1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 800 Colonization of South Africa ([-])
There was a musket sound on the pier, and it was a Changning Fort guard who accidentally pulled the trigger because of nervousness.Although no one was hit, the gunshots obviously frightened the three French envoys who went ashore, and they shrank back and fell to the ground immediately.

This action made the Changning Fort guards all around stunned for a moment, and then they all burst into laughter.

I thought those who came were all ruthless characters, but that's all!

The three envoys of the French East India Company heard the laughter of the Hanzhou people and looked around. The other party seemed to have no intention of killing, and then stood up a little embarrassingly.

A thin Hanzhou man walked up to the French envoy, with a mocking look on his face, he waved to them and motioned to follow him into the city.

Jordan Weilertu and the others may feel that they were played by these Hanzhou people just now, and they are a little annoyed when they are embarrassed. The Hanzhou man who led the way walked towards the city.

The castle built by the Hanzhou people is about 300 meters away from the wharf. From a distance, the city wall is not very tall, with a circumference of about 1000 meters.From the pier to the castle, it is connected by a road paved with crushed stones, broken bricks and rammed earth. The road surface is relatively flat and should be able to pass heavy carriages.

The Hanzhou people who accompanied them were not very tall, but they looked very strong, their backs were straight, and their faces were very ruddy, which showed that their living standards here were not very bad.

These Hanzhou people held muskets in both hands, a dagger (bayonet) in their waists, and a messenger bag on their backs, which were probably used to carry gunpowder, projectiles, or other combat supplies.

Before I came to the castle, I found that the city walls were built with large blocks of stone (actually cement) and city bricks as the main materials, and many artillery pieces were placed on the top of the city.After a rough count, there are five artillery pieces on the city wall facing the pier.The whole city is also in the shape of a bastion, and there is a 3-5 meter deep trench surrounding the city wall.

Seeing this situation, several Frenchmen couldn't help shaking their heads and smiling wryly.Even if their armed merchant ships can capture the pier and land on the shore smoothly, with their armed force of less than 200 people, they will not be able to capture the city at all.

When they entered the city, they saw hundreds of heavily armed militiamen standing on both sides of the street, half armed with swords and spears, half equipped with muskets, and all of them were wearing leather armor or half plate armor.

Seeing all this, the three envoys of the French East India Company felt extremely grateful.If they really followed the suggestion of Mr. Olivier Giroud, the captain of the "Bella Bell", landed from other places, and then made a detour to attack the city, they would definitely be hit hard by the Hanzhou people. Not the entire army was wiped out, but it must have suffered heavy losses.

Chen Hong'an, the general manager of Changning Fort, looked at a Frenchman who was the leader, and said that he would conduct a certain limit of trade with them, buy some food and production and living utensils, and help the immigrants on a small island of them.

"Damn it, it's probably because they couldn't get in, so they wanted to trade with us honestly. These Western ghosts have no good things. Manager Chen, drive them away!...Let them fend for themselves. "Feng Datian, the captain of Changning Fort's guard, yelled beside him.

Chen Hongan stared at the French envoys, wondering which country they represented.They babbled a lot, but they couldn't understand which country in Europe it was from.According to their "accent", it should not be Dutch, nor Portuguese.If it is the English, according to their bad relationship with our country of Qi, it is natural to ignore them and drive them away.

But if it is other more influential countries in Europe, should we take it seriously?

According to the news from Europe, the mission sent by Qi to Europe two years ago seems to have received a cold reception in other European countries except for the establishment of formal diplomatic and commercial relations with the Dutch.Moreover, some European countries initially thought that the Qi mission was from Ming Dynasty, and received them warmly with curiosity and reverence.

But when they heard that my country of Qi was just a "small country" from a remote southern continent, they were full of disdain and contempt, and then ignored it.This made the entire delegation of the State of Qi feel ashamed.He had no choice but to set up the general representative office in Europe in Amsterdam, and first maintain Qi's only formal diplomatic relationship with the country in Europe.

My Great Qi Kingdom is also the existence of the overlord of Nanyang at any rate. Unexpectedly, in the eyes of European countries, it is not as famous as the Ming, Persia, and Mughal Empires. The country Siam has a certain "famousness" than Qi.

In short, the diplomatic mission of the Qi State Mission to Europe suffered a major setback, and was underestimated by almost all European countries except the Netherlands.Even the Kingdom of Portugal, which is well taken care of by the Qi State in Asia, is still busy tearing apart with Spain, eager to get rid of the fate of being controlled and gain an independent status.The visit by the Qi State Mission to establish diplomatic relations was ignored at all, and it was just trying to curry favor with England.

As the general manager of a South African territory with political awareness, Chen Hongan thought, whether our Qi country can first use economic and trade relations to contact and understand European countries to a certain extent, and then lay some foundations for the establishment of formal diplomatic and commercial relations in the future .

These Western fan ghosts are probably not very familiar with our Qi State, and they don't know the great strength of our Qi State.Of course, our current force is still limited, so we can't convince you all, so let's make a formal introduction to each other.But we can slowly let you Westerners know through economic and trade exchanges that our country Qi is also a "big country" with great reputation.

Furthermore, after so many years of development, Fort Changning has initially perfected its various defense facilities, and it has no fear in dealing with the siege of hundreds of thousands of heavily armed European colonial troops.Under such circumstances, this important supply transit point should be considered to open to the outside world appropriately, to do some trade with those European countries and forces, and to obtain due benefits.

Chen Hongan ordered Feng Datian to search for a few naturalized Germans in the city to see if he could communicate with these Western envoys.
-
The two French armed merchant ships outside the port waited for the evening without any response. Just when everyone thought that the three envoys sent by the Hanzhou people might have been killed by the Hanzhou people, they were about to turn around and sail to the port of Maputo to meet the Portuguese. Try your luck there.

The watchman on the ship suddenly reported that he saw a small boat sailing out of the harbor. In the dim twilight, besides the envoys they sent, there seemed to be several Hanzhou people on the small boat.

It didn't take long for the French to get a reply that surprised and delighted them, and the Hanzhou people were willing to make a deal with the French.However, in view of the "misconduct" of the French in the early morning, they requested that the French only allow one merchant ship to enter the port tomorrow, and the entourage on board should not exceed 50 people.In addition, the materials of the Hanzhou people are not very abundant, so the price may be slightly higher, and the currency only accepts gold and silver coins.

The French only hesitated for a moment, and immediately agreed to the request of the Hanzhou people.How to put it, their original purpose was to grab a hand in the stronghold of Hanzhou.It is only natural for people to restrict their entry into Hong Kong.

As for the higher price of the materials they want to buy, they can accept it in their hearts.After all, it is extremely expensive to transport it all the way from Europe.What's more, Bourbon Island has also suffered serious natural disasters. Hundreds of French compatriots are suffering from hunger, restoring their homes, and replanting food. They all urgently need tools at hand.

In fact, with the mind of the French, they did not dare to drive both ships into the port.After all, it was the first time dealing with each other, and the two sides didn't know each other very well. In case, the Hanzhou people detained all their people and boats, and there was not even a single person who went back to report.

In the early morning of November 11, under the guidance of a small boat driven by Hanzhou people, the "Bona" slowly passed the narrow mouth of the bay, and then sailed towards the inner port wharf.

When the captain Theo Hernandez entered the city of Fort Changning, he felt a trace of sincere luck just like the three emissaries yesterday.They have visited the Cape Town stronghold under the control of the Dutch East India Company several times. Whether it is the city size or the layout planning inside, it is far inferior to the city built by the Hanzhou people.Not to mention, the cleanliness and tidiness of this city would make many cities in Europe feel ashamed.

Not surprisingly, the city also did not allow local aborigines to settle in it.There are Han Chinese with oriental faces, Indians with darker skin, and even a few Germans with European faces.It seems that this Hanzhou is still a relatively inclusive country, gathering some nationals of different races and skin colors.

When the governor of the Hanzhou people expressed his willingness to open the Changning Fort through a German interpreter, allowing merchant ships and whaling ships from various countries to come here to dock and replenish supplies, and at the same time, businessmen from any country and region were also welcome to come here. trading.

When Hernandez saw that the Hanzhou people brought out oriental products such as cotton cloth, tea, and porcelain, he was very surprised. He did not expect that they could still provide these products monopolized by the Dutch and English.Those cotton cloths are fine, but porcelain has always been a luxury pursued by European royal families and nobles.And tea, from the royal family of England, gradually spread to the royal and aristocratic circles of various countries in the European continent, and began to become a fashionable and elegant drink.

When the French were in India, they bought some resold tea and porcelain from the Dutch East India Company, and planned to bring them back to the European continent to earn high profits.

If, in the future, we French can obtain tea and porcelain, two unique oriental commodities, from here, without going through the Dutch, wouldn't we be able to bypass this damn middleman and obtain more lucrative trade profits?

Hernandez immediately stated that the French East India Company was willing to conduct fair trade with the Qiguo African Trading Company, and hoped to obtain the exclusive agency rights for two commodities, tea and porcelain. After that, the two parties could establish a close cooperative relationship.

The Hanzhou people readily agreed to the establishment of a close trade cooperation relationship between the two parties, but they politely refused to give the French the exclusive agency rights for tea and porcelain, obviously not wanting the French to control their foreign trade channels.

Three days later, the French took away more than 20 tons of corn, sorghum, potatoes, and a small amount of wheat and poultry from Fort Changning, but paid gold and silver coins worth more than 1 Hanzhou silver dollars, which was indeed given by the Hanzhou people. Knocked a sum.In addition, the French also bought a lot of production and daily necessities, and spent an additional nearly [-] Hanzhou silver dollars.

Although the amount of this transaction is not large, it is the first formal trade act between an African trading company and a European country in several years, and it has taken a key step in colonization and management.
-
On November 11, Changning Fort regrouped more than two hundred armed men and sailed to Da'an Fort on two galleys to continue the expedition against the Bantu people that had not been carried out a few days ago.

The Bantu tribe who besieged Da'anbao a month ago failed to attack the city, but lost more than 200 people. After four days of siege, they dispersed and returned to the tribal camp.

The guard captain Feng Datian and his men had only rested in Da'an Fort for a day, and led the troops to go up the Changning River in a galley, rushing towards the nearest Bantu tribe.

At noon, the escort team arrived at the Bantu camp, and surrounded the camp before the natives could react.The armed guards held bayonet-mounted muskets, first fired two rounds of volleys, and then easily climbed over a simple wooden fence and rushed into the camp.

In less than an hour, the Bantu tribe was completely controlled by the trading company guards.More than [-] indigenous people were killed and wounded, more than [-] young and strong men, the elderly and weak, women and children were captured, more than [-] cattle and sheep, more than [-] poultry such as chickens and ducks, and more than [-] kilograms of grain such as sorghum and barley were seized.In addition, there are more than [-] pieces of various furs, more than ten pieces of ivory, and several tortoise shells and shells.

On November 11, the guard left more than a dozen people to guard the prisoners and seize them. They continued to go up to Shuo by boat, looking for another Bantu tribe and went straight there.

In the afternoon of the same day, the camp of the Bantu tribe was broken again, more than 180 indigenous people were killed and wounded, more than [-] were captured, and more than [-] cattle and sheep were seized.

In the following ten days, the guards attacked three Bantu tribes one after another, and almost wiped out the Bantu tribes within a radius of more than [-] kilometers around Da'anbao.As a result, the indigenous tribes farther away were terrified after hearing the news, and began to migrate deep inland one after another to avoid the advance of the Hanzhou people.

On December 12, two Dutch merchant ships from Persia sailed into the port of Fort Channing.

"You Hanzhou people have captured so many natives!" A Dutch businessman saw more than 500 Bantu captives in a temporary camp near the pier, and asked with great interest: "These people, you Is Hanzhou for sale to the outside world?"

(End of this chapter)