Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1276 Another Battlefield ([-])

After talking about the occupation of Haojingao, Shao Shuguang talked about the monopoly of foreign trade in major commodities such as raw silk, tea, and sugar in Guangdong by merchants from the east coast (represented by the Bank of Taiwan).The specific measure is that the Bank of Taiwan, which is endorsed by the East Coast government behind the scenes, will find a site outside Guangzhou to build a commercial station. At present, there are two alternative locations. One is Lizhi Bay in Nanhai County, which is the area around Xiguan in Guangzhou at this time; It is Jiangnanzhou (also known as Haizhu Island) in the Pearl River waterway-and then takes over raw silk, tea, sugar and other commodities exported through the Guangzhou port. When the time is right in the future, the scope of trade monopoly may expand to eastern Guangdong and even All Guangdong.

This request made by Shao Shuguang is nothing less than a blockbuster to the officials of the Li family present here, because this is the rhythm of a comprehensive reshuffle of Guangdong's coastal trade, and even vaguely involves Fujian!

Perhaps it was because of the great interests and wide-ranging implications of this matter, the civil servants and generals, including Li Chengdong, all looked at each other in blank dismay, and the atmosphere became cold for a while.Hao Shangjiu saw that it was not a problem, so he immediately made jokes and changed the topic to something else, which relieved all the officials of the Li family present; while Shao Shuguang and Tian Xing also looked at each other when they saw this, and felt that this Most of the things will not be done, not to mention that Li Chengdong may not be very willing, even if he is willing, it is not something he can do. After all, he is still the Duke Hui of Nanming, and the territory he controls is far less than Guangdong Province. Some things, It was indeed beyond his ability.

Li Chengdong is indeed not a good dog. People from the east coast still have to think of other ways if they want to get involved in Guangdong trade!

For example, his adopted son Li Yuanyin is very "ambitious", but Li Chengdong has his own son, so he is destined not to pass on the family business to him. Although he can be appreciated by some generals in the Li army, he is also a small army leader. However, it is basically impossible to own Guangzhou, Huizhou, Chaozhou, Shaozhou, Nanxiong and other provinces in eastern and northern Guangdong like Li Chengdong.Not to mention that the stupid Nanming court has always looked down upon Li Chengdong, thinking that he can't do a good job on the surface, and spends every three days trying to cut down his vassal—the generals of the Li family who have been stationed in Zhaoqing, Gaozhou, Leizhou and other places over the years have been killed. The southern Ming court split up and gradually lost Li Chengdong's control—how could Li Chengdong's hypocrite continue to be the tyrant of eastern and northern Guangdong?

However, it is precisely because of such twists and turns that there is more room for people from the east coast to intervene in the operation, isn't it?

After the banquet, Shao Shuguang and others presented a gift to Li Chengdong on behalf of the Blackwater Pioneering Team—a large East Coast clock.The clock comes from the Haidiao Watch Factory under the name of Marshal Mo. The factory is famous for producing all kinds of large clocks, marine clocks, small pendulum clocks and simple watches. The cheap ones sell for tens of yuan, and the expensive ones even cost thousands of yuan. One, staggering.For example, this desk clock given to Li Chengdong as a gift is carved with new Huaxia red sandalwood as the shell, supplemented by the latest and purest glass cover produced by Henan Glass Factory, and has the function of gilded carved figure chiming time. It is sold at local prices. It will not be less than 3000 yuan, it is definitely the high-end of the high-end, and the value will only be higher in the Ming Dynasty.

Li Chengdong was naturally very pleasantly surprised by these gifts, and at the same time seriously considered the trade with Dongguo—of course it is not a monopoly trade, in fact he can’t do it, he is not a god, he can’t control everything—and It is within his ability to give the people on the east coast the largest share of trade. As for whether they can finally integrate the trade of the entire coastal area of ​​Guangdong, he doesn't know, can't control it, let alone care about it.

People from the East Bank left Guangzhou City the next morning. Shao Shuguang and Tian Xing took the armed transport ship "Ya Kesa", first wandered on the river near Lizhi Bay, and then followed the river to Jiangnanzhou Nearby, I looked at the ruins of Qianqiu Temple from a distance, and then went downstream without looking back.

In the early morning of October 10, the two boarded the battleship "Cadiz Rock" and discussed the policy with the captain of the navy, Ston, who led the team.Captain Ston told the two that he met a very special guy when he sent people to sneak into Haojingao—an Englishman who served on the "Dragon" merchant ship more than 29 years ago and used to take a small boat to survey the Pearl River. The waterway was bombarded three times by the Ya Niangxie Fortress, but fortunately it was not shot.After the members of the Weddell fleet ended their trade in Guangzhou, this guy was left in Macau to recuperate due to illness, and later settled there. He has been discriminated against by Portuguese Catholics for many years. Fortunately, the Portuguese have not been able to treat him. Inquisition, but living in poverty is inevitable.After being "picked up" by the people sent by Captain Sidun this time, he promised to serve the people on the east coast and explain the inside story of Macau.

"At that time, we had a letter of recommendation from His Majesty Charles I to the governors of Goa and Macau, so four large merchant ships including the 'Dragon', 'Catherine', 'Sun', and 'Colonists', and the 'Anne' A total of six ships, including the light sailing ship 'Discovery', were able to anchor near Montor de Trigo Island (ie Hengqin Island, the Portuguese called the nearby area Montania at that time), which is a distance from Haojingao There are about three leagues, and there is no protection so far, if the fleet wants to land, Montania is a good choice." The down-and-out British sailor held two gold coins in his pocket, and said unhurriedly: "Portuguese ships are generally anchored near Taipa, where the place is small and the defense is not good. If you want to attack, I don't think it's a big problem. Especially now that most of the ships are full of cargo and go to Timor Island. Go ahead, gentlemen, and take down that cramped cage, I've had enough of that place."

Captain Ston had already heard the sailor talk about it before, and after making eye contact with Shao Shuguang and Tian Xing, he immediately made up his mind: to carry out a land and water attack on Macau, the army doesn't need to be in Montagny. It was too troublesome to land in Asia, but went directly to the coast of Xiangshan County to land. I believe that Li Chengdong's people would also treat it as invisible.As for the navy, it patrolled the waters outside the Tanzai anchorage, waiting for the Portuguese ships to come out, and if the time was right, it would not be a bad idea to break into the harbor.

……

Pero Vaz Sequeira, who once served as a diplomatic envoy to Ayutthaya, has lived in the city of Macau for many years. Among the 10-11 Portuguese merchant ships that travel to and from Macau all the year round, the two largest ships are What he manages seems to illustrate his strength from one side.

Most of the time every year, he trades with merchants from the Ming Dynasty in Macau, buying all kinds of in-demand goods. In addition, he goes to Haizhu Island outside Guangzhou once a year to trade with local merchants.The Chinese goods bought were not shipped back to Europe for sale, but were sold nearby to other nearby Portuguese-controlled areas, such as the Antonio de Orne family, Francis C. The Co Vieira de Figueredo family, such as the Mateus da Costa family that colonized the island of Solo, and the Manuel Teixeira family that operated in the western Bay of Bengal The Pinto family and more.

Sometimes they would even trade in Batavia or Banten with full loads of goods. After the ships loaded with tea, silk, and zinc arrived in Batavia, they would buy pepper, tin, and lead from there, and sometimes they would drop by in the Imperial Palace. Wendao bought sandalwood, and finally shipped it back to Macau, or sold it locally, or handed it over to a Chinese agent to sell it online, in order to make a quick profit.

The scale of these businesses is so large that the entire city of Macau had 17 residents in the early 40s, of which about 10 were Portuguese or people of Portuguese descent, which is extremely surprising-you know, the Portuguese Colonial strongholds in Africa generally have only a few hundred to thousands of people, Brazil is not bad with a total of [-] people, and India is also very limited, but there are [-] whites and their descendants in Macau, which is shocking. .

However, Macau later experienced a severe famine, and the population was greatly reduced - most of them were Ming people living in Macau - and it has not recovered until recent years.But even so, the population of Macau is still about [-] to [-], and most of them are white or mixed-race whites. The power is still quite strong, and this is obviously why the Dutch East India Company once organized [-] warships or armed merchant ships to besiege Macau. The reason why it failed to capture.I don't know what the effect will be if I change people from the east coast this time.

Of course, Sekela did not expect that someone would be thinking about Macau at this time. In fact, most of the merchant ships anchored on Tanzai Island ten days ago had already sailed to the south. So it’s nothing more than repairing the ships that didn’t have time to leave—well, one of them belonged to Mr. Sequela, and the cabin was full of tea, porcelain, and silk, with a total value of more than [-] pesos—such a deserted Macau really provided No one's interest.

However, in the early morning of November 1660, 11, a ship that suddenly appeared from the thick fog slowly drove into the Tanzai anchorage, and then turned the hull sideways under the dumbfounded eyes of the Portuguese, and approached Twenty broadside guns fired fiercely at the two forts on the shore.There are four professional warships following behind this battleship, namely two sail escort gunboats and two fast cruisers. Their movements are slow, so they can only stop at a little distance to shoot at other forts.

The sudden shelling awakened Tanzai Island, which was still asleep. Since the muzzle of the coastal defense fortress was outside, it could not shoot into the port at all. Therefore, the panicked Portuguese were struggling to make it heavier. The muzzle of the cannon turned around, but it was not easy in the rush.On the contrary, the "Rock of Cadiz" was flexible and could come and go freely in the anchorage. It focused its firepower and swept over the forts one by one, and quickly destroyed three old-fashioned forts with no cover or protection. More than ten gunners suddenly plunged the shore into silence.

Half an hour later, the other four warships also destroyed five Portuguese artillery pieces, and then swaggered into the bay. Together with the "Rock of Cadiz", they captured the two Portuguese merchant ships loaded with cargo and had not left the port. Mr. Sekela, who witnessed the whole battle on the shore, almost vomited blood with anger.

However, news that made him vomit blood soon came!At [-] o'clock in the morning, according to reports from several friendly Ming officials, a group of pirates wearing yellow clothes attacked Xiangshan County near Haojingao, occupied the fortifications built by the Ming people for many years, and erected a number of There are as many as ten artillery pieces, and it seems that they have the idea of ​​besieging the moat Jing'ao - this unfortunate news made the Portuguese, including Mr. Sequeira, a little uneasy. Macau is densely populated, but food is scarce. They all rely on importing food from the neighboring Xiangshan County. If it is besieged, Macau will have to repeat the past events of the Communist Party of China more than ten years ago!Therefore, the Governor of Macau immediately convened a meeting of many members of the Senate, including Mr. Sekela, intending to come up with a solution as soon as possible to relieve the danger facing Macau.God, they still don't know why the people on the east coast (suspected) are bothering them. Are these people crazy? Don't they know that this means the risk of a full-scale war between East and Portugal?This is really a group of terrible lunatics, completely unreasonable!

The meeting was noisy for a long time without any results. Everyone tried to speak, but everyone was confused and didn't know what was going on. As a result, nothing happened.In the end, His Excellency the Governor couldn't stand it anymore, and ordered 500 gentlemen with military experience to be recruited in the city, and opened the arsenal to distribute all the muskets.In addition, they also moved out a number of rusty army light artillery, planning to use them after cleaning up.Well, the action of raising taxes in the city must be launched immediately. After all, maintaining a large-scale army requires capital, not to mention that they need to work hard to break the blockade of the people on the east coast. At this time, the appropriate reward is Don't begrudge it.

In addition, Mr. Pero Vaz Sequela, who is experienced in foreign affairs, was also called by the governor, intending to let him carry a personal letter from the governor to the positions of the East Coasters outside the city, and asked to meet their commander. Find out exactly what happened and whether a settlement is possible.

Mr. Sequeira actually did not have much hope for reconciliation, and he made it clear to the Governor that a war between the two countries was likely to break out in Brazil, and the people on the east coast received the news one step ahead of them.However, as a former diplomatic envoy to Ayutthaya, Mr. Sekera also knew that there was no more suitable candidate than him, so he agreed to the request of His Excellency the Governor and prepared to go out of the city to meet the commander of the East Coast People.

In this way, at ten o'clock in the morning on November 1660, 11, the confused Portuguese walked out of the city of Macau with a white flag, and loudly demanded to meet the commander of the East Coast Army.Their demands were quickly met. No.1 division commander Bogdan and army captain Tian Xing met the Portuguese envoys headed by Sekela in the fortification.

(End of this chapter)