At the end of August in the 25th year of Chongzhen (1652), just as the 1st Cavalry Army led by Zhu Cijiong went on a killing spree in Kazakhstan, Bukhara, Khiva, Kokand and other areas in Central Asia, something also happened in the Ming Dynasty itself.
In an epoch-making event, Pascal, with the assistance of Vivianian, successfully launched and received electromagnetic waves.
Breakthroughs in radio wave technology made wireless instant messaging possible.
After more than half a year of trying, the first set of radio stations was finally built.
Of course, the idea of radio came from Chongzhen, and its source was the legendary academic treatise on alchemy.
The workmanship of the first set of radio stations was extremely rough, so in order to expand the transmission distance, they had to increase the power. In the end, their output power reached 1 kilowatt, but they successfully achieved wireless communication between the two Beijings.
When the first telegram sent from the Nanjing Headquarters was received by the Wuying Palace in Beijing and translated into text, all the civil servants and generals in Beijing went crazy. The legendary Shunfeng Er actually became a reality.
Compared with the civil servants and generals in Beijing, Chongzhen in Nanjing himself seemed more excited.
Because of the emergence of radio stations, military communication technology experienced an epoch-making breakthrough.
From then on, Chongzhen, who was based in Nanjing, was able to have a clear understanding of the battle conditions of Li Yan's army in Tibet and Zhu Cijiong's army in Central Asia.
There is also a navy, with dozens or hundreds of warships that can communicate with each other on the vast and boundless sea.
Chongzhen immediately ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to establish a radio workshop to specialize in the production of radio stations.
At the beginning of the 26th year of Chongzhen, the first batch of 50 high-power radio stations was successfully offline.
Chongzhen gave these radio stations to the navy without hesitation, and each of the 48 warships was equipped with a radio station.
After the radio station equipment was in place, Zheng Zhilong immediately took Zheng Hongkui and Shi Tianfu to the headquarters and once again requested Chongzhen for a naval battle.
In June last year, shortly after the Japanese were destroyed, Zheng Zhilong joined forces with Zheng Hongkui and Shi Tianfu to submit a request to conquer the Netherlands Navy, but all were rejected by Chongzhen.
Chongzhen didn't have much explanation, he just said that the time was not ripe.
The emergence of radio technology this time made Zheng Zhilong and others even more eager to fight.
Of course, it is undeniable that the reason why Zheng Zhilong is so eager to open up sea territories for the Ming Dynasty is because he is already 50 years old. According to the average life span of this era, Zheng Zhilong's life has entered a countdown. Maybe he will go to bed tonight and tomorrow
I can never wake up again.
Zheng Zhilong was eager to create a great situation for the Ming Dynasty before he died of old age.
So after meeting Chongzhen this time, Zheng Zhilong looked very excited: "Your Majesty, now our Ming Navy not only has 36 Zhou Yu-class (2500-ton) cruisers, but also 12 Zhenghe-class (5000-ton) cruisers. Each
Each battleship is equipped with as few as 88 and as many as 176 naval guns. If it is at close range, it is even equipped with Type 25 heavy machine guns. Now, each battleship is equipped with a radio station, and the Red Barbarian of the Netherlands is equipped with
The Ming Dynasty's merchant ships have been repeatedly plundered in the Southeast Asia, and even the Francois are very dissatisfied with the Dutch. It can be said that the right time, the right place, and the right people are all in place. How can we wait until we don't send troops now?"
[Note: Anti-bargaining skills, modern wooden-hulled ironclads can weigh tens of thousands of tons, and five thousand tons is nothing at all]
After Zheng Zhilong finished speaking, Zheng Hongkui and Shi Tianfu also echoed in unison: "Your Majesty, I request you to send troops immediately!"
Chongzhen looked at Zheng Zhilong with a somewhat complicated expression and did not express his position immediately. To be honest, Chongzhen actually wanted to wait a little longer, just to wait until Zheng Zhilong could not reach the sea before going to war.
As for the reason, of course it was because he was afraid that the Zheng family would become powerful.
Nowadays, the power of the Zheng family is really not ordinary.
Of the four fleets of the Navy, two fleet commanders are members of the Zheng family. The third fleet commander Shi Tianfu is also a general of the Zheng family. The Zheng family is also the second largest shareholder of the Shipping and Shipbuilding Bank. Zheng Zhilong has also been the dean of the Naval Academy.
All officers from the Naval Academy were students of Zheng Zhilong.
Today's Zheng family is truly the first family of the Ming Dynasty.
And from the current point of view, the Zheng family is still on the rise.
Because among the second-generation children of the Zheng family, Zheng Cai and Zheng Sen have already made their mark in the military, while Zheng Du and Zheng En have also performed very well in the Naval Academy, and their futures are promising.
Under this situation, even Chongzhen, a time traveler, also felt the discomfort of a thorn in his back.
If Zheng Zhilong really launched an army to rebel, failure would be certain, but it would also severely damage the vitality of the Ming Dynasty, especially the strength of the navy, which would definitely suffer heavy losses.
Therefore, Chongzhen wanted to wait a few years before sending out troops. It would be best to wait until Zheng Zhilong had a gout attack and was unable to go to sea before sending out troops.
Because in recent years, Chongzhen has repeatedly rewarded Zheng Zhilong with various seafood and beer. Zheng Zhilong's body is expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye. If nothing else, the purine in his body must have seriously exceeded the standard, so gout can occur at any time.
An attack of gout is possible. Once gout attacks, Zheng Zhilong will not be able to go out to sea.
However, what made Chongzhen a little annoyed was that Zheng Zhilong's gout never showed any signs of attack.
At this time, Chongzhen could not find a suitable reason to delay any longer, but even so, Chongzhen still wanted to delay it for a few days as much as possible, even if it was just for one day.
What if Zheng Zhilong’s gout attacks in time tonight?
At that moment, Chongzhen nodded and said: "Everything is ready now. All we need is the east wind. As long as the Dutch merchant ships make any changes in Nanyang, we will immediately send troops to completely destroy the Dutch military presence in Nanyang."
Zheng Zhilong said anxiously: "Your Majesty, the Dutch merchant ships have robbed so many of our merchant ships before, and the Franchi merchants have repeatedly reported to the Ming Dynasty the atrocities committed by the Dutch merchant ships in Southeast Asia. Isn't that enough?"
"Well, it's not appropriate to mention the past." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "There needs to be a ready excuse..."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! However, before the words could be finished, Xia Yunyi, who was in the middle of the matter, walked in quickly: "Your Majesty, we just received another urgent report from a Nanyang company, saying that their two
A merchant ship was robbed by pirates near the Penghu waters. Although the pirate ship did not fly a national flag, judging from the style of its guns, it was probably a warship of the Netherlands Navy."
"Your Majesty?" Zheng Zhilong and the other three turned to look at Chongzhen.
Now even Chongzhen could not find a reason to delay and could only agree to send troops.
At that moment, Chongzhen said in a deep voice: "Password, the holidays of all officers and non-commissioned officers of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fleets of the Navy are cancelled. The Staff Section immediately formulated a combat plan. The goal is to liberate the entire Southeast Asia and eradicate the Netherlands, France, and England.
All the strongholds of other countries in Southeast Asia, listen clearly, it’s all the strongholds!”
Jiang Tian was stunned when he heard this: "Including the stronghold of the Franco people?"
Hearing this, not only Jiang Tianyi, but also Zheng Zhilong and the other three people felt a little confused.
Because the relationship between Franco and Ming Dynasty is quite good, the business exchanges between the two parties are very close, and the cooperation is quite pleasant, logically there is no reason to use force against the Franco people.
"Yes, including the Francois." Chongzhen's tone sounded very certain, and he added, "Southeast Asia can only be the Southeast Asia of the Ming Dynasty. The European power must withdraw from Southeast Asia. There is not much to say about this."
After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "Of course, the initial target of the attack will still be the Dutch."
"I understand, I will lead people to formulate a plan." Jiang Tianyi immediately turned around and returned to the staff department.
…
Chongzhen was still somewhat reluctant to send troops at this time.
However, in Batavia in Southeast Asia, an expedition fleet from the Netherlands has arrived.
The Dutch fleet that arrived in Batavia following the newly appointed Governor of Batavia, Matt Kosol, had more than fifty large sailing warships, more than two hundred armed merchant ships, and more than 3,000 cannons.
, the total number of sailors and crew reached more than 20,000.
This can definitely be regarded as the largest expedition for the Republic of the Netherlands.
During this period, only the Netherlands, which had a reputation as a sea coachman, had the ability to dispatch such a large naval fleet to the Ming Dynasty in the east.
The arrival of this huge fleet made Anthony, the outgoing governor of Batavia, both excited and worried.
What excites Anthony is that in European history, there has never been a fleet of this scale. Even the Spanish Armada at its peak had only more than 150 sailing warships, while the Republic of the Netherlands had only more than 150 sailing warships.
This time, more than 250 warships were mobilized.
The reason why the Netherlands mobilized such a large fleet to conquer the Ming Dynasty was because two years ago, Dutch merchant ships discovered that the Ming Dynasty was actually equipped with large black ships.
This kind of big black ship not only has thick iron armor that can prevent naval gun fire, but also can sail without sails and only burns coal. This poses a serious threat to the maritime hegemony of the Netherlands.
Therefore, after receiving the report from the east, the shareholders of the East India Company immediately made a decision to mobilize all the financial resources they could mobilize and organize the largest fleet to expedition to the Ming Dynasty.
The ultimate intention of this expedition was to directly destroy the Ming Dynasty.
After destroying the Ming Dynasty, he obtained the manufacturing technology of the Great Black Ship.
However, what worries Anthony is that the number of Ming's big black ships has become larger.
"Matt Kosol, telling you something may make you unhappy, but I still think it is necessary to tell you the facts." Anthony said worriedly, "The Ming Navy has more big black ships than last year.
Yes, there were only more than thirty Daikoku ships last year, but this year the number has increased to nearly fifty. Moreover, the tonnage of the latest dozen Daikoku ships commissioned is larger than the previous three dozen or so, and they are equipped with more cannons.
It’s twice as much!”
"What does it matter?" Matt Kosol looked confident, "Our Dutch expedition fleet has more than 200 large sail warships, four times the number of the Ming Navy, and I firmly believe that the performance of our Dutch cannons is better
The guns are more superior than those of the Ming Navy, so the final victory must belong to the Netherlands Navy."
"No, no, Matt Kosol, you are wrong." Anthony shook his head repeatedly. "The performance of the Ming Navy's naval guns is obviously better than that of our Dutch Navy. Not only do their naval guns have a longer range than ours, but their cannonballs are also
The destructive power of the Dutch Navy is also greater than ours. What's more troublesome is that the Ming army's big black ships are also faster. If the two sides really go to war, our Dutch navy has little chance of winning, so I suggest canceling this expedition and fighting with the Ming Dynasty.
Negotiate peace.”
"Negotiation, are you kidding me? We spent so much money to convince thousands of shareholders of the company, but you told me to cancel this expedition? Then who will bear the cost of this expedition? He died on the road.
Who should pay for the pensions of the crew members and the compensation for the supplies on the merchant ships that were sunk in the storm?" Matt Kosol became a little impatient, "Sir Anthony, we'd better complete the handover as soon as possible.
