I

  Chapter 772 769 [Returning to China]

   On the way back to the voyage, if there is anything different, it is that there is an extra supply station near the Cape of Good Hope.

   This broken place was taken by the Dutch, and the person in charge was called Van Riebeck. He was thrown here with a boat, and at first he had to plant the land himself. After barely settling down, he quickly went to the neighborhood to catch black people to help, and now he is even digging aqueducts.

  Black people are too stupid, they can only work as low-level free laborers. If they want to develop into a port city, they need more Asian talents.

  Van Riebeck has written to the governor of Batavia, asking the other party to exile a group of Javanese natives. If nothing else happens, next year hundreds of Javanese will be sentenced to death for their heinous crimes, and the Governor Mercy will instead exile them to Cape Town.

  Cape Town is just around the corner.

  At this time, it is not even a village, just a group of exiled Dutchmen, whipping the black slaves to work there all day long. Due to the difficulty of supply, the food cannot be self-sufficient, and the black slaves do not dare to catch too many. Anyway, it is a dilapidated small village by the sea.

  Who would have expected that it would eventually become the capital of a country?

  The Cape of Good Hope is still so terrifying, where warm currents and cold currents meet, and the hydrological environment in the sea is extremely complicated. The strong westerly jet stream blows across the Atlantic Ocean unobstructed, and there are constant storms and stormy waves all year round.

   Occasionally, there will be murderous waves, the wave height can reach 20 meters, and people and boats can physically go to the sky.

   Therefore, in order to avoid the murderous waves, the ships that come and go will basically not choose to cross the Cape of Good Hope in winter. In the Cape of Good Hope in winter, the sea water seems to be boiled, the killing waves and the whirling waves are superimposed, and the entire sea surface is crazily surging and rolling.

  At the beginning of the great voyage, people were not familiar with the Cape of Good Hope, but now they have gradually figured out the situation.

  Of course, it depends on the face.

  For example, the famous navigator Dias went there in a relatively safe summer, but he encountered strong winds and waves. Fortunately, he was pushed to the shore and survived. The return voyage was at the end of winter, the most dangerous season at the Cape of Good Hope, but what greeted him was sunny and sunny. More than ten years later, Dias finally died at the Cape of Good Hope, the entire fleet was wiped out by the murderous waves, and he chose the most suitable season.

  The Chinese fleet is very lucky at this time. The biggest wave in the nearby waters is only four or five meters high, which is very suitable for crossing the Cape of Good Hope.

"Wow!"

  British country boy John, with his little friend Thomas, even grabbed the cable and cheered.

   These two guys may be of lower origin, and they don't have the arrogance of the British.

   On the contrary, industrious and simple, work hard.

  After boarding the ship, they asked to be sailors. Of course, they are not serious sailors, and they just help wash the deck. The monotonous and tiring work, but the two teenagers are very happy to do it.

   Another wave hit, lifting the boat several meters high. The strong westerly wind was blowing, and it was impossible to stand on the deck without holding on to something.

  Water keeps falling from the sky, and it is not clear whether it is rain or falling sea water.

  John was drenched to the skin, looked up at the cloud-covered sky, and shouted with emotion: "It's too spectacular. If I stayed in the UK, I would definitely not see such a scene!"

  Thomas heard only the sound of the wind and waves, and asked, "What did you say?"

   "Sail down, jib all down!"

  The leader among the sailors hissed and gesticulated.

   After a toss, it finally passed safely.

  Prince Charles is also on deck. This guy likes excitement and adventure, and likes to learn various low-level skills. It is estimated that when he arrived in China, he was already a qualified sailor.

   "Your Majesty the King!"

  The two country boys hurriedly saluted Charles.

   This Prince Charles, after his father was executed, was once supported by the Scottish nobles as king.

   Not the King of England, but the King of Scotland!

  Charles was still excited, but at the same time felt lingering fear, and said with a smile: "This is the Cape of Good Hope, and people will never be able to conquer it."

  Thomas immediately flattered: "Your Majesty is brave and fearless, and can conquer everything!"

  Charles said with a smile: "If I can conquer England, I will appoint you as my captain of the guard."

  Thomas said happily: "Swear allegiance to His Majesty to the death!"

  The situation is nonsense. The two London country boys belong to the emerging gentry class in England. It was these squires who overthrew the rule of the old king and slaughtered the old king.

  But after they got in touch with Prince Charles, they immediately chose to curry favor. No matter what happens in the future, getting to know the exiled prince is not a bad thing after all, and you can still be a hero if you don't pay attention.

  Of course, Charles also has his own charisma, and he can easily convince two country boys.

   In contrast, Cromwell's eldest son, also named Charles (Charlie Cromwell). But this guy is a man of peace and prosperity, with extremely mediocre military and political capabilities. Historically, he did succeed the Lord Protector, and in order to gain the support of the Parliament, he also re-delegated power to the Parliament. Under the support of the parliament, they failed to survive a year, and the army and the people rebelled everywhere, frightening the parliament to restore the monarchy quickly.

  Prince Charles, who had gone through hardships, was later invited back to England for restoration, and that way of governing the country can be called old fritters.

  The first thing after the coronation was to pardon the original rebels, and only killed nine guys who signed his father's death sentence. All other rebellious parties and nobles are forgiven!

   Then, it also guarantees all the property acquired by the great nobles and squires during the rebellion.

  Unite the parliament again, let the parliament hold the financial power, and reform the tax package system into a more advanced parliamentary financial system by mistake.

  The British Glorious Revolution later deepened this fiscal reform and completely laid the economic foundation for Britain's rise. After the tax reform, the total tax revenue in the UK tripled, but the common people cheered for it, because the burden of tax payment was greatly reduced.

  Even Charles was too lazy to take back the royal land and properties that were auctioned off by the rebellious party, which made countless people grateful to him.

  Finally, on the pretext of rebellion by Catholics, the Catholics in the parliament were fully expelled, winning the loyal support of the majority of Protestants.

  Great nobles, squires, citizens, yeoman, church...All classes in Britain agree that Charles is a wise monarch!

  There are many things that Cromwell couldn't do in his life, but Charles can do it between talking and laughing.

  However, Charles' title is still "Happy King" after all. After the situation stabilized, he became sloppy again, only appearing tough and strategic in foreign wars.

   "Come and help hoist the sail!" a Chinese sailor shouted.

"coming!"

  Prince Charles responded quickly and ran over joyfully. Two country boys also rushed to help.

  The fleet bypassed the southern tip of the African continent and came to East Africa without any surprises.

   On the island of Madagascar, a group of Chinese soldiers already nominally own a territory as large as Taiwan. But I still missed the returning fleet. The fleet is advancing along the coastline. If it is not for avoiding the wind and waves, it will generally not stop at the west coast of Madagascar.

  Continue sailing north and visit Said of Oman again.

  About more than a hundred date palm saplings were planted in wooden barrels and all were moved to the Chinese boat.

   This thing is sweet, sweet like diabetes.

  But ancient people would not dislike it. Sugar is a luxury product, and the sweeter it is, the better. Moreover, dates can even be used as a staple food. Trunks, branches, leaves, all have economic value.

When    came, Said entertained the Chinese envoy with dates.

   Zhang Ruifeng and others were so amazed by the date palms that they immediately bought many seeds and placed an order for 150 date palm saplings.

   This thing is resistant to high temperature, flooding, drought, salt and alkali, and can be planted on hillsides, seasides and deserts. It's a pity that it is not resistant to severe cold, and it will freeze to death if it is lower than minus 10 degrees, otherwise it can be planted in the Hetao Desert.

  Watching the date palm saplings board the boat, Said pointed to the accompanying Portuguese boat and said, "Mr. Chinese envoy, why are you with the Portuguese?"

  Zhang Ruifeng explained: "This is a Portuguese diplomatic ship. The King of Portugal sent an envoy to visit His Majesty the Emperor."

Sayed didn't hold on anymore, and said: "During the time you left, I captured another Portuguese castle. I also annexed all the northern plains. Now I have sufficient financial resources and want to be in China. Order ten warships. Of course, order five first, and if I am satisfied, I will pay for the rest.”

   "There is no problem with this, as long as there is money, everything is easy to talk about." Zhang Ruifeng was very happy, after all, he got a big order for the shipyard.

   Said also has no choice. Although the Arabs can build ships, their naval combat performance is far from enough, and there is also a serious shortage of large-caliber artillery. After subduing the pirates, this guy took the initiative to go to the coast of India to plunder the merchant ships coming and going from Portugal, but was beaten up by the Portuguese fleet.

   In desperation, Said had an idea, and spent money to ask the Chinese to build warships.

  For foreign orders, Zhao Han is of course willing to accept them, but the quality cannot be guaranteed. Don't even think about a hundred-year-old giant wood, and it is impossible for the wood to be brewed for ten years.

  If you don’t ask China to help build the ship, Said will have to save up slowly by himself, and it will take decades to finally build a fleet. At that time, he will become the overlord of the Indian Ocean and beat the Portuguese merchant ships around.

   When leaving Oman, there were more than 30 more Arabs on the Chinese envoy fleet. These guys brought money to the Chinese shipyard.

  The next stop is the port of Bassain, India.

  This is the territory of the Bijapur Kingdom. On the surface, it recognizes the status of Mughal's suzerainty, but in private, it is constantly making small moves.

  In this country, a Hindu youth in his 20s is fighting against Mughal and Bijapur.

  The young master of a small Hindu lord's family, only a mid-level officer, but dared to resist two big countries at the same time. And the team continued to grow, and in another year, they even attacked four countries at the same time, and repeatedly wandered around the borders of the four countries.

  A few years later, the results continued to expand. Killed the commander-in-chief of Bijapur, killed the son of the Mughal vice king, captured the Mughal coastal city of Surat, and forced the Mughal army to withdraw from the Deccan Plateau.

  During the period, this young man was once ordered by the Mughals to cede 23 castles and a large area of ​​land in exchange for recognition of the status of the Mughal Dynasty. But the Mughal emperor backtracked and wanted to trap and kill him. The young man escaped successfully, and then fought against the Mughals for more than 30 years, causing the Mughals' finances to collapse completely, and finally established their own country.

   This young man, named Jatparathi Sivaji, was known as the "Father of the Indian Navy" hundreds of years later.

  When the Chinese fleet docked, Sivaji was leading troops to attack.

  A group of well-equipped Bijapur soldiers were killed by the ragged Hindu rebels and fled to the Portuguese castle to ask for asylum.

   "War, here is war!" Prince Charles shouted excitedly.

  Lu Tianxiang was no longer interested in fighting, and said: "This country is in war, so we don't need supplies for now. Go to the south and pick a safer port."

  (end of this chapter)