Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 905 Labor Workers ([-])

"Congratulations, from now on, you are the official citizens of the East Coast Republic of China." Outside Linxi Fort, the village chief who was a veteran of the army gave his identity certificates to more than a hundred Italian contract slaves standing in front of him one by one. work.Their labor contracts have expired before, and they have worked in the east coast for 5-7 years, and they quickly applied for citizenship. This time, Linxi Fort simply held a collective naturalization ceremony for them, and It was officially announced that they were now residents of Linxi Township, Tieling County, Northwest Reclamation Bureau of the East Coast Republic of China.

Speaking of Tieling County, it was just established with the approval of the Government Affairs Council. It has jurisdiction over Tieling Town (the seat of the county government), Majiawan Township, Jinshui Township, Daoye Township and Linxi Township. There are a total of more than [-] people in one town and four townships. Population, this is not a small county in the East China Republic, not to mention there are Tieling Special Steel Factory, Western Forging Factory, No. [-] Heavy Machinery Factory, Tieling Mining Bureau (manganese ore, iron ore, coal mine, gold mine) It can be called the second industrial center on the east coast, and its importance cannot be overstated.

In order to support the development of Tieling County, the Government Affairs Council has ordered that more than a thousand migrant workers whose contracts have expired one after another (originally aided in the construction of various infrastructures in Tieling Town) will settle in Tieling, and later they will be transferred from Xinhua A group of Betsy Misaraka women (about five or six hundred) transported from the island were assigned to these Italians, and this is the first time after many years that the mainland of the East Coast once again lifted the ban on Malay women in New China. The next time is It's hard to say when.

This batch of more than a hundred Italian laborers have also worked on the east coast for many years. Now the language and clothing are no different from the locals. There may be some differences in living habits and cultural cognition, but this is all It's not a big problem anymore. The executive committee didn't even think about assimilating them. What they fought for was more of the second generation.

But after all, they live in the East China Republic, where the proportion of Ming people is as high as 44%, and the proportion of mixed-race descendants is as high as 18.2%. People—so they inevitably, consciously or unconsciously change their living habits and gradually lose their cultural characteristics.Just like the Germans who immigrated from the Cape Town colony in South Africa, those bitter Germans are actually not much less than the Low German-speaking Dutch in terms of number, but after intermarrying with the Dutch, they and their The living habits and cultural characteristics of the descendants are consistent with the Dutch, until most of them are finally Dutch.

Immigrants on the east coast also have this trend. Their living habits are gradually moving closer to the Ming people. For example, they eat "Oriental bread" (steamed buns) - it is quite difficult to find a bakery on the east coast. Perhaps only in Dongfang County, Ping'an County, and Qingdao County, there are only one or two such oriental foods such as noodles and rice, as well as some foods of later generations advocated by the people who travel through; Ming people mainly wear clothing, sometimes there are some strange mix-and-match styles of clothing; the language is the standard East Coast language (Mandarin) marked by Roman phonetic symbols learned in night school, and other living customs.

The ubiquitous social atmosphere is quietly stripping away their own cultural characteristics, forcing them to develop new living habits, and subtly influencing their way of thinking and life philosophy. This is the essence of assimilation.Of course, any assimilation is mutual, and the fierce collision between Eastern and Western cultures (although Eastern culture has always been the main one) has also changed some concepts of many Eastern immigrants, such as the perspective and way of thinking about problems.

Even, some time-travelers have been infected by these cultures, and have new revisions to their three views-this is from some domestic articles in the East Bank, such as "East Bank Review", "Minsheng", "Modern East Bank" and so on. You can see the wind direction in mainstream magazines.In these magazines whose main contributors are Transit, almost every issue has debates about new culture, new thinking, new understanding, and new perspectives.The sparks of these ideas are gradually formed in the constant collision, and over time, they will surely form the unique values ​​and cultural outlook of the East Bank-this is one of the core elements of a new nation.

These Italian laborers in front of us have lived on the east coast for many years, and their original free and undisciplined habits have been greatly improved. In the brick kiln factory, people have gradually become accustomed to strict labor discipline and iron-like management system.To put it simply, these 5-7 years of working life have given them a deep memory, and the so-called high-pressure society they live in will continue to teach them how to be a qualified East Coaster, which will become their future. And the conspicuous cultural imprint on the descendants, once you go out, others will know that you are from the East Coast!

"I hope that you will remember your oath under the national flag in the future, never forget your obligations, always safeguard the interests of the motherland, and always..." Speaking of this, the old rough township chief (a retired veteran) who had just taken office for a few days suddenly realized I forgot my words, so I could only end the long speech I was about to start in embarrassment, and turned to the topic, talking to them about future work.

"In view of the fact that the fourth phase of the Northwest Railway has not yet been completely completed, this time, according to the old rules, only half of the 119 new nationals naturalized in Linxi Township will be transferred to agricultural household registration, and the remaining half will be transferred to other jobs. Go to the State Railway Administration, become a regular employee of the unit, and continue to fight on the front line of Northwest Railway construction. Well, you already knew these things a few months ago. I told you at that time that the people with the highest scores during work have The right to choose first. Now we start to roll the names from high to low, and those who are named can make a choice quickly, so don't waste everyone's time..."

Regarding the choice of future career, to be honest, for these newly naturalized laborers, there is actually nothing to hesitate.They are basically farmers, and occasionally there are a few bankrupt businessmen (skilled handicraftsmen have long been singled out to be granted official national status), so most of the top [-] or so, no surprise, chose to settle on the spot Lin Xixiang, a farmer.Only a few people, for some reason, are still willing to work as construction workers in the General Administration of Railways—the work of the official construction workers of the General Administration of Railways is still very light, and the income is quite good, which is probably the main reason to attract these people where.

The first half of the people have been selected, and the rest of them naturally have nothing to choose. They can only pack their bags honestly and become railway workers-currently they are construction workers. After the railway construction is completed, they may still accept All kinds of training, transfer to railway operation staff.Compared with farmers, the salary income of railway workers is a bit higher to be honest, and the tax burden is also lighter. It stands to reason that it is an ideal occupation.But who made everyone from bumpkins feel uneasy if they don't have any land at hand?Therefore, the status of farmers who can legally own [-] mu of land naturally attracts them. On this point, people of all kinds, from ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, are really no exception.

At present, the fourth phase of the Northwest Railway (from Tieling Town to the large port section, with a total length of more than 220 kilometers, and the terrain is mostly flat grassland) has been under construction for more than a year. , now Linxi Township Station has been repaired and continues to extend westward tenaciously for more than [-] kilometers.It's a pity that most of the construction workers on the east coast are currently engaged in other projects, and the number of railway construction workers has been greatly reduced, not to mention that a considerable number of railway construction workers have gone south by boat to support the construction of the Southern Cone and Ocean Railway. Further slowing down the construction progress of the fourth phase of the Northwest Railway, there is really a shortage of people!

Ma Jia even wrote Tangyuan, the commissioner of the Wujiang area, asking him to organize manpower there. After the initial improvement of the Daxing Port Wharf, a large amount of construction machinery, labor tools, and construction materials were immediately transported, and then he started leveling the foundation and laying rails. , to repair the railway from Daxing Port to Tieling Town, so that the Northwest Railway can get out of the sea as soon as possible (Daxing Port on the bank of the Wujiang River can be directly connected to sea ships) and increase the overall value of the railway.

He couldn't get Tangyuan around, and he himself wanted to develop Daxing Port in the area under his jurisdiction, so he pushed the boat along the way and agreed to Vest's request, and then invited Vest with him from time to time, and went to the central government to ask for funds, The need for materials and personnel is a headache for the big bosses in the central government, and they are almost avoiding these two "veteran cadres", which is really embarrassing.

It can also be seen from this that the builders of the East Coast Republic of China were too eager for success. No regime in ancient and modern history would have required such a large-scale and high-standard infrastructure construction to be completed in just a few years. Not to mention that there are many projects that are quite cutting-edge in this era-such as urban sewage treatment, such as railways, such as urban water supply facilities, such as high-grade roads, such as modern docks, and so on.If you want to complete these infrastructure projects in various settlements across the country as soon as possible, without squeezing every bit of potential in this country, how can you complete it like this?

Of course, if you want to build slowly and leisurely, that's another matter.Look at the Spaniards, after decades, an important town like Potosí is still dilapidated and dilapidated; look at the British colony in New England, the cities are extremely shabby, and the farmers are like garbage pickers ;Look at the Dutch colonies in the East Indies, the dirty city streets, how many germs have been bred, and how many lives have been taken away...

Of course, the people on the east coast will not allow their own urban construction to be so slow and backward!How could the people who traveled through the modern cities of the later generations bear to live in the backward cities of the Middle Ages for a long time?And how can one bear the delay in returning to a more modern way of life?Therefore, it is no wonder that the people on the East Bank are so keen on large-scale construction projects, and this enthusiasm for construction is also forced out.

(End of this chapter)