The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 227 Civilized “Tolerance”

The Haizhou Viceroyalty located in the Azuero Peninsula of Panama is the governorate with the smallest population among the many overseas territories of Qi. As of the 1725th year of Taiping (), the population was only more than (excluding local indigenous people). ). Even including the managed Xuanwu Islands (the Galapagos Islands), the population does not exceed .

Haizhou borders the Gulf of Panama to the east and Montejo Bay to the west. It is about 100 kilometers long from east to west and 90 kilometers wide from north to south. It inserts diagonally into the Pacific Ocean to the south. The entire region is dominated by mountains, with only narrow plains along the coast. Yellow Grass Mountain (today's Canajagua Mountain), with an altitude of more than 900 meters, is the highest point on the peninsula.

Haizhou has less precipitation than other parts of Panama. There is a dry season in the east from November to March, and the climate is cool and pleasant.

In addition to being of great strategic value because it is adjacent to the Isthmus of Panama, Haizhou itself has no minerals and no special economic characteristics. It is mainly based on agriculture and animal husbandry, including corn, rice, vegetables, fruits, and cattle, pigs, and poultry breeding.

However, in the past two months, one merchant ship after another has arrived from Hanzhou mainland, loaded with rails, cement, locomotives, steam buckets, and many railway engineering and technical personnel. In a very short period of time, The largest port in Haizhou, Ruiqing Port (today’s Chitre City, the capital of Panama’s Herrera Province) was packed to the brim, and it also drove extremely strong consumption in this small town with a population of less than 2,000 people.

After more than two years of negotiations and line exploration, construction of the Panama Isthmus Railway officially started on February 1.

This railway, which is only seventy-five kilometers long, can only be regarded as a small project for the people of Qi. In terms of domestic railway planning, which often involves hundreds or thousands of kilometers of large projects, it will not even attract attention. attracted the attention of many investors.

However, in the eyes of the cabinet and the military, this railway has great strategic value. Once it controls this railway, Qi will indirectly open a fast passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Not only can it better control Qi's newly acquired The Caribbean islands and the territory of Kipzhou (formerly British Belize) can also expand Qi's influence in the Caribbean.

The investment scale of this railway amounted to 1.2 million yuan - compared with the domestic railway construction cost, the overall cost was nearly twice as high - by the Qiguo American Railway Company and the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru (now the Panama Region). As the main land channel for transporting gold and silver, it was built by a joint venture under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of Peru).

"Of course, we Qi people are not the parents of the Spaniards, so how can we have the obligation to spend money in vain to help them build American territory?" Haizhou Governor Lu Xuanming stood on a high platform near the dock after inspecting the newly built storage area at the port. , looking towards the sea, "According to the railway construction agreement, the commercial rights, mining rights, transportation rights, and protection rights within five kilometers along the line belong to the railway company. Relying on these ancillary rights, it will not be long before the entire Panama The Isthmus will be infiltrated and controlled by our Qi State. From now on, if the Spaniards want to transport something, when will it be carried out? Will it not be possible without our Qi State’s permission?”

As early as four years ago, when the war with England was still ongoing, Qingguo and the Qiguo American Railway Company had begun a joint venture to build a railway line from Beijing (today's Viedma, a city in south-central Argentina) to the northern town of Junzhou (today's Buenos Aires, Argentina). Port of Lanka) railway, which was completed and opened to traffic two years ago, becoming the first country in the Americas to have a railway.

"The General Office of the Isthmian Railway issued a document to our Haizhou Governor-General, requesting a corresponding number of armed guards to protect Qi's engineering and technical personnel and ensure the smooth progress of the railway project." Lu Xuanming walked off the platform and walked towards an official carriage , "In these days, Lieutenant Chen spent a lot of time selecting more than a hundred brave rural soldiers in the local area and sent them to the Isthmus of Panama railway construction site on a certain day."

Several major players in Europe have been operating in the area for a hundred or two hundred years and have deep roots. It is not like they, the newcomers, can easily shake their position.

Compared with the Spaniards who were so cautious in building railways, Qingguo, located at the southern tip of America, was very open-minded. It directly liberalized all domestic railway construction plans and actively cooperated with Qi railway investors to prepare Several railway lines are planned to be built in the country.

In other words, basically all the money for this Panama Isthmus Railway was funded by the Qi people, but the money went around in front of the Spaniards and flowed back to the Qi mainland, and then deducted part of the loan fees. and interest, and finally transferred to the accounts of domestic factories that produce related railway engineering equipment, contributing a positive force to Qi's industrial added value.

"What the Governor said is absolutely true." Chen Shouchang nodded in response, but he didn't think so in his heart.

However, although the Spaniards feel that the construction of the Panama Isthmus Railway is extremely beneficial to themselves, at least when transporting gold and silver in the future, they will no longer have to rely on time-consuming and laborious packhorses and carts, which will make it more convenient for materials and personnel in the American territories. contacts. But the Spaniards always murmured in their hearts that the people of Qi should not be so kind and spend so much money and effort to help them communicate between the two oceans and facilitate travel.

In fact, with the poor and chaotic finances of the Viceroyalty of Peru, it is impossible to come up with an investment share of 1 yuan, equivalent to more than 1.3 million silver pesos (1.4 tael of silver is approximately equal to to silver pesos).

The American Railway Company held 70% of the shares by investing 800,000 yuan and providing technical guidance for the entire line construction. The Viceroyalty of Peru held 30% of the shares by investing 400,000 yuan and providing land and labor along the railway line.

"Oh?" Chen Shouchang was a little surprised, "Don't the Spaniards provide necessary armed guards for the railway project?"

"In the future, are we going to seize the Isthmus of Panama?" Chen Shouchang, the Haizhou garrison commander and Xuangjie captain (major), heard this and felt moved.

Our country, Qi, may still have some power on the Pacific side, and we can speak loudly about who will attack whom. But if we were in the Caribbean, I'm afraid we wouldn't have this ability. That is definitely the place where Qi's influence is the weakest and its military power radiates farthest.

"Chief Lieutenant Chen, what do you think is the significance of the existence of our Haizhou Governor-General?" Lu Xuanming smiled and said: "Haizhou, Pearl Islands, and the surrounding Xuanwu Islands are not just to guard the Isthmus of Panama. The west exit? And the east side of the Isthmus of Panama is the Caribbean Sea. If the Spanish, French, English, Dutch, and Danes are allowed to enter through the Isthmus of Panama, a bunch of European countries will enter. Isn't the Pacific going to cause us chaos, and may even endanger our Yinzhou geopolitical and commercial interests? Therefore, when we have the right time, our Qi country will definitely seize the Isthmus of Panama. But before that, we need help. Let the Spaniards guard this strategic location. Whoever dares to reach out will have his claws chopped off!"

The people of Qi State spared no effort to support this South American nation with a small population and a relatively complex ethnic composition.

However, considering the pro-vassal relationship between Qi and Qing, it is natural to fully understand their actions.

But it doesn't matter, we in Qi State have money and can provide you with a full loan.

"They can't trust the Spaniards." Lu Xuanming shook his head and said, "In addition to taking care of thousands of Indian workers, the Spanish colonial troops in America also had to take care of the railway equipment and locomotive parts along the line, so they were a little neglectful of our technical construction personnel. For protection, there have been several attacks on railway construction and our engineering and technical personnel, which made the railway general office very angry. Therefore, they came to us, hoping to find some reliable armed guards. "

"The Spanish allow us armed escorts into their territory?"

"It's not our Qi State's economic army. The number is only about a hundred. The Spaniards will definitely not stop it." "I will handle this matter in the next few days and strive to send the armed escort to Panama before the end of March."

Lu Xuanming nodded, turned around and glanced at the noisy port again, then got on the carriage and headed towards the city.
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"Now that you've been chosen, let's go."

He Baozhong squatted under the eaves and smoked his pipe for a while. Then he looked up at his eldest son, who was only sixteen years old in front of him. He was wearing a gray rural soldier training uniform and looked high-spirited. He couldn't help but sigh and turned back to inside the house.

"Brother, are you going to fight?" The ten-year-old third brother looked at his brother with admiration.

"Brother, will you die?" the young fifth sister asked childishly.

"..." The silent mother next to him heard this and immediately looked at his eldest son nervously.

"I'm not going to fight." He Jianing squeezed out a smile, stretched out his hand and rubbed Wu Mei's head vigorously, and then walked to his mother who looked worried, "We are going to the Panama Railway construction site to act as guards to prevent the local soil from ...Saboteurs harm construction workers to ensure that...the railway is constructed normally."

His mother was an Indian, which is what he almost said was an indigenous person. However, after several years of school education and long-term living environment, he did not identify himself as an indigenous descendant deep down in his heart.

His father was a pure native of the Qi State. He also had a Han face and spoke Chinese, so he was naturally a native of the Qi State. There was no doubt about this.

In fact, in order to control and permanently occupy the important overseas territories that were taken away, Qi State not only spent a lot of money to immigrate and exile prisoners, but also encouraged those who stayed in the colonies to intermarry with local women as much as possible and give birth to children. Mixed race offspring. Then after several generations, the mixed-race descendants can be gradually refined into Qi people to achieve the purpose of racial change.

In terms of cultural invasion, the colonial government exhausted all means. Mainly by tampering with local history, changing living traditions and customs, setting up education, changing religious beliefs and other methods, they forcibly brainwash local youth to erase local culture.

In this process, what the colonial government did was to erase the local history and civilization as much as possible, so that the local indigenous people could forget their roots and willingly accept the rule of Qi.

In this era when national consciousness has not yet fully awakened, as time goes by, the people of Qi may really be able to transform everything in the colonial territory into the imagined model of Chinese civilization.

During the rule of the Qi State, almost all the churches and remains of Indian civilization in Haizhou were destroyed. The Castilian civilization and the local traditional Indian civilization introduced by the Spaniards over hundreds of years also gradually declined.

In addition, in order to reduce the difficulty of governance and change the regional population structure, the colonial government would also deliberately consume the local population.

When the State of Qi seceded Haizhou and surrounding islands from the Kingdom of Spain, it once ordered a ban on Catholicism and restricted the holding of various religious ceremonies that could unite people's hearts, forcing Hispanics and mixed descendants living in the area to flee and move to Panama. .

As for the more numerous local Indians, they forced laborers to build cities, build roads, build ports, cut down forests, reclaim wasteland, and build water conservancy projects.

Under harsh working conditions, a large number of indigenous people died of disease or overwork. For the indigenous tribes who dared to resist, the colonial government would ruthlessly suppress and cleanse them. Countless indigenous tribes were sentenced to death, hard labor or exile, causing the Haizhou indigenous population to drop by half in less than twenty years. above.

For the remaining indigenous population, the Haizhou colonial government refused to grant them the status of overseas territory nationals on the grounds that they had not paid any taxes and were unable to master oral Chinese proficiency, leaving them at the bottom of the entire society.

To put it bluntly, the Qi people were no different from the Spanish, and they implemented the same oppressive policies against the unruly American Indians who refused to assimilate. The only difference is probably that the people of Qi did not make the mixed-race race as complicated as three, six or nine, but simply stipulated that the identity of mixed-race offspring should be based on the paternal line.

That is, as long as the father's lineage is from Qi, his mixed-race children will all be from Qi.

If your maternal line is from Qi, but your father's line is from an indigenous Indian - of course, this is extremely rare in a colonial territory where there is an extreme shortage of native women - then you are still an inferior indigenous person.

This model once attracted ridicule from the Spaniards, who felt that the Qi people's identification of blood was too careless and was a blasphemy against the requirement for pure blood.

piss off!
Our Chinese civilization is the most advanced civilization in the world. It has an absolute advantage in the culture of the "barbarians" and advocates "using China to transform the barbarians".

Well, to put it more simply, the difference between Yi and Xia is not purely based on blood ties and geographical differences, but is based on cultural differences or etiquette.

In the colonial territories, as long as you have a Chinese surname, speak Chinese, wear Han clothes, practice Chinese customs, and aspire to be Chinese, you can become "Chinese" by learning "Chinese culture", even if your appearance and origin are completely different from those of the Han people. .

Our civilization in Qi is still extremely "tolerant".

(End of this chapter)