prosperous age

Wei Guangde didn't know that the main reason why the Spaniards stopped was actually Lin Feng.

Just as the Spanish Governor in the Philippines sent the letter back to his country and waited for news, Lin Feng and his group of pirates were chased back to Luzon by the Ming army.

Hundreds of Filipino troops were almost defeated by Lin Feng, let alone the earlier plan, which was just a pipe dream.

Although the navy under Yu Dayou now seemed very immature in the eyes of the Spaniards, they were not clear about the strength of the Ming Dynasty.

More than a hundred years ago, the Ming Dynasty's vast and mighty navy visited the West. The current navy should be even more terrifying.

Therefore, Yu Dayou's troops were considered by the Spaniards to be only part of the main force.

Although the ships were inferior, they had the advantage in numbers. Without sufficient preparation, Spain completely gave up the idea of ​​going to war with the Ming Dynasty.

The atmosphere in the hall was depressing, and everyone was so gloomy that they were speechless after hearing Wei Guangde's words.

The Ming Dynasty, which was once considered powerful, was actually threatened by overseas barbarians, which was somewhat unbearable for even the best of them.

In the Ming Dynasty, these Jinshi were the best.

The strength of the Ming Dynasty is also something they are proud of.

Although the Ming Dynasty at this time no longer had the confidence and invincibility it had during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the officials of the Ming Dynasty still had similar thoughts.

Even though there were several embarrassing incidents during the Jiajing reign, so what? It was just that the court was not careful enough at the time.

Look at it now. The Ming Dynasty is still the same Ming Dynasty. Liaodong has been destroyed. Mongolia, which once threatened the capital, has now surrendered. Myanmar, which pretended to obey the court but secretly disobeyed it, has also been defeated by the Ming army. Who else around the Ming Dynasty can threaten itself?

No more.

However, the two small countries in the far west now have the strength to threaten the Ming Dynasty from the sea, which is even more unacceptable to them than the Japanese invasion during the Jiajing period.

The Japanese invasion caused scabies and other diseases.

Wa Kingdom was a kingdom greatly influenced by the culture of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. According to the intelligence currently transmitted, the culture of Wa Kingdom was inextricably linked to Chinese culture. If the prosperous Tang Dynasty had not allowed them to learn Chinese culture, they might still be living like beasts now.

Because they had learned Chinese culture, although the Ming Dynasty was dissatisfied with the Japanese pirates, it had not yet vented its anger on Japan. It only hoped that their king could discipline his warriors.

And what are the barbarians?

It has nothing to do with Chinese culture and is a country unto itself.

Non-my family, its heart must be different.

Compared with Japan, the barbarians were even less acceptable to the literati of the Ming Dynasty.

Finally, Lao Kan asked, “What happened in Luzon before?

When I was in Fujian, I only heard that the Ming army wiped out the pirate Lin Feng there, and seemed to have occupied a piece of land over there.

But after returning to the court, I learned that half of Luzon had been incorporated into the territory of the Ming Dynasty."

"Luzon has been destroyed by the Spanish."

Wei Guangde replied calmly, "Just like what they did in the New World, they destroyed countries, looted, and plundered all the wealth. The ships that came there through the New World were called treasure ships, perhaps large ships comparable to Zheng He's treasure ships, and they transported them back to their country."

In the Ming Dynasty, there may be prejudice against Zheng He's voyages to the West, but there are still legends circulating about the treasure ship, because it was a huge ship and there were many exaggerated descriptions of it among the people.

After all, it was the pinnacle of Ming Dynasty’s manufacturing power at that time.

"We chose to station troops in Luzon in order to monitor the Spanish's actions nearby and prevent them from continuing to expand in the vassal states of Southeast Asia and destroying the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty at will."

Tan Lun said.

“The King of Sulu, Bakker, who is about to arrive in Beijing, is worried about the Spanish invading Sulu, so our army helped a lot in the operation in Luzon this time.

And because the Sulu Kingdom had not paid tribute to the Ming Emperor for many years, it took the initiative to come to the Ming Dynasty and request an audience. "

Jiang Zhi also spoke.

Baker had already arrived in the Ming Dynasty, and the navy fleet took him directly to Fujian to land.

Although he wanted to go to Beijing to meet the emperor as soon as possible, the emperor was not so easy to see.

The Ming court allowed him to travel around Jiangnan first, and later he went to Nanjing, and then went to Shandong via the Grand Canal to pay homage to the tomb of the King of Sulu.

The Honglu Temple of the Ming Dynasty had already prepared the Huitongguan Post Station and was waiting for Baker to arrive in Beijing from Shandong to arrange for him to meet the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

"They dared to approach Manciga, in fact, they also wanted to monitor the Portuguese."

At this time, Lao Kan also added.

They are all old people in the capital. Although Wei Guangde was in charge of the Ming army's military operations in Southeast Asia, they also learned a lot of information afterwards, so they could talk about it at this time.

"So, in just a few years, the Ming Dynasty not only expanded its territory by 800 miles in Liaodong, but also incorporated Xiaoliuqiu, Luzon and Jiugang into the territory of the Ming Dynasty?"

Many of the doubts I had before were finally resolved.

Lao Kan heard some news in the Censorate, but the sources of the news were uncertain. After all, the court never issued an imperial edict to talk about this matter from beginning to end.

Up to now, the pace of Ming Dynasty's external expansion is actually still semi-secret.

The officials in Beijing heard some of the information, but not the whole story.

As for foreign officials, there is even less information available.

Perhaps, only officials in the southeastern coastal areas learned some of the situation through the mouths of maritime merchants.

"Shandai, it seems inappropriate to command the Ming army to attack cities and plunder lands like this."

Wei Guangde didn't expect that Lao Kan would say such words after hearing about his achievements over the years.

In response to this, Wei Guangde was only slightly surprised and then came to his senses. This was the normal reaction of the Ming Dynasty scholars.

If they could still laugh when they heard about the empire's expansion, the Ming Dynasty would not have only the territory it has today. It would have extended its tentacles to Southeast Asia and South Asia long ago.

The reason why they have been suppressing the news is precisely because of this.

So Wei Guangde smiled and said, "Let it be, the court's foreign wars are all targeted.

The Old Port was originally the Xuanwei Office of our Ming Dynasty, but it had not been visited for many years and was destroyed by neighboring countries. Restoring the Old Port is nothing more than taking back what originally belonged to our Ming Dynasty.

Including Myanmar, in fact, it was just the direct management of the Myanmar Xuanwei Office by the imperial court, which could not be regarded as expanding the territory.

Strictly speaking, the only areas newly incorporated into the territory were Little Ryukyu and half of Luzon.

What is the situation of Xiaoliuqiu? Ren Zhi should have known it clearly when he took office in Fujian. It is the closest to the Ming Dynasty. If it is not taken and occupied by others, it will be the biggest threat to the court.

When Yu Dayou led his troops to the island, it was only to wipe out the Japanese pirates entrenched there. The pirate Lin Feng's lair was on the island.

As for Luzon, as mentioned before, it is necessary to station troops there, otherwise it will be impossible to monitor the Spaniards closely. Once they continue to annex Sulu, Java and other places, there will be endless troubles.

Moreover, if the Ming Dynasty no longer stationed troops in Luzon, its neighboring states such as Sulu would be unable to sleep or eat in peace.

This time when the King of Sulu came to Beijing to meet the emperor, the imperial court publicly issued an edict to announce that the Ming Dynasty had stationed troops in Luzon. "

Lao Kan nodded continuously after hearing Wei Guangde's words.

In fact, he didn't care much about the other places, especially Xiaoliuqiu. Fujian was only a day's journey away from Xiaoliuqiu and could be reached in the morning and evening.

If it falls into the hands of foreigners, there will indeed be many problems.

Now Wei Guangde intends to take advantage of the opportunity of the Sulu king's audience with the emperor to make the news public. In fact, he intends to use the reason that the Sulu king requested the Ming Dynasty to station troops to ensure peace in Nanyang as a pretext to implement the plan of stationing troops and formally incorporating Nanyang into the territory, so as to shut up the people below. It seems reasonable for a vassal state to request the suzerain state to station troops in a country that has been destroyed by foreigners to protect other vassal states.

In fact, when I was young, I was not suitable for receiving foreign guests.

However, Wei Guangde considered the matter of whitewashing the occupation of Luzon, so he discussed it with Zhang Juzheng and decided to use the vassal state to silence those upright people.

It can only be said that the glamorous world of Jiangnan satisfied the literati, who no longer looked outside and had become addicted to it.

However, Wei Guangde knew the future development trend of history, so he would naturally use this opportunity to expand China's living space as much as possible, control surrounding resources, and further consolidate China's position as the hegemon in East Asia.

The powerful scholar-official class contributed to safeguarding the integrity of the country, but it also restricted the country's outward expansion.

Their conservative ideas were so strong that even those in charge of the cabinet were worried and had to find ways to cover them up and avoid compromise.

"The Ministry of War will also privately inform Yu Dayou of this voyage to the West, and let him be alert to the possible threat from the Portuguese."

Wei Guangde said to Tan Lun again.

"Good loan, the Ministry of War has been searching for a long time but still can't find any documents on Zheng He."

Tan Lun sighed.

"It doesn't matter, as long as the Royal Guards can get the Portuguese charts it's still the same."

Wei Guangde smiled indifferently, "I heard that the Arabs in the West are also proficient in navigation, so they should have sea charts.

The Ministry of War still had to look for Zheng He's documents, and people were also sent to look for them in the Hanlin Academy and Wenyuan Pavilion.

Since that was the decision made by all the ministers in the court at that time, it is possible that the document was hidden somewhere else.

I remember seeing some documents under Zheng He that recorded the customs of Western countries when I was in the Hanlin Academy. You might as well send someone to the Hanlin Academy to look for them and say that I saw them in the library. "

"You said that there are documents recording the customs of Western countries in the Hanlin Academy library?"

Tan Lun was shocked and asked immediately.

"I just flipped through it casually at the time. After all, I didn't like it, so I didn't take it seriously. But I still remember this incident."

Wei Guangde said calmly.

After being reminded by Wei Guangde, Tan Lun's heart immediately perked up.

Just as Wei Guangde said, the place is not that big, what can be hidden there?

The people in the department have searched most of the warehouse this afternoon, but they haven't found any information.

At the beginning, all the civil and military officials in the court were opposed to continuing the voyage to the West, so it is hard to guarantee that they would not choose to hide the documents and archives in other government offices.

Liu Daxia definitely wouldn't dare to burn those things. How could he dare to leave harm to future generations?

If it was moved out of the Ministry of War and hidden in the library of other government offices, the situation would not be so serious.

"I will personally take people to the Hanlin Academy library to look for it tomorrow morning."

Tan Lun thought about the people in the Hanlin Academy, and was afraid that many of them would also be opposed. If he only sent the chief clerk or the deputy director, people might not pay any attention.

Or go and find it yourself one day.

Since Wei Guangde said that he had seen information about Zheng He there, it must be correct.

Although the Hanlin Academy may have included it, it should only include the imperial edicts regarding voyages to the West, and there should not be documents recording the customs of Western countries.

At this time, Tan Lun had already somewhat agreed with Wei Guangde's guess.

Perhaps Liu Daxia hid Zheng He's documents by quietly sending them out of the Ministry of War and transferring them to other government offices.

Among all the government offices in the capital, the only ones who had the courage to accept this batch of documents were probably the Hanlin group of old scholars. They were truly fearless.

The next day, Tan Lun rushed to the Ministry of War and went directly to the Arsenal's library, where many low-level officials from the Ministry of War were already continuing to search for Zheng He's documents.

Among the four departments of the Ministry of War, the Arsenal Department is in charge of archive management. Documents from each department are eventually sent here for storage and proper management.

When he saw Tan Lun coming, the armory officer was shocked.

Although he knew that the thing he was looking for had been hidden decades ago, he was the head of the Arsenal after all, and he would still be held responsible if he couldn't find it.

The key is to continue to hold people accountable. I'm afraid they will have to search the homes of the previous incumbents, including Liu Daxia's, to find the stolen documents. This is definitely not a trivial matter.

He stepped forward to salute Tan Lun, but before he could say anything, Tan Lun ordered, "Send half of the people to follow me."

"Sir, what are you doing?"

The doctor didn't react and asked stupidly.

"Don't ask any more questions. The rest of you should continue to search in the library, even if you have to dig deep into the ground."

Tan Lun just said this, then turned around and went out, waiting for his subordinates to assign personnel.

Soon, a large number of green-robed officials came out of the library and gathered around Tan Lun.

Tan Lun took a look and saw more than 30 people, many of whom were newly appointed officials. He immediately nodded and said, "You follow me."

After saying that, he led his men out of the Ministry of War and headed north towards the Hanlin Academy.

It is indeed convenient for the Ming Dynasty to have government offices concentrated together. If they were distributed throughout the capital, it would be inconvenient for so many people to move around.

Soon, Tan Lun brought them to the Hanlin Academy. With the Minister of War leading the way, the gatekeeper of the Hanlin Academy naturally did not dare to stop them, but still reported the news of their arrival inside.

The current president of the Hanlin Academy is Wang Xijue, the Minister of Rites. He is not in the academy at the moment, so he just sends someone to deliver the letter to the Ministry of Rites in a hurry.

When the news reached Wang Xijue's ears, half an hour had passed.

In the Ministry of Rites' duty room, Wang Xijue couldn't believe his ears and asked the official who reported the news, "You said that Minister Tan of the Ministry of War brought many people into the Hanlin Academy and went directly to the library?"

"Yes, sir. After they went in, Minister Tan was guarding the door, forbidding anyone to take books out of the building. The officials from the Ministry of War were rummaging through the bookshelves in the library, as if they were looking for something.

But that is our Hanlin Academy's library, how could there be things from the Ministry of War?"

The official replied.

"Did he say he wanted to find something?"

Hearing this, Wang Xijue just frowned and asked.

"I asked, but Mr. Tan didn't say."

Hearing this answer, Wang Xijue stood up suddenly. Although the Hanlin Academy was not as powerful as the Ministry of War, it was not something that could be barged in casually.

Tan Lun wants to go to the Hanlin Academy library to read books. It's okay, just go there. It would be too much to bring a large group of people with him.

Wang Xijue knew that he had to go back and question the emperor in person about what happened today, otherwise the Hanlin Academy would lose face.

However, he didn't know that when he returned home last night, Tan Lun had repeatedly pondered over the matter and, based on the locations of the Hanlin Academy and the Ministry of War, he deduced that Liu Daxia would most likely really hide the information in the Hanlin Academy.

There is no other reason, the two government offices are too close. (End of this chapter)