Louise followed the two Chu army officers at the port of Tangier with brisk steps.
At this time, behind them was a huge cargo ship that he considered to be a giant.
And it is also a steam ship that can operate without wind.
Listening to the horrors of a group of Tangier prisoners of war ahead, Louise inadvertently smiled: a group of country bumpkins who had never even seen a steamship.
Unlike the country bumpkins around her, Louise was a man who had read books and traveled extensively.
Speaking of which, Louise's background is actually quite good. He was born in a declining Portuguese aristocratic family. Because the family has long been in decline, even his brother, who is the heir, can only go to those aristocratic families when he was young. It's an attendant.
As the second son, he didn't need it... The biggest benefit his family background brought to him was probably that it allowed him to study for several years when he was a child.
Later, because he could recognize the words, and because he still had the title of the second son of a nobleman, which was unreliable, but of course, the most important thing was because he wanted to make a fortune... so he joined the Dutch East at a very young age. Indian company.
Of course, he is not an ordinary sailor, but an accountant, and does other things part-time, such as doctor, translator and so on.
After working for the East India Company for several years, he changed jobs and went to work for the Spanish in Mexico, learning Chinese in the process.
However, he failed to make it in Mexico and returned to Portugal a few years ago.
At that time, the Chu Empire happened to occupy South Africa and established a trading port facing Europe in Cape Town, South Africa. This also led to the rapid emergence of a large number of official monopoly trading companies in Europe.
Portugal also established the Portuguese South Africa Company at this time, specializing in the route from the mainland to South Africa... Because this kind of trade is a monopoly, it is quite profitable.
Well, this is one of the reasons why the Chu Empire promoted the European free trade plan.
The indigenous people of various countries are monopolizing, and the sales volume of Chu's products cannot increase... and a considerable amount of profits have been made by the indigenous European countries.
The people of Chu were naturally not happy.
So we simply moved the wholesale market from South Africa to Europe, and established additional sales channels to penetrate into retail terminals...
Then the Chu expedition fleet swept across West Africa a few months ago... As a result, the Portuguese South Africa Company went bankrupt again.
Luis not only lost his job, he also lost his freedom... He inexplicably became a prisoner in Ghana along with many people from other Portuguese-South African companies.
However, because Louise knew Chinese, he quickly got rid of his labor career even after becoming a prisoner. Coupled with the shamelessness and ability to adapt to the situation, which he had honed over many years of traveling around, he was able to complete the task in a short time. experienced multiple changes in identity.
From an employee of the Portuguese South Africa Company, to a prisoner-of-war laborer in the expedition fleet, and then as a supervisor... and finally boarded a Chu ship, becoming a translator in the European expedition fleet.
To be honest, it is not easy to complete this identity change in a short period of time. You must know that there are actually many Europeans who understand Chinese. After all, after the rise of the Chu Empire, it did not hide it, but was widely active around the world. As a result, the influence of the Chu Empire on a global scale was huge and lasting.
In this process, Europeans, especially European countries with overseas trade needs, will naturally train specialized Chinese translators. The Portuguese, Dutch, and Spanish have no shortage of people who are proficient in Chinese.
The Chu people swept across West Africa and captured many Europeans, including those who could speak Chinese all night long. This was why they brought Louise on board as a translator.
The reason why Louise was favored by the Chu people was, on the one hand, because he traveled all over the country and was proficient in multiple languages. On the other hand, he was proactive and shameless. On the other hand, he had been living in Mexico for several years. He often After dealing with the Chu people in North America, I understand some of the rules of the Chu people.
It was precisely because of this that he became a member of the translation team of the Chu Empire's European expedition fleet, and he also received a new set of clothes issued by the Chu people.
The new clothes are not very good, they are just ordinary professional clothes, but don’t say that you put on the clothes given by the Chu people, shave your head, and hold a certain Chu in your hand. The folding fan that the national military officer casually rewarded looked full of traitor... no, European traitor.
At least Louise herself was very satisfied with her outfit. She unconsciously puffed up her chest while walking among a group of Spanish prisoners of war.
However, while walking, Louise immediately stopped when he saw the two Chu officers in front of him and the surrounding soldiers also stopping.
At this time, a young-looking Chu officer beside him said: "Translator, tell them that they should get out and leave now. We have left a few small sampans for them at the port. If the young and strong among them are willing to stay, It’s okay to come down and work!”
"Now let the people they want to stay and do the work come forward."
After the officers in front finished speaking, Louise immediately stepped forward and shouted angrily first in Portuguese and then in Spanish.
Tangier was controlled by Portugal for a hundred or two hundred years, and many of the residents in the city are actually Portuguese.
A few years ago, the Spaniards came and occupied this place, and some more Spaniards came.
Generally speaking, before the Chu army arrived, this place was mostly populated by Portuguese and Spanish residents. After these surviving civilians were escorted out of the city, the Chu army did not make it too difficult for them.
It's the same as what I said before: you can leave directly, or you can stay and work.
Of course, the subtext is that Tangier City must have nothing to do with them.
In fact, it is useless even if it is related. Today, the city of Tangier is truly in ruins. There are not a few intact houses at all, and there is basically nothing left!
Now the Chu army has to set up tents when they land on their own.
As for these surviving civilians, it's actually useless if you let them return to the city.
What's more, according to the expeditionary force's plan, after they capture the city of Tangier, they plan to use the city as a large military base and trading port. In this case, large-scale construction will inevitably be carried out in Tangier.
Now the Chu army is loading and unloading personnel and supplies, and a considerable number of construction raw materials will be obtained locally, that is, from the ruins of Tangier City.
Tangier will still exist in the future, but the current city of Tangier will not continue to exist.
Louise acted as the translator for the Chu army officers and made simple arrangements for the surviving civilians in Tangier, but later on, a Chu army captain and officer who led the team was too lazy to run away.
Simply let the soldiers take Louise over to dismiss the civilians or recruit civilians to work.
After these two days of busy work, I finally managed to properly handle the affairs of the surviving civilians in Tangier City. Most of them chose to leave, and only a small number of people chose to stay and work.
The Chu people didn't care about this either. Anyway, those civilians were basically old, weak, women and children... There weren't many real young people.
The main force of the work was the prisoners of war. After all, the prisoners of war were mostly young and strong.
In addition to local prisoners of war in Tangier, the expedition fleet will also draw prisoners of war from various places to work to ensure that the construction in Tangier will not fall behind due to lack of labor.
However, the subsequent port construction of Tangier will be a long-term work and cannot be rushed in a short time. Therefore, there will only be a few buildings, taller warehouses, barracks and the like at the beginning.
These are quite simple, and it doesn't take long to get them done.
Half a month later, a fleet of ships arrived in Tangier, bringing a rotating garrison and many supplies to Tangier, including a batch of cement and other construction materials.
With the availability of cement and other building materials, Tangier's port construction was rapid. Soon a large ship berth with a hanging tower and good water depth was built. The freighter Jijiang, which had been floating on the sea for many days, was also able to slow down. Get closer and start loading and unloading.
When the freighter Jijiang approached, the military personnel were very careful... and even brought two small-tonnage military coal ships to be used as tugboats nearby, just to prevent the Jijiang, which was too big, from being uncontrollable. It then hit a dock causing damage.
If this is damaged, the compensation will not be a small sum!
The freighter Jijiang is not a navy transport ship, nor an army sea transport ship, nor even an armed freighter like the Western Trading Company.
This thing is a very simple civilian cargo ship. It was not supposed to participate in the European Free Trade Plan. However, when the ship was transporting goods to South Africa, it was requisitioned by the navies of the North and South...
After all, the ship is big enough, with more than 8,000 tons, and it can carry a lot of things... It's just that, requisition is requisition, but the money still has to be given.
After all, your military needs to pay for temporary requisitions. If it is worn out or something happens to it, such as it is sunk by the enemy, it must be compensated. If it is worn out, it must be repaired or compensated.
On the third day after the Yoshijiang was requisitioned by the Navy, it was discovered that there were some minor problems with the power system. The Navy sent engineers to repair it with a shameful face... Not long after, there was another minor problem.
This is the case even after going to sea, with minor problems occurring every three days.
In order to ensure the smooth sailing of the ship in the past few months, the Navy repaired the entire ship from beginning to end, especially the boiler in the power system, which had to be replaced with a new one!
A manager accompanying the ship also said that their Indo-Pacific Shipping Company has always firmly supported the navy. If you want to requisition you in the future, you will have to come to us. If you don't, you will look down on us... See what this means, it means that we must be prepared in advance. A bunch of problem ships are ready to be rolled out.
And this ship is big, but the sailing cost is also high, because it is a pure steam ship, which burns coal to move. It is not like those thousands of tons of motor-driven sailing ships. Although the ship is small and has little equipment, it can run when using sails. It's also slow, but it's cheaper to use a sail.
And if the ship is too big, berthing and docking will also be a big problem. At least in this small colony in West Africa, there are no such deep-water berths.
The berths in many small ports cannot accommodate such large ships. In many cases, they can only be docked outside the pier and then transported by small boats.
The requisition of the Jijiang this time can be said to have frightened the navy. Not only was it a hassle, but it also helped people repair the ship for several months, which also cost a lot of money.
They were thinking that after all the supplies on the ship were unloaded, they should let the Yoshijiang go away... As for the requisition, it was no longer requisitioned. The Navy's own ships and the Western Trading Company's ships were barely enough, or Don't let those civilian ships just do it.
When the Jijiang's huge figure arrived in Tangier, it naturally aroused some shock among the indigenous people. Some indigenous prisoners of war and laborers working in the port watched the huge ship slowly approach.
I even wonder if this is the creation of the devil.
Such a huge ship exceeded all their imaginations!
They have actually seen cruisers carrying two thousand tons, frigates of more than one thousand tons, and even merchant ships of three to four thousand tons in Tangier Port, and they are not surprised.
But compared with the Yoshijiang, these ships really pale into insignificance, and their size is not at the same level at all.
Louise also saw this huge ship in the port. This was not the first time Louise saw the Jijiang. Louise had already seen this huge cargo ship when he was in Ghana.
But seeing it again, Louise was still filled with shock.
The Dachu Empire that could build such a huge ship shocked Louise even more.
Louise was very curious about the Dachu Empire. If he had the opportunity in the future, he hoped to go to the Dachu Empire to see if that place was really as prosperous and developed as the rumors.
However, Louise’s desire to go to the Chu Empire may not be possible at this time.
But it is still very convenient to go back to my hometown in Portugal.
No, about a month after the Chu army captured Tangier, someone from the translation team notified Louise to prepare for a trip to Portugal.
My old job is still as a translator.
And this time, we are not going to fight, but to negotiate with the local Kingdom of Portugal and sign a market opening agreement!
This made Louise a little uncomfortable. In order to avoid making mistakes, he also wanted to guess his own thoughts.
Louise asked the only Chu native in the translation team, who was the leader of the translation team: "They shouldn't sign the market opening agreement so easily. What if they are unwilling to sign?"
The Chu national leader of the translation team said directly: Then beat them until they sign the agreement.
Yes, he is still a Chu countryman whom he is familiar with.
Just now, Louise almost thought she had met a fake Chu person...
He went all the way to engage in peace negotiations and sign a friendly cooperation agreement, which made Louise laugh out loud.
This is not in line with the rules of the Chu people.
Chu people, well, to be precise, what is the official life of Chu State like?
Hearsay is not accurate, but judging from Louise’s contact with the Chu people in Mexico in the past few years and his recent personal experience as a translator in West Africa.
Two words can describe it: Self!
People from the Chu country basically do whatever they want overseas... they don't care what the indigenous people think or see!
The previous chapter was swallowed, and we are applying to be released from the ban.
(End of chapter)
