Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1288 Order Rectification ([-])

On April 1661, 4, after staying in Cheng'en Township for two days, Xu Yu was about to embark on the journey back to Beining Township.

"This place is not bad. It is more fertile than the land we had by the Dayu River back then. If it is done well, there is no reason why it will be worse than ours." Xu Yu, who had just strolled around outside, turned to Liu Houfei when he came back. Said: "Do it well, the land is all the mature fields in the manor, not bad. I remember that the land here has not yet been auctioned and listed, so let these new immigrants be loaned first, and then repay after they have harvested." The land purchase fee. For this matter, you'd better find someone from the Brazilian Rural Finance Cooperative, who are in charge of this kind of thing."

"After Cheng'en, Taiping, Pinghu, Beining and other townships were established, the prototype of a county came out. In the future, we can rely on this county to radiate the surrounding area and actually control a wider land." Xu Yu finally said, " I hope this process is as fast as possible. I am not young. I hope to contribute as much as possible to the East Coast before the end of my life. You should also keep this in mind. Whoever contributes more to the country will get more The biggest benefit, national interests and personal interests, are not contradictory most of the time."

Liu and Qiao humbly accepted the instruction of Xu Yu, a veteran senior (now still the immediate boss).On the same day, Xu Yu left Cheng'en Township with the militia and the convoy, and Liu Houfei and Qiao Yu (deputy township head, township armed minister, and director of the police station), the civil and military partners of Cheng'en Township, also officially started their work.

To be honest, the village is really poor and white now!The new immigrants plus the original advance team members made a total of 352 people, which is the population of a village on the southern prairie, but here is a township-level settlement; at the same time, they are also very short of supplies, especially All kinds of daily necessities will be transported by a convoy from Beining Town every half a month (it is also very difficult to transfer materials from Changshun Port to Beining Town, and the accident rate of mules, horses and vehicles is high), so all Things have to be saved, because no one knows if there will be any accidents in the convoy that will cause them to fail to arrive on time; there is not a shortage of production materials, hoes, rakes, plowshares, shovels, picks, axes, saws, hardware There is no shortage of tools and other things. Perhaps the higher-ups want them to do as much work as possible here, so the various production materials are quite sufficient.

The most here are probably the hundreds of various livestock left by the former manor owner. These can be used for plowing, pulling carts, and riding, and they are still very useful.It’s just that the daily feed consumption is so huge that the people in the previous advance team couldn’t support them anymore, so they can only let these livestock find food by themselves-of course, such livestock can’t do heavy physical work, and the best The cows and horses were taken away by the owner of the manor who left, and they seemed to be used for food and entanglement along the way (historically, President Rivera of Uruguay took more than 500 cows with him when he traveled long distances, hired two people, and Eating while walking, and occasionally selling some cattle as a bargain when I met a town, because the South American continent was sparsely populated at that time, so this was the only way to go), this made the people on the east coast very dissatisfied when they found out: Isn’t it true that the livestock in the manor are The truth has already been compulsorily purchased by the army on the east bank with military tickets, but it’s just that they haven’t had time to send someone to pick it up. It’s good for you to guard yourself and take away a large group of people as transportation and money. It’s really unreasonable!For this reason, the gendarmerie has already issued a warrant for the family, demanding that all localities must arrest them, but this hope is very slim, and it is not even as high as the chance of them being robbed when they encounter Indians in the wild.

"The most important thing now is to resume production. Winter planting can no longer be delayed. We will organize people to go to the field this afternoon, and first distribute the land to others. Livestock, seeds, and agricultural tools will also be distributed, so that everyone can start production as soon as possible. The temperature here is not low in winter, and there may be no snowfall, and we can plant overwintering wheat, and we can plant another season after the summer harvest next year, and the food reserves will be abundant at once." Liu Houfei sat on a tree stump On the stool, he said to his partner Qiao Yu.

"The people from the Brazilian Rural Financial Cooperative have not yet arrived, and we have already loaned out land, livestock, farm tools, seeds, etc., will there be any problems?" Qiao Yu asked.

"Everything is done according to the rules. The principal and interest of the loaned things are calculated according to the national regulations. Let each of these immigrants sign a loan contract and then hand it over to the people in the agricultural financial institution. What's the problem? We helped them do the work ahead of time." Liu Houfei said nonchalantly, "After this matter is done, we will settle down the big thing on our minds, and I can hand over the people to you later, and train them hard , by the way, cultivate some group consciousness through collective training and collective labor, otherwise how can we gain a foothold in this dangerous and barren land?"

After the two main officials of Cheng'en Township reached an agreement, the work was carried out quickly. However, an event happened a few days later that cast a shadow on the reclamation work of this newly established settlement: an Indian chief He led dozens of soldiers to the outside of the township mansion (that is, the manor), stopped the east bank immigrants who were logging and building houses, and then asked to meet the leader of the east bank people.

Liu and Qiao were notified very quickly, and they summoned more than 40 militiamen who were gathering in the open space behind the manor—mostly trained old nationals and some Ottoman Ganishari soldiers— Come here, let them load their rifles, and walk over together.

Liu Houfei had taken Portuguese as an elective when he was studying in the youth cadre school, so he was able to have a simple exchange with this Indian chief named Calderon (perhaps a pseudonym), although the other party's Portuguese seemed to be very substandard.Before the meeting with Calderon, Qiao Yu also told Liu Houfei an anecdote about the wild Indian tribe in Brazil:

An Indian tribe hiding in the forest, whose leader is a terrible legend to a new Portuguese town in the diocese of Sao Paulo. This leader once led the tribesmen and attacked the town twice a year. For what (just like the people of St. Paul's ransoming the East Coast Army), no one dared to resist him a little bit.He led the first raids with thousands of men, then gradually reduced to hundreds, and then, as he saw the growing power he had established in that small town (because at the mere mention of his name, people terrified) to a hundred, and at last he felt himself the complete and undisputed master of the town, and came alone, as if indeed his whole tribe followed, to show the city a taste The baptism of fire and sword is the same - this kind of thing actually existed widely until the period of the Brazilian Empire in the 19th century. There were a large number of unnaturalized "mountain people" and "savage Indian tribes" in southern Brazil, and they were often associated with the Sao Paulo flag. The team has a lot of connections, and it also has considerable influence on the estate owners in the Brazilian countryside, but this is not what the current East Coast people can know.

This time, the Indian leader named Calderon, Bao Buqi, is also such a guy. They should also go to the Portuguese manor regularly to collect "tributes" and work hand in hand with the Sao Paulo flag team (the Sao Paulo flag team dares to fight even the official Portuguese team. Unruly), one of the creators of the order in the wilderness outside the city, has always been used to arrogance.It's just why this guy came here suddenly, could it be that he came to collect "tribute"?Thinking of this, Liu Houfei and Qiao Yu's expressions turned ugly. This matter is not easy to handle.

"This is Chief Calderon!" A free Indian who used to work in the manor exclaimed. He pointed to the middle-aged man with four pistols and a dagger on his waist and said: " Chief Calderon is famous far and wide, and anyone who dares to disobey him will be in great trouble. I think I should give him what he wants. If his conditions cannot be met, I think things will be very troublesome. He may Will rage and kill."

"There is no precedent for us people on the east coast to give favors to barbarians." Qiao Yu glanced at the Portuguese-speaking Indian, and said coldly: "How many people does Chief Calderon have? Has he besieged towns before? "

"There are probably more than 200 strong warriors under the chief's command. I don't mean the malnourished people in the manor who are under the guardianship system, and the numb people who seem to be blown away by a gust of wind, but the warriors who can really fight." The free Indian swallowed his saliva and said, as if the man named Calderon had put him under great pressure, only to hear him continue: "Chief Calderon is not strong enough to make him attack the town, even those small Town is the same, he is not good enough to make those treacherous merchants pay for it. But he tried to attack the manor, that time he mobilized two hundred warriors and besieged a large manor that has been in operation for generations, of course it failed However, the owner of the manor had had enough of this endless harassment and agreed to give Chief Calderon some property as an apology, which made the villains return to the forest. But since then, they have regularly visited the manor outside the forest Collecting tribute has become a fixed long-term income for Chief Calderon. The manor owners hate it but are not strong enough, and the merchants and priests in the town are unwilling to do anything about it, so Chief Calderon has been at ease By now, he should also come here to collect tributes, we'd better hear what he wants..."

Hearing what the Indian said, Liu and Qiao probably understood a little bit.In their view, attacking Portuguese manors—especially some large manors that have been run for generations—may not be much easier than attacking small towns. First of all, manors generally have strong walls, but towns do not; There are often three generations of colonists from grandparents and grandchildren, and this may be dozens of people (mostly descendants of mixed blood). Fierce, but also more united.It's not surprising that Chief Calderon was stunned in front of them, but this does not mean that his men are not powerful. After all, more than 200 strong fighters (and possibly firearms) should not be ignored at any time. ignore.

Chief Calderon's Portuguese was not very fluent, but he used language and gestures to make the people on the east coast quickly understand: three barrels of brandy, twenty cows, some cloth, salt, sugar, and shredded tobacco are all necessary. Little, otherwise he will "destroy" the manor.After he finished speaking, he lowered the arm he was waving before, and exposed the four pistols on his belt more clearly. Behind him, a group of Indian warriors—maybe Tupi people, maybe Guarani people— —was also waving muskets or cold weapons and clamoring non-stop, which made the immigrants from Huai'an Prefecture who had just arrived here turn pale, and even some timid women began to cry softly, which added to the excitement of the Indians. They felt as if they had gained the upper hand.

"It's true that people don't know how ugly they are, and horses don't know how long their faces are." After a long silence, Qiao Yu suddenly snorted coldly, stood in front, and also revealed the command knife and pistol on his belt, and said in Chinese: "Don't panic, everyone. If I wait here, I will be able to protect you well, and I will retreat first, so as not to stay here to get in the way."

When the immigrants who were building houses and digging drainage ditches heard the news, they immediately retreated to the manor like an amnesty, but there were still dozens of immigrants who were clearing the fields standing there at a loss. Dangerous, but don't know what to do next.Although the Indians on the opposite side did not understand what the people on the east bank said just now, they immediately became alert. The soldiers behind Calderon raised their muskets, bows and arrows one after another, with a look of guard; Qiao Yu and Liu Houfei More than 30 militiamen behind them also raised their rifles clatteringly when they saw this, and the two sides were at war for a while; in addition, on the two newly erected guard towers at the entrance of the manor, several cadres also climbed up with rifles, condescending The meaning of pointing to the group of Indians below is already obvious.

After the two sides confronted each other for more than ten minutes, maybe they felt that there would be no results if this went on—although their number was more than twice that of the people on the east coast—Chief Calderon raised his hand angrily, and then took The subordinates retreated step by step out of the range of the muskets, cursed fiercely in the native Indian language, and then quickly disappeared into the woods not far away.On the other hand, the people on the east coast were concerned about the superior force of the enemy and the dozens of unarmed immigrants who were still in the field and had not returned (perhaps they also had a complex psychology of unwillingness to completely intensify the conflict), so they allowed them to retreat.

"This is not a good thing. It has angered Chief Calderon. He will definitely appear again. He will definitely bring the strongest warriors in the whole tribe. We will pay the price with blood..." Seeing this, the free Indian held his hand He touched the small cross on his chest, and said with a lost face.

"Shut up!" Qiao Yu kicked the free Indian when he heard the words, and said angrily: "Soldiers come to cover up the water and soil, we people on the east coast don't have the habit of paying tribute to our own father, let Calderon come , I will beat his mother even if he doesn't know him, I promise!"

(End of this chapter)