The Fort in the River was busy receiving the newcomers, while the army was scratching its head over how to transport captured supplies and prisoners. The place where the Xhosa people live is about six or seven kilometers away from the river, which is not far from it. It's easy for people who travel lightly, but if you're transporting a large amount of goods without a means of transport, then this distance is terrible.

This is the dilemma that the soldiers of the Army are facing today. They seized more than 20,000 catties of grain and more than 600 head of livestock, but they lacked enough means of transportation to transport them, let alone more than 700 prisoners who were trembling with their legs and feet. The brutal eleven smash carried out by the people on the east coast has left them in deep fear, and many of them are ready to flee at any time, but they are just struggling to find an opportunity.

Faced with such a situation, the army commander, Lieutenant Xie Hansan, could only pick out a number of black men who were still in good health, let them carry some supplies alone, and then carry them to the river under the supervision of soldiers on the east bank. After several round-trips, the people on the east bank succeeded in transporting the captured grain, furs, ivory, grease and other goods to the river before the sun went down.

The Khoisan slaves, driven by the local militia, carried the supplies to small boats, from where they traveled down the river in just over a day to the river fort. As for the cattle and sheep, they could only be driven by the remaining Xhosas in the direction of the river fort, and of course they were also under the supervision of the soldiers on the east bank.

Surprisingly, the Xhosas were generally cooperative. Perhaps frightened by the thunderous tactics of the East Coasters, or perhaps the years of tribal annexation wars had accustomed them to submission to the conquerors, they were still obedient in driving their cattle and sheep to the northwest under the escort of the East Coast soldiers.

Whenever night falls before. The soldiers always nailed the stakes in advance. Then they picked up the barbed wire and held the captives together. Then the bells were meticulously hung on the barbed wire. Bright bonfires were lit around the barbed wire, and sentries with wolfdogs roamed around to make sure the Xhosas didn't escape at night.

In this way, after four days of marching, the whole team finally arrived at Fort Riverwater in the evening of November 1. By the time, 1,062 new Far Eastern migrants had already spent three days in their new homeland. These Orientals, who were ragged and unkempt when they first arrived, have recovered a little bit after a few days of personal hygiene cleaning and nutritional supplements. At the moment, they were scattered not far from the eastern wall of the River Fort, trying to clear the ground of weeds and bushes. I'm going to open up some more farmland.

The existing hundreds of acres of wheat fields are far from enough for Hezhongbao, which has a new population of more than 1,000 people, so Mo Ming decided to expand the scale of existing farmland as soon as possible. But the current problem is the lack of food, there are less than 10,000 catties of wheat in Hezhong Fort, which are the rations of the long-term and temporary residents of Hezhong Fort, which has now skyrocketed to 1,700 people, in the next few days, and they dare not use it easily. However, fortunately, the herald sent back by Xie Hansan Pegasus told Mo Ming and others that they had seized about 20,000 catties of sorghum and more than 600 livestock in the tribe of the Xhosa people.

With these seizures, the rest is much easier.

The sorghum had been sent back to Fort Riverland two days earlier. Liu Ang, who served as a civil affairs officer, organized a group of local residents who had learned about agriculture to select the sorghum grains, and now they are waiting for the new immigrants to clear and reclaim the new land, and then they can plant them. The land around Fort Riverland is not very fertile, but it is not barren either. Residents dug up a lot of shallow silt from the river bends, and also collected a lot of animal manure and plant ash to fertilize the fields. Make sure that there is an acceptable harvest on the land cleared this year.

The new arrival of Xhosa, slaves and hundreds of cattle, sheep and livestock attracted onlookers from the new immigrants. Soon after, however, they were back to their posts, driven by the batons of the militiamen, to continue clearing the land, though the attention of many was apparently still on the Xhosas and livestock not far away.

"It's Kunlunu!" This is some knowledgeable people speaking, "In the former Song Dynasty, there was a big food merchant who trafficked many Kunlun slaves to Quanzhou for sale, and it is said that there are not a few big families in Quanzhou City who buy these Kunlun slaves." ”

"There are so many cows, I have only seen two cows in my life at Mr. Zhang's house at the head of the village. It has to be ten, twenty, thirty...... Alas, I can't count them, and I wish I could share one of these cows. I must serve it like my own father, and it will be much easier to farm in the future. Hey, Master Zhang, do you think these officials can give us the cattle? I don't think they have as many cattle in this city as they have here, can they use it? ”

"Zhang Da Niu, you rough embryo!" Master Zhang glanced at Zhang Daniu with some disdain and said, "You want to be beautiful!" Most of these cattle are used for food, and it is estimated that only a dozen or twenty of the strongest and most powerful will be left to plow the land and keep the seeds. Besides, we are all homeless people, so if you can let the old man give a little bran to make a living, you should burn high incense, and you still want to share the cattle? Laugh at! ”

"Zhang Defa, what are you talking about?" The person who spoke first was dissatisfied, "Didn't the biggest official here say yesterday, let's divide the land for us, first divide ten acres of land for one person." The first two years of the land harvest and the government four or six points, the next three years is five or five points, after five years of continuous cultivation, the land will belong to us, and after the next two percent of the rent. If the land has been divided, why can't this ox divide it? ”

"Can you believe what the government says? Too lazy to talk to you guys! Zhang Defa said with a gloomy face, "If it weren't for the fact that the village was deprived of food by thieves, and my old Zhang was also a person with more than 100 acres of land and more than a dozen livestock, why bother to be abducted to this place where birds don't with you rough embryos." What a bad luck! ”

Master Zhang complained, and the other two also had some feelings, and that Zhang Daniu even looked at the few people who were bending over to work in front of him. These people are self-contained when they are on the road, and they do not talk much to the people around them, and they are silent and low-key all day long.

Zhang Daniu faintly heard that these people used to be thieves of Zhang Xianzhong's department. Last year, the thieves and the officers and soldiers fought several times, and each other won and lost. These people in front of them are said to have been scattered by the official army when a battle was unfavorable, and then wandered in the area of Hubei and Anhui, but they did not expect to be captured by the powerful Ming slave catcher team who served the Portuguese, and then crossed the ocean to South Africa.

"Bang!" Zhang Daniu, who was staring at the luck of the backs of the few people in front of him, suddenly received a baton on his back.

"Get to work!" A yellow-skinned "official" who didn't look like a common man in the Ming Dynasty struck him lightly with a stick, and then looked at him viciously.

Zhang Daniu hurriedly cheered up and used a hoe to hoe grass on the ground. Anyway, this hoe was snatched from the hands of the Xhosa, and now the river fort is in ruins, and all kinds of materials are seriously lacking, and many things can only be simplified because of ugliness. The iron hoes and even wooden hoes of the Xhosa people, although not very useful, can only be used first. If you want more and better farm tools, it seems that you can only wait for the end of the war and the resumption of the route from Vostokgang to Fort River.

"Those who finish their work have meat to eat, and just like yesterday, they have good butter and beef. If you don't finish it, you can only go to gnaw on the bran nest. This little Charuya militia is also well versed in the trick of a big stick in one hand and a carrot in the other, and knows that after a stick, he will use a little sweetness to increase the enthusiasm of these new immigrants.

"Oh my God, what I ate yesterday was really beef." When the militia walked away, Zhang Daniu involuntarily sighed and said: "What a sin, God kills even cattle, alas." ”

"Sigh, didn't you eat that butter noodles yesterday? Now it's a lot of nonsense. Master Zhang Defa spoke again, "Don't worry, Zhang Daniu, you can't be short of meat and oil." You see that there are hundreds of livestock in the circle today, and I see that they are all robbed by the Kunlun slaves, even those grains. If you don't have anything to eat in the future, it's very simple, just grab it. It is estimated that there are a lot of Kunlun slaves around, which is enough for them to grab for a while. ”

Master Zhang didn't know what to say, but his unintentional words directly hit the current difficult situation faced by the Hezhong Fort, as well as the strategy for the next period of time.

"In order to recover 20,000 catties of sorghum and hundreds of cattle and sheep, more than 40 soldiers were killed or wounded, and this business is really a big loss." Mo Ming looked at Xie Hansan sitting in his office with a smile, and said, "Remove the grain that needs to be saved, and the total grain we have on hand is only enough to eat for more than a month." And that's not even counting the rations of the more than 700 Xhosa people you captured, and if you give them some rations, it will be even less, and we may only be able to hold out for more than twenty days. ”

"It's a mess." Xie Hansan was also a little depressed, "There are so many potatoes in the domestic grain depot that we can't pile them up, but we have to starve here, this fucking war!" Damn British! It seems that I still have to go back to my old job, so I can only continue to rob it! ”

"The east side was made such a fuss by you this time, and the few remaining small Xhosa tribes are estimated to have moved overnight, and there is no point in robbing them now." Mo Ming analyzed, "I see, don't go to the east this time, just cross the river and go south and grab it to the south!" To the south, there are some branches of the Khoisan people, the, who are actually the Khoisan red race, and the name was given to them by the Dutch in 1652. Although these were not as rich as the Bantu blacks, they had some herding habits, and were easier to deal with than the blacks. Go and rob them, as long as you prepare a little more in advance, I don't think there will be any casualties. ”

Xie Hansan nodded slowly after hearing Mo Ming's words. (To be continued......)