Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 412: Entanglement with Portugal

King Zheng Guohui of Chu hated the Fuso people very much in his heart, but due to practical considerations, he could not weaken Fuso too much, which would greatly reduce its strength.

There is also an even more vicious and greedy Tsarist Russian bear in the north. No matter from which angle you look at it, evildoers need to be punished by evildoers!

After calming down a bit, King Zheng Guohui of Chu started chatting with Li Hezhang about the current international situation. The two of them laughed from time to time and seemed relaxed and comfortable.

Most of the time, it was King of Chu Zheng Guohui who was talking and Li Hezhang was listening attentively.

As the kingdom's chief steward, in charge of the core office of the Cabinet, Prime Minister Li Hezhang's important role is self-evident, and it is common for him to meet with His Majesty on a daily basis.

Being able to serve as the Prime Minister for two consecutive terms must have its own unique characteristics.

What seemed like idle talk from King Zheng Guohui of Chu was actually to ensure that the big ship of Chu was sailing on the right track, a direction that he personally controlled.

If the King of Chu is the captain, then Li Hezhang is the helmsman, who must ensure that the King of Chu's will to rule the entire kingdom is unconditionally implemented.

"The Congo River Company reported that many colonial fortresses and villages established on the Pacific coast of West Africa were interfered with by the Portuguese. Several consecutive conflicts occurred, resulting in dozens of casualties," Li Hezhang reported.

He raised his eyes to look at King Zheng Guohui of Chu, and seeing that His Majesty had an indifferent expression without showing any inclination, he felt relieved.

So he continued:

"Governor Pan Tianshou's response to the Portuguese harassment was to "maintain communication, unswervingly implement the established policy of land reclamation in Africa, and resolutely fight back against any attempt to escalate the situation."

Current reporting situation

Seven suitable port colonies have been established on the Atlantic coast of the Congo River in West Africa, controlling more than 7 kilometers of coastline from north to south, most of which are deserted.

The Congo River Company mobilized tens of thousands of black indigenous people to participate in the construction in order to enhance the capacity for further resettlement of Chinese immigrants.

In addition, three armed merchant ships with smaller displacement were sent up the Congo River to search for large plain areas to establish deep colonies, and to trade with friendly black indigenous tribes to ensure a source of labor.

Seventeen immigration points have now been established along the Congo River, about 17 kilometers deep into the Congo River. Due to the limitation of manpower and material resources, the expansion has been temporarily stopped.

Next step……"

King Zheng Guohui of Chu listened to the report with a calm attitude.

The biggest obstacle the Congo River Company encountered in its development of Africa was the early arrival of Portuguese colonists, and this was also the source of the contradiction.

No other British, French or Belgian had ever set foot here. Only the private British-American explorer Henry Stanley, funded by The Herald and The Daily Telegraph in 1874, led a team upstream from the upper Congo River to explore this area called "the last unknown frontier" by Europeans.

The Congo River's main stream is 4700 kilometers long, draining an area of ​​414 million square kilometers. Its flow is second only to the Amazon River, ranking it the world's second-largest. The Congo River's watershed covers the Congo Basin, home to the world's second-largest rainforest after the Amazon.

Compared with Henry Stanley's small-scale operations, the Congo River Company came with great fanfare.

As of early October

Five fleets of the Congo River Company arrived in succession, carrying a large amount of supplies and nearly 10,000 Chinese immigrants. They systematically mapped the West African coast, clarified the current colonial scope of various countries, and quickly launched practical actions to seize land.

With Cabinda near the mouth of the Congo River as its center, it expanded 1200 kilometers northward, covering the Pacific coast of later German Cameroon, French Gabon, Belgian Congo, etc., and built a total of five large colonies.

From Cabinda to the north are Kakamoeka, Littoral City (Libreville, Gabon), Yellowstone City (Makanda, Equatorial Guinea) and Grand Bay City (Note: Douala, Cameroon), all located on the Atlantic coast, arranged in order.

440 kilometers south of Cabinda, a coastal Chinese colonial fortress was built every 200 kilometers, namely Haimen City (Nzeto, Angola) and Hai'an City (Luanda, Angola).

Each city had as many as 1,400 to 1,500 people, and as few as 700 to 800 people. They were mainly responsible for occupying and enclosing land, planning cities, building simple wooden piers at ports, constructing houses and sawmills, and supervising the construction work of black slaves.

These seven Chinese coastal towns, from north to south, are Dahaiwan City, Huangshi City, Binhai City, Dongsang City, Cabinda, Haimen and Hai'an, stretching along the Atlantic coastline for more than 7 kilometers.

This is called "occupy a point first, expand a line, and radiate a surface", implementing colonial occupation in a planned and step-by-step manner to prepare for the next step of pioneering in Africa.

Since the arrival of the first fleet sent by the Congo River Company in February 1875, it took about three and a half months to establish seven Chinese colonial towns along the Atlantic coast.

Afterwards, they either used force or enticed the local black tribes with benefits to obtain a large number of black slave laborers to assist in construction, and the progress was quite smooth.

The Congo River Company traded with the local black tribes with cold weapons, swords and guns, wine, cloth, iron pots, porcelain bowls, ceramic basins and other utensils, which were extremely popular among the local black tribes.

A knife could be exchanged for three strong black slaves, a piece of cloth could be exchanged for a young and healthy woman. Such transactions were less expensive and more cost-effective than the Congo River Company organizing its own people to hunt and capture slaves.

There were frequent conflicts between local black tribes, and the arrival of the Congo River Company intensified the killing and fighting among them. They rushed to send black slaves in exchange for various material enjoyments.

The most popular weapons are still cold weapons such as swords and guns.

The local black tribes also coveted the Congo River Company's sharp muskets, but the exchange price was extremely high. An old-fashioned flintlock musket cost 30 black slaves.

Don't be reluctant. The Congo River Company has a limited supply. Each indigenous tribe usually trades twenty or thirty muskets, which is basically the limit.

No matter how much you give below, it won’t work.

By adopting the method of small favors and small transactions, the Congo River Company quickly gathered the labor force of tens of thousands of black slaves and promoted construction in seven colonial cities along the Pacific coast.

In addition to Cabinda, which is located at the mouth of the Congo River, due to the heavy rainfall and high construction level, it is necessary to build complete urban underground drainage ditch facilities.

In the other six Chinese colonial cities in Africa, there was no need to build time-consuming and labor-intensive urban underground drainage ditch facilities. They could simply level the land and build houses.

The steam engine that was delivered started up, driving the circular saw to make a harsh sound, and a sawmill was completed and put into operation.

Every Chinese colonial fortress city has a high earthen wall, 5 meters high and meters wide. The wall is made of a mixture of clay and thatch, which is beaten into bricks. After drying, it is stacked and compacted.

Every 150 meters, a wooden watchtower would be built high on the earthen wall. The bottom was made of thick logs as the wooden frame, and the top was a roughly circular wooden house, all of which were more than meters high.

Each watchtower can accommodate up to ten Chinese gunmen armed with guns and ammunition for duty. There are two large water tanks and a long row of sleeping mats in the watchtower, as well as some reserve ammunition, so they can fight alone for a long time.

The water in the water tank can only be used for drinking. The empty bucket is hung down with a rope. When it is full, it is lifted up and poured into the large tank for later use.

According to the strict regulations of the Congo River Company, these important watchtowers could only be used by Chinese gunmen hired by the company to perform surveillance and security duties.

Normal times

Basically, they are in groups of two or three, and at night they will be strengthened to groups of four.

Only when the situation is critical will the watchtower be staffed by more than ten people, who will be on duty 24 hours a day, using the sound of a bronze bell as a signal during the day and the lighting of a fire as a signal at night.

This kind of earthen wall is easy to build, but it is very difficult to break it down.

As early as the Anglo-French War, Major General Pan Tianshou, Governor of the Congo River, and Colonel Guan Shiwei, the military commander, had accumulated rich combat experience and therefore widely applied it to Chinese colonial towns.

This wooden watchtower is a cheap imitation of a sturdy bunker, but it is sufficient in this barren land of Africa and is enough to make any African tribal armed forces feel despair.

In every colonial city
Correspondingly, black camps of varying sizes were established, and strong black slaves were selected to fill the camps. They were equipped with shields, swords and spears to serve as auxiliary armed forces in the colonial cities.

There are 200 people in a battalion, with ten teams in a battalion and 20 people in each team.

The battalion commander and team leader are both Chinese, most of whom are retired soldiers with military experience. They are responsible for training the black battalion and performing daily patrol and duty tasks.

The patrol team of the black camp consists of 20 people. They are responsible for patrolling and guarding on the earthen city wall on a daily basis. When encountering the enemy, they charge in the front and guard on the side when transporting supplies.

The soldiers in these black camps were all issued short-sleeved uniforms and cowboy sun hats. They did not have to do heavy labor on a daily basis and were able to eat their fill, which was much better than the treatment of black slaves.

Black soldiers who performed well could also be rewarded with food, wine and women, which made their desire to perform even stronger.

Using black soldiers to supervise the labor of black slaves was more stringent, more effective, less labor-intensive, and less stressful than having Chinese colonists do it themselves.

All the Congo River Company had to pay was a military service ticket, a wine ticket, a meat ticket or a cigarette ticket, and with the ticket they could enjoy different services.

Under such a management system

The immigrant city quickly took shape, with buildings and streets completed one after another. The earthen city walls were also completed in a short period of time, and then construction began inside the city.

After tasting the sweetness, some Chinese colonists took their black slaves to the outside of the city to open up wasteland and cultivate land, and taught them how to do it step by step.
Under the pressure of knives, guns and whips, he actually did the job quite well.

By late June 1875, with the arrival of the fourth and fifth fleets, the seven Chinese colonial cities along the Atlantic coast had basically taken shape, and the crops and vegetables were growing well, stabilizing the initial situation.

The Congo River Company then took the city of Cabinda at the river mouth as a starting point and organized three armed cargo ships to go upstream along the river, establishing Chinese colonies deep in the hinterland in suitable river mouths and plains areas.

It took more than three months to establish 17 Chinese immigration settlements.

Most of these settlements are small in scale, with the largest having only about 400 people and the smallest having only about 100 people. However, they also have earthen walls, but they are just smaller in scale.

Around October, the Congo River Company stopped its in-depth colonization and land reclamation.

The current priority is to turn around and deal with the harassment from the Portuguese and the conflicts with the wild black tribes, and to gain a firm foothold first.

First of all, there were the Portuguese colonists. Due to their small size and weak power, the Portuguese had a weak presence along the Congo River, but they could not be ignored.

As early as 1483, a Portuguese fleet arrived at the mouth of the Congo River. The adventurer Diogo Cão, who commanded the fleet, sent his crew up the Congo River and came into contact with the Kingdom of Kongo deep in the tropical jungle for the first time.

The Portuguese goal was to open up a new sea route to the East.

They regarded the Kingdom of Kongo as a partner on the shipping route, and by the beginning of the 16th century, good diplomatic and trade relations had been established between the two countries.

Weapons and equipment from Europe, along with Christian beliefs, entered the Kingdom of Kongo. Most of the people in Kongo, from the king to the subjects, became devout Christians. This was probably the biggest gain.

By the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese conquered a number of Bantu tribes just south of the Kingdom of Kongo and established the Portuguese West African colony (Angola). In order to expand their sphere of influence in Africa, the Portuguese began to invade the Kingdom of Kongo.

The struggle between the two sides continued intermittently for three centuries until 3, when the Portuguese won the final victory and forced the Kingdom of Kongo to become a vassal of Portuguese West Africa. The Kingdom of Kongo was completely destroyed and split into several smaller black indigenous kingdoms.

In this case, Portugal should be the master of the Congo River basin, being the first to discover and occupy the area.

Actually, it is not.

The Chu Congo River Company had already discovered that the lower reaches of the Congo River and the estuary were controlled by the Portuguese, who had established a total of about 22 Portuguese colonies, but the middle and upper reaches and the vast inland hinterland were not occupied.

As Portugal continued to be plagued by civil unrest in the mid-19th century, the colonial forces invested in the Congo River Basin in West Africa shrank significantly, and many Portuguese colonies were deserted.

The main ones now are the six Portuguese colonies at the mouth of the Congo River and several Portuguese colonies in southern Angola, most of which are symbolic.

The largest Portuguese colonial town is not far from Cabinda, only 17.2 kilometers away. It is a small town with a population of about 1320 people and a strong Portuguese architectural style.

There are about 510 people of Portuguese white descent in the city, and some mixed-race white descendants who speak Portuguese and believe in Christianity. They can be regarded as Portuguese colonists of a slightly lower status.

In Hai'an City (Luanda in Angola), the southernmost Chinese colony, more than 100 kilometers further south is a larger Portuguese colony with hundreds of Portuguese descendants and large tracts of land cultivated by enslaved blacks.

Continuing south for more than a thousand kilometers from here is the Portuguese Angola occupied by the Portuguese, which is the territories of the Bantu tribes conquered by the Portuguese.

The Chu State's Congo River Company extended its territory southward to Hai'an City (Luanda in Angola), occupying approximately 1/7 of the northern part of the former Portuguese Angola and demarcating an area of ​​approximately 26 square kilometers.

Of course, this was not recognized by Portugal.

Now the territories occupied by Chu and Portugal in the Congo River Basin partially overlap, presenting a complex situation in which you are in me and I am in you.

Now it all depends on who has the ability to squeeze out whom, which will inevitably lead to constant disputes and occasional conflicts.

"Has the delegation arrived in Lisbon?" asked King Zheng Guohui of Chu.

(End of this chapter)