Chapter 728 New Life

Luzon has been formally incorporated into Chen Ming's territory, and now it is China's Luzon Province.

Just like Borneo, which is not far from it.

This is all natural and natural.

Today, the total population of Luzon [including Mindanao] has reached 4 million, and Chinese account for a large proportion of it. If mixed-race people with Chinese ancestry are included, this number has reached 35% of the total population of Luzon Province.

At least half of the millions of Chinese and mixed-race people with Chinese ancestry in their blood live in the former Manila area, which is now Hanzhou Prefecture.

The time when Chinese were active in Nanyang can be traced back to the Tang and Song dynasties, and it has a history of thousands of years. It reached a peak in the early Ming Dynasty, but the Chinese declined in Nanyang in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. This decline has continued to this day, and it has declined for two or three hundred years.

Chen Han's capture of Luzon has an indescribable significance for the survival and development of the Chinese in Southeast Asia, so after changing Manila's name twice, Chen Ming finally named Manila "Hanzhou".

The current situation of the Chinese in Luzon is the same as the situation in the entire Southeast Asia [excluding East India]. The specific details are still incomprehensible, but the existence of the Chinese, the Chinese's grouping and centralized resettlement, have crushed the population advantage of the local indigenous people in the region, and with the powerful national defense army and garrison troops, it has indeed made it much easier for the national defense army to establish its rule.

One by one, the Chinese gathering places and the cities that have sprung up have formed a large network, and they themselves are the nodes of the large network, and then heavily cover the entire Luzon.

The national defense army drove out the local whites, and large tracts of plantations and land were transferred to the hands of Chinese and Chinese businessmen by Chen Han at an absolutely low price. Chen Han used this transaction to obtain a large amount of money to subsidize military expenses and government expenditures, and also obtained more support from local Chinese, and introduced part of the funds in Lingnan into Southeast Asia.

However, the natives, who have an absolute advantage in population, are still a big trouble for Chen Han.

The "Sinicization" of Nanyang not only involves race, but also involves faith.

Moreover, after two or three hundred years of evolution of Westerners ruling the "world", the natives of Luzon and the natives of the entire Nanyang can shamelessly kneel down and lick the white pig skin, but they always hold a kind of hostility and resistance to the Chinese and China.

Think about the repeated anti-Chinese movements launched by the natives of Southeast Asian countries in later generations. If it were not really difficult to exterminate all the natives, and the time and consequences would be very serious, Chen Ming would have ordered the security team and the stand-up team to kill all the Nanyang monkeys.

The North American War is still fierce, and Chen Ming has not received any new intelligence. This month is the interruption period of communication between the East and the West. Then, if Chen Ming wants to draw this conclusion, he only needs to see the progress of the Indian War.

The British mobilized their Indians to go to the front in batches, and then Lieutenant General Al Cooley, who was strongly supported by Governor Warren Hastings, led his army to resist Hyder Ali's offensive in the northwest of Bengal. On the other hand, Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of British India, broke through the entanglement and obstruction of his colleagues and took the toughest measures to restore the reputation of the East India Company. He sent a powerful army from Bengal across Central India and successively captured Ahmedabad and Bassain of the Marathas. However, the British army suffered a defeat when attacking Pune, the political center of the Maratha Kingdom, and was forced to retreat. However, the British, who fought on multiple fronts, restored their supporters' trust in the Kingdom of Great Britain with their tough attitude. In order to maintain the huge military expenditure, Warren Hastings used tough measures to increase the tax amount in Bengal, draining the blood and sweat of the people, and shamelessly said to his colleagues: "Although there are deaths from hunger, taxes have still increased." He even plundered the Indian princes who were dependent on the British East India Company.

But at this time in Nanyang, a large number of Chinese immigrants were still migrating. The speed of population migration in Fujian and Guangxi did not slow down. There was no way, and the local governments were suppressing it.

Now the court pays attention to "per capita", per capita grain output, per capita total income, so local officials are no longer merciful to those poor people below the average line.

Among them, the number of Guangdong people was gradually surpassed by Fujian and Guangxi. There was no way. Although Guangxi was also poor, it had vast land and sparse population, unlike Fujian, where there was no land for farming.

Moreover, Fujian people had many fellow villagers and relatives in Nanyang, which comforted them psychologically. The attraction of poverty and land made them a group with strong initiative to migrate. Chinese people have no resistance to land, especially the poor. A large number of people below the "water level" chose to leave their hometowns and drift to Nanyang for a few acres of land.

On the 20th of the first month of the eighth year of Chengtian, it rained heavily.

The immigration ship has been gone for several days. Thousands of new Fujian immigrants are already busy. This place named Badao has an original name in the local dialect, called Palawan. Its area is not small, but few people live on this island. Even in Chen Ming's previous time and space, in the technologically advanced 21st century, this island was also known as the "Modern Garden of Eden", "the last pure land in the Philippines", "undeveloped virgin land", and "a paradise for wild animals and plants". It is conceivable how desolate this place is in this era.

There are many small islands around Ba Island. The Chinese immigrants who landed here mainly operated on the plains along the southeast coast. There were tens of thousands of Bata, Palawan and Tabanuas tribes living there. Now they have all been wiped out, leaving only a few remnants hiding in the complex mountain rainforests of Palawan.

This island is located between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The island is long and narrow, slanting from northeast to southwest. The area is one-third the size of a bay, but the widest part is only 80 miles, and the main mountain range is 900 miles long. Chen Ming did not know that this long and narrow island was originally a land bridge connecting Borneo during the Pleistocene (1.6 million to 10,000 years ago). Later, the sea water rose and submerged many places, leaving behind the scattered Ba Island archipelago. The flora and fauna on it are closer to those of Borneo, and different from other islands in the Philippines. Palawan's long and irregular coastline also has many coral reefs and countless offshore islands.

The arrival of the Chinese crushed the natives here. The natives and the Spaniards also built several small towns in the coastal areas, but now you can no longer see white people and native monkeys here, unless they are prisoners of labor reform.

Chinese immigrants poured in. Princess Port in the central and eastern part of Ba Island, which was originally a place where the Spaniards exiled criminals, has now become the capital of Bazhou Prefecture established by China. Due to natural geographical factors, the New Ba Port, renamed from Princess Port, has an excellent geographical location and there are quite a lot of ships coming and going.

Immigration ships visit here every now and then, bringing batches of immigrants to Ba Island.

The ship that Chen Ding took back to Nanjing docked at an unnamed port not far from the New Ba Port. This is a port that has just been restored, and the simple town on the shore is being rebuilt.

Now this port town, which has been renamed Buck Town, has thousands of immigrants from Fujian. The small docks and repair shops that were abandoned due to the expulsion of the Spaniards have reopened and are expanding. The port's 'facade' has been changed. Chinese immigrants who are not used to European-style buildings and styles are actively using their craftsmanship and imagination to adjust the appearance to the oriental style they are accustomed to without destroying the overall solidity of the house.

And now is the dry season in the Luzon Islands, which is the most important time for immigrants to be busy after landing.

Every day, there are hardworking figures reclaiming land, repairing houses, fishing and catching shrimps. Everyone of them is busy, even women and children are contributing their own strength to the new life.

In addition to the port expansion and lighthouse construction that cannot be stopped, timber mills and brick kiln factories outside the town have also sprung up. There is no shortage of limestone here, but the method of making earth cement is still confidential. The latter cannot be set up in a small town with only a thousand people. It needs to be transported from outside, so the expansion of the dock warehouse cannot be stopped.

Although it is the dry season now, who knows when a heavy rain will come again.

After a short period of recuperation, these immigrants from Fujian have now been organized to do some labor within their capacity. They work at construction sites during the day and go to night school at night to be taught some Mandarin pronunciation. In all immigrant places, the Chinese language promoted will be the Chenhan version of Mandarin based on Mandarin pronunciation. Nanjing Mandarin is awesome!

And those Minnan dialects, Hakka dialects, Cantonese, etc. can all be washed and rested. The content is mainly health knowledge, tropical life precautions, and government laws.

Such collective learning life may accompany them for a maximum of several months or even a year, until this settlement can completely meet the government's requirements and can operate on its own. This small town, which is only a town at the political level, can end such a life. The teachers responsible for teaching and guiding them are the government personnel of the town government and the port, as well as the teachers of the future town school.

Nanyang immigration is not only a great migration and expansion of the Chinese people, but also a great standardization and rectification.

Promoting Mandarin and promoting the correct pronunciation of Mandarin is a very important premise.

Chen Ding's treasure ship docked at the dock, not because of the lack of food and water, but because it was raining and there was a strong wind.

Chen Ding walked slowly in a brick factory under the escort of his guards. It was almost noon, but the heavy rain outside had been falling for a day and a night without any sign of stopping. There was no guarantee that there would be another storm on the sea.

But this did not damage the factory building for storing bricks. The latter was a large warehouse before. The warehouse built by the Spaniards stored a certain amount of food and materials. It was built on a higher ground and had all the drainage facilities around it. There was no need to worry about the factory building being soaked and collapsed by rain, nor the bricks inside being soaked by water.

The factory building is a brick and stone structure. Some of the load-bearing walls or columns are made of large stones, and the top is covered with waterproof tarpaulins and thatch. There are also many small windows on the surrounding walls for ventilation. The continuous heavy rain outside did not hinder the work of the brick kiln.

The bean-sized raindrops hit the glass windows with a crackling sound, and it felt like the glass was about to break. Lime was sprinkled in many places in the factory, which was to absorb moisture in the air. The rainy season is so annoying, the air humidity is extremely high, and it is not good for the iron and wood structure of the power storage conveyor.

The entire kiln factory did not occupy many immigrants, only about fifty people at most, and this was connected to the convoy that transported bricks. But the bricks produced were supplied to the entire town.

This is a must for every immigration point. Different from the original wooden houses and stilt houses, large-scale Chinese immigrants prefer brick houses, even mud houses that have not been burned by fire.

Chen Ding could not tell whether the construction of this immigration point was reasonable or not. He only observed the expressions of the people here. The emotions revealed by the immigrants' appearance are the most real reflection of their current life and expectations.

The immigrants in this immigration point that has just started operation are in a good mood.

At least the atmosphere in this factory is not solidified or depressed. The inconvenience brought by heavy rain and strong wind certainly makes many immigrants distressed, but they are obviously full of confidence in the future.

Many of the quicklime sprinkled in various corners have reacted due to moisture. The air is so humid that even the walls inside the factory are wet and misty. But the dark clouds in the sky still have no intention of dissipating.

Chen Ding never thought that he was a timid person. He did not dare to set sail in such weather. If he was unlucky enough to encounter a storm and the treasure ship sank, he would not lose money.

In this era, the possibility of an accident on a ship is much higher than the possibility of a car accident on a carriage, and it is much more dangerous.

Chen Ding still remembers the worry on his mother's face when he was about to leave Nanjing.

Seven or eight miles away from the kiln factory, near the coconut grove, a small village of thirty households and one or two hundred people has emerged from nothing in the past few days. The brick kiln has not been built yet, and the houses where the immigrants live are simple thatched houses. Now there are several large tents connected together, supporting the heavy rain and wind.

All the people are crowded under these tents. Even if the tents are large tents, the feeling of one or two hundred people piled together is unforgettable for the immigrants. They didn't suffer so much when they came to Ba Island by boat.

The small village here is one of the five agricultural villages in Buck Town. In addition to taking care of the coconut groves and picking coconut kernels, farming is another important task for them. Every household and every person is allocated land. Calculated based on four to six people per capita, there are 20 to 30 acres of land. The whole village already has thousands of acres of land, plus the additional ten acres of land rented by each person. As long as the farming is proper and the harvest is good, the grain output of this village alone is enough for the residents of the entire town to eat throughout the year.

The common people are the most practical. They may not understand the defense of the Chinese and foreigners, and do not understand loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, but they definitely understand the consequences of not having food to eat. They know who makes them full, warm, have a house to live in, and have fields to cultivate, and who gives them hope.

The authority and rule of the government are very solid and profound among immigrants. These immigrants to Nanyang, in a completely unfamiliar place, can only rely on and trust the court. Immigration has made the common people more dependent on the government and trust the court. This can be said to be an additional benefit created by Chen Han's immigration, and it is an unexpected surprise.

The wind and rain stopped, and the sun reoccupied the sky. Chen Ding left this inconspicuous town. One morning, the big ship docked at the dock disappeared into the blue sea in the sunshine.

He came quietly and left quietly. He did not bring any changes to Buck Town, and watched the immigrants through the storm like a calm bystander. He did not leave food or wine, nor did he let the immigrants who were tortured by the wind and rain board the treasure ship he was on.

The appearance of Chen Ding was like a cloud, which could not bring any difference to Buck Town. Everything in the future still needs the immigrants of Buck Town to do it themselves and start a new life in the future!