Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 932 Strategic Opportunity Period ([-])

But when Britain and the Netherlands were united and Mo San was shuttling around Europe, the republic on the east coast of the New World was seizing the favorable opportunity of the Old World's integration and was carrying out industrial and agricultural construction in an orderly manner.

On the construction site of Shipu Reservoir, the last batch of more than a thousand Polish prisoners of war was sent here. They shaved their hair short, put on thick cloth clothes, and digging ditches with shovels.Some black foremen hang around them from time to time, strictly monitoring whether anyone is lazy. After all, the progress of their respective groups will eventually affect their own interests (the land and cattle allocated after returning to South Africa after five years of service) sheep).

Shipu Castle is really thriving now. Tian Xing, who often goes to the Hejian area to buy slaves, keeps sending the Kelandi Hejian slaves to the construction site. The Ministry of Trade also keeps sending Polish prisoners of war bought from Europe here. Coupled with the regular immigrants sent by the immigration department, the population in the small Shipubao area has increased rapidly, reaching more than 70 people—almost equal to 5000% of the population of Yong'an County, which was just established in the south a few days ago. Well, there are only [-] people in one town and three townships (Yongan Township, Sanhekou Township, Suiyuan Township, and Suihua Township) in the county.

In this settlement, except for a few freedmen who carried out agricultural production under the organization of veterans to reduce some food dependence on the outside world, most of the people still live together at the intersection of the relatively large Shipu River and Heihe River, where there are many ports and water parks. The stars are densely covered, and the river course has a certain drop, which is an excellent place for reservoir construction.

In the construction of Shipu Reservoir, in addition to the deployment of a large number of personnel, a large number of mechanical equipment was also used.These equipments are the latest products of Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory in Beiyazihu ​​area. This factory specializes in the production of agricultural machinery and even construction machinery. Now it has more than 200 technicians, more than 400 ordinary workers, and more than [-] apprentices. The scale is extremely large. It is huge and can produce more than [-] sets of various mechanical equipment per month.

These machinery and equipment were purchased in large quantities by the six construction bureaus under the Ministry of Communications (the Fifth and Sixth Bureaus of Communications and Construction were just established three months ago), and then applied to construction sites across the country. For the key projects of double attention, the number of construction machinery is naturally too large.

In addition to the quantity, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory also transported some newly developed equipment here to test its performance so as to provide reference for the final finalized production.For example, the factory's latest design and production of the second-generation steam plow has made major improvements on the original basis.The ploughshare of this steam plow adopts the hardened cast iron ploughshare technology—this technology was successfully developed by many technicians of the factory after repeated trials, and Dafeng Factory awarded them a huge bonus of 3000 yuan in total—— In actual work, the back of the plowshare cools faster than the upper surface, which makes one side harder than the other, and this kind of plowshare has self-sharpening properties.

The self-sharpening plowshare is naturally not comparable to the ordinary plowshare. The original iron plowshare, no matter how much attention was paid to the quality of the production and processing, after a period of use in the field or on the construction site, the surface of the plowshare will become blunt and require labor. They file it in the fields—or simply take it to the smithy and reforge it to make it sharp.After the hardened cold cast iron plowshare was born, this new product that can maintain sharpness for a long time immediately surpassed the old product. The price of the original ordinary iron plowshare fell across the board, and many merchants who stocked up a lot wanted to cry. Without tears, I can only find a way to sell these things to Latvians in South Africa, New China, and even New Courland, so as to return some of the capital more or less.

In addition to this extremely advanced plowshare, there are many new equipment produced by Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory, among which the earth crusher is undoubtedly the one that can be used in the engineering field.This small machine, driven by horses, uses heavy cast iron wheels with serrated surfaces. Each wheel is mounted on an axle and can rotate independently, so it can crush and crush large pieces of hard soil with relative ease. It plays a great role in opening up wasteland and farming and engineering construction.

Especially in the field of land reclamation, this kind of soil crusher can easily crush the slightly dry and hard soil of the Great Western Wilderness, which saves a lot of manpower, energy and material resources for the investors of the pioneer farms.They no longer need to gather a large number of people as in the past, and then use simple tools to crush and grind those hard clods. Now they only need to buy a set of equipment, raise a few draft horses, and set up machines when needed. Get on the horse and just crush it all the way. The effect is excellent. It can be called an extremely important invention in the history of land reclamation on the east coast.

Since the product came out, it and its close relative - the soil roller (grinds the hard soil to make it suitable for farming) has been very popular with domestic pioneer farms and construction teams, and the sales volume is quite good. , has gradually become another major product of the state-owned Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory, ranking fourth in sales after various crop harvesters, steam plows, and seed drills.

By the way, when it comes to seed drills, I have to say that this is another extremely successful patent acquisition by Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory.The drill originally designed and produced by the factory was only designed for sowing wheat seeds. This type of drill is divided into several models, each driven by one or several horses, and the number of rows for sowing varies, but there are at least three OK.This kind of seed drill is driven by gears, chains, and belts. Theoretically, it is much more advanced than the seed drill invented by Tarr in 1701 (after all, the industrial foundation is there, and the industry on the east coast is far from what it was in 1701 later. UK comparable).

The invention of the seed drill is of great significance to the cultivation of food crops on the east coast.Especially in large-scale farms with private investment, this kind of seed drill can effectively reduce field labor, reduce the demand for manpower on the farm, and reduce the cost of investors-and this is exactly what has been suffering from lack of people What the East Bank pursues is to do things that can be done with machines and not to bother people as much as possible-so it was welcomed by people as soon as it was born, and it was even sold to many plantations in Xinhua Island (the drill can be adjusted to sow other seeds. ).

After the Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory invented the seed drill, a young farmer in Zhenhai County had an open mind and thought that this kind of mechanical equipment could be modified, that is, a device that could sprinkle manure on it, and it could also be modified at the same time. So that it has the function of adjustable seeding speed.This young farmer did what he said, and kept learning from others and inquiring about various mechanical knowledge, which finally shocked Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory.

After understanding the farmer's ideas, the technicians of the factory immediately reported to their superiors, and then the leaders of Dafeng Factory reacted quickly, and immediately bought the farmer's idea at a price of 1000 yuan, and invited him to participate in the follow-up research and development.After nearly ten months of research and development, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory has finally launched the second-generation seed drill, and has achieved excellent response in the market. Some agricultural machinery rental companies, large pioneer farms (whether state-owned or private) ) have bought them one after another, making a lot of profits for Dafeng Factory.

It can also be seen from this that in today's east coast, due to the serious shortage of manpower, various enterprises or individuals have to rely heavily on machinery to reduce costs.And the Executive Committee also takes an encouraging attitude towards this, that is, encourages private or government organizations to intensify inventions and creations, and strives to launch more machines that can save manpower - after all, it is not omnipotent to travel through the crowd, and it is impossible for them to know For all things, it is inevitable to brainstorm and gather the wisdom of all people to invent and create.

In order to encourage inventions and creations, the Government Council has also formulated strict patent protection measures, and the "Patent Law" promulgated several years ago has also been strictly implemented.For example, the invention of hardened and cold-cast plowshares was the result of research and development by the technicians of Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory using the resources of the factory, but the factory still rewarded several technicians with a total of 3000 yuan; A farmer in Zhenhai County who worked on manure and speed control devices, even if he only had an idea and started it, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory still bought out his idea at a price of 1000 yuan to encourage this kind of invention and creativity.

The Executive Committee and the Government Council have reason to believe that after years of continuous guidance of this atmosphere, the scientific and technological atmosphere in the East China Republic will definitely become stronger and stronger.After careful comparison, ordinary people will find that if they want to get rich quickly and gain honor and status, they probably have to invent and create besides joining the army, and this is undoubtedly the purpose of the executive committee members.

"The Anglo-Dutch War, the French Civil War, and Spain are also at war with France. Although the 30-year war is over, our period of strategic opportunity is still there!" Tian Xing, who sent the slaves over, said: "And it is conservatively estimated that our strategic opportunity period is at least ten years, which is extremely precious to us. With these ten years, we can quietly develop industry and agriculture , integrate people's hearts, consolidate the foundation, and further expand the size of the army and navy. When those mad dogs in Europe turn their eyes to us with their mouths in their mouths, we can turn their heads back with our strong strength. Let them continue to fight."

"Strengthening our own strength is king, there is no doubt about it." Tian Xing also agreed, "I really hope that the Europeans will give us another 30 or 50 years, so that we will be stronger and have a stronger foundation. Tajikistan, Chile, will always be in our hands, and the Europeans will never get their hands on it."

"Correct answer." Liao Xiaoyao said, "As the so-called stability overwhelms everything, our country can't afford to make troubles, and the precious period of strategic opportunities may be gone if we make troubles. Therefore, while we are defending against powerful enemies externally, we must also maintain internal stability. This is the most important thing. I didn’t think it before, but now I compare it with Europe and find that stability is the most important thing!”

(End of this chapter)