Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1418: Final Chapter: All Nations Come to Pay Tribute
When Zhu Zhen received the victory report, he was already on his way to the south. The heat in the southwest in August finally subsided, and he was finally released by the princesses.

Accompanying him south was his father-in-law Wang Bi.

Duke Dingguo escorted Wang Runer and her son to Kunming last month. After a month's rest, he followed Zhu Zhen on a southern tour.

They set out from Yongchang, passed through Ruili, inspected the former capital of Luchuan Kingdom, and then took the Baojing Road from Tengyue Prefecture to Yunyuan Prefecture...which is what later generations called Kachin State.

The good news sent back by Annan was received in the dense forests of northern Myanmar.

"How could a two-meter-thick city wall be destroyed by a cannon?" Wang Bi looked incredulous after reading it, and asked, "Even if the outer bricks were blown off, it wouldn't do anything to the rammed earth layer inside, right?"

"What if the rammed earth layer inside disappears?" Zhu Zhen asked with a smile.

"Ah?" Wang Bi opened his mouth and said, "How could it disappear out of nowhere?"

"This is Yao Guangxiao's plan. Otherwise, no matter how arrogant I am, I would not send only 20,000 troops to attack Annan." Zhu Zhen explained to his father-in-law:

"When the original king Chen Riwei was still alive, he discussed with Daoyan how to deal with Hu Jilin after killing his uncle."

"Daoyan proposed a plan to shift the blame. At that time, the wall of Thang Long city had collapsed seriously, and Hu Jinyi was appointed as the 'chief repairman of the capital city wall'. However, he was the prime minister and had to fight on the front line most of the year, so he was too busy to handle it. This gave Daoyan room to maneuver."

"He discovered that the reason why the walls of Thang Long often collapsed was because the city was built too close to the Red River, with groundwater flowing under the foundation. Over time, the foundation was softened and collapsed by the flowing water, and the walls above were naturally destroyed."

"This problem is difficult to solve. We can only keep filling up the foundation, and it will have to be rebuilt every ten or eight years, which is a great loss to the national strength. So Hu Jinyi offered a large reward to see if there is anyone who can solve this problem once and for all."

"Daoyan privately found Zhang Tianshi, who was deeply trusted by Hu Jilin, and asked him to recommend an architect who was said to be the best in the Ming Dynasty. After the two met, Hu Jilin was fooled by the man and believed in his ability. And the worst thing was that the man said that he could not pay for the time being, but he would pay double the money if there was no problem with the city wall in 20 years."

"Hu Jin was completely impressed by this confidence, so he gave him full authority to rebuild the city wall. The man demolished the entire east wall and rebuilt the foundation. The project was huge, cost a lot of money, and more than 100,000 civilians were forced to work, causing widespread complaints from the government and the public."

"Chen Riwei also put pressure on Hu Jilin every day, ordering him to cut costs and complete the project within a deadline. Hu Jilin was under increasing pressure and no longer cared about building a century-old city wall or image projects. He also urged the architect to finish the project as soon as possible."

"Now the supervision is lax. He just has to go out to fight. No one will ask how he is doing. Anyway, they just hope he can finish the work quickly." Zhu Zhen smiled at Wang Bi and said, "Have you heard of shoddy construction? It's not easy to do a good job, but it's not easy to mess it up."

"In fact, he had already started to tamper with the wall before Hu Jinyi relaxed his requirements. He had people dig two feet below the foundation of the city wall and fill it with mud and sand. This greatly reduced the bearing capacity of the foundation, and once the groundwater passed through, it could be directly drained out of the ditch."

"Then a certain proportion of fine sand must be added when tamping the earth to enhance adhesion and prevent cracking. But there is very little fine sand in the Thang Long area, and sea sand cannot be used, so fine sand must be scooped from rivers hundreds of miles away. The architect replaced the fine sand with gravel in the name of saving costs. In fact, as soon as he relaxed the requirements, the laborers would go even further and even pour in stones."

"That person reduced the number of times the earth was tamped in half in the name of saving time... There were many other tricks like this, but no one saw through them. Maybe some workers saw through them but were too lazy to care. It was the end of the dynasty, you know."

"I understand." Wang Bi nodded. At that time, the people wished that the country would be destroyed and all the corrupt officials would die. Who would care about this trivial matter?

~~
"But that man laid down enough bricks, which was equivalent to building a house outside the rammed earth layer. This way it looked grand and solid, and no one could see through it. Before Chen Riwei killed his uncle, Yao Guangxiao specifically found the observation hole left by that man and saw that after several rainy seasons, the inside of the city wall was basically empty, and it was only supported by the outer layer of brick shells. This was his confidence."

"Although brick walls have good bearing capacity, they are too rigid and cannot absorb stress at all, so they are easily shattered by shells." Zhu Zhen continued with a smile:

"Originally, Yao Guangxiao thought that the city wall could withstand eight or ten rounds of bombardment, but the bricks made by the Annan people were of poor quality, and the city wall collapsed after one round of bombardment. As luck would have it, the 'Hu Jimao' happened to be on the city wall, and was buried underneath."

"The army was leaderless and in complete chaos. My fourth brother led his troops into the city and razed the entire city of Thang Long. They were invincible!"

"In the end, the Annan imperial army was completely wiped out in one battle. The two sons of Hu Jimao escaped and wanted to return to their old nest in Thanh Hoa to make plans. But the troops that had already surrendered to the Hu family also turned against them after Hu Jimao's death, captured the two and sent them back to Thang Long City. My uncle executed the two brothers by slow slicing, and chopped up Hu Jimao's corpse and fed it to dogs, which was a great vent to the old people of the Tran Dynasty."

"Then my uncle threatened to lead his army back to the country, but was begged to stay by the nobles of Thang Long City. Because Champa took the opportunity to break through Haiyun Pass... My father-in-law didn't know, so he thought it was their country's gate." Zhu Zhen continued:

"Because the terrain there is too dangerous, Haiyun Pass is almost impossible to break through. So the Champa Kingdom attacked Thang Long several times before, and they entered by sea just like the Sanya fleet. But they could only plunder and then retreat. Now that Haiyun Pass has changed hands, Champa can occupy the land of Annan permanently."

"The loss of Haiyun Pass caused a greater shock to Annan than the death of the king and 'Hu Jimao'. The prefectures in the south surrendered immediately without any resistance. If our army leaves, given Annan's current state, wouldn't it be like 'a little cow rolling its eyes - it's finished'?"

"That's right." Wang Bi nodded and said, "If they want to avoid the destruction of their country, they can only cling to us."

"But my uncle insisted on leaving. He said that he couldn't stay to help them fight without an imperial decree, unless there was a reason to stay." Zhu Zhen smiled smugly.

"And I prepared for a rainy day many years ago and sent Yao Guangxiao and Zhang Maoxiu to preach. Yao Guangxiao is okay, his professional ability is average, but the latter is the real Zhang Tianshi. Over the years, I don't know how many disciples he has accepted among the Annan princes. These people are all authentic pro-Ming factions, and they are ready to submit to the Ming Dynasty immediately."

"Their reasons are very good. Annan is going to be destroyed anyway. Rather than being ruled by Champa, it is better to become a part of the Ming Dynasty! Although many Annan people disagree, no one dares to object due to the situation. By now, they should have boarded the ship of the Maritime Customs to Nanjing to offer land to my father."

"My uncle and fourth brother have no choice but to stay in Annan. Otherwise, if our father agrees to take over, Annan will have already been destroyed. How embarrassing it will be," Zhu Zhen said finally.

"Haha, indeed." Wang Bi couldn't help but exclaimed: "It's just like a butcher cutting an ox, it's effortless to remove this hard bone."

After a pause, he said with some concern: "But we don't have many troops in Annan. Can we deal with the Champa army?"

"It's a little difficult to eliminate them, but it's easy to stop them." Zhu Zhen said confidently:

"The reason why Champa can bully Annan is not because their army is so strong. In fact, Champa's army is very weak. The real reason is that their navy is strong, so they can come and go freely and beat Annan with a whip." As he said this, he raised his thick eyebrows and said proudly:
"Speaking of the navy, I am not targeting anyone. Everyone here is garbage."

Zhu Zhen smiled slyly and said, "However, we have to let them jump around for a few more years until we have completely digested Annan. If they still don't know what's good for them by then, we will send them on their way. But before we have digested Annan, they are still very useful."

"Yes." Wang Bi nodded in agreement, thinking that usually ministers would raise bandits to prevent being killed by the emperor, but the prince raised bandits in Annan to prevent those who would cross the river and then destroy the bridge... It was a reverse way of 'raising bandits for one's own protection'.

~~
After crossing the jungle in northern Myanmar, the terrain gradually became flat, the roads were easy to walk on, and there were more villages and fortresses. This was the core area of ​​the former Ava Dynasty. In Ava, the former capital of the dynasty, Zhu Zhen met with local officials and chieftains from various prefectures and tribes in Outer Yunnan.

After having a cordial and friendly conversation with them, Zhu Zhen led them further south to Pegu.

It was already September when we arrived in Bago.

In the port of Pegu, there is the first large-scale shipyard built by Zhu Zhen outside his homeland.

Although it could not compare with the Longjiang Factory and Suzhou Factory in all aspects, he had transferred more than 2,000 skilled craftsmen from the inland in batches, and the naval talents trained by the Imperial University were also in place. It was only a matter of time before it caught up with the level of the large inland factories.

Moreover, the Bago Shipyard has an advantage that other inland factories cannot match, that is, it can use high-quality wood from the forests in northern Myanmar, instead of having to transport the wood thousands of miles back before starting work like the Longjiang Factory.

This greatly reduces costs and improves efficiency, so Zhu Zhen believes that in time this place will replace the Longjiang Factory and become the most powerful shipyard in the Ming Dynasty!
Although the Pegu shipyard was not the most powerful shipyard, it was already capable of building large treasure ships weighing 4,000 tons.

Zhu Zhen happily boarded the first treasure ship built by the Pegu factory. He saw that the craftsmen had built this ship beautifully and luxuriously. They also used beautiful teak decks and hulls at no cost. Teak is not afraid of fire or shells. It was originally used to make aircraft carrier decks. In this era, it is even more synonymous with invincibility.

The "Pegu" is the famous work of the Pegu Shipyard and also the prince's ship they presented to Zhu Zhen.

From then on, all large treasure ships of this level were called Prince-class.

Zhu Zhen invited those chieftains and officials who had never been to sea in their lives to join the maiden voyage of this prince-class treasure ship.

The giant ship slowly sailed south along the Malay Peninsula. Zhu Zhen could see Mu Ying and his cavalry following along the way. The powerful Burmese Duke had already pacified the entire Malay Peninsula.

As the fleet moved south, the chieftains saw that the continents on both sides were getting closer and closer, and finally formed a narrow strait. This is the throat between the South Sea and the West Sea - the Strait of Malacca.

At the end of the strait, on the Malay Peninsula side, is a large island called Temasek, which guards the entrance to the Strait of Malacca like an Adam's apple in the throat.

Temasek was the base of the Ming Dynasty's South China Sea Fleet and the end point of Zhu Zhen's journey.

When the giant ship carrying Zhu Zhen docked, he was greeted not only by his old brothers from the Maritime Fleet such as Yu Tongyuan and Liao Dingguo, but also by kings and chiefs from 36 Southeast Asian countries and city-states including Java, Malacca, Bintanglong, Cambodia, Siam, Sumatra, Ambergris Island, Cuilan Island, Aru, Ceylon, and Sulu.

The reason why they all came together was, of course, because the South China Sea Fleet sent a message informing them that the prince was coming to inspect and invited them to come and welcome him together.

But to be honest, there were so many people that Zhu Zhen couldn't remember who came. But he remembered clearly who didn't come.
The few that didn't come were mostly small shrimps not worth mentioning, except for one behemoth, the Majapahit Kingdom on the opposite island of Java.

Before the arrival of the Nanyang Fleet, this country was considered the overlord of Nanyang. It did not accept the Yuan Dynasty's invitation and even humiliated the Yuan envoy.

After the Nanyang Fleet arrived, they were still dissatisfied and sent troops to attack several times, but were repelled by the Nanyang Fleet. However, the Nanyang Fleet had just arrived and was not yet firmly established, so it was just defending and not fighting back.

Given the bad relationship between the two sides, the king would certainly not come to pay homage to the Sixth Brother.

Zhu Zhen then ordered Yu Tongyuan in public: "Let's review the troops first, and then destroy them after that."

It sounds as simple as buying a piece of tofu at the entrance of the village.

~~
Zhu Zhen held military parades many times, but this was the first time he held a naval parade. In order to show his muscles to the chieftains of the Southeast Asian countries and the Indochina Peninsula, Zhu Zhen specially ordered the Sanya Fleet to participate in this parade.

Therefore, the sea between Temasek and Batam Island, which was more than 30 miles wide, was densely packed with 25 three-decker gunboats of 4,000 tons, 50 double-decker gunboats of 2,000 tons, and more than 200 warships of various types with a capacity of less than 2,000 tons. It seemed that the strait was filled to the brim. It was no exaggeration to say that the masts were like a forest and the sails covered the sky.

What is even more frightening is that so many warships were able to line up neatly on the turbulent sea and even perform a parade. I really don't know how they did it.

Except for the chieftains who came with Zhu Zhen from Outer Yunnan just to watch the fun, most of the other kings and chiefs came from coastal regimes and had their own naval forces, so they were more aware of the terrifying nature of the Ming fleet!
The Ming army's warships moved rapidly at the sound of a cannon shot. In less than a meal's time, they switched from the review mode to a huge combat cluster!

Then all the warships opened fire at the same time. It was literally the sound of a thousand guns blaring at the same time. Amid the earth-shaking roar, thousands of shells hit the target ship cluster like hail!
Anyone with eyesight that wasn't too farsighted could see that the target ships were all kinds of warships from the South China Sea, which were pirate ships captured by the Ming army when they were suppressing bandits at sea, or even simply smuggling ships sent by these kings and chiefs.

These small countries cannot afford a professional navy, so they all adopt this semi-official, semi-bandit cooperation model to safeguard their own interests on the sea.

But now they saw that after that round of bombardment, all the target ships were torn into pieces by the whistling shells, leaving only some broken masts, torn sails and splintered wood floating on the sea.

All the spectators were horrified and heartbroken.

Zhu Zhen told them that if they surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and returned to China forever, they could become Chinese!

Otherwise, you will be punished even though you are far away. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Amid Zhu Zhen’s powerful warning, the fleet on parade set sail and headed towards Java Island in a mighty manner!

A month later, they brought back the head of the king of Majapahit, and Zhu Zhen sent it to various countries.

From now on, all of Southeast Asia belongs to the Ming Dynasty!

[End of the book]

(End of this chapter)