Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 83 Duck Lake ([-])

On September 9, after a week of continuous fighting, the appearance of the expedition's initial landing site has taken on a new look.A brand-new wooden trestle bridge extends 12 meters into the lake, and the "Eagle of the East Coast" is docked beside the trestle bridge. This is the new port of choice for everyone.

"The new port is located at the top of the peninsula extension, facing Bather Island on the opposite bank. The water in this section of water with a width of more than 200 meters is gentle, and the water depth is about 4-5 meters. It is a good natural port. We plan to open it in the future. Build forts at the top corner of the peninsula and on Bather Island, which will not only protect your own safety, but also block the entrance and exit passages of Duck Lake. Such a superior geographical location can be described as a wonderful place." Following the "Galicia Flying Fish" After returning to Dongfang Port, Lu Ming was reporting to Shao Shude in the temporary office of the coal working group in the administrative building in the center of the city. He turned the next page and continued: "Currently, many new residences have been built on the shore for laborers and expedition members. The residences. These residences are simple houses made of reeds, and lime powder is sprinkled in the rooms for disinfection. Thanks to everyone’s hard work, as of September 9, hundreds of acres of land have been preliminarily cleared Come out, this is mainly to clear the reeds and miscellaneous bushes on the land, and at the same time start digging the foundation to prepare for the construction of formal brick houses and city walls. Team leader, I am coming back this time mainly to ask you for help Hehe, as you know, this is a newly built city. In the future, it will be a transshipment port for coal output at the northern end of Yazihu ​​Lake. The matter is of great importance. Please think of a way to ask the executive committee to allocate some manpower for us. How? Sample?"

"By the way, there is no shortage of manpower nowadays?" Shao Shude lamented while holding his forehead, "A while ago, in the war with the Spaniards, more than 120 people died, [-] to [-] were injured and disabled, plus some wounded soldiers who could not do heavy physical labor , This means nearly [-] strong laborers have been lost. We didn’t have enough manpower in the first place, but now it’s even worse. Now it’s time for post-war reconstruction, and there is a shortage of people everywhere. Where do you tell me to find them? man."

"Hey." Lu Ming smiled dryly and continued, "Dingyuan Township now has a population of 500, which is basically saturated. After all, with the current scale of farmland reclamation, it is enough for the people of the whole country to open their stomachs to eat. Counting Dongfang County, there are nearly 5000 people crowded in the county seat, which is really too many. Shipyards, steel factories, arsenals, textile factories, etc. can’t use so many people in terms of the current production scale. Ah, I figured it out, at least more than 1000 people can come out. How about it, Team Leader Shao, go to the executive committee for activities and try to squeeze out some people. Otherwise, Yazihu ​​will continue at the current progress , I don’t know that the project will be completed in the year of the monkey, so I might as well go back to the sailing school and do my job as the principal, and whoever wants to do the mess on the Duck Lake.”

"Okay, okay! Don't talk nonsense about the picky one! I'm afraid of you." Shao Shude waved his hands again and again, and said with a wry smile: "Forget it, let me tell you the truth. Even if you don't come to ask me today, I will In the past two days, a group of people will be sent to the Duck Lake. You are short of people, so I, the team leader, don’t care. I have already asked for people from the executive committee. The number is not large, more than 200 people , there are men, women and children. Don’t be dissatisfied. Now that a trade agreement has been signed with the Spaniards, major factories are expanding their production. In addition, there is a huge labor gap in infrastructure construction. It’s already enough to get so many people for you Not bad. If you want to thank you, you can thank Chang Kaisheng, the first sentry of the army. This guy is lucky. Two days ago, he took two Charuya villages on the west bank of Dayu Lake and captured nearly [-] people. If it weren’t for the new With this batch of population supplements, if I want to get a group of people to go to Duck Lake, there is no hope in the short term."

"Okay, Lao Chang is not bad." Lu Ming praised, "Since he has done such a good job, why not send him more people, let him continue to work hard, and arrest more indigenous people. We are short of people here. Woolen cloth."

"It's not that easy. It's getting harder and harder to catch these aborigines now, and they're not stupid. They know we're going to catch them, but they can stay where they are and wait. They dragged their families and ran far away It’s over.” Shao Shude looked at Lu Ming with contempt, and said, “There are probably no Charuya villages in the area of ​​Dayu River and Dayu Lake now, and if we want to continue to catch Charuya people, we have to ask Search in the north, go to the front line of Milin Lake; or simply go into the mountains and cross the border to arrest the indigenous people in the west. In short... cough cough, it’s far away, okay, don’t stick here, now you take this document to go The Census Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Government Administration Council will tell you where these people are. When you find them, organize them to board the ship, be efficient, and try to set off before noon. I will fix the things at hand and go with you when the time comes. The work on Duck Lake has been going on for so long, and if I, the team leader, are not in place, it would be too embarrassing."

After all, Lu Ming didn't finish everything before noon. The more than 200 residents who settled in the city at the south end of the Duck Lake, which has not yet been officially named, spent too much time packing their luggage. D'Eblol is organizing sailors to help these residents carry their luggage on board.

The dock berth where the "Galicia Flying Fish" was moored was bustling like a vegetable market, and the residents were carrying large and small bags of luggage.The freedmen who have passed through many opponents in these years are generally quite generous. Now even the lowest-paid jobs have a monthly salary of 1-1.5 yuan, and the average salary has reached a level close to [-] yuan.Therefore, these residents who have been here for a few years have more or less accumulated a little wealth.

Before and after the outbreak of the war with the Spaniards, there was a wave of land redemption in the Dingyuan Fort colonization area at that time—now Dingyuan Township, which greatly stimulated these so-called "urban residents".Many of them have relatives or friends in Dingyuan Township, and those "rural residents" permanently bought out the land they cultivated at a relatively low price, got rid of their status as farm laborers, and became enviable self-cultivating farmers. Since then, I have owned fixed assets.Now, the Executive Committee has promised them that the residents who moved to Yazihu ​​can also buy the land they cultivated in the future. As a result, many people are overwhelmed and want to move to Yazihu.The climate, natural conditions, threat of barbarians, etc. over there are no longer daunting obstacles, and a large number of "urban residents" have asked people to intercede with others, trying to squeeze into the list of immigrants.Lu Ming himself has received more or less tentative questions, but he has been perfunctory with the list being decided by the executive committee.

Today, it seems that this group of residents' passion for the land and desire for a happy life is really overwhelming.They sold all their unnecessary belongings, and then bought some seeds, agricultural tools, fishing nets, chickens, ducks, geese, lambs, piglets, etc. from livestock farms and supply and marketing cooperatives, everything necessary to settle down.What's more, some wealthy veterans joined forces to buy some cattle, which they planned to take to Duck Lake for plowing.

Such a chaotic and lively scene lasted until after three o'clock in the afternoon before it came to an end.Shao Shude hurriedly boarded the "Galicia Flying Fish" transport ship with several members of the coal working group. In addition, the "Red Trout" escort gunship, which was captained by Navy Lieutenant Guo Zili as the acting captain, loaded a batch of building materials and food. go together.At four o'clock in the afternoon, after submitting the departure documents to the Port Authority, the two ships slowly left Dongfang Port and headed for Duck Lake.

On the morning of September 9, the two ships successfully docked at the new port trestle in Duck Lake.After getting off the boat, Shao Shude went straight to the construction site of the new town with great interest, observing the progress of the construction.A few days passed, and at this time, the construction on the inland of the port was entering a climax.More than 17 reed houses have been built, and the breeze blows, and reed catkins are flying everywhere.The weather is good these days. More than 100 laborers here and more than 80 naval crew members are working hard. At present, the land in the planned city has been leveled, and many foundations have been solidified. The construction team has begun to allocate materials and prepare to officially start building bricks. tile building.

"Currently the city in the first phase of planning can accommodate 500 residents, and two cement trestles will be built at the port to ensure that at least 25 to 30 ships can berthed at the same time. The planned city wall has a perimeter of 1800-2000 meters. The height is 5-6 meters, and the thickness of the city wall varies from 3 meters to 3.5 meters. An artificial reservoir will be built in the south of the city as a water source for the entire city, and some irrigation canals will be built along the periphery of the reservoir to open up wasteland and farm on the spot.” Following Shao Shude Bo Sen, the political secretary of the coal working group, said, "In addition, in terms of defense, two coastal defense artillery fortresses will be built in the southeast corner of the city and on Bather Island opposite the port. At the top of another small peninsula on the other side of the island, and in the North San Jose area opposite Bather Island, a fort will also be built. After the construction of these artillery fortress clusters, the rich duck lake will completely become the inner lake of our country, and there will be no more threat at sea."

"Hehe." Shao Shude heheed twice, he didn't know how long it would take until the Year of the Monkey to complete such a grand plan. "By the way, I remember that the main function of this newly built port city is to serve as a transit port for the future policy of transporting coal from the north to the south. In addition, the military is to block the entrance and exit waterways. This city doesn't have an official name yet, right?"

"Uh...not yet." Bo Sen adjusted his glasses and said.

"Then call it Zhenhai Fort!" Shao Shude made a final decision.

(End of this chapter)