I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 544 Macau War
The next day, under Zhu Youxiao's instruction, the Ming Daily quickly published the news that the emperor was inspecting the Imperial Palace yesterday.

The news that Xinxue and Neo-Confucianism were to be debated in the Imperial College soon spread throughout the capital. Coupled with the discussions and deliberations among everyone present at the time, the impact of this matter became greater and greater.

Many Yanguan who believed in Neo-Confucianism, the Imperial Censor, and even the officials of the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers were shocked when they heard this.

They never expected that the emperor would make such a decision, and that he could argue with Neo-Confucianism regardless of what he wanted to learn, so they wrote letters one after another, asking the emperor to withdraw his order.

However, there are also many officials in the court who secretly believe in Xinxue. In addition, Xinxue and Western learning are very close, and the relationship between the two is also very good.Many officials who believed in Xinxue and Western learning, such as Li Zhizao, Bi Maokang, Mao Yuanyi and others, also wrote letters.

It can be said that Zhu Youxiao's decision was like a trigger, which directly divided the entire court into two factions.

But Zhu Youxiao is not afraid of this. He even feels that this is just the beginning. After the news spreads to the whole country, officials from the 13 provinces in Beijing and the Neo-Confucianism and Taoist priests will be unable to sit still, and those Xinxue officials They would also celebrate and write letters of support and opposition.

Waiting until then will be the real big debate, the real struggle, and the real excitement.

Because of this, Zhu Youxiao now really looks at Ye Xianggao in a different light. His ability to support him under heavy pressure is enough to show his loyalty to him.

Vote me for peaches, and repay me for plums.

Since Ye Xianggao trusted him so much, Zhu Youxiao would not treat him badly and must give him enough grace.

When Zhu Youxiao thought of this, he suddenly started thinking.

Since taking the throne, the number of cabinet members has always been about five people.Although there have been repeated increases and decreases from the year before last to the end of last year, the number of people has not changed significantly.However, after the sinking incident at the end of the year, the number of cabinet members has been relatively small, with only Liu Yishen, Ye Xianggao, and Sun Chengzong.

Look, after the first debate is over, the number of people in the cabinet and the current positions of everyone should also change.

It would take time for the news from the capital to spread to various places, but just thousands of miles south of Beijing, a war that seemed to have nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty came to an end.
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Chief Secretary of Guangdong, offshore Macau.

After Lawrence boarded the flagship in a small boat, he couldn't help but sit down and gasp. The blood stains on his body proved that he had experienced a bloody battle.

After a long journey of more than half a month, the East India Company's expedition fleet finally arrived in the waters near Macau around March 21.

When I first arrived, there was constant good news, except for the original fleet.On the way, we even encountered an East Asian sailing ship driven by a Siamese. There were thirty Japanese ronin on board. These people had just set off from Macau. After seeing the East India Company's fleet, they were persuaded by Du Lac to join the enemy. During the expedition to Macau.

There were also two warships that wanted to blockade the Spanish Port of Manila, and two British armed merchant ships that were traveling with them. After receiving the news, they quickly came to join them.

It's just that although the British promised to help Dulac and others attack Macau, they only asked for a quarter of the loot.

Dulac heard this but flatly refused, thinking that these damn British guys just came to help and wanted a quarter of the loot. They were really greedy.

By the time we arrived in Macau, the entire fleet already had fifteen large and small warships and more than 300 soldiers, which made everyone on the fleet full of confidence.I thought that I must capture Portugal's "Pearl of the Orient" and then plunder it here.

It's just that neither Dulac nor Lawrence expected that this seemingly defenseless Macau would be so difficult to conquer.

According to intelligence from the Siamese and Japanese, there are currently very few troops in Macau, and its main elite generals have been sent to the north to help the Ming Emperor train soldiers.And they also took a lot of artillery with them when they left, seriously weakening the city's defense capabilities.

So now there are only about a hundred people left in the city who can use weapons.Most of them are Portuguese and their mixed-race children from India, Luzon and other places.These men would defend several recently established forts, using reinforcements of artillery recently shipped from Manila.The rest were the black slaves who served the soldiers.

So Dulac, Lawrence and other officers quickly formulated a battle plan.

After resting at sea for a day, Dulac would lead his fleet to conduct a feint sea attack from the south.The infantry commanders Regerson and Lawrence led the troops to land on the eastern beaches.

There are no city walls or fortifications to cover it, so it is very suitable for more attackers to form formations.

So on March 23, Dulac led three warships to begin the first round of shelling, attacking the St. Francis Fort in the south of Macau Island. Unexpectedly, the Portuguese chose silence and did not respond with artillery fire. .

This made Dulac immediately put down his vigilance. After a day of bombardment, early the next morning, he ordered the Dutch warships to move towards the fort.

But he never imagined that the Portuguese defenders were waiting for this opportunity.When they saw the Dutch fleet slowly approaching the fort, they began a violent bombardment, severely damaging the leading battleship Gallia.

This made Dulac extremely angry. While commanding the Gallia to retreat, he also sent an order to let people land quickly from the beach river (today's pond) area to the east.

While Dulac was being bombarded, Regerson and Lawrence had already led a landing team of 1000 people formed by East India Company marines and Japanese mercenaries, divided into 32 small boats, and were towed by 5 barges. and cover, has landed on the beach east of Macau.

In order to confuse the outnumbered defenders, Regerson even fired wet gunpowder into the air to create a smoke screen effect on the battlefield.

I originally thought that such preparations would be enough to defeat the Portuguese defensive position of more than 100 people.

But I wonder if it was God blessing Portugal. The Portuguese fired randomly at the smoke screen without seeing the target clearly.The results were astonishingly accurate, killing only more than 40 soldiers and injuring the infantry commander Raichen. Even the Japanese Ronin leader Raichen was shot in the abdomen.

Although they finally managed to win the beachhead, they suffered heavy losses.

After seeing this, Ray Jason had no choice but to hand over command to Lawrence.Knowing that the opportunity was rare, Lawrence made a decisive decision, leaving two hundred soldiers to guard the beachhead, while the rest of the team moved towards the city.Soon they occupied the front lines of Longhuan Village and Longtian Village outside Portugal.

Although the Portuguese were brave, they could only retreat while fighting, and still could not slow down their pace.Finally, success allowed the Dutch East India Company expedition to approach the inland city walls of Macau.

But at this time, the Portuguese also knew that the city was about to be defeated, so they mobilized almost everyone in the city to participate in the battle.

In addition to the soldiers and their black slaves, ordinary citizens and Jesuit missionaries joined in, as well as many Akito armed with matchlocks.Everyone shouted the slogan "Santiago" and rushed towards the Dutch queue.In addition to muskets and swords, many people only went into battle with cold weapons for self-defense.

How could the Dutch, who were accustomed to fighting Javanese natives, face such a heroic charge? They were horrified after facing such a scene.After hurriedly firing their guns, the group began to retreat toward the beach to the east.

Lawrence, who had just commanded the advance of the infantry, saw this and wanted to urge the soldiers not to retreat easily. However, he was knocked down by the oncoming East African slaves. Thanks to the strength of his men, he was dragged back.

But while Lawrence had help, others were not so lucky.

Although the Portuguese fought fiercely, their real fighting power came from the black men beside the Portuguese who fought with halberds, swords and shields.

They themselves were trained to serve as cannon fodder for the Musketeers' human shields, so they not only dared to fight, but even rushed forward.Once the Dutch were defeated, the Dutch who begged for mercy were not given a chance and all were beheaded on the spot.

What made the defeated Dutch even more desperate was that after they fled to the beach, they found that the friendly forces there had also fled in advance.They had no choice but to scramble onto the landing boat, endure the shooting from the Portuguese pursuers, and flee in confusion.

Some people drowned before returning to the fleet. Fortunately, many black slave soldiers stopped to rob the bodies of the Dutch dead. Otherwise, more elites of the East India Company might have been buried on the beaches of Macau.

After suffering such a defeat in the first battle, not only Lawrence looked frustrated, but also Dulac.

Before he came, he had promised to Governor Cohen of Batavia that he would capture Macau and open up trade with the Ming Dynasty.

But now not only has Macau not been captured, his fleet has lost more than 150 people to Macau, and more than 120 casualties. Hundreds of Japanese and Indonesian people have been killed or injured, and a group of soldiers have been captured.Another ship in the fleet was severely damaged, which would hardly affect the overall operations afterwards.

This Battle of Macau is estimated to have become the largest defeat the Dutch East India Company has encountered since it rushed to Asia.

Dulac felt despair when he thought about Governor Cohen's upcoming rebuke and the reaction of shareholders when they learned the news.

"We can no longer fight. Our fleet was pursuing speed before and only supplied fresh water and food in Champa. Now the food and fresh water are no longer enough. If we waste it here anymore, it will only increase casualties."

Although Dulac was arrogant, he immediately changed his combat thinking after analyzing the situation in his mind.

Although their fleet has a large number of people, landing operations are extremely difficult. In addition, Macau is already covered by artillery, which makes it even more difficult.

So their initial goal was to raid Macau. Now that they failed in the first battle, Macau probably won't be able to win.

So the best thing to do now is to change the target. Can you negotiate with Macau first to get the prisoners back, then seek supplies, and then make plans?

　I'm really sorry for the interruption in the last two days. I'll start updating normally today, and I'll update it tomorrow.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)