My Daming New Empire

Page 429

Osman III said: "As far as I know, the Rock of Gibraltar was taken back by the Seville people eight years ago."

Zhu Zhanji thought for a while and said: "I think my Ming Dynasty and the Marin Kingdom have broad prospects for cooperation. Our alliance can be reflected not only in business, but also in military affairs."

Zheng He didn't know why Zhu Zhanji suddenly changed his mind again, but he knew very well that Zhu Zhanji's thoughts were originally unconstrained and elusive.

He asked in Daming dialect: "Your Highness, do you have any new ideas?"

Zhu Zhanji looked at Hu Jun, who was serving behind him, and said, "Bring me the map of the West."

According to the globe, Zhu Zhanji drew a large number of regional maps. A few days ago, people marked many cities on the map based on the situation learned by businessmen who are familiar with the situation in the West.

It can be said that even the current maps of Europeans are not as accurate as Ming's maps.

After Hu Jun went out for a while, he came in with a large map of Europe, West Asia, and North Africa.Zhu Zhanji let him spread it on the table in the hall, and then let everyone surround him.

Pointing to the positions of Ceuta and Gibraltar, he said to Zheng He: "In today's Western Continent, the economic center is Venice, and most of the trade of Western Continent countries is carried out here. The Strait of Gibraltar guards the throat of the Mediterranean Sea, and its geographical location is very important." .

Now the Portuguese occupy Ceuta, and the Sevillians occupy Gibraltar. If these two places are occupied by my Ming Dynasty, they will be able to obediently make European countries obey. "

Zheng He shook his head and said, "Your Highness, this place is seven to eighty thousand miles away from my Ming Dynasty. Why should my Ming Dynasty get involved here? It's just for trade, and my Ming Dynasty doesn't need this base. It's a waste of troops."

"My Ming Dynasty wants to trade in the West, and more importantly, I want to exert my influence in Ming Dynasty. These two places are very suitable. Trade is not as simple as my Ming Dynasty shipping goods and then selling them. Xizhou gold and silver are limited, only this trade After that, the next time you don’t have any gold or silver to buy various goods from me, Da Ming, at that time, my goods from Da Ming will not be sold at all.”

Zheng He frowned and thought for a while and asked, "Then what's the point of controlling this place?"

"We can send soldiers to garrison, or we can send servants to understand the market conditions of various countries, and then take the goods that Xizhou can supply back to our Daming, such as horses! Set up a supply point here, and we can purchase all kinds of supplies that our Ming needs for a long time... "

Having said that, Zhu Zhanji actually doesn't have much expectations for trade. Except for various horses in Europe, there is really nothing that Ming does not have.

All he wants to do is to be a shit stick, keep Europe in chaos, and prevent them from developing sea power.

Zheng He sighed: "It's so far away, the soldiers are homesick, and it's difficult to replenish all kinds of supplies!"

Zhu Zhanji said with a smile: "So we need to win over Maringuo and let them supply food, meat and vegetables, and even beautiful women to our Ming soldiers. Moreover, we can also support the Moors and let them continue to fight against the Spaniards after occupying the Gibraltar Rock." go down."

Seeing that Zhu Zhanji had made up his mind, Zheng He didn't want to argue with him in front of so many people, so he asked, "Then what does Your Highness want the old minister to do?"

A group of Marlins couldn't understand what they said, so they could only stare at the map in amazement.

Zhu Zhanji glanced at them and said: "Talk to Osman III about the place of Ceuta, and I, Daming, can go and help them take it down, but I won't return them here, but give them some goods. Buy this place permanently. Since it is an alliance, of course we must cooperate in all aspects to make them become loyal allies of our Da Ming, and Da Ming will help them defend their homeland."

Zheng He pondered for a while and said: "In this way, I don't think we need to talk about it first, but we must first figure out what we want and what we want to achieve. We figure it out ourselves, and then proceed step by step according to the plan. "

"Just like loneliness."

With new ideas, the alliance negotiated with Osman III can only be temporarily suspended, but now Osman III does not care about this, pointing to the detailed map and asking: "Can you give me this map?"

In modern society, maps have become popular, and ordinary people can see them everywhere.

But in this era, maps, especially detailed maps, are important strategic equipment.It can be said that a detailed map is more important than a legion.

Although Maringuo has some maps, these maps are very rough, with only approximate territory and city labels. Because there is no precise positioning, it is normal for the scale of the map to be out of balance.

However, the map that Daming took out now has a very standard layout of the entire Asia, Europe and Africa continents. The mountains and rivers are all marked in detail. The importance of this map must not be viewed as just a map.

But for Daming, this map that only has Europe and the Mediterranean coast is of little use.

Zhu Zhanji took out this map at this time, the purpose is actually to take out an accurate map on purpose, so that European countries can continue to fight for the territory.

He preferred to let the Europeans continue to scramble for the continents rather than the seas.

"Your Majesty, a miracle, a miracle has appeared!"

Osman III was very annoyed by his attendant's gaffe, and said sharply: "Presumptuous, how can you make a fuss in front of a distinguished guest?"

Li Liang also entered the hall at this time, leaned close to Zhu Zhanji and said with a smile: "These barbarians just haven't seen the world, and they made a fuss when they saw us put together a courtyard in half a day."

This set of hall was originally brought from Daming, and it was planned to be installed in Star City. During the competition, this set of hall was also used as the venue for Zhu Zhanji to meet with envoys from various countries.

But Zhu Zhanji thought that after he was gone, the hall would not be of much use. When Zhu Di arrived in Nanyang, a permanent hall would be built.

So when we left from Star City, we asked craftsmen to disassemble and assemble this set of halls and put them on the ship.

When you come to Europe, you should put on a good show.This antique hall full of oriental charm and luxury can be described as a powerful weapon, even more flamboyant than his dragon chariot, which is the size of three houses.

Zhu Zhanji didn't want to live in their stone house, the Ministry of Rites and Honglu Temple. After coordinating with the locals, the General Secretary requisitioned a small square in the city and asked Habayashi Wei to block that area.

Under the arrangement of Tobe craftsmen, various parts of the main hall were unloaded from the ship.The pillars as thick as a person, the beams more than ten meters long, and the seamless roof are all numbered in detail.

Commanded by craftsmen, thousands of soldiers worked together.In just half a day, like assembling building blocks, not only the main hall was assembled, but also Zhu Zhanji and the others assembled several wooden buildings for sleeping.

This matter is no surprise to the people of Ming Dynasty.But to the uninformed Marlins, it was really like a miracle.

Osman III was also stunned when he saw a palace appeared in half a day.Since yesterday, he felt that he was a veritable bumpkin who had never seen the world.

And that night, Zhu Zhanji had a long talk with the ministers all night in this newly assembled hall, and decided on a new European strategy.

(Instigate the struggle between European Christianity and the Green Church, support the weaker side, and expand the war. Then impose a sea ban and suppress European maritime forces. I still need to think about it and think about this strategy more comprehensively.)

Thank you for seeing people with lights, I spit on you, youlangzh for your reward, thank you for your support

Chapter 46 Sea Power

"The Duke of Dian once used the theory of sea power to give up, and proposed that if the Ming Dynasty wants to spread its prestige overseas, it must first develop its sea power. But how to develop its sea power, is there a plan?"

The newly built wooden hall was brightly lit.Except for the generals who stayed on the ship and guarded the generals, the other generals gathered with the various ministries of the court.

After Zheng He returned from his fourth voyage to the Western Seas in Yongle 13 years ago, he wrote a letter to Zhu Di, arguing that Ming should vigorously develop sea power and control Southeast Asia and West Asia.

He analyzed it from several aspects such as politics, economy, and reputation, and expounded the importance of Ming Dynasty's development of sea power.

In the original history, the threat of the Northern Yuan Dynasty was still there, and Daming was deeply troubled by the northern military disaster, so it was impossible to put all its energy on the voyage to the West.

Moreover, the special economic environment in the early Ming Dynasty led to the fact that all the profits earned from sailing to the West were obtained by the internal prison and the emperor, and those civil officials got nothing.

Therefore, the voyage to the West was opposed by civil servants. They even burned the sea charts and shipbuilding blueprints in the end, because they were afraid that the money earned from the voyage would strengthen the imperial power.

Of course, this will not happen again in this life. Zhu Zhanji will definitely continue to follow Zhu Di's old path, suppressing the power of civil servants and strengthening the imperial power.

However, the general environment has changed, and Zheng He did not have many groundbreaking suggestions for the development of sea power.

During the first four voyages to the west, the main method of naval battles was to rely on the size of the ships to ram them. Now, the ships of Ming Dynasty all use strong ramming angles and strong hulls to gain an advantage on the battlefield.

If the ship is big, it can take advantage. After the collision, it will be a boarding battle, and whoever has more people will have the advantage.

However, this rudimentary naval battle underwent a huge change when the Ming Dynasty conquered Japan.

Daming learned to use steel molds to make cannon barrels. Even with clay molds, he also learned to use carbon removal to reduce the charcoal in molten iron, making the cannon barrels more resilient.