Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2414 of the Caribbean Sea ([-])

On December 1700, 12, the Caribbean Sea was full of blue waves.

"Human beings are really insatiable conquerors. If there are extraterrestrial planets, the inhabitants living on them may not be as full of expansion and aggression as the earth. Look at the sea horizon, and the first thought I see is to conquer Outside Sucheng Port, Tian Xiaochuan pointed to the boundary line between the ocean and the sky in the distance, and said with a smile.

"Brother Tian is expressing emotion again." An older subordinate laughed and said: "The Indians in Lake Titicaca in Upper Peru know to use reed boats to conquer the great lake. Our country has built a [-]-ton ship. Isn't it just for conquering the world?"

"Old Cui, you are talking nonsense again. We are not from the East Coast, but citizens of the newly established Great Su Kingdom. Don't make a mistake." Tian Xiaochuan corrected.

The Great Su Country is a country established by the pirate forces in Sioux City, and it was newly established this year.Because the "big brother" of the pirates, Su Mo, was surnamed Su, after the unanimous approval of the roundtable meeting of the highest authority of the pirates in Sioux City, the name of the founding country was Dasu, and the declared jurisdiction was roughly in the southern part of Texas in the United States and Mexico in later generations. department.If the naturalized Indians are included, the current population is about 3, making it an extremely small country.

However, although the country is small, the fighting power of the Su country should not be underestimated.Because of the pirates, their sea power is quite impressive. After converting some old sailing ships into transportation, they bought many retired "Star" light cruisers from the East Coast Navy, forming a fleet of ten With a naval force of three ships (ten combat ships and three auxiliary ships), the total number of sailors exceeds a thousand.

The Windward Fleet of the Kingdom of Spain once fought them.The pirates were small and weakly protected, but they were maneuverable, and the Spanish heavy battleships had nothing to do with them.If you want to suppress the port, you will encounter the coastal defense forts of the pirates—I really don’t know where the 24-pound long-barreled heavy guns come from. Fighting line artillery battles with you is just blindly harassing.

Fighting back and forth, the situation in the Caribbean is a mess.Many coastal port cities in Spanish New Spain and Peru were startled three times a day, and many elderly people recalled what their parents said about the Dutch pirates who roamed the Caribbean Sea—the biggest sea robbery in the 17th century was the Netherlands in 1627. At that time, they robbed the Spaniards of gold, silver and goods worth millions of dollars-one after another persuaded them to negotiate peace with the pirates to stabilize the situation in the Caribbean Sea.

The Spaniards had no choice but to ask the Caribbean Shipping Company to act as an intermediary to negotiate with the pirate forces in Sioux City in Puerto Rico. In the end, both parties took a step back and shook hands to make peace.

It is quite rare in this era for a pirate group to conflict with a country and not lose the wind in frontal negotiations.The Sioux City pirates also took this opportunity to become famous in one fell swoop, and pirates who could not survive far and near—many of them carrying arrest warrants from multiple countries—come to vote one after another, and their power grows steadily.At this time, Su Mo, Wang Zhaoli, Tian Xiaochuan and others felt that the time was ripe for the founding of the country, so they informed the State Intelligence Administration through secret channels that they had no intention of objecting, and soon established the country.

There are currently only two cities in the Great Su Kingdom, namely Sioux City and Liangshan. In addition, there are some small towns, such as the San Antonio colony captured by the Spaniards.Well, that might be a little biased, because the country is slowly changing, at least a little bit in agriculture.

In the beginning, the farmlands on the outskirts of Sioux City were reclaimed by those retired old or disabled pirates.After they intermarried with the Indians and gave birth to children, few of the offspring would engage in their parents' careers again, and basically all of them would be stable farmers and herdsmen.

Later, some immigrants from other countries came to settle here.Especially the Confucian Confucianism scholars who are disliked by the East Bank government—in fact, they don’t like the East Bank people either—and some East Coast people who fled the country because of crimes. They came to such a poor and poor place with chaotic management , remake, start over.Of course, there are also some immigrants from European countries, but the number is relatively small. Over the years, there are no more than a few hundred people, which is not as large as the number of meat tickets robbed by the pirates in Sioux City.

The main source of the population of the Great Soviet Union is actually the conquered and naturalized Indians.In this matter, the Taoists on the east coast who went deep into the barren land to preach did their best, so Taoism was revered as the state religion in Great Su.But recently I heard that many monks came across the sea, intending to wrestle with Taoist priests in this new country.They have already determined that they can't handle Taoist priests on the east coast. The Great Su Kingdom has just been established, and everything is unknown. It is much easier to invest power here than in areas where the faith has been solidified.

As for the monks, to be honest, they are comparable to the Confucian scholars who have been exiled here.However, these Confucian scholars are respected in the Great Soviet Union and the Free State next door—after all, they are rare intellectuals—so Buddhism is not invincible here, and everything depends on how everyone competes in the future.

"Yes, old Cui, I made a mistake. The system of this dynasty is different from that of the Eastern Kingdom. Brother Tian, ​​today is the beginning of the month, so it should be the day of granting land. The county should be lively." Old Cui asked with a smile .

He was originally a domestic slave of a great Confucian named Cui who came to settle in Sucheng, and he has been living in Jinan Mansion.The generation of the Cui family had no support in the court, and they hated the local dog officials. The situation was in dire straits, so they had to temporarily sell their property and flee to Denglai.

After arriving in Sucheng Port, Master Cui was also righteous, and distributed the money to the servants, and he was dismissed (in fact, he couldn't stay).Old Cui was in his prime, married a maidservant in Master Cui's house, and had several children. Now that the whole family has obtained good citizenship, he couldn't help but be overjoyed.

However, although he is free without Master Cui, he also loses the guarantee of food and housing.So, taking advantage of his strength and good water skills, Lao Cui got on a transport ship and became a sailor. He has been the bosun's assistant for six or seven years now.

Their ship was returning from Huaiyuan Island.That big island was the naval base of the East Coasters in the Caribbean, the home port of the Caribbean Squadron of the First Fleet.It's just that as a large number of main warships headed to the Cape Verde Islands, Huaiyuan Island became less popular.But it didn't drop too much, because the economy here is not bad. Whether it is agriculture, entrepot trade, or the export of timber and asphalt, the scale is quite large, creating great economic value for Huaiyuan County.

It can be said that the status of Huaiyuan Island among the Caribbean islands is second only to the island of Cuba ruled by the Spanish. Whether it is Puerto Rico ruled by the Spanish, Guadeloupe ruled by the French or Jamaica ruled by the British, it is It is much worse, whether it is economy or population, it cannot compare with Huaiyuan Island.

The transport ships from the Dasu Kingdom headed to Huaiyuan Island, firstly to sell stolen goods, such as antiques and works of art, and at the same time export some livestock to the local area in exchange for funds.The second thing is actually to secretly take back some military supplies, mainly the retired artillery and a certain number of shells from the army and navy on the east coast.Since people are asked to harass the eastern border of the Mexican Prosecutor's Court District for the benefit of the eastern coast, they cannot be stingy with their investment.At this point, the guys in the military department are still relatively generous, so that the waste arsenal is almost emptied.

"After arriving at the port, I will give everyone a ten-day holiday. After ten days, we will gather at the No. [-] pier. Let's go to Xinjing Port in the Free State again and bring back a batch of grain." The dilapidated second-hand small steamer fired the boiler, and then drove over with a whimper, intending to pull the galleon with a displacement of more than [-] tons back to the anchorage.

After the ship docked, except for a few people who stayed with the authorities to count and deliver the goods, most people couldn't wait to go ashore.There are many people on the pier, some are selling goods, some are soliciting guests for accommodation, and some are maintaining order. Of course, the huge notice board nearby is the one with the most people.

The sign was made of wood, and a notice bearing the seal of the Sioux City County Government was pasted on it.A government worker next to him read the content over and over again, letting the mostly illiterate residents of Sioux City know the content of the notice.

"...Fan Yanbo, the head of the household, is 42 years old and has [-] acres of land. A section of four acres is located on the West Road of Chenggong Canal, three kilometers west of the city, a section of three acres is located on the North Road of Oak Canal, two kilometers west of the city, and a section of three acres is located on the east road of Fenjinqu, one kilometer east of the city. , a section of two acres is located in a small pond on Fenjin Qunan Road, one kilometer east of the city."

"Ding male Zhang Dinghe, 16 years old, granted five acres of land, a section of two and a half acres is located in the big oak tree on the east road of Paomaqu, four kilometers north of the city, and a section of two and a half acres is located on the east road of Hunshui Canal, three kilometers north of the city."

"Head of household Zhao Xi, 50 years old, wife Zhao Wangshi (Indian), 17 years old, granted four acres of land, a section of one and a half acres is located on the South Road of Onuma Canal, three kilometers south of the city, and a section of two and a half acres is located on the West Road of Rongrong Canal, two kilometers south of the city. .”

……

Strictly speaking, the above are not land grants, but changes in the registered property rights after the sale of the land.Different from the east coast, the fields in Dasu Country are not free and need to be purchased from the government.In addition, people can also trade land in private, and there is no upper limit on holding land, which is very free.

Because the land near the city has been divided up long ago, it would cost a lot of money to obtain these good cultivated lands that are close to the county seat and have a complete irrigation system.But even so, as long as people have money in their pockets, they will try their best to buy land, some for themselves, and some for their parents to buy for their children. The number of transactions is not frequent, but there are always a dozen or so every month. Concentrate on the announcement at the beginning of the month and issue new title deeds.

As for the fields a little farther from the city, because they are not well developed and lack irrigation systems, they are more likely to be threatened by Indians, so the prices are relatively low, and people are unwilling to buy land there.In order to solve this problem, the Sucheng County government adopted the method of farming, that is, organizing naturalized Indians and impoverished pirates—don’t doubt that, with the living habits of pirates, they usually can’t save money—to open up wasteland and farmland.

This kind of farming is more difficult. To put it bluntly, it is nothing more than tenant farming of the government's land: because these people's economic status is poor and poor, they often need the government to provide basic labor tools, seeds and draft animals, so the sharing system is generally adopted.Among them, those who borrow official cattle will get half of the harvest; those who do not borrow, except for the basic production materials provided by the government, will get one-third for the government and two-thirds for the people.

In addition, in addition to working in the fields, these people have to go out to dig river ditches and build irrigation canals, which is a very heavy workload.And the benefit obtained is nothing more than that when you have money in your pocket in the future, you can buy these fields cultivated by yourself from the government at a very low discount price.But for the conquered Indians, this is actually a good choice, as the masters of the Great Soviet State boasted: "The barbarians feel the benefits, and the benevolence is great."

From this, we can also see that although the Great Soviet State treats farmers better than Europe, it is not as good as the East Coast. There is neither five acres of free land, nor interest-free agricultural loans, nor many assistance policies.Of course, we can’t blame them. After all, they are another country. The system is a mixture of things from the East Coast and ancient Chinese dynasties. The economic foundation is also a bit poor.As long as there are no major disturbances in the country, and if it persists in development for decades, it may not be able to become a famous country in the Caribbean.

(End of this chapter)