Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1100 East African Coast ([-])

In late May, Xinhua Island is completely dry season, and the Mian River, which used to be turbulent and turbid, looks particularly docile at this time. Because the cotton plantation cuts off the water, a large section of the riverbed is exposed, and the banks of the river were originally flooded. The plagued crocodiles (the Madagascar subspecies of the Nile crocodile) were immediately hit by disaster—the planters on the east coast who had nothing to do were doing everything they could to kill them. Ma Wanpeng had to order the issuance of licenses to restrict hunting, lest this species with high economic value be extinct in the hands of these east coast colonists.

While the Nile crocodile enjoyed limited protection from the colonial government of the East Coast, some other "animals" on the nearby East African coast received no protection at all from the East Coast people, such as the Swahili.

"Don't waste time, unload these natives, we don't have time to spend with them here." Major Lan Guo, who was recently transferred to the third battalion commander of the army, shouted loudly.Because they were afraid of mosquito bites, Lan Guo and the others still wore the army's spring and autumn long-sleeved uniforms, and the cuffs and trousers were tied up with string. It was too hot and humid.

The main force of the Second Fleet (three battleships and a few logistics support ships) has gone to Xinhua Port. I heard that Major Guo Zili, the commander of the fleet, will also meet with Ma Wanpeng, the captain of the Xinhua Development Team - looking for food in the Indian Ocean, with full logistics supplies It depends on the supply from Xinhua Port, and Ma has been in the local area for many years and is familiar with the situation in the western half of the Indian Ocean. It is absolutely right to talk to him.Besides, Captain Ma seems to be in a hurry to find people from the Second Fleet, because he heard that the Muscat people have become stronger and stronger in the past few years. The Portuguese colonists have unified many lands on the peninsula, and even extended their power to the coast of East Africa—for example, Zanzibar Island, where fishing boats from the East Coast often dock, was captured by the Muscat fleet. A small number of local Portuguese colonists were executed.

Of course, although the Muscats defeated the Portuguese who had extended their influence to Northeast Africa (the native chiefs and kings in Mogadishu, Mombasa and other places were mostly puppets of the Portuguese), their population The size of the army, troops and fleet are just that, not considered very strong, so we can only leave a small number of troops and colonial officials in the local area, and learn from the old wisdom of the Portuguese and use the native chiefs for indirect management.However, even with indirect management, the people of Muscat have undoubtedly extended their sphere of influence to this place, and their influence on the East African coast has also been greatly enhanced. With the trend of dividing up the three countries, most of the land has already been owned, and this is obviously the reason why Ma Wanpeng is eager to find Guo Zili.

Nothing else. Recently, a Muscat businessman who has been doing slave trade with people on the east coast all the year round asked Ma Wanpeng on behalf of Saif Sultan, and then expressed his request for trade between the two countries, which surprised Ma Wanpeng inexplicably.This is a large market with more than 200 million people (including the population of the East African colony of the Muscat Sultanate). Although the interior is not very unified, good management can also bring considerable benefits to Xinhua Island and even the mainland.

Ma Wanpeng agreed to the request of the Muscat people at that time, and at the same time wrote a more formal letter to Rashid, an old acquaintance who often does business, and brought it back to Muscat for review by Saif Sultan. It is hoped that the two countries will start a comprehensive business relationship as soon as possible.Of course, Ma Wanpeng did not forget to write a letter back to the mainland for review by the members of the Executive Committee. At present, it seems that this letter may still be floating in the sea and has not yet arrived at Dongfang Port-this does not seem to be a problem in normal times, but in the second When the fleet is already gearing up and planning to go to the coast of East Africa to make a fortune, it is more of a headache.Isn't it?The Muscat people here just said that they want to do business with the east coast. Is it plausible that your fleet carries the army to land in other colonies and rob them?Therefore, as soon as Ma Wanpeng heard that the Second Fleet had arrived at Mianhe Port, he immediately sent a fast boat to ask Guo Zili to go north to Xinhua Port for a meeting. What he was afraid of was that the Second Fleet would rush to Zanzibar, Mombasa and other places to do it. stand up.

When Guo Zili led the main ship to go north to berth in Xinhua Port, the many escort gunboats staying in the area of ​​​​Mianhe Port were not idle.Together with the two original armed transport ships of the Second Fleet, they took advantage of the southeast wind to raid the nearby Comoros Island in good weather, and then captured a large number of slaves, who were tied up and transported ashore at this time.

These Comorians, like those Swahili people on the East African coast, are basically of mixed race.In the early days, Arabs and blacks were mixed, and later many Persians were added, and of course there were some Indians, but the number was very small.Most of these mixed-race people believe in communism, and some people—such as those natives in the southeast of Xinhuaxia Island—even use Arabic characters. More than one chip.

But what if the level of civilization is higher than that of Bantu people?In the eyes of people on the east coast, these Comorians and Bantus are just like birds, they can only be used as slaves, and they will do heavy work in the plantation for at least five years, and then those who are lucky enough to survive will be sent to He went to South Africa to join the Black Eight Banners, and became a free citizen of the Black Eight Banners, living a stable life with land, cattle and sheep.

This time they attacked Comoros Island, and it took half a month before and after. They raided many places and captured more than 3000 Comoros. After they come back from doing some big business on the coast of East Africa, they will deal with the sale in a unified way, some will be sent back to the mainland for road construction, and some will be "digested" by the Xinhua Island plantation—it is said that since Shi Qinjie resigned, Xinhua Island The policy of prohibiting the use of black or Swahili slave labor has existed in name only. Ma Wanpeng is a vegetarian and doesn’t mind using black people to pioneer. He even threatened that “if you are afraid that these slaves will blacken Xinhua Island in the future, you might as well castrate them.” They're all right," momentarily raising eyebrows.

"Mr. Lan, the cotton market has been generally optimistic in the past few years. Many such plantations have sprung up in the Daqing Basin, and the demand for labor is huge. There are many state-owned farms invested by the government in Mianhe Port, and there are also groups of local counties investing. Yes, there are a lot of plantations invested by foreign capital such as Chuangji Investment Company and the Genoa Bank Group." Liu Wanquan, the mayor and security commander of Mianhe Port, who was a secretary of Ma Wanpeng, said with a smile on his face, "I used to capture Como The actions of the Luo people have always been carried out, but they were all small-scale killings by Zhai Xiaoshan's group, and many of them were sold back to the mainland. It is really rare for Chief Lan to capture thousands of people at a time. Leave some for our side, not many, as long as 1000 to [-] people are enough. Recently, I plan to build some reservoirs and irrigation canals. The construction of urban buildings and coastal defense forts will continue. There is really no way. There is a shortage of people, please. Chief Blue."

Lan Guo took off the big black hat and put it between his armpits, looked up at the scorching sun hanging in the sky, first cursed something in a low voice, then looked at Secretary Liu and said: "It's not difficult, I'll leave it to you More than 800 people, try to focus on families. The above said hello before the departure, so it’s not a big problem. However, the Comorians have been robbed for so many years, and the population is getting smaller and smaller. If you go down, the island will probably be caught and killed, so where do you go to get people in the future, does Secretary Liu have any suggestions? If so, why don’t you tell us about it, how about it?”

"Alright." Liu Wanquan nodded, and then said: "Originally, the best way was to go north along the coast to plunder the Swahili off the coast of East Africa. Now that the southwest wind is prevailing, my fleet goes north very quickly. Humans are also vulnerable, and they can easily plunder thousands of people along the coast. It is an excellent business to transport these slaves to the island for digestion, or to the mainland for sale. But now Many of these native chieftains have been conquered by the Muscats, following the orders of the Sultan Saif. It is a coincidence that Ma Ling intends to establish a good business relationship with the Sultanate, so this matter You can't be so hasty, otherwise you may cause the sultan of that country to be furious and ruin Ma Commander's plan."

Liu Wanquan has served as Ma Wanpeng's secretary for many years, and he knows his thinking very well.In the past two years, Ma Wanpeng has continued a number of economic policies of the Shi Chinger era. One of the important components is to vigorously develop trade with Persia, Oman (the Muscat Sultanate) and the Ottoman Empire on the coast of the Indian Ocean. According to last year's data, the trade volume with the Safavid Kingdom of Persia was the largest, reaching an astonishing value of 67 yuan; followed by the trade with parts of the Ottoman Empire in Asia and Africa, with a volume of 26 yuan (in the long-delayed Red Sea After the completion of the Suez port, the trade volume is expected to continue to expand); the last is the trade with the Muscat Sultanate, with a trade volume of about 21 yuan, and the growth potential is quite large; even the Portuguese East Africa also has an annual trade volume of 19 yuan-these four countries or regions add up to a total trade volume of 133 million yuan, which is already a figure that cannot be ignored, enough to be worth half of the trade volume of the largest trading partner, the Ottoman Empire (excluding the West Asia and Northeast Africa parts of the Ottoman Empire), and the route is not affected by the Europeans, and is completely under the control of the people on the east coast. It is definitely worth the effort of the Executive Committee to maintain it. The Skat Sultanate is rather unwise.

"We can try our best to land on the coast that has not been controlled by the Muscats, or use them to go deep into the inland area to plunder-although this is a bit difficult; of course we can also go south to plunder the east coast of South Africa or simply rob a As for the Portuguese, it depends on how the two commanders, Ma and Guo, talk about it." Liu Wanquan said.

"Let's talk about it." Lan Guo sighed when he heard the words, thinking that this East African coast has an owner, what a fuck!

(End of this chapter)