I

  Chapter 711 708 [Han Overseas Homeland]

  Aceh, the lower reaches of Palembang City, the mouth of the Musi River.

  There is a port town here, and the surrounding residents are all Han Chinese and mixed descendants of Han Chinese. No aborigines could be found, and even if there were aborigines, they had already learned to speak Chinese, and their clothing and customs remained the same as those in the early Ming Dynasty.

  The highest official who rules this place is the head of the clan.

   Moreover, the father died and the son succeeded, or the father died and the daughter succeeded, the surname has been Shi for more than two hundred years.

   There are four people in the room.

  Shi Cunzhang took out a camphor wood box, he took out a key, and the other three also took out their keys.

  Four locks, all open.

  Shi Cunzhang carefully held out the copper seal, and the text on the copper seal was "the seal of the old port of the Ming Dynasty". Below the copper seal is the imperial edict of the Ming Dynasty conferring on the Old Port Propaganda Envoy, as well as the documents of the Consolation Envoy issued by the Ministry of Officials of the Ming Dynasty.

Shi Cunzhang held the copper seal and said: "For three hundred years, the four surnames Shi, Chen, Liang, and Qiu have thrived in Jiugang. Our territory should be the entire Jiugang, not this small town by the sea. I am the head of the Shi family. , It should be the consolation envoy of the old port of Ming Dynasty, not the governor of Aceh. Now, the old port has been renamed Palembang, and it has been stolen by those natives for hundreds of years. It's time to take it back!"

  Chen Sanwei doubted: "Da Ming is gone, will Datong Xinchao help us?"

"Affirmatively!" Qiu Fang said, "Last year, China defeated the Netherlands in a sea battle, and recently attacked Malacca. Now, His Majesty the Emperor is determined to be a talented and bold generation. We should follow the example of our ancestors and seize the old port by raising troops and presenting soil to the emperor." Surrender!"

  Liang Yutian said: "Yes, seize the old port, offer soil and become a minister!"

  Shi Cunzhang asked: "The Chen family is unwilling to raise troops?"

  Chen Sanwei said: "If you don't want to raise an army, what am I going to do today? But you must be cautious about raising an army. It is best to contact the Chinese envoy first."

  Qiu Fang said: "The noble envoy of the Celestial Dynasty may have a lot of doubts. Why don't you raise troops and communicate with each other at the same time, and make cooked rice with raw rice. Doesn't he want to give him merit for nothing?"

  Chen Sanwei also said: "Over the old port, the city of Aceh is easy to attack. But the Dutch castle outside the city is very strong. First attack the old port city, or the Dutch castle first?"

  Liang Yutian said with a smile: "It's not that we haven't been to the Old Port. The Dutch Castle outside the city has long since lost the morale of the army. If we want to fight, we should fight together, and we will take it down in one fell swoop!"

  This is the easternmost part of Sumatra Island. Banten has a piece of land, and the rest is the territory of Aceh.

  Aceh used to expand wildly, but after bordering Banten, it stopped expanding. The two countries fought a few battles, regardless of the outcome, so they simply stopped fighting and developed in other directions.

   Therefore, although Old Port is considered a border city, after many years of cessation, the Aceh defenders here have never fought. Neither the nobles nor the soldiers had any vigilance, and a sudden attack could easily take the city down.

   There is a Dutch castle outside the city.

  The Netherlands and Aceh are allies, protected by the Aceh army, and the Netherlands has very few troops stationed there. Throughout Palembang, the Dutch East India Company only sent 3 civil servants and 20 soldiers to purchase the local products here and transport them to the seaport through the Musi River, but the seaport was in the hands of the Han Chinese.

  The history of the Han people occupying the harbor is longer than the history of the Biqi Kingdom, which can be traced back to the era of the Majapahit Kingdom!

  Before the Majapahit Kingdom, the Han even controlled Palembang City. At that time, it was still under the rule of Sanfoqi. The Manjaboyi Kingdom destroyed Sanfoqi and came to attack Palembang City. The Han people were defeated, so they gave up Palembang and moved to live by the sea.

  Then, the Danmu Kingdom destroyed Manjapahit, and the Danmu Kingdom split and perished again, becoming the Wandan Kingdom and the Matalan Kingdom. On the Palembang side, Aceh took the opportunity to occupy it.

   That is to say, when the Han people ruled this place, the Aceh Kingdom, the Wandan Kingdom, the Matalan Kingdom, the Danmu Kingdom...all had not yet been established.

  As early as the early Ming Dynasty, there were tens of thousands of Han Chinese living in Palembang, most of whom escaped from the troubled times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty!

  A few days later, the four major surnames called the tribe, and the other minor surnames were also called.

  On the high platform.

Shi Cunzhang took out the bronze seal, drew his sword and shouted: "I am the consolation envoy of the old port of China, not the chief of Aceh! The old port is the old port, not Laoshizijugang, which was changed by the barbarians of the country. What is the name of Manjapahit?" , what Danmu country, and the current Aceh country are all foreign invaders..."

"The Sultan of Aceh is tyrannical, cruel, and exploitative! The Han compatriots in and around the old port city were taxed heavily more than ten years ago, and the tax was getting heavier and heavier! On our Xingang side, the amount of tax we need to pay every year is also increasing. The higher the limit is, the more damned the Dutch wanted to take away our Xingang fourteen years ago! If the brothers and sisters hadn’t taken up arms, this Xingang would have changed its owner a long time ago!”

   "As far as I know, the Dutch have been bewitching the Sudan, wanting to take over Xingang and enslaving us. Brothers and sisters, are you willing to be enslaved by the red-haired ghost?"

   Countless Han people shouted angrily: "I don't want to, I don't want to!"

Shi Cunzhang continued: "Now, His Majesty the Emperor of China has sent troops to Nanyang. As long as we take down the old port and have the help of heavenly soldiers, we will be the masters of this place again. I, Shi Cunzhang, swear here that as long as I return to serve as the consolation envoy of the old port, no matter Xingang and Old Port, as long as they are Han Chinese, all poll taxes will be abolished!"

   "Long live, long live!"

  The Han people began to revel.

  Han gentry and nobles fought for their interests. The Han people at the bottom are fighting for the abolition of the poll tax.

  One call, one hundred responses, united will!

   In fact, the vanguard has already set off.

  The four surnames Shi, Chen, Liang, and Qiu have already gone to Palembang City in batches. They transported salt, fresh fish, vegetables, etc., and used business as an excuse to enter the city one after another to lurk.

   "Bring people up, sacrifice the flag and swear!"

  Two tax officials sent by Aceh were **** and dragged to the stage.

  Decades ago, Xingang was completely self-governed by the Han people, as long as they paid full taxes to the government every year.

  The Sultan of Aceh was very upset about this, and sent two tax collectors to help manage the port and town. And based on the estimation of port taxation, the amount of tax that the Han Chinese vassal chiefs need to pay has been continuously increased. In recent years, they have even begun to levy poll taxes on the Han people.

   "Mmmmmmm..."

  Two Aceh tax officials were pressed on a high platform, with rags stuffed in their mouths and unable to speak.

   Swipe, Swipe!

  Two sword lights flashed, and two heads fell to the ground.

   "Let's go!"

  The human head is hung on a bamboo pole, walking at the forefront of the team.

  A large number of small sea-going ships and inland watercraft travel upstream along the Musi River. The Han people here are very strong, and even the goods purchased by the Dutch need their help to be transported from Palembang (river port) to Xingang (sea port).

  Ninety miles away, it takes only three days to march, and the number of troops is increasing.

  Because there are Han people living along the route, even inside and outside Palembang City, there are many Han artisans, coolies and businessmen. There are at least 100,000 Han Chinese, mixed Han Chinese, and Sinicized aborigines here, and it may even reach 200,000. After all, the Han people have been multiplying for three hundred years and have completely ruled here for decades.

  Even the Sinicization of the aborigines is aimed at the Han people. Because for them, Aceh is the real outsider, and the Aceh Sultan is getting more and more brutal.

  It was not until the rebel army approached Palembang City ten miles away that Aceh officials in Palembang City received the news of the Han Chinese rising up and hurriedly organized troops to defend the city.

  Dutch Castle, the first to be attacked!

  This castle was built on Hexinzhou, and it was the only place for the rebels to go to Palembang.

  The person in charge of the castle is a senior civil servant of the East India Company. His first reaction was not to defend the city, but to send people out to negotiate. After all, there were only 3 civilians and 20 soldiers, and it was too difficult to defend the castle. Not to mention tens of thousands of Han rebels, even if thousands of natives attack, they may break the castle.

   "Kill, siege!"

  Shi Cunzhang didn't care what the two armies were fighting and didn't kill the envoy. He chopped off the head of the negotiating envoy and ordered the troops to attack from all sides with small boats.

   "Quickly clean the barrel!"

  The Dutch in the castle are in a mess. Since the Netherlands and Aceh were allied, there has been no war here for more than ten years. Needless to say, the gunpowder was damp and hardened, and even the artillery had not been maintained for a long time. The outside of the gun barrel was clean after occasional wiping, but the inside of the gun barrel had already grown a patina.

   "Boom boom!"

  In the first round of shelling, only two artillery pieces fired, and the other artillery pieces were still dawdling.

  The Dutch soldier held a moldy matchlock gun in his hand, looked at the densely packed enemies outside, and had no idea what he should do.

   This situation happened decades ago.

  At that time, the Spanish and Portuguese colonists were jointly stationed in the castle on Ternate Island. As a result, more than 2,000 natives rushed forward, and the Spanish-Portuguese coalition forces dared not fight at all, and just left the island on a sea boat.

   "Surrender, we surrender!"

  The person in charge of the Dutch castle ordered to open the gate of the castle. They only want to survive now, for fear that if a few more Han people die, they will anger the Han people and cut them all down.

   A negotiator was cut off before, and now there are 2 civilians and 20 soldiers.

  A total of twenty Dutchmen were brought before Shi Cunzhang.

  Shi Cunzhang grinned grinningly and said: "Cut them all, leave no one behind, and take over the castle and the goods!"

  These Dutch people were also unlucky. The Aceh officials in Palembang City, at least someone tipped off the news, and received the news that the rebels had killed them ten miles away. The Dutch in Hexinzhou Castle seldom leave, and they didn't find out until the rebel army killed them a mile away.

  The Han uprising army continued to advance, and Palembang City was already heavily guarded.

   After the Aceh Kingdom formed an alliance with the Netherlands, it purchased a lot of guns and artillery, which is one of the reasons why it can expand wildly. At this moment, there are one thousand defenders in the city, two hundred of them have muskets, and there are eight fire cannons in the city.

  Shi Cunzhang is not worried about this. He didn't dare to raise troops before, but he couldn't stop Aceh's follow-up attack. Once Palembang is gone, the Sultan of Aceh will definitely send a large army to take it back, and the Han people here will not be able to carry it back.

   But now they are not afraid, they can contact the Chinese army!

  Shi Cunzhang pointed to the Palembang City in front of him, and shouted excitedly: "That city was built by our ancestors. Our ancestors were once the masters of the city. Now follow me to take it back!"

  Can't wait for the night to get together, because the city is already in chaos.

  There are many Han merchants in the city, all of whom come from the four major surnames of the Han people. The officials and soldiers of Aceh, fearing that the Han businessmen would take the opportunity to make trouble, wanted to preemptively attack the Han people's shops and residences.

  The most nonsense are those Aceh soldiers. The rebels outside the city are about to kill them, and they are still burning, killing and looting in the city. The target is nothing more than the wealth in the hands of the Han people!

  There are already hundreds of rebels lurking in the city, and Han merchants have already contacted them.

  The atrocities of Aceh soldiers made the actions of the rebels in the city smoother, and the Han civilians were forced to stand on the side of the rebels, otherwise they would not even be able to save their lives.

   "Siege!"

  (end of this chapter)