Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 952

Port of Araucan, January 1653, 1.

Xu Gang, who had just been promoted to the head of the road protection team of the Southern Railway Company for a few months, had just commanded a group of soldiers to transport the corpses of hundreds of Araucans to a mass grave in the suburbs for public incineration.These dead all died in a recent epidemic that raided the Araucans. The specific cause of death is unknown—and no one intends to find out completely—anyway, few people on the east coast got sick, and the Araucans died. Who cares more?

Not to mention, everyone present had some unspeakable thoughts in their hearts, that is, these sick Araucans were a group of people who had close contact with the new immigrants—or their family members —Then they get sick very quickly and then die. The reason for this seems to be easy to find out, but no one wants to say it.Even, if you think about it from some darker angles, people on the east coast may not be willing to see a large number of Araucan people who live next to them die of illness, because that means more survival in the southern cone area. Space will be occupied by East Coasters.

It is said that Araucan people have increasingly participated in economic activities on the east coast, such as miners in the coal mines of Montenegro, laborers in the port of Araucan, construction workers in urban construction, etc., everywhere. The figures of these Araucans are active.They worked hard to obtain all kinds of production and daily necessities sold on the east bank. After all, they did not have such a vast land and a large number of cattle and sheep that their leaders could exchange with the people on the east bank to maintain their relative A good life.They can't, they can only improve their lives and that of their families by selling their health and labor in exchange for meager wages.

But then again, the economic colonization that took place in the Kingdom of Araucania is rarely seen in Zhejiang and Shandong in the Far East.The local Ming people still prefer to buy cheap country cloth—or simply spin and weave it themselves—for their own use, especially for those families with a large number of people. It is not included in the cost at all, so the cloth shipped from the east coast across the sea (the freight is 15-20 yuan per ton, if the insurance premium is included, it may be higher) cannot be sold at them, and can only be transferred And sold to Shandan people whose civilization level and productivity are quite low.

Such a situation also fully demonstrates to people on the east coast that in countries without strong commercial traditions, residents' willingness to buy is generally relatively low.Their smallholder attributes make everyone more willing to be self-sufficient than to go to the market to solve their own needs, coupled with the ridiculously low labor costs, and the extremely low logistics costs in the local area-this is extremely critical, the end of the Qing Dynasty The small peasant economy in China was overwhelmed by foreign goods, not so much because of the cost factor, but because of the soaring cost of domestic products during the transportation process due to tax cards and likin exploitation. You must know that no one will collect these exorbitant taxes on foreign goods-all of this This made it difficult for goods from the east coast to move forward in Shandong, and it was even more difficult to open up the market in Zhejiang. We had to gradually guide and slowly find a way to solve it.

"More than 200 people in Araucania have died of illness one after another this year. This has caused great panic in the Kingdom of Araucania. Some guerrillas who fought with the old Vicente in the early years Blatantly accused that the immigrants from the Ming Dynasty brought by the company brought them the curse of God, so we asked us not to emigrate to the southern part of Chile. Fortunately, little Vicente is a sensible person, he knows who he is relying on to live, so Temporarily suppress the noise of opposition. However, Captain, I think that with more and more immigrants, the situation will continue to deteriorate sooner or later, and sooner or later little Vicente will be unable to suppress it." Just finished the arrangement The person in charge of the medical department of the Southern Railway Company said worriedly.

"If he can't be suppressed, he will ask us for help. What's so scary about a puppet country with 3 people? To put it bluntly, the little bullshit court of Vicente Jr. can gather so many Araucans." , to a large extent, it depends on us helping them collect it." Xu Gang waved his right hand with a white glove in front of his nose, as if the smell of burning corpses over there made him feel very uncomfortable, but he continued to speak disapprovingly. Said: "Besides, we have now stuffed so many East Coast expatriates into his country. These people help him log, help him plant land, help him herd sheep and cattle, help him manufacture goods, and even pay him taxes. Can the value they create be comparable to those stupid Araucans?"

"In addition, President Mo has promised him a long time ago that as long as he acts according to the order of the Southern Railway Company, the company will definitely protect their interests. Now he and some of his confidantes and officials' children are studying in the East Bank. The Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank has also saved enough money in the secret account of Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank. What else are they dissatisfied with? The escape route is prepared, and the rest is to do it with confidence and boldly, for the South Railway and the East Bank Fight for benefits," Xu Gang said.

The person in charge of the doctor nodded, knowing that Xu Gang was telling the truth.With more and more immigrant ships participating in the South Pacific route, more and more Ming immigrants entered the Southern Cone area. How to accommodate these people has almost become the heart problem of the Southern Railway Company.The Kingdom of Araucania has a vast territory, almost covering the No. 11 and 12 regions of southern Chile in later generations, which is enough to accommodate many people.Therefore, the Southern Railway Company sent about six or seven people to the Kingdom of Araucania in batches, accounting for 20% of the permanent population in the Kingdom today, and the trend is still increasing year by year.

This status quo has naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of some insightful people in the Kingdom of Araucania, especially in the case of immigrants from the east coast bringing a large number of deadly diseases. The kingdom has a population advantage, and then completely washes their country of the Araucans into a country of the people of the east coast.

I have to say that there is some truth to their statement, but so what?The upper-middle class of this country (the hundreds of followers who initially fought guerrillas with the old Vicente) has been heavily infiltrated by the East Bank. Many people have even converted to Taoism. Many people were developed into spies by the East Coast people in the Magellan intelligence station. And more people were bought by the Southern Railway Company with benefits. Coupled with their sparse population and weak national power, they simply had no opposition and could only act like marionettes. Driven by people from the east coast, and then holding a signboard of "Araucan Free Homeland", it indirectly affected the Araucan natives in the Spanish-controlled area.And this seems to be the only value of their existence.

After dealing with the sick and deceased, the two simply chatted about local development issues.

"Now there are more and more boats coming back from the north every day, and a large amount of Peruvian wheat, dried fruits, sugar, cocoa, and timber have poured into Hong Kong. Especially those wheat, the production line put into operation at the Nantie Flour Factory is now considered It is running at full speed, and it is almost in production around the clock. Last time I met President Mo, he told me that the 12 industrial windmills ordered from the mainland will soon arrive in Hong Kong, and the next step is installation and commissioning. Some flour production capacity will increase by 50%, which is almost enough to handle in a short period of time. This is a very lucrative business, and many people who were afraid to invest before regret it now." Xu Gang looked up at the burning fire in the distance. The raging fire, chatted casually.

"Now the smuggling trade with Peru is getting more and more prosperous. I don't know how many domestic enterprises and workers have been supported. Anyway, in terms of the large number of shops, warehouses, and car dealers in the two cities of Araucan Port and Xingnan Port Well, the smuggling trade is the foundation of their survival. Without this big industry that connects millions of people in the two places, they would all have to lose their jobs and go home to grow rye. How could they be as popular and spicy as they are now. Alas, I That boy is only 18 years old, and he was not happy to let him study medicine at the beginning, he had to deal with import and export trade, but now people are hard enough, but they don’t earn much money, so it’s better to hang out in the hospital.” He is almost 40 years old. The middle-aged doctor said with a sigh: "Last month, a doctor in our department discovered a bacteria suspected to be able to cause disease to trout and salmon raised in seawater through a combined microscope (lenses are hand-made), which caused a sensation in the entire system." The Southern Railway Medical College, Dayuhe Medical College, and the Academy of Natural Sciences all sent people over for exchanges, and the Ministry of Health even approved him a research grant of 3000 yuan, and an additional [-] yuan bonus, which can be described as fame and fortune Double income."

Xu Gang has also heard about what the middle-aged doctor said, because it is so well-known that the South Railway Company just planned to carry out a large-scale artificial Trout and salmon were raised in net cages. The doctor discovered the bacteria that could pose a threat to these two kinds of fish.Because this will obviously enable the Southern Railway Company to formulate countermeasures in a timely manner, isolate sick salmon (usually septicemia), and control the fish in each cage (the first phase plans to breed trout, which is extremely rich in local resources in Chile) Monitor the health status and excreta of the fish to get a general idea of ​​the fish's condition and reduce losses due to disease.

Trout and salmon have extremely abnormal requirements for water quality, and they only like cold waters. The South Railway Company finally found a large area of ​​natural and excellent breeding waters in the southern islands. It does not want to cause undue losses to itself due to diseases .Therefore, they were very concerned about the fish diseases caused by artificial breeding, and then awarded the doctor a bonus of 2000 yuan to support him to continue his research, which obviously made many people envy and hate.

"Haha, it's not too late. The discovery of the germ is just the beginning. The next step is to study the mechanism of this germ and formulate a strategy to deal with it. This is also a great opportunity for you medical workers to gain fame and fortune. Work hard, here At least three patents can be issued, and anyone with a little ambition should fight for it." Xu Gang patted the middle-aged doctor on the shoulder and said in an encouraging tone.

(End of this chapter)