Cape Town has another name – "Southtown". This is the name given to the first explorers of the empire after they arrived here and established their first stronghold, only later, "Southtown"

After being occupied by British colonists, it was called "Cape Town". For the sake of convenience, it is still called "Cape Town".

Historically, Cape Town has been one of the most important colonial strongholds of the empire overseas, especially before the end of the empire's colonial rule in Europe and the opening of the Suez Canal, Cape Town can be said to be one of the most important strongholds in the world, at that time it was as important as the Lion City, Colombo, Ryukyu Island, Guam, the fortress of Gibraltar, Istanbul, and later the Suez Canal, Panama Canal and other important strongholds.

Cape Town has a very prosperous history, and its history is based on the maritime shipping between East and West.

From the beginning of the eighth century in the Tang calendar, the Tang Empire's seafaring explorers were the first to arrive here, and established the first stronghold in this excellent haven, and in the following decades, thousands of Tang Empire explorers, merchants, and immigrants came to Cape Town, and the stronghold also developed into a city, and before the arrival of Western seafaring explorers, it had developed into a port city with more than 20,000 inhabitants.

The explorers of the Tang Empire did not think about the benefits of "colonization" until the explorers of the West arrived, and in the first decades, the explorers, merchants, immigrants of the Tang Empire had quite good relations with the local indigenous population. At that time, most of the supplies needed by the Tang Empire's expedition fleet were purchased directly from the indigenous people, and the Tang Empire's local merchants brought back the rare objects of the indigenous people to the Tang Empire. It also sent a large number of industrial products to the natives here. The immigrants of the Tang Empire, on the other hand, lived in harmony with the natives, and at the same time received help from the natives and established the foundation of the city. The immigrants of the Tang Empire also brought some advanced culture and technology with them. Arguably. Until this time, the immigrants of the Tang Empire did not think of colonizing here, and the concept of "colonization" did not even appear.

Over the decades, Cape Town developed with explorers and merchants of the Tang Empire. The efforts of immigrants have brought together the hard work and sweat of indigenous people.

Moreover, intermarriage between immigrants and indigenous people was already very common at that time, and more than forty percent of Cape Town's residents were of mixed descent from Tang immigrants and natives. And the culture of the Tang Empire has gradually laid a foundation here, and even many natives took the merchant ships and warships of the Tang Empire to the Tang Empire, at that time, there were several chiefs of indigenous tribes who went to the Tang Empire, and two of them were finally buried in the Tang Empire!

This is arguably the most glorious and peaceful history in Cape Town's history. But the decades of calm soon passed. From the day the artillery battleship of the Western talker arrived in Cape Town, the history of Cape Town can no longer be the same as war and blood. The flames parted. For hundreds of years, it was not only a stronghold of the Eastern and Western fleets competing with each other, but also a place where Eastern and Western civilizations clashed.

In the first two hundred years of "competition" between the East and the West, the Tang Empire had the absolute upper hand. For more than two hundred years, Cape Town's position was extremely important. At that time, the Tang Empire concentrated the strength of the whole country and launched several expeditions, and each expedition mobilized thousands of ships, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers. At that time, the Suez Canal had not yet been built, so the expeditionary force had to pass through Cape Town and sail north to reach Europe.

It can be said that for more than two hundred years, Cape Town was the most important overseas stronghold of the Empire, and it was also the fastest growing stronghold. By the time of 1102 in the Tang calendar, according to the records of the Tang Empire, there were more than 100,000 households in Cape Town at that time, and the total number of residents was more than 500,000. In addition, the Imperial army stationed in Cape Town reached 50,000 men, and a fleet of more than 30 warships was stationed in Cape Town for a long time to protect the two important shipping routes connecting Cape Town from enemy attacks and harassment.

In order to ensure the safety of Cape Town, in addition to stationing a large number of troops and fleets, the Tang Expeditionary Force also built a large number of coastal batteries in Cape Town, and established several military bases nearby, arranged fleets, and ground forces patrolled nearby for a long time to prevent attacks by enemy fleets from launching surprise attacks. These strongholds, as well as the ruins of turrets, can now be found in Cape Town and nearby, and these ruins have become World Heritage Sites, which have been obscured by history and wind and sand, and also symbolize the great history of the Tang Empire.

In fact, the prosperity and splendor of Cape Town are inseparable from the prosperity and splendor of the Tang Empire.

Cape Town's most glorious history of more than 200 years was the heyday of the Tang Empire. At that time, the expeditionary force of the Tang Empire swept across the Eurasian continent, and the expeditionary fleet hit Gibraltar in one go, and then entered the Thames, bombarded the British royal palace, and forced the British king to sign an alliance under the city. In just a few decades, the Tang Empire defeated all the opponents of the West, and the Europeans even called the Tang Empire the second Roman Empire, and the Tang Empire was also a unique super empire in the world at that time!

It was also during this short period that the Tang Empire learned the concept of "colonization" from Westerners, and first used it in Europe, and the large-scale colonization of the Tang Empire in Europe can be said to be the most significant sign of the Tang Empire's heyday, and at the same time, the Tang Empire also began colonization activities in other overseas territories. For example, in Cape Town at that time, Tang Empire immigrants established hundreds of plantation estates, initially employing local natives to do plantation labor, but when human resources began to be scarce, employment turned into coercion and coercion.

It was "colonization" that really ruined the Tang Empire. The colonization of Europe united the Europeans and allowed the Europeans to learn the advanced industrial technology of the Tang Empire, at that time, the Tang Empire established the first modern ironworks in Britain, as well as modern mines, and finally, European countries successively mastered industrial technology from the Tang Empire, which laid the foundation for the subsequent resistance to the colonization activities of the Tang Empire and the development of a powerful force that could compete with the Tang Empire. The Tang Empire's colonization activities in other overseas territories also aroused strong resentment among the indigenous peoples in various places. The same is true of Cape Town, whose prosperous history has been marked by hundreds of Aboriginal riots. More than a dozen of them were large-scale uprisings of indigenous people against the colonial activities of the Tang Empire!

This was the beginning of Cape Town's history of blood and fire. And in the same period, pirates, plundering ships of Western countries, and so on. are threatening in Cape Town. Judging by the official records of the Tang Empire, it was between 840 and 1100 years in the Tang calendar. There were 2,786 pirate attacks in the waters off Cape Town, with an average of more than 100 launches a year, almost one every three days. In addition, Western raiders raided Cape Town and the convoy near Cape Town 1,149 times during this period. On average, there are about 40 times a year, and it happens in less than 10 days!

Piracy, plundering ships, riots, and uprisings were nothing compared to the catastrophes to come. Just as Cape Town itself was closely related to the status of the Tang Empire, it was impossible for Cape Town to remain prosperous and prosperous when the Tang Empire began to decline.

The first time Cape Town's status was lowered was the withdrawal of the Tang Empire from Europe, ending its colonial history in Europe.

The resistance of various European countries and ethnic groups made the Tang Empire's colonial activities in Europe more than worth the losses. In particular, the Renaissance movement that originated in Italy and the French Revolution that broke out later showed that Europeans had awakened from their confusion. The Tang Empire's colonization activities in Europe also began to come to an end. Italian independence and unification, the French Revolution, the War of German Unification launched by Prussia, and the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Even the rise of Russia, the short-lived Austro-Hungarian Empire, the independence of Spain, etc., eventually forced the Tang Empire to gradually leave Europe and end its colonization activities in Europe. The fundamental reason for the end of the Tang Empire's colonization activities in Europe was economic. The economic benefits obtained from colonial activities could no longer support the huge war expenses, and at that time, there was also a serious crisis in the Tang Empire, coupled with riots in other parts of the world, the Tang Empire was forced to withdraw the expeditionary force left in Europe, ended the colonization activities in Europe, and changed its policy towards the West, and began to take advantage of the discord of various European countries and nationalities to disintegrate the opportunity of European unity, and hold several major opponents hostage to protect the interests of the Tang Empire to the greatest extent.

As a result, Cape Town's status as a transit centre for commerce and trade has been greatly reduced. In the decades following the outbreak of the European independence movement, the number of merchant ships passing through Cape Town decreased year by year, and by the time the Tang Empire withdrew from Europe, Cape Town's commercial vitality was only about half of what it had been. It's fair to say that Cape Town's business position is nowhere near what it used to be.

After Europe got rid of the colonial rule of the Tang Empire, Cape Town had a short period of prosperity, mainly because the emerging independent countries in Europe wanted to obtain the hegemony of Europe, especially Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and Prussia, which had not yet completed the task of unifying Germany, all hoped to replace the Tang Empire and become the hegemon of Europe. What these countries lacked was an industrial base, and it was the Tang Empire that was able to provide them with assistance at that time. In addition, the Tang Empire also had to make full use of the contradictions between European countries to contain Europe in order to ensure the interests of the empire. Therefore, during this period, the maritime trade between the East and the West was restored to a certain extent, and the importance of Cape Town was once again reflected, and a large number of merchant ships arrived, and Cape Town almost returned to its former most prosperous state, but this was only a flash in the pan, and it can even be said to be a return to the past.

After the opening of the Suez Canal, merchant ships no longer need to detour through the Cape of Good Hope, and can directly enter the Mediterranean Sea from the Red Sea, shortening the sea route between the east and the west by tens of thousands of kilometers. And the Suez Canal was jointly managed by the Tang Empire and the Persian Empire (the Tang Empire contributed money, the Persian Empire contributed efforts, and the canal was on the territory of the Persian Empire), so except for a few extremely brief periods, the Suez Canal completely replaced Cape Town and dealt a serious blow to Cape Town. It was from this point on that Cape Town completely lost its status as a commercial transit point.

Cape Town's loss of status as a commercial transit centre has not affected its status as a military fortress. Especially after the reunification of Germany and the prominence of contradictions on the European continent, and before the outbreak of the first global war, Cape Town's military position can be said to be quite important.

The unification of Germany was very difficult, and all the European countries did not want to see a united, powerful state appear on the plains of the European hinterland, so when Prussian Chancellor Bismarck tried to unify Germany, almost all European countries were blocking his actions. At that time, Bismarck had only two countries to turn to: Britain, which was willing to see the great powers of the European continent competing with each other and could not threaten its maritime hegemony, and the Tang Empire, which had been taking advantage of Europe's internal contradictions to weaken the influence of the Western world. When Bismarck pursued the unification of "iron and blood", he also unremittingly developed relations with the Tang Empire and Britain, striving to obtain support from these two countries in order to complete the great cause of unification.

In fact, the unification of Germany was one of the direct causes of the first global war, and the British were the first to regret it, and after a united Germany fell to the Tang Empire, its maritime supremacy would be severely challenged. Therefore, Britain soon gave up its support for Germany, and instead reconciled with France, Spain, Italy, and even threw an olive branch to Russia to support the Kingdom of Sweden in Northern Europe in an effort to encircle Germany. The Tang Empire also made full use of the contradictions within Europe, fully supported the unification of Germany, and first reached a secret alliance with Germany, and then the Persian Empire joined this alliance. And this was the prototype of the two camps of the first global war.

In this context, the importance of Cape Town as an important military base of the empire in the South Atlantic can be imagined. In fact, in this war, the Western coalition forces were unable to capture the Suez Canal, and its expeditionary fleet entered the Indian Ocean precisely after capturing Cape Town.

And then, it was in one fell swoop that the Imperial Navy of the Tang Dynasty drove the Western Combined Fleet out of the South Atlantic from here in Cape Town.

This is the history of Cape Town, a history of blood and fire, splendor and bleakness.

Tan Renhao read these materials very carefully, and what he attached the most importance to was the geographical environment of Cape Town, which was the most important basic information in the landing operation.