Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 913 Indian Destroyer ([-])

"Man has 65 diseases in common with dogs; 50 in common with cattle; 46 in common with sheep and goats; 42 in common with pigs; 35 in common with horses; 26 in common with poultry. Kind of..." Standing on a drying yard in front of the township government in Shenwu Township (near the small village of Mariana Mentel in later generations), Guo Puxia, a second-generation gendarmerie sergeant wearing a thick mask, looks at the The several Guarani corpses in front of him waved their hands in disgust, signaling his subordinates to pull them out and bury them deeply.

His father, who works in the medical department, often chanted words in his mind. Although he couldn't figure out what diseases were shared by humans and these livestock, it didn't prevent him from understanding many things, such as of this scene.

In fact, the few Guarani people in their prime of life in front of them did not die from the hunting and killing of the people on the east coast, but from an unknown disease.These Guarani people were originally members of the Guarani guerrillas who were active in the vicinity. They mainly attacked the pioneers on the east coast. They have always been the targets of the Gendarmerie and the East Coast Army. He is very vigilant and familiar with the surrounding terrain, so he has not been able to make the people on the east bank do what they want, and has repeatedly escaped with impunity.

But now everything is over. They didn't die from the swords and guns of the people on the east coast, but fell to the disease inexplicably, which made people dumbfounded.The culprit who killed them—or the "hero"—was none other than the humble farmyard manure in the nearby fields.

As we all know, human and livestock manure has always been a precious resource in the rural areas of the East Bank.Farmers collected it and piled it in the fields to maintain soil fertility, but this excrement, rich in germs and parasites, may not be a threat to people from the Old World, but to people who have never been exposed to such germs ( This often means that the Guaraní lack sufficient immunity), and it is fatal enough that one or several diseases that are completely foreign to them take their lives.

Faced with the ironic result given by the doctor, Guo Puxia, who was in charge of the security of the nearby area, was also a little helpless and at the same time puzzled.It stands to reason that these Guaranis should have had contact with the Spaniards. Those Franciscan missionaries were very keen to naturalize the Indians in wild areas, so the Indians were often able to get livestock from the Spaniards, and they often fought with the Spaniards. The Spaniards came into contact - which means they have a certain tolerance to these Old World diseases - but why did the farmers on the east coast fall so "weakly" after they arrived here?

Guo Puxia thought about it for a long time, but he couldn't figure it out. He could only simply understand that these Guarani people had relatively little contact with the outside world, and their resistance to the Old World virus was still very weak, so they didn't have enough immunity in their bodies to help them escape. disaster.Of course, there is a new explanation, which was pointed out by Dr. Shao Yuanyi, from Mucaoling Township, Xihu County, at a medical conference. He believed that although these Guarani people may have been in contact with the Spaniards, they were also exposed to some pathogenic bacteria. , but they have never had the opportunity to contact the Ming people from the Far East, so the large number of germs carried by the Ming people are themselves a new threat to them.

Shao Yuanyi's statement is getting more and more people's support now, because people often find in daily life that female slaves from Europe sometimes contract some uncommon diseases, and these diseases rarely appeared in Europe before. It only appeared in the Far East; similarly, immigrants from the Ming Dynasty were also occasionally infected with some diseases from Europe. Because they rarely came into contact with these diseases and their immune system was limited, they caused certain deaths—thanks to the people from the East Coast. Pay attention to the prevention and control of infectious diseases. Once they are found, they will be quarantined immediately and will not be soft-hearted (even houses that have been infected will be burned down). Therefore, many diseases have only been prevalent in a small area, and the number of patients is often no more than a thousand, and the number of deaths is no more than [-]. Hundreds, it is a blessing in misfortune that it did not lead to a regional or even national outbreak of disease.

Guo Puxia himself is skeptical of Shao Yuanyi's statement, but it is undeniable that in this immigrant country on the east coast, the incidence of various diseases is very high, and it has also caused a large number of deaths, especially infants.Because people in this age are not in a highly mobile society like later generations, their bodies have been exposed to various diseases since childhood (meaning a higher comprehensive immunity), and they often live in one place all their lives without moving , the body may have a very high level of immunity to local diseases, but it is often very vulnerable to foreign diseases. This can be seen from the frequent occurrence of plagues in various places in ancient times-the source of many plagues is actually brought by foreigners. It's just a disease from other places.

In a country with strong mobility and a lot of immigrants like the East Coast Republic, the variety and frequency of diseases is a high probability event. Europeans brought diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhus, lymph node plague, syphilis and other diseases, Africans Falciparum malaria, filariasis, hookworm disease, yaws, tropical skin diseases, etc., as well as smallpox, tuberculosis, chickenpox, leprosy and other diseases shared by all parties, have made the people on the east coast careless. .

If it weren't for the government's quarantine and isolation of immigrants from the beginning (this measure is not very effective for diseases with an incubation period, but it can still be prevented in time for diseases with obvious symptoms. For example, last month the East Coast rejected a ship from ships from New England, because of rumors of widespread yellow fever epidemics there); if the government had not made it mandatory from the beginning to bathe, cut hair, and wear clean clothes; It wasn't for the government's extreme emphasis on disease prevention and isolation from the very beginning; if the government hadn't organized the public to exterminate rats, insects, and flies from the beginning, the East Coast Republic might have experienced several disease pandemics.The pandemic of these diseases is undoubtedly extremely terrible, often causing tens of thousands of deaths, but now the east coast only has at most a few thousand deaths due to diseases every year (or even 2000 people in a few years), which is already a shocking event. A commendable achievement.

Guo Puxia didn't know what kind of disease these Indians died of, and the doctor with limited skills in the village couldn't tell either.But in order to avoid trouble, Guo Puxia still ordered the militiamen to dig these corpses and bury them deeply so as not to infect the surrounding Ming immigrants. The second epidemic of the disease is a typical negative teaching material in the Ministry of Health's propaganda to the countryside.

Following Guo Puxia's order, under the supervision of two gendarmes, several militiamen wearing masks and white coats reluctantly came over, put the body down on a stretcher, and slowly carried it to a distance. Prepare to dig a pit and bury it deeply without leaving any future troubles.

Seeing the backs of the militiamen going away, many thoughts flashed through Guo Puxia's mind, most of which were "poisonous tricks" on how to eliminate the Guaraní people.For example, throwing sick human and animal corpses near their settled villages, such as polluting the water sources they rely on for their livelihood, etc., but considering that these practices are too unlimited, and these Guarani people themselves are also valuable labor—— There is a large shortage on the construction site - it is a pity to consume so casually under the attack of disease, so Guo Puxia forcibly suppressed this dangerous thought.

However, regardless of whether the people on the east coast are intentional or not, as their pace of pioneering and westward expansion continues to accelerate, the Guarani people who originally lived in semi-isolation will inevitably be hit by foreign colonists and the diseases brought by the colonists. Population decline has become inevitable.Maybe it won't take many years, and now there are very few Charuya people left on the eastern prairie. The fate of them is a true portrayal of their tomorrow.Whites, blacks, and yellows are covered with viruses they have never seen before, holding a sword in one hand and a plow in the other, robbing their land and homes, enslaving their bodies and minds, they are simply the destroyers and great demons of the Indians .

Among these demons, the most vicious, cruel, shameless, and non-repairing archways are undoubtedly the people from the east coast. They don't regard barbarians as human beings at all, killing, robbing and enslaving wantonly , and then use the squeezed fruits to nourish their people and expand their nation's living space.

According to statistics from the East Bank Mei Agency, they originally estimated that the number of Guarani people living in the South and North Duck Lake areas may have been as many as 20 30 years ago, but now they think there may be 5-10 people. [-] people is pretty good, part of the population was lost due to various activities of the Sao Paulo Slavery Banner Squad in Brazil, part of the loss was due to the clearing of the countryside initiated by the people on the east coast, and part of them died of hunger caused by the war, but the above three causes of death They are far from being comparable to the last one, that is, the invasion of various deadly diseases, which is the main reason for the large loss of the Guaraní population.

Why did the east coast people expand so smoothly along the Yakui River and among the pine forests in the hilly area west of the lake?Is it because the military boasted that my soldiers on the East Coast were brave and good at fighting?There may be factors in this aspect, but it is definitely not all, or even the main reason. Most of the Guaraní people should have died silently under the shroud of disease.

"The Destroyer of Indians, haha, the nickname given to us by the Spanish missionaries is really appropriate." Guo Puxia took off his white gloves, then lit a pipe for himself, took a good puff, and looked at the The endless arable land outside the Shenwu Township government said with a smile: "The Indians died of diseases, but we are fine. This is obviously the blessing of the gods, which means that the destiny is in me. Haha, the savages will eventually die out, and this fertile land will eventually belong to me The East Coast Republic of China."

(End of this chapter)