New Shun 1730

The reason behind this question is vulgar. It's all money, money, and money.

There is no enthusiasm or sentiment.

Are there any people in the navy who want to join the army and create a hegemony for China in this era of great contention?

There are definitely some.

But if they know the concept of China and how to write the word "hegemony", they will definitely not become sailors.

France has Colbert's reserve crew registration system; Dashun selects twelve or thirteen-year-old children from disaster victims and trains some of them from trading companies; Britain directly recruits young men and street urchins on the street and sends them to the ship as slaves.

Self-employed farmers are an excellent source of army soldiers at this time, but they are definitely not the best source of sailors.

Liu Yu deliberately told Li Xi and reminded him again and again in order to win a policy ally in the court in the future.

If the navy does not take the initiative to attack, it will be a waste of money. Liu Yu guessed that once the Nanyang issue was resolved, there would be a big debate in the court on whether to abolish the navy.

The enemies outside are easy to deal with.

Internal opponents are the most painful.

Li Li understood this truth, but his position was really awkward. He did not participate in the construction of the navy from scratch; now Dashun has established a navy department, which is managed by civilian officials, and the active navy commander cannot concurrently serve as the minister of the navy.

As the governor of the navy, he is just a commander.

Whether to build ships or not, and how much money the navy can get, he feels that he can't do anything. If he can really get a lot of money from the court to the navy, the officers will be happy, the sailors will be happy, and his prestige will certainly be raised.

But in his current awkward position, he vaguely feels that Liu Yu is a bit of a talking head. I think you, the Whale Marquis, built the navy with your own hands, and the treatment of the sailors is also subsidized by the Whale Marquis with some means. The navy knows that the shipbuilding plan was submitted to the emperor by the Privy Council. You don't have to fight bravely, you have prestige in the army and you can keep it under control, but what about me?

It's easy to say, the sailors have three guns on their waists, but where does the money come from? How can they get the money? Let's not talk about this, just talk about the rules set before, if the enemy warship is captured, 20% of the profit must be given to the crew and officers. It's hard to say whether those people in the court will give silver happily.

"What the Whale Lord said is very true, but... I can only say that I will do my best. I don't know what suggestions the Whale Lord has for this?"

Liu Yu replied indifferently with four words.

"Fight with reason."

Li Xi sighed and said, "These four words are difficult because of the 'reason'. What is reasonable? What is unreasonable? What is right? What is wrong? Jinghou is not unaware that in terms of the so-called 'three views' of Jinghou, we and the people in the court are completely at odds. Just going to Southeast Asia, according to you and me, getting a million dollars is definitely right; however, some people think that villains talk about profit and gentlemen talk about justice, and getting a million dollars is wrong in itself, or has no value at all. You think the important chips are just a ball of weightless air in the eyes of others. How can you fight with reason?"

"The reason on both sides is different. My reason is that it is right to go south; his reason is that it is right to go north. How can you fight with reason?"

The most important thing for the subtle influence is the three views. Kang Budai has always said that Liu Yu is neither a Westerner nor a Dashun, because of these three views. Many of the reasons that Liu Yu in later generations thought were natural were completely unreasonable in Dashun at that time.

Li Li was greatly influenced by Liu Yu. Although he did not summarize it in his heart, he had already vaguely sensed this irreconcilable gap.

Liu Yu smiled and said, "Your Highness, Your Highness, you are now the Governor of the Navy. This is your problem, and it depends on your ability. If you want to wear the crown, you must bear the weight."

"Your Highness, as the commander of the navy, you may not know how to fight, but you have the help of the Privy Council and the General Staff; you may not dare to fight, but the sailors will fight bravely. But if you don't get money, or even abolish the navy and reduce the navy's treatment, how can your Highness, the commander of the navy, win the hearts of the army?"

After that, he pointed to the battle still going on in the distance. The balance of victory had already tilted towards Dashun. With accurate timing and tactical assault, if nothing unexpected happens, at least five Dutch warships will be captured.

"The first test your highness will face is to ask the court for a reward after the battle in Nanyang. Twenty percent of the value of a warship. After the entire battle in Nanyang is over, at least 100,000 taels of silver must be prepared."

"Otherwise, your highness will wait and see. The next time you fight, the sailors will tell you who is a fool who bravely jumps on board to fight."

"This is the treatment I promised to the sailors a long time ago. Your highness can choose not to increase it, but it must not be reduced."

"The sailors endured huge casualties, endured a life at sea that was like a prison, and even lined up to find the sheep raised on the ship to relieve their heat. It was really not for loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. They are villains, not gentlemen. Don't use the morality of gentlemen to restrain them. If villains talk about profit, then give them profit."

There are some things that Li Li really doesn't understand. Just as he had imagined the cruelty of naval battles before, but he didn't expect it to reach this level; he had also imagined the madness of sailors being imprisoned, but he really didn't expect that the bottom sailors would line up to fuck goats.

He had come into contact with too many officers and occasionally met with sailors, but he looked down upon them and pitied them as a superior. Compared with Liu Yu, who built the navy from scratch, the biggest difference was his attitude towards sailors.

Liu Yu's attitude was that these sailors worked for money and were all scum if measured by the moral standards of a gentleman.

They cheat and deceive; at least 30% of them have visceral diseases; they are so crazy at sea that they go beyond species to get goats, and even have bold ideas about fish mouths; they don't care about loyalty to the emperor at all; if they are not paid, they will not be the group of soldiers in the late Ming Dynasty who were owed wages but still obedient. They will directly kill officers and hijack ships to be pirates.

However, they are the foundation of the empire's external expansion. Without them, Dashun would not have Southeast Asia and India. They are not good people, but they support the expansion of the empire.

Liu Yu not only did not curb the mentality of these sailors, but has been silently encouraging it. Besides, it can't be curbed at all. Life at sea is like this, and there is no difference from being in prison.

Li Xi silently pondered Liu Yu's advice, and thought of a metaphor Liu Yu had made before: excellent professional managers do not own the industry, but they must consider everything from the perspective of the capital side, saving if they can, and squeezing if they can.

But it doesn't seem appropriate to use it in the army. The army cannot be saved as much as possible. From the perspective of the court, it is of course best not to issue additional rewards. The treatment of sailors is already quite high in the eyes of some people. In addition to the annual military pay, there are also supporting retirement systems, one-third salary systems for registered seafarers, retirement annuities, prisoner subsidies, etc.

As Liu Yu said, as the governor of the navy, he may not fight, but he must support the navy. The real difficulty is not on the battlefield.

Li Xi looked at the corpses lying on the opposite deck, thinking about the essence of why these sailors fought as Liu Yu said. He seemed to really understand something, but he didn't seem to have fully figured it out.

This is actually in conflict with his education.

Whether it is loyalty to the emperor or Liu Yu's so-called "who I am and who I am not", it is different from the situation of these sailors.

…………

On the St. Michael.

The battle on the deck has ended, and the sailors of Dashun have poured into the cabin.

Van Grass, the commander of the Dutch fleet and the general counselor of the East India Company in Batavia, heard the shouts and knew that the desperate hand-to-hand combat had also failed.

The cannons were inferior to those of the enemy, the guns were inferior to those of the enemy, and even the number of sailors participating in the battle was inferior to that of the enemy. In this situation, more than a hundred years of naval tradition and so-called courage did not achieve the effect of turning the tide.

In despair, the distraught Grass came to the door of the gunpowder magazine. He first wanted to ignite the gunpowder and perish with the ship, and also buried in the sea with the Chinese sailors on the ship who had caused him to suffer defeat.

If it was a war with Britain and France, Grass would choose to surrender.

But the opponent was the Chinese, and he was afraid to surrender.

Because he knew very well how the Dutch treated the Chinese in Batavia, and he was afraid that the same fate would befall him.

For example, he was forced to do hard labor for a lifetime and died on a construction site.

For example, he was torn apart by five horses and his body was impaled on a cross.

For example, he had discussed with the Governor General about slaughtering the "surplus population" in Batavia to facilitate industrial transformation.

What you have done, you always worry that the same fate will befall you.

In the subconscious, the Dutch do not regard people in Southeast Asia and China as the same as themselves.

For example, in the so-called massacre on Ambon Island, after they captured the British, they still tried and sentenced them to death, and then hanged them. Later, Cromwell also made them pay hundreds of thousands of Dutch guilders for this incident.

But when they were in Zhoushan Islands, Penghu, Taiwan, and even in Batavia, whether they looked at the Chinese or those people in Southeast Asia, they thought they were just a group of uncivilized monkeys. People killing animals do not need to go through trials, and there is no need to consider compensation in the future.

This subconscious arrogance, once the day of backlash, also made Glass think of a very terrible tragedy: he felt that the Chinese would treat these captured Dutch the same way the Dutch treated the Chinese. Because he thought of killing all the Chinese sugarcane workers in Batavia to deal with the sugarcane crisis.

The Chinese do not believe in Christ, they are "barbaric" and unreasonable, this saying has been passed on by word of mouth among the Dutch community in Southeast Asia.

When they surrendered in Penghu, they were actually executed.

The Dutch were greatly surprised.

Because they naturally ignored the fact that they plundered and massacred in the Zhoushan Islands and sent hundreds of people to Batavia to be sold as slaves, so when the officials of the Ming Dynasty caught the surrendered Dutch and executed them, the Dutch would be surprised: How barbaric, actually executing the surrendered people?

The Dutch did too much of this kind of subconsciously ignoring some evil deeds and thinking that the other party was barbaric. At this time, when failure fell on them, Glass subconsciously felt that his fate would be extremely miserable. People's imagination is subject to their own experience.

In order to avoid this miserable, life-worse-than-death fate, and to vent his resentment against the shameless Chinese who did not declare war, he prepared to ignite the gunpowder depot.