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Time flies, and it has been almost two months since the navy occupied Manila.
These two months have seen earth-shaking changes in Manila and even the entire Luzon Island.
The local natives were greedy for the five taels of silver, as well as cloth, porcelain and other items; plus, if they disobeyed orders, they would be surrounded and forced to become slaves.
On one side is heaven, on the other side is hell.
This policy prompted a large number of Luzon natives to move to Manila. In just two months, together with the more than 100,000 people who originally lived near Manila, the number of natives gathered in the entire Manila area exceeded 370,000.
Many of them did not need to be driven away at all. They simply could not bear the rewards of five taels of silver, cloth, porcelain, etc., so they voluntarily left their original groups and moved to Manila with their families.
It's not their fault. Five taels of silver plus a piece of cotton cloth, porcelain and tea are considered a considerable fortune by ordinary families in the Qin Dynasty. Many families of three may not even have an annual income of five taels of silver.
Such a fortune is a huge windfall for the local people in Luzon.
As the saying goes, people die for money and birds die for food. It is no surprise that the local natives moved to Manila under the stimulation of such huge wealth.
If you want to take something, you must first give it. The effect of this move was beyond the expectations of Zheng Sihai and others.
An imperial edict also came from Nanjing, officially changing the name of Manila City to: Fusu City.
Of course, the imperial edict was about more than just changing the name of the city.
In the South China Sea Fleet Admiral's Mansion, Zheng Sihai, Zhao Han, Shi Lang, Wang Guichen, Tong Haifeng and others gathered. Zheng Sihai read the imperial edict aloud in public and said, "Everyone come and see."
After everyone gathered around, Zheng Sihai drew a big circle on the map with his finger, enclosing the Indochina Peninsula and the entire South Seas.
"These places will all be the territories of our Great Qin in the future. Fusu City is just the beginning. In the future, there will be Meng Tian City, Bai Qi City, Wang Ben City, Wang Jian City, and Shang Jun City. Your Majesty has even chosen the names of the cities. I believe everyone has guessed the meaning. If you want to become the Bai Qi and Wang Jian of this world, please work hard."
"Long live our emperor, long live our emperor, long, long live our emperor!"
"Look again, everyone. Your Majesty calls the area of Dongwu, Jiaozhi, and Siam the Indochina Peninsula. The inland of the Indochina Peninsula is vast, with many mountains and dense forests. Therefore, it is difficult for our Royal Navy alone to fully control the inland.
In this regard, His Majesty has already made arrangements. His Majesty wants to build an asphalt road from here, Changsha... Don't ask me, I don't know what an asphalt road is, and just treat it as a straight road.
In short, Your Majesty wants to open up the straight road from Changsha to Kunming, so as to promote the comprehensive transformation of the three provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan into the governance of the imperial officials. In the future, this straight road will be extended from Kunming to the south into the Indochina Peninsula. Linked with the coastlines on both sides. In this way, the Qin Dynasty will be able to effectively rule these areas;
The cost of building this straight road that runs through the middle and south of the country will be very huge. The civil officials in the court will definitely not agree to use the tax silver from the national treasury to build it. Even if the civil officials agree, the people cannot afford such a huge cost.
Therefore, Your Majesty has placed his hopes on the Royal Navy. Whether this feat, no less than the First Emperor's sweep across the country, can be accomplished will depend on our Royal Navy. The Royal Navy will be responsible for raising all the money and manpower to build this straight road. This is our great honor, but also a huge responsibility. "
"Long live the emperor. Long live the emperor. Long, long live the emperor!"
After hearing this, all the naval commanders present showed excitement. The Qin Royal Navy was like a newborn calf, full of desire to make achievements. Seeing that in the internal unification war, the generals of the army were given titles of dukes and marquises, but the navy had almost nothing to do, they had long been unhappy.
This time, His Majesty waved his hand and included the entire South Seas as the navy's hunting ground, allowing the navy to hunt for fame and honor. How can this not be exciting
Moreover, with the successful precedent of Luzon Island, they believed that such fame and honor could be easily achieved. They only needed to send their warships over and bombard the island with their cannons.
Wang Guichen couldn't help but ask, "Admiral, His Majesty said who we should fight first, or should we choose for ourselves?"
"What's the hurry?" Zheng Sihai said, "The Ministry of Industry has already sent people to Changsha to survey the route of the straight road. The start-up funds have also been secured. What we need urgently now is labor."
Shi Lang frowned and said, "Sir Admiral, isn't it a little too early to take action now?"
According to the original plan, the problem was to be solved once and for all after all the natives on Luzon Island were rounded up near Fusu City.
There are 700,000 to 800,000 indigenous people on Luzon Island, and only 370,000 have been rounded up so far. Half of the indigenous people are still scattered around Luzon Island. If we take action now, we will inevitably alert the enemy and will not be able to lure the remaining half over.
Zhao Han said: "Even if His Majesty has no decree, we can't delay for much longer. We don't have more money to distribute. Besides, the natives in a large area around Fusu City have been lured here, and the rest are scattered in remote areas. It is impossible to get them to move here at once."
Wang Guichen said, "If that's the case, then let's do it. We can slowly hunt down the remaining ones scattered in remote areas in the future. By the way, Admiral, do you want to capture Aquino and his men as well?"
Zheng Sihai thought for a moment and said, "Let's see what happens first. If Arunuo and the others change their minds after we take action, we can capture them together. If they are still willing to obey us, we can keep them as hunting dogs and use them to hunt the remaining natives in the future. Otherwise, it will be troublesome for us to hunt monkeys by ourselves in the future."
Wang Guichen nodded and said, "I also think that we should keep Aquino's several thousand men for the time being. How about this, when we take action, we might as well send Aruno and his men out first, so that they won't see the flaws."
Zhao Han shook his head and said, "We don't need to send Aquino and the others out first. With such a large operation, even if we send them out, they will definitely have doubts in their hearts when they come back. If they don't say anything, we don't know if they have hostility in their hearts, which will cause trouble."
Tong Haifeng asked: "Then what do you think we should do?"
Zhao Han said confidently: "What I mean is that we should not only keep Aquino and his men, but also make them our vanguards. When a rebellion breaks out, we will send them to suppress it first, making them the most hated people by all the natives of Luzon. Afterwards, even if they guess something, they can only continue to rely on us."
Wang Guichen laughed and said, "Master Du Jianshi, it's fine to let them be the vanguard. In fact, they have already had a lot of blood of the natives on their hands."
That's right. These days, Aquino and his men have been "chasing monkeys" in the deep mountains and forests. For the reward of five cents of silver per person, Aquino and his men have worked very hard. They have killed many natives, young and old. The reputation of "Shogun" is enough to stop children from crying at night among the natives of Luzon today.
Zhao Han said: "Then let them have more blood on their hands."
What Zhao Han and his men called "rebellion" was actually a very simple matter. A large number of indigenous people moved to the vicinity of Fusu City and were highly concentrated. These indigenous people came from different tribes and were not dispersed after moving here.
When Zhao Han and his team first settled these natives, they made arrangements to intentionally or unintentionally create divisions and conflicts among the natives. There were already many conflicts between the natives from different tribes.
In addition, the highly concentrated state of settlement made it difficult to dilute this contradiction. In the past two months, armed fights between tribes have occurred frequently. After the killings, in order to aggravate the contradictions between the natives, the Qin army often did nothing, and even showed some bias intentionally or unintentionally. The tribes that suffered losses were naturally very dissatisfied.
Time and again, the hatred between the indigenous tribes grew deeper and deeper. At this time, just a spark could trigger a riot.
If some Qin soldiers "died" during the riot, then the riot could be characterized as a rebellion against the Qin Royal Navy.
"Does anyone have any questions?" Zheng Sihai asked finally.
"Admiral, no more."
"Then everyone, please act according to the plan."
“Yes!”
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ps: I had some personal matters today and was busy all day. I didn’t even have time to eat lunch. I was tired and hungry. I hurried back to make up the remaining chapter of today. Brothers who have monthly tickets, don’t forget to vote for support. It’s not easy!
.(To be continued..)
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