With the death of Emperor Shunzhi, time has come to the fifth year of Guangwu, and the young Emperor Guangwu has been on the throne for five years.
In other words, it has been six years since the Manchus moved to the Nogai Grassland.
Fuquan feels this the most deeply.
The life of wandering and wandering ends, and long-term peace emerges. This kind of life is rare.
There is no need to worry about the approaching war. The Ming army can enjoy the Northern Expedition at any time, and there is no need to move long distances again.
"Sir, Your Majesty has something to call you!"
Fuquan had just drank a cup of milk tea and before he could catch his breath, a servant came over and knelt down on one knee.
"Oh!" Fuquan nodded and put on his mang robe.
Although the Nogai Steppe is relatively barren, the nearby water and grass are luxuriant, and the Ural River and the Volga River intersect, leaving a large amount of water resources.
Therefore, the capital of Liaoning was built on the lower reaches of the Ural River, close to the Caspian Sea.
Although I don’t know why this saltwater lake is called the sea, the Mongolians traditionally call the lake Haizi, which is easy to understand.
After getting on the carriage, the wheels rolled gurglingly on the street. The uneven streets made him quite distressed.
The construction of Liaojing City was too hasty, and some details were not done well, such as the neat ground and narrow sewers, etc., which gave him a bad impression of the city.
It is far inferior to Fengjing Mansion back then.
Although it is a little colder and life is a little more difficult, it is very spacious and comfortable.
Through the car window, a little shouting came, and the friendly voice made people feel good.
The shops along the street are scattered and not very neat.
After a while, he arrived at the palace.
Although it is said to be a palace, it is actually only about ten acres in size. The palace and bedrooms are quite narrow, and the architecture is also very rough. It is difficult to meet the status of an emperor.
But there was no other way. It had only been five or six years since we settled down, and the initial construction was too hasty. The city of Liaojing was rough, and the imperial palace was no exception.
The young Emperor Guangwu Xuan Ye was only nineteen years old. At this time, he was full of vitality and bursting with youthful vitality.
At the beginning of the previous year, at the age of seventeen, he married a Hesheli woman as his queen and officially began to rule by himself.
The Empress Dowager Da Yu'er also gave up her power, retreated to the palace, and handed over power to her young grandson. She rarely interfered in the government affairs to avoid the embarrassing mother-son situation that year.
"My brother, please pay homage to Your Majesty!"
"Get up, brother emperor."
Xuan Ye helped him weakly and then asked him to sit down.
There was a divine expression in his eyes: "In the past two years, I have repeatedly sent out troops to attack and conquered tens of thousands of Cossacks. Most of the former Nogai Khanate has been captured!"
"This Liao capital city is a bit cramped! It does not match the momentum of the capital of our Qing Dynasty."
"Your Majesty wants to build a new city?" Fuquan couldn't help but asked.
"That's right!" Xuan Ye nodded and said: "In order to avoid the Rakshasa people, Liaojing was built in the upper reaches of the Liao River (Ural River), but most of the pastures and cultivated land are concentrated between the two rivers."
"He's light-headed and heavy-footed, which is not a good thing!"
A few months after arriving in the Nogai Steppe, the Russians dispatched tens of thousands of cavalry to prepare to overthrow the Manchu regime.
After all, the Russians conquered the Nogai Khanate only a few decades ago. Although they only adopted the appearance of autonomy by collecting taxes, they did not allow others to cross the border.
A great victory allowed the Manchu Qing Dynasty to gain a firm foothold.
Subsequently, the 200,000 migrating troops of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties took root in the upper reaches of the Liao River (Ural River) and spread to the Atta River (Volga River).
Grow rice, grow cotton, herd sheep and raise horses, and truly settle down.
At this time, the upper reaches of the Liao River seemed barren and narrow, especially the safe Liaojing, which was even more remote.
Leaving the economic and population center was disadvantageous for the Manchus.
Therefore, Xuanye was preparing to move the capital, and his target was the east coast of the Liao River (Ural River).
"Brother, at the mouth of the lower reaches of the Liao River, there are dozens of tributaries and the water is as wide as the Yangtze River in China in the past."
Xuan Ye said energetically: "This land with a radius of hundreds of miles is enough to accommodate millions of people to settle down. It is the foundation of the future of the imperial court and will completely suppress the Turghut people."
"Torghut?" Fuquan was stunned.
"The Nogai people between the two rivers have surrendered. The area west of the At River and the upper reaches is vast, and a large number of Turgut people are nomadic in it, scattered like stars."
"Some work for the Rakshasa people, and some work for the Ottomans. Why don't you work for me now?"
Xuan Ye's momentum was like a rainbow, his words were full of great aggression, and his ambition was fully exposed:
"The Torgut tribe is nomadic in the lower reaches of the At River. They only gave up their territory on the east coast. They have not surrendered yet. They rely on nothing more than the Rakshasa people."
"When I am settled in Liaohe, I can go directly to the west, completely conquer their tribe and bring them under my command!"
Fuquan was stunned.
He didn't expect that his younger brother would be so ambitious.
You must know that over the years, the imperial court did not give up its conquests. Most of the tribes in the former Nogai Khanate were once again gathered by the Qing Dynasty.
Either become the Eight Banners, or become serfs.
In a few years, the population of the Qing Dynasty exceeded 300,000.
Due to the policy of integrating soldiers into one, an army of nearly 100,000 can be raised at any time.
Although it is slightly inferior to that of Fengjing in Beihai, it is much stronger than the tribes near the sea here.
The Rakshasa army could not travel thousands of miles to fight.
"Then what can I do?"
"Go and survey the terrain!" Xuan Ye said softly: "I don't really believe what others say, but I believe in my eldest brother the most."
"If that place is really suitable for the capital, you can come back and repay me!"
Fuquan was deeply moved by these sincere words.
For the first time in twenty years, he felt passionate.
"I hope Your Majesty can rest assured that I will conduct a clear survey!"
Fuquan chatted about family matters for a while before leaving.
Not long after he left, Tang Ruowang came back looking very old.
Teacher Tongxuan, who is now eighty years old, is a close person whom two generations of emperors deeply trusted.
For Xuan Ye, Tang Ruowang is the key figure for him to understand the situation in the West.
At least, the news from the Ottomans and Rakshasa people was crucial to him.
"Your Majesty, through the priests in the Ottoman Empire, those Jews were willing to sell gunpowder and guns."
"It's just that food, cattle and sheep are not scarce for the Ottoman Empire."
Tang Ruowang said in a deep voice.
Xuan Ye's face darkened.
Over the years, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had a great thirst for supplies, especially gunpowder, and communicated with the Ottomans through the Caspian Sea.
Most of the seals and sturgeons on the edge of the Caspian Sea were plundered and all were used in exchange for gunpowder and guns.
The Manqing, whose shipbuilding skills were zero, simply could not go into the depths of the Caspian Sea to continue hunting.
Now that things have come to this, we can only change the direction.
Grain, salt, cattle and sheep are currently the largest goods in the Qing Dynasty.
Unfortunately, for the Ottoman Empire, these three things were the least scarce.
The Crimean Khanate peddled slaves, cattle and sheep, Egypt was the granary of the Ottomans, and Asia Minor was the fruit bowl.
Of course, food was precious everywhere, but it couldn't be carried over a long distance. After crossing the Caspian Sea, it had to go over the mountains of the Caucasus to transport it to the Ottomans.
The cost is too high.
"Your Majesty, what we can do now is to make porcelain, pottery, and try to grow tea."
"Yeah!" Xuan Ye nodded and sighed.
At present, there are not many popular things in the Qing Dynasty, and trade is very difficult.
Sulfur, charcoal, saltpeter, and charcoal are the easiest to obtain, while the other two are more difficult to obtain.
"Your Majesty, although there are many mountains and forests in the Caucasus, there may still be minerals for sulfur and saltpeter. You know, everything is available in the mountains and forests."
Tang Ruowang said softly: "The most important thing now is iron ore!"
Thinking of this, Xuan Ye couldn't help but get a headache.
Without iron, it is difficult to move forward!
His dream of an empire was at a loss.
However, conquering the Torguts is the most important step and must not be given up.
When the time comes, the Qing Dynasty will have more than 100,000 troops. Who dares to act recklessly?
…
At this time, the country of Ceylon was already full of vitality.
There were only a few hundred people immigrating every year, but now there are two to three thousand people, making the number of Han Chinese in Ceylon continue to increase.
By the 26th year of Shaowu's reign, the number of Han Chinese in Ceylon had exceeded 20,000, and the total population of the country had exceeded 120,000.
This effectively diluted the influence of the Tamils and at the same time dealt a heavy blow to the budding Hinduism.
The Kingdom of Ceylon takes Confucianism as its guideline, Chinese characters as its written language, and does not allow the spread of other texts.
Of course, this is because Hinduism itself is weak, and that is why it is being manipulated.
There are five thousand elite soldiers and thousands of servants.
Years of trade have allowed Ceylon to have a musketeer team of a thousand people, which is famous throughout the island of Ceylon.
Zhu Ci was not satisfied with this.
On the narrow island of Ceylon, there was not only the Dutch colony of Colombo, but also land regimes such as the Kingdom of Kandy.
Both of these pose great threats to the Kingdom of Ceylon.
Therefore, unifying the entire island of Ceylon became the only way.
Of course, his age is also forcing him to move forward.
Today, he is already forty-three years old. If he doesn't speed up his pace, it will be too late.
"In this life, I have been a failed prince. Now it's time to prove myself..."
He stood on the city wall and murmured.
There are more than ten scattered ships in the port, half of which are his ships.
After years of operation, the Kingdom of Ceylon has money to buy ships and even built a shipyard to build ships.
There are five large ships, and the navy only has 500 people. Compared with the British, Portuguese, or Dutch, it is not worth mentioning, but it is the fourth largest existence.
At least, he can do business in India and earn more profits.
"Brother!" At this time, the second brother Zhu Ding came over.
Years of guarding him have made his skin darker and his person more calm.
"Are you all ready?"
"A thousand musketeers, three thousand infantry, and two thousand servants, a total of six thousand troops, are fully prepared and have enough food to last three months!"
"Although the Kingdom of Kandy is powerful, it mostly relies on mountainous areas. This time our guides are not short of food, so they will definitely be able to capture it!"
"The Kingdom of Kandy has killed tens of thousands of people. It has been confronting the Dutch recently. You would never have thought that we would go south!"
At this time, the third brother Zhu Yongze came over and chuckled: "The Dutch are willing to ****!"
"The Portuguese also sold us a lot of gunpowder."
Only then did Zhu Ci smile.
He is ready to go at home, and the Dutch and Portuguese people outside are also supporting him. Everything is ready and all he needs is the east wind!
His decision to go south at this time was not just a matter of excitement.
All of this must be determined based on the situation.
In 1664, civil strife broke out in the Kandy dynasty located in the central mountainous area, and the Dutch took the opportunity to occupy many coastal areas.
In 1667, Rajsinghe II sent an envoy to Madras, India to seek help from the British, but to no avail. So he decided to rely on his own force to combat the arrogance of the Dutch.
Then two years ago, in 1670, the Kingdom of Kandy launched an offensive against the Dutch forts and military camps in the west, east and southwest. The Dutch fled one after another and many areas were recovered.
The Dutch situation on the island of Ceylon instantly became unstable, leaving only the area near Colombo.
In view of this, Zhu Ci decided to go south and adopt a strategy of encroaching step by step, swallowing up the entire Kingdom of Kandy in one bite.
The first step is to capture the cities of Anuradhapura and Trincomalee.
Among them, Anuradhapura is a famous city in Ceylon. Many dynasties have built their capitals here for more than a thousand years in history.
It is equivalent to Chang'an in China and has great historical significance.
This place is not only prosperous, but also the gateway to the city of Kandy, which is extremely important.
Trincomalee is the port of Ceylon, not inferior to Crescent Bay, and the economic benefits will be enough after taking it.
Anuradhapura is only two hundred miles away from Kandy, and it will play a great role in the next step of engulfing Ceylon.
After all, he had never ruled the Sangha people before, and he didn't know how to rule. He learned experience through this city.
Several elephants led the way, followed by musketeers, then infantry, and then servants.
Zhu Ci stopped and looked at his younger brother's back going south, as well as the young figure next to him, feeling a little lost.
As the king of a country, of course he cannot lead his troops south, as it is related to the survival of Ceylon.
Therefore, the commander-in-chief of this southward expedition was ostensibly his eldest son, Zhu Hecheng. Of course he did not dare to use the character "和" in the family name, so he could only use the character "河" instead.
The prince's move south has a great symbolic effect and can also boost morale.
In fact, it was his second brother Zhu Ding who was in command.
This war is related to the future of Ceylon and cannot be taken lightly.
"Your Highness, you have done a great favor to the Dutch!"
Portuguese businessman Andre sighed and shook his head: "The Kingdom of Kandy is not easy to deal with!"
At this, Zhu Ci burst into laughter.
The Portuguese are so happy to see the Dutch suffering hardship.
The previous rule on the island of Ceylon was counterattacked by the Kingdom of Kandy, and it suffered a lot, so naturally it was somewhat fearful of it.
In this regard, Zhu Cize firmly said: "Kandy is a barbarian country. It is a barbarian after all. How can it be our country's opponent?"
"Whether it's gunpowder or numbers, I, Ceylon, have no shortage of them."
"I'm afraid the English will support them!"
"As long as you take Trincomalee Port, the English will not send supplies to the Kandy people."
Andre said angrily: "If it hadn't been for the support of the Dutch, how could we have withdrawn from Ceylon?"