The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 583: Exiled Thousands of Miles Away

There is really a lot of land to pick up these days.

Wanli was about to send Li Zhizao and Yu Zigao to seize territory south of Southeast Asia.

As for the primitive tribes over there, he didn't want to rush over and kill them like a colonial bandit.

He planned to win them over first by using the good things produced in the Ming Dynasty.

If someone doesn't appreciate the courtesy, that's another matter.

So, what do primitive tribes like most?

Zhu Guozuo, who has been dealing with American Indian tribes for several years, should know this best.

He simply turned around and asked, "Zhaolong, what do you think we should prepare to win over the primitive tribes on Penglai Island and Fangzhang Island?"

This means what the primitive tribes like most, right?
Zhu Guozuo thought about it carefully, and then said carefully: "Your Majesty, what the primitive tribes like is actually the main commodity for our overseas trade.

For example, silk, cloth, porcelain, tea, spices, and of course, grain and salt. Many primitive tribes don’t know how to grow grain or boil salt.”

They have plenty of these things.

The question is, why do we need to prepare silk?

Wanli was quite curious and asked, "Do primitive tribes still need silk? What do they use silk for?"

Silk is naturally used to make clothes.

Zhu Guozuo explained in detail: "Your Majesty, silk is mainly used to give to those tribal leaders.

In fact, as long as we can win over the tribal leader, we can almost conquer that tribe.

This silk is actually for tribal leaders to show off, because silk looks much more high-end than ordinary cloth, and clothes made of silk are much more comfortable to wear than ordinary cloth."

Oh, so it was to satisfy the vanity of those tribal leaders.

Upon hearing this, Wanli nodded slightly, and then asked, "What is the situation of Zhaolong's vassal states in America?

Are they satisfied with their current lives? If we ask them to send troops to seize colonies, will they fight for us with all their might?

Upon hearing this, Zhu Guozuo nodded repeatedly and said, "They are very satisfied with their current life.

It turns out that they had to work hard to hunt just to get enough to eat, and the things they used were basically made of animal skins, bones, stones, and wood.

Now we have given them enough sheep and also provided them with food, so they can just graze and have enough to eat.

They were extremely satisfied with the useful things we made in the Ming Dynasty. The daily necessities we made were many times better than what they had used before.

As for the issue of sending troops, the officers and soldiers of the Shenjiying Camp always emphasized when training their troops that only by following our Ming Dynasty can they live such a good life.

Moreover, they also wanted to drive away the colonial bandits and let all the people there live a free life.

I think it shouldn't be a problem to get them to go all out for us; we just need to change the way we phrase it."

Well, to put it another way, it means to fool people.

For example, they describe fighting for the Ming Dynasty as fighting for their own people.

This one is quite simple.

Wanli nodded slightly and asked, "How many young and strong men do they have? If we provide them with enough food and supplies so that they don't have to worry about food and clothing, how many men can they mobilize?"

How do you say this?

Zhu Guozuo thought about it carefully, and then said carefully: "Your Majesty, there are actually not many elderly people there.

Because they didn't have many medicines to treat diseases in the past, it was considered good if the average person could live to over 40 years old, and children could easily die if they accidentally got sick.

Therefore, the vast majority of them are under 40 years old, and most of them are in their teens to 30s. Children and the elderly together account for less than 30%.

If we use the standards of young and strong people in our Ming Dynasty, there are probably tens of millions of them."

So many young and strong people.

There is no need to worry about the source of troops. As long as there are enough weapons, equipment and food, there will definitely be enough people over there.

Perhaps, we can also consider letting the young and strong people there do something else.

For example, felling trees, mining and so on.

Wanli nodded slightly and asked, "How many troops have they gathered now? How is the training going?"

Zhu Guozuo explained in detail, "The vassal states over there have now assembled a total of 2.5 million troops, and General Wang and General Lou have organized them into 50 large camps.

As for how the training is going, according to General Wang and General Lou, their combat effectiveness should be comparable to that of our original border infantry.

They just lack experienced commanders. If they were led by our officers, their fighting power would be comparable to that of the frontier troops."

That's enough.

There's no problem starting a war now.

Wanli thought about it carefully and then asked, "How is the development of the large basin near Jinshan going?"

How do you say this?

Zhu Guozuo said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I dare to say that there are not enough people over there. The millions of Japanese slaves can only cultivate about 2,000,000 mu of land, and the rest of the fields are still uncultivated.

Your Majesty, if it really doesn't work, how about we train the young and strong men from our vassal states to do the farming?
Otherwise, it would be really difficult to develop that place, and the grain it can produce now is only about 50 million shi.

Our troops, plus those from our vassal states, plus the Haixi Jurchens who were cutting timber and the Japanese who were mining, had almost consumed all the food there.

Without food, we can't attract more people to develop there. I think this problem must be solved first before we can develop there."

Let the vassal states over there be nomadic.

As for the problem of lack of people, it seems that the Ming Dynasty is short of people everywhere now.

There is a shortage of people at the North American Western Regional Command, there is a shortage of people at the Nurgan Regional Command, and there is a shortage of people at the Dongyang Regional Command.

In fact, there are still people in the Ming Dynasty.

There were at least 40 to 50 million civilians enslaved by the princes and royal family.

The problem is that these guys are unlikely to hand over the people honestly. They are even unwilling to hand over the land they donated.

The problems of the princes and royal families must be solved, and the common people enslaved by them must be rescued.

That's tens of millions of households. If we use the standard of 50 mu of land per household, we can cultivate 500 to 600 million mu of land.

At this moment, these common people were being exploited by the princes and royal family members, and they were almost like the Japanese slaves. They simply didn't have much energy to work, and each family could only cultivate 20 to 30 acres of land.

If these civilians can be rescued, the North American West Regional Administration, the Nurgan Regional Administration and the East Asian Regional Administration can all be developed.

Perhaps, we can consider exiling all the princes and royal family members to Fangzhang Island!
Historically, it was a place of exile for colonial bandits.

The colonial bandits probably took advantage of the fact that the place was far away from the Eurasian continent and they couldn't return without a ship.

If the princes and royal family members could be exiled to Fangzhang Island, tens of thousands of miles away, they would never again be able to harm the Ming Dynasty.

Wanli frowned and pondered for a while, then pointed at the map and said, "Zhenzhi, is there a large plain south of Fangzhang Island that could be reclaimed into 200 to 300 million mu of land?"

what?
Two or three hundred million acres of land!
How could there be so many people to cultivate two or three hundred million mu of land now?

Li Zhizao was stunned for a moment before pointing to the map and saying, "Your Majesty, there is a large plain to the southeast of Fangzhang Island. I estimate that there are more than 200 to 300 million mu of land that can be reclaimed from this area."

Very good, this place is nice.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then pointed to the map and said, "Find a suitable place to build a port city along this line, and first have the border troops and navy soldiers build a simple port wharf.

When you come back next time, bring some craftsmen and materials over there to build the port and city.

Remember, the cities near the port docks must be able to garrison at least 100,000 troops, and we will have to exile many people there when the time comes."

How many people are you prepared to exile there?

Two or three hundred million mu of land would require at least two or three hundred million people to farm it!
After the Ming Dynasty exiled 20 to 30 million people, how many people were left?

Li Zhizao is so weird.

However, he still nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

In fact, Wanli did not want to exile 20 or 30 million people there to farm. He wanted to exile all the princes and royal family members there under the pretext of exchanging land.

As for how much can be grown on the land over there, he doesn't care.

The princes and royal family members might not have thought that from then on they would be exiled to the southernmost place tens of thousands of miles away!

However, in order to firmly control the islands in the southern part of the South China Sea, we still need ships.

Because sailboats rely on monsoons and ocean currents to travel such long distances, and large north-south monsoons only occur once a year.

In other words, if they didn't have steamships and relied solely on sailboats, they could only make one round trip from there in a year.

This definitely wouldn't work. If the colonial pirates' fleet arrived just as their naval fleet left, and they waited a year before arriving, they wouldn't know what kind of fight they would have had.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then said solemnly: "Liangfu, now that the axle problem has been solved, you should consider making the ship bigger.

A small boat of 400 tons is of little use. A ship of at least 800 tons is needed to follow the giant ship on a long voyage. Therefore, your first step is to develop an 800-ton ship.

This year you have to develop a ship weighing 800 tons, and next year you have to strive to develop a giant ship weighing over 2,000 tons. Is that a problem?"

This shouldn't be a big problem. There isn't much difference between an 800-ton ship and a 400-ton ship. As for giant ships weighing more than 2,000 tons, the worst that can happen is adding more steam engines and water wheels.

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "No problem."

no problem?
There seems to be a problem.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then suddenly realized, "Oh right, you don't have to make the boiler stand upright on the ship like a pillar.

In fact, it can also be placed horizontally on the boat. In fact, the boiler does not have to be round, square or rectangular is fine.

In short, a boiler burns steam, so it doesn't matter what it looks like. You can decide the appearance of the boiler based on the structure of the cabin.

Anyway, now we have rubber seals, so you can make the boiler any way you want without leaks."

Yes, a boiler burns steam, so it doesn’t matter what shape it is!
If the boiler is made lower, the center of gravity will be more stable, and the centipede boat with a narrow hull can be directly converted into a steamer.

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Excellency, I understand."

(End of this chapter)