Bringing the Railway to Daming

Vikarama sighed, “What can we do if we don’t let them go?”

Virakumi said angrily, "Since the Ming Dynasty is saying they're going to send troops to attack, why not take the envoys as hostages and make the Ming Dynasty cautious?"

"This woman is really stupid. No wonder Ha'an Wulu didn't dare to pass the throne to her, but to me instead."

Vikarama thought this, but he advised, "Don't do that. Although the angel said that the great army would come tomorrow, it hasn't actually sent an army to attack yet."

"I think that perhaps the Srivijaya envoys had previously spoken ill of us in front of the Ming Emperor, or perhaps the Ming ministers had accepted their bribes, which is why they made such excessive demands on Majapahit."

"If we capture the envoy, it will solidify our hostility towards the Ming Dynasty, and there will be no turning back."

"The best solution now is to quickly send an envoy, carrying a large amount of gold, silver, and treasures to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to smooth things over and see if we can persuade His Majesty the Ming Emperor to change his mind."

Virakumi said unwillingly, "Is it true that the members of this delegation cannot be captured?"

"Queen, we really can't defeat the Ming Dynasty." Vikramah helplessly stated the fundamental reason why he compromised.

He is also the king of a great country, with nearly eight million subjects and more than half a million soldiers.

If he had the confidence to defeat the Ming Dynasty, why would he be so servile as to go to the gate of the capital to welcome an envoy from the Ming Dynasty?
As Vikramā was secretly feeling aggrieved, Puduwangka stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, we certainly need to send an envoy to the Ming capital to smooth relations, but we must also be prepared for war."

"I agree with what the Queen said—our ancestors were able to drive the Yuan army, which crisscrossed the vast continent, back into the sea. Now we can also drive the Ming army back into the sea!"

Vikarama nodded. "I understand... you'll need to share more of the burden of preparing for war."

"I will stand with the king!"

Puduwangka made his position clear, which made Vikarama feel a little relieved.

As a country that practices a vassal system similar to that of the Western lords, the amount of troops and supplies that King Vikarama can mobilize has a lot to do with the recognition of the "lords" below him for him and what he does.

Although Gajah Mada has been dead for decades, his family is still deeply rooted. There are still many lords who are allies of his family and follow Puduwangka's lead in politics and military affairs.

Now that Puduwangka has expressed his readiness to go to war with the Ming Dynasty, at least one-third of the "lords" will also have this idea, which will be very beneficial to the country's preparations for war...
···
Southeast Borneo, on the east bank of the Rio Tinto River, in the city of Juyang.

This is the temporary capital of the Chu State today.

Although it is called a city, in fact, there is only a brick-clad rammed earth wall with a circumference of six miles and a width of three meters.

Most of the buildings in the city are still made of logs. Even the "Chu Palace" is also made of logs, but the interior decoration is better.

In fact, in the past year, although Zhu Zhen did not resolve the two small countries of Naghadaha and Tansongpuri in the southeast of Borneo, the Chu vassal army attacked everywhere and conquered more than 20 large and small tribes in the surrounding areas.

These tribes had a population of at least a hundred and at most nearly a thousand. Faced with the firearms of the Chu vassal army, most of them were frightened and fled in panic at the beginning of the battle or knelt down to pray for forgiveness from the gods.

Under the deliberate arrangement of the Chu vassal army, the vast majority of the native young men, women and children were captured as prisoners and taken back to Juyang City to be forced to do hard labor.

If these hard laborers behaved well enough and could learn some Chinese, they would be exempted from hard labor and become naturalized citizens.

In addition, female convicts had another identity as naturalized citizens, which was to be noticed by men from the Chu clan and taken as concubines. As for marrying a wife, very few men in the Chu clan were willing to marry native women from Borneo.

This is not only because most Borneo women have dark skin and facial features that do not conform to the Han Chinese aesthetic, but also because they have a better choice, that is, Japanese girls "migrated" from Japan by maritime merchants.

Those Japanese girls not only look almost the same as Han girls, but are also smarter. Many of them have even learned a few Chinese words, and they are also good at doing housework.

Unlike the women in Borneo, everything has to be trained slowly after they are brought back, and the effects are very slow.

Therefore, although many officers and soldiers of the Chu clan were still unmarried and had not yet accumulated enough merit and money to marry Japanese girls, they were unwilling to marry the native girls of Borneo and only wanted to take a concubine first.

Although thousands of native women were taken as concubines by Chu clan men in the past year, Chu clan still had more than 10,000 young and strong captives - among them, there were 4,000 to 5,000 young and strong men, and even more women and children.

If it weren't for so many young and strong native laborers, Chu Fan would not have been able to build this six-mile-long brick and rammed earth wall in the past year.

Of course, in addition to building the city wall, the Chu clan also cut down nearby jungles and forests and reclaimed thousands of acres of farmland in the past year...

Fu An was the deputy envoy to Majapahit, and he also had another task to do. After being escorted to Chulai Port by the warship of the South China Sea Navy, he changed to the river boat of the Chu vassal and arrived at Juyang City.

At the dock by the Rio Tinto River, Fu An couldn't help but feel emotional when he saw the brick-clad walls of Juyang City, the rice growing in the thousands of acres of paddy fields outside the city, the lush green vegetable fields on the edge of the city, and the busy native laborers, the Chu people, and the Chu army supervising them in the distance.

"I never thought that the King of Chu has been in southeastern Borneo for just over a year and has already developed such a situation. It is truly rare."

Then he and his entourage followed the Chu vassal generals to Juyang City, two or three miles away.

In the Chu Palace, which had a rough exterior but elegant interior, Fu An met the Chu King Zhu Zhen.

After greeting, Fu An got straight to the point: "Your Highness, the King of Chu, if nothing unexpected happens, the imperial court will attack Majapahit by the beginning of winter next year at the latest."

"Therefore, Your Majesty has specially sent this humble minister here to discuss with Your Highness the matter of the Chu vassal state assisting in sending troops. Some things are always inconvenient to discuss via telegram, so it is better to communicate in person."

"I know," Zhu Zhen nodded, then frowned. "However, I've only been in power for a short time, and the natives of Borneo are unteachable. Therefore, the Chu State currently only has 12,000 soldiers." "Besides, I can't send all of them. So, if we start a war next spring, I'm afraid I can only mobilize 8,000 at most."

Fu An smiled slightly upon hearing this and said, "Your Majesty anticipated this and has also conveyed a message to His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu."

"please say."

"Your Majesty said that how much territory Your Highness the King of Chu can expand on Java Island depends on how many cities the Chu vassal army can capture in the war."

Hearing this, Zhu Zhen's brows furrowed even more tightly at first, but then he realized something and relaxed, nodding and saying, "I understand."

Afterwards, Fu An talked with Zhu Zhen about some other matters related to preparations for war.

After sending Fu An and others to rest, Zhu Zhen ordered people to summon military advisor Lu Gang, counselor Chen Ju and other staff members, as well as generals of the Chu vassal state above the rank of thousand households such as Jiang Qing.

"If nothing unexpected happens, the imperial court will attack Majapahit by the beginning of winter next year at the latest—this is several years earlier than we expected. Therefore, our Chu vassal's development plan must be adjusted."

Zhu Zhen explained the matter directly, and all the civil and military officials under his command immediately started to think about it.

Military Advisor Lu Gang quickly spoke up, "Your Majesty, if we want to participate in the war to destroy Majapahit, our Chu State must first eliminate the two small states of Naghadaha and Tansompuri."

"Otherwise, the king would have to leave some troops to guard his home and would not dare to go all out."

Zhu Zhen nodded. "Mr. Lu and I agree, so I've decided to take advantage of the cooler weather before the Lunar New Year and attack Naghadaha!"

Several generals had fought against ordinary indigenous tribes for a long time, so when they heard that they were going to attack the indigenous country, they immediately became excited.

Jiang Qing was the first to step forward, clasping his fists and saying, "Your Majesty, I will be your vanguard!"

Afterwards, the commander of the garrison army, Zhang Xiangdeng, and the captain of the navy, Chen Zuyi, also came forward to ask for battle.

Under these circumstances, Counselor Chen Ju said, "Your Majesty, there is still a month before the rice harvest. Should we make some preparations and wait until we have more food and fodder before attacking Naghadaha?"

Zhu Zhen simply shook his head in denial, saying, "We've already purchased a lot of food to store in case of emergency. Besides, as long as we conquer Naghadaha, why would we be worried about running out of food?"

After hearing this, Chen Ju said no more.

Zhu Zhen was relieved to see that most of his ministers agreed to attack Naghadaha. He then asked, "By the way, Commander Zhang, how is the training of the 500 soldiers going?"

Of course, not all the native tribes around Zhu Zhen resisted stubbornly during his conquest. Some tribes, like the initial Ma Chen tribe, understood the strength of the Chu vassal state and begged for submission.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Zhen could not destroy the tribes, so he moved these tribes to live in the original native tribes near Juyang City, and selected a certain number of young and strong people from each tribe, and finally formed a native soldier camp of 500 people, which was handed over to Zhang Xiangdeng for training.

Although it is difficult to communicate with the natives and their quality in all aspects is low, since he has chosen to come to Southeast Asia to be a vassal, it is inevitable to use local soldiers. It is better to train early than late.

Zhang Xiangdeng said, "Your Majesty, although these soldiers have been trained for over six months, they are still only able to march and barely obey orders. Even if they can go into battle, I'm afraid they won't be of much use."

Zhu Zhen smiled and said, "We don't expect them to be of much use. As long as they can fight in the battles that are favorable to us, that's enough. We'll bring the local soldiers with us to this battle. Let's see the battlefield and maybe they'll grow faster."

Then he looked at Ouyang Gao, who had been promoted to recorder, and asked, "Recorder Ouyang, how many translators do you have communicating with the natives now?"

"Your Majesty, there are now over thirty translators who are barely available."

"Okay!" Zhu Zhen stood up and glanced at the civil and military officials. "In three days, I will lead 8,000 soldiers to personally attack the Naghadaha Kingdom. Everyone, go down and make good preparations."

"As ordered!"

···
Although Naghadhaha and Tansompuri were the only two countries in the southeast of Borneo, they actually only had one city. Strictly speaking, they could only be considered princely states or vassal states.

Among them, Naghadaha is located in the southeast corner of Borneo, nearly 20 miles from the sea, and more than 100 miles away from Chulai Port on land.

Therefore, although Zhu Zhen had established a vassal state in the lower reaches of the Lituo River for more than a year, the rulers and ministers of the Naghadaha Kingdom were still unaware of the existence of the Chu vassal state.

A few days later, when the Chu vassal army arrived at the seaside port of Naghadhaha by warships and ships, the local natives were all stunned.

Naghadha also built a "city" in this small seaport called Lawu, but it was only a "city" in their eyes.

In the eyes of the Ming army, "Lawu City" was just a wooden fortress by the harbor without even a proper city wall.

Naghadaha stationed more than a hundred "troops" in the village to collect taxes and maintain order in the port.

However, when the Chu Fan fleet approached the dock, they did not even dare to stop it, but instead swarmed into the village and hid.

Zhu Zhen stood on the deck and took a look. He then said, "Ouyang Gao, send someone to call for surrender. After all my troops have landed, if they still refuse to surrender, we will attack the village."

"Yes!" (End of this chapter)