Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1146 Hejian ([-])

It has been several days since Xu Zhongwu followed an expedition team into this forest.After many days of hard walking along the mountain trails, the group was exhausted and miserable, but fortunately, Shan Cha Fort was approaching, which made everyone feel a little relieved.

"Brother Xu, those barbarian mercenaries and Mrs. Kelandi can't be hired any more in the future. How can they be so tired? Once something happens, I can rely on them. I'm really worried." There are two 1633 guns on his waist Chen Jia, with a flintlock pistol, rushed up from behind the team and said to Xu Zhongwu, the leader.The two of them have known each other since they were young, and their relationship is naturally unusual.This time Xu Zhongwu brought people to Shanchabao to manage the yerba mate tea business, and Chen Jia followed. The two brothers officially joined forces to venture into the world together.

By the way, Xu Zhongwu is the second son of Xu Wenxuan, a wealthy businessman on the east coast. He used to work as a manager in his father's oil mill, and the wife he married was also his father's business partner.Originally, according to his father's plan, Xu Zhongwu's life was probably spent in the family business. However, maybe he couldn't stand the restraint, or he couldn't bear the indifferent eyes of his elder brother, so Xu Zhongwu raised a sum of money by himself. , and then recruited some guards and helpers, invited his friend Chen Jia together, and ran to the remote Shan Cha Bao area to start a yerba mate tea business.

It is said that in recent years, due to the proximity of water and buildings, yerba mate tea, a unique South American drink, has become more and more popular on the east coast, and its sales are also increasing day by day, which undoubtedly means a huge market.Otherwise, why do you think so many people went to the platform forest in the Hejian area to beg for a living?Isn't it to seize the local yerba mate tea resources!

As for where the yerba mate tea resources in the Hejian area are located, it is actually very simple, mainly in the southern edge of the forest in Misiones Province, Argentina.In this vast land, due to the efforts of a few Spanish colonists, the local indigenous people (mainly the Guarani) gradually developed a real civilization in terms of society, economy, culture and religion. Buildings made of materials rise on the ground, showing the outside world the unique status and wealth of the colonists—of course, these places are still a certain distance from Camellia Fort, and the Spanish colonists and outsiders on the east coast are also faintly Some are not coping, because the "greedy east coast people" have taken away a large forest, and the forest is full of wild yerba mate. How can this not make the Spaniards heartbroken?

It’s not that the Spaniards have resisted: reporting to the higher-level colonial government, instigating religious Guaranis to attack outsiders on the east coast, and spreading rumors to discredit the east coast among the neutral Guarani tribes (it’s really hard to say whether it’s a rumor or not) ) and so on, they have tried all means, but under the wave of people on the east coast driven by interests, the weak and weak Spanish colonists could not withstand the pressure, so they had no choice but to give in, and were finally defeated by the east coast. The shore people snatched a large number of wild tea farms.

Shan Cha Bao came into being under such circumstances. Under the acquiescence and promotion of Liao Xiaoyao, who was the commander of the Wujiang District Police at that time, more than 300 armed new-generation East Coasters came to settle here, and then settled on the spot. Cutting down timber to build fortresses, and blatantly started armed colonization—of course, in the name of foreign trade.

After this group of pioneers established a foothold in the Hejian area and sent the first batch of yerba mate tea to the east bank for sale, more and more profit-driven businessmen came here with mercenaries and hired workers to seize the wild The yerba mate tea farm was surrounded by smog and chaos for a while.Fortunately, this chaotic situation did not last long. Under the coordination of a secret colonial organization like Shanchabao, various merchants quickly divided their respective tea farms (just like the division of forests in Xiangsi Township in the south) ), and then began to show their talents, constantly recruiting people to come here to pick yerba mate.

Since wild yerba mate grows in forests, these foreign laborers need to go deep into the forest and go through hardships to harvest this tea.Xu Zhongwu has been here more than once, and he knows that those laborers cut through the thorns and thorns in the mountains and forests, opened up trails, and then transported the branches and leaves cut from the yerba yerba mate tea trees to the concentrated place (ie Camellia Fort).In the concentrated area, laborers lit a bonfire and carried out the first process of baking and roasting the leaves, and then tried to transport them to the Uruguay River [-] to [-] kilometers away, and transported them to the inland market on the east bank by boat for sale. .

Xu Zhongwu and others are second-hand dealers who purchase and transport yerba mate. They purchase primary-processed tea in the Shanchabao area, and then transport it back to the east coast. The profits are actually quite rich.This time they came from the riverside wharf to Camellia Fort (later Owella City, Misiones Province) to buy yerba mate. The tens of kilometers of mountain roads were shrouded in bad weather almost the whole way, and this is obviously the reason why Chen The reason why Jiakou said everyone was "tired and lazy".

Hearing this, Xu Zhongwu just sighed, then patted the little brother on the shoulder, and said in a low voice: "Last year, I entrusted Sun Chunyang's fleet from the South Merchant Store to go back to Wenzhou's hometown and invite some villagers to come to the east bank to help. After this wave of tribesmen came, we replaced all those Kelandi people who were greedy for life and fear of death. We still feel at ease when we do things, and we are more united when encountering difficulties. As you know, those Dengzhou businessmen used to be Send people back to Denglai to recruit neighbors to help, you see how big their business is now, we have to learn a little bit."

While talking, the two followed the team into Shancha Castle.At this time, a large number of merchants had gathered in the castle. Xu Zhongwu looked around and saw rude men everywhere who were talking about the price. Most of them bought yerba mate, and a few bought tobacco and other commodities—— —Tobacco is also grown locally. After the destructive deforestation, some local farmers who settled on the east coast began to try to grow tobacco while improving it. They have achieved some success and started large-scale sales in the local and surrounding areas.

In addition to tobacco, the Shanchabao Township Government also introduced a certain amount of tung tree from the Ming Dynasty in the Far East under the instruction of the Wujiang District Administrative Office. Because they found that the local natural environment is very suitable for the growth of this plant native to the Ming Dynasty , so it cost a lot of money to introduce it from the Ming Dynasty, and has already achieved initial success - there is no doubt that this is an investment with an eye on the future, because high-value industrial products can be extracted from tung fruit Oil (can be used to make paint).

If opening a tung tree plantation in the Shanchabao area with a suitable climate is an investment with an eye towards the future, then it is an even more advanced investment for the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of China on the East Coast to try planting tea here——The Ministry of Agriculture After a lot of comparisons, the personnel found that the local climate is very similar to some tea-producing areas in China, and it should be possible to transplant tea trees.

In fact, later generations of Argentina introduced tea trees from China in 1930 for local trial planting, and soon achieved results. The reason is that the environment and climate in Mesopotamia are similar to those in China’s tea-producing areas. At that time, Misio At one time, 3 hectares of tea gardens were opened in the province of Nes, and 2700 hectares in the province of Corrientes, with a total annual output of 8.8 tons of tea. And exported to the UK in large quantities, and gained a lot of money.Now that the East Coast people have started the trial planting of tea in the local area, I believe that as long as they persevere, the tea plantation will definitely have a big success in the local area, and eventually develop into the third largest tea plantation in addition to yerba mate and tung oil. Fist product.

However, if you think that the Ministry of Agriculture on the East Coast only sent people to carry out trial planting of tea, then you are underestimating them.In fact, they have also carried out breeding and research on coffee, banana, pineapple, early potato, sugarcane, mint (extracting essence), citronella, and hempba on a small scale locally.These crops of later generations are traditional crops of Misiones Province. Although the people on the east coast do not know this, they intuitively feel that after a certain degree of breeding and improvement, they should be able to grow these economically valuable crops on a large scale locally. crops, thereby reaping huge profits.

And the more resources are poured here, the more people on the east bank feel that this place is indeed a treasure land (in fact, they think that the entire Hejian area is a treasure land), and then they plan to take it all by some means—it seems that this day It will not be too far away. I believe that in the second half of 1658, with the full approval of King Philip of Spain to invest in the Spanish colonies on the East Bank, there will definitely be a large number of people from the East Bank crossing the Uruguay River openly, and then in the name of investment. The river area was enclosed and colonized, and eventually turned it into "Mesopotamia" on the east bank-meaning the land of two rivers.

Xu Zhongwu and Chen Jia stayed in Shancha Castle for several days, and exchanged almost all the silver dollars and checks in hand for yerba mate. Head here to the pier on the banks of the Uruguay River - there is no way, time is life, time is profit, we have to hurry up.

And on the day they set off, another group of four or five hundred soldiers from the Ottoman Ghanishari Legion who had fled to the east bank came here with their families.Xu Zhongwu vaguely heard that these Ottomans would go south to establish a new settlement, Xinji Township (located in the city of Apostoles, south of Posadas), after a few days of rest in Camellia Fort, because the Ministry of Agriculture After the on-the-spot investigation, the experts felt that it might be more suitable for the growth of imported Chinese green tea trees than the Shanchabao area, so they planned to add a settlement there, focusing on the introduction and cultivation of tea trees.As for the Guarani natives on that land?Hehe, what else can I do?Do you think the muskets in the hands of those Ganishari soldiers are fire sticks?Or do you think they are a bunch of good men and women?

(End of this chapter)