Lu Daniu looked at his family's more than 500 acres of land.
He immediately went from being extremely excited to looking sad.
He also knew something about cotton as a crop.
A few days ago, he learned that his family had been assigned a cotton field, and he specifically asked friends who had grown cotton before for advice.
All cotton in the cotton field must be picked during the period suitable for picking.
Picking cotton is still strenuous physical labor. Even if their family of five is exhausted, they still cannot complete the workload of 500 acres of land in a short time.
He felt like he was being cut by a knife when he thought about how much of his property was being wasted.
Lu Daniu could tell that Lord Sun didn't want to see them. He asked for instructions: "Master Sun, how can we pick so much cotton with only a few of us?"
Some farmers who were slow to react were enjoying themselves. When they heard Lu Daniu's speech, they immediately realized that their property would suffer heavy losses.
Sun Huosheng said nonchalantly: "This is nothing, the adults have already thought about it.
The original slaves on the plantation, as well as the original Spaniards, will help you farm the land.
I will arrange these things next, you can wait for my arrangements.
Lu Daniu looks very smart, you are the head of this village and are responsible for managing the trivial affairs in the village."
After Sun Huosheng introduced the situation, he waved his sleeves and made way for Danniu to give the villagers a share of the plantation house.
He didn't want to get involved in such annoying trivial matters.
He waited for the officers to press the prisoners over, and after dealing with them, he could return to the city.
Lu Daniu acted quickly and quickly allocated houses to all the villagers.
The women and children went to tidy up in the new house, and the young men returned to the courtyard again.
They didn't wait long before officers came over from the prisoner camp, pressing down many people. It looked like there were about 1,000 people.
These soldiers guarded the prisoners with rifles. These prisoners should have seen the power of rifles.
They all looked at the rifles with fear.
The soldiers drove the prisoners into the village and made them squat on the ground with their heads in their hands.
There were so many prisoners that many of them had no choice but to squat on the field ridges.
An officer led several soldiers carrying flintlock rifles and shouted at the crowd of immigrants: "Which of you is the village chief?"
Lu Daniu immediately stood up and asked humbly: "Sir, what do you want to see me for?"
The officer loudly said: "There are more than ninety flintlock guns here. You can allocate them to the young men in the village. If you hold the guns, you will become the village militia."
Your village is on the outskirts and may be attacked by indigenous people.
To manage these people, you also need a gun in your hand to be effective."
As the officer spoke, he pointed at the prisoners squatting outside the courtyard.
When Lu Daniu saw this situation, he understood immediately.
He had learned about the situation in Nanyang from newspapers before.
The farmers there are only responsible for some light work, and the local indigenous people are responsible for all the heavy manual labor.
Lu Daniu immediately understood what Master Sun meant just now.
With these young men and women helping them pick cotton, the cotton in the fields won't be a problem.
Sun Daniu immediately said excitedly: "Sir, please don't worry, there were adults who specially taught us when we were on the ship.
Young people can easily use firearms. This is our home, our wives and children are here, and we must defend it to the death."
Lu Daniu picked up a gun, called a villager's name, and handed the gun into his hand.
The people he selected were all young and strong, and most of them had no skills.
These people's original skill was farming, but now the farming is done by natives and slaves, who are responsible for guarding these people with guns.
When the officer saw that the village didn't require him to waste any time, he got things done smoothly.
He was very satisfied and said: "Our camp is not far from here. If anything happens, we will fire a warning shot."
After we hear gunshots, we will send people over to check on the situation.
Now you will be responsible for these people."
After the officer finished speaking, he waved and asked all his men to stand outside the village. If something unexpected happened in the village, he would be able to solve it.
When Lu Daniu saw this situation, he immediately ordered the village militia to go and take care of these prisoners.
Sun Huosheng smiled when he saw Sun Daniu and others performing well.
There is no need for him to be too upset about the situation in this village.
The villagers guarded the prisoners with guns in hand, and no one dared to resist these unarmed prisoners.
People who are extremely rebellious are all under the custody of the military and will not be sent to the village.
When Sun Huosheng saw this situation, he knew that he should take action.
He saw a Spaniard who had been following him, wearing Hanfu, long hair tied up, a high nose, blue eyes and gray hair.
Sun Huosheng said to him: "Li Xianshui, it's time for you to show off."
Li Xianshui is a Spaniard born in Luzon. He was not liquidated because he was too young, so he traveled to various parts of China to survive.
He now serves as a full-time translator, accompanying Wei officials.
Sun Huosheng had a very gentle attitude towards Li Xianshui. He knew that this person with Spanish ancestry would never become his competitor and he could use him with confidence.
When Li Xianshui heard Sun Huosheng's instructions, he nodded to express his understanding.
He quickly translated Sun Huosheng's words into Spanish.
Most of these prisoners can understand Spanish.
"You are no longer plantation farmers, but have become prisoners of King Wei, and must work for King Wei's subjects."
Li Xianshui finished speaking to the captured Spaniards.
After listening to Sun Huosheng's words, he walked to the indigenous group again to translate.
"You people, you have to thank King Wei for his generosity.
You have regained your freedom and are no longer slaves.
If you choose to work as a farm laborer here, I will give you 500 copper coins every month on the premise of providing food and housing."
As a naturalized Spaniard, Li Xianshui had a better understanding of how the Han people treated the local people after they seized a piece of land.
The practices of the Han people are completely different from those of the Europeans.
Most people in Europe would choose to kill the local indigenous people and bring slaves from other places to work.
The Spaniards were not qualified to intervene in the black slave trade, and the colonies lacked cheap black slaves.
But they will also eliminate the local indigenous people, except for women who are suitable for childbearing, and move the indigenous people from other places.
The Han people are completely different. If they can assimilate the local people, the Han people will choose to assimilate.
People who cannot be assimilated will be treated as consumables, and these people will be consumed through various heavy manual labor and dangerous projects.
When the natives heard that they had regained their freedom, they couldn't believe it.
They shouted excitedly in their native language. After calming down, a few prestigious people looked up at Li Xianshui.
They asked Li Xianshui to verify this matter. These people were afraid that their joy would be in vain. Freedom is really too precious. You can only know it if you lose it.
After receiving the final confirmation, they stood up and cheered excitedly.
Li Xianshui saw that the natives were a little calmer, and he said again: "You can choose to leave the village, or you can accept employment from the village."
The natives calmed down and their tribes were not nearby.
Even if you are physically strong and have no weapons and food, you can't drive back to the tribe.
What's more, they are already married and have children here, so most of them cannot make up their minds to leave.
The natives fell into silence, and many people gathered together in twos and threes to discuss some things.
When Lu Daniu saw this situation, he was very anxious.
He couldn't understand what the natives were saying? But he could understand what Master Sun said.
Lu Daniu immediately walked to Sun Huosheng's side and said with some trepidation: "Master Sun, if these natives leave, what will happen to the cotton in the village?"
Sun Huosheng just smiled, and what Lu Daniu was worried about would not happen.
These indigenous people have adapted to life on the plantation and have no way to integrate into the tribe.
Except for the natives recently captured by the Spanish, few people would choose to leave.
One of the purposes of granting these indigenous peoples free status is to win the goodwill of the indigenous people, which will facilitate their subsequent assimilation.
Another purpose was to elevate the status of the indigenous people and use these people to manage Spanish slaves.
The population of the Han people was too small, and they could not deploy a large number of people to manage slaves.
We can only take advantage of the previous grievances between the natives and the Spaniards and use the natives to look after the Spaniards.
The development of things was indeed as Sun Huosheng expected.
After the indigenous emotions calmed down, even some people wanted to leave.
They saw that they were empty-handed and could only die in the rain forest if they left like this.
These people immediately approached Li Xianshui and registered as workers.
They have walked out of the prison camp. If they don't work as laborers, their families will starve tonight.
When Lu Daniu saw this situation, he breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as someone works for him, he doesn't care who they are.
When the villagers learned about this situation, some were still whispering.
"This is such a magical day, we can also become landlords."
“If I had known if I had come here to become the owner, the people in the village would have taken over.
Fortunately, I saw the opportunity early and was able to come here to enjoy the blessing.
I immediately begged someone to write to my brother and ask him to take a boat here as soon as possible."
Sun Huosheng saw that everything was on track, and he asked Li Xianshui to stay here as an interpreter.
As long as he hands over someone who can speak Chinese, he can leave here and return to work in the city.
Sun Huosheng led people to sort out the plantation property.
These lands and the crops on the land were rewarded to the immigrants by the King of Wei.
The property left behind by the plantation, which belongs to the Wei Palace, must be taken back.
Lu Daniu took out a few gray-black striped stones from the house.
He walked up to Sun Huosheng, played with the stone and asked, "Master Sun, someone in our village has an ancestor who was a blacksmith, and he said this may be iron ore."
When Sun Huosheng heard that it was iron ore, he was immediately pleasantly surprised.
He was alone playing with stones that were suspected to be iron ore, and asked his men to quickly sort out the plantation's property.
The big shots above are worrying about the coal and iron mines.
If he really discovers iron ore, he will make a great contribution.
Sun Huosheng urged, but his men did not check the supplies too carefully. They took most of the plantation's supplies and hurried back.
Because of Li Xianshui's special status, even though he is a Spaniard, he is treated politely by the villagers.
In order to find the village, Li Xianshui asked among the captives and indigenous people, and soon found a clever man.
An indigenous man who looked to be in his thirties but was actually less than seventeen years old became the target chosen by Li Xianshui.
He asked: "It really only took you three months to become proficient in speaking Spanish."
The native said humbly: "Sir, a person who cannot understand Spanish will not survive more than half a year.
People who can’t speak Spanish can’t get a wife.”
Li Xianshui nodded and said: "From now on, you will learn Chinese with me, and you will become the steward of these people and be responsible for managing them.
I don’t care what your name was before. From now on, your last name will be Li, and your name will be Li Laifu."
Li Laifu nodded and said his name in blunt Chinese.
He obtained certain rights and immediately began to organize indigenous and Spanish captives to pick cotton in the village.
Li Laifu held the whip in his hand, and he whipped it directly at the fat Spaniard.
"How dare you be lazy? If you continue to be lazy, you won't have anything to eat at night."
Li Xianping liked to paint oil paintings, so he took out his drawing board and painted this scene.
…………………………
After Wang Dajingang finished primary school, he immigrated overseas with his parents.
They offended the powerful in Dahua and had no choice but to leave. When King Su Hu of Wei was recruiting residents, their family signed up and traveled across the ocean to Daliang City.
Wang Dajin's father is now an official in the Ministry of Accounts because he is literate and good at accounting.
As a highly educated person, he also interned in a metallurgical company and became an official of the Ministry of Industry, responsible for searching for coal and iron mines around Daliang City.
Wang Dajin took the dozen or so soldiers who protected him and the apprentices who followed him in prospecting, and went to suspicious places with tools to prospect.
The blast furnaces that came across the ocean from Dahua have been built because of the lack of iron ore and coal.
They could only use the coal stored in steam ships to smelt scrap iron.
Wang Dajin's mission this time is to find coal and iron mines.
The Wei Palace has sent immigrants to take over the Spanish plantations.
An official named Sun discovered traces of iron ore while sealing the plantation.
The military eliminated the indigenous tribes that provoked them and found traces of suspected coal mines.
It was these two minerals that the Wei Palace was in urgent need of. The adults above put pressure on Wang Dajin to quickly confirm whether the minerals were real?
Even if the coal and iron mines are smaller in scale and of lower quality, there will be no problem.
They must first solve the problem of having and not having.
As long as the blast furnace can operate, the machinery shipped can process guns and cannons.
The perfect military industry is their confidence to defend Wei.
All these words were told to him by his father Wang Dajin.
In order to speed up their speed, the Prince of Wei sent them five precious mule carts.
Wang Dajin looked at the steam drilling machine on the mule cart. With these machines, there was no need to dig mountains to confirm the quality of the mines.
The mule team is preparing to move towards the suspected coal mine.
Compared with iron ore, coal mine is more important.
Without coal, those steamships would lose power.
A large number of steam engines will also lose power due to lack of fuel.
A fast horse ran over from the front.
Wang Dajin immediately ordered the mules and carts to escape. The yamen that could raise horses now were all the yamen with real power.
When the young man on horseback saw the sign on the mule team, he reined in the reins and said, "You don't have to go to the coal mine. The chief organized more than 800 soldiers to dig up the soil with ordnance shovels.
It is indeed a relatively large coal mine there, and I went to the city to report the relevant situation."
When Wang Dajin heard the news, he immediately turned to the location of the suspected iron mine.
The iron mine is closer to them. It doesn't matter which mine he explores first. If he explores the iron mine, he will also know whether it is true or not.
If it were true, his trip would be in vain and would be delayed for a long time. Going into the jungle would also be risky.
Wang Dajin was grateful for his choice. Notifications had been sent to the city that the coal mine had indeed been dug up by the local army.
He looked at the steam drilling rig. They had drilled dozens of holes at the suspected iron ore location. There was indeed iron ore here.
The sound of the machine stopped, and the apprentice quickly brought over the sample drilled by the machine.
Wang Dajin confirmed his thoughts and his face turned red. He had never seen an iron mine of this scale.
The quality of the iron ore cannot yet be determined, but its size is shocking.
Wang Dajin immediately felt relaxed. There was coal and iron here in Wei State, and industry would develop quickly.
Wei no longer had to worry about Spanish counterattacks.