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

Chapter 245 The Navy Returns North
The order to open the sea reached the ears of Yu Minzhong, the navy commander of Fujian Province, through the Jinyi Guards in various places in the south of the Yangtze River.

Now an abandoned child, Yu Minzhong was trapped in the port of Quanzhou, Fujian. Together with Zheng Hongkui, the former deputy commander-in-chief of Denglai, and the Denglai Navy Division, he assisted the governor of Fujian and fought back and forth with the rogue troops attacking Fujian.

At this time, Yu Minzhong's navy relied entirely on Zheng Hongkui's support to survive. Together with Zheng Hongkui, he escorted Quanzhou merchants and survived.

The reason why Zheng Hongkui was able to take over Yu Minzhong and get the job of escorting the caravan was because Zheng Hongkui was the younger brother of the pirate Zheng Zhilong and the uncle of the famous Zheng Chenggong. Escorting merchant ships, is anyone in the pirate group easy to do?

In Nanyang, as long as they don't compete with pirates, the fleets of Yu Minzhong and Zheng Hongkui will be invincible against any tooth or orchid, and they will be the king of teeth all over the place to beat whoever they see.

Once the sea is open, we can legitimately go out to sea to escort ships and earn some funds for the Ming army that sticks to Fujian.

And just when Yu Minzhong was preparing to flex his muscles in Nanyang, earn military expenses for the Fujian Ming Army, fight off the bandits, and protect Fujian and Guangxi, he met his old boss, Zhang Shenyan, who had gone through all kinds of hardships to find him.

As soon as he saw Zhang Shenyan and learned that the imperial court ordered him to return his army to the north, Yu Minzhong felt like he was seeing his mother's child, crying so hard that he almost fainted.

Zheng Hongkui came in a hurry and met with the boss. Before he could ask Zhang Shenyan the purpose of his visit, Zhang Shenyan took out a reward order: "Because of Zheng Hongkui's contribution in fighting against Tibet, Zheng Hongkui will be specially rewarded as Zhenhaibo, and given an iron certificate for Dan Shu. It is hereditary." Replacement. Zheng Hongkui is assigned to the Jiangnan Navy and is stationed at Songjiang to assist in the defense of Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Nanjing. He will be rewarded with 300 rapid-fire steel cannons from the Ministry of Industry.

Faced with such a reward, Zheng Hongkui was stunned for a long time and cried.

He was not crying about the fact that he had received the earl title, or the annual military salary of 100,000 yuan. But what moved him to tears was that his loyal actions over the years were finally recognized by Ming Dynasty, and he was no longer discriminated against and denied because of his brother.

Zheng Hongkui acted as the host and held a grand reception banquet to welcome the boss.

At the banquet, Zheng Hongkui and Yu Minzhong asked the boss about his purpose.

Zhang Shenyan told the two people in detail about the earth-shaking changes that had taken place in the Northern Ming Dynasty under the leadership of the wise regent from the 17th year of Chongzhen to the present. This shows that Emperor Chongzhen is actually the Supreme Emperor, the generous prince is the actual standing emperor, and the regent is recognized by everyone as the stable political structure that implements the emperor.

This made the two of them happy at the same time, and they finally understood why Chongzhen, who was jealous of the two of them, suddenly recognized them with a reward.

Zheng Hongkui first raised his glass to face Yu Minzhong: "Congratulations to Ding Haibo for returning to the north and establishing our Ming Dynasty Northern Navy Admiral. In this way, from now on, you and I, brothers from the south to the north, will help the Ming Dynasty rejuvenate."

Such a proactive statement made Zhang Shenyan and Yu Minzhong overjoyed at the time. They both raised their glasses to celebrate together.

Zhang Shenyan inspected the family background of the Fujian Navy, which was once the Northern Navy.

There are 300 sealing ships with 4,000 materials, which are still in good condition. There are 200 battleships with 3,000 materials, and most of them are almost unusable. There are various fishing boats, which are the homes of navy families.

There are 10,000 naval officers and soldiers and 30,000 dependents.

On the other hand, Zheng Hongkui of the Jiangnan Navy actually had various large and small battleships with thousands of bows, five hundred various supply ships accompanying the army, and a navy of 40,000. It can be said that his family was extremely wealthy.

Yu Minzhong is moving a lot this time, and fishing boats cannot travel long distances by sea.

Zheng Hongkui waved his hand: "The north cannot build ships. I will contribute to the imperial court and allocate one hundred warships and two hundred transport and supply ships."

This is a true loyal minister.

Zhang Shenyan urgently sent a letter to the regent to report the matter.

Lü Mou was overjoyed and immediately sent a message back: "As an additional reward for the Jiangnan Navy, we will allocate 200,000 silver dollars in Nanjing, and immediately allocate 200 Folang machine rapid-fire steel cannons to 500 in the Ministry of Works in Beijing.

This is not reciprocation, but it is because of Zheng Hongkui's absolute loyalty that Lu Mou dared to equip and strengthen him.

Zheng Hongkui was even more happy to receive this generous reward supplement. So he decided to personally lead the Jiangnan Navy to move north to Songjiang, and escort Yu Minzhong back to the north. One is to meet the regent of the prison country, and the other is to retrieve the cannon that was awarded to him. Choosing an auspicious day, two huge naval forces set sail and headed north in a mighty manner.

At this time, no one thought about whether the departure of these two naval divisions would leave Fujian and Guangdong and Guangxi empty of troops and whether they could resist the attack of Li Chuang's rogue bandits.

As soon as he left, Zheng Zhilong, the five guerrilla generals of the Ming Dynasty Maritime Tigers, immediately sent his son Zheng Yilong (successfully) to take over Quanzhou, Fujian, to fill this vacancy.

In order to win over Zheng Zhilong, Lu Mou issued an order to reward Zheng Zhilong with one hundred cannons. He was granted the title of Fujian General Town and continued to "exterminate the barbarians and suppress the bandits" for the Ming Dynasty.

The fleet arrived at Songjiang Prefecture. Zheng Hongkui took over Songjiang Port, met with Shi Kefa who hurriedly arrived, completed supplies for Yu Minzhong's fleet, led a hundred warships, and accompanied Yu Minzhong to continue north to Beijing.

News that the Ming Dynasty had transferred the southern fleet to return north reached Shengjing, and the regent Dorgon immediately felt Alexander.

Are you obviously targeting me, the regent of the Qing Dynasty, for your arrangement as the regent of the Ming Dynasty?

The Qing Dynasty Navy went out to attack and destroyed the Ming Dynasty Navy at sea. They must not be allowed to approach Tianjin Port.

The reason why Dorgon is so confident is not because of how powerful his Qingshui division is, but because of his consistent contempt for the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, during this period, the Qing Dynasty had a navy, but it was equal to none.

When Kong Youde plundered Shandong and captured Denglai, Yuan Keli spent his whole life building the Denglai navy with 3,000 warships. Part of it was burned by the then admiral Zhang Dake, and part of it was dragged to the south of the Yangtze River by Zheng Hongkui. The remaining part Then it was acquired by Manchu.

Stationed in what is now Port Arthur.

However, the Manchus did not pay attention to the navy and only paid attention to the cavalry. These 1,000 or so battleships that were robbed became useless. If Hong Chengchou hadn't known about the importance of the navy, these warships would have been chopped up by the Manchus and used as firewood.

In addition, the navy was despised at that time and there was not enough military expenditure. After more than ten years of wind and rain, there are only less than 500 large and small warships available now.

And the current commander of the Great Qing Navy is Huang Zhihuan. It cannot be said that he is a layman, but in fact he is almost the same. He was just a guerrilla general in the Denglai Navy and a captain of a squadron. Its ability is a standard two swords.

If Huang Zhihuan hadn't worked hard to control this navy and keep his official position, none of the current navy would be able to go to sea.

But Dorgon had great confidence in his fleet to defeat the navy returning from the Ming Dynasty. In his opinion, Ming Dynasty was rejuvenated and became able to fight under the rectification of the monster of Ming Dynasty's little regent.

But the military and government officials of Nanming were not the same as before. They were still abused by Li Chuang.

But as long as this navy returns to the north, under the control of that monster, it will definitely pose a huge threat to the Qing Dynasty.

"Before the Nangui Navy is reorganized, take advantage of his illness to kill him. This is a crucial step that cannot be shaken. Otherwise, we will have endless troubles."

Faced with such a decision, all the princes and ministers had no objections.

Of course Huang Zhihuan knew his own strength, but he did not dare to object to the regent's decision.

Therefore, after Huang Zhihuan received supplementary supplies, he led all the more than 400 warships that could still move and went to sea with a sense of luck.

The first, first and last naval battle between the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty started in the Bohai Sea.

(End of this chapter)