New Shun 1730

Then Liu Yu took Niu Er to the Banten Sultanate's envoys and introduced Niu Er, saying that he was the garrison commander of Java and Coconut City.

Now the imperial court has not yet issued an order to appoint him as the governor of Java, so Liu Yu can't say that he is the governor of Java.

There are many Muslim Chinese in the Banten Sultanate, who have been doing business in Banten for a long time. The Banten envoys have their own translators who can speak Chinese.

It is true that the name of a person is like the shadow of a tree. Liu Yu is not well-known in Southeast Asia, but Niu Er is famous, especially since the Banten Sultanate is very close to Bandung and Batavia. Niu Er, who gathered in the Burangan Volcano area and defeated the Dutch encirclement twice, has never been seen by people in Banten, but after hearing his name, they hurriedly saluted.

Historically, after the Red River Massacre, the Chinese Ushan Party failed in the uprising and moved to Central Java. A few years later, an anti-Dutch uprising broke out in Banten. After the uprising failed and moved to Central Java, many Banten people fought side by side with the Chinese and fought to the end.

But now, Dashun has replaced the Netherlands, and the Chinese are no longer oppressed by the Dutch together with the Sundanese. This change in identity has led to many bloody intentions between Dashun and Banten.

The uprisings in Southeast Asia are basically the same routine.

The strong man raised his arms and shouted to resist the Dutch, and he must also resist the sultan and nobles of his own country. Then the sultan of his own country used the foreign pirates to sign a more traitorous treaty with the Dutch to suppress the uprising together.

However, Liu Yu does not want to cooperate with the Sultan of Banten at all now, because they are too close to Coconut City and there is no value in cooperation at all.

If an uprising breaks out first, it would be the best. Dashun, together with the rebels, will kill the Sultan, Mullah, priests, and nobles of Banten in a "Xiagang Massacre".

In order to lay a good foundation for Niu Er before leaving Java, Liu Yu, after introducing the people on the Dashun side, mentioned in front of many envoys from small countries that he wanted to build a naval fortress in Meiwen Bay in Banten so that he could block the Sunda Strait.

The reason was also very high-sounding.

Dashun liberated Southeast Asian countries from the rule of the Dutch, but looking back, the Spaniards, Portuguese, British, and Dutch were in Southeast Asia like a revolving lantern.

Therefore, in order to prevent these Westerners from threatening Southeast Asian countries again, the Celestial Empire had to build a fortress in the Merwen Bay of the Sunda Strait in view of its mission and responsibility. To prevent the Westerners from making a comeback.

The reason was high-sounding enough, and Banten had no objection at all.

Small countries in Southeast Asia cannot control their own destiny. Many things are not decided by them, but depend on the needs of the Southeast Asian hegemon.

And to Banten, Dashun looks stronger than the Dutch.

Because the Dutch let missionaries preach everywhere, which seriously damaged the interests of the Banten clergy class. The millennium conflict between Christianity and Islam can easily cause local religions to resent the Netherlands. But Dashun does not like to preach, and there is nothing to preach.

As for the fortress to be built in Mewen Bay, it is very close to the capital of Banten, and Banten cannot refuse it.

They cannot fight, and opposition is just looking for trouble. Why bother to accept it after being beaten?

Moreover, when the Dutch occupied Jakarta and squeezed Banten, it was because of internal strife in Banten. The pro-Dutch and anti-Dutch factions fought for power, and the Dutch took the opportunity to send troops and completely destroyed the anti-Dutch faction.

In this situation, when the court of Banten heard that Dashun wanted to build a fortress in the Sunda Strait, there must be two factions.

If the Sultan opposed it, there must be nobles who stood up to collude with Dashun, this is certain.

Moreover, it is very likely that the one who came out to collude with Dashun may be the son of the current Sultan, or a direct blood relative within three generations.

However, regarding Dashun's need to build a fortress, the Banten envoy still asked a key question.

How much labor does Banten need to provide to build this fortress?

During the Dutch rule, Banten, as a small country so close to Batavia, had to fulfill many vassal obligations.

To build the fortress, they had to provide people.

If they provided people, it would be easy for something to go wrong.

The nobles were not very opposed to the colonists, unless they really went too far.

As for labor service, the nobles' slaves would definitely not provide it. Generally, they would conscript the peasants from the village to perform labor service in the form of fulfilling feudal obligations.

The Dutch did not pay, and building the fortress was hard labor, and people often died. And building the fortress organized the originally scattered peasants, which made it easy for something to go wrong.

It should be said that when Dashun had just arrived, they should not immediately conscript civilians to build the fortress, at least they had to wait until it was stable.

But Liu Yu did the opposite.

When the Banten envoy asked how many labor services were needed, Liu Yu said two thousand.

The Banten envoy only said that the matter would be reported back to the Sultan, and Liu Yu was not in a hurry, saying that he would talk about it after the battle of Malacca.

After this, Niu Er was a little confused.

"Marquis Jing, if you go to Banten to investigate, there are reasons. It is indeed useful to have a fortress in the Sunda Strait. But you can't rush it. Since you want to destroy Banten, conscripting the people to do hard labor at this time will not make the people resent you?"

"You are going to kill the sultan, priests, and nobles. If you make the people resent you, how can you stand in Banten?"

Liu Yu smiled and said, "This is called buying bones with a thousand gold. When you conscript the people to do hard labor, I will pay more money, provide them with enough food and drink, and give them three or four taels of silver every month, and give them some sugar, cotton cloth, etc."

"First of all, let the people of Wandan know that we are very different from the Dutch. We are teachers of true benevolence and righteousness, and the virtues of kings."

"The people recruited came from all over, from different villages and communities. When they go back, how can they not praise the benevolence of the Celestial Empire?"

"Secondly, so much gold and silver is distributed directly to the people. But I wonder if the princes and nobles will let these people hand over the gold and silver?"

"People everywhere are the same. They can tolerate not having it, but they can never tolerate it being given and then taken away."

"In my opinion, these indigenous princes can steal and snatch children and raise them as slaves like pigs for money. Do you think these people will take away the money?"

Niu Er's eyes lit up and he praised: "Wonderful! Originally, when we replaced Holland, the people here felt that it was almost like the Zhao family replaced the Sun family, and they had no idea about the Celestial Empire."

"The former has the opportunity to promote the benevolence of the Celestial Empire; the latter only needs to find some Wandan fugitive slaves from the Guiyi Army, mingle among the people, and talk more about rebellion."

"Even if they don't confiscate the gold and silver and wait for us to kill the sultan and priests, with this foundation, the people will support us."

"First of all, we have the support of the people. If we can capture the entire Wandan, it will only be land tax, which is more than the money spent to build the fortress."

Niu Er drew inferences from one example and immediately thought of inserting people into the crowd building the fortress to instigate them.

This is also the advantage of the Guiyi Army. They operate in the volcanic area and are very close to Bandan. Bandan also uses slaves. Many slaves fled to the Boliangan area and joined the Guiyi Army.

Liu Yu said with a smile: "There is not much money to spend on repairing the fortress. The goods in the warehouse of the Dutch East India Company in Yecheng are auctioned, and only a cent is enough."

"The key is that in the past two years, trade has been sluggish, the slave trade has been banned, and the spice trade has stagnated. Life will definitely be difficult for the nobles of Banten, and they will definitely increase their efforts to squeeze the people. You must seize this opportunity. ”

"Actually, three to forty taels of silver a month, how can such a good thing happen? When the imperial court builds the embankment of the Yellow River, it costs more than one tael of silver a month. But since you want to win people's hearts, don't care about what is unreasonable."

“If you don’t have opportunities, you have to learn to create them yourself.”

"It would be best if an uprising breaks out within Wandan itself, and you can take the opportunity to intervene, and then take heavy action. You need to supervise this matter more strictly, and the money must be paid in place, and food and drink must be well managed. This is called spending money to buy the reputation of a benevolent and righteous teacher, which is called a price of gold."

Niu Er nodded, thinking that this should be very feasible.

Indeed, trade will decline severely in the next few years. At least this year, trade will definitely be doomed. The entire Southeast Asia has long been tied into the Western European economic system and has almost been economically colonized.

The trade system within China and Southeast Asia is not enough to support the previous trade volume of each country towards the European market.

In the past, many princes and nobles made their fortunes through trade. Now that they lack this income, they will definitely have to increase their exploitation of the people.

This is almost inevitable.

Once the oppression intensifies, and someone secretly instigates, instigates, or even directly transfers some of the original Wandan escaped slaves from the Guiyi Army to raise their arms and shout, things will become easier.

Thinking of this, Niu Er said again: "Jinghou, why not do this? In the first three months, we handed the money to the people who came to do hard labor on time. Three months later, we handed the money directly to their leaders and chiefs. Just say that it will be distributed by them, which will make people more angry."

Liu Yu smiled and said: "Okay, it seems that you have really gained experience in Boliang'an Mountain District. You are afraid that they will not collect the money, so you have to give them a chance to collect the corruption. Excellent."

Niu Er chuckled and said, "Actually, this is also a skill I learned from the Dutch."

"The hardships in Java are all caused by the Dutch. You told us that we should look beyond the appearance to see the essence."

"But the Dutch are very smart and have chosen us Chinese as middlemen. Whether it is to pay taxes, collect spices, or package purchases, they mostly use Chinese. So much so that the locals feel that the Chinese are the source of their hardship, and everyone hates them. But in fact the essence is still the oppression of the Dutch.”

"We can also follow the same example and use this method. We can use middlemen to create hatred and encourage people to kill all these middlemen. It is human nature for middlemen to be greedy, and it is not just the Chinese who act as middlemen. I Don’t you believe that they are all saints and they don’t swallow up the money?”

"Once they swallow the money, if they are provoked a little bit, something big will happen. If they don't swallow the money, I don't think there is any need to fight Wan Dan. The nobles and priests are all saints who don't love money, so how can they fight?"

After saying that, the two looked at each other and laughed, thinking about how they were competing for the position of sultan and offering various conditions to the Dutch. How could there be any saints? The Muslim religion does not allow loan sharking. There are loan sharking all over Java. How can there be any saints?

This Wandan is destined to be destroyed. It will be the first country that Dashun will destroy after occupying Java.