The new book "The Rise of Great Powers 1900" seeks collection.

――――――――――――

In the second half of the sixth year of Longwu, Yang Chao's main energy was focused on encouraging production.

But the military has not been forgotten either.

Under the bitter fighting of Li Wuliu's Shandong Corps and Wang Pu's Henan Corps, the north blocked the attack of the main force of the Eight Banners, stabilized the battle line in the Kaifeng area and the Hutuo River, and then dispatched many male troops to the south.

After many male armies moved south, Yang Chao appointed him as the governor of the Hunan Corps, coordinating the Lu Mo troops in Changsha and Wuchang, the Xie Fei division that entered Jiangxi, and the Song Kun department in Guangxi, plus his own troops, a total of 400,000 troops, began to launch an offensive against the Hunan Hongchengchou department.

It took half a year to fight for one city and one pool, and finally drove Hong Chengchou out of Hubei, wiped out 80,000 Hong troops, and captured 100,000 people.

Then the army moved to rest.

In the seventh year of Longwu, Yang Chao will launch an attack that shakes Sun Kewang, and he wants to completely defeat Sun Kewang in a battle, and requires the troops to capture Sun Kewang alive, and he wants to judge Sun Kewang and beat Sun Kewang into a national sinner.

After two months of rest in Guangxi, Li Dingguo could not wait to enter Yunnan, and he was anxious to return to Yunnan, and then go to Burma to welcome back Emperor Longwu.

Although Li Dingguo's army was only 20,000 people, these people were born and died with him, and they turned into an extremely united army. This is really a bit ironic, Sun Kewang's army also fought with him for a long time, but it was scattered, and Li Dingguo's army became more and more condensed, as if it was constantly forged and turned into steel.

The difference between them is mainly due to the people's hearts, Li Dingguo fought and charged forward, sharing weal and woe with the soldiers. The prestige is great. But Sun Kewang couldn't do that. But the most important thing is that Li Dingguo's army has always had a clear goal, in the past it was the Northern Expedition, and now it is to welcome back the emperor, and the goal is the same.

Therefore, after Sun Kewang entered Yunnan, Wu Sangui's 10,000 soldiers couldn't stop it at all, and they kept retreating. In the end, he had to give up Yunnan and retreat to Guizhou to join forces with Sun Kewang.

Sun Kewang had to accept Wu Sangui, the first was that they faced the pressure of Yang Chao, Yang Chao had publicly declared in the newspaper that Sun Kewang must be captured alive, although he sent people to contact Yang Chao three times and put forward various conditions, Yang Chao refused, even if Sun Kewang was willing to take refuge in Yang Chao, Yang Chao did not accept it. This was tantamount to forcing Sun Kewang to the side of the Manchus.

But so what?

When Sun Kewang was on the side of the Ming Dynasty, the Northern Expedition was not effective. He was now on the side of the Manchus, and Yang Chao attacked Hong Chengchou, and he also did not support.

Although the infantry is launching an offensive, but Yang Chao did not increase the infantry strength, in Yang Chao's view, the army is enough, the million army is enough to destroy the Qing, rather than endlessly increasing the number, it is better to increase the combat effectiveness, so strengthen the training, and at the same time let Zheng Yongwang and Sun Changfu from time to time the two armies go north to fight with Wang Pu, Li Wuliu and others in turns to exercise combat effectiveness.

In addition to the army, Yang Chao plans to vigorously support the navy.

Yang Chao's navy is now very objective, in the past few years it has received more than 30 4,000 ships from the Longjiang Shipyard and the Bao Shipyard, and more than 80 ships from the Dutch, and now there are 120 large ships, of which 20 are 8,000 warships and 100 4,000 warships.

Three fleets were formed, one was stationed in the Zhoushan Islands, one remained in Wusongkou, and one in Nanjing.

Jiang Fan was the chief soldier of the naval army, sitting in Wusongkou, Shi Lang, who had experience in naval warfare, was in Zhoushan, and Wu Risheng led the naval army in Nanjing.

These three major fleets, not to mention being placed on the Yangtze River, are slaughtered into the sea, and they are also a force that is difficult to match in East Asia at present, except for the Zheng Group, Yang Chao's naval army is strong, and the number of Dutch ships is only more than forty.

However, Zheng is mostly small ships, although the number is as high as 1,000, but the main gunboats are more than 100, and the number of artillery is not much, unlike Yang Chao's battleships, all of which are Western-style two-story and three-story cannon ships, and they play the concept of strong ships and sharp guns.

Yang Chao's number of warships this year may reach 200, and he will purchase 20 ships of 6,000 materials and 40,000 ships from the Bao Shipyard, and another 20 ships of 8,000 materials and 200 warships from the Dutch, and at the same time purchase 300 merchant ships as transport ships.

It can be seen that Yang Chao's procurement is inclined towards Daming's own shipyard.

In the past few years, under the management of only Yao, the Longjiang Shipyard has become larger and larger, undertaking the main task of building Yang Chao warships, and at the same time reopening the production of the Bao Shipyard, but he is still not as good as the Dutch shipyard.

The Dutch built a large shipyard in Taiwan, capable of producing hundreds of large ships a year, and they had always hoped that Yang Chao would increase their purchases, but Yang Chao did not buy a single merchant ship from them, but Zheng did purchase a large number of ships from them.

The Dutch's shipyard was not only large-scale, but also very efficient, Yang Chao purchased warships from the Longjiang shipyard at a price of 50,000 taels, and Yao's profit was only 10,000 taels of silver, and they could still get 10,000 taels of profit by buying the Dutchman's big ship with 30,000 taels.

The cost advantage of the Dutch is obvious.

In order to find out the secrets of the Dutch, Yang Chao sent spies to Taiwan through Zheng's channels, and also sent craftsmen from the Longjiang Shipyard to visit the Dutch shipyard under the banner of helping the navy order.

But the Dutch stuff, they still can't learn, all kinds of standardized processes, and even standardized operations, are not possible to do in Longjiang Shipyard now.

Of course, the Dutch shipyards are not as good as their local shipyards in the Netherlands.

In order to build a Taiwanese shipyard, the Dutch recruited more than a dozen craftsmen in the Netherlands, but these are managers, not directly responsible for production, they are all engineers, real technicians, the Dutch recruited from India, recruited more than a thousand people.

Don't underestimate India, India was not bad at this time, they had many large shipyards along the coast, and they were all private shipyards, and later generations inferred that India also had the germ of capitalism.

It's a pity that India can't produce a sea pirate like the Zheng group, they have a strong shipbuilding capacity, but they can't resist the invasion of Western pirates.

Hear about the way the Dutch hired Indian craftsmen. It's just to go straight to grab it. Robbed these shipbuilders. In fact, there are also large shipyards along the coast of China, and there are also shipbuilders with exquisite craftsmanship, but it is a pity that the large shipyards along the coast of China basically belong to the Zheng family, and they dare not rob the Dutch eight guts, so they can only rob the Indians farther away.

Dutch management methods, skilled Indian craftsmen. Coupled with a large number of miscellaneous Taiwanese carpenters, this is the secret of the high efficiency of the Dutch shipyard, which is obviously mainly in management, and management is the most difficult to learn. In addition, it is impossible for people to stay here and learn, so I have never learned.

Yang Chao could only let Yao Jiangtou grope for himself, telling him that the protection period could not be extended indefinitely, and next year Yang Chao could only pay the price of 40,000 taels to buy 4,000 sea ships, that is, the price of 10 taels of materials, which was already one-third higher than that given to the Dutch. Yao Craftsman did not have any complaints.

The reason why Yang Chao vigorously expanded the navy was, of course, not without purpose. Although the navy was also attached more importance to the past before, it was mainly due to the needs of river defense, so the scale of expansion was not large, and it was the expansion of dozens or even a dozen ships every year, but this year it will be doubled all at once, but there is another reason.

Inspired by Zheng Chenggong's attack on Shanhaiguan, Shi Lang, who was sitting in Zhoushan, could not sit still, and he strongly advised Yang Chao to take the sea as a road and go north to attack the Manchus.

He suggested stationing a fleet in Shandong, starting from Shandong, crossing the Bohai Sea to attack Tianjin, and Shi Lang was willing to make a military order, saying that he would not only attack Tianjin, but also capture Shanhaiguan.

Shi Lang's fighting spirit is good, but Yang Chao did not fully accept it, attacking from the sea, which is useless in Yang Chao's view, the British attacked Tianjin in later generations and won the Opium War, but there was a special reason, because after the British captured Tianjin, the Manchu Emperor ran away.

However, Yang Chao hit Tianjin by land this time, didn't Dolgon not run away, and at this time and then, Yang Chao knew very well that unless the warship could sail directly to Beijing, it would not be possible to win the Manchu Qing by relying on the navy.

Therefore, Yang Chao did not station a navy in Shandong, but only maintained patrols to maintain the sea trade between Shandong and Jiangnan.

Yang Chao's purpose in building a navy is not to fight Tianjin, nor to fight Shanhaiguan, Yang Chao is ready to fight the northeast, directly to the Manchu Dynasty's lair, Yang Chao attacked the north Zhili They are not moved, Hunan's army does not retreat north, Yang Chao does not believe that he will fight Shenyang, the Manchu court can still be indifferent.

If they retreat north, then Li Wuliu will be given an opportunity, if they don't retreat north, Yang Chao will directly take root in the northeast, build a few strong castles, and station 100,000 troops to see how they return to the northeast in the future.

Directly told Shi Lang that he planned to send Shi Lang to fight Shenyang and dig up the ancestral graves of Nurhachi and Huang Taiji, this kid immediately became excited, desperately training the sailors recruited from Zhoushan, ready to go out at any time.

The Zhoushan archipelago, including Hangzhou Bay, has always had a tradition of navigation, and the port of Mingzhou, which used to be located in Ningbo Prefecture, was the largest seaport in China during the Tang and Song dynasties.

Therefore, Shi Lang, who was stationed in Zhoushan, had enough conditions to recruit sailors.

Under Yang Chao's orders, Shi Lang planned to recruit 100,000 sailors and step up time training, as long as these people learned to drive sea ships, they could send troops to Liaodong.

100,000 sailors seems to be an impossible task, but the Ming Dynasty is a country with a ban on the sea, and it seems that no one can sail a ship.

But the reality is the opposite, it only took Shi Lang a month to recruit enough sailors, and all of them were qualified sailors who lived at sea all year round.

Later generations only knew that there was a sea ban in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but they didn't know that the sea ban in the Ming Dynasty was very different from the sea ban in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the reason why Ningbo can become a big port, and the local customs and customs of Fujian and Zhejiang here have an absolute connection, whether it is Zhejiang or Fujian, it is a mountainous province, and there are many fishing villages along the coast for a living.

Although the Ming Dynasty also strictly forbade sea trade, there was a ban on going to the sea, but the Ming Emperor obviously did not have the courage of Kang Mazi, and dared to kill all the people who lived dozens of miles along the coast, and the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were not as cold-blooded as the civil officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Ming Dynasty officials recorded: "At the beginning of the country, it was enacted that it was forbidden to go to the sea. But every time there is a month of catching yellow croaker, thousands of huge ships, all of which are forbidden, and the speaker is desperate, and it is difficult to do, and he can't bear it. Rather than being absolutely difficult, it is better to use it. ”

This is the reason, there are many fishermen along the coast of Zhejiang, and before the yellow croaker fishing season, the fishermen set up big boats to go out to sea to fish.

Although the officials want to ban it, but "every time the speaker wants to do it, it is difficult to do, and he can't bear it", the officials of the Ming Dynasty obviously can't bear to attack the people of the Ming Dynasty, and they can't bear to see the people without food and clothing.

Later Manchu Qing Dynasty, the ruling class is a nation of horses, officials are shameless people who surrendered, these ruling groups composed of cold-blooded nomads and Han national dregs, obviously will not care too much about the livelihood of coastal fishermen, Kang Mazi was touted by the literati as the first emperor of the ages, but killed all the fishermen within thirty miles of the coast, this is indeed the first emperor of the ages.

Emperor Daming did not have this kind of courage, then the effect of the sea ban could not be complete, at least not to prohibit fishermen from going to the sea to fish, and fishermen are often landless farmers, who are forced to go to the sea to fight the wind and waves, so the most difficult.

It is not surprising that Shi Lang erected the recruiting flag and quickly recruited enough sailors.

Shi Lang was actively training, and when he took these people to sea almost every day to adapt them to the voyage in the open sea, something happened.

Shi Lang personally came to Nanjing to ask for guilt, of course, the guilt was false, and the war was true, and he hoped that Yang Chao would send him to kill all the Dutch.

What happened to the Dutch?

After Yang Chao's inquiry, he was also furious, and the ocean-going ships of the Dutch East India Company attacked the Hangzhou Bay city of Haining, killing several villages and killing hundreds of people.

It's December, and Yang Chao didn't plan to use troops this year, and next year's army will only be against the Manchus, but he didn't expect to do it against the Dutch.

The reason why the Dutch attacked the people of Hangzhou Bay was only to plunder.

Two large ships and three hundred sailors attacked the villages near Haining County, killing many people and robbing many things, and then rushed to Haining County, where they were repelled by the training officers.

Jiangning is the Haiyan County of the later generations, which is a seaside county, which is rich in fishing and salt production.

The result was a Dutch bandit.

Yang Chao summoned Nassau.

Seeing Nassau coming in a hurry, Yang Chao threw a list in his face.

Nassau picked up the list and looked at it, he had already heard about the matter in Haining County, he knew that the matter was very serious, he knew that Yang Chao had always been an official who cherished the people, and when this kind of thing happened, he knew that it would definitely affect the interests of the East India Company. (To be continued......)