Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2080 Unity River ([-])

On October 1689, 10, there was light rain in the suburbs of Zhangwu Township.

Zheng Dalin, commander of the Fifth Mixed Battalion of the Army, is smoking.He is in a bad mood now, the hot and humid environment, the bad weather, the difficult conditions, and the plethora of bandits are all challenging his nerves.What's the matter?The good elite field troops were actually transferred to do the work of the security forces. They were exhausted all day, but they didn't even see a bandit feather. Are you angry?

Oh, well, the gangsters still saw some, and quickly wiped them out.But the problem is that this kind of extermination is always in progress, not in completion.Broken gold diggers could join the bandits at any moment, and even the unbroken ones didn't mind making a cameo.In a gold panning holy place like Tuanjie River, human nature has been greatly distorted. Even a pure and kind-hearted young man will become cruel and aggressive after washing fine sand in the riverbed for a year. The reserves are only a matter of time.

In Tuanjie River, a place outside of China, the government and military on the east bank are trying their best to ensure the safety of the five newly established townships of Yifeng, Renqiu, Taihe, Zhangwu, and Xiande.In other words, their focus is to ensure the daily production and life of nearly ten thousand people in the above five places, prevent them from being threatened by bandits and robbers, and produce enough food as soon as possible to reduce the amount of food shipped out.

Just like the Fifth Mixed Battalion, its battalion headquarters is located in Zhangwu Township, and the technical arms (artillery company, supply company, engineering platoon, etc.) directly under the battalion headquarters are also stationed nearby, serving as local anchors.In addition, they stationed an infantry company in Renqiu, Taihe, and Yifeng, and a cavalry company in Xiande Township to protect the safety of the township government and the villages.

In this way, the entire battalion was basically scattered, and the troops were stretched tightly, unable to do anything, which made people very troubled.And considering that it is the busy farming season, the militias in the five counties south of Zhuoshui cannot be transferred without restriction. Basically, more than 1000 people can only be guaranteed to be garrisoned here at the same time. They have to send people to follow the expedition team and escort the transport convoy , to go to the Jinchuan River—Velias River, a tributary of the Tuanjie River. Recently, more and more gold mines have been discovered here, even surpassing the main stream of the Tuanjie River—patrol along the area, and even undertake part of the construction work. There is nothing left to do other things.

To solve the problem in the Tuanjie River Basin, the only way is to increase the number of troops. Not only does it need to transfer a battalion of the regular army, it is best to mobilize some militia reserves from other places, so as to slightly curb the deteriorating security situation.Of course, if this is done, a prominent problem is that the materials and money consumed in the Tuanjie River Basin will increase exponentially. The investment is a bit large and not very economical, so the higher-ups have not yet made up their minds.

Someone once raised the question that the latest batch of Russian prisoners of war has arrived in the mainland from the land leased by Haji. Is it possible to select some seemingly obedient people from among them to form a temporary armed force similar to the Allied National Army back then, and go to the Tuanjie River Basin to strengthen security operations.However, some people worry that with the attitude of these Russians towards the East Bank government, it is impossible to guarantee that these people will soon degenerate into bandit gangs after they go, or at least they may collude with bandits and robbers to steal and sell the country's gold mine resources. The gain outweighs the loss, so this proposal will be dropped soon.

However, the government may soon have to make up its mind.Because according to the work plan at the beginning of the year, more than 7000 people will be transferred to the Tuanjie River Basin in the second half of this year (but in principle, no additional settlements will be added, because it cannot be taken care of). New immigrants live in peace of mind?Moreover, with the increase in the number of casual immigrants, the frequency of transport convoys will also increase sharply. If you don't do anything at this time, will you wait until those bandits stage a shocking robbery?So where do you put the face of the government?

Major Zheng Dalin, the battalion commander of the fifth mixed battalion, is an old subordinate of director Lan Feilan, one of the veterans of the army. He also has some connections in the Ministry of the Army and knows the current situation very well.Gao Shen from the Ministry revealed to him that he should be calm and calm, and that his superiors will send people over soon. At the same time, a large number of militiamen will be dispatched from the south to launch a security-strengthening campaign to encircle the Tuanjie River Basin with an iron wall. The elite field troops can gather together and do more important things.As for what was more important, the higher-ups didn't disclose it, but Zheng Dalin could guess some of it. It was nothing more than going downstream along the Tuanjie River and finding trouble with the Portuguese.This is the old blackmail routine used by Marshal Mo Shangjian when he was still alive, but it works well enough.

But Zheng Dalin is impatient, he has been tortured by everything in Tuanjiehe, and he really doesn't want to continue to be the captain of his security team.Now he is extremely eager to lead his troops down the river and go to the Portuguese territory to make troubles. He feels that this is what a chief officer of a field force should do, instead of being an exhausted watchdog.

As for the perception of the gold mining area, to be honest, it is not very good.The weather here is hot (fortunately, there is a plateau to offset part of it, otherwise it will be even hotter), the environment is harsh, there are snakes, insects, rats and ants everywhere, and dense forests where it is easy to get lost.If you want to develop it, the first thing is to cut down trees, keep cutting down trees!Just like the British and French who came to the North American continent in the early days, they cut down trees until they collapsed, and then they could open up some land for agricultural planting.

Of course all of the above can be tolerated.The most unbearable thing is actually the poor transportation conditions.Don't look at the wide basin of the Tuanjie River, which meanders and extends, and finally sails out to sea in Bahia with an unstoppable momentum.But to be honest, this river is not suitable for shipping. It would be good to build a small hydropower station in the future, because the river has a large gradient, and there are small cliffs, small waterfalls, and many rapids. After the people from the state-owned inland water transport company came to investigate, The conclusion is that this place is "not suitable" for shipping, so the house transportation and personnel exchanges here are all by land, a dilapidated road that has been barely repaired, which is very difficult.

"If there is no gold, emerald, or diamonds in this bird place, who will come!" Throwing away the half-smoked cigarette, Zheng Dalin got up and left, and walked to the countryside.

The misty and silky rain in the sky made people feel a little bit of coolness.The country farm is just one kilometer away, so we'll be there in no time.Looking around, there are more than 20 shops here, all of which are built with thick logs. The style is rough, but they are still durable.

Half of the store sells food, which is easy to understand.What the people in the gold mining area lack most is not money, but various consumer goods. Therefore, these shops sell various grains and prepared cooked food for the consumption of those wealthy gold diggers. I don’t know how much they can earn.It is worth mentioning that these shops sell quite high-end items, including chocolate, cream biscuits, malted milk, black tea, green tea, coffee cocoa, coconut powder, etc., and even all kinds of alcohol. It was shipped from the outside by merchants at a huge cost.Correspondingly, the price of these commodities is about 5-10 times more expensive than the outside world, and only gold diggers with pockets full of golden beans can afford it.

Two major brand chain stores, State-run Department Store and Sun Chunyang Nanhuopu, have also set up branches here.However, they mainly sell clothes, shoes and hats, daily necessities, hardware tools, and also sell some medicines and medicinal wines on behalf of them, and the business is also in a mess.Gold diggers, who doesn't need all kinds of labor tools?Which doesn't need medicine to cure the disease?In particular, potions for bruises, medicinal wine for preventing malaria, and cinchona cream for treating malaria are just like onions in rural India. They can be used as hard currency. Can this business be bad?

Although Zheng Dalin is a soldier and doesn't know how to do business, he can easily draw a conclusion based on his own observations, that is, these shops set up in the countryside are sharp gold-absorbing weapons, and he doesn't know how much he recycles every day from the mining area. gold grains, nuggets.These gold nuggets that have not been finely smelted are often devalued by the bosses, and then reduced to one-third or even one-fifth of the actual value to buy them, and exchange them for various commodities they need for the gold diggers. It goes without saying that the huge profits.

But these bosses are not going anywhere happy.Because private minting of gold coins is a serious illegal thing, if they don't want to hold the dog's head gold for a lifetime, they still have to sell it to the State Administration of Precious Metals - which will obviously be peeled off - and they will recycle it uniformly Then smelt, purify, cast into gold coins and store them as the country's strategic gold reserves.

The other half of the shops in the village are more mixed.There is a laundry room on the surface, but in fact it is a place with half-closed doors (of course, it does provide laundry and mending services), a medical clinic and pharmacy run by a doctor who practices medicine alone, there are bathhouses, hotels, and companies that provide bodyguard services , the function is quite complete.

These shops or enterprises almost didn't need government mobilization or guidance, and they came here by themselves.This may be explained from a financial point of view, because people who eat crabs before them earn a lot of money here, and the good demonstration effect drives others to follow up quickly, which eventually leads to abnormal prosperity here.

After all, everything is made of gold!

"Battalion Commander, a letter from the Army Department." Just as he was about to go to the township government to find someone to sit down with, a messenger on a horse chased him and handed a confidential letter to Zheng Dalin.

Zheng Dalin took the letter with some doubts, looked at all the seals on the envelope, and after seeing that it was intact, he put the letter in his pocket and walked back to the battalion headquarters.The battalion headquarters was just [-] meters away on the edge of the rural field. Zheng Dalin walked in like a gust of wind, and then drove away the crowd, opening the letter alone.

The letter was actually just an order, but because the content involved was sensitive, it was sealed with something outside, and then sent to Zhang Wu Township in a low-key manner.Zheng Dalin read the contents of the order three times over and over again, and after carefully confirming the authenticity of the seal of the Ministry of Army in the lower right corner of the order and the minister's private signature, he folded the letter and put it away carefully, laughing stand up.

How well timed is this letter!Zheng Dalin patted his thigh excitedly.The Ministry actually ordered the No.11 mixed battalion Li Zhixin to come to the Tuanhe River Basin, along with soldiers from the security regiment from three southern counties to strengthen the strength here. After No.11 Mixed Battalion arrived, the Fifth Mixed Battalion could gradually gather troops and go out to Xiande Township, and then wait for the supplies specially sent by the Ministry of War.

According to the plan, as soon as the Fifth Mixed Battalion received the supplies, the whole army would set off and march downstream along the Tuanjie River to "strike the places where the bandits might be hiding" and "go straight to Huanglong" if necessary.In addition, the order also specified that Captain Xiao Guang would follow along with multiple prospecting teams, because the higher-ups had reason to believe that there might be gold mines in the lower reaches of the Tuanjie River, so there was no reason not to explore them.

Zheng Dalin combined the two orders and savored them together, and immediately found it very interesting.Sending people out of Xiande Township, isn't that the territory of Portuguese Brazil?If it is more realistic, whether the location of Xiande Township is in the East Coast is very suspicious.You should know that the agreement signed by East Portugal was that the south of Porto Seguro (16°26′ south latitude) should belong to the east coast, and the north should belong to Portugal.However, the latitude of Xiande Township is 15°57′south latitude, which obviously has crossed the border and occupied the territory of the Kingdom of Portugal.The main reason why the Portuguese haven't come to protest is because they still don't know where the establishment of Xiande Township is. Maybe they will negotiate again after they confirm it in a year or so.However, it cannot be ruled out that the Portuguese already knew it now, but gave up the negotiation due to timidity, cowardice and other reasons. This is all possible.

Well, now let's go back and think about it.Xiande Township, a settlement with more than 1000 pioneers, has already been set up in Portugal, and now the Fifth Mixed Battalion, with thousands of people, is going to Xiande Township to suppress bandits. Take a closer look.In other words, this is to further test the Portuguese's bottom line, and it is suspected of causing trouble.And they also followed a large-scale prospecting team, not only to occupy land, but also to occupy the gold mine resources that belonged to the Portuguese. What a reaction.

Zheng Dalin reckoned that even if the Kingdom of Portugal is more sensible and submissive to the east coast, it still has to struggle a bit when it comes to land and gold.Don’t you see that the two countries are currently arguing about the purchase of the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands. The Portuguese are actually very reluctant to lose this strategically important archipelago, but they are a little bit embarrassed under the huge pressure from the people on the east coast. Therefore, the reaction to the negotiation process was that they had worn out their mouths, so they gave in a little bit, and in the end the asking price was still very high, which made people a little annoyed.

Now the Tuanjie River Basin has been proven to have the largest, most abundant, and highest-grade gold belt in the world, and there are also many diamond mines (this seems to be a bit valuable on the east coast) and emerald mines, all of which are very valuable. ——Small copper, iron, lead, and tin mines are not to be discussed, and they are "automatically ignored" by everyone at this stage—so the Portuguese are now paying more attention to the places where this river passes, and want to see if they can Can't find some gold mines of their own.

If the Fifth Mixed Battalion moves forward along the river, it will undoubtedly end the Portuguese golden dream, and it is hard to say how they will react.Therefore, Zheng Dalin felt that he had to be fully prepared, not to underestimate anyone, and to make a decision bravely, so as not to let himself get into trouble.

(End of this chapter)