Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1173 Terrace ([-])

April 1658, 8, sunny.

Ma Wenqiang stood in front of the expensive half-length mirror, combing his hair carefully. His wife hugged the quilt and leaned against the edge of the bed, looking at him with resentment: "What's the use of combing your hair? I bet Within an hour after going out, your head and mouth will be covered with sand, are you stupid?"

"A woman's opinion." Ma Wenqiang still combed his hair intently, and said in his mouth: "Having a decent attire is more conducive to maintaining majesty in front of subordinates. Anyway, I am now a deputy director-level cadre. It’s as unscrupulously sloppy as the gang of cadres in Hai’an County, what is it like?”

"What a great official at the deputy director level..." His wife gave him a blank look, then got into the bed comfortably, and said, "Go and work around, I'm going to sleep. It's the off-season for wool purchases recently, and our factory is on holiday Yes, you should be envious."

"Heh!" Ma Wenqiang finished combing his hair, went to his wife and lifted the quilt, then slapped her upturned buttocks hard, and said "viciously", "I will take care of you when I come back from a business trip."

At seven o'clock in the morning, Ma Wenqiang, wearing a leather jacket, hurried to the county government compound. At this time, everyone was almost ready to set off.

"Deputy County Magistrate Ma and Deputy Director Mai have sent someone back. They have successfully set up a forward base in the upper reaches of the Chubut River. They set off with [-] Buryat Mongols and Shandan people. , these herdsmen will settle there and consolidate this border for our country." An attendant handed over an official document and said.

"En." Ma Wenqiang glanced at the official document hastily, then stuffed it into the cowhide bag, got on his horse, and said, "Let's go."

Following his order, [-] new immigrants (including [-] Ukrainian female slaves) were escorted by [-] armed policemen, driving carts and leading mules and horses to the west.They walked along the fertile Chubut River Valley, through the muddy ditch country full of grape vines and cherry trees, across the reservoir country with a pool of green water and opened up a lot of irrigated land, passing by now it has become a large construction site and Baitao Township, which is getting more and more attention, then plunged into the boundless semi-arid platform grassland area.

Looking at the mounds on both sides of the river that have been eroded by the strong wind, the ground full of walnut-sized gravel, and the hard bushes growing everywhere, many immigrants could not help but cry bitterly—the death of a narrow escape across the ocean, that is, Did you come here to eat sand?Perhaps the only consolation is that the arable land allocated by the imperial court to each household is their own private property, and it is no longer leased to others, and the grassland allocated to everyone is large enough to graze many cattle and sheep. Otherwise, it would be too bad for a fool to come and settle in this place where the birds don't shit.

"Cai Huaze is very happy. Hai'an County has only been established for a few days, and some of the newly arrived immigrants have been resettled westward, intending to open up more land. They are not afraid of being overwhelmed." His face ached from the biting cold wind. , Ma Wenqiang kept slandering in his heart: "However, the Tehuelche people here are also scared by us. There should be no danger in terms of safety, but it is a bit bitter and lonely. Alas, that's all, Doing things for the country doesn’t matter so much. Besides, the more difficult the environment, the more we can show the ability of Ma, isn’t it? The political achievements are more impressive, isn’t it? Damn, I was only promoted to a deputy at the age of 27. There are so many people in the county magistrate talking strange things, thinking back then that there were not a few of my parents who were high officials in their early twenties, this world has really gone back and forth."

"Uruguay is not a river, but a blue sky drifting by..." Someone sang a popular song on the east bank, and the song "Uruguay River" vividly expresses the vast and distant artistic conception of the grassland.

Surrounded by ever-changing plains and valleys, as well as shrubs and short grasses growing tenaciously under the ravages of wind and snow, standing between heaven and earth, one can only feel the sudden loneliness gnawing at your heart, making you feel incomparably lonely. Depressed and powerless, at this time, you often need a little spiritual comfort.

"Uruguay is not a river, but a blue sky drifting by..." Ma Wenqiang also sang in a muffled voice, and his thoughts returned to the prairie on the east bank where he grew carefree when he was a child, and to his mother who had passed away many years ago That warm embrace brought back many past events that he thought he had long forgotten.

"I don't sing of the moon because she lights up the night; I sing of the moon because she has witnessed my long journey... O lonely moon, we are a little bit alike; I sing along the way, in this way Light up the earth." Amidst the beautiful melody of "Moon on the Prairie", a group of people walked farther and farther, until they disappeared into the distant horizon.

……

On August 8, after a long and difficult trek, hundreds of people arrived at a roughly erected camp in Chubu, east of the small town of Paso de Indios in later Patagonia. On the west bank of the Te River, the name on the map is Maijiagou Township.However, this is not the end of Ma Wenqiang and his group. Except for the 16 Ukrainian female slaves who stayed on the spot, the remaining [-] immigrants from Ming Dynasty will continue to march westward under the guard of the police, heading for the Luohu area that the expedition team had marked. Ma Township (named for the discovery of a large herd of wild llamas here, and the town of Tekka later) was reclaimed and settled, and Ma Wenqiang and others will temporarily stay here for a period of time. Return to Hai'an County to meet the arrival of follow-up immigrants.

Today, in mid-August 1658, the total population of the East Coast Republic of China has reached a historical high of 8, the proportion of Ming people has dropped to less than 81.2%, and the proportion of whites has dropped to 47% (the proportion of males has dropped to 30%) For the first time, the new generation born on the east coast accounted for nearly a quarter of the total population—of course, the current average age of this new generation is relatively low, and most of them were born in the past ten years, so they are temporarily unable to contribute to national construction.

However, the population has exceeded 80. Although most of them are arranged to settle in the local area, some of them are still allocated to peripheral territories such as Patagonia, Hejian, Dingjun Mountain, and Southern Cone. After all, local comrades The emotions of the people should be properly considered, and the population cannot be held in the two places of the east coast prairie and the duck lake.

The newly established Hai'an County also received a quota of 2500 people this time. In addition to arranging 1000 people to settle in Baitao Township and Reservoir Township, acting county magistrate Cai Huaze planned to send most of them to several new settlements in the west. Such as Maijiagou Township, Luoma Township, and a town called Jincheng Castle near the later city of Esquel.

Among these three settlements, the conditions of the first two are very general. They are purely midway supply areas set up for the final advance to the Andes Mountains. The market is ushering in a bull market, at least you won't lose money if you raise sheep, because their cost is extremely low, isn't it?

As the future core town (generally the county government), the Golden Castle is located in the famous Esquel-Trevelin Valley in later generations. The pastoral areas of the country provide a large source of grain.Moreover, in this town with an average annual precipitation of 542 mm, you can also go to the Pacific coast on the other side of the Andes (the island of Chiloe is on the other side of the sea) through a number of mountain tunnels. The strategic position of communication between east and west cannot be underestimated-of course these The tunnel can only be passed through after the snow melts in spring, and only mules and horses can pass through it (cars can also pass through, but...), which has certain limitations.

On August 8, after resting in Maijiagou for three days (hundreds of people ate a large part of the food reserves here, it was impossible to live any longer), Ma Wenqiang ordered to start westward again, and on August 19 Arrived at the destination Luoma Township.

There was no one in Luoma Township at this time, except for a single flagpole erected here, on which the flag of the East Coast had faded under the scorching sun, rain and snow.Ma Wenqiang ordered people to put it away, and then replaced it with a brand new national flag and hoisted it up. Then he ordered everyone to start building simple houses with the wood and rain cloth stored here in advance.After doing all this, he worked tirelessly and led a group of people to patrol around.

Going west to Luoma Township, the precipitation is not too small, and there are forests on the horizon in the wild. Although it does not look as spectacular as the vast forest sea in the mountains to the west, it is also very good, at least It was much better than the semi-arid grassland they had walked along the way - obviously, this was the transition zone from mountain forest to terrace shrub steppe.

"The vegetation is dominated by the majestic Araucana fir (also known as Araucan Araucana)..." Although Ma Wenqiang is not a botanist, he can still distinguish the trees that are common in Patagonia and Chile.Of course, he is limited to this. He can’t recognize the cypress, larch, wild cherry, amyrtle, etc. except for the South American fir, but there are daisies, daffodils, violets, lilies, and so on everywhere under the woods. He can recognize flowers such as white lotus, thanks to the knowledge he learned from buying flowers for his wife day after day.

In addition, there are many wild strawberries growing in the glade, and there are some bamboos on the edge of the forest.Wild geese, Pudu deer, llamas and jaguars bring vitality to the forest during their habitat and give people a very beautiful enjoyment.

"It's so beautiful here. If we advance to the Jincheng Valley in the west, it's okay, haha." Ma Wenqiang turned his horse's head, and while walking towards the camp, he said to his followers: "We need to get these two forwards as soon as possible." Set up the settlements and enrich them, and strive to move the first batch of residents to settle in the Jincheng Castle area in the next year or two. In this way, after Jincheng is established as a county, everyone's benefits will be indispensable, everyone, please work hard!"

(End of this chapter)