The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 375 Overestimating one’s own capabilities
In the vast Indian Ocean, whether on land or on islands, there are Qi people's naval bases or colonial outposts everywhere, or they are puppet states or local warlords controlled by Qi people.

From the fertile and prosperous Han continent to the populous and wealthy India, from the "revived" Persian Safavid Empire to the hot and dry Arabian Peninsula, from the narrow and prosperous Red Sea golden waterway to the mysterious and ancient African continent, the red and yellow dragon flag of Qi State all flew high above them, proclaiming the mighty power of the people of Qi.

Dutch Batavia, once the political and commercial center of the East Indies, was handed over to the Qi people respectfully and humbly by the Dutch more than ten years ago; the Kingdom of England, which dominated the North Atlantic, had completely abandoned their trading posts in India more than fifty years ago under the powerful military deterrence of Qi and obediently integrated into the Indian Ocean economic circle dominated by Qi.

The weaker Portuguese, under the relentless pressure of Qi, gradually gave up Portuguese Goa, Diu, as well as Portuguese Mozambique and Angola at the southern tip of Africa, almost completing Qi's Indian Ocean empire.

Well, the reason why the word "almost" is used instead of the affirmative word "completely" is that in the Indian Ocean region, there are still several European colonial outposts that are not controlled by Qi people and still exist tenaciously, thus shattering Qi people's ambition to completely cover the entire Indian Ocean.

That’s right, the French Bourbon Island (i.e. Reunion), Fort Dauphin and Tamatave were the three most conspicuous “scabies” in Qi’s attempt to build an Indian Ocean empire, which made it impossible for the entire Indian Ocean to form a unified “tone”, much to the regret of the people of Qi.

In fact, as early as the War of the Spanish Succession, Qi joined the anti-Bourbon alliance of Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and other countries, declared war on France and Spain, and intervened in the affairs of continental Europe for the first time. It could have taken advantage of the situation to eliminate France's three colonial outposts in the Indian Ocean region.

But the people of Qi did not do so, and did not even have a direct conflict with the French army. Instead, they flirted with the French during the war and continuously secretly transported war supplies to Louis XIV's army by sea, providing considerable support for France to challenge the whole of Europe alone.

The result was that after the war, Qi gained the trust and favor of Louis XIV, obtained the market that originally belonged to the Dutch, and tore off some fat pieces of meat from the Kingdom of Spain.

At the same time, Qi State also used this European war to dump its own goods to both sides of the war, and its economic tentacles extended deeper and deeper into the European continent. Qi State also began to intervene in European affairs, and its influence gradually began to expand.

Perhaps, in the eyes of the Qi people, Fort Dauphin and Tamatave built by the French on Hailing Island, as well as the Bourbon Island, were too weak and would not pose a threat to Qi's Indian Ocean strategy.

In 1604, the French began to invade Bourbon Island and establish a colonial outpost. In 1642, the French East India Company declared the island its colonial territory, and a few years later, it was officially named Bourbon Island.

Fort Dauphin, located southeast of Hailing Island, was also established by the French East India Company in 1642. Six years later, the Tamatave colonial outpost was opened in the eastern coastal area of ​​Hailing Island.

It can be said that the French colonial history in the Indian Ocean region is not only earlier than that of the Dutch (the Dutch Mauritius Island was established in 1598, but no immigration and colonization was carried out, and after the establishment of the Cape Town Colony in 1652, the island was abandoned by the Dutch for a time), but also fifteen years earlier than the late-arriving Qi people (Changning, Qi’s first colonial outpost in South Africa, was established in 1657). They are undisputed colonial pioneers.

However, the French had a bad habit of colonization. Although they arrived early in many places, they often showed a lack of investment in the colonial territories they occupied. Both the population of the colonial outposts and their own hematopoietic capacity were much weaker than those of Britain and Qi.

For example, the French North American colonial territory of New France developed for more than a hundred years, but the population of such a large colony was only 50,000 to 60,000, and its economy was mainly based on fur. However, the neighboring British North American colonial territory, Massachusetts alone, had a population of more than 200,000, and had many economic industries such as shipbuilding, smelting, brewing, and wood processing, and it lived a prosperous life.

What about the development of French colonial territories in the Indian Ocean region?

Although the French did not release specific data, through observation and inquiry of Qi merchants who frequently traveled between the three places (yes, Qi merchants were sometimes part-time spies), they were able to roughly understand some basic information about the French.

There are about 700 to 800 people on Bourbon Island (stimulated by the State of Qi, the population is larger than in the original historical time and space), mainly distributed in the fortresses at the north and south ends of the island; the population of Fort Dovan is only about 400 people, and there is only one fortress built on a cape along the coast, and the building materials are mainly wood mixed with a small amount of bricks and stones; as for Tamatave, the population is even smaller, probably no more than 300 people, and there is only a simple wooden fortress.

Even if the French controlled some local indigenous tribes through missionary work and economic inducements, their strength should be quite limited, and the number of military forces they could mobilize would not exceed one thousand at most.

How many people are there in the Hailing Governor's District of Qi?
More than 35,000 people!

Of course, the reason why there was such a big gap between Qi and France on Hailing Island was not only because the mainland of Hanzhou was relatively close to the island, making immigration and colonization more convenient, but also because the west coast area occupied by Qi had a tropical savanna climate, which was warm and dry, and would not cause large-scale tropical infectious diseases, so that Qi's population loss rate during the colonization process was not that great.

On the other hand, French Fort Dauphin and Tamatave are located on the east coast of Hailing Island. They have a typical tropical rainforest climate, which is hot and humid all year round, with no obvious seasonal changes, an annual precipitation of 2000-3000 mm, and dense tropical plants and forests growing everywhere. This led to frequent outbreaks of various tropical diseases in French colonial outposts, and an abnormally high mortality rate. The situation on Bourbon Island was basically similar. This resulted in an extremely harsh living environment for French immigrants. If they encountered a slightly larger plague or an acute tropical infectious disease, all French immigrants would be taken away in one wave.

You say, given the huge gap in power between the two sides, where would the French get the courage to compete with us Qi people for the control of Hailing Island?

Is it Liang Jingru?
In the 1723th year of Taiping (), when the Qi government negotiated with the Dutch East India Company to transfer all Dutch colonies in the Indian Ocean and the East Indies, it also made the same request to the French government, hoping to purchase the French Bourbon Islands and French Madagascar at a "reasonable" price.

However, the Qi people's request was rejected by the French government, which insisted on placing the three Indian Ocean territories under French rule.

At that time, King Louis XV of France had just turned 1723 and was declared an adult by the Paris High Court, ending his regency and appointing the Duke of Orleans as prime minister. However, he did not stay in office for long as he died of illness in December 12, before he could respond to Qi's request.

Later, the newly-elected Duke of Bourbon was worried that the loss of overseas kingdoms would greatly undermine his prestige, so he rejected the Qi people's request to "purchase land" and continued to retain France's colonial territories in the Indian Ocean.

The Qi government was very upset after being humiliated by the arrogant French. It immediately instructed the Overseas Colonial Affairs Department and the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade to try to squeeze the French India Company (the French East India Company merged with the Senegal Company and the China Company in 1719 and was renamed the French India Company) out of the Indian Ocean region and destroy their jobs. Under such circumstances, the French India Company soon became unable to maintain its trade with the East, and its operating conditions became increasingly difficult. It was finally announced to be dissolved in 1725 (in the original time and space, the company was dissolved in 1769), and its Indian Ocean territory was incorporated into the royal family.

Just as the people of Qi were preparing to make further efforts to completely destroy the French Indian Ocean colonial territories through trade blockades and restrictions, the Qi-British War broke out.

In order to gain French support in Europe and the Mediterranean, Qi had to temporarily stop and choose to cooperate with the French. Bourbon Island and three other French Indian Ocean territories escaped the disaster and continued to survive, existing very conspicuously under the noses of Qi people.

After the war, the people of Qi began to think about how to drive the French out of the Indian Ocean.

For example, merchants in French colonial territories were prohibited from purchasing daily necessities from Qianzhou or Hailing Governorate, thereby increasing the colonial costs for the French.

For example, funding the Sakalava people to attack Fort Dovan in a pirate manner.

For example, dumping Qi goods to the Merina people on the central plateau at low prices to undermine the French trade with the local people.

……

The reason why they did not use force to seize French colonial territories was because the people of Qi still had to save face, and they also had to consider Qi's investment and trade in France, as well as cooperation with France on European affairs. They could not easily break off relations and trigger a Qi-France war.

In their view, as long as the French were kept bleeding in their Indian Ocean colonies and the French royal family felt that continued investment would result in huge losses, they would then seriously consider the Qi people's request and sell these worthless Indian Ocean territories to them at a "suitable" price.

Look at how wise and sensible the Dutch were in choosing the gains and losses of their colonial territories!
Although the Dutch "threw away" the East Indies and many colonial territories in the Indian Ocean, they did not suffer a great loss.

Because they found that after "transferring" their colonial territories to Qi, they suddenly reduced a lot of fixed asset investment and maintenance costs. They no longer needed to build a series of strong fortresses, nor did they need to hire too many armed mercenaries, nor did they need to increase the armament facilities on merchant ships. Instead, they actively integrated into the world trade system built by Qi, reduced their own development costs, and achieved unprecedented growth in trade benefits.

The Netherlands' commercial capital could continue to expand as Qi's colonial power continued to expand, and it could easily penetrate into countries and regions that were once out of reach.

The booming economy of Qi also attracted a large amount of Dutch commercial capital and financial capital, which enabled the two countries' capital to merge and intertwine with each other, and then obtained rich investment returns from Qi's colonial expansion and commercial expansion.

The construction of railways in Hanzhou and its colonial territories, plantations in the Nanyang region, the cultivation of gems and tea in Ceylon, the cotton trade in India, the commercial monopoly in Persia, as well as the gold and diamond mines in Qianzhou, the ivory and slave trade in inland Africa... all involved and invested in Dutch capital, which made the Dutch secretly happy in their hearts, "The interests of the Qi people are the interests of us Dutch."

Today, Qi and the Netherlands are each other's largest trading partners in their respective regions. The Netherlands is also the European agent and distributor of many Qi products. This further establishes the Netherlands' dominant position as a financial center, trade center and commodity distribution center on the European continent, making it the most developed and richest country in Europe.

Due to the close trade relations between the two countries, the Netherlands is Qi's de facto ally on the European continent without signing an alliance - in fact, all European countries suspect that there is a corresponding secret military alliance treaty between Qi and the Netherlands, which to a certain extent makes the Netherlands' neighboring countries very wary of it - they are also strategic partners of each other.

Not only is Qi's general representative to Europe established in the Netherlands, but the European headquarters of many Qi business giants such as the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, the European United Commercial Bank, the Atlantic Shipping Company, and the Royal European Trading Company are also located here.

Along with them came a large number of Qi employees and their families. As of last year, Qi's expatriates in the Netherlands had exceeded 30,000, the largest in Europe, even far exceeding the expatriate population in Ireland, Qi's most loyal brother in Europe.

Similarly, there are more than 12,000 Dutch people living in mainland China, making it the country with the largest number of expatriates among all European countries.

With the Dutch setting such a good example for everyone, why are you French still so stubborn and insist on going against our Qi State?
Now, what is even more outrageous is that the French dared to personally intervene in the civil war of the Kingdom of Merina and baptized a Merina king, turning him into a devout Catholic.

What does this mean?
Are you planning to indirectly control the Central Plateau through the baptized King of Merina?
With your small bodies, can you eat as much as Hailing Island?
It is true that the baptized King of Melina may not really be a devout Catholic. He probably wanted to use this opportunity to introduce French influence to increase his bargaining chip and provide himself with an additional channel to obtain much-needed firearms and equipment, so as to enhance his own strength and ultimately achieve the unification of the Kingdom of Melina.

But, are you French people too confident? Do you really think you can use this as an excuse to interfere in the affairs of the Kingdom of Merina?
In that case, don’t blame us in Qi for getting angry!

In the Caribbean Sea, as a latecomer, our Qi State may need to be somewhat tolerant of the French's strength due to its lack of strength. But in the Indian Ocean, on Hailing Island, where can you be so unscrupulous and so jumpy?
This time, if we don’t drive you French out of Hailing Island, we won’t be worthy of being the world’s ocean overlord!
On June 6, seven ships flying the Qi flag appeared in the waters north of Bourbon Island and brought a shocking order to the local French governor.

"…We suspect that there are a large number of pirates hiding on Bourbon Island. The Qi Navy will be ordered to land on the island to search and eliminate them thoroughly!"

(End of this chapter)