746 [One of the evolutionary history of the island owner]
There are a total of 18 races in the entire island of Madagascar, and each race has obvious differences.
For example, the tribes on the east coast have obviously black features in their faces and facial features, but their skin color is more like that of yellow people, and some settlements also have Arab features. Their most formal clothing is directly Arab robes, and they even have clothing from
The existence of circumcision in Green religion.
The area where Deng Youzhang and others are located belongs to the territory of the Sakalawa people.
The Sakalava race does not have the largest population, but its land accounts for one-third of the island's area.
Decades ago, the Sakalawa people established a country in the southwest called the Kingdom of Malagasy. However, this country has collapsed and split into two major alliances. Under the two major forces, there are many small tribes.
After living on this island for two months, everyone felt that there was no hope of returning to the country, and one after another they married local indigenous women.
They dragged three artillery pieces from the ship, all of which were of the smallest caliber. The larger caliber ones could not be moved at all and could only be left on the beach to dry in the wind and sun.
The owner of the incense, Li Luosheng, became a busy man. He moved the Mazu shrine to the village, and all those who got married came to him to perform the ceremony. Those brown-skinned indigenous women followed the heaven and earth in a daze. They only knew that they were getting married, but they did not know that they were going to marry.
The meaning of worship.
After another three months of this, the two parties continued to communicate and integrate, and learned some daily expressions from each other, but they still didn't know how to express more complex content.
One day, the surviving indigenous man came to Deng Youzhang to talk to him.
The young man's name is Kaluo, he is about 1.6 meters tall: "Deng, let's go"
"Where to go?" Deng Youzhang asked.
Kaluo pointed to Deng Youzhang's house. He entered the house and picked up something and then put it down. He picked up another thing and put it down again: "Take it, let's go!"
Seeing that Deng Youzhang still didn't understand, Kaluo became more and more anxious, pointed in the distance and said: "Let's go over there."
Deng Youzhang stepped in that direction, but Kaluo held him back. He went back to the house, picked up the things, and said, "Take, go, over there."
It is impossible to explain clearly. Whether using Chinese or the local dialect, we cannot communicate this important information - migration!
The terrain here is a plateau, and above the plateau, there are many plains, hills and river valleys. The indigenous people are semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural, and they only live in one place for one or two years.
They would move to a fertile river valley, burn the wasteland for farming, and then take their cattle and sheep to graze in nearby grasslands. After one or two or three years, the soil fertility would no longer be enough, and they would need to go to the next valley to burn wasteland.
The natives packed their things and prepared for a migration.
When the wife wants to move for no apparent reason, Chinese husbands certainly refuse to do so, and almost every household is quarreling in confusion.
There are only about 20 surviving adult male natives. They cannot survive the Chinese men. The Chinese are already in charge of this tribe.
A navy soldier from Guangdong grabbed the soil from the field and went to Deng Youzhang and said: "The locals don't know how to accumulate fertilizer, and the soil is not as fertile as each year. This is similar to Guoshan Yao in Guangdong. They change places every two or three years and then start again."
Burning wasteland for farming. They need to be taught how to accumulate fertilizer, and the soil must be leveled. What does it look like if there are rocks everywhere in the field?"
"I understand." Deng Youzhang nodded and said.
On the bigger island of Madagascar, some tribes have built terraced fields, while others are still cultivating slash-and-burn farming.
This river valley seemed to Deng Youzhang to be quite good, but he still had to work hard to open up wasteland after the migration.
He called all the Chinese people together, and after assigning tasks, they went home and brought out their wives. Some people not only married wives, but even had children with them.
The Chinese took the lead in clearing the stones in the fields, and the natives followed suit. In fact, they had been clearing the fields for a long time, but there was no such large-scale collective work. Even the cow and sheep excrement in the grassland was gradually removed.
Pick it up and pile it up.
Large and small gravels were picked up from the fields and piled up in the village.
These gravel blocks can be used to build walls.
The messy land was tidied up piece by piece, and Deng Youzhang even redistributed the land. After tidying up the land, he spread the dried manure on the land to increase fertility, and mixed it with a lot of plant ash.
After struggling like this for more than a month, they organized again to dig a diversion canal.
The amount of work is not large, mainly because the indigenous people don't know how to do it. They don't even have wooden barrels to carry water. They rely on clay pots to carry water. The rice is also grown in upland rice, and the yield of rice is much lower than that of rice.
In fact, it is not suitable for growing rice here because the annual rainfall is relatively low.
The further north you go, the worse it gets. The perfect savanna climate and environment force the natives to nomadic herders.
However, Deng Youzhang and others are lucky. This is the junction zone between savanna climate and tropical plateau climate. The reason why the Sakalawa people established their country in the south is because the farther south they are, the more suitable it is for settlement and farming. And the most suitable place for farming is the middle of the island.
In the plateau area, there was the Kingdom of Merina, which later ruled the entire island.
In the first year after arriving in Madagascar, I was basically engaged in infrastructure construction.
The land in the river valley was leveled and fertilized for cultivation. Two aqueducts were built, dry fields were transformed into paddy fields, and even the rice seeds were changed. A few rice that had not been soaked in seawater were moved here for breeding.
No more using indigenous garbage rice seeds.
The Chinese people were surprised to find that there is no cold winter here. As long as the rivers do not dry up, they can continue to grow rice and achieve two to three crops a year.
There are also educated people on board who have graduated from elementary school and have been recording the dates.
But the Chinese calendar doesn’t work here. It’s the New Year and the weather is still not cold. Of course, it’s not very hot either, with temperatures ranging from 14 to 32 degrees throughout the year.
They also found that there is an obvious rainy season here. The rainy season lasts for four months, the rainfall increases significantly, and it does not rain all day long. Not only does it not affect agricultural production, it is conducive to food irrigation.
The local aborigines plant rice during the rainy season. They do not breed or transplant rice, they sow the rice seeds and wait for the rain to grow. The rice can be harvested at the end of the rainy season.
As for the months when there is less rain, the indigenous people do not plant rice and plant crops such as cassava instead, wasting two-thirds of their time.
The years on the island are fleeting, and a year passes quickly.
No one had any hope of returning to their country, so they all married local women. Those who thought they had good physical strength and the ability to support their families even married two wives and raised the children brought by their wives. Even those Persian slaves
, was also assigned a wife.
"Today is the one year since we came to the island!"
Deng Youzhang called all the members for a meeting, and the natives also came to join in the fun and looked at them happily.
Deng Youzhang said: "Some people make their wives pregnant, and they will give birth in two months. Don't laugh! It is natural to marry a wife and have children. Here, there are 182 men and 182 women over the age of twelve.
247. There is no circle without rules, but before you can follow the rules, you must arrange your status. Thanks to the love of all brothers, I, Deng, proclaimed myself the governor, in charge of all matters here."
"I will appoint Brother He Wenpeng as the commander-in-chief here, responsible for training and commanding the army. I will appoint Brother Li Luosheng as the chief steward here. Our village will be officially named Datong Village, and from now on it will be called Datong City!"
"Taxes will be collected after the establishment, and grain will be collected according to the size of the field. As for cattle and sheep, they will be collected according to the number of livestock. The tax collected is not mine, nor does it belong to any official. We build warehouses, and we will fight in the future.
Water conservancy projects or disaster relief are all paid out of the warehouse! Everyone keeps an eye on it, and anyone who dares to embezzle public food will be thrown into the sea to feed the fish."
After his speech, everyone clapped and cheered, mainly because the rice had just been harvested and the food was very abundant.
The indigenous people were also completely convinced. Although they did not understand the behavior of outsiders, their food production was indeed increasing. They regarded outsiders as sent by gods, and even actively learned to speak Chinese, thinking that Chinese was a language of gods.
Next came the celebrations, first worshiping Mazu, and then heading east to worship the emperor.
The indigenous people already know that Mazu is a great god and the emperor is the son of the sky.
After working hard until evening, everyone went home to rest.
Deng Youzhang married two wives. One was in her twenties and had two cheap children. She was now four months pregnant. The other was in her teens and was the daughter of a dead patriarch. Apart from her darker complexion, she was also considered a beauty.
Anyway, there are many women but few men. As long as the woman agrees, she can take any concubine.
The task of men, apart from working and training, is to quickly create humans. Their number is too small, so they have to give birth to more offspring in order to develop and grow here.
A few days later, the expedition team returned.
Captain Guo Tong said: "Going north, about twelve days' journey, there is an indigenous tribe there. We inspected it last year and found no human habitation. They must have migrated here in the past six months. Their farming is very poor, but the number of cattle and sheep
There are many, large areas of cattle and sheep on the grassland.”
"Do you have any horses?" Deng Youzhang asked.
Guo Tong shook his head: "There are no horses, only cattle and sheep. This tribe is very aggressive. When they see us, they will charge with spears. I was afraid of an accident, so I brought people back. By the way, I also secretly observed this
There are slaves in the tribe. Whether it is herding or farming, many slaves are used."
"Herding, slave-keeping, and migration are similar to the Mongols, but they don't have war horses," Deng Youzhang said. "This kind of tribe cannot be allowed to develop and grow. They have to lead troops to fight. Their slaves must be rescued and reorganized.
Every household is a common people. We can rob some women and children and this will increase our population."
Deng Youzhang was very adaptable and had completely changed his thinking. Many of the rules of the Datong Army could no longer be used.
The entire island of Madagascar is in primitive society and slave society. The more powerful the tribe or country is, the more slaves it has.
For example, the Kingdom of Merina in the central plateau is currently the most powerful force on the island. It adopts a three-level social structure of nobles, commoners, and slaves.
Deng Youzhang did not intend to keep slaves, but plundering the population was necessary. Especially in the northern grassland area, where you could not grow much food, the tribes there would invade instead. Then take the initiative to go out, reduce the enemy's population, and increase your own.
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On the 382nd day after arriving in Madagascar, Deng Youzhang led an army of 100 troops to set off, taking the first step in their expansion.
