Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 950

On November 1652, 11, Meng Hu sat on a carriage full of supplies and staggered forward.

After the beginning of spring, the land is extremely muddy. The melting snow and thawing mud are all torturing the patience of travelers.From time to time, some light rain fell from the sky, which made the people on the road feel a bit of biting cold—no, a pot of Daqu in the river was twirled in everyone's hands, and it soon bottomed out.

This is the lakeside of Jiehu Lake (Lake Fagnano, which means the dividing line between the northern plain and the southern mountains of Tierra del Fuego). The horse team of Menghu and others walked on the mountain path by the lakeside. There were six carriages, Fourteen pack horses and several times the number of alpacas.This team loaded a large amount of supplies, set off from Beech Fort, took a small boat to land on the coast of the southeast corner, and then crossed the mountain path to the Fort behind the mountain (later Ushuaia), intending to send a batch of supplies there materials, but also bring back some local commodities.

As the core city of the entire Tierra del Fuego, Fort Beech not only has a large population, relatively developed industry and agriculture, but also a distribution center for materials in the entire region.The interval between the Southern Railway Company's ships going to Shanhoubao is very long, and the time is not fixed, so the daily supply of the place is often completed by this primitive pack horse transport team.Meng Hu, as an expedition expert with a double salary in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Southern Railway Company, followed a camel caravan to Shanhoubao, but shouldered the important task of investigating the customs, customs, resources and minerals along the way.

The vegetation coverage on the hills on both sides of the road is very high, some are low bushes, and some are tall trees.Unlike the coniferous forests in southern Chile, there is also a considerable amount of broad-leaved forests, with a lot of grass under the trees and lichens on the branches. , North American bison, and Norwegian musk ox provided abundant food, and at the same time allowed their populations to multiply rapidly.

Of course, except for these animals that are prohibited from hunting, the large number of llamas, foxes, and jackals on Tierra del Fuego are not included in the scope of protected animals. Several Oroqen and Daur hunters who went out to hunt.They all immigrated here from the Blackwater area, and lived in clusters or scattered near the line of communication in accordance with the orders of the people on the east coast, as the "Cossacks" for the people on the east coast to control Tierra del Fuego.

They are more capable of surviving in the wild, hardworking, and very proficient in hunting skills. The aborigines on Tierra del Fuego, such as the Ona people, are not their competitors at all. retreat.Of course, some aborigines were "influenced" by the Taoist priests on the east bank, and then they moved out to set up villages and live together, and accepted the rule of the people on the east bank—but Meng Hu and others have always suspected that these people were willing to move out of the mountains , In fact, it's because you can eat enough to hang out with people from the east coast, right?

At noon, everyone stopped by the side of the road, and then set up a few simple tents for people to shelter from the rain, and most of them started to fetch water for cooking and take care of livestock.Some of the accompanying hunters had already left—they had exchanged the skins of their prey for some merchandise from the convoy before leaving—and others joined the convoy for lunch.

The lunch menu is not bad, fresh roasted vicuña meat, salted ham from Xihu County, dry cheese, salted fish, canned vegetables, canned whale meat and some canned fruits.Some hunters picked some wood flowers from the nearby white beech trees (the fungus that grows after the bark is destroyed by woodpeckers is more delicious), and then they did something with the beef they brought with them. A large pot of soup was boiled.

"What is the situation of people living in the mountains now?" Meng Hu put a piece of vicuna meat into his mouth, chewed vigorously, and then asked.The taste of vicuña meat was not very tasty. Even though it was prepared with a lot of spices, it still made Menghu frown. After living a good life, he really couldn't eat these "rough" foods now.

"Life is passable." The Oroqen hunter stuffed vicuna meat into his mouth quickly, and said vaguely: "We live in three or five families, and the Ona people dare not do anything to us. Hmph, then How can the natives who don’t even have clothes to wear (historically, some aborigines on Tierra del Fuego had no clothes to wear in winter, and their cold resistance was extremely abnormal), how can they compete with my Great East Coast country? Fuck them now No one in the village dares to refuse to hand over the skins, they are as docile as little sheep."

In fact, at the beginning, some Ona people did not take the East Coast people's account very well, and even two Daur hunters were killed.Of course, the end of this tribe was also miserable. It was wiped out by the road protection team dispatched by the Southern Railway Company and hundreds of Shandan hunters who came from far and near areas after hearing the news.After that, life on the island for the people on the east coast became much easier. Even the natives who were unwilling to accept the rule of the east coast would only hide in the deep mountains and old forests, and dare not confront them head-on.

"The attitude towards the aborigines is still too harsh." Menghu's Madonna plot broke out again, "There are only less than 3000 aborigines on the island now, and those who were killed by diseases because of contact with us were robbed by us." Those who starved to death in the grasslands, pastures, and forests, and those who were driven to death, probably add up to 3000 to [-] people. Among the remaining people, there are still [-] to [-] people living under our rule, the aborigines of Tierra del Fuego, It looks like it's going to die sooner or later..."

The Oroqen hunter automatically filtered Menghu's words, and only concentrated on eating vegetables with his head down.He didn't care what this old man said, anyway, the old man Xu (Xu Gang, the captain of the road protection team of the Southern Railway Company) who visited them last time made it clear that the natives who refuse to obey discipline should be beaten to death, don't be afraid, The Southern Railway Company is our strong backing.Almost every male of these Shandan people is a militiaman, and they are usually under the control of the road guards, so they only obey the orders of the road guards. As for Master Meng, he said that he should treat the natives well, just listen to what he said. It's okay to be obedient and obedient, so don't pay attention to it.

Seeing the disapproving attitude of the Oroqen hunters, Meng Hu knew what was going on in their hearts, and immediately sighed and remained silent.The population under the jurisdiction of the Southern Railway Company has increased rapidly. As of last month, with the arrival of a group of new people on the South Pacific route, the total population has exceeded 4.2. The carrying capacity of the original developed land is seriously insufficient, so it can only External extension territory - this territory is partly extended to the south of Chile, and partly claimed from the natives of Tierra del Fuego.

According to Meng Hu’s private knowledge, although Shanhou Fort has not been established for a long time and its population is only a little over a thousand, the Southern Railway Company has made up its mind to set up three new settlements within its vicinity. The left fort behind the mountain in the Lapataia region (Lapataia, located at the southern end of Roca Glacier Lake), the front fort behind the mountain near Port Navarino in Chile in later generations, and the right fort behind the mountain near Puerto Williams, the southernmost city on the earth in later generations.The initial population of each new settlement was 1000 people, and a total of [-] people were divided into three points, which solved considerable trouble for the Southern Railway Company.

At present, the construction of these three settlements has been officially included in the 1653 work plan of the Southern Railway Company, and the materials required for the preliminary construction have also been loaded in the ports of Araucan and Xingnan respectively. various settlements within the narrow Beagle Channel, and then a construction operation.If nothing else, thousands of immigrants from the Far East will come to settle here in batches starting from 1653, awakening this previously unknown land at the ends of the earth from its slumber, and from then on it will be included in the ruling sequence of the East Coast Republic of China within.

By the way, as proposed by Marshal Mo, the president of the Southern Railway Company, the company also plans to spend money to set up a large ranch west of Shanhoubao.The model of the ranch refers to the Harberton Ranch established here later, that is, on the large uninhabited islands on both sides of the western part of the Beagle Channel, various livestock (mainly cattle and sheep) are raised.These almost completely natural pastures do not need human management at all in summer and autumn. The cattle and sheep grow and reproduce freely.

Now this ranch plan has entered the stage of concrete implementation. Except for the small island where bison, moose, reindeer, and musk ox are introduced, some sheep, goats, and beef cattle have been raised on other islands, and local rangers are entrusted to guard them. take care of.I believe that after a few years, these uninhabited islands that were originally full of weeds will be able to continuously generate profits for the Southern Railway Company-who said that these harsh climates, barren and desolate islands are useless?It's just that you can't manage it!

The simple roadside lunch was over soon, and everyone took a nap for more than half an hour. Then, under Meng Hu's call, they packed up their equipment and started on the road again.They had to rush to Shanhoubao as soon as possible, because the accompanying packages contained various vegetables and crop seeds produced by the Northern Seed Company ordered by many locals, and they had to be delivered to the local settlers within a month.And if the deadline is missed due to the delay on the road, judging from the short local plant growth period, this year is almost ruined, and everyone can only continue to eat the relief flour of the Southern Railway Company, which is obviously not conducive to the company's Continued local development.

On December 1652, 12, after struggling with the wet and muddy roads for more than half a month, Menghu and his party went through untold hardships and finally arrived at the present day with a lot of supplies and exhaustion. The Shanhou Fort has begun to take shape.And the thousands of settlers in Shanhoubao, who had been waiting for them for a long time, immediately cheered and welcomed them into the compound of the township government—damn, the days of being isolated from the world are too sad, and everyone needs help from the outside world News.

(End of this chapter)