My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 350 Fleet Departure
The Ming Dynasty will send troops to fight again, but the people are very calm. At most, it is just a topic of conversation after dinner, and it has not caused any uproar. Many people don’t even know who they are going to fight.

However, more people had no idea about this matter at all, and the Ming Dynasty was going to go to war again.

Unlike the previous Northern and Southern Expeditions, the enthusiasm of the whole nation was really high at that time, newspapers promoted it every day, and everyone was discussing it.

On the one hand, due to the Northern Expedition and the Southern Expedition, the amazing combat effectiveness of the Ming army, where one could defeat ten or even one could defeat a hundred, shocked everyone. They all felt that the Ming army had long been invincible. Although the world was big, it had no rivals.

This time we go out to fight, if nothing unexpected happens, it's nothing more than to teach the ruffians a lesson. There's no interest in discussing such a crushing situation.

Of course, there is another reason why this expedition did not arouse large-scale public opinion, and that is that the newspapers did not publicize it at all.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, going out to sea to fight pirates was just a test of the Ming Dynasty's first ironclad warship, and there was no need to make a fuss about it.

Moreover, although Srivijaya was a tributary state of the Ming Dynasty like Annan, it was Li Jishun who was seeking his own death. The overwhelming propaganda before the expedition was also to stand on the moral high ground and publicize the prestige of the Ming Dynasty.

The case of Srivijaya was different. The people who caused the rebellion were from the Ming Dynasty, and they actually controlled the country. It would not sound good if this were spread out, so they simply did not publicize it.

Unlike the calmness of the civilian population, the military camp was a completely different scene, extremely lively.

The navy's officers and soldiers are undergoing their final intensive training before setting out. The soldiers have already become proficient in driving ships and operating guns. What they need to do now is to further master various ship tactical maneuvers, such as combat formations, sharp turns, rapid acceleration, how to use the ship's speed advantage to intercept or even ram enemy ships, and accurately hit targets while moving, etc.

The army's soldiers were still selected from the officers and men who had accompanied the two previous sea escort missions, but they were also undergoing a completely new training - landing operations.

Since his last voyage, Tang He discovered a problem. When the battle broke out between Temasek and Chen Zuyi's gang, the steamship was too large to dock at any time, otherwise it would run aground, causing the officers and soldiers to disembark too slowly, which would inevitably miss the opportunity to fight.

So how to quickly get the soldiers off the ship and into combat status became Tang He's first priority.

As the honorary winner of the first sea trade, Xu Huizu naturally had to lead the Musket Battalion to join the combat team. Tang He's eldest son Tang Ding had personally participated in the battle with pirates during the second sea trade, so he was naturally also in the team.

Zhu Di and Li Jinglong were more active than anyone else. This was a naval battle, and such a golden opportunity to achieve success could not be missed.

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally supported Zhu Di's idea. On the one hand, he originally wanted him to go overseas to expand territory, which would give him training and experience. On the other hand, working overseas would make him less concerned about being an emperor.

As the commander-in-chief, Xu Da had to make all preparations before going on the expedition, including training, supply of ammunition, food and fresh water, and more importantly, formulate a detailed battle plan.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's plan, he wanted to attack Huanglong directly and destroy Chen Zuyi and his gang in one fell swoop.

Then Xu Da, Li Wenzhong and others had to plan the shortest route to reach Srivijaya, and then quickly capture Chen Zuyi at lightning speed.

Then Chen Zuyi's specific location and troop deployment in Srivijaya became particularly important. Fortunately, there was a map sent by a strange man, which marked Chen Zuyi's location in detail, so these were not a problem.

The only thing to be careful about is to prevent Chen Zuyi from escaping back to the sea after his defeat. As for the fact that Srivijaya was a tributary state of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care at all. It was nothing to be surprised about the Celestial Empire going to your place to suppress bandits.

Besides, Srivijaya has actually been controlled by Chen Zuyi. Eliminating Chen Zuyi is equivalent to helping Srivijaya to purge its court. You still have to thank our Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care, and Xu Da and others didn't care even more. Do you have any objections to the Ming Dynasty army going to your country to suppress bandits? Let's ask about the 7.62 mm caliber first!
Not only Xu Da and others were busy, but officials from the Ministry of Revenue were also busy in the military camp. They were responsible for counting the supplies needed by the army going on the expedition.

When Zhu Yuanzhang decided to start implementing national statistics, he ordered Yang Siyi to set up a special department in the Ministry of Revenue. Officials who were good at calculations or paperwork management were selected from various ministries to form the Statistics Department of the Ministry of Revenue, which was specifically responsible for compiling statistics on various data.

Yang Siyi never thought that one day he would enjoy the same treatment as Li Min and be able to transfer officials from various departments at will.

After some statistics, the army's rate of consumption of food, ammunition and other supplies, as well as the average per-person consumption, how many people and how much supplies were brought on the expedition, and how to supply them became quickly clear, which also brought great convenience to logistics work.

It’s not that the Ming Dynasty had not carried out statistical-related work before. In the past, when taxes were collected, a large-scale statistics was conducted. However, the work at that time was too crude, and it was impossible to understand the local economic and trade conditions through taxation.

After Yang Siyi took the lead in conducting a carpet-style census in the Jiangnan area, he suddenly realized that statistics were really useful. When the statistical data could be accurately determined to show how much goods a merchant could sell every day, the local situation could be fully grasped.

Moreover, statistics can be used to make comparisons before and after. For example, if more raw silk was purchased this month than last month, but more silk silk was sold, we can draw the simplest conclusion, that is, the silk trade volume is increasing, the demand for raw silk is also increasing, and the local economy is developing in an upward direction.

This made Yang Siyi suddenly feel that his previous career as the accountant of the Ming Dynasty was in vain.

After conducting some statistics in the military camp, Yang Siyi expressed confidently that his understanding of the army had surpassed that of Xu Da and other military men.

After everything was ready, at Zhu Yuanzhang's order, the expedition fleet set off in a mighty manner from the port of Yingtian Prefecture.

On the day of departure, the dock was still crowded with people, all of whom went to see the warships. When a loud whistle sounded, the people cheered again.

However, many people have not realized that this was the first time that the Ming Dynasty sent out its navy to fight, and they still thought that the ironclad warships were used to escort the fleet.

Although the fleet had already headed south to Srivijaya to attack Chen Zuyi's lair, Zhu Yuanzhang did not relax his attention on Ryukyu. As early as when he received the news from Mao Xiang, he sent a speedboat to Beidun City of Zhongshan Kingdom to remind the garrison that Chen Zuyi's pirate group might invade Ryukyu.

At the same time, they were also prepared to send a fleet to annihilate Chen Zuyi's pirate group in Ryukyu and Japan as soon as the Ryukyu garrison and the pirates came into conflict.

On the warship, Xu Da stood on the deck, feeling the sea breeze and looking at the endless sea, feeling a little excited.

This was his first time to go to sea to fight, and he was a little excited. He said to Tang He beside him:

"Old Tang, when we were on the Northern Expedition last year, I told Siben that one day, we would ride on this ocean. I never thought that this day would come true so soon."

(End of this chapter)