The three territories mentioned by Grand Duke Luo are the three southern Thai provinces that have been making noise in later generations. The terrain is long and narrow, with the sea on both sides, the Gulf of Siam on one side and the Andaman Sea on the other, among which the Andaman Sea belongs to the Indian Ocean.
"After taking Pattani, Songkhla, and Yuluo..." Zhu Cixiang said after considering, "We will enter the Tianzhu Ocean!"
Luo Dagong said: "Your Majesty, now is the perfect time to enter Tianzhu Ocean."
"Really?" Zhu Cixi hesitated.
The Ming Dynasty has a great advantage in the Pacific. Because the war between Spain, England, and France is not over yet, it cannot send a large amount of navy to the Pacific for the time being.
Moreover, after the Kagoshima Bay War, the pattern of naval warfare has undergone profound changes, just like the situation after the Sinop War in history... All countries must rebuild their main fleets. This is equivalent to everyone being on the same starting line, which of course has advantages for the giant Ming Dynasty. Therefore, no one will challenge Ming in the North Pacific for the time being.
But the Indian Ocean is very crowded... all the time!
The Tianfang Sect is unwilling to lose its hegemony. Both the Ottomans and the Mughals are eyeing it. Portugal, the Netherlands, and England are competing for hegemony. France is still pushing in. If the Ming Dynasty is added, it will probably be overcrowded.
Luo Dagong said: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently received a report from the Office of the Superintendent in Siam that the envoy from the Mughal Kingdom of India visited and mentioned cooperation with our country against the Bukhara Khanate...Obviously You want to make good friends with me."
"What? Fight against the Bukhara Khanate?" Zhu Cixiang sounded a little confused.
Isn't this Bukhara Khanate in Central Asia? Where did you get the Indians?
"Your Majesty," Luo Dagong said, "the Bukhara Khanate and the Mughal Dynasty of Tianzhu are feuding. The Mughal Dynasty came from the Timurid Dynasty, and the Timurid Dynasty was succeeded by the Uzbek Khanate, the predecessor of the Bukhara Khanate. was destroyed, and now the ancestral land of the Mughal Dynasty is controlled by the Bukhara Khanate. The Mughal Emir Aurangzeb has always had great ambitions, and is known as Alamgir, which means world conqueror. Take the ancestral land in the north and conquer all the Indian states in the south."
"World conqueror?" Zhu Cixiang smiled, "That's not a small statement... Then why didn't he conquer Bukhara and come to contact our court?"
"This is because the conquerors of this world are not good at fighting," Luo Dagong said. "They were once defeated miserably by the Bukhara Khanate. Now I see that our vassal Zhungar tribe defeated the Bukhara Khanate. , we started to think about joining forces."
"Then he is not afraid that the monks of Zhunge will go south to Tianzhu after conquering Bukhara?" Zhu Cixiang asked.
"I don't seem to be afraid..." Grand Duke Luo said with a smile, "This matter has nothing to do with us. Why not take the opportunity to contact Tianzhu. As long as we form an alliance with the Mughal Dynasty in Tianzhu, we will have no problem entering the ocean of Tianzhu."
"That's fine," Zhu Cihong said, "Who can be my envoy?"
Grand Duke Luo said: "Peng Ziqin, the director-general in Siam, can help the envoy...After he is sent to Tianzhu, he can also go to the Ottomans and Europe. The situation in Europe has changed a lot recently, and the British Protector of the Country has changed With no one left, the war between Spain, France and Britain seems to have been decided."
It actually involved the issue of conquering Dashun all the way to the situation in Europe. It was quite a jump!
Zhu Cixiang nodded and said: "It is indeed time for a mission to visit Europe! Grand Duke, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will prepare a mission strategy as soon as possible. I want to review it."
"I accept the decree."
Zhu Cixiang said again: "Wei Chief Fu, please arrange a trip to Wuhan! I haven't been to Wuhan for many years. I want to stay in Wuhan longer this time to scare Li Guo."
"I accept the decree."
Zhu Cixiang then said to Wu Sanfu: "It is not good for Generals Shang and Kong to take charge of the Qishan side, so let Jiang Gu go out and serve as the admiral of the Qishan army. He also ordered Shuofang and Anbei towns to send 5,000 elite troops each, and Jiang Gu will lead the way.
As for Sichuan, Zeng Ying is still the coach. He is the military governor.
Yunnan and Guizhou established a governor, Mu Tianbo, and Yang Zhan was appointed as the admiral of the Yunnan and Guizhou armies. Allocating military funds, Mu Tianbo and Yang Zhan were allowed to recruit chieftain troops in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan and other places.
As for Huguang, a governor was also established, led by Cao Youyi, with Xiangyang Army and Jingzhou Army under him, with Yan Yingyuan and Qi Yuanbi as admirals respectively. "
Zhu Cixiang raised his voice: "This is the Qishan, Guanzhong, Xiangyang, Jingzhou, Sichuan East, Yunnan-Guizhou, Siam and other seven-pronged crusade armies... known as 700,000! Coupled with my personal expedition, Li Guo can do it this time Be frightened!"
700,000!
It's really impressive. Not counting the military strength of the foreign vassals, the total military strength of the Ming Dynasty and its subordinate towns, the navy and the army together are not as many as 700,000!
...
Yunnan, Kunming, Wuhua Palace.
The news that the Ming Dynasty had succeeded in pinging the Liao Dynasty and that the Seven Route Army would send a total of 700,000 troops to ping Sichuan and Yunnan came almost immediately.
Emperor Dashun Li Guo suddenly had a feeling of impending disaster!
"Great Military Advisor, please do the math. Did the Ming Dynasty really have 700,000 troops?" Li Laiheng, the prince of Fujun, also came from Ava and now asked Song Xiance to count them on his fingers.
"Your Highness, don't panic," Song Xiance said confidently, "In the past, Long Live would call himself a million people from time to time, but in fact there were not that many? I estimate that Emperor Zhu falsely claimed 700,000 this time, but in fact it was only fifty thousand at most. Ten thousand."
Five hundred thousand is not a lot!
Li Guo shook his head repeatedly, "What should we do? What should we do?"
"Father, since ancient times, when soldiers come to stop us, water comes and earth comes to cover us." Li Laiheng said, "If the enemy has half a million, what should we fear?"
Li Guo looked at his son: "My son wants to unite the army to fight against the Zhu family?"
"No," Li Laiheng said, "My son suggested that my father expand his army to fight against Zhu Ming!"
Expansion of the army?
Li Guo thought to himself: The current 250,000 military households can no longer afford it. If we expand the army...will we still have food to eat?
"How to expand the army?" Qin Wang Sun Kewang asked.
Li Laiheng said: "First, let the boys aged 15 and over from the military households of the government be recruited into the army, and be trained intensively to form a boy army, just like Zhu Ming's youth army... In this way, the army can be expanded to 2,780,000.
Then another 70,000 to 80,000 new soldiers were recruited, resulting in a total of 350,000 soldiers. Although not as many as Zhu Ming's 500,000 soldiers, it was enough to compete. "
There are 250,000 military households in Dashun, but 50,000 of them are officials. Only about 200,000 people can actually go into battle, which is a bit small, but the sudden expansion of the army by 150,000 seems a bit fierce.
"One soldier is 40 dan, and 150,000 is 6 million dan!" Niu Jinxing shook his head, "Even if the rent is five dou per mu, we still have to spend 12 million mu... Where can I find this 12 million mu?" mu?"
"What's so hard to find?" Li Laiheng said, "You can grant the land leased to farmers to the Fu Bing, and let the farmers pay the rent to the Fu Bing."
Not to mention, the mobilization ability of Dashun Dynasty is amazing!
Because after the Dashun Dynasty implemented the two fundamental national policies of enclosing land to raise troops and planning and dictating land, it took the country's land and population into its hands.
Even if the land granted by the dictation is not private land, it is public land. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with the imperial court transferring these lands to the Fu soldiers as duty fields, but the current 250,000 Fu soldiers already account for almost one-third of the land in Dashun. If an additional 12 million acres are added... Half of the land in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, which were afraid of Dashun, belonged to the government soldiers.
"The land has been given to the soldiers, and the rent received by the court will be less." Niu Jinxing still shook his head, "I am afraid that this war will last for a long time, and we will have to give the soldiers annual rations. If there are really 350,000 people in service , a year’s ration alone costs 2.1 million dan! Adding in the annual rate, even 5 million dan can’t stop it!”
"Then send more!" Li Laiheng said.
"Additional faction?" Li Guo thought to himself: What a familiar word!
"Yes!" Li Laiheng said, "We have to add more if we need to! If we don't add more factions... I'm afraid Dashun Dynasty will be gone!"
Niu Jinxing said: "With less than 35 million acres to bear the full land rent and an additional payment of at least 15 million shi, we also have to pay millions of pieces of cloth. It is really too heavy!"
"It's okay!" Li Laiheng said, "The Ming Dynasty collected tens of millions of taels of taxes a year, and we only have 15 million shi and millions of pieces of cloth. What do we have? If we don't collect them, the Ming Dynasty will seize Sichuan and Yunnan, and the people will It’s even more painful!”
Li Guo nodded: "That's right...for the sake of the people, let's do it this way!"
