On that day, the emperor's eldest son became seriously ill, but in the end it was just a near miss.
The reason for this fright was that the young man fell while playing in the snow in the yard. The snow was probably too heavy at that time. He was completely submerged in the snow, and some of the snow got into his clothes. Although the maids hurriedly carried him into the room. He changed into dry clothes, but he, who was always weak, still caught a cold and soon developed a fever. His life was hanging by a thread.
What happened next was that the Empress Dowager Cisheng learned the news and sent a message to the emperor to go with her. Empress Dowager Rensheng and the empress also arrived, and the emperor was absent from the Chang Dynasty.
Zhu Yijun called Gao Pragmatic over at that time. He was not originally going to discuss what reforms Burihatu had made to Chahar as the mastermind of Tumen, but wanted to ask Gao Pragmatic about another matter.
This matter was a matter of high pragmatism: the emperor asked him if the Imperial Guard could hold a grand parade after the beginning of the new year.
The answer is of course yes.
Although the Imperial Guards have not been training for a long time, Qi Jiguang was the first person to train troops in the Ming Dynasty. The Imperial Guards are now supplied by the Jingying Production and Construction Corps under the personal supervision of Gao Pragmatic, so they can be said to have sufficient military pay. In addition, Liang Menglong, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, has a close relationship with Gao Pragmatic, and the replenishment of the Imperial Guard's armaments is also given top priority. With various conditions, this soldier can certainly train quickly.
Before the New Year, Gao Jingshi and Qi Jiguang carefully discussed the matters that needed to be paid attention to during the Grand Reading, and roughly arranged the process of the Grand Reading. After Gao Jingshi handed this official document to Liang Menglong, the court went on holiday.
Jian Xinzhai is bustling with people and Baiyu Tower is bustling with traffic, but for Gao pragmatism, this year is still a lonely year.
In the first year of marriage, his wife was pregnant, which was certainly something worth celebrating in Ming Dynasty. It is a pity that his wife is thousands of miles away in Siam and cannot return. Even during the New Year, he can only live in the north and the south separately. This is tragic.
Seeing that the day of Huang Zhiting's delivery was getting closer, Gao Pragmatic gradually became nervous.
But unlike many expectant fathers he had seen in movies and TV shows, what he was most worried about was not what would happen to his children, but whether his wife would be in danger.
If he said this, it might be hard for outsiders to believe it, but in his heart, his wife, who had traveled thousands of miles with him, was indeed more important than the children he had never even met. Even, as a future time traveler, he still has a worry that "if the child is gone, he can be reborn, but if his wife is gone, he is really gone."
He calmed down and thought about it. He thought about this mentality and found it very strange. Later he thought that something that happened around him when he was a child in his previous life might have affected him.
At that time, there was a young couple in his father's workplace. They were very nice people, and Gao pragmatically called them uncle and aunt. But the aunt "couldn't bear the pregnancy" probably due to physical reasons. She had a miscarriage just before giving birth for the first time, and the couple was very sad.
Later, when they got pregnant for the second time, the couple was very cautious. Finally, when it was time to give birth, who knew something would happen again. I was young and didn't know what exactly Gao was pragmatic about at the time. In short, the doctor asked the uncle to make a multiple-choice question: protect the adults or the children.
The uncle was in great pain and finally chose to protect the adult. However, when the news reached his wife's ears, she refused and insisted on giving birth to the child...
I won’t mention what happened later. In short, Gao Pragmatic was extremely impressed at the time. That uncle was such a good man. He burst into tears several times because others mentioned similar situations. While crying, he scolded himself for not holding on and scolding himself for being obsessed. I got lucky.
This incident may have become one of Gao Pragmatic's childhood shadows. Now that Huang Zhiting's birth is getting closer, he keeps thinking about this old incident that had a great impact on him, and is afraid that he will have to answer such multiple-choice questions. I even wrote the answer to this question in my mind in advance.
Sometimes he even worries about the impact of weather on production. For example, he is worried that the high temperature in Siam will easily breed bacteria, which will reduce the chance of smooth delivery and successful miscarriage. Sometimes I even want to send a fleet over desperately and take Huang Zhiting directly back to the capital to give birth.
But after all, he was not a man of this era. In the end, he chose to respect his wife's opinion and only wrote a letter to persuade her to return to Beijing temporarily. It would not be too late to return to Siam when everything goes well and she recovers.
Unfortunately, Gao Pingshi received a reply on New Year's Eve, and Huang Zhiting declined the suggestion. She blamed herself in the letter and said that she could not let him see the birth of the child in person because a previous plan happened to be at a critical moment and she really could not get away and go north.
At the same time, she also said that several doctors sent by the Jinghua Artisan School Medical College also emphasized another point to her: She is from Guangxi herself, and her adaptation to the climate in Siam may be better than that in the capital. Moreover, the climate in Siam is warm at this time, while the capital is extremely cold. If she rushes all the way back to the capital at this time, the temperature difference between the two places will be too big, which may be a bad thing.
This reply made Gao pragmatically feel more complicated. Logically speaking, Huang Zhiting's reply has made the reasons very clear, and Gao Pragmatic also believes that Li Shizhen's students are not talking nonsense.
But from a rational point of view, Gao Pragmatic feels more and more that he has not fulfilled his duties in this matter - although officials these days often go out alone, leaving their wives to give birth in their hometown, Gao Pragmatic is not them after all. , this approach cannot be taken for granted.
After being alone for a while, Gao Pragmatic realized that Huang Zhiting's reply seemed to have attachments in addition to this letter.
Looking at it again, the attachment seems to be a letter. Gao Pragmatic took it over and looked at it. It turned out that it was not a letter, but a note describing the current situation in Siam. Judging from the handwriting, it was not Huang Zhiting's handwriting.
This statement stated that the situation within Siam had been basically stable, the King of Siam had been completely eliminated, and an edict was issued announcing that he would visit Dingnan - the newly built Dingnan City in Beijing.
Later, he was taken to Dingna City by Huang Zhiting and placed under house arrest.
At this time, two major events happened almost at the same time. One was that the Portuguese pirate De Brito, who had risen in Arakan, finally took the bait and led troops to invade the southern coast of Myanmar. He also brought reinforcements sent to him by the Portuguese Governor of Goa. .
Although Huang Zhiting was definitely unable to go to sea now, under her arrangement, Gao Jing's Nanyang Fleet's Siam Squadron (temporary establishment) came out in full force, and finally found the Portuguese pirate army in the eastern sea off southern Myanmar - the eastern part of the Andaman Sea in later generations. The main force, the two sides broke out in the sea about two hundred miles west of Dawei Cape.
In this battle, Jinghua dispatched one first-class cruiser with 2,400 materials (flagship Lang Son), three second-class cruisers with 2,000 materials (according to the previous explanation in this book, 2,400 materials is equivalent to a displacement of 1,200 tons), and two Jinghua standard armed transport ships. Seventeen ships; the number of civilian armed ships actively participating in the conquest also reached 19. Yipin Book Bar
The size of the Portuguese fleet is not small, at least in the Far East, it is very large, but the size is quite different. There are not only Western-style soft sailing ships, but also Eastern-style hard sailing ships. There are a total of seventeen large ships and more than twenty small ships.
If we have to calculate it in terms of total tonnage, Jinghua still has a clear advantage. The total tonnage of the Portuguese pirate fleet is about two-thirds of the Jinghua fleet.
This battle lasted for nearly a whole day, and the process does not need to be described in detail. In short, the Portuguese pirate army sank four large ships and captured seven. Four of the remaining six warships escaped, and two were severely damaged and were captured. After being captured, he could not be dragged away and was ordered to be abandoned by Gao Jing. The boats of the Portuguese pirate army were not taken seriously by Gao Jing. Almost all of them were directly sunk, rammed or escaped. Due to the chaos of the war, the specific number of each was unknown. Gao Jing's report only said that "about half of them were sunk or abandoned." ".
But the losses suffered by Gao Jing's fleet were not small, or it could even be said to be the largest casualties Jinghua had suffered in a naval battle so far.
Jinghua damaged a second-class cruiser "Tsinghua" in the battle - the ship was not sunk, but seriously injured and was close to capsizing. Since it was late in the evening and there was strong wind on the sea, Gao Jing believed that it could not be towed back to shore. (it was impossible to return to Hong Kong directly), so he had to order the ship to be scuttled.
In addition to this serious warship, Jinghua also damaged eight standard armed transport ships, of which three were sunk on the spot. Although the remaining five were towed back to Dawei (the temporary port before launching the attack, in southern Myanmar), But when I returned, I found that it was beyond repair—meaning that repairing would be worse than rebuilding.
Almost all the civilian armed ships that only served as auxiliary forces during the battle were injured, ranging from minor to serious. The only thing that is fortunate is that there was no sinking in the battle.
In addition, the situation of the flagship Lang Son is not optimistic. It is said that 113 solid artillery shells were cleared from Lang Son after the war, including four chain bombs.
Thanks to the fact that this meritorious battleship was a first-class cruiser built in full compliance with warship requirements, with large tonnage, good materials, and the most sophisticated manufacturing, it was not sunk in the battle. But even so, after post-assessment, it will take at least three months to repair the warship, and it cannot be repaired in southern Xinjiang - even Annan Golden Port does not have this strength, and it must be brought back to the Ming Dynasty to repair it. This means how can it be repaired? It also takes more than four months.
The result of this naval battle can be regarded as severely curbing the idea of "I am the best in the world" that had appeared in the Jinghua Fleet some time ago.
It was also commanded by Gao Jing, and it also gathered the most elite warships. Facing the combination of Portuguese officers and Arakan sailors, the Jinghua fleet relied on its artillery and total tonnage advantages to win, and it also paid such a heavy price. Just imagine, if the Portuguese used their main force in the Far East, all of which were Portuguese ships and Portuguese people, could Jinghua still defeat them easily?
Even Gao Jing himself feels a little doubtful, because he is still not sure how much maritime power Portugal can use in the east - Goa is still a bit far for Beijing.
Finally, Tiao Chen said that after this battle, Huang Zhiting's interest in the Arakan region greatly increased, especially the Chittagong Port in Arakan, which was rich in excellent sailors. She repeatedly asked Gao Jing to immediately strengthen the investigation of Arakan, especially Chittagong. For "future strategy".
By the way, she also asked Gao Jing to continue his efforts and find a way to reach De Brito's home base in the Indian Ocean-the island of Sri Lanka.
However, Huang Zhiting does not know that not all of the current Sri Lankan island is actually occupied by the Portuguese. The island is actually just an area that Portugal is conquering. The power of the Stavaka Kingdom on the island is currently not bad. (In the original history, Portugal never captured the entire island, and even suffered a few major defeats, such as the Battle of Muleriawa, and even the entire army was annihilated, such as the Battle of Dantur - of course, that was mainly because of Portugal The Army is relatively weak and severely undermanned.)
De Brito actually only occupied a small coastal area, but Gao Jing did not know this. He had already begun to prepare for an expedition to the west in accordance with Huang Zhiting's order.
In addition to this maritime news, another major event in the article is about Cambodia.
King Gita I of the Phnom Penh Dynasty of Cambodia did not admit that Cambodia had any relationship with the previous Siamese rebellion. However, after detailed investigation, Jinghua found that the Phnom Penh Dynasty not only provided food and grass to the rebels in eastern Siam, but also sold a batch of ordnance at a low price. , including spear heads, simple knives, etc., and even twenty outdated muskets obtained from unknown sources.
In addition, Jinghua even obtained a letter written by the Cambodian general of Kampong Chhnang (name of place) to the leader of the rebels in eastern Siam. It mentioned some sensitive information, including arms transactions, food and grass support, etc. A trade was even hinted at.
This deal probably means that once the rebels achieve initial success, the Phnom Penh Dynasty will directly send troops to fight with them until the "Ming Army" is driven out of Siam. The Phnom Penh dynasty's request was "not excessive" - they required Siam to cede the northwest Cambodia area that Siam occupied after the Battle of Angkor in the fifth year of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty (1430).
In fact, the "base area" of the rebels at that time was that area. This transaction was actually an exchange of all Siam for the old Cambodian land.
Although no reply was found from the rebels, they must have agreed. It's a pity that plans are just plans after all. The rebels were quickly put down and all plans fell into dust.
However, the discovery of this letter made the situation in eastern Siam suddenly confusing. The Cambodian Phnom Penh dynasty was extremely nervous and immediately took action to desperately strengthen the defense of the northwest defense line and the capital Phnom Penh.
As expected, Huang Zhiting was not surprised by the Phnom Penh Dynasty, and immediately sent an additional 6,000 troops to the eastern front. Suddenly, the situation suddenly changed, and the war clouds destroyed the city, as if the war was about to break out.
However, after the "Ming Army" arrived on the Eastern Front, they did not really launch an attack. Instead, they suddenly stopped after making war preparations with great fanfare. The defenders and reinforcements actually turned to a defensive posture at the same time, guarding several places. There is no way out of key areas on the border.
The Phnom Penh Dynasty urgently sent a detailed investigation to investigate the details. Only then did they know that Huang Zhiting was pregnant. She might not be far away from giving birth now. It was impossible to direct this war. According to the Phnom Penh Dynasty, in such a national-level war, Huang Zhiting Of course, you have to direct it yourself.
However, the Chen Zhong in Gao Pragmatic's hand made it very clear: Huang Zhiting will not personally direct this battle, because the plan for this battle is not at all what Cambodia imagined.
"I have been entrusted by your wife to arrive in Annan by sea tomorrow. A month later, I will lead the main force of the Phnom Penh garrison to invade Cambodia from east to west. I hope to use Phnom Penh City as a gift to congratulate your father on your promotion. - Old friend Yours sincerely, Liu Xin."
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