Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1226 Galle Fort

Among the many East India companies established by Western colonists, there is a Danish East India Company that most people will ignore. It was established in 1616, which is quite early, even more than ten years earlier than the Portuguese East India Company. And as early as 1620, a small colony was established in Talangambadi on the east coast of the Indian subcontinent. At this time, the Portuguese and British strongholds in India were still on the west coast of the subcontinent.

However, in the following 100 years, the achievements of the Danish East India Company were limited to this. Because they participated in the 30-year war twice not long ago and not long ago, they suffered disastrous defeats, and then they were continuously beaten by the rising Sweden for nearly half a century. The entire Scandinavian territory has been taken away, and the national power is declining day by day.

But right now, the Viking genes in Denmark's blood vessels are still often going crazy. The two participation in the 30-year war and the Swedes are the consequences of this irrational behavior.The Viking disease is now the captain of a chartered merchant ship, the Griffin, Tereldin Veschhui.Yesterday he was considering whether to fly the flag of Sweden, which was at war with the Holy Roman Empire, but he felt that it would be bad for his reputation if it spread, so he simply followed it until he could not see the land before launching an attack. Confidence.

In any case, Veshui knows that his ship is much larger than his opponent, and the ships of Northwestern European countries are slender, with faster speed and more deck guns, even if there is an inexplicable epidemic on the road , dropped dozens of corpses to feed the sharks, and now he has far more sailors who can jump to fight than his opponents.But he didn't know that his opponent was a woman, who was not only much younger than himself, but also had more confidence in victory.And that woman had employers that Veshuihe had never dreamed of.

After years of trading, the woman acquired weapons from her business partners that were not supposed to exist in this plane.The Hangzhou has 8 12-pound long-barreled cannons: 2 on the bow gun deck, 2 on the rear of the base gun deck, and 4 on the poop gun deck. Sell ​​to friendly and neutral business partners.

If it weren't for Li Huamei's fans in the navy, plus she brought a lot of urgently needed goods to Lingao.After the establishment of the Foreign Intelligence Agency, it also provided a large amount of economic and political information on the European colonists in Goa and other places and the local kings, and was listed as a very useful partner before it was approved by the Planning Institute.

The sea wind is whistling, the sails are hunting, Captain Veshui's Griffin is advancing at full speed, Li Meihua has clearly seen the griffin statue on the bow, with years of pirate experience, the next dynamic combat situation map It has clearly appeared in her mind.

"Brothers, light the match!" She drew out her sword, "Raise the red flag!"

The battle was short and intense, but as expected by Li Huamei, under her firepower advantage, the Griffin's speed advantage did not bring much benefit to Captain Terelding Veschhui, and the successive shells destroyed the ship. The gunfire and rigging system of the Griffin were destroyed, killing most of the sailors on the deck.

It was only when Li Huamei and his men charged onto the deck of the Griffin, slaughtering the Danes like the autumn wind swept away fallen leaves, that Captain Veshui realized what an inappropriate target he had chosen. The moment Barton's sword approached, Captain Veshui immediately made the most suitable choice:

He threw his sword on the deck and raised his hands: "I surrender!" he shouted in German--German is considered a semi-universal language at sea these days.

The tip of Barton's sword was caught in time - it was still 0.001 centimeter away from Captain Veshui's throat.

"Okay, I accept your surrender." The woman said arrogantly, "Now you and your ship and cargo are mine..."

"I would like to serve you..." Veshui said with his head downcast, with some "black humor".These days, the consequences of a failed robbery at sea are tragic: sailors can change doors, and they are likely to be swinging on the mast in no time.

According to Li Huamei's temper in the past, if Weishui dared to take the initiative to rob her ship, if caught, he would either walk on the gangway or swing, or at least drag the keel. In short, he would die badly.But somehow her heart began to soften.

As a small pirate gang with only two ships and less than 300 people, the Li family sisters can survive in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean for so long, which fully demonstrates their strength, not to mention that Li Huamei now has a little bit of goodwill from the Transit Group behind her.

Regardless of this little kindness, in the past few years, Li Huamei has increasingly discovered the powerful strength shown by this kindness-she has become increasingly inseparable from the Senate.

"If it wasn't for Miss and Sister, it would be better to hang out with Australians." Li Huamei thought to herself, and she couldn't help being very discouraged when she thought that she was actually going to be an undercover agent.

Holding a scimitar, she kicked open the door of the captain's cabin and began to search for spoils. The most valuable thing on any ship was always placed in the captain's cabin, unless it was a Spanish gold ship loaded with tons of gold and silver.

The search was soon completed. A bag of gold coins and some gold jewelry were found in the captain's cabin, which is not a lot. There were two small wine barrels locked in the ammunition depot. After prying them open, they were filled with silver coins, about three to four thousand silver. Thaler——In this time and space, European ships go to the east empty and return full, and usually carry a lot of cash.In addition, many scattered gold and silver coins were also found from the captives.

The ship's cargo included some furs and weapons.There is no market for leather goods in India, and they are mainly re-exported. The weapons are probably for the Tarangambadi colony's own use, or sold to the local aborigines.In addition to this, the largest batch of spoils turned out to be - people.

First, a European man and several yellow-haired women were pushed out from the bilge. He introduced himself as Frederick Wellsley Carlson, a Lutheran pastor. One of the women was his wife, and the others were There were originally more than a dozen war widows and orphans taken in by his church and old nuns who were "liberated" during the German war. Half of them died on the way, and now there are only 6 left.Since Protestantism does not have the profession of nuns, and these nuns and widows and orphans of the old religion have no other means of life, they will sooner or later become prostitutes, the Copenhagen church where Pastor Carlson belongs decided to let him go to the colonies to preach, and take these women to the colonies to make a living by the way— The so-called seeking a living means marrying a local single European colonist.

According to the confession of other captives on the ship, Captain Terelding Veshui was willing to take these women because he wanted to sell the colony to make a fortune. As for whether he should serve as a servant for the governor or be a concubine for some prince, it is not his business. Anyway, a priest in India has nowhere to reason.Since it was a commodity, these women were locked in the hold along the way, and they were not violated in any way.

The next group of slaves brought up by Veshui from the Arab ships plundered by Oman were also locked in the hold. There were more than twenty men and women in black and white.Those women are basically so ruined that they can't crawl, and the men are not much better.Li Huamei knew that Australians had a special interest in Caucasian women, and they could probably sell them for a good price. There were probably three or four Arab slaves who could be brought back to Lingao alive, and the rest could only be sold in Ceylon. In addition, your own ship and the stolen ship also need to be repaired.

After complete disarmament and simple handling, the two boats slowly headed towards the port of Galle in the south of Ceylon Island.

The injured Griffin slowed down a lot and did not reach the vicinity of Galle until the dawn of the next day. The sea was dotted with fishing boats, seagulls chirping and shuttled between the fishing sails, and a large group of flying foxes returning to their nests quietly. It flew over the Hangzhou and Griffin silently.

Galle is a trading colony controlled by the Portuguese in the southwest of Ceylon Island, about 100 kilometers south of Colombo in the old time and space, just on the coast of the Indian Ocean.The old city of Galle and its castle are built on a rocky peninsula. This peninsula is a natural port. Due to the emergence of a large number of coral reefs, the entrance to the port has become extremely intricate.

In the 14th century, Galle was already one of the most active ports on the island of Ceylon. In 1505, the Portuguese began to settle on the island. In 1507, they established a trading post in Galle and built the small castle of St. Croix.

Both Li Huamei and Li Siya have been there countless times, but because of some fights with the locals last year, they originally wanted to avoid it this time, but now it seems impossible to avoid it.

No one was killed in the incident last time, it was nothing more than spending some money to settle it, and repairing the ship also required money.In addition to the gold and silver I plundered, some of the captives I captured were of high status, who could be sold to the Governor of Galle—the Governor would be happy to extort ransom from Tarangambadi’s Danish counterparts. time.

The governor did almost nothing in this small colony: the Portuguese were good at enclosing it, but not at running it.The heat is certainly a problem, but so is the seemingly lazy nature of the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula.The island of Ceylon was conquered and developed by the Dutch and the British, but the Portuguese left little trace.The Galle Fort, which later became a United Nations cultural heritage, was built after the Dutch captured Ceylon, with a construction area of ​​35 square meters.The current Galle Fort is just a wall built on the north side of the peninsula near the isthmus and three forts added after being threatened by the Dutch in 1625.

However, these three fortresses can only deal with naval attacks at the technical level at that time.Even in the face of the firepower of the Hangzhou, it can't last long. It is really hard to see that the Portuguese have been operating here for more than 120 years.

(End of this chapter)