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Chapter 956 Ten Years Later 3
Compared with Japan, Myanmar is much more naughty. In the past ten years, it has attempted to attack Thanlyin Port three times, but all ended in failure.

Later, they tried to prevent the Shan people in the north from submitting to the Ming Dynasty, but they were still hit hard and had to retreat to the middle reaches of the Irrawaddy River plain to continue accumulating strength. It is unknown when they will make a comeback.

The Naval Staff and the General Staff once made a plan to completely occupy Lower Burma and deal a heavy blow to the Toungoo Kingdom, but Hong Tao rejected it because it was meaningless.

Cross the river from Thanlyin Port, pass the location of Yangon in later times, and head north to enter the mountains again. There are tropical rainforests everywhere, and in the rainy season, there are rivers and swamps everywhere. What's the point of occupying them? Nowadays, many areas in western Annan and northern Luzon have not been developed. If you are greedy, you will bite off more than you can chew.

The only useful part of Myanmar to the Ming Empire was Thanlyin Port. Even Chittagong in the north was useless. If you wanted wood, it was easy. You could just ask the Mon people to cut it in the mountains. It didn't cost much.

Now most Mon people have abandoned Pegu and moved south to settle near Thanlyin Port for shelter, with a population of about 400,000. There is a large alluvial plain that can be reclaimed here, and as long as one-third to half of the area can be used, it can support another 500,000 people.

In fact, the Ming Empire did not need to attack the Kingdom of Toungoo. All it needed to do was to provide some armor, weapons and food to the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the east, and they would attack westwards like clockwork.

It has been four years since this policy was implemented, and the Kingdom of Toungoo has never attacked Thanlyin again. They are currently fighting with the Kingdom of Ayutthaya in the mountains, neither of them can push the other, like a match made in heaven.

As for whether the Ming court's annual investment in the construction of Shalian Port and the cost of providing armor and weapons to the Ayutthaya Kingdom was cost-effective, Hong Tao carefully calculated the account for the general staff at the imperial meeting, and then no one mentioned it again.

With an expenditure of less than one million taels a year, you get a naval base, a plain grain-producing area comparable to the size of the Liaodong Peninsula, and 400,000 free pioneers. Is it a loss?

Even without spending this money, if the Kingdom of Toungoo succeeded in invading the north once, the money, food and supplies that the court would have to spend to dispatch the army would be more than two million.

This is not called buying peace with money, but active defense. The difference is that the former is passive, and it will not work unless you give it. The latter is active, you give it when you want to, and only give it when it is cost-effective, otherwise you don’t give it, you can fight whenever you want, without any burden.

The land was basically calm, and the sea was even calmer. Since the Indian Ocean Fleet was established and stationed in Colombo and Thanlyin, the South China Sea had completely become the inland sea of ​​the Ming Empire.

If you want to survive in this sea area, it is useless to find the Dutch or the Portuguese. You have to go to Manila Port to register your ship and buy a metal plate to hang around your neck. Otherwise, if you encounter a ship of the Ming Navy Patrol Command, you will be treated as a pirate in a minute, and will be sunk directly if you dare to resist.

The Indian Ocean Fleet was stationed in Colombo? Could it be that the Ming Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal had officially fallen out and seized this geographically important port?
No, the Ming Navy only obtained the right to use the Colombo Port for 30 years. It was not exclusive, but shared with the Portuguese colonists. It was just that it could rebuild the dock and base on the north side of the existing dock and enjoy autonomy.

In return, Portuguese merchant ships' normal trade voyages in the Indian Ocean would no longer be prohibited or restricted. Once they reached the east of the Port of Malacca, they would have to register for enthronement and buy identity cards in accordance with the rules of the Ming Navy, and would not have any privileges.

For this purpose, the Ming Navy General Staff also signed an agreement with the Portuguese Governor of India, with all the terms written in Chinese and Portuguese, but without the signatures and seals of the emperors and kings of both sides.

This is easier to understand. The King of Portugal is the King of Spain. If the agreement is to be signed publicly, the Spaniards will definitely not agree. Anyway, their colonies in India have been taken away by the Ming Empire. There is no interest in them. Why should they make peace with the enemy?

Therefore, this agreement was a private agreement reached between the Portuguese nobles, the Governor-General of India and the Ming Empire Navy. This not only solved the problem of the military bases needed by the Ming Navy, but also prevented Portuguese merchants from losing many supply points and colonies. It was a temporary win-win situation.

Why did the Portuguese make such an agreement with a foreign country behind the king's back? It was simple, because they did not recognize the King of Spain as their king, and they did not want to take the blame for the troubles caused by the Spanish.

After the King of Spain knew about this, would he send troops to intervene? The Portuguese Governor of India said that he would definitely not do so in the short term because Spain was in big trouble. Although Spain won the war with the British, the French next door began to stir up trouble again, always instigating the Catalans to demand independence. The Portuguese nobles could no longer tolerate the exploitation of the King of Spain, and the voices of resistance were getting louder and louder.

Overseas, Spain's colonies in the Americas were challenged successively by England, the Netherlands and France. Spain was overwhelmed and had no energy or ability to take care of the East.

The Navy General Staff was not sure if this was the case, but Hong Tao knew that the Governor was not lying. According to the course of history, the Thirty Years' War would have to continue, and Spain would become the protagonist, and would have to deal with the independence demands of Catalonia and Portugal at the same time.

At this time, the success rate of private peace with the Portuguese is still very high, and it is a great bargain to occupy the Port of Colombo without spending a single soldier. As for what to do after the lease expires, Hong Tao really didn't think that far, because within 30 years, this agreement will be torn up.

As soon as the war in Europe came to an end, the countries would immediately turn their attention to America and the East, trying to expand their colonies and grab more resources to make up for the losses caused by the war. At that time, even if Portugal did not want to breach the contract, European countries would not listen to it.

Therefore, there is no need to think so far ahead. Just build the naval base in Colombo first. Then no matter who comes, this will be the main supply port for the Ming Navy and can effectively support Enniao Port.

Speaking of Enniao Port, if Hong Tao goes there now, he will find that after more than ten years of development, the original trading terminal has not changed much, and only three Guangzhou-class armed cargo ships can dock at a time.

But two larger docks appeared near the river mouth on the northeast side of the old dock, which could dock at least ten armed cargo ships at the same time. Not far away were two not-so-big fortresses, all built of stone, with two floors, gray and shabby, like turtles resting on the shore.

More than a mile north of the fortress, all the low bushes and trees had been cut down, and a huge waterwheel stood by the river. Rows of houses were lined up, connected to the dock area by two parallel tracks.

This place is called Enniao City. It was built by a local tribe that was deeply influenced by the Ming Dynasty’s garrison. It has dozens of factories including food processing plants, cotton spinning plants, coking plants, smelting plants, forging plants, machinery plants, etc., with a permanent population of over 50,000.

At first they only helped the Ming garrison to cut wood, boil whale oil, and collect ore. Later, they gradually set up wood processing, leather tanning, and ore selection workshops. Later, they built larger water wheels and built more factories.

Many goods shipped by the Dutch to Europe no longer need to be shipped from the Ming mainland or Annan and Luzon Special Zones. They are directly produced at Enniao Port, which has more advantages in price.

There are a lot of cultivated land on both sides of the river north of Enniao City, which are planted with corn and cotton. Some of these lands belong to local tribes, some to the Ming Navy, and some to private individuals.

The cotton they grew would be sold to nearby cotton mills, processed into cotton cloth and exported directly to Europe. In addition to being used as food, corn was also sold as feed to tribes living in the mountains to feed tens of thousands of cattle and horses.

After these cattle and horses are raised, a small number will be slaughtered for meat and used for farming, while most of them will be purchased by merchants from the Ming Dynasty and transported away by sea ships.

Generally speaking, Enniao Port and Enniao City have become the largest commercial and military ports in the Cape of Good Hope region, and have been recognized and supported by the local Xhosa people. Economic development is on an upward trend, and all kinds of materials can not only be self-sufficient, but can also be exported in large quantities.

So far, it is the fastest-growing, most promising and most powerful special zone and offshore territory of the Ming Empire.

(End of this chapter)