Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

Upon hearing this news, Lin Hao dared not delay and quickly summoned two guards to bring Lin Yi and Uncle Fu over. Then, he began to recalculate the number of helpers in the entire village.

This calculation revealed a problem: the proportion of young and middle-aged people had increased significantly compared to a few days ago, even after Lin Hao had taken 30 of them away.

This means that the new recruits are mostly young and middle-aged, and their numbers are not small.

Lin Hao had initially thought that the women and elderly from distant villages were unable to come, but now it seemed that they were all military households.

When Lin Yi and Uncle Fu arrived, Lin Hao asked Uncle Fu about the situation.

"Young master, you mean military households? Yes, there are. There's a centurion's office nearby, which belongs to the Dinghai thousand-household office. They sent people to work there a couple of days ago, and there should be about forty or fifty of them now," Uncle Fu replied after thinking for a moment.

"Forty or fifty people! Didn't so many cause any trouble?" Lin Hao asked curiously.

"Trouble? They dare! They're just a bunch of impoverished military households. Giving them work is already a huge favor. Cause trouble? Do they even deserve it?" Uncle Fu said indifferently, clearly looking down on these people.

Seeing Lin Hao's solemn expression, Uncle Fu finally spoke again, "Young Master, these military households are not like those of our great-grandfather. The military households nowadays are very poor. Ten people who come to work here can't even afford a complete set of clothes. They are all emaciated and barely clothed. They eat like starving ghosts. Young Master, there is no need to be so afraid."

Starting yesterday, due to the huge whaling harvest, the Lin family began providing some meat to the workers. Previously, they had to bring their own dry rations. The fact that they could leave such a deep impression on Uncle Fu, this kind old man, in just one day shows how well these people are doing.

"Is that so?" Lin Hao knew that the garrison system had collapsed severely at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but he had never actually seen the specifics.

"Uncle Fu, please have a few military households come over. I'll ask them about the situation." Lin Hao decided to ask first.

He was very interested in the military household system, although it has now completely collapsed, its original great value cannot be denied.

The military household system allowed the Ming Dynasty to maintain a large army at minimal cost, without significantly impacting the lives of its citizens.

Although the military household system completely collapsed by the end of the Ming Dynasty, this only meant that the military households were poor and lacked fighting power. However, their mobilization capacity was still fully preserved. Even more than a decade later, there were still hungry military households who traveled thousands of miles to serve the emperor. Regardless of whether they could fight, they really came.

Without the military household system as a safety net, the Ming Dynasty would have perished long ago. But if the Ming Dynasty had the capacity to rearm its military households, it would not have fallen.

An army composed of elite recruits could easily deal with bandits, bully Japanese daimyo, southwestern chieftains, and even nomadic tribes of the Great Mongol Empire.

However, waging a national war against the Later Jin, whose entire population was mobilized for war, was a bit of a challenge. In such a large-scale war of attrition, recruiting soldiers was too expensive, and the Ming Dynasty happened to be the one most in need of money.

Not long after, in an empty house, three timid and fearful people were brought before Lin Hao.

Lin Hao did not speak immediately, but first carefully examined the three men. Just as Uncle Fu had said, they had almost no decent clothes on them. They were all shirtless, with only a tattered cloth around their waists to barely cover their private parts. One of them even had half of his buttocks exposed.

However, judging from their skeletal structure, all three have unusual builds and are taller than the average Fujianese person. One of them, in particular, has a noticeably larger frame and is almost 1.8 meters tall, but unfortunately, he is too thin.

This is normal, since although these people's ancestors came from all over the country, they all have one thing in common: their genes are all very good.

The three of them huddled nervously in the corner of the room, heads bowed, not daring to meet Lin Hao's gaze. They gripped the edge of the tattered cloth, which barely qualifyed as pants, tightly in their hands, kneading it repeatedly as if it were about to be squeezed through.

It's hard to imagine that these three people are actually registered military households of the Ming Dynasty—descendants of the invincible army that followed Zhu Yuanzhang to expel the Tartars and restore China.

If I had to use one word to describe them, it would be two words—beggars.

No! Even beggars in slightly larger cities live better than them.

The three stood there in fear for a long time before Lin Hao finally spoke slowly: "What are your names? Which garrison do you belong to? Why are you here?"

The three men exchanged glances, and finally, the largest one standing at the front answered with a forced smile, "Replying to young master, my name is Zhang Dingyuan, and these two are Liu Qiang and Sun Ning. We are both military households under the Dinghai Thousand-Household Garrison. We heard that we can get paid for work here, so we came to beg for food... Please have pity on us, young master, and don't send us away."

As Zhang Dingyuan spoke, he and the other two knelt down before Lin Hao and kowtowed.

"Alright, get up."

Lin Hao raised his hand, his tone calm, "As long as you answer my questions truthfully, I won't interfere with your work. But if you dare to conceal anything—"

His gaze darkened: "I, Lin, am not a soft-hearted person."

"Yes, yes, I understand. I will certainly tell you everything I know."

The three of them agreed in unison and hurriedly got up.

"Since you are garrison soldiers, why don't you stay here to work instead of guarding the garrison?" Lin Hao asked bluntly.

Zhang Dingyuan gave a bitter laugh, his tone full of helplessness: "Young Master, it's precisely because we are garrison soldiers that we have to come out and work. The imperial court hasn't paid our wages for half a year. If we don't find a way, our whole families will starve to death. As for garrisoning... Dinghai City is in ruins now, there's really nothing to defend."

"Who is in charge of the Dinghai Thousand-Household Office now?" Lin Hao pressed.

"I heard that the imperial court sent a deputy general to take charge last year, but we don't know who it is. However, since the garrison is in such a dilapidated state, it seems that the man is staying in Fuzhou, and we haven't seen him. But our superior, the centurion, did visit him in Fuzhou."

"A military commander?" Lin Hao pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized who it was. The governor of Fuzhou appointed only one military commander last year. Lin Hao had been collecting government information regularly, so he had taken a look at him. However, a year ago, he hadn't expected him to end up at sea, so he only looked at the person and didn't pay attention to where he was placed.

It's only now that I've realized the other person is actually not far from me; what a coincidence!

Ordinary people wouldn't catch Lin Hao's attention, but this adjutant was different; he was quite famous in history.

His name is Shen Yourong. He served in Jizhou and Liaodong, and more than ten years ago he also fought against Japanese pirates in Fujian and Zhejiang. Unexpectedly, he is now serving as a deputy commander in Fujian.

This person will be remembered in history, and his most important achievement is defending Taiwan three times.

The first instance was in the 30th year of the Wanli reign (1594), when Japanese pirates invaded Dongfan, which is Taiwan Island. Shen Yourong led 21 warships across the sea and annihilated the Japanese pirates entrenched in Taiwan.

The second time was in the 32nd year of the Wanli reign when he went to Penghu alone to threaten and persuade the Dutch who were entrenched there to leave.

The third instance was in the most recent year, Wanli 45, when the Japanese shogunate dispatched Nagasaki magistrate Murayama to form the so-called Murayama Fleet in an attempt to invade Taiwan again, but it was once again thwarted.

Thinking of this, Lin Hao slammed his fist on the table and said, "You're lying! Admiral Shen has been here for a year, and just a few months ago he led the navy to defeat the Japanese pirates at Baiquan'ao. How could you not know him? Confess! What is your purpose in coming here? Tell me the truth! If you remain obstinate, don't blame me for using torture!"