Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 440 Dongzhou since ancient times
"Uuuuuu——"

After many months of absence, the sound of the horn sounded again, and the place it came from was still above the blue sea.

The difference is that this time the trumpet call was answered.

"Uuuuuu——"

On the coastline, a harbor city that seemed to have been built not long ago appeared in front of the fleet.

It is located at the southern end of a long snake-shaped island, near the outlet of a river. At the northern end of the island, there is a similar landform.

"Duke, Envoy, this is our advance team's camp. The locals call this place Haimen (Carmen City), so we will call this place Haimen City."

On the deck, Baihuguan Yuqi, the advance team returning to the Ming Dynasty, explained to Zheng He and others. At the same time, they also used telescopes to see the situation in Haimen City.

It is said to be a city, but in fact it is a simple water village, very simple, with only a dozen or so ship slots.

"Can I enter the treasure ship?"

As if he was really worried that Yang Zhan would do this, Baihuguan quickly explained: "But their king is also considered a general king. After seeing the strength of our celestial dynasty, he promised to establish trade with us and agreed to allocate some land to us. We have built officialdom, but we have not yet utilized it due to lack of manpower.”

Not long after, when they appeared on the shore, there were already hundreds of Ming army soldiers standing here in tattered clothes.

Yang Zhan turned his head and asked Yu Qi, but Yu Qi shook his head and said: "It can only accommodate a treasure ship with five thousand materials, and a treasure ship with six thousand materials cannot accommodate it."

"The Ming Dynasty will be victorious! Victorious!"

"Currently, we have established contact with the Yu family, Yu family, and Yin family, and our people have also been stationed."

Although the group of people were dressed in rags, their eyes were frighteningly bright, as if they saw hope.

Soon, the chief flag officer took a boat with fifty soldiers to the southern continent.

They used small fishing boats to lead the way and showed the berths for the three horse-drawn boats of the Ming army. Then they immediately stepped ashore when the horse-drawn boats docked, and they all knelt down and bowed:

"Do you know the situation of Dongzhou Xuanwei Envoy?"

"Apart from the Yin family, the Yu family where we live is the most powerful. They first used Mayapan as their capital, and then moved the capital to a place near the river at Wang Qianhu's suggestion, and built the capital there."

"Finally, there is the Yu family in the north. Their population is not large, only a few hundred thousand, and their army is more than 10,000. They have simple equipment. They live around a lake and island surrounded by mountains, and they are relatively enlightened."

"Yes!" Upon hearing this, Baihuguan immediately ordered a chief flag officer behind him.

The officials of the hundred households briefly explained everything they had experienced in the past three years, and Yang Zhan asked: "How many people and armies do each of the three countries have? Are they all kings?"

The soldiers held parasols and brought chairs and benches to the dock.

Speaking of the cannibal barbarians, Baihuguan couldn't help but feel thirsty, and even Zheng He, Yang Zhan and others couldn't help but frown.

"How is our relationship with the three countries? Can we provide supplies for our fleet?"

Zheng He breathed a sigh of relief and then asked: "Send someone to inform Wang Ren and ask them to return here first and introduce us to meet the kings of the Three Kingdoms."

Zheng He asked, and Baihuguan also said: "Most tribes hunt, but some tribes like to eat people."

"After we arrived, we helped them build canals, led them to move their capitals, and sorted out the river channels. This allowed them to get out of the drought and also helped them resolve some civil strife."

Zheng He asked specifically, but the Baihu official shook his head and said: "The general has not been there yet. He has been staying here for the past three years."

"That's fine."

Although they were warned by the advance team and did not encounter any shortage of water, vegetables, or food during their crossing of the South Atlantic, they did not have many living supplies left after sailing here.

"The strength of the imperial fleet is enough to defeat the Three Kingdoms..."

After receiving the response, Yang Zhan immediately ordered the fleet to anchor at sea. At the same time, he gathered daily supplies from various ships onto three horse boats, and sailed to Haimen City with Zheng He on the horse boats.

"This..." Baihuguan scratched his head: "My lord, even they themselves can't count this clearly. Anyway, from our point of view, the Yin family (Inca) in the south should be the most powerful, with hundreds of city-states under its command. Hundreds of tribes, there should be millions of people, and an army of 50,000 or 60,000."

"They are also a city-state. They have hundreds of city-states under their command, with millions of people and tens of thousands of troops. They are very civilized. Let us build cities in Haimen City and Dongzhou City in the west. In addition, we are very eager for the fleet to arrive and bring them more advanced technology. technology."

"Don't worry, just say it." Yang Zhang said, and the officials from hundreds of households also started to talk coquettishly.

Hundreds of soldiers disembarked from the horse boats. After taking control of the dock, Zheng He and Yang Zhancai disembarked one after another.

Maybe it's because Dongzhou is rich in materials, or maybe they have established diplomacy and trade with the three countries in Dongzhou. In short, they are not as skinny as the soldiers in Kunlun Cape, and everyone's face is red.

After they left, Official Baihu turned around and said awkwardly: "Duke, envoy, Official Qianhu told me something, but I don't know how to say it."

"Returning to the official envoy, Wang Qianhu and most of his brothers are preparing to build Dongzhou City for the Dongzhou Xuanwei Envoy on the west coast."

"Their local agriculture is not developed. They don't even have carriages or horses. Therefore, their agriculture is very backward and they don't know how to fatten the land."

“More hunting, or more cannibalism?”

"As for the Dongzhou Xuanwei Division, don't worry. The Dongyang Fleet has been delayed for several months due to Japan's affairs. I don't know if it has set off now."

"Further to the north and south, there are some barbarians living. Some of them make a living by hunting, while others cannibalize people by conquering captives..."

The left-behind Baihuguan explained to Zheng He, his words full of excitement.

Since the navy officers were relatively young, many of them were unmarried, so in the past three years, they inevitably married wives and had children on this land, and gradually multiplied.

Yang Zhan and Zheng He sat down. Zheng He asked after sitting down, "Isn't Wang Ren here?"

"However, their army is poorly equipped. In order to show the bravery of the Celestial Dynasty, Wang Qianhu and their king Sunupa went to the south to suppress the rebellious city-state. Although our army only had less than 500 people, under the leadership of Wang Qianhu, we defeated the south head-on. There are more than 7,000 people in the city.”

If their clothes weren't shabby enough, Yang Zhan and the others would even think that these people were living a good life here.

Compared to Zheng He, Yang Zhan was more concerned about supply issues.

The current advance team nominally has 749 people, but in fact there are 2,016 people.

After hearing this news, Zheng He subconsciously looked at Yang Zhan, but Yang Zhan was not that pedantic and just asked: "Have those who got married in the Ming Dynasty gotten married and had children here?"

"Married..." Baihuguan lowered his head, because he knew that this approach undoubtedly violated the "Da Ming Law".

Although the "Da Ming Code" has been revised many times, the laws on marriage have rarely been changed, let alone concubinage.

According to the law of the Ming Dynasty: "Those who are over forty years old and have no children are allowed to take concubines, and those who violate it will be flogged for forty years." The people in the official mouth of hundreds of households have undoubtedly violated this law.

He originally thought that the GuoGong would scold them, but he didn't expect that the GuoGong waved his hand and said: "I will handle this matter. Just let them relax and live their lives for the time being."

"Yes!" Hearing what Yang Zhan said, Baihuguan and many people behind him smiled. It was obvious that they had all committed this crime, and it was not surprising.

For the garrison troops who are away all year round, they simply don't know whether they will be able to return home in this life. Therefore, it is very common for them to marry and have children in the garrison area.

In the face of physical desires, many people can even abandon their own aesthetics and join the arms of women of other races.

Although Yang Zhan doesn't know what the women in Dongzhou look like, but according to the book, their appearance should not be very different from that of the Han people, at least not like the women in Kunlun Island.

As for taking a concubine, which violates the "Laws of the Ming Dynasty", it is not a big deal in Yang Zhan's opinion.

Although the Ming Dynasty prohibited officials, officials, students, and sergeants from taking concubines, the phenomenon of taking concubines in private was not uncommon.

Not to mention others, Yang Zhan's Duke of Yue also had nine concubines, but this kind of thing couldn't be talked about openly.

Even if the ministers who don't like the voyage to the Western Fleet know about the advance team, they will not find fault and impeach him. After all, no one's butt is clean when it comes to women.

Zheng He saw that Yang Zhan didn't say anything, and he didn't punish the group of people. Instead, he felt that this was actually a good thing.

Since the imperial court established the Dongzhou Xuanwei Division, it shows that Dongzhou is very important in the eyes of the imperial court.

Since it is important, you must have reliable yourself.

Not to mention anything else, as long as half of the two thousand people are left in Dongzhou, then the Ming Dynasty will have a thousand people permanently stationed in Dongzhou, and its value is self-evident.

If possible, Zheng He even wanted to keep the more than 7,000 people he brought this time in Dongzhou to marry and have children. In this way, within a few years, the Ming Dynasty would be able to gain a firm foothold in Dongzhou. Even if civil strife broke out in Dongzhou in the future, Dongzhou Xuanwei Division is also able to protect itself.

Thinking of this, Zheng He began to let the sea soldiers land one after another. In addition to leaving two thousand people to guard the ships, the other five thousand people went to the island one after another to renovate the simple Haimen City and see if they could reclaim wasteland.

Anyway, in the next time, they only need to wait quietly for Wang Ren to return and take them to the capital of the Three Kingdoms to confirm that the Three Kingdoms will pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with Zheng He's uneventful journey, the situation of the Dongyang Fleet, which was supposed to start half a year behind him, was not very good.

The war in Japan dragged on Chen Xuan and the others for nearly a year. When the war was over, the soldiers they led were still stationed in Japan.

Because of this, Chen Xuan and the others could only lead more than a thousand people back to Nanjing, and after being received by Zhu Gaoxu, they went to the Yangzhou area of ​​​​Jiangbei to recruit the navy. After training for three months, they went to sea to the East in mid-February.

The Toyo Fleet consists of twelve large treasure ships with six thousand materials, twenty treasure ships with five thousand materials, thirty large fortune ships with three thousand materials, and fifty horse ships with five thousand materials. The entire fleet is composed of Tokai and Toyo Guardian. Composed, with a total of 11,200 naval personnel and 112 ships of various types.

A few days after Zheng He and the others arrived at Dongzhou Haimen City, Chen Xuan and Yang Xiong arrived at Mutsu City in northern Japan.

At this time, this place had become the official residence of the Ming army. The guardians here tried to resist, but were defeated by Zheng Jun, the envoy of the Eastern Xuanzong.

Due to his meritorious service in countering the rebellion, Zheng Jun was promoted to be the envoy of propaganda and comfort to the East. He controlled the Ming army stationed in Omki, Jinyin, Mutsu, Tsuruga and other places, including Jinghaiwei, Hokkaiwei and the future Toyo and Tokaiwei, a total of four Guard horse. Of course, the Dongyang and Donghaiwei are still under the jurisdiction of the Lower Dongyang Fleet. Only when the Lower Dongyang Fleet completes the mission of circumnavigating the Great Mingyang, these two guards will be under the jurisdiction of Zheng Jun.

"Hurry up, hurry up, all supplies must be checked and sealed, fresh water is the most important, so pack more!"

On the Mutsu City Pier, tens of thousands of Ming troops were maintaining order, and those in charge of working on the Pier were the people of Mutsu.

Although they are serving other countries, they are much happier serving than serving their own guardians.

It has been ten years since the Ming Dynasty invaded Japan. Even the people of Mutsu living in the north knew very well that working for the Celestial Empire was done on the same day and settled on the same day, and there was no such thing as arrears.

In addition, the Ming army also liked to settle accounts with rice. For Japanese civilians who were short of supplies, it was a rare day for them to experience the nobility.

Working for the guards is free. Even if you get paid, you can only support yourself for the day.

But working for China is different. Working for China, the daily wages are two pounds of treated rice, which is an expensive thing they call silver relics.

Two kilograms of silver relics can be exchanged for five kilograms of corn when taken outside, and five kilograms of corn is enough for one person to eat with wild vegetables for five days.

If you work for Daming for a month, you can earn food rations for the next five months.

Because of this reputation, after learning that the Japanese fleet needed strength, the Mutsu commoners who had been recruited by the Ming army to repair the harbor came in droves, and they even wanted to join in at reduced wages.

Chen Xuan did not deduct wages, but let them come as many people as they wanted.

Because of his military order, the entire Mutsu City and the surrounding people basically came to Mutsu Port to help the Ming army clean up the large amount of marine life at the bottom of the warship, collect fresh water, and make dried vegetables and fish.

The entire Mutsu City prospered because of the arrival of the East Asia Fleet, and even ordinary Japanese civilians became generous.

These scenes made the former warriors look ugly.

"Don't these guys have the righteousness of their family and country in their hearts?"

"The Chinese army is indeed vicious, and they actually use such vicious means as distributing food to win people's hearts."

"It's a pity that the guys in the shogunate were blinded, and the guardian was expelled from Mutsu..."

Sitting in the elegant room, the warriors in the wine shop were shouting and cursing in low voices, but they did not want to think that the wine shop under their feet was opened because of the influx of Daming wine products.

Without the influx of wine products from the Ming Dynasty, it would have been impossible to mass-produce wine products based on Japan's situation.

They were reluctant to part with everything Daming brought, so they could only whisper and curse behind their backs.

For such people, the Ming army in Mutsu City didn't bother to pay attention to them, because they had more important things to do.

"The waterway and ocean currents going down to the East Ocean have been figured out, but we have to set off by the end of this month."

"If it were delayed for another two months, it would most likely collide with a storm in the ocean."

In Mutsu City, when Chen Xuan's voice rang out from a newly built Ming-style yamen, besides him, the people standing in the yamen were Zheng Jun, the current ambassador to the East, and Chen Xuan, the Marquis of Pingjiang, all commanding the envoys. Yang Xiong.

Pingyue Bo Yang Wen was old. After returning to Nanjing after the war, he returned home to rest. However, before returning to the hospital, he recommended his eldest son Yang Xiong to Zhu Gaoxu, seemingly hoping that Yang Xiong could join the Eastern Fleet and continue to build meritorious services.

Zhu Gaoxu did not refuse, so Chen Xuan, who commanded this voyage to Japan, got a good helper.

“Wouldn’t it be too risky to explore the channel without an advance team?”

Standing in front of the five-foot-long sand table, Zheng Jun looked at Chen Xuan worriedly, but Chen Xuan said boldly:
"According to my previous experience of sailing to the West, there will basically be no problems with the map given by His Highness."

"The advance team sent out before was rejected by the storm. We won't be so unlucky this time, right?"

"Besides, time waits for no one. If we set out now, we can reach the west coast of Beizhou in fifty days at most, and then we can go all the way south to find the Dongzhou Xuanwei Envoy on the west coast."

As Chen Xuan said this, he also agreed: "As long as we have enough fresh water, food, and fuel for four months, we can come back safely even if we fail."

"If you are worried about failure, then I will be the only one to bear the responsibility!"

"Bullshit!" Zheng Jun laughed and scolded: "I'm not going, I'm here to be responsible for delivering supplies to you later."

"Why are you talking so much if you don't go?" Chen Xuan looked at Zheng Jun speechlessly, while Chen Xuan's son Chen Zuo chuckled and said: "Since everything is decided, we will set off in five days."

"Calculating the time, in four days at most, we will have enough food, fresh water, and coal."

"Okay!" Seeing Chen Zuo say the same thing, Chen Xuan immediately agreed, while Zheng Jun could only shrug and talk to them about other things.

Facts have proved that the guardians of various countries do not recognize the throne of Ashikaga Yoshitsugu as the Heavenly King. Therefore, in the past few months, there have been endless incidents of rebellions by the guardians of various countries.

Zheng Jun did not dare to leave Japan, mainly because he was worried that after he left, many guardian societies would cause chaos and Ashikaga Yoshitsugu would be unable to control the overall situation.

In the current situation, Ashikaga Yoshitsugu lacks majesty and the Ashikaga shogunate is weakened. Only the Ming Dynasty can maintain its rule.

However, in this situation, once the Ming army fails, many guardians of Kanto will rise up and try to overthrow the Ashikaga Shogunate and the Ming rule in Japan.

In the final analysis of all this, Kanto has not gained any benefits from tomorrow's trade.

Compared with the guardians of Kanto, although the guardians of Kansai are also dissatisfied, no one dares to express dissatisfaction. After all, they still have to do business with Ming Dynasty to maintain their luxurious life.

In the current situation, 70% of the sugar on the Japanese market is imported from Daming. In addition, Daming's grain also occupies a large share of the Japanese grain market.

Although the food sold to Japan from the Ming Dynasty was much more expensive than in the Ming Dynasty due to the long distance to the ocean, the price of rice in Japan was still much cheaper than the price of 700 cash per stone.

Six hundred wen per stone was the price of rice exported to Japan by the Ming Dynasty. The annual export volume was about hundreds of thousands of stone, and it was basically provided to samurai and nobles.

In addition to grain, there are various commodities such as soy sauce, vinegar, tea and wine, which account for either most or one-third of Japan's share.

However, these shares do not mean that Ming merchants opened stores in Japan to sell them, but were unified in the Omiki and Mutsu mutual markets. Official merchants guarded by each country purchased them back to the feudal country, and then sold them in their own stores.

Guardians from all countries are well aware of such dangers, but only a handful of people can restrain themselves.

Their indulgence made Ming products flood in Japan, and at the same time, North Korea's life became more difficult.

The direct trade between the Ming Dynasty and Japan put North Korea on the verge of economic collapse at any time, and the country has even been reduced to barter.

If Li Fangyuan hadn't already sent the Kunlun Continent advance team to collect information about the gold and silver mines, he might not be able to sit still now.

All of this stems from the historical changes brought about by Zhu Gaoxu, but compared to these changes, the more important change was Zheng He's mission to Dongzhou.

On March 20, as the horn sounded, Chen Xuan of Mutsu City led the Dongyang Fleet to set sail.

While he was riding the wind and waves, Wang Ren, who had spent twenty days rushing back to Haimen City, also saw the brand-new Haimen City and the fleet he had been dreaming about for three years.

Wang Ren wore a fully patched mandarin duck war coat and returned to Haimen City with a hundred soldiers and several priests from the Yu Family Kingdom.

Although they had heard many things about the Celestial Empire from Wang Ren, when thousands of Ming soldiers appeared in front of several priests, they could not help but kneel down and worship.

"Welcome to the emperor's army!"

The priests welcomed the Pacific Fleet in a way that Wang Ren could understand, while Haimen City in the distance had a completely new look.

The original wooden village was turned into a stone city wall, and the area was several times larger than before.

Outside the city are a series of tents and shirtless soldiers reclaiming wasteland.

After passing the news, Zheng He and Yang Zhan appeared in front of them a quarter of an hour later. The priests all turned their attention to Wang Ren, and Wang Ren also translated the identities of Zheng He and Yang Zhan.

After the translation, Wang Ren bowed and said: "Wang Ren, the official of thousands of households, meets the Duke and envoy of the State of Yue!"

"Get up, are these officials from the Yu Family Country?"

Zheng He raised his hand to signal to stand up, and at the same time smiled and greeted the priests who looked similar to Han Chinese.

In fact, if you look carefully, there is still a certain difference in appearance between the two parties, but in the world, this difference is almost nonexistent.

"Returning to the official envoy, these are the three main priests of the Yujia Kingdom at the moment. They came to accept your summons under the order of the king."

Wang Ren was careless. In fact, these three priests came to receive Zheng He, but in his mouth, they accepted Zheng He's summons.

However, he didn't think there was anything wrong with this. After all, the Ming army's combat power had already fought on the land of Dongzhou. Their advance team had participated in the internal wars of the Yu family and the Yin family, and the results of each battle were All intimidating.

Now more than ten times their main force has arrived in East Continent, and it is no exaggeration to say that it has swept across the entire East Continent. If the kings of the Three Kingdoms knew the strength of Zheng He's fleet, they might not dare to show their unruly posture anymore.

Of course, as long as they abide by the agreement and do business with Daming honestly, Daming will still be happy to help them get out of the famine predicament.

Thinking of this, Wang Ren turned around and looked at the three anxious priests, grinning with big yellow teeth and said:
"The angel said that if you abide by the agreement, then we can help you. Of course, if you refuse, we will have no choice but to leave..."

Although he was smiling and saying that he would leave, the thousands of Ming troops standing behind him didn't seem to think so.

Their eyes were filled with surprise and ferocity, as if they would put on armor and fight with the Yu family if they disagreed.

Facing these thousands of Ming troops, the three priests could only laugh quickly:

"We...we have no intention of refusing, the agreement remains..."

(End of this chapter)