Subsequently, Pimont also sent helpers to Hou Xianglin: a group of bankrupt military households and Japanese ronins of the Ming Dynasty, a total of forty-eight people.

Pimont made it clear to Hou that these people were part of the "volunteers" he had recruited in Macau, but that they had voluntarily terminated their employment contracts and wanted to work for the "Australians" because ---- Australians were well fed and paid more.

Pimont knew that Governor Hou was short of labor, so he sent them over by boat.

Of course, there is another reason for this---- military salaries.

Originally, for those military households of the Ming Dynasty, because they had rich combat experience, so the requirements for salaries were relatively high, and many of them also brought their families, these people left their hometowns and followed Pimont to a foreign land to "fight the country", and this "country" was defeated, and they also obtained land and houses.

So for these Han and Japanese ronins who have a foothold, if Pimont still wants to use them, they will definitely have to pay more price, after all, this group of people basically drag their families, in order to support their families, in order to hire local natives to farm for them, this group of people's requirements for military salaries are obviously much higher than those of singles, and because of this, Pimont, who has been in a state of lack of cash recently, feels pressured, and he feels that spending money on these people makes him feel a little painful.

So after asking Hou Xianglin's opinion, Pimont readily introduced this part of the people.

Hou Xianglin gave them two taels of silver every month as a military salary, which was amazingly high, and the food was good, so these Ming military households and Japanese ronins happily transformed themselves and became part of the Australian Federal Xin'an City Garrison. Later, they became the first Australian citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia in this overseas territory.

I especially like to be a soldier on Hou Xianglin's side is the group of Japanese ronins, a total of twenty people.

Obviously, Pimont doesn't like these dwarfs so much, the Governor thinks that their customs are very peculiar, the language is completely incomprehensible, and they especially like to eat expensive rice, and the treatment of often eating rice seems to be only available to Australians, plus the average height of these Japanese ronins is a little more than one and a half meters, and their bodies are very thin, although they are very brave in battle, but they are just brave, Pimont feels that the combat effectiveness of this group of people is very average.

Another main reason is that there is no battle to fight now, let's send it out to work, and because of physical strength and other reasons, it is really not as affordable as hiring local natives, but Pimont believes that these people are not very qualified as a small labor force, but if they follow Governor Hou as bodyguards, it is still okay.

Obviously, Hou Xianglin doesn't think so, he knows that these little men are actually very explosive, and they are very obedient, loyal, tenacious and able to endure hardships, and they are excellent candidates for their subordinates.

These characteristics of the Japanese ronin have historical facts to prove that in this era, those heroes who galloped the sea in the Far East Sea, like Li Dan and Liu Xiang's generation were too far away, not to mention, now in the Jinxia area on the southeast coast of the mainland, there are a large number of Japanese ronin, they are making soldiers for the Zheng family, and Zheng Chenggong's sailors also have many Japanese sailors, it is said that the ronin is a group of people who cannot return to their hometown, and there is no place to take refuge, so these people can only follow the Zheng family to fight in the south and the north, This is still the case until the third generation of the Zheng family.

And Hou Xianglin soon found out that there were really people from the southeast coast of the mainland in this group of Japanese ronins, and three of them could speak some Hakka, Hou Xianglin asked, and he really worked as a sailor in the Zheng family's sailors, but later the ship encountered a storm, and then drifted to Macao to become a mercenary of the Governor of Pi.

Therefore, Governor Hou happily accepted this group of people and gave them the same treatment as the Ming military households.

For this reason, these Japanese ronins were very moved, and since then, these people, including their descendants, have not only followed Hou Xianglin, but also followed their successor Wei Hong, and have become one of the important backbone forces in the Australian Federal Army to which Wei Hong belongs.

In fact, Hou Xianglin also knew that Pimont's mercenaries still had about 200 Chinese soldiers and about the same number of Japanese ronins, in addition to some of these people recruited by Pimont from Macao, some of them were left to him by the Portuguese sandalwood merchant Degus, and some of them were Chinese and Japanese ronins who had originally made a living in Dili City.

According to Zhu Beiguo's account of Hou Xianglin, in this era, the largest foreign ethnic groups in the Nanyang region were not Europeans, nor Annamite and Siamese from the subcontinent, but from the densely populated and war-torn northern continent and the cold archipelago country.

According to historical records, as early as the Song and Yuan dynasties, people from these two places began to go to Nanyang to seek a living.

Therefore, it is not surprising to meet these two types of people in the port of Nanyang - although it is very surprising to Hou Xianglin, it is because he is a science and engineering man who has only been exposed to some rudimentary historical knowledge in middle school history textbooks.

Hou also learned that the composition of these Chinese and ronin was very complicated, some of them were officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, some were down-and-out sailors, bankrupt farmers and merchants, and of course criminals, fugitive slaves or pirates who had been scattered, most of whom were single, but Pimont did not give them to him.

However, at this time, Hou Xianglin has made up his mind, and he plans to have a good chat with Pimont, even if it costs some money, he will get these people.

Therefore, this morning, Hou Xianglin took the luxurious four-wheeled carriage provided by the Duchess of Margaret and brought the four Chinese attendants to the Governor's Palace, and he planned to ask Pimont to accept those Chinese in person, and in return, he would pay a large sum of silver, and this expenditure had been approved by Xia Xiaoou Yu He presided over the "North Fund", and it is said that Sun Lao also strongly agreed with Hou Xianglin's initiative. Elder Sun said that as long as you give out the silver, the governor of Pi is very likely to agree, because Pimont has been very short of silver recently.

As for why Pimont didn't take the initiative to hand over these Chinese to him earlier, Hou Xianglin also understood very well, because these people were excellent laborers, they were still single, and their requirements for military salaries were not too high, so Pimont kept them and was unwilling to let them go.

Obviously, Hou Xianglin asked Pimont for many reasons, in addition to Sun Lao's advice, in fact, it was mainly influenced by Zhu Beiguo, who believes that these people should likely become the main force of our Australian Federation on Timor Island, from a strategic level, no matter where the Australians go in the future, supporting the local Chinese and relying on the local Chinese should be our long-term strategic choice.

Regarding Zhu Beiguo's statement, Hou Xianglin deeply agreed.

Obviously, these ideas are by no means groundless, nor are they whimsical, but have been carefully considered.

On the morning of 4 February, on the eve of the flotilla's departure from the port of Dili, a discussion meeting was held on board the Nicole, the subject of which was a proposal made by Zhu Beiguo: to try to accept the Han Chinese and Japanese ronin who had belonged to Pimont and Degus in Dili as much as possible, and that they should be redeemed mainly by way of redemption.

At the meeting, Dr. Zhu specifically told Hou Xianglin and the participants about this incident some historical truths that could not be read in history textbooks, and some secrets about the Nanyang Chinese community.

Zhu Beiguo's speech aroused great interest among the people, and they also realized the necessity and possibility of winning over the two "foreign groups" in the Nanyang region, the Chinese and the Japanese ronin.

Zhu Beiguo believes that we, as migrants from Nanyang, face the same problems as Europeans and Japanese people when facing the indigenous people, so we have a "natural affinity" with each other.

Zhu Beiguo told everyone that in the history of the Old World, the Chinese, and to a certain extent, the ronins from Dongying, were a rather controversial ethnic group on these islands in Southeast Asia, and the reputation of this group depends entirely on their respective positions.

These groups are usually industrious, skilled in farming and skilled in various skills, and a few are literate, in a word, they are far more civilized than the indigenous islanders, who are generally in the transition period of primitive tribes.

Especially the Chinese community.

Therefore, Europeans often use the Chinese to control the natives, after all, for the natives, the former also belongs to the foreign household, so for the Europeans who are also foreign households, there is a certain natural alliance between the two.

Especially in the eyes of the Dutch, the Chinese were very important allies, because it turned out that as long as there was a Chinese community in their base, it meant economic prosperity and unimpeded trade, all kinds of supplies were guaranteed, and there would be rich taxes.

In short, the fact that the Chinese group is more civilized than the local indigenous people is the consensus of Europeans from afar.

Therefore, after the Europeans gained a firm foothold, many places---- especially the colonies of the Netherlands and Portugal, adopted an open and welcoming attitude towards the Chinese, and under normal circumstances, compared with the "stupid, lazy and evil" of the natives, the Chinese often got good jobs, and the Dutch once gave considerable preferential treatment to the Chinese, so as to attract the mainland Chinese to settle in the colony.