prosperous age

Chapter 987 1078 Sea Stop

The people of the Denglai Navy came ashore one after another. Xu Qiaoan only arranged for a small number of people to stay on the ship, and the others were placed in the military camp.

Such a situation has already happened once in Hangzhou.

But there is only one day for rest, and this time in Beigang, there won’t be much time for rest.

"Master Xu, this was arranged by the Admiral."

As he spoke, the Beigang garrison handed a handwritten order signed by Yu Dayou to Xu Qiaoan, and said, "The admiral hopes that the Denglai Navy will get used to the work and rest schedule of the South China Sea Navy. Generally, when the navy goes out to sea for training, they will only rest for one day when they arrive at the port, and then leave for the next port.

According to the admiral's instructions, Lord Xu is required to be familiar with the main ports on Dongfan Island, so tomorrow morning we will provide you with supplies and sail to Wang Port in the afternoon."

The Beigang garrison commander smiled.

Although they were not under the same command, the other party was a lieutenant general and a guard commander, which was much higher than his rank of a thousand households, so he did not dare to neglect him at all.

"Wanggang, which direction is it?"

Xu Qiaoan seemed to have heard this name somewhere, but he had no impression of it and didn't know where this Wanggang was.

"Sir, more than 300 miles south of Beigang is Wanggang. I will send someone to guide you there when the time comes."

The North Port garrison said hurriedly.

"Is this Wanggang also on Dongfan Island? I remember seeing this place name somewhere."

Xu Qiaoan asked with a frown.

"Wanggang is indeed on Dongfan Island. If you have heard of it, you should have seen it mentioned in the previous anti-Japanese war report.

In the past, our Ming army had never set foot on Dongfan Island, so the Japanese pirates mostly set up their nests in Penghu and Dongfan Island, which was mentioned in previous battle reports.

In fact, Wanggang was also a pirate nest that our South China Sea Navy recaptured when they were suppressing the Japanese pirates. It’s just that the port conditions are good and there is a foundation built by the Japanese pirates before, so the admiral also built a water fort there for the navy to rest.

Then, the Beigang garrison told Xu Qiaoan everything he knew about the current situation in Wanggang, so that he could have an idea of ​​what was going on.

As for the actions of the various naval units of the Ming Dynasty in the southeast, the South China Sea Navy Commander's Office would report to the Ministry of War in the capital every three days by express mail of 600 miles.

Yes, although the Nanhai Navy and the Denglai Navy seem to be at sea most of the time, whenever they dock at a naval port, the news will be delivered to the governor's office through the post station.

The southeastern waters are now operating in a state of war. The Governor's Office has a special office to send and receive news from various places. Some news must be sent urgently to Chaozhou and handed over to Yu Dayou's clerk, while others must be delivered to the Ministry of War.

The southeastern coast, Dongfan Island, Penghu and other places all reported that no trace of Lin Feng's pirate group had been found. Later, Yu Dayou judged that Lin Feng's group might have stayed in Luzon Island or gone to the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. The news was also sent to the capital through the Governor's Office.

Even the news that Deng Zilong led his team to Luzon and Chen Lin led his team to patrol Shitang was brought back.

Wei Guangde saw the briefing sent by the Ministry of War in the cabinet duty room and quickly learned about the situation in the southeast.

For other cabinet ministers, seeing such news might make them breathe a sigh of relief, but Wei Guangde instinctively felt nervous, because according to the time calculation, the estimated time for the Ming army to attack Luzon might be advanced.

In fact, sending the South China Sea navy south to Luzon was not a big deal, but the Ming court had not yet made any substantive decision on Wei Guangde's suggestion.

Yes, although Wei Guangde fully supported it, he also received support from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works among the six ministries.

Speaking of which, the Ministry of War had a lot of say in this matter, but Wei Guangde still knew that it only supported Tan Lun. When the Ministry of War was discussing matters, the assistant minister and other major officials such as the doctors below did not support the Ming Dynasty sending the navy to Luzon, not to mention the action of grabbing territory there.

In the minds of Ming Dynasty officials, Luzon was a poor place with few people and little land. What was there to conquer?

This kind of shabby place should not be taken over even if it is given to the Ming Dynasty. It would take a lot of effort to arrange people to develop it. The cost is not worth it compared to the gain.

As for sending the navy to Luzon to wipe out the Lin Feng pirate group, no one objected.

  But what does this mean for Wei Guangde’s plan?

They thought they could send troops to suppress the Japanese, but Wei Guangde's ultimate goal was to carve out a piece of territory in Luzon.

These are two completely different things.

After wiping out the Lin Feng pirate group, all the navy returned home. In Wei Guangde's eyes, this was a real waste of money and manpower.

The cabinet had already convened a meeting of the cabinet, the six ministers, and the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate for the Luzon Island issue, but because of Zhang Juzheng's hesitation, only the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works chose to support Wei Guangde's opinion at that time. Some of the others expressed their opposition, and the rest also held reservations.

The person who held the most vehement opposition was Ge Shouli, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.

At that time, Ge Shouli was obviously in poor health and kept coughing during the meeting, but when he expressed his opposition, his attitude was still as tough as in the early days.

Well, coughing and objecting made Wei Guangde so nervous that he was afraid that someone would die in the cabinet.

Without Zhang Juzheng's support, Wei Guangde guessed that such a memorial would be useless even if it was sent to the palace.

Because such a memorial will most likely be sent back to the cabinet for further discussion, there are too few people supporting it.

Although the palace does not necessarily judge whether to pass a proposal based on the number of officials who support or oppose it, the status of the officials will also be taken into consideration, especially the attitudes of the Prime Minister and the Second Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister does not support it and only the Second Prime Minister supports it, he will naturally hesitate.

The best outcome of hesitation is sending the case back for reconsideration, and the worst outcome is rejection.

Also because he was already familiar with the rules of reviewing memorials in the palace, at the end of this meeting, Wei Guangde took the initiative to give up the matter of submitting the memorial, and instead asked everyone to think about it and discuss the matter later, thus leaving a buffer.

Looking at the report from the Ministry of War, Wei Guangde knew clearly that once the navy confirmed that Lin Feng was still on Luzon Island, they would most likely submit a petition requesting troops to encircle and suppress him.

At that time, if we still cannot get the support of most of the senior officials and send troops to stay in Luzon after encircling Lin Feng, this matter will be completely aborted.

As for whether it is possible to delay the time, it is almost impossible.

In the southeastern waters today, the only pirate group that can be called famous is the Lin Feng Group.

Wei Guangde pondered for a long time and felt that he could only find a way to convince Zhang Juzheng. Only by gaining his support could he achieve his goal.

As for the reason, it is not only that if Zhang Juzheng supports him, the number of officials who choose to support him in the ministry will increase, and those officials who are attached to Zhang Juzheng will express their support; also, the first and second assistants have the same stance, which makes it easier to get approval from the palace.

While Wei Guangde was thinking about how to persuade Zhang Juzheng, a fleet far away from the Ming Dynasty was also sailing against the wind and waves towards the southeast.

"General Deng, there are two merchant ships in front of you on the left. They are Fuzhou ships."

On the deck of a large Fu ship in front of the fleet, the lookout hanging high up suddenly lowered his head and shouted below.

"Fuchuan? How fast is it? Can we stop them?"

On the deck, the people who had been doing nothing just now heard the news that there was a ship nearby, and they immediately stood on the edge of the deck and looked to the left front.

However, all I could see was the vast ocean and nothing else.

Deng Zilong stood in the middle of the crowd, holding a telescope in both hands and scanning the distant sea back and forth, but he saw no trace of the ship.

"If we move the boat a little to the right, we should be able to stop them." The lookout observed the direction and speed of both sides from a high place for a while before reporting to Deng Zilong.

"Sir, it may be a merchant ship departing from Yuegang and heading to the South Seas."

A general officer behind him spoke up.

Deng Zilong nodded. Judging from the direction of the merchant ship, it should be a ship departing from Yuegang.

“We still have to stop them and find out the situation in Luzon.”

Because of the rush, I didn’t go to Yuegang to collect the latest news from Luzon this time.

Now that he had discovered the existence of Ming Dynasty maritime merchants, Deng Zilong naturally wanted to contact them and find out what they knew.

As the order was conveyed, the Ming warships shifted their sailing direction slightly to the right. Although the contact time between the two fleets would be delayed, they would be more confident of intercepting them.

"The court opened Yuegang to foreigners, and they said that they would come to trade with them. Why do they have to go to Manila? It is said that Luzon does not have any special products. What benefit can they get from coming to someone else's territory?"

Deng Zilong said in confusion.

After all, he had not been in the navy for long, and during this period he had been cramming his knowledge of navy routes and command. He had not paid much attention to maritime merchants, so he raised his questions at this time.

“General, you don’t know that although the barbarian ships can reach Yuegang to trade, the only goods they can buy are those hoarded by the merchants at the port.

To put it bluntly, good things generally don't stay there. They are loaded onto ships by merchants and sent directly overseas.

As long as these good things are shipped overseas, they can be sold at a good price, which is much higher than the price in the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, by bringing the best supplies out to sea, not only can you earn high profits, but you can also choose the other party's goods.

We, the Ming Dynasty merchants, have the confidence to choose their products, but they don’t have this confidence.

As for Luzon, there was indeed nothing there worth the merchants' efforts, but that was in the past after all.

In the past, Luzon Island had nothing except local specialties. As for the wood produced there, the cost of transporting it back was too expensive, so no merchants went there.

But now it is different. The barbarians have established a trading place in Manila where they can trade.

What the merchants valued was not the products of Luzon, but the things brought by the barbarians. I heard that there were many things produced from a continent to the east, including the silver coins they traded with us, which were dug out from the mines on the eastern continent.

There are many things that are very interesting and bizarre.”

The general behind him whispered to Deng Zilong the news he had heard in Yuegang, letting Deng Zilong know the purpose of the Ming merchants running to Luzon.

“By the way, I also heard that they have a crop in Luzon that grows underground and has a very high yield. It’s produced from the eastern continent.

Legend has it that this thing is magical. It can not only be grown in fields, but also on hills. It is drought-resistant and cold-resistant. The leaves and stems can be cooked and eaten. The dug fruits are also very filling and are said to taste good.

Those businessmen who don’t have a few acres of land all want to get the seeds back to plant themselves. After all, we don’t have them here, so we should be able to sell them at a good price.

Unfortunately, I heard that the barbarians forbade the sale of this thing to the Ming Dynasty. Every time they returned from Manila, the barbarians would inspect the goods. "

The general told Deng Zilong the interesting story he had heard as anecdotes. In his opinion, it was just a plant. How could it be a big deal? It had to be kept secret and the exit strictly blocked.

With the products of the Ming Dynasty, who would be interested in such things? They just want to try something new.

"Crops? Drought and cold resistant?"

If Chen Lin or Yu Dayou heard such news, they might just laugh it off and laugh in their hearts at the barbarians for being so conceited about their own belongings.

However, Deng Zilong, who had been to the capital, was different. He knew that Wei Guangde, the second assistant minister, was in charge of a government office, which was the Agricultural Persuasion Office, and it seemed that his job was to search for drought-resistant and cold-resistant crops all over the world.

He had eaten imperial rice when he was in the capital. Although the taste was average, he knew that it was an imported product and was previously grown as a flower in the palace.

However, the Agricultural Persuasion Bureau has already tried to grow this crop in various provinces of the Ming Dynasty. There are also some in Fujian, all planted in the mountains.

Because there are too many mountains and farmland in Fujian, food is still in short supply.

Now that he heard that the barbarians had this crop and had banned the Ming Dynasty from obtaining it, Deng Zilong had a change of heart.

It is obvious that the barbarians have bad intentions and have designs on the Ming Dynasty.

"Listen, remember this. If possible, we want to bring back the seeds of this plant."

Deng Zilong gave the order.

"General, do you want to try it too? I heard that it tastes sweet and fragrant when roasted. Although I have never eaten it, I am drooling when I hear them talking about it, haha."

The general also tried to join in the fun.

"Yeah, I want to taste it."

Deng Zilong didn't tell his real purpose, he just said it casually.

In fact, all Ming Dynasty merchants who have been to Manila know about this thing, have eaten it, and think it tastes good.

Unfortunately, they wanted to bring this plant back to Ming Dynasty for cultivation but failed.

Because the Spanish were unwilling to spread American crops in East Asia.

Moreover, a common food like sweet potatoes can be sold at a high price in Manila to Ming merchants who come to trade.

What they sell, of course, are cooked sweet potatoes. They are prohibited from selling raw sweet potatoes and sweet potato stems and leaves to merchants, because these things may survive if carefully cultivated, and by then sweet potatoes will no longer be a rare thing.

As for the businessmen, they naturally did not think about the significance of sweet potatoes to the Ming Dynasty, or to the millions of Han people. They just thought that they could make money by growing them because they were novel.

As the saying goes, scarcity makes things valuable.

At this moment, Wei Guangde was only thinking about "expanding the territory" for the Ming Dynasty, but he forgot about the biggest contributor to the "Kangxi and Qianlong prosperity" - sweet potatoes.

A few hours later, the fleet led by Deng Zilong finally caught up with the merchant ships and stopped them.

There is no doubt that the size of their fleet made the other side extremely nervous. They thought they were encountering pirates. When the ships approached, there were already many people standing on the other side's deck, holding weapons in their hands, including some firearms that were strictly prohibited from private ownership by the Ming court.

Yes, although in this kind of small-scale naval battle, especially in close combat, bows and crossbows are more effective.

However, materials such as bowstrings are difficult to preserve, so firearms are more often used in naval battles.

When the two gunboats on the left and right opened their gun windows, revealing the gun barrels inside, the other side's thoughts of resistance vanished into thin air.