Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

When Zhu Youjian saw the attitude of his ministers, he realized the difficulty of developing the navy.

Although he could force the development of the navy, there would inevitably be great resistance.

Moreover, the tight financial situation of the imperial court did not support him to invest a large amount of resources in the navy.

So after thinking about it, he decided:

"Modeled after the Dongning Group, we will set up the Nanyang Group."

"The Imperial Household Department will take 50%, the Nanyang Guard and the Nanyang Fleet will each take 20%, and the remaining 10% is to be determined."

"In the future, all the income earned by the Nanyang Fleet will be used to build ships."

"The Nanyang Group has subsidiaries such as the Nanyang Shipping Company, the Nanyang Port Company, the Nanyang Trading Company, and the Nanyang Insurance Company, which are modeled after the Dongning Group."

"We can sell a certain amount of company shares to the public to raise funds for the development of Southeast Asia."

Similar to the previous strategy, they planned to mobilize civilian forces to develop Southeast Asia.

The Dongning Group was established nearly a year ago. I can't say how effective it is, but at least it has brought together the power of the royal family, the Fujian Garrison, and Zheng Zhilong's pirate group, creating a platform for coordinating interests.

In the past, the imperial court transported grain from Southeast Asia and sent immigrants to Dongning, and it relied heavily on the Dongning Group to integrate the southern maritime forces to contribute to these two tasks.

Zhu Youjian generously used the gold and silver for immigration because the Dongning Insurance Company, which Zheng Zhilong was in charge of, could provide millions of taels of income to the inner treasury. He did not take the one million taels of gold and silver seriously at all. So he used it for disaster relief to buy a good reputation for himself.

If someone could collect insurance premiums from merchant ships passing through Nanyang like Zheng Zhilong did on the coast of Fujian, Zhu Youjian would be happy to share the shares of the Nanyang Insurance Company with him and share the spoils together.

The ministers may not understand the ins and outs here, but Yu Zigao, who holds shares in Dongning Group, knows it very well.

However, he is also one of the stakeholders. Xu Xinsu, whom he supports, is now in charge of Dongning Trading Company, which monopolizes the import and export of goods in the Dongning area.

So he said nothing and planned to write a letter after the meeting, asking his confidants to actively participate.

Compared with the Dongning Group in Dongning and Fujian, the development of the Nanyang Group may be more difficult, but it also has greater room for future development and a broad future.

Yu Anxing, the naval commander, knew something about this, but before he could say anything, the emperor asked:
"Mr. Yu has made outstanding contributions as the Navy's Protector General. I intend to let you serve as the acting Minister of the Navy."

"From now on, the Minister of the Navy will concurrently serve as the Navy Guard, responsible for the military and political affairs of the Navy, and will jointly manage the Navy with the Admiral who is responsible for military orders."

"The navy is a military-level unit, with a permanent admiral stationed at the Tianjin Navy Office, and must report to the capital when entering or leaving."

After announcing this decision to his ministers, Yuan Keli and other Privy Councilors expressed their agreement after careful consideration.

The coexistence of the Navy Minister and the Navy Admiral did not allow civilian officials to fully control the Navy. However, they would not understand anything if they were asked to go to sea, so it was only natural to let a knowledgeable military officer serve as the Admiral.

When the navy needed to be deployed for war, a military commander would be appointed as the admiral to lead the navy, and a civilian minister of the navy would be stationed in the capital, responsible for logistics and equipment.

It can be said that such a decision was acceptable to both civil officials and military generals.

Yu Zigao was very happy because it meant that he was on par with the Minister of the Navy. Moreover, the emperor treated them equally, giving them both the title of Second-Rank Privy Councillor.

This means that from now on, he can also be called the Privy Councilor. He is the first Privy Councilor who was born as a military officer after the establishment of the Privy Council.

"This seat is not comfortable!"

"I have to be careful!"

After the establishment of the Privy Council, Yu Zigao did a lot of homework and knew the status of former Song generals in the Privy Council.

He didn't want to die of depression under the attacks of civil officials like Di Qing, so he naturally wanted to keep a low profile and not fight for power in the Privy Council.

So he decided in his heart that he would stay in Tianjin and come to Beijing as little as possible.

After Yu Anying, the Navy Guard, takes up the post of Navy Minister in the capital, he will feel more comfortable in Tianjin.

I don't know what Yu Zigao thinks, but I didn't expect him to be so unpromising in the face of civil officials. After Zhu Youjian appointed the Minister of the Navy and the Admiral of the Navy, he said to Yu Anxing:

"Yu Qing will set up the Navy Department, which can make recommendations on the appointment and removal of mid- and low-ranking naval officers, and will be responsible for the navy's logistics, as well as ships, naval guns and other equipment."

"And the General Administration of Customs, how is it going now? How much tariffs are expected to be collected?"

Yu Anxing heard this and replied:

"The General Administration of Customs has set up customs offices in ten ports according to your majesty's instructions."

"But only the customs in northern China, such as Tianjin, collect more taxes, while the customs in southern China collect very little."

"I think that the Dongning Insurance Company should be closed down and the customs duties should be paid by the maritime merchants instead."

This is his biggest grievance against the Dongning Group. He believes that the existence of Dongning Insurance Company has greatly affected the tax collection by the Southern Customs.

Those sea merchants were not afraid of the customs at all. They were more afraid of Zheng Zhilong. They would rather go out to sea secretly and pay high insurance premiums when they encountered Zheng Zhilong.

Zhu Youjian had anticipated this, and it was because of this that he allowed Zheng Zhilong to collect insurance premiums at sea as actual tariffs.

However, this situation must not be allowed to continue. Zhu Youjian said:
“Once the Customs Department is established, it must take on its responsibilities.”

"From now on, the General Administration of Customs will be jointly managed by the Ministry of the Navy and the Ministry of Revenue."

"The Ministry of Revenue shares half of the General Administration of Customs' revenue, the Navy retains 30% of the remaining half for funding, and the remaining 20% ​​is given to the Navy and Coast Guard's anti-smuggling teams."

"We will collect statistics on the tax collection results of various customs offices since their establishment, and select outstanding officials to serve in the General Administration of Customs."

This was a decision he made after careful consideration.

Originally, he planned to transfer the customs to the Ministry of Revenue after it was fully established, so as to prevent the navy from having its own funds and becoming difficult to control in the future.

However, now that he found that his ministers were not enthusiastic about developing the navy, and that the collection of taxes by customs required the cooperation of other naval agencies, he retained the General Administration of Customs in the Ministry of the Navy, and the Ministry of Revenue only shared half of the taxes.

Yu Anxing was not very happy about the fact that half of the tax revenue of the General Administration of Customs was to be divided out for no reason. After all, he had worked hard to establish the General Administration of Customs, and now he was just beginning to see the results.

As the harvest was about to begin, the emperor asked him to give half of the customs duties to the Ministry of Revenue. How could he be happy about this?
Zhu Youjian explained this to him:
"In the future, the receipts for collecting taxes will gradually be unified across the country."

"Customs should cooperate with the Ministry of Revenue to find out the flow of goods in various places."

"This way, when someone evades tax and goes overseas, the customs will have a basis for doing so."

“People who evade taxes can be punished directly.”

"So the collection of taxes by the customs cannot be separated from the cooperation of the Ministry of Revenue."

"When the navy needs large sums of money in the future, it will also need funding from the Ministry of Revenue."

Then he announced to his ministers:
"The Ming Dynasty is a powerful country in the world, and the navy and the army are both indispensable." "Although I can't spare any time now, I will definitely develop the navy vigorously after the rebellion of Jianlu is quelled."

"The Ming Dynasty is currently in a tight financial situation and cannot spare any manpower. However, when the financial situation improves in the future, the Ming Dynasty will build up its navy."

"My requirement for the navy is that the Ming Dynasty's naval power must be greater than the combined power of the second and third largest naval powers in the world."

"Especially the number and tonnage of main battleships, we must surpass them."

"The Ming Dynasty must control the world's sea power, allow Ming nobles to establish fiefdoms around the world, and allow Ming merchants to trade freely."

This was the first time he put forward his claim to world maritime power.

With reference to the two-power standard of later Britain, the Ming Dynasty formulated its own two-power standard.

It points out that the purpose of the Ming Dynasty to acquire maritime power was to establish overseas fiefdoms and promote free trade.

It can be said that this was the Ming Dynasty’s declaration to fight for maritime power and to officially enter the Age of Discovery.

Unfortunately, most of the officials in the court had no idea about this. In their eyes, this was just the emperor learning from Chengzu and wanting to attract all nations to pay tribute once again, just like Zheng He did when he sailed to the West.

They thought that the emperor was being ambitious and wasting money, so they once again raised the old criticism of Zheng He's voyages to the West and asked the emperor to save money.

Zhu Youjian didn't care about these criticisms at all, because Yuan Keli and Xu Guangqi, two ministers, both supported opening overseas vassal states due to the severe disaster relief situation. Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, Qin Shiwen and others undoubtedly supported the emperor.

So, after they had spitted a lot of saliva, Zhu Youjian readily agreed to listen and added:
“This dual-strength standard is a long-term goal and is expected to take 20 years.”

"The navy's goal now is to catch up with the country with the strongest navy in the world."

"Yu Qing, which country in the world has the strongest navy now? How many main battleships does it have?"

Yu Anying let out an "ah", having no idea what this meant.

Because in his opinion, the Ming Dynasty was undoubtedly the strongest, and he did not take the Portuguese, Dutch and other Westerners seriously at all.

This is also the reason why he was so strong when he signed the "Sea Route Ban Treaty" and replaced it with the "Free Trade Zone Treaty" -

Deep down in his heart, he looked down upon these Westerners.

Yu Zigao had some idea about this, because he had fought in the Battle of Penghu and still remembered clearly the power he had shown against the Dutch's seven main battleships.

So when the emperor asked him to imitate Western ships, he did not hesitate at all.

He had long realized that the Ming Dynasty lagged behind in ocean-going warships and was inferior to the Westerners who were fighting each other on oceans around the world.

Thinking about the information he had collected from Western merchants, Yu Zigao said:
"I heard that the Spanish built an invincible fleet thirty or forty years ago, with more than 150 main battleships, more than 3,000 cannons, and more than a thousand large and small ships."

"If we want to catch up with the Spanish, we should build 150 battleships and more than 3,000 guns."

I never expected that the Ming Dynasty was so different. Yuan Keli was suspicious:

"Do all these 150 main battleships need to be newly built?"

"Among the current ships in the navy, is there not a single ship that can be called a main battleship?"

Yu Zigao smiled embarrassedly and said:

“The navy has some big ships, but they are more suitable for merchant ships.”

"There is no main battleship like a galleon that has dozens of guns."

"According to Taixi's standards, it can only be used as an auxiliary ship. It is difficult to defeat the main battleship."

"In the Battle of Penghu, the Ming Dynasty used more than 200 ships to defeat the Dutch, who had seven main battleships."

When Yuan Keli and others heard this, they were speechless. Only then did they realize that the naval strength of the Ming Dynasty was so far behind that of the Western naval powers such as Spain and the Netherlands.

However, Yu Zigao intentionally concealed some facts. Most of the more than 200 ships were troop transports used to transport more than 10,000 soldiers to land on Penghu Island.

When the Dutch warships approached the coast of Daming, several of them were burned by Daming's arson ships, and they dared not approach again. Ocean-going warships such as galleons could not defeat paddle boats such as centipedes in the near sea at this time.

The battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Dutch in Penghu was actually a landing battle. The Dutch relied on the solid fortress to defend for nearly seven months.

This is also the reason why Yu Zigao chose to support Zheng Zhihu and Huo Weihua after knowing their plan.

The Dutch used the simple bastions on the islands to hold out for seven months against the attack of 10,000 Ming soldiers. The Ming built more solid fortresses based on their bastions, so they could naturally hold out longer.

As long as the navy can control the sea and provide them with supplies when the Daling River is open to navigation, Dalinghe Fort can be firmly defended and become a nail entrenched there.

In this way, the navy can make great contributions and impress their army brothers.

At this time, he exaggerated the power of the Dutch warships in order to cater to the emperor's statement and build main battleships.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Yuan Keli and the others were shocked by the power of the Taixi main battleships. More than 200 ships could only contend with seven main battleships, the gap was too big.

No wonder the emperor ordered his craftsmen to copy Western ships and insisted on building capital ships.

Without this kind of warship, the Ming Dynasty's development in Southeast Asia would be like a tree without roots. It could be cut off by the Dutch at any time and lose contact with each other.

Therefore, Yuan Keli immediately supported the construction of ships. Not only did he want to build them, but he also wanted to build a large number of them to create an invincible fleet for the Ming Dynasty:
"The Spanish are in Luzon, very close to the Ming Dynasty."

"The Dutch invaded Penghu, Dongning, and Xiangshan'ao several times, and they had no good intentions towards the Ming Dynasty."

"I think we need at least 150 main battleships to build."

"In addition to the First Fleet in the north, the Ming Dynasty should also establish a Second Fleet in the southern Zhili and Zhejiang areas, and a Third Fleet in the South Seas."

"Use these three fleets to protect Ming's overseas vassal states."

Xu Guangqi, Li Banghua and others also echoed the view, believing that the great Ming Dynasty should not lag behind the Western barbarians.

Zhu Youjian readily agreed, but Yu Zigao laughed in his heart because he exaggerated the strength of the Spanish Invincible Armada.

In fact, according to his estimation, Spain would be lucky to have sixty or seventy main battleships, otherwise it would not have sent only more than fifty main battleships at most during the expedition to England.

It can be said that he took advantage of the court ministers' lack of understanding of the Western navy to gain benefits for the navy.

Zhu Youjian didn't know much about these, and even if he did, he wouldn't care. Because in his opinion, the more warships the Ming Dynasty had, the better, and it would be best if it could control the entire ocean.

In this era of great navigation, the Ming Navy must make its own voice heard. Seize arable land for Ming disaster victims and help Ming merchants trade around the world. (End of this chapter)