Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1385 Population and the Future

On September 1664, 9, Liao Jiangong was walking on the edge of a golden birch forest, with withered yellow weeds and shrubs everywhere at his feet. This was an undeveloped wasteland. Not far away was the sea, which was roaring lowly. It seems to welcome the arrival of winter.Sakhalin Island in September is indeed cold enough!

"The winter here is as cold as Ognets province, but the summer is like Arkhangelsk..." There was a soft comment in the ear, which was two people who had intentionally wounded (beating an Italian laborer to death). Seriously injured), the Russian convicts who were exiled here now serve as Liao Jiangong's servants and guards.

Like most exiled prisoners, they are docile, well-behaved, and rarely make trouble (after all, they have been exiled once, and everyone knows the consequences of making trouble again). Hats off and bow.

Liao Jiangong soon arrived at his destination, which was a barracks hidden in the bushes, surrounded by some fields and planted with rye, but the harvest had been completed at this moment, and there were only some scrambled wheat stalks left in the field.There are still some vegetables planted on the edge of the field ridge, and it is almost time to harvest, because the cold winter is coming.

More than 200 exiled prisoners live here. They are familiar with all the things and rules and regulations here under the guidance of the training officer, while conducting group training.Once the war broke out, the probability of convicts going to the battlefield was much higher than that of ordinary people. Like the recruited Japanese samurai and Shandan savages, they were the best cannon fodder to die in battle.

Liao Jiangong was sitting on a long bench, flipping through the list of newly arrived prisoners in exile.Most of the exiled prisoners are adult males, and there are very few old and weak women and children. They are basically family members who voluntarily come to live with the exiled prisoners.According to regulations, the magistrate of the territory where the exiled prisoners landed will determine their distribution power, so whether they will be kept in the city to serve, or they will be assigned to wild villages and post stations, or sent to lumberyards, quarries, etc. Coal mines, seafood processing plants, wharves and other places to act as workers are all decided by him, Liao.

Generally speaking, according to the usual practice, skilled, young exiled prisoners who committed minor crimes will be kept in the city or in suburban villages to serve, and ordinary exiled prisoners who have committed slightly more serious crimes will be assigned to the barren mountains. In villages or post stations, the most heinous and older exiled prisoners will be assigned to do coolies (the death rate is extremely high, which basically means life imprisonment), and Liao Jiangong naturally follows this principle.

"Murderers, serious thieves, cultists, unattended prisoners of war, savage aborigines, tsk tsk, counterfeiters, embezzlers, smugglers, deserters, it's a mess of demons, anyone dares to come here " Liao Jiangong said in a mocking tone after flipping through the roster.He really has no reason to think highly of these exiled prisoners. Although there are occasional real talents among them, the proportion is too low to be worth mentioning. Most of them are scum, outright scum.

While evaluating, Liao Jiangong picked up a self-confession statement from an exile. This is a statement from Philip, an Italian counterfeit banknote maker. It can bring me an income of 50 yuan a day. No one has ever been able to find out, but after I decided to wash my hands, I was detected by the detectives of the Mei Agency. This is God’s punishment for me. From my professional point of view, The production of various bills of exchange, exchange notes, treasury bills, and bonds is so bad that a clumsy woman can print them at home..."

Liao Jiangong smiled unconsciously when he read this. The counterfeit banknote maker named Philip said a lot later, which was faithfully recorded by the police of the Dabo County Public Security Bureau. He did not shy away from talking about his past, and often spoke out Ridiculous, devaluing the State Administration of Precious Metals and major mints to nothing.

I opened another interrogation document and scanned all the lines at a glance, only to see a certain paragraph that asked: "Are you married?" and answered: "Married, but I killed my wife." Such content can be seen everywhere , From this we can see who are the people assigned, and what attitude should be used to manage them.

"Crack!" With a sound, Liao Jiangong put all the materials together and didn't bother to read them again.After lighting a pipe for himself, he spread out a map with a map of Dabo County drawn on it, and each village and each forest farm was clearly marked on it: Yushuwan, Zhashu Village, Larch Village, Geda Village, Heixiong Village, Dongshan Forest Farm, etc., each village has dozens to hundreds of residents scattered over a very wide range.Many villages were set up along the traffic lines. In the early days, most of them were post stations or military checkpoints. They gradually developed from immigration. Of course, these villages still serve as supply points and post stations, controlling the place for the people on the east coast and naturalizing the natives. played a strong role.

These villages, post stations, checkpoints and mines are undoubtedly the future home of many exiled prisoners, and now Liao Jiangong will decide their fate, whether to die or live, to live a relatively comfortable life, or to be in endless labor. Struggling in pain, it is completely up to him to decide with one word. This kind of pleasure of controlling other people's life and death makes Liao Jiangong especially fascinated.

After carefully checking the distribution on the roster with a pen, Liao Jiangong sorted out the files and handed them over to the head of the convict management station of this department for execution—the distribution should be completed within a few days.After these exiled prisoners leave, this barracks will also be vacated and gradually transformed into a village to accommodate some immigrants from the south, just as it was also used to resettle immigrants from the south at the beginning (immigration from Huai’an Prefecture, now embarked and left for more than two years).

As for the southern immigrants who will be resettled here, most of them are actually from Ningbo and Terengganu, with more of the former.Because under the governance of the people from the east coast, the population of the two places, which have been in peace for many years and have relatively good economic development, has increased day by day. Among them, the population of Terengganu has exceeded 45, which is not too far away from 50; and Ningbo The population of the prefecture (including Tiantai, Ninghai and other counties newly occupied in recent years) is larger, and it is probably close to a million people. Although it may not have recovered to the peak number in the Wanli period of the middle and late Ming Dynasty, It is not too far away from here after more than ten years of Taiping. Of course, this is also related to the fact that the population of Ningbo Prefecture did not suffer major damage during the Ding Revolution in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties.

Ningbo and Dengzhou have a combined population of 50 million, which is almost the same as that of the mainland on the east coast. This is also very scary.Fortunately, in Terengganu Prefecture, the contradiction between people and land is not too great, and there is still room for the population to continue to grow, but it is a bit difficult for Ningbo Prefecture. At present, the contradiction between local people and land has become prominent. The signs are already clear.Ningbo Prefecture, which mainly produces cash crops, currently has a large amount of labor absorbed into the tea and silk industries (which naturally leads to a large amount of food imported from abroad), and many landless residents have to go to sea to find other job opportunities. For example, go to Denglai, North Korea or Heishui area, where the land is sparsely populated and there are many job opportunities. As long as you are willing to endure hardships, you can still support yourself.

At this time, the former concentration camp for exiles where Liao Jiangong is located will accept a group of immigrants from Ningbo Prefecture with a scale of about [-] people. , settle down in the wasteland around this concentration camp, and multiply. While relieving the pressure of the population increase in Ningbo Prefecture, it also enriches the population of Sakhalin Island to better develop local agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery resources.

What?You said that these people might not be able to adapt to the bitter cold climate in the Northeast?Hehe, in fact, people are very adaptable. Historically, during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the troops sent to Ningguta and the outer northeast of San Francisco (mostly from Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hunan) were living well. ?These immigrants from Ningbo Prefecture live in houses with less air leakage, have cotton-padded quilts to keep out the cold, and have enough food (which means calorie intake) in Dabo County. They are better than those who surrendered. After getting through the initial period, it will be fine if you get used to it slowly. To some extent, the Tsarist Russian government, which vigorously immigrated to Sakhalin Island in the 19th century, had to envy the people on the east coast, because they could The cost of immigrating from China is relatively low. It doesn’t take half a year to transport people across half the world from Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. Of course, those immigrants who come by land even take three years longer than immigrants by sea. , These are all real things that happened in history, so the Russians definitely have reason to envy the people on the east coast.

In addition to these southern immigrants from Ningbo Prefecture (and a small number from Denglei area and Jeju Island), people from the east coast also have another major source of immigration in places such as Sakhalin Island, Ezo, Outer Northeast, and Kamchatka. , such as the tens of thousands of Portuguese and their mixed descendants in Macau.I have already recruited a group before, but I went to Australia and Rabaul. This time Liao Xiaoyao wrote a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Jiang Zhiqing of the Southern Exploration Team, asking him to help recruit another group of Portuguese who have no food and clothing from Macau City. People, went to the outer northeast to reclaim wasteland and settle down.

Jiang Zhiqing himself has basically agreed to this request, and turned to ask Shao Shuguang of the Bank of Taiwan to take charge of the matter, and take these Macau people who can't live longer to the sea of ​​Okhotsk for reclamation by boat.I believe that these Portuguese will not refuse, because many of them can no longer live happily, and Gein Church has no food left now, so it is impossible to provide them with food—the group of Ming businessmen in Xiangshan County are shrewd forces It's very good, if you don't have money, you won't sell a grain of grain to you, not to mention that they have also received greetings from people on the east coast, and they have basically dispersed now, despite the suffering of the Portuguese in Macau, In the end, he had to succumb to the people on the east coast to go to sea to reclaim wasteland, and became cannon fodder for the king's pioneer.

As for whether it is possible to naturalize the natives on the island to expand the population, how to put it, it is not impossible, but the potential is really limited.The people on the east coast have ruled Sakhalin Island for so many years, and the relatively warm west coast (although there is also the Okhotsk cold current going south, but the tributary of the Japanese warm current going north) has basically traveled all over the place, and the expedition team has traveled all over the mountains all year round. Maps were drawn and indigenous villages were sought, but there was little to be gained, let alone the colder and relatively sparsely populated east coast.Therefore, there are really not many natives on Sakhalin Island at present. Most of the people who should be naturalized have already been naturalized. It would be great to have a few thousand people scattered in the mountains, basically not in the black The water development team is within the consideration of the government.

If you want to expand the population of Sakhalin Island, you have no choice but to immigrate!Ming people, Japanese, Koreans, Portuguese, Mestizos (mixed-race people in Macau), Russians, Tungusians, and exiled prisoners are all welcome, as long as there are enough people to come to work. Who are you, anyway, after two or three generations, you will have to assimilate until your parents don't recognize you.

Population, and only population, is what the Blackwater region needs most at present.Otherwise, why should they compete with the Russians, Japanese and even Chinese in the future?Especially the Chinese, if they do not have sufficient military power and population, if China is unified in the future, then the black water is likely to be swallowed up to the dregs. Although this is unlikely, one must be on guard, right?

After finishing the affairs of the concentration camp for exiled prisoners, Liao Jiangong hurried back to Dabo County with his entourage.Autumn in Sakhalin Island is very short. The weather will turn cold in October, and the port will freeze in mid-to-late November (the northern half of Sakhalin Island may freeze earlier), so we must seize this golden time to do more Beneficial things like hunting and slaughtering to stock up on food for the winter.

The hunting locations are located in the southwest of Rishiri Island and Rebun Island. The cattle, sheep, roe deer and other animals that were raised on these two islands are now overrun. The number always recovers easily, so after asking for instructions and getting Liang Xiangjian's approval, Liao Jiangong, the county magistrate of Dabo, who just took off the word "agent" on his head, is going to do a big one this year, that is, organize a large number of people to concentrate on hunting in previous years. Two to three times the number of cattle, sheep and roe deer.

The benefits of hunting these livestock are many: the leather can be sold to the south, the fat can be sent to Yantai to make soap, the meat can be marinated with salt and spices, part of it is used for its own consumption, and part of it is barreled with the salted fish in the underground ice cellar , and sent to Denglai or Ningbo by boat to serve as military rations.After all, the current situation on the mainland is quite strange. The Qing Dynasty seems to be in urgent need of strength, planning to launch a large-scale invasion of the south to completely eliminate the separatist forces in Dashun, Daxi, Nanming, King Lu and other places, so as to unify the whole country.

As the yellow-clothed thief on the east bank who has always hindered "national unification and national integration", it is natural that he has to prepare his troops and make preparations in advance so that he can respond in time if something happens, and the military food reserves are undoubtedly important. The most important.

(End of this chapter)