Take the arsenal to Da Ming

Chapter 306

In this day and age, it's normal for a man to have three wives and four concubines, so Song Yunshu never objected to Tangning taking another concubine.

But Europe is different, monogamy was established very early, so in Europe, it is very difficult for Claudia to marry a married man.

However, she is now in Asia, in Daming where polygamy is allowed, so not many people, including herself, think it is inappropriate.

As long as Tang Ning asks, he can have a second woman immediately, and he is also the first person in the entire history of Ming Dynasty to have a cross-border marriage with a European.

Of course, to Tangning, this was nothing to brag about, but he never agreed positively.

After all, at that time, many problems had not yet been resolved, and he was not yet sure about the route he would take in the future, so he did not want to be tied too tightly with the Portuguese prematurely.

Now, the Qing court, the main enemy of the Ming Dynasty, has been destroyed, and after more than a year of recuperation, it is time for the Ming Dynasty to start its own expansion plan.

Ming Dynasty had almost never really expanded outwards before, and it was naturally inferior to Portugal, an old colonial empire, in this regard. Therefore, when the interests of the two parties were not very conflicting, it was still necessary to deepen cooperation.

Finally, on New Year's Day in 1648, the second year of Tang Jianguo, that is, the first day of the first lunar month, Tangning and Claudia held a grand wedding ceremony in the capital.

Witnessed by the dignitaries of Ming Dynasty and Portugal, the two parties officially became husband and wife.

A month later, an adventurous fleet composed of Daming and Portuguese funded by Daming officially set off from Ningbo Prefecture, targeting Central and North America.

The Portuguese had colonies in the Americas, but they were mainly in South America. The Spaniards are now the most powerful in Central and North America, but even so, they only occupied some strongholds and failed to completely annex the vast Central and North America.

But this time, the main task of this fleet is to find several best locations to establish a stronghold in order to directly expand the trade to Central and North America.

However, Tangning also temporarily assigned another task to the fleet, which was to help him find an archipelago called Honolulu, which was probably in the middle of the route, and he gave the corresponding coordinates.

In fact, it is modern Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands are still an undeveloped place. They were first discovered in 1778 in the second half of the eighteenth century, and they were not occupied until the nineteenth century.

Tang Ning was able to give the coordinates because he had a relatively modern map, and it was a military map. Naturally, it was a German military map in the arsenal.

Before finding the archipelago, Tangning had already decided on a name for the archipelago, calling it Honolulu, because he knew there were a lot of sandalwood on it.

Tangning provided so much accurate information, the Portuguese thought that Tangning must have been to that place in person.

But after they got to know Da Ming's partner, they realized that this Da Ming's King of Light had almost god-like abilities and could predict many things.

They are sure that the King of Light has never been to Honolulu, but since the King of Light has confirmed that there is an archipelago called Honolulu in the sea, then there must be such an archipelago.

The Portuguese felt the fanaticism of their Ming partners, and couldn't help but have greater confidence in this ocean voyage.

After finding Honolulu, it is very necessary to establish a supply base there.

After all, Daming is thousands of miles away from the Americas, and the archipelago is almost in the middle. Having this base for rest and replenishment is very important for the crew and the entire fleet.

Of course, this is all for later. Tangning only needs to assign tasks, and someone will be able to complete them well. He has more important things to do.

The most unstable force in the Ming Dynasty today is the Daxi regime left by Zhang Xianzhong.

Although the affairs of the Daxi regime began to be dominated by Li Dingguo after Zhang Xianzhong's death, it still occupied Sichuan, which was the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, it also has an army of 60 million, which is something that no regime can tolerate for a long time.

After the Great Western Army was presided over by Li Dingguo, it was relatively peaceful and did not take a step out of Sichuan. Li Dingguo was only working hard to manage Sichuan.

But Li Dingguo's temperament is very different from Zhang Xianzhong's. He is kind-hearted by nature and loves the people like a son.

Compared with Zhang Xianzhong's brutal behavior during his rule, he strictly prohibited his army from harassing the people. At the same time, he also formulated various decrees to reduce taxes and work hard to reduce the burden on the people.

But in this way, the source of income of the Great Western Army has been greatly reduced, and it is impossible to support an army of 60 to [-] troops.

But even so, Li Dingguo still couldn't bear to increase taxes on the people.

In the official history of the Battle of Xinhui, when Li Dingguo led his army to attack Xinhui City, the Qing army defended the city, but Li Dingguo's artillery was so fierce that it was about to break the city.

However, the Qing army forced the people in the city to brave the artillery of Li Dingguo's army to repair the city wall, so that many people died tragically under the artillery fire. Li Dingguo couldn't bear it, so he had to order to stop the shelling.

If the city wall is not broken, it is impossible to enter the city, so it was changed to besiege.

But the long-term siege did not work. Li Dingguo's reinforcements did not arrive, but they waited for the reinforcements from the Qing army and had no choice but to withdraw.

It can be seen from this that Li Dingguo's benevolence can be seen. In this era of cannibalism, having this quality is even more commendable, and even a little different.

Of course, in addition to his benevolent heart, his military achievements are also very outstanding. In Nanming's almost repeated defeats, he defeated two kings by himself, which shocked the Qing court and almost gave up the seven southwestern provinces.

If it weren't for Sun Kewang's desire for profit to deliberately drag his legs behind, Li Dingguo's achievements would only be higher, and Nanming's recovery of Jiangnan might not be impossible.

Therefore, Tang Ning respected and cherished Li Dingguo very much. He did not send an action team to assassinate him like he did with Zhang Xianzhong, nor did he launch an attack on Sichuan. Instead, he sent people to recruit him many times.

After more than a year of hard work, finally, Li Dingguo let go, and got the approval of Liu Wenxiu and Ainengqi.

Because after more than a year of observation and thinking, they saw that Daming was basically stable. Although the people could not live and work in peace and contentment, Daming was developing in a better direction.

As for Daxi, if he doesn't go out of Sichuan, as long as Daming encircles Sichuan, Daxi can fend for itself.

If the entire Daxi army were to launch an attack on the Ming army, with the current national strength of Ming Dynasty, Daxi would definitely have no chance of winning.

Under such circumstances, what benefit would there be in a fight to the death with Da Ming other than causing the loss of life?
In the past year or so, Tangning and Daming had been kinder to Daxi. The new army could have pulled out a large army to besiege Sichuan, but they didn't, and didn't even prohibit businessmen from conducting various trades with Sichuan.

It can be said that this greatly eased the plight of Sichuan, which allowed the Daxi Army to persist for so long.

Otherwise, Li Dingguo can only take the road of disarmament, but if it is not a last resort, how can he bear to abandon his brother who follows him.

Therefore, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ainengqi's resentment towards the new army's assassination of Zhang Xianzhong also dissipated a lot, and finally decided to accept Daming's recruitment, after all, it is meaningless to waste it like this.

Li Dingguo led Daxi's surrender, and it did remove one of Tangning's concerns, making Daming's territory truly complete.

(End of this chapter)