Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2220 Ruler of the Spice Sea

Port of Dili, September 1693, 9.

The port of Dili is empty at this time of year, with vegetable leaves, rotten wood and animal carcasses floating in the port.A few native Malays in canoes searched in vain for every one to sell the fruit and fish in their cabins, but in vain.A few Malay-Portuguese people (Mixed Malay-Portuguese) wearing police uniforms on the shore patrolled lazily, eager to walk through the street and cool off in the police station.The only ones who are busy are probably the dock laborers who are working hard to carry the grain. Most of them are native Malays and live in poverty. They may not survive without selling their labor power under the hot sun.

Komatsu Kenjiro, wearing a brand new summer short-sleeved military uniform of the East Coast Army Reserve, sat under a pergola and asked his boss to bring him a bowl of herbal tea.The owner of this humble herbal tea shop is a Cantonese, but he was not born and bred in Guangdong, but was born in Batavia. I don’t know how many generations of old Canton. Hearing that the Chinese army occupied half of Timor Island, he was fart. Diandi's family immigrated here and made a living by running a small business.

Of course, the boss also knows now that it is not the Chinese army that occupies Timor Island, but the East Coast army.But it doesn't matter anymore, for him, they are all family, and he can get better protection here than Batavia.In the Dutch city where he used to live, although the Dutch red hair had a good relationship with the east coast government and relied heavily on business, it still had its own interests after all.Although it is not possible to do things that will harm their Chinese community on a large scale, some suppression or blackmail is inevitable, and sometimes they will instigate the natives to violate their interests, so life is not very comfortable.

It's different now when I come to Timor Island.After painstakingly learning East Coast Mandarin for a while, and barely passed, they immediately obtained the status of nationals of the overseas colonies of the East Coast Republic of China. , much higher than the indigenous Malays.

The only pity is that there doesn't seem to be much arable land on Timor Island.The mountains here are so majestic and steep, almost covering most of the entire island.The mountains are densely forested, inaccessible, and roads are impassable.If you want to go to the other side of the island, you can only take a boat, which is very inconvenient.

The owner of the tea shop originally planned to farm the land, because his family made a living by growing vegetables in the suburbs of Batavia.Later, after selling the land and immigrating to Timor Island, the family still intends to make a living on agriculture.It's a pity that the amount of land here is very small, and most of it is in the hands of the Portuguese nobles. After the people on the east bank cleaned up some disobedient nobles and auctioned some of the land, the supply was still very tight, so he had no choice but to sell the land. Qian bought a house in the suburbs, and the old parents planted some melons and beans around the house, and the two of them took their children to run a tea shop near the pier, struggling to make ends meet.

However, I heard that the government is recruiting those Denglai military households recently, intending to search for possible natives in the nearby mountains, and then open up some plantations.The plantations will be mainly coffee, cocoa, spices and maybe some orchards, but not too many.The owner of the tea shop is very concerned about this matter. He thinks that once some mountainous land is opened up, there should be some prospects for the cultivation of cash crops.It just so happened that his brother also planned to come over from Batavia. If this came true, then going to the mountains to grow coffee would be a way, and it would be good for the island.After all, with such a big island, you can't just sell wood for a living, can you?That little income may not even be able to cover the cost of importing food from Australia, Rabaul and other places. In the end, the two places have to sell half and give it away, and implement financial subsidies. This is not a long-term solution.

Speaking of going into the mountains to open up plantations, it is actually a helpless move by the people on the east coast.Although the geographical location of Timor Island is important, there is indeed too little arable land, and the food production is quite insufficient.Because it is administratively classified as the jurisdiction of the Australian Management Committee, the food and meat here are mainly provided by Western Australia, which is actually carried out in the form of financial subsidies.However, the Australian Management Committee clearly cannot tolerate this kind of situation where there is no limit to the jurisdiction, so Peng Yuanzhi, the director of the Management Committee, ordered the planting of cash crops in Timor Island to provide income from commodity trade and reduce the financial investment pressure of the Management Committee.

Of course, Timor Island still has the potential for arable land development. The Portuguese did not do a good job in this regard. Now that the people from the east coast have come, it is natural to set things right and redevelop more arable land.Peng Yuanzhi believes that with the agricultural technology of the East Coast people, they will definitely be able to make better use of the value of the cultivated land and produce more food than the half-baked Portuguese and Malays who don't understand anything.And only such a two-pronged approach is the way to finally solve the food shortage in Timor Island.

Kenjiro Komatsu had no land.As a sergeant major of the Dili garrison, this former Japanese samurai chose to take money (according to regulations, soldiers can receive a certain amount of land at a low price), and then bought a two-story villa in the city—— Yes, that’s right, this villa was developed by the real estate department of the Bank of Taiwan, and it was obviously forced to let the wife and children live in it, and also hired a poor Ma-Portuguese woman as a nanny to help take care of.

Because there has been no war for a while, Komatsu Kenjiro's life in Dili Port is quite comfortable, at least compared to his one who has experienced several brutal wars, and has just been promoted to the captain of the Death Squad (the former captain was in the Qing Dynasty. Naoto Nozawa, who was too unlucky when he was born, was injured by a stray bullet and later died), is much more comfortable, at least his life is not in danger, isn't it?

Komatsu Kentaro is currently serving as the captain of the border guard in the port area of ​​Dili Port.They are not responsible for the security of the port area. That is the responsibility of the police station. They are mainly responsible for checking whether there are any contraband carried by the passing ships and whether there are any dangerous and suspicious elements. Wait for the main force of the defense team in the city to come for reinforcements.

Komatsu Kentaro is quite competent for this job and has made certain achievements.For example, just last month, he cracked an answer with a weapon in it.The reason was that a Portuguese merchant ship sailing from Goa carried hundreds of flintlock muskets and ammunition that were not included in the cargo list, and intended to hand them over to a local Portuguese nobleman, but was captured by the border guards on the spot. get.Later, after interrogation, it was learned that the weapons were sold to the captain of the merchant ship after people from the Goa arsenal stole the arsenal, and then the captain of the merchant ship planned to sell them to a local Portuguese nobleman. The price is very good, enough to make him take the risk.

Buying weapons without reporting is obviously a felony in the eyes of the people on the east coast!Therefore, the garrison quickly assembled and arrested the Portuguese nobleman for interrogation.During the period, the local governor of Portugal came to intercede, but after the trial results came out, he wisely shut his mouth immediately, because the nobleman was suspected of conspiring against the rule of the people on the east coast, so he was quickly sentenced to confiscation of property and deportation Punishment—Isn't it ironic that Dili Port is legally still the territory of the Kingdom of Portugal, but the east coast judge sentenced him to deportation, which is really speechless.

Komatsu Kentaro was commended by his superiors for discovering this illegal arms transaction in time. It is said that next month he will take a boat to the Army Non-commissioned Officer Academy in Brunei Port for advanced studies. After returning, he will be a serious officer with a bright future.

Speaking of Brunei Port, the situation there has also undergone tremendous changes recently, and the first to bear the brunt is the downfall of the Brunei royal family.The Sultan of Brunei feared that more and more immigrants from the east coast were gathering near the capital, so he tried to hook up with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English to fight.As a result, the Portuguese and the Dutch successively reported the situation to the east bank, and the English wisely did not participate. The conspiracy of the Sultan of Brunei was exposed almost from the beginning.

The next thing is very simple.After more than half a year of preparation, the people on the east bank assembled hundreds of troops, more than 20 artillery pieces and six warships, and launched a "false punishment" against Brunei Port.They first used warships to raid the port forts of the Bruneians and easily destroyed their facilities, and then began to bombard the port indiscriminately, throwing the Bruneians into chaos.

At this time, the East Coast Army (including two companies of the well-trained Taiwan Marine Battalion) who arrived at the scheduled attack site also started to attack. After a fierce exchange of fire, they successfully entered the urban area of ​​Brunei.The young men recruited by the Sultan of Brunei fired a few shots indiscriminately, and immediately dispersed, completely exposing the palace to the soldiers of the East Coast.

The final battle began with the offensive and defensive battle of the palace. The captain of the death squad Naoto Nozawa led more than 80 soldiers under his command to launch a desperate attack at the critical moment.He himself led [-] of the most elite warriors, the "Sword Drawing Team", to take the lead, braved the intensive firepower of the Brunei musketeers to attack the enemy, beheaded its commander with a single knife, and became the last straw that overwhelmed the Brunei people.

Subsequently, the Sultan of Brunei set fire to himself in the palace - the real situation is that this person wanted to burn the palace and fled, but was caught and executed by the people on the east coast, claiming that the Sultan set himself on fire in fear of crime - the people on the east coast took the gold and silver accumulated in the palace over the years The jewels were all looted, and there was still plenty of money to cover the cost of sending troops this time.After all, Brunei Port is the trading hub of the Land Below the Wind, and the Sultan himself must have a lot of wealth. It is a pity that he has already spent a lot of money to recruit troops and purchase weapons, which resulted in the insufficient amount of spoils this time. expected.

But it doesn’t matter, the East Coast people then took control of Brunei Customs, and the long-term income will be controlled by the East Coast people themselves. I believe that Jiang Yunfan, the director of the Lianwu Management Committee who is in charge of managing here, will be very happy to build Lianwu There is a new source of funding.

Although the Brunei royal palace was breached by people from the east coast, the country was not destroyed.Due to various considerations, the people on the East Coast finally selected a young and ignorant child from the Brunei Sultan's clan as the new Sultan, and at the same time sent a series of advisers to their court to fully control its internal affairs and foreign affairs.The remaining Brunei army has also been completely disbanded. In the future, the security and defense of Brunei will be taken care of by people from the east coast.

In view of the deep hostility of Brunei's ruling and opposition parties towards the people on the east coast, the people on the east coast also carried out a major cleansing after their victory this time.A large number of Brunei officials, chiefs, military officers and even ordinary soldiers were tried. Together with their family members, nearly thousands of people were implicated and all were imprisoned in concentration camps. Batches are shipped to the area along the yellow-black dividing line on the African continent, and they are incorporated into the Eight Banners of the islands for management-the premise is that these people must convert to Taoism on the east coast, otherwise they will stay in concentration camps for the rest of their lives farming.

The growing stability of the two bases in Brunei and Dili is undoubtedly crucial for the people on the east coast to control the maritime trade routes of the Spice Islands.That is to say, the number of warships stationed by people from the east coast is insufficient, but after the old warships partially eliminated by the first fleet arrive in the Far East, the strength of the Southeast Asia Squadron of the third fleet will be greatly enhanced, and the people from the east coast will be able to fight in Brunei and the Imperial Army. The permanent fleets stationed in the two ports are crucial to the improvement of their voice and influence in the local area.Considering the relationship between the Dutch government, the Spanish government and the east coast, it is basically very clear who will own this fertile and vast sea area in the future.

(End of this chapter)