Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 207 The British in the South ([-])

This joint force named "sweeping team" has a total of 180 officers and soldiers from the fourth company of the South African Garrison, 50 local gunners, coachmen, handymen, and guards (carrying two 4-pound guns, two 8-pound guns, etc. cannon), 15 scout cavalry and 240 native spearmen.The soldiers on the east bank were all equipped with breastplates, and the non-commissioned officers and officers were equipped with gauntlets, skirt armor and steel helmets. Even the spearmen of the indigenous servant army were each assigned a leather jacket that was not so well made. Armor, it can be regarded as a little bit of protection.

After setting off, this large-scale east coast "sweeping team", which can be called a luxurious lineup in South Africa, led by more than a dozen cavalrymen, headed south all the way, and swept across two neighbors in the wilderness on July 7. small Khoisan tribe.After the two Khoisan tribes were discovered by the scout cavalry on the east bank, they were still scrambling to pack up their property, cattle and sheep, and were about to escape, but they were quickly bitten by the east bank army that came up.

After the artillery fired more than a dozen shots and the native spearmen charged, the resistance of the two tribes collapsed.Except for a small number of people who escaped, about 500 people from the two tribes were arrested on the spot, and all the food, property and more than 300 cattle and sheep in the tribe were also seized.After sending two platoons of soldiers and dozens of native spearmen to escort them, all these newly acquired slaves, cattle and sheep were transported back to the Fort in the River.

On July 7, the "sweeping team" of the East Bank Army once again captured a Khoisan tribe in the wild.There are still a lot of people in this tribe, and the resistance is relatively fierce.However, under the volley of guns fired by the soldiers of the fourth company, they still inevitably collapsed. They fled everywhere in the field, and the people on the east bank didn't bother to chase them. They just packed up the little food and more than 22 heads they left behind After the cattle and sheep swaggered away.

The "mopping up" operation continued until early August.Due to the cold weather and the fact that no trace of the Khoisan had been found for many days, Lieutenant Xie Hansan, who led the team, decisively decided to end the military operation, and the whole army returned to the Fort in the River to rest.The "mopping up" operation of more than half a month has achieved remarkable results. A total of five Khoisan tribes, large and small, were destroyed, more than 2 catties of grain, more than 300 cattle and sheep were seized, and nearly 3000 slaves were captured.

Not only did the officers and soldiers on the east bank of the Fort in the River return with satisfaction from this operation, but even the native servants who followed in the battle were also beaming, because they could also benefit a lot from it.After all, the old men on the east bank eat meat, so it’s not necessary that the natives who “sincerely” take refuge in them can’t even drink some soup, let alone some grain, animal fat and some slaves can also be distributed to them. The best way for them to strengthen their tribe's strength.If the gentlemen on the east bank are satisfied and happy enough, they may even reward them with some great songs in the river, then this is a great honor.

After this sweep, the vast plains south of the Berg River, north of Cape Town, and west of the Cape Mountains no longer saw any active figures of indigenous tribes. They were either captured by the people on the east bank or hid up, or fled across the Cape Mountains into the mountains to the east; further east even fled into the Little Karoo and Great Karoo plateaus, but they had to face the brutal crowding of the Xhosa blacks there. Pressure, the prospects of the tribe will be bleak.

At the same time, Liu Ang led hundreds of heavily armed militiamen and drove the cart all the way east to trade with some Xhosa black tribes who had sporadically entered the plains west of the Cape Mountains.These blacks were ecstatic when they found out that the East Coasters were not here to rob them, but to do business with them seriously.They rushed back one after another and took out the extra cattle and sheep at home, and took out some sorghum, peanuts, sesame seeds, and a lot of items such as ivory, animal skins, tallow, and even dog head gold, in exchange for white wine, Refined salt and the beloved iron farm implements.

East coast products are still very famous among these indigenous blacks.The river koji brewed by them has cultivated batch after batch of drunkards among black tribes. Their refined salt is purer and tastes better than some mineral salt scraped by black people from the mountains. The iron farm tools and skinning knives they made Metalwork is infinitesimally better than anything they forge or trade for themselves.Thus, East Coast goods flourished among these Xhosa.

And this is also the reason why the River Fort did not rush to rob these natives after solving the food crisis at the beginning of the year. Without him, as long as this kind of unequal trade can plunder the wealth of these Xhosa people, then why bother Fight and kill.Calling back and forth will ruin your reputation, and you will not be able to enjoy yourself among the blacks in the future, so the gain outweighs the loss.If the British hadn't suddenly come to the Cape Town area to colonize this time, they wouldn't have exterminated the Khoisan tribes on the plain.

Liu Ang took this armed caravan around the mountains for several days, and finally started to return when his feet were worn out.When they returned, the carts in their convoy were filled with ostrich eggs, food, fur, ivory and other items, and more than 300 cattle and sheep followed behind the carts.

After so many efforts, it may be difficult for the British to find any food in the large plains west of the Cape Mountains.They can only eat the limited food they brought, while fishing in the river and near the sea, or try their luck to track down the traces of bison wandering on the grassland.In addition, they have almost no other means to obtain supplies on the spot, and it is even difficult to capture some aborigines to work hard to repair the castle. It is too much to blame the people on the east coast. Vicious.

No matter what the British are thinking, what Mo Ming is thinking about at the moment is how to increase his own strength.In River Castle, the only way to increase the strength of the East Coasters is to rapidly increase the number of reliable population.The reliable population here naturally does not include the aborigines, but refers to the reliable east coast people from the native land.

When it comes to this question, we have to talk about another aspect.Due to the impact of the continuous war, the population growth rate on the east coast has been extremely slow in the past two years, and the current registered national population has not even exceeded 5000.And the proportion of these people who can be considered as "East Coasters" is not too high, only about 60%, that is, 5000 people.

These [-] "East Coast people" basically live in the core settlements near Dongfang Port and Ping'an Town. The criteria for distinguishing them are: consciously speaking Chinese, using Chinese characters, taking Chinese names, eating Chinese food, Taoism, and wearing Chinese clothes. Clothes, celebrating Chinese festivals, responding to the call of the central government, resolutely implementing various policies, advocating existing laws and regulations, and most importantly, the way of thinking and values ​​are consistent with the "main theme" vigorously promoted by the public.

More than 500 cross-travelers have trained a large number of cadres to implement their own will, and set up discipline police in the country to supervise residents who violate the assimilation policy, and set up a set of extremely cumbersome personal living standards for residents, high-pressure punishment, temptation and incentives. It took eight years to initially assimilate the 5000 people.This shows how difficult it is to assimilate an "East Coaster".As for the remaining nearly [-] people, their assimilation is more or less incomplete and needs to be strengthened.

Thanks to the fact that the East Bank is a police state with a high-handed rule, the atmosphere of corruption is extremely strong, and the country is full of military and police constitutions, so the assimilation policy of the crossing people has been enforced in such a stumbling manner, and it has achieved initial results.If it were a country with a loose organization and decentralized liberals in power, it would have been disintegrated and disintegrated long ago, and the crossover people might also be assimilated by the indigenous people.

Moreover, these people who have been assimilated are only culturally assimilated. In the plan of the Executive Committee, blood assimilation is also indispensable.However, this can only be found in the next generation. At present, the Executive Committee is increasingly rewarding interracial intermarriage, and has introduced a certain degree of punishment for interracial marriage to increase the number of interracial marriages. The degree of intermarriage between people should be eliminated as much as possible to eliminate racial differences among the people.If we don't do this, in 200 years, maybe the contradictions among the aborigines, whites, and Han people in this country will break out, and it is not impossible for the country to fall apart.

What Mo Ming needs at this time is "Eastern people" with high consciousness and high quality, but it is conceivable how difficult this is.In the past two years, nearly two thousand French immigrants and seven to eight hundred children have been gathered at the Bordeaux commercial station, and a large number of them will be transported back to China in the next stage.If there is not a sufficient base of "East Coasters" in the country, the cultural shock brought by the more than 2000 foreign population will be great, and it will have a negative impact on the country.Therefore, if you want to talk to the executive committee and get some people over, you must have the conditions that make the executive committee extremely tempted.

After thinking about it, Li Yi of the navy finally gave an idea.At present, the number of miners in the Changshanbao iron ore area is seriously insufficient, and the output has not been able to increase. The insufficient iron ore production has caused the Pingan Iron and Steel Plant and the Coking Plant to fail to start normally. This has almost become a heart problem for the Executive Committee and the Government Council. .In view of the scarcity of indigenous peoples on the east coast and in the La Plata area, some people proposed to introduce African black slaves before, but they were quickly bombarded by many people who opposed the introduction of black people and feared that it would be easy to send God away. Be embarrassed.

Li Yi's idea is that Hezhongbao exports South African native slaves to the Changshanbao Iron Mine in the form of labor export, and sets a service period, such as three or five years, before sending them back to South Africa.At the same time, the Fort in the River promised to these slaves that they would be freed after the expiration of their work in the Changshanbao Iron Mine, and that they would be included in the six indigenous tribes currently controlled by the Fort in the River, which was equivalent to giving them an official identity.

(End of this chapter)