Hongwu Daming: Why hasn't my son rebelled?

Chapter 90

Now that he had decided to win over the pirate leader Wang Chuanqi around the Bohai Sea, Zhu Qi asked Liu Bowen to write a surrender letter as King of Liao and sent it to Wang Chuanqi.

No way, if I write it myself, my literary level will be exposed in an instant. Zhu Qi’s current level of classical Chinese is not as good as that of a ten-year-old child. Fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor peasant. As an emperor, I don’t even talk about it. Not to mention classical Chinese.

Therefore, there is no problem with Zhu Qiping's vernacular throughout the day, because among Zhu Yuanzhang's many children, except for the prince Zhu Biao, the other princes are not so literary, most of them are like Zhu Di, A prince who likes horseback riding and archery.

If you want to see Wang Chuanqi off, you need a middleman. Fortunately, many former robbers, rogues and pirates who are locked up in the prison can act as middlemen. Who does this business in Yanyun Sixteen States? Wang Chuanqi?
Zhu Qi then selected a few pirates whose crimes were not so serious, and they were all pirates who specifically picked on the people of Yuan Dynasty. Letting them get out of prison to deliver letters was considered as making up for their merits.

The process of delivering the letter was relatively smooth, and within a few days, Wang Chuanqi received a letter in the name of Zhu Qi.

Wang Chuanqi is a strong man in his thirties. Unlike other pirates with sultry faces, Wang Chuanqi has a Confucian temperament, and his literary accomplishment is also good. He has more than [-] warships under his command. It is a small and medium clipper.

In the business of pirates, if the ship under your hand is too big or slow, you will expose your target. If you are too slow, you will not be able to catch up with your prey, and secondly, when you are surrounded by the army, you will not be able to outrun others. Just stop cooking.

On the contrary, there are quite a few pirate sailors under his command, nearly a thousand of them. Counting their various family members, there are also 2000 people. Among the pirate forces on the Bohai Sea, it is definitely the largest.

If it wasn't for the fact that the pirates were not organized and disciplined, and called a meeting at any opportunity, this Wang Chuanqi might be the Pirate King on the Bohai Sea.

Wang Chuanqi was originally a staunch anti-Yuan element. When the Yuan Dynasty was in power, he was a pirate, and he also received a letter of surrender from the court. Wang Chuanqi scoffed at it.

But now it is a letter from King Liao of the Ming Dynasty, and it is not a letter of surrender in name, it is a recruitment letter, and the name of Wang Chuanqi has changed from a pirate to a leader of the rebel army and a hero against the Yuan Dynasty.

Good guy, let's call on the first rebels, heroes and so on.

However, Wang Chuanqi is also very useful to this kind of title. Although he does not accept Da Yuan's surrender, this Da Ming is a dynasty known as "reopening the Great Song Dynasty", and he really wants to join Da Ming in his heart.

It's just that Daming didn't have a firm foothold in the north of the Yellow River in the past. Only two years ago, after Li Wenzhong completely won Beiping, did he finally gain a firm foothold. Here comes the letter from Daming.

His Royal Highness Liao Wang said in the letter that as long as Wang Chuanqi is willing to bring his ships and sailors to join Daming, he will immediately report to the emperor, at least as a Liaohai naval commander or something like that.

From now on, he will be the commander of the Navy of the Ming Dynasty, and he will no longer have to hide in Tibet like a pirate.

Wang Chuanqi symbolically discussed this matter with the second leader, the third leader and some backbone pirates, and finally slapped the table to make a decision, said nothing, accepted the recruitment, and joined Daming!

Wang Chuanqi immediately wrote a letter and sent it back, and agreed that a talent recruitment ceremony would be held outside Dagukou in Beiping three days later.

The so-called ceremony is actually waiting for the court to wait for Wang Chuanqi to drive the fleet to Dagukou with his subordinates, and His Highness Liao Wang will come out to greet him personally. This has been the case throughout the ages.

You can't say that you have recruited talented people. You don't have any sense of ceremony. They just come to run errands for you. In addition to the benefits of the official position, you have to give enough face. Otherwise, no one will admit that he is the captain of the navy. Yes or no.

After Zhu Qi received the reply, after listening to others explain what is called surrender ceremony, he readily agreed to come down and prepared to move to Dagukou.

Of course, now is the recruiting ceremony.

Dagukou was very close to Beiping. After Zhu Qi took the [-] elite soldiers arranged by Li Wenzhong, he went to Dagukou with Zhu Di and others to see how the turtle boat was being built.

When he arrived at Dagukou the next day, Zhu Qi first rushed to the dock. At this time, five turtle boats had already been built.

Five ships were launched in two months. The reason why it was so slow was that when building the first ship, it took a lot of time just to study the blueprints.

The second ship started at a much faster speed, and the construction speed can be maintained at about three ships a month in the future, which is not too slow.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the turtle boat designed by Zhu Qi can only accommodate one or two hundred soldiers, and its size can only be regarded as a medium-sized ship. Horse racing, a ship can have more than 2000 people, let alone three ships a month, it is estimated that one ship can be built in a year.

Zhu Qi also boarded the turtle boat and took a look. Both the appearance and the internal structure of the ship were exactly the same as the drawings given by Zhu Qi. I have to say that the craftsmanship of the craftsmen these days is indeed very good.

In addition to looking at the turtle boats, I also took a look at the current ships of the Daming Navy. There are more than 20 warships in total, of which there are more than [-] large-scale ships, and the rest are medium-sized ships. I didn’t go into statistics, because these small boats can still be used in rivers and rivers. If you put them on the ocean, you will be overturned by a wave. When it sails over, it will knock you over directly.

After all, the navy of the army is not a pirate. In this era when mobility and combat effectiveness cannot be combined, it is natural to focus on combat effectiveness.

Compared with other generals who are enthusiastic about land warfare, Zhu Qi is actually more interested in sea ships, because he knows that from the era of great geographical discovery in the 21th century to the present in the [-]st century, he has possessed maritime hegemony country, will be able to have world hegemony.

Ocean power cannot be ignored, and the reason why China is poor and weak in modern times and unable to keep up with the trend of the times is to put it bluntly, it is the self-castration of ocean power. It stayed at the level of the treasure ships of Yongle and Zheng He's voyages in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the contemporary Western countries have been catching up with the nautical technology, constantly absorbing the advantages of Chinese hard sailing ships, and at the same time expanding the advantages of their own soft sailing ships. In the end, the two combined to create a batch of sailing ships suitable for ocean-going sailing. .

But don’t think that all the sailboats sailing across the ocean in the age of great voyages were all independently developed by the West, at least on the sails. The sails of Western large ships are composed of three parts: horizontal sails, Latin sails and gaff sails. The horizontal sails are theirs. My own, the Latin sail is an invention of the Arabs, and the gaff sail is the patent of the Chinese hard sailing ship.

This is the importance of learning, not to be blindly arrogant, let alone belittle oneself.

As far as ocean voyages are concerned, Western-style soft sailboats are naturally more suitable for ocean voyages because they eat a lot of wind, have great advantages in speed and load, and can adjust the sails in more detail according to different situations.

However, the hard sailing boats, which are simple and convenient to operate and require fewer personnel, are more suitable for offshore and inland sea navigation than soft sailing boats.

Therefore, soft sails are used for ocean-going oceans, and hard sails are used for offshore and inland seas. This is the correct answer that history has proven.

There is another point, that is, if it is used in naval battles, Western-style soft sailboats are more suitable than Chinese-style hard sailboats. The main thing is that apart from being more flexible in steering and instantaneous acceleration, Western-style sailboats with lighter drafts and shallow water can hold more. cannon!

Firepower is justice!

Of course, no matter what kind of sail you have, it is not as good as an ironclad ship or a steam ship, there is no doubt about it.

The craftsmen at Dagukou Dock did not expect that His Royal Highness King Liao would be so interested in ships. Other adults seldom ask about these things. Although Daming also has shipping now, it is not like Western countries. The Mediterranean is destined to take the ocean as their lifeline, and each of them is a maritime country, so from top to bottom, they are not very concerned about maritime affairs.

These craftsmen also answered one by one, and the question Zhu Qi asked seemed a bit difficult to them. For example, how far can this largest ship sail without supplies?If you are far away from the coast, what if you encounter strong winds and waves?

These craftsmen are only responsible for shipbuilding. How do they understand these problems? All of them are staring at each other.

The officials in charge of the Dagukou Dock also had a confused expression on their faces.

Although Zhu Qi didn't have any hope, seeing that even these craftsmen and officials who specialized in maritime affairs had never cared about the problem of sailing in the high seas, he knew that if he wanted to guide Daming to the direction of great sailing, it would definitely not be a transformation. A dock problem.

But it’s hard to do. It doesn’t mean you don’t want to do it. Someone has to do it. Although Zhu Qi likes to fish, it doesn’t mean he wants to watch history develop according to the original world line, and wait for the West to develop in a hundred years. , Opened the age of great exploration and then had a mouth full of oil.

As for what to do in the end, Zhu Qi already had a rough plan in his heart.

And this plan is also related to Wang Chuanqi.

The three days passed quickly, and Wang Chuanqi soon brought his own pirates, no, it was the rebel fleet, and arrived at Dagukou.

All those sea-going ships were parked outside the port, mainly because the port was so big that fifty or so ships suddenly popped up and couldn't fit.

Wang Chuanqi himself took a small boat and brought a group of leaders of the pirate group, that is, the second in command and the three generals, to the shore.

As soon as I landed, I saw people on both sides waving small flags and pulling up the horizontal banners. It was very lively, and everyone was welcoming the return of the heroes of the rebel army.

Wang Chuanqi's eyes filled with tears. He is almost 40 years old. He thought that he would not be able to wash his identity in this life. Years swept across the world, Da Ming reopened the Great Song Dynasty, and Hu Yuan was also driven out of the Great Wall. He was able to wait for such a change of the world, didn't his eyes fill with tears?
As for this strange and unseen welcome ceremony, Wang Chuanqi didn't care about it. It might be that he had been wandering at sea for decades, and the habits of the Central Plains might have changed.

Wang Chuanqi soon met the legendary His Royal Highness Liao Wang, a heroic young man, but Wang Chuanqi, who had already heard of His Royal Highness Liao's heroic feats, never dared to be contemptuous.

As soon as he landed, he immediately bowed his head to His Royal Highness King Liao and said:
"Legend of the Weichen King, kowtow to His Royal Highness King Liao!"

Zhu Qi was also very happy to see this man in his forties. He was not only the key to his defeat of Liaoyang Pingzhang Liu Yi, but also the available talent for him to open up the great navigation era of the Ming Dynasty in the future!
Wang Chuanqi, who has been floating on the ocean for decades, is dedicated to special tasks. Who can specialize in maritime affairs than him?

"Wang Dudu please hurry up!"

Although Wang Chuanqi has not been formally appointed, but Zhu Qi, the commander of Pingliao, still has the right to temporarily appoint a naval commander. Of course, Wang Chuanqi's position in the end depends on Zhu Yuanzhang's intention.

Regarding the related attributes, Zhu Qi had been sent to Yingtian Mansion two days ago, and he believed that he would be back in less than two days to give Wang Chuanqi a formal appointment.

This side helped Wang Chuanqi up, and after Zhu Qi greeted him for a while, he kindly took Wang Chuanqi's hand and walked towards the outside of the pier.

The teary-eyed Wang Chuanqi originally thought it was time to start the banquet, everyone was eating and drinking, and there might be a few girls to accompany him tonight.

But I didn't expect to be dragged directly to the street by His Royal Highness Liao Wang. The people soon began to applaud enthusiastically, and then a few children slung a piece of red silk in a strange way, and it also wrote "Warmly Welcome Wang Chuanqi Wang Dudu!" "The words.

Those children were holding tied flowers in their hands, and sent them to Wang Chuanqi. Seeing Wang Chuanqi's bewildered expression, His Royal Highness Liao Wang said with his hands behind his back:
"Oh, these are the people of Ming Dynasty. I heard that you led the heroes of the rebel army back. They are expressing their respect for you."

Wang Chuanqi couldn't laugh or cry. If he could believe this nonsense, he might not be a three-year-old child. When sailing in the sea, the common people's fishing boats panicked when they saw them, and the fishermen almost abandoned their boats and jumped into the sea to escape. .

Of course, Wang Chuanqi had never robbed ordinary people, and he usually robbed Yuan Dynasty transport ships or Dayuan merchant ships.

Needless to say, he knew that this must be the arrangement of His Royal Highness King Liao. Wang Chuanqi wiped his tears immediately, and his mouth was full of words of gratitude.

After the flowers were delivered, the feast could finally begin. During the feast, the delicacies were like mountains and seas, and the beautiful girls were still playing and singing. I have to say that His Highness King Liao is an expert in the aspect of corruption in life.

In short, the one-stop service from beginning to end almost didn't send Wang Chuanqi away.

This is enough to eat and drink, and it's time to do something serious. Wang Chuanqi had already prepared, so he began to analyze the situation in the Bohai Sea with His Royal Highness King Liao during the banquet.

What he said was similar to what Liu Bowen said, and he also clearly stated that Ming's confidant's serious troubles were Liaoyang Pingzhang Liu Yi's naval fleet. It was impossible to transport them by sea in the Bohai Sea without defeating them.

But it was not so easy to beat them. Liu Yi's navy was still very good, so Wang Chuanqi remonstrated that he must build more large ships and wait until the ships were reorganized before attacking.

His Royal Highness King Liao asked, "How many big ships do you need?"How long will it take?

Wang Chuanqi stretched out five fingers and said: "If there are fifty Daguang boats, Dafu boats, and hundreds of sand boats, there is a [-]% certainty that they can take down Liu Yi's navy!"

At this time in the Ming Dynasty, in terms of sea-going ships, whether they were warships or civilian ships, they were divided into three grades according to size: Cantonese, Fuchuan and Shachuan.

Famous for being built in Guangdong, Cantonese Ships are a type of vessel dedicated to ocean navigation.

Fuchuan is famous for being built in Fujian, and it is also a kind of ocean-going vessel. As for the difference between the two, it has significantly more sails than Cantonese ships, and it is easier to sail in the ocean. The fleet of Sanbao eunuch Zheng He, Most of them are Fuchuan.

As for sand boats, they are small and medium-sized ships, flat-bottomed boats that cannot sail far, but they are highly mobile. More than half of Wang Chuanqi's fleet are sand boats.

Zhu Qi heard that so many ships were needed, so he did the math, and at least it would take more than half a year to build a ship, which would definitely not work.

Zhu Qi smiled and said:

"Actually, this king has a better warship."

As soon as Wang Chuanqi heard that there were new and better warships, he immediately became energetic. He was originally specialized in maritime affairs and knew very well about warships. When he heard that there were new warships, he must see them.

Zhu Qi took Wang Chuanqi to the Dagukou Dockyard to see the turtle boat as a matter of course. He originally planned to let Wang Chuanqi and his crew operate the turtle boat. After all, there are experienced sailors that can be found nowadays. , that is definitely this group of pirates.

Even if the guards of the Ming Dynasty were well-trained, the training on land and the training on the sea are definitely two different things. Temporary training of naval troops is too expensive. The most important thing is that the time cannot keep up. .

After Zhu Qi brought Wang Chuanqi to the dock, he showed the turtle boat to Wang Chuanqi, and then talked about it in detail.

Wang Chuanqi was an expert at first, looking at this weird turtle ship, his initial reaction was "What the hell is this thing?"

After His Royal Highness King Liao explained it from beginning to end, he went in and looked around, and his reaction was——what the hell is this thing! !
On this day, Wang Chuanqi stayed in the turtle boat until midnight...

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The people of Dagukou welcomed the legend of the former pirate king, but they were even more delighted to see the legendary King Liao.

As for Legend of the Pirate Chief King, most people's reaction was, who is it?

After all, they are ordinary people, and few of them are well-informed. Even though many people make a living out of fishing, Wang Chuanqi never makes things difficult for the fishermen. Who is it.

Then the imperial decree of Emperor Dagu arrived, appointing Wang Chuanqi to be the commander of Pingliao and his Highness the Liaowang, and at the same time serve as the governor of the Dagu mouth water division on the spot. This is of course Zhu Qi's suggestion.

In the next few days, the people of Dagukou began to see the newly appointed captain of the navy, and began to train sailors outside the port of Dagukou...

(End of this chapter)