Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1177 New Situation of Jiaohe

There was a "bang" gunshot, and there was a sound in the small woods in the distance, and then it fell silent.A commander with a saber sent someone forward to search, but without finding anything, he ordered to move on.

"Section Chief Chen, don't worry. In fact, there have been a lot less such attacks recently. The local Guarani barbarians have already finished their work. If it weren't for this accident today, I even thought they were all dead." An active second lieutenant officer of the Army explained, "The attackers today, to be honest, I don't think they came against us. Maybe they just came down to steal sweet potatoes from extreme hunger in the mountains and forests. Ran away."

"Hehe." Chen Ke heard the words and smiled, "Our army is still very brave. There are so many barbarians around the Xinbo River (named by the Italian laborers who developed this place, which has been adopted by the Ministry of Geology). After four years, all of them were killed. The suppression is almost done, not bad, not bad, worthy of being the dry city of the country."

It is said that since Xu Xin invited a large number of Italian investors to visit the site in 1654, in order to improve the local investment environment, under the instruction of the Executive Committee, the Ministry of War, under the instruction of the Executive Committee, in the next four years, every winter during the slack period will take turns The mobilization of nearly ten thousand militiamen from various counties in the south went north to clear up the natives, and the results were great. Not only did they seize a large amount of developed farmland, livestock, and food, but they also acquired a large amount of labor—of course, these Guarani labor forces were due to their physique and work intensity. Because of the disease resistance and disease resistance, [-]% to [-]% of them died one after another in the next few years-for the construction of the country.

Naturally, the looted farmland will not be given to the Italian laborers who came here to develop it. It will be distributed to the newly arrived Ming immigrants, and the livestock will be uniformly allocated to the Northwest Reclamation Bank, which will then be loaned to the new farmers. In order to support them to resume agricultural production as soon as possible and take root thoroughly.

"Section Chief Chen, I'm ashamed to say it. Our army mobilizes tens of thousands of militiamen to come here every autumn to carry out dragnet-style cleanups. But after so many years, it is not our army's bullets that kill the most enemies, but diseases and diseases. The famine caused by the displacement is the main reason for the sharp decline in the native population and the almost complete extinction." The second lieutenant officer was really an honest man, and after Chen Ke praised them, he immediately waved his hand to express his embarrassment in taking credit for it. , which made Chen Ke almost laugh out loud.

After experiencing this little episode, there were no more troubles along the way, and the group arrived in Banqiao Township, which is located in the south of the later Restingaseka Township and on the north bank of the Xinpo River (because of a bridge across the Xinpo River) named after the wooden plank bridge).This Banqiao Township is a newly established town, dominated by farmers on the east bank, and implements a small-scale farmer-style three-crop crop rotation system.And from here along the river to the east at most ten kilometers, there are a series of logging camps and farmlands that have been developed with difficulty on the felled forests. These are the sites of forest development companies. The right to operate for 30-50 years (there is a priority to renew the contract after expiration), and then a large number of laborers were transported from the old continent, a large amount of materials were purchased, and it took a lot of time (nearly three years) to finally The company's colonization and reclamation business has improved somewhat, and it is no longer purely throwing money into it.

The settlement in Banqiao Township was established less than a year ago and has a population of more than [-]. Therefore, even though it has some farmland looted from the Guaraní people, the area is still not self-sufficient in food.Chen Ke, who has been transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture to be the section chief of the National Reserve Grain Depot, came to Banqiao Township in order to coordinate the grain distribution plan with the State Development Bureau. Tianliu Township near Sao Pepe, Hualong Township near Santa Maria, Zhongying Township near San Pedro South, and Sao Gabriel Township Houying Township, and Qianying Township, an outpost on the plateau (near the small town of Julio de Castillos in later generations).

According to the plan, these five settlements will accommodate more than [-] new immigrants and [-] new generations from the east. Considering the difficulty of pioneering (the first three years were completely dependent on state subsidies), in order to reduce costs, the State Development Bureau Planning to purchase and transport grain nearby involves coordination with the giant monopoly enterprise, the National Grain Reserve Depot, which is why Chen Ke went on a business trip to the Jiaohe area this time.

As for purchasing and transporting grain nearby, there is naturally no way around the forest development company that has gradually become well-known in the Jiaohe area in the past two years.This company was jointly funded and established by 13 Italian investors from Genoa, Lucca, Florence, Mantua, Parma and other places. The general manager is Luciano. It is mainly engaged in forest logging, food planting and some transportation in the Jiaohe area. The construction of facilities (Qingshan Township Wharf, Forest Railway, etc.) is quite strong.

The original reason for the establishment of this company can be traced back to mid-1654, when Xu Xin, commissioner of Jiaohe District, invited 24 Italian investors to visit the local area.At that time, Xu Xin promised to give these Italians 30-50 years of land management rights, and also a certain amount of credit support, on the condition that the Italians must transport people and materials from the old continent for development—in order to reduce the burden on investors. Concerned, Xu Xin also signed a premium repurchase clause with the Italians for various assets with the authorization of the central government, that is, if the Italians see that there is no hope of making profits, they can sell them back at a pre-agreed price (generally a premium of 30-60%) To the east bank government, this fully guaranteed the interests of investors, so in the end 24 out of 13 people were willing to invest, and the forest development company was formally established in Jiaohebao in mid-1655.

Since its operation (September 1658), the forest development company has been in operation for three years and three months. It has 9 logging farms, 19 farms, 8 pastures, and 2 orchard (under construction). With 1 million lire in the bank, more than 900 old continent workers (70% of whom were men) were sent from Naples, Sicily, and South Germany to work, making great contributions to the development of the Jiaohe area.

Of the more than 5000 old mainland laborers, there are currently nearly 1000 remaining (more than [-] died of fatigue and disease), scattered in Mupai Township, Qingshan Township, and Nantou Township at the confluence of Jiaohe and Xinbo Rivers (by a building on the east bank) The development of military outposts) in the three places, logging, opening up wasteland, grazing, and building roads day and night, they were extremely busy, and gradually developed a small piece of this barren land that had been dormant for thousands of years.

But if you really want to count it seriously, the most important assets under the name of the company are undoubtedly the two wharves, namely Qingshan Township Wharf and South Wharf.These two river wharves are connected with Jiaohe Wharf, forming a traffic artery that radiates nearly [-] kilometers.Whether it is the Jiaohe Navigation Federation (a guild organization of private small boat owners), which was also established a few years ago, or the ships of the state-owned inland water transport company, they are now beginning to come in and out of these three piers in large numbers, transporting various materials, making the two The terminals have already started to make profits, and the prospects are very promising. After all, it is certain that the East Bank government will continue to develop the upper reaches of the Xinbo River, which undoubtedly means the long-term prosperity of the local inland waterway shipping market.

In addition to these two wharves, the forest development company also owns the Banlazi Railway, a forest railway connecting Mupai Township and Qingshan Township with a length of no more than [-] kilometers.Limited to the policy of preventing the outflow of technology, except for the construction process of this railway, the daily operation and management of this railway will be in charge of by the East Coast people. It is also intoxicating that the railway has not been fully opened to traffic after three years of construction.The reason for this is that the Italians have spent their main energy on building piers and opening up farmland along the river, and are temporarily not very interested in this railway that may cost millions of lire.

However, their procrastinating style made the people on the east coast who had been staring at the railway very anxious, especially the district commissioner Xu Xin, who sent staff every three days to urge the Italians to build the forest railway as soon as possible.The Italians had no choice but to deal with it, but they always transferred their manpower to the south after a while, which naturally led to the intermittent construction of the railway. Only about 40 kilometers were repaired in three years, and one third of the construction was not completed. , It's a headache.

In order to urge the Italians to repair this railway and some branch lines along the line as soon as possible, Xu Xin has obtained the approval of the executive committee and plans to issue a project completion award with a total amount of more than 15 yuan to the Italians (mainly in kind such as building materials) form, which happens to be what the Italians need), to encourage them to work harder to complete the last 20 kilometers of railways—the total cost is 200 million lire, and it is really meaningless to delay—at present, the Italians have verbally He agreed to this matter, and has begun to transfer manpower to the north, striving to finish the forest railway before the end of this year.

Long story short, one of Chen Ke's major missions in Jiaohe area this time is to sign a grain purchase contract with the Forest Development Corporation on behalf of the National Grain Reserve Depot, that is, to purchase some grain from the Forest Development Corporation at a price slightly higher than the market price. (Italians are encouraged to continue in-depth development), and then transported to the six villages of Banqiao in the west for the local new immigrants to eat.As for the shortage of food, it will be dispatched by the sub-stores of Yiling, Dingxi, Shenwu, Taiping, and Pingan counties of the State Reserve Grain Depot, and then transported to Jiaohe, Xining by small steamers of the Inland River Transport Company and the Jiaohe Shipping Federation. Unloading at the wharf along the Po River is very convenient and fast.

At the beginning of September, Chen Ke had already negotiated the procurement contract with Luciano, the general manager of the forest development company in Jiaohebao. allocated.In addition to these pioneer rations, Chen Ke also had to prepare an additional batch of military rations, because a troop from the army would come over soon and prepare to follow the Xinbo River westward to eliminate the Guarani barbarians and escort the local development.

(End of this chapter)