Chapter 87 Fang Chengfeng
He Xi didn't know that he would never see Fang Mingqian again.
Because Fang Mingqian is dead.
In the sixteenth year of Hongwu's reign, after three long voyages, Fang Mingqian's was the smoothest. The south wind brought him to the Bering Strait, which was just an ordinary eastward ocean current. It took them a long time to cross the Bering Strait, but they didn't go long before they encountered winter.
It was freezing cold and there were a lot of ice floes. There was also an accident in which a ship collided with an ice floe. There was the first casualty.
Fang Mingqian decided to look for a port and wait for spring.
So they waited for about three months, waited for the spring to bloom, and continued southward to the west coast of the United States. They knew their goals very well. Their goal was of course to find a new world, but more importantly, to find high-yielding seeds.
Therefore, wherever they went, they sent people ashore to conduct reconnaissance.
In the summer of the seventeenth year of Hongwu's reign, they finally arrived in Mexico and saw the high-yield and improved corn that He Xi had predicted. I even saw gold.
I have to say that gold is magical. When they easily obtained a piece of gold from the natives, the entire fleet went crazy. Originally, after getting the corn seeds, they could return to China. But everyone decided to stay for a year.
Buy more gold and bring it back. This is wealth that future generations will not be able to spend all.
At the beginning, they wanted to exchange supplies with the local indigenous people. The goods and supplies they carried were very popular with the local indigenous people. It was replaced quickly. However, the gold of the natives seems to be endless.
So, under the guidance of various forces. Fang Mingqian finally made up his mind, and he took nearly a thousand people on board to plunder the largest tribe nearby. Nearly a thousand kilograms of gold were obtained. That is simply the wealth of an incomparable country.
However, the wealth of this unparalleled country has even led to internal strife.
What is the concept of nearly a thousand pounds of gold? In ancient times, one catty weighed sixteen taels. Sixteen thousand taels of gold. One tael of gold is equivalent to ten taels of silver, which is one hundred and sixty thousand taels of silver. In the Ming Dynasty, that was an expense that required the signature of the Minister of Revenue.
For one person, that's an astronomical amount.
How to divide so much gold is a big problem.
With more and more gold. Fang Mingqian's sanity also recovered. His original intention was to make some extra money. But with so much gold, he soon realized that this matter could not be hidden from the court. So, he wanted to donate gold to the court.
Because no matter how much gold you have, it cannot compare to power.
There is a lot of gold in America. But Fang Mingqian doesn't want to live here. Because there is no use for gold here. Since we want to return to the Ming Dynasty, some gold is enough, but more importantly, power, and Zhu Yuanzhang is also a wise king. When Fang Mingqian thought about it, he offered gold and explained the source of the gold. There will definitely be generous rewards, and the court will not treat meritorious ministers badly.
As a result, Fang Mingqian's mentality changed. Only a small part of the gold was distributed to the soldiers, and most of it was kept in their own hands to be presented to the court.
But the soldiers below were unwilling.
This also revealed a major hidden danger in this voyage.
That is, the sailors of the three fleets sailing this time are all elite soldiers drawn from various places. This is a good thing, but also a bad thing. Because they were not a group before, they obeyed their superiors only to follow the orders of the court.
In a place far away from Ming Dynasty. What does the court's order mean?
I can't control this at all.
Prone to internal strife.
This is not without merit. That is because they have internal disagreements and will not let some people imitate Xu Fu and never come back.
Since Fang Mingqian wanted to dedicate most of the gold to the court, he reduced the gold for soldiers. This made many soldiers very dissatisfied. The reason is also very simple. For Fang Mingqian, more gold given to the court equals more rewards from the court.
But the soldiers are different here.
The rewards from the imperial court were certainly rich for the soldiers, but they were definitely not as good as the gold in their hands. After all, no matter how generous the Ming Dynasty was, it was impossible to give every sailing soldier and high-ranking official a generous salary. So differences arose.
Don't know why.
An internal strife began.
Fang Mingqian also wanted to stop it at that time. As a result, he was hacked to death.
Fortunately, this fleet was built with the old members of the Fang family as the core. The people of the Fang family finally killed everyone on the opposite side. As a result, the expedition team of more than a thousand people died in various unexpected circumstances, and the number of people killed by the indigenous people was only a few dozen, or even less than a hundred. But nearly half of them died under their own swords.
Finally, Fang Mingqian's son, Fang Chengfeng, cremated Fang Mingqian, took the ashes on the boat, and left this sad place.
They began their return voyage in the 19th year of Hongwu's reign and spent a winter on the way. Until now, they have found the waterway they are familiar with, that is, the waterway in the Sea of Japan.
Originally, when we arrived in Japan, we returned to the mature waterway system and were not far from the Ming Dynasty. And although Japan is remote. But compared to America, it is already a civilized place. And when he left the Ming Dynasty, he brought a letter from the imperial court to the King of Japan, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Made final supplies in Japan.
They didn't know that the situation had changed drastically. Still supplying in Japan.
The Japanese did not originally want to break up with Ming Dynasty. But when the soldiers are white, they are white, and when they are not, they are yellow.
It was the shogunate Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's idea not to break up with the Ming Dynasty. According to Japan's governance model, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's ideas are not consistent with the ideas of the samurai below. They don't think much, that is, I want gold.
Therefore, after the local samurai discovered that Akito had a large amount of gold, they organized a night attack that night.
Fang Chengfeng was alert and blocked it.
Fang Chengfeng was furious and immediately opened fire on the Japanese port, setting fire to the Japanese thatched houses. A fire burned the port to nothing.
Things are getting bigger.
Not all the local samurai died, but they couldn't say that they attacked Akito and were retaliated by Akito, so they insisted that it was Akito who knew about the alliance between Goryeo and Japan and took revenge.
As a result, the news reached the shogunate, who immediately ordered all places to pay attention to the traces of Fang Chengfeng's fleet.
Fang Chengfeng, on the other hand, went all the way south from the Sea of Japan and did not dare to approach Japan again. But the Sea of Japan is quite vast. It's easy to hide, but it's different when it comes to Tsushima Strait. The Tsushima Strait is already narrow, and during this period, Japan was transporting a large number of troops to Goryeo.
Japanese and Korean ships moved frequently.
Naturally, I saw Fang Chengfeng's boat.
The Koreans made the first move.
First, there was a blood feud between the Koreans and the Ming Dynasty. I have already broken my heart and don’t care at all. Secondly, the Goryeo Navy actually fought against the Ming Navy several times.
Although Lan Yu is not prepared to fight Goryeo now, he wants to drag Japan in and make things bigger. But basic reconnaissance of the enemy is still necessary. For example, Japan has reached that point in contact with Korea. Therefore, Lan Yu often sends navy ships to test.
Feel the other person’s confidence.
Generally speaking, the old ships used before Hongwu 16 years ago are used. The sixteenth year of Hongwu was a watershed in Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry. Sixteen years ago in Hongwu, due to the ban on the sea, the government built very few ships. They only supplemented the original lost ships. The shape of the ships was also very monotonous and small.
Sixteen years after Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty built more and more ships and became larger and larger.
The old ships of the Blue Jade Sect were worried about scaring the Koreans. Expose your strength in advance.
Even the main force of the Ming Navy was not on Goryeo, but on Tamna Island, which was Jeju Island. When Tamra was in the Yuan Dynasty, it was still an independent country, and its integration into Goryeo was short-lived. And for Goryeo, Tamna is a remote place. Daming had no idea about Tamluo. So, the Ming Dynasty sent people to take over Tamluo without doing anything at all. Tamluo had already abandoned Goryeo and embraced the Ming Dynasty.
It is difficult to hide the navy of Ming Dynasty in Goryeo. After all, the navy is so large. For what Ming Dynasty did in Goryeo, there were naturally countless people willing to serve as free informants for Goryeo's small court.
But it’s different in Tamluo.
Not to mention that the Tamra people are different from the Korean people. Just say. Even if someone in Tamluo wants to report a message, no one can get out of the island.
When the Koreans saw Fang Chengfeng's ships, they immediately became the main force of the Ming Navy. The Goryeo Navy still had some strength. Thus began a battle that Fang Chengfeng couldn't figure out.
The situation was very unfriendly to Chengfeng.
Years of wear and tear. Let the firearms have run out of gunpowder. The gunpowder they prepared themselves was very different from the official gunpowder of the Ming Dynasty. Several months of sailing left the soldiers on the ship in a very bad condition. The more important point is. The staff gap is too big.
As soon as Fang Chengfeng started fighting, he fled south.
Fortunately, the Ming Navy discovered them. With the support of the Ming Navy Navy. It was considered an escape. It was also known to Lan Yu.
