The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 417 The Portuguese Come to Cause Trouble

In the northern waters of Dongfan, a raging fire burned all night long.

The next morning at about 11:00 AM, as the dawn began to break, the last few thousand-ton Fu ships gradually turned into black smoke and sank to the bottom of the sea.

At this time, Peng Xinggu had already arrived with one hundred thousand-ton Fu ships and five hundred centipede ships.

Deng Zilong had just arrived with the main fleet of the navy.

Above the sea, masts were like a forest, blocking out the sky and the sun, and the countless centipede boats were lined up in an area of ​​more than a hundred miles.

The Ming Dynasty navy fleet is truly terrifying at this moment. They are invincible in the waters near the Ming Dynasty.

The terrifying number of naval clippers and kerosene tanks was a nightmare for the giant ships.

Artillery these days still uses muzzle-loading technology, and the firing rate is simply not enough to withstand the impact of the speedboat.

Basically, the navy's clippers only need to be hit by one round of artillery shells before they can engage in close combat with the giant ship. Once the giant ship is approached by the navy's clippers, it will be finished.

Kerosene was thrown onto the giant ship like rain, and the wooden ship could not withstand it at all.

Xu Xinsu's pirate fleet is a clear example. His more than ten thousand-ton Fu ships and dozens of cannons are no match for the thousands of centipede ships.

Before any of the navy's gunboats arrived, they were surrounded and annihilated.

In other words, this group of pirates and Japanese pirates were wiped out in one fell swoop after wreaking havoc in the southeast for only two or three months.

The Zhejiang Party probably never dreamed that the powerful weapon they had carefully prepared for a long time would be so vulnerable.

Xu Xinsu was so exhausted that she broke down and confessed everything he was asked.

On the navy flagship, Qi Jiguang stood at the bow as tall as a city wall, facing the dawn, looking at the confession and battle report in his hands, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

This battle was fought beautifully.

They wiped out tens of thousands of pirates and Japanese pirates, but the casualties among the navy officers and soldiers did not exceed a hundred. Except for those who were unfortunately hit by the artillery fire at the beginning, there were basically no casualties afterwards.

This is a typical battle result of the Qi Family Army. Qi Jiguang was used to seeing it and didn't find it so magical.

He was more concerned about Xu Xinsu's confession.

They have already found out the origin of the artillery, which is enough to report to the Emperor.

This guy actually knows quite a few Zhejiang Party officials, which makes things easier.

His Majesty’s order is to kill all the pirates and Japanese pirates without leaving a single one alive.

He still left a few people alive.

This is somewhat contrary to the will of His Majesty.

Fortunately, what Xu Xinsu instructed him to do was enough for him to complete his task.

He thought about it carefully, and gave instructions to Deng Zilong and Peng Xinggu beside him. Then he took his personal guards and hundreds of naval speedboats and rushed to the capital.

It is already the coldest time of the year. Although it is not very cold in Dongfan, the Beiyun River has already frozen.

After they arrived in Xuzhou Prefecture, they had to go ashore and travel by land.

The Xuzhou Prefecture is now like a super-large post station. Countless people ride horses from the north and take speedboats along the Grand Canal to Jinling. Countless people also take speedboats from the south of the Yangtze River and ride horses to the north towards the capital.

At this time, the number of war horses produced in the Ming Dynasty is not ordinary. Xuzhou Prefecture, an important hub for water and land transportation between the north and the south this winter, has tens of thousands of war horses on standby. If you add those deposited by people from the north, the number can reach tens of thousands.

Qi Jiguang directly ordered more than 5,000 war horses, and then rode straight to the capital with his personal guards.

At this time, the main north-south road of the Ming Dynasty was also built. The highway between the two capitals was more than ten feet wide, and the ice and snow on it were cleared in sections every day by the post station soldiers. There was no problem riding a horse in the winter, but the weather was too cold, and the whistling cold wind blowing on the face was like a knife cutting.

Qi Jiguang didn't care about all these things. He just wanted to return to Beijing as soon as possible to explain to the Emperor. As luck would have it, when he arrived in the snowy capital, it was the New Year's Eve.

It was around noon when he arrived at Kunning Palace.

When Wanli heard that he had returned, he ordered his men to welcome him into the kitchen without hesitation.

This was not the first or second time that the emperor and his ministers had eaten the New Year's Eve dinner together, and Wanli was not at all shy about it.

However, when Qi Jiguang walked in, he couldn't help but be surprised.

This guy still had a lot of snow on him, and his face was frozen purple, and his hands and feet seemed a little stiff. Seeing this, Wanli quickly called over a young eunuch to help Qi Jiguang clean the snow off his body, and personally helped him take off his heavy woolen military uniform. Then he took Qi Jiguang's cold hand and sat him down, saying with concern: "Yuan Jing, has something big happened? What are you rushing to do?"

Qi Jiguang shook his head slightly and said, "Your Majesty, it's nothing serious. I just hurried back to report to Your Majesty on the situation of the suppression of pirates and Japanese pirates in the southeast."

Oh, so that’s how it is.

Upon hearing this, Wanli nodded slightly, poured Qi Jiguang a glass of wine himself, drank it with him, and then said apologetically, "Yuan Jing, I asked you to report the battle report in person because I didn't want those traitors in the court to know that we have wiped out the pirates and Japanese pirates in the southeast. I didn't ask you to rush back in person to report in person. You can just send a naval commander back to the capital to report in person."

I didn't do what you wanted me to do.

Qi Jiguang explained carefully, "Your Majesty, we fought quite well in this battle. We annihilated tens of thousands of pirates and Japanese pirates, and burned almost all of their ships. We only suffered a few centipede ships, and the casualties were less than a hundred.

However, I would like to say that not all the pirates were killed in this battle.

Because I discovered that this group of pirates was equipped with dozens of cannons with a range of about five miles, I wanted to know where these cannons came from, so I specifically ordered the navy officers to leave a few of them alive.

Oh, so you are afraid that if you make decisions on your own and go against my will, I will be angry.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "Yuan Jing, you are the commander-in-chief of the army, so you can make the decision on such a small matter. I ordered you to kill all the pirates because I am worried that this pirate group will revive.

Since you've discovered something's wrong with their artillery, it's fine to leave some of them alive for interrogation. So, did you find out where they got those artillery pieces from?

I'm just worried that you'll think I'm being spoiled.

Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "The interrogation revealed that these cannons were ordered by Xu Xinsu from the Portuguese in Macau. Each one cost one thousand taels of silver and they were the latest type of Portuguese cannon."

Portuguese cannon?

The Portuguese actually came to cause trouble for them!

Upon hearing this, Wanli frowned slightly.

During this period, he was planning a war to destroy Japan and ignored these colonial bandits.

The Age of Exploration was in full swing, and the colonial bandits had long been coveting the "big fat meat" of the Ming Dynasty.

Since the Zhengde period, Portugal has wanted to defeat the Ming Dynasty by relying on its warships and gunboats.

As a result, from the Zhengde Dynasty to the Jiajing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty and Portugal fought four times, and Portugal was defeated each time. Portugal then changed its tactics, staying in Macau and colluding with local officials to do business and make money.

In fact, Portugal is nothing, even Spain is nothing.

The pioneers of these two great eras of navigation, or the Western colonial era, have begun to decline, and the subsequent maritime hegemons, the Netherlands, Britain and France, are each more powerful than the other.

These colonial bandits from the European continent will sooner or later take action against the Ming Dynasty or Middle-earth, and these guys never abide by martial ethics. If they can't win in a one-on-one fight, they will resort to group fights.

If the Ming Dynasty wants to maintain this rare period of peace and prosperity, it must defeat all these colonial bandits.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then said decisively: "Uncle, draft an imperial decree ordering Portugal to send an envoy to the capital to pay homage to the emperor."

Upon hearing this, Li Xuancheng drafted the decree without hesitation.

Qi Jiguang said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I dare to say that these barbarians are shameless. Portugal cannot defeat the Ming Dynasty, so they refuse to leave Macau. It is probably useless to meet their envoys. It would be better to use the navy fleet to drive them away directly."

You don’t understand this.

Wanli said meaningfully, "The Portuguese are still somewhat useful. I met with their envoys just to ask them whether they will listen to us."

Can these barbarians listen to us?

Qi Jiguang thought about it and simply gave up.

This matter doesn't seem to have much to do with him, so he shouldn't say anything more.

He said carefully, "Your Majesty, Xu Xinsu also confessed to several Zhejiang Party officials he knew. I thought this guy might still be useful, so I ordered him to be taken to Dongfan for custody."

Does this guy also know Zhejiang Party officials?

Well, it's indeed useful to keep this guy.

Wanli nodded slightly upon hearing this and said, "Well, then let's lock this guy up in Dongfan first. Yuan Jing, today is the Little New Year, and you've been through a lot for the past year. Let's not talk about anything else for now. Come, let's drink and eat."

(End of this chapter)