I want to be emperor

Chapter 591 Burma's Colony
For the Great Chu Empire, trade with overseas countries is not purely for profit on a certain route, um, although this is the pursuit of major trading companies.

But the pursuit of an enterprise is different from the pursuit of an empire.

For the empire itself, the pursuit of trade with various countries is the market!
As long as you buy goods from my Great Chu Empire, and then let go of industrial raw materials, such as cotton, wool, saltpeter, sulfur, shipbuilding timber and other industrial raw materials, then you are a good friend of the Great Chu Empire!
Conversely, if you do not open the market to the Great Chu Empire, then you are the enemy of the Great Chu Empire!

In this principle, except for the exclusive trade adopted in order to monopolize the Fusang market, the Great Chu Empire adopted a free trade policy in other markets.

And this trade policy directly reflects that the Great Chu Empire can do business with whoever it likes to do business with, and no one can control it.

The Dutch actually asked the Great Chu Empire to stop trading with the Portuguese. This is absolutely unacceptable, so the Great Chu Empire replied to the Dutch with an extremely harsh diplomatic letter.

Although the Dutch are dissatisfied with this, there is nothing they can do about it.

Forcibly blocking the fleet of the Great Chu Empire from going to Malacca to trade with the Portuguese?This is tantamount to triggering a war with the Great Chu Empire. Let alone the outcome of the war, the severance of trade between the two parties after the outbreak of the war is a huge loss that the Dutch cannot bear.

The trade of the Dutch in the Nanyang region is inseparable from the Great Chu Empire. Without the various goods of the Great Chu Empire and the purchase of various raw materials, the Dutch trade in the Nanyang and India regions cannot even be maintained in Europe. .

In the triangular trade between Southeast Asia and India, anyone can be missing, but the Great Chu Empire is the only one that cannot be missing.

What is the d trade model of the Dutch in the Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean?It is to purchase cotton, shipbuilding timber, saltpeter, sulfur, wool, spices and other raw materials from India and Southeast Asia, and transport some special products from various places to the Great Chu Empire for sale, and then purchase cotton cloth, iron products, and weapons from the Great Chu Empire , silk, porcelain and other products are sold to Southeast Asia, India, Northwest China, Africa and Europe.

The Great Chu Empire is at one end of trade, and other countries are at the other end...

If a war breaks out with the Great Chu Empire, this trade should be stopped at all, just go home...

What's more, if the Dutch don't do it, then the Spaniards, Portuguese and even the English will take over, and the trade in the African and even European markets will not be cut off.

As for the Southeast Asia and even the Indian region, the trading company of the Great Chu Empire is also sufficient to fill the vacancy.

In the trade market in East Asia in the 12th year of Chengshun, the Great Chu Empire could leave the Dutch to play by itself, but the Dutch cannot do without the Great Chu Empire.

Therefore, facing the Great Chu Empire under the banner of free trade, the Dutch went to Malacca to do business with the Portuguese, but they could only watch and did not dare to send warships to intercept it.

Well, if you really want to intercept, you may not be able to beat it!

Under the 'escort' of the Dutch, more than a dozen merchant fleets from the Great Chu Empire arrived in Malacca and traded with the local Portuguese in Malacca.

The Portuguese also knew that the situation was tense, and at the same time they lacked other sources of material supplies, so they directly purchased all kinds of strategic materials shipped by the trading companies of the Great Chu Empire at high prices.

Matchlock guns, artillery, shells, gunpowder and other firearms, as well as cold weapons such as plate armor, swords and spears.

For this reason, they spent all the gold and silver in their inventory, and by the way, they also sold all kinds of spices and other goods that the Great Chu Empire needed to the Great Chu Empire.

After some transactions, both parties are happy!

The Portuguese obtained a large amount of weapons and ammunition, which enriched the defense force of the city of Malacca, while the various trading companies of the Great Chu Empire obtained a large amount of wealth, a large amount of industrial raw materials, and local products from various places.

After the transaction was completed, the ships of various non-governmental trading companies began to sail from Malacca. Some of them were going to make another trip to Batavia to trade with the Dutch, or they were going to other ports controlled by Nanyang natives for trade, while some The other is that all transactions have been completed and ready to return to China directly.

However, this does not include the armed merchant ships of the Nanyang Trading Company!

After they completed the transaction in Malacca, they continued to rest and wait in Malacca. They waited until the two merchant ships headed to Batavia for trade arrived in Malacca, and then set sail again!

The naval fleet led by Vice Admiral Xia Houjun also set sail to perform escort missions at the same time.

They will first go to Myanmar and trade along the coastline, and it is expected to set up a trading port in the Myanmar region.

The establishment of a trading port in Burma is also the stated goal of the naval fleet going to the Indian Ocean this time. Of course, this matter has actually been finalized before they set off.

Last year, the border guards of the Yunnan region of the Great Chu Empire and the Taungoo Dynasty of Myanmar fought a fight over some disputed territories in the border area...

Well, the reason is actually simple, that is, when the Great Chu Empire pursued the remnants of Ximing, the remnants of Ximing fled into Burma, and the Chu army naturally followed them, thus pushing the border southward in some areas , as few as ten kilometers, and as many as hundreds of kilometers...

At that time, the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma, in order to avoid angering the Great Chu Empire...did not have the guts to stop it, but instead took the initiative to withdraw its troops and cooperated with the Chu army's method of encircling and suppressing the remnants of the Western Ming Dynasty.

But... logically speaking, after the remnants of Ximing were wiped out, the Great Chu Empire Army also retreated. However, the Chu army has been using the excuse that the remnants of Ximing have not finished fighting, and has not retreated for a long time.

Later, prefectures and counties were directly established for direct rule, and it was clear that they did not intend to leave when they came.

So in recent years, the Burmese side has been trying to recover these areas. Of course, they didn't have the guts to start a full-scale war with the Great Chu Empire, and only engaged in border conflicts occasionally.

As for the Chu army, they actually didn't have the intention to continue going south. The Chu army didn't want to go to that poor place...but the thieves didn't leave empty space.

So after encountering the border counterattack from Myanmar, they will naturally launch a counterattack in self-defense. Before, there were some small conflicts, but after a few fights, they became so angry that they organized a reinforced group to launch a counterattack!

Although the scale of this battle was not large, it completely scared the Toungoo Dynasty...

The army composed of light artillery, flintlock guns, and good various types of light armor of the Great Chu Empire almost beat the army of the Toungoo Dynasty.

Because the combat strength of the two sides participating in the battle was only thousands of people, the difference in casualty ratio between the two sides was too great.

On the side of the Taungoo Dynasty in Myanmar, at least two thousand people were killed and injured, while on the side of the Chu army, the number of casualties was less than one hundred!
At the same time, the Taungoo Dynasty of Myanmar lost two important cities in the north!

Such a huge casualty ratio directly frightened the Toungoo Dynasty, and immediately sued for peace after losing the battle.

Thalom, who now rules the Toungoo Dynasty in Burma, is also a relatively rational person. He knows that Burma is weak internally and the people's livelihood is dying. He knows that Burma cannot be the opponent of the Great Chu Empire. It wasn't until last year that I couldn't help launching a border counterattack...but I didn't expect this counterattack to be disgraced.

After the counterattack failed, Talong didn't struggle anymore, he directly sued for peace, and took the initiative to send envoys to Jinling City to request canonization, a surrender, and voluntarily ceded the disputed areas in the border area between the two sides, including last year. Conquered several areas.

As for the Great Chu Empire, they actually have no plans to expand in the tropical jungle... That place is not inhabited, and the geographical environment is too poor. If troops are sent to fight, non-combat casualties will be extremely serious.

In last year's counterattack, although the combat casualties were less than 100, the non-combat attrition was actually very terrifying.

A reinforced regiment of more than 4000 people had only more than 80 combat casualties, but more than 100 non-combat deaths. After leaving the camp with relatively good sanitation and going deep into the jungle, people in the regiment suffered from high fever and diarrhea every day Or be bitten by a poisonous snake and die!

In the strengthened regiment at that time, one out of four people was sick, so Tu Wenhua, who commanded the strengthened regiment at that time, cried to the brigadier general superior that this is not a place for people to stay at all, and if it continues, more than 4000 of them will have to die All died in a foreign country...

Because of the inability to adapt to the harsh local environment and the inaccurate soil and water, the Chu army's local operations were very troublesome and difficult.

This is also the reason why the Great Chu Empire did not take the initiative to expand southward in the past few years, except for a little expansion in the direction of Burma when chasing the remnants of Ximing.

To be honest, the Great Chu Empire really doesn't want to fight this kind of broken place!

But still the same sentence, thieves don't go empty-handed. Since they chased and killed the Ximing army in the early years, there is naturally no reason to give up the newly occupied territory and retreat.

And last year, in order to teach the Burmese side a lesson, they sent troops to seize several areas. Now that these areas have been captured, it is impossible to give up.

Therefore, after this battle, the Great Chu Empire was actually very embarrassed... On the one hand, it was unwilling to continue to fight the Burmese in such a broken place. This is not a war, but sending soldiers to the front line to die. It's okay to die in battle, but it's not, but to die from aggrieved diarrhea... The blow to morale is too serious.

Frontline soldiers would rather fight to death with the ferocious enemy than die from diarrhea!

But on the one hand, the Great Chu Empire was unwilling to let go of the territory it had already acquired.

After the Burmese took the initiative to seek peace, the Great Chu Empire also breathed a sigh of relief!
Therefore, it was very straightforward to conduct peace talks with Myanmar, and even made some concessions in the negotiations on the disputed territory. In order to make the border division between the two parties more in line with the geography of mountains and rivers, some areas were abandoned. In the end, the two sides finalized the new border. The mountains and rivers are the session.

After this division, the Great Chu Empire finally obtained a land of about [-] square kilometers in the northern part of Myanmar, which was directly included in the management of Yunnan Province.

As part of the treaty, the Taungoo Dynasty of Myanmar expressed its surrender to the Great Chu Empire and requested canonization, and the Great Chu Empire canonized Thalom, the ruler of the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar, as the king of Myanmar.

And this is also the second kingdom to accept the official canonization of the Great Chu Empire. Before that, it was the Yarkand Khanate.

Of course, this kind of vassal relationship is actually very weak, and it is only a nominal surrender. The Toungoo Dynasty is still an independent kingdom.

After the Chu-Myanmar Jinling Treaty was finalized, the relationship between the Great Chu Empire and the Kingdom of Burma returned to normal. Now that the relationship has returned to normal, the Great Chu Empire naturally proposed to engage in a trade at the entrance of the Yangon River in Myanmar. The port is used for the replenishment and trade of merchant ships of the Great Chu Empire.

If it was replaced by other colonial countries, the Burmese would slap the table every minute...

The Burmese people don’t object to trade, but they want a trading port to engage in colonization. The Burmese people are not fools who have never seen the world... They expelled the Portuguese before and regained the territory occupied by the Portuguese. What about Colonial Thamren.

The actual control of the place, the Burmese version of Anlu Mountain, the Portuguese Philip, who has the titles of "Commander Shalian", "Conqueror of Bagu" and "King of Bagu", was pierced by a Burmese stake and experienced It took 3 days of torture before finally dying... By this time, the early colonization attempts of the Portuguese or Western colonists in Myanmar had completely ended in failure.

This move severely warned those Western colonists who were trying to establish colonies in Myanmar, so that while Myanmar could maintain trade with Western countries, it did not lose its power and humiliate the country too much. become a colony.

In other words, in the [-]th century, the Burmese were still very stubborn against the Western colonies, and they could win if they dared to fight!
But... the Great Chu Empire is different!

The Great Chu Empire is right next to Burma... and just beat up the Burmese, so the Burmese had to give in to the Great Chu Empire's proposal to build a trading port here, although the boss was unwilling. .

This is mainly because the Great Chu Empire did not have much demand for the size of the colony. In order to reduce the defense of the Burmese, they took the initiative to say that the place does not need to be large, and there is no need to go to Shalian, just build a trading post port on the side.

After all, what the Great Chu Empire is looking for at this stage is still to do business, for the Burmese market... As for directly occupying a large area of ​​territory to play colonial rule... This kind of thing does not mean that the Great Chu Empire does not want to do it, but that it does not want to do it for the time being. necessary.

In the end, the Myanmar side agreed to Dagon on the other side of the river in Shanlian as a trading port dedicated to the Great Chu Empire, allowing the Great Chu Empire to live, live and trade here and garrison troops to protect themselves!

Dagon is located on the left bank of the Yangon River, and the right bank is Than Lien, the main trading port of the Burmese. Now Dagon is just a small fishing village with few people. The most famous one is the temple pagoda.

Prior to this, a small number of vassal personnel of the Empire's Ministry of Rites and Education's Fan Affairs Department entered Myanmar by land and arrived in Dagon for preliminary construction preparations.

But Myanmar refused more soldiers from the Chu army to enter Myanmar to go to Dagon...

Before the Chu army pursued the remnants of Ximing, it has not been a few years since they refused to retreat after the pursuit. The Burmese people have to be careful on guard...

They were afraid that they would let the Chu army enter the hinterland of Burma, and they would not leave. At that time, the kingdom might be destroyed...

Myanmar is too wary of the Chu army, and the Great Chu Empire is not willing to overly stimulate the Myanmar side shortly after the agreement is signed, so it is not reluctant to garrison and supply troops by land, but to garrison troops by sea. and supplies.

This time Xiahou Jun and the others went over to bring some weapons and equipment and even ground troops to finalize the formal Dagon construction plan and leave some garrison troops.

As for reinforcements by sea, it is more troublesome. If Dagon is attacked by the enemy in the future, there will be no time to reinforce them.

Now that it is a time of war, the Great Chu Empire will naturally not pay attention to what the Burmese think, and naturally a large number of troops will go straight from Yunnan to Burma!

Besides, this year the Burmese did not agree to the Chu army's sending troops through excuses, but next year they agreed if they were not sure?
And in a few more years, it is still unknown how long the current Toungoo dynasty can last.

(End of this chapter)