. "We're back, we're back..."

Seeing the Shanghai Port in the distance, all the officers and soldiers on the Nanyang Fleet couldn't help but cheer. They had been away from their hometown for a year and have returned home. Many people cheered while tears flowed out of their faces.

A flying scissor communication ship sailed out of Shanghai Port, and the signal soldiers on the ship quickly whistled out the flag: "Welcome home"

"Go home." Gu Sanmazi murmured this sentence, and all kinds of ups and downs of sweetness and bitterness over the past year suddenly surged into his heart.

For more than a hundred years, due to the court's intermittent sea ban policy, the South Ocean, which was once the inland sea of ​​the imperial court, has been full of fishy places. Westerners have been racing around the South Ocean. This time, the South Ocean fleet was patrolling, and it felt like they could not find a place to put their feet. Luzon was a Spanish colony, and Manraga, Maguru Islands, Java and others have successively become Dutch colonies.

Seeing this, the entire Nanyang Fleet was quite worried and at the same time felt a little relieved. Fortunately, the court had already formed two marine fleets. Otherwise, in a few decades, the entire Nanyang Fleet would probably fall into the hands of the barbarians. At that time, the seaside of thousands of miles will be allowed to rampant, and perhaps it would cause even greater chaos than the Japanese pirates during the Jiajing period.

Faced with the large-scale deployment of the Ming fleet, the most uneasy thing was Spain and the Netherlands. The two countries had significant interests in the South China Sea, especially the Netherlands. Since robbing the Portuguese Manraga, they have completely monopolized the trade of the Spice Islands, bringing tens of millions of Dutch guilds to the Netherlands every year. If the Ming giant intervened in the Spice Islands, it would definitely cause huge losses to the Netherlands.

If the Ming Dynasty's fleet was not too powerful, the Dutch would probably be unable to help but dispatch the fleet to intercept it, rather than just sending the Clippers to follow it.

The Dutch's worries were reasonable. If the Nanyang Fleet had not had another mission, Gu Sanmazi would not mind capturing the islands to which the Dutch belonged, instead of avoiding the colonies of the barbarians, and just establishing some supply points. After several months of sailing, the fleet successfully found what the emperor called Australia. Fortunately, Australia was not occupied by the barbarians. After months of searching, they searched for many species unique to the mainland. After one understanding of this continent, half of the people left to establish strongholds on the mainland in advance. The fleet began to return. A year passed.

"The Ming Dynasty is so big." Looking at the cheering crowd, a Dutch businessman couldn't help but sigh.

"It's not only big, but also rich." A Spanish businessman said in a sour tone.

Since the Netherlands' independence from Spain, the war between the two countries has lasted for more than fifty years. In the Southeast Asian country, just to seize Manila, the Dutch fought nine wars with Spain. The previous war only took place in Hongguang three years, only four years ago. However, when facing the huge Ming Empire, the two countries naturally shared the same hatred for the enemy.

It would be fine if it was just big and rich. The Inca Empire in South America had a population of more than 10 million and had hundreds of thousands of troops. In the early stage, Spain defeated tens of thousands of Inca troops with just 110 people, captured the Inca king and hanged the Inca king to death in front of thousands of Inca troops.

Governor Malani once fantasized about organizing an army of thousands of people to conquer the Ming Dynasty and wrote a letter to return home to demand support. In Governor Malani's view, this was also an overestimation of the Ming Dynasty. However, he did not expect that the power organized by the two countries secretly was bloody, and it completely made the Spanish die. He was worried that Luzon would be seized by the Ming Dynasty.

But they were useless to worry. In terms of maritime trade, the Ming Dynasty had an absolute advantage. Silk, porcelain, and tea were all specialties of the Ming Dynasty, so it would be fine to be sneaky. If any country offends the Ming Dynasty, as long as the Ming Dynasty blocks its trade, which country will suffer huge losses.

The return of the Nanyang Fleet caused a sensation. In addition to the land that was almost equivalent to the Central Plains, the most interesting thing to ordinary people were the various animals brought back by the Nanyang Fleet, such as a pocket on its abdomen, a walking kangaroo, a big bird that was more than ten times larger than a hen, a bloated body, a black and oily nose, which looked like a fat child's face and a cute koala...

On the day when Gu San led the officers and soldiers of the Nanyang Fleet back to Beijing, there were thousands of people in Nanjing, and they were rushing to read the newspapers to describe several magical animals. When they saw these animals with their own eyes, they were amazed. Many citizens regarded several animals as auspicious. After that, the entire city of Nanjing was talking about these animals. Many citizens took their whole family to the newly opened zoo to see a surprise.

Gu San was led into the hall by the eunuch. Seeing the emperor and the cabinet ministers sitting upright, he hurriedly knelt down in the direction of the emperor: "I will meet the emperor, long live my emperor."

"Gu Aiqing quickly flatten his body and give him a seat."

This was the fourth day after Gu San returned to Beijing. On the day he returned to Beijing, the emperor personally ordered the cabinet ministers to greet him outside the gate of Nanjing, and issued an order to designate Gu San as the Marquis of Jinghai, allowing the troops who came back from Nanyang to take a month off. All officers and soldiers were awarded the first-class silver medal of loyalty and courage, plus ten pieces of brocade, five pieces of cotton, and two hundred silver coins for each person. The reward was generous.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Gu San stood up from the ground, sat upright on the brocade stool, and looked at the emperor secretly. After not seeing him for a year, the emperor's face had not changed, but his eyebrows were frowning, as if there were many worries in his expression.

"Gu Aiqing, thank you for your hard work this time."

"I did not work hard for the Emperor to open up the territory for the Ming Dynasty, but the emperor rewarded me with great rewards. I am ashamed of me for the mere merits."

After a few chats between the king and his ministers, the emperor changed his words and said, "Gu Aiqing, you will tell me in detail about the past and the situation in Australia."

Hearing the emperor's words, Ma Shiying, Qian Qianyi and others immediately focused their energy. Although the cabinet has read Gu San's report in the past few days, how can the report be compared with Gu San's personal description?

"I obey the order." Gu San replied, and he slowly explained the story of going out to the sea. When he talked about the barbarians occupying almost all countries in the Southeast Asian countries, Ma Shiying and others frowned.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty's lack of concern for the ocean in the past, whether it is the people or the court, the attention to the ocean has been rising in recent years. Without any other benefits, the Ming Dynasty's customs tariffs reached as much as 26 million taels last year. Statistics today, the customs tariffs reached more than 19 million taels, and the annual tax revenue is expected to exceed 30 million taels, which is more than the annual tax revenue during the Chongzhen period. It has also become the second largest tax type in the Ming Dynasty, while the agricultural tax has slipped to the third. Commercial tax jumped to the first tax type after removing the salt tax. Last year, the total was more than 29 million taels, and this year it is expected to reach 35 million taels.

During the Chongzhen period, for the war in Liaodong, the national tax increase was only more than 9 million taels at its highest, which forced the country to smoke. Although the national tax revenue is more than three times that of the Chongzhen period, if the government rashly lost tens of millions of dollars to maintain the tax increase, the court would not have increased taxes. All kinds of budgets must be too tight. After experiencing the sweetness of the increase in annual income over the years, no one would want to live the hard life of having no money in the past.

"Master Gu, the barbarians are so rampant. Can the Nanyang Fleet be eliminated?" The first question was Shi Kefa. Among the people in the cabinet, Shi Kefa was the one who had no favourites for the barbarians. In his opinion, the barbarians put interests first and there was no courtesy, righteousness, integrity and shame. The farther away from those barbarians, the better.

"This..." Gu San hesitated for a moment before saying: "Mr. Hui Shi, the strength of the Nanyang Fleet alone is not enough to be eliminated."

Shi Kefa's face sank and said bluntly: "Mr. Gu, in your opinion, the Spanish country has only more than 2,000 troops in Malani, the Dutch country has only more than 5,000 troops, and the South China Fleet has no less than 30,000 soldiers. Even if the West and the Netherlands join forces, the South China Fleet will be far stronger than the two countries. Moreover, the two countries have always had a feud, so why can't the barbarians of the two countries be eliminated?"

"Mr. Hui Shi, taking Xiyi as an example, it has been operating in Luzon for decades. In addition to the army, there are more than 10,000 residents on the island. The Westerners mainly use muskets, and it is not allowed to own them privately. Once there is a war, as long as it is temporarily convened, it can expand the army several times. With the indigenous people who surrender, it may even expand the army ten times. The same is true for the Dutch. There are no less than tens of thousands of Dutch spread across the Southeast Asian region and occupy a geographical advantage. If the war occurs, the barbarians will definitely strive to expand the army..."

Gu San's explanation made everyone in the cabinet frown. When the barbarians expanded their troops, the Ming Dynasty could naturally increase its troops. However, the war obviously could not end in a short time. Once the war lasted for a long time, it would not only affect the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade, but also could not be carried out.

Seeing that the ministers of the cabinet were heavy on the surface, Wang Fu pretended to be relaxed: "Dear friends, don't worry too much. Nanyang is close to the Ming Dynasty and far away from the barbarians. The court can immigrate in advance, and it will not be too late to expel the barbarians when the immigrants gain a foothold in Nanyang."

Hearing the emperor's words, everyone thought intently, and their expressions became relaxed, and they replied: "The Emperor is wise."

Yes, at most, there are only tens of thousands of barbarians. As long as you wait a few years, the court can easily immigrate to Southeast Asia by millions. Even if you use the sea of ​​people to flood the barbarians, you can also subdue them.

"In order to prevent immigrants from being bullied by the barbarians and indigenous peoples, I have a proposal to open the ban on guns among immigrants in Southeast Asia and allow immigrants to purchase muskets and protect themselves. How about it?"

What? Ma Shiying, Qian Qianyi and others looked at the emperor in shock, almost unbelieving their ears. The musket was powerful. If immigrants were allowed to buy muskets, the consequences would be unimaginable if they fought against the government.

Wang Fu naturally had his own plans. After some reductions, the Ming army still has more than 700,000 people. At present, the surrounding situation around the Ming Dynasty is enough to use 700,000 troops. Only about half of the 700,000 troops are equipped with muskets, and the rest are mainly cold weapons.

It’s not that Wang Fu didn’t want to fully equip the army with muskets, but the cost of equipting muskets is far more than cold weapons. Although the cost of a musket is only 15 times that of cold weapons, the maintenance cost is several times, and the cost of war is dozens of times. With the current financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, it feels unbearable to replace more than 700,000 troops with firearms. With the development of the Ming Dynasty’s Military Weapons Bureau, the Ming Dynasty has developed a second-generation flintlock rifle, with a range and service life exceeding the first generation, and the price is naturally higher. If the first generation musket is replaced, it can be bought for the people, and the money earned can be used to purchase the second-generation muskets and equipment for the army.
Chapter completed!