Soon it was the end of the second year of Hongwu, and it was rare to have free time, on this day Sima Shu was playing with the concubine and the child in the imperial garden, but he saw a guard hurriedly entering, leaning down and bowing to the ground, "Your Majesty, the Privy Council asked General Zu Ti to see!" ”

"Let him wait in the Hall of Virtue, and I will pass!" After speaking, Sima Shu turned his head and said to the queen with some shame: "Queen, there must be something urgent when Shizhi comes to find him, you continue to have fun here, and I will go back when I go!" ”

"The concubines don't dare, Your Majesty should put state affairs first!"

When Sima Shu came to the Jiade Palace, he saw Zu Ti staring at a map of the Great Jin Dynasty. He deliberately increased his footsteps, and suddenly woke up Zu Li.

"Ancestor to meet Your Majesty!"

"Aiqing, please hurry up, it's about to be the New Year, is it possible that something big has happened?" Sima Shu looked at Zu Ti who had a look of excitement in his eyes and couldn't help but tease.

"Hehe, Your Majesty, it's a good thing, this time it's a good thing! Your Majesty, please take a look, this is a document just sent from the navy, saying: The navy recently discovered a group of islands in the southern waters of Jeju Island, among which there is a huge island in the southeast of our Dajin, and this island is very likely to be the Ryukyu Island that Your Majesty once mentioned, that is, Yizhou! ”

"Oh? Found the Ryukyus? Sima Shu was overjoyed when he heard this, and took the good news and watched it carefully, he generally looked at it and compared it with the information in his memory, and found that the archipelago discovered by the navy was the Ryukyu Islands nine times out of ten.

"Good! Very good! I want to give these admirals a great credit. Sima Shu was very excited, and the navy finally began to break out of its cocoon and become a butterfly under his special care.

"It is true that Lin Feng should be given a great credit, Your Majesty has just checked the information of the Ryukyus, and found that the strategic location of this island is quite important. If the imperial court can control this island, it will be equivalent to inserting a knife in the back of Koto, and in the future, the imperial court will enter Koto to quell the rebellion, and the Ryukyu base will play an important role. Zu Ti was also very happy, but he didn't expect another good news from the Navy near the end of the year.

"Well, what Aiqing said is good! Recently, the navy has performed well, with bases on Jeju Island, Tsushima Island, Wajima Island, plus the newly discovered Ryukyu Island. This shows that the construction of the navy has achieved initial results. But I hope the military will not be proud. We must continue to pay close attention to the construction of the navy! In this case, I will take out another million pieces from the inner treasury and give it to the navy! Let them build more sea ships, and since they have discovered the Ryukyus, then turn them into our land as soon as possible!"

Sima Shu has waited for so many years. The Navy is finally getting a little bit of a look. He was very happy in his heart! However, the Jin navy still did not leave the China Sea. Therefore, after careful consideration, he decided to allocate a sum of money from the inner treasury to the other party.

After the reform, in recent years, the royal inner library has been under the management of Mr. Liu. There is already a profit of 5.3 million guan. When Sima Shu handed over all the mines, woodlands, rivers and lakes across the country to the imperial court, General Manager Liu was still worried about the income of the inner treasury, but now the annual dividends from the factory alone are no less than millions of yuan.

"Acting Admiral, Your Majesty Longen!" Zu Ti was also very happy to see that the emperor took out such a large amount of money to invest in the navy, and as an envoy of the Privy Council, he certainly hoped that the army and navy would be as strong as possible.

"Aiqing, do you have any plans for the Ryukyu Privy Council?" Sima Shu was happy but also did not forget to get down to business.

"Your Majesty, the minister has just consulted with several colleagues in the Privy Council, and they have agreed that the Imperial Court should take Ryukyu Island as soon as possible, and the sooner the better. It is best to take advantage of the discovery of Koto and the imperial court to hold the Ryukyus in their hands! Although the Jiangdong Navy is inferior to ours, the other side has a geographical advantage. ”

"If they discover our plan, with the wisdom of Wang Dun and Wang Dao, they will definitely see that it is boring. In the unlikely event that they send warships to intercept them, it will inevitably increase the difficulties for our military to manage Ryukyu Island. ”

"Well, the Privy Council's concerns are very reasonable, when are you going to make a move on Ryukyu Island?"

"After the New Year, the Privy Council will send a letter to the Admiralty, ready to let the First Fleet bear the burden of passing through the Ryukyu Islands!"

"First Fleet?"

"There is a reason why the Privy Council has mobilized the First Fleet to act as the main force in this southward journey, and at the moment the Second Fleet has not yet fully formed its combat effectiveness, and their main task next year will be to train and familiarize themselves with the new warships. The First Fleet is different, their fleet with Fuchuan as the main force has long matured. ”

"And the Privy Council has another goal in this move, that is, to test the ability of the lucky ship to sail far!"

"Oh, I see!"

At this time, Sima Shu understood the good intentions of the Privy Council, although the Fuchuan was not conducive to ocean-going warfare, but its strong transportation ability and flexible maneuverability made the navy reluctant to abandon it. If this expedition to the Ryukyus can find out the weaknesses of Fukufune in the ocean and solve them in the future, Fukufune may not become even stronger!

"Aiqing, since the Privy Council has set the strategy for the southern expedition, then you will follow it, but I still need to remind you of a few points!"

"Your Majesty, please speak, the ministers listen to me!"

"Hehe, the biggest difficulty of Aiqing's southern expedition to the Ryukyus is not to defeat the local forces on the island, those natives are nothing to the warriors of the Great Jin, and in the case of real swords and guns, the other party is not vulnerable at all! The only thing that reassures me is whether the naval officers of the imperial court are adapted to the local climate. ”

"It is said that the Ryukyu Island is extremely hot and full of miasma. Our navy is basically northerners, and they will definitely be unaccustomed to the soil and water when they get to the south! If the army is infected with the plague and does not have to be done by the natives of the island, we ourselves may collapse first! What is your Privy Council going to do about this? ”

"Your Majesty, in order to ensure the capture of Ryukyu Island, the Privy Council is ready to send a part of the people to the place in advance to investigate and prepare for the operation of the army! Moreover, the naval fleet has a special doctor, please rest assured that Your Majesty will never dare to be careless! ”

"Good! So let's do what the Privy Council has planned! ”

In the first month of the third year of Hongwu (303 AD), Li Zhaoqin, the governor of the Second Fleet, led the main force of the fleet to begin the conquest of Liuqiu. At this time, there were a total of thirty-five indigenous tribes in Liuqiu, and the chief of Wushan, Ami, was elected as the leader of the alliance, preparing to resist the invasion of the Great Jin.

On the 20th day of the first lunar month, Li Zhao's 3,000 marines and 15,000 natives fought in a valley on Ryukyu Island. Li Zhao was unfamiliar with the geography of this place, so he did not let the army pursue.

In the next few days, Li Zhao ordered people to choose a natural port in the north of the Ryukyus (now Keelung Port) to prepare for expansion into a naval base, and although the indigenous side did not launch a major attack, there were still no less than 2,000 natives harassing Li Zhao's army, and the natives occupied a favorable territory, and it was difficult for the Jin army to break through for a while.

On the 25th day of the first lunar month, another 6,000 soldiers of the Xiang Army landed in Keelung Harbor by warship, and all kinds of supplies arrived with the army. Two days later, the army broke down and beheaded more than 1,000 natives and captured 5,000 of his men.

With this battle, the Jin army was able to gain a firm foothold in the Ryukyus, and some small tribes began to break away from the military alliance on the island and defect to the side of the Great Jin. As a former enemy general, Li Zhao also thought that it was time to release the favor of the imperial court, so taking advantage of the fact that some tribes came to vote, he quickly set up the other party as a model and increased propaganda efforts, striving for the army to surrender without a fight!

On the 28th, the army broke through Osan and killed the leader Ami and captured nearly 2,000 women and children. So far, the local forces of Ryukyu Island have been dealt a heavy blow! The Jin Dynasty's plan to pass through the Ryukyus was initially successful, and the remaining natives either fled to the primeval forests to escape the Jin army, or had to take refuge in the Great Jin side.

After dealing with the main force of the natives, Li Zhao focused on the construction of the port, while the suppression of bandits was handed over to the Xiang army. Soon under the blows of the Xiang army, another large tribe of the Ryukyus also surrendered, and with the surrender of the two largest tribes in the region, it was not long before seven more tribes surrendered.

On the first day of the second month, the Jin army conquered Nalan, and the four tribes including Nalan surrendered.

On the 11th of February, the Vani tribe was broken by the army and the chieftain was killed......

By the end of February, the local indigenous tribes of the Ryukyus had either surrendered without a fight or were defeated and killed, and so far, the flow of the people had been pacified!

At this time, there were more than 100,000 natives who returned to the imperial court, and with these laborers, the construction of the port was greatly accelerated. But there are still less than a thousand remnants of the defeated army who will hide in the depths of the dense forest to confront the Great Jin. However, this no longer affected the overall situation, and Ryukyu officially became part of the territory of the Great Jin Dynasty.

In this newly conquered land, Sima Shu ordered the establishment of Ryukyu County, transferred a part of the officials to serve here, and set up the Ryukyu Governor's Office in Keelung Port, with Li Zhao temporarily serving as the Ryukyu Governor, responsible for commanding all local military forces in the Ryukyus. After conquering the Ryukyus, the cabinet of Sima began to move the people to the area.

It is expected that in three years, with the addition of naturalized natives and immigrants, the population of the Ryukyus will reach about 200,000, and with a sufficient population, the imperial court will be able to effectively develop the Ryukyu Island.

In order to educate the indigenous people on the island, the county guard government began to establish a school as soon as it took office, and recruited hundreds of local indigenous teenagers to study Han culture. The county guards even promised the locals that if they wanted to, they could also go to the mainland to study and participate in the scientific expeditions held by the imperial court!

At the same time, the advanced production technology of the Great Jin Dynasty also began to be introduced to the Ryukyus, which greatly promoted the local economic development!

After conquering the Ryukyu Islands, the Great Jin Navy controlled the sea area between the mainland and the Japanese Islands, and seizing these "small islands" could enable the Great Jin Navy, which had a technological advantage, to use the Ryukyu Islands as a springboard to form a strategic encirclement of Jiangdong from the south, laying the groundwork for crossing the river after the Great Jin Dynasty to pacify the separatist forces in Jiangdong.

While the Great Jin Navy was busy conquering the Ryukyu Islands in the south, the situation on the Korean Peninsula in the north deteriorated further, so Sima Shu had to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss it! (To be continued......)