Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 659: Have a Strategic Vision
"Your Highness! Please contact the navy for me. I want to enlist in the navy in advance in order to avenge my father!"
On August 13, 1637, the news of the Battle of Lima finally reached Beijing. The court was shocked. In addition to reporting the battle report brought back by the Guangzhou to the Fangshan Academy of Sciences and the two major shipyards of Binhai and Changsha, it also immediately began to provide relief to the families of the victims.
On August 18, Zheng Zhilong's eldest son Zheng Sen, after receiving the news that his father had died heroically, burst into tears and went directly to Ciqing Palace to ask to see Zhu Ciyan.
Zhu Ciyan has graduated from Fangshan Middle School. Although he could have studied at Fangshan Academy of Sciences and studied under one or two famous teachers, Zhu Youdong believed that the children of the royal family, especially the emperor's son, did not need to go that far in the natural sciences. So starting this year, he was sent to the Tongzhengsi to observe government affairs. In Zhu Youdong's plan, his son would first see the overall situation of the Ming Dynasty in the Tongzhengsi, the central office, and then be transferred to the local level in the future, and then work his way up step by step.
Although Zhu Youdong has already determined that this child will not go the military route, Zhu Ciyan has to go to the military academy for physical training every winter and summer vacation. Therefore, he has always kept in touch with the best people in the military academy. For example, Zheng Sen and others can easily enter the Ciqing Palace.
Seeing Zheng Sen crying, Zhu Ciyan felt a headache. He comforted his good friend and turned to look at Zhang Huangyan: "Brother Zhang, didn't you try to persuade him? We don't have any warships that can compete with the giant ships of the Western bandits. We need to think about revenge."
Yes, among the group of gifted students who entered the school in the 17th year of Tianqi, although Mu Tianbo is the oldest in terms of age, the real leader of this group is Zhang Huangyan.
As for Zhu Ciyan, due to his different status, he gets along well with this group of people and they can treat each other as brothers on weekdays, but he does not participate in the brotherhood ranking.
"Your Highness, we have all tried to persuade him. According to the school's rules, after two years of studying at the Military Academy, one can study in different disciplines. Zheng Sen applied to the Naval Academy early on and was accepted by the Navy. But he can't just go on board without even learning the basics of the Navy, right? And as Your Highness said, our Ming Dynasty currently has no warships that can compete with the giant ship of the Western pirates."
"Your Highness, Brother, I don't care. I want to join the navy now. After my father died, I really didn't want to continue studying."
“Nonsense!”
"Your Highness, we are brothers after all. Why are you... Eh? The student greets the emperor."
"Well, everyone, get up."
Zhu Youdong glanced at Zheng Sen with a gloomy face, then motioned to Fang Zhenghua behind him to hand over a handkerchief: "Wipe the horse urine off your face. You are already fourteen years old. If it were before the new Marriage Law of this dynasty was introduced, you could have talked about marriage at this age, and you wouldn't be ashamed!"
In the past two years, Zhu Youdong has shown special care for this group of young people and has met them privately many times. Therefore, Zheng Sen was not particularly afraid of Zhu Youdong at this moment. After wiping away his tears, he twisted his neck and said, "Your Majesty, would you like to join the navy directly?"
"Hmph! Don't say I won't agree. Even if I agree, and give you a boat, will you be able to operate it?"
Ignoring the speechless Zheng Sen, Zhu Youdong strode towards the main seat of the room. Zhu Ciyan, who had already jumped up, quickly stepped aside. Just as he looked away from Zhu Youdong, he saw that behind his father, besides Fang Zhenghua, there was another person.
"Meet second uncle."
"Haha, nephew, no need to be polite, just find a place to sit. Hey, all of you sit down."
After everyone sat down, Zheng Sen knew from Zhu Ciyan's address that the amiable man beside the emperor was Zhu Youxiao, the top ship designer of the Ming Dynasty. He took a bold step forward and said, "May I ask Your Highness Prince Lai, can the Ming Dynasty also build several 10,000-ton warships?"
Zhu Youxiao waved his hand gently and smiled: "I am discussing this matter with my brother, so it is not appropriate to discuss it publicly for the time being."
Since receiving the intelligence from Sun Chuanting, Zhu Youdong has arranged for engineers from Fangshan Academy of Sciences and Binhai Shipyard to sit together to discuss the topic of building Ming's own 10,000-ton giant ship. However, due to the fact that Ming's technology tree has not yet grown to this point, everyone is still at a loss.
Zhu Youdong had no other options for this situation. The only thing he could do at this time was to let Zhu Youxiao give full play to his imagination and design a 10,000-ton giant ship on paper, leaving enough space for the installation and modification of various new technologies required for this giant ship.
This is an extremely difficult task, so these few days, the two brothers got together every day to repeatedly modify the drawings: In terms of engineering design ability, Zhu Youxiao has long been superior to Zhu Youdong. But Zhu Youdong is a time traveler after all, and this pseudo-military fan has read a few issues of ship knowledge before traveling through time. So when designing this "future warship", he can still provide some help to Zhu Youxiao.
"I was just discussing something with Prince Lai in the Qianqing Palace. When I heard that you guys had entered the Ciqing Palace, I could roughly guess what you were going to do, so I hurried over to take a look. As expected, Zheng Sen, you are messing around."
"Your Majesty, as a son, isn't it natural for me to avenge my father?"
"Haha, revenge? On the battlefield, you kill me, I kill you, isn't that normal? How to take revenge? We all know that it was the giant ship of the Western pirates that sank your father's ship. But which cannon fired the cannonball that sank it? What's the name of the gunner who operated this cannon? Do you want to kill the captain of this ship to take revenge, or do you want to kill all the Western pirates on this ship at that time to take revenge?"
"My father was the commander of the Ming fleet at the time. Naturally, I must kill the commander of the Western bandits to avenge myself."
"Haha, then you won't be able to take revenge for a while. Even if I specially allow you to join the navy now, you'll be at best a trainee lieutenant and you'll still have to scrub the decks with ordinary sailors. If you want to take revenge, you'll at least have to be the commander of a fleet, right? But for a dropout like you who hasn't even studied at the Naval Academy, the best you can do is become the chief officer of a ship or a department. How can you possibly become a fleet commander in the future?"
Looking at Zheng Sen who had completely calmed down, Zhu Youdong smiled and said, "You all know that since the day you entered the school, I have been optimistic about you and have high expectations for you. So, today when I heard that you were coming, I came here in person to suppress this brat. On the other hand, I also want to tell you about the significance of the navy."
"Your Majesty, please instruct me."
"What is the navy used for? Fleet victory? Humph, that's the most superficial idea. In my opinion, the most important value of the navy is to enable the country to have sea power."
"Sea power?"
"Yes, sea power. A long time ago, such as during the Han and Tang dynasties, although people at that time already knew about the existence of Western countries such as Rome, Byzantium, Arabia, Persia, etc., at that time, everyone's communication was mainly achieved through land. In the Song Dynasty, especially the Southern Song Dynasty, with the advancement of navigation technology, maritime trade began to flourish and national income increased greatly. The tax revenue obtained by the Southern Song Dynasty with half of the country actually exceeded that of the Northern Song Dynasty. During the Yongle period of our dynasty, Ambassador Zheng made seven voyages to the West. The wealth he obtained was not only enough to allow Emperor Chengzu to conquer the desert five times, but also to change the city walls of all the counties in our Ming Dynasty from rammed earth walls to brick walls... This shows how great the wealth at sea is.
In the West, since the Ottoman Empire was at its peak two hundred years ago and completely controlled the trade routes at the junction of Asia, Africa and Europe, the countries in the Western Christian world, in order to open up new trade routes, supported by the theory of the earth's spherical shape, which had not yet been fully verified, opened up trade routes to the west and south. This opened up the Age of Exploration, which is still in full swing today. Because Europeans controlled the world's maritime power, they could obtain the world's wealth through the sea. The continents of the world were also closely connected because of the prosperity of ocean routes.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are very young and may not know what the national conditions of my Ming Dynasty were like before. In short, more than 30 years ago, when my Ming Dynasty had only Yuegang as a seaport. A large amount of domestic funds could not go out and were all piled up on the land. As a result, the country's land annexation became more and more intense, and wealth became more and more concentrated in the hands of a few people. Household registration was out of order, and people were living in poverty... And when my Ming Dynasty also entered this great era of navigation, a large amount of domestic funds had a channel for venting. They can set up factories, then export products, make profits, and then expand production. Or obtain raw materials from overseas, process them, and then sell them to make profits... In this way, the powerful and wealthy people in the country have a new and greater development. I can only smoothly implement the tax distribution system in the country and the tax payment system for officials and gentry to be implemented together. Without their collective opposition and strong resistance, I can reduce the land tax for farmers, and farmers can really benefit from it... It can be said that the recent boasting of the "Apocalypse" in the six major newspapers is largely due to the fact that my Ming Dynasty has eased the domestic crisis through the ocean and found new opportunities from danger, thus turning the national situation from danger to safety."
"Your Majesty, since the ocean can bring so many benefits, the Western bandits cannot tolerate our excessive involvement?"
"That's right. After all, after we took Luzon from the Western bandits, we made them miserable. Of course, I am the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. In order for the people of the Ming Dynasty to live a better life, I also need more wealth. Therefore, I can't stand the fact that they still control a lot of sea power at this moment."
"Your Majesty, can I think that fleet victory is only part of the fight for sea power? Controlling shipping routes and transferring wealth through shipping routes is the essence of sea power?"
"Hmm~" Zhu Youdong looked at Zhang Huangyan with satisfaction and said, "Although it's not right, it's not far off. Remember, when the advancement of navigation technology makes the human beings on this planet closely connected through the ocean, the importance of sea power will far exceed that of land power. In the future, only the country that controls sea power will be the most powerful country on this planet. Simply put, it is to gain sea power - control the ocean - control world trade - gain world wealth - gain world hegemony! In this way, my Ming Dynasty can stand proudly at the top of the world!"
Looking at the young men who were lost in thought, Zhu Youdong waited for them to digest it before saying, "Today, I have explained to you the significance of sea power from a strategic perspective. I want to tell you that you should take a long-term view. The victory or defeat of a naval battle cannot determine the ownership of sea power. That's right, my Ming Dynasty does not have warships that can compete with the giant ships of the Western pirates. But so what? On the one hand, our scientists and engineers will work hard to tackle the problem. On the other hand, the Pacific Ocean is so vast, can a giant ship gain the sea power of the Pacific Ocean? The ownership of the Pacific Ocean power will ultimately depend on who can get what they want through this ocean.
I have always believed that a person's level of effort can only determine his lower limit. A person's upper limit is more determined by his talent. You are the most talented people of your age. Sooner or later, you will become generals of various branches of the Ming army. I hope that from today on, you will cultivate your strategic thinking, and when you lead an army in the future, don't be too obsessed with the victory or defeat of a battle. This world has now entered an era where the Ming Dynasty competes with Europe and the Ottoman Empire for world leadership. Only the side that wins strategically can truly stand on the top of the world! "
