Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 155 African route ([-])

There are indeed only details left to be negotiated with Hornician, an Armenian businessman, and there is no principled obstacle between the two parties.

In the next few days, Xu Xin's trade department staff conducted a detailed negotiation with Hornician, including the type, quantity, price, payment method, and delivery location of the goods to be traded.Generally speaking, the consultations between the two parties are still very pleasant.After the consultation, Hornician and Xu Xin signed an agreement of intent.Next, Hornician will return to Izmir, contact the family, and finalize the trade between the two parties as soon as possible.Before he left, he paid for [-] bolts of cotton cloth, which he planned to bring back to Turkey for trial sale.

After Hornician left, Xu Xin was free for a while, and then discussed mathematics with Torricelli and Viviani.Xu Xin had a background in economics, so he had a good foundation in mathematics, so he was able to communicate with Torricelli and others with ease, and for a while it strengthened the confidence of Torricelli and the others to go to the east coast to study.

In the bright sunshine of early summer in South France, a month passed quickly.

On July 7, four warships of the First Fleet of the Navy crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in the port of Bordeaux.At this time, Xu Xin and Mo Ming finally knew about the foggy naval battle that took place on the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean more than a month ago. They did not know how much impact this small-scale naval battle would have on the development of the entire country, because this Depends on the attitude of the British.

But a certain fact is that the relationship between the East Coast Republic of China and the United Kingdom will definitely deteriorate significantly, which is beyond doubt.Based on the highly competitive relationship between the superior industrial products (textiles) of the two sides, and the piracy of the First Fleet of the Eastern Republic (although there is no conclusive evidence), a war of a certain scale may break out between the two sides.The British may not declare war openly, but they may issue privateer licenses to many pirate ships in the country, allowing them to harass the sea lifeline on the east coast.

The cotton raw material base of French Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, overseas markets such as St. Augustine, Brazil, and Gascogne, these places are almost completely exposed to the threat of the British.Feeling the seriousness of the matter, Mo Ming immediately decided to return to China on a ship of the First Fleet, and complained to his superiors about the threat to the lifeline at sea and the necessity of opening up an African route.

The First Fleet did not linger long at Bordeaux.After accepting more than 900 French immigrants and more than 100 children around the age of ten, the First Fleet carried part of the cotton cloth and potato sales money, braved the wind and waves all the way, and finally returned to Zhenhaibao Naval Base in early October.

The Executive Committee and the Joint Staff Headquarters had already learned of the naval battle when the "Beagle", which escorted the British immigration ship, returned to Dongfang Port.After fully analyzing the current international situation and the financial situation of the United Kingdom, the Executive Committee believes that a full-scale war with the United Kingdom will not break out in the short term, but small-scale and low-intensity naval battles may be inevitable.

For this reason, the executive committee kept quiet on the surface, but secretly began to increase the import of various strategic materials.In particular, the import volume of gunpowder, copper, lead, pig iron, and Brazilian mahogany has doubled in the past few months, almost exceeding the total import volume of the past two years.

In addition to materials, Zhenhai Shipyard started building two escort gunships non-stop after completing the construction of two flute-shaped transport ships. The keels of the three "Free Trade" ships have also begun to be laid.

The whole country continues to operate in such a situation where the surface is calm but the interior is actually undercurrent. This is how Mo Ming felt within a few days after returning to Dongfang Port.

Facing the silver-plated mirror produced by the Henan Glass Factory, he tidied up his appearance. Mo Ming, whose eyes were red from staying up all night writing materials last night, sighed softly: "Poor life." Immediately, he picked up the leather briefcase and went out Headed towards the meeting room of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Today in the meeting room of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Materials, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the General Administration of National Intelligence will sit together and hold a joint meeting to discuss how to face today's complex and severe situation.

Before Mo Ming left, he went to the General Intelligence Bureau and had a secret conversation with Director Jiao Tang for a while before heading towards the venue.When he entered the venue, the morning meeting was already halfway through, and Liu Ang, a senior researcher at the Ethnic and Policy Research Office, was giving a lecture on the international situation to representatives of various departments on the stage.

"...To sum up, judging from the current domestic and international situation and my country's naval strength, the Atlantic route to Europe is too fragile and easily cut off by the enemy. Therefore, it is imperative to open up the African route. It is related to the development of the industry, the foundation of the country, and the national fortune in the next few decades. It is easy to do, but difficult to do. This route must be opened. Only in this way can we not be controlled by others." Seeing Mo Ming coming in, Liu Ang greeted with his eyes.

"Fuck, it's not something that was done by the navy. I became addicted to robbing, but I was caught. The new pirate met the old pirate, and now it seems that the old pirate is better. Damn, it's hard for everyone. Everyone, you are so fucked." Someone whispered sarcastic remarks, and Mo Ming glanced at it, and it turned out to be Wei Aiwen "Wei Dazui" from the Ministry of War.This kid dared to say anything with his stinky mouth, and now he is even more merciless when he complains about the navy.

Beside him, the two lieutenants in dark blue military uniforms laughed softly. There is no heavyweight leader sitting in charge today, and all these guys are very presumptuous.In fact, it is no wonder that the army has been oppressed by the navy for more than two years.

Seeing that the navy went out to be a pirate, batches of supplies were brought back from the Caribbean Sea, which greatly improved the country's finances and boosted the national pride.Not only the leaders are full of praise for the navy, but even ordinary people talk about the navy in their free time.Not to mention those naval officers and soldiers who made a fortune from participating in private plundering activities, all of them have bulging pockets, and their voices are two times louder than those of the army.He got more money than Lu Jun, and his people were more beautiful than Lu Jun. In the end, he was even more competitive than Lu Jun when he married his wife. This is how Lu Lu brothers can swallow this breath.

Mo Ming shook his head. These things are beyond his control, and he doesn't need to.The navy and army are still in a state of healthy competition so far, and that is enough.

After Liu Ang finished his speech, it was time for Mo Ming to play by himself.In fact, the general principles and policies of the executive committee have basically reached a conclusion. Today's joint meeting is at best to unify the thinking of various departments and lay a solid foundation for the next actions.

Yesterday, the Executive Committee assigned a task to the General Intelligence Directorate: formulate a preliminary plan to open an African route, and discuss it at the joint meeting of various departments the next day.As for why this plan was handed over to the National Intelligence Agency instead of the Joint Staff Headquarters, according to gossip, it may be because a certain leader heard that the plan was originally proposed by Mo Ming, so he named a senior analyst from the Intelligence Agency Mo Ming will do it.

Reminiscent of Director Jiao's strange eyes and false smile when he was talking to him, Mo Ming couldn't help feeling his scalp tingle.But now is not the time to worry about these things, Mo Ming let out a sigh of relief, took out the speech script from the briefcase, walked to the podium and started his speech.

Mo Ming glanced at more than 20 representatives from various departments under the podium. These people are all middle and senior cadres of the country, and to a certain extent represent the will of the country.

"Today, what I want to talk about is the preliminary plan to open up the African route. I think Researcher Liu has already explained the necessity of opening up the African route just now, so I won't go into details here. What I want to talk about next is the African route. The specific details, midway nodes, weather conditions, and the security situation in the passing sea area." Mo Ming opened the first page of manuscript paper, and then said: "The starting point of the African route is Dongfang Port, and the end point is Suez Port of the Ottoman Empire. The midway nodes are South Africa, Madagascar and Djibouti, the entire voyage exceeds [-] nautical miles, and it will take several months or even more than half a year."

As soon as Mo Ming's words came out, there were some whispers, and soon someone raised objections.

"Analyst Mo, hello, I am Lao Ding of the South China Sea Transportation Company. I would like to ask who will complete the exploration of the route in your plan? As we all know, we are still at the stage of ignorance about that sea area. The section from Oriental Port to the Cape of Good Hope is okay. Some Dutch sailors in the navy have sailed there before and made deals with the Khoisan people there. We are completely blindsided, this is not a trivial matter, if we want to take a new route, our Nanhai Transportation Company is not afraid, but at least you have to explore this route for me first, right?" Ding Canlin, the general manager of Nanhai Transportation Company got up and asked.

Ding Canlin was also an old crew member on Yunsheng No. [-], and now he is the general manager of the only professional ocean shipping company in China.In the final analysis, the African route will be taken by them, so he is naturally concerned about all aspects of this route.

"General Manager Ding, I can give you a very clear answer to your company's doubts: the Executive Committee has confirmed that this route will be developed by the Ministry of the Navy, and after the development is mature, it will be handed over to your company for transportation. The weather, monsoons, ocean currents, pirates and other information will be collected by the Admiralty and handed over to you. Don’t worry, the Admiralty will also establish a small supply port in South Africa at that time. Escort of the battleship. If you have any questions, you can ask Staff Officer Huang of the Ministry of the Navy." Mo Ming pointed to an officer wearing a navy uniform sitting in the first row and said.

(End of this chapter)