Ming East India Company

Over the next ten days or so, Bai Kecheng and his men planted sesbania on hundreds of acres of burnt land. This bean is resilient, tolerant of moisture and barren soil, and can survive without much care.

Bai Kecheng also cut down several large trees to build a long fence to prevent wild animals from entering and ravaging the fields.

Before setting off, Bai Kecheng had suggested in his proposal to develop the Tohan Island by directly granting land to the first group of immigrants, imitating the land grant system that Bai Ye had implemented in Ryukyu. However, this suggestion was quickly rejected by Bai Ye.

These immigrants from the East were accustomed to the climate of the East, and the newcomers might not be able to adapt. Without guidance, they might be overwhelmed by poisonous snakes and miasma in the first year. Therefore, Bai Ye suggested that Bai Kecheng eat "communal meals" in the first year, with everyone working and sharing the spoils, so as to learn how to survive in this unfamiliar land as quickly as possible.

Bai Kecheng thought with a wry smile, "I hope Bai Ye will keep his promise to support me for three years!" He had always been jealous of Bai Ye's position, but now he needed Bai Ye's help to survive on Dongfan Island.

"Master, this isn't a solution!" Fu Wenhe's voice interrupted Bai Kecheng's thoughts.

"What happened?"

"It's been a month since we arrived on the island, and of the original nine hundred slaves, forty or fifty have already run away," Fu Wenhe reported with great concern.

"Why are so many ships running? Aren't our ships under strict surveillance?"

Knowing that the slaves might escape once they arrived on the island, Bai Kecheng maintained very strict control over the ships. All sails were lowered, all rudders were locked, and even the crew and slaves lived separately to prevent them from communicating.

"They're heading inland! How can we possibly keep an eye on such a big island?!" Fu Wenhe was almost in tears.

Bai Kecheng calmly gave an "Oh," knowing it was time to take this opportunity to properly "educate" the slaves on the island.

The next day, Bai Kecheng led a dozen crew members inland to "pursue" the escaped slaves.

Around noon, the pursuit team returned to the camp, bringing back several gruesome corpses and two mentally broken slaves.

The flesh on the corpse had been removed, the abdominal cavity had been emptied, and the head had been taken away, leaving only a blood-red skeleton with chunks of flesh attached.

The slaves present screamed in terror, and Bai Kecheng, too lazy to explain, began interrogating the two survivors directly.

The two survivors were named Todo Jūjū and Todo Jūjū. At this time, many of the lower classes in Japan were sexually deprived, so when Hakuno loaded them onto the ship, he simply sorted them by the surnames of the slave owners who sold them and added numbers.

"What happened to you guys last night? Why did the others turn out like this?" Bai Kecheng asked with interest.

"The day before yesterday, we discussed that since this island is so big, we should go to a place far from the sea to cultivate the land and harvest the crops ourselves, so we wouldn't have to be slaves anymore, so we escaped from the camp together."

The night before last, fearing an attack by wild animals, we lit a campfire. In the middle of the night, a dozen or so strange men, shirtless, with feathers and red markings on their faces, surrounded us. They were carrying spears, and we had no weapons, so we were no match for them.

They captured us, and then yesterday morning a bunch of people gathered. They started a fire on the spot, tied us to a tree, and the other brothers kept shouting, but they just kept laughing...

When it was our turn, you arrived, Commander. They were so frightened by your musket from afar that they dropped the corpses and ran away..."

After Toudou XVI finished his account, Bai Kecheng asked Toudou XVIII, and since their accounts matched, Bai Kecheng carried them away.

"You've all seen it. This island isn't some no-man's-land. You think the camp is your prison and I'm your jailer, but actually I'm protecting you. Once you leave the camp, these natives will treat you like livestock..."

The slaves present were terrified by the horrific scene before them and by Todo Jūroku's account. They knelt down and kowtowed to Bai Kecheng, swearing that they would never escape again.

Sure enough, the slaves on the island behaved themselves after that, and no more reports of escapes were submitted.

Bai Kecheng knew that no matter how well he treated the slaves, they were still slaves. Every slave had the desire and impulse to regain their freedom, and it was normal for them to escape.

What unites these slaves is only fear.

As an important stop on the shipping route between the Ming Dynasty and Japan, many Ming Dynasty ships would stop in this area to replenish fresh water and food.

As a result, conflicts with the island's indigenous people broke out.

At that time in the Ming Dynasty, most of the sailors who were willing to go to sea were refugees after the land was annexed, and some were even bandits who had traveled all over the country to rob and plunder.

Moreover, they had no intention of developing Jilongtou in the long term, so their attitude towards the local people was one of short-sighted exploitation.

It was commonplace for them to bully men and women, take away unharvested crops from the fields, demolish the wooden houses of the natives, and even eat the natives as "foreign paste" when they were starving.

Over time, the local people came to regard these "invaders" as demons and monsters, and whenever they had the chance to capture prisoners, they would have a feast.

In recent days, when Bai Kecheng's troops were stationed, the locals dared not attack them because of their large numbers. Anyone who was separated from the group would inevitably suffer misfortune.

This is also one of the reasons why Bai Kecheng chose to develop in Jilongtou. By taking advantage of the conflict between the local people and the Hakka people, he can better control these slaves for his own use.

Having gradually gained a foothold, Bai Kecheng looked northeast and secretly vowed:

"Bai Ye, you just wait. I refuse to believe I can't achieve something even greater than you. The position of head of the Bai family will be mine sooner or later."

……

"Are you sure you're not raising a tiger to cause trouble?" Inside the royal palace of Shuri Castle in Ryukyu, Bai Ling was incredulous upon hearing Bai Ye's decision.

"Who is Bai Kecheng? Don't you know him? I know him well enough. He's always coveted the position of head of the Bai family. It's fine if you keep him by your side, but if you send him out to develop on his own, aren't you afraid he'll build up his own power and one day threaten you?"

When Bai Ling was doing business before, she was often targeted by Bai Kecheng, but she had no intention of vying for the position of family head, so she couldn't be bothered with him.

Shiro calmly took a sip of the tea on the table:

"Of course I know what he wants to do. He is definitely thinking of taking another piece of territory for the clan, just like I took Ryukyu for the whole clan, so that he can rival me."

"Then why did you agree to let him go to the Eastern Barbarians, and even provided him with supplies and slaves?"