The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 22 Yanwang (Please collect the new book, ask for monthly tickets, and ask for recommendations.)
  About 33 kilometers south from Surabaya City is Yanwang, an important transportation thoroughfare. This is a small town with a population of about 2.6, and it is located on the favorable terrain of mountains and rivers.

From here, continue south around the mountain pass and you can enter the canyon passage of the continuous jungle in the south. There are valley flats and plantations like a string of pearls, which is a typical inland hinterland.

These inland hinterlands are dominated by indigenous populations. Except for a few Chinese or white plantations, most of them are indigenous villages, with a population ranging from three to five hundred to more than a thousand.

A few larger tribal gathering areas will also form market towns with thousands of people, but local life is generally relatively backward and conservative, and they are wary and wary of outsiders.

The Javanese Uprising led by Diponegoro broke out in 1830, only 26 years ago. The Dutch army that had bloody sweeps of the cities and countryside certainly included Chinese officers and soldiers.

Some older people still remember this.

The Nanyang Company's mule and horse caravans opened a new trade route to the south and had to pass through Yanwang. When opening a new trade route to the west, they also had to pass through Yanwang. This is an important traffic artery that cannot be avoided.

Not long after leaving Surabaya City

The Nanyang Company's mule and horse caravan traveled several kilometers before entering a winding dirt road surrounded by lush mountains and forests.

On the road that has experienced countless years of tropical wind and rain, there are big potholes connected with small potholes, like pockmarks, which are countless.

In many pits, old mud soup still accumulates.

At this moment

The well-prepared caravan sent out several teams of newcomers, took out tools such as shovels and hoes, and started building roads in teams of 20 people.

Nanyang Company's road construction was very purposeful. It mainly repaired a wide rutted road. There was a donkey cart dragging two iron hooks behind it to drag it all the way in front.

Wherever he passed, he left two clear marks with wide ruts on the dirt road.

These new road builders took hoes and shovels and started repairing along the marks. They filled in the holes that needed to be filled and dug out the holes that needed to be dug out. They tried to use soil to make them as smooth as possible.

Not to mention, it can be repaired very quickly this way.

You can move three to four kilometers in an hour, which is almost the same speed as an ordinary person walking slowly. You can't rush this thing.

Some people built roads, some drove cars, and Hu Laohu led more than a hundred sword and shield men in full armor to guard along the way.

They not only set out more than a thousand meters ahead to warn, but also search the dense forests and bushes within one to two hundred meters on both sides to prevent being ambushed.

These search and warning tasks were all done by sword and shield men. They wore leggings on their legs, the cuffs and collars of their clothes were completely tightened, and their bodies were smeared with pungent herbal juice to prevent mosquito bites, making perfect preparations.

In particular, thickened leggings can avoid bites from venomous snakes or other poisonous insects to a large extent, and leeches common in tropical areas cannot bite them, so they are very useful.

The caravan also prepared cinchona, a special herb for preventing tropical malaria, and a variety of other herbs in case of emergencies.

If preparation is done carefully, accidents will rarely happen.

By about five o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was still shining brightly in the sky, Nanyang Company's armed mules and horses caravan had arrived at Nuopu Town, less than 5 kilometers away from Yanwang.

Luopu Town is a small village of more than 1,000 people. There is only a dirt road in the middle of the street that runs through the town. Along both sides of the dirt road are wooden houses and thatched sheds of different heights, as well as many mud houses.

The arrival of the mule and horse caravan created a festival-like bustle in the town.

The townspeople, men, women, old and young, all flocked to both sides of the dirt road. Many children ran along with the mules, horses and carts, begging to stop and buy something delicious.

Feng Guohui loudly shouted to the swordsmen and shieldmen to maintain order and not to affect the continued progress of the mules and horses caravan. If they were delayed here, they would not be able to reach Yanwang before dark.

The Nanyang caravan had a large number of people, and there were many sword and shield bearers wearing Spanish helmets and breastplates to protect them. The indigenous residents in the town also knew how powerful they were, and no one dared to stop the caravan.

If it were a weaker caravan, it would have been stopped by these indigenous residents long ago.

If it goes wrong, everything will be robbed, and I can pay it to my grandma’s house.

For the situation in Knop Town, the caravan had already prepared a countermeasure. Two mule carts stopped in the center of the town, leaving about 10 sword and shield bearers to maintain order.

He also helped to untie the ropes that bound the goods, uncovered the waterproof canvas, and took off the goods from the car and placed them on the canvas to start selling.

Such a move immediately attracted a crowd of dark people to watch. Some well-dressed indigenous residents had already begun to ask for prices and behaved quite politely.

Feng Guohui withdrew his gaze, with a faint smile on his lips.

under his arrangement
  There are more than 10 two-wheeled mules and horses in the caravan carrying self-operated department stores, basically needles and threads, sugar cubes, flour, mirror fabrics, etc. There are dozens of varieties in one car, specially for use. For sale in these towns.

No matter how small the mosquito is, it is still meat!
  Although the purchasing power of these small towns is not strong, the profits are considerable. How can they not do things that are easy to do?
  The transactions of the Nanyang caravan are quite flexible. In addition to not accepting bad money (referring to the lead coins cast privately by coastal merchants, which can break into eight pieces if dropped on the ground), other copper coins issued by China mainland, copper coins issued by the Dutch Governor's Palace and Luzon silver coins, pounds, francs, and Dutch guilders are all accepted, but there is a corresponding discount.

This discount ratio is definitely lower than what is on the market.

At the same time, they also accept barter, including pheasants, wild deer, tobacco, sugar cane, tea, peanuts, kapok and other specialties hunted by the indigenous residents, but the prices are not high.

The long caravan of mules and horses passed through the town and continued to move forward without stopping, leaving behind only two carts of mules and horses doing business and a dozen men.

Some were maintaining order, while others were selling goods. After experiencing the initial awkwardness, the fellows quickly fell into their roles and began to trade with the local indigenous people.

"Okay, this bag of peanuts can be exchanged for a mirror, and I can give you a few pieces of candy. Would you like to exchange it for me?" "When was this deer hunted? Well, I see it's quite fresh. I can exchange it for a shovel. Yes." Change it quickly, there won’t be that store anymore if you leave this village.”

"What about changing the hoe? No, no, it doesn't work, it depends on what I said. If you want to hunt a leopard, it's still okay. This deer can't be replaced. If you don't change, get out."

"These few kilograms of coffee are pretty good, what do you want to change?"

……

Feng Guohui was surrounded by dozens of musketeers and archers. They were responsible for outputting firepower from Nanyang Company and were protected in the middle of the team.

They passed through Luopu Town in an orderly manner. Among the Nanyang caravans, someone shouted loudly every one or two minutes;

"The Nanyang caravan passed by the treasure land, and everyone else avoided it."

"Nanyang caravans traveled north and south, goods were sold to thousands of families, and Nanyang companies prospered."

"Good luck and good luck, nothing is forbidden."

“Creating roads when encountering mountains and building bridges when encountering waters, Nanyang Company will surely achieve its mission.”

Feng Guohui felt infinite pleasure from the awe-inspiring eyes of the local aborigines. This was exactly what he wanted.

Nearly 400 people armed with shields and escorted dozens of mules, horses and carts passed by in a mighty procession.

Every time we pass by, we are flexing our muscles, showing off the Nanyang Company’s advanced armed parade, and it is an opportunity to deepen the impression of the locals.

The two carts of mules and horses left in the small town of Lopu will complete the transaction before evening, and then move forward to chase the main caravan without spending the night there.

If these dozen guys can trot quickly, they can reach Yanwang in about 40 minutes to an hour to meet up with the group.

If these natives don't open their eyes and openly steal things and hurt people, Feng Guohui doesn't mind leading a large group of troops to fight back and kill some of the blind people and use their heads to establish their authority.

Killing chickens to scare monkeys is a very old-fashioned method, but I have to admit that it is very practical.

The dirt road from Surabaya to Yanwang was not too badly damaged and the journey was basically smooth.

But Feng Guohui knew
  The dirt road that continues southward from Yanwang is hard to describe. It is really a big mud pond within a small mud pond, which is almost impossible to see.

This is also due to the Dutch colonists, who never built any infrastructure, roads, bridges, docks, or reservoirs in the colonies. They still maintained the original appearance of the indigenous feudal kingdoms hundreds of years ago.

This is also the real reason why all the mules, horses and carts of the Nanyang Company are basically half or even 1/3 loaded. If you want to drive the animals, it is impossible to run.

Especially for Western four-wheeled carriages, if there is a relatively smooth gravel road, the cargo capacity of an ordinary vehicle can reach about three to four thousand pounds.

When the French Emperor Napoleon went on an expedition to Tsarist Russia, the average load of the cargo carriages accompanying the army was more than 4500 pounds, and the highest one reached 6000 pounds. That was also repaired all the way.

The Nanyang Company's four-wheeled carriage was pulled by two large mules and was not as good as the French's heavy-duty horses. The cargo it carried was only about 1200 to 1300 pounds, which was only one-third of the former.

The reason is that the roads are so bad that the big mules can't drag them with too much cargo.

With the more than a hundred newcomers in the caravan building roads, it is enough to simply fill in a few pits and ponds, but complete renovations are far from enough.

"Master, Yanwang is just ahead." The man driving the mule-horse cart said with excitement on his face.

Feng Guohui sat up from the carriage after hearing the sound, raised his eyes and looked outside. In the gorgeous sunset, a rather large town came into view.

The caravan passed through a rapid river. The ancient rock bridge had been baptized by wind and frost, and only a few bare half-stones remained of the broken railings.

The guys building the road ahead covered a lot of the potholes on the bridge. There were obvious signs of new soil covering them, and deep ruts pressed down from above.

The mule and horse caravan stopped here, and the guys were busy fetching water from the river with buckets, giving the thirsty mules water, replenishing some concentrate before dark, and then cutting some grass to put on the carriage for later use.

The grass has been in the sun for a day and has not been wetted by the early morning dew. Big animals like mules will not get upset after eating it, so it is very good green fodder.

Everyone started working together, and soon each cart of mules and horses was loaded with several large bundles of green fodder. After a long delay, they continued their journey.

No more is needed, just enough for the animals to eat at night and tomorrow morning.

When entering the city

This was a large caravan of mules and horses, which unsurprisingly caused a sensation among the local residents of Yanwang, who flocked to the streets to watch the excitement.

In such a large city, it is relatively expected to stay for about two days. In addition to delivering some of the transported goods, large-scale sales activities will also be carried out.

This is the product organized by Nanyang Company after it destroyed the Shuifang Gang and had sufficient funds. If you sell it yourself, you can get more than double the profit, which is equivalent to eating meat.

Of course, whether the local snakes in Surabaya City are willing to eat meat from Nanyang Company is another matter.

(End of this chapter)