Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 553: The Death of the Old Friend
"put!"

"Boom boom boom——"

In February, on the route from Ceylon to Kunlun Continent.

As the command flag was waved, dozens of cannons pierced an armed merchant ship that was flying the flag of the Ming Dynasty but also had a family flag.

Seeing the ship raising the white flag and stopping its escape attempt, Zheng He, the chief envoy, raised his hand and said, "Stop the bombardment and prepare to surrender."

"Yes!" Several thousand-household officials bowed and saluted, and then began to send out large treasure ships to capture the ship.

This is the sixth month since Zheng He was ordered to sail to the Western Ocean again, and now they are crossing the Western Ocean. In a few days, they will arrive at the Mugudushu Qianhu Suo.

"Zheng He!"

Suddenly, someone called Zheng He by his name. The only person on the ship who could call Zheng He by his name was Yang Zhan, who was familiar with him.

Yang Zhan walked quickly all the way over, then walked up to Zheng He and said:

"The patrol boat in the south has encountered the Kunlun Xuanweisi ship. Qi Sheng and his men are waiting for us to arrive on the northern coast of Penglai Island (Madagascar Island)."

"Looking at the current progress, it's about time to notify them to march towards Malindi."

"In addition, Japan and North Korea should be called upon to cease fire and stop fighting."

Yang Zhan talked about his plans, and Zheng He nodded and said, "Let's do as you say, Duke Yue."

"Okay!" After hearing what Zheng He said, Yang Zhan nodded and turned to leave.

Under Yang Zhan's operation, the Ming Dynasty's voyage to the West fleet of ninety warships and thirty Malaysian ships accelerated towards Kunlun Island.

A few days later, Qi Sheng, who was stationed in the northern part of Penglai Island, also received the news brought back by the patrol boat. After five days of waiting and gathering, Qi Sheng led the Kunlunzhou fleet consisting of twelve warships and four Malaysian ships to set out for Malindi.

On the tenth day of March, when Ming officials were still involved in major cases in Jiangnan, troops from the Kunlun Xuanwei Office and the Western Ocean Fleet arrived in Malindi one after another.

When thirty huge treasure ships, sixty large Fu ships and thirty large Malaysian ships appeared in the sea far away from the port of Malindi, the intelligence personnel stationed there by Korea and Japan reacted differently.

The Japanese spies quickly released carrier pigeons and sent out fast horses and cavalry.

The Korean spies operated in the same way as the Japanese, but the difference was that they gathered all the Koreans in Malindi at the port and kept shouting phrases such as the Heavenly Army is Coming.

Half an hour later, with a large number of Ming troops landing in Malindi, Zheng He finally set foot on the land of Kunlun Continent again after twenty years.

He was wearing a robe bestowed upon him, a three-peaked hat on his head, and holding a telescope in his hand at all times, constantly looking at the Malin land.

When Qi Sheng took the initiative to withdraw from Malindi, the sixteen merchant gangs entrenched in Malindi exiled the ruler of Malindi to the Ethiopian dynasty in the north.

This action alone was enough for Yang Zhan to define it as rebellion.

Although Malindi was only a small country with a population of less than 10,000 people, and after the Ming army arrived in Kunlun Continent, the city defense and economy of Malindi were controlled by the Ming army, but in the final analysis it was still a vassal state under the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

The last person who took action against the king of a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty was about 28 or 29 years old this year.

"This incident alone is enough to label them as rebels!"

Although Yang Zhan is fifty-seven years old, he is still as powerful as ever.

As soon as he opened his mouth, the soldiers around him immediately raised their rifles, ready to fight at any time.

"What's the situation inside this hemp forest?"

Zheng He did not rush to make a judgment, but instead asked the spies from the Western Factory who came to report the news.

When asked, the spy from the Western Factory bowed and replied, "Malindi is currently occupied by Qian Liao of the Songjiang Qian family. It was he who instigated the Sixteen Merchant Gangs to surround Malindi."

"There are servants from sixteen merchant gangs stationed in the city, about four thousand people, and they are currently deploying emergency defenses."

"Although he is a family servant, he is equipped with armor, fire guns, and Hongwu iron cannons..."

"That's the army!" Yang Zhan interrupted the spy from the Western Factory and bowed to Zheng He: "Since it's an army and they drove away the ruler of Malin, it's nothing more than establishing themselves as king."

"This matter can already be defined as rebellion."

"Yes!" Zheng He also frowned and nodded, "I will send people to bring back the king and his relatives from Malindi, and negotiate the war between Japan and Korea. The matter of the rebels will be left to you."

"But His Majesty said that we should try to appease them and not kill too many people."

"I know." Yang Zhan nodded, then turned to his second son Yang Rui.

"You will personally lead the army to recruit the soldiers of Malindi to surrender. If they still refuse to open the city and surrender within an hour, the more than 4,000 soldiers in the city and their nine clans will be exiled."

"If the soldiers surrender now, only the main culprits such as Qian Liao will be punished, and the rest will be sent back to the country on the merchant ship!"

“Yes!” Yang Rui had a delicate appearance, but was half a head taller than Yang Zhan. He possessed both the temperament of a Confucian general and the physique of a brave general.

Although he was only 22 years old, Yang Rui had already become the commander of the Donghai Guard and the captain of one of the 12 fleets of the Ming Navy.

Yang Zhan asked him to go and persuade them to surrender, which was also to pave the way for his future.

Zheng He did not say anything about this, but just walked towards the Korean team that was waiting eagerly not far away.

"Lord Angel!"

Seeing Zheng He approaching, a fifth-rank Korean official knelt on the dock and wailed, "I, your humble servant, ask the angels to help me!"

"Get up. Now that I'm here, I'm here to resolve the dispute between your two countries."

Zheng He stepped forward and motioned for the man to stand up. The man knew that Zheng He did not accept gifts, so he wiped away his tears and told Zheng He about what Korea had experienced over the past year.

Since Kajii Yoshitsugu discovered that Qi Sheng was unable to balance the various forces in Kunlun Continent, he waited and watched for a while, waiting for Qi Sheng to lead his troops to withdraw from Malindi, and then immediately launched a fierce attack on North Korea.

At that time, the number of Japanese troops in Kunlun Continent reached 12,000, and the number of Korean troops reached 10,000.

Logically speaking, the strength of both sides was equal, but Ashikaga Yoshitsugu had returned to Korea after completing his studies in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, during the years since he returned to Japan, he hired many "talents" from the Ming Dynasty to come to Japan at high prices.

Although most of these students graduated from elementary school, they had received professional training in horse riding, combat, and archery in elementary school.

In addition, they suggested that Ashikaga Yoshitsugu hire some disabled old soldiers from the Ming Dynasty to serve as instructors, so the army under Ashikaga Yoshitsugu's rule was greatly improved.

Although the current Japanese army still mainly relies on cold weapons, the proportion of hot weapons in the army is not low.

The Hongwu iron cannon and Hongwu musket purchased from the Ming Dynasty were equipped in the army. Every hundred-man team had one Hongwu iron cannon and thirty muskets.

Although they were simple matchlock rifles and stone-shooting cannons, the combination of the two and the Ming Dynasty's combat tactics enabled the Japanese army to make the Korean army run around in circles both on the front battlefield and behind enemy lines.

At present, except for a few cities that have not been captured by the Japanese army, the Kunlun Continent of Korea has been almost completely plundered by the Japanese army.

Not only were tens of thousands of taels of gold and tens of thousands of kilograms of ore ingots stolen, but even the mines and Kunlun slaves were taken away.

There are now less than 5,000 people left in the four cities, and this is because North Korea provided support of 2,000 troops from its homeland during this period. Otherwise, the situation would have been even worse.

According to this person, North Korea's many years of operation in Kunlun Continent were basically destroyed by Yoshitsugu Kajii, and it is unknown how many years it will take to recover.

However, faced with this statement, Zheng He expressed great doubt.

"Aren't you North Korea known as the strongest country in the east of the country? How come you were defeated so quickly?"

Zheng He frowned and questioned, and the North Korean official also looked ashamed.

"Forget it. I have sent someone to send a message to Kajii Yoshitsugu, asking him to come to Malindi to negotiate peace. You tell your military commander to ask him to come to Malindi to negotiate peace as well."

Zheng He didn't want to argue about this. The main reason they came to Kunlun Island was to deal with Qian Liao's rebellion.

As for the war between North Korea and Japan, and how much losses both sides would suffer, he didn't care.

If they felt that the court was not handling the situation well, Zheng He would not have treated the more than 15,000 regular and auxiliary soldiers behind him as mere decoration.

After giving the instructions, Zheng He came to where the Ming army was camped.

This place is only two miles away from Malindi, and you can see the general situation of Malindi with a telescope.

At this point, 8,000 Ming troops had already landed, and were using the time to negotiate surrender to transport artillery from the sea to the front line.

There is still half an hour left before the surrender process ends, so they still have to wait.

I thought the surrender would go smoothly, but there was no unrest in the city of Malindi.

Time passed slowly and the agreed time came. Yang Zhan saw that the time was about to come, so he immediately closed his pocket watch and walked into the army.

Eight thousand Ming troops in distinct armor were lined up outside the east city of Malindi, and forty field guns and twenty siege guns were placed in front of the formation.

"Duke, the time has come."

Yang Rui bowed to Yang Zhan, who glanced at him and then drew the Yanling knife from his waist: "Fight!"

"Yes!" Yang Rui received the order, and the 8,000 Ming troops began to retreat in a hurry. More than a thousand artillerymen came forward and began to take over the operation of the artillery.

"Fire and load, target 3:25 pm, pre-fire one round, ready... fire!"

As Yang Rui issued military orders, the torches quickly ignited the fuses of the cannons.

While the fuse was burning, loud noises suddenly came from the ground.

"Boom boom boom——"

Dull cannon fire rang out, and sixty cannons fired iron shells towards the city of Malindi.

Since the Ming army did not repair the Malindi city, but only repaired the dock, the Malindi city still retains its original rubble stone rammed earth city walls.

Faced with field artillery and siege guns, the fragility of the city wall was beyond the expectations of the Qian Liao rebels.

They tried to bombard the city walls of Malindi with Hongwu cannons and concluded that it was impossible to take Malindi with artillery in a short time.

In addition, they also built the foundation of the city wall with stones on the original basis, so they did not think that the imperial court could break through Malindi in a short time.

They estimated the time to be half a month, because after crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Ceylon, there would only be one and a half months of supplies at most. If the imperial army did not want to starve to death, it would have to go north to Persia for supplies.

However, the rebels misjudged the power of the army's artillery.

Those merchants who once followed the Ming army to the West have reached the age of retirement in Jiangnan, and the new generation, such as Qian Liao, have no chance to see the scene of the Ming navy chasing pirates, because the so-called pirates have disappeared in the Lesser West and Southeast Asia for many years.

However, for the current navy, people like Qian Liao are the biggest pirates.

"Woo woo woo--" A horn sounded on the sea. Yang Zhan looked back and soon saw several cavalrymen running towards the direction of the port.

After they ran into the battle array, they dismounted and bowed to Yang Zhan, reporting: "Duke, there are about seventy armed merchant ships on the sea."

"Capture if possible, sink if not." Yang Zhan responded without hesitation.

Since they set out from Tianjin and headed south, they have sunk and captured too many armed merchant ships of the sixteen merchant gangs.

Judging from the number of armed merchant ships purchased by the sixteen merchant gangs at the six major shipyards, they still have at most 120 merchant ships active on the sea.

Even so, Yang Zhan did not take them seriously.

What makes a naval warship more powerful than an armed merchant ship is not only its artillery, but also the thickness and number of wooden armor on the side of the ship.

"It's a pity that the imperial court's ironclad ships will take decades to ship..."

Yang Zhan sighed a little. He probably wouldn't see a steam ironclad ship, and even a steam wooden warship would probably be out of the question.

This encirclement and suppression of the sixteen merchant gangs of Kunlun Continent might be the last battle he would experience in his life.

As he thought this, the Ming army's artillery groups launched an artillery bombardment on the city of Malindi without stopping for a moment.

The rebels on the city walls were beaten so hard that they dared not show their heads, and there were also frequent reports of victory at sea.

Neither Zheng He nor Yang Zhan regarded Qian Liao and others as opponents.

Of course, this is just them.

For those officials and merchants from Japan, Siam, Korea, Champa, Ganbozhi, Malacca and other countries who had evacuated the city early, the Ming army's attack on the sixteen merchant gangs was undoubtedly a crushing victory, which brought them a sense of relief that made these vassal states despair.

The sixteen merchant gangs had more than 300 armed merchant ships, which was more than the armed merchant ships of Japan and North Korea combined.

The more than 30,000 sailors and servants under his command crushed the number of troops and naval forces of various countries in Kunlun Continent both in terms of quantity and quality.

Such a powerful force was unable to even fight back against the Ming army's attack.

Such a result made envoys from various countries sweat profusely.

Over the years, they have obtained a lot of gold and silver from Kunlun Continent, and used the gold and silver to purchase many weapons and armor from the Ming Dynasty.

Originally they thought that the gap between them and the Ming Dynasty was narrowing step by step, but now it seems that it is widening.

"Boom boom boom——"

At sea, thirty large treasure ships and sixty large fortune ships used ramming and cannon fire to repel the invading more than seventy armed merchant ships, and then launched a pursuit.

The harbor was guarded by thirty Malaysian ships, and at this time about forty armed merchant ships appeared on the sea to the south and approached the Malaysian ships.

They played a trick of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west, luring the navy's main warships away, and then attempted to launch a sneak attack on the Malaysian ships carrying the fleet's supplies.

However, they did not think about the fact that the reason why the Dama ship was used as a supply ship was only because its firepower was weaker than that of the Dabao ship and the Dafu ship, but when facing ordinary armed horse ships, the Dama ship still had enough dominance.

"put!"

"Boom boom boom——"

Thirty Malaysian ships went out to fight, and with just one round of shelling, they sank several merchant ships of the originally aggressive rebel fleet.

The battle became increasingly intense, but neither Yang Zhan nor Zheng He intervened. Instead, they left the opportunity to the second and third generation generals in the army.

From day to dusk, both the land and the sea were in a mess.

The city walls of Malindi collapsed in sections under the heavy bombardment of the Ming army's artillery, and many rebels were buried in the ruins.

Qian Liao seemed to have no intention of fighting the Ming army in the city, and Malindi was just a means to test the Ming army's ability to attack.

After the city wall collapsed, he led his troops to retreat from the west city, and Yang Zhan did not rush to order a pursuit.

They came across the Atlantic Ocean and had no extra horses except a few captured at the port.

Therefore, they needed to use some of the goods on the fleet to go north to buy war horses and draft horses before they could go deep inland to encircle Qian Liao and others.

"They must have cities in the interior and reclaimed wasteland, otherwise they wouldn't have retreated so calmly."

"It doesn't matter. After they are supplied with horses, they will be nothing more than thieves hiding from place to place."

Zheng He and Yang Zhan were chatting easily, while the armed fleets on the sea were either surrendering or fleeing.

"There are still 700 navy troops stationed at Cape Kunlun. They can't cross it, so they will most likely abandon the ship and flee to other places."

"I will send people to communicate with the vassal states and ask them to hand over these people."

"But compared to this, the issues in Japan and North Korea will probably be delayed for a long time."

Zheng He rubbed his brows, seeming to feel a little troubled.

At his age, he is still busy with these things and he really lacks energy.

Yang Zhan understood him very well, so he smiled and patted him, then walked towards the hemp forest.

Soon, the news that the Western Fleet had captured Malindi and defined the sixteen merchant gangs as rebels spread to many countries in the north.

Countries such as Rumi (Ottomans), Mishir (Mamluks), Adan (Yemen), Timur and India all wrote back to Zheng He and promised that they would hand over the rebels if they were found.

The collapse of the Sixteen Merchant Gangs was so rapid that many countries that knew how powerful they were felt unbelievable, and at the same time, they were once again deeply shocked by the strength of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the news had only spread in the Western Ocean and had not yet been reported back to the Dagula Xuanwei Office of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, even if the news reached the Dagula Xuanwei Office, it could not be transmitted to Beijing by land because the war to pacify Burma had been completely disrupted at that time.

The Burmese army was no match for the Ming army in frontal combat, so they chose guerrilla warfare.

This style of fighting made the Ming army exhausted. After all, compared with the millions of local natives, they only had 50,000 troops and it was really hard to deal with them.

To make matters worse, Duke Mu Chun of Qian began to lose his appetite shortly after the capture of Ava City and had to return to Kunming for treatment. The army heading south was commanded by Wang Xuan.

Although Mu Chun claimed that he had caught a cold, everyone knew that the Duke of Qian had reached a certain age.

As expected, Mu Chun died in Yongchang City on his way back at the age of 68.

When the news reached Beijing, Zhu Di was about to go to the northwest. Therefore, Xia Yuanji, who had been in Beijing and had not returned home, immediately submitted a memorial hoping to stop Zhu Di's western tour.

"Your Majesty, Master Xia's memorial..."

"dont see!"

In Changchun Palace, Zhu Di angrily refused to read Xia Yuanji's memorial.

I don’t know if it was because he choked on his saliva, but he coughed a few times, which made Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting not far from him, frown.

"Xia Yuanji is also worried about your health, you don't have to be angry." Zhu Gaoxu advised, and at the same time organized his words:
"Hami is hot in the summer, why don't you take a break for a few months and go there in the fall?"

"Hmm?" Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu and coughed, "Second Brother, why... are you going to stop me now?"

"I..." Before Zhu Gaoxu could finish his words, Zhu Di said stubbornly:

"I will go even if you don't let me. If you have the guts, imprison me in the Daming Palace!"

Seeing Zhu Di like this, Zhu Gaoxu could only soften his heart and said: "If you insist on going, I can't stop you."

"Just don't rush along the way. Once you get to a place, take care of your body and then move on."

"Yeah." Hearing Zhu Gaoxu's words, Zhu Di nodded with satisfaction and stroked his gray beard:
"I knew you had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. You are the only one in the whole court who supports me going to the northwest."

Zhu Di sighed, and as if to fit the occasion, Wang Yan walked into the hall again, bowed, and said, "Grand Emperor, the memorials of Duke Ying and Duke Cheng..."

"dont see!"

Zhu Di knew what Zhu Neng and Zhang Fu wanted to say without even looking, and simply waved his sleeves to indicate that he didn't want to read them.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded and interrupted, "The Duke of Qian has passed away. I plan to posthumously confer the title of Wuxiang on him and confer the title of King of Dingnan on him. His title will be inherited by his eldest son Mu Yi. What do you think?"

"You can handle this yourself. You are closer to him than I am to him." Zhu Di was slightly embarrassed.

If Wang Xuan and Fu Mao had not found a way to stop Mu Chun, Qu Neng, He Fu and others, Mu Chun might have turned around and brought his troops to help the court fight them.

As for Muchun, Zhu Gaoxu had always been in charge, so it was difficult for him to give any suggestions.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded and looked at the eunuch Wang Tao from the Imperial Household Department who came with him and ordered: "Draft the imperial edict according to what I said."

"I obey your order..." Wang Tao responded respectfully, and then began to draft the imperial edict not far away.

However, the imperial edict was only half drafted when someone walked into the hall from outside. It was another eunuch from the Imperial Household Department.

Zhu Gaoxu frowned slightly, sensing something bad was going to happen.

"Your Majesty, Jianchang Marquis Qu Neng passed away five days ago at the age of eighty-seven..."

"Gone..." Zhu Di reacted quickly and sighed slightly.

Zhu Gaoxu was also very sad. After all, they had just mentioned Qu Neng, but they didn't expect that the news of Qu Neng's death would come right after.

"Confer the title of Duke of Ba posthumously, and his title will be inherited by his eldest son Qu Yu. In addition, a sum of 100,000 strings of cash will be allocated, with 50,000 each allocated to build the mausoleums of Duke of Ba and Prince Dingnan."

After the eunuch responded, "I obey the order," he went to Wang Tao and began to draft another imperial edict.

Looking at them, Zhu Gaoxu turned back to look at Zhu Di and said, "Duke Cao has also resigned and returned to retirement."

"Yes, I know." Zhu Di was silent for a moment, but he was not sad because of the successive deaths of these people. Instead, he thought about his own age, and it was time for him to die, but he didn't know how long he could live.

"You should go back to the palace. There are many things to do in the palace."

Zhu Di gave instructions to Zhu Gaoxu. Seeing that Zhu Di was in a bad mood and seemed to want to digest it on his own, Zhu Gaoxu did not stay. After bowing, he left with Wang Tao and others.

After they left, Zhu Di looked at the empty Changchun Palace, and finally, with his hands behind his back and shaking his head, he walked towards the side hall.

The back figure didn't look as majestic as a young man, but rather looked a bit hunched...

(End of this chapter)