Chapter 208

Now Cheng Shijie is most lacking in time, although the first batch of sea sharks has been completed and the sea trials began last month, because he felt the threat of Zheng.

Cheng Shijie not only shortened the sea trial time, but also incorporated these eight Sea Shark-class warships, like the first Sea Shark-class battleship, into the combat sequence of the Ning Navy.

However, the problem is that the current naval division of the Ning Navy only has nine Sea Shark-class warships, and the second batch of eight is also nearing completion, and 17 Sea Shark-class ships can be formed in early October as the main warships of the Ningbo Navy Naval Division.

Then, the seventeen main Sea Shark-class warships may not have the strength to fight when facing the Zheng clan.

With Zheng Zhilong's strength, more than 3,000 warships and more than 200,000 troops, it is not an opponent of an order of magnitude at all, this is just like Cheng Shijie landed in southern Liaoning at the end of the fourth year of Chongzhen, at that time, if Huang Taiji attaches importance to Cheng Shijie, even if the Ning Navy is well-equipped, it will not be able to withstand the full force of Jiannu.

However, the problem is that Huang Taiji at that time did not pay attention to Cheng Shijie's opponent, so Huang Taiji suffered a big loss, and now Zheng Zhilong is blocking the shipping transportation in Liaodong to force Cheng Shijie to fight an asymmetrical war with him.

Cheng Shijie did not want to fight, he needed time, and in a short time, that is, nine days later, at the beginning of October, the Jinzhou Donggang Shipyard could also be put into operation.

Cheng Shijie's plan is to build eight Sea Shark-class warships at the same time in Jinzhou East Port, if the war can be delayed until April of the seventh year of Chongzhen, at that time, the naval division of the Ning Navy will form 37 main Sea Shark-class warships, as well as the 12 Sea Wolf-class (2,000 materials) gunboats built by the Jinzhou West Shipyard, plus the original 15 Galen ships of the Ning Navy, will form a fleet with 64 large ships.

At that time, although Cheng Shijie was far from being as strong as Zheng Zhilong, he still had to touch Zheng Zhilong. Cheng Shijie can compare the shipbuilding capacity with Zheng Zhilong, who will have three shipyards and a year production of 64 Sea Shark-class warships and 48 Seawolf-class warships.

It can also be said that Cheng Shijie can produce a fleet that is not weak in strength a year, and this raw material reserve, without increasing a single penny, is enough for Cheng Shijie to build three fleets of this size now.

It's a pity that Zheng Zhilong didn't give Cheng Shijie enough time.

"Gang Master Shen, don't worry, Ben Shuai will definitely give you justice!"

Cheng Shijie has no better way now, so he can only appease Shen Boyun as a partner with kind words first, and then consider other methods.

Song Xiance was preparing to report to Cheng Shijie the results of the autumn harvest just now, although he didn't look at the data in Song Xiance's hands, Cheng Shijie also knew that southern Liaoning had a bumper harvest this year and the same as last year.

Among them, nearly one-third of the tuntian land belongs to the Ning Navy, and Cheng Shijie only cares about the normal eating and drinking of these prisoners of labor from the Central Plains or previous prisoners of war, and all the land they cultivate belongs to the Ning Navy, of which more than 14 million mu of land belongs to immigrants, and the Ning Navy collects 30 percent of the grain tax from these Tuntian military households in accordance with regulations.

Of course, there is also a part, that is, nearly one-third of the fields, which belong to tax-free grain, and these fields basically belong to the military dependents of the Ning Navy, and they belong to the tax-free welfare stage.

But the problem is that it is impossible to eat the food they harvest, and they need to sell it in large quantities and exchange it for silver to buy the necessities of life.

Because of this incident, the joy of the harvest could hardly affect Cheng Shijie's mood, he told Song Xiance about Zheng Zhilong's dispatch of pirates, and asked, "Kang Nian, what do you think about this matter?" ”

"Lord, you want to be with Zheng Zhi Longjing Water without violating the river water, I'm afraid it's wishful thinking, the Zheng family almost monopolizes the maritime trade, making tens of millions of profits every year, even the Jiangnan consortium with the ministers of the DPRK and China has to look at their faces, what a pleasure this is, how can they allow the rise of the Ning Navy and threaten their status!"

Cheng Shijie nodded: "Yes, it's just that how could the Zheng family get along with us for no reason?" Zheng Zhilong's time to do it was too early! ”

Cheng Shijie built his own shipyard, and thirteen warships were built successively, of which the four King Kongs were still experimental, and now Zheng Zhilong actually noticed him so quickly.

Moreover, these new ships did not leave Jinzhou (Dalian) Bay, which is simply unreasonable.

"I'm afraid it's not for nothing."

"Tell me about it."

"The subordinates believe that the reason why the Zheng clan can't get along with us is that they want to suppress our Ning Navy and don't want the Ning Navy to develop and compete with them; Secondly...... I'm afraid that there is a credit to the public behind it. ”

"What do you mean?"

"Eight or nine is not far from ten!"

Cheng Shijie also figured it out that although the Donglin Party has not formed a monopoly in the cabinet at this stage, it does not prevent them from controlling the government, and the Jiangnan Consortium is the financial owner of the Donglin Party.

Cheng Shijie is now vigorously developing steel, flax, sea salt, tuntian, shipbuilding and other industries, and has achieved remarkable results, although the people of Liaodong have benefited deeply, but it has caused a strong impact on the Jiangnan consortium.

In the case of Cheng Shijie being the Jiangnan Consortium, he would not want Ning Haijun to continue to develop and continue to squeeze his profit margins.

It must be known that in addition to pirates, the Zheng family also has a double identity, that is, the Fujian general soldier, and the princes of the Tao only need a slight signal to him to understand.

Cheng Shijie sneered: "If the Dao Dukes let him go to suppress Ning Haijun's sea route, and endorse him, this kind of good thing that can not only suppress potential opponents but also not be blamed by the imperial court, no one will refuse!" Well, I really treat Lao Tzu as a soft persimmon, and you can pinch it casually. ”

Cheng Shijie knew that the war with Zheng Zhilong was inevitable at this time, although the sailors of the Ning Navy could not fight the Zheng fleet head-on, but Cheng Shijie was also a traversing person, he had his own hanging, don't think that he usually doesn't use it, just treat him as if he didn't.

It's just that Cheng Shijie's real purpose is to cultivate the industrial base of southern Liaoning, to avoid taking too big a step and getting an egg, and to temporarily clean up Zheng Zhilong, Cheng Shijie still has a way.

Seeing that Cheng Shijie seemed to be like a hungry lion at this time, Song Xiance hurriedly persuaded: "Lord, don't be impulsive!" Zheng Shixiong has been based in the South China Sea for more than ten years, has a deep foundation, has more than 3,000 sea ships, and has as many as 200,000 troops. ”

"Are you doubting the combat effectiveness of the Ning Navy?"

"There is no doubt that Ning Haijun can easily defeat the Zheng clan on land, but it is too difficult to defeat the Zheng clan at sea! It's hard to imagine that the lord and the Zheng family will fight and lose, so that they can benefit from it! ”

Cheng Shijie nodded and said, "Your judgment is very accurate, I bet that those bastards in the DPRK are playing with such an idea." ”

"Therefore, my subordinates suggest that the lord should be patient, find an opportunity to talk to the Zheng family, seek a strategy for peaceful coexistence, drag it out for a few years, and wait until the Ning Navy has strong maritime strength, and then defeat the Zheng family once and for all!"

Song Xiance smiled and said: "I was about to recommend a great talent to the lord, and it happened that he was sent to Fujian, which can be regarded as an assessment!" ”

Cheng Shijie tapped the coffee table quickly with his fingers, muttering, anger and disdain constantly flashing on his face.

Song Xiance saw Cheng Shijie's unhappiness, so he hurriedly said: "Although the Zheng family is hateful, it is not useless, it has been suppressing the Hongyi pirates for so many years, if there is no them, I am afraid that now Guangdong and Fujian have been tossed upside down by the Hongyi pirates, and rashly starting a war with the Zheng family will only allow the Hongyi pirates to take advantage of the situation, and the consequences will be more serious." Lord, please think again! ”

"Sanen, Kang Nian, you have considered everything, but you have not considered the key to it!"

"Critical!"

Song Xiance said with some confusion: "What's the key?" ”

"Now Jiannu is not a threat to the Ming Dynasty, at least in three or five years, Jiannu will not be able to go south, or west!"

This matter is thanks to Gao Qiqian, in the past few months, Gao Qiqian in the name of fornicating with slaves, from Emperor Chongzhen to get Wang Dengku, one of the eight families of the Jin merchants.

Earlier, Wang Zhixin copied Hou Sui's house, and copied luxurious gold and silver utensils, precious furs, pearls, wild ginseng, ingenious furniture, and so on.

The property accumulated by the Hou family with several generations of hard work was copied by Wang Xinxin, but the problem is that Hou Sui is indeed not as rich as Fan Yongdou, Fan Yongdou is a businessman, and his family has a lot of property, but Hou Sui's main industry is land, more than 700,000 acres of fertile land in Guide Mansion, according to the land price of Guide Mansion, these lands are worth six or seven million taels of silver.

However, the silver that Wang Zhixin handed over to the inner treasury was less than one million taels, only 800,000 taels, and a large number of antiques and calligraphy and paintings could not be realized at all.

At this time, the king's heart fell into the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, and he had the impression of filling his own pockets, which was useless, so it was Gao Qidive's turn to steal the family.

Gao Qiqian has a lot of experience in the work of copying the house, he did not make a big show, but borrowed more than 1,500 cavalry from the champion Hou Lu Xiangsheng, Gao Qiqian loved these simple Tianxiong cavalry too much, he promised the Tianxiong cavalry, as long as he ran this trip, each person fifty taels of silver. However, whoever dares to report the news or has unclean hands and feet will be regarded as Wang Dengku's fellow party, fornicating with slaves, and exterminating the family.

So, the eyes of the soldiers of the Tianxiong Army were red, Lu Xiangsheng did not have Cheng Shijie to make money, the soldiers of the Tianxiong Army usually had the same as the guards of the guards, they usually had no military salary, and part of their income was the land they were allocated, tax-free, and each person was only between fifteen and twenty acres.

This has already made the soldiers of the Tianxiong Army fight with the enemy with red eyes, but Gao Qi used them once, and he gave fifty taels of silver, which was equivalent to their income for three or five years.

Therefore, the cavalry of the Tianxiong army stationed in Baoding Mansion only took three days, and arrived in Datong lightly, Wang Dengku was very smart, he melted the gold and cast it into a large square piece, and then spread it on the ground, and then covered it with floor tiles and carpets, and made it extremely secretive, if it weren't for the brocade guards lurking in their mansion, they would have been deceived by it.

Gao Qiqian succeeded, he confiscated a total of more than 2.6 million taels of silver, and of course, Gao Qiqian also lost a lot of benefits.

Emperor Chongzhen saw a copyist, and actually copied one-third of the treasury revenue, and Emperor Chongzhen broke out at that time, "Those lowly businessmen are so frenzied, selling military weapons to Jiannu, and putting the Ming Dynasty in a place where there is no return?" I...... I can't spare them! I want to exterminate their families and destroy their families, and crush their bones and scatter ashes! ”

So, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Guest, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, Huang Yunfa, these six families were also raided, it can be said that the eight imperial merchants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, none of the eight Jin merchants ran away, and Emperor Chongzhen had more than 9.6 million taels of silver, which was regarded as a bumper harvest.

The news reached Shenyang, and after Huang Taiji learned that all the eight surnames had been raided and exterminated, Huang Taiji, who was deep and moody in the city, shook his body a few times, and a mouthful of blood spurted out.

This blow is even more deadly than the Baliwan Battle that made Jiannu lose 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers, it means that Jiannu has lost the channel to sell stolen goods and obtain strategic materials, and the noose wrapped around their necks by the Ming Dynasty is getting tighter and tighter.

In this case, there were many more Mongol tribes that expressed their sincerity to Emperor Chongzhen, and so far, a total of thirty-four Mongol tribes have surrendered.

Now Cheng Shijie's importance has been greatly reduced.

Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly: "The cunning rabbit is dead, the lackeys are cooking, now Jiannu has the idea of negotiating peace with the Ming Dynasty, which means that the status of our Ning Navy is not as good as before, if Ben Shuai takes this step back, the Zheng family and those waste firewood in the DPRK will only press step by step, and they will not give up if they don't tear Ben Shuai and Ning Haijun to pieces!" Ben Shuai knows those guys too well, and it is more difficult to let them do something practical than to ascend to the sky, but let them drag their own people back is more powerful than one another! Ben Shuai must not back down, not even half a step! ”

"What does the lord mean...... Want to go to war against the Zheng clan? ”

"Why not?"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "The Zheng family monopolized the maritime trade, and collected protection fees from the merchant ships that passed by, and made a profit of more than 10 million yuan a year, this is the wealth of the country, how can he be allowed to swallow it alone!" ”

Cheng Shijie knew that Chongzhen was short of money, even if Gao Qiqian gave Emperor Chongzhen nearly 10 million taels of silver, which was already a huge amount of money, but the problem was that the financial shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty were too serious, and there were too many places where there was a shortage of money.

In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, vassal kings became a huge burden on the imperial court. Of course, the Emperor of the Apocalypse did the best, and he stipulated that all the vassal kings in the country should always be fixed for 1567524 taels. (Data source: Ming Dynasty Wangzhuang income (private income), Huang Renyu, "Finance and Taxation in Ming Dynasty China in the Sixteenth Century")

To explain that the dynasty was dragged down by the clan, in fact, the Yu Lu of the idle clan of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was also 1.67 times that of the county king of the Ming Dynasty, and the cost was more than 20 times.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the depreciation of prices, the Ming Dynasty's clan Zhuangtian can also collect tenant rent in the early stage, the Chenghua period is the official levy official release to the public, the land ownership is tenant farmers, the tenant rent is collected by the government and then issued to the clan (0.03 taels per mu of the upper land, 0.02 taels per mu of the middle land, 0.01 taels of the lower land, the average harvest of an acre of land at the end of the Ming Dynasty is more than 1 tael, so the rent per mu is only 1%), even if this is only 1% of the tenant rent of the official government is often in arrears, the Ming clan can not get it.

Because the clan has no power, it can only cry poverty to the emperor, but the court has no money, so it embezzles this part of the money, and has been pressed and not issued, you know, the Ming Dynasty owes the vassal king's Yulu, that is really the sea, only Henan owes the vassal king as much as 1.2 million stones, Shanxi owes 350,000 stones, and the whole country accumulates more than 2,000 stones.

Emperor Chongzhen can be in arrears when he has no money, but now that he has money, there are many people staring at his money bag, and Emperor Chongzhen is still short of money.

Cheng Shijie wrote a fold to Emperor Chongzhen, which has a lot of words, listing a large number of data, including the insurance fees collected by Zheng Zhilong over the years, as well as the compensation and protection fees of the Dutch East India Company, of course, Cheng Shijie is also afraid that Emperor Chongzhen does not know how much a franc is, and specially wrote that one franc is equivalent to 13.46 taels of silver.

In Cheng Shijie's true and false data, Zheng Zhilong earns as much as 16 million taels of silver every year, so he can build a mansion covering an area of 138 acres, and have enough financial resources to support 230,000 troops and more than 3,000 warships.

Cheng Shijie kicked the ball to Emperor Chongzhen, don't you want to use Zheng Zhilong to test yourself? Cheng Shijie kicked the ball back, he wanted to see how Emperor Chongzhen and the princes of the court decided.

If Emperor Chongzhen and the princes of the imperial court were on Zheng Zhilong's side, Cheng Shijie would be dead set on the imperial court, of course, he would cooperate with the Dutch first, and take advantage of the Dutch's sea transportation capacity to transport the troops to the Dayuan, and then occupy the Daguan first.

What Spaniards, what Dutch, all give Lao Tzu to get out of the big guys, the current big guys are three points of the world, Spain occupies northern Taipei, the Dutch occupy southern Tainan, and Zheng Zhilong occupies central Taichun.

On Dayuan Island, there is no industry now, and the population is very small, so he can be completely self-sufficient, even if Zheng Zhilong is awesome, he can only use his shortest land battle to fight an asymmetrical land battle with the Ning Navy.

In this way, Cheng Shijie had enough time to complete the construction of the battleship, and of course, Cheng Shijie did not wait for Emperor Chongzhen's decision.

In his first step, he transferred soldiers familiar with water from the Phi Island Metropolitan Division, the Shuangcheng Metropolitan Division, the Konoe Division, and the Jeju Island Metropolitan Division, the former Metropolitan Division, and the Zuodu Division, and the total number of soldiers drawn from these metropolitan divisions will reach 30,000 horses.

At the same time, the major factories under the Gun and Artillery Bureau of the Ning Navy are working at full capacity, rushing to work overtime, producing guns and ammunition, and the clothing factories and military factories are responsible for preparing medicines for the production of clothes, shoes and socks, and medicine, and the war machines of the Ning Navy are quickly running at full capacity.

The mountain rain is about to come and the wind is full of buildings, and at this moment, the people and soldiers in southern Liaoning immediately felt the tense atmosphere in the air that the big war was coming.

Cheng Shijie returned to Jinzhou from Liaoyang, and Sun Chengzong couldn't wait to ask: "Beiping, are you ready to go to war with Zheng Zhilong?" ”

"That's right!"

Cheng Shijie didn't hide it, anyway, it had already been sent to the capital, and the matter had already been decided.

Sun Chengzong said bitterly: "Confused, Beiping, you are confused!" ”

Cheng Shijie smiled: "Teacher, why did you say this? ”

"How many warships does Zheng Zhilong have?"

"More than 3,000 ships!"

"You also know more than 3,000 ships, how many ships does the Koning Navy have now?"

"The total number is more than three hundred!"

"More than 300 old and broken ships!"

"There are more than 3,000 ships under Zheng Zhilong's command, most of them are old and broken ships, and his real warships are only six or seven hundred black-tailed ships, as well as one or two hundred Galen ships, of which more than two thousand are full!"

Sun Chengzong thought for a while and said, "Are you going to join forces with the Dutch and Xiyi?" Deal with Zheng Zhilong? ”

"No, how could it be possible to join forces with them? The fight between me and Zheng Zhilong is just an infighting, whether it is the Dutch or the Spaniards, whoever interferes will destroy him! ”

Cheng Shijie suddenly figured it out, he originally planned to lease the Dutch's transport ship to complete this southward strategy, but the problem was that as long as he cooperated with the Dutch, he would be a traitor and traitor.

This kind of thing should never be done.

However, this does not mean that Cheng Shijie has no allies to choose from, Zheng Zhilong dominates the South Seas and has countless enemies, Cheng Shijie is not worried that no one will cooperate with him.

What's more, the Sand Boat Gang will definitely be on their side.

Sun Chengzong is full of worries about this, but he also knows that although officialdom uses the art of compromise, the problem is that officialdom is also like a boat sailing against the current, and if you don't advance, you will retreat.

Facing Sun Chengzong, Cheng Shijie helplessly explained: "Teacher, if other methods work, I will never use military means, the problem is that the trouble we encountered this time can really only be solved by military means." ”

"Actually, we can talk about it!"

"There is no way to talk about it, one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers, although the sea is big, but there can only be one king!"

"At present, maritime trade is booming, the scale is getting bigger and bigger, with the friendship between Daming and Taixi, more and more Western fleets come to Daming to do business, and the profits can be imagined!"

"The old man still has three points thin, so let the teacher take a trip......"

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "Teacher, if Liaodong wants to be truly rich and strong, it must do a good job in maritime trade and even attract investment. And Zheng's Group is a boulder blocked at the gate, if we don't move it away, we won't even be able to get out! At present, Liaodong has just shown a little sign of its rise, and they have unceremoniously robbed my cargo ship, detained the crew, and even supported the Japanese in the coastal areas of Shanghai, which is simply lawless! ”

PS: I fell asleep while writing, and finally wrote it out, and it was a little late.

(End of chapter)