Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 258 Antsiranana ([-])

Shi Qinjie is a middle-aged man in his thirties. Before crossing over, he was just an ordinary clerk in the Agricultural Bureau of a certain county. Later, he has been hanging out in Jinkola's agricultural system, engaged in some agricultural production planning and policy formulation. .This time, I don’t know whose path he took to develop the Falkland Island Gaska Island. In addition, many people have a fear of coming to this undeveloped tropical area, which made him become the most important one in one fell swoop. The important captain of the Madagascar pioneering team became one of the only two "border officials" in China (the other is Mo Ming, the captain of the South African pioneering team).

After successfully winning this position, Shi Qinjie did not sit in an office in China and wait and command remotely, but took the initiative to apply to be on the front line.The executive committee met his request, so he took a Spanish merchant ship that helped transfer supplies to the Fort in the River from Dongfang Port.Later, he came here with Li Yi's returning fleet of people and goods.

After disembarking from the boat, Shi Qinjie didn't care to find a place to take a rest in order to alleviate his slightly severe seasickness symptoms after the long-distance voyage. Instead, he immediately called several responsible personnel of the Antsiranana Colony to hold a meeting to discuss Learn about the current progress of the colony's construction.

"First of all, I would like to officially announce that with the approval of the Executive Committee, the Antsiranana Colony in Madagascar was officially renamed the New China Colony, and the city currently under construction was officially named Xinhua Castle." Shi Qin paled Sitting behind the only table in the room, Jie said weakly: "The new Huaxia colony is full of waste, and we still need everyone to work together to create brilliance. Well, I won't say much, who will give it to you now?" Let me tell you about the situation here. I’m new here and I don’t know anything, so who’s coming?”

Taoist Shou, Pei Suoning, Kyle and others looked at each other, and finally Taoist Shou cleared his throat and said, "Since we landed in the New China Colony on May 5 this year, we have completed many constructions so far. Including the construction of wharf facilities such as wooden trestle bridges and simple port dredging roads; 5 brick and tile buildings such as dormitories, warehouses, clinics, canteens, and bathhouses in Xinhuabao urban area; a logging camp and a small brick kiln have been built outside the urban area, and recently There are roughly so many coconut creek reservoir projects under construction."

After listening to Taoist Shou's introduction, Shi Qinjie closed his eyes and remained silent for a while, as if he was thinking about something.After a while, he opened his eyes, squeezed a smile on his face, and said, "You did a good job. I will truthfully report your achievements to the Executive Committee. Now tell me, have you encountered any difficulties?"

"There are indeed many difficulties." Taoist Shou came forward to answer this time, and saw that he opened a small book that he carried with him, and recorded some things with symbols that only he himself knew: "The main thing is personnel and materials. In terms of personnel, as of last night, 34 slaves, 3 supervisors and 1 soldier had died due to various reasons; Malaria, 20 slaves contracted dysentery, and 2 slaves disappeared; a total of 1 people lost their ability to work. As for materials, we have now built a small earthen kiln, which has initially solved the problem of brick supply. Next, we are going to look for opportunities to erect lime kilns and cement kilns, and strive to produce these two vital building materials as soon as possible. But first, there are not many people who know this industry here, and second, the manpower is also very surprising. Therefore, no action has been taken yet. Captain Shi, please see if you can report to your superiors and ask the technicians from the local side to support some building material factories to increase our technical strength."

"Give medicine to the sick army platoon leader! Are the three slaves suffering from dysentery quarantined?" Shi Qinjie asked, and he continued after getting a positive answer from Taoist Shou: "I will write to the native land The letter requests that some technicians from the building materials factory be dispatched over there. However, the long-distance water cannot quench the near-thirst. You still have to stand on your own, pick some clever slaves, teach them, and then you can relax. I also brought them here this time A lot of materials and manpower, um, 400 short-term trained slaves and 30 Eight Banners supervisors. The materials are mainly red bricks, cement, lime and grain. Of course, these building materials may not be needed in the future. This can give us Save a lot of valuable transport tonnage."

"Ah, by the way, I almost forgot!" As he spoke, Shi Qinjie seemed to suddenly recall something important, and he said solemnly: "There is one more important thing, you will send People went to the navy ship to take down a batch of saplings. Be careful, these saplings are very precious. We entrusted a lot of favors and spent a lot of money to get them from the Brazilians. There are more than 500 trees in total. The New China Colony has abundant precipitation, hot and humid climate, and slightly acidic brick-red soil, which is very suitable for the growth and reproduction of rubber trees. Pick me a place with high terrain and smooth drainage, and clean up all the miscellaneous trees there. Clean up, and then plant these rubber tree saplings. In the future, special personnel will be sent to maintain them every day, and I will not spare anyone if there is any problem."

"Understood." Taoist Shou and others nodded, expressing that they would take this matter seriously.

"Okay, I already have a preliminary understanding of the basic situation." Shi Qinjie said bluntly, "Next, I will go to each scene in person, Taoist Shou, come with me! Yes, hurry up!"

In the next two days, Shi Qinjie, the new official, accompanied by Taoist Shou, carefully inspected the main city, logging camp, brick kiln, coconut creek reservoir construction site, wharf and other places, and then went down surrounded by soldiers I paid condolences to more than 20 malaria patients in the clinic, and promised them some empty checks that may never be cashed.After a preliminary understanding of the current situation of the New China colony, Shi Qinjie gradually became clear about the blueprint for the construction and planning of this colony in his mind.

First and foremost is the Coconut Creek Reservoir Project.Taoist Shou and the others thought well before that the reservoir must be built before the rainy season, which is not only of great significance for flood control and flood discharge, but also of great significance for agricultural production.After carefully inspecting the nearby terrain and environment, Shi Qingjie, who came from the agricultural department, felt that a large rice planting area could be planned in this coastal plain.This rice planting area can rely on the irrigation network derived from the Coconut Creek Reservoir for irrigation. There is no problem in harvesting two rice crops a year, and some short-growing crops such as sweet potatoes and potatoes can be planted in between the two crops. In short, the agricultural potential Very huge.The only thing to worry about may be that these brick red soils are generally acidic soils, but this is not a big problem, and the soil can be improved with lime at that time.

Equally important as the Coconut Creek Reservoir Project is the construction of lime kilns and cement kilns.These two projects related to the development of the colony are of great importance, but fortunately there is no rush.Because there are huge stocks of cement and lime shipped in the previous two times, enough to be used here for a long time.Therefore, Shi Qinjie felt that he could dispatch most of his manpower to build the reservoir. As for the construction of cement kilns and lime kilns, he only needed a few dozen people, and there was no rush anyway.

Excluding these two critical projects, the subsequent urban construction can actually slow down a little bit.With the current strength of the New China colony (more than 80 musketeers, more than 50 armed supervisors, and more than 600 slightly loyal slaves), there is really no nearby force that can pose a threat to this side except for the Portuguese on the west side of the strait .As for the Arabs and Comorians in the Mahajanga area to the west, and the European pirates on St. Mary's Island in the southeast, they really don't have much combat power.After all, the more than 600 slaves in the New China Colony could also be armed at critical moments.These slaves were told in advance that they would be free in one year and would receive a large amount of property from the government, and then return to their hometown to reunite with their families, so they still had a certain degree of loyalty to the people on the east coast.

In addition, the construction of logging camps outside the city is even more dispensable. It is not the focus of short-term planning at all, and can only be used as a long-term planning.After the above-mentioned urgent projects are resolved in the New China Colony, how to develop the local abundant timber—especially hardwood resources—may be put on the agenda.There are many red sandalwood and rosewood in the local and southern mountainous areas, but they are precious hardwood resources. These trees are resistant to termites and corrosion, and can be used to make high-end furniture, musical instruments and shipbuilding.Although this kind of tree is not as suitable for building warships as Brazilian sumac and teak, it is no problem at all for building merchant ships, at least it is much stronger than the pine widely used by the Dutch.In view of the current shortage of domestic maritime transport capacity, we can vigorously develop local timber resources in the future to feed back the domestic shipbuilding industry.

In addition to the above, in Shi Qinjie's mind, in the future, Southeast Asian teak, lychee and other tree species with great economic value suitable for local growth will be introduced in this area; the southern mountainous area will also find ways to introduce Chinese tea trees; (Antsiranana Bay) should also vigorously develop the shrimp farming industry.If these plans can be gradually realized, then the hot land of the New China Colony will surely become one of the most fertile lands in the entire East China Republic.After all, the environment here is too unique, and the gift of nature to this place is too rich.

(End of this chapter)