When Li Tianyang and the others traveled around the Ming Dynasty with the natives, the Ryukyu Kingdom, which was one or two thousand miles away, began to make waves again.

Wu Daofu brought dozens of Hongtang grassroots team members to Iriomote Island to start their plan to build a new Ryukyu naval division, and nearly a year had passed at this time.

As a large island in the Ryukyu Kingdom, the land area is second only to the main island of the Ryukyus, and the reason why the Ryukyu Shoning King simply handed over this large island to Li Tianyang was actually because their Ryukyu royal family had been weak for a long time over the years, which made the original people on Iriomote Island return to the state of anarchy again, and most of the original people lost their reverence for the Ryukyu royal family.

Coupled with the fact that it has been strictly monitored by the Japanese Samoto Dynasty, the military of the royal family has not only stagnated in recent years, but can even be said to be regressing rapidly, and now there is no team that can fight, otherwise the Tang and Tang kingdoms would have been desperate to ask for the help of a group of pirates.

And Wu Daofu said that they had obtained the approval of King Shangning, and they could openly accept ordinary people to join the army on Iriomote Island, Hateruma Island and Hatoma Island, but in practice, they could open up, and the good reputation that King Shangning gave Wu Daofu to them could be said to be worthless in the eyes of this group of indigenous people.

In the end, what can impress these aborigines is not relying on the silver of the white flowers that Wu Daofu is waving in their hands. And on this point, Wu Daofu really wants to be glad that this group of aborigines has been civilized a lot, until the effect of silver money, otherwise if you really want to be like on Dayuan Island, if you want to run in with a group of natives slowly, then you don't know that you can build a sailor in the Year of the Monkey!

Of course, in terms of silver money, the king of Shangning in the Ryukyus is also quite atmospheric, and what he threw to Wu Daofu with a wave of his hand is 10,000 taels of gold, because of the close relationship with the gold-producing country of the Wa Kingdom, in the Ryukyu Kingdom, although the ratio of gold price to silver is not up to the ratio of five to one on the side of the Wa Kingdom, it is also much higher than the ratio of ten to one in the Ming Dynasty, and the gold stock is abundant.

Therefore, this King Shangning used the value of 10,000 taels of gold as 70,000 taels of silver as the starting capital of the Ryukyu sailors, which was also an invisibly big advantage for Wu Daofu and them.

Although Wu Daofu and the others only came to a small group of members to be stationed on Iriomote Island, their daily necessities, weapons and equipment, etc., still need to be purchased from Jilong Port. In addition, before the Ryukyu Navy was formed, a fleet of 2,000 people from the Hongtang Whale Division often shuttled around the Ryukyu Sea to protect the Ryukyu Kingdom from the retaliation of Satsuma.

Therefore, this 10,000 taels of gold came to Wu Daofu's hands, turned around and was sent back to Jilong Port for a long time, and the conversion of the gold and silver ratio in Jilong Port was completely in line with the economy of the Ming Dynasty.

And holding the Bengang standard silver coins transported back from Jilong Harbor, although the original people were quite curious about the exquisite shape of the silver coins, the creation of real money and silver quickly touched their hearts, and the Bengang silver coins stood on Iriomote Island.

Working under Li Tianyang, the elite members of the whale department who were selected by Wu Daofu have no less experience in dealing with recruits, and they have a lot of experience in how to train a group of newcomers who don't know anything.

It's just that the only thing that makes Wu Daofu and them a little uncomfortable is that although the original people on Iriomote Island have been civilized and it is easy to deal with outsiders, there are not many people who are really willing to be recruited by Wu Daofu and them to sit as soldiers.

In addition, although the three islands such as Iriomote Island and Hateruma Island are populated by indigenous people, the narrow territory of the islands limits the number of ethnic groups on these islands, and the total number of indigenous people on the three islands is less than 10,000, which is less than the number of indigenous people of Amami Goto, which has been occupied by the Japanese Satsuma for many years.

This point of population, calculated by the ratio of adult males, even if it reaches a high recruitment level of ten to one, Wu Daofu and his others may not be able to put together a team of 1,500 sailors.

And in a year, Wu Daofu and the others only organized a fleet of sailors with no more than 1,000 people. In the name of aid, the king of the Ryukyus sent all the exiles, pirates, and prisoners he had recruited in the country these days as a source of troops and sent them to Wu Daofu.

Regarding the assistance sent by the King of the Ryukyus, Wu Daofuming knew that there must be other intentions in it, and he did not hesitate to take it, presumably among these people, there must have been a lot of spies planted by King Shangning.

Although King Shangning was forced by the situation to give Hongtang the three islands including Iriomote Island as a base, it can be seen from the way he granted Hongtang these three islands that he still has illusions about these three islands with a large area.

If it weren't for the fact that King Shangning had made Li Tianyang accept the nominal canonization of King Shangning on the condition of financial assistance, they would be attached to the Ryukyu Kingdom in the name of the Ryukyu Naval Division. Even in addition to Xiao Xiurong and other middle-level and low-level Hongtang non-commissioned officers, this newly established Ryukyu naval division soldier was all in Iriomote Island Mishima, or with the assistance of King Shangning, in the eyes of the other Ryukyu kings and people, the dead Iriomote Mishima is actually still under the control of the Ryukyu king, and there is no sense of being divided by others.

Of course, the reason why Li Tianyang was willing to agree to this request, which can be said to be a bit harsh, was not only because of the large amount of silver in the hands of King Shangning of the Ryukyus, but also because he also had strong confidence, believing that Wu Daofu could use other people's resources and money to build a new team for their team.

However, Li Tianyang's original idea of dividing his huge armed forces also failed, and this time his entry into Beijing to find a backer background was also related to the expansion of their team's strength and attracted the attention of the Fujian government.

After almost a year of hard work, Wu Daofu and Xiao Xiurong were able to set up a team of sailors, and the more than 1,000 people who were finally recruited also had a bit of a regular army appearance under the training of more than half a year.

After putting on the brand-new military uniforms of uniform design, and putting on the weapons and equipment that were built in batches and of the same standard, a Ryukyu sailor who was like a high-imitation Bengang Hongtang team was freshly baked.

And with the official entry of the seven warships purchased from the Bengang team, this team of sailors who had been painstakingly worked hard by Wu Daofu already had some combat power. Even if they encounter the same number of brave pirates on the sea at this time, this group of sailor warriors will definitely not fall into disadvantage and will be able to fight a stalemate with the other party.

(End of chapter)