The Ming Dynasty’s Prodigal Son - Chapter 1866

[1866. Chapter 1776 The Lonely Minister Thousands of Miles Away]

Zhu Houzhao’s face was stained with red light.

These months of hard work were almost in vain.

It can even be said that since the development and improvement of ironclad ships began ten years ago, there has been no waste.

Any science, by its nature, needs to be promoted by interests. There is never anything in the world that promotes for the sake of promotion.

The essence of this great victory… had made the emperor realize deep down that the so-called science was the foundation.

There is nothing in this world that is more profitable than science.

Zhu Houzhao patted Fang Jifan on the shoulder.

Fang Jifan sighed and stood there, maintaining a good image and wiping his hair.

This was a historic moment. He winked at the eunuch who was sitting nearby. The eunuch immediately cheered up, took out a piece of bamboo and picked up his pen.

Fang Jifan said: “Your Majesty personally came to the front line of fire, fought fiercely with the traitors for three hundred days, defeated the traitors, and destroyed the Spanish and Portuguese fleets. After that, our Ming Dynasty has no rivals in the four seas, and I am not talented. I followed your Majesty in east and west campaigns, and traveled thousands of miles. Although I have no ability to strategize, I still have the ambition to win a thousand miles. In this battle, I personally fired the cannon and sunk countless pirate ships. I am worthy of the lintel of the Fang family and worthy of the heroes of our ancestors. Now we are fighting to the death, thanks to your majesty. , I entrust the officers and soldiers to be loyal and brave. Our successor has no merit. Now, I am determined to write a poem to cheer up. This poem… you will leave it blank for now, and you can fill it in when my prince remembers it.

” The eunuch who was recording shook his hand and subconsciously felt…it seemed like this was not in line with the operation!

So, he cautiously raised his head and glanced at Fang Jifan, then lowered his head hurriedly, and said tremblingly: “I wonder if the poem the Lord recited is the five rhymes or the seven rhymes?”

Fang Jifan was stunned, blinked, and then He said angrily: “You bitch, how can there be so many words?”

The eunuch was frightened and said hurriedly: “This…isn’t this a blank space? My servant…my servant can determine the spaces according to the Five and Seven Rules.”

Eh? Can it still be like this?

Fang Jifan suddenly felt that each of the ancient people was very extraordinary. They all seemed to be capable people. Fang Jifan had never imagined this. It can be seen that every line is like a mountain!

So Fang Jifan was open-minded and studious and said, “You can make up your own mind. Leave some more. You may not be able to compose two or three poems when public poetry in your country becomes popular.”

Hum, I am who I am, and Fang Jifan does not seek fame in vain, otherwise Our successor, Fang, wrote 30,000 poems, and taught us that after our successor, there would be no more poets.

Since it was a big victory, there was no need to celebrate.

On the ship, a brief celebration party was held.

Immediately, the casual sailing ship began to supply the ironclad ship.

These accompanying sailing ships carry a large amount of ammunition, fresh water and coal. It is meaningless to expect them to engage the enemy. However, they can be used as assistance, but they still have some capabilities.

After replenishing supplies, the accompanying wooden warships began to collect the spoils, check the prisoners, and tally the results. Then, the ironclads began to set off, following Zhu Houzhao’s order, to the Northern Province.

Now, the Ottoman, Spanish and Portuguese navies were all destroyed.

Nowadays, the ships that can still float on the continent of Europe and North Africa are almost all old ships, or some merchant ships that can only carry cargo. At best, they are only converted into armed merchant ships, but in real warships In front of him, he was almost vulnerable.

Therefore…the entire ocean has become the inner lake of the Ming Dynasty.

You can go wherever you want, without even having to develop an elaborate strategy.

And the next step… is to arrive in the Northern Province, use this Northern Province as the fulcrum, and start to establish a new order.

As more than a dozen ironclad ships slowly passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, the Spanish at the port noticed this uninvited guest because it was daytime.

It’s a pity that they can only look back and sigh.

Fang Jifan stood on the side of the ship, waved to them warmly, and greeted their relatives. However, these people could only look through telescopes, and then looked at the fleet with confused expressions as it slowly passed by.

………

In total, Northern Province has experienced six years of war.

In the past six years, countless enemies have come and gone like a tide.

At first, the Dutch were numb.

But as the enemy became more and more anxious, the originally knightly war began to become ruthless.

Whenever they attack a place, they start killing, and no grass grows where they say they will.

In order to completely cut off the supplies of the Han army, they even sprinkled sea salt on the land during their retreat, took away every livestock, and burned down all the houses that could provide shelter from the wind and rain.

So… the originally indifferent Frisians and Dutch suddenly became angry.

They joined the Han army without hesitation and were united.

The Frisian infantry regiments and the Dutch infantry regiments could even hold on to a fortress for a year and a half.

Now in this land, the number of Han troops is around 6,000, but the locals in the Netherlands can recruit a regular regiment of 11,000 people and 60,000 to 70,000 auxiliary troops.

But…the steady stream of coalition forces is countless. After six years and bloody battles again and again, the entire Northern Province has reached the end of its rope.

Food was almost exhausted. Only the fleet broke through the blockade and occasionally purchased some food from Britain. Productivity was greatly damaged, so that the land failed to harvest on a large scale.

Liu Wenshan implemented the rationing method here.

During the war, all food must be distributed uniformly. The daily ration of each soldier and the amount of each citizen must be carefully calculated, and not a single grain of food must be wasted easily.

Tang Yin and Qi Jingtong took the fleet and looked for food everywhere, and even… turned the ships into fishing boats.

It’s a pity that there are no large yellow croakers here, so the experience in Ningbo becomes useless here.

As the governor, Wang Xizuo began to slowly become more comfortable.

It’s just that…the daily battles were like a noose, making him feel suffocated all the time.

Surviving from desperate situations again and again made the local Dutch and Frisian people recognize the governor, and the local businessmen and nobles also believed that Wang Xizuo and themselves were one.

These days… the offensive has obviously begun to slow down.

The remaining half of the northern province finally began to breathe a sigh of relief.

But the deadly winter is coming.

Food is still not available.

People had to eat baked black bread, which was as hard as a stone and required hard work with a sharp knife to cut it off piece by piece.

Then, small pieces are stuffed into the mouth, and the hard bread is slowly softened with saliva before it can be swallowed.

All the tea leaves are gone.

As a result, Liu Wenshan, Tang Yin, Qi Jingtong, and Jiang Chen had no choice but to regard white water as tea, imitate how to drink tea, and drink white water slowly.

Liu Wenshan was lucky. His teapot was made of red sandalwood. He had been brewing tea for a long time. Even if he poured boiled water into it, he could still feel the aroma of tea.

Ever since, the senior brothers would always take turns drinking tea from his teapot when they felt craving for tea.

As for Liu Wenshan, who had a good temper, he could only remain silent.

“Winter is coming, and today in the city, people actually cut bark from trees to satisfy their hunger. We are afraid that we will run out of food, and I don’t know…whether the British businessmen will come with food as promised, hey… …If this continues, I’m really worried that I won’t be able to survive this winter.” Tang Yin said quietly, looking very worried.

When I came to the Northern Province, I realized that the environment here is very dangerous, and now it is obvious that there is nothing we can do!

Liu Wenshan originally planned to go to France as an envoy, but the French made up their minds and watched the fight between tigers and tigers without wavering.

“It’s another year, the New Year is coming soon.” Suddenly, Qi Jingtong sighed.

The Chinese New Year is coming…

However, these few words suddenly seemed to touch everyone’s thoughts, and unexpectedly…

the eyes of several people sitting here in silence suddenly… became wet.

(End of chapter)