1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 332 Lilac Island
The ocean was bumpy and the sea breeze was blowing up waves. The waves hit the sailboat and also sent it far away.

Candles were lit in the captain's room, rum was swaying in the barrel, and the wooden table was undulating, but the captain's pen was steady, rustling across the white letter paper, writing down lines of unrestrained letters.

"Dear Diogo, my brother, my dearest, I have been busy with work and haven't written to you for a long time. I hope you don't blame me."

The captain looked at the letter for a long time before continuing to write.

"My handwriting is very illegible. I'm sure you have guessed it. Yes, I am at sea, in the captain's cabin of my beloved St. Christie."

"As I write this letter to you, I have already passed the Cape of Storms, crossed Madagascar, and am heading north to Zanzibar Island to join the rest of the fleet."

"The fleet passed through Kilwa Kiswani, the capital of the Kilwa Sultanate, a few days ago. Commerce and culture are flourishing there. It must be said that the Saracens have some talent for city construction."

"Perhaps you already know that our predecessor, Count Estevao da Gama, has passed away. His death is a loss to the empire and the Christian world. He deserves to be remembered by everyone and deserves to be written in the history textbooks of middle schools."

“May God rest his soul.”

The captain sighed and crossed himself.

"Count Estevan was a brave and devout Christian who was the first to break through the storm and reach the rich and beautiful East Indies. He successfully occupied the island of Ceylon and made it a solid fortress for Jesus Christ on the Indian peninsula."

"The East India Company was established ten years ago and has grown rapidly in the past ten years. Count Estevan has made great contributions to this."

"However, perhaps due to his advanced age, Count Estevan still made many mistakes. He almost fanatically believed that the primitive beliefs of the Indian peninsula were a form of Christianity. He even once regarded an Indian king as Prester John, which was of course extremely foolish."

"A classic Columbus mistake, isn't it?"

The captain smiled and dipped his finger in ink.

"Although I respect Count Estevan very much, I have to say that the East India Company under the Count's control is weak and compromising. Age has dulled his mind. He actually hopes to obtain trade privileges through negotiation and consultation, and even tries to share profits with those Saracens cursed by the devil. This is impossible."

"The Saracens began colonizing the Indian Ocean nine hundred years ago, engaging in the slave trade and the transit of spices and silk nine hundred years ago. During these nine hundred years, they were the undisputed overlords of the Indian Ocean. From Mogadishu to Calicut, from Sofala to Malacca, there were traces of Arab sampans and figures wearing white turbans everywhere."

"I once read a newspaper that contained an article on current affairs, and I greatly appreciated the views expressed in the article."

The captain stopped writing and recalled.

"Out of fear, glory or ambition, a newly rising power will inevitably challenge the existing power, and the existing power will inevitably respond to this threat through various means, and war is therefore inevitable."

"Now, we have entered the Saracens' back garden with our powerful ships and guns. They are in a panic and have hurriedly united to drive us out. There must be a battle between us."

"In a way, Count Estevan's misjudgment of the situation indirectly led to his death. He trusted his native allies too much and got involved in a conflict with the Indian natives, which led to his death. The Cochin State, which was supposed to be his ally, turned a blind eye to this."

"To be honest, this kind of death is too common. Many private explorers I know have died under the stones of the indigenous people. Colonial development is like this. It is inherently dangerous and a life-and-death struggle."

"The body of Count Estevan has been sent back to the country, and his heart will be buried in the Cemetery of Seafaring Heroes in Constantinople. He was a good friend of my father. With him by his side, our father will not be lonely."

The captain was silent for a moment, feeling a little sad.

"The death of Count Estevan is only the beginning. The Saracens are striking back at us from every direction."

"With the tacit approval of the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty, the city-state of Hormuz attacked our colonies in the Strait of Hormuz and blocked the Strait of Hormuz, prohibiting ships flying the double-headed eagle flag and the Malindi flag from entering the Persian Gulf. Our ships and mercenaries in Hormuz were forced to return."

"The island of Ceylon was leaderless. Two local kings abandoned the emperor, reverted to their primitive beliefs, and began to attack other local kings. In just one month, half of Ceylon was lost, leaving only a few dozen sailors to put up a tenacious resistance in the coastal castle."

"Then, the city-states of Calicut, Hormuz, Mogadishu, Oman, and Gujarat formed a naval alliance, gathered more than a thousand Arab sampans, and began to attack our merchant ships in the Indian Ocean."

"It is ridiculous that they are defending their territory in the name of anti-aggression. They themselves are invaders, but they arrived a few centuries earlier than us."

The captain curled his lips with a sarcastic look on his face.

"It is gratifying that our ally, the Malindi City-State, has stood firmly on our side, and the Kilwa Sultanate has been weakened by the previous civil war and is unable to intervene. This has enabled us to preserve our trade bases on the west coast of the Indian Ocean, and most of our naval bases are intact."

"What excites me most is that Count Estevan's son Paul failed to succeed his father. The emperor did not want to cultivate a large family power far away from Constantinople. Paul da Gama was also very sensible and had no objection to this. He inherited the title of Count of Mombasa and Governor of East Africa."

"The new Governor-General of the East Indies is also an acquaintance of ours. He is the godson of the Emperor, Alfonso de Albuquerque, the captain of the Fleur de la Mar, a brave and resolute nobleman."

"Although I have only met him a few times, I am still convinced by him. I am just a captain and explorer, but he has shown outstanding talent in strategic planning and tactical command. This is innate. Neither Columbus nor I can compare with him."

The captain shook his head and continued writing.

"His stature is tall and strong, his voice is deep and high, and his character is resolute and tenacious."

"It's like there's a lion in his eyes."

The captain recalled.

"Governor Albuquerque had just returned from the East. He began to implement drastic reforms as soon as he took office. He suppressed the opposition in Zanzibar and several other islands with iron-blooded means, strangling the rebellion in the cradle."

"He asked the Governor of East Africa and the Governor of Mozambique to rush to Zanzibar with all the troops they could muster, and join him there to prepare for revenge against the Saracen Alliance."

"He promised to take us back to India, to take back Hormuz, to take Mogadishu and Malacca, to eliminate all enemies who dared to resist, and to take treasure and glory."

"Your Majesty conferred upon him the title of Duke of Ceylon. All the natives who had seen his methods were terrified and called him the 'Iron Duke'."

"Your Majesty attached great importance to this operation and handed over a batch of light gunboats newly launched from the Roman Arsenal to the East India Fleet. I rushed to New Thrace to receive these new ships."

The captain licked his lips, poured himself a glass of rum and drank it all in one gulp.

"New Thrace has expanded several times, with more and more ports, and the losses suffered by the fleet when crossing the Cape of Storms have decreased. However, I still lost two sailing ships. There is nothing I can do about it."

"However, everyone knows that this route is extremely profitable. As long as one-third of the ships can return to Carthage fully loaded with spices, the profits gained from it will be enough to build new ships ten times the loss."

The captain stopped writing, took an ivory pipe from his pocket, filled it with tobacco, and began to smoke.

"In your last letter, you told me that you had been admitted to the Nautical School, but you didn't know whether to choose the Naval Academy or the Ocean Academy, and you wanted to hear my advice."

"What I want to say is that you have grown up and should be able to decide your own future. No matter what you choose, I will respect you and send you my sincere blessings."

"I would be glad if you chose the Naval Academy, because the casualty rate of ocean sailors is much higher than that of naval officers and soldiers. The Cemetery of Seafaring Heroes already carries my father's heart, and will carry mine in the future. Our family does not need another brave heart to add glory to it. What it needs is a stable branch and a long-lasting bloodline."

"I would be honored if you choose Ocean Academy, because sailing is the destiny of our family, because now is a good opportunity for sailing heroes to make achievements, because in this world, it is difficult to find an emperor who is so concerned about sailing, and it is difficult to find opportunities to realize self-worth in other monarchs."

"In any case, I wish you good luck, good health, and the eternal blessing of Jesus Christ."

The captain paused and wrote his name at the end of the letter.

"Your brother, the Governor of Mozambique, Count of Comoros, Bartolomeu Dias."

"August 1473, 8, in the Indian Ocean."

Dias stamped the letter, sealed it with wax, and put it in the drawer.

Walking out of the captain's room and onto the deck, the dark clouds had dispersed, the sun was shining, and the islands in the distance were already in sight.

Zanzibar Island, the pearl of the western Indian Ocean, is across the sea from the fertile African continent. It can connect with Mombasa and Malindi in the north and interfere with the Kilwa Sultanate in the south. It is a very good bridgehead.

Zanzibar was once a vassal city-state of the Kilwa Sultanate. Not long ago, there was a civil strife in Kilwa, and Zanzibar Island and Pemba Island to the north fell into the hands of the Eastern Roman Empire. Chieftainship was adopted here, and the Eastern Roman governor distributed the ruling power of the islands to various chiefs and granted them the right to farm taxes.

After Estevan's death, a rebellion broke out in Zanzibar. Albuquerque, who rushed back, suppressed the rebellion with an iron fist. He confiscated the property of the five chiefs who led the rebellion and exterminated their clans. As many as three thousand people were implicated and killed. The remaining chiefs were forced to convert to Orthodox Christianity and dared not to rebel again.

Albuquerque used the island as a temporary headquarters for the Governor-General of India, where he gathered his fleet and prepared for a decisive battle with the Arab League.

Albuquerque took advantage of Zanzibar's local advantages and prepared to turn it into a commodity distribution center and slave trade port, and build it into the "Bilinche of the East".

Because it was too remote, the Eastern Roman Empire did not have any colonies in the East Indies in the traditional sense, no immigration, no assimilation policy, and missionary activities were mostly spontaneous. It only regarded the occupied islands and ports as sources of raw materials and commercial fulcrums.

Arab culture is also a mature culture, and Islam is the most aggressive religion. It is impossible to assimilate it through a small number of immigrants. The rule of tax farmers is completely sufficient.

Albuquerque was not a brainless and reckless person. He followed the emperor's instructions and ordered the Arab merchants who had surrendered to him to go to Indonesia to buy clove seeds. He tried to plant lilacs in Zanzibar and quickly achieved success. The soil and water here were excellent, and the lilacs grown there were even better than the lilacs native to the Indonesian archipelago.

At this time, cloves were an extremely precious spice. Not only could they be used to make food, but they could also be used to make perfumes and incense powders, which brought in extremely high profits.

Thus, the first branch of the East India Company came into being, and the Royal Clove Company would soon be listed on the Constantinople Stock Exchange.

It was almost dusk, and the fleet was approaching the shore. The officers on board were directing the sailors to operate the sails. Dias scanned the rows of warships, and the warships responded to him with their black muzzles. "This is going to be a big deal."

Diaz muttered.

Together with the ten warships he brought, there were a total of thirty-eight Eastern Roman ships and even more Arab vassal ships docked in the port of Zanzibar. This was a very large force, enough to destroy any Arab commercial city-state.

"Count Diaz, please follow me. The Governor is waiting for you."

At the dock, a mercenary guard came over and the mercenary captain bowed to Dias.

Dias looked at their attire and nodded.

These were civilian mercenaries from New Thrace. The mercenary captain was a Greek immigrant, and the mercenary team members were mixed-race or pure-blooded Khoisan people. They had been hired to go to Persia before. After the Eastern Roman Empire and the Aq Qoyunlu made peace, they accepted Albuquerque's employment to guard the Island of Zanzibar.

Since New Thrace was the first formal colony and penal exile place of the Eastern Roman Empire, it had the longest operating time and had the largest number of Greek immigrants, most of whom were single men. The local mixed-race Romans were increasing in number and had grown up. They would become the main force in the development of South Africa and the colonization of East India.

These mixed-race Romans also gained a lot of advantages in the wave of colonization. They might be lower class people in Constantinople, but they could become big landowners and plantation owners in the colonies.

Dias put aside all distractions, mounted his horse, and followed the mercenaries towards the Governor's Palace.

Although the flag of the East India Company was flying over the Governor's Palace, it had distinct Arab characteristics and was obviously captured not long ago.

"Tea? Coffee? Wine?"

Knocking on the wooden door of the study, Dias saw Albuquerque who was busy drawing.

"Wine, I'm not used to anything else."

Diaz replied.

"Where's Paul?"

"It was his job to meet with the delegation from Malindi."

Albuquerque said simply, ringing the bell.

After a while, a black servant brought wine to the two of them.

"Why not a young and beautiful lady?"

Diaz quipped.

"In times of war, not even Gonzalo would lust after women."

Albuquerque also forced a smile.

"Stop talking nonsense and come and look at the map."

Albuquerque poured red wine for the two of them, and Dias leaned over to the map, looking for enemy and friendly signs among the densely packed symbols.

"The Saracens are afraid of us. They have united, but their fighting spirit is not strong enough. They hope to force us to reach an agreement."

Albuquerque shook his head sarcastically.

"Do they think I'll be as easy to talk to as Estevan?"

"I have checked beforehand. Their small boats don't even have artillery. The range of their coastal defense guns can't even match that of our armed merchant ships."

"With this kind of strength, why should they share the profits with us?"

Dias nodded and continued scanning the map of the western Indian Ocean.

"What are you going to do?"

"Their combined fleets have come together, giving us a chance to capture them all in one fell swoop. I will lead all the ships north immediately. The decisive battle is just around the corner."

Albuquerque said confidently.

"The decisive battle will take place right here."

Albuquerque tapped on the map.

“Diu?”

Dias muttered the Greek letters on the map.

"Yes, Diu, the base of the Saracen Fleet and the most important spice transit port on the west coast of India."

Albuquerque stuck his knife into the port of Diu.

"The Saracens want to confront and negotiate, but I want to fight to the death and defeat the enemy with one strike, burying their wishful thinking at the bottom of the sea."

"Okay, you are the commander-in-chief, we will all listen to you."

Diaz nodded.

"How many boats did you bring?"

Albuquerque asked.

"Ten ships. Originally there were fifteen. We lost a few and the others are being repaired."

Diaz answered truthfully.

"There are seven of them, all newly launched light carracks from the Carthage shipyard. They can also be called light gunboats, specially used for warfare."

"The Aztecs have fallen, the emperor has money again, and is launching a new round of shipbuilding frenzy."

Diaz took a sip of his drink.

"However, this is the last replenishment. The rest depends on us."

"why?"

Albuquerque asked.

"Does the Emperor have any other military operations?"

"Yes, from what I understand, the Emperor is preparing to intervene in the Castilian War of Succession to claim the throne for his grandson Carlos."

Diaz explained.

"Moreover, the French pirate ships have been rampant in recent times, and the emperor intends to take advantage of the Castilian War to teach them a lesson."

"The Mediterranean Sea should have been our sea."

"Haha, well said."

Albuquerque drank the wine in one gulp and looked up at the dark blue sky that was fading into darkness.

"Not only the Mediterranean Sea, but the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean should also be our seas. They can either accept it or choose to surrender after failure!"

"After this battle, the entire Indian Ocean will be our hunting ground. Indians are not allowed to do business with anyone except us!"

"Let your people rest well, and set sail for Diu in three days!"

……

On August 1473, 8, Alfonso de Albuquerque, Duke of Ceylon and commander-in-chief of the East Indian Fleet of the Eastern Roman Empire, assembled a total of 28 ships from the three governorates and marched towards the Indian subcontinent in the northeast. A naval battle to determine the hegemony of the Indian Ocean was about to begin.

(End of this chapter)