Traveling through the Ming Dynasty, as soon as you open your eyes, you will die

Chapter 241 The Ming Dynasty has navy

Returning to the court again, he stood next to the Prince of the Supervisory State. The associate king stood at the head of the civil servants. The three kings stand together and the most stable situation is formed.

The reason for recruiting Lu Mou back urgently this time is that there is good news from Jiangnan, but it may also be bad news for Lu Mou and Li Yan. That is when Li Zicheng officially established his capital in Wuchang.

Shandong Liu Fangliang was ordered to withdraw from Shandong and cross the river to join Li Zicheng; Li Guo withdrew his name and crossed the river, and was canonized as prince by Li Zicheng. Li Fang of Henan officially commanded the army and returned to the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty controlled most of the areas north of the Yangtze River.

Several forces merged, and Li Zicheng's strength increased greatly for a while, and he had nearly one million soldiers.

The key is that these millions of troops are all men from the northwest. Facing the army of Ming Dynasty Jiangnan, it was an absolute crushing. It has the potential to sweep across the entire Jiangnan.

Li Zicheng and the Ming Dynasty had a vague tendency to rule by dividing rivers.

Inside and outside the court hall, there were loud calls to cross the river. Unification is the cry and desire engraved in the genes of the Chinese people.

Now, it is time to make our strategy of going north and then south known to the public and unify our thinking.

In the Jiying Palace, standing in front of a huge map, Lu Mou spoke eloquently to the supervisors and ministers: "Crossing the river and annihilating Li Zicheng is not our top priority. As long as we keep a few important hubs in the south of the Yangtze River, we will be able to defeat Li Zicheng in the future." It is easy to unify the country, and our main enemy now will be the Manchu Qing Dynasty."

Facing the regent's momentum, all the ministers rejoiced. Recovering Liaodong was the long-cherished wish of the third generation of Ming emperors, ah, now it is the fourth generation of emperors.

Li Yan stood up and said: "We should go outside first and then inward. It may seem contrary to common sense, but this is necessary. The Manchus are our biggest worry."

Then pointing to the map: "Our important hubs in the south of the Yangtze River are Hukou, Nanjing, and Yangzhou. It should also be Xiangfan, the center of the adjacent areas of Hubei, Henan, Chongqing, and Shaanxi, and Guangzhou, the most important port in the south. To this end, we will Increase troops in Jiangnan."

Wu Sangui, who has been granted the title of Pingxi Marquis, nodded: "Li Bingbu is right. As long as we occupy these chess points, Li Zicheng's chess game in Jiangnan will never be complete. At the same time, Li Zicheng is the northwest army, and we can only use the northern army's ability. To fight against it, it is imperative to form an army in the northwest and go to the south of the Yangtze River."

Lu Mou said: "Now, I will ask the Supervisory State for approval to form the Southern Group Army."

Supervisor Zhu Cixiang asked: "Who is the candidate and what is the scale?"

Lu Mou replied: "I discussed with Li Bingbu, Wu Marquis and the staff department. The candidate is General Zhang Huangyan, who will join Yang Songshan's army and form three armies. Together with Jiangnan Yang Songshan Army, they will form the Jiangnan Group Army, with a total strength of 100,000."

At this time, it was time to let the tiger Zhang Huangyan out of the cage. If he didn't, it would be too late.

“Our finances might support that?”

He Fugui stood up and replied: "The two northwest provinces, Henan and Shandong, as well as the Mongolian part of Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou are all mine. The population has reached 25 million, and the land under my control has reached 200 million. Fifty million acres, and 100 million acres of land reserves. By the end of next year, the income from contracted land rent alone will be enough to meet the army expansion expenses. "

Zhu Cixiang nodded: "But even if we have sufficient finances, we cannot go on a military rampage and waste people's energy. Let's do this. I stipulate that the annual military expenditure in the future cannot exceed 10 million silver dollars."

The veterans all breathed a sigh of relief, this is the way to rise and fall. The prison country is calm and peaceful, and there is no need to let the ministers give advice.

Lu Mou said: "According to the regulations of the Supervisor, our military expenditure will be surplus this year, so I think building a strong navy should be put on the agenda."

Zhang Huangyan stood up and explained: "A powerful navy can not only connect our various strongholds in the south of the Yangtze River into one, but also play a huge role in our battle to eliminate the Manchu Qing Dynasty and regain Liaodong."

The Manchu Qing Dynasty now has a navy. It was established by Yuan Keli in Denglai at that time, and its scale was unprecedented. Unfortunately, Kong Youde rebelled and captured Denglai, which not only brought a large number of cannon-smiths to the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, but also plundered most of the Denglai navy to the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.

At this time, it is necessary to rebuild a navy, but that requires huge investment and time.

The navy of the Ming Dynasty was once brilliant. In the fourth year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty's coastal warships numbered more than 2,000. Most of them are tall ships with well-equipped firearms. In the battle of Zhu Yuanzhang to regain Liaodong, Zhu Yuanzhang also used a classic tactical skill in the history of ancient Chinese wars: cross-sea landing operations.

But with the passage of time, especially the implementation of the sea ban policy several times, the navy, which was seen as useless, was continuously abolished. After the rise of Nurhachi, how could the Ming emperors and ministers, who were all worried about Mao Wenlong's military pay, agree to rebuild the navy when the Ming Dynasty's finances were at that time?

Only Yuan Keli raised funds by himself to build a navy in Denglai. Once again, there were more than 3,000 warships in the navy, blocking the entire Bohai Sea to North Korea and leading to Liaodong.

It's a pity that Kong Youde's rebellion completely destroyed this navy.

At that time, the Chongzhen Dynasty was a court that was constantly fighting among parties and had to pay for the short-sightedness of the previous generation. The Ming Dynasty is indeed struggling to get back on its feet.

Lu Mou could only lament in pain: "Now, I have to pay for the short-sightedness of previous generations, but it is so difficult to build a powerful navy from scratch."

The former governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, veteran Zhang Shenyan said: "The navy is ready, that is our Fujian navy, and our navy is still invincible in the world."

Zhang Shenyan is right. In this era, the navy of the Ming Dynasty is already invincible. Think of Zheng He - what did you say? Zheng He was the messenger of peace?
Does the Peace Envoy need to lead 25,000 naval officers to bundle up several South Asian kings who do not surrender to the Ming Dynasty and escort them back to the Ming Dynasty?
You believe it, but I don’t believe it anyway.

In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, when the country was about to be destroyed and the family was about to be destroyed, the Portuguese who wanted to colonize China were completely wiped out.

Zhang Shenyan continued: "And the Fujian Navy still has 300 sealing warships."

The foundation is so strong.

The sealing ship was a lucky ship, fifteen feet long, two feet six wide, one foot three deep, divided into twenty-three warehouses, and five masts in the front and rear. According to the shipping capacity of this era, it was a giant ship with four thousand materials.

"The Admiral of the Navy is Yu Minzhong, the grandson of Chief Yu, a famous naval war general."

Lu Mou was overjoyed when he heard this: "How is the situation of the Fujian Navy now?"

Zhang Shenyan smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Not good, very bad. Extremely poor, relying on doing odd jobs for maritime merchants in Hukou."

In order to deal with internal and external enemies, the Chongzhen Dynasty was so poor that they couldn't even take care of the navy. In fact, since the seventh year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty has forgotten the navy.

This navy, maintained by Yu Minzhong, could only rely on doing odd jobs for maritime merchants as thugs to barely keep the fleet from collapse, the soldiers from being dispersed, and still protecting the safety of the Ming Dynasty waters. It can be said that there is a lone loyalist overseas.

"Can Mr. Zhang still contact them?"

Zhang Shenyan nodded: "Yes."

"Then I'll trouble Lord Zhang to send someone to contact General Yu and transfer the Fujian Navy back to Tianjin in the north."

"I'm afraid that a letter and a decree cannot allow Yu Minzhong to return to the north. I have to go in person."

"why?"

"Because Yu Minzhong can't make the decision, the people who can really make the decision are the former deputy commander-in-chief of Denglai who has been supporting him, and Zheng Hongkui, who fled to the south of the Yangtze River when Kong Youde plundered Shandong."

(End of this chapter)