Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1902 West Indian Ocean (Seventeen)

"The straight coastline of the east coast is really a disaster for ocean transportation." Yang Jie, the commissioner of the Zelu District Administrative Office and the commander of the police, sailed in the coastal waters of the east coast on a naval ship, while looking at the distant horizon. It's a beautiful scenery, he said with emotion.

Due to the particularly strong monsoon and the influence of the sea tide, it is difficult for the rivers on the east coast of Xinhuaxia Island to enter the sea. Under the action of strong external forces, the rivers have to change their flow direction. The overall trend is north-south, and then they flow into the sea at a suitable place. .After the river has been in this situation for a long time, a series of oxbow lakes, sandbars and swamps have been formed along the coast. The scenery is beautiful, but it is not very friendly to agricultural work and requires great efforts to transform.

Yang Jie had worked in Australia for many years before, and after seeing the winding and beautiful coastline there, he had nothing to say about the ports and hydrological conditions on the east coast of Xinhuaxia Island.To put it bluntly, in fact, neither Duofan Port nor Tacheng Port is a good port. The former is too high and the bay is too wide, while the latter is just a short general. At best, it is just a rare extension of the east coast. The promontory that enters the deep sea has enough water depth. There is neither a natural breakwater nor the necessary terrain for building a military fortress. It can only be barely used as a commercial port with not very good conditions.

In fact, not only the east coast, but also the west coast, especially in the central and southern parts, the condition of the only large port, Mianhe Port, is actually not very good: the amount of sediment carried by the river is too large, which makes the port easy to silt up. It needs to spend a sum of money for dredging every year; the terrain of the port is also not good, and it cannot block the strong wind and huge waves from the harbor in stormy weather-at worst, it must also weaken the energy of the incoming waves, but this seems to be very difficult Do it, unless you spend huge sums of money to build artificial breakwaters.

The really good ports on Xinhua Island are actually in the north, and the excellent conditions of Xinhua Port are rare even in the mainland. The conditions of other places such as Kanghua Port are also good, and they can be used as commercial ports. Of course, it can also be used as a military port.The biggest disadvantage of these places is probably that the environment is too humid and hot. In the early stage of development, it is easy to lose a large area of ​​staff due to diseases.However, in the places that have been developed today, the superiority of the port conditions has gradually emerged, and it has begun to provide sufficient impetus for economic development, especially now that the so-called bull markets for sugar, rubber, and coffee have slowly arrived. when.

"No matter how difficult it is, transportation is necessary. The soil environment on the east coast is very suitable for the planting of cash crops such as pepper, oil palm, and sisal. There are also food planting areas, forests, and fishery resources. It is really too difficult without a port. Alright." The person who spoke to him was Li Ze*min, the commander of the Second Fleet of the Navy. How much has the strength of the guys in the Second Fleet been improved, but the spirit is good. Of course, this also requires a lot of resources and money. Only Mr. Li dares to play like this. Who can let others get sponsorship and money? What about subsidies?

Today, he and Yang Jie took the flagship of the Navy's Second Fleet "Control the East" and headed south along the east coast to Fort Dofan Naval Base.This older "August [-]th" class warship just underwent overhaul and life extension treatment last year. It cost tens of thousands of yuan. The shipbuilding plan was completely completed, and it was replaced by the new "Jieqi" class frigate gunboat.

The "Control Dongfang" went south along the ocean current, passing through Tacheng, Gaodu, Lu'an and other places to Duofan Port in Daze County, which is also a base of the Second Fleet. It is not far away, standing on the deck You can see the mountains outside the port from a distance.There is a large-scale lighthouse on the hill, and there are also many coastal defense cannons hidden in the green trees. The black muzzles are facing out of the port, ready to smash the incoming enemies to pieces at any time.

"Duofan Port is much more prosperous than I imagined." Watching the ships lower their sails and enter the port slowly at a low speed driven by steam power, Yang Jie said with emotion: "Chairman He Qiang has lived in Quansheng Island for so long , I’m even a little unaccustomed to it. In that deserted place, I don’t meet a few outsiders all year round, and young people are trying to find ways to run to the Australian mainland. It’s really lonely. Look at Duofan Port, It’s just a small county in an overseas colony, but it has a population of more than 8000, yes, yes, I have never seen such a prosperous place in Australia.”

"Hehe, it all prospered after the navy moved over." Li Zemin negated the efforts of the local officials for many years in one sentence, and only heard him continue: "Now there are at least four warships stationed here all the year round. , There are also a lot of merchant ships. Sometimes the British who go to the Far East miss the windy season and choose to stop or rest here. The business is still very good. In addition, the coffee planting in the nearby area has become more and more prosperous these years. Here The increasing population of the population has become a predictable thing, which is normal."

In fact, the population of Duofan Port and even the entire Daze County has indeed been increasing rapidly in recent years, but the reason is not the navy's credit as Li Zemin said just now.Although the navy brought a large number of soldiers, technicians, officials and their families, which greatly increased the local population, it was far from reaching the current level.The real development of the population and economy of Duofan Port is due to the gradual expansion of the coffee planting area in the nearby mountains and the development of various industries brought about by it. This is the most important thing.

And when it comes to coffee planting, we have to mention the struggle between the people on the east coast and the local aboriginal groups headed by the Antefazi and Antemoro in the mountainous area in the southwest of Xinhuaxia Island.After repelling the French colonists with the Bala people and the Antaifazi people on the Mahafari Plateau, the basis for cooperation between the people on the east coast and these aboriginals ceased to exist, and the relationship gradually deteriorated. , And then because of land, wealth and other reasons, armed conflicts were launched.

The first to develop disputes with the people on the east coast were the most civilized natives on the island, the Antefazi and Antemoro groups who could write books in Arabic variants.At first they used the remaining weapons of the French to fight against the East Coasters, but they were quickly exhausted.At this time, it was the Omanis of the Muscat Sultanate who gave them a lot of military aid out of religious sentiments. This undoubtedly made the people on the east bank furious and took more severe measures.

At that time, the people on the east bank first contacted Chief Mananzano, the actual ruler of the Mahafali Plateau, and bribed him with gifts, so that he agreed to send troops to attack the Antefazi people from the west.The situation of being attacked by the enemy made the Antaifazians extremely uncomfortable. After experiencing several embarrassing defeats on the battlefield, they quickly sent representatives to seek peace with the people on the east coast and re-drawn the border: the people on the east coast took the opportunity to obtain a large area suitable for planting Coffee land, and Chief Mananzano received all the spoils as compensation, and everyone was happy.

However, the war between the East Coast people and these mountain people groups did not end there.Because the people on the east coast have an endless appetite for land, coupled with the existence of some powerful colonial officials, it caused conflicts between the two sides.After several conflicts, the commander on the east coast, who didn't want to spend too much money but wanted to take the opportunity to escalate the situation, repeated his tricks and bribed Chief Mananzano with gifts to send troops to attack and contain the mountain people from the flanks. They, in conjunction with the frontal offensive of the militia on the east coast, have achieved very good results.

After several blows like this, groups such as the Antaifazi and Antaimoro people with low productivity, low organization, and extremely low war potential were beaten and maimed by the East Coast people.Some of them fled into the hinterland and lingered near the plateau, facing possible threats from the Melinas at any time.The rest directly surrendered to the east bank as a whole, and then were dismantled and reorganized into the Eight Banners of the Island as a whole, becoming the servant tribe and servant army of the people on the east coast.

After the organized resistance of the Antemoro and Antefazi people was destroyed, the coastal plains, forests or mountains where they lived became a paradise for the people on the east coast.Although not many people have relocated there yet, it has been marked on the map as the actual control area of ​​our side. Future development is a high probability event-in fact, given the current popularity of coffee in the East Coast and overseas colonies, It is only a matter of time before these places are developed. Many businessmen have come to negotiate and inquire now, but they still have doubts about the security in the mountains, and they are still in the early contact stage.

Compared with the Antemoro tribe, the Bara people who once fell in love with them did not fare much better.After the extremely powerful Chief Mananzano died of illness, because of the backward tribal succession system, his sons who were entrusted in various places rose up one after another to fight for the big position.Their strength varies from strong to weak, and their degree of support varies, so it became a mess for a while, turning the Mahafari Plateau into a bloody slaughterhouse. Countless brave Bala warriors died in fighting each other, even Some of their servant tribes, such as the Mahaffari and Antondrois, also suffered a large number of casualties, and the entire Bala Plateau ushered in a feast of blood.

In this internal conflict among the indigenous tribes, the people on the east bank took a neutral attitude at the beginning, and only took in some farmers and herdsmen who had fled to the control area on the east bank because of the war and some deserted soldiers who had fled, and organized them into Into the island's Eight Banners system to enrich the strength of the servant army.

There was chaos on the plateau until the middle of 1682. Seeing that all parties were exhausted from fighting, the people on the east bank suddenly accepted the invitation of a defeated small tribe and mobilized a new Huaxia infantry battalion, plus security regiment militia from three counties. , Supplemented by some naval gunners, with a total of nearly 3000 powerful lineups, they brazenly entered the territory of the former Chief Mananzano, and launched a fierce offensive against the remaining forces like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves.

In this series of offensives, the organized resistance of the Bara people was completely defeated, and the rest either fled in all directions and entered the depths of the wilderness, or surrendered directly to the army on the east coast, and were incorporated into the farming and warfare system of the Eight Banners of the island. .Together with them, a large number of Mahafali and Anton Deluwa people also surrendered. No longer suffer from labor shortage in a short period of time.

The Eight Banners tribes on these islands are guided by instructors and consultants on the east coast, and they implement militarized management with strict discipline.In addition to farming their own land on weekdays, they also need to go to the farms, pastures or logging camps of the people on the east coast to do corvée regularly. Life is actually quite difficult.However, the people on the east bank will also sell them a lot of daily necessities and even medicines at a very reasonable price, and at the same time help them design and build various facilities in the settlement (of course, they have to pay for it) to reduce the invasion of diseases, and at the same time A few teachers were also sent to give them Chinese lessons. You must know that this is funded and supported by the government. How many barbarian tribes want to learn but have not had a chance.

Not to mention, the Eight Banners tribes on the island who often follow the people from the east coast to fight for "abusive food" received quite a lot of spoils.Among these trophies, most of the gold, silver, treasures and slaves were seized by the east coast government, but some food, livestock, daily necessities, weapons, etc., the proud officers and soldiers of the Great East Coast did not look down on them, and sent them all to the islands that had repeatedly charged. The Eight Banners even rewarded some people to them sometimes, and the rewards can be described as quite a lot.

Therefore, the Eight Banners tribes on these islands are actually quite lucky to mix with the people on the east coast. Their living standards and civilization are much better than those of their compatriots who are struggling in the wilderness.At least, the upper-class people who have learned Chinese can already write the history of their own tribe, and at the same time summarize and record some experience, which is very beneficial to the future development of their community.

And after seeing how loyal the Eight Banners of the island are and the assimilation policy has seen initial results, the relevant local departments have migrated several batches of people to settle in the African continent on the west coast of the strait over the years, which is roughly located in the northern edge of the Yicheng area. The wild area borders the black ghetto.The meaning of the above is probably to let them live on the dividing line between civilization and barbarism, defend the border for the country, and keep a large number of black people from the north.

At present, this policy has been implemented for some years, and the effect seems to be ok. At least the local officials in the northern part of the Yicheng area have responded very well. They praised the eight banners of the island for their ability to fight well and drove the Tonga and Swazi people far away. It was far away, as if urging the higher-ups to send the next batch of Island Eight Banners over.

(End of this chapter)