There are still five days left before the Chinese New Year, and the yamen in the capital are already full of the atmosphere of the New Year, and the officials always have to say a happy word when they meet each other, even if the superiors see the subordinates they don't like, they are no longer too harsh.

Jin Yiwei commanded Tongzhi Lao Liang to be very busy these days, because he was responsible for collecting news from all over the country, and he also had to convey valuable news to the palace in different categories.

However, Lao Liang has been in a good mood recently, because he finally got Zhu Cihong's approval, and he will return to his hometown after the New Year, and the position of Jinyiwei commanding Tongzhi was directly passed to his nephew Liang Kewang.

His body and bones are indeed not as good as before, after all, he is almost seventy years old, and he is rare in his seventies, and he can use his spare heat to serve the court in the last few years, and Lao Liang has died without regrets.

"Lord Liang, there is news from Dongying that the Dutch have invaded Shimane Castle occupied by the commander!" Jin Yiwei commanded Wang Yuanhuo to run over in a hurry.

"What?" Liang Yangteng stood up with a bang, not at all like the sick appearance before.

"I have to ask this brother for specific news, he just came from Dongying." Wang Yuan let out Wu Wen, the hundred-household official who was in charge of Dongying's affairs behind him.

In order to get the news back to the imperial court as soon as possible, Wu Wen took great risks to cross the Korean Strait to Weihai, and then rushed to the capital on a fast horse.

It turned out that the Dutch had been suffering from a bad solution since they blockaded the southeast sea area of Daming, after all, for the Dutch State, the overlord of the sea, the only thing they could do was the navy.

The Qin brothers arranged the southeast coast with forts everywhere, almost becoming a monolith.

The Dutch made a number of attempts during this period, starting from Taiwan and reaching northward to Guangzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou, and Fuzhou, and all the way to the town of Shanghai, where they found nothing but numerous shells from the fort.

If you can't beat the Ming Dynasty, you can't make a deal to the company and the council, but the loss for the Netherlands is too great for the Netherlands.

In order to conquer the Ming Empire, nearly two-thirds of the Dutch warships gathered along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, including the pride of the Dutch, the first-class battleship Victory.

The three-deck battleship was armed with a total of 120 guns, and a salvo from the side could fire shells weighing a total of half a ton.

However, the Dutch have always been untargeted, and the strategy of bombarding the battery with battleships is stupid, and if the battery is broken, it can be repaired immediately, and it can't even be used for half a month, but the battleship can't.

And in terms of the density of artillery, even the Victory could not reach the battery.

The commander-in-chief of the fleet, Marquis Lanlot, thought for a long time before pointing his gun at an enemy who was not originally an enemy - Dongying.

The successive deaths of the commanders of the squadrons responsible for blockading the Dongying area made the Marquis of Lanlot very puzzled at first, and it took him a month to investigate the situation of Dongying.

It turned out that the reason why Dongying fell into civil strife was because of the impetus of a group of Ming people, and the Marquis of Lanlott naturally put this pot on the head of Liu Hongchuan, the king of Anguo County.

Because with his understanding of the Ming Dynasty, apart from this person, there would be no other Ming officials who dared to go to sea to do things.

The Marquis of Lanlot immediately met with Tokugawa Kamematsu, the nominal ruler of Toei, and promised that the Tokugawa Kamematsu Dutch could help him quell the civil unrest on the condition that the Iwami silver mines in Shimane be handed over to the Dutch.

Tokugawa Kamematsu agreed almost without much thought when he heard that there was such a good thing, because the Iwami silver mine was no longer in his hands, and the power of the Saito coalition army was growing, and the Tokugawa shogunate was already a little unable to support it.

With the Toei people acting as the internal response, the Marquis of Lanlot ordered Toei and the thirty warships around Toei to converge off the coast of Toei, and launched a heavy artillery bombardment of Shimane Castle on a windless morning.

At the same time, an army hired by the Dutch East India Company landed in eastern Toei and joined forces with the Tokugawa shogunate to engage in a land field battle with the Saito army.

"Whose hands is Shimane Castle in now? Is Nanamber's brother dead or alive now? What about the 3,000 soldiers of our Ming Dynasty? After hearing this, Liang Yang frowned and asked several questions in a row.

"My lord, when he left Shimane, Lord Zheng was still fighting fiercely with the Dutch, so he didn't know what happened to Shimane Castle later.

The Dutch attack had been planned for a long time, and they were fearful...... Worried about ......"

The Lord Zheng in Wu Wen's mouth was naturally Zheng Sen's younger brother Tagawa Nanazaemon, and at that time, Shichizaemon saw that the situation was critical, and he was worried that there would be no chance if he didn't ask for help immediately, so he immediately sent Wu Wen out of the city, so that he didn't know the current situation of Dongying at all.

"Someone, prepare a sedan chair, the official wants to enter the palace!" Liang Yang was silent for a moment and immediately got up.

There was not much distance from East Chang'an Avenue to the palace, and it didn't take long for Liang Yang to enter the Qianqing Palace, and Zhu Cihong was also shocked when he heard this, but he couldn't pay attention to such a big matter, so he simply summoned all the cabinet members into the palace.

Dongying is the first overseas territory operated by the Ming Dynasty under the approval of Zhu Cihong, although it is not a colony, but the huge output of Iwami silver mine has always been very much in the eyes of the imperial court, especially Zhang Tianlu, the head of the household.

The household books of previous dynasties were very picky, and Zhang Tianlu was no exception, because when the silver was spent, he would be reprimanded by the court officials, especially the emperor of the current dynasty.

"The Beiyang Naval Division has been revised for nearly half a year, why don't we send the Beiyang Naval Division to fight the Dutch!" Zhang Tianlu rarely became the main battle faction.

"It's not right, Lord Zhang, according to the report of the general Qin soldiers along the coast, there are several giant warships among the Dutch warships, and it is still very risky to rashly fight the Dutch with the current strength of the Beiyang Naval Division, not to mention ......"

Shoufu Li Banghua said that he wanted to talk and stopped, he wanted to say that besides, Liu Hong, the king of Anguo County, was gradually not in the court, and the war has always been his arbitrary decision, the key is that this kid has never lost the battle, and now he is not in the court, if he attacks rashly, who will take the blame if he loses?

Moreover, the Beiyang Naval Division is the brainchild of the first emperor, and the king of Anguo County is also heartbroken for this, and if he is defeated, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Not to mention anything else, Da Ming will have no place in the ocean for at least two years.

"Li Aiqing is reasonable, we must think long-term." Zhu Cihong thought about it for a while and set the tone for this meeting.

Before the king of Anguo County did not come back, the Beiyang Naval Division must not rush to face the battle.

"How's the new ironclad being built?" Zhu Cihong asked Wang Jiayan, the secretary of the Ministry of Works.

Although Tianjin Bao Shipyard and Longjiang Bao Shipyard are independently responsible to the imperial court, the Ministry of Industry, as the supervision department, has always paid attention to the progress of the two treasure shipyards.

"Returning to the emperor, the first all-steel covered ironclad ship has been launched, using the newly developed diesel engine of the Ordnance Institute as the power, equipped with a total of 100 guns of various types, and has begun sea trials.

The construction of the second and third ships of the same type has already begun, and the fastest progress is expected to take another three months to launch. Wang Jiayan said in a deep voice.

"Three months, good! Then I will endure the Netherlands for another three months! Zhu Cihong gritted his teeth and said.

……