1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3668

Qian Tiandun's statement of taking the initiative probably caught Governor Fernandez off guard. He did not respond for a long time, but from his expression it was clear that he did not like the plan proposed by Qian Tiandun very much.

The Portuguese hoped that Qian Tiandun would promise to make certain concessions in trade and demarcate the two countries' respective exclusive areas and projects, but Qian Tiandun's statement was clearly contrary to the Portuguese's wishes.

Not only will Hai Han not make the division of international trade that the Portuguese expect, but it will also demand that the other party further open up trade and reduce various artificially imposed restrictions.

Qian Tiandun saw that the other party remained silent for a long time. He knew that his words might have made the Portuguese quite unhappy, but he did not intend to leave any room for maneuver for the other party. He continued to press the issue: "Just a few decades ago, merchants from your country visited the Ming Dynasty and should have made similar requests to the Ming Dynasty... How come it has only been a short time, and the same thing happened to your country, and you feel that it is unacceptable?"

The first priority of Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries when they visited the Ming Dynasty was to ask the Ming Dynasty to open its doors and allow them to enter the territory of the Ming Dynasty for so-called "free trade activities." After being rejected by the Ming Dynasty, they resorted to various soft and hard means, even launching wars, to force the Ming Dynasty to submit.

Things change over time. Although the Ming Dynasty has now lost its power and declined, Hai Han, which replaced the Ming Dynasty as a great power in the East, has achieved a change in the offensive and defensive situation and even put forward the demand of "free trade" to the Europeans.

But Fernandez did not dare to agree to such a request. He knew that his country's products were not competitive in the Hai Han market. The sales channels of those oriental treasures once produced by the Ming Dynasty were now all controlled by Hai Han. If trade restrictions were relaxed, it would not take more than a few years for the Goa colony to repeat the mistakes of Macau and Malacca and become a supporting role of Hai Han.

Although he sensed the sarcasm in Qian Tiandun's words, Fernandez still did not give in. However, he also understood that his attempt to persuade this high-ranking Hai Han official had failed.

The Goa colony, which has developed smoothly for decades, will most likely have to face the commercial competition initiated by Hai Han.

Moreover, from Qian Tiandun's attitude, it was not difficult for him to judge that Hai Han would not stop here, but would extend its tentacles to the western Indian Ocean. In the future, it would probably affect more than just Goa. The Portuguese colonies along the Indian Ocean coast would probably be inevitably impacted.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the alliance between Hai Han and Portugal is still valid, so at least there is no need to worry that Hai Han will launch a military attack on areas controlled by Portugal.

Of course, for a moment Fernandez thought of the possibility of falling out with Hai Han, but he immediately rejected it.

Even without considering Hai Han's strong military strength, he still had to be wary of the Dutch who were eyeing him covetously. If it weren't for Qian Tiandun's troops coming to the rescue in time, the city of Colombo on Ceylon would have been annexed by the Dutch long ago.

It is hard to say whether it would be good or bad for Portugal if they fell out with Hai Han, but the people who would be happiest about this would definitely be the Dutch. Of course, they would rather suffer a loss on Hai Han's side than let the old rival, the Netherlands, get away with it.

Although this topic made the Governor of Goa feel a little unhappy, Qian Tiandun immediately invited him to visit the Hai Han fleet that was visiting the port of Goa, which made the Governor's mood slightly better.

Although the two countries are allies, it is not an activity that can be arranged casually for high-ranking officials to visit each other's combat fleets. What's more, the fleet that came to Goa Port this time belongs to the special operations division known as Hai Han's ace army. Even Hai Han citizens will hardly have the opportunity to get close to them. Fernandez still understands the weight of this invitation.

After getting permission from local officials, Dong Shangyi and his companions were able to travel around Goa. What they saw and heard further confirmed Dong Shangyi's previous view that Portugal invested a lot of resources in Goa and built it into a regional political and economic center, which led to its current prosperity.

Almost all merchant ships crossing the Indian Ocean stopped at the Port of Goa, which gradually formed a cargo distribution center and transit port. More than half of the Portuguese merchant ships traveling in the Far East were built and launched here. It can be said that the entire maritime trade system of Portugal in the East was centered on Goa, just like the city of Batavia to the Dutch East India Company.

When he shared his views with his colleague Minami Takahashi, he received completely different feedback.

Takahashi Nan attached more importance to the influence of Goa: "Master Dong, you said that in wartime, if Goa is captured first, will it paralyze all of Portugal's colonies in the Eastern world?"

Although Dong Shangyi was also a military general, he never expected that Gao Qiaonan was actually planning such a thing. He was horrified and asked, "Could it be that the general intends to take over this place?"

Gao Qiaonan shook his head and denied it: "Don't be nervous, the general has no such idea, I will just think about it myself."

Dong Shangyi finally breathed a sigh of relief. If the Special Operations Division went to war with Portugal, the battle line would probably extend from Goa all the way to the East China Sea region, which might not be a good thing for Hai Han.

But since they were talking about military topics, and both of them came from military backgrounds, they could not help but comment on the defense of the city of Goa.

In their view, although Goa City had relatively complete city defense facilities, they were limited to fortifications built by manpower. There were no natural barriers to defend in the area, and the flat terrain also cut off the possibility of building multiple lines of defense.

Gao Qiao Nan asked him how long it would take for the Fujian army to take this place.

Dong Shangyi thought for a while before responding, "Our Fujian Army has had few opportunities to engage in actual sieges in recent years, so it's inevitable that they are a little rusty. I'm afraid we can only slowly wear down the enemy's defenses by besieging the city... We should be able to break through the city within a month!"

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Gao Qiaomin nodded and said, "The outer walls of Goa City are mostly made of bricks and stones, with artillery batteries on top, in the shape of bastions. They look quite solid. If we attack by force, there will inevitably be heavy casualties. Besieging the city is the smart way to fight."

Dong Shangyi couldn't help but ask, what would happen if the special operations division came to attack Goa City?

Gao Qiaonan thought for a moment, held up three fingers and said, "If we want to be safe, we still need three days. But if we ignore the loss of ammunition and casualties, we should be able to capture the city within one day!"

"One... one day?" Dong Shangyi looked back at the city wall behind him, and was a little bit unbelievable. But seeing that Gao Qiaonan looked calm as usual, it didn't seem like he was bragging at all.

Gao Qiaonan said calmly: "Master Dong, don't be surprised. Look at the location of this city. We can reach the top of the city by firing from the river. As long as my fleet can enter the inland river, with hundreds of cannons firing, it won't take half a day to knock down the top of the city. Then we can use explosives to blast through it and clear the way. How can the Portuguese stop us?"