Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 208 The British in the South ([-])

According to Li Yi, the slaves should not be too resistant to this condition. After all, it should be considered a "good thing" for them to have the opportunity to get rid of the current hopeless life of working until death.Of course, both Li Yi and Mo Ming selectively ignored how many of these indigenous slaves who were exported to the Changshanbao iron mining area could survive and return to South Africa after the completion of the construction period. They were not interested in discussing this issue.

Mo Ming and Li Yi said they were going to do it. Anyway, most of the cabins of these transport ships were empty when they returned to the mainland, and some people were used as ballast stones when they returned to the mainland.Hezhong Fort currently has more than 5000 slaves (plus the 3000 captured this time), who are basically farming, grazing, and doing infrastructure around Hezhong Fort.Although their labor intensity is not small, but to be honest, their living conditions are not bad. Although the food is crude, they are full. Strong or weak.Therefore, the desire of these slaves to escape is not very strong, which has become a great spectacle of the Fort in the River.

Mo Ming led the militia to pick and choose among these slaves, and finally selected 1000 people, most of them were Khoisan reds, and a few were Bantu blacks. These people were sent back to the mainland to bargain with the executive committee. chips.At the same time, he himself decided to follow him back to Dongfang Port to try to improve his relationship and get some benefits for Hezhongbao.

Mo Ming divided the remaining nearly [-] slaves into two tribes after the selection, and unified management with the remaining six tribes currently attached to the East Coast people.Each tribe was awarded a flag, the six "free" tribes were awarded red, yellow, blue, green, purple, and gray flags, and the two slave tribes were awarded black and white flags.

It is not fixed which tribe each aboriginal belongs to. For example, aboriginals who violated the laws of the east bank and were convicted of crimes would be lowered into black and white flags and become slaves; They will be executed, and their immediate family members will also be demoted to the black and white flags and become slaves.As for the slaves in the black and white banners, if they had excellent work and bravery in combat, they and their families could be pardoned and promoted to the upper six banners after being recommended by the military officers on the east coast.

With this highly fluid system, the enthusiasm of the indigenous people can be fully mobilized so that they can give full play to their potential and better serve the people on the east coast.At present, there are 7000 indigenous "Eight Banners" in the hands of Hezhongbao. These indigenous people who have been rectified and have relatively advanced organizational methods will surely become the vanguards of the people on the east bank to open up South Africa. The so-called pioneers of the king are nothing more than that.

After everything was ready, on August 8, Mo Ming handed over all affairs to Liu Ang, the deputy captain of the South African pioneering team, and then returned to Dongfang Port on a naval warship and several transport ships full of slaves, ivory, fur and liquor.

After Mo Ming left, Liu Ang immediately announced that Hezhong Fort was in a state of mobilization.Anyway, it was already winter, and there was not much work to do in the farmland. Apart from maintaining the necessary manpower to expand the city walls, forts, and dig ditches, the rest of the staff had to undergo intensive military training.Except for these people from the east bank, apart from the coolies working in the "Eight Banners" tribe outside the city, the rest of the adult males have to conduct drills every three days under the supervision of the officers of the east bank.All of a sudden, the whole day inside and outside the Hezhongbao city was full of guns and guns, and the sound of killing was loud, and the training was very lively.

The people on the east coast are very busy, and the English who came from afar are not idle either. They are working hard to build their new territory in the Cape Town area.

At this time, on the coast of Cape Town, more than a hundred kilometers away, the old friends of the East Coasters——George Heywood Knight and Nick Warnum were walking by the seaside and chatting.The cold wind blowing from the Atlantic is a bit strong, and the mid-winter in South Africa during the Little Ice Age was still a bit cold.Heywood and Nick simply found a wooden shed built by the sea, and while smoking a pipe, they looked at Table Mountain not far away.

"That must be God's table." Nick said, looking at the long mountain peak. "It's incredible. Mr. Heywood, I think we can build a lighthouse on it. The ship of the kingdom provides positioning, and Cape Town (Cape Town) will definitely become the pearl of Africa, this is your glory!"

"Building a lighthouse is a good idea, Nick, but not now." Knight Heywood took a deep breath of his cigarette, and then said with vacant eyes: "Our first priority now is to repair the Fort of Good Hope. The Fort of Good Hope is open The core area of ​​Cape Town, if the castle and the fort are not repaired, I can't even sleep well at night. Nick, you don't know, ever since I heard that the east coast people in the north began to slaughter those barbarians, I was worried that one day they would suddenly Storming Cape Town like they stormed Gambian castles. That's a bunch of savage, bloodthirsty, brutal villains who wouldn't spare even the peaceful inhabitants of Gambia's trading post, God, they must have They are thugs bewitched by demons!"

Nick looked at Knight Heywood with pity. This weak man seemed to have been terrified since he was captured by the East Coasters in Gambia. Maybe he left something in the East Coast prison that made him unforgettable. bad memories.But fate is such a trick. Nick and Heywood Knight, the two defeated men of the East Coasters, are now sent to remote southern Africa to build a colonial city that is extremely important to the East India Company and even the Kingdom of England.

Now that the two sides are grasshoppers on the same rope, Nick couldn't help comforting Knight Heywood: "The people on the east coast have just signed a peace agreement with us. They dare not take the risk of angering the kingdom and start a war with us. Dare! All we have to do is to beware of some native attacks. Didn’t we meet a small native tribe the other day? They seemed to have great hostility towards us outsiders. But the armed forces of these indigenous tribes are really pitifully weak, maybe we don’t need to worry too much.”

Knight Heywood spat out a mouthful of milky white eyes, and then said: "The progress of the construction of the Fort of Good Hope must be accelerated! We have been building it for almost a month, and I don't want to wait too long. You have to explain this clearly to Aaron and the others. .The coldest season is about to enter, and I will move in before it snows!"

Nick nodded silently, and began to calculate the division of manpower in his mind.The scale of the colonization of Cape Town organized by the East India Company was not small. They transported more than 600 people here at one time.Of course, the number of people before departure was far more than 600. The cruel ocean voyage ruthlessly eliminated a considerable number of weak or unfortunate people.Among the 600, 1000 people, landless farmers from the central region of England accounted for the vast majority, about [-] people; the remaining [-] people came from the Irish region conquered by England.

After the colonial fleet landed on June 6 this year, large-scale construction began.However, these new immigrants had just experienced several months of sea voyages, and their physical condition was generally poor. Many of them fell ill as soon as they arrived here, which made the speed of British colonization very slow.Now more than a month has passed, and they have not even completely unloaded the supplies on the ship. A lot of cement, lime, and bricks are still piled up in the cabin.

Due to the poor physical condition of the personnel and the continuous rainy weather in the Cape Town area, the construction progress on the shore of the British colonists was not satisfactory.They built a castle - Fort of Good Hope facing Table Bay (Table Bay), but although half of the manpower is invested in the construction, judging from the current progress, it is estimated that it will not be completed until the end of September or even October up.As for other parts, such as residential buildings, port facilities, city walls, forts and other buildings, the progress is even slower.Nick predicts pessimistically that if all of these are completed, it may take until the first half of next year.

Hearing the obviously anxious and impatient tone of Knight Heywood at this moment, Nick, who was Heywood's deputy, had to decide to send some more Irish farmers to participate in the construction of Fort Good Hope.Even forcing them to work eighteen hours a day would not hesitate.After all, the sooner Fort Good Hope is built, the sooner they will be safe.

Thinking of this, Nick couldn't help feeling resentful towards the people on the east coast again.These villains and scum slaughtered the savages on the northern plains and removed all their food, cattle and sheep, so that the noble English had to live with the mud in the cold and rainy winter of Cape Town. The castle was being built with great difficulty, many people fell ill, and the immigrants were generally very resentful.

Not to mention, these shameless people even organized people to catch all the fish in the northern rivers, and the buffalo herds were also driven or hunted by them, making it impossible for the English to obtain valuable meat protein supplements on the spot.The settlers fed their hunger on pea soup and unpalatable black bread, which further aggravated their resentment.

Fortunately, a while ago, perhaps in order to avoid the killing of the people on the east coast, a stupid indigenous tribe rushed to the Cape Town area and bumped into the English who were building a castle on the coast.After a less intense battle, the English easily defeated the native tribe and captured more than 500 of them, as well as a small amount of food, cattle and sheep.After these more than 500 people were captured, they have been doing arduous work of leveling the foundation and digging ditches under the close supervision of the English.The high-intensity work has caused dozens of deaths so far, and about dozens of people fled while the British were not paying attention.

well!Nick sighed heavily.There is no other way now, in order to speed up the construction period, I can only fill in the lives of these natives, hoping to satisfy Knight Heywood.

(End of this chapter)