In February of the 26th year of Chongzhen, Zhang Yu, deputy battalion commander of the Huben Army, stood on the seaside hills of New Guinea Island. While walking forward, he carefully looked at this huge island.
It is more like a small continent than an island.
According to the pamphlet Li Zhi sent to Zhang Yu, New Guinea is the second largest island in the world. It is as big as five Shandong provinces and is larger than Borneo Island to the west. The island is lined with mountains and ridges, and the highest peak is
The altitude is as high as more than 4,000 meters. The coastal area is densely forested and the population is very sparse.
It is said to be even sparserly populated than Borneo.
There are almost no beaches in the coastal area, and the mountains extend into the ocean from a distance. The ironclad ship did not understand the hydrology of the seaside, and was afraid of running aground on the rocks, so it did not dare to dock, but parked far away.
Zhang Yu led hundreds of people in small boats and landed on land.
Like all Southeast Asian islands, it feels hot and very humid. After walking for a while, Zhang Yu couldn't help but pull up all the sleeves of his short-sleeved military uniform, but the sweat from his body still covered the entire back of his clothes.
Sweated profusely.
In fact, this expedition to the Southeast Asian Islands required too much land to be occupied, so the officers of the Huben Army played a very important role in the expedition. In the next year, Zhang Yu, the deputy battalion commander, was in the northern part of this big island.
The person in charge of military control.
There is also a deputy battalion commander in the south of the island, and the two deputy battalion commanders will rule these five large territories in Shandong.
Of course, it is unrealistic for hundreds of people to effectively rule such a large territory. The areas that the Huben Army can actually control are only some important strongholds.
So Zhang Yu had another purpose of landing here, which was to find a trading post abandoned by the Dutch. It is said that the Dutch built a small fort here to exchange materials with the local indigenous people. This fort is the northern part of the entire island.
The only "city", Zhang Yu hopes to find this stronghold and use it as his base camp.
As we were walking, the sky suddenly became dense with clouds.
"boom!"
A bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck a huge tree in the distance. The tree was split in half and burned violently.
It is going to rain.
Zhang Yu looked around and suddenly found a cave a mile away. Zhang Yu shouted to the soldiers behind him: "Run forward, enter the cave to take shelter from the rain."
More than two hundred people followed Zhang Yu and ran towards the cave.
As soon as he entered the cave, Zhang Yu was shocked.
There is someone in the cave.
Seeing Zhang Yu rushing into the cave, the owner of the cave, a dozen black-skinned locals huddled in the innermost part of the cave. Those aborigines had brown-black skin, were very short, and had no other clothes except a pair of shorts that covered their private parts. They
He held a wooden spear and a wooden shield in his hand, maintaining a defensive posture nervously.
A man in the lead yelled something loudly at Zhang Yu, seemingly asking Zhang Yu to leave immediately.
Zhang Yu thought for a moment, pulled out his gun and fired a shot towards the top of the cave.
"Snapped!"
The crisp gunfire was particularly loud and deafening in the closed cave.
The dwarf black people seemed to have seen the power of this kind of musket, and they were suddenly frightened and panicked. They knew that wooden weapons could not fight with muskets, so they dropped what they were holding and knelt on the ground, crawling and not daring to get up.
Zhang Yu looked at these natives and smiled. He looked at the raindrops that began to fall outside the cave, wiped the sweat from his head, and sat down on a stone bench in the cave.
"Song Renfei, these natives have obviously seen the Dutch. Go and sign with them and ask them to take us to the Dutch trading post."
A platoon leader under Zhang Yu saluted Zhang Yu, walked up to the kneeling short black men, and began to communicate with them using body language, trying to let the natives understand what Zhang Yu meant.
Zhang Yu sat on the stone bench and began to observe the living facilities of these indigenous people.
There is a faintly burning fire in the cave, which is probably the fire carefully maintained by the indigenous people.
There are some pottery in the cave, which looks very bulky, but this shows that these indigenous people are already good at making pottery, proving that they have a certain level of civilization.
In addition to pottery, there are also some wild fruit cores and small animal bones in the cave, which shows that these indigenous people did not farm, but hunted and gathered for a living.
There were no beds in the cave. Zhang Yu saw some dry weeds spread on a large rock, which was probably where these natives slept.
Zhang Yu looked at it for a while and couldn't help but frown.
According to the "History of Human Civilization" compiled by Wang Ye, these indigenous people are basically still in the late primitive society mentioned by Wang Ye.
Such a vast territory is occupied by these uncivilized semi-savages. While the industrious Han people are crowded in crowded East Asia, how many acres of land do they cultivate per capita?
Zhang Yu felt more and more that it was a wise decision for the prince to lead the Han people to this sea. The ocean was bigger than people imagined. There were fertile lands everywhere, waiting for the cultivation of the Han people.
If these islands are filled with Han people in a few hundred years, how many trillions will the Han population grow to?
Platoon leader Song Renfei gestured in front of the dwarfs for half an hour. After the rain stopped outside the cave, he finally let the natives understand what Zhang Yu wanted. The natives sent three men to lead the team of two hundred people outside the cave.
, to find the trading post abandoned by the Dutch.
The ground that had just rained was very slippery. Fortunately, the shrubs on this island were very dense, and the soil was tightly wrapped by the roots of the vegetation, so it was not muddy.
After following the three natives for seven or eight miles to the west, they walked into a bay surrounded by mountains. Suddenly their eyes lit up and they saw a large human settlement area.
There were hundreds of thatched huts in that area, and hundreds of little black men without clothes gathered there. When these black men saw the yellow-skinned Tiger Army soldiers walking into the bay with their rifles raised, they were frightened one by one. Many of them were frightened.
People fled into the house, while others knelt on the road, not daring to get up.
Obviously these natives had seen Dutch muskets.
Zhang Yu followed the three indigenous people as they walked forward and stopped in front of a two-story stone building.
Obviously, this was a trading post for the Dutch.
Zhang Yu went into the house and took a look and found that except for some tables and chairs, everything else had been taken away by the Dutch.
Zhang Yu patted the wall of the stone house and said, "Okay, this is our new stronghold. We will stay here for at least a year."
"Song Renfei, please give this stronghold a name."
Song Renfei saluted and said: "I think this harbor is rainy, so let's call it Rain Bay!"
Zhang Yu nodded, pulled up a chair, sat down, and said, "Okay, let's call it Yuwan."
A soldier holding the "star flag" of one town and nine provinces ran to the second floor of the building and raised the flag symbolizing sovereignty.
From then on, this was the land of the Han people.
