Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 270 Mysterious Combat Power Must Be Suspicious (Part 2)

The three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou were truly frantic, as their stronghold was about to be destroyed by the rebels.

They no longer cared about the spies hidden among the border troops. All the border soldiers they had bribed were transferred to Qinzhou and Liaozhou and thrown into the hands of Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong.

In an instant, the fighting strength of Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong's troops soared, and they were able to defend Qinzhou City and Liaozhou City.

Historically, they had done something similar before. At that time, many border soldiers suddenly defected to Li Zicheng's command, which greatly boosted the fighting strength of Li Zicheng's troops.

However, as soon as Li Zicheng captured the capital, most of the border troops who had joined his ranks suddenly surrendered to the Jurchens, and some even defected on the battlefield!
This is also why the fighting strength of Li Zicheng's Shun army was so unpredictable. Before Li Zicheng captured the capital, the Shun army seemed to be invincible, and the Ming army could not withstand it at all. After Li Zicheng captured the capital, the Shun army seemed to suddenly lose its fighting ability and returned to its ragtag state.

It is truly incomprehensible that at that time, the millions of Shun troops could not withstand the tens of thousands of Jurchens and Wu Sangui's tens of thousands of troops.

This was actually the result of manipulation behind the scenes by the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou.

They recruited the border troops who had been bribed to join Li Zicheng's forces, and the Shun army suddenly seemed to have a backbone, causing its fighting strength to soar. They also recruited the border troops who had been bribed to abandon Li Zicheng and join the Jurchens, and the Shun army suddenly seemed to have its spine removed, reverting to its original form and becoming incapable of fighting!

At this moment, their stronghold was about to be taken over by the Hanzhong army. Therefore, they had no choice but to expose the border troops who had been bribed in advance in order to withstand the Hanzhong army's fierce attack first.

Pan Yunteng quickly sent a secret report to the capital.

Zhu Jue received Pan Yunteng's secret report and immediately saw through the trickery involved.

These guys are so desperate they don't care about hiding the spies they've recruited among the border troops anymore.

He never expected that having Pan Yunteng impersonate a rebel would have such a miraculous effect.

This is a good thing; it forces the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou to expose their hidden spies.

There were spies among the border troops, bribed by the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou, and there must have been spies in other places as well.

This is obvious, because the three powerful clans of Puzhou were not only training civil officials, but also quite a few military generals.

Among those he knew was Wang Chonggu's grandson, Wang Zhiji, who was the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard when the case of the seditious book broke out during the Wanli era.

There's also Yang Bo's son, Yang Junqing. This guy was recommended to the top military scholar position through connections when Wang Chonggu served as Minister of War, and eventually rose to the position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Five Military Commissions.

In other words, the three powerful clans of Puzhou not only recruited a large number of spies within the border army, but also must have secretly cultivated many trusted confidants who controlled military power in other places.

This is something we must be wary of.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then gestured for Fang Zhenghua to come closer and whispered, "Tell Yun Teng to continue the fierce attack. Make sure it's a big show, as if you want to take Qinzhou City and Liaozhou City in one fell swoop, but don't actually launch a reckless attack."

He should preserve his strength as much as possible and avoid casualties. Once the Jurchen cavalry arrive to provide support, he should withdraw all his troops from Shanxi and return to the Huaiqing and Weihui prefectures to rest and recuperate.

The attack continued into the following spring, relentlessly pressing towards the strongholds of the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants in Puzhou. This forced the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants in Puzhou to do everything they could to resist. When the Jurchen cavalry came to their aid, he ordered his men to retreat back to the Central Plains.

That's fine with him. He'll spend time with the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou once a year, for a few years at a time.

Playing like this can really drive people crazy!
Upon hearing this, Fang Zhenghua's eyes widened, and he quickly bowed and took his leave.

After giving all the instructions, Zhu Jue led his group to the dock waterway next to where small Weiyuan warships were being assembled.

This small Weiyuan warship may sound small, but it is actually 1,600 liao. It's just that 800 liao warships are called warships, so he named the 1,600 liao warship as small.

The medium-sized Weiyuan warship costs 3,200 tons, while the large Weiyuan warship costs over 5,000 tons.

The largest ship that the Ming Dynasty built was only about 5,000 liao (a unit of weight), which seemed to be the limit for wooden ships.

Should he consider starting to develop ironclad warships now?

Wooden ships have their limits, but ironclad warships seem to have no limits. At least, with the current level of manufacturing, it is impossible to reach the limits of ironclad warships.

The problem is, ironclad warships aren't so easy to build. Even welding technology isn't available yet, so building ironclad warships would be incredibly complicated. After thinking it over carefully, he decided against it.

At this point, as long as there are enough wooden warships, they can dominate the seas.

The key now is not to develop ironclad warships, but to quickly increase the number of wooden warships to surpass the current maritime hegemon, the Netherlands.

The key to increasing the number of wooden warships lies in the supply of timber.

They don't have enough timber to build ships now, and if they want shipyards to have enough timber, they need enough merchant ships to go to the Americas or the South Pacific.

This seems to be a contradiction: should he build more wooden warships first, or more wooden merchant ships first?
As he was pondering this, everyone had unknowingly followed him into the cabin of a Weiyuan warship.

The cabin of this small Weiyuan warship was actually similar to that of the medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ship, with a lot of space inside. However, the medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ship was empty inside, while the small Weiyuan warship had cannons mounted on both sides of its cabin.

The small Weiyuan warship could only carry sixteen cannons; they simply changed the 200-pound cannons to 500-pound ones.

There was still plenty of space in the hold, and loading cargo didn't seem to be a problem.

Zhu Jue carefully examined the interior structure of the ship's hold, then asked, "Zhilong, it seems that Hongkui and the others also use small Weiyuan warships for cargo, right? It doesn't seem like there's much of a problem using these small Weiyuan warships as cargo ships, does it?"

That's certainly not a problem.

Zheng Zhilong nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, Hong Kui and his men often use small Weiyuan warships to load cargo. If the medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships can't hold it all, they will transfer some of the cargo to the small Weiyuan warships."

This small Weiyuan warship was perfectly capable of being used as a cargo ship. The Spanish and Dutch even referred to this type of warship, which was not equipped with many cannons, as an armed merchant ship, meaning a merchant ship equipped with cannons.

We used to equip the small Weiyuan warships with sixteen 200-pound cannons. With the cannon carriages and ammunition, the total weight was less than 5,000 pounds. The small Weiyuan warships could still carry about 200,000 pounds of cargo.

Even if we were equipped with 500-pound cannons, plus gun carriages and ammunition, the total weight would only be around 10,000 pounds. The small Weiyuan warship could still carry nearly 200,000 pounds of cargo, so the impact wouldn't be significant.

However, the small Weiyuan warship could not carry everything. After all, the ship was equipped with cannons, so it could not be stuffed with just any cargo. The small Weiyuan warship could only carry goods that could be neatly stacked, such as copper ingots, raw rubber, and wood.

If it's cargo like saltpeter or copper ore that can't be stacked, then it can't be loaded in; it would scatter everywhere and could very well block the gun emplacements.

Oh, so the small Weiyuan warship just can't carry ore-type cargo, right?

The same applies to the medium-sized Weiyuan warship.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue nodded slowly, then decisively said, "Liangfu, focus on building the medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ship, the large Zhiyuan merchant ship, the small Weiyuan warship, and the medium-sized Weiyuan warship. As for the Zhenyuan warship, don't build it yet."

At this time, the production of 500-jin cannons has not yet been increased, and there are not enough cannons to build the Zhenyuan warship. The key is that we still need a large number of ships to transport timber, and the small and medium-sized Weiyuan warships can be used to transport timber.

Anyway, we're not in a hurry to go to war with the European colonial powers. Building more Zhenyuan warships later won't be a big problem. The key now is that we need to build enough cargo ships to ensure the timber supply for both shipyards to operate at full capacity.

Yes, we are currently short of timber.

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

Zheng Zhilong even added, "Your Majesty, if we build more Zhiyuan warships, we can also wage war against the European colonial bandits."

This is because the European colonial bandits didn't have many warships; they mainly operated armed merchant ships equipped with a dozen or even twenty cannons.

Furthermore, they don't have many armed merchant ships. If we can build tens of thousands of Weiyuan warships, they can also dominate the seas and be invincible.

That makes some sense. Tens of thousands of Weiyuan warships meant more than 100,000 cannons. Who could withstand that power?
However, the Zhenyuan warship still had to be built, because the colonial powers would also develop towards warships and gunboats.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue slowly nodded and said, "Yes, building the Weiyuan warship first is definitely not a problem. However, we also need to build the Zhenyuan warship. We will build it once we have enough ships to transport timber."

(End of this chapter)