The Yakuy River in early autumn is bathed in milky moonlight.

On the south bank, with tall reeds and dense forests, and on the north bank there are many houses, most of them of masonry, and Ensign Foury stands in the bow of the boat, facing the cool evening breeze, enjoying the fact that the native Indians have largely disappeared thanks to the efforts of the East Coast Army and the São Paulo Banner Corps (mainly thanks to the Brazilian slave hunters).

Either they had lost a large number of people under the attack of the slave catchers, or they had lost many more people a second time under the ensuing disease and starvation, and none of the tribes could survive this double blow, so they chose to retreat - some to the dense forests on the east coast that the people did not have the energy to set foot in, but most of them began the long journey westward to move to the Spaniard-controlled districts, which were relatively friendly to them.

In fact, the upper echelons of the East Bank government also praised these São Paulo slave catchers, because they helped the East Coasters clear a large area of territory and greatly expand the actual control area, which is very creditable. In order to reward these São Paulo flag corps, the Government Council not only decided to give them a certain financial and material subsidy (the total amount not exceeding 50,000 yuan), but also planned to renew an employment contract with them with more favorable remuneration, so that they could serve the East Coast people more diligently.

It's a pity that this dream of the Executive Committee was quickly shattered. Perhaps they were extremely dissatisfied with the large amount of arms that the East Coast Government had sold on credit to the Dutch West India Company two months earlier -- although the East Coasters had exported all kinds of military supplies to Dutch Brazil more than once over the years, this time the Portuguese had apparently reacted the most -- and the many slave traps that were now active on the border between East and Portugal were under tremendous pressure from above and began to refuse to continue to cooperate with the East Coasters.

As of this day (March 15, 1653). Two São Paulo slave catchers have already returned to Brazil without informing the East Coasters. Another three have made it clear that they will not renew their contracts after they expire in the middle of this year; The Guaraní are still being purged in the eastern coast and have not yet made a clear statement. There was only the headquarters of Consikao, who was temporarily stationed on the outskirts of Jiaohe Fort. This flag team had just completed the clearance of the hilly areas around Taipingbao in the south a while ago, and then it was transferred to the west by the people from the east bank to continue to clean up the natives along the Yakuyi River to fill the vacancies after the departure of some flag teams.

It's just that a few days ago, an official from the National Development Bureau on this side of Jiaohe sent a message that captain Conceicao also planned to return to Brazil without renewing his contract - their contract expired at the end of April. Captain Consikao's statement undoubtedly disappointed the officials of the Government Council, because it meant that they had lost more than 2,000 skilled slave hunters, which was not conducive to expanding the area under the actual control of the people on the east coast. Therefore. The Executive Council soon commissioned the Gendarmerie to send a contact with Captain Conceicao at the request of the Council and make a final effort to persuade them to remain in the East Bank to purge the natives.

When the gendarmerie received the order from above, Commander Pu Tingpu did not dare to slack off and immediately instructed the gendarmerie branch in the North Yazihu area to send people to make contact. After receiving the order, the branch appointed Second Lieutenant Fu Lei, who had been acting as the liaison of the slave capture flag team, to go out and rush to Jiaohe Fort by boat to see what the situation was, and the small inland steamboat that Ensign Fu Lei was riding was now very close to the dock of Jiaohe Fort.

That's right. Jiaohe Fort is a new settlement established by the East Bank last month and has been developed on the basis of an old military outpost. The reason why it is called "Jiaohe Fort". The main reason is that this settlement is located on the bank of the Jiaohe River, and the origin of the Jiaohe River (i.e., the Yakuyi River) comes from the fact that the migrants from the east bank found a huge python in the nearby river at the beginning of the year. After the State General Administration of Development took over the development affairs here, due to the convenient transportation, the General Administration of Development sent a large number of construction materials here, and at the same time used the Guarani captives to dig ditches, level the land, and build walled walls, which soon changed the appearance of this place.

After sending more than 200 young people from the new generation of East Coast in this month's primary election, 1,000 Ming immigrants and 300 Livonian people were sent here half a month ago, which made the popularity of this new settlement suddenly boom. With the 20 graduates of the Corps Fort and more than a dozen veterans appointed as grassroots cadres in place, the settlement is now on the right track, and they have even seized the time to clear the stones and bushes on the ground, intending to plant a crop of overwintering wheat in a little while, regardless of the low yield, at least by next summer. In addition, they also plan to grow some winter vegetables such as cabbage, radishes, and greens to ensure the local vegetable supply.

A new row of brick houses was built on the pier of Jiaohebao, and the orange light filtered through the glass windows, forming a faint halo on the water - but it was a pity that the moonlight was too bright tonight, and this halo seemed so pale and weak at the moment. A well-dressed, sleepy-eyed dock officer approached with a lamp, followed by four militiamen armed with rifles, and after examining the letter handed over by Second Lieutenant Fu Lei, they stopped asking questions and went back to the duty room to rest.

"Don't delay, go into the city and find the village chief immediately." Second Lieutenant Fu Lei commanded his men, and then walked out with the lamp in hand. Several heavily armed gendarmes followed, and without saying a word, they walked through the shadowy rammed-earth streets toward the township government.

The mayor of the township was soon called out from his bed, and the veteran, who was in his forties, looked at the gendarmes who were looking for him, dressed slowly, and then sat down in a chair against the wall, yawned and asked, "Coming to Conceicao?" As a veteran veteran who has participated in almost every war in the East Coast Republic, these black-skinned gendarmes in front of him are not taken seriously by him, which is the unique pride of the older generation of Qiu Ba, which ordinary people can't learn from, and they don't have this confidence.

"Yes, Conceicao has released rumors that he intends to return to Brazil after the end of the contract, and Commander Pu is entrusted by the Executive Committee to prepare to persuade Conceicao one last time, and if necessary, to greatly increase the employment fee." Second Lieutenant Fu Lei replied succinctly. The township chief in front of him is very old, and he knows many bigwigs in the army system, and it is not something that he can offend as a small second lieutenant, so his attitude is quite polite.

"It's no fun, Conceicao is determined to return to Brazil. I heard that the Portuguese officials over there were very angry and exerted a lot of pressure, although these São Paulo slave catchers are usually a little unruly, but at the moment they can't stand it, and plan to return to Brazil one after another. I also know that Conceicao has done a good job, that he has cleaned up the largest area, and that he has done the most damage to the Guarani, but he has decided to return, as he told me the other day, at the end of next month, when his contract ends. The village chief took the teapot on the table and poured everyone a cup of barley tea, then took another piece of dried fruit and threw it into his mouth and chewed it, and said: "Although we have sold arms to the Dutch West India Company several times before, this time it is different, the Portuguese feel that victory is in sight, and we have put such a scene behind our backs, and the anger can be described as overflowing. Therefore, they decided to recall the São Paulo slave catchers and cut off the border trade in the Gérard Mountains in protest. To be honest, Conceicao and a few other flag teams are already polite, they all plan to return to Brazil after the contract ends, and the flag teams in front of them who leave without a sound are really fucked up......"

The middle-aged mayor of the village made a big deal, which meant that the Portuguese were annoyed by the obvious inclination of the East Coast government towards the Dutch and decided to sever all ties with the East Coast. These São Paulo flag team members also had family, relatives and friends in Brazil, so they naturally could not resist the recall order of the Brazilian colonial authorities, so they were ordered to return one after another. At this time, persuading people to change their minds is tantamount to playing the piano to a cow. In the end, the mayor of the township seemed to imply and implicitly that the War Office should find a way to carry out a partial mobilization in the North Duck Lake area to prevent these São Paulo slave catchers from attacking back, though unlikely.

Second Lieutenant Fu Lei and the others were a little shocked by the township chief's words. The scale of these São Paulo slave hunting banners is not small or small, with a few hundred people, more than two or three thousand, and a few of them can still be put together with 10,000 people. They also have a certain combat ability to capture Indian slaves all year round, although the weapons are very poor (most of them are cold weapons), and the will to fight is also very suspicious (most of the slave catchers are Indians), but it is more or less troublesome.

You must know that there are not many army garrisons in the North Yazihu area of the Republic of the East Coast, and there is only one regular company in Baoan Township, Ping'an County, which originally had a company, but it was abolished in the disarmament operation a few years ago, so now there is only one regular infantry company left. in response to possible crises.

But the consequences of this are also very severe, the Portuguese are not deaf and blind, and the military mobilization on the east coast in the North Duck Lake area will be more or less aware of it just a mountain away, which will obviously aggravate the crisis between the two countries. The Executive Committee cannot fail to take this into account when making decisions. (To be continued......)