For the more than 1,000 soldiers of the three detachments of Shehan, the night of March 10, 1640, was eerily quiet in their minds—if you ignore the roaring of the dogs. There was no expected night attack, not even harassment, just an eerie night.

When the mist cleared in the morning sun and the soldiers were able to see clearly in the field, they noticed that there were many messy footprints on the ground hundreds of meters outside the barbed wire, which looked like they had been stepped on by many people.

"There were people who came last night, and there were quite a few of them, but I don't know why they didn't attack us." Xiao Baitu took a closer look and said, "No wonder the military dogs barked all night last night, these Xhosa people must have thought that we had discovered them, and their numbers were not very sufficient, because they did not dare to attack." ”

"That's our luck, and at the same time their luck." Shahansampa said that in his heart he was not willing to start a confused war with these Xhosa, not to mention that this war would probably not be able to gain any benefits.

"Let's get ready for dinner, gather the troops after breakfast, and ...... Withdrawal! Taking a few breaths of the fresh morning air, Xie Hansan said firmly.

Xiao Baitu saluted, and then went down to make arrangements.

The journey of withdrawal was peaceful, and the Xhosa did not seem to want to provoke a formidable enemy at the critical moment when their main forces were heading south for the campaign, and the two sides tacitly disengaged from each other.

On March 16, Xie Han's third detachment returned to Fort River, and just after returning, he heard a slightly shocking news.

"Fort Good Hope to the south has changed hands. More precisely. It was the entire Cape Town colony that changed hands. The British sold it! "Sitting in Mo Ming's office. Before Xie Hansan could speak, he heard such a news.

"What?" Xie Hansan was stunned, but he wasn't too surprised, because this matter had been boiling for nearly a year before, "Who took over?" Dutch? It is estimated that there are only the Dutch! They now have a good relationship with the British, and they don't have much direct stake on either side. The Cape Town colony is a hot potato, and only those with deep pockets can be sure to accept it. ”

"Yes, it was the Dutch East India Company that took over the entire Cape Town colony. The British East India Company transferred the castle, farmland, supplies, and 300 indentured slaves to the Dutch East India Company. But they retained the right to anchor and resupply freely in Cape Town, and the Dutch confirmed this right of the British. Mo Ming continued to introduce the details of the transaction to him.

Xie Hansan nodded: "I see." ”

Then he asked with some confusion: "How do you know the details so clearly?" Neither the British nor the Dutch need to tell you the details of this deal, right? ”

"Huh." Mo Ming smiled, picked up the kettle and poured a cup of tea for himself and Xie Hansan, and then said, "I know so well because two days before you came back, a few Dutchmen came to our river fort. ”

"Oh?" Xie Hansan raised his eyebrows and asked, "What are they doing here?" You can't come and ask us if we want to sell the castle in the river, ha, ha! ”

"It's not funny at all." Mo Ming sat behind the large pine desk, sniffed the fragrance of the tea leaves, and then said, "They are here to negotiate with us about the demarcation between the two colonies, by the way...... Do some business by the way. ”

"Doing business? What kind of business do you do? "Xie Hansan is a little surprised." They want to buy something from us? ”

"They want to buy some food from us." Mo Ming looked at Xie Hansan's eyes and said.

"Hahaha!" Xie Hansan and Mo Ming immediately laughed together. They all remembered the plight of the British after they were robbed of wheat last year.

Since the Eight Banners were mobilized last year to harvest the wheat planted by the British outside the city, the British in the Fort of Good Hope have learned to be obedient, and they have begun to grow a small amount of barren and drought-tolerant corn and sorghum in the immediate vicinity of the city wall to meet the small amount of grain consumption in the city. When the Dutch took over, they had to bring some peasants from the mainland, after all, the hundreds of British residents in the Cape Town were not "their own". When the people arrived, they would have to carry some necessities such as food and cloth, and it was obviously not as cost-effective to transport them from the mainland as to buy them from the nearby people on the east coast.

"Of course I didn't sell them any more food." Mo Ming finished laughing and said, "Not only grain, but also cattle and sheep, cloth, tests and other commodities are forbidden to be sold to the Dutch. Don't forget, our government is currently sanctioning these Dutch because of the espionage incident a few days ago. ”

"Well, that's how it should be." Xie Hansan echoed and said, "If you want to say that these Dutch people are really not long-sighted, they haven't seen what the British in Fort Good Hope have been squeezed into by us, and they dare to take such a hot potato." Are they overconfident in their own strength, or are they really broken in their brains? Hey, by the way, what did you say about the demarcation? ”

"They estimated that they had drawn a rough map from the British, and demanded that the southernmost boundary of our Colony of Fort Riverville should be five leagues south of the Berg River, and further south was the colony of Cape Town." Mo Ming said as she unfolded an accurate, hand-drawn map of the Berg River basin all the way to Cape Town, "I ignored their requests. Then I pointed out to them that the colony of Cape Town should be confined to the peninsula on which they were located, and the arrogant Dutchmen of course refused. Hehe, the border issue will probably have to be discussed later, and maybe there will be some conflict - if these Dutch continue to be so aggressive, but who cares? Gotta let them know who has the final say here! ”

"Wouldn't it be inappropriate for us to have such a stalemate with the Dutch?" Xie Hansan was a little skeptical at this time, "We have completely failed in this sweeping operation, and the army has lost more than 60 people. On the way back, I was lucky enough to take out a tribe of Xhosas who were migrating eastward, capturing a few hundred people, but I might never happen to it again. To the east, a powerful chieftain has risen among the Xhosa, a country that is highly militarized and is currently gaining strength by annexing surrounding tribes. I expect that sooner or later they will become the great enemies of Fort River. When the time comes, if this tribe of the Xhosa is determined to cross the Dongshan Mountains and move westward, it will inevitably come into conflict with us; If the Dutch get in the way at this time, we will not have a good time with the enemy on our backs. ”

"We miscalculated." Speaking of this, Mo Ming also had a headache, "Why did this Xhosa tribe suddenly appear?" What is it in history that there is no record of the emergence of a powerful Xhosa kingdom here? When the Dutch and the British colonized South Africa, the Xhosa people had always been notorious, far less famous than their close relatives, the Zulu. But it's relieved to think about it, how can there be so many good things waiting for you in this world, and it will be difficult to catch slaves in the future. ”

"Will Madagascar's development plans be affected?" Xie Hansan asked, "What Wang Tiehammer meant last time was that the first phase of Hezhong Fort would provide at least two thousand people, and the number of people that needed to be provided in the long term might exceed ten thousand. Such a large number has even exceeded the total number of people in the hands of the Eight Banners in our hands now. ”

"It's already very reluctant for Eight Banners to provide more than 2,000 people." Mo Ming said slowly, "You can't squeeze them too hard, otherwise these people will also rebound." In the past two years, more than 6,000 Eight Banner slaves have been successively transferred to work in the country through labor dispatch, and now another 2,000 or so have been allocated, which is almost the limit. After all, the total population of the Eight Banners is just over 10,000 now, and the withdrawal of 2,000 slaves is already a nerve-wracking. As for the population needed for the second and third phases of Falklands' development, I think we have to find another way, and we can't help it. I think the Executive Committee should be able to understand that South Africa's human resources are not endless. ”

"That's the only way to go." Xie Hansan took a sip of tea and said, "Anyway, let's get together 2,000 people first and deal with the first phase of construction." As for the population needed for follow-up construction, then slowly figure out a way. I mean, either the Executive Committee will send more forces here, preferably two integrated companies, and then we can go further into places that have not been explored before, and there should be some scattered indigenous tribes over there that can be captured; Either the Executive Committee simply bought some slaves from the Portuguese in East Africa to develop the Falklands base, which was separated from the Portuguese-ruled area by the Mozambique Channel, and the price of slaves should be very cheap. ”

"I'm afraid the executive committee won't be able to turn this corner." Mo Ming sighed and said, "The free slave is so cool, and suddenly someone told him one day that he was out of stock, and he could only buy it in the future, and no one would be happy to change it." Alas, let's take it one step at a time, the rise of the Xhosa blacks, I always feel that it is a big deal for both us and the Dutch, and the situation in this land will be much more complicated in the future. ”

"The situation will definitely change." Xie Hansan said, "But you don't have to worry too much in a short time, what are you afraid of?" Our fortified city walls with a circumference of more than 2,000 meters, a well-built fort fortress, and one or two thousand musketeers who can be mobilized, supplemented by a certain number of indigenous Eight Banner soldiers, am not arrogant, these Xhosa people fighting guerrilla warfare in the mountains may give us a headache, but to besiege a fortified city on the endless plain on this side of the river fort, no matter how you look at it, it is the rhythm of looking for death. At that time, Kang Mazi led tens of thousands of people to besiege the Yaksa Castle, which was only defended by 800 musketeers, what was the result? Ha Lu Ha, rest assured. ”

"Well, too." Mo Ming nodded and said: "I know everything in the mountains, Lao Xie, you are right this time, this army is the only force on our side, we can't take risks at will, otherwise it is likely to usher in a catastrophe." In this way, the troops have a good rest in the past two days, and I will go to the indigenous banners to select slaves and prepare for the next stage of the development of the Falklands. (To be continued......)