Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2209 Hunting Country ([-])

Oleg Naryshkin walked across the open fields and came to a small factory.The fields surrounding the factory had just been plowed and had been planted with winter wheat.Next to the farmland, several large barns were built, which stored a large amount of freshly harvested grain, usually corn and soybeans, and a small amount of cash crops.

Naryshkin found that these farmlands were very poorly managed, with many weeds in the fields, and sometimes even some saplings lying there, as if a forest had just been cleared, and then some crops were planted indiscriminately to catch up with the farmers. Same.Naturally, the output of such a farmland would not be very high. If one lived on it, one would live in a very difficult life.

Fortunately, the people who run these lands don't make a living from it.In fact, these farmlands belong to the factory in front of Naryshkin, a local state-owned enterprise called Hexi Chemical Factory.The key product of this company is tannic acid, which is still relatively tight in the market, and the price is not low.

The Hexi Chemical Plant mainly extracts tannic acid from the xylem, bark, branches and leaves of the red axe tree that can be found everywhere on the Chaco Plain. Therefore, it is necessary to cut down a large number of trees in advance, and then process and extract them.The place where the Hexi Chemical Plant is now was originally a forest. They obtained permission from the Ministry of Agriculture and then used a lot of manpower and machinery to cut down trees on a large scale.

To this end, Hexi Chemical Factory has also set up a wood processing workshop, which specializes in processing various types of wood.Ordinary trees are processed into boards for sale to meet the needs of the local market.The red broken axe tree cannot be treated in this way. They use woodworking machines to process the red broken axe tree logs into shavings, and then send them to the chemical production workshop to extract tannic acid, a commodity with a very promising market.Considering the booming leather market today—not only for leather clothes, leather boots, leather bags, luggage, but also for a large amount of leather in industry—the price of tannic acid, which is the key cost of leather tanning, has remained high, and it is indeed a kind of Commodities that can bring great profits, no wonder Hexi County and Hexi Region want to vigorously develop this industry.

However, this industry also has a huge disadvantage, that is, it is difficult to restore the broken ax trees that have been cut down through natural methods.The red broken axe is a unique tree species that grows slowly, has hard wood, and is non-perishable. Once it is cut down, other fast-growing trees will quickly take its living space, resulting in a dwindling number of this tree.

Chaco's red axe tree has the highest tannic acid content of any known axe tree. Of course, people on the east coast cannot sit back and watch this precious resource dwindle day by day.Therefore, they severely cracked down on the illegal logging of broken ax trees without obtaining a logging license from the Ministry of Agriculture, and then divided the forest into various areas, and stipulated that after the resources of broken ax trees in any area were exhausted, the logging companies would immediately compensate A certain number must be planted, and factors such as the growth environment of the trees must be considered, so that the replanted broken axe trees cannot be collapsed by competition from other tree species.

Of course policy is one thing, implementation is another.In fact, abandoned logging camps and tannin extraction factories abound in the vast Chaco Plains.These are small-scale workshop enterprises. They secretly carry food and equipment to inaccessible forests, extract tannin while logging, and quickly move to another place after the resources of the nearby broken ax trees are exhausted or they simply feel unsafe. A place to go back to old business.Nowadays, the cycle goes on and on, and the damage to forest resources is very large.

The state-run Hexi Chemical Plant is much more regulated than theirs.Everywhere they go, they will send staff to count the forest tree species and general trees in a certain range nearby, and then formulate a scientific harvesting plan.Part of the emptied land will be cleared and converted into farms to produce food and economic crops, and part will be replanted with saplings as planned to achieve sustainable development.

Therefore, even though tannic acid is the main commodity, Hexi Chemical Factory also provides agricultural products such as wheat, corn, soybeans, standard boards and furniture of different specifications, and even charcoal as a fuel, which is really speechless.

With such a big stall, there are undoubtedly a lot of people in Hexi Chemical Factory.In addition to arresting many Quechua Indians for moving timber, clearing fields, and growing food for various reasons, they also recruited many non-national laborers who immigrated for the first time.About half of these people are seasonal workers, that is, they come to work during the slack season, and the other half are workers who are attracted by wages. They did not go to the countryside to buy land, but only kept five acres of donated land for their families to cultivate. I went to work at the Hexi Chemical Plant.

Oleg Naryshkin came to the Hexi Chemical Plant today, also at the invitation of Hexi County Mayor Wang Dazhuang, to see if he could find a way to recruit a group of Russian non-national laborers.After all, Naryshkin's father is now the Prime Minister of the Russian Empire, with great power in his hands - Peter lives in the barracks, drills sergeants day and night, and the daily affairs of the government are handled by old Naryshkin and several other important ministers - as long as he is willing to help , It's not a problem to get some people over.But Oleg was keenly aware of the hidden political risks in this matter, so he had already rejected it immediately in his heart, but he didn't want to offend a noble official like Wang Dazhuang on the surface. So I promised to come and have a look, just to make a formality.

When he came to the factory, it was dinner time after get off work.Here, he saw dozens of Russian-born non-nationals.After finishing their own dinner, these people are learning Chinese under the organization of a teacher-like person.The language standard for non-nationals to become a regular is very low. Generally speaking, you only need to be able to pass the daily Chinese conversation.But this level of language attainment, to be honest, is not enough.In addition, many of these people are long-term employees of the Hexi Chemical Plant, so it is very necessary to teach them a certain level of Chinese characters, and be able to read and write easily.

Oleg Naryshkin had dinner in a nearby small restaurant, accompanied by a middle-level manager of the factory of Russian descent.The Russian-born man named Anton smiled wryly at Naryshkin, saying that it was very painful for him when he first learned "Khitan language". Know what it means.Now he is also spending time on self-study, hoping to further improve his Chinese proficiency. After all, if you can’t even read and write normal official documents, and your words and sentences are poor, it will be difficult for you to have much room for development. no doubt.

Oleg couldn't comment on their eagerness to learn, but he felt a little sad in his heart.It can be seen that these regular Russians are trying to find ways to actively integrate into the new life on the east coast, laying a good foundation for themselves and their family descendants.As for Russia's past, maybe it has to be cut and gradually faded away?In this matter, the famous Goshkin and his son have fully proved this point to people.

But Oleg didn't come to Hexi today to discuss the East Bank Dream with them. In fact, he came to express euphemistically that he couldn't get many people.Because Wang Dazhuang temporarily went to the capital Luoyang to study and study, he could only point this out to the management of Hexi Chemical Plant.

Anton was not surprised by this at all.He poured Naryshkin a glass of wine with a smile, and then said: "The Tsar is the monarch of all Russia, and now the era of chaos is over, Sophia and her henchmen are dead, exiled, and the whole of Russia is now with one voice Speak. Mr. Naryshkin, you will no longer be able to get people from the heavily fortified border crossings, not even one, and the Tsar will not allow such a thing to happen."

"But about the brewery?" Oleg Naryshkin was a little uncertain.

"Let's recruit temporary workers during the slack season, that's the only way. Anyway, our factory won't be here for too long, and we may move out in the second half of next year." Anton said.

move away?Oleg was puzzled at first, and then suddenly realized.Indeed, it is indeed impossible for a company like Hexi Chemical Plant to stay in one place for too long, perhaps for three years.Within three years, it is enough to cut down the trees within a certain range, and then you can change places to continue "tossing".No wonder their factory buildings are made of logs, planks and thick branches. It turns out that they are ready to leave at any time.Hey, mobile logging farms, mobile farms, mobile wood processing plants, and mobile chemical plants, I really don’t know how to evaluate them (there will be a large number of mobile logging farms and wood processing plants that cut down the red broken axe in the Chaco Plain of Argentina in later generations, which are harmful to the environment. causing massive damage).When are they like this?Until all the broken ax trees here are cut down?Oleg is not sure, but he feels that this is not a long-term solution. The scale of the enterprise is still small, but it will not work when it is large. Let's see what the people on the east coast will do in the future.

"Is this plant profitable? I mean the entire Hexi Chemical Plant." Oleg then asked.

"Profit must be profitable. The market value of tannic acid is very high, and the supply is in short supply. This is the biggest source of profit. In addition, the cost of food is also very low because of the large number of Quechua people used. It is very popular in local and neighboring areas. Competitive. The market for timber, furniture, breweries and oil mills that are about to be launched is also in the local market. It should be impossible to lose money, but it is not very profitable. The main reason is that it can solve employment and provide tax revenue for the government , This is its greatest meaning of existence." Anton is worthy of being the management of Hexi Chemical Plant, he speaks with a relatively high level, and every sentence has something to say, and it is almost inseparable.

"Where else is there a red broken ax tree? Can it be released to private management?" Oleg Naryshkin asked suddenly, not knowing what he thought of.

Anton glanced at him when he heard the words, and then said: "According to the report of the expedition team, from Hexi County to the north, the resources of the red broken ax tree are relatively abundant. In Paraguay, the resources seem to be even more abundant, and they don't have such resources." There is almost no competition. You only need to obtain a logging permit from the Ministry of Agriculture and log within a specified area. There is no such thing as restricting the entry of private capital in this industry. This is not a high-end industry, Naresh Mr. Kim, you understand, but it requires people, a lot of labor."

"Yes, of course I understand." Oleg Naryshkin took a sip of wine, and then said: "I will definitely not be able to enter the military industry, machinery manufacturing, railway and other industries, so come to Hexi to develop this kind of plantation It is still possible to be a mobile enterprise in the garden economy. Of course, this is just my immature idea. I almost forgot the real purpose of the county magistrate Wang asking me to come here. Haha, yes, we lack people, No one, this is the deadliest thing! Any industry needs someone to run it. The Quechua people are so stupid that they can’t do anything with a bit of technical content. They can’t be workers or technicians at all. Therefore, ideas are always just ideas. , it should be difficult to achieve. Forget it, Anton, I’d better run my Naryshkin Building well, and take care of the stocks and bonds on hand when I have time. This is what suits me, rather than bothering run the business.”

Speaking of this, Oleg Naryshkin smiled self-deprecatingly, the ambition of running a business was over before it even started.This vast virgin land in Hexi seems to have no destiny for me.

(End of this chapter)