In any case, the Confucian "benevolence" is something that no one can refuse! "Benevolence" became the "spiritual" reason for Daming's introvertedness.
Because of agricultural civilization, Zhu Yuanzhang and others were afraid of the sea and hoped that everyone would become "farmers", which was what he understood as "Da Ren". Therefore, the inward relocation of coastal military and civilians, the policy of banning the sea, and the change of military grain shipped to Liaodong by sea to river transportation are the embodiment of "benevolence" as he understands it.
Emperor Xuanzong of Ming inherited Zhu Yuanzhang's concept, and the great retreat and contraction of the territory were also for the sake of "benevolence". Under the agricultural civilization, those areas will only let the financial expenditure rise, which will make the disaster relief funds and infrastructure investment given by the imperial court shrink, and the life of the people will be difficult. Therefore, for the happiness of the people, everything should be contracted.
In the process of continuous contraction, we have not only gained the greatest benefits of agricultural civilization, but also obtained the stability of the world. But it has lost the motivation to learn from the outside world.
In the sixteenth year of Ming Zhengde, after Zhu Houxi, who succeeded Zhengde as emperor, made a decision not to establish a communication business with the Portuguese Empire (Flang Machine Country), the Portuguese envoy Pires was not only ordered to leave Beijing (for details, See above Zhengde is dead Jiajing ascended the throne: Sino-Portuguese trade and commerce is prohibited, war is about to break out), but also arrested in Guangzhou. As a result, a real war broke out between Daming and Portugal.
The First Battle of the Portuguese Empire and the Ming Dynasty: The Battle of Tuen Mun began to imitate the Flang machine
Because of the new will, the local authorities in Guangdong arrested Pires and others. During the mission's detention, the Portuguese military consulted with the Ming government. The chinese side gave the condition that Portugal return Malacca. Finally, the Two Sides broke out the Battle of Tuen Mun on August 4, 1521.
King João III of Portugal ordered the Governor-General in India to declare war on China. When the Portuguese army was unusually mobilized in the Chinese sea, wang feng, the deputy envoy of the ming government to Guangdong, ordered his soldiers to prepare for battle.
After Wang Feng came to Guangdong, he immediately sent people to investigate the strength of the Portuguese near Tuen Mun Island, and did a good job of collecting the strength of warships, fishing boats, and guards. Local squires Wu Yi and Zheng Zhirui were responsible for recruiting militiamen and driving fishing boats to monitor the sea.
Because the weapons of the Portuguese side, especially the artillery, were more advanced than ours, and the shots were far and more accurate, after seeing the power of the Portuguese artillery and the heavy losses, Wang Feng ordered the defenders of the city to guard it strictly and wait for the enemy ships to approach and then shell again.
At this time, in terms of fire hammers, Daming was already much behind the West. The warships are much weaker. The size of the Portuguese warships is deeply remembered by our personnel:
At the beginning, the Flang machine used a plank for the ship, ten feet long, three feet wide, more than forty branches on both sides, thirty-four reinforcements around the ship, the bottom tip of the ship, two faces, not afraid of wind and waves. Where people stand, they are covered with slabs and are not afraid of arrows. Each boat was supported by two hundred people, and there were many people in the bridge, although there was no wind to rush away. Each of them raised their guns, and the bullets fell like rain, invincible in all directions, and the centipede ship. Its pipe is cast in copper, the large one is more than 1,000 pounds, the middle one is more than 500 pounds, and the small one is 150 pounds. One tube per ream, four handfuls of lifting, large and small amount of reaming tubes, made of iron. Iron is used inside the bomb, lead is used externally, and the large one is eight pounds. Its gunpowder production method is different from that of China. Its hammer is released in one fell swoop, and it can go to more than a hundred zhang, and all the wood and stones are broken. Excerpted from the "Special Domain Weekly Consultation" Yan Congjian.
Due to the number of warships on the Portuguese side, the Ming army had to retreat under the condition of strict defense. In the end, we still used the traditional method of warfare - fire attack to defeat Portugal.
The specific method was to take advantage of the night with 200 ships of various sizes to suddenly surround the Portuguese fleet. It was besieged for a long time because the Portuguese side did not have a stable and continuous supply of food.
Through various measures (He Ru disguised himself as a merchant selling wine and rice), we contacted the Chinese on Portuguese warships (such as Yang San, Dai Ming, etc.) or Chinese descendants or Southeast Asians who had a good impression of China. They began to transmit the drawings, construction methods, range and other key indicators of the Portuguese artillery one after another.
Wang Immediately asked the smith to study and upgrade the Chinese artillery. Chinese arms craftsmen began to imitate the prelude to Portuguese artillery or warships.
Wang Feng also ordered the purchase of some dilapidated civilian ships and the purchase of firewood, sulfur, grease, etc. for future fire attacks. In strong winds, attack the Portuguese side with fire. In the end, the Portuguese side was defeated and defeated, but it was not completely annihilated, and its main three large ships took advantage of the chaos to retreat.
汪鋐 Image
After the Battle of Tuen Mun in 1521, the Battle of Sai Cao Wan broke out in 1522. After the two naval battles, the Portuguese side, because of its small size and small number of people, its colonial territory was too large to digest time, and its relations with Spain were not harmonious. Therefore, there is simply no way to send more people to China to participate in the war.
From this, it can be said that it is a kind of luck for us, but also our misfortune!
The unfortunate thing is that, in the national spirit of the time, the Ming dynasty monarchs were not "particularly conservative" in "learning Western weapons" (please note the wording), as can be seen from Wang Feng's case.
What kind of learning is the best learning?
When competing with the enemy and even fighting, it is faster, more stable, and longer to learn. However, because of Portugal's own potential, that is, its ability to rely on it, it does not have the ability to compete with China for a long time, and can only take the form of "national pirates" to harass Daming.
Because there is no frontal competition, that is, war, it will not pose a threat to the security of the Ming Dynasty, and there will be "learning inertia".
At the same time, Ming Shizong also inherited the Confucian concept of "benevolence".
Sculpture of Wang Feng in Zhongshan Park, Shenzhen
The Zhengde Dynasty, for the sake of the responsibility of the suzerainty and the maintenance of order in the world, refused to trade with Portugal. The same is true of Jiajing. But Zhengde's "benevolence" is only a kind of "false benevolence and false righteousness." "Maintaining order in the world" and "protecting the dignity of the suzerainty" are not just talking and not practicing, but to truly restore the country for Malacca and other countries. On this issue, although Jiajing has done better than Zhengde, it is still not enough.
To be continued!