The Dongyi people are really a very strange people.

A few days after taking over the Asahikawa Domain, Song Wuxing really felt this. They bully the weak and fear the hard, but they are cruel and ruthless in their temperament. But once they are subdued, these people will become quite docile and worship the strong very much.

In the first battle of the attack on Asahikawa Castle, the casualties of ordinary civilians in Asahikawa Castle were at least thousands. It stands to reason that such a large casualty, coupled with the destruction of the Shimazu family, which had previously been loyal, should have made the people in the city very much hated the Matsue army. In the days since entering the city, Song Wuxing also ordered his subordinates to take strict precautions against sneak attacks, assassinations and poisoning by ordinary people. But the truth is that although it is not without such actions, the number is far lower than he imagined.

In the past few days, there have only been three attempts at sneak attacks, and all of them have slipped through the net by the samurai of the Shimazu family. Although the ordinary people in the local area had sorrow and sorrow on their faces, there was only awe in their eyes when they looked at the soldiers of the Songjiang Army.

If this had been placed in the dynasties of the Eastern Continent, I am afraid that there would have been many similar attacks for a long time!

Song Wuxing guessed that maybe it was the customs on Cook Island. The daimyo fought back and forth, and a piece of land may change hands repeatedly for several years, and among the Dongyi people, except for the samurai class who were attached to the daimyo who were willing to fight to the death, the ordinary people did not have much loyalty, and they were afraid of power but not virtue. Another possible reason is that the civilians of Cook Island are too stressed and their living conditions are too poor. If you can't get enough to eat, how can you care about who rules you?

Frankly speaking, as an orthodox-educated officer in the Eastern Continent Empire, Song Wuxing was very unaccustomed to this. But judging from the current situation, this characteristic of the Dongyi people is a good thing for the Songjiang army.

Even Asahikawa Castle, which experienced a major war, is like this, so you can imagine what the rest of the Asahikawa Domain will be. It didn't take much effort for the Songjiang army to consolidate its rule over the land of one-third of Yuyang Prefecture.

Confirming that the shape was stabilized and that there was no sign of a forced union by the other daimyo on the island, the fleet on the open sea laid down the last batch of supplies and began to turn around and return to prepare to carry the second batch of troops to land.

Song Wudaunt, as the supreme military commander of the Asahikawa Domain, began to advance the established tasks after the initial end of the war.

First of all, with a relatively abundant amount of food and a wealth that he had taken over from the Shimazu family, Song Wudaunt easily recruited a group of local civilians and wandering samurai who could not eat. They were turned into a separate battalion, and the training of new recruits began in advance, which was used to make up for the lack of troops. If there is a war in the future, they can also be used as cannon fodder to make Dongyi people and Dongyi people kill each other.

While this is going on, the second task is the main purpose of the trip.

Having traveled thousands of miles across the sea to come here and used so many ships was not to deal with an inconspicuous daimyo. What Chen Wu wants is a large iron mine in the territory of the Asahikawa Domain!

However, does the impoverished Asahikawa Domain really have such a big iron ore as Zài?

Song Wuxing was a little skeptical about this.

It's a pity that just a few days later, he found that his doubts were too ridiculous. The Governor's intelligence was far more accurate than he had imagined. According to the extremely simple map given to him by Chen Wu, plus a few more obvious signs, Song Wuxing's men escorted a team of accompanying prospecting team members, and quickly found the Asahikawa Iron Mine Asahikawa Domain is not big after all, except for towns and fields, there are so many limited areas, plus Chen Wu's mention, it is almost the easiest mine found in the career of that prospecting team.

It is located in a valley that looks inconspicuous, but is known as a forbidden place in the mouth of the local people of the Asahikawa Domain.

This was once the place where the last daimyo died in battle before the rise of the Shimazu family. It's a bit of a legend in itself, and one rainy night in the next few years, a ronin accidentally passed by here, and saw a scene of suspicious visions and ghosts, which was like the rebirth of a daimyo who died in battle. What frightened them even more was that every thunderstorm here, it was frequently bombarded by thunder and lightning, and there were rare mature trees on the ground.

Word spread, and everyone saw it as a place where the ghost of the Daimyo lingered after his death. Frequent lightning strikes are the punishment of the heavens for the daimyo ghosts and gods. If the living enter this place at will, they will be cursed by the soul of the Daimyo. Because of this, when the soldiers and prospectors of the Songjiang Army looked for local guides, no one dared to go in at all. In the end, a high price was opened, and a young man who was not afraid of death had the courage to take people around the periphery, and then left in a hurry.

These half-truths and half-truths have made this valley dare not enter for many years. But as long as the old man is familiar with geology and iron ore, he can clearly guess a thing or two, there may really be a big iron ore here.

They were not disappointed, and after a few random turns, they found further evidence here, and two weeks later identified the first suitable mine site for mining. Even though it has not yet undergone a comprehensive assessment, just the tip of the iceberg at the moment makes these prospecting masters extremely excited.

Everyone firmly believes that this is a large mine in scale far larger than the Crooked Head Mountain Iron Mine!

The funny thing is that because of rumors and superstitions, no one has dared to go deep into this place for a hundred years. So much so that he guarded Baoshan and had such a huge fortune, but he always lived a life of hunger. This made Song Wuxing sigh a little, but he was a little lucky. If not, how could this incredibly valuable iron mine be mined by the Songjiang Army?

If the Shimazu family of the Asahikawa Domain had really discovered this place early, and with the huge profits from the development of iron ore, they had formed a powerful army and become the biggest daimyo at all, then with the current combat power of the Matsue Army's naval division, it would have been impossible to get involved!

………

In the strict secrecy of Song Wudaunt, the Asahikawa Iron Mine became a top secret in the Matsue Army and the Asahikawa Domain.

The newly recruited local Dongyi warriors were formed into a standing team. Holding the weapons left behind by the Shimazu samurai, he began the preliminary training. The prospectors of the Songjiang Army did not rush to recruit people to develop the mine, but first conducted a comprehensive and detailed investigation before they began the preliminary preparations.

Almost a little more than a month later, the Ninghai Division fleet docked again.

This time, the fleet's luck was not as good as last time. There was a sudden storm at sea, and at least four or five warships were damaged, and another warship sank in the water, plus a number of supplies were lost. In the end, only seven or eight sailors were rescued from the sunken warship, and it is conservatively estimated that at least 100 people were killed!

When the infantry of the 4th Division finally set foot on the land of the Asahikawa Domain, many people couldn't help but cry excitedly, feeling deep fear and jealousy of the sea, but they didn't know that such a storm was nothing at sea at all. Just sinking one is already considered lucky. If there is a storm and a huge wave, the entire fleet may be wiped out!

No matter what you say, Song Wudaunt, who was stationed in the Asahikawa Domain, finally ushered in a strong team of allies.

Since the war in the Asahikawa Domain had been resolved, and there was no intention of expanding the war for the foreseeable future, the troops brought in this time were all infantry troops, and the number was 2,500. Despite some losses at sea, the total number of cannon fodder recruited is still more than a brigade!

On Cook Island, such a well-equipped brigade is already a very powerful combat force.

As long as the Matsue Army did not take the initiative to attack, and went on an expedition against top daimyo such as Tokugawa and Shibata, and held the Asahikawa Domain in peace, no one dared to find or defeat them.

In order not to provoke the other daimyo, this group of soldiers did not settle in the Asahikawa Domain after landing, but temporarily docked at the fishing village near the landing, and carried out the necessary news blockade. Song Wuxing prepared to wait for a while later, the situation was further eased, and then took the initiative to leak some news, so as to dispel the doubts of other daimyo about the increase in troops to the greatest extent.

At the same time, since the Asahikawa Domain already had enough strength to protect itself, and the preliminary exploration of the Asahikawa Iron Mine had certain results, the Matsue Army began to really develop the iron mine.

Under the pretext of building an additional barracks and school grounds, the Songjiang army easily recruited a large number of laborers at the cost of two catties of food per person per day. Subsequently, these laborers built a number of simple camps in the shortest possible time outside the valley where the Asahikawa Iron Mine is located, and what these laborers did not know was that they were not building a military camp, but a shed for the laborers to live in the future!

Because this is Cook Island, far from the mainland, and the people are completely different from the empire, the Songjiang army, as the conqueror and ruler, is ready to adopt a completely different shape from the iron ore mine of Crooked Head Mountain. Once enough miners have been recruited, they will be subject to strict lockdown and secrecy. All miners had to live in sheds, see their families once a month, and had to be supervised by Matsue soldiers. If someone leaks the news and finds out, the whole family will be beheaded!

With such closed mining, the storage of the Asahikawa iron ore mine can be kept confidential to the greatest extent. Since the mined iron ore will be loaded directly to the coast, loaded onto the fleet and sent back to the three counties of Songjiang, and will not flow into a piece of Cook Island, this huge secret is likely to remain for five or even ten years.

Perhaps the miners who have been drafted will be unhappy with this, but as long as they can eat enough, there is no telling how many people on the island are willing to do this work. Supplemented by the threat of knives and guns, any possible resistance will be suppressed.

Here, it will continue to inject impetus into the take-off of the Songjiang Army, even at the cost of the blood, sweat and corpses of thousands of Dongyi miners!

………

When Chen Wu received the good news from the Asahikawa Domain, the time had already entered the spring of 675 in the mainland calendar.

As all aspects have stabilized, the three counties of Songjiang have entered a stage of development of stability. As long as the Asahikawa Iron Mine is put into operation, a steady stream of high-quality iron ore will be shipped back at a low price, which will bring a new round of take-off to the economy of the three counties of Songjiang.

However, compared to the rising sun of the Songjiang Army, the situation of the other forces in the Eastern Continent was not very good.

The defeat of the Second Tien Nam War last year caused huge losses to the Omanis, and the sudden flood of the Dayuan River brought a disaster to the Chiang Mai Plain. It is only now that the devastation and aftermath of the flood have been subsided. The Omanis spent millions of gold coins to help the disaster, and only then did they reluctantly allow hundreds of thousands of people to rebuild their homes and recover their vitality.

However, in just a few years, two wars and this flood have exhausted the dividends of the development of the Kingdom of Oman over the years. Saladin's prestige since his accession to the throne has also been shaken like never before.

After learning the hard way, Saladin consulted with his confidants and ministers, and had to temporarily abandon his plan to go north from the fortress of Nanfeng and began to change his course.

In the first wave of investigations into the cause of the flooding, it was determined that the weir was in disrepair. But when the funds were subsequently rebuilt, the workers of the Kingdom of Oman finally found the traces deliberately left by the Songjiang cavalry. Despite his anger at the previous fucking findings and his suspicion of this new clue, Saladin was given an excellent reason to divert attention and rebuild his prestige.

Under his instructions, the Executive Yuan of the Kingdom of Oman quickly changed its tune and put the cause of the flood of the Dayuan River on the desert people in the Western Desert, no matter how you look at it. Even, under the spread of public opinion, even the Second Tiannan War was described as a victory that was about to be won, but had to retreat because of a despicable attack.

With this back-and-out object, Saladin's pressure was reduced a lot. He also complied with the boiling public sentiment and announced revenge on the desert peoples of the Western Desert.

In the event of victory, Saladin will not only be able to consolidate his prestige and rule, but also occupy the gold mines in the Western Desert to make up for the financial deficit caused by the two wars and disaster relief!

It seems like it's a win-win-win But the truth is, Saladin's plan didn't go well.

In terms of military strength, the Omanis certainly have the absolute upper hand. Even if the two Tiannan Wars were full of casualties, it was still not something that those desert peoples could fight. But the problem is that the desert peoples are scattered in oases deep in the Western Desert. Extremely familiar with the terrain and comes and goes like the wind. Saladin's army penetrated deep into the Western Desert, and it was difficult to find the main force of the desert people, and his own logistics and scattered search troops were frequently attacked by camel soldiers.

Although the Omanis will be able to take the gold mine sooner or later, the time and sacrifice they have made it seem that the gold mine is not as valuable as they imagined.

Although Saladin was annoyed, there was no good way to ignore the vast Western Desert, and he could only come a little bit in the midst of the anxiety.

In a short period of time, there was absolutely no way they could cause trouble for Chen Wu.

Corresponding to this are the Lena people of the north!

Before the First Tennan War, the Lena were roughly as strong as the Omanis. It's just that because of the strength of the rangers, they are slightly stronger in terms of military strength and reputation, but the comprehensive national strength is basically a grade. But after the Omanis lost two major battles, their current strength has been thrown off a notch by the Lenas.

However, the Lena people, who seem to be rampaging in the north, are not without crises and contradictions!