Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 902 Labor Workers ([-])

"Open the sickle!" Following the order of a middle-aged veteran with a missing arm, hundreds of men in blue denim immediately rushed into the ground at a speed of sprinting [-] meters, and then bent down , Harvesting the wheat in the field with a fast-worn sickle.And not far from them, more than a dozen horse-drawn wheat harvesters are slowly passing through the wheat field, cutting down bundles of wheat, threshing, and bagging, and then the conveyor belt "spits out" the messy straw , the farmers following the machine cheerfully bundled up the straw—these are indispensable fuels for cooking in earthen stoves.

"How many laborers do you use here?" Wei Jianzhang, Chief of the Fourth Unit of the Statistics Section of the Syphilis Patient Statistics and Investigation Bureau, was wearing a black uniform and holding a small notebook in his hand. The village chief who was beside him asked.

The mayor of the village is also a veteran from Livonia. Hearing the words of the well-known head of the Meiguan Wei, he suddenly felt his chrysanthemum tighten, and blurted out: "There are a total of 654 people here, all of them are men, aged 15 or more. - Between the ages of 43 and their native places are all Ukrainian emirates. They were assigned by the immigration department. Minister Zhao of the Township Armed Forces Department conducted a one-month training for them, and all unqualified ones will be dismissed. At present, they have basically mastered More than ten daily Chinese dialogues, coupled with the intermediary contact and communication of some Cossack-born cadres, are handy to use..."

Wei Jianzhang nodded upon hearing this.He is quite clear about the roots of these migrant workers from Ukraine, because his colleagues screened these people at the beginning to ensure that there were no anti-East Coast elements or spies mixed in.In fact, they were a little overwhelmed. These people were basically poor people who were abandoned and betrayed by Khmelnytsky. There were no spies at all. Not on the anti-East Coast anymore.

Last year, as Khmelnytsky sought to reconcile with Poland, opposition to it in Ukraine grew louder, because the basis for Khmelnytsky's reconciliation with the Poles was not to continue to deprive Poland of landowners (including Polonized Ukrainians) and restore social order.As for the property of Polish landlords, this question is very complicated, but serfs are undoubtedly a very important part of it, and this means that a large number of serfs who followed the Khmelnytsky uprising and the Polish army fought to the death They lost their freedom again, and they will be forced to continue working as serfs in the Polish lord's manor, and the fate is self-evident.

The Cossacks didn't understand that they risked their lives and fought bravely. They defeated the well-equipped Polish royal army several times in Kersun, on the banks of the Yellow River, and in Pilyavci. Countless serfs paid the price with their lives for this. The result is such an end?So they were angry, they refused to disarm, and they began to question the upstarts headed by Khmelnytsky, which naturally caused one after another turmoil in the new Ukrainian emirate, and with the help of some foreign forces, this kind of The turmoil gradually began to expand, and finally Khmelnytsky made up his mind to suppress it.

However, Khmelnytsky's suppression was unsuccessful from the very beginning, because the so-called "Ukrainian army" in his hands and these angry serfs were originally comrades-in-arms, so it was difficult to get rid of them.Even some of the troops who rushed to suppress were blushing and speechless when facing the questioning and insulting of the serfs, and turned around and left. All this made Khmelnytsky feel the difficulty of the problem, Not human inside and out, he made a bold decision to sell these "rebels" who he had originally decided to hang to people from the east coast who had business contacts with him.

He has always heard that the New World country on the east coast has been carrying out various pioneering and construction activities all year round, and has a huge demand for slaves. If it were any other country or region, such a large number of slaves might not be able to handle it.What's more, selling these people to the east bank can also exchange a batch of urgently needed supplies for the newborn Cossack emirate, which is especially important for them to deal with threats from Poland, Moscow, Ottoman and other directions.

Of course, the special envoy of the people on the east coast, Made, would not reject the proposal sent by the Ukrainians, so they quickly signed an agreement, that is, the Ukrainians sent thousands of Cossacks and rebel serfs who should have been executed—perhaps only the first batch— —Sell it to people from the East Bank at an ultra-low price of 40 yuan per person (worth only a dozen pieces of cotton cloth). Spirits, tools and other supplies were sold to them at a discount.The two sides bartered, exchanged on an equal footing, and each got what he needed.

At this time, the hundreds of indentured laborers busy in front of Wei Jianzhang are the bought Cossacks. All of them have signed a five-year labor employment contract. During this period, each of them can receive one yuan and fifty cents per month. The money stipend, as well as room and board are included, so the treatment is quite good.These Cossacks did not know that they should have been executed in history, but they knew that they would not end well if they stayed in Ukraine, so they did not have a strong psychological resistance to coming to the east bank to work, except occasionally Homesick, everything is fine here.

"Last year, I bought a total of more than 3000 Cossacks, and one-fifth was distributed to you. This fully demonstrates the superior's trust in your Mucaoling Township." Wei Jianzhang casually talked to the village head, but in his mind Thinking about a more serious problem in his opinion, that is, the trade between the east coast government and Europe has become more and more unbalanced over the years: the ships that went to Europe for trade in the early years brought back a lot of livestock, ores, and handmade products, but With the prevalence of frontier trade in the Gerard Mountains and the prevalence of Peruvian smuggling, trade ships on the east coast now bring back more slaves and livestock from Europe—these two account for at least two-thirds.

Think about it, last year the Nanhai Transportation Company returned from Europe with more than 40 ships, with a total tonnage of about 2.7 tons. Except for a few metals, livestock, and handicrafts, most of them were livestock and slaves. The number of slaves is not stable, but there are still an average of [-] to [-] per year, and the number of male slaves (usually prisoners of war) is four to five thousand. It can be said that half of the tonnage returned is used to pull people, and It's so weird.

Most of the male slaves were dispatched to New China Island to open up wasteland. The mortality rate of pioneering in the tropical wilderness was undoubtedly extremely high. Even though the people on the east coast introduced various protective measures, the level of disease treatment was higher than that in Europe at this time , but the average annual death rate of the pioneers of more than 15% is still unacceptable.Since the number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty is precious, these white slaves can only be used to fill the hole. As long as these white people survive the working period on the labor employment contract, the people on the east coast will not treat them badly. The land and house allocation are all intended, and they will be their own people in the future.

However, Wei Jianzhang, who was born in an intelligence agency, also faintly felt a little worry at this time, that is, will the influx of a large number of Europeans have a certain impact on domestic security and counter-espionage?This is not alarmist talk. Wei Jianzhang once read the information. When his father (Wei Boqiu) was in charge of the Mei Agency, the East Coast Republic imported thousands of people from France every year, and the immigration action was once huge.But after it was discovered that there were a large number of French and even Dutch spies among these people, the East Coast government resolutely stopped this dangerous move, and the immigration of whites was also terminated for a time.Later, although it was forced to reopen again, in principle, immigrants from England, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and other regions were no longer allowed to enter. Instead, Livonians without religious beliefs were the main ones. With only two to 3000 people, the anti-espionage situation has improved rapidly. There has not been a single spy case for many years.

However, after the second session of the executive committee came to power, these elders who healed their scars and forgot about the pain immediately threw their predecessors' policies into the sky. Valentino, Mendes and other powerful labor brokers came from Italy, Scotland A large number of poor workers have been brought to the people on the east bank to help the increasingly large-scale infrastructure construction in the east bank.Among these people, the proportion of spies is hard to say. Anyway, over the years, the Mei Agency has arrested more than a dozen spies, and there are as many as 80 to [-] laborers suspected of being spies who have been transferred to work in the colonies. , can be described as shocking.

Now that these Ukrainians have arrived, are there any spies hidden in them?Wei Jianzhang has no way of knowing, but he feels that he should not take it lightly. Everyone must be strictly investigated and everyone must pass the customs. Otherwise, they will all be sent to work in the colonies. There will be no valuables there. I believe the spies will be very disappointed. of.

"These laborers are now grouped separately. We must pay close attention to their contact with the outside world. Once we find out, we will immediately report it to the Mei agency offices in various places in secret. We will send people to investigate." Wei Jianzhang finally turned to Mu Caoling beside him. The head of the township said, "Although these people are from Ukraine, it is extremely unlikely that they are spies, but they must be guarded against. In addition, are the gauchos recruited to guard them reliable?"

"It's pretty reliable. We've checked all of them. We don't want any Gauchos with dirty hands, feet, innocence, or bad habits." The head of the township said immediately, "These Gauchos are willing to be employed by our country. I heard that now Only one person will be admitted out of three or five applicants. Haha, the quality of those who can be admitted is not bad. Generally speaking, it is relatively safe for them to guard these migrant workers, but I heard that the superiors prefer to use them. Black people came to work as foremen to guard them, because those black people are relatively more reliable, in fact, I think this is also the case, and it is estimated that labor foremen all over the country will gradually be replaced by Xhosa black people..."

(End of this chapter)