Chapter 344: Robbery Of Macau
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Behind the garrison’s request, hidden is Zhou Shixiang’s fiery robbery heart. The reason why Pinshu made him want to rob Macau is not only the Portuguese making things difficult for the firearms trade, but more importantly, Macau is indeed too rich, so rich that Zhou Shixiang couldn’t be tempted.
From the merchants who used to travel to and from Macau in the former Shanzhai, Zhou Shixiang had a general idea of how the Portuguese developed their hair in Macau. They brought silver, pepper, hematoxylin, ivory, sandalwood and other commodities from Europe to trade with the Chinese. They used silver as the bulk. This means that the Portuguese in Macau had a lot of silver, at least in the hundreds of thousands. two counts. The items purchased by the Portuguese in Daming were raw silk, satin, tea, porcelain, musk, licorice, gold, brass, etc. The raw silk was the most popular among the grapes.
This trade can be said to be a lucrative business, with a profit of more than 20 times, which attracts countless Portuguese ship owners to travel thousands of miles to the East. However, all of these are prohibited by the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and belong to the smuggling trade. In other words, the Portuguese in Macau are all smugglers, and the Chinese businessmen who cooperate with them are also pirates in the cloak of maritime merchants. Therefore, in legal terms, Zhou Shixiang, as the chief military officer of the Ming Dynasty, has the right to intervene in Macau affairs. Just garrisoning troops in Macau in the name of combating smuggling is enough to make the Portuguese speechless. They either accept it or oppose it. But no matter which one chooses, war is inevitable, because garrisoning was never Zhou Shixiang’s purpose, what he wanted was the wealth of Macau.
In the past and present, Zhou Shixiang never believed in Bai Guizhi, he only believed in Strength. If you have enough strength, no matter if you are the king of heaven, even if you are the king of heaven, you will be robbed of your mother’s mother;
The historical Portuguese have never been good goods, and they have invaded the country, so Zhou Shixiang has no psychological burden to rob Macau. Once the war breaks out. He also didn’t worry about the Portuguese navy tens of thousands of miles away, he only needed to deal with the Portuguese army in Macau. Even if Portugal did send a fleet to the East, it would be lucky enough to reach the destination. Zhou Shixiang was not afraid, because the East in the 17th century was not what the Portuguese said.
The former cottage was the bridgehead for the Taiping army to attack Macau.
This military stronghold built during the Tianqi period was used to guard against the Portuguese. At the same time, officials from Xiangshan County in charge of Macau affairs were also stationed here. After the Qing army occupied Xiangshan, it followed the Ming Dynasty system and set up a thousand chief officials in the former cottage. And this village was transferred to the direct jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture, and the Portuguese people in Macau were still left alone as they were in the Ming Dynasty.
After the Taiping army occupied Xiangshan. Chen Shi, the general manager of the village, abandoned the village and ran away, allowing the Taiping army to capture this military important village only 20 miles away from Macau without any effort. Originally, Zhou Shixiang had no intention of attacking Macau, so the former cottage was business as usual, and now he is going to rob the Portuguese, so the importance of the former cottage is highlighted.
There is a bridgehead for the attack, but how to attack, how to succeed, and how to deal with the aftermath after success has become the next issue for Zhou Shixiang to consider.
How much income Macau can make each year, Xiao Bailang, who is just a know-it-all, certainly doesn’t know. What he provided to Zhou Shixiang was the situation of the Portuguese garrison and fort in Macau.
According to Xiao Bailang, the Portuguese garrison in Macau was expanded from the original guard force, and the number was not large, only more than 500 people. Except for some of these Portuguese soldiers to maintain order in the city, most of them were stationed on the two fortresses of the Guan’ao city wall. There are dozens of cannons in these two forts. In addition, Xiao Bailang said that the highest commander of the Portuguese in Macau was Governor Bougallo, who was originally an officer.
The defenders of more than 500 people would obviously not be seen by Zhou Shixiang. Even if they have two forts, it is not enough for the Taiping army to fight.
Zhou Shixiang’s headache is that the real strength of the Portuguese in Macau is not only the garrison of more than 500 people, but they also have a force, which not only far exceeds the number of the garrison, but also has the combat effectiveness of these garrison – they are perennial Sailors on a Portuguese ship docked in Macau.
For well-known reasons, sailors on European ships, including the Portuguese, could become soldiers at any time. They can also turn into pirates at any time, and murder and arson are commonplace for them. Those sea ships are equipped with artillery, and several ships are organized into a small fleet.
The most conservative estimate is that if the Taiping Army really attacked Macau, Governor Bugallo could quickly recruit sailors from these ships to resist the Taiping Army, and their number would never be less than 3,000, even if Bugallo was willing to pay for it. If the Westerners and adventurers in Macau are recruited, an army of one or two thousand people can be formed. In this way, the number of defenders in Macau will not be less than 5,000, and they are all equipped with arquebuses, so they are not weaker than the Taiping army in firearms.
Therefore, Zhou Shixiang decided not to attack by force, but instead to lure the enemy out of the hole, use the military power of the former Shanzhai to kill and wound the Portuguese, just like dealing with the Qing army, let their blood go to them until it is unbearable.
And if he wanted to force the Portuguese out of Macau, Zhou Shixiang had a ready-made solution. This solution was very simple.
On June 18, Zhou Shixiang went to the former cottage in the name of the military commander’s mansion, and immediately closed the Guan’ao city wall from now on, preventing anyone from providing wine, rice, food and all the necessities of life to the Portuguese in the customs. In view of the serious bandit infestation, Daming Guangzhou Chief Military Officer dispatched an army of 3,000 brave Daming soldiers to Macau to assist the Macau authorities in maintaining law and order and protecting the safety of the residents.
The Guan’ao City Wall is a city wall built along the periphery of the Portuguese living community in the Ming Dynasty, with a gate guarded by officers and soldiers. The city gate is opened every five days to provide the Portuguese with wine, rice, food and daily necessities. Later, the Portuguese on the other side of the city wall played a clever trick, widened and thickened the city wall on their side, and built two forts. As a result, any army on the land who wanted to enter Macau had to pass through the gate of Macau. this way.
The Portuguese used their abacus very well to convert the city wall built in the Ming Dynasty into their barrier, using two forts to defend the city wall, so that there is no need to worry that Macau will be attacked by any enemy. But they never thought that if the Ming Dynasty people facing each other also closed the city gate and stopped sending all supplies to Macau behind the city wall, then Macau would become a dead city in the short term. Those who had been in the sea for more than half a year found that there was no food they needed, no fruits and vegetables, or even no goods to transport. The consequences can be imagined.
Not wanting Macau to become a dead city, the Portuguese either accepted the request of Zhou Shixiang to garrison the army, or they had to open the city gates themselves and defeat the Taiping army that was blocking the outside. In this way, it was in line with Zhou Shixiang’s intention, and he asked the Portuguese to come out by himself.
The blockade of Macau and the battle against the Grape Army will definitely require the elite battalion of the Taiping Army to be transferred back from the north, so that the northern defense line will be weak.
The world is not afraid of 10,000, just in case, although the current hot weather is not suitable for large-scale military operations, Zhou Shixiang still sent envoys to Xinhui, asking the old general Chen Ce and the Zhenguo general Zhu Tong and others to use the navy to attack Sanjiangkou. The Qing army carried out a series of harassment, preferably to cause the Ming army to attack Sanjiangkou on a large scale again.
After receiving Zhou Shixiang’s request, the old general Chen Ce readily agreed, because Xinhui had received a lot of money and food supplies from the Taiping Army in the past six months. A few days ago, Zhou Shixiang arranged for someone to secretly transport it to Xinhui from Zhaoqing. A batch of food has greatly eased the pressure of the Xinhui Ming army’s shortage of food and grass. Now Zhou Shixiang just asked Xinhui to create momentum and pretend to attack the Qing army at Sanjiangkou. Naturally, Chen Ce wanted to return the favor to Zhou Shixiang.
However, Zhu Tong, the general of the town, noticed from the messenger’s few words that Zhou Shixiang seemed to be making a big move in Xiangshan. He quietly questioned the messenger, but the messenger was too young and could not hold his breath. I got the information that the Taiping Army was going to attack the Portuguese in Macau.
Chen Ce was taken aback by Zhou Shixiang’s bold move. I don’t know how Zhou Shixiang remembered the Folang robot who was going to attack Macau. Although this Buddha Lang robot occupied Daming’s land, he was still obedient to Daming for more than 100 years. Apocalypse , Chongzhen two dynasties even provided a large number of red barbarian cannons for Daming to fight against the eastern invaders~www.readwn.com~ In the first year of Yongli, the court **** Pang Tianshou also bought dozens of red barbarian guns from Macau. Hundreds of Folang machines were recruited to join the Ming army to attack the Qing, so in general, Chen Ce disapproved of Zhou Shixiang’s idea of attacking Macau.
However, Zhu Tong smelled the “copper stench” from Zhou Shixiang’s bold move. In fact, he has always had smuggling deals with the Folang machine in Macau. He knew that the Folang machine had amassed a lot of wealth in Macau. If the Taiping Army can really conquer Macau , that is undoubtedly a cornucopia, one can imagine how much money Zhou Xiu will make.
“Go back and tell your scholar, he is too embarrassed to take the money for himself? Count me as Zhu Laozi. If it doesn’t work, Zhu Laozi, I won’t cover for him.”
The messenger went back and told Zhou Shixiang what Zhu Tong had said. Zhou Shixiang knew that without Zhu Tong, they would definitely not be able to do it. Based on the principle of helping friendly forces, and strong friendly forces can contain stronger enemy forces, Zhou Shixiang agreed that the capture would be counted after the completion of the matter. Zhu Tong and Chen Ce all share.
With the right words, Zhu Tong was relieved, and after preparing for three days with Chen Ce, he took the navy’s hundred warships into the Sanjiangkou, and fired a cannon on the Qing army on the bank, scaring the Qing army. Immediately rush back to Guangzhou to report the news – the Ming army is attacking!
Cheng Bangjun, who ran to Xinhui to persuade Chen Ce and Zhu Tong to lead the army westward, was very confused by their actions, but he was only the head of the Ministry of War, and he came to Guangdong only to declare an imperial mission, and he had no other imperial mandate, so he could not stop him. Chen and Zhu act.
At the same time, the Portuguese governor in Macau, Bougallo, received a note from Zhou Shixiang, the chief military officer of the Ming Dynasty in Guangzhou, and learned that from yesterday, the gate of Guan Macau had been cut off by the Ming army outside. (To be continued.)
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