Li Hanwen and William. Kicker's debate at the ASEAN Joint Conference was quickly spread by some people. For those old-fashioned bureaucrats who are full of resentment because they have been suppressed everywhere, Li Hanwen's remarks have undoubtedly become a target for them to attack the Xinxue Party, believing that this is the best evidence that Xinxue has broken people's hearts.

However, the members of the Daming Chamber of Commerce, who have always waited and watched the direction of the wind before speaking, jumped out this time before the new scholars, accusing those old-fashioned bureaucrats of being corrupt characters who read books and do not know how to be polite.

The newspapers and periodicals controlled by the Chamber of Commerce began to write a series of criticisms of slavery and the evils of slavery. They cited a series of facts to prove how slave owners and family owners at home and abroad treated slaves and slaves cruelly in the past and now.

They regarded slaves and slaves as non-talking horses and cattle, and in order to obtain more profits, slave owners would not hesitate to break up the families of slaves or slaves and sell them to families with different needs.

Foreign slave owners chained their slaves to mills, workshops, and the bottom of their ships, and drove them to work until they died, giving them nothing more than a little food and water. The gentry and landlords in the south of the Yangtze River in their country urged their slaves and maids to weave day and night, although they did not tie these slaves and maids with iron chains, but all the value created by these slaves and maids became the private property of the gentry and landlords.

In such cruel oppression, there is nothing to say about the slaves and slaves. Filial piety has clouds: the nature of heaven and earth is precious. But some mediocre people turn a blind eye to human suffering, and instead accuse those who try to treat people as human beings as evil people who corrupt people's hearts. Under the bright future, who is the one who corrupts people's hearts and minds as cattle and horses, can't the people of the world see it?

In addition to the fierce criticism of the old-fashioned gentry by the members of these chambers, a large number of northern gentry landlords who had invested in the cotton textile industry soon became allies of these merchants. On the issue of confronting Indian cotton, their interests are completely aligned.

In the eight years of Chongzhen, the cotton textile industry has become the most important pillar industry in the northern provinces, and after the introduction of improved cotton and the improvement of the efficiency of textile machinery, this industry in the north is still expanding.

Under such circumstances, these gentry, landlords, and merchants who were involved in the cotton textile industry were all hostile to anyone and anything that might harm the development of the cotton textile industry in the north.

Li Hanwen's remarks on defending the foreign trade of Daming cotton cloth at the joint meeting of the ASEAN Association naturally won the approval of these cotton textile factory owners. Those conservative remarks that tried to attack Li Hanwen naturally aroused the opposition of these factory owners in the first place.

In fact, for the factory owners of the cotton textile industry in the north, they not only want to bring down the cotton cloth produced in India, but also want to kill the cotton cloth produced in Jiangnan. Once the cotton cloth market in Jiangnan is vacated, it will be enough to compare with the sum of the current overseas cotton trade.

Thus, the free trade debate that erupted at the ASEAN Joint Conference quickly turned into a debate over the abolition of slavery after a month or two of debate.

The factory owners in the north believed that the slave system was too cruel and backward, and that it was a regression of civilization caused by the invasion of China by the Mongol and Yuan dynasties, and that this system violated the spirit of benevolence as described by the master. The servant system of the Song Dynasty should be restored, the personal dependence of slaves and maids on the master's family should be abolished, the effectiveness of servants in the master's family should be signed for a limited period of time, and the master's family should not use lynching against the servants, etc.

Compared with Chongzhen's action to promote the release of slaves and maids when he first ascended the throne, this criticism of the slave system and the action of demanding reform are obviously much more powerful. In order to express their resolute opposition to the slave system, some of the gentry and landlords in Hebei Province released their slaves and maids as free men, and changed some slaves and maids who could not leave into servants.

The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, who had just suffered the blow of the Taihu bandit case, could not withstand such a fierce public opinion attack from the northern gentry and factory owners. In addition to the criticism of prevaricating public opinion with the Ming ancestral system, most people simply craned their necks and did not respond to the calls for the abolition of the slave system.

This debate over the abolition of the slave and maid system made the voices of the northern gentry, factory owners and merchants overwhelm the public opinion of Jiangnan Shilin for the first time, so that the focus of public opinion in the Ming Dynasty shifted from the south to the north, and the public opinion in the capital finally became the most important voice of the Ming Dynasty.

However, for Zhu Youzhen, when he heard Li Hanwen's remarks for the first time, he was still a little frightened for a while, and he almost thought that this was also a traverser. However, after many temptations, I found out that this person was a fanatical supporter of Su Changqing and a staunch supporter of mercantilism, so he said those words at the meeting of the ASEAN.

The actions of the Dutch in the ASEAN Association had actually attracted the attention of the Naval Staff Headquarters, and after synthesizing the information from all sides, the Naval Staff Headquarters submitted an assessment report to Chongzhen, believing that the Dutch might be testing the bottom line of the Ming Dynasty to ensure the exclusive interests of trade in the waters south of the equatorial line in Southeast Asia.

Zhu Youzhen put down the report in his hand, leaned back, looked up at Zhang Xie and asked calmly, "Then what suggestions does the Navy Staff Headquarters have for this?" ”

Zhang Xie glanced at the students beside him, and then replied to the emperor: "Regarding this matter, it is better to let Li Chang report it, and the main content of the coping strategy of the staff headquarters was also proposed by him first." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and motioned for the young naval staff officer to report next. Li Chang took a deep breath and began to report to the emperor calmly: "... These are the things we have gathered about the ships and armies of the Dutch, Sado Island, Oto Port, and Batavia, which are the entire power of the Dutch East India Company in East Asia.

Now the power configuration of these three places is like a pair of barbells, heavy at the two ends and light in the middle. The north of Batavia is the equatorial line, and within 5 degrees on both sides of the equatorial line is the equatorial windless zone.

Therefore, the only places we can choose to attack are Sado Island and Oto Port. Although the port was operated by the Dutch for nearly a decade, it was clear to the Dutch that Sado Island, where gold and silver was produced, was more important than that, so a considerable number of personnel were transferred from the port to Sado Island.

Therefore, we believe that we should first capture the port of Dayuan, first, to obtain all the land of Taiwan, and second, to cut off the supply port between Sado Island and Batavia.

The next step was to unite the Korean and Japanese navies to besiege Sado Island, attract Batavia to the north to come to the rescue, and ambush it in the Korean Strait, where its fleet must pass. As long as the sea power of Batavia is severely damaged, then Sado Island and Batavia will become two isolated cities, and our army can fight as much as it wants. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his hands several times before breaking the silence and asking: "How many Jianghu-class ships are under construction, and how many can be launched before the end of the year?" ”

Zhang Xie immediately took over and said: "There are three ships under construction, two ships in Tianjin Shipyard, and one ship in Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. The two ships of the Tianjin Shipyard can be launched by the end of the year, and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is estimated to be unable to catch up with this naval battle.

However, our naval officers have not yet accumulated enough experience in maneuvering ships of this class, and I am worried about whether they will be able to get the most out of these two warships.

Judging by the current fleet comparison, Batavia has about 54-60 ships in Southeast Asia all year round. Although it has not been discovered so far that the Dutch have sent more than 1,000 tons of large ships to this area, Batavia can make up 30-40 armed merchant ships of 500-700 tons alone.

Comparatively speaking, we can make up less than 17 warships of this class, and if these two main warships cannot be fully effective, the outcome of the ambush in the Korean Strait may not be optimistic. ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while before saying: "Of course, this war is not just us fighting with the Dutch, we can't fight to the death with the Dutch and let others pick up ready-made cheap."

No matter how weak the Portuguese are, they will be able to put together 3-4 armed merchant ships, and the rest will depend on the British and Spaniards.

The British East India Company had about 10 or so armed merchant ships in East Asia, plus a fleet under Captain John Weddell, and as long as they joined our side, there would be little uncertainty about this naval battle.

The Spaniards could seduce with the gold and silver of Sado, and the British East India Company could tempt with the interests of the Spice Islands, but this Captain John Weddell..."

Zhu Youzhen glanced at Zhang Xie again and asked, "This time we invited these British people to visit the Tianjin shipyard, what kind of opinions did they have about the shipyard and our warships?" ”

Zhang Xie showed a wry smile and said: "These British people have said some good things about the facilities of the shipyard, but they have criticized the Jianghu-class warships we are building in a mess, and even the staff officers in the staff headquarters have argued with each other because of this. ”

Zhu Youzhen asked with some curiosity: "What did they criticize that made you all quarrel internally?" ”

Zhang Xie thought about it for a while before repeating the British's remarks. After listening to this, Zhu Youjian was relieved, and it turned out that the criticism of the British was mainly due to the abandonment of hand-to-hand combat against the Ming Navy and the intention to adopt the tactics of long-range artillery attack.

Although the British defeated the Armada with the tactics of small boats and artillery, the British Navy at this time still regarded the tactics of hand-to-hand combat as the highest priority tactics at sea. Because the performance of ships and artillery in this era was still too backward, it was difficult to hit enemy ships with artillery on the stormy sea.

Therefore, hand-to-hand combat at the close reach of enemy ships is the most effective tactic to destroy the enemy's ship, which not only shows the courage of the navy, but also allows them to reap the rewards of capturing the enemy ship. Therefore, they greatly despised the tactics of cowardly naval artillery warfare to defeat the enemy, and this remark also resonated with some officers within the Ming Navy.

Li Chang watched the emperor fall into thought, and couldn't help but pluck up the courage to say: "Actually, not all the British support hand-to-hand combat. Captain Blake decided that it would be more effective for the warships to adopt the army's strict battle formation, and then carry out continuous artillery bombardment of the enemy fleet in order..."