Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1459 Changes in Southern Border ([-])
The ecstasy of the two princes came from the high pragmatism that changed the restrictive attitude of the maritime trade zone.

Originally, because Gao Pragmatically divided Jinghua’s fleet into the North and South fleets, it actually resulted in a trade situation in which the elites of the Jingshi were unable to enter Fujian and further south because they were members of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance. The foreign trade scope of the Trade Union was limited to North Korea and Japan.

At the beginning, this restriction did not make the dignitaries (not only the nobles but mainly the nobles) feel too much discomfort.The reason is that they were just getting involved in maritime trade at that time, and the basic capital including the ships they owned and the familiar geographical location were still immature and fragile.In addition, the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance allows intra-Daming transactions (from Liaodong to Zhejiang), no matter from which point of view, this restriction does not matter to them.

However, with the continuous and rapid development of ocean trade, five years after the establishment of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance, this restriction has gradually become an unbearable shackle for the powerful.

Take the two Dukes Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong as examples: Duke Cheng Zhu Yingzhen’s mansion has accumulated more than 90 years of land and now there are less than [-] hectares left.According to Daming's calculation method, one hectare is equal to one hundred mu, and the remaining nearly nine thousand hectares of fertile land (only the best ones) in Cheng Guogong's mansion are still shocking, as high as [-] mu, but so what?It's only a fraction of what it was ten years ago.

At the same time, the merchant ships mastered by Cheng Guogong's mansion grew from scratch, from small to large, and now they have developed into the second largest force in the "Beiyang Department" after Jinghua.At this moment, Zhu Yingzhen owns 55 Jinghua-style armed transport ships, and purchased 17 small-tonnage merchant ships of various types that can enter inland rivers.

Excluding those old and small old-fashioned merchant ships, the 55 Jinghua-style armed transport ships are an astonishing scale, because the standard of armed transport ships is actually very high: it has a displacement of 800 tons (1600 materials), designed for open deck guns, and a single ship It has 28 artillery pieces of various types, and the crew of the whole ship is 180 people.

55 Jinghua-style armed transport ships mean that the total tonnage of ocean-going ships in the hands of Cheng Guogong Zhu Yingzhen has reached 44000 tons, with 1540 light and heavy artillery pieces (including 440 No. 1100 heavy guns and 9900 No. [-] light guns), and nearly ten thousand seamen ( [-]) people.

What about the British Duke Zhang Yuangong?He is a little worse than Zhu Yingzhen, because Gao Wushi gave him some other benefits in the early years, such as the capital's briquette supply and other miscellaneous items, which made his investment in the sea not as good as Zhu Yingzhen.

Even so, the British government owned 42 Jinghua-style armed transport ships, or 33600 gross tonnage, 1176 light and heavy artillery pieces (336 No. 840 heavy guns, 7560 No. [-] light guns), and [-] sailors.

As for Dingguogong Xu's family, because Xu Wenbi is old and moderate in his affairs, his investment in maritime trade is not as "destroyed" as Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong, so it is less than the former two.However, after all, Dingguogong is also one of the top giants in the capital of the Three Kingdoms, and it is easy to lose face if the capital is too small, so it also owns 25 Jinghua-style armed transport ships.

In addition to the Duke, the lords and uncles also each own a dozen or at least seven or eight armed transport ships.

All in all, the combined force is astonishing, even exceeding the total number of armed transport ships owned by the Jinghua Beiyang Fleet.If Jinghua hadn't gradually built a batch of warships that could be used as pure warships (but could still carry cargo during non-wartime), even Jinghua could not guarantee to exceed the overall strength of the nobles (only Jinghua Beiyang Fleet).

Today, in addition to nearly a hundred armed transport ships, the Beiyang Fleet also has 1 third-tier battleship, 2 first-tier cruisers, and 2 second-tier cruisers.

Among them, the third-tier battleship has a displacement of 1600 tons and a two-deck gun design. It has 72 artillery pieces of various types (8 No. 28 heavy guns, 36 No. 460 heavy guns, and [-] No. [-] light guns), with a capacity of [-] people.

Although this third-tier battleship is only equivalent to two armed transport ships in terms of tonnage alone, because it is a warship class, the construction standards are much stricter, so that the final cost is about 4 armed transport ships, and the cost of a single ship is as high as 24. two. [Note: The cost refers to the cost recorded in the historical materials of the British Navy at the same time, and comprehensively considers the cost advantages of wood and manpower owned by Jinghua, and then it is obtained through the mainstream currency conversion in the study of world economic history. 】

Due to the large-scale construction plan of Dingnan City, Jinghua has been in a tight financial situation in the past one or two years. Only 3 battleships of this class (originally scheduled to be 5) were built, of which two were in the Nanyang Fleet and one was in the Beiyang Fleet.

This third-tier battleship of the Beiyang Fleet was naturally used as the flagship, and was named "Liu Rengui" by Gao Yushi.This name naturally has some kind of allusion: Liu Rengui was the chief general of the Tang Army and the commander of the Allied Forces of the Tang Dynasty and Silla in the Battle of Baijiangkou in the Tang Dynasty. After the Battle of Baijiangkou, Japan was beaten for hundreds of years and dared not look west.

One battleship and two tiers of four cruisers constitute the core deterrent force of the Beiyang Fleet.Coupled with more than a hundred armed transport ships, this is the strength of Jinghua Beiyang Fleet.The Beiyang Fleet, together with the nearly [-] armed transport ships owned by the nobles, is the strength of the entire Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.

Such strength comes from ten years of rapid development, during which there were hardly any construction restrictions.

However, this kind of disorderly large-scale construction has gradually caused problems: there are more ships, and although the trade volume is also increasing, due to the limited market after all, and the end of the Warring States Period in Japan, the growth of trade volume has not kept up with the increase in ship construction. speed.

In other words: the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance urgently needs to open up new markets to satisfy the growing maritime capacity and desire for benefits.

This desire for benefits itself is what Gao Pragmatically hopes to see, because in his view, the biggest problem with reform is actually whether the adjustment of benefit distribution can satisfy vested interests.

Gao Gong and his uncle and nephew insisted on reform measures such as clearing the land and acres, forcing countless dignitaries to return their land to the people. If the dignitaries were not given new benefits as compensation, this force would form resistance to reform.

For a while, it may be possible to rely on the emperor's decision to carry out the reform, but over time, this kind of resistance will become more and more serious, until the lower part begins to obey the law, and finally the whole backlashes, and the government dies.

No matter how strong Jinghua is, it is impossible to fight against the powerful capital of the whole country; no matter how much trust Gao Pragmatic gets, it is not as important as the foundation of the emperor's rule.Therefore, his consistent thinking is "I will bring you more money", and he will never, and dare not, just block it.

Now that the development of Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance has entered a bottleneck period, Gao Yushi has to consider letting them enter Nanyang.Although entering Nanyang may dilute Jinghua's profits, how to say about this matter, the southern maritime merchants are going to Nanyang, Jinghua does not restrict it, and it is not impossible for many northern powerful maritime merchants to enter.

Even from a highly pragmatic view of the overall situation, this matter itself is still worth promoting.After all, only when more and more "ruling classes" attach importance to maritime trade and turn to maritime trade, the rejection and opposition of the Ming Dynasty court against opening the sea will be smaller, and the country of Ming Dynasty will be able to complete the shift in thinking, and then make this country more and more prosperous. more and more open.

Instead of closing the door and boasting that you are invincible in the world, it is better to open the door and be the number one in the world!

As for choosing to attack the Philippines, of course Gao Pragmatism has his considerations.Although Spain is still considered to be at the peak of its national power, the peak of its national power alone does not work. Spain now has too many enemies.And the biggest problem is that the king Philip II is a bit like Yang Guang. Doesn't it mean that he has no grand strategy? People who dare to say "the world is not enough for me" will have no grand strategy?
His problem is that his grand strategy is too big, so big that even Spain, which is so powerful and almost blessed by God, can't bear it.

From a political point of view, there are three reasons why Spain turned from prosperity to decline: first, the internal organization of the Spanish Empire was loose, and the development of its monarchy was quite limited; second, Spain retained a large number of feudal remnants, and the state It mainly represents the interests of the great aristocracy and the priestly class of the Catholic Church. The political structure is relatively rigid and primitive; finally, the ruling class implements a series of self-destructive economic and religious policies in order to safeguard its own interests.

From an economic point of view, the reason for its turn from prosperity to decline is that in the second half of the 16th century, Spain’s domestic agriculture, handicrafts and commerce generally declined; the price revolution caused by the influx of American precious metals into Spain and the whole of Europe further hit the market. In terms of foreign trade, Spain was in an extremely unfavorable superior position, a large amount of gold and silver wealth flowed out, and the national finance was unable to make ends meet, and it went bankrupt repeatedly.In short, the Spanish economy has fallen into a vicious circle of decline.

Furthermore, the harm of the Spanish internal and external wars to the country is too great.War is related to the prosperity and decline of a country, and a cautious ruler knows that war should not be taken lightly.The reign of Philip II lasted for 42 years. During these 42 years, Spain only enjoyed peace for just six months, and the rest of the time was in a state of war.

The war itself is a kind of consumption. Spain has exhausted its national strength because of too many enemies, but the results of the war are still very poor: the Netherlands is still independent; France is still won by Henry IV (although he later changed his religion Catholicism)... Among the three recent wars, the only one that cannot be considered a complete failure is the Anglo-Spanish War that most people in the later generations thought he had failed.

In fact, Spain was not defeated in the Anglo-Spanish War. At least at the end of the war, the overall strength of the Spanish navy was still strong. On the contrary, the British navy was put into a period of decline.Of course, there are many follow-up effects of this war. For example, the rise of the Dutch navy is caused by the aftermath, and I can't explain it in a few words.

How ruthless is Spain's consumption of national power?Let’s talk about the ongoing war in the Netherlands, which lasted for 26 years and cost Spain a total of 1 million ducats.

What is the concept of 1 million ducats?This near solid gold coin, minted by the Republic of Venice in Italy, weighs 3.56 grams.In other words, Spain invested 356000 kilograms of pure gold for the Dutch war.

In Daming, this would be 712 million taels of gold, or 7120 million taels of silver!And you must know that this battle is only one of the six battles Spain fought during Philip II's time.

Some people may think that war itself is also a way and a means of stimulating the economy. Although there are many wars in Spain, theoretically speaking, it should also have a stimulating effect on the economy.

The truth is, however, that Spain received little domestic stimulus from these wars.The reason is that almost all of these wars fought by Spain were outside the mainland, and most of them were far away from the mainland.

In order to save trouble (or not understand it), the Spanish generals basically chose to buy weapons, food and everything else nearby, so these costs were almost wasted, and they did not have much stimulating effect on the domestic economy.

The only thing that has stimulated the domestic economy is probably the shipbuilding industry.But it is ridiculous that after Philip II became the co-lord of the Kingdom of Portugal by taking advantage of the Portuguese succession crisis, in order to win the favor of the Portuguese nobles, he handed over a large amount of shipbuilding business to Portugal, which promoted the development of the Portuguese shipbuilding industry. .

As a result, Portugal...it became independent again, and Spain's bamboo basket was empty.

Against such a background, Gao Yushi thinks that it is safe for him to seize the Philippines now. No matter how upset Philip II is, he will not have the energy and ability to cross half the world to deal with him. Go on an expedition.

Of course, even if he wanted to do it, Gao Wushi didn't panic at all.Later generations of Tsarist Russia also did this kind of stupid thing. As a result, the family of the Russian Imperial Navy was basically wiped out, but Japan's status in East Asia was achieved instead.

The task that the modern navy cannot complete, can the Spanish sailing fleet complete?

Jinghua's two-ocean fleet is not weak. Unless Spain's Armada is directly airborne in Manila without damage through space teleportation, its high pragmatism is not worth it.

As for the land battle, it goes without saying.Although the former governor of the Philippines, Sander, even suggested that Philip II send [-] troops to conquer Ming Dynasty, Gao Wushi knew that it was a dream.

The combat effectiveness of European armies in the Age of Geographical Discovery is completely different from the combat effectiveness of European armies in the era of Industrial Revolution. Compared with the Chinese armies in the same period (late Ming Dynasty, middle and late Qing Dynasty), the gap is also completely different.

The performance of the European army in Asia during this period was actually relatively mediocre. It would be no problem to beat the small backward countries in Southeast Asia with the same force.

This level is actually only about the same as that of Ming Dynasty's elite soldiers - the elite soldiers here do not refer to complete servant troops, but only the troops formed with the servants as the core and united with guard soldiers.For example, the Liu Ting and Deng Zilong tribes in the Ming-Burmese War in the original history, even with elite soldiers of this level, their record against Southeast Asian countries is similar to that of Portugal.

Even because Liu Ting's troops were obviously more abundant than Portugal's, they seldom lost battles. On the contrary, Portugal was defeated or retreated several times due to insufficient troops during the conquest.

The combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army is stronger than that of Portugal, but the housekeeping skills of the Spanish Army have no secrets in the eyes of high pragmatists. It is nothing more than the Spanish phalanx.The bayonet array that Gao Wushi is currently promoting to the Ming border army is actually an improved evolution of the Spanish phalanx, an enhanced version of their power.And the tactic of bayonet formation itself came from Jinghua, and Jinghua is the original original work.

If we want to engage in benchmarking, Gao Pragmatism basically believes that the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army will not exceed the level of the Dingnan Garrison.

However, the Dingnan Garrison, as the main force that is highly pragmatically expected to occupy the core defense area in the southern Xinjiang rule, will eventually reach 6 people (not yet full).With this force alone, Spain will never be able to handle it.

What's more, Spain's current army in Manila is less than 2000 people, and the high pragmatism doesn't even need to use the garrison.

Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong couldn't help being both excited and nervous after hearing Gao Pragmatic's explanation, and asked, "What does Rixin mean to say that the battle to capture the city of Manila will be completed by our marines from the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance?"
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(End of this chapter)