Chapter 529: Regardless of ancient or modern times, beggars are always rich people.
The exploration team's ship is parked close to the shore. Through the telescope, you can clearly see that it is a large ship heading here. It seems that it should have just come from the west sea, and the target is clear, it is them.
direction.
The exploration team's ship was not big, with a displacement of more than 200 tons. It could only sail offshore. There were only about thirty people on board. After all, it was just a small team. The captain was reminded and immediately picked up the telescope and looked over there.
I saw a large ship that was similar in shape to my own ship with a displacement of 1,000 tons, but was slightly wider and slightly bloated, heading this way.
Looking at the flag on the ship, I didn’t recognize it, but one thing is certain, it is definitely not the Ming Dynasty’s ship.
The captain felt a little bad. However, in the past few years, he had become accustomed to wandering on the sea, and he didn't feel scared for a while. It was just that there were strict regulations on marching, and a warning was still needed when encountering such a thing.
Facts have proved that rules and regulations are indeed useful and can avoid many unnecessary losses caused by individual subjective opinions.
On the vast sea, there is no morality or law. Two big ships encounter a lone boat. Is there anything else that needs to be taken into consideration?
Apparently not!
The people who had just landed quickly returned. When the sail of the small boat was raised halfway, the two large ships sailed not far away. Perhaps they could see that the small boats were about to run away. In line with the principle of never wasting, the two large ships directly
Opened the gun door!
Looking through the telescope at the dark muzzle of the gun, the lookout shouted directly, "Be careful, they have artillery on the ship!"
They have seen and used this thing, but Wang Xuan has never promoted it in the military. He has always felt that the current artillery technology and gun technology have too many shortcomings in practical applications and are not practical.
Taking the fire gun alone as an example, there is a big gap between the fire energy developed in the initial stage and the crossbow machine that has basically reached its peak. One cannot hit anywhere from ten meters away, and its lethality does not exceed thirty meters. The other
, the lethality is not reduced within 100 meters, there is no comparison at all.
Of course, the reason why fire gun has achieved great development in Europe is because of its low cost and low training cost. It is more cheap than easy to use.
In China, with its strong national power, there is no problem with the fact that it takes a year to make a crossbow. To put it bluntly, there are more people and more money. Therefore, the development of firecrackers in the country is very slow, until,
The invention of smokeless gunpowder and the application of rifling surpassed the crossbow in practicality.
Period, even now, the effective range of .38 and 54 pistols is only thirty meters and fifty meters, which is still inferior to crossbows!
As for cannons, current smoothbore cannons rely on huge kinetic energy. As for accuracy and shooting frequency, they are too low!
This is not the Caribbean, nor is it Europe, this is near the Ming Dynasty, where there are the best internal strength in the world, and using solid cannonballs to fight martial arts masters... this is like cannons to fight mosquitoes!
The shooting angle is too small, the movement is slow, and if the landing angle is changed, a group of third-rate masters can destroy a battleship. In this case, what does Wang Xuan do?
But, in the absence of a master...
When Qi Xuefeng received the news from the squadron, the big ship and the red-haired people on the ship had been brought over. The tattered boat sank after all. Except for the school's scientific researchers and a few protective special forces members, the rest
Most people died at sea.
These guys jumped directly into the water to the bottom of the big ship, boarded it dexterously, and then there was no follow-up. With the help of scientific researchers, several special forces members directly used poison to bring down the entire ship.
If it weren't for the consideration of taking them back for interrogation and the need for someone to sail the ship, none of these red-haired devils would be able to survive.
Seeing these red-haired ghosts, Wang Xuan rubbed his temples, and then remembered that at this time, when the Spanish were ravaging Southeast Asia, including Luzon Island, there were a lot of traces of Spanish activities, and, in
There are their people on most large islands.
Fortunately, Wang Xuan also understood Spanish. After understanding the situation with these red-haired devils, he ordered them all to be hanged on the dock.
On the third day, the 30,000-strong army was divided into 30 fleets and set off. The ships were loaded with the most advanced bed crossbows. The bowstrings were made of steel wire ropes. They had a range of 500 meters. The heads were hollow and filled with gunpowder. The firing device was an impact type.
When using flint to start a fire, since the excitation device is large enough, the ignition rate can reach 90%!
Compared with those who fire solid cannons, the lethality, especially the lethality to the human body, is several times greater.
Wang Xuan specifically emphasized not to add nails, broken glass, phosphorus and other things inside. It would be too inhumane to blow up your own people.
The purpose of this trip to sea was two-fold. First, to clean up any other national forces in the entire Southeast Asian sea. Second, to obtain accurate sea maps and branches of various indigenous forces to make plans for future occupation.
Now Wang Xuan has never thought about doing business with Europeans, because there is no need at all. He is not short of money. What he wants is to occupy more people and occupy more land.
Therefore, a fleet of 3,000 people set off directly towards the Strait of Malacca. Anyway, it is not far from the south of Annan and can get good support. At the same time, the ship also carried 20 artillery pieces, which are considered to be the most advanced cannons at present.
For coastal defense, cannons are indeed more useful than crossbows. After all, the range can easily reach two thousand meters.
…
More than a year has passed in the blink of an eye.
Over the past year or so, too many things have happened in Ming Dynasty, both openly and secretly.
On the surface, Emperor Wanli burped and left a mess for Emperor Taichang.
Although the prince has always been unpopular, the prince is the prince, and in the end, the throne still fell to him.
When a person attains the Dao, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven. Although Zhu Changluo did not attain the Dao, he ascended to heaven, no, he became the emperor.
The original Li Xuanshi became a concubine, that is, Zui Hongchen, who later robbed Zhu Changluo of a lot of love. This time she was upgraded to a concubine, and gradually became evenly matched with Li Xuanshi. The little eunuchs Wang Xuan sent in one after another contributed to this.
Not small.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Zhu Youxiao was appointed as the crown prince and has been with Zui Hongchen for more than a year. For some unknown reason, Zui Hongchen has never been pregnant with a child.
Another point is that as Zui Hongchen's power gradually increased in the palace, Zhu Changluo's body remained the same. He was poisoned to death after only one month in power, but this time there was no major problem for the time being.
At the same time, the intensity of the struggle between the four major parties decreased, especially the three parties of Chu, Zhejiang, and Donglin. Because of the threat from Wang Xuan behind him, they began to cooperate with each other to a limited extent. It is no longer a state of you agree and I oppose. This may
This is also part of the reason why Zhu Changluo has been living well.
In the border areas, a lot of energy and money were spent on military construction in the south of the Yangtze River, and the counterattack on the "Houjin" in distant history has long been forgotten.
On the Jurchen side, because Wang Xuan sold a large amount of past grain, cattle, horses, sheep, wool, timber, etc., the Jurchens' life was much easier, the conflicts among the people were reduced, and the natural fighting spirit was also being drained. Try
After several attacks against the Ming Dynasty ended in failure, they also stopped a lot.
As for the Tatars, the situation they encountered was similar to that of the Jurchens. The grain in Wang Xuan's hands was transported to the north in large quantities through the Yellow River, and part of the affected population was transported away. Although there was still some shortage of food, compared with historical times
The gap is too big, which results in more grain being sold on the grassland.
Also due to Wang Xuan's relationship, a large amount of wool purchases made the rare winter for the prairie people less difficult.
For a time, the entire Ming Dynasty was calm and peaceful. Even though there were several droughts in the north, it did not cause much damage. It was quite a revival and made many people ecstatic.
However, among those who are happy, there is no one who truly understands.
Those who are truly at the top of Ming Dynasty’s power know that all these changes come from the Dragon King Xuan in the south!
Everything now is just a superficial phenomenon. Which path will the Ming Dynasty really take depends on when Wang Xuan takes action. No one believes that Wang Xuan has powerful military power in his hands, and his wealth will be unparalleled in the future.
If you are willing to lurk all the time, the war will come sooner or later!
And any move will definitely be earth-shattering!
Wang Xuan is indeed accumulating strength. This strength is not only military, but also political. Without a mature and stable political system, even if he goes to Beijing, it will be useless and he lacks control.
All five million people were finally transported over, and they became more and more blatant in the later stages, especially after Wanli's collapse.
Now many big families know that Wei Guogong 'employed' Wang Xuan to occupy a large island in the Japanese country and run it completely as his own family.
It's said to be overseas, but it's actually not that far. Nowadays, navigation technology is much more advanced. Even from Kyushu Island to Nanjing, it only takes twenty days at most. It's much more convenient than going to Beijing.
During this period, many people contacted Wang Xuan through some channels, hoping to find a place overseas, preferably closer to the Ming Dynasty, such as Shikoku Island...
Wang Xuan did not refuse, and secretly held an auction for this purpose.
"The world's first land auction, I think this is a particularly memorable day. Today is destined to have a new powerful family born, and it will also come with the title of hereditary marquis in the future." Wang Xuan stood on the high platform,
He personally presided over the land auction meeting, "Okay, I know everyone is waiting impatiently, so now, the auction starts, Wa Kingdom, Shikoku Island, 1.88W square kilometers, half the size of Kyushu Island, 89, starting price is 1 million people
, each time the price increase is no less than 10,000 people, a special reminder, the entire population must be delivered within one year, I don’t want anyone to breach the contract.”
"One and a half million people!"
"One million and eight hundred thousand!"
"Two million!"
"Two million three hundred thousand!"
At this moment, people are no longer people and have completely turned into a kind of currency. It seems cruel, but in fact, it may not be a good thing for most poor people in this era. At least, in the eyes of these top people, they
Become extremely valuable, more valuable than money!
They are no longer just a string of numbers on paper, or a cold name. Only at this seemingly cruel time do they become alive and flesh and blood.
Whether it's sarcasm or indifference, this is reality.
The poor are valued, concentrated, and cared for as never before, for fear of freezing, starving, or dying.
Of course, most beggars don't think so... They can live a good life as beggars, but they are damn willing to be caught and sold.
Regardless of ancient or modern times, beggars are extremely wealthy.