Chapter 1044 1135 Capital
Wei Guangde brought Tan Lun into Zhang Juzheng's check-in room. After bowing to him, Wei directly handed over the good news and said with a smile: "Lu Song's matter is done. This is Yu Dayou's good news."
Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng took the good news report from Wei Guangde's hand and quickly read it.
Soon, a smile appeared on Zhang Juzheng's face.
Yes, the main content of Yu Dayou's memorial report is that through negotiations with the Spanish, all the land in the northern part of Luzon Island has been obtained and added to the Ming Dynasty, becoming another overseas territory of the Ming Dynasty.
"I really didn't expect that the Yi people actually agreed."
After Zhang Juzheng read it quickly, he looked up at Wei Guangde and Tan Lun and sighed.
It was not that Zhang Juzheng had not considered Luzon affairs before, but he thought that the land that had been swallowed up by the barbarians would not be vomited out and handed over to the Ming Dynasty.
After finishing speaking, Zhang Juzheng seemed to suddenly wake up, picked up the memorial and read it again, and murmured: "So, the Yi people's military strength in Luzon is probably seriously insufficient, so they are afraid of fighting with me, the Ming Dynasty. That’s it.”
After hearing Zhang Juzheng's words, Wei Guangde was not sure whether Zhang Juzheng also had the intention to monopolize Luzon, but he also knew that doing so now would be detrimental to Ming Dynasty.
Because Spain is not without strength, but their armed forces are still tied to that part of the Americas, and they are temporarily unable to mobilize on a large scale to the Far East.
Spain at this time was as powerful as the United States in later generations.
Although due to limitations of navigation technology, there were still many difficulties in large-scale troop transport during this period that were difficult to solve, but if we only assembled thousands of troops, we could still do it with gritted teeth.
Therefore, Wei Guangde had no intention of fighting the Spaniards from the beginning.
The Ming Dynasty had no routes to the Americas. The gold and silver in the Americas could only wait for the Spanish to mine them and then transport them to the Ming Dynasty for trade.
Just like the large sailing ship trade, the Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to send sea ships to the Americas without the help of trade winds and ocean currents.
"They have just seized a vast continent in the east. The area is countless times larger than our Ming Dynasty. This is the reason why Luzon does not have many troops."
Wei Guangde chose to remind Zhang Juzheng at this time to prevent him from making unwise moves in a hot head.
"The continent to the east is countless times bigger than my Ming Dynasty?"
Zhang Juzheng, who was reading the memorial for the second time, looked up at Wei Guangde in shock and asked.
"Brother Uncle, I have forgotten that the Jinyiwei intelligence mentioned before that every year, large ships of the Taliban come from the east, transporting the gold, silver and various materials they plundered, as well as the spices on Luzon Island."
Wei Guangde said.
"Um."
After being reminded, Zhang Juzheng naturally remembered that such a thing happened, and the intelligence also said that the country of these barbarians seemed to be in the west.
"hiss."
Thinking of this, Zhang Juzheng couldn't help but have an idea in his mind, but he didn't dare to say it out loud, he just kept it silently in his heart.
Although the Ming Dynasty made a long voyage to the Western Ocean, it did not complete the circumnavigation of the world after all. Naturally, it did not know that the earth was round.
Although some onmyojis or astronomers in China have made similar speculations before, they have not been widely recognized.
For Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and Yangming Xinxue, they naturally did not pay attention to this, or even paid attention to it.
"Shandai, look at the reason why the foreigners in Haojing are called Portuguese and the foreigners in Luzon are called Spanish."
When Zhang Juzheng read the memorial for the second time, he naturally noticed something that he had not paid attention to before.
"As far as I know, it seems that although the barbarians in the two places are similar and speak very different words, they belong to two countries.
One is Portugal, and the other is Spain. Let’s call them that. "
Wei Guangde opened his mouth to explain.
Coming from later generations, he naturally knew this matter very well, but it was very troublesome to explain it in detail at this time. The most important thing was that it was difficult for him to explain the source of these information clearly.
"What does sixteen degrees north latitude mean? Do you know?"
Zhang Juzheng also noticed the method used by Yu Dayou and the Spanish to carve up Luzon, so he asked again.
When Tan Lun heard this, he looked at Wei Guangde with confusion. He noticed the wording, but didn't understand what it meant.
However, the content of the memorial was to expand territory, and he grasped this, so it was a good news and he eagerly sent it to the cabinet.
This was Wei Guangde's achievement. As for the others, he planned to ask people from the Ministry of War later.
But what he didn't know was that at this time, perhaps no one in the capital except Wei Guangde knew the meaning of this word.
Wei Guangde thought for a while, but he actually didn't understand the specific method of drawing longitude and latitude lines.
However, the knowledge learned in elementary school was mentioned, and the basics are still known.
Although it was only the most basic thing, it was enough for him to show off at this time, and he could also find the source.
So, Wei Guangde smiled and said to Zhang Juzheng and Tan Lun, who looked confused: 'I have heard of this.
But if it’s still a bit troublesome to explain, I’ll draw a picture to make it easier to understand. ’
After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he stood up and walked to Zhang Juzheng's desk.
Zhang Juzheng and Tan Lun also followed him and stood behind him to see what Wei Guangde planned to draw for them to see.
After laying out the rice paper and finding the smallest brush from the pen mountain, Wei Guangde roughly sketched an oval-shaped island.
Well, the Ming Dynasty has no coins at this time, only pens, and Western dip pens do not conform to the writing habits of the Ming Dynasty, so scholars will not be interested in that thing at all.
In fact, the early barbarians also wanted to sell dip pens to the Ming Dynasty, but they were rejected everywhere, so no one shipped that thing to the Ming Dynasty anymore.
Most of the merchants in the Ming Dynasty were students, and they also admired Chinese civilization. Naturally, they looked down on the things of Western barbarians, and even felt that they were dirty.
Without fine pens, they could only use small pens instead.
However, Wei Guangde was thinking at this time whether he should find a craftsman to try to make a pencil with graphite.
Although it is said that the ancients used natural ink to make ink pens a long time ago, Wei Guangde had never seen such a pen. Instead, some people used graphite powder as a pigment for painting.
At this time, Wei Guangde said while drawing, "This is the island, surrounded by sea water. When our ancients went on a long voyage, the way to determine their own position was to follow the month, by looking at the sun during the day and observing the position of the stars at night, and then using the compass to determine the correct course so as not to get lost.
The method used by the Yi people for navigation is actually similar to ours, but they seem to be more subdivided.
They divided the sea surface from east to west and from south to north into some numbers, such as the sixteen degrees in the memorial, and he should have 1 degree and other degrees.
The method to determine the degree is that they use a small instrument to directly measure the angle, which is also determined by the sun or stars.
In this way, on the vast ocean, they can use this instrument to determine their approximate latitude and longitude, and they can mark their position on the map."
Wei Guangde has marked some numbers on several grids of equal distance around the rice paper.
He marked the two points on the left and right of the middle of the oval island as "sixteen", and above and below this number are "fifteen" and "seventeen".
However, Wei Guangde was not very familiar with these geographical knowledge after all. In fact, if the way he marked it was marked according to the maps of later generations, it should be the latitude of the southern hemisphere.
Because he had forgotten whether the North Pole was zero degrees or the equator was zero degrees, he just wrote the numbers from top to bottom according to habit.
Then he connected the two sixteen-degree points with a dotted line, passed through the so-called island and said: "This line is the boundary line drawn by Yu Dayou and the Spaniards."
"So that's it."
Tan Lun understood and saw it clearly, and Zhang Juzheng nodded slightly on the side.
"No wonder the barbarians can travel thousands of miles to trade in our Ming Dynasty. Such navigation technology is incredible.
It is said that the sea is vast and dangerous. With such a method, ships can sail on the sea peacefully."
Zhang Juzheng still exclaimed.
As long as the direction can be determined, there is naturally not much risk in traveling.
The ancients were afraid of the ocean, in fact, more because there were no reference points on the sea, and they could only rely on the experience of old boatmen to judge the general location.
As for the wind and waves at sea, in fact, there are also wolves, insects, tigers, leopards, mountain bandits and robbers on land, which is also dangerous.
"I think the South China Sea Navy should have mastered the navigation technology of the barbarians, and my Ming Navy will be able to sail on the sea as if it were flat land in the future."
Tan Lun is more concerned about the application of this navigation technology in the military field. The Ming Dynasty now has the South China Sea Navy in the south and the Denglai Navy in the north, but they all need this technology to determine the direction to ensure the safety of navigation.
Otherwise, they can only follow the coastline route, and the risk of running aground is relatively high.
"Well, since the victory report has come, let's find He Qing to discuss it together, and go to the palace together to report the victory to His Majesty and the Queen Mother."
At this time, Zhang Juzheng suddenly remembered that the Ming army had won a victory, and they couldn't be happy, but they had to report the victory to the emperor first.
"The palace should know."
Tan Lun smiled and said, "When I entered the palace, I met the Tongzhengshi in front of the palace gate. He was the one who sent the victory report to the Silijian."
"Hehe."
Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard and smiled. He also understood that Feng Bao would never miss this good opportunity to ask for a reward. He was afraid that he was already in Ciqing Palace with the victory report.
"Come here, please invite Heqing to come here to discuss matters."
According to Zhang Juzheng's order, the clerk hurriedly invited Lu Diaoyang to come.
Naturally, Yu Dayou's memorial was also handed over to him.
So, Wei Guangde had to explain the question raised by Lu Diaoyang, which was actually not much different from what Zhang Juzheng asked.
As for the picture, Wei Guangde took it out again for introduction.
"Shandai, how do you know these? It's not in the book."
Lu Diaoyang was in a good mood at this time and asked happily.
"I learned this from some sea merchants. They do business with the barbarians and think their method is very good, so they paid money to learn it.
I don't do this mainly, so I just listened to it and roughly know what it means.
If I hadn't seen what was said in the memorial today, I would have almost forgotten about it."
Wei Guangde likes to participate in business, which has actually been circulated in the capital for a long time.
There are not many officials in the capital who don't participate in business now.
In the past, everyone was ashamed to talk about it, but since Wei Guangde, a cabinet minister, did it, everyone didn't think it was shameful.
Doing business properly to make money and support your family in the capital doesn't seem to be bad, it's better than those corrupt officials.
Beijing officials can't live in the capital with just the salary from the court.
In the past, everyone let their servants run various businesses, and everyone knew it tacitly.
In fact, officials in Beijing and nobles are both worried about money.
Many people may think that nobles have a lot of land and should have no worries about food and clothing.
Don't forget the productivity in ancient times. The income from land rent can ensure that they have good food and drink, but it is really difficult to live a luxurious life.
So, everyone is actually doing business to make money.
As for the house and land at home, it is impossible to cash it out, which will only give people the impression of being a loser.
Face is also very important.
"Pack up, the palace will summon you later."
Several people were chatting happily, and Zhang Juzheng spoke at this time.
Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang both nodded slightly, and then said to Tan Lun: "The palace will summon you later, let's go together.
You are the Minister of War, and this matter is also within your authority."
Sure enough, less than half a cup of tea, a little eunuch came from Ciqing Palace and told the two empress dowagers and the emperor to summon the cabinet ministers.
"Is Eunuch Feng in the palace?"
Wei Guangde asked casually.
"Wei Gelao, godfather just went there. It seems that there is a big happy event. I heard that the ladies and His Majesty in the palace were all laughing and talking happily."
Wei Guangde and Feng Bao had a little bad relationship, but only the two of them knew it, and no one else knew it.
Feng Bao's godsons and grandsons were also very respectful to Wei Guangde.
Of course, they were even more respectful to Zhang Juzheng.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty was no longer the Jiajing period. The news of the extermination of the big pirate Lin Feng did not cause any waves in the officialdom of the capital.
At this time, the most discussed thing among the officials of the outer court was the matter of obtaining half of Luzon mentioned in the memorial.
Among them, there were supporters and opponents.
The reason for opposition was naturally that Luzon was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, so it should not covet its territory, but should find the descendants of the King of Luzon and help them restore their country.
In this way, the Ming Dynasty could show its magnanimity and show its power in Southeast Asia.
Most of those who held this reason were respected Confucian scholars in the court, and their influence was still very large.
Their remarks had a great impact on the newly-appointed scholars who had just entered the officialdom, especially in the Hanlin Academy, where many people were discussing submitting a memorial to request the return of the territory of Luzon.
However, these people were only discussing privately, while those old officials remained calm and waited for the attitude of the cabinet and the palace.
They all understood one thing: right or wrong depends mainly on the attitude of the person in power.
Standing in a line is the most important thing, which is related to one's career.
After entering the Ciqing Palace, the little emperor Zhu Yijun, who was supposed to be in class in the Wenhua Hall, had been brought here long ago, and Feng Bao stood beside him with a happy face.
Feng Bao knew a little about the Luzon strategy, and there was no way to hide it.
So when submitting the memorial, Feng Bao did not flatter himself, saying that this matter was the result of his discussion with the ministers.
In terms of expanding territory, Dongfan Island did not take advantage last time, and Luzon would naturally not miss the opportunity this time.
The discussion was actually very quick. The two queens mentioned the ancestral system about Luzon. However, with the Dongfan Island incident, there was nothing wrong with Ming annexing Luzon.
No one noticed that the memorial mentioned at the end that the King of Sulu wanted to come to Beijing for an audience.
Others didn't notice it, but Wei Guangde had to bring it up.
Everyone was happy at this time, so naturally no one would object, so they agreed happily.
Even though the emperor was young and not suitable for meeting foreign ministers.
However, Ming had just declared its power in Southeast Asia, so it was naturally not afraid of the King of Sulu having any ideas.
Yu Dayou also wrote clearly in the memorial that Sulu was now worried about the Spanish's greed for them.
The Emperor of Ming met the King of Sulu, which was also a way to stand up for Sulu. When the news spread to Southeast Asia, I think the countries in Southeast Asia should also know how to stand up.