New Shun 1730

After the initial contact, in order to cooperate with the subsequent negotiations, Du Feng took people to observe the elite troops of the Kingdom of Kandy in order to determine the degree of concession of Dashun in the subsequent negotiations.

This degree of concession is reverse.

If the troops can fight, some Dutch fortresses with important terrain cannot be abandoned.

If the troops cannot fight, not only can some not-so-important fortresses be abandoned and returned to the Ceylonese, but even some fortresses in key positions can be abandoned.

Only Colombo, Jaffna and Trincomalee need to be retained. This is the bottom line required by the Privy Council. Beyond this bottom line, the mission can be allowed to play freely.

Ceylon is not Afghanistan. It is surrounded by the sea. Even if there are mountainous plateaus, as long as you don't rush in, it is not difficult to control the coastal plains, as long as Dashun's navy can maintain its advantage east of the Cape of Good Hope.

In fact, Du Feng despised the army of the Kingdom of Kandy. The opponent is obviously unable to fight. The Dutch were blocked in the mountains when they fought. You can imagine their level.

After the visit, this idea was further strengthened.

Just looking at the weapons and equipment, it is actually very good. It is much stronger than the weapons before the Dashun military reform, with more than a thousand British brown bass and an artillery unit, all equipped with field guns instead of imitation naval guns.

But don’t look at the good equipment. Du Feng can see from some details that even if it fights with the matchlock troops of Dashun before the military reform, this side can’t get any advantage.

Organization, drill, technology, discipline, a mess.

Du Feng absolutely agrees with Liu Yu’s idea of ​​reverse concession. Of course, he agrees with Liu Yu’s statement that "the era of bastions is over."

With the improvement of the stability of the wooden stock grenade and the large-scale use of Minié bullets, this bastion structure originally designed to defend against solid bullets and line soldiers has actually lost its value in a first-class army.

Of course, the bastions of Dashun in the northwest and northeast are still of great significance. Especially the several bastion areas in the northwest, which can directly use three to five thousand soldiers and horses to suppress the northwest region to be extremely stable and dare not rebel.

But if Dashun is the attacking party, the bastion is meaningless. Giving it to the Kingdom of Kandy can not only show unlimited sincerity, but also reduce the size of the garrison, thus preparing for the subsequent large-scale sea crossing attack.

Because the Kandy army is weak, it can be taken back at any time.

This is one reason.

Another reason is for the consideration of governance.

Every profession has its own expertise. Du Feng and other military representatives inspected the Kandy army, and the people from the Privy Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the envoys naturally inspected the social level.

They concluded that it is not easy to conquer Ceylon. Even if it is conquered, there will be rebellions one after another.

First, this country has writing.

Second, this country has a unified belief.

Third, this country has its own history books.

Fourth, this country has a history of two thousand years and has an organized government.

Finally, the race of this country is relatively unified, all Sinhalese. In view of the fact that those messy ethnic groups in India invaded from time to time across the sea, they have their own national consciousness in the long confrontation. And this national consciousness is tied to Buddhism.

The last point is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

The advantage is that when facing the invasion of Westerners, the national awakening based on Buddhism is easier to unite the people.

The disadvantage is that when facing "colonizers" like Dashun, this kind of national awakening based on religion is difficult to unite the people.

Dashun doesn't care what they believe in, and if they believe in Buddhism, it is not a big problem in the eyes of the rulers of Dashun.

The starting point of the Ceylonese resistance movement in history is also very interesting. After the British drove away the Dutch, they happened to defeat Napoleon, the Industrial Revolution had begun, and Britain was invincible, so their self-confidence exploded.

This irrational self-confidence brought by the country's strength made them make a decision: they believed that the theory of Christianity was the best, and they should have an open debate to let the Ceylonese know that Buddhism is not good.

But they obviously forgot one thing, that Buddhism was also the best in ancient times. In the ancient stories of the Celestial Empire, except for the star-level debate masters of the Hundred Schools of Thought in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, after the Qin, Han and Three Kingdoms, the senior debaters in the stories were generally monks.

The British envisioned that through public debate, the theory of Buddhism would collapse completely, thereby quickly promoting Christianity.

But the reality is that the Buddhist monks not only had a very high level of debate, which made the missionaries speechless, but also took the opportunity to form a monk group, and based on religious identity, launched an anti-imperialist, anti-colonial and independence movement.

This is a story that happened in later generations, and Dashun certainly could not "learn from history" this story.

But Dashun, or the historical characteristics of China, determined that Dashun would not take this wrong path.

Because the "Three Religions" dispute that began in the Jin Dynasty and continued until the Tang Dynasty, after hundreds of years of religious conflicts, finally completed the initial confluence of the three religions in the Tang Dynasty, and finally laid the foundation of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, completely disintegrated Buddhism and Taoism, and constructed a special worldview that can accommodate integration.

Han Changli's "Literature rises from the decline of eight generations, and Taoism saves the world from drowning" is not just to describe his writing style. Because high-end literati pay attention to "literature carries Taoism", and the important thing is "Taoism".

From the invasion of Buddhism and the great uprising of Taoism in the Han Dynasty, to the great debate of the three religions in the Hongwenguan in the 13th year of Zhenguan, to Han Yu's anti-Buddhism and Taoism, to the Tang Dynasty, Taoism and Buddhism went hand in hand and were used by the rulers, and finally to the worldview concept of Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism, which completely transformed the local Taoism and Buddhism, making them completely degraded into two harmless religions that were not in the mainstream and could not enter the mainstream political circle.

The Buddhism understood by Dashun was not the same as the Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

It was precisely because of this lack of understanding that it had already created a situation that was quite favorable to Dashun. Because of the lack of understanding, they judged others by themselves and thought that Buddhism here was similar to that of Dashun; because they thought that Buddhism was similar, they had no special requirements for religion, and Dashun had not said that there had been any actions such as destroying Buddhism: since the Song Dynasty, there was no need to destroy it, because it was completely castrated and basically harmless.

At the root, Dashun did not want to touch the religious issue, and everything was left to fate.

Moreover, Dashun itself was anti-Christian, and the country was banning religion on a large scale, which was extremely strict. Therefore, in order to show goodwill, Dashun can allow some Ceylonese who were forced to convert to Christianity to believe in Buddhism again, so as to win the hearts of the people of Ceylonese.

This kind of policy of letting things take their own course, which was not understood by the politicians in the decision-making circle of Dashun, has instead disintegrated the soil for the anti-colonial movement in Ceylon: Dashun cannot imagine that, in name, the status of the monks is above the king. With their understanding of Dashun Buddhism, they naturally do not think that there is anything wrong with Buddhism.

Liu Yu does not know much about religious affairs, but he is very concerned about the policies of European colonists in colonies. After collecting a lot of intelligence in Nanyang and India, he agrees with a policy of the Netherlands.

That is to use a large number of middle and low caste people as colonial officials, and must refuse to use high caste people as colonial officials.

Although it is hard to hear, the fact is that the vast majority of middle and low caste people prefer the policies of the colonists. Compared with the caste system that imprisons them, the Dutch Roman law system can make them feel relieved.

It is not the ethnic group that can organize the people of Ceylonese. In a country with distinct castes, nationalism must be based on religion.

Without a religious foundation, high castes and low castes say that they are one family and compatriots. Will the low castes believe it? Especially for low caste members who can serve as officials in the Dutch colonial government but are fishermen in Ceylon for their entire lives and cannot change their jobs, will they feel that they are one family with the high castes?

The premise of awakening nationalism based on religion is religious confrontation. Religious confrontation is the easiest thing to intuitively feel "who I am and who I am not".

But on the Dashun side, or the Dashun garrison in Ceylon, this confrontation is vague.

Sailors and some soldiers may be whoring today, stealing tomorrow, and robbing the day after tomorrow. Many people are basically scum and soldiers, but when they see a temple, they will still go in and worship. Such a garrison is naturally different from those believers in the Netherlands and Portugal, and the local people will not feel that there is a big difference: you see, they also go in to worship and burn incense when they see a temple, just like us.

Some things have been done by predecessors in the hundreds of years from the Han Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties. This made Dashun achieve the effect of "ruling by doing nothing" on religious issues purely unintentionally, and purely unintentionally disintegrated the most possible national awakening problem in Ceylon.

Various factors, whether deliberate calculations, unintentional actions, unexpected gains due to lack of understanding, or Dashun's policy inertia since ancient times, have made the Dashun delegation gain great favor from the King of Kandy in the first round of negotiations with the Kandy Dynasty.

The preliminary treaty has a total of six articles.

The most important land issue is naturally placed in the first article.

Dashun will station troops in Colombo, Trincomalee, and Jaffna. The surrounding lands will also be temporarily ruled by Dashun.

Dashun will return the Ratnapura Fortress area to the Kandy Dynasty, allowing the Kandy Dynasty to station troops there, and use this fortress as the dividing line between different ruling methods in the Colombo area: any merchant entering the Kandy Dynasty must obtain the permission of the Kandy Dynasty and enter from here.

Intuitively speaking, this Ratnapura Fortress area is the dividing line between the coastal plains and the mountains, and it is also the border area originally ruled by the Dutch.

If Dashun is used as an analogy, it is roughly equivalent to Shanhaiguan. This fortress was built by the Portuguese and later occupied by the Dutch. It is an important checkpoint for the Dutch to guard against attacks by the Kandy Dynasty's army.

However, for Dashun, it is of little significance. There is no need to engage in military confrontation with the Kandy Dynasty for the time being, and returning it to the Kandy Kingdom can greatly reflect sincerity.

And this fortress itself is outdated.

It was built in the first year of Tianqi, and it was a first-class fortress in the next hundred years. It can really achieve the effect of a small number of defenders to repel thousands of troops.

But now, for Dashun, the only role this broken fortress can play in resisting is to consume a batch of artillery shells, and there is no value in it.

Rajsinghe is not a child, of course, he dare not think, and never thought that Dashun would return the land. At most, he hoped that Dashun would talk some sense.

Unexpectedly, Dashun not only talked some sense, but also returned the land, and even the most important stronghold in its eyes.

Once the first clause of the treaty was proposed, it immediately paved the way for the subsequent negotiations, and the negotiations became extremely smooth.

The second clause was about economic trade.

Dashun, as a legal person of a commercial organization, rather than the Dashun court, presented 10 elephants and 20 war horses to the King of Kandy every year.

On July 15th of each year, the elephants and war horses would be sent to the capital of Kandy.

The reason why July 15th was chosen is that this day has a special significance in the Buddhist circle.

It is said that it was on this day that Sakyamuni first preached after his full enlightenment, and officially began to preach to five disciples including Mahakasyapa, Maudgalyayana, Purna, Subhuti, and Sariputra in the Deer Park of Benares.

Dashun will implement a policy of religious freedom, and any belief is acceptable except Catholicism.

Dashun will transform some churches in coastal areas into temples, and find high monks from Dashun to preside over them. Encourage the Sinhalese who were forced to convert to Buddhism again; the Kingdom of Kandy will not prevent Buddhists from going to the Temple of the Tooth Relic to worship.

In return, which is also the demand of the Kingdom of Kandy, Dashun will obtain the exclusive monopoly of goods such as cinnamon, betel nut and gemstones, and allow Dashun merchants to enter the Kingdom of Kandy to purchase goods legally and with the approval of the king.

From the second article, it is all about trade.

Including Dashun helping the Kingdom of Kandy to establish a customs... Although this customs has nothing to do with the sea, but is inland, it is still called a customs.

Goods entering Kandy will pay a 5% value tax to the King of Kandy in accordance with the law; Dashun merchants can contract Kandy's mountain forest land; Dashun merchants can contract coastal areas for pearl mining; Dashun is obliged to provide weapons trade for the King of Kandy. As long as the King of Kandy pays, Dashun can sell muskets and cannons...

It seems that this treaty is quite beneficial to Kandy.

Without using a single soldier, not only did they take back the vital Ratnapura Fortress area, but they also got tariffs that they dared not even think about.

As long as you have money, you can buy guns. As long as you have guns, you can stabilize your rule. Rajsinghe is still clear about this.

But in fact, this treaty is also quite beneficial to Dashun.

The small peasant economy of the Kingdom of Kandy has little purchasing power. Dashun can only sell some cotton cloth here at most. As for light luxury goods such as silk and porcelain, it doesn't make much difference whether or not to add a 5% tariff.

The value of Ceylon lies in the origin of cinnamon, betel nut and gemstones, not a consumer market. Just like India, for Dashun, it can only be a raw material production area in the early stage. It takes a long time to transform it into a consumer market.

In this era when Indian cotton cloth can force Britain and France to issue a cotton cloth ban, Songjiang cloth and Jinling cloth will be difficult to open up sales in India in the short term.

To put it in a more ruthless way, in the future, we must find a way to destroy India's handicraft industry and disintegrate India's small peasant economy, causing bankruptcy and impoverishment of millions of people, and famine of tens of millions of people caused by the disintegration of the old agricultural system.

As Dashun's base for the future advance to India, it is best not to cause social unrest in Ceylon, try not to care about Ceylon's internal affairs, and try not to over-dump in Ceylon: the market is too small and it is not worth it; too much dumping will cause social unrest, and it will cost more money to suppress it, and it will seriously affect the pace of entering India in the future.

In fact, the entire treaty is equivalent to encircling the Kandy Dynasty with an invisible line. Dashun controls the seaport and foreign trade. You can do whatever you want in the encircled areas, and Dashun will not care for the time being. How to rule and govern is your own business.