I

Page 580

The terrain here is a plateau, and above the plateau, there are many plains, hills and valleys.The aborigines are semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural, and they only live in one place for one or two years.

They would move to fertile river valleys, burn wasteland and cultivate land, and take their cattle and sheep to graze nearby grasslands.In one or two years, or two or three years, the soil fertility will not be enough, and it is necessary to go to the next valley to burn wasteland.

The natives packed up their things one after another, preparing for a migration.

The wife wanted to move out of nowhere, but the Chinese husbands of course refused, and almost every household was quarreling in a muddle.

There are only about 20 surviving adult male aborigines.They can't survive Chinese men. This tribe is already in the hands of the Chinese.

A navy soldier from Guangdong grabbed the soil from the field, found Deng Youzhang and said: "The local people don't know how to accumulate manure, and the soil fertility is getting worse every year. This is similar to the Guoshan Yao in Guangdong. They change places every two or three years, and then start again. Burn wasteland and cultivate land. They must be taught to accumulate manure, and the field must be leveled. What do you mean by stones everywhere in the field?"

"I understand." Deng Youzhang nodded.

In Madagascar, which is a little bigger, some tribes have already built terraces, while others are still slash-and-burn.

This river valley, in Deng Youzhang's opinion, is not bad, and after the migration, he still has to work hard to open up wasteland.

He gathered all the Chinese people, and after assigning tasks, they went home and brought out their wives.Some people not only married wives, but even had cheap children.

The Chinese took the lead in clearing the stones in the fields, and the aborigines followed suit in a daze.In fact, they have been tidying the fields for a long time, but there is no such large-scale collective labor.Even the excrement of cattle and sheep in the grassland was picked up and piled up one after another.

Large and small broken stones were picked up from the fields and piled up in the village.

These broken stones can be used to build walls.

The messy land was tidied piece by piece, and Deng Youzhang even redistributed the land.After regularizing the land, the retting manure was sprinkled on the land to increase its fertility, mixed with a lot of plant ash.

After more than a month of tossing like this, they organized to dig aqueducts.

The amount of engineering is not large, mainly because the indigenous people do not know how to do it.There is not even a wooden barrel for carrying water, and all the water is fetched in clay pots. The rice is also grown upland rice, and the yield of rice is much lower than that of rice.

In fact, it is not suitable for growing rice here because the annual precipitation is relatively small.

The further north the worse, the proper savannah climate, the environment forced the aboriginals to nomadic.

But Deng Youzhang and the others were lucky. This is the border zone between the tropical grassland climate and the tropical plateau climate.The reason why the Sakarawa people established their country in the south is because the further south they go, the more suitable for settlement and farming.The most suitable place for farming is the plateau area in the middle of the island, where there was a Kingdom of Merina, which later ruled the entire island.

In the first year when I came to Madagascar, I was basically engaged in infrastructure construction.

The land in the valley was leveled out and fertilized continuously for cultivation.Two diversion canals were also built, the dry fields were transformed into paddy fields, and even the rice seeds were changed.A small number of rice that has not been soaked in seawater was moved here for breeding, and the indigenous garbage rice seeds were no longer used.

The Chinese were pleasantly surprised to find that there is no cold winter here, and as long as the rivers don't dry up, rice can be planted all the time, with two or three crops a year.

There are also cultural people who have graduated from elementary school on board, and they have been recording the date.

But the Chinese calendar doesn't work here, and the weather is still not cold after Chinese New Year.Of course, it is not very hot, the temperature is between 14 and 32 degrees throughout the year.

They also found that there is a distinct rainy season.The rainy season lasts for four months, and the rainfall has increased significantly, and it does not rain all day long. Not only does it not affect agricultural production, but it is beneficial to grain irrigation.

The local aborigines plant seedlings in the rainy season.There is neither breeding nor transplanting, sow the rice seeds and wait for the rain to grow, and the rice can be harvested after the rainy season is over.

As for the months with less rain, the aborigines did not plant rice and instead planted cassava and other crops, wasting two-thirds of their time.

The years on the island are fleeting, and a year passes quickly.

No one has any hope of returning to China, and all marry local women.Those who are confident in their physical strength and capable of supporting their families even marry two wives and raise the children brought by their wives.Even those Persian slaves were given wives.

"Today is the day we come to the island for a year!"

Deng Youzhang called a meeting for all the members, and the indigenous people also came to join in the fun, looking at them cheerfully.

Deng Youzhang said: "Some people make their wives pregnant, and they will give birth in two months... Oh, don't laugh! Marrying a wife and having children is a matter of course. Here, there are 12 men over the age of 182, and women There are 247 of them. There are no rules, but before the rules are established, the identity must be arranged. Thanks to the love of all brothers, I, Deng, proclaimed myself the governor, and took charge of all affairs here."

"I will appoint Brother He Wenpeng to be the commander-in-chief here, responsible for training and commanding the army. I will appoint Brother Li Luosheng to be the chief steward here. Our village will be officially named Datong Village, and we will call it Datong City when we grow up!"

"After the establishment of the system, taxes will be collected, and grain will be collected according to the size of the field. As for cattle and sheep, they will be collected according to the number of livestock. The tax collected is not mine, nor is it an official. We will build warehouses, and we will fight in the future. Water conservancy, or disaster relief, will be spent from the warehouse! Everyone will keep an eye on it, and anyone who dares to be greedy for public food will throw it into the sea to feed the fish..."

After some speeches, everyone applauded and cheered, mainly because the rice had just been harvested, and the food was very abundant.

The natives are also completely convinced. Although they don't understand the behavior of outsiders, the food production has indeed increased.They regard outsiders as sent by the gods, and even actively learn to speak Chinese, thinking that Chinese is a language of gods.

Then came the celebrations, first worshiping Mazu, and then facing east to worship the emperor.

The natives already know that Mazu is a great god and the emperor is the son of the sky.

After tossing until evening, each went home to rest.

Deng Youzhang married two wives, one in his 20s, with two cheap children, and now he is four months pregnant again.One was in her teens, the daughter of the dead patriarch, except for her darker complexion, she was also considered a little beauty.

Anyway, there are more women than men, as long as the woman agrees, she can take concubines casually.

The task of the men, apart from labor and training, is to quickly create a man.Their number is too small, so they can develop and grow here by having more offspring.

A few days later, the expedition returned.

Team leader Guo Tong said: "Going to the north, about [-] days' journey, there is an indigenous tribe there. We investigated last year and found no human settlements. They should have migrated in the past six months. Their farming is very bad, but the number of cattle and sheep There are a lot of cattle and sheep on the grassland."

"Is there a horse?" Deng Youzhang asked.

Guo Tong shook his head: "There are no horses, only cattle and sheep. This tribe is very aggressive, and they charged us with spears when they saw us. I was afraid of accidents, so I brought people back. By the way, I also observed secretly. There are slaves in the tribe. Whether it is grazing or farming, a lot of slaves are used.”

"Grazing, keeping slaves, and migrating are similar to the Mongols, but they don't have war horses," Deng Youzhang said. "This kind of tribe cannot be allowed to grow and grow. You have to lead troops to fight. Their slaves, rescued and compiled Every household is the people. Robbing some more women and children will increase our population."

Deng Youzhang's adaptability is very strong, and he has completely changed his thinking. Many rules of the Datong Army are no longer acceptable.

The entire island of Madagascar is in a primitive society and a slave society.The more powerful the tribe or country, the more slaves there will be.

For example, the Kingdom of Merina in the central plateau is currently the most powerful force on the island, adopting a three-level social structure of nobles, commoners, and slaves.

Deng Youzhang did not intend to raise slaves, but plundering the population was necessary.Especially in the northern grassland area, where there is not much food to grow, the tribes there will invade instead.Then take the initiative to go out, reduce the enemy's population, and increase your own population.

On the 382nd day after arriving in Madagascar, Deng Youzhang led a hundred troops to the expedition, taking the first step of their expansion.

Chapter 747 [Island Owner Evolution History II]

Under Deng Youzhang's command, there are doctors and carpenters.

Carpenters were given special attention, and several aboriginal orphans were given to carpenters as apprentices.

The various tools of the carpenter come from the ship.As long as there are enough people and enough wood, another dock can be built, and the boat can even be repaired.Because the carpenter on board was originally responsible for repairing and maintaining the ship, so that the severely damaged ship could sail to the nearest shipyard.

With the efforts of carpenters, they have produced plows, and plowing has evolved from human power to animal power.

It's a pity that there is no blacksmith, and there is no iron ore nearby. The plowshares can only be ground with stones, and the chain is easy to fall off when plowing.

As a means of transportation, more than a dozen wheelbarrows were produced due to the existence of carpenters.

One hundred troops set off, and more than 100 civilians helped to transport food.Most of these folk husbands are indigenous women, and the lack of manpower can only be arranged in this way.

After walking and stopping for more than ten days, Deng Youzhang ordered the march to stop when he was about to approach the target.

It wasn't until night fell that all members set out again in black, each carrying several simple torches.

This semi-nomadic tribe is relatively large, with an estimated population of nearly a thousand.They live by a small river, and many crops are planted on both sides.

The house is similar to a yurt, with wood as a frame, and then cow and sheep skins are draped on it.On top of the cow and sheep skin, some hay was spread to prevent the skin from being exposed to direct sunlight.

The livestock are kept in pens after dark, all in the open air, only fenced with wood.

The treatment of slaves is similar to that of cattle and sheep, but at least they have a roof to protect them from the rain.

Half of the 100 troops and more than [-] grain transporters crossed the river downstream.

The river is very shallow, only reaching the waist, and it can be crossed by walking.

These semi-nomadic natives, defenseless at night, have all fallen asleep, and they don't even know that the intruders lit the torches.

The soldiers touched it with torches, while the civilian husband stayed on the periphery, and inserted the extra torches that were lit on the ground at intervals.

"Bang bang bang!"

In the silent night, bursts of drums suddenly sounded.

Deng Youzhang cursed in a low voice: "Damn, these natives are so stupid, they agreed to set fire to the house and then beat the drum!" He didn't care much, and said to the herald beside him, "Blow the horn and attack!"

More than a dozen aborigines beat the leather drums used for dancing.

The rest of the aborigines, each holding torches in both hands, stood outside and waved and shouted, while a large number of torches were burning on the nearby ground.

The Han soldiers held up torches and screamed to kill them. When they got close to the house, they lit the fire and quickly ignited the dry grass covered on the outside.

The tribe native who was attacked suddenly woke up from the dream, and ran outside the house in a hurry with a weapon.They saw many torches all around, shouts came from all sides, and several houses in the village were also on fire.

Cowardly, take your family and run away in panic.

The brave ones raised their weapons and charged indiscriminately, not even knowing where to fight.

However, one hundred Han soldiers were divided into four teams, and they set fire to the houses in an orderly manner, and immediately cooperated with the attack when encountering the enemy.

In order to save gunpowder, guns were not used.

It is enough to rely purely on strategy and organizational strength. It is obvious that they fight more with less, but when it comes to local battlefields, there are always more than a dozen Han soldiers teaming up to surround and kill a few aborigines.

The aborigines were killed and fled in all directions. They didn't know where there were enemies, so they completely relied on instinct and ran towards the direction without torches.

Working in the middle of the night, the sky is getting brighter.

This level of night attack can be used to attack the Tartars, let alone a group of aboriginals.None of the Han soldiers, including the aborigines, were injured.

But this tribe of nearly a thousand people was crushed and defeated, and most of them fled in the dark.

153 women were captured, 26 men were captured, 82 children were captured, and 74 male and female slaves were rescued.The grain seized was not much, but there were more than 1700 cattle and sheep, and two bronze spears were also seized.

"Do you want to take the captive man back? I'm afraid there is a hidden danger of rebellion." He Wenpeng asked.

Deng Youzhang said: "I can't let it go, can I?"

He Wenpeng said: "The Datong army is not allowed to kill prisoners. Even here, some rules can't be broken. Once the rules are broken, people's hearts will not be easy to gather. Sooner or later we will become like Tartars. Today's night attack is already very brutal. If you have no grudges or grievances, come to arrest people and rob food, we will soon become bandits."

Deng Youzhang sighed and said, "Brother He, do you think I want to be a bandit? There are barbarians everywhere here, and we have few people. We must grow as soon as possible."

He Wenpeng was silent for a while, and breathed out a dirty breath: "I understand the truth of what you said. How about this, the more than 20 men who were captured, all cut off their right thumbs, and left them here to fend for themselves. Whether they can survive is up to them luck."

All around were the cries of aboriginal women, which upset He Wenpeng.

After rushing the looted cattle and sheep, bringing along slaves, women and children, Deng Youzhang led his army back to the village.

The slaves were declared free, and those who had no spouses could still marry the opposite sex in the village.As for the land, they can only continue to open up wasteland, anyway, they will be taught how to farm.

As for the captive women and children, the children were taken away by each family.If the child has a mother, the mother will also be taken away together.The rest of the women were placed in a centralized place, and they were not allowed to move freely in the short term.

Deng Youzhang sat alone by the river, looking at the sunset in despair.

He is also very uncomfortable with this situation, and always feels that he has become a bandit.Moreover, his pressure is greater than others, because he is the leader here.

"I have to find something to do, or I'm going crazy." Li Luosheng came behind him at some point.

Deng Youzhang asked, "What do you want to do?"

Li Luosheng said with a smile: "I graduated from elementary school, and I have a diploma. I want to build a school, and I don't need classrooms, and I don't need pens and paper. I just call the children every day, teach them to read, write and calculate accounts, and give me a balance. Just a vacant lot."

Deng Youzhang said: "That's a good idea. I don't want my children to talk like birdsong all day long."

During this year, the Han people and the aborigines interacted with each other, and each learned the other's daily language.Even the dumbest aborigines can say words such as "Have you eaten", "Come here", "Plowing the fields", "Mazu", "Married".

Li Luosheng continued: "It's not an option for us to plunder the population like this. Moreover, this place is not suitable for building a city. We need to find a better place."

There are better places, and they are found quickly.

But there is already a master there!

A large river flowing from the plateau forms a good natural harbor at the mouth of the sea.Many tribes settled along the river, the delta washed out by the river, and even an indigenous city appeared—that was the capital of the Boyna Kingdom, and it could also be said to be the residence of the Boyna Tribe, nearly a month away from the Han people’s village distance.

The Kingdom of Boyna is a tribal federation.

The Boyna tribe is the most powerful, and the rest of the tribes swear allegiance and pay tribute to the leader regularly.It is also a three-level ruling system, with nobles, commoners and slaves. The slaves are all captured in the northern grasslands.

The nomads on the island are miserable. They can't grow any food, and they don't have such magical weapons as cavalry. They have always been bullied by the farming people.

"It has been found out that there are many tribes living along the big river in the south. Near the sea, there is a big tribe by the river, and they have built a city wall of earth and stone. The city wall is not much higher than a person, but there are many indigenous people, so they have to use firearms. OK."

"On the way back, I met another tribe. This tribe was very friendly and did not attack us, and even exchanged gifts with us."

"This tribe can make friends and develop into our affiliate."

The gift exchanged this time is another bad thing.

The tribal leader took the cotton cloth and ran to the Boyna tribe to pay tribute, asking for a reduction in this year's grain tribute after the cotton cloth was offered.

The leader of the Boyna tribe, or the king of the Boyna country, was very happy to see the cotton cloth, so he asked about the source of the cotton cloth, and soon found out the location of the Han village.

The king thought that cotton cloth was a local product of Han villages, so he immediately dispatched [-] troops, led by his own son.

It's not that they want to wipe out the villages of the Han people, but they intend to conquer this place and let the Han people pay tribute of cotton cloth every year.

Five hundred troops came in mighty force, all using copper weapons.Along the way, hundreds of tribal servants were also recruited. When they arrived at the Han village, the number of troops exceeded 1000.In addition, there were hundreds of slaves, all of whom were transporting grain and serving as auxiliary soldiers, using wooden spears as weapons.