As a prince of the Great Ming, Zhu Jianying was well aware of the history of that period.
Compared to the cold records on paper and the understated descriptions from Liu Heming and others, the account from Hu Xianliang, an old soldier and squad leader, was far more shocking.
Hu Xianliang gave a self-deprecating smile and asked Zhu Jianying and the others, "You must have heard about the four dilapidated warships displayed at the entrances of the four fleets of our Great Ming, right?"
Zhu Jianying did not reply. A soldier next to him spoke up, "Of course, we've heard about it. It is said that those four warships were the foundation upon which our Great Ming navy was built. They achieved glorious victories at sea for our Great Ming and were placed at the entrances of the four fleets after their retirement to serve as a reminder to the officers and soldiers of the Great Ming Navy."
Hu Xianliang sneered and spat, "Nonsense! I heard from the old soldiers that our Great Ming did not have any decent warships in the beginning. The most advanced warships at the time were actually purchased from France and England with great difficulty."
"Four warships. Now, any fleet or military base in our Great Ming has more than four warships. The Emperor's Fleet requires four supply ships to accompany it on a single sortie. Yet, these four warships accounted for nearly a quarter of our Great Ming navy's budget back then. Director Liu, known as 'Liu the Miser,' pulled out his hair in distress while raising funds for them!"
"It was precisely because of this that Governor-General Liu Heming issued a special order to place these four warships at the entrances of the four fleets to constantly remind the officers and soldiers of the Great Ming navy to never forget that shameful history!"
"As for the version you usually hear, it was actually fabricated to deceive them into lowering their guard, as His Majesty the Emperor had not yet decided to go to war with England and other European countries."
After Hu Xianliang finished speaking, the soldiers present all changed their expressions drastically. Only Zhu Jianying's face remained unchanged.
Zhu Jianying had long known the stories behind these four warships. He even knew very well that the Emperor Zhu, who then occupied only the province of Shandong, had deliberately arranged for the envoys of France and England to be in the adjacent courtyard, thereby forcing the two countries to sell their latest warships.
Zhu Jianying also knew that these four warships were an insurmountable hurdle in Emperor Zhu's heart. Whenever there was an area where the Great Ming could not compare with Europe or other barbarians, Emperor Zhu would always bring up the matter of these four warships!
Hu Xianliang continued, "I heard from the old soldiers that our Great Ming's military equipment began to develop by leaps and bounds after that incident. Various advanced firearms, cannons, and even warships continuously appeared, and we soon began to export them to the barbarians of Europe. It was also after that incident that our Great Ming army developed the habit of 'artillery carpet bombing.'"
"Having been impoverished, if we don't fire a few more cannons, if we don't carpet bomb with artillery, it always feels like the battle isn't fought securely."
According to Hu Xianliang's account, the Great Ming army was clearly engaging in a bit of "revenge spending." However, Zhu Jianying knew very well that in addition to a bit of revenge spending, a more important reason was likely that the lives of the people of the Great Ming were more precious.
How much did a cannonball cost? How much did it cost to train a qualified soldier? Others might not know the calculations clearly, but as the eldest prince of the Great Ming, Zhu Jianying knew them very well.
However, Zhu Jianying had no intention of revealing this directly. Instead, he proactively changed the subject: "Squad Leader, our orders are to leave no prisoners and to build a Pyramid of Skulls. But the number of these Ottoman barbarians is not small. Can we kill them all?"
Hu Xianliang shook his head slightly and said, "We certainly can't kill them all by ourselves. Even if we could, the military headquarters would not allow us to slaughter the entire Ottoman Empire. Don't forget, we are the army of the Great Ming, the imperial army. How can we slaughter the entire Ottoman Empire?"
This time, it was Zhu Jianying's turn to pout. The Grand Court of the Five Military Commissions would certainly not order the slaughter of the entire Ottoman Empire. The land forces of the Emperor's Fleet alone could not achieve this. However, what the Great Ming could deploy in the Ottoman Empire was not just the land forces of the Emperor's Fleet, nor just the surrounding military bases that could be mobilized.
According to Emperor Zhu's previous orders, the Japanese dwarves stationed in India and those attacking Sri Lanka would soon come to the Ottoman Empire to participate in the "suppression of rebellion." Who knew what these Japanese dwarves would do? Especially Yamamoto Nijūhachi, who was already quite mad in India, and even more so when attacking France under the English invasion. When he arrives in the Ottoman Empire...
Yamamoto Nijūhachi, whom Zhu Jianying was thinking about, was different from ordinary Japanese dwarves. Ordinary Japanese dwarves still knew they were dwarves and acknowledged their identity as Japanese slaves. However, Yamamoto Nijūhachi never considered himself a Japanese slave. Relying on his advantage of being a few centimeters taller than ordinary Japanese dwarves, Yamamoto Nijūhachi directly boasted that his ancestors were "Hua people" who "cross-bred" in the Great Song dynasty.
If the Central Plains Hall were compared to a large family, then the people of the Central Plains Hall would naturally be the legitimate descendants. As for himself, a "Hua person" who had "cross-bred" to Japan, he should at least be considered a collateral descendant. If not, he could accept the identity of an illegitimate child. If that still didn't work, the identity of a collateral illegitimate child could also be considered. The reaction was that he had to have some connection with the Central Plains Hall and completely sever the lineage between himself and Japan.
If it were just Yamamoto Nijūhachi babbling nonsense, it wouldn't matter. The key was that Yamamoto Nijūhachi was not content with just babbling but put it into practice. First, Yamamoto Nijūhachi selected some "tall individuals" around 1.6 meters in height from the fifty thousand dwarves under his command, propagating that these people were descendants of the Hua people cross-bred to Japan during the Great Song dynasty. Then, Yamamoto Nijūhachi began to brainwash these tall individuals, calling on them to "recognize their ancestors and surnames" and to henceforth regard the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming in the Central Plains Hall as the legitimate ruler, publicly refusing to obey the Shogunate's orders. As for the Japanese dwarf Heavenly King... sorry, we are not familiar with you island natives who are short and small. Don't try to get too close!
Under normal circumstances, the concept of an unbroken imperial line for a thousand years in Japan was deeply ingrained in the hearts of the Japanese slaves. Yamamoto Nijūhachi's deception should not have succeeded. However, which dwarf could refuse to find a powerful ancestor from the Central Plains Hall for himself? Worried that their family had no genealogy and couldn't provide evidence when recognizing their ancestors? It's okay, then you can just say your ancestor floated to the Great Song in a bathtub and had a romantic encounter with a literati from the Great Song. Anyway, no one can verify the records from the Great Song period. Of course, you must not associate yourselves with famous people, because most of the famous people from the Great Song period have their genealogies traceable. Even if there was a fleeting encounter, they would not admit it.
In addition, Yamamoto Nijūhachi directly promoted these tall individuals, who were around 1.6 meters tall, to become officers in the Japanese auxiliary forces. This was equivalent to giving a carrot with a stick. If you admit your ancestor was cross-bred from the Central Plains Hall, you can become an officer; if you don't admit it, you will be excluded from the circles of power. Yamamoto Nijūhachi also specifically promised that once they successfully "recognized their ancestors and returned to their clans," he would also find ways for these ordinary dwarves in the future.
Moreover, Yamamoto Nijūhachi was not worried about retaliation from the Edo Shogunate of Japan. What if you retaliated? If you retaliated against us "Hua people" who yearned for the Great Ming, it would be equivalent to denying the cross-breeding that occurred during the Great Song dynasty, and equivalent to not being loyal enough to the Great Ming! A Shogunate that was not loyal enough to the Great Ming... In this situation, what would those dwarves choose? They would naturally vote with their feet!
It was precisely for this reason that Yamamoto Nijūhachi quickly united the fifty thousand Japanese slaves he led to attack Sri Lanka into one string. The core of the string was the "Hua people" organized by Yamamoto Nijūhachi, and the remaining dwarves were cannon fodder controlled by Yamamoto Nijūhachi.
This incredibly flamboyant operation directly shocked Luo Hong, the leader of the Great Ming's Jinai military base! The key was that Luo Hong had to admit that Yamamoto Nijūhachi's approach was indeed effective. Under Yamamoto Nijūhachi's deception, the fifty thousand dwarves he led to Sri Lanka were like they had been injected with chicken blood, charging forward fiercely. They not only treated the people of the British East India Company as less than human, but they even treated themselves as less than human. In Yamamoto Nijūhachi's words: The core essence of Bushido is to forget all right and wrong and serve His Majesty the Great Ming Emperor with all your heart, even if it means being a butcher stained with blood, even if it means sacrificing your own life!
Who could stand this? Although the Great Ming army also emphasized serving the Great Ming and serving His Majesty the Great Ming Emperor, under Emperor Zhu's orders, the various levels of the Great Ming army repeatedly emphasized that all Great Ming soldiers came from the common people and should serve all the people of the world with all their hearts. In other words, the core concept of the Great Ming army was that the common people came first, the Great Ming second, and the Great Ming Emperor third. Therefore, the Great Ming army would fearlessly shield the common people behind them when facing danger. Therefore, even though the Great Ming army regarded Emperor Zhu as a deity in ordinary times, no one proposed such crazy views and ideas as this madman Yamamoto Nijūhachi, nor did anyone act on them like this madman Yamamoto Nijūhachi.
Of course, Luo Hong did not care whether Yamamoto Nijūhachi was truly mad or pretending to be mad. For Luo Hong, who was the commander of the Great Ming's Jinai military base, whether Yamamoto Nijūhachi was truly mad or pretending to be mad, as long as his ideas helped the Great Ming to rule Japan better and enabled the Japanese dwarves to fight for the Great Ming with their lives, then Yamamoto Nijūhachi was correct.
Then, as the commander of the Great Ming's Jinai military base, Luo Hong directly appointed Yamamoto Nijūhachi as the overall commander of the Japanese auxiliary forces. Tojo Kojiro, who arrived in India earlier than Yamamoto Nijūhachi, became Yamamoto Nijūhachi's deputy.
Then, Tojo Kojiro thought, "Where is this going? I came here first! I embraced the Great Ming father first!" After cursing Yamamoto the bitch and Nijūhachi the mistress, Tojo Kojiro began to ponder how to salvage the situation. Directly eliminating Yamamoto Nijūhachi was definitely not an option, as it was an appointment made by Luo Hong, the commander of the Great Ming's Jinai military base. Directly eliminating Yamamoto Nijūhachi would be a blatant defiance of Luo Hong's order, and Tojo Kojiro did not believe he had the courage to do so. Should he emulate Yamamoto Nijūhachi and create the Tojo version of "Hua people" and Bushido spirit? Tojo Kojiro was somewhat unwilling. After all, it was not good to steal someone else's ideas, and Tojo Kojiro could not accept doing something that would harm his own image. Then Tojo Kojiro could not help but worry. He couldn't kill him, he couldn't imitate him, and reporting to the Edo Shogunate to have the Shogun deal with Yamamoto Nijūhachi's family was clearly useless. This would become an unsolvable knot!
He was worried, so worried that Tojo Kojiro couldn't help but want to pull out his hair. It was not until the Great Ming Emperor sent orders from the Ottoman direction to deploy the Japanese auxiliary forces to the Ottoman Empire that Tojo Kojiro finally found the key to breaking the deadlock. No matter how good Yamamoto Nijūhachi sounded, it was just talk. But Tojo Kojiro wanted to prove with practical actions that he was the most obedient child of the Great Ming father!
Then, Tojo Kojiro excitedly began to reorganize the Japanese dwarves and led the fifty thousand dwarves under his command on their journey to the Ottoman Empire. And then, Zhu Jianying witnessed what it meant to learn only three parts of humanity and retain seven parts of bestiality. The discipline of the Great Ming army in warfare was not learned by the Japanese dwarves at all. Their attitude towards ordinary civilians was also not learned, but the Japanese dwarves did not care about their own lives at all!
More importantly, they never treated the civilians of the Ottoman Empire as human beings! Those who surrendered honestly were generally captured, castrated, and handed over to specialized dwarf caretakers for later sale as laborers. Those who refused to surrender were subjected to all sorts of burning, killing, and looting. Not to mention people who walked on two legs, even dogs by the roadside were slaughtered and eaten, and plants in the fields were all pulled out and dried! In short, they were as ferocious as possible, as inhuman as possible. If it weren't for the fact that these dwarves were very respectful towards the merchants and soldiers of the Great Ming, Zhu Jianying would have suspected that these dwarves were in danger of going mad and losing control!
(End of this chapter)
.
Heavenly Emperor's Noble Lineage reminds you: Remember to collect after reading.