Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1263 Situation and Immigration Reality ([-])

The morning sun hangs crookedly in the eastern sky.

On the winding hilly path, a dozen men in full armor stepped down.The blue sky, the white clouds, and the silence of everything, they walked through the woods and hills for a long time, couldn't help but sat down on a place, planning to rest for a while.There is a village next to it. It seems that Portuguese people lived there before, but now it is empty, like the relics left by prehistoric humans.

There was a heavy rain the day before yesterday, and the waterfall dozens of kilometers away in the north became more powerful due to the cascading mountain torrents, which made Zhu Liang and his party who returned from the tour dazzled.At that time, the torrent is turbulent and the sound of the waves is shaking the sky. No matter how full of strategy and high-spirited people stand in front of such natural landscapes, they will be moved and moved with emotion.

The people who came back from enjoying the beautiful scenery looked at the Iguazu River flowing not far away, but chatted about irrelevant military and political affairs in their mouths.

"Puerto Iguazu (the newly planned settlement) is really a good place, with excellent climate, agriculture, and transportation conditions. I don't know why the Portuguese didn't build a settlement here." Senior editor and representative of China East Coast Republic Li Dayan, who came to interview Pravda, asked inexplicably: "Is it just because the place is too close to the border and the status is vague?"

Li Dayan's words actually meant something.In fact, according to the Portuguese division of generals, the scope of the rewarding areas for generals was mostly limited to the coastal areas. Later, although the colonists expanded to the inland areas day after day, the extent was limited, and it would never be extended to the coastal areas so quickly. From the Paraná River.Therefore, it is really difficult to say whether some towns conquered by the West Detachment of the South Route Army on the East Coast are loyal to King Philip or King Alfonso in terms of their ownership, especially when there are Catalonians among their residents. When there are Asians, Aragoneses, Italians, Portuguese and Jews, it is even more difficult to distinguish—maybe they don’t even know it very well—hence the problem Li Dayan just asked, this white colonizer Most of the villages and towns and manors established by the former were actually separated from the Spanish and Portuguese colonial regimes, but now they are all being suppressed by the East Bank army as Portuguese.

"The transportation here is inconvenient. Although the savages (referring to the aborigines) have been captured by the St. Paul's flag team many times, there are still many scattered outside, and the security environment is also good, so it is normal that not many people come here to settle down, but it is just cheap. We, aren't we?" Zhu Liang stood up from the grass by the river, looked at the white waves on the Iguazu River, and said with a smile: "The agricultural conditions here are so good, since others can't make good use of them, then we can It should be given to someone with a higher level. Of course we believe that any human group is aware of the possibility of planting and harvesting, but without the help of good, light, and sharp enough metal tools, it is possible to get a lot from cultivating the land. Yields are impossible. You see, the crops that the aborigines valued were limited to those whose seedlings and seeds could germinate in shallow soil, especially cassava, whose canes cling to the ground, and corn and various Root crops, and bananas, which are easy to grow and quite nutritious, are also widely used in Africa. Other crops, such as rice and wheat, can of course be grown but require more careful care and Higher agricultural technology is what the aborigines do not have, and it is also what these white colonists lack."

The meaning of Zhu Liang's words is already quite clear. It is really inappropriate for such a good land to be occupied by Indians with a low level of civilization.For these savages, planting is only a supplement to hunting and fishing activities on most occasions, and due to the low level and serious loss of land fertility, they are not worthy of occupying this land.

The implementation of this idea of ​​the weak and the strong in action is probably the large-scale implementation of the immigration operation: just yesterday, several naval inland gunboats that had worked so hard to come from the mouth of the La Plata River were delivering to Iguazu. While Hong Kong brought more than 100 tons of valuable supplies, it also sent more than 300 immigrants, most of whom came from Huai'an Prefecture, and a small number of them were the newly grown second-generation nationals on the east coast.

These people are actually the first batch of immigrants from Puerto Iguazu. They will settle, work, and multiply in the newly opened territory of this country in the future, and will completely digest it.They will farm the villages and land left by the Portuguese, and then the nearby forest - the forest itself is also a very rich source of food - can also provide a very rich handicraft raw material, such as wood, fiber, bamboo, cork, tough rattan Wait, there are quite a lot of handicraftsmen among the immigrants in Huai'an Prefecture, and these raw materials are used to the best of their ability, so that Port Iguazu can produce as soon as possible.

"Commander Zhu, I agree with your point that barbarians don't deserve to occupy these fertile lands, so what do you think these aborigines who have been cut off from the civilized world for thousands of years should deal with? In fact, I have seen Portuguese manors being released The Guaraní slaves, to be honest, were in poor health, not even as good as the Crandians who worked under the Spaniards. They were poorly fed, collective starvation was common, and almost all of them chronically Living with chronic malnutrition. Therefore, even though the land is relatively fertile and subject to extremely low productivity, the Indians still suffer from frequent starvation whipsaws, which makes them extremely emaciated, and the race begins to degenerate from generation to generation. Then, What are these skinny people worth to us? They probably wouldn't even be able to serve as soldiers, let alone do heavy labor on railway or road construction sites. They'll die. For sure!" Li Dayan asked again.

"After they build new docks and new irrigation canals for us, they will obtain the status of overseas colonial residents, and they can live freely in South Africa, New China, and even Australia. Isn't that great?" Zhu Liang asked rhetorically .

"Can one-third of the people reach the overseas colonies safely?" Li Dayan asked.

"This is the price they must pay for embracing civilization." Zhu Liang said as a matter of course. After speaking, he walked forward and said, "Let's go and see our new city."

Puerto Iguazu is located next to a jacaranda grove, and the blue flowers flutter gently in the breeze, making this riverside pier feel like being in a fairy tale world.The construction of the wharf currently employs more than 3000 people. In addition to the new immigrants and Indian slaves, there are also more than 1800 officers and soldiers from the Qingdao County Security Corps who are resting here (the department encountered a sudden epidemic a while ago, and the losses were not light. ).

These people cut down the parana pine, fir, green heart tree, jacaranda, red bean tree, white quebracho tree and other trees that can be seen everywhere in the wild, and then did not process them—of course, they lacked processing tools—just directly Start to build a simple river port wharf with a rough style. Anyway, as long as the inland river boats can dock, there is no need to ask too much.

The core of the urban area is a certain Portuguese manor facing the river—this manor was bought by the people on the east bank for 5000 yuan, of course it was a military ticket—and then some wooden simple houses were built on the periphery, a primitive prototype of the city That's it.This inland hub river port city is currently serving as the general headquarters of the Portuguese South Route Army and the general logistics station. Almost every week, new people or things are brought in by ships. In time, under the key investment of the country, it will inevitably It quickly developed into a pivotal regional central city.

And because of this, land auctions around Puerto Iguazu are very popular. In the past half a month, more than 1 mu have been sold, and nearly 9 yuan of war funds have been recovered for the Ministry of War.Countless domestic youths are packing their bags, saying goodbye to their beloved parents and family members, and with hopes and dreams for the future, they flock to Jingjiang Port at the mouth of the La Plata River through various channels, waiting for the Navy's inland river shallow water gunboat to send them to the port. To Foz do Iguaçu - a city where they will live, work and rest in the future, a city where their children and grandchildren will live.

Of course, Puerto Iguazu is obviously not the only new settlement established by the East Coast people in the middle reaches of the Paraná River.On the contrary, as the resettlement operation has been officially upgraded to a national strategy, a series of settlements (which also serve as military depots and military outposts) are being planned one after another in the north of the Iguazu River and the east bank of Itaipu Lake. , which are Zhenhua Township near the small town of Sao Migueldo Iguacu and Fuxing Township near Puerto Mendes in later generations (a wharf will be built in the future as the starting point for northward shipping ), Yelu Township near the small town of Santa Elena, Liqiu Township near Mercedes, and Nansheng Township near Puerto Guaira.

After the establishment of the six major settlements including Puerto Iguazu—with the Paraná River as the transportation artery, it is not difficult as long as there are people and investment—the people on the east bank will be able to easily move to the city in the future. Pushing the line of actual control to the line of the Piquiri River is of great significance for spying on the upper reaches of the Paraná River.

"After the wharf here is built, our South Route Army can start to stride forward again, and some troops stationed in the rear can also be gathered together, which will be of great help in saving troops." Lieutenant Colonel Zhu Liang pointed to a group of troops on land. The Indian slave who was struggling to tow a small steamer on the inland river said: "Soon our general headquarters will also move to the planned Nansheng Port further north, which is closer to our troops and more convenient to command. .”

At present, most of the [-] members of the West Road Detachment, which Lieutenant Colonel Zhu Liang personally knows, have arrived on both sides of the Piquiri River except for those who stayed at the rear traffic nodes. A part of his vanguard cavalry rushed to the banks of the Ivai River ten days ago and patrolled the area. Returning south after a circle, they are going to act as the vanguard when the main force is rested and continue to march northward—in this place, no one can stop them, they only need to step by step to every Portuguese town, village and manor they encounter Announce the laws on the east coast, then collect taxes, collect food, purchase supplies, buy land, release slaves, ban cults, and finally cooperate with the rear to carry out immigration operations, and everything will be fine.As for the battles, it’s not that there are no, on the contrary, there are quite a few, but most of them belong to the category of security warfare. Facing the white colonists who mustered up their courage to resist, they can often solve the battle with a bayonet charge, and their strength can be seen from this. .

"If the Port of Iguazu is functioning well and the supply of materials and personnel is sufficient, I am confident that before the end of next month, the headquarters will be moved to the banks of the Paranapanema River. The psychological impact on the Portuguese should be Very huge. After all, starting from here, if you bring enough horse fodder, the vanguard cavalry will be able to search and advance to the Tiet River within a week, which is the core area of ​​St. Paul's Diocese, and those who don't know the so-called St. Paul's flag team will be completely exposed Under the attack of our large army, it will only be destroyed in an instant." Lieutenant Colonel Zhu Liang stood on the river port trestle built by several giant logs, and said vigorously: "My big east bank, Wansheng!"

Some of the officers and soldiers of the security regiment of Qingdao County who were working around heard Chief Zhu's roar, and immediately responded enthusiastically and loudly. They have reason to be happy, because the 1800 of them will soon be disbanded and go home. After all, there is still a lot of farm work to do in the field.As for who will fill the gap in troops after their departure, according to some well-informed sources, it should be a newly established unit named "Fourth Volunteer Army Brigade". Most of them were prisoners of war from Poland and Transylvania. In addition, there was a group of about 800 Indian slaves who served as soldiers. They arrived in Puerto Iguazu in late September. Then he marched north to the banks of the Piquiri River, and served as the vanguard of the whole army.

On September 1660, 9, after many days of busy work up and down Puerto Iguazu, three 25-ton river steamers were finally sent to the Itaipu Swamp by land.Since then, the section of the Parana River upstream of the northern waterfall has become a transportation avenue for people on the east bank. Although there are still many obstacles such as waterfalls and shoals in the middle, frequent loading, unloading and transshipment are required, which is extremely troublesome, but water transportation is water transportation. The mules and horses on land have a large volume of transportation and are faster, unless the people on the east coast build a railway on the shore-this time Lieutenant Colonel Zhu Liang moved his headquarters from Puerto Iguazu to this place, and he came here by boat, but Then head north from here to the area of ​​the Paranapanema River and even the Tiet River. Since the water depth of the channel has not been measured, Zhu Liang dare not take the small steamer that he managed to get over. It would be bad if it ran aground. .

On September 1660, 9, after supplying and resting for many days, the army on the east bank went north again, occupied many Portuguese villages and towns in an armed march, and then began to divide the troops and drove to the manors on both sides of the Ivay River. , Repeat the previous work step by step.They are expected to stay here for more than half a month, waiting for supplies by the way, and then go north again, rushing to the area of ​​the Paranapanema River, destroying the Portuguese colonial rule there.

(End of this chapter)