Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 160 Impregnable Fortress, No One Will Fall for It (Part 1)

The sudden uprising of rebels is truly bizarre.

It was only the second year of the Chongzhen reign, not the twelfth, yet Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong already had over 100,000 troops under their command!
There must be a reason why the rebels are expanding so rapidly.

Perhaps the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou are getting anxious.

This was because the number of troops gathered in Liaodong at this time was more than 200,000, and Huang Taiji clearly could not defeat them.

They need to find a way to transfer troops from Liaodong to suppress the rebels.

In fact, in terms of sheer numbers, the Jurchens did not outnumber the Ming Dynasty until the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign.

The Jurchens only had about 100,000 troops in all their battles, but in the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, Zuo Liangyu alone had 800,000 troops under his command!

In short, as long as the Ming soldiers were willing to fight the Jurchens to the death, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to be destroyed by the Jurchens, whose total population was less than a million.

The problem is that the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou are causing all sorts of trouble within the Ming Dynasty, making it impossible for Ming soldiers to fight the Jurchens. They are also being sent to their deaths without even knowing how they died!

For example, Xiong Tingbi was inexplicably impeached and dismissed from his post, and his head was sent to the nine border regions; Lu Xiangshan was inexplicably surrounded by the Jurchens in the heart of Beizhili and died fighting bravely; Sun Chuanting was inexplicably imprisoned and became deaf; Hong Chengchou led hundreds of thousands of elite border troops of the Ming Dynasty to fight a decisive battle against the Jurchens, but before the battle even started, he was inexplicably defeated!

With such traitors causing trouble, it would be strange if the Ming Dynasty didn't perish.

No matter how much trouble the traitor caused, Zhu Jue simply wouldn't fall for it.

The rebels are expanding rapidly, so let them expand. It's impossible for him to transfer troops from Liaodong to suppress them, let alone troops from the capital.

He can let the rebels in the Northwest do whatever they want, since they will never kill ordinary people. As for the princes, royal family members, and corrupt officials, they deserve to die!

He kept a close eye on the shipbuilding progress, waiting for news from Dongfan.

In late February, Wang Zheng had actually assembled the hulls of twenty ships, and the sealing material had been almost completely applied.

Unfortunately, the ice in the waterway hadn't melted yet, so the ship couldn't be launched into the water to test its sealing performance.

Around 9 a.m. that day, Zhu Jue, as usual, led Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, and others to the shipyard on horseback.

The crowd stood before the massive ship, watching the craftsman meticulously inspect the seams again and again, applying the hull material repeatedly, remaining silent for a long time.

The ice has been frozen for far too long. In previous years, the ice in the river would have already started to melt by this time, and the boats could be launched as soon as the ice in the waterway was cleared.

The outside world is still a vast expanse of white, with no sign of the ice and snow melting.

The devastation caused by this Little Ice Age is truly overwhelming.

Zhu Jue sighed softly, then asked, "Liangfu, can't we load anything else onto the ship now?"

The others really can't be faked.

Wang Zheng shook his head repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, the seal has not been tested properly. I really dare not install heavy things on it. Otherwise, if the hull leaks, it will not be able to float or be pulled up. We will have to dismantle it, which will be very troublesome."

If the hull is leaking, it is indeed quite troublesome. Either you have to use the buoyancy of the water to winch the leaking part of the hull onto the slope with a winch-like cable, or you have to use a frame to support it, close the water gate, and scoop out some of the water.

In those days, there were no lifting equipment. A large ship with a hull of 1,600 tons would weigh tens of thousands of kilograms just from the pure wood hull. If it weren't for the buoyancy of the water, it would be impossible to hoist it out of the water. If heavy things were loaded in, it would weigh more than 100,000 kilograms. With such a heavy load, even the buoyancy of the water would be useless, and the frame would collapse.

Zhu Jue shook his head helplessly and pondered, "Liangfu, it seems that the freezing period will be longer and longer. You need to make some arrangements and see what to do during the freezing period. It can easily last for four months, so we can't waste it."

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I was too busy last year and didn't think about it. I've been thinking about it these past few days."

Actually, we can bring in a large amount of timber before it freezes, process it into planks, and shape it as needed. We have several months, which is enough time for shaping. Once the ice melts, we can assemble them batch by batch and launch them into the water.

"I truly did not expect the ice to last so long last year; therefore, I only prepared enough timber for about twenty ships."

That's a good idea.

Zhu Jue nodded without hesitation and said, "Yes, we will start stockpiling timber after the lockdown is lifted this year, enough for at least a thousand ships, so that we won't have to worry about not having work when the ice freezes."

Ah!
Why do you always have thousands of ships?

Wang Zheng cautiously reminded him, "Your Majesty, the ships we build are at least a thousand liang (a unit of weight), which is more than 100,000 jin (a unit of weight) of timber. Moreover, the timber for shipbuilding cannot be too short; most of it needs to be more than ten zhang (a unit of length). I estimate that even the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty would have a hard time procuring the timber for these thousand ships." If the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty cannot procure it, then they should go to the South Seas to buy it.

If you can't find it in Southeast Asia, you can buy it from the Spanish; there's an abundance of timber in the Americas.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "Zhilong, there should be a lot of timber over ten feet long in the South Seas, right? Do you think it's possible to gather enough timber for a thousand large ships in a year?"

Do you know how much timber that is?

Zheng Zhilong thought for a moment before slowly nodding and saying, "There are indeed many timbers over ten feet long in the South Seas, but most of them are still trees, and we still have to let them cut them down. I estimate that as long as we contribute more money, we can still raise the funds."

money is not a problem.

The problem is, why hasn't news come from Dongfan yet?

It's already late February.

Zhu Jue was frowning in deep thought when suddenly the sound of horses' hooves came from outside.

A moment later, Wang Yingchao strode in, bowing respectfully with trembling hands, and said, "This servant greets Your Majesty."

This guy came back from Dongfan!
Zhu Jue asked with some concern, "Ying Chao, what's wrong? How's the deal between Dongfan and the Spanish going?"

Wang Yingchao, still shivering, said, "Your Majesty, I'm fine, just a little cold."

The first trade between Dongfan and the Spanish has been completed. The Spanish have also delivered gold, silver, copper, and rubber, which are currently stored in Keelung Port awaiting the lifting of the blockade here. Lü Zhi is leading people there to oversee the situation, while I have brought back ten ships to report the news.

"Your Majesty, the ice is extremely severe this time. The entire coastline of the inland sea is covered in floating ice, making it impossible for the fleet to dock. I had to detour to the Lingshanwei wharf south of Shandong and ride here on horseback."

No wonder there's been no news for so long; the entire Inner Sea coast has frozen over.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "How much gold, silver, copper, and rubber did the Spanish send this time?"

How do you say this?

Wang Yingchao thought for a moment, then cautiously said, "Your Majesty, their calculation method is different from ours, and their gold, silver, and copper are all melted down like bricks, so we can only roughly weigh them."

We estimated together that the gold and silver were probably close to thirty million taels, the copper was about five million catties, and as for rubber, they only managed to gather a shipload, roughly two hundred thousand catties, less than three hundred thousand catties.

The value of the gold and silver is almost thirty million taels!

This must be because the Spanish sent too much gold. Zheng Zhilong calculated the exchange rate with them to be one to ten, so two million taels of gold would be equivalent to twenty million taels of silver. In fact, according to the Ming Dynasty's exchange rate, it would be more than twenty-eight million taels!
This is a huge windfall.

Zhu Juena nodded excitedly, then asked, "What about the rubber? Did you bring back any samples?"

That stuff stinks.

Wang Yingchao said cautiously, "Your Majesty, this servant brought back a piece. Would you like to see it?"

Of course I'll watch it.

Zhu Jue said without hesitation, "Where is the thing? Bring it here for me to see."

Upon hearing this, Wang Yingchao immediately bowed and hurried away.

A little while later, he came in carrying a cloth bag, the kind that's tied to your back.

He carefully opened the package, and there was another layer of oil paper inside.

As soon as the oil paper was opened, a pungent stench immediately hit the area.

Wang Zheng and Zheng Zhilong frowned when they smelled it, but Zhu Jue snatched the raw rubber about a foot in size, grabbed it with both hands, and pulled it hard.

That's right, that's it!

(End of this chapter)