I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 567 Top Secret Information
So Yuan Keli ordered Shen Yourong, the commander-in-chief of the Fujian Navy, to prepare the warships, and quickly sent troops to attack the Dutch while their foothold in Penghu was not stable.

On the other hand, they quickly reported the situation to the court and let the cabinet and the emperor know about it.

But Zhu Youxiao knew the news before he received Yuan Keli's title book, because the Chief Secretary of Guangdong's title book about the Dutch attack on Macau had already reached the cabinet, and he also revealed good news in the title book.

The Chief Secretary of Guangdong did nothing about the Dutch attack on Macau. They were afraid that the emperor would blame them if he knew about it, so they solved the Macau rent issue that Zhu Youxiao was obsessed with.

In the past, the Chief Secretary of Guangdong collected very little rent from Macao, only 300 taels.

This amount was so small that Zhu Youxiao found it a bit incredible when he found out.So at the end of last year, I ordered someone to send a message to the Chief Secretary of Guangdong to inquire about this matter, requesting that the rent be re-determined. If the rent is not increased, the Portuguese will be asked to get out.

Originally, the Chief Secretary of Guangdong was quite procrastinating on this matter, because although Macau paid very little money to the court, it paid a lot of bribes to the officials of the Chief Secretary of Guangdong, which led to the Guangdong people to cover up many of the actions of the Portuguese in Macau. .

But now that something like this has harmed the majesty of the Ming Dynasty, they naturally know that they should spend money to eliminate the disaster.

So the Chief Secretary of Guangdong sent the Xiangshan County Magistrate to inform Macao that they must increase the rent from 300 taels to 3 taels, and that Macao's tariffs must also have people from the Taxation Department of the Ming Dynasty Ministry of Household Affairs stationed in to verify the accounts, collect tariffs, and prevent smuggling.

Macau was extremely angry at what Ming Dynasty did. This was not taking advantage of the situation.

But even so, there was nothing they could do.

The reason is that the Ming Dynasty and Macau are connected by road, and there are very few defenses. Many people in Macau are also Ming Dynasty people, and there are also Ming Dynasty offices.If it breaks with the Ming Dynasty, Macau will not be able to hold on at all, and Portugal will also lose this "Pearl of Asia".

Therefore, the Portuguese Council in Macau, as well as the commander of the Sino-Japanese trade fleet Carvalho and others could only pinch their noses and admit the Ming Dynasty's "unreasonable" demands.

But they also have a request, that is, the Ming Dynasty must crack down on this group of "Dutch pirates" and cannot allow them to continue to do evil outside Macau and destroy shipping routes.

The Chief Secretary of Guangdong naturally agreed wholeheartedly to this. Anyway, the Fujian Navy was now responsible for the extermination of the Red Haired Barbarians, and they did not have to worry about it at all, so they quickly reported the news to Beijing and

Zhu Youxiao's imperial examination has another title book written by the Chief Secretary of Guangdong on the issue of the Netherlands and Macau.

However, just as the officials of the Chief Secretary of Guangdong expected, Zhu Youxiao, who was "money-minded", learned that the Chief Secretary of Guangdong had actually increased the rent in Macau to 3 taels, and also asked people from the General Department of Taxation of the Ministry of Household Affairs to station at the Macau Customs After the news of hunger.I highly praised the people of the Chief Secretary of Guangdong and felt that they were indeed doing practical things for the court. It seemed that the court's taxes were going to be increased again this year.

After all, he knew very well that Macau was an important trade base between Portugal and Spain in East Asia. There were many ships from the Americas, Europe, Japan and other places every year, and the annual trade volume reached millions of taels.

Although now after the Ming Dynasty's switch, Macao's status as a trade transit point will decline.Its trade volume will definitely be affected, but it is not a small amount.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao immediately approved the matter.Let Macau let him be like this for now. This oil and water must be squeezed out bit by bit.

Then Zhu Youxiao turned his attention to Yuan Keli's topic book about annihilating the Netherlands. In fact, he was not worried about this matter. Driving away the Dutch was just a matter of speed.After all, this has happened before in history, but the fight was very difficult.

Nan Juyi, who was the governor at the time, saw that the Dutch were so arrogant and rude, so he gathered tens of thousands of naval troops and attacked Penghu three times over two years.

However, because the Dutch were good at building fortifications, they were unable to break through the Dutch bastions in the first two times and had no choice but to besiege them.

Until the last time, Fujian Commander-in-Chief Yu Zigao led a warship to Penghu, landed on Baisha Island, and engaged the Dutch army.However, the Dutch army relied on strong fortifications to resist the warships, and Penghu could not be captured for a long time. The Ming army took measures to cut off the water source and use gunpowder to attack the city, and first removed the Dutch's outer strongholds bit by bit.

In the end, the government troops used explosives to blow up Hongmao City and finally recaptured Penghu. More than ten people from the Dutch side were arrested, and the rest of the defeated Dutch troops fled in a hurry to southern Taiwan.

Historically, it has been more difficult to fight and win, but this time the Ming Dynasty was more prepared.

As early as last year, Zhu Youxiao gave Yuan Keli a separate allocation to reorganize and expand the navy, merge the Fujian Navy with the Zhejiang Navy, and even purchase Western warships to expand combat power. All this is to prepare for now.

It has been almost a year now. According to Yuan Keli's title book, after annexing the Zhejiang Navy, the Fujian Navy now has more than [-] Fu ships, more than [-] Haicang ships, and more than [-] Wuwei ships. The rest of the boats are not counted.

So this time the Fujian Navy no longer has to deal with it as hastily as it did in history.

And the Fujian Navy, which was fully prepared, would not give the Dutch any more time to build a bastion. When the time came, the navy could directly compete. He did not believe that hundreds of warships could not deal with ten Dutch warships.Therefore, Zhu Youxiao didn't even think about it, and immediately gave Yuan Keli approval and encouragement so that he could fight with peace of mind and punish the Hongmao barbarians.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look to the southeast.He gave Yuan Keli the right to act expediently last year. This question was originally posted in early April. Logically speaking, Yuan Keli's troops will soon be dispatched.

After the matter in the Netherlands was settled, Bi Ziyan and Zheng Zhilong of Daming Trading Company soon also sent Zhu Youxiao news about the surrender of Li Dan from Japan.

One in the title book and the other in the letter both told the story of Zheng Zhilong's uncle Huang Cheng going to Japan to recruit Li Dan for a long time.

At present, this matter has been successfully concluded. Seeing that the court treated him so favorably and for the sake of future generations, Li Dan readily agreed to the court's request and also told Huang Cheng a "top secret information".

This information is about another opponent of Li Dan in Nagasaki. This person is also a large businessman with the same reputation as Li Dan, Yan Siqi of the Zhangquan Gang.

According to Li Dan, this man was so bold that he secretly colluded with Ming people living in Japan and plotted to raise troops in Nagasaki to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate, establish political power in Japan, and then accept the canonization of the Ming Dynasty.

For this reason, Yan Siqi continued to win over people from the Ming Dynasty, and he and 27 people including Fujian Yang Tiansheng and Chen Zhongji (from Haicheng, Zhangzhou) became brothers. Everyone recommended Yan Siqi as the leader of the alliance. They were all secretly preparing for this. They had many people under their command. Although in name only There are 200 people in Japan.But there are actually more than [-] troops hiding on overseas islands, which should not be underestimated.

It's just that even though they acted in secret, they still didn't escape Li Dan's eyes.

According to Li Dan's intelligence, Yan Siqi and others are now making secret preparations, purchasing weapons and muskets, and gathering people. They expect to start an uprising next year, first overthrowing the Hirado clan, Hirado Nitta clan, Shimabara clan and other feudal lords in Nagasaki, and occupy Kyushu. Confront the Tokugawa Shogunate.

When Huang Cheng told Bi Ziyan and Zheng Zhilong the top-secret information, they felt that Yan Siqi was so bold that he actually wanted to establish a country overseas, so they quickly wrote to Zhu Youxiao and asked the emperor for permission.

Zhu Youxiao was not surprised at all when he saw this question book, because in his memory, he knew Yan Siqi's plan.

But historically, just two days before Yan Siqi was about to launch an army, news of the uprising suddenly leaked for unknown reasons.Yan Siqi and others were wanted by the Japanese shogunate. Yan Siqi was forced to flee to Japan, and eventually died of illness in Taiwan.

Now that I think about it, it was probably Li Dan's tip that made the Japanese government aware of this matter.But now that Li Dan has returned to the Ming Dynasty, he will not live in Nagasaki in the future.Therefore, the news of Yan Siqi's rebellion was of little use to him. On the contrary, if he revealed it to the court, he might gain a good impression.

Looking at this question book, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but feel as if he was dozing off and sending a pillow.

He has never had a good impression of Japan. He is greedy for small profits and forgets the great righteousness, and has always coveted China.

During the Tang Dynasty, he became more honest after being taught by Tang Taizong.Now he is dishonest again and has repeatedly provoked Ming Dynasty.First there was the issue of Japanese pirates, and then they attacked North Korea, hoping to use this as a springboard to attack the Ming Dynasty.

Although Shenzong's Battle of Korea pushed Japan back, due to financial problems, they only negotiated a peace in the end and did not impose punishment on Japan. As a result, Japan still does not respect the Ming Dynasty very much.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao definitely wanted to conquer Japan not for the rich gold, silver and copper mines in Japan, but to promote the power of the Ming Dynasty and let the Japanese Japanese know how powerful the Ming Dynasty was.

It's just that although the idea of ​​conquering Japan is good, it is very troublesome to take action.

For one thing, the weather is unpredictable, and fighting across the sea has always been a problem, even in modern times, let alone the Ming Dynasty.

The Mongols suffered this loss in history. Kublai Khan attacked Japan three times and was invincible in land battles. However, three sudden typhoons blew up and destroyed Mongolian ships, resulting in a failure. This is the origin of "divine wind to save Japan".This caused Japan to be very superstitious about this matter. In the late period of the Second World War in modern times, a special aircraft suicide team was named after the kamikaze.

Of course, in conquering Japan, in addition to the problem of fighting across the sea, there are also many problems such as the opposition of people in the court, the waste of money and food, and so on.

After all, the Mongols and the captives were all problems that affected the country, the country, and the rise and fall of the country.Therefore, even if it costs a lot, these civil servants will still agree with gritted teeth.

But if Zhu Youxiao proposes to attack Japan, the objection and impeachment papers will come to Zhu Youxiao like snow flakes, and he will be "admonished" frantically.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao thought over and over again. Daming could not do the conquering of Japan personally. He had to find an agent. Daming only needed to support him secretly from behind.Now it seems that Yan Siqi is a suitable candidate.

(End of this chapter)