Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The climate of this archipelago is very comfortable, and the six second-generation officials stayed there for half a month, and they did not board the ship until the treasure-hunting trio began to urge them.

The tropics don't necessarily mean extreme heat.

The temperature in the Andaman Islands is very stable throughout the year, ranging from 25 degrees to 32 degrees, and basically does not exceed this range. It's similar over there in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), with temperatures ranging from 21 degrees to 32 degrees.

On this departure, there were more than a dozen ships accompanying us, all of which were merchant ships from South India.

Since the Ming Dynasty established a port in the Andaman Islands, more and more merchant ships from various countries have come here. The businessmen also suggested that Lin Riyan open a ship repair yard, because there may be storms across the Bay of Bengal, and having a ship repair yard will make navigation more convenient.

The fleet approached Ceylon without any danger. The South Indian merchant ships did not enter the port, but sailed to the port of the Chola Dynasty further west.

"This port used to be called Taiman, but now it is called Wangxiang," Wang Chongdu said, pointing to the port in front. "When the envoys of the Ming Dynasty returned from Seljuk, they encountered a rebellion by the nobles of the Ceylon State to establish themselves. The envoys of the Ming Dynasty helped the prince of Ceylon recover. After entering the country, the prince donated Taiman Port to the Ming Dynasty. "

Bai Shihou pursed his lips and smiled. What he heard was not this version of the story.

Wang Chongdu continued: "It's too far here, and the imperial court only appointed one governor. After extracting commercial taxes to recover the cost, there was no second governor. There was only one commander on the island, and it was nominally under the control of the imperial court, but in fact it had been left alone. ”

"Leave it alone?" Lu You said in surprise.

"Ceylon is too far away and cannot be managed for the time being," Wang Chongdu said. "There are five hundred soldiers on the island. They are all criminals who were exiled to Salmon Island in the former Song Dynasty. One or two of them were so hungry that they ate people during the change of dynasties. The commander is The leaders of these soldiers, the Guangzhou Navy sends ships to deliver some supplies every year, and then gets back some commercial taxes, and trades there by the way. "

Bai Shihou asked: "What supplies will Guangzhou send?"

Wang Chongdu said: "Swords, armor, crossbows, and gunpowder. The five hundred soldiers had dozens of muskets, and four artillery pieces were left with them. They need to rely on Guangzhou for maintenance and replenishment. When will they not need help from their mother country? "

Even in the age of sailing ships, the cost of maintaining an ultra-long-distance colony was often beyond one's means. Therefore, Ju Ming really never thought of colonizing Ceylon.

Too far!

If you really want to colonize here, you will also directly colonize India. The main purpose is to obtain cheap raw materials and dumping markets.

The Netherlands in another time and space also lost money during its heyday. The Dutch West India Company had been operating in dismal conditions, relying on blood transfusions from the East India Company to survive. The Dutch East India Company also suffered losses on its books for hundreds of years, and finally had to declare bankruptcy - the major shareholders of the East India Company made money, and they even paid dividends first and then calculated the company's profits and losses.

The main costs of Dutch colonization were official corruption and military expenditures, and those accounts were not clear at all.

The colonial activities of Spain and Portugal both destroyed all the local industry, agriculture and commerce in their own countries! It just made the king, the nobles and some businessmen rich.

We still have to rely on local manufacturing to colonize like Britain did.

Ju Ming's plan is to use both the British and French models.

Playing the French model in Southeast Asia and Nanyang, slowly and painstakingly manage and educate the indigenous people, replicating the Chinese culture and system.

In further areas, such as India and Bangladesh, the British system is adopted. Send a small garrison to instigate locals to fight each other, destroy their local handicrafts, plunder cheap raw materials and food, and at the same time dump Chinese goods there.

As for America, I have not considered it for the time being, because there is no need to look far away from the near.

…

Before the fleet officially entered Wangxiang Port, a large number of merchant ships were seen docked in the port.

Some Arab, Egyptian and Seljuk traders, they did not sail to Srivijaya or China. They used to get goods from South India and bring them back to their own country to sell. Nowadays, Ceylon's Wangxiang Port also has a large amount of Chinese goods, so they have to travel an extra distance to Ceylon to purchase goods.

Ming and Srivijaya merchants were also willing to transport goods to Ceylon, and most of them were Srivijaya merchants.

Now Srivijaya has destroyed the country and split it into a lot of small states. In addition, Srivijaya's former vassal state will see more and more Nanyang merchants transport Eastern goods to Ceylon for resale in the future.

Wangxiang Port will definitely become more prosperous!

The richer and more prosperous this place becomes, the less the five hundred soldiers dare to leave China. Not to mention the indigenous forces on the island of Ceylon, the Chola dynasty of South India is also eyeing it next door.

Once they break away from China and are no longer protected by China, it will be impossible to stop the endless attacks of the Chola army.

After all, their population is too small.

"The Ming Dynasty ships are coming, everyone, get out of the way and free up the inner berths over there!"

A small guided ship came straight to Wang Chongdu.

It is estimated that it has been discovered that this is a Chinese gunboat, so special treatment will be given. They even drove away the merchant ships that had docked to free up the best berths for Wang Chongdu to dock.

The merchant ship that was driven away did not dare to say anything and just moved to a more remote berth.

Not long after, Xia Yuqing, the commander of Wangxiang Port, came to greet him in person and was extremely surprised to find that it was not a warship.

He inquired carefully and found out that Wang Chongdu and the others were sea explorers supported by Emperor Zhu, and they had also brought six second-generation super officials.

Everyone was welcomed to the official residence left by the governor, and along the way they found that the city was particularly lively.

No outer city walls were built.

The two castles face each other across the river, at an angle.

Surrounding the main castle is the city, which is somewhat similar to a Japanese castle town.

There are various ethnic groups living in the city, from Egypt to Southeast Asia.

Seljuk merchants, in particular, have chosen to immigrate more and more in recent years.

Since Sultan Sanjar was defeated and returned from the war, the vassal states started to become independent one after another, and the internal separatist forces became stronger. There were constant wars among the lords. In order to regain his strength, Sanjar frantically imposed additional agricultural and commercial taxes.

As a result, many Seljuk merchants chose the Three Caves of Cunning Rabbits.

They left properties in their own country and sent tribesmen to buy properties overseas. They would run away as soon as there was any trouble.

Wangxiang Port in Ceylon has also become one of their immigration destinations.

The other is the merchants along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, which is now ruled by several large families. There is no country, the form of government is family tribe, and the exploitation of merchants who are not from the tribe is extremely heavy.

Therefore, many Arab businessmen, after making money through sea trade, choose to stay overseas for a long time, and some even stay in Guangdong and Fujian.

"This used to be the governor's palace," Xia Yuqing led them into a building in the castle. "Later the governor resigned and the court didn't send him again, so I moved in here. There are many rooms, although they are not as good as in China, but in Xi Lan is not bad, you gentlemen, please take care of me for a moment."

"It's okay." Lu You smiled.

As he spoke, Bai Shihou walked into the lobby and pointed to the map hanging on the wall: "Is this Ceylon?"

Xia Yuqing nodded and said: "That's the map of Ceylon. At the beginning, we only had a small area around Wangxiang Port. Now it has been conquered, one hundred and fifty miles to the south and ninety miles to the east. , eighty miles to the north, all is our territory."

Fan Chengda joked: "Commander Xia can also be called Bailihou."

"I don't own it alone," Xia Yuqing waved his hand. "There were five hundred soldiers left at that time. In the past few years, only one person died in battle, but six died of illness. All the land gained was divided among the brothers. Even the deceased have their share. Their wives and children have already been taken in. Some of them have adopted young children to pass on the incense to them.”

After saying that, Xia Yuqing sighed again: "The land is still not big enough. Excluding those mountainous areas that are difficult to cultivate, the average person only has two to three thousand acres of land. Fortunately, the commercial tax at the port is not bad, and we can barely get by."

Barely getting by?

Is this really human language?

This is not the Monkey Harbor, it requires hard work to cultivate the land from scratch. Agriculture on the island of Ceylon is very developed, and there are even terraced fields and many water conservancy facilities. Even though some water conservancy facilities have been abandoned due to long-term wars, repairs are relatively simple and can be directly organized by indigenous people.

On average, each person has two to three thousand acres of farmland. You are all big landowners, right?

Moreover, the land is definitely not divided equally. Soldiers with higher official positions and more meritorious services can be divided more. For example, Xia Yuqing himself has a total of 7,000 acres of land. There is no need to work by yourself, the local indigenous people are all his tenants, and even the corpses of those who dare to resist have been weathered.

Xia Yuqing not only brought his wife and children, but also relatives from his hometown, asking his wife and relatives to help manage the land.

Of course, only the original five hundred soldiers were eligible to obtain land through expansion.

Their family members, relatives or fellow villagers could purchase land or receive land as gifts, but they could only purchase or give land from 500 soldiers.

Very deformed Tian Zheng!

Equivalent to 500 nobles, they join forces with each other and continue to expand. These people are all original shareholders.

After that, even if they are relatives, they can only be considered small shareholders after the company goes public.

These guys also selected the more obedient natives in their respective jurisdictions and gave them leather armor and simple weapons as followers. In peacetime, the military is not paid, and is only responsible for food. However, the land rent for the subordinates' families will be reduced, and in case of war, they will also be given an additional departure fee. Subordinates can also receive rewards for their meritorious service, but the reward fields are given to their masters. Whether or not they should be given fields depends on the owner's wishes.

Xia Yuqing recruited fifty followers, which were regarded as his personal guards.

Qi Qi'an asked: "If you continue to expand like this, won't the indigenous forces on the island jointly send troops?"

Xia Yuqing smiled and said: "The nobles on the island are fighting among themselves. Moreover, we are not expanding very fast. It took several years to build a larger territory. Only the barbarian chief in the north is more troublesome. He was the one who killed the king in the first place. Seize the throne and stand on your own. We try not to provoke them, expand to the north as little as possible, and even leave a small noble as a buffer. "

"How many Chinese are there on the island?" Lu You asked.

Xia Yuqing said: "About three thousand people. Many of them are fellow villagers and relatives recruited by the soldiers. When they heard that we had become rich and became big landowners, the villagers who were living a hard life were willing to join us. Next time we expand our territory, we will We will also allocate some land to these villagers, and arrange for those who can write and do calculations to become officials, and they will receive a monthly salary."

Fan Chengda muttered: "More than three thousand people are already a lot. The Monkey Harbor area is too wild. Commander Lin can't even recruit locals."

"Haha, he is indeed unlucky." Xia Yu rejoiced in his misfortune.

Everyone stayed there for a few days, when suddenly a flying horse came to report.

The regicide and usurper from the north was nearly wiped out by the Ming army. After licking his wounds for several years, he led his troops to kill him again!

He also persuaded three nearby noble lords to assemble a coalition of tens of thousands of people.

The six second-generation officials arrived by chance and happened to witness a great battle.