"The emperor has issued a decree, and the army is about to go out again. This time, it will conquer a territory as big as our Ming Dynasty now!"
"This is too big. Can the Emperor still handle it?"
"Don't tell me, don't you know? All the sects and vassals, including those from the county king and above, will come to the capital. It is said that the conquest of those territories has something to do with them!"
"No, why did you hear that it is related to the Folangji people?"
"Who said it? It was the remnants of the Jianlu captives who fled over there, and the Spaniards in Luzon who also fled back over there. That's why the emperor ordered the pursuit. Do you think it's a joke to kill them even though they are far away? ?”
"..."
As time passed, vassal kings from all over the country appeared in the capital one after another, and the news became clear.
First, when a princess of the Flemish Kingdom marries a prince as a concubine, the dowry comes from two territories;
Second, the imperial court really wanted to cross the ocean to attack the place called America, and use it to entrust the Ming vassal kings who were willing to go there. It is said that the current prince was the first to respond to going to America to become a truly powerful vassal king.
Third, it is true to go out across the ocean to hunt down the remnants of the rebels, and it is also true to kill the Spaniards.
After these three big news, there are legends about America.
Not to mention the vast territory, there are also many mountains of gold and silver. The Spaniards even transported shiploads of gold, silver and jewelry to their country. There are also many specialties that are not available in the Ming Dynasty. It is said that the emperor has decreed that they must be brought back. They are definitely good things.
For a time, the people of the Ming Dynasty were all talking about America after dinner.
In the army, officers and soldiers eager to achieve military merits asked for battle one after another, hoping to achieve meritorious service. And today's princes, including various vassal kings who are unwilling to surrender their titles, such as the King of Tang, have begun to recruit troops and prepare to go to new places to establish their country.
In short, Ming Dynasty is more lively than before.
Amidst all the excitement, some things are not noticed.
For example, Emperor Chongzhen issued an order to dispatch the main force of the Ming Dynasty's Southern Navy to the Little Western Ocean, that is, the Indian Ocean, and renamed it the Ming Dynasty's Western Navy. The commander-in-chief was still Zheng Chenggong. Zhang Huangyan was appointed governor of Dongwu, and Yan Yingyuan, the former governor of Dongwu, was appointed governor of Dongwu and concurrently served as governor of the Western Navy, with jurisdiction over Colombo and Bombay. The governor's palace was located in Colombo.
Lu Xiangsheng was transferred back to the capital to serve as Minister of War. Of course, an additional title was inevitable. Yang Tinglin replaced Lu Xiangsheng and was transferred to Nanyang. In addition, Li Dingguo was transferred to Bombay as a general soldier.
Needless to say, Emperor Chongzhen did this to prepare for sending troops to the Middle East. The main reason why Yan Yingyuan was put in charge was that Lu Xiangsheng was old and had been fighting in the north and south, so he should take a good rest.
Speaking of which, Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou are older than Lu Xiangsheng, and they are almost sixty. However, Hong Chengchou guarded the Tianshan Mountains without any boredom, and led troops at every turn to look good. Sun Chuanting actively wrote a letter, asking to use his remaining energy to continue to expand territory for the Ming Dynasty, that is, to go to America.
Emperor Chongzhen knew that both of them were holding back. But since they are healthy and can eat well, let them be.
But there is a problem that still arises in front of Emperor Chongzhen, that is, the older generation of capable ministers are slowly getting older. Therefore, he subsequently promoted Zhang Pu to the cabinet. In addition, Song Yingxing is the Minister of the Ministry of Industry and is directly in charge of the Department of Agriculture; Chen Zilong is the Minister of the Ministry of Households and is directly in charge of the Agriculture Department...
All work is preparation for the future.
To go to the Americas, you need to mobilize enough warships and transport ships, and the troops must be in place. More importantly, the warm Pacific current from Fuso Province to the Americas is best in May and June every year; therefore, you need to wait until the next year before going out. .
…………
Ceylon, the most important place in the Indian Ocean, blocks the shipping lanes from the Middle East to the Southeast Asia. The island is rich in gems, with rubies, sapphires and cat's eyes being the most famous. In addition, Ceylon is also an important producing area for growing black tea and cinnamon.
During the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese took a fancy to this place and concentrated most of their resources in the Indian Ocean to capture Ceylon. Of course, even so, they did not achieve what they wanted. In the end, they only established the stronghold of Colombo, controlled the coastal areas centered on it, and have been fighting with the Ceylon natives.
To sum up the situation of the Portuguese in Colombo simply, in Ceylon, when the indigenous people attacked Colombo in defensive battles, the Portuguese won; when the Portuguese tried to expand and further control the indigenous offensive wars, the indigenous people often surrounded and annihilated the Portuguese.
At the end of March 1638, the Portuguese launched another attack on the Kingdom of Kandy and suffered a heavy blow from the king's army. In May of the same year, the King of Kandy invited the Dutch fleet to station on the east coast. On May 28, the king's army cooperated with the Dutch navy in a joint operation and captured the Portuguese fort of Matgrebowa. Five days later, the two sides signed the "Kandy-Dutch Treaty", which was regarded as a brief ceasefire.
But this has nothing to do with the Dutch. The Netherlands began to gather preparations, and then after May 1639, the Dutch launched a sudden attack and successively captured important cities and fortresses such as Trincomalee, Migbwa, and Galle. They defeated the Portuguese miserably, but the Dutch Unwilling to return the conquered territory to the King of Kandy.
You know, the Dutch can achieve this record because they are actually supported by the Kandy natives. And the Dutch don't give those territories, they obviously know what they want to do!
Therefore, in order to combat the ambitions of the Dutch, Rajsinghe II took the following decisive actions:
First, they took the initiative to send troops to attack the Matale area occupied by the Dutch and move all the cinnamon-producing families to Kandy.
second, to stop supplying food to the Dutch, putting them in a difficult situation;
Third, take the lead in recovering the areas where the Portuguese army had withdrawn, and quickly establish royal rule. As a result, about half of the coastal areas originally controlled by the Portuguese were incorporated into the territory of the Kingdom of Kandy.
In this way, Ceylon fell into a relatively subtle relationship between the three forces. It can also be seen from this that no one is a fuel-efficient lamp.
On this day, in November of the 24th year of Chongzhen, outside the city of Colombo, a group of Portuguese people led their army of servants, carrying a lot of trophies on their shoulders, and escorted thousands of natives back to Colombo.
Along the way, the Portuguese or their servants could be seen everywhere scolding and whipping the natives, while they themselves laughed out loud at the embarrassment of the natives.
At this time, there were no large-scale wars, but it was common to send troops to plunder from time to time. Among the several forces, the most unlucky ones are the ordinary natives on the border of the Kingdom of Kandy, who can live in dire straits.
For them, they are definitely not the confidants of the nobles in the Kingdom of Kandy, and no one cares about them. As for the Portuguese and Dutch, they are colonists. Do they still have to farm and fish by themselves? They must also be robbing the local indigenous people.
Of course, these natives have fought against this situation, but they are scattered and are no match for any force. The result of the struggle was to be killed and tortured. Later, they became numb.
No, even though they were whipped and driven away by the Portuguese and their servants, few people were angry and just walked around with a dull expression.
Only a young and strong native named La Blaca had hatred in his eyes when he was whipped by the Portuguese servants. Although he hid it, he was eventually seen by the servant who beat him.
"Damn it, you're not convinced and you want to continue to beat me!" When the servant soldier saw this, he was furious and whipped him several more times, hitting Labulaka's unclothed back even more. There were a few bloodstains.
Labulaka suddenly became furious, as if he wanted to risk his life. When he turned around and was about to get angry and fight, he suddenly saw something, and a look of shock appeared on his face.
The servant was about to whip him again, but when he saw his expression, he was curious and subconsciously turned his head to look. Suddenly, his expression also changed drastically.
Immediately afterwards, he jumped up like a monkey whose tail was stepped on, pointed at the sea and shouted loudly: "No, there is a fleet coming from the sea. No, there are many warships coming from the sea..."
When he shouted like this, not only the Portuguese and the servant soldiers turned their heads and started making noises, but even the numb Ceylon natives also turned their heads and looked, really surprised that there were too many noises.
"How many warships are there? They are all big ships, right? Where did they come from?"
"They're coming towards Colombo, what should we do? Do we want to run away?"
"Look, the people in Colombo already know it and are sending out flags?"
"You are just a bunch of ignorant people. Did you see the flag hanging? It's the friendly forces. Haha, the friendly forces are coming!"
"What kind of friendly forces? Other Europeans are all enemies. Could it be... from the Ming Empire?"
"It's not the flag of the Ming Empire. Just the battleship. Did you see it? It's only the Ming Empire's!"
"..."
Labraca saw these people being nervous at first, and then getting excited again. To be honest, except for being surprised at the size of the fleet at the beginning, he didn't feel anything at all the rest of the time.
Because he knew that for them, the natives, all those who came from the sea were robbers, and they were all here to harm these suffering natives.
However, the arrival of the Ming fleet also had a direct benefit for them, that is, the Portuguese and the servants were all excited and no longer scolded or whipped them.
With a "Bah" sound, Labulaka spat out in anger. This hatred is not only given to the Portuguese and the most hateful servant soldiers who harmed them, but also to the newcomers from the Ming Empire who are expected to harm them again!
Regardless of whether the natives like it or not, the Ming Dynasty fleet, consisting of more than two hundred warships, slowly approached the Colombo port.
