Dong Liang was not joking when he said he wanted to capture Luzon. The Cagayan River Basin in northern Luzon Island is an important farming area.

This time it was the Ilok people who took the initiative to provoke the Chinese, and the Ilok people's home base was in the Cagayan River Basin. Regardless of whether the Spaniards would object, Dong Liang would take revenge on these people.

The mountain of Manchus and Qing dynasties must be torn down, and so is the mountain of foreigners. Instead of waiting for the other party, it is better to take the initiative and test them.

Although the Chinese were still very weak, they could not stop Dong Liang's ambition to conquer the ocean.

In his plan, the first step for the Chinese navy is to control the East China Sea. This goal has now been achieved. The next step is to expand the navy's power to the South China Sea. The third step is to expand to the east and the Pacific Ocean to penetrate the power into the Americas.

area.

In Dong Liang's opinion, it is better to stay in the Pacific Ocean than to compete with the Westerners in the Indian Ocean. The west coast of America has not yet been fully developed, including Oceania, which is a sparsely populated place. When these lands are in the hands of the Chinese, not only can they

Used to alleviate the conflict between the Chinese population and land.

Of course, some people think that all efforts should be made to deal with the Manchus. Wouldn't it be putting the cart before the horse to provoke foreigners at this time?

These people don't even think about it. If you want to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty with peace of mind, can those foreigners agree? Just like the uprising of the Little Knife Society in history, wouldn't the foreigners personally intervene?

In the later stages of the Taiping Army, they were also jointly suppressed by foreigners and the Qing Dynasty. Not to mention selling weapons to the Hunan Army and the Huai Army, they even directly sent gunboats into the Yangtze River to support the Qing Army. There was also the foreign gun team. There was no operation behind the scenes by the foreigners.

How could it be established?

Just as they did two hundred years later in various parts of the world, armed intervention has always been the first choice of these Westerners.

They just advocate the simple and direct method of using force. Of course, this does not prevent them from continuing to talk about benevolence, justice and morality.

Dong Liang still had many things to deal with, so he finalized the details of the Minhua Company with the big guys in Fujian in a cubicle on the third floor of Wanghai Building.

This company was essentially modeled after the East India Company. The Chinese government invested five million Chinese dollars as the controlling shareholder, and the remaining 49% of the shares were divided among other owners.

In the end, more than 20 million Chinese yuan was raised, which means that the Chinese government actually took part of the shares. However, these businessmen did not feel that they were at a disadvantage. They thought it was natural. After all, this was an armed company.

Dong Liang made such a move and established the Minhua Company because the character of the Chinese people had already been set. If many things were done in the name of the country, it would affect the honor of the Chinese people in the future.

Just like the British in later generations blamed the East India Company for the sins of colonization, in fact, this company was originally integrated with the British government.

Pang Jiasi was the most ruthless. He spent all his belongings at a price of two million yuan to control 7% of the shares of Minhua Company, becoming the second largest shareholder, even surpassing shopkeeper Mo.

Although Shopkeeper Mo is richer, he is not prepared to put his eggs in one basket.

It's better to choose the right date than to hit it. The first major shareholder meeting was held on the spot, and Pang Jiasi became the company's first boss, equivalent to the general manager.

The company has its own articles of association and has a strict internal hierarchy. The major shareholders have the decision-making power on major matters of the company. The chief shopkeeper is responsible for daily affairs. There are shopkeepers at all levels below, who are equivalent to branch managers.

In addition, there are managers at all levels who are responsible for line work.

Some of the company's personnel are recruited from the public, while others are drawn from various commercial firms.

Because some people priced their assets into shares, they were able to start business as soon as the company was set up.

Dong Liang gave Pang Jiasi one month to prepare, including establishing the company's headquarters on Xiamen Island and recruiting company staff.

He himself threw himself into intense work. The work in Fujian was very complicated, which was very different from Dongfan Island. Although Dongfan Island was not small, it had a small population. Apart from Fanren affairs,

Other than that, everything else is relatively easy to deal with.

Working groups were dispatched to the local areas one after another. Dong Liang personally visited almost every working group and gave them numerous instructions and instructions.

Dong Liang fully demonstrated his importance in this way. After these people go down, they will be able to work more attentively.

The first business he prepared for Minhua Company was relatively simple, which was to develop the Batan Islands and Babuyan Islands in northern Luzon.

This is originally part of Dongfan Island. The Ibatan people living on the island speak the same language as the Tawu people on Orchid Island of Dongfan Island, and they are originally the same tribe.

Dong Liang asked Kang Laoba to lead his troops south. The attack on the south was a little later than the Battle of Fujian. At this time, there should have been news.

This archipelago does not have high economic value, but the island's flat terrain is suitable for being developed into sugar cane plantations.

The Chinese now have a huge demand for sugar, either to meet export needs or because the huge local market cannot fill it.

When food resources are scarce, sugar can also be an important source of energy for ordinary people.

…

…

The Chinese official name for the Batan Islands is Hou Xian Islands. Hou Xian was the third-ranking figure in Zheng He's fleet and was also an eunuch. He had made many missions to the Western Regions, and was the second and third-ranked member of Zheng He's fleet.

During the first voyage to the Western Ocean, he became an important leader of the fleet.

It is said that Hou Xian once led a fleet to survey the Bashi Channel.

Therefore, under Dong Liang's suggestion, the Batan Islands were marked on the Chinese charts as the Hou Xian Islands, and the Bashi Strait was changed to the Hou Xian Strait.

The center of the Hou Xian Islands is not on the largest island in the north, but on the second largest island, because there is a natural bay here.

The bay is not large and can only accommodate seven or eight medium-sized ships. The island's terrain is flat.

The bay is in the southwest of the island, with white sandy beaches on both sides, and the scenery is very beautiful.

It was at this port that the reconnaissance ship of the southward column discovered the Ilok people's fleet. These Ilok people used this place as a temporary stronghold. They established sugar cane plantations on the island and used it to feed the sugarcane they bought from Dongfan Island.

people, as well as the local Ibatans, worked as slave labor on the plantations.

The southbound detachment captured this place as planned and used it as a transit base.

The rocket boats in the formation were the first to enter the harbor and wipe out the opponent's fleet. In any case, we should surround these people on the island first.

Immediately afterwards, the gunboats attacked several watchtowers built by the Ilok people in the bay, and those Ilok people who were preparing to block the landing of the convoy on the beach were driven away.

These Luzon people were very fierce to the Dongfan natives, but meeting the escort was like a mouse meeting a cat.

Saigo Takamori led the Fuso Brigade to land first. The weapons they held were basically samurai swords, shields, and crossbows. They formed small battle formations and advanced towards the interior of the island.

These Ilok people also wanted to rely on the jungle on the island to resist, but this time they made the wrong calculation.

This Fuso brigade is not afraid of death. They are short in stature and can move very flexibly and concealedly in the jungle.

Xixiang Longsheng is also a very smart man. He created a small formation specifically for the indigenous people, which is somewhat similar to the Yuanyang formation of Qi Jiajun. Hundreds of years ago, a group of Japanese pirates who wandered to the southeast coast used to eat in this small formation.

After all the suffering.

Dong Xingfu recovered a stone city, or a village composed of stone houses, near the bay. This was the settlement area of ​​the Ibatan people on the island.

They built stone houses using volcanic rocks. The walls of this house are nearly one meter thick and the roofs are covered with ceramic tiles. Han people have visited the island for a long time and taught them the skills of making pottery.
Chapter completed!