Valley Emperor

At the mouth of the Yangtze River, a Galen ship is slowly sailing into the mouth of the Yangtze River. The Galen ship is carrying the Portuguese flag. There are many cannon windows on both sides of the ship's side, but at this time these cannon windows are all It was tightly closed, and at the same time, there was an offshore patrol ship with the flag of the Imperial Navy following along on the side.

This is a Portuguese armed merchant ship that departs from Malacca and travels to and from Malacca and various ports along the coast of the empire all the year round. Its displacement of more than 600 tons is not very conspicuous in the coast of the empire, and the Galen ship is not special. It was just a large number of armed merchant ships that traded to and from the coast of the Empire and the seas of the South China Sea.

In recent years, the empire's own maritime trade has developed rapidly, and at the same time, there have been more and more maritime trade with the Portuguese and the Spanish. In addition, some indigenous countries in the South China Sea, various indigenous states in India, the Persian Safi dynasty, and the Ottoman Empire. Merchant ships from other European countries would also come to the Empire for trade, and even in the last year or two, occasionally ships from other European countries could be seen traveling thousands of miles to the Empire for trade.

The empire's maritime trade has a great reputation in the world. Businessmen in many places know that there are countless goods in the far east, including spices, silk, porcelain, tea, and more. There are exquisite weapons of all kinds and many other industrial manufactures, such as cloth and wool.

As long as you have the courage and strength at the same time, you can cross the ocean and go to the Datang Empire to trade!

Although the Portuguese say that they are very strong on the east coast of Africa and the coasts of India, they do not welcome or even intercept merchant ships from other countries to trade along the coast of the Tang Dynasty, but the Portuguese are not gods, even with the current backward navigation technology. It is impossible to completely block the above-mentioned sea areas.

Under the blockade of the Portuguese, the Western trading companies of the Tang Empire were able to live very well. Although other countries had difficulties, it was not impossible.

From the west to the Tang Empire, the biggest obstacle was not the blockade by the Portuguese, but the challenge from nature. The wind and waves along the way were their biggest enemy.

However, despite the many difficulties, there are still an endless stream of people who want to gain wealth in danger, so over the years, more and more foreign merchant ships have appeared along the coast of the Datang Empire.

The Datang Empire adopted the policy of opening the sea. Except for the complete blockade of the Japanese route, and merchant ships from other countries were not allowed to enter, other sea areas did not block foreign merchant ships. Those foreign merchant ships could follow their own trade routes. Choose to enter some ports under the control of the Tang Empire.

These ports are commercial ports!

In fact, the Datang Empire currently has more than 20 commercial ports, which basically cover the major coastal ports and economic areas of the empire. Therefore, although trade is limited to more than 20 ports, in fact It is not much different from fully opening up trade.

But the only point is that foreign merchant ships going to the Empire for trade must be inspected by the Imperial Navy patrol ships. At the same time, after entering the Empire's territorial waters, the gun windows must be closed, and all guns must be sealed before entering the port. Otherwise, If it is, it is not allowed to enter the port to moor and trade.

Most of those foreign merchant ships came to the Datang Empire for trade, and that was for money, and the reputation of the imperial navy in the last few years was also known, so except for a few merchant ships that came for the first time, other merchant ships did not use the imperial navy. Reminder, after they entered the coastal waters of the empire, they would take the initiative to seal the guns.

As for those who came for the first time and were more stubborn, they basically sailed according to the regulations and other rules after seeing the battleships of the Imperial Navy.

Many policies have also led to more and more merchant ships from various countries along the coast of the empire. However, the number of these foreign merchant ships is still far from being comparable to that of the empire's own merchant ships.

It has been less than 20 years since the empire opened the sea, but in the past ten years, the maritime trade of the empire has developed rapidly, and its maritime transportation is even faster, and the reason for this is not because of overseas trade, but because of the empire's local Material transportation needs.

The mainland of the empire is actually the largest production base and market for various products. Many merchant ships are dedicated to domestic coastal transportation, and they are simply too lazy to run overseas routes.

Every day, the major coastal ports have countless materials waiting to be transported to other parts of the country, especially the three representative coastal ports of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin. The demand for cargo transportation between them is very large. of.

Therefore, this Galen ship of more than 600 tons from Malacca is not very conspicuous in the mouth of the Yangtze River, but this inconspicuous merchant ship is loaded with various goods required by the empire. , and seven or eight more special people.

These people are the official diplomatic envoys of Portugal, and this time they are going to replace other Portuguese diplomatic staff who were originally stationed in Shanghai.

The Empire and the Portuguese have already established formal diplomatic relations, and they have sent diplomatic envoys to each other, but only in Malacca, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. The Portuguese may not have established any embassies in Jinling City. , the same, the Empire did not send ambassadors to the Portuguese mainland.

Because of the lack of means of communication, if the Tang Empire wanted to get official news from the Portuguese, the waiting period would have to be at least a year, or even longer, because the distance was too far, so the connection between the Empire and the Portuguese was actually Only limited to East Asia.

Today, this group of Portuguese diplomatic envoys are preparing to replace the Portuguese diplomatic envoys who were stationed in Shanghai before. In addition, these people also have an official mission, that is, they hope to set up a real diplomatic envoy in Jinling City, the capital of the Tang Empire. The embassy, ​​the Portuguese hoped to be able to directly contact the upper echelons of the empire at a closer distance, but unfortunately the Tang Empire never agreed to their request.

Because diplomacy is equal, if the Portuguese go to Jinling City to set up an embassy, ​​then the Datang Empire has to go to Portugal to set up an embassy.

But unfortunately, the Tang Empire did not have the intention to set up an embassy in the Portuguese mainland, at least not before.

These Portuguese diplomats are standing on the deck at this time, waiting for the ships to slowly enter under the guidance of the Datang Navy ships. They will then undergo a comprehensive inspection before being allowed to enter the Huangpu River and go to Shanghai.

Soon, in addition to the Offshore Patrol Ship of the Datang Navy, another small patrol ship came, with navy inspectors and customs officers on it. They will board the ship to conduct various inspections in advance.

Just as they were waiting for the official personnel to board the ship for inspection, suddenly, there was an exclamation from the direction of the bow, and immediately, several people's eyes turned to the bow, and someone asked, "What's wrong?"

Then a crew member in the direction of the bow made a fuss: "Look, what is that?"

Looking in the direction that the crew member pointed, I saw that on the sea, a fleet of medium size was slowly approaching, and the direction of this fleet should be Wusong Port at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

There are eight ships in the front and rear of this fleet, and several of them are warships at a glance, and they are also unique warships of the Datang Navy.

The battleships of the Datang Navy are of a special type. Compared with the Galen ships, the carat ships are much slender and slender, and they are different from many traditional Chinese hard sailing ships. sail.

If you see a soft sailboat with a beautiful body and a very fast speed on the sea, then you can basically conclude that this is a military vessel belonging to the Datang Navy.

However, if it is just an ordinary Datang Navy ship, it will naturally not arouse the surprise of these Portuguese people. People travel to and from the South China Sea all year round. There are many warships of the Datang Navy. However, what they see today is this The fleet is strange.

Two of the ships that fell behind were fine, but the six ships in front were all smoking black, and all their sails had landed. More importantly, these ships with their sails lowered, but they were all black. The smoke is constantly advancing, and its speed is even faster than the first two ships with sails behind.

This kind of thing appeared in front of these Portuguese people, but it aroused their great concern.

"What the **** is this? How can you run so fast after lowering the sail? Someone asked immediately.

However, among the Portuguese on this ship, there are still people with knowledge and knowledge. One of the crew members immediately said: "This should be the steamboat of these Tang people!"

"Steamboat? Are you sure it's not the devil's ship?"

"Yes, it's a steamboat, anyway, that's what they said in the Tang Dynasty, and the last time I came to Shanghai ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ I've seen these steamboats a few times!"

"How did they move? Was someone paddling inside?"

"No, I heard that it is propelled by steam, but I don't know very well!"

The steam engine and related trains and ships of the Datang Empire are actually not secrets. On the contrary, the Datang Empire is still being promoted in the Datang Chaobao.

When the Jingzhen line was opened to traffic, it was reported directly on the second page of the Datang Chaobao, and the steamship was not hidden, and basically appeared in public.

However, this is only limited to the appearance. If an outsider does not have a deep understanding, it is actually difficult to understand what a steam engine is. Even if he understands it deeply, at most, he knows that trains and ships are propelled by steam engines.

As for the steam engine, people can at most know a general idea, and the specific technology is a commercial secret.

But just these things on the surface, the shock to people is already big enough!