February 6, Sunny, Thanjavur.

Yang Xingfu held a musket and looked up at the temple in front of him, the entire building is made of granite and brick, towering and spectacular, which can be called a model of Indian temples.

"What are you doing stupidly? …… Rush in and grab something! One of his companions gave him a push, took two steps past him, and rushed up the steps to the temple gate.

"Fuck, are you all blinded by money?" Although Yang Xingfu cursed in his mouth, he followed closely with the figure of his companion and also rushed into the temple eagerly.

Built in the early 11th century, the temple is large and imposing, with a cloister surrounded by a cloister with a temple of oxen, two connected spacious prayer halls, a front nave and Vimana, a holy chamber with a Vimanam tower built above it, and behind the three pavilions of the main shrine is the Holy of Holies dedicated to the Linga, the genital image of Lord Shiva.

After more than 100 Ningyang guards easily controlled the priests and believers in the temple, they launched an organized ransack of the temple.

In India, in terms of wealth, apart from the princes of the large and small princely states, the wealth of the temple is the most. Every year, thousands of devotees donate all kinds of goods to the temple, and over the years, they accumulate a great deal of wealth. The Buri Hadiswara temple in the city of Thanjavur is even more famous, attracting millions of devotees on pilgrimage every year, with a peak of about 50,000 devotees per day. In the minds of many Hindus in the southern region, a visit to the temple of Burhadiswara once in this life is considered "meritorious".

Moreover, from the beginning of the 11th century, for hundreds of years, princes and wealthy merchants from all over the world also offered a considerable amount of gold and jewelry, as well as many brilliant diamonds and valuable works of art.

Of course, the Ningyang Escort's invasion of Thanjavur City was not specifically aimed at looting the temple of Burhadiswara, which had accumulated countless treasures. The purpose of the trip was to teach the proud kingdom of Thanja Vulmaratha a lesson, to extend the power of the Bengali trading community to the middle reaches of the Cauveri River, and to block the foreign trade routes of the Maduraia kingdom.

In 1674 the ruler of Madurinaya, Chocanata. When Nayak invaded Thanjavur, he made his brother Alagiri king of Thanjavur.

It stands to reason that such a small country, and it is also a vassal state of Madurinaya, in the face of the most powerful Qi people in South India, should live a good life with its tail between its legs, and be cautious, and not easily provoke the Qi people.

You don't see, the kingdoms of Kochi, Kozhikod, Kannur, Chulon, and Ramnad in southern India were either annexed by the forces of Qi, or surrendered their military and diplomatic powers, and became vassals of Qi, all of which were prostrate at the feet of the Qi people.

However, because of a small judicial decision, the Kingdom of Thanja Vul Maratha brazenly launched a challenge to the Qi Kingdom.

In October last year, a young and impulsive prince of the Thanja Vulmaratha Kingdom was shopping for goods at Nanyu Fort (present-day Gudalore, India) when he clashed with a merchant and pulled out a knife to kill them. The magistrate who arrived on the occasion arrested him and brought him before the trial court.

Although the prince expressed his willingness to compensate the deceased with large sums of money in exchange for his release. But he shouldn't have killed a Qi person. Although the deceased was a mixed-race child of Qi and India, according to the Qi nationality law, all children born by intermarriage between Qi people and indigenous Indians are from the paternal line and will be recognized as nationals of Qi overseas territories.

Since you killed my Qi people, in order to maintain the authority of Qi State, can you still give a light sentence?

As a result, the prince was sentenced to death by hanging and fined heavily.

Well, not only to severely punish the perpetrators, but also to compensate the victims.

Annoyed and angry, King Thanja Vulmaratha immediately made a decision that he regretted for the rest of his life, not only did he disobey the verdict, but also made compensation to the victims of Qi State, and also detained Qi merchants in his territory, blocked the border, mobilized the army, and prepared to fight the Qi people.

Yo, how many years have passed, in the southern region of India, there is really no local princely state that dares to provoke the might of Qi so blatantly!

The governor of Ningyang (now the local city of India) immediately ordered the mobilization of more than 2,000 guards and eight merchant ships from all over the country to slaughter the kingdom of Thanja Vurmaratha.

The army passed more than 80 kilometers above the mouth of the Cauveri River and arrived at the royal city of Thanjavur. After a less fierce battle, the Ningyang escort entered the city and captured more than 20 ministers and generals.

However, King Vasim I took advantage of the chaos to escape from the royal city and run to the kingdom of Madurinaya.

After capturing the city of Thanjavur, the convoy carried out a brutal raid on the thousand-year-old city, and countless buildings, including the temple of Brihadiswara, were severely damaged.

"Why do the local governors value the statues and frescoes in the temple so much? It took so much effort to pry these things off, pack them, and transport them back to Hanzhou thousands of miles away! Can this thing still sell for a lot of money? Yang Xingfu leaned against the wall, supervising the indigenous soldiers carrying supplies, while peering over the dozen craftsmen in the temple hall carefully dismantling the statues and murals, his heart full of curiosity.

"Who knows?" Zhang Keyi played with a delicate golden hairpin, and fantasized about how to please the woman he admired after bringing it back to Ningyang, "Probably those local nobles think these things are rare." ”

"Isn't Hanzhou the most prosperous and wealthy place? There should be nothing lacking there, and these indigenous things are scarce? ”

"What do you know?" Zhang Keyi pursed his lips and said, "Those local nobles and lords just like to collect rare treasures from all over the world to satisfy their extravagant desires!" These temple things, which are hundreds of thousands of years old, are antiques, what is that...... Archaeological civilizations. ”

"But as far as I'm concerned, it's still gold and silver."

"Whew!" Zhang Keyi sneered: "You don't understand the world of rich people. People have gold and silver, and this thing is not rare at all. ”

"Oh...... if you have the opportunity, you can go to Hanzhou to see and understand, and it will be in vain for this life."

"Then you should join the fleet of the trading company, so that you have the opportunity to go to Hanzhou mainland."

“…… I was seasick. This time, I set out from Ningyang and took a boat all the way here, and the bitter gall in my stomach was vomited. ”

"That Ling has thought about going to Hanzhou in his life." Zhang Keyi shook his head and said: "From Ningyang to Hanzhou mainland, it will take at least more than a month to sail at sea. If you're like this, you're probably going to die halfway through! ”

“…… Even if you can't go to Hanzhou itself, it's good to stay in India for the rest of your life. Yang Xingfu said with regret: "At least, we have a superior status here, and we can make a small fortune from time to time, and this life may not be worse than that of the natives of Hanzhou." ”

As a native of Qi-India, Yang Xingfu has a little yearning and longing for Hanzhou in his heart. It is its own home country, where there is highly developed industrial manufacturing, there is a brilliant scientific and technological civilization, and there are prosperous and wealthy modern cities, crisscrossing roads, and dense railways.

Whenever those merchants and sailors from Hanzhou mentioned the development and current situation of Hanzhou, they all carried a strong sense of superiority, and even showed a condescending attitude in the face of them, overseas Qi people.

Hey, hillbilly, have you seen what I'm talking about?

In addition to a trace of yearning and envy for Hanzhou, Indian natives like Yang Xingfu may not be very close emotionally. They were born here, raised here, lived here, and built their homes here. Although he received an oriental education and spoke Chinese, he was somewhat inclined to the local area in terms of his inner belonging.

If it weren't for this, they, the Qi people born in India, had a higher political and economic status than the natives, followed a few monopoly trading companies to eat some leftovers, and also had a completely different oriental face, I am afraid that they would have been assimilated by the huge indigenous people long ago.

(End of chapter)