But this does not mean that all the indigenous people in Luzon have surrendered to the Spanish!
The natives who surrendered to the Spanish were only a small part of the millions of natives in Luzon.
More indigenous tribes had bad relations with Spain, or had no contact at all.
For example, deeper in Luzon Island, there are numerous cannibals.
They are quite stubborn and like to cook the Spanish they catch for barbecue.
Traveling with the Inquisition of a certain cult is a yes!
The natives who surrounded the Liberation Army mining team this time should also be the kind who have bad relations with the Spanish or have little contact with them.
Otherwise, these natives would not have surrounded the mining team and would have negotiated with the Liberation Army.
Instead, they would choose to directly destroy the mining team of the Liberation Army and sell it to their masters.
What further proves this point is the location of this indigenous tribe.
Where the Liberation Army discovered iron ore and coal mines, there was a large indigenous tribe nearby.
If you guessed correctly, it should be that tribe that surrounded the Liberation Army.
Tribes that are closely related to the Spanish are basically located around the city of Manila, not in such deep mountains and old forests.
The level of development there is much higher than in the mountains, and the living conditions are much better than in the mountains.
Therefore, in Luzon, under normal circumstances, you can know the tribe's position just by looking at its position.
Zhu Hongyu had a bold idea. Through this negotiation, he would pull this tribe, which had a bad relationship with the Spaniards, onto his chariot.
They even used this to influence more indigenous tribes, making them hostile to the Spanish, and even encouraged them to attack Spanish manors and villages.
In this way, it will naturally greatly alleviate the pressure faced by the Liberation Army.
…
The mining team of the Liberation Army was surrounded in an open space.
In the surrounding dense forest, figures flashed one after another.
Many natives with grass around their waists, weapons in hand and bare upper bodies kept making strange screams.
Intimidating the Liberation Army mining team surrounded in the open space!
However, their weapons and equipment are really backward.
The spears are sharpened wooden sticks, the axes are made of stones sharpened and then tied to short wooden sticks, and the arrowheads of hunting bows are mostly made of stone, with only a small number of bronze arrowheads.
The mining team was also guarded, with their muskets leveled and the surroundings carefully guarded.
However, both sides maintained restraint.
The natives did nothing but scream strangely, and the Liberation Army also did not even light the matchlocks of their muskets.
Although the Liberation Army had already begun to convert the matchlocks into flintlock muskets, after all, the time was still short and only a few had completed the conversion.
Moreover, most of the modified flintlocks were handed over to the Liberation Army for training and use.
The guards of the mining team still use matchlock guns. If you want to shoot, you need to light the matchlock first.
In the dense forest, there were several extremely tall indigenous warriors who were considered quite burly among the indigenous people.
Surrounded in the middle was a well-dressed indigenous leader with a slightly fat figure but extremely bright eyes.
Beside them were several indigenous soldiers.
These indigenous soldiers were all relatively strong, and they all held bronze weapons in their hands. They seemed to be more elite than the indigenous soldiers exposed to the sight of the mining team.
"Abba, why do we need to negotiate with the Chinese? It's obvious that they have invaded our territory!"
Next to the indigenous leader, a girl with wheat complexion and lively facial features asked.
The girl looks to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, but her figure has already developed extremely well, with the front and back curved.
There is very little fabric on her body, and she is wearing something like a navel-baring top.
Stretch your body slightly and you will reveal the strong vest line on your abdomen.
Her eyes were extremely aggressive, like a fierce "female leopard".
The indigenous leader next to him, whom the girl called Abba, opened his mouth to explain to his daughter.
"Because they have what we need!"
"The coal and iron mines near the tribe are indeed ours and we discovered them first, but in our hands, the coal and iron mines are just coal and iron mines."
"We can't smelt iron ore, and coal can only be used for fire!"
"But in the hands of those Chinese, coal and iron ore can be turned into iron, and iron can be turned into weapons, iron pots, and farm tools..."
"So, we need to negotiate with them!"
"Through negotiation and paying a certain price, we can get what we want from them!"
The tribal leader's intention was very clear. He wanted to trade iron with the Liberation Army.
However, as soon as the leader finished speaking, another tall and strong-looking indigenous young man on the side expressed a different opinion.
"Abba, why do we have to negotiate with the Chinese instead of going to rob them directly? Wouldn't that be easier?"
The young man's words spoke almost everyone's thoughts.
Why spend money to buy something that can be obtained by looting?
In ancient China, many civil servants regarded mutual trade as a good way to solve border troubles, but ignored the importance of the army.
But why don't they use their brains to think about it, if they can rob it, why should they spend money to buy it?
If you don't have a strong military as a deterrent, who would do business with you?!
Wouldn’t it be nice to just rob him?!
A typical example is that in the late Ming Dynasty, the big bosses in the court allowed the eight major Shanxi merchants to collaborate with the enemy and betray the country, and sent various supplies to the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
They wanted to use this to relieve the material pressure within the Qing Dynasty and further make the Qing Dynasty unwilling to invade borders.
The Shanxi merchants who collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country were traitors. This is an ironclad fact and there is nothing to argue with.
But in the case of Shanxi merchants collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country and becoming traitors, some big shots in the court also played a disgraceful role.
There are definitely protective umbrellas, but not all officials are the protective umbrellas of the eight major Shanxi merchants.
Merchants from Shanxi transport so much materials outside the customs every year. Where do the materials come from? Which route should they take to deliver them outside the customs? How to pass the inspection on the nine sides of the Great Wall? What should I do if I encounter border troops inspecting smuggling?
These are all problems!
Therefore, it is impossible to hide the fact that the eight major Shanxi merchants collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country.
Other provinces dare not say that, but those officials in the Third Division of Shanxi must all know.
But why did none of these officials report the affairs of the eight major Shanxi merchants, so that the Manchu Qing Dynasty obtained massive supplies from the eight major Shanxi merchants and developed little by little?
There are many reasons!
First of all, these officials must have received money, there is no doubt about this.
The problem of officialdom in the late Ming Dynasty was better than that in the Qing Dynasty after the establishment of the atonement silver system. How normal is it to have corrupt officials?
It would be strange if there are no corrupt officials!
There was also pressure from the eight Shanxi merchants' protective umbrella in the court, which was also a very important point.
However, apart from these two points, there must be other reasons.
Although there were many corrupt officials in the late Ming Dynasty, there were certainly good officials who were not afraid of death or tiredness and devoted themselves to serving the court.
These people choose not to expose the big pustule that is the Eight Shanxi Merchants, and it is definitely not due to the above two reasons.