golden scales

In June of the eighth year of Longjing, God seemed to want Zhu Cihong to assemble a jujube nuclear team. His fifth son was born smoothly and entered the genealogy under the name "Zhu Hetan".At the beginning of this month when he was born, Emperor Chongzhen and the Empress also successfully concluded their trip to the south of the Yangtze River and returned to the palace without delay.

However, one thing was missed, because Emperor Chongzhen had no chance to parade the navy in Zhoushan because he was in a hurry.

Ming's naval construction was far more difficult than that of the army, the reason is simple: technical bottlenecks.

The emperor of Shengming was unwilling to take detours to build those large gunships, which would waste ship materials, so there were only a very small proportion of Western-style gunboats in the Ming Dynasty's naval warships, which were designated as "frigates" and were mainly arranged around the flagship for protection.Warships still use the old ship type, with reinforced keels and decks, and the bow main gun as the main long-range attack method, and they still jump to fight when they are close.

Since the mainstream idea is to strengthen the hull to support larger caliber heavy artillery, this is indeed a shortcut in the idea of ​​​​naval warfare. However, reinforcement is easy, but power is hard to find, so the navy has to spend a lot of resources on ship research and development, rather than all-in-one Cover the ocean with ships.

Even so, after the pacification of Nanyang, many capital ships of the South China Sea Fleet were assigned to the East China Sea Fleet, which still made this fleet guarding the inland sea into a big fat man, with a total of [-] warships of all sizes. You can only see the densely packed fleet, extending to the sea level.

Zheng Sen stood on the ship tower of Ao Guang, the flagship of the East China Sea Fleet, watching the fleet sail towards the open sea.Since the South China Sea Fleet made its debut, the flagships of the East China Sea and North Sea Fleets followed suit and changed their names to the Dragon King. Who told the South China Sea Fleet to not encounter any shipwreck so far.Only the Taiwan Strait Fleet does not have a corresponding Dragon King name to use.He simply played the banner of Mazu, known as Mazu, very domineering.

Over the past ten years, Zheng Sen has also grown from a young man in his early twenties to an uncle in his mid-thirties.Now he is the captain of Ao Guang, ranking under Shi Lang.

As the earliest backbone of Huangming Naval University, Shi Lang did not return to Zheng Zhilong's arms, but embraced the imperial court's thigh.As a result, he became the trusted commander-in-chief of the East China Sea Fleet.

Facing Shi Lang, Zheng Sen was somewhat entangled.This man betrayed his faith, betrayed his father, and embarked on the road of prosperity and wealth. This is a family feud.However, as a soldier, it is his duty to be loyal to the emperor's court, and he should not be loyal to a private army town. This is the righteousness.What's more, Shi Lang served as an instructor at the Naval University.He is Zheng Sen's teacher, and the two of them are divided into master and apprentice, which makes Zheng Sen even more unreasonable to make things difficult for Shi Lang.

"Damu, what do you think of the East China Sea Fleet?" Shi Lang went to the ship's tower, and met Captain Zheng Sen as a matter of course.

"It really is spectacular." Zheng Sen said perfunctorily.

Shi Lang stepped forward and stood by Zheng Sen's side, looking at the sea and sky, and said after a long time, "The chief officer of the ocean-going fleet was transferred here to be the captain. Does Damu feel wronged?"

As the saying goes: It is better to be the head of a chicken than the queen of a cow. Zheng Sen has indeed had such grievances.After I actually took office, I gradually calmed down when I saw the variety of ships in the East China Sea Fleet and the standard tactical maneuvers.In contrast, the ocean-going fleet is a civilian merchant fleet, which is only responsible for running around Australia to deliver goods.

"There is no grievance, on the contrary, I am a little lucky." Zheng Sen said: "There are not so many gunboats in the ocean-going fleet."

There are thirty large Fuchuan of the flagship level of the East China Sea Fleet, each equipped with four gunboats.The flagship is double that.There are more than one hundred and twenty ships.As for warships, there are as many as 350 ships and [-] supply ships, which can sail all the way to Ryukyu without relying on supplies.

As for the Cangshan Railway used for communication, docking, and reconnaissance, I don't know how many there are.

The only fly in the ointment is to increase the volume.Many warships were not even equipped with artillery.

——The Ocean Age mentioned by Shen Du, I don’t know when it will come!

Zheng Sen thought to himself.

In early September of the eighth year of Longjing.Catching up with the tail of the south wind, the East China Sea Fleet turned from Ryukyu to the Satsuma Domain, officially launching the campaign of "punishing the mob".

At the same time, Nagasaki launched the "Ichikui" of tens of thousands of people.

Nagasaki already had tens of thousands of Han merchants, not counting the second-generation Han merchant immigrants who were born in Nagasaki.Many of them married Japanese women and used Japanese surnames externally, just like the Japanese. However, every Han businessman has a regret in his heart, that is, the regret of leaving his homeland and not returning.

Jin Yiwei secretly contacted these Han merchants, and expanded a huge space in Nagasaki in the past three years. The imperial court also offered a very attractive price to the Han merchants: In the future, in Nagasaki anyway, the imperial court will not set up civil affairs. Officials, while Han merchants elected leaders as magistrates.

In this way, when Longjing finally launched a combat offensive against Japan in the eighth year of Longjing, Nagasaki had already hidden an army of 3 people.Over the years, with the help of its Japanese allies, the Tokugawa shogunate remained in the shadows.

The Satsuma Shimadzu family is particularly disobedient among the foreign daimyos, so the Tokugawa shogunate does not intend to stand up for the Satsuma clan.Some were even happy to see that the Satsuma clan was forced to spit out the land that occupied the Ryukyu Kingdom, and was severely taught by the Ming army.However, Nagasaki is the purse of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the Nanban goods that daimyos like are all shipped in from the port of Nagasaki.

"The Ming Dynasty is deceiving people too much!" The third general, Tokugawa Iemitsu, angrily cursed: "Call all the big names, prepare troops, and we must pacify Nagasaki as soon as possible!"

The Tokugawa family's idea was good, but he ignored the time when Daming launched the campaign.

After September [-]th of the Ming calendar, when the north wind blows, it is a good time for the tank division to cross the sea from Kuwu to attack Ezodi (Hokkaido).

With Wang Yi's temperament, he had been waiting for this moment of thunder.With the help of the bridgehead operated in Ezo in the early years, the tank division successfully conquered the entire Ezo and destroyed the Matsumae Domain in Ezo.The Ming court had already prepared a plan, and only waited for Wang Yi to sweep away the Japanese vassals in Ezo, he established the Beihai Mansion and relocated the people to consolidate it.

This is an important base for Ming to take the North Pacific route to America.

Although Japan is a big country in the East China Sea capable of mobilizing 30 soldiers, it was defeated strategically in the face of the well-prepared and unified Ming army.

This kind of failure even made it impossible for the Tokugawa clan to use their troops. If they sent troops to Ezo, not only would they not be able to guarantee supplies, let alone ships to cross the sea.If Nagasaki in the south is pacified first, it will face many constraints and rebellions against daimyos outside the shogunate.If you do nothing and passively defend yourself, your prestige will be depleted day by day, and you will end up in a situation of betrayal.

In addition, a shipment of rice from Ming Dynasty was shipped to Japan, and the Tokugawa family had to face inflation and economic collapse.

This is also the reason why the Ming army did not carry out large-scale battles since the Battle of Ezodi in September, but only defended various key points, forming a stalemate situation of siege.

This tormenting situation lasted until the tenth year of Longjing. Tokugawa Iemitsu sent a monk to seek peace with the Ming court as the Japanese maharaja.

Fusang is now in command.

At the beginning of the tenth year of Longjing, Tokugawa Iemitsu set foot on the land of Ming Dynasty, accompanied by Emperor Yoshihito of Japan.In Japan, the status of the emperor is more like a spiritual leader and has no real power.And because the financial power is not in his hands, the Japanese emperor even appeared to wait for the money to ascend to the throne, and then wait for the new emperor to save enough money to ascend the throne before abdicating.This is not because they respect the abdication system, but because they cannot afford the emperor's funeral expenses, so they abdicated early.

Zhu Cihong received two guests from Dongying in the Huangji Hall, and canonized Liangren as the king of Japan, and Tokugawa Iemitsu as the commander of the Dongying capital, allowing hereditary succession.This ending was what Emperor Wanli had hoped to see during the Renchen Rebellion, and now it has finally been achieved.

Therefore, the military operations of the Ming army have come to an end, but the situation in Japan has become more chaotic and complicated.

First of all, King Liangren refused to return to the country, crying and shouting to stay in the capital to serve the emperor.

At first Zhu Cihong thought it was a statement made by King Goujian of Yue - after Goujian was captured, he also served Wu King Fucha in the same way.When Wu Guo lost his vigilance, he went back to try his best.Later, Zhu Cihong found out that Liangren’s reason for wanting to stay in Beijing is very simple: every meal can be full, and there are fish and meat. Being abolished and assassinated, there is almost no psychological pressure.

The second is that the conservatives in Japan cannot accept that they have struggled for a lifetime, and eventually became vassals of the Ming Dynasty. They raised troops against the Tokugawa clan one after another, trying to regain their independence.This even includes the Maori family. Although they formed an alliance with the Ming country, bought large cylinders and firecrackers from the Ming country, and betrayed Japanese information, but after all, they wanted to break the curtain, not to become a Ming countryman.

This complicates Japan's civil war.For a country that has just ended the chaos of the Warring States Period, the rich families have always had some hatred going back three generations, and now is the time for these hatreds to resurface.

"Increase the supply of rice so that they can fight with their hands free." Zhu Cihong instructed.

Rice is a hard currency in Japan, and many daimyos use rice to pay vassal salaries and public funds.Moreover, a large amount of Nanyang rice poured into Japan, and the production pressure of Japanese farmers was greatly reduced, and the various feudal clans were able to mobilize more people for war.Although people of insight know that once the Ming Dynasty shuts down grain delivery, Japan will fall into famine and turmoil, but the neighbors are sharpening their knives, can they let the people farm the land with peace of mind?

This kind of quenching thirst by drinking poison is not stupid and short-sighted, but because of Ming's superior strategy, forcing the Japanese feudal clans to follow the script of Daming.

And the real screenwriter of this script, Yang Wei, a professor of Armed Forces University, is packing his bags and preparing to go to the Northwest Army to report.He will serve as the Chief of Staff of the Group Army Staff Department, which is exactly the promotion route that His Majesty the Emperor planned for him. (to be continued~^~)