Jinyi champion

Chapter 1099 Central American Twin Cities
With the acceleration of construction, the two cities in the north and south of Panama initially have the function of trading cities, mainly because of their superior geographical location.

Zhu Hao saw the first batch of Native American ships in the northern city of Panama, which is later known as the city of Cologne. They came from the islands in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. They had contact with Europeans relatively early and retained their own city-state system. of indigenous peoples.

Zhu Hao’s communication with this group of people was not very smooth, and he could only rely on the Aztecs to communicate with them. Based on his description, this group of people probably had their own country in Haiti or Cuba.

It can be said that they are envoys sent by the Europeans to trade in Panama on behalf of the Europeans, and what they want is nothing more than gold and silver.

"They came to negotiate with us...the captain explained that if we hand over the silver mines in the north to them, they will pay us at least half of the silver every year, and they don't need us to send people, they will bring people to go To mine...the other is to give them the silver we got from all over the Americas, and they will give us various materials..."

Zhu Hao tentatively called this group of people Caribbean middlemen.

This group of people came to serve as a mouthpiece for the Europeans. After the Europeans gradually lost control of Central America, there were many silver mines left there, and they found out through some channels that Zhu Hao had no interest in mining silver mines. I ordered many mines to be closed, and my heart ached for this.

Since they knew that Ming Dynasty did not focus on mining gold and silver in America, and Zhu Hao did not implement a silver standard system in South America, they had the idea of ​​profiting through trade in their minds.

You must know that the amount of silver circulating in Europe is very large today, and most countries in Asia and Africa use silver as the main currency. For European colonists, this thing can be exchanged for real benefits. They feel that you We will mine things that are not rare in Ming Dynasty, as long as we pay taxes for you.

Killing two birds with one stone, why not do it?

Zhu Hao's reply to this was very simple: "I also need silver, but it is not mined for the time being. If they want to trade, they will bring what I need, that is, horses, cattle and sheep. Only this can be obtained from me. Exchange gold and silver here, otherwise there will be no discussion!"

In the territory controlled by Zhu Hao, there are indeed some supplies that are in short supply, and that is livestock.

Although he is already preparing to send a fleet across the Atlantic Ocean to trade with Europe and the African continent, his current focus is still on how to consolidate the existing territories so that America will not be destroyed by Europe People reoccupy.

Under this premise, what Zhu Hao has to do is to use Europeans to complete the trade.

In other words, first ease the relationship with the Europeans, so that the Europeans have access to the silver produced in America, and at the same time Zhu Hao gets what he wants.

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Less than a month after the Caribbean middleman returned, he brought back the animals Zhu Hao needed.

It's a pity that because the Europeans never planned to vigorously develop animal husbandry in America, Zhu Hao couldn't get more useful things from them. The horses he brought over were only twenty horses, and a little more cattle and sheep. It was far from meeting Zhu Hao's requirements.

"Do they think this is some kind of rare treasure? They want to exchange a large amount of gold and silver from me for such a small thing? It really is a profiteer!"

Zhu Hao suddenly felt that these people were not middlemen, but a group of profiteers, and they were the kind of profiteers with a big appetite.

Guan Jing, who was standing behind Zhu Hao, yelled loudly: "Why don't you send some boats and wipe them all out!"

Zhu Hao was not interested in this, and said: "Fix the price with them. A horse is 200 taels of silver, a cow is 100 taels of silver, and a sheep is 20 taels of silver. The rest...just figure it out."

The price Zhu Hao offered was already very high.

It can be regarded as leaving a way for European colonists and middlemen to make money. The price of a horse in Europe will not exceed 20 taels of silver, and it can be exchanged for 200 taels in America, which is equal to ten times the profit. Having monopolized the silver output in Central America, Europeans urgently need a way to earn silver.

The specific price is set to facilitate the Europeans to carry out the smuggling trade wantonly. They may not need to transport horses from Europe here, and Africa, West Asia, and Central Asia also produce horses.

In fact, only America and Australia, because they were isolated from several major continents in the past and never traded, have never been able to obtain horses.

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After the price was set, the Caribbean middleman replied to Zhu Hao, and they would actually counter the price... asking for a good war horse, the price was 300 taels of silver, while the price of cattle and sheep did not fluctuate much.

Zhu Hao maintained the price of cattle, sheep and other livestock, and increased the price of horses to 230 taels of silver, which was considered as an extra freight.

After the Caribbean middleman returned, he immediately discussed with the European colonists about transporting livestock to the Americas. Guan Jing and the others couldn’t understand this, because in their view, the Ming’s fleet could go to Europe and the African continent to plunder. There is no need to let unscrupulous middlemen make the difference.

At a military meeting, Zhu Hao explained the situation to these people: "At present, our top priority is to ensure the stability of the territory. Sending troops to the sea to cross the rough Atlantic Ocean and reach the European continent is more risky than rewarding for us. A war will break out with them immediately, and supplies cannot be obtained directly until the opponent is defeated.

"The current situation in Europe is complicated, and various countries are conquering each other. If we go, they will unite and work together to deal with us. If this is the case, it is better to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight and reap the benefits of the fisherman. Sooner or later we will take them All the countries and territories of China are occupied, but before that, we can exchange the silver we don’t need now for useful materials, so as to increase our strength and lay a solid foundation for winning future wars.”

In fact, Zhu Hao has never expressed in the army that he would send troops to Daming. He still regards himself as a citizen of Daming. If he tells his subordinates at this time, he will fight back and send troops to Daming. Zhu Hao doesn't know whether these people are with his family or not. situation, what would you think.

Therefore, if Zhu Hao wanted to attack Daming, he had to rely more on the Indian recruits he had personally trained.

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Europeans have to transport livestock to and from the American continent from Europe, Africa and other places. Fortunately, they are already familiar with shuttling back and forth between several continents, and it doesn't take much effort.

Colon City in the north of Panama will serve as Zhu Hao’s terminal for receiving Atlantic trade supplies in the future. It will also be the only city in the entire continent where ocean trade is legally conducted. The status here is destined to be higher than SF City in South America.

But there are not many residents here. Even if 60 people migrated from the entire Panama region, after all, the terrain here is narrow and long, and there are many tropical rainforests that are not suitable for farming, so there is not so much land granted to the people.

The population can only extend to the east and west wings, and there is not enough land around to build big cities. We can only build some small towns first, and let the residents living in them organize their own defenses. After all, there are still many scattered Europeans in the American continent, and even the South On the east coast of America, there are still many towns occupied by Europeans.

Zhu Hao has not yet set out to the east coast of South America, nor has he attacked many islands in the Caribbean.

For Zhu Hao, these are things that can be put on the back burner, and now he wants to accumulate more strategic materials.

At this time, there was an obsession in his heart, the meaning of going back and taking down Daming was far greater than capturing Europe.

As a Han Chinese, Zhu Hao left his hometown and completed primitive accumulation in the Americas. Now he seems to be using his ambitions to benefit the native Americans. On the contrary, the Chinese people are still in a feudal and backward state, suffering from natural disasters and man-made disasters. pain.

Zhu Hao didn't want to think of himself as a saint, but if he owned Daming, he would be more active than he is now if he only has a population of 6000 million.

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The construction of Cologne City and Panama City is very smooth, with 60 people filling them. Zhu Hao thinks that within a few decades, this place will become the most prosperous place in the Americas.

What restricts the development of Panama is still the land issue.

The population can no longer grow rapidly.

The shipyard in Cologne City is intensifying production day and night, and various materials such as wood, coal and even steel are obviously not enough. Zhu Hao originally planned to build a railway from SF City in South America directly to Panama City, and then extend to Cologne City and the north New City, Chang'an City... This plan seems too exaggerated.

Of course, Zhu Hao has a more ambitious plan, which is to build the Panama Canal, but Zhu Hao knows that this plan is not feasible for the time being.

To build a canal, under today's technological conditions, tens of thousands of people may not be able to build it in ten or even twenty years. This is much more time-consuming and labor-intensive than the Grand Canal in China. After all, it is located in a tropical rainforest area. It is also necessary to meet the navigation of large ocean-going ships, which cannot be built casually.

As for the construction of the railway, Zhu Hao had done prospecting before, and because he needed to accumulate steel to make big iron wheels, he had to postpone the railway construction plan temporarily.

Steel is not enough, so timber can only be shipped from the south and north. The ships built by shipyards along the Atlantic Ocean are mainly wooden ships.

The ports on the Pacific coast are mostly used to complete the receipt of goods, and then deliver the goods from Panama City to Colon by land.

From this point of view, Zhu Hao needs a short-distance railway, that is, the railway between Panama City and Cologne. After all, minerals from SF City and other places can be easily transported to Panama by sea. In this way, the railway from Panama to SF City can be first Slowly, but the railway between Panama and Colon cannot wait.

After careful exploration, Zhu Hao transferred more than 2 professional road construction personnel from SF City, and cooperated with construction workers in Cologne City and Panama City to start building the railway connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

The total length of the railway is 150 miles.

The locomotive was manufactured in Panama City, the rails were manufactured in SF City, and the sleepers were completed in Xincheng, and then they were transported by boat, and the road was paved in one direction from south to north. The length of this railway exceeded that of the railway from SF City to the southern coal mining area.

Because this railway is of great significance, Zhu Hao attaches great importance to it.

Mainly because of the special terrain here, we have to prepare for the construction of the Panama Canal in the future. The location of the railway is very important. Fortunately, the terrain here is relatively flat compared to the South American continent. The only thing that needs to be crossed is the Chagres River, which is equivalent to building a Railway parallel to the canal.

Zhu Hao set a construction deadline for this railway of three months.

But in the end, the railway was built in less than two months.

(End of this chapter)