Chapter 695: A War Between the Great Ming and Spain Is Inevitable

A War Between the Great Ming and Spain Is Inevitable? In the second year of Hongxing of the Great Ming, as the year drew to a close, the capital city of Nanjing, the foremost city of the Great Ming, was at its most prosperous and bustling.

This autumn's harvest had been fairly good, and the various regions were fairly peaceful. Except for the not-very-large-scale warfare still going on around Sichuan, the Great Ming homeland itself had seen hardly any fighting. So after the autumn harvest, the always-high price of rice in Nanjing fell considerably. The price of brown rice dropped to around one tael per shi, and white rice to around one tael two qian per shi.

The fall in grain prices left the common people, military dependents, and low-ranking officials living in Nanjing with a bit more spare money. So as the year drew near its end, the streets and markets on both banks of the Qinhuai River were packed with people. Everywhere were citizens buying New Year goods, shoulder to shoulder, jostling and crowding, extraordinarily lively.

Coming out from West Chang'an Street, past Tongji Gate Avenue and the imperial city moat, Caballero and his party plunged straight into the sea of people in Nanjing.

The carriage they rode in advanced slowly along the most crowded streets and lanes on the north bank of the Qinhuai. Before, behind, left, and right, all was pedestrians and carriages. The shops lining both sides of the streets were all full of customers. There were also many courtesans who plied their trade on the Qinhuai River, greeting and seeing off guests, a brilliant profusion of color, truly a fine sight.

Truly a vast nation of over a hundred million people! Caballero looked at the sea of people before him and sighed inwardly.

The population of Nanjing alone could probably match the entire Kingdom of Portugal!

Such a country — vast in territory, enormous in population, and with military strength by no means weak — once it charges toward the sea, will without question overturn the existing world order.

Before the Great Ming Emperor, who rules over a hundred million people, how could Philip IV, with only a little over 5.2 million people in his homeland and fewer than 10 million in his overseas colonies, still dare to call himself "King of the World"?

How would such a "King of the World" differ from those arrogant, ignorant Eastern monarchs?

Caballero thought of Zhu Cilang, whom he had just met — this man was a completely different species from the native state chieftains he had seen in the Southern Seas, and not at all the self-important Celestial King of the East of legend.

This man somewhat resembled... Van Diemen. Caballero actually found himself thinking of that Dutch profiteer who had stirred up confrontation between Spain and the Great Ming — he of course knew Van Diemen was sowing discord, but Caballero also knew that Van Diemen's "Great Ming threat theory" was correct!

If the Great Ming Emperor wanted to find enough food to fill the bellies of his hundred million people, his only way out was to turn toward the sea!

And a Great Ming that turned toward the sea, relying on its geopolitical advantage in the western Pacific and its enormous population, would sooner or later become the hegemon of the Pacific... A Great Ming that possessed the Pacific would surely turn its expansion toward the rich New World!

Therefore the Spanish Empire must do everything possible to stop the Great Ming from heading into the deep sea!

Caballero let out a breath, and his attention returned to the prosperous, crowded streets of Nanjing. Occasionally one could see Westerners on the streets — their numbers could not compare with Shanghai, and they had more thoroughly adopted local customs. Most wore splendid Chinese-style clothing, and some wore the gauze caps of Chinese scholars.

"There are Westerners here too?" Caballero asked.

"There are some," answered Johann Adam Schall von Bell. "About a thousand or so."

Schall was accompanying Caballero back to a state guesthouse managed by the Foreign Affairs and Trade Bureau. This guesthouse had originally been the residence of some Nanjing noble, located outside Dinghuai Gate in the outer city of Nanjing. Going from the imperial city did not necessarily require passing the Qinhuai, but Schall wanted the Spanish guests to better understand the prosperity of the Great Ming capital, so he had taken a detour.

"What sort of people are they?" Caballero asked.

"Mainly mercenaries and engineers," Schall said with a smile. "The Great Ming is at war with the Qing state of the northern Tartars and the Shun state established by the western rebels, so it needs to introduce Western military technology. Therefore, over the past three or four years, the Great Ming court has successively hired over a thousand men through the Dutch East India Company and the Macau Council. There are instructors, senior officers, sailors, and also engineers in metallurgy, casting, shipbuilding, and construction. Most of these people live in Nanjing.

In addition, there are some teachers, hired through the Jesuits, who teach at the Imperial Academy of Natural Philosophy — over a hundred of them.

Furthermore, the Great Ming court has just abolished the travel permit system, allowing the people to move freely. Westerners in China can also enjoy this treatment, and merchants in Shanghai can now freely enter and leave Nanjing.

The Great Ming today, even compared with European countries, can be considered very open."

He was, in fact, very satisfied with the Great Ming's current development — an open country also meant greater freedom to preach!

Although the Zhu Emperor was wary of Catholicism, his country still needed the Jesuit missionaries to introduce Western scientific knowledge, so he turned a blind eye to their incidental proselytizing...

"Indeed... a European country of over a hundred million people!" Caballero murmured thoughtfully. "Truly remarkable!"

The carriage advanced slowly and finally arrived at Dinghuai Gate Avenue. Dinghuai Gate was a gate in the outer wall of Nanjing, on the east bank of the lower reaches of the Qinhuai. The lower channel of the Qinhuai served as the natural moat for this section of the wall. But now Dinghuai Gate still stood, while long stretches of wall to either side had been demolished. Along the banks of the Qinhuai many iron workshops using water-powered hammers had been built. Though the New Year was approaching, these iron workshops were still extremely busy. Black smoke billowed from chimney after chimney, tall waterwheels creaked and turned, and the clang of water-powered hammers could be heard all the way on Dinghuai Gate Avenue.

"What are these factories producing?" Caballero asked.

"They are producing Spanish light matchlocks," Schall answered. "His Majesty the Emperor has a vast army of several hundred thousand men that needs arming. Even if the arsenals in Shanghai, Nanjing, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou all run at full capacity, it will keep them busy for a long time."

"Several hundred thousand men?" Caballero drew a sharp breath. "All to be armed with matchlocks?"

"Also plate armor, pikes, and 3-pounder cannon." Schall smiled. "But this army is not aimed at Spain — that much is certain!"

The only thing certain is the Great Ming's ambition! Caballero believed the "Great Ming threat theory" even more firmly now.

Several hundred thousand Ming troops armed with Western weapons and tactics would be a threat to anyone!

"Then... what about their navy?" Caballero inquired. "The Chinese can build galleons too, can't they?"

"They can, but they are not very good at sailing them," Schall answered. "Their favorite ship type is still the bird ship. These ships use rigid sails, are easy to handle, do not require many sailors, and can adapt to the complex and changeable winds of coastal waters. Recently, the large shipyards of Nanjing and the five great treaty ports have all received design orders from the Great Ming court for 'ten-thousand-shi bird ships.'"

"'Ten-thousand-shi bird ships'?"

"That is, large bird ships capable of carrying ten thousand shi of cargo!" Schall explained. "Ten thousand shi is roughly twelve or thirteen thousand bushels. Such carrying capacity is almost equal to a Spanish galleon.

But they are not warships. They can only be equipped with a small number of cannon, and they are slow. They can only sail between China, Annam, Chenla, and Siam."

The ten-thousand-shi great bird ships were for transporting migrants and grain. Ten thousand shi was about 600 tons. A sailing ship that could carry 600 tons of cargo at once had a light displacement of about 800 tons, roughly comparable to the later Keying that circumnavigated the globe.

Because they were driven by rigid sails, they needed only about forty sailors to operate. Though they could not be used for war, their economy was excellent. They were the best tool for colonizing the Southern Seas and importing grain — and once Southern Seas colonization and grain importation reached scale, the Great Ming would gradually acquire powerful maritime strength!

"This is an enormous step forward!" Caballero thought. "They could also go to the Philippines... It seems this country is already impatient to head out to sea!

And the conflict between Spain and the Great Ming can only be postponed, not avoided!"

End of full text.