Insufficient balance

  The Pingpu are a general term for the indigenous peoples of the plains regions of Taiwan, who spoke Austronesian languages. Before Han Chinese immigrants settled in Taiwan, many different cultural, linguistic and tribal groups inhabited the western coastal plain from Yilan and Keelung in the north to Hengchun in the south.

  These groups, which settled in the plains of Taiwan earlier than the Han Chinese, were referred to as "barbarians" in early Taiwanese historical documents due to their different languages and cultures from those of the Han people. The term "Pingpu" was adopted because it means "flat land", distinguishing them from the mountain aborigines.

  Later generations, due to the fact that many indigenous peoples living in the plains had already been sinicized, resulted in inconsistent classification of the Pingpu tribes. There are divisions into 7 tribes and 14 branches, as well as divisions into 8, 9, 10, and 12 tribes, among other different claims. Among them, Ketagalan, Kavarawan, Taokas, Pazzehe, Vupuran, Poavosa, Hoanya, Siraiya, and Makattao are recognized as larger tribes.

  However, at that time, the Pingpu aborigines did not live in tribes, but were scattered in independent "she" (villages). The people of each "she" also did not call themselves by their tribal name, but used the name of the "she" as their ethnic group's name. For example, the indigenous people of the Taokas tribe in the central region of Taiwan, such as those from Dajia East Village and Dajia West Village, called themselves "Dajia people".

  During the Dutch era, the Pingpu aborigines were the main source of tax revenue for the Dutch and also the main suppliers of goods such as sugarcane, rice, and deerskins. After entering the Ming-Zheng period, the Siraiya tribe in the Tianxing and Wannian states (counties), including the Xingang she, Xiaolong she, Mokaluluan she, Madou she, and later the Tagarayang she, Xiaolong she, and the small Liuchiu she in the Kaohsiung area, provided taxes and labor services to the Zheng Ming regime one after another.

  Of course, not all Pingpu aborigines submitted to the authority of the Ming Zheng regime. The "Dadu Kingdom" established mainly by the Babuza (Vupuran) tribe, also known as Lelien (meaning White Day King or Pingpu Sun King), clashed with the Zheng army several times during the reigns of Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Jing, killing hundreds of people including generals Gao Ling and Yang Zu. It wasn't until Liu Guoxuan launched a massacre that burned down the Long'an She Dragon Tail village that they were forced to abandon their lands west of Dadu and migrate northwards to areas such as Puli and Shuili.

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  However, after the implementation of the immigration policy proposed by Zheng Kezang for some time, the situation that had eased in recent years due to the sudden decline of Ming-Zheng's expansion and the shift of attention to the mainland showed signs of rapid deterioration. Conflicts triggered by various contradictions such as destruction of forests and vegetation, theft and poaching, and land boundary disputes frequently occurred among the Pingpu tribes in various places, and even armed resistance emerged.

  "Watch your step!" On the muddy road, the fully armed Jiazi Camp was obviously having a hard time, but the first team of long guns and three teams of fire guns were still okay. The second team of long guns, which had temporarily changed to driving the transportation cattle carts, was suffering greatly. "This damn road, why doesn't Wanxian County ever repair it properly?"

  "This is all your own fault, if you hadn't lost to a team, how would you have so many headaches?" Hearing the complaints of the young soldiers, Gu Jin, as the leader of the second squad of Long Gunners, took the opportunity to scold them. "If you lose again next time, I think you shouldn't be Long Gunners or Shield Bearers either, just change your profession and become a middle camp guard."

  "Right!" The crowd of cart-pushing, cow-driving young scouts responded loudly, bringing a bit of vitality to the originally dull team. However, after Gu Jin walked to the front of the team, several boys in the back row started whispering to each other. "This road really can't be taken by people, if something happens and we need to rush over to reinforce, it'll take at least three or two days, by then the yellow flowers will have wilted."

  "Enough of that." Li Yuan, who was using his strength to push the ox cart stuck in the mud, glanced at the migrant group pulling behind. "Be careful not to scare them off. Besides, the southern tribes are relatively more obedient to Wang Hua compared to those northerners who often resort to violence. But since it's a real battle training, I'd like to have a match with that tribal king."

  "You're asking for death! You really think it's that easy to go to war?" Qian Guan scolded him at the back of the car. "Haven't you heard what the leaders have been saying? Once on the battlefield, everything is out of your control, and you don't even know when you'll lose your head. I think we new recruits should practice some more."

  "It's been more than three years since I joined the camp." Sun Ming muttered, helping on the right. "If we keep practicing like this, we'll all go crazy."

  "It's better to be crazy than dead, isn't it said that it's better to live a life of shame than die a good death?"

  "Still so much nonsense." Seeing the road ahead was blocked, Yang Long, the squad leader of the second squad of the long gun team, came over to help. He happened to hear a few people whispering. "Push hard!" The several people immediately fell silent, and with Yang Long's slogan, they pushed together with all their might. "Damn it, push harder! I heard that the commander is planning to repair the road in the whole Dongning area, use that cement thing, push harder, a few more are coming from behind!" Several young men from the back car also stumbled over and ran over. "Push hard! Add a bit more strength!"

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  With great difficulty, Yang Long finally pulled out the wheels that had fallen into the mud pit. He didn't even have time to wipe off his sweat before he quickly ran to Gu Jin's side at the front of the team and pointed to the dozens of old men, women, and children who were slowly moving along the road with listless expressions: "Sir, how much longer will it take? Can we stop for a bit and let the villagers catch their breath?"

  "Still, don't think about it tonight." Although he said that, Gu Jin's cold face and warm heart still nodded to let everyone rest for a while. "Forget it, forget it, anyway it's already late, just let them sit for a bit, remember to tell them not to randomly run into the woods, or they'll get bitten by snakes or killed by bandits, I won't be able to take care of that."

  Upon hearing the order, the immigrants were overjoyed and didn't care about the dirty environment. They casually found a clean spot to sit down. Many people saw that there was a ditch nearby with water and were preparing to run over to drink from it, but they were stopped by the patrolling Boy Scouts: "None of you are allowed to go! The water is polluted, drinking it will give you diarrhea. Here, if you have a few loose stools, your life will be gone. Take this clean water instead, take turns drinking a few mouthfuls, and remember to return the gourd to me."

  The immigrants, suspicious and hesitant at first, began to pass around the gourd and take turns drinking from it. A few of them didn't want to drink water, but after hearing the sounds of defecation and urination, they were overcome with desire. Taking advantage of the crowd's distraction, they snuck away to a secluded spot to relieve themselves.

  However, several returned smoothly, but the woman who went last suddenly let out a shocking cry: "Someone! Save me!"

  When someone shouted for help, the three classes in charge of the lookout didn't move at all. Only when the class leader Hong Hui directed a group of people to patrol back and forth did they rush over. Since the long guns of the three rows were useless in the forest, Hong Hui and several others held short weapons that they had temporarily picked up according to their preferences.

  "It's okay, nothing's wrong." Wu Ziming, the first to rush to the scene, shouted loudly to signal safety to others. "It's a snake!" He swung his axe and chopped down a rattan pole, then led the coiled snake in front of him to one side. "Get up, this snake is non-venomous, if it bites you, it'll just hurt for a few days."

  Although his explanation had arrived, the woman on the other side remained motionless. When he turned around to look back, he discovered an extremely embarrassing scene: the other person was sitting on their own excrement with everything exposed.

  Wu Ziming didn't dare to laugh, nor did he dare to look at him again. He could only turn around and take out a gourd from his waist and hand it over: "There's clear water inside, clean up and come back quickly, the troops are about to set off."

  The blushing woman finally returned the water bottle to Wu Ziming when the team had already set off, and except for the woman's family members, almost everyone didn't notice this matter. On the other hand, Chang Tianyuan, who had been a personal soldier of Zheng Kecang, happened to smile at Wu Ziming: "Wu brother, good skill, heroic rescue of beauty."

  "What's with the dirty talk over there?" The dance team captain, Ming Lao, who had been caught off guard, blushed and hadn't even responded yet. However, Hong Hui, the class monitor, who was a few people away, had already heard it and immediately reprimanded, "Instead of using your energy to talk dirty, why don't you go help classes 1 and 2 push their carts?"

  He usually spat out his tongue and didn't dare respond, quickening his pace by a few steps and suddenly rushing to the front.

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  The sky gradually shifted westward, and the gentle breeze in the forest seemed to tighten up as well. The crowd, both hungry and tired, walked and stopped, with the road seemingly endless and distant. However, after passing through a dense grove of Chinese parasol trees, the scene suddenly opened up before their eyes, and the sound of the accompanying brook also surged loudly, converging into a river in visible distance.

  "Look, there's a village over there." Everyone stretched their necks to look in the direction Gu Jin was pointing, and saw several houses faintly visible. "We'll have to put you all through some hardship for a few nights, sleeping out in the open, but tomorrow we'll start building houses with wood, and from now on this place will be your new home. The Tongzi Camp will stay here and guard it until the village walls are built, and then you'll have some ability to defend yourselves before leaving."

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  It's said to be camping, but the weather in August and September is originally sultry, so it doesn't matter. However, everyone at this moment just wants to find a place to sit down. Under the effect of "stopping thirst by looking at plums", the morale that was not very high was rekindled, and they walked quickly over there. As they approached, a wafting aroma of food in the air irresistibly tempted everyone's taste buds. Apparently, this was dinner prepared for everyone by the vanguard.

  "It smells so good, today's luck, I guess it's fish soup." Xie Hongzhi said with some surprise, stretching his nose to sniff wildly. "Usually it's like this too, never thought fish soup would smell so good!"

  Just then, several middle-aged soldiers came over to greet them in the company of Ying Taifeng. They seemed to be Pai Zhang and Jia Shou who had arrived earlier. The children's camp naturally followed Ying Taifeng, while the villagers were handed over to the Pai Zhangs. According to the regulations of Dongning, five households formed a pai, and five pais formed a jia, this batch of immigrants, together with the households of Pai Zhang and Jia Shou, exactly formed two jias.

  As for how the card masters and Jia Shou would deal with the new immigrants, Tongziying, who was having dinner, didn't care. Instead, someone mentioned Gu Jin's words: "Before the wall is repaired, we can stay here, but we can't stay forever, right? What if something happens in the future?"

  "You don't have to worry about this, do you think you're the only one who thinks a lot? Let me tell you, the commander and Chen Zong have already discussed it, they dispersed the several towns that were withdrawn from Siming into flood soldiers to guard separately. Each flood is roughly the size of our class, and there are 20 or 30 floods in the new Tun District on Guangming's side alone. If something urgent happens, they will go first, and then it will be our turn."

  "That's good, that's good. I thought I'd be stuck in this godforsaken place forever."

  "Mixing words, it's hard to let go of one's talent."

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