1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 842 The plans of all parties in Luzon

On June 1669, 6, Weiguo, Yizhou City (now Legazpi City, Philippines).

Cheng Guangyin, Duke of the State of Wei, stood on the high platform of the Jiaojun Field, looking at the lineup of the guards below, he couldn't help but feel great pride in his chest, as if the world was under his control.

"Mr. Wei, when will we send troops to the north to attack the son of the Zheng family, and then dominate Luzon main island, and thus establish the century-old foundation of our country?" Shi Yuanping, the commander-in-chief of the army of the Wei country, was dressed in military uniform, with a high-spirited appearance.

"Send troops? Hehe..., we won't send troops north for the time being, maybe now is not the time to attack the Zheng family." Cheng Guangyin shook his head and said with a smile: "Because our suzerain state - Qi State will not allow us to capture Zheng's territory, Monopolize the entire Luzon Island."

"Ah!...Why is this?" Shi Yuanping looked at Duke Wei in astonishment upon hearing this.

"Because we are a vassal state of Qi State." Cheng Guangyin said with a wry smile: "A powerful vassal state, and it is thousands of miles away from the mainland of Hanzhou, it may be difficult for Qi State to control and restrain it. .”

"The National Assembly of Qi is afraid of the strengthening of our defense?" Shi Yuanping asked cautiously.

"What do you think?"

"The Qi State wants to keep the Zheng family in Luzon, and use it to contain our Wei State in the future." Shi Yuanping said thoughtfully: "At the same time, it can also prevent our Wei State from growing. In this way, we can use them to become stronger." Our navy, as well as several territories in Luzon, can firmly control our country of Wei."

"That's right!" Cheng Guangyin nodded, and then sighed, "Qi State wants to put our Wei State in the status of a vassal forever, and become an important chess piece for Qi State to realize its hegemony in Nanyang."

"..." Shi Yuanping listened and wanted to say something, but the corners of his mouth moved a few times and he gave up.

"Do you want to ask, knowing that the Qi Congress opposes our use of force against the Zheng family, why have you continued to mobilize the army and frequently provoke military threats against the Zheng family during the past few months?"

"King Wei has his own gully in his heart, and I dare not speculate in vain." Shi Yuanping bowed and said.

"There is a folk saying that children who cry will have milk." Cheng Guangyin patted Shi Yuanping on the shoulder with a smile, then walked down the high platform slowly, and waved his arms at the array of guard officers and soldiers below, immediately attracting enthusiasm from the officers and soldiers respond.

"Crying children have milk?" Shi Yuanping was stunned for a moment, as if he understood the meaning of this sentence, "Since the Qi State will not give us the entire Luzon Island, we must take some other benefits to properly comfort and compensate. After all, as the boss, you can't wrong the younger brother like this!"

In the entire Luzon Islands, except for Mindanao, which has not been captured by the Qi, Wei, and Zheng families for the time being due to the existence of several powerful Tubang kingdoms, basically all the slightly larger islands have been divided up by the three families.

The Zheng family occupies the central and northern regions of the Big Island of Luzon, which can be regarded as the essence of Luzon.

Yizhou occupies the southern part of Luzon, Longshan Island (now Samar Island, the third largest island in Luzon), Jiyang Island (now Wright Island), and the subsidiary islands around the above-mentioned big island.

The Luzon General Administration of Qi State occupies Luzhong Island (now Cebu Island), Luotian Island (now Bohe Island), Yongnian Island (now Negros Island), Pingyang Island (now Panay Island), Fushan Island (now Mindoro Island), Jinsha Island (Masbate Island) and many other islands, if you add the Hengshan Islands (now Batam Islands) in the north of Luzon Island and Yongji Island ( Today's Palawan Island), and the hard-core vassal Sulu Kingdom, faintly formed a ring around Zheng and Wei.

Among these three factions, the Zheng family has the largest population, with over 30 people, followed by the Wei State, with nearly [-] people. The Luzon General Administration of Qi State, although it occupies countless islands, has a population of only [-] people. And most of them are concentrated in the three islands of Luzhong Island, Pingyang Island and Yongnian Island.As for the other islands, they just planted a Qi flag and set up one or two settlements along the coast to declare their sovereignty.

Since Zheng's Luzon territory cannot be seized, and the islands occupied by Qi are even less dared to get involved, then Mindanao, which is still in a state of chaos and has not yet been divided, has become the expansion target of the Wei Kingdom.

Since Weiguo discovered several gold mines in the mountains more than 100 kilometers northeast of Yizhou eight years ago, he immediately became a small local tyrant.For this purpose, Weiguo conscripted tens of thousands of natives and carried out large-scale excavation.

Relying on the abundance of gold and silver, the Wei State not only purchased more than ten retired warships from the Qi State one after another, and established an all-arms force with a size of 800 people, but also rapidly expanded the scale of immigration from Daming through population trading. .In less than a few years, the domestic population has increased from less than 20 to 30.

With money, people, and not-so-weak military power, the entire Wei State has the desire to expand its territory.If you don't take advantage of the strong aggressiveness at the beginning of the founding of the country, and under the situation of Qi's multi-party support, open up more territories, then if the future generations are weak and incompetent and want to prodigal, at least the capital in their hands will be thicker, right? .

Of course, the ambitions of many rulers of the Wei Kingdom, including Wei Guogong Cheng Guangyin, were limited to expanding some territories, and they did not dare to challenge Qi's regional hegemony.Not to mention the powerful naval strength of Qi State in this region, it is their absolute economic control in Luzon, which also makes Wei State fully dependent on Qi foreign countries politically and militarily, and the domestic economy and foreign trade are also subject to Qi State Controlled by several big trading companies.

There are a large amount of natural resources such as abaca, dipterocarp, ebony and sandalwood in the territory of Weiguo, and the coastal aquatic resources are even more abundant.Coupled with the vast and fertile farmland covered by volcanic ash, the more than 30 people in Weiguo lived a richer and more comfortable life than Daming.Of course, this kind of good life is only limited to the people who are mainly Han Chinese.Those stupid and lazy natives were all reduced to slaves in many plantations and mines under the supervision of Wei Guo's swords, guns and leather whips.

That's right, just like the Qi State, those Luzon natives are not considered official subjects of the Wei State, and because more than 20 years ago, at the instigation of the Spaniards, they massacred the Luzon Ming people.Therefore, all the Luzon natives who were conquered and plundered were reduced to slaves by the government, and they had to live their lives for the development and construction of the defending country.Of course, the status and treatment of some young native women will be slightly improved after being promised to immigrants.

The State of Wei wanted to persuade the State of Qi to attack and plunder the Sultanate Kingdoms of the True God Sect on Mindanao Island. Apart from expanding its territory, it also wanted to plunder more slaves in order to increase the labor force in the country and increase the development of the territory.

---------

On June 6, Luzhong Island, Fort Runing (now Cebu City, Philippines).

"On April 4th, Li Dingguo, King Gan of the Ming Dynasty and the commander of the Eastern Route Army, left behind all the logistics and supplies, and led more than 15 light troops to gallop for several days and nights. In addition, the Qing army was defeated and retreated to Jinan, and the siege of Jining, which lasted for several months, was finally broken."

"On May 5, our Army of the State of Qi joined forces with Yunzhou Township to set up an ambush in Changli, killing more than 2 cavalrymen from the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty.

"On May 5, the local officials of Denglai, Qing Dynasty, and the garrisoned Green Battalion collectively cut off their braids and declared that they would oppose the Qing and return to the Ming Dynasty. On May 12, more than 5 troops of the Ming Army, with the cooperation of the Yizhou Navy, entered Hong Kong landing, and the main force of the Ming army gathered in Jining one after another, formed a pincer attack on the Qing army in Shandong."

"On May 5, Wang Ziqi, the commander-in-chief of the West Route Army of the Ming Army, dispatched a partial division to break through Wuguan and entered Guanzhong from the southeast. Retreat to the front line of Lantian and Xianyang, and resist steadily."

"On May 5, more than 22 people from Yunzhou Town landed in Jinzhou on the Liaodong Peninsula, and slowly attacked northward."

"..."

Lu Shangping, chief executive of Luzon District of Qi State, put down the intelligence briefing from Daming, then picked up the teacup on the table, blew on the tea powder on the rim, and took a sip comfortably.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see the situation in this continent, and the time for the defeat of the Qing captives has entered the countdown.As long as the Ming army does not make any low-level mistakes in the follow-up battlefield, relying on its strong logistics, it will fight steadily, and in addition, more than [-] troops from Qi State and Yunzhou Town will attack and harass its rear, it will be difficult for the Qing army to continue to support .

If the Qing captives know the opportunity, they will resolutely abandon Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin, and then quickly gather a large army to open up the Liaoxi Corridor and regain Shanhaiguan. Maybe they can retreat into Liaodong safely before winter.In this way, it is possible to restore the situation before the Qing captives entered the pass, and confront the Ming army in western Liaoning.

But if the Qing captives were struggling desperately, they would have to fight to the death with the Ming army in Hebei, the capital and other places.Then they are very likely to lose sight of others under the joint attack of various forces, and may eventually be completely wiped out in the pass.Then, whether it is Liaodong or Monan, after losing the main force of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia, the future will be a fruit that the Ming army can easily get.

"The Great Ming Dynasty is about to be unified, and Qi State needs to make early preparations." Lu Shangping ordered several officials from the General Manager's Mansion to be summoned and began to arrange work arrangements for the next few months. Far Island (now New Guinea Island), remote control of Borneo, will face the most rare opportunity for development, both in terms of strategic positioning and in terms of its own strength development."

"In addition, this war between the Ming and Qing Dynasties will inevitably cause millions of refugees in the northern part of the mainland. This is both an opportunity and a risk for us Qi. If there is no accident, in the next six months In time, our country of Qi will usher in an unprecedented wave of immigration. Under this situation, our Luzon District will inevitably be entrusted with more obligations and responsibilities by the local people. Among them, the most critical and important thing is , that is to provide the food needed by countless immigrants, and it is... a lot of food!"

"General manager, half a month ago, my Luzon general area just experienced a typhoon. The strong wind was accompanied by heavy rainfall, and the farmland was also flooded. It is estimated that the summer rice harvest may be reduced by more than [-]%. In this case Now, we may not be able to accumulate too much food." Hu Yanrong, the magistrate of Runing County, said with a sad face.

As we all know, the growth cycle and yield of food crops are closely related to the light, heat, water and other conditions of the surrounding environment, among which light and heat are the most important factors.Water sources can be allocated through human wisdom and hard work, but light and heat are directly related to climate, and it is almost impossible to allocate them.Rice production, in temperate regions, can only be done once a year, but in the subtropics where there are more abundant light and heat conditions, it becomes twice a year, and in the tropics, rice can even be harvested three times a year.If the water resources in the tropics are abundant, the advantages for the cultivation of food crops are very large.

The entire Luzon Islands has a typical tropical marine monsoon climate, with sufficient light and heat, and abundant water. In addition, many islands are covered with a layer of volcanic ash, and the soil is fertile. It can be regarded as an area with extremely superior agricultural production conditions.

However, the Luzon Islands are also a typhoon-prone area, and more than 20 large and small typhoons land on the Luzon Islands every year.The typhoon brings a large amount of precipitation to Luzon and is accompanied by strong winds. Therefore, food crops are also affected by disasters such as floods and mudslides, resulting in large-scale food production reductions of varying degrees.

Last month, a severe typhoon passed through the Luzon Islands. Strong winds and heavy rains ravaged Luzhong Island, Yongnian Island and other major populated islands, causing severe damage to the agricultural production of the Luzon General District.The rice that is still in the filling stage is lodging in a large area, and the water in the farmland is full of feet.After the disaster, although farmers rescued themselves, the losses were still heavy.

"I don't want to hear what difficulties you are talking about now." Lu Shangping glanced at the several officials sitting there, and said seriously: "Since you have been appointed local officials close to the people, in addition to protecting the environment and the people, you also have the important task of developing people's livelihood. To solve the crisis and difficulties of the country, and to deal with the power of sudden major events. The typhoon has passed through the country and the agriculture has been damaged. The production of this summer rice has already been reduced. But the autumn rice to be planted next, in addition to completing the original cultivated land on time and maintaining the quality, needs to be completed. Correspondingly expand the planting area. In addition, crops with huge yields such as potatoes and sweet potatoes can also be planted in fields, hillsides, valleys and other places that do not occupy much land. In short, in the next six months, our Luzon District must prepare a lot Three to four months of food reserves for 5 people."

"...Yes, chief executive." Several officials promised with embarrassment on their faces.

"Several temporary immigrant camps need to be expanded on the existing basis, and the settlements in various counties under the jurisdiction must also be prepared to receive a large number of immigrants."

"Yes, Chief Manager."

"Wang Bingbei, after the harvest of summer rice, he mobilized and gathered soldiers from all over the country to carry out a large-scale clean-up of the native tribes in some inland areas. First, to open up more new settlements for the new arrivals, and second Those who brought back some native coolies to fill the needs of labor in various places.”

"Yes, Chief Supervisor!" Wang Rongxin, the chief envoy of Luzon's military preparations and roads, bowed and promised.

(End of this chapter)