Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 887 On the Bank of the Wujiang River ([-])

In the middle and late October, the Wujiang River Basin has fully warmed up. Waiting for another month will be the last chance for many areas on the east bank that missed the autumn sowing—spring sowing.However, the newly established settlements Fuguobao (later Paisandu, Uruguay, named after the first residents came from Fuguo Town, Shandong Province) and Yuer Township (Casablanca, the first residents came from Yuer Town, Shandong Province) were newly established on the banks of the Wujiang River. , Qingcun Township (Constancia, the first batch of residents came from the soldiers and their families in Qingcun Nakaqian, Songjiang Prefecture, captured by the naval landing force), and other places, this year's spring sowing is doomed to be delayed.

The reason is also very simple. Their settlement has only been established for two or three months, the land has not been cleared, and none of the houses—well, there may be a few temporary adobe houses—can be built in the spring sowing. It is almost impossible to complete all the preparatory work in advance.Therefore, the most realistic job for them is to wait for the fields to be cleared, and then replant a crop of short-growing potatoes in order to harvest more or less food.

However, between clearing the fields, these mud-legged people who came all the way from Daming had to accept the militia military training arranged by the Wujiang District Police Command.This is an obligation that every adult man on the east coast must accept. It has been established at the beginning of the founding of the country, and there is basically no possibility of avoiding the past—even the descendants of the crossing people must receive regular military training. At this point, The government treats almost everyone equally, because this is the foundation of the East Coast Republic and cannot be violated.

To be honest, the military training of the militia is still very formal, at least the number of live ammunition shootings is very frequent, not to mention the discipline-building training. The crackling of the whips in the hands of the officers made everyone frightened.In fact, in this era of Europe, the concept of a standing army has just emerged, and its scale is also very small. Didn’t you see that various countries recruited a large number of mercenaries to fight in the Thirty Years War?Therefore, this makes European soldiers often receive sufficient or insufficient military training before the battle, and the intensity and frequency cannot be compared with the East Coasters who spared no expense.

In other words, in terms of training intensity and frequency alone, the militiamen on the east coast actually surpassed most European armies, and their live ammunition training was comparable to those of the standing army (the standing army in Europe also rarely trains in peacetime).Once the war starts, the people on the east coast will definitely be able to mobilize a number of combatants who are astonishing to the Europeans and have a fairly good level of discipline and training. The number of hostile forces that come is powerless, not to mention that they have sufficient logistics, forts all over the country, and cavalry all over the mountains and plains.

The immigrants from the Ming Dynasty were conducting military training, so the clearing of the land and the construction of infrastructure could only rely on a large number of Hejian slaves bought from the opposite side and some European immigrants.Leaving aside the river slaves—they were bought slaves—those European immigrants are generally the “masterpieces” of labor brokers Valentino and Mendes who work closely with people on the east coast.

These two people have been in the immigration business for seven or eight years, and now their capital is getting stronger and stronger, and their relationship networks in the old continent and the new continent are also becoming more and more stable.Therefore, the number of their immigrants is also increasing - mostly from Italy and Scotland.Among them, Valentino set up a number of immigration collection points in central Italy, specifically collecting beggars, bankrupts, starving people in overpopulated Italian regions, and people who could not survive because of too many brothers and sisters at home; In addition to searching in his own country, he also used his unique network to go to Scotland, fooling those miserable Scots to work for people on the east coast-the Scottish population is also overpopulated in this era, you are everywhere in the streets and alleys of the Netherlands You can see Scottish hired laborers working part-time.

Together, these two people can bring about 2000-3000 migrant workers from Italy and Scotland to the East Coast Republic every year, and they have strongly supported various domestic constructions on the East Coast.They and these so-called laborers basically have a love-to-will relationship, that is, the brokers who get them transfer their ownership to the East Coast government for the next few years, and they need to work for the East Coast government (they can Receive some meager salaries) until the immigration fees owed are paid off.This kind of repayment relationship basically does not have the possibility of reneging on debts, and the cooperation between the two parties can be said to be extremely fair.

The number of white laborers brought by labor brokers, black laborers sent by South Africa, Indian slaves brought by the people on the east coast, and Polish prisoners of war bought by the east coast government may not be as large as already There are 8 to [-] people (these people are currently "non-nationals" and are not included in the total population).These laborers and indentured slaves who are active in various places on the east bank use their almost unpaid labor (their wages are extremely low, some of them have no wages at all) and semi-serf living conditions to support the republic of the east bank. The crazy infrastructure construction carried out across the country has greatly reduced the social and economic operating costs of the East Coast, which can be described as outstanding.

Of course, they are not without hope. Black laborers are generally tribal people conquered by the Black Banners. After working on the east coast for 3-5 years, they are immediately granted legal status as Banners when they return to South Africa. Cattle and sheep were given, and they have since become "noble" bannermen; the future of the Indians lies in South Africa, New China and the Australian colonies. They also died after several years of heavy physical work—due to intolerance to heavy work. If the rate is more than 3%, they can be granted the status of a colony on the east coast, and then go to overseas colonies to open up wasteland and divide land; white laborers and Polish prisoners of war are treated similarly, and they also need to work for several years before they can be free The terms in the "Household Law" apply for the status of nationals of the East Coast Republic of China for themselves.The only difference between them is that those Italian and Scottish laborers usually only need to work for 5-5 years to pay off their debts, and usually have a higher degree of freedom, while the Poles are basically treated as prisoners of war, with limited freedom. And it generally takes 7-[-] years of work to be free.

In addition to these laborers, there is also a special group in the east coast, namely free immigrants.They generally come from the Livonian region and are inextricably related to the Livonians, the largest white group on the east coast. For example, some Livonians in Riga often receive the Then these people used the money they received, called friends and friends to scrape together enough to hire a sea ship (usually a ship of the Hanseatic League), and then went to the east coast by themselves to make a living.

It is worth noting that these people are generally family-led. After arriving in the east coast, they can apply for official citizenship as long as they can learn Chinese for daily conversation, and their naturalization applications are generally approved by the higher authorities.Therefore, on the east coast, Livonians actually have a profound sense of superiority over those white Europeans from other places.Although despised as barbarians in Europe and discriminated against for not believing in Christianity, in the eyes of people on the east coast, the latter is a very valuable "advantage" because it means extremely low assimilation costs.

I don’t know if it’s because of historical reasons or something. Livonia has always had more women than men. Therefore, among the Livonians who came to the east coast, the number of women also exceeds that of men. This is very strange in the history of immigration in various countries. .But it’s not surprising when you think about it. The commercial station of the East Coast Republic of China in Riga has funded some Livonian women to go to the east coast all the year round, and the Taoist church has been doing this kind of thing. The root cause of Asian women going to the east coast.

The treatment of free immigrants is naturally very different from that of indentured slaves and laborers. After all, they basically did not occupy the resources of the east coast government—whether it is money or transportation capacity—but they chartered their own boats here, so they started from the beginning. When working for people on the east coast, they can receive wages that are not inferior to those of ordinary citizens on the east coast (generally 80% of the wages), so they accumulate property at a very fast rate, and often after their nationality is approved, they can already collect money. Part of the cost of buying houses and land is paid, and the road of life is much smoother than those of the Poles, Italians, and Scots.

However, in terms of numbers, these free Livonian immigrants only accounted for a very small proportion of the foreign laborers, and most of the laborers still received low wages or even no wages.Although these people’s living conditions are higher than those of the old continent (the construction bureaus under the Ministry of Communications will provide sufficient supply of grains, protein and fat), but their work is extremely heavy (mostly heavy physical work on the construction site), and they are hated by the locals on the east coast ——Because their low wages indirectly hinder the wage growth of ordinary East Coasters.

But fortunately, many so-called "natives" on the east coast were actually poor people who were not well-known a few years ago. Not a big deal.Among the nearly 20 foreign laborers working in Fuguobao and other places, only about [-]% are free Livonian immigrants. Therefore, the State Development Bureau only needs to pay a small fee to drive these people to work quickly. Get busy, and the efficiency is not low-the supervision of the police and militia of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not vegetarian.

After all, the "Ming Masters" (as some East Coast officials jokingly called it) were going to conduct militia military training, so hard work such as construction could only be troubled by these foreign laborers.Anyway, as long as they worked hard for a few years, they would be able to enjoy the official status of nationals on the east coast.As for the unequal treatment between the two parties, it can only be blamed that this place is not ruled by God, but a pagan country where most of the men are yellow, so accept your fate!

(End of this chapter)