Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 501: The Dust Settles and New Immigrants
After the retreat order was issued, the Brazilian soldiers stationed in Asuncion breathed a sigh of relief and took a simple night's rest. On the morning of November 11, just after dawn, the first group of defenders began to evacuate.

On November 11, Santos took a last look at the city of Asuncion, which was engulfed in flames and thick smoke, and then turned away with regret.

Before evacuating, the Brazilian defenders thoroughly destroyed the city of Asuncion and the fortifications along the line. Some ammunition, supplies and heavy weapons that had been transferred from the rear to the front line were abandoned in the city because they were inconvenient to carry with the army. They were destroyed along with the city of Asuncion.

On November 11, more than 20 Han army frontline troops arrived in Asuncion on warships and steam transport ships, but what they saw were ruins that were destroyed beyond recognition.

The city of Asuncion was completely destroyed. The frontline troops stopped briefly for half a day, leaving a thousand people to occupy and clean up the remaining enemies who might escape, while the remaining troops continued to advance northward along the Paraguay River.

On November 11, the frontline troops arrived at Concepcion.
Engaged in a firefight with a portion of the defenders who had not yet had time to evacuate.

On the 24th, the port of Concepcion was breached and more than 3000 defenders were captured.

On the 25th, twelve days after the main Brazilian forces withdrew from Asuncion, the last rearguard troops led by Santos also arrived in the territory of the Republic of Brazil. The Han army's frontline troops followed and pursued all the way, successively recovering the Paraguayan territory along the line.

On the 27th, due to the extension of the front line and poor transportation and supply, the front-line troops temporarily stopped their pursuit and stopped at the border between Paraguay and the Republic of Brazil, and reported the battle situation to the rear.

In the Paraná River Basin, on November 11, the defenders of the Port of Duguaizú received news that Santos was leading his troops to evacuate, and began to evacuate on November 20. During the evacuation, they encountered the Han army's pursuit troops heading north from the Paraná River. The enemy on the Paraná front left behind a rearguard force of about 11 people and fled back to the country in a panic.

On the night of November 11, the remaining defenders of the Humeita Fortress concentrated their forces and broke out to the east. The battle lasted until the early morning of the next day. Except for more than 19 people who broke through the defense line and successfully escaped, the remaining about 3000 people were blocked by the Han army and laid down their arms and surrendered on November 1.5.

On November 11, after crossing the primeval forest and hilly mountains, the remaining Humeta army of only more than 26 people encountered a second-line security force of the Han army with a size of about 1000 people advancing westward from the Paraná River basin. The Humeta remnants, exhausted after a long journey and having lost all their heavy weapons, were no match for the Han army. After less than an hour of fighting, after Major General Davis was killed, the remaining about 4000 remnants, led by Major General Miller, had no choice but to surrender.

3.2 troops were annihilated in the direction of Humeta, 2 troops were annihilated in the direction of Villarrica, and 4000 troops were lost in the loss of Guaira.
During the evacuation, 6000 people were lost in the port of Doguaira and 3000 people were lost in Concepcion, in addition to about 3000 Brazilian remnants who were successively annihilated in the pursuit operations of various units.

As of December 1889, 12, the Han army recovered all Paraguayan territory except the former Brazilian states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás. The field army and garrison suffered a total of about 2 casualties, and the militia and civilian laborers suffered about 3600 casualties. 3000 enemy troops were annihilated or captured, and the total number of Brazilian troops who successfully escaped back to the mainland was about 6.8.

With the arrival of rain again, the war in Paraguay was once again put on hold. All units of the Han army stopped fighting. On the one hand, they dispatched part of their forces to go deep into various parts of Paraguay to wipe out the remnants of the army and resistance forces and strengthen their control over the grassroots level in Paraguay. On the other hand, they repaired and assembled, waiting for ammunition and supplies from the rear.

Paraguay was once a relatively prosperous modern country with a certain industrial foundation. Lopez Sr. implemented an enlightened economic policy, encouraging and introducing investments from countries such as Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, and Germany. He built a number of railways, shipyards, steel mills, hospitals, and schools, and even laid a wired telegraph in the capital, Asuncion, in 1857. Unfortunately, after the First Paraguayan War in 1868 and the Second Paraguayan War in 1889, the few industrialized products left by Lopez Sr. were destroyed.

The last few hundred kilometers of relatively intact railway were also blown up and destroyed one by one during the withdrawal of the Brazilian Army.

The prosperous and solemn Asunción Palace was completely destroyed by explosives and fire, leaving only blackened stone pillars and broken and collapsed marble as reminders of its past glory.

The Gothic Paraguayan National Theater, like the country itself, has collapsed and fallen into ruin.

After twenty years of slow growth, the country's population, including Mato Grosso do Sul, southwestern Goiás, and southern Mato Grosso which were snatched from Brazil, has a total population of only over 60. After experiencing the ravages of war again, excluding Mato Grosso do Sul, southwestern Goiás, and southern Mato Grosso which were occupied by the Republic of Brazil, the total population of the original Paraguayan mainland has dropped to over 30.

The population decline, the heavy loss of young and strong men, and the complete destruction of railways, ports, roads and other transportation led to the Han army's offensive being affected and restricted, forcing it to temporarily stop.

The war in Paraguay has come to an end, but in the Han mainland, the city of Xianghe (Posadas) close to the front line is still tense and busy.

Xianghe City was the former capital of Argentina's Misiones Province. After the Han Dynasty occupied Argentina, it built it into an important transportation hub in the Paraná River Basin in the northern part of the country based on its geographical advantages and national industrial planning.

The railway extending from Songjiang Prefecture (Buenos Aires) intersects here with the railways in the directions of Linzhou, Zhenzhou, and Gwangju.

The goods unloaded from the train are then transported through the port and along the tributaries of the Paraná River to the northern part of the mainland, Paraguay and other places.

Goods and local specialties from the northern region can also be transported to Songjiang and even exported to other countries overseas with the help of ports and railways. After 10 years of construction, hundreds of industrial and commercial enterprises of scale, such as animal husbandry, wood processing, food, textiles, printing and dyeing, chemicals, machinery, and electricity, have been developed in the surrounding areas of the railway and port hubs in Xianghe City.

The city's population has also reached 17, and its total population and economic output are among the highest among the six northern states.

The entire territory of Paraguay basically fell under the control of the Han army. After the war, with Paraguay incorporated into the integrated management of the mainland, Xianghe City's development momentum will be taken to a new level with its significant location advantages.

Affected by the rainy season, Xianghe City, about 400 kilometers away from Asuncion, also welcomed a wave of heavy rainfall. After the heavy rain, a lot of rainwater was still accumulated on the ground. Many young and strong Chinese people, wearing sleeveless tops, gray and white jackets and pants, with shaved heads and slim figures, stepped on the puddles and began to get busy.

Box after box filled with ammunition, guns, shells, bullets, as well as canned food, gauze, medicines and other items were unloaded from the carriages by young and strong Chinese and placed in warehouses. Then another team of people moved the boxes from the warehouses to steam transport ships and transported them to Paraguay by water.

Inspectors in black and gray uniforms and guards in gray military uniforms patrolled back and forth in groups of three or five from time to time to ensure the smooth transportation work and prevent sabotage by possible hidden elements.

Zhao Derong is an immigrant from the Qilu region in the Far East. He is tall and has an honest face. After arriving in South America for several months and undergoing simple adaptation and training, he took a steam train from Songjiang Prefecture to Xianghe City to begin a two-year assessment life.

Every new immigrant has to go through a two-year probation period the moment he arrives in the mainland. During the probation period, new immigrants will be assigned to different regions and undergo different types of assessments based on factors such as their place of origin, gender, age, and physical health. Like most people from the lower classes who lack cultural education and professional skills, Zhao Derong was assigned to Xianghe City to work as a railway porter, working six hours a day. After finishing the porter work, he had to continue to receive two hours of naturalization education. Naturalization education is not only for foreign women who marry Chinese men, but also for newly migrated Chinese from the Far East, Southeast Asia and other places.

The so-called naturalization education includes the introduction of the climate, geography, and topography of various parts of South America, the promotion of the Han Dynasty's founding philosophy, the inculcation of ideas of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, the literacy of writing, and the learning of professional skills.

Providing naturalization education to Chinese immigrants is like painting on a blank sheet of paper, shaping their sense of identity with the Chinese nation in South America from scratch, and also helping them to integrate into the local life in South America faster.

Early immigrants were concentrated in Southeast Asia, southern Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi. Later, with the improvement of the Han Dynasty's ocean shipping capacity and the relaxation of the Qing court's control measures on the outflow of people to the sea, the immigrant group expanded to the central and northern coastal areas such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hebei, etc. Chinese immigrants from all over the Far East, speaking different dialects and holding different ideas, came to South America. How to make them smoothly integrate into the local area and identify with the local policies and ideas of governance became the primary task of immigration officials.

As a result, after more than 20 years of experience, the immigration policy of the Han Dynasty, including the naturalization education policy, has been gradually improved.

The education and training of immigrants have gradually become systematized and standardized, and the various conflicts and contradictions caused by the transportation, training and education of immigrants have become less and less.

Of course, since most of the immigrants who moved to the mainland were lower-class Chinese people, there were many who were tainted with bad habits and were members of so-called secret societies. Many of them applied the same methods of bribing white people and officials and taking shortcuts that they had used in Southeast Asia and the Far East to the mainland of China, transferring benefits and bribes to officials and government employees in charge of immigration affairs. Some officials and employees could not withstand the temptation and were corrupted, becoming part of their interest chain, providing cover for them to privately open casinos, smuggle, open Changguan, and form secret societies.

In response to similar situations, the Inspectorate, the Ministry of Police, the Customs, the Navy Coast Guard and other departments formed a joint law enforcement agency in accordance with Li Mingyuan's instructions to strictly investigate and deal with cases of collusion between immigrants and officials. Once discovered, they will be investigated and dealt with without any condoning or leniency.

从1880年至1889年以来，累计查获移民违法犯罪案件3000余起，涉及官员贿赂、腐败案件600余起。涉事官员、移民皆被处以3至10年、死刑等刑罚，被流放至南太平洋夷州列岛、非洲刚果殖民地两地的犯事官员数量1000余人、移民4000余人。

A month ago, Zhao Derong witnessed an arrest operation against newly immigrated gang members. 28 Green Gang members from Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the Far East bribed two section-level customs officials and five customs staff to smuggle 117 Chinese women from the Far East and forced them to engage in illegal activities.

The case was exposed and discovered, and 117 Chinese women involved were rescued. The four leading Green Gang leaders and seven customs officials and staff were executed. The remaining 7-odd people involved in the case were deprived of their Chinese citizenship and exiled to the Congo colony to work in mines.

The salary income of Han government officials is about 1.5 times the local average income. Compared with those working in machinery, electricity, chemicals and even small farmers, the income is not advantageous. However, the traditional official-centered thinking still makes people enthusiastic about government positions.

Government officials, military personnel, and employees of state-owned enterprises have a high social status and certain basic guarantees, but at the same time, the supervision and punishment of relevant personnel are also relatively strong. In terms of law, the degree of punishment for government officials who break the law is one level higher than that for ordinary people.

Power and responsibility are equal. Since one enjoys the benefits of power, then when one goes against one's original intention and uses power to commit crimes, one should naturally be subject to more severe punishment.

Several immigration officials and staff wearing gray uniforms and wide-brimmed hats flashed through his mind, and their terrified looks when they were captured. Zhao Derong felt both sorry and puzzled for their behavior.

In troubled times, civilians' lives are worthless. It is not easy to eat a bowl of coarse grain rice and fill your stomach to survive. Why would they give up the government work that everyone envied and do illegal and criminal activities? Don't they really know how to be satisfied?

(End of this chapter)