Dear Andreas,

It is a pleasure to write to you, my dear friend.

I've received the pistol you sent, and it's in the holster on my waist right now. It's a work of art, and when I first saw it, I didn't even want to fill it with black gunpowder.

General Mao was very interested in this pistol, and he entrusted me to order twenty from you. I will send you the relevant purchase contract together, if you are willing to accept it, please send the goods as soon as possible. You can first get paid for the goods from my wife, who lives in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan Island, where you last came to my house for a birthday party.

The place where I am now is a fortress in Liaodong of the Ming Kingdom, with the name "Victory Fort". It was a very young fortress, built to resemble European bastions, except with fewer gun ports.

The flag of this army was peculiar, and the soldiers wrote on white cloth the names of their loved ones who died at the hands of the Tatars. I asked Deng Jianshan if he wanted to summon the souls of his ancestors to help the living fight.

Deng Jianshan said no: "This can arouse the revenge of the soldiers." Chinese believe that after the death of a loved one, the soul will fly to the sky and turn into stars. Writing the name of a loved one on the flag allows the loved one to see the scene of the enemy being killed. ”

He suggested that I also write the names of my ancestors, but no one of my family members died in Liaodong. Finally I wrote my father's name, though he had returned to the arms of the Lord in the battle with the Spaniards, and I wondered if I would be able to see what was going on in East Asia.

Early this morning, General Mao set off with his army. Deng Jianshan invited me to set off with the troops, and after thinking about it for a few days, I finally agreed. Deng told me that the Tatars of Liaodong built their first capital in the mountains and forests, and that there should be a lot of fur stored in it. You know, the native of the Australian Song people has been buying furs. If I could buy the loot, my shriveled wallet would be full of beautiful bills again.

It was a bit risky, as I had never ventured deep into the interior of the Liaodong region. In the past, the deepest place I have ever been to was the Kuandian fortress group under the control of the Dongjiang Army.

Deng Jianshan knew my concerns. He comforted me by saying that the Tatars were not terrible, that their military technology was very backward. In fact, I came into contact with those people, and General Mao's army had some Tatars in the service of the Han Chinese, and these barbarians had ridiculous hair. The Han Chinese describe it accurately, like a pig's tail growing on its head.

Tatar names are interesting, they generally name themselves after common events in life. For example, the former leader of the Tatars, whose name was "Boar Skin". To be honest, it reminds me of the black people of the African savannah, who seem to be about the same level of civilization.

General Mao is a very charismatic person. He was a strong man, with a beard, a face that was always calm and serious, and a majestic gaze. None of his subordinates did not respect and fear him. It is worth emphasizing that General Mao was a man who cared a lot about European affairs, and he had previously learned Portuguese with some Portuguese missionaries – although he was no longer proficient. I tried to talk to him about religion, but he refused to talk to me.

"We are atheists." He told me, "If you spread Christianity or any other religion in the army, the gendarmes will take you away and send you somewhere to mine." ”

"But your subordinate, General Huang, has a priest in his army."

"You're talking about Duncan?" A faint smile appeared on his face, "They... Don't ask, you're different. ”

I had no choice but to stop preaching the glory of the Lord, after all, if I were taken to the mines by the Aussons, the Lord would not have sent an angel to save me.

In addition to being very strict in terms of religion, General Mao was actually a very easy-going person. His severity is only manifested in discipline, and in everyday life, if someone accidentally offends him, he has always been indifferent.

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It was already evening, and we had advanced another twenty kilometers in the afternoon, and had just entered the northernmost castle of the Dongjiang Army. Further on, we will have to march on hastily paved mountain roads, and we will not rest in the safety of the fort.

For dinner, I ate the coarse grain paste peculiar to the Dongjiang Army. I brought a little cheese and added it to the paste that was given to me. It tastes weird, my friend, and I think I'll just eat pure paste next time.

Deng Jianshan led his guards into the mountain and caught a rabbit. He gave me a rabbit leg with pepper sauce on it. I really love pepper so much, it's the most wonderful food in the world.

In the evening, the mountain infantry, deployed in front of the brigade, captured several Tatar hunters. General Mao personally interrogated the captives, and I had the privilege of watching.

Compared to the Tatars in the ranks of the Dongjiang Army, these wild people were noticeably thinner. The skin was rough, the clothes were dirty, and I could see a few lice popping out of it. The only thing that is the same is the ridiculous hairstyle. The soldiers of the Dongjiang Army who held them tied their pigtails together, and these savages could not separate their heads.

The Tatars in the Dongjiang army hated these Jianzhou Tatars. As far as I know, the Tatars are not a whole and there is a lot of oppression and bullying within them. The Tatars of the Jianzhou tribe were the highest, and below them were the Tatars of other tribes, and then the wild Tatars and minorities such as the Saurons and the Hezhes. Further down are the Han Chinese and Koreans who were enslaved by the Tatars.

The Tatars in the Dongjiang army belonged to the Saurons mentioned above, and they had a great hatred with the Jianzhou Tatars, and most of their relatives were killed by the Jianzhou Tatars. If it weren't for the soldiers of the Dongjiang Army, the poor captives might have been cut into pieces and thrown away.

I don't understand the Tatar language, and their writing seems to me to be as jumbled as a child's drawing. Deng Jianshan had been doing business in Liaodong for many years, and he helped me translate the words of the captives.

These captives came from a tribe of the Jianzhou Tatars called the "Zhenghongqi". By the way, I don't know if the word "tribe" is an accurate way to describe them, because the state of the Founding Tatars was a union of several slave owners, and there seems to be no more accurate word in German to describe their political system.

The slave owner of Zhenghongqi is Aixin Jueluo Daishan, and there is another tribe that is very close to his tribe, called "Mosaic Red Flag", and the owner is Daishan's son Yue Tuo. At the time of writing, the main forces of the Jianzhou Tatars were surrounded by the Ao-Song people on the Liaonan Peninsula, and there were only two Red Banner tribes responsible for defending the vast area of eastern Liao.

After receiving the promise of avoiding death, the captives confessed the deployment of the Red Flag Tribe in Liaodong.

Then they were put to death.

General Mao played a trick here, he had promised that "the Dongjiang Army would not kill them", but the Tatars who followed the Dongjiang Army did not actually belong to the Dongjiang Army. In the military system of the Song people, these Tatars were counted as "vassals".

The military system of the Ao-Song people is interesting, they divide the foreign military personnel who follow them into three classes. I saw some of the lowest-ranking cannon fodder soldiers in the ranks, who were soldiers of hostile forces captured in the Japanese war. The Ao-Song promised them that they would be promoted to the rank of vassal if they carried out two very dangerous missions.

While drinking in the evening, Deng Jianshan asked me if I wanted to join the Daming Northeast Business Group where he worked.

I looked him in the eye and confirmed that he was seriously inviting me. I hope he will give me a moment to think about it.

To be honest, I don't have much of an idea about staying with the East India Company. You know, ever since the signing of the commercial treaty between His Excellency Van Diemen and the Governor of the Straits Settlements of the Ao-Song people, I have had more and more problems with my commercial activities on the Ming side - both the Ming merchants and the Austro-Song merchants did not like to trade with the Europeans, the former considered the red-haired people to be barbarians, and the latter just didn't want me to be a middleman to make the difference.

If I join Daming Northeast Business Group, Deng Jianshan guarantees that he will be able to secure a position as a manager for me. Well, I'll think about it, maybe when we meet again, I'll serve Boss Aosong.

Sleeping horns sounded outside, and I had to prepare to put out the oil lamp. That's it.

Please help me say hello to Miss Emma and hello to your uncle. I'll leave you some fox skins, and you can make them into clothes for Miss Emma, and she'll be so happy that she will shed tears.

Please reply as soon as possible. Best wishes.

Your friend: Abel Tasman