The young emperor who was on the throne once again refreshed his existing perception of the shameless lower limit of his courtiers.

This time, the program is "Outwitting the Birth Gang".

The bastards under the throne not only beat them up, but also avoided the emperor's targeting of a certain chief military officer on an exaggerated charge; He also robbed the private goods that the south paid tribute to the emperor and moved half of them into the household.

In fact, if it weren't for the eunuch Fang Zhenghua on duty who jumped out to argue with reason, the civilian-official group with many people shaking their tongues would have originally planned to "confiscate" the emperor's share...... After all, "the emperor has no selfish wealth", and besides, these are all the proceeds of bribery, which are not in the right way, and they are confiscated in accordance with the law!

As for whether the property can be used for the people, state affairs, national defense, and national politics after entering the bottomless Daming National Reserve Treasury - Hubu Warehouse, it is a mystery. This can refer to the military expenditure of the Ming Dynasty on the Guanning Group every year: after a few million taels of silver were allocated, more than half of them were quietly precipitated in the capital, and they never left the city gate.

The young emperor, who was put aside by the courtiers again, was naturally indignant and incompetent and furious after returning to the palace that day. So he had to summon Comrade Bu Daxing, the secret anti-Cao Jian vanguard he had secretly laid before: The emperor needed to reassess the degree of infiltration and threat to the imperial court by the general army of the south, in order to plan for the future.

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In the treacherous capital, even the ants at the root of the wall have a political sense. There are all kinds of intrigues and exchanges going on forever, and they never stop. And in South China, far from the capital, there are not so many calculations, and the principle of barbarism is pursued here, whoever has the big fist has the final say.

On June 20, 1631, the weather was fine and the wind was south-easterly.

Because there was a big storm the day before yesterday, the South China Sea at this moment is full of clouds and blue waves, and there are thick negative oxygen ions floating in the air, which is the most beautiful time of the year.

A fleet of sails sails sails across the ocean.

The sleek lines of the hull and the faint smoke that rises from time to time make it clear that the fleet belongs.

This fleet consisted of 7 combat ships.

The main force of these is two 500-ton destroyers armed with 10 guns. The remaining five are Yishui's 150-ton "Taijiang-class" high-speed frigates.

At this moment, the fleet is taking advantage of the monsoon wind blowing from the direction of the Pacific Ocean, constantly changing the angle of the sails, and pulling out a zigzag sailing trajectory on the ocean surface.

The position of the fleet at this time is at the entrance of the Qiongzhou Strait. To be exact, it was in the northeast of Hainan Island in later generations, outside the current Qiongzhou Prefecture.

"Lao Shao, how is it, can you still hold it?"

Sha Zhengming, who was tall and strong and wearing a blue training uniform, put down the binoculars in his hand and turned his head to ask the people on the side.

Sha Zhengming is the commander of this fleet.

Next to him was Shao Qiang. The chubby Shao Qiang was enduring the up and down bumps of the warship at the moment, his body was swaying, and his face was ugly.

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In other words, since the crossing smashed open the city of Macau guarded by the Portuguese two months ago, the bigwigs sitting in the new area looked at it, and there was no force outside the glass window that could fight.

As for those mountain bandits, sea bandits, and even weak officials and soldiers, these have actually been classified by the cabinet as part of the "comprehensive social transformation" project, which belongs to civilian work and needs time to be slowly digested and improved internally.

The sight of the group's top management and even the military has been cast to a farther place: Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia, which can bring grain, rubber, petroleum, nickel and chromium raw materials to the disaster-stricken Daming.

Prior to this, a series of actions, including the formation of the Pioneer Army, had actually unmistakably indicated the direction of resource investment in the next step of the crossing forces. Now, with the opening of Macau, the traverser who pulled out the nail household at the door of the house, the army is officially in action.

The southbound detachment led by Sha Zhengming was quietly formed on the 10th day after the opening of Macao. Today, Sha Zhengming led the team to Qiongzhou, which is the first official mission since the establishment of the fleet: to receive the home port.

Open the map at a glance, you can see that if you want to use Guangdong as a base to attack the South Seas, then Qiongzhou Mansion, which is located at the northern tip of Hainan Island and later called Haikou, is a natural forward base.

The reason is simple: geographical advantage.

First of all, Qiongzhou is 500 kilometers away from Guangzhou by sea. In terms of the current shipping maintenance logistics and other capabilities of the group, it is still important to shorten the 500 kilometers.

After all, at present, whether it is a merchant ship or a warship, it is still an old-fashioned sailing ship, and the fleet is slow and self-sustaining.

Then with Qiongzhou as a base, the fleet can greatly shorten the range, increase the attack distance, and reduce the logistical pressure.

In addition, the capital city of Qiongzhou guards the entrance of the Qiongzhou Strait from the South Sea to Fujian and Guangdong, and its geographical location is very important. Starting from Qiongzhou, under the condition that the route is roughly equal, the fleet can attack the entire Beibu Gulf and radiate the Indochina Peninsula, which is an ideal bridgehead in the eyes of the navy.

So there was the scene at the beginning of today: the southbound detachment led by Sha Zhengming, the general of the Guangzhou coastal defense, went to Qiongzhou Mansion to receive the naval base.

As a genuine general, Sha Zhengming naturally has a card.

At the beginning, this gentleman entered Xiong Wencan's mansion with "Cao Haishang" at night, and everyone conspired together to intercept Zheng Zhilong's fleet. After that, as the right-hand man on the surface, Sha Zhengming has always been the specific person in charge of the Cao family's fleet in the eyes of the government, so he was appointed by the imperial court as a general of coastal defense very early.

Accompanying General Sha Shen to lead the team south was Shao Qiang.

According to the current rudimentary system of the crossing people, the southward development team is a configuration of one article and one martial arts. Since Sha Zhengming is a martial artist, then Shao Qiang is a text.

Shao Qiang, a chubby and inconspicuous civil official, was previously the deputy head of the Chikan District Government. This time, among the few people who signed up to go to the wilderness, he was finally selected by the cabinet to be the land leader of the southward pioneer operation because he had specifically managed the government affairs of a district.

However, civilian officials are not so easy to be, especially sitting on a sail warship with only 500 tons. Sha Zhengming sailed from Guangzhou all the way, and from time to time he would order the fleet to conduct various tactical maneuvers on the ocean, which could turn Shao Qiang upside down.

Fortunately, according to the pre-agreed time, the fleet had already arrived in the sea off Qiongzhou Mansion at this moment, so Shao Qiang would soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Sure enough. When the clock on his wrist pointed to 10 o'clock in the morning, Sha Zhengming gave the order, and the fleet located directly north of Qiongzhou Mansion began to slow down, put on a two-line formation, and sailed in the direction of Qiongzhou.

At 12 o'clock in the afternoon, five streamlined warships with beautiful white sails slowly stopped in the inner bay of Shenying Port.

The reason why the original 7 ships were turned into 5 when they entered the port was due to a small incident: just as the fleet was sailing to a sea area not far from the shore, the lookout post reported that a suspected pirate ship had been robbed of merchant ships near the southeast coast.

In view of this situation, the crossing fleet, which has swept the coast of Fujian and Guangdong to the point where it has not left a trail, is naturally very familiar with it. As soon as Sha Zhengming gave the order, the fleet divided two 150-ton frigates to solve the problem, and the routes of the rest of the ships remained unchanged.

Shenying Port is the Haikou Port of later generations. Of course, the scale of Sheno Port in this era is not large, and it is far worse than that of later generations.

However, the small scale does not mean that it is not prosperous. Since the Song Dynasty, Shenying Port has been the most important commercial port on Hainan Island. Most of the betel nuts, coconuts, cattle, spices, timber and other tropical and subtropical specialties produced in Hainan are imported into mainland Guangdong. In the Ming Dynasty, according to Qiu Jun's "Bachelor's Zhuangji": "The gathering of sails, the forest is like bamboo".

At this moment, General Sha Zhengming Sha has changed into the traditional military robe of the Ming Kingdom. Standing on the bridge, looking at the bustling scene of Shenying Port and the dense canopy on the shore, he nodded and said, "It seems that the first thing we need to do is to deal with pirates!" ”

"Of course."

Shao Qiang, who was just a counselor of the general army yamen on the surface, there was no need to change into an official robe to prepare for entertainment, so he was still wearing a white plaid suit.

Shao Qiang's state has eased up, and his complexion has improved a lot: "Public order is the foundation of all social activities. After you take over the base, don't do anything, and first vigorously sweep the surrounding seas. I immediately sent a telegram asking for the management of a 'labor camp' to come. ”

The name "labor camp" is widely used in the crossing of the people. The labor camp mentioned by Shao Qiang at this moment must be a "high-intensity labor reeducation" camp for future pirate prisoners.

"Hehe, no problem. If you hurry up and build a camp, the area is larger, and you are afraid that there will be too many people moving in by then! ”

When Sha Zhengming said this, he straightened his sleeves, turned around and went down to the deck, and boarded the boat that came to pick up the station along the rope ladder.

Soon, the boat rowed to the official pier of Sheno Port. At this moment, the dock was already full of officials and local gentry who had come to greet the fleet.

Today's crossing forces are no longer the situation they used to be when they were unknown. Even if a detachment came to Qiongzhou to open a branch base, the local natives were also prepared early.

After all, after several years of Buwu Quartet and the sale of industrial products, even in a remote place like Qiongzhou, there are already enthusiastic "enlightened people" and officials who like silver waiting here.

Among the people who came to greet him, the highest official position was the Tongzhi Jia of Qiongzhou Mansion. As for the prefect...... Sha Zhengming said that breaking the sky is also a general, and if the official Qiongzhou prefect comes out to greet him, it will break the civil and military rules of officialdom.

However, after Jia Tongzhi greeted the two parties, he quickly whispered to General Sha: The prefect has already prepared a banquet in the backyard of the mansion, just waiting for Lord Sha to come.

Sha Shen will naturally promise with a smile on his face: no matter what he does, he can get the assistance of the local authorities, which is naturally better than not cooperating.

Next, General Sha Shen took out an official document issued by the Yamen of the Governor of Liangguang to receive the water village: As early as more than a month ago, the Yamen of the Governor of Liangguang sent a letter to the Qiongzhou Mansion and ordered the Qiongzhou Mansion to immediately expand the new water village on the basis of the existing Baisha Water Village, so as to accommodate the officials and soldiers sent from the Fucheng to assist in the suppression of bandits.

The whole Qiongzhou Mansion has been preparing for this matter for several days.