?The North Korean mission left Nanjing with five conditions proposed by China. After returning to North Korea, Shang Yi made most of the relevant preparations during his Beijing inspection trip and was about to set off.--.

The members of the harem who accompanied Shang Yi to inspect Beijing this time were Empress Ye Yaoying and the concubine Alisandra of Xianfu Palace, as well as the eldest princess Shang Wan, the second princess Shang E, and the wife of Gonzalez. In fact, they took Alisandra and his family to Beijing for a trip, because the foreign uncle Andre was the commander of the Guard Corps, so of course they also had to go with them.

However, the other imperial concubines in the harem also understood it very well. After all, it was not easy for the old couple to come to China. And after leaving this time, it would be difficult to have another chance to come to China. Therefore, it is appropriate to take care of them more this time. In fact, in this era, Chinese people have always been friendly to foreigners, and Ye Yaoying also believes that one more person will be more lively on the road. Of course, when these two empresses go, their daughters naturally have to follow them. Fortunately, Shang Wan is almost five years old, and Shang E is over three years old, and can go on a long journey.

In fact, the sisters Zhu Mai and Zhu Maijie also wanted to go with them because they were both former princesses, so of course they wanted to return to the Forbidden City to take a look. However, Zhu Maijie had just given birth, and her daughter Shang Jing was only half a year old and could not bear the pain of the bumpy roads. Zhu Maijie did not want to leave her sister and went there alone. In addition, Shang Yi had issued an order that in five years, the empire would move its capital to Beijing, and would go back to Beijing sooner or later, so there was no need to rush for a while, so she gave up this time.

Because this Northern Tour also had remote control of the task of fighting against Mongolia, among the people accompanying him, Du Yinxi, the deputy minister of the United Front Work Department, would be responsible for Beijing to take charge and comprehensively coordinate the two groups of people against Mongolia. The other officials accompanying him were more than 80, all selected by the cabinet and took office in various places in the north, more than 20 of whom took office in the area around Beijing, so they all followed Shang Yi.

Now Shang Yi's identity is different. He is the emperor for a long time, so security work is even more important. When the guard army dispatches a division, a brigade and a cavalry regiment to protect the troops, the commander-deputy army commander Andrei and Wu Liangzheng lead the team, and the Nanjing Military Region also dispatches the Seventh Army, the 20th Army and two armies accompanying him, and a cavalry regiment was drawn from the Seventh Army. The commander of the Military Region Duan Peng also took charge of the full range of troops dispatching this trip to Beijing. Therefore, the total force of the accompanying troops reached more than 80,000, and the total number of officials and servants was close to 100,000.

After Shang Yi and Ye Yao-ying left Nanjing, the domestic government affairs cabinet was presided over, and Li Yan was responsible for military affairs, and Nanjing's security work was responsible for He Chong, deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region, and Lin Fengwu took over the affairs in the palace, so everything at home was arranged.

In addition, this time during this Beijing inspection, Shang Yi's troops also brought a large number of muskets, artillery and ammunition to prepare for a major change of the Beijing Military Region.

It turned out that in the past few years, Yu Shangyi introduced the open furnace steelmaking method, hot air technology, and the use of coke and other advanced smelting technologies, which greatly improved the quality and service life of the manufactured muskets and cannons. At the same time, six arsenals were established, two, big, four, and small.

At the same time, we have also begun to try to produce some small rifled artillery and conical warhead shells. Of course, because the metal technology level in this era has not reached the level of post-filling, the production of front-loading cannons is still the earliest mortars. The total length is about four feet, the diameter is about two inches, the thickness of the pipe wall is about three minutes on the mouth, five minutes on the tail of the pipe, and the total weight is only about one hundred and twenty kilograms. If placed on the car, a person can drag it away or directly on the horse's back, which is very convenient. Because of the use of rifling technology, the maximum range of the cannon can reach four or five hundred steps, which almost catches the range of medium and heavy artillery. The shells also use flowering bullets.

After the Central Plains War, Shang Yi planned to undergo a major change of uniforms for the entire army. However, at that time, the number of the entire Chinese army had reached more than 600,000, with more than 500,000 rifled rifles, and less than 100,000 rifled rifles. There were more than 12,000 guns in various types, and more than 9,000 small and medium-sized artillery pieces. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve the replacement of all the troops in the short term. In addition, in order to support the Central Plains War, all arsenals were speeding up the production of weapons. At this time, there were more than 300,000 smoothbore rifles, more than 5,000 small and medium-sized artillery pieces, as well as their corresponding guns and ammunition. Once the troops were fully equipped, all these guns and cannons would be useless.

In addition, at this time, the Chinese army also began to use troops to the south, so Shang Yi also decided not to change the equipment for the time being, but to use the old-fashioned smoothbore guns to use up all the guns and cannons in the warehouse. However, all the arsenals stopped producing smoothbore muskets, but instead all changed to production line-based rifled muskets and Minnie bullets.

After the Qing Dynasty was completely destroyed, a batch of new rifled muskets and light rifled mortars were produced in the arsenal. At the same time, all the eight major military regions of the Chinese army were rebuilt. Shang Yi then ordered a major change of assembly of the Chinese army, and the entire army changed to rifled cannons. In addition to heavy artillery, all other small and medium-sized cannons were eliminated.

Of course, not all the old-style muskets replaced were abandoned, because many of them were far from their service life. Except for some of them, the rest were transferred to local garrisons for use, and a considerable part of the artillery was transferred to the navy to strengthen the firepower of the coastal turrets.

Since the current war is mainly concentrated in the north, the first thing to do is to change the equipment of the two military regions of Beijing and Gansu.

This time, Dao Shangyi's team brought 50,000 new rifled muskets, 800 light rifled mortars, and corresponding ammunition, which can meet the replacement of the two armies.

The range and precision of the rifled muskets are much higher than the smoothbore muskets, and the filling method is almost the same. Therefore, soldiers do not need to adapt again and can use it directly. Moreover, since the inner wall of the barrel is rifled, the inner diameter of the gun barrel is slightly larger, making it more convenient to fill the bullets. The new light-roofed mortar cannon not only have a long range, but also more convenient to carry and carry. Therefore, after the troops change their gear, their combat effectiveness will be greatly improved.

But at the end of August, news came from Luzon that the Dutch East India Company in Batavia made two decisions: one was to announce that it would increase the port fee for all ships entering and leaving the Strait of Malacca; the other was to strengthen the alliance with Japan to jointly deal with the Chinese Empire.

It turned out that after the Dutch envoy was disappointed in Nanjing, he did not attend any exhibition at all. Instead, he immediately returned to Batavia and reported the results of his trip to the Netherlands East India Company.

The directors of the Dutch East India Company immediately recruited the company's board meeting and proposed to China that it would be necessary to reopen trade between China and the Netherlands in Batavia in exchange for the establishment of a Chinese merchant store in the Netherlands. Most directors believed that this was unacceptable, because the situation of a Dutch monopoly on trade in Asian states has been broken, and after the Netherlands made such a big concession, they could only obtain the same rights as Spain and France in China, which was not as good as the United Kingdom, and it was impossible to restore the trade level before the break with China, so of course it was unacceptable for the Dutch East India Company.

But now the Dutch East India Company has no countermeasures against China at all, because after introducing other European countries into China, China does not need to trade with the Netherlands, but the Netherlands cannot lose China. Although the Dutch East India Company has also applied to the Netherlands to send troops to Asia to support, it is not to mention whether the application can be approved. Even if the Dutch Parliament approved the application, it will take at least one year from the formation of the army to the arrival of Asia, and it is not impossible to delay it for two or three years, but the Dutch East India Company has no choice but to wait.

Although it has only been two years since the break with China, the revenue of the Dutch East India Company has dropped by nearly 30%. In order to ensure that domestic shareholders still have confidence in the company and do not withdraw their investment, the Dutch East India Company had to bite the bullet and still insist on paying dividends to domestic shareholders. However, the board members in Batavia have not received dividends for two years. Although the Dutch East India Company has a strong foundation and can afford to lose money for the time being, if this continues for a long time, the company will be difficult to maintain.

Therefore, the directors also tried their best to come up with various solutions, one was to strengthen cooperation with Japan to jointly fight against the Chinese Empire, and at the same time, they could also obtain Chinese goods through Japan. There was always a good relationship between the Netherlands and Japan. During Japan's closed-door lockdown, they still opened a crack in the Netherlands. Although they were just a turnaround, they still wanted to be cheaper than other European countries.

However, Japan's own trade capacity is also very limited, and strengthening trade with Japan is also a drop in the bucket. Therefore, a director proposed to take advantage of Batavia's geographical advantages to collect taxes on merchant ships across the Strait of Malacca. On the one hand, it can increase the company's income, and on the other hand, it can put pressure on the Chinese Empire, so that the Chinese Empire can open up trade with the Netherlands. Of course, all directors also know that it is a good fortune. This means offending most European countries. However, in order to overcome the current difficulties, even though it is a glass of wine, it has to drink it.

After receiving the report, Shang Yi immediately held a meeting with the cabinet, United Front Work Department, and Foreign Affairs Department. In the end, everyone agreed that they could not compromise with the Netherlands and decided to send a squadron from the Nanyang Fleet to Luzon, join Li Huamei's fleet, escort the merchant ships from the crossing and attack Batavia, and also blocked the merchant ships from the Netherlands to Japan, and drove away new routes to see who could consume whom.

After all the work was arranged, on August 26, Shang Yi set off from Nanjing and started his tour of Beijing. Please visit him when he saw the first release without any advertisements--.

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