At the mouth of the Yangtze River, a Galen ship is slowly sailing into the Yangtze estuary. The Galen ship is flying the Portuguese flag. There are numerous gun ports on both sides of the ship's side. However, these gun windows are all closed at this time.
It was tightly closed, and at the same time, there was an offshore patrol ship flying the Imperial Navy flag following it on one side.
This is a Portuguese armed merchant ship that departs from Malacca and travels between Malacca and various ports along the imperial coast all year round. Its displacement of more than 600 tons is not very conspicuous on the imperial coast, and the Galen ship is not special either.
, are just numerous armed merchant ships plying trade between the imperial coast and the Southeast Asian seas.
In recent years, the empire's own maritime trade has developed rapidly, and at the same time, maritime trade with the Portuguese and Spanish has also increased. In addition, some indigenous countries in Southeast Asia, various indigenous states in India, the Safavid Empire of Persia, the Ottoman Empire and other places
Merchant ships from all over the world will also come to the empire for trade. Even in the past year or two, we can occasionally see ships from other European countries traveling thousands of miles to the empire for trade.
The empire's maritime trade has a very great reputation around the world. Merchants in many places know that there are countless goods in the far east, including spices, silk, porcelain, tea, and more.
There are various kinds of exquisite weapons and many other industrial products, such as cloth and woolen cloth.
As long as you have the courage and strength, you can cross the ocean and go to the Tang Empire for trade!
Although the Portuguese are very strong on the east coast of Africa and the coasts of India, they do not welcome or even intercept merchant ships from other countries to trade along the coast of Datang. However, the Portuguese are not gods, even with their current backward navigation technology.
It is impossible to completely block the above-mentioned sea areas. At most, merchants from other countries will not be able to use the ports under their control for supplies or trade.
Under the Portuguese blockade, the Western trading companies of the Tang Empire were able to survive extremely well. Although other countries had more difficulties, they were not without solutions.
Sailing all the way from the west to the Tang Empire, the biggest obstacle was not the Portuguese blockade, but the challenge from nature. The wind and waves along the way were their biggest enemy.
However, despite the many difficulties, there is still an endless stream of people who want to gain wealth in danger, so over the years, more and more foreign merchant ships have appeared along the coast of the Tang Empire.
The Tang Empire adopted a policy of opening the sea. Except for the Japanese route which was completely blocked and merchant ships from other countries were not allowed to enter, other sea areas did not block foreign merchant ships. Those foreign merchant ships could move on their own according to their own trade routes.
Choose to enter some ports under the control of the Tang Empire.
These ports are trading ports!
In fact, the Tang Empire currently has more than twenty trading ports, which basically cover the main ports and economic areas along the empire's coast. Therefore, although trade is limited to more than twenty ports, in fact
It is not much different from fully open trade.
But the only thing is that foreign merchant ships going to the empire for trade must be subject to inspection by imperial navy patrol ships. At the same time, after entering the imperial territorial waters, the gun windows must be closed, and all guns must be sealed before entering the port. Otherwise,
If so, you are not allowed to enter the port to dock and trade.
Most of those foreign merchant ships came to the Tang Empire for trade, all for the purpose of seeking wealth, and the reputation of the Imperial Navy has been established in recent years, so except for a very small number of merchant ships that came for the first time, other merchant ships did not use the Imperial Navy
Reminder, after they enter the coastal waters of the empire, they will take the initiative to seal up their guns.
As for the stubborn maritime merchants who came here for the first time, after seeing the battleships of the Imperial Navy, they basically sailed in accordance with the regulations and other rules.
Under many policies, there are more and more merchant ships from various countries along the coast of the empire. However, the number of these foreign merchant ships is still far from being comparable to the empire's own merchant ships.
It has been less than 20 years since the empire opened its seas. However, in these more than ten years, the empire's maritime trade has developed rapidly, and its maritime transportation has moved even faster. The reason for this is actually not due to overseas trade, but to the empire's own territory.
Material transportation needs.
The mainland of the empire is actually the largest production base and market for various products. Many merchant ships are specialized in domestic coastal transportation and are too lazy to run overseas routes.
Every day, major coastal ports have countless materials waiting to be transported to other places in the country, especially the three representative coastal ports of Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Tianjin. The demand for cargo transportation between each other is very large.
of.
Therefore, this Galen ship of more than 600 tons departing from Malacca is not very conspicuous in the Yangtze River estuary. However, this inconspicuous merchant ship, in addition to carrying many kinds of goods needed by the empire,
, and seven or eight more special people.
These people are Portugal's official diplomatic envoys, and they are here to replace other Portuguese diplomatic staff originally stationed in Shanghai.
The empire and the Portuguese have already established formal diplomatic relations and have sent diplomatic envoys to each other, but they are only limited to Malacca, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. The Portuguese have not been able to set up any embassy in Jinling City.
,Similarly, the empire did not send ambassadors to the Portuguese mainland.
Due to the lack of communication means, if the Tang Empire wanted to get official news from the Portuguese mainland, the waiting period would have to be at least a year, or even longer. Because the distance was too long, the contact between the empire and the Portuguese was actually limited.
Only limited to East Asia.
Today, this group of Portuguese diplomatic envoys is preparing to replace the Portuguese diplomatic envoys previously stationed in Shanghai. In addition, these people also have an official mission, which is to establish a real diplomatic envoy in Jinling City, the capital of the Tang Empire.
Embassy, the Portuguese hope to be able to directly contact the upper echelons of the empire at a closer distance, but unfortunately the Tang Empire has never agreed to their request.
Because diplomacy is reciprocal. If the Portuguese went to Jinling City to set up an embassy, then the Tang Empire would have to go to Portugal to set up an embassy.
But unfortunately, the Tang Empire had no intention of setting up an embassy in the Portuguese mainland, at least not before.
These Portuguese diplomats were standing on the deck at this time, waiting for the ship to enter slowly under the guidance of the Tang Dynasty navy ships. They would then undergo a comprehensive inspection before being allowed to enter the Huangpu River and head to Shanghai.
Soon, in addition to the offshore patrol ships of the Datang Navy, another small patrol ship arrived, with naval inspectors and customs officers on board. They would board the ship to conduct various inspections in advance.
Just as they were waiting for the official personnel to board the ship for inspection, suddenly, there was an exclamation from the direction of the bow of the ship. Immediately, several people turned their eyes to the bow of the ship, and someone asked: "What's wrong?"
Then a crew member from the bow direction made a fuss and said, "Look, what is that?"
Looking in the direction the crew member was pointing, he saw a medium-sized fleet slowly approaching on the sea, and the direction of this fleet should be Wusong Port at the estuary of the Yangtze River.
There are eight ships in front and behind this fleet, several of which are warships at a glance, and they are also unique warships of the Tang Dynasty Navy.
The warships of the Tang Dynasty Navy have a rather special shape. Compared with the Galen ship, the Krat ship is much slender, and unlike many traditional Chinese hard sailing ships, the ships of the Imperial Navy are made of soft sails like Western ships.
sail.
If you see a graceful and extremely fast soft sailing ship on the sea, you can basically conclude that it is a military ship belonging to the Tang Dynasty Navy.
However, if it were just an ordinary Datang Navy ship, it would naturally not arouse the surprise of these Portuguese people. They travel to and from various waters in the South China Sea all year round. They have seen many warships of the Datang Navy, but what they saw today
The fleet is full of weirdness.
The two ships behind were okay, but the six ships in front were all emitting black smoke, and all their sails were lowered. More importantly, these ships with their sails lowered were still smoking.
The smoke is constantly advancing, and its speed is even faster than the two ships behind it with sails.
This kind of thing appeared in front of these Portuguese people, but it aroused their great concern.
"What on earth is this? How can I still run so fast with the sail down? Someone asked immediately.
However, there were still some knowledgeable people among the Portuguese on the ship. One of the crew members immediately said: "This must be the steamship of these Tang Dynasties!"
"Steam ship? Are you sure this is not the devil's ship?"
"Yes, it's a steamship. Anyway, that's what the Tang people said. And the last time I came to Shanghai, I saw these steamships several times!"
"How did they move? Is there someone paddling inside?"
"No, I heard that it is driven by steam, but I don't know very well!"
The steam engines of the Tang Dynasty and related trains and ships were not actually secrets. On the contrary, the Tang Empire was still publicizing them in the Tang Dynasty newspaper.
When the Jingzhen Line was opened to traffic, it was directly reported on the second page of the Tang Dynasty Newspaper. The steamships were not hidden and were basically exposed to the public.
However, this is only limited to the appearance. If an outsider does not have a deep understanding, it is actually difficult to understand what a steam engine is. And even if he has a deep understanding, he can at most know that trains and ships are driven by steam engines.
As for steam engines, people only know a rough idea at most, and the specific technologies are all commercial secrets.
But just these things on the surface are enough to shock people!