It's like a whirlwind!
News of the arrival of the Ming Dynasty fleet in Southeast Asia spread throughout Southeast Asia, from the Dutch East Indies to the Spanish Philippines, where people were looking forward to the fleet's visit.
Amid this expectation, the fleet set off from Singapore and sailed into the Strait of Malacca. It seemed that it would sail into the Indian Ocean and then the Atlantic Ocean back to South China as planned, completing the Ming Dynasty's first circumnavigation of the world.
However, the fleet sailed into Port Klang in the Sultanate of Kedah.
Port Klang is the most important port here. Even in the 21st century, it is one of the most important ports in Malaysia. It is the most important exporter of tin in this region. Standing on the bridge, Zhao Fuyong said to Meng Qingen.
"Since the 1940s, the price of tin in the European market has been rising, creating good business opportunities for the tin mining industry in the Malay region. Driven by interests, the Chinese Association Party of the Straits Settlements brought a large number of members into the mainland tin mining areas and opened up
With the efforts of nearly 100,000 overseas Chinese in the Narut Mine in Perak and Kuala Lumpur in Selangor, the tin production in the Malay Peninsula is increasing rapidly. It is also for this reason that the Chinese Association and the Chinese Communist Party have a negative attitude towards the Chinese labor force and the Chinese people.
The struggle for control of society and mining areas has never stopped, and conflicts continue between parties. The conflict between Haishan and Yixing private parties in the Nalu area even triggered the Nalu War. The next year, under the mediation of the British
It was settled later, but now the two factions of Nalu are involved in the succession dispute of the local sultan, and the war is about to break out."
"Then why are we here?"
"Because this civil war here has been going on for eleven years!"
Pointing to the pier, Zhao Yongfu sighed.
"In 1860, two local chiefs fought over the tax profits from the mining area, triggering a war. The Jiaying Prefecture in the mining area belonged to the Yixing Party, that is, the Hakka in Mei County, and the Huizhou Hakka in the Kelong Phei mining area belonged to the Haishan Party.
People usually have conflicts over trivial matters and retaliate against each other. At this time, they were also involved in the civil war between the Malays. They each supported one side. This war has continued to this day, and the tin mining area that was once prosperous has become dilapidated.
, I don’t know how many Chinese people died in the war! If we don’t intervene, we don’t know how long this civil war will last.”
Zhao Fuyong did not know that the civil war did not come to an end until two years later when Ye Laiya led the congregation to recapture Kuala Lumpur. Later, in order to prevent Kuala Lumpur from being taken away by his opponents, under Ye Laiya's instruction, Chinese businessmen in Kuala Lumpur and other places passed the Singaporean Chinese Justice of the Peace.
When Chen Jinsheng invited the British to come in to maintain law and order, he was actually handing over the city that tens of thousands of Chinese had built with their blood and sweat to foreigners.
In order to protect their own interests, they will not hesitate to hand over their family business to outsiders. This is the biggest characteristic of Chinese companies or members in the Southeast Asian industry.
"So we have to go to Klang and Selangor, not only to let the two parties sit together and solve the problem through negotiations!"
The special envoy's words made Meng Qingen nod.
"Since this conflict was caused by a conflict between two feudal lords, they must not be happy for the Chinese Association to cease fighting!"
"Then it's not up to them!"
Zhao Yongfu looked at Meng Qingen with a smile, and then said.
"I believe that Chief Meng will be able to convince them!"
When the warship was slowly released into the harbor, the sailors on the ship noticed that the situation here seemed to be different. The dock was empty except for some shirtless local coolies, showing their thin and dark bodies, stretching out
He looked at the two warships with a long neck. As soon as the two warships entered the berth and anchored, the port inspection ship came over, spitting out black smoke. As soon as the port officer got on the ship, he said:
"Selangor is a small state. In order to maintain neutrality, warships from all countries are not allowed to enter the port. If the fleet needs to replenish water and coal, please leave immediately after replenishing water and coal."
While he was talking, the coaling ship was also heading here. Faced with such a polite "send off", Meng Qingen's reply made the port officer dumbfounded.
"The host is faulty and you should leave after the repairs are completed."
Host failure... go there and reason!
There is no room for reasoning. What does it mean for a "scholar" to meet a soldier? I can't explain clearly. However, in just one hour, the Malays in Port Klang fully understood the meaning of this sentence.
First there was a host failure, then they went ashore to purchase, and then the Malays had no choice but to refuse. That is to say, when the sailors went ashore to purchase, they encountered something very unexpected - all the shops were closed!
"what happened?"
Looking at the empty streets, signs with Chinese characters and closed store doors, Careless, who was in charge of purchasing supplies, realized something was wrong.
As a port city, this is simply unimaginable. There are obviously local coolies on the dock, but there are no open shops. The streets are as quiet as a dead city. This is too weird!
"Something must have happened!"
At this moment, a small pebble was thrown from nowhere, and the pebble was wrapped with a layer of paper. But just after briefly looking at the online content, his expression suddenly changed.
"Let's go back to the ship!"
…
"The common people are risking their lives and weeping blood. They beg for help from the Heavenly Lord! The chiefs of the native states regard us Chinese as a people who can be bullied. The leaders of the party colluded with them for their own benefit. They were willing to be driven by the chiefs and fought for tin rice for more than ten years.
In the mines, there have been countless casualties among Chinese workers, and the melee has been going on for ten years. Although we were born in the Qing Dynasty, we never forget our homeland of the Ming Dynasty. When we heard that the Chinese fleet was visiting, we originally wanted to welcome them at the dock, but we were met by the local chiefs and the party.
He threatened us and asked us to close our doors and not sell supplies to the fleet. Anyone who violates the rules will be killed! Although we are willing to serve, we are in a remote place and have no choice but to collude with the party and the locals. We can only be ashamed of the officers and soldiers of the Chinese Empire.
I ask the officers and soldiers of the Heavenly Dynasty to remember the friendship between our compatriots and forgive the sufferings of the common people like us!"
A piece of paper was spread out on the table. The handwriting on the paper was densely packed and scrawled. It looked like it was written in a hurry. The grief, anger and helplessness in the haste were all in these short words.
"What a shot-to-kill, so majestic!"
He smiled and looked at Meng Qingen and others sitting in the cabin looking at each other:
"What do you think? As soon as we arrived here, someone gave us eye drops. First we were ordered to be kicked out, and then the shops were closed... Humph!"
"This...is all driven by the Party?"
"Meet the party..."
Zhao Yongfu pursed his lips and said.
"Hui Dang, for Hui Dang, from the moment we sent a consul in Singapore, we are no longer welcome by them. Seeing that there is no such thing as "shoot to kill" but the power of life and death is in their hands, you
Say, would they be happy to send an official here now?"
While sneering, Zhao Yongfu said in a deep voice.
"However, it's beyond my expectation that they colluded with the native chieftain..."
In fact, it is also expected!
After all, the civil war between Haixing and Yishan can continue until now, isn’t it because each side supports one side and tries to dominate the mining area? The result? The war between the father-in-law and the son-in-law turned into two groups in their hands
The war between Chinese workers.
Two groups of Chinese workers have been fighting there for more than ten years, just to monopolize the mines and then pay taxes to foreigners.
"Now what?"
Meng Qingen's brows knitted together. He never thought that the Chinese workers would not welcome their arrival.
It’s not the Chinese workers, but the guilds that control the Chinese workers. Not to mention here, even those guilds in Singapore may not welcome the consuls they send.
After all, no one wants to have one more person taking care of themselves.
Zhao Fuyong sneered.
"What should we do? Since they won't let us come, of course we have to visit them!"
Come visit us!
Since when you come here, you must go to the door and meet those people in person. After all, the reason why you come here is to mediate the contradictions and conflicts between them.
Now that people don't even want to see me, there is only one way, which is to come to them.
"I want to see who gave them such courage!"
This chapter has been completed!