Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 975

In April, the cold wind on the Great Plains of South Russia is still as cold as a knife.

Mo San took a flute-shaped ship of the Black Sea Liner Company and slowly sailed into Kafa Port, and then, accompanied by the guards of the commercial station, went straight to a camp outside the city.The camp covers a vast area, and it was built by the Sea of ​​Azov, which had a great origin. Later, it was forced to absorb the capital of some Jewish slave traders (these people were also of great background), and the entire camp was built into a camp that could accommodate 8000 people. above the large slave market.

What's even more amazing is that this slave market is almost exclusively for people from the east coast, because most of the "commodities" in this market specializing in female slaves are bought by people from the east coast.The ships from the east coast who came to trade in Europe, except for a small amount of livestock, metal minerals and luxury goods, most of the goods they took away were female slaves. When the purchase peaked in the past few years, the annual purchase volume even reached tens of thousands. Recently, Although the number has dropped a bit in 7000, it still maintains more than [-] people per year, which is extremely alarming.

In order to smoothly transport these female slaves back to the east coast, the First Fleet of the East Coast Republic Navy not only sent 2-3 frigates to escort them all year round, but also rented a large number of French transport ships in Smyrna and other places to help transport female slaves to the east coast native.Of course, French ships are not only good at transporting women. In recent years, they have also helped people on the east coast to transport a large number of men (Polish prisoners of war). The route is usually to reach Alexandria in the Ottoman Empire via the White Sea, and then transported to Suez by Mamluks. Hong Kong, and then sold to people on the east coast.The scale of this industry is so large that now more and more Ottoman nobles are involved, and everyone is determined to carry forward this Ottoman "unique business" and make it bigger and stronger.

However, with the changes in the international situation in recent years, the number of Polish prisoners of war has become less and less, and finally almost none.On the contrary, the number of female slaves is increasing, so that the price has slowly dropped from 80 yuan per person to 65-70 yuan. It's a joy.

The most important factor for this situation is actually related to Khmelnytsky.After suppressing the Cossacks who opposed him in the country, this guy led 7 soldiers on the grounds that the Principality of Moldavia had stood by Poland to deal with them, and together with the Tatars, brazenly invaded the country and occupied its capital, forcing it to submit (Grand Duke Rupur married his own daughter to Khmelnytsky's son).

However, although the flank threat of the Principality of Moldavia, which had secretly colluded with Poland, was resolved, new troubles also followed-from the second half of 1650 to the present, the armies of the Cossack Emirate and the Crimean Khanate have been Trapped in the Principality of Moldavia, fighting the forces of Transylvania and Wallachia that attacked the country.The war will definitely produce a large number of slaves (mainly kidnapped Moldavian girls, and a small number of prisoners of war from various countries), and the final flow of slaves will naturally point to this huge slave market on the outskirts of Kaffa.

In this market, the staff of the East Coast Commercial Station met with the Cossack head, Tatar nobles and Ottoman officials who came to sell the slaves one by one, discussed with them the "appearance", age, and health of the female slaves, and finally agreed on a price , Buy one of them.It is worth mentioning that they rarely use precious metals when buying female slaves, and most of the time they use goods as offsets—such as weapons and military supplies that everyone likes, such as spirits and cloth, such as metal tools, dyed leather goods, etc. For example, medicines, etc., are all hard currencies on the grassland. Generally speaking, it is a transaction that is very beneficial to both parties. The people on the east coast have gained population, and they have obtained living supplies and war supplies. Both sides are happy.

"In recent years, the demand for our country's military resources on the grassland has been increasing. Last year, domestic arsenals even accepted the task of ordering their own unique weapons from the Cossacks and Tatars. The Cossacks and Tatars also received a lot. Quite satisfied. Especially the Cossacks. In 1651, they fought against the coercion of Poland’s 15 troops and lost a lot of military resources and personnel. Khmelnytsky’s ambition is to reorganize the Cossack regiments. The demand for high-quality weapons in our country Even the Russians, after seeing the decline of the Cossacks, guaranteed them, asking us to credit the Cossacks with weapons first, and then pay for the goods later. It has to be said that war is the best way for arms dealers Friends, hehe, now that the Russians are about to end in person, the inventory at Kafa Trading Station must be greatly increased, otherwise I’m afraid it won’t be enough for them to consume.” Li Qing, who was picking female slaves, saw that her boss, Mo San, had come, and immediately Come out to greet Dao.

"Last year, I heard that the Cossacks won a complete victory in the Battle of Batog, and [-] Polish troops were annihilated, but why no one came to sell these prisoners?" Mo San looked at the vast market full of merchants selling female slaves, so Then I asked Li Qing.

"Because..." Li Qing shook her head first, and then said: "Because the Cossacks didn't want to be captured, all [-] Polish soldiers died, and many of them were executed after surrendering—in revenge for the massacre of the Grand Duke of Lithuania in the ancient city of Kiev." the behavior of."

"The war between them is not over. On the contrary, the Poles are reorganizing their army and planning to avenge their shame, completely defeat the Khmelnytsky armed group, and regain control of the entire Dnieper River Basin." Li Qing added. Said, "The situation of the Ukrainians is more dangerous now. The Tatars in Crimea have been bribed by the Poles several times before and betrayed the Cossacks. Facing the Polish army. The internal contradictions of the Cossacks were also very sharp. Many Cossacks were dissatisfied with Khmelnytsky and moved eastward to the wild border area close to the Russians. They accepted the assistance and influence of the Russians. They were called Slobo Da Cossacks, and its land is also called Sloboda Ukraine (roughly located in present-day Kharkiv, Ukraine). Responsibility, who made him always want to have a good time among several big countries? Now it is good, the Ottoman Sultan does not like it, the Polish king is very hostile to it, and the Tsar is looking at him coldly, he is not good now ah."

Although the people on the east bank have limited grasp of historical details, Russia still knows about the fact that Russia brazenly declared war on Poland in order to control Ukraine (perhaps it also meant to shame the defeat of the Smolensk War), but they did not know that the Russians Just how much was dispatched.However, according to Russia's consistent temperament, it is too embarrassing to go out to fight without bringing an army of 10,000+, and there are big profits to be made in it - no wonder Borisov from Astrakhan has recently come to Kaffa City frequently , Buy all kinds of military weapons from the East Bank!

In addition, Zheng Yong from the Archangel Commercial Station also wrote a letter last year, saying that the Russians are making crazy war preparations, and the spearhead of the war has undoubtedly been directed at Poland, so he hopes that Mo San will unify and summarize it almost simultaneously. The Cretan War, the Polish-Ukrainian War, the five-country melee in Moldavia (Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia, Ukraine, Crimea), and the Polish-Russian war that will break out in the future For wars, estimate the scale of these wars and the consumption of military resources and weapons, so that the two major domestic arsenals can know how much they should produce.

At that time, Mo San laughed at Zheng Yong's letter and said nothing, because only he knew that the weapons of the people on the East Bank would not worry about being sold: a while ago when he wrote to Shi Qinjie from New China, he asked him to When the material warehouse in Xinhua Port coordinated a batch of military supplies to be sold to the Ottomans, Shi Qingjie only gave a part, and then explained that the Persians had recently increased their procurement of weapons because the Mughal Sultan Aurangzeb In the past three years, they have attacked Kandahar controlled by the Persians twice, and it seems that they will gather a large army to attack again this year. The consumption of this weapon and military resources is simply huge-because the scale of the two wars is generally not small.

The world in the 17th century was so wonderful, it was full of arms dealers’ business fields, the plains of Eastern Europe, the mountains of Central Asia, Brazil and even North America—the Dutch West India Company was fighting fiercely with the Swedes in the Delaware area recently, while the British New England The colonial army in the area also began to attack New Amsterdam, and the Dutch were very busy-these are important sales places for military materials on the East Coast.The frequent outbreaks of wars made Dayuhe Armory and Northern Armory operate at full capacity. At the same time, the students from the factory-run technical school graduated early to expand the scale of production and try their best to supply war consumption everywhere.

"Although the profit margin of arms is not very high, but the demand is high, the total profit is still quite considerable. However, I will find a way to spend the money from these trades on the spot. It is best to exchange them for slaves and transport them back to the mainland. The slaves must be mainly female slaves in order to smooth out the difference in the number of men and women in the country. In addition, male slaves with military experience can also buy some as appropriate. The development of New China requires a lot of such "consumables", but the quantity must be Strict control. After all, we don't have many people in the New China colony, and we can't absorb too many new populations." Mo San carefully told Li Qing, afraid that he might not understand some of the key points.

The local executive committee on the east coast has always hated the large amount of precious metals shipped back by European trading stations, because in their opinion, why do they need precious metals?If I want money, I won't dig the gold mine myself, will I?Precious metals can only be useful if they are turned into materials, otherwise they are a pile of dead things-only stupid mercantilists would like precious metals so much-it is not good for the national economy, and among many materials, slave procurement is absolutely It is the most important and most reasonable way for people on the east coast to consume their trade surplus.

"I understand. Now that Wallachia and Transylvania have jointly invaded Moldavia, and the Cossacks have sent troops to rescue them, there will definitely be a large number of prisoners of war or female slaves here. I will pay attention to the developments in the market." Li Qing Said.

"Not paying attention, you have to take the initiative to attack!" Mo San raised his voice and said with emphasis: "Don't move like an abacus bead, a little subjective initiative, okay? You should take the initiative to fight with those Cossack commanders, Tatar nobles, etc. People chat, interview, let people 'make' slaves according to your intentions, understand?"

(End of this chapter)