Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1117 Establishment of Colonial Bases in North America

"You put it lightly, it's full of gunpowder and shells, and we still count on these things to resist wild beasts and primitive tribes." Zheng Zhihu directed several sailors to carry several boxes of gunpowder from the sailboat.

After several days of exploration in the San Francisco Bay Area, the North American expedition team chose to build a new town on a flat place not far from the coastline and close to the river, and this unformed town was named Jinshan Town in advance.

The expedition members were temporarily assigned different tasks, mainly divided into hunting, fishing, gathering, logging, quarrying, and reclamation. Leaders with official backgrounds such as Cao Bianjiao and Zheng Zhihu were in charge of managing them.

The most important resource is food, and the agricultural team that Li Yizhu is in shoulders the heavy responsibility of leading farmers to reclaim farmland.

They did not bring any fertilizer with them this time, and the land reclamation was also very primitive and rough—they used iron axes to cut down the trees on the ground, dried the dead roots and set them on fire, and used the surface plant ash as fertilizer.The seeds of crops such as corn, wheat, and potatoes were brought with the ship.

In addition to the food, there are important wood and stone materials. People use wood and stone materials to make fences to resist possible wild animals, and to build wooden and thatched houses for shelter from rain.

"How is it? Have you found traces of indigenous tribes nearby?" When Zheng Zhihu was directing the crowd to reclaim wasteland, Cao Bianjiao came back from the nearby forest with a few soldiers.

"We didn't find the indigenous tribes. It is estimated that they are not many in number and they live too scattered, so we didn't find them. But we will definitely meet them when the scope of activities expands in the future. There are not many ferocious beasts around, but be careful of poisonous snakes, etc. Poison." Cao Bianjiao put the musket aside and told Zheng Zhihu about his situation.

"It's not a good thing for us to find the aborigines. We are short of manpower now, especially for building houses. In the future, we will go to the mountains and forests to explore mineral veins. We also need a group of cheap men to help us mine. You expect this area How many aborigines are there in the harbor?" Zheng Zhihu said.

"If the harbor is the center, there may be thousands or more aborigines." Cao Bianjiao is also not sure how many aborigines there are in the San Francisco Bay Area at this time. "I'll go and see how their farmland is being reclaimed."

Cao Bianjiao and several people walked along the edge of the river to the place that was selected as the farm.

The agricultural group and the farmers who came with their families are working together to cut down the bushes. Those bushes that are suitable for timber will be kept for firewood, and the rest will be piled up in place and burned for fertilizer.

"We plan to use this area as a farm. In a few days, we will set fire to burn this area to the ground. Plant ash from branches, leaves and weeds is a good fertilizer. It's just that this method of fertilization is too rough and only suitable for quick cultivation of farmland. The climate here is similar to those in southern Liaoning, and the crops planted should be similar." said Cao Bianjiao, who Li Yizhu had been inspecting.

"There is a lot of land here. It doesn't matter if you use this large area as a farm. The performance of everyone in the farm must be recorded, and the land will be allocated for planting in the future to determine the scope of each person's contract and allowances." Cao Bianjiao said.

They established towns in North America for the first time, and while they were overseas, the circulation of currency and commodities was restricted, and their management methods were different from those on the mainland. In the past few years, they had to rely on soldiers and sailors brought by Cao Bianjiao to maintain order and rules, and implement a planned economy.

"Planting crops is related to our survival in the coming year. The food obtained only by hunting and gathering is limited. Farming is the only solution to the food problem." Cao Bianjiao reminded.

"I will always pay attention to the management of the farm and the growth of the crops. If there is any sign of a bad harvest, I will report to the captain in advance." Li Yizhu said.

"I hope there will be no natural disasters in the first year..." Cao Bianjiao said.

"Here is next to the river, so we don't have to worry about drought, but we need to prevent crop diseases and locusts. Try to use a combination of multiple crops so that our harvest will not be affected by one crop failure... I propose A granary should be built to store grain. We brought a lot of salt, which can be used to make cured meat as a grain reserve. Part of the grain left over from the annual harvest is kept. We cultivate as much farmland as possible, because we don’t have much labor, Therefore, the farmland that lacks manpower can grow some crops that are easy to feed...and open canals to irrigate..." Li Yizhu said.

Cao Bianjiao joined the army very early and was not very familiar with farming, so he probably nodded in response.

The prototype of a town was gradually formed with the efforts of an expedition team of 500 people. The North American expedition team established a stronghold on the flat river bank near the river and divided the stronghold into several important areas: residential area, farmland area, and military camp area.Other places outside the stronghold are regarded as hunting areas. Except for the team members responsible for hunting and fishing, other team members cannot easily go to the hunting area to avoid danger.

Cao Bianjiao chose another high ground, built a crude fortress with stones, and sent sentries to stand guard to observe the surrounding situation.Although it is a very simple and small fortress, it is already an impenetrable fortification in North America, which lacks iron.The sentinels of the fort are on high to observe whether there are aborigines or wild animals invading residential areas, and are also responsible for observing weather conditions and river flood seasons.

At the beginning, the residential area used military tents during the march. When the manpower became free, wooden houses and stone houses began to be built on this strange new continent.

A large number of felled shrubs and bushes have been piled up in the farmland area, and isolation zones have been specially drawn to prevent the fire from spreading to the entire mountain forest when the fire is set on fire.

"Okay, it's time to set fire!" The farmers threw the torches into the piled wood, and soon billows of black smoke rose and hovered in the air.

"I hope these natural fertilizers can bring a good harvest!" Li Yizhu and almost all the expedition members looked at the raging fire and prayed for a good harvest in their hearts.

For them who came out of the ancient farming civilization, food is the most important thing for the people, and a full stomach is the foundation of everything.

The fire swept across tens of thousands of acres of land, and the man-made fire was burning soaring into the sky, and the tumbling black smoke gathered in the air for a long time.

In some hidden places in the nearby forest, the primitive tribe that Cao Bianjiao and Zheng Zhihu were looking for noticed the billowing black smoke.

These red-painted aborigines stood high on the hillside, pointing to the place where the beacon fire rose, and shouted uneasily at the people in their tribe.

They have not yet realized that advanced alien civilizations established their strongholds in this harbor many times in advance.

(End of this chapter)