Maputo, this small port in East Africa, was just a small trading stronghold during the Portuguese colonial period.
Because there are several rivers in the surrounding area that can penetrate deep into the interior of Africa, the Portuguese established a small colonial stronghold here more than a hundred years ago to facilitate trade with the local indigenous people along these rivers.
However, during the Portuguese colonial period, this place was not an important trading port, so its development was extremely limited.
The center of Portuguese colonial rule in East Africa was the island of Mozambique further north.
In fact, even after the Chu Empire accepted the colonial rule in East Africa, although it did not fully continue the development strategy of the Portuguese period, its development focus was still on the port of Pemba further north, but Mozambique Island is still an important city.
As for several other coastal port colonies, they basically adopt the stocking model, such as Maputo, Beira, Quelimane, etc.
Because the Dachu Empire had a very clear strategy in its operations on the east coast of Africa, which was to open up the routes along the east coast of Africa, in order to completely control South Africa, and then block the waters of the Cape of Good Hope, completely bring the Indian Ocean under its control, and control the Indian Ocean Turn it into an inland sea to establish a safe logistics supply channel, and by the way do business along the east coast of Africa.
Therefore, the current focus of development is partly on excellent coastal ports with the potential to berth large ships. Only deep-water ports can berth large ships of several thousand tons, such as Pemba Port and Cape Town Port.
There are also some locations that happen to be very important. Even if the port conditions are not very good, Chu State will focus on development, such as Mogadishu in Somalia, and Dongkai Port in South Africa.
In addition, there is Hongkou Port on the Red Sea coast of North Africa, and Anxi City in the Amanhad Cape area on the desert peninsula of West Asia.
These key development ports either have excellent natural conditions and a good local climate suitable for farming, or their geographical location is too important and they are supply ports for ship navigation.
Unfortunately, Maputo satisfies neither of these requirements.
To the north, there is the Chu Empire's largest military base in East Africa, the excellent deep-water port Pemba Port.
There, there is Dongkai Port under construction and even a larger comprehensive military base, Cape Town Port, nearby.
Maputo is stuck right in the middle. On weekdays, very few passing ships actually come here to dock for supplies.
After all, the ocean-going ships of the Dachu Empire were basically large ships with very good endurance. It was impossible to just stop for a few days and then stop for supplies.
This situation also led to the fact that after the Chu Empire took control of Maputo, the local development was very limited. After the Chu people took over the city, they only renovated the necessary city defense facilities and stationed more than 60 regular Chu troops. soldiers, and there were more than two hundred servant soldiers of the Indian Legion.
Daily management also adopts the ordinary colonial model, with only a small number of necessary officials such as a town magistrate and tax officer dispatched here.
Counting all the Chu people, including soldiers and civilians, who live in the city, there are only a thousand people.
In addition to the Chu people, there are actually a large number of people from other countries in the city and the suburbs outside the city, such as the Portuguese immigrants who came here before, as well as businessmen and even ordinary immigrants from other countries, and even some local people. There are black and white indigenous people.
Among these people, there are official people from the Chu State, semi-official people from the Western Trading Company, and businessmen and adventurers who came from the Chu State. As for the purely agricultural immigrants from the Chu State, there are not many...
There are all kinds of people among the indigenous people, including ordinary businessmen, ordinary farmers, and some slave traders. You can even see sneaky pirates and various prostitutes.
It is worth mentioning that there are also many local businessmen under the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Many of these people are slave traders. Sometimes they purchase slaves, and sometimes they go deep into the interior to capture slaves.
There was also slavery in the Ottoman Empire these days, and the scale of slaveholding was even quite large. However, slavery in the Ottoman Empire also had a very interesting feature, that is, slaves did not always belong to the lowest level of society. If If they perform well and have a basis, some slaves can actually become mid- to high-level generals, officials, and even influence the change of imperial power in the empire.
The most typical representative of these slaves is the 'Ottoman Guards'. This army is the second army besides the Chu Empire to be equipped with flintlocks and adopt line tactics. Its performance has been very eye-catching in the past ten years.
These military slaves, these slaves who have been carefully selected, will receive education, serve in the army, and even become important generals and important officials.
The slave corps described in the later Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin most likely drew from the Ottoman Guards, plus the castrated eunuchs in the Ottoman court, and combined them into his creation.
After all, the background of the entire film is actually the "War of the Roses" period of the British Civil War in the mid-fifteenth century. During this period, the Ottoman Empire was in the rising stage, and its slave guards were very powerful.
There were also a large number of castrated slaves in the Ottoman court. The power of the eunuchs in the Ottoman court was not much worse than that of the eunuchs in the Eastern courts.
These upper-class slaves profoundly affected the political situation of the Ottoman Empire.
To put it bluntly, the political structure of the Ottoman Empire was controlled by local nobles and military slaves.
In addition, ordinary people also held a large number of slaves to provide them with domestic services, manual production and farming. These slaves often had very low social status and were also the main body of the slave trade in the Ottoman Empire.
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire is actually somewhat similar to the slave system in traditional Eastern dynasties. The eunuchs in the palace, the children of wealthy families, the tenants of ordinary landowners...these groups are actually very similar in nature.
At the same time, serfdom was also widely prevalent in Russia.
It can only be said that before the industrial revolution, all countries in the world were actually similar in some systems. They seemed to be different, but in fact they were similar.
In order to obtain a large number of slaves, in addition to acquiring them themselves, the Ottoman Empire also had a large number of slave traders who would go to Africa to purchase slaves through various substitutions.
Of course, Chu people did not engage in slavery, and it was illegal to engage in slavery in the empire. Therefore, slaves were generally obtained by helping the Chu army deal with prisoners of war, and by cooperating with Chu people to introduce labor exports.
Therefore, many slave traders from the Ottoman Empire were also active on the east coast of Africa.
Maputo is no exception.
Today’s Maputo is a hodgepodge where everyone has something to eat!
After all, this place has not been included in the overseas territories directly under the jurisdiction of the country, so the Chu Empire will not expel these foreign natives. As long as you abide by the laws of the empire, the official will not care much about you.
But it is different in the overseas territories directly under the jurisdiction of the empire. In the overseas territories directly under the empire, the empire does not allow foreign indigenous people to live and live, let alone foreign indigenous people. Even the local indigenous people will be expelled, such as many places in Nanyang, Ceylon Island, parts of North America, and what is now South Africa.
There are no indigenous people in these typical overseas directly-administered territories. Even if there are, they are a few indigenous people with whom the Chu people themselves have close connections.
After all, in many places overseas, there are also many indigenous people who choose to cooperate with Chu State, and even serve as the leading party.
For these foreign natives who have made efforts and contributions to the empire's overseas expansion, the empire will generally accept them and grant them Chu household registration, legally becoming true Chu people.
The Great Chu Empire also adopted a similar policy in the Indian Army, promising to give outstanding indigenous soldiers in the Indian Army the household registration of the Great Chu Empire in the future.
However, the number of places must be very small, and it is difficult for ordinary indigenous soldiers of the Indian Legion to obtain them.
Ordinary colonies and overseas territories directly under the Central Government, these two completely different overseas territory models are very different in the Chu Empire.
Maputo is a typical ordinary colony. There are everyone here, and it is also relatively chaotic. There are also a large number of desperadoes.
For example, Meng Xiu and his group are extremely vicious criminal gangs no matter what era or legal framework they are in.
Now, they are focusing on the Dutch who have migrated to Tshwane, trying to seize the gold mines.
Meng Xiu and the others moved very quickly, and soon summoned an armed force of about a hundred people, dozens of whom were key employees of Meng Xiu and his company, and were also legal security personnel with guns.
There were also dozens of desperadoes found in the city and nearby areas, including not only Chu people, but also some West Asians and even Portuguese.
They all gathered under Meng Xiu for money, trying to make a big fortune!
However, it was naturally impossible for so many armed men to gather openly in Maputo City. Most of the people gathered in a small abandoned village outside the city.
Otherwise it will easily cause unnecessary trouble.
After all, Maputo is a colony of the Chu Empire. There are officials and troops stationed in the city. Even though there are very few officials in the city, there are only fifty or sixty regular troops. There are only a few dozen people representing the official Chu State. In addition, there are There are semi-official servants, personnel from Western trading companies, etc.
No matter what, Mengxiu was unwilling to cause any trouble in Maputo City and attract official attention.
As a citizen of the empire, and a person who wanders in the dark night and sin, he naturally has a sense of fear towards the imperial officials!
If you don't want to deal with it, don't deal with it... Otherwise, no one knows when they will be targeted by those damn judicial censors and get caught.
In fact... Meng Xiu's worries are not unreasonable.
Just when Meng Xiu secretly assembled armed men outside the city, and then personally led an armed gang of a hundred people to kill Zneva.
In the tax office in Maputo City, in the hands of Gan Bowen, a young tax official in Maputo Town, is a thick volume of investigation materials on Meng Xiu and the main backbone of his gang.
When I look at it, I sometimes frown and sometimes look happy.
Finally, he put the file directly on the table and said to the middle-aged man next to him: "This man is so brave. In these days, he dares to evade taxes so openly, and the amount involved is not small."
"Such bold and brainless people are rare in our country."
The middle-aged man said: "This situation is relatively common in overseas territories. These people do some illegal business overseas. Although they are secretive, they don't care too much about some rules."
"And their activity areas are basically in overseas territories or even indigenous territories, so naturally they don't have much awareness of paying taxes!"
"And during our investigation, we didn't find that they hired professional accountants and tax lawyers to process tax returns. I think... no one has told him yet!"
"Even illegal income needs to be taxed!"
"Gan Bowen picked up the file in his hand and looked at it again, and finally said: "Continue to investigate. In addition, the amount of money is quite large. Meng Xiu's gang is also a group of desperadoes. You should be careful when investigating. Safety is the first priority. ! "
"I will personally write to Pemba later and ask the superiors to send an armed tax police force over to prevent them from biting in a hurry!"
"This time, we must make this a beautiful affair, and let those profiteers who evade taxes know that their good days are over, and they must pay taxes to me honestly from now on!"
After watching his subordinates go out, Gan Bowen read the file for a while, then stood up and walked to the window, looking at the harbor outside the window!
As a newly appointed tax collector of Maputo town, Gambowen is ambitious!
When I was in China, I took the Jiangbei Township Examination. After being successfully admitted, I worked in the local tax agency in Jiangbei and became a tax officer.
Not long after the work started, the superiors planned to select a group of people from the Jiangbei tax system to go to the Indian governorate to support local tax work.
Due to the difficult conditions overseas, as compensation, grassroots personnel assigned below the eighth rank will be promoted to one level. After serving locally for five years, they can be unconditionally transferred back to the country and promoted to another level.
In other words, if you go to India for support and work for five years, you can be promoted to two levels.
This is still very attractive to many ambitious grassroots tax officials.
Gan Bowen was no exception. He had only been working for a year at that time. According to the rules, he had no personal connections. If there were no big surprises in his local position, he would not be promoted to two levels in ten years, let alone five years.
For the sake of his future, he chose without hesitation to sign up to support the Indian governorship area. After being selected, he was sent to India. His rank was also promoted from the lowest ninth grade to the full ninth grade.
When he first arrived, he was assigned to work at the Taxation Bureau in Mumbai, India. Because there were few people in the local taxation bureau, there were also many professional tax officers from China. Some of them were recruited directly from overseas immigrants for emergency purposes, and their tax ability was tested. Not great.
After Gan Bowen went to Mumbai, he did very well and was quickly promoted there, becoming the eighth rank.
Later, the African Governor's Office was established, and the tax agency selected a group of people from the Indian Governor's Tax Agency, plus tax officials who had been supported from home, to form the first batch of African Governor's Tax Agency personnel to serve in Pemba Port in Africa. .
During this process, Gan Bowen was promoted to the eighth level.
A month ago, the new director of the newly established Maputo Tax Office died of illness, leaving the position of director of the local tax office vacant. As the superior management department, the County Taxation Bureau of Pemba County dispatched Gambowen to take over the tax office. The position of director.
And this position is from the seventh grade!
All in all, it had only been five years since he had been an official for eight years, and he had been promoted four levels in a row from the lowest rank, the ninth rank, to the seventh rank tax officer, and he was also the director of the town tax office.
Even though he is just the director of a town tax office, he is the leader of the lowest-level tax agency in the tax system of the Dachu Empire.
This kind of thing is simply impossible to happen in China. It is only possible in overseas areas, especially newly opened overseas areas.
Even so, Gambowen was still not satisfied, he wanted more.
He wanted to achieve great results as the director of taxation in Maputo, gain enough qualifications, and then continue to climb up to the seventh rank, or even the sixth rank, or the fifth rank.
He looked forward to one day being able to cross the threshold that almost most imperial officials could not cross: from the fourth rank.
Then he became a high-ranking imperial official wearing crimson official robes!
Wearing crimson official robes and becoming a high-ranking official in the empire is also the lifelong pursuit of many officials of the Chu Empire and even some young scholars.
Now, Meng Xiu and his team have shown him the opportunity to continue to rise. Even if he cannot be promoted immediately after doing this, he can still accumulate strong qualifications for himself and lay a solid foundation for future promotions!
