The Rise of the European Emperor

Through the conversation, Kong Tai was pleasantly surprised to find that the villager of Jilong Village, Liu Laogen, was a person with a talent for language. Liu Laogen not only mastered the Putian dialect and the less proficient Daming Mandarin, but also knew a little bit of the indigenous language of the local island. After all, he has lived here for 6 years and has dealt with the local indigenous people a lot, and he has also learned the local indigenous language to facilitate communication with the local people.

So, Kong Tai started to win over Liu Laogen...

Kong Tai's idea was that even if Amerigo took a fleet from America to Sheliao Island, it would be difficult to deal with Daming and the local aborigines without an interpreter. Because of the language barrier...

And with Liu Laogen's help, once the castle on Sheliao Island is built, the Beihai Kingdom garrison can directly deal with the local aborigines on the shore. After all, with Liu Laogen's language level, he is very suitable to be a translator. Amerigo itself will definitely lead the translation of Chinese, but the translator he brings must be the same as Kong Tai. He only understands Mandarin that is close to the Daming Mandarin, and cannot communicate with the local indigenous people at all. And with Liu Laogen, a master of the language, you can successfully trade and negotiate with the local indigenous people. In this way, you can save a lot of things.

Moreover, Liu Laogen and the 50 or so surviving villagers he led are farming the land, and they can also provide enough food for the colonists of the newly built castle. You must know that this time Jilong Village was raided by Japanese pirates. Although more than a dozen people died, most of those who died were unlucky people who could run slowly, or old and weak people who couldn't run. And most of the middle-aged men and women basically ran out with their children. That is to say, there is no shortage of prime-age labor in Jilong Village now, and they can supply food to the colonists.

It can be said that as long as Liu Laogen and his Jilong Village are attracted, it will be very beneficial for Beihai Kingdom to set up a base on Sheliao Island. Of course, the premise is that Liu Laogen agrees...

So, Kong Tai asked tentatively:

"Father, if our Beihai Kingdom establishes a stronghold on this island of Geelong, what do you think?"

"You want to establish a base on Jilong Island? I just don't know... why did you set up a base? And... Is there a tax on the villagers of our Jilong Village?"

Liu Laogen's response was quick, and he knew very well that if he encountered Japanese pirates, Jilong Village would definitely be finished. Therefore, the army of Beihai can be pulled to protect them from being invaded by Japanese pirates.

However, Liu Laogen was worried that the army from Beihai would enslave the people of Jilong Village. So he asked:

"After your country has established a firm foothold on the island, will it impose taxes on the people of my Jilong Village?"

After thinking about it for a while, Kong Tai felt that there was not much difference between collecting taxes from Jilong Village or not. After all, even if you collect taxes, this person will not receive a few dollars.

and,

With the help of Liu Laogen and other Jilong Village villagers, it will greatly facilitate Beihai Kingdom to gain a firm foothold on Sheliao Island and get a stable food supply point.

Therefore, Kong Tai finally agreed to Liu Laogen's bargaining, and was willing to give up the tax collection and corvée apportionment of Jilong Village after he took control of Dongfan Island.

To this end, Kong Tai also specially wrote a letter of introduction to Liu Laogen to pass on to Amerigo and his party who will arrive in Keelung next time. Presumably, Amerigo and his party will treat these people in Jilong Village kindly after seeing the letter he left.

After receiving the letter, seeing that Columbus' fleet was about to leave, Liu Laogen, the village chief of Jilong Village, said worriedly:

"I don't know if our Jilong Village can hold out until the next fleet of your country arrives... If there is another Japanese pirate... I'm afraid..."

Kong Tai frowned, thinking that it was really the case. My own fleet leaves, and if there are Japanese pirates landing next time, the ability of Jilong Village will definitely not be able to resist it...

So, looking at the Jilong Village that was captured and burned by Japanese pirates before, Kong Tai suggested:

"Lao Zhang, there are a lot of stones on this island. You can mine the stones and build a small and tall stone wall..."

"Stone wall..." Liu Laogen thought about it, and it seemed that it was really possible. Most of Sheliao Island are coastal areas with rugged rocks and rich sources of stone materials. If you spend enough labor, you can still get a lot of stones.

Before, the reason why Jilong Village didn't build a stone wall was because they didn't expect Japanese pirates to appear and harass them. Therefore, they only built simple wooden fence walls before, and did not build walls with earth and stone structures. For this reason, it was easily defeated by Japanese pirates.

"It's just... Sir, even if there is a wall made of earth and stone, we are afraid that we will not be able to resist the siege of Japanese pirates..." The strong men in the village hardly know martial arts. Facing the attack of Japanese pirates, the villagers may not be able to survive a round...

"This question..." After thinking about it, Kong Tai decided:

"I can decide to leave you 30 arquebuses! With the cover of the earth and stone walls and the arquebuses, it should be enough to resist small-scale Japanese pirates..."

Kong Tai remembered it as if he had heard Marin say that the musket seemed to be very powerful in the battle of defending the city. Generally speaking, the possibility of large-scale Japanese pirates is very small. And with 30 arquebuses, it's still easy to resist the Japanese pirates carried by one or two pirate ships...

Therefore, Kong Tai took the lead and left 30 arquebuses, several barrels of gunpowder and related lead bullets to Jilong Village. In this way, within a year, it can also support two or three battles against the enemy.

In order to familiarize the villagers with the use of arquebuses, Kongtai specially let the fleet stay for two or three more days, so that Weissette could instruct the local villagers how to use arquebuses.

At the same time, Kong Tai also discussed with Liu Laogen how to excavate the stone on the island, mix the soil, and build a wall with military defense function to resist the attacks of Japanese pirates and other enemies. After all, the people of Jilong Village have never seen a military fortress and do not know how to build a tall and strong wall with military defense functions. And Kong Tai grew up in Europe, and was used to seeing those fortresses with military defense functions. He pointed out Liu Laogen, but there was no difficulty...

In order to facilitate the villagers in Jilong Village to mine stones, Kong Tai also gave the villagers a batch of axes and chisels in Jilong Village, so that they could dig stones and facilitate the construction of the fence.

A few days later, before leaving, Kongtai specially unloaded a black cross flag from the boat and instructed Liu Laogen to hang it at the head of the city a year later. If Amerigo's fleet arrives and sees this black cross flag representing the North Sea Guard Team, it will definitely know that it is a friendly army. In this way, the possibility of conflict between the two sides is also avoided. With the black cross flag and the letters left by Kong Tai, the possibility of conflict between the two sides can be fully avoided.

What's more, when Kong Tai goes back this time, he will definitely say hello to Amerigo and tell them about the existence of Jilong Village, so as to avoid the possibility of conflict between the two sides. And Jilong Village will also become an important helper for Beihai Kingdom in Keelung in the future...