After entering the dock, Gu Yuan learned that the place name was Linzi.
"Why this name?"
"The governor believed that the king of Qi was similar to the Qi of the Warring States Period, so his city followed suit and it was more convenient to name it."
Wang Cheng reported in 1511: "Moreover, this is just a nickname. Everything has to wait until His Highness the King of Qi takes it personally. We will replace it with Linzi, which is more convenient."
Immediately, he introduced himself as just a commander in Luzon, responsible for developing the area.
While listening, Gu Yuan looked up and observed the situation in Linzi City.
It is said to be a city, but in fact it is just a wooden village. There are only some fences near the pier and only one trestle, making it look empty.
The pier and the city are connected together, and houses of all sizes can be seen at a glance, making them look particularly desolate.
Some Han people were either chopping firewood or going out to hunt and farm in the city. Their clothes were thin and although they could not be said to be skinny, their faces were sallow.
Hundreds of houses are made of wood, and the two-foot-high wooden village walls are also made of wood.
If a fire were set off, the huge Qi State would probably be destroyed.
"I heard from the governor that there are 100,000 people here?" Gu Yuan sighed: "If I look at it today, I'm afraid there are not even a thousand people!"
Wang Cheng chuckled and said: "There are immigrants in Linzi City, nearly a thousand soldiers, and outside the city, there are hundreds of attached tribes, not one hundred thousand, but there are still thirty or fifty thousand."
When Gu Yuan heard this, he smiled bitterly.
Luzon has been struggling for more than a year, allowing thousands of people to open up the land. Just saying that Qi's household registration is well-off is simply deceiving people.
I really made the right trip this time.
If we still stay in Beijing, when the King of Qi declares vassal status, he will probably be filled with bile when he sees these thousands of people.
The King of Qin only had tens of thousands of people in Saigon. He also captured Champa and had hundreds of thousands of people under his command. The majestic Qi State was only a fraction of his number. Who can accept this?
"Luzon really deceives people too much."
Gu Yuan couldn't help but scold the general.
He originally had a bad temper and was sensitive, but now he unleashed his anger without any scruples.
After all, he is a private minister of Qi State, and no matter how powerful the governor is, he cannot be dealt with.
However, Wang Cheng and other generals on the side lowered their heads and remained silent, pretending not to hear. After all, nominally, they were still soldiers of the Governor's Mansion.
Gu Yuan was not restrained, he sat down directly and asked about the soldiers and horses.
The civil servants and military men who followed him naturally accepted the power of the entire Linzi.
Wang Cheng was detained in front of him, and he could only watch helplessly as the other party took back his power. Everyone had a lust for power, but he was helpless.
Because this is people's right.
However, he was quite happy at the same time.
Because it means he can go home.
"There are about five hundred soldiers and horses, including a hundred musketeers and two hundred longbow and crossbowmen. The rest are just those who can wield blades and spears."
Wang Cheng said softly: "There is no shortage of food, weapons, etc., but there is very little gunpowder. For us, it is quite restrictive."
“Why is gunpowder scarce?”
"Because the native barbarians are not afraid of bows and arrows, nor are they afraid of broadswords, but they are afraid of muskets, so the loss of gunpowder is huge, and the Governor's Mansion is short of money and food..."
Hearing this, Gu Yuan said coldly: "I heard in the capital that Luzon is no less than Taiwan, and even more prosperous, with a large population, but a navy of 5,000 people, which is almost the same as the navy of the South China Sea.
"
"Short of money? It's impossible. It's just that our Governor Jin doesn't want to spend it on Qi State."
Having said this, Gu Yuan couldn't help but sigh.
After all, Qi State has nothing to do with Luzon, and the small amount of support it provides is just to deal with the imperial court.
At night, Gu Yuan, as the special envoy of the King of Qi, held a special meeting, and all the slightly powerful people arrived.
Gu Yuan had military and political power over Linzi, so the civil and military officials who followed him had some objections to him, but they could only bow their heads and listen.
"Everyone, we are all future ministers of the Qi Kingdom. Now His Highness is getting married in the capital. We are here to prepare for His Highness the King of Qi's appointment as a vassal."
"What do you think?"
Gu Yuan was sitting high with a serious face.
On both sides of him, civil and military officials sat in rows, and there were about thirty people.
It can be said that these people are both his help and a kind of surveillance on him.
After all, the Qi State is currently the smallest, but it is the foundation of the King of Qi and cannot be ignored.
"To inform the Prime Minister, although the entire Linzi is in our hands today, we must establish prestige to completely capture it or even develop it."
At this time, a burly man stood up, raised his head and said.
Prime Minister was Gu Yuan's official position in Qi State. Now that he arrived in Qi State, he would naturally be called according to his official position.
And these people naturally have their own official positions and form a complete bureaucracy.
"you say--"
Gu Yuan said.
"The lower official believes that the best thing now is to conquer the indigenous people. First, they can plunder gold, silver, money and food, and later they can also have the effect of developing and training troops."
The man said seriously: "It is not enough to open up casually like last year. Instead, we must fight as much as possible to conquer the natives and use the land to lure immigrants."
"Only when there are truly 100,000 people can we be worthy of the king and the state of Qi."
As for how to seduce people, there is no need to say more.
The nearby Luzon Road, Fujian and other places are their main sources of immigrants.
Jia Bu continued: "Relocating the people, relieving the situation but not the emergency, conquering the indigenous people, and turning the barbarians into summer are the fastest methods at present."
"His Royal Highness is the vassal. In these two or three years, we should work hard."
Gu Yuan agreed with this.
This made him understand that this person was a military commander and had a background in a martial arts school, so he would definitely demand the use of troops.
But at this time, this is the most effective method.
Farming? Not advisable.
Immediately, everyone set a goal: to expand Qi's current territory tenfold and increase the number of people to one hundred thousand.
Financially, it is to grow cotton, rice, and most importantly, sugar cane.
This is the basic condition for the King of Qi to become a vassal.
A few days later, Gu Yuan bid farewell to Jia Bu and watched him lead hundreds of troops to the expedition. Only a hundred soldiers were left in Muzhai to guard the city.
Soon, under the leadership of Wang Cheng, a group of people came to an indigenous tribe a hundred miles away from the dock.
Here is a hillside with trees everywhere, and there is a small village. Although it is called a village, it is just a house made of wood.
It is not even a house, it can only be regarded as a rain shelter of civil structure.
There are also some livestock near the entrance of the village, which are obviously their means of transportation and farming tools.
Downstream of the village, this is a piece of land.
The rice fields are sparse, and at a quick glance, you may not be able to harvest even one stone from ten acres of land.
What comes into view is a plain with more than a thousand acres of land.
This made Jiabu overjoyed.
Not long after, a large camp had been set up in the distance. This was the rule he had learned from the martial arts hall. The wooden fence, patrols, and tents all had boundaries, and the laws were strict.
Groups of Ming troops went in and out of the camp, carrying water for cooking or feeding horses.
After investigating the military situation, Jiabu came back directly and set off with the army.
Two miles directly in front of the sight of the soldiers, there were a large number of indigenous people, about a few hundred people, dancing and praying together, as if they were performing some kind of celebration ceremony.
"kill--"
Suddenly, seeing enemies coming and going, the natives were frightened and quickly raised their weapons to fight.
"Shoot!" In the air ten meters above his head, dark clouds of rustling arrows passed by, passing half a mile away and pouring down into the indigenous formation.
The natives are very agile and vigorous on this land. Their advance is very fast, but they are not as fast as the arrows.
"Puff!" The arrows fell, and the natives who were only halfway down fell down and screamed.
At this time, a cavalry force of more than ten people took advantage of the situation and rushed into the enemy formation. Even if the number of organized cavalry was small, it was simply not something that these poorly organized natives could contain. Even if the number was large,
It doesn't work either.
In this case, they are not enemies at all.
Soon the natives surrendered.
As for the muskets, they were of no use at all.
This made Wang Cheng, who was watching the battle, exclaim: "It's different with cavalry -"
That's right, this cavalry was transported from Luzon.
As for the cavalry, they were naturally recruited from the Mongols at the Naadam Conference.
How could Luzon support the war horses before?
These war horses were brought from Luzon.
In fact, at the beginning, the King of Qi also wanted to transport war horses from the mainland. Since there were not even one war horse out of ten in the thousands of miles of sea, it was better to buy them directly in Luzon.
As a Spanish colony for hundreds of years, the horses in Luzon are all purchased from European and Arabian war horses, and there are even some Indian horses. The population is very rich and the number is large.
To the natives, who were still in primitive tribal form and had not even entered the slave society, these cavalrymen were like divine soldiers descending from the sky, filling their hearts with fear.
On the contrary, they were very familiar with the spears, bows and arrows; the muskets, on the dense rainforest and grassland, could only scare people, but they were not very powerful.
"It's just two or three hundred people, since they dare to resist stubbornly."
Jia Bu sneered and walked into the indigenous tribe.
After a rough tidying up, there were a lot of animal skins and some dried meat, but the rest was close to nothing.
"Make a note of this place."
Looking at the thousands of acres of rice fields here, they are sparse and sparse. Unless they are carefully identified, they are no different from weeds in the mountains.
Perhaps it was because of this flat land that this tribe gathered here and gained such great strength.
These lands are also indispensable to Qi State.
Jia Bu looked at Wang Cheng, who was still shocked, and said with a smile: "What? How did you fight before?"
"Before I waited, I mostly used muskets as a deterrent. This group of people escaped very quickly and were familiar with the terrain. They couldn't be captured at all."
Wang Cheng smiled bitterly and said: "After three or four months of fighting, more than a dozen large tribes were crippled, and only about 200 people were captured, which shocked the tribes within a radius of two to three hundred miles."
"So, many tribes had to sue for peace and bring some food and animal skins as tribute."
When Jia Bu heard this, he suddenly realized: "No wonder there are only so many people in Linzi."
Good guy, just because there are no war horses to capture people, it is defeated but not destroyed, and the population cannot grow naturally without being able to take over the pot.
They led the remaining population back to Linzi City, and the whole town rejoiced.
This battle is directly worth the gains of the past year.
After making a summary at night, Jia Bu said bluntly: "The advantage of cavalry is that although they cannot run wild in the mountains and forests, they can only capture their people quickly on the battlefield so that they will not gain nothing."
In other words, cavalry is suitable for capturing people, not fighting on the battlefield.
Especially in dense rain forests, this is a big no-no.
"The victory of muskets is most suitable in the rain forest."
Jia Bu finally circled back: "Looking at the future, whether it is cavalry or muskets, both are indispensable."
Gu Yuan nodded, and after a few words of praise, he said: "Then, General, I have to work hard recently."
"These two hundred slaves are not enough, we need more."
"I want to expand Linzi two or three times, and bake bricks and stones to build a real city."
Gu Yuan said excitedly: "When the time comes, we will still have to open up wasteland for farming, logging and building farms. Without tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of slaves, it cannot be solved."
Jia Bu could only obey without complaint.
In the next month, he led the army to attack continuously.
The losses to oneself are not big, but the gains are getting less and less.
In the beginning, there were still a few hundred people, but later, they didn't even want the land or houses, and just fled to the mountains to live a life.
Jia Bu didn't know anything about the local terrain, so he naturally didn't dare to go deep into the mountains and forests, so he could only return without success.
At last count, after a month of hard work, only 2,000 people were caught.
These are not even enough to build a city.
Jia Bu smiled bitterly and said: "These indigenous people are very smart. They know they can't defeat us, so they hide far away. The island is so big, why don't you worry about having no place to eat?"
As a result, everyone was worried.
Finally, Wang Cheng came up with the idea:
"In Linzi, many surrendered tribes often send people to exchange things, exchanging grain and animal skins for some salt, pottery and other gadgets, and there are even many who buy and sell captives."
"These tribes had a lot of conflicts with each other. They conquered each other and never acted in an inconsistent manner. That's why Linzi City was established."
"Since we can't catch it, why not use their money to buy it? Especially salt, which is the scarcest thing for them."
These words were like a revelation, waking everyone up.
Gu Yuan exclaimed: "We know how to boil salt from sea water, but the indigenous people don't know. They can only lick rocks in the mountains and forests, which is a lot of hard work."
"Salt is plentiful for us, but it is scarce for them."
"It would be great if you can buy people with salt."
After that, everyone reached a consensus: two pounds of salt in exchange for a prisoner.
After the news spread, tribes within hundreds of miles around were inexplicably happy. Tribal conflicts involuntarily expanded, and not only tribes were wiped out.
A large number of prisoners were escorted to Linzi.
In just three months, more than 5,000 slaves were exchanged. As the news spread, the more tribes were informed, the more captives there were.