Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 219 New Settlements

The exploration fleet led by Guo Zili stayed in Hezhong Fort for three days.

Because they brought bright hopes of marrying wives to the bachelors in this area, the naval officers and soldiers were very popular inside and outside the city of Hezhongbao. Not only did the town government buy their Persian female slaves at a "premium price", many former bachelors who got married quickly also Inviting naval officers and soldiers to drink and eat every now and then, they are extremely enthusiastic.

Of course, the cattle and camels they bought back from East Africa were also very popular with the local residents, and they were immediately bought by the town government to raise them in order to expand the population.

After resting for a few days, the resupplied expedition fleet quietly left the Hezhongbao Wharf. After more than a month of sailing, it finally arrived at Dongfang Port on the evening of December 1638, 12, which had been away for more than five months.

The wharf of the Eastern Port is still very prosperous. Ships from Brazil, La Plata, New Spain, and even Chile, Peru and other regions gather here. Industrial raw materials and consumer goods such as bezoar, cocoa, and coffee, as well as industrial products such as cotton cloth, woolen fabrics, weapons, hardware products, clean coal, leather goods, cement, and red bricks, and the prosperity of trade have made Dongfang Port the leading large port in the New World. commercial port.

In addition to these ships from the New World, many ships from other countries passing through the Strait of Magellan like to replenish and rest in the east.This includes many merchant ships, whaling ships, and some well-disguised pirate ships.However, these pirate ships have no ability to resist the impressive speed of the high-speed cruiser formation of the East Coast Navy, so they are generally very honest along the east coast and dare not make mistakes easily.

On the military pier, a large group of men in round-neck white shirts were undergoing basic queue training. These were ex-pirate members recruited from the Caribbean recently.These pirates come from various sources, from various countries and nationalities, and many people are used to living in an unorganized and undisciplined way.The east coast doesn't need these soldiers with a strong habit of pirates. What they want are pirates who are tired of hiding in Tibet.

These pirates who are eager to be good are wanted in the old continent, and many of them cannot return home, so they can only hang around aimlessly in the Caribbean Sea, wasting their lives.Now that people from the East Coast have found them through some old connections and promised to give them official identities, how can these people not be ecstatic?Coupled with the testimony of some East Coast Navy officers and soldiers who were originally pirates, the recruitment of pirates by the East Coast Navy in July was a great success. More than 500 pirates were recruited near Cape de France and Tortuga Island in just one time.

Except for some of the more than 500 people who are older and unwilling to continue their career at sea, most of them (about 300 people) choose to join the Navy of the Republic of China on the East Coast, which is currently short of personnel.And those who do not want to continue to live at sea, except for a small number of people assigned to shipyards by the Government Council, most of them were assigned to the vast inland areas together with more than 2000 newly arrived French immigrants and more than 1000 Ming Dynasty immigrants. Build new settlements.

The first highway in the East China Republic - Highway No. 1 (North City of Dongfang Port - Dingyuan Township), after continuous expansion and extension in recent years, it has now reached directly to the fishery wharf beside Dayu Lake.After the uninterrupted fishing in recent years, the originally extremely rich fishery resources of Big Fish Lake are now almost exhausted.In order to recuperate Dayu Lake, the Government Affairs Council decisively decided to carry out economic transformation in Dingyuan Township. The economic model that was originally based on planting, fishing, sun-dried salt, and fishery product processing will undergo a large-scale transformation.

To be honest, at present, Dongfang Port and its surrounding areas are actually not suitable for large-scale agricultural production.There is no other reason, mainly lack of water.Yes, there is a lack of large surface runoff. In layman's terms, there are no big rivers.As far as the eye can see, there are some creeks and rivers that are not very abundant, and many of them are seasonal rivers.There is no way, the grassland area, this is the virtue.If it hadn't been for the Government Council spending a lot of effort and cost to build a large number of reservoirs, rainwater collection ponds, artificial reservoirs, and irrigation facilities for farmland, it would have been very difficult to feed the more than [-] people in Dongfang Port and its surrounding areas, let alone It is said that a total of more than [-] mu of various farmland has been opened up.

Now that this problem is recognized, the Executive Committee and the Government Administration Council will naturally not be able to make this mistake again.In order to alleviate the population pressure in the area near Dongfang Port and provide sufficient raw materials for the further development of the domestic textile industry, the Government Council decided to exchange the total of more than 500 new immigrants with some old residents of Dingyuan Township and Dongfang Port. , and then sent to the northwest inland area near water sources to build new settlements, and then carry out grazing and reclamation.

The breeds for grazing are mainly some fine-wool sheep imported from Europe to provide sufficient raw materials for the growing domestic textile industry.Speaking of this, I have to mention that it is a pity that the diplomats of the East Coast Republic have worked hard and tried their best, but they still have not obtained the famous Spanish Merino sheep.At present, the General Administration of State Intelligence has begun to think of a way. If the sheep that produce a large amount of high-quality fine wool can be bred on the eastern prairie, it will definitely give the development of the woolen industry in the Eastern Republic of China the wings to take off.

On and near the north shore of Big Fish Lake, the location of the new settlement was even decided as early as mid-year, with some pre-construction done by the construction crew.There are two planned settlements, namely Cotton Farmer's Fort on the north shore of Big Fish Lake - as the name suggests, the residents of this settlement will mainly grow cotton here; Zhenyuanbao - The residents of this settlement mainly raise sheep.

Cotton and wool produced in the two settlements were sent to Dongfanggang and Pingan County for production and processing respectively.In order to improve the transportation efficiency, East Shore Construction Company built a small wharf in Miannongbao on the north shore of Dayu Lake. The cotton produced here will be transported to Dongfang Port through the Dayu Lake-Dayu River water system after loading. The transportation is quite convenient. .Zhenyuan Fort is still about ten kilometers north of Miannongbao. In order to improve transportation efficiency, the construction company has started planning the extension of Highway 1 - the asphalt road from Miannongbao to Zhenyuanbao.After the completion of this road, supplemented by a large four-wheeled freight carriage, Zhenyuan Fort and Miannong Fort will be able to be easily connected.

In order to improve the labor enthusiasm of the new immigrants, the Government Council also introduced a new policy this time.The general content is to distribute more than 2000 sheep in the hands of the Animal Husbandry Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture to the new immigrants in the form of loans.Of course, the houses, rations, land, farm tools, seeds, etc. prepared for them in the future will also be included in the loan.No interest will be levied on this loan for three years, and a small amount of interest will be gradually levied after three years to encourage new immigrants to enter the role as soon as possible and obtain output to repay the loan.

For this reason, with the approval of the Executive Committee, the Government Affairs Council specially set up a policy bank—Northwest Reclamation Bank to handle this matter.The Northwest Reclamation Bank, the first financial institution on the east coast of China, had a start-up reserve of 2688 sheep, 200 tons of potatoes, some agricultural tools, seeds, building materials and other materials, which can be described as extremely shabby.Of course, more than [-] mu of land in Miannongbao and Zhenyuanbao were also included in its name, and these lands could be sold to local farmers for money after the two places were developed.

After the policy was finalized, in mid-December, the first batch of 12 immigrants arrived at Fort Cotton Farm on the north shore of Big Fish Lake by boat under the escort of two platoons of militiamen.Among the 300 immigrants, 300 were old residents who were originally scheduled to go far away, and only [-] were new immigrants.New and old immigrants live together, which is also deliberately done by the Government Council.After all, with old residents leading them, new immigrants can adapt to the new environment faster, and the speed of assimilation in all aspects can also be slightly accelerated.

At this time, Miannongbao was still a large construction site.More than 200 workers from the East Bank Construction Company are working overtime to build the city wall, houses, toilets, canteens, bathhouses, reservoirs, warehouses and other facilities.Beside them, as many as 1000 Khoisan people are doing hard work such as leveling the foundation and moving building materials under the surveillance of the militia on the east coast.

These thousand Khoisan people are the second batch of dispatched laborers sent from the Fort in the River last month. Apart from the slaves who flew under the two flags, most of them are the natives who escaped from the battle with the British last time and did not fight well. Families and immediate family members of Eight Banners soldiers.They were implicated by their families and sent to the mainland to do hard labor.Of course, before they came, they were also told that after the three-year period expired, they would be sent back to South Africa, where they would be promoted to Six Flags and be free.

People shouted and neighed everywhere on the pier of Miannongbao, making a lot of noise.Wave after wave of materials, personnel, and livestock were transported by boats through the Dayu River-Dayu Lake water system, and then continued to be transported north until Zhenyuan Fort.After several years of development and precipitation, the East Coast Republic now has the ability to organize thousands of people to work on large-scale projects at the same time. This is not a small progress.You know, this kind of large-scale project is a test of the country's financial resources, organizational capabilities, and delivery capabilities.Naturally, there is no problem with organizational ability and delivery ability, but there is such a small problem with financial resources.

The materials that are being transported back and forth on these two huge construction sites in front of us, even including the huge immigration fees of some of the immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, are all sent to the two surrounding neighbors of the East Coast Republic of China-Brazil and La Plata. Some of the native white elite families borrowed heavily from it.

(End of this chapter)