The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 34 Bromo’s Nanyang Daily Necessities Store

Feng Guohui also hopes that the indigenous tribes will choose a fixed dividend cooperation method, so that there will be less wrangling, less trouble, and both parties will be clear.

His shop is a spice purchasing point for 10 kilometers around, and the revenue in a year can exceed tens of thousands of silver coins.

As for buying mountain goods just to increase popularity, that is not worth a lot of money.

At the warm invitation of Chief Hatum, Feng Guohui had a meal of lemon chicken finger rice with local characteristics, which is an old hen cooked with various spices and finally sprinkled with a layer of lemon juice.

Place it on a banana leaf, mix it with rice and sauce, and eat it with your hands.

Not to mention, it tastes really good.

After finishing the meal and washing his hands, Feng Guohui didn't want to continue writing here, so he excused himself because of his busy schedule and asked the captain to send some wood and other necessities.

Immediately, they began to mobilize manpower to carry out large-scale renovations of the dilapidated temples in the city.

More than half of Hu Laohu's more than 170 prisoners were sent to the road construction site, and the remaining or so people were all transferred to repair temples and houses.

Deep into the Bromo Mountains, Feng Guohui was not prepared to continue leading the team south, but divided the mule and horse caravan into two.

This is already the main spice producing area in East Java. Feng Guohui personally led people to sit in Bromo Town, occasionally visiting Chinese and indigenous plantations in nearby villages and towns, and purchasing spices on a large scale.

In addition, Lin Ada, He Qiang, Mai Laowei and other team captains were the main ones, supplemented by the merchants' children from Yanwang City. They divided into several groups and continued south, east, and west deep into the mountains fifty or sixty kilometers away to remote areas. Purchase local specialties in the countryside.

Each team should consist of forty or fifty people, carrying seven to nine mules, horses and carts, and the agreed time limit is one week.

The mountain road is rugged and difficult to navigate, and Hu Laohu's road construction team has been working hard, but with such a small number of people and a short time, we can only try our best to improve it.

In this way, efficiency will be greatly improved.

Only downside

The scattered manpower of the mule and horse caravan will bring opportunities to those with ulterior motives, who are inevitably ready to take action.

Feng Guohui didn't care either. As the mule and horse caravan traveled along, there were always all kinds of greedy prying eyes in the deep mountains and dense forests, and from time to time some cunning people would be caught.

There are countless things like deliberately destroying roads and sudden cold arrows. It is not as smooth sailing as it seems.

In this case, let me give you a chance!

There are more than a dozen indigenous tribes in this Bromo mountainous area, living scattered in valleys, plains and deep mountains and dense forests. He would like to see who jumps out first to cause this bad luck?

Feng Guohui's confidence is well-founded. The local resources are rich, but iron ore is not produced. The iron tools of the indigenous tribes in these mountainous areas are quite rare, and they are all sold from the outside world.

Many indigenous warriors used bamboo spears and bamboo arrows, which were not very lethal and posed little threat to the mules and horses sent into the deep mountains.

Without the advantage of several times more troops, it would be difficult to severely damage or eliminate the mule and horse detachment.

Now that the decision was made, early the next morning, Lin Ada, He Qiang, Mai Laowen and other team leaders led their respective men to leave, and the camp immediately became deserted.

Feng Guohui sent the rest of his men to the abandoned temple and started working in full swing.

yesterday afternoon

More than 170 indigenous captives have thoroughly cleaned the entire temple, removing all weeds, storing all bricks and stones in categories, removing all soil, broken tiles, and broken doors and windows, and most of the roof of the main hall of the temple has been removed.

After hundreds of years of wind and rain, although the appearance of this temple has been roughly preserved, the wooden structure of the roof has decayed and must be replaced.

Especially the several sturdy stone houses at the back are intended to be used as warehouses. If the roof collapses during a heavy rain, the loss will be huge.

Sharpening knives does not miss woodcutters.

The caravan cleared a large area at the entrance of the dilapidated temple, laid out all kinds of goods, and drew a clear area for selling goods and exchange and purchasing, attracting many indigenous residents in the town and surrounding villages.

There were also some Chinese plantation owners who drove mules and carts with their families, loaded with spices and specialties and other goods. These big customers, Feng Guohui, would personally receive them.

Once the business started, the mules, horses, carts and escorts of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce all became busy. A large amount of silver coins and goods were scattered out, in exchange for full loads of spices and other specialties.

in abandoned temple

More than 200 people worked together to renovate the building very quickly. The roof tiles were removed one by one and stacked in order. The rotten wooden frame and purlins of the roof were all removed without exception. The wood donated by the Atum tribe was quickly processed, and the roofs of the backyard stone house and the main hall were formed in just three days. They were then covered with oil palm felt, compacted with wooden purlins, and finally covered with usable tiles.

Several stone houses in the backyard were quickly completed. After drying, the large quantities of spices purchased were immediately piled in and properly preserved.

In the main hall in the front yard of the abandoned temple, a large number of tiles were used in the stone house in the backyard. After the roof was repaired, there were not many complete tiles available.

It was too late to temporarily open the kiln for firing. Feng Guohui waved his hand and said, "Then cover it with a thatched roof first, and then slowly open the kiln to bake tiles. There is no need to worry about this."

The thatched roof was of course very fast, and the main hall was completed in one day.

All the damaged walls in the hall were painted with thatch mud mixed with glutinous rice juice, and then a bonfire was set up to bake all night, and the cracked mud seams were repaired.

Finally, it was smoothed with lime plaster. After cleaning it, it looked like brand new.

The main hall is separated by mud brick walls. The wooden cabinets and wooden frames are brought in and put away, and then the goods are displayed. A pretty good Nanyang daily necessities store appears.

The purchasing area of ​​the store is in another separate room. A long wooden counter separates the inside and outside. The indigenous residents who come to sell mountain products and spices can only be outside.

The clerks who assess the prices, as well as those responsible for stamping and issuing money receipts, are all at the counter.

There are dozens of large barrels on the counter. The spices purchased are all distinguished by variety and year. They are placed in categories and must not be mixed together.

"Hahaha... Brother Zhengfang, don't worry. Our Nanyang company is willing to form long-term friendly cooperation with local plantations. Don't worry about the price. It's much better than the red side ghost guy drinking human blood." Feng Guohui smiled happily. Walking out of the newly renovated hall.

I just concluded a large transaction, and I feel extremely happy.

Next to Feng Guohui is Lin Zhengfang, a middle-aged Chinese businessman who is slightly fat. This person is a typical Baba Nyonya, a Peranakan Chinese who has immigrated for hundreds of years, and is also a large local Chinese plantation owner.

The Baba Nyonya are descendants of Chinese who settled in Malacca (Malacca), Majapahit (Indonesia) and Sri Lanka (Singapore) in Malaya (today's Malaysia) in the early 15th century. They are an ancient Mixed-race Chinese born from Chinese immigrants and the indigenous Malays of Southeast Asia.

Baba refers to men and Nyonya refers to women.

Baba Nyonya is the name given to these native Chinese by the Chinese society. It has a certain derogatory meaning and it is believed that their Chinese blood is no longer authentic.

However, these Baba and Nyonya living in Southeast Asia still stubbornly maintain the traditional Chinese costumes and etiquette. The traditional Chinese living customs are just customs from the pre-Ming Dynasty.

Especially for weddings and funerals, the bride and groom will wear the costumes of the number one princess in the Ming Dynasty, with a red scarf on their head, holding big red flowers tied with red cloth, and bowing three times and knocking on the bridal chamber flowers and candles.

It only shows the overwhelming advantage of advanced civilization over backward and ignorant culture. Hundreds of years have passed, and the indigenous culture still has not been able to assimilate these early Chinese immigrant families.

Corresponding

Baba and Nyonya families are often large or wealthy families in the local area, and can win the trust of white colonists.

They had general suspicion and defensiveness towards Xinke (later Chinese expatriates), because these people were the truly formidable competitors, both in business and in close cooperation with the red side ghost guys.

Of course, all this disappears in front of the white silver coins.

Feng Guohui stood at the door and waved goodbye to Lin Zhengfang. More than 10 of his wives, concubines, and family members were surrounding him, and they were all looking at Feng Guohui with curious eyes.

Feng Guohui didn't care, just let these old haters watch it!

No matter how smart you are, you still have to drink from me.

Hiding in the deep mountains and old forests, they have been running plantations for hundreds of years. Even though these Baba Nyonyas pay attention to the studies of their family children, they still have the opportunity to go out to see the world frequently.

The ideas are always outdated and outdated, and they have become as stubborn and backward as these local natives.

Since entering the era of the steam industrial revolution, the outside world has changed rapidly and is no longer what it used to be.

Watching Lin Zhengfang's family driving several mules and horses in carts, they left happily loaded with daily goods and large bags of silver coins, laughing and laughing along the way.

Feng Guohui smiled and shook his head;

These big fat sheep will have to be harvested diligently from now on!

(End of this chapter)