The ecstasy of the two princes came from the fact that Gao pragmatism changed the restrictive attitude of the maritime trade zoning.
Originally, Gao pragmatically divided the fleets belonging to Jinghua into the northern and southern fleets based on geographical divisions, which actually resulted in a trade situation in which the elites of the capital were unable to enter Fujian and further south because they were members of the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance. This made the Beiyang Sea fleet The scope of foreign trade of the trade alliance was limited to North Korea and Japan.
At the beginning, this restriction did not cause the powerful people (not just the nobles but mainly the nobles) to feel too much discomfort. The reason is that they had just gotten involved in maritime trade at that time, and their basic capital, including the ships they owned and the geographical location they were familiar with, were still very immature and fragile. In addition, the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance allows internal transactions within the Ming Dynasty (from Liaodong to Zhejiang). No matter from which perspective, this restriction does not matter to them.
However, as maritime trade continues to develop at a rapid pace, five years after the establishment of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance, this restriction has gradually become an unbearable shackles for the powerful.
Take the two Dukes Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong as an example: the land accumulated by Zhu Yingzhen's mansion for more than a hundred years now has less than 10,000 hectares left. According to the calculation method of the Ming Dynasty, one hectare is equal to one hundred acres. The remaining nearly 9,000 hectares of fertile land in Chengguo Gong's mansion (only the best is left) is still shocking, up to 900,000 acres, but so what? It is only a fraction of what it was ten years ago.
At the same time, the merchant ships under the control of Duke Chengguo grew from scratch, grew from small to large, and have now developed into the second largest force in the "Beiyang System" after Jinghua. At this moment, Zhu Yingzhen owns 55 Jinghua-style armed transport ships, and 17 merchant ships of various types that were purchased in the early stage and are smaller in tonnage and can enter inland rivers.
Excluding those old and small old-fashioned merchant ships, the 55 Jinghua-standard armed transport ships alone are an astonishing scale, because the standard of armed transport ships is actually very high: it has a displacement of 800 tons (1600 tons), is designed for open-air deck guns, and is a single ship. It has 28 artillery pieces of various types and has a crew capacity of 180 people.
The 55 Beijing-style armed transport ships meant that the total tonnage of the ocean-going ships in the hands of Chengguo Duke Zhu Yingzhen reached 44,000 tons, with 1,540 light and heavy artillery pieces (including 440 No. 2 heavy guns and 1,100 No. 3 light guns), and nearly 10,000 sailors ( 9900) people.
Where is the British Duke Zhang Yuangong? He is a little worse than Zhu Yingzhen, because Gao Pragmatic gave him some other benefits in the early years, such as the supply of briquettes to the capital and other miscellaneous items, which resulted in his investment in the sea being less than Zhu Yingzhen.
However, even so, the British government owned 42 Beijing-style armed transport ships, with a total tonnage of 33,600 tons, 1,176 light and heavy guns (336 No. 2 heavy guns, 840 No. 3 light guns), and 7,560 sailors.
As for the Xu family of Dingguo Gong, because Xu Wenbi was old and relatively moderate in his work, his investment in maritime trade was not as "burning the boat" as Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong, so it was less than the former two. However, after all, Ding Guogong is also one of the top wealthy families in the Three Kingdoms of the Capital. It is easy to lose face with too little capital, so he also owns 25 Beijing-style armed transport ships.
In addition to the Duke, the princes and uncles also each own more than a dozen or at least seven or eight armed transport ships.
All in all, the combined force of this force is staggering in number, even exceeding the total number of armed transport ships owned by Beijing's Beiyang Fleet. If Jinghua had not gradually built a number of warships that could be used as pure warships in recent years (but could still carry cargo during non-war times), even Jinghua would not be able to guarantee that it would exceed the overall strength of the nobles (only referring to Jinghua's Beiyang Fleet).
Today, in addition to nearly a hundred armed transport ships, the Beiyang Fleet also has one third-class battleship, two first-class cruisers, and two second-class cruisers.
Among them, the third-class battleship has a displacement of 1,600 tons, a two-layer deck gun design, 72 artillery pieces of various types (8 No. 1 heavy guns, 28 No. 2 heavy guns, and 36 No. 3 light guns), and a crew of 460 people.
Although this third-level battleship is only equivalent to two armed transport ships in terms of tonnage alone, because it is a warship class, the construction standards are much stricter, so that the final cost is about 4 armed transport ships, and the cost of a single ship is as high as 240,000 two. [Note: This cost refers to the cost recorded in the British naval historical materials of the same period, and takes into account Jinghua’s cost advantages in wood, manpower, etc., and then obtains it through mainstream currency conversion in world economic history research. 】
Due to the huge Dingnancheng construction plan, Jinghua's finances have been tight in the past year or two. Only three battleships of this class have been built (originally five), two of which are in the Nanyang Fleet and one in the Beiyang Fleet.
This third-class battleship of the Beiyang Fleet was naturally used as a flagship and was named "Liu Rengui" by Gao Pragmatic. This naming naturally has some implications: Liu Rengui was the commander-in-chief of the Tang Army and the commander-in-chief of the Tang-Silla Allied Forces in the Battle of Baijiangkou in Tang Dynasty. After the Battle of Baijiangkou, Japan was beaten to the point where it dared not peep westward for hundreds of years.
One battleship and two classes of four cruisers constitute the core deterrent force of the Beiyang Fleet. Coupled with more than a hundred armed transport ships, this is the strength of the Jinghua Beiyang Fleet. The Beiyang Fleet, plus the nearly two hundred armed transport ships owned by the nobles, is the strength of the entire Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.
This strength comes from a decade of rapid development with almost no construction restrictions.
However, this disorderly large-scale construction gradually caused problems: there were more ships, and although the trade volume was also growing, because the market was limited after all, and the Warring States Period in Japan was almost over, the growth of trade volume could no longer keep up with the rate of ship construction. speed.
In other words: the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance urgently needs to open up new markets to satisfy its growing maritime transport capacity and desire for profits.
This desire for benefits is what Gao Pragmatic hopes to see, because in his view, the biggest problem with reform is whether the adjustment of benefit distribution can satisfy vested interests.
Gao Gong and his uncle and nephew insisted on reform measures such as clearing land and land, forcing countless powerful people to surrender their land to the people. If the powerful people are not given new benefits as compensation, this force will form resistance to the reform.
For a while, it may be possible to rely on the emperor's decision and trust to carry out the reform, but as time goes by, this resistance will become stronger and stronger, until the following begins to obey the government, and eventually the whole system will backfire and people will die and the government will cease.
No matter how powerful Beijing is, it cannot compete with the country's elite capital; no matter how much trust Gao Pragmatic has gained, it cannot be more important than the foundation of the emperor's rule. Therefore, his consistent thinking is "I will help everyone make more money", and he will never and dare not just block things.
Now that the development of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance has entered a bottleneck period, Gao Pragmatic has to consider letting them enter Nanyang. Although entering Nanyang may dilute Jinghua's profits, what can I say about this? Jinghua does not restrict the southern maritime merchants from going to Nanyang. It is not a bad idea for many northern powerful merchants to enter.
Even from a highly pragmatic overall perspective, this matter itself is still worth promoting. After all, only if more and more "ruling classes" attach importance to maritime trade and turn to maritime trade, will the rejection and opposition to the opening of sea within the Ming court become smaller, and will it be possible for the Ming country to complete its thinking shift, and then make the country more and more independent. Be more and more open.
Instead of closing the door and boasting about being invincible, why not open the door and be the best in the world?
As for choosing to take action against the Philippines, Gao Pragmatic certainly has his own considerations. Although Spain is still at the peak of its national power, the peak of its national power alone does not work. Spain now has too many enemies. And the biggest problem is that King Philip II is a bit like Yang Guang. Doesn’t it mean that he doesn’t have a grand strategy? How can someone who dares to say “the world is not enough for me” not have a grand strategy?
His problem is that his grand strategy is so big that even Spain, which is so powerful and seems to be favored by God, cannot bear it.
From a political perspective, Gao Pragmatic believes that there are three reasons why Spain turned from prosperity to decline: first, the internal organization of the Spanish Empire was loose, and the development of its monarchy was quite limited; second, Spain retained a large number of feudal remnants, and the country It mainly represents the interests of the great nobility and the monastic class of the Catholic Church. The political structure is relatively rigid, primitive and primitive. Finally, in order to safeguard its own interests, the ruling class has implemented a series of self-destructive economic and religious policies.
From an economic point of view, the reason for its turn from prosperity to decline is that in the second half of the 16th century, Spain's domestic agriculture, handicrafts and commerce generally declined; the price revolution caused by the large influx of American precious metals into Spain and the entire Europe further hit This has affected the development of its economy; in foreign trade, Spain is in an extremely unfavorable position, with a large amount of gold and silver wealth flowing out, and the national finances cannot make ends meet and have gone bankrupt many times. In short, the Spanish economy has fallen into a vicious cycle of decline.
Furthermore, the harm caused by the internal and external wars in Spain to the country was too great. War is related to the prosperity and decline of a country, and cautious rulers know not to talk about war lightly. Philip II's reign lasted for forty-two years. During these forty-two years, Spain only enjoyed peace for a short six months, and was in a state of war the rest of the time.
The war itself was a waste. Spain had made too many enemies and exhausted its national strength. However, the results of the war were still very poor: the Netherlands was still independent; France still won the victory under Henry IV (even though he later converted to Christianity). Catholic)... Among the three recent major wars, the only one that cannot be considered a complete failure is the Anglo-Spanish War, which most people in later generations think he failed.
In fact, Spain could not be considered a defeat in the Anglo-Spanish War. At least at the end of the war, the overall strength of the Spanish navy was still strong. On the contrary, the British navy was entered into a period of decline. Of course, this war had many subsequent effects. For example, the rise of the Dutch navy was caused by the aftermath, which cannot be explained in a few words.
How ruthlessly does Spain consume its national power? Take the ongoing Dutch War, which lasted for 26 years and cost Spain a total of 100 million ducats.
What is the concept of 100 million ducats? This gold coin minted by the Republic of Venice in Italy is approximately pure gold and weighs 3.56 grams. In other words, Spain invested 356,000 kilograms of pure gold in the Netherlands War.
In Ming Dynasty, this would be 7.12 million taels of gold, or 71.2 million taels of silver! And you must know that this battle was only one of the six battles fought by Spain during the reign of Philip II.
Some people may think that war itself is also a way and a means to stimulate the economy. Although Spain has many wars, theoretically it should also have a stimulating effect on the economy.
However, the fact is that Spain hardly stimulated the domestic economy from these wars. The reason is that almost all of the wars fought by Spain were outside the homeland, and most of them were far away from the homeland.
In order to save trouble (or not understand), the Spanish generals basically chose to purchase weapons, food and all other needs nearby, so these expenditures were almost in vain and did not stimulate the domestic economy at all.
The only thing that can stimulate the domestic economy is probably the shipbuilding industry. But what is very funny is that after Philip II became the co-king of the Kingdom of Portugal by taking advantage of the Portuguese succession crisis, in order to win the favor of the Portuguese nobles, he handed over a large amount of shipbuilding business to Portugal, which promoted the development of the Portuguese shipbuilding industry. .
As a result, Portugal... became independent again, and Spain came up empty-handed.
Against this background, Gao Pragmatic thought that it was safe for him to seize the Philippines now. No matter how unhappy Philip II was, he would not have the energy or ability to cross half a world to attack him. Go on an expedition.
Of course, even if he wanted to do it, Gao Pragmatic would not panic at all. Tsarist Russia also did this kind of stupid thing in later generations. As a result, the Russian Imperial Navy's fortune was basically wiped out, but it actually enhanced Japan's position in East Asia.
Can the Spanish sailing fleet complete the tasks that modern navies have been unable to accomplish?
The strength of the Beijing and China fleets is not weak. Unless the Spanish Armada is directly airborne in Manila without damage through space transmission, its high pragmatism will not be wasted at all.
As for land warfare, that goes without saying. Although the former governor of the Philippines, Sander, even suggested that Philip II mobilize 20,000 troops to conquer the Ming Dynasty, Gao Pragmatic knew very well that this was just talking in his dreams.
The combat effectiveness of the European army in the era of geographical discovery is completely different from the combat effectiveness of the European army in the era of the Industrial Revolution. Compared with the Chinese army at the same time (late Ming Dynasty, mid-to-late Tatar Qing Dynasty), the gap is also completely different.
The performance of the European army in Asia during this period was actually relatively average. It would be no problem to defeat the small and backward countries in Southeast Asia with the same force. However, as long as the small and backward countries concentrated on a greater military advantage, the European army would still suffer.
This level is actually about the same as the elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty - the elite soldiers here do not refer to the complete servant troops, but only the troops with servants as the core and combined with the guardsmen. For example, in the Ming-Burma War in the original history, Liu Wei's tribe and Deng Zilong's tribe, even if they had elite soldiers of this level, their performance against Southeast Asian countries was similar to that of Portugal.
Even because Liu Wei and the others had obviously more troops than Portugal, they rarely suffered defeats. On the contrary, Portugal was defeated or retreated several times due to insufficient troops during the conquest process.
The Spanish Army's combat effectiveness is stronger than that of Portugal, but in Gao Pragmatic's eyes, there is no secret to the Spanish Army's special skills. It is nothing more than the Spanish Grand Square. The bayonet formation that Gao Wuchen is now promoting to the Ming Dynasty's frontier troops is actually an improved evolution of the Spanish Grand Square, and is an enhanced version of their power. The tactic of bayonet array itself came from Jinghua, and Jinghua is the original work.
If we want to conduct benchmarking, Gao Pragmatic basically believes that the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army will not exceed the level of the Dingnan Garrison.
However, the Dingnan Garrison, as the main force expected to occupy the core defense area in southern Xinjiang's rule, will eventually reach 60,000 people (not yet full). Spain will definitely not be able to handle this force alone.
What's more, Spain currently has less than 2,000 troops in Manila, so pragmatically it doesn't even need to use the garrison.
After hearing Gao's pragmatic explanation, Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong couldn't help but feel excited and nervous at the same time, and asked: "What does Rixin mean that the battle to capture Manila City will be completed by the marines of our Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance?"
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