Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 968 A new official takes office ([-])

Before the cold winter came, Liang Xiangjian arrived at the Heishui Port wharf on the "Sakhalin Eagle".Arriving with him, there were hundreds of surrendered soldiers from the Qing army captured from the Yangtze River. About dozens of them were the so-called "true Manchurian officers and soldiers" - the destination of these people in the next period of time would be Heishui Prison. And their identities are also hard labor prisoners. According to Wei Boqiu's words, they "built Heishui County with their own hands to redeem the sins they committed."

Although Liang Xiangjian didn't like Wei Boqiu very much, their attitudes towards the Qing army's captives were highly consistent, and this also doomed the tragic fate of these people.Liang Xiangjian, as the newly appointed magistrate of Heishui County and standing member of the Heishui Regional Committee of the Executive Committee, arrived today and instead of going to the government office to rest, he went straight to the construction site outside the city to inspect the construction work of the county.

Not far from the city wall outside the city is the quietly flowing Heishui River (Alexandrovka River). The river surface is already very wide in the downstream section, ranging from about ten meters to tens of meters.Both sides of the river are swampy wetlands, wet, cold, and muddy. Because the swamps provide sufficient nutrients, there are firs, coniferous forests, larch, alder, birch, and willows on both sides of the river, and the growth is very good-in this day Where there is strong wind in winter and spring, these woods also play a role in weakening the wind.

Many trees lay down in the swamp—some natural decay, others blown down by strong winds—the fallen trees were covered with moss and fungus, and the roots were full of grass stumps, occasionally There will also be moose, reindeer and other animals coming to eat moss and lichen, but they are very vigilant, and once they see humans approaching, they will run away immediately.

Today's weather is good. Under the warm sunshine, the mist that originally covered the Heishui River Valley quietly dissipated, so that the whole picture of this vast valley called "hazy and secluded" was fully displayed in Liang Xiangjian's eyes. before.

What a—well, strange—valley this is. The valley squeezed by the mountains on both sides forms a large and narrow depression on the bank of the Blackwater River.More than half of the area in the depression is muddy and swampy. Except when it freezes in winter, vehicles cannot pass at all, and even pedestrians and livestock are extremely difficult to walk. This is not a joke. So far, there have been 12 people in Heishui County. Shen drowned in the marshes in this valley, a passage no one would want to walk in summer and fall.

In the swamp outside Heishui County, many convicts were busy working.Holding iron tools, they walked hard in the mud, and worked hard to drain the water in the swamp——With the increase in the population of Heishui County, it is now time to seek land farther away. The west side of the county is the seashore, the soil texture is not suitable for farming, and there are continuous mountains on both sides, so if you want more land suitable for farming, you can only find a way to go further upstream of the Heishui River.

But judging from the primitive and wild natural environment of this place, if the forest is not cleared and the swamp water is drained, it is impossible to use this land that has been silent for thousands of years.These lands are undoubtedly fertile, but first you need to build a lot of infrastructure, such as reservoirs, ditches, etc., otherwise you can only stare blankly.And this kind of development operation is obviously extremely heavy work. Mobilizing the local residents is one aspect, but I am afraid that more of them will have to be done by convicts.

The convicts Liang Xiangjian saw at this moment were just such a group of poor people who were tortured to death by fatigue, mud, autumn rain, disease and the whip of the supervisor.More than half of them were captured by the Qing army, and the rest were natives of the hostile Shandan tribe, some were captive Koreans, some were criminals who committed crimes, and many were landowners and gentry from the Ming Dynasty. Due to the double devastation of psychological and psychological, he was forced to carry out arduous development work by burning his own life.

Anger, grievance, fear, helplessness, homesickness and other emotions are churning in my heart, the whip marks on my back are burning hot when soaked in cold water, and the shackles on my hands and feet are heavier. I can't stand it, let alone the thin bodies of those rebellious landlords and gentry from Jiangnan - many of them died, and some hanged themselves because of the humiliation, but more people chose to linger on, after all, it is better to live than to die .

I remember that the famous Holy Mother Menghu on the east coast once wrote an article describing the Blackwater labor camp based on what he had heard - "Dark Camp" - which described in depth the tragic experience of the convicts in the Blackwater labor camp. He also highlighted the tragic situation of the deprivation of human rights of those "political prisoners" (that is, puppet generals and Litong tartar gentry), hoping to arouse people's sympathy and improve their treatment.This article was published in some magazines and publications published locally. It is said that the impact is not small, but it seems to be of no use. The Blackwater labor camp still exists today, and the prisoners in it are still working mechanical labor until he was released after serving his sentence.

Naturally, Liang Xiangjian didn't have much sympathy for these people. He only knew that a large number of people rescued from the Tartar rule would soon come to Heishui County. Considering the current level of development in this county, the land reserves were quite insufficient. Therefore, there is an urgent need to expand the site outwards.And this first job is to clear the woods and bushes, drain the swamp water, and then build small water conservancy facilities—if there is spare time, it is best to dredge the upper channel of the Blackwater River to ensure that the ships Can go up the river.

He came to the Heishui area to take office this time, and even served as a member of the regional standing committee (the executive committee reformed the organizational structure of the Heishui area and implemented democratic centralism. Liang Xiangjian joined the standing committee as the head of the county in the Heishui area. From now on, general affairs and military operations in the Heishui area will still be decided by Shao Shude, and important matters will be discussed in the Standing Committee.No, he not only brought four small 72-ton inland river steamers that are very common in the local area (transported on large ships), but also brought 8 sets of steam propulsion systems used by such ships. After the hull was built, it was assembled on the spot, and this resulted in 8 more small inland river steamboats.

This adds up to a total of 12 72-ton inland steamboats, which are undoubtedly extremely critical to Sakhalin Island, which is criss-crossed by rivers.Especially in the Heishui River Basin, which can be called an industrial center, this kind of shallow-draft inland watercraft can completely go upstream and transport a large number of people and materials to wherever people on the east bank want to go. For the inland hinterland of the county, it is of great significance.

Passing by the construction site where these poor people are fighting, Liang Xiangjian, in front of Johnson, the former deputy county magistrate who actually presided over the work (Johnson himself will be transferred to the acting magistrate of Fushan County, Dengzhou, is also a county directly under the East Bank, very Accompanied by the servant army), he visited the brick kiln factory, lime factory and cement factory outside the city.These factories are small in scale and employ fewer workers, but they are still one of the few industrial facilities in the Blackwater area, and they also provide a large amount of cheap materials for the construction of the area.

In addition to these building materials companies, other factory facilities are even worse.The lumber field that was originally close to the city wall has now extended ten kilometers away from the city - because the taiga forest in Sakhalin Island is not very dense, and the trees are slightly sparser than the forests in warm areas. In recent years, forests exported from Heishui County have been used in various constructions, wars and even furniture, so the forest line of the county has receded far away from the suburbs of the city.

It is quite difficult to drag the forest trees from the deep mountains and old forests to the riverside, and then float along the water to the wood processing factory located on the riverside.Especially in the section from the logging camp to the riverside, many convicts froze to death during the cold winter.This is obviously unacceptable to the county officials, because even though convicts are consumables in their eyes, the price is too high in Heishui County, where human resources are not abundant.

After the wood is transported to the wood processing factory downstream (by heavy sleds in winter) through the Heishui River, it is thermally dried in the wood drying kiln of the factory, and then processed by hydraulic sawing machine, planer, etc., and the finished wood is sent by boat Shipped to the port for storage.The waste produced by processing (mainly sawdust, leftovers, etc.) was transported to an adjacent mill, which was newly established in the second half of last year (1652) and was a steam-powered flour mill (with rye, Oats and barley as raw materials) - two steam engines drive four mills, and sawdust is used as fuel (which means the cost is low). The daily output of flour is 25 tons, which is enough to supply the rations of tens of thousands of people, and the profit is quite good.

"There is also an iron workshop in the city, with 105 formal workers and several apprentices, six iron forging furnaces, plus four small-horsepower steam engine-driven forging hammers of different models that were eliminated from the local area. Steel, iron and other metals are used as raw materials for processing. At present, some simple metal farm tools and hardware tools can be produced, and some clumsy machine parts can also be repaired. In addition, some structures on the plate armor can be forged. There are many, but they are complicated." Johnson introduced to the expressionless Liang Xiangjian, Heishui County's family background is still relatively weak, but it is already considered the most industrialized area in the control area of ​​the East Coast of the Far East, which can also be seen The process of industrialization is difficult.

"The family is really weak." Hearing this, Liang Xiangjian couldn't help but sighed, but then he realized that this was inappropriate, so he comforted Johnson and some other entourages instead: "Just take it one step at a time. Well, Heishui County has only been developed for a few years? It’s not bad now, which shows that your work is fruitful, and the next step is to build on this foundation and create greater well-being for the people.”

(End of this chapter)