African Nationhood

Chapter 38 Hot Spring City

The name Windhoek has many origins. Some say it was once occupied by the Nama tribe from the south. The leader's name was Windhoek, hence the name.

Some people say that there are hot springs here, which are called "Egans" by the indigenous people, which means hot springs.

When Shi Jintang led people into this place, he was full of interest in this land surrounded by mountains on three sides and was almost a basin, so he directly named the place "Hot Spring City".

Because this mountainous area is surrounded by lush hills, this plateau mountainous area, which was originally in an arid area, has a suitable climate and lush green plants.

This is indeed a geomantic treasure land, 400 kilometers away from Walvis Bay Port, 280 kilometers away from Anhai Town, and 190 kilometers away from Jinshan Town (now Karibibu City, Naguo) where the Nawakab Gold Mine is located.

If we travel on horseback, it only takes a few days. If the train is available in the future, the commute time will be even shorter.

What's more, the natural conditions here are excellent, suitable not only for animal husbandry but also for planting. The annual precipitation is 370 mm, which is very suitable for being a regional capital.

In addition, it is also suitable as an advance base for conquering the Bechuanaland region (Botswana).

Shi Jintang decided to mobilize the advance battalion to enter and clear up and drive away the indigenous people along the way.

All the Nama, Khoi and Herrero people living in this area were cleared by the advance battalion.

After the war, more than 5000 black slaves were captured, and 3-5 times that number died.

The reason for uncertainty is that too many people were killed, and the advance battalion's statistics were not detailed.

Sometimes, in order to save trouble and military rations, the raiding troops directly surrounded the indigenous villages, set fire to the villages, and killed those who tried to escape.

After a tribe of thousands of people is burned, there are often only some gray and black fire fields left as traces of their past existence.

Only a few hundred of these indigenous captives will be left as coolies to build settlements, and the rest will be resold to the Nawakabu gold mines.

There is a white mine protection team at the Nawakabu gold mine to supervise the black slaves sold there for mining.

Cecil Rhodes was very happy about the arrival of such a large number of black slaves, and specially sent a personal letter to Shi Jintang.

He was told to try to capture black slaves as the gold mines were in urgent need of a large number of laborers.

The cost of selling black slaves this time was more than 100,000 pounds. This money was a timely blessing for Shi Jintang.

He was worried about how to settle the immigration fee with the British, and now he could finally save himself.

The new immigration ship had docked half a month ago, transporting 403 North Korean women and 204 men this time.

Most of the children were Koreans, mostly girls, with only 36 boys and 71 girls.

Most of these people were illiterate, let alone able to speak Chinese and English. Shi Jintang had a headache for a while before the ship docked.

After the ship docked, he found that among the Korean women, there was a woman named Jin Xiyue, and her servant Xianji could understand and speak Chinese.

Kim Xiyue was once the daughter of an official and gentry family in Pyongyang Province, North Korea. She could speak and write.

And her servant Xian Ji has been influenced by it since she was a child. She can speak Chinese, but cannot write.

As if Shi Jintang had found a treasure, he immediately handed over Jin Xiyue's master and servant to Qin Mo and Li Tong's teaching team for surprise teaching.

Within a week, Master and Servant Jin Xiyue mastered the Chinese pinyin and writing simplified Chinese characters.

Therefore, Master and Servant Jin Xiyue also became a member of the teaching staff of Anhai Town.

Regarding the treatment of North Korean women, Shi Jintang had long considered the plan to control them in a few factories and let them learn Chinese and read in the early stage.

After they can speak Chinese proficiently, the officers and soldiers of the advance battalion will be selected and matched. After the officers and soldiers of the advance battalion are selected, the selection of other Chinese immigrants will be opened.

These Korean women can only be married to Chinese immigrants. Other ethnic groups are strictly prohibited from getting involved. Those who violate the ban will be directly executed!
  This strict order is enough to deter bad people.

In addition, the Walvis Bay quarantine area has also been set up as a restricted area by Shi Jintang, and no one is allowed to approach it.

There are hundreds of young children in total, and they have all been transferred to Anhai Town for education.

The subsequent placement will be based on the previous grouping of girls, and those with strong learning ability will continue to be cultivated.

Medical, administrative and industrial workers with poor learning ability will be diverted. When these young children grow up, they will become the backbone of the entire colony and the key to the rise of Nanhua Company.

As for those men who have undergone purification and primary education, most of them will be arranged to work as farmers in hot spring cities.

Hot Spring City will be the first choice for settling Chinese immigrants for a long time.

The Chinese in this era were good at farming and loved the land enough. Coupled with the guano fertilizer they provided, great agricultural development was bound to come.

After confirming that the advance battalion had completed the cleanup work around Hot Spring City, Shi Jintang immediately led more than 500 people and a large number of supplies and livestock to transfer to Hot Spring City.

After eight days of marching, the immigrant team he led finally arrived at the settlement of Hot Springs.

More than 100 of the immigrants who came this time were livestock farmers recruited by Nanhua Company, and most of the others were their family members, relatives and friends.

These people are descendants of the Portuguese and Dutch in Walvis Bay, and they can only engage in some low-end businesses in Walvis Bay.

With no land and no knowledge of farming, their life was very embarrassing.

After the South China Colonial Company issued an announcement to recruit livestock farmers, these down-and-out white people almost broke their heads.

The livestock shipped in the early stage are limited, and only so many can be recruited.

Nanhua Company promises to provide livestock farmers with livestock packages. Applicants can choose either loan of "20 sheep" or "5 horses".

The sheep in the set meal are the Karakul sheep that Shi Jintang asked Alice Underwood in Europe to order from Germany at a large price. They are the legendary purple-skinned sheep.

The horses were Moorish horses and Boer horses imported from the United States and the Cape Colony respectively.

Both of these horses are good all-around horses that can carry heavy loads and serve as war horses.

After the expiration of three years, the loan is considered completed when the livestock farmer directly returns the number of loaned livestock.

In addition, Nanhua Company also provides 3-year low-interest loans with a limit of 100 pounds per household.

This money is enough to support livestock farmers to get off the ground.

Nanhua Company also promised to deploy troops to protect livestock farmers from grazing. With so many preferential conditions, the poor white people were naturally willing to engage in livestock work.

The preliminary preparations for the advance camp had begun half a month ago, so the settlement construction here has begun to take shape.

A large cross street was laid out throughout the settlement.

A stone castle covering an area of ​​500 square meters was built in the central area, which is the seat of the Hot Spring City government.

Vacant spaces have been left along the street to facilitate future immigrants to build houses and shops.

As the commander of the advance battalion, Qu Sangqian led a group of mid-level officers to greet Shi Jintang and his party, and then led the immigration team to the hot spring city.

Hot Spring City is still very simple and dilapidated everywhere, but it does not affect the rest of the white livestock farmers.

They carry tents with them, so they will not be exposed to wind and cold at night. In addition, the water and grass here are abundant, and the livestock they bring will not be at risk of starvation.

Shi Jintang entered the stone castle, took a tour, and then went to have a meal.

After the meal was over, Shi Jintang suggested that they go to the hot spring here to take a bath together.

Qu Sangqian and others immediately agreed, so a group of grown men rushed into a hot spring pool.

In the hot spring pool, everyone met each other candidly and talked freely, which was very satisfying.

After Shi Jintang finishes handling business in the next few days, he will take a few guards with him to soak in the hot springs.

After relaxing for a while, he suddenly received a notice from Walvis Bay Port that he needed to go back.

After asking about the situation, Shi Jintang got on the horseback returning to Whale Bay.

　Third update, I’m exhausted, go and eat.

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)