The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 97 Human Nature

October 10, Xingshan, Zhangdebao (now Johannesburg, South Africa).

Decades ago, with the growing strength of the country, the people of Qi began to regard themselves as the most civilized and advanced ethnic group in the world, and as the liberators of disadvantaged nations and countries.The rulers of the empire and overseas colonists all hope that their reputation or legend can be recorded in the annals of history as a "bright image" and then be immortalized throughout the ages.

However, as the empire continues to expand, its image is becoming more and more "vulgar", just like an originally noble literature and art that has been devalued by the nouveau riche.The Empire had indeed been cruel and brutal in the past, and had gone astray, but it had rarely been mean or barbaric.Even if the Empire is inherently hypocritical, at least it has always had grand ambitions.In the past few decades, most "imperialists" sincerely believed that the Daqi Empire was a tool for bringing Hanzhou and Nanyang regions, and even the entire world, towards universal beauty, and could bring benefits to more countries and nations.

However, when the people of Qi came to Africa, the social gap between the advanced industrial countries represented by Qi and the extremely backward pre-industrial era in Africa was so wide. Once the boundaries between the two were broken, they would conquer, plunder, and kill. It became inevitable.

Tribal chiefs were deceived one after another, countless tribal groups lost their land, and a large amount of wealth passed down from generation to generation was taken away with a simple fingerprint or palm draw.One after another, countries and peoples along the African coast were annexed by the empire: Xhosa was followed by East African kingdoms, Bantu tribes, Khoisan, Swahili, all deprived of sovereignty in one way or another, one after another. Become a vassal (slave) of the great emperor across the ocean.

The Da Qi Empire's conquest and plunder of Africa can be said to be without any tenderness and reveals bloodthirsty ruthlessness.Among them, many people in Qi are promoting the expansion of the empire intentionally or unintentionally. Merchants are looking for new markets and customers, industries are looking for new raw materials, financiers are looking for new investment points, and strategists are looking for new geographies. Key points: officers salivated for new glory, newly arrived settlers (colonists) yearned for more land and livestock, and adventurers thirsted for gold and wealth.

In a Bantu tribe camp, dozens of corpses lay scattered in a staggered manner. In the simple thatched house, on the sacrificial platform, the ground was stained with blood, and large swarms of flies clung to the corpses and some blackened ones. On the dirt.

"All the bastards were killed!" Zhang Dashun walked out of a slightly larger thatched hut with a musket in his hand, an unlucky look on his face, and endless disappointment in his tone.

"Well, not only are all the people dead, not even a single animal is left. ... I don't know which bastard did it!" Ju Changgui walked over from the other direction, his hands empty, obviously not finding anything.

"It was probably done by the Yi people." Wu Donghe squatted next to an indigenous body, looked at it carefully, shook his head and said, "They were all injured by sharp weapons, or they were killed with blunt instruments. Or they were killed by swords. , or tools such as shovels and pickaxes. Of so many corpses, not one of them was shot by a musket."

"Damn it, at the port, when the barbarians entered the country, in addition to confiscating their firearms, they should also confiscate their swords, daggers and other sharp weapons! ... Look at the indigenous tribes nearby. Damn it, let them finish it off! Now we have no place to find a stutter!"

"Hey, come here and take a look!" Suddenly, the voice of the companions came from the back of the camp, with a hint of fear in the angry voice, "These beasts have chopped off the children's hands and feet!"

When everyone heard this, they ran over one after another.

I saw the corpses of six or seven children scattered in the open space behind the camp, and their legs and feet were chopped off without exception, leaving only small half-parts of the corpses, bloody and horrific.

"These people are so cruel, they won't even spare children!" Su Baozhong, who was only 17 years old, felt his stomach churn when he saw this tragic situation. However, in order to avoid being laughed at by his peers, he closed his mouth tightly and endured the discomfort. and quickly shifted his gaze in other directions.

"Why don't they just let these children go?" The experienced Wu Donghe's face turned very ugly, and he said sullenly: "These children's hands and feet were cut off, and they were probably taken away by the perpetrators to use as food rations! "

"Ah!..." After hearing this, everyone looked at each other in shock.

"Ugh..." Su Baozhong immediately squatted on the ground and began to vomit.

"Let's go, you just took advantage of the bad luck." Wu Donghe, the leader, spat on the ground and led his companions away from the massacred aboriginal camp. Vomited... There isn't much in the stomach, so don't vomit out the gall!"

Wu Dong and a group of more than ten people came from Pingzhi Fort (now Harrismith Town, South Africa) more than 200 kilometers away. Stimulated by the first two batches of lucky people who successfully brought back a large amount of gold in the fort, they also came four months ago. They also rode horses and drove carts to the Xingshan gold mining area to pan for gold.

They grabbed a piece of land next to the mining area occupied by the gold mining predecessors in the fort, then set up camp and devoted themselves to the booming gold mining business.In the past few months, due to my lack of experience and my advanced skills, I have only dug out a dozen or so taels of scattered gold, which is still a long way from the sudden wealth I imagined.

Fortunately, after several months of exploration and study, they gradually learned some tips on gold mining. As a result, everyone worked together and divided work among themselves, and began to gain a lot.Half a month ago, they dug out a fist-sized gold nugget from the ore pile, which made everyone excited.

However, while harvesting large amounts of gold, a potential crisis has also befallen countless gold miners.

Although there are no accurate statistics on how many gold prospectors have come to the entire Xingshan gold mining area, as far as you can see, the gold mining area near Zhangdebao is full of temporary tents or shacks.A rough estimate shows that there are not [-] gold diggers who flocked here, but perhaps [-] to [-].

As for other mining areas outside Zhangdebao, the number of people is probably tens of thousands.Moreover, there is still an endless stream of gold prospectors arriving every day, causing this gold mining area with a radius of hundreds of kilometers to suddenly gather a large number of foreign people in less than two years.

Previously, Zhangde Fort was only a fort established less than four years ago, with only over 130 immigrants, and its weak agricultural output has not yet achieved self-sufficiency.In other words, in the entire Xingshan area, all daily supplies, including food, need to be transported from distant places such as Changning and Nanchuan.

After the gold diggers who arrived in the early days exhausted all the materials they carried, in addition to purchasing their daily necessities from Zhangde Fort at a very high price, they also plundered the surrounding indigenous tribes.Livestock, sorghum, millet, cassava, peanuts, any food that could satisfy their hunger and fill their stomachs were all taken away.

It is true that although all firearms were confiscated from European gold diggers entering from Changning, the swords and daggers they carried with them were retained. In addition, in order to mine gold, they purchased a lot of shovels, iron picks, and hoes. Waiting for excavation tools.With these iron weapons, the ruthless gold diggers were still able to crush the Bantu people with few weapons.

At first, the gold diggers only used force to rob the indigenous people of their food, but they did not deliberately kill or massacre each other.However, as supplies in the entire region become increasingly scarce and the available food sources gradually dry up, human beings' hidden bestiality is completely unleashed.

Wu Dong and a group of people have visited several Bantu tribe camps on horseback. Without exception, they have gained nothing. Not only have the tribes' food and livestock been robbed, but even the indigenous people in the camp are divided into men, women, and children. All were slaughtered.

"someone is coming!"

The crowd had just walked out of the camp with their horses, when they suddenly saw a group of cavalry running in the distance, as fast as thunder, heading straight towards their direction. "Get ready, get ready!... Fuck you!" Wu Donghe shouted, quickly disappeared behind the horse, raised the musket in his hand, and pointed it at the incoming enemy from a distance.

It is not common for armed fires to break out in gold mining areas. However, as overseas nationals of the Qianzhou Governor-General of Qi State, they enjoy the full right of self-defense. They not only possess swords, daggers and other close-quarter weapons, but also flintlock firearms that have been eliminated by the army. , facing dozens or hundreds of local natives, he was not afraid at all. Even against those barbarian gold diggers armed with sharp blades, he still took advantage of them.

Therefore, among the people prospecting for gold in the mining areas, those European barbarians who only had cold weapons and mining tools did not dare to provoke the Qi people.

"Brother Wu, it looks like they are coming from the army." Ju Changgui squinted as the cavalry began to slow down slowly and separated into two columns, intending to outflank them. The whole movement was smooth and neat.When they got closer, they saw that the other party was wearing a navy blue military uniform of the Qi Army and a large cap on their head. They were clearly our soldiers of the Qi Army.

"Abandon the weapon!"

"Hands high! ...Come out slowly!"

"..."

"Sir, we are all from Qi!" Wu Dong and several soldiers who were rushed over pushed him to the ground, with their faces on the ground, and shouted loudly: "We are from Pingzhi Fort, and we are all decent citizens of Qianzhou!"

"Good people?" An officer sneered, squatted down, and said disdainfully: "Today, in the entire Xingshan area, where are there any good people?... Did you do this massacred indigenous camp? "

"You're wronged, sir!" Several gold diggers who were pushed to the ground shouted, "Sir, we just came here and were ready to find some food. But we never thought that some bastards had already invaded this place. The camp was completely slaughtered!... And damn, the evil thieves cut off the children's hands and feet and used them as food rations!"

"Huh?!..." When the officer leading the team heard this, he was immediately shocked and waved to several soldiers to enter the camp and take a closer look.

"Since you are the people under the rule of Qianzhou, why don't you just stay where you settled, till the fields and raise livestock, and why do you come here to wade in the muddy water?"

"Sir, how much money can you make by plowing the fields and raising livestock?" After Wu Donghe was let go by the soldiers, he felt very angry, but he did not dare to show it at all. After getting up from the ground, he said carefully to his companions. : "You also know that the gold mine in Xingshan is so big. Just throwing a few pieces of gold into the soil is enough to cover more than ten years of harvest in the fields. Build a new house, buy furniture, and buy some new things for your wife and children at home." Clothes, even if the children go to study in the country in the future, they will all be provided for!"

"Oh, you people, you are all blinded by gold!" The officer said bitterly: "The entire Xingshan area is in chaos, and fighting with weapons can be seen everywhere. Huh, don't do it just for a little gold. Throwing your life here and leaving orphans and widows at home! That’s not worth it!”

"Sir, life and death are determined by destiny, and wealth is in heaven. If you don't risk your life to gain it, you won't make your family poor for the rest of your life!"

"..." After hearing this, the officer sighed slightly and said no more.

Their team of dragoons was ordered to patrol the mining area. In addition to maintaining local security and stopping various armed conflicts, they also looked for opportunities to capture local indigenous people and bring them back to Zhangde Fort to ensure that the gold mines under government control had sufficient labor.

However, after setting off from Zhangde Fort, almost all the indigenous people within dozens of kilometers were attacked by gold prospectors. They were either slaughtered or frightened and hid deep in the mountains without a trace. Within two days, they Nothing was gained.

"Damn, there are too many gold diggers! In order to extract gold, everything here has been completely destroyed. With more than a thousand troops from our two battalions, we simply cannot control the situation here."

After sending away the gold diggers, Yang Huaijun, commander of the second company of the [-]rd mixed battalion of the [-]th Army Regiment, looked at the destroyed indigenous camp in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.

"Sir, since we can't control the situation in Xingshan, why didn't Shangfeng choose to block the port to prevent the entry of those foreign gold diggers?" an accompanying captain (second lieutenant) asked softly.

"Why?" Yang Huaijun smiled bitterly and said, "It's not because the officials of the Qianzhou Governor-General hope to introduce more immigrants with the lure of gold! Think about it, in the past two years, there have been many immigrants from Hanzhou and even Europe. How many people have poured into Qianzhou? It is estimated that there are 8 or [-] people, which is equivalent to the number of immigrants in the previous ten years."

"But many people who find gold will return to their hometowns!"

"So what? As long as half or one-third of the people can stay in Qianzhou, it will be enough to fill up the sparse local population. Besides, the mining of this gold can bring benefits to the entire Qianzhou area. How many business opportunities, how many local constructions can be stimulated, and how many preferential policies can be obtained from the cabinet government! Not to mention, the influx of so many gold diggers is equivalent to adding countless mining labors to the local government in vain. Humph, you think, those How much of the gold dug out by the gold diggers will eventually be brought out of Qianzhou?!"

When the Xingshan gold mine was discovered, the Governor-General of Qianzhou was also worried about social instability and issued a local decree prohibiting private gold mining.However, it is impossible for the government manpower in Qianzhou to stop so many gold diggers, and there is no way to stop them.

So in January last year, the authorities had no choice but to issue an order allowing people to pan for gold freely, but they had to pay a certain amount of gold mining license fees to the government department before mining could be allowed.

As a result, a raging gold rush began to emerge. Going out to dig for gold was like the biggest event that the entire Qianzhou people participated in. Horses, ox carts, horse carts, donkey carts, and dogs were crowded on the various paths leading to Xingshan. With sheep and handcarts, the gold diggers carrying rakes, picks, and shovels are like a rolling army.

In the space of just a few months, many of the male residents of many coastal towns and inland immigrant settlements had disappeared.Wheat fields were deserted, rooms were vacant, businesses were at a standstill, and even some schools were closed.It became increasingly difficult to hire workers, and any business contracts were no longer respected.

It is extremely ironic that many merchant ships from the mainland and India will experience long delays when docking at several important ports such as Changning, Hekou Fort (now East London, South Africa), and Nanhua (now Port Elizabeth, South Africa, also known as Mandela City). The embarrassing situation of not being able to unload the goods for more than ten days.What's more, after hearing the news about the gold mines, some sailors on merchant ships simply dropped their work and went to pan for gold, causing the ships to be abandoned at the dock and unable to move again.

Gold has made everyone crazy.

(End of this chapter)