1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 536 Countermeasures
On March 1645, 3, Dog Island (now Christmas Island, Australia).

Seeing the dozens of immigrants disembarking from the boat, Lu Shangping, the general manager of Gouji Island, burst into tears with excitement. God is sorry, after six or seven years, Gouji Island has finally welcomed new immigrants.Of course, tens of hundreds of natives are sent to the island from Timor Island and Hanzhou every year to mine the rich phosphate mines on the island.However, from the perspective of the island management staff, these natives do not seem to be considered as official residents, and are completely consumables for the mine.

Because the Dutch set up a secret stronghold in the mainland of Hanzhou, which triggered a confrontation between the two sides. In order to deal with a possible war, this dog island hanging in the sea is not far from Java Island. The key point was suddenly taken seriously by the Hanzhou military.

Half a month ago, when the two transport ships were transporting supplies to this place, they loaded a large amount of weapons and ammunition by the way, and at the same time brought dozens of craftsmen from Hanzhou No. [-] Construction Company, preparing to expand and strengthen this place. defense facilities.

Today, a 50-ton transport ship that has just arrived on the island has brought more than [-] immigrants to the island to supplement the population of the place.

"Will we fight with the Dutch?" Lu Shangping and Liao Laichun, the captain who just boarded the pier, said as they walked, "If there is a fight, will more ships gather on Dog Island? I feel that the mainland should add some people to the island. In six or seven years, there were only more than 200 people on the entire island, and with the addition of 50 people this time, the number is less than 300. If the Dutch attack, I will They're still a little hard."

"If there is a real fight with the Dutch, how can you guard the island? Even if the mainland doesn't send the marines over, they will mobilize hundreds of local soldiers to station on the island." Liao Laichun said with a smile: "You dogs The biggest role of the island is to provide the necessary vegetable and non-staple food for the fleet assembled here. However, I think that most of our country of Qi will not be able to fight the Dutch."

"Why?" Lu Shangping wondered: "The captain who delivered supplies to us last time said that the relationship with the Dutch is very tense now. I heard that our warships and Dutch warships had armed confrontations in many places. If there is a spark, there might be a fight. These bastard Dutchmen are so vile, they dare to establish a secret stronghold near our Jianye City."

"If our country of Qi really wants to fight the Dutch, we won't confront them like this." Liao Laichun pondered and said, "Besides, the mainland only partially mobilized the rural soldiers near Jianye City, and the rest of the area was very peaceful. However, the goods in our factories in various places have accumulated a lot in Jianye Port, which may affect many people's livelihood and economy."

"The Dutch don't buy our products, we can sell them to the natives on Nanyang Island!" Lu Shangping said indifferently: "A week ago, didn't two transport ships from the Hanzhou Trading Company come from our Gouer When the island passed by, they said that they were going to the big island in the west called the Palembang Sultan Kingdom, and they were going to establish trade relations with them. In my opinion, it’s okay to turn against the Dutch now, so I just bypassed them and went directly with them. The natives of Nanyang do business. You can sell whatever you want, without any constraints from the Dutch!"

"The higher-ups have this plan." Liao Laichun nodded and said, "The big island in the west is called Sumatra by the natives. There are several native kingdoms on it, and the Dutch are not very powerful. As long as we don't go to both sides of the Malacca Strait, , should be able to circumvent the restrictions of the Dutch. However, the sea conditions on the west side of this big island are very bad, and it is not known whether the ships of the Hanzhou Trading Company can safely reach the Sultan Kingdom of Palembang."
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The "Hanyun-3" and "Hanyun-4" armed transport ships affiliated to the Hanzhou General Trading Company are two armed merchant ships with a full load of 20 tons. [-] days ago, two ships set off from Jianye Port. Under the guidance of a dozen Malay navigators and sailors recruited from Batavia, after passing Doger Island, they headed northwestwards, preparing to go to The western coastal area of ​​the Palembangan Sultanate, with which it conducts direct trade.

The confrontation with the Dutch East India Company temporarily interrupted trade between the two parties.In order to expand the trade market of Qi, the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Transport instructed Hanzhou Trading Co., Ltd. to open the route to Sumatra Island, so as to avoid the routes of Java Island, Spice Islands, and Sulawesi Island, which are more strictly controlled by the Dutch East India Company.

Although it is also the coastal area of ​​Sumatra Island, compared with the calm and good sea conditions in the Malacca area in the east of the island, the west area of ​​the island is full of choppy waves and the sea conditions are extremely complicated and dangerous.

Since ancient times, the west coast of Sumatra has lacked a good natural harbor, not without reason.On the western coast of the island, it is often attacked by "the lapping waves of the Indian Ocean".It is a kind of high-rolled waves that push the shore in one long row, two rows, or three rows. Its strength is so great that it can lift the fishing boat to the top of the wave, and then turn it over and fall down.Due to the existence of the phenomenon of "Indian Ocean waves crashing on the shore", there is almost no natural good harbor on the west coast of Sumatra.

The two armed merchant ships of the Hanzhou General Trading Company, in the midst of countless turbulent waves on the Indian Ocean, were struggling to sail slowly northwest along the coastline.

In fact, the best season to go to the west coast of Sumatra should be around July.In July, the Balisan Mountains in the west of Sumatra blocked the southwest monsoon, making the entire west coast in a normally windless season. Although it would be impossible for ships to rely on the wind, making the ships move slowly, after all, for ships, It will be much safer.

After January, the Asian high will form the northeast monsoon over Sumatra.At this time, there is no obstacle to the wind on the sea surface, and the sea water will form waves hitting the shore under the action of the northeast monsoon, which makes the boats have great safety problems.

When departing from Jianye Port, those Malay navigators and sailors suggested that the season to go to the west coast of Sumatra Island should be postponed to June and July.Otherwise, it is very likely that there will be a tragedy of shipwreck and human death.

However, the Ministry of Trade of Qi State, eager to break through the trade bottleneck, after much deliberation, still instructed Hanzhou General Trading Co., Ltd. to send ships to Sumatra Island in March to try to establish trade relations with several Sudanese kingdoms there.Today, because of the Holenberg crisis, the Dutch East India Company has withdrawn from the Hanzhou commodity trade and transportation market almost instantly, resulting in a large backlog of commodities produced by factories everywhere.

However, the small domestic market is still not enough to digest the market demand left after the Dutch exited. If it continues for a long time, it will inevitably affect the domestic economy and people's livelihood and the small-scale industrial production that has been developed with great difficulty.Furthermore, even if a settlement is reached with the Dutch East India Company in the short term, the industrial and commercial departments of Qi State and several trading houses need to re-distribute overseas markets and try their best to break the East India Company's monopoly on the Nanyang market.

The two armed merchant ships "Han Yun-3" and "Han Yun-4" traveled along the west coastline of Sumatra Island for two days, and finally came to a coastal plain where there was a small fishing port surrounded by several Hundreds of natives.

"This is the Bencoolen area of ​​the Sultan Kingdom of Palembang (now Bengkulu City, Indonesia). Merchants from Ottoman, Persia and India often come here to conduct transactions." A Malay navigator told the "Chinese Transport- No. 3" Captain Liang Qiwu introduced the simple situation here, "To let the captain know that the inland area of ​​this big island is rich in gold, and many tribal leaders are extremely rich, so there is no need to worry about their lack of ability to pay. In addition, rice is also abundant in the vicinity , palm oil, ramie, agar, copra, betel nut, kapok, and the more famous black pepper, all of which can be used for our commodity exchange.”

"This place is sparsely populated. If we want to attract inland tribes to come to trade, then we need to stay here for a while." Liang Qiwu looked at the few dilapidated thatched huts around, and a group of local natives who were almost naked. The man frowned and asked, "Have the tribes here attacked the merchants?"

"Most of the people here believe in the True God religion. If we maintain a friendly attitude towards them, we will generally not be attacked by them." The Malay navigator said with a smile: "Actually, we only need to find the nobles of the local tribes Heads, present some gifts to them. I believe that our arrival will definitely be welcomed by them most warmly."

In the next few days, under the guidance of several Malay sailors, the trade representative of Hanzhou General Trading Co., Ltd. brought steel knives, cloisonne, honey wine, canned food and many other gifts to visit the heads of several small local tribes and asked them to send Tribes in the interior carried messages of the arrival of merchants.

More than ten days later, with the arrival of more and more tribal natives, a huge temporary trading market was formed near the Bencoolen Pier.The short, black and thin natives came to the seaside with bags of copra, betel nuts, rice, black pepper, or barrels of palm oil, and traded with the Hanzhou people in full swing.

Those tribal leaders with all kinds of accessories on their bodies, led a group of slaves, directly took out pieces of unprocessed gold, and then exchanged them for sharp steel knives and delicious honey from the Hanzhou people. Wine, colorful cloisonne, and various exquisite metal tools.

In less than half a month, the goods on the two armed merchant ships under the Hanzhou Trading Company were sold out, and even the dozens of artillery equipped on the ship were almost destroyed by the Balin who came from dozens of miles away. Punsutan Kingdom officials bought it.However, considering that they would pass through the sphere of influence of the Dutch East India Company near the Sunda Strait on the return journey, in order to ensure their own safety, the Hanzhou people rejected the other party's request, but sold the dozens of spare muskets on board to the other party and promised Next time they come, they'll carry cannons that can be traded.

On April 4, the Hanzhou merchant ship returned with a full load left the Bencoolen Fishing Port Wharf, entered the rough Indian Ocean, and set off to return to Hanzhou.The opening of the Sumatra trade route was a great success. It not only gained considerable commercial profits, opened up an important market, but also established contact with the Palembang Sultan Kingdom on the island.

You know, three years ago, in order to fill the financial deficit caused by the war with Hanzhou, the East India Company blatantly dispatched armed personnel to raid the capital of the kingdom that had always been friendly with them-Palembang, looted the entire city, and finally It also occupied the most prosperous and important port on the Mursi River, forcing the Palembang Sultan Kingdom to move the royal city to the small city of Prabhuli.

When the officials of the Sultan Kingdom of Palembang saw the Hanzhou merchant ship, they immediately demanded to trade artillery and guns. Most of them were for the purpose of accumulating force and preparing to expel the Dutch and regain the former royal city.

The Dutch East India Company, with its domineering and tyrannical business methods in the entire Southeast Asia region, seems to have made them hate dogs.Most of the kingdoms that come into contact with it want to use force against the East India Company to drive it out or even eliminate it.

Now, the Dutch East India Company actually wants to use some small tricks against Hanzhou. I don't know where they got the courage to push all the local forces in Nanyang to their opposition.

That being the case, Hanzhou might as well take this opportunity to import firearms to many kingdoms in Southeast Asia, make good business deals with them, and establish an extensive anti-Dutch alliance in order to counter them.

(End of this chapter)