1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 1012 The Future of Nanyang

On November 1684, 11, Johor City (now Johor, Malaysia).

Tun Abdul Chali, Prime Minister of the Sultanate of Johor, held a pen and looked at the "Boundary Expansion and Land Expansion Contract" on the table, silent and delayed writing.Sitting next to him, Qin Zhongyuan, Minister of Qi State in the Sultan Kingdom of Johor, looked at him sideways with a smile on his face, without urging him.

"Alas..." Prime Minister Charlie sighed secretly, raised his pen to sign his name, and then took the seal of His Majesty Sultan from the waiter behind him, and stamped it heavily.

"Prime Minister Charlie, this agreement is complete. Thinking about it, the border dispute between your two countries will be eliminated from now on, and it will be of very positive significance to the continuation of the peace and friendship between our two countries." The contract text was taken over, and then he handed over the contract in front of him.

"Mr. Minister, I also hope that after the signing of this contract, it will bring peace and stability to our Sultanate of Johor." Tun Abdul Chali said solemnly: "At the same time, I also hope that the text of a similar contract is I sign for the last time."

"Prime Minister Charlie, what do you mean by that?" Qin Zhongyuan looked a little worried when he heard the words.

"Over the past 20 years, the islands near the strait, such as Temasek (Singapore), Linga, Riau, Bintan, and Batam, have all been placed under the rule of your country." Prime Minister Charlie said with a sad face. Se, "Now, in response to your request to expand the border and expand the land, we will sell the land along the coast of Johor to you again. In this way, the distance between my Johor King City and your border is less than ten miles. If your country of Qi still needs to expand the land next time, I, Johor, will have no choice but to retreat!"

"..." After Qin Zhongyuan heard this, he was angry and funny, and he laughed aloud, "Hehe..., Prime Minister Charlie is overthinking. Looking at the lands that our country has purchased for decades, they are all deserted and uninhabited islands. , even within twenty miles of this exhibition, they are all barren villages and wild lands, and your kingdom of Johor has never made good use of them. Sell them all to our country of Qi, and you will benefit, and we will get them, or for the sea It can be said that it is suitable for both the purpose of supply and the convenience of resettlement.”

Half a year ago, Qi State hoped to acquire land on both sides of the Johor River through purchase under the pretext that Temasek Island, which it occupies, did not have a large river source of water or land for food cultivation.After several months of back-and-forth negotiations, Johor Sultan Ibrahim III, who could not bear the political and military pressure of the Qi State, finally gave in and ordered Prime Minister Tun Abdul Chali to sign the "Boundary Expansion Agreement" with the Qi State. Land Contract".

At the price of [-] Hanzhou silver dollars, Qi State obtained land ten kilometers deep on the coast of Johor, and divided the Strait Governor's District (including Batam Island, Bintan Island, Linga, Riau, Penang Island and other islands, as well as Sumatra Island) The territory of Lianzhou) extends from here to the Malay Peninsula.

In 1640, the Kingdom of Johor united with the Dutch East India Company to launch the massive Battle of Malacca, defeated the Portuguese in one fell swoop, and completely eliminated the Portuguese colonial power in the Malay Peninsula.At that time, it was the most glorious era of the Kingdom of Johor. The country's power once became stronger, and its territory expanded to Sumatra Island.

Then, the good times didn’t last long. In 1673, during the crisis of Sultan’s succession, the Kingdom of Johor was invaded by the Kingdom of Zhanbei on Sumatra Island and almost attacked the city of Johor.If it hadn't been for the help of the Qi State on Temasek Island, it would have repelled the Zhanbei Kingdom, and Johor would have been almost humiliated by the king's city being captured by foreign enemies and the Sultan being captured.

After this war, the situation of Johor fell into a slump, and several states in the north that were protected by it gradually moved away.What made the kingdom even worse was that the territory of the Johor Kingdom on Sumatra Island brazenly established itself in 1676 and established the Ganbaru Kingdom, which made Johor lose all of Sumatra.

That is, in the year when the Kanbaru Kingdom was established, the Johor Kingdom simply packaged and sold many islands such as the Linga Islands and Riau Islands in the northeast of Sumatra to the Qi State to prevent them from being stolen by the gangsters and thieves of the Kanbaru Kingdom.

This time, although the Sultanate of Johor was 1 unwilling to extend Qi’s territory to the land, the situation was stronger than others. Facing the powerful Qi, Johor did not have the courage to refuse at all.You know, more than 30 years ago, when the Dutch East India Company was not as powerful as Qi, it proposed to extend the territory of Malacca to [-] miles inland, and Johor never dared to refuse.

However, after the Qi State extended its territory to land, the royal city located not far from the coast of Johor became more embarrassing.This royal city, which was built more than 100 years ago, is located on the left bank of the Johor River, only [-] miles away from Temasek Island.After the Qi State expanded its territory to [-] miles on land, the entire royal city would be completely exposed to the people of Qi State.If one day, there is a rift between the Kingdom and the Qi Kingdom, they can kill the King City with just one lift of their legs.

The Qi people felt absurd and ridiculous about the worries and worries of the Johor Kingdom, and even dismissed them.With the strength of our army and the strength of our army, even if your Johor Kingdom builds its capital deep inland, do you think you can avoid our attacks?
Simply ridiculous!
The Mughal Empire has a population of hundreds of millions and tens of millions of troops, and it still can't stop Qi's fierce blow.The Kingdom of Continental Spain is farther away from our country of Qi, and it is still beaten by our naval expeditionary fleet, making it ashamed.

Furthermore, in the past [-] years, Kedah, Perak, Kelantan, and Dingjianu, which were the vassal states of your Johor Kingdom, have all abandoned you and left for our Qi Kingdom.If you want to attack your kingdom of Johor, Qi State can order the above-mentioned states to enter the territory of Johor from several directions without even having to do it yourself.

That is to say, the population of Qi State is not large, and it is temporarily impossible to assimilate the nearly one million citizens of the Johor Kingdom. Otherwise, based on the excellent geographical location of Johor, our Qi State will also annex it and completely bring it under the rule.

However, there is a long way to go. With the deepening of our Qi State's control over Johor's politics, economy, military and many other aspects, it will be swallowed up sooner or later by gradually eroding it.

At present, the entire Temasek Island has more than 600 residents, and there are nearly ten large and small settlements. Among the population, there are more than [-] Han Chinese (including mixed descendants of Han Chinese and local aborigines), and the rest are from Immigrants from Annan, Japan, North Korea and other places and local Johor natives.

The island is located on the equator, with abundant rainfall, with an average annual rainfall of about 30 millimeters. There are more than [-] short and small rivers on the island, and several settlements have successively built several large-capacity cement reservoirs. There is still plenty of water.Even without the control of the lower reaches of the Johor River on the north bank, there is no concern about water shortage.

However, it is very necessary for Temasek Island, as the key to the strait and the port of trade transit, to have a certain inland depth.
-
On November 11, Wen Island (now Bangka Island, Indonesia).

"September [-], light rain.

Today, the Bingzi team failed to complete the set amount of mining, and Zhang Tou immediately ordered the guards to whip five coolies randomly drawn ten times as a warning.

These poor natives are thin and small, and when they first crawled out of the mine, they were almost invisible.Under the washing of the rain, we can really feel their exhaustion and fatigue.Almost all of them could not stand still, as if they would fall down in the rain at any time.

Yes, three more corpses were dragged out of the two mines today. There were no obvious wounds on their bodies. They were either infected with wind and cold, or the heavy labor exhausted the last bit of energy in their bodies.

After the five coolies were punished in public, the remaining 30 coolies in the Bingzi team were not relieved of their punishment.Their dinner was deducted. Although it was just a piece of yellowed steamed bun and a bowl of miscellaneous fish soup, this meal was the most important food supplement for them in the day.

There are punishments, and naturally there are rewards.As the Dingzi team who overfulfilled the task, in addition to the normal dinner, Zhang Tou generously gave them half a barrel of beer.If these coolies are distributed equally, it is estimated that each person can drink three sips.

That's right, in the tin mines on Wen Island, being able to drink a sip of wine may be the best reward for all the coolies.This will allow them to get into a slightly drunken state, lie in the shack, have a good night's sleep, or have some good dreams. "

"September 23, sunny.

The continuous rain in the past few days made the rice in the warehouse generally rotten.It stands to reason that this rotten and moldy rice should be thrown away, otherwise it will spoil your stomach.

However, Lao Huang, who manages the warehouse, is worried that his dereliction of duty will be scolded by the shopkeeper of the trading company, and his wages may be deducted for this.

In the afternoon, Lao Huang had a sumptuous banquet and invited Zhang Tou and several small captains of our guard.It may be because I am a statistician in the tin mine and I am familiar with the daily production activities of the coolies, so I was called to the table by the way.

Lao Huang proposed to give the moldy rice to the coolies in the mine.Anyway, their daily food is also very poor, and eating some rotten and moldy rice will not affect their health.

I was very surprised by Lao Huang's shamelessness.It should be known that even if the daily food of those coolies is poor, at least those ingredients are edible.Although it is impossible to feed all the coolies, it will not be able to overwhelm the body.

Rotten and moldy rice is obviously not suitable for human consumption. I am afraid that dogs will not be able to get up if they eat it.There are more than 200 coolies in this mine. If there is an accident and more than a dozen people die because of eating moldy rice, it is estimated that the shopkeeper of the trading company will jump up with anger.

However, Zhang Tou and the small captains of the guards may be soft-spoken and short-handed. After drinking several times, they acquiesced to Lao Huang's proposition.Perhaps in their opinion, those lowly indigenous coolies are good enough to have a full stomach, and they would not be picky about the quality of the food.

But I hold a different objection, because I once heard a cousin who is a medical student mention that whether it is a native of Nanyang or us Han people, the structure of the intestines and stomach is the same.

What's more, those indigenous coolies who endure heavy labor on a daily basis are generally weak, and their gastrointestinal digestion and absorption functions are not as good as ours.So, I have a premonition that something will happen to those coolies who ate the moldy rice. "

"On the first day of October, it was sunny.

Thirty-eight indigenous coolies in the mine have died in a row. This phenomenon has aroused the great attention of the shopkeeper of the trading company.

As we all know, because of the huge scale of the local canned food industry, the demand for tin ore is extremely strong, which has also caused the price of tin ore to continue to rise.But now, the coolies in the mine are dying of illness one by one, and there are quite a few dying in the shacks. This has caused a commotion in the coolies in the entire mine, which has caused a huge reduction in the output of the tin mine. This is not a loss of a lot of money in vain!
However, seeing the number of indigenous coolies who died of illness, the shopkeeper of the trading company immediately suspected that there was a large-scale plague in the mine, and was hesitating whether to report it to the nearby Zhaoping Governor's Mansion (in today's Lampung Province, Indonesia). And block the entire mine.

Blocking the mine meant that more than 200 indigenous coolies in the mine were completely abandoned here, at the cost of sacrificing all their lives, to extinguish this sudden "plague".

Just when I was trying to tell the truth, the head of the guard stopped my rash move with a murderous look.At that moment, I felt the threat of death.

That’s right, if I had really told the truth about the incident at that time, I’m afraid I would have faced the hostility of everyone in the guards.With their aggressive character, they will definitely take severe revenge on me after being punished by the trading company.On this island, there is no local government, let alone army guards. They even killed me here, and then reported an aboriginal attack to cover up all the crimes.

For the sake of everyone's future, this accident should be an unexpected "plague".

Alas, I have decided that after another year, I must leave here.You can't just throw your life on this remote island in vain just because you are greedy for a high salary. "

"..."

Zhang Zuping, captain of the tin mine guard on Wendao Songming (near Sungai Liat City, Bangka Island), threw the diary in his hand on the table, with a mocking smile on his face.

"Go, call that scholar."

"Zhangtou, we're going to take him..."

"What are you thinking?" Zhang Zuping glared at the captain of the guard, "He was already frightened when he worked with us idiots in the mine. You really regarded us as robbers who murdered and robbed us! Besides, Well, what happened more than ten days ago, didn’t they help us cover it up. Call him here, and I’ll have a few words with him.”

After Xing Wenxiao entered the guard's office, he immediately found the diary on the table, and his face flushed immediately.

How could they search for their belongings in private!

"You take the money first." Zhang Zuping put 20 silver dollars in front of Xing Wenxiao, "A few days ago, you helped us cover up the plague, we have to thank you. As for peeking at your diary, we Just out of curiosity, I'm worried that you secretly recorded some bad things about us. Here, I will apologize to you."

"..." Xing Wenxiao neither took the money nor answered Zhang Zuping's words, but just stared at him coldly.

"Well, you also know that we are all vulgar people, and there is nothing particular about it." Zhang Zuping looked a little embarrassed by Xing Wenxiao's stare, stretched out his hand and scratched his head, "It's not very authentic to peek at your diary , this... please forgive me."

"..." Xing Wenxiao still stared at him for a while, then suddenly took a few steps forward, took the diary that was left on the corner of the table, and turned to leave.

"An old officer in my army once told me." Zhang Zuping said quietly behind him: "Our Qi State will eventually occupy the entire Nanyang region. But in this vast area, there are millions of The natives of the place. They have multiplied here for thousands of years and are the natural masters of this place. In order to ensure that my Chinese Miao descendants will permanently occupy this territory, to reduce unnecessary disputes in the future, and to ensure the long-term peace and stability of future generations, these aborigines all It needs to be cleaned up.”

"So..." Xing Wenxiao stopped, turned around and asked.

"So, whether our Qi State armed some of the natives and used them as cannon fodder to expand the territory of our Qi State, or sent them to the mines to be consumed in endless hard labor, or even let them obtain some kind of plague, it is all based on The purpose is to destroy their lives. The strength of the natives is now weaker, and the price that our future generations need to pay will be smaller. Therefore, your sympathy for those natives is completely unnecessary."

"In addition, I would like to give you a piece of advice. In the diary, it is best not to record these abuses, massacres, or other forms of consumption of indigenous things. Perhaps, one day in the future, your records will humiliate our country of Qi, and let Our Chinese ethnicity is being questioned."

(End of this chapter)