Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1225 Hejian ([-])

Negotiations with the Spaniards were long and tortuous.

The Spaniards sent a seasoned and slick official from Posadas City, and they had a chat with Chen Ke and others for several days, first accusing the people on the east coast of crossing the border for cultivation—although they were all in the name of investment, it was obvious that they exceeded A certain limit—then talk about the arrogance of the East Coast tea farmers in the wild yerba mate tea farms, and finally talk about the East Coast businessmen evading taxes, and none of them went to Buenos Aires Procuratorial court area to pay and other bad things, in short, you are all unforgivable villains, criminals, tax evaders, it is a great mercy that we did not arrest you all, stop trying to challenge our patience.

Chen Ke and others naturally denied all the allegations against the Spaniards, and then they also pointed out that according to the relevant provisions of the "Valladolid Peace Treaty", the Kingdom of Spain can only set up a military stronghold in the Hejian area at most and no more than five Hundreds of soldiers, the Mestizo Regiment stationed in Posadas City is now over a thousand in size, and I heard that the Kingdom of Spain plans to train a brand new Gentleman Regiment (that is, the White Regiment) along the Paraná River. This undoubtedly violated this rule even more, so the Spaniards have no right to accuse the East Coasters.

What followed was a meaningless war of words, and the more wars of words were fought, the more Chen Ke saw the weak nature of the Spaniards, that is, they didn't have the guts to openly attack the villages and towns of the people on the east coast!Because they don't know where the bottom line of the people on the east coast is, and they are afraid that this kind of behavior will lead to large-scale military retaliation, so that the entire Buenos Aires Prosecutor's Court District and even the next-door Paraguay, Charcas, and Chile will be destroyed. It may be affected disastrously, and they can't bear the consequences, so they can only try to frighten the people on the east bank so fiercely and force them to retreat, but how is this possible!

After chatting with them for a few days, Chen Ke lost interest. On October 10, accompanied by local officials, he simply went to the countryside to investigate the development of the villages in Yehuo Township, and handed over all the annoying negotiations to Gave the follower to handle it.

"There is no rent on the land here, and no capital is needed to increase its fertility, because there are countless uncultivated lands around, and farmers can use them at no cost. Many people own a lot of land, Its area far exceeds the upper limit of [-] acres stipulated by the national law, because there is no monitoring at all, and they can occupy the land as they want. Many people are completely holding that they will fill the world first before the state controls them. The idea of ​​enclosing the land and rotating the most fertile piece..." In the scattered villages on the outskirts of Yehuo Township, a local official introduced to Chen Ke: "But there is a shortage of materials here, such as farm tools, seeds, livestock and even manpower. , but the land was unquestionably good, and thus produced many get-rich-quick farmers."

"I think there seems to be a lack of craftsmen and small daily commodities here." Chen Ke pointed to a certain courtyard and said.There is a shallow well in the courtyard, and the water level of the well is very high, which seems to be due to the high groundwater level caused by the abundant precipitation nearby.There is a poorly made earthen pot beside the well. This earthen pot looks shapeless, fat and crooked. If you pour water into it, then the water in one place can reach the edge of the earthen pot, and the other place is even. Not even half a can.Chen Ke reckoned that when the crock was full of water, it would fall over if touched slightly, and it might not even be able to withstand slightly hot water. I don't know which clumsy craftsman made it, and it was more likely that the villagers themselves made it. yes.

"Yes, there is a great shortage of craftsmen here. Why is our place too closed? Everyone has to buy spoons from other places' markets." The official said helplessly, "Many farmers here are not only uneducated, And almost illiterate. But I personally admire these farmers, because most of the bravest and famous farmers, loggers, and ranchers here came from the bottom of society, and the country winery The organizer of the workshop, the 'chemist', is a person who can neither read nor write Chinese, but he does a good job. Everyone tastes the spirits that he brews and agrees, so I am full of respect for the peasants. Respect for the stratum mental intelligence, sir, they are really good."

"Oh, I think I've figured it out." Against the sound of barking dogs, Chen Ke strolled into a yard with an open gate. Next to this yard is a small Taoist temple, and there are more than a dozen other rooms around the Taoist temple. The houses form a small village.The village is surrounded by luxuriant virgin forests, and the environment does not look very good, relatively closed.

"It's hard for me to imagine how such a weapon can shoot." After taking off what looked like a musket from under the eaves, Chen Ke immediately lamented the local villagers' hands-on ability-this is the most Could an old-fashioned musket, with such an inconvenient stock, no sling, and bullets of small lumps of mostly shapeless lead, really shoot?

"Muskets made by self-reliance, well, dogs are also ordinary small non-bred dogs, lacking daily necessities, and even less doctors and teachers. Your life is indeed very difficult. You can persist in this barren land for so long and live better. It is indeed a great effort of courage and ingenuity, for which I also deeply admire." Chen Ke put the musket back to its original position and said with a sigh.

"Recently, many local businessmen have begun to invest in Hejian. For example, Tian Xing's wife has invested in a large deer farm, which has hundreds of deer. Their capital is very strong, but—well, manpower is not enough. It is very scarce, because after any non-national laborer comes to the Hejian area, he will have the idea of ​​fleeing and farming elsewhere, so the local manpower is always in a state of extreme shortage. The suitable climate, fertile land and The dense forest can produce property owners in batches, haha, this is a vast and free world." Lieutenant Fu Lei, who had been silent before, also interjected, "But we have to try to control these people, otherwise if we wait for them Wild used to it, God knows if they listen to us or the Spaniards, especially the Catholic Italians."

"How many people are there in Posadas City? What's the economic situation? Have the Spaniards immigrated to the Hejian area recently?" Chen Ke asked three questions in a row. Little is known about the situation.

"There are not many people in Posadas, not more than four thousand. Among them, the number of whites is only five or six hundred, and the rest are mestizos and Indians. The economy is based on grain planting, orchard cultivation, fishing, and logging. , mainly grazing, it’s not bad, not bad, but just like our side, there is a severe shortage of daily necessities, and the prices are not low.” Lieutenant Fu Lei thought about it and said, “I’m not very clear about the immigration situation, because we temporarily I haven’t been able to conduct detailed intelligence reconnaissance and staff travel to the vast outer world, but I predict that the Spaniards should have immigrated to the Hejian area. As for the number, it is difficult to know unless they find their insiders to ask.”

It is said that in the past 30 years, he has been beaten twice by the East Bank and signed many "traitorous treaties". The Hidalgos in Spain are not all dead, so they will naturally be touched.In fact, since many years ago, King Philip has taken the lead in adjusting the immigration policy—before the Portuguese, who had a more closed and conservative immigration policy—immigrated a lot from relatives in Austria to Bohemia, South Germany and even Hungary People came to settle in La Plata to enrich the local population.

After being bloodbathed in the Second East-West War, King Philip remained undaunted and unswervingly insisted on transporting immigrants to La Plata. This time, there were not only a large number of Bohemians and Germans, but also some Catalans. Rhonians, Aragonese, Andalusians, and Italians—until last year (1658), as far as the east coast people scouted, there were three immigrant ships full of 1200 Galicians with various belongings Coming to the port of Buenos Aires and disembarking, it can be seen that the Spanish immigration policy has actually been persisted over the years, although I don't know where they got the cost.

In the same period of history, the number of whites in La Plata was only a few thousand. However, in this time and space on the east coast, although they experienced the "bloodbath" of the second East-West War (the Krandi uprising), after years of recovery, the whites are currently The number has recovered to close to 90, which is amazing. From this, it can be seen that the Spaniards attach great importance to the estuary of the Rio de la Plata.After all, more than [-]% of the pirates still like to gather in the Caribbean to besiege the Spaniards' treasure fleet, but few pay attention to the silver ships sailing from La Plata, so this outlet is, in a sense, , It is strategic for the Spaniards-although the cost of transporting silver and special products by mules and horses from Chile and Chalkas is not low, the spare outlet is the spare outlet, and the Spaniards are still reluctant to throw it away.So you see, the Spaniards set up the Buenos Aires Inquisitorial District, set up the General de la Plata, created two Clandi regiments, a Mestizo regiment, a Gentleman regiment There are thousands of colonial soldiers in the four regiments, and the intention is quite obvious.

"Try to minimize the conflict with the Spaniards, but there is no need to be afraid of them. Wildfire Township is just for normal reclamation. If the Spaniards come to forcefully obstruct them, then don't be afraid of them. Just call people and fight back. You must not show weakness, maybe Now the Spaniards are also testing our bottom line, as soon as you soften, they will harden, so don't show your timidity." Chen Ke ordered, which set the tone for the reclamation activities of the people on the east coast.

(End of this chapter)