African Nationhood

Chapter 22 The Goodwill of the Boers
  Luis Botha is just a young man, and his main purpose here is to test, so it doesn't matter if he is wronged or hurt here.

The person who can really make the decision is still hiding behind the scenes. Shi Jintang also noticed this and asked Trudeau to take action.

As the saying goes, "If you see through something without telling it off, you can still be friends."

Shi Jintang said loudly to Louis Botha: "I solemnly declare: First, the land under my feet was purchased from the Cape Colony Government. All legal documents are complete and protected by the Cape Colony Government; I will pay taxes on time and strive to Be a good, law-abiding citizen.

Second, my job is the general manager of Nanhua Company in Southern Africa. I come here mainly to make money.

After all, the desert in Southwest Africa is too barren to develop agriculture.

Third, as a new colonial company manager in southern Africa, the wisest thing to do is not to conflict with other forces, so if you have any problems between you, it is best not to involve me.

In addition, the soil in this valley basin is fertile and suitable for agriculture, so I will buy it one after another in the future.

I don’t know if you understand what I said. If you do, please leave. I still want to watch the sunset here. "

After hearing these words, Luis Botha blinked and digested them for a while, then he nodded to Shi Jintang, "Sorry, please forgive me for being reckless."

Shi Jintang nodded to accept the other party's apology and continued to remain silent.

Feeling a little embarrassed for a moment, Louis Botha scratched his head and continued: "I said when I came here that I brought the goodwill of the Boers."

"Ah."

"You must have lacked livestock when you first arrived here, so we can sell you a group of pack horses."

Shi Jintang's face felt much better after hearing this. He was indeed short of horses.

"What about the price?"

"This is a gesture of goodwill from us. A total of 200 horses are given to you for free."

Free gift? This is not a small gesture.

However, Shi Jintang was not too surprised, because the free ones were the most expensive ones.

Today I took a gift from the Boers. If the two sides start fighting next year, the Boers will come and ask me to express my position.

But this is all a matter of the future, so there is no need to worry about it for the time being. Everyone will speak based on their strength.

Your words are only effective if you are powerful enough to influence the situation, otherwise you are a joke.

Since the other party expressed goodwill, Shi Jintang stopped holding back and directly changed his face to be enthusiastic and generous. He must not lose the true character of a country of etiquette.

In the end, both parties parted happily.

The next day, Louis Botha and several fellow Boers drove a group of Boer horses to Shijintang's farm on the bank of the Vaal River.

The two sides had a good conversation, and Shi Jintang took the initiative to invite a wealthy Boer man to invest and develop his country in Southwest Africa.

Luis Botha's words flickered, neither affirming nor denying, but just evading.

Shi Jintang chuckled, "I won't force you. When the news about the gold mine in my territory spreads, it will depend on whether you Boers like you are in a hurry."

The total gold reserves in Southwest Africa are about 1 tons, and the gold mines in the Rand Basin are almost five times that of the gold mines in Southwest Africa.

In this life, because of Shi Jintang, the Rand Gold Mine will not be known to the world at least in a short period of time, but the gold mines in Southwest Africa will be known to everyone.

In this way, countless people will flock to the territory, and by then the popularity and traffic in the territory will increase, which will be a great boost to his colonial development.

……

Fast forward to January, and the farms in the Rand Basin are entering harvest time.

Because of previous agreements with the new farmers, Shi Jintang's farm was filled with grain after the harvest, including soybeans, corn, wheat, cassava, and sweet potatoes, with a wide variety of varieties.

Shi Jintang is not good at agriculture, and food such as sweet potatoes cannot be stored for a long time.

In desperation, he had no choice but to contact Luis Botta and ask him to find a Boer farmer to help store grain.

After nearly another month of busy work, the grain was finally collected and stored in the warehouse. Sweet potatoes, such as sweet potatoes, are directly sliced ​​and dried. In the end, nearly 100 tons of dried sweet potatoes alone were harvested, and the total of other grains was more than 3500 tons. (Note 1)

The reason why all this went so smoothly was mainly due to the large number of black indigenous people who were originally stranded on the Boer farm.

They worked tirelessly to help their new owners harvest food, but their income was extremely meager.

Most of the new farmers were from good backgrounds, so they inevitably sympathized with the black natives.

However, due to Boss Shi's strict orders, they had no choice but to try their best to help the black indigenous people improve their living environment.

From this, all the black natives were grateful. Such a master was really good, and both master and servant were happy.

Shi Jintang watched with cold eyes. Once these black natives figured out the new master's temperament, they would probably return to their old ways.

By then, these farmers will understand the painstaking efforts of Boss Shi.

Combined with the newly harvested grain and the grain he had purchased from the Cape Colony government, he had enough grain to feed thousands of people for a year.

But he had no one at the moment, and he didn't have many pounds.

If he can't get any good news from the Southwest African prospecting team in the short term, he will have to consider selling food for money.

Murphy's Law says that if something is going to go bad, it will go bad.

Until the end of July, no news came back from the prospecting team.

Shi Jintang couldn't help but feel a little scared. Could it be that something unexpected happened to these guys?
  What's even worse is that the British businessmen whom Governor Freire helped to contact have returned from the Qing Dynasty. This time the businessmen brought 300 men and 200 children.

Now Shi Jintang was in a dilemma. The freight for these people alone would cost 12000 pounds, but he only had a few thousand pounds left in his hands.

This money is not enough to pay for the immigration freight. Do we really need to sell food for money?

But now the autumn grain is on the market in Cape Colony, and the price of grain is very low.

When he bought grain in April, it was the peak period of the year for grain prices.

One step at a time, he was going to die.

So he finally decided not to sell grain, but to go to Cape Town to see Governor Freire.

Anyway, I can confirm that there are gold mines in Southwest Africa. At worst, I can use some words to fool Governor Freire.

The initial investment in developing a gold mine was extremely huge, so it was easy for him to come up with tens of thousands of pounds in advance.

In addition, he also needs to pick up people at the port of Cape Town. After all, these people are his first batch of immigrants.

Shi Jintang summoned the guards and announced that half of them would stay behind and the other half would follow him to Cape Town.

The guards naturally obeyed. Although 80% of the newly harvested crops were paid, the remaining 20% ​​weighed several thousand kilograms, which was enough to support the black natives on the farm and themselves.

Moreover, there are wild animals in the mountains near Rand Basin, including antelopes, warthogs, and even lions and cheetahs.

In this land, there is basically no shortage of daily meat, but there is a lack of seasonings. It only has a salty taste, which is a fly in the ointment!

I have never experienced such a prosperous and comfortable life. Everyone praised Boss Shi as a good man, a great man!

With the help of horses, the traffic efficiency of their group has been greatly improved.

We arrived in Bloemfontein in two days, boarded the train and arrived in Cape Town in one day and one night.

After Shi Jintang settled the guards in the hotel, he took Trudeau and Tian Liang to the Governor's Mansion.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they arrived at the Governor's Mansion, they saw a dark and thin man huddled at the door of the Governor's Mansion. The group of them didn't pay attention, but heard the dark and thin man shout: "Boss Shi, it's me!"

Shi Jintang turned around and looked around, and was immediately startled. Isn't this Qu Sanggan whom he sent to explore the gold mine?
  Note 1: The yield per mu at this time is calculated as 150 kilograms, and another adult can eat 520 kilograms of wheat per year.

(End of this chapter)