1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 457 Eastern Development ([-])
On January 1643, 1, the transport ship "Shouwang 2" replenished fresh water in Weihai City (now Cairns, Australia), loaded thousands of cotton cloths and more than 3 tons of grain, and set off to continue southward.

On January 1, it arrived at Guanglingbao (now Townsville, Australia), where the ship stayed for two days, unloaded some cotton cloth and handed it over to the local Hanzhou trading company.

Guangling Fort is located at the mouth of Guangling River (Ross River), on the verge of a calm bay, located in the tropics, with an average annual sunshine time of more than 300 days.In addition to crops such as cotton, corn, and potatoes, there are also many sugarcane fields here, and the output and quality are much stronger than those in Jianyefu in the north.Therefore, the technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture suggested that the local government of Weihai could consider planting sugar cane in a large area to form a sugar center.

More than 100 kilometers to the west of Guanglingbao, there is a large-scale gold mine.For this reason, the Weihai local government specially set up a settlement here, Golden Castle (now Chartersburg, Australia), for the mining and processing of gold mines in this place, supporting corresponding civilian facilities.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance of the Civilian Government and the Hanzhou Bank also set up special institutions in the area to process and process a large amount of gold excavated from the gold mines nearby. The goldsmiths melted the selected gold ores and directly processed them into pieces. After accumulating a certain amount of gold bricks, they were all transported to Guangling Fort for temporary storage.When several fleets return to Jianye City, the temporarily stored gold nuggets will be transported back to the treasury of the Montenegro Mint in the north for storage and processing.

In order to protect the safety of the gold mine, the gendarmerie specially stationed [-] gendarmerie here. Moreover, they were also authorized by the military government and the military department of the civilian government to recruit the township soldiers of Guangling Fort at any time, and cooperate with the gendarmerie for security protection when necessary. Work.

In the past two years, Weihai Prefecture has used the slack time to organize the local people, together with a large number of Timor Island natives and Hanzhou natives, to build a rammed earth and gravel road leading directly to Guangling Fort, so as to quickly and timely Communication between the two places.But the officials of the Ministry of Finance stationed here are still not satisfied, because this simple road cannot pass horse-drawn carriages in rainy days.

For this reason, they directly applied to the civil government to build a horse-drawn track between Jincheng Castle and Guangling Fort. The reason given was that they could quickly get support from the Guangling Fort township soldiers in response to enemy attacks.However, this application was directly rejected by the government.Nima's, more than 70 heavily armed gendarmes, artillery, castles, and fifty rural soldiers who are stationed here all the year round, could it be that they can't cope with the attacks of the nearby aborigines.

What's more, in the past few years, in order to ensure the safety of the Jincheng Castle Gold Mine, the Weihai local government specially organized a township army with more than 400 people to thoroughly cleanse the indigenous tribes within a hundred miles nearby. , so that in the surrounding area, except for the jumping kangaroos and the thylacine that often steal food, there is no creature that can walk upright, which can pose a threat to the Golden Castle.

If, with more than 120 armed men, the Golden Castle was taken away in a well-defended castle, how many enemies would have to come to do this!

Besides, after processing the gold mine in your Golden Castle, it is not urgent to transport it back to Guangling Fort. It is rainy and the road is difficult to walk. You can wait for the rain to clear up and the road to dry before starting to transport the gold.Although the output of Heishan Iron and Steel Works has been increasing year by year, the construction of infrastructure throughout the Daqi Kingdom and the production and processing of various metal tools and farm implements all consume a large amount of steel.You can't just lay a horse-drawn track of more than [-] kilometers in such a wasteful way just because you want to transport gold quickly.Without him, the comprehensive social benefits are too low.

On January 1, the "Shouwang 7" transport ship left Guanglingbao, sailed for two days, and arrived at Shanggubao (now Bowen City, Australia). Destination - Yunyang Fort (now Mackay, Australia) drove away.

In the entire eastern part of Hanzhou, south of Weihai City, the settlements have become more dense. Almost no more than two days of sailing, there will be a supply point for ships to stop and rest. For sailors on long-distance sea voyages It is the happiest thing.This means that they don't have to gnaw on hard pancakes and jerky every day, and they don't have to drink drinking water with too much floating matter.

At the stops along the way, eating a fresh meal, drinking a sip of clean and hygienic cold boiled water, and even taking a hot bath in the living area of ​​the sailors on the shore wharf, that is really the most pleasant enjoyment.Before leaving, you can also spend a little money to buy some fruits and snacks sold by local farmers at the pier. The long sea journey does not seem to be so difficult.

On January 1, "Shouwang 9" arrived at Yunyangbao, where it would unload all the supplies on board, and then ship the cotton and oil stored there to Weihai City.

Qi Yuanshan and other people who are going to Daxing Fort need to stop here temporarily, waiting for the arrival of a ship transporting immigrant materials, before they can continue to Daxing Fort to take up their duties.

I wanted to pay a visit to Hu Pingjiang, the general manager of Yunyang, who was working here during the short stay in Yunyang Fort, but was told that he was not in the city, and went to the Xiangjiang Fort (now Rockhampton, Australia) under his jurisdiction to inspect and guide Local colonization work.

And the reason why Hu Pingjiang personally inspected this colonization site that was newly built for less than half a year, and attached great importance to it.Gein, a coal mine belt with huge reserves was discovered here.

Last year, with all kinds of unwillingness, Hu Pingjiang left his post on Xinsheng Island and returned to Hanzhou with the immigrant fleet.After meeting Qi Tian, ​​who is already king, they had a heart-to-heart conversation, expressing Qi Tian's surrender and service.Later, he was told that in the future, all the chief executives of the overseas territories of the Daqi Kingdom would not hold office for more than five years.After the expiration, the transfer will be carried out immediately to avoid suspicion between the monarch and his ministers.

During his stay in Jianye City, Hu Pingjiang visited Heishan Industrial City, Kaiyuan (now Humpty Doo, Australia) Wool Mill, Yongxing Fort (now Adelaide River Town, Northern Australia) to Song Castle (now Catherine, Australia) between large pastures and huge livestock populations.

After seeing the vigorous development of the northern part of Hanzhou, I was deeply moved. In the past barren and barren Jianye Mansion, there are now seven or eight cities with thousands of people, large and small, countless towns and villages, and nearly a hundred cultivated land. Tens of thousands of mu of steel, military, shipbuilding, wool spinning, food, timber, fur processing and other workshops and mines.I, Hanzhou, no, my Daqi Kingdom seems to have established a deep foundation in this continent, and no one can shake it anymore.

However, Qi Tian told Hu Pingjiang that the future development of the Da Qi Kingdom will focus on the eastern and southeastern regions of Hanzhou. Weihai Cotton Spinning Center not only provides enough raw materials, but also undertakes the logistics supply center for colonization in the south. The responsibility is extremely important and must not be ignored.

After settling his family in Jianye City, Hu Pingjiang rushed to Yunyangbao to take up his post in April last year.After inspecting several coastal settlements under Yunyang, he was not only slightly disappointed.In addition to the low level of land development, Teme's population is also very small.Although the immigration department added more than 2000 people here in February and March, the total population did not exceed 6000, which is not as large as that of a city in Weihai in the north.

Stationed on Xinsheng Island for several years, Hu Pingjiang has never been troubled by population shortage.Not to mention that in the past, as the nearest transit point of Ming Dynasty, thousands of immigrants were stranded all year round, and there was no shortage of labor at all.Even during the more than three years of war with the Dutch, more than 3000 people gathered on the small Newborn Island.Whether it was land reclamation or construction of towns and villages, he never worried about the population. Even when the Guangnan State sent a large army to attack Xinsheng Island, he was able to win the battle with a large number of township soldiers, fully experiencing the feeling of strength in numbers .

However, in the Yunyang area, not only Yunyang Fort, but also several settlements under its jurisdiction are racking their brains to find more manpower.Reclamation of land, construction of basic water facilities, construction of housing, warehouses, public facilities, etc., there is no need for labor, and there is no shortage of people. All immigrants are also used as livestock.If it wasn't for the fact that the immigrants in each settlement had enough to eat every day, and the surrounding areas were wild and had nowhere to run, and at the same time, the government also promised to allocate a piece of reclaimed land to each immigrant, otherwise, they would have been unbearable "oppression" "And chose to flee.

(End of this chapter)