Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 717 Naming Rights of the Warship
What happened to Gustav that night, to use the words of a middle school boy in the 1990s, was: The same trick is ineffective against the Saint Seiya, idiot!
In short, because they had predicted Gustav's side kick in advance, the well-prepared Ming army fought a beautiful ambush that night. Most of the 6,000 elite soldiers led by Gustav were killed or wounded. The King of Sweden, who had long been determined to die, also desperately charged forward in person at the end of the battle, and was finally riddled by the powerful Ming army's submachine guns.
After getting Gustav's body, Huang Degong had it cleaned and dressed in clean clothes. He then sent an envoy to deliver the king's body back to the EU Army from the front of the battlefield.
After this move, the already low morale of the EU Army instantly fell to the bottom. Wallenstein could no longer control the large-scale surrender.
Therefore, at 9 am on the 12th, dozens of Ming army's 75mm guns had completely covered Ranong Port. Although the battleship Barcelo, which hurried back that morning, desperately used its 305mm naval guns to support its army from the sea, the west side of the Malay Peninsula was originally a pile of silt, and the Barcelo did not dare to shoot at close range - besides, the suppression fire was extremely limited.
Therefore, only three hours before the European Union's transport fleet arrived again, at the so-called darkest time before dawn, when the Ming army infantry vanguard had rushed to less than 500 meters from Wallenstein's headquarters, Wallenstein had no choice but to let his staff raise a white flag on the roof of the headquarters, and through telephones and telegraphs, he asked all the troops that the headquarters could still contact to lay down their weapons and surrender - in fact, at this time, the European Union Army had few bullets left to fight back.
"Your servants, Cao Wenzhao, Liu Zhaosun, Ma Shilong, Huang Degong, and Lu Xiangsheng... humbly report to the Emperor: In the 20th year of Tianqi, the Western bandits were ambitious and invaded India, which was controlled by our Ming Dynasty. The Royal Army was unable to respond and was dragged down by the Indians, causing the Western bandits to run rampant for a while. In the 22nd year, the Western bandits were greedy and invaded the vassal states of the Central and Southern Ming Dynasty again. The Emperor was furious and sent thunderbolts... 700,000 warriors, following the Emperor's will, fought the enemy for two years. There were five major battles and countless minor battles. Thanks to the Emperor's divine power, the Royal Army accepted the surrender of the Chief of Staff of the Western bandits, Wallenstein, and his 200,000 bandits at Malay Lanang Port on October 12, the 23rd year of Tianqi. So far, the Central and Southern parts of the country, whether by land or sea, are no longer smelly!
After interrogating the prisoners and combining statistics from the General Staff, the total number of Western bandits who invaded in the past two years was about 600,000 army troops and more than 35,000 navy troops. The royal army has annihilated a total of 270,000 Western bandits who invaded and accepted more than 230,000 surrenders. About 100,000 escaped, and most of them were injured. The Western bandits have now experienced a little of the great power of our emperor...
During the two years of fighting, our ministers and I failed to lead the army properly, resulting in the death of more than 217,000 Ming warriors, and more than 50,700 disabled due to injuries...
We have reorganized the armies and dispatched them to various places to restore order in Central and South China and welcome the royal families of Shu, Chu, Zhou and Tang back to their countries. As for the future affairs, we will wait for the emperor's holy judgment..."
The Central and Southern War, which lasted for nearly two years from January 1639 to October 1641, finally came to an end.
From a strategic point of view, the Ming Dynasty certainly won the final victory: the Indochina Peninsula was saved, and the vassal system did waver, but it stabilized with the victory of the war. The South China Sea once again became the inland sea of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty's economy, which had suffered a severe blow, would recover quickly.
However, this war was indeed a serious blow to the Ming Dynasty: not only did the economy suffer a severe blow, but the number of casualties and disabled soldiers totaled nearly 270,000 - most of whom were regular troops!
Although the army's standing army suffered heavy losses, the combat effectiveness of a large number of armed police and reserve forces will be rapidly improved after experiencing such a great war, reaching or even exceeding the level of the standing army in the past. However, in this war, the navy's backbone was almost broken - as a technical branch of the army, the navy needs much longer to recover than the army.
The Ming Dynasty was not feeling well, and it was even worse for the European Union: 150,000 were lost in the battle against India, and 500,000 were lost in the battle against the Indochina Peninsula. And this was only the army: in the navy, the real loss of sailors was not much, only one or two thousand. But Zhou Yuji's surprise attack that night turned the whole situation around, not only destroyed hundreds of transport ships, but also killed more than 5,000 experienced ordinary seamen - even though the European seamen were greatly enriched because of the Age of Exploration. But seamen who can operate iron transport ships to travel safely between Europe and Asia are still precious.
In short, Europe, which lost 650,000 strong men and thousands of technicians, was definitely hit hard this time.
…
October 13th, 11:00 PM ET/8.
The Changsha Shipyard in Chongming, Suzhou Prefecture, was still brightly lit, with the sounds of huge hammers and rivets hitting each other, and the workers' shouts colliding and blending with each other, making the entire shipyard seem particularly lively.
In this noisy environment, on a slightly flat platform about one kilometer away from the No. 6 slipway of the shipyard, an old man wearing a dragon robe and a golden round crown sat on a throne chair, holding a telescope and looking carefully at the huge hull of the Zheng He battleship on the slipway...
Around him, a group of low-ranking officials wearing round hats, black boots and brown shirts surrounded him, serving him tea and water, or massaging his feet and shoulders.
Next to this group of people, there was a huge flag with the words "Imperial Commissioner and Eunuch Working in the Eastern Depot School" written on it, which clearly told the people around here their identities.
Yes, the skinny old man who looks very old, with wrinkles and age spots all over his face, is none other than Zhu Youdong’s East Factory Supervisor, Wei Zhongxian.
This year, Old Wei was seventy-three years old. Compared to the original historical plane, he had lived many more years. Moreover, although his reputation in this plane was extremely small, even smaller than that of Tian Ergeng of the Imperial Guard, at the same time, the hatred he attracted was much less than that in the original historical plane.
The reason why the 73-year-old Old Wei appeared here was, on the one hand, of course, because Zhu Youdong brought his two adult sons on a southern tour to Nanzhili, where the light industry of the Ming Dynasty was most developed—he came with them. On the other hand, of course, it was because of the Zheng He.
"Ah, Ambassador Zheng made seven voyages to the West and brought great fame to the country. Now the emperor has named such a huge ship after Ambassador Zheng. Tsk tsk, we eunuchs are so grateful and envious."
"Master, you have served the Emperor for nearly forty years and have made great contributions. Who knows, there may even be a battleship named after you during your lifetime."
"Haha~ You little bastard just likes to make fun of me. Who is Ambassador Zheng? Can we compare him to mediocre people like us who only know how to serve tea and water?"
"Master, I am indeed a mediocre person who only knows how to serve tea and water, but you are not. As the saying goes, those who are good at fighting are not famous for their achievements. You have served the emperor for nearly forty years, and the emperor has never been dissatisfied with you. Since you took charge of the East Factory, the emperor will not miss any important news in such a big country... It is really not easy to do this. Putting aside these accumulated merits and favors, even this time when the Western bandits sent assassins to assassinate the emperor, didn't you discover it in advance and nip it in the bud?"
"Chi~" Wei Zhongxian squeezed out another mouthful of air with his upper and lower teeth and said disdainfully: "So barbarians are barbarians. Well, using the theory of evolution, the Western bandits are low-level creatures that have not evolved completely, and are as stupid as pigs. Humph, the races are different. Do you think that everything will be fine if there are scums who don't want their ancestors to help? They actually sent people straight into the interior of our Ming Dynasty to assassinate our emperor? Isn't this a fantasy? Do you really think that the reporting points set up by my East Factory in various county yamen for so many years are vegetarian? The people's livelihood in my Ming Dynasty has indeed encountered some difficulties in recent years, but the people are always living a life of food and clothing. I don't know how much better it is than when we first started serving the emperor. Therefore, except for those scums who are crazy for a little profit and bully their teachers and ancestors, who is not loyal to the emperor. If you find a little abnormality, who doesn't know to come to our East Factory to report it?"
"What the factory master said is absolutely right. However, this is a meritorious service to save the emperor. Shouldn't the factory master take this opportunity to plead with the emperor to build a large ship in his name?"
"Ah..." Wei Zhongxian let out a sigh of dejection and said listlessly, "Do you think we don't want it? We are not the only ones who want it. Since we got the Zheng He, Cao Huachun, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua and even Liu Shimin, who the hell doesn't want it? But after repeated attempts, the emperor just said one thing, asking who among us has achieved more than Ambassador Zheng..."
"So what the factory lord means is that eunuchs like us can only name a warship after our achievements reach the level of Ambassador Zheng?"
"That's not necessarily true. The emperor finally relented a few days ago, saying that the court is in financial difficulties recently, but in order to win a decisive battle with the Western pirates in India in the future and to control the sea power in the Pacific Ocean, the court needs a large number of warships. Therefore, we, as ministers, are allowed to invest in major shipyards, and the warships built will be named after the investors. Oh, yes, this is called naming rights. Hehe, my family and Cao Huachun and others have each invested 3 million silver dollars and reserved a 5,000-ton heavy cruiser."
The shipbuilding technology of the Ming Dynasty was slightly behind that of Spain. Moreover, since the research on electricity had just made a breakthrough at that time, the welding process had just been proposed by Zhu Youdong. Therefore, the connection between the steel plates of the ironclad ships of the Ming Dynasty at that time still relied on sledgehammers to rivet. The weight of the rivets on a 10,000-ton ship alone was close to 200 tons!
Riveting is not only very demanding on rivets, but also very labor-intensive. In addition, although Ming Dynasty had blast furnaces for steelmaking at that time, the basic fuel was still coal. The cost of obtaining reliable armored steel was also very high. In short, due to the limitations of shipbuilding technology at that time, the cost of Ming Dynasty warships per ton was about 540 to 550 silver dollars. The 3 million yuan that Lao Wei and his team took out was enough to build a 5,000-ton heavy cruiser.
Of course, although he had been with Zhu Youdong for nearly 40 years, Lao Wei's own rank was also the third rank. But to be honest, Lao Wei could not raise three million with that little salary. But you can't deny that Lao Wei has some shares in the royal industry.
But speaking of shares.
"Humph, that tofu seller Cao Sanxi actually took out 7 million yuan at once, saying that he wanted to buy the naming rights of a battleship. This bastard really pissed me off! I almost went bankrupt just to get 3 million yuan!"
After saying this angrily, he came to his senses and said to his subordinates who were envious, "All of you should be honest with me, and don't think about how to make money because of this! The shares I have are all given to the East Factory by the emperor. I am a eunuch and have no sons. After I die, won't these shares be left to the next factory supervisor? Instead of taking the risk of being arrested by His Royal Highness Prince Xin and ruining your reputation by taking bribes, you might as well think about how to do a good job and take over the position of factory supervisor after I retire. In this way, maybe a few decades later, you will have the opportunity to obtain the naming rights of the battleship."
"Yes, we subordinates will definitely remember the factory master's teachings."
"Hmm..." After letting out a satisfied sigh, Wei Zhongxian raised his telescope again and gazed at the Zheng He not far away with "deep affection".
However, at this moment, a man wearing a pointed hat and white leather boots hurried over and said, "Master, the emperor has ordered you to go to the Chongmingshawei station to attend the emergency meeting!"
