1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 514 Difficult Start in the West ([-])

On September 1644, 9, Hanzhou, Pearl Harbor (now Broome, a small port town in northwest Australia).

Seven or eight fishing boats were scattered on the vast sea of ​​Pearl Bay (now Roller Book Bay in northwest Australia), and the large nets were continuously thrown into the sea. After staying for a while, several fishermen turned the winch vigorously to drag the large nets up.

Countless yellowtail, mackerel, snapper, and grouper are rolling and jumping in the fishing net, trying to break free from the net rope and return to the sea.But several fishermen just randomly threw the fish into the barrel one by one.Obviously their target does not seem to be these fish, there is a desire in their eyes, and they are constantly checking the fish in their hands, as if they are looking for something.

"Lucky enough!" A skinny fisherman said with some disappointment: "It's been a whole morning, except for a few hundred catties of fish, I haven't caught a single shell."

"That's right, I don't know where these shellfish have gone, it's a waste of our work!" Another fisherman picked up the wooden bucket and poured some small fish into the sea.

"Damn it, is it possible to harvest a few shellfish and pick a few beads?" A rough man scolded with a smile: "It's impossible to get these hundreds of catties of fish to the shore and hand them over to the food processing plant. There are few canned fish. The worst thing is to dry salted fish and go to the inland to trade some furs with the natives, and you can also earn some money. Do you think pearls in the sea are so easy to collect?"

"Yesterday, Liao Laosan and the others picked up a lot of shells here, and picked more than a dozen beads." The thin man said enviously: "If you sell those beads to the merchants from Jianye Mansion, at least you can buy them." Earn three or forty yuan. The people on the boat share one cent, and there are also six or seven yuan, which is worth two or three months of income from selling fish!"

"That's good luck!" The rough man said disapprovingly: "The sea is so vast, it's really not easy to catch it. Let's fish honestly, and don't have those thoughts of getting rich in a day. Years ago, we were in Daming, but we couldn’t even get enough to eat!”

"That's right." A fisherman said, "I heard that now Daming is about to perish, and the whole world will be in chaos. I don't know how many people will suffer!"

"After the two brothers said this, I think we are much luckier than those people who are still suffering in Daming." The thin and small man said with a smile: "At least, we don't have to worry about being The thieves and soldiers are tormenting me, I am not afraid of starvation, and I can still get a few coins in my hands every month. If it is, the officials of Qi State will give me another daughter-in-law, that would be the best!"

"Dividing daughters-in-law?" The other people listened with bitter faces, "How could the officials of Jianye Mansion think of us in this remote place? Even if many women are brought in, I'm afraid they will try their best to send them to the east. And just wait!"

Pearl Harbor was a small supply point established three years ago when the Qi State Immigration Department decided to expand to the southwest of Hanzhou.After several years of development, this place has a population of more than [-] people. More than half of the people reclaim wasteland and grow some fruits and vegetables, sorghum, corn, potatoes and other coarse grains. Protein foods such as meat.Although they can eat enough and wear warmth, their lives are relatively poor.

Less than a month after the establishment of the supply point here, fishermen who went out to sea to fish caught a lot of shells in the sea. When they opened the shells, there were many pearls the size of the thumb of a small hand (the famous South Sea pearls in later generations), and the colors were also silvery white, pink, Silver, gold, light gold, rose red, etc., the color and particle volume are unparalleled.

Someone brought these pearls back to Jianye City, which immediately attracted the attention of some businessmen and wealthy families.The businessman naturally thought of the extremely high value of such pearls. If they were sold to Batavia or those Nanyang foreign kings, they would surely be able to earn extremely high profits.And those rich and noble families are very fond of this kind of pearls produced in Hanzhou. Not only are the particles full and large in size, but they also have various colors and are crystal clear, which is very valuable for collection.

Local civil affairs officials were even more ecstatic about this.Because of its early development, the northern part of Hanzhou has most of the industrial factories and mines, which is the foundation of Qi State.The eastern part of Hanzhou has received a lot of resources and support policies from the government because of its superior climate and land environment.However, their place belongs to the remote northwest area, and it is only a midway supply point located in the southwestern area of ​​Hanzhou for colonization. It is bound to not be favored by the government and private businessmen, so the development process will appear to be somewhat difficult.

Now, since a very high-value ocean pearl has been discovered here, it will attract the attention of businessmen and some people who want to get rich, invest, immigrate, and then they will come one after another.

Local officials simply changed the original place name application to Pearl Harbor to highlight the product characteristics here.See, Pearl Harbor, I have a lot of pearls here. If you want to make a fortune, come here to invest or apply for immigration.

Bi Zhengxing came ashore from the boat. Just as he stepped on the land, his legs and feet gave way and he almost fell to the ground.

"My lord, be careful!" Wei Guoxiang, the scribe beside him, had sharp eyes and quick hands, and grabbed Bi Zhengxing by his arms.

"Hehe... After more than ten days of sailing, my legs and feet are also weak." Bi Zhengxing laughed at himself, "I'm afraid it's not halfway to the southwestern part of Hanzhou."

"It is estimated that there are still more than [-] days to go." Wei Guoxiang said: "However, if you go further south, there will be more supply points and ports on the road. You can stop for a rest in about five or six days. Compared with the first section The itinerary is much easier."

"Very well, you did your homework on the trip to the southwest of Hanzhou." Bi Zhengxing nodded.

Bi Zhengxing, the second son of Bi Maokang, Minister of Dali Temple in Qi State, was born in the 30th year of Wanli (1602). Three years ago, after the Han-Dutch War, he and Bi Maokang's family were taken back to China by the Hanzhou immigration fleet from Daming three years ago.

At the beginning, Bi Zhengxing was the head teacher of the Jianyefu University Hall, and was later appointed as the deputy county magistrate of Heishan County; he was promoted to the magistrate of Xinhuai'an County last year.In June of this year, the Prime Minister's Office of Qi State planned to organize several colonization points in the southwest of Hanzhou into a general management area, and the first chief general manager position fell on his head.

In Daming, he was only a small official in the government office, but he unexpectedly came to Hanzhou, and within three years, he was promoted all the way to the position of the chief official of Daming Prefecture, which made Bi Zhengxing a little panic and uneasy.When he was appointed by the Prime Minister's Office as the Southwest General Manager, he also submitted a letter to resign, claiming that his talents were not enough to take on this great responsibility.

However, King Qi personally encouraged him and appointed him as the chief of the Southwest. It was not because of his father Bi Maokang, but because of his experience of being close to the people when he was an official in Jinan Prefecture for more than ten years, and his experience in the local counties and towns of Hanzhou in the past three years. The chief official's outstanding achievements, and his own erudite and pragmatic personal qualities, are why he was appointed as the head of the Southwest University.

After two months of job handover and preparations, Bi Zhengxing set off from Jianye Port half a month ago, accompanied by two [-]-ton transport ships, carrying more than [-] immigrants and a large amount of grain, hardware tools, agricultural tools, and Some livestock and poultry were transported to the southwest region together to enrich the local personnel and material reserves.

After more than ten days of sailing, they arrived at Pearl Harbor and planned to stay here for two days, unload some supplies, and then continue southward.When the local civil affairs officials in Pearl Harbor heard that the chief executive of the Southwest Region was passing by, they all went to the pier to greet him personally.

Because of the short establishment time and small population, there are no resources other than luxury products such as pearls. The development of Pearl Harbor seems to be extremely slow. Currently, it is still managed by the Jianye Mansion, and its level is also very low.

The local officials deliberately made friends with Bi Zhengxing not because of his position. Although you are the director of the Southwest Region, after all, it is too far away from Pearl Harbor, and it is also a new land, let alone supporting this place in terms of materials.Gein's father was the Minister of Dali Temple in Qi State, one of the important ministers in the Prime Minister's Office. If he suggested a few supportive policies for Pearl Harbor in terms of civil affairs, it would be much more effective than the few local officials who have worked hard for many years. up.

In Hanzhou, the promotion of officials depends on the actual performance, such as the increase in population, the amount of land reclamation, the abundance of production materials, and even the development of the local people's livelihood economy, the improvement of people's living standards, and so on. A series of assessment indicators .

Originally, the geographical location of Pearl Harbor was relatively remote, the soil was not fertile, and the people's main demand for fine grains had to be transshipped from Jianye Mansion, so various developments seemed very difficult.Although some pearls can be fished in the sea, they can be sold to businessmen from Jianye Mansion in exchange for some urgently needed funds.But this thing cannot really improve the local people's livelihood and economy. It is necessary to develop workshops and build factories and mines. This is the hard power of a region's development.

Of course, if the southwestern area of ​​Hanzhou develops, or if merchant ships traveling to and from Batavia can stop here halfway, Pearl Harbor can also develop by relying on its status as a midway supply ship.

However, it may take more than ten years to wait for the development of the southwest of Hanzhou, and those merchant ships traveling to and from Batavia like to sail along the coast of Java Island. The Kingdom of Banten and the Kingdom of Mataland.If they sail directly to Pearl Harbor and then return to Jianye Port, although it saves time on the journey, it also wastes a lot of business opportunities.

So far, only the transport ships returning to Jianye Port from Dog Island (now Christmas Island, Australia) will stop at Pearl Harbor, but the number of ships is very small, only three or four ships per month, all of which are transport islands Phosphate mines on the mainland to Hanzhou mainland.

The development of Pearl Harbor has only just started. If it is to be improved, it may take several years to achieve success.

(End of this chapter)