I want to be emperor

The more than 2000 Dutch immigrants who migrated to the inland area of ​​northern South Africa were lucky. After they ran away from the Dutch East India Company, they encountered the South African Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Chu Empire instead of other indigenous countries.

If it was other indigenous countries, even if they didn't kill all these foreign immigrants, they would probably capture them as slaves.

But the Chu people are better. If they voluntarily give up all resistance and are willing to take the initiative to relocate, they are allowed to take some personal belongings and leave.

More importantly, the Great Chu Empire also sold them a batch of export version matchlock guns.

Of course, if other natives come to buy matchlock guns from Chu people, other Chu people will not refuse, even if the Dutch East India Company comes over now and says they want to buy weapons and equipment from Chu people, Chu People also buy...

Wars belong to wars, business belongs to business, and it doesn’t affect anything.

Even if these weapons and equipment purchased by the Dutch East India Company were used to resist the expeditionary force of the Great Chu Empire...but so what?
What should be sold still has to be sold.

After all, the Dutch on the opposite side were fighting with guns they made themselves, or they were fighting with exported weapons purchased from Chu State. In fact, to the Chu army, there was not much difference.

How to hang and beat or how to hang and beat!

Therefore, these Dutch immigrants were able to successfully purchase a batch of matchlock guns and other cold weapons from the Chu people.

Relying on their absolute superiority in weapons, these Dutch immigrants were able to hang and beat the aborigines along the way during the subsequent northward migration, robbed the aboriginals of their rations and livestock, and enslaved the aboriginal young and strong as slaves.

In this way, they were able to walk thousands of kilometers all the way north, and finally arrived in Tshwane, which was far away from the Chu people and had relatively good natural conditions.

A new home was built here.

Now, they have found a large amount of gold here again... Since the first dog's head gold was discovered, these Dutch immigrants have carefully inspected the local area and used slaves to carry out small-scale mining.

It didn't take long for them to dig out dozens of kilograms worth of gold.

This is because they lack professionalism. Even in the case of professional mining and smelting technology compared to the agricultural era, most of the gold is actually mined from the surface or shallow soil layer using very simple original tools.

Based on the current [-] grams of gold in one Chu Yuan, their small-scale mining has unearthed tens of thousands of Chu Yuan's worth of gold.

After getting this much gold and learning that there is more gold in the local area, these Dutch immigrants went crazy one by one and grabbed the surrounding aborigines everywhere.

What are you doing to catch the natives?
Mining...

You can't expect Dutch immigrants with only two thousand people, many of whom are women, children and children, to dig gold, no, even if they dig, they won't dig much.

For things like mining, you still have to catch slaves.

With money in their pockets, these Dutch immigrants... no, now they call themselves Tshwanes.

These Tshwane people naturally want to purchase more weapons and equipment to capture more and suppress slaves. At the same time, they also want to find Chu people to buy more daily necessities and produce tools.

Don't think that you can't find Chu merchants here... Although the Great Chu Empire's overseas territories in Africa currently only have one South African prefecture, one Hongkou County in Northeast Africa, and Moga County (Mogadi) in Somalia Sand) Pemba Town and Mozambique Town in East Africa.

Among them, although the government of South Africa has a high level, in fact, the current actual control area is only one Cape Town County and Dongkai Town, and Dongkai Town is still in the construction stage.

This is full of calculations, in fact, it is only the six coastal port cities and the surrounding areas of the cities.

However, there are few overseas territories directly under its jurisdiction, which does not mean that the Great Chu Empire has fewer colonies in Africa... In fact, the Great Chu Empire has fully accepted the colonies of European colonists on the east coast of Africa. , the Dutch colonial period not only did not decrease, but also increased a lot.

It's just that in these places, the Great Chu Empire basically does not organize large-scale immigration. It basically sets up an ordinary colonial government to implement the most basic colonial rule. The role of these ordinary colonies is currently mainly used to provide ships along the way. Resupply, avoid dangerous weather, and at the same time do some business with the local aborigines.

Although most of the natives in Africa are still in a barbaric state, they still have a lot of good things in their hands, not to mention some gold and gemstones, and there are also some specialty products such as animal fur and ivory that are also known by the Chu people. needs.

At the same time, even barbarians have consumption needs, such as various matchlock guns, various swords and other cold weapons for war, and various daily necessities used in life, such as cloth.

Some indigenous tribal leaders, noble officials and the like can also consume some relatively expensive industrial products.

On the whole, what the Great Chu Empire did to these ordinary colonists was actually similar to that of the Dutch and Portuguese before, focusing on trade.

But even so, there are actually many Chu people who have continuously entered these overseas colonies, and went deep into the interior of Africa for trade and exploration.

For the various trade and expedition activities of private enterprises or individuals in overseas regions, the official generally does not care too much, basically do whatever you like.

Therefore, in today's African continent, there are actually quite a few Chu businessmen active, and many of these businessmen hold multiple positions.

They are not only arms dealers, but also buyers of fur and ivory, and occasionally provide military training for some indigenous countries.

In short, what to do to make money.

When these Dutch people moved north, they encountered a caravan of Chu people, and purchased a batch of ammunition, cloth and other daily necessities from this Chu people's caravan.

As for how to pay the bill, it is natural to use looted animal fur, ivory, gold, silver and precious stones.

In order to attract business, the members of the Chu State caravan also told them that if they want to purchase supplies or sell various local products in the future, they can go to Nansang Port to find their "African Zhihe Trading Company".

As long as you have money, you will have weapons, ammunition, and other supplies. Even these Chu businessmen said that even if it is a flintlock gun and a high-performance smoothbore gun with purchase restrictions, he can get it.

Although the flintlock guns of the Great Chu Empire can also be exported, the export of this thing usually comes with some restrictions and additional conditions.

Matchlock guns are sold casually, even by the enemy, but for flintlock guns, because the use of flintlock guns can adopt line tactics, which greatly improves the infantry firepower of the army, so the export of flintlock guns by the Great Chu Empire There are certain restrictions.

If there are indigenous countries that are too hostile, then they will not be sold to them... To be precise, they will not be sold to them at the normal price, but if they insist on purchasing at a super high price, in fact, the Great Chu Empire will not refuse ...

In addition to price factors, usually when the Great Chu Empire exported flintlock guns, there would be some political additional conditions.

For example, Ottoman Turkey paid a lot of money to purchase large quantities of flintlock guns from Chu.

For example, it acquiesced to Chu State to occupy Hongkou Port and the Yemen area, and also allowed Chu State to open up a long-term leased land in Basra, station a small-scale self-protection army, and so on.

If these prices had not been paid, it would have been impossible for Ottoman Turkey to become the second country in the world to be equipped with flintlock guns in batches after the Great Chu Empire.

When the guards of Ottoman Turkey were equipped with flintlock guns purchased from the Great Chu Empire, those countries in Europe were still using matchlock guns.

Their own flintlocks?The all-weather firing rate is too low to be used in large quantities. That is, in the last five or six years, European countries, such as England, Spain, France and other countries, have gradually solved the problem of low firing rate of flintlock guns and began to equip them in batches. A flintlock gun with an all-weather firing rate of about 70.00%.

Therefore, the flintlock guns are sold by the Great Chu Empire, but they are basically purchased for the official purchase of indigenous countries, either at high prices or with a lot of additional conditions. There are basically no pure ordinary exports. Even if there are, it is for advertising. Or for some other indirect interests.

Like provoking a war or something.

The agents of some arms merchants of the Chu people like to send a batch of advanced matchlock guns or flintlock guns to the indigenous countries for free, encouraging them to fight.

When the two sides started fighting, they began to sell matchlock guns or flintlock guns in large quantities. At this time, the price was often very expensive. A matchlock gun sold for twenty or thirty Chu dollars, and flintlock guns were even more expensive.

Strategic-level weapons like smoothbore guns are extremely expensive. Iron-cast smoothbore guns cost only a few tens of Chu Yuan. When the arms dealers of the Great Chu Empire sold them, they cost several hundred Chu Yuan.

And don't look at it as expensive, there is a reason why it is expensive. The iron-cast smoothbore cannons exported by the Great Chu Empire are more powerful than the bronze cannons cast by the indigenous countries.

Among the armies of contemporary overseas indigenous countries, the Tang Armed Forces are often synonymous with elite soldiers, such as the Royal Guards of Ottoman Turkey, which have been very eye-catching in part of their combat effectiveness in the past ten years.

What, you don't think it's too expensive?
Hehe, if you don't buy it, it doesn't mean your enemy won't buy it!

The enemy bought them all, can you not buy them?Wait for the country to be destroyed!

Because of the excellent performance of the weapons, the cost performance is better than that of the natives. The most important thing is that the enemy arms dealers of the Great Chu Empire often encourage the natives to fight among themselves and create business opportunities. Therefore, the overseas arms trade of the Great Chu Empire is very profitable. It is several times or even ten times the profit at every turn.

This is also why the Great Chu Empire included overseas arms trade as a monopoly, and at the same time prohibited domestic arms companies from exporting weapons on their own, and had to be exported by government-run arms trading companies in various regions.

The profit is too high. In order to avoid the competition from domestic arms companies, the price of foreign weapons will collapse. At the same time, the sale of weapons is not in line with the interests of the empire. Therefore, the Great Chu Empire has incorporated the arms trade in overseas regions into a monopoly.

Each region has established a government-run arms trading company, which is fully responsible for all arms export business in the region. Currently, there are Fuso Arms Trading Company, Central Asia Arms Trading Company, Nanyang Arms Trading Company, American Arms Trading Company, and Indian Arms Trading Company. , West Asia Arms Trading Company, Africa-Europe Arms Trading Company and seven arms trading companies.

Each is responsible for a region, non-interference, to avoid competition.

Only in this way can the ultra-high profits and prosperity of the overseas arms market be maintained.

Under the perfect overseas arms trade management system of the Great Chu Empire, the export of flintlock guns does not mean that the natives can buy them if they want... In fact, they can, but the price is too expensive.

These Dutch people now have gold in their hands, and they expect to get a lot of gold in the future. They naturally want to upgrade their weapons and equipment. Although the arquebus can also bully the natives, its performance is still too poor, and the African In this place, because the African-European arms trading company of the Great Chu Empire actively opened up the market, there are more and more matchlock guns in Africa, especially in the eastern part of Africa... These Dutch immigrants want to make a batch Better flintlock guns to maintain firepower advantage over those African natives.

Even if the price is expensive, they can afford it!

So they wanted to find the merchant from Chu State to see if they could buy a batch of flintlock guns and then a batch of artillery.

Having an idea and having gold in their pockets, they quickly sent people to find the Chu people's caravan. After saying good or bad, they sent representatives to Maputo.

When this small port was in the hands of the Portuguese, it hadn’t actually been developed much. It didn’t even have a castle or anything. It just established a small supply station locally.

After the Chu people came here last year, they stationed more than 300 soldiers here and built city defenses. Some businessmen who wanted money and desperately followed the pace of the army and came here.

Among these businessmen, Meng Xiu was one of them.

He is less than 40 years old this year, and he is already an old trader.

For more than thirty years, when the Kingdom was not yet established, he was mixed with a maritime merchant team in his youth, doing business with his owner on weekdays, and occasionally snatching a ship or something.

The maritime merchants in those days were basically like this.

After the founding of the Kingdom, Meng Xiu's owner, like most maritime merchants in those years, chose to surrender. After the surrender, he did business honestly in the seas controlled by the Empire, left the seas controlled by the Kingdom, and went to some remote waters in Southeast Asia After that, it is natural to continue to do the old job.

Mengxiu's maritime business and pirate career came to an end until the major arms trading companies merged into the Western Armed Trading Company and the Eastern Armed Trading Company.

He tried to go back to China to do some ordinary business, to be a decent person, but he found that the country is very difficult to mix, although industry and commerce make money, but not everyone can do it.

Meng Xiu is a businessman who only knows how to sail and kill people. To be honest in China, he really can't get along...

After the two failed investments, Meng Xiu simply stopped doing business in the country. Instead, he recruited a group of old brothers who were unwilling to retire, and recruited dozens of ruthless people who wanted money but not life.

After registering a trading company, I started to go overseas.

Of course, overseas trade at this time is different from earlier years.

It is no longer allowed to register arms trading companies, but well, it cannot be established in the empire-controlled area, which does not mean that it cannot be established in the indigenous-controlled area.

Meng Xiu and the others registered a company, purchased a 1000-ton motor sailing ship, and then went to India to conduct normal business in the vast Indian Ocean while plundering foreign ships.

But after the government takes control of India, their looting business around India will no longer be possible...

Helpless, I had to go to West Asia and the coast of Africa, but it was not easy to do... Coupled with the continuous expansion of the Chu people, they quickly captured West Asia and North Africa.

At that time, Meng Xiu knew that sooner or later the pirates would have nothing to eat, and he had to change careers as soon as possible while he still had some money on hand and a group of people under his command.

After careful consideration, he resolutely sold the motor sailing boat, and then came to Pemba Port, and spent a lot of money to obtain the fourth-level agent qualification of the African-European Arms Trading Company, and obtained the arms franchise of Maputo .

However, Maputo is still too small, there are not many people in the city, and there are no indigenous people in the city, so if you want to really make money, you have to organize caravans to go out, go deep into the inland, sell weapons to the local indigenous people, and buy the local indigenous people. All kinds of animal skins, gold, silver and gemstones and other valuables,

Of course, if the other party refuses to trade, or the potential profit is too large, Meng Xiu's caravan can become a bandit at any time!

They even do some slave business. They often buy prisoners of war from some indigenous tribes, and then transfer them to the Ottomans and Europeans who buy slaves in Africa for prisoners of war.

Of course, the name of the slave trade must not be used. Mengxiu usually charges the so-called board and lodging fees and job referral fees from the slave traders in order to help the natives find jobs.

As for whether those indigenous workers became slaves under the hands of slave traders such as the Ottomans and Spaniards, it was none of his business.

Meng Xiu firmly supports Guochao's actions to strictly prohibit slavery and crack down on all crimes of human trafficking!

However, these Europeans and the labor dispatch companies organized by the Ottomans will package the purchased slaves as labor dispatch workers and send them to work in some plantations and mines opened by Chu people in Africa and America.

A variety of businesses were carried out together, which allowed Meng Xiu to gain a firm foothold in Maputo with dozens of people.

Not long after, as Meng Xiu expected, as soon as he gained a firm foothold in the Maputo area, the imperial dynasty's expeditionary force went to East Africa... Some of the colleagues who used to beg for food at sea lost their business one by one... In the empire Do you still want to be a pirate in the sea controlled by the navy?
Too long!

And because Meng Xiu changed his career early, he has changed from a sea merchant and a part-time pirate to a trader, bandit and aboriginal immigration work consultant, etc., and now his life is quite nourishing.

However, Meng Xiu is also a hard-working person, and he is more aware of danger in times of peace. Therefore, although the current situation is not bad, Meng Xiu is still actively opening up markets.

Just when he was wondering whether to encourage the two indigenous tribes in the northeast of Maputo to fight, someone came to report that a few Dutchmen had come to purchase weapons.

And it is to purchase flintlock guns, and the quantity is large.

"Besides, they are going to use this to pay." When the men came down to report, they were still holding a small gold bar with very poor workmanship.

"Tsk tsk, it's so new, but gold bars with such poor workmanship and poor quality are rare!"

As he spoke, this subordinate showed a meaningful smile.

When Meng Xiu heard this, he immediately stepped forward to take the small gold bar and looked at it repeatedly, and then said: "Find out how their gold comes from."

"If I'm right"

"Then we're going to get rich!"