Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2153 Southeast Asia

"Nozawa-kun, here are your allowances and benefits for this month, please keep them." On August 1691, 8, in a barracks on the outskirts of Brunei New Town, Naoto Nozawa, the deputy captain of the independent death squad of the Brunei garrison, came from The Quartermaster Lieutenant received an envelope, a bag of rice and two jugs of oil in his hand, feeling extremely joyful in his heart.

"Hachi, Kentaro, don't you hurry up and pack up the rice and oil?" After the quartermaster went back to the warehouse to deal with other things, Nozawa Naoto stared at his follower, Komatsu Kentaro, and said.

Komatsu Kentaro, who was wearing a khaki short-sleeved military uniform, immediately said "Hi", then quickly picked up twenty catties of rice and two jugs of palm oil, and followed Naoto Nozawa towards the residential area not far away.

The area of ​​the residential area is very large. It used to be a forest, but it was bought by Dongan people at a price of 1000 yuan and then developed on a large scale.They imported a large amount of forestry machinery from Sakhalin Island, and then used high wages to attract some Brunei people from the surrounding area to come to work, pushing the forest away bit by bit.

The bulldozed forests were turned into residential and commercial areas.A large number of bricks, stones and wood were used in the construction, some of which were collected, and some were purchased from Guangdong Li's.Recently, with the help of people from the east bank, they purchased some brick-making equipment from the east bank, and then sent people to Ningbo to study brick kiln design. It was exported in large quantities.

Speaking of this, I have to mention that in order to collect stones in the nearby mountains, there was a small conflict between the people on the east coast and Brunei.Perhaps because he was upset by being bullied by the people on the east coast, the King of Brunei directly sent more than [-] troops, equipped with muskets and cannons purchased from unknown sources, with the intention of attacking the actual control area of ​​the people on the east coast.At present, the actual owner of Brunei, Captain Ding Wei of the Army Reserve, has mobilized [-] garrison soldiers, relying on the terrain to fight against it, and finally repel the enemy.

Later, the Taiwan Marine Battalion, which was withdrawn to Macau for rest, sent another company to reinforce it, beat up the Brunei side, and forced it to sign a package agreement, the most important of which was that the Brunei Sultanate provided a certain amount of The labor force went to the people on the east bank to do construction, and the east bank paid the salary as appropriate, which greatly accelerated the construction of the east bank control area.

The residential area was built under this background. Currently, there are about 30 apartments ([-] households in one building, all designed according to local requirements) and [-] villas, which are funded and sold by the Bank of Taiwan.Strictly speaking, this is the first time that the trading company has set foot in the real estate industry on a large scale, and it has started the road of diversified operation of the enterprise.

But to be honest, the Bank of Taiwan is actually reluctant to engage in this. After all, they now have a lot of money-making projects, such as bank loans, food imports, foreign trade, etc., with high profit margins and already occupy a huge amount of the company. resources and energy.May I ask under such circumstances, what motivation do they have to run real estate, an industry with mediocre profits, which also consumes a lot of manpower, material resources, and energy?

But there is no way!Now they want to open up the Southeast Asian market. As one of the few strongholds of people from the east coast in Southeast Asia, the importance of Brunei Port is needless to say.Therefore, after careful research, the senior management of the Bank of Taiwan decided to allocate funds and personnel to set up a real estate development department to develop residential and commercial facilities in Brunei Port, and then sell or lease them to locals at a reasonable price in exchange for Brunei’s local The transfer of the commercial interests of the colonial institutions on the eastern coast of China—anyway, they have even issued a lot of low-interest loans, so what about developing some low-cost housing?

Almost half of the houses developed in the first phase were bought by Ding Wei.Of course, this is not using his own money, but an interest-free loan from the Bank of Taiwan.Ding Wei is more cautious. Originally, Denglei wanted to support him in developing alone in Brunei, that is, you can dominate in the future, as long as you act on the east coast. After all, the people who develop and fight in Brunei are mainly He was a servant teacher from Tading's family in Ye County.

But Ding Wei thought to himself that the local situation was complicated. Although his family had some money, it might not be enough when faced with this level of colonial activities.You must know that Brunei is an important trading city in the land below the wind. Merchants from various countries gather here, and a large number of commodities are circulated here. The Brunei royal family is not an uninformed native. Whether it is financial resources or force, they still have some, right? Pure weakling.Ding Wei was worried that even if he threw away all his belongings, he would lose everything in the end.Therefore, he finally decided to be the stationmaster of the East Coast Commercial Station, the first batch of local pioneers, and protect his family's interests in Brunei. It is better to leave the huge costs and risks to the government.

Most of the houses that Ding Wei bought were sold to people from the East Coast who were doing business in Brunei, and the prices were not high, but he could make some money, which could be regarded as a little reward from the East Coast government and the Bank of Taiwan.The remaining half of the houses are still in the hands of the Bank of Taiwan, and they are slowly trying to find a way to sell them to the outside world.It is a pity that most of the east coast people who come to Brunei have not yet completed their original accumulation. Some people even prefer to build their own wooden houses rather than buy government-built brick and stone apartments. This makes the real estate department of the Bank of Taiwan quite sad.

Fortunately, from time to time, the commercial station took part of the profits to buy a few apartments or villas from the Bank of Taiwan, and used them as rewards for the soldiers who made great contributions in the battle against the natives.A guy like Naoto Nozawa, who used to live like a dog in Sendai, was so poor that he almost sold his ancestral samurai sword.After being recruited to Brunei by people from the east coast, together with other Japanese who came over through various channels, they were incorporated into the Death Squad under the Brunei Garrison. The Brunei Garrison currently has two squadrons and a The death squad is composed of 250 people.

The role of the Death Squad, as the name suggests, is to fight with the natives.For example, in some areas with harsh environments, they need to enter to maintain order and even fight; when fighting against organized enemies such as Brunei's official army, they need to charge at critical moments and play a decisive role.Just like the last time he fought hundreds of people sent by the Sultan of Brunei, Naoto Nozawa bravely stepped forward and killed three enemy soldiers in a row, one of whom was an officer. A lot of credit has been paid.

After the battle, the Brunei garrison looked back at the previous battle records and found that this Naoto Nozawa was indeed brave. He had already killed seven people one after another when he conquered the aborigines living in the mountains in the past. The credit goes to the entire garrison. One by one.Therefore, after some discussions, the Brunei defense team directly promoted this person to the deputy captain of the Death Squad and rewarded him with a villa in recognition of his brave performance in previous battles.

Naoto Nozawa received a villa reward, and the military salary was also mentioned as eight yuan. In addition, he could receive some allowances such as rice, flour, grain and oil every month. His life was many times better than the state of starvation when he was in Japan before.Naoto Nozawa can't write, but he has asked his fellow countrymen to write letters back to Japan, and asked some former friends to come to Brunei.After joining the Death Squad, life is basically guaranteed. Every day there is rice, fish, vegetables, soup, and rare commodities such as tobacco, wine and tea.As long as you can enjoy this kind of life for a few months, even death is worth it!

Naoto Nozawa vaguely heard that because more and more people from the east coast are going to settle in Brunei Port—there are already more than 800 households, nearly 4000 men, women and children, mainly from Shandong County and nearby areas—the Sultan of Brunei is very afraid , Already trying to find a way to notify the scattered villages, let them send young and middle-aged people to the city to gather and join the army.Moreover, according to acquaintances of the Dutch East India Company businessman in private, the Sultan of Brunei has ordered a large number of weapons and ammunition from them, and at the same time asked whether he can take care of the mercenaries, which is obviously an attempt.And last month, the Portuguese also came to inform. The Sultan of Brunei paid a lot of money to recruit mercenaries, and there was no upper limit on the number of mercenaries.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the Sultan of Brunei doing this.After all, people were living a good life and carefree, but people from the east coast suddenly came across the sea, and then lingered on, how could this make people feel at ease?What's more, in order to build their own control area, the people on the east bank continue to lure local people to come to work.Over time, a large number of Brunei people lived in the outskirts of the East Bank control area, which greatly weakened the influence and control of the Sultan of Brunei.

Things have come to this point, basically it is difficult to be kind.The Sultan of Brunei is not stupid. Seeing that the number of people on the east coast is increasing, if he doesn't do anything, it will be more difficult in the future.Naoto Nozawa estimated that at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, a war will break out between the two sides.This battle will directly determine the fate of Brunei, and the plan of the people on the east bank is also very clear. Since the Brunei Sultan is so decisive, then simply overthrow his regime and support a new Sultan to come to power.After the strength of the people on the east coast is almost accumulated here, it will not be a problem to directly merge with Brunei!

Naoto Nozawa and Kentaro Komatsu quickly returned to the villa.Nozawa's wife Zhizi took the child to the door to greet him. Nozawa nodded and did not enter the house. Instead, he sat directly under a gazebo in the yard and smoked.

"Kentaro, there is a boat going to Dili Port next month. You should pack your bags and go there. The army is expanding there, and you have a good chance to go there now. It may not be a good thing to stay here in Brunei." Nozawa Naoto smoked a cigarette and said to Kentaro Komatsu who had been by his side for many years.

"Hai! Understood!" Although Komatsu Kentaro was a little bit reluctant, he still responded straightforwardly.

Vice-captain Nozawa had already told him about the matter in Dili. The people from the east coast had clashed with the local Portuguese family, and then quickly wiped them out.Although the Goa side was a little "surprised", they didn't dare to say anything more.Dili now has more than 3000 residents. Similar to Brunei, it is also the military households and their families eliminated in Shandong.Now to expand the defense team, it is probably also necessary to expand the surrounding area.There is no organized aboriginal armed group like the Sultan of Brunei in the local area. It is very easy to expand, and the death rate should be very low. In addition, there are many vacancies now, which is indeed very suitable for Kentaro Komatsu's development in the past.

"Since the establishment of our death squad, the original 50 warriors have changed more than 30 new faces. I will soon fight against the Sultan of Brunei. Even I don't know if I can survive. Kentaro, can you understand my painstaking efforts? "Naoto Nozawa took a puff of cigarette and said in a low voice.

Komatsu Kentaro burst into tears.He understood that this was Vice Captain Nozawa giving him a chance to survive and develop, his wife was just pregnant, if he died in battle, it would be too tragic.

"Or if you want to go to India." Nozawa Naoto said suddenly: "Diu Island is also expanding the garrison, I can recommend you to go there. People on the east coast are no longer satisfied with living in small Diu They are on the island, and they are currently negotiating with the Indians about the development of the border. Once the negotiations fail, armed conflict may break out, so they are expanding the army, and there are also many positions. But there is also a shortcoming, the North Koreans accounted for the death squads that are expanding the army Most, not as reliable as us Japanese."

It is said that the East Bank has recently recruited some North Koreans into the death squads, and then assigned them to Brunei, Dili, Diu and Djibouti to serve.These North Koreans are basically gangsters with criminal records. After committing a crime, they hide in a leased place in Busan, and the North Korean government has nothing to do with them.

Of course, the North Korean government has nothing to do with them, but it doesn't mean that the east bank government has nothing to do with them.In fact, these North Korean desperadoes were basically controlled immediately, and then they were forced to sign an agreement and "voluntarily" serve overseas, otherwise they would be beaten to death and handed over to the North Korean official, so it is very difficult to collect them. Few desperadoes serve as cannon fodder.

Cannon fodder from Korea and Japan has been increasingly relied on by the colonies in the past two or three years.Especially in Brunei, Dili and Diu, where the situation is complicated, there is a great demand for these cannon fodder that dare to fight, and they have been asking for an increase in supply.The East Coast Japanese Company and the leased land in Busan were sweating profusely and tried every means to get people, but they could only barely supplement consumption. It was very difficult to expand the army, and it often took a period of time to gather the number of people.

It was against this background that Naoto Nozawa and Kentaro Komatsu came to Brunei from Japan.It's a pity that their luck is not as good as that of Anda Fifteen back then. It is too difficult to climb up, and it takes life and death again and again to achieve it.It’s just that one’s luck cannot always be so good. No matter how useless Bruneians are, they still have muskets and cannons in their hands, and they also train frequently. Captain, but if you charge too many times, you will inevitably die in battle.They all understand this truth, but the good living conditions and generous pensions for death in war (while also arranging their children to work) make them want to stop, even surpassing the fear of death, and become the psychological pillar to support them to fight on.

"Next year's war will be a hurdle in my life. After passing it, there will be no more tragic wars in the future, and I can enjoy life in peace. If I can't pass it, it will be like that." Naoto Nozawa blew a smoke ring, Said: "I hope the gods will bless you. After controlling Brunei and mastering Dili, the whole of Southeast Asia will be inseparable from our hands. Good days will come for everyone in the future, Kentaro, wipe away your tears, the Sendai man is not happy This. I hope we can meet again in the future, and we can even go back to Japan to have a look together. Don’t worry, we will be citizens of the east coast by then, and those guys from the shogunate will not dare to do anything to us, haha. I really hope to see the previous contempt Our people are astonished, Komatsu-kun, work hard!"

A siren sounded on the sea not far away.Nozawa and Komatsu knew that it was another ship transporting immigrants and supplies to the port, and the determination of the people on the east coast to control the trade hub of Brunei, a land below the wind, seemed unstoppable.Once Brunei is firmly under control, the next target is probably Malacca, right?That is the territory of the Dutch East India Company, and it may not be easy to win it.But this is none of my business anymore. My roots are in Brunei, and there is a high probability that my descendants will also live in Brunei.Malacca, that is someone else's opportunity, or someone else's grave!

(End of this chapter)