After more than a month of preparation, by late November of the 22nd year of Chongzhen, everything was ready.
Yan Yingyuan had already led the 2nd Division to Chongming Island and was on standby. Moreover, the 2nd Division at this time was no longer a shelf division, but a full division that was combined with the Zhenbing.
In addition to the 4th, 5th, and 6th mixed brigades, the combined 2nd Division also has a medical rescue team, scout cavalry team, guard team, and staff directly under the division headquarters.
The division has a total of about 20,000 people.
In addition to the Zhou Yu, the navy also commandeered a large number of bird ships.
Among these bird ships, there are 10 2000-grade sailing ships, 20 1000-grade sailing ships, and 400-grade sailing ships reaching 200. These many warships are more than enough to carry the personnel and weapons of the 2nd Division.
After everything was ready, Chongzhen held a swearing-in ceremony on the river outside Yanziji.
Chongzhen hated formalism, but he still held a positive attitude toward some rituals, such as ancestor worship on the first day of the Lunar New Year and ancestor worship on the Qingming Festival. He believed that these rituals could enhance ethnic identity and were necessary to be preserved.
There is also the swearing-in ceremony before the army goes out for the expedition, which can also enhance ethnic identity and enhance national pride, so it needs to be carried out in a big way, and a victory ceremony will be held after the triumphant return from Japan.
After the news spread, no organization was needed, and the entire city of Nanjing was deserted in an instant.
Among the crowds who flocked to the riverside were more than 9,000 students who had just passed the Nanjing Imperial College Examination and hundreds of students who had entered Nanlin because of military merit or because of the recommendation of their fathers' military merit.
Among these students was Lee Yu-sung, a North Korean.
Li Yucheng was recommended to the South Prison because of his military merits.
On the day he received the notice, Li Yucheng couldn't believe it.
From that moment on, Li Yucheng secretly swore a poisonous oath to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty and never betray him!
"Come here, the navy fleet is here!" With waves of cheers, the crowd of spectators crowded on the riverside suddenly became commotion.
If it weren't for the Yingtian government officials who were present to maintain order, someone would have been pushed off the river bank.
Even so, the government officials who maintained order were extremely busy and sweating profusely.
Because Li Yucheng was standing on a higher ground and right next to the river, he had a very good view. As soon as he raised his eyes, he saw the fleet heading south along the Yangtze River.
But what I saw at the head was a huge battleship.
This battleship is covered with hard and thick iron armor.
The tall chimney in the middle is spewing black smoke.
Behind this huge warship were hundreds of warships of various sizes.
Looking from a distance, we can see that the densely packed warships almost cover the entire surface of the Yangtze River!
Almost at the same time as the crowd on the shore cheered, the leading armored ship sounded a long air whistle: Ang...
Hearing the loud and long-lasting sound of the air whistle, the people watching the ceremony on the shore cheered more and more, and the huge sound wave almost suppressed the loud sound of the air whistle.
Listening to the loud sound of the air whistle and the cheers of the mountains and the tsunami,
Li Yucheng was so excited that tears filled his eyes, and he couldn't help but kneel on the ground: Long live the Ming Dynasty!
…
Not only Li Yucheng had tears in his eyes, but also Vivianni, an Italian mathematician and physicist who came to Nanjing aboard the Portuguese merchant ship "Duke".
Viviani was "deceived" by a letter from Pascal.
By the way, the concept of air pressure was first proposed by Viviani, but the naming rights of the unit of pressure fell on Pascal. After the news came back to Europe, Viviani was very unconvinced.
So after receiving the overseas letter from Pascal, I decided to come to Daming to visit.
Viviani wanted to see how much the emperor of the Ming Empire valued science?
And the Ming Dynasty Royal University mentioned by Pascal, does it have that many students?
How is it possible that a university has 40,000 students? It is more than the population of Florence? How is it possible that there is such a large university in the world?
After nearly a year of traveling across the ocean, we finally arrived in Nanjing without any danger.
However, before they even got ashore, they saw the Ming Navy fleet coming down the river.
Since the ships of the naval fleet almost cut off the entire river, the "Duke" Viviani was aboard was pushed to the south bank of the Yangtze River and almost ran aground.
Viviani was completely shocked by the huge size of the Ming Navy fleet.
What particularly shocked Vivianni was the armored battleship at the head.
A warship covered entirely with steel plates can actually sail? And it has no sails?
How can a warship move without sails? Just rely on the steam engine Pascal mentioned in his letter?
"Oh my God, oh my God, this can't be true, this can't be true!"
Viviani closed his eyes hard and then opened them again. However, the expected "fantasy" did not disappear. The huge ironclad ship was still moving slowly and sounded the loud whistle again.
After a long time, Viviani finally recovered from the huge shock.
However, when Viviani set her sights on the shore, she was shocked again.
"Oh, my God!" Viviani exclaimed again, there are so many people?
Did the Ming Dynasty gather all the people of the entire empire to the riverside? To review this fleet?
The repeated shocks almost made Viviani numb. He didn't even know when the "Duke" merchant ship docked. It wasn't until the sailors reminded him to get off the ship that he finally realized what happened.
"Da Ming, here I come!" Viviani grabbed her hat and got up to get off the boat.
…
At this time, Chongzhen did not know that Pascal had recruited another mathematician and physicist for the Ming Dynasty, but was receiving a merchant from Guangdong in the official hall of the Zhou Yu.
The merchant's name is Chen Bishan, an iron merchant in Foshan.
Moreover, the Chen family has been engaged in iron smelting and selling iron in Foshan for generations, and it has been more than three generations now.
Chen Bishan was introduced by Kang Wanwan. The two had had contact before. Kang Wanwan felt that Chen Bishan was a good character and had a great business acumen, so he introduced him to Chongzhen.
After a short period of contact, Chongzhen also made a basic judgment on Chen Bishan.
Kang Wanwan's comments are reliable. This Chen Bishan is indeed smart and understands business. More importantly, the Chen family has been engaged in iron smelting and selling iron for generations and is familiar with this industry.
This is exactly the ideal candidate Chongzhen is looking for.
At that moment, Chongzhen stopped talking nonsense and went straight to the point: "Shopkeeper Chen, you must already know why I'm looking for you, right?"
Chen Bishan quickly said: "Kang Gong has informed the common people of everything."
"Okay, then I have something to say directly." Chongzhen nodded and said, "There are a total of 90,000 craftsmen, and there should be many master-level craftsmen among them. In addition to the thousands of craftsmen from your Chenji Iron Smelting Workshop,
Coupled with the unlimited and full support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, how much can you increase the production capacity of Hanyang Iron Smelting Workshop in one year?"
"Production capacity?" Chen Bishan was a little confused.
Chongzhen said: "That is, how much iron can be smelted in a year?"
Chen Bishan made an estimate and said decisively: "No less than 30 million catties!"
From here, it can be seen that Chen Bishan does have two skills, because when Wu Jinxi became the censor of iron smelting, he could only guarantee the production of 20 million kilograms of iron, or 10,000 tons, in the first year!
But Chen Bishan dared to boast that he produced 15,000 tons of iron!
Chongzhen then asked: "What about the second year? What about five years later?"
Chen Bishan said without hesitation: "The next year the iron output will be at least 40 million jins, and in five years at least 50 million jins! However, 50 million jins is the maximum. If we want more, we must increase the number of craftsmen."
"Don't worry." Chongzhen said, "No matter how many craftsmen you want, you can."
After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "I will not only give you enough craftsmen, but also steam engines. In short, you just have to work hard to increase the production capacity of Hanyang Iron Smelting Workshop. The more, the better."
!”
"The common people accept the decree." Chen Bishan quickly knelt down to accept the decree and prepared to take office.
"No need." Chongzhen waved his hand and continued, "Chen Bishan, you should also spend several hundred silver coins to ask the Ministry of Personnel to donate the title of Yuanwai Lang of the Ministry of Industry, and don't kneel down again when you see me."
After a pause, he added: "Our Ming Dynasty has abolished the kneeling ceremony."
"The common people accept the decree." After Chen Bishan finished speaking, he knelt on the deck out of habit.
Seeing this, Chongzhen could only shake his head and ordered Zheng Zhilong: "Mr. Min, please get a small boat to send Chen Yuanwai ashore."
"Accept the order." Zheng Zhilong immediately signaled Shi Tianfu to put down the boat and send Chen Bishan ashore, and Shi Tianfu led Chen Bishan out of the official hall of the Zhou Yu.
Chongzhen asked Zheng Zhilong again: "By the way, I have been busy in the Gewu Department these days and have not bothered to ask about the Japanese affairs. Have you arranged the conflict in Osaka?"
The purpose of arranging a reason for the use of force was not to give an explanation to the Japanese country, but just to give an explanation to the country. After all, the Ming Dynasty was a country that respected Confucianism. What it paid attention to was to produce famous teachers, promote righteous soldiers, and attack the unjust.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, everything has been arranged." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile, "If nothing unexpected happens, within this half month, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty living in Osaka will riot and resist the tyranny of the Tokugawa shogunate."
Chongzhen said in surprise: "Are there actually merchants from the Ming Dynasty in Osaka?"
"Of course there are, and there are a lot of them." Zheng Zhilong nodded and said, "After all, the Tokugawa shogunate's seclusion of the country was a recent thing. Less than ten years ago, Osaka Port was still open for free trade, so there were many Ming merchants stationed in Osaka.
Later, the Tokugawa shogunate closed the country and only allowed merchants from the Ming Dynasty to do business in Nagasaki, but they did not drive away the merchants living in Osaka."
"So that's what happened." Chongzhen said again, "By the way, many people won't die, right?"
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, I have already made arrangements." Zheng Zhilong said, "The merchants who participated in the uprising will immediately retreat to Guan Kong Island in Osaka Bay after robbing the Dojima rice market. Guan Kong Island is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
If something unexpected happens, the Tokugawa shogunate will definitely choose to induce surrender, so the rebellious merchants will definitely be able to hold on until the main force of the navy arrives."
