What a familiar feeling!
Standing at the top of the city of Shinshuri, I watched the landing troops set up banners with the word "Chong" on the surrounding hills. Looking at the large army of soldiers and horses in blue clothes and white hats, crossing the mountain pass three or four miles west of New Shuri City, and driving over in a steady stream, Zhu Cizhao had a feeling of déjà vu...
It seems that Li Zicheng, the king of rebellion back then, came with such force, breaking the city of Beijing and almost overthrowing the Ming Dynasty. He even captured Zhu Cizhao, who was still an ignorant young man at the time, alive and held him prisoner for a long time.
During the days when he was imprisoned in the camp, Zhu Cizhao, who was still a teenager at the time, was in fear all day long. Every night, as soon as you close your eyes, you can see a large group of soldiers and horses in blue clothes and white hats, rushing towards you with murderous intent to kill you... This life is really not a good one to live!
Later, he finally managed to get ahead and became Zuo Liangyu's puppet in Jingzhou City. If he hadn't met Mengmei...
Zhu Cizhao burst into tears when he thought of Zuo Mengmei - he and Zuo Mengmei were really deeply in love as husband and wife!
"Father, don't be afraid. With your son here, you will definitely not let intruders come in!"
Zhu Yunyi, who was following Zhu Cizhao, saw his godfather crying and thought he was afraid of Li Jicheng, so he immediately patted his chest and promised the old man.
Zhu Cizhao turned around and glanced at this silly, thick, cheap son, "I am not afraid of my father, I just think of your mother and concubine..."
"Father," Zhu Yunyi hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "It's been so long since mother and concubine, you should also consider renewing your relationship. The daughter of the King of Siam, Pa Ong Chao. Chayade's son has met Yes, she really has the beauty to captivate the country... She is not a pure-bred Thai, she is one-quarter Portuguese and one-quarter Persian. She was also admitted to Jinling Women's University. King Lei is also willing to provide a dowry of 1 million taels of silver. As long as you nod, it will be done!"
Zhu Cizhao shook his head and frowned: "How long has it been since you told me this? If you have such leisure, you should think about how to defeat the enemy, right?"
"Father, my son has summoned all the retainers to the city. The commercial port in the south bay of the fort and the salt field on the island have been evacuated. Some merchants have entered the city, and the rest have taken boats to evacuate to the Western Army on the other side. Went to Krabi County. The order to gather has been issued. It is expected that 1,100 samurai and 900 female warriors can be summoned...enough to defend New Shuri Castle.
In addition, the officials of the three New Shuri forts have all inspected it, and all 21 artillery pieces of various types are intact! "
The area of New Ryukyu Island is not large, only five to six hundred square kilometers. However, with the efforts of the Shang Dynasty and Zhu Cizhao, the island's agriculture and fishery have been developed to a certain extent. It has dozens of rice-growing farms and more than a dozen fishing villages.
After Zhu Cizhao took over the new Ryukyu Island, he took advantage of the beaches and pure seawater that can be found everywhere on the island, as well as the abundant sunshine in the dry season, to open the largest salt drying field in Nanyang.
In addition, the geographical location of New Ryukyu Island (Phuket Island) is very good, right between Haidu Port in Myanmar and Temasek Port in Malacca - the distance between New Ryukyu Island and the two places is 2,000 miles.
Therefore, New Ryukyu Island (Phuket Island) has become a supply port for merchant ships - such a port has little value in the era of 10,000-ton seagoing ships, but for galleys with a carrying capacity of 200 to 300 tons, they can only sail along the coastline. (There is no wind in Malacca, so the value of the galley is relatively high), it is very important.
Because the galley has more sailors and a limited load, it is impossible to carry a large amount of supplies, otherwise there will not be much space to transport goods. Therefore, New Ryukyu Island has become a must-stop port for small and medium-sized merchant ships traveling between Temasek and Haidu Port - ships traveling from south to north have to buy fresh water and food here, as well as some salt and salted fish.
Driven by the flow of merchant ships and the salt industry, New Ryukyu Island is not as good as Temasek, Batavia, Golden City (near Siam's capital Ayutthaya), Ca Mau City (the capital of the Ca Mau Army), Haidu Port and There are several spice islands, but they are also considered to be one of the most prosperous places in Southeast Asia.
Otherwise, Zhu Cizhao wouldn't always use silver bullets to hit the "sea bandits"!
Of course, in the past few years, the "Hai Liu Kou" and the New Ryukyu Island actually had common interests - the more the "Hai Liu Kou" stole from India, the greater the trade volume between Haidu and Temasek. ! Of course, the new Ryukyu Island, a shipping transit station, will also benefit from the oil and water.
In fact, Zhu Cizhao himself is also involved in the trade between Temasek and Haidu Port.
Because of this, he was more willing to use a "silver bullet" to buy off the "ocean bandits" instead of alarming the Nanyang Fleet and the Malacca Fleet.
The "Hai Liu Qiu" are also unwilling to level the New Ryukyu Island. To be honest, New Ryukyu Island is still a link in the Hai Liu Qi bandit's stolen goods industry chain... The industry chain of selling stolen goods is about to be broken. How can they realize the things they looted? How to turn it into the various things they need?
Therefore, Zhu Cizhao was not too nervous when he discovered that the Hailiu Bandits were coming in large numbers. He did not even rush to Temasek Island for help. Instead, he sent his royal businessman Wei Qingshan (Wei Qingmu's brother) to negotiate the price with the Hailiu Bandits...
While Zhu Cizhao was observing the enemy's situation on the top of the city, Wei Qingshan, the shopkeeper of Wei Da, had already met Li Jicheng, the "Hai Chuang King" who was personally conquering the imperial army, on the dock of Nanpao Taiwan.
Li Jicheng has also become darker and thinner in the past few years - the reason for the darkening is because he leads troops to sea every now and then and gets tanned by the strong sun at sea. I lost weight because I had a serious illness last year!
Tropical diseases did not spare him either. He had dysentery and diarrhea to the point where he almost met Li Zicheng!
After having diarrhea, Li Jicheng had to kill someone - he killed Sun Kewang and his daughter!
Because the father and daughter conspired during Li Jicheng's illness, they wanted to seize the door and support Li Laiheng's restoration. As a result, the restoration failed and even cost him his life...
Of course, Li Jicheng was a filial son, so after killing his stepmother, he immediately apologized to his father and offered ten beauties snatched from India as compensation.
However, this incident still hit Li Jicheng's already somewhat low popularity... The price of Dashun's move to Myanmar was also very heavy! Li Jicheng was the emperor, but he was struck down by dysentery once, and he almost became the late emperor, let alone others?
In recent years, at least 300,000 to 400,000 Dashun people have died due to various tropical epidemics... The history of Dashun's expansion into Myanmar is simply a history of blood and tears!
In order to revive his reputation, Li Jicheng had to launch an attack on the Ming Dynasty after recovering from a serious illness.
In addition, the news from India that the Portuguese King arrived in Goa and asked for help from the Ming Dynasty and the Timurid Empire also prompted Li Jicheng to take action against the Ming Dynasty.
He didn't know why King Alfonso of Portugal ran to Goa, or why he took refuge with Ming Dynasty and Tamerlane. But he knew that Zhu Cihong must be behind Alfonso's defection with the Goans.
This is a sign that Emperor Zhu will intervene in India on a large scale - once India is controlled by the Ming Dynasty, Dashunke will really be trapped to death.
Therefore, Li Jicheng joined forces with Philip I, Duke of Orleans, the French Governor of India who had just arrived to govern the country, and the Dutch Indian Trading Company to launch an action to fight back the Ming Dynasty's claws extending into the Indian Ocean!
India is Dashun India!
"Humph, I don't want Zhu Cizhao's dirty money!" Li Jicheng's voice was a little hoarse, and it sounded a bit scary and gloomy, "Go back and tell Zhu Cizhao that you brought the heavenly soldiers here just to make peace with him. .....The west entrance of Malacca should be used as the boundary. The east side belongs to the Ming Dynasty, and the west side belongs to the Ming Dynasty! In the future, the Ming Dynasty is not allowed to interfere in India's affairs... This India is the India of the Ut Dashun!"
"This, this..." Shopkeeper Wei Qingshan didn't know what to say after hearing this. Zhu Cizhao was just a Luo king. How could he have any power to change Ming Dynasty's Indian policy? Even if he agrees, it will be of no use!
Li Jicheng squinted his eyes and continued: "Zhu Cizhao, don't try to deceive me with empty words... He also wants a hostage, and wants his grandson Zhu Yijin to go to Haidu Port as a guest!"
