Chapter 628: Look at the results without looking at the process
Maybe something will happen!
Do some people really think that all history written by foreigners must be true? They can't make lies or use the Spring and Autumn style of writing, right?
No way, no way, there can’t really be such a fool, right?
In history, you must learn to see the essence through phenomena!
As for the Ming-ying naval battle in Guangzhou, from a historical perspective, both sides held different opinions, but without exception, they were all trying to put money in their own faces.
They all said they won!
Even the transparent Portuguese people stood up and said that it was through their mediation that the Ming Dynasty made peace with Britain.
However, it doesn't actually matter what both sides say.
Depends on the final result!
Everything could be fake!
But the war compensation of 2,800 taels of silver from Britain to the Ming Dynasty cannot be faked.
The British took the initiative to go to the Portuguese and asked the Portuguese to mediate, rather than the Ming Dynasty taking the initiative to go to the Portuguese for mediation. This cannot be false.
If they hadn't lost, how could the British have surrendered, paid money, and then left in despair?
So, it's pretty obvious, isn't it?
This conflict, which the British considered not a war, cost them 2,800 taels of silver as compensation.
In addition, Zhu Hongyu once gave the Portuguese in Macau a small surprise and won Macau under the banner of Britain.
Zhu Hongyu really couldn't figure out why the British would send envoys to the Ming Dynasty!
It will probably be awkward when the two parties meet, right?
Zhu Hongyu thought so.
However, in retrospect, it did not prevent him from ordering the British and Ottomans to enter Beijing.
As for their purpose of coming to Ming Dynasty, it would not be too late to wait until they arrive in Ming Dynasty itself.
…
After the great court meeting, Zhu Hongyu took his guards and rode back to the camp.
He summoned Shi Yongxin alone in his study.
"Give me a seat and serve tea!"
Zhu Hongyu sat down behind the table and ordered tea to be served.
The eunuchs and maids brought tea and snacks, and Zhu Hongyu motioned to Shi Yongxin to drink tea.
Shi Yongxin took the tea cup and drank it in one gulp.
Then he spoke.
"The Governor's Office of the Fifth Army has issued a report on the development of the Ming Dynasty's army, and I would like your Majesty to approve it."
While talking, a thick report written by Shi Yong was presented to Zhu Hongyu.
Zhu Hongyu took the report and read it casually.
Although since the beginning of this year, the Ming army has not broken out in large-scale foreign wars.
Nowadays, the most important thing that the Ming army does most is to suppress bandits and train troops.
However, the Ming army's pace of military expansion never stopped.
After taking over the entire southeast, Ming's army expansion speed was as fast as turning on an accelerator.
Whether it is infantry, cavalry, artillery, or navy, the size of the army is constantly expanding.
According to the report now in Zhu Hongyu's hands.
It had only been half a year since the Ming Dynasty regained Nanjing, but the size of the Liberation Army had doubled, officially breaking through the 100,000 mark and reaching an astonishing 150,000 people.
Among them, the main force of infantry is 100,000 people!
Relying on the victory of the decisive battle in Jiangnan to capture the Qing army's horses, the size of the cavalry was also expanded to 20,000.
The number of soldiers in the Navy has also reached 30,000!
These are just the Liberation Army!
In addition to the 150,000 Liberation Army, there were about 50,000 Guiyi Army under the Ming Dynasty.
These 50,000 soldiers returned to the rebel army, which was the number left after the Ming Dynasty streamlined its layoffs.
After the Ming Dynasty replenished their military pay and improved their military equipment, I dare not say that if there are more soldiers, their combat effectiveness will not be worse than the same number of Eight Banners soldiers or the Guan Ning Army.
Maybe even stronger!
To put it bluntly, these nearly 200,000 elite soldiers were the reason why Zhu Hongyu dared to start a war with the Manchus and Wu Sangui at the same time.
You can put yourself in someone else's shoes.
If the Qing Dynasty had 200,000 Manchu Eight Banners soldiers, do you think they would swell?
If Wu Sangui had 200,000 Guan Ning troops in his hands, would you think he was arrogant?
Now the Manchu Qing Dynasty and Wu Sangui both have a lot of soldiers and horses on hand, but most of their soldiers and horses are miscellaneous.
Real elite soldiers, such as the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty and the Guan Ning Army of Wu Sangui, even if we don't talk about quality, just talk about quantity, the gap is not as big as usual.
The number of elite soldiers on hand by the Manchu Qing Dynasty and Wu Sangui, even if added together, was less than half of the number of soldiers on hand by Zhu Hongyu.
Not to mention the real gap in combat effectiveness between cold weapon troops and firearms troops!
After reading through the expansion status of his respective units, Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly, and the expression on his face showed that he was quite satisfied.
Then, he continued to read other contents in the report.
Such as the Ming army’s equipment updates!
Judging from the current situation, almost all of the 200,000 Ming troops have completed firearms innovation.
Even the Guiyi Army has a firearm equipment rate of over 50%!
Although most of them are smoothbore guns!
But what you need to know is that in the current world, smoothbore guns and cannons are the mainstream weapons.
Even flintlock guns haven’t become popular yet!
Even if those rebels used flintlock muskets, they would crush the armies of other countries.
Although there are still cold weapons such as armor, swords, etc. among the soldiers and horses of the Ming army, the focus of combat has obviously changed from cold weapons to firearms.
It can be said that almost all of the current 200,000 Ming troops are the best of the best!
The armament status is quite good!
In addition to the equipment status of firearms, the installation status of naval warships was also elaborated in the report.
The navy of the Ming Dynasty, if Zheng Jun's navy is also included, has truly reached a thousand warships.
Nearly one-third of these thousand warships are sailing battleships!
Among them, there are almost hundreds of third-level sailing battleships that can serve as the main force.
The Ming Dynasty even installed a second-level sailing battleship for decoration.
The rest of the warships are basically traditional Chinese-style fuchuan and plywood boats.
Such a Ming navy cannot be considered weak even if it is placed in Europe where navigation technology has a great advantage over the Ming Dynasty at this time.
Although there is a saying that a century-old navy is a century-old navy, that is only a hundred years from the time the tree was planted, so it cannot be taken seriously.
If you really have enough capital investment, it's actually not that difficult to build a navy.
Shipbuilding craftsmen, experienced sailors, generals who can command naval battles...
Aren't these the most important factors in building a navy?
Which of these cannot be solved with money?
Even the wood for shipbuilding is not a problem.
It is true that drying shipbuilding materials in the shade now takes a long time.
But the Chinese have the habit of saving coffin boards in advance.
The wood that can be used as coffin boards is all good wood, and it is not a big problem to use it to build ships!
In terms of firepower, these ships of the Ming Dynasty have basically been updated and iterated.