1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 533 Xuanwu
On February 1645, 2, at the northwest corner of Weiyuan Island, Xuanwu Fort (now Sorong, a coastal city in the northwest of Papua, Indonesia).

A [-]-ton galley belonging to the Weiyuan Fleet slowly leaned against the simple wooden pier. Several Annan people greeted it excitedly, took the cables thrown by the sailors on the ship, and dragged the ship vigorously. dragged to shore.

"Hurry up and organize people to unload the cargo, otherwise, it will be dark later!" Xingshun Captain Miao Sangui ordered to Ruan Youzhi, the temporary person in charge of Xuanwu Castle, after getting off the ship.

"Yes, General." Ruan Youzhi replied respectfully, and then turned to greet some local soldiers to drive the natives over to unload the goods.

"I said, you six NO.70 people have been here for more than three months, and the progress of the whole construction is a bit slow!" Miao Sangui stood on the pier with a few sailors and looked at the surrounding environment. Shaking his head, he said, "There are not even many wooden houses. Where do you let the people on our boat sleep? Could it be that they still sleep on the boat?"

"General, there are quite a lot of rainy days here, and it rains every two days." Ruan Youzhi carefully explained: "The climate is hot and humid, and mosquitoes are rampant. After a few months, seventeen people have died because of the unacceptable water and soil. gone."

"No way, your first batch of pioneers who came here were either natives from Timor Island or Annan people like you. They should have endured the hot and humid environment. Didn't they distribute some yellow flowers to you? Artemisia? How could so many people die? Are you well protected on weekdays?" Miao Sangui asked in surprise.

"Those who are sick also take Artemisia annua, otherwise more people will die. The climate here is hot and humid, if the whole body is covered tightly, it is really uncomfortable. Therefore, when working, many people..." Ruan Youzhi Said with a bitter face.

"Hmph, when I came here, I told you that this place is full of mosquitoes. If you are bitten too much, you will inevitably get malaria, and you will die a hundred times. You bastards, you just lost your life just for the sake of a momentary pleasure. , who is to blame for this?" Miao Sangui said regretfully.

Ruan You heard the words and was speechless.

We Annan people live well in Pulian Gedi (the area around Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam today), because the Khmers came and ran to your place called Lin’an Bao (Vung Tau City, Vietnam) with a group of refugees. After staying for a long time, they were loaded and dragged to Timor Island by you Hanzhou people, and then to Weiyuan Island.

A few months ago, some of us Annan people who were going to settle there were suddenly transferred to this wild seaside to help you open up this stronghold.God is sorry, we have probably traveled tens of thousands of miles by sea in the past two years, going round and round, as if we have reached the ends of the earth.

Who can blame this?Wasn't it because of you Hanzhou people's troubles that we left our hometown and came to this place full of miasma and epidemics? If we are not careful, we will lose our lives!

Although you masters of Hanzhou have allocated forty or fifty natives to us to assist us in the development of this place.But those stupid natives don't seem to know how to work, and the continuous rain here makes the various colonization work lag behind.Fortunately, since February, the rain has become less, but the temperature is still hot.This broken place is far worse than Annan.

Xuanwu Fort was in October last year, because it was rumored that the Dutch had set up a secret stronghold in Hanzhou. Although it has not been confirmed, the Qi State must take countermeasures as a necessary countermeasure against the bold behavior of the Dutch. established for countermeasures.

At that time, the staff made a radical suggestion, that is, to communicate with the Kingdom of Mataland and directly obtain a secret stronghold somewhere along the coast of Java Island to deal with the threat of the Dutch.

Qi Tian directly rejected this suggestion. Java Island is the center of the Dutch forces and has unprecedentedly powerful sea power. Even if there is a stronghold, how can it be supported for a long time under the blockade of the Dutch ships.Of course, it is also possible to rely on supplies from the Kingdom of Mataland in the inland area to firmly hold that stronghold, but in this way, a stronghold that can be blocked by the Dutch at any time seems to be of little value.

Afterwards, Qi Tian pointed to the northwest corner of Weiyuan Island on the map, suggesting to find a base in that area, and then carry out some construction.It is very close to the most important Spice Islands of the Dutch East India Company. Once they turn against the Dutch, they can rely on the numerous supply points on Weiyuan Island to frequently attack the Spice Islands.After all, Ambon, the ruling center there, has been captured twice by them, and they will be familiar with it next time.

After the decision was made, the Weiyuan Island General District was immediately ordered to start organizing ships to explore and colonize the northwest region of the island.At the end of November last year, it was determined to establish a settlement here.Because the purpose of establishing a stronghold here is to threaten the Spice Islands of the Dutch in the future, the place was named Xuanwu.

Considering that the environment is humid and hot, and it is an undeveloped area, the mortality rate of the early residents must be very high. The Weiyuan Island General District does not want to easily consume the hard-won Han immigrants.Immediately, a number of Annanites and natives of Timor Island were recruited from various forts under its jurisdiction, and six to seventy people were gathered, and they were thrown into this place named Xuanwu Fort for preliminary development.

Now that three months have passed, two masonry houses have been built in the entire camp. It is estimated that they were built hastily for storing supplies. The other houses are all wooden houses, but the number is very small. I don’t know the six NO. How did 70 people sleep in one pile in such a hot and humid environment?

"General, are the additional people from the...nationality?" Ruan You saw 50 to 30 people coming off the boat one after another. In addition to more than [-] Timor Island natives, there were more than a dozen bare-headed Han Chinese-looking men. , I couldn't help feeling anxious, could it be that Master Hanzhou appointed officials to replace him as Annan's management staff?
"National?" Miao Sangui was stunned for a moment when he heard this word, and then he burst into a smile. Well, we Han people in Qi are nationalities, and the rest are barbarians.

"Those people, although they belong to the nation, are the defeated soldiers captured by us in Daming. The adults above said that these people should be forced to reform through labor." Miao Sangui glanced at those who were disembarking. Jiannu captives, "However, don't treat them too harshly, and let them die easily."

Ruan Youzhi breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the words, and looked at the Jiannu prisoners standing dejectedly on the pier, with a smug expression on their faces.Since the above said that these people were sent here to undergo so-called labor reform, it was not driven by them to be enslaved.
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January 3, Hanzhou, Jianye City.

In the hall of the royal palace, the main military and civilian officials of the Qi State were sitting tight and listening to the exploration fleet commander Dong Fengshan introduce the situation of the Dutch's secret stronghold in the north of Hanzhou.

"...The Dutch stronghold is very close to our Jianye City, with a range of about 500 miles. If the Dutch secretly assemble an attack fleet here, they can suddenly attack our Jianye City in less than three days. Dong Fengshan said with a serious expression: "That stronghold is very hidden. When our two exploration ships sailed into the narrow bay, we couldn't find its existence. We still sent a ten-man team to land on the shore to search. There are results."

"However, when the search team returned, they were discovered by the Dutch. When four of them were covering other teammates boarding and evacuating, they may be captured or killed by the other party. Considering that the Dutch will have a supply ship coming, we have no Stayed for a long time, quickly withdrew from the bay, and then returned to Jianye Port. According to the description of the search team, the stronghold established by the Dutch is not large, with a radius of about 700 meters. There are artillery at the top of the city, but the number of garrison personnel is unknown.”

"Didn't the Dutch set up forts on the shore?" Qi Dajiang asked.

"No." Dong Fengshan said: "The Dutch stronghold must pass through a long and narrow bay with dense forests on both sides. Even at the end of the bay, you still need to land on the shore to find this place. We can't find the stronghold at all, and I think it's for this reason that the Dutch don't see the need for coastal defense batteries."

"Now that we have found the location, we will send a fleet with landing combat personnel to pull out this stronghold!" Luo Rucheng said loudly: "If one day they fight against the Dutch, they may use this stronghold to harass and block us at any time." Jianye Port, the threat is too great!"

"It's not difficult to pull out this stronghold. But if so, we may enter a state of war with the Dutch again." Prime Minister Pan Qifeng said: "You must know that our main land forces and some ships are still stuck in the east of Daming Mountain. region. If there is a rash conflict with the Dutch, it will definitely have a great impact on our military intervention in Daming."

"What's the opinion of the staff?" Qi Dajiang asked.

"So far, in the entire Nanyang region, the Dutch's sea power still far exceeds ours. If we want to have a direct conflict with the Dutch because of this, then we may have to abandon all investment in Daming and concentrate all our strength in Nanyang Only in this way can we barely fight a limited war with the Dutch. In this way, all our early investment in Ming Dynasty will be in vain." Cui Shaochuan said solemnly: "Therefore, our staff suggested that we send warships to the Dutch stronghold to declare our Blockade this stronghold by force. At the same time, actively negotiate with the Dutch on the diplomatic front, and force the Dutch to withdraw this stronghold through negotiations. After all, the Dutch have violated the peace agreement signed by both parties.”

"What if the Dutch also send ships to this stronghold and have an armed confrontation with us?" Luo Rucheng asked: "If there is a conflict, won't it also trigger a war?"

"This kind of confrontation may exist. But we suggest that it is better not to have an armed conflict. We have reason to believe that the Dutch do not want to have another war with us." Cui Shaochuan said: "According to the black guards in Batavia According to the news, the Dutch have turned against Zheng Zhilong and sent dozens of armed merchant ships to the waters of Daming and Japan, waiting for an opportunity to attack Zheng Zhilong’s merchant ships traveling between the two places. We think that the Dutch should not want to provoke two enemies at the same time.”

"Then why don't we take this opportunity and join forces with Zheng Zhilong to deal with the Dutch?" Luo Rucheng asked again.

"Because we have to try our best to interfere with the situation in Daming, and we also need to speed up immigration. Therefore, our limited power can only be invested in one direction."

After hearing this, everyone sighed.

"The Dutch came all the way from Europe to do business, and they won't fight us easily." Qi Tian said, "So, we just need to show the Dutch our determination to fight, and they will fight with us." We have reached a mutually satisfactory outcome on this matter and will eventually dismantle this stronghold."

(End of this chapter)