Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 282 Xinhua Castle ([-])

"Commander, all the cash boxes have been moved to the warehouse in the castle. After counting, the amount is correct. This is the receipt." While they were talking, Lieutenant Julien walked in from the outside without haste. Then he gave Wang Tiehammer a copy of the receipt in the briefcase.

Julien has been going smoothly in the east coast navy for the past few years, thanks to the fact that he married Mathilde, the white and rich beauty of the Pasquale family, and the Pasquale family is entangled with the interests of the people on the east coast. It is so deep that it has almost become the spokesperson for the interests of the East Coast Republic in southern France.Now Mathilde has almost let go of the affairs of the cotton plantation on Haiti Island, and entrusted it to the housekeeper. As for her, she has bought a pasture on the outskirts of Port Orient and lived here all year round.

Julien and Mathilde have been married for several years and have a son and a daughter.A few days ago, he had been active in the Ministry of the Navy. After finishing this mission, he will step down as the captain of the "Galicia Flying Fish" transport ship and transfer to the idle position of a staff officer in the Ministry of the Navy. I teach at the sailing school, and sometimes I go to the Fort of the Guards to teach the half-grown children of the Guards Corps. In short, I will never go out to sea all day long.It is said that this was his wife Mathilde's idea. After careful consideration, he decided to give up his career in the army.

Regarding his decision, Wang Tiechui only felt a little regretful.After all, Julien joined the East Coast Navy a long time ago, and he once went to sea to fight with Lu Ming, Wang Tiehammer and others, so he had some friendship.This time, Wang Tie could only sigh helplessly when he chose to take up the idle position of "pension" in the 41 and 42 years when the navy was about to start its military expansion.The road is chosen by oneself, even if others want to say something, it is useless.

"5 yuan in cash, hehe." Wang Tiehammer clapped the receipt in his hand, smiled and said to Shi Qinjie: "I have already handed over the money to you, and this year those Muscat businessmen will not be with us in Mozambique Island again." The transaction has been carried out. Grandma, bear, more than 1000 women and children will spend thousands of yuan to live on Napo Island for two months. It’s like stealing money! I have agreed with them, and this year’s transaction location will be changed to Xinhua Castle Dock, they have already agreed, and everyone will no longer be exploited by those Portuguese vampires."

Shi Qinjie nodded, which was exactly what he meant.By moving the annual business of buying and selling Middle Eastern slave girls and children to Xinhua Castle, he can justifiably deduct some of it and increase the local population.The same goes for those Ming Dynasty immigrants who will arrive in the second half of the year. It is an unspoken rule in the industry to pluck the feathers of geese. Back then, Mo Ming of Hezhongbao dared to "float" the population, so why couldn't he, Shi Qinjie, do it?

"Okay, leave the human trade to us, but are you going to go north next? To the Ottoman Empire?" Shi Qinjie asked.

"I want to go north. I may stop at the port of the Ottoman Empire for a short period of time, or I may not go, and then look for opportunities to go to the east." Wang Tiehammer took a deep breath of the pipe, and then said: "This time we will go along Sailing in the North Indian Ocean circulation, the route should be along the coast as much as possible. After all, we are not familiar with this route. It is better to be careful in everything, even if there is a storm, we can escape. To be honest, over the years, more than a dozen of our ships have come and gone on the sea Go, I feel incredible that the ship has not sunk due to the storm, but this does not mean that we will still be so lucky. So, I decided to walk along the coastline, from Fort Xinhua to Djibouti to replenish, and then head east Enter the southern coast of India and the line of Ceylon Island. If there is a chance, continue to cross Ceylon Island eastward and enter the Bay of Bengal and the line of the Andaman Sea..."

"And then?" Shi Qinjie was also a little fascinated when he heard it. The Andaman Sea is next to Myanmar and the Malay Peninsula, so it is not far from Daming.

"Then return to the voyage." Wang Tiehammer knocked the pipe on the sole of his foot, and said as a matter of course.

"What?" Shi Qinjie almost staggered, "Don't you continue to cross the Strait of Malacca and enter the South China Sea to the east? When you reach the South China Sea, you are really close to Daming!"

"Not yet." Wang Tiehammer took out another pack of shredded tobacco from his pocket, and said while filling it into a pipe: "The Strait of Malacca is a sea area closely controlled by the Portuguese and the Dutch, and it is very sensitive. If you want to break through their blockade The difficulty of entering the South China Sea is not generally high, and conflicts may break out at sea. Especially the Dutch, the current relationship with our government is not very good. Most of them are not happy to see us enter the coast of China. Therefore, we must There is little chance of peaceful access to the South China Sea. Unless we can get their permission like the few ships from France, Britain and even Denmark, which is obviously not very likely."

"Then?" Shi Qinjie understood, but also feared.

"Of course it is necessary to break through their obstruction by force! Just like when they broke through the Portuguese's obstruction near Malacca." Wang Tiehammer swung his right hand vigorously, then took a breath, and said: "But this is not an easy task. , requires multiple preparations, whether it is hardware such as ships, sailors, artillery, or software such as strong determination to fight, all need to start to prepare and adjust slowly. When the time is right, our fleet will head eastward with a thunderous momentum. Break through the blocking of the Dutch and enter the South China Sea in one fell swoop."

"I think it's a bit inappropriate to hear what you said." Xu Gang, who had been drinking tea silently by the side, said suddenly, "It's a big taboo for military strategists to go on an expedition. Even if the fleet departs from New China, it takes one or two months to reach the Strait of Malacca. In the end, neither the condition of the ship nor the physical condition of the sailors can compare to the original? It is better to have a foothold west of Malacca, where we can repair the leaking plank, replace the damaged canvas, and scrape the bottom of the ship , replenish fresh food and fresh water, place sick sailors, recharge your energy and set off for the East in the best condition. Even if you encounter the Dutch or even the Portuguese to intercept them by force, you can still deal with them Two. Well, I think Ceylon Island is a good place to stay, and the distance from New China is moderate, and it’s not too far to go to the South China Sea from here.”

"This place is also very sensitive." Wang Tiechui took a deep breath after lighting his pipe, and then said slowly: "At present, it is considered the Portuguese sphere of influence, but they only occupy a few points along the coast, and they are still fighting with the The indigenous kingdoms on the island are constantly fighting and entangled, and their control over the entire island is still limited. But no matter what, at least this is the territory of the Portuguese in name, and outsiders who step in rashly may cause their hostility .At present, although the relationship between the Portuguese and us seems to be good, but I bet that as soon as we show our intention to land on Ceylon, the Portuguese will immediately turn against us."

"Of course, it's not without opportunities." Wang Tiehammer said here, and smiled mysteriously, "I remember that in 1638, an indigenous king on the island of Ceylon, who had fought endlessly with the Portuguese, secretly signed a contract with the Dutch. The agreement is to introduce the Dutch into the island and expel the Portuguese forces. Moreover, the Dutch seem to have already taken action. In the next ten years, the Portuguese will gradually lose their shops, castles, Docks, business and everything, until they were completely expelled from Ceylon by the Dutch in 1658. If it is well managed, there may not be no chance to intervene.”

"Why are they Dutch again?" Xu Gang frowned and asked, "The Fort in the River is in a fight with the Dutch, and there are Dutch people on the southwestern coast of Madagascar. Why are there Dutch people in Ceylon Island? Why? They are everywhere? They are a small country with a population of 200 million, and they have been fighting with people for decades, how can they attack all over the world? What a wonderful fighter!"

"What's the difference between us and the Dutch?" Shi Qingjie sighed after thinking for a while, and said, "We are even more amazing. The whole country has only a population of more than 4, and it has already begun to occupy land all over the world. Fort in the River is a piece of land." , New China counts as one piece, and Ceylon Island in your calculations is another piece. Let me ask, do we have the strength? The Dutch can hire Germans, Scots, Bohemians, etc. all over Europe. Mercenaries, can we? In other words, can we trust those mercenaries? Obviously not, we can only rely on ourselves! Now the strength is insufficient, and we have to intervene in the complex situation of Ceylon, I personally think It's very unwise. I just hope we don't do what Bismarck said about the Italians, "have a good appetite, but a bad tooth". In the end, we can't clean up the situation. Anyway, if the executive committee asks for my opinion in the future , I will not agree."

"That's what I said, and you really mean it." Wang Tiehammer smiled embarrassingly, "At least we have to wait until everything is ready and we have sufficient strength before we forcefully sail to the Far East. As for whether to intervene in the chaos of Ceylon Island , I’ll talk about this later.”

Several people chatted for a while, and then went about their respective affairs.

On April 1641, 4, just as the rainy season in the New China region was coming to an end, and the whole region was about to start a new round of massive infrastructure construction, several Arabian schooners slid gently into the New China Bay along the northwest wind. Then, after getting the permission of Xinhua Fort, it docked on both sides of the second wooden trestle bridge that has been initially repaired.

These Muscat merchants brought thousands of Persian and Baluchi slave girls, as well as hundreds of children.They confessed to the people on the east coast that it was getting more and more difficult to capture the Persians, and the losses were getting bigger and bigger. This time they had to capture a lot of Baluchi people to make up for it, hoping that the people on the east coast could buy them in full.

After carefully checking the health conditions of these Baluchi female slaves and children, Shi Qinjie recognized these slaves.However, he also took the opportunity to lower the price. Each Baluchi female slave was worth 30 yuan and a child 15 yuan, which was a full 30% lower than the price of the Persians.The Muscat businessman probably felt that it would not be too difficult to capture these Baluchi people, so he also agreed to the price, and the two parties quickly settled the deal.

(End of this chapter)