flstandardbreds Chapter 235
Chapter 235
Today is the day the four newly built treasure ships in the shipyard are launched. Zhou Chu was somewhat surprised by the shipyard's high efficiency, but he was relieved when he thought about how Zheng He's treasure ship fleet had more than two hundred ships during the Yongle era.
If shipbuilding efficiency is too low, even if the Yongle Emperor were to build all he could, he probably wouldn't be able to build more than two hundred treasure ships.
The four newly built treasure ships are much larger than the previous one because of the timber that Yun Jin brought from the South Seas to use as keels. Each ship is two to three times the size of the previous one. But this is far from the limit. It is because Zhou Chu asked the shipyard to build a few treasure ships as soon as possible that the shipyard's craftsmen chose to use timber that was not particularly large as keels.
Zhou Chu had arranged all the necessary equipment on these four treasure ships, including mother-and-child cannons, flintlock muskets, and sailors.
With these treasure ships, Yun Jin's army could expand further.
However, only ordinary troops are being expanded. Even if the Xuanwu Army and the Tiger Legion expand further, the expansion will be limited because each soldier in these special forces is extremely expensive to maintain, so there can not be too many of them.
The current number of people is just right; any more and the emperor probably wouldn't be able to sleep.
Even if Jiajing trusted Zhou Chu, things would be different if Zhou Chu had an army that could overthrow the entire Ming Dynasty at any time.
Once a person has the power to disregard everything, so-called loyalty and trust become extremely fragile. As an emperor, it is impossible to place one's hopes on the loyalty of one's subjects so that they will not rebel.
If such an emperor truly existed, he would certainly not be a qualified one. Countless historical facts prove that such emperors are often ultimately overthrown from the throne.
Zhou Chu planned to have Yun Jin recruit more ordinary soldiers and have Wang Zhi train them. Yun Jin had mentioned Wang Zhi to Zhou Chu in a letter, and Wang Zhi had demonstrated extremely high battlefield skills in the last battle against the Japanese pirates, which made Zhou Chu even more confident in his previous plan.
The newly recruited and trained ordinary soldiers and troops will primarily focus on the Japanese mainland in the future, with Wang Zhi leading them to establish themselves in Japan and gradually unify the country.
In this way, the pricing power for goods from the Ming Dynasty to Japan, such as raw silk, will be in their own hands, and the lion's share of the profits will also be in their own hands.
Of course, another person needed to be placed by Wang Zhi's side to act as an informant for the emperor and Zhou Chu.
Lin Zhi is the perfect candidate.
The reason for choosing Wang Zhi was that Zhou Chu had a general understanding of history that this man was able to control his ambitions. Even after establishing a puppet regime in the Song Dynasty, he still longed to be recruited by the Ming Dynasty.
There are many capable people in this world, but very few who can control their ambition and prevent it from growing infinitely under certain conditions.
The launch of these four treasure ships did not cause much of a stir, because at this time the attention of the entire Suzhou Prefecture, and even the entire Jiangnan region, was not on them, but focused on the Zhang brothers, Heling and Zhang Heling.
In addition, after the previous pirate groups were annihilated by the Xuanwu Army, these Jiangnan gentry and Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce immediately realized a problem: the maritime trade routes had been lost.
Furthermore, news arrived today that the King of Le Dynasty has actually surrendered the entire country to the Ming Dynasty. This news is a fatal blow to the Jiangnan Group.
Previously, they would transport goods to the Le Dynasty by land and then smuggle them out to sea through the Le Dynasty's ports. This route had always been very stable.
The largest outlet to the sea in the entire southeastern coast is in the Lê Dynasty. There are docks and outlets to the sea within the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but they are strictly controlled. Although they use money to pave the way, many smuggling merchant ships are investigated and dealt with every year.
Therefore, for them, the sea outlet of the Le Dynasty was their lifeline. Now that the Le Dynasty is under the control of the court, it means that their lifeline and vital point have been seized by the court.
Zhou Chu was so eager to retake Annam because he had grasped this point.
In the original history, Jiajing Emperor's purpose in recovering Annam was to gain access to the Mekong River. Jiajing was well aware that only by controlling this outlet to the sea could he have the leverage to negotiate with the Jiangnan gentry and truly lift the maritime ban.
Throughout the Jiajing reign, preparations were being made for the opening of the seas. It wasn't until his son ascended the throne that the Longqing reign finally saw the opening of the seas, after Jiajing had laid the groundwork.
The gentry of Jiangnan can be said to have been driven to a dead end by Zhou Chu and the imperial court, which is why they are so eager for the Zhang Heling brothers to rebel.
The land survey was just one of the pretexts; the real reason lies here.
Upon receiving news of Empress Dowager Zhang's death, Wang Yangming immediately realized that something big was about to happen in Jiangnan, and that it was very likely a conspiracy between Zhou Chu and the Emperor. However, the thought that the people might suffer from the ravages of war made Wang Yangming restless. He rode alone from Nanjing straight to Suzhou Prefecture.
He needs to know more details so that he can ensure the losses of the people are minimized.