Borneo has large reserves of gold, copper, and coal, but most of the area is primeval tropical forests and marshes, which can be difficult to mine, and you can see a variety of gold ornaments everywhere in the markets of Yamaguchiyo.

The goldsmiths here are mainly Fuzhou and Quanzhou people, and the Hakka people are the most numerous, mainly engaged in agriculture and producing rice locally.

At least in this era, in this area, rice cultivation is also a highly technical craft, and the yield of the same field grown by the natives is half lower than that of the Chinese.

Don't underestimate this gap, many Hakka people grow rice in the Shankouyang area, and after a few years, they will be able to buy more fields and recruit relatives and friends from their hometowns to farm the land.

Slowly, most of the rice fields near Shankouyang were controlled by the Hakka people, who also cultivated a large number of new fields.

From such a small rice field, the Hakka people and Hokkien people mastered the rice market and timber market in Shankouyang, and then became the most important wealthy merchants in the local area.

It is precisely for this reason that as long as the Dutch instigate the capture of the wealth and land held by the Chinese, the local natives, especially the Malays and Javanese, will follow the Dutch to massacre the Chinese.

Not even instigated, they are also agitated and resentful.

They won't farm, they won't do business, they will kill.

That's enough.

That's enough.

For Hu Chuyuan, this is enough.

He stayed in Yamaguchiyang for only a few hours before resuming his journey to Rohto in the afternoon, rounding the corner at the northwestern tip of Sarawak, where the Tai Cheong sailed into a new bay with the Broad Sense that followed it.

A few days ago, a major typhoon swept by, and the coast was a mess, and it didn't look very good.

It was only in the evening that the sun shone in the west, reflecting half of the sky and the whole sea, and the Taichang sailed into a large open and curved river port.

This is the case with almost all of Borneo's major rivers, which meander and twist around at their outlets, creating a near-perfect natural harbor for the area, and after that, the river and the wind and waves become extremely calm, with patches of rainforest on both sides.

Due to the lack of good state governance, there are such harbours throughout Borneo, many of which are inhabited and become natural protectors for pirates.

As in later Somalia, many indigenous tribes relied entirely on piracy for their livelihoods, specializing in robbery.

The Dayaks here are the most feared, they not only rob, but also cannibals, and until 130 years later, many Dayaks in remote areas still maintain the habit of cannibalism.

Hidden in the dense rainforest, driving through two curves in a row, a small town finally appeared in front of you.

After many massacres, many Chinese moved from Kuching and Samfa to the uninhabited areas of the northern tip of Sarawak to cultivate paddy fields.

Unlike the pirates, the new places they found not only had good harbor berthing conditions that allowed them to quietly return to their hometowns to recruit fellow villagers, but also had large areas of land that could be exploited, and even gold mines.

This is the reason why Kuching, Yamaguchiyang, Pontianak keep appearing, and it is also the reason why Rohto appears.

Because the strength of the Brooke dynasty was limited and it was gradually declining, they could only choose to acquiesce to the new Rohton, and did not come to emphasize the dominance, and did not collect taxes on the local area.

In 1888, Britain took the protection of the whole of Sarawak and became the first suzerainty of the Brooke Dynasty, officially beginning to govern the whole of Sarawak, which is why Sarawak will eventually be incorporated into Malaysia.

It was rare for the local Chinese to see a merchant ship as large as the Taichang, and it was flying the British flag, and the town immediately stirred.

Soon, the Taichang found a suitable docking point, because there was no large enough boat port dock, Hu Chuyuan could only take a small boat to land, in order to prevent accidents, Ye Xiangyun and Ye Wenlan and others went ashore first to find some friends they knew in the local area.

Hu Chuyuan didn't know how they boasted, probably saying that the officials of the Qing court were here, and as soon as he went ashore with Zhang Lingpu, Deng Shichang and others, those Chinese people rushed over enthusiastically.

It's really crowded.

Hundreds of Chinese slowly gathered and walked towards Hu Chuyuan, and some of them forgot to throw away the spears and broadswords in their hands, which made Deng Shichang nervous, and those Yue Yong under his hands also raised their guns.

At this time, Ye Wenlan and Ye Xiangyun had already run out of a lobby room, with a burly man with a strong physique, who was wearing an ordinary farmer's shirt and straw sandals, his complexion was tanned, with a tiger's back and a bear's waist, thick and thick hair, about forty years old.

This burly man was certainly not simple, and he was followed by a dozen people, and many more rushed over and hugged behind him.

Walking all the way, Ye Xiangyun said something all the way, and the burly man became more and more surprised the more he listened, and his expression was flustered.

In front of Hu Chuyuan, the burly man didn't say a word, knelt down with a plop, and said: "Little Liu Guigui is a person from Tingzhou, the general manager of the local Xingang company, and he has seen the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Yamen to promote the adult!" ”

The Chinese behind Liu Guigui saw him kneel, and they all knelt down, they didn't know who Hu Chuyuan was, he was already kneeling more and more, it was like the emperor had been recognized on a trip.

In a moment, hundreds of people knelt down inside and out.

It was the first time Hu Chuyuan encountered this kind of situation in his life, and he was also stunned, so he immediately reached out and pulled Liu Guigui, wanting to drag him up, and said: "I'm just coming to your place for personal matters, you don't have to be so restrained, let everyone get up!" ”

"Thank you, Lord Tiao!"

Liu Guigui took advantage of the situation and got up, almost no one here understood what was going on, but they just saw the eldest brother kneeling, and they also knelt down, and the eldest brother came together, but they all got up one after another.

Seeing that there were too many people, Hu Chuyuan said: "Boss Liu, let's find a place to talk slowly!" ”

Liu Guigui immediately said: "Okay, then please come and sit in our hall." ”

The "hall" they are talking about is not an ordinary hall, but a "hall" similar to the Liangshan Bo Juyi Hall, but there are all the general altars of the associations, and the leaders of these Chinese associations in Nanyang often call themselves "hall presidents", "hall presidents", and "big presidents", which are the leaders in this "hall".

Entering the Xingang Hall of Xingang Company, Hu Chuyuan sat down at the upper seat, and Ye Wenlan sat next to him.

The official status of the Qing court is very important in the Chinese world, on the one hand, it has real power, and on the other hand, it is also a kind of ideological and entrenched influence, and for this reason, Ye Wenlan wants to keep his position as a second-rank no matter what.

Of course, Hu Chuyuan understood this, but he still felt that Liu Guigui's fear of him was a little abnormal!

After being polite, he didn't say anything eagerly, but just asked Liu Guigui and others to accompany him to take a look around Letown.

The situation here is more like a township in China, there is no official governance, and there are no village elders, all of whom are the leading brothers of the community and managers at all levels have the final say.

The total population is about 6,000, Jiucheng Renkou is Chinese, Fujian Hakka accounts for 60%, and the rest are also Fujianese, Liu Guigui is a Hakka from Tingzhou.

More than 30 miles from Port Leighton is the Gatin Hill, where there is a large gold mining area, where many Chinese work, and less than 2,000 people cultivate land near Port Letcon to grow rice.

Accompanied by Liu Guigui and others, Hu Chuyuan found a 100-meter-high hill to climb up, looked at it from a distance, and was quite satisfied with the terrain in this area.

From the point of view of war, this is not suitable as a military center.

As a city, it has great prospects, with the exception of the Gading Mountains in the southwest and some small hills in the northwest, the entire area is a percussion plain, and the wide Gayang River meanders through it, covered with large areas of tropical forest.

If all the methods of the Han people are used to govern, within ten years, millions of acres of fertile rice fields can be born here, which can accommodate at least 100,000 people to live and live.

By the time I came down from the hill, it was getting late.

Just in case, Hu Chuyuan still returned to stay on the Taichang and invited Liu Guigui to dinner with him on the ship.

After eating, Hu Chuyuan asked Deng Shichang and the others to leave, leaving only him, Liu Guigui, Ye Wenlan and Zhang Lingpu to close the door and make a pot of tea and talk secretly.

Seeing that the time was almost up, he talked to Liu Guigui about business, and at first he only asked about the situation of Rohto and Xingang Company.

Hearing Hu Chuyuan's question, Liu Guigui was a little jealous in his heart.

Since Hu Chuyuan came to Letown, he has always been suspicious of Hu Chuyuan's motives, always thinking that Hu Chuyuan may be trying to occupy his territory, or ...... the court knows that he has done pirate business before?

After thinking about it, he sighed: "After more than ten years of hard work, our Xingang Company has reclaimed this barren and inhabited old forest, but I didn't expect that those natives saw that we tossed out a patch of paddy fields, and they said that this land was theirs and wanted to take it back." We have mined a lot of gold in the vicinity, and the British have come to make trouble, saying that this is the territory that the Sultan has given them, and that we are only allowed to sell gold to them, and we have to pay taxes. It's getting more and more troublesome! ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly and asked, "Then do you have a way to hold it?" ”

Liu Guigui sighed again and said, "If you can still hold on to the natives, if the foreigners come over with a ship, we will be in trouble." ”

"Oh?" Hu Chuyuan quietly raised his eyes and asked, "How much strength does Brooke have over there?" ”

Liu Guigui thought for a while and said: "The number of four or five thousand people, but there are foreign guns, there are about seven or eight hundred foreigners, and the others are Malays, the key is that there are a few ships, all of which have cannons, and with a few cannons, we will almost die, and we can't hold it." ”

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but be strange again, and asked, "Then why didn't they attack it?" ”

Liu Guigui said: "The key is that other natives also have a lot of conflicts with them, besides, they really want to drive the ship over, so we will retreat, withdraw to the gold mine, guard the mountain and fight, they will also suffer." ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded again, and said to Liu Guigui: "I have a way to solve this matter, but before I get down to business, I also want to say that you seem to have a lot of wariness of me, but in fact, there is no need, I came to you this time, and it has nothing to do with the imperial court." As for me, like Lord Ye, I am also an official businessman, and I usually have to do business. What's the good thing, I have the authority to buy and sell arms, so I can sell some arms to you. ”

Upon hearing this, Liu Guigui was secretly happy, and hurriedly explained: "Adults don't have to be surprised, the little ones have not dealt with the official family, and they are indeed very afraid...... Second, you and the general official, Second Master Ye said that you are in charge of the Fujian sailors, which really scares me. ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said politely: "I don't care about it, it's just a co-organizer, the Lord Deng just now...... In fact, it is the master of the water master's pipe band. Because I seemed very reckless when I came to you this time, and I was afraid that I would encounter pirates on the way, Deng Guandao personally took people, so that in case, the warship was parked in Singapore, and only one military merchant ship was chartered. ”

Liu Guigui secretly gasped, finally knowing that what Ye Xiangyun said was true.

To be honest, he really didn't know the depth of Hu Chuyuan, but people like Ye Wenlan and Ye Xiangyun could be afraid of people like Ye Wenlan and Ye Xiangyun to such an extent, it was really the first time he had met it in his life, and it could be regarded as a long-term vision.

Thinking of this, he said to Hu Chuyuan: "Raise the adult, the little one can see you, and it can be regarded as a blessing in this life." If you have a way to solve the problem of Rohton, the small one will remember your great kindness, and in the future, as long as you have something to do, the small one will never give up. ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "Actually, I want to buy this land with you!" ”

"What......?"

Liu Guigui was taken aback, thinking that Hu Chuyuan was going to forcibly swallow his territory, his face changed drastically, and he immediately stood up with a bang, and subconsciously clenched his fists.

Seeing that he was going to make a move, Ye Xiangyun was also taken aback, and immediately got up, for fear that Liu Guigui would make a move.

Almost at the same time, Zhang Lingpu was one step faster than the two of them, and he had already moved forward to Hu Chuyuan's side, ready to make a move at any time.

"Hey, don't worry, everyone!"

Hu Chuyuan was very calm, raised his hand slightly, signaled several people not to worry, and said to Liu Guigui: "To be exact, I want to recruit you and let you do things for me, of course the conditions are very generous, and when I get the whole of Sarawak, Leto will still be your territory." ”

"What?"

Liu Guigui was startled again.

The whole of Sarawak?

Dagang Company and Santiaogou Company did not take Kuching at their peak, but there are Chinese who want to take the whole of Sarawak?

He couldn't figure it out, and he couldn't believe it, but ...... He had to say that Hu Chuyuan was probably not an ordinary person.

Unlike their club bosses, they can manage the Fujian water division!

(To be continued)