For the Chu Empire, its trade with overseas countries was not purely for profits on a certain route, well, although it was the pursuit of major trading companies.
But there are differences between the pursuits of enterprises and the pursuits of empires.
For the empire itself, trade with other countries pursues the market!
As long as you buy goods from our Great Chu Empire and then let go of industrial raw materials, such as cotton, wool, saltpeter, sulfur, shipbuilding wood and other industrial raw materials, then you will be a good friend of the Great Chu Empire!
On the other hand, if you do not open the market to the Chu Empire, then you will be the enemy of the Chu Empire!
Based on this principle, except for exclusive trade in order to monopolize the Fusang market, the Chu Empire adopted free trade policies in other markets.
The direct reflection of this trade policy is that the Chu Empire can do business with whomever it likes to do business with, and no one can control it.
The Dutch actually asked the Chu Empire to stop trade with the Portuguese. This was absolutely unacceptable, so the Chu Empire responded to the Dutch with an extremely harsh diplomatic letter.
The Dutch are certainly dissatisfied with this, but there is nothing they can do about it.
Forcibly block the Chu Empire's fleet from going to Malacca to trade with the Portuguese? This was tantamount to triggering a war with the Chu Empire. Not to mention the outcome of the war, the mere severance of trade between the two sides after the outbreak of the war was a huge loss that the Dutch could not bear.
The Dutch's trade in Nanyang was inseparable from the Chu Empire. Without the Chu Empire's various goods and the acquisition of various raw materials, the Dutch's trade in Nanyang and India could not be maintained even in Europe. .
In the triangular trade in Southeast Asia and India, anyone can be missing, but the Chu Empire is the only one that cannot be missing.
What is the Dutch's trade model in the Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean regions? It is to purchase cotton, shipbuilding timber, saltpeter, sulfur, wool, spices and other raw materials from India and Southeast Asia, plus some specialties from various places, and transport them to the Dachu Empire for sale, and then purchase cotton cloth, iron products, weapons from the Dachu Empire , silk, porcelain and other products are sold to Southeast Asia, India, the northwest and even Africa and Europe.
The Chu Empire was one end of the trade, and other countries were the other end...
If a war breaks out with the Dachu Empire, we might as well stop doing this trade and go home...
What's more, if the Dutch stop, the Spanish, Portuguese and even the English will take over, and trade in the African and even European markets will not be cut off.
As for the Southeast Asian and even Indian regions, the trading companies of the Chu Empire are enough to fill the vacancies.
In the trade market of East Asia in the twelfth year of Chengshun, the Chu Empire could leave the Dutch to play on their own, but the Dutch could not do without the Chu Empire.
Therefore, when the Dutch went to Malacca to do business with the Portuguese in the name of free trade under the banner of free trade, the Dutch could only watch helplessly and did not dare to send warships to intercept.
Well, if you really want to intercept it, you may not be able to defeat it!
Under the escort of the Dutch, more than ten merchant ships from the Chu Empire arrived in Malacca and conducted trade with the local Portuguese in Malacca.
The Portuguese also knew that the situation was tense and lacked other sources of material supplies. Therefore, they directly purchased various strategic materials shipped by the trading companies of the Dachu Empire at high prices.
Firearms such as matchlocks, artillery, shells, and gunpowder, as well as cold weapons such as plate armor, swords, and spears are all required.
For this reason, they spent all the gold and silver in their inventory, and by the way, they also sold all kinds of spices and other goods that the Great Chu Empire needed to the Great Chu Empire.
After a transaction, both parties are happy!
The Portuguese obtained a large amount of weapons and ammunition, which enriched the defense force of Malacca City, while the various trading companies of the Chu Empire obtained a large amount of wealth, a large amount of industrial raw materials, and local products from various places.
After the transaction was completed, the ships of various private trading companies began to set sail from Malacca. Some of them were preparing to make another trip to Batavia to trade with the Dutch, or to trade with other ports controlled by indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. Those who have completed all transactions are preparing to return directly to China.
But this does not include the armed merchant ships of the Nanyang Trading Company!
After completing the transaction in Malacca, they continued to rest and wait in Malacca. They waited until the two merchant ships heading for Batavia for trade arrived in Malacca before setting sail again!
The naval fleet led by Vice Admiral Xiahou Jun also set sail at the same time to perform escort missions.
They will first travel to Myanmar and trade along the coastline, and are expected to establish a trading port in the Myanmar region.
Establishing a trading port in Myanmar was also the stated goal of the naval fleet heading to the Indian Ocean this time. Of course, in fact, this matter had been finalized before they set off.
Last year, the border guards in the Yunnan region of the Chu Empire and the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar had a fight over some disputed territories in the border area...
Well, the reason is actually simple. When the Chu Empire was chasing the remnants of the Xi Ming Dynasty, the remnants of the Xi Ming Dynasty fled into Burma, and the Chu army naturally followed them in, thus pushing the border line southward in some areas. , ranging from a dozen kilometers to as many as hundreds of kilometers...
In order to avoid offending the Chu Empire, the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar at that time did not have the guts to stop it. Instead, it took the initiative to withdraw its troops and cooperated with the Chu army to encircle and suppress the remnants of the Western Ming Dynasty.
But... Logically speaking, after the remnants of Xi Ming were wiped out, the Chu Empire Army also retreated. However, the Chu army has been using the excuse that the remnants of Xi Ming have not been finished, so they have not retreated.
Later, they simply established prefectures and counties for direct rule, making it clear that they would not leave once they came.
Therefore, in recent years, Myanmar has been trying to regain these areas. Of course, they do not have the courage to have a full-scale war with the Chu Empire, and only occasionally engage in border conflicts.
As for the Chu army, they actually had no intention of continuing south. The Chu army was not willing to go to that poor place... But the thieves did not leave empty-handed. They had already come here, and there was absolutely no possibility of giving up the occupied area voluntarily.
Therefore, after encountering a counterattack on the border from Myanmar, they will naturally launch a self-defense counterattack. Before, there were some small conflicts, but after a few battles, they became furious, so they organized a reinforced group to launch a counterattack!
Although the scale of this battle was not large, it completely frightened the Toungoo Dynasty...
The Dachu Empire's army of light artillery, flintlocks, and various types of good light armor almost defeated the Toungoo Dynasty's army.
Because the combat strength of both sides in this battle was only a few thousand, the gap in the casualty ratio between the two sides was too large.
The Burmese Toungoo Dynasty suffered at least two thousand casualties, while the Chu army suffered less than a hundred casualties!
At the same time, the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar lost two important cities in the north!
Such a huge casualty ratio directly frightened the Toungoo dynasty, and they quickly sued for peace as soon as they were defeated.
Thalong of the Taungoo dynasty that now rules Myanmar is also a relatively rational person. He is well aware that Myanmar is weak internally and the people's livelihood is dying. He knows that Myanmar cannot be the opponent of the Chu Empire. Otherwise, he would not have swallowed his anger for so many years. It wasn't until last year that I couldn't help but launch a border counterattack... But I didn't expect that this counterattack would bring disgrace.
After the counterattack failed, Talong no longer struggled, directly sued for peace, and took the initiative to send envoys to Jinling City to request canonization and surrender, and took the initiative to cede the disputed areas in the border areas between the two sides, including the Chu Army's new territory last year. Several areas were captured.
As for the Dachu Empire, in fact, it has no plans to expand in the tropical jungle... That poor place is not for people to stay. The geographical environment is too bad. If troops are sent to fight, non-combat casualties will be extremely serious.
In last year's counterattack, although there were less than a hundred combat casualties, the actual non-combat attrition was terrifying.
A strengthened regiment of more than 4,000 people suffered only more than 80 combat casualties, but more than 100 non-combat deaths. After leaving the camp with relatively good sanitary conditions and going deep into the jungle, people in the regiment died every day. Death from high fever, diarrhea or bite from a venomous snake!
In the reinforced regiment at that time, one of the four people was sick. Tu Wenhua, who was commanding the reinforced regiment at that time, cried to his superiors, the brigadier general, that this was not a place for people at all. If they continued, more than 4,000 of them would die. They all have to die in a foreign country...
Due to the inability to adapt to the harsh local environment and the incompatibility of the soil and water, the Chu army's local operations were very troublesome and difficult.
This is also the reason why in the past few years, except for a slight expansion in the direction of Burma when pursuing the remnants of the Xi Ming Dynasty, the Chu Empire did not take the initiative to expand southward.
To be honest, the Chu Empire really doesn’t want to fight such a broken place!
But again, the thief never escapes. Since they had chased and killed the Ximing army in the early years, there was no reason to give up the newly occupied territory and retreat.
Last year, in order to teach Myanmar a lesson, it sent troops to capture several areas. Now that these areas have been captured, it is impossible to give them up.
Therefore, after this battle, the Chu Empire was actually very embarrassed... On the one hand, it was unwilling to continue fighting the Burmese in such a poor place. This was not a war, but sending soldiers to the front line to die. If It wouldn't matter if he died in an upright battle, but it didn't happen, but he died of diarrhea due to suffocation... The blow to morale was really serious.
The frontline soldiers would rather fight to death with the ferocious enemy than die of diarrhea!
But on the one hand, the Chu Empire was unwilling to let go of the territory it had already acquired.
After the Burmese took the initiative to seek peace, the Chu Empire also breathed a sigh of relief!
So I happily held peace talks with Myanmar, and even made certain concessions on the disputed territory. In order to make the border demarcation between the two sides more consistent with the geography of mountains and rivers, some areas were abandoned. In the end, the two sides finalized a new border, mainly The mountains and rivers are the limit.
After this division, the Chu Empire finally legitimately obtained a land of about 30,000 square kilometers in northern Myanmar, which was directly incorporated into Yunnan Province for management.
As part of the treaty, the Toungoo dynasty of Myanmar expressed its surrender to the Chu Empire and requested for canonization. The Chu Empire canonized Thalung, the ruler of the Toungoo dynasty of Myanmar, as the king of Myanmar.
And this is also the second kingdom to accept the official canonization of the Great Chu Empire. Before this, it was the Yarkand Khanate.
Of course, this vassal relationship was actually very weak, and it was only nominal surrender. The Taungoo dynasty was still an independent kingdom.
After the Chu-Myanmar Jinling Treaty was finalized, the relationship between the Chu Empire and the Kingdom of Burma returned to normal. Now that the relationship had returned to normal, the Chu Empire naturally proposed a trade at the entrance of the Yangon River in Myanmar. The port was used for supply and trade by the merchant ships of the Chu Empire.
If this were replaced by other colonial countries, the Burmese would bang the table every minute...
If they want to trade, the Burmese people have no objection, but if they want a trading port to act like a colony, the Burmese people are not fools who have never seen the world... They have expelled the Portuguese before and recovered the territory occupied by the Portuguese. Where's the colonial charlene?
Actually controlling the place, the Burmese version of An Lushan, the Portuguese Philip, who had titles such as "Commander Salian", "Conqueror of Bago" and "King of Bago", was impaled by the Burmese with a wooden stake and experienced It took three days of torture before he finally died... By this time, the early colonial attempts by the Portuguese or Western colonists in Myanmar ended in complete failure.
This move severely warned those Western colonists who tried to establish colonies in Myanmar. This way, Myanmar could maintain trade with Western countries without losing its power and humiliating the country and losing territory. It persisted until the 19th century and was gradually encroached by the British. Finally, Myanmar became a colony.
In other words, in the seventeenth century, the Burmese were still very tough when it came to Western colonies, and they could win if they dared to fight!
But... the Da Chu Empire is different!
The Chu Empire is right next to Burma...and it just beat up the Burmese people, so the Burmese people had to give in to the Chu Empire's proposal to build a trading port here, even though the boss was unwilling. .
This is mainly because the Chu Empire did not have much demand for colonial area. In order to reduce the Burmese people's defensiveness, they actively stated that the place did not need to be big, and there was no need to go to Shalian. It would be enough to build a commercial port nearby.
After all, what the Chu Empire wants at this stage is to do business, for the Myanmar market... As for directly occupying large areas of territory for colonial rule... It's not that the Chu Empire doesn't want to do it, but it doesn't have that kind of thing for the time being. necessary.
In the end, Myanmar agreed to use Dagong on the other side of the river from Salim as a trading port exclusively for the Chu Empire, allowing the Chu Empire to live, live, trade and garrison troops here to protect themselves!
Dagon is located on the left bank of the Yangon River, and on the right bank is Salim, the main trading port of the Burmese people. Today, Dagon is just a small fishing village with no people. The most famous thing is the temple and pagoda.
Prior to this, a small number of vassal personnel belonging to the vassal affairs department of the Ministry of Rites and Education of the empire had entered Myanmar via land and arrived in Dagon to carry out preliminary construction preparations.
However, Myanmar refused to allow more soldiers from the Chu army to enter Myanmar and go to Dagon...
Previously, the Chu army pursued the remnants of the Ximing army and refused to retreat even after a few years. The Burmese people had to be careful and guarded against it...
They were afraid that if they let the Chu army enter the hinterland of Myanmar, they would not leave. By then, the kingdom might be destroyed...
Myanmar was too wary of the Chu army, and the Chu Empire was not willing to overly stimulate Myanmar not long after the agreement was signed, so it did not forcefully garrison and supply troops by land, but garrisoned troops by sea. and supplies.
This time Xiahoujun and others went there to bring some weapons and equipment and even ground troops to finalize a formal construction plan for Dagon and leave some garrison troops behind.
As for shipping reinforcements, it is more troublesome. If Dagon is attacked by the enemy in the future, it will be too late to provide reinforcements.
Since it is a time of war, the Great Chu Empire will naturally not pay attention to the Burmese people's ideas. When the time comes, there will naturally be a large number of troops from Yunnan heading towards Burma!
Besides, if the Burmese don’t agree to the Chu army sending troops through the borrowed road this year, why not agree to it next year?
And in a few years, it is still unknown how long the current Toungoo dynasty can exist.
