Continuing along the salt pans, I kept encountering salt farmers who were working, including a small number of military households, more Luzon slaves, men and women, all young and strong in their twenties. After three years of continuous plundering, there are more than 30,000 native laborers in Hong Kong, including Luzon, Javanese, Moro, Siamese, and Annam...... They were all Malays of short stature, dark skin, thick lips and noses, and everyone could not tell the difference, so they were collectively called Luzon slaves, or contemptuously called earth monkeys.

These Luzon slaves have been staying for a long time, and they can already understand some simple Chinese, and they are very in awe of the Qi steward who holds the power of life and death, and they all bow their heads when they see him coming, and work honestly. When the Qi steward saw the familiar salt farmers, he would go up and praise them, pat them on the shoulder to show encouragement, and when they saw something unpleasant, they would scold them when they opened their mouths and kick them when they raised their feet.

Li Si had a noble status, and the Han military households saluted him and nodded, but those Luzon slaves knelt down, but he didn't pay attention to them at all.

"You still have to take the lead in the matter of building a new salt field, how about I give you three thousand Lu Tu monkeys? Can it be built in two months? He asked.

"Two months? Three months is not necessarily enough! If you want to build the salt pans in two months, the earth monkeys will have to double it, and give me at least 6,000. "Steward bargains.

"Six thousand is definitely not, give you four thousand, it must be completed within three months." Li Si pinched his fingers and said: "The Communist Party of China is just such an idea, the coolies on the wharf are divided, the wasteland is divided, the quarrying and logging are divided, and the mining is divided, giving you 4,000 heavens...... Well, you can save some of these 4,000 earth monkeys, and let them rest when they deserve. Three meals a day of potatoes and sweet potatoes are full, don't die for months, wait until the salt pans are built. At least three thousand and a half can be repaid. ”

Although the seaside is relatively flat, the southern plants are luxuriant, and it is also a high-intensity physical labor, and after the land is opened, it is necessary to dig a diversion canal, build a salt pan, and repair a brine pond. It's all exhausting work. Li Si's construction schedule was so tight, and after a death construction, only 500 of the 4,000 Luzon slaves were abolished. It's already a very low consumption...... This is mostly due to the fact that after the promotion of miscellaneous grains, there was no shortage of grain in Hong Kong, and Luzon slaves were basically able to eat their stomachs, which was placed two years ago when Hong Kong had just opened its port. Because the conditions are too harsh. Seventy percent of the first Luzon slaves died within a year.

Steward Qi asked, "Since the earth monkey is not enough, why don't you talk to Luo Shuai and catch some more?" ”

The Luo Shuai in his mouth is Luo Mingshou, the chief soldier of the sailor who was born as a pirate, because of the robbing of people everywhere, he has been famous and infamous in the South China Sea in the past two years.

"It's not easy to catch now." Li Si explained: "In the past two years, the earth monkeys have been caught too fiercely, and the earth monkeys living by the sea are shocked. Either hide in the depths of the island, or gather a group of people to fight hard. Although Luo Shuai defeated them a few times. But the loss of killing alone is not worth the loss, so he has to buy it with silver, and if this transaction is not profitable, he will not be very careful......"

Southeast Asia is very complex, in addition to European colonizers from afar, there are also large and small local regimes, such as the Philippine Islands with Spanish colonies, the Sulu Sultanate, and so on. Luo Mingshou came to do maritime trade business, and secondly, he couldn't beat them, so when he plundered the population, he chose the uncivilized natives to start, and in the past two years, the natives have become more and more difficult to catch, and Luo Mingshou had to use money to buy, and is evolving step by step into a human trafficker who carries out slave trading.

"Save some use, the earth monkeys in the future are all bought with real money, and if one dies, the money will be gone. Besides, the old guy is always better than the newcomer, and those earth monkeys are all elm heads, and it is not easy to teach them to be skilled in work. ”

Li Si thought for a while, turned his head to his deputy Qin Qiben and said, "When you go back, you will make a charter, and you are not allowed to deliberately abuse Luzon slaves." As long as they are not lazy in their work, at least let them eat a full stomach, repair a few more toilets after the heat, usually only drink boiled water, and let them take a bath after a few days, and try to be as fat and strong as possible, so as not to give birth to epidemics......"

In the southern region, it is very important to prevent infectious diseases.

"Observe righteousness and write down the lowly duty." Qin Qiben was originally the master of money and grain in Xin'an County, and later became Li Si's deputy, and now he is also a big man in Hong Kong, and he also got a seven-rank official body, and Li Si even hung the official title of four-grade Taoist, so Qin gave him an honorific title to observe.

"! Lao Tzu was born as a smuggled salt dealer, he has always been black-hearted, kills people without blinking, and never believes in those bullshit truths of hypocrisy and false righteousness! Li Siyi glared, and then explained in a slow tone: "I don't want the earth monkey to die in vain, and you have to feed two pieces of meat from time to time to raise a dog, don't you say?" ”

"Obey your orders!" Qin gave Ben a fist and said with a smile: "Observe and treat the earth monkey well, which is in line with the golden mean, great goodness!" ”

Li Si was very impatient, but he waved his hand and continued to walk forward, just in time to see a twenty-year-old Luzon slave girl squatting in the salt pan on the side of the road, with vivid eyebrows and eyes, a concave and convex figure, quite a bit of posture, seeing Li Si and others coming, he quickly glanced at him, and quickly lowered his head.

"Little girl! What about complaining......" Li Si thought for a while, and instructed Qin Zhiben: "Go back, you can explain, don't care about those Luzon girls who have a trouble, let them match what should be matched, anyway, the food is enough to eat, give birth to cubs and raise them slowly, and they can use the ...... in a few years."

In the past two years, Luo Mingshou has also captured many indigenous women and returned to become slaves like indigenous men. In addition to the high-intensity heavy work, they are better used than the clumsy indigenous men, farming, weaving nets, and many indigenous women have become skilled workers. The appearance is not too scary, he works during the day, and he has to sleep with the military master at night...... Because of the low mortality rate, there are now nearly 10,000 indigenous women in Hong Kong, and any military household who does not have a Luzon female slave at home will definitely be despised by everyone.

Qin Zhiben whispered: "This matter is a bit troublesome, many Luzon girls have already been accepted by the military households, and I heard that some have already given birth to babies." ”

Li Siyi frowned: "I can't control this, let Zhang Jiabao do it himself!" Hmph...... these guys can't control their trouser belts, and they have made so many mongrels out, and they will be pointed at and scolded in the future, and even I will be ashamed. ”

Zhang Jiayu brothers three, he is the eldest, the second brother Zhang Jiabao, the third brother Zhang Jiazhen, when the Dongguan battalion left, Zhang Jiayu took Zhang Jiazhen to Huguang and handed over the remaining 8,000 volunteers to Zhang Jiabao to manage. Most of the 8,000 volunteers were bachelors, and they set their sights on the Luzon slave girls, some of whom had already given birth.

"Hybrids are not hybrids, after all, they are their own species, and those military households are rare. However, this matter is still too embarrassing, and it is not good to say that it is good to spread out, so it is best to say hello to the military gate as soon as possible. "In the traditional thinking of this era, Yidi foreign people are all savages who do not know etiquette, righteousness and shame, just like wild beasts, and intermarriage with foreign tribes is a scandalous thing, except for those bandit-born military households, others really can't do it.

"Okay, okay, you don't have to worry about the affairs of the military household, take care of yourself first! You go back and make a charter, if any of our people dares to go wild with the Luzon girls, they will be demoted and fined, and he will be punished for selling pants, don't say that I am ruthless when the time comes......"

A mangrove forest appeared on the seashore, and behind the mangrove forest, there were several simple houses for salt farmers and military households.

Everyone went in to rest for a while, Li Si poured a bowl of herbal tea, and ordered the Qi steward to find the craftsman who was in charge of the technical management of the salt field.

"See the Great Master." The two craftsmen and Li Si already knew each other, and when they saw him, they knelt down and saluted.

"Hurry up! I've said it a few times, both of you are high-ranking people invited by the military gate, and you have done me a great favor, so don't give a big salute in the future. Li Si helped them up, gave them a seat and said: "The two of you have worked hard for a year, and finally exposed the refined salt, I am here to thank you today......"

He clasped his fists at the two craftsmen, and the two craftsmen stood up again and saluted, and exchanged politeness back and forth, Li Si continued: "In addition to Yantian, there is one more thing to ask the two of you to help. I don't know what to do in the sugar house, can the two of you do it? ……”

Tangliao is a sugar workshop, using sugarcane juice to produce raw sugar, granulated sugar and frosting, in addition to the coarser brown sugar, white sugar and rock sugar have appeared in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, and the method of making zuò is recorded in the book "Tiangong Kaiwu" written in the Chongzhen period.

The price of white sugar and rock sugar is certainly much higher than that of coarse brown sugar, and the weather in the south is suitable for growing sugar cane, and raw materials are not a problem. There were already several small sugar houses in Hong Kong, but the efficiency and production scale of sugar refining were too small, and Li Si planned to open another large sugar factory to greatly increase the output of white sugar and rock sugar.

How to improve the juice yield of sugarcane, how to improve the fineness of white sugar and rock sugar, and how to reduce the cost and labor of sugar refining all need to be repeatedly studied and tested...... After all, being a large-scale sugar factory is completely different from a small workshop, and if you simply pile up the original sugar house, the profits generated will be very limited.

Trade cannot prosper for long without the support of industry, and Hong Kong must have its own fist products, such as tea and porcelain from the mainland, locally produced cultured pearls, sea salt and sugar, all of which will be exchanged for a steady stream of profits.

"Although the two of us have seen the method of boiling sugar and refining sugar, we only know a thing or two. But don't be anxious to observe, the villain's cousin happened to do this, his family's sugar liao was in Zhangzhou Mansion, and he was registered in the official family back then, and he paid tribute to the palace, and Fujian was occupied by the Tartars, so his family fled to Guangdong......"

As soon as the craftsman said this, there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves outside, chaotic and hurried, as if a large army of cavalry was rushing over. (To be continued......)