Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 118 Safety Fort ([-])

The Guarani, of course, did not respond.

After learning that the Ping'an Coal Mine had adopted thunderous measures, the group of natives, who were severely shocked by the four corpses dangling in the wind on the gallows, turned pale with fright.Some guys who have committed many crimes even packed up their things overnight, crossed the Geral Mountains northward, and entered the Paraná area to seek refuge.The remaining Guarani people were much more honest. Not only were many stolen tools returned, but even a section of the track that had been demolished was quietly restored that night.

In the following days, the coal mine did not continue to expand the situation, and Baishui planned to close it as soon as it was good.Now that the Guarani people are honest, there is no need to hold on to them anymore. It seems that some kind of consensus and balance has been reached between the two parties.

When Xu Wenxuan was going back to Ping'an Fort on the coal transport ship the next day, the nearby Guarani people even sent more than a dozen school-age children to go back to Ping'an Fort with Xu Wenxuan to go to school.

"It's really lamentable that the natives are more fearful of prestige than virtue." Standing on the pier, Xu Wenxuan sighed.Afterwards, they boarded an inland river transport ship full of clean coal, which was the first shipment of coal from Ping An Coal Mine in the past few days.

After the coal mine matter was settled, Xu Wenxuan hurried back to Ping'an Fort.Now that there are so many things going on in Ping Anbao, it is time for him to earn credit and performance, so how can he not rush back?More than a dozen Guarani children were sent to Pinganbao Complete Primary School by him, and then he plunged into the construction site of Pingan New City.

The construction of the city wall and factory buildings cannot be completed in a short while, and they are still under intense construction.Correspondingly, the 20 textile machines that had been installed in Ping An Machine Weaving Factory a while ago have almost been debugged at the moment.A group of workers seconded from the Dong'an Company Machine Textile Factory started trial production and took time out to train new workers.

Cotton gins, spinning machines, and looms are not complicated. A worker who has never been in contact with them can basically master all the essentials of operation as long as they study hard for a few days, and the rest is to improve their proficiency.The workers of the former machine textile factory of Dong'an Company were also very careful in teaching, and some of the tips they summed up in their work related to product quality, output and equipment maintenance were also broken up one by one, crushed, and explained in detail. Listen to new workers so that they can avoid detours in production and enter the role as soon as possible.For their generosity and non-secret behavior, the General Administration of Textile Industry did not fail to express that every worker who came to impart experience received a cash reward of five yuan.

At the end of October, just after the trial production of Ping’an Machine Weaving Factory was completed, the first batch of 1000 pieces of cotton cloth was accepted as qualified, and a new batch of 20 machines began to be installed and debugged. The second batch of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty also arrived after many trips Fort Ping An.For this group of "delicate and expensive" new immigrants, the executive committee, the government affairs council, down to Ping'an Fort, Zhenhai Fort, and Textile Industry Bureau all made reasonable and sufficient arrangements as much as possible.

It’s impossible to be careless, and these 900 new immigrants cost the Ministry of Finance a huge sum of more than 30 yuan!Among them, 17 yuan was paid by the Ministry of Finance, and the other 15 yuan was loaned to the Ministry of Finance by Dongan Company again.As a result, the Ministry of Finance can be said to be heavily indebted, and now it has been burdened with a huge debt of up to 35 yuan.Fortunately, this debt does not need to pay interest, otherwise the Ministry of Finance may be like the United Kingdom when Queen Victoria first came to power. The annual fiscal revenue is only enough to pay interest to their Dutch creditors (the normal way for this debt in the United Kingdom I couldn’t pay it back, but they later paid it off in an abnormal way. Yes, it was robbing the Spaniards, embarrassing!).

After paying the huge sum of money to the Portuguese, there are still more than [-] yuan left in the treasury of the Ministry of Finance, and more than [-] yuan left in the finance office of the East Bank Company, which means that the funds in the hands of the cross-traveling public have been reduced to only [-] yuan. Yu Yuan's outrageous situation is almost irreparable.When the Executive Committee and the Government Affairs Council learned of this situation, a group of people looked at each other in blank dismay, suddenly feeling the pressure.As the main product to earn foreign exchange through export next year - cotton cloth seems to have to open up the French market, otherwise, everyone will be waiting for bankruptcy.

Speaking of the group of immigrants in front of us, we have to talk about the "good partner" of the East Coast Republic of China——Liu Xiang, the leader of the southern Guangdong.Thanks to the merits of "immigrating" hundreds of people last year, Liu Xiang got a lot of guns and cannons from the Portuguese, and this year's life suddenly became much easier.In the few small-scale battles with Zheng Zhilong, he still took advantage of it, which made him more enthusiastic about the matter of "immigrating to Nanyang for the Fran robot".

At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Liu Xiang secretly bypassed the east coast of Taiwan twice and headed northward, avoiding the Wentai area, which was on guard against last year's looting, and went straight to Wusong, Nantong Prefecture and other places, robbing countless people and property. It shook for a while.Of course, he is not always so reckless in his work. He also secretly sent his confidantes and some business informants to Nanzhili and some parts of Shandong to recruit refugees in the name of reclamation, which made him fool for a while. many people.

When Liu Xiang was in action, the Portuguese couldn't bear the temptation of gold coins. They secretly went to Japan to recruit immigrants, and at the same time funded a few Japanese pirates to land on Jeju Island in North Korea.The North Koreans have lived in peace for a long time, and they are completely defenseless.This group of miserable Japanese pirates even defeated several North Korean troops on Jeju Island, and captured many prisoners to exchange money for the Portuguese.

After so many efforts, by the time of departure in late spring, the three Portuguese immigration boats had already got nearly 1500 voluntary or involuntary "immigrants".Of course, after the cruel and long ocean voyage, only 900 people were able to reach the east coast alive, and the death rate was as high as 40%.Among the 900 people, immigrants from the Ming Dynasty accounted for the majority, about 750 people, and about 100 Korean refugees and 50 Japanese immigrants from Kyushu Island remained.Their arrival also made the total population of the East China Republic break through 1 for the first time in history, reaching a record high of 10759.

A considerable part of this batch of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty were weaving households from Wusong. These people were immediately stopped by Tao Chenxi, director of the General Administration of Textile Industry, and then directly dragged to the new city of Pinganbao. Under the guidance of the old staff, he began to learn to use the hydraulic loom to spin and weave.They are weavers themselves, and they have certain work experience, so they can get twice the result with half the effort. This makes Tao Chenxi very happy, and said that he bought the right person.

While work on the Pingan Machine Weaving Factory was progressing steadily, another ambitious project, the Pingan Iron and Steel Works, began infrastructure construction on the edge of a lush forest on the north bank of the Pingan River and the east bank of the Yakui River.Hundreds of recruited Guaranís and more than 300 new immigrants sweated here and started their first steps as steel factory workers - building iron ore cargo terminals, factory buildings, ironmaking blast furnaces and steelmaking open hearth.

At the same time, more than 300 new immigrants were transported by boat to the Ping'an coal mining area, where they will build a honeycomb coal factory and a building material factory (a wheel kiln, a cement kiln, and a lime kiln).The few remaining immigrants were arranged to Zhenhai Fort. Most of them were shipbuilders with experience in shipbuilding, and they were directly assigned to Zhenhai Shipyard.Although they usually build some Chinese-style hard sailboats with outdated performance, the foundation is still there, and they can still be put to great use after studying in Zhenhai Shipyard for a period of time.

Of course, steel mills and shipyards are all for future considerations, but right now the top priority in the entire China East Coast Republic is the commissioning and production progress of the Ping An Machine Weaving Plant.Under extreme financial pressure, the Executive Committee, the Government Affairs Council, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Trade, and the Ministry of Finance sent people to inspect and inquire every three days, which made Qian Hao, the chief executive of Ping'an Fort, and the current office moved to Ping'an Fort. Tao Chenxi, director of the General Administration of Textile Industry in the new city, has two heads as big as a fight.

To be honest, the two of them have really done their best for the formal commissioning of Ping An Machine Weaving Factory.Whether it is plant construction, worker recruitment and training, or equipment transportation and installation, they have provided the best conditions to ensure that the production progress of the machine weaving factory will not be delayed.

The first batch of 20 pieces of cotton cloth produced by 1000 machines has been sold to the La Plata area, and the customer response is good.In terms of quality, there is no significant difference from the previous cotton cloth. At present, this part of the staff has been in place and the equipment has been operating normally. Pieces of cotton cloth are produced and then sent to the warehouse for storage. The market is ready with sufficient supply.The second batch of 20 machines has been installed and debugged in the past few days. The new workers are practicing and trial production, trying to run into the best condition as soon as possible and produce qualified products.

According to the plan of the General Administration of Textile Industry, the third batch and the fourth batch of 40 machines will arrive in November and the installation and debugging will be completed, and the installation and debugging of the last batch of machines will be completed in mid-December at the latest.For this reason, the craftsmen in the comprehensive workshop of the Dayuhe Armory in Dongfang Port began to work continuously for 11 hours, working overtime to produce textile machine parts, and then packed and transported to Ping Anbao for assembly into finished machines.

It is estimated that by the end of December, all equipment and workers will be in place, and then the cotton cloth will be produced at full capacity.The French may send a ship to pick up the first batch of goods at the end of March or early April. If everything goes well by then, the Ping An Machine Weaving Factory should have stockpiled more than 12 cotton cloths, enough for the first sale.

(End of this chapter)