But before anyone could see it, someone sniffed sharply, and their stomach growled louder.
They were all very surprised. There seemed to be the aroma of rice. What was going on?
While I was thinking about it, I saw a figure appearing at the entrance. Two Ming soldiers carried large barrels one by one, and stopped at the entrance. The large barrel placed on the ground was steaming, and the aroma of rice came from here.
Suddenly, the eyes of all the indigenous prisoners were fixed on the big barrel, and they could no longer move away.
At least ten large barrels of rice were placed at the entrance. Ming army soldiers stood behind the rice barrels holding steel knives.
Li Dingguo walked slowly into the prison. There was already an interpreter beside him, but he did not speak immediately. He just glanced at the indigenous prisoners on both sides.
After Li Dingguo appeared, these indigenous prisoners knew that he was the highest official, and how they would be treated depended on this senior official. Although judging from some signs, it seems that these people are better than the Portuguese and their servants.
The appearance of those rice is proof. But after all, it didn't happen, so they all looked at the high official with anxiety. Don’t know what stringent conditions must be met in order to have food?
After Li Dingguo reached the end, he began to walk forward slowly, but at this time, he said seriously: "Leave the cell in turns, one person at a time, each person has a spoonful of rice, no fighting, no commotion, no more eating, Violators will be killed!"
The translator heard it and quickly translated the words, and said it three times in a row to ensure that every indigenous prisoner could hear it.
After hearing this and confirming that they would have something to eat right away, the indigenous prisoners immediately became commotion. However, they came to their senses later. The high official said that there should be no commotion, otherwise they would be killed. Suddenly, they did not dare and had to hold it in. But their expressions were very excited.
After Li Dingguo walked back to the entrance, he waved his hand and a Ming Army soldier stepped forward to open a cell and then returned to the entrance.
The soldiers of the Ming army took a few steps back, leaving the barrels in front of them. There are two wooden barrels in a row. There is a spoon on each of the front barrels. One spoon can scoop up a rice ball the size of an adult's fist.
Seeing that the Ming army had given up the place, but was still standing ready, as if it would kill someone if they disagreed, the natives in the cell who opened the door hesitated for a while and looked at each other. The natives on the outside came out timidly, staring at the Ming army soldiers, and slowly walked to the barrel.
Everyone else was staring at his every move. At this moment, even the breathing in the entire dungeon seemed to have stopped.
Perhaps he couldn't stand the smell of rice. After getting closer to the barrel, the prisoner suddenly quickened his pace. Without looking at the Ming army soldiers, he immediately reached out and held the spoon and dug into a rice ball. At this time, he raised his head and looked at the Ming army soldiers. After hesitating for a while, he reluctantly put down the spoon and left quickly, regardless of whether the rice ball was hot or not.
During this process, the Ming army soldiers remained silent. This made the other natives feel relieved. It seemed that it was just as simple as having food to eat, and nothing else would happen.
As a result, the natives in the cell couldn't help but want to rush out. But the door of the cell is so big, it's impossible for a few people to crowd out at one time, but the movement is not small.
"Yeah!" At this moment, a cold snort sounded in the dungeon where no one was talking, and the sound was still a bit loud.
Upon hearing this sound, the natives who had made the small movement froze. When they heard the sound and looked over, they saw the high-ranking official of the Ming army staring at them, and their fighting spirit suddenly disappeared.
Then, these natives began to queue up to receive the rice balls one by one. In the meantime, no one dared to think of testing the sharpness of the Ming army's swords. After all, the Portuguese taught them a truth long ago: their lives are worthless!
A rice ball is actually not much. Even a child would definitely not be full. On the contrary, some people feel hungrier after eating this rice ball. So, they all stared at the barrel, wondering if there would be any rice left? Can I eat another ball of rice?
After everyone had received it, there was indeed about a bucket and a half of extra rice left. Everyone's eyes couldn't help but look at the rice, and then at the high official, wondering how the remaining rice would be distributed?
In the opinion of most of them, this large amount of rice might be distributed to the young men in the dungeon. After all, for these people, youth and strength should be the most useful.
But who knows, after Li Dingguo looked at the rice, he said: "The old, weak, women and children can receive a spoonful of rice again, the rules remain unchanged!"
As soon as this sentence was translated, it was beyond everyone's expectations. Many young men began to chatter in a hurry, and for a while, there was a "buzzing" sound in the dungeon, which was very noisy.
When a Ming army soldier saw this, he knocked the iron fence next to him with the back of his sword, making a "bang" sound, and shouted at the same time: "Quiet!"
The sound of the back of the sword hitting the iron fence was very sharp. Even if the natives didn't know what the Ming soldiers said, they could probably guess what they meant. Therefore, the dungeon suddenly became quiet.
"What are they arguing about?" Li Dingguo looked at the translator and asked in a cold voice.
When the translator heard this, he quickly replied: "Most of them are saying that they are powerful and can help our Ming Dynasty, and they also want to take another spoonful."
After hearing this, Li Dingguo turned his head and looked around at the people in the cell.
When the young men in the cell saw him, they all tried hard to show their strength, but they did not dare to make a sound, and there was only some silent commotion.
After Li Dingguo finished scanning, he shouted coldly: "My Ming Dynasty has a tradition of respecting the elderly and loving the young since ancient times. I hope you will do the same."
After hearing what the translator relayed, most of the natives showed surprised expressions. This reason made them forget that they were in a cage for a moment, and reminded them of the time when there were no foreign enemies in the village.
………………
After a long time, Li Dingguo returned to the ground with his bodyguards. Until this time, his personal guard was puzzled and asked Li Dingguo: "Commander, why are you so nice to them?"
You know, for the sake of the people in the dungeon, the commander-in-chief did not hesitate to be tough on the Folangji people, and the relationship became very tense.
When Li Dingguo heard this, he stopped, turned to look at him, and said seriously: "The emperor has decreed that Ceylon will be the land of the Ming Dynasty from now on, instead of treating it as a colony like the Folangji people!"
"Oh!" The guard responded with half understanding after hearing this. Since it was told by the emperor, it is absolutely correct.
Seeing his appearance, Li Dingguo didn't explain any more.
So far, only the generals and above know the emperor's will. The emperor has stated that it is impossible to treat this place as a colony for long. Only by truly occupying this place and assimilating them will they belong to the Ming Dynasty forever.
For this reason, Emperor Chongzhen also gave instructions on how to occupy Ceylon instead of ending up in the quagmire of Ceylon like the Portuguese.
………………
At this time, in the Governor's Mansion in the city, Johnson looked at the drunk and unconscious Phillips and wiped his sweat. He thought to himself that thanks to him being drunk, he sent the complainer away.
The commander-in-chief of the Ming Army was really like, no matter what they did to the natives in the dungeon, he still had to force open the warehouse to give them food!
The handover will be completed in one day, otherwise, we still don’t know what will happen? Although thinking this way, Johnson was still worried.
Since the Ming army entered Colombo, there has been a lot of friction between the two armies.
But in the end, Johnson worried too much. Phillips remained drunk until the next afternoon when he woke up and was still not very clear-headed. More and more Ming troops were transferred into the city. The strength of the Ming troops also made the Portuguese and their servants understand that they could not be provoked. Therefore, they all arrived safely on the morning of the third day.
Before boarding the ship, Phillips thought that if he wanted to leave Colombo, he wouldn't have to fight with the natives and the Dutch, and he didn't want so many servants. He said to Yan Yingyuan: "It's not easy for your army to gain a foothold here. How about me?" How about leaving the army of servants to you?"
In this way, he can reduce a lot of expenses.
However, Yan Yingyuan just smiled and declined the proposal.
When Phillips was rejected, he couldn't help but feel angry again: OK, let's see when you can capture Ceylon! I'll just wait and see. Aren't you a great archer? In the high mountains and lofty mountains, even if there are many of you, let’s see what you can do to defeat the natives who cannot!
Just like that, although on the surface they completed the handover in an amicable manner and left with a pat on the back, in fact, it can be said that the Portuguese left with a lot of anger.
However, Yan Yingyuan doesn't care about all this!
As soon as the Portuguese left, the Ming army officially took over Colombo. All the Ming army officers and soldiers who had been sleeping on the ship began to disembark and reorganize Colombo's defense.
Generally speaking, when the Ming army first arrived, it was definitely a big problem how to get started with Ceylon. You know, Dongwu was originally the Xuanwei Division of the Ming Dynasty. Even later, there were many tribes in Dongwu that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty, such as Mubang, Mengyang, etc. Even those who were not originally, for the Ming Dynasty Also very understanding.
When the emperor personally conquered Dongwu, he made full use of these tribes who were close to the Ming Dynasty and used all conditions to form a decisive battle situation in Ava and solve most of Dongwu's problems in one fell swoop.
But now in Ceylon, everything is strange.
But at this time, Yan Yingyuan and others were not panicked at all, because as Li Dingguo said, the emperor had already given strategic countermeasures.
