prosperous age

No one would have thought that the number Yin Zhengmao said would deeply hurt Emperor Wanli.

Because before this, although Wei Guangde had told Emperor Wanli all this, no one would take it seriously without seeing so many warships with their own eyes.

However, after seeing these cannons and huge ships with his own eyes, Emperor Wanli was suffering from visual and sensory shock. Emperor Wanli, who had always been indoctrinated by Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde that the Ming Dynasty was number one, suddenly realized that the empire he was proud of was actually surpassed by Western barbarians. He could not accept it in his heart.

"Does Xiyi really have this strength?"

Retracting his gaze, the little emperor stared at Yin Zhengmao and asked word by word.

Just now, after seeing the ships of the Ming Navy, the young Emperor Zhu Yijun instantly thought that his empire was the best in the world, but he didn't expect to be knocked off the altar so quickly.

“Your Majesty, don’t worry. Although the Western Barbarians have a combat capability far superior to that of the Ming navy, so what?
Most of these warships are thousands of miles away. There is no country around our Ming Dynasty that is stronger than our Ming Dynasty.

Even if the Western barbarians and the Portuguese barbarians united, they could only mobilize three or four hundred warships at most.

Here, Ming is number one."

Wei Guangde seemed to notice that the little emperor was unhappy and immediately spoke.

"Master Wei, Master Zhang, don't you say that our Ming Dynasty is the most powerful empire in the world?

In the past two days, I have also read the documents brought back by Minister Yin. Apart from the so-called Rumi Empire, there is no other empire that dares to be called an empire. They are all just kingdoms.

But why can’t our Ming Dynasty navy compare to that Kingdom of Spain?

By the way, I remember when Lord Yin introduced the Portuguese, he also said that the Portuguese also had hundreds of warships. "

Zhu Yijun now thought that in addition to Spain, Portugal seemed to be very powerful as well.

"Portugal also has hundreds of warships?"

Wei Guangde looked at Yin Zhengmao in surprise. In his impression, Portugal should not have such strength.

"The Portuguese navy probably doesn't have so many warships, but they have a large number of armed merchant ships, and they will also requisition these merchant ships to participate in foreign wars."

Under Wei Guangde's gaze, Yin Zhengmao quickly spoke.

"I said that it's understandable that Spain has thousands of warships, but with Portugal's national strength, it's good enough to put together 300 warships."

Wei Guangde smiled.

"Your Majesty, the emperor should rule the world with virtue, not with swords."

At this time, Zhang Juzheng on the side interrupted.

"I understand, Master Zhang."

The little emperor didn't want to argue and immediately gave in.

"Brother Uncle, His Majesty wants to know the gap between the Ming Navy and the Western Barbarians. He probably doesn't have that intention."

Wei Guangde also immediately helped the little emperor explain.

If Zhang Juzheng had started the education model at this time, today's review would have been ruined.

Fortunately, Zhang Juzheng also knew that today was the day to watch the naval review, so he bowed slightly and said nothing else.

However, Wei Guangde did not stop talking, but explained the little emperor's previous question.

“Two hundred years ago, after our Ming fleet stopped sailing to the Western Ocean, the Portuguese and Western barbarians have been developing maritime trade and making huge profits over the past hundred years.

Your Majesty, as you know, the Western barbarians have thousands of warships, which is a treasure accumulated over many years.

If Emperor Yingzong had not stopped his voyages to the West, the world's oceans would now be filled with warships of the Ming Dynasty.

Maritime trade not only increases tax revenue for the imperial court, but recruiting workers for workshops also helps increase people's income and prosper the market.

Now thinking about it, it was a mistake to temporarily stop the fleet from sailing to the West.

I think the Ministry of Revenue should have already checked the goods that Lord Yin brought back. The court has benefited a lot from this trip to the West."

Wei Guangde originally wanted to use the Ministry of Revenue's maritime trade revenue and expenditure to divert everyone's attention, but when he looked around at everyone with a smile, he found that Feng Bao, who had always seemed to pay no attention to this side, now looked gritting his teeth.

Well, at the beginning Feng Bao really didn’t know what the benefits of maritime trade were. According to the documents and previous tribute trade practices, he also thought that the court suffered heavy losses from the seven voyages to the West initiated by Yongle.

However, it was not until Yuegang and Songjiangfu were opened as ports that he came to his senses.

It was not that the maritime trade was a loss; it was just that Emperor Yongle was transferring the court's money from his left hand to his right hand.

It should be known that in those years, according to the policy set by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the imperial court issued treasure notes to "blatantly" rob money, but it became very rich.

Well, the inner court didn’t get any benefit from this voyage to the West, and he was still very angry about it.

Therefore, during this period, he always reported higher prices for everything related to the preparations for the emperor's wedding. After all, the court already had money, and he would feel unworthy of his position if he didn't spend as much as possible in the inner court.

Not long after, the Fengzhou fleet finally met up with the Ming navy and slowly stopped. The three Fengzhou fleets behind it also docked at the right side behind the emperor's ship.

As the leading ship raised a string of signal flags ahead, a loud shout suddenly erupted from the Ming navy ship ahead.

"Long live the Ming Dynasty, long live His Majesty"

It can be seen that countless Ming navy officers and soldiers standing on the deck are already kneeling on one leg and shouting in unison towards this side.

Seeing this, the courtiers and nobles who were standing in front of the railings all retreated behind the little emperor, making him completely stand out.

At this time, the little emperor was wearing a crown and standing alone at the bow. He seemed very satisfied, raised his hands slowly, and shouted loudly: "All the ministers, please stand up."

The boy's shrill voice was a little broken, but it was still hard for too many people to hear.

However, on the deck behind them, dozens of specially selected and loud-voiced guards shouted in unison: "His Majesty has ordered, all the officials stand up."

The sound was so loud that Wei Guangde couldn't help but reach out to pick his ears. He thought other people might have had a similar feeling.

In the past in the palace, it was just a few eunuchs with shrill voices conveying imperial decrees, but this time it was the imperial army shouting in unison, which was not common.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Another signal flag was raised on the opposite warship, and soon the officers and soldiers of the opposite navy shouted and stood up one after another.

"Pass the order and perform the parade ceremony."

The little emperor turned slightly and gave an order to the official of the Honglu Temple behind him, then turned back and swayed his crown tassel slightly.

"Your Majesty has ordered that the parade ceremony be held."

The official from the Honglu Temple stepped forward and shouted loudly.

Behind him, a sailor stepped forward, waving two small red flags.

This is a kind of flag signal used by the Ming army, usually used to convey information during battle.

On the sea, flags are used during the day and torches are used at night. However, the information that can be transmitted is very limited and certainly not as simple as radio, which allows direct communication.

But in this era, it is already considered the most advanced way to transmit messages. In fact, flag language exists in both the East and the West, but the content transmitted is different.

They are all designed according to military needs, and there is nothing worth showing off.

Soon, the warships of the Ming Navy on the opposite side weighed anchor and set sail. All that could be seen was the movement of oars under the ship. Soon, a double-decker warship took the lead, and two warships were in a row, slowly coming from left to right, making a large circle.

In fact, at the beginning, Yu Dayou wanted to wait until the emperor's ship arrived, and then he would lead the fleet in a line to perform the parade ceremony directly, but his request was rejected by the Ministry of Rites.

There is no reason to let the emperor wait for his subjects.

So it has become what it is now, the navy will stay anchored here and await the arrival of the emperor, and then start the inspection.

This change is more than a little troublesome.

However, the most troublesome thing is the alignment of the two warships in each row. There is no doubt that such a formation of two warships is somewhat not neat enough.

Even though the naval officers and soldiers tried their best, it still looked a little crooked.

The little emperor frowned slightly, feeling that the description of the formations being in uniform order was unlike the records of the previous Longqing Grand Review in the palace.

Wei Guangde also frowned slightly when he saw this later, and finally understood why later naval fleet reviews were all conducted by single ships. Compared with the neatness of the equipment formations in the military parade, it was really too difficult to make large ships like warships neat.

"In the future, it will be changed to a separate column and included in the manual."

Wei Guangde turned slightly and whispered to Zhang Ke behind him.

Zhang Ke didn't answer, but just nodded slightly.

After the parade was completed, the gunboat concentrated fire drill led by Yu Dayou began, which was intended to demonstrate the powerful artillery power of the Ming navy.

Nothing went wrong this time. A number of wooden stakes were erected on a reef ahead that had been previously blocked by the navy warships.

As the gunboats passed by and fired one after another, the area around the reef was instantly filled with water splashes, shells continued to fall near the reef, and some wooden piles were directly broken.

"Boom boom boom"

Suddenly, the sound of artillery roared in the Bohai Bay, which was far greater than the sound during the Longqing Grand Review.

"Well played."

On the sealed boat, everyone was holding up telescopes and watching the navy's artillery drills.

"The navy has too many cannons."

Zhang Juzheng sighed softly.

A double-decker gunboat used to have more than ten guns, and even a single-decker gunboat could fire ten shells.

There are nearly a hundred gunboats, and that means they can fire thousands of times.

At this time, on the three nearby sealed boats, officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple who were accompanying the representatives of the foreign delegations were already frightened by the artillery fire of the Ming navy.

Even the Portuguese did not mobilize so many warships when they sailed across the Indian Ocean.

Moreover, even if they had larger warships equipped with more guns, they would not have so many guns in total due to the limitation of the number of warships.

Yes, whether it is the Spanish Navy or the Portuguese Navy, although they have huge fleets, their tactics in this era still have not deviated from the original boarding battles.

They did equip their warships with a large number of artillery for various purposes, but the absolute number was certainly not as much as that of the Ming Dynasty.

In the past two years, Nanjing has been working hard to produce long-barreled general cannons. In addition to several large-sized Portuguese cannons on the deck of the gunboats, the bowl-mouth guns that were used to sweep the deck have been replaced by long-barreled general cannons.

In the naval warfare tactics that Yu Dayou gradually formed, long-range artillery attacks on the enemy had become a relatively mature tactic.

Also, because the Ming Dynasty had a sufficient number of warships, the large number of Fujian ships it still had could also support the Ming navy in boarding battles.

It can only be said that Yu Dayou was greatly influenced by Wei Guangde, and Wei Guangde was greatly influenced by the British Navy in the 19th century. He only knew how to stuff cannons into the Ming army's warships, but was completely unaware that Western naval tactics at that time were still in the primitive naval warfare state.

That is, when the Western navies were fighting at this time, although there was artillery fire, the real battle was still a war form that started with an artillery battle and ended with a boarding battle.

Well, unknowingly, the Ming navy's tactics have actually surpassed this era and are at the leading level.

Of course, not everyone in the foreign delegation noticed it, although everyone was stunned by the wealth of the Ming navy.

Industrial products are not cheap these days. Cannons and muskets are quite expensive weapons.

Drake was now holding onto the railing with both hands and leaning forward, as if he wanted to get closer to the Ming warship and hear what the Ming military officers were saying.

Why would they practice this kind of attack using massive artillery fire? It's so shocking.

It can be imagined that if the Ming warships were to hunt down a warship at this time, it would probably only take one round for the battered warship to be silenced. Even the Jesse sailing ship would probably not be able to withstand such a blow.

It seems that the Ming people's fighting style was more like that of pirates, using artillery to attack enemy ships from a long distance, destroying a large number of manpower before considering whether to board the ship or directly salvage cargo from the wreckage.

In Drake's mind, he repeatedly deduced the tactics of the Eastern naval battle that the Ming navy had demonstrated to them.

"It is indeed different from the West. It is so shocking and amazing. It is worthy of being a veteran maritime power."

There is no shortage of news about Zheng He's fleet in Europe. What were they doing two hundred years ago?
Their fleets are already able to sail thousands of miles to trade and show off their military power.

"Are most of the Ming navy here?"

On another ship, the commander of the Spanish Manila defense force and the Spanish delegation were looking at the Ming Dynasty's tactics with disdain.

The Spaniards still believe that they are the country with the most powerful naval force in the world. Even if the Ming Dynasty has a lot of cannons, so what?

He had already found out that the Ming Navy had only four or five hundred warships, and the more than four hundred warships here were almost all of their assets.

Well, there's nothing to worry about.

The Kingdom of Spain has thousands of warships, but it owns too much land to take care of the Far East.

He didn't think at all that if the kingdom really intended to attack the Ming, the Ming navy would be able to stop their attack.

Although the Ming Dynasty had many cannons, didn’t the Kingdom of Spain have any?
In fact, collecting military intelligence on the Ming Dynasty has always been one of the duties of the Governor-General of the Philippines.

The Ming Dynasty was very rich and very enviable.

However, they already owned the gold and silver mines in Mexico, so they decided to let the Ming Dynasty go for the time being.

On another sealed boat, the Portuguese envoy also looked at the Ming Dynasty in shock.

They knew the strength of the Ming navy better than the Spanish and British, and they had only developed their military power for more than ten years.

In such a short period of time, the Ming Dynasty already had so many warships, and it seemed that their tactics were also unique, with gunboats being used separately.
Wei Guangde did not want the representatives of the three European countries to discuss the Ming Navy together, so he deliberately separated them and placed them on three ships.

As for whether they will get together to discuss it, I guess the British might discuss it with the Portuguese, but it doesn't seem to matter.

When nearly a hundred gunboats turned and began to surround the reef in an arc, as the leading gunboat fired its guns, almost at the same time, all the warships fired a rain of bullets at the reef. (End of this chapter)