Smuggling Daming

"Bah~, you're too deceitful!" Jiang Bin grabbed the teapot on the table, slammed it on the ground and cursed angrily. He thought that he had been avoiding conflicts with Zhou Zhong, and that the other party would not take the initiative to provoke him, but Unexpectedly, this time Zhou Zhong took advantage of the opportunity of graduating from the military academy to arrange all the cadets into his four foreign armies. .

"Brother Jiang, the group of people in the military academy have replaced the old brothers, and each of them only recognizes military orders but not people. Although our brothers still control this army in name, judging from the current situation, I'm afraid our brothers won't be able to command the four foreign armies in a short time." The long-faced thin man Li Cong also said anxiously, he is Jiang Bin's old brother in the Xuanfu, and after entering Beijing, he relied on Far beyond the abilities of others, he became Jiang Bin's most important assistant, and also the number two figure in the four foreign armies.

"I know all of this, but what can I do? The students taught by the military academy are supposed to replace the current generals in the army. This time, the first batch of graduates replaced the generals of the four foreign schools. Zhao Wang said that they were the generals of the four foreign schools. Even His Majesty is full of praise for this, I dare not say anything!" Jiang Bin sat down angrily and said, Zhou Zhong's move was just and aboveboard, even if Jiang Bin knew it in advance, he would not have thought about it. What to do about it.

"Brother Jiang, it's not impossible. As long as you can convince your Majesty to go to the Xuanfu, the four armies will definitely accompany you. As long as you arrive at the Xuanfu, then our brothers will rule the world. As for the students who were inserted by King Zhao. You can find any excuse to clean it up." Li Cong's mind turned quickly.Immediately came up with an available solution.

Jiang Bin's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he pondered for a moment and said, "This is a good idea, but although Your Majesty really wants to go to the Xuan Mansion, he is worried about opposition from the court, so he has been very hesitant now, but During this period of time, I will work harder, maybe I can get His Majesty to agree to go to the Xuanfu, as long as I go to the Xuanfu. I leave the court and the inner court, and there is that annoying King Zhao, then our brother's words will be in front of His Majesty. It has more weight."

Although Zhou Zhong didn't see Jiang Bin's panic-stricken appearance with his own eyes, he could guess the other party's behavior. After all, Jiang Bin's greatest reliance was the [-] foreign troops besides Zhengde's favor. The shot cut off one of Jiang Bin's hands, and left the other party with nothing to do. Presumably Jiang Bin should know how to restrain himself in the future.

But before Zhou Zhong was happy about losing Jiang Bin's arm for too long, a very bad news came from Nanyang.After several years of recuperation, the Portuguese continued to increase their troops from Europe to the Indian Ocean.Finally this year, I feel that I have the strength to avenge the defeat of Malacca that year. Now I am gathering troops to attack Malacca again soon, and the person leading the troops is Da Gama who visited Zhengde in Beijing before.

Speaking of the Portuguese, da Gama has been honestly doing business with Daming ever since Da Gama came to Daming to meet Zhengde in person and compensated him with millions of taels of silver. Among them, Daming's silk, porcelain, Tea, as well as Nanyang spices, etc., are the favorite commodities of the Portuguese, and they are the only ones who can transport the goods to Europe. Therefore, with these commodities, Portugal has made a lot of profits in Europe and has become the most popular in Europe. Wealthy, but also the country with the strongest sea power.

As the saying goes, the scars are healed and the pain is forgotten. With the recovery of the Portuguese's strength in the Indian Ocean, they are no longer satisfied with only transshipment of goods from Malacca to Daming, and they are not satisfied with the battle of Malacca for several years. He has always been brooding, and has always wanted to find opportunities for revenge, so after accumulating strength for several years, Da Gama finally couldn't bear it, and decided to attack Malacca again. If they can win this battle, then they will strangle Daming Xiang The throat of the west, but also to peek at Nanyang, after all, the spices of Nanyang are the big brown commodities they ship to Europe, so it can be said that they can get multiple things in one fell swoop.

Wang Shouren, who got the news, immediately reported to the court about the change of the Portuguese. However, as the governor, he has the right to act arbitrarily and can deal with it according to the situation. After all, Songjiang is too far away from Beijing. It would be too late to ask the imperial court for advice, so when Zhou Zhong and the others received the news, the fight might have already started in Malacca.

"My dear friends, the Portuguese are so wicked that they treacherously attack again. I wonder what countermeasures you can take?" Inside the Leopard Room, Zhengde asked lazily.Today, not only Li Dongyang and other cabinet ministers were present, but Zhou Zhong, the king of Zhao, was also summoned. After all, Nanyang had always been Zhou Zhong's jurisdiction. Although Wang Shouren took over now, he still had an absolute say in Nanyang affairs.

"Your Majesty...cough cough...your majesty, the Portuguese are fearful of power and not virtuous. Since they are attacking again this time, then I, Daming, must beat them hard until they dare not attack again!" Li Dongyang, who had just had a serious illness, said tremblingly that his health was very bad during this time, the previous serious illness almost killed him, and now the illness is not completely cured, just because the Portuguese came to commit too much. It was too urgent, so he dragged his sick body to discuss matters.

"Li Gong has worked hard, come here and give Li Gong a seat!" Before anyone else could speak, Zhengde saw Li Dongyang's pale face, and immediately ordered him, although Li Dongyang has been persuading him to pay attention to government affairs since he ascended the throne. Zhengde is very disgusted, but Zhengde also knows that Li Dongyang, as a cabinet minister of the two dynasties, has an irreplaceable role in Daming. He has ignored the government these years, thanks to the support of Li Dongyang and others, so now he sees that the other party is ill. Chao, I was also quite moved.

At this time, Li Dongyang also felt that he couldn't hold on any longer, so he was not polite, and after thanking Zhengde, he sat down.Yang Tinghe and the others also support Li Dongyang's idea of ​​severely attacking the Portuguese. After all, in their view, Portugal is just a small overseas country, and they have repeatedly provoked Ming's majesty. Naturally, they should give the other party some color Look, even Liu Zhong proposed to send troops overseas to directly destroy the Kingdom of Portugal, lest this small country disturb people's leisure in the future.

Zhou Zhong agreed with Li Dongyang's words, but when he heard Liu Zhong's words behind him, he couldn't help but shook his head and smiled wryly, and immediately stood up and said, "Old Liu Ge doesn't know something. The Kingdom of Portugal is thousands of miles away from my Ming Dynasty. It is estimated that it will take two or three years to go back and forth. If you want to attack such a country, you can only find a place to stay at the door of the opponent's house like the Portuguese now, and then send troops little by little. Only when you have strength can you attack the Kingdom of Portugal."

"Huh?" Liu Zhong was taken aback when he heard Zhou Zhong's words. He only knew that the Kingdom of Portugal was overseas and was a little far away from Daming, but he never expected that it would take more than a year to go from Daming to the Kingdom of Portugal. With such a long distance, even with the national strength of Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to start a war directly.Thinking of this, Liu Zhong couldn't help showing a bit of embarrassment on his face.

In fact, Liu Zhong can’t be blamed for his ignorance. The scholars of Ming Dynasty in this era are almost all the same. They only care about the land of Ming Dynasty. As for the small overseas countries, they don’t care much at all. At most, they feel that some overseas goods are relatively rare. Not worth mentioning at all.

Zhengde had personally met Vasco da Gama before, so he knew a lot about the Kingdom of Portugal, and he also knew that Daming did not have enough knowledge of the Kingdom of Portugal, so he did not blame Liu Zhong, but turned to Zhou Zhong and asked : "Second brother, you have fought against the Portuguese before, and you arranged the place in Malacca. Regarding the Portuguese attack again, do you think the opponent has a chance to take down the city of Malacca?"

Zhengde has to be nervous about the safety of Malacca. Now with the progress of sea trade, Zhengde has also joined in through Zhou Zhong. Now nearly half of the income of the inner court is related to sea trade. The inner court even owns an island in Nanyang that grows spices. The income of the palace is in the tens of thousands. If Malacca is occupied by the Portuguese, the income of the palace will be greatly reduced.

Regarding Zhengde's worries, Zhou Zhong smiled and said: "Don't worry, brother, Malacca is no longer the Malacca of a few years ago, and now there are [-] of the most elite warships of the Nanyang Fleet stationed there. Portugal exhausted all its military power in the Indian Ocean, but in the end they couldn’t take advantage of it. What’s more, the old port is not far from Malacca. If the Portuguese attacked Malacca, the fleet stationed in the old port would also go to the rescue, so the Portuguese are humiliating themselves this time. !"

Hearing Zhou Zhong's confident words, Zhengde, Li Dongyang and the others were all relieved, but after taking a few breaths, Li Dongyang suddenly said again: "Although...Although the Portuguese were unable to take down Malacca this time, my Ming body It is extremely hateful to be provoked by this small country several times for being a kingdom of heaven, and I feel that the Portuguese should be shown some color, such as sending troops to the Indian Ocean to completely destroy the Portuguese power there!"

"Haha, Mr. Li is right. The Portuguese are ambitious. Even if they are repulsed this time, they will still come next time. I, Ming, can't just rely on being defended, but look for opportunities to take the initiative. Now the Nanyang Fleet has been reorganized." After all, this king also feels that it is time to send troops to the Indian Ocean, but this requires the approval of the emperor and the cabinet." Zhou Zhong laughed twice, he felt that the Portuguese entering Malacca this time was not a bad thing, at least it gave him An excuse to meddle in Indian Ocean affairs. (To be continued..)