The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 630 Wu Guards the Four Directions
Wanli set another precedent.

He actually wants to relocate the entire border town overseas!

For over two hundred years during the Ming Dynasty, the nine border towns had never moved since their establishment.

However, today is different from the past.

Now, the only remaining threat from the northern barbarians is the Oirat Mongols, and even then, the Oirat Mongols are not as strong as a single border town of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty originally established nine border towns to defend against invasions from the northern barbarians. Now, the northern barbarians can be defended by just one border town. It would be a waste to leave all nine border towns in the north.

More importantly, the Ming Dynasty needs to guard all four directions. The Ming Dynasty is not only bordering the northern frontier, but also the eastern, western, and even southern frontiers.

The border troops were originally there to guard the frontier. Now that the northern frontier no longer needs so many troops, it is natural to relocate some border towns to the other three directions.

Once this method of relocating people to border towns was devised, the problem of a lack of people for overseas development seemed to be solved as well.

He could have had the border troops take the lead, grow enough grain first, and then relocate the garrison soldiers or farmers.

However, there is another problem: he doesn't have enough ships.

Centipede-shaped ships are definitely not suitable for overseas migrations that often involve distances of tens of thousands of miles.

Fujian-style warships depended on wind direction and ocean currents. Once they crossed a monsoon region, a trip would take at least several months, which was definitely not feasible.

People on a ship also need to eat, drink, and relieve themselves, especially at sea, where they need enough fresh water.

If the voyage is often several months long, then who knows how much food and fresh water they would need to carry? A centipede-shaped ship can't carry many people.

As for livestock, needless to say, even if there were mountains of fodder, it wouldn't be enough to feed millions of cattle, sheep, and horses for several months.

Therefore, too much time cannot be spent on the migration.

He also had to build enough ships to relocate the border troops, their families, and even their cattle, sheep, and horses.

Just then, Wang Zheng and Peng Zungu, who were in charge of shipbuilding, were also on the flagship.

He stared at the map carefully again, then announced loudly, "Send Liangfu and Danyang."

Soon, Wang Zheng and Peng Zungu arrived quickly.

After the emperor and his minister exchanged greetings, Wanli solemnly asked, "Danyang, if the Weiyuan warship were not equipped with cannons and armor, wouldn't it be much faster to manufacture it?"

what?
If it's not equipped with cannons and armor, can it still be called a Weiyuan warship?
Upon hearing this, Peng Zungu paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, if the Weiyuan warship were not equipped with cannons and armor, it could save about a month of time."

A month doesn't seem to be enough; we need to speed things up.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "Liangfu, in order to ensure that the 500-jin cannon does not damage the deck, has the deck been reinforced a lot?"

Without hesitation, Wang Zheng replied, "Yes, a typical deck is four inches thick enough. To prevent cannons from damaging the deck, the deck under the cannons is eight inches thick, and there are many steel beams supporting it underneath."

Wanli nodded slightly and then asked, "Danyang, if we remove all these reinforcements and supports, can we shorten the construction time by another month?"

What is Your Majesty going to do?
Upon hearing this, Peng Zungu pondered and said, "Your Majesty, the construction time is actually closely related to the finalization of the ship's materials."

If we use the old method, relying on wind and sun to shape it, then five months would be the shortest time to build such a giant ship; it cannot be shortened any further.

I have discussed this with Liangfu. If we use steam heating to dry and set the shape, the time should be shortened considerably.

However, this type of oven requires steam pipes to be installed both top and bottom, and it must be very, very large.

These are just minor obstacles.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Wanli replied without hesitation, "Then build an oven. You'd better shorten the processing time of the Weiyuan warship to four months. I'm talking about the kind without cannons and armor."

We now have about two hundred Weiyuan warships, which should be enough firepower to hold our current territory. What we lack right now are ships to transport our troops, supplies, and provisions.

The Weiyuan warship, after deducting the weight of its cannons and armor, could easily carry three thousand shi of grain or two or three thousand men and horses, making it perfect for transporting troops, provisions, and supplies.

"After you return, equip all two hundred Weiyuan warships with cannons, and then focus all your efforts on building Weiyuan warships without armor or cannons."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng and Peng Zungu immediately bowed and said, "Your humble servants obey the decree."

Wanli nodded slightly and then waved his hand.

Wang Zheng and Peng Zungu quickly bowed and took their leave.

Wanli continued to stare at the map in deep thought. The border towns now had a considerable population. Each border town had at least 120,000 to 130,000 households, including regular soldiers and surplus laborers, and some even had 140,000 to 150,000 households.

Even if we calculate based on a family of four, that's around 500,000. What's more, most border soldiers nowadays have more than four children in their families.

If what Du Wenhuan said is true, each household of border soldiers now has at least eight or nine people, including men, women, children and the elderly.

In other words, relocating a border town would be equivalent to relocating millions of people, plus cattle, sheep and horses, which would probably be more than a million.

With so many people, so many cattle, sheep and horses, how many ships would be needed for the migration?

If long-distance migration is carried out by flying shuttles, with the addition of food and fresh water, one flying shuttle can carry a maximum of fifty people, and a thousand flying shuttles can only carry fifty thousand people.

In other words, if we only used shuttle boats for migration, it would take 20,000 shuttle boats to relocate a million people to their destination in one go!
This doesn't even include cattle, sheep, and horses.

If cattle, sheep, and horses are included, even 40,000 shuttle boats probably wouldn't be enough to relocate a border town in one go.

They don't have that many flying shuttles now; even including the centipede ships, they don't have 40,000.

The problem is that migration is inevitable and must be done as soon as possible; the faster the migration, the faster the development of overseas territories.

It looks like the only option is to relocate in batches.

He thought about it carefully, then said loudly, "Pass it on to Zhenzhi."

Soon, Li Zhizao arrived quickly.

After the emperor and his minister exchanged greetings, Wanli pointed to the map and said, "Zhenzhi, calculate how many miles it is by water from the Qiantao Plain to Luzon Island."

That's easy to calculate.

Li Zhizao raised his hand and slid it across the map, then estimated: "Your Majesty, from the Qiantao Plain, along the main Yellow River, then the Grand Canal, and then out to sea from the Yangtze River to Luzon, it should be more than seven thousand li."

The centipede boat can travel about 500 li a day, but it can travel at least 1,000 li downstream in a day, and about 2,000 li of this journey is downstream.

In other words, it would only take about twelve days to transport the border troops and their families from Yansui Town using centipede boats.

Moreover, there are many supply points along the way, so there is no need to carry too much food and fresh water.

Based on this calculation, that centipede boat could easily carry hundreds of men, women, and children.

If two thousand shuttle boats and eight thousand centipede boats are deployed to transport the goods in batches, it will take at most a little over a month to two months to relocate all the soldiers, their families, cattle, sheep and horses of the Yansui border troops to Luzon.

After pondering for a while, Wanli pointed to the map and asked, "Approximately how many li is it by water from Liaodong Town to the Sanjiang Plain?"

Well, that's hard to say, because Liaodong Town has more than one river system, and in western Liaoning, the only way to get there is by sea.

Upon hearing this, Li Zhizao pointed to the map cautiously and asked, "Your Majesty, if I may be so bold, should we start the calculation from western Liaoning or from the Liao River section?"

This naturally starts from the furthest point.

Emperor Wanli pondered for a moment and said, "Why don't you start counting from western Liaoning?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zhizao raised his hand and slid it across the map for a while before estimating, "Your Majesty, it should be a little over three thousand li but less than four thousand li."

Then let's calculate it as four thousand li.

He had traveled the section from Beiwangcheng to the Sanjiang Plain, and the centipede boat took about a day and a half to travel downstream.

However, the Liao River is upstream, and he had traveled that section before. It takes about five days to row in a centipede boat.

If we also include the inland sea and the Songliao Grand Canal, it would take about ten days.

In other words, the migration from Liaodong Town to Nurgan Commandery took only a few days longer than the migration from Yansui Town to Luzon.

There are also Xidusi in North America and Fangzhang Island, neither of which are places that the centipede ship can migrate to.

It seems we can only develop Luzon and the Sanjiang Plain first. As for Xidusi and Fangzhang Island in North America, we'll have to wait until we have enough ships.

After careful consideration, Wanli decisively said, "Uncle, order someone to send an urgent decree to summon the generals of the eight garrisons of Liaodong, Jizhou, Xuanfu, Datong, Pianguan, Yansui, Guyuan, and Ningxia to gather in Nanjing immediately."

Then they boarded a fast naval vessel together and traveled to Luzon for an audience.

(End of this chapter)