Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1588 Beining (eight)

Let's go back in time to a few months ago.

On August 1670, 8, in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere, the temperature in the Beining area also rarely dropped below zero, which was a rare cold winter in recent years.In fact, this kind of cold climate began to show its clues in March. It was autumn at that time, but the frost was very early and the air was very humid, so winter naturally started very early.

The cold and wet weather conditions have caused great damage to agricultural production and delayed the grain harvest on the east coast; coupled with the storm in late March on the east coast prairie destroyed many growing wheat straws, making grain In addition, the cold and humid climate and storms also reduced the production of grapes and other fruits on a large scale. These factors together contributed to the plight of agriculture on the east coast this year. Taxes and grains payable in the affected areas to enable them to tide over the storm.

However, even though the agricultural production in many areas on the east coast suffered catastrophic disasters this year, the determination of the National Development Administration to resettle immigrants and open up wasteland has not changed at all.As of mid-July of this year (1670), according to the statistics and estimates of the Ministry of Immigration, the total population of the entire Eastern China Republic has reached a high of 252.74 people, far surpassing the United Provinces and the United Provinces of the Old Continent in terms of numbers. Venice, with almost half the population of England, is pretty amazing.

Among the more than 200 million people, the Ming people still have the largest number, but the advantage is already quite weak, only 1.5 percentage points ahead of the second-generation people who follow closely behind (if ignoring more than half of the Ming people in the second-generation people For the second generation), the combined number of white men and women has fallen below 16%, a record low.

In addition to these national groups, there are also a large number of non-national groups in the East Coast. This part of the number reached its peak last year, and this year it has fallen back, but it is still in the early 30s, which is extremely large.Among them, the number of white non-nationals is still the largest, accounting for about one-third, followed by blacks, Indians and Malays, who have made inestimable contributions to the construction of the East Bank as a whole.

With such a large number of newly added population, the old districts cannot absorb all of them. Coupled with the policy guidance of the executive committee, it is inevitable to divert outward and immigrate to the border.No, the Beining area, as an area with fairly good conditions, was allocated a share of 1 immigrants.If we count the second-generation nationals and non-nationals who have been converted from the south because of their strong advertising, the number may be more than [-], which is almost enough to add a new county to accommodate them.

In fact, it is almost the same. Many new settlements have been added in the Beining area, namely Louting Township near the small town of Tukatu in the later world, Bancheng Township near the small town of Awale in the later generation, and Taqwalitu in the later generation. Wugong Township near the small town of Ba, Kongshan Township near the small town of Itapeva in later generations, Fangcheng Township near the small town of Itarale in later generations, Tianfu Township near the small town of Rio Claro in later generations, and Yau Township in later generations Nearby Miyun Township, Huailai Township near the later town of Araraquara, Juyong Township near the later town of Bauru, and Yanqing Township near the later town of Orinius, there are a total of ten settlements, almost every A settlement looks like a thousand people.

Due to the extremely difficult external traffic conditions in the Beining area, the living and working conditions in the above-mentioned newly established settlements are naturally not much better.Especially in this freezing season, the Beining area on the plateau is not warm at all, coupled with the influence of humid weather, this winter makes people feel bitingly cold.

When Liu Houfei, who has become the magistrate of Rongcheng County, went to the many new settlements under his management in the west, he saw such a scene: old people and children huddled together in the huts, wiping their noses Do what you can, such as twisting rope, weaving baskets, hoop barrels, etc. After all, there is a shortage of materials in Beining, so it is best to be self-reliant; the adults are either cutting firewood outside, or adding warmth to the livestock bought on loan. To put it bluntly, these livestock may be more important to them than the children at home.

In short, in this cold winter, if there are no special circumstances, almost no one is willing to go out and wander around, unless it is a task arranged by the "government", such as going to the river during the dry season in winter, etc. This is almost a routine in winter every year Yes, the East Bank government attaches great importance to the construction of water conservancy projects. Every winter, a large number of people will be conscripted to work on the river, dredging the river, digging ditches, building reservoirs, building locks, etc. After decades of persistence, it has achieved remarkable results.Otherwise, do you think the domestic transportation business can be as prosperous as it is now?How is the grain harvest like it is now?Impossible!

"The conditions are very difficult, but the more difficult it is, the more we cannot relax the follow-up measures." Liu Houfei, wrapped in a seal fur coat, stood in front of a farmhouse with a faint smell, frowning and said.

The source of the stench was a large pile of feces in a corner.Liu Houfei dared to bet that this dung pile has existed for some time, and bacteria infiltrate the soil all the time, making the living environment of the residents greatly polluted.This blame cannot be shaken off in terms of sanitation and disease control, but it is also true that they do not have sufficient and qualified manpower!

"These people didn't receive qualified health and disease control propaganda before they were shipped from the Far East. Those bastards are simply perfunctory." Seeing Liu Houfei frowning and not speaking, an elderly health cadre immediately "pre-emptively" He complained, only to hear him say again: "Many old people may have contracted dysentery in infancy. I have heard people say that when they were young, they often squatted on the dung pile in the corner, naked, and lived a life worse than a pig or a dog." The reason is that the Ming emperor imposed heavy taxes over and over again to wage wars, which made their physical health very bad from the beginning."

Liu Houfei also sighed when he heard the words, the foundation of this Tianfu Township is indeed very poor, far inferior to that of Beining County.Beining County has inherited the foundation left by the Portuguese, and has developed extremely rapidly. Because it is the capital city, the construction of both the urban area and the suburban villages is decent.Just like the pattern painted on the huge stone sculpture outside the east gate of Beining Town - a young citizen in denim is sitting on a chair in his yard, holding a flintlock gun, followed by a dog ; his wife sat calmly beside him, her light blue summer dress stretched out on the chair; in the distance was the rushing river, and the piles of straw stacked between the rows of the carefully cultivated field; behind the door On the lush grassland, the fat lambs are grazing, and the cows are ruminating next to the newly built barn. Although the local living conditions are not comparable to those in the south, they are definitely much better than the dirty new settlements. , which is a certainty.

"Dysentery is raging among the crowd, and malaria is stalking the crowd. This health and epidemic prevention work cannot be taken lightly." Liu Houfei casually told the cadres of Tianfu Township, and then changed the topic to other aspects: "The higher-ups are planning to spread the virus in our Beining The region establishes an independent industrial system—of course a small-scale, self-sufficient industrial system—and then builds a railway that transports both passengers and goods from Beining County all the way west. Well, the starting point of the railway is Beining Town, if nothing else happens, the end point should be the confluence of the Parana River and the Rio Grande in the west. That is to say, this railway runs from southeast to northwest, crossing the entire inland, and the radiation surface is very bright, meaning It is huge. And if it is connected with part of the navigable section of the Tiet River and the Parana River, the significance is even greater. It can radiate more than [-] square kilometers of land, which is decisive for the future development of the Beining area. "

The cadres of Tianfu Township were all shocked when they heard this, wondering if the railway would pass through their jurisdiction if it winds westward from Beining Town?This is very likely!And once this is the case, all the civilian cadres in these places will be mobilized to help level the foundation, build railways, transport materials and so on.Thinking of this, these people felt a little nervous, fearing that they would arouse the dissatisfaction of the people in the jurisdiction, and cause a lot of trouble for themselves.

However, the benefits of the railway passing by are also huge.Among other things, the building materials such as bricks, tiles, lime, and cement, and steel products such as hardware tools, farm tools, and knives that have been mass-produced in Beining County are already very attractive to the people on their side.And the transportation of these things—especially those bulky building materials—is simply unthinkable without the railway, so the opening of the railway will definitely benefit their settlements along the way, but they just want to enjoy the benefits right now, not very much. It's all about taking responsibility, who made them wait to do everything now, the conditions are very difficult.

Of course, this matter is actually out of their hands.Due to the poor traffic conditions in the Beining area, when the railway is built, a large number of local personnel and supplies will inevitably be recruited to reduce the huge expenditure on transportation. These towns can't escape no matter what, they can only obediently go to the road to serve corvee, Otherwise, are you just a display of state violence?

"This railway has a lot to do with it. No matter what the future route is, your most important tasks at this stage are still two things. One is to speed up the construction of settlements and improve agricultural production. In the next few years, you will continue to fill in these places. Population, speed up the construction of your various settlements, so that you can provide a large amount of food and labor resources nearby when building railways in the future; the second is to rough out some roads, the standard does not need to be high, but it must be able to walk heavy trucks, in the future But those who need to transport all kinds of railway equipment can’t be sloppy. You should take these two things as the top priority, understand?”

In fact, regardless of what Liu Houfei said, it is still unknown when this railway will be launched and started to be built.As long as the construction personnel, machinery, and materials are not moved to the site for a day, this matter will continue to be repeated.After all, there are too many places in the country that need railways, and the competition among various regions is becoming increasingly fierce. Everyone wants to build railways, but there are only so many resources, so the competition is inevitable.

The railway planned for the Beining area is actually a pity from the central government, and the caring nature of the policy is just tilted.But you mustn't be happy about this, it's still too early, because the funds allocated from above are too pitiful, and the construction period of the construction team cannot be fully guaranteed, so when will the construction of this railway start, and the speed of construction will be slow. It’s hard to say how much it is, maybe it’s normal to build a few tens of hundreds of kilometers in a few years, because there is really no money and no one!

Moreover, if you don't make preparations in advance and let the people of the State Railway Administration feel that the early construction progress is not ideal, then maybe they will give priority to investing other priority resources, maybe the northern railway continues to extend, maybe it is also under construction. The central railway planned for the project (from Dingjun Town to the south, passes through the coal mining area of ​​Baicaogou Township, then along the low hills in the west of the lake, all the way south, and then passes through the ten-billion-ton shallow coal mining area in the South Yazihu ​​area, And eventually connect to the Northwest Railway to form a railway network), maybe the railways in other places, in short, the resources are limited, and everyone needs to fight for it, and one of the bargaining chips for the competition is undoubtedly your preparatory work— ——If the preliminary work is well prepared and the locality can provide food and labor, then the railway department will naturally arrange limited construction.On the contrary, if you have not prepared anything and there is a shortage of manpower, then the railway department is not a fool, and will naturally give priority to investing in other places.

Liu Houfei pondered that the Beining area is not as good as other places in terms of manpower, but the climate is suitable, the soil is fertile, and when the production of the eastern prairie and the Yazihu ​​basin have been alternately reduced in the past two years, their agricultural production has not gone wrong. The output almost filled the barn, which is undoubtedly a powerful condition.

In addition, there are at least four counties and dozens of townships in the Beining area. If the railway is really going to be built, it must be the mobilization of the whole region.Even those villages and towns that are not on the railway line have to send a large amount of labor to help repair the railway, which greatly alleviates the labor gap and makes the disadvantages not so great compared with other places.

The preliminary preparations for the above two aspects, coupled with the "little care" of the Executive Committee for the Beining area, and the personal connections of Xu Yu, the commissioner of the regional administrative office, Liu Houfei believes that this railway can still be completed next year (no later than 1672) ) started construction, although I don’t know how fast the construction progress will be, but it is good to repair dozens of kilometers a year, and it can solve a lot of trouble for the people of Beining County, isn’t it?

(End of this chapter)