prosperous age

The Spanish Armada, meaning the Great and Fortunate Navy, was the naval fleet of Spain in the late 16th century.

The Spanish Invincible Armada was a naval fleet consisting of more than 150 large warships, more than 3000 cannons, and tens of thousands of soldiers. At its peak, the fleet had more than a thousand ships, and it roamed the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

Between 1545 and 1560, the Spanish Navy brought back 5500 kilograms of gold and 24.6 kilograms of silver from overseas.

By the end of the 16th century, Spain was producing 83% of the world's precious metals.

In order to protect sea transportation lines and its overseas interests, Spain established a powerful naval fleet with more than 100 warships, more than 3000 cannons, and tens of thousands of soldiers. At its peak, the fleet had more than a thousand ships.

This fleet roamed the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, calling itself the "Invincible Fleet."

Historically, the Spanish Armada was a task force temporarily formed by the Spanish Empire to attack Britain during the Anglo-Spanish War and was organized six times.

Five of the expeditions against Britain ended in failure, most of which were aborted due to bad weather. Eventually, Spain had to give up its ambition to invade Britain.

The first Invincible Armada attacked Britain, using a fleet of about 130 ships, including 8000 soldiers and 18000 sailors.

After the failure of the attack, Spain mobilized more than 160 ships, including 23 large galleons, 25 small galleons, 26 transport ships, several calablas, and about 70 small landing ships, carrying about 4000 soldiers and sailors, when it formed the Invincible Armada for the third expedition.

By the time of the Fourth Armada, Spain had assembled the most powerful fleet in its country, with 38 galleons and large armed ships, 23 galleys, 50 transport ships and 8000 soldiers.

In the first four times, Spain still had the strong strength to quickly complete the formation of the new fleet. Although it still carried the title of the Invincible Fleet in the next two times, its scale and strength had been greatly reduced.

Unless it draws on its overseas fleet, it will be difficult for Spain to put together hundreds of warships for sailing.

From this we can see that the Ming Navy, which Wei Guangde thought was not strong enough, was actually the second most powerful maritime force in the world at that time, and it easily crushed the Portuguese Navy.

"Master Wei."

Just as the little emperor got off the boat and stood on the dock, he suddenly shouted to Wei Guangde behind him.

"His Majesty."

Wei Guangde walked over quickly and stood beside the little emperor.

At this time, several other sealed boats were approaching the shore. As the host, the little emperor had to wait for them to disembark, and then see him off after all the officials and envoys arrived.

At this moment, there was just enough time, so the little emperor called Wei Guangde to say something.

"Master Wei, are the only elite troops here from our South China Sea Navy and East China Sea Navy?"

When the little emperor saw Wei Guangde coming, he immediately asked.

"Yes, most of these 400-plus warships belong to the South China Sea Fleet, and the rest belong to the newly formed East China Sea Fleet."

Wei Guangde replied.

"How many warships does my West Sea Navy have?"

It turned out that the little emperor had just learned from the conversation with Yin Zhengmao on the boat that in addition to the South China Sea Navy and the East China Sea Navy here, the Ming Dynasty also had a West China Sea Navy.

Well, actually it wasn’t that I hid it from the emperor, but he didn’t pay attention to it before, so he didn’t have much impression of it.

"Although the West Sea Fleet was established earlier than the East Sea Fleet, it is isolated overseas and has the support of the South Sea Fleet. It is not like the East Sea Fleet, which protects the hinterland of Beijing and Tianjin. Therefore, its strength is currently the weakest among the navies, with more than a hundred large and small warships."

Wei Guangde's statement was an exaggeration. In fact, the number of over a hundred ships included small Fujian ships and other vessels, which were distributed in many ports in Myanmar.

Its main force consisted of no more than twenty gunboats and large Fuzhou ships, and more than twenty medium-sized Fuzhou ships that could barely be considered main warships.

"I see. That means I have more than 500 warships."

The little emperor naturally did not fully understand what Wei Guangde said. He simply added it down and felt that there were still fewer ships than the Spanish.

"By the way, does the cabinet have any plans to form a North Sea Navy?"

In the young emperor's mind, since he already had the Eastern, Western, and Southern navies, he couldn't miss the Northern Sea Navy.

“Yes, it is still in the planning stage. We plan to find a suitable port near Nurgan City and form the North Sea Navy.

However, the government troops have not yet restored the Nurgan Regional Military Commission. This year, Qi Jiguang of Liaodong has sent troops to patrol the Nurgan area along the Heilongjiang River.

Once everything is ready, the court will restore the Nurgan Commandery, and the Beihai Navy can begin to be organized."

Wei Guangde still told everyone about the preparations made by the cabinet in the past two years without hiding anything.

"Your Majesty, I remember this incident as well. Last year, the cabinet submitted a memorial mentioning this matter, which mainly mentioned sending government troops to Nurgan City and along the Heilongjiang River.

Later, it was planned to send warships of the East China Sea Navy to patrol the north this year to find a sea route to Nurgan City. "

Feng Bao interrupted at this time.

Although he loved money, Feng Bao was still very concerned about important affairs of the court.

He read all the memorials sent to the Imperial Household Department, except those praising the emperor's achievements, as well as all other memorials that expressed opinions on state affairs.

"That's good, my dear, you have to help me with this matter.

I get angry just thinking about it. Spain, a tiny country, has thousands of warships, while my Ming Dynasty, which is rich and powerful, only has 500 warships. I can't stand this."

The little emperor spoke, and the young man's competitive character was fully revealed.

"Your Majesty, building a ship costs a lot of money."

Feng Bao heard this and immediately said, "I remember that Wei Gelao said a few years ago that the navy had been rebuilt in recent years, so a lot of silver was invested in it. After it was completed, it was mainly for replacement, so not that much silver was needed.

Right, Lord Wei."

When Feng Bao heard that the young emperor wanted to build ships on a large scale, he became somewhat anxious.

This shipbuilding has little to do with him, but it costs too much money.

If fewer ships were built and used elsewhere, such as repairing palaces or somewhere else, he could still get some profit from it.

Most of the shipbuilding was done in Nanjing and Zhejiang. Although the shipyards were watched over by eunuchs, the actual money was paid and operations were done by the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War, and they did not get much benefits.

Because shipyards have been mainly engaged in building canal ships for more than a hundred years, the inner court has long since stopped paying attention to large shipyards such as Longjiang, and has paid more attention to several small shipyards near Nanjing.

By building canals through these small shipyards, eunuchs from all over the country could enrich themselves.

However, since large shipyards are watched by the Ministry of Industry, it is not easy to make money.

“Living within your means is the way to economy.

If the court had just managed to restore a balance between revenue and expenditure, even if there was a deficit, it would be very small.

If we build ships on a large scale, it will be detrimental to the court’s finances.”

Wei Guangde followed Feng Bao and said, "However, before the North Sea Navy is formed, shipbuilding for the navy will continue, especially now that our Ming Dynasty ships have entered the Western Ocean for maritime trade, the West Sea Navy also needs to be strengthened to protect them."

Wei Guangde mentioned the maritime trade, and Feng Bao opened his mouth slightly again. He immediately understood and said with a flattering smile: "Wei Gelao is right. Your Majesty, the East China Sea and South China Sea navies have four to five hundred warships. When the West China Sea and North China Sea navies are completed, there will be another four to five hundred warships. That navy will have thousands of warships."

When Feng Bao said this, he was naturally thinking of his ships, which really needed the protection of the navy's warships.

Even though he didn't know much about maritime trade, he knew that there seemed to be a lot of pirates and it was still very dangerous to go out to sea for business.

An important task of the West Sea Navy and the South Sea Navy is to wipe out the pirate groups existing in the east and west of the Mancijia Strait. There are many islands there, and naturally there are many pirates hiding there.

In fact, since the Tang and Song dynasties, the Middle East has purchased Chinese goods and resold them to Europe, with maritime trade being the main channel and a fertile ground for nurturing South China Sea pirates.

The inner court also has ship guides, and having sea vessels means overseas trade, so naturally they are more concerned about this.

Yuegang is known as the Southern Treasury of the Emperor, and the ships in the inner court are not only the Emperor's treasury, but also the treasury of these eunuchs. They count on these ships to bring them generous tributes every year, so of course they cannot let anything happen to them.

Therefore, the idea of ​​suppressing the development of the navy in order to make money at the beginning was instantly shattered in the face of real benefits.

Of course, the young emperor did not think as much as Feng Bao. In fact, he still did not understand the importance of gold and silver to the court. In his opinion, he had never been short of money.

When you are short of money, just write a note to the cabinet.

"Well, the navy must have a thousand warships as soon as possible, no fewer than the Western Barbarians.

Master Wei, you are in charge of the Ministry of War, so you should keep an eye on this matter for me."

The little emperor spoke.

"According to the order."

Wei Guangde lowered his head slightly and answered.

Over there, three sealed boats docked, and soon the gangplank was put up, and the accompanying officials and members of the delegation disembarked one after another.

The officials and the chief and deputy envoys of the delegation were led by officials from the Honglu Temple to pay their respects to His Majesty, followed by a burst of praise for the mighty and majestic Ming navy.

The little emperor's face was full of excitement. The navy had indeed done a great job and displayed very high quality. The little emperor rewarded the navy generously on the spot, giving them tens of thousands of taels of silver and plenty of beef, mutton, wine and meat.

Yin Zhengmao and Zhang Ke expressed their gratitude on behalf of the navy, and then everyone got on the carriage and returned to Tianjin City.

At this point, the official business in Tianjin was almost completed, and all that remained was for the emperor and the delegation to return to the capital.

Two days later, flags were flying again on the official road from Tianjin Weicheng to the capital, and a large number of government troops were escorting the emperor, his family and the envoys on their journey back to the capital.

As always, the little emperor would come out for a ride on horseback from time to time, because he felt too stuffy in the carriage.

Liu Shouyou, on the other hand, would come over from time to time and hand Wei Guangde some notes.

At the beginning, the Jinyiwei gathered intelligence on the diplomatic missions of various countries through officials from the Ministry of Rites, but gradually they also discovered that the Western diplomatic missions seemed to be inquiring about the situation of the Ming Dynasty court, including understanding the operation of the court and the ministers trusted by the current emperor. Their official positions and preferences seemed to be among the information they collected.

This was discovered accidentally by one of the centurions below. They were intentionally or unintentionally trying to find out news about the other country through interpreters, and the other side seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally leading the news to the capital, allowing the officials of the Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple to unknowingly spread the situation in the court.

"Siyun, you see, not only does the Ming Dynasty know how to send people to gather intelligence, but the Western Barbarians also know how to find out the truth about the Ming Dynasty."

On the side of the official road, Wei Guangde and Liu Shouyou were standing aside and talking. Wei Guangde was holding the note that Liu Shouyou had just handed over, reporting on this matter.

"Go back and think carefully about what should and should not be said, and secretly report the situation to Lord Xu, and ask him to restrain his men."

Those who communicated with foreign delegations were mostly officials from the Ministry of Rites and several government offices below it, so it was necessary to prevent them from leaking information from the court at will.

However, in Wei Guangde's view, this information was not actually confidential.

What is really important is the Ming Dynasty's financial data managed by the Ministry of Revenue, the weapons manufacturing intelligence managed by the Ministry of Works, and the troop deployment and planning managed by the Ministry of War.

There is really no important information to worry about being leaked in other government offices.

“By the way, you can also recruit some Jinyiwei spies as interpreters for the navy.

They are proficient in overseas languages ​​and are an important channel for you, the Jinyiwei, to collect overseas information.

Don't just focus on the people in the Chamber of Commerce. Businessmen are cunning, and although they can get things done, they will mostly settle accounts with themselves and consider their own interests.

On the contrary, some interpreters often come from poor family conditions, so they go on board to earn money at a young age. Also, because they are young, they can learn some foreign languages.

The Jinyiwei are the eyes of the emperor, so they cannot just focus on the domestic situation, but must take a long-term view.

For example, the imperial court had no idea about Japan's mountains of gold and silver, such an important matter.

You have to know how many financial difficulties the imperial court encountered in the past few years. "

Wei Guangde whispered.

He didn't understand espionage, but he knew that intelligence gathering was important in any era.

In front of Liu Shouyou, all he could do was to give him guidance.

“Although the Western Ocean is thousands of miles away from our Great Ming, they can already come here by boat, which means they also need to be included in the scope of Jinyiwei’s intelligence collection.

Most of the firearms currently used by the government troops are actually imitations of the barbarians. This shows that they may have surpassed our Ming Dynasty in the technology of firearms.

Collecting the latest firearms from the barbarians is one of the duties of your Jinyiwei.

Whether it was the Portuguese cannon or the bird gun, they were all captured by the government troops on the battlefield, and were things that the soldiers risked their lives to get back.

If we can get it back through Jinyiwei before this, and copy it, we can save many lives in the war."

Wei Guangde continued to speak there.

"What Lord Wei said is true. I was too careless earlier. I will definitely follow Lord Wei's instructions in the future and establish special spies for all vassal states that have dealings with our Ming Dynasty to collect all kinds of intelligence."

Liu Shouyou quickly expressed his opinion.

"When investigating Europe, military intelligence must be put first. Many people in the court say that it is a strange trick, but this thing can kill people on the battlefield. It is a military weapon."

Wei Guangde reminded.

"Lord Wei, the chief and deputy envoys of the Aneliya delegation seem to have a kind of self-propelled musket in their hands, saying that it is a gift to your majesty."

Speaking of military intelligence, Liu Shouyou suddenly remembered that among the gifts that the British delegation gave to Emperor Wanli, there was something called a self-propelled musket. It was said that it could be fired without a fuse. Isn't that the military weapon that Lord Wei mentioned?

"Can Elijah make his own musket?"

Wei Guangde was stunned. He thought this thing had not been invented so early.

The self-generating fire gun is naturally the flintlock rifle. It can be said that this thing is good, but it is actually not that good.

In fact, in Wei Guangde's opinion, it is not much more advanced than the matchlock gun.

"It's a pity that the Ministry of Industry has not yet developed the rapid-fire musket. Otherwise, we could really shock those country bumpkins in Europe after returning to the capital." (End of this chapter)