prosperous age

Chapter 1126 1217 Portuguese Fight
Yes, Wei Guangde intended to use Zhang Juzheng to survey the land and reorganize the population of the Ming Dynasty.

All the land has been re-registered, so why can't the population be calculated?

As for the Yellow Book, it can continue to exist, but it must never be in the hands of the government.

Just imagine, if Emperor Chongzhen had the real data on the land area and population of the Ming Dynasty, perhaps the north would not have been forced into chaos.

Overturn the original things, turn out all the hidden things, and make them known to the world.

This is what Wei Guangde wanted to do. He had no interest in hidden fields and hidden households. Even if it could bring him income such as rent, he would not look down on it.

Can you make more money by digging things out of the soil than by doing business?

"Mr. Wei Ge, this."

Liu Shouyou was frightened by Wei Guangde's order and was a little at a loss.

"Keep it quiet, don't let it get out, and nothing will happen."

Wei Guangde continued to speak softly, "The counties, prefectures, and provinces don't know each other, and in the end the numbers will only be in your hands. Just keep the things.

You may know some things about the court, but you still don’t know most of them.”

At this time, Liu Shouyou's face was uncertain, and he was obviously judging the pros and cons of this matter.

Can the Jinyiwei obtain the blank lists from various places without anyone noticing?

Of course, it's not difficult at all.

He has no idea what the numbers will look like after they are summarized, and it might be very shocking.

This could be the source of major turmoil, and Liu Shouyou is really scared.

If this matter were to be brought to light, it might be possible to overthrow Wei Guangde.

People who are not in high positions cannot possibly imagine the severity of a collective attack on one person from top to bottom. If that storm breaks out, it is likely to bury many people.

However, Liu Shouyou didn't know that Zhang Juzheng had a similar problem when he was surveying the land, but he managed to get away with it. It was just a matter of counting the population, and the resistance was actually not as great as surveying the land.

After all, the benefits of land are much greater than those of population.

Wei Guangde did not plan to take the lead himself, but instead asked Zhang Juzheng to come forward and restore order to the land and population of the Ming Dynasty.

Only in this way can the one-whip method be implemented and truly achieve its goal.

Everyone knows about the problems that exist in the Ming Dynasty, but no one is willing to change them.

Zhang Juzheng is the only person in the past hundred years who is willing to do this.

He inherited the political legacy of Xu Jie, Yang Bo and others, and was already the greatest force in the court, which was not something that Wei Guangde's weak arms and legs could match.

Therefore, what he could not do, Zhang Juzheng could do and do it well.

Since Zhang Juzheng can solve it, it would be better to let him do it all.

Anyway, once the land survey was carried out, he would anger the gentry class.

Because Zhang Juzheng was at the peak of his power with the support of imperial authority and inner court power, those people did not dare to express their dissatisfaction while he was alive, so they could only choose to counterattack after his death.

In fact, when Emperor Wanli liquidated Zhang Juzheng, he may have felt the pressure from below.

You must know that denying Zhang Juzheng is definitely not as simple as denying him as a person. All the achievements made in surveying the land have been wasted.

This is all money.

How could Emperor Wanli disregard national interests for personal reasons?

Although some people would say that he was young and hot-headed at the time, and was probably carried away by it.

But it was he who issued the decree after all, and it was impossible for him not to know the consequences of it when he issued it.

The more likely reason why he chose to liquidate Zhang Juzheng was that he felt he lacked Zhang Juzheng's abilities and would find it difficult to suppress the backlash from below.

Everything is just for stability.

Of course, no one knows the real reason, and everything can only be guessed by future generations.

"Mr. Wei Ge, this."

Liu Shouyou seemed to have made up his mind, but when he looked up at Wei Guangde, he choked as soon as he said something.

Wei Guangde was very patient and did not interrupt him.

For matters like this, Liu Shouyou still has to make his own decision.

Finally, Liu Shouyou uttered those four words with difficulty.

"I will obey my orders."

Wei Guangde smiled and said calmly, "Commander Liu, you and I are the only ones who know about this matter."

"You will finally understand."

Liu Shouyou said in a low voice.

Watching Liu Shouyou say goodbye and leave, Wei Guangde saw him to the door.

Only when Liu Shouyou's figure completely disappeared did Wei Guangde turn around and return to the duty room.

Regardless of whether the young emperor was angry with Zhang Juzheng for his own behavior or he was worried that he would not be able to suppress the villains because he had just assumed power, Wei Guangde was determined to get involved in this mess.

Yes.

If Emperor Wanli disapproved of Zhang Juzheng for personal reasons, he would set an ambush to persuade him.

If the concern is about backlash from the gentry, then it would be easier to resolve.

With Wei Guangde around, who can turn the world upside down?

The troops are already prepared, so it doesn't really matter who is for it and who is against it.

"Next time Uncle Da brings up the land reclamation issue, you can also bring up the population issue and see how he reacts."

This kind of thing cannot be solved by Wei Guangde's wishful thinking alone.

Zhang Juzheng didn't know Wei Guangde's plan.

He knew, but he didn't want to choose anything else, because perhaps in his heart, that was already his mission.

As long as Wei Guangde can take care of his affairs after his death, I will go even if there are tens of thousands of people against me.

"ruble."

Wei Guangde suddenly shouted outside the door.

"master."

Ruble immediately appeared outside the duty room and then walked quickly to the front.

"Send a message to the Ministry of War and ask them to report to me the situation of the Denglai Navy."

No matter what the outcome was, Wei Guangde was determined to rebuild the Ming Dynasty's North and South naval fleets and make them the main force to defend the Ming Dynasty's maritime borders.

Wei Guangde's current money bag comes from maritime trade, and he also needs the Ming Dynasty navy to escort him.

"Yes, I'll find someone right away."

Ruble agreed and turned to go out.

"Wait, by the way, ask if there are any battle reports from the South China Sea Navy and the Southwest Navy. If there are, please send them to me."

Wei Guangde called Lu Bu, who was standing at the door, and gave another instruction.

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu hurriedly agreed, then stood there in a daze for a moment. Seeing that Wei Guangde had no other instructions, he turned around and asked someone to go to the Ministry of War to do the work.

And behind a bush not far from him, a pair of eyes watched the whole process before turning around and entering the house behind them.

"You said Liu Shouyou went to see Shandai, and then he sent someone to the Ministry of War?"

In the Prime Minister's duty room, Zhang Juzheng felt a little puzzled after listening to the clerk's report.

Liu Shouyouke rarely appears in the cabinet, after all, his identity is sensitive.

"Yes, I have been keeping an eye on you. Commander Liu was in there for quite some time, and soon after that he asked you to go to the Ministry of War."

The clerk answered in a low voice.

"Understood, you go down first."

Zhang Juzheng waved his hand and asked them to leave the room, while he continued to look through the memorials on the desk as if no one was around. But after just a moment, the clerk who had just left came back with another memorial in his hand.

"Master, the Deputy Assistant's Office just sent over a memorial from the Ministry of Works, asking you to review it."

The clerk placed the memorial on Zhang Juzheng's desk and then took two steps back.

"Oh, let me see."

It was sent over by Wei Guangde, but he didn't come in person. I guess it's a big deal, but not urgent.

Zhang Juzheng put down the memorial he was reading, picked up the book and opened it to take a look, then a smile appeared on his face.

The memorial was submitted to the Ministry of Works, which actually meant that Pan Jixun had received an imperial edict in his hometown and was rushing to Jining overnight to deal with the problem of the canal blockage.

Zhang Juzheng knew that Wei Guangde had seen the memorial and gave it to him so that he wouldn't have to worry so much.

"You go down."

Zhang Juzheng smiled and then gave orders.

He put the memorial aside and started reading the previous one again.

“Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.”

On the banks of the Lujiang River in western Yunnan, Ming Dynasty, at this time, the sound of cannons and bird guns could be heard one after another, and from time to time there were the miserable howls of wounded soldiers.

The originally beautiful river view had now turned into a hell, with corpses piled all over the ground and countless broken limbs.

A large number of Burmese soldiers crowded on the river bank, relying on more than a dozen dilapidated wooden boats to cross the river. Some impatient soldiers could not wait for the boats to dock, so they jumped into the water directly, just to be able to get on board first when the boats approached.

Looking at the chaotic situation, the Burmese generals were at a loss as to what to do.

Mang Yinglong had no choice. He had known that the dock had been attacked and burned by the Ming army, but fortunately the damage to the ships was not great.

But the last time we crossed the river, we relied on these large and small boats for ferrying, so it took several days just to get the army across the river.

Therefore, when the Ming army was chasing behind them, they had to send out elephant soldiers to block them for a while.

I thought that this would scare the timid Ming army into not continuing to pursue them, and buy them some time to retreat to the other side of the river.

However, unexpectedly, defeating part of the Ming army did not stop the Ming army's pursuit at all.

Afterwards, the Burmese elephant soldiers attacked twice, but were both hit by the Ming army's overwhelming artillery shells.

Elephants are animals after all, and they don't have the selfless spirit to sacrifice themselves for their country and their family.

After being hit by a shell, the boat felt pain and stopped obeying the driver's orders.

When they went crazy, instead of running around in circles, they turned around and ran around, causing the Burmese army to suffer some losses.

In fact, Mang Yinglong did not care about the loss of soldiers. In his heart, war elephants were more valuable.

To train a war elephant, the daily food alone is a huge number, and it also takes a lot of time to train.

The loss of more than ten war elephants made Mang Yinglong very sad.

But after feeling heartbroken, he became more worried about his current situation.

Yes, war elephants cannot defeat the Ming army, so what should we do?

"Your Majesty, the Ming army's offensive is fierce, and the Gali and Xingyan tribes can no longer withstand it."

Just by the river, when the Burmese King Mang Yinglong was staring at the scene in front of him in a daze, one of his subordinates came to report.

He had tried hard to get his men to restrain their soldiers, but at this point, the desire to survive was above all else, and many people were no longer willing to obey the leader's orders and act on their own.

And now, the tribe he sent out to cover the retreat could not withstand the attack of the Ming army and sent a message for help.

But at this point, who would be willing to turn back and fight the Ming army?

You know that this order is to send them to their deaths.

Faced with the Ming army's powerful long-range firepower, the Burmese army was simply unable to stop it.

The bows and arrows they used in the past were nothing in front of the Ming army's cannons and muskets, and could not stop their attacks at all.

"Your Majesty, if that doesn't work, we can send the Portuguese artillery team up and use the cannons we have captured to fight the Ming army."

At this time, Hanba walked up to Mang Yinglong and gave him some advice.

The current situation is critical and they cannot afford to make any mistakes. Every step must be accurate.

"The Ming army relies on cannons. Although we don't have as many as they do, the Portuguese are experts in using cannons. With their cannons firing back, I think we can delay for quite some time."

Hanba continued.

Mang Yinglong only thought for a moment before making up his mind.

Fortunately, at the beginning he ordered the ferry to transport his trusted elite troops across the river, and then it was the turn of those chieftain troops loyal to him. Even the Portuguese mercenaries were kept on this side of the river first.

Now it seems that there is a destiny behind all this and the Portuguese are still useful.

"What you said makes sense. It's time to let Santos and the others take action."

Mang Yinglong nodded and said, "Go and call Santos over."

"Your Majesty, can you let us cross the river?"

Santos was quickly brought to the riverside and in front of Mang Yinglong, and he asked directly.

"Santos, my friend, your artillery is needed now."

Mang Yinglong did not answer his question, but directly told him the purpose of calling him.

"What? You want me to take people back to resist at this time?
No, no, according to the agreement, we are only responsible for firing artillery to cover your siege, but we have no obligation to cover your rear."

Usually, it is true.

It was the Burmese army that attacked others, and the opponents could only hide in the city walls to resist, so they needed the support of Portuguese cannons to help them attack the city.

"I'll make up the difference for you when we get back."

Mang Yinglong directly gestured a number. There is nothing simpler than using money to communicate with the Portuguese.

Those people are all desperate criminals, otherwise they wouldn't have come here from so far away.

According to the mercenaries, as long as the money is paid, they are willing to kill people even to hell.

"No, no, no."

This time, Santos still shook his head. Seeing Mang Yinglong's increasingly fierce gaze, he explained: "Your Majesty, those are all cannons. You know how slowly they move.

If my men were left behind, there would be a high probability that these cannons would be lost.”

At this point, he pointed to the Burmese troops in the distance and said, "They will not give us cover to pull the cannons back.

Do you know how much a cannon like this is worth? "

"How much do you want?"

Mang Yinglong could hear that Santos was still talking about business, the cannon business.

After all, if he went into battle, he might lose some of his artillery.

Santos was silent for a moment before he gave Mang Yinglong a number, "This is the loss of a cannon. I won't blackmail you. We are old friends."

Indeed, Santos and his men sold cannons at this price before, but Mang Yinglong thought it was too expensive and was unwilling to buy it.

Unexpectedly, the loss of the cannon now also costs this much.

You know, if we were to leave behind, if the Ming army launched a fierce attack, these cannons might really be lost.

"Okay, I promise you."

Mang Yinglong nodded without hesitation.

"Okay, I trust your credibility."

Santos was not hypocritical and immediately said, "Your Majesty, please send some people to help us tow the cannon."

"keep going."

After defeating a Burmese army formation, the Ming army began to advance carrying the Portuguese and holding muskets.

But soon, they stopped.

On the opposite side, a defense line composed of Burmese troops appeared.

Slightly different from before, there were more than a dozen cannons in front of the Burmese army.