But before anyone could see it, someone snorted violently, and the "gurgling" stomach screamed louder.

They were all very surprised, as if there was the aroma of rice, what was going on?

Just as I was thinking about it, I saw a figure appear at the entrance. It was two Ming soldiers carrying large barrels one by one, and they stopped at the entrance, and the large barrel on the ground was steaming, and the aroma of rice came from here.

Suddenly, the eyes of all the indigenous prisoners were fixed on the vat and could not be taken away.

At least ten buckets of rice were placed at the entrance, and the soldiers of the Ming army stood behind the rice buckets with steel knives in their hands.

Li Dingguo walked slowly to the prison, and there was already an interpreter beside him, but he didn't speak immediately, just glanced at the indigenous prisoners on both sides.

And after Li Dingguo appeared, these indigenous prisoners knew that he was the biggest official, and what they would do with them depended on this big official. Although, by some indications, it seems that these men were better off than the Portuguese and their servants.

The appearance of those rice dishes is a proof of this. But after all, nothing happened, so they all looked at the official with apprehension. Don't know what harsh conditions you have to meet before you can have food?

After Li Dingguo walked to the end, he began to walk forward slowly, but at this time, he said solemnly: "Take turns to get out of the cell, one person at a time, one spoonful of rice per person, no fighting, no rioting, no eating more, violators will be killed!" ”

When the interpreter heard this, he hurriedly translated the words and said them three times in a row to make sure that every indigenous prisoner could hear them.

Hearing this, confirming that they were going to eat it immediately, the indigenous prisoners immediately became agitated. However, they then came back to their senses, and the official said that there could be no riots, otherwise they would be killed, and suddenly, they did not dare, so they had to hold back. But their expressions were very excited.

After Li Dingguo walked back to the entrance, with a wave of his hand, a Ming soldier stepped forward to open a cell, and then retreated to the entrance.

The Ming soldiers all took a few steps back, leaving the barrels in front of them. There are two wooden barrels in a row, and on the front barrel, there is a spoon on each, and one spoon can dig up a rice ball the size of an adult's fist.

Seeing that the Ming army had given up the place, but it was waiting for it, as if it would cut people if they didn't agree with each other, the natives in the cell who opened the door hesitated for a while, and after looking at each other, the natives on the outermost side came out in fear, staring at the Ming soldiers, and slowly walked to the barrel.

Everyone else was staring at his every move, and the entire dungeon, at this moment, seemed to stop even breathing.

Or maybe he couldn't stand the smell of rice and got close to the barrel, the prisoner suddenly quickened his pace, and without looking at the Ming soldiers, he immediately reached out and held the spoon and dug a rice ball fiercely. Only at this time did he look up at the side of the Ming army soldiers, and after hesitating for a while, he reluctantly put down the spoon, and left quickly regardless of whether the rice ball was hot or not.

In this process, the soldiers of the Ming army never moved. This reassured the rest of the natives, and it seemed that it was as simple as having food to eat, and nothing else was going to happen.

So, the natives in the cell couldn't help but rush out. But the door of the cell is so big, it is impossible to crowd out a few at a time, but this movement is not small.

"Hmm!" At this moment, a cold snort sounded in the dungeon where no one spoke, and the sound was still a little loud.

Hearing this voice, the natives who had made a small movement immediately froze. When they heard the sound, they saw that the senior official of the Ming army was staring at them, and the momentum of scrambling suddenly disappeared.

Subsequently, these natives began to line up one by one to receive rice balls, and in the middle of this, no one dared to think of testing the sharpness of the Ming army's sword. After all, the Portuguese have long taught them a truth: their lives are worthless!

A rice ball, in fact, is really not much, even if it is a child, it must not be enough. On the contrary, some people feel even hungrier after eating this rice ball. So, one by one, they stared at the barrel, wondering if there would be any rice left. Will you be able to eat another ball of rice?

After everyone had finished receiving it, there was still about half a bucket of rice over. Everyone's eyes couldn't help but look at the rice, and then look at the big official, I don't know how the leftover rice will be distributed?

In the eyes of most of them, maybe this extra amount of rice would be distributed to the young people in the dungeon. After all, for these people, the young and strong should be the most useful.

But who knows, after Li Dingguo looked at the rice, he said: "The old and weak women and children can receive a spoonful of rice again, and the rules remain the same!" ”

As soon as these words were translated, they suddenly surprised everyone. Many young people were in a hurry, so they chattered, and for a while, there was a "buzzing" sound in the dungeon, which was very noisy.

When a Ming soldier saw this, he slammed the iron fence around him with the back of his knife, making a "bang" sound, and shouted at the same time: "Silence! ”

The sound of the back of the knife hitting the iron fence was very sharp, even if the natives didn't know what the soldiers of the Ming army said, they could probably guess what it meant, so the dungeon fell silent.

"What are they arguing about?" Li Dingguo looked at the translator and asked coldly.

When the translator heard this, he hurriedly replied: "Most of them are saying that they have the strength to help us Daming, and they also want to eat another spoonful." ”

When Li Dingguo heard this, he turned his head to look around at the people in the cell.

When the young men in the cell saw it, they tried hard to show that they were strong, but they didn't dare to make a sound, only some silent commotion.

After Li Dingguo glanced at it, he shouted coldly: "My Ming Dynasty has a tradition of respecting the old and loving the young since ancient times, and Ben Shuai hopes that you will do the same." ”

After hearing the interpreter's words, most of the natives showed surprised expressions. For this reason, they forgot that they were in a cage and remembered that there were no foreign enemies in the village.

………………

After a long time, Li Dingguo returned to the ground with his personal guards. It wasn't until this time that his personal guards were puzzled and asked Li Dingguo: "Dashuai, why are you so good to them?" ”

You must know that for the sake of those people in the dungeon, the marshal did not hesitate to take a tough attitude towards the Francophiles, and the relationship was very stiff.

When Li Dingguo heard this, he stopped, turned his head to look at him, and said seriously: "The emperor has a decree to explain that Ceylon will be the land of the Ming Dynasty in the future, instead of treating this place as a colony like the Francophiles!" ”

"Oh!" The guards listened and answered half-incomprehensibly. Since it was explained by the emperor, it is absolutely right.

When Li Dingguo saw his appearance, he didn't explain more.

So far, only the general knows the emperor's will. The emperor has explained that it is impossible to treat this place as a colony for a long time. Only by truly occupying this place and assimilating them will they always belong to the Ming Dynasty.

It was also for this reason that Emperor Chongzhen also gave instructions on how to occupy Ceylon, and not end up in the quagmire of Ceylon like the Portuguese.

………………

At this time, in the governor's palace in the city, Johnson looked at the already drunk and unconscious Phillips and wiped his sweat, thinking to himself that it was because he was drunk that he had sent the complainant away.

The chief soldier of the Ming army is really the natives in the dungeon, no matter what they do, they have to forcibly open the treasury to give them food!

The handover will be completed in one day, otherwise, I don't know what will happen? Despite thinking so, Johnson was still worried.

Since the Ming army entered Colombo, there has been a lot of friction between the two armies.

Eventually, though, Johnson overthought it. Phillips was drunk until the next afternoon, and his head was not very clear. More and more Ming troops were transferred into the city, and the strength of the Ming army also made the Portuguese and their servants understand that they could not be provoked, so in the end they all arrived on the morning of the third day uneventful.

Before getting on the ship, Phillips thought that if he wanted to leave Colombo, he wouldn't have to fight with the natives and the Dutch, so he didn't want so many servant troops, so he said to Yan Yingyuan: "It's not easy for your army to gain a foothold here, why don't I leave the servant army to you?" ”

In this way, he can reduce his expenses a lot.

However, Yan Yingyuan only smiled faintly and politely declined the proposal.

When Phillips was rejected, he couldn't help but be angry again: Okay, let you be able to see when you can take Ceylon! I'll just wait and see, aren't you powerful with arrows? Even if there are many of you, see what you can do to get those natives!

That's it, although on the surface it was amiable to complete the handover and pat the ass away, but in fact, it can be said that the Portuguese left with a belly full of anger.

However, Yan Yingyuan won't care about all this!

As soon as the Portuguese left, the Ming army officially took over Colombo, and all the Ming soldiers who were originally on the ship began to disembark and rectify the defense of Colombo.

Generally speaking, when the Ming army first arrived, how to get into Ceylon is definitely a big problem. You must know that Dongwu's side was originally the Xuanwei Division of the Ming Dynasty, even later, in the territory of Dongwu, there were many tribes that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty, such as Mubang, Mengyang, etc., even if they were not the original, they also knew the Ming Dynasty very well.

When the emperor drove to conquer Dongwu, he made full use of these pro-Ming tribes, and used all conditions to form a decisive battle situation in Ava and solve most of Dongwu's problems in one fell swoop.

And now in this Ceylon, everything is strange.

However, at this time, Yan Yingyuan and others did not panic at all, because as Li Dingguo said, the emperor had already given strategic countermeasures.