I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 860 Rio is January River
In the first month of the sixth year of the Wanli reign, the warm and moist wind blowing on people's faces was very pleasant.

Sixty nautical miles east of the east coast of Xunzhou, a fleet was sailing slowly on the Atlantic Ocean. This was the second squadron of the Qinglong Fleet.

The Second Squadron's flagship, the Pingliang battleship, is a Class A battleship weighing 2,160 tons and equipped with 102 naval guns. It was brought from the mainland to join the Qinglong Fleet during last year's rotation.

The captain is Lieutenant Colonel Zhu Jingfa, the fourth son of King of Han Zhu Langqi.

Zhu Langqi, the King of Han, was also a peculiar person, an anomaly among the royal family of the Ming Dynasty. He had a full talent for languages, and could understand the dialects of the Ming Dynasty, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin and other Latin languages, French and English after a little study.

He also particularly likes interesting stories from overseas and studies them.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to serve as Shaoqing in the Honglu Temple and Hanlin in the Hanlin Academy, he compiled books such as "Records of Strange Customs of Overseas Foreign Countries", "Research on the Origins of Western Barbarians", "News on the Various Countries in India", and "Research on the Origins of the Annam Peninsula", becoming a well-known overseas humanist in the Ming Dynasty.

During the Longqing period, when the royal family was being rectified, Zhu Jingfa joined the army and applied for the Xishan Military Academy.

According to Zhu Yijun's newly formulated "Law of Inheritance of the Imperial Family of the Ming Dynasty", there are now only ten princes in the Ming Dynasty who were enthroned by their second ancestors. They were granted houses in Chengqingfang, and that area was also called the Ten Princes' Palace.

The ten vassal kings had their legitimate sons conferred the titles of Crown Prince and Prince of a County, while illegitimate sons had no titles. If there was no legitimate son, the illegitimate son could inherit the title.

The crown prince ascends the throne of the vassal king and worships in the ancestral temple.

The prince of a county extended his favor for three generations. The prince of a county inherited the title of Duke of Fengguo, his grandson inherited the title of Marquis of Fengguo, his great-grandson inherited the title of Earl of Fengguo, and his great-great-grandson became a commoner.

Zhu Jingfa was the illegitimate son of King Han. His eldest brother, the Crown Prince, was still alive, and he had two older brothers. His chances of inheriting the title were slim, so he had to make plans early.

When he was young, he loved martial arts and had a good physique. During the turbulent times, he resolutely joined the army.

Influenced by his father, Zhu Jingfa also liked overseas anecdotes, so he chose the ship command department and gradually became the captain of a naval warship.

One of the reasons why Zhu Jingfa was able to become the captain of a strategic-level Class A battleship of the Ming Navy was his royal family status.

However, his abilities and military achievements were impeccable. He followed Yu Dayou to the South China Sea, and was first the gunner of the Class B battleship "Taikang". Under his command, fourteen guns sank the Portuguese fleet's flagship "Saint Gracedin".

After being promoted to captain of the frigate "Edelweiss", he took the lead in the Battle of Oman, breaking through the defenses of the coalition of Persian, Indian and Arab pirates like a sharp axe, laying the foundation for victory.

In the Battle of the Red Sea, as the captain of the Class B battleship "Yanling", he sank the second most enemy ships and made great contributions to the White Tiger Fleet's victory over the Ottoman Red Sea Fleet and the Arab pirate fleet.

The Ming Navy is a new branch of the military and has developed the fastest in recent years. As long as you have the ability and dare to work hard, there are many opportunities and it is easy to stand out.

Zhu Jingfa stood on the stern deck, facing the midday sun, measuring the altitude with a latitude meter. Then he took out the navigation longitude and latitude survey table issued by the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, placed it on the foldable wooden table next to the stern deck guardrail, compared the parameters on it, and applied the formula to calculate the current latitude.

He looked at the "Haiyan" brand marine clock again, compared it with the longitude and latitude survey table, and calculated the current longitude.

"24 degrees 40 minutes south latitude, 160 degrees 31 minutes west longitude."

He used the longitude and latitude of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. The central axis of the Forbidden City was set as longitude zero. The zero-degree east and west longitude line determined in this way, also known as the International Date Line, runs through the eastern part of Genzhou and the central part of Xunzhou.

Zhu Jingfa took the longitude and latitude measured by the surveyor, "24 degrees 38 minutes south latitude, 160 degrees 33 minutes west longitude."

No error!

Zhu Jingfa breathed a sigh of relief. According to the data calculated by the Imperial Astronomical Observatory and the Surveying and Mapping Bureau, at the latitude of 24 degrees, the distance between one minute of latitude and longitude is approximately 1.85 kilometers, or one nautical mile.

It is normal for the data measured by two people to differ by two or three nautical miles, and it is considered to be very high accuracy.

He took out the nautical chart, found the appropriate location based on the measured longitude and latitude, marked it with a ruler, and measured it with a compass.

"Captain Zhu."

The voice came from the stairs of the stern deck, and two soldiers walked up.

The one wearing the sky-blue navy colonel uniform was Wang Fengju, and the one wearing the sky-blue navy colonel uniform but wearing the unique blue-rimmed round-brimmed hat of a political officer was Huangfu Tan.

"Admiral Wang, Director Huangfu." Zhu Jingfa pressed the nautical chart with a dagger and saluted with his right hand.

Wang Fengju is now the commander of the Second Squadron, and everyone is used to calling him the admiral.

Huangfu Tan is the director of the Political Department of the Second Squadron.

Coincidentally, Huangfu Tan and Wang Fengju's brother, Major General Wang Fengmeng, who was fighting on the Western Front, were both students of Hai Rui.

Wang Fengju and Huangfu Tan returned the salute and walked forward.

"Captain Zhu, where are we now?"

"Reporting to Admiral Wang, our current position is 23 degrees 38 minutes south latitude and 159 degrees 33 minutes west longitude," Zhu Jingfa reported.

According to the Naval Navigation Regulations, the official records are based on the longitude and latitude measured by the surveyor. The longitude and latitude measured by the captain, first mate and the officer on duty in turn are only used for reference and correction.

As long as it's within the margin of error, it's fine.

If it exceeds the error range, multiple verifications are required to find out where the problem lies.

Zhu Jingfa continued, "According to the sea chart, about 140 nautical miles northwest of us is the Portuguese port of the Redwood Territory in Xunzhou, January River Fort."

On April 1500, 4, Portuguese navigator Pedro Cabral arrived on the coast of Brazil.

He named the land "Holy Cross" and claimed it for Portugal.

Since the Portuguese colonists' plunder began with the felling of Brazilian rosewood, the word "rosewood" (Brasil) gradually replaced "Holy Cross" and became the name of the place.

Daming did not transliterate it, but directly named it Redwood Territory according to the Portuguese meaning. January River Fort, the Portuguese transliteration is Rio de Janeiro, which means the January River.

Huangfu Tan thought for a while and said, "Yuehebao, I remember it was in 1555 of the Western Yi calendar, when the French came here to enclose land and build. Ten years later, they were driven away by the Portuguese, who occupied the city and expanded it and named it.

However, the Portuguese governor's office in the Redwood Territory is not in Fort January, but in the northern port of Cove (Salvador, Bahia).

"Director Huangfu is right."

Huangfu Tan continued, "Xunzhou is a land bestowed by our Ming Dynasty. The descendants of the Xia and Shang dynasties moved here long ago. The Spaniards, French, and Portuguese all occupied it illegally and without reason.

It's just that the Portuguese are negotiating with our Ming Dynasty. The emperor means that if Ming Dynasty makes a concession, as long as Portugal withdraws from Xunzhou, Ming Dynasty can give two or three islands from the Rushou Sea Islands to the Portuguese.

The matter was of great importance, and the Portuguese envoys did not dare to agree and needed to return to their country for discussion. Before we came to the East, the Emperor instructed that the Ming Dynasty should have the bearing of a great power.

We will temporarily put aside the dispute over the Portuguese rosewood territory in Xunzhou and jointly develop it.

But everything has a standard. The standard set by the emperor for us is limited to the 30th year of Jiajing. We will not care about the castles built and territories occupied by the Portuguese 30 years before Jiajing for the time being.

Anything built after 30 years will be taken back.”

Zhu Jingfa smiled. "So, we don't care about the Portuguese in the small bay port in the north. But we have to take back the January River Fort and several coastal settlements in the south."

Wang Fengju spoke up, "Xunzhou was first discovered by the descendants of the Xia and Shang dynasties, so it belongs to the Ming Dynasty. In the fourth year of the Wanli reign, our army cleared the remaining Spanish enemies on the west coast of Xunzhou.

In the fifth year of the Wanli reign, several Spanish strongholds in the southern part of the east coast of Xunzhou were cleared, and two forward strongholds belonging to the Ming Dynasty were established, namely Shunfeng City (Buenos Aires, Spanish for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and the City of Shunfeng) and Hukou City (Rio Grande, Brazil, named after the lagoon Lake Patos in the north).

After a pause, he continued, "The emperor's decree to us is to control the Rushou Sea area in the next three years, establish an important stronghold in the eastern part of Shangzhou, and cooperate with the army to attack the Spanish forces entrenched in the Obsidian area from the east and west.

In the third, fourth and fifth years of the Wanli reign, Lu Dushi and Admiral Qiang successively dispatched the first and third squadrons to penetrate deep into the Rushou Sea area, sinking many Spanish ships as well as ships from other Western barbarians that wanted to take advantage of the situation.

Their experience tells us that in order to patrol the vast sea area on the east coast of Xunzhou, there must be enough ports to provide repairs and supplies, and they themselves must also be strong enough to hold out for a period of time when the Western Barbarians' ships take advantage of the opportunity to attack. "

He walked to the wooden table, pointed at the sea chart on it and said, "According to the multiple surveys and practices of the advance fleet, we need to build ten ports and castles on the east coast of Xunzhou, from Shunfeng Port to Jumang County.

This is only the first phase of the plan. In the second phase, the Rushou Sea area will be added, and at least ten more ports and castles will be built.

January River Fort and its port, we booked it. ”

At this point, Wang Fengju pointed to the northwest and said, "According to the intelligence of the advance fleet, the Portuguese in January River Fort have almost given up the place because of repeated attacks by the natives.

Our second squadron will go there to see whether the Portuguese have given up or not. They have given up that place from now on."

Zhu Jingfa sighed, "Patrolling the east coast of Xunzhou and attacking the fleets of the Western Yi countries, the Qinglong Fleet has been reinforced many times and now has four squadrons. The second and fourth squadrons can be separated to patrol the east coast, which is enough to deal with it.

But the problem is that we have too many warships and we need more supply and repair points, which requires a lot of manpower and material resources.

The port on the east coast of Jumang County can also transport people and materials nearby by land.

However, the Hongmu Territory, as well as the southern and northern regions of Hongmu, can only be transported by sea, bypassing Cape Ping'an and the Qiang'ang Strait (Cape Horn and Drake Passage), the southernmost part of Ping'an Xunzhou. The journey is too long.

Most of the manpower and materials in Genxunzhou were transported thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean, and they had to go around Xunzhou for most of the way to the east coast, which was too costly. "

Huangfu Tan said: "When we set out last year, the Navy also sent a fleet straight to the Cape of Good Hope south of Kunzhou, preparing to establish a base and port there.

The emperor has already chosen the names: Zhurong County and Liyuan Port.

In recent years, the imperial court has managed the South China Sea well, especially the South Island and Middle Island of Yanzhou. The Yanli Port was expanded in Jayakarta City in the west of the Middle Island of Yanzhou.

There is a direct link to Guangzhou and Jiaozhou. At that time, the clipper ship can depart from Yanli Port, cross the Yanzhong Strait (Sunda Strait), follow the monsoon and cross the South China Sea directly to Liyuan Port. Then go north from Liyuan Port, cross the Atlantic Ocean diagonally, directly reach the east coast of Xunzhou, and enter Yiyuehe Port. "

Zhu Jingfa pulled out the sea chart in his mind, reviewed it, and said happily: "In this way, a large amount of materials from Guangdong and Guangxi and the South China Sea region can be easily transported to the eastern part of Xunzhou."

"That's right.

In the first year of the Wanli reign, the emperor ordered the establishment of an industrial base in Jinghao, Xinhui, Guangdong, which was originally occupied by the Portuguese. The base used the coal from Jinghai Hongji, the iron ore from Qiongya, the copper from Luzon, and the tin from Yanzhou to smelt various metals for manufacturing.

The emperor is wise and far-sighted. When the Guangzhou, Yanzhou, Zhurong and Xunzhou East routes are opened, the southern industrial base of Xinhui Jinghao will be completed, and then it can be transported to Xunzhou East through this route.

People from Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Huguang and other places can also reach Xunzhou along this route."

The northern population will manage Genzhou, and the southern population will manage Xunzhou. The emperor has made clear arrangements for everyone.

At noon the next day, the coastline of Xunzhou slowly appeared in the field of vision of the telescopes of Wang Fengju, Zhu Jingfa, Huangfu Tan and others, becoming clearer and clearer.

"I wonder what the situation is like at January River Port?"

"I have already sent a communications ship up there to investigate. There should be some feedback!"

The communication ship is very fast, second only to the clipper ship. It is both a communication ship and a reconnaissance ship.

As soon as Wang Fengju finished speaking, his adjutant reported.

"Report! The Nine-Tailed Fox communications ship conducting reconnaissance ahead has sent a signal."

"Say!"

"According to investigation, the situation at January River Port is as follows."

(End of this chapter)