Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1171 Terrace ([-])

Where the wind was blowing, a team turned out, and the sentinel standing on the watchtower in the city of Polubao (the later town of Tellson) immediately rang the bell, followed by a rising green signal flag.

The gate of the village was slammed open, and more than [-] cavalry rushed out like a whirlwind, and then merged with hundreds of cavalry who came from afar. This is to welcome the soldiers returning from the expedition.

"Zhusi Guizhu is a kind of Andean mangosteen, which grows in the deep valleys of the mountains. It can withstand the wind and snow, the harshness of the long cold winter in the south and the harsh sunshine of the short summer. The height of the bamboo pole is usually several meters, and it is hard and strong. Tough, the light green color of the leaves is full of the joy of the mountains..." In the simple barracks of Polubao, Meng Xiaohu leaned over his head, muttered in a low voice, and then said with a teasing smile: "Lieutenant Guo, what are you doing for the girl?" What about writing letters?"

Guo Handong, who was shirtless and asked the orderly to apply the medicine, put down his pen when he heard the words, gave Meng Xiaohu a blank look, and said: "I just express my feelings. Zhu Sigui bamboo is an indispensable item for the residents of Patagonia, and it is also One of their totems, they used bamboo to prop up guanaco hides to build tents, and they used bamboo to make spears against our cavalry, which is very useful.”

Meng Xiaohu nodded, but did not speak.He is a specially appointed expert of the Ministry of Geology and the second son of the famous "Holy Mother" Menghu on the east coast. This time he went deep into the western hinterland of Patagonia with the army, mainly to collect various local intelligence.However, after seeing the Tehuelche people being "expelled like dogs and chickens" by the army on the east bank along the way, his virgin habit broke out again, and he even lamented in front of Guo Handong on the way, "Our officials only saw Patagonia. Asia's economic potential, profiteers and warlords coveting a land they will never love, coveting the nourishment that will fatten them, coveting trivial and false so-called honor" and so on, which makes Guo Handong couldn't help but feel that like a father, like a son.

After chatting with Meng Xiaohu again, Guo Handong took the orderly who had changed the gauze for him out and closed the door, then sat down at the desk and continued the unfinished letter just now: "Zhu Sigui bamboo is not only useful, At the same time, because of its tragic yet faithful oracle power. Every time the Zhu Sigui bamboo blooms, the days full of pain and destruction will come. keeps track of his age by the number of blooms he sees—and whoever is lucky enough to see more than two blooms must be old enough to sit by the fire and tell his children about the The vivid past in..."

After writing a letter, Guo Handong called the orderly and asked him to go to the post office in the fort to send the letter together with the sacred staff of the great shaman of Thuelche (made by Zhu Siguizhu) to Dongfang Port. Miss Li Zexin, this scepter is said to keep people young (although the great shaman is old), it is the most suitable gift for young ladies.

After finishing all this, Guo Handong opened the door and came to the street.It was already winter at this time, and the biting cold wind was mixed with snowheads hitting the tiles on the roof, making a rustling sound.There were a lot of grainy sheep feces scattered on the road, and a small shop selling seafood stewed rice next to it was crowded with sheepherders, soldiers and township officials.Guo Handong enjoys this atmosphere very much. They are all brothers who lie on the ice, eat snow and fight together on the Gobi Desert. Get to know their emotions and get along with them, and you will find that they are more reliable than anyone else.

There are many sheep in the livestock pen outside the small shop, and the shop owner's daughter-in-law and children are cutting hay to feed the sheep.During this prosperous period when the demand for wool is gradually increasing, Patagonia’s wool exports are increasing day by day. Representatives of the Dayuhe Machine Textile Factory set up a special purchase station in the city to purchase wool, which brought vitality to the local economy for a while.According to incomplete statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, the number of sheep in the six villages and towns on the lower reaches of the Chubut River has exceeded [-]—if it weren’t for the fact that the loan for [-] sheep promised by the Northwest Reclamation Bank had only reached a small portion, this figure would have And even bigger.

Guo Handong strolled to the end of the street, where there was a fence, and outside the fence was an endless wilderness. A dozen transplanted Zhu Sigui bamboos were growing tenaciously outside the fence.It's a pity that the time is too short to see their bright red flowers in full bloom. However, I heard that the mountainous area where the Thuelche people often graze had a large area of ​​chrysanthemum blooming last year. Many people said that it predicted misfortune. And pain will fall from the sky, and the whole of Patagonia will be dyed red by this bewitching flower.

A rare winter thunder came from the sky, and the snow gradually increased, covering the entire land in a vast expanse of whiteness.Guo Handong was about to go back to the house to rest, when there was a sound of footsteps behind him, it was a messenger who handed a military order to Guo Handong and said, "Mr. The Manzi was sent to Hai'an Port, and besides, he gave you three days off."

"Thank you." Guo Handong was taken aback for a moment, then patted the messenger on the shoulder with a smile, and said, "I'll have a drink with my brothers when I come back."

……

The snow in the afternoon is getting heavier, but this is not a reason for people to be lazy. On the road under construction from Baolubao to Haiping Port, more than [-] black laborers from Congo are being driven by supervisors, wearing worn-out clothes. Cotton clothes, leveling the land with difficulty—fortunately, there is not a lot of precipitation here, otherwise when the ground freezes hard, some of these Congolese laborers will suffer.

This is a third-class national road connecting two township-level settlements, and Dongfang and Ping’an counties donated money to build it—by providing 35 Congolese laborers and some building materials.Most of the laborers are sold by Courlandians, and a small part is transported from Jakob Harbor by Li Renjun and other slave traders (in fact, they are still from New Courland). The price is extremely cheap. 40 yuan, so cheap that it is doubtful whether the Kurlanders captured thousands of black slaves at once, otherwise how could the price drop so much.

In fact, the truth is almost the same, because recently more and more Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians and even Poles came to New Courland from the Baltic Sea. It was extremely surprising to relocate the whole family—in fact, it would be relieved to understand, without him, the Swedes took the capital of the Duchy of Courland and the largest city of Wendau, and there were more than 20 Kurds stationed in Wendau. After resisting for half a month, the Dutch army (including [-] German mercenaries) was transported to Lübeck by the fleet of the Grand Duke Jacob together with people and supplies, and then began to go to New Courland in groups of families.So far, the Principality of Courland, a small country with a population of less than [-], has just perished!

Fortunately, Zheng Yong reminded Grand Duke Jacob several years in advance, and the Grand Duke himself made sufficient preparations—for example, packing and transporting some belongings, artworks, books, antiques, etc. to New Courland in advance. , such as persuading talents in industries such as metallurgy, glass, and shipbuilding to work in New Courland in batches, for example, recruiting farmers who volunteered to go to New Courland to reclaim wasteland, for example, recruiting Polish and Lithuanian refugees to settle in New Courland, etc. Wait, in short, he moved several years in advance, and the Grand Duke himself went to Hamburg and Lübeck for "tourism" not long after the outbreak of the Polish-Russian War, so the loss of the Principality of Courland in this innocent disaster is actually far less than imagined so big.

However, the mainland of the Old Continent was destroyed, but the losses of the Courlandians cannot be said to be small, especially after a large number of local war refugees flooded into New Courland, causing the number of whites here to exceed 1.5. Courland's financial situation immediately became tense.Governor Hubert de Beveren was extremely worried about this. While organizing the retreating Courland standing army, he began to march deep along the Congo River, clearing up and arresting the black people he encountered (sold to people on the east bank) To raise all kinds of urgently needed living materials), while organizing farmers to start cutting trees, opening up fields, building boats and fishing, in short, doing everything possible to resettle the rapidly increasing number of refugees from the Old Continent.

The New Continent Friendship and Mutual Bank of the East Coast Republic of China also provided New Courland with a five-year low-interest loan of 6 yuan (annual interest rate 1.5%, mostly in the form of materials) under the instruction of the Executive Committee to help They built two new towns, one is the small town of Sword Bay on the original site of the later Soyo, across the river from the Knights Fortress; the other is the Duke Town located tens of kilometers upstream of Sword Bay The original site), a settled town mainly engaged in slave hunting and logging.After the establishment of these four colonial strongholds, the Courlandians have gained a firm foothold along the Congo River, and since the colonization process greatly relied on the help of the East Bank, the New Courland has a close relationship with the East Bank both economically and emotionally. The connection between them is very close, which can be seen from the fact that the Grand Duke of Courland licensed the East Coast people to build the Tianzun Taoist Temple in Jacobshamn.

Naturally, the Kurlanders have sold more than 1000 Congolese laborers to the east bank in the past two years, but there are only so many assigned here—of course, it is far from enough.But fortunately, they have also captured a large number of Tehuelche people in the past two years. Although these Indians are not as "durable" as blacks, they can be regarded as a rare supply of labor. It was there to repair the fort.In a poor place like the Patagonian Terrace, you can only make do with it, otherwise what else can you do!

(End of this chapter)