Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1522 "Navigation Treaty" (Part [-])
The "West Court" of the former Siamese Palace belonged to the military officials system. The area of ​​this area was exactly the same as that of the "East Court", but in terms of the number of high-rise buildings, it was about half less than the "East Court".

This is not to treat the military ministers poorly, but the affairs of the "Xi Ting" are not as complicated as the "East Ting", and the administrative manpower is not so much. In addition, the "Xi Ting" also has the function of garrisoning troops, so there are only one row after another. There are only two real administrative buildings in the Datong room of the military camp.

There are two administrative buildings, one tentatively named "Southern Border Garrison Military Headquarters" and one tentatively named "Dingnan Garrison Headquarters".As for the Siamese Ministry of War after the reform of the "six-part system" of the Kingdom of Siam, it is not in the "West Court", but in the "East Court". ".

The current real owner of the West Court—or the "substituting master"—is none other than Huang Zhiting.

However, even Huang Zhiting did not have a very clear and formal position to lead the "Military Command of the Southern Xinjiang Garrison". The authority of the orders she issued in the name of the Military Command came from the seal that Gao Yushi gave her.

After all, this military order has great power in theory, and all the garrison forces in southern Xinjiang need to follow the orders issued here-with one and only one exception, that is, each ministry has directly received orders from Gao Yushi, otherwise the military order The order is considered the highest order.

As for the "Dingnan Garrison Headquarters", there is a garrison commander at this time.It was none other than Huang Zhiting's number one general, Huang Hu.

The number of troops under the Garrison Command is not very large, only 8000 in total.Five thousand were Huang Zhiting's own wolf soldiers brought from Annan Haidong Town, and three thousand were the group left behind by Liu Xin.

Although in accordance with Gao Yuan's request, Huang Zhiting breastfeeded Gao Yuan herself for a period of time.I don't know if the mother's health also has a positive impact on the child. When Gao Yuan was only seven months old, the female medical officers sent by the medical department agreed that weaning could be done.

So Huang Zhiting seemed to be liberated, and began to care about the Dingnan garrison again, and immediately went out in person to complete a major transformation of this "last line of defense".

The ferocity of the wolf soldiers is well known, and their reputation is absolutely resounding, and their military exploits are also worthy of their reputation.However, Huang Zhiting, who has personally commanded several garrison troops, is keenly aware that the wolf soldiers must be reformed, otherwise they will be eliminated by the increasingly powerful firearms army sooner or later.

What's more, since this wolf soldier will serve as the garrison of the royal city in the future, the defensive ability of standing on the tower and shooting arrows is definitely not as good as firing cannons on the tower.

Besides, the walls of the royal city and the royal palace are all built into bastion-style crossfire walls, and the openings for firing guns are very small, and you won't be allowed to shoot arrows in it foolishly.

So in the past few months, apart from going to Nanzhang to deal with her useless younger brother, Huang Zhiting has been training this army - not only the wolf soldiers, but also Liu Xin's 3000 people.

The firearms-based training already had the garrison as a template. In order to obtain a "personal pass", Huang Zhiting also specifically asked Gao Yushi to transfer Gao Yu from Jingang. training program so that problems do not arise.

[Note: Gao Yu was originally the commander of the Thang Long Garrison. Because the Garrison has always had a rotation system, he was later transferred to Jingang until he was transferred to Dingnan. ]
According to Gao Yu, there are two most critical issues for the success or failure of the firearms army: first, discipline must be enforced and prohibited, just as the master said, it must "make soldiers fear military law more than death."

The second is the mastery of firearms techniques and tactics. This is relatively simple. Maintain high-intensity training and conduct simulated actual combat exercises on a regular basis. In addition, you should engage in more live ammunition shooting.In short, it is to be willing to spend time, but also to be willing to spend money.

The issue of time-consuming is easy to deal with. Huang Zhiting has nothing to fight now, and the government affairs are basically handed over to Gao Mengnan, a professional.As the local situation has basically stabilized for the other garrison troops, she doesn't have too many important tasks to decide by herself, so she has a lot of time to spend on training.

The trouble is spending money here.Of course Jinghua is rich, but Dingnan City is a bit like a bottomless pit now.Although many aristocrats, officials, and rich households moved in one after another after the establishment of the inner city, and there were already some commercial activities, and Gao Mengnan could start to gradually collect taxes and slowly "recover blood", but overall it was still a drop in the bucket.

At present, Jinghua's estimate is that at least the construction of the royal city will be completed before the balance of revenue and expenditure can be guaranteed. After that one or two years, Dingnan City's finances will start to accumulate surplus, and then they can consider continuing to build the outer city - the construction of the outer city Quest Jinghua doesn't intend to continue to invest huge sums of money, it depends on Dingnancheng's own efforts.

In short, it's not that Huang Zhiting can't ask Gao Yushi for money, and it's not that Gao Yushi can't afford the training expenses of this mere 8000 people.It's just that, as a wife, she always felt that it was her duty to share her husband's worries, and it was wrong to keep causing him trouble, so she had to figure out a way for the money.

There are not many ways to think about it, so naturally it still depends on her territory in Haidong.Haidong is not poor, but although it is close to the Red River Delta, it happens to be just outside the delta. The irrigation must be poor, and it is not considered good land. The food produced can only be counted as a surplus. money.

In terms of making money now, there are two main points. One is sugar production. This place relies on Siming Mansion, which is also a good sugar producing area, and there is no need to worry about the sales of sugar.

The second is to sell coal. One of the reasons why Gao Wushi distributed Haidong to her was that there was the largest coal mine in Vietnam in later generations. In the main production area, the ore veins are 200 kilometers long, and the reserves are estimated to be as high as 36 billion tons.

Moreover, the coal produced in this area has high calorific value, low ash content, no smoke, and high quality. It can almost be said that it is rare in the world. It has a long-standing reputation and has been exported to many countries in Asia, Europe, and Oceania for a long time.

But the problem is not without it. The main problem is that the "industries" that need coal in southern Xinjiang are concentrated in the Ha Tinh-Jinggang generation in the central part of Annan, and there are not many of them. The largest users are Jinghua's steel plant in Ha Tinh and Jingang's The arms factory, and the rest are small retail investors, and the consumption can hardly keep up with the coal production capacity.

Huang Zhiting thought about it, but still felt that it was difficult.There is no so-called winter in southern Xinjiang, and there is no need to count on heating consumption.The north of Daming really needs coal for heating, but unfortunately there is no shortage of coal in the north of Daming. Jinghua has coal mines all over the north, so it can cover the entire market by itself.

So Huang Zhiting decided to open an arsenal by herself in a fit of rage, but instead of engaging in internal competition with Jinghua, she planned to produce products such as cold weapons and armor.

There is a leader in this kind of enterprise in Ming Dynasty, which is the Wang's Arsenal of the Wang family (Wang Chonggu family).Because they have been using Jinghua's steel and iron as raw materials, and because they are still highly pragmatic relatives, Jinghua is too lazy to compete for this piece of business.

However, there is not in southern Xinjiang. Although the military power in southern Xinjiang is concentrated in the hands of the garrison, there are not many places that need cold weapons. Because of the weather, the amount of iron used in armor is not too large, but the local market in southern Xinjiang is limited. , but there is no problem with foreign sales.

Huang Zhiting has been paying attention to the situation in India mentioned by Gao Yushi before. The Mughal Empire is expanding, and their degree of firearms is not high, and they have a great demand for cold weapons, armor and other items.

In addition, the Mughal Empire was a northern Indian empire, and there were a lot of kingdoms and local governments in the south.Who is not afraid of these people facing the mighty Mughal Empire?Who can't get some equipment to strengthen their courage?

As soon as he said it, Huang Zhiting quickly recruited a group of craftsmen from Foshan and southern Xinjiang, and even sent people to Chittagong to recruit some craftsmen who knew Indian weapons and armor to Dingnan. In the outer city near the west side of the Chao Phraya River) an arsenal was established.

At the same time, please ask the Burmese Squadron of the Nanyang Fleet to sell when they go to India for trade, and see if they can get a few orders.The result turned out to be really good. The current level of smelting by Indians is not high. The main reason is that the efficiency is very low and the price of iron products is high. Huang Zhiting’s products are made of steel produced by Jinghua in Ha Tinh, so the quality is good and the price is high. The advantages are also obvious.

After calculating, the financial personnel recommended to her by Jinghua think that the gross profit can reach a little more than twice the production cost, and the income is still quite considerable except for the cost of transportation and other aspects.

However, the profits here are steady, and the investment at the beginning was real money. As a result, Huang Zhiting has always felt that she is short of money recently.It was in this situation that Special Envoy Alfredo was invited by Gao Mengnan to meet Huang Zhiting, and that was already the morning of the second day after he met Gao Mengnan.

The special envoy entered the Siamese palace again, and when he learned that "His Excellency the Countess" would meet him at the Xiting Barracks, he thought he had heard it wrong.

Although he also knew that His Excellency the Countess was famous for his military exploits, he was the special envoy of the Governor of Goa and came here on a diplomatic mission. Shouldn't Her Excellency the Countess give himself a more formal occasion to meet him?Just like His Excellency Gao Mengnan, he also met himself in the "Prime Minister's Office" after all!

It's a pity that it doesn't matter what he thinks. Huang Zhiting said that he will be interviewed wherever he says, so he has to be interviewed there, whether you like it or not.

Although Alfredo was a little dissatisfied, Captain Pedro was very satisfied, not only satisfied, but even very excited.He especially hoped to see Her Majesty's army conducting drills, because this would give him the opportunity to observe and assess the combat effectiveness of the Siamese army (actually the garrison) at close range, which is very meaningful.

Captain Pedro's wish was quickly fulfilled, but unfortunately only a part of it was achieved - he failed to see very formal training, such as marching in battle formations, formation changes, live ammunition drills, and so on.

What he saw today was a strange kind of training: the guards of "His Excellency the Countess" were standing in a military posture under the scorching sun.

Eight thousand soldiers stood motionless under the scorching hot sun in Dingnan, each with a piece of coconut shell that seemed to have been roughly processed on his head.Captain Pedro thought at first that the coconut shells were prepared for sun protection, but later found out that otherwise, it seemed to be some kind of judging criterion-if the coconut shells fell from the head, the training must not be qualified.

"Your Excellency the Countess" obviously will not accompany them to bask in the sun. She sits in the shade of a tree, blowing the cool breeze of the Chao Phraya River (everyone who has been to Hainan knows that the sun is poisonous to death, but once there is shade The wind is very cool), wearing a women's official uniform (misunderstood, it is her official uniform), and there is a table beside her, with some fruits on it.

"Alfredo, the special envoy of the Governor of Goa of the Kingdom of Portugal, has met Her Majesty the Countess, and wishes her beauty to last as long as the Chao Phraya River."

"Captain Pedro of the Royal Portuguese Navy 'Grandura' has seen Your Majesty the Countess. In front of your beauty, even the beautiful Chao Phraya River is eclipsed."

In the past, Huang Zhiting got angry when she heard such European compliments, but as she saw more and more Europeans, she was immune to it. Hearing this, she just smiled and asked, "Listen to Uncle, what are you doing?" Want to talk to me?"

Alfredo was a little surprised that Huang Zhiting didn't even get up. In his opinion, this was a bit rude, let alone "diplomatic reciprocity". It seems that Pedro was right before. The official was indeed quite arrogant - he knew that Huang Zhiting had an official position in the Ming Empire.

Fortunately, Alfredo is very tolerant, especially when facing a beautiful lady, he doesn't want to be rude in any way.Therefore, Mr. Special Envoy bowed again politely, and said: "Yes, Your Excellency the Countess, I am here for..."

"To find out whether my husband or I intend to use force against the city of Malacca, right?" Although Huang Zhiting's voice was not loud, she interrupted him resolutely.

Special Envoy Alfredo was stunned at the time, his mind seemed to be down for a while, and he forced a smile after a while: "Your Excellency, you are joking. There is no conflict between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Ming Empire, presumably..."

"I have always wanted to take down the city of Malacca, and I thought it would be easy to do... Are you satisfied with this answer?" Huang Zhiting said in a calm manner.

The smile on Alfredo's face finally couldn't hold back, and even his voice changed a little, as if someone had strangled him: "Your Majesty, with all due respect, should I regard your answer as a war threat?"

"There's no need to threaten you. I'm just too lazy to talk nonsense, so I'll tell you the truth." Huang Zhiting casually leaned back in the chair, without even looking at Alfredo, and said to herself, "If it wasn't for my husband's letter asking me to Back to the capital for the New Year, I originally planned to send troops to wipe out the Longya Peninsula next month (old Chinese books often call the Malay Peninsula the Longya Peninsula).

The Portuguese ships in Malacca currently have five large Galen warships and [-] ordinary Galen armed merchant ships.The Nanyang Fleet has assured me that if a battle starts and a decisive battle occurs, they will definitely be able to wipe out your fleet in one battle.

As for the land division, hehe... Portugal has a total of 830 seven people in Malacca, of which 600 are regular troops, and the rest are mercenaries.Musali said that he can ensure that the outer city is broken in one day, and the whole city can be taken in three days at most. "

Alfredo and Pedro turned pale at the same time, they were so shocked that they couldn't say a word, and they didn't know how to answer.

But it seems that Huang Zhiting didn't intend to wait for them to answer. She just pressed a copy of the text that was originally on the table with her slender index finger, pushed it forward, and then calmly said in an unquestionable tone: "Sign It, peacefully hand over Malacca, and on behalf of my husband, I can allow you to freely navigate the South Seas and the East Sea—of course, you still have to pay the navigation fee and the future transaction tax of Malacca.”
-
Thanks for the support of book friends "Book Friends 20191124105331057" and "0610", thank you!
PS: Grandpa is going to have a heart-related surgery, and he has to rush back to his hometown today, so this chapter will be published first after coding in the middle of the night.The timing of tomorrow's update is currently unknown.

(End of this chapter)