Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1222 War Potential

"The city has been the center of the intellectual world since ancient times, and industries usually take place in the city." The newly established Jiaohe County - under the jurisdiction of Jiaohe Town, Mupai Township, Nantou Township, Banqiao Township, Qingshan Township, There are seven townships in Tianliu Township and Liantang Township, but the population is not very large, and most of them are new immigrants. It is the 40th county-level administrative unit in the country. In the county seat, the town mayor Cai Youguo (son of Cai De, the boss of Dafeng Food Company, and the Navy) Lieutenant Cai Anguo's younger brother) is introducing the county's industrial development to the former Central Executive Committee member and current Jiaohe District Commissioner Xu Xin.

"Commissioner Xu, this Boris is a craftsman who immigrated from Ukraine. He is very good at making all kinds of leather goods and leather boots. Now he has opened a small workshop and his life is on the right track. Compared with when he was in the old continent It’s a farewell.” Knowing that Xu Xin likes to play the tune of going deep into the people to investigate the so-called “first-hand information”, Cai Youguo took him to the handicraft street in the county town, so that Commissioner Xu can also see what he has been here for so long achievements.

"I've lived in Kiev for 30 years. Everyone knows me. Has anyone seen me drunk? Has anyone seen me wandering the streets on non-holiday days? But I'm poor, very poor, and it's not Such is the state of a person, there are a lot of people like me, and it's all thanks to the damned Poles and the book Cossacks who help them! They treat each of us differently, Ukrainian craftsmen can hardly compete with Polish craftsmen, in Kiev , often some people pay the tax of the five golden Geng (that is, the Ducat cast in Venice, which is widely circulated in Ottoman and the Black Sea Basin. Since the war, the value of the Groz currency in Poland has plummeted, so the scope of circulation has become wider), while others only pay the tax. Pay a tax of five groz (roughly made at this time, the silver content is less than 2 grams). You know, the poverty in the city is not the same as in the country, and it is not so easy to be controlled by people..." Boris, the owner of the leather workshop Seeing a high-ranking official come to inspect, just like seeing a Polish master in Kiev, he automatically entered the mode of complaining, and his words were so unsatisfactory that Xu Xin frowned. He didn't come to hold a complaint meeting .

Xu Xin strolled towards the interior of the workshop, and several helpers inside bowed down respectfully, one of them was a pale and thin man, wearing a calico shirt on his upper body and baggy bloomers on his lower body, struggling to nail the soles of his boots; The other two seem to be a young couple who don't even speak Chinese very well. They should be non-citizens. The woman makes shoes and the man makes boots. The entire property seems to be the clothes on their bodies.

Xu Xin is more or less clear about the living conditions of these non-national craftsmen. These people usually get up at four or five in the morning, and then work without moving until ten in the evening. A lot of quilts, shoes and boots—even working all night, but the income is very limited. Except for a few silver coins, drinking bad wine once a month is all the adjustments for a heavy life.But this is still very attractive to non-nationals in many war-torn areas of the Old World, because here there is life safety guarantee, decent board and lodging, and a little money can be saved after a year.

Of course, what Xu Xin knows about the lives of non-national artisans may not be all.In fact, these foreign craftsmen who are attached to the workshop owners (all of them are citizens of the East Coast, but they often have a certain relationship in the Old World and can constantly fool around and recruit new people) have to help their owners in addition to working non-stop. All in all, chopping firewood, cutting hay, tidying up the yard, otherwise you can hardly expect the host to give you any delicious food (generally the host and the hired worker eat at the same table), let alone give you some dried fruit, Alcohol, tobacco, brown sugar and other condiments.

After leaving the cobbler's workshop, Xu Xin came to a blacksmith's workshop diagonally opposite.There are five blacksmiths here, who make a living by helping the villagers repair farm tools and making nails, horseshoes, knives, tools and other gadgets.The five people are all brothers, but it seems that only one or two of them are more experienced, and the others are novices, so the survival pressure of this blacksmith shop should not be small—after all, there are other blacksmith shops competing—from then on. It can be seen that the three novices have to raise livestock, beekeeping, and fish additionally. They may not be able to support themselves temporarily by relying on craftsmanship alone (because there is no work for a long time), so they have to rely on income from other sources to support their families.

Next to the blacksmith's shop is a self-employed man who makes various kinds of ropes. There are two husband and wife and a little girl.The wife feeds pigs every day and grows some vegetables, while the father and 7-year-old daughter make rope for a living.Xu Xin saw that early in the morning (it would be less than seven o'clock) this little girl was working in her yard, her father was twisting the rope, and she was tidying it up.Due to her lack of height due to her young age, she had to jump up and sit down every time she turned the wheel, which was much taller than herself, which was very hard work.Sometimes when you are tired from work and want to take a break, you will often be scolded and scolded by your father. The life of the poor is so difficult, especially when you have no official citizenship, but it is much better than the old continent. ,Is not it?

"Now is your chance." After leaving the Handicraft Street, Xu Xin and the others headed towards the canteen of the county office, intending to have breakfast, but he only heard him say: "Mayor Cai, you are a war-torn area of ​​the Old Continent." The idea of ​​the craftsmen is very good, because it has undoubtedly improved the production capacity of my East Coast Republic of China, which is actually the potential for war. Now there is no need to hide some things from you, because you all know more or less Some, the Executive Committee launched troops against Brazil, and the nearby counties of Ping'an, Baode, Dingxi, Yiling, Jiaohe, Taiping, and Shenwu are the largest supplies of supplies. The Ministry of the Army has made it clear that many military supplies such as quilts, Bandages, shoes, belts, horseshoes, saddlery, fodder, food, etc. will all be procured locally from the above-mentioned counties to reduce transportation costs and losses, and the shortage will be shipped from the south. Do you understand, everyone? Your opportunity It’s coming, and it’s a big boost to the economy.”

"In fact, you should have felt a surge in orders recently, right? But this is only the beginning. Immediately, logistics staff and procurement managers from the Ministry of the Army will rush to the north one after another, waving their checkbooks to purchase various materials. Let’s take this opportunity of gluttonous feast, and strive to boost the economy, because you will still be the source of supplies for the development of the Brazilian plateau in the future, and the demand will not disappear suddenly. This positive stimulus is long-term. Xiao Cai, you have done a good job , the handicraft industry in Jiaohe County already has a certain foundation, but it still needs to continue to expand, after all, there is no work without wealth.” Xu Xin, the commissioner of Jiaohe District, kept telling that Jiaohe County is the only county in the whole region, representing He couldn't help but ignore the face of the regional administration.

Hearing what Xu Xin said, the faces of the accompanying officials also turned serious. After all, this is war, the most uncertain thing in the world.Although the people on the east coast have made a lot of preparations in advance, the quality of the soldiers is also high, and the Portuguese seem to be taking it lightly, but accidents may happen at any time, and it will depend on how the frontline commanders respond.Of course, this has nothing to do with them. All they have to do is to organize production, and maybe they have to conscript corvee and livestock to transport supplies to the front line, but this is not a big problem.

"Don't worry too much, our war potential is far from what the Portuguese can match." Xu Xin suddenly smiled again, and said: "In terms of the number of trained militiamen, it is probably the same as the number of European immigrants in Brazil. Seems like it? How do they resist us? Rely on the Mestizos and Indians? Who doesn’t know their poor tactical level! Moreover, our material production capacity and transportation capacity are far superior to those of the Portuguese. As far as He County is concerned, under the condition of semi-mechanized work, it can easily produce nearly [-] pairs of shoes and boots a month, how can the Portuguese compare with us?"

"In addition, the intelligence from the gendarmerie shows that although there are many Portuguese villages and towns and manors on the other side of the Wujiang River, most of their residents are Spanish, Italian and some immigrants from the southern Netherlands who moved here 30 to [-] years ago. It was the period of the merger of Spain and Portugal, so a large number of non-Portuguese Catholic immigrants came to Brazil. How much loyalty these people have to the colonial government of Portuguese Brazil is actually very doubtful. I don’t expect the resistance to be very strong. Our army officers and soldiers should be able to quickly occupy this large and vast area at the speed of an armed march, and this is not difficult at all." After sitting down in the office cafeteria, Xu Xin said while calling everyone to have breakfast.

Breakfast is noodles, bread and steamed buns that have remained unchanged for thousands of years. Perhaps to welcome Xu Xin, the chef in the cafeteria also asked the helpers to catch a few crocodiles that were caught and kept in the backyard. There are so many, it has almost become a disaster. In recent years, the east coast government has begun to issue a large number of licenses to the people for hunting. After killing, the meat is roasted on the grill, and a lot of spices imported from the Netherlands are applied. The taste is as good as the appearance. It looks pretty good, and it should be a very good nutritional supplement for everyone who is hungry early in the morning.

"In short, everyone, work hard and seize this rare opportunity for war." Xu Xin took a few mouthfuls of noodles and said with a smile: "Oh, by the way, apart from this, other tasks must not be left behind. The executive committee now attaches great importance to the cross-border reclamation in the Hejian area. It has instructed the regional governments in the north to speed up the speed of land reclamation to the west, and strive to spread the stalls to the east bank of the Wujiang River as soon as possible, so as to effectively support the new immigrants. Everyone should also pay attention to the cross-border reclamation activities in the Hejian area."

(End of this chapter)