Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1332 Promoting peace by fighting (thirteen)

May 1663, 5, sunny, outside Kampa Bay.

Han Dezhi has been a little sick recently. After all, he is old and has various problems, especially in the case of such a long-distance voyage. Therefore, his subordinates sent him to a hospital ship with relatively comfortable conditions to receive careful care.The command of the fleet was handed over to the experienced lieutenant commander and outstanding general of this time and space, Major Jiang Yaohui-he is also the key training object of the Ministry of the Navy.

After Major Jiang took over the position of acting fleet commander, he was not pretentious. He raised the command flag on the topmast of his own ship, the "Control Dongfang", and then ordered the faster "Fubo Wanli" Together with himself, the battleship patrolled the entire mouth of Kampa Bay, and at the same time sent the battleship "East Coaster" to the auxiliary fleet that was wandering in the western waters to protect the safety of these unarmed ships.

Naturally, he has his own reasons for such an arrangement, and at the same time, he has done enough homework.An agent of the National Intelligence Agency who accompanied the army (Portuguese, once sailed to India and worked there for seven years, and was later bought by people on the east coast) provided him with a lot of detailed information on Portuguese India, including very The important point is the trade route of the Portuguese - you must know that in Portuguese India in this era, when the spice trade was declining (due to the competition from the Dutch), the Portuguese Indian strongholds and even Southeast Asia and Macao The trade volume between them has risen to more than two-thirds of the total trade volume, and less than one-third is trade with Lisbon. Import and export duties have become the main income of Goa, Diu and other ports— — According to last century sources, Goa Customs received more than 80 lakh cruzados (silver cruzados, non-cruzados gold coins) in customs revenue.

Of course, with the shrinking trade volume today, the tariff income of 80 Cruzado is gone forever, and half of the Portuguese should be laughing secretly.What's more, Portuguese businessmen and officials are now more corrupt than in the last century. A typical example is that when the Governor of Goa set out to cruise the Red Sea, the rest of the officials in India—even the clergy—grasp their hands. Opportunity, it can be seen that batches of pepper were shipped to smuggling ships and sold to the Middle East, which greatly damaged the commercial interests of the Kingdom of Portugal.

However, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. Although the Portuguese have become weak and easy to buy, the rules set back then are still very deterrent. Most businessmen still abide by them honestly. All merchant ships in the Gulf had to stop at the port of Diu, and then pay customs duties to receive a pass issued by the Portuguese Navy. Otherwise, they would probably be captured by the patrol fleet, and the owner and sailors of the merchant ship would also be hanged or thrown into prison.

The effect of this provision was so strong that even the vast Warlord Empire had to acquiesce to the Portuguese's legal occupation of these strongholds and dominion over the sea, and asked for a free pass every year so that they could send A ship goes to the Red Sea without paying customs duties to the Portuguese.

Therefore, it is naturally very appropriate for Major Jiang Yaohui to deploy two warships with steam propulsion systems between Diu and Daman, which can capture various merchant ships along the coast to the greatest extent, including Portuguese merchants and plums. Of course, most of the merchants of the Stico (that is, Indian-Portuguese mixed race) are native Indian merchants.

These merchant ships are generally loaded with special products from both sides of Kampa Bay—there are many types, but the largest quantities are undoubtedly the three major categories of cotton cloth, indigo and saltpeter—then sail along the ocean currents to the coast of Malabar and even Southeast Asia, where they exchange silk. , porcelain and some of the spices flowing out; after that, the ships will sail to Bago and the Bay of Bengal to exchange local commodities such as rice, shellac and rubies, and then sail to the Maldives to stop and replenish; after that, the fleet will either return to Goa , or wait for the opportunity to go to the Red Sea to exchange local specialties or gold bars.However, today, when Portuguese forces are being gradually expelled from the Middle East, most of this trade route has basically been cut off. Today, only a few Indian or Mestico merchants in the Portuguese colony will go to trade, but the amount is not large. It's the **** businessman over there.

On May 1663, 5, the merchant ship that the people on the east coast were waiting for did not come, but they saw two Portuguese naval patrol ships approaching one after the other.These are locally built 17-ton paddle sail boats, small in size and not equipped with many guns, but the structure is much stronger than the exotic ships made in India, so they are almost invincible in naval battles. It is not an exaggeration to say that it was hanged.However, when these two merchant ships encountered the majestic "August [-]th" class battleship, their captains were so surprised that their jaws dropped to the ground. Except that the Dutch East India Company sent some large ships to show off their power, when will Are there giant ships from other countries coming here to join in the fun?Even the ships of the British East India Company that defeated the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf were not so large in tonnage. They were mostly armed merchant ships of three to four hundred tons, but what was in front of them?A large professional warship with dozens of cannons!

When encountering such a situation, the captain of the Portuguese patrol boat rushing to the front thought of not fighting, but kneeling on the deck to repent. When encountering such things, the religious Iberians always Will suspect that he has been abandoned by God, so the confession is very sincere.Under the leadership of the captain, the Portuguese or Indo-Portuguese officers on the ship also knelt on the deck and confessed. Their voices were so loud that each other could hear them.One man, perhaps out of extreme fear, confessed his crimes aloud, some of them so serious and so heinous that the priest had to cover his mouth tightly and tell him not to speak any more.

Naturally, there is no suspense in the course of the battle, and there is no need to repeat it.The two battleships on the east coast, one on the left and one on the right, each picked an opponent and forced them up. As a result, the Portuguese and Mestico officers on the first patrol ship were confessing, and the Indian sailors (faith ****) looked at each other. The white flag was simply raised to surrender; while the second patrol boat was frantically trying to turn around and escape, but this was not easy, the southwest wind and currents on the sea made their movements extremely clumsy, and they were quickly commanded by Major Moreel. The "Fubo Wanli" was embellished, and after a round of bombardment, it was forced to raise the white flag to surrender-only dozens of shells were fired before and after, and two Portuguese offshore patrol ships were forced to land, and more than 200 sailors were captured at the same time. It's really easy enough, and of course only people on the east coast can be so relaxed. The sultans of Indian states who have been tortured to pieces by this kind of offshore patrol boat certainly don't think so.

The more than 200 captured Portuguese and Indian sailors provided a lot of valuable information to the people on the east coast. For example, about [-] Arabian horses and a large number of Gulf pearls had just been transported by Japanese businessmen to the port of Diu. , Persian silk, blankets, and rose water. For example, the chief of defense of the city just disbanded the troops temporarily called last year. For example, hundreds of professional soldiers and fleets in the port of Diu were just transferred to the Cochin Fortress last year to resist the attack of the Dutch East India Company.

Jiang Yaohui was overjoyed when he heard the news, and immediately summoned Mo Lie, Yang Liang, and Han Dezhi's adjutant, Lieutenant Hou Dasan, to a meeting on the "Control Dongfang" battleship to discuss the next action plan.Everyone was also quite excited about the information obtained from the interrogation, especially after learning that Japanese businessmen had shipped a large amount of goods from the Middle East and even East Africa to the port of Diu (of course, more of them were shipped to Goa) for sale. Everyone realized that this is a great opportunity to "get rich".

You know, the value of a thousand Arabian horses is not a small sum.In a time of increasing warfare—Aurangzeb's conquest of southern India and wars with Persian and Afghan chieftains and Uzbek nomads—the Mughal Empire was in great demand for horses.There is no way, who makes the Indian Kampa horses useless? They can only do some rough work. Even the horses smuggled from Persia are not worth enough, and the general price is only 300 cruzados. .But Arabian horses are different. An Arabian horse that can be used for military purposes and is also suitable for display is priced at more than 500 cruzados, and a thousand horses is more than 50 cruzados. Jiang, Mo, Yang and others Thinking about it makes me drunk, what a huge fortune this is, it is really unreasonable not to go to the port of Diu to snatch it!

Moreover, the captured Portuguese have clearly stated that there were originally some professional soldiers (mostly Portuguese or Indo-Portuguese) in the port of Diu, but because of the tense situation in Cochin, they were conscripted and transferred to the south by the Governor of Goa last year. To help defend, has not yet returned.As for the defense on the island of Diu, generally speaking, Indian soldiers called temporarily by the chief of defense are in charge, and the officers are filled by Portuguese.But a strange thing is that these temporary troops called up every year generally only last until the rainy season comes in May and June. The troops will be disbanded again, and the soldiers will temporarily leave the army for several months. Many of them can only beg for food on the streets of Goa, Diu, Daman and other cities until they are called up again.

To be fair, the combat effectiveness of these Indian soldiers is actually not bad. They have followed the Portuguese in various conquests—such as organizing a large-scale voyage in the 16th century. Among them, less than 3000 soldiers were Portuguese or Portuguese-Indian mixed descendants. , and the rest are mostly Indians—in the battles, the performance is not bad. I fought with the Persians and the English in the Middle East; I fought with the Ottoman Empire and the Omans in East Africa; I fought with the Dutch and local natives in Southeast Asia. ; I don’t know how many times I have fought with the chieftains and Sudans of the Indian subcontinent. The overall performance is still good, and the loyalty is not bad.

But after all, they are not professional soldiers who have practiced all year round. Many of them are in dire economic condition. When the rainy season comes, they can only rely on begging for a living (many of them were poor or even beggars before they were conscripted). The officers and soldiers of the railway guard team contended.In addition, the rainy season came very early this year. It was only in the middle of May, and the pouring rain covered the entire Gujarat area. These Indian soldiers have already been dismissed and returned home. Many people have already gone to make a living. Working in the countryside, it is impossible to recruit again in a short period of time, so this gives the people on the east coast an excellent opportunity-you know, there are only less than "two hundred" and "pampered" patrols in the city of Diu at this time What about soldiers.

On the night of May 1663, 5, after careful planning, the east coast fleet carefully avoided any ships on the sea, and then quietly sailed to the sea off the island of Diu in the night, and then put down many small boats, and the Southern Railway escort team The reorganized Seventh Mixed Battalion of more than a thousand officers and soldiers, except for some who were seasick and uncomfortable, all of them rowed to the shore in batches under the leadership of Captain Yang Liang.

The place where they landed was the south bank of the western half of the island. It was sparsely populated, and there were no Portuguese military strongholds or towns. Therefore, the officers and soldiers who landed on the east bank were hardly hindered, except that they stabbed a few unlucky people to death with bayonets for fear of leaking the news. Except for the Indian residents, everything seemed calm, and the entire island of Diu was asleep in the dark rainy night.

Due to the extremely poor visibility at night, it took a long time for the people on the east coast to land and gather their troops. In the process, it even inevitably caused dozens of army officers and soldiers to fall into the sea (falling into the sea when they got off the big ship) , a major event in which 16 people drowned.

Captain Yang Liang, who had finished his team, immediately ordered to march towards Diu Port, led by some captured Portuguese and Indian sailors.At this time, their lives were all in the hands of the people from the East Bank, and Captain Yang Liang promised not to hurt their families, so they all led the way honestly, not daring to resist at all.

It was raining heavily today, and the thousand officers and soldiers of the Seventh Mixed Battalion, wearing rubber raincoats and rain boots, marched silently on the dirt road. With such a resolute attitude, he killed the still sleeping Diu port.

At 5:19 on May 03th, the night was still deep.A thunderbolt streaked across the sky above the island of Diu, reflecting the bright jungle formed by more than a thousand bayonets outside the city of Diu.The stern-faced Captain Yang Liang gave an order, and the silent bayonet jungle began to move rapidly. Rifle, to kill the unwalled city of Diu—for many Portuguese and Indians who are still ignorant, this is destined not to be an equal battle, but a bloody killing.

(End of this chapter)