Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 116 Safety Fort ([-])

Xu Wenxuan boarded an inland river shallow water transport ship to transport supplies to Ping'an Coal Mine.This ship has a load of 60 tons. It is a shallow-water transport ship for inland rivers of the Republic of China on the east coast of China, which is manufactured by Dayuhe Naval Shipyard.The No. 331-336 18-ton flat-bottomed inland river barge that was originally used between Ping'an Coal Mine and Ping'an Fort proved to have too little capacity for use, and has been removed from the cargo mission and converted to passenger transport.

It is not the first time for Xu Wenxuan to take a transport ship to Ping'an Coal Mine.Previously, in his position as an administrative assistant in Ping Anbao, he handled every matter assigned by Qian Hao in an orderly manner, and the relationship with several colleagues was also quite good, so Qian Hao sent him to the coal mining area several times Dealing with disputes between some local miners and the Guaranís.Each time he took a supply ship to go there to deal with business, and then took a coal ship to return.

After the initial honeymoon period between those Guarani people and the East Coast Republic, frictions began to occur frequently.Especially after the death of Elder Ayacho of the tribe, the conflict between the two sides became increasingly acute.

Tartan miners accused the Guaraní of increasingly indiscriminate theft of clean coal from coal mines, the loss of many tools such as shovels was also proven to be related to the Guaraní, and they also accused the Guaraní of The prices of grain, fruit and meat they sell have been increasing, and the portions are getting smaller and smaller.The Guaranís, on the other hand, accused the East Coasters of digging coal on their land without sharing the proceeds with them.Moreover, the sewage from the coal washing plant was discharged into the coal river after only a simple treatment, causing considerable pollution to the river water.

Baishui, the director of the coal mine, and Ai Cha, the director of the coal washing plant, reported these situations to Pinganbao several times, and Qian Hao also sent people to deal with them several times, but every time it was a headache to treat the head, a foot to treat the foot, and melons. The Lani people still mainly focus on appeasement.Elder Ayaqiao was fine when he was alive, and both sides focused on restraint.But since the old Ayaqiao elder passed away, the conflict between the two parties has gradually become more intense, and the effect of appeasement has become less and less ideal.

Regarding this, Qian Hao was also scratching his head.In the past, the upper echelons of the central government did not have a clear policy on the aborigines. This was mainly due to the differences in attitudes among the members of the executive committee. Some people thought that they should use strong means to suppress and deter them. The unified policy has been unable to be introduced for a long time, which has caused the people below to act at a loss.Qian Hao wanted Baishui to forcefully suppress the rioting and troublesome Guarani people several times, but he was always afraid of violating the "political correctness" of the indigenous policy, so he couldn't make up his mind, and ended up making trouble every time.

However, with the attack of the Charuyas in Lower Yihe Fort a while ago, and the promulgation of the "Land and Resources Law" that deprived the aborigines of their legal right to occupy land, Qian Hao finally felt the change in the direction of the central government's policy under Xu Wenxuan's reminder. .Since then, under his instruction, the coal mine's attitude towards the Guarani people has become increasingly tough, and the conflict between the two parties has suddenly become fierce.

Finally, just yesterday, the conflict between the two parties reached a climax.Anda Fifteen, who succeeded Aiwani as the deputy director of the coal mine police station, caught several Guarani people who were stealing tools during a night patrol.These Guarani people often steal tools and cross the mountains to the north to sell them to the Mameluco people there. As a result, the tools of the coal mine are lost every two days, so the police station organized night patrols to catch the thieves.

During this arrest, a Guarani resisted with a knife and injured a policeman. In a fit of rage, Anda Fifteen chopped off the Guarani's head with a knife and killed several others. After being beaten violently, he was imprisoned and refused to be released.The incident ignited long-simmering anger between the two sides, with hundreds of Guarani besieging the coal mine and the coal washing plant, bringing production to a complete standstill.

This time Xu Wenxuan was urgently sent by Qian Hao to the coal mine to resolve the dispute.A new batch of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty brought by the Portuguese arrived at Dongfang Port a few days ago. The Executive Committee and the Government Affairs Council plan to disperse these new immigrants to two places, Ping'an Fort and the Coal Mine, as the future construction of this area. Preparatory employees for a series of factories such as textile factories, steel factories, machinery factories, arsenals, brick kiln factories, cement factories, lime factories, briquette factories, etc.

If the problem of the Guarani people is not completely resolved at this time, I am afraid that many unpredictable vicious incidents will occur after the new immigrants pass by.According to Qian Hao's original words, "The death of an immigrant from the Ming Dynasty is equivalent to losing more than 400 taels of silver, which is enough for all 66 artillery pieces of the battleship 'August [-]th' to fire more than a dozen rounds of salvo." Before the vicious incident occurs, completely resolve the hidden dangers of these long-awaited Guarani people.

The southeast wind of magnitude 4 or [-] blew the sails on the transport ship, causing the transport ship to split the water and sail forward at a speed of [-] knots.The clear river water is blown by the southeast wind, causing waves. From time to time, a fish jumps out of the water, and the big otter tilts his head on the river bank to watch the boats passing fast on the river.

"It's really a wild but fertile land." Xu Wenxuan slightly sighed, this place is much better than Daming's Chidiqianli.In the right channel, an 18-ton transport ship used as a passenger ship rang out bursts of childish singing, which were the voices of children.

Xu Wenxuan smiled. Most of these children were from the Tatan people in the coal mining area.The parents of these children finally sent their school-age children to Ping'an Primary School under repeated orders from the Ministry of Education and Ping An Bao.These more than 30 Tatan children and more than 40 immigrant children from the Ming Dynasty in Pinganbao constitute the main body of students in the first to fifth grades of Pinganbao Complete Primary School.

Correspondingly, only a handful of seven or eight Guarani children were sent to Ping Anbao Primary School, and without exception, the families of these seven or eight Guarani children were severely punished in their tribes. discrimination and isolation.In desperation, these Guarani families left the tribe with the help of the people from the east coast, and brought their families to Ping Anbao to seek a living.Xu Wenxuan hired such a family of Guarani people in a newly opened oil-pressing workshop in Pinganbao City.

Ping'anbao Primary School is a complete boarding primary school, implementing compulsory education, and all students' board and lodging, clothing, and textbook expenses are uniformly arranged by the Ministry of Education.In addition, if each family has a child studying at school, the parents can receive a certain amount of subsidies issued by the Ministry of Education every year to compensate for the loss of a small labor force in their family.

The school has five and a half days of classes every week, and the first five days are cultural studies, including Chinese, mathematics, nature, art, sports, ideological and political courses.Saturday morning is group activity time, either collective labor or collective training, to cultivate the collective consciousness of these children.These more than 80 children eat together, stay together, play together, study together, work together, and train together. The relationship between the children is relatively direct and simple, and over time they become friends who talk about everything.And this is exactly what the Ministry of Education policy-makers want to see.

After Saturday afternoon, these children start to have a holiday, go home to reunite with their families, and help the family with some farm work within their ability.Today happened to be Saturday, and of course the local children in Ping'an Fort were dismissed on the spot, and these Tatan children were sent by a passenger ship from Ping'an Fort to take them back to their homes in the coal mining area in the upper reaches of the Coal River.

The 335-ton passenger ship numbered 18 has a speed of more than 4 knots due to its light load, which is comparable to the speed of the inland river transport ship Xu Wenxuan took.Therefore, Xu Wenxuan was able to carefully observe their every move.

More than 30 children were sitting on the deck of the passenger ship, and two armed policemen leaned on the railing to act as escorts.These two policemen are both from the Pinganbao Police Station, and they were also immigrants from the Ming Dynasty who came last year, so Xu Wenxuan knew them both.Perhaps because they were sitting idle and bored, one of the police officers took out some chocolate candies made of cocoa powder, sucrose and nuts from his pocket, and teased the children to sing.

This kind of chocolate candy is sold in Ping’an Fort. Among the immigrants in the Ming Dynasty, there was an ancestral sugar man craft. The lifelike chocolate figures and chocolate animals he made with these materials were all the rage among children, but it’s not surprising. Let him earn a lot of money.

Sure enough, the Tatan kids couldn't stand the temptation of the delicious chocolate candies, and started singing under the teasing of the police.They sang the national anthem "Singing the Motherland", and their voices were a little messy at first, but gradually became consistent as they sang.Encouraged by the police, these Tatan children sang this song every day during the flag-raising ceremony with almost all their energy.

"...Singing to our dear motherland, we will be prosperous and strong from now on..." Xu Wenxuan listened to their immature voices and looked at their serious expressions. At this moment, he seemed to feel a feeling that his soul was trembling.

After "Singing the Motherland", the children sang the army and navy military songs "Victory Belongs to the Army" and "Eagle on the East Coast is Marching" in full.After the singing, two police officers handed out chocolate candies to each child one by one amid the cheers of a group of children.

Xu Wenxuan smiled slightly. As the administrative assistant of Ping Anbao, he clearly knew that the chocolate candies in the hands of the two policemen were purchased and distributed by the Ministry of Education, and the number of candies in their hands must be equal to the number of these children. exactly equal.

With these lovely children as companions, the journey of more than three hours is not difficult.After the transport ship docked at Meihe Wharf, Xu Wenxuan tidied up his appearance a bit, and then strode onto the wharf.On the pier, Anda Shiwu, deputy director of the coal mine police station, had been waiting for a long time.

(End of this chapter)