A village that couldn't be smaller, a group of poor women and children with no clothes to cover their bodies, and a pot of disgusting monkey broth, the whole village was full of weirdness.
There was no food, no rice, no fruits, no poultry and livestock, not even the most fish in Southeast Asia. Except for monkey broth that no one dared to eat, Wang Chen and others got nothing.
It stands to reason that if you don't gain anything, just leave as soon as possible. The time is very tight and the task is very heavy. But after Wang Chen saw the little girl who could speak Chinese, he didn't know why, but he suddenly felt a sense of compassion. He really wanted to hear something. Listen to the story the little girl has to tell.
These Chinese soldiers never expected that the entire Brunei region would be out of food at this moment. The war had only lasted for half a year, and the entire northern part of Bailayi had been exhausted.
All the villages were out of food. The army robbed each village of the last grain of rice, a bunch of bananas, some dried fish and poultry and livestock. At this moment, the indigenous civilians could only starve at home and wait to die. Even the one just now The monkey was not caught from the forest, but was a pet kept by the little girl at home.
Wang Chen listened and reviewed the Nanyang information he had learned before. Gradually, a large economic framework emerged in the depths of his mind, and he seemed to have understood something, a deeper secret that went beyond the surface of war.
Borneo is a big island with extremely rich natural resources. There are spices, rubber trees, forest resources, gold, endless seafood in the sea... and there will be oil resources in the future.
The life of the people here is much better than that of the people in the Qing Dynasty. They will not go hungry at all on weekdays. The rivers and seas are full of fresh seafood, and there are bananas, coconuts and other fruits on the trees to fill your stomach.
Individual tribes will cultivate some farmland, grow rice and eat some rice, but strangely, no tribe will plant too much rice. They still put the guarantee of survival on the most primitive collection.
Fishing, hunting and gathering are the earliest and most primitive way of survival for human beings. Although it is easy to watch the sky and eat, it is difficult to obtain safety guarantee. On weekdays, these tribesmen lead an extremely leisurely life. They only spend a small amount of time collecting food every day, and the rest of the time is spent on entertainment or even laziness.
This is also one of the reasons why Nanyang Chinese dislike hiring indigenous people. They are too lazy, because the fishing, hunting and gathering civilization will definitely breed a lot of lazy people. They will be more diligent when they are hungry, but they will become extremely lazy as soon as they are not hungry. .
If this lifestyle is compared with the diligent Chinese, these indigenous people are undoubtedly happy. However, the Chinese, a nation that came out of a farming civilization, must work most of the year, because farming civilization is better than fishing, hunting and gathering civilization. There is one more important attribute, which is storage.
The life of the indigenous monkeys seems to be very leisurely on weekdays, but once they encounter an emergency, their ability to resist is also very weak, such as war.
The sultans and kings of Brunei actually wanted to take advantage of the chaos in this war. If there had not been an early military invasion by Tsarist Russia, they would not have taken the initiative to attack the Chinese settlements even if they were killed.
Originally, these local kings only wanted to resolve the war within half a month. They thought that the Chinese armed forces had been completely wiped out by Tsarist Russia. At this moment, the Chinese people's wealth is like coconuts falling from the tree. As long as you bend down to pick it up. It's at your fingertips.
However, I never expected that the Nanyang Chinese had already become a tightrope. The Bai Layi tragedy directly shocked the Nanyang Chinese community, and millions of Chinese began to pool resources to support this war.
The earth kings' dog mouth suddenly hit a big rock. Except for taking advantage in the first few days, they lost almost every battle later, which dragged on the war for less than half a year.
In the final analysis, war is about the economic strength of both sides. Although the Tuwang side has a large number of people, they are not as good as the Chinese in terms of economic background.
The Chinese Guards here have more money and food, more arms, and more soldiers as they fight. On the other hand, these indigenous monkeys, in addition to their large population, have less money and food as they fight, and their weapons are becoming more and more consumed. One is declining and the other is declining. Our lives are not easy.
All the warehouses were eaten clean, the poultry and livestock raised by the people were also robbed, and even a little dried meat on the wall was taken away by the army.
The war also destroyed the natural environment of the entire region. The chaotic war directly reduced the local security to a negative level. People did not dare to leave their villages at all, especially women who disappeared immediately as soon as they went out.
Even hiding in the village is not safe. God knows when a group of soldiers will come to vent their lust and use these indigenous women as entertainment tools.
The bananas rotted on the trees, the fish in the river also avoided the smell of blood, and the beasts in the jungle hid as far away as possible... This was the end of the fishing, hunting and gathering civilization. A war directly exposed the flaws in their civilization. The biggest flaw is that their ability to withstand disasters is really poor.
"I see... It turns out that even if we don't fight this battle, these indigenous coalition forces will fall apart. But why can't these Nanyang monkeys enter the farming civilization? Why..." Wang Chen scratched his head and was confused.
"Sir... we... we don't know how to store food! We don't have ships like yours..." The little girl woke up the dreamer.
It was like a bolt of lightning clicked in Wang Chen's mind. Some of the knowledge he had learned in school suddenly connected together, and he had an epiphany.
Borneo has been in contact with the Central Plains since the Jin Dynasty. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were frequent boat exchanges. It reached its peak during Zheng He's voyages to the West. During such a long period of time, many immigrants came to the Central Plains. It is said that farming technology has long been It has been passed down, but why can’t it be popularized and why can’t it be officially upgraded to a farming civilization?
It turns out that the answer lies here, the containment of natural climate!
The Nanyang region belongs to the tropics, with high temperatures and humidity, and mostly typhoons and rains! This kind of weather is undoubtedly suitable for the growth of rice. Rice growing three times a year is a job for lazy people. Some diligent Chinese farmers can actually make rice grow four seasons a year and mature once every three months.
In fact, it’s not that the indigenous people don’t understand farming technology. They have understood it after so many years. However, they are not as diligent as the Chinese because they cannot get rice out of the cabin.
An important symbol of agricultural civilization is the barn. Human beings must have the awareness of storage before agricultural civilization can develop.
Human beings have learned to store, which adds double insurance to civilization. For example, in the event of war, natural disasters, etc., stored food can save lives and help everyone resist crises.
But how to store rice here in Nanyang? In humid weather, it takes less than a month for rice to germinate, and these indigenous monkeys cannot solve this problem at all.
But why can the Chinese solve it?
m.
