Chapter 1492: Saving India Requires a Fee!

Looking at the two eager army and navy chiefs before him, the Zhu Emperor frowned slightly — France and Holland were no weaklings!

Defeating them would cost quite a lot! And the returns...

France was in the age of the Sun King Louis, the heyday of the Bourbon dynasty — famous generals like clouds, elite troops like the sea! The Prince of Condé, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and that François-Eugène — the cousin of Zhu Henry. He's already been raised to age eight, still a little Italian runt, and you can tell at a glance he's formidable! The France of today is full of one badass after another, each one even shorter than the last — just thinking about it, they won't be easy to deal with!

Holland is also at its peak right now, because it never had that "using water as soldiers" war that shattered the Dutch nation, and instead Holland gained an alliance of "the Netherlands at sea, France on land." So Holland's national strength remains at its height, and it hasn't fallen far behind in the latest naval arms race. Like the Great Ming, it has built new battleships with a 1,000-ton displacement, capable of mounting forty 12-pounder long-barrel bombardment guns. Their strength is solid!

Of course, if one only looked at strength on paper, the Dutch navy and the French navy combined still fell far short of the Great Ming navy.

The Pacific-type battleships the Great Ming now fields for decisive ocean battles come in three classes: Pacific Type A, Pacific Type B, and Pacific Type C.

Among them, Pacific Type A was the first of the three classes to be finalized, and also the smallest in tonnage, with a displacement of only 700–750 tons (the individual ships of Pacific Type A are not all identical, so tonnage varies). Its armament is also the weakest, fitted with twenty-four 12-jin long-barrel bronze cannon. However, it was built in the greatest numbers — two sub-variants in total, with forty-five ships completed, and a third sub-variant already designed, with the Navy Ministry placing an order for fifteen ships, now under construction at shipyards in Nanjing, Shanghai, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, and elsewhere.

Pacific Type B was finalized later, with slightly greater tonnage, reaching 800–850 tons, and stronger armament, fitted with thirty-two 12-jin long-barrel bronze cannon. One sub-variant has been produced so far, with twenty ships completed; the second sub-variant is still being designed and has not yet been finalized.

Pacific Type C is the newest class, with tonnage exceeding 1,000 tons! There is currently only one variant, with eight ships completed and seven more under construction. The first sub-variant of Pacific Type C has also begun design.

In other words, these three classes of capital ships currently total seventy-three completed, with twenty-three more under construction.

Of course, these three classes of ocean-decisive capital ships do not constitute the entire lineup of the Great Ming navy's main battle fleet.

The Great Ming navy also possesses two special types of battleships: the Malacca type and the hard-sail type. The Malacca type is likewise divided into A, B, and C variants, with thirty ships built in total, all currently completed (three already lost).

The hard-sail type, meanwhile, is a cheap battleship converted from the commercial Pacific sailing ship — because the trans-Pacific routes have grown busier and busier over the past two years, the number of Pacific hard-sail ships in service has grown larger and larger, and the number of sailors able to skillfully handle this type of sailing ship has grown as well. Moreover, shipyards across the Great Ming have built who knows how many Pacific hard-sail ships, and those experienced shipwrights could build one with their eyes closed. So the cost of building hard-sail Pacific warships is very low!

Additionally, because Pacific hard-sail ships use hard sails, they require fewer sailors aboard, so their operating costs are far lower than soft-sail capital ships.

And the Great Ming's sailors are thoroughly familiar with Pacific hard-sail ships, so recruiting merchant sailors for Pacific hard-sail warships is not very difficult.

Precisely because of these advantages, the Great Ming's Pacific hard-sail battleships are numerous — well over a hundred!

Of course, the drawbacks of this Pacific hard-sail battleship, whose advantages are so prominent, are equally prominent: its speed is too slow, so it can only handle miscellaneous duties such as convoy escort, transport, bombarding coastal targets, and supporting landings.

If one adds together the Pacific-type warships, the Malacca-type warships, and the Pacific hard-sail warships, the total number of bombardment-gun warships in the Great Ming navy exceeds two hundred — more than all the bombardment-gun battleships possessed by Britain, France, and Holland combined!

So the Great Ming navy's strength on paper has now roughly reached the level of the historical British Royal Navy at the end of the eighteenth century.

With such strength behind them, Qin Mingtao and Chen Shangchuan naturally stood tall!

But the Zhu Emperor was not as bold as those two. In his view, staking the Great Ming navy's entire capital against the Dutch and French navies was not worth it!

For what?

Although the French and Dutch navies have fewer capital ships, if it truly came to a fight, the Great Ming navy's chances of victory would be fairly high.

But naval warfare today is a business of "kill 1,000 of the enemy, lose 800 of your own." If the French and Dutch main forces were truly wiped out, the Great Ming navy's main force would lose at least half its strength.

Counting ships, equipment, and compensation for personnel, at least 20 million taels of silver would be thrown away!

Of course, 20 million isn't unaffordable. The problem is, if that 20 million is spent, where's the return? Can Aurangzeb give 50 million?

Impossible!

The Great Ming spends 20 million to save him, and then — nothing after that!

A massive loss!

But what if the Great Ming showed a little timidity? Stay put in Malacca and let France, Holland, and the Shun go plunder India — plunder until Aurangzeb can't take it anymore. At that point, the price can be negotiated, and maybe a hundred million could be talked out of it!

Zhu Cilang is a good man, willing to save the people of India. He can't just watch them be colonized by France! These French are even more hateful than the British — when the great revolution comes, they'll be all about liberty, equality, and fraternity.

What will happen then to the vast toiling untouchables of India under French colonial rule? They won't even be allowed to be untouchables!

So Zhu Cilang is willing to rescue India's untouchables from fire and water — the problem is, there has to be a fee!

Who goes rescuing people from fire and water without even negotiating a price first?

Zhu Cilang frowned and turned his gaze to the Minister of Revenue, Zheng Sen — your father is a profiteer, and you understand economics; you should know what We mean, right?

"Rest assured, Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue has money!"

The moment Zheng Sen opened his mouth, Zhu Cilang was disappointed — you're no match for Zheng Zhilong! If Zheng Zhilong were here, he would certainly cry poverty at a time like this!

"Has money?" Zhu Cilang felt like winking at his senior brother.

"Your Majesty can absolutely rest assured!" Zheng Sen, being a young master, had no idea how to cry poverty. He thumped his chest and declared, "Even a hundred million in military funds — this subject can raise it for Your Majesty!"

A hundred million — you actually want to spend a hundred million to save Aurangzeb? Do you take me for the Allah that Aurangzeb worships several times a day?!

Zhu Cilang was so angry he didn't want to speak to Zheng Sen anymore, and immediately turned to look at Luo Dagong — you, Chief Grand Secretary, look quite crafty; surely you can discern the imperial will?

"Your Majesty, Li Jicheng has colluded with the western barbarians and cut himself off from the Celestial Court. Recently he murdered his empress mother and imprisoned his own father — truly intolerable to heaven and reason. If the court sends troops to chastise him at this time, it will surely win widespread support, and a great victory can be expected!"

Right — you're a Donglin man! Zhu Cilang then remembered that Luo Dagong was the prized disciple of the Donglin faction leader Qian Qianyi! No wonder he's full of political correctness. Li Jicheng is going to India to become a Brahmin, a Kshatriya — why stop him? Aurangzeb hasn't paid us anything! Let him go! If he goes, won't retaking Yunnan be easier? And "win widespread support" — who would come help for free? They're all coveting the Great Ming's lavish rewards!

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wei Zhongcheng, had already seen through Zhu Cilang's thoughts — His Majesty has lost his nerve! His Majesty is getting older and no longer has the ambition of his younger days. All he thinks about now is arranging things for his descendants, so that the Great Ming may endure for ten thousand generations — just like the late years of the founding emperor.

Fighting the French and Dutch in the Western Ocean isn't very meaningful. Even if they could be beaten down, establishing one country or several in India would still require continued heavy investment and recruiting troops for distant expeditions.

Moreover, India is a place rife with pestilence; people of the Central Plains who go there also suffer from the unfamiliar climate. With that kind of energy, better to put more effort into the New World!

Having thought this through, Wei Zhongcheng spoke to Zhu Cilang: "Your Majesty, though this subject is a civil official, I do know a little of the art of war, and I understand the principle of avoiding the strong and striking the weak!"

(End of Chapter)