In mid-to-late December, Hezhong Fort was full of busy scenes. As an important transfer center for the African route of the East Coast Republic of China, after nearly a year of hard construction, a large storage base has been basically completed on the west side of the Hezhong Fort wall.

This storage base is directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Materials, with hundreds of warehouses of all sizes and sizes, and has extremely strong storage capacity. Currently, there are 75,000 white cotton cloths, 10,000 dyed cloths, 2,000 woolen wool, 3,000 flintlock rifles, 20 cannons of various types, 20 armor, 5,000 sabers, as well as various miscellaneous materials such as grain, building materials, salt, medicine, canned food, wood, and other miscellaneous materials.

After this storage base is completed, ships on the east coast of Mozambique Island and Suez Port can be loaded directly from Hezhong Port, saving about a month's voyage than starting from Oriental Port. In the future, after Xinhuaburg in Xinhuaxia region begins to take shape, a large transfer center will be built there to store a large amount of goods from the east coast and South Africa, which will facilitate trade with East Africa, the Middle East and India.

In order to protect the security of this important warehouse base, the new commander of the South African garrison army, the company commander of the Second Company of the Army, and Lieutenant Zhu Liang also set up the army barracks inside the warehouse, and he also served as the base director. At the same time, hundreds of Betsmisalaka slaves who had just been sent from the New China area were also organized and began to expand the wall of Hezhong Fort west under the supervision of the people of the Eight Banners, striving to enclose the warehouse with the city wall.

When this group of Betsmisalaka slaves, known as "islanders" by the locals in Hezhongbao, were transported to the local area, about 900 people were alive. After listing the women and children separately, there were about 400 adult male slaves left. Not long after these adult men were conquered, they were transported to a strange place thousands of miles away. It is impossible to say that they have no hatred for the East Coast people in their hearts. Therefore, even if the local area lacks manpower, these new islanders cannot use them immediately.

So as soon as these people were transported, Mo Ming signed a decree, demoting these people, regardless of gender, age, to slaves, and then allocated them to the lower two flags. At the same time, he also took the opportunity to raise some of the slave slaves who were more loyal and performing well on weekdays, pardoned them and their families' slave identities, and raised them into the upper six flags. From then on, he became free bannermen.

The islanders who were incorporated into the lower two banners will undergo a long period of labor reform. During this period, some senior slaves of the lower two banners will "bring the new with the old" and tell these newcomers some local rules and common sense, so as not to lose their lives in a mess. Only after the labor reform period is over will the superiors send people to select some islanders who are still loyal to the daily life to train sailors, and then organize them into the merchant fleet of the East Coast Republic to act as slave sailors on the ship. If they do well or show bravery in battle, they will have the opportunity to get rid of their slave status for themselves and their families and rise to the upper six flags of freedom.

Of course, they are all slaves at this moment, except for some young single women. Given that more than half of the 600 new immigrants (400 French and 200 Guarani) who were sent to the Hezhong Fort a while ago were bachelor men, Mo Ming took the initiative to select more than 300 young single women from the newly arrived islanders and gave them to the new French immigrants, which won the hearts of the people. At the same time, these women were also considered to be free from the sea of ​​suffering and got rid of the slave identity that was particularly terrifying to women.

After the attempt of the East Coast people to go east to capture slaves was frustrated a few months ago, it has been difficult for the Eight Banners tribe to replenish personnel, not to mention that they have to continue to "transfusion" and send slave laborers to their hometowns and New China. This group of more than 900 islanders is a rare replenishment of personnel in recent times, and the Eight Banners chiefs were all happy.

Since the establishment of the Eight Banners of South Africa in July 1638, after more than two years of rectification and development, the total population of the Eight Banners of South Africa (not counting out-of-slave workers) has remained almost 11,000. Among them, the number of people above the samurai (spikemen) is about 3,000. Most of these samurai are full-time people, who train martial arts and military formations together for many years, and also participate in political and cultural studies organized by some East Coast people. At present, both combat effectiveness and loyalty are relatively reassuring, and they are already an important armed force to guard the Hezhong Fort.

The previous failure of the eastward advance, more than 60 soldiers were lost, but this does not mean that the East Coast people gave up their attempt to capture slaves from the eastward advance. In June after the summer harvest this year, the bannermen and slaves of the Red and Green flags received a transfer order from the South African garrison headquarters, ordering them to bring tents, cattle, sheep and family squats to the east, and to the foot of the Dongshan Mountains, and then grazed and settled there. Although the chiefs of the two flags were extremely reluctant, they chose to obey after seeing Mo Ming's cold gaze. Of course, Mo Ming did not treat them unfairly. Not only were most of the slaves recently raised from the two flags allocated to them, but they also supported a batch of breastplate, sabers and other equipment. The South African cavalry company even sent officers to guide these black people to ride war horses to strengthen their combat effectiveness.

As for the main garrisons of the two flags, the new commander of the South African garrison, Lieutenant Zhu Liang, even took people there to conduct field surveys. In the end, the garrison was selected at the junction of the Berg River and the Dongshan Mountains that run north and south. Later, South Africa's Gouda area was close to the lake in the south. The water and grass are abundant here, and there are many animals and plants. Often, some Xhosa people from the river valleys on the east mountain drove cattle and sheep to grazing here.

This place is a very sensitive area for the current Hezhong Fort. That is, on the one hand, the large tribes of the Xhosa often come here to graz, and on the other hand, the Dutch people who are away from the Pudong area are also closer. The Dutch people can not consider it for now. Although these people are strong and have many ships, their stalls are too large, which greatly diminishes their power. Therefore, in the southwest corner of South Africa, the people on the east coast can temporarily avoid the Dutch people taking the initiative to take the initiative to take the initiative. Of course, small actions in secret may be inevitable, but they can be dealt with.

Mo Ming from Hezhongbao certainly knew what the consequences of extending his tentacles to this sensitive area. Especially when the Executive Committee is now fully committed to developing the New China Colony and South Africa needs to calm down, he forcibly drove the indigenous people of the two flags to enter the Dongshan Mountains and it is likely to provoke a new round of conflict with the newly rising large indigenous tribe on the other side of the mountain.

But so what? In Mo Ming's eyes, the population of Hezhong Fort has reached an unprecedented 3,700 people. It is possible to mobilize more than 1,500 militias at will. In addition, the elite Second Army Company and thousands of Eight Banners warriors may not be able to touch the black tribe, which is said to have tens of thousands of warriors.

The Eight Banners under his command have not had a new population for a long time. Do you expect them to have children to increase the population if they don’t plunder these ready-made black indigenous people? Moreover, the Executive Committee is now increasingly dependent on labor dispatch workers in South Africa. It has sent more than 7,000 people but still cannot satisfy the local appetite. The Executive Committee is still urging itself to increase the supply of labor to the local area. At the same time, the New China is also repeatedly begging itself to send more slaves.

"Damn, who do I owe?" Many times, Mo Ming would think like this with some annoyance, "These people only know to constantly ask me for slaves, but never look at me directly. Even if they ask for a shipyard, they will not approve it, let alone any important industrial projects here in the future. Humph, do you think I am an honest man and can bully me? It seems that no one will miss me if I don't make any noise here. Well, as you wish, Zhu Liang, the new company commander of the Second Army Company, is also a very popular person. Then I will make some noise for you to avoid thinking that I am very peaceful and unwilling to give me even a little support."

In June, the red and green flags advanced to the foot of the mountain, some Xhosa herders who had crossed the Berg River valley to the west of the mountain because they could not obtain enough forage in winter and suddenly discovered that the original homeless land had been occupied. Moreover, these new guys were well-equipped and fierce in nature, and they even took their cattle and sheep without saying a word. Even many herders who did not run fast enough were captured and locked up.

The conflict between the two sides broke out and reached the end of August. That month, more than a dozen bands of Xhosa who sneaked over from Shandong had several fierce small-scale melee fights with the Eight Banners warriors. As a result, the Eight Banners warriors with significantly better equipment gained the upper hand. They wore armor, sharp spears and sabers to kill the Xhosa people with wooden spears, and fled in a panic.
Chapter completed!