1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 673 Cambay Bay

On March 3, India, in the waters of Cambay Bay.

Facing the gradual approach of four armed merchant ships with apparently malicious intentions, the battleships "Yangwu" and "Yangping" have issued a combat order for full alert, and tightly guarded the two merchant ships on the left side. The gun window has been opened, and the gunpowder and projectiles have also been moved to both sides of the artillery, ready to hit the incoming enemy head-on at any time.

Yesterday evening, when the fleet was passing through the waters near the Portuguese stronghold of Mumbai, a brisk armed merchant ship followed behind, with unknown intentions.Considering that it was going to be night, the escort squadron ignored it and did not expel it.

By the early morning of this morning, the armed merchant ship following behind had disappeared, which made the officers and soldiers of the escort squadron a little relieved.It's not that I'm afraid of the other party, but I'm worried about some accident, and accidentally let someone take advantage of the loophole and attack the escorted merchant ship.

However, at [-] o'clock in the morning, three miles ahead of the right side of the fleet, four armed merchant ships were suddenly seen rushing directly, without any signs hanging on the bows.

The two warships immediately passed the merchant ships, lined up in a column, and sailed at the forefront of the fleet, facing the raging pirate ships, ready to seize the favorable position of the "T" prefix as soon as possible.

The captain of the "Wildfu" stared at the two warships in a prominent position in front of him with a binoculars, with a look of surprise on his face.

"Oh, God! Those ships have no fewer than twenty gun ports in their sides! . . . Have we met a professional warship in the Navy?"

"Captain, I think we may have encountered the naval escort warship of Hanzhou!" Derek Brancard, the first mate of the Wildford, also had a serious face, "Should we continue to attack?"

"Navy warship escort, that means that the goods carried by the Hanzhou fleet may really be as described in the rumors, all of which are precious treasures." Kasim Fore, the captain of the Wildford, licked He licked his lips, with a greedy look in his eyes, "If we can capture these two treasure ships, we will all be rich."

"Captain, but they have two naval professional warships..." First Officer Derek Brancard reminded again.

"We can try it first, maybe there is a chance..." Kasim Fore turned his head and looked at the "St. Helens" on the right side of the "Wildfoux", and found that it didn't seem to have any scruples. The deputy and the boatswain were shouting loudly, directing many sailors to control the sails and steer the rudder hard, and rush towards the prey ahead.

Of the four armed merchant ships that are attacking the Qi fleet, three belong to the British East India Company, and one is a joint venture company from Liverpool.

More than half a month ago, a merchant ship returning to the Surat headquarters from the east coast of India brought back a tempting news. The Hanzhou people sailed from the mainland to four "treasure ships", which were filled with amazing wealth.Through the introduction of the Portuguese, they planned to sell these large quantities of precious treasures to the emperor of the Mughal Empire.And use this to further gain the favor of the emperor and deepen the trade between them.

Whether it was the high-value commodities brought by the Hanzhou people or the commercial breakthroughs they made in the Mughal Empire, the East India Company was mad with jealousy.

"Hack their ship!"

"Seize their cargo!"

"Destroy their commercial cooperation with the Mughal Empire!"

The Surat merchant station of the British East India Company immediately mobilized four armed merchant ships, preparing to hijack the Hanzhou "treasure ships" in the nearby waters as they left their Indian stronghold and headed for Diu.But in the Surat trading station, there are many dissenting people. They pointed out that if they rashly attacked the "treasure ship" of the Hanzhou people, they would definitely suffer their revenge afterwards.

Hanzhou, located in the south of the East Indies, is a powerful country. They had two large-scale wars with the powerful local Dutch East India Company, and forced them to make peace in both cases. Its sea power is evident.What is even more frightening is that Hanzhou is not far from India, and without a monsoon, the voyage will not exceed two months.And if we want to get support from the British East India Company, we have to cross more than half of the world, and it takes more than half a year to come to this remote India from Europe, which is tens of thousands of miles away.

Are we, the British East India Company, really going to mess with this country?
"This is a commercial act, and it is also a spontaneous act of the people. Hanzhou should not launch their national war machine just because of this?"

With a bit of fanaticism and a bit of luck, the four mobilized armed merchant ships sailed out of the port of Surat, wandering around the waters passing through Diu, waiting for the rumored "treasure ship" from Hanzhou to arrive.

Finally, before noon, the four British armed merchant ships preparing to hunt spotted the Hanzhou Fleet sailing from the south. There were also four ships of larger size, with their unique monster flags hanging on the bows.

But what is unexpected is that there are actually two naval professional warships escorting the opponent's fleet!

When the "St. Helens" approached the battleship Qi for more than 300 meters, it turned sharply to the left and cut towards the opponent's right rear, obviously not wanting to face the side gunfire of the Hanzhou battleship.

With the turning of the "St. Helens", the other three British armed merchant ships also turned their direction, and went towards the right rear of the Hanzhou battleship one after another.

"These Western pirates are indeed quite clever!" Luo Shoushao turned his head and watched the four Western armed merchant ships pass over the rear wing of his own fleet, and then draw a beautiful arc, turning around, trying to surround them from behind.

In the first round, neither side fired guns, and both sides were trying to seize the "T" prefix position, hoping to use their own superior side artillery.

After receiving the instructions of the escort squadron, the two merchant ships under the Indian trading company passed the fleet and sailed straight to the north without stopping at all.

The two warships of the escort squadron slowed down and adjusted their direction, preparing to meet the turning attack of the four Western armed merchant ships.

Although there are two enemies and four, the officers and men of the escort squadron are not afraid at all. Under the command of the fleet commander, they strictly implement the maritime combat regulations, and are going to do their best to seize the position of the prefix "T" again, and to put their own sideways Aim at the bow of the enemy's ship, and choose the opportunity to break the opponent's mast or damage their sail...

But the four British armed merchant ships hesitated when they saw the Hanzhou merchant ship heading straight away, leaving two warships staring at the back.

If two armed merchant ships are separated to entangle the opponent's escort warship, and then the other two armed merchant ships are used to chase the fleeing Hanzhou merchant ship, then the remaining ships will be torn apart by the opponent's warship.

However, it seems meaningless to stay and deal with these two warships.It's not like robbing other people's naval warships, is it?

The two sides confronted each other at a distance of 500 meters for nearly an hour, and then they probably realized that neither of them was sure of defeating the other, so they tacitly disengaged from each other and left.
-
March 3, Surat, India.

"Gentlemen, I think it is a very wise choice for you to withdraw from the battlefield." Senior Manager of the British East India Company in Surat position) Harken Browning said: "We are now trying our best to avoid unnecessary losses and maintain the company's sustainable development capital. At present, our development momentum in India is tending to be good, and operating profits have begun to grow steadily. However, We also have many competitors, which are always threatening our operating capabilities and sustainable development prospects.”

"In order to avoid malicious competition from its domestic counterparts, the Company is endeavoring to apply to the Government of the Republic for an exclusive charter so that in the East Indies the Company may have judicial powers, coinage rights, military powers to protect trading activities, and illicit trading vessels The right to report. I am optimistic about this, and the Lord Protector (Cromwell) should also actively support the overseas interests developed by our East India Company.”

"However, in India, in addition to malicious competition from our domestic counterparts, we also face threats from the Dutch and Portuguese." Haken Browning said solemnly: "Among them, the Dutch are the most threatening. So , there is no need for us to provoke the Hanzhou people and suffer any losses because of it.”

Since the establishment of the British East India Company, its commercial trade has not been smooth. The main reason is that the current mode of operation of the British East India Company is a single voyage, a single fundraising, and a single settlement.That is to say, to prepare for a long-distance voyage to conduct a trade, it is necessary to raise funds temporarily, and then distribute investment and dividends based on sales, etc.If a certain failure, it will cause great trouble for the next financing.

Therefore, with such an unstable and temporary operating model, it is simply impossible to compete with the mature and stable joint-stock model of the Dutch East India Company at the same time.The British East India Company can be said to have been on the road of exploration of the company model.

The Netherlands and the United Kingdom had been allies for half a century, and they were Protestant fraternal regimes strongly supported by Queen Elizabeth. In the war against Spain in 1625, the Anglo-Dutch navy also formed a joint fleet to fight side by side.

Therefore, in distant Asia, in order to fight Portugal together, the British and Dutch East India Companies formed an offensive and defensive alliance. In 1621, Britain and the Netherlands took the initiative to blockade the port of Goa together, preventing Portuguese ships from entering and leaving the port for a year, causing heavy losses.At the invitation of Persian King Shah Abbas, the British entered the Arabian Sea and expelled the Portuguese who had occupied the island of Hormuz for more than a hundred years.

However, the British soon realized that the aggressive Dutch were more of a threat than the declining Portuguese. Therefore, in 1635, the British East India Company made a separate peace with Portuguese India and thus obtained the privilege of entering and leaving the Portuguese port. .

The Dutch, on the other hand, relied on their strong sea power to continue to erode Portuguese influence. Several Portuguese strongholds on the west coast of India fell into the hands of the Dutch one after another. And Mumbai and Calicut (now Kozhikode, a port city in southwestern India) might also be lost.

However, it may be a habit of doing monopoly business. While the Dutch continued to squeeze out the Portuguese power, they also vaguely pointed the finger at the British, which aroused the high tension of the British East India Company.Because, any business that the Dutch get involved in, the British will inevitably be ruthlessly squeezed out. This is a nightmare they have been experiencing repeatedly for several years.

During the previous Thirty Years War that swept across Europe, Britain made full use of its status as a neutral country, and its maritime trade developed by leaps and bounds. After 30, Spain became Britain's most important overseas market, consuming a large amount of British wool every year. In 1630, three-quarters of the merchant ships entering and exiting the Spanish port of Bilbao came from England.

However, the good times did not last long. In 1648, Spain and the Netherlands signed an armistice agreement, ending the state of war between the two sides. Dutch merchant ships quickly returned to the Iberian Peninsula, and the prosperity bubble of British trade immediately burst.Facing the low freight and interest rates of the Dutch, British merchant ships had no competitive advantage, and lost more than half of their overseas markets in just two years.

In 1647, England almost monopolized Spain's wool export, and three years later, the Netherlands seized 80% of the trade share. Before 1647, British wool was almost the best-selling European textile in the Ottoman Empire. Two years later, it could no longer compete with the high-end Dutch wool and could only stay in the middle and low-end market.

Britain's trade share in the Baltic Sea market has also shrunk sharply. In 1647, nearly 130 British merchant ships entered the Baltic Sea through the Danish Strait, and then plummeted to 1651 in 20. In this year, a total of 1000 Dutch merchant ships entered the Baltic Sea. .

Therefore, in general, whether it is in Europe or India, the contradictions between Britain and the Netherlands have become quite intensified, and even if a war breaks out, it is reasonable.
-
March 3, Diu, India.

"No, no, no..." Antonio Tris Menez, the Governor of Portugal in Diu, shook his head and said, "Dear Mr. He, you cannot send armed personnel to attack Surat. In that case, it will be considered an attack on Morat Offended by the emperor of the Mughal Empire. There, it is the territory of the Mughal Empire, and the English are just sojourners in that land, engaged in trade between the East and the West. Surat, with us Diu, Goa, Da The cities occupied by Man and others are completely different."

"Governor Menez, you mean that Surat is still under the rule of the Indians, and the English just set up a business house in that city, and did not demarcate their own land and establish their own colony. The government?" He Chunmao was greatly surprised.

"Yes, Mr. He." Governor Menez said with a smile: "The Mughal Empire is a very powerful country. They have millions of troops, and their conquests have not stopped. Kandahar (Afghanistan area), Gujarat in the northwest, Deccan in the south. Oh God, this empire is expanding in every direction. So, we better not try to use force to attack this great empire To provoke."

"Therefore, disputes at sea still need to be resolved at sea!" Luo Shoushao, commander of the escort squadron, said with a somber face.

Although there was only an attempted attack near the waters of Cambay Bay, and the two sides had an armed confrontation for more than an hour, the aggressive posture shown by the British East India Company still made the officers and soldiers of the Qi State Navy feel greatly offended.Knowing that the fleet of Qi State was escorting them, they dared to rush forward and wandered around the fleet, full of strong pirate style.

That being the case, how can we not find the place back?
(End of this chapter)