Chapter 1225 - Galle Fort

Among the many East India Companies established by Western colonial powers, there was one that most people overlooked: the Danish East India Company. Founded in 1616, it was quite early—over a decade earlier than the Portuguese East India Company. As early as 1620, they'd established a small colony at Tranquebar on the eastern coast of the Indian subcontinent, when Portuguese and English outposts in India were still confined to the west coast.

However, for the next century, the Danish East India Company's achievements remained limited to just that. Two disastrous participations in the Thirty Years' War, followed by nearly half a century of beatings from the rising Swedes—who stripped them of all their Scandinavian territories—had left the nation in steady decline.

But at present, Viking blood still occasionally surged in Danish veins. Their two involvements in the Thirty Years' War and their feud with Sweden were consequences of such irrational impulses. Currently experiencing a Viking episode was Captain Trelder Weisheuey of the licensed merchant ship Griffin. Yesterday he'd considered whether to run up a Swedish flag—Sweden was at war with the Holy Roman Empire—but decided that would be bad for his reputation. So he'd simply kept trailing until land was out of sight before launching his attack. The subtext of this decision was complete confidence in leaving no survivors.

Regardless, Weisheuey knew his ship was much larger than his target, and northwestern European ship designs were long and narrow with faster speeds and more deck guns. Even though some mysterious epidemic on the voyage had left a few dozen corpses to feed the sharks, he still had far more sailors available for boarding action than his opponent. What he didn't know was that his opponent was a woman—not only much younger than himself, but possessed of even greater confidence in victory. Moreover, that woman had a group of employers Weisheuey could never have imagined.

After years of trade dealings, this woman had obtained from her business partners several weapons that shouldn't exist in this timeline. Hangzhou had eight 12-pounder long-barrel cannons: two on the bow gun deck, two at the rear of the lower gun deck, and four on the quarterdeck gun deck. These were all wrought iron cannons that Lingao had phased out and sold at high prices to friendly neutral trading partners.

If not for Li Huamei's considerable fan following in the Navy, combined with the large quantities of urgently needed goods she'd transported to Lingao, and the substantial economic and political intelligence she'd provided on European colonists and local kingdoms at Goa and elsewhere after the Foreign Intelligence Bureau was established—qualifying her as a quite useful collaborator—Planning Commission approval would never have been granted.

The sea wind howled, sails snapped. Captain Weisheuey's Griffin was advancing at full speed. Li Huamei could now clearly see the griffon figurehead. Based on years of piracy experience, the entire dynamic tactical situation had already crystallized in her mind.

"Brothers, light your matches!" She drew her sword. "Raise the red flag!"

The battle was brief but fierce. As Li Huamei expected, her firepower advantage rendered Griffin's speed advantage of little benefit to Captain Trelder Weisheuey. Successive cannonballs destroyed Griffin's guns and rigging, killing most of the sailors on deck.

When Li Huamei led her men in a boarding assault onto Griffin's deck, cutting through the Danes like autumn wind scattering leaves, Captain Weisheuey finally realized what an unsuitable target he'd chosen. The instant the gleaming Barton sword thrust toward him, he immediately made the most appropriate choice:

He threw his sword onto the deck and raised both hands. "I surrender!" he shouted in German—in those days, German was a semi-universal language at sea.

The Barton sword's point stopped just in time—0.001 centimeters from Captain Weisheuey's throat.

"Very well, I accept your surrender," the woman said arrogantly. "Now you, your ship, and your cargo all belong to me..."

"At your service..." Weisheuey said dejectedly, with a touch of dark humor. These days, the fate of a failed pirate at sea was grim: ordinary sailors might switch allegiances, but he himself would very likely soon be swinging from the mast.

By Li Huamei's former temperament, pirates like Weisheuey who dared attack her ship would be made to walk the plank or swing from the yardarm after capture—at minimum, keelhauled. In any case, a bad death. But somehow her heart had softened lately.

The Li sisters, as a small pirate gang with only two ships and fewer than three hundred people, had survived this long in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean—proof enough of their capabilities. What's more, Li Huamei now personally had a bit of goodwill from the transmigration collective backing her.

Small as that goodwill was, over these past few years Li Huamei had increasingly discovered the formidable power it represented—she was becoming more and more dependent on the Senate.

If not for the young miss and elder sister, I might as well just throw in with the Australians, Li Huamei thought darkly. Remembering she was actually going undercover, she felt quite dispirited.

She held her curved sword and kicked open the captain's cabin door, beginning to search for spoils. On any ship, the most valuable things were always in the captain's cabin—unless it was a Spanish treasure ship loaded with tons of gold and silver.

The search was quickly complete. The captain's cabin yielded a bag of gold coins and some gold jewelry—not particularly much. Locked in the powder magazine were two small wine barrels. Pried open, they contained silver coins—about three or four thousand silver thalers. In this timeline, European ships traveling to the East sailed empty outbound and full returning; they usually carried large amounts of cash. Additional scattered gold and silver coins were found on the prisoners.

The ship's cargo included some furs and weapons. Furs had no market in India and were mainly for transshipment. The weapons were probably for the Tranquebar colony's own use, or for sale to the local natives. Besides that, the biggest haul was people.

First, a European man and several blonde women were brought up from the hold. He introduced himself as Frederik Wels Karlsson, a Lutheran pastor. Of the women, one was his wife; the others were war widows, orphans sheltered by his church, and "liberated" Catholic nuns from the fighting in Germany. Originally there had been over a dozen, but half had died en route, leaving six. Since Protestantism had no nuns, and these Catholic nuns, widows, and orphans had no other means of livelihood and would eventually end up as prostitutes, Pastor Karlsson's congregation in Copenhagen had decided to send him to the colonies to preach, bringing these women along to make lives there—meaning marriage to single European colonists.

According to other prisoners on the ship, Captain Trelder Weisheuey had been willing to take these women thinking he'd sell them at the colony for a tidy profit. Whether they became servants to the governor or concubines for some prince wasn't his concern. Being merchandise, these women had been locked in the hold the entire voyage and surprisingly hadn't been molested.

Next were slaves Weisheuey had captured from an Arab ship he'd robbed off Oman—also locked in the hold—of both genders and races, over twenty in total. The women had basically been violated to the point they could barely crawl; the men weren't much better off. Li Huamei knew the Australians had a special interest in white women—she could probably sell them for a good price. Only three or four of the Arab slaves would likely survive to reach Lingao; the rest would have to be sold in Ceylon. Besides, both ships needed repairs.

After thorough disarmament and basic treatment, the two ships slowly made their way toward Galle harbor on Ceylon's southern coast.

The damaged Griffin was much slower. They didn't reach the vicinity of Galle until dawn the next day. The sea was dotted with fishing boats; seagulls called as they swooped among the sails. A large flock of fruit bats returning to their roosts flew silently past Hangzhou and Griffin.

Galle was a Portuguese trading colony on Ceylon's southwest coast, about 100 kilometers south of Colombo in the old timeline, right on the Indian Ocean shoreline. Galle's old town and its fort were built on a rocky peninsula. This peninsula formed a natural harbor, but the numerous coral reefs made the harbor entrance extremely complex.

By the 14th century, Galle was already one of the most active ports on Ceylon. In 1505, the Portuguese began settling on the island. In 1507, they built a trading post at Galle and constructed the small fortress of Santa Cruz.

Both Li Huamei and Li Siya had been here countless times, but because of some trouble with locals the previous year, she'd originally planned to avoid the port. Now that clearly wasn't possible.

Last time's incident hadn't caused any deaths—just spending some money would surely smooth things over. Ship repairs cost money too. Besides the captured gold and silver, some prisoners had status and could be sold to the governor—His Excellency would be quite happy to extort ransoms from his Danish counterparts at Tranquebar. It would just take some time.

This governor did almost nothing in this small colony: the Portuguese excelled at claiming colonies but not at developing them. Hot weather was certainly one factor, but Iberian Peninsula inhabitants seemed naturally indolent as well. Ceylon's complete conquest and development would be accomplished under Dutch and English rule; the Portuguese left little trace. The Galle Fort that would later become a UNESCO World Heritage Site was built by the Dutch after they captured Ceylon. It covered 350,000 square meters. Currently, Galle's fortifications consisted only of a wall built on the north side of the peninsula near the isthmus, plus three bastions added in 1625 after Dutch threats.

But these three bastions could only withstand maritime attacks at that era's technological level. Even before Hangzhou's firepower, they wouldn't last long. After 120-plus years of Portuguese presence here, they had little to show for it.

(End of Chapter)