The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 385 Colonial Constraints
At 1737 p.m. on February 2, 2, the passenger and cargo liner "Fortune" owned by the Pacific Shipping Company, under the guidance of a pilot boat, slowly sailed into Baoyuan Port on Changle Island (now Suva City, Viti Levu, Fiji).

Before the ship docked, dozens of vendors had already crowded onto the dock, waiting impatiently for potential customers who were about to disembark.

Changle Island is a South Pacific island "discovered" by the Qi State exploration fleet in the sixth year of Qianwu (1648) based on the navigation records of the Dutchman Tasman.

This is a typical volcanic island. A central mountain range divides the entire Changle Island. There are many dormant volcanoes in the mountain range. The highest point on the island, Changle Peak, is over one thousand meters above sea level.

This mountain range also divides the island's climate into two parts, with the southeast being humid and rainy with an annual rainfall of 3000 mm, and the northwest being drier with an annual rainfall of 1800-2300 mm.

Currently, the island is under the jurisdiction of the Dongzhou Governor's District, and together with dozens of surrounding small islands such as Gulan Island (now Vanua Levu Fiji) and Jianshan Island (now Ngamea Island Fiji), it forms Changle County, with a population of more than 6,400.

The entire county's economy is mainly based on plantations, logging and mining, and the people live a prosperous and leisurely life.

Of course, the people here are only immigrants from Qi State and some mixed-race residents.

The former kingdom on the island had long been dissolved by the Qi authorities, the king was deposed, and all the natives became "residents" of Qi's overseas territories, "working" for the plantations and mines on the island.

There are many precious woods on the island, such as sandalwood, ebony, as well as high-quality hardwood and pine. In the past few decades, they have attracted countless businessmen to flock to the island, driving the indigenous people of the island to cut down trees and plunder crazily.

Later, the Overseas Colonial Affairs Department of Qi State established a management agency and formed a local government here, which stopped the merchants from deforestation and instead adopted the principles of orderly development and rational management, and provided policy protection for the few remaining precious timbers on the island.

Some merchants and immigrants who had settled on the island watched the wealth bestowed by God being taken away by the government. Although they were unwilling, they could do nothing about it. So they opened up a large number of plantations in the fertile valleys and deltas of several rivers on the island, planting cash crops such as sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton to complete the "economic transformation."

After decades of development, the appearance of Changle Island has undergone tremendous changes. The natives of the island have also leapt from the primitive era of ignorance and backwardness to the current steam age. The thatched houses that were once everywhere have been replaced by beautiful oriental houses, and they have also replaced their simple "clothes" made of tree bark or animal skin with soft cotton cloth.

In the past, they mainly relied on picking wild fruits and catching offshore fish as their main food sources, but now they can eat delicious rice and various pasta products, as well as a rich variety of vegetables and condiments.

It can be said that the arrival of the Qi people completely liberated them from their extremely barbaric and ignorant state.

But have their lives really gotten better?

"How can their lives get better?" Du Ruitu shook his head and said to the Colonel officer beside him: "As far as I know, before we Da Qi took Changle Island under our rule, the island's indigenous population was estimated to be 30,000 to 40,000. Now, I'm afraid it's less than 15,000. So where did the lost population go?"

Li Yanliang had the answer to this question in his mind, but he really didn't want to continue discussing it with this particular scholar.

Because there is no point, it's just a waste of words.

This is an era where the strong prey on the weak. Being weak and backward is a kind of original sin. Once targeted by a powerful country or ethnic group, its final outcome will be destruction or assimilation.

"…In addition to the various infectious diseases brought by immigrants that caused a large number of deaths among the island's indigenous people, the wanton exploitation and enslavement by greedy businessmen, plantation owners, and mine owners also indirectly 'eliminated' a considerable number of indigenous people on the island." Du Ruitu ignored it and continued, "Take this dock in front of us for example. More than 30 years ago, in order to improve the dock facilities so that it could accommodate more and larger ships, the local government forcibly conscripted more than 3,000 indigenous people on the island to work day and night. After the project was completed, there were less than 2,000 indigenous people left participating in the construction. It can be said that the corpses of the indigenous people are buried under this dock."

"We don't have to bury countless corpses of my Great Qi people under the dock, do we?" Under the guidance of a port staff, Li Yanliang came to the dock passenger station and prepared to hail a carriage to go to the city.

The "Fortune" they are on will stay in Baoyuan Port for a day to replenish food and fresh water, and add coal, and will not set sail until noon tomorrow.

In this situation, he didn't want to stay in the narrow cabin of the ship doing nothing, so he got off the ship with a group of passengers, found a comfortable hotel in the city, took a refreshing hot bath, and then had a good sleep.

However, this sociologist, who had been chattering to him since boarding the ship from Huaiyuan Port (now San Francisco), kept criticizing how the empire's colonial affairs had harmed the interests of too many indigenous peoples and destroyed the rare indigenous culture, which made him a little annoyed.

I don't know what was in this scholar's mind. He was so full of sympathy and compassion for the indigenous people in the colonial territories. He believed that the imperial government should protect these poor and helpless indigenous people just as it protected its own citizens, and provide them with economic support so that they could enjoy the sunshine of the empire.

Is it really true that poverty breeds evil schemes and wealth breeds conscience?

These "conscientious" sociologists who traveled and investigated everywhere began to shift their attention from domestic to foreign countries, speaking up for the indigenous peoples of the colonial territories who were treated like grass and promoting liberal doctrines such as "all under heaven are one family" and "equality of all peoples".

Forget about it. Instead of having such a broad-minded heart, you should pay more attention to the livelihood issues of the people at the bottom of our society, speak out, appeal and bring about change for the various injustices they have encountered.

Four months ago, a transfer order from the mainland was sent to Huaiyuan City, asking Li Yanliang to temporarily hand over the post of Xuanzhou Garrison Commander to his deputy, and then immediately return to Chang'an by boat to report on his work.

However, he was inspecting the construction progress of the local Salt Castle (now Salt Lake City, USA) in the Great Salt Lake area with many staff officers at the time, so he was unable to learn about the transfer order in the first place.

It was not until two months later, when he was on patrol in Changtai Fort (now Reno, Nevada), that he received the news from the local telegraph station and immediately returned to Huaiyuan City.

After handing over various affairs to his deputy and saying goodbye to many officials of the Xuanzhou Governor's Office one by one, it took another half a month. It was not until the New Year was approaching that he boarded the "Fuyun" liner and rushed to Hanzhou mainland.

After staying in Yinzhou for eight years, to be honest, he still felt a bit nostalgic and reluctant to leave this territory full of infinite vitality.

There are endless forests, countless minerals, and many hardworking and simple immigrants. There are rivers crisscrossing here, the land is fertile, and what makes people even more delighted is that there are four distinct seasons here, which is somewhat similar to the Chinese mainland.

It can be said without exaggeration that if an ambitious person occupies it, it will definitely be considered as having the foundation for hegemony and can grow into a great power in the world.

Although the empire divided this overseas territory into three governorates and one vassal kingdom from north to south, it was partially fragmented to prevent the emergence of a monopoly.

But in Li Yanliang's view, this is still not enough to ensure the empire's complete control over this territory.

Because Yinzhou was too far away from the mainland of Hanzhou, it was impossible to manage and control it with ease. The only thing they could do was rely on the colonial officials sent there to perform their duties conscientiously and faithfully carry out the wishes of His Majesty the Emperor and the Cabinet government.

But, it's out of reach!

Or it can be said that the emperor is far away and the people are few and the officials are many.

Over the years, as alienation and extravagance spread throughout the empire, hedonism and corruption also emerged, and the remote colonial territories of Yinzhou were no exception.

With his identity and status as the commander of the Xuanzhou Garrison, the salary and overseas allowances paid by the government each year were no more than 600 yuan. However, when combined with the gifts and tributes given to him by numerous businessmen and mine owners during the New Year holidays, his total income would be as high as more than 4,000 yuan.

And this is the income he earned without actively soliciting bribes or paying tributes.

After eight years in office, he saved nearly 30,000 yuan, an income level that exceeded more than 90 percent of the people in Qi.

And he was just a middle-level official in one of the many overseas colonial territories.

The Governor, the Representative of the Colonial Affairs Department in Yinzhou, the General Director of Yinzhou Customs, the Commander-in-Chief of Yinzhou Police, the Inspector General of Yinzhou Foreign Trade..., etc., the income level of such high-ranking officials can be imagined.

After all, the wool comes from the sheep. The colonial officials' unscrupulous money-making and corruption have ultimately harmed the people and merchants of the entire colonial territory.

Some scholars who were born in Yinzhou once boldly asked, "Why do the people of Yinzhou allow local officials to bully them and ask for whatever they want, while they remain silent?"
Yes, as Yinzhou successively established several universities, while improving the local scientific and cultural levels, it also gave rise to a wave of independent thought in this land.

While these new Yinzhou people, who have a certain sense of "autonomy", expressed dissatisfaction with the colonial officials originally sent, they were full of endless yearning and envy for the management model of the British colonial territories on the east coast.

Those people have their own parliaments and autonomous administrative bodies, and they enjoy extremely low taxes - of course, in recent years, England "Dad" has begun to increase its demands on its North American "sons", not only adding many types of taxes, but also slowly and steadily raising the tax rates - they can own more land without restrictions, they can even decide the salaries of local governors and officials, and can supervise and review their administration at any time.

Moreover, after more than a hundred years of development, the British North American territory had gradually acquired large-scale manufacturing industries such as shipbuilding (one-third of England's merchant ships were built for North America), iron smelting, textiles (small handicrafts), and brewing, allowing it to export large quantities of goods to the State of Chen and the Caribbean in exchange for precious gold and silver.

Unlike the Yinzhou territory, which, under the deliberate suppression of the government, could not produce even a single nail except for the most basic industrial industries such as wood processing, food processing, and fur processing. Almost all production and daily necessities had to be imported from Hanzhou and the Nanyang territory, suffering from an extremely unequal trade gap.

It is true that the living standards of the residents in Yinzhou’s colonies are not as good as those in Hanzhou, but they are definitely much better than those in the traditional Chinese civilization circles such as Qin, Korea, and Japan. At least they do not have to worry about the suffering of freezing and hunger, nor the disaster of war. However, being suppressed and "sucked blood" by the locals for so long is always not so comfortable.

Why can't the local people treat us Yinzhou people as their own people?

As we all know, when the Yinzhou colonial territory was first established, it was regarded as one of the main destinations for local exiled criminals.

According to rough statistics, from the tenth year of the Hanxing reign (1680) to the sixth year of the Yonglong reign (1735), a total of more than exiled prisoners were transferred from the mainland to Yinzhou.

What do you think the attitude of these prisoners and their descendants will be towards the local government?
In addition, among the immigrants in Yinzhou, except for the criminals exiled from the local area, most of them were landless farmers or disaster refugees from countries and regions such as Qin, Japan, Korea and Annan.

When these immigrants first arrived in Yinzhou, they might have been grateful to Qi for saving them from danger and expressed a certain degree of obedience and submission.

But as a large number of second or third generation immigrants gradually grow up, while trying their best to protect their own interests, facing such oppression and exploitation in their homeland, will they continue to obey the empire like their fathers?

You must know that Yinzhou is not like other overseas colonial territories. It is either an isolated island or a small strategic location embedded between the forces of a certain country or region. It must rely on the protection of the mainland and have to accept the control and management of the central government.

Yinzhou is a vast and resource-rich continent, stretching from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Mexico in the south and the Han River (now the Mississippi River) in the east. Within a radius of thousands of miles, there is no powerful force. In the eyes of the Qi people, France's population and scattered strongholds in the Louisiana region cannot hold the central Great Plains at all. As long as there is a steady influx of immigrants and a little development, it has the potential to become a great power.

Therefore, Li Yanliang believed that in order to completely "grasp" Yinzhou, in addition to further strengthening control over local politics, economy, culture and ideology, Yinzhou must be fragmented again, and the current governor's districts and future newly occupied territories must be divided into several governor's districts.

If possible, the royal family could grant a few more vassal states to be interspersed between these local governor-general's districts, with each state being different in size and not being subordinate to the other.

Moreover, following the examples of India and Qianzhou, we can establish a garrison in Yinzhou and send it to the key points and ports of Yinzhou to use force to control it.

Yinzhou should be the wing of the empire and the shield of the Western Pacific, and must not be abandoned lightly.

(End of this chapter)