Chapter 65 Peace-loving
"Fire!" With the artillery captain's shout, a battle began again.

The indigenous reinforcements have all arrived and launched another attack, and today is the time for the Meihua Company to counterattack.

2000 guards and a total of 1.6 militiamen who were organized in succession all joined the battle, and the number of artillery pieces reached 100.

Shells kept falling into the enemy's position, blowing them to pieces. The dense bullets mercilessly harvested the lives of the indigenous people. In less than an hour, the losses were heavy.

Laklumana noticed that the enemy's firepower had obviously increased a lot today, which made him feel a little uneasy. He had invested all his troops today, but the attack just now was just like the past, and he was unable to get close to the enemy's fortress.

Seeing that the casualties were too heavy and the army was about to collapse, he decisively ordered a retreat and reorganization. However, what he did not expect was that this time the enemy actually took the initiative to pursue him. When he saw the dense enemy rushing out of the village, he realized that he had been tricked.

The enemy's muskets and cannons were more advanced than theirs, and their numbers seemed to be no less than theirs. When a cannonball fell into his camp, he was frightened and immediately fell under the table.

"Withdraw! Retreat quickly!" Laklumanana knew that the situation was hopeless and gave the order quickly.

Xiao Cheng led more than 10,000 people with sufficient firepower, and the enemy was so defeated that they dared not turn around to fight back. By the time they attacked the enemy camp, most of the natives had already fled, leaving behind a large amount of supplies.

After leaving a few hundred people behind to gather up the captured enemies and the natives who did not have time to escape and bring them back to Meiquan Village for surveillance, Xiao Cheng led the large force to continue the pursuit.

They chased them all the way and captured many of the natives who had fallen behind. They continued to chase them until the evening and finally surrounded all the natives in Wangxi Village. Since they were running away, their marching speed this time could be much faster than last time.

"Team one will lead 2000 militiamen to encircle from the left wing, and team two will lead 2000 militiamen to encircle from the right wing. If the enemy does not make any move to break out, do not open fire for the time being."

Seeing that the enemy had been blocked, Xiao Cheng immediately deployed his troops, vowing to surround the enemy. However, it would be better not to kill too many people. After all, today's counterattack had probably scared the natives, and peace negotiations would be required later. It would be better not to make enemies in the end.

"Yes, Captain!" X2, the two team captains took the order and left.

"General, the enemy has surrounded us from all sides. What should we do now?" a subordinate reported to Laklumanana.

"Or, let's surrender, General. The enemy's numbers and firepower are stronger than ours. It's impossible to continue fighting." Seeing that Laklumanana was reluctant to speak, another subordinate had to speak for him and remind him not to do anything stupid.

"Humph, nonsense. We can't beat the French, but can we beat these barbarians who are trying to steal our land? We just fell into the enemy's trap today. We didn't expect that they would ambushed so many people in the fortress. We were caught off guard. Next time we regroup and ask the French for more muskets and cannons, we will definitely be able to defeat them."

Laklumanana said stubbornly that it was impossible for him to admit his failure, because those barbarians were too cunning and had no martial ethics.

"General, I'm afraid we can't return to the tribe this time." The subordinate said in a low voice.

For a moment, it was extremely quiet.

"General, the tribesmen who were captured before have returned, and they have news to report to you." At this time, a soldier came in and broke the silence.

"Bring them here," said Laklumanana.

Soon, three injured natives came in. "How did you escape?" An officer looked at the three people and questioned.

"It was the Meihua Company that released us. They said they were willing to negotiate with us as long as we laid down our weapons," said one of them.

"Peace talks? Peace talks are impossible after so many of our people were killed." Laklumanana said angrily.

"General, the people from the Meihua Company said that they are peace-loving and that we were the ones who started the war. Despite this, they are still willing to live in peace with us. If you don't agree, they will immediately launch an attack and take our bodies to find someone who is willing to negotiate with them."

Everyone's face changed after hearing this. After all, who doesn't fear death?

"Hmph, shameless! It was clearly them who occupied our land first, so we fought back." Laklumanana's face turned red with anger.

"General, the Meihua Company also showed us their arsenal. There were 120 artillery pieces alone, which were more powerful than ours. There were also tens of thousands of muskets, and they can produce them continuously." The released prisoner continued.

"General, let's accept the peace talks. They are too powerful. Even if the kingdom's army is sent here, they will not be able to win this war." An officer advised.

"Yes, General, let's surrender."

"Yes, General."

After constant persuasion from everyone, Laklumanana finally reluctantly accepted the peace talks.

Next, the natives laid down their weapons and surrendered, and then sent people to the leader of the ruling tribe to come to Wangxi Village to discuss a ceasefire. During this period of time, it was naturally impossible to feed all the captured natives for free, although they also ate their own food.

But now they all belong to the Meihua Company. Before the negotiation was completed, even the people belonged to the Meihua Company, so they were required to contribute to the reconstruction of Wangxi Village and Xishan Farm, and to do farm work on these two farms to repay the debts.

After receiving the news of the natives' surrender and arranging the follow-up matters, Zhang Feng took his sons back to Zhangjia City. He was no longer needed here, and he had had enough of playing here.

Riding a horse in the inner city, he saw mostly white people. It immediately became clear that the Chinese nowadays either worked in the fields or in factories. The only people who could stay in the city were white people. After all, they didn't need to do these hard labors.

Starting from the second half of 1930, the Sino-American Company abducted about 10 white people from America and Europe, basically all of them were families. After all, the Sino-American Company only needed white people with skills and abilities, and these people all had families with them.

As the economic crisis deepens, it will be easier for subsequent white immigrants to come in. They will just need to provide their families with enough food, and it will take several years for the economy to improve.

Zhang Feng has already ordered to accelerate the immigration of various white technical talents. The window of opportunity in the past few years must be seized, as there will never be another opportunity like this one in the future.

Although there was still a chance during World War II, maritime transportation was very dangerous at that time, and the post-war period was too conspicuous. Although their economy was also very bad at that time and they could recruit immigrants as long as they had money, many European countries had been destroyed by the war and were in urgent need of manpower for reconstruction, so they would never let people go.

(End of this chapter)