The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 420 The Ming Threat Theory

In March, the ice and snow melt.

At this time of year every year, ships from the south would rush to the capital like a swarm of carp crossing the river.

The hundred-meter-wide Beiyun River was densely packed with boats. The Tonghui River leading to the capital was filled with rows of large and small boats. The boats in the capital's moat were turning continuously like circles of chains.

The development of Ming Dynasty's shipping is astonishing. There are definitely more than 100,000 merchant ships and fishing boats of 100, 200, 400, and even 800 tons.

Seeing this situation, Li Yuansheng couldn't help but sigh inwardly. When he was a pirate, it was not easy for him to gather hundreds of speedboats.

At this moment, I heard that all the docks and ponds of the Ministry of Industry's shipyard are fully packed, and ships are being built non-stop. There are many private shipping fleets with hundreds or even thousands of speedboats.

Originally, after the sea opened, there were only a few fishing boats on the southeast coast. Now, there are large groups of fishing boats in every prefecture and county along the coast.

The Grand Canal is even more amazing, with a constant stream of ships flowing along the way.

The Ming Dynasty is changing with each passing day. Every time he comes back from Southeast Asia, he sees different surprises.

When he returned from chasing the Kuroshio this time, he found that huge ports and docks had been built on all sides of Dongfan, and naval speedboats could be seen everywhere.

He also heard from the naval officers over there that a capital had been built in the East Barbarians, and that tens of millions of acres of fertile land had been opened up on the plains to the west.

Farmers in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Taizhou and Wenzhou who don't have much land are migrating eastward. From now on, the people in the southeastern coastal areas will no longer go hungry.

The prosperous Ming Dynasty has really arrived.

He lined up all the way from the Beiyun River and slowly entered the Tonghui River. He also deliberately wandered around in the moat for a while. It was not until around You time, when it was getting dark, that he entered the Taiye Lake in the imperial city and came to the Military Affairs Hall of the imperial palace.

Wanli had been waiting in the brightly lit Grand Council Hall for a long time.

After the king and his ministers exchanged greetings, he couldn't help but ask, "How's it going, Yuan Sheng? How much did you earn this time?"

Li Yuansheng said carefully: "Your Majesty, this trip is still about 30 million taels. It seems that the Spanish can only consume 2 million pieces of silk. Other goods have not increased. They seem to have reached their limit. They can't consume 40 million taels of goods in a year.

The Nanyang countries seem to be a bit overwhelmed. Each trip they can only take in a few tens of millions of taels of goods. The Nanyang business seems to have stabilized. Two trips a year totaling about 60 million taels of goods are enough. They can't take in any more."

Spain could only plunder 50 to 60 million taels of gold and silver from the Americas in a year. No matter how extravagant their nobles were, they had to leave more than 10 million taels as food and wages to support hundreds of thousands of troops. Otherwise, it would be strange if the European countries did not unite to destroy them.

The countries in Southeast Asia have not yet developed. If they did not have gold and silver mines, it would be impossible for them to consume more than 20 million taels of goods a year.

It seems that with the current income, the Ming Dynasty can only support more than three million troops.

The more than one million newly trained garrison guards behind them still need to be properly arranged. These more than one million new recruits should be allocated based on the strategy of attacking the Japanese mainland.

If Toyotomi Hideyoshi heard what he was really thinking, he would probably vomit blood again.

Just over three million troops?

It seems that during the early Hongwu period when the Ming Dynasty was at its most powerful, it had only about 2.7 million troops in total, less than 3 million in total!
Wanli naturally would not tell Toyotomi Hideki how many troops he had. Now most of the civil servants in the Ming Dynasty did not even know how many troops he had summoned.

Anyway, he kept recruiting, and never told the civil servants how many people he recruited. The food and wages were directly allocated from the inner treasury without going through the Ministry of Revenue at all.

At this moment, no one knows how many traitors there are in the Ming Dynasty court, and these cannot be made known to the civil servants.

He thought about it carefully, then said solemnly: "Yuan Sheng, let's do this for Nanyang's business first. Our main target this year is Japan.

We need to find a way to get Tokugawa Ieyasu to raise the banner and fight against Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so that we can invade the Japanese mainland at the lowest cost.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi probably doesn't have much prestige in Japan now. What do you think is the main reason why Tokugawa Ieyasu hasn't taken action yet?"

Why hasn't Tokugawa Ieyasu taken action yet?

Li Yuansheng nodded slowly and pondered: "Your Majesty, Tokugawa Ieyasu probably feels that he doesn't have enough advantages. After all, his territory is similar to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's. If they empty their own wealth and recruit troops frantically, they can still recruit more than 100,000 troops.

"With over 100,000 men against over 100,000, the defenders have a huge advantage. Without around 300,000 men, Ieyasu Tokugawa wouldn't have dared to attack Hideyoshi Toyotomi."

Well, that makes a lot of sense.

The difference between attacking and defending is huge. If the attacker's force is not more than double that of the defender, then there is basically no way to win. Tokugawa Ieyasu's launching of a civil war is the key to destroying Japan. If this guy doesn't take action, they can't take action. Otherwise, who knows how many soldiers will be killed or injured before they can conquer Japan.

The key now is to make Tokugawa Ieyasu feel that he can mobilize an army of more than 300,000 to deal with Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then nodded slowly and said, "Well, you should quickly deliver the goods to Tokugawa Ieyasu and take this opportunity to find out more about the current situation in Japan."

Upon hearing this, Li Yuansheng hurriedly bowed and took his leave.

This guy left quickly and came back quickly. He delivered the goods to Edo at the end of March, and returned to the Ming Dynasty waters in mid-April, riding on the tail of the north wind and ocean current.

On the Gengshen day of the fourth month, around 5 p.m., when it was getting dark, he sneaked into the Grand Council Hall under the cover of darkness.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli asked impatiently, "How is the situation in Japan now?"

How do you say this?

Li Yuansheng said solemnly, "Your Majesty, the current situation in Japan seems to be a bit unfavorable to us. The warrants that Toyotomi Hideyoshi gave to all the daimyo mentioned the threat from the Ming Dynasty.

What he meant was that our Ming Dynasty has at least one million troops, and Japan and the Ming Dynasty have become enemies because of the Jiajing Japanese invasion and the war with its vassal state Korea. Our Ming Dynasty will definitely take advantage of Japan's weakest time to launch a large-scale invasion.

Therefore, he ordered all the daimyo of Japan to frantically conscript men and build defenses, preparing to defend the Japanese mainland to the death. He also ordered all the shipyards in the coastal countries to build warships at full capacity, with a minimum of 500 ships per year.

This guy Toyotomi Hideyoshi even brought up the theory of Ming Dynasty threat.

It seems that this guy is also good at creating momentum.

At the beginning, this guy kept shouting "join the Tang Dynasty, join the Tang Dynasty" and wanted to take over the 400 states in Tang territory. This made all the princes in Japan think that he could overthrow the Ming Dynasty and thus supported him to unify Japan.

Now this guy keeps shouting that the Ming Dynasty should attack the Japanese mainland in order to unite the various daimyos to deal with the threat from the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, all the daimyos were worried about the invasion of the Ming Dynasty and would not even think about starting a civil war to drive this guy out of power.

I have to say that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a pretty good vision.

Under such circumstances, the Ming Dynasty would naturally take the opportunity to destroy Japan!
In other words, this guy wanted to lure him to attack the Japanese mainland, consume the strength of the Ming army, and then take the opportunity to counterattack.

Otherwise, this guy would only shout, and would not order the frantic conscription of men, the frantic construction of ships, the frantic creation of defensive facilities, and put on an attitude of fighting to the death.

This Ming threat theory must be broken, otherwise, it would be troublesome if the Japanese pirates united and fought to the death.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then asked, "Have you ever asked Tokugawa Ieyasu what he thinks of the Ming threat?"

Li Yuansheng nodded repeatedly and said, "I have asked this before. Tokugawa Ieyasu said that the threat from the Ming Dynasty does exist. He also asked me if there are any signs that the Ming Dynasty is gathering a large army to attack Japan.

I didn't answer this question directly. I just said that my superiors hadn't mentioned this before, and when I passed through Dongfan on my way back from Southeast Asia, I found that the Ming navy ships seemed to have gathered in Dongfan. It seemed that the Ming court wanted to fully develop Dongfan.

Well, you are really smart.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was no pushover either.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then said decisively: "You should rest in the capital first. I need to prepare an issue of the Japanese tabloid and make some arrangements."

Li Yuansheng quickly bowed and took his leave.

Wanli looked at his back and couldn't help frowning and thinking.

How to break the Ming threat theory?

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, this old fox, really has some tricks up his sleeve.

This guy probably felt that his death was imminent. He was struggling violently with the theories of pirates, Japanese invaders, and the threat of the Ming Dynasty.

And Tokugawa Ieyasu is also an old fox and not easy to fool.

(End of this chapter)