I want to be emperor

Chapter 787

On November 30th, the [-]th year of Chengshun, after more than two months of voyage, the passenger ship Shenghua under the Jiangnan Shipping Company finally arrived at the second largest city of the Great Chu Empire in North America: Xiayang City.

Xiayang City, located in the Seattle area of ​​North America in the original time and space, is a place on the west coast of North America that is more suitable for settlement, living and trade development.

Back then, the exploration fleet sent by the Great Chu Empire to North America was still a pure sailing fleet. When sailing eastward, it needed to use the monsoon and ocean currents, and it took the North Pacific route.

Well, the Spaniards did the same thing. In fact, the people of Chu State followed the Spanish ass to explore eastward and set foot on the land of America.

The North Pacific route, in the age of sails, always started in summer, passed through the Fusang Islands, and took advantage of the southwest monsoon.

After crossing the North Pacific Ocean, sailed south along the west coast of the northern region of North America, passing the later Alaska and the west coast of Canada along the way.

However, these places are located in the north and it is too cold. The Great Chu Empire simply set up a few supply bases along the way here, and then set up a trading base to do business with the local aborigines, mainly to buy fur from the aborigines. .

It's hard to build really large immigrant settlements in these places, let alone cities.

We can only continue to go south and arrive at the coastal area called "Puget Sound" in later generations. The climate here is relatively better. It is about minus five degrees in winter and about 20 degrees in summer. (Considering the Little Ice Age, the temperature in winter was lower than that of later generations).

The temperature difference between winter and summer here is relatively small, and the climate is mild, the air is very humid, and the annual rainfall is large, which belongs to a very typical temperate maritime climate.

Although such a place can't be said to be very good, it is not bad, so at the beginning of the Great Chu Empire, it established a stronghold here, organized early immigrants to carry out reclamation, and traded with the nearby aborigines.

The follow-up exploration fleet continued south along the west coast of North America, arrived in the San Francisco area, and finally reached the coast of Mexico, touching Spain.

During this process, Xiayang City became the bridgehead for the colonial expansion of the Great Chu Empire in North America because of its superior geographical location and transportation status. Xiayang County was successively established in the city and surrounding areas, and then expanded into Xiayang Mansion.

The prefecture is only an overseas directly-administered territory, and its area of ​​jurisdiction is extremely large, covering the entire surrounding area of ​​Xiayang Bay, including Beiyang County in the northern area of ​​Xiayang Bay.

When the governor of North America was established a few years ago, Xiayang City became the governor's residence for a while, but later the governor's residence was changed to Jinshan City in order to manage the affairs of the huge jurisdiction more conveniently.

It is worth mentioning that the North American Governor's jurisdiction is very large, basically all North American regions from the east of the Bering Strait belong to the North American Governor's jurisdiction, and South American affairs are also under the North American Governor's jurisdiction.

It is said to be the governor of North America, but in fact it is more appropriate to say that it is the governor of the Americas.

The governor of North America is the same as the governor of India. He not only manages the affairs of the directly-administered territories, colonies, dependent countries, and puppet states of the Great Chu Empire in the area under its jurisdiction, but also manages the vassal affairs in the area, and has the authority to declare war and negotiate peace.

This is also the reason why the North American governor's resident moved from Xiayang to Jinshan City further south. After all, Xiayang City is still too far north, and the surrounding area lacks sufficient agricultural land, so it is not as good as Jinshan Mansion in terms of agricultural development.

When the Chu people first arrived in the Jinshan area, they found that there was a good port, and the climate was very good. At the same time, there was also land that could be cultivated. It was also relatively close to Mexico, where Spain was entrenched, so they could trade with the Spaniards nearby.

Therefore, Jinshan City was established here, but in the early years, Jinshan City was actually just a port trade city used to trade with natives and Spaniards. The scale was actually small, and it was not the early business focus of Chu people.

Later, after a small amount of gold was discovered here, the scale of immigration development gradually increased. With the arrival of the gold rush, a large number of people dispersed to the surrounding areas, and began to settle in the inland Golden Valley. This has ensured the good situation of Jinshan Mansion.

Here, gold and the Golden Valley play a huge role.

Not to mention gold, let’s talk about the Golden Valley. The people of Chu State discovered in the early years that after passing through the Jinshan Mountains (Los Angeles Coastal Mountains) along the coastline, there is a large piece of flat and fertile land that extends eastward to what the people of Chu State call Golden West Mountains (Sierra Nevada).

Between the Jinshan Mountains and the Western Mountains, there is a wide and flat valley, which is tens of kilometers wide from east to west, and five to six hundred kilometers long from north to south.

Moreover, there are two rivers in the north and the south, and their estuaries are located in Jinshan City.

Such terrain and river transportation conditions are very suitable for settlement and development of immigrants. Therefore, the Great Chu Empire has continued to carry out settlement and development here for many years, and has continued to go deep into the inland along the river, entering the Golden Valley, and establishing settlements for settlement along the river. point, fort.

However, the number of immigrants in the early stage was small, so the scale of local immigrant reclamation and development has not been able to increase. Only more than ten settlements have been established along the river, and the scale of selling to each settlement is only 2000 people. The total number of immigrants That's more than 1 people.

These 1 people are nothing to the tens of thousands of square kilometers of the Golden Valley. Even because of the small number of people, immigrants from Chu State in the early days were often attacked by local aborigines.

Until a large amount of gold was discovered in Shuanghe Town, about 100 kilometers east of Jinshan City, Dongyang Trading Company began to organize people to mine gold here.

After the news spread to other places, a large number of people came to pan for gold, and the news even spread back to China, attracting a large number of immigrants to go to Shuanghe Town for gold panning.

After all, these gold diggers broke out overnight, after all, most of them can only earn a little hard money. In the process, many people also settled in the surrounding areas for reclamation.

To put it simply, the gold rush has attracted a large number of people, and the excellent natural conditions of the Golden Valley can accommodate these gold seekers who have traveled thousands of miles to seek gold.

The combination of the two finally created Jinshan City, the largest city of the Great Chu Empire in North America, and Jinshan Mansion, the largest mansion.

The population of Jinshan Prefecture has exceeded 10, which is quite a large population for an overseas colony.

And more importantly, the local population is still increasing at a high speed... Because the news of gold production in the Jinshan Prefecture area has not been widely spread in the country for a long time, there are still a large number of people traveling to this area by boat.

Optimistically, when the gold rush is over, the local population may have to be tens of 10!

And you don't have to worry about these 10 people not being able to survive... because the Golden Valley where they are located is the best agricultural development area on the west coast of North America, with a large amount of land that can accommodate a sufficient agricultural population.

Under such circumstances, it was logical that Jinshan City became the residence of the governor of North America.

However, although Jinshan City continues to develop, the importance of Xiayang City in the north has not declined, and has even further increased.

Not to mention anything else, the important role of its shipping port is irreplaceable.

After all, this is an important port for the North Pacific route. Except for a few spare supply ports along the way, the first North American port city that most ships arrive at is Xiayang City.

The same is true for the Shenghua. The ship traveled eastward and arrived at Xiayang City first.

Here, many passengers disembarked here, but more of them continued on the boat and prepared to go to Jinshan Prefecture. Many immigrants who came to North America went to the gold and good land of Jinshan Prefecture. It was slightly cold and humid. The rainy Xiayangfu area was not their first choice.

After replenishing coal, fresh water, and food in Xiayang Port, the Shenghua brought a group of passengers who departed from Xiayang City and headed for Jinshan City, and even went to the Sandalwood Islands and even returned to China, and went south along the coastline.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at Anhe City, a port city in the south of Xiayang City. This is a very typical small port city with a small size of only more than 2000 people. It is mainly used as a dock for some large coastal ships. , Then the personnel and materials were transferred to inland river vessels, and they went eastward along the Ann River all the way to the hinterland of the North American inland, including the land river city (Portland), which is about 150 kilometers away from the city.

Luhe City is the third largest city of the Great Chu Empire in North America, and it has a tendency to surpass Xiayang City and become the largest city of Chu State in North America. Its urban population has reached more than 7000 people. It is the seat of the government of Luhe Prefecture. The entire Luhe Prefecture has a population of more than 4 people, distributed in the colonial settlements along the lower reaches of the Luhe (Columbia River).

There are also many passengers disembarking and disembarking here.

After completing the embarkation and disembarkation of the passengers, the Shenghua continued to head south. At this time, the ship did not stop, but went all the way south.

Although there are some small port cities of the Great Chu Empire along the way, they are not large in scale and the number of tourists is not large. The most important thing is that it takes a lot of time.

The Shenghua is not an ordinary passenger ship, but a transoceanic passenger ship. It will not berth in small ports. Besides, some small ports do not berth the Shenghua with a full load of [-] tons. Port facility conditions for tonnage ocean liners.

The Shenghua continued to go south along the coast, and it didn't take long to reach the area of ​​Jinshan Prefecture. The first thing it sailed into was Jinshan Bay.

When entering Jinshan Bay, a large number of tourists found that this place is really lively. There are many ships passing through the bay, and several of them are large ships of several thousand tons.

Among them is the ocean liner Mercury of Jiangnan Shipping Company's main competitor, Donghai Shipping Company.

This is an ocean liner with a full load displacement of more than 3000 tons. It was built and served in Chengshun 24 years ago. It is a relatively typical early ocean liner with sails. The ship departs from Tianjin, and its destination is also Jinshan, and then passes through the Honolulu Islands from Jinshan City. Return home across the Central Pacific Ocean.
The route of the ship is actually similar to that of the Shenghua. Basically, it takes the North Pacific route when it goes there, and the Central Pacific route when it returns, thus forming a circum-Pacific route.

This route is also the main route between the Great Chu Empire and North America. It is convenient and fast, and the distance is also short. If the season meets, you can also take advantage of the monsoon.

The Shenghua passed by not far from the Mercury. Although the two sides were competitors, they still honked their whistles to greet each other.

After passing the Mercury, the Shenghua continued to move forward, and soon a guiding ship guided the Shenghua into the bay, and headed towards the Dongcheng Wharf of Jinshan Port.

The Dongcheng Wharf of Jinshan City is located on the east side of Jinshan City, facing Jinshan Bay. At the same time, this place is also the middle area of ​​Jinshan Bay. A pier was established here.

After several years of construction, the Dongcheng Wharf here has relatively complete wharf facilities, which can be used to berth large-tonnage ships, and has complete port hoisting equipment, which can load and unload a large amount of cargo.

In addition, the wharf not only serves ocean-going ships, but also serves inland ships. Many inland and offshore ships use this as the center to go to other towns in Jinshan Bay, such as Jinshan City, which is only six or seven kilometers away from the bay. West Gold Township.

North of Jinshan Bay, Beijin Town at the mouth of Jinshan River.

There are also inland river vessels that will travel eastward along the Jinshan River, cross the Jinshanxi Mountains and enter the Jinshan Valley.

Large-tonnage ocean-going ships transport a large number of immigrants and commodities from the mainland to the three major port cities in North America: Xiayang, Anhe, and Jinshan through the Pacific route, and then use offshore and inland river vessels to distribute them through these three major coastal cities .

On the contrary, many specialty goods from North America, such as fur, precious metals, precious wood, grain, cotton, tobacco, cocoa, etc., were produced or purchased by local Chu immigrants, or goods from the Spaniards were concentrated in these three main cities. port, and then transported back to the mainland by ocean-going ships.

This is also the operating route of the Shenghua!
Under the guidance of the guide ship, the Shenghua came to the dock area, and then, driven by the steam tugboat and its own steam power, the huge ship began to approach the dock slowly, and finally anchored on the dock steadily.

After the ship docked, after a short period of security checks and preparations, the passengers on the Shenghua began to disembark one after another.

The number of passengers disembarking here is much higher than those disembarking in Xiayang City and Anhe Port before, almost 1000 people.

Among the more than 200 passengers who came from China, 1000 chose Jinshan Prefecture as their destination, which shows the current attraction of Jinshan Prefecture to new domestic immigrants.

Among the large number of passengers who disembarked, there was also a young man wearing a rucksack and old-fashioned work clothes. He was Song Erniu who boarded the ship from Songjiang and was going to North America to fight for the future.

Song Erniu didn't stay in Jinshan City for too long, and soon, under the guidance of local officials, he boarded an inland river boat heading for Shuanghe County.

Shuanghe County, that's where gold was discovered, and it's also where the gold diggers go... not only the gold diggers go there, but in fact, Shuanghe County and its surrounding areas are located in the center of the Golden Valley, and there are inland rivers connecting Jinshan City , so the local area is also the main area of ​​settlement and immigration of the Great Chu Empire.

Song Erniu also chose to go to Shuanghe County. In the future, he can go to panning for gold or farming.

Song Erniu, who just arrived in America, looked at this strange place, and to be honest, he was a little apprehensive!
However, amidst the anxiety, he has greater hope for the future.

Because when he was still on the boat, he saw a large amount of flat land near the shore, but there was no sign of reclamation and development... In his opinion, the terrain of these places is very flat, and it is good farmland when developed.

But it is a barren land, no one is going to reclaim it. I heard from the local officials that although these places can also be farmed, the conditions are still a bit poor. If they settle down for reclamation, the government will have better land for them. .

Hearing this, Song Erniu couldn't help sighing that such a good land was left undeveloped by no one. This kind of situation is impossible in China, especially in the Jiangnan area where his hometown is located.

No wonder the government here will give away a lot of land for free as long as they come to immigrate and settle down.

There is so much arable land here!

Song Erniu and other new immigrants first arrived at the county seat of Shuanghe County by inland river boat.

At this time, the county seat of Shuanghe County has become a large-scale gold digger camp, but there are many gold diggers, and even a steady stream of gold diggers join in, but there are few who can really make a fortune by panning for gold.

Song Erniu also ran to try to pan for gold, but several days passed. Although he got some sand, the money he exchanged for the sand was not enough for food and lodging.

So after thinking about it, he didn't follow others to pan for gold, but ran back to Shuanghe County, bought a batch of canvas from local businessmen, and then asked a few peasant women to help make these canvases. clothing.

He is going to take the clothes made of these canvases to the mining area and sell them to those gold diggers!

Because he found that the things used for eating, drinking and sleeping in this dilapidated place are extremely expensive, and they are consumed very quickly. The cotton padded clothes he was wearing were only used for gold panning and mining, but a hole appeared in a few days... Then he saw Own rucksack.

I thought that clothes made of canvas would be more practical and wear-resistant for gold mining, so I patched my cotton trousers with the canvas fabric from the canvas bag, and found that the effect was quite good.

So I ran to buy some canvas and made myself a pair of pants!

As a result, several acquaintances around him came to ask him where he could sell these canvas pants?And willing to pay for it.

When Song Erniu saw it, he decided not to pan for gold at all, and went to Shuanghe County to buy another batch of canvas, and hired a few peasant women to make trousers, and then sold them in the gold mining area.

Rather than digging for gold by yourself, it is better to sell some daily necessities to those gold diggers and earn gold from the gold diggers.

(End of this chapter)