If anything was different on the way back, it was that there was an additional supply station near the Cape of Good Hope.
This poor place was occupied by the Dutch, and the man in charge was named Van Riebeeck. He was thrown here with a boat. At first, he had to farm the land himself. After he reluctantly settled down, he quickly went to the nearby area to grab black people to help. Now he is even opening
Diversion canals have been dug.
Black people are so stupid that they can only work as free labor at the bottom. If we want to develop into a port city, we need more Asians.
Van Riebeeck has already written to the Governor of Batavia, asking him to exile a group of Javanese natives. If nothing happens, hundreds of Javanese will be sentenced to death for heinous crimes next year. The Governor will be merciful and change it to exile.
Cape Town.
Cape Town is right in front of you.
At this time, it was not even a village, just a group of Dutchmen who were like exiles, whipping black slaves to work there all day long. Due to supply difficulties and food being unable to be self-sufficient, black slaves did not dare to catch too many, and they were in tatters anyway.
A rotten little seaside village.
Who could have imagined that it would eventually become the capital of a country?
The Cape of Good Hope is still so terrifying. Warm currents and cold currents meet here, and the hydrological environment in the sea is extremely complex. Strong westerly jets blow across the Atlantic Ocean without any obstruction, and there are constant storms and rough seas all year round.
Occasionally, you will encounter killer waves, which can reach a height of 20 meters and can carry people and boats to the sky.
Therefore, in order to avoid the killing waves, the ships that come and go will basically not choose to cross the Cape of Good Hope in winter. In the Cape of Good Hope in winter, the sea water seems to be boiled, the killing waves and the rotating waves are superimposed, and the entire sea surface is surging crazily.
Moving and rolling.
At the beginning of the great voyage, people were not familiar with the Cape of Good Hope, but now they have gradually figured out the situation.
Of course, it also depends on the face.
For example, the famous navigator Diaz went there in the relatively safe summer, but encountered strong winds and waves. He was lucky enough to be pushed to the shore and survived. His return voyage was in late winter, which was the most dangerous season at the Cape of Good Hope. As a result,
What greeted him was sunny weather. More than ten years later, Dias finally died at the Cape of Good Hope. The entire fleet was annihilated by the murderous waves, and he chose the most suitable season.
The Chinese fleet was very lucky at this time. The largest wave in the nearby sea was only four or five meters high, which was very suitable for crossing the Cape of Good Hope.
"Wow!"
John, a young British country boy, and his friend Thomas, grabbed the cable and cheered.
These two guys may have lower backgrounds and do not have the arrogance of the British.
On the contrary, be diligent and simple, and work hard.
After boarding the ship, they asked to be sailors. Of course they were not serious sailors, so they just helped wash the deck. It was a monotonous and tiring job, but the two teenagers were very happy to do it.
Another wave came, lifting the ship several meters high. The strong west wind was blowing, and it was impossible to stand firmly on the deck without grabbing something.
Water kept falling from the sky, and I couldn't tell whether it was rain or falling sea water.
John was soaked to the skin, looked up at the dark cloudy sky, and exclaimed: "It's so spectacular. If you stay in the UK, you will never see such a scene!"
In Thomas' ears, there was only the sound of wind and waves, and he roared and asked: "What did you say?"
"Lower the sails, lower all the jibsails!"
The leader among the sailors shouted hoarsely and made gestures.
After a lot of tossing, it finally passed safely.
Prince Charles is also on the deck. He likes excitement and adventure, and also likes to learn various basic skills. It is estimated that he will already be a qualified sailor by the time he arrives in China.
"Your Majesty the King!"
The two country boys quickly saluted Charles.
Prince Charles was crowned king by the Scottish nobles after his father was executed.
Not the King of England, but the King of Scotland!
Charles' excitement was not over yet, but at the same time he felt lingering fear. He smiled and said: "This is the Cape of Good Hope. People can never conquer it."
Thomas immediately flattered him: "Your Majesty is brave and fearless and can conquer everything!"
Charles smiled and said: "If I can conquer England, I will appoint you as my captain of the guard."
Thomas said happily: "I will swear allegiance to His Majesty to the death!"
The situation is ridiculous. The two London country boys belong to the emerging squire class in England. It was these squires who overthrew the rule of the old king and killed the old king.
But after they came into contact with Prince Charles, they immediately chose to deliberately curry favor with him. Regardless of the outcome in the future, knowing the exiled prince was not a bad thing after all. If you are not careful, you can still be a hero.
Of course, Charles also has his own charisma, and he can easily impress two country boys.
On the other hand, Cromwell's eldest son, also named Charles (Charlie Cromwell), was a man of good fortune, with extremely mediocre military and political abilities. Historically, he did succeed the Lord Protector in order to obtain parliament
Even with the support of the Parliament, it failed to survive for a year. Revolts broke out among the army and the people, which scared the Parliament and quickly restored the monarchy.
Prince Charles, who had gone through many hardships, was later invited back to England to restore his country, and his methods of governing the country were nothing short of sophisticated.
The first thing after the coronation was to pardon the original rebels. Only nine of the guys who signed his father's death warrant were killed. The rest of the rebels and nobles were all forgiven!
Then, it also protected all property acquired by the nobility and gentry class during the rebellion.
Then unite the parliament, let the parliament have financial power, and accidentally reform the tax farming system into a more advanced parliamentary financial system.
The British Glorious Revolution later deepened this fiscal reform and completely laid the economic foundation for the rise of Britain. After the tax reform, the total tax revenue in the UK tripled, but the people cheered because the tax burden was greatly reduced - in
Before the reform, there were middlemen who earned the price difference, and all the money went into the pockets of tax-paying merchants.
Even the royal land and properties that were auctioned by the rebels, Charles did not bother to take back, which made countless people grateful to him.
Finally, he used the excuse of Catholic rebellion to completely expel the Catholics in the Parliament, winning the loyal support of the majority of Protestants.
The great nobles, squires, citizens, yeoman farmers, churches...all classes in the UK all agreed that Charles was a wise monarch!
There were many things that Cromwell could not do in his life, but Charles could do them while talking and laughing.
However, Charles's title is still the "Happy King" after all. After the situation stabilized, he became careless again, only appearing tough and strategic in foreign wars.
"Come here and help hoist the sail!" shouted a Chinese sailor.
"coming!"
Prince Charles responded quickly and ran over happily, and two country boys also rushed to help.
The fleet sailed around the southern tip of the African continent and arrived in East Africa without any danger.
On the island of Madagascar, a group of Chinese soldiers nominally owned an area as large as Taiwan. However, they still missed the returning fleet. The fleet was advancing along the coastline. If it were not to avoid wind and waves, it would generally not be on the west coast of Madagascar.
Stop.
Continue sailing north and visit Said of Oman again.
About a hundred date palm saplings were planted in wooden barrels and all moved to the Chinese ship.
This stuff is so sweet, as sweet as diabetes.
But ancient people would not dislike it. Sugar is a luxury product, and the sweeter it is, the better. Moreover, dates can even be used as a staple food. The trunks, branches, and leaves all have economic value.
When they arrived, Said entertained the Chinese envoys with dates.
Zhang Ruifeng and others were so impressed by the date palm that they immediately bought a lot of seeds and placed an order for 150 date palm saplings.
This thing is resistant to high temperatures, flooding, drought, and salt-alkali, and can be planted on hillsides, seasides, and deserts. Unfortunately, it is not resistant to severe cold. It will freeze to death if it falls below minus 10 degrees. Otherwise, it can be planted in the Hetao Desert.
As he watched the date palm saplings board the ship, Said pointed to the accompanying Portuguese ship and said, "Mr. Chinese envoy, why are you with the Portuguese?"
Zhang Ruifeng explained: "This is a Portuguese diplomatic ship. The King of Portugal sent an envoy to visit His Majesty the Emperor of our country."
Said did not hold on any longer and said: "While you were away, I captured another Portuguese castle. I also annexed the entire northern plain. Now I have sufficient financial resources and want to make an order in China."
Make ten warships. Of course, I will order five first. If I am satisfied, I will pay to build the rest."
"There is no problem with this. As long as we have money, everything is easy." Zhang Ruifeng was very happy. After all, he had secured a large order for the shipyard.
Said had no choice. Although the Arabs were good at building ships, their naval warfare performance was far from adequate, and there was also a serious lack of large-caliber artillery. After conquering the pirates, these Arabs took the initiative to go to the coast of India and rob Portuguese merchant ships. As a result, they were captured by the Portuguese.
Gather the fleet and beat them up.
In desperation, Said came up with an idea and paid the Chinese to build warships.
Of course, Zhao Han is willing to accept foreign orders, but the quality cannot be guaranteed. Don't even think about giant trees that are hundreds of years old, and it is impossible to brew the wood for ten years.
If he did not ask China to help him build ships, Said would have to slowly save money on his own, and it would take decades to finally build a fleet. By then, he would become the overlord of the Indian Ocean and beat the Portuguese merchant ships around.
.
When leaving Oman, there were thirty more Arabs on board the Chinese envoy's fleet. These guys were bringing money to the Chinese shipyard.
The next stop is at Passain Port in India.
This is the territory of the Bijapur Kingdom. On the surface, it recognizes the status of the Mughal suzerainty, but secretly it keeps making small moves.
In this country, a Hindu youth in his 20s was raising troops to resist the Mughals and Bijapur.
A young master from a small Hindu lord, who was only a mid-level officer, dared to resist two big countries at the same time. And his team continued to grow. In another year, he even attacked four countries at the same time and moved repeatedly across the borders of the four countries.
A few years later, the results of the war continued to expand. The commander of the Bijapur Kingdom was killed, the son of the Mughal deputy king was killed, the Mughal coastal city of Surat was captured, and the Mughal army was forced to withdraw from the Deccan Plateau.
During this period, the young man was ordered to live by the Mughals, who ceded 23 castles and large tracts of land in exchange for recognition of the status of the Mughal dynasty. However, the Mughal emperor went against his promise and wanted to trap him. The young man successfully escaped and then followed the Mughals.
They fought for more than thirty years, causing the Mughal finances to completely collapse, and finally established their own country.
This young man, Jatparati Shivaji, would be known as the "Father of the Indian Navy" hundreds of years later.
When the Chinese fleet docked, Shivaji was leading his troops to fight over them.
A group of well-equipped Bijapur soldiers were killed by ragged Hindu rebels and fled to a Portuguese castle to seek asylum.
"There's a war, there's a war here!" Prince Charles shouted excitedly.
Lu Tianxiang had lost interest in fighting and said: "This country is in war. We don't need supplies for the time being. We should go to the south to choose a safer port."