Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 85 Cleanup Plan
The battle between the well-trained elite soldiers and the indigenous mob was almost certain to see an overwhelming victory with the absolute advantage of sharp guns and artillery.

The battle of Tagum Town ended at around 2 pm. Under the repeated attacks of Chinese cavalry and ambushing gunmen, the indigenous armed forces who fled in panic were driven westward like headless flies.

The outcome was disastrous.

Thousands of fleeing indigenous people trampled on each other in the chaos and were surrounded on three sides by the oppressive Chinese army.

In the crisis, there was no time to care about many things. Starting with the leading people jumping into the turbulent Davao River, more natives rushed into the river like dumplings, which was a spectacular sight for a while.

Many local indigenous people can swim, but they have forgotten it.

After fighting for most of the day and breaking out, they ran desperately for several kilometers. At this time, their physical strength was exhausted and they were unable to cross the turbulent river that was more than 300 meters wide.

Zheng Guohui stopped his horse at the river bank, looked at the dense corpses floating in the river, turned his horse around and left without saying a word.

Maybe with such an ending, I can be relieved early.

Soon the order came down;

The entire army rested, escorted the prisoners, cleaned up the battlefield and corpses, and camped on the spot in Tagum Town, awaiting new orders.

The Davao River, originating from the inland mountains, flows down and when it passes through Tagum Town, it has already merged with water from more than a dozen tributaries from the upper reaches, and the river has become wider and wider.

Those densely packed corpses floating on the river surface will be washed downstream by the turbulent river within a day or two and flow into the ocean at the mouth of the Davao River.

With this reminder
Dealing with the corpses from the war was much simpler. They could just be thrown into the river and allowed to float downstream into the sea.

This incident left a shadow in the hearts of many Chinese people. From then on, for decades, they never ate fish from the Davao River again. But that’s another story.

In the evening
The battlefield has been cleaned up. Apart from the large amounts of bloodstains left everywhere, the ruins of collapsed houses and bullet holes in the walls, there are no other traces of war.

Even so
But the strong and pungent smell of blood had deteriorated under the sunlight, mixed with the lingering smell of gunpowder, as if an invisible shadow of death was covering the town after the bloody battle.

Zheng Guohui’s tent was located by the small river on the other side of Tagum Town.

The air here is fresh and the view is broad.

This small river eventually flows into the Davao River, but it is not polluted. The water is so clear that you can see the bottom and you can see fish swimming and chasing each other happily.

Zheng Guohui stood by the river thoughtfully. In front of him was a vast valley plain, dotted with only a few gently undulating hills. Towering mountains could be seen in the distance.

If you run to the mountain and the horse dies, it will be dozens of kilometers away.

Tagum Town is about 78 kilometers away from Davao City, but it is connected by convenient water transportation via the Davao River. In addition, it is located in the heart of the inland plains and has a pleasant climate, which means it has great potential for future development.

Taking all factors into consideration
Zheng Guohui felt that the geographical location was very suitable for building a modern large city here.

Of course, this is just a preliminary idea and needs to be gradually improved in the future.

Due to the backward farming technology of the indigenous tribes, the plains around Davao are not fully developed, and there are large tracts of forest not far away.

Going up the river, we reached the outskirts of the mountainous area dozens of kilometers away. There were scattered indigenous villages and towns along the way, which were the places that needed to be cleared out next.

The large group of indigenous rebel forces gathered in Tagum Town were wiped out, and the rest did not require a full-scale attack by the army. The troops could be divided into several groups and carried out a sweeping sweep in all directions.

Zheng Guohui temporarily set up the headquarters of the Central Army here, dispatched signalmen to Davao City, and sent Toshiba transport ships up the river to transport logistical supplies to Tagum Town.

Rough estimate

The comprehensive clearing military operation will last at least another month. Immigrants have now been arranged to reclaim the land, which will be carried out simultaneously with the military encirclement and suppression operation.

Crops such as cassava, corn, rice and rapeseed that are planted now can be harvested in just over a month at the fastest and more than three months at the slowest.

The climate of Mindanao is different from that of mainland China. Zamboanga and Davao both have typical tropical marine climates. The temperature here is around 20 to 23 degrees all year round, and the temperature difference is very small.

There are no particular restrictions on solar terms or farming seasons when growing crops. The area is particularly suitable for growing tobacco, coffee, jute, coconut, spices and rice, and there are also many varieties of tropical fruits.

While implementing the "empty cage, replace bird" policy, one of the important tasks at present is to simultaneously promote the reclamation and cultivation of farmland by Chinese immigrants and maintain a stable food supply.

For an important town like Tagum, Zheng Guohui plans to initially resettle 1,000 to 1,200 Chinese immigrants, which means more than 1,000 Chinese families.

Such a large town must be equipped with at least 200 foreign guns.

If a militia squadron consists of 50 people, the foreign rifle team will have 4 squadrons.

In addition, the Chinese immigrants, who are all soldiers and equipped with cold weapons such as swords and guns, form a formidable armed force. Integrating the military with agriculture is an important measure to maintain local security.

When the army retreated, Chinese immigrants in local towns and villages organized armed militia patrols, occupied major traffic arteries, bridges and passes, and carried out strict checks on passers-by.

When indigenous militants were discovered, they were immediately killed or captured, becoming the grassroots tentacles in the expansion of the colonial movement.

If this continues
The indigenous rebels hiding in the dense tropical jungles cannot last long and must come out to fight, otherwise they will starve to death in the jungle.

On the island of Mindanao, there will be no soil for the indigenous people to survive in the future. They will inevitably be tightly bound by the dense spider web of Chinese immigrant towns and will eventually suffocate and die.

Zheng Guohui has such sufficient confidence because he has the support of the Chinese mainland with its endless human resources and the support of his Chinese compatriots with black hair, yellow skin and black eyes.

Why did the Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese occupy large colonies but eventually lose them? Wasn't it because they had few people?
Expected in early October
The returning fleet will arrive in Mindanao again, bringing more than 2 immigrants from Chongming Island to fill the huge manpower gap.

Before the end of the year, we will try to have the fleet make another round trip, transporting more than 2 Chinese immigrants to Mindanao.

The foundation of colonial rule became increasingly solid. The more than 65,000 Chinese immigrants meant that the same number of Chinese families took root and multiplied in this land.

Zheng Guohui strolled along the river, thinking about all aspects of the colonization arrangements in his mind, and his thoughts flooded into his mind like a spring.

Mindanao is rich in mineral resources, especially copper ore, which amounts to hundreds of millions of tons. It also has no shortage of coal and iron resources, which can be used to develop mining and heavy industries.

The biggest market is right beside us, and Northern China can consume as much as it wants.

In the original history

Why hasn't this place developed after one hundred and fifty or sixty years?
This requires us to mention various factors such as the evolution of the situation in Southeast Asia, social systems and national characteristics, but that is getting off topic.

What Zheng Guohui can be sure of is

Mindanao has all the advantages for developing heavy industry, including rich resources of coal, iron, copper, gold and chromium, convenient sea and water transportation, and itself as a leader in rebirth.

With so many favorable factors coming together, if we fail to develop, we might as well find a piece of tofu and hit our heads against it and die.

Once the war settles down, we will need to arrange for professional personnel to explore for mineral veins, select sites for building steel mills, new coal, iron and copper mines, and quarries. We will also need to standardize road construction standards, build a large number of bridges, and so on.

Due to the low productivity of the indigenous tribes and the low level of civilization development, the infrastructure can be said to be fragmented and almost non-existent.

Zheng Guohui felt this deeply as he traveled from Davao to Tagum.

The road is formed naturally as people walk on it more often.

Bridges are basically made of wood. Some are made by placing several tree trunks on both sides of the river, covering them with vines and then tying them together. Then a layer of coconut bark is laid on top, and finally covered with thick soil, which is then stepped on and compacted.

Such earthen bridges are extremely unreliable, and transport carriages must be extremely careful when traveling on them.

If things go wrong, a piece of wood might rot and break, and the carriage and horses might fall into the river together.

From Zheng Guohui's perspective

All the bridges here need to be rebuilt, and the road bridges, mainly stone bridges, will basically be built, with hundreds of them.

Mindanao is located in the tropics, with strong sunshine and abundant rainfall, and accordingly there are many rivers.

There are more than 80 rivers of various sizes along the less than 50-kilometer road from Davao, and there is basically a river every 2 kilometers.

This is very beneficial for farmland irrigation, but it causes considerable trouble for land transportation, while water transportation is more convenient.

"General, it's getting dark. Should we return to the camp?" Zheng Fu walked forward and asked softly.

Since the captains of the personal guards, Zheng Shun and Hu Zuqing, took on important tasks respectively, Zheng Guohui made a careful investigation and promoted Zheng Fu and Zheng Gui to serve as captain and deputy captain of the personal guards team and placed them by his side.

In today's battle, the two men led a company respectively and their performance was decent and satisfactory.

What Zheng Guohui wants is this kind of person who may not have much ability but is very loyal and will definitely carry out the orders to the letter.

He looked up and saw that there was only the last ray of sunset glow in the sky. The sun had completely set and night was about to fall.

There was a cool breeze by the river, carrying the fragrance of earth, and a black flock of birds flew towards the forest in the sky.

"Okay, let's go back." Zheng Guohui answered readily and took the lead to walk towards the camp.

A group of personal guards followed closely, their eyes alertly watching their surroundings, not daring to slack off.

A fierce battle had just taken place here, and it was not far from the forest.

If a group of indigenous cavalry suddenly rushed out and they were caught off guard, they would probably suffer a great loss.

In the military camp at dusk
In more than 20 large iron pots lined up in a row, the broth was boiling, and large pieces of meat were being cooked, including pork, donkey meat, and some dog meat, chicken and duck meat.

These were all people who were dragged out from the rubble when the battlefield was being cleared, and some were poultry and livestock that were accidentally injured. There were quite a few of them.

Look... they were all skinned, their tendons removed, and their bellies ripped open, cut into chunks and put into the pot.

Add ginger, star anise and scallion segments, simmer for more than an hour, skim off the foam, and a strong aroma will be released.

At this time, pour in the whole basket of cassava cubes, potatoes, coconut meat, and chopped pineapple, and stew for about 10 minutes.

This kind of broth, with the unique fragrance of pineapple and coconut meat, white, yellow and meat pieces mixed together, plus the local green herbs, is really sweet and delicious.

Each soldier was given a bowl of meat soup and a piece of dry bread, and they began to eat with relish. Their mouths were full of oil and they exclaimed in delight.

The big iron pots in the military camp are used not only to cook rice but also to boil water, mainly for the soldiers to drink.

Every soldier had to carry a large bamboo tube filled with cooled boiled water when going to war, so as to avoid getting sick or having diarrhea from drinking raw water in the wild.

Strict hygiene measures were officially implemented, and there were very few people suffering from vomiting and diarrhea in the Chinese colonial army, and few people were infected with diseases such as tropical malaria, schistosomiasis, and dengue fever.

(End of this chapter)