I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 210 Everything is ready and only owes Dongfeng
Chapter 209

"Haven't you already reported to the court? Let the court punish Zheng Zhilong, an outlaw!"

In fact, Sun Chengzong is not completely worried that Cheng Shijie can't beat Zheng Zhilong. Although Zheng Zhilong is invincible at sea, Zheng Zhilong's foundation is on land. Fujian Quanzhou, Dayuan Taichung and Xiamen are all three places that Zheng Zhilong must defend. To allow the Ning Navy to attack the place it must save, Zheng Zhilong can only fight a land war with Ning Navy in the war set up by Cheng Shijie.

Sun Chengzong witnessed the war between Ning Haijun and Jiannu with his own eyes. It is no exaggeration to say that Jiannu is still the Jiannu, fierce, well-equipped, and determined to fight. He is a very formidable opponent.

Although Zheng Zhilong's army claims to have more than 7 people, among them, there are probably only [-] to [-] elite, which is definitely not as strong as Jiannu.

If it is a land battle, the Ning Navy can completely crush Zheng Zhilong. Sun Chengzong still has this confidence.

The crux of the problem is that the people in Fujian are already poor, and they are often attacked by storms, as well as looted by Japanese pirates and Xiyi, or because of Zheng Zhilong's relationship, they can get a respite.But once Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong fight together, many people in Fujian will have their families destroyed.

Cheng Shijie said with a faint smile: "Let the imperial court punish Zheng Zhilong? If the imperial court can punish him, why bother to call for peace and assign Quanzhou, Xiamen and other cities to his local territory? Zheng Zhilong has 20 subordinates, so he doesn't take the imperial court seriously at all. It's the imperial court who is afraid of him! What's more, Zheng Zhilong dared to send troops to rob Liaodong's transport ship, and he was backed by some high-ranking officials in the imperial court. It is simply fanciful to expect the imperial court to come forward to punish him!"

Seeing Cheng Shijie's resolute attitude, Sun Chengzong tried his best to persuade Cheng Shijie to change his mind: "Aside from military means, is there no other way to solve it?"

Cheng Shijie said seriously: "There is no other way but to use military means to solve it! If I take this step back, the gang of mad dogs will think that I am easy to bully, and they will rush forward desperately and tear me into pieces! Fist open, so as to avoid a hundred punches, grievances cannot be perfected, compromise cannot bring peace, only fighting!"

"Do you have any chance of winning?"

Sun Chengzong was thinking about it, and what Cheng Shijie said actually made sense. When he was in Liaodong, he always considered the overall situation and did not hesitate to wrong himself when facing the opposition from the court.But the problem is, Sun Chengzong's concession, in exchange for the opponent's intensification, which made Sun Chengzong very hurt.

Cheng Shijie is willing to fight now, he is just worried that Cheng Shijie will lose.

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "There is absolutely no certainty. The two armies are fighting against each other. The fight is not about being smarter than the other, but who makes fewer mistakes than the other. No matter how Ning Haijun is, it is a professional army. If you can't win A bunch of pirates..."

Sun Chengzong also knew that his student had his own advantages in the military. It can be said that he never fought an uncertain battle. The only time he was in danger was the Dengzhou Mutiny. That time was extremely dangerous. All will be lost.

Zheng Zhilong's name is Fujian General Soldier, Admiral of the Navy. He is actually a pirate. He dominates the sea, plunders and extorts recklessly, and earns tens of millions of taels of profit every year. More than 1000 million taels of silver is a great deed for the country and the people.

Sun Chengzong looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "If there is really no other way, we can only solve them through military means. Beiping, what are you going to do?"

"I am going to transfer soldiers who are familiar with water from the Ning Navy, and form an army alone, with 3 troops, to conduct a one-month sea crossing and landing training on Jeju Island!"

Cheng Shijie pointed to the huge map on the wall and said: "When this army can adapt to crossing the ocean, at that time, this army will be led by Zhang Yu, go south from Jeju Island, go straight to Dayuan, and land in the Dayuan Taipei area!"

Speaking of officials, this is the real reason why Cheng Shijie is unhappy with Zheng Zhilong. Now Spain has entered a stalemate with the 30 Years War in Europa. In order to win the Europa War, the Spanish Empire has withdrawn its troops from colonies all over the world. There are less than 2000 Spaniards, and even if you count the Dutch in the south of Dayuan, there are only more than [-].

Not all of the more than 2000 people are the army, most of them are employees and managers. Together with the Spanish and the Dutch, it is estimated that there are not [-] people.

It's not that there are no people in Spain and the Netherlands. Of course, it is also true that there are few people in the two countries. The main reason is that both the Spanish and the Dutch want to be trade bases.But later the Spaniards discovered that this stronghold was not very useful. The Ming Dynasty was closed to the outside world and could not trade at all.

The role of this stronghold is diminishing day by day.It is precisely because the Spanish and the Dutch do not pay attention to it, this is Zheng Zhilong's opportunity. If Zheng Zhilong wants to seize the big officials, all he needs is a combination of sea and land, which is enough to drive the Spaniards and the Dutch out of the big officials, and it is not Zheng Chenggong's turn to recover the big officials. up.

However, the problem is that Zheng Zhilong acquiesced in the presence of the Spaniards and the Dutch in Dayuan.

There must be a certain benefit transfer in it, Zheng Zhilong took the benefits of the Spaniards and the Dutch.It may also be that Zheng Zhilong is also playing the trick of raising the bandits' self-respect. After all, the Dutch East India Company does not have a large number of senior personnel, and there are only fifteen warships over [-] tons.

After hearing Cheng Shijie's deployment, Sun Chengzong frowned slightly: "It's a good idea to seize the senior officer and force Zheng Zhilong to fight the Ning Navy, but the question is, can our navy defeat Zheng's fleet at sea? The Zheng family owns more than 3000 ships!"

When mentioning Zheng's huge fleet, a trace of worry flashed across everyone's brows.

Zheng Zhilong started his career as a pirate, he climbed up step by step from a small leader, and finally became the overlord of the South China Sea, accumulating extremely powerful strength, the navy of Guangdong and Fujian provinces made him lose his temper, and finally forced him to The imperial court had no choice but to pinch his nose to appease him, and let him continue to work as a pirate in the name of the imperial court!
There is no strict distinction between warships and merchant ships these days. That is to say, Zheng Zhilong’s more than 3000 ships can all be used in naval warfare. With such terrifying strength, it has only been in the army for more than two years, and only Ning, who has more than 30 new warships. Do Navy sailors have any hope of winning?
Cheng Shijie said with a faint smile: "You can only know if you can succeed or not. Before the Battle of Haizhou, who would believe that our Ning Navy could violently beat Jiannu? Military strength can't just depend on how many ships and troops the opponent has? We The Ming Dynasty still has more than 200 million troops, so facing Jiannu, isn’t it more victorious than defeat?”

Sun Chengzong didn't say anything else, but looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "Beiping, I'll recommend you a naval engineer!"

Cheng Shijie asked, "Did the teacher mean Mao Yuanyi?"

Mao Yuanyi once served as the staff of Yang Gao, the right servant of the Ministry of War, who managed Liaodong, and was later reused by Sun Chengzong, Minister of the Ministry of War. Together with Sun Chengzong's colleagues Lu Shanji, Yuan Chonghuan, Sun Yuanhua and others, he inspected the terrain inside and outside Shanhaiguan, studied the enemy's situation, and assisted Sun Chengzong in combat , Resist the attack of Hou Jin, and go to the south of the Yangtze River to raise warships, strengthen the Liaodong Navy, and improve the combat effectiveness of the Ming army.

Under the command of Sun Chengzong, the Ming army recovered Jiucheng Fort 45 in Liaodong, and Mao Yuanyi was also recommended by the Imperial Academy for his meritorious service.Due to the exclusive power of the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, Sun Chengzong was excluded from his post, and Mao Yuanyi was also deprived of his nationality, and returned to the south after being ill in the sixth year of Tianqi (1626).In October of the following year, Zhu Youjian took the throne, and then killed Wei Zhongxian, and the power of the eunuch party fell. Mao Yuanyi rushed to the capital to present "Wu Bei Zhi" to the new emperor. Exiled to Dingxing (now Hebei) Jiangcun.

In the winter of the second year of Chongzhen (1629), the Houjin cavalry went straight to Beijing, and Sun Chengzong was ordered to supervise the division again.Mao Yuanyi and other dozens of cavalry guarded Sun Chengzong, broke through from Dongbianmen to Tongzhou (now Tongxian County, Beijing), repelled the attack of the Houjin army, and relieved Beijing's crisis.Mao Yuanyi was promoted to deputy commander in chief because of his meritorious service, and supervised the navy of Juehua Island (now Juhua Island, Xingcheng, Liaoning).

There is another situation in Sun Chengzong's recommendation of Mao Yuanyi. This may not be known to Cheng Shijie. Mao Yuanyi's wife, Shen Shi, is of the same clan as Shen Boyun in Chongming. , to help strengthen the Liaodong Navy.

Although it is said that Cheng Shijie and Shen Boyun have a certain interest relationship, Shen Boyun will never give Cheng Shijie his heart and soul, nor will he really serve Cheng Shijie.

The difference is huge.

Mao Yuanyi brought more than [-] people including Shen Boyun, Shen Huandong, Shen Huanbing, Shen Shangwang, and Shen Shangping to Jinzhou, and begged Cheng Shijie to take them in.

Cheng Shijie has nothing to refuse. With the participation of the Shachuan Gang, Cheng Shijie's transportation force at sea will be doubled. Although the ships of the Shachuan Gang are dilapidated, there are only [-] ships. This is not because the Shachuan Gang has no strength. , but their financial resources limit their behavior.

The ancestors of the Shachuan Gang are descendants of shipwrights from the Nanjing Shipyard. What they are best at is not fighting wars or maritime transportation, but what they are really good at is shipbuilding.

With the launch of the Shachuan Gang, Cheng Shijie suddenly had more than 6 excellent shipbuilders. These craftsmen arrived in southern Liaoning in batches, and there were [-] or [-] people with their families.

The fall of these people has greatly increased the productivity of Lushun Shipyard, Jinzhou Donggang Shipyard, and Jinzhou Xigang Shipyard, and Ning Naval Shipyard has a lot of experience in building large ships. This is Cheng Shijie's gain. an intangible wealth.

At the same time, Cheng Shijie's tentacles can also reach Chongming. Although the Shachuan Gang's Chongming Island is only aboriginal and has no official power, and some have bribed some low-level officials, Cheng Shijie is thinking about how to take control of Chongming Island. On Chongming Island, when Ning Haijun faced Zheng, he would shorten the distance.

Just when Cheng Shijie felt embarrassed, Zhu Weiti smiled and said, "What's so difficult about it?"

"What can the princess do?"

Zhu Weiti said: "I am going to write a letter to the emperor's brother, asking Chongming Island to be a resort!"

"Your Majesty should not agree!"

"Doesn't my husband have some property in the capital? In exchange for these things, my husband and Eunuch Gao have a good relationship. With him to blow the wind, this matter should be possible!"

Zhu Weiti's self-confidence comes from the fact that Chongming is a weak point for the imperial court, and the ups and downs of the island and shore are uncertain, which forced the county government to move five times.Every time a city is built, it costs tens of thousands of taels of silver, but the output is also very limited, which is basically a situation where it cannot make ends meet.

Soon, Zhu Weiti wrote a letter, which was a private letter, telling Emperor Chongzhen that Cheng Shijie had sent her a large ship of [-] materials, which she named "Eight Princess", and now the weather in Liaodong It was cold, and she wanted to go to Chongming Island for vacation, hoping that Emperor Chongzhen would give Chongming Island to her.

……

Emperor Chongzhen naturally received Cheng Shijie's memorial first, and after Cheng Shijie's memorial was delivered to the capital, Wang Chengen sent it to Emperor Chongzhen immediately.

The current Emperor Chongzhen is in constant trouble. These troubles are not from the outside, but from the inside. Although the family property of the eight Shanxi merchants has been copied, the Chongzhen Emperor has a lot of money and has a lot more money.

God seems determined to make life difficult for Emperor Chongzhen.

On June [-]th in the sixth year of Chongzhen, Miyun and Huairou encountered hailstorms;
On June [-], Cangzhou and Taiyuan were hit by hailstorms, and the grass and trees in Yuncheng were wiped out overnight by hailstones;
On June [-], Jinan encountered hail weather;

On June 21, Handan encountered hail weather;

On June 24, Kaifeng, Weihui, and Zhangde three prefectures encountered a large-scale hailstorm. The field was covered with hail overnight, as many as pebbles by the river, and all the grain and wheat were eroded;

On June 26, Fengyang encountered hail weather;
……

After a long drought, there must be hail. Last year, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi were extremely dry. It is not surprising that this year's hail disaster occurred.The problem is that this bloody hailstorm is too violent and spreads too far, it seems to wipe out all the farmland in the country!

The largest hailstone was the size of an orange, and with a crackling slam, the wheat that was growing well was smashed to pieces. Many prefectures and counties suffered heavy losses, and many people were even killed by the hailstorm.

Countless farmers looked at the rotten wheat seedlings and wept bitterly, which meant that this season's wheat was over, how could they live!

What makes people want to cry most is that in the face of such a terrible natural disaster, the first reaction of those civil servants who love death is not to try to relieve the disaster, but to force Chongzhen to issue an edict.They plausibly said: "Your Majesty, you used sycophants and jesters, indulged him in lawlessness, and angered God, so God will send disasters to warn Your Majesty! For the sake of the common people in the world, Your Majesty, hurry up and punish the people all over the world. God admits his mistake, and promises to be a virtuous minister, far from a villain, and ask for forgiveness from heaven, so that all people can be saved from the fire and water!"

Emperor Chongzhen was extremely annoyed by this. Why is it Lao Tzu's fault every time there is a natural disaster?I spent so much money and received so much arrogance to support you, just to let you find fault with me and force me to criticize?

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen would not admit that he was at fault. The two parties fought back and forth for more than three months, and Emperor Chongzhen saw Cheng Shijie's memorial.

Regarding the memorial written by Cheng Shijie, Emperor Chongzhen had no doubts, because what Cheng Shijie said was true. He said that the eight families of Shanxi merchants were rich and had tens of millions of property, didn't they?Tens of millions of taels of silver have been confiscated. Of course, Cheng Shijie's news comes from folk rumors.

Everyone has the problem of bragging. He obviously doesn't have 1 taels of silver in his family, but he dares to boast that his family property is hundreds of thousands. Now Zheng Zhilong has collected so much money by relying on protection fees.

Emperor Chongzhen was jealous.

Emperor Chongzhen did not express his position on Cheng Shijie's memorial. Of course, not expressing his position is also an attitude.In any case, Zheng Zhilong was the pirate that Emperor Chongzhen agreed to recruit, and the two dozen Dutchmen also made Emperor Chongzhen look up. '

But the problem is that Emperor Chongzhen didn't know that there were such huge profits in the sea. For the first time, he felt that he was being played by the officials. No one told him about such a huge matter. If someone told him that the sea could make tens of millions of taels a year The money is nearly twice as much as the salary received from Liao. Does he need it to make the world angry?

These ministers deserve to be killed.

He really wanted Cheng Shijie to teach Zheng Zhilong a lesson, and he was worried that Cheng Shijie would not be able to beat Zheng Zhilong. It would be fine if Cheng Shijie killed him first, just like Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong. As long as the established facts are established, Emperor Chongzhen is willing to endorse Cheng Shijie. If Cheng Shijie is defeated, Cheng Shijie will definitely be guilty.

Just like in history, if Yuan Chonghuan was killed by Mao Wenlong when he killed Mao Wenlong, would Mao Wenlong be guilty?Yes, but does Emperor Chongzhen have a solution?
In fact, there is no way, because the Dongjiang army can hardly get the military salary from the imperial court, so the imperial court's control over the Dongjiang army is extremely weak, and the current situation is the same.

At this time, Zhu Weiti's private message also arrived, and Emperor Chongzhen also saw Cheng Shijie's real intention. This was to deal with Zheng Zhilong, and Cheng Shijie needed a forward base, and this base was Chongming Island.

Emperor Chongzhen immediately issued an imperial decree, conferring the eighth emperor's daughter, Zhu Weiti, as Princess Chongming, and Chongming Island as her fiefdom. Zhu Weiti could arrange the officials, taxation and other rights of Chongming fiefdom by herself, and allowed Princess Chongming to recruit soldiers to defend her fiefdom.

Regarding the withdrawal of Chongming Island from the county, the officials did not object, because it was a big pit. During the Ming Dynasty, Chongming Island had not yet formed, and it belonged to Sansha, Yaosha, Liusha, Changsha, and the Wu family. Tidal flats such as Sha, Yuanjiasha, and Xiangsha were not formed until the 16th year of Wanli, but they often collapsed and were often attacked by floods.

Not to mention the production, even self-sufficiency is difficult, and the savings from Suzhou Prefecture and Taicang Prefecture are needed, which makes Suzhou Prefecture very unhappy. The rest of Suzhou Prefecture is rich, and only Chongming Island is a barren land. Only a group of boatmen and sand boat gangs live here.

At this time, Cheng Shijie has been busy preparing for war. The most important thing is shipbuilding. According to the original plan, Lushun Shipyard and Jinzhou Donggang Shipyard will produce warships, while Jinzhou Westport will produce merchant ships.With the launch of the Shachuan Gang, this problem has fundamentally changed.

Shipbuilding is very expensive. To build a 2-material sea shark-class warship, it takes about [-] taels of silver, not counting the naval guns on it, and nearly [-] taels of silver if you include the naval guns and other equipment. .

However, the Shachuan Gang has a large number of excellent boatmen, but they suffer from lack of funds. After taking refuge in Cheng Shijie, they immediately took out a warship that has long since disappeared in the long river of history.

This kind of Fuchuan is a five-thousand-material blessing ship with a length-to-width ratio of six to one, which is very rare in the era of sailing warships. For example, the super battleship King of the Seas of Great Britain, which was just launched in 1637, has a length of 51 meters and a width of 14.7. meters, a depth of 23.17 meters, and a draft of 6.8 meters. The ship weighs 1683 tons and has 4 decks.

The Sovereign of the Seas has an aspect ratio of 3.46.

According to the conversion, the displacement of this new type of warship is equivalent to 620 five tons, which is slightly smaller than the King of the Sea. It is estimated that this warship will be equipped with 48 three-inch guns and 36 newly developed four-inch guns. The inch gun is the 120mm caliber of later generations.

Because Cheng Shijie adopted the Ming system, he did not copy the size of the later generations, but adopted the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty.

"How fast is this warship?"

What Cheng Shijie was most concerned about was the issue of speed. He turned his head and asked the director of the Jinzhou Xigang Shipyard who was accompanying him on the inspection. He was a talent from the Shachuan Gang. Not surprisingly, his surname was not Chen, but Chen Wanshun.Of course, he is one of the sons-in-law of the Shen family, and this is also a way for the big family to retain talents.

Chen Wanshun said proudly: "Very fast! If the wind is strong enough, it will only take half a month from Jinzhou to Guangzhou. It is really too fast!"

Cheng Shijie is actually not used to the way workers speak in this era. He prefers intuitive numbers. Of course, it does not prevent Cheng Shijie from calculating. This distance is more than 200 kilometers. Since this era does not have night navigation capabilities, all ships are The sailing time is only seven and a half days, which is equivalent to nearly [-] kilometers per day.

Cheng Shijie asked puzzledly: "If you want to reach Guangzhou within half a month, the speed must be at least [-] knots, right? Will the hull be able to withstand such high speed for a long time?"

Chen Wanshun smiled and said: "Our battleship is made of fine steel as the keel, and the hull is riveted with thick rivets.

Cheng Shijie said with great satisfaction: "This new type of warship is named the Jusha class. It is the main battleship of our Ning Navy Navy, but what is the speed of this kind of warship?"

"With enough wood and materials, we can manufacture six ships a year!"

"One year is too long, can you hurry up?"

"Unless... use the kind of machinery from the woodwork factory!" Chen Wanshun has seen the hydraulic and animal power machinery of the woodwork factory. With a large number of wooden parts, under the operation of this kind of machinery, the speed will grow by more than ten times.

"If you get all the machinery, how many warships can you build before the end of December?"

Chen Wanshun said: "Up to six ships can be built, including large ones and four medium ones!"

The medium-sized ship Chen Wanshun mentioned was actually a [-]-year-old Haisha-class warship. Cheng Shijie thought that for a long time, the Haisha-class would become the main battleship of the Ning Navy Navy. Helping to work, the Ning Navy not only has a large number of sailors, but also has a large number of excellent boatmen.

If two giant sharks and four sea sharks are added, Ning Haijun's navy will have more than sixty new warships. Of course it is not enough for a decisive battle with Zheng, but it has the strength to severely damage Zheng Zhilong.

After encouraging Chen Wanshun, Cheng Shijie told the craftsmen of the Shachuan Gang that in southern Liaoning, their monthly salary was the same as that of soldiers in the Ning Navy. Eat as much as you want.

These craftsmen of the Shachuan Gang are very grateful for the wise decision of the gang leader Shen Boyun.

(End of this chapter)