Southern Mozambique, East Africa.

The 35-kilometre-long sandbar extends deep into the Indian Ocean, hugging a vast bay with the African continent.

At the base of the bay, the city of Maputo stands on the left bank of the Maputo estuary (Espiritu Santo). Sandbars and inland rivers make this a rare natural harbour.

The two four-pointed star forts of Fort Masada and Fort David are guarded by the mouth of the Maputo River, and it is during the monsoon transition period, and the direction of the flag of the Republic of Ragusa and the Great Satellite flag on the top of the fort is constantly changing.

Western-style buildings and stilted wooden houses stretch from Masada Fort to the west and north, forming a beautiful garden city.

In the center of the city is a square synagogue, scattered with Christian churches, domed mosques, and the Temple of Tianfei with glazed tiled roofs, where different religions live in harmony.

The city of Maputo has about 20,000 inhabitants, half of whom are Jews, and the rest are mainly native Swahili and South African.

A small number of Catholics and Protestants were mercenaries, merchants and seafaring adventurers.

Outside the city, 20,000, Swahili and black serfs, who were subordinate to Maputo's rule, fed the city on plantations, mainly corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Maputo is largely self-sufficient in its necessities and must be imported.

The seaside is picturesque, with blue sky and white clouds, blue sea and silver beach. There are many endemic tree species on the beach, and the sand and gravel under the trees are constantly swept away by the sea, revealing strong, strange-shaped roots that stick firmly into the sand and maintain the environment on which they live.

As the morning sun reflected on the red sea, hundreds of Swahili prostrated themselves in the direction of Mecca, praying devotionally, and the Jews who ruled the city did not stop.

Maputo was a colony of the Republic of Ragusa, but in fact it was a Jewish republic.

Large merchants formed the ruling council, small merchants became city councilors, European Jews constituted the urban middle and upper classes, and Ethiopian Jews constituted the middle and lower classes.

Swahili freemen, from South Africa, and lower-status serfs made up the bottom.

The army consisted of two parts, one was the Jewish City Guard and the other was mercenaries from Europe.

Maputo did not have a navy, but they had Galen armed merchant ships and were a maritime force to be reckoned with.

Portugal's East African colonies were swept away by the Omanis, and the poor weak nation routed all the way from the Persian Gulf to Tanzania, losing most of the gains of its expansion along the western coast of the Indian Ocean since Manuel I.

The Portuguese temporarily held off the Omanis at Fort Jesus in Mombasa, very reluctantly, and Tanzania remained teetering.

Maputo is separated from Oman by Tanzania and Mozambique, and at the moment the Saracens are still some distance from the Jews.

At that time, the Dutch looked at the new colony with bewilderment, and the Jews assured the Dutch that they would not mix with India, East Indo-Europe, unless the Dutch allowed it, and that the Jewish merchant ships were content to trade within the Indian Ocean Circle, and the Dutch spared the small East African city.

Maputo has a pleasant climate, with all but the hottest days of the year. The annual rainfall of 800 mm is a suitable range for agricultural production without being too wet to cause an epidemic.

The Jews carefully survived in the cracks of the great powers, developing step by step. The city's armament and shipbuilding equipment depended on plantations, factories, and bonds imported from the Confederation, which were converted into fortresses, cannons, and soldiers in Maputo.

Maputo discovered gold and diamonds in the interior, and the city grew faster and faster, with Jews from all over the world pouring into the city for their own.

By 1659, Maputuo was a force to be reckoned with in East Africa, and even if the Dutch wanted to attack, they had to calculate whether the cost was worth it.

Federal merchant ships rarely set foot in the Indian Ocean, and the only cities that maintained close contact were Maputo and Quilon, India.

Merchants imported ivory, gold, diamonds, and black slaves into the Federation and India, bringing back grain, cloth, Indian women, and manufactured goods, including munitions.

The Federation has a secret agreement with Maputo on military cooperation, because the current international environment is delicate and has not yet been made public.

On the right bank of the Maputo River, there is a large Federal Commercial House flying the Confederate Star Bird flag. The merchant house had a wall, round towers at the corners, and a moat outside. There are warehouses and barracks, and this is a fortified trading hall.

The Federal African Company has two brigs and two three-masted East India merchant ships based in the port of Maputo, and about 100 soldiers and 600 people live in the community under the general representative Skafield.

Originally, Scarfield was supposed to build a new colony on Mayotte with his men, but after comparing the environment of the Comoros Islands and Maputo on the ground, considering that the Federation could not invest too many resources in the African colonies, Scarfield moved the base to the right bank of the Maputo River. The gold mine and the diamonds proved that he had made the right choice.

Soldiers were responsible for the security of the merchants, and Chinese mercenaries, merchants, and Maputo cavalry went inland to capture and blacks, sent them to gold mines, diamond mines, and plantations, and hunted elephants for ivory.

Pan Hao walked on Maputo's commercial streets with a federal cavalry knife at his waist, a wide-brimmed flat felt hat, and a black trench coat.

On both sides of the street are a mix of Eastern and Western buildings, with Chinese black tiles and white walls carved and painted buildings, and Italian Renaissance semi-circular arches, and the streets are bustling with merchants of different colors bargaining with consumers, and are full of vitality.

As a maritime trading city where East meets West, Maputo offers Chinese silk, Japanese swords, Spanish muskets, French straight swords, Italian glass, Persian carpets, and many other goods.

The slave market was filled with Persian slave girls with high noses and deep eyes, Arab slave girls, East African women with smooth skin like black satin, and even fair-skinned and beautiful Rus women from the Far North, which were the masterpieces of the Turks.

Pan Hao has served in the East African company for nearly 5 years and has accumulated a lot of net worth, he did not think about bringing money back to China, and planned to spend all his work in Africa.

Pan Hao, a commercial street in the city, often comes and has many acquaintances, greeting him in Spanish all the way. After a long time in Africa, I will learn Spanish every day.

After turning for a long time, Pan Hao didn't buy what he liked. There is already a Persian woman at home, why don't you grit your teeth and buy a Rus woman again? Pan Hao touched his purse, the Ross girl is a luxury, and the silver coins in the bag are not enough.

Pan Hao was hesitating whether to go back to the company to borrow some money. He has an industry in Houjiang Mansion, and the world knows that the wild land there is developing quite well now, and it is an iron rice bowl, and the boss should borrow it.

When Pan Hao was about to make a decision, his eyes were attracted by an armor shop on the side of the road. Pan Hao walked into the armor shop, there was a faint smell of lacquer inside, it should have just opened, no wonder he hadn't seen it.

On the walls hung silver cuirasses, half-body armor, and there was no shortage of armor in the Persian and Turkish styles.

If he had come to Africa, Pan Hao would have been dazzled by these exotic armors, but his vision had long since changed.

It's all ordinary goods, Pan Hao said in his heart.

Walking and walking, Pan Hao's eyes lit up.

A full-body armor caught his eye, the slotted lines on the armor were rounded, the shape was beautiful and close-fitting, the breastplate, chest plate and abdominal armor were connected with rivets, there was a chain armor skirt under the abdominal armor, the left shoulder armor was large, the right shoulder armor was small, and the top was an armed helmet with a neck guard.

The legendary Milan Liga.

Pan Hao's breathing became short, and he pointed at Milan Jia, "Boss, how much does this cost?" ”

"£20, sir."

70 taels of silver, Pan Hao has some flesh pain, which is equivalent to his basic salary for one year.

"I bought it!"

"Are you sure, sir?"

"What do you mean?"

"Ah, sir, please don't get me wrong. Looking at the outfit, I'm guessing you're a warrior. This full-body plate armor is not suitable for the current battlefield, and if you need armor, I recommend buying a half-body armor or simply a thick breastplate. ”

Pan Hao snorted coldly, of course he knew that the cuirass was more practical and cheaper, but that couldn't stop him from liking full-body armor. However, the shopkeeper reminded him that he was kind, and Pan Hao was not angry.

"Boss, you don't care why I bought it, I just asked you if you sold it?"

"Of course it sells."

Pan Hao took out almost all the silver coins on his body, "Find someone to help me carry the armor back." ”

"No problem, we'll deliver to your door."

Pan Hao crossed the Maputo River with his full body armor and returned to the merchant house along the riverside boulevard.

There were many remnants of the Ming army like Pan Hao in Nanyang, who could not stand the boring life of farming, so they invested their assigned land in agricultural companies and handed them over to professional managers to take care of, while they themselves were recruited in various colonial companies and became mercenaries.

Not surprisingly, Pan Hao was ridiculed by his colleagues for spending a lot of money to buy a white elephant, and Pan Hao replied that the turtles did not appreciate their taste.

Returning to the dormitory to have a good time with Persian Aiji, Pan Hao was refreshed and drunk at the bar that night.

In late April, the Indian Ocean monsoon stabilized.

Two flat-deck fast merchant ships, the East Africa and the South Africa, left Maputo and sailed to India in the southwest monsoon.

Under the blue sky and blue sea, Pan Hao hugged the woman and looked back at Africa, where his adventurous career was leaving him.

The service period is coming to an end, and life in Africa is good, but Pan Hao does not plan to renew his contract with the company, he wants to change places and look for new adventures.

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Thousands of miles away, south of Caiyun, which is also affected by the southwest monsoon of the Indian Ocean.

Yunnan under the jurisdiction of Xiying was originally a peaceful paradise where the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

Eight Banners, Green Battalion and Nanming Defeated Army swept over, Yunnan Doumi 2 taels.

The armies of all walks of life raped and plundered, the mothers of the people ate their daughters, the sons abandoned their fathers, and the miserable was unbearable, the young and strong were taken captive and taken into slavery, the old and weak and the crippled were arrested, hanged, tortured, and burned, and the grain and silver were extorted, and the premises were turned over, and the houses were burned and demolished.

The Yongchang Theater (Baoshan) was particularly miserable, with soldiers and civilians lying in ambush for hundreds of miles.

The mountains and valleys on both sides of the Nu River are covered by clouds and fog, and the river is rushing southward, and the water flow is turbulent.

On the right bank of the river, the Gaoligong Mountains are majestic and majestic, and even after more than 300 years, it is one of the least developed areas in China.

Tengchong Wei periphery, Nandian Xuanfu Division.

Shen Yan rode into the camp of the Ming army. His left hand was wrapped in gauze, his blood-stained robe, and his breastplate was covered with swords and arrows, and he had long lost his former luster.

The sergeants of the battalion sat on the ground in twos and threes, many of them were wounded, and many of the cold weapons were damaged in previous battles, and some soldiers sharpened their knives in silence.

There was a shortage of tents and weapons in the army, gunpowder was almost exhausted, and food reserves had dropped to dangerous levels.

The soldiers still have the fighting spirit, but the combat effectiveness of this army is already very low.

The Ming army withdrew from Kunming, and Emperor Yongli did not allow the granary to be burned, and threw tens of thousands of troops for a year to the Tatars.

The benevolent Yongli Emperor did save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Yunnan people, but it also gave the Tatars the ability to pursue all the way, and the Ming army had no respite and was defeated all the way, and the originally powerful army collapsed in the retreat.

It shouldn't be like this.

The Battle of Mopan Mountain was the bloodiest battle Shen Yan had ever seen, and the Ming army under the command of Xiying was also the Ming army with the strongest combat effectiveness that Shen Yan had ever seen.

Dingguo had no food, and the Ming army had to disperse to eat, and he sent Jin Tongwu, who had the strongest combat effectiveness, to protect the emperor.

In the dangerous Gaoligong Mountain, Dingguo only gathered 6,000 soldiers. These 6,000 soldiers killed more than a dozen middle and high-ranking generals of the Eight Banners, including Gushan Ezhen Shalibu, and almost won.

Almost.

Mopanshan was defeated, and Wu Sangui's pursuit was quite powerful. Dingguo could only lead more than 1,000 remnants of the army south to Mengding Yuyi Mansion, leaving Wu Sanxing to collect the defeated army and their families in Nandian, and Dingguo did not even have time to carry his own wife.

Shen Yan and Zheng Fan's envoy Xu Fuyuan followed the three provinces of Wu.

Wu San Province only had more than 100 soldiers at the beginning, Shen Yan's 60 cavalry played a key role, Wu San Province gradually gathered more than 700 defeated soldiers, more than 1,000 family members, including Dingguo's wife, were also in the army, and the army was slightly boosted.

Shen Yan used these 700 soldiers to stop a mutiny in Nandian, beheaded the scholar Zhang Liangchen, detained the deputy commander-in-chief Sun Chongya, and incorporated the Nandian rout, with 157 officers, 2,000 soldiers, and 1,800 family members.

After that, Wu San Province established contact with Ma Zide, the son of Ma Jinzhong, who was stationed in Shunning Prefecture between the Lancang River and the Nu River, to prevent another surrender. Ma Zide had 2,000 family members of officers and soldiers and 1,000 horses.

The proportion of horse infantry in the western camp was staggeringly high, and some units almost reached the level of one man and one horse.

Shen Yan threw the stirrup and dismounted.

Xu Fuyuan came up and said, "Ruo Hui, is it done?" ”

"Yes, Liao Yu is dead, and I have brought back 605 soldiers, more than 400 family members, and 150 horses."

"Is there any food?"

Shen Yan shook his head, "No." ”

Xu Fuyuan sighed, "Yes, even the Tartars have withdrawn their troops back to Kunming to get food, how can there be food in western Yunnan?" ”

He was also an envoy of a foreign domain, and he arrived in Kunming after thousands of rivers and mountains, but he encountered the retreat of Dianjing in chaos, Xu Fuyuan and Shen Yan were trapped in it, and the two got closer and closer.

Wu Sansheng walked out of the back camp

The only remaining tents were concentrated in the rear camp and handed over to the dependents. Except for the wounded, including Wu Sanxing, the generals could only sleep in the open air.

Wu Sansheng saw the new wound on Shen Yan's body, and bowed down, "Sansheng hates to suffer this injury for the general." ”

"Small injuries, all the governors are serious."

Xu Fuyuan also said: "Wu Du has a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, and he must not leave the camp for a while, so leave the outside affairs to General Shen." ”

Wu Sanxing, "Thanks to the help of the two, I was able to collect so many officers and soldiers. ”

Shen Yan unfastened his cuirass with the help of his own soldiers, "With Liao Yu's people, we have 4,200 soldiers, 2,000 horses, and 4,500 family members. ”

Xu Fuyuan: "But even if the food is saved, it can only last for 20 days, and we have to decide the next step as soon as possible." ”

A counteroffensive to the east was first excluded.

The retreat of the Ming army to the west and the pursuit of the Tatars swept twice in the east, and the people of Baoshan on the other side of the Nu River were starving, even if the Tatar army all withdrew to Kunming, any counteroffensive plan was unrealistic and delusional.

Shen Yan: "Is there any news from King Jin?" ”

Wu Sanxing shook his head, "We have news from everyone else, but there is no King Jin." ”

Xu Fuyuan: "King Jin is no longer in Menglian?" ”

"No, when King Jin left, he took all the local grain, his whereabouts were well hidden, and the locals didn't know where King Jin went."

"Will you go to Burma?"

"At the end of the first month, His Royal Highness Gong (Bai Wenxuan) retreated from Zhennan Prefecture over the cliffs to Longchuan, and entered Burma from Mubang in late February. In April, Gao Wengui and Wu Zisheng crossed the copper and iron pass, and swept along the road of the Son of Heaven into Burma. ”

The Ming army from all walks of life entered Burma not only to welcome Emperor Yongli, but also to collect grain in Burma.

"King Jin has few soldiers, there will be no danger, right?"

"Jin Tongwu's 2,000 soldiers will make peace with the King of Jin in Menglian, and with 3,000 soldiers here, the King of Jin will be fine."

Xu Fuyuan: "Actually, we don't have anything to choose. The grain that went west to the border had been collected by Gao Wengui and Wu Zisheng. In the northwest is the Nujiang Grand Canyon, the road is rugged, and we have to climb over the snow-capped mountains. ”

Shen Yan: "I can only go south and find the King of Jin." ”

"What should I do if I run out of food on the road?"

Shen Yan looked at his mount, "Kill the horse." ”