Chapter 74 Navigation and Firearms

Ming Dynasty, the 13th year of Hongwu.

Zhu Yuanzhang began to grind his teeth again.

Hearing the sharp grinding sound, the ministers who had just stood up began to hesitate, wondering whether they should just kneel back down.
Jiangsu and Zhejiang! Coastal areas! Zhu Yuanzhang began to name and count the heads in his mind. Violating the ban and going out to sea without permission was a capital crime. They also formed cliques for their own selfish interests, deceived their superiors and subordinates, obstructed the legitimate government orders, and took money from his Zhu family...

He said to Zhu Biao, "Biao'er, check later how many officials from the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang there are in the court now."

From now on, not only will we impose restrictions on the officials in these places, but we will also have to keep a close eye on the wealthy businessmen in these places!
The sixteenth year of Yongle.

Zhu Di thought of what Tianmu said before, that it was the last trip for the crown prince after ascending the throne, so he looked at Zhu Zhanji and said calmly: "Grandson, this rope, when should it be loosened, when should it be tightened; there are so many things, what should be grasped, what can be temporarily let go, all need to be carefully considered and considered."

Zhu Zhanji frowned, stood up and answered solemnly. He might really need to review his experiences over the years and think about them again.

Song.

Zhao Kuangyin was a little worried. It seemed that he had been worried ever since the Tianmu came to the Song Dynasty.

However, this time his worry had nothing to do with those unfilial descendants. He was worried about the overseas trade of the Song Dynasty.

After all, it is clear that the Song Dynasty's maritime trade will become increasingly prosperous. Under this premise, how can the emperor better control the power of maritime trade and not be fooled by the officials and merchants below? How to minimize the possibility of these people colluding with officials and merchants and suppressing the emperor in turn?

He sighed. Why are there so many problems? As for the people around him, he looked at his brother and sons and looked away in disgust. Why are they so troublesome, so annoying, and so useless?

[In fact, there are not only a group of "uncivilized" barbarians overseas. On the contrary, countless gold is overseas.

Although these are not common items obtained through regular trade, they are suitable targets for official actions.

For example, from the perspective of gold and silver, Japan has the Iwami Silver Mine, which has been mined for more than 400 years, and the Sado Gold Mine, which can produce 400 kilograms of gold and 40 tons of silver a year. One ton is about taels, and one thousand kilograms is equal to one ton.

Going further south from Malindi (Kenya) where Zheng He visited is South Africa, where in addition to countless gold and silver mines, there are also a large number of iron ore and coal mines, many of which are open-pit mining with extremely low difficulty.

From the perspective of food, the climate in the Nanyang region is warm and can support two to three rice harvests a year. The same is true for the southern region outside the Nanyang where Zheng He's fleet arrived. Going eastward, across the endless ocean, there is a continent where several crops grow, with a yield of 3000 to 5000 kilograms per acre, and they are highly adaptable to the land environment.

As for overseas trade, there are many countries in the western continent. Although these countries are not as large as the Central Plains, they are enough to provide a large market for consumption of Central Plains products. 】

The scene on the sky curtain turns to Europe, showing the various countries there, the wealth of their nobles, and their deep desire for Eastern goods.

【Instead of talking about the interests of maritime trade, we should talk about it from the perspective of national defense. If we give up the development of maritime power, will other countries not develop? If we don't occupy any high ground, someone else will. And by then, we will be at the mercy of others. What will be the result?】

In the picture, the Central Plains is engulfed in war and the people are living in misery. Any former prosperity has disappeared, and in its place are the arrogant foreigners who do whatever they want on this land.

Ming Dynasty, the 13th year of Hongwu.

Seeing the golden gold and white silver in the sky, Zhu Yuanzhang's heart beat wildly.

Not only him, everyone in the hall had a frantic heartbeat. After all, this was money! It was said that people traveled thousands of miles to become officials just for money. Although the founding ministers in the hall were not so degraded as to fall to this level, who would complain about having too much money?

Zhu Yuanzhang went a step further. In his eyes, these gold and silver mines were not just ordinary gold and silver mines, but the money bags of his Zhu family! That's right, they belonged to his Zhu family! He already regarded them as his own. After all, the world belonged to his Zhu family, so the mineral resources of this vassal state should also belong to his Zhu family!
"This Japan should be Wakoku." Zhu Zhen found a map from somewhere and gestured to the map on the sky. Although he didn't know when the name of this place was changed, the location didn't change, so it should be Wakoku.

But everyone's attention has been diverted to the contents of the tent, because even more shocking news is presented in the tent.

"3000 catties? 5000 catties?" Zhu Yuanzhang's heart had already flown out of the ocean of gold and silver and was constantly beating towards the grain. His face flushed red, and his arms were raised, still trembling.

But he, who had always been the center of everyone's attention, was not the first to be noticed by others this time. Everyone was attracted by this information. As officials of the founding generation, they still had a clear understanding of people's livelihood and farming. They knew how much one acre of land could produce, and the impact of the environment and climate on crops. Many of them had planted their own land before becoming officials.

Therefore, this content seems particularly shocking and incredible. This is a yield that the farmers in the Central Plains and people who understand farming would never dare to imagine in their entire lives.

Compared with this content, even the land that could be harvested twice or three times that year was not so amazing.

"If the crops have such a high yield, coupled with the land that can produce two or three crops a year..." Zhu Di murmured, looking dazed.

Everyone followed his words and spread their imaginations, as if they saw the prosperous scene of abundant harvests and abundant crops. Not only would they be able to enjoy the prosperity of this prosperous era, but they would also leave a heavy mark in the history books - the discoverers of such a miracle and the creators of this prosperous era!
"The era of Yao and Shun was the way of the sages!" someone blurted out with an enthusiastic look on his face.

"We must go to sea!" Zhu Yuanzhang finally made the final decision, "We must not only go to Southeast Asia, but also go east. This is God's mercy on our Ming Dynasty and God's blessing!" He looked at the generals and his sons, "This will be a top-notch event for the country, and we must not take it lightly! Let the Ministry of Works build the treasure ship, and you can study the issues of naval training and sea voyages first."

Everyone agreed with shining eyes, wishing that the day to set out to sea would come right away, so that they could lead their people to find the gold and silver mines, the grain seeds bestowed by heaven, and then go down in history...

The sixteenth year of Yongle.

Zhu Di directly ordered his attendants: "Let Wang Jinghong and Hou Xian come to see me." (Both of them were eunuchs with experience in sailing)
"Dad, are you planning to send these two people to nearby vassal states such as Japan to mine minerals and survey the soil?" Zhu Gaochi said.

"That's right. It's better to leave the voyage to Southeast Asia, especially South Africa, to Zheng He. He has experience and I feel more at ease with him." As for the two eunuchs, they both have experience in sailing and are people he trusts, so it's just right to leave such an important task to them.

"Grandpa, do you want to train another batch of navy?" If we want to explore the eastern continent, the current manpower is definitely not enough.

"Not only that, we need more people who can take charge. When Zheng He comes back, we'll see if he has any suitable candidates." Zhu Di looked at his two successors and solemnly instructed, "Going to sea must be regarded as a national policy and must be continued from generation to generation. Don't give up easily!"

Qin Dynasty. Qin Shi Huang looked at the lands that could produce two or three crops a year in the miracle, and his heart surged. Not to mention the lands far away, there are such lands nearby, such as Annan in the south. If we can obtain such lands given by God, there is no need to worry about the prosperity of the Qin Dynasty!

As for the countries in Southeast Asia, with the current level of ships of Daqin, a short voyage is not impossible. In this way, those lands can also belong to Daqin, which can not only solve the livelihood problems of the people, but also expand the territory of Daqin, and there is no need to worry about the rewards of meritorious officials.

However, there are so many places outside of Daqin. Can we move some people from the six countries here?

The early years of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bang looked at the vast world in the sky and couldn't help sighing: "You are really a frog in a well."

However, sighing is sighing, work is work. He said to his old friends who had fought with him to conquer the world: "It seems that the shipbuilding and training of the navy must be put on the agenda as soon as possible. If we can obtain minerals or land that can harvest more crops a year, it will be an incomparable great achievement for our Han family!"

However, he also knew that his generation would not be able to see any results. The real results would have to be left to future generations.

The first year of Yuanshuo.

Liu Che, who already had both the Western Regions and the vast ocean in his mind, felt as if he had been given several doses of cardiotonic shots and was extremely excited.

"The gold and silver mines in Japan... and the gold, silver, copper and iron in Southeast Asia... the soil in the south that can produce three crops a year... and the crops with amazing yields per acre..." What to do? Of course, we should speed up shipbuilding, and then go to Japan to get some money! Then go to Southeast Asia and get some land. In this way, wouldn't the national strength of the Han Dynasty double? In that case, why worry about not having enough money and food to attack the Xiongnu!
As for the crops on the continent across the ocean to the east, we can just take our time.

The first priority is still to build a ship!

Thinking of this, he could no longer sit still and kept asking the attendants around him, "Where are the ship officer and the Minister of the Imperial Household whom I summoned earlier? When will they arrive?"

Song.

Zhao Kuangyin felt that after a long period of sorrow, he finally heard one or many good news.

At present, his army is strong and powerful, and has a large number of firearms that he never had before. Moreover, he has fought in naval battles and thinks that he and his army are good at naval battles. He also thinks that the current shipbuilding level of the Song Dynasty is first-class.

By this calculation, it shouldn't be that difficult to go to Japan or Southeast Asia to do some side business.

After all, who would complain about having too much food, money, or mines?

Tang Dynasty, the third year of Zhenguan.

Li Shimin felt that he had found his true love activity: going to sea.

Seeing that he seemed ready to make a move, the ministers looked at each other and thought that it would be better to persuade him to stop for the time being. After all, the first item on the task list now was to attack the Turks and avenge the previous humiliation.

Wei Zheng stepped forward without hesitation and said, "Your Majesty, I know that you want to find a way to make the people of the world rich and to lay the foundation for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty." He started with a few compliments and said, "But sailing at sea requires long-term planning and is not something that can be achieved overnight. Right now the court still has major problems to solve, so it is not appropriate to do anything else." You should deal with the Turks first before saying anything else!
Emperor Taizong choked and said, "I know what you mean. Don't worry, we must solve the northwest issue first, but we can also put the sea trip on the agenda first."

The ministers agreed.

[Of course, going to sea was only a part of Zhu Di's life. As a horse emperor, wars occupied most of his life.

Born in the midst of war, his life was inseparable from war.

He has many titles related to war: Conqueror of the Northern Desert, Destroyer of Vietnam (Annam), General of the Northern Expedition, and the most famous general during the Yongle reign...

The achievement of these titles was not only due to his own high military level and the high level of the Ming Dynasty's army, but also closely related to the use of a certain weapon.

This weapon was the firearm that almost brought disaster to Zhu Di during the Jingnan Campaign. 】

Tang Dynasty, the third year of Zhenguan.

Li Shimin sat up straight: "Are we finally going to talk about firearms?" Previously, during the Jingnan Campaign, Tianmu only mentioned firearms and then passed by the topic briefly, which really made him curious for a long time.

[The first key to the birth of firearms is gunpowder.

In the early Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao summed up a relatively feasible formula for gunpowder ratio during the process of alchemy. From then on, gunpowder and weapons using gunpowder began to appear on the battlefield.

By the Song and Yuan dynasties, the research and application of firearms had made great progress. Various medicinal ingredients had a more reasonable quantitative ratio, and the earliest gunpowder weapons such as cannons, muskets, rockets, mines, bombs, etc. appeared. At the same time, firearms also began to affect traditional combat methods.

In the Ming Dynasty, firearms saw further development. Starting from Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the development of firearms. In the process of the Ming Dynasty's conquest of the world, firearms played a significant role.

After Zhu Di ascended the throne, due to his military background, he attached great importance to firearms.

Between the fifth and eighth years of the Yongle reign, Zhu Di established three major camps in the capital. In addition to the traditional infantry and cavalry, there was also a separate camp related to firearms, namely the "Shenji Camp."

When the Shenji Camp was first established, it had five camps under its jurisdiction, each with a division of about 4000 to 5000 people. In the ninth year of Yongle, 5000 high-quality horses were obtained from the outside of the Great Wall, and the cavalry of the Shenji Camp was expanded based on this, called the Five Thousand Lower Camp. At this point, the total strength of the Shenji Camp was about 7.5.

Among these 70,000 people, three quarters of them possess firearms. There are two types of firearms: the divine machine gun and the divine machine cannon. The cannon is good for defense, and the gun is good for fighting, supplemented by sword and shield soldiers and spearmen.

Thus, the world's first professional firearms unit was established, creating a new way of warfare using firearms on a large scale and in an organized manner.

(End of this chapter)