Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1494

But at a time when the situation in China is tense and the flames of war are about to rise, the people on the east coast are still adhering to the usual rhythm and carrying out the immigration transportation work that is coming two months later.From the perspective of officials in the Far East, the task of transporting immigrants is not as big as the sky and the earth. All kinds of activities such as trade, war, and diplomacy must serve this purpose. This principle will probably not be seen in the short term. No change possible anymore.

It is worth mentioning that after so many years of transportation, the immigrants from Huai'an Prefecture who were originally scattered in various places are finally left this year. About 1 people live in Dabo County for logging, seaweed fishing, Except for a few older or weaker immigrants who are really not suitable for ocean voyages (certificates issued by the local government are required), the vast majority They will bid farewell to the place where they have lived for many years, and embark on a strange and dangerous journey on board.

In addition to these people, there are also a large number of Dan people and ordinary immigrants in the vicinity of Ningbo Prefecture and Haizhu Island Commercial Station (usually from Guangzhou Prefecture or Huizhou Prefecture. In the past two years, Li Chengdong and Zheng Chenggong in Chaozhou Prefecture have been fighting endlessly, and there are also a large number of immigrants. There are few war refugees) waiting to depart for the mainland on the east coast. The above is the total immigrant population this year, about 1 people, which can be transported away in one go-the six immigrant transport ships promised by the mainland have been in place. Six ships have also been built and are on their way to the Far East. It is believed that after these [-] new ships are put into operation (four ships will be assigned to each voyage), the annual capacity will increase by about [-] people in a short period of time. And it should last for two to three years.After two or three years, as the service life of a group of immigrant transport ships expires, the capacity of immigrant transport will slowly return to the usual level.

However, due to sudden events such as SD drought and locust plague, SD has accumulated a large number of victims in two or three years, and the total number is as high as 34.At that time, in order to feed these victims, the local executive committee ordered Australia, Tahiti, Rabaul and other colonies to collect a batch of food within their ability and ship it to Ningbo and SD for the victims to eat. .In exchange, the executive committee acquiesced in the document that in the next two or three years, the above three places could "properly" retain a group of more disaster victims on the basis of the past, so as to support local construction and economic development.

Therefore, it can be said that the SD drought is actually a rare opportunity for the above three places. After all, how can there be such a good opportunity to intercept immigrants? It seems that the interception of immigrants has always been the patent of New China and South Africa. Australia, Labao Except for a small number of immigrants stranded due to physical reasons, it is basically impossible to catch anyone (Australia may even be drawn by Chile), and because Tahiti is not on the route passed by immigrants, except for the natives of the Pacific Islands Except for the local exiled prisoners, there is no foreign population to supplement them, and it is even more miserable.

For example, the Australian colony has received about 7000 more people in the past two years, which made Wang Yan, the captain of the Australian Pioneering Team, happy from ear to ear. It seems that he can finally get rid of the dilemma that there are more kangaroos than people in the nearby area.Some of these 6000 people were divided into two counties of Jinshan and Gushan to enrich the local population, and some of them were assigned to the later generations of XN Bay together with some young people from the above two counties (of course, the local exiled prisoners were also indispensable). and set up several new settlements here, namely Jingcheng Harbor near XN City in later generations, Sydney Township near Parramatta City in later generations, Qingchi Township near Richmond City in later generations, and It is located in Dongguang Township near Camden City in later generations.

The establishment of these four settlements basically enclosed a piece of plain along the coast of XN Bay in later generations. It can be said that the essence is in hand, and it will basically be the basic board of a county in the future.Of course, the establishment of these four settlements has to be reported to the Executive Committee and the State Development Bureau for approval, but Wang Yan thinks that the problem is not a big one, it’s just a formality--God, Australia has been developing without death for so many years Is it easy? Leaving aside the shortage of manpower caused by several blood draws in this Chilean region, how many years has its development been restricted by its closed economy and poor trade?That is to say, after the trade with the Dutch East India Company has gradually expanded in recent years, through the sale of wheat, wine, cheese, ham and other agricultural and sideline products that meet the taste of the Dutch, as well as a small number of handmade products that will be used during religious festivals, slowly It broke the original situation of a pool of stagnant water, and made the economy have such a lively atmosphere.

However, the scale of this kind of trade is destined to have an upper limit, and for the huge Australian colony, it is also destined to be unable to rely on it as a pillar.The Australian colonies want to develop, in addition to actively exploring trade with the Far East San Francisco, Ming and Qing Dynasties, RB Korea and other regions (in fact, this is also very difficult, because Australia really has nothing to sell to them, on the contrary, there are a lot of goods that need to be imported. In addition to being very helpless), the most important thing is to expand its own population and output, and then, together with Rabaul, Tahiti and other places, play the ocean economic zone that has been planned for a long time-in this South Pacific economic zone In China, it is obvious that Australia is the leader and will be in a dominant position, but the premise is to increase the population rapidly. Otherwise, when your population is even smaller than Tahiti, why should you occupy the dominant position in the ocean economic zone? Isn't it funny?

Therefore, the establishment of Jingcheng County this time—in Wang Yan’s mind, the third county under the jurisdiction of the Australian Pioneering Team has already been established. For the 5 people, it is really crucial and an important step for future development.

"It's a pity that the only grain in the warehouse was taken to SD by the returning immigrant transport ship for emergency treatment. Now that I want to develop Jingcheng County, there is quite a bit of food in his mother's mouth. It's really a scam." Jingcheng Harbor Wharf On the morning, Wang Yan, the captain of the Australian Pioneering Team, looked at the pioneers living in the shacks and tents, and began to complain: "It's nothing more than giving food. It's not impossible for us to carry forward our style and tighten our belts. But when I asked Ningbo about the need for land reclamation supplies, they were always pushing back and forth. They always said that the ships were going to the Maluku Islands to bring food, and there was no spare capacity to come to Australia. What nonsense! Liao Xiaoyao, Liang Xiangjian, and Jiang Zhiqing are five people and six people. The guys are a bunch of bastards!"

His chief officer unscrupulously scolded a group of big figures who would shake their feet when they stomped on the ground, which made the lower-level officials who came to inspect with him embarrassed, and could only divert their attention by looking at the "scenery" around them.

It was the beginning of September 1667, at the end of winter in the southern hemisphere, and the weather was still relatively cold.Jingcheng Port is not so much a port city as it is a collection of dirty camps and docks.The camp consisted of thatched shacks and tents. The intercepted immigrants lived in the shacks, and the young pioneers recruited from Jinshan and Gushan counties lived in the tents, as well as military and political officials and their families.

The camp was built among rocks and wild grass, and it seemed that it would not be easy to clean up the surrounding environment in the future.And the smell here is also very "touching". The human and animal excrement transported from Jinshan County like a treasure is piled up next to it. These things are so precious and important that local officials are considering whether to send full armed forces. The militiamen are on duty day and night-of course the above is a joke, in this deserted place (what? There are natives? Are you sure these pioneers treat them as people and not beasts?), No one will come to steal these The baby bump of the East Coasters.

And the reason why these feces are said to be baby bumps is actually for a reason.As early as when people from the east coast colonized near Jinshan Bay, they discovered that the local soil fertility was extremely poor, which may be related to the fact that the Australian continent is too old, and the nutrients in the soil have been washed away, so it is particularly barren.If there is no fertilizer, the land with such conditions will rarely grow food, and even fruits and vegetables will not grow. When they developed the relatively fertile river valleys (they also needed to dig silt from the bottom of the river to fertilize the fields, otherwise they would not grow much food), and marched into the wider wilderness, many of the farms, orchards, and vegetable gardens that were opened up eventually failed. Not discarded, because the output is really outrageously low.

"How's the land here?" After a lot of complaints, maybe the anger has been vented, or the stench wafting in the wind is really suffocating, so Wang Yan didn't continue, but surrounded by his followers. Down, went down to a river bank, grabbed a handful of finely crushed soil, and asked.He knows that there are a lot of similar barren lands in southeastern Australia. If no fertilizer is applied, there is no output at all. Sometimes the seed-to-reap ratio is even less than 1:2, which is also scary, because it is hard for him to imagine such barren land in the world, and It is still a large piece of land, and it is boundless. It is no wonder that the records of the British colonizing Australia XN at the end of the 18th century are full of words such as "barren", "disappointed", "discouraged", "hunger", and "poor harvest".

"I don't know yet, captain, but I don't think we should be too optimistic." An official in his 40s frowned and said. His years of reclamation experience in the Jinshan Bay area gave him an ominous premonition. He felt that Jingcheng There may not be much fertile land in the Bay area that can produce something without fertilizer in the early stage, just like most places in southeastern Australia.

"Fortunately, there is a small river in front of us. No matter how rotten the land on the river bank is, the silt at the bottom of the river still has some nutrients." The official then added: "Look at the reeds, shrubs and wormwood here. The growth is not bad, which shows that the nearby soil texture is acceptable, probably because the river floods every year and brings some nutrients to the river bank. If such a land is planted with sorghum, a crop that is resistant to barrenness, We can still have some harvest, which is really important for the first year of land reclamation."

"Of course, if it really doesn't work, we can still hunt or fish, but this kind of harvest is not very stable and cannot be used as the main source, but only as a supplement." The reclamation official pointed to the river swimming freely in the distance. ducks, and the kangaroos that can be seen everywhere in the deep inland on the shore, said: "But really, sir, I really don't want to eat those unpalatable kangaroo meat. I don't want to eat baked potatoes every day. That kind of thing, even after being processed with a lot of salt and spices, is still the same, it’s really unpalatable, it’s better to send out all SD this time, at least it’s enough to make up for a considerable part of the food.”

Wang Yan didn't say anything after hearing the words.If the quality of the land on the river bank is acceptable, it is estimated that it is very barren in places far away from the river bank. In some places there, even grass and shrubs do not grow very much, which is not as lush as the river bank. It's frustrating.

The land there is varied, ranging from rough sand to very hard clay, and even lots of pebbles, all three of which would be a disaster for agricultural reclamation.Generally speaking, it takes a lot of manpower and resources to transform this kind of land. You first need to clean up the weeds and stones on the ground (this is not the same as "from the Atlantic coast to the Andes, it is full of fertile volcanic ash soil, and you can't even see a volcanic soil." The Great Plains of La Plata is really incomparable), the soil is very finely crushed, and then the silt is dug from the bottom of the river, the manure is transported from the pasture, and a lot of plant ash, animal ashes and so on are mixed together. Stir, after so many improvements, the soil has a little value for growing wheat and other food crops, otherwise it is a waste of seeds and time.

In fact, the quality of the land in this relatively rain-abundant area in southeastern Australia is much worse than that of the "retired veteran cadres" who live in seclusion for the elderly.At least in that area where there are already nearly a thousand people, the wheat yield of the trial planting in the first year is still very impressive, with a seed-to-harvest ratio of more than 1:4, and it is expected that the yield will continue to increase in the second and third years , compared to the hard-pressed Jingcheng and Jinshan areas, it is really a sky and an underground.

Moreover, perhaps because of the halo effect of veteran cadres, the local natives are not even as threatening as here. According to the sailors who delivered the supplies, the native tribes near Ziman Township were also very unfriendly at first. Quan Sheng was worried about how to prevent it, but suddenly smallpox became popular among those native tribes, and then you know, the alarm was lifted all at once, which is also very strange.

"Work hard, the conditions in Australia are just like this, take your time, don't worry." Wang Yan patted the shoulder of the reclamation official, not only comforting others but also comforting himself: "I believe in one sentence, man will conquer nature! As long as we ourselves With hard work and hard work, this large piece of land can be developed in the end. If you can’t do it in a year for ten years, or if you can’t do it in ten years for a hundred years, I don’t believe that we can’t improve it! Moreover, the Chilean region sucked blood for us a few years ago. Now I heard that those The development of the local area under the management of the Southern Railway is not very good. I have already written to the Southern Railway Company and the Executive Committee, asking them to feed back our Australian pioneering team through the South Pacific route, whether it is money, materials, technology, personnel or others. In any area, they want everything, and they have agreed in principle. That is to say, our good days are coming in the future, everyone must have confidence!"

(End of this chapter)