I

Page 634

Sultan Ah Geng is not yet 40 years old, he is in the prime of life and has great ambitions.

Sun Jie's extortion-like intimidation had completely angered Ah Geng. He really wanted to chop Sun Jie off with one knife, and then go to war with China completely recklessly.

But thinking about the Dutch who were expelled by China, Ah Geng swallowed another breath of anger: "Master Messenger, the area we captured this time was originally the homeland of Wandan Kingdom..."

"Homeland?" Sun Jie interrupted directly, "Why don't you say that half of Ma Dalan was originally the territory of the Cirebon Sultanate. And your Banten Sultan is in the same line as Cirebon. Do you want me to Give you half of Java Island? By the way, Jakarta (Batavia) is also the homeland of Banten Kingdom, do you want China to give Jakarta back?”

Ah Geng was speechless for a moment.

After holding back for a long time, Ah Geng held back his anger and said, "Master Messenger, please be more merciful."

Sun Jie wondered: "Let's do this, China recognizes that the land you conquered earlier belongs to the Banten Kingdom. As for the Jakarta ruled area, it will continue to extend for fifty miles."

A Geng said: "If we extend fifty miles outward, the newly recovered territory of Wandan Kingdom will be separated by the Chinese jurisdiction. In the future, we will have to march hard from the mountainous area to fight against Brian'an!"

"Okay then, just extend out for [-] miles and leave a flat land for Wandan Kingdom to march." Sun Jie continued to back down.

Ah Geng said in a begging tone: "How about extending ten miles away?"

"Impossible!" Sun Jie refused.

Ah Geng could only accept it helplessly.

To be honest, many of these territories expanded by China belong to large forests, and only sporadic indigenous people are farming and hunting.Even if he gave up, it would still be acceptable to Wandan Kingdom.

The main issue is the strategic location. There is only one piece of flat land by the sea, and the Chinese jurisdiction extends outwards. The east exit channel for Banten is very narrow, almost blocking the country of Banten at the westernmost end of Java Island!

That night, Sultan Ah Geng, who was full of anger and grievances, had to host a banquet to treat Sun Jie warmly.

At the end of the banquet, Geng called his eldest son Ha Yi, and said through gritted teeth: "This is an unprecedented shame. China is very strong now, and I am powerless to fight against China. But you must remember that you will become a Sudan in the future, and you must always be on guard against China." People. If China continues to be strong, follow them carefully. Once China declines, send troops to kill them, take back our Jakarta, and kill all the Chinese there!"

Chapter 833 [Islanders Offer Soil]

The Dutch fleet sailed through Malacca without being attacked.

Even when picking up the governor, he went to China's Palembang to resupply once.Wars belong to wars, and business belongs to business. Now that the war is over, fresh water and food can be replenished with money.

In the cabin, Governor Rainiers said: "Batavia is gone, and occupying Ceylon will not make up for this major loss. Before the headquarters gets the news, we must make up for it. The port of Naga Patam in Portugal is not easy to fight. But Chittagong is relatively easy, there are only a few Portuguese and a few pirates there."

Commander-in-Chief Edlan said: "I'm afraid we won't be able to send troops. We seem to have lost the war with the British."

"Seems?" Rainiers didn't understand.

Edland said: "A few days ago, I met a few French merchant ships, and they brought the latest news from Europe. In the last naval battle, we lost both with Britain, but our naval commander was killed. Due to being besieged for half a year, Amsterdam Prices are soaring, food is in short supply, and it is said that many civilians have starved to death. We are negotiating with the British, and we are passive in the negotiation.”

Rainiers was shocked: "How could it be possible that even the British fleet can't win?"

Edlan said: "I am also surprised, but the fact is like this. So I dare not fight the Chinese fleet, because our fleet has suffered heavy losses at the headquarters. If we fight the Chinese fleet again, even if we win, we will definitely win." The loss is heavy, and it is difficult to replenish ships in the short term. At that time, if China gathers its fleet to attack, we may not even be able to keep the Indian Ocean. Now our army is not enough, we can only defend the existing colonies, and it is impossible to capture Jida port."

When Rainiers heard that the Netherlands lost to England, he didn't feel much sadness, but a tinge of rejoicing.

My loss of Batavia was a major fault. Wasn't the Netherlands' loss to England a major fault?Everyone is in the same boat, don't make fun of anyone, I can also shirk when faced with inquiries from the headquarters.

Rainiers said to Edlan: "When we arrived in India, we threw those staff and soldiers to the colonies in batches. We took our cronies and went to Colombo to rebuild the Governor's Palace."

"Shouldn't you go to Pulicat? It develops best there." Adrian asked.

Rainiers shook his head: "It's because Pulicat has developed so well, and the local forces there are entangled. After I went, I was easily dismissed. Colombo is just the opposite. Not long after it was laid down there, the local factions have not yet had a solid foundation. Portugal has ruled for hundreds of years, and Colombo is suitable for Europeans and is the best government house for companies."

Batch after batch of civilians and Dutch soldiers were thrown in the colonies on the east coast of India.

Rainiers landed in Colombo with his cronies and changed the castle left by Portugal into the Governor's Palace. Sri Lanka became the Asian ruling center of the Dutch East India Company.

……

Cebu.

After losing Luzon, it became the ruling center of the Philippine Governor.

The new governor, Sabignano Manrique de lara, set off from Spain to Mexico, and then took a boat to the Philippines to serve.

"You're finally here, hurry up and do the handover, I've long wanted to leave this damned place." The current governor, Diego Fajardo Chacon, was relieved.

"What's the trouble?" Sabignano asked.

Diego said: "Half of the Philippines is rioting, and these indigenous people can't be killed cleanly. Also, don't mess with the Chinese. The Netherlands is about to be driven out of Southeast Asia by China."

"Has Batavia been captured by China?" Sabignano asked in surprise.

Diego said: "I don't know very well. The news I got is that the Chinese army has surrounded Batavia for almost two months. The reason is that China's vassal state discovered a large gold mine, and the Netherlands sent troops to capture it."

Sabignano gloated: "Those greedy Dutchmen deserve it!"

Diego said: "Don't worry about the Dutch, I remind you to apply for the formation of more troops as soon as possible. There is a rebel leader named Sumu Luoyi. He instigated and led the indigenous riots. This riot has lasted for four years. Forgive me for my lack of ability , I really couldn’t completely put down the rebels. I killed more than 2 rebels one after another, but the number of rebels is increasing.”

"Four years of rebellion?" Sabignano finally realized the seriousness of the problem.

Diego said: "In the entire Philippines, more than half of the region has rebelled. Especially Mindoro Island, which is the closest to Luzon Island in China. The indigenous people on the island killed the missionaries in the countryside and surrounded our colonial castle. The first time I sent troops there, I successfully killed more than 2000 indigenous rebels. But the reinforcements left only half a year, and the aborigines started a large-scale rebellion. Because I was busy suppressing the rebellion in Sumu Luoyi, I could not send troops to rescue Mindoro The Spanish defenders of the castle, who had been besieged for nearly a year, starved to death."

"So Mindoro is now under indigenous occupation?" asked Sabignano.

Diego nodded and said: "Yes, they also elected a Chinese to be the provincial governor. And that Chinese is calling a parliamentary vote to try to incorporate the entire island of Mindoro into China."

"The rebels in Mindoro must be suppressed immediately!" Sabignano said.

Diego shook his head: "We can't spare enough troops. In the entire Philippines, there are at least 10 rebels who elected Sumu Luoyi as the leader to cause riots. In fact, Sumu Luoyi has already been killed by us. But Killing one Sumu Luoyi, but more than ten Sumu Luoyi appeared one after another."

The leader of the rebel army named Sumu Luoyi apparently became the third prince Zhu of the Philippines, and all the rebels on the islands used him as a signboard.

Regardless of whether China has seized Luzon Island, the Philippines has always been in uprisings, which stems from the brutal colonial rule model.

The administrative structure of the Philippines is divided into three levels: provinces, towns, and villages.In addition, there is a "domestic" model, where the king of Spain rewards someone to be a lord.

Lords could levy taxes, enforce corvee, and recruit native soldiers.They expanded their territory as they wished, occupying the land of the aborigines or Han people, and used corvee to force the aborigines to continue to cultivate.

Most of these lords are missionaries!

While frantically exploiting the aborigines, it was also accompanied by religious oppression, forcing the aborigines to convert to Catholicism.

The various villages of the aborigines were forcibly combined into towns.

The leader of the village community is partly a colonial lord and partly an aboriginal henchman.They formed the town council and elected the native puppet as the mayor. The mayor was actually a scapegoat, and he was directly pushed out to top the vat when there was a big disturbance.

Each town forms a province, and the provincial governor is also making money like crazy.

The aborigines couldn't bear the exploitation, and they revolted one after another.Most of the Han Chinese who couldn't get by, chose to flee to Luzon, and a small number of them participated in the uprising of the indigenous people.

Let's put it this way, in the Philippines under Spanish colonization, an uprising will break out on average every one and a half years.

This Sumoluoyi uprising has lasted for four years and quickly spread to half of the Philippines.In many areas, the Spaniards could only hide in the city, and all the suburbs became the territory of the rebel army.

Moreover, the rebels became smarter and smarter as they fought. When the Spanish army went to conquer, they immediately hid in the mountains or forests.After the Spanish army left, they came out of the mountains and killed the colonial lords of the villages, and even killed the mayors and councilors, so that the provincial governors of the Philippine provinces could not collect taxes at all.

Diego took his embezzled money, sailed to Mexico, patted his ass and left.

Sabignano, the new governor, didn't know how to deal with the mess of the uprising army everywhere.He could only counter the rebellion from Cebu Island, and called on Europeans to join the army, no matter which country they are from, as long as they are Europeans.

Europeans can form private soldiers, and after the rebellion in a certain place is put down, that piece of land is that person's territory.

Ever since, these adventurers from Europe formed their own armies in groups of three or four.Gathering hundreds of people, they dared to conquer a small group of rebels, laid down a large area of ​​land and immediately divided up the spoils.

And Mindoro, which is next to Luzon, the Spaniards really can't care about it!

This island, which is more than a quarter of the area of ​​Taiwan, elected a provincial governor according to the Spanish system.

Before the Batavia castle was breached, the Han provincial governor personally took a boat to Manila and knelt down in front of the Luzon governor Zhang Huangyan: "Song Min, an abandoned overseas citizen, pays homage to the governor of China!"

Zhang Huangyan smiled and helped: "Please get up quickly."

Song Min took advantage of the opportunity to stand up, and then bowed his hands again: "Please, Governor, send troops quickly to occupy the castle on Mindoro Island, and don't let the Spaniards come back again. This time, the Han people and indigenous people on the island joined hands to conquer the Spanish castle. People were driven away, and the Han people alone sacrificed hundreds of people, and more than 1000 indigenous brothers died.”

Mindoro Island has been called Mayi Kingdom since the Song Dynasty, and it was an important trading place for Han merchants.Yellow wax, pearls, betel nuts, tortoiseshell, calico, etc. are the special products here, which are used to exchange for Chinese porcelain, ironware and cotton cloth.

The record in "Daoyi Zhilue" in the Yuan Dynasty is: "(Mayi Country) the mountains are flat and wide, Jiaxi is settled, the fields are plump, and the climate is slightly warmer. The vulgar is still righteous... Barbarians negotiate prices and lead them to pass on Bo Yitu Goods, and then the ship merchants will keep their promises and keep their promises."

In other words, Mindoro Island has gentle mountains and many villages gather in river valleys.The climate is relatively warm and the land is very fertile.The aborigines here advocate integrity and have a tradition of burial.The native businessman kept his promise, negotiated the price, and never changed his mind.

Zhang Huangyan asked: "Are the residents on the island willing to submit to His Majesty?"

Song Min replied: "Yes. The residents on the island, regardless of the local Han, all hate Spain and admire China. I heard that the court treats the Luzon natives well, and all the natives on the island yearn for it."

Zhang Huangyan asked again: "How many Han people are there on the island?"

Song Min replied: "There are about two or three thousand Han people (mostly of mixed blood)."

Zhang Huangyan thought for a while and said, "In that case, I will make my own decision and change Namindo Luo Island to Mayi County, and your Excellency will temporarily be a false (acting) magistrate. After reporting to the imperial court, you will be transferred to the county magistrate. The county should respond The officials will be arranged by Your Excellency. In addition, I will recruit three hundred soldiers in Luzon to guard the castle there."

"Thank you, Governor!" Song Min was overjoyed.

Contributing soil is meritorious, and a county magistrate will definitely give it.In order to rule the island stably, the officials arranged by the magistrate will also honor it.

But, every three years.

After two terms at most, the imperial court will send officials to replace them, and gradually bring them under the actual control of the central government.

The expansion of Datong China in Nanyang is really smooth.As long as there is force as a backing, a bunch of vassal states will vote one after another.Now even more islanders are revolting, donating soil directly and incorporating it into China.

In fact, those Nanyang aborigines were oppressed too hard by the European colonists, and they thought of turning to China at the slightest opportunity, and they would not be bullied by taking shelter in China.

When the day comes when all the European colonists are driven away, the situation will definitely slowly change, turning into a conflict between the Han Chinese and the indigenous people.At that time, it will be the indigenous uprising, clamoring to rebel against China.

Chapter 834 [Spinning Technology Breakthrough]

Whether Liu Hanyi captured Batavia or Zhang Huangyan changed Mindoro Island to Mayi County, Zhao Han has not received any news about these matters yet.

The first thing Zhao Han received was the memorial from Xu Ying from Jiangsu.

Xu Ying said in the memorial that the leader of the Jiangnan Textile Guild, entrusted by the textile merchants, asked him to forward a joint letter from the textile industry.Due to a major breakthrough in the steam spinning machine, cotton raw materials are seriously in short supply, so they request to open up the Indian market and obtain Indian cotton as spinning raw materials.

If the imperial court is willing to send troops, textile merchants from all over the south of the Yangtze River and shipping merchants in Guangdong are willing to jointly raise 3 taels of silver and donate it to the imperial court for military funds free of charge.

In addition, they are also willing to subscribe for low-interest military bonds, which will be gradually deducted from taxes in the future.

Zhao Han was not surprised by any donations or bond purchases.This operation has been done by the imperial court before, especially when it attacked Luzon, military expenses and food and grass were all raised in this way. It is normal for merchants to taste the sweetness and want to do it again.

What Zhao Han really paid attention to was the major breakthrough in the spinning machine!

Xu Ying's memorial attached a drawing, which is a small device with a very simple principle-the flyer.

A high school graduate named Li Min, due to his poor family, did not enter university at his own expense, nor did he choose to be a county official, but was hired by a textile factory as a senior employee.It took four years for Li Min to invent the flyer, which has been put into production after repeated improvements.

To weave cotton cloth, it must first be spun into cotton yarn.

Whether it is a hydraulic spinning machine or a steam spinning machine, there is a serious problem.That is, the strength of cotton fiber is not enough, and it is easy to be broken when twisted.There have been many related inventions before, and even a roller device appeared, but the sliver still frequently breaks during the spinning process, and someone must guard the artificially assisted twisting.

And this high school graduate named Li Min invented the "flyer" device, which can be perfectly matched with the "roller" device, and can complete the two steps of twisting and winding at the same time.

Spinning efficiency doubled!

Moreover, both hydraulic spinning machines and steam spinning machines can add this device for production.

After seeing the drawings and instructions, Zhao Han's first reaction was: family-style spinning activities will gradually become history, and peasant women will lose a major source of income.

This dying process may last for 20 years.As steam spinning machines continue to improve, and as steam spinning machines become more common, hand spinning must become a thing of the past.

At present, there is still room for it. The most exquisite cotton cloth can only be made by manual spinning.The cotton yarn spun by the steam engine can only be used to weave middle and low-end cotton cloth due to insufficient technology. Historically, the cotton yarn worsted machine was invented a few years later than Watt's first improved steam engine.

The high school graduate named Li Min opened Pandora's box and opened a new era at the same time.

Xu Ying also said in the memorandum that due to the "flyer" device being put into use, the demand for cotton surged rapidly.As early as the beginning of this year, the textile merchants in the south of the Yangtze River traveled from village to village to sign contracts with farmers, crazily raising the purchase price of cotton, and luring farmers to change their grain fields into cotton fields.

As long as farmers grow cotton, they don't have to worry about selling it at all, and they can sell it at a high price.The increased profits can completely offset the heavy tax imposed by the imperial court on cotton fields.

A bumper harvest of grain may also hurt farmers due to low grain prices.

But for cotton planting, the contract is signed in advance, and the price has been set long ago. The bigger the harvest, the more profitable it will be.

Farmers are not stupid, of course they can grow whatever makes money!

The current textile industry is facing two problems, one is insufficient cotton raw materials, and the other is that weaving technology cannot keep up with the development of spinning technology, and more advanced looms are urgently needed.

This year's cotton yarn producers are very likely to lose money.

They added advanced devices one after another and blindly expanded production regardless of the market.They signed contracts with farmers in advance and blindly increased the purchase price of cotton.

But today's weaving technology can't digest so much cotton yarn at all, and it will be [-]% unsalable at that time, so we can only choose to export the excess cotton yarn overseas directly.However, the overseas cotton cloth market is huge, but the cotton yarn market is very small. If it cannot be sold, the price will have to be reduced.

Maybe, they will sell cotton yarn to farmers at a low price. Farmers can buy cheap cotton yarn and be able to weave and wear it by themselves.

In addition, cotton yarn producers in Mexico will be the biggest victims.

The Spanish colonists built textile and silk factories in Mexico, and purchased cotton yarn and raw silk from China every year.In order to protect the interests of cotton yarn and raw silk producers, the King of Spain ordered many times to prohibit the purchase of raw materials from China.However, repeated prohibitions have been repeated, the Mexican market has been impacted by China, and few people have produced silk.

Now, China is exporting a large amount of cheap cotton yarn, and Mexico's spinning industry may be wiped out immediately, and it will be completely dependent on China's supply in the future.