The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 551: Go on an expedition, Li Dingguo!
"Recovering Yinzhou and saving the Indians will benefit the present and future generations. It is crucial to the fate of our Great Qi for a hundred years and cannot be lost! To avoid repeating the mistakes of Great Qi in Australia and Japan, I order that, effective immediately, all government offices must make careful preparations and fully support the pioneering group's cause. This includes team selection and training, ocean-going vessels, dog sleds, family planning, route planning... no detail should be overlooked. This matter will be coordinated by the Ministry of War, with the full cooperation of the Ministry of Revenue, the Chamber of Commerce, and all provinces. The deadline is six months. Before the end of this year, I want to see the first pioneer group set sail."

In the summer of the fourth year of Taichu, Emperor Wuding made the final decision and finalized the ambitious plan to recover Yinzhou.

The empire's main focus is still on the interior of the country. Large-scale overseas operations can only be considered as a concept at present, remaining in the minutes of the General Staff's meetings and are impossible to implement. However, preliminary survey and enclosure operations must be carried out immediately because the European bandits have already taken the lead.

According to the colonization plan formulated by the retired emperor himself, it would take about three steps from sending people out to sea to finally immigrating to Yinzhou, and it was expected to take twenty years.

The first step is to circle the land and grow on your own.

Two expeditions of 100 people were sent to the west coast of America, crossing the mountains and seas and entering the central and eastern plains suitable for farming. They announced to the Europeans that Yinzhou had been an inseparable part of Da Qi since ancient times. Any country that tried to lay its hands on this land was an enemy of the empire, and establishing a colony here was tantamount to declaring war on Da Qi.

He established good relations with the Indian chiefs, supported Indian forces, united with old colonial empires such as Spain, fought against Britain and France, divided and disintegrated the Europeans, united the small to fight the big, until finally, all the colonists were expelled from Yinzhou.

Step 2: Change fertility
By changing the birth policy, the overflow population in Da Qi was continuously migrated to Yinzhou.

The third step is faith reform.

The native shamanism of the Yinzhou people was replaced by the God Zhenwu, and the Mencius Academy was built near the Indian tribe to gradually assimilate their ethnic group.

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Of course, putting it into practice will be much more complicated and cannot be accomplished overnight.

Time waits for no one. The British expansion in Yinzhou is too reckless and they must pay the price.

The rich and beautiful Province of Forge (Virginia) on the east coast of Yinzhou was the first colony that Britain occupied when it invaded Da Qi.

According to Liu Zhaosun's memory, as early as 1587, Queen Elizabeth I of England gave a "land authorization letter", or "land deed", to Sir Walter Raleigh, allowing him to establish a "British country" in North America (Yinzhou).

This tactic was quite popular in Europe at the time, and the kings of Spain, Portugal, and France basically all did the same thing.

Britain will be the most troublesome opponent of Da Qi in Yinzhou.

From 1607 to 1632 (the first year of Taichu), British immigrants established 16 colonies along the Atlantic coast.

Among them, Virginia in the east was the core of Britain's power in Yinzhou.

While Emperor Wu Ding was dominating East Asia, there was a small peak in immigration from Britain to New England.

Most immigrants were forced to join the adventure of migrating to New England due to bankruptcy or poverty.

A large number of immigrants migrated to Massachusetts, and these immigrants settled in relatively concentrated areas, eventually forming a port city - Boston.

With the increasing number of new immigrants, Massachusetts and Boston developed greatly and soon became the economic and political center of New England.

Immigrants then established colonies such as Maryland, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

By this year, 1635 (the fourth year of Taichu), Massachusetts and the newly established colony of Connecticut had begun negotiations on a union, but because the differences between the two sides were too great, the union was unsuccessful.

Each colony began to operate independently, and due to the lack of communication and exchange between them, almost every colony faced survival issues.

Against the backdrop of intensifying conflicts among the colonies and changes in the domestic situation in Britain, the leaders of the colonies gradually realized that only by uniting could they resolve the current difficulties.

Of course, due to the intervention of the time travelers, it was impossible to establish an alliance. Weakness is not an obstacle to survival, but arrogance is, and Europeans are just that arrogant.

The Europeans did not think about whether they were qualified to obtain this land.

They could ignore the feelings of the Indians, but they could not ignore the feelings of the Emperor of Da Qi.

Ignorance and arrogance are the source of tragedy.

In the summer of the fourth year of Taichu, Emperor Wuding issued an edict, ordering Sun Chuanting and Ma Shiying to recommend one person each to serve as the main general and deputy general in the operation to recapture Yinzhou, and to obey the orders of the military supervisor.

The instructors have mentioned countless times the various benefits of going to Yinzhou, such as land distribution, promotions, and the court will give ten times the military pay to every warrior who goes to the other side of the ocean, and will also provide effective "protection" for the soldiers' families.

As a result, everyone is not so opposed to the expedition.

Sailing route.

One route could be along Sakhalin Island, heading north by land to the Bering Strait in the northeast corner of the Eurasian continent, waiting for winter to freeze over (though the probability of this happening is slim), then crossing the Bering Strait and landing in Yinzhou. Another route could be through southern Japan, using the Japan Current and the North Atlantic Current to cross the Pacific Ocean, then follow the California Current southward to reach southern Yinzhou. Of course, either route would be a near-fatal one.

The first route gets increasingly colder as you head northeast. Even if you're lucky enough to avoid freezing to death, once you land in Yinzhou, you'll be met with either desert or towering Rocky Mountains, desolate and uninhabited, with only vultures circling overhead. Democracy would starve to death, and Bear Grylls would weep. However, since this is an expedition, I believe the team members are prepared to sacrifice their lives for their country; casualties are inevitable.

The sea route was even less reliable. The fleet would sail from southern China, pass through the Ryukyu Islands, follow the ocean currents, cross the Pacific, and arrive in western Yinzhou. It sounded like a round-the-world journey, but without transit points, fresh fruit, or food supplies, a mortal body would hardly survive the journey to the other side of the ocean. Europeans had already proven that this route had a very low survival rate.

However, now with the help of navigation technology provided by missionaries and more mature nautical charts, the team members are not completely in the dark and can just treat it as an adventure.

Putting these aside, the most important thing is the selection of the leader of the pioneering group.

After fierce negotiations among all parties, the list of candidates was finally released.

Sun Chuanting recommended Li Dingguo, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Corps;

His mortal enemy Ma Shiying, who was no less powerful than him, recommended a battalion commander named Sun Kewang.

There were also people who recommended Jiang Liuer and Li Zicheng.

Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang had always had conflicts and did not get along well.

Both of them were student soldiers from Kaiyuan School. After five years of compulsory education and brainwashing, they were transferred directly from school to the Imperial Guard. They were brainwashed by Sen Ti for another two years and had a high degree of identification with totalitarianism. The emperor was loyal to them.

However, Emperor Wuding was still somewhat dissatisfied with these two people and was still considering them. Li Dingguo was only seventeen years old, and Sun Kewang was even younger, so it might be difficult to convince the public.

The Chamber of Commerce, workshops, hospitals, and schools also sent personnel to accompany the pioneering group as technical personnel.

Two young eunuchs were appointed as military supervisors. They were in Yinzhou and had just disembarked from a cargo ship. When they encountered an emergency, they executed the soldiers first and reported to the emperor later.

In this way, the personnel structure of the Yinzhou Development Group was basically completed.

(End of this chapter)