Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 291 The Rebels Flee, Guanzhong Falls (Part 2)

In early November, the sky over the capital region gradually darkened, and the howling winds grew increasingly cold.

This is the prelude to the freezing of the world. Once the heavy snow falls, the river will inevitably be frozen, and all ships will be unable to leave.

At this time, the thousands of giant ships at the Haihe Shipyard were finally completed, and the South Sea Fleet was ready to set sail.

Around 1:00 AM that day, Zhu Jue hurriedly finished processing the memorials and then boarded a small merchant ship, Zhiyuan, with Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and others, heading straight for the mouth of the Haihe River.

To prevent the river from freezing over suddenly, Zhu Youzhen ordered all the ships to be moved to the port and dock outside the mouth of the Haihe River.

This time, he's taking not just three thousand ships to the South Seas, but over five thousand!

This includes his original 300 small Weiyuan warships and 700 medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships.

This also includes the 500 small and 500 medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships built by the Beijing Shipyard, and the more than 600 large Zhiyuan merchant ships and more than 600 medium-sized Weiyuan warships built by the Haihe Shipyard.

It also includes 1,500 small Zhiyuan merchant ships that gathered from Liaodong.

Liaodong is already frozen over, and it will take more than five months for the ice to melt. During this time, the 1,500 small Zhiyuan merchant ships will be idle. It would be better to sail to Southeast Asia to transport supplies.

Looking at such a massive fleet, Zhu Jue couldn't help but feel a surge of emotions.

The fleet sent to the South Seas this time was much more magnificent than the fleet sent to the Americas last time. Not only were there more ships, but there were also more than a thousand large ocean-going ships of 3,200 tons each.

The Ming Dynasty has finally regained its former glory. Although the Ming Dynasty's naval strength is not yet as dominant as it was during the Hongwu and Yongle reigns, it has surpassed the current maritime hegemon, the Netherlands, in terms of the number of ships.

Once enough timber is brought back, the quality of Ming Dynasty ships will gradually surpass that of the Netherlands, and at that time, Ming Dynasty will be the undisputed maritime hegemon.

However, dominating the seas requires profit.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty did not continue to develop its naval strength after building an invincible fleet during the Hongwu and Yongle reigns was simply because it was unprofitable and a pure loss!
At that time, the Ming Dynasty had just experienced a major war that changed dynasties, and everything was in ruins. There were simply no goods to sell and make money. In addition, the Ming Dynasty was a country of etiquette and could not rob money like a colonial bandit. Therefore, even if the Ming Dynasty had an invincible fleet, it could not gain any benefits, while the cost of maintaining an invincible fleet was astonishing.

Naturally, no one wanted to do such a losing business. Therefore, after the Yongle reign, the Ming Dynasty abandoned its military capabilities and stopped building ocean-going warships.

Although the Ming Dynasty can currently reap substantial profits in the Americas, it cannot do so in Southeast Asia. They can only earn a little over ten million taels of silver a year from Southeast Asia. While this amount seems like a lot, it is actually a loss compared to their investment.

Right now, there are over five thousand ships here alone. Even if each ship is operated by only fifty soldiers, that's still over two hundred thousand, nearly three hundred thousand soldiers. Moreover, they haven't even reduced the number of soldiers operating the ships to that extent yet. This time, the number of soldiers operating the ships to the South Seas alone is more than five hundred thousand.

If we add the 100,000 soldiers of the Beijing Garrison stationed there, the 100,000 able-bodied men who were logging timber, and the naval officers and soldiers who were operating the small Zhiyuan merchant ships there, then they would have invested nearly 800,000 people in manpower alone!
The cost of these 800,000 soldiers' wages, salaries, and rations alone would exceed two million taels of silver per month.

In other words, their annual investment is at least 25 million taels of silver. If we only consider the income and expenditure in Southeast Asia, they lose more than 10 million taels of silver every year.

This can't go on; they can't afford to lose money.

The question is, how will they make that money back?
Nowadays, the population in Southeast Asia is not large, and the products produced are not many. Apart from timber and spices, it seems that the Ming Dynasty does not need to purchase anything from Southeast Asia.

Their more than 5,000 ships were not even fully loaded, because the Southeast Asian countries could not buy much at all.

They don't have any money, so how do they make money?

The answer is actually quite simple: make money by using labor.

The Southeast Asian countries didn't yet know how to use labor and resources to create profits. He taught them how to use labor and resources to create profits, and that's how they could make money.

As for how to utilize the labor and resources there to create profits, that depends on what the Ming Dynasty needs.

Whatever the Ming Dynasty needs, it will utilize the labor and resources of Southeast Asia to produce it.

Right now, what the Ming Dynasty needs are raw materials, including timber, refined copper ore, raw rubber, saltpeter, and of course, gold and silver. Currently, the main product of the Southeast Asian countries is timber, and most of the timber is harvested by laborers conscripted by the Ming Dynasty. This is clearly not going to work; the Ming Dynasty needs to make better use of the labor force there.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then asked, "Youzhen, what is the grain yield like in Southeast Asia?"

How do you say this?

Zhu Youzhen thought for a moment, then carefully said, "Your Majesty, the grain yield in the South Seas is much lower than that of the Ming Dynasty. They can barely produce two shi of grain per mu of land."

This is indeed very low; even before the Ming Dynasty began promoting fertilizer, grain production was not this low.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "How many seasons do they plant in a year?"

How many more seasons can they plant?
Zhu Youzhen shook his head slightly and sighed, "Your Majesty, it's too hot in the South Seas. The people there can't do any work. They only grow one crop of rice a year."

The problem of excessive heat can be solved with cooling fans or even water-cooled fans.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "What about the grain price over there?"

This needs to be converted.

Zhu Youzhen made an estimate before cautiously saying, "Your Majesty, the price of grain there should be similar to that in Southern Zhili, which is about one tael of silver for two shi of grain."

This has great potential.

They bought up all of Spain's colonies in Southeast Asia, and Luzon and its surrounding islands were essentially Ming territory. He could develop agriculture in Luzon, grow large quantities of grain, and then sell it at low prices to Southeast Asian countries, freeing up the productive forces of those countries to engage in other profit-generating activities.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then asked, "How much land is there in Luzon, and how much land is there in the colonies we bought from Spain?"

I can't really explain that.

Zhu Youzhen said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I haven't ordered anyone to measure it carefully yet. I can only give a rough estimate. The land in Luzon should be at least 100 million mu. If we include all the islands we bought, it should be more than 200 million mu."

Excellent. With 100 million mu planted with two seasons, and a little fertilizer applied, each mu can produce at least five shi of grain. 100 million mu would yield 500 million shi of grain, enough to feed the people of Southeast Asia.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "There seem to be a lot of minerals in Southeast Asia, right?"

How do you say this?

Zhu Youzhen said cautiously, "Your Majesty, there seem to be quite a few minerals in the South Seas, but it's too hot there. The mines are so hot that people can die from the heat. In addition, their smelting technology is not good. Therefore, they don't produce much minerals there."

These problems can all be solved. If the mine is too hot, install a water-cooled fan to blow air in and it won't be unbearably hot. If the smelting technology is not good, just send some experienced old craftsmen over.

The key is that all of this has to wait until Yang Sichang arrives. Zhu Youzhen has to manage both defense and transportation, so he simply doesn't have time to manage development.

When will Yang Sichang return? And what is the situation in the Northwest?
At this moment, Zhang Xianzhong was making intensive preparations to march back to Guanzhong.

The devastation caused by the Little Ice Age was no joke. Within a few days, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty was covered in a layer of white frost, gradually freezing over.

Zhang Xianzhong immediately launched an attack from Baode Prefecture, taking advantage of the frozen river to lead his army straight to Shaanxi. Soon, he captured Fugu, which was opposite Baode Prefecture.

He then swept through Mizhi, Fushi, Ganquan, Yijun and other places with unstoppable momentum, and soon entered Xi'an Prefecture and captured Tongguan City.

With the fall of Guanzhong and the imminent danger to Xi'an, urgent reports arrived in the capital like snowflakes.

(End of this chapter)