On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Su Buheng, who had returned to Shandong, set sail again, and the forces of the First Fleet had begun to be integrated at the end of the year, with a total of 38 warships and 56 frigates.

The Coastal Fleet was split into three parts: the North Sea Fleet, the South China Sea Fleet, and the Pacific Fleet, and the Yangtze River Naval Division was also established.

In fact, the North Sea Fleet is responsible for maritime patrol and escort missions from the Bering Strait in the north to the waters off Zhejiang in the south.

The South China Sea Fleet is responsible for patrolling and escorting the waters off Fujian and south to Australia.

The Pacific Fleet is responsible for the waters of the Pacific Ocean east of Yuben, and its main task is to escort ships.

The Yangtze River Naval Division's mission is to maintain the safety of the Yangtze River waterway, clear the Yangtze River waterway of the water bandits, the Yangtze River basin is currently the most frequent commercial area, Shandong goods can be transported through the Yangtze River to the provinces in the basin, and at the same time the raw materials from each province are transported back to Shandong.

The Yangtze River basin is the most densely populated area in the Ming Dynasty, the market here is very huge, and it is also the channel for the transportation of commercial grain, the grain transportation of the provinces in the Yangtze River basin basically depends on the Yangtze River waterway, and the safety of the Yangtze River waterway does not need to be guaranteed.

Most of the ships used in these fleets were selected from the warships of the Fujian Naval Division, and there were also frigates that were quickly equipped.

After nearly half of the warships and frigates of the First Fleet returned to Shandong for integration, they set sail again under the command of Su Buheng at the beginning of the year and headed straight for the South Sea.

This year, the task of the First Fleet is also heavy, but it is also easy to say.

Their task was to drive the Europeans out of East Asia once and for all, and this task was not easy, because in addition to Macao and Luzon, the Spanish and Portuguese had many strongholds on the Indochina Peninsula and the islands of the South Seas, and it would take some time to pull out these strongholds one by one.

If possible, it would be even more difficult to completely drive the Europeans out of Asia and let the Ming monopolize trade with India.

But to put it mildly, this task is relatively secure, and it is just a bit of trouble.

After more than half a month of sailing, the First Fleet came to Macao.

The Portuguese traded with the Ming in Macau, but the administrative power of Macau was still in the hands of the Ming, and the Portuguese lived in the inner city of Macau.

As soon as the Portuguese moved, the Macau officials would seal the gates of the inner city, leaving the Portuguese with nowhere to escape.

The First Fleet arrived in Macao and immediately expelled the Portuguese from Macao.

Under the pressure of the First Fleet, the Portuguese packed up their belongings within three days, and then sailed by boat.

The Portuguese expelled Macao made the maritime merchants very depressed, and the buyers were driven away, and there was no way for maritime trade.

The Portuguese were the forces that bought a large number of goods in the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch had long been expelled by the Shandong navy, and now only the Portuguese and Spaniards remained in the whole of Asia.

Now the Portuguese have also been driven away, and there is only one Spaniard left.

However, not long after the Portuguese were driven away, Shandong Zhengaxe promulgated a new "Regulations on the Administration of Maritime Trade", which stipulated that the trading area of the Ming merchant ships should not exceed the boundaries demarcated in the regulations, and they were not allowed to trade with Europeans privately, and at the same time, European merchant ships were not allowed to enter the Asian region.

The promulgation of this administrative regulation was Zhao Yan's attempt to monopolize international trade.

Europeans can't buy goods in Daming, Daming's goods are naturally rising in Europe, and the goods shipped to the Americas for sale are worth a lot.

The trade between Europe and Asia is very profitable, why should the Europeans make this money, and in a few years there will be more merchant ships, so the goods will be transported directly to Europe, so that the European ocean-going merchant ships will be laid off.

Having expelled the Spaniards from Macao, the First Fleet joined the Nanyang Infantry Brigade and headed for Luzon.

Manila, the administrative center of the Philippine province of the Spaniards, where the Spaniards built what they called an impregnable defense.

The First Fleet did not rush hard, but docked at a natural harbor eighty miles from Manila and dropped the Nanyang Infantry Brigade to land.

When the Spanish Navy saw the First Fleet, it found that the First Fleet had 10 warships and 20 frigates, and was so frightened that they hid in the harbor and did not dare to come out.

The First Fleet's acquisition of sea supremacy is equivalent to the right of landing.

After landing, the Nanyang Infantry Brigade repaired for two days, and then marched towards Manila.

The seizure of ports by land was the usual method of the First Fleet, which for the Western colonists did not have many troops, and the focus of defense was on the ports.

In the defense of land, they only built castles, but for marines with strong artillery, these castles were nothing more than that.

The Nanyang Infantry Brigade arrived outside Manila two days later, and in the face of the sudden pressure of the Ming army, the Spaniards panicked and hurriedly sent messengers.

The messenger came by ship to the outside of the harbor, and by this time the port of Manila had been blockaded by the First Fleet.

The messenger came to the flagship of the First Fleet, and after seeing Su Buheng, he pretended to be, and scolded Su Buheng loudly why he suddenly attacked his allies.

Su Buheng shook out the covenant signed by the two sides, pointed to one of them and said, "It's you who didn't keep the covenant." ”

The Spaniard took it and saw that Su Buheng was referring to the condition in the covenant that 'the Ming was allowed to garrison troops in Luzon', which the Philippine governor rejected at the beginning.

Afterwards, there was no reaction from Shandong, and the Philippine governor was still complacent about it, but now the envoy almost choked to death when he saw it.

"And you killed more than 20,000 of our compatriots, for which you must pay the price, if you do not surrender within three days, you will wait to be tortured after the city is broken!" Su Buheng said in a cold tone, and the Spanish envoy was in a cold sweat when he heard this, and saw that there was no room for negotiation, so he hurriedly ran back to report to the Philippine governor.

I heard that the Philippine Governor General was so frightened that he peed his pants directly that day, and soon the Philippine Governor sent an envoy to negotiate conditions with the First Fleet.

"Surrender is acceptable, but you must let us go." The Spanish envoy said to Su Buheng.

"Yes." Su Buheng agreed very happily, and even agreed without any hesitation, and the Spanish envoy went back happily.

The Spanish governor finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, and immediately discussed the details of the surrender with the Nanyang Infantry Brigade under the city.

To the surprise of the Spaniards, the Nanyang Infantry Brigade was allowed to keep their weapons in addition to asking them to keep their belongings.

Where do the Spaniards in the city of Manila dare to talk about any conditions, at this time, the army is pressing, just like grinding eggs with a millstone, it is good to be able to save the surname.

So the Spaniards left their belongings and went out of Manila with their weapons, along with their families, and they were greeted by a platoon of guns!

The Nanyang Infantry Brigade suddenly opened fire on the Spaniards, who were in patches on the ground.

When the smoke cleared, there was no Spaniard standing on the ground, and those Spaniards were either shot and fell to the ground, or lay on the ground to avoid bullets.

The Nanyang Infantry Brigade quickly outflanked the Spaniards, who, seeing that the tide was turning, threw down their weapons and surrendered.

According to the count, more than 1,300 Spaniards were shot dead and more than 4,000 Spaniards were captured.

An ensign of the First Fleet wrote in his diary: "To my surprise, in negotiating with the Spaniards, the commander readily agreed to the Spaniards' terms. But what surprised me even more was that when the Spaniards walked out of Manila, the commander ordered the Marines to shoot the Spaniards.

It is a breach of trust, and when we were confused, the commander said to us: we do not give credit to the evil enemy, who slaughtered our fellow man, and will never be able to get our credit. But we have to try to convince the evil enemy that we are trustworthy.

This sentence once again gave me a direction, but I also learned from this sentence that these Spaniards will never be given the opportunity to reveal the truth, and we have never broken our word in state-to-state diplomacy......"

The First Fleet captured 10 warships in the port of Manila, as well as more than 30 merchant ships anchored in the harbor.

The capture of Manila did not mean the end of the war in Luzon, and the Spaniards had many strongholds in Luzon, which had to be swept away one by one.

The First Fleet began to disperse, working with the South Sea Infantry Brigade to uproot the Spanish strongholds in the Luzon Islands. According to the model in Java, the garrison remaining in Manila took control of the Luzon king, and at the same time contacted the Luzon Chinese to form the Luzon Chinese army, and Su Buheng once again played a cameo role as a local governor.

At the same time, Wen Bangliang arrived in the Strait of Malacca with 20 warships, 20 frigates, and 2,000 soldiers of the Nanyang Infantry Brigade.

The city of Malacca used to be a very prosperous place. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, hundreds of merchant ships would come to Malacca every year, Chinese, Arabs, Europeans, and they packed the ports of Malacca.

Malacca was under the control of the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, but later the Ming Dynasty imposed a maritime ban and severely cracked down on merchants doing business overseas, resulting in Malacca gradually breaking away from the Ming Dynasty.

At the end of the 16th century, the Strait of Malacca, which was once prosperous, soon attracted the covetousness of the emerging sea powers in the West, and Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and England came to Malacca one after another.

In July 1511, the Portuguese began to attack the city of Malacca, and in August, the Sultan of Malacca saw that the situation was far away, and he left the city of Malacca on the rich side. Sultan Ma led the remnants to retreat to Pragor to engage in the movement for the restoration of the country, and his descendants favored Johor and established the Kingdom of Johor, continuing the monarchy of Malacca.

The Portuguese Albuquerque, who commanded the attack, gave the order to plunder. The looting lasted all day, and the treasures numbered in the tens of thousands, almost two-thirds of the wealth of the Kingdom of Malacca. The Portuguese, who had captured Malacca, carried out the massacre as usual.

On 8 February, a naval battle broke out between the First Fleet and the Portuguese Navy in the Strait of Malacca, in which two Portuguese warships were sunk by the First Fleet and three warships were captured by the First Fleet, giving the First Fleet supremacy of the sea.

Then Wen Bangliang launched an attack on the Malacca River, whether he could capture Malacca, the bridge over the Malacca River was the key, the Portuguese deployed heavy troops there for defense, and the warships and frigates of the First Fleet began to bombard the defenders on the shore, and their artillery range completely suppressed the Portuguese, even if the Portuguese occupied the commanding heights.

Soon the defenders of the bridge in the Malacca River were dumbfounded, and last year Su Buheng had already mastered the tide time of the Malacca River, and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the First Fleet rushed into the Malacca River.

With strong fire support, the Nanyang Infantry Brigade successfully captured the commanding heights on both sides of the bridge.

On February 9, Wen Bangliang ordered the artillery to be moved to the commanding heights on both sides of the bridge.

On 11 February, after two days of arrangement, more than 30 heavy cannons carried by the Nanyang Infantry Brigade were moved to the commanding heights, and more than 70 howitzers were deployed in the surrounding lowlands.

On 12 February, the gunners raised the balloon and began shelling the city of Malacca, which was built on the mountainside.

Huge shells fell into the city of Malacca one after another, and the Portuguese were beaten to the point of crying and crying, they had never seen such ferocious artillery.

The bombardment of the city of Malacca was first fired more than a dozen volleys, all of which were aimed at the inside of the city, not at the walls. When the barrel was too hot, most of the howitzers did not fire again after the salvo, and some of them continued to fire at the city of Malacca after the barrel cooled. The cannons, on the other hand, were constantly shelling the walls of Malacca.

The walls of Malacca were very vulnerable to the blows of the shotguns, and after only half a day of shelling, a huge gap appeared.

The extinguished howitzers, guided by hot air balloons, fired salvos into the city of Malacca one after another, and each salvo was bound to be overwhelming.

The successive fires of howitzers only put pressure on the Spaniards, while the salvos caused casualties to the Portuguese.

As long as there are more people in the city out of the bunker protection, the howitzers will fire a salvo. Sometimes, in order to pursue killing, the people in the city will be made to jump outside the bunker for a while, and then fire a salvo when there are more people.

Under such a powerful offensive, the nerves of the Portuguese in Malacca were already tense to the extreme, and the only thing that sustained their belief was their navy.

The city of Malacca is located in the middle of East and West Asia, and the Portuguese have many strongholds in both East and West Asia, and there are 35 warships in the whole of Asia.

Sure enough, after the Portuguese held out for ten days, the Portuguese navy in West Asia came to the rescue, and the speed can be described as extremely fast.

There were twenty Portuguese warships that came to the rescue, and after the Portuguese Navy met the First Fleet, the Battle of Malacca broke out.

In the naval battle, the First Fleet completely had the upper hand, with 20 warships resisting the Portuguese warships and directly separating and encircling the Portuguese warships with 20 frigates.

The battle lasted half an hour, and in the melee, all twenty Portuguese warships were sunk. But in reality, the two sides engaged in less than fifteen minutes.

The Portuguese warship was sunk on the spot by the First Fleet's powerful shells and high rate of fire in close combat, and in a state of encirclement.

But after the Portuguese naval warship was sunk en masse, a white flag was raised at the head of the city of Malacca.

The Portuguese colonists surrendered unconditionally!

From this day on, the Strait of Malacca was controlled by the Ming Dynasty, and the main road that choked the throat of the Ming Dynasty was finally recovered.

Previously, the First Fleet had already controlled six sea lanes into East Asia, and mastering the Strait of Malacca at this time was tantamount to completely locking in the passage into East Asia.

Almost the entire Pacific Ocean has become Zhao Yan's back garden.

The uprooting of the East Asian strongholds of the Portuguese and Spaniards was not so urgent, after all, the shipping lanes were blocked, and they could hardly get any support.

However, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty came soon, and they came one after another.

Maritime trade is dominated by a single or several ships sailing together, and it is rare for dozens or hundreds of ships to sail together, because they can't eat so many goods at the destination, and they can't buy so many goods at the destination.

The main reason why merchant ships to the Americas were able to sail together in large fleets was that the California colonies were responsible for selling the goods and preparing the goods to be shipped back home.

However, the occupation of funds is relatively large, and it is also because the American Fleet has robbed so many merchant ships in the Americas that there is enough capital for turnover.

And in East Asia, trade will naturally not be done like this.

However, in the case of considering the monsoon, if the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty plan to trade south this year, that is, they will go south this season, but it is impossible to form a group, because the regions are different, in addition to the merchant ships in Shandong, the merchant ships in Fujian are the most, and there are also some merchant ships in Guangdong, and there are also merchant ships in other coastal provinces, but they are not so professional in sea trade, but people are also interested in sea trade.

Therefore, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty came one after another, and this season was a good time to go south, because the wind direction was correct.

Many merchant ships plan to transport a batch of goods to the south, and then use the first half of the year to turn around at various trade points in the South Seas, and then return to Daming when the southeast monsoon (May ~ August) arrives.

When these merchant ships arrived in the South Seas, they did not go to one port, but to many ports, and then the goods were constantly turned over, and the profits were constantly rolled up, and when they returned, the capital was very high.

Therefore, the First Fleet and the South Sea Infantry Brigade should pull out the strongholds of the Portuguese and Spanish as soon as possible and replace them in the trading position in East Asia.

At present, the places where the Ming merchant ships can trade freely are Liaodong, Korea, Sakhalin, Hokkaido, Yuben, and Alaska.

To the south, you can go to Australia, but not to the areas where European colonists are located, and to the west you can reach the Hawaiian Islands and California, which are not allowed elsewhere.

When the site is expanded, the restrictions can be relaxed.

In terms of taxation, it is still collected according to the level of import and export tax on commodities, and the import and export tax on each commodity is different in different places, and the amount of tax collected also fluctuates according to the market.

As for the turnover of merchant ships to escape it is unlikely, first of all, each merchant ship must be supervised by a crew graduated from Shandong Navigation Technical School, and at the same time, after entering a port, the goods traded must be taxed, and it is impossible to avoid it through trade before returning to the voyage, but it is also possible, after all, this era is not well-informed, and sometimes it is possible to miss two or three.

Moreover, the adjustment of import and export taxes is not so timely, and it is also possible to avoid some taxes to a certain extent through turnover, of course, this is also legal, or depending on the business methods of the shipowner.

Of course, not all merchant ships will turn around in various ports, some merchant ships will transport goods to a certain port, and then buy a large number of raw materials back after selling in this port, such as cotton and other bulk goods.

Some merchants are not the mainstream commodities in the export of goods, for example, there were merchants in Fujian to Nanyang to transport Fu oranges, in the Ming Dynasty is not worth the Fu oranges, each sold with dozens of copper plates, but also let the businessman earn tens of thousands of taels of silver, engaged in maritime trade in many business methods, different regions and different ports, different trading places of human and economic conditions, as well as different climates and so on are the objects that the shipowner needs to consider.

At the same time, it is not only possible to sell bulk goods, if you see the market, it is also a good choice to transport some small goods. There is a big gap between a shipowner who is good at business and a shipowner who is not good at business.

The First Fleet was digging ground everywhere in the South Seas, and whenever it laid down a piece of territory, it invited customs officers to set up tax collection stations at trading ports.

At the same time, it was reported to Zhaojiabao and asked Zhaojiabao to send officials to come. And this place is added to the list of escorts of the fleet.

Every time a trade point is opened, all units have to coordinate to open the base, and where the merchant ships can do business is not decided from above, but by the bottom according to the principles formulated above, and then reported. If there is any objection to the above, it will be suspended.

In terms of the time when Fujian merchant ships and Shandong merchant ships went to the South Seas, Fujian merchant ships were earlier. The Shandong merchant ships paid more attention to the trade areas of Liaodong, Korea, Sakhalin, Hokkaido, Alaska, Hawaii, and California, and they had been in Shandong for a long time, and they had some understanding of Shandong's overseas colonies.

Therefore, it pays more attention to the market in the north, and the Nanyang side is really not very familiar, after all, the First Fleet has just been in the South China Sea for a few years.

Fujian maritime merchants paid attention to the trade between Nanyang and Yueben, but the trade of Yueben no longer had the same huge profits as it used to be, and the main markets were occupied by government-run merchant ships.

And the profits have been almost grabbed, and after several years of maritime trade, the silver has flowed to the Ming Dynasty in large quantities.

After this huge trade deficit and the losses caused by the war that the Shandong army provoked, the amount of silver was at least half of the amount of silver.

At the same time, the agriculture of the province has also been greatly impacted, because Shandong is constantly dumping cotton cloth and other commodities into the capital, and a large number of foreign commodities with absolute competitive advantages have led to a large number of bankruptcies of the peasants. Naturally, it's the other way around.

The busiest were the garrison troops, who were usually to assist the Tokugawa shogunate in suppressing turmoil and rebellions, and from last year to this year, the rebellions continued.

The main reason for the rebellion was not the high price of rice, but the fact that the peasants could no longer accept the normal price of rice, so that the riots in this place were simply everywhere.

From time to time, the garrison army in Shandong had to go out to quell the rebellion, and their military expenses for quelling the rebellion were still paid by the Tokugawa shogunate, and the shogunate's financial revenue could still be supported, because the shogunate had already opened mines everywhere, and copper mines had become the main force of maritime trade, so that the financial revenue of the Tokugawa shogunate had been alleviated.

In the process of quelling the turmoil, the Shandong army mainly took prisoners, and after deterring the troubled peasants with absolute force, they would negotiate with these troubled peasants to ensure that they would not die, and ensure that they would go to work in the Ming Dynasty, and that they would have no worries about food and clothing in the future, and they would never be hungry or frozen.

Shandong political axe said that the treatment of these Japanese slaves is different from that of slaves, first of all, they will not abuse them at will, and they can be fed and clothed under the premise of seeking the lowest cost, many times they eat sweet potatoes, wear what the people of Shandong wear, donate old clothes, and sometimes open meat, and perform well in labor, they will also give some rewards, but there is no wages.

In the absence of any way out, most of the rioting peasants chose to compromise.

(To be continued)