"In 1660, my subordinates brought me a drink called 'tea'. I tasted it curiously, it was slightly bitter in my mouth, and when I swallowed it, there was an indescribable sweetness. —Samuel Peppis, Naval Executive and Member of Parliament for England.

At this time, tea was not yet a much-needed commodity for the British East India Company, and only a small amount of tea came from Europe to the British aristocracy.

Charles II's return to the throne obviously brought about a lot of changes.

The first is to determine the table manners of the English court, a four-piece set of knives, forks, spoons, and chopsticks, which spread to the nobility with Charles II as the center.

Members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons in the United Kingdom adopted the four-piece dining table set, which was then spread to the burghers. In the city of London, there are even workshops that make chopsticks, which are regarded as a kind of civilized high-end tableware. And the British aristocracy was even more self-taught, allowing people to make silver and ivory chopsticks, so that they could be distinguished from the common chopsticks.

At the same time, Charles II liked to drink tea, and the price of tea in Europe was too expensive, so he ordered the British East India Company to ship some back from China every time it traded.

The power of the British East India Company is currently concentrated in India. I also sailed to Guangzhou, but eventually gave up because it was more cost-effective to order directly in Banten. Of course, the port of Banten has been relatively declining, and ships from various countries now prefer to go to Coconut City.

Or you can order in Malacca, but Malacca is more expensive and requires more money to supply food.

The merchant ship that bought tea for Charles II had already departed from London, and the British merchants in Banten had just received the news of Cromwell's death. They are more worried about the domestic situation, and they don't know that Prince Charles has returned home, so they can only guess that the political situation in London must be chaotic.

Oliver, the head of the Far East of the British East India Company, wrote in a letter to London:

"China's tough governor of Palembang annexed all the territories of Banten on the island of Sumatra. The decline of the port of Banten is visible to the naked eye, as Chinese merchants, most of whom ship goods to Coconut City and Palembang, both of which have preferential tariffs. Banten, a small country, will perish sooner or later, and no one will be able to resist China's expansion......"

"The princess of Portugal, marry Chittagong to China, Chittagong is also engaged in tariff concessions, which must be an emerging trade center, and more and more Chinese merchant ships are going to Chittagong to trade. My guess is that in a year or two at most, Chinese merchants will monopolize all the ports, and then tariff preferences will be abolished, or even higher than normal, which will be detrimental to the British East India Company......"

"I heard that the new governor of Semarang is the leader of a rebel army who has failed to compete for the throne in China. This is a murderous fellow, he shows no mercy to the natives, and the number of Javanese who died at his hands may be twenty or thirty thousand. More and more Chinese farmers are coming to Java and Sumatra to reclaim their land. They are all excellent cultivators, and they are as numerous as North Sea herrings. If this trend continues, I am afraid that in less than 50 years, the island of Java and Sumatra will be all Chinese......."

"Britain could not colonize and expand in the Far East, we had to focus on India. There was a civil war there, a feud between several princes, which severely weakened the strength of the Mughals, and this was the opportunity of the British East India Company......"

In fact, the Mughal civil war was almost over.

The third prince, Aurangzeb, and the fourth prince, Murad, led their armies together and marched towards the capital.

At this time, the old emperor Shah Jahan recovered a little and sent the prince Jaswant Singh to fight. and told Singh not to hurt the two princes, and try to use his prestige to force the rebels to surrender.

Such an outrageous imperial order will not put Jaswant Singh in order, and can only send envoys to negotiate when the two armies face each other. The third prince, Aurangzeb, took the opportunity of negotiation to spend money to buy Singh's generals.

The two princes won a great victory and continued to march towards the capital.

The battle is fought here, and it is different from history.

In another time and space, the eldest prince personally led the troops to fight against the second prince, but the distance was too far to come back. So he sent the imperial grandson to lead the troops to deal with the coalition of the three princes and the four princes. Marshal Jaswant Singh, who suffered a defeat, simply jumped back and led his troops to join the third prince, Aurangzeb.

And in this time and space, the second prince got China's arms and had the ambition to be the emperor, so he kept observing the situation.

Therefore, now it is the eldest prince who takes the imperial grandson and personally fights with the third prince and the fourth prince. Marshal Jaswant Singh did not dare to jump back, and the two sides fought evenly and the war was stalemate for three months.

The third prince, Aurangzeb, suddenly issued an order that as long as he became emperor, the poll tax for Hindus would be restored, and the Hindu merchants would be given an additional 2.5% business tax, and Hindus should not ride horses, ride elephants, etc., and Hindu temples must be converted into green temples.

Holy War Text!

When the news broke, the army of the Great Prince soon fell apart, and a large number of Green Sect princes led troops to join the Third Prince.

The third prince, Aurangzeb, gained great prestige and fought his way to the capital. The eldest prince and the crown prince were executed, and Emperor Shah Jahan was placed under house arrest, and then his allies were poisoned.

The second prince, who had been watching the play in Bangladesh, did not react at all, and the third prince had already ascended the throne as emperor. If he sends troops again, it's too late!

The new emperor Aurangzeb, without waiting for the second prince to send troops, immediately killed Bengal.

The generals of the vanguard were Mir Evermourah and his son Sultan. A magical scene happened, the father and son were actually provoked against each other by the second prince. Sultan rebelled with his army, decisively fled to Bengal, and became the son-in-law of the second prince.

Immediately afterwards, Nawaz Khan, the father-in-law of Emperor Aurangzeb, also rebelled and announced his support for the second prince.

In desperation, Aurangzeb could only return to the army and kill Gujarat directly, killing his father-in-law first. Things went well, and the father-in-law of the new emperor was killed by a cannonball.

After two accidents in quick succession, Aurangzeb had to fight again next year.

The war has dragged on until now, and the territory of the second prince is only the Ganges Delta. In the southwest, Gongyutuo, Wucha and other places have all been lost, relying on the complex water network to survive.

By this time, the new emperor Aurangzeb was also tired.

He succeeded in imprisoning his father and killing his brother through the Holy War Message, and he had to fulfill his promise when he ascended the throne. A series of policies led to revolts among the Hindus, and the Rajputs declared their independence from the Mughal Empire (India's most important horse-producing area and the main source of Mughal cavalry).

The brothers then declared an armistice and recognized each other's status.

The third prince, Aurangzeb, was the Mughal emperor and no longer attacked Bengal, but returned with his troops to suppress the Hindu rebels.

The second prince, Shah Shuja, was the emperor of Bengal and ruled the Ganges Delta.

Sivaji, an insurgent on the west coast, also made a truce with the Bigapur kingdom and attacked the Mughal Empire with all his might. This old man's territory, less than one-thirtieth of Aurangzeb's, took advantage of the Mughal uprising and killed the Mughal army to retreat.

This series of wars has made China's maritime merchants miserable.

The Mughal Princes of the Green Religion, out of their extravagance, borrowed large amounts of money from Hindu merchants. Aurangzeb favored the princes, allowing them not to pay back their money, and raising taxes on Hindu merchants. The princes were incentivized, and not only did they not pay back, but they also began to extort money from the merchants.

Coming and going, Hindu merchants went bankrupt in large numbers.

The territory of the Bengal emperor, although not affected by the decree. However, most of the goods bought by merchants here had to be shipped to the Mughals for sale, where taxes increased and merchants went bankrupt in large numbers, resulting in a backlog of goods from Bangladeshi merchants.

Chinese maritime merchants received orders to ship cotton cloth and other goods to Bangladesh, facing a collective default by their business partners. The only way to venture south was to sell the goods at a discount to the Dutch, the British, and then to the various states of southern India through the Anglo-Dutch sales network.

Mughal people, merchants, artisans, Bengali merchants, Chinese merchants, all suffered heavy losses. The only ones who really benefited were the princes and nobles of the Green Sect, and they were all profiteering.

The Ganges River valley is a Mughal handicraft and commercial elite zone, and the new emperor Aurangzeb has done so, and the traditional Mughal industrial and commercial system has almost collapsed!

The Mughal Empire, already in financial difficulties, suffered another fatal blow. In addition, the local governors and princes took the opportunity to become bigger and more respectful, and the powerful Aurangzeb was able to hold back.

Once Aurangzeb died, the Mughal Empire was in ruins, nominally still existing, but in reality it was divided everywhere.

Zhao Han received the news sent back by Shang Jia and Xizuo, and couldn't help but sigh: "The Mughal is over, and as soon as Aurangzeb dies, it will be the situation in the late Tang Dynasty." ”

Of course, Aurangzeb is still very strong.

This gang quickly quelled the uprisings in various places, and although they could not destroy the rebel Sivaji, they succeeded in designing a surrender. Although the booby trap failed, he recaptured the territory captured by Sivaji, and then beat the states of the Deccan plateau. It can be said that who catches and beats whom, and who sees and destroys.

Squeeze out the last trace of blood and sweat of the Mughal people and create the supreme hegemony of Emperor Aurangzeb!

The losses of China's maritime merchants are only temporary.

As the handicraft industry in the Ganges Valley withers, the demand for Chinese goods will be even greater. At most, in a year or two, the sales of Chinese goods in the Mughal will rise.

And the second prince, who failed to compete for the throne, saw that his brother no longer beat him, and he was also at ease as the emperor of Bengal. This guy constantly bullied the princely states in the east, and from time to time he attacked the tribes in the mountains, which seemed to be showing off his might and expanding his territory, but in fact, it was all a loss-making deal, purely to vent his anger with the tribes in the mountains.

Bengal's finances were rapidly struggling, but the aristocracy was more content to enjoy it, and the poll tax was reintroduced, and the commercial and agricultural taxes were raised, and a large number of the people fell into abject poverty.

The Mughal and Bengali brothers, the emperor's brothers, say that they are mediocre, and they are expanding their territory. Let's say that they are wise, but the people in the country are not happy.

To sum it up, it's just three words: toss blindly!

(End of chapter)