The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 257 Trip to India

On August 1731, 8, at noon, in the boundless desert, a long team of packhorses moved forward slowly. The dust was rolling and the sun was shining brightly, making all the surrounding scenes somewhat blurry and unreal. , making it difficult to see the road ahead.

The horse was panting heavily, snoring constantly, and its footsteps were extremely heavy. It was obvious that it was intolerant of the harsh environment of the desert. Only the large number of camels seemed to have been accustomed to all this, marching forward slowly but firmly with solid steps, the sand making a rustling sound under their feet.

The temperature in the desert is extremely high, making people feel the hot breath, and the sweat shed by people is quickly evaporated. The people in the pack team all wore wide hats and completely covered their faces with soft scarves to prevent sand, dust and sunlight from damaging their skin. In addition to carrying a large amount of cargo, the packhorse also carries a large amount of dried food and water in case of emergency.

There were more than thirty carriages in the middle of the pack team, all of which were piled with goods, causing the wheels to leave two deep tracks in the desert after passing by.

Ibrahim Khan took out the kettle, took two sips of water into his mouth, raised his head, squinted his eyes slightly, looked at the dazzling sun, and cursed in a low voice.

Yes, he regretted taking his people to follow the camel caravan to India to meet Qi's senior foreign affairs attaché in India.

According to the itinerary of the people of Qi, after setting off from Kandahar, they would pass through the vast Gobi Desert, then climb over the mountains of the Karat Khanate, arrive at the banks of the Indus River, and then take a boat down the river to arrive in Xizhou of Qi. After resting for a few days at Jinmen, where the Governor's Mansion is located, he took a boat again and arrived at the final destination of Surat by sea to hold talks with senior officials of Qi State.

The Qi people showed strong interest in their idea of ​​contacting the Qi people and launching in-depth cooperation between the two parties, and asked them to send several representatives to Surat for detailed exchanges.

In order for his brother to gain the support of the people of Qi, Ibrahim Khan immediately expressed his willingness to go to Surat in person on behalf of Nadir to meet with senior officials of Qi.

Ibrahim Khan was very disappointed with this, even though he promised the people of Qi on behalf of Nadir that after the overthrow of the Safavid dynasty, all the commercial and political benefits previously obtained by the people of Qi would not be affected at all, and even, It will also give them more benefits. However, the people of Qi still did not change their position and firmly supported the Safavid dynasty.

Eight years ago, the people of Qi quickly defeated the Gilzai people who were ravaging the entire Persian Empire in a devastating way, showing super strong combat power. This made all the local separatist forces remain silent and did not dare to take advantage of them easily.

Since you can no longer bring benefits to everyone, why should those factions and tribal armed forces with different agendas continue to follow?
Could it be that you, Nadir, are so handsome and charming?
Therefore, Nadir is very eager to obtain support and help from external forces to break his isolation.

In this area, there are colonial territories of the Qi people, as well as regional powers such as the Mughal Empire, the Maratha Empire, the Kingdom of Mysore, and the Kingdom of Cochin. If the Qi people control the coastal part of India by virtue of their powerful maritime power, Territory, Ibrahim Khan believed it was possible. But he thinks it is impossible to say that the Qi people have completely controlled the entire Indian region.

Not to mention, behind the Safavid dynasty stood a powerful Qi state, which made people feel fearful.

At present, Nader seems to be developing very well. He has conquered all surrounding local forces and tribal armed forces, and brought them all together to form a military and interest community. The dynasties faced each other from a distance.

There is a hint of warning in the words of the people of Qi, hoping that Nadir will not launch a military attack on the central government of the empire in an attempt to overthrow the Safavid dynasty. Otherwise, Qi will make necessary intervention at that time.

Although Ibrahim Khan has always been in the isolated hinterland, he can also learn some news and rumors about the outside world from different channels.

On his trip to India this time, in addition to wanting to implement and finalize the above-mentioned issues, he also wanted to conduct an on-the-spot inspection of the Indian region to see if, as advertised by the outside world, the people of Qi are really that powerful and have conquered this vast and vast land. The fertile areas were brought under their actual control.

With no other choice, Ibrahim Khan could only discuss bilateral cooperation with the people of Qi, hoping to obtain their financial assistance and weapons assistance to gradually develop and strengthen his own strength.

If the Qi people die to protect the Safavid dynasty, there will be no chance for Nadir to sweep Persia, take over Isfahan, and achieve his great achievements.

A dozen days ago, during a meeting between Ibrahim Khan and Qi's diplomatic envoy in Kandahar, although the other party showed strong interest in bilateral cooperation, he also clearly reiterated his support for the Safavid dynasty of Persia. Some are supportive.

The entire Indian subcontinent has a population of hundreds of millions and abundant products. It has always been widely rumored as a place "flowing with countless gold and jewels".

In this way, it is necessary to continuously launch wars and plunder more wealth to continuously boost the morale and combat effectiveness of the army, and maintain fragile internal alliances, so as to consolidate their rule.

Although Nadir occupies almost the entire Khorasan region and has also included the Herat region in Afghanistan within his sphere of influence, the territory seems to be very large and the population is relatively abundant. In addition, he has more than 50,000 powerful soldiers. The army has properly demonstrated the foundation of a king and a hegemon.

However, the Nader Military Group used force to intimidate the territories and tribes, then squeezed the people and businessmen to the maximum to obtain a steady stream of financial resources, and then used generous rewards to win over the army, and finally used force to subdue all kinds of internal and external forces. Contradictions barely maintained the cohesion and combat effectiveness of the entire military group.

Without external economic support and continued external plunder, there will inevitably be a lack of corresponding financial support, and Nadir's military group will soon disintegrate and dissipate, and will no longer be able to maintain its rule over the Khorasan region.

But his own family knows his own affairs. As the core figure in Nadir's military group, Ibrahim Khan is well aware of his own biggest weakness, which is that his foundation is not deep and he has not won the support of the people. A slight setback will lead to This loosely cohesive military group fell apart.

After all, using a small area to fight against the entire Safavid Empire, Nadir was not absolutely sure of winning the final victory, whether in terms of financial resources or military strength.

Qi State does not border India, and its population does not have an overwhelming advantage. In addition, there are huge differences in race, religion, and culture. How could they occupy the entire India?

At most, just like in Persia, they can gain political and commercial interests by exerting influence on the local ruling class.

You can't say that just because Qi defeated the Mughal Empire twice and severely defeated the Maratha Empire, it achieved actual control over India? The long journey is difficult and extremely boring. After leaving Kandahar, heading south, everything we passed was covered with long stretches of yellow sand and gravel-strewn Gobi. The fierce sun and strong winds blew up from time to time. The flying sand and rocks seemed to put the entire caravan in hell.

On the way, Ibrahim Khan was surprised to find that the tribal forces entrenched in the large and small oases along the way seemed to be very disrespectful to the people of Qi. Not only did they not do anything to stay in trouble, but they actively provided necessary water supplies for their camel caravan, and were extremely polite to the Qi people in the caravan.

Although this has an ancient tradition of local tribes not harming merchants, the biggest reason is probably that they were overawed by the force of the Qi people.

A few years ago, the Qi people united with the Karat Khanate to attack the Girzai people in Kandahar. They must have demonstrated powerful force when passing through this area and taught them the lessons they deserved.

Otherwise, with the sturdy folk customs and unruly character of Afghanistan, how could they please the people of Qi so much?
Caught between the two major forces of the Kandahar Persians and the Karat Khanate, and with a poor land and barren population, how could it dare to compete with the people of Qi.

Moreover, the traveling merchant caravans also brought them many exotic gadgets from the outside world and much-needed food, which somewhat improved their backward and closed social status.

Although this difficult journey was only a short distance of more than 200 kilometers, it still lasted for more than half a month. Just when Ibrahim Khan felt extremely desperate, the entire camel team finally entered the territory of the Karat Khanate.

This khanate established by the Baloch people has now become a protectorate of the Qi people, and all internal affairs, diplomacy and military affairs are basically controlled by the Qi people. It is said that even the establishment of the successor to the Khanate must be recognized and agreed by the people of Qi before he can continue to rule the country "legally".

Of course, with the support of Qi State, the Karat Khanate also achieved rapid and steady development, and the territorial scope it ruled was limited to the narrow strip along the Hubu River from just becoming independent from the Mughal Empire more than 60 years ago. In one section, it rapidly expanded to the entire Balochistan region, not only occupying a large amount of territory that originally belonged to the Mughal Empire, but also extending westward to the Sistan border of the Persian Safavid Empire, becoming a pivotal and very influential " A big country".

However, Ibrahim Khan did not like this kind of puppet khanate that had no independent power. He had to obey the orders of the people of Qi in everything. If he wanted to make some major decisions, he had to It is very frustrating to think about the look in the eyes of the people of Qi.

I don’t know why these ignorant and barbaric Baloch people are so submissive to the Qi State and are willing to become a group of "sheep" enclosed in a fence by the Qi State.

After walking for another day in the Karat Khanate, we arrived at Quetta, the capital of the Khanate (Quetta, Pakistan), a new city located in the river valley.

The former capital of the Karat Khanate was Khuzdar. Although it was located in the center of the Khanate, it was deep in the mountains and had inconvenient transportation. So twenty years ago, the capital was moved to Qida following the advice of the Qi people. .

After more than 20 years of development and construction, a number of modern industries such as grain processing plants, canneries, breweries, sulfur refining and processing plants, and brick and tile factories invested by Qi people have been built in the city, bringing new benefits to this isolated and ancient area. The land brought an epoch-making civilization.

The people of Qi also helped build a simple road to Sukkur, which formed a land and water transport connection with the Indus River and provided direct access to coastal ports, greatly increasing the speed of commodity circulation in the Khanate.

Eight years ago, as the Qi-Karat Khanate coalition defeated Kandahar and expelled the Ghilzai forces, it opened up the trade channels between Balochistan and Afghanistan, and promoted the development of Qida. The city's commerce prospered and brought a steady stream of trade tax revenue to the Kerat Khanate.

There are also rich mineral resources such as copper, sulfur, and marble in the surrounding area of ​​Kida City. The Karat Khanate's royal family, nobles, and some businessmen from Qi State have invested in the construction of mines here, taking advantage of the local cheap labor force. It was quarried extensively and then transported to Sukkur, where it was either sold to the Mughal Empire or sailed to coastal ports via the Indus River for sale overseas.

In addition to minerals, the Karat Khanate also planted cotton on a large scale within the territory under the guidance of Qi's economic advisor to meet the growing local demand for cotton textile raw materials.

However, the increase in cotton planting area will inevitably greatly squeeze the domestic food production space. In addition, the entire Baluchistan region has a dry climate, high evaporation, and insufficient water sources, which have also severely restricted the agricultural development of the Kerat Khanate, causing them to suffer from food shortages all year round.

However, with the commercial network established by Qi in the Indian region, the Kerat Khanate was able to obtain sufficient food supplies and did not worry at all about famine.

I still remember that more than ten years ago, the entire Kerat Khanate suffered from severe drought for several consecutive years, and there was almost no harvest in the farmland. However, with the help of Qi State, massive amounts of wheat and rice were transferred from the Punjab region, which prevented large-scale famine among hundreds of thousands of people in the Khanate.

Therefore, although some people later suggested to the Khan to attach importance to food production and reduce the cotton planting area accordingly to ensure the Khanate's food self-sufficiency, the entire Khanate did not take it seriously and still followed the agricultural guidance of the Qi people and utilized the region. The rich sunshine environment continues to expand the cotton planting area.

After working so hard to grow food, there is no way to earn as much money as growing a cash crop like cotton!
Furthermore, the neighboring grain-producing areas such as Punjab and Sindh are all within the scope of Qi's influence. You can entrust Qi merchants to transport as much food as you want. Why worry about not having food in the country?
Under the arrangement of the Qi people, Ibrahim Khan stayed briefly in the city of Qida for three days to relieve the hardship and fatigue he experienced after crossing the desert.

After sleeping hard for a day and a night, he briefly visited the capital of the Khanate with a scrutinizing attitude.

The population in the city is not very large, about 40,000 to 50,000, which is far behind Mashhad. However, the planning and construction of the entire city is much better. It is very neat and orderly. It is probably the work of people from Qi State.

What made Ibrahim Khan even more jealous was that the city's commerce was extremely prosperous. In a small urban area, there were seven or eight large-scale bazaars and wholesale markets. There were also a wide variety of commodities, attracting countless merchants. The scale is even more astonishing. Compared with the bleak business atmosphere in the Khorasan region, it is simply incomparable.

It can be seen that this city is deeply influenced by the Qi people. In addition to a large number of traditional Zhenshen religion buildings, there are also many oriental classical buildings. They should be the residences of Qi officials and businessmen, or the official institutions of the Qi people. The whole city adds a touch of exotic style.

Unexpectedly, such a barren and backward Baloch kingdom, just because it caught up with the Qi people, caused the entire appearance of their khanate to change rapidly.

If this reaches the territory directly controlled and managed by the people of Qi, I wonder what the situation will be like?
For a time, Ibrahim Khan was full of expectations for the next trip.

(End of this chapter)