The twenty-ninth year of Shaofeng in Ming Dynasty, the fifteenth year of Xianning in Tianzhu, Kaiyuan 4258, and AD 1560.
Over the past few years, Osman has been adjusting its strategy.
The Ottomans first made a truce with Persia and obtained the lower reaches of the Mesopotamia and the estuary of the Mesopotamia, as well as parts of Baghdad and the Persian Gulf. The Safavid Persian Empire also took back Tabriz (the capital of Persia ten years ago) from the Ottomans. The two sides promised to mutually
No violation.
Then, the Ottomans made an armistice with the Habsburgs.
After peace was achieved on the eastern and northwest fronts, the Ottoman Empire immediately set out to conquer North Africa and occupied the Maghreb region except Morocco. Spain's North African territory suffered heavy losses, and Philip II could only form an expeditionary force. The two sides were in Tripoli (the capital of Libya).
Start a decisive battle.
The Spanish expeditionary force was completely wiped out.
Wang Ji and King Henry II of France took the opportunity to carve up the Principality of Lorraine, and France obtained two-thirds of its territory.
The Persian emperor was very interesting. He only regained his former capital by ceding a large area of land. But this guy didn't know what he was talking about. After the truce with the Ottomans, he suddenly invaded Afghanistan on a large scale.
Wang Yuan was confused.
Afghanistan is a vassal state of Tianzhu. Although each tribe has a high degree of autonomy, it provides a large amount of gems and minerals every year (half trade and half tribute).
Moreover, Han merchants had several trading posts along the Persian coast, and the Persian Empire gained countless money from transit trade.
Why did Persia suddenly attack Afghanistan?
Even if the entire territory of Afghanistan was occupied, the profits gained by Persia would not be able to make up for the losses caused by the Tianzhu Navy cutting off trade routes.
Wang Yuan had been obsessed with farming and was bitten by a mad dog for no apparent reason.
When he learned the news, one-third of Afghanistan had been occupied by Persia. Even the Han governor Wang Yuan sent to Kandahar was captured by the Persian army and threatened to demand a thousand taels of gold before he would be released.
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In addition, Persia also sent envoys to Tianzhu to explain its reasons for sending troops.
But it was the Mughal Emperor Humayun who, when he was in exile in Persia, promised to give Kandahar and the area west of it to the Persian Emperor in return in exchange for Persian support—that is, the Persian Emperor allowed Humayun to recruit troops in Persia.
And gave away a large number of Sufi warriors for free. Anyway, these Sufis were targeted for expulsion in Persia.
The Persian emperor tried to get rewards several times, but was rejected by the Han governor of Afghanistan. Now, Persia has a truce with the Ottomans, freeing up its hands to capture Kandahar by force.
"Your Majesty, I am willing to go on an expedition to Persia!" Qi Jiguang recommended himself.
Yin Bingheng said: "I am also willing to go!"
Wang Fang did not say anything. His nickname was "Master Ma", and together with Qi Jiguang and Yin Bingheng, he was known as the "Three Tigers of Tianzhu". However, Wang Fang had always been in charge of the cavalry troops. If he went on an expedition to Persia by boat, he would probably lose a lot of horses along the way.
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Wang Yuan said: "The prince is the commander-in-chief of the navy, Ning Huan (son of Ning Botao) is the commander-in-chief of the navy, and Qi Jiguang is the commander-in-chief of the army. We are planning an expedition to Persia immediately! Cut off the maritime trade routes with Persia. If merchants of the Ming Dynasty and Tianzhu merchants want to do business,
Can trade directly with Ottoman!"
The Ottomans have occupied the two river basins and control parts of the Persian Gulf. As long as the merchant ships move further forward, they can communicate.
Prime Minister Wang Chong reminded: "Your Majesty, Portugal is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. According to the agreement signed at that time, Han merchants could only go as far as Hormuz, and could only trade with Portugal and Persia. Direct transactions with the Ottomans would be destroyed.
Diplomatic Agreement between Ming Dynasty and Portugal."
"What else can we do if we don't tear it up?" Wang Yuan sneered, "Portugal can't eat so many goods, and the Han maritime merchants have to make money. Now that there is no Persian trade, we must do business with the Ottomans! Over there in the Ming Dynasty, go to the branch and ask,
If the Portuguese have any objections, they will even fight with the Portuguese Navy!"
Wang Yuan never thought about completely taking away the Portuguese trade routes, because...it was not necessary.
When the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope and first came to Malacca to do business, the average fleet loss was one-third during a round trip to the east and west. The cost of building and repairing ships for one voyage accounted for the annual income of the royal family.
Three-quarters of the journey. Because there are too many variables along the way, especially the Cape of Good Hope, which can be called a sea of death.
Nowadays, even if navigation technology is more advanced, the average loss of a fleet from India to Europe is about one-fifth. If you are lucky, nothing happens, but if you are not, the entire fleet will sink.
In this case, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty and Tianzhu could just transport the goods to the Persian Gulf for sale, which could not only make money but also greatly avoid losses. The remaining high-risk routes were left to the Portuguese.
The Portuguese were also very happy with it. Even if they sank an average of one-fifth of the ships in one round trip, they could still make huge profits.
Wang Ji was also allowed to run this route because of a special relationship. The first two trades were no big deal, but the third time he encountered a big storm and half of the fleet sank. Wang Ji was so frightened that he immediately canceled the trade - if the ship sank, it could be rebuilt.
The crew members are all precious. His territory has always been short of talents, so he might as well focus on the Yinzhou route.
By the way, there are a large number of naturalized Portuguese in Tianzhu.
This was forced by the Portuguese royal family, because all profits from Portugal's maritime trade must be distributed to the royal family. The extremely risky route, the ship runners risked their lives, but they could only eat the royal family's residue. Who cares?
Are you feeling at ease?
Therefore, the Portuguese Overseas Governor took the lead and made false accounts from top to bottom.
Even so, ordinary sailors still have high risks and few benefits. After making a fortune, many people choose to settle in India or the Persian Gulf. Their beliefs are all nonsense. First they converted to Green Christianity, Hinduism, and now they convert to Buddhism.
and Taoism, and actively learned Chinese and became a Han Chinese.
Historically, Portugal had a very small population, and civilians living in the country were living in hardship, and participating in trade was risky. Therefore, a large number of people immigrated to India, and then to Brazil. After more than a hundred years of this, there were not many people left in Portugal.
John V could only ban the Portuguese from immigrating overseas.
A country engaged in global colonization actually prohibits the immigration of its citizens...
In July, Wang Zheng, the crown prince of Tianzhu, led 43 large and small battleships, carrying 5,000 army troops, and sailed to the Persian Gulf.
Three of the ships are very peculiar. They have traditional sails, iron plate armor inlaid on the outside of the hull, and a strange chimney erected.
Although the pure steam battleships at this time have been improved again, their speed is still crushed by the sail battleships. Not only that, if encountering strong winds and waves, the steam ship's chimney can easily be damaged, and the steam engine can also easily get water. What's even more deadly is that
, if you want to sail across the ocean, it will be difficult for steam ships to replenish coal smoothly.
As a result, a hybrid battleship with sails as the main component and steam as the supplement was first born in Tianzhu!
Wang Yuan also suggested inlaying iron plate armor to improve the battleship's defense. However, the iron plate armor caused the center of gravity to shift upward, so all the artillery on the upper deck was removed, and the battleship's firepower was greatly weakened.
This kind of sailing steam ironclad ship, due to the need to save coal, is very slow during normal sailing. Compared with ordinary warships, it is like a turtle crawling.
But once encountering a naval battle, the sails and steam work together, and the iron plate armor is added to improve the defense, and the sail warship can be ravaged before the coal is burned out.
Because of the high cost, the Tianzhu Navy has only built three ships for the time being, named Daqin, Dahan, and Datang.
Gomblon Port, later known as Bandar Abbas Port.
This port was originally a small fishing village. After the arrival of merchants from the Ming Dynasty, it quickly developed into the second largest port in Persia - the first largest port was Hormuz occupied by the Portuguese.
Goods shipped from the east are mainly shipped to Hormuz, and then to the port of Gombrun.
After Persian merchants purchased the goods, part of them was digested in Persia and part was smuggled to the Ottoman Empire. After the truce between the two countries, Persia was a second-tier dealer, Ottoman was a third-tier dealer, and Venice was a fourth-tier dealer. The Venetian merchants shipped bulk goods to Italy. According to the price
For a product that has been transferred four times, it is natural that it cannot compete with the Portuguese.
The Persian emperor was a lunatic. In order to seize Afghanistan, he came to provoke Tianzhu, which had a powerful navy!
After the crown prince Wang Zheng came to Tianzhu, he lived in the northern part of Ceylon Island for the first five years and actually controlled the finance and training of the Tianzhu Navy.
The former frail scholar has become a qualified naval general. Although he has never fought in a serious war, he is very familiar with naval tactics and logistics.
"Seal the port, bombard the castle, and cover the landing of the army!"
There are forts in the Strait of Hormuz, but they are all occupied by the Portuguese. Facing the mighty navy, still flying the Baize flag of Tianzhu, the Portuguese fort defenders chose to let them go and sent people to row boats to contact them.
"Great Indian Prince, is your country going to war with Persia?" The Portuguese envoy was very happy.
Wang Zheng said: "Persia undeclared war on the vassal country of Tianzhu and must be severely punished!"
The Portuguese envoy laughed and said: "It's time to beat these damn Persians."
There are too many merchants from the East, and Portugal cannot afford to eat all the goods, so it can only let Persia come in to get a share of the pie. However, if Tianzhu goes to war with Persia, Eastern merchants will definitely not be able to trade with Eastern merchants in the short term.
A large amount of goods are piled up in the Persian Gulf and can only be sold at low prices. Portugal can take advantage of the opportunity to purchase them.
These Portuguese people are eager for a war between Tianzhu and Persia, preferably for decades!
Before the Tianzhu Navy completely blocked the port, more than 30 Persian warships came to meet them. They were all offshore galleys, but they were equipped with a large number of artillery, and they were very powerful in terms of pure firepower.
Wang Zheng kept his citizens in mind and ordered: "Let three sail steam armored ships attack. Your Majesty wants to test the actual combat effect."
In the surprised eyes of the Portuguese envoy, the Daqin, Dahan, and Datang attacked. The three warships spread their sails and dragged strange black smoke, rushing towards more than 30 Persian warships at a super high speed of 12 knots.
"Boom boom boom!"
Although the Persian Gulf is "narrow", the three hybrid warships still perfectly exerted their flexibility and used their range advantage to defeat the Persian fleet.
After sinking several enemy ships in a row, Wang Zheng finally became anxious and ordered: "Get closer and let the enemy fire a few shots to test the performance of our armor so that we can improve it!"
As soon as these words came out, the Portuguese envoy was speechless for a moment. This man also understood Chinese.
The three hybrid ships received the semaphore and immediately took the initiative to move closer to the enemy. They also lowered a large number of sails and fired almost statically like bunkers on the sea.
More than ten minutes later, several masts of the three warships were broken, but the armored hulls did nothing. Instead, two more enemy ships were sunk. Seeing a large number of enemy ships surrounding them, Wang Zheng ordered all the remaining warships to attack
, encircling the Persian navy and annihilating it.
"This... what kind of warship is this?" the Portuguese envoy asked in surprise.
Wang Zheng smiled and said: "Sail steam armored ship, does your navy want to fight?"
The Portuguese envoy quickly shook his head: "No, our country and India are friendly countries, and we will never go to war with India."
Tianzhu, India, the same word, just different transliterations.
The Port of Gomblon was quickly blocked. Under the cover of ship-borne artillery, Qi Jiguang led 5,000 soldiers to land and fight, and the Persian castle near the dock was surrounded.
The Han merchants here asked about the situation one after another, and Wang Zheng said to them: "Persia invaded Tianzhu for no reason, and I was ordered to go on an expedition here. No maritime merchants are allowed to trade with Persia before an agreement is reached. You can go ahead and contact the Ottoman merchants. Portugal
I ignored him and they didn’t dare to stop me.”
The merchants just waited to reload the goods and sail deeper into the Persian Gulf. In fact, there were trading stations there, and they could be sold at higher prices. The reason why the Persian navy still existed was to prevent this from happening and to prevent Han merchants from directly
Trade with the Ottomans.
The Persian Empire did not have many troops stationed on the coastal plain of the Persian Gulf.
Its main force is deployed on the northern border to guard against the invasion of Uzbekistan. Secondly, it is deployed east of the Mesopotamia to guard against the invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The remaining troops are on the Afghan side.
Wang Zheng directly led troops to attack the coast of the Persian Gulf. Persia was unprepared for this. In just one month, the coastal plain was completely conquered by Qi Jiguang.
The Persian emperor hurriedly mobilized troops from the east of the Mesopotamia, because the army there was the closest.
The Persian border guards left with the front foot, and the Ottoman army rushed in with the rear foot.
Non-aggression pact?
Sorry, treaties are meant to be broken.
While Wang Zheng was attacking Persia, he also sent envoys to contact the Ottoman Sultan, offering trade between the two countries in exchange for Ottoman military support.
Ottoman had long been coveting Eastern trade. In the past, he could only be a third-tier trader. Now the opportunity to be a second-tier dealer was presented to them. How could they not be tempted? The Persian emperor was so confused that he dared to mobilize the border troops to fight against Wang Zheng. Osman took advantage of this opportunity.
It is simply relaxing and joyful to enter.
At the same time, due to the brutal conquests of the Persian army, the tribes in the occupied Afghanistan also spontaneously launched a resistance movement, and could only continue to mobilize troops to suppress it.
Just when the country of Persia was empty, the Sufis, who had been oppressed for a long time, united with other sects to launch a peasant uprising, because the Persian peasants were also living a miserable life...
Facing internal and external troubles, the Persian emperor was stunned and quickly mobilized troops on the northern front to suppress the uprising.
Not long after the troops on the northern front were transferred, the Uzbek cavalry frantically looted the border. The Persian emperor could only send a large amount of gold and silver and asked the Uzbek Khanate not to take the opportunity to cause trouble.
The Persian emperor was crying without tears. I just invaded Afghanistan and stopped after occupying one-third of the territory. That was the reward the Mughal emperor promised me. Why were I suddenly surrounded by enemies on all sides?
What's even more frightening is that because trade was cut off, Persian merchants and nobles also rioted, forcing the emperor to negotiate peace with Tianzhu quickly.
In fact, Wang Yuan still hasn't figured out why the Persian emperor was so stupid that he invaded Afghanistan?