I want to be emperor

Chapter 785
The expansion of the Great Chu Empire in the African region went relatively smoothly, and all progress was within the control of the upper echelons of the empire.

In fact, even if the progress is not smooth, the impact is not great.

After all, the expansion of the Great Chu Empire in the African region was not done with great fanfare, and little effort was invested in it.

The troops and resources invested were gathered from the Indian governor's jurisdiction, and the local side did not even send additional troops for this purpose.

Therefore, whether it succeeds or fails, it actually has little impact on the overall strategic development of the empire.

Even if the expansion in Africa is unsuccessful this time, at most it will be postponed for a year or two. After all, the Great Chu Empire has gained a firm foothold in North Africa and West Asia, and has two overseas military bases, Anxi City and Hongkou City. .

As long as there are no problems with these two bases, the Great Chu Empire can rely on these two bases to launch expansion operations in Africa at any time.

It's just a matter of earlier and later.

In addition, the expansion of the Great Chu Empire to the African region is not for the purpose of plundering land in the short term. In terms of land, a large area of ​​Southeast Asia, the Indian Peninsula, and the entire Australian region are waiting for a large number of immigrants to develop. They went all the way to Africa to engage in immigration development.

The reason why the Great Chu Empire went to Africa to expand was purely for the gold in South Africa. Luo Zhixue knew that South Africa had a lot of gold reserves.

The Great Chu Empire is currently operating a gold standard currency system, which requires a large amount of gold reserves, which is why it promoted the expansion of Africa. However, there is not much difference between getting gold from South Africa in the early years and getting gold from South Africa in the later years.

Luo Zhixue wanted gold in South Africa only for future considerations.

As for the present, the Great Chu Empire actually has a sufficient amount of gold reserves to cope with the current gold standard system.

After all, in the past many years, the Great Chu Empire has mined gold locally on the one hand, and mined gold in Nanyang and Fusang on the other hand. The development of these places has allowed the Great Chu Empire to obtain a large amount of gold reserves.

In addition, the Great Chu Empire obtained a large amount of gold income through international trade.

At present, the gold reserves in the central bank of the Great Chu Empire have reached more than 2000 tons. At the same time, the gold standard system adopted by the Great Chu Empire is not a direct gold standard, but an indirect gold standard. Therefore, relying on these gold reserves can issue more banknotes.

Generally speaking, the current gold reserves of the Great Chu Empire are sufficient to support the economic system of the Great Chu Empire, and large-scale inflation or deflation will not occur.

At the same time, these are only the gold reserves of the central bank. In fact, the amount of gold held by the private sector is also very large, but it is difficult to estimate and there is no accurate data.

After all, Chinese people have a tradition of storing gold for emergencies. At the same time, gold is also an important raw material for jewelry, so the amount of gold held by the people is very large.

Not to mention the amount of private gold reserves, but only the central gold reserves, the data of more than 2000 tons exceeds the total amount of gold mined by all countries in the past few hundred years.

The reason why the current Great Chu Empire has so many gold reserves is only a small part obtained from international trade, and the larger source is self-produced.

The gold output of the Great Chu Empire was very large.

In the 29th year of Chengshun, the Great Chu Empire produced its own gold, including gold invested and mined in the mainland, overseas territories, puppet countries, and colonies. The annual output reached an astonishing 260 three tons.

In the past 30 years alone, the Great Chu Empire mined more than [-] tons of gold, most of which were deposited in the treasury as the central bank's gold reserves, and a small part flowed into the private sector and was used by the people. Hold in the form of gold bars, gold jewelry, etc.

The reason why the gold output of the Great Chu Empire is so large is that after the start of industrialization, all aspects of technology have been improved in an all-round way, and gold surveying, mining, and smelting technologies have all been unprecedentedly improved.

The great progress in technology has brought a large amount of gold output to the Great Chu Empire.

The technological improvement brought about by industrialization is not only in the fields of national defense and people's livelihood, but also in the field of gold mining, smelting and surveying.

In the original time and space, in the 200th century, human countries only mined a total of more than [-] tons of gold, but in the [-]th century, countries mined a total of tens of thousands of tons of gold, and the gold production in the future will increase.

The same is true for the current Great Chu Empire. Today, the amount of gold mined in a year by the Great Chu Empire exceeds the amount of gold mined in the past 100 years of human history.

The huge amount of gold mining brought a huge and sufficient source of gold reserves to the Great Chu Empire, and the sufficient gold reserves also made the gold standard currency system of the Great Chu Empire extremely stable.

Of course, with the continuous development of productivity, the wealth accumulation of the Great Chu Empire continued to increase, and the increase in wealth also required a further supply of money.

Therefore, in order to continue to meet the economic development and sufficient supply of money, the gold reserves must also increase accordingly.

In the future, the Great Chu Empire will need more gold reserves.

And this is why the Great Chu Empire has always been obsessed with the gold in South Africa.

The gold reserves in that place are very large. In the original time and space, the gold production in South Africa once accounted for 40.00% of the global gold production.

Therefore, controlling the area and carrying out gold mining is an urgent and necessary measure to stabilize the future Great Chu Empire.

But still the same sentence... These are all future needs, and this need is not urgent in a short period of time, or even within 20 years.

After all, the control area of ​​the Great Chu Empire is very large. The local territory has penetrated into Central Asia in the west, extended to the edge of the Ural Mountains in the northwest, all the way to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and annexed and digested the Annan region in the south.

At the same time, there are a large number of overseas territories, such as the Malay Peninsula, which is the province of Malacca.

Such as all the South Sea islands east of the Sunda Strait, including Luzon Islands, Borneo Islands, Java Island, East Indies, and even Australia.

These areas have been included in the overseas territories of the Great Chu Empire. Of course, there are still many indigenous forces and even indigenous regimes in the above-mentioned areas. Only a part of the areas that the Great Chu Empire actually controls and emigrates to.

But as the immigration continues to advance, sooner or later these places will become places where only Chu people live.

Overseas territories directly under the Central Government also include the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, the Madurai region at the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula, and the Koh Estuary region on the east coast of India, and other fragmentary overseas territories in the Western Ocean.

In addition, in the Americas, there is also an overseas territory directly under the coastal areas of North America. It is worth mentioning that in the southern part of the North American controlled area, near the Mexican area controlled by the Spanish, the Chu people discovered a gold mining area there. In recent years, immigrants have been organized to mine, and many self-funded immigrants have even been attracted to become gold diggers. Therefore, a new prosperous city has even been established in the local area. The North American Governor's Office named the city: Jinshan City.

You can tell from the name that this place is rich in gold.

In Chengshun's 29 years, more than 20 tons of gold were produced locally, which became an important source of gold for the Great Chu Empire and attracted a large number of immigrants.

The officials of the Great Chu Empire also further raised the importance of immigration development in North America.

Chengshun’s 30 years have not yet ended, and more than 20 immigrants have traveled to North America by steamer.

In addition to overseas directly-administered territories, the Great Chu Empire also had a large number of vassal states and proxy puppet states.

For example, the Fusang Islands, Southeast Asian countries, including Siam, Myanmar, the Arakan Dynasty, and the Kingdom of Aceh are all vassal states belonging to the Great Chu Empire, and then they also controlled many local states on the Indian Peninsula.

Whether these are vassal states or puppet states, they are actually the economic colonies of the Great Chu Empire, and the Great Chu Empire plundered them economically from all aspects.

Plus some traditional colonies of the Great Chu Empire.

The Great Chu Empire controlled an extremely vast territory, and these places more or less had gold production, which brought a large amount of gold reserves to the Great Chu Empire.

Therefore, even if there is no gold from South Africa, the Great Chu Empire can obtain a large amount of gold reserves just by relying on these sites.

But gold is...more than enough.

Therefore, even though the demand is not urgent, the Great Chu Empire still promoted the expansion in the African region, and it is not in a hurry. Take your time and advance all the way from the coast of Northeast Africa to the south, first take the Somalia region, and then take the East Africa region , and finally killed in South Africa.

Advance southward step by step, steadily and steadily, and obtain the maximum benefit at the minimum cost.

After occupying the Somali region in Northeast Africa and controlling Mogadishu, the Great Chu Empire gained an important foothold in Northeast Africa.

The follow-up will be to carry out immigration development in the local area, and build the local area into a strategic base city for advancing to East Africa and South Africa.

The station of the Ninth Task Force in the Indian Ocean was also officially moved to Mogadishu, using the local area as a major naval base.

However, the construction of naval bases and city defense facilities requires a large amount of labor. The continuous suppression operations of the Indian Army Third Regiment also brought a large number of prisoners of war labor urgently needed to the Great Chu Empire, which made the local construction advance rapidly.

Just when the Great Chu Empire was steadily promoting the expansion of Africa, at the port of Shanghai, Songjiang Prefecture, there was a passenger and cargo motor-sail steamer with a full displacement of more than 4000 tons: Shenghua.

The whistle was also sounded, and with the assistance of several steam tugboats, they left the dock, then entered the main channel of the Huangpu River, and slowly sailed towards the mouth of the Yangtze River.

This large passenger ship belonging to the Jiangnan Shipping Company is carrying out regular flights across the Pacific Ocean to and from the mainland and North America.

Since the discovery of a large-scale gold mine in Jinshan City, the news spread to China, setting off an upsurge of emigration to North America. Every year, a large number of people go to North America by boat.

Among them are simple gold diggers who dream of digging for gold in North America, but more are immigrants who go to North America to settle down. They include official immigrants and self-funded immigrants.

But no matter which one, as long as they go to North America, they can get a lot of free land and start their own new life.

Even many simple gold diggers have a similar mentality: it is best to dig gold when they go there. If they can't dig gold and get rich overnight, then they simply settle down and become farmers in the local area.

Anyway, North America is vast and sparsely populated, and the climate and environment are quite good. There is a lot of land to be developed locally.

As long as you go and settle down, you will be given a piece of land for free, and even provide loans for reclamation.

This has caused many poor families in China and people with unsatisfactory lives to go there one after another.

Emigrating overseas is not a rare thing for the people of the contemporary Great Chu Empire, and the people are more accepting of it.

Unlike ten or twenty years ago, when it came to emigrating overseas, people were afraid and shook their heads.

This is mainly due to the advancement of social productivity, more developed education and information, and people can get in touch with more news from overseas.

Knowing that overseas areas are not wild places, some places are even pretty good.

Of course, what is more important is that after the appearance of high-pressure steam engines, large-tonnage ships appeared, making shipping safer and faster.

More than 20 years ago, the risk of sailing on a ship was not small. Coupled with the poor medical conditions, the risk of travel was very high, and after arriving in the colony, the risk was extremely high due to diseases and other reasons.

In the early years, people from Chu State immigrated to Nanyang, and that was really risking their lives to go to Bo.

However, with the continuous advancement of technology and the emergence of large-tonnage ships, the risk of navigation has been greatly reduced. As long as it is not particularly unlucky, there will be basically no death on the road.

After arriving at the place, there are also sufficient medical conditions to ensure that he will not die inexplicably.

Especially malaria, the number one killer for immigrants. With the widespread cultivation and use of cinchona trees, when Chu people immigrated overseas, their resistance to malaria was already extremely strong.

In recent years, the drug research of the Great Chu Empire has made another important breakthrough. They extracted salicylic acid from willow bark, and figured out why willow bark has antipyretic and analgesic effects. However, salicylic acid is very difficult to eat. , and is extremely irritating to the stomach, it is not considered successful as a drug.

Now the scientists of the Great Chu Empire are studying how to make salicylic acid taste better and reduce the irritation to the stomach.

But despite its unpalatable taste, salicylic acid, as a highly effective drug for reducing fever and analgesia, still has great value. It has received great attention from the Ministry of Health of the Great Chu Empire, and the support for subsequent research and development is very strong.

At the same time, after clarifying the effect of the modified medicine, the Great Chu Empire also vigorously promoted the planting of willow trees and the use of willow bark as an antipyretic and analgesic medicine, and widely publicized its pharmacological effects on antipyretic and analgesic.

In the overseas settlements of the Great Chu Empire, a large number of cinchona trees and willows were often planted... and even used as ornamental plants. If you have a cold and a fever, you can directly pick the willow bark to reduce the fever, which is very useful.

Now the willow tree and the cinchona tree have become the most important plants to promote and plant in the Great Chu Empire, and there are countless living people.

The breakthrough and promotion of these medical technologies has also further reduced the risk of overseas immigration in the Great Chu Empire. The people are no longer afraid of immigration, but regard it as an important way to seek a new life.

The officials of the Great Chu Empire are also very supportive of this... There are various immigration support policies.

For the upper echelons of the Great Chu Empire, emigrating a large number of poor people overseas, if they live a new life, is much better than keeping them starving and freezing at home, and playing rebellion one day.

Large-scale overseas immigration has greatly reduced the risk of rebellion in the mainland of the Great Chu Empire. Overseas territories have gained labor and been developed. Immigrants have gained a new life and lived a prosperous life. Profit from the trade between them.

Get it in one fell swoop!
Today, Song Erniu, who traveled to North America on the Shenghua, is also a member of the huge wave of immigrants.

Born in poverty, he went to Songjiang to work at the age of 16.

But he didn't do well in Songjiang. Four or five years have passed. In Songjiang, let alone buying a house and settling down, he can't even afford to rent a better house. What married a wife and had children.

As for going back to my hometown... what to do when I go back, there is not much land at home, and it is enough to support his elder brother's family. He will grab that little land with his elder brother when he goes back, of course he can grab a little land, but what can he do with it?

If his family had enough land, he wouldn't have to go to the city to work back then!
So he set his sights overseas!

Recently, I heard that many people immigrated to North America. Some people dug gold in North America and became rich overnight. Even those who did not dig gold can receive a lot of land in the local area. The local government will also provide land reclamation loans. Whether it is digging for gold or farming in the Americas, these days are much better than those in China.

He was very moved when he heard this!
So after inquiring about the immigration policy in detail and about the immigration situation in North America, he finally gritted his teeth and spent his savings to buy a third-class ferry ticket to Jinshan City in North America.

This big city of Songjiang can't survive anymore, and I will be poor all my life when I go back to my hometown.

But he is not reconciled!
So he is going to go to North America for a venture, to dig for gold first, and get the best ones, and if he can't, he will get free land and become a small landlord!
No matter what, it's better than mixing in the bottom of the country!
This is the common thinking of many groups in the Great Chu Empire who have no hope of living at the bottom, but are not reconciled to reality.

He and other people with similar thoughts, there are many, many people in the Great Chu Empire, so there are millions of people going overseas every year.

The overseas expansion of the Great Chu Empire has brought new choices for the poor people at the bottom of the Great Chu Empire, and it can even be said to have brought them the last retreat.

If it doesn't work, emigrate overseas!

This is also an important reason why the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire are committed to overseas expansion and supporting overseas immigrants: spending some money to send them to overseas territories is better than making them unwilling to complain about this and that every day, and finally play rebellion!
Song Erniu didn't know the thoughts of the high-ranking figures in the empire. He just felt that there was no hope of living in the country, and he hoped to find a new life for himself in North America.

Abundant life!
------

(End of this chapter)