Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 210 The Arrogant Rebel King Suffers the Retribution (Part 2)

When Chongwang's urgent memorial arrived in Beijing, Zhang Xianzhong had already besieged Zhengzhou.

Gao Yingxiang had already captured Lu Province and led his troops to besiege Huaiqing Prefecture City, Hanoi.

This was a terrible blow to the vassal kings and royal families of the Central Plains.

Both rebel kings had hundreds of thousands of troops, and they surged in from all directions. The rebels had nowhere to run and could only hide in the city, trembling with fear.

Furthermore, the cities where their vassal states were located were all garrisoned by troops sent by Hong Chengchou, and the outcome was predictable.

The troops sent by Hong Chengchou did not resist at all and surrendered immediately.

The Zhou and Zheng vassals were captured by Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong!

Some might say, "Is this the behavior of the Ming soldiers right now?"
Isn't that just nonsense?

This is not nonsense.

Many historical records show that the feudal lords were rich but cruel, and the soldiers guarding the city were starving. The generals were extremely anxious and kept begging the feudal lords for money and food so that the soldiers could have a full meal and have the strength to defend the city, but the feudal lords refused to give them a single penny.

Who would risk their lives to defend the city for such vassal kings?

Of course, these historical records may not be true.

This is because the History of Ming was compiled by Feng Quan and Hong Chengchou, and any history of Ming related to Hong Chengchou is somewhat absurd and bizarre.

Whether all the princes of the Ming Dynasty were so greedy for money and disregarded their lives, and why the Ming soldiers did not resist, remains to be verified.

Let's leave those aside for now.

After Bi Maokang mentioned gunpowder, Zhu Jue began to pay attention to overseas trade again.

The sulfur mine is relatively easy to deal with; as long as an imperial decree is issued to Xiong Wencan, that guy will naturally organize a large number of people to mine it in Dongfan.

Moreover, Dongfan is not far from the capital. The sea route of several thousand miles can be covered by a merchant ship in just a few days, so transportation is not a problem.

The problem is saltpeter mines. At this time, the Ming Dynasty really doesn't have any saltpeter mines. If they want enough saltpeter to make gunpowder and even fertilizer, they can only import it from overseas.

This doesn't mean that there were no saltpeter mines in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. The key point is that with the current exploration conditions, there are hardly any saltpeter mines to be found within the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Spain's colonies in South America were a different story. They were blessed with abundant resources, including copper mines, nitrate mines, and even gold and silver mines. There was no need for exploration; they could simply dig a few times and find the treasures, and some were even found on the ground.

It seems a bit of a waste for such rich mineral resources to fall into the hands of Spain.

This was because the Spanish colonial empire at that time was not ambitious and only indulged in pleasure. It had no intention of developing industry and was even too lazy to develop weapons and equipment.

Otherwise, with such rich mineral resources and astonishing wealth in its colonies, Spain would not still be using old-fashioned firearms and cannons from decades ago.

Perhaps simply sending merchant ships to haul them away isn't enough; they also need to consider "cooperative development" with Spain!
However, this "cooperative development" requires military support; simply crying and shouting about wanting to "cooperate" with others is useless.

These days, only if you have enough power will people consider cooperating with you; otherwise, they'll just treat you as a colony to be exploited.

To put it bluntly, European colonial powers only recognized might; if they wanted to force others to "cooperate in development," their might had to be greater than the other side's.

In overseas trade, the so-called "fist" refers to warships and battleships.

At present, the Ming Dynasty only has gunboats, not warships, and the number of gunboats is not large. It seems that it is not enough to force others to "cooperate in development".

Therefore, Zhu Jue started going to the shipyard again.

The shipyard was truly a magnificent sight at that moment. Wang Zheng had led tens of thousands of craftsmen to saw timber for more than three months, and they were using sawing machines to process it. One can imagine how much timber they had produced.

The planks, timber, bow and stern parts were piled up like mountains, and not just one or two mountains. Behind each dock and waterway were several such timber mountains, neatly arranged, each several stories high.

And those shaped ship plates, like the leaf springs of a truck, almost covered the open space near the dock waterway, layer upon layer, everywhere.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Jue couldn't help but exclaim, "Liangfu, your efficiency is truly remarkable! With so much processed timber, you could probably build a thousand ships!"

That's not the case.

Wang Zheng couldn't help but say with a hint of pride, "Your Majesty, this machine tool is so fast at processing timber. We have already finished preparing the materials for the first batch of four hundred medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships, eighty small Weiyuan warships, and five hundred small Zhiyuan merchant ships."

"Your Majesty has already ordered them to begin the second batch of supplies. It's certainly not a problem for us to equip ourselves with two thousand medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships and two hundred small Weiyuan warships this year. The small Zhiyuan merchant ships are even faster to build, and Your Majesty also plans to equip them with two thousand this year." This efficiency is indeed quite high. Although they only have the small Weiyuan warships that can truly be called warships, two hundred ships are already enough to dominate the Far East, and negotiating "cooperative development" with the Spanish shouldn't be a problem.

Of course, relying solely on this number of warships is far from enough to dominate the seas.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then asked, "What about the other new types of ships? How are their developments going?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng said with great excitement, "Your Majesty, I have ordered a batch of materials to be processed for the large Zhiyuan merchant ship, the medium-sized Weiyuan warship, and the small Zhenyuan warship. We can start trial production as soon as the ice in the waterway melts."

Actually, we don't need to wait for the ice in the waterway to start melting.

Zhu Jue glanced at the glass curtain wall between the dock and the waterway, then asked, "Liangfu, are all the waterway gates closed?"

of course.

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "The waterway gates were all closed before the ice formed."

I've already said all this, and you still haven't thought of it?

It seems you've been so focused on building ships that you haven't paid any attention to what's happening in the northern outer city.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then explained in detail: "Liangfu, we can actually dig a canal in this dock to connect the waterways. It doesn't need to be too wide, half a zhang wide is enough."

Because the dock is heated, the water in the canals won't freeze. We can have the soldiers of the Beijing garrison carry water outside to make ice, and the water in the canals will probably be drained in a few days.

Then we'll bury a few gunpowder barrels under the waterway to blast down and shatter the ice above it, and have the Beijing garrison soldiers take it to the ice cellar for storage. Then the waterway will dry up and there will be nothing left.

All you need to do is build some separate supports and place them underneath, then you can start assembling the ship. When the Tonghui River is reopened, you can let the water in again, make the completed ship float, and pull out all the separate supports underneath.

This way, you won't have to wait for the lockdown to be lifted to build ships, although the shipbuilders will be a bit cold.

That little bit of cold is nothing; you won't feel cold when you're working.

That's a great idea!
Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing stared at the ground beside the waterway with shining eyes, wishing he could order someone to dig a pit like a well to test it out.

At this moment, Fang Zhenghua suddenly strode in, holding a memorial, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, the Governor of Henan, Liu Zongzhou, has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

Hmph, this guy still has the nerve to complain.

I ordered you to find a way to provide relief to the disaster victims. Have you provided any relief?

You're all talk and no action, all you do is shout about serving the country and the people. But if you were to actually do something, you wouldn't be able to accomplish anything in years.

Zhu Jue took the memorial, glanced at it, and couldn't help but sneer.

Liu Zongzhou was still reporting on the affairs of the Central Plains princes. Both the Zhou and Zheng princes had been captured by Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, and those two were now marching westward, heading towards Henan Prefecture and Nanyang Prefecture.

Prince Fu is in Luoyang, and officials from the Henan Provincial Administration Commission, the Henan Provincial Judicial Commission, and the Henan Military Command have all moved to Luoyang. If Luoyang falls, the consequences will be unimaginable.

This guy knew to run away; he hid in Luoyang a long time ago.

Now that Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong's forces are pointing directly at Luoyang and Nanyang, this guy has nowhere to run. The governor of Henan can't just run out of Henan, can he?

That's why this guy sent an urgent message for help from 800 li away.

I'll save you my ass!

After reading the memorial, Zhu Jue handed it directly to Liu Ruoyu and said coldly, "Reply: exactly how many rebels have attacked Henan Prefecture and Luoyang Prefecture? Report again!"

You're implying that I'm refusing to help someone in distress!

If Luoyang falls, it won't just be Prince Fu who suffers; countless local officials in Henan will be arrested by the rebels.

Liu Ruoyu took the memorial and was stunned for a moment.

However, he quickly realized what was happening and began writing furiously.

That's his good point; he doesn't ask any questions, he just writes the approvals.

(End of this chapter)