Chapter 919 1008 Denglai Navy

"Can the Nanyang Navy warships carry so many people and horses?"

This is actually the topic that Zhang Juzheng is concerned about. It is no small matter for ten thousand people to cross the sea.

If the Nanyang Navy has been able to ensure that an army of ten thousand people can cross the sea for several days, does that mean that the Navy no longer needs to allocate more funds?

Can this money be taken back to the court and used for other things?

Wei Guangde was not a fool. When he heard Zhang Juzheng's question, he guessed something.

After all, just now, he was still thinking about the fifty thousand taels of silver, worried that it would be embezzled by the court.

The household department of the Ming Dynasty was really short of money.

Immediately, Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng, looked into his eyes and said: "Speaking of this matter, I still have an idea here, but it's not mature yet. Since it has been said here, I might as well say it and let everyone discuss it. "

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde said with a smile on his face: "As for the shipping of grain, because the Nanyang Navy had large ships, it was arranged for the Nanyang Navy to go north to escort the grain.

But the Nanyang Navy also has its own things to do, such as protecting the tranquility of the sea areas of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, and working on expeditions. It is also a threat to the southern coastal counties.

I checked the Ministry of War documents before and saw that Denglai still has a navy. However, it has lacked support in recent years and the navy's warships are old and cannot be used.

Since the Nanyang Navy has its own errands, the court might as well pay attention to the Denglai Navy now.

This is my plan. Since the Nanyang Navy belongs to Nanyang, it will definitely go south in the future. "

Having said this, Wei Guangde glanced at Lu Tiaoyang again, and then continued: "Go to the old port and see what's going on there. Otherwise, with the barbarians entering Nanyang in large numbers, the countries in Nanyang will have long forgotten our great tomorrow." Go to the country.

As the sovereign state, we should also care about the surrounding countries to see if they are being bullied by the barbarians and make decisions for them. We cannot always let them pay tribute while we do nothing. "

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang ignored it and began to guess in their minds.

Sure enough, Wei Guangde immediately continued: "The Nanyang Navy needs slightly larger warships and new gunboats to go to Nanyang."

Regarding the Western centipede ship that made the Ming Dynasty's imitation of naval warfare more powerful, Wei Guangde directly asked the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry to call it a "new gun ship", at least so that no one would know that it was an imported product.

"I plan to transfer some of the warships in the Nanyang Navy fleet that are not suitable for ocean-going, as well as those small lucky ships, to the Denglai Navy from the Nanyang Navy, and use the Denglai Navy as the backbone to build the Beiyang Navy.

One south and one north, protect the peace of my Minghai Sea.

The mission of the Beiyang Navy is not only to protect the safety of the northern coastal counties, but also to serve as envoys to North Korea and communicate with Liaodong.

Of course, the Beiyang Navy also performs the task of guarding the grain and sea transportation every year. The Caoshan Division and the Ministry of Industry allocate money to the Beiyang Navy every year to build large transport ships. "

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he noticed that Zhang Juzheng frowned.

"Shan Loan, to build the Nanyang Navy, the imperial court did not allocate much money. Most of it was allocated by the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong for the sake of peace and security in the maritime areas. For your newly built Beiyang Navy, the coastal counties in the north may not be willing to spend more money. .

Moreover, the south is rich and they are willing to contribute some money to ensure peace.

But the Japanese pirates in the north were not like those in the south. I am afraid that not most of the money for shipbuilding would have to be borne by the imperial court.

Nowadays, the situation of the Ministry of Household Affairs is very tight, and there is no money to allocate it. "

Zhang Juzheng opened his mouth to complain about the difficulties in the Ministry of Revenue, and also pointed out that the source of funding for the Nanyang Navy was not from the imperial court, but the Beiyang Navy he mentioned seemed to require the majority of the funding from the imperial court. How could this be possible?

"The Ministry of Industry and the Caoshan Bureau will not be able to afford shipbuilding money for transporting grain."

Wei Guangde just said lightly: "As for the large warships, they can be replaced by the Nanyang Navy. After all, the threat to the northern coast is indeed not great."

Every year, the Ministry of Industry and the Water Transport Yamen allocate special funds to build canal ships. Now they just use the money from building canal ships to build sea-going ships. Wei Guangde doesn't think it is difficult.

“In this way, the Nanyang Navy can also focus on matters in Nanyang without having to worry about the safety of the northern seas.

The division of the Ming Dynasty Navy into two could also maintain the balance between the north and the south, and prevent the Nanyang Navy from having too much power. After all, it would have more constraints from the northern navy. "

Wei Guangde continued.

“The Chief Envoy of Shandong Province has previously reported that the entire province cannot support the Denglai Navy.

When the Denglai Navy was originally formed, one was to prepare for Japan, and the other was to communicate with Liaodong.

Now it seems that these two are no longer needed, so why build a larger naval fleet. "

Lu Tiaoyang finally spoke up and expressed his opposition.

He is from Guangxi, so naturally he has no yearning for the sea. In fact, most Ming Dynasty officials only saw the land in front of them and ignored the sea.

After all, if "The Theory of Sea Power" were thrown out in this era, most of them would not accept it except those countries in Europe that have already gained benefits through colonization.

In their eyes, the sea is also dangerous, and the reason why they risk their lives to go to sea is the countless gold, silver and spices overseas. They need these wealth.

And what about Ming Dynasty?

It seems that they are short of money, but they will not plunder wealth from overseas, so the profit from sea trade is not large, and they have no intention of doing so.

And those families who made their fortunes through sea trade were unwilling to let more people participate in the process, contact each other, and deliberately suppressed the Kaihai sect so as to help them monopolize the money they obtained.

Those inland officials are the important targets of support for these coastal maritime merchants. They can help speak out in the DPRK without attracting the attention of others.

After all, sea trade is very profitable, and many people along the coast know that if coastal officials speak out, they will be easily criticized.

Wei Guangde didn't answer his words. At this time, he just lowered his head as if in deep thought.

Obviously, this gesture was just because he didn't want to talk to them more. After all, neither Zhang Juzheng nor Lu Tiaoyang seemed to support his proposition.

Seeing Wei Guangde's reaction, Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang knew that Wei Guangde had informed them in advance and had no intention of discussing with them.

Thinking about it, the yamen involved in the establishment of the Beiyang Navy are nothing more than the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War and the Water Transport Yamen, and the heads of these three yamen seem to be people from his side. Even if they want to intervene and oppose, they are afraid that It is also difficult to achieve.

Thinking of this, Zhang Juzheng couldn't help but look at Wei Guangde one more time.

At the beginning, Wei Guangde gave up the struggle for the power of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Personnel and other yamen, and only reported to the Ministry of Housing and Industry and the Ministry of War. It seemed that he had already planned it.

Although the Ministry of Industry does not have as much money as the Ministry of Household Affairs, it actually has considerable power and wealth.

By this time, Zhang Juzheng regretted that when Wei Guangde proposed that Wang Zongmu be the governor of water transportation, he did not strongly oppose it.

Knowing that this was the position Wei Guangde wanted to win in order to win grain and sea transportation, and seeing his persistence in this strategy, Zhang Juzheng chose to give in at that time.

Unexpectedly, Wei Guangde didn't have enough water transportation, so he hooked up with the navy.

Thinking of the Navy, Zhang Juzheng couldn't help but take a second look at him. He was a little unsure of Wei Guangde's true thoughts. Did he really want to take the Ming Navy to Nanyang and restore the Xuanwei Division in the old port?

Because apart from obtaining spices and gems from overseas, the Ming Dynasty did not seem to have anything worth looking forward to. Instead, it required the court to invest a large amount of money to build large ships. Therefore, after settling the accounts, the Ministry of Accounts agreed that it was a loss-making transaction.

The spices brought back were originally converted into salaries and distributed, but the officials were extremely dissatisfied with the money returned.

Therefore, from then on, Ming Dynasty officials secretly sentenced people to the death penalty for going to sea.

It's not that Zhang Juzheng has never heard that sea trade is very profitable, but he also knows that sea trade is also very dangerous. The so-called profit and risk are directly proportional.

Although he didn't have any concept of direct proportion and inverse proportion, he still knew the general meaning.

Rather than risking your life to make a lot of money, it's better to make a small amount of money in peace of mind.

As for the court reforms he planned and carried out in spite of the disapproval of the world, they were actually forced to be carried out, because if the court policies were not adjusted, the Ming court would really not be able to persist.

Reading history books can help you understand the rise and fall of dynasties. Zhang Juzheng read history books and knew that if the Ming Dynasty continued to move forward, its decline would only be a matter of time.

He didn't plan to argue with Wei Guangde at this time. Zhang Juzheng just glanced at Lu Tiaoyang and planned to come down to find an opportunity to discuss with Lu Tiaoyang how to squeeze Wei Guangde's rights, especially to take back some of the rights of those yamen. He couldn't let it go. He connected these yamen together, making it difficult for him, the chief minister of the cabinet, to control them and found them in trouble.

This cabinet meeting produced almost no results, and it was not easy to explain everyone's attitudes.

Wei Guangde actually wanted to take precautions to prevent the two cabinet ministers from being surprised and objecting when he took action.

Give them time to think. As for whether to win their support, Wei Guangde doesn't think there's a rush.

Whether it is going to Nanyang or forming a new army, it seems that it is not a very urgent matter. Anyway, it has already started.

He already had a navy and an army, and he just needed to slowly expand their scale. This would also take time for them to grow, and all he needed was to wait for an opportunity, an opportunity to send troops to Southeast Asia.

The top priority of the imperial court was to pacify the domestic situation first before fighting against the outside world, and the war in Liaodong was the most urgent matter.

At this time, on the Yellow Sea, a huge fleet flying the sun and moon flags bypassed the Shandong Peninsula, turned from north to west, and continued to move forward.

On a huge fortune ship in the middle of the fleet, a general wearing a first-grade official robe was looking into the distance.

Not long after, a small boat quickly rowed over and leaned next to the Big Fortune Ship. Someone lowered the cable. The people on the boat climbed onto the big ship along the cable rope, hurriedly entered the cabin, and walked quickly along the stairs to the platform of the Fortune Ship.

"Commander."

The visitor stood behind the official, bowed and saluted.

"Is there anything unusual about those cavalry soldiers?"

The general looked back at the visitor and asked aloud.

"Commander, the cavalry soldiers are very honest and obedient now, I don't see anything wrong.

The general has already ordered them to observe carefully. If there is any abnormality, they should immediately send a signal and call for nearby ships to pass by. "

The general hurriedly cupped his fists and said.

"Well, what happened last year was weird. I thought about it for a long time. The ship sank without any sound. The most likely thing was that someone dug through the bottom of the ship.

Most of the grain transported this time is military grain to be transported to Liaodong, so there must be no mistakes. "

The general turned around at this time and said seriously.

A face tanned by the sun, who could it be if it wasn't Yu Dayou.

"I have arranged several of our brothers on each ship. They are all extremely skilled people. They are definitely not something that the sailors can handle."

The general was the leader of Yu Dayou's personal guards. In order to ensure the safe delivery of 500,000 shi of grain to Tianjin and to prevent the recurrence of last year's incident, Yu Dayou assigned his personal soldiers and his subordinates who had followed him on the battlefield for a long time to the grain ship, the purpose of which was naturally to monitor.

If an accident happened under his nose, Yu Dayou would never let it go easily.

The soldiers who escaped from the shipwreck last year were settled down.

And he knew the news several months later, so it was naturally difficult to continue to investigate.

In the final analysis, the grain transport department closed the case with this, and he, an outsider, certainly could not intervene.

This time was different. He was the commander of this fleet, and naturally had the power of life and death over everyone here.

"Marshal, when the fleet turned around, the sea patrol ship of Chengshanwei came over to ask, and asked if we wanted to rest on the shore."

The leader of the personal guards whispered again.

"There is enough food and water on the ship, so we won't stop."

Yu Dayou shook his head and turned to look at the sea ahead, but he was sketching the nearby sea map in his mind.

Chengshanwei is the closest garrison to the east in Shandong. The fleet turns west here, and in two or three days it will pass through the Miaodao Islands, and the fleet will really enter the Ming Dynasty's inland sea.

The Liaodong Peninsula and the Jiaodong Peninsula are surrounded here, which also makes the inland sea of ​​Bohai calm.

If an accident happens in Bohai, it will be a joke.

At this time, many large ships in front of them successively raised signal flags to inform the fleet of the situation ahead.

Immediately, Yu Dayou's face became gloomy when he saw this scene.

The leader of the personal soldiers also noticed the flags hung by the warships in front, and said suspiciously: "We have just passed Chengshan, what's the situation?"

"Speed ​​up, go to the front and take a look."

Yu Dayou just gave an order, and then the personal guards went down to pass on the message.

Soon, the three sails of the Fu ship slightly adjusted the direction, and the speed of the ship gradually increased.

This time, the warships of the Nanyang Navy needed to take care of the grain ships, so they deliberately kept the speed down.

Half an hour later, Yu Dayou's ship had appeared in front of the entire fleet, but not far in front of them, a fleet consisting of dozens of ships of different sizes appeared in front of them.

"Marshal, it's the fleet of the Denglai Navy. They should be returning to Penglai Water City."

Seeing this fleet, the sun and moon flags were also hung on it.

In this sea, there can be so many sea ships. In addition to the Denglai Navy, the leader of the personal soldiers could not think of any other.

"Well, catch up, I want to see what the Denglai Navy looks like."

Yu Dayou ordered. So, the ship has not changed the speed and quickly sailed towards the fleet in front.

This time, in less than half an hour, they have caught up with the ship behind. Looking at the officers and soldiers of the water camp wearing tattered Ming army uniforms on the ship, Yu Dayou kept shaking his head.

Speaking of which, the Denglai Navy was the main maritime force to protect the capital, but I didn't expect it to be like this.

Not only were the ships old, but the officers and soldiers also had no fighting spirit, just like the garrison soldiers on the shore. (End of this chapter)