The Dutch had fled.
The natives of the Dadu Kingdom burst into cheers the moment they saw the foreigners running for their ships. Their shouts echoed through the forest and along the beach.
But the celebration did not last long.
Soon, their attention shifted to the musketeers standing in the woods.
The villagers of the Dadu Kingdom tightened their grips on their crude weapons. Some held wooden spears, others clutched clubs or stones tied to sticks. Their knuckles turned pale from the force of their grip, and the nervous tension on their faces was impossible to hide.
These newcomers looked even more terrifying than the Dutch.
If they decided to attack...
The villagers swallowed hard.
"Don't be afraid! They're friends!"
Suddenly, the natives who had arrived earlier with better weapons began shouting loudly.
They lowered the steel sabers in their hands and waved vigorously toward the other group of villagers. Then they started speaking rapidly in their own language, a string of strange sounds that Yao Xingjuan could not understand at all.
The villagers of the Dadu Kingdom looked uncertain at first.
Slowly, the wooden weapons and stone clubs in their hands lowered.
Then the two groups of natives gathered together and began talking loudly in their unfamiliar tongue.
"Wala wala wala..."
"Wala wala..."
No one outside their tribe could make sense of it.
After quite some time passed, the tension finally eased.
The villagers put away their weapons completely.
However, they still did not dare approach.
Instead, they stood at a distance and stared at Yao Xingjuan and his men.
They stared from the left.
Then from the right.
Then they even walked in circles around them, examining them from every angle like curious animals studying a new creature.
Yao Xingjuan chuckled.
He did not mind at all.
Pirates, after all, were probably the best communicators with foreign peoples in this era.
Language barriers were nothing.
Human beings had invented body language precisely for situations like this.
Yao Xingjuan began gesturing with exaggerated movements.
The natives responded with gestures of their own.
You wave your hand, I shake my head.
You smile, I spin around.
You point at the sea, I point at the forest.
Surprisingly, communication slowly started to happen.
Before long, the two sides reached a rough understanding.
Several villagers from the Dadu Kingdom suddenly ran toward the interior of the island.
A short while later, they returned.
With them came a middle-aged man holding a rattan staff.
The staff was clearly no ordinary object.
It symbolized authority.
In fact, its role in the Dadu Kingdom was probably similar to the legendary Beggar Sect leader's Dog-Beating Staff in the martial world.
Wherever the rattan staff pointed, the natives immediately knelt.
One villager stepped forward and began gesturing wildly toward Yao Xingjuan.
He pointed repeatedly at the middle-aged man while shouting the same words again and again.
"Gan Zai Xia A La Mi!"
"Gan Zai Xia A La Mi!"
Yao Xingjuan quickly understood.
So this man was the king of the Dadu Kingdom.
His name was Gan Zai Xia Alami.
The man gave off the unmistakable vibe of a tribal chieftain from some mountain stronghold. He stood there proudly, chest puffed out, looking extremely imposing.
Even though he clearly knew he could not defeat the muskets of Yao Xingjuan's men, he showed not the slightest hint of weakness.
He struck the ground with his rattan staff.
Tok. Tok. Tok.
He said nothing.
But the meaning was obvious.
His expression practically shouted the question.
You outsiders.
You came onto the territory of the Dadu Kingdom.
What exactly do you want?
Yao Xingjuan watched him and thought to himself with amusement.
Oh?
Quite a proud fellow.
Good thing I brought a special artifact designed specifically for dealing with proud fellows like this.
He reached into his robe.
Then he pulled out a small tin box.
The box looked exactly like the one Chen Qianhu had once used at the capital's city gate to amuse children not long ago.
Inside were colorful candies from the Heavenly Realm.
Fruit candies in bright red, purple, yellow, and green.
Yao Xingjuan opened the lid.
He took out a single candy and tossed it into his own mouth.
Then he handed the rest of the box to one of the natives.
The native carefully held the box with both hands and knelt before Gan Zai Xia Alami.
Alami maintained a proud expression.
His face clearly said:
I refuse to believe such a tiny thing could taste good.
But then he saw Yao Xingjuan rolling the candy around in his mouth with his tongue, clearly enjoying it.
The king hesitated.
If the other tribe's leader was eating it like that...
Then refusing to do the same might make him look weak.
Finally, he pinched a red candy between two fingers and tossed it into his mouth.
The next moment...
The king's proud, smug expression shattered completely.
His face instantly transformed into the look of someone who had just discovered a miracle.
A man who had clearly never experienced such flavor in his entire life.
Alami hummed happily.
Then he whispered something to the villager beside him.
The villager hurried over to Yao Xingjuan and began gesturing enthusiastically.
Yao Xingjuan understood immediately.
He pointed at the red candy.
"Fruit candy. Strawberry flavor."
Alami slowly repeated the strange words.
"Fruit candy... strawberry flavor."
From that moment onward, the native language of Yizhou Island gained a new foreign loanword.
Fruit candy.
Strawberry flavor.
Yao Xingjuan then picked up a purple candy.
"Fruit candy. Grape flavor."
Alami copied him and tossed another candy into his mouth.
Once again, the king revealed the delighted expression of a man seeing the world for the first time.
At this point, His Majesty had completely confirmed something.
This box of candies...
Was treasure.
No doubt about it.
Soon his tongue was rolling the candy around his mouth exactly the same way Yao Xingjuan had done earlier.
His cheeks bulged left and right as he sucked on the hard candy.
The proud aura from before had completely vanished.
One villager stepped forward and began gesturing again.
Yao Xingjuan understood instantly.
They wanted more candy.
They wanted to trade.
Yao Xingjuan grinned.
Success.
He had established a connection with the king of the Dadu Kingdom.
With that bridge built, operating in the central region of Yizhou Island would become far easier.
At this time, the island was effectively divided into three sections.
The northern coast and the southern coast were both under the control of Western colonists.
But the central region of the island was still firmly controlled by the Dadu Kingdom.
Building a good relationship with the Dadu Kingdom meant gaining a foothold in the middle of the island.
After more rounds of energetic gesturing, King Gan Zai Xia Alami ordered his people to bring gifts.
They returned carrying a large basket filled with betel nuts, mangoes, and pineapples.
These were presented as return gifts for the precious fruit candies Yao Xingjuan had given him.
The Dadu Kingdom even designated several coastal villages where Yao Xingjuan's group could safely trade with the natives.
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
---
Liaodong
Shengjing
Binsheng and his eleven subordinates were walking through a massive crowd of Korean captives.
During the Qing invasion of Joseon, the Qing army had not only captured two important hostages.
The Crown Prince Sohyeon.
And Prince Bongrim.
They had also captured half a million people.
This had always been one of the Qing's standard strategies.
Whenever they invaded Ming territory, they would seize large numbers of Han Chinese and bring them back to their own lands as laborers.
This policy had allowed their national strength to grow rapidly.
People often cursed them as "Tungusic barbarians."
But compared with certain so called "civilized nations" that loved to massacre entire populations and wipe out conquered peoples completely, the Manchus actually understood economic development far better.
Binsheng walked slowly among the prisoners.
After observing for a while, he selected several hundred craftsmen with useful skills.
Then he picked a number of strong young men capable of heavy labor.
Soon he organized a small workshop.
He took out a blueprint.
Then he tossed it onto the table in front of the Korean craftsmen.
"Make this."
The drawing showed a bearing.
The Koreans had no choice.
They began working.
Binsheng then turned around and reported to Hong Taiji.
"Your Majesty, these Korean craftsmen constantly weep because they miss their homeland. Their work efficiency is extremely poor."
Hong Taiji frowned slightly when he heard this.
"The Ming Empire's great iron vehicles are already stationed near our borders."
"We urgently need our own iron vehicles to counter them."
"If the craftsmen refuse to work properly…"
"How can that possibly do?"