I want to be emperor

Chapter 798 Wanting to be a native of Chu State is so beautiful
The southernmost tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, is known as the most dangerous sea on earth, and a huge fleet is sailing with difficulty.

This is the fleet of the Great Chu Empire’s expedition to South Africa. It consists of most of the capital ships of the African fleet, a group of armed merchant ships from Western trading companies, ordinary merchant ships, and a group of ordinary civilian ships from shipping companies that are temporarily requisitioned for a fee.

There are a total of 57 large and small ships.

Although the smallest ship in this fleet has a full-load tonnage of thousands of tons, the largest ship has reached more than 4000 tons. This 4000-ton ship is an ocean-going freighter of the Southern Shipping Company and has itself been hired by the military. , from the local transport of various port hoisting equipment, construction equipment and materials, as well as some ammunition supplies.

These materials were originally prepared for the future construction of Cape Town Port.

According to the high-level plan of the Great Chu Empire, it is going to take Cape Town, and then build a large military fortress, which has the ability to garrison a large number of troops, moor a large number of ships, and provide supplies and simple maintenance for the ships.

Such a Cape Town will become the sea pass guarding the Cape of Good Hope, and it will also be the bridgehead for the Great Chu Empire to penetrate into the Atlantic Ocean and colonize Europe in the future.

Therefore, all kinds of port equipment and building materials are indispensable. Not only the equipment and materials, but also a group of engineers from the Western Trading Company and the engineering unit directly under the Navy.

The huge fleet is bumping forward on the sea. The mainsails on each ship have been lowered, but in front of the ships, there is a very distinctive orange-red small triangular sail, which is very special and specially used Comes with a storm sail for sailing in strong winds and waves.

At the same time, the steam engines on each ship are output at full power, so that the ships can maintain powerful steam engine power, and can choose to sail with the waves or against the waves as much as possible according to the direction of the waves, so as to avoid the most dangerous and various shipwrecks in sea voyages. The first killer "Hang Lang".

In the age of sailing, most of the ships that were wrecked at sea due to wind and waves were caused by the captain's unskilled skills, which caused the ship to be overturned by cross waves.

When the ship is facing rough wind and waves, it is very important to maintain the basic power and adjust the course in time according to the conditions of the waves.

When a pure sailing ship encounters strong wind and waves, although it needs to lower the mainsail, it also needs to raise the storm sail. Downwind also means going along with the waves, and the safety will be much greater.

If all the sails are lowered and the steam engine is turned off, it will be very, very dangerous if the ship loses power completely. To put it nicely, it is to drift with the tide, but to put it badly, it is to wait for death.

However, the ships in the African Expedition Fleet of the Great Chu Empire are quite large when fully loaded, and the smallest ones are thousands of tons. They are all powered by sails, and among the sails, the steam engines of these ships belong to the main power. , the sail is the auxiliary power.

Among the newly built military ships of the Great Chu Empire, even some large-tonnage civilian ships, although the ocean-going ships are basically all powered by sails, very few are purely steam powered.

The sail power basically does not use the sail as the main power, but the steam engine as the main power.

Nowadays, the sails in newly built motor-sail ships are generally used to save coal during daily sailing. Generally, the speed of motor-sail ships is relatively slow under pure sails, so steam engines and sails are often used together for faster speeds.

Thanks to the strong industrial foundation of the Great Chu Empire and the outstanding shipbuilding industry, although the wind and waves in the Cape of Good Hope waters are relatively strong and the sea is rough, the African fleet's expedition to Cape Town, South Africa is still sailing forward on the sea. with.

Although the sea area of ​​the Cape of Good Hope is very dangerous, it does not mean that it cannot be passed, let alone that it will encounter danger every time it passes through.

Most of the time, as long as you don't die, for example, if you have to go to sea in positive and bad weather, if you have an abnormal mind, you have to play with the side of the boat.

Otherwise, as long as the ship itself does not have any failures, or if it is particularly unlucky to sail in normal weather, it will still encounter a large murderous wave... Well, this is a kind of sea wave with a cliff-like front and a gentle tail. Even modern large ships with tens of thousands of tons will be overturned when they encounter continuous large waves of killing.

As long as you don't die and don't encounter extreme situations, then many risks in the waters of the Cape of Good Hope can actually be avoided.

Europeans have been shuttled back and forth in this sea area for more than 100 years, and they have never seen them die!
If it is really dangerous, and compared to the number of shipwrecks, it is not even as good as one of the Yangtze River waterways in the Great Chu Empire: the Chuanjiang Waterway!
Although a lot of money has been invested in the management of the Chuanjiang waterway over the years, dozens of ships are still wrecked every year in broken places.

Before the large-scale application of steam engine inland river boats, it was normal for hundreds of small wooden boats with sails to sink in a year... In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the waterway of the Sichuan River had not been well managed, and the situation was stable, so the demand for business travel in and out of Sichuan surged , it was more vicious at that time.

In the longest year, that is, the eighth year of Chengshun, more than 300 sailing wooden boats sank in this channel.
Since the founding of the Great Chu Empire, the total number of shipwrecks in this channel may have been several thousand, but the wrecks were all small wooden boats in inland rivers, and not many people paid attention to them, nor did they attract public attention.

It was not until the high-pressure steam engines used for ships matured that a large number of inland river ships with steam engines replaced the small wooden boats of the past as the main force on the Chuanjiang waterway, and the accident rate of the Chuanjiang waterway was reduced.

Compared with the Chuanjiang waterway, the waters of the Cape of Good Hope look dangerous and more frightening, but as long as you deal with it properly and don't kill yourself, you won't encounter too much danger.

After all, the commanders of the African Expeditionary Fleet are not fools. They did not choose to play an expedition to Africa in the local winter season in the Cape of Good Hope in June of the lunar calendar when the wind and waves are strongest in this sea area.

Instead, they chose December when the waters of the Cape of Good Hope were calm. At this time, the waters of the Cape of Good Hope were in the local southern hemisphere summer season, which was the calmest time of the year in the local waters.

At the same time, they did not forcefully cross this sea area under bad weather. In fact, they arrived near this sea area yesterday, but because the weather was not very good yesterday, the wind and waves were a bit strong. Those ordinary civilian transport ships with only more than 1000 tons are in danger, so they did not enter the sea area.

They didn't enter this sea area until the weather calmed down today and the wind and waves on the sea also subsided.

It's just that the so-called wind and waves in the waters of the Cape of Good Hope are relatively small, which is only relatively speaking. In fact, because this place is located at the intersection of the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, it is not so calm even in normal times.

And they were a little unlucky. After entering it, they found that there was a strong wind and the waves became bigger... At this time, the African expedition fleet obviously didn't want to turn around and go back, seeing that they would be able to pass through this dangerous land in a few hours. The sea area, and although the wind and waves have become stronger, they are still within the acceptable range, so the entire fleet continues to move forward in the wind and waves.

This is Chu's South African expedition fleet, which was replaced by Dutch or Portuguese wooden ships with pure sails. When encountering this level of wind and waves, it may turn around and return.

In the continuous strong wind and waves, Chu's South African expeditionary fleet kept heading westward. After sailing through the wind and waves for more than four hours, it finally passed through the most dangerous sea area, bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and entered a slightly calmer area. Atlantic.

Although there are still some rough seas here and now, a large group of Chu people still breathed a sigh of relief.

The danger is finally over!
Now seeing the still stormy Atlantic Ocean, many sailors of Chu State think this sea area is very good, and many people also think that this sea area should be renamed to Ping An Ocean or something...

This situation is similar to what Magellan felt after crossing Cape Horn and entering the calm Pacific Ocean.

However, the name cannot be changed casually. The term Atlantic Ocean is not a foreign word or a translated word.

During the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese called the Indian Ocean the Western Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean the Eastern Ocean.

Later, it was discovered that there was a larger ocean to the west of the Indian Ocean, which the European barbarians called the Atlas Ocean, so they divided the Western Ocean into two...the Indian Ocean was called the Little Atlantic Ocean, and the Atlas Ocean was called the Atlas Ocean. for the Atlantic Ocean.

Later, the international trade of the Great Chu Empire increased and it had close contacts with Europeans. Therefore, some geographical names overseas were inevitably influenced by Europeans who had been sailing for many years, and many geographical terms in European languages ​​were introduced. , some are transliterated and some are free translated.

During this process, some of these translated words were used more among the people, and even replaced some traditional words, becoming popular in Chu and even the official standard words.

The two oceanic terms Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean are exactly what happened in this situation.

It wasn't just the natives in Europe and other places who had a small impact on the culture of the Great Chu Empire. In fact, the Great Chu Empire had a greater cultural impact on all countries, even countries as far away as Europe.

Not to mention Southeast Asia, India and other places, let alone cultural influences, the cultural roots of some puppet countries are almost wiped out by Chu culture... Many upper-class people in indigenous countries generally learn Chinese.

In fact, the Chu people did not force them, or even take the initiative to promote these things, but they insisted on learning Chinese, just like the Chinese people in later generations take English in the college entrance examination... It does not mean that people are willing to learn The language of other people's family is forced to learn.

Not to mention that all kinds of scientific research materials are basically in English, even some modern historical materials about China are in English. If you don’t learn English, you can’t directly read the large amount of modern Chinese history written and preserved by the British. material.

However, it is common for translated materials to be wrong, unintentional omissions, misunderstandings, or even deliberate distortions.

In the study of modern history, foreign language materials also occupy a considerable proportion, and in some foreign-related events, foreign language materials are more important, and you also need to study these.

In historical research, more accurate and objective conclusions can only be drawn by comparing multiple parties. It is not feasible to only listen to one family.

As for the indigenous countries that have more contact with the Great Chu Empire, the upper class people in them are actually unwilling to take the initiative to learn Chinese, but there is no way. .

You don't know Chinese, you don't know much, and when you see a ship from the Great Chu Empire coming, you don't even know it's a steam engine ship, and you can only shout the devil...

In particular, some puppet states of the Great Chu Empire have been infiltrated by Chu people too hard. From politics, economy, culture to military administration, etc., they are all infiltrated and controlled in all directions.

Dealing with Chu people is unavoidable for the upper-middle-class people in the puppet country, but if you want to deal with Chu people, you can't speak the native language.

Not to mention whether people from the state of Chu can understand it, you are embarrassed to say it yourself, thinking that you are a local turtle from the countryside.

Therefore, learning Chinese has become a rigid need.

For things like culture, although the influence is mutual, it is often a powerful country that can have a shocking impact on the culture of a small country.

The mutual influence of the cultures of the Great Chu Empire and other indigenous countries is such a situation. Although the Great Chu Empire has also been influenced by some foreign cultures in the past 30 years, other countries have been more influenced by the culture of the Great Chu Empire.

The changes in the names of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean are very different from the changes in the upper classes of indigenous peoples in various countries who are actively learning Chinese.

----

After the South African expeditionary fleet passed the dangerous waters of the Cape of Good Hope, it continued northward, heading towards Cape Town.

Strictly speaking, Cape Town is not located at the southernmost tip of Africa, but is actually located in the northwest direction of the southernmost tip of Africa, on the northwest coast of the Cape of Good Hope.

The calm and calm here is much better than the dangerous waters at the southernmost tip of Africa, which is more than 200 kilometers away.

When the Dutch chose to build a colony here, they also took a fancy to the fact that it is close to the dangerous waters of the Cape of Good Hope, and at the same time, it is calm and calm. It is very suitable as a ship repair and supply base before crossing the dangerous waters and entering the Indian Ocean.

Therefore, after the South African expeditionary fleet entered the area, the crew members were much more relaxed. Even though there were still enemies ahead, the enemies of the European colonists were far less dangerous than the dangerous seas and weather.

Besides, with such a huge fleet, even if the Dutch have three heads and six arms, they will be finished.

The fleet went all the way north, and finally arrived in the waters off Cape Town.

Before this, in fact, the Dutch in Kepler also discovered the Chu fleet from afar in advance.

When they saw such a huge fleet...the hundreds of Dutch soldiers and a few ships stationed there did not hesitate, let alone intend to stick to it.

I left Cape Town early and ran away.

As for fighting against the Chu people?
It's just a few hundred soldiers, plus a few armed merchant ships, and the current Cape Town is not a large colonial stronghold, not even a castle has been built yet, and there are no strong coastal defense forts, fortresses and the like.

How do you let them resist?

Before the Portuguese assembled a force of more than 4000 people on Mozambique Island, there were more than a dozen warships, and more rigorous coastal defense forts and city defense systems were tenaciously defending. The result was not the same as being beaten by the Chu people. Annihilation came.

As a result, in the First World War in Mozambique, the Portuguese almost lost their last large stronghold in the Indian Ocean, the last batch of main forces, the last batch of warships and armed merchant ships.

Miserable old.

Where are they Dutch?

In fact, it was worse than the Portuguese before. They lost the East Indies a long time ago, and lost all the territories on the Indian Peninsula a few years ago. After losing these places, the Dutch basically lost the medium and large countries in the Indian Ocean Rim. Colonial strongholds were established, and there were only a few sporadic small strongholds left in Africa, but they were quickly lost.

Because of a series of heavy losses, the Dutch East India Company went bankrupt twice.

The current Cape Town was originally the reorganized Dutch East India Company trying to establish a large-scale colony here, focusing on the South African region. In the past two or three years, it has increased immigration to the Cape Town area.

But I didn't expect that before Cape Town was built, the Chu people came again!
How to do?
What else can I do, run away.

You can't stay in Cape Town to die, no.

Ever since, dozens of ships were assembled, thousands of soldiers were transported, and they crossed the waters of the Cape of Good Hope. The South African expedition fleet came from afar and found that they had no enemies!
What they are facing now is: completely undefended, only thousands of Dutch immigrant civilians are left, and these civilians have hung a white flag in the port early in order to save their own lives, and sent representatives in advance to sit The small sail wooden boat came over and said that those people from the Dutch East India Company had escaped. There were only more than 3000 civilians in the city. Cape Town is now an undefended city. The civilians also collected some property for use by the army.

And in the future, they will live and farm here in accordance with the rules of the Chu people, swear allegiance to the Great Chu Emperor, pay taxes for the Chu people, and accept the emperor's conscripts to join the army and other obligations.

Well, since the Dutch are so sensible, the Chu people are not unreasonable. They explained on the spot that as long as the Dutch people in Cape Town do not make any hostile actions, then the Chu people will not open fire.

But letting them continue to live here... that's impossible.

The Great Chu Empire is planning to use Cape Town as a large military base and a sea pass, but it is not allowed to have a group of thousands of Dutch people living in the city or surrounding areas...

Even if they said they were willing to swear an oath to the Emperor of Chu, it would not work, because Chu did not promise their so-called allegiance at all.

Even if some natives want to be Chu people, Chu will be happy and agree.

As immigrants from the loser's side, the Dutch in Cape Town thought that once they surrendered, they would be able to stand up and become the masters, becoming the Chu people they looked up to in the past.

How can there be such a good thing in the world... What a beautiful idea!
Therefore, after discussion, the high-level executives of the expedition fleet said that since you all voluntarily surrendered, we Chu people will not harm you, but you cannot stay here either.

As the saying goes, the world is so big, you can go there as you like, anyway, just don’t come to the territory of our Chu people.

This made it difficult for these Dutch people, they had nowhere to go, and they didn't even have a ship to leave South Africa...

(End of this chapter)