Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 664 The Situation in the Xinhua Colony is Not Optimistic

In terms of ruthlessness, Li Yuan far surpasses Emperor Chenghui. The once so-called gentle and benevolent wise king has made a rather drastic turn after suffering a loss.

A comparison with Emperor Chenghui's actions makes it clear that no matter how much trouble the maternal relatives and imperial clansmen caused, as long as they did not rebel, Emperor Chenghui would not take drastic measures.

Two years after Li Yuan ascended the throne, having just secured his position, he directly exiled the veteran royal prince, Prince Zhongshun, along with a number of other members of the royal family and two newly appointed relatives of the emperor.

Such a thing would never have happened during Emperor Chenghui's reign. Li Yuan's initial plan was probably to kill a few people.

His younger brother, Li Heng, was merely testing the waters before being directly thrown into a Xinhua colony.

Li Yuan's series of actions greatly intimidated the imperial relatives, nobles, and other powerful figures.

Jia Lian saw this and secretly became wary of Li Yuan.

Because of Empress Dowager Zhou's request, Li Heng's trip was postponed for a month, and he stayed in the capital for the entire month of February, which made the atmosphere in the capital a bit tense.

In early March, after the weather warmed up and the required ships were assembled, Li Heng had no choice but to leave the capital.

After boarding the train, they traveled to Tianjin, rested for a day, and then boarded a ship to the Nagasaki concession. The arrival of dozens of warships and hundreds of merchant ships in Nagasaki gave the shogunate quite a fright.

Starting from Nagasaki again, the long journey of the North Pacific route began.

All I can say is that Li Heng was very lucky. The journey was smooth sailing, without any unexpected incidents. The other ships in the fleet also felt that they were incredibly lucky.

The long voyage nearly drove Li Heng mad when he finally saw the coastline and the snow on the mountain peaks through his telescope.

The fleet that came this time was too large. Fortunately, there was a huge bay with a natural harbor that could be converted into a dock with a little repair.

The coastline was visible in the morning, and the fleet entered the bay the following morning. Li Heng's flagship was the first to dock, and when his feet touched the pier, he swayed and almost lost his balance.

Greeting them here was Xue Fang, the Xinhua General Manager of the Xue family fleet who had arrived earlier last year. He was a son of the Xue family, a true member of their own family.

Standing next to Xue Fang was Peng Hu, the colony's self-defense captain, who controlled all the colony's militia forces.

The two brothers were highly vigilant about Li Heng's arrival. Xue Pan had already given them instructions: the Xinhua colony was the last resort for the Jia and Xue families. Although it seemed far away, its importance was no less than that of Australia, and the future investment would be no less than that of Australia. The two brothers did not have any intention of becoming independent for the time being. One was due to inertia, and the other was because their parents, wives, and children were all in Guangzhou, and they were still thinking about returning to their hometown after retirement.

The title of King Xinhua was quite intimidating. Xue Fang and Peng Hu were very respectful, not out of fear of Li Heng, but because of the accompanying fleet.

Li Heng didn't have many ideas about the future; he was truly taking it one step at a time. The Xinhua colony was isolated overseas, and the idea of ​​developing into a regional hegemon was not currently on their minds.

After landing, Li Heng settled in a small town on the shore. This town had a very scary name: Jinshan!

Well, it's a city, but there's only one decent building, right in the city center. It's a two-story brick and wood structure, occupying about two acres of land.

Li Heng was so exhausted that he only heard the two say, "Welcome, Your Highness, to New Jinshan City," before he fainted.

When I woke up, I felt weak all over and was starving. I summoned my personal attendant to bring me a big bowl of noodle soup. Only after eating it did I feel alive again.

Only after asking the eunuch did he learn that he had slept for eighteen hours. Li Heng then sent the eunuch to invite Xue Fang and Peng Hu over for a talk.

Upon landing, Xue Fang and Peng Hu naturally encountered Wu Ge, the commander of the 3,000-strong guard, who had previously served as a garrison officer in the Shenji Battalion. These 3,000 men were not elite troops; they were unattached soldiers drawn from various units across the country, and 55 of them had died of illness along the way. Wu Ge was responsible for training these soldiers, who would then return by ship after being sent to the Xinhua colony.

Although ostensibly a guard for Li Heng, these were actually qualified recruits sent to the Xinhua colony. During their training on the mainland, these recruits were well-fed and healthy.

The group of mid- to low-ranking officers leading the team could choose to stay or go back, depending on their personal wishes.

As for the fleet, that was entirely within Jia Lian's sphere of influence. The real trouble lay with the thirty armed merchant ships, led by a eunuch named Pang Ke, who had been sailing with Emperor Chenghui since his reign, visiting Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, and even India. Initially, Emperor Chenghui had established the fleet, allowing members of the imperial family to hold shares.

Don't underestimate these armed merchant ships; at the very least, they have thirty-six cannons, and at least a dozen small-caliber rapid-fire cannons.

Pang Ke was sent by Empress Dowager Zhou. His purpose was to ensure Li Heng's safe arrival, unless there was an unforeseen event.

The attendant informed Li Heng that Xue Fang and Peng Hu were busy outside and would not return until evening, while the chief eunuch Pang Ke, who accompanied them, was inside the city.

Li Heng immediately summoned him, and shortly afterward, Pang Ke arrived. After exchanging greetings, Li Heng asked him, "What instructions does the Empress Dowager have?"

Punk showed the utmost respect and said solemnly, "The Empress Dowager ordered me to ensure that the Prince would not be harmed during his journey, but gave no other instructions."

Li Heng understood, and looked at Punk, asking, "Can I trust you?"

Punk said, "This servant can only guarantee that the thirty merchant ships under my command and their crew will obey Your Highness's orders; I cannot guarantee anything for the others."

Li Heng wasn't stupid enough to ask why; even a fool would know why.

This colony was conquered spontaneously by the people, with the imperial court contributing almost nothing. Precisely because of this, the colony was small in scale and far away, which is why Li Yuan felt comfortable sending Li Heng.

"How is the place?" Li Heng asked again. Pang Ke replied, "I inquired yesterday. There were about 28,000 able-bodied men before, from diverse backgrounds. They were mainly local immigrants, accounting for 60%, with the remainder being Japanese and Korean immigrants, natives, and a very small number of Westerners. There were not many women, but they were even more diverse. There were more than a thousand women, including Japanese and Korean women, fair-skinned Western women, and local native women. After the fleet arrived, along with the accompanying merchant ships, the population of the small town exceeded 50,000."

"What are Xue Fang and Peng Hu doing?" Li Heng asked the local tyrant. Pang Ke replied, "They are busy resettling immigrants. The houses built earlier are not enough, so they are working hard to build wooden houses."

Li Heng nodded and said, "Let's go out and take a look." After hearing Punk's introduction, Li Heng's heart sank to the bottom.

It's highly likely that this "New King" is a figurehead. Currently, only the thousand men accompanying him are considered reliable; Punk has thirty ships under his command, totaling three to four thousand men.

The disparity in strength is too great. If he wants to solidify his position as the King of Xinhua, he still needs to find a way to subdue Xue Fang and Peng Hu.

Stepping outside, I realized I was on high ground, with a clear view of the bay and the dock. At that moment, ships were still docked, people were still disembarking, and supplies were still being transported downstream.

Li Heng couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why are they still disembarking?"

Punk said, "There are too many ships coming. The fleet anchored directly at sea, and the personnel disembarked in small boats. Thirty percent of the armed merchant ships have finished unloading, and it will take another three days to complete the whole process."

Wooden cranes with pulleys were hoisting cargo ashore at the dock. The speed was already quite fast, but there were too many ships this time; only twelve could be unloaded per day. The other ships had no choice but to wait. As was customary, immigrants were unloaded first, then cargo, so what Li Heng saw was the unloading process.

"It's winter now, is there enough food?" Li Heng was quite shrewd and immediately thought of the key question.

"I've inspected the granary; it's been stockpiling grain, enough to feed everyone for seven or eight months. There are herds of local wild cattle, making it easy to hunt for meat, which will greatly alleviate food shortages. The key is land reclamation."

Li Heng was very satisfied with the assistants the Empress Dowager had arranged for him; they had already grasped the basic situation in just a short time since they landed.

As Punk accompanied Li Heng downstairs, he continued, "Everyone here is a soldier. Both men and women must participate in military training, so every household is armed and everyone has a gun."

The bay side is unobstructed, with three earthen walls on the shore bearing witness to the three expansions of the colonial settlement. Further away, cultivated fields lie in the distance, now covered in a blanket of snow.

"Why is this city called Jinshan City?" Li Heng quickly asked, recalling what he had heard before he fainted.

Punk clearly knew about it, and calmly replied, "The gold mine discovered in Australia is called San Francisco. A large gold mine was also discovered here, so it's called New Gold Mountain City."

Li Heng was stunned upon hearing the news: "A gold mine?"

Punk said, "Yes, the gold mine was discovered a few months ago, right across the bay. Xue Fang and Peng Hu informed us that they were worried about being attacked and had been keeping information secret. Now that reinforcements have arrived, there's nothing to be afraid of."

After a while, Lee Hyung digested the news and looked at the still busy dock and the houses that were rising from the ground that could be faintly seen across the bay.

"Xue Fang's idea is not to rush into mining, but to strengthen the defenses first. The Westerners are all pirates, and we must guard against them at all costs. After the spring, we will cooperate with the local natives and hire them to mine gold. Gold is not as important to the natives as ironware and wine. The natives are in small tribes, ranging from three to five thousand to several hundred people. Over the years, we have supported one tribe to reach ten thousand people and taught them how to farm before they settled down. This territory was not so much conquered by us, but rather conquered by the natives and then sold to us. There used to be more than a dozen tribes here, and many more."

Judging from this, Punk had hardly rested during that day and a half, and had done a lot of research.

Li Heng frowned slightly upon hearing this and asked, "How strong are the natives? Will they pose a threat to us?"

After arriving at this place, Li Heng completely abandoned the idea of ​​going back and instead thought about managing this territory well, becoming a local warlord wouldn't be bad.

Safety is the top priority, no matter what.

"The natives only had a few thousand smoothbore muskets, no cannons, and couldn't even produce gunpowder themselves. Initially, it wasn't that no natives coveted the colonies, but they were all defeated. Now, the biggest threat is still the Spanish to the south. They have been operating for two hundred years and have deep roots. The Spanish in Mexico are both trading partners and potential enemies."

Punk led Li Heng to the tallest building in the area, a gun emplacement on a hillside.

The fort guards stopped them, stating that they were not allowed to enter the fort area without orders from Xue Fang and Peng Hu.

Li Heng wasn't angry. He simply stood at a distance and looked at the forts, though he couldn't see them very clearly, only a general outline. The forts were made of stone and consisted of two sections, guarding the entrance to the bay. Each fort had about thirty cannons, enough to deter any invading enemy.

The two turned back and ran into Xue Fang and Peng Hu who were looking for them.

Because they were free to move around, Li Heng didn't harbor much hostility towards the two; in fact, he wanted to recruit them for his own use.

Xue Fang and Peng Hu received a letter from Xue Pan brought by Wu Ge. The letter clearly stated that they should be wary of Li Heng but also cooperate with him, and not let things get too ugly.

The reason is simple: Li Heng, the new king of China, is in a new Chinese colony, where colonization is "legitimate," and domestic support can also be justified.

This is what's meant by the magnanimity of a great power; it's essential. Everything needs a reason; acting without a legitimate cause is not something to be proud of.

For a time, the United States also had a legitimate reason to do so, even if it was just a tube of laundry detergent.

The letter repeatedly emphasized the need to cultivate good relations with the indigenous people, to assimilate them if possible, and to provide strong support to those who could not be assimilated, helping them to grow stronger and expand eastward.

Xue Fang and Peng Hu stepped forward to greet and speak, and Li Heng was very polite to them, keeping a respectful distance.

Xue Fang offered to take Li Heng to see the fort, but Li Heng declined, saying he hadn't recovered yet and needed to go back and rest for a few more days.

On the way back, Xue Fang, as the representative, gave a detailed introduction to the situation of the colony.

In the first two years, the Xinhua colony fought many battles against the indigenous people, not out of a desire to fight, but out of defense. While fighting, they also traded and made friends, gradually expanding their territory.

The indigenous peoples of today pose little threat to the new Chinese colonies. The greater enemy nearby is the Spanish colony of Mexico, and the greater enemy further afield is the United States on the East Coast.

Through trade, the colonies effectively supported eight indigenous groups of varying sizes and fostered an alliance among them, encouraging them to focus their attention on the United States to the east rather than fighting each other.

So far, the results have been quite good, mainly because the colony sold more than 20,000 flintlock muskets and a large amount of gunpowder to the indigenous tribes.

After these tribes divided their spheres of influence among themselves, they adopted a strategy of continuous eastward expansion. The eight tribes ranged in size from over 13,000 people to just over 3,000.

Now, after surveying, iron ore has been found further north. If the colony wants to develop itself, it must be able to produce steel and manufacture and use steam engines.

Xue Fang hoped that Li Heng would write a report as soon as possible and send it back to China to expedite the relocation of a group of craftsmen to North America.

Peng Hu explained the reasons: it was necessary to do so. According to intelligence, steam engines were already widely used in the northern United States. The eastern United States as a whole had been expanding westward, vying for land.

Li Heng understood. Although the United States had not yet made a large-scale westward advance, the trend was obvious. Currently, the colonies only had a small population, and even if the domestic situation were strong, it would be too far away to help in case of trouble. The best solution was to have a large influx of immigrants, develop local industries, and increase their own strength.

In conclusion, the situation is not optimistic!
(End of this chapter)