Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1771 New Government, New Style

As the core of the new generation of leaders of the East Coast Republic of China, Liao Xiaoyao, who had just been elected as the chairman of the Executive Committee at the end of 1677, took office. The first major event he did was to summon Sebastian, the ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to the East Coast. Consult with the Spaniards on the latest wave of disputes on the Pampa.Then, last month (February 1678), he took the "Liberator" battleship that had just been completed and was undergoing its first sea trial to the south of Silver Harbor to inspect the area that is not strictly speaking the east coast of China. land in the territory of the republic.

There is no doubt that this is an unusual move, which highlights the military thinking of Chairman Liao Xiaoyao (although he has now officially retired), and it makes the Spaniards feel a little uneasy.You must know that the "Liberator" is a powerful three-deck battleship with a crew of more than 800 sailors and more than [-] artillery pieces of various types. It can be called one of the most powerful battleships on this planet.Liao Xiaoyao actually took this powerful warship to visit the Pampa Plain, which has extremely strong political and military deterrent significance in the eyes of the Spaniards.

In addition, the name of this battleship is "Liberator", which makes the Spaniards think about it, because the people on the east coast have mentioned their role as "Liberator of South America" ​​before, but it has not been so much in the past 20 years It's just publicity.Therefore, based on all the above, when Liao Xiaoyao’s ship arrived at Silver Harbor on March 1678, 3, the local colonial government officials immediately reported the news to Buenos Aires, and then passed it on through Chile. to Lima.

The governor of Lima did not dare to neglect after hearing the news, because he was not sure whether Chairman Liao, who came to power from the East Coast, still planned to stick to many policies of the previous "mature and stable" Chairman Qi. Also a little uncomfortable.When the Governor of Peru sent someone to convey the news to Madrid at the first time, he also sent several confidantes to Buenos Aires, intending to find Ambassador Sebastian to learn about the new leader of the East Coast. Human character and governance program.

The smug He Yuan, commissioner of the Niulanshan District Administrative Office, also rushed to Yinhai Port, intending to listen to the teachings of the new chairman as soon as possible.But before he arrived at Yinhai Port, news came that Chairman Liao had already rode his horse under the escort of a troop of cavalry to head south towards Niuzhuang County. He had no choice but to return to the county.However, Liao Xiaoyao didn't go to the county, but went directly to Dapan Township, and inspected here for a whole day, until He Yuan and others arrived on horseback that afternoon, panting.

Dapan Township is now almost a large-scale storage and logistics base. After landing at Niuzhuang Port, a large amount of materials are transported to Dapan Township more than 100 kilometers away through mules and horse teams and large convoys.Here, materials including food, tents, medicines, etc. are carefully sorted and stored in temporary warehouses, and the militiamen take turns to guard them.However, materials urgently needed on the construction site, such as railway equipment, labor tools, and mechanical parts, will not be stored here. Instead, they will continue to move forward, passing through Heqiu Township to Guiling Township, which is located on the Yanbu railway line under construction. The settlement is located near the small city of Olavaria in later generations.Together with it, two settlements, Chenqiang Township (located near the later town of Laprida) and Wapeng Township (located near the later town of Azul), were established at the beginning of this year. On the railway line.

From the settings of these settlements, it can be seen that the general direction of the Yanbu Railway is still southwest-northeast, that is, starting from Yancheng Port, passing through the established Jinjin Township, Tongxu Township, Chenqiang Township, Guiling Township, Wa Pengxiang and other places meander all the way to the northeast, disappear in the depths of the grassland, and finally go to sea in Buenos Aires, which can be called a strategic railway connecting the north and the south.

"Commissioner He, in order to repair the Yanbu railway, the central government has spent a lot of money. As of the beginning of this year, the government's total debt principal and interest have reached nearly 1200 million yuan, accounting for almost [-]% of our country's annual fiscal revenue. There are many more, all of which are made by these infrastructure projects, and the railway construction is the big one. The blast furnace of the Pingan Iron and Steel Plant has not been produced at full capacity since the last technological transformation. This time it can be regarded as seizing the opportunity. It's been produced. Hehe, the red molten iron costs a lot of money." In front of a large livestock pen, Liao Xiaoyao stroked this group of smooth-coated horses, and said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

When He Yuan heard this, his heart tightened. The first important thing for the new chairman to do was to come to the Pampa Plain to see the railway, and he also pointed out the role of railway construction in stimulating the country's economy. It made him subconsciously elevate the importance of the Yanbu Railway to a higher level, and treat it as a strategic work in the region.

"Of course you don't think too much." Liao Xiaoyao saw that He Yuan was a little nervous, and laughed again, and said: "The Yanbu Railway has such a huge cost, it is naturally impossible for the central government to endure the serious underutilization of its railway tracks lying on the grassland for a long time." It is rusted by the sun and rain, so the utilization of the railway is also an important part of the work. You also have to work hard on this point, there is no demand for the Yanbu Railway, we have to artificially create demand.”

In fact, Liao Xiaoyao's words are somewhat fucked up. Everyone knows what is going on along the Yanbu Railway.To put it bluntly, there may be more cougars along the route than there are people (you don’t believe it, Argentina exported at least 18 cougar furs every year in the late [-]th century, most of which were produced in the Pampa Plain), and there is a demand for a hammer!In the final analysis, the greatest significance of this railway is its military role. It is indeed a good hand for mobilizing troops and materials. The economic significance of independence is weak.

As the top civil affairs official on the east coast of the Pampa Plain, He Yuan was also the first batch of veteran pioneers from work, so he was naturally very clear about this.However, he didn't intend to argue with Liao Xiaoyao, but planned to make arrangements according to the actual situation. It was impossible for him to mess around for the so-called creation of demand and risk the collapse of the local economy.

However, Liao Xiaoyao's following words quickly shook his mind, and he only heard Liao Xiaoyao say: "Don't be surprised, there is a reason for me to say this, that is, the central government has initially decided that in the next few months Immigrants who arrive at the mainland will all be resettled to the Pampa Plain. At the same time, the public land allocation indicators of the towns in the original Brazil will be reduced, and more second-generation citizens will be deliberately guided to settle in the Pampa Plain and open up wasteland. The development of this land. Now, do you understand?"

It is said that as of the middle of last year (1677), the total population of the East Coast Republic of China was estimated to have reached 391.2 million, of which nearly 193 million were second-generation citizens, accounting for more than 49%, making it the largest in the country. The crowd (this can also explain how young the East Coast Republic is).Among these people, the number of adult men and women is very large every year, and the number is increasing year by year. As long as the national policy is slightly tilted, there will be a lot of young men and women who carry their bags and bags to live and settle in the Pampa Plain every year. Ten thousand people, if counting the number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, it is estimated that more than [-] people will be resettled on the Pampa Plain every year. This...He Yuan has to admit that he was really shocked!

The population resettlement of more than 10 people a year is actually not a problem at all given the vastness and fertile land of the Pampa Plain, as long as the local support of various materials and the number of cadres are sufficient.But the problem is that this is tantamount to sacrificing the population quota in the northern tropics to speed up the development of the Pampa region. The cadres in Bac Ninh, Changshun, Changhua, Hue and even Jiaohe are not going to be overthrown?

In the past, the annual population quotas for these areas were actually quite large, especially in Hue, where the tropical plantation economy is relatively developed. Every year, many second-generation nationals and oriental immigrants from all over the world come to settle. The economy is relatively prosperous, and the development is relatively rapid. Chairman Qi of the previous government also supported it.But everything seems to be different now?Chairman Liao, who has just come to power, does not seem to be very enthusiastic about developing the northern tropical economic zone. On the contrary, this man from the army is very interested in the endless Pampa Plain, and he prefers to focus on developing this area, which is somewhat surprising.

To be fair, from the perspective of laying the foundation or long-term, giving priority to the development of the Pampa Plain is definitely the best choice. Because of its vast area, flat land, fertile soil, and mild climate, it is very "nourishing" , that is, it is very suitable for what we call "explosive population" - this is not surprising at all, the temperature is neither hot nor cold, there is no need to worry about food production, there are also very rich sources of meat such as bison, and the coast is also where fishing grounds are located, and there is no humidity and heat The various epidemics that are hard to guard against in the region, and the population growth is hard to imagine.

In contrast, in tropical areas, the climate is humid and hot, bacteria are extremely active, and there are a lot of mosquitoes. Various epidemic diseases of different scopes break out every three days, and the death rate of the population remains high.Such an environment is naturally not very friendly to human settlements. Do you know that in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the African colonies occupied by the French were still very low in development and the number of white colonists was still very small. No environmental factors are included (the British colonies of Canada, America, Australia and New Zealand have a large population).

Therefore, after Liao Xiaoyao came to power, his policy has changed, and he intends to focus on the development of the temperate zone, where more precious population resources will be tilted, which is not incomprehensible.Because this is also the usual thinking circuit of officials from the army. Among the guys who only know how to fight and kill, there are too many farmers who are from farming. Commander Liao has been with them for a long time, and their thinking has obviously been assimilated by them. He Yuan complained slightly in his heart.

Of course, if you get rid of your prejudice against officials from Qiu Ba, Chairman Liao actually has a reason for doing so.The tropical plantation economy in the Hue area is basically dominated by the production of tobacco and sugar. The production scale of tobacco is shrinking due to cost factors, and there is a risk of being overwhelmed by New Courland products; sugar production is still limited. Certainly competitive, but in the past ten years, the situation in Europe has been tense, wars have broken out frequently, consumer demand in many countries has been sluggish, imports have dropped significantly, and a large distributor has been lost due to the hostility with the Dutch, so investors on the east coast have opened up in Brazil. The production of sugarcane plantations along the coast has gradually become less prosperous, and the ability to attract new capital has been greatly weakened. This can be seen from the fact that the Brazilian Rural Financial Cooperative has cut loans to these two industries!

So, can you say that Chairman Liao is definitely wrong to cool down the development of tropical regions and invest most of his capital, technology and manpower in the Pampa Plain?I'm afraid not necessarily!Every leader has his own philosophy and governance style. Chairman Liao is sure that the cost of tropical plantation is too high for people from the east coast to compete with Europeans, so he guides the outflow of funds and manpower from this industry, just like when Chairman Qi was in power. It is the same as trying to guide capital and manpower into this business.

"Chairman Liao, of course I am very happy when you say that. The Pampa Plain is indeed the foundation of a king and hegemony. If you use mainland China as an example, this is Zhongzhou, the Central Plains, and it is a place that can be relied on as a foundation. From From this perspective, of course we should vigorously develop here and consolidate the foundation of our country, and this is what my colleagues and I have been doing. However, the Pampa Plain is still Buenos Aires, the Kingdom of Spain. The land in the Leith Prosecutor’s Court area, is it really okay for us to emigrate in such a big way for development?” After He Yuan thought about it, he finally asked this sensitive question.

"The opinions of the Spaniards are irrelevant!" Liao Xiaoyao immediately waved his big hand when he heard the words, and responded imposingly: "This failed country is now deeply mired in the quagmire of the European continental war, and because of financial difficulties, it has issued a large amount of bonds in our country's financial market. Why do they turn against us? We used to be too reasonable and used to this group of people, so that we were timid in doing things, which was very uncomfortable. You see, the British didn’t recognize Spain’s treatment of Barbados at the beginning The sovereignty of the two islands, Jamaica and Jamaica, and the development of open immigration. After the failure of the armed attack, the Spaniards finally accepted the fact? You see how well developed the island of Barbados is now, with a large population, and produces a large amount of sucrose every year , tobacco and indigo, and made huge profits. The British can do this, so can we! We don’t want the Spanish Caribbean islands. What’s the use of those broken islands? They’re thousands of miles away. It’s not urgent, we can only sit back and watch the fall! We want the Pampa Plain of the Spaniards. There is no sugar, no tobacco, no indigo, no pepper, and no gold and silver mines here. According to the Spanish standards, it is nothing at all. Good land, maybe not as good as Jamaica, Barbados, Hispaniola and other tropical territories. Well, since you think it’s not a good land, then we want it, and you don’t regret it!”

Liao Xiaoyao's words really made He Yuan a little speechless. He suddenly couldn't adapt to the sudden transition from the peaceful and steady transition of the Qi Wangping era to the turbulent rush of the Liao era.

(End of this chapter)