Grand Duke Luo listened to Emperor Zhu's words with an expression of admiration on his face, but in his heart he felt like a mirror - the Tokugawa family's young lady must be too short, and she doesn't agree with the wishes of Lord Long Live...
Zhu Cixi then ordered: "If the Tokugawa family is really sincere, they should give the princess a Tang Muyi."
Tang Muyi?
Zheng Zhilong and Grand Duke Luo were stunned.
Emperor Zhu was the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, so he still lacked these three melons and two dates?
Grand Duke Luo asked: "I wonder where your Majesty wants to go?"
"Nagasaki!" Zhu Cixiang said, "I want Nagasaki!"
"Nagasaki?" Grand Duke Luo was surprised. He knew where Nagasaki was!
That is the gateway to Japan!
"Impossible..." Zheng Zhilong shook his head repeatedly, "The Tokugawa shogunate will not give it to me!"
Zhu Cixiang glanced at Zheng Zhilong and said with a smile: "I will give it to you! Of course the Tokugawa family will give it to them... When they are defeated by the Shimadzu and Maori armies, they will give it to them!"
"Your Majesty, the Tokugawa family's army is not that weak." Zheng Zhilong reminded, "The Tokugawa family has imported a lot of artillery and horses from us over the years. In addition, they can make muskets, so their military strength has been greatly enhanced. "
What? Zhu Cixiang was slightly stunned. The Tokugawa family bought cannons and horses from the Ming Dynasty? Who sold it to them? Could it be the Zheng family? Your family really dares to take out anything!
"It's useless." Zhu Cixiang did not argue too much with Zheng Zhilong, but continued to talk about Japan's civil war, "Zheng Jiangong's memorial said that about two to three thousand Spaniards swam to Kagoshima Port... .After these people join the Sazhou Army, the combat effectiveness of the overthrown army will be greatly increased."
"But they are all navy," Zheng Zhilong said, "What else can the navy do ashore?"
Zhu Cixiang waved his hand: "The distinction between the navy and the army in Europe is not very clear. Some people are good at both sea and land. And there must be many highly skilled artillerymen and craftsmen in the Spanish fleet, and maybe there are also specialized marines... After they join, the power of the Shimadzu family will definitely increase greatly.
In addition, I also plan to let Zheng Jiangong and Li Yuanyin give up Sakurajima. Concentrate troops to defend the Goto Islands, Tanegashima, and Nagasaki Town, and recover the Ryukyu Kingdom. "
The Ming army's previous seizure of Sakurajima was just to prevent the Spanish fleet from using Inner Kagoshima Bay as a base for privateering and fighting.
Now the Spanish fleet has suffered a disastrous defeat, losing more than two-thirds of its ships, and the remainder is no longer a threat.
Therefore, there is no need for the Ming army to occupy Sakurajima - Sakurajima is not a good place for a large army to be stationed for a long time. Because the terrain of Sakurajima is complex and it is too close to the Satsuma Peninsula and Osumi Peninsula, it is easily infiltrated by desperate Japanese samurai.
If it weren't for the purpose of deterring Kagoshima Castle and containing the Shimadzu family's military strength, stationing at Sakurajima would be of little use.
Zhu Cihong said: "Let the Japanese fight on their own first, and when the Tokugawa shogunate suffers a loss, they will naturally agree to my request... Now, it's time for us to go to America to occupy more territory!
Tanegashima has been obtained. There are many fertile fields on this island, and the stone height is more than 10,000. A lot of food has been purchased this autumn. If we can get 5,000 dan, we should be able to support 1,000-1,500 people to immigrate to the New World. So we don't need to get more things from Japan for the time being. "
Migrating to the New World was a gradual process, and the first group of only thirty families came to test the waters.
According to the plan, the second batch of people crossing the ocean to the New World was larger, with 1,000-1,500 people. With the experience and lessons accumulated by the first batch of immigrants, their pioneering in the New World will be easier.
After this group of immigrants has established a foothold, the number of immigrants who drove through the third group should be three to four thousand!
However, immigration to North America at this rate is still too slow—three to four thousand a year, only thirty or forty thousand in ten years!
Therefore, in order to transport immigrants quickly and cost-effectively to seize the territory, the Navy Department issued a design contract to the four major shipyards of Ming Dynasty for the design of a special Pacific immigrant transport ship after the Henan ship set off last year... It required low price and high quality. It must be able to adapt to the wind and waves of the North Pacific, and it must be able to pull more and run faster. It must use as few sailors as possible to reduce costs.
In Zhu Cixiang's view, the issue of immigrating to North America and grabbing land is actually a dispute over colonial costs. Whoever has the lowest cost can grab the most share.
However, cheap and high-quality Pacific immigration ships alone cannot guarantee sending people to North America at a lower cost, because Ming Dynasty is too far away from North America, and Japan must be a springboard.
The distance from Japan to North America is 2,000 to 5,000 miles closer than departing directly from China without stopping in Japan. This means that the ship can carry 10 to 20 days less supplies, so it can carry many more passengers, and the per capita cost is natural Just low.
Don’t underestimate the supply of 10 to 20 days. A person needs 2000 ml of water a day, which is almost 4 kilograms. In 10 days, he has to drink 40 kilograms. In 20 days, it is 80 kilograms. Plus other consumption, in 20 days The weight of supplies can match that of an adult man.
"Your Majesty," Zheng Zhilong asked, "Do you want Nagasaki to add rice, food and wine to the ships heading east to America?"
"Of course not!" Zhu Cixiang shook his head, "The best port for adding rice, grain, and wine should be around Sendai Domain."
"Then Nagasaki is..."
Zhu Cixi smiled and said: "I want to recruit a samurai army in Nagasaki!"
In addition to the need to add supplies in Japan on the way to North America, Japan can also provide another necessity for Emperor Zhu's Celestial Empire - cannon fodder, high-quality and cheap cannon fodder!
"Samurai army?" Zheng Zhilong was still confused. "Aren't our Ming Dynasty's heavenly soldiers better than those Japanese samurai with little carrot legs?"
Zhu Cixiang sighed and said: "It depends on where they are used! There is no need for them in the grasslands, snowy areas, Bashu, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guanwai, and even North America. But what about the miasmatic land of Nanyang? Jin'ou Army, Jinghai Navy, Dongning How many deaths have the army reported in recent years? The competition in North America is about transporting people, the competition in Mongolia is about nomadic cavalry, the competition outside the customs is about elite soldiers, and the competition in Nanyang...the competition is about whose soldiers' lives are Not worth anything anymore!
The so-called samurai in Japan, except for a few who have wealthy families, most of them are said to be soldiers, but in fact they are just beggars who are good at killing people, and their lives are not worth much. If I give a salary of twenty or thirty dan, recruit langs in Nagasaki to join the army in Nanyang, and then reward the langs with land in Nanyang according to their achievements, then tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of langs and langs will be available, right? The annual salary is only one or two million. If you want to recruit troops from China, tens of millions are not enough!
Moreover, I cannot bear to let my soldiers die from the plague and miasma in the wilderness. "
There is no quinine or artemisinin these days, so it would be better to send troops to cultivated areas in Southeast Asia. After cleaning and development in those places, there will be less space for miasma and dysentery to breed, making it less likely for plague to occur. But if the troops were sent to an underdeveloped wilderness, it would not be surprising that half of them would die from illness!
If fighting for North America costs money, then fighting for South Asia costs lives!
Zhu Cixiang said: "It's nothing to kill Japanese villagers... These people are a hidden danger to Japan. If they die more, it won't do any harm to the Tokugawa shogunate!"
"Old minister, I understand!" A slight smile appeared on Zheng Zhilong's lips.
The emperor is indeed a man of great talent and strategy. Now he is not only looking at North America, but also looking at Southeast Asia...
Grand Duke Luo also said: "I also know what to do!"
Zhu Cixiang nodded and gently raised his hand to signal the two of them to leave. He, Zheng Zhilong and Grand Duke Luo were eating and talking. Now that the face-to-face meeting was over and the meal was almost done, they could start the emperor's work in the afternoon.
"Huang Xiaobao, where are you going this afternoon?" After Zhu Cixiang watched Zheng Jiangong and Grand Duke Luo leave, he asked Huang Xiaobao, the eunuch who was serving him.
"Long live Lord, Miss Mary has invited you to her new home." Huang Xiaobao said.
"Her new home?" Zhu Cixiang asked, "Where is the arrangement?"
"In Tangquan Bieye," Huang Xiaobao said, "it's very close to the Queen's Tangquan Palace... I had a corridor built by my servant. You can go directly from Tangquan Palace. It's very secret and won't be discovered."
