The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 236 Wanli Goes to Jiangnan

In March, the ice and snow melt.

The Beiyun River finally thawed, and Wanli could go to the south of the Yangtze River.

He just told his confidants such as Yu Youcai and Shen Li, and then mobilized the warships and grain boats to prepare for departure.

At this time, he seemed to be completely out of touch with the civil servants in the court.

He basically stopped holding court meetings and seldom met with important officials in the court. As for attending lectures on the classics and studying under the supervision of civil officials, that had never happened before.

In fact, whether or not to do these things has basically nothing to do with governing the Ming Dynasty.

Leaving aside the court meetings, all the other messy things are the means used by civil officials to restrain imperial power.

To be honest, an emperor is already very busy governing such a huge country. If he has to meet with important officials in the court, listen to lectures, and read and study all day long, he will not have much time left in the day.

The civil officials wanted to control the emperor in the deep palace, teaching him to do this or that.

Can this work?
As it turns out, this doesn't work.

During the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties, the emperors personally held power and fought wars in all directions. That was the time when the Ming Dynasty was at its most powerful.

Later, when civil officials came to power and the army was stopped and the people were supported, the Ming Dynasty became weaker and weaker. In the end, it became so weak that everyone wanted to bully the Ming Dynasty.

This is not a joke. Whether those forces can bully the Ming Dynasty is one thing, but the Ming Dynasty was so weak that everyone wanted to bully it.

The Tatars, the Oirat Mongols, the Later Jin, the Donghu, Japan, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, etc., all thought that the Ming Dynasty was so weak that they could be bullied at will.

Who dared to take action during the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties?
This is what happens when you listen to the civil servants and do what they do.

Therefore, Wanli did not listen to those civil servants at all.

He is so rebellious. He does whatever he wants and will punish anyone who dares to complain.

This time he went to the south of the Yangtze River without any hesitation and without even saying hello to the civil servants.

Most of the civil servants didn't even know that he was leaving Beijing.

Early in the morning at about 1 a.m., when the sky was just getting light, two hundred naval warships and four hundred 800-ton grain ships suddenly came quickly from the Tonghui River and gathered in the Taiye Lake in the imperial city.

Immediately afterwards, tens of thousands of imperial guards and Jinyiwei began to rush onto the ship.

This time, even tens of thousands of imperial guards' horses were on board.

At around noon, as the sun rose, a huge fleet left the imperial city and the capital, sailing along the moat and Tonghui River. All the civil servants in the court didn't know what they were going to do, except for the imperial party.

The people of the three major families in Puzhou even thought that he was going to send troops to conquer the northern barbarians again.

Because the Lamulun River is a tributary of the Daliao River, it would be very convenient for the fleet to go through the Tonghui River, the Beiyun River, the Haihe River, and then turn north to enter the Daliao River and reach the Lamulun River basin.

Of course, Wanli was not going to the Beijing Xingdusi. It would be of little use if the navy had so few warships.

He was preparing to go to Nanjing to build a ship.

At this time, on the flagship of the navy fleet, Deng Zilong was extremely excited.

He had waited for several years and finally waited for the Emperor to develop the navy.

His Majesty is personally in charge of the development of the navy. The navy will surely increase in strength like the Beijing Army.

At this time, Wanli and others were actually on the navy flagship.

However, they did not stand at the bow to command like Deng Zilong, but sat in the middle cabin.

Wanli, Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan, Li Xuancheng, Huang Chengxuan and others were all dressed in the same attire of officers of the Imperial Guards.

Yu Zigao, Peng Zungu, Peng Xingu and others all changed into the military uniforms of naval officers.

Li Shizhen, Wan Bangxiao and others wore official robes of the Imperial Medical Bureau.

At this moment, the navy's flagship was really shabby. In the cabin, which was about ten feet wide and about four or five feet long, there was only a long table that was less than half a foot wide and about three feet long.

The bow is empty, without a door, and there are only a circle of simple long benches nailed in the other three directions. It would be a bit crowded if more than ten people sat inside.

As soon as Wanli boarded the ship, he began to browse through information on shipyards and shipbuilding. He now had two choices: either build old-fashioned sailing warships to restore or even surpass the combat capabilities of the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties, or build steamships to lead the world by at least a hundred years.

However, steamships are not that easy to build. The key lies in the processing and sealing of the steam engine. Now if the Ming Dynasty wants to process such a sophisticated steam engine, it can only use copper. There is no steel with sufficient hardness to make processing tools.

The Ming Dynasty did not produce much copper, which was definitely not enough to build a large fleet of steamships.

Moreover, developing steam engines and steamships takes time, and it is still uncertain how long it will take.

He didn't have much time left because the Japanese pirates were about to attack him.

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan, he began to use Korea as a springboard to attack the Ming Dynasty.

Now, with the strength of the Beijing Camp, land battles should not be a big problem. The key is naval battles.

If he wanted to take this opportunity to eliminate the scourge of Japan, he would have to build a powerful navy fleet within a few years.

If we build a steamship, it may take several years to successfully develop it, and even if it is developed, there may not be enough materials to build it.

He pondered for a long time and gave up the idea of ​​building a steamship now.

Now the Ming Dynasty can build sailing warships, and those so-called maritime overlords can only build sailing warships now.

As long as they can build bigger and more ships than others, and equip them with enough muskets and cannons, they can also dominate the sea.

Everyone saw him flipping through some documents, frowning in thought, and no one dared to say a word. The entire cabin was very quiet.

It was unknown how much time had passed when Deng Zilong suddenly walked in, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, the fleet has entered the North Canal."

This means that the fleet has already formed its battle formation in the North Canal and can simply head south along the Grand Canal. He no longer needs to command.

Wanli nodded slightly, then waved and said, "Yunqing, sit down and talk."

Upon hearing this, Deng Zilong hurriedly sat down carefully in an empty seat near the door.

Wanli then raised his hand and introduced, "Yunqing, I have found two deputies for you. This one is Yu Zigao, the son of the famous general Yu Dayou, who won the first place in the Bingxu military examination. The other one is Peng Xingu, a military jinshi from the Guiwei military examination and a carpenter by trade."

Yu Zigao and Peng Xingu quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "I pay my respects to General Deng."

This is the deputy chosen by His Majesty, and one of them is the son of the famous general Yu Dayou.

Deng Zilong saw this and quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "Generals, you are so polite. Please take a seat. Please take a seat."

Wanli introduced in detail: "Yunqing, I am preparing to build a navy fleet. If nothing else, we must at least restore the level of the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties.

That means more than 200 treasure ships, over a thousand Fu ships, at least 3,000 centipede ships, and at least 100,000 naval officers and soldiers."

If this scale can be reached, the Ming navy will be invincible again.

Upon hearing this, Deng Zilong bowed repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise."

This is not something that can be achieved by just shouting slogans. Building ships takes time, manpower, and a lot of money. Recruiting naval officers and soldiers also requires a lot of money to pay their food and wages.

Wanli couldn't help but sighed slightly and said, "I have a general understanding of the situation of the shipyards under the Ministry of Industry. There are three large shipyards, five medium-sized shipyards, and more than ten small shipyards. In the past few decades, there has only been one record of building a sailing warship with a capacity of more than 1,000 tons.

That was the enthronement boat built in the 11th year of Jiajing to enthrone the King of Ryukyu. According to the records at that time, the enthronement boat should have been a large ship weighing 2,000 tons.

However, this is only the record of the Ming Dynasty court. According to folk rumors, during the Jiajing period, several shipyards along the coast of the Ming Dynasty built at least hundreds of sailing warships weighing more than a thousand tons for pirates and Japanese pirates.

In other words, with the current capabilities of the shipyards under the Ministry of Industry, it should still be possible to build sailing warships of 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes. However, we'll need to invest money to recruit craftsmen to repair the docks and waterways before we can resume construction."

This shouldn't be fake.

The pirates and Japanese pirates of the Jiajing Dynasty had more than a dozen sailing warships weighing more than a thousand tons, while the surrounding areas of the Ming Dynasty, including Japan, could not build sailing warships weighing more than a thousand tons.

These warships could only have been built by the shipyards under the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Works.

Deng Zilong nodded slowly upon hearing this and said, "Your Majesty, the shipyards under the Ministry of Industry should still be able to build sailing warships of 1,000 and 2,000 tons. I don't know if they can build larger ones."

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Well, there's no rush. This year, we'll have the shipyards under the Ministry of Industry fully build centipede ships. At the same time, we'll repair the docks and waterways for the 1,000-ton and 2,000-ton sailing warships. We'll strive to build a decent navy fleet within the next two to three years."

Can the current Ming Dynasty build a decent navy fleet in two or three years?
(End of this chapter)