Invincible urban management

Chapter 23, Port of Hope

Time flies, gone forever.

In the modern time and space of the 21st century, only half a month has passed, while in the time and space of the 16th century, more than a year has passed.

Over the past year or so since the arrival of visitors from other worlds, the changes that have taken place in the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom can simply be described as "upside down".

A brand-new port city rose up on the site of the small fishing village that Wen Desi used to be, and became the new capital of the kingdom.

The name of the city in the local aboriginal language is a mouthful, but if you translate its meaning, it will become very simple.

——Port of Hope, this is the name Wen Desi gave to this new city.

He hoped that the city would stand up to the coming Spanish conquistadors and be his hope for the continuation of his family and Mesoamerican civilization.

In a sense, this is a very strange port city.

Although this American city built by the traversers is located on the location of Acapulco, a famous port and tourist city in the south of the United Mexican States, it has a 6-kilometer-long half-moon-shaped deep-water bay. A fine port on the Pacific coast of Mexico and one of the best natural anchorages in the world.But in Port Hope at this moment, there is neither a lighthouse, nor a trestle, nor even a shipyard. There are also no masts in the bay, but there are many large canoes and ocean-going rafts randomly placed on the beach.

Because, the economic activities of this city do not rely on shipping, but mainly revolve around trade across time and space.

Wang Qiu stood on a small unfinished pyramid about three stories high, overlooking the vibrant and prosperous city below him, and couldn't help feeling like he was playing the computer game "Total War".

——For him who spends most of his time traveling back and forth in modern times, purchasing and transporting goods, it feels like less than a month has passed since the first landing.But the small fishing village full of thatched cottages has turned into a prosperous port with a population of tens of thousands.

Such an astonishing speed is almost like magic!

To the north and west of the city are the lush green foothills, where countless lush tropical plants grow wantonly under the scorching sun.They generally appear to have big branches and leaves, and their color is dark green, but the shade of their backs is covered with rust-like thick moss.A variety of shrubs, ferns and vines fill the gaps between tall trees.Countless colorful tropical flowers exude their own fragrance in this green sea.

And the end of this vast jungle, near the coastal plain, has been turned into fertile farmland by industrious Indian farmers, where traditional American specialties such as corn, potatoes, kidney beans, zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers, sweet potatoes, and tobacco are grown. Se crops, as well as new varieties from the modern world such as onions, radishes, cabbages, green vegetables, watermelons, eggplants, sugar cane, cucumbers, and grapes.

In order to improve the disease resistance of these indigenous people, Professor Yang also specially instructed them to plant a lot of "bactericidal food" such as green onions, garlic, and ginger, but only God knows how effective these things can be in the face of diseases.

A series of clear streams rush down from the foothills, nourishing the land, and flowing happily in the dense irrigation canals like spider webs.In the wetland paddy field next to the river pond, there is a wonderful golden light—a few paddy fields that have been sown with disease-resistant and pest-resistant hybrid seeds from later generations of seed companies are experimentally planted here, and now it is time to harvest again. .

On the avenues that cross the fields from all directions, dust is flying everywhere, thousands of sweaty Indians, shouting hoarsely, dragging thick logs, slowly moving towards the city .

According to the chief, the "gods" intend to build the most magnificent palace in the sky, and they need a lot of wood from the people on the ground, so they came to this world and rewarded them with many rare treasures that can only be found in the god world. Treasures, and novel crops.In order to thank the "God Men" for their generous rewards, they should naturally work hard to cut down trees for the gods, and collect gold and silver to decorate the palaces of the gods.

At the end where these avenues converge, is the new capital of the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom - Port of Hope.

According to modern people's point of view, this so-called "city" is actually more like a refugee camp, or an oversized construction site.

There are no walls or moats in this city, and the outskirts of the urban area are directly surrounded by rows of round and square thatched huts, where tens of thousands of civilians and slaves live, as well as indigenous businessmen who come to purchase from other places. Tents were set up.From a distance, it looks like a huge slum.

In the center of the city, there are two huge squares.The larger one is as big as four football fields in later generations, and the other smaller square is also equivalent to a football field.An unfinished pyramid stands in between, separating the two squares—and the only pyramid in the whole city is where Wang Qiu is currently standing.

The economic activities of the entire Port of Hope are mainly carried out around these two squares - the large square is stacked with layers of various types of wood, and countless indigenous laborers pull in the logs every day.There are also some indigenous aristocrats with feather tassels on their heads, patrolling the timber yard every day, and with their golden eyes, they can accurately identify some of them that are not big enough at breast height, too distorted in shape, or too badly eaten by moths. The wood was picked out and used to chop firewood and build houses for the Indians themselves.

And only the first-class wood that has passed the inspection will be stacked into triangular piles according to different types, waiting for the "gods" to display their great power when they come here every few days. Transport them to another world through the portal of time and space.

As for the small square on the other side of the pyramid, it is the unloading place for goods from different time and space.When Wang Qiu and the others finished collecting wood in this world and returned to the modern world, they would move the wormhole to the small square on this side, and then send various goods from the modern world.

However, due to the huge difference of 24 times in the flow of time between the two sides, the time when modern goods arrived in the ancient Mesoamerican world is always completely irregular, and often even appears in the middle of the night and dawn.As a result, the travelers had no choice but to install solar street lights in this small square as a luxury, and the Hongxiutizgan warriors who were in charge of guarding the place were also forced to work in three shifts regardless of day and night, so as to ensure that the square was full of light at all times. There is enough manpower to be able to move the goods into the warehouse in time without being stolen by thieves, getting wet by rain, or being eaten by rats.

However, these warriors didn't think it was hard work at all, but claimed that it was a great honor to serve the gods.

However, according to Comrade Wang Qiu's slightly malicious speculation, they are simply greedy for the generous benefits of standing guard here-because of the hard work and heavy responsibility of being on duty day and night to guard the goods, every warrior in charge of guarding the square, every day Every month, there are two packs of fine salt, one pack of white sugar, and 30 fruit candies as an extra reward. In addition, each person will be given a bottle of Red Star Erguotou shochu...

This may be nothing in later generations, but in this world where productivity is extremely underdeveloped, just the empty bottle left after drinking up the bottle of Red Star Erguotou is enough for this warrior to exchange for half of his food. Months of prime cornmeal.

Surrounding these two squares, there is a circle of two-story prefabricated houses made of composite colored steel plates with blue roofs and white walls.In the modern world, this kind of blue and white prefabricated house is usually just a temporary dormitory for migrant workers on a construction site, or a work shed.

However, when they were transported to this wild world by Wang Qiu's supernatural power, and equipped with simple solar lighting equipment, these workshop sheds became the top-class noble mansions—well, after all, this kind of houses are neat in appearance and bright in color , is well sealed, never leaks, equipped with sewers and glass windows, and the structure is also very strong, except that it is not convenient to light a fire indoors, no matter how you look at it, it is much stronger than a stone house with a thatched roof!

In fact, the reason why Wen Desi spent a lot of money to let Wang Qiu get these many color steel prefab houses from the modern world is also a last resort.

Because, after Port Hope bought a large number of foreign slaves through the population trade, many nobles of the kingdom who were unwilling to continue living in thatched huts clamored, hoping to use these labor forces to build stone palaces.

However, Wen Desi insisted on using all this precious labor force for logging, so as to raise more funds for the cruel war that will inevitably break out in the future-if the fund chain is broken at that time, he can't let it go All of you time-out city management officers are going to the People's Bank of China to apply for war loans!

As a result, both sides had to take a step back. The noble chiefs no longer occupied these labor forces, but Wen Desi had to provide them with better houses.

As a result, more than 50 simple prefab houses have sprung up—these prefab houses can be put together like building blocks, and only need very simple tools to complete the assembly in just one or two days, even if it is Local aborigines can make do with this job after a period of training.In addition, this kind of movable simple room can also be disassembled and re-used many times, and it is very convenient even if it needs to be moved.

Not long after these prefab houses were completed, the walls and roofs of each house were painted with various patterns and large hideous god statues by the nobles painstakingly... It seemed somewhat mysterious in ancient America. .

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Outside these "noble mansions", separated by a tall wooden fence, is a bustling bustling market.Indigenous merchants from all over Central America can buy sweet candies, snow-white fine salt, silky cloth, convenient matches, exquisite porcelain, transparent glass, mellow shochu, and exotic crops in this market. Seeds, shiny silver stainless steel and aluminum flatware, and modern bauble with stunning visual impact.If you go through some dark channels, you can also get sharp steel axes and knives.

In order to obtain these things, chiefs and nobles from various tribes far and near within a radius of thousands of miles sent people to purchase them in canoes and rafts.

Every day, there will be heavily armed Indian warriors, pushing small carts that make noise, and transporting all kinds of strange goods that cannot be named from the small square on the other side of the fence.Then the local Hongxiutizgan merchants explained these goods one by one, introduced their functions and uses, and finally began to bid for the auction.The scene where hundreds of people are vying for quotations is very, very hot every time.

Of course, if you want to buy these magical goods, you must find gold and silver, or a strong slave that can be used as a labor force, because Hongxiutizgan merchants reject obsidian and cocoa beans.

However, for those poor tribes who are cash-strapped and have no spare slaves to transfer, the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom also considerately provided the opportunity to use their strength to serve labor in exchange for things-in simple terms, follow Hongxiuti The logging team of the Zigan people used the iron ax bestowed by the "man of God" to cut down trees together.As long as a certain number of qualified logs are cut, the iron ax will belong to the user.Or you can rely on the merits of these labors to receive those drool-worthy candies, cloth, fine salt, porcelain and shochu.

As soon as this policy was launched, the number of "migrant workers" in Hope Harbor began to increase sharply. Because corn and cassava in tropical Central America are high-yield crops, farmers have a lot of slack time.In a year, ordinary people only need to spend [-] or [-] days in the fields to cultivate, and then they can harvest enough food to survive.Even if they have to pay heavy taxes to support the priests and nobles who get something for nothing, the Indians in Mexico still have a lot of leisure time every year, which is used by the nobles to organize labor and build countless magnificent pyramids.

At this time, in order to obtain those coveted and rare goods, and also to please the "gods" who came through the void, they ordered the tribe to temporarily stop the construction of the pyramids and instead went to work for Hongxiu Tizgan Kingdom. Cutting down trees seems to be a very logical thing.

So, at the beginning, only a few idle poor people came to do odd jobs, and when they returned with fine salt, shochu and ironware, people who came to Port Hope to work as temporary lumberjacks became in groups.Later, slowly, some clever chiefs and heads began to organize a large number of tribesmen, taking advantage of the slack season, to rush here to log for extra money.

Due to the poor information exchange these years, there were even a lot of misunderstandings during the recruitment process—not long ago, thousands of Chichimeks living in the northern desert suddenly went south, one by one. With bows and arrows and stone spears, they charged towards Port of Hope aggressively, as if they were going to fight.When the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom received the police report and gathered the army as if they were facing a big enemy, they found that they had put down their weapons and went to cut down trees with the local logging team. .

Taking advantage of the large amount of wealth accumulated in Port of Hope, as well as all kinds of novelties provided by visitors from different time and space, Chief Awaha has repeatedly sent troops to attack the surrounding Hongxiutizgan tribes that have remained du li since a year ago, and Use huge profits to lure the upper nobles of those tribes to surrender to themselves.Under such a combination of soft and hard, the various tribes scattered by the war in the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom finally gradually gathered again.And Chief Avaha finally officially ascended the throne half a month ago, announcing the official revival of this ancient kingdom!

In short, after gathering the remaining Hongxiutizgan people, plus some trafficked slaves of various ethnic groups, and newly defected small tribes of foreign tribes, the permanent population of this kingdom or city-state has recovered to about 8. And the number of "migrant workers" who help cut down trees in the logging team has remained at more than 1 for a long time.And people continue to choose to settle here and become "resident population".

Such a population and strength, in this era of Central America, although it cannot be compared with giants such as the Aztec Empire, it is also an order of magnitude worse than the Tlaxcalans, an ally with a population of 50. However, compared with other Mayan city-states that were hidden in the jungle and generally only had a population of [-] to [-] or even a few thousand, the Honxiutizgan Kingdom at this time was already considered a very powerful first-class force.

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After a while of cool sea breeze blowing on the pyramid, Wang Qiu slowly walked down from the top of the pyramid.Immediately on the square, four warriors respectfully brought up a sedan chair, and asked the "man of God" to get on the sedan chair, and they carried it to the palace.

Speaking of which, the Indian warriors living in Port Hope are basically dressed up as young and Dangerous boys - beach pants, small vests, big slippers, watermelon knives and sharpened stainless steel pipes, plus weird hairstyles And the hideous patterns all over the face and body... Although this outfit looks weird, it always gives you the illusion that you are a black boss, but it is very suitable for the local hot and humid climate.

Therefore, the current main force of the traditional army of the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom is such a group of young and Dangerous boys wielding watermelon knives and stainless steel water pipes.

As for the native nobles with higher status, their costumes are even more bizarre.

——In the warehouse of the urban management building before, Wang Qiu found a batch of samba dancer decorations confiscated from nowhere, and then sent them to Mexico together with other free confiscated goods. As soon as the box was opened, It was immediately divided up by the natives excitedly.But those who wear these samba suits are not those fit and graceful Indian girls, but a group of old men and fat uncles!

It feels...just like those drunk ladyboys in American movies with disgusting heavy makeup and piercings on their breasts, chest and nostrils!

Well, from the murals and sculptures left over from later generations, it can be seen that the Indian nobles seem to like to put feathers all over their bodies, and then try their best to make holes everywhere on their bodies, and hang heavy earrings, collars, bracelets and even nose rings , similar to modern Thai ladyboy actors.

What's worse, after these guys finally got the aristocratic costumes (samba dancer costumes) that fit their status, in order to thank the "gods" for their generous gifts and to celebrate various happy events, they would go to the Do a group dance in front of the traversers!

One more thing to add, the sacrificial dance that is very sacred in their eyes, Wang Qiu looked similar to the samba dance.

Imagine, a group of muscular, sweaty old men, in the midst of fierce singing and drumming, shirtless, shaking their buttocks, painted with fancy oil paints, and then went to dance in colorful feathers Ba dance... The locals may think it's normal, but the traversers feel like throwing up when they see it-you should get a group of half-naked girls out to dance the hula dance, it's almost the same!

In short, the current traditional army of the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom is a group of young and Dangerous boys led by middle-aged transgressive samba dancers.

Such a wonderful army is very unreliable no matter how you look at it.

Therefore, Wen Desi put his main hope on another new army.