On June 5, 1669, Weiguo, Yizhou City (today's Legazpi City, Philippines).

Cheng Guangyin, the Duke of Wei, stood on the high platform of the teaching military field, looking at the array of guardsmen in great military appearance below, he couldn't help but feel great pride in his heart, as if the world was under his control.

"Duke Wei, when will we send troops north to attack the children of the Zheng family, and then unify the main island of Luzon and establish a century-old foundation for our country?" Shi Yuanping, the commander-in-chief of the Weiguo Army, was dressed in military uniform and looked high-spirited.

"Send troops? Haha..., we won't send troops to the north for the time being. Now may not be the opportunity to attack the Zheng family." Cheng Guangyin shook his head and said with a smile: "Because our overlord country, Qi State, will not allow us to capture the Zheng family's territory.

Monopolize the entire island of Luzon."

"Ah!...Why is this?" Shi Yuanping heard this and looked at Duke Wei in astonishment.

"Because we are a vassal state of Qi State." Cheng Guangyin said with a wry smile: "A powerful vassal state, and it is thousands of miles away from the mainland of Hanzhou, which may be difficult for Qi State to control and restrain.

.”

"Is the State of Qi worried about our growing strength in defending the country?" Shi Yuanping asked cautiously.

"What do you think?"

"Qi State wants to keep the Zheng family in Luzon to contain our Wei State in the future." Shi Yuanping said thoughtfully: "At the same time, it can also prevent our Wei State from becoming powerful. In this way, we can become stronger through them.

With our navy and several territories in Luzon, we can firmly control our country."

"That's right!" Cheng Guangyin nodded, and then sighed, "Qi State wants to put our Wei State into a vassal status forever, and become an important chess piece for Qi State to achieve Nanyang hegemony."

"..." Shi Yuanping heard this and wanted to say something, but he moved the corners of his mouth a few times and gave up.

"Do you want to ask, knowing that the Qi National Assembly opposed our use of force against the Zheng family, why did we continue to organize the army and use military force and frequently provoke military threats to the Zheng family in the past few months?"

"There is a gap in King Wei's heart, and I dare not speculate in vain." Shi Yuanping bowed and said.

"There is a common saying among the people, children who cry are fed by milk." Cheng Guangyin smiled and patted Shi Yuanping's shoulder, then walked slowly down the high platform, and waved his arms towards the array of guards officers and soldiers below, which immediately attracted enthusiastic responses from the officers and soldiers.

respond.

"Can a crying child be fed milk?" Shi Yuanping was stunned for a moment, and seemed to understand the meaning of this sentence, "Since Qi State will not give us the entire Luzon Island, it must give us some other benefits to properly comfort and compensate.

After all, as the boss, you can’t wrong your younger brother like this!”

In the entire Luzon Islands, except for Mindanao, which has not yet been captured by the Qi, Wei, and Zheng families due to the existence of several powerful kingdoms, basically all the islands with a larger area have been divided up by the three families.

The Zheng family occupies the central and northern areas of Luzon Island, which can be regarded as the essence of Luzon.

Yizhou occupies southern Luzon, Longshan Island (today's Samar Island, the third largest island in Luzon), Jiyang Island (today's Leyte Island), and the affiliated small islands surrounding the above-mentioned large islands.

The Luzon Archdiocese of Qi occupied Luzhong Island (today’s Cebu Island), Rotian Island (today’s Bohol Island), Yongnian Island (today’s Negros Island), Pingyang Island (today’s Panay Island), and Fushan Island.

(Today's Mindoro Island), Sands Island (Masbate Island)

If you add many other islands such as the Hengshan Islands (today's Batam Islands) in the north of Luzon Island, Yongji Island (today's Palawan Island) that was taken from the Sultanate of Brunei, and the iron-clad vassal Kingdom of Sulu, a faint formation will be formed.

A circular siege of the Zheng family and the Wei state.

Among these three forces, the Zheng family has the largest population, with more than 400,000 people, followed by Weiguo, with nearly 300,000 people. Qi State's Luzon District has a population of only 60,000 despite occupying countless islands.

Most of them are concentrated on Luzhong Island, Pingyang Island and Yongnian Island. As for the other islands, they just planted a Qi flag and set up one or two settlements along the coast to declare their sovereignty.

Since the Luzon territory of the Zheng family could not be seized, and the islands occupied by the Qi State were even more afraid to get involved, then Mindanao, which was still in a state of chaos and had not yet been divided, became the expansion target of the Wei State.

Ever since Weiguo discovered several gold mines in the mountainous area more than 100 kilometers northeast of Yizhou eight years ago, he immediately transformed into a small local tycoon. For this purpose, Weiguo recruited tens of thousands of natives to carry out large-scale mining.

With abundant gold and silver, Weiguo not only successively purchased more than ten decommissioned warships from Qi and established a full firearms force of 1,800 people, but also rapidly expanded immigration from the Ming Dynasty through human trafficking.

Scale. In less than a few years, the domestic population increased from less than 200,000 to 300,000.

With money, people, and strong military force, the Weiguo people had the desire to expand their territory. If they did not take advantage of the strong enterprising spirit they had at the beginning of the founding of the country and the support of many parties from Qi State, they would expand more

For some territories, if the descendants are weak and incompetent and want to waste the family in the future, at least the capital in their hands will be thicker.

Of course, the ambitions of many Weiguo rulers, including Weiguo Gong Cheng Guangyin, were limited to expanding some territories, and they did not dare to have any thoughts of challenging Qi's regional hegemony. Not to mention Qi's powerful navy in the region.

Strength, that is, the absolute economic control they have in Luzon, also makes Weiguo fully dependent on Qi in politics and military. The domestic economy and foreign trade are also controlled by several large business houses in Qi.

There are a large amount of natural abaca, dipterocarp, ebony, sandalwood and precious wood resources in Weiguo. The coastal aquatic resources are even richer. Coupled with the vast fertile farmland covered by volcanic ash, Weiguo has more than 300,000 people.

, life passed by

It is richer and more comfortable than the Ming Dynasty. Of course, this kind of good life is only limited to the citizens, who are mainly Han people. Those stupid and lazy natives, under the supervision of Weiguo's swords, guns and whips, have been reduced to numerous plantations.

Slaves in gardens and mines.

That's right, just like the Qi State, those Luzon natives are not considered formal subjects of the Wei Kingdom, and because they massacred the Luzon Ming people more than 20 years ago at the instigation of the Spaniards. Therefore, all those who were conquered and plundered

All Luzon natives were officially demoted as slaves, and they had to spend their entire lives working for the development and construction of the country. Of course, some young native women's status and treatment would be slightly improved after they were allowed to immigrate.

The Wei Kingdom wanted to enlist the Qi Kingdom to attack and plunder the several kingdoms of the True God Sultans on Mindanao. In addition to expanding their territory, they also wanted to plunder more slaves to increase the labor force in the country and increase the development of the territory.

—————————

June 25, Fort Runing, Luzhong Island (now Cebu City, Philippines).

"On April 15th, Li Dingguo, the king of Gan in the Ming Dynasty and the commander-in-chief of the East Route Army, abandoned all logistics and baggage, led more than 8,000 light troops to gallop for several days and nights, and suddenly reached Jining, where he defeated the Qing captives and captured and killed 12,000 Qing troops.

Afterwards, the Qing army was defeated and retreated to Jinan, and the siege of Jining, which lasted for several months, was finally lifted."

"On May 2, our Qi army united with Yunzhou Town and set up an ambush in Changli. They killed more than 3,000 Qingqi Eight Banners cavalry. The rest collapsed to Zunhua Prefecture and no longer had the strength to fight."

"On May 12, local officials in Denglai and the garrisoned green camp of the Qing Dynasty collectively cut their hair and changed their banners, announcing that they would rebel against the Qing Dynasty and return to the Ming Dynasty. On May 20, more than 5,000 troops of the Ming Army, with the cooperation of the Yizhou Navy, attacked Penglai

The landing in Hong Kong, together with the main force of the Ming army that gradually gathered in Jining, formed a pincer attack on the Qing army in Shandong."

"On May 14, Wang Ziqi, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Army's West Route Army, sent out a branch to attack Wuguan and entered Guanzhong from the southeast. The Qing Qinling defense line immediately collapsed. More than 40,000 Ming troops crossed the Qinling Mountains and advanced deep into Guanzhong. The Qing army was forced to

Retreat to Lantian and Xianyang lines and resist step by step."

"On May 22, more than 3,000 troops from Yunzhou Town landed in Jinzhou on the Liaodong Peninsula and slowly attacked northward."

"..."

Lu Shangping, the general manager of Qi State's Luzon Region, put down the intelligence briefing from the Ming Dynasty, then picked up the tea cup on the table, blew the tea powder on the rim of the cup, and took a comfortable sip.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see the situation on this continent. The countdown to the defeat of the Qing Dynasty has entered. As long as the Ming army does not make any low-level mistakes in the subsequent battlefields, relying on its strong logistics and fighting steadily, coupled with our Qi State and Yun

With more than 10,000 troops in the prefecture and town attacking the rear, it would be difficult for the Qing captives to continue to support them.

If the Qing rebels know the opportunity and resolutely abandon Hebei and Beijing and Tianjin, then quickly assemble their troops, open up the Liaoxi Corridor, and recapture Shanhaiguan, they may be able to safely retreat into Liaodong before winter. In this way, they can return to the situation before the Qing rebels entered the customs.

Situation, confrontation with the Ming army in western Liaoning.

However, if the Qing captives struggle desperately and insist on fighting the Ming army in Hebei, the capital and other places, then they are likely to lose sight of one thing and the other under the joint attack of all forces, and may eventually be annihilated in the pass. Then, no matter what happens in the future,

Liaodong or Monan, after losing the main force of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia, will be easy-hanging fruit for the Ming army in the future.

"The Ming Dynasty is about to be unified, and we, the Qi State, need to make early preparations." Lu Shangping ordered people to summon several officials from the General Administration Office to start arranging the work arrangements for the next few months.

Far Island (today's New Guinea), far away from Borneo, will face the most rare development opportunity, both in terms of strategic positioning and the development of its own strength."

"In addition, this war between the Ming and Qing Dynasties will inevitably cause millions of refugees in the northern part of the mainland. This is both an opportunity and a risk for us in Qi. If nothing happens, in the next six months

In time, our Qi country will usher in an unprecedented wave of immigrants. Under this situation, our Luzon Region will inevitably be given more obligations and responsibilities by the local government, among which the most critical and important matters are

, that is to provide the food needed by countless immigrants, and it is...a large amount of food!"

"General manager, half a month ago, our Luzon area just experienced a typhoon. Strong winds were accompanied by heavy rainfall, and the farmland was also flooded. It is estimated that the summer rice harvest may be reduced by more than 30%. In this case

I'm afraid we won't be able to store too much food." Hu Yanrong, the magistrate of Runing County, said with a sad face.

As we all know, the growth cycle and yield of food crops are closely related to the light, heat, water and other conditions of the surrounding environment, of which light and heat are the most important factors. Water sources can be allocated through human wisdom and diligence, but light and heat directly

It has to do with the climate and is almost impossible to prepare.

Rice production can only be done once a year in temperate regions, but in the subtropics where light and heat conditions are more abundant, it can be done twice a year. In the tropics, rice can even be harvested three times a year. If the water in the tropics is

Rich in resources, it has great advantages for growing food crops.

The entire Luzon Islands has a typical tropical maritime monsoon climate, with sufficient light and heat, and abundant water. In addition, many islands are covered with a layer of volcanic ash and the soil is fertile, making it a zone with extremely superior agricultural production conditions.

However, the Luzon Islands are also a typhoon-prone area. More than 20 large and small typhoons land in the Luzon Islands every year. Typhoons bring a lot of precipitation to Luzon and are accompanied by strong winds. Therefore, food crops are also subject to disasters such as floods and mudslides.

The impact has resulted in large-scale grain production reductions of varying degrees.

Last month, a huge typhoon passed through the Luzon Islands. Strong winds and heavy rains ravaged Luzhong Island, Yongnian Island and other major populated islands, causing heavy damage to the agricultural production of the Luzon General District. Rice is still in the filling stage.

, a large area of ​​land collapsed, and water accumulated in the farmland. Although farmers rescued themselves after the disaster, the losses were still relatively heavy.

"I don't want to hear what difficulties you are talking about now." Lu Shangping glanced at the officials sitting here and said seriously: "Since you have been appointed as local people-friendly officials, in addition to protecting the environment and the people, you should also have the important responsibility of developing people's livelihood.

To relieve the country from crisis and deal with emergencies and major emergencies. The passing of typhoons has damaged agriculture, and the summer rice production has already been reduced. But what happens next?

In addition to completing the original cultivated land on time and maintaining quality, the autumn rice sown needs to be expanded accordingly. In addition, crops with huge yields such as potatoes and sweet potatoes can also be planted in fields, hillsides, valleys and other places that do not occupy much space.

In short, in the next six months, our Luzon Archdiocese must prepare food reserves for no less than 50,000 people for three to four months."

"...Yes, Chief Manager." Several officials promised with embarrassment.

"Several temporary immigration camps need to be expanded on the existing basis, and settlements in various counties under its jurisdiction must also be prepared to receive a large number of immigrants."

"Yes, Chief Steward."

"Wang Bingbei, after the summer rice harvest was completed, mobilized and assembled rural soldiers from all over the country to carry out a large-scale clearing of the native tribes in some inland areas. First, to open up more new settlements for the newly arrived immigrants; second,

Or, bring back some local coolies as captives to fill the labor needs of various places."

"Yes, General Manager!" Wang Rongxin, the commander-in-chief of Luzon Military District, bowed and said in agreement.
Chapter completed!