanjing manage,"
Yao Zongwen smiled: "Mr. Xu, Fang Xiangguo means...just one word: drag,"
Xu Guangqi smiled helplessly: "I see, the pirates on the opposite side mean the same thing: drag,"
...
Lin Xiao and Mai Xiaoliu arrived at Zhenjiang Port only three days apart. Lin Xiao, who came three days earlier, used all his relationships in Jiangnan and only found out that Xu Guangqi had gone to Zhejiang. When he asked Xu Hongji, Xu Hongji told him He: "I originally had to meet with Lord Xu two or three times a month. In the past month, I was busy with sheltering refugees... Well, I haven't negotiated with Xu Guangqi for a whole month. I don't know where he went... ...What, I went to Zhejiang,"
Mai Xiaoliu brought the news that the government purchased cannons in Macau, and Lin Xiao immediately reacted: "This cannon must have been bought for Xu Guangqi's new army,"
Mai Xiaoliu nodded and said, "Yes, the ship owner said the same thing. He asked us to quickly figure out how Xu Guangqi's new army has been trained, where to train troops, and how large it is. It costs a lot of money to buy cannons. We also have to figure out where Xu Guangqi's military pay for training the new army came from."