Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 772 Across the Ocean (XIV)

On September 1649, 9, after Captain Givin and others left Bandar Abbas depressingly, the steam power was fully turned on, and then they traveled westward along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, trying to avoid turbulent ocean currents and unfavorable wind directions. Finally arrived at the port of Suez at the northern end of the Red Sea.

The Port of Suez was originally just a small fishing village in the Ottoman Empire. Even though it was the base of their Red Sea Fleet, it did not make this dry and hot port much richer.The rolling yellow sand, the dry and thirsty land, the dark herdsmen and the thin and dirty sheep constitute the unchanging scenery of the Port of Suez for thousands of years, just like the past few years since the Mamluks ruled the land of Egypt. It has been the same for a hundred years (the basis of Ottoman rule in Egypt is still Mamluk), without the slightest change.

The scenery outside the port is unbelievably monotonous, except for a few places where you can see a touch of green, most of the places are desolate and lonely, without any trace of life.The situation in the port is similar. There are low and dilapidated adobe houses everywhere. The roofs, streets, and squares are all gray, which makes people feel bored.

"This is a forgotten corner." Second Lieutenant Ji Wen disembarked, greeted the Ottoman officials who came to check, and expressed his sigh in Chinese: "The sun is unbearably hot, and the air is filled with There was a scorching hot smell. A place like this would hardly interest me a second time, would it, Sergeant Esposito?"

"As you said, sir, this ghostly place is not pleasant." Esposito wiped his sweat with a towel and said with a frown: "But we have to come, and, I think this pitifully small port There are also many ships from New China, they must be here to transport people and trade."

The ships Esposito refers to are all anchored in the deep water area at this time. There are six ships in total-four flute-shaped transport ships built by Xinhua Shipyard, two fast cruisers of the Second Fleet of the Navy ( Looks like they are here for escort).In recent years, with the inclination of national policies, the scale of trade with the Ottoman Empire from the Indian Ocean has gradually expanded, but it is limited by the port conditions of Suez Port, Egypt’s sparse population and the high cost of long-distance transportation (goods need to be transported from Suez port to Alexandria or Syria), the scale of this business has always been limited.

The New China Exploration Team of the East Coast Republic, which undertakes the main trade function, also sends five or six ships to the Port of Suez every year before October. After the transaction with the Ottomans is completed, they will return to Xinhua Port in the southern hemisphere on the northerly wind.The goods involved are mainly cotton cloths, medicines, dyed leather goods, metal utensils and other commodities that are easy to transport and sell, while people on the east coast mainly import two kinds of goods: slaves (mainly female slaves) and livestock (mainly horses and camels).

The scale of these businesses is neither big nor small, and the big shots in the Ottoman country are not interested in getting involved, so their agents are usually the descendants of the Egyptian lake Mamluks.The chiefs of these feudal military aristocrats are actually mostly bitter, and they are very keen on developing trade with people on the east coast to make profits. Some of them are even very short of money and will lead troops to rob Bedouin from time to time. The people and the Persians captured slaves and sold them to the people on the east coast. The relationship between the two parties has always been relatively harmonious.

Since a few years ago, Shi Qingjie, the captain of the New China Pioneering Team, considered the future of the island’s plantation economy and began to advocate the expansion of trade in the Indian Ocean—whether it is with the Ottoman Empire or the Persian Safavid Dynasty, he welcomes it all .After listening to the opinions of the New China Pioneering Team, the central government decided to officially increase investment in this area, considering the safety of the route (the African route to the Ottoman Empire was used as a backup route for trade between the two countries) and the need to expand the market.

And it was against this background that the expansion and reconstruction project of the Port of Suez, which was technically supported by the East Bank, was included in the work plan of the Ottoman government. The funds temporarily froze this plan; in addition, the East Coast Expedition Fleet successfully sailed to Persia Bandar Abbas, and submitted the letter of credence to Abbas II of the Safavid Dynasty, which also marked that the East Coast Republic government opened up the Indian Ocean. The determination and will of the market.

All in all, the new Chinese colonies on the east coast today have a strong impulse to expand trade with Ottomans out of the requirement of developing their own economy.However, their funds and contacts were limited, and the Ottoman country was in turmoil at this time. Therefore, many of their plans seemed to have no future in sight during the turmoil of the summer of 49.

"There are not even enough deep-water berths here." Captain Ji Wen sighed as he looked at the flute-shaped transport ships that anchored in the deep-water area and then relied on small barges to transfer people and supplies back and forth, and said, "This is Xinhua Port." The reason why the Ottomans were furious when they learned that they gave up expanding the port of Suez. They want to expand trade, but there are not enough berths here, isn’t it ridiculous?”

The two were standing by the pier and talking and laughing. At this moment, some Arabs in the bay had rowed their boats and approached the two east coast ships. Their boats were filled with fruits, vegetables and fresh meat. After the sailors, he raised his right thumb and said in broken Chinese: "Eastern shore country, number one!" Then he looked at these foreign sailors who seemed to be rich, hoping that they would be in a good mood Take care of your own business.

The two were not interested in staying on the pier any longer, so with the assistance of Ottoman customs officials, they quickly found the staff of the East African transportation company that was setting up a rest and Kyle, the Xinhua special commissioner in charge of immigration affairs.Kyle and Shay are old acquaintances, both of them are the first students of the sailing school, but one of them continued to make a living at sea, and the other served as a colonial official. Generally speaking, they both had successful careers.

Kyle and others have just arrived at the Port of Suez. This time, he followed several ships of the East African Transport Company to the Port of Suez. His main task is to supervise immigrants—a group of special prisoners of war immigrants.Yes, that's right, they are Polish soldiers who were sold off by Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian Cossacks.

The number of these people is quite large. Several fiascos in the Kingdom of Poland in 1648 killed at least 5 to 6 of their troops, and many of them were captured.Therefore, if the people on the east coast are willing to open up their acquisitions, they may be able to buy at least [-] slaves, which has even exceeded the number of Polish women they bought.

In fact, with the conduct of the Tatars, it doesn't matter how many people you want to buy.Don’t you see that they were driven back to Crimea by the Cossacks in 1648. The reason was that these lawless grassland men didn’t distinguish whether you were Poles or Ukrainians when they plundered. 20 people, mostly Ukrainians, were kidnapped west of the Dnieper.This aroused the dissatisfaction of the Cossacks, so they were driven back-of course Khmelnytsky invited the Tatars back before the second battle with Poland.

According to the arrangement of Mo San, who was in charge of the overall situation in the Ottoman Empire, the Polish women were unified and transported by the French transport ships they hired, and returned to the mainland together with the east coast escort fleet through the Mediterranean-Atlantic route.As for those men, the arrangement is much more casual. The first batch of 8500 German mercenary prisoners of war he bought (a total of [-] Polish soldiers were captured in the Battle of Kerson, most of them were German mercenaries) has now begun to pass through land and water. Through intermodal transportation, it was shipped to the Port of Suez on the shore of the Red Sea.

These Germans were scattered in numerous houses inside and outside Suez, guarded by soldiers sent by the local Mamluk feudal lords (the cost was paid by the people on the east coast).These German mercenaries were originally prisoners of war, but now they have been resold, and their morale is even lower.At this moment, in the hot place of Port Suez, everyone is as if they have dried up the leaves, and they can't cheer up.

These people are all veterans. Many of them left the countryside of Hessen since they were young, and fought across most of Europe for a bite to eat.It can be said that wherever there is war, they are there. The Ukrainian Cossacks who served the King of Poland to suppress the uprising this time were actually just a "normal business" for them.But now they were defeated, captured, and trafficked to a remote desert area, and it seemed that this was not the final destination, which made them feel a little worried about their fate.

What they worry about is not that they will never return to their hometown. In fact, they don’t care about it at all. German mercenaries are all over the world. They will go wherever they can survive. It would be even better if they can settle there. It doesn't matter even if that place is the terrible East Indies; their main concern is their own status. They are afraid that they will be trafficked to some ignorant and backward barbarian chiefs in the Old World, and then treated as slaves. The end must be very tragic, and they are unwilling to face it.

The people on the east coast can't care about the small things in the minds of these Germans. They bought these German mercenaries mainly for the consideration of the Far East battlefield.These German prisoners of war have been fighting for many years. They are hard-working and experienced. They are familiar with the way of firearms warfare and can also arrange the Spanish square. They are ideal candidates for cannon fodder.Therefore, it is naturally a very good business to get these people to the Far East and open up territories for the people on the east coast to fight against the Tartars.

Kyle introduced to Shay Wen and others that all the German mercenaries would be sent to the Far East, while the other part of the Polish prisoners of war would be sent to the New China region as contract slaves to develop the tropical land for the East Coast Republic; They were reorganized and attacked the native villages in the inland area to expand the rule of the people on the east coast; finally, some of the most unreliable (mainly Poles with military officers and noble origins) will be sent back to the mainland and handed over to the mainland. If it is disposed of by the Southern Railway Company, it will probably end up undergoing labor reform on the railway construction site.

In short, these prisoners of war can be called "cheap and good quality".Now we are waiting for all the people to arrive, and when the northeast wind blows in late October, we will board the boat and head to Xinhua Port together.

(End of this chapter)