Bringing the Railway to Daming

The later Banjarmasin was founded on the Lito River delta, a small coastal alluvial plain with dense rivers. From the coast to the inland, the terrain progresses from beach to jungle and then to forest.

At the place where the Chu Fan fleet landed, this indigenous tribe had lived there for who knows how many years. The largest ship and fleet they had ever seen came from the Majapahit Kingdom in the south of the sea.

However, the largest warships brought here by the Majapahit Kingdom were only seven or eight hundred tons, and there were only dozens of boats at most.

Even so, it was a huge fleet in the eyes of this native tribe that only had canoes.

As for the fleet of Chu Fan before them, the smallest ship was over 2,000 tons, and the first five warships were all over 3,000 tons, among which the "Juyang" was a giant ship of nearly 5,000 tons!

Hundreds of large ships entered the port, and in the eyes of the local natives, the scene was like clouds of sails and forests of flags. It was beyond their imagination, so much so that shock and curiosity occupied their minds and they forgot to think about anything else.

Until the Chu army landed, these natives subconsciously felt fear and fled back to their wooden houses and closed the doors, but they could not help but continue to watch the fleet and the Chu army through the cracks in the houses.

Zhu Zhen naturally would not get off the boat at this time.

He was on the second deck, looking at the land in front of him through a telescope, feeling an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.

'This is where I started to build the Great Chu.'

"Although this native tribe hasn't cultivated much land, it has saved us a lot of trouble - at least we don't have to start from the jungle to build a city."

Through the telescope, Zhu Zhen could see that this tribe had about 300 households as reported by the Guangming Guards, which was considered a large tribe here. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to occupy such a good place as the port and the delta.

These indigenous wooden houses are somewhat similar to the southwestern stilt houses, but are more simple.

There are still many rice fields around the tribe. Although it is already October, the rice in those fields is still green and has not grown much. Based on Zhu Zhen's experience in farming, he estimates that the rice will be mature during the Chinese New Year.

There are also some empty paddy fields with a lot of weeds growing on them. If you don’t look carefully, you might mistake them for swamps.

In addition, the rice was sown quite densely and was not transplanted.

From this we can see that although the local farming technology cannot be called primitive, it is not advanced either. At least it is far inferior to the rice planting technology of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, Zhu Zhen also saw through the telescope that many families had canoes in front of their houses, as well as dried fish and fish skins drying in the sun - it seemed that many of the natives were wearing short skirts made of fish skin.

Yes, whether it is linen, fish skin or straw, there is only a short skirt and no top.

Even among the native women, only a few young ones wore simple brassieres woven from linen, shells or grass leaves.

Soon, Zhu Zhen saw Counselor Chen Ju and Captain Jiang Qing leading hundreds of guards into the tribal building complex - the natives were still hiding in the houses, and no one came out to resist or communicate.

But after a while, an old native man wearing a linen skirt, with gray hair and a gold necklace was brought out by officials and guards and sent to the Juyang.

"Your Majesty, this man is the chief of the Machen tribe." Chen Ju explained.

At the same time, Ouyang Gao, the translator who was following him, muttered something to the chief.

The chief immediately bowed down to Zhu Zhen and muttered a few words.

Ouyang Gao translated, "Your Majesty, this chief is called Madaboda, and he sends you his highest regards. He also expressed his willingness to lead his entire tribe and submit to the State of Chu."

The first tribe he saw after landing was easily conquered. Although this was due to his many preparations in advance, Zhu Zhen was still very happy.

He smiled and nodded, saying, "Chief Ma, I don't know if your last name is Ma, but since you have taken the initiative to submit, I will grant you the Han surname Ma - this is my mother's surname."

"In addition, I will reward you with a piece of silk, three pieces of porcelain, and six feet of coarse cotton cloth for each household in the tribe."

"I hope you can lead your tribe, cooperate with the officials, and complete the household registration process so that your people can officially become citizens of the Chu State."

Because the natives had few words, Ouyang Gao had to talk a lot before Chief Madaboda could barely understand what Zhu Zhen meant.

Madabo immediately kowtowed and expressed his gratitude again.

After Ma Dabo was taken away, Zhu Zhen called a few of his staff members from the ship and said, "When we send people to register this tribe later, we should at least give them Chinese surnames, and preferably Chinese names."

"Yes." The staff member in charge of this work responded.

"Is there anything else to discuss?" Zhu Zhen asked.

Chen Ju said, "Your Majesty, even the indigenous nations on this island are far less powerful than our Chu State. I think we can first try to get them to submit."

Zhu Zhen frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "According to the intelligence provided by the Guangming Guards, the Buddhist nation of Tansongpuri is currently weak. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it may be destroyed by the Brahmanic (ancient Hindu) nation of Naghadhaha in a few years."

"Therefore, I believe that I can try to persuade Tansongpuri to surrender, but as for Naghadhaha, I must destroy him by force."

"My soldiers have come with me to this wild land, all hoping to make merit. If we only conquer a few native tribes, how many opportunities will there be for them to make merit?"

After hearing this, Chen Ju knew that Zhu Zhen wanted to establish his authority through a fair war to destroy a country and lay the foundation for the Chu State, so he sighed secretly and said no more about it.

Afterwards, Kuai Mingli, the recorder in charge of construction affairs, asked, "Your Majesty, I have just examined this place. Although the location of the Machen tribe is good, it is a bit small and too close to the beach, making it unsuitable for building a city." "If we want to build a city here, perhaps we can look for a place upstream along the Yantu River."

"Then I will send a hundred guards to protect Master Kuai and his entourage and go looking for them. But they shouldn't stray too far from the port. It's best to stay by the river."

Kuai Mingli was originally a craftsman in the construction industry, but he did not get along with his clansmen, so he took his family to join Zhu Zhen, hoping to make a career overseas.

Seeing Zhu Zhen's trust in him, he became very motivated. He immediately received the order and went to do the work.

Zhu Zhen looked at the others and said, "Ma Chen's tribe is located near this good harbor. Even if we can't build a large city, we must build a small port city."

"Therefore, I have decided to establish a county here, named Chulai County, and the port will be called Chulai Port. In addition, the Lito River will be renamed the Lituo River, which means "power" and "tuo" for development."

Upon hearing this, all the civil and military officials bowed and said in unison, "Your Majesty is wise!"

"Hahaha," Zhu Zhen laughed heartily, a rare occurrence. "Alright, let's get back to work."

Next, the people of the Chu vassal built Chulai Port while waiting for news from Kuai Mingli.

Three days later, Kuai Mingli and the accompanying Captain Li Guang went to the Juyang to report to Zhu Zhen.

"Your Majesty, after my investigation over the past few days, I have found that the area within a few dozen miles, about twenty miles upstream on the Rio Tinto River, is the most suitable place for building a large city. However, it is currently occupied by a large group of natives."

Zhu Zhen asked, "How many households are there in that tribe? How many men are there?"

This time it was Captain Li Guang's turn to answer, "Your Majesty, this tribe has over 300 households and can probably provide around 500 men."

Both Zhu Zhen and Li Guang and others understood that the young and strong men in the native tribes were warriors, but their fighting ability was mostly weak.

Zhu Zhen thought for a moment and said, "Let Chen Ju negotiate with the tribe and ask them to submit and relocate. If they refuse, we will send troops to conquer them."

"Yes!"

The next day, Chen Ju followed Zhu Zhen's orders to go and negotiate. Unfortunately, the tribe was probably not as shocked by the Chu vassal's tall warships and huge fleet as Ma Chen's tribe, so they were unwilling to submit, let alone migrate, and even wanted to detain Chen Ju and other officials.

Fortunately, Chen Ju brought a hundred Chu vassal guards with him.

So the matter changed from communication to rescue, and then to war - the tribe fought with the Chu vassal guards, only to find that their more than 500 "warriors" could not defeat the enemy's 100 people. After more than 100 people were killed, the remaining natives fled into the jungle in a panic.

Because they were worried about using firearms to injure Chen Ju and others who were trapped inside, the Chu vassal guards did not use bird guns at first. Therefore, although they won the battle, three soldiers were killed and more than twenty were injured.

After Chen Ju and Captain Li Guang returned, they were severely scolded by Zhu Zhen.

"Since they are unwilling to submit, you should try to leave and come back to make a long-term plan. Even if we have to attack this tribe, we must annihilate them in one fell swoop."

"Now, look what's happened! Not only have more than twenty soldiers been killed or injured, but most of them have escaped. I'm afraid they'll rely on their familiarity with the area to repeatedly attack our soldiers and civilians!"

Li Guang knew that the main responsibility lay with him, so he immediately knelt on one knee, his face filled with shame and said, "I deserve to die!"

Chen Juze said, "It was my negligence that led to their detention. Captain Li also fought with them because he saved me."

Zhu Zhen snorted, "You two are both wrong. I will punish you later. Now we need to discuss what to do next!"

At this time, Zhang Mianzhi, Zhu Zhen's chief military advisor, said, "Your Majesty, do not be angry. This matter may not be out of control. I have a plan. Even if we cannot capture all the natives, we can eliminate most of their young men, making them no longer a threat."

Zhu Zhen's anger subsided after hearing this. "Mr. Zhang, please tell me your plan."

Zhang Mianzhi said, "The natives don't know how many troops we have, so we can order Captain Li to take seventy or eighty men and some supplies to the base and pretend to occupy it."

"If nothing unexpected happens, within a few days, this tribe will lose their patience and attack Captain Li and his men to recapture their tribal base."

"Your Majesty, please send another force nearby. When they hear Captain Li's signal, they should rush over and surround and annihilate them."

"Also, Captain Li can try to capture some prisoners during the battle. Even if we fail to annihilate them in the end, we can still use them to extract their temporary whereabouts."

Zhu Zhen pondered for a moment after hearing this. Seeing that no one else could offer a better suggestion, he said, "Alright, let's do as Mr. Zhang says. Li Guang, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself from your crimes and make meritorious contributions. If you mess things up again, don't blame the military law for being ruthless!"

Li Guang quickly stated, "I will definitely make meritorious contributions while serving my sentence. If I fail again, I will bring my head to you!"

A day later, Li Guang brought more than 80 guards and a batch of supplies to live in the tribe. He demolished the original houses and built new ones every day, making it look like he had taken over the tribe's nest and lived there permanently.

After only three or four days, the natives who had fled to the jungle could no longer bear it.

But they were not stupid either. They had witnessed the strength of the Chu clan guards before and knew that they could not defeat them alone, so they persuaded another nearby tribe to send more than 300 warriors to help.

So, on the eighth night after Chu Fan arrived in Machen, Li Guang and other guards were besieged by six or seven hundred native warriors at the headquarters! (End of this chapter)