My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 323: Thoughts on Artillery Mounted on Ships

Only by communicating with Lao Zhu can I get rid of my worries and relax completely.

Li Han was feeling emotional as he read the letter. Watching the Ming Dynasty grow stronger and stronger, he felt a sense of satisfaction, as if he was watching the seeds he had planted with his own hands tenaciously break through the soil and sprout.

Well, maybe this is the mentality of an old father.

The first railway has been successfully built. It seems that my crude management theory has played a big role.

In fact, corresponding management methods have existed since the moment biological populations began to appear.

Ants and bees use pheromones to maintain absolute obedience to the queen, while wolf packs, lion groups, monkey groups, etc., use duels to determine the winner and keep the population obedient.

However, this cannot be called management in the strict sense, because this is the way animals choose to stick together in order to survive. It is engraved in their DNA and is essentially obeying the commands of their genes.

It was not until the emergence of humans that real management appeared, and the quality of management methods can determine whether a population or tribe can grow and continue to reproduce.

Why did Homo sapiens eliminate Neanderthals? One theory is that Homo sapiens possessed a trait that Neanderthals did not have, and that is gossip.

This Bagua is naturally not the Bagua of Qian, Kun, Kan, Zhen and Xun, but the Bagua of gossip news.

Don't underestimate the ability of gossip. The ability of Homo sapiens to gossip everywhere means that they have a more complete language system and even the ability to make up stories. They can form tribal traditions through language and use it as a bond to strengthen the connection between people.

This is extremely important. Such an ability is an unprecedented great achievement in the history of human beings and even the entire history of life on Earth!
That is, just through language, more people can join the tribe and continue to grow and develop.

What’s even more frightening is that strong language skills mean that the dissemination of messages and commands will be more efficient and accurate, and the ability to unite and collaborate will be stronger, which will light up a new skill tree for humans - organizational and management skills.

After tens of thousands of years of development, human organizational and management capabilities have already gone through several versions, evolving from the original matriarchal clan to the patriarchal clan, from the tribal system to the monarchy, and even to the highest form of monarchy - the empire.

No matter how the form changes, the core is only one, which is to organize a group of people to form a group that can function effectively.

Organization is one thing, and management is another. Compared with the simple and crude management methods that the prisoners of war in Annan, who only lived in the late 14th century, were subjected to, Li Han's variant that combined the 21st century prison management and performance appraisal theory was a real dimensionality reduction attack on a group of Annan prisoners of war.

Isn't the so-called advanced management to let the people being managed consciously and effectively maintain the operation of the system? It seems that Zhu Yuanzhang has executed his own plan very well, Li Han thought with some pride.

With this group of prisoners working voluntarily, it seems that the railway from Yingtian Prefecture to Songjiang Prefecture should be completed soon.

Li Han strongly agreed with Zhu Yuanzhang's idea of ​​building Songjiang Prefecture into the second industrial center of the Ming Dynasty, with Yingtian Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture as the core and radiating to the Jiangnan region, because this plan has stood the test of time.

It seems that Old Zhu is still far-sighted enough, Li Han is very pleased.

When Li Han saw that the sailing plan of the second fleet was hindered by Chen Zuyi, he immediately stood up. My goodness, are they going to run into this great pirate from the late fourteenth century so soon?
Li Han naturally knew what kind of character Chen Zuyi was. Although he was not as famous as Wang Zhi in history, as the number one pirate king of the Ming Dynasty, he was definitely one of the best in the history of world pirates.

As the Pirate King at the end of the 14th century, Chen Zuyi was the most powerful pirate in the entire world, without a doubt. His influence extended from Japan to Southeast Asia, from the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean, controlling all shipping routes and almost covering East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. It was also the richest place in the world at that time.

Chen Zuyi moved his family to Southeast Asia in the first year of Hongwu, specifically to Srivijaya, which is now Palembang, Indonesia. Srivijaya is Chen Zuyi's home base. When I write back to Lao Zhu later, I have to tell him, well, I have to add a detailed distribution map of Chen Zuyi's forces.

As for Zhu's speculation that there was some connection between Chen Zuyi and Chen Youliang, that was an over-interpretation. There was absolutely no connection between the two. The only thing they had in common was that they both had the surname Chen.

This man had tens of thousands of pirates under his command, including Ming people, Japanese pirates, Johor people, etc., and owned hundreds of ships of various types. If it were not for this variable, in the original history, Chen Zuyi's fleet force would have far exceeded that of the Ming navy during the Hongwu period.

Although he had been wreaking havoc in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and even the Indian Ocean for decades, and the Ming court's bounty on him soared from 500,000 taels to 7.5 million taels, they were unable to do anything to him, and no one ever claimed the bounty.

Some historians speculate that the rampant behavior of Chen Zuyi's pirate group was also one of the direct reasons why Zhu Yuanzhang implemented the maritime ban.

However, in 1407, Chen Zuyi's good days came to an end because he encountered a pair of unlucky people, Emperor Yongle Zhu Di and China's most respected eunuch - Zheng He.

In the fifth year of Yongle, when Zheng He's fleet was on its way back, Zheng He sent people to recruit Chen Zuyi.

Chen Zuyi believed that Zheng He's huge fleet "had treasures" on board, so he sent someone to tell Zheng He that he wanted to surrender. In fact, Chen Zuyi wanted to feign surrender and then seize Zheng He's fleet in one fell swoop.

And then, nothing happened. Zheng He wiped out more than 5,000 people in Chen Zuyi's pirate group in one fell swoop, captured Chen Zuyi alive and brought him before Zhu Di. Zhu Di even beheaded Chen Zuyi in front of envoys from various foreign countries.

But the Ming Dynasty today cannot wait until 1407!

Since you dare to attack the Ming Dynasty maritime trade that I, Old Li, have supported, then I, Old Li, don't mind smashing you to pieces in an instant when you are at the peak of your glory!

For the first time in Li Han's life, a hint of murderous intent flashed in his eyes.

It was not until Li Han saw Zhu Yuanzhang wrote in the letter that Tang He proposed to move cannons on board ships that he smiled triumphantly. It was time to implement the doctrine of big ships and big guns in the Ming Dynasty!
I have been laying the groundwork for so long, with all the seamless steel pipes and nitrocellulose propellants, wasn't it all for this moment?

The reason why Li Han never mentioned the artillery issue to Zhu Yuanzhang was that it would be futile to blindly upgrade the artillery before the technical standards were met.

Moreover, they blindly moved cannons onto the ship, just like in Pirates of the Caribbean, with more than a dozen round portholes on each side of the ship.

If you place the old cannon behind the porthole, you have to load the gunpowder, fuse, and shells with great effort before you can fire it, push the cannon out of the window, aim, and shoot.

The thought of carrying out this cumbersome procedure during a tense naval battle makes my scalp tingle.

Considering the current industrial strength of the Ming Dynasty, this type of gunboat has no meaning and is instead a sign of technological regression.

After reading the end of the letter, Li Han burst into laughter.

"You are so good, Old Zhu, you are actually complaining, blaming me for not reminding him in advance to build a strong navy, haha."

However, the most important thing is that Zhu Yuanzhang himself realized the importance of the navy.

(End of this chapter)