It's just that the cost of weapons and ammunition has not yet arrived, which makes Wei Hong very embarrassed.

In fact, the reason is not that there is a lack of money, but mainly that the major companies in the family have been too busy recently and have no time to make weapons for him, especially now, when they are planning to replace the 57 rifle with the 59 rifle, will they produce the 57 rifle for the garrison now? Seeing that it was about to be replaced, it would undoubtedly be a waste to make this old rifle again, so the matter was delayed.

In addition, although Wei Hong is currently taking over from Gui Xianning to temporarily manage the production of the ammunition factory, Wei Hong has no power to use the ammunition produced by the factory, and the "Beishang Fund" sent a telegram saying that except for a small part of these ammunition for training, and part of it will be handed over to the Nicole to take to the Leizhou Peninsula, most of the rest must be sold to earn silver, especially the five-seven hand @ grenade @ bomb and explosive @ medicine @ bag, these two things are very popular in the market, and the selling price is very good, and they are the main profitable products of the Baisha Group, the owner of the ammunition factory.

Soon, however, the situation on Timor Island changed, and as a direct consequence, Wei Hong's garrison was rapidly expanded.

Here's a background to explain.

The dry season in the second half of 1659 was an eventful season for the travelers, and by the end of December of that year, the struggle between the upper echelons of the Sulu Kingdom had reached a fever pitch, and according to the secret agreement reached between Captain Gu and the Eastern King Wenduhara last year, the Australian Federation would support the king in every possible way, prevent the interference of the Spaniards and their agents, and eliminate his political opponents.

At the same time, the situation on the island of Timor is uncertain, and it is necessary to explain the current context.

At this time, it has only been two months since the signing of the "Treaty of Oecussi", and it is certainly unrealistic to say that a treaty that has just been signed for only two months can eliminate the dispute between the Portuguese and the Dutch on the island of Timor for half a century, not to mention that it is also mixed with the grievances between the indigenous tribes and the Europeans and the love and hatred between the indigenous tribes for thousands of years.

In fact, just a month before the signing of the Treaty of Oecussi, **, who had just returned to Sin'an, led a garrison to participate in a military operation to rescue the city of Oecussi, when the small Portuguese port city of less than 5,000 people was suddenly surrounded by an unknown number of indigenous tribal warriors, and the number of enemies was probably more than 3,000, resulting in the impassability of the road from the port to the city, and the interruption of trade—for the people of the city, the interruption of trade meant gradual withering and death.

At that time, the more than 5,000 Portuguese men and women in the city and the pro-Portuguese aborigines could only use rudimentary weapons, relying on the city walls and Pimont's hands from the Australians** and a small number of Type 57 rifles to hold on to the city, at that time the city was very short of food, ammunition and medicine, and even the supply of fresh water was very tight.

According to credible intelligence, these indigenous tribes were covertly supported by the Dutch in Kupang.

The Portuguese were very angry, and the Governor of Pimont was furious at the Dutch representatives at the Doge's Palace, and loudly condemned the "perfidy" of these infidels, but the representatives of the Dutch Kupang resolutely rejected these arguments of Pimont, and in the fierce arguments, the Dutch representatives had to admit that even if a treaty was signed, there was no unanimity among the Dutch, and it was the internal entanglement of interests and inertia that led to the siege.

However, Dutch officials declared that it was a proxy war, or a continuation of the struggle between the Portuguese and the Dutch for control of the island, and a few days later a clipper ship carrying representatives of the Dutch East India Company arrived in Sin'an for an urgent meeting with Governor Xiao Pingguo.

The representative of the East India Company explained that this was nothing more than a natural continuation of the dispute that had been going on on on for half a century, since the Oecussi had recently sent a caravan deep into the southern mountains, where they had "spread rumors" that there were demons buried in the ground and that the land would be detrimental to the tribesmen, and then invited the tribes to Oecussi to earn a living, and that the Australians were going to build factories and docks there, so there were many jobs in Oecussi.

Enraged, the leaders of the tribe rebuked the demagogic rhetoric of the Oecussi merchants for making it impossible for the tribe to maintain peace, and the long-standing feud flared up again, so they launched a military campaign to besiege the city of Oecussi with the remnants of Orne.

All in all, according to the interpretation of the representative of the Dutch East India Company, this incident in which the city of Oecussi was besieged by indigenous tribes was not at all the first and last of the Dutch.

As to eyewitnesses who had seen some of the tribes carrying very new Dutch flintlock pistols, the representative of the East India Company insisted that the Dutch were trustworthy and that since the signing of the Treaty of Oecussi, the Dutch had ceased to trade in arms to the tribes concerned, and that it was clear that these weapons had entered the tribes before the treaty was signed.

Xiao Pingguo was secretly ashamed of this, in fact, the caravan was sent by Xiao Pingguo through the relationship of Dregus, because that place belonged to the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of Xin'an in the Treaty of Oecussi.

Speaking of which, it is actually clear - the fundamental reason why the local indigenous people are scaring and deceiving is that there is a world-famous copper ore vein buried there.

That's because that's where Cao Limei, the company's chairman, has always wanted to exploit the copper mines in the mountains southwest of Oku, where the veins are extremely high-grade and shallow, according to geological data from the Old World, and in some places can be mined by peeling back a layer of humus.

For this reason, the last meeting of the Federal Senate decided to appropriately reduce the number of migrants sent to Zixia Island and transfer these migrants to Wanshan Islands and Sinanseong respectively, and the plan is to relocate 1,000 to 2,000 households to Sinanseong in several batches, about 5,000 people, before the Spring Festival of next year.

Obviously, Cao Limei wanted these immigrants to develop the copper mining area, and to put it bluntly, she planned to use Han Chinese immigrants to actually occupy that place, and then use these immigrants to develop the mining area - this is a win-win strategy.

So Cao Limei sent a telegram directly to Xiao Pingguo after the Senate meeting, asking him to find a way to drive out all the indigenous tribes that "refused to advance civilization" - because Cao Limei had heard that those tribes were completely disobedient, and many of them were still the remnants of Orne.

Therefore, she thinks that it is obviously very difficult to gather this group of people to mine for herself, and it may be thankless, and in the end, she will make a mess for herself if the mining fails.

For this reason, Cao Limei gave Xiao Pingguo another advice through Sun Lao: For the indigenous tribes, the massacre is estimated to be unworkable, and it will not be killed, and it will add to the chaos if it is not done, and the aftermath cannot be dealt with, so the best way is to drive away with coaxing, deception, and scare.

Then Sun Lao relayed Cao Limei's opinion: No matter what means you Governor Xiao uses, in short, there can be no natives in that area who are disobedient and cannot be used by us! Let's do it, so that at least we can make room for Han immigrants.

After Xiao Pingguo received this suggestion, he secretly sighed in his heart that he was a woman, and at the same time actively tried to implement it, and finally thought of this relatively peaceful idea.