Wild North America 1846

Sensing His Majesty's unwavering expression, the Minister of the Colonial Department, Liu Daqing, figured it out for a while, and understood where the problem was, and immediately asked for an order to solve it.

After getting permission from the Holy Majesty, Liu Daqing said "Apologize", and hurried away.

Today's Kalimantan Island is under military control. The empire has aggressively implemented a colonial policy, dispatched encirclement and suppression teams to destroy the Malay indigenous tribes in the jungle, and captured male laborers and sent them to hard labor camps.

The original order has been broken, and a new order is being established. Coupled with the massive infrastructure construction, it is not surprising that there is some confusion.

The military's governance has always been simple and rough. It would be surprising if the Royal Guards had the meticulous and skillful governance ability of Hu Yongtang, a high-ranking official in heaven.

The key lies in the colonization of tropical areas, and the most important thing is to prevent the spread of tropical plagues and diseases.

Numerous painful lessons have shown that if there is a slight error in this respect, many people will die.

Therefore, when colonizing tropical areas, sanitation measures must be in place to prevent the occurrence of diseases as much as possible.

at this point
The colonial officials in Samarinda obviously didn't do a good job. The Colonial Minister Liu Daqing hurried over to wipe the ass of these subordinates and take emergency measures to make up for their mistakes.

only half a day
You can see a large number of soldiers in teams of five or six, urging the laborers to clean up the corners of the sanitation, clean up the excrement and toilets, sprinkle lime for disinfection, and get busy all over the city.

After getting off work in the evening, the convicts gathered together to take a bath by the river, threw all their clothes into a cauldron and boiled them in hot water, and then took them to the river to wash and dry.

The whole city took action to clean up the dead corners of sanitation, and filled the black pond where flies were flying freely. A large number of rags, rotten wood, and garbage that had been placed for an unknown amount of time were cleared out, and there were even shallow buried corpses.

In just half a day, hundreds of carts of garbage were cleared out, and this action will intensify tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to thoroughly clean up and sanitize the entire city.

In Samarinda

A large number of Dutch white plantations and mature fields opened up by indigenous tribes, some of which are owned by the royal family farms, and the rest are allocated by the military.

Generally speaking, it will be distributed to retired officers and soldiers in the form of meritorious service. After the local garrison officers and soldiers retire, they will take root on the spot and become planters of all sizes.

This practice has been a long-standing practice.

The insufficient part of the distribution of officers and soldiers is obtained from the newly reclaimed "black land".

The so-called "black land" refers to the land opened up in the tropical jungle along the road around the island.

These lands have undergone organized burning, basically burning all the bottom bushes in the tropical forest, leaving a patch of dark and miserable towering trees everywhere, and a thick layer of black plant ash after the burning of the land.

Stepping in with one foot, it can reach the calf position from the top of the foot.

After several rains washed away, the black water formed by plant ash penetrated deeply into the land. This is the so-called "black land".

After the "black land" is burned, it usually takes 1 to 2 months to be placed. The colonial government will organize a logging team to enter, fell down the tall trees, remove the branches, and then saw them into sections of 3 to 4 meters.

These big trees are hauled by the transport team to the lumber yard, piled up into piles of wood like hills, covered with straw mats to dry in the shade, and finally made into wood for building houses.

The "black land" could not be delivered at this time, and the final step was for the "convicts" to enter the field, dig out the remaining big tree roots one by one, and pile them on one side of the field.

This is the most tiring work, and it is usually undertaken by the convicts. After clearing the roots of a "black field", they move on to the next construction site.

Repeatedly, the heavy labor is almost endless.

As long as the local area does not stop burning wasteland for one day, the hard work of digging roots will not stop, and it may last for 10 to 20 years, or even longer.

The "black land" cleaned up by the convicts can be delivered, and there are two destinations;
One is allocated to retired officers and soldiers. Most of these black lands are fertile lands close to cities, with relatively convenient transportation and convenient irrigation by rivers.

The so-called proximity to the water is the first to get the moon, and the military still takes great care of its retired soldiers.

There is no doubt that one acre of meritorious land allocated to retired soldiers is one acre if you want to get cultivated mature land.

If you choose "black land", there are preferential policies in East Kalimantan Province, and land title certificates can be granted at a ratio of 1:2.2.

For example, if a soldier has 40 acres of meritorious land, he can get 88 acres if he chooses "black land". If he invests in savings and buys more, he can buy another 50 acres at a discounted price from the military.

For the excess, the land has to be purchased at the market price.

With the introduction of such a policy, most retired soldiers are willing to choose "black land". After all, the area is much larger. After it is reclaimed, they can enjoy the lifetime preferential policy of "ten taxes and one".

The concept of the lifetime preferential policy is that before the death of retired officers and soldiers, these meritorious fields can enjoy the preferential taxation of "ten taxes and one".

After death, these meritorious fields will be inherited by their children, and their nature will be transformed into ordinary civilian fields with "ten taxes and three" at the same time.

"Meritorious Fields" cannot be transferred or sold, and can only be obtained through inheritance.

"Private land" can be transferred and sold through registration registration with government departments, but a property transfer tax of 10% of the transaction amount will be charged.

6% of this tax is handed over to the central government of the empire, and 4% belongs to the fiscal revenue of the local government. It is only reasonable and legal after filing.

Within the scope of the royal territory, 6% is handed over to the Royal Household Office, and 4% is retained at the local level for financial expenditure and construction.

Now in the mainland of the empire, seven or eight out of ten of the earliest generation of retired officers and soldiers have withered, and most of the land has been turned into civilian land, and there are very few meritorious land that still enjoy tax incentives.

The second destination of "black land" is to flow to the market. Most of them fall into the hands of Chinese immigrants through public listing and sale.

Most of these Chinese immigrants from Paradise Province, mostly use clan surnames and relatives and friends to form teams ranging from 20 to 50 people to acquire land.

Purchases of thousands of acres are common, and large purchases of tens of thousands of acres are not uncommon.

This is because everyone knows that every colonization war is a good opportunity to acquire a large amount of high-quality land.

If you miss such a good opportunity, how will you not know the year of the monkey next time?

The "black land" listed by the colonial government is all on both sides of the road around the island. For example, the road around the island in Samarinda is oriented north-south.

Then the listing of the "South 17.6 C plot, 1270 acres" plot is easy to understand.

This land is 17.6 kilometers south of the city of Samarinda. It is a "C" land with a total area of ​​1270 acres. This is the basic information of the land.

If you want to know the details, you must conduct an on-site survey.

Such a plot is suitable for a pioneering team of more than 10 people to bid, and it is also suitable for a large team that bids for multiple plots nearby.For example, the Liujia Farm three-point game and the like.After all, the entire area exceeds 5 acres, or even tens of thousands of acres of "black land". Good geographical conditions are either occupied by military officials, or held in the hands of the colonial government, up for sale.

Samarinda holds black-field auctions twice a week. Most of the colonial teams who are interested in bidding pay close attention to it. They have done enough homework in advance, and many people will go to the auction land to check in advance.

For example, the direction of the river, whether the land is hilly, the soil quality and other conditions, etc., will all affect the final price of the auction.

For high-quality black land, the unit price per acre can fetch 28 to 30 Tang yuan, while for poorer black land, the unit price of 10 Tang yuan per acre is not enough.

The prices of these black lands are generally not high, because the current supply is relatively large, and in addition, long-term investment is required.

Every time after the auction of the "black land", there are always hundreds of thousands of Chinese immigrants leaving Samarinda, marching towards the "black land" they have won.

All the banks in the empire have branches in Samarinda to provide loan services for immigrants. The collateral is the "black land" they auctioned, and the loan can be up to 6%.

Every Chinese immigrant's reclamation and pioneering team needs to be equipped with at least 1-2 tractors, 6-10 cattle, various agricultural machinery, and seeds and fertilizers.

The usual procedure is that after arriving in the black land, a large amount of wood purchased from the wood processing factory will be shipped in one after another, and the simple workshop will start to be built.

at the same time
The black land needs to be thoroughly cleaned. The countless branches and branches cut down in the ground must be cleaned up, and the useless large tree roots must be transported to one side and piled up.

Then the tractors came in and started leveling the land, raking out the grass roots and gravel, filling in potholes, digging ditches and ridges, and sorting out the land piece by piece.

Then the land needs to be plowed and exposed to the sun for at least 10 days, and then the deeply plowed land is crushed and leveled. Only then can crops be planted. The next step is to divert water for irrigation...

Basically, from the moment you enter the black land, you enter high-intensity farming.After one piece of land is cultivated, continue to cultivate the next piece of land, and so on.

not a few years

It is impossible to reclaim thousands of acres of land. This needs to be advanced step by step, and there is no rush.

Fortunately, Chinese immigrants have never been afraid of hardships or sweating. They work hard on their own land and can work from morning to night like old scalpers.

As long as the wasteland is opened up on the black land, it basically enters a virtuous circle.

The scattered vegetable seeds can be harvested in more than a month, the rice can mature in three months, and three crops can be harvested in a year. A steady stream of food can be produced.

Once there is grain, it can be sold, and rice bran and wheat bran are used to feed livestock and poultry. After establishing a firm foothold, the output will increase with the expansion of the planting area.

Chinese farms are all developed in this way, and a relatively scientific and rigorous procedure has been formed, which has greatly improved the efficiency of pioneering, and basically saw the benefits in the same year.

The colonial government of East Kalimantan Province can obtain a large amount of funds from the sale of black land. In addition to the part handed over to the Royal Office of the Interior, the self-retained part can well subsidize the construction cost.

With money, you can invest heavily in important cities in the province such as Samarinda and Balikpapan according to the standards of a medium-sized city in the empire, expand roads and bridges, improve urban sewage culvert facilities, and build major municipal buildings, squares, and thermal power plants , hydropower stations and dams, and improving public facilities including street lights, parks, and toilets, a lot needs to be done.

The urban appearance of Samarinda is changing every day, from a small town in the Netherlands to a modern medium-sized city.

This process will take at least ten years to see significant results, and the entire city will be completely new from top to bottom.

Emperor Richard spent a month and a half visiting important towns such as Samarinda, Balikpapan, Banjarmasin, Sampit, and Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan Province. There was a scene of prosperous construction everywhere.

Of course, there was a lot of chaos and turmoil.

in the tropical jungle
There are still some indigenous armed forces that were dispersed during the war, and from time to time they will attack construction camps and Chinese colonization teams, causing varying losses.

But with the deepening of colonization, similar stragglers and rogues have become less and less.

The Chinese colonization team is not unarmed, especially the retired soldier farm, equipped with weapons and daily armed patrols is common.

Those natives hiding in the jungle were poorly armed and only had cold weapons. Many times, their attacks were tantamount to killing themselves and kicking on the iron plate.The grasshopper after autumn can't jump for a long time.

in Kalimantan
The most mature area is the area along the 300-kilometer section from Sampit in Central Kalimantan to the capital Palangkaraya, where there were originally more than 2700 manors and plantations of white colonists.

There are ravines here and there, and the rice fields are endless. It is a fertile field with an area of ​​hundreds of thousands of acres and a long development history of hundreds of years.

This area is also a place where retired officers and soldiers of the imperial imperial guards gather densely. Hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land have been divided up, and most of them are meritorious fields.

Regardless of the security environment, social order or geographical conditions, it is the best choice.

This area is also a place that Emperor Li Cha was relatively satisfied with after his inspection. After making up for the shortcomings in infrastructure construction, the distribution of villages and towns has become very mature.

Various Dutch-style manor buildings can often be seen here, churches are indispensable in every village and town, and the faces of white women are even more common.

Unlike before the war, these white women were basically family members of Chinese officers and soldiers.

Whether you like it or not, at least there is nothing unusual on the surface.

There are also a few white women who try their best to escape from their families and run to the town or to the seaside, but they are all caught and sent back without exception.

Nowadays, during the period of military control, there are at least a dozen checkpoints from Palangkaraya to Sampit on the coast, and strict checks are carried out on people passing by.

Not to mention these white women, not even a fly can fly past them.

These white women who have been captured will not end well, and it is not one or two that are publicly dipped in a pig cage. This is entirely a local matter.

It is said that such things rarely happen nowadays.

After all, there are only a few women who want to die even though they know they can't escape.

The arms can't twist the thighs, and many white women simply lie flat after giving birth to mixed-race children, and live with peace of mind.

The entire island of Kalimantan is now in the stage of transition from chaos to order, in the stage of infrastructure construction boom, and in the stage of increasingly fierce land reclamation and colonization.

Along both sides of the road around the island, a large area of ​​rainforest has been burned and felled, and millions of acres of land are reclaimed every year. More and more Chinese immigrants are pouring into this hot land.

Change... is happening all the time.

When tens of millions of people gather together, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Java are all undergoing radical changes.

This kind of enthusiasm for land reclamation and colonization is something that the Dutch dream of but cannot do. (end of this chapter)