Chapter 1044

“No wonder His Majesty is so concerned about Southeast Asia. That’s why.”

Yue Yun’s gaze fell on the Manila native residents coming and going, lost in thought.

Li Kaiyuan followed Yue Yun’s gaze. He said with a smile, “There are more and more overseas colonies, and more and more manpower is needed. There’s nothing that can be done about it. However, His Majesty is not planning to adopt the old Western slave trade.”

This surprised Yue Yun. He asked, “If he doesn’t use the Western method, can he make these natives voluntarily become slaves for the Empire?”

Li Kaiyuan chuckled twice. He said, “No, that’s not it. His Majesty has demanded that slaves entering the Empire must be strictly screened. Any slave who is physically weak, has a low IQ, or is mentally unstable is not allowed to enter the Empire.”

Yue Yun nodded, continuing to wait for Li Kaiyuan’s explanation.

“The reason for this is that His Majesty is preparing to ban the black slave trade in the next step, so that black slaves cannot enter the Empire. And without black slaves, the Empire can only use slaves from Southeast Asia to make up for the shortage.”

“Black slaves are physically strong and have a lot of strength for work. Why is this?” Yue Yun was truly puzzled.

Li Kaiyuan said mysteriously, “This involves the Empire’s upcoming household registration issue. According to the Cabinet, the Empire is about to implement a new household registration system that will be popularized nationwide. In the future, every imperial citizen’s household registration will have only one ethnic name, which is ‘Han.’ In addition, His Majesty wants to abolish the script of the Golden Tent, Tibet, and other Guandong tribes to unify the Empire’s script. In this way, it is tantamount to making everyone Han people, which will reduce conflicts. As for black slaves and Westerners, their appearances are too different from ours. This method would be of no use to them. But these Southeast Asian slaves are different. They will be completely assimilated after a few generations of living in the Empire.”

Yue Yun’s mind was in a mess. He shook his head and sighed, “My thoughts are ultimately not something that can be fathomed by us.”

He was completely unaware that Xiao Ming was doing this to avoid following the old path of a certain great country in modern times, so control had to start early.

After the two chatted for a while, Li Kaiyuan, with his belly sticking out, went to Manila City. Yue Yun, on the other hand, ordered the fleet to enter the preparation stage.

Now that Li Kaiyuan had arrived, he no longer needed to be in Manila. He had learned that the allied forces of the five Western nations were gathering in India, and an unprecedented great battle would probably break out soon.

But before that, he still had a colony to deal with, which was the Dutch’s last colony in Asia, Indonesia. The next stop for him was Jakarta.

After spending two days completing the handover of Manila, the fleet set off majestically on the third day in the morning.

In the Battle of Manila, they ultimately did not find Eric’s merchant ships. Later, after learning about the dense network of waterways in Manila, they ultimately gave up searching, because it would just be a waste of time.

But Yue Yun understood that these Dutch must have gone to Jakarta, which was also the Dutch’s most important stronghold. He was prepared to fight a naval battle there, because he believed that the Dutch would not give up that place so easily.

Jakarta Governor’s Office.

An unprecedentedly fierce argument was breaking out here. Stephen, Simon, Eric, and the Governor of Jakarta, Averall, were sitting at a table like enraged lions.

“Simon, Eric should not be here. He has already been dismissed from his position as the Governor of Zeelandia, and he is now a prisoner.”

Simon said, “Don’t be like that, Stephen. At least Eric is an excellent commander. I believe he will perform excellently in the upcoming battle. If you want to put him on trial, you should at least wait until he returns to the Netherlands and hand him over to the parliament for trial. Besides, he knows the Chinese Empire better than any of us.”

“You are the scoundrel who should be thrown into prison. If it weren’t for your self-willed actions, we would not have suffered such heavy losses. Now Zeelandia is gone, the trade is gone, and Manila is also gone.”

Eric said angrily.

“This was the decision of the parliament!” Stephen shrieked.

Averall’s face was very unpleasant. He had lost his patience. At this time, he slammed his hand on the table and said, “Both of you shut up. Perhaps the Empire’s fleet is heading towards Jakarta now, and that is the most important issue now. What should we do?”

“Withdraw to India and wait for the outcome of the battle. If we lose, we go back to the Netherlands. If we win, we can get back everything,” Eric advised. “We do not have the power to contend with the Chinese Empire. Trust me, Averall.”

Simon had personally experienced the power of the imperial army, and he also nodded.

Averall was a little disappointed. He said, “Jakarta is the most precious asset of the Netherlands. We have been operating here for over a hundred years. We cannot just hand it over to our enemies.”

“That’s right. And the Allied forces are not yet fully prepared. We need to delay the imperial navy’s advance. This is the order we received before coming here. Like Manila, we must prepare for war,” Stephen said.

Eric’s expression was one of despair. Simon also lowered his head. He said, “None of you have seen their weapons that can fire continuously. When you do, you will understand what a foolish decision you have made today.”

“You should be ashamed. Although the Netherlands has declined, the Dutch spirit has not. Never surrendering is a virtue of us Dutchmen.” Stephen clamored.

Eric just gave a mocking laugh. He said, “Just make sure you don’t wet your pants when the time comes.”

Averall heard Eric’s meaning. He said happily, “You are willing to stay, aren’t you?”

“Yes, this time I want to test a method to deal with the imperial army.” A dangerous glint flashed in Eric’s eyes.

Throughout his journey, he had been studying how to organize an attack on the imperial army.

After a pause, he said, “There is only one way to delay the imperial army’s attack, and that is to dig deep trenches and use the fire hedgehog tactic to inflict heavy casualties on them. In this way, they will have to consider the cost of an attack and return to the negotiating table with us, instead of just solving everything with force.”

“The fire hedgehog tactic did work,” Simon testified for Eric.

Averall nodded. He and Eric had once fought on the battlefield together, and he trusted Eric very much. “I will immediately organize the native slaves of Jakarta to dig trenches. And Eric, let’s fight side by side this time, just like before.”

Eric’s expression softened a little. “I hope we can get through this crisis and make the Chinese Empire return to the negotiating table. But this hope is very slim.”