Spain is now the biggest rival of the Ming Dynasty in the competition for global interests, and it can even be said that it is the only opponent at present.

Although, Spain's influence in North America has been gradually eroded by the various forces injected by the Ming Dynasty.

But in Western Europe, Spain still has a strong military force, and can pose a great threat to the Ming colonies in the Mediterranean!

"We can't give up the colony of Ceuta because of the distance, he is our bridgehead for mining the gold and silver mines of the whole of North Africa, and now, Spain wants to take it, we must not agree!

Even, we can't let Spain harass here all the time, Ceuta, can't be under the military deterrence of Spain all the time, that will cause a long-term interruption of trade in the Ceuta area, and it will be a huge loss for my Ming Dynasty! So, we must send an expeditionary army and beat Spain to the pain! He didn't dare to provoke me Daming! ”

This was stated by the Privy Counsellor of the Guards, Koto, at a meeting to the Guards on countering the Spanish military threat.

The empire has developed to the present, and it has become the consensus of the people of the Ming Dynasty that the colonies cannot be lost and divided, after all, everyone in the world has benefited from the colonial plunder, or in other words, it is the colonial plunder that has supported the Ming Dynasty to the present.

Because the rule of officials is clear, the government public services are perfect, the welfare of the people is high, and the tax reduction and tax reduction, and the maintenance of a strong army are all related to this, otherwise, the Ming Empire will pay huge financial expenditures to realize these unique labels of prosperity.

Therefore, Jiangdong's proposal that the Central Empire of the Ming Dynasty should send troops to expedition to Spain was unanimously agreed by the top level of the Guards, and Zhu Houzhao naturally had no objections, and he also hoped that in his lifetime, he would also have a luxurious voyage around the world, after all, he wanted to be the emperor of the world, and naturally he also wanted to see what he had done.

However, the life span given by God is limited, but the time required for the development of an empire is greater than the life span of a person, so Zhu Houzhao can only imagine how the pioneers of the empire fought in global trade.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao also thought that after he was ancient, he completely handed over the burden on his body to Zhu Zailei, and was a retired old man, traveling around the world, just imagine, if he could take the warship of the Ming Empire into the Strait of Gibraltar and see the style of the Mediterranean, it would be a good feeling.

"The expedition naturally has to be expeditioned, and at this point, if you submit the recital, I can approve it immediately, but how to plan the specific matters of the expedition, can the General Staff have a detailed plan?"

Zhu Houzhao retracted his thoughts, and after speaking, he looked at Jia Yingchun, the chief of the imperial general staff in military uniform.

This former governor of Shaanxi and Gansu (originally the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the protagonist established Gansu Province, so it was changed to the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu), and also the chief of the imperial general staff who had also been the governor of the military affairs of the two Guangzhou, liked the study of geography and simulated the global war of the empire. ”

Jia Yingchun walked to the map jurisdiction as he spoke, and began to tell Zhu Houzhao in detail, according to Jia Yingchun's plan, the Ming Empire wants to go on an expedition, and the most difficult thing is the problem of logistics supply, especially the Ming army is now a firearms army, and it is more dependent on logistics supply.

Therefore, Jia Yingchun believes that the empire needs to establish several logistics supply stations for the expedition first, with Qiongzhou, Quy Nhon, Manraka, Goa, Cape Verde and other Ming colonies as logistics supply stations, and carry out logistics supply in stages, which is equivalent to staging a Zhengde version of "Zheng He's Voyage to the West", so that the Yuanzheng troops have a complete logistics supply line.

Of course, this is a systematic project.

First of all, the Ming Dynasty needed to establish a complete military industrial system in Naturalization and Qiongzhou, and at the same time use the grain of Jiaozhi as a food supply for the expedition to the West, and also rely on the land of Jiaozhi to form a defense system to control and protect the route of Manchuria, and establish a shipping team that can specially transport ordnance from Qiongzhou and Naturalization to Manchuria.

It's the same from Manraka to Goa, from Goa to Cape Verde, and from Cape Verde to Ceuta.

Fortunately, Daming now has the prototype of building this system engineering, Qiongzhou already has the most complete dock in Daming, and Jiaozhi was recovered by Daming, but also because of the forced land reform of Daming, so that Daming has absolute ruling authority here, and Daming has successively established a heavy industry base and military industry base here.

Manraka is the longest-managed colony of the Ming Dynasty, and it has always been controlled by the Ming army, and the Indian governor of the Ming Dynasty, Cai Kelian, is in India and Ceylon according to Zheng He's information on the Western Ocean, and has successively reoccupied and built the ports of Guli, Kezhi, Xiao Gelan, Guanyu, Gaolangwu, and Beloli, as a supply base for the Ming Dynasty to go to the West.

In addition, Feng Yue, the governor of the Ming Dynasty in Manraka, also successively established ports such as Kunlun Island, Xincun, Jiugang, Ya, Nanwuli, and Cuilanyu, recreating the locations that Zheng He discovered overseas after going to the West.

Whether it is the army or caravan of the Ming Dynasty, from the mouth of the Pearl River to Goa City, there is basically no need to worry about any logistical support problems, and even a special rescue fleet has been established in this area to escort and rescue ships in distress on this route around the clock, and the pirates in this area are basically extinct.

The real challenge was from Goa City to Cape Verde and from Cape Verde to Ceuta region, but fortunately, Zheng He went as far as the West to the south of present-day Africa, and Xia Yan once toured the west according to Zheng He's experience.

What's more, the Ming Dynasty through the king overseas and encouraged the Ming people to develop overseas, but also made from India to Africa also have a lot of Ming Han strongholds, but there is no need to worry too much about disorientation and not finding a suitable anchorage and supply place.

Zhu Houzhao finally decided to adopt Jia Yingchun's plan, first let the Ming expeditionary force gather in Naturalization, then take a ship from Naturalization to Manchuria, then go to Goa, pass Cape Verde, arrive in Ceuta, and then pass through the Strait of Gibraltar to attack Spain.

The expeditionary army was initially determined to be the main force of more than 10,000 troops, with Yu Dayou, who was already familiar with water warfare in the war to recover Jiaozhi and who had studied at the Army Command College, as the chief officer, and more than 10,000 non-combatants, who were in charge of logistics and propaganda, communications, translation, and technology, totaling nearly 30,000.

This is the number of people after the Ming Dynasty's excellence, which is about the same as the number of Zheng He when he went to the West for the seventh time in history.

But just when Zhu Houzhao was discussing with the high-ranking members of the Guards about sending an expeditionary force, a report from Ceuta was delivered to Zhu Houzhao.

"Governor Ceuta Du Yu Shi Weng Wanda respectfully played Your Majesty, in the fifty-first year of Zhengde, Spain has repeatedly harassed me, and Γ I have been repeatedly harassed by Spain. br >

After Zhu Houzhao finished reading it, a pair of thick black sword eyebrows stood up, and then said: "Spain is already offending our dynasty and is already killing my people, so it is not too late to send an expedition!" Summons Yu Dayou and asks him to go south immediately after he gets the order! ”

After all, the Ming Dynasty is already a country with rifled rifles and rifled guns as the main combat weapons, and naturally military command needs to be re-summarized and studied, and with the development of the empire's globalized trade, ideological education also needs to be continuously updated and followed-up.

As far as Yu Dayou is concerned, his participation in further study is naturally mainly for ideological education, to understand whose command he should obey, and in addition, to further understand the history of war and sum up all kinds of war experience.

Yu Dayou rushed to Qiongzhou soon after receiving the order, and was ready to receive the expeditionary force prepared for him by the General Staff of the Guards there, here, he met his old friends Lu Bo and Tang Kekuan, both of whom were his deputies, both of whom were newly rising famous generals of the Ming Dynasty, in addition, Yu Dayou also saw the new battleship of the Ming Dynasty after arriving in Qiongzhou - the "Nanjing" steam ironclad battleship!

This ship will also accompany the expeditionary force and serve as the flagship of the expeditionary force.

The dock in Qiongzhou built this "Nanjing" steam ironclad battleship is more than 40 zhang long, more than 30 zhang long between the waterlines, about 6 zhang wide, the length and width ratio is about 7.2, there are two and a half zhang deep, the displacement is 9,200 tons, the sail surface is more than seven acres, the ironclad thickness is up to three or four inches, and there are more than 40 cannons of all kinds in total.

In addition, there will also be three wooden-hulled and iron-sheet steam warships of lower tonnage that will also participate in the formation of the expeditionary force, namely the "Daimyo", "Fengyang", and "Jiaxing".

Others are sail warships and various functional warships.

Yu Dayou, as a general of the Ming Dynasty, is naturally no stranger to this kind of steam ironclad battleship, but when he saw the steel giant "Nanjing", he still couldn't hide his excitement, and couldn't help but reach out and touch the cold and very textured ironclad.

However, Yu Dayou could not immediately order this behemoth to sail across the ocean, he still had to train the army he accepted for a period of time, so as to enhance the relationship between the officers and soldiers and himself, and also to make himself more familiar with the army that he was on the expedition with.

"Your Majesty, the expeditionary force has gone to sea on the fourth day of the first month of last month, and it is estimated that it is now in the naturalization to replenish enough grain and grass to go to Mangara", at this time, the capital has ushered in autumn, and the autumn wind is blowing again, the older you are, the more afraid of the autumn cold, at this time Zhu Houzhao has already been wrapped in a thick big hair hidden, and Jia Yingchun, who is doing things to Zhu Houzhao, is still wearing a single coat, so that Zhu Houzhao saw it, not very embarrassed, and secretly sighed that he actually had an old time.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, then took the magnifying glass from Jia Yingchun's hand, and asked while looking at the entire Western Ocean on the map: "How did Hu Zongxian and Wang directly touch?" This pirate in Japan is willing to be a bigger pirate in the imperial court, and go to the West to plunder the Western countries. ”

After Zhu Houzhao knew that Spain secretly supported pirates to attack and harass the ships of the Ming Dynasty, he also decided to send officials to appease some pirates and specialize in robbing Spanish ships, after all, it is not cost-effective to let the Imperial Navy specialize in robbery and will also delay training, and if they support some pirates to rob, these pirates will not consider any logistics, nor do they have to care about domestic public opinion.

And Hu Zongxian volunteered, and decided to secretly contact these pirates for the imperial court, now that the expeditionary force has gone to sea, Zhu Houzhao feels that it is not enough, after all, the expeditionary force is to carry out a positive military operation, which requires a lot of consideration, and the speed of the attack on Spain is undoubtedly very affected, so Zhu Houzhao began to care about the progress of Hu Zongxian's contact with pirates at this time, if it goes well, Daming can naturally use these pirates to go to the West to muddy the water first.

"Hu Zongxian sent back the news that this Wang Zhi was willing to belong to the imperial court and was willing to do things for the imperial court, but these people were originally pirates, and the minister was worried that once the Conservative Party officials knew, the imperial court wanted to appease and use these pirates, which might cause criticism."

Jia Yingchun said worriedly.

"Criticism is criticism, if you want to become a big thing, how can you be restrained, let Hu Zongxian tell Wang Zhi that the imperial court only recognizes the number of white-skinned eunuchs, and he Wang Zhi will go to the West if he can offer one to the imperial court, he will be rewarded with ten silver dollars! In this way, ten people are paid a hundred silver dollars, and I am waiting for him to empty my treasury! ”

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but stand up as he spoke: "The Ming Dynasty needs labor, but it doesn't need too many non-yellow alien races to reproduce, there are some things that the imperial court is not easy to do, these pirates can do it, after all, they are thieves, since the West dares to slaughter my people with pirates, our pirates can naturally cut off their descendants." ”

Jia Yingchun nodded yes, he began to worry that Wang Zhi would only be afraid that many Western Hu people would be extinct in order to make money from the imperial court, and even the army of the Ming Dynasty would do such a thing in order to make money through Wang Zhi, but he did not dissuade Emperor Zhu Houzhao, after all, he also knew that mercy to the enemy was cruel to himself.

Zhu Houzhao soon ordered the establishment of the slave department to manage the slaves of the world, and set up a state-run slave management company under the slave department, as a way to receive a large number of castrated white slaves in the future, because this is completely unpredictable, once the imperial court really wants to buy the white eunuchs at a high price of ten silver dollars, the pirates in the world will definitely go crazy, because this is obviously more profitable than robbing merchant ships, and directly arresting people is, the cost is simply not too low.

Of course, the great Ming Emperor did not make such an explicit decree, so even many years later, when people examined why the white skin was greatly reduced, they only thought that the capitalist development at that time was still in the primitive period, which led to the prevalence of the slave trade, and this was just the dark side of the slave trade.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty was already revered by people all over the world as a free, rich, and high-quality country, and naturally not many people would blame the great Emperor Zhengde, who single-handedly created the great empire, for not stopping this criminal act at that time.

After all, people will easily tolerate the strong, and even take the initiative to whitewash the strong.

Hundreds of years later, a white professor at a university in Cambridge, Atlantic, mentioned this in his own remarks: "Emperor Zhengde also has his historical limitations, but this does not prevent us from praising him as a great emperor and the founder and builder of a great civilization!" ”