Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2314 Drills

On November 1696, 11, at Ningnan Port Naval Base, a warship quietly sailed out of the port in the dark.

Ningnan Port now has a population of about 5000, and the total population of the county has also exceeded [-]. In this southern cone area, it can be said that it is not a small city.Of course, Ningnan County is not the most powerful county in the Strait of Magellan. In fact, Xingnan County is the well-deserved number one, both in terms of population and economic scale.

There, it has the status of a commercial center and logistics center that other counties dream of. A large number of commodities from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are transshipped here, and the transportation volume even far exceeds that of Magellan and Cape Horn.After all, sea transportation is slow, insurance costs are high, and accidents are prone to occur. In the environment of strong winds and waves, the goods are also easily damaged by moisture, so not everyone chooses this mode of transportation.

In Xingnan County, other industries have also developed quite well, such as the Haidiao Watch Factory, Haidiao Musical Instrument Factory, and Haidiao Precision Instrument Factory under the Mo family.The former almost occupies the vast majority of the national market for pocket watches, clocks, marine clocks and other timing instruments, not to mention the musical instrument factory, which is almost a monopoly in the country, overwhelming other small workshop-style factories.Even Haidiao Precision Instrument Factory competes fiercely with Dongan Precision Instrument Company in various scientific instruments, occupying a certain market share, and is one of the three pillars of the Mo family business.

In addition, the Southern Railway Company also has considerable assets in this city.Nantie Weekly, Nantie Women's and Children's Hospital (a joint venture with the Mo family), Nantie Bank, etc. have also contributed a lot of tax revenue and employment opportunities to the local area, making other counties envious.

The only one that can compete with them is probably Araucan County, which also has a strong manufacturing industry.This county also has the addition of the Liangyang Railway. At the same time, there is the famous Heishan Industrial Company in Heishan Township, a heavy industrial enterprise famous for manufacturing hydraulic machines.It's a pity that other industries in this county are really sparse, and the business is not as good as Xingnan County, and the agriculture and fishery are far behind, and it is on the Pacific side, otherwise it may overwhelm Xingnan County.

Compared with these two counties, the three counties of Ningnan, Weihai, and Shanhou are far behind.Ningnan is mainly engaged in seafood processing and leather processing. In addition, the existence of the Ningnan Port Naval Base has also brought many benefits to the local economy.There is almost nothing to mention in Weihai County. Except for the Heijin Island Coal Mine, which is closed for half a year in winter, this huge county mainly lives on island pastures.The so-called island ranch is actually using the large number of broken small islands in the local area to develop animal husbandry.Just as the Chileans of later generations ran a large-scale livestock industry on these islands, the people of the east coast also raised sheep, goats, cattle and horses in large quantities here.Among them, private individuals mainly rent some small islands, and often several families unite to graze cattle and sheep; state-run pastures exist on those larger islands or peninsulas, and mainly use this kind of livestock.

In addition, on some relatively closed islands, animals such as moose, reindeer, musk oxen, North American bison, and Siberian tigers introduced by the people on the east coast decades ago have also bred and occupied more and more islands. .Each island is a closed prison. The agricultural department on the east coast employs a lot of people locally. They go to the island regularly to check and count the population. When they find that the limit of the local environment is exceeded, they open up the next "colonial island" for those animals. Today It's already quite large.

A while ago, the Ministry of Agriculture held a special meeting to discuss whether animals on the island could be hunted and killed on a regular basis.Especially the musk ox, its fur is excellent, has a lot of meat, and also produces musk. It is said that the people in the northern pharmaceutical factory want to use it to make some perfume or medicine, and they are very much looking forward to hunting the musk ox.In addition, the number of tigers is also quite large. There are about 300 tigers living on various islands. Whether they can also be hunted or killed can also be demonstrated.

In short, this is a rich resource, and it is also a huge wealth. Except for Xingnan County, other counties have a little bit of it.If the result of the Ministry of Agriculture's demonstration is that it can be hunted and killed, it will still have quite positive significance for the local economy.It’s just that according to everyone’s speculation, the possibility of releasing it is still not high, and it may be left to the next or even the next government to discuss, which is a bit regrettable.

Shanhou County is somewhat different among the five counties in the south, because this county relies on tourism as its main source of income.Because of its unique geographical location and superior natural environment, Shanhou County has been favored by the state-owned Dongfang Hotel Group many years ago, and a large number of high-standard hotels, sanatoriums, and conference centers have been built here, focusing on tourism concepts such as "The Ends of the World".In addition, the animal and plant resources here are also very special, the climate is fresh, and the seafood is particularly rich—especially the famous shrimp and crab, and the fish meat is also famous—and you can watch the sunset, which is very popular among the increasingly wealthy middle class in China. .Later, Xu Hao, a tycoon in the catering and entertainment industry, also came and invested in the construction of the Penglai Hotel. He fought face to face with the Oriental Hotel Group, which injected a lot of vitality into the local economy.

Of course, we may have forgotten a group of isolated islands not far from here, namely the Falkland Islands.On this desolate island group with only one township and thousands of people, the government on the east coast still has a county, Madao County.The importance of this county cannot be overstated.In the early days of the east coast, because of the abundant fishery resources nearby, a large amount of cephalopod seafood was provided here, which supplemented important protein for the people of the east coast.It was not until the buffalo hunting industry in the Pampa Plain gradually emerged that the importance of this place decreased, but it was still an important seafood base.

Not to mention, there are very rich seal resources here, and most of the whaling ships also start from here to hunt whales in the nearby sea, and then transport them back to the port for processing.To this day, Madao County is still the largest producer of whale products, the largest producer of high-grade lubricating oil, and the second largest producer of phosphate in the country, which shows its importance.

The entire county of Maldives Island has a population of only a few thousand and acts like a lot of resources, so the local residents are undoubtedly very rich.And this seems to be an important reason for their reluctance to move to other places.Although it is remote here and the winter is relatively cold, there are all kinds of goods, everyone's income is high, and the pace of life is slow. Why go to other places to work hard?Of course, it is not ruled out that some young people who go out to the outside world will leave, but most people are still content with the status quo.

In the season of mid-November, due to the high temperature, most of the whales have left this relatively warm sea area to play and live near the Antarctic continent.Therefore, most of the whaling ships will now go to southern Chile, and only a small number of ships will remain in port for maintenance.Therefore, when the iron-clad warship "Bianliang" sailed out of the Ningnan Port Naval Base in a low-key way, and spent more than three days on the road to arrive at Baleen Whale Port, not many people saw it.

After several modifications in the shipyard, the performance of the "Bianliang" ironclad warship has become much more stable.This time, the ship sailed south from the Hailing Port military base to test its sailing and combat capabilities in strong winds and waves.Therefore, from the moment it left Ningnan Port, even at night, this huge warship was conducting various trainings: live ammunition shooting training, fire rescue training, night raid training, etc. The whole sailing process was quite fulfilling .

It can also be seen from this that the "Bianliang" ironclad warship, which has undergone many tests, improvements, re-tests, and re-improvement processes, has really matured.According to the plan of the Ministry of the Navy, after enough tests in the strong winds and waves in the waters near Falkland Island, the warship will return to Zhenhai Port for evaluation. If everything is good, then it will be the final model, and the construction of "Luoyang" and "Luoyang" will start as soon as possible. Big name".Some people even broke the shocking news that the Ministry of the Navy is lobbying the members of the Executive Committee to find ways to build two more iron-clad warships, namely the "Yingtian" and "Chang'an", bringing the number of iron-clad warships in the East Coast Navy to five. , can exert its power on more fronts.

It is said that the Executive Committee does not agree with this very much, and even if it reluctantly agrees, it will not increase the total military expenditure, because the current financial burden of the government is already very heavy.This basically means that if the navy really wants to build the fourth and fifth ironclad warships, it can only grab money from the army and reduce the army's expenditure.It is conceivable that if this kind of thing really happens, the army will be so ignorant that it might rush into the Joint Staff Headquarters with enthusiasm and denounce the "national traitor".

While the "Bianliang" iron-clad warship was training in the waters near the Falkland Islands, nearly [-] ships from the main force of the Navy's First Fleet also gathered in the waters near Xingnan Port, conducting large-scale exercises.Because of the high winds and rough seas in the North Atlantic Ocean, naval warships must conduct adaptive exercises in advance, so they chose to conduct intensive exercises near the Strait of Magellan, where the sea conditions are also harsh.

In fact, the East Coast Navy has not fought a war for many years.Although he has been training hard, and the quality and combat skills of the soldiers are also good, many experienced naval officers and soldiers of the older generation have retired. To keep these young people from being in a hurry when they go to the battlefield, large-scale maritime military exercises are still necessary. , especially military exercises close to the local sea conditions, the value will be higher.So, as you can see, the Ministry of the Navy allocated a large sum of money to get all the ships without combat readiness missions, and started actual combat drills in a rigorous manner.In the future, other ships will come over in turn to practice battle line artillery, sea repairs, transfer of the wounded and other subjects to further enhance combat effectiveness.

If you practice like this for several years, you will almost be able to go to the battlefield.At that time, the East Coast Navy led by several ironclad warships will probably surprise the Europeans!When the dust of the war settles, the victorious East Coast Navy can also choose some ports in Europe—such as Haji Port, Wendao Port, Barcelona Port, etc.—to berth in order to continue to increase its influence and control the local situation.The golden age of the Great East Bank will also follow!

(End of this chapter)