Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2219 Rajput's Plan ([-])

Jose Oviedo watched with interest the two soldiers in front of him wearing large caps and khaki military uniforms.They are now seriously going forward and handing over positions.He felt that the rigid movements of the people on the east coast seemed mechanical, but in fact they had a unique sense of beauty, and even made people feel a kind of breathtaking power, just like the goosebumps on his neck.

This is the Governor's Mansion of the East Coast—er, well, in fact, people in the East Coast call it the Management Committee, a very strange name, because Jose doesn't understand Chinese.The Management Committee is the highest institution that governs Diu Island and another small colony to the west. Local military operations, appointment and dismissal of officials, economics and trade, aboriginal policies, etc., are all decided by this institution. The Portuguese Governor's Palace is somewhat similar.But the difference is that the management committee of the people on the east bank has the supreme power and must do what they say, but the governor's office in Goa has only part of the power. The reason is that the local native white nobles have a considerable number of troops. The Governor's Office also needs to issue bonds to them to solve temporary financial difficulties. This is the cultural difference between the two countries.

José Oviedo is the personal bodyguard of the Portuguese Governor in Goa.The governor's name is Pedro Antonio de Noronha de Albuquerque, who just took office this year.It can be seen from the surname that this governor was born in a famous family and is the fifth Indian governor from the Albuquerque family in more than 100 years. The Ke family has huge influence in both Lisbon and Goa.

As soon as Albuquerque took office, he launched a massive rectification operation in Goa and other places.He talked to the nobles one by one, asking them to pay more taxes for their business activities. At the same time, he also banned some unreasonable taxes formulated by native white nobles who managed various blocks and villages without the authorization of the Governor's Mansion.Undoubtedly, these measures greatly angered the nobles, but because of the family background of Governor Albuquerque and the fact that he took 1500 well-trained soldiers to take office, they could only swallow their anger in the end , which means the default.

His Excellency the Viceroy likewise rectified the chaotic Goa arsenal.This military industrial enterprise, which was once able to supply cannons to the central or local governments of the Ming Dynasty in China, has been heavily in debt and dying due to the joint action of internal ghosts and external thieves.His Excellency the Governor investigated and dealt with many managers who embezzled public funds and resold weapons—and at the same time pardoned the workers’ crimes. After all, it is inevitable that everyone’s petty theft is unavoidable—and tried them and executed them. Some were executed and some were thrown into prison, which shocked a large number of people.

The third thing Albuquerque did was to ask the nobles to extend the service period of the private soldiers sent to the governor to perform military tasks.This is simply killing the nobles, and it is the beginning of the danger of usurping their power, but Albuquerque took out the edict of King Pedro II, and the nobles were suddenly dumbfounded.In fact, the original king's order was not very effective in Goa, a place where the sky is high and the emperor is far away, but who asked Albuquerque to bring 1500 soldiers and many professional naval warships to take office?

More importantly, the Diu Management Committee of the East Coast People seems to support Governor Albuquerque's measures to strengthen the centralization of power, which disappointed a kind of nobles.Most of them are inextricably linked with the East Bank and know the strength of the East Bank people. Therefore, after hearing that the Diu Management Committee supported Governor Albuquerque’s centralization of power, they all felt depressed and panicked. all day long.

Of course, there are reasons for the people on the east coast to support the Portuguese governor. The most important thing is to hope that the Governor of Goa can mobilize more military and financial resources to help them realize their expansion strategy in northwest India.What they need is a helper who can come in handy, not a burden that needs to be rescued by themselves, so it is natural to support them to centralize their forces.

After sorting out his own internal affairs, the Governor of Albuquerque boarded a Portuguese naval warship, crossed Cambay Bay and arrived at Diu Island. He visited the East Coast Management Committee and also expressed his gratitude.When your Excellency the Governor first came, it happened that Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong went west to the Persian Gulf on business, so he waited for some time until today Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong officially invited him to meet with the management committee.

When talking about Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong's itinerary a while ago, he had to mention the current situation in the Persian Gulf.The Rajputs who migrated from Diu, Shallow Island and other places on the east coast to the port of Salalah developed well. They were skilled at cavalry and fought several battles with the Omanis in the desert, and they generally gained the upper hand to a certain extent. .Especially recently, with the intensification of material, financial and manpower consumption of the Omanis, they have basically been unable to bear the long-term tug-of-war with the Rajputs, and the decline is very obvious from all fronts.

However, Omanis remain very strong in and around Muscat, where most of the country's population and resources are concentrated.After the Rajputs conquered a large desert, they may still have some difficulties in marching to this city.Because their supply lines will be infinitely stretched, facing the logistical difficulties faced by the Omanis in their long-distance expeditions, without the help of the people on the east coast, they will definitely fail.

People on the east bank don't want the Rajputs to kill Muscat for the time being.One is that they are reluctant to invest a lot of resources, and the other is that they do not want the Rajputs to grow rapidly on the peninsula. It is the right thing to let them and the Omanis check and consume each other.After all, as far as the current situation is concerned, most of the energy of the Muscat Sultanate has been involved on land, and they no longer have the ability to intervene in the situation on the Swahili coast of East Africa, whether it is missionary or trade.

But if the Omanis don’t come, then the people on the east bank can naturally use the several local strongholds of the Kingdom of Portugal and the long-term accumulated influence to disintegrate one by one, slowly digest them, and control the local commodity resources in their own hands. It is enough to exchange industrial products on the east coast with the natives for hard currency such as gold, ivory and even slaves.

Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong took a special trip to Salalah Port on a naval ship a while ago.He appeased the local Rajput generals, telling them to be calm, to stabilize the occupied territory first, and not to rush to march to Muscat.Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong pointed out that there are still a large number of "bandits" in the desert that need to be cleaned up. He hopes that the generals can send reliable soldiers to conquer these bandit tribes and completely digest the entire desert.

Of course, Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong did not expect these empty words to calm the complaints of the Rajputs.In fact, he also announced that he would return 5 yuan from the revenue of the customs at Salalah Port (which is temporarily controlled by the East Coasters) to fund the construction of two permanent Hindu temples in the area under his jurisdiction. It won the great favor of the Rajputs.They began to figure out how much building materials they could import from Xinhua Island and Yicheng area with 5 yuan, and whether it was enough to build two temples.Of course it’s not enough, but it doesn’t matter. The onion temple in Salalah Port has long been disliked by them, and it just happened to be demolished. Lord Shiva built the sanctuary.

After leaving Salalah Port, an important immigration rest point, Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong went to Bahrain by boat.There is currently only one Persian military outpost on this desolate island, with dozens of soldiers stationed there.But these Persian soldiers didn't live here all the time. In fact, they only came to patrol once a month. The commuting boat was an Arabian-style medium-sized fishing boat without any protective measures and without any combat capabilities.It can be said that as long as the East Coast Navy is willing, they can military control the island they fancy at any time, but they have not done so for the time being.

The ambassador of the Eastern Republic to Persia is currently negotiating actively in Tabriz, intending to buy this desolate island at a small price.Considering that the Persians are facing strong military pressure from the Ottoman Turkish Empire on the western front—they even plan to move their capital to Tehran, because after losing the large territorial barrier of Iraq, it is safer there, after all, it is far away from the front—the eastern border is in the Fighting against the Central Asian nomads, and there are Cossacks in the north who enter and plunder from time to time, so they urgently need the weapon support of the people on the east coast, and it is impossible to insist on the issue of Bahrain Island.

Just like now, they have even tacitly allowed the fleet of the people on the east coast to approach Bahrain Island and anchored nearby. They also pretended not to see the east coast naval officers who came ashore for surveying and mapping, which shows their attitude.Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong took a cursory look here, chatted casually with a navy captain who stayed behind, and then left.This is the site that the Navy is looking for. He is not interested in staying longer. In fact, he is more interested in the Qatar Peninsula on the other side of the sea. He even plans to send troops to occupy it, expel the local aborigines, and replace them with Chinese immigrants from Denglei and Ningshao. up.

The few surviving bigwigs in the country once hinted to him that they could invade the Qatar Peninsula at an appropriate time and establish a colony with people from the east coast as the main ethnic group.Although Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong didn't know why the bosses thought this way, after careful consideration, he felt that the cost would not be very high. Maybe he only needed to send a few hundred soldiers to land to wipe out the local ghosts and snakes. It will not exceed 5 yuan, which is extremely cheap.

But he doesn't have the energy to go to the Arabian Peninsula for the time being.At this stage, the focus is still on the expansion of northwest India.To this end, he specially invited Albuquerque, the new Portuguese governor, to Diu Island for talks.His plan is to expand the number of Diu garrison to about 1000 people (this may require applying for ordnance and related expenses from the mainland), and then add 1500 new army soldiers sent by the Portuguese. The traditional territory of the Jepts was expanded, and a fortress was built when they took one place, and then controlled the flow of local commodities to maximize profits.

After all, military operations ultimately serve economic interests. It is unacceptable to dispatch a number of troops and squander countless military expenditures. In the end, only some useless land is obtained, and a large amount of money has to be invested in continuous construction.This is not a local area, and the neighborhood is full of Indians. Who will use it after it is built?

The Governor of Albuquerque is a mature politician who knows the interests of the Kingdom of Portugal and understands the difficult situation he is facing. Therefore, he did not hesitate to agree to the proposal made by Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong, but he is still weak. Weakly proposed whether a certain degree of expansion can also be carried out in the direction of Goa to expand their interests.

Regarding this, Yaotong Middle School only cautiously stated that it will definitely consider it in the future, and the current focus is on the northwest region.He believes that the interests here are greater, and he will share a share of the pie with the Portuguese, so that he can rest easy.

Although he didn't get any substantive promises, Governor Albuquerque had no better choice but to follow the people on the east coast closely.Portugal's interests lie in commerce, not in land. Since the people on the east coast have said so, let's follow their instructions first. This is what King Pedro meant, and the governor of Albuquerque has no reason not to obey.

(End of this chapter)