Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1760 Indian Coast ([-])

A month passed quickly. On November 1677, 11, the northeasterly wind began to take over the mainstream in the northern Indian Ocean, and the ocean current also turned counterclockwise, which meant that the "Fubo Wanli" was ready to sail back home.

In the past month, Morley visited all aspects of Goa, and had a general but comprehensive impression of the Portuguese Indian ruling center.In the last few days, he even had the honor to visit a Portuguese soldier's training, and had a more intuitive understanding of their combat effectiveness, and at the same time explained the sincerity of the Portuguese governor.

Through observation, Morie found that the Portuguese military organization was a bit primitive—at least in the Indian colony—because the number of troops in the hands of the government was small, while the troops in the hands of the nobles were relatively small. A lot, very different from the Dutch East India Company's direct control of almost all of the army's organizational form.

Taking the current colonial government as an example, the army in the hands of the governor and supported by the colonial treasury is only 300 people. These people only have basic weapons, such as rapiers, spears, muskets, armor, etc., but they have been damaged over the years. , but could not make up for various reasons, so the level of equipment is really not that good. It is no wonder that the Portuguese are eager to import from the people on the east coast this time to improve the equipment of soldiers.

Compared with the army controlled by the Governor Pedro de Almeida Portugal, the level of equipment of the soldiers in the hands of the nobles is much better.These are basically soldiers with poor economic conditions in Portugal and have certain battlefield experience. They boarded a ship in Lisbon and traveled thousands of miles to Goa and other Indian cities. They were alone and had no food or clothing. Apart from temporarily living by the sea In addition to some dilapidated wooden houses provided by the government, even eating is a problem, because the government will not provide meals.

At this time, there are three ways to prevent them from starving to death. One is to pass the assessment of the conscription officers in each colonial city to make up for the shortage of troops directly under the local government. Let them overcome the initial difficulties, and then switch to other jobs. The third is to become followers of the local nobles, who are supported by the nobles and serve the nobles at the same time.

Especially the last one, which absorbed the largest number of Portuguese soldiers.From what Moriel saw in Goa these days, the average nobleman or gentry fed and equipped about thirty people to serve his own interests.For example, in the small town of Rua Direta near Goa, the aristocratic Silvira family, which owns a whole street and houses, supported almost a hundred followers.He divided these followers into groups, then distributed uniform uniforms and weapons, and placed them around his dwellings and shops, to serve his own interests, so to some extent it can be said that his personal army controlled the above-mentioned areas, Even the governor of Portugal has to be afraid of him.

Whenever the nobles rode horses in and out of the city, or attended religious services in church, these follower soldiers would form an important part of their entourage.And if the nobleman is insulted or treated unfairly, or if for some reason he wants to retaliate against someone and it is inconvenient to pass the official, then these diners can play a role, often negatively, because they will disrupt order.

In addition, the nobles are usually the military chiefs of many military fortresses or cities, or the commanders of some ships. Whenever foreign enemies invade or need to go out, the governor of Goa only needs to recruit the nobles, because they will bring with them Masses of armed followers set out, and the government could save a lot of money.

The Portuguese military organization method has a lot of remnants of the medieval enfeoffment system. It is contrary to the general trend of countries setting up standing armies and weakening noble fiefdoms and military power. It is an undoubtedly backward method that urgently needs improvement.And what's even scarier is that the government or nobles don't always provide for everyone all year (at least not everyone wants to)!Whenever the summer rainy season comes, the government will dismiss a considerable number of soldiers, and the nobles will dismiss most of their followers, leaving them to fend for themselves.Because this time is often when the ship has just arrived in India, and the weather is relatively bad, there is more rain, the climate is humid, and there are many diseases, so the threat of the Dutch from the south will be minimized, so the greedy (or stupid?) Nobility They are not willing to continue spending money to support a large number of idle soldiers.They will disband most of them, and only keep the part that he thinks is the most loyal or the most outstanding in fighting skills, in order to save money.

At this time, in cities controlled by Portugal such as Goa and Diu, you will see many desolate soldiers handing over their weapons and equipment, leaving with only a set of clothes and their only property. They left the city, or went to work on the wharf, or went to work in the surrounding countryside to support themselves.It's not that they didn't insist on staying in the city, but except for a few lucky ones who were employed by businessmen for a short time, most of these people were begging for food, and life was very difficult.

Until the time of re-conscription in late September every year, the nobles will open their pockets and re-recruit soldiers to make up for the shortage of their followers.What is certain is that during the entire rainy season, these soldiers ran around in order to make ends meet, and the training must have been abandoned. Therefore, when they regroup in September, it is difficult to guarantee their combat effectiveness, let alone their morale. , No wonder they have been repeatedly deflated in the battle with the Dutch East India Company for many years. Such unprofessional soldiers are useless.

Of course, not all nobles did this. Morie knew that Mr. Sandro, who had accompanied him for a long time before, supported more than 60 soldiers, and insisted on providing them with food and shelter during the rainy season.Sometimes, if soldiers ran out of supplies or got sick, he would also fund them, which was very nice to these people.Therefore, he has a very good reputation among the soldiers, and his subordinates are always able to follow the best soldiers, and whenever a war comes and a large number of soldiers need to be recruited, those poor people are more willing to follow nobles with a good reputation like them , which is also responsible for yourself.

Morie Eel once evaluated the combat effectiveness of the more than 60 people under Sandro, and finally concluded that it was on the same level as the militia on the east coast of Xinhua Island, but not as good as the more strictly trained militia from the local county security regiments.From this point of view, it can also explain why Yang Liang led a mixed battalion to land in Diu Harbor, why he took over the entire city so easily in a night-time raid with a white blade. It is really because of the serious lack of combat effectiveness of the enemy. ——The fighting power of those people is even far inferior to the Portuguese soldiers in Macau, which makes people very speechless.

Therefore, after realizing that these Portuguese land armed forces could not bring any trouble to the people on the east coast at all, out of various considerations, Moreel also made a suggestion to the Governor of Goa, Mr. Portugal, that is, to greatly increase the number of professional soldiers (That is, there are also food and military salaries in the rainy season, and armed personnel who insist on training), try not to let the backbone elements become day laborers, beggars, coolies or thieves during the rainy season, because this can reduce public security troubles, and at the same time increase Goa and other The city's defense force, you know what if the Dutch come to raid in the rainy season?

It seems that this is not the first time that the Governor of Portugal has received this kind of advice. He first expressed his gratitude to Moreel, but he also bluntly said that it seems difficult to persuade the nobles in terms of the current situation in the Indian colony Do it, because it will obviously cause their expenses to increase dramatically.As for the colonial government to bear this part of the expenditure, it is simply impossible, because of the special institutional problems of the Indian colonies, the government has very little income and loses money every year, so that it has to rely on nobles and church donations to fill the hole.Under such circumstances, how can it be possible to expand the military at the risk of financial bankruptcy?From this point of view, Portuguese India is not as good as Mozambique, Mombasa, Angola, and some Portuguese colonies in West Africa. Although the profits in those places are not large, the manpower and material resources that the government can control are not small at all, so they can organize some. An army with decent combat effectiveness, but as the Governor of Portugal said, this model cannot be copied to India. This is a problem left over from history and can only be changed slowly over time.

After hearing this, Morie Eel expressed his understanding, thinking that the Goa government seems to be really short of money, no wonder this time they are anxious to do business with people from the east coast.You know, every business has already been taxed several times in the city of Goa, and then the export tariff is even bigger, and the import tariff is not a small amount. As long as the trade volume goes up all the way, the colonial government of Goa The country's financial situation should be greatly improved, and it will not need subsidies from nobles and churches to maintain it. This should be of great benefit to improving the conditions of the local army.

Therefore, doing business with the Portuguese should be put on the agenda. This is not only a question of how much money you earn, but also good for the country's strategic layout.After all, the longer the Portuguese persist in India, the stronger their strength (of course it should be below a certain limit), and the stronger their restraint on the Dutch East India Company (to save them from "crazy thinking" because they have no decent opponents), this is in line with For the benefit of the East Coast Republic of China.

On November 11, after initialing an agreement with the Governor of Portugal, Pedro Morieel bid farewell to the Goan businessmen and nobles he had known during this period, and then drove the battleship "Fubo Wanli", Under the eyes of the Portuguese, they set sail, left the port of Goa, followed the ocean current and northeast monsoon, and headed for Xinhuaxia Island.

On the way, when passing near the Gulf of Oman, this powerful warship approached the port of Muscat again, and captured a small Arabian sailing ship (which was later abandoned, leaving only more than [-] Omani captives , because the ship is too small and too dilapidated), then approached the port, shelled a few times from a distance, splashed a column of water on the sea, then turned around beautifully, and left towards the open sea—to be honest, The Omanis have never been looked down upon by people on the east coast, because their country's population is too small and their strength is too weak, but this country is a bit stubborn, and the Sudan's brain is not very good, because of some religious conflicts and business in East Africa It is really unwise to turn against people from the east coast because of disputes, so it is inevitable to give them appropriate punishment.

Almost half a month later, the "Fubo Wanli" arrived at Xinhua Port along the ocean current (it went to Djibouti once on the way to send some supplies to the poor people stationed there), and it is also the home port of the Second Fleet.As soon as he returned to the port, Mo Lieel didn't delay, and immediately came to the office of Huang Yi, the captain of the New China Exploration Team, intending to report the results of the sea trip.

At that time, Huang Yi's secretary and entourage were packing up things and sorting files, because their boss Huang had been elected as a member of the new local executive committee and would return to the local government soon. In the past few days, the office is a little messy.

"Sit down, Captain Qiu (Qiu Haiyang, the former commissioner of the Yicheng District Administrative Office, who is about to take over Huang Yi's position) will arrive by boat in a few days. If you come back a few days later this time, I'm afraid you won't see me Tell me, what kind of agreement was reached this time, although I may not have to touch these things, but I have been fighting here for many years, and I am willing to listen to any good news about Xinhua Island." Huang Yi pulled over a piece of paper Seat, said after sitting down.

"There is indeed good news." Mo Lieel also found a chair and sat down, reporting: "The business with Goa has basically been negotiated. The prospect should not be underestimated. It should bring great benefits to the island. .Their governor, Pedro Portugal, has agreed to monopolize the operation by the East African Transport Company. These are some documents of this negotiation. I haven’t had time to find someone to translate and transcribe them into official texts, but that’s about the meaning.”

"It's really good news." Huang Yi sighed softly, and said: "Hurry up and find someone to translate and transcribe the official document. I will approve it when I have time these few days, and I will also attach my opinion. Captain Qiu will read it in the future, and he shouldn’t embarrass everyone. Once such an agreement is implemented, the island’s business will be more prosperous, attracting more talents and funds to open up wasteland. Our soldiers will use their swords in front of us. The country develops land, and more people are needed to use plows to manage the land in the rear, so that it can be completely digested and used for me. I heard that the population of Xinhua Island is close to 20 according to the statistics this year? Alas, if it wasn’t for that year ago A major plague, this year should have broken 20. But it is not bad, after the trade with India gradually scales up, the competitiveness of New China will reach a new level, and the population naturally need not worry too much. "

(End of this chapter)