The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 438: The War of Annihilation Begins

The New Year passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye it was the 16th day of the first lunar month in the 23rd year of the Wanli reign.

At this moment, the capital city is still covered with heavy snow and the weather is freezing, but the streets and alleys are already crowded with people.

All the major government offices opened early and the common people also started to get busy.

At around noon, Wanli also came to the imperial study with brisk steps, ready to review memorials.

Not long after, the Cabinet's Chief Minister, Shen Li, came in holding a stack of memorials. With a beaming face, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Happy New Year."

This guy is very serious in his work. He rarely smiles and seems to be in a good mood.

Wanli smiled and nodded, saying, "Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Zhonghua, is there any great news?"

Well, I'm here to wish you a happy new year, so I have to show some joy.

Shen Li respectfully handed over the memorial and said rather awkwardly, "Your Majesty, these are just normal government affairs, not a big celebration."

Oh, nothing big.

Wanli nodded slightly, took the memorial and was about to read it, but Shen Li said cautiously, "Your Majesty, the imperial examination is about to begin. Who do you think will be the chief examiner and who will be the co-examiner?"

I don't have time to take care of the liberal arts examination right now.

Wanli said very straightforwardly: "You will be in charge of both the provincial and palace examinations this year. You will also be the one to choose the chief examiner and the co-examiners."

what?
Is Your Majesty busy with something?
I have to decide for the chief examiner and the co-examiner!
This is hard to decide. It seems that everyone who can serve as the chief examiner and co-examiner has served twice.

Shen Li thought about it carefully, then said carefully, "Your Majesty, how about promoting Yuan Keli, the Deputy Envoy of Liaohai Road and the Minister of Rites, to be the chief examiner, and Jiao Hong to be the co-examiner? What do you think?"

They both seem to be military personnel.

Well, there has been progress, which really pleases me.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Then let them do it. After the examination, just bring the list of successful candidates to me for a look."

It seems that His Majesty is really busy.

Seeing that Wanli had picked up his pen to review the memorials, Shen Li hurriedly bowed and took his leave.

Wanli was indeed busy, so he quickly dealt with the memorials and ordered someone to call Qi Jiguang over.

Qi Jiguang also knew how important it was to attack the Japanese mainland, so he did not spend the Lantern Festival at home. He rushed to the courtyard of Wanshou Palace early and waited for Wanli to summon him.

After a while, he walked in quickly, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Happy New Year."

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Yuan Jing, how are things going? Have you decided how many troops to bring to attack the Japanese mainland?"

We have to decide on the navy and the Beijing garrison first.

Qi Jiguang thought for a moment, then asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, how many troops do you think would be appropriate for the Beijing Camp?"

Oh, last year we only had training and selection, and the Beijing Camp hasn’t even expanded yet.

Wanli pondered, "Now, a deputy general can command a maximum of 50,000 troops. Let's follow this rule in the Beijing camp. Each of the twelve deputy generals should command 50,000 troops, for a total of 600,000."

The Beijing Army originally had 360,000 troops. To expand it to 600,000, only 240,000 troops would be needed, which would leave 300,000 to 400,000.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang said cautiously, "Your Majesty, do you mean to assign the remaining 300,000 or 400,000 men to the navy? That would bring the navy to over 800,000 men."

Do you think a navy of more than 800,000 men is a lot?
Wanli thought about it, and simply took out the world map that he had been constantly improving while pondering alone, and said solemnly: "Yuan Jing, you see, the area we are in now is only a small part of the entire world.

The world is big and there are many countries. Some countries are poor and backward and don’t even have iron weapons. Some countries have muskets, cannons, and even warships and gunboats.

For example, the current Spain and Portugal, the Netherlands that will soon come here, and even the United Kingdom and France, etc.

These countries all have muskets and cannons. Moreover, unlike us, they still have barbaric habits and follow the so-called law of the jungle.

To put it bluntly, they believe in the law of the jungle. They think that if they are strong enough, they can annex weak countries, seize their land, plunder their resources, and even sell their people as slaves.

This is what they call colonization. They are like bandits, robbing everywhere in the world. They will attack any weak country they find. We don’t know how many countries they have destroyed.

Yuan Jing, don't underestimate them. Japan is nothing compared to them because it has few resources and a small area, so it is very difficult to develop.

They are different. The land they have seized is dozens, even hundreds of times the original area of ​​their country.

With so much land, huge resources and a huge population, their development speed is quite astonishing.

For example, Spain today plunders 50 to 60 million taels of gold and silver from its American colonies every year.

There are also copper mines over there, food over there, timber over there, population over there, and so on and so forth. Anyway, they just grab whatever they want.

Just think about it, how many things do we have to build to make 50 or 60 million taels? They don’t have to build anything, they can just drive their gunboats to rob.

Fortunately, Spain did not use the resources and even population it plundered to frantically develop its military power. If they had done so, they would have been even more powerful than the Ming Dynasty. However, we cannot be careless. The Netherlands, including Britain and France, are now frantically developing their military power and building ships. It is rumored that the Netherlands has almost more than 10,000 ocean-going warships.

In other words, if these countries rely on the resources and population they have plundered to frantically develop their military power, one day their strength will surpass that of the Ming Dynasty.

Their reliance on plundering resources was the so-called ships and powerful guns, because sailboats were driven by monsoons and ocean currents at very high speeds, and could sail day and night, covering thousands of miles a day and tens of thousands of miles a month.

Sailboats have many advantages, such as carrying a lot of supplies, not consuming manpower and animal power, being able to be equipped with a large number of artillery, being able to carry a large number of soldiers, etc.

The Mongols were ultimately unable to conquer the world with their cavalry, but they could have conquered or dominated the world with their ships and guns.

They called this era the Age of Discovery. In this era, the competition was about ships and cannons. Their goal was to dominate the entire world, and the Ming Dynasty was the fat piece of meat in their eyes.

Therefore, our focus in the future must be on the development of the navy. We must continue to build strong ships and powerful guns, and we must also continue to expand the number of naval officers and soldiers.

Expanding to over 800,000 now is nothing. Once the Japanese and Northern Tartars are annihilated, we will have to continuously draw soldiers from the border troops to expand the navy camp."

The Age of Discovery?
The colonial bandits prey on the weak!

No wonder His Majesty expanded the number of soldiers in the navy to more than that in the Beijing garrison.

I originally thought that His Majesty meant to expand the number of soldiers in the Beijing garrison to more than that in the navy or even the border troops.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded slowly and said, "I understand, Your Majesty is wise.

In fact, vigorously developing the navy is also quite beneficial for attacking the Japanese mainland, because Japan is an island country.

If we have more naval vessels and more soldiers, we can attack from all sides and land wherever we want, making it impossible for them to defend themselves."

Wanli nodded slightly, then explained in detail: "Yuan Jing, you must remember that a strong attack is only the last resort. If we have any other options, we should not force an attack, as that would result in too many casualties.

We are facing more than just Japan. If we lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers in a single battle, then our three million-plus troops will be gone in just a few battles."

When I fought in the past, I tried my best to avoid casualties among my soldiers.

However, this war to annihilate a nation is different from all the wars I have fought before.

Qi Jiguang nodded slowly, then pondered, "Your Majesty, with the cooperation of Mori Terumoto in Kitakyushu, we won't have to suffer any casualties.

As for Honshu, Mori Terumoto's strength is probably no match for Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, so asking him to fight doesn't seem to be enough."

I have thought of another way to do this.

Wanli nodded slowly and said, "Mōri Terumoto's strength is indeed no match for Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

But it doesn't matter, we can quickly make the Maori clan's battle flag and even the Maori clan's military uniform.

When the time comes, we will all put on the banner of the Mori clan, disguise ourselves as the Mori clan's troops, let their generals go ahead and make a speech to paralyze the pirates, and then we will keep silent and just attack them fiercely."

This trick is really great.

If the Japanese pirates thought they were the troops of the Mori clan, they would definitely not fight to the death.

After all, they are all Japanese forces, so there is no need to fight to the death. During the Warring States Period in Japan, many people surrendered when they were defeated.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. If we use this tactic, we should focus on infantry in the early stages.

I think we can let General Qin lead the Sichuan Army and the twelve battalions of the vassal state of Korea first. If we really cannot take them down, we can use artillery and even gunboats.

In this case, in the early stage we only need to pull 400,000 Sichuan troops and 120,000 Korean vassal state's 12 battalions to the territory of the Mori clan in the western part of Honshu.

We can also secretly gather 200,000 to 300,000 cavalry from the border army and soldiers from the Beijing camp, ready to go out at any time. We will consider whether to send more troops later depending on the situation."

The Sichuan Army will go first?
Wanli pondered and said, "Then you need to equip Liangyu with more muskets, thunder bombs, kerosene cans, and iron shields.

Let's put it this way. Qian Cheng will have 100,000 troops under his command to lead the attack. All the chieftain soldiers coming out of Shizhu will be equipped with muskets, and 100,000 boxes of sky bombs and kerosene tanks will be provided first.

Also, equip the remaining 300,000 soldiers with iron shields and have them cooperate with the thousand chariots."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded slowly and said, "I understand. Your Majesty, when will we begin our attack on the Japanese mainland?"

It’s hard to decide on this time.

Wanli pondered and said, "You should prepare first. All the large ships of the navy, Fuzhou, should rush to Liaodong as soon as the south wind blows. Send 5,000 centipede ships to Liaodong first. After the war starts, send as many as you can.

Anyway, we only need to use the Sichuan Army in the early stage. The Beijing Camp and the Border Army should not move for the time being. This will also paralyze the Japanese pirates.

As for when to start the war to annihilate the country, we have to wait for news from Kyushu. Once Kobayakawa Takakage takes over all of Kyushu, we will attack across the sea."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

(End of this chapter)