"Your Majesty," Zheng Jiangong said thoughtfully, "I believe that the center of gravity of the maritime confrontation between the Ming and the West is still the coast of Japan, not the coast of the Philippines in the south. Therefore, whichever side Japan stands on, whichever side can have a huge The advantages!
Japan will be the key to defeating Mingxi! "
"Can't we capture the Philippines?" Zhu Cixiang asked, "Sulu has always wanted to surrender to China. With Sulu providing logistics, our army should be able to go to Luzon Island, and besieging the Santiago Fortress is not a problem...Beijing is comparable to the Santiago Fortress. It’s much harder to fight!”
Building a bastion is a mathematical problem, and Emperor Zhu now has reliable explosive ammunition, so Fort Santiago is no longer a problem.
"It's hard to say whether the army can capture Fortress Santiago, but even if they capture Fortress Santiago and drive the Spanish out of the Philippines, they will let us go to the New World?" Zheng Jiangong paused, shook his head and answered to himself, "I thought this was impossible!"
yes! The conflict now is not the Philippines, but the New World!
Spain is now in a lot of trouble. In Europe, it is still at war with France and Portugal. The fight is inextricable. How can it be possible to fight to the death with the Chinese Empire just to defeat the Philippines?
If the Ming Dynasty really captured Fortress Santiago, Spain would probably give up.
And Zhu Cixiang was not the kind of hot-headed emperor of the Celestial Dynasty, and he would not fight a war with the Spanish Empire for half of the Philippines (Sulu was not destroyed, so Spain only had half of the Philippines).
"Half the Philippines" is not of such high value, and the decline of Spain is only a matter of time. Half of the Philippines has always been there and will not move away. Emperor Zhu was not in a hurry at all and asked the Spaniards to develop three or four more What's wrong with ten years?
But when it comes to the New World and Australia, neither Emperor Zhu nor Philip IV of Spain can give in, so the value of the Philippines in this war is very limited. Zhu Cihong would not give up the New World just because he captured the Philippines, and Philip IV would not let the Ming army enter the New World just because he lost the Philippines.
"Marquis of Xiamen," Wei Zaode asked, "can't the Spanish fortify the coast of the New World?"
"It's impossible to prevent." Zheng Jiangong shook his head. "The Spaniards' power in the New World is relatively limited, and it is too far from their homeland to the northwest of the New World. And from the chart, the southern tip of the New World goes north, and once it crosses the equator It is against the wind and current, so it is difficult to reach the northwest corner of the New World along the coastline. Perhaps it would take them longer to go north along the west coast of the New World than to walk around the Pacific Ocean."
In the age of sailing, traveling by sea depends on the wind direction and ocean currents. If the wind direction and ocean currents are favorable, you can travel ten or eight nautical miles in an hour, which is more than 200 nautical miles in a day, and 10,000 nautical miles can be reached in two months at most.
But if you go against the wind and current, it will be slower... Although sailboats in the Age of Discovery generally have the ability to sail against the wind, by changing the angle of the sail and taking a zigzag route, the sailboat can also sail against the wind. But sailing against the wind is slow, with a tailwind of two to three hundred nautical miles a day, and a headwind of up to dozens of nautical miles... If there is no wind or a countercurrent (sailing in the equatorial windless zone), you can only paddle with an oar. .
Therefore, after the Spaniards discovered the "Kuroshio Current" (Japanese Warm Current) and the Pacific Warm Current, they gave up the counter-equatorial route back to the New World, and instead took a large circle along the coast of Japan, even if the Japanese closed the country and did not allow the Spanish Ships came into the harbor to trade, and the Spanish did not change their routes.
From this point, we can imagine the importance of Japan in the future Mingxi War!
Zheng Jiangong added: "If our ships can start from Japan and sail eastward with the wind, crossing the Pacific Ocean is only more than 10,000 miles, and it is a straight eastward route, it can take as little as one month and as many as fifty days. It’s over. It is said that the wind direction and ocean current of this route are very smooth, and the wind and waves are not too big. It should be possible to go one way with a big bird boat... The cost of building a Wanshi bird boat is only 10,000 taels now, and there are four It can be operated with a crew of fifty. Even if a ship goes one way, and the crew returns on a Galen ship like the Henan, the cost of transporting one stone of goods from Japan to the New World is only between two and three taels, plus Shanghai to Japan The cost is estimated to be no more than four taels.
This is a very low cost, this is our chance of winning! "
Zheng Jiangong, the "Chief of Naval Staff", was fundamentally a profiteer, so he settled the scores before going to war.
In his opinion, the key to victory or defeat in the Western Pacific War was transportation costs! It depends on the cost of both sides transporting troops, equipment, supplies, and immigrants to the battlefield in the northwest corner of North America.
If the cost of transporting one stone of goods to the northwest of the New World in the Ming Dynasty was only four or five taels of silver, then this war would have been fought.
Even if the Spanish thousand-ton galenic warships come to the Pacific, Ming Dynasty will still have a certain degree of success.
Because this kind of thousand-ton warship is not very efficient in breaking diplomatic relations at sea, it does not drive fast, and its number is not large. It is impossible to cut off the maritime supply line between Japan and the New World. At most, it will increase the transportation cost of the Ming Dynasty.
But it is absolutely impossible for the cost to rise to the point that Daming cannot afford it!
Once the Ming Dynasty established a firm foothold in the northwest corner of the New World in North America, built bastions, reclaimed farms, set up a protective palace, and discovered the American marten...then the Spaniards would have no choice but to go on an expedition and send out their armies. Went to attack.
No matter how crazy Spain is, their homeland only has a population of over five million! And at the same time, we have to go to war with France and Portugal!
Therefore, as long as the exchange ratio of the land battle is within a reasonable range, Spain will definitely lose!
Of course, the Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to capture the entire New Spain. If it could capture the Vancouver, Seattle, and Vancouver Island areas of later generations, and have a foothold in North America, Emperor Zhu would be very satisfied.
With this foothold, it would be more than 10,000 nautical miles to go south to Australia, and we could reach it anywhere within three or four months.
Zhu Cixiang said to Wei Zaode: "Marquis of Tongzhou, I will issue an edict tomorrow to confer you the title of Duke of the United States to overcome difficulties, and then give you the title of special imperial envoy to lead a delegation to visit Japan. You must try to bring the Tokugawa shogunate to our side, and together we will Deal with the Spaniards!”
Wei Zaode thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, although the Tokugawa shogunate hates the Catholic Church and has a bad relationship with Spain, their relationship with us is not very harmonious... I'm afraid they won't help without reason. Let’s go to war with the Spaniards?”
Japan has always stood on the edge of the Chinese circle and cannot get in or out. I'm afraid it won't be easy to pull it over!
Emperor Zhu said: "Marquis of Tongzhou, I know that this errand is not easy to handle, so I asked you to take action. You have been the chief minister of our dynasty for thirteen years, and you are famous even in Japan. If you take action, you will definitely be able to directly negotiate with Japan." When you meet with powerful people, I will give you full power. There is nothing that cannot be discussed... And I don’t want Ming Dynasty to be the superior country of Japan, just a country of brothers. Even if General Tokugawa wants Japan to become the emperor country, I can also recognize it.
In addition, on the disputed issue of Ryukyu Kingdom, I can also make concessions and let Ryukyu Kingdom become an independent state jointly protected by Ming and Japan. And I don’t need Japan to send troops, I just need Japan to allow us to open the use of Uraga Port. "
Zheng Jiangong interjected: "Your Majesty, I can discuss it with Tokugawa Mitsukuni first. He is the congratulatory envoy (to congratulate the Ming Dynasty on its victory over the Qing Dynasty) and has not left Nanjing yet."
"Okay." Zhu Cixiang nodded, "You go and talk first... Just say that I want to send the Marquis of Tongzhou to Japan to congratulate their new emperor on his accession to the throne."
Japan changed its emperor the year before last. Emperor Gomizuo abdicated and became a monk, and Emperor Gonishi ascended the throne. Because of the issue of the emperor's name, the Ming Dynasty did not send envoys to congratulate him, but ignored the matter.
Wei Zaode had a good ear, so he heard a "sensitive" word and quickly asked: "Your Majesty, do you mean the new emperor?"
()
full text
