Located in the core of Labuan Island, the hall of one of the most important buildings was brightly lit, and the important members of the Song Dynasty Senate who were still walking in the hall attended the hall one after another, listening to the report of the Privy Council on the next strategic plan, and there were dozens of people in the audience.

"Is it really necessary to concentrate such a large number of forces?"

Ma Qianzhuo glanced at the battle plan in his hand, then rolled up the book in his hand and patted it lightly, frowning a little, "Not to mention anything else, the plan proposes that ten formed battalions will be transferred to North Korea alone, which is 5,000 people, and 5,000 people will follow." After all, Jeju Island has two counties (Dajing and Jeongyi) and a population of nearly 100,000. But the most important thing is that the newly built Tiangang-class cruisers need to use twelve, and the Earthshatter-class needs at least the same number, which is nearly half of the naval strength, and those Mirage-class transport ships have not been counted. ”

Liu Dawu explained: "North Korea is different from other countries, it is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and this is also to avoid more trouble. The Jeju Island strategy must be completed as soon as possible, so as to pave the way for the next step in the layout of the Jinju Peninsula, and these military forces also include Liaodong's share. In addition, the surrounding waters must also be controlled, which cannot be separated from our surface forces. But more importantly, now we have no stronghold in the north, whether it is Shanghai, Tianjin, Nagasaki, or Hirado, we can't directly dock and replenish, and the army can only be assembled in Keelung Port at most, and we can only take the middle sea route along the way, so we must have Tiangang-class warships to accompany us, and so many people can sustain themselves. ”

"Forget about Jeju Island, after all, the surrounding situation dictates, but what is the reason for using six Tiangang-class ships to attack the Ryukyus? In Luzon, we used two. ”

"Ryukyu is different from Luzon, the Spaniards are alone here, but the Satsuma Domain relies on the Japanese shogunate, and the background is different. In addition, the biological father of King Shangning and Shangfeng passed away one after another, and now this is like a puppet, and now in Shuri Castle, the Japanese monk Xi'an is the most relied on, and I don't know what this Xi'an is thinking. It was necessary to use some thunderous means to capture Shuri and the surrounding fortresses, and after all, there were still six or seven thousand Shuri pro-troops on the Ryukyu islands. ”

Liu Dawu seemed to be a little emotional after speaking, "Shuri City is easy, but the patrols of the surrounding islands and fortresses are particularly important, otherwise it will be very troublesome to let the Japanese army go to the island to disperse and attack and harass, after all, our military forces are scattered on land, and the defense of the islands should still be based on coastal defense." In addition, the Amami Islands and Ryukyu had been ceded to the Satsuma domain eight years earlier, and the Shimazu clan had been operating there for a long time, and in the short term, in order to prevent anyone from reporting back to Satsuma, these people still had to be completely annihilated. ”

No one refutes this, after all, the information just distributed has also explained that the people of the Ryukyu Islands plus the scholars have nearly 80,000 households, with a population of more than 200,000, and these manpower are valuable resources, and most of them have a high degree of sinicization, and many of them can read and write Chinese. Although the trade here is prosperous, and it is called 'Wanguo Jinliang', after all, it is isolated from overseas, and if it is really controlled by a strong enough navy, these populations are better than those natives in the South Island.

Wen Desi was a little worried, "In this way, our defenses in various parts of the South Seas will be a little weak, and the current strategic mobile force will only be about 30,000 at full capacity, and this mission will almost be transferred to half, and the rest will be a little stretched when dispersed." ”

As soon as Wen Deji said this, the hall finally began to gossip.

"Yes, Borneo alone has to have four or five thousand troops to defend everywhere, and the islands of Luzon must at least be scattered to this number, as well as Taiwan, and the rest is indeed less."

"Don't forget the militia."

"It's okay to fight a law and order war, but I'm afraid that people will secretly covet it, Borneo Island is fine, and it can't set off any storms, but it's not easy to say about Java and Indochina, and it's even more dangerous to be like Hongji and Bezi."

At this time, Zhu Dazhao finally stood up and spoke for the navy, "If you can covet our horizontal and vertical families, you don't have to worry too much, now Lord Ruan is busy dealing with the north, and he doesn't dare to find us unhappy after suffering a few losses in a row." Java Island is a Mataran looking able to fight, the intelligence said that now they are attacking Surabaya, that is a large port in East Java, and there are thousands of mercenaries who are good at fighting, Agung does not gnaw until next year, I don't believe it, compared to the most worrying thing is Japan's copper mountain, where it is not easy to deliver, and it will be more difficult to transport once the production is increased next year, so it seems that Jeju Island is not the same, Ryukyu must be taken. ”

Ma Qianzhuo was noncommittal, but turned his head to look at the people in the intelligence department, "What do you say about Tongjin Yintai Division?" ”

Xie Ming looked up at the crowd and said, "Indeed, as Lao Zhu said, even for the sake of the copper mountain of the four countries, Ryukyu must be won earlier." In terms of intelligence, rest assured that our men have arrived at Shuri Castle and that we have found reliable spies, and that we have accurate information on the movement of troops on the islands every ten days, so that the army will not be blinded. ”

As soon as the Luzon strategy was over, Xie Ming naturally returned to the 'center' and became the real leader of the intelligence department.

Wen Deji laughed and said, "You guys are fast enough. ”

"I'm a little optimistic, but I'd like to concentrate my forces to attack the Ryukyu Islands first, so that the contradictions within the Shimazu clan can be intensified, and even the Satsuma clan can be incorporated into our forces." Xie Ming continued to analyze.

"What do you mean by that?" Wen Deji came to be interested.

"On the one hand, we have the information we have at hand, and of course we also have the information sent back from Japan by Elder Taira, and after comprehensive analysis, we believe that we can use the Ryukyu strategy to plot against the opposition in Shimazu's family by the way."

"The opposition in the Shimazu family?" One of the patriarchs wondered that the Shimazu family had always been known for its unity among the majority of the patriarchs who knew little about history.

Xie Ming didn't care, "Naturally, speaking of which, the Shimazu family is also unlucky, the last two generations of family governors have offended the people of the axis, the first is Shimazu Yoshihisa was defeated in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Kyushu expedition, and had to pass on the family governor to his younger brother Yoshihiro, as a result, Shimazu Yoshihiro threw himself into the Western Army in the Battle of Sekigahara, although he was persecuted, but after the war, he had to live in seclusion, and passed the position of family governor to his son Zhongheng. ”

"Zhongheng? So what is the current family governor? "Apparently there is more than one person who is confused.

"Iehisa is Zhongheng, the family character is given by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the long character is the common character of the Shimazu family. However, even though the name has been changed, there is no instability in the Shimazu family, and in the past, Yoshihisa, Yoshihiro, and Tadahiro were called the three halls, and the affairs in the Satsuma domain have always been collegial, that is, Yoshihisa and Yoshihiro have passed away one after another, and it has not been two years since the current governor really unified the power. In particular, Yoshihisa's lineage has been haunted since Shimazu Tadashi (note: Shimazu Yoshihisa's grandson, who was assassinated by Shimazu Tadashi sent by Shimazu Tadashi to Hinata Nojiri for the position of family governor). ”

"That's really a scripture that is difficult to read."

Xie Ming continued: "Who said no, to talk about the Satsuma Domain's dispatch of troops to the Ryukyus was still forced by the shogunate, if it weren't for the fact that Edo had determined nearly 120,000 koku of the Shimazu Domain's township accounts and national map surveys, the Shimazu family would not have come up with a way to use the military service of the Ryukyu to pay off the annual tribute, after all, the result of a long-distance sea attack is unpredictable. ”

"I see."

"It seems that this is the truth, no wonder the Satsuma Domain was so energetic after the fall of the Satsuma Domain." Another person made associations with history.

"Actually, it's still a matter of interest, but I'm in favor of cultivating more anti-shogunate forces before officially attacking Japan, and anyway, it can be cleaned up in the future, and there are still a lot of benefits in the short term."

"So, you mean you're planning a rebellion?" Ma Qianzhuo interrupted the discussion.

Xie Ming replied: "We'll have to see if it's counterproductive, but I'll only mention two points." The first is that the general of the Ryukyu expedition, Hisataka Kayama, did not give the territory for merit after returning to Kagoshima, and has always been resentful, and the second is that the deputy general of the year, Hirata Masumune, was killed by Iehisa in the second year of the expedition to the Ryukyus. Kayama Hisataka is a Kagoshima family, which is considered a division of Shimazu, and Hirata Masumune is a national division, and it may be that the finances of the Shimazu family are really stretched thin now, but because of the territory and the random murder of heroes, in fact, there are quite a few people in the Satsuma Domain who are separated from it. However, intelligence is intelligence, and we still have to prepare ourselves. ”

Hearing this, Zhou Taige also opened his mouth, "Xie Ming is right, intelligence is intelligence, but the first thing is to do your own thing, and the materials that need to be prepared must be prepared, I don't know what gap there is now?" ”

Liu Dawu replied: "The ammunition is enough, and in terms of military rations, considering the inconvenience of supply, I am afraid that the proportion of canned food will increase, but it is barely enough, and there is not much problem in the maintenance of warships." It's just that I need to prepare more winter clothes, and we need to take into account the need to collect refugees from North Korea and Liaodong in the north, and we can build a factory after occupying Jeju Island, but there is still a big shortage of raw materials. ”

Ma Qianzhuo thought about it for a while and made a decision, "Leave this matter to Hu Barong, it's time to add some burden to him." ”

…………

At this moment, 6,000 miles away in the county town of Shanghai, it is a different scene.

This place is bordered by Chuansha in the east, Nanhui in the south, Qingpu in the west, and Baoshan in the north.

Its city shops are numerous, money shops are widely distributed, the goods of Fujian, Guangzhou, Liao and Shen gather in the market, and the boat of Siamese in the West comes here every year, it is really 'the Tongjin of the rivers and seas, the capital of the southeast'. However, even the all-night drinking and feasting of the wealthy businessmen in the city fell silent at the beginning of the day.

In the entire county, except for the lanterns in the hands of the husband and the big door, there are not many places where there is still light, and Hu Mansion is one of the few places.

The weather has become cooler, Master Hu wrapped the cotton robe on his body, and continued to focus on the documents on the table, fortunately, the kerosene lamps produced in the Great Song Dynasty are now used in his study, which are much better than the previous oil lamps and candles, but he must handle such things himself, even the concubines who serve must be sent to the side room and cannot be approached.

This was the instruction he had just received from the radio today, and he had copied all these orders into a special account book in a code that he could only understand, in case there was any omission, and after combing through it again, he picked up the account book again and began to count it carefully.

But after all the tasks sent today were clearly calculated, Hu Barong was still a little shocked.

The order issued by the Senate was to ask him to collect cotton with all his might.

This is easy to understand, after all, the textile mills in Luzon have been in operation for a long time, and the reputation of Australian cloth has been opened, and this year's volume will only be larger than last year's, but this amount is a bit too large. The latest request of the Senate is to purchase as much raw cotton as possible, and on the basis of what has been previously announced, it is better to find another two million catties.

This amount is actually talking about seed cotton, in terms of processing at this time, the weight of the cotton that has been seeded is only five or six out of twenty, so the actual cotton needs of the chiefs is about 600,000 catties, but perhaps considering that he is not good at processing here, he has always purchased seed cotton directly, saving the trouble of processing and purchasing directly, naturally more people are willing to sell the goods to him Master Hu, which is also one of the reasons why he was able to bite a large piece of meat from other people's mouths last year.

In fact, in terms of cotton production in Jiangnan at this time, this number is not very large, if it is considered that the fortune ship is only a full load of seven or eight ships, it is only a larger fleet, as long as it is properly arranged in batches, it will not be publicized. However, at present, the harvest of cotton fields in Jiangnan has come to an end, and the harvest is almost done.

The closest to the south of the Yangtze River, the cotton yield is high in Shandong and Hebei and Henan, and Shandong and Hebei are the most convenient near the canal.

According to previous estimates, Shandong alone is afraid that this year's raw cotton output will be tens of millions of catties. However, every year, Songjiang produces 20 or 30 million pieces of cloth, and the demand of other families is also not small, if you don't prepare early, I'm afraid it will not be good to receive so much seed cotton. Nowadays, a load of seed cotton is about one or two seven dollars, a pound of left is only one cent of seven or eight, if it is really less than two million pounds, to the market to buy the seeds of pure cotton, it will rise to six to seven cents of silver a pound, although the cost is not high, but zero buy after all trouble.

And even according to the price of purchasing Shandong seed cotton, there is a principal of about 50,000 taels, after all, it is necessary to count the storage and transshipment, if you add the cost of hiring a ship, it is far more than that, and the most critical point is that he has to go down in person in such a short time, so it is inevitable that it will be eye-catching, and a large number of cotton has been harvested for two consecutive years, and the local guild has long been eyeing Wan Tong.

Thinking about it, he moved his gaze to the end of the account book, and suddenly let out a soft 'huh'.

1、《Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680》Anthony Reid

2, "Sea Language" Huang Zhen

3. "Nanyang Yearbook"

4, "Xi'an Diary" Min's Xi'an pro-Fang entered the Taoist Fanyuan

5. Shen Fu of "Canonization of the Ryukyu Kingdom".

6, "The Legend of the Ryukyu Army"

7, "Making the Ryukyu Record" Chen Kan

8. "Chronicles of the Characters of the Domain", Kagoshima Prefecture Historical Materials Publishing Committee

9, "Kakukan Uei Diary" Kakukan Uei

10, "Wan Department Miscellaneous Notes" Shen Bang

11. "Instructions for the Ministry of Industry and Warehouse"

12, "Wanli Accounting Record" Wang Guoguang, Zhang Xueyan

13. "Regulations on Food and Grain for Officers and Soldiers in Beijing"

14. Peng Xinwei, "A History of Chinese Currency".