Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 190 The Predicament of the Fort in the River ([-])

After negotiating the terms with the Englishman Abraham, Xu Xin was a little excited.He walked up and down the room, constantly weighing gains and losses.Judging from the current situation and the information we have, the contradictions between the British king and the enlightened nobles in the parliament and the emerging big bourgeoisie are very sharp.Based on the principle that the enemy of an enemy is a friend, the King of England and the church faction can barely be regarded as "allies" that people on the east coast can use. Selling weapons to them at a preferential price is a sure profit for the east coast. .

After all, these weapons are not used to fight the East Coast, they will only be used against Scottish heretics and parliamentarians.If you help the King of England strengthen his arms as soon as possible, so that he can survive the possible war with the parliamentarians for a longer period of time, and even if his character breaks out, then the East Bank will make a lot of money.

Of course, such things as selling weapons to the royal party cannot be kept completely secret.After all, the prestige of the "Tartan Cannon" is not based on it. The parliamentarians will easily find out the source of the king's weapons, which will inevitably lead to their hostility.But so what, the east coast and the British bourgeoisie are in an endless competitive relationship.Even if the two sides signed a peace agreement today, everyone knows that this will only be temporary, and sooner or later, conflicts will break out again, which is almost inevitable.

Therefore, Xu Xin decided to continue resolutely in such things as adding to the enemy's obstacles.What's more, the profit of this business is not too bad. Those British royalists will send ships to Bordeaux to pick up the goods, so there is no hesitation.

The only worry now is when the local ships will come.Bordeaux's east bank commercial station has been expanded several times and now occupies a very large area, but it still cannot accommodate the thousands of bankrupt workers and their families and more than 300 street children who have been taken in for more than half a year.As a last resort, Xu Xin even went to the countryside of Bordeaux to buy land and build houses through Julian's relationship to resettle these people.

The daily expenses of these 1000 people eating and drinking are not small, even if there are nearly [-] francs in the warehouse of the commercial station, it is too much to bear. It is not a good thing to sit and eat.

"I hope the war will end as soon as possible, and the local transport ships will arrive as soon as possible." Xu Xin could only comfort himself in this way.

While Xu Xinxin was talking about the local transport ships, the three transport ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company (the "Fang Zhang" was also incorporated into the company's fleet) were currently moored at the wharf of the Fort in the South African River, doing nothing.Since the Navy's Guinea task force completed its supplies in the port in early September and sent a group of wounded and sick to the fort for resettlement, the remaining five warships set off again and disappeared into the vast sea.

After the attack on the British East India Company trading fleet in the northwest of the Cape of Good Hope, the remaining five warships of the navy did not dare to stay here. In order to avoid possible encirclement and suppression by the British, they began to "run away".The fleeing fleet headed north, sank a British slave ship off the coast of Luanda, Portugal, and then turned all the way southwest, disappearing from everyone's sight.

Today is the end of October, and I don’t know where the navy has gone, how to supply fresh water, food, vegetables, and ammunition, and how to arrange the wounded and sick. It’s not easy to fight a guerrilla. There must be many supply points near the coastline. Otherwise, if you run long distances and attack yourself, you will play yourself to death first.

The Hezhong Fort has nothing to do with the navy's affairs, they have their own worries at this time.

Sitting in his bedroom and office in Hezhongbao, Mo Ming carefully looked through the account book in his hand, frowning secretly.The three transport ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company are moored in the port. There are more than a hundred sailors on board, hundreds of British and Dutch captives, and more than a hundred wounded and sick in the task force. In addition, the fleet is stationed here to reduce consumption. For a security army company here, the food, drink, and casualties of these 500 people have become a heavy burden on Hezhongbao.

After all, Hezhong Fort only has more than 100 official residents, and now only 150 acres of wheat fields and [-] acres of vegetable fields have been opened up, and the development here has been less than two years old. Many local people think that Hezhong Fort can be self-sufficient. When the central government stretched out its hand, it was already burning high incense.If they can provide some fresh water, meat and vegetable supplies for the passing naval fleet, then they can even score full marks. After all, they only had [-] residents at the beginning, and they don't know anything about the local conditions. If they are defeated, whether they can stand still is completely in between.

However, the facts have proved that Mo Ming and Liu Ang, the leaders of Hezhongbao, are very capable.With their hard work and the help of the initial construction team and navy, they not only successfully established a stronghold and dock here, but also reclaimed hundreds of acres of farmland, initially achieving self-sufficiency.

But there are limits to this self-sufficiency.The Fort in the River barely managed to survive by farming and trading with some Khoisan Reds and further Bantu black tribes, and had accumulated a little food and supplies.Naturally, there is no problem with these accumulated food occasionally replenishing the passing fleet, but the life of the hundreds of people who have been supplied for a long time is somewhat powerless.

And this is what Mo Ming is worried about at the moment.He roughly flipped through the account books and found that the grain reserves had dropped to a dangerous level.Among them, the amount of wheat is less than 40 catties. In addition, there are nine cows, [-] pigs and more than [-] sheep. It is impossible to survive the summer harvest with this little grain.

Mo Ming thought for a long time, and felt that the only way to solve the problem was to ask the red people and black tribes around to "borrow" food.Of course, this kind of "borrowing" will not be repaid, and the process is not destined to be peaceful.Because the life of these red people or black people is not easy, especially those bitter Khoisan red people, who live only by hunting and gathering wild fruits, they have no food at all, but those who like to burn wasteland, cultivate and herd Bantu blacks may have stockpiled some food.

For hundreds of years, these Bantu blacks with migratory habits began to enter the vast South African region from north to south.Everywhere they went, they started burning, and then planted sorghum on the burned land, and grazed some cattle and sheep.It can be seen from this that the level of civilization of these Bantu blacks is higher than that of the indigenous Khoisan red races in southern Africa.Their physiques are also taller and stronger than the generally short red races, and this is why they have gradually gained an advantage in South Africa.In later history, the Khoisan red race in South Africa was almost extinct under the joint strangling and squeezing of the Dutch colonists and Bantu blacks, and most of the rest fled to the neighboring Botswana region.

The Fort in the River is deep in the southwestern region of South Africa, and the surrounding area is mostly the territory of the Khoisan Red Race, but there are also some sporadic small Bantu black migratory tribes far to the east.The Khoisan people survive entirely by collecting food such as mushrooms and wild fruits, and hunting some animals such as hares, antelopes, and bison. The living environment and conditions are extremely difficult.

After the arrival of the people from the east coast, their traditional living habits have been impacted to a certain extent. To be precise, it seems that their living conditions have improved.They can use the fur obtained from hunting animals to exchange some food and tools such as knives with the people on the east coast, and they can also exchange some golden "stones" such as dog head gold that they picked up with the people on the east coast. .Every piece of dog head gold can be exchanged for three to five times the weight of bacon from the people on the east coast, which is very "cost-effective".

Of course, not every Khoisan tribe trades with the people on the east coast in a proper manner. Some Khoisan tribes who think they have a large population try to attack the strongholds of the people on the east coast, but now their tribes have become a thing of the past. , and most of its members were killed or enslaved.

The bitter Khoisan people have nothing to scratch.In order to solve the dilemma of the Fort in the River, we still have to find a way to the tribes of the Bantu blacks to the east.Those black tribes have the habit of growing sorghum, and it has been observed that they graze a large number of sheep and cattle.If all of them were eaten, the captured cattle and sheep would be enough to support the expenses of the Hezhong Fort for more than a year, and this business was still very cost-effective.

Although I have no grievances or enmities with these Bantu blacks, and even get along very well, but who told me that I am short of food now, then I have to take your knife.After all, barbarians have no human rights at all in this era of the jungle.

"We are not here to teach you to enter the civilized world." In Mo Ming's view, these barbarians will eventually be slaughtered and enslaved by the Dutch, so there is no need to feel guilty about doing something at this time.Maybe one day when the people from the east coast occupy this vast land, they can drive these Bantu blacks and Khoisan reds to the desert or jungle in the north, and then teach them some civilized way of life.

Mo Ming is now the captain of the South African pioneering team. He is in charge of all the affairs of the Fort in the River, and even the three transport ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company and a company of army soldiers temporarily stationed here are under his control.Of course, he also communicated with the company commander, Lieutenant Xie Hansan, and deputy company commander, Lieutenant Lan Guo, about the plight of Hezhong Fort and his plan in advance, and gained their support.

In this way, the plan to rob the neighboring Bantu blacks was decided.The army's security company was the main force on the expedition, supplemented by some local militiamen on the east coast as guides and supply troops, plus a small number of Khoisan slave servants from the Fort in the River, with a total strength of about 200 people.Equipped with more than 100 flintlock rifles, several cannons and a lot of armor, there is a significant weapon generation gap between them and the Bantu blacks wearing animal skins and holding spears. This is a powerful force in South Africa It is enough to sweep any nearby forces at this time.

(End of this chapter)