Ming Taizi's Total War

Chapter 320 Ryukyu Restoration, Recovering Treasure Island

However, this is what happened after Xu Hongji and Zheng Zhilong left. The East China Sea Fleet is a large-scale fleet equipped with new technology and a large number of artillery. Replenishment of this fleet remains difficult.

Not to mention the vast sea, to find a fleet is really not much different from finding a needle in a haystack, and the fleet needs a lot of ships to replenish, and these ships need escorts.

Therefore, many times, even as a powerful Chinese army, Xu Hongji and Zheng Zhilong could only use gold and silver to obtain supplies from the Korean Kingdom and Japan through political means.

Fortunately, the technology in this era is backward, and there is no fixed shell, otherwise, even if the Kingdom of Korea and Japan want to replenish this fleet, they will not be able to do so.

According to Zhu Cihong's plan, after Xu Hongji's naval fleet leaves Dongpu, it will go all the way south and sail all the way to Nanyang.

At that time, Southeast Asia had not yet fallen into the hands of Western colonists. The Spaniards and the Dutch only established colonial strongholds in a few places such as Mindanao in Southeast Asia, enslaved the local natives, cultivated cash crops, and plundered gold.

While Daming was busy quelling internal strife and resisting foreign aggression, they even reached out to Treasure Island across the sea from Daming, and established several forts and strongholds here.

But now that the Ming Dynasty has solved all the troubles on land, the end of these Westerners is coming.

Since leaving Dongying, Xu Hongji and the others first went all the way south along the Ryukyu Islands, heading towards Quanzhou.

Quanzhou has been the most important port in the southeast since the Tang and Song Dynasties, and has created countless wealth for China. The wide harbor and deep water here are most suitable for Xu Hongji and his fleet's deep-draft sharp-bottomed ships.

While passing through the Ryukyu Islands, they also met Shang Zhi, the king of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

When he saw Xu Hongji and others, as well as the warship of the Ming army that looked as tall as a palace, Shang Zhi cried to them about the atrocities that the Dongying people had inflicted on him.

It turns out that the Kingdom of Ryukyu is an independent island country in the East China Sea. The territory of this country is an archipelago, extending from today's Okinawa in the north to some small islands near Treasure Island in the south.

In the [-]th century, when the Ryukyu Kingdom was still in a state of fragmentation, they surrendered to Ming Dynasty and became one of the vassal states of Ming Dynasty.

However, decades ago, that is, at the end of Wanli's reign, the Satsuma clan of Dongying sent troops to invade and occupy this place. It was only because they were afraid that the Chinese government would intervene in this matter, so the Satsuma clan had never dared to declare the occupation of this place, but used various methods. Such means secretly control the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Anyway, the total population of the Ryukyu Kingdom is only a few hundred thousand, not even as large as the population of a prefecture in the Central Plains, and the land is so narrow that it is only one county. If the islands were not commercially developed and rich in fish, pearls, corals, etc., the Ryukyu Islands would probably There is not even a shadow of a human being.

Because of this, the Satsuma clan strengthened its determination to invade the Ryukyu Islands. It happened that they chose the right time. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Ming Dynasty was caught in a war with the Michou people and had no time to worry about anything else.

Finally, the Ming-Qing war ceased for a while, and peasant uprisings in the interior broke out one after another. From then on, the Ming court was busy with wars and tax collection all day long, and had no time to pay attention to the affairs of the vassal states like Ryukyu.

When the Qing Dynasty, which neglected the ocean and neglected coastal defense, took over the Central Plains, the Ryukyu Kingdom became a forgotten corner of the world.

A few hundred years later, the Dongying people took this place as their own land for granted, and until today Ryukyu is still under their rule and there is no hope of restoring the country.

Hearing the Ryukyu King Shangzhi complaining to the Dongying people with tears in his eyes, everyone except Zheng Zhilong was furious, because Zheng Zhilong had been living at sea all year round, and he was no stranger to this.

I saw Xu Hongji slammed his big hands on the chair, stood up angrily and said, "How can there be such a thing in the world, the Holy Son of Heaven is coming, these Dongying Xiaoxiao dare to invade Ryukyu openly, and insult a prince like this!" .”

Xu Hongji immediately mobilized 500 soldiers and horses, named Zheng Chenggong, landed on the island to destroy the people sent by the Satsuma Domain to control the Ryukyu Kingdom. At the same time, he also sent people to the land to report the experiences of Ryukyu to Zhu Cihong.

Although he has Japanese blood, in the Chinese civilization circle at that time, the Japanese were as disgusting as the goblins in anime and games, so Zheng Chenggong killed the Japanese who belonged to the Satsuma Domain on the island. Show no mercy.

After seeing Zheng Chenggong's well-armored soldier and horse, Shang Zhi also had the confidence to lead the palace guards who he could command even on the island to hunt down the people of Satsuma.

Coupled with the blockade of the sea by the Ming army fleet, the Satsuma people on the Ryukyu Islands suddenly became shackles, and were ruthlessly wiped out by the palace guards of the Ming army monks.

In this way, the Ryukyu Kingdom was actually restored. Of course, in name they have always been a vassal state of Ming Dynasty.

Then, Xu Hongji, Zheng Zhilong and his party floated thousands of miles on the sea and arrived at Quanzhou, the most prosperous port city on the southeast coast.

As soon as they docked, many local government officials from Fujian Bingbei Road, Quanzhou Prefect, and Penghu Inspection Department came to pay homage. In terms of status, Xu Hongji, Wei Guogong and the admiral of the Donghai Navy, far surpassed local officials.

In terms of power, Zheng Zhilong, the uncrowned king of the sea with more than [-] soldiers for decades, makes them even more frightened.

Together with the local officials, there was a letter from Zhu Cihong who sent a clipper southward to Xu Hongji and others.

Zhu Cilang thought that since the navy had arrived near the Penghu Islands, it would be better to take this opportunity to deploy the troops of the Fujian capital commander to cooperate with the Donghai navy to drive away the Dutch on the island, and then let the Fujian chief envoy dispatch to the island. Officials, set up government offices.

It has been more than [-] years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. There are many people who have achieved fame or higher, as well as officials who have no way out at home. They recovered Treasure Island, set up government offices, and some wanted to become officials.

But before that, Xu Hongji and the others needed to replenish enough fresh water and food. Although the fleet hardly fought along the way, the consumption of food and drinking water was terrible.

Although they passed through Ryukyu before, the Ryukyu Islands are small in size, food and fresh water are scarce, and they are unable to supply the fleet. Therefore, after leaving Edo, Xu Hongji and the others did not receive any supplies along the way.

Soon, under the order of the Quanzhou prefect, barrels of fresh water and food were carried to the fleet.

In addition, there are hundreds of large and small warships gathered near the fleet. They are elite soldiers raised by the Fujian Capital Commandery Division to assist the navy in regaining the treasure island, and at the same time maintain law and order on the island and consolidate the rule of the imperial court. .

(End of this chapter)