"The investigation has made it clear that a force called the Kingdom of Manabar by the local natives is stirring up trouble." After coming to the east bank for more than ten years, the former captain of the Tacheng garrison and the new captain of the Mianhe garrison, Bingtaro, is getting better and better at Chinese, only to hear him say: "This news was revealed by the Dutch on the other side of the river, they have been harassed by this native tribe very much recently, and have almost given up all peripheral activities, such as slave hunting, hunting or something." Now that they are almost all cowered into the high walls of the trading station, and there are less than a hundred soldiers and East India Company employees, it is really difficult to say whether they can hold it. Moreover, some small tribes in the wilderness that had maintained good relations with them are estimated to be cleared, and in short, the Dutch are not having a good time. ”

"Don't worry about others, let's think more about our own situation." Kyle, who represented the government of the New China Pioneer Team, sighed and said worriedly, "What is the origin of the Manabar Kingdom?" What is the situation that there are so many soldiers, and there are still muskets? Where did they get their muskets? ”

Hearing this, both of them were a little silent. Yes, these natives still have muskets, and there are thousands of soldiers and horses, this has become the climate, and we must find a way to exterminate them. If the strength is not enough to destroy them, then try to slow down their annexation of the tribes so that they do not become bigger.

As for the muskets in their hands, it is easy to understand that most of them were secretly sold to them by Portuguese and Arab merchants who came to trade here. In fact, as early as the beginning of the 16th century, many European colonists arrived on the west coast of Madagascar, the earliest being in 1500 (1506), a Portuguese ship was stormed to the island of Madagascar. This was the first time that the island's natives had come into contact with Europeans; Year 1524. Two French ships arrived at the Falklands. wanted to land, but was rejected by the locals; In 1540, the Portuguese established a trading post on the west coast and engaged in the slave trade while preaching, and were expelled by the locals eight years later; In 1591, English ships arrived on the Falklands for the first time; In 1598, after the Dutch occupied the island of Mauritius, they began to use it as a base to raid the coast of the Falklands and plunder slaves; Around 1640. 400 British landed on the coast, but unfortunately met the main force of the natives and were repulsed......

Given how often the island's natives came into contact with the outside world, it is not surprising that they possessed muskets. In fact, the Sakarava people on the west coast of the Falklands (i.e., the savannah) were the only indigenous tribe armed with muskets on a large scale, which is why they were able to maintain a military superiority even though they were not economically and productively superior to the Melina of the Central Plateau.

They strictly controlled the outflow of guns and ammunition, firmly monopolized the channels of European slave traders, and in doing so, maintained their conquests (the prisoners of war they acquired could be sold to European slave traders) - a slave trade on such a large scale, of course. So much so that the Falklands became the second largest slave to Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America after the blacks.

Historically, by the beginning of the 18th century, the Sakarava people had established two kingdoms in the western region. Thereinto. The kingdom of Menab, which began its Northern Expedition on the Unillahi River, had 4,000-5,000 musketeers who were so skilled in their use that the Europeans were greatly surprised.

The second son of the founding monarch of the Manab Kingdom, supported by some of his vassals, left the kingdom's territory and went north to conquer the natives of the wilderness, and finally established the new kingdom of Boyra. The kingdom also attached great importance to the use of firearms, and its king had planted thirty or forty cannons in a fortress built near the sea, and the king's capital, Marovoy, was very densely populated with thousands of houses at the time. The king's storehouse was filled with guns, precious stones, gold, silver, porcelain, and a throne brought to the king by a French merchant from China.

Of course, the Sakarava people, who had only just started their conquests, had only a few thousand soldiers, a few hundred muskets, and only a large grassland north of the Unilahi River. This ethnic group is dominated by a mixed agro-pastoral economy, and maintains trade links with the various nations or tribes established by the Melina people of the Central Plateau. They rarely fish, and when they do, they do so on the beach with rudimentary tools, and most of them live on agriculture and herdsmen, and have a more ferocious temperament. The Dutch must have been very impressed by this, for there had been a fight between the two sides in the slave hunt, and a Dutch merchant and his men seemed to have suffered a loss.

Neither Hyotaro nor Kyle were Travelers, they didn't know when or how the Sakarava people had started in history - in fact, even the Travelers didn't know much about it, because it was too unpopular - they only knew that the confederation of large tribes known as the Kingdom of Manab had begun to move north from the Unilahi River and annexed several small tribes of fellow Sakarava in succession, causing panic in the surrounding area.

At the Dutch trading station in the Tulare area on the south bank of the cotton river, the Dutch East India Company staff had now shrunk back to the trading station, where they were supported by dozens of German mercenaries and a thick brick and wood wall for reinforcements, as they had not yet evacuated with ships.

The Dutch could retreat into the trading station, but the easterners had some trouble here, because they had too many jars outside to give up. In addition, the estates of each plantation are also scattered, which is not conducive to defense, so it is more passive in the face of enemy attacks. God is pitiful, the first thing people on the east coast used to go to many places was to build castles, only this time they were negligent in the area of Mianhe Port, and as a result, they encountered a crisis, and the world is so nonsense!

"Don't stand here and talk nonsense." Ma Wanpeng, who was rarely not wearing big pants, appeared behind the two, only to see him pointing at Bingtaro and saying, "Captain Bing, we will organize people to build a fortress in the afternoon, well, use those hardwood that came with the ship." With the goal of accommodating 3,000 people, the fortress was built next to the coastal defense fortress, and when the time came, it could rely on these permanent fortresses for defense, and it could also house more personnel. Well, those are the next things to do. But for now. All you need to do is send someone to get in touch with the kingdom of Manap. Let's see what these bitches are for? We can't control their warlord scuffle, but we must not harm our interests, otherwise we will react strongly. ”

"By the way, Director Kai, I heard that Captain Shi sent you here because you know some of the languages of the Sakaravas? Well, I'll send some soldiers with you to visit a few of the small tribes in the neighborhood to see what their charter is. It's with us. Or simply take refuge in the kingdom of Manaber, at this time we don't need to be left and right, we just need a clear statement. If they don't want their tribe to be annexed by the kingdom of Manab, then ask them to move nearby, and we'll issue them sabers, cuirasses, and spears to help them defend themselves against the enemy, so be it! After explaining to Hyotaro, Ma Wanpeng commanded Kyle again.

After hearing this, Hyotaro and Kyle looked at each other before going their separate ways, while Ma Manpeng himself stayed near the port area to supervise the Eight Banners of the island and the plantation laborers (mainly Comoroians and Poles) to build a wooden fort. As for the three hundred new Polish soldiers. Intense training began, and they were all soldiers of the Polish army. At this moment, it only takes a few words from the officer, and he quickly enters the state and regains his old feeling. They were full of confidence, full of confidence in holding the port of the Cotton River - if they could not defeat the Cossacks and Tatars, could they not play with these natives? Many people think so, which fully reflects the sense of superiority at the level of civilization.

In late March, two flute-type transport ships arrived at the port terminal of the Cotton River Port from Xinhua Port along the warm current of Mozambique. More than 1,000 Ming men with armor, swords, and spears walked out of the cabin, and they were the sturdy men of Shi Qinjie's immigration ships that had sailed from the direction of Gushan Harbor -- many of them were personnel who had been dismissed from the servant armies of various departments in Shandong, and had some combat experience.

The arrival of these men greatly strengthened the defenses of the people on the east bank of the Cotton River Harbor, and at the same time calmed the hearts of the people who were growing in the plantations. In particular, the Comoros, who did not even have the qualifications to work as laborers, seemed to think that it would be no harm for the Sakarava to come to them, so they were all a little inexplicably excited a while ago. At this moment, seeing more than a thousand more East Coast soldiers arriving here, these people immediately fell into great disappointment, and they couldn't even lift up their appetite to eat.

The officials of the pioneer team who came with these people also brought Shi Qinjie's latest instructions, that is: first, try to avoid conflict, after all, the Sakarava people have not yet shown hostility to the people on the east coast, and if they can maintain good relations with them at present, they should first try to maintain them and not engage in unnecessary fighting; 2. If war is unavoidable, then strive to defeat the enemy's main force by defensive warfare, and once the kingdom of Manabar loses this elite combat force and the musketeers trained for many years, it will surely no longer be able to unify the entire Western Peninsula, which is good for the long-term interests of the Eastern Republic; Thirdly, the Pioneer Government will interview the Portuguese on the island of Mozambique and ask them to suspend the sale of arms and ammunition to the Kingdom of Manabo. In addition, the main force of the Navy's Second Fleet will begin cruising the Mozambique Channel to prevent the ships of the French East India Company (formerly the French Oriental Company, renamed in 1644, currently colonizing southern Madagascar) from trading with the Kingdom of Manaper under the principle of "strict neutrality in wartime".

The arrival of this instruction immediately made Ma Wanpeng know what to do next. By this time, news from the inland steppes had spread almost one after another, and the founder of the kingdom of Manab, the first king Andriandashi Fuqi, had led an army to defeat several tribes of Sakarava and annex their subordinates, cattle and sheep, and land.

At present, only some independent tribes survive in the area north of the Unilasi River near the Bay of San Augustine at the mouth of the river, and most of the rest have been wiped out. And even these surviving tribes are currently panicked, and they don't look like they can resist the army of the Manabar Kingdom at all, and it is only a matter of time before they fall.

Surprisingly, however, the country's (or the tribal union's) founding monarch, Adrian Dahi, is believed to have halted his progress and began to digest the fruits of his victory, while trying to trade with the Westerners, exchanging his prisoners of war for guns, ammunition and even artillery. It's just that at present, the Portuguese and the French are artificially suppressed by the people on the east coast, and they have not rushed to buy the slaves in his hands for a while. However, this is also a matter of time, it is impossible for the people on the east coast to suppress these mercenary merchants for a long time, and the western coastline is so long, it is difficult for the people on the east coast to find a random place to trade.

Naturally, the people of the East Coast also found out the news of the temporary end of the war at the first time, but this did not make people feel any light. Ma Wanpeng himself was even more relieved and secretly frowned at the same time, and faintly felt that it would be a big trouble for this King Andrian Daxi to be blessed in the future! (To be continued......)