Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 26 Aftermath

July 1632, 1.clear.

It is already the second day after the war, and a grand funeral is being held in the National Cemetery, where the remains of seven soldiers who died yesterday will be buried here.Today not only all the members of the executive committee are present, but also many soldiers or people who came spontaneously.

Soldiers came to see off their brothers who died in battle for the last time. Although they didn’t get along for a long time, after all, they went to battle and killed the enemy together, and they lived and died together. To see the soldiers who defended them for the last time.

Ye Yongxing and Pastor Francis reappeared. After a whole set of procedures were completed, all the members of the executive committee walked around the tomb, and then the funeral was officially over.

The enemy fleet pulled anchor last night, and they probably guessed what happened.The enemy has withdrawn, the threat has been lifted, and all life will return to the normal track. The first thing the Executive Committee must do is to fulfill the promise made before the war.

At present, the armed forces of the executive committee include: the first battalion of the new army, the first post of the independent field artillery, the fort artillery and 40 Cossack serfs, with a total number of more than 570 people.Except for about half of them are cross-border people, the rest are immigrants from various countries, mainly concentrated in the first and second batches of immigrants, mostly Swiss and Finns.

The executive committee made a statistics according to the roster. At this time, there are 290 soldiers (including 6 who died in battle) who need to be officially granted the status of freemen. In addition, the families of the 6 immigrant soldiers who died in battle can also be granted freeman status identity.In this way, a total of 297 people need to be granted free citizen status for the two items.

With the status of free citizens, they are no longer indentured slaves of the East Coast Company, and can receive a considerable amount of wages every month.Although some financial expenditures have been increased, the executive committee is now extremely rich in finances, and it doesn't care about this small amount of money anymore.

In addition, the monetary rewards cashed out before the battle must also be issued.The Ministry of Finance estimated that the amount of this money was as high as tens of thousands of rials due to the "random promises" made by some people before the war.However, in order to maintain the prestige of the time-traveling crowd, the executive committee decided to distribute the money in full.Moreover, since there were no clear regulations before the war, the property seized by soldiers on the battlefield is no longer mandatory to be handed over this time.As for the future, it is definitely not allowed to hide the loot privately, and the specific rules will be discussed after the rules and regulations are perfected.

In addition, the executive committee has long been troubled by the complicated gold and silver coins of Britain, France, Spain, and Venice.Taking advantage of this opportunity, Tang Yuan, the finance committee member, simply suggested to the Executive Committee to mint coins by himself.In fact, this is not the first time that the issue of minting coins has been mentioned. The cross-travelers have long since lost their appetite for the strangely shaped Spanish cross silver coins. Last year, the Ministry of Finance submitted an application, and even the style and design were made. The commission has a small stock of gold and silver coins on hand, so it has not considered self-minting coins.However, the stock of all kinds of gold and silver coins in Chuanzhong's hands has reached more than 170 million rials. It is time to mint currency by itself, and minting coins is also very profitable.

财政部推出的方案是铜币、银币和金币同时铸造，全套共7枚，采取十进制，即1元=10角，具体分为：1角、2角铜币；1元、2元、5元银币；50元、100元金币。当然，后两种金币在日常生活中基本不可能遇到。

In the middle of the front of the copper coin is the horizontal row of "one corner" or "two corners", and on the lower part along the arc edge are several small characters of "First Mint" and the year of casting; on the back is the pattern of "grassland, cattle" and an Arabic numeral "1" or "2", one dime copper coin weighs 39 grams, and the second dime weighs 78 grams.

The styles of silver coins and copper coins are similar.Taking one yuan as an example, the front is still the word "one yuan", the mint and the year of casting, but there are more patterns and patterns around it; the back is the pattern of waves, sailing boats and the Arabic numeral "1".The whole one-yuan silver coin is made of silver and copper alloy, weighs 30 grams, and contains 90% silver.By analogy, the 2 yuan silver coin weighs 60 grams, and the 5 yuan silver coin weighs 150 grams.

The last category is gold coins that are expected to be minted in small quantities.Cast from gold-silver alloy, the gold content is as high as 92%.The front is still similar to copper and silver coins, and the back is a panda bamboo pattern, and there are also Arabic numerals 50 or 100.Among them, the gold coin with a face value of 50 yuan weighs 94 grams, and the gold coin with a face value of 100 yuan weighs 188 grams.As for the ultra-small denomination currency such as "cent coins" that may be used in production and life, the Ministry of Finance decided to cast some simple copper, lead, and tin alloy small copper coins for daily use.

After the currency system is unified, the total value of all kinds of gold and silver coins in hand of the Executive Committee is about 20 yuan after conversion.

The location of the mint has been chosen, which is on the north bank of the Big Fish River, near the military camp.As for the molds and forging hammers used for casting, the iron and steel factory is responsible for solving them. This is not a complicated matter.As long as the equipment is in place, casting can start in these two days.

After solving the top priority, the next thing is about the army.

The enemy has receded, and it is inappropriate to maintain such a large army with the population currently controlled by the Executive Committee (1978 people).Therefore, a certain scale of demobilization is required.Moreover, population resources are still relatively tight in the executive committee nowadays, and all departments are complaining about the lack of manpower all day long. If your army keeps this big 500-strong guy, it will definitely be unreasonable.

As a result, it is imperative to reduce the number of troops, but it is still very particular about which units to reduce.No, despite the fact that Peng Zhicheng and Wang Qinian usually get along pretty well, but now that they are trying to see each other, the two of them don't care about any kindness, and they just have a meal in front of the rest of the executive committee. A spittle-ridden argument.

The core issue for the two is whether to reduce the number of fortresses or the number of the first battalion of the new army.Peng Zhicheng thought it was unacceptable that the total number of the navy's three fortresses was as many as 240, and proposed to reduce the number to 150; Wang Qinian strongly disagreed, saying that the current manpower to serve the three fortresses with a total of 32 cannons was a bit tight and not rich. personnel, and this is also to train artillery talents in advance for the future construction of warships.For this reason, he suggested that one of the three posts of the first battalion should be abolished, and the Cossack cavalry should also be abolished as a whole, and the number of the first post of the field artillery could be appropriately reduced.

The two had a heated argument over the issue, and neither seemed prepared to back down.In the end, he had no choice but Ma Ganzu came out to mediate, and both sides made some retreats.That is: the number of naval coastal defense artillery has been reduced by 75, and the remaining number is 165.The first post of the first battalion of the newly-built army will remain full, and the second post and the third post will each streamline two platoons; the first post of the independent field artillery will remain unchanged; as for the temporary cavalry unit, the establishment will naturally be cancelled, and only one reconnaissance corps will remain. , with 5 people and two horses, under the direct command of the first battalion headquarters.As a result, the army has reduced its personnel by 99, leaving 236 personnel. The navy and army have reduced their troops by a total of 174 personnel, leaving 401 personnel.

At the same time, as a supplementary measure, regular military drills for ordinary people have also been put on the agenda, which can be discussed and implemented only after the navy and army put forward specific plans.

The battle also captured 198 French, Dutch and English prisoners of war, including 68 French prisoners of war, 108 Dutch prisoners of war, and 22 English prisoners of war.These were prisoners who were intact and uninjured. As for the wounded soldiers, Internal Affairs Commissioner Jiao Tang had sent his policemen who had never seen blood to send them on their last journey.

These captives are now a considerable resource at the hands of the Executive Committee. No, the limestone mines want them, the cement kilns want them, the brick kilns want them, the construction teams want them, and even the farms want people to come. farming.Since it was too troublesome to disperse the guards, it was finally decided that all the captives would be sent to the limestone mine for mining, and the mine would allocate some manpower to other departments as appropriate.

With these external threats resolved, the Executive Committee can finally restart the economic construction that had been suspended for a while.

The first is the construction of Dingyuan Fort.Before the war, Dingyuan Fort had built a city wall and moat with a circumference of about 600 meters, and the factory facilities and living facilities in the city were also readily available.Before the war, the executive committee decided to reduce the manpower, and most of the personnel in Dingyuan Fort were withdrawn, leaving only a team of 30 people to guard.Now that the war is over, the fishing work in Dingyuan Fort must be resumed as soon as possible, and the fish processing factory must be started immediately.

Having experienced this war, the executive committee also realized the limitations of the current living and production areas.It's okay that the houses and factories are in the city, but the farmland, pastures, and water sources are all outside the city, and they are not very far from the coastline, so they are easily damaged by the enemy.

The group of Frenchmen and Dutchmen who came this time only had a few boats and more than 300 people. With their excellent equipment, they dared to go out of the city to fight with their backs.But next time if the Spaniards and Portuguese mobilize dozens of boats and thousands of people to overwhelm them, everyone will have to stay in the city and be a turtle.At this time, all enemies outside the city can wantonly destroy, burn farmland, rob livestock, and cut off water sources.

Therefore, the Executive Committee felt that it was not possible to put all eggs in one basket.Dingyuan Fort is more than ten kilometers away from the coastline, and there are rich fishery and salt resources nearby.The transportation is also quite convenient. It takes less than half a day to get there by boat, and if something happens, it can be rescued in time.Moreover, the people who traveled through have already carried out preliminary development and established a solid stronghold, which is the most ideal choice for sub-bases.

To sum up, the Executive Committee decided to carry out large-scale development near Dingyuan Fort. Not only must the original manpower be restored, but additional manpower must be deployed around Dingyuan Fort to build more reclamation sites.

Of course, the executive committee did not forget the Charuya attack that occurred half a year ago.Although these aborigines have not appeared near Dingyuan Fort for a long time, they must not be taken lightly.If the large-scale immigration and reclamation activities in the crossing people touched any of their sensitive nerves, and conflicts broke out again, causing casualties, it wouldn't be beautiful.

After much deliberation, I finally made up my mind to transfer the battalion headquarters, the second post and the third post of the new army's first battalion to Dingyuan Fort as a whole, and carry out a public security campaign in the area north and east of Dingyuan Fort. Create conditions for future resettlement settlements.This operation is limited to one month and completed before March 1632, 3, with the goal of destroying or driving away the Charuya tribe.

On February 1632, 2, the newly formed Dingyuan Fort Bandit Suppression Detachment set off by boat in the morning light.

(End of this chapter)