1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 515 Difficult Start in the West ([-])
On September 9, Bi Zhengxing bid farewell to the civil affairs officials at Pearl Harbor and continued southward by boat.

On September 9, the ship arrived at Linhaibao (now Port Hedland, Australia), a supply transfer point on the northwest coast of Hanzhou.

There is a huge sand embankment and a small island on the outskirts of Linhai Fort, which will form a huge tidal current every time the tide rises and falls.At the same time, the estuary is relatively narrow, only more than 100 meters wide. If you come here at night, it will be very difficult to enter the port. If you are not careful, you will crash into the land on the shore.

If there are no other resources in Pearl Harbor ahead, but at least some pearls can be fished out of the sea, and they will bring much-needed development funds to the local area.As for Linhai Fort, it was really poor and empty, even with very few trees.Except for some green plants along the coast, seven or eight miles into the inland area, as far as the eye can see, there is a barren and desolate scenery.

As for the land under our feet, it is even more barren. The population of the entire Linhai Fort is only about a hundred people. The surrounding area of ​​the residential area is just a simple circle of fences surrounded by sticks of wood. In terms of defense, it is only beneficial to the local residents. A psychological soothing effect.

According to the regional planning of the Prime Minister's Office, Linhai Fort is already under the jurisdiction of the Southwest General Administration. When the local commanders and captains of the village soldiers saw the hundreds of immigrants on board, they couldn't help showing longing expressions, and licked their faces to Bi Zhengxing. Ask for some to populate the local population.

Seeing the situation here and the poor conditions, Bi Zhengxing couldn't help shaking his head slightly and sighing.Although since last year, the Qi State Immigration Department has determined that the number of immigrants from Daming should not be less than 2 each year, it sounds like a lot.But for the vast continent of Hanzhou, it is like a basin of water thrown into the sea, which cannot satisfy the extreme thirst for population of civil affairs officials in various places.

As for the incoming immigrants, most of the allocated quotas were taken away by the eastern region. The rest were the factories and mines in the northern part of Hanzhou, several colonization points on Timor Island, and several overseas territories such as Naweiyuan Island. Divide up a small part of the rest.As for the share of immigrants that can be left to the southwestern region of Hanzhou in the end, it becomes very small.

When he left Jianye City, he worked hard to get the immigration department to reluctantly agree to allocate no less than 2000 immigrants to the southwest region every year, which fully doubled the share compared to before.

With a small population, it is natural to be limited in what you can do.Naturally, civil affairs officials from all over the country are trying their best to apply for various immigration quotas in order to increase the population size under their jurisdiction.Otherwise, the population will not increase, and development will be out of the question.

But Bi Zhengxing directly rejected the command of Linhai Fort. You can't even support yourself with food here. Instead, you need to import it from other areas of Hanzhou. If you have a population, wouldn't that increase the burden of material supply.

"You don't need to be depressed." Seeing the disappointed expressions of several local civil affairs officials, Bi Zhengxing said with a smile: "Before coming here from Jianye City, the Ministry of Industry once said that there is a huge amount of iron ore in the inland area of ​​​​Linhaibao, and For this reason, send a few mining technicians here with the ship, and you need to wait for them. If you find iron ore, let alone replenish some people, I am afraid that the Ministry of Industry and Heishan Iron and Steel Plant will take the initiative to invest a lot of people, materials and funds. Come to Linhai Fort. So, do you still worry about the future development of Linhai Fort?"

"Your Excellency's words are serious?" Linhai Fort Commander Lou Yuwen asked in surprise.

"Why should I lie to you!" Bi Zhengxing said with a smile: "But you can't just wait for the iron ore to be implemented and enjoy foreign investment. The people's livelihood and economy that should exist here need to be strengthened. Although the reclamation land near the sea is barren , but you need to apply more fertilizers to the ground, so as to cultivate the soil and develop agricultural planting. In the short term, you are not expected to be self-sufficient in food in Linhaibao, but at least produce some fruits and vegetables, and some coarse grains. If You must blindly rely on external input, not to mention wasting capacity, even if there is a change, you will be able to sustain yourself here for a while."

"Your Excellency said so." Lou Yuwen promised, "Since Linhai Fort was established two years ago, I have only reclaimed more than [-] acres of wasteland. Except for some crude grains such as sorghum, potatoes, and corn, the other crops are It is difficult to grow. Nowadays, through continuous composting and manure collection, there have been dozens of acres of land recently, and some fruits and vegetables have been produced, which are enough for local residents and ships to replenish and eat. If iron ore and steel factories are really built, I am afraid the non-staple food for the increased personnel Consumption is bound to be insufficient. We really need to find ways to improve one or two, thinking that it will be a long-term plan."

"I produced phosphate mines on Gou'er Island (now Christmas Island, Australia) overseas in Qi State, and the effect on improving barren soil was quite good. After a while, I submitted a document to the Ministry of Industry, asking them to bring some to Linhaibao. " Bi Zhengxing said.

"Thank you, my lord." Lou Yuwen saluted again.

"There is no need to be like this, we are all doing our best for Daqi's prosperity."

After several years in Hanzhou, what Bi Zhengxing felt the most was the pragmatic and dedicated attitude of the officials here.Although many of them were down-and-out literati in the Ming Dynasty, and some of them were just ordinary people who were fluent in writing and ink. They didn't have much literary talent, and they didn't have any romantic style, but what they did was only hard work.Except that when the king was the head of civil affairs in Hanzhou, he set up a number of people's livelihood assessment regulations, forcing officials in power to work hard to complete various indicators.But more, more or less affected by the positive environment of the entire nascent regime, they are all proactive and decisive in doing things, and dare to be the first.

Their national power is gradually improving, their strength is gradually increasing, and their population is increasing, so that every official in charge seems to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment from it.

Of course, more importantly, with the rapid increase of Qi's population and the continuous extension of the expansion area, the promotion channels and promotion positions of each official also increased accordingly.Capable, with actual performance, a higher position, more power, will naturally be given to you.This year, he is only the commander of a small pioneering land. Maybe after several years of rapid development, he will soon become the head of a county, or even the head of a prefecture.Perhaps, the senior officials of the ministry and the position of prime minister can also be thought about.

On September 9, Bi Zhengxing and his party sailed three hundred miles away to Jingjiangbao (now the city of Karratha near Dampier Port in Western Australia), a small supply transfer point with a population of only a hundred people.

Due to the influence of the sea tide, there are a lot of salt marshes around Jingjiang Fort, surrounded by mangrove forests, and there are low mountains in the distance. The land is still very barren like Linhai Fort.

The fleet unloaded some food and daily necessities here, and after staying for one night, they continued to the next supply transfer point, Xiningbao (now Caernarfon City, Western Australia), a seaside stronghold established at the mouth of the river.

After sailing for more than ten days, they finally saw a large area of ​​greenery again. Bi Zhengxing and others knew that the end of the trip - Guizhou Fort (now Perth, Australia) was not far away.

Although Xining Fort was established only a year ago, because the geographical conditions here are much superior to those of the previous desolate supply points, a Xining River (the Gascoigne River that flows through Caernarfon City) flows from Flowing outside the city, along one side of the river, more than [-] residents here have cultivated nearly [-] acres of arable land, planting some easy-to-grow sorghum, corn, soybeans, potatoes, and a small amount of wheat.Looking at the green seedlings, Bi Zhengxing, the head of the southwest region, finally showed a relaxed look.

If the crops in the field can grow so well in the second year of land reclamation, it means that the soil here is relatively fertile, and it should be able to achieve complete food self-sufficiency next year, and there may be surplus, but For other barren areas to eat.This is the most critical thing for newly colonized areas.After all, it would cost too much to blindly transport food and various daily necessities from the far north of Hanzhou.

According to Hanzhou's years of colonization experience, it is generally difficult to achieve complete food self-sufficiency in newly opened land within two years.Therefore, when pioneering, generally there will not be many immigrants, and even in some barren and desolate places, only dozens or hundreds of people are stationed, just to reduce the transfer of supplies.

However, for areas with relatively good conditions and places that need to be developed, the initial investment in personnel and materials will increase accordingly, such as the original Weihai City (now Cairns, Australia) and the later Daxing City (now Brisbane, Australia) , 600 people were resettled at one time, and in a short period of time, the basic construction of the newly opened land was roughly completed.

When the exploration fleet traveled to the southwestern area of ​​Hanzhou, it found that the geographical and climatic conditions here are extremely superior. It stands to reason that they can also get strong support from the Ministry of Immigration and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, providing more immigrants and materials for vigorous construction.

However, it is too far away from the well-developed northern area of ​​Hanzhou. If a fleet is organized to transfer materials and people, it is tantamount to a second ultra-long-distance immigration, and the loss will be huge.

Therefore, the development of the entire southwestern part of Hanzhou is a very difficult and long process.It took three years from the establishment of the first supply point Pearl Harbor (now Broome, a small coastal town in northwest Australia) to the real settlement in Guizhou (now Perth, Australia) this year, and Pearl Harbor was successively established along the way. , Linhai Fort, Jingjiang Fort, Xining Fort, Jieshi Fort (now Geraldton City, Western Australia), Anfeng Fort (now a small town in Jurien Bay, southwest Australia), etc., and gradually expanded to the southwest of Hanzhou Essence area.

This is also three years after the development of the southwest region. After the preliminary establishment of the supply points along the way, the Prime Minister's Office officially established the Southwest Administration District, and began to carry out unified planning and development of the above-mentioned areas.However, considering the extremely limited number of immigrants each year, it may still not be able to meet the population filling needs of this place, and the future development will still be difficult and long.

(End of this chapter)