1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 458 Eastern Development ([-])
January is the summer in Hanzhou, and it is also the slack season during cotton planting.If it were in previous years, the officials of the various fortresses might organize the local immigrants to spend part of their time building the city walls and various coastal defense facilities.However, after the end of the Han-Dutch War, it was initially estimated that no new armed conflict would occur for at least five years, and there was almost no threat in the eastern waters and inland areas of Hanzhou.Therefore, the new and old immigrants who have lived in the Yunyang area for one to two years can finally take a breather, no longer spend a lot of effort to build the defense facilities of the settlements, and can tidy up their tired bodies a little, and prepare for the future after a few months. During the busy cotton picking season, reserve a little energy.

Hu Pingjiang also spared time from the turbulent preparations for resettlement to come to Xiangjiang Fort to check the huge amount of coal mines found here.He knew that if only relying on agricultural planting, the Yunyang area would not be able to attract the people's government to invest its limited resources here, let alone attract enough people.

Therefore, some industries must be developed in the Yunyang area, preferably industries that can promote the industrial categories and technological upgrading of the entire Daqi Kingdom, or industries that can satisfy a large number of people's livelihoods.If you look at Weihai Prefecture in the north, because it is located in the center of cotton spinning, the financial and materials are continuously invested every year, and a series of factories related to cotton spinning, such as seed cotton processing, spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, and garment processing, are successively established. Establishment is also a key care area for the distribution of immigrant population every year, and the small life is prosperous.What's more, they got lucky and found a big gold mine in the Golden Castle, which attracted a lot of manpower and material resources, and the infrastructure was booming.

Unlike the Yunyang area, although food self-sufficiency is basically achieved, the overall living standard is much lower than that of Weihai. Except for a few simple cotton processing workshops, there is no industry, which is quite difficult.

Xiangjiang Fort, as the name suggests, is built on the banks of a river named Xiangjiang, not far from Danyang Fort by the sea. It was only established in April last year and has a population of just over 260 people.Only more than 3000 mu of arable land has been reclaimed here, and high-yielding coarse grains such as corn, sorghum, and potatoes, as well as a small amount of cotton and sugar cane have been planted.

After taking a cursory look at the agricultural production here, Hu Pingjiang hurriedly led the mining staff and a few craftsmen to the coal mine area that was said to be rich in reserves.

After a careful inspection, the two mine inspectors unanimously concluded that the coal mine has extremely rich reserves and is buried shallowly, which is much better than the two small coal mines in Heishan and Kaiyuan in Jianye Mansion, and can be developed and utilized on a large scale .

Hu Pingjiang was overjoyed when he heard the words.

In the small place of Heishan, relying on a small coal mine, Hanzhou's coal chemical industry was preliminarily established, and a lot of related workshops were accumulated, which attracted the close attention and special care of the civil government.If I have such a huge amount of coal mines here, wouldn't it be possible to create a larger-scale industry than that in Montenegro!
Without further ado, I hurried back to Yunyang Fort and asked the scribes under my command to make a report to attract the civil servants from the civil government to put in the necessary manpower and material resources for me.

My Yunyang area is about to develop!

On January 1, when Hu Pingjiang returned to Yunyang Castle with satisfaction, Qi Yuanshan and other officials and agricultural technicians who were going to the Daxing area had already left Yunyang on a small transport ship.

On January 1, Qi Yuanshan's boat arrived at Danyangbao (now Gladstone, Australia), stopped for a day, and then continued southward.

On January 1, he arrived at Fort Cao County (now Bundaberg, Australia), and entered the newly established Daxing Colonial Area.Cao County was named in memory of Cao Xiong, the former commander of Hanzhou.

Caoxian Fort and Yongshun Fort (Maryborough), which is not far away, were selected in March last year, and the colonization site was officially established in May. They are the only two settlements in the Daxing area that are not built by the sea.Caoxian Fort is located more than ten kilometers inland along a river. Because the settlement is on the bank of the river, this river is naturally called Cao River.

The entire Caoxian Fort has a population of just over 60 residents, and more than a dozen of them are workers of the Hanzhou No. [-] Construction Company, responsible for the construction of public facilities in the area: canteens, warehouses, drinking water sedimentation tanks, latrines, etc., cement, bricks and other buildings The materials were also transported from Danyangbao in the north.

"The cafeteria does not need to be built with cement and bricks for the time being, and the current wooden house is still used." Qi Yuanshan walked around the Caoxian Fort, and said to the local village chief who was following him: "Let the workers of the Fourth Construction Company go nearby to help Look at the soil quality, choose a location with a lot of clay, and use the remaining cement and bricks to build a brick kiln as soon as possible. This way, you can free up more space on the transport ship in the future to transport some other production and living supplies."

"Yes, my lord!" The village head replied respectfully.

"In addition, the assigned immigrants will arrive in late January at the earliest, and you have a quota of 100 here." Qi Yuanshan continued: "First, build the wooden house where the collective lives and give the immigrants a place to stay. But there is no delay in reclaiming arable land. At least [-] mu of land must be created first to grow some potatoes, sweet potatoes and vegetables for daily consumption. After the arrival of new immigrants, you must organize everyone to reclaim another [-] acres. If the cultivated land is more than one mu, we can plant something in the second half of the year to improve the soil fertility."

"Are the 100 people assigned from our side all men? ... Are there any women assigned?" the head of the village asked cautiously.

"I don't know either." Qi Yuanshan shook his head with a wry smile. Most of the immigrants from Daming were young men, and young women accounted for less than [-]%.When passing through the transfer point of the previous route, the local government will always detain a considerable proportion of women on the grounds that they are unwell and unable to continue the sea voyage, and the local officials in Hanzhou who are at the end of the immigration are very annoyed.

Of course, in order to balance the serious gender gap in the country, the foreign trade corporation of the Daqi Kingdom purchases thousands of young women from Mataram, Banten, Johor and other states every year.

The Daxing area is located at the southernmost point of the immigrants. When the assigned immigrants arrive, let alone women are pitifully few, even young and strong men may be selected by others.

But Qi Yuanshan didn't care about it, he had studied and worked with Qi Tian for more than seven years.He deeply understands that no matter who you are, everyone is valuable, even if you are a fool, as long as you can guide and help him correctly, you can make him play his due role.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have special talents and management personnel, I can teach the chiefs of several settlements under your jurisdiction (the colony chiefs with less than [-] people in the settlement area) and the commanders (the commanders with more than [-] people in the settlement area) to understand how to do things, How to manage people, first lay a solid foundation for the Daxing area in the first year, and make solid preparations for next year's development.

Two days later, Qi Yuanshan and his party left Caoxian Fort with the boat, and went directly to the next destination—Shaoliang Fort (now the Sunshine Coast of Australia), a settlement built at the mouth of a big river, with dozens of kilometers of beautiful beaches nearby. , the place is on the verge of the vast Pacific Ocean, with beautiful scenery and pleasant climate, and has become the most important tourist destination in the world.

However, for the immigrants who are struggling to open up, these beautiful scenery cannot attract their eyes and attention at all.Shaoliang Fort and Daxing Fort in the south are settlements established almost at the same time in February last year. After more than ten months of construction, they have begun to take shape, and various public facilities have also been completed and put into use.

To make things even more difficult, two small earthen kilns were built on the west side of the camp, emitting billowing black smoke and firing bricks.However, the fuel used was firewood and shrubs picked up nearby.Although the firepower is not enough, it can barely burn the bricks that can be used to build houses.

"Why are there so many aborigines?" Qi Yuanshan couldn't help asking in surprise when he saw dozens of dark-faced aborigines not only in the small kiln, but also in the logging operation area outside the camp.

(End of this chapter)