Chapter 343: The Continent is Divided, and the Holy Dynasty is Coming!
Only the navy.

It can be lost in one day.

This prophecy became a reality in the Battle of the Atlantic when the Ming Dynasty’s First Treasure Ship Fleet faced the Spanish Empire’s Invincible Armada.

After the Kingdom of Portugal surrendered, Li Xi, the commander of the First Treasure Ship Fleet, did not stay in the country for too long. After leaving only a few orders, he continued to move in the predetermined direction, towards Great Britain and Ireland.

The Kingdom of Portugal was officially renamed the Special Province of Portugal of the Ming Dynasty.

It is the nineteenth province of the Ming Dynasty and the first special overseas province of the Ming Dynasty.

In accordance with the order of the cabinet, the special provinces do not have governors, provincial governors, or provincial judges, but only the highest executive officer.

In accordance with the previous agreement, Duke Alfonso the Younger became the first supreme executive of the Portuguese province.

The powers are basically the same as those of the imperial court governors and governors-general, including the governor-general, governor-general, and provincial governor, with the titles of assistant censor-in-chief and chief censor.

This position is elected by local people in the Portuguese province, but after a successful election, they must go to the Ming Dynasty and accept personal appointment from the emperor and father.

The special province is ruled by the Portuguese, but the Ming court has the final right of interpretation and can dismiss the chief executive of the special province at any time.

The Duke of the Golden Flower, Bernard Dayon, became the first governor of the Province of Portugal.

He is in charge of the province’s personnel, administration, economy, education, diplomacy, finance, garrison and other matters.

This position is appointed by and only by the imperial court.

People, money and army, the three most important things in politics, can never be handed over to the Portuguese.

In addition, Duke Marcello, the supreme commander of the Portuguese army and a major contributor to the “Dianthus Reform”, accepted the court’s order and immediately disbanded all Portuguese troops, retaining only basic guards in the provinces.

Duke Marcello was formally granted the title of Duke of the Ming Dynasty from a provincial duke. He was awarded a golden book and a jade certificate and immediately went to the Ming Dynasty with his family and settled in the capital. Many of his sons benefited from this and were guaranteed to enjoy endless wealth and glory for generations.

The Portuguese nobles who responded to Duke Marcello’s reforms were generally rewarded the same way as Duke Marcello, with equal or lowered ranks and titles, and went to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to receive official titles from their emperor and father.

There are rewards and punishments. All members of the Portuguese royal family who lost their status and power due to military changes were demoted to commoners and went to live in the Ming Dynasty together with the nobles. They were also required to receive regular admonitions until they were completely corrected.

Li Xi asked Alfonso the Younger and Dayong to carry out construction in the province and teach the court’s national policies, and the Jinyiwei would cooperate secretly. Then, they sailed north and encountered the Spanish Empire’s Invincible Armada at sea.

The First Treasure Ship Fleet had only more than 60 ships, while the Invincible Fleet had thousands of warships. Facing a fleet that was dozens or even tens of times larger than his own, Li Xi issued an order of “free hunting”.

Divide into zeros.

In a battle situation where the enemy outnumbered us, this was a completely incomprehensible tactic. Howard, the commander of the Invincible Fleet, even regarded the actions of the Eastern Fleet as “suicide.”

At the moment when the First Treasure Ship Fleet changed its formation, the Invincible Fleet also changed its formation. Almost every warship of the First Treasure Ship Fleet faced several, dozens, or even dozens of galleons and armed merchant ships.

The entire battlefield formed a series of “encirclements”, but if you look down from the sky, the warships of the First Treasure Ship Fleet on the outermost edge formed a huge “circle”.

Whether it was the Spanish Armada’s thousands of warships that surrounded the First Treasure Fleet, or the First Treasure Fleet’s more than 60 ships that surrounded the Spanish Armada, has become a huge point of controversy discussed by scholars around the world in later generations.

“Free hunting” corresponds to “free firing”. From attack to defense to movement, the Eastern ships crushed galleons and armed merchant ships in all directions, teaching the Invincible Fleet a severe lesson.

The Eastern warships no longer took the artillery fire head-on, but instead used their super high maneuverability to continuously evade the incoming shells. Countless shells from the Invincible Fleet fell into the water, stirring up a water curtain several feet high. But at this moment, the warships of the First Treasure Ship Fleet launched a counterattack.

When the artillery and gunpowder-improved shells penetrated the water curtain and accurately hit one Invincible Armada warship after another, causing them to stall or even sink, the Invincible Armada commander Howard finally understood the despair of his cousin, the commander of the Treasure Fleet, when he sank himself.

In just one round of probing, nearly a hundred warships of the Invincible Fleet were destroyed. In contrast, not a single warship of the Eastern Fleet was destroyed in this round of confrontation.

Through the telescope, Howard saw and heard the Eastern Fleet’s warships firing artillery shells all the time, as if reloading, firing, and barrel cooling no longer existed.

All the time, the ships of the Invincible Armada were being destroyed.

The bombardment of thousands of our warships was intermittent, and the entire battlefield seemed to be dominated by the Eastern Fleet.

This was indeed the case. They could not defeat the enemy, could not stop the enemy, and could not even run away. As a light sailing warship, they could not outrun the heavy warship, let alone the heavy artillery of the heavy warship. Many commanders of the warships in the Invincible Fleet shed tears. The Imperial Fleet had dominated the west of the world for so long, but had never suffered such a great injustice.

For the Invincible Fleet, the easiest warship to attack from the Eastern Fleet was the First Treasure Ship where Li Xi was. It was large and moved slowly, like a sitting duck.

However, when hundreds of new red cannons appeared from all directions of the First Treasure Ship and fired at the same time, Howard and the soldiers of the Invincible Fleet truly felt despair.

The area within a radius of several hundred meters has become a “restricted zone”. Once the warships of the Invincible Fleet approach, they will be torn to pieces by shells fired from several new red cannons.

The whole was broken into pieces, and the First Treasure Ship was surrounded. The truth was just to prevent the First Treasure Ship from accidentally hurting other friendly ships.

The first treasure ship faced the main ship of the Invincible Fleet, the “Felipe”, and rushed to the front, like a sharp sword, piercing the “heart” of the Invincible Fleet.

The other warships followed the treasure ship and gradually tightened the encirclement. Looking at this scene, Howard’s eyes turned red.

The main ship leads the charge, and no matter how powerful its firepower is, it is impossible to destroy all the enemy ships within range in an instant. This kind of warfare simply does not treat the Invincible Fleet as human beings.

“charge!”

“Board!”

Howard gave two orders in succession and ordered the flagship Felipe under his command to speed up and confront the treasure ship head-on.

When the two ships gradually collided, the strong recoil force made the people on the two ships unable to stand for a short time, and many soldiers standing on the deck fell directly into the sea.

The treasure ship won again. Although it did not directly smash the Felipe, it made a big hole in it. The sea water was fierce, and it was only a matter of time before the Felipe sank.

But at this moment, Commander Howard displayed the qualities of an admiral of the Imperial Navy. He endured the grief of the destruction of his main ship and loudly ordered all the soldiers on the ship to board the treasure ship and continue fighting.

But when the soldiers of the Invincible Fleet successfully boarded the ship and appeared on the deck of the treasure ship, they were stunned when they saw the Eastern cavalry who were ready for battle.

“Why are there horses on the boat?” As long as it is flat ground, the cavalry versus infantry will be a massacre.

The Spanish Empire’s Invincible Armada was destroyed.

After half a century of accumulation and the full strength of the empire, an invincible fleet was built, but it was defeated in one battle.

The navy is a military branch that is highly dependent on technology, funds and long-term accumulation.

Shipbuilding, talent training, and tactical system construction require decades or even hundreds of years of continuous investment.

In this battle, the Spanish Empire lost not only thousands of warships and hundreds of thousands of naval soldiers, but also all control of the sea in the Atlantic!

Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean.

The control of the two oceans belonged entirely to the First Treasure Ship Fleet and the Ming Dynasty.

Li Xi ordered the salvage and treatment of his own soldiers who fell into the sea and were injured during the battle, and ignored the fact that hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Spanish Empire’s Invincible Armada sank into the sea.

When the bodies of the Spanish soldiers floated to the shore like dead fish, the scene of purgatory on earth made countless people in Europe collapse.

The first treasure ship fleet arrived safely on the British Isles. Caesar I Chen Weimin, the King of England, warmly welcomed Li Xihe and his fleet officers and soldiers, and announced on the spot that the Kingdom of England would from that day on be under the embrace of the imperial court.

The King of England, who was created by the Chen family, felt a sense of relief when he handed over control of the two islands of Great Britain and Ireland.

Since then, the Kingdom of England became the twentieth province of the Ming Dynasty and the second overseas province. Chen Weimin naturally became the first chief executive of the Special Province of England.

The first chief executive of the special province of England had to wait for the imperial court to appoint him. Before that, all affairs of the province would be temporarily under the jurisdiction of Chen Weimin.

However, Chen Weimin had some objections to the sequence of the “second overseas province”. In the eyes of Chen Weimin and the people of the two islands, England was the first to be subject to the king’s rule, and should be the first overseas province before the special province of Portugal.

The sequence dispute was a matter between the Special Province of Portugal and the Special Province of England, but Li Xi, the commander of the First Treasure Ship Fleet, did not care about it or participate in it.

Controlling the sea power of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean physically cuts off the connection between the European continent and Africa and America, and cuts off the possibility of the two continents providing blood transfusions to the European countries, making the European continent an “isolated island.”

However, it was difficult to control the Kunlun slaves in Africa and the plantations in America with the First Treasure Fleet and the two special provinces. When Li Xi was about to send a message to the South Asian subcontinent and request Lord Wang Chonggu to dispatch a few more treasure fleets, the news that the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Treasure Fleets of the Ming Dynasty had arrived in Europe came first.

It turned out that not long after Li Xi led the first treasure ship fleet to the European continent, in the South Asian subcontinent, Wang Chonggu reached a secret agreement with the Brahman high priest Varna.

The Varna, Brahmins and Brahmanism betrayed the Mughal Emperor Khusro. Wherever the Ming army went, the Varna, Brahmins and Brahmanism even personally waved their flags to cheer them on. When the army advanced into Delhi, it encountered almost no resistance.

On the eve of the Ming army’s entry into Delhi, the Mughal Emperor Khusro fled under the cover of night with more than a hundred personal guards, just as his ancestors had fled from the grasslands, in a miserable and miserable state.

But before fleeing, Khusro issued a “vicious curse” against Brahmanism, the high priest Varna, and the Brahmins, cursing that they and their descendants would all be Hijras in the future.

The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit.

Kusro hated the Ming army, but it was far less than his hatred for the Brahmanism that betrayed the Mughal Empire.

When Varna heard the vicious curse, he didn’t care at all and simply said two words “rebound”, which made Wang Chonggu who was standing next to him look at him sideways.

Obviously, among all the faiths in the world, the “most devout believers” do not even have as much reverence for gods, Buddhas, God, Brahma, etc. as ordinary believers do.

Because these people know that if gods really exist, for the ugly and evil things they have done, the gods would have sent down thunder and struck them to death long ago.

They possess faith, power, and wealth, and often live longer than ordinary people. Is it because the gods are not in a hurry to summon them to serve them?
No.

It’s something that the gods can’t do.

It is ironic that the most devout believer in the world is also the most staunch atheist.

But Wang Chonggu didn’t care. The imperial court used Brahmanism only to better control the South Asian subcontinent and plunder the resources and wealth of the subcontinent.

Similarly, Brahmanism, Varna, and Brahman nobles do not care. They do not care who is the ruler of the South Asian subcontinent as long as they can be given a high status.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty court already had twenty-one provinces, and the real first overseas province was not Portugal or England, but the India Province.

Since the imperial court had prepared in advance for the influx of thousands of Confucian scholars into South Asia, with the help of Brahmanism, the basic framework of the imperial court in the Indian province was almost built, and one Confucius Institute after another sprang up on that subcontinent.

The Confucian scholars who first came to South Asia got along well with Brahmanism. The corrupt scholars were surprised at the purity of the faith here, and the Brahmanism was also surprised at the extent to which faith could interfere with the government.

As a result, the two religions hit it off, taking each other’s dregs and discarding each other’s essence, constantly strengthening the ideological shackles of the people on the South Asian subcontinent.

This was completely unexpected by Wang Chonggu and the imperial court. When ordering 10,000 Confucian scholars to enter South Asia, he thought that Confucianism would be like a fierce dragon crossing the river and defeating Brahmanism, and he also thought that a strong dragon would not defeat a local snake, and Brahmanism would exclude Confucianism. He never expected that the two religions would actually be in collusion with each other.

Wang Chonggu had seen what obedient citizens were like. The people on the South Asian subcontinent willingly regarded the Ming Dynasty as a holy dynasty, and the East was also regarded as the “original world” and they yearned for it.

Military colonization?

There is no need for that at all. Confucianism and Brahmanism modified the classics and scriptures to portray the Ming Dynasty and the East as places that should not exist on the earth, and everything on the South Asian subcontinent belonged to the court, including their lives.

There may be chaos occasionally on the South Asian subcontinent, but that is a characteristic of different regions. No matter how fierce the fighting is, it cannot affect the supreme status of the Ming Dynasty court on the South Asian subcontinent.

Out of caution, Wang Chonggu left three treasure ship fleets in the Arabian Sea on the South Asian subcontinent and led the second, third, fourth and fifth treasure ship fleets to the West.

Following the First Treasure Ship Fleet, Wang Chonggu made the following deployments based on changes in the world situation.

The Fifth Treasure Ship Fleet remained in the Red Sea, and the Fourth Treasure Ship Fleet remained in the Mediterranean Sea.

When he saw the Ming dragon flags on the Second and Third Treasure Ship Fleets fluttering in the wind, Li Xi’s heart finally settled down.

With the addition of two treasure ship fleets, the resources and wealth of the two continents, Africa and America, have become the property of the imperial court.

During the Yongle period, the imperial court missed the opportunity to become the world hegemon, which was within its grasp. Now, under the instruction of the emperor, the imperial court is taking the initiative to move towards the position of world hegemony!
(End of this chapter)