"Your Majesty, when I arrived at Fuchun (the capital of the Nguyen Lord of Guangnan), Lord Zheng Zheng, who occupied most of the northern part of Annan, happened to launch a southern expedition of unprecedented scale, raising 100,000 troops, and also hijacked the Annan capital commander ( Li Weiyou, known internally as the Emperor, marched south together. It was likely that Nan Ruan would be destroyed in one fell swoop!
The Ruan Lord Ruan Fulan sent his son Ruan Phuc Bin and general Ruan Youjin to lead an army of 20,000 troops north to Nan Ruan to resist Bei Zheng's border fortress Chang De Lei to set up defenses. The scale of this battle is unprecedented. If Nan Ruan is defeated, the country is likely to be destroyed.
Because he had to deal with Beizheng's offensive with all his strength, Ruan Fulan had no time to take care of Priango and Chai Gun, so he agreed to let me lease land to King Ude of Shuizhenla for cultivation.
In addition, Ruan Fulan also agreed that the four principals would rule together and protect Le Jun together. But he was worried that Jun Li would be kidnapped by Lord Zheng, which would make the four rulers' joint rule come to nothing. So he hopes to invite a descendant of Li Jun to sit in Fuchun..."
Zheng Sen was sitting in a pavilion near the water in the East Lake Palace, reporting to Zhu Cixiang what he had learned in Annan and Shuizhenla. His father, Zheng Zhilong, sat on the right side of Zhu Cixiang, with a smile on his dark face.
It seems that the richest man in the Ming Dynasty must have made a fortune from the feudal debt speculation incident! He is the number one black dealer in the Ming Dynasty!
Mingjun Zhu Cixi didn't have time to argue with him yet, and now his mind was on Shui Zhenla and Annan.
Zheng Sen's mission to Annan and Shui Zhenla happened to coincide with the decisive battle between Ruan Zheng and Guangde - this was a decisive battle launched by Zheng Zhengzhao for many years to destroy the Ruan family in Guangnan!
In order to ensure victory, Zheng Jie also invited Dutch military advisers to help train the so-called Royal Guards. He also bought armed merchant ships from the Dutch to form a navy. He also purchased a large number of artillery and firearms. It can be said that he spent the largest amount of money!
On the side of the Ruan family in Guangnan, because the territories they occupy are all newly developed "wild lands", the population of Annan is relatively small, and they also have to suppress the resistance of the Champa people in the newly occupied territories. Therefore, the number of troops that can be used to resist Lord Zheng is only 20,000.
But these 20,000 people are the elites that the Ruan family has trained through years of training by Portuguese foreign generals. They are also equipped with a large number of war elephants and are very powerful. Moreover, the Ruan family also occupied Hengshan and Lingjiang, the dangerous fortresses in central Annam, and relied on the dangerous fortresses to build two lines of defense, Changyu Fort and Changde Fort.
However, in the last battle between Zheng and Ruan, the Changyu Barrier was captured by the Zheng army. Now there is only the Changde Barrier left to protect the Ruan family in Guangnan.
In this precarious situation, Ruan Lord Ruan Fulan naturally had no spare power to prevent the Ming Dynasty forces from entering Shuizhenla. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty's involvement in Shuizhenla was not necessarily a bad thing for the Ruan Lord... If the Ruan family was defeated in Changde and Guangnan fell, the Ruan Lord's last stronghold would be Chaigun.
If the Ming Dynasty established a stronghold near Chaigun, wouldn't the Ruan family be able to learn from the Mo family, take shelter from the Ming Dynasty, and survive?
"How much land have we rented in Shuizhenla? Where is it?"
Zhu Cixiang was not very interested in the domestic politics of Annam because he knew that in the original history, the name of the person who destroyed the Nguyen Dynasty was Ho Chi Minh... who was not even born yet!
Therefore, the outcome of this battle between Zheng and Ruan is likely to be similar.
"Your Majesty," Zheng Sen replied, "I have rented two pieces of land in Shuizhenla. One is near Puliango. King Ude agreed that we can build a castle anywhere in the lower reaches of the Jiulong River. The other is in Jinoujiao. It is the easternmost peninsula of Shuizhenla. There are several ports there that can provide food and fresh water to ships traveling in the Southeast Asia. We can choose any port."
"This King Ude is quite easy to talk to..." Zhu Cixiang smiled, "Elder brother, you didn't use gunboats to scare others, did you?"
Five of the 10 Western-style warships that Zhu Cihong ordered Zheng Zhilong to build in the past two years have been completed. Two of them are running the Shanghai-Uraga route, one is being used as a training ship by Zheng Jiangong, and two more are running on the Shanghai-Uraga route. Tiao then followed Zheng Sen to Puliange and Fuchun. These five Western-style sailing ships were built based on an armed Galen ship of the Dutch East India Company that was overhauled at the Zheng's Shipyard in Anping Port. Instead of starting work on 5 ships at the same time, we will start construction on 1 ship first, and then start construction on 2 ships after completion and sea trials. After these 2 ships are completed, work on 2 ships will be started.
Therefore, these five ships were built in three batches, and the second and third batches of ships were improved compared to the previous batch-improved in the direction of warships.
The two Galen boats that Zheng Sen took to Priango and Fuchun were from the third batch. They used a large amount of Siamese teak and had very strong hulls. They were also equipped with 28 doors and 12 pounds of red. Yi cannon. It is impossible to deal with the battleships of the Dutch East India Company (the difference is not only the ships, but also the sailors), but scaring a prince of Shuizhenla is not like playing?
However, Zheng Sen was a scholar-official and would not admit to using such immoral things as red barbarian cannons and warships to force barbarians to give up their land.
"I didn't use gunboats to scare Ude," Zheng Sen smiled. "I am the envoy of the heaven, so I naturally have to convince people with my virtue!"
Zheng Zhilong also laughed together and said: "Yes, you must convince others with virtue, and convince others with virtue..."
Well, you can convince people with your virtue... The great virtue of 56-door 12-pound red barbarian can indeed convince people!
"That's good," Zhu Cixi nodded with satisfaction, "Then how many miles of land can we occupy?"
This sounds like a question from a rich man.
The great pirate Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "Your Majesty, the territory occupied by those wild places in Southeast Asia does not matter."
Zhu Cixiang nodded, thinking: I know your family is unreasonable!
"What are you talking about?" Zhu Cixiang asked.
"How many cities and towns are there along the coast," Zheng Zhilong explained, "Shuizhenla Kingdom has a small population, and even less people in the lower reaches of the Jiulong River and Ca Mau Kok, so management is very loose, that is, along the Jiulong River We have occupied some walled cities, and the large areas between the walled cities are forests and swamps. Each walled city can develop as much land as it needs.
What Zheng Sen wanted from Vice King Shuizhenla was the right to develop two cities in the lower reaches of the Jiulong River and Jin Moujiao. As for how much land can be developed, it depends on our ability. "
"It's all a wild forest there?" Zhu Cixiang also knew that the forests in Southeast Asia were not easy to develop.
"No," Zheng Sen said, "There are already many ports and forts built by immigrants from Annan and our dynasty. As long as the imperial court can build cities and settle land on the banks of the Jiulong River and Ca Mau Point, it can take them all under its control."
"That's good..." Zhu Cixiang was very satisfied. The Ming Dynasty's tiger skin was as bluffing as water, and it also had warships that convinced people with virtue, so they should be able to conquer many cities.
"Old Taishan, Senior Brother," Zhu Cixiang asked again, "Do you have any recommendations for suitable candidates to serve as camp envoys in Jiulongjiang and Jinoujiao?"
"Your Majesty," Zheng Zhilong said, "most of the people of the Ming Dynasty currently living in the Jiulong River and Jinoujiao area cultivating fields are Cantonese, while the maritime merchants who travel between Shuizhenla and Daming are mostly Fujianese. Therefore, the field envoys should be honest and honest. The deputy and deputy envoys are selected from Fujian, Cantonese and Hakka respectively, so as to facilitate things."
Zhu Cixi thought for a while, "Then the chief envoy will be appointed by me, and the three deputy envoys will be appointed by the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, the governor of Guangdong and the Duke of Quanguo respectively."
He paused and then asked: "It will cost a lot of money to cultivate the Jiulong River and Jinoujiao, right? Where can this money come from? The imperial court's finances are not rich!"
"This is easy to handle," Zheng Zhilong said with a smile, "Just issue vassal bonds...I heard that Pingxi and Shuofang vassals issued vassal bonds very well."
"Is the matter of the debts of the two vassals good?" Zhu Cixi's face darkened slightly, "The debts of the two vassals rose and fell sharply a while ago, which caused many gentry and businessmen in Hubei to lose their money... I have asked the Jinyiwei, the Ministry of Households, and the Municipal Government to go bankrupt..." The Procuratorate jointly conducted a thorough investigation and found that there was a behind-the-scenes manipulator manipulating the feudal debt market, spreading false news, and also buying and selling short, turning the feudal debt transaction into fraudulent gambling, which is really hateful!"
Zheng Zhilong's face changed greatly when he heard this, "Ah, there is such a hateful traitor? Your Majesty, have the Jinyiwei, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate found out who the traitor is?"
