Chapter 1: The Grassland Guest (2)

Seeing the two special envoys from Ryukyu who were asking for tribute and birthdays coming in, two smiling faces walking out, Zhu Yinglong couldn't help but chuckled and lost his voice. Many people in this world hoped to get it for nothing, but they didn't know that getting it would cost a price.

The two prime ministers, Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi, accompanied the two envoys to attend the meeting, but neither expected that Zhu Yinglong would suddenly make a request to the Ryukyu envoy to garrison, which shocked the two old ministers. However, because the two envoys were there just now, it was difficult for them to ask Zhu Yinglong. Now the two envoys have left, so they just happened to ask.

Xu Guangqi was steady in his work, and the matter of garrisoning at the same time involved the military cabinet, which was not easy to ask about in the cabinet, so Xu Guangqi told Sun Chengzong to ask first, the two of them had one politics and one army, and they were in harmony with each other. Sun Chengzong immediately understood and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, I have something unknown to me, so please give me some advice."

How could Zhu Yinglong know the doubts in the hearts of these two old ministers and smiled and said, "Okay, don't let me go this way. Don't you just want to know why I want to garrison troops in Ryukyu?"

"That is, although our Ming vassal state in Ryukyu, it is also a country after all. If the court stationed troops in Ryukyu, it would probably cause dissatisfaction among other vassal states. I thought that our Ming Dynasty would continue to erode and annex them, which would affect the relationship between the court and the vassal state. Please think twice about the garrison." Sun Chengzong said slowly.

Zhu Yinglong smiled faintly, without answering, but asked Xu Guangqi: "What do you think about this matter when Mr. Xu?"

Xu Guangqi carefully considered it in his heart, and then said: "The old minister guessed whether the emperor did this was a test of Ryukyu. As far as I know, in the 37th year of Wanli, Japan's Tokugawa Ieyasu inherited Toyotomi Hideyoshi's policy of external expansion and sent Kagoshima Satsuma Shimazu Kiyoshi, who was close to the Ryukyu Kingdom, to lead 3,000 soldiers to invade Ryukyu and capture Ryukyu King. After that, 3,000 soldiers of the Japanese Shimazu family were stationed in Ryukyu. Ryukyu had actually been controlled by Japan. The current Ryukyu King Shangfeng also had a good impression of the Japanese shogunate, but Ryukyu was my vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and most of the Ryukyu people were me.

The immigrants on the southeast coast, so the King of Ryukyu did not dare to betray our Ming Dynasty. However, in fact, both the Edo Shogunate and the Shimazu family wanted to take Ryukyu for their own possession. On the one hand, the Edo Shogunate retained the position of the King of Ryukyu, and on the other hand, the Shimazu family controlled Ryukyu, so as to achieve the purpose of encroaching Ryukyu. Ryukyu is my vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and its king has always been enthroned by our Ming Dynasty. So the old minister guessed whether the emperor was testing the attitude of the King of Ryukyu Shangfeng, and also a warning to the Japanese shogunate, forcing him to withdraw the 3,000 troops stationed in the Shimazu family in Ryukyu and restore Ryukyu autonomy."

Autonomy? Spending so much effort to make Ryukyu autonomous, it is obvious that Zhu Yinglong has not been so generous yet. Ryukyu is the key to the future way out of Japan's maritime path. In this era when sea power has not yet been revealed, not many people can see its importance. However, Zhu Yinglong has been around for more than 300 years, even ordinary people can tell the importance of Ryukyu (Okinawa), so he is determined to win.

Zhu Yinglong nodded, shook his head again, and saw the two old ministers looking confused and didn't know what they meant.

"Testing is good, but it's not just temptation. In fact, I really plan to garrison troops in Ryukyu, and the troops are not less than 5,000." Zhu Yinglong looked at the two old ministers calmly and said.

Both old ministers were surprised. Could it be that the emperor was interested in the land of Ryukyu? But the land was only a county with a population of only 100,000. It was also on the sea. In addition to some specialties, the land was barren and the people were not prosperous. What was the use of such a wild land?

Zhu Yinglong could see the doubts in the hearts of the two old ministers, so he ordered Xu Yingyuan to get the chart. The chart was carefully surveyed and mapped for more than half a year, combined with the Dutch navigation chart, and made corrections before it was drawn and presented to Zhu Yinglong.

Opening the chart, Zhu Yinglong thought to himself, it seemed that it was necessary to tell the two old ministers about the importance of sea power. In the future, whoever has the maritime hegemony will be the boss in the world. China cannot be compared with blue-haired and blue-eyed barbarians.

Although Zhu Yinglong did not know the content of the naval theory of the famous American historian, Mr. Ma Han, he knew very well the importance of maritime power. In modern times, China lost its control of the sea and was bullied by the great powers, and then signed a series of treaties that were worthy of power and humiliating the country. Therefore, entering the ocean was an imperative measure. If the Ming Dynasty wanted to obtain maritime hegemony, an important enemy was Japan. Japan also had a covetous desire for maritime hegemony. From Toyotomi Hideyoshi to the current Tokugawa shogunate, they all had strong maritime power for maritime power.

The desire to fight for Japan, of course, at this stage, the Tokugawa Shogunate is just an unconscious expansion of maritime power and has not formed a clear sense of maritime power. Their desire for land is far greater than that of the ocean. Therefore, at this moment, it is the best time to close Japan's door to the ocean. Controlling Japan's maritime channels is equivalent to controlling Japan's lifeline. If Zhu Yinglong cannot conquer Japan in his lifetime, he will also block all the future opportunities for Japan and must never give Japan any chance to rise.

Of course, the layout should start from now on. As for whether it is not available or not, it is a future matter. The Ming Dynasty also had a great advantage in obtaining Ryukyu, which is to further control the maritime trade between Europe and Japan. At the same time, the natural deep water port of Ryukyu, Naha Port is also a huge attraction to Zhu Yinglong.

Although Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi did not know the importance of Hai Quan, and Zhu Yinglong himself was not a theorist, it would be good if he understood three points, and the remaining seven points depended on the two to go back and understand, but the two of them heard that the emperor had no favoritism for the island country in the east, and it seemed that he was all aimed at the rogue country.

Since the Battle of Korea in Wanli, the Ming Dynasty has no favoritism for Japan at all, so it is still supportive of the court's revenge on that rogue country.

Of course, both old ministers knew another point, that is, maritime trade has become a great source of wealth in the Ming Dynasty. In order to protect this channel of wealth, it is necessary to plan ahead. After all, the country with gangsters and ambitions was not so friendly to the Ming Dynasty, and it also caused great trauma to the coastal people!

With such a big deal of garrison, the two Ryukyu envoys naturally did not dare to make decisions without authorization, so they naturally had to go back to report to their master, Ryukyu King Shangfeng, to make an idea. However, it seems that Ryukyu King Shangfeng does not have the power to make this decision. Whether the Shimazu family or the Japanese shogunate gave Shangfeng the instructions, it would definitely be rejected, but how could Ryukyu refuse the rude request of the sect leader?

Ryukyu was in a dilemma among the two powerful people. In fact, the two special envoys had the idea of ​​giving up on themselves, which was to let the Ming army enter Ryukyu and fight with the Shimazu family's army. Those who win stay and those who lose left. But in this way, the people of Ryukyu will suffer. After a big battle, Ryukyu will definitely be broken and the people's livelihood will be even more difficult. The Ryukyu people who were already suffering will be even worse.

Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow!

The three words "sorrow" were written on the faces of the two Ryukyu envoys, facing each other speechlessly and sighing.

Japan came this time as the representative of the emperor. Although the shogunate was the actual ruler of Japan, the emperor was also the leader of the country in name, so the representatives of envoys sent by the shogunate could only come to the Ming Dynasty in the name of the emperor.

This time, Japan sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty to discuss the provisions on the trade between the Ming Dynasty and Japan, and on the other hand, it was because of the policy of the friendly countries of the Ming Dynasty to send ministers to countries. This policy made the Japanese shogunate very happy. You should know that there was almost no official exchange between Japan and the Ming Dynasty, but they had close contacts among the people, especially in the trade between the two countries, and made great progress. At this time, if there was no official contact or tacit understanding between the two countries, it would seem a bit inappropriate. Therefore, the Japanese shogunate actively promoted the normalization of bilateral relations, hoping to open up the normalization of official trade between the two countries. Japan urgently needed important materials like steel.

In order to show his importance to a great country like Japan, Zhu Yinglong specially received Masao Oshima, the Japanese envoy and Minister to the Ming Dynasty. Listening to Masao Oshima's servile and flattering words, he almost vomited out the overnight meal. As a result, he couldn't stand it in less than a stick of incense, so he quickly pushed the person to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and let those specialized talents deal with it.

There were also Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese, and Zhu Yinglong, the envoys of these countries and regions, pushed them to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He had no energy to deal with these people, and these Europeans were more arrogant and more arrogant. If they wanted to face these people, they would not make him angry.

Among them, Huang Dingchen was dealing with the Spanish envoy and Portuguese merchants under Zhu Yinglong's face-to-face teaching. Portugal wanted to gain the support of the Ming Dynasty and break away from Spanish autonomy. How could Spain allow Portugal to gain the support of the Ming Dynasty and turn to split Spain? So in rounds of negotiations, the Ming Dynasty always took the initiative, forcing Spain to return the chicken cage occupied on Taiwan Island to the Ming Dynasty, retaining only the right of residence and the Spanish private property inviolable and a small number of troops, etc.

The territory was recovered through negotiations without bloodshed. This was definitely the most proud day for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After signing an equal trade agreement with Spain, the court secretly signed a memorandum of understanding with the Portuguese. All agreements signed by the Portuguese and the Ming Dynasty on Macau were invalidated. The agreement in the memorandum stated that Macau belonged to the Ming Dynasty. The Portuguese obtained the right of residence at a price of 100,000 taels of silver per year (because Portugal is still Spain now, the Portuguese cannot blatantly return Macau to the Ming Dynasty, so gold and silver are only used as compensation). At the same time, the Portuguese will send a team of scientists, including fire.

The Ming Dynasty needed a series of talents, especially naval officers. What the Ming Dynasty urgently needed was experienced naval officers, even those who were injured, as long as they had experience in naval combat experience, because Zhu Yinglong was already secretly preparing the naval officer school. The navy was strong, and it was not possible without a regular and systematic training of naval officers. Of course, in the memorandum, more discounts were provided for the Portuguese trade, and a package of secretly helping the Portuguese train the army (training the army in Portugal will be detected by Spain) and the agreement to send troops to Portugal to help Portugal autonomy under specific circumstances, etc.

Zhu Yinglong knew very well that Spain was still relatively stable, and Portugal had at least some way to go to gain autonomy, but this secret agreement would be the key to the Ming army entering Europe.
Chapter completed!