Expedition to Europe

Compared to Huang Li and Zheng Jing who had ulterior motives, Magnum's mind was much simpler.

Magnum just wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to make more money and then return to France to retire. As for the future of Madagascar, this was not within Magnum's consideration. This was Pierre's job.

Pierre was not completely ignorant of the situation in Manantenina, but with Qin Zhiyuan's promise, Pierre didn't care.

Qin Zhiyuan did make a promise to Pierre that during Pierre's tenure as Governor of Madagascar, Qin Zhiyuan would spare no effort to support Pierre's work.

This "support" was time-limited, limited to Pierre's tenure as Governor of Madagascar. As for Madagascar after Pierre left office, who cared?

The only person Pierre could rely on in Madagascar was the African Corps sent by Qin Zhiyuan. These were two foreign corps divisions led by Cheng Xing'an, composed of half Annamites, half Germans, and a small number of Lanfang people.

Compared with the situation faced by Huang Li and his team, the situation faced by Cheng Xing'an was much more complicated.

The Madagascar people that Huang Li and his team faced were basically enemies. As long as they saw the Madagascar people, they would just capture them and send them to Renault Bauxite Company. However, Cheng Xing'an faced more Madagascar people in Antananarivo whose enemies were unclear, which made Cheng Xing'an really a little afraid to act rashly.

The entanglement between the French and the Madagascar people has a long history. The French once conquered the Madagascar people, but after a few years, the Madagascar people drove the French out of Madagascar again. So the French changed their strategy and used more conciliatory policies, hoping to use this method to turn the Madagascar people into obedient subjects of France.

The problem is that the Madagascar people don't want to surrender at all, but at the same time they can't resist the French's strong ships and cannons, so it has become the norm in Antananarivo to obey in secret and disobey in secret. The Madagascar people living in Antananarivo are all surrendered to the French on the surface, but as long as there is a chance, these Madagascar people will unite again at any time to drive the French out of Madagascar.

This is not easy. After all, this time Pierre is not surrounded by the mob of colonial legions, but the well-trained foreign legion from Lan Fang. It is really a direct confrontation. The foreign legion has never been afraid of others.

So in Madagascar now, Pierre and Cheng Xingan are in a cooperative relationship and there is no disagreement. Cheng Xingan is also very honest and has no intention of large-scale immigration to Antananarivo, which makes Pierre relax a little.

What happened in Manantenina has spread all over Madagascar in recent times. Although Pierre knows about it, he did not warn old Renault. Pierre is not very clear about how many people old Renault hired from Southeast Asia. Antananarivo is still too far away from Manantenina. The distance of more than 600 kilometers is enough to make people desperate. There is no train or airport here. If you want to go from Antananarivo to Manantenina, you can only take a passenger ship, and the current Manantenina is definitely not worth Pierre's inspection.

In the three months since arriving in Madagascar, Pierre has been busy reconciling the conflicts of interest between the bankers in Paris. Although he had coordinated the interests before arriving in Madagascar, there was still more work for Pierre to do after arriving in Madagascar and entering the actual operation.

The first thing to solve is the problem of workers. These bankers came to Madagascar, and they basically had a common goal, which was to develop Madagascar's mineral resources.

But after arriving in Madagascar, those who followed Pierre found that there were many more problems than expected, especially under Pierre's connivance, Madagascar's "slave trade" was rampant, resulting in not enough workers in those mines, so all the ideas became a bubble.

There are ways to solve the problem. On the one hand, workers can be recruited from France or the African continent, and on the other hand, Pierre is required to control the increasingly rampant "slave hunting" behavior.

But controlling "slave hunting" will hurt the interests of some vested interests, which is equivalent to cutting off their financial resources and causing strong backlash from those people, so it is difficult for Pierre to find a balance on this issue.

The second thing to be solved is the confrontation between the Malagasy and the French. Many Malagasy people are opposed to the French colonial rule. Even if they will not openly express hostility to the French, it is difficult to force them to cooperate with the French.

In the first month after Pierre arrived in Madagascar, the public security in Antananarivo deteriorated sharply. Within a month, 11 French families were violently attacked, men were tortured and killed, and women were insulted and killed. There were even two women missing, which gave Pierre a headache.

After the Foreign Legion led by Cheng Xing'an arrived in Antananarivo, the hostility between the French and the Malagasy still existed. Even the Foreign Legion troops were attacked. There was a tragedy in which most of the patrol team was killed and wounded.

Cheng Xing'an would not let the situation continue to deteriorate, so he implemented a curfew system in Antananarivo and started martial law at the same time.

In times of chaos, severe punishments must be used. Cheng Xing'an implemented this sentence very thoroughly. Once a Malagasy who committed a crime fell into the hands of the Foreign Legion, he would be sold to the mine owners for mining at the very least, or directly shot at the worst. This deterred the Malagasy people to a certain extent and improved the security situation in Antananarivo.

But "heavy punishment" is not omnipotent. On the surface, the public security in Antananarivo has indeed improved, but in fact, the confrontation between the French and the Malagasy has become more serious, and now the Lanfang people have to be added, making the situation more complicated.

Pierre understands the crux of this situation, but he is powerless because of his duties.

After consulting his staff, Pierre decided to implement a hierarchy among the Malagasy people. The superiority of this hierarchy is reflected in the priority use of public facilities, as well as in habitable areas, tax incentives, etc.

In this registration system, the first class is naturally the French and Lanfang people, as well as other Europeans living in Madagascar, the second class is the Ante Saka people who do not account for the majority of the population, and the other Malagasy people belong to the third class.

While establishing the hierarchy, Pierre also stipulated a promotion mechanism. If a second-class Antesaka made enough contributions to Antananarivo, then that Antesaka could be promoted to the first class. By the same rule, the third-class Malagasy also had the opportunity to be promoted to the second class, or even the first class.

From the perspective of the 21st century, this "hierarchy" is really appalling, but in the early 20th century, this system was common in the colonies of Britain and France. Even in the 21st century, the caste system in India still existed.

After the implementation of the hierarchy, it did play a certain role. At least the Antesaka showed a certain enthusiasm. The expansion of Magnum's troops was based on this premise. At the same time, the hierarchy also caused divisions among the Malagasy people. In addition to the Antesaka who became vested interests, other Malagasy people hated this hierarchy so much that they transferred their hatred for the French and Lanfangs to the Antesaka.

This is exactly what Pierre wanted.

The original text is available on the 6 # 9 @book/bar!

Pierre has always been committed to provoking conflicts among the Malagasy people. As long as the Malagasy people themselves get into chaos, Pierre will have an opportunity to take advantage of it, whether it is to divide and disintegrate, or to win over and attack. Even if Pierre is not familiar with these methods, Pierre's staff are very familiar with these operating methods.

Faced with the turbulent Malagasy people, the French became the only support of the Antesaka people. In order to maintain their status, the Antesaka people had to stand beside the French and cheer for them, and even charge for Pierre.

Within two months of the announcement of the hierarchy system, about tens of thousands of non-Antesaka Malagasy people were sent to various mines opened by the French. The arrival of these people not only alleviated the labor shortage of the mine owners, but also successfully promoted hundreds of Antesaka people to the first level, playing a full demonstration role.

Simple promotion is not enough, and there must be sufficient material incentives to further stimulate people's enthusiasm.

Pierre was indeed generous in terms of material things, so these newly promoted Antesakas moved into a noble residential area inhabited by all French people. In order to buy horse bones, Pierre spent a lot of money to allocate housing to these people, so that these people, including their families, could have a place to live, and then absorbed these people into government agencies, so that these people could get real benefits in terms of both material and social status.

After this behavior, the social response was even stronger, and more Antesakas were inspired to do something for the colonial government and truly blend into the ruling class. At the same time, non-Antesakas were even more restless. They hid in every corner of Antananarivo, waiting for an opportunity to attack any Antesaka they saw, and avenge their people who suffered misfortune.

So a new round of racial hatred began again, and Cheng Xingan and his team were busy again.

In any case, Pierre was finally able to get out of the trivial matters of Antananarivo and began to focus on the whole of Madagascar.

In fact, all cities in Madagascar have fallen into a similar situation as Antananarivo, so in this strife, the relatively quiet Manantenina becomes more and more eye-catching.

This is not a good thing for Huang Li and Zheng Jing.