The climate of this archipelago is very comfortable, and the six second-generation officials stayed there for half a month, until the treasure-hunting trio began to urge them to board the ship.
The tropics don't necessarily mean extremely hot.
The temperature in the Andaman Islands is very stable throughout the year, ranging from about 25 degrees to 32 degrees, and basically does not exceed this range. The temperature in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is similar, with the temperature ranging from 21 degrees to 32 degrees.
On this departure, there were more than a dozen ships accompanying us, all of which were merchant ships from South India.
Since the Ming Dynasty established a port in the Andaman Islands, more and more merchant ships from various countries have come here. The merchants also suggested that Lin Riyan open a ship repair yard, because crossing the Bay of Bengal may encounter storms, and having a ship repair yard will make navigation easier.
convenient.
The fleet approached Ceylon without any danger. The South Indian merchant ships did not enter the port, but sailed to the port of the Chola Dynasty further west.
"This port used to be called Taiman, but now it is called Wangxiang," Wang Chongdu said, pointing to the port in front. "When the envoys of the Ming Dynasty returned from Seljuk, they encountered a rebellion by the nobles of the Ceylon State to establish themselves. The envoys of the Ming Dynasty helped the prince of Ceylon recover.
After the kingdom was established, the prince presented Taiman Port to the Ming Dynasty."
Bai Shihou pursed his lips and smiled. What he heard was not this version of the story.
Wang Chongdu continued: "It is too far here. The imperial court only appointed one governor. After collecting commercial taxes to recover the cost, it did not send a second governor. There is only one commander on the island, and it is nominally under the control of the imperial court, but in fact it has been left alone.
.”
"Leave it alone?" Lu You asked in surprise.
"Ceylon is too far away and cannot be managed for the time being," Wang Chongdu said. "There are five hundred soldiers on the island. They are all criminals who were exiled to Salmon Island in the former Song Dynasty. One or two of them were so hungry that they ate people when the dynasty changed. The commander is
The leaders of these soldiers, the Guangzhou Navy sends ships to deliver some supplies every year, and then gets back some commercial taxes, and trades there by the way."
Bai Shihou asked: "What supplies will Guangzhou send?"
Wang Chongdu said: "Swords, armor, crossbows, and gunpowder. The five hundred soldiers had dozens of muskets, and four artillery pieces were left with them. They need to rely on Guangzhou for maintenance and replenishment. When will they not need help from their mother country?
If you do, I guess you won’t be obedient anymore, and it will become more and more difficult to share profits from the port’s commercial taxes.”
Even in the age of sailing ships, the cost of maintaining an ultra-long-distance colony was often beyond one's means, so Ju Ming really never thought of colonizing Ceylon.
Too far!
If you really want to colonize here, you will also directly colonize India. The main purpose is to obtain cheap raw materials and dumping markets.
In another time and space, the Netherlands was all losing money during its heyday. The Dutch West India Company had been operating poorly and relied on blood transfusions from the East India Company to survive. The Dutch East India Company also suffered losses on its books for hundreds of years, and finally had to declare bankruptcy -
—The major shareholders of the East India Company made a lot of money. They even paid dividends first and then calculated the company's profits and losses.
The main costs of Dutch colonization were official corruption and military expenditures. Those accounts are not clear at all.
The colonial activities of Spain and Portugal destroyed all the local industry, agriculture and commerce in their own countries! They only enriched the king, the nobles and some businessmen.
We still have to rely on local manufacturing to colonize like Britain did.
Ju Ming's plan was to use both British and French models.
Play the French model in Southeast Asia and Nanyang, slowly and painstakingly manage and educate the indigenous people, and replicate the Chinese culture and system.
In further areas, such as India and Bangladesh, the British method was adopted. A small number of troops were sent to instigate locals to fight against each other, destroy their local handicrafts, plunder cheap raw materials and food, and at the same time dump Chinese goods there.
As for the Americas, I have not considered it for the time being, because there is no need to look far away from the near.
…
Before the fleet officially entered Wangxiang Port, a large number of merchant ships were seen docked in the port.
Some Arab, Egyptian and Seljuk merchants did not sail to Sriwijaya or China. In the past, they obtained goods from South India and then transported them back to their own country for sale. Now, there are also a large number of Chinese goods in Ceylon's Wangxiang Port.
So they walked an extra distance to Ceylon to purchase goods.
Merchants from the Ming Dynasty and Srivijaya were also willing to transport their goods to Ceylon, with the majority being Srivijaya merchants.
Now that Srivijaya has destroyed the country and split into a lot of small states. In addition to the former tributary states of Srivijaya, more and more Nanyang merchants will transport Eastern goods to Ceylon for resale in the future.
Wangxiang Port will definitely become more prosperous!
The richer and more prosperous this place became, the less the five hundred soldiers dared to leave China. Not to mention the indigenous forces in Ceylon, there was also the Chola dynasty of South India next door, who was eyeing it.
Once they break away from China and are no longer protected by China, it will be impossible to stop the endless attacks of the Chola army.
After all, their population is too small.
"The Ming Dynasty ships are coming, everyone, get out of the way and free up the inner berths over there!"
A small guided ship came straight to Wang Chongdu.
It is estimated that they have discovered that this is a Chinese gunboat, so they gave it special treatment. They even drove away the merchant ships that had docked to free up the best berth for Wang Chongdu to dock.
The merchant ship that was driven away did not dare to say anything and just moved to a more remote berth.
Not long after, Wangxiang Port Commander Xia Yuqing came to greet him in person and was extremely surprised to find that it was not a warship.
He inquired carefully and found out that Wang Chongdu and the others were sea explorers supported by Emperor Zhu, and they had also brought six second-generation super officials.
Everyone was welcomed to the official residence left by the governor, and along the way they found that the city was particularly lively.
No outer city walls were built.
The two castles face each other across the river, forming an angle.
Surrounding the main castle is the city, which is somewhat similar to a Japanese castle town.
There are a variety of ethnic groups living in the city, from Egypt to Southeast Asia.
Seljuk merchants, in particular, have chosen to immigrate more and more in recent years.
Since Sultan Sanjar was defeated and returned from the war, the subject countries have fought for independence one after another, and the internal separatist forces have become stronger. There were constant wars among the lords. In order to regain his strength, Sanjar also frantically levied agricultural and commercial taxes.
As a result, many Seljuk merchants chose Cunning Rabbit Three Cave.
They have left properties in their own country, and sent tribesmen to buy properties overseas. If there is any trouble, the whole family will run away.
Wangxiang Port in Ceylon has also become one of their immigration destinations.
In addition, there are merchants along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, which are now ruled by several large families. There is no country, and the form of government is family tribes, and the exploitation of merchants who are not from the tribe is extremely heavy.
Therefore, many Arab businessmen, after making money through sea trade, choose to stay overseas for a long time, and some even stay in Guangdong and Fujian.
"This used to be the governor's palace," Xia Yuqing led them into a building in the castle. "Later the governor resigned and the court didn't send him again, so I moved in here. There are many rooms, although they are not as good as in China, but in Xi
Lan is not bad, you nobles, I will make do with it for a moment."
"It's okay." Lu You smiled.
As he spoke, Bai Shihou walked into the lobby and pointed to the map hanging on the wall: "Is this Ceylon?"
Xia Yuqing nodded and said: "That's the map of Ceylon. At the beginning, we only had a small area around Wangxiang Port. Now it has been conquered, one hundred and fifty miles to the south and ninety miles to the east.
, eighty miles to the north, all is our territory."
Fan Chengda joked: "Commander Xia can also be called Bailihou."
"I don't own it alone," Xia Yuqing waved his hand. "There were five hundred soldiers left at that time. In the past few years, only one person died in battle, but six died of illness. All the land gained was divided among the brothers.
Even the deceased have a share, having already taken in their wives and children. For those who have no heirs, they also adopt young children to pass on the incense to them."
After saying that, Xia Yuqing sighed again: "The land is still not big enough. Excluding those mountainous areas that are difficult to cultivate, the average person only has two to three thousand acres of land. Fortunately, the commercial tax at the port is not bad, and we can barely get by."
Barely getting by?
Is this really human language?
This is not like Monkey Harbor, which requires hard work to reclaim land from scratch. Agriculture on Ceylon Island is very developed, and even terraced fields have appeared, as well as many water conservancy facilities. Even though some water conservancy facilities have been abandoned due to long-term wars, they are relatively easy to repair.
It’s simple, just organize the indigenous construction work directly.
On average, each person has two to three thousand acres of land, so you are all big landowners, right?
Moreover, the land is definitely not divided equally. Soldiers with higher official positions and more meritorious service can get more shares. For example, Xia Yuqing himself has a total of 7,000 acres of land. He does not need to work by himself. The local indigenous people are all his tenants. Anyone who dares to resist
Even the corpse has weathered.
Xia Yuqing not only brought his wife and children, but also relatives from his hometown, asking his wife and relatives to help manage the land.
Of course, only the first five hundred soldiers were eligible to obtain land through expansion.
Their family members, relatives or fellow villagers can purchase land or receive land as gifts, but they can only purchase or give land from 500 soldiers.
Very deformed Tian Zheng!
It is equivalent to five hundred nobles, who are working together to expand continuously. These people are all original shareholders.
After that, even if they are relatives, they can only be considered as minority shareholders after the company goes public.
These guys also select the more obedient natives in their respective jurisdictions and issue them with leather armor and simple weapons as retinues. They do not pay military salaries at ordinary times, they just take care of food, but they will reduce the land rent for the retinues' families, and they will also be given an additional departure fee during wars.
.Followers can also receive rewards for their meritorious service, but the land rewards are given to their masters. Whether they should be given the land depends on the master's wishes.
Xia Yuqing recruited fifty followers, which were regarded as his personal guards.
Qi Qi'an asked: "If you continue to expand like this, won't the indigenous forces on the island jointly send troops?"
Xia Yuqing smiled and said: "The nobles on the island are fighting among themselves. Moreover, we are not expanding fast. It took several years to build a larger territory. Only the barbarian chief in the north is more troublesome. He was the one who killed the king in the first place.
To usurp the throne and establish ourselves. We tried our best not to provoke them, expanded to the north the least, and even left a small nobleman as a buffer."
"How many Chinese are there on the island?" Lu You asked.
Xia Yuqing said: "There are about three thousand people. Many of them are fellow villagers and relatives recruited by the soldiers. When they heard that we had become rich and became big landowners, the villagers who were living a hard life were willing to join us. Next time we expand our territory, we will
We also allocate some land to these villagers. There are also villagers who can write and do calculations and arrange for them to be officials, and they can get monthly salary."
Fan Chengda muttered: "More than three thousand people are already a lot. Monkey Harbor is too wild and wild. Commander Lin can't even recruit villagers."
"Haha, he is indeed unlucky." Xia Yu rejoiced in his misfortune.
Everyone stayed there for a few days, when suddenly a flying horse came to report.
The regicide and usurper from the north was nearly wiped out by the Ming army. After licking his wounds for several years, he led his troops to kill him again!
He also persuaded three nearby noble lords and assembled a coalition of tens of thousands of people.
The six second-generation officials arrived by chance and happened to witness a great battle.
