In this spring season, the content published in the latest issue of the Royal Weekly once again attracted the attention of the people from all over the Tang Dynasty. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

What is published is not current politics or overseas anecdotes, but a series of exploration and development tasks issued to the world in the name of the Andong Metropolitan Protectorate. As long as a person goes to the overseas office designated in the newspaper to take one or more of the tasks, then completes them, brings back the results of the mission and submits them to the office, and after being verified by the Andong Metropolitan Protectorate, they can receive a bounty or conferred an official title.

The newspaper published the published task in the upper column with a line in bold type, marked as a warning column: "Whoever takes on the task, any attempt to deceive the Anton Metropolitan Protectorate, defraud the bounty and official position, will be regarded as a plot against the imperial court, and at worst he will be beheaded, or at least his family will be exiled to a wild island." ”

Readers who bought the newspaper read the article, but before they could see what task was published in the newspaper, they were startled by the warning column that caught their eyes. I am very curious about what kind of tasks the Anton Metropolitan Protectorate has issued, how much is the bounty, and how big the official position is, so that the deceitful will be severely punished. One by one, they looked intently at the tasks published in the newspaper.

There are two types of quests, the first is to explore a designated island to give a bounty; The second type is the task of opening up and occupying the area designated by the Prefecture to build a fortified city, and to deal with it under the 'New Overseas Exploration Deal'.

Of these, the first type of release has four tasks. They are: 1. Exploring the islands in the strait between northern Luzon and the island of Taiwan; 2. Explore the Namban Island (Palawan) and its adjacent islets between southwestern Luzon and Borneo; 3. Explore the islands of all sizes in the southeast of Luzon; 4. Explore the Riau Islands between the Golden Peninsula (Malay Peninsula) and Borneo. Each of the four missions required the Topographic Map of each island to be provided to the Prefecture after exploration, indicating the direction of the main rivers, the distribution of the islands and the approximate number of people, and plotting the route from Datang and the distance between the two nearest islands. There is also an introduction to the customs of the islands explored, with bounties ranging from 1,000 to 10,000.

The second type of occupation was also issued with four missions: first, to occupy the coast around Lingjiayan Bay, located at the northwestern tip of Luzon, and to fortify it on the banks of the Lingjiayan River (Agno River). Second, occupy the coast of Yan Yu Bay (Batangas Bay) in the southwest of Luzon Island, and build a city next to the Yan Yu River (Garon River) to defend it. The third is to occupy Minluo Island (Mintulo Island) in the southwest of Luzon, and the location of the fortification is chosen by the mission recipient. Fourth, occupy the Shin Shin Peninsula (where the port of Senna is located) in the northeastern corner of Borneo and build a city to defend it. After the completion of the task, the Metropolitan Protectorate granted them the position of assassin.

There is another note under the second type of task: "All the people of the Tang Dynasty who accept the completion of the second type of task, no matter what crimes they have committed before, as long as they promise not to commit them again, the king of the capital of Andong Protectorate can vouch for them, and from then on, all their criminal responsibilities will be written off." The second type of mission is not limited to the four tasks that have been released, and those who are interested can refer to the 'New Deal for Overseas Exploration' published by the Royal Weekly at the beginning of the year, according to which they can declare to the Andong Prefecture after opening up the islands in the South Seas on their own. Charts to the islands can be purchased at the offices for thirty dollars each. ”

At the beginning of the year, the aftermath of the 'New Deal for Overseas Exploration' published by Royal Weekly has not yet subsided, and now it has thrown out a bounty task, which has caused an uproar among the people. Not to mention the high bounty of the mission, the person who takes on the second type of occupation task can also use it to absolve all previous crimes after completing it. Compared with the emperor's amnesty that is difficult to look forward to once in a few years, it is more exciting.

After the issuance of the 'New Deal for Overseas Exploration', the maritime merchants on the southeast coast were excited, and they couldn't wait to send people to the Overseas Affairs Office to take over the tasks that could be completed, and to step up the manpower of ships preparing to go to sea.

All over the world, for various reasons, the bandits who have become mountain bandits and water bandits were shocked and uncertain when they learned the news, and they called a meeting of the brothers one after another. Discuss whether the mission in the Royal Weekly is true? If the promise is true, are the brothers willing to take on this task to clear their hands?

Compared to the hesitant inland mountain bandits, most of the pirates who robbed passing merchant ships at sea all year round made their decisions without much thought.

A large part of the pirates used to be shipwrights who worked as maritime merchants, and there were those who traveled all over the South China Sea and went to Tianzhu, and the rest were also fishermen who fished along the coast for a living. When it comes to sailing on the sea, in addition to the group of maritime merchants, they are the most familiar with this group of pirates.

Although they are going to the islands of the South Seas, most of the pirates are not familiar with the routes, but there are charts provided by the Overseas Affairs Office of the Metropolitan Government, which is basically no big problem. What's more, the four missions in the second category of missions this time are relatively close to Datang, and there are countless ships passing by for hundreds of years, and even if the pirates do not have the charts provided by the Metropolitan Protectorate, they can touch them as long as they do not encounter strong winds and waves.

It is even more of a piece of cake for those large pirate groups that have grabbed all the way from the southeast coast of Datang to the South Seas.

Although the pirates in the history of country Z are the most famous in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Yan Siqi, and Zheng Zhilong, don't underestimate the pirates of the Tang Dynasty. During the Kaiyuan period, Zhang Wenxiu, a great pirate who took refuge in the Bohai Kingdom, was ordered by the great martial arts of the Bohai Kingdom to lead the pirate Koudengzhou under his command and killed the assassin Shi Weijun.

The overseas trade of the Tang Dynasty was not much worse than that of the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and because the imperial court did not prohibit the sea, maritime merchants could build and purchase huge ships with a displacement of hundreds or thousands of tons for maritime trade, and sail to the west coast of the Indian Ocean. In addition, the people of the early Tang Dynasty were martial arts, and the children of rich families were not as weak as Song Ming, and there were not a few weapons owned by the people. The maritime strength developed on this basis should not be underestimated.

If the corresponding pirates are too weak, how can they rob these fierce maritime merchants?

Just at this time, the big pirate leader who has been crisscrossing the southeast of the Tang Dynasty and the South Seas for 30 years, and Wu Xun, who is regarded by all maritime merchants as a thorn in the flesh, smiled and waved the royal weekly newspaper in his hand to the people under his command and said: "Sons, it's time to go ashore and be a good citizen, let's go and lay a territory for the imperial court to get an official to be an official army." ”

"The lower official greets the sheep envoy!"

Several cronies immediately learned to meet the assassin Shi and bowed to Yang Wuxuan. A group of pirates laughed and fell back and forth, thinking that the big boss was joking with them as usual.

When Yang Wuyang sent his second son, who had no pirate habits and was more like a literati, to Canton on a ship, he was sent to the Overseas Affairs Office set up by the Andong Protectorate in Canton to take over the fourth article of the occupation mission.

The pirates were dumbfounded, and the emotions were so big that they were really playing!

Yang Wuyang, who grabbed a vote off the coast of Quanzhou, is a pirate group with 90 ships and more than 2,000 people. After waiting for the second son off the coast of Guangzhou, he turned around with the voucher for taking over the task of protecting the capital of Anton. Head southeast toward Luzon and then southwest toward Borneo. Ten days later, they arrived at the fourth occupation mission, the Shin Shin Peninsula in the northeast corner of Borneo.

The Shin Shin Peninsula is not an unknown place, there is a small foreign trade port in northeastern Borneo called Sandakan (later Senna Port), which Yang Wuyang also came to grab a few years ago.

The power of Sri Buddha did not penetrate deep into eastern Borneo, and Sandakan was a country of its own, but it was weak. In the face of the sudden and murderous arrival of pirates, the resistance that the Sandakan had just organized was easily broken down by Yang Wuyang and his people, and the port was captured in one fell swoop. Before the maritime merchants who came to trade in the harbor could escape, they were captured with their men and ships.

How can it be said that now that he has become an official soldier, how can he no longer engage in the business of robbing homes and houses?

Yang Wuyang did not have any difficulty for the captured Chinese maritime merchants, and according to the 'New Overseas Exploration Deal' of the Andong Prefecture, he collected 20% of the commercial tax from the goods sold by the maritime merchants and let them go. Not only did it make the sea merchant and his entourage drop their jaws, but it also made the eyes of the people under his command widen in disbelief.

"Let's wait for the Anton Protectorate to send us a notice now, and it is the official mansion of the Tang Dynasty that is located here. In the future, we must change our habits and be an upright official and soldier, so as not to let down the opportunity given by His Royal Highness King Yan to a group of hard-working people who have no fixed place to change their fate. ”

Yang Wuyun, who had captured Shan Dagen, summoned his subordinates to announce solemnly, and then issued a strict order: "In the future, we must strictly follow the content of the 'New Deal for Overseas Exploration' issued by His Royal Highness King Yan." First, do not embarrass the Chinese of the same ethnicity, and treat each other with courtesy; Second, it is forbidden to plunder, extort and extort, and behead the public once discovered. Of course, these two articles are only for Chinese, not for local people. ”

A group of pirates who didn't sit and didn't stand finally breathed a sigh of relief. Since the big boss wants to take everyone to be a regular official army, then be it, anyway, there is no limit on how to toss those people.

With a foundation, Yang Wuyang immediately sent his eldest son to lead half of the fleet back to the north, and picked up the families on the islands outside Guangzhou. The captured Fanren built a city in Sandakan, distributed the stolen local fields to the tribesmen, and enslaved the Fanren to cultivate for them.