"This is the first time this man has come back to Kuching, right?"

"Do you have any items you want?"

"Our peppers here are no worse than those in Maluku, they are all new in April, and they are not even a little watery after they have just been sunburned."

Vendors are rushing to sell their goods, and Henan is close to the market on the side of the council, this season is the season when a large amount of pepper is on the market, and the merchants from all over the country are especially busy, and it seems that there is no impact at all because of the huge ships anchored in the open sea.

"I didn't expect that there are so many Han people in Kuching, and as far as the eye can see, they are all Chinese businessmen."

Liao Yun followed the fleet south, and when he arrived at Brunei's fleet, he and two other elders advanced to Kuching with the caravan.

"That is, Nanshi, across the river to the north, there are natives and big cannibals."

Gu Meitang used to do some small business in the Bo Ni Kingdom, just in time for the Great Song Dynasty to return to Brunei, this time Liao Yun led people to visit the people of Kuching first, but let this guide find an opportunity.

"Since pepper is abundant here, there is no Hongyi to set up a trading station?" Liao Yun asked as he walked

"Where will there be, there were already in the early years, but there are many Chinese businessmen here, and it is easy for outsiders to become the climate, and now they are all on the side of Beishi, and they don't come to Henan easily for trading."

After a general understanding of the Song chief's defense of the Chinese, Gu Dongzhu always picked up good things when he spoke, and the rhetoric of foreign Yi and China became a means of currying favor and selling well.

"How many Han Chinese can there be?" Liao Yun cared about the Chinese population, so he pretended to ask casually.

However, for Gu Dongzhu, this is not a secret, he has been here since he was a child, and when he asked about this, he said, "There are about 3,000 people born in Kuching." ”

"You grew up locally, right?"

"The villain has been in Kuching since he was a child, his ancestors are from Guangfu, his ancestral home is Chengxiang, Chaozhou, and he only went to Nanyang when he was in Jiajing."

Liao Yun snorted, but he was silently calculating in his heart, there are 3,000 Han people alone, which is indeed a lot, and even in Manila and Ayutthaya at this time, the number of Chinese must not be too much. It is even more rare that a language like Gu Meitang can still be communicated. There are Han Chinese in several port towns in Borneo, but most of the languages have been assimilated, take Baba Nyonya in Dudong as an example, although you can still hear some shadows of Fujian and Cantonese dialects, but you still need someone to translate to understand, but unlike the Han people here The language mostly retains the habits of the mainland, and has not changed much. This also explains why the Chinese merchants here are prosperous.

Thinking of this, Liao Yun asked again: "Are all the Hong Kong owners here publicly recommended?" ”

Gu Meitang replied: "This is indeed the case here in Nanshi, but it can only control the Han people, and further north, those big cannibals and natives may not necessarily obey orders, not to mention that among the Han people, they are not of the same heart." ”

"What do you mean by that?" Bo Cunshu, a veteran who came with him, became interested in this topic.

Gu Meitang saw that Bo Cunshu started talking, so he explained: "The chiefs don't know, most of the Han people here come from Fujian and Guangzhou, and there are few Fu Lao people, but they are all united. There are many people in Guangfu, but they are divided into several shares, although they can deal with outsiders together, but there are also disagreements after a long time. ”

"It looks the same everywhere." Bo Cunshu sighed.

Gu Meitang didn't know how to answer, so he listened to Deng Wenshu on the side and asked, "I heard that this Kuching people like to raise cats, and the name Kuching comes from the meaning of cats in the Turkish language." ”

"The chief is well-informed, and the military and civilians here are all interested in raising cats." Hearing the affirmative answer, Deng Wenshu smiled happily.

Gu Meitang said in her heart that this female chief is a cat lover, and she came to the right place, so she didn't know the preferences of the other two, and it was difficult to figure it out for a while, but she had already arrived at the western suburbs of the town all the way.

Liao Yun pointed to the distance and asked, "Are all those forests in the west flat?" ”

"Looking back, from here to the west, it is a rare good land."

"Then why don't you reclaim it? Wouldn't it be better to get more pepper? ”

Gu Meitang's face changed when he heard this, and he said: "Come on, the people of Nanyang are very lazy, and the land has always been vast and sparsely populated, and the soil is also very fat, and no one eats a variety of grains and peppers." Then the chiefs don't know, and when they enter the forest, they are the barbarian realm, and they are more than lucky. ”

"Barbarian? Didn't you see a lot when you came this morning? ”

In the morning, follow the caravan to the shore, and you can see the stilt huts raised by the local natives along the shallows of several estuaries along the way, which are locally called longhouses. In addition to the fact that these natives do not understand the language of the Han people, they also live by farming, fishing and hunting like the Han people, and there is no difference.

I listened to Gu Meitang explain: "The chiefs don't know that the natives I have seen in the city today are all familiar with the local forests, and there are many raw people in the local forests, and the Han people call them pigs." ”

Liao Yun felt that the name was familiar, and after thinking about it carefully, he remembered the content of the "Notification of Yi Qing" issued by the Political Affairs Hall to the southbound fleet, and said: "Isn't the pig man on the Pontianak side? Why is there also here? ”

Gu Meitang only said that the chief was testing himself, and hurriedly replied: "In fact, the so-called pig barbarian is the collective name of the students of various families in the southwest of Borneo, just around this Kuching, there are as many as six or seven, and the population is ten times that of the city, which is only a lot more, but most of them are scattered everywhere. ”

"Then I look at the matter and talk about the pig man's face is different, I don't know why?"

Gu Meitang did not hesitate and explained: "Actually, the chiefs may not believe it, the pig barbarians like witchcraft the most, and they have to sacrifice to the gods whenever there is a major event, and they must sacrifice the heads of the newly hunted people, so I heard that where the barbarians have built new houses or built bridges and paved roads in the village, the Han people have avoided it, and it is easy not to go to this forest, and if they want to go, they will go together." ”

Bo Cunshu heard it interesting and smiled: "Oh? Is this pig barbarian more powerful than the local tigers and beasts? ”

In the local dense forest, there are not only many tigers and leopards, but even the native gorillas can kill people, and it is easy for a few people to deal with them, and if they encounter them in the wild, they also need to hide and walk, but Gu Meitang's reaction really feels that these jackals, tigers and leopards are not as terrifying as the barbarians.

"Tiger?" Gu Meitang listened to Bo Cunshu's words and said: "Shengfan is different, it was originally for killing. It's a tiger, and if people don't provoke it, most of them won't provoke people. ”

…………

The three members of the team who entered the city and the escort team followed Gu Meitang around the city of Kuching, but there was a hearty laugh from the big iron ship of the Song Dynasty parked in Sejingkat dozens of miles away.

"Tiger?"

"Oh, you mean this tiger skin? That was the last time the official army fought by the Dudong River. After laughing, Liu Dawu calmly replied while leisurely drinking tea, and after returning to Brunei with a tiger skin caught by the Japanese army outside Tanjung Maya City, he was asked by the navy to be used as a decoration on the ship.

"Dudong River?" Li Fanghua hesitated slightly, the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a while.

Qi Sizhong remembered, "Is there a village called Tanjung Maya at the mouth of the river?" They are all Baba Nyonya. ”

"Master Qi is well-informed." Liu Dawu said politely.

"It turned out to be there." Li Fanghua finally remembered that when he went to Boroni City the year before last, he had replenished fresh water there, and Li Fanghua had not yet been promoted to be the lord of Hong Kong. I remember that although all the people living in that small town were Chinese, they could not speak Chinese, but the salt pans outside the village by the sea made the owner of Li Harbor envious.

"Now this place is the Dudong City under the jurisdiction of my Great Song Brunei Mansion." Liu Dawu quietly declared the prestige of the Great Song Dynasty, and observed everyone's expressions by the way.

When the leaders of Kuching City, who were eating delicate snacks, heard this, they all turned their eyes to it, and their eyes were full of admiration.

Today, Liu Dawu specially invited more than a dozen Qu Leaders of Kuching families to the flagship of the fleet, Fengcheng, whether it was Liwei or goodwill, in short, he wanted to put on a Hongmen banquet.

Naturally, not everyone was interested in dim sum and tiger skins, and the brave ones had already run to the side of the boat to look down.

A young man said to him: "This ship is probably much bigger than the Spaniard's big plywood boat." ”

The old man said, "Who says it isn't?" I thought that Hongyi's clipper was big, but I didn't expect there to be such a monster in the world. ”

"I think that if this big plywood ship collides with this ship, most of it will be smashed to pieces, this hull is all iron, what Gu Da said is actually true."

Gu Da is Gu Meitang, if he hadn't played up the affairs of the Song people first, and then talked about the affairs of Brunei, how could these families in Kuching City willingly come to the ship to go to a banquet.

"yes, standing on top of this and looking down makes me dizzy, and I don't know how it was made."

"I don't care how this ship was built, I'm afraid that our Kuching is really going to change."

"Not necessarily, I think this Captain Liu is very friendly, and he doesn't seem to be embarrassed."

Since the owner of the fleet called himself the Great Song Dynasty, a few people who read a lot gave Liu Dawu the title of captain according to the storytelling.

The leaders of all the families who were arranged to visit on the deck gathered together from time to time, and they were all beating drums in their hearts, not knowing what kind of cards this self-proclaimed Song man with short hair and short clothes was playing.

The older one listened to the young man's words and replied, "When Hongyi first came ashore, he was also polite? But didn't he also reveal his fierce face later? Not only do you have to force the pepper to buy, but you also have to force the natives to believe in him, what kind of God? If it weren't for the fact that several of our Chinese businessmen joined forces and fought a few fierce battles, those barbarians in Kuching would not be looking to the sky now? So we'll have to see. ”

The other one who was amusing next to him also looked very clear: "This ship is a good ship, but it is not enough to have a strong ship." ”

The young man understood, but retorted: "Didn't you hear that this son under the command of Taiwei Liu suppressed all the pirates in several places in the estuary?" The military strength of the Song people does not seem to be weak. As he spoke, the young man snorted to the side, glancing at the few naval soldiers standing not far away.

Fu said softly: "I don't think these Song soldiers are easy to get along with. ”

In fact, the words were not finished, just from this tall military posture, you can know that these people are all tigers and wolves, and they are by no means comparable to ordinary strongmen on the sea.

The old man was still unconvinced, and retorted: "Actually, it's not that they are so good, it's just that these bandits have not been successful all along, and there are Tanhu from the Ming Dynasty in the middle, and most of the Han people in Kuching are businessmen, who will do such a thankless thing, but the Song people seem a little redundant." ”

"I don't know if it's redundant or not, but this big iron ship needs to be fake."

"Then he has to be able to drive into the Sarawak River."

"You will bargain with this mouth, but you have also seen that this Captain Liu brought more than this big boat, I think those fast boats can enter and exit the river at will."

"Let's not talk about anything else, if you really think that this Taiwei Liu is so unbearable, why did Gu Dayi come to pass the word, and you all rushed to this ship?"

"Not coming? Isn't that cheap for nothing, and the gang comes back? The middle-aged man said and glanced at the other side of the deck with disdain, several businessmen dressed locally were surrounding Liu Dawu and offering courtesy, to talk about the means of doing business, even the return merchants of Dashi were not as good as the Chinese merchants, but compared to the yearning for wealth, the Han people were inferior to each other, not to mention that the north side of the Sarawak River was not only local and Dashi merchants.

Everyone was fighting a lawsuit in their hearts, but they heard a voice on the bow of the ship like thunder, and they didn't expect that the voice of the person could be so loud.

A Navy soldier was shouting over a megaphone, and the voice seemed to come from the sky.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Kuching, please come over here, the ceremony is about to begin."