Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 344 Pull the ship over

"Is this the imperial fleet..."

In mid-May, when Chen Zuyi's voice rang out in Balimbang Port, what appeared before his eyes was a fleet composed of dozens of treasure ships and hundreds of warships.

This was not the full strength of the Sailing Fleet, but Chen Zuyi didn't know that, and thought that this was the full strength of the Sailing Fleet.

Looking at the hundreds of huge ships getting closer and closer, Chen Zuyi looked at his own soldiers around him.

After noticing the fearful looks on many of their faces, Chen Zuyi immediately cheered up his men and said: "Although the imperial fleet has a large fleet, most of the boat operators are river masters who are new to the ocean."

"Although the imperial ship is large, it moves slowly and is unfamiliar with the terrain."

"Although the Imperial Navy's navy is strong, they have not fought against it at sea for many years. The experience in the past few months has made them proud soldiers."

"Besides, although there is Yang Zhan in the navy, he has to follow the advice of a eunuch. What does a eunuch mean?"

Facing the huge Pacific Fleet, Chen Zuyi said something similar to a declaration of war, but this was different from what he said to his subordinates at the beginning.

The sound of artillery sounded again, and this time the number of artillery shells that struck was larger, hitting almost all the houses offshore of Balinbang Port, destroying most of the ballistae and trebuchets that Chen Zuyi had spent more than a month carefully preparing.

Before Yang Zhan said anything, Cui Jun, who had been fighting with him at sea for many years, said with a gun: "Then put down the sand boat and use the sand boat to intercept them, right?"

"Don't panic, we still have warships and fire ships at sea!!"

At this distance of less than 300 steps, the power of the Ming Navy's naval guns needs no elaboration. The messy Balinbang Port is enough to explain it all.

Chen Zuyi's military order plunged the entire Balinbang Port into a strange atmosphere. This strange atmosphere was quickly noticed by Yang Zhan, who had experienced many battles.

In the chaotic situation, Chen Zuyi's encouragement seemed so weak.

But just when they all accepted the reality, Chen Zuyi's words made all of them feel tight.

Not only did he hide and make hundreds of ballistas and trebuchets, he also deployed more than 300 armed merchant ships and 200 fireships at sea.

When he thought of this, Chen Zuyi couldn't stop being excited, and even thought of the scene where he captured Zheng He, Yang Zhan, and Cui Jun and demanded ransom from the Ming Dynasty.

On the shore, when the time came to ebb tide, Chen Zuyi immediately seized the opportunity and launched an attack by taking advantage of the difficulty of turning the Ming Navy's ship around at low tide.

However, when they saw the Pacific Fleet at this moment, they began to feel that Chen Zuyi did nothing wrong.

"Something's wrong..."

"Beep--"

"Let the whole army spread out, all the artillery be loaded with gunpowder, and be ready to bombard the shore at any time."

"Fuck him!!"

Chen Zuyi looked greedily at the fleet that was getting closer and closer. No one could have imagined this boldness.

But faced with such a disadvantage, the Ming army recovered the disadvantage with just one round of shelling. When the pirates under Chen Zuyi's command were scurrying away on the shore, they began to turn the ship's rudder with difficulty, turning the other side of the ship towards Balinbang Port, and continued Launch a bombardment.

For a time, there were constant whistles and horns in Balinbang Port, and thousands of pirates in ambush were beating the mechanisms of ballistae and trebuchets.

Hundreds of stones and crossbow arrows weighing tens of kilograms were fired at the Ming Dynasty Navy, and Chen Zuyi sounded the first horn of the Balinbang Port naval battle.

Now it seems that they have far underestimated the strength of the Ming army that dared to sail to the West.

"The material of the fire ship is not good. Just one round of shotgun is enough to penetrate the deck and hull and cause them to leak. After that..."

The fleet evacuated after entering the port, and most of the ships' cannons were aimed at the shore. Therefore, when the cannons sounded, thousands of granite stone bullets flew in all directions, turning the entire Balinbang Port into a hell on earth. .

"Boom boom boom——"

Obviously at this time, the ships of the Ming Navy changed directions with the rise and fall of the tide, which made it impossible for the Ming Navy to attack Balinbang Port with all its strength and to launch a powerful counterattack.

Houses were smashed through, trebuchets and catapults were smashed, and the flying wood chips and stones killed many people. The sheep-horned wall that Chen Zuyi had people build completely failed to protect the catapults, trebuchets, and pirates.

As long as Zheng He commanded the fleet to enter the port, he could immediately order the entire army to attack and use the advantage of the number of ships and numbers to win.

Ten days ago, Chen Zuyi announced that he would accept the imperial court's offer. This made all the armed merchants and sailors gathered inside and outside the city of Balin State feel resentful and resentful.

"I have prepared the trebuchets and ballistae. I will wait for the imperial fleet to enter the harbor and annihilate them all in one fell swoop."

"In addition, once the whole team enters the harbor, the rear army will always be vigilant at sea."

Now is the time of high tide, and your own navy can take advantage of this opportunity to make the fire ship achieve success in one fell swoop.

Their rate of fire is not as good as Chen Zuyi's pirate army, but their power is definitely far superior to them.

Seeing this scene, Chen Zuyi and many pirate leaders were numb. It was not that they had never fought against the Ming army, but the Ming army's bowl-mouth blunderbuss and Hongwu iron cannon were not that powerful at all.

Most of the stones fell into the sea due to Yang Zhan's early evacuation. A small number of stones smashed through the deck of the warship, and the crossbow arrows penetrated the side of the warship. The Ming army suffered heavy casualties.

"Boom boom boom——"

"Yes!" Yang Zhan nodded. Cui Jun also turned and left after hearing this, and began to order the ships to prepare for counterattacks at all times.

Having fought against Japanese pirates and pirates for many years, he knew very well the fighting habits of Japanese pirates and pirates. Combined with this strange atmosphere, Yang Zhan ordered Cui Jun without hesitation:

When the harsh whistle sounded, the artillery was already ready to fire.

Just as he expected, when the northern maritime forces heard the sound of cannons from the south, they immediately decided to go south to encircle and annihilate the Ming fleet.

"It's high tide now. If Chen Zuyi really feints to surrender, he will definitely use fire ships to attack. Let the rear army prepare cannonballs and wait for the enemy ships to get close to them and bombard them in one fell swoop."

After Zheng He, the envoy, learned the news, he immediately waved flags to Yang Zhan's ships to indicate that the ships were ready to bombard Balinbang Port at any time.

As time passed, the sailors at Balinbang Port began to move frequently. Such actions convinced Yang Zhan that Chen Zuyi was faking a surrender.

It’s just that their speed was too slow. By the time they appeared behind the Ming army, the Ming army had already conducted twelve rounds of artillery bombardment on Balinbang Port. For half an hour, Chen Zuyi’s pirates suffered heavy casualties, and the offshore houses in the port were destroyed. All turned into ruins.

"Enemies are coming from behind. Send a signal. First, shell them with long-range stone shells. When they get closer, use shotgun shells!"

Cui Jun, who was sitting in the rear army, gave orders in an orderly manner. He saw the hundreds of ships approaching, but he didn't panic at all.

Compared with the lowest warship of the Ming army, which cost 3,000 rations, the largest ship owned by Chen Zuyi's pirates was a fortune ship with 500 or 600 rations.

This kind of ship can be sunk by just ramming it, let alone shelling it.

"Fixed fire loading, solid bullet preparation, height self-adjustment, preparation... ignition!"

"Boom boom boom——"

There was a dull sound of cannons, and more than 20 warships from the rear army fired hundreds of cannonballs instantly.

Twenty kilograms of heavy granite bullets instantly penetrated the five- to six-hundred-year-old fortune ship, and seawater continued to pour into the ship.

With just the first row of shells, more than ten pirate ships under Chen Zuyi were sunk and dozens more were seriously damaged.

Many pirate ships that were hit were frightened and panicked, and some even broke away from the team and fled into the distance.

Soon, small boats with dozens of materials were filled with gunpowder and kerosene, and they rushed towards the navy's fleet in a menacing manner, seeming to inflict heavy damage on the navy in this way.

Facing their attack, Cui Jun asked the entire army to turn the rudder of the ship, exposing the cannon on the other side of the ship that had prepared shotgun shells early.

"ignition!"

"Boom boom boom——"

Dozens of shotguns the size of quail eggs were loaded together and fired. When the fireship was less than a hundred steps away from the fleet, they swept across the fireship like hail.

Since most of the fire ships were modified from Wushao ships, they had no protection at all.

If the sailors jumped into the sea wisely, they might still have a chance of survival, but most of the sailors were killed almost instantly by the dense pellets the size of quail eggs.

Even if they were lucky enough to escape this round of shotguns, Cui Jun ordered the sand ships that had been prepared early to come out to intercept them, and focused their fire on one spot with matchlock guns.

Some of the anxious pirates ignited the fireships in advance, causing flames to burst into the sky at sea. Some sandships were damaged. Navy soldiers in paper armor grabbed their matchlock guns and went to other sandships to be rescued.

Some fire ships broke through the defense line of sand ships. Chen Zuyi's cousin Chen Cunan stood on the bow of a fire ship, shirtless and holding a torch in his hand.

The Ming army's large matchlock guns were still firing at them, and Chen Cunan was shot, but fortunately it only scratched his skin.

"Captain Eight!"

When a boat owner saw that Chen Cunan had been shot, he immediately wanted to turn the boat around, but Chen Cunan grabbed his hand:

"I'm fine, let's move the boat over!"

After that, he lit the line of fire with the torch in his hand, and the other pirates rowed desperately.

Almost breathing before the fire line was about to burn out, Chen Cunan jumped into the sea with the support of the boat owner, floated in the sea, and watched the fire ship ram directly into the Ming army's warship.

"Boom——"

Several fireships exploded, causing serious damage to two Ming Dynasty Dafu ships worth 3,000 yuan, causing their hulls to tilt.

"Ha ha!"

Chen Cunan laughed loudly as he emerged from the water. The laughter was not loud, but it was very harsh.

Upon seeing this, the surrounding Ming troops raised their guns and pulled the triggers on Chen Cunan, who was flopping in the sea.

When thick smoke appeared, Chen Cunan was about to dive, but he saw bloody flowers emerging from the sea in the next second.

"Escort the sunken ship to the shore urgently!"

Seeing through the telescope that two of his own warships were seriously injured, Cui Jun immediately ordered them to be escorted to the shore urgently. The cost of building a warship is not expensive, but the artillery on the ship is very valuable and must not be lost.

"ignition!"

"Boom boom boom——"

The sound of artillery and gunfire continued. Facing the 10,000 Ming troops and hundreds of warships participating in the southward march, the pirates under Chen Zuyi were unable to increase their casualties.

The Ming army sank and destroyed more than a hundred pirate ships at the cost of only two 3,000-fuel warships, more than 20 sand ships, and less than 50 casualties. It was useless to kill the pirates.

Faced with such casualties, the pirate ships at sea did not dare to move forward. They could only use ballistae and trebuchets to bombard the Ming army's artillery. However, after a period of bombardment, they found that only a handful of the Ming army's ships were damaged. On the other hand, our own side Shipwrecks continue, and people are being rescued everywhere.

Compared with them, the former and Chinese military ships commanded by Yang Zhan and Zheng He were bombarding the Balinbang Port with cannons, turning it into a piece of rubble, leaving pirates on the shore with nowhere to hide.

The fierce battle at sea lasted for two hours. By 15:45 in the afternoon, the naval battle at Balinbang Port was completely over. The pirates at sea fled. Yang Zhan commanded the warship to dock. The Ming army landed ashore and began to attack Balinbang City. Search for bandits.

Until dusk, the city of Bolin was taken over by the Ming army. More than 3,600 pirates were captured. Chen Zuyi fled to the south with more than 2,000 remaining soldiers.

"It seems that Chen Zuyi is going to the south to find Majapayi."

After landing, Zheng He found Yang Zhan, who had taken over Bolin City, and expressed his views after learning that Chen Zuyi had gone.

Yang Zhan also agreed with his view: "Cui Jun came to report that the pirates at sea had fled to at least a hundred warships. If Chen Zuyi could bring the remnant soldiers to join this group of people, it would still be a big deal. Strength."

"What I mean is that we should stop at Majapayi for the time being and eliminate this group of pirates first."

Yang Zhan's words were beyond Zheng He's expectations. He did not expect that Yang Zhan would postpone going to Majapahit. After all, a letter from the north a few days ago indicated that Yang Qiu's situation was not good.

"For the country first, then for the family!"

Faced with Zheng He's surprise, Yang Zhan put down a word and began to direct the Ming army to inspect his own warships.

For damaged warships, the shipyard in Balinbang Port was expanded to repair them.

As for the city of Balin State, it was left to Zheng He to compile households for the people of Qi and ask the imperial court to name it.

By the time this incident reached the capital, it was already late May.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the information copied by Jin Yiwei on the letter paper, and then asked for the note written by Zheng He and the others. After confirming that it was correct, he nodded and looked in front of him.

Sitting in front of him were Guo Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs, Xia Yuanji, the Minister of Personnel, Huang Fu, the Minister of Works, and Li Zhigang, the Minister of Rites, who did not want to see Zhu Gaoxu and was not wanted to see Zhu Gaoxu.

"There is nothing wrong with this news. It is the same as what I just showed you."

Zhu Gaoxu put down the letter and note, and while speaking to the four people in front of him, he also stood up and pointed at the map of Nanyang with his command stick:

"Sumatra Island is about the same size as our country's Sichuan. The area of ​​the old port Xuanweisi occupied by our country is only about one-tenth of the size of Sumatra Island."

"There are dozens of feudal states and countries on this island. What I mean is that the Xuanwei Department of Old Port is the appeasement department, which specializes in appeasing the feudal states on the island as native officials, and supervises and manages the local chieftains. For more powerful countries, Incorporated as a vassal state."

"As for the Manchurian Peninsula (Malay Peninsula) above, the imperial court only came into contact with the Manchurian Peninsula, but there were also more than ten small countries in the area, including Dadi, Pahang, and Tingalu."

"If these small countries are willing to accept the Ming Dynasty's appeasement, then they should warn Siam not to continue to ask for tribute from these countries. All national tributes are determined by the imperial court. At the same time, the imperial court also sets up rites and rites affiliated national pavilions in each country, and all tributes are handed over to the subordinate national pavilions. Mutual trade between dependent countries is also conducted through the dependent countries’ pavilions.”

"If they don't agree, then they will support Manchuria on the spot and eliminate Pahang, Dingalu and other small countries on the Manchurian Peninsula that the court has not yet contacted, so that the Manchurian Peninsula will be under the control of the court."

After he finished speaking about his thoughts, he wanted nothing more than to use the Xuanwei Division of the Old Port to frighten Nanyang for a long time, and to collect various countries in Nanyang as vassals and chieftains, so as to maintain Ming's maritime authority in Nanyang and facilitate the collection of future tariffs and tributes.

Naturally, Guo Zi and others would not stop him from his suggestion, but Li Zhigang, the Minister of Rites, bowed and asked: "According to what His Highness said, I am afraid that there will be no less than twenty national pavilions."

"If this is the case, then the expenses of the Ministry of Rites will also increase. How should we deal with the tribute rewards?"

Li Zhigang asked Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't care about this problem at all: "The tribute returns will be as before. Once Nanyang is at peace, enough money and grain can be recovered by collecting sea tariffs in the future."

Before Li Zhigang could continue to speak, Zhu Gaoxu turned his attention to Guo Zi: "Has the money and food for the Western Fan army been fully allocated?"

"Everything has been deployed, and the Lijiang Mu clan is also ready. Three thousand papaya soldiers can enter Xifan at any time."

"Four thousand Xifan cavalry under Commander Liu Zhao have also arrived in Songpan. We are just waiting for Commander Li Du to arrive in Xining in June, and the three armies will immediately set off to enter Xifan."

"Has the Ministry of Rites notified Wu Zang, Erli, and Duogan?" Zhu Gaoxu looked at Li Zhigang. Li Zhigang could only bow after hearing this:

"In March, three hundred soldiers and three officials were sent to issue an edict. Many local officials already knew that the imperial heavenly army would enter Western Fan, but they did not welcome it. I was worried that a conflict would break out."

"You don't have to worry about this." Zhu Gaoxu comforted everyone and told Xifan's current situation:

"Sifan has long lost the power of Tubo. Now each faction has no more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and the few have only a few hundred."

"It is impossible to enter Xifan without incident, but if there is a fight, then the court is not afraid of anyone."

"It is expected to station 10,000 troops in Xifan first. If the subsequent horse tax collection is not satisfactory, or if we do not receive that much, then it is okay to reduce it as appropriate."

Zhu Gaoxu expressed his thoughts, and this was also because the Ministry of Revenue showed him the loss of grain transportation.

When transporting grain from the Guanzhong Plain and Chengdu Plain to Xining and Songpan, the loss is 20%. After entering Qinghai-Tibet, the loss may be even higher. It may even reach a starting point of ten dan and half a dan may be delivered.

If this is the case, it is not impossible to reduce the number of local garrison troops as appropriate.

"Your Highness is wise."

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, Guo Zi below breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing them like this, Zhu Gaoxu continued to ask: "Half a year has passed, how is the situation in Annan, Henan, and Modong?"

"No less than 150,000 people have been distributed and relocated successively." Guo Zi replied subconsciously, and then added:

"More than 60,000 people have moved into Henan, and the reclamation has been very smooth. In less than half a year, more than 200,000 acres have been reclaimed."

"Modong has distributed many people. Currently, the "Yellow Book" records more than 60,000 people, but more than 10,000 of them are still on the way to be distributed."

"The situation in Annan is the best. Many people who migrated from Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangnan have divided the land equally and have settled down."

"Based on this year's situation, local households should be able to pay a land tax of 1.2 million shi, so..."

Guo Zi looked at Zhu Gaoxu and wanted to know whether he should collect taxes or continue to exempt them for another year.

"Continue to be exempted for another year to make the people of Annan live more comfortably."

They still call Annan Annan, and rarely call it Jiaozhi. Moreover, the policy of exemption and land equalization is also in progress. Many Annan people have one to three acres of cultivated land.

The reason why they were treated like this was to let the people of Annan know the benefits of the Ming Dynasty, so that after the puppet Chen Yao died of illness, Annan could be legitimately included in the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

"The remnants of the Hu family and his son in the west of Annan have been suppressed, but the barbarians in the Changshan Mountains and the local powerful have rebelled from time to time."

"Although Fu Rang suppressed it in time, every rebellion will cause harm to the people, so don't stop until I speak."

Zhu Gaoxu gave instructions to Guo Zi, and when he bowed to express his knowledge, Zhu Gaoxu asked them about the subsequent turmoil of the imperial examination.

"Two months have passed since the imperial examination. I heard that many scholars among the people think that it is not a good thing to reduce the "Jingyi" and increase the "Arithmetic", right?"

"This..." Xia Yuanji hesitated for a moment, and after looking at Li Zhigang, he said with shame: "It is true that many candidates who failed in Arithmetic have criticized the imperial court for this imperial examination."

"Then tell the world, tell this group of candidates, and let them know that the imperial examination is not static." Zhu Gaoxu said directly:

"You need to study classics and history, you still need to study arithmetic, and you need to continue to study carefully."

"I won't talk about other things, but in the 26th year of Hongwu's reign, the amount of cultivated land in Henan and Sichuan provinces was wrongly calculated. This is an official who has been in the imperial court for many years."

"If the imperial court really collects taxes and grain according to the wrong amount calculated back then, the people in these two places will probably revolt."

The more Zhu Gaoxu talked, the angrier he became. He looked down upon this group of scholar-bureaucrats in the early Ming Dynasty who had been indulged in the Song Dynasty and indulged in the Yuan Dynasty.

In his opinion, national data must not be wrong, but this kind of mistake was made many times throughout the Ming Dynasty.

The previous year there were more than 10 million acres of cultivated land, but after checking, it suddenly exceeded 100 million acres, and the population has not changed.

If the imperial court collects taxes based on this kind of data, it will probably take less than two years for the whole country to rise up.

"I am ashamed..."

As the Minister of Household Affairs, Guo Zi naturally knew about the errors in local statistics in previous years.

If Yu Xin and Zhu Yuanzhang had not rejected the "Fish Scale Atlas" from Henan and Sichuan provinces, then the local yamen would probably have made more mistakes again and again.

"In the remaining few months, the imperial court can only do three things: sailing to the West, entering the West, and immigrating to the border."

"There will no longer be major wars, but if it involves people's livelihood, the Ministry of Revenue should not be stingy."

Zhu Gaoxu was talking about disaster relief and disaster relief. Although the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties managed the world's water conservancy well, they still seemed so weak in front of nature.

Disaster relief cannot be done carelessly, so Zhu Gaoxu specially explained it.

"I will teach you..."

Guo Zi agreed, and Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand when he saw this: "Everyone, please step back."

"I'll take my leave..."

The four of them stood up and returned the greeting, then slowly exited the Chunhe Hall.

After they left, Zhu Gaoxu ordered Yishiha, who had been silent next to him:

"Yang Zhan's father, Yang Qiu, please make more trips in the past few days. Although the imperial doctor and the doctors at the hospital say everything is fine, you still need to take care of him."

"My slave..." Yi Shiha bowed in response, but suddenly there was the sound of rapid footsteps outside the hall.

An eunuch on duty hurriedly walked in, which gave Zhu Gaoxu a bad premonition.

Sure enough, when he walked into Chunhe Palace, he immediately knelt down and kowtowed, wailing:

"Your Highness, Marquis Wu Ding passed away..."

(End of this chapter)