The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 8 How bumpy the journey is ([-])

In the early days of the Safavid dynasty, there were frequent wars and a depressed economy, and basically no large-scale infrastructure construction was carried out.Until the great Emperor Abbas came to the throne, with the end of large-scale foreign wars and the restoration of domestic political stability, the Safavid dynasty entered the peak period of infrastructure construction, with an unprecedented increase in the number of inns, roads and ports.

According to various documents, more than a thousand stations were built during the period of Abbas I alone.Except for a small number of these stations located in large and medium-sized cities such as Isfahan, Tabriz, Kerman, and Neshapur, most of them are mainly concentrated in the center of the inland plateau and the Kavir Desert and Lut Desert in the southeast. fringe areas.

More importantly, Abbas I also connected them with each other on the basis of inns dotted all over the country, connecting major industrial and commercial cities, main agricultural production areas, military fortresses, border trade centers and coastal areas. The port is integrated organically.In addition to Bandar Abbas Port, foreign trade ports in the north and south directions, Rasht Port and Astra Port on the Caspian Sea coast, as well as Quon Port, Jask Port, Chabahar Port on the Gulf (Persian Gulf) coast, etc., have successively received development and utilization.

In addition, Abbas I also ordered the establishment of special road safety maintenance personnel. If any businessman, traveler or resident is robbed, the governor of the region is responsible for recovering the loss for him or using his own money to compensate him.

However, time has changed, and after more than 100 years have passed, the Safavid Empire, which was once extremely powerful, began to decline.The entire administrative system of the dynasty was designed by an autocratic and powerful Shah like Abbas the Great during its heyday. Although there were other rights, such as provincial governors having certain rights of independence and autonomy, the center of the country's power remained the same. It was the Shah, and the Shah had to have the character traits of firmness, cruelty, and dictatorship to keep the various functions of the government functioning properly.

During the reign of Abbas II (1642-1666), the Safavid dynasty showed signs of a brief revival, but during the reign of Suleiman I and the current Shah Sultan Hussein, due to the decline of the entire dynasty There are no serious external threats or internal challenges. They are all addicted to endless enjoyment, adopt laissez-faire behavior, pay less and less attention to the operation of the government, and push all responsibilities and burdens to the Grand Vizier and other important ministers.

There is no doubt that there are many capable officials among them, but seeing that their efforts are not respected and praised by the Shah at all, and that other officials and ministers ignore the interests of the country and only focus on enriching their own pockets, will undoubtedly make people feel pessimistic and discouraged. thought.Inefficiency and sabotage gradually corroded the entire dynasty's administrative system.

Starting from the Port of Bushehr to the small town of Borazjan, fifty kilometers away, the road is extremely smooth. There are several rest stations for passers-by and travelers along the way, and a powerful cavalry team patrols to deter possible intruders. Bandit Roadhog.But after passing through the small town of Borazzhan, the roads were extremely dilapidated, with almost no smooth roads and full of potholes. The empty soil crushed by passing vehicles was more than ten to 20 centimeters thick. On sunny days, the sky was filled with dust. , on rainy days the ground is covered with mud, making it impassable.

The road between Bushehr Port and Borazcan was built and managed by Qi merchants. It was mainly used to facilitate towns and farms in the hinterland, and to continuously transport food, vegetables, and other types of life to the port. supplies.

Twenty years ago, Qi State originally planned to work with the Persian local government to build a high-quality road to Shiraz.In this way, goods arriving at the port can be directly transported to this large city with a population of hundreds of thousands, speeding up the flow of people, business and logistics, thus promoting trade activities between the two places.

Well, to put it bluntly, it was to take money out of Persian pockets more quickly.

However, the local government of the Safavid dynasty was not active in this regard. To be precise, it did not want to make a big effort to build this road at all.In their view, it is not cost-effective and wasteful to take a large amount of money from the local treasury in financial distress and scatter it on the ground.The governor, the chief justice, the qadi (the true religious judge), the general, and the thousands of soldiers supported by them all had empty pockets and were in urgent need of large amounts of gold and silver to fill them.

As for building roads, you can go wherever you like. You people in Qi have more money, so just complete the construction of this more than 150 kilometers of "Golden Avenue" by yourself.

The result is that after the Persian Trading Company of Qi built more than 50 kilometers of road alone and spent all the money they raised, they looked up and saw, hey, the Persians really didn't build a meter of road, and they were eagerly expecting them to build this road. The road was built all the way to Shiraz.The people of Qi immediately exploded. Why? I came to Persia to make money, not to build for you.Immediately, the Persian trading company also gave up its options and stopped further investment, eventually causing this planned "transportation artery" to be abandoned halfway.

In fact, if the Safavid Dynasty could, like Egypt, promise to hand over several kilometers of land on both sides of the road to Qi for free for development, the Persian trading company would not be unable to consider investing a large sum of money to build this road.After all, in addition to collecting some tolls, you can also earn a lot of income through land development, which can also make up for the cost of road construction.

However, the governor of Fars, who was "diligent in royal affairs", directly rejected the suggestions of the Qi people.He said that it would be fine if the people of Qi rented a remote fishing village port. After all, there would be fewer land disputes and religious disputes involved there.But once it goes deep into the interior, countless farmland and people are involved, and there may be some big trouble, which will affect the decades of friendly exchanges between the two countries.

However, considering that there are many horses and camels in Daobos, there is no need for animal power to pull carts and transport goods. Although the roads are a little bad, they can barely support the basic requirements for goods transportation.

Qi's profits from Persia amount to tens of millions of yuan every year, which is definitely one of the most important markets in Qi's trade circle around the Indian Ocean.With the country's population of less than 900 million (the Safavid dynasty had only 1000 to [-] million at its peak), the market capacity is naturally not as good as that of India and the Ottomans. However, due to the unique geographical location of Persia, it is located in the east and west. The logistics of goods between China and the hinterland of the Eurasian continent and between the north and south of the Eurasian continent was unsustainable without going through Persia. Therefore, transit trade was extremely developed for a long period of history. The ancient post stations scattered on the plateau are historical witnesses of the prosperity of transit trade in the era of land transportation. The Safavid period was certainly no exception.In the early days of global markets, transit trade through Persia was particularly important.During this period, there were more transit trade centers in Persia. Isfahan, Kandahar, Tabriz and Bandar Abbas were all important sea and land international trade transit and distribution centers at that time, and Isfahan was even more important. A typical example of a land transit trade center.

The largest foreign trading partner of the eastern Safavid dynasty was the Mughal dynasty. Compared with the Safavid dynasty, the Mughal Empire had a larger economy, stronger production capacity, and a richer country. Its export goods mainly are handmade products including cotton cloth, indigo, saltpeter, spices, opium, sugar, silk cloth, yarn, salt, beads, borax, turmeric, shellac, sealing wax and various medicines.

As one of the most important economies in the East at that time, the products of the Mughal Empire were exported to the west. Whether by sea or land, they had to pass through Persia and be transported along the land route to Isfahan, where they would be transferred and then westward to Only the eastern Mediterranean trading port of Aleppo could complete transactions with European merchants.

If Isfahan was the most important distribution center for transit trade during the Safavid period, then the emerging Port of Bushehr was one of the most important international maritime trade transit points in the entire East-West trade network.This is not only the traditional trade center in the west around the Indian Ocean, but also the central node connecting Qi, Qin, Nanyang vassals and the Indian Ocean trade circle.

After setting off from Bushehr Port, a large-scale caravan meandered all the way north, with more than 70 carriages, more than a hundred packhorses and camels, stretching for nearly two miles in front and back, and the dust kicked up by the wheels and horse hooves flew high.

Li Yanliang was riding on a camel, and his whole head was tightly wrapped in a traditional Persian floral turban. As the camel moved, his body rose and fell, and he looked even more drowsy under the warm sunlight.

Bushehr Port is about 460 kilometers away from Isfahan, and the planned journey takes 25 days to arrive. In terms of time, it is still relatively generous.However, considering the dilapidated roads in Persia and the possibility of rainy weather, the chief caravan leader tried to limit the daily traveling distance to twenty kilometers.

The two infantry companies of the third mixed battalion also changed into the appearance of trading company escorts and accompanying clerks, and followed the trading caravan to Isfahan.Except for the battalion commander and a few intelligence staff who knew the true purpose of the trip, the other more than 200 officers and soldiers only knew to go to the Persian capital to escort the family members of the Qi minister and a batch of important supplies back to Bushehr Port.

As for why the Persian army was not entrusted to carry out the escort mission, the officers and soldiers secretly speculated that they might not trust the Persian army with their heads wrapped in large turbans.Such a huge dynasty could not even quell the tribal rebel forces in the border areas, and it also allowed people to invade the country again and again and seize cities and territories. Such combat power is really worrying!
"Alert! Alert!"

"Stop advancing and form a car formation!"

"All officers and soldiers line up!"

"..."

Li Yanliang jumped off the camel, holding the musket, and quickly gathered more than 30 of his subordinates together, and then formed three horizontal lines with the others to block the front of the convoy.

Squinting his eyes and looking in the direction of the billowing smoke, he saw a cavalry unit of several hundred cavalry approaching.As for their identities, they may be Persian troops patrolling here, but they are more likely to be horse bandits active in the nearby mountains.

Li Yanliang looked back and saw that the caravan's grooms and clerks were struggling to surround the carriages into a simple vehicle formation. More than a hundred officers and soldiers from another company were also arranged in three horizontal lines on the right front of the convoy, joining them. Left and right, covering the entire caravan.

(End of this chapter)