The treaty stipulated that both parties should conduct normal business activities and sell the Ge River Delta area to Datang Western Company for 5,000 taels.
Subsequently, the Tang Empire officially dispatched tax officials and administrative officials to this place, and officially named the area Gehe Prefecture.
However, although the power to collect taxes belongs to the supreme Ministry of Taxation, the official also has the administrative rights to the land in name. However, according to the Western Trade License, Datang Western Company has the actual administrative rights to manage the land. Well, in order to assist
Management model.
Today's Gehe Prefecture is the largest stronghold of the Tang Dynasty Empire, or to be more precise, the Tang Dynasty Western Company on the eastern coast of India. It is also the starting point for trade with the eastern part of India.
However, it is worth noting that during this period, the Portuguese also had a large number of colonies on the eastern coast of India, and the island of Ceylon was actually under the control of the Portuguese.
To the north of Ceylon and south of Go River State, the Portuguese also controlled four other colonies.
In fact, the Portuguese relied on the above-mentioned five colonies to blockade the eastern coast of India. If the Tang Dynasty Western Company came to India secretly to trade, it would be fine, but after establishing a colony with great fanfare, the Portuguese would definitely not sit back and watch.
At the end of last year, the Portuguese gathered a large number of pirates and the power of some local indigenous princes in an attempt to expel the Tang Dynasty Western Company from the eastern coast of India, and the Battle of Ceylon broke out.
In the end, after the two sides fought, there was no winner. In fact, the two sides were not official in nature. Everyone was a businessman.
The Tang Western Company was a trading company, and these Portuguese merchants were actually just merchants. They couldn't win this battle, and the war was also very expensive, so after this battle it was over.
However, the continuous small-scale invasion operations triggered by this have continued, making this sea area the most dangerous sea area in the eastern seas of India, bar none!
Without the escort of warships, even the merchant ships of Datang Western Company would not dare to take risks easily!
Tong Shangchao knew very well what kind of situation he would face after crossing the Indian Ocean and arriving at the eastern coast of the Indian Ocean. Therefore, when his fleet crossed the Indian Ocean and was about to arrive at the eastern coast of India, he ordered the lookout sailors in the fleet to open their eyes wide and search.
Nearby sea.
The route they took was a relatively remote one, crossing the Indian Ocean from the north of the Andaman Islands, and then going straight to Gohe State. This route can be said to be the exclusive route of Datang Western Ocean Company.
Because only they need to go to Gohe State, and Portuguese merchant ships will not go to Gohe State. They usually bypass Gohe State and go directly to the southeast coastline of India controlled by the Portuguese.
But just because their merchant ships don't come doesn't mean their pirate ships won't come.
This is just like the battleships of the Tang Dynasty Western Company fleet, which often visit the coastline of Ceylon Island when they have nothing to do!
However, Tong Shangchao and the others were lucky this time. After arriving on the eastern coast of India, they did not encounter any other ships and arrived in Gohe Prefecture calmly.
When he saw the land in the distance and a fast patrol ship heading towards the fleet, Tong Shangchao breathed a sigh of relief!
Just looking at the fast patrol ship, he knew that it was the company's exclusive fast patrol ship. Not only did it have the black tiger flag flying on it, but he also thought that this fast patrol ship was a specialty of Datang's shipbuilding industry: flying shears.
Schooner!
With a clipper bow and a unique Datang style schooner, once this type of ship was launched, it became the darling of the Navy and the Datang Western Company fleet because of its ultra-fast speed. Although this type of ship is currently limited by technology, it is difficult to grow in size.
, and its uses are relatively limited, with almost no other advantages except speed.
However, the Navy and Datang Western Company use it as a fast communication ship and patrol ship. It is not a problem if the ship is small and cannot carry much cargo, as long as it is fast.
The fast patrol ship ahead had not yet arrived, but it sent a semaphore, requiring the fleet to report its identity, lower its sails, and close its gun windows to accept interrogation.
Nowadays, Datang Western Company is having a big quarrel with the Portuguese, and Datang Western Company is also afraid that the Portuguese will build a few new Datang ships to carry out sneak attacks.
You know, although the new ship type of the Tang Dynasty was invented and built on a large scale by the Tang Dynasty, the Portuguese have been floating on the sea for so many years, so they are not stupid. They started trying to imitate this new ship type in Malacca many years ago.
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Therefore, it is not very safe to determine the identity simply by looking at the ship type.
As for flags and stuff, it's even harder to say.
Even the people with black hair and black eyes on the ship are difficult to distinguish. People from the Tang Dynasty are not the only people in the world with black hair and black eyes. People in many areas of East Asia are such people, and there are more pirates.
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The pirates do not distinguish between Tang people and Fusang people...
Well, this is also an important factor that the Tang Dynasty Western Company's fleet disguised itself as pirates to attack other countries' merchant ships, and it can still be shamelessly denied.
In the waters of Southeast Asia and even the waters of India, there are many pirates with oriental faces!
In recent years, with the rise of the Tang Dynasty, not only the Datang Navy and the Datang Western Company, but also the Datang pirates...
Although these pirate gangs that had been formed in the pre-Ming Dynasty were once invaded by the Tang Navy, they also grew stronger with the prosperity of maritime trade in East Asia.
People of the Tang Dynasty, Fusang people, Annan people, Koreans and other East Asian natives who took risks to seek wealth, even Indians, West Asians, and even Europeans from afar, they gathered together for money, thus forming
A large group of pirates active in the waters of East Asia and the Indian Ocean.
These pirates do not distinguish between countries and nationalities. It is normal for a pirate group to include people from the Tang Dynasty and Portuguese!
And these pirates actually caused quite a headache for Portugal and the Tang Empire. They were real pirates, not some official warships disguised as pirates. When it came to robbery, it didn’t matter whether you were a merchant ship of the Tang Western Company or a merchant ship of the Tang Dynasty.
The merchant ships of the Portuguese or some other messy countries and indigenous merchant ships.
They rob merchant ships when they see them!
But the headache was also compounded by many political issues, because both the Tang Dynasty and the Portuguese actually supported some pirates to attack each other.
When the pure issue of piracy involves politics, it means that it is almost impossible to wipe out the pirates. Not only is it impossible, there are more and more pirates, and they are becoming more and more arrogant.
In the coastal areas of the Tang Empire and in the waters of Malacca and Ceylon, where the Tang Navy and the Portuguese Navy had relatively strong control, these pirates naturally did not dare to act wild, but in some remote sea areas, people did not have so many scruples.
Yes, it’s not like I have never done anything like attacking colonial ports before.
So now, whether it is in the Southeast Asian waters or the Indian Ocean, the Datang Western Company needs to guard against the Portuguese and local indigenous people, and at the same time, it also needs to guard against pirates.
Therefore, even if Tong Shangchao's fleet arrives, the garrison forces in Gehe Prefecture will not react at all. They will also send fast patrol ships to investigate and guide them into the port after confirming their identities.
The fleet began to slowly approach the coast and sail towards the port. At this time, Tong Shangchao also discovered that Gehe Prefecture on land had changed greatly compared to when he came last year.
There seem to be a lot more buildings on the shore, and the biggest change is that there are a lot more berths in the small port, and the size of the fort in the port is also larger.
"It really changes every year!" Tong Shangchao sighed!
Standing next to Tong Shangchao at this time was the liaison officer of a company fleet of the original fast patrol ship. This liaison officer was only a sixth-class employee. Generally speaking, compared to the rank of captain in the navy, he was also respectful at this time.
He said to Tong Shangchao: "Sir, the changes in our Gehe Prefecture in the past year are indeed not small. Since the establishment of Gehe Prefecture, the adults have recruited many local indigenous people for expansion. In addition to the urban area, the largest project
It’s the dock and the fort!”
"After a year of construction, our fort was completely completed two months ago. Now it is enough to deploy more than 40 large-caliber artillery pieces. However, the number of artillery pieces is not enough, and many gun emplacements are empty.
I’m just waiting for you to bring artillery from China!”
Tong Shangchao said: "Don't worry, this time we set out from the country and brought more than fifty large-caliber artillery pieces. It is estimated that in addition to replenishing the needs of the fleet, we should be able to free up a lot of them for deployment on this fort!"
"This is great. With these artillery pieces, our fort will be able to exert greater power. When the time comes, we will see if those barbarians dare to invade our Gehe Prefecture!"
When Tong Shangchao was talking to him, the fleet was already continuing to slow down and began to prepare to berth near the dock under the guidance of many small tugboats.
Before he even got off the ship, he saw that there were already crowds of people on the dock. He knew without guessing that these were dock workers who were preparing to unload the goods as soon as possible. The workers on these docks were all local aborigines. There were also
Many companies have armed employees holding guns to supervise work.
He knows that most of the local natives are very lazy. Unless they are supervising the work with guns with bayonets attached, these natives will dare to show you how lazy they are every minute.
Of course, this also has something to do with the company not paying them wages!
Because most of these civilian men were recruited from nearby!
The Tang Dynasty recruited foreign men and never paid them!
At the same time, he also saw a group of people on the other side who were obviously dressed differently from the others. As soon as the ship docked, he saw this group of people coming up to greet it. He recognized several of them, and they were all important figures in Gehe Prefecture.