The sea breeze is hunting, the Bohai Sea is vast, and the fleet formation is majestic.
The bow of the large armed Galen ship Dinghai, with a light load and displacement of more than 1,000 tons, easily broke through the water outside Penglai, stirring up large swaths of pearl-like waves, and then dragged a white water trail, riding the wind. Go north.
On the deck, the sailor gunners of the Ming Dynasty Beiyang Navy were conducting sailing and gunnery training under the command of Western instructors. Following the commands of the two Western instructors, the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Navy were very skilled in sailing and cannon maneuvering.
This large warship, named after Dinghai, which means pacifying the sea, is the chief warship, or flagship, of the Beiyang Navy of the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy. At the same time, it is also one of the three most powerful warships owned by the Imperial Navy of the Ming Dynasty!
This ship, one of the three most powerful warships in the Ming Dynasty's navy, was not built by Zheng Zhilong's Shanghai Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau or Shen Tingzhi's Guangdong Xiangshan Shipbuilding Bureau.
The largest Western-style sailing warships that these two shipbuilding bureaus can now build can only have a light-load displacement of 800 tons. They could not build 1,000-ton ships, so Zhu Youjian asked Ambassador Luo Dagong to the Netherlands to order three 1,000-ton armed galenic ships from the Amsterdam shipyard to serve as the commander-in-chief of the Beiyang, Dongyang, Nanyang and other Sanyang navies. Warship.
At the same time, it is also used as a reference for the two major shipbuilding bureaus of Jiangnan and Xiangshan.
Today, those taking the Dinghai out to sea, in addition to Admiral Putman (Hans Postman) of the Royal Navy's Beiyang Navy and more than 200 officers and soldiers of the Royal Navy, there were also Emperor Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty and some of his entourage.
Now, Zhu Youjian, Mao Chengdou and Mao Zhenzhu were standing on the back deck of the Dinghai. They did not watch the training of the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Navy, but watched with interest the 65 ships following the Dinghai. Western-style sailing warships of various sizes.
The scene of the entire Beiyang Navy going to sea is still very impressive!
The current Imperial Navy of the Ming Dynasty has a total of Beiyang, Dongyang, Nanyang and other three maritime divisions, and the number of Western warships owned by each navy is equal to the number of Western warships owned by the Japanese Navy!
Didn't the Tokugawa Shogunate implement the "One Country, One Ship Order"? So Zhu Youjian came up with a "three times the enemy's order". Japan built one Western sailing warship, and Ming Dynasty built three!
If Japan builds the Sixty-Six Fleet (not the Eighty-eight Fleet, because Japan does not have the Eighty-eight Kingdoms), then Ming Dynasty will build three Sixty-Six Fleets!
One branch from the North Sea, one branch from the East Sea, and another branch from the South Sea! The number of warships is sixty-six times three, which is one hundred and ninety-eight!
Three against one, are you still afraid that you can’t win?
However, the construction of this "Sanyo Fleet" did not happen overnight. Otherwise, why would there be such a thing as a century-old navy?
In his previous life, Zhu Youjian had seen how Nizi built a powerful fleet step by step, so he would not rush for success.
Instead, let Zheng Zhilong, Shen Tingyang, Shen Tingzhi and Hans Postmann steadily advance the naval development plan. Starting from the three major naval bases of Tianjin Naval Academy, Shanghai Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau and Guangdong Xiangshan Shipbuilding Bureau, we will advance step by step.
In order to ensure the technical level of the two major shipbuilding bureaus (these two major shipbuilding bureaus are actually the private properties of Zheng and Shen), they also helped bring goods from Europe through Hans Postman, the Dutch East India Company and the Ming Dynasty Embassy in Amsterdam. We hired a large number of engineers and purchased prototype ships (the prototype ships are all owned by the Royal Navy and are government property) and shipbuilding tools (there are no machines, but there are still many special tools and molds). We also purchased them through Tianjin, Municipal shipping companies in Shanghai, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and other places purchased a large amount of Siamese teak for the construction of warships...
Because it adopted a development approach of high standards, strict requirements, and a stable foundation, the Sanyang Navy of the Ming Dynasty did not develop rapidly. Now only the Beiyang Navy, with Hans Postman as the commander-in-chief, has completed the 66-ship equipment plan.
The first reason Zhu Youjian visited Liaodong this time was to take over and organize the Ping Liao Army; the second reason was to see the majestic lineup of the Beiyang Navy!
Yes, for these two purposes, there is no plan to attack slave thieves or Japanese pirates.
Because the disaster of Ming Dynasty has not been completed yet!
According to Zhu Youjian's memory in his previous life, the drought in Shaanxi and Henan has eased since the autumn of the 15th year of Chongzhen. The consecutive droughts in Shaanxi and Henan in the 16th year of Chongzhen have basically ended. In the 17th year of Chongzhen... .In the year of the Jiashen Incident, the drought in Beizhili, Shanxi, and Shandong gradually eased from summer.
However, if we want to completely restore the vitality of agriculture in Shaanxi, Henan, Beizhili, Shanxi, Shandong and other provinces, we have to wait until the 18th and 19th years of Chongzhen... And the drought on the Mongolian grasslands is about the same It was only in the 16th and 17th years of Chongzhen that things began to gradually ease.
And due to the "Heavenly Disaster" that began in the 10th year of Chongzhen, the famine preparation warehouses in Nanyang and Xiangyang have been taking out food!
Two large warehouses for famine preparation, plus official warehouses in various places, must spend more than 13 million shi of grain every year for disaster relief or selling off - of course, none of it will be given in vain! Relief grains had to be exchanged for military households, and the prices for selling them into the market were high... So the Ming Dynasty's treasury has become richer in recent years!
However, the gold, silver and money in the treasury cannot replace food.
And without sufficient food reserves, of course it would be impossible to support a war that destroyed the Qing Dynasty.
Moreover, the drought in the Mongolian grasslands also restricted Zhu Youjian's use of Mongolia's national power. Because dry grasslands are readily available (burning grasslands is a common tactic of the Mongols), without grasslands, it is impossible to feed the horses and livestock of the nomadic army.
Therefore, according to Zhu Youjian's plan, the Qing Dynasty can survive for another five or six years...
But the problem is, Zhu Youjian doesn't want to be beaten, but Queen Mother Taisong wants to be beaten!
...
Liaodong, Lushunkou Pier.
As soon as the Dinghai docked at the Lushunkou Pier, Zhu Youjian received a memorial from Mao Wenlong and Shi Kefa - Shi Kefa arrived half a month earlier than Zhu Youjian and was now handing over to Mao Wenlong. When Zhu Youjian arrived at Lushunkou, Shi Kefa and Mao Wenlong should be waiting at the pier as long as they could still move.
So Zhu You can see them both as soon as he checks the boat... Why do you want to meet him at this time?
Zhu Youjian, who was about to get off the ship, immediately felt something was wrong and immediately said to Wang Chengen: "Instruct them to get on the ship!"
Wang Chengen took the order and left, and soon took Mao Wenlong and Shi Kefa into the cabin where Zhu Youjian was.
"Your Majesty, this is the letter of war sent by the slave and puppet Queen Mother Taisong that I received three days ago!"
After Shi Kefa finished the obeisance ceremony, he didn't waste any time. He immediately took out the letter of challenge written by the Empress Dowager Taisong and handed it to Zhu Youjian with both hands.
"What?" Zhu Youjian was stunned, and quickly reached out to take a scroll handed over by Shi Kefa. When unfolded, there are several lines of Chinese characters written on it, all in vernacular: Southern Emperor Zhu Youjian is listening. I am Taisong, the Empress Dowager of the Northern Qing Dynasty. I heard that your military commander came north to Liaodong to seize my land and capture my mother and son. Although you are very good at fighting, I am not convinced, so I am writing a letter of challenge and asking you to go to the north of Yongning City for a showdown. Do you have the guts to fight?
"What does Taisong mean?" Zhu Youjian didn't understand. "I didn't want to hit her, but she wanted to?"
After hearing this, Shi Kefa and Mao Wenlong frowned a little.
An arrogant soldier will be defeated!
Although Long Live Lord has never lost a battle, he can't keep his tail up like this!
"Long live my lord," Mao Wenlong said, "The traitorous Queen Mother may have mistakenly thought that you came to Lushun to attack Liaoshen, so she issued this gauntlet to mobilize the entire country's troops to fight you!"
Shi Kefa also said: "Long live my Lord, the Pingliao army only has more than 20,000 people... If the slaves and traitors invade the whole country, we'd better retreat to the three forts of Yongning, Fuzhou, Jinzhou and the Nanguan border wall."
"I have also brought more than ten thousand elite soldiers!" Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "They are all elites in front of the tent and in front of the palace. They can just meet my Mongolian sister-in-law for a while... If I can capture her in one battle, we will The Battle of Pingliao will be easy to fight!"
