Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1979 Trivia in South Africa ([-])

228 South African trivia ([-])

"The quality of these gold is quite good!" Huang Chao, who was newly transferred to the deputy commissioner of the Yicheng District Administrative Office in the newly established Liangu Township Government compound, picked up a refined and stamped gold coin and praised it.

Huang Chao just took office last month.Originally serving as the magistrate of Qingdao County, he took the initiative to apply to his superiors to work in a "backward area". He took the position of deputy commissioner of the Yicheng District Administrative Office and became Xiao Jingzong's deputy.However, in fact, the two of them also have a division of labor. Xiao Jingzong is mainly in charge of Chenggao and Yicheng counties in the north, focusing on the operation of Yicheng Port Wharf, Yicheng Iron Works, and Chenggao Coal Mine. At the same time, he focuses on the development of local agriculture and animal husbandry. The economy lays the foundation for further in-depth colonial activities in the future-food is the basis for all industrial, agricultural and military activities, and this will never be wrong.

As for Huang Chao, he is in charge of the south, which is actually Yiyang County, and of course it also includes the newly opened territory in this direction in the future.For example, he has now set up his office in Liangu Township, a newly opened settlement in the west of Yiyang County.

The township government of Liangu Township currently has only 20 people who are in charge of various affairs and are too busy to touch the ground.At the same time, a temporary simple barracks was built next to the township government. The first regiment of the provisional army was equipped with a cavalry company here to protect the safety of the township government and continue to mop up any indigenous forces that might come from the surrounding area.

And just in a corner between the military camp and the township government, the East Coast people also built a small industrial facility here, that is, a crucible melting furnace and a steam stamping coin machine (powered by a small 7.5 horsepower steam engine) ), intermittently minting gold coins with face value of 50 yuan and 100 yuan.

The gold needed to mint gold coins is all the loot captured by the army soldiers when they went out to conquer the natives, and they were handed over to the local government—God knows how much they hid. Difficulty—the amount of smelting and casting is not large, and the current total is only about [-] yuan.In terms of weight, it is only a few tens of kilograms.

The money, as a rule, cannot be moved at the local level, and must be transported to Yicheng Port and deposited in the local treasury of the Northwest Reclamation Bank.After accumulating a certain amount (such as 50 yuan or 100 million yuan), the Second Fleet of the Navy will send warships to the mainland for unified management by the State Administration of Precious Metals as a reserve for future currency reforms.That is to say, although the gold was cast in the form of gold coins, it was not intended to be put into market circulation at all, but was placed in the treasury as a reserve fund at the bottom of the box.

Therefore, no matter how rare Huang Chao is now with these yellow gold coins in his hands, he can only reluctantly put them down in the end, let his subordinates carefully count them, then wrap them in red silk and lock them in a box.These are, after all, the money of the big men from the Ministry of Finance, and have nothing to do with him, Mr. Huang, or the Yicheng area.

Of course, they don't need much money.As a newly established settlement, what Liangu Township needs more is labor tools, food, medicine, livestock, daily necessities, and even weapons and ammunition. What it needs are real goods, not cash that cannot be eaten or drunk.In terms of these materials, although the executive committee cannot say that they have satisfied them all, at least they have satisfied a considerable part of them. Therefore, they are not very opposed to transporting the gold away. unified strategic deployment.

"The beauty of gold that the natives don't know, and there is no history of large-scale use of dog's head gold as a general equivalent. Even so, the army brothers have grabbed so much gold from them, so who can tell me, the inland areas How much gold is there?" Huang Chao looked at the gold-sealed boxes in the house, and said with emotion: "There is dog-head gold, which means that the mining conditions in the gold mining area are very good, and the cost should be very low, so we have to work hard. .”

In fact, what Huang Chao said was not all the truth.Black South Africans certainly have no history of using gold as a common equivalent, but that doesn't mean they don't know its value.They can forge iron and copper, and then beat them into various utensils. Gold is just a kind of metal, and they will not realize its value in the long years.What's more, people from the east coast have been on the east coast of South Africa for so many years, and they have also sent many expeditions and caravans to the inland areas to trade with black people. They have already understood from the unusual thirst for gold of the east coast merchants This metal has a value beyond other items, so they will slowly begin to consciously increase the reserves of this metal to cope with trade.

Of course, people on the east coast don't trade with them now.Army soldiers with live ammunition replaced merchants laden with goods, sharp bayonets replaced a dazzling array of daily necessities, black tribes were crushed one by one, people were either enslaved or killed, and their legacy became the property of the East Coasters. The spoils of war, of course, also include a large amount of dog head gold.

"County magistrate, the army has basically discovered it. The area is very large, perhaps hundreds of square kilometers. These black people should have obtained some gold-bearing rocks cut by wind or water flow there, and then collected them with us. We are more optimistic about this, because blacks can collect so much gold with such a clumsy civilization, so how much gold can we get if we have more advanced technology and stronger determination? This may It will be an unimaginable number." The person in charge of the small smelting workshop stood behind Huang Chao and said in a flattering tone: "Deputy Commissioner Huang, this gold mine is an excellent opportunity. It will be a great event no matter how you look at it if the official production starts.”

Huang Chao nodded upon hearing this.Now the situation is very clear. Everyone knows that there are gold mines in the inland area not too far from here. They even know that the area of ​​this gold mine area is unmatched on the east coast. It is a huge sum. Incalculable wealth.He has made up his mind to urge the army to continue to send people westward to build new settlements and open the road to the gold mining area step by step after Liangu Township has a firm foothold. The ultimate goal is to make the entire gold mine The district will be put into operation as soon as possible, and the gold will be exported to the east coast in exchange for the materials needed by various residents for life and construction. benefit.

"After the gold mine is found, we must immediately start building a road from Yiyang Port to the gold mining area. It's a pity that all the money from the regional administrative office has been spent on the Yicheng Railway, and even a lot of aid money from the superiors has been used there. I am afraid that there is not much money to support our road construction here, which is a pity." Huang Chao said to several officials who followed him: "However, it is impossible not to allocate some money from above. If the army sponsors some more In terms of materials, this road should be able to be completed in a not too long time. Anyway, it is a convenient way to transport gold temporarily, and it doesn’t need to be of good quality, as long as it is enough.”

"By the way, I heard that there are coal mines and iron mines very close to here?" Huang Chao seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly asked, "Is this news accurate? Have you sent anyone to confirm it?"

"Major Huang, this is what we have verified. There is indeed a large-scale coal storage belt not far to the west. Its coal is of high quality, large reserves, shallow burial, and many types. Compared with those ineffective local Coal mines are too strong. Next to the coal fields, our expedition team also found traces of iron ore, and deduced from various signs that this is a very large iron ore deposit, but they don’t know the grade. , I guess it shouldn’t be too bad.” Someone immediately replied: “This is actually a very good coal-iron joint venture mining area. If it is really going to be well developed, a series of enterprises can be set up here, just like the Ping’an Coal-Steel Complex That kind of large-scale industrial organization. It's a pity that there is already an iron factory in Yicheng County. !"

In fact, from this coal and iron mining area to the gold mining area further west, there are many mineral resources such as chromite, copper, manganese, platinum, diamond, and uranium along the way.It's a pity that there are large and small scales here, and some of them are unknown, so the mining sequence may be relatively late.

"I'll talk about the coal-iron joint venture base later. This conflicts with the projects of Yicheng and Chenggao, and we don't want to repeat the construction. What we need to do now is to put the gold mining area into operation first. It's tight, and it must be done as the first thing in the ranking. If it is not done well, not only you, but I, Huang, will also suffer." Huang Chao said with a serious face: "I have gone through untold hardships to come to This place is not for sightseeing, but to complete more tasks assigned by the state. I don’t care what method you use for the road leading to the gold mining area. Anyway, construction will start before the end of the month. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to If you want to make further progress in your official career in the future, there is a best opportunity in front of you, let's encourage each other."

After saying this, Huang Chao left the smelting and stamping workshop, then returned to the township government office separated by a wall, and discussed with other cadres how to communicate with Yicheng County in the next step, and try to get enough funds and equipment And money and food, as the start-up capital for building roads and setting up settlements (the initial plan is to set up a settlement near the small town of Freyhead in later generations).

The plan to advance into the gold mining area is his future advancement step for someone Huang, and he will not allow anyone to hold him back!

(End of this chapter)