Chapter 79: The Government Is Not a Bandit

Watching the Japanese Samurai suddenly go Furious Hair Rushing to the Crown, then get a gun barrel pressed to his forehead, Cai Feiming laughed and shook his head. He turned to Feng Jun beside him and said, "This guy's acting's not bad — beating around the bush without ever giving a straight answer."

Feng Jun had also seen through the game by now and nodded. "Toying with us, playing Tai Chi, scheming to fob us off."

"Give this dumbass a burst."

"Yeah, give him a burst."

Once they were agreed, Cai Feiming signaled to Wang Xiaohui and the others, who were standing around bored, then turned and poked Dongye Shangche in the chest with a finger, mimicking Dongye's style in a sarcastic drawl. "How troublesome indeed. Please, Dongye-kun, witness something even more rude."

Dongye Shangche watched, dumbstruck, as a large firework trailing white smoke blew the stronghold gate to pieces, and then a Ming man only five paces away used a single bizarre iron cannon to smash the spot on the distant stronghold wall where the Spanish Musket was mounted into splinters — a washbasin-sized breach was blasted into the wall, broken wood flew everywhere, and several people on the ground were screaming.

Once the AK's gunfire fell silent, Cai Feiming grabbed Dongye Shangche by the collar and said with a savage grin, "Played yourself, huh? Heh heh, now you've only got half an incense stick's time left. If you dare trouble the Ming lords to Attack the Stronghold, then we'll send all you bastards to die. Come out obediently and get your papers, and your lives and property will be safe. Go back and talk it over yourselves."

Three stumbling Japanese went back.

Watching their retreating figures, Feng Jun said thoughtfully, "They won't come charging out in a Pig Rush in a bit, will they? Japan's good at that — a wave of glory."

"That's soldiers, or cannon-fodder Ronin." Cai Feiming lit a Cigarette and said unhurriedly, "Red Seal Ships are something only Japan's great Nobility and big merchants have the Capability to organize. A foreign trade mission leader like Horse-face is a slick, all-around professional Factory Manager, a gold-collar man of the Samurai class — long since risen above lowbrow pursuits. If he indulges his personality and costs the big shots behind him their property, think he'll meet a good end when he goes back?"

Just when the invaders outside were growing impatient, the people inside the stronghold finally filed out. No one had realized it before, but the stronghold actually disgorged three hundred people in one rush. Seeing the situation turning bad, Feng Jun hastily pulled the Walkie-Talkie from the back of his waist and called for backup. Before long, a large group of Transmigrators arrived with their men, coordinated with the squad to separate these people by nationality, and then began clearing them out one by one.

Apart from the stronghold's original hundred-plus Japanese, the remaining people included over zero Fujian Fishermen. After herding all those characters to One Side, what was finally left — the Majority — were over a hundred Banda Slaves the Dutch had shipped to Dayuan.

Five years ago, in 16, the current Governor of Batavia, Coen, in order to Monopoly the Nutmeg trade, launched a purge of the Banda Island Natives. The cause was the Natives secretly trading spices with Britain.

Over 15,000 Banda Natives were killed, and all the Remaining were sent off to various places as Slaves. The Banda Natives were thus exterminated. Of the Banda Slaves who once participated in building fortifications at Penghu and Dayuan, only this hundred or so now remained, with a few Malay mixed in among them.

All the Bandanese were loaded onto ships and transported back to their home — the Shanty Area at the foot of Shang Hall. The Fujian Fishermen, wearing brown and blue ramie-cloth native jackets and with their hair in buns, were all herded onto the Japanese Red Seal Ship "Deer House" to serve as Temporary Crewmen — the rudder cables had been found and seized from the stronghold, and the ship was temporarily commandeered to ferry people and goods back and forth.

The hundred or so Japanese sporting various styles of Moon-head Hairstyle were classified as key surveillance targets. These people were mostly merchants and their attendants, plus some Crewmen. The Japan people were gathered together in the open ground before the stronghold gate, kneeling in rows, surrounded on all sides by gun-toting thugs.

As for how to deal with this lot, that still depended on the higher-ups' opinion. But everyone knew what the higher-ups were busy with at the moment, so naturally no one had time for them.

The most plentiful goods in Japanese Village were Deerskin. This soft hide was the best lining for Samurai armor, and it was the single greatest driving force behind Japan's years of scheming to get a foothold in Tainan. In the early period, Japan had favored seizing Tainan by force, but after a 4,000-man force was wiped out by a Typhoon in 1615, they sent people again the following year to "collect taxes," only to return in defeat.

From then on, the Japanese began using trade to obtain Deerskin. By improving relations with the Natives, the Japanese gained permission to Construct a base in the Taijiang interior. With this stronghold, they could station merchants year-round to buy up Deerskin on the spot, so that when the Red Seal Ships arrived in winter, they would find the goods already stockpiled.

Of Course, due to the difference in nature, the Crossing Faction naturally could not simply swallow up the Japanese goods and wealth in one gulp the way they had confiscated the Dutch's goods.

Although the Dutch were latecomers, they were Without a Doubt exercising governmental authority in Dayuan. The war between the Transmigration Company and the East India Company was a textbook Power Base struggle. The Japanese stronghold, however, was in essence a foreign trade station — the same breed as a Cold Storage or a scrap collection depot.

The Transmigrators had labored all the way to Dayuan with the aim of establishing a Government and building a new world order. Robbing everyone on sight was the work of the most low-class Bandits, not a Government.

Therefore, when the newly opened Dayuan Government leader, Mr. Xia Xianze, saw the Japanese silver bars, he immediately convened an on-site meeting and pointed out from a commanding height: Establishing a Ticket-based National Trade System is a hot issue in current international trade and a vital Consensus that all participating parties Be Sure To reach under the new circumstances. Considering the favorable situation of years of good-neighborly friendship between the Transmigrator and Japanese sides, it is a Necessity for Both Sides to take cooperation a step further and set an example for other members in multilateral trade.

Based on the principle of mutual benefit, Xia Xianze pointed out that the Transmigrator Group should fully leverage its own Advantage to help the Japanese merchants, whose technical Capability is not strong, maximize the value of their trade goods. In this process, the Japanese side gains the opportunity to upgrade its trade system to the advanced Ticket-based system and acquires valuable experience, while the friendship between Both Sides is further strengthened. This will allow them to occupy the commanding heights in the foreseeable, ever-growing multilateral trade landscape of the future.

Regarding the Transmigrator Group itself, Xia Xianze pointed out: The current international trade situation is complex. As the initiator of Ticket-based Trading, we are crossing the river by feeling the stones, and some problems will Be Unlikely To avoided in the future. We must Be Prepared To this mentally. Specifically regarding the Japanese silver, no matter how much gold and other precious metals are refined from it, we must accept it calmly. We must charge no smelting fees, leave no unsettled accounts, let the tickets be king, and keep the books clear.

The Temporary meeting also discussed several other issues concerning the Japanese merchants and ultimately made the following decisions:

1: Considering that uninformed Japanese merchants have a certain probability of resisting the Ticket-based system, the Crossing Faction has decided to waive for them One Part of the taxes they should have paid but evaded on Deerskin purchased here over the previous ten years.

: Considering that Dayuan's Shanty Area is already overburdened, the Japanese merchants are permitted to stay temporarily in the village for One Section of time but must relocate as soon as possible in the future.

: All goods in the village must be registered and stored in Dayuan's warehouses. Storage fees may be appropriately reduced or waived for the Japanese merchants. Henceforth, Japanese merchants may not privately purchase local specialty products from local residents.

The meeting also discussed other outstanding matters.