Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 259 Antsiranana (VIII)

After sorting out the development ideas, Shi Qinjie began to fully control the development process of the young land of New China.First of all, he counted the slaves on hand, and there were 639 slaves in total.Among these people, about 500 people were transferred to the construction site of the Coconut Creek Reservoir to dig river channels and build reservoirs; 50 people were transferred to the brick kiln factory to start slowly building lime kilns; 50 people were responsible for transporting bricks to various construction sites Building materials such as tiles and cement; the remaining 39 people stayed in the main urban area, some of them were responsible for logistics work, and the rest were slowly building some brick and tile houses.

As for the 55 supervisors of the Eight Banners and some soldiers of the 101st Company of the Army, they were assigned to various construction sites to monitor and protect these slave workers.

Days passed like this, and with sufficient nutritional supplements and reasonable labor intensity, the slaves were not knocked down by anything other than disease.By the end of October 1640, a total of only 10 people died of falciparum malaria, and another 39 people were recuperating from illness; in addition to malaria, 33 people died of dysentery and 8 people died of severe cold. Fortunately, the isolation was timely. These two infectious diseases failed to become popular in the Xinhuabao area.However, in the mining and construction industries, which suffered heavy casualties in the past, miraculously none of the slaves died.

In addition to the slaves, 2 overseers died of malaria, and 1 soldier was bitten by a poisonous snake, but there were no other casualties.Overall, the death rate is less than 17%, which seems to be within an acceptable range.However, it is worth noting that the death rate of the first batch of 381 people who landed more than five months ago has reached a staggering 23%, and if the slaves are counted alone, the death rate is close to 30%.From this, it is conceivable that less than half of the first batch of 300 slaves who will complete their service in May next year may be able to return to South Africa alive.

It can be said that every step of development and every achievement of the New China Colony is based on the bones of the Eight Banners slaves who paid a huge price for the development of this wild tropical land.

Thanks to the hard work of the slaves, the project of the Coconut Creek Reservoir, which is crucial to the Fort Xinhua area, was finally basically completed before the rainy season came.The reservoir is about 200 meters long, 15 meters wide, and has an average depth of about 30 meters. The actual water storage capacity is more than [-] cubic meters, which can complete the task of irrigating [-] mu of rice fields in the dry season.Of course, in the actual process, the upper reaches of the reservoir will continue to be replenished with river water. Coupled with the average monthly rainfall of [-]-[-] mm in the dry season, basically irrigating [-] to [-] mu of rice fields is not a big problem.

The important parts of the dam of the Yeshuxi Reservoir are all made of stone and red bricks, which are relatively strong. A wooden sluice is even installed downstream to control the water level of the reservoir.Many trees were also transplanted on the bank of the reservoir to reduce soil erosion and prevent silting of the sluice gate.

After mobilizing most of the manpower to repair the Coconut Creek Reservoir, other projects will inevitably be affected.For example, the construction of the lime kiln has just entered the final stage, and it is estimated that it will take a few days to be basically completed, while the cement kiln has no shadow at all.

The construction progress in the main urban area is not very good. At present, there are more than 30 brick and tile houses.Among them are two large auditoriums and collective dormitories, which are used for accommodation for the slaves. So far, they have finally got rid of the simple and damp shacks and moved into new houses.On the periphery of all these buildings, the slaves also set up a wooden fence with a circumference of several hundred meters, which was used as a defense facility for the entire city.As for the official brick wall, it has only just started, and it has only been repaired for tens of meters, and it is still far from completion.Maybe when the rainy season comes, these slaves have to be rushed to repair the city wall as soon as possible.

Scattered light rain fell in the sky, and Shi Qinjie walked around the city under an oilcloth umbrella, followed by several army soldiers headed by Taoist Shou.Shi Qinjie enjoyed this feeling very much, as if he was inspecting his own territory, especially this territory was originally an uninhabitable wild land, but now there is already a prototype of a city, which can initially supply thousands of people. people live.In this contrast, as a creator, his sense of accomplishment will be particularly strong.

The few people walked to the logging camp in the west of the city.There are stacks of precious woods such as black rosewood, red sandalwood (red iron pigeonpea), and ebony piled up under the huge canopy in the camp. From a distance, Shi Qinjie may have hundreds of trees.These trees are dense, hard, corrosion-resistant, and insect-resistant. They are extremely rare and valuable woods in later generations, and are widely used in high-end furniture, musical instruments, tools, shipbuilding and other fields.

But in the new Chinese colony at the moment, these precious trees are very common. As long as you have enough manpower, there are mountains and plains everywhere, and you can cut them down.With these trees, the cost of the local shipbuilding industry will plummet, because you no longer need to spend money on expensive ship materials, all you need to pay is some shipping costs and slave living expenses.

"When the transport fleet comes over at the end of the month, let them transport these trees back to South Africa, and then find a way to transport them back to the mainland to dry or dry them. Those guys at the shipyard will probably be crazy when they see these trees, although I don’t know if these woods are suitable for building warships, but it’s probably not a big problem to use them to build merchant ships. Hehe, it’s really luxurious to use red sandalwood to build ships.” Shi Qinjie looked at these woods and said with a smile: "With these timbers, I will be more confident when I ask for people and things from the country. Well, the next step is to send more people to the logging camp, Kyle, you must do this. OK."

"Captain..." Kyle said with embarrassment, "I was just about to report something to you. I think we might be in trouble."

"Huh? How do you say it?" Shi Qinjie was startled and asked hastily. The word "trouble" usually means serious events such as "trade friction" and "border war" in the context of the East Coast. It is not a pleasant thing to hear this word at this time.

"That's right." Sergeant Kyle explained, "The logging team lost three more slaves this morning."

"What's the reason?" Shi Qinjie asked solemnly.If he remembered correctly, this disappearance was the second time that slaves disappeared in the New China colony.The last time, in July, was when four slaves disappeared near what is now a small brick kiln.After the disappearance, Daoist Shou thought that these people might have escaped, so he didn't pay much attention to it. Who knows that this kind of incident happened again now.

"I'm not sure yet." Kyle said, "But I tend to think that they were attacked by barbarians and were killed or kidnapped. Because we found a pool of blood at the scene, and these things— — a few iron arrowheads."

Shi Qinjie took the arrowhead from Kyle's hand and looked at it carefully. It seemed that the arrowhead was made of pig iron. The craftsmanship was relatively rough, but it was polished very sharply. It can be seen that the user already has a certain amount of smelting and processing iron tools. s level.

"Logging has been suspended for the past few days, and all personnel have withdrawn into the city to help the construction team repair the city wall. First, we should stay the same and observe carefully to see who is targeting us." Shi Qinjie thought for a while Then he ordered.Now that the power of the New China colony is limited, it is impossible to conduct a careful sorting out of this place.Besides, there are large stretches of primeval forest in this area, and there are mountains blocking it, so it is not so easy to find someone hiding in it.Therefore, at this time, we can only shrink the front line in order to concentrate limited forces and try to avoid such incidents from happening again.

"Also, tell the slaves about this matter. Be careful when asking them to work in the field, and try not to act alone at ordinary times, and call the police immediately when encountering any situation." Shi Qinjie continued to order.

"This...letting the slaves know about this will cause them to panic? That would be very troublesome." Sergeant Kyle hesitated.

"Tell them." Shi Qinjie said without doubt, "The situation here is special. If there are any enemies to attack, we still have to rely on them to fight with us. They have the right to know the truth. Of course, let me tell you the details. You can think about it again, try to be more tactful, and at the same time do a good job of psychological counseling, so as not to cause them too much panic."

Although Sergeant Kyle slandered Shi Qinjie, he didn't trust those honest slaves at all, but who called them "nobles" and the highest officials here? Although he was reluctant, he could only obey at this moment ordered.

After another round in the logging camp, Shi Qinjie rushed back to the city under an umbrella.After knowing that someone had malicious intentions towards Xinhua Fort, Shi Qinjie began to feel a sense of urgency in his heart. He faintly felt that perhaps the peaceful years of Xinhua Fort that lasted for several months were about to come to an end.

"Speed ​​up the progress of the construction of the city wall." Shi Qinjie opened the umbrella on the ground, went to look at the node diagram hanging on the wall, and then said: "After the completion of the Coconut Creek Reservoir project, the sword hanging above our heads has finally It has fallen, and now we don’t have any other big projects. Well, it’s just right, tomorrow we will transfer 400…no, 500 people to repair the city wall, and repair it in sections! We must speed up! I don’t care if it rains or not, even if I use a knife. I have to repair the city wall. Alright, Daoist Shou, give me orders now."

Taoist Shou saluted, and then went out to make arrangements.He first had to find someone to build some awnings on the city wall construction site. Although the main workers were slaves, their working environment should not be too bad. After all, they were also an important "property" of the Xinhua colony today.

(End of this chapter)