Some Chinese crew members have already gone ashore and are discussing supply issues with the Portuguese.
The sudden appearance of the Hindu rebel army scared the Portuguese and hid in the castle. The Chinese crew also retreated to the ship in an orderly manner under the cover of the army.
"Da da da da!"
Then hundreds of light cavalry appeared. These light cavalry were too light. Except for a few officers wearing armor, the rest of the soldiers were all wearing civilian clothes, but their skin color was relatively fair.
An Indian cavalry composed purely of landowners and yeoman farmers!
Chhatrapati Shivaji, who was only 24 years old, was not afraid of the Portuguese in the castle at all. He rode around the castle and came to the pier and asked: "Are you the Chinese envoy?"
This guy was speaking Marathi, and no one in the Chinese mission could understand him.
Shivaji rode his horse and ran to the castle again and shouted inside: "A man comes out, I will hire him as an interpreter!"
The Portuguese actually came out. After receiving the translation fee, they happily ran to contact the Chinese.
Zhang Ruifeng and Lu Tianxiang were both quite curious and felt that the leader of the Indian rebel army was very special, so they stood on the bow of the ship and talked to Shivaji through the air.
This guy introduced himself in an awesome way: "My name is Chhatrapati Shivaji, the resister of the Mughal bandits, the protector of all Hindus, and the leader of all Marathas. I am
It will eliminate all sultanates and let the glory of Hinduism shine throughout India. Chinese friends, I hope to do business with you and buy a thousand muskets from you!"
Zhang Ruifeng discussed with everyone and replied: "I am just an envoy of His Majesty the Emperor of China. I have no right to sell fire guns. But you are a great hero and the Chinese are willing to make friends with you. Therefore, we will give you a fire."
pistol!"
There are specially prepared "gift guns" on the ship, and they haven't finished delivering them all the way back and forth.
Of course it is a matchlock gun. The flintlock gun is not for sale. Part of the gun body is gold-plated and inlaid with rubies and sapphires. Even the matchlock is specially made.
After Shivaji got the musket, he suddenly smiled and said loudly: "Chinese friends, you have gained the friendship of the Hindus. When I eliminate the Mughal bandits, I will send an envoy to visit the Chinese emperor with gifts!"
"
"We are waiting for you, Your Excellency!" Zhang Ruifeng said with cupped hands.
Shivaji turned around and rode away. When he came to the place where Bijapur soldiers were surrounded, he ordered with a grin: "Kill them all and leave no one behind!"
The Chinese on the ship and the Portuguese in the castle immediately watched the Bijapur soldiers being slaughtered.
No one gets involved in this kind of internal fighting.
This guy Shivaji can definitely be called bold.
Later, he was encircled and suppressed by the troops led by the Mughal deputy king. He actually sneaked into the city with only a few cronies and carried out assassinations with his own hands. He stabbed the Mughal deputy king and killed the deputy king's son, but he was able to escape safely. Such behavior
, causing chaos in the Mughal army, and the Mughal deputy king also lost his mind. Shivaji successfully broke through with the main force in the subsequent battle.
He will be the founder of the Maratha Empire in India. At its peak, the country's territory almost unified northern India, and also occupied a large area in southern India, covering about half of the South Asian subcontinent (the Mughal Empire was
If it failed, we could only control an area as big as a palm). Later, due to internal fighting between descendants, the country was dismembered by the British East India Company during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty.
During the Mughal rule of Aurangzeb, the main enemy was Shivaji's Hindu religious army.
Until Aurangzeb's death, the Mughals were unable to eliminate Shivaji's power. In turn, Shivaji also collected protection fees from the Mughal Governor and used the protection fees to subsidize the finances and reduce agricultural taxes in the territory.
one third.
To use an analogy, it is like when Zhao Han occupied Jiangxi, he collected protection fees from the governors of Huguang, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Nanzhi in the Ming Dynasty...
“Long live Hinduism!”
Shivaji raised his exquisite musket and shouted, and his soldiers shouted in excitement, stripped off the enemy's armor as trophies, threw away the slaughtered corpses, and walked away.
The rebels left and the battle was over. The Chinese fleet did not have to leave, so they disembarked one after another and began to replenish supplies.
Taking advantage of the supplies, Prince Charles disembarked with the two teenagers.
He strolled to the Portuguese castle, handed him a cigar, and said in Portuguese: "Hello, my name is Charles."
The Portuguese soldier happily took the cigar and puffed away quickly: "My name is Santos."
"How long have you been in India?" Charles asked.
Santos smiled and said: "You should ask my grandfather how long he has been in India."
Charles pointed in the direction where the rebels left: "Is that guy famous in India?"
Santos shook his head: "He is not famous, but he suddenly launched an army to rebel. The Sultan of Bijapur gathered a large army to encircle and suppress him, but he could not catch his shadow. When he went to the east to encircle and suppress him, he ran to the west; when he went to the south to encircle and suppress him, he ran to the west.
In the north, the number of rebels is increasing. Everywhere they go, local Hindus will spontaneously join his army. At first, I heard that there were only a few hundred people, but now it is estimated that there are thousands, and maybe even more than 10,000.
people."
Charles was fascinated by what he heard and already regarded Shivaji as his idol.
He also wanted to take hundreds of people to fight back to England, and then the troops would fight more and more, and push Cromwell into the toilet and drown him!
The reason why Shivaji was able to grow strong was not only his bravery and perseverance, but also the general outbreak of religious and ethnic conflicts in India. He was born in the Maratha ethnic group, which belongs to the Indo-European race and is mostly the third and fourth castes.
They are mainly religious and their occupations are low-level officers, soldiers, landlords and farmers. This kind of religious and ethnic composition is a natural rebel group!
Shivaji led his troops to flee, and the Marathas joined the army enthusiastically. The situation was not good for Charles. If he returned to England to raise troops, the gentry would beat him to pieces.
While Charles was inquiring about the situation, the officers in the Chinese mission also approached the Portuguese to learn about the situation.
The rise of Shivaji is important news and must be included in the work report.
During the few days when they docked for supplies, Prince Charles got along very well in the castle. Everyone from civil servants to ordinary soldiers liked to deal with him, and some Portuguese even took him to visit the brothels.
This guy likes to do things, and he actually led more than a dozen Portuguese soldiers on horseback for twenty miles to experience the local customs of India. By the way, he rescued an Indian girl and came back...
The father of the Indian girl was, at best, a prince from a local state, but at worst, he only had a large territory. Because he converted to green religion, he was killed by the rebel army. The girl, whose family was ruined, fainted from hunger on the roadside.
He was almost gang-raped by a group of untouchables, but was rescued by Prince Charles.
The fleet set sail again, and Charles was so proud that he told everyone about his chivalrous act.
Another day, a boring journey at sea.
Charles found Fan Chao: "General, I heard from those sailors that you started an army with His Majesty the Emperor of China very early?"
This matter tickled Fan Chao, and he immediately laughed and said: "Among the Conglong heroes of the Datong imperial court, although I am not the earliest to follow your Majesty, I can still be regarded as a distinguished veteran. When your Majesty occupied Zhangshu Town, I took him with me
The warships defected, fighting from south to north, from east to west, and made countless military exploits, large and small."
"Are all those legends about His Majesty the Emperor true?" Charles asked curiously.
"What legend?" Fan Chao asked.
Charles said: "In the decisive battle at Zhangshu Town, the number of government troops was several times that of the rebels. At the most dangerous time, His Majesty the Emperor went into battle wearing armor, leading a hundred knights, and defeated twenty times the number of enemies."
Fan Chao wanted to roll his eyes when he heard this. At that time, the Datong Army only had a few war horses, and they were all used as sentries. Where did the cavalry come from?
"Who did you listen to?" Fan Chao asked.
Charles replied: "That's what the Chinese sailors on the ship said."
Fan Chao couldn't help but laugh and nodded: "That's it. Your Majesty goes to war with one for a thousand. No matter how many Ming troops come, it will be useless."
"His Majesty the Emperor is so brave!" Charles actually believed it and thought of Cromwell.
Cromwell's starting capital was 60 cavalry.
Sixty squire cavalry, some were country knights and some were wealthy farmers. They brought their own horses and weapons and followed Cromwell from life to death. Their fighting will and fighting discipline far exceeded the king's cavalry troops. Cromwell's later
The cavalry unit has these sixty cavalry as its backbone, and all its members are from the gentry class.
As for Cromwell's infantry, it was composed of workers, apprentices and citizens.
They are all emerging classes, fighting for their own interests, and their morale is extremely high when fighting. They don't even need to pay military pay, they only need to take care of food.
Charles continued to inquire about the heroic achievements of the Datong Army, and Fan Chao began to brag randomly, finally bringing up the Battle of Nanjing: "The previous Ming Dynasty had four capitals. One was in Beijing, the second was in Nanjing, the third was in Fengyang, and the fourth was in Zhongxiang. Nanjing
It is the capital city second only to Beijing, and it is also the capital city of my Datong court. The city wall of Nanjing is tall and strong, and there are tens of thousands of defenders inside. I only have more than a dozen warships and hundreds of sailors... When the war begins,
I took off my clothes and didn't bother to put on my armor. I opened the city gate inside and braved the rain of arrows to kill seven in and seven out..."
The translator had a strange look on his face, and Charles was stunned as he listened, always feeling that something was wrong.
Although this prince was smart, he had never really fought in a war. For a while, he didn't know whether what Fan Chao said was true or false, but no matter what, it was true that General Fan in front of him led his troops to capture the capital of China.
Returning to his cabin, Charles called two country boys.
"I have inquired about the War School in China," Charles said. "When you arrive in Nanjing, you will go to the War School with me to study. I will pay for the tuition. You must learn how to fight!"
Charles was not short of money. Before leaving Europe, he got a lot of money from the big nobles. Of course, it can be said that the big nobles invested in him.
After three years and nine months, the Chinese envoy fleet finally returned to Malacca.
Continuing eastward, we docked at Bintong Long (Champa) for supplies and discovered that there was a war going on in the north - the Chinese army officially sent troops to the Vietnamese Nguyen clan.
