I'm the Farmgirl You Can't Mess With

Chapter 1340: Side Story: Having the Whole World in View (17)

Editor: Atlas Studios

After the battle in which five pirate ships were destroyed, Zhou Zhou led his men to search the nearby pirate nests and found countless merchants’ goods.

Due to the high quantity and value of the goods, the soldiers more or less took some for themselves when they rushed in. Zhou Zhou felt that this was disadvantageous to their long-term cooperation with the merchants, but since he had to eliminate the pirates, he could not keep an eye on them from time to time. Therefore, he simply handed this matter to Little Lion, Qi Wenzheng.

There were three reasons. Firstly, Qi Wenzheng would not covet these goods, so he would not keep them for himself. Secondly, Qi Wenzheng could suppress the soldiers with his high status. Thirdly, considering this kid was meticulous, it would be very difficult for someone to steal those riches under his nose.

In conclusion, Little Lion was asked to stay behind.

The brothers thought that they could fight side by side on the battlefield, but they were separated after only participating in four battles.

Tiger Head promised with tears in his eyes that he would kill more enemies to make up for Little Lion’s share.

The corners of Little Lion’s mouth twitched as he said, “As long as you come back alive and able-bodied.”

With that, Tiger Head turned around and left.

Little Lion sighed worriedly and asked the two secret guards to follow Tiger Head.

Seeing the two secret guards hesitate, Little Lion said with a smile, “Since I’m only in charge of counting the stolen goods, I won’t be in any danger. On the other hand, Tiger Head is rash, so it’s best that you guys follow him and advise him against being reckless. If he’s stubborn, knock him out. I’ll bear the consequences.”

Little Lion thought of the secret guards’ style of doing things and threatened slightly, “Don’t let him do whatever he wants just like how you were with us before.”

The secret guards looked at each other and lowered their heads in agreement, then turned around and chased after Tiger Head.

Little Lion brought his team to count the stolen goods on the island and found that in addition to the goods of the Great Qi merchants, there were also many gold, silver, and jewelry. It was impossible for the army to transport so many things back to Great Qi, because their ships were all being deployed to patrol and fight wars. It was also impossible to expect the merchants to come here and transport them away immediately.

This was because the remuneration of the soldiers was calculated according to the value of the goods. How long would it take to tally the value of so many goods?

One had to know that he still had to follow behind the Vanguard Battalion to count the spoils of war of the other pirate nests. He could not waste all his time in one place.

Therefore, Little Lion rubbed his chin and promptly decided to occupy a nearby region and transport the spoils of war there to be watched over. Subsequently when he had the time, he would calculate their value with the merchants.

Little Lion did as he said. After factoring in the climate, geography, and distance, he finally chose the southeast direction of Luzon. There was a natural port there, and most importantly, the Westerners occupied that port.

Moreover, there were only a few dozen people in that place. Little Lion simply brought his men to capture those dozens of people as pirates. In any case, they were similar to pirates. After occupying this port, they began to force the nearby villagers to pay tribute and taxes to them.

As soon as Little Lion rushed forward to capture these dozens of Westerners, the village chief of the nearby village came to visit him and thank him for saving them from trouble.

Little Lion was a little embarrassed and expressed that he wanted to temporarily borrow this port and the nearby area to set up a stockade. Afraid that they would think too much, Little Lion even said sincerely, “We’ll leave once our general returns triumphantly.”

Hearing that the Qi people weren’t looking to occupy their land, the village chief heaved a sigh of relief. He smiled until his face was covered in wrinkles, indicating that Little Lion was free to use these lands and ports as he pleased.

After returning to the village, the village chief strictly ordered everyone not to go near the Qi people. Previously, those Westerners staked flags to occupy their land the moment they arrived and threatened them with firearms to acknowledge them as their masters. Although the Qi people were not as fierce as the Westerners and did not do those things, it was better to be safe than sorry. Therefore, it was better for the villagers to stay away.

With this thought in mind, everyone looked at the soldiers of Great Qi from afar.

They realized that the Qi people had occupied the Westerners’ houses after going ashore. The Westerners had forced the villagers to build those houses. It was the villagers who cut the trees, transported the stones, built the house, and even built the fence in front…

However, looking at the Qi soldiers with swords at their waists, no one dared to say anything.

Fortunately, the Qi soldiers did not demand the villagers to help build their houses. Instead, they cut down trees and built some barracks by the side all by themselves.

Every morning, afternoon, and night, the port was under martial law and everyone was forbidden to appear there. Afraid of being killed by the Qi soldiers, the villagers did not dare to approach.

A few days later, when the Qi soldiers ran out of food, a Qi soldier ran into the village to look for the village chief.

The village chief left nervously and returned to the village with a few bags of cloth, a dazed look on his face. That night, a few bags of coarse grain were sent to the Qi army camp.

The Qi soldiers were actually exchanging fabric for grains!

Many families in the village saved their rations and brought them to the military camp to exchange for cloth. Then, they brought the cloth to the large town outside the four mountains to exchange for food and salt, earning quite a lot of money!

The Qi people were better than the Westerners!

This was a common understanding of the villagers and the chiefs of the nearby villages.

Little Lion was only doing this with a guilty mood. After all, they were not occupying a nameless island now, but Luzon’s territory. It was already not bad that the villagers allowed them to camp here, but they were actually willing to trade grains with them, too.

Little Lion felt that country folks were indeed hospitable and honest.

Hence, things developed in a strange direction.

The Qi soldiers and the natives got along well.

In the past two months, Little Lion had been constantly transporting the spoils of war from outside. He placed the goods with the Great Qi Merchant logo in two large houses alone and messily piled the rest elsewhere. Then, he got the merchants to drive their merchant ships here to claim those goods.

Knowing that the Qi soldiers had already recovered most of their goods, the merchants set off happily for Luzon.

When the few merchants approached this port, they could not help but think to themselves, ’This place happens to be in Nanyang, and it’s a natural port. Not only can it be used as a hub, but it can also be used to supply merchant ships. I wonder if the officials have any plans to develop it.’

Little Lion did not know what they were thinking and received them politely.

These were all employers of the army, so they naturally had to have a good attitude.

When the merchants saw Little Lion’s face that resembled King Rong’s and considered his age, everyone instantly guessed his identity and treated him with extreme respect. When they went to the coffers to claim their goods, no one dared to be sneaky.

Little Lion felt that this job was truly a breeze. Other than the difficulty of mobilizing and arranging ships, everything else went extremely smoothly.

In contrast to the calm on Luzon Island, the situation in the Indian Ocean could be said to be turbulent, changing every day.

With France, Italy, and Portugal as witnesses, England was suspected by the Western countries of having ulterior motives and colluding with Great Qi to harm them.

England, on the other hand, claimed that France had framed them because they had also suffered heavy losses. Moreover, because the Indian Ocean was mainly England’s sphere of influence, England’s losses were the greatest.

However, it was obvious that the other countries were not in the mood to listen to their excuses. As such, the few meetings ended with everyone parting on bad terms.

While they were arguing, Zhou Zhou led his troops to occupy island after island and cleaned up the pirates on those islands. If they were natives, he would beat them up and confiscate some of their riches. The rest were distributed to the pirates to force them to return to their hometown. If the soldiers encountered Westerner pirates instead, they would capture them if they could, and kill them if they couldn’t.

Recently, the captives they sent to Great Qi had to be transported on a ship in addition to being escorted by a warship.

As for the other Western countries, although they had constant conflicts, they gradually began to abandon their differences and join hands to resist the Qi soldiers.

However, there were too few of them. Also, Great Qi was too close to this place and only needed five days to arrive. Therefore, three months later, the number of Great Qi troops in the Indian Ocean had reached 80,000, more than twice the number of nearby Westerners from all the countries combined.