The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 179 The Poor Dashun Kingdom

On May 1728, 5, a fleet of more than ten large and small ships arrived at Suide, the northwest port of the Dashun Kingdom (today's Singkawang, a city in the northwest of Kalimantan, Indonesia), preparing to stay here for a day. Replenish needed water, coal and other corresponding supplies.

Suide, formerly the capital of the Dashun Kingdom, has been under construction for many years. As early as more than 20 years ago, the population once exceeded , accounting for nearly % of the domestic population at that time. The economy was booming, and it was the second largest city in Borneo. There are few big cities in Brunei.

However, in 1682, when a fierce armed conflict broke out between the central government of the Sultanate of Brunei and the local Chinese indigenous forces in Sarawak, the Huang family, Shunguo was invited to raise troops and invade the area.

After more than eight months of tug-of-war, Shun, with the secret support of Qi, defeated Brunei several times, and finally forced the other side to cease the war and beg for peace.

In this battle, Shunguo ceded a large area of ​​territory west of the Lupa River in the Kingdom of Brunei, and seized the most elite northwest region of Sarawak in one fell swoop. Not only did it expand thousands of miles of land, but it also gained tens of thousands of Chinese descendants, which greatly enhanced Shunguo. country’s own strength.

In a few years, Shun State named the newly occupied area Yanzhou, and mobilized a large number of troops to raid the local indigenous tribes several times, eliminating most of the resistance forces. Then they established prefectures and counties, dispatched officials, and implemented direct rule.

In order to consolidate the newly acquired territory, and also to deter the Sultan Kingdom of Brunei in the east, in 1700, the Shun Kingdom moved the capital to Sarawak City (today's Kuching City, Malaysia) downstream of the Yan River (today's Sarawak River), and He renamed it Shuntian and praised it as "Shun Feng Tian De".

As Shunguo's construction focused on Yanzhou, the once bustling Suide City suddenly fell silent and became an ordinary coastal port city. Not only did a large number of people move to Shuntian with the central government, but they also took away the few industrial and commercial enterprises, causing the city to fall into irresistible decline.

However, ten years ago, Suide's situation suddenly took a turn for the worse.

A Qi-Shun State joint expedition discovered several placer gold deposits in the Ziwu River (today's Capuas River) basin, which caused a sensation in the entire Shun State.

Subsequently, a large number of gold prospectors poured into the jungle-covered inland depths, established mines, and collected placer gold. This not only brought a large amount of gold income to Shunguo, but also indirectly prospered Suide's economy.

People from Qin, Annan, Siam, the Malay Peninsula and other countries and regions came to Shun by boat, and there was an endless stream of people who dreamed of realizing the gold rush dream. Suide Port was the first stop for many gold prospectors. At that time, sailing ships could be seen everywhere in the port, and the population of the urban area also skyrocketed overnight.

According to statistics from the Suide local government, the city's population almost doubled from more than 1715 to 1725 between and . At that time, in addition to speculative adventurers from all over the world who came to realize their dreams of gold mining, there were also many people who opened shops and workshops in Suide to provide the supplies they needed for the many gold prospectors who went to inland gold mines. This led to the emergence of Suide. A freakish prosperity.

There are two main placer gold mines in the Ziwu River Basin. One is located on the banks of the Hulu River (today's Lanla River), a downstream tributary of the Ziwu River, one hundred kilometers northeast of Qingjian City (today's Pontianak City on the west coast of Kalimantan Island, Indonesia).

Another placer gold mine is located in the upper reaches of the Ziwu River, about 23 kilometers southeast of Yichuan Fort (now Sindang City, Kalimantan Island, Indonesia).

However, these two placer gold mines cannot be mined on a large scale using large professional gold mining ships due to the large amounts of stones and dead wood in the rivers. They are only suitable for small-scale manual mining, mainly using modified simple gold mining ships, Chute, sand pump and other tools, which somewhat affect the efficiency of gold mining.

A rough estimate is that the two placer gold mines can mine 30,000 to 50,000 taels of gold per year. Compared with the output of several gold mines on the Hanzhou continent, which can easily exceed 100,000 taels, the quantity is not very large. However, the Dashun Kingdom Government has This is extremely satisfying.

His grandma's country, Qi, has a vast territory, abundant resources, a large population, and extremely rich mineral deposits. Our Dashun Kingdom is incomparable. But looking around, there is no one in Luzon (Zheng family), Weiguo, Sulu, and Liangguo who doesn't have some mines, either gold mines, silver mines, or rich copper mines. All of them are extremely rich.

Even Liangguo, which was not long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, was able to make a lot of money by selling coal mines from Xinzheng (today's Hongji Port in Vietnam) to the Qi people one by one. It was not a comfortable life at that time. .

There is also the Ha Tien Kingdom. Although there are no mineral deposits at home, they can't help but occupy a good land. The fertile plains, hot and humid environment, abundant water sources, and relying on rice that is harvested three times a year can not only feed a larger population, Moreover, they can also exchange for a large amount of gold and silver, allowing them to continue to expand and encroach on Cambodia's territory while ensuring that they have enough food and clothing.

What does our Dashun Kingdom have?

There are endless dense forests, rugged mountains, swamps everywhere, and countless poisonous insects, snakes, and ants. If you want to open up a wasteland and plant a field, you have to face the dense forest, not to mention the effort.

It is true that the rich virgin forest resources are also a kind of wealth, which can drive the natives to cut down a large number of trees, then ship them and sell them, which can also be exchanged for a lot of money.

However, in Nanyang, can one make a fortune by selling some wood?

In the surrounding countries and regions, who doesn’t have a wealth of timber resources?

In order to sell their own wood, everyone competed to bargain with the price, and in vain the Qin people on the mainland got cheaper.

It can be said that since the founding of the Dashun Kingdom in Borneo, life has been difficult due to the harsh geographical environment and the lack of valuable minerals. For decades, it has relied entirely on the economic support of Qi State.

Immigration, settlement, fighting, maintaining financial stability... all of them owed Qi a huge debt that would be impossible to repay in the foreseeable next few decades.

Perhaps, it was precisely because it was located in a harsh environment and had to compete with the surrounding native kingdoms for limited living space. The army of Shun State also inherited the bravery of Dashun in the past. Compared with other vassals in Nanyang, it appeared to be more brave and good at fighting. .

Well, that’s probably the so-called poverty!

In order to earn valuable "foreign exchange" and obtain economic assistance from Qi, Shunguo actively participated in a series of wars initiated by Qi, just like the German mercenaries in Europe.

During the Qi-Japanese War, the expedition to Egypt, the Mughal War, the Annan War, the Siamese War, the Aceh War, the Gulf War (Conquest of Oman), the Persian War, and the ongoing Qi-British War, Shunguo spared no effort to send its elite troops. , accompanying him in the war.

Anyway, fighting with Qi, it seems that they haven't lost yet, which makes the battle losses of the troops very low. In addition, Shun Guo Er Lang can obtain a large number of seizures on the battlefield, which can stimulate a wave of domestic economy after returning to the homeland.

It’s tragic and inexplicable when I think about it. In order to get a bite to eat, our Dashun Kingdom had to sacrifice our lives in the end.

That is to say, after seizing the sacred land of Yanzhou, Shunguo's life became slightly easier.

This area has been developed for a long time, and there is a large amount of cultivated land. The plains are vast, there is a lot of arable land, and the population is relatively dense.

More importantly, there are tens of thousands of Chinese descendants living here, including many businessmen, scholars, craftsmen, and craftsmen. After swallowing this land, it is tantamount to taking a big tonic pill for the sparsely populated Shun country, but it is much more cost-effective than seizing the inland hinterland with high mountains and dense forests.

What's even better is that there is a large amount of pepper cultivation in the Yanzhou area. In terms of scale and output, it is second only to India and Aceh. This makes Shunguo suddenly feel like he has a "mining" at home.

In recent years, with the boom of cash crops such as oil palm and rubber, the demand market has also been extremely strong, which has also driven the development of Shunguo's plantation economy.

In order to win the favor of investors, Shunguo not only provided large tracts of land to plantation owners at extremely favorable prices, but also dispatched troops to capture natives and sold them to plantations as slave labor.

That's right, in the Shun State, unlike the Qi State, which was established and powerful and needed to be secretive, it was directly stipulated that slavery was legal, and the personal safety of slave workers was not protected by law. It was all decided by the plantation owners, Mine owners are free to dispose of it. Everything is for development, everything is for the growth of its own strength, Shunguo can be said to do everything possible.

Shun State is located in the northwest of Borneo, with the hostile Kingdom of Banjar Sultan to the south and the covetous Kingdom of Brunei Sultan to the east. Although it has the Qi State behind it, it is always an outsider. In this world of natives, there is always a sense of danger. If you are not careful, you will be annihilated by the surging natives.

Therefore, at the beginning of the founding of the country, Shun Guo aimed to continuously attack and weaken the two native kingdoms around him and frequently used troops against them.

Today we captured several villages, tomorrow we captured a few more mountains, and the next day we expelled and destroyed two or three tribes, always maintaining the strength of our military strikes against the natives.

In September of last year (1727), the army of the Dashun Kingdom used the strategy of attacking from the east and attacking the west. They first attacked the Kingdom of Banjar Sultan and successively uprooted more than ten tribes and villages in the southern border area. While providing support to the Kingdom of Banjar, the Shunguo army suddenly turned around, brazenly crossed the Rejang River and invaded the Kingdom of Brunei.

In October, Shun State used four second-hand warships purchased from Qi State as cover, assembled an army of more than 2,000 people, and captured Bintulu, an important town on the north bank of the Geleng Na River. At the same time, it also cut off the Kingdom of Brunei's front-line army on the Rejang River. The retreat route caused the Brunei army to collapse, and more than 5,000 people were killed, wounded and captured by the Shun army.

By February this year, Shunguo dispatched more than ten ships, large and small, to the Royal City of Brunei, bombarded the port terminals, and looted Brunei merchant ships and fishing boats.

When the war reached this point, the Sultan of Brunei was so courageous that he had to find people from Qi and ask for intervention to mediate and end the war.

After more than a month of negotiations, Shunguo, Qiguo and Brunei signed an armistice agreement. Brunei ceded the territory west of the Na River to Shunguo and paid an indemnity of 300,000 taels of silver to Shunguo. In addition, areas such as Kudat and Kota Kinabalu in northeastern Borneo (Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, Malaysia) were cut off to reward the country for its mediation efforts.

After this battle, Brunei's territory dropped by more than 40% and its population lost 30%. In terms of strength, it no longer poses a threat to Shun.

But anyone with a discerning eye can see that it is only a matter of time before Brunei, which is sandwiched between Shunguo, Qiguo and Sulu, will eventually be cannibalized and swallowed up.

In time, when the Shun Kingdom and the Qi Kingdom completely consume and absorb the occupied territory, and the immigrant population gradually increases, Brunei will end up like the Samfa Sultan Kingdom that was destroyed by the Shun Kingdom decades ago, silently. The place of residence disappeared into the long river of history.

Of course, the surviving kingdoms of Banjar Sultan and Kutai Sultan will also end up like this. In the end, this huge Borneo, with the exception of the Sulu Kingdom occupying the southwest corner, will most likely be completely Completely ruled by the Han people.

Unexpectedly, as Qi and Shun occupied large tracts of territory, capital from all walks of life in Hanzhou quickly came in and began to enclose land, invest money, establish plantations, and develop mines.

Now it seems that these areas are poor, but in fact there are many opportunities. Some speculative capital likes to intervene at an early stage when you are very poor and have a large funding gap. They invest in projects that have a long payback period and seem to be thankless. In the end, they get huge profits.

Of course, businessmen with sound investments generally prefer to invest in maturely developed places. The initial investment can be much less, and the uncertain risks are also small, but there is no chance of "picking up the slack" and thus obtaining excess returns.

In Borneo, except for a few fertile volcanic areas, much of the land is very barren due to the presence of leaching. Most of the territory controlled by Shun Kingdom is almost in the same situation. It looks like there are dense forests and mountains everywhere, full of greenery, but when cultivated land is opened up and various crops are planted, the unit output is very impressive.

If it weren't for the generous government of Shunguo, which allocated fifty or sixty acres of cultivated land to each farmer, as well as twenty or thirty acres of forest land, relying on hard work and extensive planting and low harvests, the people could barely ensure self-sufficiency in food.

The main food of the residents is rice, as well as corn, cassava, cucumbers, pumpkins and other agricultural and sideline products. Coastal areas produce large quantities of sago, copra, Kach dye (extracted from red bark) and aquatic products. In the inland highland mountainous areas, a small amount of tobacco leaves are grown.

As for industry, except for a few primary industries such as agricultural product processing, seafood processing, and wood processing, most of the industrial products come from Qi. Of course, there are also some handicrafts from Qin, a traditional agricultural country. .

Therefore, when passengers arriving in Suide disembark and wander around while the ship is docked, they will find that the prices there are slightly higher than those in Annan.

What's even more outrageous is that the most prosperous industries are prostitution and gambling.

Businessmen and travelers traveling from north to south, adventurers who made their fortunes from the inland Ziwu River Basin, wealthy plantation owners from the surrounding areas, and retired soldiers who gained large amounts of seizures through wars will all come to this city full of money and wealth. In the city of desire, people spend a lot of money to vent their endless desires.

Gambling has a long history. Although the process can satisfy people's pursuit of excitement, it is also extremely risky. Some people can become rich overnight, but more people will lose all their wealth and even their lives at the gambling table.

According to the system of the country, officials and soldiers were not allowed to open gambling houses. If they were discovered, they would be exiled to the mainland and served hard labor for five years; if they committed the crime again, they would be directly sentenced to death by hanging. If an official gambles, his crime will be increased to one level, he will be dismissed from his post, and he will be sentenced to three months of hard labor.

It is strictly prohibited among the people to open gambling houses, and they cannot gather people to gamble privately. If found, they will be punished according to the Dashun Law.

In other words, many gambling houses in Suide City are government-run, and the meaning is obvious and self-evident. It was hoped that the wealthy people in Nanyang, as well as the wealthy merchants who found gold in Shunguo, as well as passing tourists, would keep their money in Suide City as much as possible, thereby increasing government revenue.

Several gambling parlors have even been opened in the dock area to facilitate temporary passengers to disembark and play a few games in search of short-term excitement.

Fan Xingbao's luck was surprisingly good. Less than half an hour after entering the gambling house, he won more than a dozen dice games in a row and won more than 100 yuan, which caused a sensation in the entire gambling house.

Even the boss of the gambling house came after hearing the news and took several powerful guards to stare at Fan Xingbao to see if he had cheated and dared to come to the gambling house to cause trouble.

Looking at Fan Xingbao's appearance and the gold yuan coupons he redeemed, he should be from Qi, which made the owner of the gambling house a little hesitant.

It is not easy to deal with the people of Qi State.

If he really cheated and caused trouble, he could only seize his belongings and kick him out.

Because the people of Qi are not easy to mess with!

Moreover, Qi State is very protective of its shortcomings. If any trouble occurs, it will not be able to bear the consequences.

After observing for a long time, the boss of the casino and several guards could not help but heave a sigh of relief.

Grandma, she is really a gambler who got lucky!

He played the game of dice, and sometimes he lost and sometimes won, but his luck really didn't matter. He had a high probability of winning. In a few hours, he won almost more than 130 yuan.

Hey, if I let you win money, as long as you are not willing to give up, you will lose it to me sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)