Chapter 527: Chinese Workers Collecting Medicinal Materials
Jiang Asheng couldn't help but shout out "Ghost", which was extremely unlucky.
First, he was punched in the stomach by Wen Dai, and his nose and tears flowed from the pain, and he couldn't even breathe. Then his hands were pinned behind his back by Rapini, and his thumbs were tied with a black strap.
, unable to move. Wen Dai stuffed the towel around his neck into his mouth, almost suffocating Jiang Asheng to death.
Out of confusion after being attacked, Jiang Asheng's first reaction was that the attacker was a student from the Crow Department. However, he forgot, how could the student speak Mandarin to him? When he was brought to a man whose face was also painted black,
When the person from the green group asked him a question in a slightly unfamiliar Minnan dialect, he finally realized that these people were not monsters, but human beings.
"What do you do? Who are you?"
The thumbs of both hands were locked tightly, which made Jiang Asheng very uncomfortable. When the cloth in his mouth was taken out, Jiang Asheng, who was sweating profusely, kept panting and took a big breath. Taking advantage of this time, he looked through the corners of his eyes.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed that there were at least dozens of people around him, all wearing similar clothes, and everyone had a red cloth belt tied around their left arm.
This situation made him more and more frightened, thinking that he had encountered a murderous robber?
"Hero, spare your life! I'm a villain. I'm a sugar cane farmer. My hometown is Fotanqiao, Zhangpu."
"Growing sugar cane? Why are you here if you don't work hard so early in the morning? Huh?! If you're not honest, I'll kill you!"
"The villain's fellow countryman got seriously ill the day before yesterday. He has no money for treatment. The villain came out to pick some herbs for him. Please spare his life, hero!"
"Do you still know medical skills?"
Seeing Wang Yuanfang's kind tone, Jiang Asheng's tone became smoother and he replied: "My family used to open a pharmacy in Zhangpu."
"What medicine to pick?"
"Heavenly fruit and Sambung nyawa. These two things are hard to find. If they are not small, they will not go so far."
"Sambung nyawa?"
Jiang Asheng, who was kneeling on the ground, gestured to the plant with green leaves and dots of white flowers in his basket and said, "This is it. The local farmers use this as an herb for bone setting, but I heard that it can also be used to remove poison."
Wang Yuanfang used his dagger to pluck at the herb basket on the ground a few times. He used his gloved hand to take out a gray-brown nut with a wide base and a very strange shape and said, "What is this?"
Jiang Asheng said hurriedly: "This is Xiangtian Fruit. It is mainly used to relieve fever and astringent. It takes more than ten years to bear fruit."
"Haha, it sounds like ginseng fruit." Wang Yuanfang grinned and asked the soldiers on the side to untie Jiang Asheng.
"Let me ask you, do you know how to get to the Dutch castle twenty miles east of Batavia?"
"I know. That place is called Dingjia Castle. The sugar cane garden where the villain is located is only more than five miles away. But it takes at least five hours to walk from here." In fact, the castle is called Dinglan Castle, and the local
The Chinese found it difficult to pronounce, so they called it "Dingjiabao".
"How many Dutch soldiers are there?"
"It seems, there seem to be hundreds of people. I heard it from the foreman, but I have never seen it with my own eyes." Jiang Asheng was surprised and thought, are these people going to attack the Dutch castle? Uncle Tian, who are these people?
ah!
He hesitated and said, "Hero, there are cannons on that wall. Every month when the Dutch test-fire the cannons, the sound sounds like thunder."
"Five hours..." Wang Yuanfang pondered for a moment, stood up and took out a handful of shiny Beihai Town silver coins from his coat pocket. He said without even counting them: "You lead us there, these silver coins
It’s all yours.”
Jiang Asheng's pupils shrank sharply, and his breathing became more rapid. He looked up at Wang Yuanfang, and when he saw the other person motioning for him to take it, he carefully reached out and took a piece, first bit it with his teeth, and then looked at the light to see the bite marks.
, and then a look of ecstasy appeared on his face. Then he said to Wang Yuanfang embarrassedly: "It makes the good man laugh. I have been in Bacheng for two years and I haven't seen any money yet."
Wang Yuanfang smiled nonchalantly, and then with a backhand, he put all the silver coins into the opponent's hand. Jiang Asheng trembled all over as he held a handful of silver coins.
During the rest time on the march, Wang Yuanfang learned through chatting with Jiang Asheng that in a place like Batavia, many low-level Chinese workers like him would not see any money after working for several years, let alone two years.
"Then what do you usually do when you need to spend money?"
"What a good man, I don't know. What our boss gives us on weekdays is lead money. If we want to get money, we have to wait until the contract expires and we can't settle the money according to the accounts."
"Lead money?"
After Jiang Asheng's explanation, Wang Yuanfang learned that a special currency system was implemented in the local sugar cane plantations.
At the end of each day's work, the indigenous and Chinese workers would receive a locally produced lead coin as payment for the day's labor. The lead coin was about the same size as a copper coin, but it could only be circulated within the plantation and was only used within the plantation.
Accepted by grocery stores, workers could take these lead coins to the stores to buy opium and other daily necessities.
Every other day, the workers had to hand over the remaining lead coins to the finance deputy who managed the plantation's accounts, and then recycle them. The finance deputy would register the amount handed over by each person and record it in the laborer's account.
The worker himself will also keep a copy of the accounting account, stamped with the financial deputy's confirmation stamp. If the worker's copy is lost, a new one can be obtained based on the financial deputy's record.
When the laborers' contracts expired and they planned to leave the plantation, he could use this record to exchange for settlement in silver coins.
Jiang Asheng signed a three-year contract with a proprietor named Chen. The annual salary is twenty Dutch guilders, which is 17 taels of silver. Half of it will be withheld for daily meals and daily necessities. In addition,
They had to repay the twenty silver dollars they had borrowed for the shipping fee. As a result, the Chinese workers had very little money left. Not to mention looking for women, they could not even afford to get sick.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Fortunately, Jiang Asheng's family used to open a medicine shop, and he knew some knowledge about herbal medicine, so he earned a few dollars by treating people's diseases as a three-legged cat. Every day
It doesn't take many times, 5 to 10 lead coins are much cheaper than the doctor hired by the plantation, but he has to find a way to get the herbs by himself.
"What diseases do Chinese workers generally suffer from?"
"Trouble, typhoid fever, snake and insect bites, that's all. No matter how difficult the villain is, there is nothing he can do." Jiang Asheng picked up the compressed biscuit dregs that had fallen on his body and put them in his mouth, looking at Wang Yuanfang's hand.
The compressed biscuit that had not yet been finished said: "Hee hee, this place in Java is very plagued by miasma. Once infected, you will have to shed your skin even if you die."
Upon seeing this, Wang Yuanfang took out another compressed biscuit and handed it to Jiang Asheng. He suddenly remembered that Zhao Xin had mentioned opium before, so he casually asked: "Are there many opium smokers here?"
"Why not too much?" Jiang Asheng didn't notice Wang Yuanfang's eyes. He was focused on the biscuits. He used one hand to catch the biscuits and took a satisfied bite before saying: "Our boss, the deputy finance minister
I smoke a bag of it every day to cure all diseases! But opium is expensive locally, and a villain like me can’t make much money in a year, so how can I be willing to buy it?”
As mentioned before, the introduction of opium in the early Qing Dynasty was due to the pacification of the southeastern coast and the Chinese who had left their hometowns began to return to their hometowns. From this, the trend of opium consumption arose in Fujian and Guangdong.
Many people will be curious, whether it is Yunnan-Guizhou or Southeast Asia, why is there the habit of swallowing opium? Two words, miasma - that is, malaria.
In the early days, the south of the colorful clouds was by no means the direction of the heart. I would rather be a dead ghost in the Central Plains than a wandering ghost in the border areas, which refers to the horror of the southwest. In the early 17th century, when the Dutch entered Asia to colonize and even occupied Taiwan, they faced malaria.
When tropical diseases become a problem, opium is used to treat it. Because malaria is afraid of cold, and the body will be warm after smoking opium, there is a saying that opium can cure miasma. This is true in Yunnan, and even more so in tropical Southeast Asia.
Speaking of this operation of the special operations battalion, fortunately, we met Jiang Asheng, who was familiar with the terrain, otherwise he would not have been able to cover the dozens of miles in one day. But even so, Jiang Asheng had no problem drilling into the dense forest to find herbs, but the action of two hundred people was
This could not be done, so Wang Yuanfang could only ask his teams to take turns using machetes to clear the way.
The humidity in the tropical jungles of Java is astonishing. Walking in it is like walking in a steamer. Although there was a short-term adaptability training on Dajian Island, it was nothing short of purgatory for Solon Bing, who had been living in the northeast since childhood.
After walking for two hours, some people were almost driven crazy by the humidity and heat, and wished they could take off their clothes.
Before setting off, Wang Yuanfang gave everyone a death order. They must not take off their clothes, and they must tie up all the gaps in their clothes, otherwise poisonous insects will take advantage of them. But even so, those leeches will still get into the soldiers.
They greedily sucked blood from their clothes. Fortunately, the soldiers of the special operations battalion each brought two packets of salt before setting off, so it was easy to deal with the leeches. In addition, they could replenish the salt that was rapidly depleted in the body.
In this way, when Wang Yuanfang and the others arrived one kilometer away from Dinklan Fortress in the dark, there were already more than fifty soldiers who were unable to participate in the battle due to fainting due to damp heat and bites from poisonous insects. Even Wang Yuanfang himself was very tired.
light.
Although Java Island is much cooler at night than during the day, it is still unbearably hot for the Northern Navy, which is almost all northerners. In view of this, when Wang Yuanfang finally gets in touch with the Thor, he will launch an attack.
The time changes to dawn.
On the Thor, Deng Fei's negotiations with Batavia during the day were just a formality. In order to get information, he even kept the other party on the ship for a meal at noon.
When they learned that Jiang Fan was actually a civil servant, Kapitan Wang Zhusheng and his three Lei Zhenlan were extremely respectful and polite in their words. Jiang Fan also learned some information from Wang Zhusheng. Of course, these were all
I only said it with Jacob's permission.
According to Wang Zhusheng, the Dutch East India Company established two occupation systems in Java: company-administered colonies and vassal states.
The direct-administered areas account for three-fifths of the total area of Java and more than half of the total population. The company appointed the Dutch to control the highest power in the direct-administered areas, but retained the privileges of the feudal princes of the original Banten Kingdom and allowed them to continue to serve as
Officials of lower-level institutions.
The vassal states in Java include Banten, Cirebon, Solo, Yogyakarta and Manggunikalan. They are nominally ruled by the sultans of each state, but the judicial officers stationed by the company have great power and can even directly intervene.
Succession to the throne.
Based on preliminary information, Deng Fei felt that if Beihai Town wanted to occupy Batavia as a base, suppress the forces of the Dutch, Spanish and British, and achieve the purpose of controlling the Sunda Strait, it would need at least 10,000 people -
The army of four regiments and twelve motor-driven sailboats and gunboats similar to Beihai No. 1 and No. 2 form four fleets, which can only be dealt with militarily.
You must know that in addition to Batavia, the Dutch strongholds in Southeast Asia also include Sampo Long, Mataram, Banten, Pattani, Banda Islands, Ceylon, etc.
Economically, Deng Fei lacked understanding of the economic system established by the Dutch. He also only listened to a brief introduction to the Chinese plantation system by Wang Zhusheng and others, so he had no idea for the time being. He felt that instead of spending a long time to understand it by himself, it would be better to
After capturing Batavia, let people from the Ministry of Trade conduct an investigation.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, Deng Fei asked Jiang Fan to compile his opinions and ideas into a document and sent it to Beihai Town via telegram. An hour later, Wang Yuanfang also contacted him, and the two agreed to launch an attack on Dinklan Fortress.
The attack time was set at four o'clock in the morning, and the subsequent battle plan was finalized.
The purpose of attacking Fort Dinkelland was actually to set up a forward position east of Batavia. First, it was to attract the Dutch to come and die, and second, it was to correct the position of the Thor's artillery fire.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! At three o'clock in the morning, the sky was already a little bright, and thirty soldiers from the special warfare battalion of the Northern Navy swam across Fort Dinklan under the guidance of Jiang Asheng.
They entered the lakes and swamps on the east side and entered the grass three hundred meters away from the castle to stand by. More than 20 minutes later, when they heard two blowing noises from the walkie-talkie, six soldiers immediately squatted up from the grass and raised their hands.
Holding a rifle with a silencer, he pulled the trigger in the dim light of the morning light.
At this time, the sentries on the castle wall were at their worst. Bullets were whizzing in, and the heads of several sleepy defenders holding muskets instantly exploded with a cloud of blood mist. Before the Dutch had any chance,
In response, Wen Dai, Rapini and a dozen other soldiers had jumped up from the grass, holding the installed anchor hook launchers and running towards the castle wall. They crossed the wooden fence in the open space,
He took aim and pulled the trigger.
With a "boom" sound, the anchor hook painted black flew up into the air diagonally under the impact of the high-pressure air in the gun cylinder, and then hung on the inside of the castle wall. The tail end of the anchor hook was a
There was a 7 mm thick climbing rope. Wen Dai took the lead in climbing up the rope, while the other soldiers below were aiming their guns at the top of the city wall.
Since the "Red Creek Massacre", Batavia has not experienced war for many years. Although Governor Altin issued a warning order before, Fort Dinkelland only increased the number of people on duty because it is far away from Batavia.
The defenders inside focused their attention on the sea to the north, never expecting that anyone would launch an attack from the interior.
Although the sound of the anchor hook shooting and falling alarmed the people in the barracks, the Northern Navy, which had been prepared for a long time, moved faster. When a German mercenary from Württemberg walked out of the barracks sleepily to check, he had just climbed up the city.
Wen Dai, who was holding his head, immediately pulled the trigger continuously. The sound of the human body falling caused the two horses in the barn to become restless and neigh.
The groom who was awakened opened the door and was about to see what was going on. He inadvertently turned his head and saw a few guys with unclear faces suddenly appearing on the wall of the castle. Judging from the clothes of these people,
They were not our own soldiers at all. At this time, these people were holding musket-like things and hunched down the stone steps.
No! The groom was shocked and was about to retreat into the house when he saw a guy who looked like a devil from hell pointing the weapon in his hand at him. The groom's legs went weak and he fell down in front of the door.
Then I heard two "puff" sounds above my head.
He could no longer care about anything else and opened his mouth and shouted: "Here comes someone..." However, before he could finish his words, the next bullet arrived instantly, punching a bloody hole in the groom's forehead.
At this time, the defenders in the barracks were all awakened. They rolled under the bed one after another. Just as they were hesitating whether to rush out with weapons or stay in the room, the door of the room was kicked open with a "bang" from the outside, followed by a
A black pipe thicker than a musket barrel emerged from the door. Before the German soldiers could react, everything in the room began to boil and jump with the whistling bullets.
Sheets, blankets, pillows, human bodies, blood... In less than a minute, the barracks where twenty soldiers lived was already littered with corpses, and it was bloody and pungent.
At the same time, the same scene was played out in other rooms in the castle. However, when Wen Dai and others rushed into a room with relatively gorgeous decorations, they killed the German officer who was hiding behind the cabinet.