In fact, Zhao Hao also attaches great importance to this round-the-world voyage.
Fifty years earlier, Magellan had already achieved this feat.
Zhao Hao also knew that if nothing unexpected happened, Captain Drake would embark on his second voyage around the world in 1577, the fifth year of the Wanli reign.
It's already frustrating not to get first place, okay? How could Zhao Hao let a lousy pirate snatch the runner-up place?
This voyage also has many practical significance.
It has been six years since he founded his school and spread science in the first year of the Longqing reign. Through the Jiangnan Education Group, the Jiangnan Newspaper Group, and word of mouth, most of the Ming Dynasty scholars have heard of what he preached.
But to be honest, not many people believe in it, and not many people are interested in it. To be precise, not many people believe in it because not many people are interested in it. Because the scientific knowledge he spreads is too far beyond common sense. How many educated people are interested in knowledge such as cells, lever principles, cosine theorem, and physiological hygiene?
This is completely understandable, because people are interested in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry and songs. Even if you bring the Magdeburg hemisphere experiment here, they will just watch for fun.
How can we cultivate scientific thinking when there is absolutely no scientific soil?
Not to mention, science has also challenged ethics... For example, people firmly believe that natural disasters are warnings from heaven to the emperor, but science explains that they are all natural phenomena, and can even predict solar and lunar eclipses. Isn't this terrifying when you think about it?
Even many students of Yufeng Academy and Xiangshan Academy probably did not have a firm belief in science. They only regarded it as a stepping stone to learn the science for the imperial examinations.
Therefore, Zhao Hao needed such a global tour that would attract everyone's attention. He intended to make it a grand tour that would shock the souls of the Chinese people and open their eyes to the world, so he used the strongest lineup -
The flagship was a 5,000-ton Dafu ship that was built at the Longjiang Baochuan Factory at a huge cost and took four years of hard work. The five new main battleships newly launched by the Jiangnan Shipyard served as frigates, and five well-made 2,000-ton Dafu ships served as supply ships, forming a very capable ocean-going fleet.
Especially the 5,000-ton large ship, which Zhao Hao vowed to build when he first went to Longjiang Baochuan Factory!
Because that was the treasure ship that Zheng He took when he sailed to the West, and it was said that it was not the largest ship at that time. However, due to the obstruction and sabotage of Liu Daxia and other civil officials, not only did the voyage to the West come to a complete halt, but the best shipyard in the Ming Dynasty could not even build a 2,000-ton ship. Not to mention 5,000-ton...
So Zhao Hao swore at that time that he must build a ship and name it "Liu Daxia, the Eternal Sinner", let it sail back to the West, travel around the world, resume the Ming Dynasty's maritime career, and nail Liu Daxia to the pillar of shame forever!
Fortunately, Yang Fan told him that Liu Daxia only burned the information of the Ministry of War, and did not burn the treasure ship factory under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry. In the warehouse of the treasure ship factory, there is a complete set of construction drawings of the treasure ship, as well as sea charts and star maps for sailing to the West.
Of course, Liu Daxia is still a sinner for all eternity, because he burned the "Itinerary of Zheng He's Seven Voyages to the West", where all the original materials were. In addition to sea charts and star maps, there were also imperial edicts, fleet organization, lists... and the most important logbooks, accounts, etc., all of which were burned.
The sea charts left at the treasure shipyard can only indicate the route, and the star charts are used to adjust the route. Only the logbook can tell you the real sea conditions along the way, the dangers and difficulties you will encounter during the voyage... It is a precious wealth that has been accumulated bit by bit at the cost of countless lives and decades of time.
For example, if there was a logbook this time, knowing that this voyage was so dangerous, Lin Feng and Zhang Xiaojing might have preferred to spend more time sailing along the coast, instead of following the route of the previous six voyages to the West, leaving the Strait of Malacca and heading west directly to the Lion Country of Ceylon.
So Liu Daxia is indeed a sinner for all eternity!
~~
Therefore, in October of the sixth year of Longqing's reign, when this huge ship of 5,000 tons was launched, Zhao Hao insisted on naming it "Liu Daxia, the Eternal Sinner"!
This incident caused quite a stir at the time, because a 5,000-ton ship had a displacement of about 1,600 tons, which was already on the same level as the world's largest sailing ship of the same era, the 'Eagle of Lübeck' of the Hanseatic League.
Of course, the latter has a displacement of about 2,000-3,000 tons, which is much larger than the "Eternal Sinner Liu Daxia". But there is no way, who made the Ming Dynasty lose a hundred years? It is purely deserved to be surpassed by others.
However, in the Ming Dynasty, the launch of such a huge ship still caused quite a stir. If it was during the reign of Gao Gong, the Paw Patrol would have been excited and would have given Mr. Zhao a lot of lumps.
But now, his father-in-law is in power, and he has the support of his good buddy Eunuch Feng, as well as Empress Dowager Li who has obtained shares. As long as he doesn't really bombard the Golden Palace, then nothing will happen!
However, this arrogant attitude deeply hurt the diehards who opposed opening the sea. They actually found Liu Daxia's great-grandson, a man named Liu Yishou, and ran to Nanjing to write a letter, accusing the Jiangnan Group of insulting famous officials and illegally building a sea-going ship with more than five masts. They demanded that the other party immediately dismantle the Nasha and arrest the ship owner for the crime of "exceeding the regulations."
Xie Dengzhi, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice of Nanjing, was a good friend of Zhang Xianggong from the same hometown. He was determined to be transferred to Beijing. How could he displease the young cabinet minister? He asked Zhao Hao how to deal with this matter? Then, according to the young cabinet minister's opinion, he replied to Liu Yishou that this ship was built for the Ryukyu Zhongshan Kingdom as a royal ship, and it was not beyond the rules for the King of Zhongshan.
As proof, he also showed the other party a letter of authorization from King Shang Yuan of Zhongshan, which was stamped with the seal of the King of Zhongshan bestowed by the emperor...
In addition, the Ming Dynasty had no regulations regarding the naming of ships. As long as it was not disrespectful or violated public order and good customs, the government had no right to interfere.
As for why the King of Zhongshan chose such a name, the plaintiff should ask the King of Zhongshan. If Shang Yuan agrees to change the name, it would be great. If he disagrees, our six ministries cannot control Ryukyu...
In the end, the ship was intact and the name was not changed...
Speaking of playing around... Oh no, according to the law, Jiangnan Group is not targeting anyone, everyone here is garbage.
~~
Zhao Hao also equipped the fleet with the best personnel. The five armed merchant ships were all crew members who had been in the Royal Shipping for more than two years. The flagship and five warships were all marine officers and soldiers.
As for the fleet commander, it fell on Lin Feng.
First, no one can match his adventure at sea. Second, senior police officers have important tasks on their shoulders, so how can they just hang out for years? Third, Zhao Hao deliberately wanted Lin Feng to overwhelm Drake to satisfy his historical vanity.
And the most important thing is that his wife also wants to go out to sea. Can he be assured of having a man as her companion? !
Don't think he doesn't know that the waters of the Ming Ocean are green...
Therefore, Lin Feng, a reserve police officer who had just graduated first among the police cadets and entered the Police Academy for further studies, was pulled back directly from Jeju Island and became the commander of this fleet.
Zhao Hao specially awarded her the wartime police rank of 'Senior Police Inspector' and ordered the accompanying Portuguese interpreter to translate it into 'Capitão de Mare Guerra' - Navy Captain!
It's not partiality.
Because we will be dealing with Portuguese people all the time on this trip, the levels have to be equal.
In fact, it was not easy for this voyage to be carried out, because both the Spanish and the Portuguese regarded their ocean routes as their own eggs and would never allow anyone to interfere.
Otherwise, the British, the Dutch and the French would have already been panning for gold all over the world. Why would they just watch these two countries eat the spoils?
There is no other reason, because we can't break through the blockade of the two countries' fleets, so we can only watch.
The voyage of the "Eternal Sinner Liu Daxia" was made possible by the Battle of Nan'ao Island in the fifth year of Longqing's reign.
In the Battle of Nan'ao Island, Zhao Hao annihilated the Macau fleet and captured more than a thousand red-haired devils. Then Lin Daoqian took advantage of the lack of troops in Macau and launched a surprise attack, taking Haojingao and capturing nearly nine thousand red-haired devils in the city.
These 10,000 red-haired devils together are Zhao Hao's biggest bargaining chip in his negotiations with the Portuguese Vice King of India.
Because Portugal had a population of only a few million, the loss of 10,000 people could not be borne by the Governor of Malacca, let alone the Viceroy of India.
If anything happened to these people, the young and energetic King Sebastian of Portugal would definitely send them all to the gallows.
Therefore, in the negotiations in the sixth year of Longqing, Zhao Hao completely ignored the threats of the other party and took the 10,000 hostages to do whatever he wanted. The Portuguese had no choice but to let him do whatever he wanted. In a contract later known as the "Malacca Secret Treaty", the two sides agreed:
First, immediately resume trade between the two countries. Second, the Portuguese withdraw from Macau, and the fleet is not allowed to approach the coast of Ming Dynasty. Third, Portugal's bases and routes east of Malacca are open to the South China Sea Group. A ten-year tax exemption period is also granted as war compensation.
In addition, it is to allow a Ming fleet to sail around the world through the Asian and African routes controlled by the Portuguese, and be responsible for its safety in the sea area.
Except for the first one, the other three are hard to accept. Even the last one, although it only allows the other party to pass through once, the first time is the most precious. Once the other party passes through from beginning to end, there will be no secrets from the other party. This is even more dangerous than the third one...
But the Vice King of India had no choice. After Zhao Hao released a thousand elderly and weak hostages and promised to return all the hostages on the day the ocean-going fleet returned, he finally signed this unequal treaty.
~~
Because of the effective publicity, the entire Ming Dynasty knew that the Jiangnan Group was going to organize a sea voyage.
The gentry of the Ming Dynasty were bored and loved traveling, so how could they miss the opportunity to travel abroad for the first time in 140 years?
The high EQ view is that the Ming Dynasty scholars were full of curiosity. The world is so big, and they have long wanted to go out and see it.
They had long been full of doubts and curiosity about Zhao Hao's claim that the earth was round. Many people wanted to verify it for themselves, but they didn't know that if they went west, they would reach Dongguan, then Malacca, Tianzhu... to Africa, Europe, America, and finally return to the starting point.
So in the past year, more than 10,000 people signed up. After layers of screening by the organizing committee, 300 young and strong passengers who were suitable for sea travel, close to science, evenly distributed in their hometowns, and had high social prestige were finally selected. Among them was Liu Yishou, the great-grandson of Liu Daxia!
Of course, they were there to criticize him. Mr. Zhao was humble and gladly allowed him to board the ship.
Nothing could be more shocking than Liu Daxia's descendants admitting that he was a sinner through the ages...
In addition, there were 300 researchers sent by the Xishan Island Research Center, Yufeng Academy, Kunshan Agricultural College, various group companies, and the Tamra Island Religious Association, each of whom boarded the ship with different topics.
Among them was Xuelang, who had fully realized the power of the Chizhitan religion and wanted to travel west to see the enemy's lair. He also wanted to learn from his counterparts in the Tianfang religion and the Hindu religion.
So after more than a year of careful preparation, this huge fleet with countless purposes finally completed its preparations for the voyage in the summer of the first year of the Wanli period.
ps. Post first and modify later