The fleets sent by Datang Western Company one after another also transported some reinforcements to Banten. Now, although the company's armed forces in Banten are not as good as those in Mindao, they still have more than 500 troops stationed in them. Similarly,
It was a perfect bastion that was built, which made the local Banten people helpless and even the Portuguese hesitated after seeing it!
Although there is no evidence from the Tang Dynasty, my family knows their own affairs. In January this year, the Tang colony on Mindao Island was attacked by pirates. Although there were not many foreigners in it, there were many Nanyang natives and Japanese pirates.
A gang composed of foreign pirates, etc., but this pirate group was secretly organized by them. Bookmark this site
Even those who commanded the battle were Portuguese!
However, they took advantage of the fact that the Tang Dynasty Western Company's fleet was not at the port and launched a surprise attack. Although they occupied the port, they suffered a shameful failure when they attacked the castle!
More than 3,000 people besieged the fortress, with only half of them killed or injured, but they still failed to break through the fortress. Then they learned that another group of Tang Western Company's fleets were about to arrive, so they had to retreat in order to avoid the conspiracy being exposed.
In this battle, the Datang Western Company suffered only twenty-six casualties, while the pirates who besieged the castle suffered more than four hundred casualties!
The business houses on Mindao Island just can’t be conquered. Banten is still such a fortress. What’s more, Banten also has indigenous political power. They don’t just say they can attack it if they want to. So in recent times,
Yue, they watched the Datang Western Company's commercial building in Bandan transform from a small warehouse into a fortress. In the end, if they didn't have thousands of people and dozens or hundreds of artillery, they couldn't fight at all.
Relying on human lives to fill the gap, damn, when it came to overseas colonization, no one had many troops. If the Portuguese could prevent tens of thousands of troops from attacking, they would have done it long ago.
Anyway, today's Datang Western Company only established a business office and did not express its intention to establish a colony and take over the local indigenous power. In addition, the business and trade between the two countries is getting bigger and bigger, but the relationship is also getting more and more tense.
, at this time, the Portuguese tolerated it in order to avoid accidents.
Of course, there is another very important reason for this, that is, the two trading stations established by Datang Western Company, one is in Mindao and the other is in Banten. Although the location is important, after all, they are not in Malacca or Malacca.
around.
What the Portuguese value most is actually the Indian Ocean route. As long as Malacca is blocked, the Indian Ocean will be their world. As for the Nanyang side, it is the traditional East Asian maritime trade circle. They can't eliminate it if they want to. If they dare to interfere casually
, the Tang Navy is not a decoration, what should we do if dozens of warships come over and bombard Malacca?
The tolerance of the Portuguese also stimulated the expansion speed of Datang Western Company to a certain extent!
Now Datang Western Company has set its sights on the main island of Luzon and is accumulating strength to open a new trading post on the main island of Luzon.
Therefore, the Tang Dynasty's colonial activities in Luzon and Bandan were not as pessimistic as Wang Shanxi expected, and were even smoother.
Because Datang Western Company seems to be fighting as one company, but it is actually just the vanguard of Datang's external expansion!
Standing behind is the entire Datang Dynasty. The Army, Navy and Cabinet of the Tang Dynasty have all given strong support to the Datang Western Company. To what extent is the support?
Not only did it allow Datang Western Company to establish a company's armed forces, purchase various ordnance and even warships, it was also a trivial matter to provide retired soldiers. Now, Datang Navy has begun leasing even warships to Datang Western Company.
If they had not leased warships from the navy, how would they have had so many ships to maintain their existing routes and colonies.
After all, the current operation of Datang Western Company is completely one-stop. The hundreds of thousands of taels of silver invested by the royal family have all been spent on shipbuilding and hiring personnel. If it were not for the navy, they would lease it at a relatively cheap price.
Without their several frigates and a dozen armed transport ships, they didn't even have enough ships.
When it was reported that the company's ships were not enough, Li Xuan directly instructed that the company's warships were not enough and should be rented by the navy!
In order to solve the problem of the Tang Western Company's shortage of ships, especially armed ships, Li Xuan personally decided to let them find the navy to rent ships and also rent naval officers and soldiers.
The Navy was opposed to it at first, thinking that this was detrimental to the dignity of the Navy, but later Li Xuan said that the Navy has the responsibility of maintaining the safety of trade lines. If you don't rent ships, you have to protect the safety of Datang Western Company's routes. Now let you
If you rent it, you can still get the rent.
So the Navy finally recognized it with a pinched nose. In the past six months, it has leased one cruiser, three frigates, and six patrol ships to Datang Western Company.
Or to put it more simply, the Navy directly leased a squadron to Datang Western Company!
The Army has also newly provided more than a thousand retired soldiers to join Datang Western Company in an organized manner.
At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture also reached an agreement with Datang Western Company, allowing Datang Western Company to help transport immigrants to Nanyang.
However, these things have further aggravated the financial deficit of Datang Western Company!
In the sixth year of Xuanping, Datang Western Company lost a total of 360,000 taels of silver. In the first quarter of the seventh year of Xuanping, Datang Western Company lost 130,000 taels of silver, which caused quite a headache for the Imperial Assets Department.
We have lost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver this year. This business is impossible to do!
But the government is unwilling to invest money. The official finances are tight, and there are still a lot of problems in the country. This has given you a monopoly on Western trade. Do you want financial subsidies? You are kidding.
As for issuing shares, this is a good idea, but Li Xuan is reluctant to issue shares so early. Now is not the time to issue shares.
Datang Western Company is the only company with a Western trade license, and it also has company weapons. This is destined to be no ordinary company. Even if it finally issues stocks, it must be cautious. Li Xuan still hopes to use this
This company serves as a guide to establish a complete stock trading system.
The government does not provide financial subsidies, and the company itself is operating at a loss. It has no choice but to suck blood from other companies affiliated to the Royal Assets Division. Fortunately, there are many companies in the Imperial Assets Division, and most of them are new industries with the ability to make money.
Very powerful.
Just these two items, glass and soap, have made the royal family's assets richer every day, not to mention that the royal family's assets department has invested in a brand new industry: matches.
This cheap fire-starting product became very popular once it was launched, and has even become a major export commodity.
Not to mention the giant Royal Bank!
Although the stall is also big, if you squeeze here and there, you can still squeeze out.
However, it is only because of the wealth of the Royal Assets Division that it can support Datang Western Company's current investment of more than one million taels of silver. If it were replaced by other ordinary private enterprises, it would not be able to support it at all.
We don't have much money, but we also need to explore routes and build commercial stores. What should we do? It's natural to save money wherever possible. If we can't afford to build and buy ships ourselves, we can rent ships from the navy.
Anyway, the navy is very idle now. Its main combat tasks are in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Bohai Sea, while maintaining coastal security and controlling trade routes to Japan.
With the current strength of the navy, to be honest, it is a bit excessive, but the navy is still in the process of large-scale expansion, so the navy is also happy to lease some ships to Datang Western Company and let them help it maintain its fleet.
Under various circumstances, Datang Western Company continued to expand at a high speed even though it was losing money!
However, this kind of loss cannot last for long. At present, Datang Western Company has not opened up the route to the Indian Ocean, but it has indeed occupied Mindao Island in Luzon and established a base in Banten, and started from this base.
Although commercial activities do not make much money, they can at least provide some subsidies.
Wang Shanxi was exploring Australia alone with the Jinyuan. Naturally, he did not know the situation of Datang Western Company in the past six months, or even the domestic situation, so he still adopted the most conservative strategy and prepared to sail from Borneo.
The eastern waters return north to Mindao Island.
When Wang Shanxi left Australia with the Jinyuan and began to return north, a new round of war broke out in the country.
The First Army and the Second Army, which had been preparing for a long time, officially launched the campaign into Sichuan with the support of the Navy's Yangtze River Fleet.
Part of the main force launched an attack along the Yangtze River, while another part attacked over mountains and ridges. At the same time, the Fifth Army also advanced from north to south, from Guanzhong into the hinterland of Sichuan.
The outcome of this battle is not in much suspense!
Because the Army of the Tang Dynasty prepared three armies for this battle, with a total strength of 120,000. According to intelligence, the main force of the Ming army in Sichuan was Du Biao, but the current Du Biao and the previous Du Biao
It’s different. Now there is only one Dubiao rear army left in Dubiao, and there are also some Dubiao right army. The remaining soldiers of the front army total less than 60,000 people.
The army directly under King Jing only numbered ten thousand men.
As for the remaining guardsmen and the like, no one took them seriously!
The attack was launched in early June. In mid-June, the First Army conquered Badong, a strategic area, and captured Wanxian, Zhongzhou and other important cities along the Yangtze River, and then gathered the main force to attack Chongqing Fucheng.
In late June, the First Army captured Chongqing Fucheng, and Song Zhiwen, governor of eastern Sichuan under the Puppet Ming Dynasty, retreated to Luzhou with more than 20,000 remnants of the governor's rear army.
At the same time, the Fifth Army also entered Baoning Prefecture, then turned southwest and headed straight for Chengdu Prefecture!
The entire month of June was the performance time of the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty. Three armies entered Sichuan from multiple directions, captured Chongqing, and marched to Chengdu.