Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1038 1033 [All Landlords]

The climate of this archipelago is very comfortable. The six second-generation officials lived 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 25 to 32 degrees Celsius, and it basically does not exceed this range. The temperature in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is similar, ranging from 21 to 32 degrees Celsius.

There were more than a dozen ships traveling together on this voyage, 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 been sailing here. Merchants also suggested that Lin Riyan open a shipyard, because crossing the Bay of Bengal may encounter storms, and a shipyard will make navigation more convenient.

The fleet approached Ceylon safely, but the South Indian merchant ships did not enter the port, but sailed to the Chola Empire port further west.

"This port was previously called Taiman, but now it's renamed Wangxiang," Wang Chongdu said, pointing to the port ahead. "When the imperial envoys were returning from the Seljuk, they encountered a rebellion by the nobles of Ceylon. After the Ming envoys helped the prince of Ceylon to restore his country, the prince gave Taiman Port to the Ming."

Bai Shihou pursed his lips and smiled. This was not the version of the story he heard.

Wang Chongdu continued, "This place is too far away, so the court only appointed one governor. After collecting commercial taxes to recoup the costs, they did not send a second one. There is only one commander on the island, who is nominally under the control of the court, but in fact has been left alone."

"Just leave it alone?" Lu You asked in surprise.

"Ceylon is too far away, and we can't manage it for now," Wang Chongdu said. "There are 500 soldiers on the island. They are all criminals exiled to Shamen Island during the Song Dynasty. They all starved to death during the change of dynasties. The commander is the leader of these soldiers. Every year, the Guangzhou Navy sends ships to deliver some supplies, and then takes back some commercial taxes and trades there once."

Bai Shihou asked, "What supplies are being sent from Guangzhou?"

Wang Chongdu said: "Swords, armor, crossbows, and gunpowder. The five hundred soldiers had dozens of muskets, and they were left with four cannons. They all need to rely on Guangzhou for repair and replenishment. When they no longer need help from their motherland, they will probably no longer be obedient, and it will become increasingly difficult to share the port's commercial taxes."

Even in the age of sailing ships, the cost of maintaining a colony over long distances was often more than the income, so Zhu Ming really never thought of colonizing Ceylon.

Too far!
If they really wanted to colonize this place, they would directly colonize India, with the main purpose being to obtain cheap raw materials and dump the market.

In another time and space, the Netherlands was also losing money even at its peak. The Dutch West India Company had been operating poorly and was only able to survive with the help of the East India Company. 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 money, and they even distributed dividends before calculating the company's profits and losses.

The main cost of Dutch colonization was official corruption and military spending, and those accounts are simply unclear.

The colonial activities of Spain and Portugal destroyed all the local industries, agriculture and commerce in their own countries, and only enriched the kings, nobles and some merchants.

We still have to rely on local manufacturing to colonize like Britain did.

Zhu Ming's plan is to use both the British and French models.

The French model was used in Southeast Asia and the Nanyang region, where the Chinese culture and system were replicated through slow and painstaking efforts to educate the indigenous people.

In more distant areas, such as India and Bengal, the British approach was adopted, sending a small number of garrisons to incite local people to fight each other, destroy their local handicrafts, plunder cheap raw materials and food, and at the same time dump Chinese goods there.

As for America and the like, I have not considered it for the time being because there is no need to go far away.

……

Before the fleet officially entered Wangxiang Port, they saw a large number of merchant ships docked in the port.

Some Arab, Egyptian and Seljuk merchants did not sail to Srivijaya or China. In the past, they obtained goods from South India and then shipped them back to their own countries for sale. Now there are also a lot of Chinese goods in the port of Wangxiang in Ceylon, so they traveled a little further to Ceylon to purchase goods.

Merchants from the Ming Dynasty and Srivijaya were also happy to ship their goods to Ceylon, with merchants from Srivijaya being the majority.

Now that Srivijaya has been destroyed and split into a large number of small states, in addition to the former vassal states of Srivijaya, more and more Southeast Asian merchants will transport Eastern goods to Ceylon for resale.

Wangxiang Port will surely become more prosperous!

The richer and more prosperous this place is, the less the five hundred soldiers dare to leave China. Not to mention the indigenous forces on the main island of Ceylon, there is also the Chola Dynasty in South India next door, eyeing them covetously.

Once they broke away from China and were no longer protected by China, it would be impossible for them to stop the endless attacks of the Chola army.

After all, their population is too small.

"The Ming ships are coming, all of them, get out of the way and make room for the inner berths over there!"

A small guide boat headed straight towards Wang Chongdu.

They probably discovered that this was a Chinese gunboat, so they treated it with special favors, and even drove away the merchant ships that had already docked, freeing up the best berth for Wang Chongdu to dock.

The merchant ships that were driven away did not dare to say anything and obediently moved to a more remote berth.

Not long after, Xia Yuqing, the commander of Wangxiang Port, came to greet it in person, and was extremely surprised to find that it was not a warship.

After careful inquiries, he found out that Wang Chongdu and his two companions were sea explorers supported by Emperor Zhu, and they also brought six super officials' children with them.

Everyone was welcomed to the official residence left behind by the governor, and along the way they found the city to be exceptionally lively.

There was no outer wall. The two castles faced each other across the river, forming a corner.

The outer perimeter of the main castle is the city, which is somewhat similar to the castle towns in Japan.

The city is home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, ranging from Egyptians to people from Southeast Asia.

Especially Seljuk merchants, more and more of them have chosen to immigrate in recent years.

As Sultan Sanjar returned from the defeat, his vassal states began to fight for independence, and the internal separatist forces became stronger. There were constant wars between the lords, and in order to regain his power, Sanjar also frantically increased agricultural and commercial taxes.

As a result, many Seljuk merchants chose to hide in three places.

They left properties in their own country and sent their clansmen to buy properties overseas. They would flee with their entire family at the first sign of trouble.

The port of Vang Vieng in Ceylon also became one of their immigration destinations.

The other is the merchants along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, which is now ruled by several large families. There is no country, and the political system is based on family tribes, which exploit merchants who are not from the tribe very heavily.

Therefore, many Arab businessmen, after making money through maritime trade, chose to stay overseas for a long time, and some even stayed in Guangdong and Fujian.

"This used to be the Governor's Mansion," Xia Yuqing led them into a building in the castle. "Afterwards, the Governor resigned and the court did not send another one, so I moved in and lived here. There are a lot of rooms. Although not as good as those in China, they are still pretty good in Ceylon. Please make do with them."

"It's okay." Lu You said with a smile.

As they were talking, they had already walked into the lobby. Bai Shihou pointed at the map hanging on the wall and asked, "Is this Ceylon?"

Xia Yuqing nodded and said, "It's the map of Ceylon. At the beginning, we only had a very small area around Wangxiang Port. Now we have conquered it. One hundred and fifty miles to the south, ninety miles to the east, and eighty miles to the north are all our territory."

Fan Chengda joked: "Commander Xia can also be called Baili Hou."

"It's not mine alone," Xia Yuqing waved his hand and said, "There were 500 soldiers who stayed behind at that time. Only one person died in the battles over the past few years, but six died of illness. The acquired land was distributed to my brothers, even the dead, and their wives and children were brought in long ago. For those who didn't have children, I adopted children to carry on the family line."

Xia Yuqing sighed again, "The land is still not big enough. Excluding those mountainous areas that are difficult to cultivate, each person only has two to three thousand acres of land on average. Fortunately, the commercial tax at the port is not bad, so we can barely make ends meet."

Just barely getting by?
Is this really human language?
This is not like Monkey Harbor, where it is difficult to reclaim land from scratch. Agriculture in Ceylon is very developed, and there are even terraces and many water conservancy facilities. Even though some water conservancy facilities have been abandoned due to long-term wars, it is relatively simple to repair them, and the indigenous people can be directly organized to do the construction.

With an average of two to three thousand acres of land per person, you are all big landowners!

Moreover, the land was definitely not divided equally. Soldiers with higher official positions and more meritorious service could get more. For example, Xia Yuqing himself had 7,000 acres of land. He did not need to work himself. The local natives were all his tenants. Those who dared to resist would have their bodies weathered.

Xia Yuqing not only brought his wife and children over, he also brought relatives from his hometown and asked his wife and relatives to help manage the land.

Of course, only the initial five hundred soldiers were eligible to obtain land through expansion.

Their families, relatives or fellow townsmen could purchase land or receive land as gifts, but they could only purchase or receive land from the Five Hundred Soldiers.

Very deformed Tian Zheng!
It is equivalent to them having 500 nobles, who are expanding together, and these people are all original shareholders.

If they move here after that, even if they are relatives, they can at best be considered small shareholders after the company goes public.

These guys also selected the more obedient natives in their respective jurisdictions, and gave them leather armor and simple weapons as retainers. In normal times, they did not give them military pay, but only provided them with food. However, they would reduce the rent of the retainers' families' land, and give them additional travel expenses when fighting. Retainers could also be rewarded for their meritorious service, but the rewarded land was given to their masters, and it depended on their masters' wishes whether they were given land or not.

Xia Yuqing recruited fifty followers to serve as his personal guard.

Qi Qi'an asked, "If you keep expanding like this, won't the indigenous forces on the island unite and send troops?"

Xia Yuqing smiled and said, "The nobles on the island are fighting among themselves. Besides, we are not expanding very fast. It took us several years to conquer such a large territory. Only the barbarian chieftain in the north is more difficult. It was he who killed the king and usurped the throne. We try not to provoke him. We expand the least to the north and even keep a small noble as a buffer."

"How many Chinese are there on the island?" Lu You asked.

Xia Yuqing said: "There are about 3,000 people. Many of them are fellow villagers and relatives recruited by the soldiers. When they heard that we had become rich and big landlords, the villagers who were living a hard life were willing to come and seek refuge. The next time we expand our territory, we will give some land to these villagers. There are also villagers who can write and count, and we will arrange for them to become officials and receive a salary every month."

Fan Chengda muttered, "More than 3,000 people are not a small number. Monkey Harbor is too wild and barren. Commander Lin can't even recruit villagers."

"Haha, he is really unlucky." Xia Yuqing gloated.

They stayed there for a few days when suddenly a horseman came to report something.

The regicide and usurper in the north was almost wiped out by the Ming army. After licking his wounds for several years, he led his troops to attack again!

He also persuaded three nearby noble lords to assemble a coalition force of over ten thousand men.

The six second-generation officials arrived at the right time and happened to witness a big battle.

(End of this chapter)