My Daming New Empire

Page 430

Compared with the copper cannon, this steel cannon barrel is four-fifths lighter and has a longer range.

The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty in the past turned pale when they heard about the Japanese pirates, but during the 13th naval battle in Hongwu, the Japanese pirates became floating targets on the sea, making them cry.

The change of weapons and equipment has changed the mode of naval warfare, but limited by experience and vision, Zheng He did not have a set of tactical details improvement and macro strategic development plan to meet the current needs.

Hearing Zhu Zhanji's question, he pondered for a while before saying: "Your Highness, it was three years ago that I turned up last time. In the past three years, Da Ming has made great achievements in both the Shenji Battalion and the Navy. The original naval battle relied on the size of the ship and the large number of people, but now, it is more necessary to have a strong ship and guns. Whoever has the stronger guns will win. In the past, the soldiers needed to fight side by side, but now more than three One-third of the navy soldiers are also equipped with muskets, and the battlefield has become another model. Today, His Highness has to ask, and I still need to think carefully."

Zhu Zhanji was not disappointed. Daming is now at the crossroads of history, and the application of new technologies has brought about earth-shaking changes on the battlefield.

In the past, when Ming fought against the Tatars, it never won a big victory, because the opponent had horses and ran away if he couldn't beat them, but Ming's soldiers couldn't catch up.

Starting from the Northern Expedition in the 12th year of Yongle, the large-scale application of muskets has extended the threat of soldiers from one meter in front of them to dozens of meters away, which has fundamentally changed the battlefield.

In particular, the steel wire mesh developed by Zhu Zhanji can move anywhere on the battlefield to form active trenches, making horses lose the possibility of charging, and completely making nomads lose their threat.

Therefore, the generals now need to adapt to the new tactical changes.

Why are the soldiers of Zhu Zhanji's Habayashi School so important?Not only because they know astronomy but also geography, but also because they have a deep understanding of new tactics.

What is good at the top must be done at the bottom.

Due to the ideological restriction of the great unification of the Eastern nation, it is always difficult to reform from the bottom up, but the reform from the top to the bottom is often twice the result with half the effort.

Zhu Zhanji has traveled to the best era. The application of social productivity today has been accumulated for more than 1000 years and has reached a critical point from quantitative change to qualitative change.

If it were not for the invasion of the Mongol Yuan, during the Southern Song Dynasty, the social model would have undergone a process of fermentation and quantitative change.

Also, now is the most glorious era of Ming Dynasty. Although Zhu Di has his shortcomings in civil affairs, it is the era when the imperial power is exerted to the greatest extent.

Regardless of the noble class or the civil servant class, they are all subject to great constraints.

Moreover, through internal supervision, the imperial power controlled the economy of the entire country, which allowed the imperial family to have more power than any other period.

And Zhu Zhanji traveled to this era, and he didn't have to bother to grab power at all, so that his will could be implemented to the greatest extent.

Zhu Zhanji has experience and vision because of his special status.Except for him, including Zhu Di, in fact, they don't know how the future history will develop, and they are still crossing the river by feeling the stones.

Even the emperor is like this, how many shocking reform ideas can you let a constrained minister have?

So Zhu Zhanji quickly adjusted his thinking, stopped testing other people's ideas, and directly gave his own decision.

He asked Li Liang to bring over the notebook he wrote down when he was free, turned to a page and said: "The so-called sea power should be the extension of the territory of the Ming Dynasty. With the strengthening of the country's strength, the sea is also the country's land, and the overseas Chinese people should also serve for the country." Contributed to the development of Ming Dynasty. Sea power is mainly reflected in four aspects.

First, it is reflected in the political aspect.Through the expansion of sea power, my Ming Dynasty has fully established the Huayi political system all over the world.And this kind of political rule is an extension of the imperial power of my Ming Dynasty. It allows small barbarian countries to follow the traditional Chinese concept of "the king has no exception" and "Huaiyuan is based on virtue", and follow the rules of governance of my Ming Dynasty. "

The other generals didn't quite understand Zhu Zhanji's words, but the civil servants headed by Jin Chun, as well as Xie Jin, Huang Yuan, and Zheng He all listened with excitement.

Especially Zheng He, this is what he thinks in his heart. During these five voyages, his ultimate goal is actually this.

They looked at Zhu Zhanji with fiery eyes, and even regarded the huge book in Zhu Zhanji's hand as a treasure.

Although everyone was amazed and their expressions changed drastically, no one made a sound. They held their voices and listened to Zhu Zhanji continue to speak.

"Secondly, it is the display of Ming's military strength. The world is so big, there are so many wonders, and each small country has its own corner. The environment, weather, and geography of the country are different, and the national character is also different.

If you want all countries to follow my Ming's rules, there must be some countries that will not respond.So at this time, it is up to me, Da Ming, to conquer them by force.As for the way to deal with other countries, how to maximize Ming's military power, I will talk about this later. "

All the generals were most interested in this, but they were all a little depressed when they heard Zhu Zhanji start but didn't go down.

However, the general overview of the issue of sea power has not yet been finished, and everyone still has this bit of patience.

"The third is the embodiment of economic power."

Economy is not a foreign word. This special term first appeared in the Han and Jin Dynasties. Its original meaning is to benefit the people, the so-called economy.Later, with the development of society, it also meant the ability to govern the country, as well as the financial and material resources of the court. It is a common social term.

"There was a rotten Confucian who once said that the total economic output remains unchanged. If you take more, he will take less. This is nonsense. The amount remains the same, so why did my Ming tax pay less than 4000 million yuan ten years ago? If it remained the same, my Ming tax tax reached more than 2000 million taels of silver the year before last? Could it be that the imperial court stole the wealth of the people? Why are the people's lives getting more and more prosperous?"

Hearing Zhu Zhanji's nonsense, Jin Chun frowned. He didn't know much about the economy, but he also knew that the income and taxes of the people in the past dynasties had been changing, and he couldn't refute it even if he wanted to.

He frowned not because Zhu Zhanji's words were wrong, but because he thought the nonsense was a bit too harsh.

"In Gu's view, economy is the management of goods. It is a general term for the process of producing, using, processing, and distributing all goods to the people. From a small point of view, it can refer to the housekeeping management of a common people's family, and from a large point of view, it refers to a country. The overall taxation, consumption summary.

In this process, the royal family, officials, and common people's production, savings, exchange, and distribution activities are all included.Production is the basis of this process and distribution is the end of this process.

Although my Ming Dynasty only governs one region of Ming Dynasty, if we control the economic lifeline of other countries, it means that my Ming Dynasty's economic power has also extended to other countries. "

At this time, the most excited person was Huang Yuan, who was in charge of the minutes of the meeting. He abandoned literature and went to military affairs, but he was not interested in fighting.He joined the army just to strengthen his family's strength and have a stronger ability to resist risks.

After he arrived at the Navy Headquarters, he was mainly responsible for the logistics work. The supply and deployment of various materials seemed extremely cumbersome to others, but for him, he enjoyed it.

And he is also the person who feels the most about what Zhu Zhanji said in this aspect, and he can't wait to have an in-depth discussion with Zhu Zhanji on this topic after the meeting.

"Fourth, it is the display of cultural power. This is something that everyone ignores, but it should never be ignored.

Taking my Ming Dynasty's previous four voyages to the West as an example, the Duke of Dian worked hard and made great achievements, and had close contacts with 39 countries, and asked them to worship my Ming Dynasty as their suzerain country and pay tribute to Daming.

But the Duke of Dian neglected the importance of culture, so that for more than a decade, these countries have only surrendered in name, and they are still alienated from our Ming Dynasty.

Since you belong to the Ming Dynasty, you should be proud of speaking my Ming dialect, writing my Ming characters, and observing my Ming etiquette.But in the Nanyang area, the Green Religion is flourishing, and the common people only know how to learn the scriptures of the Great Food, observe the rituals of the Great Food, and regard my Confucianism of the Ming Dynasty as heresy.

Being so alienated from morality, they will lean in when it is beneficial, but when it is not beneficial, they will probably regard me, Da Ming, as a scourge.If everyone speaks the Ming dialect, writes the characters of the Ming Dynasty, and observes the rituals of the Ming Dynasty like the people of my Ming Dynasty, then after a hundred years, those small countries in Nanyang will truly become my vassal states of the Ming Dynasty. "

Zheng He was a little ashamed. Seeing that Zhu Zhanji's words had come to an end, he clasped his fists and said, "The old minister is terrified..."

Zhu Zhanji comforted him kindly: "Gu is not blaming the Duke of Dian, in fact, I still have respect for what the Duke of Dian has done. Otherwise, I would not have appointed you as the deputy commander of the Eastern Expedition, the director of the Navy, and now you have been promoted to the Dian Kingdom public."

This is indeed the envy of countless people. It is a fluke for an eunuch to be reused by the royal family.But Zheng He was not only reused by Zhu Di, but now also by Zhu Zhanji, which is a rare honor in the whole history.

As a eunuch, there were only three people before him, and they were all people with mixed reputations. Only he really didn't have any bad reputation.

As soon as the topic changed, Zhu Zhanji returned to the content of sea power. "Speaking of a thousand words and ten thousand, if you want to develop sea power, you must have an excellent foundation and strength. Without strong force, it is impossible to achieve it. Moreover, the manifestation of sea power must also have a clear understanding and careful consideration. , we must pay attention to strategies and methods.”

"Ding Haigong, do you have any advice on this?"

As the governor of the Second Fleet of the Navy, Zhu Zhen is the Minister of the Navy who is sailing to the West this time. It is of course his bounden duty to develop sea power.

And he also followed Zheng He on three voyages to the West, so he has a wealth of experience and a clear understanding of the world.

Hearing Zhu Zhanji's words, he stood up and said, "Now our Ming ships are strong and powerful, which has completely changed the mode of naval warfare. But after the naval battle in Hulumos, I also have some new considerations."

"speak!"

"My Daming sea ship is already the world's first-class sea ship, but it only has hard sails, which can no longer meet the sailing needs. In the past, my Daming sea ship only sailed north of the equator, and only occasionally went to Majapahit south of the equator, but This time when I went to Nanzhou and Xizhou, I can see that the hard sails are not as good as the soft sails of the man-eating under the headwind conditions. It took half a year for the fleet to go to Nanzhou, and half a year to come to Xizhou. Did not reach the destination, so the improvement of the sails is urgent."

Zhu Zhanji, who was sitting on the dragon chair on the high platform, sat up straight, leaned on the armrest, and looked down at Zhu Zhen who was under the stage: "If you want to attack the other thing first, you must first sharpen your weapon. This is a good strategy."

With Zhu Zhanji's approval, Zhu Zhen became more confident, and said: "Secondly, our Ming artillery has developed rapidly, but the ships can no longer meet the current artillery attacks. The force is too strong, and the decks of many warships have been severely damaged after the battle. Improvements should also be made in deck design in the future."