As a Chejitan officer guarding the city, Nakata knew more about the neighborhood than Lee Siu-gi.

According to him, the largest tribe of the natives in the vicinity belonged to the Cadaglan tribe, but this tribe was only a loose association, this tribe claimed to be dozens of societies, but according to the statistics of the Spaniards, there were less than thirty at most, and each community numbered less than three or five hundred, and many more than two thousand.

Each society has a chieftain, and the tribe has an elders' council, and there is no one in the tribe who has a monopoly on power, if there is, there is a great wizard.

The Atta, who had come to negotiate, was the chief of the largest village in the Kedagran tribe, and because of his strong strength, he led the warriors selected by the various communities in the competition with the Spaniards.

And in the south of the Tamsui River, there is another tribe called the Daukas tribe, the situation is basically the same as the Kaida Gran tribe, even the language is almost the same, in fact, according to the Han people's classification of the local natives, the Daukas and the Kaida Gran are divided into familiar fan.

Although they also have a tradition of gathering and hunting, they also grow crops and have a lot of contact with merchants.

In later generations, the familiar fan was called the Pingpu people, that is, the people who lived on the flat land, and the people who lived on the high mountains, and the people who lived by hunting.

The local natives were already in conflict before the arrival of the colonists, and the Dawas were at odds with the Atayal, while the Aoyal were inseparable from the Shengfan tribe. The reason why the Kedagran cooperated with the Dutch, in addition to dealing with the Spaniards, was to obtain weapons from the Dutch to deal with the Atayal tribe.

"So, have the Kedagrans got a weapon?" Lee asked.

"Of course, it's only very little, and the news that Shichiro Yoshida inquired about is that during the siege of this city last year, the Kaidagrans killed one of the soldiers defending the city and got three knives, but the problem is that under the command of Second Lieutenant Pietro, only seven people died at that time. ”

Li Zhaoji smiled, thinking that the Dutch were really good enough to pick the door, Li Zhaoji asked: "What about trade?" I think there is a little bit of Sands in the supplies that Pietro packed, which is locally produced, and the Dutch will never have a grudge against Sands. ”

Nakata secretly sighed in his heart that Li Zhaoji was meticulous in his observations, and hurriedly said: "Yes, the Dutch offered the Kaida Grans a price to exchange for supplies using three things, deerskin, golden sand, and sulfur, but Atta refused.

The Kedagrans demanded that only the Dutch kill all the Spaniards and destroy the city before they trade with them. ”

Li Zhaoji nodded, and secretly said that the people of Kaida Gran have a deep obsession with this city.

When night came, the bonfire was lit and Lee appeared under the straw hut.

When Liu Mingde was preparing for the dinner, he made up his mind to use a knife to pull his butt and open the eyes of these natives, so the dishes were prepared very richly.

In the firepit, pheasants and rabbits were leaning against it, large pieces of lamb were stewed in large pots, and on the grill beside it, fresh venison skewers were grilled together, and secret spices mixed with oil were brushed on them.

Even if they were familiar with the Ming people, they didn't know how to be polite, so by the time Li Zhaoji arrived, many of the chieftains of the Kedagran people were already grabbing the roast chicken with both hands and nibbling on it, hot fat flowing from their thick beards.

They wore short coats of cloth or leather, their hair cut short or partially shaved, and their clothes had a savage and religious touch, with bright feathers and white bones as ornaments.

The most popular was the wine provided by Lee Siu Kee, and many chiefs were drinking with barrels, as if they wanted to drink all the drinks in front of them in one go.

Only one person was calm, he cut the mutton with a knife, and did not touch the wine in the porcelain bowl in front of him.

"You're the most generous Fuchu I've ever met, yes, the best Fulao."

"Yes, Shopkeeper Li, you are so good, how good you are, just like this barrel of wine." A chief shook the barrel in his hand and praised Li Zhaoji.

It was only at this time that Li Zhaoji discovered that the Ming Chinese language was so fluent here, but most people spoke Hokkien, just as they called the foreign Ming people Fulao, and the Fujian merchants were the main people who came into contact with the natives here.

"If you can accept that my trading company is trading here, then there will be an endless supply of wine, spices, and all other things to enjoy." Li Zhaoji said, of course, his Hokkien is not good, but Liu Mingde is very proficient.

"It's okay to trade, and it's okay for you to set up a merchant here, but this city must be given back to me." It was the only chief who didn't drink, Atta, who spoke.

Seeing that he was not affected by these things, Li Zhaoji knew that Atta was a little difficult, and he said, "Atta, maybe we should wait until everyone finishes eating before talking." After all, it's rare to have such a delicious feast. ”

Several chiefs nodded their heads, and everyone recognized that the food prepared by professional chefs using a variety of ingredients was indeed delicious.

Atta shook her head: "I'm afraid that if it continues, everyone around me will fall here." ”

Atta was also helpless, the facts were in front of him, these chiefs forgot everything when they saw the wine, and they drank it as if they were not drunk and did not stop.

Li Zhaoji sighed and said, "This city is now called Tamsui City, and it is already my property, and I will not give it to you." ”

"Property?" Hearing this, Atta had a displeased look on his face: "That's the land that the demon snatched from us, the city he built, you robbed it, is it yours?" Maybe the city is yours, but the land at the foot of this city belongs to us Kedagran. ”

Li Zhaoji spread out his hands and said, "I didn't rob it, I bought it." ”

"Buy? The land is ours, where did you buy it from? Atta looked at the chiefs around him, his eyes sharpened, and many of them were frightened to drop their barrels.

According to Nakata Yoshito, more than ten years ago, the Spaniards built a city here, and the natives came to attack and were frustrated, and then a chief privately gave it and used the land under the city to exchange some stained glass balls and cloth from the Spaniards, and as a result, the sorcerer of the Keda Gran broke his chest and wore it on a wooden pole and tortured him to death.

Atta knew this, because it was his father who had captured the traitor with his own hands, and Atta thought that something similar had happened this time.

"You don't look at them." Li Zhaoji wiped his hands clean and said, "This has nothing to do with the chiefs, we are all meeting for the first time. In fact, it was the Dawkas who sold us the land, and the land from the mouth of the Tamsui River to the upper reaches of the ten miles was sold to us by the Dawcas.

Umu, the leader of Daukas, demanded that I pay for a hundred axes, something like that........ Of course, I've only given him ten as a deposit now. ”

Liu Mingde was dumbfounded, and deeply felt that Li Zhaoji, the big shopkeeper, was really unusual, and the ability to tell lies and not make drafts alone was not something he possessed.

As he spoke, Li Zhaoji took out an axe from the box that emitted a cold light, the axe was heavy, the blade was wide, and the handle was made of cut wood.

This is the goods purchased by Li Zhaoji when he was in Guangzhou, and when he decided to come to Tamsui for development, he prepared these goods that sold well in the Turen tribe in advance.

"This is our land!" Atta yelled.

Li Zhaoji shrugged helplessly: "Umu said that they are from Daucas." ”

It is a confusing account of which indigenous tribe the land along the Tamsui River belongs, in the past, it belonged to the Daukas people, but that was decades ago, maybe hundreds of years ago, after all, the native people did not have a decent tradition of remembering, but three or five generations ago, it was.

After the rise of the Kaidagran people, they expelled the Dawkas people from the area of the Tamsui River, and this place belonged to them, so which tribe the Tamsui estuary belonged to was indeed a confused account.

"Nonsense, this is our Keda Gran, and when my grandfather was here, this was ours."

"Yes, Umu is a treacherous person, you were deceived by him, he was there to cheat your axe."

"Oh, shopkeeper Li, you are a kind-hearted person, you were deceived by that dog thing in Wumu."

A group of chiefs were indignant, some angry that the Dawkas said the land was theirs, and others were upset that Li Zhaoji had been deceived.

Li Zhaoji waited until they had enough of the noise and quieted down before he began to act, he took out the axes from the box one by one, and threw them at the feet of each chief one by one. There were twenty people here, half of them chiefs, half of them warriors from the village community.

For them, such a well-textured ax is definitely a valuable possession, with which it is even possible to marry a daughter-in-law.

"What are you doing here?" Atta asked, holding the axe he had thrown at him.

Lee said: "This is a gift from me, each of you, to prove my generosity. I gave ten to the Dawcas, and now I give you twenty, twice as many as theirs, just to show that I am not holding out because of those axes.

But I need to explain to Atta and the noble chiefs sitting here that hundreds of my brethren already know that this city belongs to our trading company, and that in today's battle, although we have killed some of the Spaniards and expelled the rest, several of our brothers have been wounded, and two of them have died here.

Shall I now say to them, 'We have been deceived, and this city has been fought in vain, and the blood of our brothers has been shed in vain?' ”

Everyone was silent, even Atta, who was the most resolute.

Li Zhaoji stepped forward, shook Atta's hand, and said: "Atta, my friend, you are a leader, and I am also a leader, you should know what will happen if I tell me the truth about my subordinates, do you want to meet me in battle?" ”

Atta was momentarily speechless that he was able to become the commander of the Kaidagran army, not only because of the support of the village community and his own strong force, but also because he was clear enough in his mind.

Atta knows very well that with Li Zhaoji's current situation, if he tells his subordinates the truth, then his subordinates will inevitably react, and if Li Zhaoji still wants to continue to lead his subordinates, he will have to make their gains and losses pay the price.

Who is this person who hurt them, is it a Dawcas?

Atta knew that it was not necessarily a Dawcas, but also a Kedagran, and in fact, an angry soldier only needed one enemy, and no one could say who it was.

So who to choose as the enemy is what the man named Li Zhaoji in front of him needs to do.

Who will he choose?

After a little thought, Atta knew that he would definitely be an enemy of the Kedagran, even if the Kedagran had a larger population and a larger army.

The reason is simple, if war is declared on the Dawcas, the Khedaglans may not help him, but if war is declared on the Khedaglans, the Doukas will definitely help in order to regain the fertile land lost by their ancestors.

Moreover, if he fights the Dawkas, he will not get this city, but as long as he defeats the Kedagran, the city will belong to him.

Although the Kedagran have the largest population, they also have the most enemies, the Dawcas, who are also familiar with the fans, the Atayal people deep in the mountains and forests, and the Spaniards.

Therefore, Atta knew very well that as long as he insisted that the city belonged to him, then war was inevitable.