After being entrusted to Wandan Island, his title also became 'Viscount Wandan'. This was also the second batch of nobles in the Tang Empire to have title prefixes, except for the two princes, King Qi and King Zhao.
In the previous imperial title system, except for the titles of princes and princes, which had prefixes in front of them, the titles of the remaining clan nobles and meritorious nobles did not have any prefixes.
For example, Hao Bainian is a Duke of the Empire, but he is just a Duke. It is not mentioned that he is a Duke, because their previous noble titles did not have any fiefdoms.
But now, after Wang Shanxi obtained the fief, he could use the name of the fief as the prefix to his title and call him Viscount Wandan.
This is also officially recognized. When the Tang Dynasty newspaper announced this enfeoffment, Wang Shanxi was also called Viscount Wandan. This is a formal noble title, not just a mature vocabulary agreed upon by people.
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Viscount Wandan, that is, after Wang Shanxi was granted the title, he soon brought some of the royal family's children and staff, as well as some recruited employees and immigrants, as well as more than 100 armed guards from the "Baishui Bodyguard Company"
People got on the boat heading to Banten.
This is not to say that the empire stipulates that nobles must go to fiefdoms. In fact, Wang Shanxi does not have to go. He can stay there if he likes. It doesn't matter if he doesn't go to Wandan in this life.
However, now that they all have fiefdoms, Wang Shanxi is thinking about his own fiefdom. It is a huge Wandan Island, and it is also the most developed place in Wandan Mansion, the overseas territory of the Tang Empire.
Although the Banten Prefecture of the Tang Empire theoretically had a large jurisdiction, its actual control area was only most of Banten Island and the eastern part of Sumatra Island, plus the southern part of Borneo.
The entire Wantan Island is planned as Wantan Continent, which is directly under the jurisdiction of Wantan Prefecture. Under Wantan Continent, there are three counties under the jurisdiction of Dongdan County, Zhongdan County and Xidan County.
The above three counties all belong to Wang Shanxi's fiefdom. At the same time, most of the private land he was granted is located in Zhongdan County, where many places are still occupied by local indigenous people.
No matter what the situation is on Bandan, it can't stop Wang Shanxi from preparing to shift the focus of the entire family to Bandan Island!
This time, he planned to go to Wandan with some of his tribesmen and hired employees. The first step was to establish the Viscount Palace, and then to take back the land that was given to him by the Holy Emperor and was still in the hands of the barbarians.
To achieve this, it is naturally impossible to rely on some of his tribesmen, or even recruited immigrants. As for some of his staff and employees, it is even less reliable.
The real force preparing to take back these territories was the approximately one hundred employees he hired from the White Water Bodyguard Company.
Baishui Bodyguard Company is a bodyguard company with a relatively large scale in the current empire and a relatively strong business capability. It is mainly engaged in the protection of important personnel, the protection of caravans and merchant ships, etc.
This VIP protection is, to put it bluntly, an ordinary bodyguard, mainly targeting the domestic market.
As for merchant fleet escort, this is actually aimed at the overseas market. It is nominally to protect merchant ships and caravans, but when you go overseas, you basically do whatever the employer asks you to do.
Many overseas trading companies like to hire the company's armed guards, who can protect the ships on the ship on weekdays. They can also engage in some low-intensity military operations when they go to places, such as fighting against local indigenous kingdoms.
In the past, many overseas trading companies basically organized their own armed personnel to engage in trade. Later, domestic restrictions on armed merchant ships became more and more severe. This coincided with Whitewater Company, which has a strong military background, or simply the military.
Bodyguard companies composed of retired personnel have developed caravan protection services, so many overseas trading companies simply directly hire armed guards from these bodyguard companies.
The armed guards of Baishui Company hired by Wang Shanxi were a team, and they were expensive. Not only did they have to bear their employment expenses, but the combat expenses and subsequent ax cutting also needed to be borne by Wang Shanxi.
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However, although the cost is high, the combat effectiveness is absolutely guaranteed!
The personnel inside are all retired personnel, and they are also retired personnel of the Marine Corps. Some of these retired personnel are doing it for the high salary, and some are simply pursuing the feeling of returning to the battlefield, that is, they have joined Whitewater Company as mercenaries.
These people are all veterans. Although there is only one team, in a battle of the same strength, an infantry team of the active army will probably not be able to defeat them.
However, although there was a team of Baishui mercenaries accompanying him, Wang Shanxi still knew that with just these few people, it would be almost impossible to completely eliminate the remaining indigenous people in Zhongdan County.
Dan's local garrison helped.
The Army of the Tang Empire was stationed in Bandan Mansion, with a Bandan Garrison Regiment, and the Navy also had a Bandan Squadron and a Marine Regiment stationed there, so the force could be described as extremely strong.
Although most of these troops were used to defend against the Portuguese, it was common for some of them to be used to attack the natives.
What Wang Shanxi has to do is to push the local garrison to carry out a large-scale sweep, so that the remaining indigenous forces on Zhongdan Island can be cleaned up.
In this way, that huge piece of land that occupies a full tenth of Banten Island can become the real private property of the Wang family.
For this, he is prepared to pay a huge price!
After boarding a sailing merchant ship of a trading company that had a cooperative relationship with the Wang family's industry, Wang Shanxi officially took hundreds of people to Wandan Mansion.
They set out from Shanghai and then arrived in Guangzhou. After adding coal, water, food and many other supplies, they sailed directly into the depths of the South China Sea.
With the steam engine as the backing, and the many captains of the empire, they are basically very familiar with the waters of the South China Sea, and can reach it with a straight eye.
With the confidence of steam engines and familiarity with the local waters, more and more ships now choose not to sail along the coastline, but directly go deep into the center of the ocean to shorten the voyage.
Of course, this requires a big boat, and those small boats may not be able to adapt to the wind and waves in the depths of the ocean!
The ship hired by Wang Shanxi is more than 600 tons, a typical 680 ship type. This 680 ship type is basically the main ocean-going merchant ship of the Tang Empire. Because of its cargo capacity and speed
All are possible. What's more important is that the technology is mature and can be built by any medium-sized shipyard. This also results in extremely low prices.
Low price and good performance, so even many trading companies like to purchase this kind of ships for trade.
Even the shipping companies along the coast have purchased many ships of this level for transportation.
This has also led to the fact that this typical ship type is now almost overpopulated. Basically, more than half of the Tang Dynasty merchant ships running on the ocean are of this type.
Next up is the smaller 450 model 8!
As for ships with more than 800 tons or even thousands of tons, there are still relatively few ships at present. The reason is simply that they are expensive to purchase, and the maintenance and use costs are also expensive.
After Wang Shanxi's ship penetrated into Nanyang, it ran all the way south. When there was a favorable wind on the way, it used sails as power. If the wind direction was wrong, it used steam engines as power.
After arriving at Cam Ranh Bay for supplies, they turned around and headed to Banten Island, without going to Malacca, a port controlled by the Portuguese.
This is not to say that Malacca is dangerous. In fact, although the Portuguese fought life and death with the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company in the Indian Ocean, and there were fierce conflicts in many fields, they maintained normal trade with the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Empire maintained the same view, that is, wars can be fought and business must be done.
Therefore, the Portuguese have always welcomed the merchant ships of the Tang Empire to go to Malacca for trade. However, if the merchant ships of the Tang Empire want to enter the Indian Ocean through Malacca, the Portuguese will not be happy.
In all likelihood, they will cause trouble in the Malacca Channel. The most common thing they do is to play pirates in the Strait of Malacca, killing people and robbing ships without any discussion.
The reason why Wang Shanxi and the others did not go to Malacca was simply because the journey was far away and not convenient.
Although this merchant ship belonged to a trading company and carried a lot of goods, the trading company originally planned to transport these goods to Banten, and then planned to go to Malacca to purchase the goods when it returned.
Today, Banten has become one of the three major ports in the South China Sea!
The largest port is naturally Malacca. There is no way to help it. Its geographical location is unique, and the Tang Empire did not completely fall out with the Portuguese, so many merchants from the Tang Empire and the Portuguese, as well as other Indian, Safavid dynasty, and Ottoman
When merchants in the empire conducted trade, many chose to conduct trade in Malacca, which was simple and convenient.
The second largest port is naturally Bandan Port. This port is basically used by the Tang Empire's own ships. In addition, merchant ships from the Spaniards and other European countries that occasionally come to the East Asian waters berth and conduct trade.
Similarly, this is also an important trade and supply port for the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company. The Tang Dynasty Western Trade fleets heading to India, West Asia and Africa basically depart from Banten Port and then cross the Sunda Strait and enter the Indian Ocean.
In addition, in order to reduce shipping costs and increase the operating cycle of ships, and on the other hand, to calm the anger of many domestic trading companies against Datang Western Trading Company’s monopoly on Western trade, Datang Western Trading Company will now directly ship goods from
Domestic transportation or shipping to the country, most general cargo transactions are conducted at Bandan Port, which is the basis for Bandan Port to maintain its prosperity.