prosperous age

Chapter 1066 1157 Demonstration

"Master Tan, Master Tan, urgent military information from Yunnan."

In the lobby of the Ministry of War, Tan Lun was dragging his sick body to process documents sent from various places. Footsteps were heard outside, and a clerk walked quickly into the room with a document wrapped in red paper in his hand, shouting as he walked.

"Give it to me quickly."

Tan Lun had no time to deal with the documents in his hand, so he put them aside, reached out to take the military newspaper, opened it and read it quickly.

"Go, call Minister Liu and Minister Yang over."

Tan Lun read halfway and then gave instructions.

"Yes, my lord."

The clerk bowed and accepted the order, then quickly walked out of the hall to look for someone.

Soon, Liu Yingjie and Yang Wei received the news and rushed over.

"Master Tan."

"Master Tan, something happened in Yunnan."

The two men entered the room, bowed to each other at the same time, and became concerned about the military intelligence document.

On the way here, the two had already learned that news of urgent military intelligence from Yunnan had been received outside, and the red paper package was definitely not a trivial matter.

"Mang Yinglong set out from Mengyang half a month ago and led his troops to attack the Ming Dynasty.

Calculating the time, I'm afraid we've already reached Nanyaguan."

Before the two arrived, Tan Lun had already read the documents and had a clear understanding of the situation in Yunnan, so he spoke frankly.

“It’s finally starting to happen.”

"Yes, what is coming will eventually come."

In fact, the two of them had some guesses in their minds that the imperial court had been secretly preparing for large-scale military deployment in the southwest region in the past two years, and they would mention it verbally when the position of assistant minister was handed over.

Yes, in accordance with Gao Gong’s previous proposal, during his tenure as the chief minister of the cabinet, he submitted six memorials to Emperor Longqing, comprehensively elaborating his ideas on military system reform.

In these ideas, Gao Gong emphasized that the powers of the Ministry of War were related to the safety of the dynasty, especially in the context of the turbulent border areas in the past two or three decades, and proposed the rotation of assistant ministers and governors-general.

This proposal aimed to strengthen border defense capabilities and ensure the security of the dynasty through the rotation of viceroys and governors.

Although Zhang Juzheng tried every means to undermine the political legacy left by Gao Gong, some regulations were considered useful, especially within the authority of the six ministries, and it was difficult for Zhang Juzheng to intervene directly.

Unless, he could think of a better way for the six ministries to use than Gao Gong's proposal.

The government offices where Zhang Juzheng had the weakest influence were naturally the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of War and the Censorate, so the rotation of vice ministers and governors-general was always going on, generally once every one to two years.

It just so happened that the threat from the north to the Ming Dynasty was reduced at this time, allowing them to carry out such rotation smoothly without worrying about anything going wrong.

After all, every replacement of a provincial governor would lead to vacancies in some lower-level official positions, which could easily lead to a series of chaos.

"Look, this matter needs to be reported as soon as possible."

As Tan Lun spoke, he handed over the official document from Yunnan.

The two took it and quickly read it together.

"Sir, this Mang Yinglong actually dared to lead his troops to openly attack Yunnan. He really deserves to die."

Liu Yingjie spoke.

"Fortunately, the court was well prepared. If this is the case, then don't blame the court.

However, should we also send a letter to Huguang, Guangdong and other provinces to ask them to prepare to send troops as well? "

Yang Wei thought for a moment and then spoke, "As for the money and grain, the Ministry of War should have Nanjing transfer them to Yunnan as soon as possible this afternoon."

Although he did not explicitly state that he wanted to actually occupy Myanmar, Wei Guangde had made arrangements early on, and in fact, officials in the Ministry of War had also speculated privately.

Especially in recent times, after the Ming army gained actual territory in Dongfan Island and Luzon, such speculation has become more frequent.

After all, the imperial court can now even take action on Dongfan Island, so what else can't be moved?

Even if a large army gathered in Guangxi one day and wanted to attack Annan again, the people in the Ministry of War would not be surprised.

According to the example of Annan that year, the imperial court needed to prepare more money, food and supplies.

As I said before, the victory or defeat of the war is related to the honor and disgrace of the entire Ministry of War.

When the troops were withdrawn from Annan, although it seemed that it was the Ming emperor who lost face, in fact the loser was the Ministry of War, which failed to do its job well.

If Annan was able to resist so fiercely back then, what about Myanmar?

In fact, Myanmar’s strength is not much worse than Annan’s.

"Stock up as much military supplies as possible and ship them to Yunnan and Guizhou."

When Tan Lun heard Yang Wei's proposal, he nodded and spoke immediately.

Don't ask why you didn't start preparing earlier. You should at least give a reason for transferring the war materials stored in Nanjing to other places before the war broke out.

In this era, the cost of transportation is not low and requires huge amounts of manpower and material resources.

Now that war has broken out, it is only logical to transport the supplies needed for the war to the southwest, and no one can refute it.

With this urgent report in hand, the blame for provoking the war could naturally be put on the Toungoo Dynasty of Burma, as it was Mang Yinglong's warmongering.

After conquering vassal states and Xuanweisi such as Siam and Laos, they were still not satisfied and wanted to take action against the suzerain state.

“You can handle related matters in the Ministry of War, and also send a letter to the Ministry of Revenue to ask them to raise money, food and other supplies.

This battle concerns the safety of the southwest region, and the Ministry of War must prepare supplies on a large scale.

Huguang and Guangdong have also sent orders to him to prepare."

After quickly arranging the affairs of the Ministry of War, Tan Lun stood up and went to the Cabinet with the urgent report.

This time, after entering the cabinet, Tan Lun did not go directly to Wei Guangde, but went to the prime minister's duty room first and handed the urgent report from Yunnan to Zhang Juzheng.

Obviously, after Zhang Juzheng learned about the incident, he immediately sent someone to invite Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang.

"Is this the full amount?"

More than a dozen warships sailed into a narrow waterway, and not far ahead of them, the outline of a port city gradually became clear.

"Yes, this is Malacca. Isn't it beautiful, General Deng?"

This is what the guide said respectfully to Deng Zilong.

The city in front of us is very close to the coast, with houses lined up one after another, densely populated, and very beautiful.

The city stretches along the coast, with occasional mosque minarets visible between the low-lying swamps and houses with palm-leaf roofs. A river runs through the city and flows into the sea, with a sturdy bridge at the estuary dividing the city into two.

This is a complete trading port. However, on a mountain near the sea, Deng Zilong saw a artillery position, which was protecting the city of Mancijia from a high position.

"Where did the Portuguese build their naval base here?"

Deng Zilong was still observing carefully, looking for any trace of military facilities here.

"Their warships are all moored at the dock, but I know there is a dock in the inland river that can only accommodate their warships. It should be the military port that the general mentioned." The guide said immediately.

"Inland river?"

Knowing the location of the naval port, Deng Zilong nodded slightly and said, "The river here is wider than the river in Temasek City ahead, so larger ships can sail in and avoid the waves.

Well, it seems the population is much larger than Temasek.”

"General, the Portuguese are extorting our passing ships here. All ships passing through here must stop at Malacca City to pay taxes, otherwise they will be attacked by them."

The guide was obviously a local Southeast Asian merchant. He took the opportunity to recount the Portuguese's shamelessness and greed in front of Deng Zilong.

In fact, the Portuguese spent a lot of manpower and material resources to capture Malacca in order to monopolize the Eastern trade, control maritime hegemony, exclude Muslims and promote Christianity.

At this time, the Portuguese had established a series of strongholds along the coast of the Indian Ocean, completely turning the Indian Ocean into their inland sea.

Malacca City happens to be the last lock.

As for the trench built in the Ming Dynasty, it was not actually included in Portugal's expansion plans. It was just a safe haven in the East Asian waters. Merchants who came here needed a port to rest.

Driven by the development of commodity economy in Western Europe after the Middle Ages and the desire for precious items such as oriental spices, gold and silver, more and more people went to the East to engage in commercial trade and plunder by various means.

The Portuguese planned to turn Malacca into a distribution center and trading port for East Asian goods.

Restricted by the Papal Meridian, the Spanish could not cross the Indian Ocean directly, so the Portuguese had a great advantage.

Therefore, they did not care about the Spanish capture of Luzon.

However, the huge fleet that appeared in the strait at this time still made the Portuguese nervous.

Just as Deng Zilong was admiring the scenery of Malacca City, the Portuguese Governor in Malacca City had already summoned all the soldiers to their positions and was preparing to order the conscription of militia.

The appearance of the South China Sea Navy here was too sudden, and the Portuguese were completely unprepared.

The Portuguese were not unfamiliar with the Ming Dynasty's ship types, and they even knew about the existence of the South China Sea Navy.

There are many Ming Dynasty merchants coming here every year, so the news that the South China Sea Navy went to Luzon to encircle and suppress the pirate Lin Feng has already spread among the Ming Dynasty merchants, and naturally it also spread here.

"Governor, the fort is ready. If the Ming navy dares to fire provocatively, they will immediately retaliate."

A middle-aged man wearing the uniform of a Portuguese naval officer introduced seriously to the Governor of Malacca.

"Have you sent a ship to contact the Ming people? I want to know their purpose here as soon as possible."

The governor looked through the window at the approaching Ming warships and said with a frown.

“We have been here for decades, we should not be like those people in Johor.”

The naval officer said, "Besides, the Temasek dock is simply not capable of berthing so many warships."

"hope so."

The Governor said.

Although the Portuguese now have firmly occupied the city of Malacca, the original nobles here are unwilling to admit defeat.

Even though the country was destroyed, the nobles still dreamed of retaking the city.

The Portuguese who occupied Malacca at the beginning had only fifteen warships, a few hundred soldiers, and a few hundred mercenaries, with a total force of no more than a thousand people.

Although they successfully defeated the thousands of defenders of Malacca City and occupied the city, the enemy also hid in the surrounding dense forests and would launch sneak attacks from time to time.

Some of these opponents went to Temasek, which later became Singapore.

Malacca is a pure port city, but it has not built up a strong maritime force like Venice, Genoa and other cities in the Mediterranean.

Malacca's armed forces are mainly the army, because they have to be on guard against Siam's covetous eyes behind them at all times.

Siam once wanted to occupy this place, but never succeeded.

In fact, the inheritance of several countries in the Southeast Asian Peninsula was relatively orderly. Even if a country was occasionally destroyed, it could be rebuilt in a very short period of time.

The same was true for Siam, which had long been eyeing the Malay Peninsula but had been repeatedly frustrated.

Even during this period, it was destroyed by Myanmar many times.

The countries competing with Siam for the Malay Peninsula include not only the forces in Sumatra and Java, but also those complex so-called sultanates. The biggest threat is Myanmar, which has great ambitions for external expansion.

The owners here are the Portuguese now, but they occupy too many colonies and cannot station many troops here.

Up to now, the number of Portuguese troops stationed here for a long time, including mercenaries, has not exceeded one thousand.

Therefore, faced with the sudden arrival of the Ming naval fleet, the Portuguese governor would consider recruiting militia to help in the battle.

"Governor, if the Ming Kingdom really wanted to go to war with us, they would first capture the trench instead of fighting me here."

The officer emphasized.

At this time, several small boats rowed out from the Malacca city dock and approached the approaching fleet.

They are the guiding sailors at the dock, helping ships to dock.

However, this time, what they need to do is not only to guide the Ming warships to stop at the dock, but also to find out the other party's intentions.

"General Deng, across the way is the guide ship of Malacca City. They should be here to contact us."

Deng Zilong stood on the bow, looking at the small boat coming from a distance, smiled contemptuously, and then looked to the opposite side, which was the direction of the Old Port, which was the ultimate goal of their trip.

"Tell them we were passing by here, but it seems we passed by."

Deng Zilong instructed his men, "Notify them that after passing the westernmost part of Mancijia City, the entire army will turn around and head for Jiugang."

At first, Deng Zilong thought that they would pass Mancijia on the way to Jiugang, but when they actually arrived at the place, they realized that the place they passed before entering the narrow waterway was Jiugang.

That is, they say that it is possible to reach Old Port directly from Java Island without appearing in Manciga.

However, according to Ming Dynasty's strategy in the South China Sea, he had to pass through some places first when leading the South China Sea navy on this trip to show the local forces the Ming Dynasty's maritime power.

Therefore, Deng Zilong chose to enter the Strait of Malacca first, bypass the city of Mancijia, turn on the sea outside the city, and then approach the old port.

Even though this is a port city, it does not have the capacity to berth hundreds of large and small ships at a time.

Soon, the Fu ship in front and the guide boat from Malacca came close to each other for a short time, and then soon separated again.

After a few flag signals, several small boats that were rowing over began to push back and make way for the channel.

The Governor of Malacca and naval officers who were always keeping an eye on the movements at sea all frowned. They could clearly see something different through the telescope.

"What's going on? López Sequeira, can you give me an explanation?"

the Governor asked curiously.

"Sorry, I can't answer."

Sequeira shook his head and smiled bitterly, "They don't need our guidance. Hey, are they going to go straight through the strait?"

The guide ship gave way, and the Ming warships did not approach Malacca, but continued to sail along the main channel.