The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Zhang Juzheng also knew about the unfavorable news about the Ministry of Industry's artillery production, and he still wanted to give up the matter. How could Wei Guangde bear it and hurriedly told him the news that Yu Dayou had conveyed to him.

"Uncle, I'm not saying this can't be done, but Yu Dayou saw something similar on the barbarian ship in Haojing.

Although the launch speed is slower than that of the Folang machine, its range and power are much greater. If it were to be a naval battle, there would be no chance of winning except to fill the distance with life. "

"real?"

Zhang Juzheng was overjoyed at first, then frowned at Wei Guangde and asked, "Shandai is planning to rob ships and cannons, or..."

"Smash it with silver. According to Dayou, there are shipyards and artillery factories in Haojing, which can make barbarian ships and cannons. If you learn the art of making cannons and ships, I, Ming Dynasty, can build them yourself."

Wei Guangde smiled.

Haojing, also known as "Haojing'ao", was originally the name of a place located on the seaside of Macau.

The origin of this name is because the area was famous for its oyster production during the Ming Dynasty, hence the name "Haojing".

Hao here means deep and clear water, while mirror means bright as a mirror.

However, Haojing is often used to refer to "Macau", referring to the entire harbor of Macau, including Langbai Island.

Macao has two bays, the north and the south, which are rounded like a mirror and shaped like a shell, hence the name; there are mountains facing each other like gates, so it is also called Macao.

It is located on both sides of the Pearl River Estuary, connecting Jiu'ao and Tsai, with a total area of ​​16 square kilometers. It belonged to Xiangshan County in the Ming Dynasty. It was Hai'ao where ships were anchored, and there were officers guarding Ao.

The arrival of the ship will be verified by the officer guarding Ao, and then he will notify his superiors on his behalf.

In the sixth year of Emperor Wuzong's reign in the Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese colonists began to invade the southeastern sea of ​​China after occupying Manchuria.

During the Jiajing period, the Portuguese first did business in Shangchuan Island and Nanshui Village of Langbai'ao, and later bribed the parties involved with large sums of money to gain access to Australia.

In the 32nd year of Jiajing's reign, the Portuguese colonists asked for land to dry their tribute items on the pretext that the ship hit a crack and the water soaked the tribute items. Wang Bai, the deputy envoy of Minghai Road, accepted bribes and secretly agreed.

At first, the Portuguese only used boats to trade and built huts to live in. However, in less than ten years, the number of Portuguese in Macao increased greatly, and they even built thousands of houses in Macao, and the number of immigrants reached 10,000.

The Ming government never leased Macau to the Portuguese, nor did it officially allow the Portuguese to live in Macau. The Portuguese bribed local officials 500 taels of silver per year to allow them to live in Macau, which later became land rent.

Because the Portuguese deceived people when reporting goods and evaded taxes, which destroyed the points-drawing method that had always been implemented in the Ming Dynasty, the matter was reported to the Guangdong Governor's Yamen in the third year of Longqing.

The memorial was written by Wei Guangde. After checking the previous documents of the imperial court, he originally intended to ask the Ming court to take back the trench mirror, but he did not understand the condition of the trench mirror.

In order to avoid a direct war with the Folangji people at this time, Wei Guangde only drafted the document and ordered the Guangdong tax officials to use the large-scale tax method, and ordered the payment of ship rates based on the size of the ship. As a result, the Haojing ship tax was collected that year. To more than 20,000 taels of silver.

At the same time, Wei Guangde also sent a private message to Yu Dayou, asking him to take the time to visit Haojing to understand the actual situation.

This is not only to do hands-on investigation work, but also to understand the actual local situation at this time for reference when making decisions.

If he had dealt with such a matter when he had just crossed over, Wei Guangde would have directly voted and ordered the Guangdong Dusi to send troops to take back the trench mirror.

However, after coming to the Ming Dynasty for so many years, Wei Guangde also knew that a single move could affect the whole body. It may seem like attacking a small area, but the chain reaction that would follow was unpredictable for both him and Mingting.

At this time, Ming Dynasty had no idea about the overseas situation, especially the actual situation in Nanyang. It mostly relied on coastal state governments to get information from maritime merchants. It can be said that its intelligence work on Nanyang was in a complete mess.

At that time, Wei Guangde had no way to ask Zhu Xixiao whether Jinyiwei had sent spies in Nanyang to spy on local intelligence.

So he put the matter off, and he could only learn the details of Nanyang through Yu Dayou and Yuegang Maritime Merchant.

After that, it was not until Wei Guangde was urgently recalled to the capital, and Liu Shou was contacted about the case of Minister Wang, that he was asked to investigate the Jinyi Guards.

But up to now, the commander of the Jinyi Guard is still Zhu Xixiao, and Liu Shouyou can only inquire about information in the guard.

However, the information sent back made him a little disappointed, because Liu Shouyou did not inquire about the intelligence sent back from Nanyang. It can be seen that Jinyiwei did not arrange spies and establish an espionage system in Nanyang.

After that, Yu Dayou went to Haojing and found that Haojing already had a shipyard and a gun factory. The shipyard could not only repair Yi ships, but also build small and medium-sized sea-going ships, and the gun factory could also manufacture new Yi people's ship cannons.

At this time, the ruling Portuguese had not yet built forts or city walls. They only built a pier on the seaside and a wooden fence around it. Houses, shipyards, gun factories and other buildings were built inside the fence.

Well, in Yu Dayou's opinion, it is really easy to occupy this place. The only thing to worry about is the two warships and some merchant ships that are parked on the dock all year round.

None of the merchant ships these days are easy to deal with. The only ones that can sail on the sea are armed merchant ships, and they carry a large number of artillery and other weapons.

In Yu Dayou's view, it would be difficult to catch all these barbarian ships, because if the situation was bad, the barbarians might destroy the trench mirrors and board the ships to rush out of the bay.

At sea, these barbarian warships had an advantage in terms of speed, making it difficult for the Ming navy to encircle them. Moreover, the firepower of a single Ming ship was far inferior to that of the barbarian ships, and even armed merchant ships were inferior.

However, Wei Guangde's original thoughts dimmed after he saw that Haojing already had a shipyard and a gun factory.

What he wants is not just to take back the small land of Haojing, but to take over all of Haojing, including the shipyard and gun factory, and even the skilled craftsmen.

Before the Ming Dynasty went abroad, it seemed that the mirror was the window through which the Ming Dynasty understood the technological development of the Yi people.

It is easy to lay a trench, but later it will be difficult to find such a place where you can understand the development of Western technology.

Moreover, the current population of Haojing is not large, with only a few hundred Portuguese residents, and the main local labor force is the Ming Dynasty people they hired.

The existence and cover of these people were also very helpful for Ming Dynasty to spy on the technical level of the Yi people, so Wei Guangde temporarily gave up the idea of ​​taking back the trench mirror.

He just asked Yu Dayou to send craftsmen from the Coastal Guard Station to the trenches to learn about their methods of making firearms and ships.

After all, if the official comes forward, the other party will hide their key technologies. Only by secretly spying can they master their complete technology.

Of course, Wei Guangde would not tell Zhang Juzheng about these small tricks, but said that he planned to use money to poach people and learn the skills of the barbarians.

"Then let the Ministry of Industry send people to negotiate and arrange for craftsmen to go there and learn their skills."

Zhang Juzheng is not a pedantic person, he is also good at learning. Of course he knows the sharpness of the firearms that the Yi people are good at.

Apart from anything else, the Fran cannon, which is still being developed by Ming craftsmen, was invented by the Yi people. After equipping the Ming army, its combat effectiveness was greatly improved.

In Zhang Juzheng's view, it was good enough that the Ming Dynasty leased land to the Fo Langji people so that they could maintain their ships. Isn't it right that the Ming Dynasty should ask them to contribute their skills?

Of course, he also knows that skills are not easily taught.

But, didn’t Wei Guangde already say it?

With money to spend, the pragmatic Zhang Juzheng did not believe that these Yi people who had traveled thousands of miles to come to Ming Dynasty would refuse the temptation of money.

They civil servants all believe in the saying that serving as an official for thousands of miles is just for the sake of wealth. Aren't they also doing business with foreigners and doing business just to make money?

"The Folanji people have better firearms. Of course we have to learn them. We might as well learn their shipbuilding techniques as well, but"

Zhang Juzheng hesitated slightly and said: "If you want to send the Nanyang Navy south to Old Port, I think you need to be cautious.

I am afraid that this matter is not something that you and I can discuss and decide. Once the news comes out, I am afraid that there will be a lot of discussion between the DPRK and China. "

Zhang Juzheng knew that civil servants were opposed to spending huge amounts of money on building sea ships for overseas trade. They believed that it was not cost-effective.

Especially when Zheng He went to the West, although he brought back many rare treasures, compared with the losses of the imperial court, there was still a shortfall.

Of course, this trip also brought back many envoys from overseas countries, which indeed led to the glory of that time.

But after these people came to Ming Dynasty and paid tribute, Ming Dynasty suffered even more losses.

Zhang Juzheng is a pragmatic person. Although he was excited when he saw Li Chengliang's plan to expand territory, it was also based on foreseeable circumstances.

Once the Ming Dynasty resumed its official voyage to Southeast Asia, not to mention the accidents at sea, it would be a waste and unforeseen benefits, which made him feel that he could not easily agree to the matter.

When the Fushan Island shipwreck occurred, Zhang Juzheng actually had the idea of ​​suspending sea lanes.

First, because shipping grain by sea was proposed and implemented during the Gao Gong period, he wanted to minimize the remaining influence of Gao Gong on the court.

The second reason is because he knows that Wei Guangde admires shipping. He can also manipulate Wei Guangde about shipping grain and use it as a bargaining chip to exchange some interests with him.

He reluctantly agreed to continue transporting grain by sea. Should you, Wei Guangde, also agree to some of his conditions?

In fact, Zhang Juzheng did not intend to use it just once to transport grain by sea.

As long as shipping continues, shipwrecks may occur at any time.

By then, after every shipwreck, he would be able to use it as a bargaining chip to negotiate terms with Wei Guangde.

Now, Wei Guangde is even bolder and actually wants to restore the Xuanwei Department of Old Port.

This is not a bad thing, as long as the court has enough financial support to restore overseas lands, it can also improve Zhang Ge's prestige.

But the most important thing is that Zhang Juzheng found that in addition to shipping grain, he obtained another bargaining chip.

This kind of exchange of interests, he felt, was much more effective than the previous disputes with Gao Gong or other cabinet ministers. Everyone got what they wanted without getting angry.

The benefits he gave to Wei Guangde were actually not exclusive to him, but were beneficial to the court and to him as the chief minister.

Thinking about the underhanded methods Gao Gong used to squeeze out Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen, although Gao Gong succeeded, it also ruined his reputation.

And now?

He and Wei Guangde just exchanged their respective demands, and everyone was harmonious, which was good.

"Not to mention other things, the cost of building new ships to go to Southeast Asia is an extremely huge figure. The current finances of the imperial court are simply unsustainable."

Zhang Juzheng said.

However, Wei Guangde did not accept Zhang Juzheng's kindness, but smiled and said: "Sir, Chief Assistant, I have actually made some calculations. This matter is quite expensive, and it is definitely not enough to ask the Ministry of Household Affairs to support it.

Fortunately, this matter involves the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Industry, and the coastal provinces. The coastal provinces have a sum of naval money every year for them to build ships and go on patrol to intercept Japanese pirates and clean up pirates.

With the support of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, although the grand occasion of the Sanbao eunuch's voyages to the West could not be reproduced, it could still maintain more than ten large ships, and there would still be no problem in going to and from the old port regularly.

In this way, compared with the achievement of opening up territory and expanding the territory, the imperial court might as well make more concessions when it regains control of an overseas territory. "

When Zhang Juzheng heard Wei Guangde's plan, he knew in his heart that apart from mobilizing the power of the courtiers, it would be difficult for him to refuse.

The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry were both controlled by Wei Guangde's people, just like the Ministry of Revenue was firmly in his hands.

"You and I should think more about this matter. Fortunately, this matter is not urgent."

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard again and said, "By the way, you said you plan to let Qi Jiguang train another army, or a 30,000-strong army like Jizhen. Do you plan to train in Jizhen or Liaodong?

The current finances of the imperial court and the amount of money allocated to the Ministry of War may not be able to increase further. "

"Uncle, I have an idea."

Hearing that Zhang Juzheng wanted to use finance to limit himself again, Wei Guangde said with a smile.

"Appreciate further details."

Zhang Juzheng made a gesture of all ears and waited for Wei Guangde to tell him his plan.

"Today, many of the guard stations in the country are actually in decline. The actual military resources of many of the guard stations have been nearly exhausted. They only have reputations, but there are no sufficient military households for selection."

Wei Guangde said this, which was actually very polite. There is no guard in the world who has not escaped from his household.

Zhang Juzheng didn't understand the situation of the guard station. He was from a military household, so he nodded when he heard this.

"Therefore, I am considering whether to let the Ministry of War re-divide the world's defense stations.

As a result, some households with a small number of households will be directly abolished. "

At this point, seeing Zhang Juzheng frowning again, Wei Guangde continued: "Of course, for important places, not only must the military households be redrawn and the number of households must be replenished, but also the military households must be reorganized."

"What you want is to abolish the guard station and allocate the quota to"

Zhang Juzheng didn't know how to describe it for a while. He was the Jizhen camp soldier trained by Qi Jiguang.

After thinking for a moment, he continued: "Assign it to Qi Jiguang and conduct training according to the Jizhen Army?"

"We say that our Ming Dynasty has millions of powerful soldiers, but the ones that can really fight are only two or three. In this case, it is better to re-divide the jurisdiction of the guard station.

With the vacant troops, he organized and trained several armies like Jizhen near the capital.

In the former Song Dynasty, there were imperial guards, who could be dispatched to fight when there was trouble in the four directions. Our dynasty trained such troops near the capital, which could guard the capital and serve as a deterrent to the generals. "

Wei Guangde initially wanted to train the Jizhen Army only in Jizhen and Liaodong. However, when talking to Tan Lun, Tan Lun mentioned the current problem of the decline of various military stations, so Wei Guangde made plans to abolish and rebuild the military stations.

However, this matter cannot be done too hastily, after all, it involves a huge scope.

In fact, this scope does not lie in the military households, but in the farmland on the accounts of the guards.

Who doesn’t know that these fields on paper have become someone’s private land? (End of chapter)