Fuzhou City.
Li Jin, Xu Da and Deng Yu were discussing matters in the capital city of Fuzhou.
"County Magistrate Li, do you mean that you want your superiors to send troops to occupy the Dragon Tooth Gate?"
Deng Yu's eyes widened and he looked at Li Jin in disbelief.
You must know that Zhu Yuanzhang only wanted to completely eliminate Mongolia in the north, and did not have much interest in these overseas islands.
Not to mention, the Dragon Tooth Gate is isolated overseas, thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty.
Getting Zhu Yuanzhang to agree to garrison at Longyamen was simply as difficult as climbing to the sky.
Only Li Jin could think of such a thing, but Deng Yu felt that Zhu Yuanzhang would never agree to this.
Li Jin naturally knew Zhu Yuanzhang's temperament, but this was also the reason why Li Jin came to discuss with Xu Da and Deng Yu.
After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he took things as they came and focused only on his own one-third of an acre of land.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang was very talented and strategic in his early days, after he was firmly on the throne, he was somewhat happy-go-lucky, with a small-peasant mentality, and worried about gains and losses.
This also caused Zhu Yuanzhang to become more and more suspicious.
But these have nothing to do with Li Jin. All he has to do is find someone to write a letter with him, and he can persuade Zhu Yuanzhang to send the navy to station at Longyamen.
The location of the Strait of Malacca is very important. Now that Li Jin has caught up, he cannot let this location be lost from China's hands again.
Li Jin slowly took out a map from his sleeve.
The map only shows a rough map of the South China Sea. Although it is simple, you can roughly see the outlines of each country.
In particular, with the Dragon Tooth Gate as the center, the geographical situation of the surrounding sea areas is drawn, which looks clear at a glance.
"Commander Xu, Marshal Deng, please take a look."
Li Jin spread the map on the table in front of several people, stood up slowly, pointed to one of the locations, and said:
"Longya Gate is located on a traffic artery and is the most important strategic point on the sea."
"Look, you two, there are many island chains near Dragon Tooth Gate, and there is no convenient route between these island chains that can connect them to each other."
"If you want to reach various places in Southeast Asia from the Ming Dynasty, the Dragon Tooth Gate is the first place to bear the brunt."
"The most important route in Southeast Asia is located at Longya Gate. As long as this place is controlled, such an important route will become our Ming Dynasty's private route."
"The reason why Chen Zuyi was able to develop rapidly was because he occupied this place and used it as a basis to rob passing merchant ships and collect various protection fees."
"In just a few years, he has grown from a rogue to a pirate king who dominates the southern seas."
"Just imagine, if our Ming Dynasty occupied this place, not to mention anything else, just building a fortress here and collecting customs duties would be a huge amount of income."
"In the future, if the Ming Dynasty opens the sea, it will inevitably trade with various countries in Southeast Asia. If we use this as a transit point, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty will travel farther."
"The merchants and warships of the Ming Dynasty can also sail further afield, extending the influence of the Ming Dynasty to Southeast Asia and other places."
Li Jin spoke impassionedly, but Deng Yu was not very interested.
He was a general who immediately followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world, so he was naturally more interested in land and the army.
As for the maritime strategy Li Jin mentioned, he really couldn't arouse much interest, and the land of Dragon Tooth Gate was just a small place, how could it compare with the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty.
Even if the entire Nanyang is captured by the Ming Dynasty, so what?
These barbarian lands are full of savages. Where can we find the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty Jiangnan and the Central Plains?
After all, although Deng Yu can be regarded as a forward-looking person of this era, he was ultimately limited by the times.
Since ancient times, China has regarded itself as the supreme kingdom of heaven, and looked down upon some of the smaller countries around it.
Not to mention the barbarians among barbarians like Nanyang, there is nothing worthy of attention.
Deng Yu acted absent-minded, but Xu Da was different.
After these days of ups and downs at sea, Xu Da already has a different view of the navy and the ocean.
Although there is a saying in China that whoever conquers the Central Plains conquers the world, Xu Da felt that the navy would also become an important military force in the Ming Dynasty.
Not to mention anything else, the navy's terrifying transportation capabilities and artillery support capabilities are no longer comparable to that of the army.
The navy can easily fire thousands of guns without any effort, but the army is on land and is limited by the means of transportation, so it cannot compare with the navy.
And not only that, Xu Da felt that the wealth at sea was not necessarily less than on land.
Not to mention anything else, just from suppressing bandits these days, Xu Da got no less than tens of millions of taels of silver from killing Japanese bandits and pirates.
If there was real poverty at sea, where did these pirates get their wealth?
Moreover, Li Jin once said that maritime trade during the Song Dynasty could even support the expenses of nearly one million troops of the Song Dynasty, as well as the salaries of hundreds of thousands of officials.
It can be seen that the navy has become increasingly important.
Xu Da could also see that Zhu Yuanzhang had intended to reopen the sea. What he and Li Jin were doing now was to prepare for the opening of the sea.
At this time, Xu Da, under Li Jin's explanation, believed that Longya Gate would definitely be a strategic location in the future.
Even though this place is isolated overseas, it still has military value elsewhere on the sea.
Once the Ming Dynasty really opens the sea in the future, then the Ming Dynasty will inevitably establish supply locations on the sea.
The role of these places must not only be as simple as supply locations, but also serve as distribution centers for goods, as well as military fortresses and other functions.
But no matter what function it is, Longya Gate has unique geographical advantages.
"What County Magistrate Li said is correct. I am willing to submit a letter with you to persuade the superiors to station troops here."
After Xu Da thought about the causes and consequences, he slowly said:
"This place was given to me by God, so I have to take it."
Deng Yu was confused. He originally thought this was just Li Jin's nonsense, but he didn't expect Xu Da to be so serious.
Seeing this, Deng Yu looked at the map in Li Jin's hand again. Then Deng Yu seemed to have discovered something, pointing to a place above and said:
"This place next to the Dragon Tooth Gate is marked in gold. What does this mean?"
"Oh, there is a golden mountain here. This country is also called the land of gold, so it is marked with gold."
“Gold Mountain??!!”
Deng Yu felt a rush of blood rushing to the Tianling Cap, and continued to ask:
"Is there a lot of gold here?"
"Many, the Buddha statues here are made of gold."
Li Jin nodded naturally. The two wanted to talk about Thailand, which would later be called the Land of Ten Thousand Buddhas, but now it is called Siam.
Deng Yu looked at the glittering golden light around Longya Gate and said with excitement:
"I think this place at Dragon Tooth Gate is a blessed place and should not fall into the hands of others."
"Immediately submit a letter requesting the superiors to occupy the Dragon Tooth Gate."
"If no one is willing to go then, I will do it for you and bring this place into the arms of the Ming Dynasty."
Li Jin felt very good when he saw that Deng Yu and Xu Da both agreed to submit the letter.
Dragon Tooth Gate is adjacent to the South China Sea to the east and the Indian Ocean to the west.
It is a strategic hub between South Asia and East Asia. If you want to enter South Asia from East Asia and reach the Indian subcontinent, you must pass through the Strait of Malacca.
If you want to take a long way around, you will probably have to go twice as far, and you may even hit a rock and sink, because other routes are not as smooth as the one in the Strait of Malacca.
The reason why Li Jin asked Zhu Yuanzhang to occupy this place was because Li Jin knew that Zhu Yuanzhang would not be able to send a large army.
If they really agree to garrison the army, they will also have Li Jin's navy come.
At that time, Li Jin can build Longya Gate into a truly free city according to his own wishes.
In Shanghu County, after all, there were many things under Zhu Yuanzhang's nose that could not be done openly.
When he arrived at Dragon Tooth Gate, Li Jin could completely let himself go.
Later, Li Jin wrote to Zhu Yuanzhang under the joint names of Xu Da and Deng Yu, hoping that Zhu Yuanzhang would agree to send troops to garrison Longyamen.
Just after several people's memorials were delivered, Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial edict finally arrived in Fuzhou Prefecture.
