Chapter 220: The Red Sea Slave Ship

The fleet rested in India for two days, and when preparations were made, they set out on their journey again.

A month later, they reached the Red Sea, a narrow strip of sea between northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Sandwiched between the tropical deserts on the east and west sides, the air is hot and dusty all year round, and there are very few sunny days.

Not long after entering the Red Sea, the fleet encountered a storm, several ships were damaged to varying degrees, but fortunately they did not sink, and the shipwrights rushed to repair the battleship and delayed it for some time.

After staying at sea during this time, Ao Bai was much more haggard than when he first left the Central Plains, because of his poor appetite, many people lost weight and became sick, and the ship doctors were very busy every day.

"It doesn't happen often in the sea, does it? By the time we get to Europe, our ships will be in a pile of rags. Ao Bai said to a tall Dutchman.

The Dutchman was Captain Kirk Snyder, who was in charge of piloting. The fleet slowed down, and he reached the Sunnymiles. "Lord Huang, please rest assured. Except for the sharks in this area, the weather problems are not too serious, but we are unlucky. I encountered a storm of this magnitude. Daming's shipbuilding technology has improved really quickly, I remember a few years ago when we clashed in Penghu, you still only had some small boats, sorry......"

The battle of Penghu is an embarrassing topic. Ao Bai didn't want to mention it, and said, "When will we be able to reach the Mediterranean?" ”

Snyder smiled, "It's going to take more than two months if it's fast." ”

At this time, a soldier reported: "My lord, we have found a ship, sailing in a very strange way, as if it is about to hit us, it seems to be an English ship." ”

Ao Bai led everyone to the bow of the ship, took out his binoculars, and saw the armed merchant ship. Look at the flag, it was indeed a British merchant ship, and the strange thing was that the people on board were not British, but a group of black people.

Snyder sighed, "It's a ship of British slave traders, they also had a storm, and seeing that the deck is full of black slaves, I probably have something wrong." It is advisable to leave it alone and let them fend for themselves. ”

Snyder's Chinese was not good, but Ao Bai could still understand it, he thought for a while, and said with a smile: "How can this situation not be saved?" We have so many ships and can totally help them. The order went down, approached the ship, and went to see what was going on. ”

The blacks did not stop the Ming soldiers from boarding the ship, they were stupefied when they saw that there were all warships in front of them. After getting on the boat, the Ming soldiers were very friendly, but they couldn't communicate, the two sides talked to themselves, and neither could understand what the other was saying.

The Dutch also arrived on the ship, and a few old sailors had been to Africa and knew some African languages, so they could finally communicate.

The locks that keep the slaves in yesterday's storm were broken. The slaves were outnumbered and rushed out of the cabin and killed the captain. The British crew was defeated, and the living Britons were thrown into the holds.

In the recent history of mankind, the slave trade has written one of the most shameful and despicable pages. The greedy colonizers used the large number of black Africans, who had the skills to grow tropical crops and were able to adapt to tropical labor, as slave hunters, and slave ships from the Senegal estuary to the Congo estuary were moored one after another by the European colonial powers. One has to look at the colony to reveal the extreme hypocrisy of bourgeois civilization and its barbaric nature, which pretends to be very decent in its homeland, and when it arrives in the colony, it does not hide it at all.

Ao Baixiao asked, "Captain Snyder, can you explain how the company works here?" I've heard about the slave trade in European countries for a long time, but I don't know how to do it, can you explain it in general? ”

Snyder briefly explained that in the process of long-term trafficking in blacks, the colonists gradually formed a set of lucrative "slave trade system". Their slave trade generally took a triangular voyage: a merchant ship carrying cheap goods from a European port to the west coast of Africa, called an "outbound voyage." Loaded with blacks from Africa, across the Atlantic, to the Americas, called "medium-haul"; Slaves were exchanged for raw materials, gold and silver from the American colonies, and returned to Europe, which was called the "return journey". This triangular trade allowed the European capitalists to extract huge profits from the blood plasma of black Africans. A triangular voyage usually took six months, and the slave traders could make three transactions for a profit of 500 to 2,000 percent. Slave ships could carry about 300 slaves at a time, and the selling price in Europe was generally 50 times the purchase price.

These slave traders were a band of man-eating devils, who always carried more than double or more slaves in order to make more profits, stuffed slaves into slave ships, and a sailing ship of several tens of tons competed for hundreds of slaves. Slaves were crammed together one by one on the ship, each occupying only a small space on average, and even curled up underneath, unable to even turn over. When a storm broke out at sea, the airtight cabin could not circulate in the air, and many slaves were suffocated in the small cabin. Slaves could also get sick due to the crowded, humid, foul air, and poor diet in the cabins. The only way for the slave traders to deal with the sick slaves was to throw them into the sea, and whenever there was not enough food and water on the ship, the slaves were also thrown into the sea. The Ming soldiers were furious when they heard about the slave trade.

Black Africans love freedom and independence, and are unwilling to submit to colonial slavery. The brutal slave trade carried out by the Western colonialists provoked the resistance of the African people. Not only did they rebel on the continent, but they also rebelled against the criminal slave trade in black cells and on slave ships. The resistance of the people on this ship was successful, but they could not control the ship, so they could only move in the direction of the wind and met the fleet of the Great Ming.

Zheng Zhilong asked, "My lord, do you want to release those Britons?" ”

Ao Bai smiled: "What are you doing when you release it?" Will the British thank us? This ship is ours. Captain Snyder, how strong are the British in Africa? ”

Snyder looked at Ao Bai vigilantly, and said lightly: "The first to carry out the slave trade were the Portuguese, our country and the British also got involved, and now we are the main operators of the triangular trade, and there are nearly 10,000 garrisons here. ”

The Netherlands is now the largest intermediary in Portugal's trade with Europe. At the end of the last century, the Netherlands seized Portugal's important trading posts and military positions in Africa, and then established the Dutch Guinea Company, the West India Company, the East India Company, etc., seizing the trade monopoly on the west coast of Africa. This part of the interests is huge, and they are very worried that Daming will intervene. Although the Ming Dynasty left a bad impression on people, Ao Bai was different, and anything could happen. It used to be the territory of the Portuguese, and the Ming Dynasty was closer to the Portuguese.

It was the period of the high dynasty of the Atlantic slave trade, which developed rapidly and became the largest and most profitable industry in the world, slaves became the "single crop" available for export in black Africa, and the slave trade became the only trade activity between Africa, Europe and the Americas. The Dutch will never give up their interests here.

In fact, here, the Dutch garrison was only 1,000, and Snyder was worried that the Ming army would have bad intentions, so he deliberately said that it was nearly 10,000. They did not need to invest too many troops, and generally used cheap European industrial products and gunpowder weapons as bait to buy some African kings and chieftains, and used inter-tribal wars to plunder slaves, and sometimes resorted to surprise attacks to capture slaves directly. If it were the current strength of the Ming army, it would be possible to rule Africa directly.

Although Da Ming really wanted to make some sweetness in other countries, Ao Bai did not want to use the cruel method of slave trade, which was a way to make a fortune that exterminated human nature, and such money was not safe to spend. In his previous life, he liked to watch NBA basketball games, and the stars were all black. He still has a good impression of black people.

He is not the only one who has a good impression of black people, Li Yan walked over and said with a smile: "These people are so funny, their bodies are really black, only their teeth are white." Let's bring some people back to Daming, they are very talkative and have a good temper. ”

"Very talkative? Can you understand their words? Ao Bai asked.

"We can use sign language." Li Yan said, going to the side and comparing with an African. The two of them had rich expressions and were very energetic, and they didn't know if they could really communicate, but after a while, they actually ate grilled fish together. The man next to Ray is not light.

A soldier came to report the situation, and Zheng Zhilong said respectfully: "My lord, what are we going to do?" The British kept shouting in the moldy and broken warehouse for us to let them out. ”

Ao Bai laughed: "Then get them out, and then kill them and throw them into the sea to feed the sharks." ”

"Huh?" Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment.

"As long as we don't say it, who in the British will know?" Kill them. ”

Ao Bai ordered the Africans to be brought to the ship and resettled on the ship, and the interpreter told them that they could be sent home in the future. But now you have to go to Europe first, and if you don't want to be sold as a slave, you have to be obedient. The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were very friendly, found clothes for the blacks, provided them with food and drink, and arranged rooms, fully carrying forward the spirit of humanitarianism.

Africans found out the kindness of the Ming people, ate delicious food, and had warm beds to sleep in, and they all relaxed, and became talking and laughing. For the British, Ao Bai took an extreme approach. Slaves belonging to the British were taken away, and the British lost their benefits, and even if they lived, they would not be grateful. Moreover, Britain will be an important competitor in the future, not a friend, so there is no need to be polite to them, as long as the people here do not tell it, the British will not know the truth.

The Dutch were surprised, especially Snyder, who felt that there were two sides to the Aobai, both benevolent and ruthless. They are even more convinced that it is very dangerous to be the enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

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