Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 73: Confronting the Japanese
"The Commander-in-Chief of Liaodong Province sent a petition to allocate grain. What does Brother Xu think?"

At the entrance of Wuying Hall, as Zhu Yuanzhang walked into the hall, Zhu Yunwen's voice asking Zhu Gaoxu came at the same time.

Such a sound made Zhu Yuanzhang pause, but he walked into the hall in a breath and scanned the hall with a dull gaze.

"Grandson pays respects to grandpa..."

Zhu Yunwen kept his eyes on the door, so when Zhu Yuanzhang walked into the hall, he immediately stood up and bowed.

"Grandpa" saw Zhu Yunwen's actions, Zhu Gaoxu also stood up and bowed towards the door.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw the situation of the two of them and couldn't help but nodded with some satisfaction: "Just now were you discussing the memorial of Liaodong Dusi?"

"Yes" the two of them responded. Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly and did not ask when the two would arrive at the Wuying Hall. Instead, he walked forward, picked up the memorial on the desk, and looked at it briefly.

The content of this memorial was similar to what Zhu Yunwen asked Zhu Gaoxu. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang put it down after reading it. He walked to the dragon chair and sat down. He glanced at the more than fifty pending memorials on his desk, and then raised his head to ask the two of them:
"Tell me what you two think."

"My grandson thought..." Zhu Yunwen seemed to have been prepared, and he immediately raised his hands and bowed in response:

"The Liaodong Dusi is the front line to guard against North Korea, the Jurchens, and the Uliangha tribes. They should start shipping food to Liaodong as soon as possible."

"Well..." Zhu Yuanzhang responded calmly, and then looked at Zhu Gaoxu.

Facing his gaze, Zhu Gaoxu analyzed the situation in Liaodong as always: "Back to Grandpa, I know that Liaodong has 21 guards, 11 soldiers, and more than 24 people."

"If such an amount is met by sea transportation, Jiangnan will need to transport millions of grains every year to meet the needs of Liaodong Dusi."

"Therefore, Sun'er thought that it would be better to let the Liaodong Capital Division be more detailed, and transfer the garrison posts in southern Liaoning and western Liaoning except Jinzhou into eight tuns for World War II, and the rest should be based on seven tuns for three wars."

"If this is the case, my grandson has calculated carefully and can save about [-] shi of food."

"Well..." Zhu Yuanzhang responded, with satisfaction on his face, but then asked: "Why stay in Jinzhou alone?"

"Because it is easy to land in Jinzhou, if Japanese pirates invade Liaodong in the future, they will invade from here." Zhu Gaoxu replied neither humble nor overbearing.

His answer was something Zhu Yunwen didn't expect. Even Zhu Yuanzhang found it very novel and couldn't help but ask: "Why do you think the Japanese pirates will plunder Liaodong?"

"This is all due to the strict military preparations in southern Zhili, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places this year. If the Japanese pirates are not pleased with their one or two invasions, they will naturally move north to invade Liaodong and Shandong."

Zhu Gaoxu explained the reason and went into detail about the places where Japanese pirates might invade in the future:

"For example, Jinzhou in Liaodong, Deng Lai in Shandong, and Zhoushan in Zhejiang are all likely to be invaded by Japanese pirates."

"That's quite right." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, then turned to Zhu Yunwen and said, "According to what this guy said, tell the Liaodong capital how to do it. In addition, inform the commanders of these guard posts and Qianhuqin to train their troops."

"Yes!" Zhu Yunwen bowed in response, and Zhu Yuanzhang also turned to ask Zhu Gaoxu: "The matter of coastal Japanese pirates was also mentioned at the court meeting today. The minister in the court did not tell the reason. What do you think?"

Zhu Yuanzhang explained in one sentence why he valued Zhu Gaoxu's proposal. The co-author was that Zhu Gaoxu accidentally bumped into the issue of the court meeting.

Seeing that what he proposed was well organized, Zhu Yuanzhang specifically asked him in depth.

In response to this, Zhu Gaoxu did not panic at all, but bowed confidently: "My grandson has known about Japanese pirates for a long time. Although he has some insights, I am afraid he is too immature. Please don't take offense, grandpa." "Don't show off, it's your grandpa's place. You can say it with confidence."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his clothes and asked Zhu Gaoxu to put away those polite words.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also said "yes" and began to answer.

"My grandson looked through ancient books and discovered that the Japanese pirates did not appear just after the Ming Dynasty, but started in the previous dynasty. From the beginning, Japanese pirates harassed important towns like Hangzhou."

“At that time, all areas along the coast, from Fujian to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, to the coasts of Shandong and Liaodong, all suffered from Japanese pirates.”

"These Japanese pirates' infestations along the coast are mostly related to merchants traveling between the two countries, especially in the Qingyuan area."

"In the previous dynasty, although business exchanges between the two countries were frequent, local officials in the previous dynasty abused and abused Japanese businessmen, causing them to be violent, poisoning and attacking, and killing the flesh and blood of the people." This led to the Japanese businessmen in the second year of the Great Depression The atrocity of burning Qingyuan. "

"When the riot first broke out, the local people were unable to resist, which led to the Japanese pirates burning and looting in Qingyuan. Therefore, the Japanese caused chaos, burned the city, and killed its officials and people."

"Seeing that the previous dynasty was weak in the south, these merchants relied on force to burn the city walls and loot the residents."

"Even after Fang Guozhen emerged in eastern Zhejiang, it was still difficult to suppress the Japanese pirates, so the Japanese pirates had already become a bandit problem."

"If there is commodity trade, they will disguise themselves as merchants. Whenever goods are to be sold, they will transform into Japanese pirates and attack coastal villages."

"After the country expelled the Tartars, the situation at sea became more complicated. The remaining forces such as Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen also became Japanese pirates, constantly harassing the coastal areas of the country, burning houses and looting money in the coastal areas. In the coastal area, people were harassed all year round. Its harm.”

"For these Japanese pirates, the country cannot control them, and Japan cannot control them. This is also the reason why Japan was frivolous about the country in the early days of the country."

"Okay." After listening to Zhu Gaoxu's words for a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang always felt that this guy was here to criticize him, so he couldn't help but urge: "Just tell me a way."

"Yes" Zhu Gaoxu nodded and continued:

“At present, the state and the dynasty mainly resist Japanese pirates by building guard posts, adding troops and horses, building ships to patrol the offshore areas and sending troops to search islands, banning private goods, sending envoys to Japan, establishing tribute, requiring Japan to control Japanese pirates, and working with the state and dynasty to eliminate Japanese pirates. .”

"The first few of these are not problematic, but it is impossible to send envoys to Japan and establish tribute in an attempt to allow Japan to control Japanese pirates."

"Although the Northern Dynasties of Japan have unified Japan, the remaining forces of the Southern Dynasties have fled to the sea, so they are unable to eliminate Japanese pirates at sea. The Japanese Dynasty can only rely on its own strength to quell the Japanese."

Zhu Gaoxu's mouth was a little dry. After a short rest, he continued:
"Sea trade is extremely profitable. Not only Japan, North Korea, Ryukyu and other countries know this, but businessmen from China and North Korea know it even more."

"Nowadays, the private smuggling trade is serious. Even if the sea bans foreign goods from entering North Korea, private merchants are still active in smuggling."

"Those wealthy merchants along the coast and those from Zhejiang and Fujian ignored the maritime ban policy, built ships and carried goods, and engaged in smuggling trade to make huge profits, forming bandit merchants who were both merchants and thieves."

"As far as I know, they mainly operate in ports such as Shuangyu in Zhejiang, Zhangzhou in Fujian, and Qiongzhou in Guangdong. Overseas, they are concentrated in places such as Malacca (Malacca), Luzon (Philippines), and Kyushu in Japan."

"Therefore, Sun'er believes that only by overhauling the ships, rationing artillery, and sending the navy out to these places to encircle and suppress them can we completely end the Japanese pirate rebellion!"

(End of this chapter)