The Rise of the European Emperor

Huang Qinghe angrily took Kong Tai and others back to the voyage. After returning to Guangzhou, he immediately played to the court—Taixi Portuguese people, what a barbarian! The frog at the bottom of the well doesn't know the greatness of Ming Dynasty, but wants to be equal to my emperor!

This Chaozuo also traveled eight hundred miles in a hurry, and arrived in the capital in a few days. Then, Li Dongyang, a good old man, also scratched his head - what should he do if the other party doesn't give face? Waiting online, very urgent...

It's not that Li Dongyang doesn't dare to fight, but that Malacca is far overseas, and if he wants to send troops, he must first build a batch of large ships...

According to the Mancicans, the Portuguese had a good combat power, with a total force of several thousand soldiers. If you want to defeat it, it is estimated that tens of thousands of troops will be needed.

If it is on land, it is no problem to mobilize tens of thousands of troops. But the problem is that Manjijiayuan is overseas. If you want to transport tens of thousands of troops, you have to create a fleet of treasure ships like Zheng He's.

But the problem is that Manchu officials are definitely unwilling to create a new treasure fleet. Because, just to manufacture a batch of treasure ships that can carry tens of thousands of troops, the cost needs to be hundreds of thousands of taels. And the treasure ship needs boatmen and sailors, and the total cost is estimated to be several million taels.

Moreover, the blueprints for making treasure ships and the navigation charts for sailing to the west have been completely lost by Liu Daxia. Even the craftsmen of Longjiang Bao Shipyard gave it to Marin. Even if you want to make it, there are no conditions.

What's more, even if the treasure fleet is remanufactured, it will be useless. After this war is over, the fleet will be idle, which is very uneconomical...

After heated discussions, the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty believed that the expedition to Manchuga was unrealistic. However, it would be embarrassing not to stand out for my younger brother...

At this time, Yang Yiqing, who has always been resourceful, said:

"Everyone, I heard from Marin, the lord of the North Sea, that the land of Taixi loves the silk and porcelain produced by our Ming Dynasty very much. Since it is not appropriate to send troops, we might as well tell the Portuguese——if we don't return the Manchuka The Portuguese are forbidden to come to the dynasty!"

"Forbid the Portuguese to come to court?" The civil servants seemed very reasonable when they heard it... It seems that those vassal states must be very sad if they can't come to court...

In fact, they guessed right. If tribute trade is not allowed, those vassal states that have tasted the sweetness will definitely be disappointed.

Then, Yang Yiqing said again:

"In addition to threatening to prevent the Portuguese from coming to the DPRK, we can also reward the Manchuga with a batch of matchlock guns, Francois machine guns, and corresponding ammunition through tribute rewards to help them counterattack the Portuguese. In this way, I, Ming, don't need to It cost countless money and food to send troops overseas."

The artisans brought by Marin,

Ming Dynasty craftsmen have been taught to make matchlock guns and Franco cannons. Anyway, the Ming Dynasty would also give back the goods to the Mancijia people. Waiting for the next time when Manchuka comes to pay tribute, just give some matchlock guns, Franco cannons and enough gunpowder in return. In this way, it can also enhance the combat effectiveness of the Manchujia people.

Soon, the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty agreed to these two plans of Yang Yiqing and reported them to Emperor Zhengde.

The young and militant Zhengde was very dissatisfied. He believed that the imperial court should send troops to rescue the subordinate country Mancijia and promote the prestige of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Yang Yiqing stretched out his hand and said:

"Your Majesty, bring it!"

"What?" Zhengde was a little confused.

"Ten million taels of silver to make the treasure ship!" Yang Yiqing bullied Zhengde who didn't know how to build ships, and directly said that the cost of shipbuilding was dozens of times higher...

Zhengde was immediately discouraged, even though tens of millions of taels of silver were copied from Liu Jin's house. However, in the past two years, it has cost several million taels just to suppress the Liuliu Liuqi peasant uprising and the Jiangxi peasant uprising. Moreover, the civil officials of the Manchu Dynasty have long been eyeing the money, and they have planned how to use it. Besides, Zhengde still needs to take out some of them to form heavy armored cavalry to deal with the biggest enemy of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongolian ministries.

Then, this matter was done according to Yang Yiqing's opinion-the Ming court threatened Portugal not to pay tribute, and at the same time asked the craftsmen to build a batch of matchlock guns and Francois cannons, so that they could be rewarded to Manchuga next time, allowing them to fight against Portugal. go.

In this way, without the knowledge of the monarchs and ministers of the Kingdom of Portugal, Albuquerque, a stupid young man, recklessly denied the opportunity to start trade with Ming Dynasty.

In fact, when Albuquerque was negotiating with Huang Qinghe, Manuel I was already considering pretending to be a tribute in order to obtain the qualification to purchase silk and porcelain from Ming Dynasty. It's just that he was thinking in vain. Because, his subordinate Albuquerque, under Kong Tai's secret instigation, cut off the possibility of peaceful exchanges with Ming...

...

On the Keelung side, Kong Tai, who came back, was also writing a report, writing in Chinese characters the process of secretly making trouble during the negotiations in Malacca, and ordered people to send him back to China.

It should be pointed out that because there were skilled shipbuilders sent from the Daming Longjiang Treasure Shipyard, and later Liu Daxia and others sent thousands of shipbuilders.

Under the guidance of the shipbuilding craftsmen left behind by Marin, Kong Tai asked thousands of shipbuilding craftsmen of Ming Dynasty to use the wood, tung oil, raw lacquer, copper nails and other shipbuilding materials purchased from Fuzhou to manufacture five ships of 250 armed merchant ships. Moreover, the bottom of the boat is very extravagant, using ferreous wood that cannot be eaten by shipworms.

Coincidentally, this time he sent a ship to deliver a letter to Panama City, and Conte sent three of them (sailors and captains were not enough for 5 ships) to take the letter to Panama City. At the same time, they also sent a batch of silk and porcelain purchased in Daming, as well as finished tung oil and raw lacquer urgently needed by the Long Island Shipyard in New York, North America.

Although Marin has people planted tung oil and lacquer in Savannah and the Argentine Pampas grasslands, these two trees will take several years to produce. Therefore, in the past few years of shipbuilding, they still count on the tung oil and raw lacquer purchased from Daming.

In addition, Marin also instructed to open the route from Panama City to Keelung as soon as possible to facilitate the circulation of goods. In addition to urgently needed materials such as tung oil and raw lacquer that needed to be shipped to the Americas, silk and porcelain from Daming were also extremely popular in the European market. At the same time, it can also bring huge profits to Marin.

Marin didn't expect that Keelung's shipbuilding went so smoothly. In fact, the conditions for shipbuilding in the Ming Dynasty were very good. Because, whether it is wood, tung oil, raw lacquer, copper nails, etc., you can easily buy them in Daming. Moreover, the price is very cheap.

In addition, Keelung also gathered thousands of skilled shipbuilders sent by Ming Dynasty. Although Marin brought a batch to Long Island, New York, the number of craftsmen is still more in Keelung.

If it wasn't for the first time to manufacture a Western-style sailboat, the craftsmen were not familiar with it, and a lot of time was wasted exploring. In the year after Marin left, these thousands of craftsmen would not only manufacture five 250-class sailboats. If it is "full firepower", it is no problem for thousands of skilled daimyo shipbuilders to manufacture more than a dozen 250-class armed merchant ships a year.

Although North America is full of timber for shipbuilding, there is a lack of materials such as tung oil, raw lacquer, and copper nails, so it is difficult to do it alone. Therefore, the speed of shipbuilding is not as good as that of Keelung. Because there needs to be enough tung oil, raw lacquer and other materials to achieve "full firepower".

However, following Kong Tai’s order to open the Panama route this time, once the route stabilizes, Daming’s cheap tung oil will be continuously shipped to the Americas to supply the needs of the Long Island Shipyard in New York. At that time, Marin's idea of ​​​​exploding a large number of ships will be realized...