Chapter 1206: The Shun Are About to Be Led Astray! (Please Subscribe)

Bruce van Diemen was, of course, egging Li Jicheng on to invade India!

This was the vicious scheme he and Maetsuycker had cooked up to ruin the Shun Empire — the wicked Dutch capitalists wanted to lead the Shun, that pure aristocratic peasant regime, down the path of evil!

It was only after Maetsuycker met Bruce in Mrauk U that he realized the Shun were not like the Ming at all — they were a "kingdom of bandits" who had no interest in properly exploiting colonial peoples, only in grabbing quick money. The two put their heads together: since the Shun were so eager to plunder, why not lead them to plunder India?

India's wealth was no less than the Ming's. Aurangzeb's Mughal court collected two hundred million rupees in tax silver a year — roughly sixty to seventy million taels of silver — solidly the second richest in the world!

Now that the world's richest, the Ming, could no longer be robbed, they might as well go rob the world's second richest: India.

As for the Mughal dynasty's strength, neither Bruce van Diemen nor Maetsuycker saw it as much of a problem, because Aurangzeb was strong on land but his navy was weak — practically nonexistent. So while it would not be easy for the Shun and the Dutch to seize Mughal territory, it would not be hard to grab a haul and leave.

Moreover, that fellow Aurangzeb had now taken the "ancestral homeland" of Samarkand and controlled part of Afghanistan, giving him places to recruit fierce Central Asian and Afghan mercenaries — so he had swelled up enormously and gave no one any face. The Dutch, English, French, and Portuguese doing business along the Indian coast had suffered no small amount of bullying from him!

What was even more hateful was that the Mughal dynasty, ever since Aurangzeb's father, had detested the Dutch profiteers and so had deliberately propped up the English profiteers, barring Dutch merchants from doing business in Mughal territory. If not for the lack of a usable army, the Dutch East India Company would have wanted to deal with the Mughal dynasty long ago.

And now, with no room left to expand in the Southern Seas, the East India Company could only look for opportunities in the Indian Ocean — and it just so happened to have latched onto the Shun, this "kingdom of bandits."

The Shun had a powerful army but no navy; the Dutch East India Company had a powerful navy but no army — the two sides complemented each other perfectly. And the Shun also needed someone to help fence the treasures they plundered, since they could not go to the great Ming trading houses — they were rebels! So the Dutch were perfectly placed to help. Even if the East India Company found it inconvenient to appear openly, they could organize another India trading company specifically for this business.

And robbing India could be turned into a long-term enterprise — India was so vast, its coastline so long, its coastal regions so rich, and it had no strong navy. And Aurangzeb was so overbearing that he was the sort with no friends at all!

"Grab and leave?" Li Jicheng frowned. Wasn't that exactly what roving bandits did? He was clearly the Imperial Grandson-heir, destined by the Emperor's mandate — how could he keep doing bandit's work? And it was getting worse and worse, going from a settled bandit to a roving bandit.

"Exactly," Bruce said with a smile. "We could use Chittagong as a base. We Dutch provide the ships, you Shun provide the troops. Whatever we seize, the two sides split the take — you Shun take a bit more, sixty percent; we Dutch take a bit less, forty percent. How does that sound?"

"Sixty-forty?" Li Jicheng mulled it over. "Then roughly how much would we get?"

Bruce smiled. "That's hard to say. But according to our East India Company's investigations, the Mughal dynasty's annual fiscal revenue is close to two hundred million rupees — about sixty to seventy million taels of silver! And the Bengal region near Chittagong is a major source of tax revenue for the Mughal dynasty! The wealth Aurangzeb squeezes out of there every year should be above ten million taels!"

"Above ten million taels..." Li Jicheng drew a sharp breath. "Isn't that a land of plenty? Done! Sixty-forty it is!"

And there it was — a perfectly good Shun had finally been led astray by the wicked Dutch devils! Before, although the Ming court had called them roving bandits, their nature was still that of a peasant uprising! Although the backbone of the Shun army contained hardly any peasants... but once they colluded with Western colonizers to plunder India, their nature would immediately change!

They would have fallen from roving bandits into colonialist robbers!

Li Jicheng, unaware that he was walking down an evil path, paused and then asked, "Mr. Van, you just said We should send reliable men to see with their own eyes... could you tell Us more — what should they see? And under what pretext should the men We send go to the Mughal court?"

Bruce said, "The Shun and the Mughals are now neighbors, so of course you should send someone to notify Aurangzeb, and by the way discuss the border question. The Mughal state and the Arakan state have long quarreled over the ownership of Chittagong. Now Chittagong nominally belongs to the Shun — shouldn't the Mughal Empire be informed?

Moreover, the Portuguese in the Chittagong area and the Bengali pirates have been constantly harassing Bengal under Mughal rule. If you can promise to guarantee religious freedom in Chittagong and expel the Bengali pirates there, Aurangzeb may still be willing to temporarily recognize Chittagong as belonging to your Shun state.

And if we are going to plunder wealth along the Indian coast, we must first control Chittagong as a base! It is not only a springboard for entering India, but also a fortress against Mughal counterattacks. Only by managing Chittagong well can the business of plundering India be carried on for the long term."

At present Chittagong belonged to the Shun only in name, because the ones actually controlling it were Portuguese colonizers and pirates of the Bay of Bengal — Portugal, being too weak at home and invaded by Spain, had lost control of its overseas colonizers, and many Portuguese colonizers no longer obeyed Lisbon's command, becoming independent powers.

Some Portuguese colonial groups even served the feudal states where they were located, and the Portuguese colonizers of Chittagong were exactly such a case. After the Arakan state was destroyed by the Shun, the Portuguese in Chittagong colluded with the Bengali pirates and seized Chittagong for themselves. But they also knew how formidable the Shun Empire was, so they sent men to Mrauk U to swear allegiance to Li Jicheng.

And if Li Jicheng wanted to partner with the Dutch in the business of plundering India, he would first have to get Chittagong firmly in his grasp.

"Done!" Li Jicheng clapped his hands. "That's settled. We shall send envoys to India at once. Mr. Van, you are a man of great ability and broad experience — why not take a concurrent post in Our Shun state as a Counsellor Minister, with a salary of one thousand shi, and in a few days accompany the envoys We send to India!"

This was a godsend — only by becoming Li Jicheng's advisor could he keep leading him down the path of evil!

Bruce van Diemen promptly rose and bowed to Li Jicheng. "This subject is willing to serve Your Highness the Imperial Grandson-heir."

South of Mrauk U, at the dock of Bogye Island.

The Dutch ship Provincial Council, which had suffered relatively light damage in the Battle of the Malacca Strait, had now been repaired. Today was the day this new-style ship of the line — which had been found obsolete after just one battle — set sail to return to the Netherlands. Returning with her were a dozen or so armed merchantmen dispatched by the East India Company — these merchantmen would be used to carry back the personnel from the other Dutch warships.

The remaining dozen or so Dutch warships under repair in Mrauk U would, once fully repaired, join the Dutch-Shun joint fleet and be used to transport the Shun army to India to strike at local tyrants.

Tromp, commander of the Dutch East India fleet, would also return aboard the Provincial Council. He had not yet boarded; at this moment he was in the fortress on Bogye Island bidding farewell to three men — David Jones, Bruce van Diemen, and Maetsuycker. Each of the three had his own destination: David Jones would remain in Mrauk U, responsible, together with a group of Dutch naval officers, for organizing and training the Dutch-Shun joint fleet. Bruce van Diemen would soon travel far to India with Song Yaowen to meet Emperor Aurangzeb. And Maetsuycker would return to Batavia, then go north to Yingtian Prefecture to discuss the future of the Dutch East India Company with the Ming Emperor!

Tromp looked at the men about to go their separate ways and sighed softly: "Gentlemen, we have witnessed the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one. In this new era, the seas no longer belong to Europe alone. We must learn to coexist on the oceans with the Celestial Empire of the East. It is not pleasant, but that is the reality.

Only by learning to coexist with the world empire of the East can the Republic of the Netherlands long preserve her prosperity and freedom! I hope that in the years ahead, we can win the greatest possible benefits for the Netherlands!"

(End of Chapter)