Singapore, a small island at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula, is a natural fortress that guards the Straits of Malacca. But Singapore in this era is very desolate.

At that time, Singapore was known as Longtou Island by the Chinese, also known as Temasek, and the island was inhabited by a small number of local indigenous people, as well as a small number of Chinese. Originally, the Sultan Bairi Missula founded a city of the Sultan of Malacca here, but in 1613, after the Portuguese came to attack and destroyed the stronghold at the mouth of the river, the people of the Sultanate of Sulu were driven out of here by the Portuguese, and only a few natives and Han Chinese lived here.

On the island of Singapore, whose population is now estimated to be no more than 1,000, the Han people established a small fishing village at the mouth of the river, and some Han Chinese who came here to escape the war settled in the village at the mouth of the river, with a population of just over 200 people.

At the mouth of the Singapore River, a fleet flying the flag of the Ming Army's Nanyang Navy approached the coastline.

After Wang Xinyu completed the negotiations with the Dutch, he extorted a sum of money from the Dutch, then released the prisoners, and returned some of the captured ships according to the agreement. Then he sailed straight to Malacca with his fleet and came here.

"Flotilla!" A fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy shouted, "There's a fleet coming!" ”

The Han people in the village walked out of the village one after another, looking at the huge fleet of white sails on the sea. Since the Portuguese came here in 1613, there have been no Westerner ships for a long time, and these Han Chinese have mixed feelings when they see these big ships with Western soft sails. They didn't know if the person who came was a pirate or a Westerner doing business. If it is a pirate, so many pirates can't resist it at all, and it's not like this place hasn't been ransacked by pirates. But since the great pirate Lin Daoqian was wiped out by the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese, there have been no big pirates in Malacca for a long time.

The Han people all thought to themselves: they are definitely not pirates. I guess it's a Tessie who came to do business.

The flotilla approached the estuary, lowered the small boats from the big boats, and rowed towards the island of Singapore.

"Da Ming Banner!" A Han man on the shore suddenly shouted.

People finally saw clearly that the big red Daming flag was flying on the boat!

"It's from the old country!" The nervous hearts of the Han people were finally relaxed. Since it is a person from Daming, he will definitely not embarrass them.

The boat came up to the riverbank, and a group of Ming soldiers came down from the boat. These Ming soldiers looked very kind. Just said hello to the common people and began to greet the boats arriving behind them by the river.

"You don't have any cannibals in the mountains here, do you?" A man who looked like an officer asked a local Han Chinese.

The local Han people told these Ming troops: "There are no cannibals here, and they were killed by the Francophiles in the early years; There were no large bands of pirates, and there were no bandits in the mountains. Although there are still a small number of pirates here who occasionally come over, they don't dare to come when they see you, Master Jun. ”

The officer of the Ming army smiled and said, "We will build a city here in the future!" Everyone is Han Chinese, all Ming people! We are all family. Our military often says that the military and civilians are a family. ”

But those people are still more or less afraid, where is there a saying about the military and civilian families these days! When their parents were on the mainland. First, the officers and soldiers oppressed the people, then the displaced people rebelled, and then the Qing army entered the customs. Anyway, no matter which side of the soldiers, as long as they enter the village, it is the common people who are unlucky.

More ships came ashore, and groups of Ming troops disembarked from the boats and began to build docks on the river bank. I saw people going to the surrounding mountains and forests to cut wood, and some people standing in the water to lay wooden stakes. Others dug up the earth on the shore and built dikes.

More and more Ming soldiers went ashore in small boats. A part of the Ming army entered the interior of the island and began to build barracks.

"The Admiral has arrived!" There was a long shout from the shore.

The busy Ming soldiers stopped their work, knelt on one knee, and saluted Wang Xinyu, who was disembarking.

When the villagers saw the officers and soldiers kneeling, they all knelt down one after another, facing the young man who looked like a senior official walking down the boat.

Wang Xinyu, dressed in a big red official robe, got off the boat. Seeing the soldiers and civilians kneeling on the riverbank, he made a gesture: "Excuse me, everyone get up quickly!" ”

Wang Xinyu, accompanied by several entourages, walked into the small fishing village.

The head of this village is called Zhang Muwen, and his ancestors were originally from Guangdong. In order to escape the war at the end of the Ming Dynasty, he came to Nanyang. But because he couldn't do business, he couldn't get along in Manila, and he didn't get along when he went to Batavia, so he had to bring a group of Han Chinese to this isolated island and make a living from fishing here. Later, Han Chinese came here one after another, and a small fishing village was formed. This Zhang Muwen is about forty years old, with a goatee, wearing a blue homespun short, most Cantonese people were not tall back then, and this Zhang Muwen is no exception, only about 1.6 meters.

When Zhang Muwen saw Wang Xinyu walking into their village, he hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down to salute: "The adults come to the small village, and the grass people are deeply honored!" ”

"Hurry up!" Wang Xinyu personally helped Zhang Muwen up, "You are the village chief here, right?" ”

"Yes, it's the grass people." Seeing this young official so kind, Zhang Muwen was very moved.

"We are all Ming people, because the court can't resist the Tartars, so my Ming people have been exiled overseas and suffered a lot, and the official feels deeply guilty in his heart!" Wang Xinyu said earnestly.

Seeing that this senior official spoke so politely, not only did he not have an official tone at all, but his words were touching, Zhang Muwen almost shed tears: "Thank you for your concern!" ”

Wang Xinyu pointed to the mountains and trees on the island and said: "Here we Han people live, and it will be the territory of our Han people in the future!" As long as my Wang's army is here, no one dares to come here to bully us Han people! ”

"The adults are dedicated to the country and the people, and the grass people are very moved." Zhang Muwen said movingly.

"You let the villagers come to the barracks tonight, we are new to the barracks, so we will have a party with you here."

"Thank you, sir!" Zhang Muwen kowtowed again and again.

Then the Ming army began to set up camp, and the auxiliary soldiers dug trenches on the flat land on both sides of the river, cut wood from the mountains and forests, and built wooden fences and barracks on the edge of the trenches.

Some of the soldiers who were not on duty in the sailors also came to help, assisting the auxiliaries in building barracks and building docks.

Before dark, two huge barracks were erected on both sides of the Singapore River, surrounded by moats, wooden fences, wooden gates, lookouts, turrets, and improvised batteries piled up with mud and sandbags. At the same time, the improvised wharf was completed, and the auxiliaries laid wooden stakes in the river, laid planks on them, built temporary bridges, and set up large rafts that served as floating docks, which were connected to the temporary bridges with wooden planks.

After the wharf is built, large ships can be docked directly on the wharf, and personnel and materials can be directly disembarked through the wharf without the need to transfer them by small boats.

Except for some of the ships that entered the inner harbor and docked at the docks, the rest of the ships were moored in the sea at the mouth of the river. At 10 p.m., rows of lanterns were hung on the ship, reflecting the silhouette of the ship. The reflection of the lights and the ship on the rippling sea creates a beautiful night scene.

At night, the barracks was brightly lit and bonfires were lit on the ground. The Ming soldiers and the villagers of the local fishing village sat on the ground, each with fruit in front of them, and the soldiers and civilians gathered around the bonfire.

Wang Xinyu raised his voice and said loudly: "Fellow villagers, you are the masters here!" Since you have come here, this is the land of my Ming Dynasty! We are here to build this land with everyone! You are constantly harassed by pirates here, and you may be threatened by Western colonizers! Now that we're here, we're going to keep everyone safe! We are here not only to protect every one of my Ming people, but also to build this place into a big city! An impregnable city! Make this a real place for us! ”

An enthusiastic speech won applause from the audience.

Wang Xinyu said: "Because you live here, we are going to build a city here, and we will build new houses, and when the time comes, you can all live in it!" You don't need to spend money on these houses, we have built them, and you can just live in them! In the future, there will be business development here, and there will be the government and the army to protect everyone! In addition to being fishermen, you can also engage in other occupations, you can enter the official service as a servant, you can hold public office, and you can also enter the Nanyang Company to do things! ”

When they heard that a new house was going to be built, people applauded.

Next, the lamb was roasted on the bonfire, leaning on the golden brown lamb, the grilled fish was divided, and everyone enjoyed the meal to their heart's content. A jar of wine was also brought up by the Ming sergeant and poured into a bowl, and everyone drank it as soon as possible.

Zhang Muwen nibbled on a leg of lamb and asked an employee of Nanyang Company next to him: "How much silver can I get every month to do things in your company?" ”

The employee replied: "This depends on ability and performance, and the average employee pays one or two taels of silver a month; If you become the team leader, you will have four taels of silver a month; can be the department manager of the branch, with an income of fifty or sixty taels of silver a month; If you can become the general manager of the branch or the department manager of the head office, you will earn three or four hundred taels of silver a month. ”

"It's not bad to be an employee; But when you become the managers you mentioned, they are all officials, so is a little money enough for expenses? It's all gone to send some points to the superiors. Zhang Muwen said.

"That's a good income! We don't like to take bribes! If corruption and bribery are investigated, the light one will be sent to be a coolie, and the heavy one will be beheaded! The employee replied.

After dinner, Wang Xinyu gathered the soldiers and backbones together: "Brothers! I'm announcing one thing now! We are about to send troops to Burma to join the armies of the kings of Jin and Gongchang! ”

"To Burma?" Everyone was stunned.

"That's right! Troops to Burma! I am only afraid that Burma will be treacherous and unite with the Qing court to attack our court! We're going to King Qin! (To be continued.) )