I

If anything was different on the way back, it was that there was an additional supply station near the Cape of Good Hope.

The place was occupied by the Dutch, and the man in charge was named Van Riebeeck. He was thrown here with a boat, and he had to farm the land himself at first. After he reluctantly settled down, he quickly went to grab black people nearby to help, and now he is even digging aqueducts.

Black people are so stupid that they can only work as free labor at the bottom. If we want to develop into a port city, we need more Asians.

Van Riebeeck had already written to the Governor of Batavia, asking him to exile a group of Javanese natives. If nothing else happens, next year hundreds of Javanese will be sentenced to death for their heinous crimes, and the governor will be merciful and change them to exile in Cape Town.

Cape Town is right in front of you.

It wasn't even a village at this time, just a group of Dutchmen who were like exiles, whipping black slaves to work there all day long. Due to supply difficulties, food was not self-sufficient, and the black slaves did not dare to catch too many. Anyway, it was just a shabby little seaside village.

Who could have imagined that it would eventually become the capital of a country?

The Cape of Good Hope is still so terrifying. Warm and cold currents meet here, and the hydrological environment in the sea is extremely complex. The strong westerly jet stream blows across the Atlantic Ocean without any obstruction. There are constant storms and rough seas all year round.

Occasionally, you will encounter killer waves, which can reach a height of 20 meters and can even carry people and boats to the sky.

Therefore, in order to avoid the killing waves, ships traveling in and out will basically not choose to cross the Cape of Good Hope in winter. At the Cape of Good Hope in winter, the sea water seems to be boiled. Killing waves and rotating waves are superimposed on each other, and the entire sea surface is surging and rolling crazily.

At the beginning of the great voyage, people were not familiar with the Cape of Good Hope, but now they have gradually figured out the situation.

Of course, it also depends on the face.

For example, the famous navigator Diaz went there in the relatively safe summer, but encountered strong winds and waves. He was lucky enough to be pushed to the shore and survived. The return voyage was at the end of winter, the most dangerous season at the Cape of Good Hope, but what greeted him was a sunny and sunny wind. More than ten years later, Dias finally died at the Cape of Good Hope. The entire fleet was annihilated by the murderous waves, and he chose the most suitable season.

The Chinese fleet was very lucky at this time. The largest wave in the nearby sea was only four or five meters high, which was very suitable for crossing the Cape of Good Hope.

"Wow!"

John, a young British country boy, and his little friend Thomas, actually grabbed the cable and cheered.

These two guys may have lower backgrounds and do not have the arrogance of the British.

On the contrary, be diligent and simple, and work hard.

Once on board, they asked to be sailors. Of course they are not serious sailors, they just help wash the deck. It is a monotonous and tiring job, but the two teenagers are very happy to do it.

Another wave came and lifted the boat several meters high. The strong west wind was blowing, and it was impossible to stand firmly on the deck without grabbing something.

Water kept falling from the sky, and I couldn't tell whether it was rain or falling sea water.

John was soaked to the skin, looked up at the dark cloudy sky, and shouted with emotion: "It's so spectacular. If you stay in the UK, you will never see such a scene!"

In Thomas' ears, there was only the sound of wind and waves, and he roared and asked, "What did you say?"

"Lower the sails, lower all the jibsails!"

The leader among the sailors screamed and gestured.

After a lot of tossing, it finally passed safely.

Prince Charles is also on deck. He likes excitement and adventure, and he also likes to learn various basic skills. It is estimated that when he arrived in China, he was already a qualified sailor.

"Your Majesty the King!"

The two country boys quickly saluted Charles.

Prince Charles was crowned king by the Scottish nobles after his father was executed.

Not the King of England, but the King of Scotland!

Charles' excitement was not over yet, but at the same time he felt frightened. He smiled and said: "This is the Cape of Good Hope. People can never conquer it."

Thomas immediately flattered him: "Your Majesty is brave and fearless and can conquer everything!"

Charles smiled and said: "If I can conquer England, I will appoint you as my captain of the guard."

Thomas said happily: "I will swear allegiance to His Majesty to the death!"

The situation is ridiculous. Two London country boys belong to the emerging gentry class in England. It was these squires who overthrew the old king's rule and killed the old king.

But after they came into contact with Prince Charles, they immediately chose to deliberately curry favor. No matter how it ends in the future, knowing the exiled prince is not a bad thing after all. If you are not careful, you can still be a hero of Conglong.

Of course, Charles also has his own charisma, and he can easily impress two country boys.

On the other hand, Cromwell's eldest son is also named Charles (Charlie Cromwell). But this guy is a man who enjoys a happy life, and his military and political abilities are extremely mediocre. Historically, he did succeed the Lord Protector, and in order to gain the support of Parliament, he also re-delegated power to Parliament. Even with the support of the Parliament, it could not survive for a year. Revolts broke out among the army and the people, which scared the Parliament and quickly restored the monarchy.

Prince Charles, who had gone through many hardships, was later invited back to the UK for restoration, and his methods of governing the country were nothing short of sophisticated.

The first thing after the coronation was to pardon the original rebels, and only killed nine guys who had personally signed his father's death warrant. All other rebels and nobles will be forgiven!

Then, all properties acquired by the nobility and gentry class during the rebellion were guaranteed.

Then unite the parliament, let the parliament have financial power, and accidentally reform the tax farming system into a more advanced parliamentary financial system.

The British Glorious Revolution later deepened this financial reform and completely laid the economic foundation for Britain's rise. After the tax reform, the total tax revenue in the UK tripled, but the common people cheered for it, because the tax burden was greatly reduced. Before the reform, there were middlemen who made the difference, and all the money went into the pockets of the tax-paying merchants.

Charles didn't even bother to take back the royal land and properties that were auctioned off by the rebels, which made countless people grateful to him.

Finally, on the pretext of rebellion by Catholics, the Catholics in the parliament were fully expelled, winning the loyal support of the majority of Protestants.

Great nobles, squires, citizens, yeoman, church... All classes in Britain agree that Charles is a wise monarch!

There are many things that Cromwell couldn't do in his life, but Charles can do it between talking and laughing.

However, the title of Charles is still "Merry King" after all. After the situation stabilized, he became sloppy again, only appearing tough and strategic in foreign wars.

"Come and help hoist the sails!" shouted a Chinese sailor.

"coming!"

Prince Charles responded quickly, and happily ran over, and two country boys also rushed to help.

The fleet bypassed the southern tip of the African continent and arrived in East Africa without any surprises.

On the island of Madagascar, a group of Chinese soldiers already nominally own a territory as large as Taiwan. But I still missed the returning fleet. The fleet is advancing along the coastline. If it is not for avoiding the wind and waves, it will generally not stop at the west coast of Madagascar.

Continue to sail north and visit Said of Oman again.

About one hundred date palm saplings were planted in wooden barrels and all were moved to the Chinese boat.

This thing is sweet, sweet like diabetes.

But the ancients would not dislike it. Sugar is a luxury, and it can be said that the sweeter the better. Moreover, dates can even be used as a staple food. Trunks, branches, leaves, all have economic value.

When they came, Said entertained the Chinese envoy with dates.

Zhang Ruifeng and others were so amazed by the date palms that they immediately bought many seeds and placed an order for 150 date palm saplings.

This thing is resistant to high temperature, flooding, drought, salt and alkali, and can be planted on hillsides, seasides and deserts. It's a pity that it is not resistant to severe cold, and it will freeze to death if it is lower than minus 10 degrees, otherwise it can be planted in the Hetao Desert.

Watching the date palm saplings board the boat, Said pointed to the accompanying Portuguese boat and said, "Mr. Chinese envoy, why are you with the Portuguese?"

Zhang Ruifeng explained: "This is a Portuguese diplomatic ship. The King of Portugal sent an envoy to visit His Majesty the Emperor of our country."

Said didn't hold on anymore, and said: "During the time you left, I captured another Portuguese castle. I also annexed all the northern plains. Now I have sufficient financial resources and want to be in China. Order ten warships. Of course, order five first, and if I am satisfied, I will pay for the rest.”

"There is no problem with this, as long as there is money, everything is easy to talk about." Zhang Ruifeng was very happy, after all, he got a big order for the shipyard.

Saeed also has no choice. Although the Arabs can build ships, their naval combat performance is far from enough, and there is also a serious shortage of large-caliber artillery. After subduing the pirates, this guy took the initiative to go to the coast of India to plunder the merchant ships coming and going from Portugal, but was beaten up by the Portuguese fleet.

In desperation, Said had an idea, and spent money to ask the Chinese to build warships.

Zhao Han is of course willing to accept foreign orders, but the quality cannot be guaranteed. Don't even think about a hundred-year-old giant wood, and it is impossible for the wood to be brewed for ten years.

If you don't ask China to help build the ship, Said will have to save up slowly by himself, and it will take decades to finally build a fleet. At that time, he will become the overlord of the Indian Ocean and beat the Portuguese merchant ships around.

When leaving Oman, there were more than 30 more Arabs on the Chinese envoy's fleet. These guys brought money to the Chinese shipyard.

The next stop is the port of Bassain, India.

This is the territory of the Bijapur Kingdom. On the surface, Mughal's suzerainty is recognized, but in private, it is constantly making small moves.

In this country, a Hindu youth in his 20s is fighting against Mughal and Bijapur.

The young master of a small Hindu lord's family, only a mid-level military officer, dared to resist two great powers at the same time. And the team continued to grow, and in another year, they even attacked four countries at the same time, and repeatedly wandered around the borders of the four countries.

A few years later, the results continued to expand. Killed the commander-in-chief of Bijapur, killed the son of the Mughal vice king, captured the Mughal coastal city of Surat, and forced the Mughal army to withdraw from the Deccan Plateau.

During this period, the young man was once ordered by the Mughals to cede 23 castles and a large area of ​​land in exchange for the recognition of the status of the Mughals. But the Mughal emperor backtracked and wanted to trap and kill him. The young man escaped successfully, and then fought against the Mughals for more than 30 years, causing the Mughals' finances to collapse completely, and finally established their own country.

This young man, Jatparathi Sivaji, was known as the "father of the Indian Navy" hundreds of years later.

When the Chinese fleet docked, Sivaji was leading troops to attack.

A group of well-armed Bijapur soldiers were killed by ragged Hindu rebels and fled to a Portuguese castle to seek asylum.

"There is a war, there is a war here!" Prince Charles shouted excitedly.

Lu Tianxiang was no longer interested in fighting, and said: "This country is in war, so we don't need supplies for now. Go to the south and pick a safer port."