Chapter 490: Different positions
What is being built in the Victory Port Shipyard is not a new type of cargo ship, but a powerful Haihan battleship. The mercantilism that Thomas expected was not reflected in Haihan. It was obvious that the Haihan Executive Committee still decided to take the route of military expansion, and business was just the main way for them to earn military expenses.
Thomas kept scolding him, but he actually knew very well that Haihan's current advantage in the military field could not be made disappear just by talking. Portugal's maritime armed forces in the area east of the Strait of Malacca are no longer on the same level as the Haihan people. Now probably only the Dutch and Spanish are qualified to compete with this newly rising force in the Far East.
Portugal currently has many cooperation projects with Haihan in the military and trade fields, so Thomas, in addition to envy and jealousy, actually knows that Haihan's growth has certain benefits for himself. The reach of Haihan's influence is almost equivalent to the reach of Portuguese trade routes. The expansion of such trade routes is much faster than the Portuguese themselves. Moreover, the protection that professional armies such as the Haihan Militia can provide to maritime merchants is far from comparable to the spontaneous organizations of civilian armed merchant ships.
Since Haihan settled in Sanya, he has almost wiped out all the pirates around Qiongzhou Island in the past two years. By the way, the waters at the Pearl River Estuary have also been cleaned up. This is definitely a great achievement for the Portuguese who have been in and out of these waters for a long time. A good thing. There are even Portuguese businessmen who have begun to regularly join the merchant fleet that regularly departs from the Pearl River Estuary to Sanya twice a month. Because these two fleets will be escorted by Haihan warships throughout the entire journey, the safety is much greater than that of ordinary voyages. arrange.
Thomas very much hopes that the Haihan people can continue to expand this escort route northward and extend it to the coastal areas of Fujian - so that they can compete for the Dutch trade area with the Ming Dynasty to the maximum extent, and there will still be Haihan people in front of them at critical times. Guns will not directly harm the interests of the Portuguese.
If the Dutch and the Haihans were to have sex... Thomas couldn't help but twitch his eyebrows when he thought of this. The scene was so beautiful that he couldn't even imagine it. If these two parties fight, no matter who wins or loses, it will be good news for Portugal.
Therefore, Portugal is now in a very contradictory situation. On the one hand, expanding trade routes in the Far East requires the support and assistance of Haihan, a strong partner, but on the other hand, Haihan's rapid expansion has also brought great difficulties to the Portuguese. Under huge pressure, they spent so much time, energy and financial resources to enter the Far East market, but they did not come with a soy sauce mentality. Although the Haihan people are partners, they are also competitors from another perspective. The greater Haihan's advantage in shipping, the more imbalanced the status of the cooperation between the two parties will be.
Although Portugal has been in a passive and weak position in previous cooperation, Thomas does not want this situation to continue to deteriorate - this passivity has greatly limited the profits that Portuguese businessmen can obtain from the Far East, said To be more serious, it is sacrificing the interests of the Kingdom of Portugal to fatten up this group of Haihan people.
Thomas has lived in Sanya for a while, and he also has a certain understanding of the social structure under Haihan's rule. Although he cannot understand the governance philosophy of Haihan's executive committee, he can also see that under his rule The social stability of the region far exceeds that of the Ming Dynasty, and the power levels are also controlled by multiple people. This force is almost unlikely to collapse due to internal problems, so there is no need to expect Haihan to decline on its own in the short term. The only thing that might hinder its development is probably war.
But Hai Han's military strength was unbelievably strong. Not only did the original South Vietnamese army have no solution to it, but even a behemoth like the Ming Empire probably wouldn't have a good solution to the existence of Hai Han's armed forces. In Thomas' opinion, the most likely force to have a head-on armed conflict with Haihan is the Dutch.
Portugal is already at a clear disadvantage in the maritime expansion competition with the Dutch. It is obviously unrealistic to expect the Ming Dynasty to deal with the Dutch. In the past few years, the Ming Dynasty's southern navy was exhausted, and it was able to push back the gang stationed in Penghu. Dutch. As for the Dutch stronghold on Damuan Island, it was obvious that the Ming Empire had neither the motivation nor the ability to eradicate it. Those who can accomplish this task can probably only count on the rising Haihan Navy.
This time Thomas returned to Macau. In addition to reporting on his duties, he also had to accept new instructions from the council. Returning to Sanya this time, Thomas not only brought back a batch of goods for resale from Wanshan Port, but also the latest arrangements from the Macau Council.
The ship Thomas was on did not dock at Sanya Port this time, but directly entered Victory Port. After docking, Thomas disembarked first and took out a document and gave it to the port staff waiting on the shore: "This is the list of personnel on the ship. Please give it directly to Director Qiu for review."
Usually, it is very simple to register personnel after a foreign ship arrives at the port. Thomas is so cautious because among the people who came with the ship, there are a second batch of Portuguese military instructors, totaling 45 people. The identities of these people are relatively sensitive. Thomas Knowing that Shengli Port has strict control over outsiders, in order to avoid misunderstandings, we prepared the corresponding documents in advance and asked Qiu Yuan, the head of the Shengli Port Management Committee, to personally handle the matter.
Thomas had lived in Sanya for a full year, and the staff at the port naturally recognized this foreigner with a thick nose and a high nose, so they immediately went to the port center with the documents. Not long after, Qiu Yuan came to the pier with several staff members. After the two exchanged brief greetings, Qiu Yuan asked the staff to board the ship and register the new guests. Of course, the other purpose was to check in with the guests. These people undergo preliminary quarantine to prevent patients among them from entering the country carrying some tropical infectious diseases with obvious symptoms.
After the two sides began cooperation last year, Haihan made a request to the Portuguese, hoping to hire a group of experienced military instructors to help train militia soldiers in Sanya - mainly artillery and sailors. This request was later approved by the Macau Council, and a group of military personnel were later sent to Sanya to serve as recruit instructors.
Although for the time-travelers, the combat ideas of four hundred years ago can only be described as primitive, the professional military quality of these Portuguese instructors is still quite good. They are all professional soldiers who have been in the army for many years. They have had some practical experience in the battlefields of Europe and the Far East. They know very well that practical combat skills are more needed on the battlefield, and they also understand the importance of maintaining strict military discipline in the army. They may not be able to adapt to the combat requirements of the militia, but they are fully capable of training new recruits.
In the more than half a year since these Portuguese instructors were hired, they have assisted the military training department in training more recruits than a battalion. Since they have received relatively generous treatment in Sanya, these Portuguese are also willing to stay as coaches here for a long time. After all, this place is safe and there is no need for them to go to the battlefield to fight, and the income they can earn is far higher than that in Macau. The level of being an armed squire. For Haihan, the arrival of these external instructors has greatly solved the problem of insufficient professional staff, and the cost of hiring them is considered worthwhile in terms of results. Of course, the military training department will not let the Portuguese get involved in the most important ideological education courses. There is a special political department responsible for this matter. There is a complete set of ideological training content to allow those ignorant recruits to grow into executive committee members in a short period of time. loyal warrior.
After Haihan tasted the sweetness, he once again thought of the Portuguese during the recent wave of military expansion, hoping that they could provide more military instructors to serve in Sanya. After repeated discussions, the Macau Council believed that the benefits of assisting Haihan in the military outweighed the disadvantages, and decided to send another group of people to serve in Sanya.
After conducting personnel registration and quarantine, Qiu Yuan asked people to take this group of people to another dock to take a boat across the bay and report to the Victory Port Garrison Area. Naturally there will be people from the military taking over and arranging their next lives. Thomas's work does not end here. He must also apply to meet with the executive committee members to convey certain opinions of the Macau Council.
Two hours later, in a conference room somewhere in Fort Victory.
"Mr. Thomas, if the Portuguese merchants just want to return to Annan to engage in trading activities, there is no problem. We can also provide certain assistance. But you want to establish a permanent port and other military facilities there. This Forgive us for not being able to do anything." Tao Donglai said in a deep voice: "The several ports we temporarily control on the Annan coastline are also used as concessions. I suggest that your country can also follow our approach. .”
Thomas secretly murmured that the area Haihan occupied in Annan was indeed in the name of a concession. However, neither Haihan nor Annan had any intention of exchanging actual control of these areas again. Whether these places are called Haihan Concession or Haihan Territory, Haihan probably doesn't care much. The only historians who really care about this difference in names may be Annan historians. At least the term "concession" has not been recorded. It's too embarrassing for Annan's face.
But this method can be used by Haihan, but the Portuguese cannot copy it. The reason is simple, because the Portuguese originally supported the South Vietnamese court, and they had a purely hostile relationship with the northern court that now rules Annan. If not for Haihan's timely intervention, the northern court might have been overthrown at this time. Therefore, the group of people who now control Annan not only have no good impression of the Portuguese, but are mostly afraid of them.
If the Portuguese want to apply to the current Annan court for a residence like Macau, let alone the time limit for using the land, there is a high chance that the Annan people will directly reject this proposal just by proposing it. The Annan court, which still remembers the civil war that ended less than a year ago, will probably not be so quick to forgive its former opponents, let alone grant them land and let them settle in their own land.
But if the Portuguese wanted to maintain the route from Malacca to Macau, they had to have some safe stopping points in the middle of this long voyage. Now Sanya can be regarded as one, but the voyage from Sanya to the Portuguese port in the Strait of Malacca is thousands of nautical miles away. Such a long distance will undoubtedly be a very difficult voyage if only the supplies carried when setting off are relied upon. Therefore, establishing a safe and stable stopping point on the Indochina Peninsula in the middle of the voyage, which is now the southern coastline of Annan, became a goal that the Portuguese must complete.
After the Annan Civil War ended in the first half of 1629 and the Portuguese completely withdrew from Annan, it became extremely difficult for Portuguese merchant ships to travel to and from this sea area. The reason was that some of the ports they could previously dock at were now blocked by the Annan court. As for the crew, they had to risk being cut off from supplies at sea to complete the voyage.
Originally, the Portuguese were counting on Hai Han to quickly rebuild the Hoi An Port after the war, so that they could also benefit from it. However, they did not expect that the Hai Han people would just withdraw their troops after helping the northern court fight the civil war. They agreed. The southern ports have also been in a state of paper talk, and until the second half of the year, there was still heavy thunder and little rain.
The Haihan people can afford it, but the Portuguese side can't afford it. Due to the inconvenience of replenishment on the way, the number of Portuguese merchant ships that originally plied between the Strait of Malacca and Macau has shrunk in the past six months to less than one-third of the number in the previous two years. However, most of the remaining ships are still in need of service. Haihan continued to persevere on the huge profits from trading. Most of the other ships began to move to the South China Sea to explore unknown waters such as the Banda Sea, the Maluku Sea, and the Halmahera Sea.
If it continues to be delayed, it will inevitably affect the current state of maritime trade. After weighing the situation, the Macau Council believes that since the Haihan people do not want to move for the time being, it is better for them to take the initiative and find a suitable location on the Indochina Peninsula to establish a supply dock. But there is definitely no way to bypass Haihan to handle this matter. Both emotionally and logically, we must first say hello to the Haihan people. After all, they are the current patrons of the Annan court.
Of course, Thomas had also been mentally prepared before coming here, knowing that his request might not be accepted by the Haihan people. After all, this kind of dual-use military and civilian facilities are somewhat sensitive, and the Haihan people have a scornful temper, so the council's plan will most likely be rejected. As expected, Tao Donglai made a very clear rejection after hearing his request. Instead, he suggested that the Portuguese use a concession to seek the land they needed.
(End of chapter)