"Want to escape, you bunch of Western pigs? I didn't provoke you, but you came here to seek death first. You can't blame me for being cruel." Zhang Tianshui was actually a man of some knowledge, but after staying in the military camp for a few days, his speech became rude.
The ideological education in Tangjia School is expansionist. Most of the people who graduated from Tangjia School are warmongers. This is a colonial era. If you are not warmongering and pursue conservatism, you will lose the opportunity for development in this era. Tang Tong did not understand this truth. He just felt that he should let his subordinates be brave to be enterprising and pioneering.
When the warlike Zhang Tianshui had the upper hand, he would never forget the opportunity to strike down the enemy when they were down. He ordered his men to turn the ships around and start chasing the enemy. The British fleet that had finally escaped became the main target of Zhang Tianshui and his men. The remaining warships did not even have the chance to surrender and were sunk by Zhang Tianshui's five warships. However, in this way, the Indians and the Dutch escaped far away. In order to protect Tang Tong's safety, Zhang Tianshui had to give up the pursuit and instead salvaged those who fell into the sea but were not dead, including British Major General Charleson.
After interrogation, Tang Tong learned that the British and the Dutch were planning to launch a surprise attack on Zheng He's Xinzhou City, and they were not out to deal with him specifically. It was just an accident that they met. Tang Tong breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that there was no traitor as he had imagined. As for the British wanting to attack Zheng He's Xinzhou City, Tang Tong was not worried. There were 3,000 regular troops and 6,000 auxiliary troops gathered here, and they had a large number of Western cannons that were eliminated from warships. It was definitely not an easy city to attack.
Tang Tong used to have too many artillery pieces. He sold some of them to sea merchants, but most of them had no market because Tang Tong would not easily sell such artillery pieces to those colonized countries. On the other hand, as Tang Tong's power grew, the seas between the South China Sea and the Great Wall had become very safe. The pirates were either wiped out or left the seas in this area, making it unnecessary for those sea merchants to equip their fleets with so many artillery pieces. Therefore, as more and more obsolete artillery pieces were eliminated, Tang Tong could only use these artillery pieces for city defense.
Tang Tong and his entourage brought several captives to Zheng He's Xinzhou City, the Indian Concession. The person in charge of this concession was Xu Ren. The job title was originally called Governor-General, which was a Western term, but later Hu Mengfei, who was obsessed with officialdom, made a suggestion to Tang Tong and changed it to General Inspector General, which had the meaning of being a prefect of a three-legged dynasty. So, after the military power of Xu Ren, Zhao Yapeng, Zhang Yiheng, Heipi, Liu Yiming, Tang Chaosan, and Yueyang was taken away, they became General Inspectors General of various places, which was also a regional governor. Although Tang Tong did not establish a country and these people's official positions were not fixed, the power was enormous, so these people were naturally happy to do it. Now their only hope was that Tang Tong could become king and establish a country, then they would be founding heroes.
After Xu Ren learned that Tang Tong was coming, he arranged a grand welcoming ceremony. After a period of development, Zheng He's Xinzhou City had grown to a certain scale and became a material transit base for big merchants. Bold big merchants used it as a springboard to ship goods to Europe. This group of big merchants usually followed the Tang family's caravan or the Zheng family's caravan to Europe.
The timid big merchants would move their big goods here and sell them, because beyond this place they would be outside the influence of the Tang family and it would be a bit unsafe. Anyway, selling the goods here would also bring huge profits, and most big merchants would not take the risk to go to Europe again. First, the journey was too long and the risk was too great. Second, considering the time taken for the round trip, the profit of the two was not much different. These merchants brought huge tax revenue to Zheng He's Xinzhou City, and also brought a large number of big people.
After Tang Tong asked about the development of Zheng He's Xinzhou City, he praised Xu Ren's work achievements. The Indian Mughal Empire's land army quickly withdrew after learning that the naval coalition was defeated, but Tang Tong did not intend to let them go. He first sent envoys to claim war reparations from Britain, the Netherlands, and the Mughal forces. After the British and Dutch were defeated in the naval battle, their strength was severely weakened, which was not conducive to their colonial activities in India. Tang Tong did not want to go to war with Britain and the Netherlands for the time being, so the amount of compensation was small. Britain quickly used 300,000 taels of silver to redeem Charleson and other prisoners, and the Netherlands also used 200,000 taels of silver to redeem their prisoners.
The war claims against the Mughal Empire amounted to a huge sum of 10 million taels of silver. In that era, 10 million taels of silver was a terrifying amount. If the whole country could come up with 100 million taels of silver, then India would never be able to come up with 10 million taels of silver. However, Tang Tong had no idea about India's economy, and this was purely a presumptuous request, hoping to squeeze all the money out of India in one go.
Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who proclaimed himself the Emperor of the World, was so enraged by Tang Tong's demands that he nearly vomited blood. In a fit of rage, he rejected Tang Tong's demands. Meanwhile, Western powers like Britain were aggressively purchasing arms, hoping for a decisive battle with Tang Tong.
When Tang Tong issued the war order, his men were practically boiling with excitement. For these soldiers, war meant a chance to make a fortune. Not only did Tang Tong's regular troops eagerly request to join the war, but the auxiliary troops also eagerly anticipated the opportunity to participate. This was especially true for those Japanese who had not yet joined the auxiliary troops. Hoping to gain a larger piece of land, the news of war had them brimming with excitement. Many Japanese gathered together and requested to join the auxiliary troops.
Tang Tong mobilized 10,000 regular troops and 30,000 auxiliary troops, plus 50,000 temporarily recruited logistical militia, and launched an offensive against the Mughal Empire. He also sent the Japanese auxiliary troops, experienced in guerrilla warfare on the Korean battlefield, by ship to the heart of India, near the Mughal capital of Alag (also known as Agra). He used guerrilla tactics to harass the Mughal capital and plunder the surrounding towns.
The frontal attack was divided into five groups, advancing in unison. The warlords across India were in dire straits. Those not supported by the Tang family would be eliminated if they didn't surrender immediately. After conquering each location, the 50,000-strong militia, along with the Indian allies who had defected to the Tang family, would plunder the area. Whoever looted something was allowed to keep 20 percent of it. This unresisting looting naturally made these people very enthusiastic. Those who attempted to hide the loot would be beheaded by the law enforcement team upon discovery. As a result, few dared to hide anything.
Han Xi had invested heavily in organizing a 2,000-man musket corps. However, before they could even begin, they were completely annihilated by the Japanese guerrillas who had learned of the situation. This nearly 10,000-man Japanese force was a veteran force, having experienced numerous battles, both large and small. In terms of quality, they were an extremely elite force. If Tang Tong had equipped them with breech-loading rifles, they would have been no less capable than his regular troops.
In just one month, one-third of India had fallen into Tang Tong's hands. Besides seizing vast quantities of property, they also seized a large number of people. Among these people, both men and women between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five were trafficked to Europe. If no one bought them, they were simply dumped somewhere else in Europe. As for those over forty-five, since they had no value, no one cared about them. Men between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five were sent to Southeast Asia to cultivate farmland and plantations. Men under fifteen were trafficked back to the mainland. Women were given to wealthy individuals or sold at low prices to Southeast Asian immigrants as reproductive tools.
After a large amount of property and people were transported to Southeast Asia, it stimulated more people to want to go to the Indian battlefield. Some big businessmen also privately organized a large number of people to go to India to rob things. After obtaining Tang Tong's permission, they would take a 60% share of the looted things and promise 15% to their subordinates. These merchants were like looting passing through the country. Wherever they went, everything was robbed, making these merchants rich. The largest family among them was Zheng Zhilong's family. Relying on the nearly 1,000 ships of various sizes accumulated from these ships, they transported nearly 100,000 people from Fujian to the Indian battlefield in one go.
These members of the Zheng family have worked hard to manage Fujian and have a high prestige in the local area, which enabled them to mobilize so many people this time. Those big businessmen also transported more than 200,000 people from all over the place, together with the tens of thousands of people transported by Tang Tong's men, a total of nearly 500,000 people. The Tang family army swept the occupied areas again and again, never letting go of any small corner. Things that could not be transported were piled up in Zheng He's Xinzhou Concession. All things that could be used were taken away by these guys. Seeing this scene, those Indian warlords who defected to Tang Tong could not help but be glad that they defected early, otherwise, their own territory would have become like this.
Sir Thomas Roy of Britain later said in his memoirs: "This was a crazy moment. The ancient empire in the East showed its astonishingly powerful strength at this moment. In a short period of time, it deployed an army of 500,000 people to Indochina. This 500,000 crazy army was enough to destroy a country..."
When Tang Tong's army occupied nearly half of India's land, the colonists from Western countries could no longer sit still. If Tang Tong continued to conquer like this, their colonial interests here would be wiped out. At this time, Shah Jahan, the emperor of the Mughal Empire, also realized that he was not the emperor of the world, and he could not even be the emperor of the Mughal Empire.
When the British, Dutch, and Spanish colonists came out to call for peace, Shah Jahan had no choice but to agree to the talks. On the one hand, Tang Tong did not want to make enemies on many sides, and on the other hand, he knew that he would not have the manpower to manage these places if he occupied them. So after Shah Jahan demanded 1.5 million silver coins as compensation, he suspended the military operations.
At the same time, Tang Tong held a secret meeting with Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and France, dividing India into six areas of different sizes to become their respective colonies. Tang Tong occupied one of four of them. At this time, those Westerners no longer called for peace, and mobilized their own troops to occupy their respective interests.
The compensation of 1.5 million taels of silver proposed by Tang Tong was actually far beyond the economic capacity of the Mughal Empire. What's more, the war with Tang Tong also exhausted the Mughal treasury. Shah Jahan had no choice but to stop the construction of the Taj Mahal, plunder all the jewels in his palace, and add some antiques and local people to barely repay the 1.5 million taels of silver. Because these things were priced very low, Tang Tong took three days to sell them to those big businessmen and got 2.6 million taels of silver.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com