The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 291 Exploding History

Luo Fangbai has not been idle these days. While waiting for Reinstein to arrive, he fully communicated with the workers' leaders of various gold mines and reached the three principles of the West Borneo gold mines.

First of all, miners are free to come and go. They no longer work for gold mine owners, but sign employment contracts with agreed terms. After the expiration, both parties are free to choose whether to renew the contract and are free to come and go.

Secondly, the treatment of miners was determined. From high-quality gold mines that were easy to mine to gold mines that were difficult to mine, the miners' salaries ranged from a 28% split with the mine owner to a maximum of 50:50.

Finally, the miners' food and accommodation conditions must meet certain standards. A mine must provide the basic guarantee of three meals a day and pickles. If the miners want to eat meat, fish, shrimp or seafood, they have to pay for it themselves.

Living conditions must be real houses built with loess and stone walls, and miners are not allowed to live in shacks.

In addition, each mine has a maximum of 150 people, and each 150 people are assigned a doctor to take care of the miners' daily headaches and fevers.

"In addition to these three conditions, the King has also ordered the West Borneo Provincial Government to establish a Mineral Resources Management Bureau, which will be managed by a Fifth Rank Tongpan.

The main responsibility of the Mineral Resources Management Bureau is to auction the discovered gold mines in West Borneo.

Even if you are a miner, as long as you have a certain amount of financial resources, you can participate in the bidding and become a gold mine owner.

At the same time, outside designated gold mining areas, private gold panning with fewer than five people will no longer be prohibited. If you don't want to go to the mines, you can bring a few people with you and report to the government, and then you can start mining."

After hearing Luo Fangbai’s personal explanation of the gold mine policy, the mining leaders gathered around him were overjoyed.

A tall and strong miner with a resolute look bowed deeply to Luo Fangbai.

"Master, if you are so righteous, from now on, there will no longer be cases of miners being imprisoned and treated worse than animals in the gold mines of West Borneo."

Luo Fangbai chuckled, "Brother Li, fellow workers, this is not my righteousness. In fact, when Luo first came to Southeast Asia and followed the king to fight the White Elephant King of Burma, the king told me.

Our Chinese miners in West Borneo are living in dire straits. Sooner or later he will send troops to rescue them.

This time, Luo's trip to West Borneo, including the landing of the Xingtang volunteers in Sanfa, was fully supported by the king, who insisted on mobilizing troops despite the financial difficulties at home.

At the same time, the king also specifically instructed that after the war was settled, the property of the unscrupulous mine owners should be taken out and divided equally among the workers who were abused by them.

Even if they were killed, as long as their families can be found, their wages and pensions will be compensated."

As soon as these words were spoken, the surrounding miners were stunned. They had thought that King Mo would treat them well after his arrival, but they did not expect him to treat them well to this extent.

The miners' leaders knelt down immediately, and Brother Li, who had been somewhat doubtful, also showed a look of gratitude on his face.

"Your Majesty is so kind and benevolent! If it is indeed Liu Xuande who is alive today, we are blessed."

"From now on, all of us, our sons and grandsons, must set up a longevity tablet for the king at home!"

However, amidst the gratitude, the most prestigious Brother Li struggled for a moment.

"Master, please forgive me for judging you with my own humble standards. Even though Your Majesty is the most benevolent ruler in the world, there has never been a shortage of treacherous ministers in your kingdom.

Your Majesty has saved us today, but if another treacherous minister appears in the future, what will we do?"

This is actually a question of whether the policy can be continued. Luo Fangbai also knows why they are so concerned.

Because the conditions currently offered by Luo Fangbai are really too good for the miners.

It was so good that these people felt that once Mo Zibu stopped paying attention to them, later generations would definitely find a way to cancel it.

"The problem that Brother Li is worried about, the King has actually already thought about it.

"Luo Fangbai said with a smile: "After defeating Sanxingtang and those black-hearted mine owners, the king agreed to establish the West Borneo Miners' Union.

All miners in West Borneo have the opportunity to be elected as directors of the federation, and in the future they can directly discuss issues concerning the treatment of miners with the provincial governor or even the prime minister.

I think among the 100,000 miners in West Borneo, there will be at least a dozen people like Brother Li who are willing to work for the poor brothers.

In this way, even if there are treacherous ministers, they will not be able to shake the grace bestowed by the king today."

Brother Li understood immediately that this director was similar to a government councilor, except that he could only speak out in the gold mining industry.

"Your Majesty has far-sighted vision and your benevolence extends far and wide. From now on, Li Cunyi of Huizhou and Boluo will be loyal to Your Majesty, even at the cost of death."

Seeing Brother Li Cunyi express his stance, the dozen or so miner leaders around him knelt down again with a bang and shouted: "We are willing to serve the king!"

Luo Fangbai felt relieved, knowing that he could finally use these miners.

Because before he arrived in West Borneo, the miners who were exploited so harshly already had a leader, Li Cun Yi in front of him.

This was also one of the important reasons why Que Sibo and others came to join him as soon as he arrived, because in the mine protected by Li Cun Yi, the mine owners could not do whatever they wanted.

Of course, Luo Fangbai didn't know about this person's achievements in history, otherwise he would be even more surprised.

Historically, Li Cun Yi was a famous Guangdong boxer. The Huizhou Li Boxing he created was widely spread. The "Li" in Cai Li Fo Boxing, the culmination of the boxing, refers to this Li Boxing.

However, Luo Fangbai frowned slightly. From the perspective of the government, Luo Fangbai had a hunch that this Miners' Union would definitely have some troubles in the future.

I don't know why the king came up with this thing?

He certainly couldn't imagine how shocking it would be when future history books recorded that the emperor was the founder of the union.

. . . .

In Pontianak City, Liu Yaozong was laughing loudly with an indigenous woman in each arm, and the other laughing leaders were doing the same.

This is not an uncommon scene in West Borneo, where the strong prey on the weak. No matter whether you are Chinese or a native, it is the end of you if you are defeated.

Even colonizers like the Dutch were no exception. When they were driven out of Pontianak thirty years ago, the Dayaks hung the Dutch heads on branches along the banks of the Pontianak River like lanterns.

"Third General, the red-haired devils are coming. Colonel Adrian has brought two thousand soldiers and demands that we give up at least half of the city."

The news from Dong Wanlu had not yet arrived, and Liu Yaozong did not know that his mother had been hacked to death by his brother. However, Adrian and the Dutch East Indies Colonial Army arrived.

"Give them some, men, women, food, gold and silver. We still need their help to defend Pontianak."

Liu Yaozong was very willing to do so because he knew that he could not offend the Dutch at the moment.

"Everyone, enjoy yourself for one more day today. Tomorrow, please win over the hearts of the soldiers and capture those two ignorant fellows, Luo Fangbai and Chen Lanbo."

Liu Yaozong calculated in his mind that although Luo Fangbai and Chen Lanbo had three or four thousand people, most of them were miners, not servants or thugs who often participated in battles.

Moreover, they didn't have many muskets, swords, or guns, and could not compare with the more than 3,000 men under his command.

It is estimated that the battle can be resolved in five to eight days, and then the main force will return to Dongwanlu for the decisive battle.

When the people below heard what Liu Yaozong said, they were immediately overjoyed. At least they didn’t have to set off today.

The entire Dutch East India Company had about 20,000 troops in Batavia, but there were only more than 3,000 of them were Dutch. The rest consisted of a small number of black slave soldiers and a large number of Batavian natives.

Among them, the Dutch soldiers wore white pants, dark green tops and boat-shaped hats. They looked serious, but in fact, their fighting ability was not high.

Because only about half of them came from the Netherlands, and the rest were basically native white people born in Batavia. Apart from being better trained, they were not much better than the natives.

Moreover, even the European Federation Army's combat effectiveness is just so-so.

They had basically no cavalry, and their combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of Poland and Sweden. They were on par with the northern Italian states and the Portuguese army.

Colonel Adrian saw the tragic scene in Pontianak and the head of Imam Sirif hanging on the top of Pontianak.

But I am not surprised at all that Liu Yaozong could do such a thing, because this is the current situation in West Borneo.

This is also in line with Counselor Rainier's plan, which is to rely on Pontianak City and the Kun River to resist the Xing Tang Army.

But Colonel Adrian suddenly felt uneasy, as if something was going to happen.

It turned out that the colonel's feeling was correct, because at this time Reinstein's army was only a day's journey away from Pontianak.

. . . .

January 1774, 1, the 24th day of the th lunar month, was the th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty.

Just as Liu Yaozong and Colonel Adrian argued for two more days before finally finalizing their plan to dispatch troops and prepare to deal with Luo Fangbai and Chen Lanbo, Luo Fangbai suddenly appeared outside Pontianak with 3,000 men. At that time, Pontianak comprised 3,500 men of the so-called "Anmin Army" of the Sanxingtang, 1,600 men of the Surabaya Regiment of the Dutch East India Company, and 1,200 men from the various tribes of the Bangalore Sultanate, totaling 6,300 men.

In addition, there were 4,500 jungle warriors led by three Dayak Rajas, who were coming down from the middle and upper reaches of the Kun River to join the city of Pontianak.

As soon as Luo Fangbai arrived outside Pontianak, he immediately began frantically working on civil engineering projects.

With the three guarantees and the establishment of the West Borneo Miners' Union, a large number of miners who were badly cheated by the unscrupulous Chinese mine owners knew that King Rendemo was here to rescue them.

He also knew that only by defeating the Sanxingtang and the unscrupulous mine owners who were allied with them could the gold mines in West Borneo be put on the right track and good days could come.

Therefore, these miners burst out with 200% morale and energy. Not to mention digging their positions and resisting, they would even dare to carry fire bombs and charge at Sanxingtang's positions.

Almost at the same time, Reinstein had left Dongwanlu.

Three days ago, on the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, they captured Gaoping in the east, and then passed through the dense forest on the left side of Gaoping, preparing to ambush the Dayaks who were heading downstream to join them.

Reinstein dispatched three regiments and Chen Lian's 800 people this time, while Wang Wubing took the remaining 4,000 people to sweep around the restless natives and the remnants of Sanxingtang who had escaped by chance.

The reason why they were able to control Dongwanlu so quickly and rush to the upper reaches of Kun River at an extremely fast speed was because Ryanstein followed Mo Zibu's instructions and directly released a big move.

After arriving in Dongwanlu, Reinstein left a portion of land to his partners headed by Liu Yaoliang, and distributed all the manor lands controlled by the rest of the Chinese underworld group, mainly Sanxingtang.

Wang Wubing personally announced that as long as the farmers in the manor cultivated the land for more than three years, the land would immediately become his.

This move directly destroyed the foundation on which Sanxingtang relied. Chen Lian's entry into Dongwanlu was accomplished with the enthusiastic support of the vast number of serfs on the manor.

When Reinstein attacked Gaoping, before the army arrived, the serfs on Gaoping's manor revolted and took control of Gaoping.

When heading from Gaoping to the middle and upper reaches of Kun River, tens of thousands of emancipated serfs, regardless of gender, age or status, burst out with great enthusiasm.

They took the initiative to help the Xingtang volunteers transport ammunition and food, take care of the wounded and sick, go out to conduct reconnaissance along the way, and take risks to find out the whereabouts of the Dayaks.

Reinstein's three regiments and Chen Lian's 800 people were almost carried by these people to the middle reaches of the Kun River.

. . . .

The water flows gently, the water plants are lush on both sides of Kun River, and the vast tropical rain forest stretches as far as the eye can see on both sides of the river.

Led by elders of all ranks, Dayak's warriors began to gather like marching ants.

The Dayaks are skilled in using a type of slender warship similar to the Chinese dragon boat. The Dayaks living on the coast are very powerful offshore pirates, while those living in the jungle are keen on headhunting.

Their basic unit is called a longhouse, where several generations usually live together, with a population of around eight to ten people.

Then, more than ten longhouses formed a tribe, and dozens of tribes formed a clan, which was ruled by a Raja.

Therefore, the Dayaks who went to reinforce Pontianak did not go together as a group of more than 4,000 people, but gathered as they walked.

When they were less than 40 kilometers away from Pontianak, they managed to gather more than 4,000 people.

Along the way, these guys were laughing and making noises, and there were many people trying to make friends with their relatives, fighting with each other, and the fun never stopped.
This made the Dayak people, who usually lived together in groups of one or two hundred, extremely excited. They took the rice that the tribal elders got from the Dutch, steamed it simply, and paired it with various meats and even wild fruits and vegetables they could find, almost like a spring outing.

This caused Reinstein to try to ambush them several times, but he failed every time.

It’s not that these guys are alert, but in order to eat meat, they hunt over a wide area and there is no way to ambush them at all.

In this way, they walked to a place about 40 kilometers away from Pontianak. The number of people was basically gathered, and Reinstein's ambush location was basically found.

Ben Dai was a very brave warrior, which could be seen from his black finger bones.

Because among the Dayak people, where headhunting culture is prevalent, when they hunt a head for the first time, they will tattoo a pattern on the back of their hand.

When there is no more room on the back of the hand, they will start tattooing the phalanges. A person who has almost tattooed all the phalanges must complete at least fifty headhunting operations.

Furthermore, women, boys under the age of fourteen, and found corpses cannot be considered headhunters.

Ben Dai is almost done with the bone lines on his fingers, which proves that he is close to reaching the point of having honorably killed fifty people.

He was extremely tall and stood out in the team. His eyes and nose were as sharp as an owl.

A faint fishy smell came from afar. Bendai took a light sniff and his face changed, because this was not the smell of a wild animal, but the smell of human excrement.

Li Bao never dreamed that just because a team member had just gone to the toilet and had not had time to bury himself deeply, Ben Dai immediately smelled the odor.

Seeing the Dayak reconnaissance team stopped in the distance, Li Bao thought quickly and immediately appeared at the riverside with two people pretending to be unexpected.

Afterwards, Ben Dai saw these Tang people. Before the warning whistle sounded, he saw these Tang people turn around and run away.

A Dayak warrior roared and threw the javelin in his hand at high speed. Li Bao also pulled the trigger of the short crossbow in his hand, and then rolled on the ground.

With a bang, the javelin narrowly brushed Li Bao's shoulder and stabbed into the mud.

But the Dayak warrior was not so lucky. Li Bao's crossbow arrows were almost always hitting the target. Blood spurted out of his throat and he immediately fell backwards.

Then Li Bao got up and ran away, not giving Ben Dai any chance to fight.

Bendai roared angrily and started chasing after him.

Although he has killed many people, not only is his brain capacity not high, but he is also prone to anger.

Li Bao gave a strict order, telling the other members of the company not to move, and he took a few people and the seven or eight people he had captured and started chasing them along the river.

Bendai's roar grew louder and louder, soon attracting the attention of other Dayaks.

Some Dayaks in long boats pointed out Li Bao's direction to Bendai in the river, treating this as a hunt.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Ben Dai became even more excited.

This is a very good headhunting target. As long as he is killed, his headhunting career will reach the state of great perfection.

The two sides chased each other, one with a poison bow and the other with a crossbow. After two quarters of an hour, all the people around Ben Dai had been killed, and Li Bao's two companions also lost their lives.

Finally, Ben Dai stopped Li Bao on a sandy spot by the river. He howled and took off his clothes made of bark fiber, revealing his body covered with tattoos.

In front of Li Bao, Bentai performed 'ngajat', a war dance dedicated to the gods, used before the most glorious battle.

More and more people gathered around, and a large number of Dayaks rushed to the river bend. They wanted to see a foreigner who could make the natives dance the ngajat war dance.

Li Bao smiled strangely. He looked at the burly and terrifying Dayak man, and suddenly took out a flintlock pistol from behind his butt.

Who the hell wants to fight you in a one-on-one fight? Even if I kill you, I will still rush out.

When they saw Li Bao took out the pistol, some Dayaks who knew the value of the weapon started yelling.

Ben Dai also saw it. He could have retreated, but there were too many onlookers, and the feeling of being a hero dominated his heart.

With a roar, Ben Dai rushed over with a dagger in his hand.

Cold sweat dripped down Li Bao's head. He suppressed the feeling of wanting to pee and quickly loaded the musket.

'boom! '

Ben Dai had already rushed in front of Li Bao, and Li Bao could even smell the disgusting stench on his body, but the good news was that the pistol was also loaded.

There was a flash of orange-red fire. It was impossible to miss the target at such a close distance.

Ben Dai jerked his head, and fell down unwillingly with a bloody hole on his forehead and a blackened face.

Li Bao then let out a strange cry, dropped the pistol in his hand, and jumped into the Kun River.

Almost at the same time, flames flashed on both sides of the Kun River, and the sound of killing shook the sky. The Dayaks finally fell into an ambush.

　This afternoon, Tiger's nephew broke his left tibia while playing basketball at school. Alas, my cousin is working outside, and my aunt, who is over 60 years old, has no idea what to do. Tiger helped run around for a long time and didn't get home until after 8 o'clock. Please forgive me.

　　As for the overdue updates and the additional updates for the Alliance Leader, Lao Hu will take a special leave on Wednesday, so that he can at least write the additional updates for the Alliance Leader by then.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)