1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 818 Shanghai?

On September 1666, 9, Jinmen Fort.

Hearing noisy footsteps coming from the door, Ahmed I, the leader of the Baluchi people and the founder of the nascent Karat Khanate, was startled and looked towards the door with some trepidation.

Since he was captured yesterday, until now, he has not recalled it.A few months ago, they expelled the governor and supervisor sent by the Mughal Empire, drove away their army, and then took advantage of the situation to establish the Karat Khanate, and he also became the founding king of this Khanate.At that time, what a wanton life it was, looking forward to being a hero.And a few days ago, leading an elite army of more than [-] people, they came to slaughter the Jinmen Fort built by the Qi people. They thought it would be easy to capture.

However, the cunning Qi people set up a trap carefully. They actually ambushed more than [-] troops here, and launched a surprise attack when they were exhausted and weakest.Although his own retreat was decisive and quick, he did not expect that there were more than [-] cavalry from the people of Qi, and when they thought they were about to escape, they suddenly rushed out.

The more than 400 cavalry who escaped were already exhausted and exhausted. How could they be the opponents of these Maratha cavalry who were waiting for work.Less than a quarter of an hour after the fight, half of the cavalry were knocked off their horses by the opponent.The golden armor of Ahmed I immediately attracted the attention of more than a dozen Maratha cavalry. After some chasing and interception, poor Ahmed I was finally captured alive by the opponent.Then, he was taken to Jinmen Fort.

At this time, the situation changed too quickly. Yesterday, he was the leader of all the Baluchi people, the Khan of the great Karat Khanate, but today, he has become a prisoner of the Qi people.He didn't know what his next fate would be.Was he hanged on the top of the city by the opponent, or was he beheaded for public display, or was he imprisoned by them until he died?
As for the expectation of being released and returning to Khuzdal again, he only thought about it occasionally and thought it was too unrealistic.If it were him, it would be natural to humiliate the captured enemies first, and then slowly torture them to death.In this way, one's enemies will feel fear and pain, and they will not dare to disobey their wishes in the future.

"Bang Dang!" With a sound, the door was roughly pushed open, and seven or eight Qi army officers and soldiers broke in, and then stood at the door, looking coldly at Ahmed I in the corner.

Here they come, they are finally here!
They are coming to kill themselves!

Although he had made full preparations, at this moment, Ahmed I suddenly felt endless fear and panic.He tried hard to stand up, showing the dignity and temperament that a Khan should have.But his legs and feet trembled uncontrollably, and he just continued to sit on the wooden chair, clenched his teeth, raised his head, and stared fiercely at the other party.

"It's quite tough!" Luo Shouxun turned his head and said with a smile to the accompanying officers, "Is such a single-minded guy really our best choice?"

"General, if he was really stubborn, he should have fought and died yesterday afternoon, instead of being captured alive by the Maratha cavalry." A black guard officer glanced at Ahmed I's bluffing appearance , said disdainfully.

In other words, in the past 20 years, Qi State has also captured many monarchs and sultans of the Tubang Kingdom, but it has not encountered a single one who is stubborn. , Generally, they borrowed the donkey from the slope, and agreed to various requests and arrangements of Qi State.

"Since that's the case, then you should be more agile. Get things done while our expeditionary fleet is resting here." Luo Shouxun said, "By the way, he is the monarch of a new Khanate, so we should give him some dignity. "

"Yes, General!" The black-clothed guard officer immediately promised respectfully.

"Also, the Baluchi claim that Jinmen Fort belongs to them, so you must re-establish the legal status of this stronghold with him. Well, it is best to cede it to our Qi State permanently. You know, The location of Jinmen Fort is extremely important, and it is the sea port connecting Persia and Arabia in the Indian region, and our navy must completely control it.”

"Yes, General!"

Luo Shouxun took a deep look at that Ahmed I, then turned and left the room.

"Your Majesty the king, do you want to die? Or do you want to achieve great things with our help?"

Ahmed I was feeling at a loss as he watched a group of military officers from the Qi State come and leave in a hurry, when these few questions suddenly came to his ears.

When a local Baluchi person translated those words to him, Ahmed I turned his head and looked at the interpreter with some puzzlement.

"Tell him, if you want to die, we can fulfill him. You can cut him with a knife, or hang him with a rope." The black-clothed guard officer said slowly: "If you don't want to die, we can do it." Let’s talk about cooperation.”

"Cooperation?...how to cooperate?"

"For example, do you want to acquire more advanced weapons? Or, do you want to expand your territory a little bit? Even, you can develop greater ambitions and turn your Karat Khanate into a vast huge empire?"

"You..., what do you mean?" Ahmed I widened his eyes, with an incredulous expression on his face.

"Cooperation!" The black-clothed guard officer said with a smile: "Our country of Qi can support you Baluchi people and help you build a strong and prosperous country."

"What do you want...?"

"What do we want? Naturally, through the gradual expansion of your Karat Khanate, our Qi State's commercial interests will expand accordingly!" The black-clothed guard officer said as a matter of course: "You go to conquer, kill, and destroy , is a relatively good way of life. But you can’t do business and construction. Therefore, the cooperation between us can be said to be a match made in heaven!”

"Do you want us Baluchi to become puppets of your Qi people, or to be a mercenary to charge for you?"

"No, you are not our puppets, let alone our mercenaries. We are partners in cooperation with each other. We will not interfere with the internal management of your Baluchi people, let alone dictate to you when marching and fighting .Of course, when you make a request to us, we will provide a little technical guidance."

After hearing this, Ahmed I was silent for a while, but he was thinking rapidly in his mind, if he agreed to cooperate with the people of Qi, what would it mean to the Baloch people.
-
October 10, Bombay Island.

Sviraj Patil watched the Maratha cavalry coming out of the boat, and kept hugging and kissing the companions who came to greet him, celebrating his safe return to India.He just counted roughly and found that there were a total of 400 Maratha cavalry surviving, which surprised him greatly.

You know, when Qi State came to rent cavalry last year, because it was a long-distance sea attack, the number required was not much, only 3 cavalry, and Qi State paid [-] yuan of Hanzhou silver dollars and some ordnance for this.From the point of view of the Maratha people, after crossing thousands of miles of waves and fighting against the famous Mamluk cavalry in the desert of Egypt, the [-] cavalry may have to be lost on the land of Egypt in the end.

Therefore, the Maratha people had already regarded the five hundred cavalry as consumables at that time, and contributed their greatest sincerity to the expedition of the Qi people, so that they could exchange more military supplies from the Qi people in the future.

But I never expected that these cavalry came back with 400 people in one piece, and only lost less than one hundred!This made the Maratha defenders stationed in Mumbai couldn't help being amazed, and warmly hugged these companions who had survived the near death.

These returning Maratha cavalry seemed to have gained a lot, carrying a lot of spoils one by one, and in addition, there were various combat subsidies issued to them by the Qi State, which made each of them very happy. Accumulated a small fortune.

Not to mention, in the future when the people of Qi will hire them to fight in wars, they must actively apply for it.I heard that not only is there not much danger in the course of the battle, but the capture and rewards are quite rich.

"Your General Sivaji is not in Mumbai? Where is he now?" asked an intelligence staff officer. "Our expeditionary task force commander, General Law, would like to meet him."

"Our general is not in Mumbai." Sviraj Patil said with a wry smile. "Besides, he is not in the Deccan. He has gone to Agra."

"Your General Sivaji went to Agra?" The intelligence staff officer's eyes widened: "Your general was... captured by the Mughals?"

"The Mughals are often defeated by us. How could our great General Sivaji be caught by them?" Sviraj Patil said disdainfully: "The emperor of the Mughals was defeated by us." Losing their temper, they can only submit to us. They agreed to give us Marathas more autonomy, and at the same time, they will no longer deliberately suppress and discriminate against our religious beliefs. Therefore, our generals went to Agra to meet with O Langzeb, accept their official appointment."

In June of this year, as an appeasement to Sivaji, Emperor Aurangzeb of the Mughal Empire bestowed Sivaji with the rank of 5000 mansabu (the name of the official rank of the Mughal Empire), and his brother was also given same grade.

However, the bottom line for Sivaji to be recruited is 7000 mansab.In fact, when Akbar created the 33-level Mandasapur system, the 5000-level was extremely high (at the time, the 1000, 7000, and 8000 levels were originally reserved for the three adult princes. ).However, as the empire continued to expand, the grades became more and more imaginary. Theoretically, 10 mansabs represent the standard for arming ten cavalry that conforms to the basic law of the empire (and so on).In fact, during the Aurangzeb era, it seemed that the total number of ranks had increased by leaps and bounds, but the actual number of troops that the nobles could arm was only 1/5, 1/3, or even less than the number of ranks.

Therefore, Sivaji was a little dissatisfied, feeling insulted by the Mughals, in the palace hall, he looked up to the sky and went out laughing.In fact, as soon as he walked out of the court, he was immediately imprisoned in a house in Agra, and he would be beheaded by the furious Aurangzeb at any time.

In fact, Aurangzeb gave Shivaji a grade of 7000 or even higher, which is not impossible due to his majesty, and there are even precedents.However, it may be that in the eyes of the rulers of the imperial religion represented by Aurangzeb, Sivaji is just a "rebellious Indian boy", so why can he obtain such a high status.Now that the beast has been caged, what if there is no more dissatisfaction?

"You have been recruited by the Mughals now, so what will you do with this Mumbai Island in the future?" Luo Shouxun heard that these rebellious Maratha people were subdued by the Mughals, and glanced at the black man who followed. Ding Dezong, the officer of the Yiwei, couldn't help shaking his head slightly.

Well, the rebel forces of the Mughal Empire that you black guards want to support vigorously, turned around and accepted the imperial court's offer after making a big splash.If that General Sivaji revealed the collusion between you black guards and them, wouldn't the Mughals secretly hate us Qi people?

"You Qi people want this island?" Sviraj Patil understood the other party's subtext and asked directly.

"That's right!" Luo Shouxun nodded and said, "With a little construction, this Bombay Island and a few nearby islands can become a rare deep-water port on the west coast of India, which can be used by warships and merchant ships coming and going from Qi State. Mughal The sons don't have a decent big ship, if you hand it over to them, it will be abandoned by then."

I heard that the king felt very sorry when the Portuguese gave Mumbai to the British as a dowry.Two years ago, the Black Guards stationed in India encouraged the Marathas to attack Mumbai and drive out the British.Now that the Maratha people have accepted the offer of the Mughal Empire, can they take these small islands into their pockets first, so as not to cause any trouble.

"How much are you Qi people willing to pay?" Sviraj Patil asked.

The seven small islands, including Mumbai, are actually of little value to the Maratha people who have always been guerrilla transfers, especially since they have no sea power in their hands, they are easily blocked and besieged.If it weren't for the frequent supply of goods and supplies from Qi State merchant ships, they would not be able to defend these small islands at all.

That being the case, if the people of Qi want these islands, they might as well sell them for a good price, so that many brothers guarding the islands can get some benefits.In addition, they didn't dare to offend the people of Qi country easily. In case, when they are needed again in the future, they can still show some affection, right?
In the end, the Indian trading company came forward and bought all seven small islands including Mumbai at the price of 1 Hanzhou silver dollars.In a blink of an eye, the more than [-] Maratha defenders on the island became the hired guards of the Indian trading company, temporarily helping the people of Qi to defend the place.

From Luo Shouxun’s point of view, Qi State already has two important sea bases on the west coast of India, Jinmen Fort and Anfeng Fort (now Cochin City in southwest India), and there is one more Mumbai, and there are still seven broken outlying islands. Some tasteless.But who made Dawang prefer this place?It is also convincing to say that after a lot of vigorous construction, this place will definitely become the brightest pearl in India in the future.

In the end, when a shopkeeper of the Indian trading company flattered Luo Shouxun to rename the place, he immediately blurted out a rather unexpected name.

"Shanghai."

"Shanghai? The Shanghai County of Daming Songjiang Mansion?"

"Yes, Shanghai. A new Shanghai in India."

(End of this chapter)