Seeing Zheng Chenggong's reply also confirmed Zhang Mingwei's conjecture that steam paddle-wheel warships were still not ideal for use in war. If it is a steam propeller warship, because the power is hidden in the water, the safety performance will be greatly improved.
From now on, the warships of the Ming Navy will still have to rely on propeller warships.
While Zhang Mingwei was thinking about this matter, Wang Erbiao hurried to the Jinyiwei Commander's Yamen and sent a message to him to enter the palace immediately to discuss matters.
Seeing that something was wrong with his expression, Zhang Mingwei asked, "What's wrong?"
Wang Erbiao naturally couldn't hide it from him, so he quickly replied: "There is also a blood letter in the good news. The emperor was furious after reading it."
"Oh?" Zhang Mingwei was a little surprised after hearing this. When he asked again, Wang Erbiao replied: "We don't know the specific situation, but it seems to be related to the Western Yi killing the people of the Ming Dynasty!"
Emperor Chongzhen was furious as soon as he read the blood book and did not tell others the specific situation. Naturally, Wang Erbiao could not know the details.
However, when Zhang Mingwei heard this, he immediately guessed what was going on and hurried into the palace without asking any more questions.
Sure enough, in the Wenhua Hall, the six most senior officials of the Ming Dynasty, including the six cabinet ministries, were already there.
As soon as he saw Zhang Mingwei arriving, Emperor Chongzhen immediately stood up from his seat and said, "Sir, the Spaniards in Luzon Island are simply too bullying!"
In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Spanish massacred the Chinese again. However, at that time, locust plagues, droughts, famines, and cannibalism occurred in Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong and other places. Li Zicheng left Shangluo Mountain and led 50 cavalry into Henan. He immediately swept the entire Central Plains and gathered as many as 500,000 people; Yueyang Tower was destroyed in the war; Zhang Xianzhong rebelled again in Gucheng, Hubei.
Under such circumstances, the massacre of Chinese people by the Spaniards on Luzon Island could not be spread at all, and no one would care.
Not to mention, when the Spanish massacred the Chinese twice before, Emperor Wanli felt that the Ming people who escaped were no longer Ming people, so he just wanted to save face and let the Spaniards verbally apologize.
But now, the Ming Dynasty is domestically stable, its national power is getting stronger and stronger, and its strategic focus has begun to shift overseas. No matter from the perspective of confidence or political considerations, there is no reason to let this matter go.
The bloody handprints pressed by thousands of people and the blood letters written all in blood were presented to the ambitious Emperor Chongzhen. How could he not be angry!
Zhang Mingwei didn't even need to read the blood letter to know what was going on. He immediately said to Emperor Chongzhen and other senior officials of the Ming Dynasty: "With this introduction, it will be just right. It can make Zheng Chenggong send troops to Luzon to avenge the people of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time, start to entrust the king of Zhou with vassals!"
The King of Zhou was the first to respond to the court's call and donated his land and property to suppress thieves. At the same time, he agreed to enfeoff him to Luzon, which was very close to the Ming Dynasty.
I have been busy with domestic matters before, but this matter has been put on hold. Now is the time to start banishing all the vassal kings in the country.
Cabinet Assistant Minister Du Yinxi and others actually mentioned this just now. Now Xingguo Gong also has the same opinion, so of course there is no problem.
After detailed discussions, the following decision was made.
First, this blood letter of all people was made public, vigorously publicized the brutality of the Western Barbarians, and also made public the two massacres during the Wanli period.
Second, when Emperor Chongzhen attacked the Dutch, he had made it clear that as long as they were Ming people, they were Ming people no matter where they were. Anyone who dares to bully the people of Ming Dynasty will be in trouble with Ming Dynasty. Now I reiterate this meaning again!
Third, the order was sent to the south. Zheng Chenggong was reinstated because of his contribution to annihilating the Dutch, and he was also the commander-in-chief of the Fujian Navy. He was also ordered to send troops to Luzon together with Zheng Hongkui to destroy the Spaniards there.
Fourth, a decree was sent to the governor of Fujian, ordering him to organize the population to immigrate to Daguan. There is no compulsion, as long as people go there voluntarily, they will be exempted from taxes for five years.
Fifth, send people to inspect the islands around Danyuan to collect struvite, which can be used to improve the land and increase fertility.
This struvite is a type of mineral, also known as bird and animal excrement. As the name suggests, it is the accumulated droppings and carcasses of birds, bats and seals, making it a high-quality fertilizer.
This matter was of course brought up by Zhang Mingwei. He checked the information and found that there are still many on the islands around Taiwan. In the original history, mining was not completed until the Japanese colonized Taiwan.
Sixth, in order to conquer Luzon, Fujian and Guangdong at once, the troops left after the reform of the guard station were mobilized to follow the navy to Luzon Island. They will kill the Spaniards without mercy, and the natives who helped the evildoers without mercy, in retaliation for their unscrupulous massacres of Chinese people several times.
These things were published in Di Pao and forwarded by Ming Pao, so they were made public.
Because of the previous incident with the Dutch as a foreshadowing, these decrees immediately aroused heated discussion among the people as soon as they were made public. Especially in the south, the response was strong.
It has to be said that the Ming Dynasty's national power has become stronger now, which also affects the thinking of the people.
If the Ming Dynasty was still in a war-torn era and I couldn't survive, who would care about how the refugees overseas were doing!
But now, life in the country is getting better. After the people heard about the refugees overseas, although a small number of people felt that they escaped and worked as slaves for the Western Yi, they deserved to be killed.
However, more people can empathize with each other, think of the suffering during the previous wars, and understand their helplessness in escaping.
For the Chinese, this has been said since ancient times: it is difficult to leave the homeland. Who would want to leave their hometown if not out of necessity?
In addition, the massacre of them by the Western Yi also reminded the people of the Ming Dynasty of their precarious fear during the war, and naturally they were very sympathetic.
After Emperor Chongzhen made his position clear and under the guidance of public opinion in Ming Pao, the people of Ming Dynasty certainly applauded loudly for the actions taken by the court. Especially in the south, where there were more people going overseas for trade, they supported the actions the court wanted to take.
It can even be said that after hearing Emperor Chongzhen's decree, they burst into tears.
For a long time, when they go to sea for trade, they not only have to look at God's face, if they are not careful, they may be buried in the sea; they also have to go overseas carefully, if they are not careful, they may be oppressed, robbed, or even killed by the locals.
For others, they only see the huge profits from their overseas business, but only they know how difficult it is to do business overseas!
Now that it's better, the court can support them, which reduces the biggest risk. When you go to other countries to do business, you can straighten your back!
The Ming Dynasty Navy sent troops to annihilate the Dutch who were ravaging the southeast coast, which gave these maritime merchants a little hope. Now Emperor Chongzhen once again made it clear that no matter where the people of the Ming Dynasty were, if they were bullied by others, the emperor would make the decision for them, and this is how the current matter of sending troops to Luzon came about.
These two things can be said to have completely convinced these maritime merchants that the current imperial court has changed and will really make decisions for them. After these maritime merchants understood this, how could they not be ecstatic and burst into tears!
And these maritime merchants are all wealthy people. Of course they hope that the imperial court will continue to implement this national policy, not just for a while. Therefore, they all spent money one after another, not only donating money and materials for the imperial court to send troops overseas, but also began to make great efforts in guiding public opinion.
As for other people, after seeing how profitable the maritime trade was and seeing that the imperial court would make the decision for the maritime trade, it was natural that many wealthy people, or those who had the conditions to go to sea to do business, began to make plans to go to sea to make money. things.
In addition, there is an unexpected gain from this matter, that is, the people of Ming Dynasty recognize the imperial court more. In other words, they were proud to be the people of the Ming Dynasty, which unconsciously cultivated their patriotism and awakened the idea of a nation-state.
Under such a public opinion background, there is no suspense. Even if the Dutch Governor-General Caron did not kill him originally, he is now publicly executed in the vegetable market and takes his life!
Even the public opinion environment in the Ming Dynasty made the Portuguese who entered Beijing feel like rats crossing the street, with everyone shouting and beating them.
As a last resort, they finally figured out a way to avoid going to Beijing as much as possible. Those who really wanted to show their faces were holding signs that read: We are Portuguese, international friends, we fought against the Jianlu and the Dutch together, long live the Ming Dynasty!
Otherwise, if you see their appearance, you will be stoned and punched, and your nose will be bruised and your face will be swollen. Even if you explain it later, you will still suffer. There was nothing I could do about it. After holding up the sign, there were indeed fewer cases of unjust accusations.
This made these Portuguese people very emotional. It was not that they had never been to the capital of the Ming Dynasty before. Along the way, at most, the appearance was different, which attracted people from the Ming Dynasty to watch and point at them, but they did not suffer any embarrassment.
But now I didn't expect that once Akito was angered, he would be treated like this! The most important thing is that this is not something bad they did, they are innocent, and they have suffered Akito's wrath as a result!
Along the way, the Portuguese were frightened. The Ming Dynasty was as big as all the countries in Europe combined. Even in terms of population, it is more than all European countries.
They didn't seem to think it was anything before, but now when they endured the wrath of Ming Dynasty, they really felt it. No matter that country, the powerful Spain or any other European country, they could not withstand the wrath of Ming Dynasty. .
It was a shame that it was far away, otherwise, the Portuguese believed that with Spain's little national power, it was only equivalent to a province of the Ming Dynasty, and it would really be destroyed by the Ming Dynasty.
Along the way, thinking about these things, their mentality changed unconsciously. Even when dealing with local officials, his posture is very low.
