Chapter 238: The Eighteen-Stockade Alliance

The sea bandit felt a sharp pain in his back, struggled desperately, but could not make a single sound. His strength ebbed away bit by bit, and soon he went limp.

By then, the Ming sea-cang ships cruising in the harbor had already noticed this small boat, and two of them had unfurled their sails and were bearing down.

The lead pirate urged anxiously: "Quick, let's go!"

The only response was the gurgling sounds coming from his subordinate's throat.

He turned to look, and saw Shitou drenched in blood, his right hand gripping a dagger buried deep in his subordinate's neck. Further off, another subordinate lay sprawled on the deck, blood seeping through the gaps between the planks and trickling toward the sea.

Shitou yanked the dagger out, and blood spurted from the pirate's neck like an arrow. The pirate clamped both hands over his throat as if trying to strangle himself, blood jetting out between his fingers.

The pirate staggered a few steps, lost his footing, and tumbled into the sea with a splash, kicking up a burst of spray.

Shitou used the momentum of pulling out the blade to lunge forward and slam into him. Having spent years at the forge, he had built up a body of solid muscle and tremendous strength.

The lead pirate, before he could even draw his blade, was knocked off balance and fell into the sea.

By now, the Ming sea-cang ships had drawn very close. Their sailors were manning the Folangji cannons, while others shouted through iron megaphones, ordering them to drop their weapons and surrender.

Shitou's blood was up from the killing, but thankfully he still had a shred of reason, knowing full well that flesh and blood were no match for cannon fire.

He steeled himself, tossed aside the dagger, and gambled that the men on the sea-cang ships were the good sort.

The pirate who had fallen overboard saw the situation turning against him, hurriedly dove underwater, and aimed for the island, swimming more than thirty paces in a single breath. Only when he absolutely could not hold it any longer did he surface for air.

In that brief instant, he heard someone behind him shout: "There he is! He's surfaced! Fire!"

"Boom-boom-boom!"

A volley from the Folangji cannons thundered out.

The pirate in the water dove back under like a fish, and immediately after, countless solid iron shot came crashing down, churning the sea into a boiling froth. When the gunsmoke cleared, the pirate's riddled body floated slowly to the surface.

Only then did the crew of the Sea Wolf approach and board the vessel. They conducted a thorough search, found Liu Wan hiding in the cabin, and asked many questions. Shitou answered truthfully.

"What do we do with them?" one of the sailors asked.

The master of the Sea Wolf said: "Take these two to the island and let the Hall Master decide."

Facing life and death, Shitou and Liu Wan had no mind for the propriety between men and women. The two clung tightly to each other as they were brought ashore together.

The moment they set foot on land, the two were shocked by the hellish carnage on the island.

Bodies lay strewn everywhere, scattered every which way, staining the white sand a bloody red.

Shitou and his companion picked their way carefully through the corpses.

Glancing sidelong, Shitou observed that most of the dead had been killed by cannon fire, their wounds torn open like honeycombs. The rest had mostly been stabbed to death by blades, each corpse bearing at least three or four deep wounds — killed thoroughly and completely.

Judging by their features and clothing, most of the dead were Malays and Khmers, dressed in garments of various colors and styles — clearly sea bandits of some sort. By the harbor, soldiers were cleaning up the battlefield and standing guard, most of them holding matchlock muskets fitted with bayonets.

These soldiers were largely uniform in dress: short brigandines on top, tapered combat trousers below, straw sandals on their feet, mostly in dark crow-blue. Some wore cloth-faced iron armor and carried swords with shields or long spears.

Judging by their military bearing, even the Siamese army and the Nguyen lord's army would pale in comparison to these soldiers.

Shitou felt somewhat reassured.

But seeing the shield-and-halberd war banners hanging everywhere on the island and aboard the ships — not at all of Ming standard issue — stirred doubt in his heart.

The two were led by the soldiers, walking deeper into the island. From afar, they could see a row of stilt houses built at the foot of the mountain, resembling a village.

Along the way, pirate corpses were everywhere, but not a single body of the soldiers who had come ashore.

Shitou couldn't help thinking to himself: "Could it be this unit suffered no casualties at all?"

Finally reaching the stilt house, Shitou saw a young officer seated in the place of honor, listening to a subordinate's report. His bearing commanded awe without any need for anger.

"…In this battle, our forces had twenty-five wounded and three killed. The sea bandits suffered roughly eight hundred dead or wounded…"

Shitou's heart went clang — he wondered if his ears were playing tricks on him.

The officer, however, seemed somewhat dissatisfied: "How did that happen?"

"One banner company charged too far ahead and fell into an ambush."

The officer said: "Demote that company commander to squad leader."

"Yes, sir!" The reporting soldier left.

The soldiers escorting Shitou and the other had not yet had a chance to make their report.

A voice came from far away: "Hahaha… Big Brother, look what I've brought you!"

Before the man even drew near, an extremely heavy stench of blood reached their noses.

Shitou turned to look and felt his heart leap with fright. A fierce warrior was striding toward them, covered head to toe in fresh blood — only the whites of his eyes showing any black — looking as if he had just been soaked in a pool of blood.

Like a blood-bathed asura, the sight of him alone was enough to make one's heart quail.

As he drew closer, the stench of blood grew even thicker, almost enough to make one vomit up the previous night's meal.

The man wore a crow-blue cloth-faced iron armor, covered in countless sword strikes. The outer cloth had been slashed to tatters, exposing the iron plates beneath.

Only when the man stepped into the main hall did Shitou notice he was also dragging another person in his grip.

That person kept his head lowered, his face unreadable, but his clothing was extremely luxurious. His right arm was twisted behind his back in a joint lock, held fast in the blood-soaked asura's grasp. The pain forced him to crawl on his hands and feet, bent over double.

"Get in there. Tell my big brother who you are yourself." The blood-soaked asura gave a shove, and the captive tumbled and scrambled into the stilt house. After picking himself up off the floor, he smiled ingratiatingly: "Yes, yes. My name is Makutu. I am the leader of this island."

Shitou never imagined that "Black Mast" Makutu — the man who had humiliated his beloved and filled the people of Longchuan Port and the entire Mekong River basin with terror — was actually this man!

Shitou studied him carefully. The man bore the features of both Malay and foreign blood, just as the outside world said — a half-breed.

But on that face, there was not a trace of coldness or cruelty. His fawning, pleading expression was no different from those terrified villagers of Longchuan Port.

The officer said: "Your lot has been committing crimes here. Who backs you?"

"Uh." Makutu was momentarily at a loss for words.

The blood-soaked asura chopped down at his foot with one stroke. Three toes were severed, blood gushing wildly. Makutu let out a piercing scream, nearly fainting from the pain. A medic hurried forward to stop the bleeding.

Zheng Zhilong shot his second brother a glare: "Er Mang, interrogation is work for the specialists. You have no sense of your own strength — what if you kill the man?" Zheng Zhihu scratched his head, looking simple and honest: "Don't worry, Big Brother. My blade is accurate."

"What 'Big Brother'? When on duty, address me by my title!"

"Yes, Hall Master!"

While Makutu was having his wounds treated, the soldiers finally reported Shitou and his companion to Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong called the two in, looked them over for a moment, and said, "You killed two sea bandits?"

"First time killing?"

Then Zheng Zhilong turned his gaze to Liu Wan: "You are the daughter of the Liu clan of Longchuan Ford?"

"Yes, sir. This common woman thanks the general for saving her life."

As Liu Wan spoke, she gently nudged Shitou. Understanding her intent, Shitou also said, "This commoner kowtows in gratitude to the general for saving our lives."

With that, he knocked his head three times on the ground.

Zheng Zhilong was inwardly pleased—he had been looking for candidates to act as his agent, and here one had delivered himself to the door.

Longchuan Ford was the most powerful among the Han Chinese village strongholds, and the Liu clan were the chieftains of Longchuan Ford; their daughter carried no small influence.

This Shitou was ruthless enough, yet his roots were shallow—a fine blade that was easy to wield.

Zheng Zhilong looked at Makutu, who was writhing in agony on the ground, and said mockingly, "Old Ma, see that? The wife you snatched by force has arrived."

Makutu forced a smile: "This lowly one wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare."

Zheng Zhilong said, "Wouldn't dare? How many times have you done this sort of thing?"

Makutu did not dare speak.

Zheng Zhihu coughed dryly, and Makutu trembled all over in fright, immediately saying, "I've married twenty-three in all, but every one of those villages gave them willingly." "Where did your twenty-three wives go?"

"Some I gave to my men, some threw themselves into the sea, some fed the crocodiles..."

Zheng Zhilong pointed at a bowl on the table: "Which one was this?"

"Th-that... that's the skull of the village head's daughter from Shali Ford..."

Hearing this, Shitou and Liu Wan had reached the peak of terror and fury. Faced with this demon in human skin, they no longer knew how to express their anger.

Liu Wan buried her head in Shitou's chest, sobbing quietly.

Shitou's muscles were taut as iron, his gaze fixed dead on Makutu, killing intent blazing in his eyes.

Zheng Zhilong waved his hand, and his men understood, leading Makutu away.

After a long pause to compose himself, Shitou pleaded, "General, let me kill him with my own hands!"

Zheng Zhilong shook his head: "This man is still useful for now; he cannot be killed. The helmsman once said that even the worst government is better than no government at all.

The chaos in Water Chenla was formed because the Chenla royal house had grown weak, leaving a power vacuum that Siam and the Nguyen clan were contending over.

To cure the root cause, killing a thousand or ten thousand sea bandits would be useless."

Shitou was still dazed, but Liu Wan had already caught Zheng Zhilong's meaning and shot Shitou a look.

Shitou understood at once, knelt, and kowtowed: "Wan'er's life was saved by the general. If the general has use for me, this commoner is willing to die in your service!"

"Hahaha..." Zheng Zhilong laughed heartily. "You're a lovesick fool, aren't you. I didn't save just one person—once you set foot on this island, you'll die faster than your sweetheart."

Shitou kowtowed and said, "Yes, this commoner is clumsy with words. In any case, from now on I'll follow the general to the end!"

Zheng Zhilong waved his hand: "Enough of that. Let's first hold your wedding."

"Huh?" At these words, both Shitou and Liu Wan were stunned.

"What, unwilling?"

Shitou looked at Liu Wan's bashful expression and said, "This... after all, we need Uncle Liu's consent..."

Zheng Zhilong laughed and scolded: "Hahaha, being the good man means too many rules. Fine, I'll be the villain!"

With that, Zheng Zhilong rose to his feet and called out, "Guards!"

"Sir!" Five or six guards filed in from outside the hall.

Zheng Zhilong pointed at Shitou: "Take this man out and behead him."

"Yes!" The guards seized Shitou without the slightest hesitation.

Shitou was completely stunned, not a thought of resistance crossing his mind, and in an instant he was dragged to the doorway.

Liu Wan cried out in alarm: "Stop! I'll marry him—General, I'm willing to marry him."

Zheng Zhilong waved for the soldiers to release Shitou and laughed: "That's more like it. We'll hold the wedding tonight—it coincides with the victory feast for the troops. Two joys at once!"

That night, on Kunlun Island, several bonfires were lit, and Zheng Zhilong ordered the sea bandits' wine and meat to be brought out to feast the troops.

Amid the soldiers' laughter and congratulations, Shitou and Liu Wan were wed and led into the bridal chamber.

On the bed, Shitou looked at the radiant face of the person beside him, caught the faint, elusive fragrance, and felt his mouth go dry, his words coming out haltingly. "Rest assured... we were forced into this... if you don't agree... I won't touch you."

Shitou's eyes fixed on Liu Wan's snow-white neck, his gaze going dull, his words tumbling out all jumbled.

Liu Wan's eyes lowered, her face flushed with intoxicating crimson, and she softly scolded: "You silly Shitou!"

From outside the door came Zheng Zhihu's booming voice: "You blockhead, go for it! The girl's already agreed! You're driving me mad!"

Zheng Zhilong's voice came from further away: "Er Mang, stop making a ruckus, come have a drink!"

The sound of footsteps outside the door faded into the distance.

Shitou extended his stiff arm, drew Liu Wan's slender waist into his embrace, then held tighter and tighter...

Liu Wan's face grew ever redder, her brows slightly furrowed, soft moans escaping her lips, wearing an expression of both pleasure and pain.

Early the next morning, Zheng Zhilong led his troops, with the newlywed Shitou and his wife in tow, back to the Longchuan Ford region.

Soon, news that Black Mast had been wiped out spread through the marshes like wildfire.

At the same time, the Sea Wolf warship was clearing river bandits on the Mekong, and Bailangzai sailed the Candle Dragon to the river mouth region.

With Shitou and his wife adding their push as well.

The name of the Nan'ao Army soon spread like mold into every corner of the marshlands.

At Zheng Zhilong's suggestion, all the Han Chinese village communities in the Water Chenla region were summoned to Longchuan Ford for a meeting.

Inside and outside the meeting hall, fully armed Nan'ao Army marines stood guard, and the attendees felt their hearts sink at the sight of the gleaming bayonets. There were not many Han Chinese in Water Chenla—all the villages combined numbered barely over ten thousand people, and counting Longchuan Ford, there were fewer than twenty village elders. Just enough to fill the main hall.

Seeing everyone had arrived, Zheng Zhilong said, "Bring him up."

A moment later, his men dragged a middle-aged man up like a dead dog.

Apart from the wound on his foot, the man had no other injuries, and his body was clean, but he looked utterly drained of vitality, as if he had just suffered inhuman torture.

Zheng Zhilong said, "Speak for yourself. Tell us what you did and who ordered you to do it—everything."

"Yes, yes." The man's body trembled, then he spoke rapidly, pouring it all out like beans from a bamboo tube, "My name is Makutu, nicknamed 'Black Mast.' I'm a pirate on Kunlun Island with one thousand one hundred and twenty men under my command. I was funded by the Siamese nobleman Nakon..."

The reason Siam supported pirates like Makutu was the same reason the English issued privateering licenses to pirates.

The Siamese regarded Water Chenla as something already in their grasp, yet lacked the strength to annex it immediately. Meanwhile, Han Chinese and Lord Nguyen's migrants were flooding into Water Chenla. So they recruited pirates to carry out terrorist activities, weakening potential rivals and deterring other powers from setting foot there.

Before today, Makutu had already been interrogated for a long time without pause, and he dared not conceal his atrocities, confessing them truthfully.

Although Makutu tried to shift all those horrific acts onto the Siamese as having been carried out under their orders,

what he had done was truly appalling. The village elders had worn expressionless faces at first, but by the end they were utterly enraged, roaring that Makutu should be torn limb from limb.

Zheng Zhilong had Makutu taken away, then said, "The Chenla royal authority is weak, and regional powers are all contending for supremacy. In such chaotic times, if you want to survive, you must unite and build your own strength.

The helmsman proposes establishing a chartered agricultural company in Water Chenla.

The company will hold exclusive development rights, administrative governance rights, internal legislative and judicial rights, land ownership rights, the right to raise armies, and the monopoly on foreign trade in the Water Chenla region.

The company's main activity will be agricultural development. The Nan'ao military will purchase the bulk of the grain at unified prices, and any surplus may be sold freely.

The company's military will be composed mainly of Han Chinese and reliable external migrants. Management will be dispatched from Nan'ao, with village elders participating..."

For the Nan'ao faction, the meaning of the company's existence was to establish a social order in Water Chenla that would maximize grain output at the lowest long-term management cost.

To put it plainly, if they annexed Water Chenla in the name of the Great Ming or in the name of the Nan'ao military, the governance costs would be far too high.

Subjects of the Chinese realm would need guarantees of healthcare, education, infrastructure, and laws and taxation consistent with the Great Ming.

They would also reap a bad reputation, damaging the legitimacy of the Nan'ao regime.

Establishing a proxy company avoided all these problems.

Under Lord Zheng's command, there were large numbers of landless peasants familiar with tropical agriculture who could be used for migration. Compared to Ming migrants, Lord Zheng's migrants had a distinct advantage of lower human rights.

The company could use carefully calculated migration contracts to bind migrants to the land.

For example, the seeds, tools, and rations the company provided in the early period of migration would be recorded as "settlement debt," to be repaid by the migrants' subsequent agricultural output. After the debt was fully repaid, migrants would automatically convert to sharecroppers, splitting the grain at a high ratio.

To control the migrants, people from different hometowns could be mixed together, breaking their original geographic ties.

A privileged class could be established—promoting headmen from among the compliant, granting them authority to manage ten households and collect tribute, and giving them the privilege of rent reduction on their allotted land, thereby deflecting contradictions.

A pass system could be established to bind migrants to the land.

At the same time, Buddhist halls would be built to channel religious sentiment, preaching the values of staying content with one's lot and growing wealthy through hard work.

Compared to the Nan'ao faction's policies toward the common people, these methods could already be called harsh.

There was no helping it—wealth could not be accumulated through saving alone. If capitalism wanted to complete primitive accumulation, its methods could not possibly be clean.

If you didn't plunder foreigners, you could only plunder your own country.

Better to torment foreigners than to let the people of the Chinese realm suffer.

Moreover, compared to the other colonizers of this era, and to the Great Ming government's exploitation of its people, the above policies could already be considered merciful. Among Lin Qian's subordinates, Zheng Zhilong had always been the one with relatively weak moral scruples yet a quick mind, possessing a distinct advantage of low morality. Therefore, he was the most suitable man to found the company.

During the company's founding period, the Nan'ao military would provide necessary support, but once it was running smoothly, the Nan'ao military would gradually withdraw.

For the company to endure long-term, it would have to rely on the strength of the local Han Chinese migrants.

This was why Zheng Zhilong had summoned all these village elders to the meeting.

Zheng Zhilong spoke at length about the company's framework: "... The company shall have one Governor-General, personally appointed by the helmsman, rotating every three years. Under the Governor-General shall be three major departments: the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Military Defense, and the Department of Law Enforcement, managing civil administration, finance, military affairs, judicial and public security respectively. Department officials shall be nominated by the Governor-General and approved for appointment by the Nan'ao Administrative Bureau. Senior officials' salaries shall be tied to the company's annual total grain output..." Nan'ao's control over the company was exercised through personnel management, interest binding, and structural restrictions.

Under this institutional design, the company had no productive departments whatsoever beyond grain production.

Self-production of weapons and gunpowder was utterly impossible, and there was no room to develop other economic sectors. The company did not count as a sovereign entity either—without Nan'ao's support, it had no legitimacy and no conditions for rebellion.

The entire system was modeled on the British East India Company, with some of the Great Ming's methods for dealing with peasants added on top.

Using the advantages of low welfare and low human rights in the early period, they would rapidly develop the Mekong Delta, pursuing low cost and high output.

After several decades, once the region's economic construction was complete and its culture largely assimilated, they would use some pretext, based on actual needs, to abolish the company's rule and incorporate the Mekong Delta into formal national territory.

Zheng Zhilong said, "Everyone may enter the company by purchasing shares. These are the company's original shares. I trust I don't need to explain how precious these are—you can all understand."

Someone asked, "What if one does not buy shares?"

Zheng Zhilong laughed and said, "Aside from being called a fool, nothing will happen. Buying shares is not mandatory."

That was only the policy at the present stage. Once the company was running and freed from the constraints of morality, law, and strength, pursuing only grain output and profit—what the company would do then, Zheng Zhilong could figure out with his heel.

As soon as he finished speaking, several village elders rose and left.

Zheng Zhilong looked at them as if he were looking at dead men.

However, most villages stayed, though they could not yet say whether they would buy shares—they were still waiting to see.

Someone said, "If this company wants to occupy Water Chenla, I'm afraid the Siamese won't agree so easily, will they?"

Zheng Zhilong could see that most villages shared this doubt, so he said, "This is a question shareholders should discuss. It's only natural for everyone to have concerns. How about signing a defense pact before buying shares?"

The moment he finished speaking, his subordinates brought out a new document.

The document's main content was that Han Chinese villages such as Longchuan Port would form an alliance, with all village militia unified and placed under Nan'ao military training.

If any village came under siege, all would go to its rescue together, changing the old pattern of fighting separately and uniting the villages so they could not be picked off one by one. The document also specified details such as militia provisions, pay, and defense zone assignments.

It also promised that the Nan'ao military would provide some weapons and armor.

The villages could be said to be taking all the advantages without suffering any loss.

The elders examined it for a long time, and in the end, a total of eighteen elders gladly signed.

The troops contributed by the various villages added up to over five hundred and forty men in total.

Because Longchuan Port was located at the center of the villages, the militia assembly point was set near Longchuan Port. Thanks to the Mekong River waterway, even the farthest village could arrive within two days.

After the village elders had left, Zheng Zhilong took a sip of tea, looked at the eighteen names on the defense pact, and smiled.

This pact was the cornerstone of the future "Water Chenla Chartered Agricultural Company."

The next day, militia from the various villages arrived one after another.

Under the commands of the Nan'ao military instructors, the militia lined up in formation on the drill ground beside the floating rice fields, starting with posture drills.

Shitou stood at the very front of the militia formation.

To Zheng Zhilong's surprise, most of these soldiers were physically robust, with good endurance and strength, and many of them had some martial skill.

Given the survival-of-the-fittest law of Water Zhenla and the full-time training supported by abundant rice harvests, it was not strange that the militiamen possessed such capability. However, the militiamen lacked coordination, were especially poor at forming battle arrays, and their weapons and equipment were shockingly inferior—some even used bamboo spears.

The Nan'ao troops brought Ming army cloth-armor, long spears, swords and shields from the ships and issued them to the militiamen, also equipping them with a small number of matchlock muskets.

They also taught simple battle-array coordination, achieving the effect of a simplified Mandarin Duck Formation.

The Nan'ao troops' training was extremely urgent, for Zheng Zhilong knew that to establish the company and obtain land rights in Water Zhenla, fighting a hard battle was unavoidable—amid the shouting and killing cries of the militia training.

Amid the Zhenla army's mobilization and concentration toward the lower reaches of the Mekong River.

Amid the wave-splitting voyages of the whale transport ships.

The world welcomed the eighth year of Tianqi.

Yahei

Pink Round

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