I

Manila.

Zhang Huangyan, the governor of Luzon, personally went to the dock to greet the emperor's envoy.

After some courtesy, Liu Hanyi was taken to the Governor's Palace, the castle left by the Spanish.

Before entering the castle, I heard cheers and shouts coming from the northeast direction of the city.

"Da da da da!"

A galloping horse came, and the soldiers dismounted, raised their hands and said to Zhang Huangyan: "In response to the general rule, our army won a great victory. Only 6 people were slightly injured, 1 was seriously injured, and 1 was bitten to death by a poisonous snake. In 5 barbarian villages, we killed more than 300 barbarians and captured more than 1,600 barbarians!"

"good!"

Zhang Huangyan was very happy.

Liu Hanyi asked curiously: "There are always wars in Luzon?"

Zhang Huangyan explained: "The barbarians in this expedition often attacked Han farms and occasionally attacked indigenous tribes close to the government. The previous governor focused on appeasing them, but who knew that the barbarians actually pushed further. I couldn't bear it anymore and raised troops to attack them."

"That's it." After hearing this, Liu Hanyi became more confident in persuading Zhang Huangyan to send troops.

The previous governor of Luzon, Zheng Guozhong, only sent troops once during his seven years in office. Their main energy is busy with resettling Han people, educating indigenous people, building ports, building roads, and digging canals. Minor frictions on the periphery of the territory are often resolved through peaceful means.

Today's Zhang Huangyan is obviously much tougher. He directly sent troops only half a year after taking office.

Zhang Huangyan was afraid of being misunderstood by the emperor's envoy, so he gave more details: "The indigenous people of Luzon Island are mainly Tagalogs. These Tagalogs are scattered into large and small tribes, and there is no subordinate relationship between them. They said People with the same language can farm and weave, and the closer they are to the seaside, the easier it is to educate them. But the further they go into the mountains, the more unruly they become. They rob Han Chinese farms every year and even hunt Han Chinese heads. The Han people on the border have become unbearable. Even if I don’t send troops, those Han landlords will still unite to conquer.”

The Tagalogs are the main ethnic group in Luzon.

Tagalog is very close to Miyako. The Miyako Islands are located between Taiwan and Ryukyu and are currently under the jurisdiction of Ryukyu County.

The Tagalog people are deeply influenced by Indian culture and have been in contact with the Han people for a long time. The Tagalog people in the coastal areas are highly civilized and are good at planting and weaving. They should not be regarded as ordinary barbarians. As long as schools are popularized, large-scale Chineseization can be achieved in two or three generations.

Liu Hanyi asked to see the army's triumphant victory, and Zhang Huangyan took him to the northeast of the city.

Small boats returned one after another, carrying soldiers and baggage. There were also sergeants on the shore, escorting the prisoners along the river. Many female prisoners were crying.

Three thousand Datong troops stationed in Luzon have already brought their families to settle here. Each person is allocated a hundred acres of land in full, and a family of several people has several hundred acres of land. It can be said that all of them belong to small landowners. If there were battle losses, they would be recruited from the local Han people to replenish them.

The soldiers' armor also changed and they no longer wore cotton armor, because it was too hot and not suitable for fighting in tropical areas. Now they all wear chain armor and chain helmets, and they also wear a bamboo hat to protect themselves from the sun. They also wear a standard raincoat on rainy days. The 100% armor coverage rate is enough to crush the natives.

Liu Hanyi asked: "How to deal with those prisoners?"

Zhang Huangyan replied: "Priority will be sold to soldiers as tenants (essentially serfs), and the rest will be sold to local Han people. The children will be raised in orphanages, and when they grow up, they will become Han people. It is not that the government does not practice benevolent government, but These barbarians, fearing power but not obeying morality, have robbed farms again and again. Now that we have sent out troops, of course we must deal with them once and for all, and we must not let the prisoners go back to the mountains."

"This is very true." Liu Hanyi agreed.

Liu Hanyi pointed to the boat operators again and asked: "The oarsmen have dark skin, are they not Han?"

Zhang Huangyan said: "Most of them are Pampanga people. When Spain ruled this place, all the indigenous servants were Pampanga people. They can speak Chinese and Spanish. In the Battle of Manila, most of the Pampanga soldiers were killed, and all the remaining ones were loyal. Submission. This race is very obedient, and more than 2,000 people have been naturalized as Han people one after another. They are afraid that the government will not trust them, so they have converted to Mazu and even speak Chinese at home."

To put it bluntly, it’s Mu Qiang.

They used to work as lackeys for Spain and collectively converted to Catholicism. Now they are working as lackeys for China and have collectively converted to Taoist Mazu. When the Datong Army came to Luzon, the people they killed the most were the Pampanga people. The more they killed them, the more they submitted to Han rule!

Nowadays, among the people of Pampanga, being able to speak Chinese makes you stand out from others, and walking with wind in your feet. On any occasion, people deliberately speak Chinese to show off, and Chinese spreads very quickly.

Other tribes also need government persuasion and enlightenment.

The people of Pampanga actually took the initiative to accept education and asked the government to allow their children to enter schools.

Liu Hanyi asked as he walked: "Can the indigenous people of Luzon have writing?"

Zhang Huangyan explained: "There were some books in the past that were destroyed by the Spaniards. As long as the books were written in local languages, the Spaniards burned them all. This paved the way for us to educate the indigenous people."

Some tribes in Luzon did have writing, but they did not create it completely themselves, but borrowed some Indian writing.

After Spanish colonization, Luzon writing was completely banned, leaving only some oral literature, such as oral epics, dramas, myths, riddles, proverbs, etc. The Ifugao people, who are good at terrace technology, still have narrative poems such as "Aligu Rong" and "Hunting Song".

After reviewing the triumphant troops, Zhang Huangyan took Liu Hanyi into the city again.

Zhang Huangyan pointed to the block ahead and said: "When the Spaniards were here, all ethnic groups had to live in separate areas. Now the city must live together to facilitate the assimilation of ethnic groups."

"It is easy to cause chaos when governed this way." Liu Hanyi expressed concern.

Zhang Huangyan explained: "There are constant small disputes, but no big troubles. This is because the Han people are the largest in the city. There is a police station in every block. Eight out of ten police officers are Han. There are two police quotas left. To other ethnic groups on the block.”

This is not stated clearly. The 20% of policemen of different races must be active and will deal with residents of their own race.

Once trouble occurs, the alien police are pushed out to take the blame: the government is good and treats the people well, and the bad things are done by the alien police. Punishing alien police officers can not only calm public anger, but also gain public support.

And those scapegoat policemen were not unjustly accused. They acted as a lackluster in front of the Han people, so they naturally had to make amends with their compatriots, and even took bribes and perverted the law to oppress their own compatriots.

Liu Hanyi observed the streets along the way. Except for the castle, most of the other areas in the city were Chinese-style buildings. At first glance, he thought he had returned to China.

There are beggars, but there are no Han beggars.

Every once in a while, the government would clear out beggars and sell those with sound hands and feet to Han landlords as tenants. This is definitely unfair. The Han landowners in the suburbs will rob the living space of the indigenous people, and the indigenous people can only go to the cities to find a way to survive. The lucky ones can make a living on their own, and the unlucky ones will be dealt with by the government.

To put it bluntly, we are still engaged in colonization.

It's just that this kind of colonial method is countless times more merciful than the European ghosts. It doesn't squeeze people to death, and it won't exterminate people for no reason. The tribes attacked by the Luzon Datong Army all robbed farms again and again.

The Netherlands was the most cruel. They killed all the people on Xiaoliuqiu Island in Taiwan. The reason was actually to capture female slaves and distribute them to soldiers and crew members. In the Spice Islands, more than 100,000 natives were killed successively because too many natives were prone to rebellion. Many of the Chinese wives in Batavia came from Bali. In order to retain the Han people, the Dutch massacred the indigenous tribes of Bali and snatched the women, half sold and half given to the Han people to make their homes.

Liu Hanyi passed by a blacksmith shop and heard people talking inside, and couldn't help but ask: "Are there any Japanese?"

Zhang Huangyan said: "A few years ago, the Japanese ronin rioted, and the shogunate arrested and killed ronin on a large scale. Many ronin fled to Ryukyu. His Majesty was afraid that Ryukyu would be unstable, so he moved some Japanese ronin to Luzon. Taiwan, Palembang and Malacca, They were all assigned some ronin, each numbering from a few hundred to more than a thousand."

The two entered the castle and came to Zhang Huangyan's office.

Zhang Huangyan took the initiative to ask: "I have heard about Nambawa, what are the angels going to do?"

Liu Hanyi told the details that Su Minggang gave and said: "Please ask General Zhang to send two thousand troops, and then mobilize the Luzon and Taiwan navies to knock down the Dutch city of Batavia!"

Zhang Huangyan was shocked. He knew that the envoys who went to sea were all bold, but he never expected that they were so bold. He immediately couldn't laugh or cry: "The angel is really brave. I thought that the angel planned to send troops to capture Nanba. Let's teach him a lesson for going back on his word." The Nambawa Sultan.”

"What's so easy to capture in Nanba? If you want to fight, just fight Batavia!" Liu Hanyi said loudly.

Zhang Huangyan said: "But the order I received is that once the Dutch attack Nambawa, Luzon will send troops to rescue and occupy Nambawa according to the situation. Sending troops to Batavia has exceeded the authority of the Governor of Luzon ."

Liu Hanyi asked: "The order Mr. Zhang received, did he say what should I do if I defect to the Netherlands?"

"No," Zhang Huangyan shook his head and said, "So, we still need to ask the court for instructions on this matter."

"If you ask the imperial court for everything, how much time will it take to go back and forth? When we send out troops at that time, the Dutch will probably be mumbling and building the castle," Liu Hanyi said, "I don't know how to fight, but I also know The story of besieging Wei and rescuing Zhao. Our army marched directly towards Batavia, and the Dutch defenders of Nambawa were bound to return to rescue them. Nambawa was defeated by itself. Even if our army could not capture Batavia, there was no problem in retreating safely. Right? Isn’t it easier to capture Nambawa during the withdrawal than to attack Nambawa directly?”

"Indeed." Zhang Huangyan nodded in approval.

Liu Hanyi continued: "I have already inquired about it. In order to capture Ceylon, the Dutch sank one warship and severely damaged three warships by the Portuguese. In addition, a few years ago, the Dutch warships were severely damaged by our Datong Navy, and they are still there today. It has not fully recovered. Although the number of ships has been replenished, most of them are modified merchant ships and cannot defeat our Datong Navy. As long as the navies of Guangdong, Taiwan, Luzon, Palembang, and Malacca are dispatched, they can suppress the Dutch navy ships. , successfully sent the army to Batavia to land."

Zhang Huangyan asked: "How can we capture Batavia with a small army?"

Liu Hanyi said: "There is no need to attack by force. With the support of the local Han people, as long as we give money, we can buy enough food locally. Our army is small, the Dutch have even fewer soldiers, and there are only a thousand defenders in Batavia. They dare not go out of the city to fight. , we can only be surrounded until we run out of ammunition and food."

Zhang Huangyan added: "The Sultan of Malan is a puppet of the Dutch. Will Malan send troops?"

Liu Hanyi said: "But the nobles in Ma Daran were incited to rebel. They rebelled once in the past two years. They occupied all the capital of Ma Daran and killed all the old sultans in Ma Daran. The current sultan of Ma Daran is all Only with the support of the Dutch can we quell the uprising and return to the capital. As long as we contain the Dutch, the Matalan nobles will respond. When the time comes, the Matalan Sultan will not be able to take care of himself, so how can he still have the ability to rescue Batavia?"

"Since the angels have thought about it, I will send troops." Zhang Huangyan was actually unwilling to be lonely. He needed enough reasons to convince himself.

But sending troops to Batavia did not disobey the imperial order.

When Zhao Han issued the order, he considered that the situation was changing rapidly, so the military order was very vague, giving sufficient autonomy to the frontline governor and officers and soldiers.