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Chapter 1441 Besides external threats, there are also internal troubles.
"...Let's proceed according to your plan, but the support fleet must not leave its posts before the order from the Naval Staff is issued. You also said that the Europeans will definitely retreat after failing to break through for a long time, and then we can follow up and attack."

Enbird Port is Ming territory. Outsiders cannot come and go as they please; they must pay a heavy price to make them remember this lesson, lest they relapse soon.

Wang Tiemao pondered for a long time but couldn't find a reason to refute it. Yan Busi's plan seemed passive, but it actually conformed to the principle of adapting to local conditions and was more in line with His Majesty's battle strategy.

In a large-scale naval battle in the Cape of Good Hope area, unforeseen factors would indeed be amplified, and even the most experienced captains and sailors wouldn't dare to rely solely on nature. And risking the lives of naval officers and men in a war of attrition with the Europeans was certainly not a worthwhile endeavor.

However, the support fleet couldn't simply leave. Yan Busi had a duty, and so did I; I had to fulfill my duties until the siege of Enbird Port was lifted. So how could we reconcile these two differences? This is where the chief of staff's skill came in. He had to elevate the significance of this battle to a strategic level, leaving Yan Busi with no room for objection.

"...Very well, then I'll go arrange the landing on the island first!" Yan Busi didn't insist any further. As long as he wasn't forced to launch an attack on the European coalition, whether they stayed or not was up to him. Having a dozen or so more warships wouldn't hurt.

"Okay, I will write down all the details of the plan, and we will hold a meeting to make arrangements once the armed cargo ship arrives!"

Wang Tiemao wasn't confident about personally commanding a large-scale naval battle, but he didn't care who else was in charge of the operational plan. Yan Busi's plan was just a framework; it still needed a lot of material to be filled in, a task that should have been done by the General Staff.

The war has been going on for a full half month. Due to limitations in communication technology, news of the battles in the Western Regions, the Middle East, Port-e-Nus, and the Americas cannot be delivered in a short time.

Even for a figure as powerful as the Ming Emperor, Hong Tao could only see battle reports from a month prior at most. It would be a lie to say he wasn't anxious, but he wasn't to the point of losing his appetite or sleep, because he had other things to do.

Compared to the imperial court, the common people of the Ming Dynasty only knew about this war from snippets of information in the newspapers. The Western Regions and the Middle East were too far away for them; they didn't even know where they were, and they had no way of knowing if they wanted to pay attention.

Under the strong advocacy of Emperor Jingyang, the Ming Dynasty carried out sweeping reforms for more than 20 years, with remarkable achievements. Countless wastelands were reclaimed every year, and all kinds of factories sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

Increased commercial taxes and reduced land taxes, along with the vigorous construction of dams and canals, not only allowed many merchants to accumulate wealth but also gave more farmers hope. After a year of hard work, they could finally have enough food left over. If the weather was favorable, they might even be able to sell some surplus grain and buy new clothes for their families.

However, many people in remote areas with poor transportation have not enjoyed the benefits of reform. They can make do with food when they are not in trouble, but they will be ruined if they encounter any natural disasters or man-made disasters.

When people are hungry, their animalistic instincts suppress their humanity. They see no danger except for food and try every means to get food. Then bandits and thieves rise up, killing and robbing.

The emperor and his court officials racked their brains but couldn't find a good way to help these people. They had relief grain, but it couldn't be delivered in time. With current communication capabilities, even remote areas were suffering from the disaster, while nearby prefectures and counties hadn't received the news yet. And by the time they did learn of it, the inconvenient transportation prevented it from being delivered quickly.

This back-and-forth delay meant that by the time the relief grain was delivered, either most of the people had died, or a mob and bandits had broken out, and it would be too late. But this couldn't be considered a dereliction of duty by the local government. Hong Tao had personally arranged for the Imperial Guards to be stationed in several places to investigate, and it was indeed true that the natural conditions were too harsh for human intervention to change.

Eventually, Hong Tao gave up and stopped issuing frequent imperial edicts to guide local officials on this issue. However, he didn't completely give up; he simply changed his approach, which, although slower, addressed the root cause.

In short, it was migration! Don't misunderstand, this wasn't a government-organized forced migration, but a spontaneous one. The reason these areas were poor wasn't because the locals were lazy, but because the natural conditions were too harsh.

Since we can't conquer nature for the time being, let's not fight against nature. Can't we just move to another place to live? As long as we leave our hometown and go to a place with convenient transportation, the government will guarantee that everyone will not go hungry or freeze, provided they work hard.

But where should they migrate to? The places in the Ming Dynasty that were suitable for survival and had convenient transportation had long been developed, and even if there were any scraps left, there wouldn't be enough to go around.

At this point, we should look overseas. From Annam and Luzon, which have been developed for more than 20 years, to Batavia and Aceh, which have just been included in the development list, there are large areas of fertile land, plantations, mines, logging sites, and ports that need labor.

There are indeed some unresolved issues in the area, such as disease, natural disasters, and ethnic conflicts, which pose certain risks. However, these are much less serious than going hungry. With the right amount of effort, getting enough to eat and drink is definitely achievable, and who knows, you might even find some small fortune.

The idea was good, but the actual results were far from satisfactory. Every year, tens of thousands of people from the Ming Dynasty would volunteer to go to the overseas territories to make a living, but the data from the Ministry of Revenue, the Customs, and the Tax Bureau easily revealed a strange phenomenon.

Most of these people who left their homes came from wealthy coastal areas, especially the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong. As soon as one family in the village established themselves in an overseas territory and found life easier, their extended family would immediately follow suit.

Hong Tao could understand why this was the case. Different geographical and natural environments shaped different cultures. These regions either had little land and a large population, or the land was barren; without doing business or going to sea, the whole family would starve. Over time, this fostered a custom of not being attached to one's home and going wherever there were more opportunities.

But this goes against the court's original intention. The poorer the place, the less likely people are to move. They will only get poorer and poorer, while the best opportunities will be taken by those who have seen the world, and they will become richer and richer.

What to do? Judging from Hong Tao's previous style, he will most likely say two words: emigration! They don't want to move, right? They take the court's good intentions for granted, right? They don't understand reasoning and don't want to listen, right? Then stop talking and just send troops to surround and annihilate them. Burn the whole village, arrest everyone, and throw them onto a ship at sea, clean and quick.

What? Hatred? Hong Tao wasn't afraid of that kind of hatred. Once they had harvested more produce in their new home than they could have ever imagined before, and were eating two meals a day, even if they didn't say it, they wouldn't have any hatred in their hearts.

Even if there are some, it doesn't matter. These few people scattered across so many regions are practically zero. They won't have the impact on more people and won't make a ripple at all.

(End of this chapter)