Chapter 209

"Haven't you already played in the court? Let the imperial court punish Zheng Zhilong, a lawbreaker! ”

Sun Chengzong is actually not completely worried that Cheng Shijie can't beat Zheng Zhilong, although Zheng Zhilong is invincible at sea, but land is the foundation of Zheng Zhilong, Quanzhou, Fujian, Taichung and Xiamen, these three places are Zheng Zhilong's must-defend places, as long as the Ning Navy can attack its must-save place, Zheng Zhilong can only fight a land war with the Ning Navy that he is not good at in the war set up by Cheng Shijie.

Sun Chengzong has personally witnessed the war between the Ning Navy and Jiannu, and it is no exaggeration to say that Jiannu is still the same Jiannu, fierce, well-equipped, and has a very formidable opponent in battle.

Although Zheng Zhilong's army claims to have more than 200,000 people, I am afraid that the elite of them is only 60,000 or 70,000 horses, and it is definitely not as strong as Jiannu's strength.

If there is a land war, Ning Haijun can completely crush Zheng Zhilong, and Sun Chengzong still has this confidence.

The crux of the problem is that the people of Fujian are already poor, often hit by storms, and the raids of the Japanese and Xiyi, or it is not easy to get a respite because of Zheng Zhilong's relationship. But once Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong fight, the war will be together, and I don't know how many Fujian people will be ruined.

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly: "Let the imperial court punish Zheng Zhilong?" If the imperial court can punish him, why bother to recruit peace and assign Quanzhou, Xiamen and other cities to him as a territory? Zheng Zhilong has 200,000 subordinates, and he doesn't take the court in his eyes at all, but the court is afraid of him! What's more, Zheng Zhigen's courage to send troops to loot the transport ships in Liaodong was not without the support of some high-ranking officials in the DPRK and China, and it was simply whimsical to expect the imperial court to come forward to punish him! ”

Sun Chengzong looked at Cheng Shijie's resolute attitude, and tried his last effort to persuade Cheng Shijie to change his mind: "Except for military means, is there no other way to solve it?" ”

Cheng Shijie said seriously: "There is no other way but to solve it by military means!" If I take this step back, the mad dogs will think I'm a bully and pounce on me and tear me to shreds! As the saying goes, fight with one punch, lest a hundred punches come, grievances can not be satisfied, compromise cannot be exchanged for peace, only fighting! ”

"Do you have a chance of winning?"

Sun Chengzong is thinking about it, Cheng Shijie is actually reasonable, when he was sitting in Liaodong, in the face of the hindrance of the court, he always considered the overall situation and did not hesitate to wronged himself. But the problem is that Sun Chengzong's concession was exchanged for the other party's intensification, which made Sun Chengzong very hurt.

Cheng Shijie is willing to fight now, he is just worried that Cheng Shijie will lose.

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "There is definitely no absolute certainty, the two armies are fighting, it is not that they are smarter than the other party, but who makes fewer mistakes than whom, no matter how the Ning Navy is, it is also a professional army, if you can't win a group of pirates......"

Sun Chengzong also knew that his student had his own merits in the military, and it can be said that he never fought a battle that he was not sure of, and the only time he was in danger was the Dengzhou Mutiny, which was extremely dangerous, and if he was negligent, he would lose everything.

Zheng Zhilong, named the chief soldier of Fujian, the commander of the navy, is actually a pirate, entrenched on the sea, wantonly looting and extortion, making a profit of 10 million taels a year, which is really a great scourge, if he can get rid of him, take back the profits of the sea, more than 10 million taels of silver every year, it is a great thing for the country and the people.

Sun Chengzong looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "If there is really no other way, you can only solve them by military means." Beiping, what are you going to do? ”

"I am going to transfer officers and men who are familiar with water from the Ning Navy and train them into an army of 30,000 men and horses separately for a month-long sea crossing and landing training on Jeju Island!"

Cheng Shijie pointed to the huge map on the wall and said: "When this army can adapt to crossing the sea, when the time comes, this army led by Zhang Yu will go south from Jeju Island, go straight to Dayuan, and land in Dayuan Taipei!" ”

Speaking of Daren, this is the real reason why Cheng Shijie is unhappy with Zheng Zhilong, the current Spain has entered a stalemate with the Europa Thirty Years' War, and the Spanish Empire has shrunk its troops from colonies all over the world in order to win the Europa War.

Not all of these 6,000 men were troops, most of them were employees and managers, and the Spanish and Dutch combined were estimated to have less than 2,000 men.

It's not that Spain and the Netherlands don't have people, but it's also true that they have few people, mainly because both Spain and the Netherlands want to be a trading base. However, later the Spaniards found that this stronghold was not very useful, and the Ming Dynasty was closed to the country and could not trade at all, and later even the small days were closed to the country, and they could not trade.

The role of this stronghold is diminishing. It is precisely because the Spanish and Dutch do not pay attention to it that this is Zheng Zhilong's opportunity, if Zheng Zhilong wants to seize the big man, he only needs to combine land and sea, which is enough to drive the Spaniards and the Dutch out of the big man, and it will not be Zheng Chenggong's turn to recover the big man.

However, the problem is that Zheng Zhilong acquiesced to the presence of the Spaniards and the Dutch in Dayuan.

There must be a certain amount of benefit in this, and Zheng Zhilong took the benefits of the Spaniards and the Dutch. It may also be that Zheng Zhilong also played the trick of raising his own weight, after all, the Dutch East India Company did not have many officers, and there were only fifteen warships of more than 1,000 tons.

After listening to Cheng Shijie's deployment, Sun Chengzong frowned slightly: "The idea of seizing the big man and forcing the big man Zheng Zhilong to go up to the decisive battle with the Ning Navy is good, but the question is, can our sailors defeat the Zheng family's fleet at sea?" The Zheng clan has more than 3,000 ships! ”

When it came to the Zheng clan's huge fleet, a trace of worry crossed everyone's eyebrows.

Zheng Zhilong started as a pirate, climbed up step by step from a small leader, and finally became the overlord of the South China Sea, accumulating unusually strong strength, and the sailors of Guangdong and Fujian provinces made him lose his temper, and finally forced the imperial court to pinch his nose to recruit An, and let him continue to do pirate work in the name of the imperial court!

There is no strict distinction between warships and merchant ships in these years, that is to say, Zheng Zhilong's more than 3,000 ships can all be used in naval battles, such a terrifying strength, it has only been more than two years since the army, and only more than 30 new warships of the Ning Navy have any hope of winning?

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly: "Whether it can succeed or not, you will only know if you have fought it, before the Battle of Haizhou was fought, who could believe that our Ning Navy could beat Jiannu violently?" Military strength cannot only depend on how many ships and how many men and horses the other side has? We still have more than 2 million troops in the Ming Dynasty, and in the face of Jiannu, isn't it a victory or a defeat? ”

Sun Chengzong didn't say anything more, but looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "Beiping, I'll recommend a sailor talent to you!" ”

Cheng Shijie asked, "Did the teacher say Mao Yuanyi?" ”

Mao Yuanyi once served as the staff of Yang Hao, the right attendant of the military department in Liaodong, and was later reused by Sun Chengzong, the secretary of the military department, and he and Sun Chengzong's colleagues Lu Shanji, Yuan Chonghuan, Sun Yuanhua and others, inspected the terrain inside and outside the Shanhaiguan, studied the enemy situation, assisted Sun Chengzong in fighting, resisted the attack of the Houjin, and went to the south of the Yangtze River to raise warships, strengthen the Liaodong naval division, and improve the combat effectiveness of the Ming army.

Under the command of Sun Chengzong, the Ming army regained the forty-five forts of nine cities in Liaodong, and Mao Yuanyi was also recommended for the Hanlin Academy for meritorious service. Due to the dictatorship of the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, Sun Chengzong was excluded from his post, and Mao Yuanyi was also cut down, and returned to the south in the sixth year of the Apocalypse (1626). In October of the following year, Zhu Youzhen was the emperor, and then killed Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch power fell, Mao Yuanyi rushed to the capital, to the new emperor to submit the "Wu Bei Zhi", because of the power of the king in Jin and other slander, with the crime of arrogance, was exiled to Dingxing (now Hebei) Jiangcun.

In the winter of the second year of Chongzhen (1629), the Houjin cavalry went straight to Beijing, and Sun Chengzong was once again appointed to supervise the division. Mao Yuanyi and dozens of other horsemen, escorting Sun Chengzong, broke through from Dongbianmen to Tongzhou (now Tongxian County, Beijing), repelled the attack of the Houjin army, and relieved the danger of Beijing. Mao Yuanyi was promoted to deputy chief soldier for meritorious service, and supervised the sailors of Juehua Island (now Chrysanthemum Island, Xingcheng, Liaoning).

Sun Chengzong's recommendation of Mao Yuanyi has another situation, which may not be known to Cheng Shijie, Mao Yuanyi's wife Shen, and Chongming Shen Boyun is the same ancestry, when Sun Chengzong served as the Liaodong Economic Strategy, Mao Yuanyi once united with Shen's sand boat gang to help strengthen the Liaodong Naval Division.

Although it is said that Cheng Shijie and Shen Boyun have certain interests, Shen Boyun will never pour out his heart and lungs to Cheng Shijie, nor will he really put his heart and lungs into it.

The difference is huge.

Mao Yuanyi took Shen Boyun, Shen Huandong, Shen Huanbing, Shen Shangwang, and Shen Shangping to Jinzhou and begged Cheng Shijie to take him in.

Cheng Shijie has nothing to refuse, with the participation of the Sand Boat Gang, Cheng Shijie's transportation power at sea will increase exponentially, although the ships of the Sand Boat Gang are dilapidated, there are only seven hundred and eight boats, this is not because the Sand Boat Gang has no strength, but their financial resources limit their behavior.

The ancestors of the Sand Boat Gang are descendants of the shipwrights of the Nanjing Shipyard, and what they are best at is not fighting wars or sea transportation, but what they are really best at is shipbuilding.

With the commissioning of the Sand Boat Gang, Cheng Shijie suddenly added more than 8,000 excellent shipbuilding craftsmen, and these craftsmen arrived in southern Liaoning in batches, towing 50,000 or 60,000 people.

The downfall of these people has greatly increased the productivity of Lushun Shipyard, Jinzhou Donggang Shipyard, and Jinzhou Xigang Shipyard, and Ning Navy Shipyard has suddenly gained a lot of experience in manufacturing large ships, which can be regarded as an intangible wealth obtained by Cheng Shijie.

At the same time, Cheng Shijie's tentacles can also be as deep as Chongming, although the Chongming Island of the Sand Boat Gang is only indigenous and has no official power, and some have also bribed some low-level officials, but Cheng Shijie is thinking about how to take control of Chongming Island, with Chongming Island, when Ning Haijun faces the Zheng family, the distance will be shortened.

Just when Cheng Shijie felt embarrassed, Zhu Weiyuan smiled: "What's so difficult about this? ”

"What can the princess do?"

Zhu Weiyuan said: "I'm going to write to the emperor's brother and want Chongming Island to be a resort!" ”

"Your Majesty probably won't agree!"

"Doesn't the husband have some industry in the capital? Take these things in exchange, the husband has a good relationship with Gao Gonggong, and with him blowing the wind, this matter should be done! ”

Zhu Weiyuan's self-confidence comes from the fact that Chongming is a chicken rib for the imperial court, and the shore of the island is uncertain, which has forced the county to move to its place. Every time the city is repaired, it costs tens of thousands of taels of silver, but the output is also very limited, and it is a situation where it is beyond its means.

Soon, Zhu Weiyuan wrote a letter, which was a private letter, telling Emperor Chongzhen that Cheng Shijie sent her a big ship of 2,500 materials, which she named "Eight Princesses", and now the weather in Liaodong is cold, she wants to go to Chongming Island for vacation, and hopes that Emperor Chongzhen will give Chongming Island to her.

……

Emperor Chongzhen naturally received Cheng Shijie's recital first, and after Cheng Shijie's recital was sent to the capital, Wang Chengen sent it to Emperor Chongzhen as soon as possible.

The current Chongzhen Emperor is in constant trouble, these troubles do not come from the outside, but from the inside, although he copied the family background of the eight Jin merchants, Emperor Chongzhen has a lot of money and has a lot of money on hand.

God seems to be obsessed with Emperor Chongzhen.

On June 14, the sixth year of Chongzhen, Miyun and Huairou encountered hail weather;

On June 18, Cangzhou suffered hail weather, Taiyuan encountered hail weather, and the grass and trees in Yuncheng were smashed by hail overnight;

On June 19, Jinan was hit by hailstorms;

On June 21, Handan was hit by hailstorms;

On June 24, Kaifeng, Weihui and Zhangde encountered a wide range of hail weather, and the fields were covered with hail overnight, as many as pebbles by the river, and all the wheat was eroded;

On June 26, Fengyang encountered hail weather;

……

After a long drought, there will be hail, and last year Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi were all extremely dry, and it is not surprising that this year it will suffer hail disasters. The problem is that this hellish hail weather is so fierce and widespread that it seems to be smashing all the farmland across the country!

The largest hailstone was the size of an orange, crackling and smashing, the wheat that was originally growing happily was smashed to pieces, many prefectures and counties suffered heavy losses, and many people were even stoned to death by the hailstones.

Countless farmers looked at the clump of rotten wheat seedlings and wept bitterly, which means that this season's wheat is finished, how can they live!

The most tearful thing is that in the face of such a terrible natural disaster, the first reaction of those civil officials who have infinite love for death is not to try to relieve the disaster, but to force Chongzhen to make an edict for his own crimes. They were full of words: "It's all Your Majesty, you used the courtiers and courtiers, connived at his lawlessness, and angered the heavens, so God will send disasters to warn Your Majesty!" For the sake of the common people in the world, Your Majesty, you hurry up and issue an edict to the people of the world, admit your mistake to God, and ensure that you are close to the virtuous ministers and far from the villain, and ask for God's forgiveness, so as to save the people from fire and water! ”

Emperor Chongzhen was extremely annoyed by this, why was it Lao Tzu's fault every time there was a natural disaster? Lao Tzu spent so much money and was supported by so many birds, just so that you could find fault with Lao Tzu and force Lao Tzu to review?

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen will not admit that he is wrong, the two sides have been arguing for more than three months, and Emperor Chongzhen saw Cheng Shijie's twists and turns.

Emperor Chongzhen did not doubt what Cheng Shijie wrote, because what Cheng Shijie said was true, he said that the eight Jin merchants were rich and had tens of millions of family assets, didn't they? has been copied tens of millions of taels of silver, of course, Cheng Shijie's news comes from folk rumors.

Everyone has the problem of bragging, obviously there is no 10,000 taels of silver in the family, but he dares to boast that the family property is hundreds of thousands, and now Zheng Zhilong actually relies on collecting protection fees and collects so much silver.

Emperor Chongzhen's eyes were red.

Emperor Chongzhen did not express his position on Cheng Shijie's performance, of course, not expressing his position is also an attitude. In any case, Zheng Zhilong was the pirate that Emperor Chongzhen agreed to recruit, and the two dozen Holland also gave Emperor Chongzhen a boost in face. ’

But the problem is that Emperor Chongzhen didn't know that there were such huge profits on the sea, and for the first time he felt that he was being played by the ministers, such a huge thing, no one actually told him, if someone told him that he could make tens of millions of taels of silver a year on the sea, nearly twice as much as the Liao salary, would he use it to make people angry?

These ministers should be killed.

He really wanted Cheng Shijie to teach Zheng Zhilong a lesson, but he was worried that Cheng Shijie would not be able to beat Zheng Zhilong, if Cheng Shijie cut first and then played, just like Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, as long as the established facts are caused, Emperor Chongzhen is willing to endorse Cheng Shijie's masterpiece, of course, if Cheng Shijie is defeated, Cheng Shijie will definitely be guilty.

Just like in history, if Yuan Chonghuan was killed by Mao Wenlong when he killed Mao Wenlong, is Mao Wenlong guilty? Yes, but does Emperor Chongzhen have a way?

In fact, there was nothing to do, because the Dongjiang Army could hardly get the military salary of the imperial court, so the imperial court's control over the Dongjiang Army was extremely weak, and the current situation is the same.

At this time, Zhu Weiyuan's private message also arrived, and Emperor Chongzhen also saw Cheng Shijie's true intention, this is to deal with Zheng Zhilong, Cheng Shijie needs an advance base, and this base is Chongming Island.

Emperor Chongzhen immediately issued a decree to crown the eighth princess Zhu Weiyuan as the princess of Chongming, and Chongming Island as her fief, Zhu Weiyuan could arrange the officials, taxes and other rights of the Chongming fief by herself, and allowed the princess Chongming to recruit soldiers and defend her fief.

For Chongming Island to withdraw from the county, the officials did not object, because this is a big pit, in the Ming Dynasty, Chongming Island has not yet formed, and it is divided into Sansha, Yaosha, Liusha, Changsha, Wujiasha, Yuanjiasha, Xiangsha and other tidal flats, until the sixteenth year of Wanli, only to form a piece, but often collapsed, and often attacked by floods.

Not to mention the output, even self-sufficiency is difficult, and it also needs the savings of Suzhou Prefecture and Taicang Prefecture, which makes Suzhou Mansion very unhappy, and the rest of Suzhou Prefecture is very rich, only Chongming Island is a wild land, and only a group of boatmen and sand boat gangs inhabit here.

Cheng Shijie at this time, but has been busy with war preparations, the most important thing, is shipbuilding, the original plan, Lushun Shipyard and Jinzhou East Port Shipyard to produce warships, and Jinzhou West Port to produce ships. With the introduction of the Sand Boat Gang, this problem has changed radically.

Shipbuilding is very expensive, to build a 3,000-material Sea Shark-class battleship, not counting the naval guns above, it takes about 7,000 taels of silver, and if you count the naval guns and other equipment, it will cost nearly 20,000 taels of silver.

However, the Sand Boat Gang had a large number of excellent boatmen, but they suffered from the lack of funds, so after they defected to Cheng Shijie, they immediately took out a kind of warship that had long disappeared in the long river of history.

This is a 5,000-material fortune ship, with a length-to-width ratio of six to one, which is very rare in the era of sail warships, such as the super battleship of the Great British Sea King, which was just launched in 1637, with a length of 51 meters, a width of 14.7 meters, a depth of 23.17 meters, and a draft of 6.8 meters, the ship weighs 1,683 tons and has 4 decks.

The Sea King has an aspect ratio of 3.46.

According to the conversion, the displacement of this new type of battleship is equivalent to 1,625 tons, which is slightly smaller than that of the Sea King, and it is expected to be equipped with 48 3-inch guns on this battleship, as well as 36 newly developed 4-inch guns, which are 126 mm caliber in later generations.

Because Cheng Shijie adopted the Ming system, he did not copy the size of later generations, but adopted the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty.

"What is the speed of such a battleship?"

Cheng Shijie was most concerned about the issue of speed, he turned his head and asked the director of the Jinzhou Xigang Shipyard who accompanied the inspection, this is the talent who came from the Sand Boat Gang, not surprisingly, this person is not a surname, but a surname Chen, named Chen Wanshun. Of course, he is one of the sons-in-law of the Shen family, which is also the way the big family retains talents.

Chen Wanshun said proudly: "Very fast! If the wind is strong enough, it will only take half a month from Jinzhou to Guangzhou, which is really too fast! ”

Cheng Shijie is actually still a little unaccustomed to the way workers speak in this era, he prefers intuitive numbers, of course, it does not prevent Cheng Shijie from calculating, this distance is more than 2,200 kilometers, because there is no night sailing ability in this era, all ships actually sail for only seven and a half days, which is equivalent to about 300 kilometers per day.

Cheng Shijie asked puzzledly: "If you want to reach Guangzhou within half a month, then the speed of the voyage must reach fourteen knots, right?" Is it possible to drive at such a high speed for a long time? ”

Chen Wanshun said with a smile: "Our warship is made of stainless steel as the keel, and the hull is riveted with thick rivets, which is extremely strong, and the outside is covered with a steel plate as armor, which is extremely strong and can withstand tossing!" ”

Cheng Shijie said with great satisfaction: "This new type of warship is named the Giant Shark class, as the main battleship of our Ning Navy Naval Division, but what is the shipbuilding speed of this kind of warship?" ”

"With enough wood and materials, we can build six ships a year!"

"A year is too long, can you hurry up?"

"Unless...... With the kind of machinery from the woodsmith's factory! Chen Wanshun has seen the hydraulic and animal power machinery of the wood factory, with a large number of wooden parts, under the operation of this kind of machinery, it will grow at a rate of more than ten times.

"If you get all the machinery, how many ships can be built by the end of December?"

Chen Wanshun said: "Up to six ships can be built, including large and four medium-sized!" ”

In the past, Cheng Shijie thought that for a long time, the Sea Shark class would become the main warship of the Ning Navy's naval division, but he did not expect that Sun Chengzong prompted Shen Boyun's sand boat gang to take effect, and the Ning Navy not only had a large number of sailors, but also had a large number of excellent shipwrights.

If you add two giant sharks and four sea sharks, there will be more than sixty new warships of the Ning Navy's naval division, and the decisive battle with the Zheng clan is of course not enough, but it has the strength to inflict heavy damage on Zheng Zhilong.

After encouraging Chen Wanshun, Cheng Shijie told the craftsmen of the Shachuan Gang that they were in southern Liaoning, and their monthly salary was the same as that of the soldiers of the Ning Navy.

These craftsmen of the Sand Boat Gang were very grateful for the wise decision of the gang leader Shen Boyun.

(End of chapter)