"Shopkeeper Lin, seven sails have been pulled up on the mainmast, and our speed is about twelve knots at the moment, do you want to pull up other sails?"

The captain of the Guangzhou is surnamed Lin, but they have the same surname, Lin Wenbing is from Fujian, and this captain Lin Shilin is a descendant of immigrants from Guangdong.

As a three-masted fast sailing ship, the Guangzhou can take advantage of the wind direction within 65 degrees, and the cargo capacity of more than 1,000 tons provides space for the ship to load a large number of daily necessities.

During the voyage to and from Guangzhou, the sailors had gradually become more familiar with the new ship, the bow of which was in the waves of the South China Sea, sometimes rising up to the crest, sometimes descending, into the trough of the waves. The sailors shouted excitedly in this flurry of ups and downs, welcoming the baptism of the South China Sea.

In the winter from the Wa Kingdom to Madagascar in the area north of the 15th degree south latitude, the north wind is basically blowing in the winter, which is the best time for a sailing ship with soft sails as the main power such as the Guangzhou, all the way to the west, the monsoon just blows from the angle of 40-60 degrees, and the soft sail effect of up to 2000 square meters is just to the maximum extent.

In the cabin, Lin Wenbing, the person in charge of the trial voyage, put down the chart in his hand and looked out of the cabin, in the dark night, only the waves of the sea shimmered in the moonlight.

"No need, it's late at night, and the wind is blowing again on the sea, leaving the brothers at the helm. Don't slack off, the rest of the people go to bed early, and it is estimated that they will leave this strait tomorrow morning and join the three lucky ships on the ocean of Lingjiawei Island. ”

After returning from Guangzhou, Lin Wenbing met with Shouhan and asked that the destination of the voyage be India, that is, the Telugu region across the sea, which is now Kutbu? Shahi Sultanate.

If traced back from the Delhi Sultanate, this Kutb? The Shahi Sultanate was truly the Sultan of Delhi, far from being comparable to the descent of Timur the Cripple, who invaded Afghanistan.

How. This world is about strength. At present, the Mughal Empire is in full swing, and it has always maintained strong pressure on local forces, which also brings opportunities for the Shouhan.

The three lucky boats sailed west with goods loaded with goods five days before Lin Wenbing's departure, while Lin Wenbing had to wait for some items to be collected before setting off. This was delayed for a few days.

"Lin shopkeeper's. You and I have the same surname. Although the origins are different, but I can't write two Lin characters in one stroke, this trip out. Brothers, ask you, what are we going to Telugu for? ”

"Trade! Do business! ”

Hearing this, Lin Shi's face was very puzzled, trade? When you set out from Hue, you loaded our ship with swords, guns, armor, guns, gunpowder, etc., and it was almost the same as going to rob, even if you unloaded some supplies for the sailors and army brothers there on the ground of Manraka, but the things on this ship were enough to arm a strong army.

"Yes, sell these to the Sultan of Telugu."

During this period of the Indian subcontinent, the descendants of the Timurid Empire have occupied an absolute dominant position, just in the history of the Mughal Empire, one of the so-called six emperors of the Shah Jahan reign, constantly using troops externally, constantly collecting various taxes internally, oh, by the way, the famous Taj Mahal was built in his hands from 1631 AD (the fourth year of Chongzhen), and has been built for 22 years.

In the face of such an opponent, how could the Sultan of Telugu sleep? Zili? Kutb? Shahi's descendants are in danger of extinction.

At this time, as a neighbor across the sea, how could Shouhan not lend a helping hand? Especially in this era, the British had already begun to open many trading posts of the East India Company in the Indian subcontinent, so how could the South Chinese Army not fight for a little rights and interests here earlier?

As a result, the warehouses were replaced with swords, guns, and armor that had been obsolete from weapons and equipment, and a large number of gunpowder made in an emergency, and a large number of arquebuses were loaded onto the ships of fortune and the Canton ship, and they were ready to go to the Telugu region to trade with the sultans there.

On the eighth day of December in the third year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, according to legend, it was the day when Sakyamuni attained enlightenment and founded Buddhism under the Buddha Yabodhi, the Guangzhou passed through the Manraka Strait, and joined the three lucky ships waiting on the sea surface of Lingjiawei, and went to the Buddha's hometown of the Indian subcontinent in formation.

Four ships laden with weapons and ammunition, oh no, they were full of friendship between the people of Nanzhong and Telugu, with the Canton in the center, and the three ships of fortune guarding the wings and rear, riding the north wind, pulling up the full sails, and crossing Punggara Bay and heading straight across the sea to the Telugu region.

Carried by the strong sea breeze to a dark coastline with a distant view, the captain and sailors nervously calculated that they should have reached Telugu.

This is what the Penang and Manraka merchants call Telugu.

In fact, the area where Lim Van Bing arrived belonged to the southern part of Telugu and now belongs to Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Anyone who has played the Great Voyage should know that there is another name here, called Madras.

It would be India's later famous port. However, at this time, the Madras region was only a township called "Madras Patam", which had just developed from a seaside fishing village.

From the second year of Chongzhen, the British began to appear here, do business, and open trading houses, and then the East India Company extended its tentacles here, turning this place into a huge port, on the one hand, to obtain India's resources and wealth, on the other hand, to concentrate the opium grown in the interior of India and sell it to China, in order to obtain several times the profit.

Madras, which became the territory of the East India Company in India earlier, also fought and died for the British to become an empire on which the sun never sets, not to mention that the Madras Wing and Madras Artillery alone had a very good role in the two Opium Wars and the military operations of the Anglo-French alliance against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Eight-Nation Coalition against China.

The first British consul in Shanghai, Bafour, was the initiator of the first concession in China. He was once an officer of the Madras artillery corps, a staff officer with the rank of captain.

However, now that the people of the Han Yuan firm are here, will Madras still fly the rice flag?

When four huge ships appeared in the sea near Chennai (aka Madras), there was an uproar on the sea. The fishermen who were fishing outside the harbor in a small boat were stunned when they saw the dense black hole muzzles on the boat, wondering which pirates or red-haired people had come to rob them. He tried to escape, but found that his ship was not as fast as the comer.

With the combined power of the bow cannons and the gold and silver dollars in the hands of the sailors, several fishing boats were willing to carry water for the fleet to the interior.

From the mouth of a fisherman. The Governor learned that it was called the Coromandel by the locals. Both are under the jurisdiction of the Sultan and are part of the Punggara Bay coast on the Deccan Peninsula.

To the north is the mouth of the Krishna River, and to the south is Cape Kalimir at the northern end of the Paulk Strait, with a coastline of more than 1,000 miles straight and open. Within twenty miles of the coast. There are countless sandy beaches and sand bars formed by the action of the tide and wind. The low ones are six or seven zhang, and the high ones are even more than twenty zhang, which is a natural barrier for the locals to defend against invaders at sea.

The land is fertile here. The place is thousands of miles away, and the land is flat, and there are several seasonal rivers that originate in the mountains to the west. There are few forests, many swamps, shrubs and thorn bushes. It produces rice, beans, sugar cane, cotton, peanuts, bananas, casuarinas and coconut. With Punggara Bay to the east, the Eastern Ghats to the west, the Utkar Plain to the north, and the Cauweri River Triangle to the south, it is indeed a good place!

After listening to the introduction of Mr. Huang, Lin Wenbing carefully recorded these situations in his diary, and secretly congratulated himself on the correctness of his trip.

Led by these fishing boats, the fleet sailed up the Guwom River, found a harbor on the north bank of the river, anchored four boats, and sent people ashore to make contact.

When the officials here saw that the person who came did not seem to have malicious intent, they trembled and ordered the ship to be driven to the front of the Canton fleet for questioning.

But, in a very discordant way, a small boat flying the so-called St. Patrick's cross flag was sneaking into its head near the Canton.

"It's English!"

Someone among the sailors knew the flag.

At this time, the British flag was formed by the cross and merger of the St. George Cross flag of England and the St. Andrew's flag of Scotland, which is a little different from the rice flag we are familiar with now, without a red slash. The slash was added after the annexation of Ireland.

Therefore, Britain should not let Northern Ireland live separately no matter what, once it is gone, all the national flags and everything have to be replaced, and this cost is really unaffordable.

Oh, that's a long way off, and let's get down to business.

On the Guangzhou, Lin Wenbing told the local official what he meant, and took some of the armor, knives and guns carried on the ship and gave them to him, which could be regarded as a good fate, and asked him to convey his intention to His Majesty the Sultan.

The local official has also seen some good things, and seeing that the armor, swords, and spearheads placed in front of him are all of the best quality, how can he not know what is good? At that moment, he instructed his subordinates to take good care of the merchants of the Celestial Empire, and there should be no shortage of food, water, vegetables, fruits and other things. After finishing the order, he hurriedly hugged Lin Wenbing's gift and turned away.

Seeing that Tuguan and his party had left, the St. Patrick's cross flag approached, and someone stood on the bow of the ship and shouted to the Canton, "Excuse me, is this the ship of the Han Yuan Firm?" ”

"We are the ships of the English East India Company!"

"We do business with your company!"

A flurry of sounds emanated from the boat.

This is a ship owned by Mr. Charlie of Taipan, a special committee member of the British East India Company, and according to the rules of the East India Company, Taipan has the highest right to obey his command.

Charlie's senior class was invited to the temporary camp by Lin Wenbing, and after a few polite words, Charlie was also refreshed, and explained his intention directly.

"My ship was hit by wind and waves, damn winds in the Indian Ocean, waves that rolled up higher than mountains, and all the gunpowder on board was wet. I was supposed to dry gunpowder here, but I didn't want to see your ship, so I wanted to buy some gunpowder from you, so that I could have the ability to defend myself on the westward route. ”

"the red-haired one! You're a liar! ”

Lin Wenbing and Lin Shi scolded in their hearts almost at the same time, but one was in Cantonese. One is in Hokkien.

"The gunpowder on the ship will not be on the deck, it will be in the bilge, unless your ship is pierced by the reef and the sea fills the cabin, then the gunpowder you mentioned will be wet with the sea!"

"Everyone is begging for a living at sea, and it is normal to encounter some things in the storms. Fortunately, our journey to the west was too peaceful, and the gunpowder originally prepared for the fleet of more than 100 guns was not consumed at all, so we sold some to Mr. Charlie! ”

Quietly, Lin Wenbing has already shown off his strength. We have more than 100 large and small guns on our four ships. No pirates dared to come up and brush the tiger's whiskers along the way, would you like to try it?

"Praise be to God!"

Charlie is also an old fox with white hair, and he can't stop singing hymns in his mouth, praising the might of the Southern Central Army. All kinds of products are of high quality and low price. Holy porcelain and lily porcelain are popular in continental Europe, England, Scotland and other places. All kinds of nobles spared no expense for a set of holy porcelain tea sets, and so on. In a word, "There is no set of holy porcelain tea sets at home." You're too embarrassed to invite someone over for coffee at home! ”

"Two hundred barrels of gunpowder!"

This is Charlie's request.

"Yes! One gold coin per barrel! ”

This is Lin Wenbing's quote.

A small boat, with limited space for other items other than the cargo hold and the sailor's life, is absolutely unlikely to hold two hundred barrels of gunpowder, this guy is lying! He's definitely going to resell it.

From Lin Shi down, almost everyone thinks so.

"It's too expensive! It's too expensive! Charlie shook his huge head, his already half-bald hairline looking more and more sweaty in the sun.

"When you sold it in Hue, Hoi An, and Ha Tinh, the wholesale price was only three taels of silver per barrel, and when you got here, it became a gold coin? You are even more greedy than the Merchant of Venice! ”

Who the merchant of Venice was, Lin Wenbing didn't know, he was just bargaining with Charlie with Yan Yuese.

"Mr. Charlie, what you said about the selling price in several ports of our Southern Chinese Army is naturally true, but you are going to buy it yourself, and there are many goods. Here in Telugu, we've squeezed some out of our own ammunition and transferred it to you. These thousands of miles of waterway, the brothers are stormy, shouldn't they make a little money? If you think it's expensive, you can take your own boat to Hue and Cam Ranh Bay to buy gunpowder, which is cheaper. ”

Lin Wenbing's meaning is very simple, love to buy, not to buy.

While blinking his eyes, he asked the accountant to take two hundred Spanish gold coins and send them, Charlie muttered to himself, complaining about his bad luck, and his words carried the unkind behavior of accusing the people of the Han Yuan firm in front of him of forgetting their interests and sitting on the ground.

"Sir, if you plan to buy weapons and gunpowder, you can go to Penang and Manraka in the future, where our South Chinese Army has set up a merchant house to sell weapons to foreign countries, as long as it is real money, whether you are Dutch, English or French." Lin Wenbing listened to the interpreter's quiet translation, and not only did not refute it, but pointed out that Charlie had a way to buy military supplies cheaply.

"Oh?! What can I buy? ”

"Cannons, gunpowder, arquebuses, armor, swords, shells, and more under eight pounds, you can equip an army with these weapons and ammunition for sale. It seems that the Dutch bought a couple of boats not so long ago to go. ”

"Those damn lowlanders!" When Charlie heard this, he kept scratching a cross on his chest, "They must have used these weapons in the war in Europe!" Used to cause carnage and bloodshed! Damn lowlanders! ”

The mouth is constantly cursing the intemperate behavior of the Dutch, but the eyes are the windows of the soul, but the most practical thoughts of the heart flash, through the refraction of the window, people can see the expectation and greed for money in the room. It seems that a roar can also be heard coming from the window: "These damn Dutchmen! It is so good to hide such a profitable trade secret! It's a shame that we're still in alliance with them! ”

In order to show the sincerity of the Han Yuan firm, Lin Wenbing gave Charlie a pot of tea he drank as an accessory, "This is our tea, the best drink in heaven and earth, you can taste it." ”

Opening the tin can, Charlie sniffed with his red nose slightly puzzled, and the aroma of tea made his eyebrows stretch, "If you can provide a perfect and stable supply, then, in the future, I will order a large number of military equipment and this from your company." He patted the tea caddy clutched tightly to his chest.

This unexpected little business with Charlie boosted the morale of the entire fleet, and people felt that it was a good sign of good start. The leaders of the fleet gathered in the makeshift barn on the shore, admiring and playing with the gold coins they had exchanged for Charlie.

"The Spaniards' gold coins seem to be in better condition than ours."

200 Spanish gold coins, return to Hue and other places to the official silver number to exchange for gold coins in Nanzhong or directly into silver dollars, you can multiply the profit several times when you land! Gunpowder, each barrel sold to Zheng Zhilong for only two taels of silver, a gold coin issued by the Southern Central Army can be exchanged for thirty silver dollars! The profit in this is calculated by fools to know how much it should be!

Anchored north from Madras to Hyderabad, the group was guided by a guide sent by the Sultan on the road to Golconda, which had been built by generations of sultans to show a prosperous scene from Hyderabad to Golconda.

If you start from the Four Towers (Charminar, the landmark of Hyderabad. If you look into the distance from the top of the building, if the weather is good, you will see the city of Golconda more than ten miles away. The seat of the Shahi Sultan.

Lin Wenbing looked at the four-tower with interest, it was a magnificent square granite building, with a tall minaret at each corner, making the building appear taller and taller, and there were four tall arches built below the tower, facing east, west, north and south, respectively, these arches supported the two-story buildings and arcades. The base of each tower is in the shape of a lotus leaf, which is exactly the Kutbu? A pattern beloved by the Shahi Sultan family.

"Guests from afar! My consul sue me, "You have come from far away China, and I don't know what you have brought with you?" ”

Before he could see the magnificent architecture of Golconda Castle and the fountains and troughs that could be seen everywhere in the castle, he had just stood at the door of the palace when a majestic voice came from the depths of the palace along with a gust of wind.

Golconda Castle and its owner taught Lin Wenbing a lesson in this way.

With its unique sound transmission system, it gave the Han Yuan merchant caravan from afar a solid dismount. (To be continued......)

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