637 to the sea, teahouse, Ryukyu country

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At the beginning of April of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, in Yangzhou Port, a huge fleet of dozens of warships left Yangzhou Port and entered the East China Sea.

With such a large fleet leaving the port, Li Zixiao couldn't do it quietly, so he simply let Lu Yuan swagger and go to sea without fear.

"Oh my God, have you seen such a fleet, is that our lord's fleet? There must be dozens of them, and it will take a whole hour to finish! ”

"Yes, I counted eighty-one warships, the largest of which was much larger than the sea-going ships we unloaded."

The people who worked on the port of Yangzhou witnessed this shocking scene with their own eyes, and they were shocked, they had never seen such a huge fleet in their lives.

Many of the shipwrights who had seen this huge fleet on this day went to the teahouse after dinner and chatted and bragged with each other after the completion of the meal.

This is also the happiest time of the day for the people of Jiangbei, compared to other places in the Ming Dynasty at this time, lack of food and clothing, people everywhere, the people of Jiangbei are happy.

Because of this, at this time, Li Zixiao's prestige was in full swing in Jiangbei, and ordinary people set up an immortal position for Li Zixiao in their homes to worship sooner or later.

Ordinary people like the teahouse are the most gathering places, and they have also become a place for people to discuss 'national affairs' after tea and dinner.

Tonight, in the teahouse, many boatmen working on the docks in Yangzhou have turned into protagonists, telling many people in the teahouse about the shocking scenes they saw during the day.

"Don't you see, today, the lord's fleet left the port for three or four hours, and hundreds of warships!

The ships were full of soldiers, all mighty, each with hundreds of guns, and the largest ship was five hundred meters long......"

At this time, a dark-skinned middle-aged man was sitting at a tea table, spitting stars everywhere, to tell the scene that his people saw in Yangzhou Port, surrounded by a bunch of people.

"Cut, Yang Laohei, you brag too much, someone said before that today's lord's fleet only has dozens of warships, and by the time you reach it, it will become hundreds, you can blow it hard!"

The largest warship is 500 meters long, such a big warship, is it loaded in Yangzhou Port, why don't you go to the sky! ”

As soon as Yang Laohei finished speaking, there was immediately an 'old opponent' who sang against him.

"Hey, Wu Laolai, you took turns off today, and you didn't go to the port to work, but it's a pity that you couldn't see the lord's fleet, and now I'm here to brag, I saw it with my own eyes."

Yang Laohei was not angry at all in the face of the demolition of his 'old opponent', and said more and more proudly, which made him the proudest thing.

"A five-hundred-meter warship is indeed too big and unreliable." Others chimed in.

At this time, Li Zixiao has implemented new weights and measures in Jiangbei, and on the basis of maintaining the original Ming Dynasty weights and measures, Li Zixiao has added meters, kilograms, tons and other units of measurement.

Moreover, these units of measurement are used as the government's common weights and measures, so at this time, many people in Jiangbei know how much a meter is.

The one meter that Li Zixiao advanced, because it was estimated by himself according to his height, was not very accurate, but it was about the same as one meter in later generations.

"Hey, everyone is here, I'm late, I care about my mother-in-law, I heard Yang Laohei's voice from afar.

Don't listen to him, what he says is unreliable, let me tell you.

Today I was working on the docks, and I was at the docks when the lord's fleet left the port, and I counted them myself, and there were one hundred and eighty ships in all......"

The debate here is not over yet, and a new boatman has arrived, and he said excitedly.

"You say, who is the lord going to go to sea to fight when he sends such a huge fleet this time?" Finally, someone finally asked a good question.

"I'm supposed to be fighting pirates."

"Otherwise, I'm going to fight the Japanese slaves."

The people around him expressed their opinions.

"I think it's probably going to fight the red-haired ghosts."

"Yes, yes, it's possible."

"It doesn't matter who he fights, I think it won't be long before we hear the good news from the lord again.

It's a pity that my eldest son joined the army last year, followed the lord to Kaifeng a year ago, and has not yet returned.

I have now decided that when my eldest son is two years old and can join the army at the age of eighteen, I will let him go to the navy of the lord this time, and he will sail a big ship in the future. ”

A thin old man, who was in good spirits at this time, spoke.

"Old man Wang, how is your eldest son in Kaifeng, my son was a soldier for the lord the year before last, and now he has done it for a long time.

He seems to be in Luoyang now, the last time that stinky boy wrote to me, it was a month ago, and he sent back fifty taels of silver.

Now my wife and I have saved more than 200 taels of silver for our leopard, and recently I have seen a family affair with him.

When my leopard comes back this time, I will let them get married, and my wife and I are still waiting to hold our grandson! ”

"Okay, Brother Xu, your family's little days are getting more and more moisturized."

"Hehe, it's okay, it's all the blessing of Lord To."

Soon, dozens of people in the teahouse were divided into several teams, with different ages and occupations, and different topics to discuss.

And in one corner of this teahouse, two young men sat there silently, not bothering to drink tea and eat fried beans.

Even the two of them ordered an extra plate of expensive fried peanuts, and they wanted to try it, but they didn't have the heart at this time.

At this time, Jiangbei not only had sweet potatoes and corn, but also found peanuts under Li Zixiao's heavy reward, which had been introduced to China almost decades ago.

The yield of peanuts is not very high, so in the past few decades, he has not been valued by farmers very much, and has not been widely promoted.

After Li Zixiao got the peanuts, he did not promote them in a large area for the time being, but tried to plant them in a small area in Xuzhou, and the annual output was quite a lot.

Part of it will be paid tribute to Li Zixiao's Earl's Palace, and some of it will be bought by those dignitaries and nobles in Jiangbei, and only a very small part will be circulated in the market.

Because Li Zixiao likes to eat fried peanuts, peanuts have quickly become a very rare and expensive food for court banquets.

Until last year, Qian Guangyuan gave Li Zixiao a look and expanded the planting area of peanuts, and in the absence of food pressure, Li Zixiao agreed to Qian Guangyuan's request.

With the substantial increase in peanut production last year, ordinary people have the taste of peanuts.

It's just that at this time, the price of peanuts is still much higher than that of ordinary wheat and rice, so ordinary people are not too willing to eat it, but choose to sell it.

In a teahouse like this, in addition to providing tea, some snacks such as fried beans and fried peanuts will also be provided, so that these people can have more snacks after dinner.

At this time, the two of them bracked their ears and listened carefully to the conversation of the boatmen in the teahouse.

"It's not good, Li Zixiao's fleet left the port, I'm afraid it was going to the East China Sea. We have to inform the general of this news as soon as possible, so that the general can be on guard! ”

Soon, one of the two men whispered.

"Yes, Li Zixiao sent a fleet out of the port at this time, I'm afraid that he didn't have any good intentions, so I have to quickly remind the general that we will return to Quanzhou as soon as the city gate opens tomorrow."

The other young man on the opposite side also answered in a low voice with a gloomy face.

On this day, because of the departure of the White Dragon Army naval fleet, it caused quite a stir in Yangzhou.

The Daming Sailor has already declined, not to mention ordinary people, even Shi Kefa, who was in Yangzhou Port at this time, was really shocked this time.

In fact, what Shi Kefa didn't know was that the fleet that departed from Yangzhou Port this time was only two detachments of the White Dragon Army Navy.

In addition, there are two detachments, which departed from Haizhou Port, after all, Yangzhou Port is still an inland port, and it is difficult to berth hundreds of warships.

In that case, it would affect the berthing of other civilian ships, and Li Zixiao had no intention of using Yangzhou Port as the base of the White Dragon Army Navy from the beginning.

Instead, he chose Haizhou Port, but at this time, the naval base in Haizhou Port was not completely completed, and it was impossible to moor four detachments at the same time, so Li Zixiao had no choice but to separate them.

The fleets that sailed from the two ports would converge on the sea east of the mouth of the Yangtze River, and then enter the East China Sea, heading for the Ryukyu Islands first.

Li Zixiao sent Lu Yuan to lead the naval fleet to sea this time, and he had no intention of immediately starting a war with the Zheng family.

After all, at this time, the Zheng family was still at war with the red-haired ghost, and if Li Zixiao attacked the Zheng family, wouldn't it help the red-haired ghost, Li Zixiao disdained to do so.

Li Zixiao sent Lu Yuan to sea this time, first to cross the East China Sea, and the first target was the Ryukyu Islands.

Li Zixiao wants to take the opportunity to show his first intention to the Zheng family: in the future, the East China Sea will no longer only be exclusive to the Zheng family's fleet, but also the East China Sea will be enjoyed by our White Dragon Army fleet.

Immediately, Lu Yuan would lead the fleet to the Ryukyu Kingdom on the Ryukyu Islands and establish a naval base there.

At this time, the Ryukyu country on Ryukyu Island was still canonized by the Ming court, and they had their own language, and they took the name of the year of Huaxia and pursued Huaxia as the Zhengshuo.

The Ryukyu Islands, which were occupied by the Ryukyu Kingdom, consisted mainly of three small islands: the Amami Islands, the Okinawa Islands, and the Sakishima Islands.

Among them, the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom is Shuri on the Okinawa Islands, but it is a pity that the Ryukyu Kingdom at this time is no longer the previous Ryukyu Kingdom.

Just 33 years ago, in the 37th year of Wanli, Tsuiehisa, the lord of the Kagoshima Mosa Domain, the lord of the Kagoshima Mosa Domain, sent 3,000 troops to capture Ryukyu.

In addition, for more than 30 years, the Wa Kingdom continued to use troops against the Ryukyu Kingdom, and by this time it had basically taken control of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

However, due to the Ming Dynasty, the Mosa Domain still ostensibly allowed the Ryukyu Kingdom to remain independent and accept the title of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact it was already a puppet regime, and it had to pay tribute to the Mosa Domain every year.

As for this time, Chongzhen couldn't even keep their old Zhu family's country, and of course he didn't have the energy to take care of a small overseas vassal country.

But Li Zixiao is just preparing to intervene in the Ryukyu Kingdom this time, which is also the first step for him to compete with the Zheng family for the East China Sea, and it is also the outpost for him to send troops to the Wa Kingdom in the future.

Just when Lu Yuan led the naval fleet of the White Dragon Army, crossed the Zhoushan Islands, and entered the East China Sea for more than ten nautical miles, they encountered two Zheng family warships.

These two Zheng family warships were arranged here by the Zheng family, responsible for monitoring the White Dragon Army, guarding the northern sea boundary of the East China Sea, and rotating every half a month.

"Oh my God, Zuo Dai, look!"

At this time, on the building of one of the Zheng family's warships, a Zheng family sailor, with a frightened face, was holding a clairvoyant mirror to look west, and shouted to a companion next to him.

The Zheng family's clairvoyant mirror was purchased from Jiangbei, and when Zheng Zhilong went to Jiangbei before, Li Zixiao gave him a clairvoyant mirror.

And Zheng Zhilong, who got the clairvoyant mirror, immediately regarded it as a treasure, which is simply a perfect match for a sea ship!

For this reason, Zheng Zhilong spared no expense to purchase hundreds of them from Jiangbei, spent more than 100,000 taels of silver, and gave him many warships, all equipped with a clairvoyant mirror.

And the actual cost of each clairvoyant mirror is actually only a dozen taels of silver, and the profit has increased hundreds of times, if Zheng Zhilong knows, he will definitely scold Li Zixiao to death.

"What's wrong?" The sailor of the Zheng family next to him asked, while looking to the west.

But this sailor did not have a clairvoyant, at this time he could only see a lot of black spots in the sky and sea in the distance, but this was an old sailor, and he immediately guessed that those black spots in the distance were probably ships.

"What? Has a merchant fleet entered the East China Sea in Jiangbei? Didn't the general tell us that the merchant ships from Jiangbei were allowed to enter the East China Sea? ”

At this time, the sailor was still puzzled for a while, he thought that it was a merchant ship that appeared, and what could appear here at this time was most likely a merchant ship from Jiangbei.

"No, see for yourself, I'll go down and report to the captain."

After saying that, the sailor stuffed the clairvoyant mirror in his hand into the arms of his companion next to him, and then, with a panicked face, hurried down the building to find the captain.

And the sailor, who was still on the ship's floor, raised his clairvoyant mirror at this time, looked to the west, and immediately he exclaimed: "How is it possible, those are warships!" ”

This sailor, through the clairvoyant mirror at this time, can clearly see the 'Ming' flag and the 'White Snake' flag unique to the White Dragon Army on the White Dragon Army's warship.

And warships and merchant ships are also very easy to distinguish, just from what he saw at this time, the White Dragon Army warships, the cannons that could not be concealed, you can know that these are warships.

At this time, in the fleet of the White Dragon Army's navy, several small warships with fast speed had been divided, and they quickly came towards them from both wings.

Woooooo

It didn't take long for the Zheng family's warship to sound a whine, which was a battle horn, a warning for the crew to prepare for battle.

Teng Teng!

Soon, on the deck of the Zheng family's warship, there was a chaotic sound of footsteps, and many Zheng family sailors and soldiers rushed out of the cabin and came to the deck with fire guns.

"Li Zixiao's fleet? How did it suddenly enter our waters? ”

One of the Zheng family's retainers, who was also the captain of this warship, Ma Yuan, said coldly.

At this time, Ma Yuan stood on the deck, his face was solemn, looking to the west, he could already vaguely see the appearance of the White Dragon Army's warship.

(End of chapter)