With the help of Yan Siqi and other Ming Dynasty merchants who had been entrenched in the Kyushu area for a long time, the imperial court's understanding of the Wa Kingdom had improved in an all-round way. During the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Japanese government was relatively stable and the economy began to recover, with a population of nearly 16 million. There is a misunderstanding here, many book lovers think that the history of the Wa Kingdom is that several township chiefs fought in groups, and finally let a peasant unify, in fact, the population of the Wa State was more than 12 million in the early Ming Dynasty, and reached 22 million at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which was a very high number at that time.

During the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Gozo family directly controlled Kii, Mito, and Owari, occupying a quarter of the total grain production, and the economic power of the Wa Kingdom developed rapidly. However, at this time, the early European colonial empires had already touched this land, and in order to consolidate his rule, Tokugawa Ieyasu implemented a strict lockdown order in the territory, opening only Nagaku, Satsuma, and Hirado as treaty ports, and did not allow the construction of ocean-going ships, let alone the departure of Japanese people. As a result, the trade of the Japanese state was greatly impacted, and the internal commercial activities were also devastated. Of course, the closure of the country indirectly led to the fact that the Japanese no longer attacked the southeast coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, and the two countries entered a period of relative peace dormancy.

The current shogun of the shogunate, Tokugawa Hidetada, was a supporter of the shogunate system, and not only further improved the status of the samurai, but also vigorously promoted the spirit of loyalty and courage in bushido, and strengthened the shogunate's dominance. Due to the frequent arrival of European merchants and missionaries, a large number of Catholics appeared in the territory, which seriously affected the ruling power of the shogunate. To this end, Tokugawa Hidetada began a strict ban on Christianity, first outlawing Catholicism, expelling missionaries, and then brutally suppressing believers in the territory.

Through further understanding, Zhu Youxiao also discovered that the Japanese state was only nominally unified, and the local daimyo were still the actual rulers, and they privately maintained trade with Western merchants, and constantly purchased advanced firearms to consolidate their own strength, intending to divide one side and fight against the Edo shogunate.

Li Dan and others saw this opportunity to buy goods from the Japanese kingdom and transport them to the Great and Small Ryukyu and then resell them to Western merchants, and then buy out their firearms and sell them to the daimyo in various places at a high price. Over the years, Li Dan can be described as fame and fortune, not only becoming the owner of money in the eyes of Westerners, but also the guest of honor of the big names.

After summarizing this information, Zhu Youxiao began to sketch the conquest of the Wa Kingdom, and said loudly:

"Zhenquan has made great contributions to the development of the small Ryukyu and won the love of the local people, and I intend to incorporate the large and small Ryukyu into the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and at that time I will appoint you as the governor of the Ryukyus, responsible for the economic and trade activities in this region.

Fei Huang is well versed in naval warfare, and has a large fleet under his command, which can assist Nan and Xiong Aiqing to destroy other pirates and defend against Western invaders.

Li Dan had financed Tokugawa Ieyasu, had interests in various daimyos, and was prominent in the eyes of the Japanese people, and his son Li Kunisuke stepped forward to set up a trading headquarters in Nagasaki, and privately contacted the Western navy and local daimyos, supported the pro-Chinese forces, and instigated their war with Edo. ”

Regarding Zhu Youxiao's arrangement, everyone scratched their ears and cheeks and expressed their puzzlement. Although Yan Siqi advocated the inclusion of the Great and Small Ryukyus in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, he never thought of annexing the Wa Kingdom. Zheng Zhilong is cunning and cunning, and his long career as a pirate makes him withdrawn and suspicious, and he will not easily hand over the fleet in his hands to the imperial court. The old Li Dan's heart was pounding, secretly thinking that he was proud of the spring breeze in the Japanese country, and now he has been pardoned by the emperor, which can be described as a source of left and right. Once the imperial court's plan was discovered by Tokugawa Hidetada, he would inevitably not be able to gain a foothold in the Wa Kingdom, and could only return to Middle-earth to accept the adaptation and become a fish on the chopping block of the little emperor.

In the face of everyone's concerns, Zhu Youxiao pursed his lips and said earnestly:

"The emergence of Western merchants heralded the arrival of a new era, the transformation of land civilization into sea civilization, and whoever controlled the sea would be the overlord of the world. I have heard that the Red-haired Empire is no more than a small country, no larger than a province of China, but they have colonies all over the world, controlling major trade routes. To this end, I want to devote all my strength to participate in this struggle for sea power, and the conquest of the Japanese slaves is only the first step, and then restore the old port of Xuanwei, control the local narrow sea area, and compete with the Western countries for markets and spheres of influence. ”

This is a naked imperial struggle for hegemony, and its boldness is comparable to that of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the ages. Everyone looked at this milky little emperor, and their hearts fluctuated. They originally wanted the imperial court to open the sea ban and allow overseas trade, but they never thought of getting involved in a battle for sea power. After Zhu Youxiao's exhalation, the man's desire to conquer swelled in their bodies, and they only heard Yan Siqi say:

"When the grass people were still in the Wa Kingdom, I heard from the merchants of the Little Buddha Franc Machine that they mined gold and silver from a place called America, and then bought goods from our dynasty, Tianzhu and other places to sell them in the West, and the wealth accumulated in a country the size of the nostrils was not inferior to that of the Celestial Empire.

In the early years, the grass people also imagined that our dynasty would be able to sail into the ocean, first including the large and small Ryukyus and the Nankai Zhudao into the territory, and using this as a base to control the shipping routes of the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Listening to your words today, I know that the imperial court has already set its sights on the ocean, and the grass people are willing to follow the saint to open up territory for the Ming Empire! ”

These words spoke out of everyone's hearts, and they were praised for a while, and they were mostly words of observing words and feelings, and they were not as useful as toilet paper. Zhu Youxiao knew that the truth was within the range of the cannon, and if he wanted to control the maritime trade, he must have a powerful far-sea fleet, and said slowly:

"All the naval battles between our dynasty and the West are recorded in detail in the court, and although they all ended in victory, they also paid a lot of price. Western warships have obvious advantages in speed and agility, and the range and accuracy of their guns have obvious advantages, so we decided to open a maritime academy and arsenal in Ningbo, and spend a lot of money to hire foreigners to learn their shipbuilding and navigation skills with an open mind, in order to gain the upper hand in future naval battles.

In addition, I plan to establish the Eastern Theater of Operations, with its headquarters in Nanjing, covering Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Fujian, Ryukyu and Penghu, and the target of the war is the Japanese state. At the same time, the East China Sea Fleet was formed in Ningbo, and with the cooperation of Fei Huang, it controlled this sea area and sought opportunities to intervene in the civil strife between the Japanese. ”

Seeing that the emperor had laid out the plan and the plan, Nan Juyi knew that he had already made up his mind, not to mention how grand the strategic intentions were, this determination alone was enough to make people admire, and said respectfully:

"Your Majesty, Ningbo is the foreign port of our dynasty, the water depth and low waves are suitable for large warships to berth, there are Zhoushan Islands as a barrier in the east, and the endless ocean in the south, and it has unique geographical conditions for forming a naval division here."

Zhu Youxiao secretly sighed that Nan Juyi's strategic vision was by no means a small Fujian governor who could carry his talent, and said happily:

"I plan to relocate 200,000 households to the Shanghai Special Economic Zone, relying on the Yangtze River to become an outlet for goods from the mainland, and to change the previous isolated and self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, and comprehensively develop foreign trade. At the same time, a shipyard was built in Zhoushan to build new warships to replace old and backward ships.

After this plan was realized, the imperial court would organize a South China Sea Fleet in Guangzhou to control the sea area from Penghu to the old port of Xuanwei, drive away the foreign forces in the South Seas, and prevent them from taking advantage of the opportunity to invade the border. ”

At this time, Zhu Youxiao stood on the high cliff of the coast, with pieces of natural reefs under his feet, rolling up thousands of piles of snow after the waves crashed on the shore, and then countless huge waves continued to surge up, and it seemed that they would never stop.

"That's the beauty of the ocean!" Zhu Youxiao thought secretly, looking up at the vast sea, the waves are undulating endlessly, which makes people feel refreshed and happy, and is full of infinite reverie for the unknown realm.

Everyone followed his gaze into the distance, watching the sea and listening to the waves naturally had some pride, Xiong Wencan, who had not spoken for a long time, was moved by this scene, and stepped forward and said:

"The Holy One wants to hire foreigners, and the minister thinks that he can screen them from different countries. For example, Chen had dealings with Dutch merchants in the South Seas, and they were unique in building forts and casting firearms. In addition, they are also good at using windmills, using the power of the wind to process wood, crush grain and coarse salt, and also press oil and roll wool, which is much more efficient than the handicraft workshops of our dynasty. ”

Xiong Wencan's statement that the Dutch had previously built a fortress in Penghu and then traded silk fabrics and porcelain from Zhangzhou obviously coincided with Zheng Zhilong's idea of breaking through the sea ban, and the two sides secretly colluded with each other. In order to appease these two forces, Zhou Zuo, the governor of Fujian at the time, promised that he would be willing to coordinate the trade of local goods as long as the Dutch withdrew from Penghu and went to Xiaoliuqiu. Although this was a blank check, Zhu Youxiao was still extremely angry, Xiaoliuqiu is also part of China's territory, and its sovereignty is sacred and inviolable.

The emperor was angry, and the consequences were serious. Nan Juyi and Xiong Wencan, who were sent to Fujian, brought the Thunder Fury to an all-out war with the Dutch, and with the cooperation of Shang Zhouzuo, they fought a historical naval battle of Liuluo Bay in advance, severely defeating the power of the Dutch East India Company. After the war, Shang Zhouzuo was promoted to the governor of Liangguang and began the preparatory work for the formation of the South China Sea Fleet, while Nan Juyi and Xiong Wencan remained in Fujian to continue to fight against the remnants of the sea forces.

As Zheng Zhilong was surrendered by the imperial court, the Dutch found his nemesis, Liu Xiang, and the two sides began to openly become enemies, and there were sporadic conflicts. Shang Zhouzuo took the opportunity to become a mediator and gave full play to his talent for deception, not only escalating sporadic conflicts into head-on confrontations, but also tricking the governor of the Dutch East India Company, Putmans, into going to Ningbo to throw this hot potato to the emperor to deal with.

At this time, although the Netherlands behind Putmans had not yet become independent from Spanish rule, its navigation and trade had entered the beginning of the famous "Golden Age" in history. In order to monopolize the foreign trade rights of the Ming Dynasty, the decision-makers in Batavia openly attacked the merchant ships of Spain and Portugal, and decided to force the Ming Dynasty to submit by force.

In this context, after the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, the Netherlands remobilized sixteen warships under the command of Putmans, as well as more than 50 pirate ships under Liu Xiang's command, and their power should not be underestimated. This time, in the name of the face saint, he secretly instigated this huge fleet to go all the way north, wanting to give the Ming emperor a dismount. After listening to Xiong Wencan's suggestion, Putmans looked arrogant, bent down slightly and said arrogantly:

"Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, this governor has repeatedly negotiated with your officials in the hope of gaining the right to trade with your country. If you can meet this small request, the warships on the sea will become a testament to the friendship between the two sides, and we will provide you with the manufacturing technology you have always dreamed of for free. ”

Zhu Youxiao could hear that he was showing off his force, forcing the Ming Dynasty to give up the trade rights through coercion and inducement, and he couldn't help but be angry, and he couldn't wait to be full of old fists immediately. In a blink of an eye, I thought that I would quietly watch you pretend to be forced first, and then tell you what the commander of the light pole was, so I couldn't help but smile and said:

"The battleship you are talking about is the Galen galleon, I heard that the three-mast technology is used, the deck is divided into two or more layers, and it is equipped with a dozen sea guns."

Putmans was taken aback when he heard this, and secretly thought that even the little emperor knew everything about the battleship he was proud of, and the others did not need to say it, and immediately frowned, and did not dare to speak casually.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao laughed, looked at him mockingly, and continued:

"Your artillery has a long range, but there is a fatal flaw, you are a smart man, and that's the end of it. I have a proverb: 'When a friend comes, there is wine, and when an enemy comes, there is a sword and a gun'. ”

When these words were accurately translated to Putmans, he finally squeezed out an ugly smile, leaned down and said:

"Honorable Emperor Ming, I bring the king's sincere greetings, he very much hopes to be able to establish friendly trade relations with your country, and taste a glass of sweet wine."

This sudden change made the surrounding ministers laugh and secretly sigh at the little emperor's erudition and calmness. Zhu Youxiao deliberately wanted to beat these barbarians, and suddenly said sternly:

"You have led a warship into our sea frontier without authorization, this is a naked act of aggression, and you will fight if you want to! However, if the two countries do not fight each other, you will immediately return to the flagship Fort Middle, and I will let all the invaders die at the bottom of the sea! ”

Hearing that the little emperor was going to declare war on him, Putmans was completely panicked, thinking that even the name of his flagship was clear, and it seemed that the Ming Dynasty was very well prepared. He already knew the determination and strength of the Ming Dynasty in the first battle of Liuluowan, and looked at the current situation to estimate that his fleet was already more than auspicious, and in order to protect himself, he immediately kowtowed and excused himself, and said meekly:

"Emperor of the Apocalypse, please do not misunderstand my sincerity, this fleet is full of goods and currency, a gift to my king, to open the door to friendly trade between the two countries."