Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

In February, the western ocean was light and cloudless, and the waves were calm. The dazzling blue sky and the dark ocean met at the end of the line of sight, forming a wonderful picture full of imagination. www [ ] At this time, the white sail breaks into this pure-color world at a few points in the distance, and the distance is like the reflection of floating clouds in the sky, full of agility.But if we can zoom in, we will find that these little white sails are mixed with black, indigo and other unmatched colors, just like the accumulation of white clouds to form dark clouds, which completely destroys the original poetic and picturesque.

However, someone we regard as the person in the painting does not think there is any incongruity in the scene in front of him. On the contrary, in his opinion, this patched fleet is the portrayal of the unyielding spirit of human beings to conquer the world, and is the ultimate expression of life. Fiery, most violent bloom.

Let's take a closer look at the fleet he's so proud of, and it's actually a bit odd at first glance.Leaving aside the two escorting gunboats accompanying one after the other, they have narrow lines and white sails fluttering in the wind, and they are not the chief culprit of destroying the scenery.However, on the other four Western-style ships, there are surprisingly Chinese-style classical hard sails. This is like the use of oil painting techniques in ink and wash paintings, and people find flies on them while tasting food.

Of course, the loyal people in the fleet obviously didn't understand it that way. Perhaps they thought that these mixed sailboats were the most cost-effective ocean-going cargo ships in Mingzheng China, none of them.Of course, this understanding is correct. The only thing wrong is that the evaluators have different observation angles.

In fact, after Ming Zheng entered South China, he pursued an active maritime trade policy of inviting people to come in and go out.

The so-called "invite to come in" refers to open business and entertain businessmen from Thailand, Western countries, Ryukyu, Siam and other countries. However, inviting foreign businessmen to come in is equivalent to giving up the huge profits in overseas markets, and Ming Zheng officials also require that import trade must be carried out in the exchange opened by the government. Prices and transaction quantities are strictly supervised by the customs office. Anyone who dares to trade privately or open a private port will be severely punished on both sides of the transaction. For this reason, the customs also obtained a large number of decommissioned clippers from the navy and organized anti-smuggling The fleet, even the Taixi armed merchant ships with dozens of cannons, did not dare to do anything against the customs ships in the offshore, so they could only stop the ship obediently for inspection. 【new】

Since it is not profitable and restricted to invite people in, they can only go out to challenge the unpredictable sea in order to obtain huge profits that are several times or even dozens of times that of port trade.

In fact, China had a tradition of overseas trade as early as the Tang and Song Dynasties. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, foreign trade reached its peak. Chinese foreign trade ships can be seen throughout Southeast Asia and even the Indian Ocean. It’s just that this positive trend of sea trade was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. During the Ding Revolution, it was destroyed. With the implementation of the Qing government's sea ban policy, Chinese ships quickly disappeared in overseas markets.In another time and space, the revival of China's maritime trade was re-developed with the arrival of the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong eras, but in this time and space, Zheng Kezang obviously accelerated this process.

Going out requires a large number of sea trade ships. From Guangdong to Jiangnan, the shipyard that was originally suspended under the suppression of the Qing government is now being rebuilt. Due to the shortage of supply, the profit of manufacturing a seagoing ship is as high as [-]%. Therefore, the new shipyard It is also being built like mushrooms after rain.Among them, the shipyards that were dismantled from the official warships of the Ming and Zheng Dynasties had the highest craftsmanship and the best business.The former military shipbuilders who are accustomed to making military plywood ships are naturally the best at Taixi plywood clippers. This kind of ship has a larger tonnage and faster speed, so it is naturally more popular with maritime merchants.

It's just that the boat is easy to build, but it is difficult to maneuver.Although it shows that Zheng puts more emphasis on land than sea after entering the mainland, the navy is still slowly expanding. Not to mention that most of the original 20 cruise ships have been handed over to the customs anti-smuggling fleet. The number of second-class cruisers with a cost of [-] is not very large, but cruisers with a cost of [-] to [-] have become the main force of the navy, and the navy is different from the land division. The number of sailors trained in ten or twenty years will be different Those who are easily discharged from the army, even if they are retired from active service individually, will be transferred to the customs or the fleet of the manager of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. [ ]

Therefore, in this case, except for a very small number of Taixi sailors available for hire, there are not many sailors who can handle soft sails.There are not enough sailors on the market who are proficient in manipulating soft sails, and Fuchuan, Cantonese, and Birdships are not as easy to use as plywood boats. Facing a dilemma, only Chinese-style flexibility can be used in both ways, so this hybrid style appeared. new ship type.Although the speed of this new type of hybrid ship is not as good as the authentic soft sailing ship, it is a great improvement compared to the old-fashioned junk ship. Therefore, once it was launched, it was very popular, and the order was even placed three years later.

It is precisely because of the popularity of this type of ship that, in turn, it also affected the Ming Zheng Navy. Under the situation of concentrating on the priority of ensuring the sailors of the warships, the transport ships in the navy eliminated the old-fashioned Fuchuan and replaced them with this type of ship. Different from civilian maritime trade ships, military transport ships are all iron-framed ships, with stronger hulls and more resistant to ocean-going voyages.

"I have seen the land, that's right, it is the Datujiao Beacon Tower." When the first escort gunboat got on the lookout post, it leaned out from the tall Diaodou and shouted to the sailors on the deck who were cleaning up the sundries. "Look, the seagulls are here to welcome us."

The cheers resounded immediately, and the navigator who heard the news immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled at Liu Xiang, the ship commander beside him: "My lord, I will not disgrace my mission."

The ship commander is also the captain. Of course, the type of ship is different, and the rank of the ship commander is also different. A ship commander similar to a first-class cruiser may be a fourth-rank flying cavalry captain, while Liu Xiang's three-thousand-material escort at the moment is only a regular seventh-rank ship commander. Zhongwu Xiaowei, the gap between them can be described as cloud and mud.

Liu Ling also patted the navigator's shoulder heavily: "Good job, this time you can take the direct flight from Xiangshanao to Xiboni, you deserve the most credit, and I will definitely give you the credit when you get back."

Although the sailing ability of the Zheng Navy in the Ming Dynasty was the first in Southeast Asia in this era, there was no record of direct sailing to Borneo from South China. Generally speaking, it was either from the direction of Cam Ranh to Paini (Patani) and then eastward along the Malay Peninsula. From Dongning to Luzon to Brunei and then south along the coast of North Borneo, so this time can be said to be a breakthrough.And taking such a central line saves at least half of the time compared with the eastern line, and saves nearly one-third of the time compared with the western line. This represents more round trips and greater benefits in peacetime. The life-saving straw in the direction of Boni is such a great achievement, the Ministry of War obviously will not neglect it.

"Don't!" The navigator hastily evaded. "My lord, we didn't get the consent of the higher-ups for doing this. Once this is stabbed, don't get the reward. First, give a punishment for acting without authorization. It's not worth it, it's not worth it."

"What are you panicking about? You're not afraid of what I told you to do. What are you afraid of?" Jiangshan's nature is easy to change, and the training in the Naval Academy can't change Liu Xiang's nature of pirates in northern Zhejiang. "The sky is falling, and I will bear it. Besides, if we fail to succeed, it is called recklessness. If we succeed, we are flexible and flexible. I don't believe that the admiral is so blind."

The navigator bared his teeth and said nothing, but the expression on his face was as ugly as eating a stool, but Liu Xiang didn't care about it.Speaking of which, Liu Xiang's background is not good. Although he is a dropout student in the Naval Academy, his old background is Fang Xipeng's former Ministry of Zhejiang Province, which belongs to the category of controlled use.Liu Xiang's elder brother, Liu Ling, has remained in the colonial fleet of Xiboni to this day, serving as a privateer captain. Simply retired and changed to the captain, pilot, and helm of an ocean-going merchant ship.Although the teachers don't welcome them, and the speed of promotion is far slower than that of the students in the same period, Liu Xiang himself is alive and kicking and quite at ease. Maybe this is the real old sea dog. As long as he is at sea, it doesn't matter what he does, let alone control a ship. Temporary sub-commander of the command and escort fleet.

"My lord," the lookout post roared again. "[Yanziji] sent a flag, Commander Huang asked for instructions and [Xiyun No. [-]] left the team and headed for Centipede Islet."

Wuyu Islet is the Protectorate of the West Boni City --- After Zheng Kezang designated the governor as the head of a province, the names of the governors in various places were changed immediately. A brigade of Longxiang Army, while the overseas ones were changed to Daduhufu and Duhufu---an important part. The Zhang family, the leader of the island, has been appointed by Zheng Kezang as hereditary commander-in-chief, but due to checks and balances For the purpose, there is also a judge (military judge) sent by the Duhufu on the island, and a port area and immigrant villages are set up outside the area where Zhang's subordinates live, so that the Zhang family will not dominate.At the same time, the Western Fleet also regularly dispatched warships and transport ships to Wuyu Island, not only to provide supplies, but also to show their strength and escort, forcing the Zhang family not to renounce Germany.

"Send a flag to [Yanziji]," this time [Xiyun No. [-]] transported some livelihood supplies and [-] households of Qiongzhou Li immigrants. Of course, the bulk is still on the home team's side. Hushanha (She nationality) is a rare big hand in recent years. "I agree with them to leave the team, and order to meet at the outer port of Chaoyongbao after the transportation to Centipede Islet is completed."

The two ships turned slowly. At this time, the color of the sea water has developed from dark blue to light green, and the scenery on the land has been faintly presented in front of the group of people.However, unlike the peaceful and quiet countryside that everyone imagined, there was a scene of fireworks in the distance.In the place of Boni, the rainy season is from November of the previous year to March of the next year, which is not suitable for burning wasteland and planting. The scene of burning in this season must be caused by the war.

"The natives are messing about again." Because they were far away, even through a telescope, they couldn't see the situation on the shore clearly, so Liu Xiang just sighed. "Such a precious land was ruined by these natives."

The deputy commander who got out of the cabin to take over heard it, and immediately smiled: "The commander is too compassionate, the natives attack each other and make a mess, so this domain can be opened up."

Liu Xiang nodded: "That's right. If it wasn't for this, how could we gain a foothold in this feudal clan?"

Speaking of this, Liu Xiang shook his head again: "It's a pity that the northern captives have delayed the footsteps of the feudal clan to go south, otherwise, this fertile land should have changed its owner long ago."