50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 762 Can the locals handle it?

When everyone in the hall heard that it was a village to the west, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Then a few young men chuckled and gloated.

Because the villages and towns to the west of their town are all newly arrived Javanese immigrants.

Since they arrived, backed by the army, they have bullied the Chinese in the town quite a bit, but faced with the dark muzzles of guns, everyone dared not speak out.

After listening to Sun Zhiwei's description, several elderly men pondered for a moment, then went to call over a few young men and whispered a few instructions to them.

Upon hearing the instructions, the young men rushed out of the hotel lobby. Soon after, Sun Zhiwei saw the young men riding bicycles toward the west side of the island.

Sun Zhiwei ignored them and started eating the Cantonese dim sum on the table.

You know what, many foods only taste good when they come from time-honored brands that have been passed down through generations.

The chef at this hotel on Grand Natuna Island must have a family recipe passed down through generations, as the tea and snacks he makes are very authentic.

Over the past few decades, whether in Beijing or Guangdong, Sun Zhiwei had rarely had the chance to enjoy such authentic and delicious dim sum, so he naturally wanted to savor it thoroughly.

Half an hour later, as Sun Zhiwei was finishing his breakfast, a commotion arose outside, growing louder and louder.

It turned out that the young men who had gone out on their bicycles had returned, bringing with them the latest news from the villages and towns in western Java.

Soon, a crowd gathered around several young men and led them into the hotel lobby. They quickly approached one of the elderly men and began loudly reporting what they had seen.

“Grandpa, I went with Tiger and the others and saw it clearly. Those villages are really gone, and many corpses are still soaking in the water.”

"Have you found anyone alive?" The old man raised an eyebrow and quickly asked.

"I didn't see it anyway." As he spoke, the young man looked at his companions, who all shook their heads when they saw him looking at them.

Upon seeing this, the old man pondered for a moment before saying to a young man, "Go and inform the clansmen in the town not to go to the west in the next few days."

After one young man left, he called out to another: "After a major disaster comes a major epidemic. Go and inform the captain of the guard team to organize a checkpoint on the west side of the town and prevent those people from entering the town."

Hearing this from afar, Sun Zhiwei wholeheartedly agreed with the old man's assessment.

After the flood, the disaster area becomes a high-incidence period for malignant infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever, and cholera. The fact that the elder could predict and prevent it in advance shows that he was very experienced in such matters.

Sure enough, he soon learned from others that the old man was the traditional Chinese medicine doctor at the town's clinic.

After giving his instructions, the old man finished his breakfast early and returned to the clinic in town to prepare medicine, the most important of which was cinchona bark.

As early as the 16th century, cinchona seeds were brought from Peru by Dutch colonists and were widely cultivated in the Java region.

It is possible that the climate in the Java region was particularly suitable for the growth of cinchona trees. Subsequently, cinchona trees flourished everywhere in the area, and quinine became a specialty of the Dutch colony.

It is said that Emperor Kangxi was cured of malaria by quinine brought by missionaries, and from then on, quinine was regarded as a holy medicine of the West.

So much so that if officials fell ill and wanted medicine, they had to write a memorial, and the emperor needed an imperial edict to grant it. They probably never imagined that cinchona trees were everywhere in Java.

In the 1960s, our country also began to promote the planting of cinchona trees in Yunnan, Guizhou and other places. Later, when we were providing aid to monkeys, we helped them plant more than 2 million trees. Therefore, Sun Zhiwei was not surprised that the old Chinese medicine doctor had cinchona bark.

Sun Zhiwei then spent the whole day in the town, observing everyone there, and quickly found the youth group in the town.

His local leader was Gu Jinhua, the captain of the town's guard.

On the same day the tsunami struck, Gu Jinhua sent the message to the Chinese communities in the eastern towns of Nani and Padang, urging them to prepare for the plague in advance.

After confirming Gu Jinhua's identity, he didn't rush to visit her, but instead sent a telegram to Subi Island.

Sun Zhiwei told them to bring enough medicine, and then the whole team came to move things.

That evening, the transport ship from Subi Island arrived at the naval base on Grand Natuna Island with a large force.

Sun Zhiwei was already waiting there; the ships he had taken away last night had all been returned to the harbor dock.

After Dong Haoyang and the others disembarked, Sun Zhiwei first led them across the flood-soaked ruins of the base to find the entrance to the warehouse on the hillside.

"There's no one here anymore, so everything in this warehouse is ours. There's also an army base across the street with a lot of supplies."

"There are also dozens of ships in the port. You need to take them and move everything usable back with you."

The reserves of supplies in the tens of thousands of tons were indeed frightening. Considering that the cargo ship they came on only had a capacity of 2 tons, it was impossible to transport these supplies quickly. Dong Haoyang was also a little worried.

However, they quickly came up with a solution: sending a group of people to Pontianak to rent several cargo ships. With the Huang family as guarantors, this was not a difficult task.

Seeing that they had a solution, Sun Zhiwei stopped worrying about it and instead instructed Dong Haoyang to take the medicine to the local Chinese community on the island, specifically mentioning the guard captain of that small town.

There are no Javanese troops left on the island, but there are still some Javanese people in the two large towns in the east, who occupy all the town management positions.

The locals naturally dared not resist in the past because the Javanese had an army behind them.

But now that the Javanese army has been completely wiped out, if they still can't deal with the few hundred people left behind, then Sun Zhiwei feels there's no point in saving them; let them fend for themselves.

At that point, he will have no choice but to start from scratch, immigrate from the mainland, and hold a referendum.

At the same time, he also thought about the population problem here. The local population of 20,000 was far from enough to completely occupy this strategic location.

Although our family lacks everything, we have no shortage of people.

Many impoverished villages in old revolutionary base areas could be relocated entirely, with houses and land provided upon arrival. He believes that some people would definitely be tempted.

The next day, Dong Haoyang brought the medicine to the small town in the north where Sun Zhiwei had stayed, and met the guard captain Gu Jinhua through the donation of medicine.

He subtly reminded Gu Jinhua of his identity and asked if they could deal with the remaining Javanese, and whether they needed his help.

Gu Jinhua dared not easily trust a stranger, so she only verbally agreed and then went to report the situation to the clan elders in the town.

(End of this chapter)