Chapter 901 990 Rectification of the Guard

Zhang Juzheng also knew the news that the Ministry of Works was not making good guns, and he was determined to dispel this matter. How could Wei Guangde bear it? He hurriedly told him the news that Yu Dayou had passed on to him.

"Uncle, I mentioned this not because I can't do it, but Yu Dayou saw similar things on the barbarian ships in Haojing.

Although the firing speed is slower than the Portuguese, the range and power are much stronger. If it is a naval battle, there is no chance of winning except to fill this distance with life."

"Really?"

Zhang Juzheng was happy at first, then frowned at Wei Guangde and asked: "Shandai plans to rob ships and guns or..."

"Use silver to hit it. According to Dayou, Haojing has a shipyard and a gun factory, which can build barbarian ships and guns. If we learn the skills of making guns and ships, our Ming Dynasty can build them ourselves."

Wei Guangde smiled.

Haojing, also known as "Haojingao", was originally a place name located on the sea of ​​Macao.

The origin of this name is that the area was famous for producing oysters in the Ming Dynasty, so it was named "Haojing".

Hao here refers to deep and clear water, while Jing refers to bright as a mirror.

However, Haojing is often used as a synonym for "Macau", referring to the entire harbor of Macau, including Langbai Island.

Ao has two bays in the north and south, which are round like a mirror and shaped like a shell, hence the name; there are mountains facing each other like a door, so it is also called Macau.

Located on both sides of the Pearl River Estuary, connected to Jiuao and Tsai, with a total area of ​​16 square kilometers, it belonged to Xiangshan County in the Ming Dynasty. It was a sea port where foreign ships anchored, and there were guards.

When foreign ships arrived, the guards verified the authenticity and reported to their superiors on their behalf.

In the sixth year of Zhengde of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, Portuguese colonists began to invade the southeastern sea of ​​China after occupying Manjia.

During the Jiajing period, the Portuguese first did business in Shangchuan Island and Nanshui Village of Langbai'ao, and later bribed the parties concerned with a large sum of money to ask for the territory of Hao to be a port.

In the 32nd year of Jiajing, the Portuguese colonists asked for land to dry their tributes, claiming that their ships had hit cracks and the tributes were soaked by water. Wang Bai, the deputy envoy of the Ming Sea Road, accepted the bribe and secretly agreed.

At first, the Portuguese only lived in thatched huts for trading, but in less than ten years, the number of Portuguese in Macau increased greatly, and they built thousands of houses and the number of foreigners reached 10,000.

The Ming government never leased Macau to the Portuguese, nor did it formally agree to the Portuguese living in Macau. In order to make local officials allow them to live there, the Portuguese bribed 500 taels of silver every year, and later this amount became land rent.

Because the Portuguese reported goods fraud and evaded taxes, they undermined the Ming Dynasty's traditional method of drawing points. In the third year of Longqing, the Guangdong Governor's Office reported the matter.

The memorial was passed through the hands of Wei Guangde. After checking the previous documents of the court, he intended to let the Ming court take back the trench mirror, but he did not understand the situation of the trench mirror.

In order to avoid going to war with the Portuguese at this time, Wei Guangde only drafted a document and ordered Guangdong tax officials to change to a large tax method, based on the size of the ship, and ordered them to pay the ship's salary. As a result, the ship tax of Haojing received more than 20,000 taels of silver that year.

At the same time, Wei Guangde also sent a private letter to Yu Dayou, asking him to take time to go to Haojing to see the actual situation.

It was not only for the investigation, but also to understand the actual situation at the time, so as to provide a reference for his decision-making.

If he had just crossed over to deal with such a matter, Wei Guangde would directly draft a document and order Guangdong Dusi to send troops to take back Haojing.

However, after coming to the Ming Dynasty for so many years, Wei Guangde also knew that a single move would affect the whole body. It seemed that he was attacking a small place, but the chain reaction that would follow was unpredictable for him and the Ming court.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty had no idea about the overseas situation, especially the actual situation in Nanyang. Most of the information was obtained from the coastal prefectures and sea merchants. It can be said that the intelligence work on Nanyang was a mess.

At that time, Wei Guangde had no way to ask Zhu Xixiao whether Jinyiwei had sent spies to Nanyang to spy on local intelligence.

So he put the matter aside, and he could only learn about the details of Nanyang from Yu Dayou and Yuegang sea merchants.

After that, it was not until Wei Guangde was urgently recalled to the capital, and then contacted Liu Shouyou about the case of Wang Dachen, that he was asked to investigate the Jinyiwei.

However, up to now, Zhu Xixiao is still the commander of Jinyiwei, and Liu Shouyou can only inquire about the news in the guard.

However, the information sent back made him a little disappointed, because Liu Shouyou did not find out any intelligence sent back from Nanyang, which shows that Jinyiwei should not have arranged spies in Nanyang and established an intelligence system.

Then Yu Dayou went to Haojing and found that Haojing already had a shipyard and a cannon factory. The shipyard can not only repair foreign ships, but also build small and medium-sized sea ships, and the cannon factory can also manufacture new ship cannons for the foreigners.

At this time, the ruling Portuguese in Haojing had not built a fort or a city wall. They only built a pier on the seashore and a wooden fence. Inside the fence, they built houses, shipyards, gun factories and other buildings.

Well, in Yu Dayou's opinion, it was really easy to occupy this place. The only thing to worry about was the two warships and some merchant ships that were moored at the pier all year round.

None of the merchant ships in this day and age were easy to deal with. Those that could sail on the sea were armed merchant ships, and they carried a large number of artillery and other weapons.

In Yu Dayou's opinion, it was difficult to catch all these foreign ships in one fell swoop, because if the situation was not good, the foreigners might destroy Haojing and board the ship to rush out of the bay.

At sea, these foreign warships had an advantage in speed, and it was difficult for the Ming navy to block them. Moreover, the firepower of a single Ming ship was far inferior to that of the foreign ships, even the armed merchant ships were inferior.

However, after Wei Guangde saw that Haojing already had a shipyard and a gun factory, his original thoughts faded.

What he wants is not just to take back the small land of Haojing, but to take over all of Haojing, including the shipyard and gun factory, and even the skilled craftsmen.

Before the Ming Dynasty went abroad, it seemed that the mirror was the window through which the Ming Dynasty understood the technological development of the Yi people.

It is easy to lay a trench, but later it will be difficult to find such a place where you can understand the development of Western technology.

Moreover, the current population of Haojing is not large, with only a few hundred Portuguese residents, and the main local labor force is the Ming Dynasty people they hired.

The existence and cover of these people were also very helpful for Ming Dynasty to spy on the technical level of the Yi people, so Wei Guangde temporarily gave up the idea of ​​taking back the trench mirror.

He just asked Yu Dayou to send craftsmen from the Coastal Guard Station to the trenches to learn about their methods of making firearms and ships.

After all, if the official comes forward, the other party will hide their key technologies. Only by secretly spying can they master their complete technology.

Of course, Wei Guangde would not tell Zhang Juzheng about these small tricks, but said that he planned to use money to poach people and learn the skills of the barbarians.

"Then let the Ministry of Industry send people to negotiate and arrange for craftsmen to go there and learn their skills."

Zhang Juzheng is not a pedantic person, he is also good at learning. Of course he knows the sharpness of the firearms that the Yi people are good at.

Apart from anything else, the Fran cannon, which is still being developed by Ming craftsmen, was invented by the Yi people. After equipping the Ming army, its combat effectiveness was greatly improved.

In Zhang Juzheng's view, it was good enough that the Ming Dynasty leased land to the Fo Langji people so that they could maintain their ships. Isn't it right that the Ming Dynasty should ask them to contribute their skills?

Of course, he also knew that skills were not taught easily.

But, didn’t Wei Guangde already say it?

With money to spend, the pragmatic Zhang Juzheng did not believe that these Yi people who had traveled thousands of miles to come to Ming Dynasty would refuse the temptation of money.

They civil servants all believe in the saying that serving as an official for thousands of miles is just for the sake of wealth. Aren't they also doing business with foreigners and doing business just to make money?

"The Folanji people have better firearms. Of course we have to learn them. We might as well learn their shipbuilding techniques as well, but"

Zhang Juzheng hesitated slightly and said: "If you want to send the Nanyang Navy south to Old Port, I think you need to be cautious.

I am afraid that this matter is not something that you and I can discuss and decide. Once the news comes out, I am afraid that there will be a lot of discussion in the DPRK and China. "

Zhang Juzheng knew that civil servants were opposed to spending huge amounts of money on building sea ships for overseas trade. They believed that it was not cost-effective.

Especially when Zheng He went to the West, although he brought back many rare treasures, compared with the losses of the imperial court, there was still a shortfall.

Of course, this trip also brought back many envoys from overseas countries, which indeed led to the glory of that time.

But after these people came to Ming Dynasty and paid tribute, Ming Dynasty suffered even more losses.

Zhang Juzheng is a pragmatic person. Although he was excited when he saw Li Chengliang's plan to expand territory, it was also based on foreseeable circumstances.

Once the Ming Dynasty resumed its official voyage to Southeast Asia, not to mention the accidents at sea, it would be a waste and unforeseen benefits, which made him feel that he could not easily agree to the matter.

When the Fushan Island shipwreck occurred, Zhang Juzheng actually had the idea of ​​suspending sea lanes.

First, because shipping grain by sea was proposed and implemented during the Gao Gong period, he wanted to minimize the residual influence of Gao Gong on the court.

The second reason is because he knows that Wei Guangde admires shipping very much, and he can manipulate Wei Guangde about shipping grain and use it as a bargaining chip to exchange some interests with him.

He reluctantly agreed to continue transporting grain by sea. Should you, Wei Guangde, also agree to some of his conditions?

In fact, Zhang Juzheng did not intend to use it just once to transport grain by sea.

As long as shipping continues, shipwrecks may occur at any time.

By then, after every shipwreck, he would be able to use it as a bargaining chip to negotiate terms with Wei Guangde.

Now, Wei Guangde is even bolder and actually wants to restore the Xuanwei Department of Old Port.

This is not a bad thing, as long as the court has enough financial support to restore overseas lands, it can also improve Zhang Ge's prestige.

But the most important thing is that Zhang Juzheng found that in addition to shipping grain, he obtained another bargaining chip.

This kind of exchange of interests, he felt, was much more effective than the previous disputes with Gao Gong or other cabinet ministers. Everyone got what they wanted without getting angry.

The benefits he gave to Wei Guangde were actually not exclusive to him, but were beneficial to the court and to him as the chief minister.

Thinking about the underhanded methods Gao Gong used to squeeze out Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen, although Gao Gong succeeded, it also ruined his reputation.

And now?

He and Wei Guangde just exchanged their respective demands, and everyone was harmonious, which was good.

"Not to mention other things, the cost of building new ships to go to Southeast Asia is an extremely huge figure. The current finances of the imperial court are simply unsustainable."

Zhang Juzheng said.

However, Wei Guangde did not accept Zhang Juzheng's kindness, but smiled and said: "Sir, Chief Assistant, I have actually made some calculations. This matter is quite expensive, and it is definitely not enough to ask the Ministry of Household Affairs to support it.

Fortunately, this matter involves the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Industry, and the coastal provinces. The coastal provinces have a sum of naval funds every year for them to build ships and go on patrol to intercept Japanese pirates and clean up pirates.

With the support of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, although the grand occasion of the Sanbao eunuch's voyages to the West could not be reproduced, it could still maintain more than ten large ships, and there would still be no problem in going to and from the old port regularly.

In this way, when the imperial court regains control of an overseas territory, compared with its achievements in opening up new territory, it might as well make more concessions. "

When Zhang Juzheng heard Wei Guangde's plan, he knew in his heart that besides mobilizing the power of the courtiers, it would be difficult for him to refuse.

The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry were both controlled by Wei Guangde's people, just like the Ministry of Revenue was firmly in his hands.

"You and I should think more about this matter. Fortunately, this matter is not urgent."

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard again and said, "By the way, you said you plan to let Qi Jiguang train another army, or a 30,000-strong army like Jizhen. Do you plan to train in Jizhen or Liaodong?

The imperial court's current finances and the amount of money allocated to the Ministry of War may not be able to increase any more. "

"Uncle, I have an idea."

Hearing that Zhang Juzheng wanted to use finance to limit himself again, Wei Guangde said with a smile.

"Want to hear the details."

Zhang Juzheng made a gesture of all ears and waited for Wei Guangde to tell him his plan.

"Today, many of the guard stations in the country are actually in decline. The actual military resources of many of the guard stations have been nearly exhausted. They only have reputations, but there are no sufficient military households for selection."

Wei Guangde said this, which was actually very polite. There is no guard in the world who has not escaped from his household.

Zhang Juzheng would not understand the situation of the guard station. He was from a military household, so he nodded when he heard this.

"Therefore, I am considering whether to let the Ministry of War reorganize the world's defense stations.

As a result, some households with a small number of households will be directly abolished. "

At this point, seeing Zhang Juzheng frowning again, Wei Guangde continued: "Of course, for important places, not only must the military households be redrawn and the number of households be replenished, but also they must be reorganized."

"What you want is to abolish the guard station and allocate the quota to"

Zhang Juzheng didn't know how to describe it for a while. He was the Jizhen camp soldier trained by Qi Jiguang.

After thinking for a moment, he continued: "Assign it to Qi Jiguang and conduct training according to the Jizhen Army?"

"We say that our Ming Dynasty has millions of powerful soldiers, but the ones that can really fight are only two or three. In this case, it is better to re-divide the jurisdiction of the guard station.

With the vacant troops, he organized and trained several armies like Jizhen near the capital.

In the former Song Dynasty, there were imperial guards, who could be dispatched to fight when there was trouble in the four directions. Our dynasty trained such soldiers near the capital, which could guard the capital and serve as a deterrent to the generals. "

Wei Guangde initially wanted to train the Jizhen Army only in Jizhen and Liaodong. However, when talking to Tan Lun, Tan Lun mentioned the current problem of the decline of various military stations, so Wei Guangde made plans to abolish and rebuild the military stations.

However, this matter cannot be done too hastily, after all, it involves a huge scope.

In fact, this scope does not lie in the military households, but in the farmland on the guard station's account.

Who doesn’t know that these fields on paper have become someone’s private land? (End of chapter)