Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 267 The Traitor's Panic During the Siege and Conquest (Part 2)
Zhu Jue still refused to send troops to intercept Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong.

What will the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou do in their panic?

The next morning around 7 a.m., Zhu Jue walked into the main hall of Yu Xi Palace and frowned again.

This is because today's memorials are thicker than usual.

These guys are really frantic.

Would it be useful to submit a petition?
If submitting a memorial to the emperor were effective, he would have already sent troops!
He sat down, glanced at the memorial, and couldn't help but let out a cold snort.

This time, the memorials were submitted by the newly appointed scholars from the Fushe Society.

The three powerful clans of Puzhou somehow managed to fool these hotheads, who seemed even more anxious than the three clans themselves.

With constant natural disasters and rampant rebellion, where could ordinary people in Shanxi find a way to survive?
His Majesty has issued an edict to conscript able-bodied men from all over the country to serve as garrison troops, so why not send them to suppress the rebels?
It would be too cold-blooded and heartless to not save any princes or members of the royal family, etc.

These guys were fooled; it seemed like they'd start cursing if he didn't send troops to rescue them.

You know nothing!
A bunch of hopeless trash!

After reading it, Zhu Jue sneered and threw the memorial directly in front of Liu Ruoyu, not bothering to pay it any attention.

He had already hinted to the three powerful clans of Puzhou to seek help from the Jurchens. Even if those guys didn't seek help from the Jurchens, it wouldn't be his loss, so he couldn't care less.

He's still busy right now.

Around 9:00 AM, after reviewing the memorials, he arrived at the Beijing Shipyard with Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and others.

Meanwhile, the first batch of medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships were being completed one after another, and Zheng Zhihu brought newly recruited naval officers and soldiers to take them over.

Zheng Zhilong did have some method; he didn't treat the small and medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships as a haphazard affair.

He entrusted the small Zhiyuan merchant ships to Zheng Zhibao, the medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships to Zheng Zhihu, and the American fleet to Zheng Hongkui. The three of them performed their duties in an orderly and efficient manner.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Jue nodded slightly before asking, "Zhilong, how many naval soldiers do you have under your command now?"

This seems like a lot, but it's actually not enough.

Zheng Zhilong thought carefully for a moment before cautiously saying, "Your Majesty, the total number of men under my command, including the able-bodied men stationed along the coast and those stationed in the inland areas, is only a little over 800,000 but less than 900,000."

We now have over two thousand small Zhiyuan merchant ships, and the number of medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships will soon reach over three thousand.

If we calculate that each small Zhiyuan merchant ship is equipped with fifty naval officers and soldiers, and each medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ship is equipped with one hundred and fifty naval officers and soldiers, then after the completion of this batch of Zhiyuan merchant ships, the number of naval officers and soldiers sent to operate and guard the ships would be as many as 500,000.

The construction of small and medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships continues unabated. Another batch will be produced this year, meaning we'll need over 200,000 naval personnel. At this rate, by next year, our naval forces will be insufficient again.

Alas, there never seems to be enough sailors to man the ship.

The garrison has almost completely recruited able-bodied men. What should they do next?

Will future generations have any solutions to this situation?
Believe it or not, there really is such a thing. If you can't increase revenue, then cut costs.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, and then decisively said, "It is impossible for us to recruit a large number of people in the short term. Under such circumstances, we can only try to save manpower as much as possible."

For example, apart from the small Zhiyuan merchant ships sent to Liaodong to help Boya, the others basically travel on inland waterways, which are not very dangerous. We can completely reduce the number of naval officers and soldiers we need.

Furthermore, after Liaodong was recovered, there would be no danger in the waterways there. It would be a waste to equip each small Zhiyuan merchant ship with fifty naval officers and soldiers. This would mean that most of the naval officers and soldiers would be sitting on the ship with nothing to do, which would not be conducive to improving the naval combat power.

Therefore, we should gradually reduce the number of naval personnel on small Zhiyuan merchant ships from fifty to ten. In this way, even if there are tens of thousands of small Zhiyuan merchant ships, only one hundred thousand naval personnel will be needed to operate them.

The same applies to medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships. The reason we used to equip each medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ship with 150 naval officers and soldiers was mainly because we didn't have enough medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships.

Back then, we only sent out a few dozen medium-sized merchant ships at most per batch. Under those circumstances, a fleet of ships had less than 10,000 men. Now it's different. The number of our medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships has gradually increased. For example, Hong Kui's ocean-going fleet is already equipped with over a thousand medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships, and we will continue to send more to him.

Moreover, medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships are only likely to encounter danger on long-distance ocean routes; other types of ships will not encounter any danger at all.

In this case, we can also gradually reduce the number of naval officers and soldiers on the medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships, from 150 per ship to 50 per ship.

My intention is to reduce them gradually, not all at once. You will have to adjust them according to the troop deployment situation.

For example, Hong Kui's fleet currently consists of more than 1,000 medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships, each equipped with 150 naval officers and soldiers, which means there are more than 150,000 naval officers and soldiers.

When he returns next time, we will increase the number of medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships under his command to 2,500. Even if each ship is equipped with 100 naval officers and soldiers, that will still be 250,000 naval officers and soldiers.

This number is more than enough. No other country in the world can send 250,000 naval soldiers at once like the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, they have warships escorting them, and there are many soldiers from the Beijing Garrison on board.

In other words, you can gradually reduce the number of naval officers and soldiers on each medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ship according to the total number of naval officers and soldiers in Hongkui's ocean-going fleet.

If he had 5,000 medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships under his command, he could reduce the number of naval officers and soldiers on each ship to 50, which would still amount to 250,000, the total number wouldn't be reduced at all.

Oh, you can also gradually reduce it.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Zhilong nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise, I understand."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "Liangfu, how many batches of small and medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships can be built here this year?"

Uh, how many more batches?
Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng cautiously replied, "Your Majesty, almost all the timber processed here in winter has been transported to the Haihe Shipyard. If we want to build small and medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships, we still need to saw timber on the spot."

And by now, our timber reserves are almost depleted, so we can only continue sawing while waiting for timber to be delivered from other places.

This will significantly impact the shipbuilding schedule. I estimate that we'll be lucky to finish the next batch of small and medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships by October; it seems unlikely we'll be able to build a second batch this year.”

Unfortunately, their production capacity expanded too quickly, and there were indeed some problems with the timber supply.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "Well, let's leave it at that for this year. We won't lack timber next year. You'd better plan it out well. Both shipyards should be operating at full capacity to build as many ships as possible."

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

For now, we can only leave the shipbuilding issue as it is.

Now he can focus all his efforts on dealing with the rebels and the Jurchens.

So, did the three powerful clans of Puzhou actually send people to ask the Jurchens for help as he suggested?

The three powerful clans of Puzhou were nearly frantic with worry, and naturally they sent people to the Jurchens for help.

However, Huang Taiji did not immediately send troops.

He wasn't under the command of the three powerful clans of Puzhou, so naturally he had no need to obey their orders.

Besides, Sun Chuanting is still recovering lost territory in Liaodong. He wouldn't send troops to help the three powerful clans of Puzhou if there weren't enough benefits.

The reason why Huang Taiji did not immediately send troops was that he was negotiating with the three powerful clans and eight royal families in Puzhou for grain and pig iron. Without sufficient grain and pig iron as payment, he would not send troops to rescue them!

While they were haggling, the Hanzhong army had already invaded Fenzhou and Liaozhou.

This really drove the three powerful clans of Puzhou crazy.

The Jurchen reinforcements won't arrive anytime soon, so what can they do?

(End of this chapter)