Fort Shou Order, the Chinese usually use the transliteration of Shou Order to call the naval base of Fort Tiger, the naval shipyard.

Shou ordered to inspect his main force on the north, the galleys that were being reared.

A converted galier is undergoing sea trials, dozens of oars paddling rhythmically and rapidly.

Castle watchtower, Navy Admiral Sterling put down his binoculars, "I'm afraid the speed of the ship has reached 9 knots just now." ”

"It's fast, you guys are good." Orderly is satisfied.

"The wave resistance is still a little worse, and there will be risks in navigating in the open sea." Sterling is demanding.

"In Chinese parlance, you can't have both." "I'll be careful when sailing in the open sea. ”

The Galie ship is not suitable for the decisive battle in the open sea, but it still has a very important position in the near sea and inland waterways. Technology determines tactics, and weapons with comprehensive performance are luxuries, and generals can only formulate corresponding tactics according to the performance of the weapons in their hands, and then choose strategies that are beneficial to their own side.

Originally, the armament and sail equipment of the Canadian ship were weak, but this time it took the opportunity of repair to carry out a major refit. The vertical two masts of the hull remained unchanged, but the backmast spinnaker was changed to an oblique truss sail, and the mainmast was changed to a crosssail, which was divided into an upper sail and a mainsail. Lengthen the head mast and add two forerunner sails. There were four 6-pounder cannons on board, two in the open air, two at the bow and two at the end. Single deck, one bilge, draft 1.4 meters. The oarsmen were located in the open air, on the first floor with the artillery, so it was not possible to arrange the broadside cannons. In order to strengthen the melee firepower, a total of 16 1-pounder swing guns were deployed along the side of the ship. There are three oarsmen per oar, and in order to protect the oarsmen in the open air, the bulwarks were raised during the refit, and the center of gravity of the boat was raised on top of the original hull parameters, which intensified the roll. However, the shallow draft of the gales and the advantage of having more oarsmen allowed them to burst out quickly.

Since returning from Chenla in June, Shou Xu has been working on the organization of this expedition.

Now that the territory of Jinou Bay and the mouth of the Mekong River has been added, the navy's patrol area has been expanded, and the strength of the army appears to be tight. Shou Zhi did not draw a 3-masted cruiser this time.

The Navy Shipyard launched 2 brig frigates and 2 sloops last year, and this year 2 brigs, 2 whaling ships and 3 notification ships. Four brigs and two notification ships were dispatched in order. Not all of these ships were given to the Taiwan detachment, two of which were to be used for production, and the two brigs launched last year had a slightly larger volume and were converted into fast transport ships that were responsible for the route between Jintai and Jintai, and only three notification ships would actually join the Taiwan detachment.

In addition to the sailing ships, the Navy unsealed the 13 galleys that had been mothballed. The four galley ships were in good condition, the keel was not damaged, and they were docked to replace the ship's deck. Two of the nine light Shebeks were no longer serviceable, and the other seven were dismantled and used to repair the other seven.

The Shebek ship has better offshore performance than the Gallier, and it is also a single-deck vertical 2 masts, and the sail rig has not been greatly changed, and it is still a two-masted spinnaker. The whole ship has 7 pairs of oars, 4 4-pounder guns in the front and rear, no broadside cannons, and a total of 6 1-pounder swing guns in the whole ship. The galleys and sails have a deeper draft and perform better than the galleries in high sea conditions, but they are correspondingly more dependent on sails, and they are slow when there is no wind and only the oars are slow.

These 12 galleys require a large number of oarsmen, and for Jincheng, who is very short of human resources, it used to be a meatless chicken rib ship. With the arrival of more than 100,000 Zhenla slaves, human resources have been improved and the conditions for use have been met.

Stirling was still a little sorry for the order, "The Navy's budget can't put all these warships into active service, I can only equip you with some soldiers and sailors, and the rest will probably have to be figured out by yourself." ”

"Now at least we can sail on the sails, and I'll get the oarsmen myself." Orderliness means understanding.

Resource allocation is a headache, and since the resources given to the Navy at the top, including Order, are limited, there is not much Sterling can do. These galleys are now barely equipped with enough officers and men, and the navy has no choice but to rely on order to solve the problem by itself.

"The ship is ready now, when are you going to leave?" Sterling asked

Turning, he looked at the harbor, where a three-masted Galen ship with the St. George flag flying on its flagpole was moored, belonging to the British East India Company's armed merchant ship Hinder.

"I'll set off as soon as I'm done negotiating with the British." Orderly.

It was the first British ship to arrive in the Golden City. There were a large number of British in the upper echelons of the Golden City, some of whom hated the King of England, and some of whom were very kind when they saw the St. George's flag. Given the subtle implications that might have occurred, Order's original plan for sailing was changed due to the sudden arrival of the British ship.

The original destination of the Hinder was Canton, the first English ship to attempt to trade with China since the Götin Confederation arrived in Canton in 1637 with three Galen and one galleon.

The Gottin Confederation was not owned by the British East India Company. The British East India Company both fought and cooperated with the Dutch in the early days of Asia. On the issue of trade with China, the two countries are also faintly adversaries.

In 1620, Cox, the Far East agent of the British East India Company, came into contact with the Chinese captain Li Dan in Hirado, who, like many Chinese maritime merchants, agreed to the terms of cooperation with the British. Li Dan said China agreed to trade directly with Britain and allowed two British ships to go to Fuzhou each year. The British were overjoyed, and Cox ran up and down, working hard for more than 2 years, and they still did not understand the way the Chinese maritime merchants dealt with the Yangyi. Facts have proved that the strength of Li Dan and his faction (the predecessor of Zheng Zhilong's faction) is very weak, and the business of just 12,000 taels of silver almost forced Li Dan to bankruptcy. These sea lords, whose fame is greater than their strength, can only rely on the strong Dutch in the Asian sea, and the efforts of the British are completely in the edge of the wood.

The British East India Company, which had been deceived by the Chinese maritime merchants, was saddened and removed the Hirado Merchant Building, and then the Pattani Merchant Building. In the thirties of the 17th century, the British East India Company made several unsuccessful attempts to enter the Chinese market, when they largely abandoned trade with China and focused their attention on India and the East Indies.

In 1635, the English were tired of the endless covert wars with the Portuguese vice-kings of Indo-Portugal, and the Dutch-Iberian war had little direct to do with the British. The British reached a rapprochement with the Portuguese, signing a "truce and free trade agreement". In the face of the aggressive Batavia, the then general manager of the British company, William . Meswold moved its Asian headquarters from Banten to Surat, India, and began to run the country in full force.

The large profits of Chinese trade were always a tempting piece of the pie, and since the East India Company was unable to complete its mission, the king set up a separate Göttine federation in the country, and in December 1635 sent four armed merchant ships directly to Macao and Canton. This time the British were again pitted by the Portuguese in Macau. The Indo-Portuguese vice-king of Goa was at an all-round disadvantage against the Dutch in Batavia and was almost beaten. Goa valued rapprochement with the British, and they even bought an armed Galen "London" from the British. But the governor of Macau did not think so, and in Macau's view, the British had come to steal business with them.

Guangdong holds the Canton Fair once a year on Haizhu Island on the Pearl River in Guangzhou. The Canton Fair was monopolized by the Chinese maritime merchants and the Portuguese, and even the Dutch could not set foot in it. Jincheng was able to intervene in the trade of Guangzhou entirely by relying on the Chinese maritime merchants in China.

The Portuguese trade in Guangzhou amounted to about 1 million taels. From the late Jiajing Dynasty onwards, the Portuguese armed merchant ships in Macao were the main reliance of the Ming Dynasty's coastal defense in Guangdong. In the late Ming Dynasty, Fujian and Zhejiang, it was the Portuguese warships that ensured the maritime safety of the Pearl River estuary. Macau had close ties with Ming officials and merchants, and the Portuguese and Cantonese sides worked together to block the entry of other European powers into the Pearl River. Macau did not dare to go to war directly with the British, so they used their relationship with the Ming government to make trouble behind them.

In fact, the Götin Federation was very sincere in this trade, and their purchase price and taxes were much higher than those of the Portuguese, and they paid first and then goods.

The British signed a treaty of commerce with the Canton General Army and the Canton Sea Road, expressing their willingness to abide by Chinese law and pay silver tribute to the emperor. The British paid 22,000 pesos of silver in advance, of which 10,000 pesos were given to officials in Canton and 12,000 pesos were used to purchase sugar.

The simple British later felt that it was not enough, and a few days later sent another 12,000 pesos to the officials, and before and after, they gave away 40,000 pesos of silver, which can be described as sincere. However, the British did not understand that the Guangdong General Army and the Patrol Sea Road did not have the right to sign a treaty at all, and the final result was that the British waited for the Ming army to attack the ships......

Up to now, the British had been a complete failure in trade with China, and had been pitted by Dutch, Portuguese, and Ming officials.

The Hinder was the first British ship to enter the sea since then. As before, the first stop for the British was still Macau.

Shou ordered to meet with Captain Swan of the Hinder at the residence.

Waiting for the attendant to hand over a glass of whiskey, Shou Xu asked, "Did Mr. Captain's trip to Macao go well?" ”

"Thank you," Swan replied, after thanking the wine first, "Your Excellency, the Portuguese in Macau are so dark that they charge me five times the usual tax. ”

Shou Xun smiled, "It seems that Macau is having a hard time now, pumping such a heavy tax." ”

"Your Excellency, you are so right, there is a shortage of goods in Macau right now. You can't buy raw or cooked silk in the city, you can't buy dried ginger, there is nothing, only ceramics, and the poor Macanese only have ceramics. ”

The scarcity of goods was one of the far-reaching effects of the war in China. Jincheng is now facing the same problem, with the volume of all kinds of goods from China shrinking sharply. This was the main reason why the Senate finally agreed to his northward journey.

Captain Swan smiled after spitting out a few words, and said, "Your Excellency, I will definitely lose money this time with only that bit of ceramics." But I calculated the following, and I should still be able to make money this time, because I have attracted more than 130 Macau people who want to return to China. ”

After the independence of Portugal, there was a complete armistice with the Netherlands in Europe. But in Asia, Van Diemen didn't like this contract at all, and he did not miss the Portuguese. The information received by Kaneshiro was that Van Diemen would not consider an armistice until Ceylon had subdued the Portuguese.

The poor Macau people were stuck in the South China Sea and could not return home unless they were willing to take a detour to North America on a Manila galleon. So this time there was a rare British ship, and the Portuguese were simply scrambling for tickets. This is not the first time that the British have done this kind of business, and they can slap the face of the Governor of Macau while making money, which is very beautiful.

This reminds the order, and after dealing with this matter, the plan to open up the Indian Ocean must also be put on the agenda. It can provide an option for the exchange of people and communications between the East and the West outside the Strait of Malacca and Sunda.

"That's congratulations." "But this kind of business doesn't happen very often." ”

"Yes, that is, to make up for the cost of my voyage this time."

"Captain Swan, I'm sending you a batch of goods, you can try to take them back to England and sell them."

Swan blinked, "Oh, that's so thankful, what is it?" ”

Shou Xiang smiled and asked the attendant to bring in what had been prepared.

Two Chinese beauties dressed in pink and pink walked in, their swaying gait and gorgeous silk costumes stunned Swan's eyes. The two beauties set up the tea table and showed a complete set of tea art in front of the guests, and their gentle movements were full of rhythm, which was enough to make the hearts of those who saw it for the first time feel crisp.

"Captain, Captain Swan," Orderly woke up the distraught Swan, "and try this drink." ”

Chinese tea, Swan didn't know if he had drunk anything famous, but he just said yes there.

Shou Xuan smiled secretly and waved his hand to signal the beauties to stand down.

"Mr. Captain, this is the best Chinese tea, I will give you 30 pounds, remember, be sure to bring it back to London for sale. I guess that's going to give you an extra income personally. ”

Aside from tea, Orderly didn't talk much about Captain Swan, and the captain couldn't make too many decisions at this level. He asked Swan to bring a letter to the general manager of Surat's British company.

In fact, the British already understood three characteristics of China's trade:

1. Trade that can provide high profits;

2. China does not allow foreigners to enter its country;

3. The common people live by trade, and they are good at adventuring everything they have in distant places.

The first point is temptation, the second point is the problem, and the third point is the advantage.

For these three aspects, the order is elaborated separately. Jincheng has the third advantage, which can solve the second trouble, which can bring high profits to both parties.

The city of gold provided the British with the goods they needed, and the British did not have to pay for it with precious silver, but with cotton cloth, Indian saltpeter, war horses, and population. Most importantly, order requires a group of heavy artillery craftsmen, large battleship designers, and senior shipwrights and scholars. Jincheng can't get these high-end talents in Asia, and needs to recruit in Europe, and the Dutch won't let go of these high-end things for Jincheng.

The British had no worries about the Dutch, the English Civil War was in full swing, and the East India Company could not be supported at home, so finding reliable collaborators was the only way for them to open the door to trade.

Notes: 1. Originally, the first time in history the English bought tea was in 1664, when the board of directors of the company bought 2 pounds and 2 ounces of tea for 4 pounds and 5 shillings and presented it to the king, and in 1666 they bought 22 pounds and 17 ounces for 56 pounds and 17 shillings. Both were probably purchased in Europe from sailors or the Dutch. The real tea trade began in 1669 with a total of 143 pounds, and quickly became a mainstay of Sino-British maritime trade.

2. On this voyage of England in 1644, Macao collected 3,500 pesos from the Hinder, and 800 pesos for ships larger than the Hinder.