Lushun Port is located in the south of Baiyu Mountain in Jinzhou, at the strategic point of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea. It is an important gateway to Beijing and Tianjin, and shares the throat of the Bohai Strait with Dengzhou.
The port is surrounded by mountains, with Golden Mountain in the east and Laohwei Peninsula in the west. There is a narrow waterway in between that connects to the open sea.
The harbor has good concealment and wind protection, making it a rare ice-free deep-water harbor in the north.
The straight-line distance from Tianjin Port is only 244 kilometers, it is only 119 kilometers from Dengzhou, and it is only 430 kilometers from Incheon Port in North Korea. It can be said that it is completely in the center of the region.
Port Arthur is far superior to Yingkou Port in terms of geographical location and military value.
However, the disadvantage is that it is relatively far from Liaoyang and Shenyang, the core areas of Liaodong, and is located in a remote area with impassable roads.
Therefore, it is only used as a military port for the time being, and its commercial value will be developed in the future when the road is built.
After Li Xianzhong became the Liaodong manager, he had more troops at his disposal, but relatively speaking, the supply pressure was also greater.
For an army of 100,000, even based on the lowest monthly salary of 1 tael and 5 taels of silver, the annual salary would cost 1.8 million taels, and the food consumption would also be around 1.4 million shi.
Nowadays, it is difficult for the Ming Dynasty to use the power of the whole country to support Liaodong. How easy is it for him to use the power of Liaodong to support Liao Town?
Li Xianzhong currently has 1.8 million taels of silver, 1.2 million shi of corn and rice, and 500,000 shi of sweet potatoes.
This money and food seems to be a lot, but if you want to raise your own troops, this will only be enough for a year's money and food expenses for an army of 100,000.
Although Li Xianzhong made a lot of money, he also distributed a lot of profits.
Take the most profitable capital, Tiantianrenjian, for example. Currently, Li Xianzhong himself only has 40% of his shares, Wei Zhongxian owns 30%, Duke Cheng, Zhu Chunchen, and the son of the British Duke, Zhang Zhiji, each hold 15%.
Of course, the income from Heaven and Earth is temporarily placed in the accounts of the Intelligence Department and used to build outlets across the country.
However, currently, the various industries of the Intelligence Department have a lot of income, and the surplus on the account has exceeded 100,000 taels.
30% of the revenue from Yingkou Customs was also given to Yan Mingtai, who distributed it to officials at all levels in Liaodong.
The only thing Li Xianzhong can monopolize now is the tariff on Korean trade. After the death of Emperor Wanli, he no longer has to pay 150,000 taels of silver to the emperor every year.
Emperor Tianqi was not very interested in silver.
However, most of the money in the hands of the Tatars has been cheated by him, and the trade between Horqin and Jianzhou has almost been interrupted.
His current monthly income is about 120,000 taels of silver.
So now he must find new target markets, on the one hand expand trade and increase income.
What's more important is to find a more stable granary.
Therefore, some overseas islands have become his targets.
In the thirty-first year of Wanli, after the Sekigahara War, General Tokugawa Ieyasu established the shogunate in Edo, and the Tokugawa shogunate era began.
At present, the Tokugawa shogunate is still very powerful, and the Japanese invaders are relatively powerful, so Japanese islands are not within Li Xianzhong's consideration for the time being.
Based on the current voyage of the Liaodong Navy, there are three target islands that meet the conditions: Jeju Island, Taiwan Island and the Ryukyu Islands.
Jeju Island is the closest to Liaodong and is easy to control. However, the environment on the island is relatively harsh and there are not many fields that can be planted, so it is suitable for horse herding.
There is no shortage of pasture in Liaodong, so occupying Jeju Island does not make much sense.
Taiwan Island is also a good choice. Li Xianzhong remembered that the Dutch only started to invade Taiwan in the 4th year of Tianqi, so there should be only some indigenous people and a small number of Han immigrants on the island now.
However, Taiwan is too backward and still needs a large number of immigrants to develop.
At present, Li Xianzhong even has part of the land in Liaodong left uncultivated, and it is impossible to vigorously develop Taiwan Island. Anyway, there are still more than three years left, so he is not in a hurry.
Of course, as a person of later generations, Li Xianzhong definitely wanted to capture Taiwan and would never let Taiwan fall into the hands of the Dutch.
However, his current strength is relatively limited, and he does not have enough naval forces to station in Taiwan, so he decided to leave Taiwan alone for the time being.
After careful consideration, he felt that Ryukyu was a good choice.
Although the Ryukyu Kingdom is relatively large and consists of hundreds of islands, there are only a few dozen inhabited islands.
Among them, the two islands of Ryukyu Main Island and Amami Oshima account for nearly half of Ryukyu’s area.
Therefore, the Ming army only needs to control the thirty-six islands of Ryukyu with these two islands as the core to basically control Ryukyu.
At this time, the population of Ryukyu was between 20 and 300,000, which could provide sufficient labor force, and there was no need for his time-consuming and laborious large-scale immigration for the time being.
After occupying Ryukyu, it can also be used as a springboard to go south to Taiwan or north to Japan.
Moreover, after occupying Ryukyu, in addition to food, sugar cane can also be grown to produce a large amount of white sugar.
In fact, in the wealthy Jiangnan area, the price of sugar is four to five times that of salt.
But in addition to being eaten, sugar is also a strategic material.
Mixing sugar and gunpowder together can greatly increase the power of gunpowder. Sugar is a raw material for making explosives and can also be used as a fuel additive for rocket boosting.
It can be said that sugar is one of the simplest methods that Li Xianzhong could think of in this era to increase the power of gunpowder and the range of guns.
Therefore, the target of the Liaodong Navy's attack this time was the Ryukyu Kingdom, 1,800 kilometers away.
It would be really difficult for Fukufune to attack Ryukyu at such a long distance without a favorable wind.
However, the three battleships of the Liaodong Navy are now Spanish galleons.
They are the 680-ton "Kaiyuan" and the two 480-ton "Tieling" and "Fushun".
Accompanying them were six 600-ton commercial Spanish galleons manufactured by Incheon Shipyard.
Since they are all Galenic sailing ships, these merchant ships and warships still match in terms of speed.
Now that Liaodong is basically under his control, and there is no movement from Jianlu for the time being, Li Xianzhong can finally take the time to go on an expedition.
Originally, he wanted Kong Youde to command the expedition. He was familiar with both the navy and land warfare in Korea, and had experience in dealing with the kings and ministers of these vassal states. He was also proficient in business. He was a rare all-rounder under Li Xianzhong at present. Talent.
Unfortunately, it is said that after Daishan succeeded to the throne, he was also intensifying his troops and showed signs of attacking North Korea, and Kong Youde could not escape.
In the end, he recommended his fellow countryman Geng Zhongming to lead the army. Geng Zhongming had been in charge of the Hongtoushan Copper Mine for more than a year.
Since defeating the imperial guards and stationing in Jiefan City, he has taken charge of the operation and defense of the copper mine, and he has done a pretty good job.
Under his management, the output of Hongtoushan's private mines hit record highs, and there were no deficiencies in defense. He also captured Tatar spies many times.
Therefore, he accumulated merit and was promoted to the rank of guerrilla general.
In fact, he prefers to deal with military generals than civilian officials.
Most of these people are genuine, not so much fake.
Among the civil servants in Liaodong, he also hit it off with Yan Mingtai. Now under the governance of Li Xianzhong, Liaodong has a strong tendency to use military force to control civil servants.
In fact, this is also a helpless move. After all, if there is a change in the government in the future, not many civil servants are willing to follow him wholeheartedly.
In addition to the retainers of the Li family, only people with relatively low backgrounds such as Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Fan Wencheng were willing to follow him all the way to the dark side.
He is also willing to give these people a platform.
Of course, Ming Dynasty still has a lot of talents, and he still has to try his best to win over those young talents, including people like Lu Xiangsheng, Yuan Chonghuan, and Cao Wenzhao. Anyway, he has already given the list to the Intelligence Department, and the next step is to look at Mao Yuanyi.
Soon Li Xianzhong boarded the flagship Kaiyuan. Following the order from Liaodong Navy Commander Deng Gang, the sailors on the ship began to push the huge winch to pull the heavy anchor from the water.
As the breeze blew gently, the huge sailing ship began to slowly leave the port.
Under the sunlight, the huge sail of "Kaiyuan" emitted golden light. The hull of the ship swayed gently, and with the rise and fall of the waves, Port Arthur behind it became smaller and smaller.
Looking at the huge white sails behind him, Li Xianzhong was filled with emotion. Although there were only 9 ships, the smallest one weighed 480 tons.
This was the first real expedition of the Ming Navy to the outer seas after Zheng He's "Seven Voyages to the Western Seas".
So the preparations this time are quite sufficient.
There are three thousand Ming troops in the entire fleet, including 1,500 sailors and gunners and 1,500 infantry.
In addition to the Lumi gun, it also carried lightweight 6-pound Franco machine guns and some tiger squat cannons.
Of course, Ming Dynasty is a country of etiquette after all, so they still fight in the name of caravan.
In addition to supplies such as ammunition and fresh water food, they also carried a lot of commodities, such as porcelain produced in Pinlubao, as well as some copper utensils, Buddha statues, ginseng and some other medicinal materials.
Of course, I also brought a lot of cement with me in case of emergencies!
There were also some accompanying businessmen, and they even found a translator from North Korea who could speak Ryukyuan!
The speed of Spanish galleons is about 7-10 knots (13-18 kilometers per hour), which is far more suitable for ocean navigation than Fuchuan.
Deng Gang said: "To Uncle Ning Yuan, if everything goes well, we can arrive in Ryukyu in ten days."
Li Xianzhong nodded with satisfaction and said: "It seems that ocean-going depends on large ships, and the Tieling is much more stable than the Fuchuan!"
Then he looked at Geng Zhongming, whose face was pale, and said, "Geng Youyi, are you okay?"
Geng Zhongming immediately cheered up and said, "Don't worry, Uncle Ning Yuan. The general only vomited twice. He has adapted to the bumps on the sea and doesn't get seasick anymore."
The three thousand men and horses on this expedition are all affiliated with Yingkou Road. The navy will naturally not get seasick. Even the infantry has undergone special training.
Only Geng Zhongming was temporarily transferred here from the Hongtoushan Copper Mine, although he also took a boat all the way from the Liaohe River to Yingkou, and then transferred to Lushun.
However, the wind and waves inside could not be compared with the sea. In the end, Geng Zhongming still made a fool of himself.
Li Xianzhong said with a smile: "This is all because I didn't think carefully and didn't let Geng Guerrilla float at sea for two more days in advance."
Then he took out a jar and said: "Here are some candied fruits I ordered people to make with yellow plums. If there are seasick soldiers, give them a few. Hold them in your mouth to relieve the symptoms."
Geng Zhongming picked up a candied fruit and put it in his mouth. The sweet and sour taste quickly prompted him to secrete a lot of saliva. As expected, he felt less seasick.
The fleet traveled smoothly for seven or eight days in a row, but encountered a storm. Fortunately, the fleet did not suffer any losses.
Suddenly a sailor standing on the watchtower shouted: "The enemy has been spotted ahead!"
Soon Li Xianzhong and others came to the ship building and saw two large galenic sailing ships flying the tricolor flag in the distance, chasing a medium-sized sailing ship flying the Portuguese flag.
In this era, the transport ships and European merchant ships on the East Asian sea were basically armed merchant ships. These merchant ships were equipped with artillery. Once they encountered ships from other countries, they would directly rob them.
This is one of the reasons why Li Xianzhong has not developed trade with Japan so far. His current navy is only enough to control the coast of Korea, and it is difficult to maintain a convoy fleet on Japan's routes.
But after the two 800-ton battleships are launched, with their powerful artillery, he should be able to compete with the old maritime powers such as the Netherlands and Spain in East Asia!
At this time, Deng Gang said: "I am reporting to Uncle Ning Yuan that Vice Admiral Fernando requests that we fire cannons to stop the Dutch from illegally plundering Portuguese merchant ships!"
Originally, Li Xianzhong, the dog-eating dog-eat-dog of the Dutch and Portuguese, was too lazy to get involved.
But after all, his fleet still had a large number of Portuguese sailors brought from Macau, and there were also many Portuguese mechanics in the shipyard and gun factory, so he just took action once, and at the same time, he also familiarized his fleet with how to rob.
Soon Kaiyuan fired artillery at the Helan ship in the distance.
The maximum range of Kaiyuan's 12-pound red barbarian cannon is only 1,500 meters. At this time, the Dutch ship must be 2,000 meters away from itself.
This kind of bombardment is more of a warning nature.
The displacement of the two Dutch merchant ships should only be 500 tons. They were shocked when they saw such a large fleet.
Especially when I saw the sun, moon and dragon flag flying on the mast, I was even more shocked!
Although the Ming Dynasty banned the sea at this time, it still had contacts with the Netherlands. The Dutch knew that the only country in East Asia that could use this kind of flag was the Ming Dynasty.
However, these flags have one more dragon than ordinary Ming flags.
Damn it, let alone the Ming Dynasty, even Portugal and Spain do not have such a huge fleet here.
The hero did not suffer the immediate loss, and the Dutch quickly turned the ship's bow and broke away from contact with the Liaodong Navy.
The Portuguese medium-sized merchant ship had been surrounded by the Liaodong Navy coming towards it.
The towering poop and forecastle of the Spanish Galen ship were most suitable for conducting boarding battles from a high position, and soon the Portuguese ship honestly raised the white flag.
Soon the merchants on board were taken aboard the Kaiyuan ship.
The leader was a fat businessman in his forties. From his dark skin, it was easy to tell that this man should be doing business outside all year round.
Li Xianzhong said: "The bold and profiteer not only violated the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban; he also dared to sell sheep's heads and sell dog meat under the Portuguese flag. He should be damned!"
The fat businessman was threatened by Li Xianzhong and wanted to kneel down on the spot.
But he was soon helped up by a tall young man, and then the young man mumbled a lot of foreign language.
Deng Gang had been hanging out with the Portuguese for a long time and had already learned Latin. He said: "This person said that they are just doing business for the Portuguese ship owners in Macau, so flying the Portuguese flag is not selling dog meat with a sheep's head!"
Li Xianzhong said: "If a wise man speaks foreign language, if he doesn't speak human language, I will drag him down and chop him!"
The fat businessman saw this and said quickly: "Official, don't talk nonsense!"
Then he said: "The villain Huang Cheng has been doing business in Macau all year round. This time he was chased by the Dutch. Fortunately, the officers and soldiers rescued him. The villain had 10,000 taels of silver on the boat, as well as copper ingots, sulfur and other materials that he was willing to donate as a thank you. Generals for your life-saving grace!”
Li Xianzhong was shocked when he heard Huang Cheng's name. Isn't Zheng Zhilong's uncle named Huang Cheng?
He just called the young man "Yiguan". Isn't this Zheng Zhilong's nickname?
Li Xianzhong said: "I am Ning Yuanbo Li Xianzhong. I think it is extremely risky for you to do business at sea. Do you want to follow me?"
At this time, Huang Cheng and Zheng Zhilong were also surprised. The young general in front of them turned out to be Li Xianzhong of the Ming Dynasty.
They had also heard about Li Xianzhong's control over the sale of business licenses on North Korean sea routes.
Now that the other party has informed them of their identity, they have no choice.
Otherwise, Uncle Ning Yuan would not let them leave here alive.
So Huang Cheng quickly pulled Zheng Zhilong to his knees and said: "Uncle Ning Yuan thinks highly of us. It is really a blessing for the common people. I wonder what we can do for Uncle Ning Yuan?"
Li Xianzhong said: "I want to occupy Ryukyu, turn it into the territory of my Ming Dynasty, and then gradually launch trade with Japan. You two must be familiar with Japan's trade routes, and you can work for me."
"Don't worry, I don't want this cargo from you, but don't be so petty. Follow me from now on. I will pay for the fleet, goods, and capital. I will give you 10% of the profit as a dividend." .”
Huang Cheng was simply overjoyed. Uncle Ning Yuan controlled the trade routes in Mongolia, Liaodong, and Korea, and now he wanted to capture Ryukyu.
They rely on this big tree to do business without capital, which is really what they want!
So he quickly agreed.
However, Zheng Zhilong said: "Although the Ryukyu Kingdom has not been annexed, it is actually under the control of the Shimazu family of Satsuma Domain."
"The Shimadzu family sent 3,000 troops to attack Ryukyu in the 37th year of Wanli and turned it into a vassal state of their own. In the 41st year of Wanli, Shimazu Tadahashi directly turned Amami Oshima into the direct territory of Satsuma Domain."
"Satsuma Domain now has a total territory of 732,000 koku, and it can be regarded as one of the top powerful clans in Japan!"
"Uncle Ning Yuan, if we want to capture Ryukyu, we must fight to the death with the Satsuma Domain. Currently, the Satsuma Domain has no less than 3,000 troops stationed on the Ryukyu Islands, and its total force in Japan is no less than 10,000. I wonder if Ning Yuanbo is ready. ?”
Li Xianzhong knew about Satsuma Domain's invasion of Ryukyu, but he didn't expect that they would have so many troops stationed in Ryukyu and directly eat Amami Oshima.
Li Xianzhong was still thinking about it when he saw Deng Gang knelt down and said emotionally: "The general asks Ning Yuanbo not to hesitate, and we must wipe out this group of Japanese pirates."
Li Xianzhong noticed that Deng Gang was in a bad mood at this time, so he asked: "Since I said I would capture Ryukyu, I will not give up halfway. Why did General Deng do this?"
Deng Gang said: "My grandfather was Deng Zilong, the deputy chief of the Ming Dynasty Navy. He died for his country in the Battle of Luliang Sea and was beheaded by Japanese pirates. Among these Japanese invaders was Shimazu Yoshihiro, the head of the Satsuma Domain, so I sincerely request you Uncle Ning Yuan must completely annihilate the Satsuma clan in Ryukyu!"
Li Xianzhong did not expect that Deng Gang was actually the grandson of the veteran Deng Zilong. In the battle of Lianghai, although the Ming Dynasty veteran Deng Zilong and the "Korean God of War" Yi Sunchen both fell, the Ming army severely damaged the Japanese pirates.
Li Xianzhong said: "General Deng Shen, don't worry, I will definitely wipe out the Satsuma clan in Ryukyu."
Although the Liaodong Navy's firepower is extremely powerful, it can completely attack Ryukyu.
But after all, the Satsuma clan had quite a few troops in Ryukyu, and the Japanese pirates were relatively powerful, so in the end they decided to use some tricks.
The Ming army did not attack Amami Oshima, which was directly under the Satsuma Domain.
Instead, the three main battleships were hidden in the open sea.
A fleet composed of seven merchant ships went directly south to Ryukyu Island.
Although it was only a merchant fleet composed of Spanish galleons, six of them were large merchant ships of 600 tons, which really shocked the nearby Japanese warships.
At this time, they were only using house ships with a displacement of only forty or fifty tons. Even the largest giant house ship was only more than 100 tons.
This kind of offshore warship is completely different from the Galenic sailing ship.
Huang Cheng and Zheng Zhilong soon led 7 merchant ships to Naha, the largest port on Ryukyu Island.
At this time, the Ryukyu Kingdom was already a puppet, and the Ryukyu King's decrees could not leave his palace at all.
Both Naha Port and Shuri Castle, the royal city of Ryukyu, were under the control of Satsuma Domain at this time.
They originally thought that the Ming army was here to send envoys to Ryukyu, but they were shocked. If the Ming Dynasty knew about their control of Ryukyu, they might cause big trouble.
After all, it had only been more than 20 years since Toyotomi Hideyoshi's failed expedition to Korea. The Tokugawa shogunate was still a little afraid of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention that it was only a small Satsuma domain.
Just when Shimazu Mitsuyoshi, who was in charge of staying behind, had a headache, news came that these Ming troops were only here for trade.
The Ming Dynasty had banned the sea for many years, and there were merchants who secretly came out to smuggle. However, so many large sailing ships did not look like personal smuggling by profiteers.
Huang Cheng and Zheng Zhilong quickly unloaded the cargo from the ship to the dock. When a large amount of porcelain, bronze wares, and medicinal materials appeared in the market, the merchants on the entire Ryukyu Island were excited.
Moreover, the bids of these Ming merchants were not high. As long as they sold these goods to Japan, the price could at least double.
The goods were quickly snapped up.
But after all, there are 7 large ships, and the merchants in Naha Port cannot buy all these goods at once.
At this time, Shimazu Mitsuyoshi could not help but have evil thoughts. If all the goods on the Ming army's merchant ships were sold and resold to Japan, they would be worth at least four to five million taels of silver.
Although these merchants from the Ming Dynasty sell for a low price, how can they enjoy it without spending money?
According to the investigation, although those Ming Dynasty businessmen hired many servants to protect them, the number was limited after all. Their ship is now parked in the port. As long as you take the opportunity to get on the ship, it is not difficult.
However, there are currently insufficient troops in Naha Port, so Shimazu Mitsuyoshi secretly mobilized a thousand troops from Amami Oshima to come to the vicinity of Naha, ready to do a big job.
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(End of chapter)
